OLD ENGLISH PERIOD
1. Old English literature - [Anglo-Saxon literature] encompasses literature written in the 600-year Anglo-Saxon period of Britain, from the mid-5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others. In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from the period, a significant corpus of both popular interest and specialist research.
Some of the most important works from this period include the poem Beowulf, which has achieved national epic status in Britain. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of early English history. The poem Cædmon's Hymn from the 7th century is one of the oldest surviving written texts in English. The Wanderer also.
Most Old English poets are anonymous; but only four of those are known by their vernacular works to us today with any certainty: Caedmon, Bede, Alfred, and Cynewulf. Of these, only Caedmon, Bede, and Alfred have known biographies.
OTHER POEMS:
Waldere - a version of the events of the life of Walter of Aquitaine. Two other poems mentioning heroic figures: Widsith, dating back to events in the 4th century concerning Eormanric and the Goths. Deor is a lyric applying examples of famous heroes, including Weland and Eormanric.
FEATURES:
Similes [porównania] - used in Beowulf. Metaphors - `storm of spears' [The Wanderer].
Alliteration - repeating of the initial sound all through the verse [Beowulf]. Caesura - pause indicated by two commas. [Beowulf]. Kennings - compounds [sky-candle = sun] {Beowulf}.
CHRISTIAN POETRY:
Describing saint`s lives: St. Andrew, Matthew, Helena. The cult of the True Cross was popular in Anglo-Saxon England and Elene poem was important in describing it.
Bilbical parapgrases: not exact translations, but paraphrasing, sometimes into beautiful poetry in its own right. The first and longest is of Genesis. The second is of Exodus. The third is Daniel.
Christian poems: Considered one of the most beautiful of all Old English poems is Dream of the Rood, contained in the Vercelli Book. It is a dream vision of Christ on the cross, with the cross personified. Other is The Exeter Book, containing a series of poems entitled Christ, sectioned into Christ I, Christ II and Christ III.
Pagan: remedies against the loss of cattle, how to deal with a delayed birth, swarms of bees, etc.. the longest is called Nine Herbs Charm.
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2. LYRICAL POETRY
The Ruin - tells of the decay of a once glorious city of Roman Britain
The Wanderer - an older man talks about an attack that happened in his youth, where his close friends and kin were all killed; memories of the slaughter have remained with him all his life. He questions the wisdom of the impetuous decision to engage a possibly superior fighting force: the wise man engages in warfare to preserve civil society, and must not rush into battle but seek out allies when the odds may be against him. This poet finds little glory in bravery for bravery's sake.
The Seafarer - the story of a somber exile from home on the sea, from which the only hope of redemption is the joy of heaven.
Charm - everything that is connectes with magic - spells, prayers, belssings.
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3. OLD ENGLISH PROSE
The amount of surviving Old English prose is much greater than the amount of poetry. Of the surviving prose, sermons and Latin translations of religious works are the majority. Old English prose first appears in the 9th century, and continues to be recorded through the 12th century.
The most widely known author of Old English was King Alfred the Great.
PROSE
One of the earliest Old English texts in prose is the Martyrology, information about saints and martyrs according to their anniversaries and feasts in the church calendar. It has survived in six fragments. It is believed to date from the 9th century by an anonymous author.
There are many Old English translations of the Bible. Aelfric translated the first six books of the Bible (the Hexateuch). There is a translation of the Gospels. The most popular was the Gospel of Nicodemus, others included "..the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Vindicta salvatoris, Vision of Saint Paul and the Apocalypse of Thomas"
Aelfric of Eynsham (the Grammarian) (c. 955 - c. 1010), was an English abbot, as well as a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres. He is also known variously as Ælfric Grammaticus, Ælfric of Cerne and Ælfric the Homilist. He mainly thought of himself as a humble teacher, responsible for the souls in his care.
Bede (also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede) (c. 672 or 673 - May 25, 735), was a Benedictine monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow, both in the English county of Durham (now Tyne and Wear). He is well known as an author and scholar, and his most famous work, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) gained him the title "The father of English history".
Alfred the Great (also Alfred from the Old English) (c. 849 - 26 October 899) was king of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defence of the kingdom against the Danish Vikings, becoming the only English king to be awarded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons." Details of his life are discussed in a work by the Welsh scholar, Asser. A learned man, Alfred encouraged education and improved the kingdom's law system. Alfred's translation of The Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius was the most popular philosophical handbook of the Middle Ages.
MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
ROMANCE - opis w notatkach.
FABLIAU - comic, usually anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France circa the 13th Century. They are generally bawdy in nature, and several of them were reworked by Geoffrey Chaucer for his Canterbury Tales.Typical fabliaux concern cuckolded husbands, rapacious clergy and foolish peasants. The status of peasants appears to vary based on the audience for which the fabliau was being written. Poems that were presumably written for the nobility portray peasants (vilains in French) as stupid and vile, whereas those written for the lower classes often tell of peasants getting the better of the clergy.Longer medieval poems such as Le Roman de Renart and those found in The Canterbury Tales have their origin in one or several fabliaux.
FABLE - [bajka]- brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim. Handed down from generation to generation as oral literature, or constructed by a literary tale-teller, its purpose is to impart a lesson or value, or to give sage advice. Fables also provide opportunities to laugh at human folly, when they supply examples of behaviors to be avoided rather than emulated. Aesop's Fables.
