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Giáo trình Văn học Anh (dành cho sinh viên năm thứ ba chuyên ngành Ngữ văn Anh): Phần 1 - Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu, Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Dung

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Mục đích của Giáo trình Văn học Anh (dành cho sinh viên năm thứ ba chuyên ngành Ngữ văn Anh) của tác giả Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu, Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Dung chỉ là cung cấp những kiến thức cơ bản về văn học Anh bao gồm bối cảnh lịch sử, văn hóa, xã hội và các hoạt động văn học trong từng giai đoạn của lịch sử văn học Anh mà qua đó sinh viên nắm được những hiểu biết cần phải có. Giáo trình gồm 2 phần. Phần 1 trình bày sơ khảo các giai đoạn quan trọng trong lịch sử phát triển văn học Anh. Trong phần này, tác giả tổng hợp các nguồn tài liệu khác nhau để biên soạn lại dưới dạng đề cương chi tiết những thông tin, kiến thức cơ bản nhất mà sinh viên cần phải biết.

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  1. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL AND SCIENCIES AND HUMANITIES  For Third-Year English Majors NGUYEN THI KIEU THU NGUYEN THI NGOC DUNG VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOCHIMINH CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE
  2. ÑAÏI HOÏC QUOÁC GIA TP HOÀ CHÍ MINH TRÖÔØNG ÑAÏI HOÏC KHOA HOÏC XAÕ HOÄI VAØ NHAÂN VAÊN  Giaùo trình DAØNH CHO SINH VIEÂN NAÊM THÖÙ BA CHUYEÂN NGAØNH NGÖÕ VAÊN ANH NGUYEÃN THÒ KIEÀU THU NGUYEÃN THÒ NGOÏC DUNG NHAØ XUAÁT BAÛN ÑAÏI HOÏC QUOÁC GIA TP HOÀ CHÍ MINH – 2003
  3. LÔØI GIÔÙI THIEÄU Quyeån giaùo trình naøy ñöôïc bieân soaïn ñeå ñaùp öùng yeâu caàu giaûng daïy vaø hoïc taäp moân vaên hoïc Anh thuoäc chöông trình naêm thöù ba chuyeân ngöõ cuûa Khoa Ngöõ vaên Anh, Tröôøng Ñaïi hoïc Khoa hoïc Xaõ hoäi vaø Nhaân vaên, ÑHQG TP HCM döïa treân cô sôû ñeà cöông giaûng daïy moân hoïc ñaõ ñöôïc Hoäi ñoàng Khoa hoïc cuûa khoa chaáp thuaän trong khuoân khoå taùi caáu truùc chöông trình giaûng daïy cuûa tröôøng. Muïc ñích cuûa quyeån giaùo trình naøy chæ laø cung caáp nhöõng kieán thöùc cô baûn veà vaên hoïc Anh bao goàm boái caûnh lòch söû, vaên hoùa, xaõ hoäi vaø caùc hoaït ñoäng vaên hoïc trong töøng giai ñoaïn cuûa lòch söû vaên hoïc Anh maø qua ñoù sinh vieân naém ñöôïc nhöõng hieåu bieát caàn phaûi coù. Nhöõng vaán ñeà neâu ra trong giaùo trình naøy seõ laø neàn taûng vöõng chaéc ñeå töø ñoù sinh vieân coù theå töï mình ñònh höôùng tìm kieám theâm caùc tö lieäu lieân quan ñeán vaán ñeà maø hoï quan taâm trong saùch baùo chuyeân ngaønh vaên hoïc Anh do caùc nhaø nghieân cöùu, pheâ bình Anh vaø quoác teá bieân soaïn, cuõng nhö kho tö lieäu voâ taän treân maïng. Teân goïi “Vaên hoïc Anh” cuûa giaùo trình naøy ñöôïc hieåu vôùi nghóa roäng, do vaäy trong giaùo trình naøy ñoäc giaû coù theå tìm thaáy beân caïnh caùc taùc giaû “chính goác” Anh nhö William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Graham Greene … coøn coù Robert Burns cuûa Scotland, James Joyce cuûa Baéc Ireland, Dylan Thomas cuûa Wales. Tuy soá löôïng taùc phaåm ñöôïc giôùi thieäu trong quyeån saùch naøy laø khieâm toán so vôùi kho taøng ñoà soä cuûa vaên hoïc Anh keå töø giai ñoaïn tieáng Anh coå ôû theá kyû thöù 5 ñeán giai ñoaïn hieän ñaïi cuûa theá kyû 20, nhöõng taùc phaåm naøy thoûa maõn ñöôïc caùc tieâu chuaån sau: 1. Taùc giaû laø nhöõng ngöôøi coù vò trí quan troïng nhaát ñònh trong vaên ñaøn Anh 2. Noäi dung taùc phaåm ñaëc saéc nhöng khoâng quaù khoù vôùi trình ñoä sinh vieân chuyeân ngöõ naêm thöù ba khoa ngöõ vaên Anh veà yù nghóa cuõng nhö ngoân ngöõ. Ngoaøi ra, giaùo trình naøy ñöôïc xaây döïng treân cô sôû sinh vieân ñaõ qua moät khoùa nhaäp moân veà lyù thuyeát vaên hoïc, hoaëc ñaõ coù voán kieán thöùc nhaát ñònh veà vaên hoïc Anh nhö thi phaùp Anh, caùc bieän phaùp tu töø, caùc yeáu toá cuûa vaên xuoâi noùi chung hay cuûa theå loaïi truyeän ngaén noùi rieâng. Quyeån giaùo trình naøy goàm hai phaàn : Phaàn 1: Sô khaûo caùc giai ñoaïn quan troïng trong lòch söû phaùt trieån vaên hoïc Anh. Trong phaàn naøy, chuùng toâi toång hôïp caùc nguoàn taøi lieäu khaùc nhau ñeå bieân soaïn laïi döôùi daïng ñeà cöông chi tieát nhöõng thoâng tin, kieán thöùc cô baûn nhaát maø sinh vieân caàn phaûi bieát. Phaàn 2: Nhöõng taùc phaåm choïn loïc cuûa vaên hoïc Anh goàm hai maûng: - Nhöõng taùc phaåm minh hoïa cho caùc giai ñoaïn lòch söû vaên hoïc ñaõ ñeà caäp trong phaàn 1. Chuû yeáu trong maûng naøy laø thô ca vaø coù theâm trích ñoaïn moät tieåu thuyeát. - Baûy truyeän ngaén cuûa caùc nhaø vaên Anh theá kyû 20 bao goàm caùc nhaø vaên quen thuoäc vôùi ñoäc giaû Vieät Nam nhö D. H. Lawrence, Graham Green, ngoaøi ra chuùng
