MEDIEVAL PERIOD

AND RENAISSANCE
PERIOD
LITERATURE
The Medieval Period

The Old English and the

Middle English
Learning Outcomes

• Identify the tie periods in the history of literature and criticism in the west and
non west.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of time periods, basic theoretical
and methodological orientations and literary movements.
Core Values
Learning Activity

1. create a graphic organizer, that shows the history of the Medieval and
Renaissance.
Introduction
In this module, we are going to discuss the history of
world literature during Medieval period and Renaissance
period.
Let us discover the life, written works, famous writers,
different literature that gives trade mark in the history of
literature that time.
What is medieval literature?
• all the written manifestation that took place in the Middle Ages
• The place where literature developed was the European continent.
• mostly by unknown authors
• topics related to morals and religion, chivalry stories, religious texts,
among others.
• It was initially written in Latin and later in the national languages of some
countries.
Three stages of Middle Age
• High Middle Ages
• Flat Middle Ages
• Late Middle Ages
England before the English
• When the Romans arrived, they found the land inhabited by ―Britons
– known as the Celts
• Stonehenge
• no written language
• absorbed into the Latin speaking Roman society

• Romans withdraw, leaving the Britons/Celts behind

• Invasions from the Northern Europe
– Anglo-Saxon bring Germanic languages
• By 600, Anglo-Saxons conquer the Britons
– language becomes more Germanic
• still retains some Latin

• The Anglo-Saxons’ two urgings—war and wandering become part of the oral
tradition
– Beowulf is an example of an Anglo-Saxon hero tale Beowulf battles
Grendel’s mother
• By 700, Christian missionaries arrive to convert the pagans
– Latin (the language of the Church) returns
• King Alfred
– the Britons become organized
– first true king of the Britons
– period of prosperity King Alfred brings an age of prosperity
• In 1066, the Normans (French speaking people from Normandy), led by
William the Conqueror attack and defeat the Britain's (a blend of the Britons
and Anglo-Saxons) at the Battle of Hastings
• the 3rd language is introduced--French
– French culture and French literature arrives
The 3 Estates in the Middle Ages
• The idea of estates, or orders, was encouraged during the Age, but this ordering was
breaking down.
– Clergy
• Latin chiefly spoken, those who pray, purpose was to save everyone’s soul
– Nobles
• French chiefly spoken, those who fight, purpose was to protect—allow for all to
work in peace—and provide justice
– Commoners
• English spoken, those who work, purpose was to feed and clothe all above them
Characteristics of Medieval Literature
• Romance
• Chivalry
• Courtly Love
• Vernacular Dramas
Romance
• " Romance is a literary genre popular in the Middle Ages, dealing, in verse or
prose, with legendary, supernatural, or amorous subjects and characters.
• The name refers to Romance languages and originally denoted any lengthy
composition in one of those languages.
•  Later the term was applied to tales specifically concerned with knights,
chivalry, and courtly love.
• The romance and the epic are similar forms, but epics tend to be longer and
less concerned with courtly love." Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King
Horn, Athelston, the song of Ronald(1098) are best examples of Medieval
Romance.
Chivalry
• Refers to the lifestyle and moral code of medieval knights.
• The Medieval knight was bound to the chivalric code to be loyal to…
– God
– his lord
– his lady

• Chivalric ideals include...

– benevolence
– brotherly love
– politeness
Sir Gawain is an example
The Ideal of Courtly Love
• This relationship was modeled on the feudal relationship between a knight and
his liege lord.
• The knight serves his courtly lady with the same obedience and loyalty which
he owes to his liege lord.
• She is in complete control; he owes her obedience and submission
Mystery play
• Mystery plays were stories taken from the Bible.
• Each play had four or five different scenes or acts.
• The priests and monks were the actors.
• Each scene or act was preformed at a different place in town and the people
moved from one stage to the next to watch the play.
• The play usually ended outside the church so that the people would go to
church and hear a sermon after watching the play.
The Miracle play Morality plays
• The miracle play was about the life or • Morality plays were designed to teach
actions of a saint, usually about the actions people a lesson in how to live their life
that made that person a saint. according to the rules of the church.

• One popular Miracle play was about Saint • Sometimes these plays had elaborate sets,
George and the dragon. sometimes no sets at all.

• It didn't seem to matter.

• The people attended these plays.

