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3.«Тілі оқытылатын елдің әдебиеті»

 

№1,ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE (THE 7TH-11TH CENTURIES)

- features of the period,

The Anglo-Saxon or Old English period goes from the invasion of Celtic England by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in the first half of the fifth century up till the conquest in 1066 by William of Normandy.
Many Anglo-Saxon poems, in the form they are extant, were not written down until perhaps two and one-half centuries after their compositions, since scribal effort had been spent on Latin, the new language of culture. This was possible thanks to the further development of the programs of King Alfred in the late tenth century and the Benedictine Revival of the early eleventh century. After their conversion to Christianity in the seventh century the Anglo-Saxons began to develop a written literature; before that period it had been oral. The Church and the Benedictine monastic foundations and their Latin culture played an important part in the development of Anglo-Saxon England cultural life, literacy and learning. No poetry surely pre-Christian in composition survives. The survival of poetry was due to the Church: it was the result of the tenth-century monastic revival. The Benedictine Revival was the crowning of a process that had begun in the sixth century and had produced a large body of English prose by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. Anglo-Saxon England is thought to have been rich in poetry, but very little of it survives. Most of the available corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature, little more than 30,000 lines in all, survives in just four manuscript books.
From the Anglo-Saxon period dates what is known as Old English literature, composed in the vernacular Anglo-Saxon. It includes early national poetry: Pagan Epic Poetry and Pagan Elegies,Old English Christian Poetry,Latin Writings and Old English Prose.

-the stages of its development

-representatives, Caedmon, (flourished 670), entered the monastery of Streaneshalch (Whitby) between 658 and 680, when he was an elderly man. According to Bede he was an unlearned herdsman who received suddenly, in a vision, the power of song, and later put into English verses passages translated to him from the Scriptures. Bede tells us that Caedmon turned into English the story of Genesis and Exodus. The name Caedmon has been conjectured to be Celtic. The poems assumed to be Caedmon poems Caedmon are: Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan. But critical research has proved the ascription to be impossible. Perhaps the Caedmon songs were used by later singers and left their spirit in the poems that remains; but of the originals described by Bede we have no trace. The only work which can be attributed to him is the short "Hymn of Creation," quoted by Bede himself. This is all we possess of the first known English poet. It survives in several manuscripts of Bede in various dialects.

Cynewulf:

Cynewulf (late 8th or 9th century) was identified, not certainly, but probably, with a Cynewulf who was Bishop of Lindisfarne and lived in the middle of the eighth century. He was a wandering singer or poet who lived a gay and secular life. The accuracy of some of his battle scenes and seascapes showed that he had fought on land and sailed the seas. Finally, after a dream in which he had a vision of the Holy Rood, he changed his life, became a religious poet, sang of Christ, the apostles, and the saints. His work represents an advance in culture upon the more primitive Caedmonian poems.The poems attributed to him are: Juliana, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles, and Christ II.

 

-genres,

-works,

The Exeter Book riddles. Here’s a riddle for you: what hangs down by the thigh of a man, under his cloak, yet is stiff and hard? When the man pulls up his robe, he puts the head of this hanging thing into that familiar hole of matching length which he has filled many times before. Got it? A key, of course! This is one of a number of riddles found in the Exeter Book, one of the jewels in the crown of Anglo-Saxon literature.

Beowulf. As we’ve discussed in our detailed summary of Beowulf, this poem is part of a rich literary narrative tradition that encompasses Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the story of St George and the dragon, and even Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’. It chronicles the hero’s exploits, notably his slaying of the monster Grendel – actually only the first of three monsters Beowulf has to vanquish. Perfect fireside reading, and an archetypal work of English literature, composed when the notion of ‘England’ itself was only just beginning to emerge. Recommended edition: now sadly out of print, but available second-hand, this Norton Critical Edition includes Seamus Heaney’s acclaimed translation of the poem along with invaluable background information and a selection of critical essays on the poem: Beowulf: Verse Translation: A Verse Translation (Norton Critical Editions) by Heaney, Seamus New edition (2002).

‘The Wanderer’. Like the riddles above, this poem was preserved thanks to the Exeter Book. It’s 115 lines long and written in alliterative verse, and like ‘The Seafarer’ is about a solitary man looking back on his past. In the poem, the man is referred to as eardstapa, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning literally ‘earth-stepper’, hence the title usually appended to the poem.

Caedmon, Hymn. Perhaps the oldest poem written in English, Caedmon’s Hymn was composed in the 7th century by a goatherd and takes the form of a short hymn in praise of God. It was Bede, or ‘the Venerable Bede’ as he is often known, who ensured the survival of Caedmon’s Hymn, when he jotted it down in Latin translation in one of his books. An anonymous scribe then added the Anglo-Saxon form of the hymn in the margins of Bede’s book.

Bede, ‘Bede’s Death Song’. As well as rescuing Caedmon’s Hymn from oblivion, Bede also wrote this very short poem on his deathbed – at least, reportedly. Whether he was actually the author of ‘Bede’s Death Song’ is difficult to say for certain, but this five-line lyric, about facing death and looking back on a life well lived, is a marvellous short example of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

Anonymous, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. One of the most important manuscripts in English history, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was created in the late 9th century during the time of Alfred the Great, almost certainly at his command (the manuscript is thought to have been written in Wessex, where Alfred ruled). Actually, the Chronicle survives in several different manuscripts, a result of its having been distributed to various monasteries and then added to. Among other things, the Chronicle contains accounts of the two battles of 1066, Stamford Bridge and Hastings.

-their narrative and stylistics peculiarities

English Literature in the Norman Times (the 12th-13th centuries)

Anglo-Norman literature, also called Norman-french Literature, orAnglo-french Literature, body of writings in the Old French language as used in medieval England. Though this dialect had been introduced to English court circles in Edward the Confessor’s time, its history really began with the Norman Conquest in 1066, when it became the vernacular of the court, the law, the church, schools, universities, parliament, and later of municipalities and of trade. For the English aristocracy, Anglo-Norman became an acquired tongue and its use a test of gentility. It was introduced into Wales and Ireland and used to a limited extent in Scotland. The earliest extant literary texts in the Anglo-Norman dialect belonged to the reign of Henry I in the early 12th century, the latest to that of Henry IV in the early 15th century. The alienation toward France during the Hundred Years’ War started an increasing use of English, the last strongholds of a French dialect being Parliament and the law, in both of which it still survives in a few formulas.

