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ENGLISH LITERATURE
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 CONTENTS
The Anglo-Saxon Period (449-1066)
 The Germanic Invasion
 The Anglo Saxons
 Anglo-Saxon Literature
Old works:
 The Seafarer
 Beowulf
o Bede (An early prose writer)
Monarchies since Middle period

The Medieval period (1066-1485)

 Medieval society
 Medieval life
 The Crusades and Chivalry
 The Medieval Romance
Growth of the English Nation
The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485)

Major poets of 14th century

 John Gower (1330? -1408)
 William Langland
 Geoffrey Chaucer(1340-1400)

English Chaucerians
 Thomas Occleve (1367-1426)
 John Lydgate (1370-1426)
 Stephen Hawes(1475-1530)
 Alexander Barclay(1484-1552)
 John Skelton (1460-1529)

Scottish Chaucerians
 King James (1394-1336)
 Robert Henryson (1490-?)
 William Dunbar (1460-1530)

15th Century
 Political background of 15th century monarchies
 The war of the Roses
 The paston letters
 Printing Press
 Folk Poet and drama
 Early English and Scottish ballads

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Major Prose and Sonnet Writers
 Sir Thomas Malory (?- 1471)
 Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
 Sir Thomas Wyatt

Reformation
 Causes of reformation
 Factors that bought Reformation
 Tudor Dynasty

The Elizabethan Age(1558-1603)

 Renaissance
 The Flowering of Elizabethan literature
 Elizabethan London
 The Elizabethan Theatre
 The End of an Era

Major Poets and Dramatists of Elizabethan Age

 Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618)
 Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
 Samuel Daniel (1562-1619)
 Michael Drayton (1563-1631)
 Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
Elizabethan Love Lyrics and Sonnets

University wits
 Christopher Marlowe(1564-1593)
 John Lyly (1554-1606)
 George Peele
 Thomas Lodge (1558-1625)
 Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)

William Shakespeare(1564-1616)

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 THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD (449-1066)
First, why do we date the Anglo-Saxon period from 449 to 1066? According to
tradition, it was in 449 that the first band of Germanic people crossed the North Sea to Britain
to settle in what is now called the country of Kent. They were Jutes, from the peninsula of
Juteland in Denmark, and they were the first of many such invaders. Following the Jutes
came the Angles and Saxons. Together these invaders created the Anglo-Saxon England
(“Angle-land”) that lasted until 1066, when the Norman-French, led by William, Duke of
Normandy, successfully invaded and conquered the country.
From 449 to 1066 is a long time – over six centuries. England during this period was
not the unified country it is today. Most of this time the land was divided into little kingdoms,
and during the last two centuries of this period the Anglo-Saxons had to contend with the
Viking invaders, called “Danes” by the English (also called “Northmen” or just plain
‘heathens’), who at one time controlled about half of England and threatened the rest.
Most of these six centuries come within a period frequently described as the “Dark
Ages.” This description, meant to suggest a time of barbarism, ignorance, confusion, and
violence, is now generally considered by historians to be misleading. True, it was a time
filled with violence, cruelty, and much confused fighting, but then our own world today can
hardly be said to be free from such vices and follies. Therefore it cannot be said as Dark Age
as it was thought to be. They were by no means without knowledge, communications and
trade and had arts and crafts of a fairly high order. True, it was a time filled with violence,
cruelty, and much confused fighting, but then our own world today can hardly be said to be
free from such vices and follies.
What plunged the western world into comparative darkness was the collapse of the
vast Roman Empire, which for centuries had maintained order from Hadrian's Wall, in
northern Britain, to distant Arabia. It was possible at the height of the Roman Empire to
travel on post roads and use the same currency from what is now the north of England to the
Middle East, beyond the Red Sea. It has never been possible to do this since that time, for all
our talk of progress. For years, far longer than the British ruled India, the southern half of
Britain had been part of the Roman Empire. The first Roman invasion was a series of raids by
Julius Caesar from 57 to 50 B.C. Nearly a century later, the Roman conquest of Britain was
made under the Emperor Claudius. Once they had conquered the British inhabitants, a Celtic
people, the Roman legions remained as defenders. But, when, in about 410, Roman forces
were finally withdrawn to protect Rome itself, the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons began their
successful invasions.

