1 - 18

OLD ENGLISH (600 1100 AD)

(A) Poetry
Characteristics:
1. No rhyme. Instead, each half line is joined to the other by alliteration.
2. Things are described indirectly and in combination of words; (Sailor Sea traveler
Soldier Sea man ) This way of describing the things 1. takes a long time 2. actions
move slowly 3. confuses the readers
3. Description of sad events or cruel situations
4. The poems are heroic OR religious.
5. Difficult language (called Anglo-Saxon)

Poets
1. Caedmon: uneducated / poor countryman (dream, angle, sings)
2. Cynewulf:
- Wrote religious poems
- 2nd poet of the 8th century
= Juliana .
= +] C4] E 4] OE4]
= Christ.
= Elene.

Works
2 - 18


1. Beowulf:
- The story (p. 7)
- The first English epic
- 7th cen.
- Unknown author
2. Genesis A:

Long / dull / taken from the Bible and put in a poor old English.
3. Genesis B

Short / discusses the beginning of the world and the fall of Adam and Eve and Angles
punishment of Adam + the place.
4. Exodus:
- Most of the stories are taken straight from the Bible.
- Well written
- Describes how the Israelites left Egypt.
5. Daniel
6. Christ and Satan
- Events in Christ's life
- Great deal of repetition
7. Andreas
8. Guthlac
9. The Dream of the Rood ( Christ's cross)

Among the best
10. The Battle of Maldon
- A late poem
- Has been praised because of the words of courage used by the leader
3 - 18


The Lyrics:
1. Deor's complaint

Deor is a singer who has lost his lord's favor. So, he complains, but tries to comfort
himself by remembering other sorrows of the world.
2. The Husband's Message
3. The Wife's Complaint

(B) Prose
- Came later
- The prose of this century falls in three main categories:
1. Law:

Laws
written at the beginning of the 7th C.
2. History:

Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
- An early history of the country
- King Alfred had a great influence on his work.
- King Alfred also translated a number of Latin books into old English and brought back
learning to England and improved the education of his people.
3. Religion:

Homilies and Lives of Saints
- Religious
- By an important writer (Aelfric).
4 - 18

MIDDLE ENGLISH ( 11TH 15TH )
(A) Poetry
Characteristics
- The language had changed a great deal. It is much easier to read.
- Most of the poems are written in an a alliterative verse.
Poems
1. The Canterbury Tales
- Written by the father of English poetry ( Geoffrey Chaucer)
- Chaucer is well educated / read Latin / studied French Italian.
- He travelled and made good use of his eyes.
- The people he described are just like living people.
- His work is written in 17,000 lines
- The plot 20 stories in verse (page 16)
2. Troylus and Cryseyde: love of two people / by Chaucer
3. The Legend of Good Women: by Chaucer
4. The Vision of Piers the Ploughman
- By William Langland
- Written in an alliterative verse
- Written by a poor man to describe the sorrows of the poor.
5. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Written in an alliterative verse
- It tells the story of the adventures of king Arthur's knights against the enemies / includes
magical powers / finishes with honor.
5 - 18


6. Pearl
- Pearl is the daughter of the poet.
- She died at the age of two.
- He is comforted when in a dream he sees her in heaven.
7. Patience
- The story of Jonah who was thrown into the sea and swallowed by an immense creature
of the sea and carried him to the place where God wished him to go.

6 and 7 are :
- written by William Langland
- of the best alliterative poems.

(B) Prose
Works:
1. Ancren Riwle
- Teaches proper rules of life for religious women.
2. The Form of Perfect Living
- By Richard Rolle.
- Same aim ^^
3. Translation of the Bible
- By John Wycliffe ( Page 18)
- He attacked many religious ideas / church
- He was at Oxford but had to leave.
- He believes that anyone who wants to read the Bible, he has to be allowed to do so. But
how can they do so if the Bible is written in Latin !
- He translated part of the Bible two times ( Half Whole)
6 - 18


