Lit Engl An1 Sem1 Sirbulescu

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1 Prof. univ. dr. Emil Sîrbulescu Medieval and Renaissance English Literature Editura Universitaria Craiova 2011

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Transcript of Lit Engl An1 Sem1 Sirbulescu

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Prof. univ. dr. Emil Sîrbulescu

Medieval and Renaissance English Literature

Editura UniversitariaCraiova

2011

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CUVÂNT ÎNAINTE

Îi invit pe studenţii care (sper), fără a fi forţaţi de nimeni, au optat pentru această formulă de

studii universitare, să considere, cu toată responsabilitatea, posibilele apropieri dintre România şi

Marea Britanie: Albionul, insulă la propriu şi creuzet al atâtor influenţe etnice şi culturale, şi

România, insulă la figurat într-un spaţiu etnic şi cultural la fel de divers. Cercetători ca Mircea

Eliade sau Nicolae Popa au remarcat surprinzătoare asemănări între celţi şi traci şi, mai concret,

între complexele de la Stonehenge şi Sarmizecetusa. Burebista i-a izgonit pe celţi undeva, în

câmpia Panoniei, iar triburile germanice venite de pe continent i-au izgonit pe celţi în Scoţia, Ţara

Galilor şi Irlanda de astăzi. Romanii au trecut şi pe la noi, şi pe la ei. Lor le-au lăsat vestigii

arheologice, nouă ne-au lăsat limba şi identitatea europeană. Iar asemănările ar putea continua.

Din punct de vedere cultural istoria Angliei a presupus absorbţia ei treptată într-o cultură

europeană, mult mai cuprinzătoare. În vreme ce anglo-saxonii se dovediseră destul de insulari şi

unici din punct de vedere cultural şi politic, Anglia medievală a fost dominată din ce în ce mai

mult de cultura continentală. Către sfârşitul secolului al XIV-lea, în timpul lui Chaucer şi Richard

al II-lea, când Anglia se afirmă ca o importantă forţă culturală europeană, în cultura engleză se

mai puteau distinge foarte puţine practici culturale anglo-saxone indigene. Deşi anglo-saxona

continua să existe în unele din aspectele sale cele mai esenţiale, se poate spune că limba Angliei

era deja Middle English – o limbă puternic înrudită cu limbile europene, mai ales cu franceza. Am

putea afirma că o asemenea transformare culturală se produsese de la vârf spre bază. Normanzii –

descendenţi ai scandinavilor stabiliţi pe teritoriul Franţei de azi – au adus cu ei cultura, instituţiile

şi practicile sociale normande fără a le impune direct asupra populaţiilor indigene anglo-saxone.

Cu toate acestea, începând cu secolul al XIII-lea, aproape toţi oamenii educaţi din Anglia

asimilaseră modelele culturale normande, franceze şi latine. Doar puţini excentrici se mai

cramponau de practicile culturale anglo-saxone.

În cadrul generos al istoriei, întreaga literatură engleză este ori medievală, ori modernă. Iar pentru

a desemna o parte a acesteia cu apelativul „medieval” înseamnă a o descrie – implicit sau explicit

– ca aparţinând erei care a format „marele pod pe care lumea occidentală a înaintat de la confuzia

care a urmat căderii Romei către complexa lume modernă.” (Hardin Craig, A History of English

Literature).

Cât despre perioada Renaşterii, lucrurile sunt îndeobşte cunoscute. Importanţa Italiei pentru

Anglia în ultimele decenii ale secolului al XV-lea şi primele decenii ale secolului următor este

dovedită de numărul mare de tineri ambiţioşi plecaţi din Anglia în Italia pentru a studia latina şi

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greaca şi pentru a-şi satisface entuziasmul faţă de literatura şi cultura Romei şi Greciei antice.

Latura intelectuală a acestei mişcări a oferit cea mai importantă sursă de dezvoltare a Angliei în

timpul dinastiei Tudorilor.

Geniul francez a avut dintotdeauna o influenţă semnificativă asupra geniului englez, iar Franţa a

fost prima ţară care a urmat Renaşterea italiană. Nu trebuie uitat că influenţele renascentiste în

Anglia nu aveau o origine excusiv franceză şi italiană. Noua cultură prinsese rădăcini puternice în

Olanda, Belgia, şi pe Valea Rinului. Caracteristica Renaşterii în aceste ţări germanice este o

profundă seriozitate. Renaşterea germană avea o oarecare agresivitate, opunându-se energic

scolasticismului medieval. Războaiele religioase şi teritoriale din secolele XVI-XVII au limitat şi

în cele din urmă au distrus Renaşterea germană care – în comparaţie cu Franţa, Italia, Spania şi

Anglia – nu excelase niciodată în artă şi literatură. O influenţă majoră asupra culturii engleze avea

să vină din Ţările de Jos, prin personalitatea lui Erasmus.

