BEOWULF AND THE HEROIC CODE

Beowulf remains one of the most important works of English literature though it was written centuries ago. One reason for this fact is that many of the themes that it touches on are still pertinent in today's extremely different society. One of the most prevalent themes found in Beowulf is the importance of the heroic code. Much of this epic poem is dedicated to conveying and exemplifying the heroic code which values such attributes as strength, courage and honor. Conflicting with this ideology are other factors such as Christianity, and these tensions affect the lives and decisions of the narrative's characters. Over the course of the poem, Beowulf matures from a gallant warrior into a wise leader. This transition illustrates that a sometimes conflicting code of values goes along with each of his roles.

In Germanic societies, such as the one in which Beowulf takes place, there were heroic codes which defined how a noble person should act. In addition to strength, courage and honor, these codes also included loyalty, generosity, and hospitality. The heroic code was of great importance in warrior societies. In his book Beowulf and Epic Tradition, William Witherle Lawrence says that these codes were "defined with the utmost strictness, and were not lightly to be transgressed." He goes on to say that upon these codes "the whole motivation of the poem depends" and that "tribal law and custom [were] the rocks against which the lives of men and women [were] shattered" (Lawrence 28-29). Therefore, all of the characters' moral decisions originate from the code's directives. Consequently all individual actions can be seen only as either complying with or going against the code.

Beowulf highlights the code's points of tension by relating circumstances that reveal its internal inconsistencies. The poem contains several stories in which characters experience divided loyalties, in these situations, the code gives no realistic guidance as to how they are supposed to act or react. One example of this is when Hildeburh, a Danish woman, marries the Frisian king. When war breaks out between the Danes and the Frisians, Hildeburh experiences losses on both sides. Do her loyalties lie with the land of her birth, or with her new home? In the end, Hildeburh is left grieving over the deaths of both her Danish brother and her Frisian son.

Another, perhaps greater, tension within the poem is the one between the heroic code and Christianity. While the heroic code claims that glory is achieved in this life through noble deeds, Christian doctrine maintains that glory lies only in the hereafter. Also, warrior tradition states that it is always better to get revenge than to grieve. This directly contradicts the Christian belief to forgive those who have done us wrong.

The text consists of 3182 lines and is written alliteration verse created at the beginning of the eighth century[citation 182 days] and were kept in a single list of the XI century, which almost died during the fire of the library of Robert cotton in 1731. This is the oldest epic poem "barbarian" (Germanic) Europe, preserved in full

5 Anglo-Norman literature, also called Norman-french Literature, or Anglo-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.

From the 12th through the 14th century, Anglo-Norman was second only to Latin in its use as a literary language in England. Most types of literary works were represented in Anglo-Norman as in French, with a slight difference of emphasis. The chanson de geste was an exception; this type of French epic poem was not unknown in England, but there seem to have been no original works of the kind written there. Conversely, Anglo-Norman works were known, copied, or imitated on the Continent. One important difference between continental and Anglo-Norman literature is that the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 led to an outpouring of doctrinal and devotional works for the laity in England not paralleled in France, which perhaps explains the fact that in the early periods England was often in advance of the Continent in the development of new literary forms. Historical writing was popular both in Normandy and in the rest of the Continent; and although, after the Norman Conquest, Latin replaced English for use in documents and chronicles, examples of both are found in Anglo-Norman. Religious houses caused lives of native saints to be written, and the nobility had a taste for romances about imaginary English ancestors. Thus social and political differences between the two countries prevented Anglo-Norman literature from being a mere provincial imitation of French.

Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is a code of conduct associated with the medieval institution of knighthood which developed between 1170 and 1220.

According to the British Medieval historian David Crouch, the historical debate on chivalry is an ancient one.[1]What was being debated? The late medieval code of chivalry had arisen from the idealisation of the early medieval synthesis of Germanic and Roman martial traditions —involving military bravery, individual training, and service to others—especially in Francia, among horse soldiers in Charlemagne's cavalry.[2][3] The term chivalry derives from the Old French term chevalerie, which can be translated to "horse soldiery".[Note 1] Gautier states that knighthood emerged from the Teutonic forests and was nurtured into civilization and chivalry by the Catholic Church.

Over time, its meaning has been refined to emphasise social and moral virtues more generally. And the Code of Chivalry, as it stood by the Late Middle Ages, was a moral system which combined a warrior ethos, knightly piety, and courtly manners, all conspiring to establish a notion of honour and nobility.

Medieval literature

From the 12th century onward chivalry came to be understood as a moral, religious and social code of knightly conduct. The particulars of the code varied, but codes would emphasise the virtues of courage, honour, and service. Chivalry also came to refer to an idealisation of the life and manners of the knight at home in his castle and with his court.

Medieval courtly literature glorifies the valour, tactics and ideals of ancient Romans.[34] For example, the ancient hand-book of warfare written by Vegetius called De Re Militari was translated into French in the 13th century as L'art de chevalerie by Jean de Meun. Later writers also drew from Vegetius such as Honore Bonet who wrote the 14th century L'arbes des batailles, which discussed the morals and laws of war. In the 15th century Christine de Pizan combined themes from Vegetius, Bonet and Frontinus in Livre des faits d'armes et de chevalerie.

In the later Middle Ages, wealthy merchants strove to adopt chivalric attitudes - the sons of the bourgeoisie were educated at aristocratic courts where they were trained in the manners of the knightly class.[34] This was a democratisation of chivalry, leading to a new genre called the courtesy book, which were guides to the behaviour of "gentlemen". Thus, the post-medieval gentlemanly code of the value of a man's honor, respect for women, and a concern for those less fortunate, is directly derived from earlier ideals of chivalry and historical forces which created it.[34]

The medieval development of chivalry, with the concept of the honour of a lady and the ensuing knightly devotion to it, not only derived from the thinking about the Virgin Mary, but also contributed to it.[41] The medieval veneration of the Virgin Mary was contrasted by the fact that ordinary women, especially those outside aristocratic circles, were looked down upon. Although women were at times viewed as the source of evil, it was Mary who as mediator to God was a source of refuge for man. The development of medieval Mariology and the changing attitudes towards women paralleled each other and can best be understood in a common

ANALYSYS

The Green Knight is not named in the poem, and he says only that men know him as the "Knight of the Green Chapel." His strange color and his marvelous ability to live without his head mark him as an otherworldly creature. In other ways, however, he could simply be an especially bold knight. He is enormously tall and strong, almost a giant, and his vigor and maturity are indicated by his bushy hair and beard. He is brash and rude in his challenge to the court, calling them mere children and telling them that if he had come to fight, no one could stand against him. He says he comes to the court in peace, asking only for a game, and yet he carries a fearsome weapon, a huge axe.