In the 12th century the oldest substantial Anglo-Norman prose work, “The Book of Kings,” was written in England, as were many versions of the Psalter. Sanson de Nanteuil translated into verse the proverbs of Solomon, with commentary; and in the 13th century Robert of Greatham wrote the “Sunday Gospels” for a noble lady. The same century saw the beginning of the magnificent series of Anglo-Norman apocalypses, best known for their superb illustrations, which served as a model for a series of tapestries at Angers, France. Anglo-Norman was rich in literature of legends of saints, of which Benedeit’s “Voyage of St. Brendan” was perhaps the oldest purely narrative French poem in the octosyllabic couplet. Wace led the way in writing a saint’s life in standard form but was followed by Anglo-Norman writers in the 12th century who wrote numerous biographies, many connecting religious houses with their patron saints.

Anglo-Norman literature was well provided with romances. In the 12th century one Thomas wrote a courtly version of the Tristan story, which survived in scattered fragments and was used by Gottfried von Strassburg in Tristan und Isolde as well as being the source of the Old Norse, Italian, and Middle English versions of the story. Béroul’s Tristan, also 12th century, was probably written in England, but by a Norman; Waldef, a long, confused story of an imaginary king of East Anglia and his sons, has passages of remarkable originality. In the 12th century some romances were composed in the form of the chanson de geste; for example, Horn, by Master Thomas, which is connected with the Middle English Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild. Yet another Thomas wrote the Roman de toute chevalerie (“Romance of All Chivalry”), an independent version of the Alexander romance and the source of the Middle English romance King Alisaunder. In the 13th century the more courtly type of romance reappeared in Amadas et Idoine and in Amis et Amiloun.

№2,THE LITERATURE

OF THE NORMAN PERIOD

(12th — 13th centuries)

The Norman Conquest. When King Alfred died, fighting with the Danes soon began again. Parties of the Norsemen sailed round Scot­land and over to Ireland. Others sailed south across the Channel to France. They conquered the north of France and settled there. In the next hundred years they came to be called Normans, and their country Normandy.

In the middle of the 11th century the internal feuds among the Anglo-Saxon earls invited a foreign conquest. The Normans did not miss their chance. In the year 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, crossed the Channel and defeated the English at Hastings ['heistirjz] in a great battle. Within five years William the Conqueror became complete master of the whole of England. The lands of most of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy were given to the Norman barons, and they introduced their feudal laws to compel the peasants to work for them. The English became an oppressed nation.

William the Conqueror could not speak a word of English. He and his barons spoke the Norman dialect of the French language; but the Anglo-Saxon dialects were not suppressed. During the following 200 years communication went on in three languages:

1) at the monasteries learning went on in Latin;

2) Norman-French was the language of the ruling class and was spoken at court and in official institutions;

3) the common people held firmly to their mother tongue. In spite of this, however, the language changed so much in the course of time that we must speak about it. How the Language Changed.

1) Many French words came into the language. Under the influence of French the pronunciation of the people changed. Some French words could not be pronounced by the Anglo-Saxons, so some of the Norman-French sounds were substituted by more familiar sounds from Old English. There appeared many new long vowels (diphthongs) in their native language. This newly formed pronunciation was nearing that of Modern English.

2) The spelling did not correspond to the pronunciation. The Norman scribes brought to England their Latin traditions. The Anglo-Saxon letters p, ð for the sounds [0] and [ð] were runes. The Normans replaced these letters by the Latin t + h=th.

3) What was particularly new was the use of French suffixes with words of Anglo-Saxon origin. For instance, the noun-forming suf-1 fixes -ment (government, agreement) and -age (courage, marriage), giving an abstract meaning to the noun, and the adjective-forming suffix -able (admirable, capable) were used to form new words. Examples of such hybrids, as they are called, are:

fulfilment bondage readable

bewilderment cottage unbearable

bewitchment stoppage drinkable

4) The French prefix dis- was used to make up words of negative meaning: distrust, distaste.

5) The indefinite article was coming into use.

6) The struggle for supremacy between French and old English words went on in the following way:

a) If the French word meant a thing or idea for which there was no name in English, then the French word came into the language. Such words were those relating to government, church, court, armour, pleasure, food, art.

b) If the object or idea was clearly expressed in English, then the English word remained.

c) If both words remained, then it was because of a slight but clear-cut difference in the meaning. An interesting example is to be found in the first chapter of "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott. Wamba, a Saxon serf, tells the swineherd Gurth that his swine will be turned into Normans before morning. The Anglo-Saxon word "swine" means the living animals, while the French word "pork" is the name of the food. Other examples are:

calf — veal, ox — beef, sheep — mutton.

7) As a result of this process there appeared a large store of syno­nyms. Each of them has its own shade of meaning. The use of one or other of these synonyms makes all the difference between the written and the spoken language. Note the difference between the following verbs; those of Anglo-Saxon origin are used in conversation, while the verbs of French origin are used in formal speech:

to give up — to abandon

to give in

to come in — to enter

to begin — to commence

to go on — to continue

The history of English literature shows us how the popular tongue became the language of the educated classes because it was spoken by the majority of the population, by those who tilled the soil, sowed and reaped, by those who produced the goods and struggled against the foreign oppressors.

Norman-French and Anglo-Saxon were moulded into one national language only towards the be

How the Language changed.

1)Many French words came into the language;

2) The spelling did not correspond to the pronunciation;

3) The use of French suffixes with words of Anglo-Saxon origin;

4) The French prefix dis- was used to make up words of negative meaning:
distrust, distaste;

5) The indefinite article was coming into use;

6) The struggle for supremacy between French and old English words went on;

7) There appeared a large store of synonyms.

The First Universities, Oxford and Cambridge.

Before the 12 century people thought that books and any kind of learning belonged to Church only. A group of professors were expelled. Followed by their students, they went over the Britain and in 1168 founded schools on the town of Oxford which formed the first university. A second university was formed in 1209 in Cambridge, to which a large group of students migrated from Oxford. The graduates were awarded degrees: Bachelor, Master and Doctor.

Towards the end of the 13th century colleges where other subjects were studied appeared around the universities. It became the custom for students to go about from one university to another, learning what they could from the most famous teachers in each place.

The Romance, The Fable and the Fabliau.

Romances.

