English Literature III

Jos Manuel Gonzlez de Sevilla

The 16th century Old and Middle English Literature

A subject to enjoy
Discovery of many very famous poets and playwrights
Chaucer, John Gower, Malory, Wyatt, Henry Howard, Spenser, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Donne, Milton

Spenser Henry Howard

Chaucer

Philip Sidney

Wyatt

Shakespeare

A subject to enjoy
Discovery of many very famous poets and playwrights Learn about really famous writings
Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, The Faerie Queene, King Lear, Paradise Lost

A time for:
Legends Myths History

The beginning:
Literature Modern verse Modern England

A challenge
Original texts sometimes difficult
But many translations Many web pages, note books, glossaries, online dictionaries

A huge period (more than 1,000 years)

From the Romans To the end of the 17th Century Many Monarchs
Harold Harefoot, Harthacnut, Edward the confessor, William I the Conqueror, William II, Henry I, Stephen, Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry II, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VII, Mary I, Elizabeth I, James I

Many Houses: Anglo-saxon, Norman, Plantagenet, Tudor Periods: OE, ME, Renaissance, Interregnum, Restoration

Important
To understand the base and greatness of English (European) Literature To prepare oposiciones To develop skills for Comentario de Textos Ingleses But you need to:
Link the ideas to previous knowledge Link the different areas of life to understand the development of Literature.

Unit 1 Elizabethan Poetry. The Faerie Queene.

Index
1. English Renaissance
1. Dates 2. Features

2. English Renaissance poetry

1. Periods

3. Pre-Elizabethan poets
1. Skelton. Transition. 2. Wyatt
1. Firs sonnets

3. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

1. Fist blank verse 2. Consolidation of sonnet

4. Elizabethan poets
1. Walter Raleigh 2. Sir Philip Sidney 3. Edmund Spenser
1. Reading - The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto 1.

5. The Faerie Queene

1. English Renaissance
A very important period: social and culturally. Renaissance ( Re-birth ) started in Italy
Then spread to France, Germany, Spain, England, in each place with its own characteristics. Some Features:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. End of a previous feudal system. Cosmopolitan man. Nation. Development of printing Humanism: Influence of Erasmus. New learning. Back to classics (imitation). Importance of religion.

1.1. Dates for Renaissance

From 1500
Easier to use a round date. Other possibilities: Last quarter of 15th Century (1476-->):
Development of Printers: Caxton Richard Pynson (Chancery Standard developed)
Dissemination of old an contemporary writers (and ideas). Chaucer, Gower Often manuscripts lost = studied through Caxtons printings

1509:
Henry the VIII
Unity of England - Expansion overseas - Church of England

To 1642:
The civil war - Cromwell - Closing of theatres.

1.2. Main features (A)

A. Back to classics:
1. To reject middle ages as dark period (although there is continuation). 2. Imitation
Art, Poetry, Architecture. New concept of beauty and harmony. Many translations (adaptations new works). Different concept!!!

3. Neoplatonism:
1. Back not just to Plato, also Aristotle, Pythagoras 2. Through Plotinus. 3. Through Italians
1. Pico de la Mirandola Oration on the Dignity of Man (Renaissance Manifesto) 2. Marsilio Ficino. Platonic love

4. Important sources:
1. Ovid, Virgil, Homer, Terence, Horatio, Seneca,
1. New inspiration for poetry 2. Rebirth of theatre

B. Humanism C. Protestant Reformation

1.2. Main features (B)

A. Back to classics: B. Humanism
1. Change of way of thinking 2. Change of style of life: End of Feudalism
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. End of the Byzantine Empire (keepers of many classics) Cosmopolitan man. New conception of world (Copernicus) Unity of England as a nation Expansion overseas: The beginning of the Empire.
1. Discoveries, adventure, travelling

6. Easier to spread ideas (thanks to printing). And Cheaper!!!!

3. New learning
Need to study Greek, Latin But also more practical. Different sciences => towards Humanist In certain way not popular but elitist (rich - university). But influence:
Erasmus Sir Thomas More (Utopia)

