EPOCHS

EPOCHS

• OLD ENGLISH 5TH -11TH CENTURY

• THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES; THE ANGLO-

SAXON CONQUEST

• MIDDLE ENGLISH

• THE NORMAN CONQUEST (1066) – LATE 15TH

CENTURY

• THE RENAISSANCE (LATE 15TH CENTURY)

• WILLIAM CAXTON – THE PRINTING PRESS (1475)

• THE END OF THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1485)

OLD ENGLISH

• THE HEROIC TRADITION
• BEOWULF WRITTEN DOWN BEFORE

THE 1OTH CENTURY

• ‘THE BATTLE OF MALDON’ HISTORY

991 ESSEX VS. VIKINGS

THE RELIGIOUS TRADITION

• CAEDMON, ‘HYMN OF CREATION’
• THE VENERABLE BEDE, THE

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF
THE ENGLISH NATION

• CYNEWULF, ‘THE DREAM OF THE

ROOD’

THE ELEGIAC TRADITION

• ‘THE WANDERER’
• ‘THE SEAFARER’
• ‘DEOR’S LAMENT’
• THE ELEMENTS OF THE 3

TRADITIONS ARE INTERTWINED

MIDDLE ENGLISH

• (NORMAN FRENCH), LATIN, ENGLISH
• ENGLISH SUPRESSED
• THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE (1154)
• THE FIRST TEXTS IN ENGLISH - LATE

12TH CENTURY

• ENGLISH IN THE OPENING OF

PARLIAMENT 1363, SCHOOLS 1385,
COURTS OF LAW 1362

LYRICS AND BALLADS

• THOMAS OF ELY, THE STORY OF

CANUT

• SUMMER IS ICUMEN IN
• ADAM LAY I-BOWNDYN
• SONG OF LEWES, SIMON DE

MONTFORT 1264

BALLADS

• THE FAMOUS COLLECTORS:
• BISHOP THOMAS PERCY (LATE 18TH C)
• SIR WALTER SCOTT (EARLY 19TH

CENTURY)

• VERSIONS FROM 16TH, 17TH

CENTURIES

• THE RHYME, THE OCTOSYLLABIC

COUPLET

THE ALLITERATIVE REVIVAL

• PIERS PLOWMAN BY WILLIAM

LANGLAND

• THE PEARL
• PATIENCE
• PURITY
• SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGT

ALLEGORY

• BIBLICAL EXEGESIS
• ROMAUNT DE LA ROSE 13TH

CENTURY(GUILLAUME DE LORRIS,
JEAN DE MEUN)

• DREAM ALLEGORY

KING ARTHUR

• SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
• CHIVALRY
• THE PENTANGLE
• SIR THOMAS MALORY, MORTE DARTHUR
• SUPERNATURAL BIRTH
• THE SWORD IN THE STONE
• THE EXCALIBUR , CAMELOT, THE ROUND TABLE,

AVALON

• THE QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL
• THE ADULTERY OF SIR LANCELOT AND

GUINEVERE

MEDIEVAL THEATRE

• MYSTERY PLAYS (QUEM QUERITIS?)
• THE CORPUS CHRISTI FESTIVAL 1264
• BY GUILDS ON PAGEANT
• MYSTERY CYCLES (YORK, CHESTER,

WAKEFIELD, COVENTRY)

• MIRACLE PLAYS 15TH C
• MORALITY PLAYS – ALLEGORIES
• EVERYMAN

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

(1343-1400)

• MIDDLE CLASS
• A PAGE TO ARISTOCRATIC/ ROYAL

HOUSEHOLD

• AT KING’S COURT
• SENT ON DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS

LITERARY WORKS

• TRANSLATION OF ROMAN DE LA

ROSE

• PARLIAMENT OF THE FOWLS
• HOUSE OF FAME
• TROILUS AND CRISEIDE

THE CANTERBURY TALES

• 30 CHARACTERS, 4 STORIES, 120

• 22 STORIES, 2 IN FRAGMENTS

• DIFFERENT GENRES

• THE COURTLY ROMANCE, THE BRETON

LAY

• THE FABLIAU(X)

• THE BEAST FABLE

• THE EXEMPLUM

• THE SERMON

• THE SAINT’S LEGEND

THE RENAISSANCE

(1484-1660)

• 16TH C – THE TUDOR EPOCH
• 17TH C- THE JACOBEAN AND STUART

TIMES +CROMWELL’S REPUBLIC AND
PROTECTORATE (1649-1660)

• HUMANISM
• THOMAS MOORE, UTOPIA
• REFORMATION
• A NEW IMAGE OF THE WORLD

THE SONNET

• PETRARCH 14TH CENTURY, ITALY
• THEME: UNREQUITED LOV E
• FORM: AN OCTAVE+ A SESTET
• THE FIRST SONNETS – TRANSLATIONS
• THOMAS WYATT, HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF

SURRY

• TOTTEL’S MISCLEANY 1557
• SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, ASTROPHEL AND STELLA
• EDMUND SPENSER, AMORETTI

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(1564-1616

)

• SONNETS – 154, published in 1609

• THE ADDRESSEES:

- A young man – Friend (1-126)

1-17 – ‘Procreation sonnets’

