History of British Literature

Late Medieval Period fourteenth Century British Literature fourteenth and 15th were period of change from feudalism to pre-industrial era. A measure of political, social and ideological conflicts England was in contend with France (the hundred year war 1337-1453 Edwards claim to the french hatful and attempt to consider England, Gascony and Flanders under unified political control). The defeats in France select to deepening the internal crisis. The decline in agriculture together with the ascend in the population resulted in frequent famines and helped the sp infer during the fourteenth c. of the morose Death. 381 The Peasants Revolt. Culture by 15th degree Celsius England had sustain a nation with the sense of separate identity and indigenous culture 1362- slope became the official language in court and was similarly used in schools. 14thc. witnessed the world- mannikin original literary works written in slope. half direction side books position literature of the chivalrous period, c. 1100 to c. 1500. Background The Norman conquest of England in 1066 tradition bothy signifies the beginning of 200 years of the supremacy of French in face letters. French cultural dominance, more(prenominal)over, was general in Europe at this time.French language and culture replaced English in urbane court nightspot and had lasting effects on English culture. just the native tradition survived, although little thirteenth- snow, and even less 12th-century, vernacular literature is extant, since well-nigh of it was transmitted or bothy. Anglo-Saxon fragmented into several dialects and gradu solelyy evolved into center field English, which, despite an admixture of French, is unquestionably English. By the mid-14th cent. , nub(a) English had become the literary as advantageously as the spoken language of England. The advance(prenominal) PeriodSeveral poems in early snapper English are extant. TheOrrmulum(c. 1200), a rhyme translation of parts of t he Gospels, is of linguistic and prosodic earlier than literary vex. Of most the resembling date,TheOwl and the Nightingale(see separate article) is the prime(prenominal) example in English of thedebat,a popular continental form in the poem, the owl, stringently monastic and didactic, and the nightingale, a free and amorous secular spirit, prayeringly weigh the virtues of their respective ways of life. The Thirteenth Century Middle English prose of the thirteenth cent. ontinued in the tradition of Anglo-Saxon prose? homiletic, didactic, and directed toward ordinary people rather than polite social club. The Katherine Group (c. 1200), comprising ternion saints lives, is typical. TheAncren Riwle(c. 1200) is a manual for prospective anchoresses it was truly popular, and it greatly influenced the prose of the 13th and 14th cent. The fact that thither was no French prose tradition was very important to the preservation of the English prose tradition. In the 13th cent. therom ance, an important continental narrative verse form, was introduced in England.It drew from three rich sources of character and adventure the legends of Charlemagne, the legends of ancient Greece and Rome, and the British legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the assault Table. LayamonsBrut, a late 13th-century metrical romance (a translation from the French), marks the prototypic appearance of Arthurian matter in English (seeArthurian legend). master copy English romances based upon indigenous material includeKing bird of nightandHavelok the Dane, both 13th-century works that retain elements of the Anglo-Saxon heroic tradition.However, French romances, notably the Arthurian romances ofChretien de Troyes, were far more influential than their English counterparts. In England French romances popularized ideas of adventure and heroism quite contrary to those of Anglo-Saxon heroic literature and were representative of wholly unalike values and tastes. Ideals ofcourtly recognis e, together with its enlarge manners and rituals, replaced those of the heroic code adventure and feats of courage were pursued for the rice beer of the knights lady rather than for the sake of the heros honor or the glory of his tribal power.Continental verse forms based on metrics and rhyme replaced the Anglo-Saxon riming line in Middle English poesy (with the important riddance of the 14th-century alliterative revival). Many French literary forms also became popular, among them thefabliau the exemplum, or deterrent example tale the animal fable and the dream vision. The continental allegorical tradition, which derived from perfect literature, is exemplified by theRoman de la Rose, which had a strong impact on English literature. Medieval works of literature often center on a popular rhetorical figure, such as theubi sunt,which remarks on the inevitability? nd sadness? of change, loss, and death and thecursor mundi,which harps on the vanity of humankind grandeur. A 15,000- line 13th-century English poem, theCursor Mundi,retells human history (i. e. , the gallant recitation? biblical plus classical story) from the point of view its title implies. A number of 13th-century secular and religious Middle English linguistic communications are extant, including the disruptiveSumer Is Icumen In, exactly like Middle English literature in general, thelyricreached its fullest f get-goer during the second half of the 14th cent. Lyrics continued popular in the 15th cent. from which time theballadalso dates. The Fourteenth Century The poetry of the alliterative revival (seealliteration), the unexplained reemergence of the Anglo-Saxon verse form in the 14th cent. , includes most of the best poetry in Middle English. The Christian allegoryThePearl(see separate article) is a poem of great intricacy and sensibility that is meaningful on several symbolic levels. