THE ORIGINS OF GENRES

Poetry

English literature begins with Beowulf (around 6-7^th
C.). It is an anonymous poem which is set in Denmark, Gaetland and
Sweden, where Anglo-Saxon came from. It is the oldest poem written in
Old English. It narrates the deeds of the hero Beowulf: he fights and
kills the supernatural creatures (Grendel and his mother) and than he
saves his home land from another dragon.
The poem's subject comes from "sagas", stories about Scandinavian and
Germanic history. Beowulf comes from classical epic poetry and it
tells brave actions of a mythical hero and it is full of
descriptions. It belong to the alliterative tradition of Anglo-Saxon
oral poetry: repetitions help memorization. The verse form is made up
by double lines with a break in the middle which creates a
distinctive rhythm. The number of the syllables is irrelevant and
rhymes are never used.

Old English poetry was composed orally by bards and "scops", who
recited tales and poems. Beowulf survived in later manuscripts. Other
poems have religious subjects or are lyric poems. From
1066 to 1200 English poetry did not produce anything because there
were too many languages. In the 13^th
C. French form of romance were favourite, romance of love were very
popular.  French affected the poetic form. Rhymed line began to
develop side by side with the alliterative line.

In 1130, Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a book "Historia Regum Britannie"
in Latin.  It had influence on English and French literature. It
became the source of the cycle of legends with King Arthur. The
Arthurian cycle narrates the heroic life and deeds of King Arthur.
The legends tells that the table was made by the magician Merlin.

From 1066 to 1350, English and French were amalgamated. The "Middle
English" is an English language spoken from 1150 to 1500 and it has
a simple structure. In that period there were spoken different
dialects.

Geoffrey Chaucer was the son of a wealthy merchant and he was a civil servant
in the courts of Edward III and Richard II. He wrote poetry: French
and Latin were languages of culture, English language was
revolutionary.

In 1387 were written the Canterbury Tales, which are collection of
stories from Boccaccio's Decameron. The story-telling forms were
general narrative framework and were written in verse and parts in
prose. The predominant form was the rhyming. English society was
divided into various classes: military, clergy, middle class and
trades and each one has an economic, social and moral dimension.

Wife of Bath was an emancipated and successful business woman, she who
represented the rising middle class.

Chaucer is the first humanist in English literature and the first realist in
portraying personal and social relations. He is considered "the
father of English poetry". He introduced innovations: the classic
English verse line and the 10-syllable line.

The narrative poems were written in different English dialects and there
were religious and love lyrics. In the 14^th
C. there were introduced the ballads from common people or from oral
tradition. These were the most popular form of poetry in that period
and were made up by four-line stanzas rhyming ABCB. The subjects
were: events or situation of everyday life, conflicts between English
and Scots or legends of Robin Hood.

Drama

In the Middle Ages, Drama gave a religious education in the mysteries of
faith and the Bible. There was introduced a new religious festival to
celebrate Corpus Christi and it consisted of a number of lays dealing
with stories of the Old and the New Testament. The mysteries had
subjects from the life of Christ and were written in local English.

The manuscripts were various versions of Mystery Cycle preserved and the
authors were anonymous.

Other forms of dramas had various aspects of the human condition.
Everyman's hero is a character representing mankind. It gives moral
lessons for the salvation of men's soul and it has an allegorical
significance.
Medieval drama added human elements to the religious themes of the Mysteries.