During the Anglo-Norman period feudal culture was at its height. Tales in verse and lyrical poems appeared praising the bravery and gallantry of noble knights, their heroic deeds and chivalrous attitude towards ladies. At first they were all in Norman-French. Many of the stories came from old French sources, the language of which was a Romantic dialect, and for that reason these works were called "romances". They were brought to England by medieval poets.

The Fable and the Fabliau.

In the literature of the townsfolk we find the fable and the fabliau. Fables were short stories with animals for characters and conveying a moral. Fabliaux were funny stories about cunning humbugs and the unfaithful wives of rich merchants. They were metrical tales brought from France. These stories were told in the dialects of Middle English. They were collected and written down much later. The literature of the towns did not idealize characters as the romances did. The fabliaux show a practical attitude to life.

№3 ANCIENT BRITONS, THEIR LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

The language spoken in Britain when the Romans arrived is usually considered to have been ancient Welsh or Kumric but the evidence is growing that this may not have been the case. Ancient Welsh and other associated ‘Celtic’ languages like Welsh or Cornish would have undoubtedly been spoken in Britain and perhaps more widely geographically than now, yet it is likely that the main language, at least in what is now England was a very early form of Old English and not Welsh at all (see).

It seems that the Welsh language has been in Britain since ancient times and once probably held sway over most of Britain. In English speaking areas traces of this can still be seen in place-names but examples are rare. In London there is the ‘tot’ or ‘toot' of Tothill Street (and more anciently Tothill Fields) in Westminster, [see Tothill], Other examples are said to include the dow of Dowgate in the City meaning water, the 'hol' or 'hoel' meaning road in Holborn and to the east of Greenwich is Westcombe from the Welsh 'cym' meaning a type of valley.

However the group of people that have perhaps been more influential than any other on Britain’s culture were Prince Brutus the Trojan and his followers (see Brutus), they not only heralded in the Iron Age but gave Britain its name, as well as the distinctive ‘checkerboard’ ‘Celtic’ field patterns. As Trojans they would have originally come from the correct area where both farming was supposed to have started and the English language – Asia Minor or Anatolia, and were neighbours of the Hittites. The British chronicles go into great detail as to where their migration started and using Google Earth and other sources it is clear that the majority of those that made the migration came from the area that is now in northern Greece near the border with Albania. It is often assumed that the Trojans that were living here were enslaved Trojans captured after the fall of Troy but it is a very long way from Troy to take captives nor could they have been taken on a forced march as boats or ships would have been necessary to ferry them across the Dardanelles or Hellesport. What is not mentioned in the chronicles but adds greater credence to them is the fact that in this region there is a small Troy, the modern-day Filliates (see) that might be even older than the Troy in Asia Minor. It seems much more likely that these Trojans were there because it was their ancient homeland and were enslaved only after (or during) the Fall of Troy.

 

Britons or Brythons or British people were not the original inhabitants of what we call England today, but they were certainly one of the earlier peoples to inhabit what we call England today.

They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as Common Brittonic and lived in Great Britain (England) during the Iron Age, the Roman Era and the post-Roman Era. It is believed that the majority of Briton population respresented a continuity with the preceding Bronze Age.

Celt comes from the Greek word, Keltoi and means barbarians. It is properly pronounced Kelt. No one called these people living in Britain during the Iron Age Celts until the 18th century. They were simply known as Britons.

Since Roman times, millions of people have thought of themselves as “British”, but this identity was only created with the Union of England, Wales and Scotland in 1707.

Britain was just a geographical entity until the 17th century when James I of England and VI of Scotland sought to establish a pan-British monarchy.

Throughout recorded history the British Isles have consisted of multiple cultural groups and identities.

Britons or Brythons or British people were not the original inhabitants of what we call England today, but they were certainly one of the earlier peoples to inhabit what we call England today.

They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as Common Brittonic and lived in Great Britain (England) during the Iron Age, the Roman Era and the post-Roman Era. It is believed that the majority of Briton population respresented a continuity with the preceding Bronze Age.

Celt comes from the Greek word, Keltoi and means barbarians. It is properly pronounced Kelt. No one called these people living in Britain during the Iron Age Celts until the 18th century. They were simply known as Britons.

Many years ago during ancient Greek times, Pytheas called these northern islands collectively, ai Bpettaviai (hai Brittaniai) which has been translated to the Brittanic Isles. He had made an explorer’s voyage around the British Isles between 330-320 BC and had seen them with his own eyes.

He named the peoples of the Brittanic Isles, Prettanoi, Priteni, Pritani or Pretani, which has been translated to Britons.

These Britons, renamed Celts in the 18th century by historians and archaeologists, became a Romano-British population in 43 AD when the Romans invaded Britain (England) and conquered the Britons living there.

During the early Roman Era the Romans named the island Britanni or Brittanni, following their conquest in 43 AD and this is where the name Britannia for what is present day England comes from.

Northwest Europe was dominated by three main Celtic groups: the Gauls (in France), the Britons (in England) and the Gaels (in Ireland).

So, for the purposes of this article, the Britons (in England) refer to the different Celtic tribes that lived throughout what we know as present day England.

Celtic Life and Culture

Celtic Britain consisted of the Iron Age from approximately 600 BC – 50 AD and this was the age of the Celt in Britain (England) as the Celtic culture established itself throughout the British Isles. They arrived in Britain as separate tribes that migrated there and were loosely tied by a similar language, religion, and cultural expression.

Legendary Kings of the Britons

King Arthur – Romano-British war leader, but debatable historically

Queen Boudica – Queen of the Iceni – led a failed rebellion against the Romans in 60-61 AD

Cadwallon op Cadfun – King of Gwynedd – fought against the Anglo-Saxons

Cassivellaunus – lead defense against Julius Caesar in 54 BC

Conan Meriadoc – legendary founder of Brittany

№4 THE ROMAN INVASION AND LITERATURE IN LATIN

Latin literature, the body of writings in Latin, primarily produced during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, when Latin was a spoken language. When Rome fell, Latin remained the literary language of the Western medieval world until it was superseded by the Romance languages it had generated and by other modern languages. After the Renaissance the writing of Latin was increasingly confined to the narrow limits of certain ecclesiastical and academic publications. This article focuses primarily on ancient Latin literature. It does, however, provide a broad overview of the literary works produced in Latin by European writers during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

First attempts of conquest:

55 BC Julius Caesar invaded England with a bad result, due to some difficulties with the terrain and the natives didn?t collaborate.