  4. toâi coøn giôùi thieäu theâm moät soá nhaø vaên thaønh danh trong giai ñoaïn nöûa cuoái theá kyû 20 nhö Doris Lessing, H.E. Bates, W. W. Jacobs... Moãi phaân ñoaïn nhoû bao goàm tieåu söû taùc giaû cuøng nguyeân baûn taùc phaåm vaø caùc caâu hoûi höôùng daãn ñeå daïy vaø hoïc. Caùc caâu hoûi naøy goàm hai loaïi:  Part A: Ñeå giuùp sinh vieân Vieät Nam tieáp caän ñöôïc moät taùc phaåm vaên hoïc baèng tieáng nöôùc ngoaøi, chuùng toâi ñaõ soaïn caùc caâu hoûi thuoäc loaïi “ñoïc hieåu” nhaèm giuùp sinh vieân naém baét ñöôïc nghóa “thoâ” (nghóa ñen) cuûa taùc phaåm ñoù. Vôùi caùc taùc phaåm thô ca, chuùng toâi soaïn theâm moät phaàn laø caùc caâu hoûi veà hình thöùc, kyõ thuaät bao goàm caùc gôïi yù tìm ra nhöõng bieän phaùp tu töø ñöôïc taùc giaû duøng, cuõng nhö nhöõng caâu hoûi nhaèm taäp trung söï chuù yù cuûa sinh vieân ñeán caùch söû duïng caùc bieän phaùp aâm thanh nhö caùch gieo vaàn (rhyme scheme), laäp aâm (repetition, alliteration, assonance)… ñeå taïo ñöôïc hieäu öùng cuûa aâm nhaïc trong thô.  Part B: Ñaây laø nhöõng caâu hoûi giuùp sinh vieân naâng cao möùc ñoä caûm thuï ñöôïc yù nghóa aån daáu sau nhöõng töø vöïng xuaát hieän treân beà maët vaên baûn, cuõng nhö qua caùc chi tieát trong taùc phaåm vaø haønh ñoäng nhaân vaät ñeå nghieäm ra nhöõng gì taùc giaû muoán nhaén göûi qua taùc phaåm cuûa mình. Nhöõng caâu hoûi trong phaàn naøy chuù troïng ñeán caùch caùc nhaø vaên söû duïng caùc bieän phaùp vaên hoïc nhö theá naøo ñeå naâng cao hieäu quaû chuyeån ñaït yù töôûng cuûa mình qua ngoân ngöõ. Beân caïnh ñoù, do moät trong nhöõng muïc ñích cuûa vieäc daïy vaên hoïc laø taïo ra ñöôïc hieäu öùng toát trong vieäc caûm thuï moät taùc phaåm vaên hoïc, chuùng toâi xin giôùi thieäu cuøng ñoäc giaû moät soá “thaønh phaåm” cuûa caùc sinh vieân khoùa tröôùc. Ñoù laø moät vaøi baøi thô dòch sang tieáng Vieät mang tính ngaãu höùng khi töøng nhoùm hoïc taäp thuyeát trình tröôùc lôùp. Ñoù coù theå laø moät vaøi baøi vieát mang tính töï do khoâng coù chuû ñeà nhaát ñònh, theå hieän caûm xuùc caù nhaân khi ñoïc moät truyeän ngaén hieän ñaïi. Ñoù cuõng coù theå laø moät baøi töï luaän mang tính hoïc thuaät veà moät taùc phaåm. Chuùng toâi ñaõ coá tình ñeå nguyeân “hieän traïng” cuûa caùc baøi vieát maø khoâng hieäu ñính laïi caùc loãi ngöõ phaùp hoaëc chính taû coát ñeå giöõ laïi tính ñoäc ñaùo cuûa caùc baøi vieát naøy. Duø chuùng toâi ñaõ coá gaéng raát nhieàu nhöng chaéc chaén seõ vaãn coøn nhöõng sai soùt trong quyeån giaùo trình naøy veà maët noäi dung cuõng nhö hình thöùc. Raát mong söï ñoùng goùp cuûa caùc baïn ñoàng nghieäp vaø sinh vieân ñeå chuùng toâi coù theå söûa chöõa trong nhöõng laàn taùi baûn. Nhöõng ñoùng goùp xin göûi veà ñòa chæ sau: Nguyeãn Thò Kieàu Thu Khoa ngöõ Vaên Anh Tröôøng Ñaïi hoïc Khoa hoïc Xaõ hoäi vaø Nhaân vaên – Ñaïi hoïc Quoác gia TP HCM, 12 Ñinh Tieân Hoaøng, Q.1, Tp Hoà Chí Minh Xin chaân thaønh caùm ôn. NGUYEÃN THÒ KIEÀU THU NGUYEÃN THÒ NGOÏC DUNG
  5. MUÏC LUÏC Lôøi giôùi thieäu Part I: A Short History of English Literature .......................................... 9 Old English Period (450-1066) ............................................................................ 11 The Middle Age (1066-1485) ............................................................................... 13 The Elizabethan Period (1485-1603)................................................................... 16 The Seventeenth Century Period (1603-1660) ................................................... 20 The Restoration and the 18th Century Period (1660-1798) ................................. 24 The Romantic Period (1798-1832) ...................................................................... 28 The Victorian Period (1832-1901) ....................................................................... 31 The Twentieth Century Period ............................................................................. 36 Part II: Selected Works ................................................................................ 45 Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare ...................................................................... 47 The Sun Rising – John Donne ........................................................................... 