History of English Literature Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and the Renaissance: An Overview

General Historical Timeline Britons Roman Conquest (55 B.C. – 410 A.D.) Angles, Saxons and Jutes invade Danish Invasion (King Alfred the Great) Norman Conquest (1066) Feudal England (Peasants, Nobility, and Clergy) Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) War of the Roses (1455-1485): Lancaster v. York. Reformation (Henry VIII v. Rome = Church of England) Counter-Reformation (Queen Mary Reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) Defeat of the Spanish “Armada” (1588) Renaissance (Rebirth of Letters) – Started Italy 14th C., spread to Europe. Interest in Classical Literature (Greek and Roman) and Humanity. Caxton – Printing Press (1475)

General Literary Timeline Oral Stories Beowulf, Dream of the Rood, and other A-S poems Medieval Romances, translated from French or Latin (Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur) Langland’s Piers the Plowman English Ballads (songs/chants): Robin Hood Chaucer (Troilus and Crieseyde, The Canterbury Tales) – First to bring his own voice to English literature and incorporate Heroic Couplet* First English Bible (14th C.) Thomas More (Utopia) Translation, Travel and Lyric poems The Sonnet Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene Miracle Plays Christopher Marlowe (Doctor Faustus) Shakespeare and His Contemporaries

Beowulf A-S poem Taken from Oral History and Stories Written down and influenced by Christian Monks Alliterative Verse Metaphor and idiom Understatement Meant to be read aloud or sung

Medieval Romances Translated from French or Latin Focuses on one Romantic “Hero” Matters of Britain (King Arthur) Matters of France (Charlemagne) Matters of Rome (Alexander the Great) See: Le Morte D’Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Havelok the Dane, etc.

Piers the Plowman Written by William Langland (c.1330-c.1400) Alliterative verse (but in Early Middle English) Dream Poem Allegory – using symbols to relate truth Shows Feudal England Exaltation of the oppressed peasant

Ballads Peasant’s literature (oral) Story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas (abcb rhyme) Oral history, written down much later Robin Hood (The Geste of Robin Hood)

Chaucer 1340-c.1400 French influence (The Romaunt of the Rose) - translation Italian influence (Troilus and Criseyde) - adaption English originality (The Canterbury Tales) – new and original Language: Rhymed Stanza; Heroic Couplet (French) = Blank Verse + Rhyming Couplet; Iambic Pentameter

Thomas More 1478-1535 Middle Class scholar and lawyer Executed by Henry VIII because of disagreements Utopia – More’s vision of an ideal commonwealth Book 1 – picture of contemporary England Book 2 – Sketch of More’s ideal

Lyrical Poems Renaissance and Elizabethan Era brought about interest in Classics, Humanism and nationalist feeling Translations of Italian and French as well as Latin and Greek Travel Literature Lyrical Poems Thousands of lyrical poems Introduction of the Sonnet

The Sonnet 14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse) 2 kinds: English Sonnet (Shakespearean) has rhyme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg Italian (Petrarchan) has octave (two quatrains) forming the proposition followed by sestet (two tercets) forming the resolution. rhyme: abba abba, cde cde (or cdc cdc) All lines have 10 syllables Also, Occitan, Spenserian, and Modern Sonnets

Edmund Spencer 1552-1599 The Faerie Queene – long poem in 12 books (only 6 finished) Faerie Queene (Elizabeth I) holds feast of 12 days, each day a stranger in distress asks for help and a knight is assigned to help Each knight represents a virtue; and war against a vice Blend of Modernism, Humanism, and Medievalism Spenserian Stanza: 8 iambic pentameter +1 line of 6 iambic feet; rhyme: ababbcbcc