Controversy over Passion Plays

Medieval Section Overview Two linguistic and literary historical periods Old English—Anglo-Saxon Middle English

Beowulf Nature of the hero Structure of the poem –Relation to issues of gender

Canterbury Tales Estates Satire Miller’s Tale—Fabliau—Quitting Wife of Bath—Anti-feminist Satire Pardoner— –Spiritual and physical ambiguity

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Text Structured through parallels The façade of courtly culture Testing of Knightly Identity

Kempe Auto-hagiography Affective piety

Welcome to the early modern period –Literary Division Anglo-Saxon or Old English Literature Middle English Literature The Early Modern Period, aka The Renaissance »The Elizabethan Age: reign of Elizabeth I ( ) »Jacobean Age: Reign of James I ( ) »Caroline Age: Charles I ( ) »Commonwealth period ( )

Spenser

The Fairie Queene Not a poem to “solve,” but rather to experience Exploration of identity Exploration of abstract ideas –Red Cross and Una are characters and concepts

Fairie Queene The genres of the FQ--overview –Epic –Romance –Allegory

Genre--epic Long narrative poem Serious and formal style Heroic, perhaps quasi-divine central figure Tells the story of a nation, a tribe or even all of humanity

Genre epic Spenser’s epic elements –Begins in medias res –Use of epic simile

Genre--Romance –We’ve already seen some romance –Auerbach’s definition –Romance—The Letter to Raleigh ”To Fashion a Gentleman” –P. 716 (8 th ) and 777 (9 th ) –Archaic language

Fairie Queene Proem –The Poetic “I” (stanza one) –Gloriana (stanza four)

Genre: Allegory A darke conceit Allegory and levels of meaning

Fairie Queene Canto One—Den of Error Red Cross Knight I.1.1 Una I.1.4 Wandering Wood I.1.7 and I.1.10 The Den of Error I.1.11 line 96 ff The Monster Error I.1.14 line 123

Chaucer Challenge Winners! Kyle Wilkerson Molly Smith

Fairie Queene Canto One—Den of Error Red Cross Knight I.1.1 Una I.1.4 Wandering Wood I.1.7 and I.1.10 The Den of Error I.1.11 line 96 ff The Monster Error I.1.14 line 123

Error From the Latin, errare (to wander) What is the nature of this error? How does this monster represent this? Epic simile, Nile: I.1.21

Archimago Episode Archimago introduced I Hypocrisy Connections to Catholicism I The creation of the false Una I.1.45 Una and RCK separated RCK’s anger: and 5

Una and RCK separated Allegory of the English Church Allegory of Truth and Holiness

Duessa (I.2.13 ff) What she signifies—some critical views –Falsity –Church of Rome –Mary Queen of Scots –Whore of Babylon –Sans Foy—Saracen I.2.12

Duessa Episode Combat with Sans Foy (I.2.16) Fradubbio (I.2.31) Duessa Revealed (I.2.41)

Book II Guyon—Knight of Temperance –Temperance as Moderation OED: “practice or habit of restraining oneself in provocation, passion, desire etc. Rational self-restraint –Accompanied by Palmer--Reason

The Bower of Bliss Location in an artificial Garden (st. 42) –Enclosed, but how: st. 43 Genius and the Self (st. 47) Sexual Temptation Acrasia in the Bower

Guyon Reactions –St. 55 –St. 66 –Guidance from the Palmer (69)

Acrasia Her name means “intemperance”’ –Allegory: temperance conquers intemperance Witch with her lover (st. 72) –Temptress who turns men into beasts (Circe) Sensual temptation (st. 77) Loss of masculine strength (st. 80)

Bower destroyed Guyon’s destruction of the Bower 83

Possible contexts New World Ireland The Elizabethan court itself