55 Queen and Huntress – Ben Jonson ................................................................... 65 A Red, Red Rose – Robert Burns ....................................................................... 71 Daffodils – William Wordsworth .......................................................................... 81 Ode to the West Wind – Percy Bysshe Shelley ................................................. 91 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens ........................................................................ 103 When I Was One-and-Twenty – A. E. Housman.............................................. 117 Fern Hill – Dylan Thomas ................................................................................. 123 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night – Dylan Thomas.............................. 130 *** Araby – James Joyce ........................................................................................ 133 The Rocking-Horse Winner – D. H. Lawrence ................................................ 143 Mr. Loveday’s Little Outing – Evelyn Waugh .................................................. 163 A Shocking Accident – Graham Greene ......................................................... 177 Never – H. E. Bates ........................................................................................... 187 Flight – Doris Lessing ....................................................................................... 195 The Monkey’s Paw – W.W. Jacobs .................................................................. 209 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 224
  6. PART I 9
  7. 10
  8. I OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE (450-1066) A. Historical background 449 The Germanic tribes invaded England and brought with them Anglo- Saxon, the language which is the basis of Modern English 597 St. Augustine brought Roman Christianity to England 871 -1016 The Danish Invasion 1170 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered 1066 The Norman Conquest led by William the Conqueror and the introduction of strict Norman feudal system. B. Literature 1. Poetry: - to be chanted with harp accompaniment - bold and strong, but also mournful and elegiac in spirit - without rhyme, abundant use of alliteration - Important works: • Beowulf: the first surviving epic written in the English language. The single existing copy of the manuscript dated from the late tenth century, although some scholars believe it dates from the first part of the eleventh century. It is found in a large volume that features stories involving mythical creatures and people. There is no knowledge about the poet as well as the day of the poem’s composition. Beowulf is short, with 3182 verses, yet it is the longest as well as the richest of Old English poems. The first great work of English literature is not set in Britain; Beowulf opens with the mysterious figure of Scyld, founder of the Scylding dynasty of Denmark, who would have lived c.400, before England existed. Beowulf is about King of the Danes, Hrothgar and about a brave young man, Beowulf, from Southern Sweden, who goes to help him. The King’s great hall, called Heorot, is visited at night by a terrible creature, Grendel, which lives in the lake and comes to kill and eat Hrothgar’s men. One night Beowulf waits secretly for Grendel and attacks it and in a fierce fight pulls its arm off. It manages to reach the lake, but dies there. Then its mother comes to the hall and the attacks begin. Beowulf follows her to the lake and kills her there. In 11
  9. later days Beowulf, now king of his people, has to defend his country against a fire-breathing dragon. He kills the animal but is badly wounded in the fight and dies. • Religious writings reflecting Christian doctrine: The dedicated Christian literature of Anglo-Saxon England is of various kinds. There are verse paraphrases of Old Testaments stories, such as Caedmon’s: Genesis and Exodus, Daniel and Judith. They emphasize faith rewarded. There are lives of saints, historical lives of contemporaries, sermons, etc. • Elegies: Short lyrical poems evoking the Anglo-Saxon sense of harshness of circumstance and the sadness of the human lot. The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Ruin are among the most beautiful elegies. 1. Prose: - mainly religious works written in Latin - Important works: • Ecclesiastical History of the English People written by Bede in 731. • The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius is an Old English translation which is about Platonic philosophy adaptable to Christian thought, and is of great influence on English literature. Further reading Alexander, M. Old English Literature (Basingstoke: MacMillan, 1983: Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, revd edn 2001). Mitchell, B. and F. C. Robinson. A Guide to Old English, 5th edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995). A grammar, reader and study guide for students. 12