When Gawain meets the knight again at the Green Chapel, he is again fearsome, but also playful, tweaking Gawain by drawing out the final blow, alternately mocking him for cowardice and praising him for bravery. When it finally becomes clear that he does not intend to kill Gawain, the Green Knight seems more mischievous than frightening. He has indeed been playing a game with Gawain, but a different game than the one Gawain imagined.

The pattern of the romance leads to the expectation that the Green Knight is a villain, an evil monster. However, when the story ends, Gawain and the Green Knight part as friends. Far from having been defeated, the Green Knight retains the advantage throughout the story, and the poet leaves him to go his ways, his mysteries unexplained and his ambiguities unresolved.

Piers Plowman exists in at least three versions. The A text, dating from about 1362, contains a prologue and eleven passi, or cantos. The Latin word “passus” means step or stage of a journey and is both singular and plural. About a decade later William Langland expanded the work from 2,400 lines to 7,277, arranged in a prologue and twenty passi. This expanded B text, dating from about 1377, is regarded as the most authoritative. Sometime in the 1380’s Langland began another revision to create the C text (1393), which contains 7,338 lines, divided into a prologue and twenty-two passus. Because the revision of the C text was left unfinished at Langland’s death, scholars are reluctant to regard it as definitive. In addition to the A, B, and C texts, there is a Z text, even shorter than A, which survives in a single manuscript at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

Two central questions of Christian theology concern defining the just society in this world and finding salvation in the next. Piers Plowman addresses both of these issues. The first two visions focus mainly on the first question. Though Langland is sometimes presented as a revolutionary, his ideal commonwealth is hierarchical. When in the prologue the rats want to bell the cat (perhaps an allusion to Parliament’s attempt in 1376 to limit the king’s power), a mouse says that everyone is better off with an unfettered ruler. If the king ruled with the advice of Reason and Conscience, and if all who could do so labored in their vocation, everyone would live comfortably. Holy Church, as early as the first passus, says that Will already knows Truth, which is that love is the key to the just society.

The narrator, generally referred to as Will and presented as the author of the poem, wanders the world dressed as a hermit, until one May morning, near Malvern Hills, he falls asleep and dreams. In the vision, he sees a field full of folk of all social classes, including beggars, members of religious orders, knights, kings, and plowmen, going about the various activities of life, with a tower at one end and a dungeon located in a hollow beneath. At this point, a group of mice and rats assemble to determine what action to take against a cat at court who has been terrorizing them for some time. They agree that the best plan will be to put a bell around the cat’s neck, but then they realize they do not have the courage to attempt it. One sensible mouse suggests that they are better off with the cat than with a different cat or on their own.

The narrator, generally referred to as Will and presented as the author of the poem, wanders the world dressed as a hermit, until one May morning, near Malvern Hills, he falls asleep and dreams. In the vision, he sees a field full of folk of all social classes, including beggars, members of religious orders, knights, kings, and plowmen, going about the various activities of life, with a tower at one end and a dungeon located in a hollow beneath. At this point, a group of mice and rats assemble to determine what action to take against a cat at court who has been terrorizing them for some time. They agree that the best plan will be to put a bell around the cat’s neck, but then they realize they do not have the courage to attempt it. One sensible mouse suggests that they are better off with the cat than with a different cat or on their own.

THE REEVE’S PROLOGUE AND TALE

The Reeve, a carpenter by craft, is furious at the Miller’s treatment of

carpenters and declares that he will “quite” the Miller’s tale with another

fabliau, this one not about carpenters but about silly millers.

Symkyn the miller is a fat, pug-nosed scoundrel. Two young scholars, Aleyn

and John, try to stop the miller from stealing. However, Symkyn catches onto

their plan and releases their horse into a field of wild mares. The scholars

spend all day chasing their horse, which gives the miller plenty of time to steal

grain. Aleyn and John end up spending the night at the miller’s house. The

miller, his wife, his grown daughter, his infant, and the two scholars all share a

bedroom. To take his revenge on the miller, Aleyn has sex with the miller’s

daughter. Not to be outdone, John switches the cradle from the foot of the

miller’s bed to the foot of the scholars’ bed. Mistaking the beds, the miller’s

wife hops into bed with John, who has sex with her. Aleyn leaves the

daughter’s bed and crawls back into what he thinks is his own bed to brag to

John about his exploits, but it turns out that he brags to the miller. Chaos

ensues and everybody ends up beating up the miller.

10.

One of the most important contributions that Chaucer made is his contribution to the English language. It was all due to his treatment of English language in his poetry that English secured a prominent position amongst the languages of the world not only today but in that time as well. It was Chaucer, who preferred English language over Latin and French. It was a fashion and vogue of the time to use Latin and French languages in church, courts and in any literary work, but Chaucer refused to adopt these languages for his poetry. Though, the English language was in raw form, yet he ventured upon using the English Language for his poetry. It was not as polished and full of vocabulary as Latin and French. Lowell says in this regard: “Chaucer found his English a dialect and left it a language.” He transformed the East Midland dialect into a full-fledged language of England. Chaucer knew that Latin and French, due to its complex grammar, would lag behind English language. He was pretty sure about the bright future of English language. That is why; he adopted English language in his poetry. Sir Walter Raleigh remarks that “he purified the English of his time from its dross! He shaped it into a fit instrument for his use.” Chaucer’s major contributions also contain his lavish use of humour in his poetry. He may be regarded as the best and first humourist in the history of English literature. Chaucer’s another contribution that resulted in the birth of secular drama was his contribution to the drama. Chaucer is also famous for his new form of stanza, which is called Chaucerian stanza. Its rhyme scheme is aba bb cc.