Am prezentat, aşadar, contextul cultural în care se încadrează pe care îl propunem în acest curs.

Unităţile de învăţare prezentate se încadrează într-o concepţie pe care ne-o dorim unitară şi

accesibilă studenţilor. Am inclus baterii de teste care nu pot decât sa contribuie la înţelegerea

cursului şi la abordarea lucidă şi constructivă a bibliografiei propuse.

Prof. univ. dr. Emil Sîrbulescu

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INTRODUCERE

Cursul se adresează studenţilor din anul I, semestrul I, ID, şi este structurat în patru

unităţi de învăţare, după cum urmează:

UNITATEA DE ÎNVĂŢARE I: BEOWULF AND OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

A. Beowulf : A summary; Problems when reading Beowulf; Structure; Pattern; Briefsummary of Old English Literature; Society and Beowulf; Beowulf and the DarkAges; Beowulf and the tradition of epic poetry; The use of alliterative meter;Pagan vs. Christian values.

B. The Seafarer and The Wanderer: The Anglo-Saxon period – a closer look; LyricPoetry; The Seafarer; The Wanderer; Themes; Resignation; Consolation

C. Battle Poems and The Dream of the Rood: Battle Poems; The Dream of the Rood

D. The Importance of Language

UNITATEA DE ÎNVĂŢARE II: MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE

From the Norman Conquest to Chaucer, Geoffrey Chaucer;

UNITATEA DE ÎNVĂŢARE III: SIXTEENTH CENTURY POETRY AND PROSE:

Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sixteenth Century Prose and the Reformation; The Sonnet: Philip

Sydney and Shakespeare; Edmund Spenser;

UNITATEA DE ÎNVĂŢARE IV: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: SHAKESPEARE IN

CONTEXT: Comedies and Histories, Tragedies, Late Plays.

La acestea se adaugă o bibliografie selectivă şi o baterie de teste de auto-evaluare care

oferă studentului posibilitatea de a se familiariza cu modalităţile de abordare a textelor

studiate.

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UNITATEA DE ÎNVĂŢARE I

BEOWULF AND OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

Obiective:

La parcurgerea Unităţii de Învăţare I, studenţii vor putea aborda literatura engleză vechedintr-o perspectivă contextuală (care se aplica, dealtfel, întregului curs), cu aplicaţie laurmătoarele opere literare:

• Poemul epic Beowulf• Elegiile The Seafarer şi The Wanderer• Poemul religios The Dream of the Rood• Poemele războince (‘battle poems’)• Este analizată importanţa limbii engleze vechi (Old English) pentru evoluţia

limbii engleze moderne.

Ore de studiu: 6

BibliographyAny HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE may prove useful to the student of literature.Different editions of The Pelican Guide to English Literature have been published: irrespective ofthe edition, the first two volumes cover the period analized in this Course of Lectures.

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF BEOWULF• Seamus Heaney. Beowulf. London: Faber and Faber, 1999• Alexander, Michael. Beowulf. London: Penguin Books, 1973• Kennedy, Charles W. Beowulf. New York: Oxford University Press, 1940• Morgan, Edwin. Beowulf. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964.• Raffel, Burton. Beowulf. New York: New American Library, 1963

The student may also find of equal interest the following volumes available in the Library of theUniversity of Craiova:

• Sîrbulescu, Emil. Cultură şi identitate naţională în Anglia medievală şi renascentistă(Craiova: SITECH, 2009)

• ______, Drama as Literature and Representational Art (Craiova, Editura Universitaria,2006)

• ______, Shakespeare and the Literature of the Renaissance (Craiova: UNIVERITARIA,2004).

