Survey of British Literature And other lesser known literary facts

The Anglo Saxon Period 449-1066 Britons – Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles Picts- Remnants of a pre-Celtic civilization Gaels – Celtic speaking people in Ireland Druids – Class of Celtic Priests who preserved the oral literature traditions Angles and Saxons from Germany invaded Briton and eventually Celtic culture all but disappeared Early Anglo-Saxon settlers were seafaring wanderers who brought their pagan religion with a strong belief in fate and the admiration of heroes to prevail in battle

Growth of Christianity Romanized Briton named Patrick converted Ireland’s Gaels too Christianity Missionaries spread the faith among the Picts and Angles in the north In 597, a Roman missionary named St. Augustine and arrived in Kent and established a monastery at Canterbury By 690 all of Briton was at least nominally Christian The spread of Christianity was accompanied by the spread of literacy and the introduction of the Roman alphabet in place of the runic alphabet In the 790’s the Vikings invaded and Alfred the Great forced a truce and converted them to Christianity

Anglo-Saxon Literature Epic Poems about Heroes – Most famous is Beowulf originally told by oral poets , or scops, and later writtten down Most Old English poems are anonymous such as “The Seafarer” and “The Wife’s Lament” Known poets were Caedmon, a monk The Venerable Bede wrote an 8th century history of England Alfred the Great compiled the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Medieval Period 1066-1485 William the Conqueror invaded Briton from Normandy and brought French practices to England He introduced feudalism based on the premise that the king owned all the land – He granted a 4th to the king, a 4th to the church, and the rest he doled out to loyal nobles who supplied him with knights who swore their allegiance to the nobles and the king. The Anglo-Saxons ended up at the bottom of the ladder as serfs After William died the nobles and barons vied for power until Henry II reformed the judicial system and created English common law

Henry II was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine form France who brought the ideals of chivalry and encouraged the Crusades Their son Richard I, called Richard the Lionhearted, spent his 10-year reign fighting in the Crusades While he was gone his brother John plotted against him In 1215, John was forced to sigh the Magna Carta which limited royal authority John’s son, Henry III established what is now Parliament Feudalism declined, towns grew up and became centers of commerce, and universities like Oxford became England’s chief centers of learning The Hundred Years’ War between England and France, the Black Plague, the Peasant’s Revolt and the takeover by the Tudor’s ended this period of English History

Medieval Literature Religious faith was a vital element of medieval life and literature Romances-tales of chivalrous knights, many of which featured King Arthur-were especially popular Around 1175 an anonymous poet produced Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and a century later Mallory wrote Le Morte d’Arthur Around 1387, Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales which was the first work to show that English could be a respectable literary language Ballads like “Barbara Allen” and “Get Up and Bar the Door” continued the oral tradition

The English Renaissance 1485-1660 Renaissance means rebirth – the worldview changed from focus on religion and the afterlife to human life here on earth Europeans delighted in the arts and literature, in the beauty of nature, and a new sense of mastery over the world The War of the Roses brought Henry VII to the throne and then his son Henry VIII succeeded him He was a true renaissance prince who was well educated in music, poetry, and languages His daughter Elizabeth succeeded him and during her reign the English Renaissance reached full flower

Renaissance Poetry Pastoral Verse – Praises simple joys of rural life Ex. Christopher Marlowe – “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” Sir Walter Raleigh – “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” The Metaphysical Poets – Employs unusual imagery and elaborate meaphors Ex. Ben Johnson – “On My First Son” John Donne – from “Meditation 17”

Sonnet- A fourteen line poem with a specific rhyme scheme Edmond Spenser and William Shakespeare Francesco Petrarch – The Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet Epic Poems – The Renaissance was a high point for epic poetry Spenser’s The Faerie Queen John Milton’s – Paradise Lost

Shakespearean Drama Tragedies – Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Julius Caesar Comedies – The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors The History Plays – Henry IV, Part I and II, Henry V, Richard II, Richard III Written in blank verse and iambic pentameter

Restoration and Enlightenment 1660-1798 England restored the monarchy with Charles II and the Stuart court. He had been exiled in France and tried to emulate the French court’s sophistication and splendor He was succeeded by his Catholic brother James who wanted to restore Catholicism The Age of Reason was a philosophical movement inspired by the works of John Locke and Sir Isaac Newton-The methods of scientific inquiry were applied to everything The 18th century saw the birth of the novel as we know them Ex. Defoes’s Robinson Crusoe

18th Century Writers Samuel Pepys – The Diary of Samuel Pepys Alexander Pope – “Essay on Man”, “An Essay on Criticism”, “The Rape of the Lock” Jonathan Swift – “A Modest Proposal” and Gulliver’s Travels Voltaire – Candide Mary Wollstonecraft – “A Vindication on the Rights of Women” Samuel Johnson – “On Spring”, “On Idleness” Thomas Gray – “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

Romanticism 1798-1832 In Britain, revolutions in industry and agriculture rocked the social and economic structure of the nation Rousseau’s idea of the “noble savage” said that in his natural state man is essentially good and happy The Five Features of English Romanticism A New Concept of Poetry that started with Wordsworth A New Spontaneity and Freedom Love of Nature The Importance of the Commonplace Fascination With the Supernatural and the Exotic

Romantic Poets William Wordsworth William Blake Samuel Taylor Coleridge George Gordon, Lord Byron Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats

Romantic Novels Jane Austin – Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility Mary Shelley – Frankenstein Mary Shelly was the daughter of a feminist mother and a liberal, philosopher father. She published the novel when she was 20 years old. She was married to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and supported herself through writing after his death when she was 24. Considered a Romantic as well as Gothic piece of literature