EXEMPLUM - is a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point. This genre sprung from medieval and Renaissance literature, consisting of lives of famous figures, and using these (by emphasizing good or bad character traits) to make a moral point. Collections of Exempla helped medieval preachers to adorn their sermons, to emphasize moral conclusions or illustrate a point of doctrine. The subject matter could be taken from fables, folktales, legends or real history. Chaucer's The Monk's Prologue and Tale, The Pardoner's Tale and The Legend of Good Women
DREAM VISION - genre in which the narrator falls asleep and dreams. In the dream there is usually a guide, who imparts knowledge (often about religion or love) that the dreamer could not have learned otherwise. After waking, the narrator usually resolves to share this knowledge with other people. If the dream vision includes a guide that is a speaking inanimate object, then it employs the trope of prosopopoeia. The dream-vision convention was widely used in European literature from late Latin times until the fifteenth century. Boethius, in his The Consolation of Philosophy was probably the first to use this device. His work, composed in alternate passages of verse and prose, was written while he was imprisoned, circa 524 CE. Others: Bede - Vision of Drycthelm, Anonymous - The Dream of the Rood.
LYRIC POETRY - Lyric poetry refers to either poetry that has the form and musical quality of a song, or a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings, which may or may not be set to music. An example would be a poem that expresses feelings and maybe a song that could be performed to an audience.
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2. COURTY LOVE - The lover (idolizer) accepts the independence of his mistress and tries to make himself worthy of her by acting bravely and honorably (nobly) and by doing whatever deeds she might desire. Sexual satisfaction may not have been a goal or even end result, but the love was not entirely Platonic either, as it was based on sexual attraction. There were several elements of courtly love which were developed at different times during the Middle Ages. The notions of "love for love's sake" and "exaltation of the beloved lady" have been traced back to Arabic literature of the 9th and 10th centuries. The final element of courtly love, the concept of "love as desire never to be fulfilled" was first developed into a doctrine in European literature, in which all four elements of courtly love were present.The doctrine of courtly love was developed in the castle life of present-day southern France from around the time of the First Crusade (1099). Courtly love found its expression in the lyric poems written by troubadours, such as William IX, one of the first troubadour poets.
LE ROMANCE DE LA ROSE - tells the story of a lover who dreams of a beautiful rose kept in a castle. The rose represents the object of romantic love; allegorical characters in the story, such as Courtesy, Youth, Fear, and Idleness, either help or hamper the lover's attempts to win the rose. The romance was enormously popular in the Middle Ages, and nearly three hundred manuscripts devoted to the tale survive. Two authors wrote the Romance of the Rose in French (Roman de la Rose): Guillaume de Lorris began writing it around 1237 but never finished it. Forty years later, around 1277, Jean de Meun completed the tale.
THE MAIN SUBJECT MATTER OF THE ROMANCE - The genre of romance dealt with traditional themes with three thematic cycles of tales: these were assembled in imagination at a late date as the "Matter of Rome" (actually centered on the life and deeds of Alexander the Great), the "Matter of France" (Charlemagne and Roland, his principal paladin) and the "Matter of Britain" (the lives and deeds of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, within which was incorporated the quest for the Holy Grail).
Matter of Rome was the literary cycle made up of Greek and Roman mythology focusing on military heroes like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.
The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the legends that concern the Celtic and legendary history of the British Isles, especially those focused on King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.
The Matter of France is a body of legendary history that springs from the Old French medieval literature of the chansons de geste. Its tales were first developed in these epics, but the stories they told lived on after the medieval epics themselves were no longer widely read.
Name created by the 12th century French poet Jean Bodel.
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3. SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century alliterative chivalric romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. These works are thought to have been written by the same unknown author, dubbed the "Pearl Poet" or "Gawain poet".In this Arthurian tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The "Green Knight" offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain's struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate chivalry and loyalty. Full of historical symbolism.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an important poem in the romance genre, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his ability.
MORTE D'ARTHUR BY SIR THOMAS MALORY - Sir Thomas Malory (c. 1405 - 1471) was the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. Twice elected to a seat in Parliament, he also accrued an long list of criminal charges during the 1450s, including burglary, rape, sheep stealing, and attempting to ambush the Duke of Buckingham. He escaped from jail on two occasions, once by fighting his way out with a variety of weapons and by swimming a moat. Malory was imprisoned at several locations in London, but he was occasionally out on bail.
Le Morte d'Arthur is Sir Thomas Malory's compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances. The book contains some of Malory's own original material and retells the older stories in light of Malory's own views and interpretations. First published in 1485 by Le Morte d'Arthur is perhaps the best-known work of English-language Arthurian literature today. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their source. Malory probably started work on Le Morte d'Arthur while he was in prison in the early 1450s and completed it by 1470.
CHIVALRIC ROMANCE - inna nazwa ROMANCE, opis w notatkach.
4. GEOFFREY CHAUCER - LIFE >> (c. 1343 - October 25, 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the English language, rather than French or Latin.
Chaucer was born in London, although the exact date and location of his birth are not known.His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker. He worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for the king, collecting and inventorying scrap metal. In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims, becoming a prisoner of war. Edward contributed £16 as part of a ransom, and Chaucer was released.
After this, Chaucer's life is uncertain, but he possibly was a messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet. It is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are the numbers most widely agreed upon. His son, Thomas Chaucer, had an illustrious career, chief butler to four kings, envoy to France, and Speaker of the House of Commons. Chaucer is presumed to have studied law in the Inner Temple. He travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet.
A possible indication that his career as a writer was appreciated came when Edward III granted Chaucer a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life for some unspecified task. This was an unusual grant, but given on a day of celebration, St. George's Day, 1374, when artistic endeavours were traditionally rewarded, it is assumed to have been another early poetic work.
Soon after the overthrow of his patron Richard II in 1399, Chaucer vanished from the historical record. He is believed to have died of unknown causes on 25 October 1400 but there is no firm evidence for this date, as it comes from the engraving on his tomb, which was built more than one-hundred years after Chaucer's death.
The last mention of Chaucer in the historical record is on 5 June 1400, when some monies owing to him were paid. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, as was his right owing to the jobs he had performed. In 1556 his remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making Chaucer the first writer interred in the area now known as Poets' Corner.