• ______, Medieval British Literature: From Beowulf to The Canterbury Tales (Craiova:Beladi, 2003);

• ______, Incursiuni literare: ghid de literatură engleză şi americană. (Craiova: MJM,2002);

• _____, Landmarks: Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare. (Craiova: Scrisul Românesc,2002);

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A. Beowulf

A Summary Sometimes, between the year 700 and the year 900 THE EPIC POEMBeowulf was composed. It tells the story of BEOWULF, a warrior princefrom GAETLAND in SWEDEN, who goes to DENMARK and kills themonster GRENDEL who has been attacking the great hall of HEOROT,built by HROTHGAR, the Danish king. Grendel’s mother, a water-monster, takes revenge by carrying off one of the king’s noblemen, butBeowulf dives into the underwater lair in which she lives and kills hertoo. Returning home, in due course, Beowulf becomes king of theGAETS. The poem then moves forward about fifty years. Beowulf’skingdom is ravaged by a fire-breathing dragon that burns the royal hall.Beowulf, aided by a young warrior, WYGLAF, manages to kill thedragon, but is fatally wounded in the course of the fight. He pronouncesWyglaf his successor. The poem ends with Beowulf’s burial and apremonition that the kingdom will be overthrown.

Problems (1) We know nothing about the author; (2) We know nothing about whotranscribed the poem; (3) We do not know the exact date of itcomposition; (4) The text is historically remote from us; it involves ideasthat seem to bear little resemblance to our own ways of thinking; (5) It iswritten in a form of English (also called Anglo-Saxon) that displays littlesimilarity to English today.

Structure As is often the case with a literary text, however, a good deal can beactually determined from a summary alone. STRUCTURALLY, Beowulfis built around three fights. Each of these involves a battle between thosewho live in the royal hall and a monster; the monsters are dangerous,unpredictable and incomprehensible forces that threaten the security andwell-being of those in power and the way of life they represent.

Pattern When we have established that much, we have detected a pattern that isspecific to the Anglo-Saxon period, but which also echoes down throughthe whole history of English literature.• Time and time again, literary texts deal with an idea, or perhaps just

an ideal of order.• There is a sense of a well-run state or a settled social order, and, for

an individual, a feeling of existing within a secure framework. Thismight be the comfort provided by: (i) religious faith; (ii) the certaintyassociated with marriage and economic security; (iii) the happinessassociated with being in love.

A sense of security In Beowulf, a sense of security is linked with the presence of thegreat hall as a place of refuge and shared values; it is a place forfeasting and celebrations, providing security warmth and protectionagainst whatever might be encountered in the darkness outside. Overand over again, however, literary texts focus on threats to such afeeling of security and confidence. There might be an external threat,such as a monster or a foreign enemy, or an enemy within, such asthe rebellious noblemen in Shakespeare’s history plays who

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challenge the authority of the king. But the threat might be moreinsidious: (1) in a number of 18th century works, there is a sense ofchaos overtaking society, and the collapse of established standards ofbehaviour; (2) in 19th and 20th century texts, there might be a feelingthat the world is moving so fast and changing so much that all steadypoints of reference have been lost.

Pattern In short, we can say that the most common pattern in literature is onewhich sets the desire for order and coherence against an awareness of theinevitability of disorder, confusion and chaos. This recurrent pattern isfelt and expressed in different ways as time passes, the world changes,and people face fresh problems.

Old English History In the four or five hundred years before the Norman Conquest of 1066,England was a sparsely populated country that had experiencedsuccessive waves of invasion. The invaders included, between the latefourth and seventh centuries, different groups of Germanic peopleswhose descendents came to be known as Anglo-Saxons. The history ofthis period is documented by the historian BEDE (673-735) whose Latinwork Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, completed in 731,provides us with much information about the era. Thanks to Bede, and anumber of other sources, we know a surprising amount about thegovernment, administration, and legal system of Anglo-Saxon England.The impression is of sophisticated mechanisms of social organisation,primarily associated with the king. But the monasteries were alsoimportant in this period, in particular as centres of learning; the texts inOld English that survive from Anglo-Saxon England were all probablytranscribed during the tenth century by monks, who were bothestablishing a preserving a native literary culture. Government,administration, a legal system and a literary culture: all these thingssuggest a regulated, well-ordered and peaceful society. But this is onlyhalf of the story.

In 55 BC Julius Caesar landed in Ancient Britain. Colonisation andChristianity followed as Britain became part of the Roman Empire. In407, the Roman legions were withdrawn to protect Rome. Meanwhile,Picts invaded Roman Britain from the north. The British kingVORTIGERN, like Hrothgar in Beowulf, sent for help, but the Jutes whocame soon seized Kent. Other pagan Germanic tribes, the Angles and theSaxons, followed, driving the Celtic inhabitants into Wales, Cornwall,and Scotland. The result was that a number of Anglo-Saxon kingdomsemerged, and, almost inevitably, this led to military conflicts and shiftsin power. During the sixth century a process of re-Christianization began,but a further period of disruption was initiated, with Viking incursionsthat led to the sacking of monasteries.