4. Morte D' Arthur ( Arthur's Death)
- Written by Sir Thomas Malory

He was a violent character and was in prison for several times.
(C) Drama

Three Types:
1. Miracle / mystery plays:
- Told religious stories.
- Performed in or near the church yard.
- Subjects: disobedience of Adam and Eve / Noah and the Great Flood etc.
- They were acted by people of the town on a kind of stage on wheels called [ pageant ]
which was moved to different places.
- Although they were stories, there were some comedy parts.
- In four main groups according to the cities they were acted in.
2. Morality plays
- Common during the 15th C.
- Told religious stories.
- Performed in or near the church yard.
- The characters were not real people.
- They were :
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which talked and walked
- Example: Everyman (was translated from Dutch) ( Page 21)
3. Interlude plays
- Common during the 15th and 16th century.
- Played between the acts of LONG moralities OR middle of meals.
- Often funny.
7 - 18


- Performed away from the church ( colleges rich people's houses or gardens).
- The Four P's :
- By john Heywood.
- In one part, a prize is offered to the greatest lie and is won by a man who says that he
has never seen or never known any women out of patience.
8 - 18

16TH CENTURY
(ELIZABETHAN AGE / RENAISSANCE / REFORMATION)
Characteristics:
- It has been called the Golden Age / The Elizabethan Age (Why?)
- Historical background
(A) Poetry
Characteristics
- The writing of poetry was part of the education of a gentleman during this century.
- This century produced a surprising flow of lyrics ( personal feelings + personal
thoughts)
- However, some of the best lyrics of this time were in the dramatic works. Characters on
the stage were given songs to sing to please the audience and to give a sense of relief
when necessary.
- Sir Thomas Wyatt First to bring sonnet to England)
- The Earl of Surrey wrote the first blank verse

1. Edmund Spenser
- He introduced the Elizabethan Age
- He wrote the best pastorals of the time. (Define pastorals)
- His famous works:
1. The Shepherd's Calendar
The notion welcomed this book because it was expecting a great literary age and
therefore accepted this work as its beginning.


9 - 18


the sad death of a girl .. etc)
2. The Faerie Queen

rtues and king Arthur is gentlemanliness.

air, the music of the verse and the beauty of the sound


2. Philip Sidney

Astrophel and Stella: a book of sonnets printed after his death.
3. Christopher Marlowe
st and lyric writer

(B) Prose
Characteristics:
- The language improved and the writers used a way better English; noble English with
noble diction
- Some books were storehouses of learning.

1. History:
10 - 18


- Wrote about the navigations, voyages, and the discoveries of the English nation
- Some wrote about the history of the world in sea voyages and land travel.
2. Novels
- The novels are not of importance. They were weak and therefore stayed for a short
period of and then disappeared. "False start so they died out!"
- Euphues :
a. By John Lyly
b. Has a thin love story
c. Style: weak (why?)
1. The novel is filled with tricks and alliterations
2. It has long and complicated sentences
3. There is a large number of similes which makes the readers forget about the thoughts
behind the words.
3. Essays
- The most important essayist is Francis Bacon
- His work Essays is very popular Some of the best sayings in English come from
this book.
4. Criticism
- Ben Jonson "The father of English literary criticism"
5. Translations
- Page (32 33)
- The Authorized Version of the Bible appeared in (1611)
- William Tyndale
(C) Drama
The 16th century theatre:
11 - 18


1. Kinds:
(A) Inns
- The inn is the natural meeting place for the locality.
- It offers:
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- It has a portable stage in the yard (at the far end)
- Seats:
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(B) Public theatre
- Called The Theatre.
- It is the first fully professional theatre in England
- It was opened near the site of Liverpool Street Station/ London
- 1576
- Its design was greatly planned on the layout of the Medieval inn
- How it looks: (refer to the booklet + the sketch)
Flag
Pit (flat floor area): cheap seating / stools / standing
Main stage
Door: enter / leave the stage
Trap door: allows the devils to rise up from Hell / dead bodies
Curtained recess (alcove): witches' dens / private rooms / violent and bad scenes
Back walls with galleries and balconies: roofed and they stand for upstairs rooms and
Heaven
12 - 18


Canopy (upper stage): over the acting area / usually used to stand for Heaven / it
gives protection to the actors
Tiring rooms: where the actors fix their makeup and relax between the scenes
Wardrobe and storage: where the costumes and the other stage accessories are kept
(C) Privet Theatre
- Indoors
- Allows more complex staging effects
2. Production:
s:
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Sound Effects
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Costumes
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Scenes:
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3. Actors:
- They were formed in companies with probably 15 or more sharers under the patronage
of a noble.
- They are paid from the profit that comes from the sale of the seats or the tickets.
13 - 18


- There was a fierce rivalry between the companies.