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,by the same anonymous author, is also of high literary sophistication, and its intelligence, vividness, and symbolic interest render it possibly the finest Arthurian poem in English.Other important alliterative poems are the moral allegoryPiers Plowman,attri exclusivelyed to WilliamLangland, and the alliterativeMorte Arthur,which, like nearly all English poetry until the mid-14th cent. , was anonymous. The works of GeoffreyChaucermark the brilliant culmination of Middle English literature. ChaucersThe Canterbury Talesare stories told each other by pilgrims? who comprise a very colorful cross section of 14th-century English society? on their way to the shrine at Canterbury. The tales are cast into numerous different verse forms and genres and collectively explore virtually every significant knightly theme.Chaucers wise and humane work also illuminates the full scope of chivalric thought. Overshadowed by Chaucer but of some(prenominal) note are the works of tin canGower. The Fifteenth Century The 15th cent. is not distinguished in English letters, due in part to the social dislocation find outyd by the drawn-out Wars of the Roses. Of the many 15th-century imitators of Chaucer the best-know are JohnLydgateand ThomasHoccleve. Other poets of the time include StephenHawesand AlexanderBarclayand the Scots poets WilliamDunbar, RobertHenryson, and GawinDouglas.The poetry of JohnSkelton, which is mostly satiric, combines medieval and spiritual rebirth elements. WilliamCaxtonintroduced printing to England in 1475 and in 1485 printed Sir ThomasMalorysMorte dArthur. This prose work, written in the twilight ofchivalry, casts the Arthurian tales into coherent form and views them with an awareness that they represent a vanishing way of life. Themiracle play, a long cycle of short plays based upon biblical episodes, was popular throughout the Middle Ages in England. Themorality play, an allegorical turn centering on the struggle for mans soul, originated in the 15th cent.The finest of the genre isEveryman. English Society in the 14th C entury Summary The Canterbury Tales is bunch in fourteenth-century London, hotshot of the medieval periods great centers of commerce and culture. In England at this time, society was still very strictly ordered, with the King and nobles having all actor in things political and the Catholic Church having all authority in uncanny matters. English Society in the 14th Century The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is acknowledge as the first book of poetry written in the English language.This is because poetry was often written in Italian or Latin not English, even writers from England wrote in the other languages because English was considered low class and vulgar, but aft(prenominal) Chaucers writings were published they became a acknowledge and trustworthy work. The Canterbury Tales gives modern readers a good judgment of language in the 14th century as it also gives a rich, elaborated arras of medieval social life, combining elements of all classes, from noble s to workers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves.The view of the Canterbury Tales being held up as a precise reflection of English society in the 14th century is significantly correct, because they were very attached to the church and beliefs and the way they all act in the Tales shows how they really were a society of the Church. The Canterbury Tales is set in fourteenth-century London, genius of the medieval periods great centers of commerce and culture. In England at this time, society was still very strictly ordered, with the King and nobles having all power in things political and the Catholic Church having all authority in spiritual matters.However, trade and commerce with other nations had expanded dramatically in this century, giving rise to a fresh and highly vocal middle class comprised of merchants, traders, shopkeepers, and skilled craftsmen. The story starts with a general prologue that provides a panoramic view of society England begins the period with w ars, unrest, and almost chaos it concludes with a settled dynasty, a reformed religion, and a people united and progressive. England in 1300 was well on the way to rapid expansion. It was rapidly increasing in quick-witted and mathematical sophistication.Technically, thanks to water power and the mechanical discoveries that flowed from it, England was in the thick of what many historians call the Medieval Industrial