• They didn't have to, but it was a break

from their normal daily lives.
Ballads
• Ballads- One of the most popular forms of literature in the
• a narrative song.
• Ballads told of common folks and of characters and events from legend and
folklore.
• Consists of stanzas that contain a quatrain , rhyme scheme ABAB
• English Lyric Poetry- It was written in the 13t, 14th, 15th centuries and
remains anonymous. They are love-lyrics, French – inspired. They render a
new fascination with service to a fair lady rather than to a feudal king.
Important figure
William Langland John
Gower
Geoffrey Chaucer
William Langland (1332-1400) and Piers
Plowman:
• He appears on the manuscripts of his poem
• He was born probably near Malvern in 1332 where he was educated at the Benedictine School.
• The name of William Langland has a celebrity in the English language for his singular work—
The Book of Piers the Plowman. In the English literature of the 14th century, Langland’s Piers
the Plowman stands out as the most renowned work.
• Satire on the corrupt religious practice
• Throws light on the ethical problems of that days.
• The characters assumes by him is that of prophet, denouncing the sin of society and
encouraging men to aspire to higher life
• He was a satiric poet. The feudal system is his ideal he desire no change in that. All will be well
if different order of society would do their duties.
John Gower (1325-1408)
• He has important place in English Medieval poetry.
• He is a great stylist.
• He proved that English might complete with the other language which had
most distinguished themselves in poetry.
• Narrative poet
• Works: confession Amantis which is conversation between poet and a divine
interpreter. He presents himself as moralist
Geoffrey Chaucer (1345-1400)
• ‘Father of English poetry’
• a poet who demonstrated the potential of Middle English as a literary
language.
• He was the son of a wealthy London wine merchant; he became a page in a
noble household, and later a high official in the royal service.
• He travelled widely in Europe negotiating financial treaties for the crown, and
thus became acquainted with the works of Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch.
There are three stages in his work
• at first he wrote in the French courtly style
• the allegorical romance(The Romaunt of the Rose)
• he came under the influence of Dante and Boccaccio, producing the
masterpiece Troylus and Cryseyde (c 1380). He borrowed freely from his
Italian source: this was standard medieval practice, as originality counted for
little but the weight of a revered authority much.
• Chaucer made something unique out of the story about the son of the king of
Troy and his unfaithful lover.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1345-1400)
• The Canterbury Tales of 1386, the most famous of Chaucer's works, is a
collection of stories told (so the framework) by 31 pilgrims resting in a tavern
on their way to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket.
• The characters are introduced in the Prologue: they nearly all come from the
middle ranks: professional men such as a doctor, lawyer, an official; a
merchant, a sailor; there are craftsmen, servants, a woman who has outlived
five husbands; a nun, priests and monks.
Renaissance Period
 RENAISSANCE
• The word “Renaissance” is a French word which means “rebirth”.
• It refers particularly to a renewed interest in classical learning – the writings of
ancient Greece and Rome.
• The Renaissance was a cultural movement that started in Italy and spread all
over Europe.
• It is considered to be the division between the Middle Ages and the Modern era.
• The thinkers of this period, also called “humanists”, believed that the man
should be the subject of study, and not God, as the Church had taught during the
medieval period.
The Printing Press
• Johannes Gutenburg is credited with inventing the first printing press in
Germany around 1400. By 1476 William Caxton had his own printing press
up and running in Westminster, England. 5
• William Caxton was the person who introduced printing in England. Before
that, the books were written out in longhand, what meant a very slow jog. 7
The Demand for Books Grows
• In the Middle Ages, books had been costly and education rare; only the clergy
had been regular readers and owners of books. Most books had been written
in Latin, considered the language of scholarship. In the Renaissance, the
educated middle classes, who could now afford books, demanded works in
their own languages.
Humanism
• Books also helped to spread awareness of a new philosophy that emerged when
Renaissance scholars known as humanists returned to the works of ancient writers.
• Previously, during the Middle Ages, scholars had been guided by the teachings of
the church, and people had concerned themselves with actions leading to heavenly
rewards. The writings of ancient, pagan Greece and Rome, called the "classics,"
had been greatly ignored. To study the classics, humanists learned to read Greek
and ancient Latin, and they sought out manuscripts that had lain undisturbed for
nearly 2,000 years.
• The humanists rediscovered writings on scientific matters, government, rhetoric,
philosophy, and art. They were influenced by the knowledge of these ancient
civilizations and by the emphasis placed on man, his intellect, and his life on Earth.
• The recovery of ancient manuscripts showed the humanists how the Greeks and
Romans employed mathematics to give structure to their art. The relationship
between these two studies is most evident in architecture, where numerical ratios
were used in building design.
Thomas More: (1480-1535)
• Thomas More was is considered one of the greatest of all English humanists,
mainly for the book “Utopia”, written in Latin, in which were about an
imaginary island where everything is perfect.
Utopia
• Utopia means “nowhere” in Greek; Thomas knew clearly that such an island
could never exist. This dream of a place where happiness reigns and sorrow is
banished is the most persistent of human fantasies and became a recurrent
theme in many other British literature works.
Italian Genius of Renaissance Writing
• Machiavelli published a book in 1513, The Prince. Theorized about how a
perfect ruler would govern
• Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513, just after he was forced to leave
Florence as a political exile.
• Machiavelli's purpose in writing The Prince was twofold: (1) to show a ruler
or would-be ruler how best to maintain a safe and prosperous state amid the
political turmoil of early 16th Century Italy and (2) to redeem himself in the
eyes of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici
Bible
• In 1604, King James I ordered forty-seven scholars to produce a translation of
the Bible to serve as the official one of the Anglicanism, the so-called “King
James Bible”.
• It was published in 1611 and is considered a masterpiece of English prose.
William Shakespeare: (1564-1616)
• William is considered the greatest of all English authors; his texts and plays
are known worldwide and are updated constantly.
• Romeo and Juliet
• Hamlet
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Macbeth
– Macbeth compares life to a candle, then to a shadow, to an actor and finally to a story;
this rapid shifting of metaphors is very characteristic of Shakespeare’s work.
Great writers from the Renaissance Period
• Christopher Marlowe • John Donne
• Sir Walter Raleigh • Ben Jonson
• Robert Herrick • Francis Bacon
• Andrew Marvell • John Milton
• William Shakespeare • John Bunyan
• Sir John Suckling • Edmund Spenser
• Richard Lovelace
Poetry of the Renaissance/Elizabethan Age
• Major themes – love and beauty Physical beauty – outward sign of the spirit
striving for perfection (humanist theory).
• “Fair” = a sign of beauty
• Poet writes to a lady who is inflexible. Man seeks her love, but hopelessly.
Her moods create the weather. Lady is usually not real (a stereotype).
• Pastoral Poetry
 Pastoral Poetry focuses on the idealized countryside and the simple life
The Influence of Renaissance
• Renaissance was born in Italy.
• Renaissance means ‘Revival' or ‘Re-birth’.
• The Re-birth of Greek learning and Greek art.
• The re-birth of classical learning literature and English literature.
• The influence of Renaissance in 14th century in Italy, Germany, France, and
England.
• Renaissance Changed the thought and ideas of the Elizabethan people.
• Elizabethan age is the age of Renaissance
Characteristics of Renaissance Literature
• Translation
• Patriotism
• Literary Discoveries
• The Reformation
• An age of drama
• An age of adventure
Translation
• Elizabethan age is the age of Translation.
• Many Greek and Roman Classical have been translated in to English literature
during Elizabethan age.
– For Example: George Chapman translation the Greek epic ‘The Iliad’ in to English.