54 BC Julius Caesar established himself in the Southeast of England. He exacted a tribute from the natives and this tribute was never paid.

A) CLAUDIUS?S INVASION

In AD 43 Emperor Claudius undertook the conquest of the island with an army of 40,000 men, under the command of the senator AULUS PLAUTIUS.

Within three years, the Centre and the Southeast of England were under Roman rule.

The landing was first unopposed. But the Roman forces were eventually drawn up on the south bank of the Thames until the pre-arranged arrival of Claudius from Rome (the future emperor, Vespasian, played a notable part). The Thames was then crossed in three ways, by swimming, by a bridge and by a ford at Westminster.

The awaiting Britons were easily defeated by Claudius and peace negotiated. He returned to Rome and the rest of the campaign was left in the hands of Plautius, governor of the new province.

Britain adopted Roman ways of life. This is evident from:

Construction of highways and roads.

London became the provincial capital and major trading centre in Europe.

Foundation of the first cities: houses, baths, temples?

Roman house-building style. e.g. with heating apparatus and water supply.

Building of houses in the countryside: villas.

General use of Roman dress and Roman ornaments.

This process was cut in the fifth century mainly due to new invasions from the North-Western part of the continent.

The Roman Empire and its predecessor the Roman Republic produced an abundance of celebrated literature; poetry, comedies, dramas, histories, and philosophical tracts; the Romans avoided tragedies. Much of it survives to this day. However, Roman literature cannot stand alone. They owe a debt to their neighbor, the Greeks (more specifically Athens). Most educated Romans were well aware of their own literary inferiority, and because of this Roman writers could easily copy Greek classical themes, even going so far as to translate many of the notable Greek works into Latin. However, to many Romans, this exercise would have been needless, for a number of highly educated citizens could speak and read both Greek and Latin. Many young, upper-class Romans even continued their education in Athens. Although the link to Greek Hellenism would remain for years to come, the Romans would soon develop a rich literature of their own.

The ground for Roman literature was prepared by an influx from the early 3rd century BC onward of Greek slaves, some of whom were put to tutoring young Roman nobles. Among them was Livius Andronicus, who was later freed and who is considered to be the first Latin writer. In 240 BC, to celebrate Rome’s victory over Carthage, he composed a genuine drama adapted from the Greek. His success established a tradition of performing such plays alongside the cruder native entertainments. He also made a translation of the Odyssey. For his plays Livius adapted the Greek metres to suit the Latin tongue; but for his Odyssey he retained a traditional Italian measure, as did Gnaeus Naevius for his epic on the First Punic War against Carthage. Scholars are uncertain as to how much this metre depended on quantity or stress. A half-Greek Calabrian called Ennius adopted and Latinized the Greek hexameter for his epic Annales, thus further acquainting Rome with the Hellenistic world. Unfortunately his work survives only in fragments.

The Golden Age of Latin literature spanned the last years of the republic and the virtual establishment of the Roman Empire under the reign of Augustus (27 BC–AD 14). The first part of this period, from 70 to 42 BC, is justly called the Ciceronian. It produced writers of distinction, most of them also men of action, among whom Julius Caesar stands out. The most prolific was Varro, “most learned of the Romans,” but it was Cicero, a statesman, orator, poet, critic, and philosopher, who developed the Latin language to express abstract and complicated thought with clarity. Subsequently, prose style was either a reaction against, or a return to, Cicero’s. As a poet, although uninspired, he was technically skillful. He edited the De rerum natura of the philosophical poet Lucretius. Like Lucretius, he admired Ennius and the old Roman poetry and, though apparently interested in Hellenistic work, spoke ironically of its extreme champions, the neōteroi (“newer poets”).

№5 CAEDMON AND CYNEWULF

Caedmon, (flourished 670), entered the monastery of Streaneshalch (Whitby) between 658 and 680, when he was an elderly man. According to Bede he was an unlearned herdsman who received suddenly, in a vision, the power of song, and later put into English verses passages translated to him from the Scriptures. Bede tells us that Caedmon turned into English the story of Genesis and Exodus. The name Caedmon has been conjectured to be Celtic. The poems assumed to be Caedmon poems Caedmon are: Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan. But critical research has proved the ascription to be impossible. Perhaps the Caedmon songs were used by later singers and left their spirit in the poems that remains; but of the originals described by Bede we have no trace. The only work which can be attributed to him is the short "Hymn of Creation," quoted by Bede himself. This is all we possess of the first known English poet. It survives in several manuscripts of Bede in various dialects.

Cynewulf:

Cynewulf (late 8th or 9th century) was identified, not certainly, but probably, with a Cynewulf who was Bishop of Lindisfarne and lived in the middle of the eighth century. He was a wandering singer or poet who lived a gay and secular life. The accuracy of some of his battle scenes and seascapes showed that he had fought on land and sailed the seas. Finally, after a dream in which he had a vision of the Holy Rood, he changed his life, became a religious poet, sang of Christ, the apostles, and the saints. His work represents an advance in culture upon the more primitive Caedmonian poems. The poems attributed to him are: Juliana, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles, and Christ II.

CAEDMON'S HYMN

The following nine lines are all of what survives that can reasonably be attributed to him. Bede quotes them in Chapter 24 of his History. Bede adds that these lines are only the general sense, not the actual words that Caedmon sang in his dream. Caedmon's gift remained an oral one and was devoted to sacred subjects.

"Now must we praise"

Now must we praise of heaven's kingdom the Keeper
Of the Lord the power and his Wisdom
The work of the Glory-Father, as he of marvels each,
The eternal Lord, the beginning established.
He first created of earth for the sons 5
Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator.
Then the middle-enclosure of mankind the Protector
The eternal Lord, thereafter made
For men, earth the Lord almighty.