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Society and Beowulf What becomes apparent from this brief summary is that in this period weare dealing with what is essentially a warrior society, a tribal communitywith people clustering together in forts and settlements, fearing attack.The land is farmed, and there are centres of learning, but theoverwhelming fact of life is invasion by outside forces. It should bebecoming clear by now that “Beowulf” reflects and expresses theanxieties that would have dominated such a society, but it also offers asense of something positive. We know from historical evidence thatAnglo-Saxon kings such as ALFRED (871-99), ATHELSTAN (924-39),and EDGAR (959-75) contributed to the forging of one people and onestate. This is echoed in the way that Beowulf, as a warrior, stands as abeacon, unselfishly going to the Danish king and then, later, as a king,facing the dragon in order to win its treasure for his people. Andalthough he dies without a heir, there is also something impressive in theway that the baton of command is passed on to his successor, Wyglaf.

The Dark Ages The period before the Norman Conquest used to be referred to as theDark Age; the term clearly does less than justice to the achievements ofthis society, but, if we do accept the description foe a moment, we cansee how a poem such as Beowulf with its ideas about leadership andloyalty, stands as a source of illumination in the darkness.

Epic Poetry Beowulf belongs to a tradition of heroic or epic poetry. This tradition canbe traced back to ancient Greece and Rome, and there is something of aparallel tradition in Scandinavian culture.

Definition An EPIC is a long narrative poem (there are 3182 lines in Beowulf) thatoperates on a grand scale and deals with the deeds of warriors andheroes. As is the case in Beowulf, while focusing on the deeds of oneman, epic poems also interlace the main narrative with myths, legends,folk tale and past events; there is a composite effect, the entire culture ofa country cohering in the overall experience of the poem. Beowulfbelongs to the category of ORAL, as opposed to LITERARY, epic, in thatit was composed to be recited; it was only written down much later as thepoem that exists today, possibly a late as the year 1000.

General traits - In EPIC POETRY there are always threats and dangers that have to beconfronted;- Even more important is the sense of a hero who embodies the qualitiesthat are necessary in a leader in a hierarchical, masculine, warriorsociety;- The text is concerned with the qualities that constitute the hero’sgreatness, the poem as a whole amounting to what we might regard as adebate about the nature of the society and its values.- Central to those values is the idea of loyalty to one’s lord: the lordprovides food and protection in return for service. He is the ‘giver ofrings’ and rewards, and the worst of crimes is betrayal.- This impression of a larger purpose in Beowulf is underlined by theinclusion of decorous speeches and passages of moral reflection, and by

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the inclusion of quasi-historical stories of feuds and wars that echo andsupport the main narrative.

Alliteration The fact that Beowulf exists within a literary tradition is also apparent inits use of the ALLITERATIVE METRE which is the most notable featureof Germanic prosody; in Beowulf, as in Old English verse generally,there are two or three alliterating stressed syllables in each line,reflecting the pattern of speech, and so appropriate for oral performance.The effect is to link the two halves of the lines into rich interweavingpatterns of vocabulary and idea. In its distinctive way, the conventionserves, like rhyme, to reinforce the poem’s theme of the search for orderin a chaotic world.

Values In the end, however, it is not a simple opposition of the desire for orderand the threat of disorder that makes Beowulf such an impressive poem.Indeed, if we talk about order versus disorder, the formulation mightsuggest that literature can convey a static and unchanging ideal of order.But this is never the case. A society is always in a state oftransformation. One thing that we know about the period when Beowulfwas produced, and which is apparent in the poem, is that pagan valueswere in conflict with, and gradually yielding to, Christian values. Valuesand ideas are constantly changing, but the most interesting works ofliterature are those produced at times when there is a dramatic shiftbetween one way of thinking about the world and a new way of thinkingabout the world.

Shakespeare The most obvious example is found in the works of Shakespeare, whowas writing at a time when the medieval world was becoming themodern world; part of Shakespeare’s greatness is explicable in terms ofhow his poems and plays reflect this enormous historical shift.