WORKS - Chaucer's first major work, The Book of the Duchess, was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster written between the years 1369 and 1374. Two other early works by Chaucer were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. Chaucer wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held the job of customs comptroller for London. His Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. Also it is believed that he started work on The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s. Chaucer is best known as the writer of The Canterbury Tales, which is a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral at Canterbury; these tales would help to shape English literature.
The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Chaucer drew on real life for his cast of pilgrims: the innkeeper shares the name of a contemporary keeper of an inn in Southwark, and real-life identities for the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, the Man of Law and the Student have been suggested. The many jobs Chaucer held in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator—probably exposed him to many of the types of people he depicted in the Tales. He was able to shape their speech and satirize their manners in what was to become popular literature among people of the same types.
Chaucer also translated such important works as Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). Many of his other works were very loose translations of, or simply based on, works from continental Europe. It is in this role that Chaucer receives some of his earliest critical praise.
CANTENBURY TALES - The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). The tales, some of which are originals and others not, are contained inside a frame tale and told by a collection of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The Canterbury Tales are written in Middle English. Although the tales are considered to be his greatest writing, some believe the structure of the tales are indebted to the works of The Decameron, which Chaucer is said to have read on an earlier visit to Italy.
The characters, introduced in the General Prologue of the book, tell tales of great cultural relevance. The first part of the prologue begins with "Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote" indicating the start of spring and the end of a brutal winter. The themes of the tales vary, and include topics such as courtly love, treachery, and avarice. The genres also vary, and include romance, Breton lai, sermon, beast fable, and fabliaux. Though there is an overall frame, there is no single poetic structure to the work; Chaucer utilizes a variety of rhyme schemes and metrical patterns, and there are also two prose tales.Some of the tales are serious and others comical. Religious malpractice is a major theme as well as focusing on the division of the three estates. Most of the tales are interlinked with similar themes running through them and some are told in retaliation for other tales in the form of an argument. The work is incomplete, as it was originally intended that each character would tell four tales, two on the way to Canterbury and two on the return journey. This would have meant a possible one hundred and twenty tales which would have dwarfed the twenty-four tales actually written.
5. PIERS PLOWMAN - Piers Plowman (w. ca. 1360-1399) or William's Vision of Piers Plowman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus" (Latin for "steps"). Piers is considered by many critics one of the early great works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The poem - part theological allegory, part social satire - concerns the narrator's intense quest for the true Christian life, which is told from the point of view of the medieval Catholic mind. This quest entails a series of dream-visions and an examination into the lives of three allegorical characters, Dowel ("Do-Well"), Dobet ("Do-Better"), and Dobest ("Do-Best").
The poem begins in the Malvern Hills in Malvern, Worcestershire. A man named Will falls asleep and has a vision of a Tower set upon a hill and a fortress in a deep valley; between these two symbols of heaven and hell is a "fair field full of folk", representing the world of mankind. In the early part of the poem Piers, the humble plowman of the title, appears and offers himself as the narrator's guide to Truth. The latter part of the work, however, is concerned with the narrator's search for Dowel, Dobet and Dobest. It is now commonly accepted that Piers Plowman was written by a William Langland, about whom little is known.
THE PEARL - Pearl is a Middle English alliterative poem written in the late 14th century. Its unknown author, designated the "Pearl poet" or "Gawain poet", is generally assumed, on the basis of dialect and stylistic evidence, to be the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, and Cleanness and may have composed St. Erkenwald.The poem may be divided into three parts, an introduction, a dialog between the two main characters in which the Pearl instructs the narrator, and a description of the New Jerusalem with the narrator's awakening.
Introduction - The narrator, distraught at the loss of his Pearl, falls asleep in an "erber grene" and begins to dream. In his dream he is transported to an other-worldy garden. Wandering by the side of a beautiful stream, he becomes convinced paradise is on the other shore. As he looks for a crossing, he sees a young maid whom he identifies as his Pearl. She welcomes him.
Dialogue - When he asks whether she is the pearl he has lost, she tells him he has lost nothing, that his pearl is merely a rose which has naturally withered. He wants to cross to her side, but she says it is not so easy, that he must resign himself to the will and mercy of God. He asks about her state. She tells him that the Lamb has taken her as His queen.He wonders whether she has replaced Mary as Queen of Heaven.
She responds that all are equal members of the body of Christ and recounts the parable of the vineyard. He objects to the idea that God rewards every man equally, regardless of his apparent due. She responds that God gives the same gift of Christ's redemption to all.
She instructs him on several aspects of sin, repentance, grace and salvation. She wears the Pearl of Great Price because she has been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and advises him to forsake all and buy this pearl.
Description and awakening - He asks about the heavenly Jerusalem; she tells him it is the city of God. He asks to go there; she says that God forbids that, but he may see it by a special dispensation. They walk upstream, and he sees the city across the stream, which is described in a paraphrase of the Apocalypse. He also sees a procession of the blessed. Plunging into the river in his desperation to cross, he awakes from the dream back in the "erber" and resolves to fulfill the will of God.
EVERYMAN - Everyman is a 16th century English morality play, with origins in a late 15th century Dutch morality play called Elckerlijc.