The Germanic Invasions

After the Roman legions had gone, the Britons were no match for the invaders from
across the North Sea. The Britons, however, did not retreat to the mountains and moors
without a struggle. Behind the half-legendary King Arthur, afterwards transformed into a
hero of medieval romance, was the figure of a Celtic leader who organised determined
resistance. But the invaders from the North and the East arrived in wave after wave-Angles,
Saxons, and Jutes – taking possession of the best land and creating kingdoms of their own,
the most important being Kent, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. Before long the Anglo-

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Saxons were compelled to organize themselves into larger units in order to resist further
invasions. Political power then shifted from Northumbria to Mercia to Wessex, the kingdom
of Alfred the Great. As early as 787 men from farther north-the terrible Norsemen, Danes,
or Vikings-began their raiding, pillaging, and burning. Some of these Danes eventually
settled in northern and eastern England, bringing with them their own customs, laws, and
attitudes of mind that long outlasted the Norman conquest.
The political and military history of these times, roughly from the eighth century to
the middle of the eleventh, is confused and chaotic. But a few important facts do stand out.
Exceptional Anglo-Saxon kings like Alfred the Great and Athelstan were successful in their
struggle against the Norse invaders. Alfred's grandson Athelstant, after defeating a savage
confederacy of Danes, Scots, and Welsh, was recognised as king of all Britain. Also, the
Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity, partly through the efforts of Celtic missionaries
from Ireland and Scotland, but mostly through missionaries from Rome. Saint Augustine,
sent by Pope Gregory the Great, was the most important of these. Augustine became the first
Archbishop of Canterbury and promoted the spread of Christianity throughout the kingdom.
When the kingdom was conquered by William of Normandy in 1066, it had long been
Christian.

The Anglo-Saxons
Although so much of it even then was Danish in laws, customs, and characteristics,
we can call the kingdom conquered by the Normans Anglo-Saxon. What kind of people were
the Anglo-Saxons? Before we answer this, we should remember that the Anglo-Saxons were
victims of the bad habit, typical of many invaders, of considering that the conquered people
have a much lower level of civilization than their own, that they are mere barbarians whose
defeat is inevitable and a sign of the world's progress. One might imagine that the Anlgo-
Saxons were fit only to be the serfs of their Norman conquerors, but this idea is quite false.
Indeed, the Normans were superior principally in government organization, in military
organization and tactics, and in architecture; in many other respects they were inferior to the
Anglo-Saxon civilization that they conquered but did not entirely destroy.
Probably everybody knows that the Anglo-Saxons were hardy and brave, as stubborn
in defense as the ordinary English soldiery has been ever since. Anglo-Saxon society was
comparatively well-developed, branching out from the family unit to the clan and tribe and
then to the kingdom. While the Anglo-Saxons easily developed great loyalty to their chosen
leaders, they had a natural tendency toward what we should call now a democratic habit of
mind – that is, they liked to hold meetings in which people could openly express what they
thought and felt.

Although there must have been a great wealth of heroic narrative verse and, later on,
of dramatic monologues of a somewhat lyrical nature, highly suitable for recitation, very little
has survived. We have only the great epic Beowulf; portions of other epics, together with
later fragments of the battle pieces; some religious poems; and a small group of dramatic
poems, of which “The Seafarer” is an excellent example. One reason so little Anglo-Saxon
poetry has come down to us is that in the ninth century the conquering Danes plundered the

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monastery libraries and destroyed many records of Anglo-Saxon civilization and literature.
Also, although we are indebted to monks for much of the Anglo-Saxon literature which has
survived, some monks deplored the pagan spirit of the older Anglo-Saxon poems and saw no
reason to transcribe works which were essentially pagan in spirit. Much of the Anglo-Saxon
poetry that has survived, including Beowulf, contains Christian grafting on essentially pagan
beliefs. On the other hand, some of the surviving poems are dramatic retelling of Biblical
events.
The churchmen who wrote verse generally wrote in Latin, though occasionally they
included lines in English. (It was from their imitation of church hymns in Latin that the
gradual introduction of rhyme into English verse developed). The earlier prose writers and
chroniclers among the Anglo-Saxon churchmen also wrote in Latin. The greatest of these
was known as the Venerable Bede (673-735), the most learned and industrious writer of the
whole period, author of the Ecclesiastical History (731), an excellent historical authority of
its time. As an historian Bede is rightly regarded as "the father of English history". Nearly
two centuries later, Alfred the Great (871-99), the ablest and most remarkable of all English
kings, not only became the patron of scholars and educators but turned author and translator
himself after delivering his kingdom from the Danes. Anglo-Saxon prose and history owe
most to his influence and his example. Rather than use Latin, as had been the custom, Alfred
promoted use of written English and was responsible for the initiation of the Anglo-Saxons as
drunken oafs existing in a "Dark Age". Alfred maintained diplomatic relations with all
neighboring kings and princes, sent frequent embassies to Rome, corresponded with the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, and may even, as we are told, have sent a mission as far as India. He
also formulated a code of law and founded the first English "public schools". A truly great
man, Alfred did much to educate a society that, with its social organization and laws, its
letters and arts, was far from being barbarous, but, indeed, made an enduring contribution to
our civilization.