11. A ballad /ˈbæləd/ is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dancing songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of the British Isles from the latermedieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later theAmericas, Australia and North Africa.

Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used bypoets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century the term took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is now often used for any love song, particularly the pop or rock sentimental ballad.

The ballad derives its name from medieval French dance songs or "ballares" (L: ballare, to dance),[1]from which 'ballet' is also derived, as did the alternative rival form that became the French ballade.[2][3]As a narrative song, their theme and function may originate from Scandinavian and Germanic traditions of storytelling that can be seen in poems such as Beowulf.[4] Musically they were influenced by theMinnesinger.[5] The earliest example of a recognisable ballad in form in England is "Judas" in a 13th-century manuscript.[6]

Ballads were originally written to accompany dances, and so were composed in couplets with refrains in alternate lines. These refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance.[7] Most northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains (four-line stanzas) of alternating lines of iambic (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable) tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables), known as ballad meter. Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed (in the scheme a, b, c, b), which has been taken to suggest that, originally, ballads consisted of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables.[8] This can be seen in this stanza from "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet":

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archerand swordsman. Traditionally depicted as being dressed in Lincoln green,[1] he is often portrayed as "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor" alongside his band of Merry Men. Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the late-medieval period, and continues to be widely represented in literature, films and television.

Ballads dating back to the 15th century are the oldest existing form of the Robin Hood legends, although none of them were recorded at the time of the first allusions to him, and many are from much later. They share many common features, often opening with praise of the greenwood and relying heavily on disguise as a plot device, but include a wide variation in tone and plot.[2] The ballads are sorted into three groups, very roughly according to date of first known free-standing copy. Ballads whose first recorded version appears (usually incomplete) in the Percy Folio may appear in later versions[3] and may be much older than the mid-17th century when the Folio was compiled. Any ballad may be older than the oldest copy that happens to survive, or descended from a lost older ballad. For example, the plot of Robin Hood's Death, found in the Percy Folio, is summarised in the 15th-century A Gest of Robyn Hode, and it also appears in an 18th-century version.[4]

The historicity of Robin Hood has been debated for centuries. Modern academic opinion maintains that the legend is based in part on a historical person, although there is considerable scholarly debate as to his actual identity. A difficulty with any such historical research is that "Robert" was in medieval England a very common given name, and "Robin" (or Robyn), was its very common diminutive, especially in the 13th century.[5] The surname "Hood" (or Hude or Hode etc.) was also fairly common because it referred either to a Hooder, who was a maker of hoods; or alternatively to somebody who wore a hood as a head-covering. Unsurprisingly, therefore, reference is made to a number of people called "Robert Hood" or "Robin Hood" in medieval records. Some of these individuals are even known to have fallen afoul of the law.

Traditional Plot

In popular culture, Robin Hood and his band of "merry men" are usually portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, where much of the action in the early ballads takes place. So does the very first recorded Robin Hood rhyme, four lines from the early 15th century, beginning: "Robyn hode in scherewode stod." However, the overall picture from the surviving early ballads and other early references suggest that Robin Hood may have been based in the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire (which borders Nottinghamshire).

Other people point to a variety of locations as Robin's "true" home both inside Yorkshire and elsewhere, with the abundance of places named for Robin causing further confusion. A tradition dating back at least to the end of the 16th century gives his birthplace as Loxley, Sheffield in South Yorkshire, while the site of Robin Hood's Well in Skellow, South Yorkshire, has been associated with Robin Hood since at least 1422. Records show a man named Robin Hood lived in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the 13th and 14th centuries. His grave has been claimed to be at Kirklees Priory near Mirfield in West Yorkshire, as implied by the 18th-century version of Robin Hood's Death, and there is a headstone of dubious authenticity.

The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from Line 5396 of the late-14th-century poem Piers Plowman, but the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads that tell his story date to the 15th century, or the first decade of the 16th century. In these early accounts, Robin Hood's partisanship of the lower classes, his Marianism and associated special regard for women, his outstanding skill as an archer, his anti-clericalism, and his particular animosity towards the Sheriff of Nottingham are already clear. Little John, Much the Miller's Son and Will Scarlet (as Will "Scarlok" or "Scathelocke") all appear, although not yet Maid Marian or Friar Tuck. It is not certain what should be made of these latter two absences as it is known that Friar Tuck, for one, has been part of the legend since at least the later 15th century.

In popular culture, Robin Hood is typically viewed as a contemporary and supporter of the late-12th-century king Richard the Lionheart, Robin being driven to outlaw during the misrule of Richard's brother John while Richard was away at the Third Crusade. This view first gained currency in the 16th century. It is not supported by the earliest ballads. The early compilation, A Gest of Robyn Hode, names the king as "Edward", and while it does show Robin Hood as accepting the King's pardon he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood.

The oldest surviving ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk, gives even less support to the picture of Robin Hood as a partisan of the true king. The setting of the early ballads is usually attributed by scholars to either the 13th century or the 14th, although it is recognized they are not necessarily historically consistent.

The early ballads are also quite clear on Robin Hood's social status: he is a yeoman. While the precise meaning of this term changed over time, including free retainers of an aristocrat and small landholders, it always referred to commoners. The essence of it in the present context was "neither a knight nor a peasant or 'husbonde' but something in between". We know that artisans (such as millers) were among those regarded as "yeomen" in the 14th century. From the 16th century on, there were attempts to elevate Robin Hood to the nobility and in two extremely influential plays Anthony Munday presented him at the very end of the 16th century as the Earl of Huntingdon, as he is still commonly presented in modern times. As well as ballads, the legend was also transmitted by "Robin Hood games" or plays that were an important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities. The first record of a Robin Hood game was in 1426 in Exeter, but the reference does not indicate how old or widespread this custom was at the time. The Robin Hood games are known to have flourished in the later 15th and 16th centuries. It is commonly stated as fact that Maid Marian and a jolly friar (at least partly identifiable with Friar Tuck) entered the legend through the May Games.