The play opens with God giving a monologue about his troubles. He complains about how humans have become too absorbed in material wealth and riches to follow Him. He feels taken for granted, because he receives no appreciation for all that he has given them. God summons Death, his messenger, and tells him to go to Everyman and summon him to heaven to make his reckoning. It is then that he will be judged. Upon hearing this, Everyman is distressed as he does not have a proper account of his life prepared. Everyman tries to bribe Death and asks for more time. Death denies this request but tells Everyman he may find a companion for his journey, someone to speak for his good virtues. Fellowship, representing a person's friends, happens along and promises to go anywhere with Everyman. However, when Fellowship hears of the true nature of Everyman's journey, he immediately refuses to go. Fellowship says that he would stay with Everyman were they having fun, but will not accompany him on such a journey. It is here established that Fellowship is a personification of the "fair weather friend". Everyman then sees Kindred and Cousin, who represent family, and asks them to go with him. Kindred flat out refuses, saying he'd rather go to parties and Cousin says, "No, I have a cramp in my toe," so he can't go either. Cousin also presents a fundamental reason why no one will accompany Everyman: they have their own accounts to write as well. Everyman realizes he has put much love towards Goods and so Goods will surely come with him on his journey with Death. Goods will not come with Everyman; he says it is to Everyman's damnation that he put so much effort of his life to Goods and therefore Goods would make Everyman's case even worse. Everyman then turns to Good Deeds. Good Deeds says she would go with him, but she is too weak as Everyman has not loved her. She sends her sister Knowledge with Everyman, and together they go to see Confession. There, Everyman repents for all his sins, and punishes himself with a scourge. Confession gives Everyman a jewel called Penance. Everyman is now absolved of all sins, and Good Deeds becomes strong enough to accompany Everyman on his journey. Knowledge gifts Everyman with a garment made from her own tears, called Contrition. Good Deeds summons Beauty, Strength, Discretion and Everyman's Five Wits to join them. They all agree to go with him, after he goes to a priest to take sacrament. Again, when Everyman tells them where his journey ends, all but Good Deeds forsake him. This is because beauty, strength, discretion, and Five- wits are qualities that leave a person as they get older. Knowledge cannot accompany him beyond the point where he leaves his physical body. Everyman gets into his grave. Everyman and Good Deeds ascend into heaven, where they are welcomed by an Angel. A Doctor, representing a scholar, then explains the moral of the story: that in the end, a person will only have his Good Deeds to accompany him beyond the grave.
6. MORALITY PLAYS - Morality plays are a type of theatrical allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a godly life over one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th century. Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, they represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theatre.
CHARACTERISTIC: Most morality plays have a protagonist who represents either humanity as a whole (Everyman) or an entire social class (as in Magnificence). Antagonists and supporting characters are not individuals per se, but rather personifications of abstract virtues or vices, especially the Seven deadly sins.
Morality plays were typically written in the vernacular, so as to be more accessible to the common people who watched them. Most can be performed in under ninety minutes.
Examples: Nature and The Nature of the Four Elements, questions of good government - Magnificence by John Skelton and Respublica by Nicholas Udall, education - Wit and Science by John Redford, and the two other "wit" plays that followed, The Marriage of Wit and Science and Wit and Wisdom.
MYSTERY PLAYS - Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching the height of their popularity in the 15th century before being rendered obsolete by the rise of professional theatre.
THE RENISSANCE
SAINT THOMAS MORE - (7 February 1478 - 6 July 1535), also known as Sir Thomas More, was an English lawyer, author, and statesman. During his lifetime he earned a reputation as a leading humanist scholar and occupied many public offices, including that of Lord Chancellor from 1529 to 1532. More coined the word "utopia", a name he gave to an ideal, imaginary island nation whose political system he described in a book published in 1516. He is chiefly remembered for his principled refusal to accept King Henry VIII's claim to be supreme head of the Church of England, a decision which ended his political career and led to his execution for treason. More combined his busy political career with a rich scholarly and literary production. His writing and scholarship earned him a considerable reputation as a Christian Renaissance humanist in continental Europe.
WORKS:
History of King Richard III
Between 1513 and 1518, More worked on a History of King Richard III, an unfinished piece of historiography. It heavily influenced William Shakespeare's play Richard III. Both More's and Shakespeare's works are controversial among modern historians for their exceedingly unflattering portrayal of King Richard, a bias due at least in part to the authors' allegiance to the reigning Tudor dynasty, which had wrested the throne from Richard at the end of the Wars of the Roses
Utopia
In 1515 More wrote his most famous and controversial work, Utopia, a novel in which a fictional traveler, Raphael Hythloday (whose first name is an allusion to the archangel Raphael, who was the purveyor of truth, and whose surname means "speaker of nonsense" in Greek), describes the political arrangements of the imaginary island nation of Utopia.
In the book, More contrasts the contentious social life of European states with the perfectly orderly and reasonable social arrangements of the Utopia and its surrounding lands (Tallstoria, Nolandia, and Aircastle). In Utopia, private property does not exist and almost complete religious toleration is practiced. The primary message of the book is the need for order and discipline, rather than liberty. The society described is almost totalitarian, and very far removed from present day ideals of freedom. This is a world where attempts to discuss public policy without officially allowed forums are punishable by death.
2. SONNET - The term "sonnet" derives from the Provençal word "sonet" and the Italian word "sonetto," both meaning "little song." By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and logical structure. The conventions associated with the sonnet have evolved over its history. The writers of sonnets are sometimes referred to as "sonneteers," although the term is sometimes used derisively.Traditionally, when writing sonnets, English poets usually employ iambic pentameter. In the Romance languages, the hendecasyllable and Alexandrine are the most widely used metres
Sonnets were introduced by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century. His sonnets and those of his contemporary the Earl of Surrey were chiefly translations from Italian and French. While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Surrey who gave them the rhyme scheme, meter, and division into quatrains that now characterizes the English sonnet. Sir Philip Sidney's sequence Astrophil and Stella started a tremendous vogue for sonnet sequences: the next two decades saw sonnet sequences by William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel, Fulke Greville, William Drummond of Hawthornden, and many others.These sonnets were all essentially inspired by the Petrarchan tradition, and generally treat of the poet's love for some woman; the exception is Shakespeare's sequence. In the 17th century, the sonnet was adapted to other purposes, with John Donne and George Herbert writing religious sonnets, and John Milton using the sonnet as a general meditative poem. Both the Shakespearean and Petrarchan rhyme schemes were popular throughout this period, as well as many variants.