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4)]+
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Clown / Fool
4. Scripts:
- There was a great demand for new up to date scripts
- The scripts would never be published until a "pirate" or unofficial copies were in wide
circulation
- The original scripts would be guarded. Yet, the words are usually taken down in a
shorthand from a performance or a bribed actor/ actors.
- There were no copyrights to protect authors.
- The publishers didn't return the scripts to the authors!
5. Directors:
- No directors as in the modern sense
6. Audience:
- In general, the plays of this century were performed in front of poor nobility and
common people.
- Therefore, they required a wide range of emotions and humor to copy with the
audiences of all types.
7. Plot:
- Most of the plays were based on famous stories from the past.
14 - 18


- Very few plays had original plots because the age considers whatever that had not been
said over two thousand years of human civilization # worth saying or performing
- Originality was perceived as a weakness # a virtue.

The Influences on Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama:
(1) Seneca:
- He is a classical author.
- He wrote tragedies full of blood/ revenge / horrific events / ghosts / strange events /
misery / suffering etc.
- He is pessimistic
- He believes that the capacity to endure suffering becomes an essential element in the
survival of humanity.
- It is the only way that humans can retain their dignity and triumph over fate, destiny, or
gods who seem to be cruel and unfair.
- E.g. The Spanish Tragedy.
(2) Machiavelli:
- He is an Italian author.
- He was imprisoned, tortured and exiled.
- He believes that strong governments are the only methods of securing a happy and
stable society and that people are greedy, ambitious, and envious.
- He believes that the ruler might have to lie, deceive, cheat and murder in order to
maintain a stable government that would provide the greatest happiness for the greatest
number.
- The good ruler has to keep up the appearance of being evil.
15 - 18


- To him, the end justifies the means.

Types:
(A) Comedy:
1. Ralph Roister Doister
- By Nicholas Udall
- The first regular English comedy
- Written in rough verse
2. Gammer Gurton's Needle
- By John Still
- The second English comedy
(B) Tragedy:
1. Gorboduc
- The first regular English tragedy
- Written in blank verse

Playwrights
1) Christopher Marlowe:
- He is important ( why?)
- The first great dramatist ( why?)
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1. The use of powerful blank verse to strengthen the drama.
2. The development of characters to heighten the sense of tragedy.

- His works:
1. Tamburlaine the Great
- In two parts
16 - 18


- The rise to power of Tamburlaine (shepherd / robber ) Bajazet.
- Pulled to Babylon by two kings (wipes, curses etc. )
- Written in blank verse
2. The Jew of Malta
3. Dr. Faustus
4. Edward the Second
= ]C )4 _) )4EE

2) William Shakespeare:
- He was an actor and dramatist
- His early plays were :
(1) Historical
1. Henry the 6th
2. Richard the 3rd
3. Richard the 2nd
(2) Comedy
1. A Comedy of Errors
2. The Taming of the Shrew
3. The two Gentlemen of Verona
4. The Lover's Labour's Lost
5. A Midsummer's Night's Dream
6. The Merchant of Venice (plot / p. 42)
7. As You Like It
8. Much Ado About Nothing
9. All is Well the Ends Well
10. Twelfth Night ( been called the perfection f English comedy)
(3) Roman Tragedy
17 - 18


- In every tragedy, there is a tragic hero with a tragic flaw (define tragic hero + tragic
flaw)
1. Julius Caesar (Balanced)
2. Coriolanus (Heavy and dark)
3. Antony and Cleopatra ( loose)
(4) Tragedy
1. Hamlet (Hesitation) (plot / p. 47)
2. King Lear (openness to fluttery) (plot / p. 47)
3. Macbeth ( Ambition) (plot / p. 47)
4. Othello (Unquestioning jealousy) (plot / p. 48)
(5) Romance
1. Cymbeline
2. The Winter's Tale
3. The Tempest

3) Benjamin Jonson:
- He followed Shakespeare but he was far below him.
- He was influenced by the classics.
- His characters are walking humors # really human (weakness)
- He was as extremely skilful writer of masques ( Songs / dance / effects )
- His tragedies and comedies were successful. Yet, he was so proud and rude (Here is my
play. It is good. If you don't like it, that is your fault!!!!)
- Believes in unity of place, time, and action. (p. 50)
4) John Webster
18 - 18


- Depended on violence, revenge, murder, wrong doing etc.
1. The White Devil
2. The Duchess of Malfi