  10. II MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE (1066-1485) A. Historical background 1066 The Norman Conquest led by William the Conqueror 1215 King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta 1338 Hundred Years War with France began 1348-1349 Black Death struck England 1381 Peasants’ Revolt 1415 The victory over French at Agincourt 1453 Defeat in France to end Hundred Years War 1454 Wars of Roses began 1476 William Caxton set up first printing press in London 1492 Columbus sailed to America B. Literature Extensive influence of French literature on native English forms and themes 1. Drama The beginning of native English drama was closely associated with the church celebrations of traditional religious feasts. Two major types are: • Miracle or Mystery plays: cycles of religious dramas, performed by town guilds, craft associations of a religious kind • Morality plays: these plays personified such abstractions as Health, Death, Sin, etc. and showed the fate of the single human person, played by travelling companies. 2. Poetry Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400): Chaucer was a professional courtier, a kind of civil servant. He was born into a family of wine-traders. His work took him to Kent (which he represented in Parliament from 1386), to France, and twice to Italy. Chaucer’s first book, The Book of the Duchess, is a dream poem on the death of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster. The simplicity and directness of the emotion, and the handling of dialogue, show Chaucer’s capacity to bring language, situation and emotion together effectively. The House of Fame is another dream poem, this time 13
  11. influenced by the Italian of Dante. Other Chaucer’s works are Troylus and Cryseyde (1372-7?) is about the love of the two young people, and The Legend of Good Women (1385). Chaucer’s last work The Canterbury Tales is today his most popular. It’s opening ‘When that April with his shoures soote’ is the first line of English verse that is widely known. The Canterbury Tales was first conceived in 1836 when Chaucer was in Greenwich, consisting of 24 stories in rhymed couplets, concerning a host of subjects: religious innocence, married chastity, villainous hypocrisy, female volubility – all illumed by great humour told by a group of about 30 pilgrims who set off from the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London, to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket , the Archbishop of Canterbury murdered in his own cathedral in 1170. They are representatives of most of the classes in medieval England. Each of them was to tell four stories: two on the way, two on the way back. The teller of the best story would be given a free dinner by the cheerful host of the Tabard. In fact the collection is incomplete. Chaucer’s world in the Canterbury Tales brings together for the first time, a diversity of characters, social levels, attitudes and ways of life. The tales themselves make use of a similarly wide range of forms and styles. Literature, with Chaucer, has taken on a new role: as well as forming a developing language, it is a mirror of its times – but a mirror which teases as it reveals, which questions while it narrates, and which opens up a range of issues and questions, instead of providing simple, easy answers. PROLOGUE The Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer is the poem which introduces the Canterbury Tales. It is written in ten-syllable couplets and is 558 lines long. Here at the beginning there is a sense of harmony between man and nature. The stirrings of spring in nature are associated with the impulse among people to go on pilgrimages Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathes 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 halve cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, The slepen al the nyght with opn ye (So pricketh hem nature in his corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages... 14
