Round Up from the Beginnings to the 1700s

Old and Middle English Literature

Although texts in prose (historical,  philosophical and religious texts) were abundant in the Middle Ages, the  dominant genres were POETRY  and drama. Old English Literature clearly shows the influence of Angle, Saxon, Jute and VIKING culture, and its verse celebrates Germanic and Scandinavian warrior traditions. Its rules of diction and versification are those of the Germanic and Norse oral poets (also referred to as "bards" or "SCOPS"). They recited tales and poems by heart to the accompaniment of HARP or lyre in he village hall of their community The most famous manuscript of Old English pagan verse which has come down to us is Beowulf. It is the epic story of a warrior and his fights with three MONSTERS, set in Scandinavia but composed (sometime between the 7th and l0th centuries) and written down (c. 1000 - 25) in England, probably in a monastic SCRIPTORIA. After the successful Norman invasion of 1066,  Britain changed from a bilingual (Latin and English) to a tri-lingual country -  Latin remained the language of the Church and instruction, FRENCH became the language of Court and the nobility, while English was the language of the common people.

The most important poet writing in English was GEOFFREY Chaucer. Chaucer has become known as ‘the father of English literature', in particular for his unfinished masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales (1386?-95?), with its extraordinary portraits of characters written in vibrant and gently ironic language. The Tales follows a group of 29 BALLAD setting off on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and who will be the tellers of the tales in the collection. This story-telling forms the general narrative framework which links the 24 tales included in the book - there should have been many more, but the work was not COMPLATED. The Wife of Bath is a good example of one of Chaucer's most vibrant and believable PILGRIMS. She is a Medieval feminist - emancipated, lustful and ambitious, a successful WIVES  woman of the emerging middle classes. She promotes the point of view that men should always be faithful to and submit to their BUISNESS,  giving examples from her own numerous husbands and in her tale about a knight and an OLD  woman who transforms into a beautiful young wife.

Two forms of popular oral poetry also flourished in the Middle Ages - the MEDIEVAL and verse drama. Ballads were narrative poems, mainly created in the SCOTTISH  borderlands and highlands, on various themes such as love, outlaws, historical and local events, and the supernatural. MYSTERY  plays or cycles were enacted by townsfolk in front of churches or on pageants during festivals and represented episodes from the BIBLE.  Morality plays, which developed a little later, were played by travelling actors in inn-yards or halls and showed personifications of VICES and virtues.

The Renaissance  

The Renaissance was a period of discovery and rediscovery -  new lands were found and trade expanded, scientific and astronomical discoveries re-evaluated the world and the cosmos, HUMANISM flourished and the classical learning of the Greeks and Romans and the Italian Renaissance were revisited. In poetry, many authors imitated or adapted the PETRARCHAN sonnet on themes of emotions, sensuality and love. Under JAMES I, however, lyrical poetry moved. away from the variations on these themes and the formal conventions of  RELIGIOUS verse. These innovations were mainly introduced by John Donne. His songs and Sonnets, published posthumously in 1633,  present love as passion with an intensely sensual and physical experience while the language he uses is drawn from philosophy, SCIENCE and theology. Donne's poetry created a school of poetry which was called "METAPHYSICAL". A good example can be found in the poem The Flea published in the collection Songs and Sonnets. It is a dramatic MONOLOGUE in three stanzas in which the poetic voice tries to persuade a reluctant lady to become his lover. Donne makes use of a CONCEIT concerning a flea to explore ideas of love, virginity and honour, passion and sacrilege. The poem has the typically CONVERSATION tone of a dramatic monologue and it makes use of the Metaphysical conceit, which combines dissimilar images to surprise and give intellectual pleasure.

Sonnet X is typical of Donne's later, ELIZABETHAN poetry.  It is a loose Petrarchan sonnet, in which the speaker addresses DEATH and casts doubts over his sense of power over man. Here, once more, Donne uses ingenious arguments to undermine the position of his addressee, this time not to seduce his love but to confirm his belief in God and the RESSURECTION of the soul.

The Renaissance is known as "the golden age of drama" for the concentration of extraordinary talent amongst playwrights and for the popularity of the genre. The key playwright of the period was WILLIAM Shakespeare. Shakespeare was an extraordinary and prolific playwright, able to write comedy and tragedy, HISTORY and farce, showing outstanding control of organization around a central theme, technical command of dramatic conventions and great skill in the use of rhyme, BLANK verse, and poetic imagery. He created an unequalled range of characters, portraying the whole range of human passions with a strength and conviction that explain the continuing appeal of his work to all kinds of people throughout the ages and all over the world. One of Shakespeare's most famous TRAGEDY is Macbeth. Shakespeare's characterization of the two main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, is masterful - they are evil and AMBITIOUS yet victims of their ambition and of their guilt. Another TRAGEDIES Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, also stands out as a masterpiece amongst Shakespeare's plays. Its hero must revenge his father's cruel MURDER but finds himself unable to act decisively. The expressions of Hamlet's frustration and his bitter contemplations on the meaning of life and DEATH fill the work with some of Shakespeare's finest speeches.

The Augustan Age

The Neo-Classical or Augustan period is also known as ‘the age of REASON'‘- in fact, the literature of the era aims at ENLIGHTENMENT, order, balance and common sense, and its style was one of elegance and clarity. Literature was seen not only as a means to amuse but also to INSTRUCT  and the predominance of reason and common sense made satire very popular.

The period is notable for the birth and development of a new genre, the NOVEL, which was soon to become one of the most popular forms of literature. The rise of the realistic novel can be seen as an indication of the triumph of Rationalism. Daniel DEFOE produced what is generally considered to be the first English novel,  Robinson Crusoe (1719). It is account of the SHIPWRECK and survival of a sailor a desert island and was inspired by the actual experiences of a real sailor, Alexander SELKIRK. Being written as a first-person narration, resembling a private DIARY,  readers thought it was a true story when it was first published and Defoe himself encouraged this misapprehension In the novel,- Crusoe survives on his island for about TWENTY-EIGHT years. He builds a shelter, domesticates ANIMALS, hunts for food and makes a young native his slave. Crusoe promotes the prevalent values of optimism. reason, faith in God and RESOURCEFULNESS, as well as mastery over ones environment.

Drama revived with a new type of satirical drama called ‘Comedy of MANNERS' based on satirical observation of the social behaviour (= manners) of the upper classes. Satire also became an important characteristic of both poetry and essays.