The Seafarer
"The Seafarer" is one of the oldest poems in our language. Written by an unknown
author of the eighth or ninth century, it is now about twelve hundred years old. In spirit,
however, it is quite contemporary. Its intensity of feeling, its vividness, and its eloquence
speak to us across the centuries and recall the long, high-prowed ships of Anglo-Saxon days
and even the sound of surf and the smell of sea wrack.
From earliest times, the sea has always played a vital role in English life and
consequently in its literature. In its original form, this early poem about the sea expresses two
opposing attitudes toward the life of a seafarer, both spoken by one voice. In the translation
below, the metrical charm and flowing alliteration of the Anglo-Saxon verse have been
skillfully preserved, and the conflicting points of view have been given to two speakers-a
youth eager for adventure on the high seas, and an old sailor weary of loneliness, hardship,
and danger.

Beowulf
Beowulf is the first landmark in English literature and the greatest literary work which
we have inherited from the Anglo-Saxons. The source of our knowledge of this old English

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epic is a single surviving tenth-century manuscript – and this manuscript is undoubtedly a
copy of an earlier one.
The Beowulf manuscript reflects the combination of elements of widely different
cultures which was typical of the Anglo-Saxon period. In Beowulf both pagan and Christian
ideas are represented, exclamations over the fate of sinners and occasional exhortations to
fate of sinners and occasional exhortations to prayer intermingling with pagan concepts such
as that of Wyrd, or fate. The author of Beowulf, though unknown, may have been a
Chrisitianized references was added by monks as they copied the manuscript. The character
of Beowulf, which seems to be a blending of an actual historical figure with various mythical
heroes, itself epitomizes this mixture of pagan and Christian tradition.
This is considered to be the first poetry, an epic, with which the most remarkable
work of Old – English Period Literature, begins. It is the longest and the richest of Old
English Poetry, written in West Saxon dialect of Wessex. The poem is in more than 3000
lines describing the heroic deeds of Beowulf a classical hero who defeats and kills the
monster Grendel and its mother, but is himself mortally wounded, but makes his kingdom
safe for his people.
The language of this poem is extremely rich and inventive with exaggerations that
portray the heroic aspects of the tale. The date of composition of Beowulf cannot be
accurately pinned down. The rhythm of Beowulf depends on accent and alliteration. This
epical poem attracted readers, especially in the 1990's when two major poets, The Scot
Edwin Morgan and the Irishman Seamus Heaney, retranslated it into modern English.
Haney's version became the worldwide best seller and won many awards.
Two other poems of this period, which tell us of the primitive past, are Widsith and
Deor’s Complaint. Another poem whose subject is war, 'The Battle of Malden' is more a
documentary than a glorification of war like values. Its authorship is also anonymous.
By far the greatest portion of Anglo-Saxon poetry is religious. The two poets which
associated with the period are Cynewulf and Caedmon.
The earliest English Caedmon is a North Umbrian monk of the seventh century. The
historian Bede (A.D. 673 - 775) tell us that Caedmon was inspired to write poems on Biblical
subjects after entering Whitby Monastery, and records a short poem of his on the creation.
All his other works are lost.

THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD (1066 – 1485)

In 1066, at the Battle of Hastings, Harold, the Saxon king of England, was defeated
by William "the Conqueror", Duke of Normandy, who invaded England to support his claim
that he had been promised the English throne. An efficient and ruthless soldier, with a
number of experienced soldiers of fortune among his followers, William was soon able to
conquer the whole country.
The Normans—a name derived from "Northman"—were in large part descended
from the Vikings who had seized and then remained in northwestern France, which became
known as "Normandy." After more than a hundred years in France, the Normans had adopted
many French customs and had their own variation of the French language, Norman-French.