  12. A modern version of the Prologue When in April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root and fall The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flower, When also Zephyrus with his sweet and breath Exhales an air in every grove and heath Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun His half course in the sign of the Ram has run And the small fowl are making melody That sleep away the night with open eyes (So nature pricks them and their heart engages) Then people long to go on pilgrimages... William Langland (c.1330-c.1386): a married cleric in minor orders, Langland wrote Piers Plowman (or The Vision of Piers the Ploughman) in the form of dream visions, protesting the plight of the poor, the avarice of the powerful, the sinfulness of all the people Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1370? by anonymous author): a romance of knightly adventure and love of the general medieval type introduced by the French. 3. Prose Sir Thomas Malory (? - 1471): He was probably the Sir Thomas Malory of Warwickshire who in the 1440s was charged with crimes of violence and spent most of the 1450s in jail, escaping twice. In 1468 he was jailed again, on charges plotting again Edward IV. He wrote the book The Death of Arthur in prison and finished it in 1469. Malory wrote eight separate tales of King Arthur and his knights, but when William Caxton printed the book in 1485 he joined them in one long story. Arthur is a shadowy figure of the past but probably really lived. The Death of Arthur is, in a way, a climax of a tradition of writing, bringing together myth and history, with an emphasis on chivalry as a kind of moral code of honour. Further reading Burrow, J. and T. Turville-Petre (eds). A Book of Middle English, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996). A textbook anthology, well designed and annotated. Pearsall, D. (ed). Chauce to Spenser: An Anthology (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999) 15
  13. III THE ELIZABETHAN PERIOD (1485-1603) A. Historical background 1485 Henry Tudor became king as Henry VII, ending the War of the Roses 1509 The accession of Henry VIII 1517 The Protestant Reformation began 1534 Henry VIII became Supreme Head of the Anglican Church 1553-1558 The religious conflicts between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant under the reign of Queen Mary I 1558 Elizabeth I ascended the throne and maintained social stability. 1588 Spanish Armada defeated by the English fleet 1595 Sir Walter Ralegh’ s first expedition to South America 1603 Death of Elizabeth I; ascension of James I, the first Stuart King B. Literature The Renaissance: It was the revival of Greek and Roman studies that emphasized the value of the classics for their own sake, rather than for their relevance to Christianity. In literature the Renaissance was led by humanists, scholars and poets. The invention of printing contributed to the spread of ideas. Among the notable writers of the Renaissance in England were Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Shakespeare, and Sir Francis Bacon Humanism is the term most often used to describe the cultural and literary movement that spread through Western Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was the greatest cultural achievement of the period. There is no systematic theory of humanism, but any world-view which claims that the source of value in the world is man, or more loosely that man supplies the true measure of value, may be described as humanist. 1. Drama - In late 15th C there were plays with secular plots and characters in elaborate verse style. - The invention of short plays called ‘Interludes’ - The fusion of classical form with English content: more mature and artistic - The coming of professional theatrical groups with plays written by professional playwrights; the first men were called ‘University Wits’, so named since they 16