C. Protestant Reformation

1.2. Main features (C)

A. Back to classics: B. Humanism C. Protestant Reformation
Starts with Lutheran ideas (1521) - Against Pope power And the complicated political situation of Henry VIII
Still recent War of Roses Need for a MALE heir Only female with Catherine of Aragon Need for a divorce - Refusal - Breaks with Pope Creation of Protestant Church of England
Interesting summary in Wikipedia = Search

English Reformation

Many consequences:
Destruction of Monasteries loss of culture, books, of learned people, os students to universities Many hidden books bought and spread (bought for example by Cotton) Change in art, and iconography Puritanism against Catholics

2. English Renaissance Poetry

2.1 Additional features:
Imitation (mimesis) - Influence from classical very important Search for musicality of language applied to English
New forms in poetry. Experiments.
The sonnet Blank verse

Petrarchian influence:
Often unattainable love (platonic) Hyperbolic lady Feelings of lovers in their love experience Double dimension of love: pleasure / pain in absence

Importance of poetry to be read aloud

Protestantism
As an aim and topic. For example Faerie Queene as allegory Writings in defence of Queen (as sovereign and Head of Church)

Rebirth of chivalry
Ideal to praise powerful monarchs (and as propaganda).

2.2. Periods
A. Pre-Elizabethan
Tudor Period: (Henry VII), Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I Several important poets:
a) John Skelton b) Thomas Wyatt c) Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

B. Elizabethan
The great figures
a) Walter Raleigh b) Philip Sidney c) Edmund Spenser

3. Pre-Elizabethan poets
Enable further development of poetry. Introduce Italian metres. A collection Songes and Sonnettes written by the

ryght honorable Lorde Henry Howard late Earle of Surrey, and other known as the Tottels Miscellany
essential and much printed.
Two essential names: Wyatt and Howard

3.1. Pre - John Skelton

Link between the middle ages and modern times. Best known as satirist against the vices of court life:
The Bowge of Court.
Written in the seven-lined Rhyme Royal (introduced by Chaucer from the continent), but with an irregularity metre created by him and named after him Skeltonics.

3.2. Pre - Thomas Wyatt

Thomas Wyatt the man (1503-1542).
Typical Renaissance man:
learned, languages, music, handsome, Ambassador Knighted

Travelled a lot
For example to ask Pope Clement VII to annul marriage of Henry VIII. From his trips => Italian influence.

3.2. Pre - Thomas Wyatt

Thomas Wyatt the poet
First user of the sonnet in English. A good way as corrective to irregular verse of 15thC. Didnt follow Petrarch exactly.
Petrarchan sonnet: 14 lines.
1 octave rhyming abba abba = exposed a problem 1 sestet rhyming cdcdcd. = solved the problem.

Wyatts sonnets often ended in a final couplet. This then consolidated by Howard into the Elizabethan sonnet or Shakespearean sonnet

Use of the sonnet for personal emotions. Technical faults typical of a pioneer. Effort to raise English to dignity =>
Vehicle of courtly poetry.

3.3. Pre - Henry Howard

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)
Descended from kings on both sides of family. This leaded to his death = beheaded by Henry VIII+
For treason

He consolidated the sonnet introduced by Wyatt

Three independent quatrains with alternate rhymes and a final couplet:
abab cdcd efef gg

He used Blank Verse for the first time in English.

Iambic pentameter (10 syllables and 5 stresses). Translation of the 1st and 4th Books of Virgils Aeneid.