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They were curious people: superb soldiers, excellent administrators and lawyers, great
borrowers and adapters, but lacking inventiveness and original ideas. Even the architecture
and the ambitious building in stone that they introduced into England originated in north
Italy. It used to be assumed that their Norman conquerors "civilized" the beaten Saxons, but
in some respects, notably in their more democratic system of government and in their crafts
and designs, the Saxons were further advanced than the Normans. After the Conquest,
because of the highly centralized and stable Norman government, England became a more
formidable power, also a country much closer to the mainstream of European civilization.
Finally—and what is most important here—the Norman and Saxon elements were soon fused
into a national English character, neither predominantly Norman nor Saxon but a subtle blend
of both.
Roughly from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, Western Europe achieved a
complete civilization and a complete culture of its own. Although our present-day civilization
has grown directly out of medieval civilization, life in the Middle Ages was far different from
what we know today. To begin with, medieval society had a secure foundation and
framework of religion. Everyone was a son or daughter of the Church and on his way to
Heaven or Hell. Fierce and powerful rulers could sometimes be seen walking barefoot to do
penance for their sins. Everybody, from the highest to the lowest, was conscious of being on
trial here on earth. Of course people misbehaved then as people did before and have done
since, but then they knew that they were misbehaving and that they were miserable sinners.
This world to them was like a transparency through which gleamed the fire of Hell or the
bright blue of Heaven.

Medieval Life
Medieval life was austere in many ways: no modern comforts and conveniences; not
much choice in dress; travel difficult and often dangerous; and food (lacking sugar, potatoes,
and many other things), even for the wealthy, offering little variety. Most foodstuffs could
not be preserved, sometimes a lot had to be eaten quickly—and this explains the special feast
times—while at other times ordinary folk might find themselves on a very poor diet. But
again, there were other compensations.
Because there was no industry, no enormous factories pouring out smoke, no
railroads, no vast dark cities, both in its towns and its countryside the Middle Ages were
bright and full of color, a perpetual feast for the eye. A great noble would have a crowd of
retainers dressed in gay livery. Costumes were often fantastically varied and rich, and a
typical medieval throng would look to us like a splendid ballet. Religious festivals provided
plenty of holidays during which people enjoyed themselves singing and dancing and playing
games, watching archers compete or knights in their magnificent tournaments. Religion also
helped to relieve the austerity of medieval times by preaching that life on earth was much
less important than life after death.

The Crusades and Chivalry

In spite of the treasured memory of great heroes like King Richard "the Lion-
Hearted," the history of the Crusades makes mournful reading. Each Crusade began in high

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hope, in a genuine desire to rescue Jerusalem from the Turks, but most ended squalidly in
raiding, looting, and a tangle of power politics. Still, in the end, Western Europe gained much
from these expeditions to the Near East. Christian Europe was exposed to Arabic culture—
especially mathematics and medicine—at its highest level. Commercial and intellectual
horizons were greatly broadened, and both knowledge and all manner of refinements in
living were brought back from the East. It was the Crusades too, even though they ended so
badly, that encouraged the ideal of true knightly behavior known as chivalry.

The Medieval Romance

Medieval romance. consisted largely of tales of chivalry to which were added a love
interest (to please the ladies) and all sorts of wonders and marvels—faerie enchantments,
giants, dragons, wizards, and sorceresses. The humbler folk of the Middle Ages were ready
to believe anything of this kind; the aristocrats and the clergy, though better informed, still
existed in a world largely unexplored and not mapped, a little world, poised between Heaven
and Hell, in which the natural merged into the marvelous and the supernatural.

Growth of the English Nation

It took about two hundred and fifty years for Normans and Saxons to merge their
individual identities into one English nation. Unfortunately for both England and France, the
English monarchy never voluntarily relinquished its hold on its French possessions. As a
result there were numerous costly wars in France, culminating in the series of wars now
known as the "Hundred Years' War" (1337-1453). Although in the end driven from
France, England won many a famous victory in these wars, thanks largely to the terrible
longbows of the English infantry. Used by the English from the time of Edward-I (1272-
1307) onward, these six-foot bows, with yard-long arrows capable of piercing a knight's
armor, were among the most effective weapons known to Western Europe in the late Middle
Ages. In fact, the longbows—together with gunpowder, another new element in European
warfare—eventually did much to end the Middle Ages by making knights and castles less
effective in warfare.
Because the English kings and barons, unlike those in other countries, depended upon
their bowmen, who came from the common folk, these folk showed an independent spirit not
to be found in peasants abroad. But long before the Hundred Years' War there had taken root
in England certain ideas and practices that were far different from those of other European
countries. These ideas were greatly to affect England's future development. Henry-II (1154-
89), a descendant of both William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great, reformed the judicial
system and firmly established the right of all Englishmen to trial by a jury of their peers. In
1215 the barons compelled Henry's vicious son, King John, to sign the famous Magna Carta.
This very elaborate charter was intended to do little more than protect the rights and
privileges of the barons themselves; but as it established the principle that even the king must
obey the common law, it was to have great importance in later centuries in establishing the
rights of Englishmen.
The term common law refers to law which is common to the whole country and all its
people, in contrast to kinds of law applying only to certain classes of persons. It developed as