  14. were all university men, who, instead of going into the church or teaching, turned to writing to earn their living - The golden age of English drama with a lot of great playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare 2. Poetry: - Generally less important than drama. - Two most important poets were Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser. - Three chief forms of poetry which flourished in the Elizabethan Age were: (i) Lyric, a short poem that expresses a poet’s personal emotions in a songlike style. Thomas Campion (1567-1620) wrote many beautiful lyrics in his ‘Books of Airs’ (1601-1617) (ii) The sonnet: a 14 line poem with a certain pattern of rhyme and rhythm (iii) Narrative poetry: a narrative poem that tells a story 3. Prose: - Translation works: ‘The Translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans’ (1579) by Sir Thomas North - The beginning of English novels: Lyly’s Euphues started a fashion which spread in books and conversation. The style is filled with tricks and alliteration; the sentences are long and complicated; and a large number of similes are brought in. Readers forget the thoughts behind the words, and look for the machine-like arrangement of the sentences. Robert Greene (1558-1592), Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) are among the first novelists of the time. However, the Elizabethan novels are of little value on the whole. C.Major authors Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593): the first great English dramatist and most important Elizabethan dramatist. He gave to the English popular theater the foundation upon which Shakespeare was to build. His best known works were:  Tamburlaine the Great (1590): the play is based on the life and achievements of Timur, the bloody 14th century conqueror of Central Asia and India. In this early play Marlowe already shows the ability to view a tragic hero from more than one angle, achieving a simultaneous vision of grandeur and impotence.  Edward II (1594): a study in the operation of power: the weak king loses his throne to rebel nobles who resent his sexual infatuation with the low Gaveston and conspire with his wife to depose him.  The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1604): The play was based on the well- known story of a man who sold his soul to the devil so as to have power and riches in his life. 17
  15.  The Jew of Malta (1633): the play deals with great human passions such as revenge William Shakespeare (1564-1616): playwright and poet, recognized in much of the world as the greatest of all the dramatists. (See next section for more information) The Earl of Surrey (1514-1547) was the first to use blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, in his versions of Virgil’s Aeneid II and IV Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542): best remembered for his individualistic poems that deal candidly in everyday speech with the trials of romantic love. Some of his remarkable works: Certayne Psalmes, The Book of Songes and Sonnettes. Edmund Spenser (1552-1599): like Sidney, displaying the ornate, somewhat florid, highly figured style characteristic of Elizabethan poetic expressions. The Shepherd’s Calendar, a poem in twelve books, one for each month of the year was produced in 1579. He is most remembered for his allegorical romance, The Faerie Queene, which is written in a special metre called the ‘Spenserian Stanza’ of nine lines; of these the last has six feet, the others five. The rhyme plan is ababbcbbc. He published the first three books in 1590 and added three more in 1596. Spenser dedicated his heroic romance to the Queen. It is now the chief literary monument of her cult. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) He initiated the sonnet cycle (courtly love poems), which idealized womanhood in the Platonic manner. It leads to a perception of the good, the true, the beautiful and consequently of the divine. His major works are:  Astrophel and Stella (1591): a suite of 108 sonnets of various kinds,moments in the love of Starlover (Astrophil: Greek) for Star (Stella: Lat.). This is the first English sonnet sequence in English interspersed with songs.  The Arcadia: a prose romance interspersed with many poems and songs. It is a complex and still controversial mixture of pastoral romance, narrative intrigue, and evocative poetry of love and nature. It is a work which has no equivalent in English literature. The Old Arcadia was finished by about 1580, and The New Arcadia, unfinished, was published in 1590. Thomas More (1478-1535): the most prominent humanist writer in England with his Latin prose narrative Utopia written in Latin which describes an ideal country. The book was brought up in 1517, and its English version was published in 1551. His other works are: Of the Dignity of Man (1486), History of Richard III (unfinished). John Lyly (c.1554-1606): He was important in the history of prose style and the development of Elizabethan popular comedy of high literary quality. He established his literary reputation with Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578), a fashionable book combining essay and fiction. Its artificial style, called ‘euphuism’ set a new pattern for sophisticated English prose. His comedies treat idealized love and flatteringly reflect attitudes of the Elizabethan courtier. Campaspe (1584) and Endymion (1588) are typical of Lyly’s plays which are supposed to have influence on Shakespeare’s romantic comedies. 18
