3rd Lecture 16/12/2021

Roman Conquest
In 55 BC, Julius Caesar, the Roman Conqueror, occupied Britain. In 410,
Roman Empire fell into decline.

Britons, a tribe of Celts were the early inhabitants in the island of Britain.

The Middle Ages

Time Frame

It was approximately from 5th century A.D. to the 16th century, i.e. from
the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance.

The cultural and literary pinnacle of the time

Came during the 12th and 13th centuries—Chaucer’s time

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Language

In the early period, English was the primarily of Northern European and
Germanic extractions, from the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. In the 9th
century, Alfred the Great insured that English would remain the
dominant language.

With England’s invasion by Norman forces in 1066 came a might influx of

Latin and Southern European languages, culture, and philosophy. For
three centuries, Norman influence would dominate English culture.
Indeed, English almost became a forgotten dialect.

England’s Cultural Force

After the Hundred Years War with France and the outbreak of “The Black
Death”, more and more information was being written in English-a
major shift from Old to Middle English-also supported to return to
linguistic roots.

The Great Shift in Language was happened when Chaucer wrote The
Canterbury Tales. London was the center and government of English
civilization, now determined the linguistic future of the language, and its
evolution, replete with its violent cultural and military history, was
underway.

Literature

Beowulf- The first major work in the vernacular Old English a 10th
Century manuscript of 3,182 lines. It is a national epic of the Anglo-
Saxon and English people that reflects the features of the tribal society
of ancient times.

Geoffrey Chaucer-The ultimate master of Middle English with The

Canterbury Tales.

He was born in 1343 in London, a son of a wine merchant and deputy to

the kings’ butler. Little is known about his education but he could read
French, Latin and Italian. He was appointed to the household of the
Countess of Ulster in 1357 and started his royal service since then. In
1359-1360, went to France with Edward III's army during the Hundred
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Years' War. He also went abroad several times for diplomatic and
commercial missions. He was much influenced by the Italian humanists,
such as Dante. He died in 1400 and buried in the poet’s corner of
Westminster Abby. Chaucer’s monument was erected in 1555.

Chaucer’s main works:

1. French period – translation work: Romance of the Rose; narrative

poem: The Book of Duchess
(The name Chaucer was from French origin and meant shoemaker).
2. Italian period – The House of Fame, Parliament of the Birds,
Troilus and Criseyde
3. English period – Canterbury Tale (unfinished)

The Canterbury Tales

It is about a pilgrimage of 30 people on a route to and from Canterbury

(England). They told stories to amuse themselves on the way. Harry
Bailly, the innkeeper, promised a free meal for the best-storyteller. It is
structured in prologue and 24 stories (intended to have more than 100
stories and kept unfinished and handed down in manuscripts). The
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prologue serves as a brief introduction, to enable readers to have a
general view of the whole content. Among the 24 individual stories, two
in prose and 22 in verse form.

The famous lines in Canterbury Tales – in Middle English

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

Modern English version

When in April the sweet showers fall

That pierce March's drought to the root and all
And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;
When Zephyr also has with his sweet breath,
Filled again, in every holt and heath,
The tender shoots and leaves, and the young sun
His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,
And many little birds make melody
That sleep through all the night with open eye
(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)
Then folk do long to go on pilgrimage,

Chaucer’s literary achievements

He is the father of English poetry and founder of English literature. His

Canterbury Tales demonstrates a panoramic realistic view of the social

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reality near the end of the Middle Age by depicting vivid lives of people
from all layers of society.

“He must have been a man of a most wonderful comprehensive nature,

because…he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the
various manners and humor of the whole English nation in his age."

John Dryden in Preface to the Fables, (1700)

As a transitional figure, he entered a new era and brought back the new
ideas of Italian Renaissance writers. Chaucer made a crucial contribution
to English literature in writing in English at a time when much court
poetry was still composed in Anglo-Norman or Latin. Chaucer introduced
from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to
replace alliteration, such as heroic couplet, and first used iambic
pentameter form.

In short, Chaucer’s greatness lies in his creation and innovation in

learning and borrowing others.

Thomas More (1478–1535) was born in London. He became a lawyer,

scholar, writer, and member of British parliament during the reign of
Henry VIII. He wrote Utopia, describing an ideal society. In 1521, he was
knighted.

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Sir Thomas More is best known for his satire Utopia (Latin version)
which describes an ideal island in the New World. He was a friend and
counselor to Henry VIII until the latter had him beheaded.

More’s best-known work, Utopia, contains criticisms of English

government and society. It presents vision of perfect, non-existent
society based on reason.

The English Renaissance 1485 A.D. – 1660 A.D.

Rebirth! Renewal! Reawakening! The movement started in Italy, but it

didn’t stop there.

During the reign of Elizabeth I and her successor James I, England saw a
flowering of its culture with the development of the printing press and
the rising of the middle class. This period witnessed the revival of
scholarship and science and a blend of the foreign words and phrases
into English.

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Language

Those who pushed the language to its limits, and ultimately, into what
we now call modern English are Sir Thomas More, Francis Bacon, and
William Shakespeare.

Literary Authors and Their Work

Sir Francis Beaumont was an English poet and playwright of the

Jacobean era. He is probably best known for his collaborations with
dramatists such as John Fletcher with whom he wrote a number of
comedies and tragedies such as Philaster for the London stage. He was
buried in Westminster Abbey.

“Philaster,” also known as “Love Lies a-Bleeding,” is a stage play written

by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. The Jacobean-era play started
the trend for tragicomedy with its plotlines of love, vengeance, disguise,
and confusion.

George Chapman-dramatic reputation rest most fully on his two part

tragedy, Bussy D’Ambois. Often called Shakespeare’s rival.

Thomas Dekker- His work is notable for its optimism and its realistic
portrayal of ordinary London life and its people who live there.

John Fletcher- boasts the largest number of plays of the Elizabethan

period, most are collaborations with other playwrights. There is
evidence that he worked with Shakespeare on Henry VIII.

Thomas Kyd-only contribution to literary history is The Spanish Tragedy,

the first important revenge tragedy in English

Christopher Marlowe led an exciting and often dangerous life, during

which he wrote an impressive collection of plays and poetry such as
Tamburlane, Edward IIDr. Faustus His work influenced Shakespeare’s
early histories, and the Bard memorialized him in As You Like It as the
“dead shepard”

Thomas Middleton- his chief success came with A Game at Chess, which
had the longest initial run of any play of the Jacobean period.

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Edmund Spenser- His chief success came with The Faerie Queene. Much
of the work still functions well through allusion, but, his specific
references, to events and personalities of his day, have lost much of
their significance.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

He was born in England, became a famous poet and playwright during

the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Between 1590 and 1613, he wrote 37
plays that are still performed around the world. He invented words and
phrases still used today. Like other Renaissance writers, he took a
humanist approach to his characters.

Little is known of his life; however, his name appears on the most
impressive influential body of creative work in the history of the English
language. His works was a major catalyst in the monumental shift form
middle to modern English. His themes run the gamut from gender
relations and social satire to history and classical tragedy. He wrote 154
sonnets. Hamlet remains the most important piece of dramatic
literature in English, partly due to a number of words and phrases that
have become commonplace.