(658-680)

Caedmon was one of the greatest poets of the OE period. He was Bede`s contemporary. He also lived in a monastery but had never learnt how to make verses. Usually he sang in vernacular and all of a sudden he began to compose poems. That`s why Bede accounted of Caedmon as of a certain brother gifted by God. He registered Caedmon`s verses but in Latin. Some other scops (переписчики) wrote Caedmon`s poems in the original Northumbrian dialect and one of the poems was found on the last manuscript of Bede`s work (737 year). Caedmon`s poems may serve as a bridge from oral poetry to written one. This poem is called The Hymn. It has all the characteristic features of medieval English verse: alliteration, abrupt lines more like interjections, the absence of connecting particles, periphrasis (repetition of the same idea in various phrases). 8 lines here are about God & God’s might, 3 lines about God’s making the earth, 3 lines about the earth itself. The structure is very much symmetrical & the refrains give it a jazzy quality. This verse is more like a prayer. It praises everything God did for people. Caedmon resorted to pauses very often and made this pauses inside every line. Each line consists of 4 stresses and after every 2 there is a pause. A pause inside the line is called caesura. It broke the verse into 2 parts. It was primarily used by gleemen. If they needed to speed up they pronounced only the left part of the poem. If they needed to slow down they pronounced both parts. It means that both parts were grammatically correct. Caedmon adopted this oral tradition and caesura became one more characteristic feature of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The nest feature typical of this Hymn is the usage of a refrain – the repetition of one and the same idea, but paraphrased. (Holly shaper, eternal Lord, Lord all-mighty, etc). As in all samples of early Anglo-Saxon poetry the subject matter is again religious. Caedmon in his hymn shows himself to be a true scholar. His verse combines the features of a prayer and a praise. The Hymn may be called a psalm because this verse belongs to a person who is overwhelmed with emotions and is eager to share his sincere feelings. There is one more feature that is very much typical of OE poetry. Everything the poet describes he saw in a dream or vision. At those time people who saw visions were considered to be inspired by God, because it meant that they prayed a lot during daytime. The next Anglo-Saxon poet is Cynewulf. He was already a Mercian poet of the later part of the 8th century. He was one of the rare poets who signed his verses. Nearly all OE poetry was anonymous. Cynewulf signed his poetry not because of the idea of fame. He supposed that people who liked his poetry would mention him in his prayers. The subject matter of his verses was again purely religious. The richness of his poetry and its high technical excellency mark his poetry as classical. The Dream of the Rood (распятие) is one of the most beautiful samples of all English religious poems. As it is the dream of the Rood, the chief strategy here is personification. It is the monologue of the Rood on which Jesus Christ was crucified. In choosing this point of view Cynewulf shows greatest originality. He doesn`t speak himself, the speaker if the piece of wood. The author animates the rood and makes it express pity for Christ and self-reproach for the Rood itself, because the Peed had to take the part in the greatest crime. Cynewulf explores the paradox. Christ`s death is equal to Christ`s trial/ There on the Rood Christ experiences rebirth and his death is the victory in the long run. Both Caedmon and Cynewulf were really great in giving us imagery that we need in order to understand quite clearly the devotion of medieval people to Christian ideas.

CAEDMON AND CYNEWULF

The literature of Anglo Saxon period falls naturally into two divisions pagan and Christian. The former represents the poetry which the Anglo – Saxons probably brought with them in the form of oral sagas – the crude material out of which literature was slowly developed on English soil; the latter represents the writings developed under teaching of the monks, after the old pagan religion had vanished, but while it still retained its hold on the life and language of the people. In reading the earliest English poetry it is well to remember that all of it was copied by the monks, and seems to have been more or less altered to give it a religious colouring.

In general, two great schools of Christian influence came into England, and speedily put an end to the frightful wars that had waged continually among the various petty kingdoms of the Anglo – Saxons. The first of these came from Rome, under the leadership of Augustine, had a little influence on literature. The other came from Northumbrian School, which is the centre of monasteries and abbeys, such was Jarrow and Whitby, and its three greatest names are Bede ‘the father of English learning’ as he writes Ecclesiastical History of English people, Caedmon and Cynewulf.

Caedmon, as Bede tells in his Ecclesiastical History, was a simple, unlettered herdsman in the monastery of the abbes Hilda at Whitby, who had so little gift of song that he used to leave the feast when he found the harp approaching him, and commanded him to sing. At the bidding of this mysterious being Caedmon sang at once, in praise of the God, the Creator, verses which he had never heard before. When he awoke, he remembered these verses, and made others like them. Thus the unlettered Caedmon was miraculously transformed into the first religious poet of England much like Kalidasa of India, the world – famous poet of Abhignanasakuntalam.

The poems which are believed to have been written by Caedmon contained in the Junius manuscript, preserved in the Bodleian library Oxforrd, and they are four in number – Genesis, Exodus, Daniel and the untitled poem named by Grain Christ and Satan. The longest of the Caedmonian poems in Genesis, which runs to nearly 3000 lines. In this poem, Caedmon, after singing the praises of the creator and giving a brief account of Satan’s rebellion against God, the expulsion of Satan and his followers from heaven, and God’s decision to establish again the glorious creation, relates the Bible story from the creation to the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. The adoption of the style and conventions of the pagan heroic poetry to Christian themes is seen more vividly in Caedmon’s Exodus which relates the escape of the Israelites through the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptians. Daniel is a paraphrase of the first five chapters of the biblical book of Daniel. The poet uses his material for homiletic purposes and tries, to include such Christian virtues as the duty of humility and obedience to God’s will. Christ and Satan attributed to Caedmon is a kind of Paradise Regained. It contains three poems, the first of which deals with the fall of the Angels, the second with Christ’s Harrowing of Hell, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and the Day of Judgement and the third with Christ’s Temptation. Judith, a fragment of some 350 lines is a version of the vulgate text of the apocryphal book of Judith’s beheading of the drunken Holofernes after his confident feasting, her rallying of the Hebrews to attack the Assyrians, the construction of the Assyrians of discovering Helofernes’ headless body, the rout of the Assyrians by the Hebrews and Judith’s triumph and praise to God.

It is imagined that Cynewulf must have been a soldier or a retainer of some great lord, which is borne out by the accuracy of some of his battle scenes and seascapes. He changed his life after he had seen in dream the vision of the Holy Rood, and became a religious poet with such creations like The Christ, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles and Elena. As a didactic poem with three parts, the Christ deals with the advent of Christ on the earth, His ascension and His second advent to judge the world. The subject of the poem is derived from Latin homilies and hymns. It shows the great influence of the Latin Christianity exerted upon the English Thought in Cynewulf’s time. Juliana, based upon Latin prose work, describes the life and death of Saint Juliana, a Christian maiden. The poem is distinguished by the clearness and swiftness of the story. But the pace involves dryness and an absence of poetry and emotion (Legouis). The Fates of the Apostles, a poem of 122 lines, portrays the adventure of the various apostles after they dispersed to spread the Gospel. Elena, a poem of 1321 lines, is the discovery of the true cross by Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine. Helena set out in quest of the cross after her son saw the vision of a cross in the sky before his victory at the Malvian Bridge.