The early ballads link Robin Hood to identifiable real places and many are convinced that he was a real person, more or less accurately portrayed. A number of theories as to the identity of "the real Robin Hood" have their supporters. Some of these theories posit that "Robin Hood" or "Robert Hood" or the like was his actual name; others suggest that this may have been merely a nickname disguising a medieval bandit perhaps known to history under another name. One historian claims Robin Hood was a pseudonym by which the ancient Lords of Wellow, Nottinghamshire, were once known. It is interesting that the village has such a strong connection with maypole celebrations, considering Robin Hood's links with the same thing. At the same time it is possible that Robin Hood has always been a fictional character; the folklorist Francis James Child declared "Robin Hood is absolutely a creation of the ballad-muse" and this view has been neither proven or disproved. Another view is that Robin Hood's origins must be sought in folklore or mythology. Despite the frequent Christian references in the early ballads, Robin Hood has been claimed for the pagan witch-cult supposed by Margaret Murray to have existed in medieval Europe.

12. A play, as most of you know, is where live actors get on a stage and act out a story in front of an audience. During Medieval times most plays were religious and were used to teach people about the Bible, the lives of saints, or how to live your life the right way. There were three different types of plays preformed during medieval times; The Mystery Play, the Miracle Play and the Morality Play.

Mystery plays were stories taken from the Bible. Each play had four or five different scenes or acts. The priests and monks were the actors. Each scene or act was preformed at a different place in town and the people moved from one stage to the next to watch the play. The play usually ended outside the church so that the people would go to church and hear a sermon after watching the play.

The Miracle play was about the life or actions of a saint, usually about the actions that made that person a saint. One popular Miracle play was about Saint George and the dragon.

Morality plays were designed to teach people a lesson in how to live their life according to the rules of the church.

Sometimes these plays had elaborate sets, sometimes no sets at all. It didn't seem to matter. The people attended these plays. They didn't have to, but it was a break from their normal daily lives.

FOLK PLAYS

In England the folk-plays, throughout the Middle Ages and in remote spots down almost to the present time, sometimes took the form of energetic dances (Morris dances, they came to be called, through confusion with Moorish performances of the same general nature).

Others of them, however, exhibited in the midst of much rough-and-tumble fighting and buffoonery, a slight thread of dramatic action. Their characters gradually came to be a conventional set, partly famous figures of popular tradition, such as St. George, Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and the Green Dragon.

Other offshoots of the folk-play were the 'mummings' and 'disguisings,' collective names for many forms of processions, shows, and other entertainments, such as, among the upper classes, that precursor of the Elizabethan Mask in which a group of persons in disguise, invited or uninvited, attended a formal dancing party. In the later part of the Middle Ages, also, there were the secular pageants, spectacular displays (rather different from those of the twentieth century) given on such occasions as when a king or other person of high rank made formal entry into a town. They consisted of an elaborate scenic background set up near the city gate or on the street, with figures from allegorical or traditional history who engaged in some pantomime or declamation, but with very little dramatic dialog, or none.

But all these forms, though they were not altogether without later influence, were very minor affairs, and the real drama of the Middle Ages grew up, without design and by the mere nature of things, from the regular services of the Church.

TROPES, LITURGICAL PLAYS, AND MYSTERY PLAYS.

We must try in the first place to realize clearly the conditions under which the church service, the mass, was conducted during all the medieval centuries. We should picture to ourselves congregations of persons for the most part grossly ignorant, of unquestioning though very superficial faith, and of emotions easily aroused to fever heat. Of the Latin words of the service they understood nothing; and of the Bible story they had only a very general impression. It was necessary, therefore, that the service should be given a strongly spectacular and emotional character, and to this end no effort was spared. The great cathedrals and churches were much the finest buildings of the time, spacious with lofty pillars and shadowy recesses, rich in sculptured stone and in painted windows that cast on the walls and pavements soft and glowing patterns of many colors and shifting forms. The service itself was in great part musical, the confident notes of the full choir joining with the resonant organ-tones; and after all the rest the richly robed priests and ministrants passed along the aisles in stately processions enveloped in fragrant clouds of incense. That the eye if not the ear of the spectator, also, might catch some definite knowledge, the priests as they read the Bible stories sometimes displayed painted rolls which vividly pictured the principal events of the day's lesson.

THE MORALITY PLAYS.

The Mystery Plays seem to have reached their greatest popularity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the dawning light of the Renaissance and the modern spirit they gradually waned, though in exceptional places and in special revivals they did not altogether cease to be given until the seventeenth century. On the Continent of Europe, indeed, they still survive, after a fashion, in a single somewhat modernized form, the celebrated Passion Play of Oberammergau. In England by the end of the fifteenth century they had been for the most part replaced by a kindred species which had long been growing up beside them, namely the Morality Plays.

The Morality Play probably arose in part from the desire of religious writers to teach the principles of Christian living in a more direct and compact fashion than was possible through the Bible stories of the Mysteries. In its strict form the Morality Play was a dramatized moral allegory. It was in part an offshoot from the Mysteries, in some of which there had appeared among the actors abstract allegorical figures, either good or bad, such as The Seven Deadly Sins, Contemplation, and Raise-Slander. In the Moralities the majority of the characters are of this sort—though not to the exclusion of supernatural persons such as God and the Devil—and the hero is generally a type-figure standing for all Mankind. For the control of the hero the two definitely opposing groups of Virtues and Vices contend; the commonest type of Morality presents in brief glimpses the entire story of the hero's life, that is of the life of every man. It shows how he yields to temptation and lives for the most part in reckless sin, but at last in spite of all his flippancy and folly is saved by Perseverance and Repentance, pardoned through God's mercy, and assured of salvation.