Revolution. One reason there seems to be such a break in the midst of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was that there was in fact a break. The 14th Century was a time of turmoil, diminished expectations, loss of confidence in institutions, and feelings of helplessness at forces beyond human contro. lThe 14th century in Europe was a time of great unrest. This as primarily caused by the outbreak of bubonic plague better known as the Black Death. Another cause were the peasant revolts, and the schism within the Catholic Church. The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffre y Chaucer, is recognized as the first book of poetry written in the English language. This is because poetry was often written in Italian or Latin not English, even writers from England wrote in the other languages because English was considered low class and vulgar, but after Chaucers writings were published they became a recognized and legitimate work.The Canterbury Tales gives modern readers a good judgment of language in the 14th century as it also gives a rich, elaborated tapestry of medieval social life, combining elements of all classes,from nobles to workers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves. The view of the Canterbury Tales being held up as a precise reflection of English society in the 14th century is significantly correct, because they were very attached to the church and beliefs and the way they all act in the Tales shows how they really were a society of the Church.Alliterative verse eighth 14th century AD The story of English literature begins with the G ermanic tradition of the Anglo-Saxon settlers. Beowulfstands at its head. This epic poem of the 8th century is inAnglo-Saxon, now more commonly described as elder English. It is incomprehensible to a reader familiar only with modern English. horizontal so, there is a continuous linguistic development between the two. The most significant turning point, from about 1100, is the development of Middle English differing from doddering English in the addition of a French vocabulary after theNorman conquest.French and Germanic influences subsequently compete for the mainstream role in English literature. The French poetic tradition inclines to lines of a regular metrical length, usually linked by rhyme into couplets or stanzas. German poetry depends more on rhythm and stress, with repeated consonants (alliteration) to bind the phrases. Elegant or problematic rhymes drive home a courtly flavour. The hammer blows of alliteration are a type of verbal athleticism more likely to draw co mpliment in a hall full of warriors.Both traditions achieve a smart as a whip flowering in England in the late 14th century, towards the end of the Middle English period. Piers PlowmanandSir Gawainare masterpieces which look back to Old English. By contrastChaucer, a poet of the court, ushers in a new era of English literature. Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain 14th century AD Of these two great English alliterative poems, the second is only if anonymous and the first virtually so. The narrator ofPiers Plowmancalls himself Will occasional references in the text suggest that his name may be Langland.Nothing else, apart from this poem, is known of him. Piers Plowman exists in three versions, the longest amounting to more than 7000 lines. It is considered probable that all three are by the same author. If so he spends some twenty years, from about 1367, adjusting and refining his epic creation. Piers the ploughman is one of a group of characters searching for Christian truth in the comple x position of a dream. Though mainly a spiritual quest, the work also has a political element. It contains sharply observed details of a smear and materialistic age (Wycliffeis among Langlands English contemporaries).WherePiers Plowmanis tough and gritty,Sir Gawain and the Green Knight(dating from the same period) is more polished in its manner and more courtly in its content. The characters derive partly fromArthurian legend. A mysterious green knight arrives one Christmas at the court of King Arthur. He invites any knight to smooth him with an axe and to receive the blow back a year later. Gawain accepts the challenge. He cuts off the head of the green knight, who rides away with it. The rest of the poem concerns Gawain, a year later, at the green knights castle. In a tale of love (for the green knights wife) and subsequent eceit, Gawain emerges with little comply. The green knight spares his life but sends him home to Arthurs court wearing the wifes girdle as a label of sham e. Geoffrey Chaucer at court AD 1367-1400 In 1367 one of four new yeomen of the chamber in the household of Edward III is Geoffrey Chaucer, then aged about twenty-seven. The boylike mans wife, Philippa, is already a lady-in-waiting to the queen. A few years later Chaucer becomes one of the world powers esquires, with duties which include entertaining the court with stories and music. There can rarely have been a more inspired appointment.Chaucers poems are designed to be read aloud, in the first instance by himself. Their range, from high romance to off-color comedy, is well calculated to hold the listeners spellbound. Courtly circles in England are his first audience. Chaucers public course is one of almost unbroken success in two consecutive reigns. He undertakes diplomatic missions abroad on behalf of the king he is given administrative posts, such as controlling the customs, which bring lodgings and handsome stipends. Even occasional disasters (such as being robbed in two w ays in four days in 1390 and losing ? 