Example 1 Thomas Wyatt

You that in love
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. You that in love find luck and abundance, And live in lust and joyful jollity, Arise, for shame, do away your sluggardy; Arise, I say, do May some observance! Let me in bed lie dreaming in mischance; Let me remember the haps most unhappy, That me betide in May most commonly, As one whom love list little to advance. Sephan said true that my nativity Mischanced was with the ruler of the May. He guessed, I prove of that the verity; In May, my wealth, and eke my life I say Have stonde so oft in such perplexity. Rejoice! Let me dream of your felicity.
Sluggardy: Lazyness Haps: Mishaps Betide: to happen (as if by fate) List: to care Sephan: Edward Sephan was an astrologer at Oxford. Eke: Also Stonde: Stand, stood.

Example 2 Thomas Wyatt

I find no peace
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. I find no peace, and all my war is done. I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice. I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise; And nought I have, and all the world I season. That loseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison And holdeth me not--yet can I scape no wise-Nor letteth me live nor die at my device, And yet of death it giveth me occasion. Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain. I desire to perish, and yet I ask health. I love another, and thus I hate myself. I feed me in sorrow and laugh in all my pain; Likewise displeaseth me both life and death, And my delight is causer of this strife. season: seize on. That: that which (presumably love). scape: escape. letteth: prevents. eyen: eyes. plain: complain.

Petrarch Sonnet 134.

Example 3 Henry Howard

Set me where as the sun
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Set me where as the sun doth parch the green, Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice; In temperate heat where he is felt and seen; With proud people, in presence sad and wise; Set me in base, or yet in high degree, In the long night, or in the shortest day, In clear weather, or where mists thickest be, In lost youth, or when my hairs be grey; Set me in earth, in heaven, or yet in hell, In hill, in dale, or in the foaming flood; Thrall, or at large, alive where so I dwell, Sick, or in health, in ill fame or good: Yours will I be, and with that only thought Comfort myself when that my hope is nought. Parch: to dry Dale: Vale, valley Thrall: captive

Example 4 Henry Howard

The soote season
1. The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings, 2. With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale; 3. The nightingale with feathers new she sings; 4. The turtle to her make hath told her tale. 5. Summer is come, for every spray now springs, 6. The hart hath hung his old head on the pale; 7. The buck in brake his winter coat he flings; 8. The fishes flete with new repaired scale; 9. The adder all her slough away she slings; 10. The swift swallow pursueth the flyes smale; 11. The busy bee her honey now she mings, 12. Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale. 13. And thus I see among these pleasant things 14. Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.
soote, sweet; eke, also; turtle, turtledove; (trtola) make, mate; spray: a flowering branch (ramillete) hart: male of the red deer (opposite hind) buck: male animal, usually male deer. brake, thicket (marorral) adder: typical venomous viper in Europe slough: cast-off skin of a snake flete, float scale: a small, flattened, rigid plate on the external body covering especially of a fish mings, mingles (mix) bale: harm

Example 5 Wyatt

(Comparative Translation)

The long love that in my heart doth harbor

1. The long love that in my heart doth harbor 2. And in mine heart doth keep his residence, 3. Into my face presseth with bold pretense, 4. And therein campeth, displaying his banner. 5. She that me learneth to love and to suffer, 6. And wills that my trust and lust's negligence 7. Be reined by reason, shame, and reverence, 8. With his hardiness taketh displeasure. 9. Wherewith love to the heart's forest he fleeth, 10.Leaving his enterprise with pain and cry, 11. And there him hideth and not appeareth. 12.What may I do when my master feareth 13.But in the field with him to live and die? 14.For good is the life ending faithfully.

Based on Petrarch CXL

- Amor, che nel penser mio vive e regna

Example 6 Howard
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

(Comparative Translation)

Love that doth reign and live within my thought

Love that doth reign and live within my thought And built his seat withing my captive breast Clad in arms wherein with me he fought, Oft in my face he doth his banner rest. But she that taught me love and suffer pain, My doubtful hope and eke my hot desire With shamefaced look to shadow and refrain, Her smiling grace converteth straight to ire. And coward Love, then, to the heart apace Taketh his flight, where he doth lurk and 'plain, His purpose lost, and dare not show his face. For my lord's guilt thus faultless bide I pain, Yet from my lord shall not my foot remove,-Sweet is the death that taketh end by love.