THE INTERLUDES.

Early in the sixteenth century, the Morality in its turn was largely superseded by another sort of play called the Interlude. But just as in the case of the Mystery and the Morality, the Interlude developed out of the Morality, and the two cannot always be distinguished, some single plays being distinctly described by the authors as 'Moral Interludes.' In the Interludes the realism of the Moralities became still more pronounced, so that the typical Interlude is nothing more than a coarse farce, with no pretense at religious or ethical meaning. The name Interlude denotes literally 'a play between,' but the meaning intended (between whom or what) is uncertain. The plays were given sometimes in the halls of nobles and gentlemen, either when banquets were in progress or on other festival occasions; sometimes before less select audiences in the town halls or on village greens. The actors were sometimes strolling companies of players, who might be minstrels 'or rustics, and were sometimes also retainers of the great nobles, allowed to practice their dramatic ability on tours about the country when they were not needed for their masters' entertainment. In the Interlude-Moralities and Interludes first appears The Vice, a rogue who sums up in himself all the Vices of the older Moralities and serves as the buffoon. One of his most popular exploits was to belabor the Devil about the stage with a wooden dagger, a habit which took a great hold on the popular imagination, as numerous references in later literature testify. Transformed by time, the Vice appears in the Elizabethan drama, and thereafter, as the clown.

13.

The Renaissance Period in English literature is also called the Elizabethan Period or the Age of Shakespeare. The middle Ages in Europe were followed by the Renaissance. Renaissance means the Revival of Learning, and it denotes in its broadest sense the gradual enlightenment of the human mind after the darkness of the Middle Ages.

The chief characteristic of the Renaissance was its emphasis on Humanism, which means man’s concern with himself as an object of contemplation. This movement was started in Italy by Dante, Petrarch and Baccaccio in the fourteenth century, and from there it spread to other countries of Europe. InEngland it became popular during the Elizabethan period. This movement which focused its interest on ‘the proper study of mankind’ had a number of subordinate trends. The first in importance was the rediscovery of classical antiquity, and particularly of ancient Greece. During the medieval period, the tradition-bound Europe had forgotten the liberal tone of old Greek world and its spirit of democracy and human dignity. With the revival of interest in Greek Classical Antiquity, the new spirit of Humanism made its impact on the Western world. The first Englishman who wrote under the influence of Greek studies was Sir Thomas More. His Utopia, written in Latin, was suggested by Plato’s Republic. Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence of Poesie accepted and advocated the critical rules of the ancient Greeks.

The second important aspect of Humanism was the discovery of the external universe, and its significance for man. But more important than this was that the writers directed their gaze inward, and became deeply interested in the problems of human personality. In the medieval morality plays, the characters are mostly personifications: Friendship, Charity, Sloth, Wickedness and the like. But now during the Elizabethan period, under the influence of Humanism, the emphasis was laid on the qualities which distinguish one human being from another, and give an individuality and uniqueness. Moreover, the revealing of the writer’s own mind became full of interest. This tendency led to the rise of a new literary form—the Essay, which was used successfully by Bacon. In drama Marlowe probed down into the deep recesses of the human passion. His heroes, Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus and Barabas, the Jew of Malta, are possessed of uncontrolled ambitions. Shakespeare, a more consummate artist, carried Humanism to perfection. His genius, fed by the spirit of the Renaissance, enabled him to see life whole, and to present it in all its aspects.

14. SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS 'UTOPIA.'

One of the most attractive and finest spirits of the reign of Henry VIII was Sir Thomas More. A member of the Oxford group in its second generation, a close friend of Erasmus, his house a center of humanism, he became even more conspicuous in public life. A highly successful lawyer, he was rapidly advanced by Henry VIII in court and in national affairs, until on the fall of Cardinal Wolsey in 1529 he was appointed, much against his will, to the highest office open to a subject, that of Lord Chancellor (head of the judicial system).

'Utopia,' broadly considered, deals primarily with the question which is common to most of these books and in which both ancient Greece and Europe of the Renaissance took a special interest, namely the question of the relation of the State and the individual. It consists of two parts. In the first there is a vivid picture of the terrible evils which England was suffering through war, lawlessness, the wholesale and foolish application of the death penalty, the misery of the peasants, the absorption of the land by the rich, and the other distressing corruptions in Church and State. In the second part, in contrast to all this, a certain imaginary Raphael Hythlodaye describes the customs of Utopia, a remote island in the New World, to which chance has carried him. To some of the ideals thus set forth More can scarcely have expected the world ever to attain; and some of them will hardly appeal to the majority of readers of any period; but in the main he lays down an admirable program for human progress, no small part of which has been actually realized in the four centuries which have since elapsed.

15.

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – October 6, 1542) was a poet and ambassador in the service of Henry VIII. Although Wyatt's literary output was rather small in his short life, he is nonetheless a pivotal figure in the history and development of English literature. Although poetry of quality had been written in English since the days of Geoffrey Chaucer, poetry in England, like poetry across the European continent, would not truly come into its own until the revolutionary developments of the Renaissance.

While the Renaissance in literature began centuries earlier in Italy and France, England remained largely isolated from many of the innovations of the Italian masters such as Petrarch until Thomas Wyatt first introduced them in the sixteenth century. In particular, Wyatt is credited as the first author in the English language to utilize the Petrarchan sonnet. Although it would not be until several decades after Wyatt's death (with the publication of the popular sonnet sequences of Sir Philip Sidney) that many of the forms that Wyatt helped to pioneer in the language would become widely recognized, nonetheless scholars are in agreement that Wyatt was the principal figure in recognizing the formal innovations of the Renaissance and adapting them to English poesy.