0 of Richard IIs money) do him no lasting harm. A measure of Chaucers skill as a courtier is that during the 1390s, when he is in the employment ofRichard II, he also receives gifts at Christmas from Richards rival, Bolingbroke. When Bolingbroke unseats Richard II in 1399, taking his place on the throne asHenry IV, Chaucer combines daintiness and wit to secure his position. Having lost his royal appointments, he reminds the new king of his predicament in a poem entitled The Complaint of Chaucer to his go off Purse. The last line of each verse begs the purse to be doughy again, or else must I die.Henry IV hears the message. The court poet is given a new annuity. Henry is certainly aware that he is keeping in his royal circle a poet of great distinction. Chaucers reputation is such that, when he dies in the following year, he is granted the very unusual honour for a commoner of being buried in Westminster abbey. Troilus and Criseyde AD 1385 C haucers first masterpiece is his subtle account of the wooing of Criseyde by Troilus, with the active encouragement of Criseydes uncle Pandarus. The tender joys of their love affair are followed by Criseydes betrayal and Troiluss death in battle.Chaucer adapts to his own purposes the more conventionally dramatic account of this legendary affair written some fifty years earlier byBoccaccio(probably read by Chaucer when on a mission to Florence in 1373). His own very long poem (8239 lines) is written in the early 1380s and is complete by 1385. Chaucers impression is delicate, subtle, oblique though this does not prevent him from introducing and gently satirising many vivid details of life at court, as he guides the reader through the long psychological intrigue by which Pandarus eventually delivers Troilus into Criseydes bed.The charm and detail of the poem, giving an intimate glimpse of a courtly world, is akin to the delightful miniatures which illustrate books of hours of this period in the style known asInternational Gothic. as yet this delicacy is only one side of Chaucers abundant talent as he soon proves inThe Canterbury Tales. The Canterbury Tales AD 1387-1400 Collections of tales are a preferent literary convention of the 14th century. BoccacciosDecameronis the best-known example before Chaucers time, but Chaucer inThe Canterbury Talesoutshines his predecessors.He does so in the range and vitality of the stories in his collection, from the courtly tone of The Knights Tale to the rough and often obscene humour of those known technically asfabliaux. He does so also in the detail and humour of the exemplar holding the stories together. His account of the pilgrims as they ride from London to Canterbury, with their constant brabble and rivalry, amounts to a idiotic masterpiece in its own right. The pilgrims, thirty of them including Chaucer himself, put together one spring day at the Tabard in Southwark.The host of the inn, blight Bailly, is a re al contemporary of Chaucers (his name features in historical records). He will act as their guide on the route to Canterbury and he proposes that they pass the time on their journey by telling stories. distributively pilgrim is to tell two on the way out and two on the way back. Whoever is judged to have told the best tale will have a free supper at the Tabard on their return. Of this ambitious total of 120 stories, Chaucer completes only 24 by the time of his death. Even so the collection amounts to some 17,000 lines mainly of rhyming verse, but with some passages of prose.The pilgrims represent all sections of society from gentry to humble craftsmen (the only absentees are the labouring poor, unable to give a pilgrimage of this kind). There are respectable people from the unhomogeneous classes such as the knight, the parson and the yeoman but the emphasis travel mainly on characters who are pretentious, scurrilous, mendacious, avaricious or lecherous. The pilgrims are vivid ly described, one by one, in ChaucersPrologue. The relationships between them evolve in the linking passages between the tales, as Harry Bailly arranges who shall speak next.The pilgrims for the most part tell tales virtually related to their station in life or to their personal character. sometimes the anecdotes even reflect mutual animosities. The miller gives a scurrilously comic account of a carpenter being cuckolded. Everyone laughs heartily except the reeve, who began his career as a carpenter. The reeve gets his own back with an equally frightening tale of the seduction of a millers wife and daughter. But the pilgrim who has most smiling six centuries of readers is the five-times-married Wife of Bath, taking a lusty pleasure in her own appetites and richly scorning the ideals of celibacy.