Beowulf In the case of Beowulf, we can sense a conflict between a way of lookingat the world that focussed on the heroic warrior and, on the other hand, aChristian perspective that is not entirely at ease with some of theimplications of the warrior code.

Complications Even from a non-Christian perspective, there are reservations that mightbe voiced about the heroic life: for example, joy, youth and life willinevitably give way to sorrow, age and death, leaving past glories behind.And there can seem something absurd about the quest for glory; even thegreatest warriors might strike us as vainglorious, and as fighting for noreal purpose. But the added level of complication that can be sensed inBeowulf is the possibility that there is a Christian critique of heroismimplicit in the poem:

• We might well feel that values in the poem that are remote frommodern experience – things such as blood feuds and thecelebration of violence in what professes to be an elite society –combine rather awkwardly with a story that might be regarded asa Christian allegory of salvation.

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• in the same way, we may be struck by a gap between theChristian elements in the poem and the stress on a pagan fate thatdetermines human affairs.

• It is, however, just such instability and indeterminacy in thepoem that makes it an important work of literature, for this ishow texts function in the period of their production, expressingconflicting and contradictory impulses in a culture. The kind ofcomplication that characterizes the best-known literary texts is amatter of how they not only reflect but are also the embodimentof a society caught up in a process of transformation andalteration, of collapse and formation, and of old and new ideas.

B. The Seafarer and The Wanderer

Anglo-Saxon Period The validity of this last point should become clearer if we look moreclosely at the Anglo-Saxon period. At such a historical remove, ournatural impulse is to think of a static, perhaps rather primitive society.Beowulf might actually add to our misconceptions as, superficially, itconveys an impression of a society that is characterized exclusively byviolent fighting. We need to understand, however, that the three monsterfights in the poem conform to conventional story-types rather than beingin any way a realistic expression of lived experience. We also need tounderstand that England at this time was certainly not a primitivesociety: the existence of religious orders, the architecture associated withthe monasteries, and the scholarship of those learned communities allprovide an idea of the sophistication of the society at this time.• In the reign of KING ALFRED (849-899) we encounter a leader who

established the English navy, promoted education, and saved Englandfrom the Vikings;

• England developed a system of national and local government, lawcourts, and mechanisms for tax-collecting, all of which were amongstthe most advanced in Europe.

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a history of England from the Romaninvasion to 1154, conveys an impression of a complex society thatwas constantly changing, adjusting and evolving.

Lyric poetry A vigorous vernacular literary culture exited. In addition to Beowulfthere was a considerable body of lyric poetry. Most of this poetry wasanonymous. The best-known poets of the period are CAEDMON(seventh century) and CYNEWULF (early ninth century) who focused onbiblical and religious themes.

The Seafarer It is the most accomplished of the lyric poems. It is an ELEGY, that is acomplaint in the first person on the hardships of separation and isolation.It falls into two halves and features a speaker who relates the hardshipand isolation of a life at sea, at the same time lamenting the life on shorehe has known and of which he is no longer a part; there is, paradoxically,both nostalgia for the past and a deep love of the sea, despite itsloneliness. In the second half of the poem, however, the poet moves in a

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fresh direction, imposing a homiletic gloss upon his recollections. Hepresents the call to a life at sea as a call to the Christian path of self-denial; life on earth is transient and insignificant in comparison with theidea of heaven.

The Wanderer It is also a lyric poem, and an elegy. The speaker is an exile seeking anew lord and the protection of a new mead-hall. The poem conveys hissense of despair and fatigue. It employs sea imagery to convey an idea ofexile and loneliness, of a hostile universe where human universe wherehuman beings are battered and tossed about aimlessly. In the second partof the poem, the poet moves from his personal experience to the generalexperience of humanity, how people suffer in a world characterized bywar and the ravages of time. Comfort can only be derived from the hopeof heaven.

Major themes Both poems dwell on DEATH, WAR, and LOSS. By the mid-seventeenthcentury, the term ELEGY starts to define a more precise meaning, as apoem of mourning for an individual or a lament over a specific tragicevent.

Life as a struggle In The Seafarer as in The Wanderer, there is a more general perceptionof life as a struggle, though one rooted in the poem’s culture: the speakeris bereft of friends, but also lordless and so forced to live alone in exilefrom the comforts and protection of the mead-hall. As in The Wanderer,fate and the elements seem to conspire against the solitary human figure.Like Beowulf, The Seafarer conveys a characteristic Anglo-Saxon viewof life. There is a sense of melancholy that suffuses the poem, a sense oflife as difficult and subject to suffering; and that, however much onedisplays strength, courage and fortitude, time passes and one grows old.