Life

Wyatt was born to Anne and Henry Wyatt in Allington Castle, near Maidstone, Kent in the year 1503. He first entered Henry's service at the age of 13, in 1516, as "Sewer Extraordinary," and the same year he began studying at St. John's College of the University of Cambridge. He married Elizabeth Brooke, who was of royal descent and the daughter of Lord Cobham, in 1521. A year later she gave birth to a son, Thomas Wyatt, the younger. Wyatt's son would go on to earn notoriety in his own right when he attempted to seize control of the English throne several years after his father's death. In 1524 Henry VIII assigned Wyatt to be an ambassador at home and abroad, and some time soon after he divorced his wife on the grounds of adultery.

Wyatt's sister was one of Anne Boleyn's closest friends, and later chief lady-in-waiting. Wyatt himself fell violently in love with the young Anne Boleyn in the early-to mid-1520s.

16. Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse, and is often considered one of the greatest poets in the English language. The Shepherd's Calendar is Edmund Spenser's first major work, which appeared in 1579. Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the Spenserian stanza, in several works, including The Faerie Queene. The stanza's main meter is iambic pentameter with a final line in iambic hexameter and the rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc. Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His works include Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesy and The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. The Lady of May – This is one of Sidney's lesser-known works, a masque written and performed for Queen Elizabeth in 1578 or 1579. Astrophel and Stella – The first of the famous English sonnet sequences,

17.

The University Wits were all men of academic training. All of them began as actors, revised old plays and then became independent writers. Robert Greene (1558-92): Greene’s contribution to English drama is remarkable in the field of characterization and plot-construction. Among his five plays Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay, The Scottish Historie of James the forth are notable. Thomas Kyd (?1558-94): As the only exception among the University wits Kyd does not seem to belong to either of the two modesties. As most celebrated work is his The Spanish Tragedie. His Spanish Tragedy is full of strong external actions. Cornelia is his other surviving translation dramatic work. If Marlowe was responsible for developing psycho-trauma type of tragedy, Thomas ked is responsible for celebrating revenge. Christopher Marlowe (1564-93): Marlowe is universally acknowledged as the best and the greatest of the University wits. It has rightly been said about him that Marlowe paved the way, Shakespeare perfected it. His tragedies reflected his own image in dramatic format. Marlowe wrote four immortal tragedies-Tamburlaine The Great, Jew of Malta, Dr. Faustus and Edward ii. In Marlowe’s play the interest centers wholly on the personality of the tragic hero. Marlowe is by far the greatest among Shakespeare’s predecessors.

18.

The Elizabethan Age is the golden age of English drama. First period (1590–94). Early chronicle plays: Henry VI. Second period (1595–1600). Chronicle plays in the tragic vein: Richard II; Romantic comedies: The Two Gentlemen of Verona; First mature tragedy: Romeo and Juliet (1595); Chronicle plays in the comic vein: Henry IV; Comedies: Much Ado About Nothing. Third period (1600–08). Tragedies:Hamlet (1601); “Bitter comedies,” or “problem plays”: Troilus and Cressida; Shakespeare’s tragic masterpieces: Othello (1604), King Lear (1605); Tragedies based on ancient history: Antony and Cleopatra (1607). Fourth period (1609–13). Romantic tragicomedies: Pericles, the Tempest; Late chronicle play: Henry VIII (1613). Shakespeare’s work incorporated all the major influences in the age of the Renaissance—both aesthetically, by synthesizing the traditions and motifs of popular romantic genres, Renaissance poetry and prose, folklore, and humanist and popular theater, and another. Despite the differences between the various periods in Shakespeare’s creative development, one senses the unity of artistic method in all his plays. Shakespeare’s use of traditional subjects allowed him to introduce fairy-tale motifs, accompanied by the characteristic mode of reasoning of folk poetry. Shakespeare’s poetic method is also evident in his representation of history in the chronicle plays and in the tragedies. He boldly transforms historical material, making it the foundation of his overall picture of life and blending the distinctive features of the past with contemporary understanding of human relations.

19.

Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets accredited to William Shakespeare which cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. Published in 1609. The sonnets are almost all constructed from three quatrains, which are four-line stanzas, and a final couplet composed in iambic pentameter. This is also the meter used extensively in Shakespeare's plays. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. The first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are addressed to a young man urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation. Other sonnets express the speaker's love for a young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticise the young man for preferring a rival poet; express ambiguous feelings for the speaker's mistress; and pun on the poet's name. The final two sonnets are allegorical treatments of Greek epigrams referring to the "little love-god" Cupid.

20. Sonnet 66. The poet laments the corruption and dishonesty of the world, from which he desires to be released. This is a sonnet which strikes a chord in almost any age, for it tells the same old story, that graft and influence reign supreme, and that no inherent merit is ever a guarantee of success. For that depends on social structures and conditions already set in place long ago. As often as not they aid and promote the unworthy, the malicious, the wealthy, the incompetent and those who are just good at manipulation of the system. While there is the apparent observation of the fourteen-line structure and rhyme scheme of the Elizabethan sonnet, the most salient literary techniques of Shakespeare's Sonnet LXVI are repetition and parallelism. After these, the use of synedoche and antithesis exists, a usage prevalent in the Sonnets. Transcript of Sonnet 66: Polysyndeton/punctuating the end of every line; Lack of usual change in subject between quatrains; Passive voice= powerless; Parallel structure.

.

The poet laments the corruption and dishonesty of the world, from which he desires to be released. This is a sonnet which strikes a chord in almost any age, for it tells the same old story, that graft and influence reign supreme, and that no inherent merit is ever a guarantee of success. For that depends on social structures and conditions already set in place long ago. As often as not they aid and promote the unworthy, the malicious, the wealthy, the incompetent and those who are just good at manipulation of the system.

A parallel passage is found in Hamlet, in the famous ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy, but Hamlet’s world-weariness springs from rather different causes. However the phrase ‘the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes’ is an interesting summary of the complaint of this sonnet. The relevant part of Hamlet’s speech is given below.