• Translation was very useful to the writer of the time.

– For Example: Shakespeare, Spencer, Marlow, Ben Jonson etc.
Patriotism
• Elizabethan age is the age of patriotism.
• Re-birth of patriotism.
• Patriotism was a historical play.
• Re-birth of feeling, sympathy and pity.
Literary Discoveries
• Elizabethan age is the age of discoveries.
• The various in venation in the field of literature by Elizabethan writers were
also important during this age.
– For example: Spencer introduce, Spenserian stanza, Jhon Lyly’s prose style set a new
example in prose writing Christopher Marlow introduce and drama, Shakespeare also
introduce sonnet tragedy.
The Reformation
• The Reformation of church during the time of Henry.
• The effect of reformation can be found in the work of Spence, Shakespeare,
Milton etc..
• Spencer presented the best trends of reformation in the Fairy Queen.
An age of drama
• The Elizabethan age is the age of Drama during this age drama made a
wonderful jump in to maturity.
• The university wits like Robert Green, George Peele , Thomas Loadge and the
greatest them Christopher Marlow made the drama a glorious and successful
entertainment for the people.
• The drama reached at the heights in the hands of Shakespeare and Ben
Johnson.
An age of adventure
•  The Renaissance and the new learning had lead to a spirit of adventure.
• The spirit was given freedom by the political peace and unity.
• “Adventure of the mind lead splendid literature, music and art. Adventure of
the body, resulted in the explorationation of the oceans and the discovery of
far lands”.
Summary
• During the of Medieval, topics related to morals and religion, chivalry
stories, religious texts, among other`s. It was initially written in Latin and
later in the national languages of some countries. There are stages of middle
age, 1. High Middle Ages, 2.Flat Middle Ages 3. Late Middle Ages. The
characteristics of literature during Medieval are Romance, Chivalry, Courtly
Love, Vernacular Dramas.
During Renaissance period, William Caxton was the person who introduced
printing in England. In the Renaissance, the educated middle classes, who could
now afford books, demanded works in their own languages.
Reference
• Ancheta, K. (2017, January 26). World literature- Overview of
literature through the ages {PowerPoint Slides}. SlideShare.
• Dida J. {Jedida 14} (18, Oct 10). The Periods of Literature
(Timeline) {Video}
THANK YOU