Based on Petrarch

CXL - Amor, che nel penser mio ...

4. Elizabethan poets
In general previous features are intensified. Court even more important. Three important poets:
Sir Walter Raleigh Philip Sidney Edmund Spenser

4.1. Walter Raleigh (A)

Sir Walter Raleigh, or Ralegh (1554-1618) English aristocrat, Good example of Renaissance courtier:
Writer and poet Soldier, explorer and Spy.

Early involved in politics (against rebellions in Ireland) Colonization of Virginia Sometimes in favour, sometimes in prison.
After death of Elizabeth, charge for conspiracy against James I. Guilty (death penalty), but released.

In search of El Dorado.
They didnt find it. His men ransacked a Spanish colony. Spanish ambassador asked his death penalty to be carried out.

4.1. Walter Raleigh Poet (B)

Plain style. Resisted Italian Renaissance influence. Example of this type:
The Lye: criticism poem to high society

A more contemporary poem can be The Ocean to Cynthia. A well-known example of poetry and the court is his reply in 1596 to Marlowes The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (1592), called The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd.
Both written as pastoral poetry: six 4-line stanzas, AABB.

4.2. Philip Sidney (A)

A. Philip Sidney The man (1554-1586)
Typical Renaissance man (travelling, politics, art...) Probably the most important poet in his time. Important influence on court. Poet, literary critic, politician, thinker, religious man, soldier Wealthy family. Sister = Countess of Pembroke. Died at 32 result from wounds at battlefield. Reinforces the new English identity:
Country, Language, Empire Protestantism Against Catholics and Spain

B. Philip Sidney The works

4.2. Philip Sidney Poet (B)

A. Philip Sidney The man (1554-1586) B. Philip Sidney The works
As a critic: An apology for poetry. As a poet: 1. Astrophel and Stella. (1580s)

A collection of sonnets and songs. The 1st important love sequence. Not narrative, rather variation of emotions. Implies the maturity of English poetry. Deals with the experience of love. Petrarch. A pirate edition in 1591. Authorised (sister) 1598. Astro (star) + Phel (phil = lover, also Philip): Star lover Stella = Star.

4.2. Philip Sidney Poet (B)

2. Arcadia (Unfinished)
A long epic romance in prose, with many poems interspersed throughout the narrative: exploration of lyric kinds and verse forms. Idealised life of shepherds. Old Arcadia shorter. New Arcadia longer, more elaborate but unfinished. A finished version with the unfinished parts mixed with the old Arcadia was prepared and published by Mary. Hence, The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia.

4.3. Edmund Spenser

A. Edmund Spenser The man (1552-1599) B. Spenser and Ireland C. The court D. Spenser and Protestantism E. The English language in Spenser F. Spenser, The poet

4.3.A. E. Spenser The man

A. Edmund Spenser The man (1552-1599)

Born of parents of models means and station, in London.

Not as Wyatt. Surrey or Sidney

However, impressive education:

Merchant Taylors School -> Demanding humanistic teacher Richard Mulcaster Pembroke College in Cambridge.
There: translation of poems as anti-Catholic propaganda. Started interest in theories of poetry and experiment in verse B.A. Degree in 1573; M.A. 1576

Secretary to several men (e.g. Earl of Leicester. Queens fav.) Met Sidney and other courtiers => promote English poetry

Little known. Some through Prothalamion (1596)

4.3.B. Spenser: Ireland

Ireland = English colony. Catholic Allied to Spain. Spenser appointed Secretary to the Lord Deputy -1580 Under Lord Arthur Grey (Arthegal in Faerie Queene)
= suppress Desmond's rebellion

Extreme views of how to finish with the problem:

View of the Present State of Ireland
Near Walter Raleigh, backing his FQ project.

Rewarded with castle and expropriated land.

