HISTORY AND ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 英国文学史及选读 English Literature College of Foreign Languages China Three Gorges University

HISTORY AND ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

英国文学史及选读

English Literature

College of Foreign LanguagesChina Three Gorges University

College of Foreign Languages, CTGUCollege of Foreign Languages, CTGU


Lecture Three

1 Review 2 Medieval period and Robin Hood 3 Geoffrey Chaucer 4 The Canterbury Tales 5 Social Significance of the Canterbury Tales 6 Features of Chaucer’s Writing



1 Review

Did the English common people have a literature of their own in feudal England? What were they?

Ballad



2. Medieval period(1066-ca.1485)

2.1 Historical Background : (what is the most important event in this period?) 1. The Norman Conquest 2. The Consequence of the Conquest 2.2 Medieval English Literature Popular ballad occupies an important position. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Ballads of Robin Hood



The Ballads

ballad: a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. It is the most important part of English folk literature.

Joined by the audience In various English and Scottish dialects The origin is obscure Be handed down orally for many generations The subjects of ballads are from the everyday

life of the common people.



3 The Ballads of Robin Hood

a legendary outlaw lived during the reign of Richard I the leader of a band of outlaws lived in the deep forest attacked the rich helped the poor people. waged war against the bishops and archbishops.




“Popular ballads portray Robin Hood as a tireless enemy of the Norman oppressors, the idol of the country folk and champion of the poor and needy, as a man who readily responds to anyone’s call for help. And in gratitude for this poetic emotion, the people have made an almost saintlike hero out of a man who was probably no more than a common outlaw.”(Gorky)




在民谣中，罗宾汉被刻画成为了一个与诺曼压迫者进行无休止斗争的反抗者，农民心中的偶像，贫民眼里的勇士，一个随时会去帮助他人的好汉。恰是出于这种理想的诗情，人民创造出了一个几乎完美无缺的英雄，尽管他的原型可能只不过是个普通的法外之徒。



4 The Character of Robin Hood

strong, brave and clever. tender-hearted , affectionate devout and orthodox in religion reverence for the King What comments have you about Robin Hood’s

reverence for the king?



3.1. Life of Geoffrey Chaucer

the father of English poetry the most vivid contemporary

description of fourteenth century England



A Brief Chronology of Chaucer’s Life

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London around 1340. At the age of 17, he served as a page to Elizabeth . At the age of 19, he served with the English army in France and married

to Philippa was at the age of 26. Between the year of 1372 and 1378 , he was sent on embassies to Italy. In 1373, he was made Controller of Customs in the Port of London. In 1385 he became Justice of the Peace and Knight of the Shire (Membe

r of Parliament) for the County of Kent. In the period of 1389 to 1391, he served as Clerk of the King’s Works . In 1391, he was appointed Forester of a royal forest in Somerset He died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, thus founding t

he “Poets’ Corner”.



3.2 Chaucer’s Literary Career

The first period: French influence - translations from French

-The Romaunt of the Rose《玫瑰传奇》

The second period: Italian influence- produced works adapted from Italian writers - Troilus and Criseyde

The third period: The Mature Period - The Canterbury Tales



3.3 Troilus and Criseyde(c.1383).

longest complete poem (about 8000 lines) taken from a poem by Boccacio the love of Troilus for Criseyde Troilus - a son of the King of Troy. Criseyde- a daughter of Calchas Criseyde returns the love of Troilus –Pandarus ( her uncle) -three years -

in an exchange of prisoners- swearing fidelity-never returns-Diomede-killed



Troilus and Criseyde(c.1383).

romance interest of character as well as of incident (what medieval romance lacked) the vivid and humorous figure of Pandarus the

development of the character of Criseyde (a fickle woman )



Questions on Chaucer:

(1)Which, according to Chaucer, is more important, divine love or secular love? Why?

(2) What kind of motivations do most of the pilgrims have, to show piety to God or to enjoy the beauty of nature? Why?

(3) How do you explain the changes of the pilgrims’ attitudes towards love and life from the social and cultural background?



(4) What kind of people does Chaucer satirize? Are there any differences in the degree of his satire? Why does he satirize some pilgrims slightly and others severely (bitterly)?

(5) How does Chaucer portray his characters? What devices does he use to bring out a life-like character?

(6) How do you understand the Wife of Bath? (7) Why is Chaucer regarded as the first important

realistic writer and the earliest English humanist?



Literary Terms (back)

Heroic Couplet( 英雄双韵体） 1. They are poetry composed in iambic pentameter. In this form

of poetry, lines consisting of five iambic feet rime together in pairs.

2. The rime scheme :aa bb cc ….. A verse unit consisting of two rhymed lines in iambic pentapentamete

r. In each line, there are five five verse feet. With each foot, there is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.



Examples

And bathed every vein in such licour. Of which vertu engendered is the flour.

poem→stanza→line→foot→syllable



6. Knowledge of poetry

I. Rhythm( 韵律 ) 1.syllable: a word or part of a word which contains one vowel so

und( 元音 ). 2. Stress: a word or part of a word which should be pronounced

with more force. 3. Rhythm: In English, words of two syllables always contain one that is str

essed syllable and one that is unstressed; longer words contain one stressed syllable and two or more unstressed syllables. Unstressed syllables are marked with a curve “ ︶” and stressed, with a dash “—”.

e.g. above suffer around standing



In a line of poetry, when the stressed and unstressed syllables of all the words are arranged in a definite order, the line will rise and fall in a musical way. And this musical flow, or the rise and fall of language in poetry, is called “rhythm”.

e.g. My heart is like a singing bird. II. foot( 音步 ) 1. definition: foot is the unit of rhythm and contains two or thre

e syllables, one of which is stressed. 2. 4 kinds of foot: A. iambus( ︶— ): consists of one unstressed syllable followed b

y one stressed syllable. e.g. Appear, besides , attack , supply.



B. Trochee(— ︶ ): consists of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable.

e.g. holy, upper, failing C. anapaest( ︶︶— ):consists of two unstressed syllables follow

ed by one stressed syllable. e.g. reappear, indistinct, incomplete, on the hill D. dactyl(— ︶︶ ): consists of one stressed syllable followed by

two unstressed syllables. e.g. messenger, merrily , property , accident



III. meter( 格律 ) 1. The meter of a line of poetry is determined by the kind of foot

used and by the number of feet in a line. The longest poetical line contains 8 feet.

Monometer 单音步诗行 , dimeter 二音步诗行 , trimeter 三音步诗行 , tetrameter 四音步诗行 , pentameter 五音步诗行 , hexameter 六音步诗行 , heptameter 七音步诗行 , octameter 八音步诗行（八步格） .

A line of five iambic feet is an iambic pentameter line. A line of six dactylic feet is a dactylic hexameter line. e.g. but every eye was fixed on her alone. On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore



IV.Rime Rime is a repetition of the same sound at the end of two or mor

e lines. E.g. day, may; wore, adore. V.stanza 1. A stanza is a group of two or more consecutive lines bound to

gether by end rime. 2. Usually, we use letters to represent the rime scheme （押韵方

式 ). A. couplet: aa bb cc….. B. terza rima （三行换韵）： aba bcb cdc ded….. C. Quatrain( 四行诗体 ): there are 4 rime schemes



7. Assignments

Hamlet (p79) The Merchant of Venice (p98)



Collection

Questions?



Questions?

Documents

HISTORY AND ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 英国文学史及选读 English Literature College of Foreign Languages China Three Gorges University