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 the harp or lyre in the 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 7^th and 10^th 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 the 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 Medieval characters written in vibrant and gently ironic language. The Tales follow a group of 29 pilgrims 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 completed. The wife of Bath is a good example of one of the Chaucer's most vibrant and believable characters. She is a Medieval feminist - emancipated, lustful and ambitious, a successful business woman of the emerging middle classes. She promotes the point of view that men should always be faithful to and submit to their wives, 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 ballad 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 traveling 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 astronomic discoveries re-evaluated the world and the cosmos, Humanism flourished and the classical learning of the Greeks and Romans and 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 of these themes and the formal convention of Elizabethan 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 conceit concerning a flea to explore ideas of love, virginity and honor, passion and sacrilege. The poem has the typically conversational tone of a dramatic monologue and it makes use of Metaphysical conceits, which combines dissimilar images to surprise and give intellectual pleasure. Sonnet X iv typical Donne's later religious 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 resurrection 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 William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was an extraordinary and prolific playwright, able to write comedy and tragedy, history and farce, showing outstanding control of organization, around the central theme, technical command of dramatic conventions and great skill in the use of rhyme, blank verse, and poetic imagery. He created an unequaled range of characters, portraying the whole range of human passions with 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 tragedies is Macbeth. Shakespeare's characterization of the 2 main characters, Macbeth and lady Macbeth, is masterful- they are evil and ambitious yet victims of their ambition and of their guilt. Another tragedy Hamlet Prince of Denmark, also stands out as a masterpiece amongst Shakespeare's plays. Its hero must revenge his father 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.