4.3.C. Spenser: The court

Back to London, published Fearie Queene (1590)
Looking for Queens patronage and favour Given a pension 50 pounds a year for life
Lord Burghley (Queens principal councillor) complained

Back to Ireland but court in mind

Then a collection of poems called Complaints (1591) Pastoral Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (1595)
Courtiers and ladies at court life (his 1591 experience)

Amoretti (1595)
Wedding poems: Epithalamion and Prothalamion Six-book Faerie Queene (1596) 1598 - Castle in Ireland burnt by rebels. Son (maybe wife) died Fled to London and died in 1599 Buried in the Poets corner

4.3.D. Spenser: protestant

Religion very important His most important work is above all Christian Political life quite in relation with religious views
Autonomy of England Therefore The Church of England

His works praise Queen His Protestantism was softened by Neoplatonic philosophy

4.3.D. Spenser: the language

Looking for English language Archaisms Back to sources of the English poets: Chaucer, Langland English language as poetic language for England Revive old standard words rather than coining new ones, from Latin or Greek (dif. To French...) Went to Midland and Northern dialects (rustic)
Not to southern

Looked for the musicality of language: sound and rhythm

4.3.D. Spenser: the poet

His most important poetic works are:

1. The Shepheardes Calendar 2. Complaints 3. Amoretti and Epithalanium 4. The Faerie Queene

4.3.D.1 The Shepheardes Calendar.

A collection of 12 eclogues (Bucolic poetry) One for each month of the year. Soon felt that power was in allegory. Two possible figures:
Shepherd Knight

For his first important work = shepherd. Ideal for different matters (according to tradition):
Singing contest => State of poetry Lovers complaint => Platonic characters A dirge for some dead friend => Court panegyric Italian French

No previous models in English => Abroad

4.3.D.1 The Shepheardes Calendar.

Topics covered and structure:
Love:
January March June December February May July September April November October

Moralistic / Religion:

Elegiac:

Neglect of poetry:

4.3.D.2 Complaints.
Several poems and songs
They reflect the poets continuous search and exploration of forms. Miscellaneous recollection of poems written at different times. The Ruines of Time The Teares of the Muses** Virgils Gnat Prosopopoia: or Mother Hubberds Tale** The Ruines of Rome: by Bellay Muiopotmos: or the Fate of the Butterflie Visions of the Worlds Vanitie The Visions of Bellay The Visions of Petrarch

Some of the poems:

4.3.D.3 Amoretti and Epithalamium.

Early 1590s Widow
Court to Elizabeth Boyle Married her in 1594 Amoretti (little loves) result of the courtship Epithalamium result of wedding. Successful love Happy marriage He follows tradition: frustration and longing But cycle develops in joyful marriage.

Different to previous love sonnets:

Different structure: Spenserian sonnet

Lyke a huntsman
LYKE as a huntsman after weary chace, Seeing the game from him escapt away: sits downe to rest him in some shady place, with panting hounds beguiled of their pray. So after long pursuit and vaine assay, when I all weary had the chace forsooke, the gentle deare returnd the selfe-same way, thinking to quench her thirst at the next brooke. There she beholding me with mylder looke, sought not to fly, but fearelesse still did bide: till I in hand her yet halfe trembling tooke, and with her owne goodwill hir fyrmely tyde. Strange thing me seemd to see a beast so wyld, so goodly wonne with her owne will beguyld. Normal Spenserian sonnet: abab bcbc cdcd ee

4.3.D.4 The Faerie Queene.

Certainly Spensers most important work.
Due to its quality and its social and political implications:
Allegory

Based on neo-platonic ideals it uses a revival of chivalry to praise the ideal Renaissance woman:
The Queen
Beautiful and fair Pure and innocent Visible head of state

Search for an epic to praise the greatness of England

As an independent defendant of true faith Celebration of the Protestant faith, of the English Nation Trying to emulate or even overgo Ariostos Orlando furioso
As he said himself in a letter to his friend Gabriel Harvey