“The glamour and pomp of war, the gleam of jewels, the joy of ships dancing on the waves, give life and colour to a narrative permeated by the deep, serious purpose of the author.”

M.B. Smith

The Phoenix attributed to Cynewulf by a large number of competent critics describes an earthly paradise in the East, the beauty of the phoenix, its flight to Syria after it has lived for a thousand years to build its nest, die and be reborn, while the second half takes the phoenix as an allegory both of the life of the virtuous in this world and the next and as a symbol of Christ.

Caedmon and Cynewulf are found to represent the two distinct schools of poetry, fostered by the Christianisation of the pagan Anglo – Saxon people. One is a native poet, with a spontaneous inspiration, while the other is an artist, with scholarly acquirements and artistic imagination. Caedmon’s poetry is a sort of hymns in praise of the Creator and His creation, whereas Cynewulf’s is the self – revelation of a soul in the pursuit of spiritual life. In Cynewulfian poetry, the inspiration is Christianity, and not simply Christ. Christ is celebrated in the new poetry as a saviour and the poetic spirit here is rather elegiac than epical. Again, Caledonian poetry is narrative and relates the story of creation and other Biblical accounts.

There is also the distinction between the two in regard to the poetic style. Caedmon’s natural poetry is simple, straightforward and definitely easily convincing. But Cynewulf is a poetic artist, and his poetry is rich in artistic graces. In variety, profundity and sonority, Cynewulfian poetry is definitely superior to Caedmonian.

№6 Middle English Lyrics and Ballads

I. Poems of Mourning, Fear, and Apprehension.

1 O Glorius God, redemer of mankynde.

2 Mirie it is while sumer i-last.

3 Now goth sonne vnder wod.

4 If man him bithocte.

5 Wen the turuf is thy tuur.

6 As I went in a mery mornyng.

7 Thegh thou habbe casteles and toures.

II. Poems of Joy and Celebration.

8 Svmer is i-cumen in.

9 Adam lay i-bowndyn.

10 My gostly fadir, Y me confesse.

11 Lett no man cum into this hall.

12 Witte hath wondir that resoun ne telle kan.

III. Poems Inscribed to the Blessed Virgin.

13 I syng of a mayden.

14 Of on that is so fayr and brigt.

15 Haill, Quene of Hevin and Steren of Blis.

16 I saw a fayr mayden.

IV. Poems of Narrative Reflection.

17 In the vaile of restles mynd.

18 Alas, alas, and alas, why.

19 I wolde witen of sum wys wiht.

V. Poems Whose Meanings Are Hidden (but Not Necessarily Unknown).

20 Maiden in the mor lay.

21 Foweles in the frith.

22 Ich am of Irlaunde.

23 I seche a youthe that eldyth noght.

24 He bare hym vp, he bare hym down.

Middle English Lyric is a genre of English Literature, popular in the 14th Century, is characterized by its brevity and emotional expression. Conventionally, the lyric expresses "a moment," usually spoken or performed in the first person. Although some lyrics have narratives, the plots are usually simple to emphasize an occasional, common experience. Even though Lyrics appear individual and personal, they are not "original;" instead, lyrics express a common state of mind. Those states of mind are wide in range. Some deal with religious topics pertaining to Jesus or the Virgin Mary, focusing on Christ's sacrifice and salvation, or Mary's roles as a mother and intercessor. Other religious topics focus on Adam and the Fall, or the necessity of faith. Others are secular, focusing on ale, women, and the simple joys of life. Some are sarcastic, take on satire, humorous, and sometimes even crude.

Most Middle English Lyrics are anonymous. Because the lyrics reflect on a sort of "community property" of ideas, the concept of copyrighting a lyric to a particular author is usually inappropriate. Additionally, identifying authors is very difficult. Most lyrics are often un-dateable, and they appear in collections with no apparent organic unity. It is most likely many lyrics that survive today were widely recited in various forms before being written down. Evidence for this appears in a variety of Middle English poetry, especially Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Many of Chaucer's lines bear an uncanny resemblance to Middle English Lyrics. Since these lyrics were written in a clear medieval Latin, scholars infer that these authors were likely clerics, familiar with other languages as well. Since the topics of the lyrics are secular, it is possible that the clerics were not writing the lyrics, but simply writing them down. It has also been inferred that the authors of these lyrics were primarily male. Some lyrics are written in a female voice, but it would be unlikely since those lyrics are written in a harsh satire against women.

Medieval Lyric is a colourful collection of lyrical poems, carols, and traditional British ballads written between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, together with some twentieth-century American versions of them. A lively and engaging collection of lyrical poems, carols, and traditional British ballads written in between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, together with some twentieth-century American versions of them. Introduces readers to the rich variety of Middle English poetry. Presents poems of mourning and of celebration, poems dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and to Christ, poems inviting or disparaging love, poems about sex, and more. Reader-friendly - uses modernized letter forms, punctuation and capitalization, and side glosses explaining difficult words. Opens with a substantial introduction by the editor to the medieval lyric as a genre, and features short introductions to each section and poem. Also includes an annotated bibliography, glossary, index of first lines, and list of manuscripts cited.

The production of poetry precedes the production of prose in almost all societies because poetry is easier to remember.The earliest epic poetry was not written but passed on from one poet to another.As soon as writing became diffused prose emerged essentially as a written medium.Middle Ages was a transitional age between an oral and a written and a literary culture, and people in Middle Ages made no essential distinction.
A large body of medieval lyrics still survives.Poems were often set to music and meant to be so be sang.Modern pop songs come in a direct line from the tradition of poems set to music.

Medieval ballads.
Ballads are short, anonymous narrative poems or songs that have been preserved and celebrated by oral transmission over the centuries, many of them have been passed from a country to another adapted to the local taste and tradition.Most ballads speak of tragic events such as a murder or a death.Some are based on legendary figures such as Robin Hood may be based on historical events.The ballad can be defined as a form of popular verse usually narrative, they were poetry composed by ordinary people to be sung.