PETRARCHAN SONNET - Petrarchan - Refers to a concept of unattainable love first developed by Italian humanist and writer, Francesco Petrarch. Petrarch either invented - or made famous the Italian sonnet pattern, which is known to this day as the Petrarchan sonnet or the Italian sonnet. This phrase is often used in reference to romantic literature including analysis of Shakespeare. Conventionally Petrarchan depicted the lady as a model and inspiration.
The Petrarchan sonnet form, also known as the Italian sonnet form, takes its name from being the trademark of the 14th-century Italian poet, Petrarch. The octet [first eight lines] and sestet have special functions in a Petrarchan sonnet. The octet's purpose is to introduce a problem, express a desire, reflect on reality, or otherwise present a situation that causes doubt or conflict within the speaker. It usually does this by introducing the problem within its first quatrain (unified four-line section) and developing it in the second. The beginning of the sestet [last six lines] is known as the volta, and it introduces a pronounced change in tone in the sonnet; the sestet's purpose as a whole is to make a comment on the problem or to apply a solution to it. Poets adopting the Petrarchan sonnet form take freedoms with it in that they do not necessarily restrict themselves to the strict metrical or rhyme schemes of the traditional Petrarchan form.
SHAKESPEARE`S SONNETS - Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate pilgrim in 1599. Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about pure love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself.
3. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY - Sir Philip Sidney (November 30, 1554 - October 17, 1586) became one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures. Famous in his day in England as a poet, courtier and soldier, he remains known as the author of:
Astrophil and Stella — The first of the famous English sonnet sequences, Astrophil and Stella was probably composed in the early 1580s. The sonnets were well-circulated in manuscript before the first edition was printed in 1591; only in 1598 did an authorised edition reach the press. The sequence was a watershed in English Renaissance poetry. In it, Sidney partially nativised the key features of his Italian model. Variation of emotion from poem to poem, with the attendant sense of an ongoing, but partly obscure, narrative; the philosophical trappings; the musings on the act of poetic creation itself. His experiments with rhyme scheme were no less notable; they served to free the English sonnet from the strict rhyming requirements of the Italian form.
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia — The Arcadia, by far Sidney's most ambitious work, was as significant in its own way as his sonnets. The work is a romance that combines pastoral elements with a mood derived from the Hellenistic model of Heliodorus. In the work, that is, a highly idealized version of the shepherd's life adjoins (not always naturally) with stories of jousts, political treachery, kidnappings, battles, and rapes. As published in the sixteenth century, the narrative follows the Greek model: stories are nested within each other, and different story-lines are intertwined. The work enjoyed great popularity for more than a century after its publication.Arcadia exists in two significantly different versions.
An Apology for Poetry (also known as The Defence of Poesy) — Sidney wrote the Defence before 1583. It is generally believed that he was at least partly motivated by Stephen Gosson, a former playwright who dedicated his attack on the English stage, The School of Abuse, to Sidney in 1579, but Sidney primarily addresses more general objections to poetry, such as those of Plato. In his essay, Sidney integrates a number of classical and Italian precepts on fiction. The essence of his defense is that poetry, by combining the liveliness of history with the ethical focus of philosophy, is more effective than either history or philosophy in rousing its readers to virtue. The work also offers important comments on Edmund Spenser and the Elizabethan stage.
EDMUND SPENSER - (c. 1552 - 13 January 1599) was an English poet and Poet Laureate. Spenser is a controversial figure due to his zeal for the destruction of Irish culture and colonisation of Ireland, yet he is one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy. Spenser is best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem celebrating, through fantastical allegory, the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. The language of his poetry is purposely archaic, reminiscent of earlier works such as The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, whom Spenser greatly admired.
The Shepheardes Calender was Edmund Spenser's first major poetic work. Spenser wrote this series of pastorals to begin his career. However, Spenser's models were rather the Renaissance. The title, like the entire work, is written using deliberately archaic spellings, in order to suggest a connection to medieval literature, and to Geoffrey Chaucer in particular.
The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza. It is an allegorical work, written in praise of Queen Elizabeth I.
SIR WALTER RALEGH - (c. 1552 - 29 October 1618), was a famed English writer, poet, courtier and explorer.
He is generally considered one of the foremost poets of the Elizabethan era. His poetry is generally written in the relatively straightforward, unornamented mode known as the plain style. Considered one of the era's "silver poets," a group of writers who resisted the Italian Renaissance influence of dense classical reference and elaborate poetic devices. In poems such as "What is Our Life" and "The Lie" Raleigh expresses a contempt of the world attitude more characteristic of the Middle Ages than of the dawning era of humanistic optimism. A minor poem of Raleigh's captures the atmosphere of the court at the time of Queen Elizabeth I, when he wrote a reply to Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love". Releigh's response was "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd". Both of these poems were most probably written in the mid 1580s.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - (baptised 26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.
Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
COMEDY CHARACTERISTIC - Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his greatest comedies. A Midsummer Night's Dream [Sen Nocy Letniej] is a mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic low-life scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic The Merchant of Venice [Kupiec Wenecki], contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock which reflected Elizabethan views but may appear racist to modern audiences. The wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing [Wiele Hałasu O Nic], the charming rural setting of As You Like It [Jak Wam Sie Podoba], and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night [Wieczór Trzech Króli] complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet [Romeo i Julia], the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death; and Julius Caesar [Juliusz Cezar] which introduced a new kind of drama. In Julius Caesar the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other" TRAGEDIES CHARACTERISTIC - Shakespeare's so-called "tragic period" lasted from about 1600 to 1608, though he also wrote the so-called "problem plays" Measure for Measure [Miarka za miarkę], Troilus and Cressida [Troilus i Kresyda], and All's Well That Ends Well [Wszystko dobre, co się dobrze kończy] during this time and had written tragedies before. Many critics believe that Shakespeare's greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art. The hero of the first, Hamlet, has probably been more discussed than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy "To be or not to be; that is the question.". Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, the heroes of the tragedies that followed, Othello and King Lear, are undone by hasty errors of judgement. The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves. In Othello [Othello], the villain Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him. In King Lear [Król Lear], the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, triggering scenes which lead to the murder of his daughter and the torture and blinding of the Duke of Gloucester. In Macbeth [Makbet], the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne, until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra [Antoniusz i Kleopatra] and Coriolanus [Koriolan], contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies.