22. Hamlet as an image of renaissance humanism

Writers of the Renaissance period expressed their opinions about human nature and humanities role in the universe through their writings. In essence, this "humanist" thought sought to displace obedience to God and the Church as the central focus of human thought and endeavour to replace it with a new focus on the individual and a person's ability to reason, discover and create. Botticello's artistic genius, "The Birth of Venus"(1482), is a celebration of Renaissance humanism. Prior to the renaissance movement, artists didn't see the beauty in the human form. Humanists in the renaissance period began to argue that the human body was a beautiful creation of God. Shakespeare blends in his works the contending forces of medieval philosophy and Renaissance humanism. Thematically, the play centres on the inability to discern truth in a politically corrupt world. The Danish court becomes an "ulcerous place" and the complex layering of images of decay serves to further destabilise Hamlet's search for the truth. Hamlet becomes very mistrustful and cautious of his world and the people in it and his musings reflect that of a man trying to get his bearings in a false world. In Act two, Hamlet muses to Rozencrantz and Guildentstern, contemplating the notion, "what piece of work is a man ... how like a God." Like his artistic counterpart, Botticello, Hamlet sees Man as the pinnacle of creation, and in true humanist thought, Shakespeare celebrates man's ability to control our own destiny.

23. Gertrude and Ophelia as the main female characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Ophelia is a difficult role to play because her character, like Gertrude's, is murky. Part of the difficulty is that Shakespeare wrote his female roles for men, and there were always limitations on them that restricted and defined the characterizations devised. In the case of an ingenue like Ophelia, a very young and lovely woman, Shakespeare would have been writing for a boy. The extent to which a boy could grasp subtle nuances might have prevented the playwright from fleshing out the character more fully. Just like Hamlet, the medieval precept that the father's word is unquestionable governs Ophelia. But her Renaissance sense of romantic love also rules her. The dilemma also forces her into madness. She has no way to reconcile the contradictory selves her men demand that she be and still retain an equilibrium. Ophelia's desperation literally drives her crazy, and she has no means with which to heal herself.

Gertrude is a shadowy character with little substance on which to hang a characterization. We can examine her through what others say about her more than through what she says. That she is "the imperial jointress" to the throne of Denmark indicates that she wields some power and suggests that Claudius' decision to marry her had political implications. We see through Hamlet the picture of a woman who one day lived obediently and in the shadow of one king to whom she was devoted. This is the woman in desperate need of some resolve. Her husband dies and within two months she marries her dead husband’s brother, Claudius. For Gertrude to marry Claudius so soon after the death of the King Indicates that she was most likely pressured. There is no evidence that Gertrude was previously a stronger woman. When Hamlet said "Frailty, thy name is woman” showed his extent of anger because he makes a generalization that all womenare weak including the woman he loves most, his mother. It can be said that sheis morally weak as she clearly does not give much mourning time to King Hamletbefore marrying his brother, Claudius.Hamlet’s rebuke and Ophelia’s madness are two examples of this. Gertrude really does not care about the cause of Hamlet’s madness; she simply wishes it would go away. Her method of dealing with the problems is just ignoring those things that she does not wish to see.

24. the image of ideal king in shakespeare's hamlet . compare the character of hamlet's father to claudius.

Delving into the character of King Claudius in Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, we find a character who is not totally evil but rather a blend of morally good and bad elements.

Claudius

The king of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle. The villain of the play, Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, adept at manipulating others for his own ends and willing to execute, assassinate, or murder to stay in power. He doesn't understand Hamlet or Hamlet’s motives, but he is quick to perceive Hamlet as a threat and take decisive action against him.Claudius has not only committed fratricide, but regicide. The king being peculiarly the image of God, regicide is a kind of deicide. At least, it is an act of rebellion against divine authority. Claudius is thus not only Cain but Adam.

Hamlet connected with both kings - his father and uncle. . Analysis of the image of Hamlet's Father is important for understanding the changes that occur in the spiritual world of the prince. According to Hamlet's father was a great king. Creating a portrait of him, he appeals to the images of antiquity. He recalls Hyperion ( the sun god Jupiter (the god of the sky and light), Mars (god of war), Merck, Riya (god of commerce and messenger of the gods).

25. the theme of revenge in shakespeare's tragedy hamlet . compare hamlet to laertes

Similar Characteristics:

1. They both end up wanting revenge at some point during the play because of the death of their fathers

2. They both want to protect someone they loved (L=Sister, H=Girlfriend*)

3. They both wanted to get out of Denmark (H to Elsinore, L to France)

Different Characteristics:

1. Hamlet takes the entire play to exact revenge, Laertes returns immediately from France with a band of followers and storms the castle

2. Laertes never had a mother figure in his life, Hamlet did.

3. To get what they want they each use very different tactics, Hamlet being more passive by pretending to be insane so he can observe and let people underestimate him and Laertes takes the aggressive route by coming home with a group of followers and storming the castle (as I mentioned above.)

*The were both trying to protect the same person (Ophelia) but they loved her in different ways

26) Historical and Cultural Context

By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the threat of the Black Death (the plague) was diminishing, but it still continued to be a seasonal problem in London, which was overcrowded and suffered from poor sanitation and too much poverty.

A hundred years earlier, Henry VII had formed alliances with neighboring countries and trade was flourishing in London. But the coming of trade changed the face of England. Instead of a country composed largely of an agrarian culture, England, and especially London, became an important center of trade. There was more wealth, and the newly rich could now afford to escape the congestion of the city. There was a need for large country estates, and so more and more farm land was enclosed. As city life flourished, there was a resulting nostalgia for the loss of country life. In response to this sentimentality, England's poets began to compose poetry recalling the tranquility of rustic life.

Early in the seventeenth century, the masque that comprises much of the fourth act of The Tempest was becoming a regular form of court entertainment. Masques were elaborate spectacles, designed to appeal to the audience's senses and glorify the monarch. Furthermore, their sheer richness suggested the magnificence of the king's court; thus they served a political purpose as well as entertained.

It is important to remember that the masque fulfilled another important function, the desire to recapture the past. As is the case with most masques, Prospero's masque is focused on pastoral motifs, with reapers and nymphs celebrating the fecundity of the land.

