14th CenturyA Brief of History Old English Literature
- Poetry to be chanted by a scope (bard) to the accompaniment of a harp
- Bold & strong; mournful & elegiac Sorrow and ultimate futility of life
- helplessness of humans before the power of fate
- Alliterative Beowulf
- Caedmon, Cynewulf, Venerable Bede
- Imposing scholarship of monosteries: epitomized in Bede's Ecclasiastical History Alfred's translations. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Middle English Period: 12th to 16th centuries
- Period from Norman Conquest (Battle of Hastings, 1066) to Renaissance
- Middle English Literature
- Extensive influence of French literature
- Allegory (Piers)
- Tales of Chivalry and Adventure (Gawain) Chaucer
- Arthurian Legends (Morte d'Arthur)
- Historical Outline: Chronology of English Rulers
- Edward III, the Confesso (last Anglo-Saxon king) 1042-1066, lived in exile in Normandy, during Danish rule of England (1013-1066), until 1041, on his deathbed, designated son Harold as his successor, reversing an earlier promise to William, duke of Normandy
- William, duke of Normandy, invasion of England (1066); claim to the English throne based on Edward the Confessor's earlier designation of William as his successor, unification of England under William's rule as King William I the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087), the Normans (North-man) were descendants of Danish Vikings who settled in northern France. Normans spoke French and imposed their language and culture on England
- Effects of the Norman Conquest Transformation of the English Language
- Simplified in spelling grammar
- Influence of Norman French
- London became administrative centre
- This later determined the spoken and written forms of standard English Aristocratic society, Taste for French Literature
- This affected the nature and scope of English literature
- Militaristic culture
- England became aggressive, confident and militaristic, which later determined the boundaries of a vast empire
- England entered the full current of European life Enriched by cosmopolitan cultures and literatures
- French-language of aristocracy, Latin-church, English-uneducated people French poetry, Latin prose
- > Artificial social conditions of feudalism, chivalry and courtly love
Historical Outline; Chronology of English Rulers
- Crusades- a series of religion -driven military campaigns waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents, mainly Muslims who were very powerful in the Middle
- Ages The Crusades originally had the goal of recapturing Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim
- rule 9 major Crusades from 11 to 13th centuries (First Crusade (1095-109911
- Henry 1 king of England (r 1100-1135), son of William I
- Henry I succeeded by his nephew Stephen of Blois. king of England ( 1135-1154) Henry II (House of Plantagenet) (r. 1154-1189) assassination of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket in 11700
- King Richard I the Lion-Heart ( 1189-1199) King John (r. 1199-1216)
- Barons' revolt against King John Magra Carta (3215), development of institution of Layaman's Brut. The Owl and the Nightingale Ancrene Riwle Parliament
- Henry III (r 1216-1272)
- Edward I (r. 1272-1307), son of Henry III, conquered Wales and waged war with
- Edward II (r. 1307-1327)
- Edward III (r 1327-1377), son of Edward II: Edward Ill's claim to French throne led to Hundred Years War (1337-1453). English victories at Crecy, Poitiers Agincourt; role of Joan of Arc in French defense (1429); final French victory (1453), English lost all continental holdings: French language and culture now averse to the English; rebirth of English as national language
- Black Death 1348-1351, death of one third of English population, social chaos, labour shortages
- emancipation of peasants, wage increases Alliterative Revival-a group of alliterative poems from the second half of the 14th century, revival in Middle English of Old English verse form; emerged in part as an English nationalistic reaction against French poetic styles
- Richard II (r.1377-1399) (grandson of Edward III and son of Edward the Black Prince)
- Peasants Revolt (Wat Tyler) suppressed by Richard II (1381) John of Gaunt (1340-1399), duke of Lancaster (son of Edward III), one of the most influential noblemen, patron of Chaucer, father of Henry IV
- Richard Il deposed by Henry IV (House of Lancaster) (r 1399-1413) Henry V (r 1413-1421)
- Henry VI (r. 1422-61, 1470-1471), only son and child heir of Henry V, weak ruler, his queen
- Margaret ruled
- Edward IV (r. 1461-70, 71-83), son of Richard, Duke of York Printing brought to England (1476)
- War of the Roses (1455-1485), York (white rose) vs Lancaster (red rose), Richard Duke of York vs.
- Henry VII
- Malory's Marte D'Arthur (c. 1469-70)
- Second Shepherds Play (c 1475), mystery play Richard III (1483-85) (last Plantagenet king: Edward IV's brother) killed by Lancastrian Henry
- VII in the final battle of the War of the Roses: Henry VII (r 1485-1509) marries Elizabeth of York
- (daughter of Edward IV), fathers Henry VIII and begins Tudor dyrsasty Everyman (after 1485), morality play
- Henry VIII (1509-1547), establishment of Church of England; incorporation of Wales; ministers Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell (executed for treason in 1540) Henry Vill married
- Katharine of Aragon (mother of Mary I), Anne Boleyn (beheaded in 1536, mother of Elizabeth II, Jane Seymour (mother of Edward VI), etc Elizabeth 1 ( 1558-1603), defeat of the Spanish Armada 1588, begins period of colonial expansion
- Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), Utopia (1516) in Latin prose
- Early Renaissance Poetry John Skelton (1460-1529)
- Thomas Wyatt the Elder (1503-1542) Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)
The 14th century: a dark epoch
- The corruptions, injustices and ignorance of the Middle Ages were piling themselves ever higher.