HISTORY PLAYS CHARACTERISTICS - In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: Cymbeline [Cymbelin], The Winter's Tale [Zimowa Opowieść] and The Tempest [Burza], as well as the collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre [Perykles, Książe Tyru]. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day.
6. PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM IN CHARACTERS PRESENTATION - Macbeth, though esteemed for his military bravery, is wholly reviled. Macbeth wades through blood until his inevitable fall. He has not a predisposition to murder; he has merely an inordinate ambition that makes murder itself seem to be a lesser evil than failure to achieve the crown.It may be also a paradox: a character able to express such convincing horror before Duncan's murder would likely be incapable of committing the crime. For many critics, Macbeth's motivations in the first act appears vague and insufficient. Shakespeare's original text had an extra scene or scenes in which husband and wife discussed their plans.
The disastrous consequences of Macbeth's ambition are not limited to him, of course. Almost from the moment of the murder, the play depicts Scotland as a land shaken by inversions of the natural order. Perturbations in the political sphere are echoed and even amplified by events in the material world. Among the most frequently depicted of the inversions of the natural order is sleep. Macbeth's announcement that he has "murdered sleep" is figuratively mirrored in Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking.
SOLILOQUY - [in other words - monologue] - an extended, uninterrupted speech by one person only. The person may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud or directly addressing. In soliloquy the words are addressed to the speaker himself.
As a literary device, it is most common in dramatic genres (plays, opera, animated cartoons, film) but can also be found in prose fiction. The term can also be applied to poems, which usually take the form of the thoughts or speech of a single individual. The term 'dramatic monologue' is used both for monologues in plays and for a poetic genre.
Shakespeare used the soliloquy to great effect in order to reveal their characters' personal thoughts, emotions, and motives without resorting to third-person narration.
PROTAGONIST - the chief figure in a drama whose actions are the primary focus of a story. Classically protagonists are derived from good will, however, this does not always have to be true. Protagonists cannot exist in a story without opposition from a figure or figures called antagonist(s). Classically in literature, characters with good will are usually the protagonists; however, not all characters who assist the protagonist are required to be simple protagonist.
7. METAPHYSICAL POETS - were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them. The label "metaphysical" was given much later. These poets themselves did not form a school or start a movement; most of them did not even know or read each other. Their style was characterized by wit, subtle argumentations, "metaphysical conceits", and/or an unusual simile or metaphor such as in Andrew Marvell's comparison of the soul with a drop of dew. Several metaphysical poets, especially John Donne, were influenced by neo-Platonism. One of the primary Platonic concepts found in metaphysical poetry is the idea that the perfection of beauty in the beloved acted as a remembrance of perfect beauty in the eternal realm.
POETS:
John Donne was a Jacobean poet and preacher, representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works, notable for their realistic and sensual style, include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and immediacy of metaphor, compared with that of his contemporaries. Works: Six Sermons, Fifty Sermons.
George Herbert (April 3, 1593 - March 1, 1633) was a Welsh poet, orator and a priest. Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education which led on to him holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, George Herbert excelled in languages and music. Works: A Priest to the Temple.
Andrew Marvell (March 31, 1621 - August 16, 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, and the son of an Anglican clergyman (also named Andrew Marvell). As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert. He was the first assistant of John Milton. Works: To His Coy Mistress, The Garden.
CAVALIER POETS - is a broad description of a school of English poets of the 17th century, who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English Civil War. They were marked out by their lifestyle and religion from the Puritans on the Parliamentarian side; much of their poetry is light in style, and generally secular in subject.
The best known of the Cavalier poets are Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew, and Sir John Suckling. Most of the Cavalier poets were courtiers.
English poets of the early seventeenth century are crudely classified by the division into Cavaliers and metaphysical poets. Cavalier poets were much concerned with religion.
8. JOHN MILTON - (December 9, 1608 - November 8, 1674) was an English poet, prose polemicist, and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. Most famed for his epic poem Paradise Lost, Milton is celebrated as well for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica. Long considered the supreme English poet, Milton experienced a dip in popularity after attacks by T. S. Eliot and F. R. Leavis in the mid 20th century; but with multiple societies and scholarly journals devoted to his study, Milton's reputation remains as strong as ever in the 21st century.
PARADISE LOST - The blank-verse epic poem was composed by the blind Milton from 1658-1664. It reflects his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution, yet affirms an ultimate optimism in human potential. Milton encoded many references to his unyielding support for the “Good Old Cause.” Though Milton notoriously sold the copyright of this monumental work to his publisher for a seemingly trifling £10, this was not a particularly outlandish deal at the time. Milton followed up Paradise Lost with its sequel, Paradise Regained, published alongside the tragedy Samson Agonistes, in 1671. Both these works also resonate with Milton's post-Restoration political situation. Just before his death in 1674, Milton supervised the release of a second edition of Paradise Lost, accompanied by an explanation of “why the poem rhymes not”.
9. AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE BIBLE - The Authorized King James Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible begun in 1604 and first published in 1611 by the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from the Textus Receptus (Received Text) series of the Greek texts. The Old Testament was translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text, while the Apocrypha was translated from the Greek Septuagint (LXX).
ALLEGORY - in the Middle Ages was a vital element in the synthesis of Biblical and Classical traditions into what would become recognizable as Medieval culture. People of the Middle Ages consciously drew from the cultural legacies of the ancient world in shaping their institutions and ideas, and so allegory in Medieval literature and Medieval art was a prime mover for the synthesis and transformational continuity between the ancient world and the "new" Christian world. People of the Middle Ages did not see the same break between themselves and their classical forbears that modern observers see; rather, they saw continuity with themselves and the ancient world, using allegory as a synthesizing agent, bringing together a whole image.