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society itself developed, based not on legal codes but on usages and precedents—that is, on
what good judges had already decided and laid down as law. Common law was taken by the
English settlers to America, so that it is also the foundation of American law. The third
foundation stone in the later expansion of English freedoms came in 1295, when John's
grandson, Edward I, called the first Parliament that included not only the great nobles and
bishops ("lords"), but also representatives of the lesser nobles and of the townspeople
("commons").

The Wars of the Roses

During the High Middle Ages, roughly from the twelfth to the middle of the
fourteenth century, the English of all classes lived comparatively well. In 1348, however,
came the Black Death, the first of a series of plagues that killed more than a third of the
population. The scarcity of labor caused by the plagues was the death knell of feudalism. In
1381, inflamed by repressive laws and burdensome taxes and encouraged by the teachings of
the religious reformer John Wycliffe, the peasants rose in bloody revolt. The revolt was put
down harshly, but economic and social unrest continued. Then, hard on the heels of the
Hundred Years' War, came the so-called Wars of the Roses (1455-85), a civil war between
the House of York, whose emblem was the white rose, and the House of Lancaster,
symbolized by a red rose. When in 1485 Henry VII succeeded Richard III and united the
feuding families through marriage, he ended the wars and founded the Tudor line. When
Henry VII came to the throne in 1485, the real Middle Ages had vanished.

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 MAJOR POETS OF 14TH CENTURY

JOHN GOWER (1330? 1408)

Gower, a court poet like Chaucer lived in Kent and was trained in the Law, devoted to
his writings. He got married in 1398 and became blind by about 1400. Chaucer who was a
close friend of him dedicated his Troilus and Criseyde to Gower calling him ‘Moral
Gower’. He produced a huge volume of poetry in three languages: French, Latin and
English. A well known French Work is “Speculum Meditantis”, a long sermon in verse on
the immorality of the age. His Latin Work “Vox Clemantis” is concerned with Wat
Tyler’s Rebellion of (1381). His English work “Confessio Amantis” or The Lover’s
Confessions is an enormous poem of Thirty Three Thousand octosyllablic lines. Gower
wrote this poem because King Richard complained that nobody wrote in the English tongue.
The subject is Love, not because it is of poet’s taste but because people preferred amusement
to wisdom. This poem is about the confession of a lover, Amans to Genius, a priest of Venus
and the stories are organized under the headings of the Seven Deadly Sin. There are eight
books: one for each sin, and one which gives an account of philosophy and morals. The poem
is also interesting for its prologue and epilogue. In English Gower wrote “In Praise of
Peace” in 55 stanzas of rhyme royal.

WILLIAM LANGLAND
He is also known as Langley, can be placed next only to Chaucer and also an
important poet compared to Gower and whatever we know about him is only by his only
extant poem, The vision of William Concerning Piers, the Plowman, which is a
remarkable presentation and account of the suffering of the peasants and is very original. It is
true that since times immemorial literature had been busy pleasing the upper classes but this
was a poem which directly appealed to the common people and the success was enormous.
In this poem the poet has critically and sarcastically described the corrupt clergies of
that time which is really a contrast with Chaucer’s treatment of the theme in The Prologue.
Moreover he has given a real picture of the suffering of the common man due to the
corruptions in the upper strata. The poet appears to be a sort of rebel against the feudal
aristocratic system and social inequality. This poem is a great moral allegory too. Piers the
Plowman appears again and again, as the savior of virtue in distress. The poet falls asleep
and sees in the dream a sorry scene- a field full of repentant sinners drawn for every section
of society they are all going out on a pilgrimage to the shrine of truth, but they do not know
the way. In this way, all the different sections of society are represented. Piers the Plowman
appears on the scene and guides them.
The poem has been lengthened out by a number of episodes and digressions. Piers, the
Plowman is the last considerable work on the alliterative lines. Henceforth Chaucer’s
example is generally followed and alliteration is replaced by rhyme.