- Black Death, having devoured half the population was still hovering like a terrible vulture over the country
- Noble-men and gentry heard in indignant bewilderment the sullen murmur of peasants awakening into outright rebellion
- Intellectual life was dead or dying, not only in the universities, but throughout the land
Period of Chaucer: Transition from Middle Ages to Modern
Literature changed from oral to written (from text to reader)
Printing-change from anonymity to authorship (primacy of author, self-expression, originality)
English established as a literary language (translations, adaptations, imitations)
Chivalry, feudalism-decline
Constitutional liberty asserted (king no longer absolute authority)
When Chaucer was young, England was at the height of its glory (Victories at war, patriotic poetry) Then, social troubles set in:
- Black Death-1348-76
- Economic troubles
- Serfdom changed to wage system
- Seven Years War with France-disastrous
- Peasants Revolt-1381
The Famine of 1315-1317
- By 1300 Europeans were farming almost all the land they could cultivate
- A population crisis developed.
- Climate changes in Europe produced three years of crop failures between 1315-17 because of excessive rain
- As many as 15% of the peasants in some English villages died.
- One consequence of starvation & poverty was susceptibility to disease.
Chaucer and Contemporaries
- Chaucer-detached from storms of the world
- Langland-voice of the poor, voice of revolution, chastiser of vices
- Gower-denounced contemporary follies, though less sharply than Langland
- Wycliff-spiritual protest attacked corrupt clergy
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (c. 1340-1400)
Father of English poetry
- First poet of national importance
- Genius recognized in all ages including his own Career-French, Middle (French and Italian), Italian
- Patron-John of Gaunt
- Wrote in East Midland dialect
Works
- The Book of the Duchess (written on the death of Blanche)
- Legend of St. Cicula
- Parliament of Fowls Trodus and Criseyde (based on Boccaccio's Filostrato)
- Palamon and Arcite (based on Boccaccio's Teseida, revised as the Knight's Tale)
- Legend of Good Women 19 stories-Cleopatra, Thisbe, Dido, Hypsipyle & Medea, Lucrece. Ariadne, Philomela Phyllis, Hypermnestra)
- Translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy
- Treatise on the Astrolabe (for Little Lewis)
- House of Fame (a dream-allegory)
- Translation of The Romaunt of the Rose
- The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
- Based on Boccaccio's Decameron
- Prologue-Portrait gallery of 14" century England.
- 29 pilgrims meet at Tabard Inn, Southwark (31 including poet & Harry Bailey)
- Pen-pictures of 21 pilgrims (Knight, Squire, Miller, Cook. Wife of Bath, Clerk of Oxford
- 23 pilgrims tell stories: 24 stories (Chaucer tells 2-Tale of Sir Thopas & Tale of Melibeus (prose)
- Begins with Knight's Tale, ends with Parson's (prose treatise)
Features of Chaucer's works
Gift of story-telling descriptive power
- Lyricism (wrote no lyrics, but there is lyricism in the tales)
- Personal touches, charming, humorous
- Rarely philosophized
- Abridgement and swiftness in narration
- Minute details
- Perennial interest in humanity
- Happy world (there is pain & perplexity, but no agony or rebellion)
WILLIAM LANGLAND (1330-1386)
- Reformer yet a pious Catholic
- The Vision of Piers the Plowmani
- Vivid and trustworthy source for the social and economic history of the time
- 950 manuscripts, 3 versions (A, B, C texts)
- Some critics think the text could have been written by several authors
- Alliterative Revival (Two major works: Piers Plowman & Sir Gawain & the Green Knight)
- Noble and lofty style
- Great imaginative power
Piers the Plowman
Two sections-Visio and Vita
Begins with a vision of the world seen from Malvern Hills
Series of dream visions dealing with socio-spiritual predicament
Combination of realism and allegory , theological reasoning and satire, sublime religious feeling and political comment.
At the beginning the dreamer goes to sleep among the Malvern hills and sees a vision of the
world in the guise of a field full of folk thronging a valley bounded on one side by a cliff on which stands the tower of Truth, and, on the other lies the dungeon of Wrong Within this valley begin the incidents of his first vision, and, though they range far, there is never any suggestion of discontinuity, at the at the end of the vision the dreamer wakes for only a moment, and, immediately falling asleep, sees again the same field of folk and another series of events unfolding themselves in rapid succession beneath the cliff with its high-built tower, until, finally, he wakes "meatless and moneyless in Malvemn hills. The third vision has no connection with Malvern hills and thus progresses The Vision of Piers the Plowman.
JOHN GOWER (1330-1408)
- Best known contemporary of Chaucer
- Aristocrat in sympathies. hostile to peasantry and rebels
- Scorn for everything simply English (dying attitude)
- Didacticism, moral intent
- Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde dedicated to Gower
Works
Speculum Meditantis (French)
Manner of a French allegory Vices of the time. Remedy for sin in devotion to Christ and Virgin
Throws light on 14 c English society
Vox Clamantis (Latin)
Political than social
Satire of clergy
Confessio Amantis (English)
Not didactic
Theme love
Manner narrative
Seven Deadly Sins illustrated with a story each.
1" appearance of mythical allusions
By: Muhammad Islam
islamffms@gmail.com
03026340635