- A rival poet (79-86)
- A woman - The Dark Lady – 127-152

• THE PETRARCHAN AND ANI-PETRARCHAN

CONVENTIONS

FROM THE RELIGIOUS TO THE

SECULAR THEATRE

• THE INTERLUDE (THE FIRST: FULGENS AND

LUCRES BY HENRY MEDWALL, 1497)

• UNIVERSITY WITS – 15th/16th century:

- Christopher Marlowe
- Robert Greene
- Thomas Nashe
- John Lyly
- Thomas Lodge
- George Peele
- Thomas Kyd (The Spanish Tragedy)

SHAKESPEARE AS A

PLAYWRIGHT

• 36 PLAYS
• CHRONICLE PLAYS
• COMEDIES
• TRAGEDIES

• Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles (1577)
• Jan Kott, Shakespeare, Our Contemporary

THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE AND

ACTING

• A COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE (theatres

among brothels and bear-baiting halls)

• A MORAL PURPOSE
‘the purpose of playing… both at the first and

now, was and is, to hold as ‘twere the

mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own

feature, scorn her own image, and the very

age and body of the time his form and

pleasure’ (Hamlet)

• SHAKESPEARE – A PLAYWRIGHT, ACTOR

AND SHAREHOLDER

THE THEATRES

• 1576 the first theatre built by James

Burbage (The Theatre)

• Outdoor – The Globe: 3000 spectators
• Indoor – Blackfriars – 300
• Only men played
• Rehearsals – 2-4 weeks

THE METAPHYSICAL AND JONSONIAN

SCHOOL OF POETRY

• REACTIONS AGAINST PETRARCH AND

SPENSER

• TWO DIFFERENT POETICAL

TEMPERAMENTS

• POLITICS
- IN 1630 RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL

OPTIONS BECAME ENEMIES

- THE CIVIL WAR, CROMWELL’S REPUBLIC

AND PROTECTORATE (1640-1658)

• CAVALIERS VS. PURITANS

WHY ‘METAPHYSICAL’?

• THE NAME FIRST USED BY JOHN DRYDEN,

LATER CONFIRMED BY SAMUEL JOHNSON

(CRITICAL APPROACH)
• THE CONCEIT – A COMPLEX, FAR-FETCHED

METAPHOR, LINKING TWO VERY DIFFERENT

IDEAS, OBJECTS, NOTIONS

• REDISCOVERED BY T.S.ELIOT IN THE 20TH

CENTURY

• AFTER THE METAPHYSICAL POETS

‘DISSOCIATION OF SENSIBILITY’

JOHN DONNE

(1572-1631)

• SON OF A CATHOLIC LONDON MERCHANT
• OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE BUT NO DEGREE
• A STUDENT AT THE INNS OF COURT IN LONDON
• TOOK PART IN TWO NAVAL EXPEDITIONS
• SECRETARY TO SIR THOMAS EGERTON, SECRETLY

MARRIES HIS DAUGHTER

• 1602 DECLARES FOR ANGLICANISM
• 1615 - ORDAINED
• 1621- DEAN OF ST. PAUL’S

DONNE’S WORKS

• REJECTION OF ‘THE MISTRESS OF MY

YOUTH’ (POETRY) FOR THE WIFE OF
MINE AGE’ (DIVINITY)

• ELEGIES, LOVE POEMS, SONNETS,

HOLY SONNETS, SERMONS,
MEDITATIONS

• ESSAYS IN DIVINITY

GEORGE HERBERT

(1593-1633)

• STUDIED AT OXFORD
• AN MP FOR 2 YEARS
• RECTOR OF BEMERTON NEAR SALISBURY
• The TEMPLE PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY

a private liturgy of the vicarage

• ‘The Collar’, ‘The Pulley’, ‘The Church-

Floor”

THE CAVALIER POETS

THE SONS OF BEN

• THE CARPE DIEM MOTIF
• BEN JONSON
• ROBERT HERRICK
• THOMAS CAREW
• SIR JOHN SUCKLING
• REICHARD LOVELACE

BEN JONSON

(1572-1637)

• THE SON OF A LONDON BRICKLAYER

• A SOLDIER (FAUGHT IN FLANDERS)

• AN ACTOR AND A MAJOR PLAYWRIGHT
- VOLPONE
- THE ALCHEMIST
- BARTHOLOMEW FAIR

• MET SHAKESPEARE IN THE MERMAID INN

• LYRIC, SATIRICAL, EPIGRAMATIC, ELEGIAC

VERSE

ROBERT HERRICK

(1591-1674)

• AN APPRENTICE TO A GOLDSMITH
• TOOK ORDERS
• FROM LONDON TO DEAN PRIORY
• BANISHED BY THE PURITANS, RETURNED

AFTER THE RESTORATION

• SENSUAL PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD
• HESPERIDES
• NOBLE NUMBERS

ANDREW MARVELL

(1621-1678)

• RELATED TO THE CAVALIER POETS
• THE SON OF A YORKSHIRE CALVINIST

CLERGYMAN

• CONVERTED TEMPORARILY TO CATHOLICISM
• WITH THE PURITANS – AS LATIN SECRETARY

TO CROMWELL

• AN MP FOR HULL
• A PATRIOT, A SATIRIST, A PROSE-WRITER
• HIS LYRIC POETRY ADMIRED BY ELIOT

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