JOHN BUNYAN - (November 28, 1628 - August 31, 1688), a Christian writer and preacher, was born at Harrowden (one mile south-east of Bedford), in the Parish of Elstow, England. He wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, arguably the most famous published Christian allegory. In the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August.as a synthesizing agent, bringing together a whole image.
THE PILGRIM`S PROGRESS - Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress in two parts, the first of which was published in London in 1678 and the second in 1684. He had begun the work in his first period of imprisonment, and probably finished it during the second. The earliest edition in which the two parts combined in one volume came in 1728. A third part falsely attributed to Bunyan appeared in 1693, and was reprinted as late as 1852. Its full title is The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come.
The Pilgrim's Progress is arguably one of the most widely known allegories ever written, and has been extensively translated. Protestant missionaries commonly translated it as the first thing after the Bible.
THE RESTORATION
1. JOHN DRYDEN - (August 19 [O.S. August 9] 1631 - May 12 [O.S. May 1] 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. What he achieved in his poetry was not the emotional excitement we find in the Romantic poets of the early nineteenth century, nor the intellectual complexities of the metaphysical poets. His subject-matter was often factual, and he aimed at expressing his thoughts in the most precise and concentrated way possible. Although he uses formal poetic structures such as heroic stanzas and heroic couplets, he tried to achieve the rhythms of speech. However, he knew that different subjects need different kinds of verse.
WORKS & STYLE - He established the heroic couplet as the standard meter of English poetry, by writing successful satires, religious pieces, fables, epigrams, compliments, prologues, and plays in it; he also introduced the alexandrine and triplet into the form. In his poems, translations, and criticism, he established a poetic diction appropriate to the heroic couplet.
2. AUGUSTAN AGE - Augustan literature is a style of English literature produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II in the first half of the 18th century, ending in the 1740s with the deaths of Pope and Swift. It is a literary epoch that featured the rapid development of the novel, an explosion in satire, the mutation of drama from political satire into melodrama, and an evolution toward poetry of personal exploration. In philosophy, it was an age increasingly dominated by empiricism, while in the writings of political-economy it marked the evolution of mercantilism as a formal philosophy, the development of capitalism, and the triumph of trade.
ALEXANDER POPE - Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 - 30 May 1744) is generally regarded as the greatest English poet of the early eighteenth century, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in the English language, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. Pope was a master of the heroic couplet.
Pope had been fascinated by Homer since childhood. In 1713, he announced his plans to publish a translation of Homer's Iliad. The work would be available by subscription, with one volume appearing every year over the course of six years. Pope secured a revolutionary deal with the publisher Bernard Lintot, which brought him two hundred guineas a volume.
AN ESSAY ON MAN - is a poem written by Alexander Pope in 1734. It is a rationalistic effort to use philosophy in order to, as John Milton attempted, justify the ways of God to man. It is concerned with the part evil plays in the world and with the social order God has decreed for man. Because man cannot know God's purposes, he cannot complain about the existence of evil and must accept that Whatever is, is right. More than any other work, it popularized optimistic philosophy throughout England and the rest of Europe.
The essay, written in heroic couplets, comprises four epistles. Pope began work on it in 1729, and had finished the first three by 1731. However, they did not appear until early 1733, with the fourth epistle published the following year. The poem was originally published anonymously. Pope did not admit to its authorship until 1735.
JONATHAN SWIFT - (November 30, 1667 - October 19, 1745) was an Irish cleric, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire; the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
GULLIVER`S TRAVELS - officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is Swift's best known work, and a classic of English literature.
The book became tremendously popular as soon as it was published (John Gay said in a 1726 letter to Swift that "it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery"), and it is likely that it has never been out of print since then. The book presents itself as a simple traveller's narrative with the disingenuous title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, its authorship assigned only to "Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, then a captain of several ships". Different editions contain different versions of the prefatory material which are basically the same as forewords in modern books. The book proper then is divided into four parts.
RICHARD STEELE - Sir Richard Steele (bap. March 12, 1672 - September 1, 1729) was an Irish writer and politician, remembered, along with his friend, Joseph Addison, as co-founder of The Spectator magazine in 1711.
He disliked British Army life, and his first published work, The Christian Hero (1701), attempted to point out the differences between perceived and actual masculinity. He afterwards became a dramatist, and his comedies, such as The Tender Husband (1703) met with some success.
JOSEPH ADDISON - (May 1, 1672 - June 17, 1719) was an English essayist, poet and man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison, later dean of Lichfield. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine.
In 1712, Addison wrote his most famous work of fiction, a play entitled Cato, a Tragedy. Based on the last days of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, it deals with such themes as individual liberty vs. government tyranny, Republicanism vs. Monarchism, logic vs. emotion and Cato's personal struggle to cleave to his beliefs in the face of death.
The play was a success throughout England and her possessions in the New World, as well as Ireland. It continued to grow in popularity, especially in the American colonies, for several generations. Indeed, it was almost certainly a literary inspiration for the American Revolution, being well known to many of the Founding Fathers. In fact, George Washington had it performed for the Continental Army while they were encamped at Valley Forge.
RESTORATION SATIRES - is the name given to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a rebirth of English drama. Restoration comedy is famous for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. The socially diverse audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on, and a substantial middle-class segment. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn.
HEROIC COUPLET - is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poetry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines. The rhyme is always masculine. Use of the heroic couplet was first pioneered by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is also widely credited with first extensive use of iambic pentameter. The term "heroic couplet" is sometimes reserved for couplets that are largely closed and self-contained, as opposed to the enjambed couplets of poets like John Donne. The greatest masters of the heroic couplet in English, thus defined, are generally considered to be John Dryden and Alexander Pope.