  16. Further reading Braunmuller, A. R. and M. Hattaway (eds). The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). Jones, E. (ed.), New Oxford Book of Sixteenth–Century Verse (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). Lewis, C. S., Poetry and Prose in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama (Oxford: Oxford Univesity Press, 1994). 19
  17. IV THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PERIOD (1603-1660) A. Historical background 1603 Death of Elizabeth Tudor and the accession of James Stuart 1605: Guy Fawkes - Catholic extremist forming the Gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament. 1620 The search for religious freedom in America and Holland 1625 Death of James I and the accession of Charles I 1630 The split between the King and Parliament 1642 Outbreak of English Civil War and the closing of all theatres 1649 Civil War ended with Charles I beheaded The beginning of Cromwellian Protectorate 1660 The end of the Protectorate and the accession of Charles II B. Literature 1. Drama - Public theatres flourished under Charles I until Parliament closed them in 1642: in more sober and careful style than those of Elizabethan period. - The emergence of comedies with inimitable verse and imagination. - The coming of tragicomedies: morally dubious situations, surprising reversals of fortune, and sentimentality combined with hollow rhetoric. - The Masque became an important theatrical form during the reigns of James I and Charles I; court entertainment held in private royal halls with lavish costumes, elaborate stage designs and machinery. - Major figures in Jacobean drama are Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Thomas Dekker, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. 2. Poetry - Epic poetry: especially by John Milton; noble and beautiful, but also difficult - The lyrical poetry: two trends • Metaphysical poetry: led by John Donne. The term ‘metaphysical’ was used by Samuel Johnson with a pejorative meaning. He attacked the poets’lack of feeling, their learning, and the surprising range of images and comparisons they used. It is now used to describe the modern impact of their 20
  18. writing. John Donne and his followers can be seen as experimenters both in forms and the subject matter they used. They reflect in poetry the intellectual and spiritual challenges of an age which wanted to expand human horizons. This literary trend has some typical characteristics as follows:  Abundant use of far-fetched metaphors and images called ‘conceits’  Daring, colloquial, passionate  Against accepted rules of poetic rhythm and diction  Deliberately rough meter with short syllables, irregular spaced as in everyday speech • Neoclassical poetry or Cavalier poetry: initially led by Ben Jonson and his followers Robert Herrick (1591-1674), Thomas Carew (1594-1640), Richard Lovelace (1618-1658), and Sir John Suckling (1609-1642), a group of monarchists collectively known as the ‘Cavalier poets’. They are associated with neoclassicism for their style:  Admiration of ancient classics  Restrained in language and feeling to achieve precision and brevity  Intellectually thin but meticulously clear and incisive in expression  Preference for the closed couplet  Strong syntactically, i.e. closely knit in grammar  Use of balanced, parallel and antithetical phrases 3. Prose - Prose became plainer, less elaborate than the previous period - King James Bible or The Authorized Version (1611) was the best translation of the original text in the reign of King James - Scientific and biographical works :’The Anatomy of Melancholy’ of Robert Burton (1577-1640) - Developments in realistic fiction with Thomas Overbury’s A Wife (1614) and Thomas Fuller’s Holy and Profane State (1642) - Essays: first introduced by Francis Bacon. C. Major authors Ben Jonson (1572-1637): cavalier poet and great playwright with his comedies such as Every Man in His Humour, which was the first of the so called ‘comedies of humors’. Volpone, The Alchemist are two supreme satiric comedies of the English stage. Jonson wrote for the court a series of masques, thus he became closely involving with the life of the court, a connection which was formalised in 1616, when he was appointed poet laureate. 21