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 GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1340-1400)

Poet, the son of John Chaucer, a London wine merchant, is better known as Father of
English poetry. There are uncertain details about his life and his age covers the period from
1340 to 1400. As a youth, he was a page in the Royal household. He held various diplomatic
and civil posts, and in king’s service, he travelled abroad on numerous diplomatic missions.
He got married with Philippa Roet, a sister of John of Gaunt’s third wife due to which he
became a powerful man and also enjoyed royal favors. Visited Italy and made his first
acquaintance with Italian literature and may have met Petrarch and Boccaccio, the two
greatest living Italian men of letters along with Dante who influenced a lot on the growth of
Chaucer’s work. His last official position was that of deputy forester in the King’s Forest at
North Petherton in Somerset. He was buried at the entrance to the Chapel of St Benedict in
Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected to him in 1556: this was the origin of
Poet’s Corner.

Chaucer's Style: In the Tales Chaucer abandons the English irregular lines of alliterative
verse – "rim, ram, roff" as he calls it and adopts the French method of regular meter.
Under his influence rhyme gradually displaced alliteration in English poetry & his style is
narrative. He used the ten syllabic lines rhyming in couplet – called the Heroic couplet
which was perfected by Pope. "The Canterbury Tales" is Chaucer’s magnificent
unfinished opus in which he finally drew the various strands of his genius together.
However, Chaucer’s humor, satire, irony are all pervasive in this work.

To William Caxton, England's first printer, Geoffrey Chaucer was "the worshipful
father and first founder and embellisher of ornate eloquence in our English." Perceptive as
this accolade was in its time, today Chaucer is acclaimed not only as "the father of English
poetry" but also as the father of the modern short story and novel— in short, as the father of
English literature. In addition, we are indebted to him for the most vivid contemporary
description of fourteenth-century England.
A man of affairs as well as a man of letters, Chaucer's development as the one was
closely paralleled by his development as the other. Born into a family which belonged to the
rising middle class, he obtained through his father, a successful wine merchant, a position as
page in a household which was closely associated with the court of King Edward III. His
mastery of Latin, French, and Italian, in addition to equipping him for diplomatic and civil
service, also enabled him to translate literary works in all three languages, an important factor
in his development as a writer.
A court favorite, Chaucer rose quickly in the world. Before he was twenty he served
as a soldier in France and, upon being captured, was ransomed by his king. Thereafter,
throughout his life, he served his country loyally—as courtier, diplomat, civil administrator,
and translator. Entrusted with important and delicate diplomatic missions, he traveled on
several occasions to France and Italy, and his journeys abroad played an important role in his
literary and intellectual development. Subsequently, he served as Comptroller of Customs for
the Port of London; Member of Parliament; Justice of the Peace; Clerk of the Works at
Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and elsewhere; and finally as a sub-forester of one

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of the king's forests. He was, in fact, a highly valued public servant and was fortunate to enjoy
for most of his life the patronage of the influential John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and uncle
of King Richard II, During his long public career, he became acquainted with the most
important men of his day—diplomats and rulers as well as writers. At his death, his
reputation as a man of affairs and his genius as a poet well established, he was buried in
Westminster Abbey. Today, in the history of English literature, Chaucer's name stands
second only to that of Shakespeare.

From the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote

When April with his showers hath pierced the drought
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
Of March with sweetness to the very root. (1)

Chaucer’s Portrayal of the Knight:

Chaucer portrays the Knight as a person who is both chivalrous as well as wise. His
numerous qualities are listed by Chaucer in the Prologue. He is also portrayed as being a
crusader and a very well travelled individual. The characteristics of bravery and gentleness
are also dwelt on considerably. However, in contrast his appearance is not as grand as his
qualities. He is dressed in rough, stained garments having just returned from a voyage.
Chaucer’s Knight is a representative of the old chivalry of the middle ages, which
was fast dying out. The Knight was a worthy, widely travelled, and brave valiant. He
loved chivalric ideas like truth, honor, freedom and courtesy. He was highly respected for his
goodness and bravery. He participated in fifteen mortal battles and had three times fought
for Christian faith. His pursuits always ended with the death of his enemy. In his behavior he
was soft spoken and as gentle as a maid.

A KNIGHT there was, and that a noble man,

Who from the earliest time when he began
To ride forth, loved the way of chivalry,
Honor and faith and generosity. (2)

The Squire- The squire is the son of the Knight. He was in habit of carving in front of his
father to eat. He knows singing, composing, drawing and writing.