3. GULIVER`S TRAVELS - It shows us a satirical view of the state of European government, and of petty differences between religions, an inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted and a restatement of the older "ancients v. moderns" controversy.
4. DANIEL DEFOE - (1659/1661 - 1731) was an English writer, journalist, and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest practitioners of the novel and helped popularize the genre in Britain. In some texts he is even referred to as one of the founders, if not the founder, of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.
Defoe's famous novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) tells of a man's shipwreck on a deserted island and his subsequent adventures. The author may have based his narrative on the true story of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk. He may have also been inspired by the Latin or English translation of Abubacer's Philosophus Autodidactas, an earlier novel also set on a desert island. The work has been variously read as an allegory for the development of civilisation, as a manifesto of economic individualism, and as an expression of European colonial desires. But it also shows the importance of repentance and illustrates the strength of Defoe's religious convictions. Early critics admired it, saying that the footprint scene in Crusoe was one of the four greatest in English literature, and most unforgettable It has inspired a new genre, the Robinsonnade and has provoked postcolonial responses.
SAMUEL RICHARDSON - (1689 - 1761) was a major English 18th century writer best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753). Richardson had been an established printer and publisher for most of his life when, at the age of 51, he wrote his first novel and immediately became one of the most popular and admired writers of his time.
The popularity of Pamela was mainly due to the effective technique of revealing the story through letters written by the protagonist. Because this was combined with the moralistic nature of the story, which made it acceptable for the century's rapidly growing middle class, the book became a publishing sensation. The epistolary form was an innovation that was a source of great pride for Richardson.
HENRY FIELDING - (1707 - 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones.
Aside from his literary achievements, he has a significant place in the history of law-enforcement, having founded what some have called London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners, using his authority as a magistrate.
Whereas Defoe and Richardson both attempt to hide the fictional nature of their work under the guise of 'memoirs' and 'letters' respectively, Henry Fielding was the first major novelist to openly admit that his prose fiction was pure artefact. Also, in comparison with his arch rival and contemporary, Richardson, Fielding presents his reader with a much wider range of characters taken from all social classes.
Fielding's lack of psychological realism (i.e. the feelings and emotions of his characters are rarely explored in any depth) can perhaps be put down to his overriding concern to reveal the universal order of things. It can be argued that his novel Tom Jones reflects its author's essentially neoclassical outlook—character is something the individual is blessed with at birth, a part of life's natural order or pattern. Characters within Fielding's novels also correspond largely to types.
So Fielding's comic epic contains a range of wonderful—but essentially static—characters whose motives and behaviour are largely predetermined. There is little emotional depth to his portrayal of them, and the complex realities of interactive human relationships that are so much a part of the modern novel are of negligible importance to him.
LAURENCE STERNE - (1713 - 1768) was an Irish-born English novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics. Sterne died in London after years of fighting tuberculosis.
Sterne is best known for his novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, for which he became famous not only in England, but throughout Europe.The novel itself is difficult to describe. The story starts with the narration, by Tristram, of his own conception. It proceeds by fits and starts, but mostly by what Sterne calls "progressive digressions" so that we do not reach Tristram's birth before the third volume. The novel is rich in characters and humor, and the influences of Rabelais and Cervantes are present throughout. The novel ends after 9 volumes, published over a decade, but without anything that might be considered a traditional conclusion. Sterne inserts sermons, essays and legal documents into the pages of his novel; and he explores the limits of typography and print design by including marbled pages and, most famously, an entirely black page within the narrative. Many of the innovations that Sterne introduced, adaptations in form that should be understood as an exploration of what constitutes the novel.
GOTHIC NOVEL - an important genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. The effect of Gothic fiction depends on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of essentially Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel.
Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses.
HORACE WALPOLE - 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 - 2 March 1797), more commonly known as Horace Walpole, was a politician, writer, architectural innovator and cousin of Lord Nelson. His Letters are highly readable, and give a vivid picture of the more intellectual part of the aristocracy of his period.
In 1764, he published his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, setting a literary trend to go with the architecture. From 1762 on, he published his Anecdotes of Painting in England, based on George Vertue's manuscript notes. His memoirs of the Georgian social and political scene, though heavily biased, are a useful primary source for historians.
Walpole's sexual orientation has been the subject of speculation.
ANN RADCLIFFE - (1764 - 1823) was an English author, a pioneer of the gothic novel. She published The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne in 1789. It set the tone for the majority of her work, which tended to involve innocent, but heroic young women who find themselves in gloomy, mysterious castles ruled by even more mysterious barons with dark pasts.
Her works were extremely popular among the upper class and the growing middle class, especially among young women. Her works included A Sicilian Romance (1790), The Romance of the Forest (1791), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1796). She published a travelogue, "A Journey Through Holland and the Western Frontier of Germany" in 1795.
The success of The Romance of the Forest established Radcliffe as the leading exponent of the historical Gothic romance. Her later novels met with even greater attention, and produced many imitators, and famously, Jane Austen's burlesque of The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey, as well as influencing the works of Sir Walter Scott.
MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS - (1775 - 1818) was an English novelist and dramatist, often referred to as "Monk" Lewis, because of the success of his Gothic novel, The Monk.
lthough he only stayed a few months, it was there that he produced, in ten weeks, his romance Ambrosio, or the Monk, which was published in the summer of the following year. It immediately achieved celebrity; but some passages it contained were of such a nature that about a year after its appearance, an injunction to restrain its sale was moved for and a rule nisi obtained. Lewis published a second edition from which he removed what he thought were the objectionable passages, but the work retained much of its horrific character. Lord Byron in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers wrote of "Wonder-working Lewis, Monk or Bard, who fain wouldst make Parnassus a churchyard; Even Satan's self with thee might dread to dwell, And in thy skull discern a deeper hell." The Marquis de Sade also praised Lewis in his essay Reflections on the Novel.