№7The Robin Hood Ballads

Robin Hood, legendary outlaw hero of a series of English ballads, some of which date from at least as early as the 14th century. Robin Hood was a rebel, and many of the most striking episodes in the tales about him show him and his companions robbing and killing representatives of authority and giving the gains to the poor. Their most frequent enemy was the Sheriff of Nottingham, a local agent of the central government (though internal evidence from the early ballads makes it clear that the action took place chiefly in south Yorkshire, not in Nottinghamshire). Other enemies included wealthy ecclesiastical landowners. Robin treated women, the poor, and people of humble status with courtesy. A good deal of the impetus for his revolt against authority stemmed from popular resentment over those laws of the forest that restricted hunting rights. The early ballads, especially, reveal the cruelty that was an inescapable part of medieval life.

 

The authentic Robin Hood ballads were the poetic expression of popular aspirations in the north of England during a turbulent era of baronial rebellions and agrarian discontent, which culminated in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The theme of the free but persecuted outlaw enjoying the forbidden hunting of the forest and outwitting or killing the forces of law and order naturally appealed to the common people.

Although many of the best-known Robin Hood ballads are postmedieval, there is a core that can be confidently attributed to the medieval period. These are Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, Robin Hood and the Potter, and the Lytyll Geste of Robin Hode. During the 16th century and later, the essential character of the legend was distorted by a suggestion that Robin was a fallen nobleman, and playwrights, eagerly adopting this new element, increased the romantic appeal of the stories but deprived them of their social bite. Postmedieval ballads (which gave Robin a companion, Maid Marian) also lost most of their vitality and poetic value, doubtless as a result of losing the original social impulse that brought them into existence.

№8 Pre-Renaissance in England – the 14th century Literature (W. Langland, J. Wycliffe, G. Chaucer)

The 14 century was the period of the formation of the English nation and the English language. From the historical point of view it was quite a turbulent period in England, marked by the 10 0 Years' War with France (1337-1453), three epidemics of plague that killed half of England's population. In the country new social phenomena began to appear: the towns and their population were growing, the village was changing, the trade was developing, etc. As a result the townspeople - the tradesmen and craftsmen - were becoming more and more powerful, giving birth to a new social class -bourgeoisie.

The 100 Years' War brought many hardships to common people, besides the oppression of the lower classes by the nobles was also growing. The second half of the 14th century was also marked by the growing protest against the Roman-Catholic church and the demand of a church reform. It led to the famous Peasants' Revolt in 1831. The leader of the revolt was Wat Tyler (Уот Тайлер), a craftsman, and the ideological leader of the revolt was John Ball (they often called him "mad priest" - "безумный священник"). The common people demanded the equality of the social classes, to stop the abuses (злоупотребления) of the church and to quit the privileges of the feudals. In the end the revolt was severely suppressed.

The scholastic Latin Church literature still occupied an important place, but a new spirit was already felt in the cultural life in the country. The new spirit was marked by an optimism unknown to the Middle Ages. Speaking about the literature of the 14th century, one could mention John Wycliffe, William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer. William Langland, according to his style and genres, is fully associated with the Middle Ages, while Geoffrey Chaucer can be regarded the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first English poet who opened the way to English realistic literature, free of the influence of the Church.

As it has already been said, the second part of the 14th century was marked by the growing desire of a new reform of the Catholic Church. It was the result of the struggle against the feudal order of life (and the Catholic Church was closely connected with feudalism).

John Wycliffe was a priest. He attacked many of the religious ideas of his time. He was at Oxford but had to leave as his attacks on the Church could no longer be bourn. One of his beliefs was that anyone who wanted to read the Bible ought to be allowed to do so. But how could it be done by uneducated people when the Bible was written in Latin, the official language of the Roman-Catholic Church? Some parts had indeed been put into Old English long ago, but Wycliffe arranged the production of the whole Bible in English. He himself translated part of it. There were two translations (in 1382 and 1384), of which the second was better.

We know very little of the author. He was a peasant by his descent, got some church education, was rather poor but very independent. They believe that he used to say about himself that he was "too high to bend low".

Langland is mostly known as the author of the allegorical didactic poem "The Vision of Piers the Plowman" ("Видение о Петре Пахаре") which is written by means of alliteration. In this poem the writer mostly attacks the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church in England. In the poem there are many abstract personages, but there is also one character whom the very life in the country gave birth to - this is Piers the Plowman, who has the features of a typical English peasant of the 14th century. And in the long run this name became a kind of symbol of a true hardworking person.

The poem consists of two parts and a prologue. There are 11 visions in the poem all in all.

In the 1st part the writer tells of the people's quest for "Holy Truth" ("Святая П p а в д a "), in the 2nd part different abstract personages tell of their lives.

In the prologue the author tells of his dream: on a May day he fell asleep on a high hill and saw a dream. He saw "a field full of folk". There were different kinds of people on the field: some of them were poor, others were rich, some of them were working, others - wandering, etc. ("одни ходили за плугом, редко предаваясь веселью; насаждая и сея, они несли очень тяжёлую работу и добывали то, что расточители прожорливо истребляли"). On one side of the field there was a beautiful tower - the home of T r u t h. On the other side of the field there is a grim prison - the home of E v i 1. The very field is the symbol of the whole mankind. So we may say that this is an allegory of life in general. But at the same time the people on the field are like the English people of that epoch: they show the features of English people who represent different layers of society - peasants, ploughmen, monks, knights, vagabonds, pardoners, churchmen, etc. And the author manages to find a very precise description to each of the person.

In the 1st vision the story tells of a beautiful woman - "Holy Church" ("Святая Церковь") - she speaks with the poet and says to him that the most valuable thing in the world is Truth. The Truth's friends are Love and Conscience. Her enemies in the poem are Lie, Hypocrisy, Bribe (Мзда)and Treachery (Коварство).

Bribe appears in the 2nd vision. She is very, very beautiful and can seduce anyone she wants. Then follows the description of the wedding between Bribe and Deceit (Обман). Various statesmen gather to this feast. Bribe and Deceit are given a special document, according to which they have the right to lie, to boast, to curse and do many other bad things (the writer skillfully imitates the business language of that time). But the marriage was not concluded as Theology (Теология) is against this. Then the King proposes the knight Conscience to marry В r ib e but the knight would disagree. In the next scenes many other allegorical personages appear: Peace, Wisdom, Reason (Разум), Lie, etc.