  19. John Donne (1572-1631): metaphysical poet, Anglican priest and appointed dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He produces a lot of works in his life. The major style of his works are love poems and religious poems. His poetry demands imaginative effort of the reader, and absorbs him in a tense, complex experience. Donne was a great churchman in the 17th century, but in his youth he was well known in a circle of readers for his love poems, which circulated in manuscript and were not published until years later. In his love poetry, he broke all traditional rules to create a new sensibility, a new kind of love poem. It is more intimate and more personal than that of his predecessors. Robert Herrick (1591-1674): a clergyman in Devonshire, some of his best known works are: To the Virgins, To Daffodils. Although most of Herrick’s poems were not published until almost the middle of the 17th century, they seem like poems of the early Renaissance. Many of his poems represent a sense of life, a freshness, a buoyancy closer to the 16th than to the 17th century John Milton (1608-1674): well known for his epic poems Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and other works L’Allegro, Lycidas. He was also a typical prose writer. His works fall into three groups: short poems, prose and epics, concentrated on two major themes, politics and religion. His concept of life is one of struggle and human beings are responsible for their actions.  L’Allegro (the happy man) (1632) describing the joys of life in the country in spring; outside in the field in the morning, but at home in the evening, enjoying music and books.  Il Pensero (the thoughtful man) (1632) the poem is set in autumn; the poet studies during the day and goes to a great church in the evening to listen to the splendid music.  Lycidas (1637) is a sorrowful pastoral elegy on the death by drowning of a fellow student at Cambridge  Aropagitica (1664) is probably Milton’s best prose work, expressing his sincere belief in the importance of freedom of writing and speech  Paradise Lost (first printed in 1667) was planned in ten books, but written in twelve. The book is about the Fall of the Angels and the Fall of Man (the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden)  Paradise Regained (published in 1671) is more severe, less splendid than Paradise Lost; it is not about the Redemption but about the temptation in the desert. The Son’s rejection of Satan’s offer of the (pagan) learning of Athens stands out in the dry landscape.  Samson’s Agonistes (1671), a tragedy on a Greek model, describes the last day of Samson, when he is blind and the prisoner of the Philistines at Gaza. 22
  20. Richard Lovelace (1618-1658): He fought on the side of the King in the tragic civil war, and was one of the most handsome and talented of the ‘Cavalier poets’, who wrote and fought in a time of great public disorder and great private heroism. ‘Lucasta, Going to the Wars’ is one of the most popular poems of Richard Lovelace. Francis Bacon (1561-1626): an essayist vigorously and widely active in the late 16th centuries. He held a number of governmental positions and in 1618 was made Lord Chancellor. His ‘Essays’ (first appeared in 1597) was written in short, sharp and effective sentences. Some of the best-known sayings in English come from Bacon’s book. Other books by Bacon include A History of Henry VII (1622), The Advancement of Learning (1605). In one of his last works, The New Atlantis (1626) Bacon sketched out his ideal scientific society. Further reading Corns, T. N. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry, Donne to Marvell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). Danielson, D. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to John Milton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Parry, G. The Seventeenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature,1603-1700 (Harlow: Longman, 1989). 23
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