BEOWULF: The story of English literature starts with Beowulf. His adventures are set in Denmark, Geatland and Sweden ( the countries of the early Anglo-Saxons). This poem is written in Old English and it speaks about the deeds of this Scandinavian Hero. He goes to Denmark to kill Grendel and his mother, who entered the king’s hall at night. When he cames back he succeeds the king at his death.

EPIC POEM: The subject matter of the poems derives from the Icelandic and Scandinavian ‘sagas’. During this poems the description of the fights are rich and so is characterization. In the stanzas the verse form was a double line with a break in the middle, alliteration and repetition are were used to help the memorisation.

ROMANCES: After the Norman conquest English literature did not produce anything until about the year 1200. Then was frequent the use of the romance where heroic adventures of noble knights and love stories were described. The spread of French changed the structure of the poems, alliterative lines and rhymes started to spread.

THE ARTHURIAN LEGENDS: Historia regum britanniae had an enormous influence on English and French literature. It is the source of the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. ?

MIDDLE ENGLISH: During Norman invasion French and English amalgamated. This period of time is called “ Middle English”. This language has a simpler structure. It was used by Geoffrey Chaucer and William Caxton.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER: he was a wine-merchant in London and he received a good education. He wrote poems and he decided to use English instead of French and Latin. His works was influenced by Petrarca and Boccaccio.

THE CANTERBURY TALES: G. C. wrote the Canterbury Tales where a group of 29 pilgrims setting off on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. This story has come to us in manuscript form because printing hadn’t been invented.

CHAUCER’S CHARACTER: the classes described are various: the military, the clergy, the middle class and the trades.

CHAUCER’S HUMANISM: G.C. was the first humanist in English literature and the first in portraying personal and social relations.

METRICAL INNOVATIONS: he is called “ the father of English poetry” because he laid the foundations of the classic English verse line and he introduced the 10-syllabe line.

BALLADS: at the end of the 14^th century was born the ballads that used the regular four-line stanzas rhyming abcb. They were still anonymous poems.

DRAMA

ORIGINS: British drama began to emerge from the rituals of the Church and was used to give illiterate peasants a religious education.

SUBJECTS: Mystery plays were written in the English spoken by local people and includes biblical episodes.

MANUSCRIPTS: the manuscripts of various version of the Mystery Cycle have been preserved and they had the name of the city where they were probably presented. Authors are anonymous.

Morality Plays: in the late middle ages another form of drama became popular, the Morality. These plays told an allegorical tale with the aim of improving common’s people religious and moral people. The most important is “ everyman” that tells about the salvation of man’s soul. Medieval drama appealed strongly to people of all social classes.