Langland's poetic mastery is especially bright in the scene when the seven deadly sins appear before
us: Pride (Гордыня);

Anger (Гнев);

Gluttony (Невоздержанность, Обжорство,

Чревоугодие); £nvy (Зависть);

Covetousness (Жадность);

Lust (Похоть);

Sloth (Леность, Праздность). The episode which unites the whole poem is the theme of the quest for Holy Truth. The people on the field are called to seek Truth by Reason. But they do not know the way to Truth. And the only person who knows the way is Piers the Plowman as Conscience and Common Sense (Здравый Смысл) told him about it. The allegorical message of the poem is quite simple but profound - only those who work hard, know the true way in life.

Geoffrey Chaucer lived in an eventful age. He was born, they believe, in 1340 or thereabouts, when the Hundred Year's War with France had already begun. Three times in his life the plague known as the Black Death smote the country. When he was in his twenties the English language was established, for the first time, as the language of the law-courts. When Geoffrey Chaucer was in his late thirties the young & unfortunate Richard II ascended the throne, to be deposed & murdered a year before Geoffrey Chaucer's death by В о 1 i n g b г о к e, the rebel who became Henry IV. In 1381 there came the Peasants' Revolt, and with it a recognition that the labourers & diggers had human rights quite as much as the middle class & the nobility. Geoffrey Chaucer died in 1400, about 40 years before a really important event in English literary history - the invention of printing.

Geoffrey Chaucer belonged to that growing class from which, in the centuries to follow, so many great writers sprang. He was not a peasant, not a priest, not an aristocrat, but the son of a man engaged in trade: his father was a wine merchant. But young Geoffrey Chaucer was to learn a lot about the aristocracy through becoming a page to the Countess of Ulster. His promotion & foreign service as a young soldier (he was taken prisoner in France in 1359 & was ransomed by the King of England himself), his marriage into an aristocratic family of the great John of Gaunt, his diplomatic service in Europe since 1370 & his services at the King's court gave Geoffrey Chaucer plenty of opportunity to observe polite manners, to study the sciences & the arts, the literatures of France & Italy. In Italy at that time he could have met Petrarche (Петрарка) & Boccaccio (Боккаччо). At least he got acquainted with their works. So, all this made Geoffrey Chaucer one of the best-equipped of the English poets of that time. And his own first literary works were the translations from French & Italian.

Among Geoffrey Chaucer's first original (собственных) works was "The Parliament of Fouls" (about 1377 - 1382) ("Птичий парламент"). This poem combines two medieval genres of vision & b e s t i a ry. At the beginning of the poem the author tells how he once fell asleep & saw a dream: he found himself (очутился) in a garden on a high hill. It was the 14th of February (St. Valentine's Day). There he saw a beautiful woman dressed in white. This was the figure of N a t u r e. In her hand she had a female eagle (орлицу). And two male eagles were courting (ухаживали) the female one. But Nature did not know which of them she should give the female eagle. So she decided to call up an assembly of birds (созвать собрание) to solve the problem. Among the birds there was a H a w k (ястреб), a D о v e (голубь), a Goose,a Turkey,a Duck, etc. Nature asked the birds for their opinions. The Hawk said that the eagles should hold a tournament (турнир) & the winner should get the female eagle as he would be the worthiest among the two. The Goose added that even if one of the eagles did not get the female eagle he should not be too much upset because there are always so many other female eagles in the world. The Dove interrupted him saying that one should be devoted to his love till the end of his days, even if he was not rewarded (вознаграждён). The Turkey argued: what is the use of love then if it is no use at all? The argument went on & on. In the end Nature decided to postpone (отложить) the final solution till the next St. Valentine's Day.

So on the one hand the poem is a vision because it tells the reader of a dream, on the other hand it is a bestiary because the main personages here are animals (the birds in this case). Besides, the birds with their different views allegorically showed the classes & layers of the real society of that time: the Hawk & the Dove - the aristocracy, the Turkey, the Duck, the Goose - the newly emerged class of bourgeoisie. Geoffrey Chaucer even used the very word "bourgeois" while describing one of the birds.

№9 The Renaissance English Literature

Before we talk specifically about the English Renaissance, there's a really simple question we should probably answer, which is: what is a renaissance? Renaissance basically means 'rebirth' or 'revival.' In a more specific sense, the capital 'R' Renaissance was a flowering of the arts that swept through Europe starting in Italy in about the late 14th century. It made its way over to England somewhere around 1500 and lasted about 100 years. There can be a lot of debate about when it exactly started and ended, but that's a good way to put us in the right timeframe. To many critics, the English Renaissance is kind of when Western literature kicks into high gear. We're about to cover some of the most famous folks that ever put pen - or quill, if you will - to paper.

First, let's talk a little bit more about the culture that allowed the Renaissance to occur in the first place. One major thing that England had going for it in the late 15th century was the introduction of the printing press. This made it possible to mass-produce written works, which was huge, and it strengthened society's ability to create a literary culture. Another important factor was England's general social and political climate - the plague (or the Black Death) had passed and the Hundred Years' War was over - so, that's great. It's more productive when people aren't fighting and dying. British citizens could finally settle down in a life of relative peace and safety for the first time in a long time. When all of your resources aren't devoted just to staying alive and keeping your family alive, you have time to do things like write.

And write they did. It's interesting to note that, while the Italian Renaissance was primarily dominated by visual art, architecture, and stuff like that, the English really hit hard with the written word. So many titans of the English literary canon wrote during this time that this lesson will kind of seem like a 'Best-Of' list. These are the writers who more or less defined what English literature would be for the coming years.

The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. Like most of northern Europe, England saw little of these developments until more than a century later. The beginning of the English Renaissance is often taken, as a convenience, to be 1485, when the Battle of Bosworth Field ended the Wars of the Roses and inaugurated the Tudor Dynasty. Renaissance style and ideas, however, were slow to penetrate England, and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance.

When we talk about important English writers of the Renaissance, you probably know who's going to come up first. It the big guy - the Superman - we're talking William Shakespeare. Still the premiere dramatist of the English language today, his plays you've undoubtedly heard of or seen, either read them in class or seen them performed - seen one of the million adaptations that exist on film. We've covered Shakespeare's works pretty thoroughly in a lot of other lessons, so I definitely recommend you check them out to learn more about who he was and his most famous works individually. The key point here is just to remember that he's at the very forefront of the English Renaissance.

Besides Shakespeare, there are two other sort of titan