27)The Tempest main Characters

Prospero: The main character of this play, Prospero used to be the legitimate Duke of Milan. Unfortunately his treacherous brother Antonio stole his title and banished Prospero to a Mediterranean island with his daughter Miranda. A great lover of the arts and in particular books, Prospero has harnessed the powers of magic whilst in exile.

Miranda: Prospero's daughter. Attractive and young at the tender age of fifteen years, Miranda has lived with her father in exile for twelve years. Aside from her father, she has seen few men in her life, and quickly enchants the shipwrecked Ferdinand.

Ariel: An airy spirit, Ariel serves his master Prospero well in his many tasks of magic on Prospero's island. Once enslaved by a witch, Ariel wants his freedom now from Prospero. At the conclusion of this play Ariel is made free. Iris, Ceres, Juno, Nymphs and Reapers: Spirits that appear by Prospero's will.

Characters who arrive at Prospero's Island by shipwreck:

Alonso: The King of Naples. When Prospero's brother Antonio, usurped (took) Prospero's dukedom, it was Alonso who recognized Prospero's brother, sealing Prospero's fate of living in exile.

Ferdinand: The much-loved son of

08:06:29

the King of Naples. Shipwrecked, but alive, Ferdinand falls instantly in live with Miranda, when he first sees her on Prospero's island.

Sebastian: The brother of Alonso, the King of Naples. He plots to kill his

Antonio: The brother of Prospero, he took Prospero's title from him when Prospero trusted him to manage his affairs. Having replaced his brother, he now encourages Sebastian to do the same to his brother, Alonso.

Gonzalo: An honest old counsellor. When Prospero was to have starved to death when exiled by boat, it was Gonzalo who provided food, clothing and books to comfort Prospero and the then three year old Miranda.

Stephano: A drunken butler, he attempts to kill Prospero and take the island for his own. Trinculo and Caliban whom he fools into believing he is a God help him.

Trinculo: A jester, who tries to kill Prospero.

28. the main themes the tempest by Shakespeare

The Tempest Themes

The Supernatural

In The Tempest, magic is a dazzling art form that infuses the play with a sense of wonder and a whole lot of spectacle. (Think "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in Disney's Fantasia, but better.) This l...

Art and Culture

"Now my charms are all o'erthrown, / And what strength I have's mine own" (Epilogue). So says the newly retired magician as he bids adieu to the audience. Since The Tempest is likely the last play...

Contrasting Regions

Although the play takes place entirely on an island, The Tempest dramatizes the divide between the courtly worlds and the wilderness. As the play opens, Prospero, a former Italian duke now living i...

Freedom and Confinement

The Tempest is obsessed with the concept of imprisonment—both literal and figurative. Prospero and Miranda are forced to live in exile on a remote island, where Prospero enslaves the island's onl...

Man and the Natural World

Is man more "noble" in a natural state than in a state of civilization? The Tempest returns to this question over and over again—in its portrayal of the ambiguous "monster" Caliban and in G...

Betrayal

Loyalty and betrayal are linked to The Tempest's larger themes of servitude and freedom; either feeling is motivated by how each individual perceives his position relative to others. Antonio's betr...

Compassion and Forgiveness

"The rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance" (5.1.27-28). This is Prospero's startling revelation after years of living in exile and plotting his return to Italy. The Tempest's emphasis on m...

The Divine

The divine is a parallel to Prospero's magic in The Tempest. Like nature, the divine is often given credit for Prospero's work, yet it has a special meaning for Prospero in particular. He is the on...

Versions of Reality

Perspective plays a large role in The Tempest. The island is dominated by magic, and it clouds the ability of all the new arrivals to tell the difference between reality and the magical illusions

29. themes, motives, symbols in the tempest by Shakespeare

Major Themes

a)Influence, Control and Power

Prospero is truly in control of what is happening all around the play. He has magical powers that enable him to shipwreck the King's party; Prospero has control over Caliban and other supernatural forces that enable him to influence the events and the characters themselves.

Antonio and Sebastian try to grab the power from the King by planning to murder him, thus channeling all that power to themselves.

Power and control is represented and symbolized by Prospero's magical staff and books that grant him almost unprecedented powers over others.

b)Betrayal, Forgiveness and Revenge

Prospero tells Miranda about how he was

betrayed

by Alonso and Antonio that forced them to the island where they are right now and have spent so many years on.

Alonso feels remorse for his actions in the past, and he truly is trying to ask for

forgiveness, although it has little effect on Prospero. Alonso is a changed man by the end of the play

Revenge

is manifested in how Caliban persuades Stephano and Trinculo to deliver "justice" in his name.

Prospero himself manages to put aside past differences and forgive. It must have been very hard after 12 years of suffering. He was reasonable enough to see the bigger picture and gain back his title in a cunning and shrewd way. He understands that with great power comes great responsibility.

Motifs

c)Magic

Magic appears as a manifestation of control and power in the hands of those who possess it. The only character who has control over supernatural beings and magic is Prospero. He has the power to control the events and even the characters themselves although he would not be able to do all that without the help of Ariel. In a way, Prospero also relies on another being.

d)Mysterious noises

Music and strange noises are constantly present in the play. Most of the music comes from Ariel, but strange noises of thunder or lightening are also frequent phenomena. The wedding masque, Ariel's music, and other strange noises of nature combined with the magical elements of the play create an environment that is more similar to a dream than reality.

e)Servant-Master relationship

Nearly every scene explores the master-servant dynamic in many and very different ways. It is interesting to see how the relationship of these characters is affected by the way power is shared or forfeited. There is a definite tension between servant and master from the moment the Boatswain becomes aware of the inaptitude of the masters to lead the boat out of harm's way at the very beginning of the play. This is probably the source of the so many treachery that occurred among them. Although, Antonio's plan to murder the King is not so much the result of them being shipwrecked but rather of his power-hungry nature.

f)Water

The play is full of references to water. Miranda's fear for the shipwrecked souls causes her to weep in despa

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