With him there went a SQUIRE, that was his son,

A lover and soldier, full of life and fun,
With locks tight-curled, as if just out of press;
His age in years was twenty, I should guess. (3)

The Yeoman –He is the person who has been given the function of a forester. In the 15th
century it was known as a small land owner. He used to wear green color hood of hunter. He

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used to handle the weapons perfectly. His hair was cut very short and his face was brown. A
silver medal of St. Christopher he had. A tale of Gamelyn is found in some manuscripts of
Canterbury tales, was intended by Chaucer when x- written. This plan was assigned to
Yeoman and so he tells no stories.

He had a YEOMAN there, and none beside

In service, for it pleased him so to ride;
And he was clad in coat and hood of green.
He bore a sheaf of arrows, bright and keen,
And wings of peacock feathers edged the wood.

Wife of Bath:
Chaucer has portrayed her as, strong willed, opinionated, highly sexed, frank,
humorous and masterful. Her account "of five husbands and arguments against chastity"
presents her character at once. She was an expert and well to do West Country cloth maker.
She was independent and there was no woman in her parish who dared go before her and
make offerings at the offertory (Church).

“In all the parish wif ne was ther noon;

That to the offering before hir sholde goon. ”
The handkerchief upon her on a Sunday, weighed as much as ten pounds. The Wife
of Bath is concerned with not only defending the active use of sex in marriage but also to
insist that married happiness is possible if the husband yield the “maistye” to his wife. Yet,
she was a worthy woman and had married five husbands besides other company in her
youth.
“She was a worthy woman al her lyfe:
Housbonds at chirche dore she hadde five”
Her coverchiefs were woven close of ground,
And weighed, I lay an oath, at least ten pound
----------------------------
----------------------------
She was a worthy woman all her life;
Five times at church door had she been a wife,
Not counting other company in youth (14)

The Parson- The parson exhibits virtue in ecclesiastical world where as the Knight
represents virtue in secular world.

There was a PARSON, too, that had his cure

In a small town, a good man and a poor;
But rich he was in holy thought and work. (15)

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The Plowman – It was done deliberately to present brotherhood relationship. These people
represent the virtue of their respective occupation. He was very devoted to God. He used a
life with happiness in spite of being poor. He used to help the needy and regards his friends
very much.

With him his brother, a simple PLOWMAN, rode,

That in his time had carted many a load
Of dung; true toiler and a good was he,
Living in peace and perfect charity.

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 EARLY ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS

The ballads of early England and Scotland, known today as the popular, traditional,
or folk ballad, arose in medieval times—mostly in the fifteenth century—from the traditions of
the common people. Because they were passed on from generation to generation by word of
mouth and not set down in writing for several centuries, it is impossible to trace the identity
of their original authors or to ascertain which of the many variations of these ballads was the
original version.
Few of the English and Scottish folk ballads were printed before the eighteenth
century. It was Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, the collection of ballads published by
Bishop Thomas Percy in 1765, that gave impetus to an interest in these old ballads that persists
to this day. Since the publication of Percy's collection, others have been inspired to make their
own collections. The Scottish poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott, among others, went to the
English-Scottish border region to write down—from the dictation of the border people who
were still singing them—the various versions of many of these old songs.
The subject matter of the folk ballads stemmed from the everyday life of the common
folk. The most popular themes, often tragic ones, were disappointed love, jealousy, revenge,
sudden disaster, and deeds of adventure and daring. Many of the usual devices of telling a story
are evident in the old ballads. The narrative is simple and direct. A single incident is related in
dramatic fashion, with only slight attention paid to characterization and description. Little or
no background introduction is given and the story is developed largely through dialogue, the
narrative often hinted at rather than told in detail. Sometimes the reader must guess what
happens between stanzas or who is speaking in certain stanzas. Often standard speeches have a
special or set meaning, as though they were part of a code. For example, when the heroine of
the ballad "Bonny Barbara Allan" (see page 36) calls upon her mother to make her bed "soft
and narrow," it is understood that she is about to die.
Another device commonly used in ballads is the refrain, in which the last line or two
of each stanza are repeated, thus adding an effective note of emphasis or suspense and
contributing to the ballad's melody and rhythmic flow. Sometimes incremental repetition is
used: that is, the repetition of a previous line or lines but with a slight variation each time,
which advances the story stanza by stanza.
Above all, the ballads are musical in nature. They were meant to be sung, one voice
carrying the main part of the stanza, with the rest of the group joining in on the refrain. Since
the French word for ballad once meant to dance, it is likely that people also danced to the old
ballad rhythms.
Because the ballads were so much a part of their tradition, it is natural that wherever
the English and Scottish people went they took their ballads with them. It was thus that the
early British settlers introduced their ballads, in all their many versions, to North America,
where they have worked their way into our own folklore and become part of our own national
heritage.

Some examples are-

1. Bonny Barbara Allan
2. Get Up and Bar the Door

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3. Sir Patrick Spens – Although scholars have been unable to identify its hero, it is
generally agreed that this ballad is based on an actual historical event, the disastrous
voyage of a Norwegian ship which, late in the thirteenth century, set out from Scotland
with the Norwegian king and his Scottish bride.

SIR THOMAS MALORY (? - 1471)

Thomas Malory wrote Morte d'Arthur ("Death of Arthur") in a prison cell. The
charges against him ranged from extortion, robbery, and cattle rustling, to "waylaying the
Duke of Buckingham." It is possible, however, that few of the crimes were real. He was, after
all, a Lancastrian in a time of Yorkist ascendancy, and the law is ever a ready weapon to
those in power. In fact, in 1468 when two general amnesties were declared by King Edward
IV, Malory, unlike the other prisoners in jail at the time, was not set free. This may indicate
that Malory had been singled out as a particular enemy by the Crown because of his opposing
role in the War of the Roses.
Born around 1400, Malory left his family's seat in Warwickshire and entered upon a
distinguished career. He fought in the Hundred Years' War and was elected to Parliament in
1445. It was during the days of civil disorder that preceded the Wars of the Roses that his
fortune took a downward course from which it never recovered. Malory apparently tried to
regain land that was rightfully his, and was arrested and indicted on a wide variety of
offenses, which appear to have been committed between 1451 and 1452. Although he
pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him and his actual guilt is in doubt, Malory
was far from a peaceful, law-abiding citizen and very much a part of the turbulent times in
which he lived. He once engineered an escape from prison by swimming across a moat and,
together with a band of followers, terrorized a nearby abbey for two days. It is thought that he
was serving a twenty-year prison term when he wrote Morte d'Arthur and that he remained in
jail until his death in 1471, one year after completing his great work. Malory's literary
achievement was the compilation, arrangement, and rewriting from the original Latin,
French, and English sources, of the tales of King Arthur and the knights of his Round Table.
These he linked together under the title Morte dArthur, a work which stands as the last great
collection of medieval romances.
Malory was fortunate to have been a contemporary of William Caxton, author,
translator, editor, and the man who introduced printing into England. The debt of English
literature to Caxton is immeasurable. Over a hundred books are known to have been printed
and sometimes translated in his shop, among them The Canterbury Tales and Morte d'Arthur.
Caxton first published the latter in 1485, adding a preface which provided historical
background to the legend of King Arthur.

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 SAMPLE QUESTIONS

1. During the Middle English period, many words were borrowed from two languages:
(i) Celtic (ii) Latin (iii) French (iv) Old Norse
The right combination according to the code is
(1) i & ii (2) ii & iii (3) ii & iv (4) iii & iv
Ans. 2
(July 2016, Paper-III)

2. Select the right chronological sequence of the date of Bible Translations.

(1) King James Version – Tyndale – Revised Standard Version – Holman Christian
Standard Bible
(2) Revised Standard Version – King James Version – Tyndale – Holman Christian
Standard Bible
(3) Tyndale – King James Version – Revised Standard Version – Holman Christian
Standard Bible
(4) Revised Standard Version – Holman Christian Standard Bible – King James
Version – Tyndale
Ans. 3
(July 2016, Paper-III)

3. Who wrote the famous 15th century King Arthur story 'Le Morte d'Arthur'?
(A) Thomas Malory (B) Thomas More
(C) Sir Thomas Wyatt (D) John Gower
Ans. A
(June 2002, Paper-II)

4. The Wife of Bath’s philosophy of marriage shows that she

(A) is a strong person with keen awareness of her own rights.
(B) tends to say one thing and do the opposite.
(C) cares only for pleasure, not for right and wrong.
(D) trusts thought too much instead of feeling.
Ans. A
(September Reconducted of June 2013, Paper-II)

5. William Caxton was the first man to introduce in England:

(A)Writing of literary history (B) Translation of epic
(C) Writing of Mystery Plays (D) Printing
Ans. D
(June 2002, Paper-II)

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