Resignation There is, too, a stoical resignation in the poem; the kind of response, infact, that one might expect to encounter in a hard, masculine culture. Butthe surprise is the delicacy and skill with which the poem reflects uponthese matters. Such a poem can still communicate with us today becauseof the manner in which it articulates both the pain of existence and thesearch for comfort.

Consolation What The Seafarer offers by the end is the idea of religious consolation.It would, however, be a minor, and forgettable, poem if it just offered aChristian answer. The subtlety of the poem lies in the manner in which itis caught between its awareness, on the one hand. Of the pain of life, and,on the other hand, its awareness of the comfort provided by religion. Butnot just that: there is almost a sense in the poem that religion is, in somerespects, a self-consciously adopted literary and ethical frame that isimposed upon an intransigent reality. As with Beowulf, we see againhow a substantial work of literature is always the product of a society inthe throes of change. Indeed, the way in which The Seafarer falls soclearly into two sections suggests two ways of looking at the world thatdo not quite combine together. It is this ambivalence of the poem, how itlooks to both the past and the future, as the poet moves between an old,

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pagan view of life as a perpetual battle and new values associated withChristianity, that gives it its resonance.

C. Battle Poems and “The Dream of the Rood”

Conflicting Impulses Wherever we turn in Old English poetry we encounter two impulses: onthe one hand, there is a sense of a harsh and seafaring world, and on theother a sense of Christian consolation and explanation. But there isalways the impression that the message of religion is being articulated bypoets who are conscious of this as a new discourse, even a new kind ofnovelty. There is also the point that our perception of the literature of theAnglo-Saxon period has been affected by the fact that the poems thathave survived were transcribed by monks, and therefore endorse theargument for Christianity. This is less true of some poems than of others.

Battle poems There are, for example, battle pieces, commemorative historical poemssuch as The Battle of Brunanburh, a poem relating how ATHELSTANdefeated the invading forces of the Scots and Vikings. A poem such asthis conceives of life as an armed struggle, and, although composedtowards the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, clings on to the traditionalvalues of strength and courage. Much the same is true of The Battle ofMaldon, which deals with a heroic, yet disastrous, attempt to opposeViking raiders.

The Dream By contrast, the Old English poems are overtly Christian.of the Rood The Dream of the Rood is a dream-vision poem in which the poet

encounters a speaking Rood or Cross. The Cross tells us about theCrucifixion, how it was buried, and then resurrected as a Christiansymbol. It thus acts as both witness to the Crucifixion and as a parallel toChrist, who throughout the poem is compared to a heroic warrior.

Message The poem ends with a religious homily in which the poet speaks of hiscontrition and hope for heaven. One impulse, after registering theingenuity of the basic conceit of the text, might be to think that this is analmost formulaic poem of Christian comfort. But what is so powerful isthe way in which the speaking Cross conveys a sense of its humiliationand terror as it was chopped down and made into a device for thepunishment of Christ as a criminal. This is, however, more thancompensated for by the pride the Cross now feels in the part it has playedin the Christian story. This move from a negative to a positive feeling isechoed in the poet’s response at the end of the poem: a life of tormentand sin is transformed into a message of hope for the future. But whatmatters in the poem just as much as this vision of heavenly reward andtriumph is the powerful immediacy of the sense of pain and the agony ofdeath.

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Contradiction The sophistication of the conceit in The Dream of the Rood, togetherwith the assurance of the poet’s craftsmanship, return us again to afundamental contradiction of the Anglo-Saxon period: that this was aharsh, military society, a society where survival to old age was rare, butalso a society in which art and learning were valued, and which hadcreated complex systems of social organisation. In such a culture,however, we are always going to be aware of the fragility of the hold oforder over the potential for disaster in life.

D. The Importance of Language

Definition The sense of a changing and unstable world is evident in the verylanguage out of which Old English literature was created. A language isa culture’s most precious possession, for it is the existence of a languagethat enables a nation to express its own distinctive identity. If a country’slanguage is destroyed or suppressed, something of that nation has beenlost forever.

Old English Old English is a language that was dominant in England for severalhundred years, but it was also a language that was imported, evolved,and then, at least in its original form, died. Old English was spoken andwritten in various forms from the fifth to the twelfth century. It derivedfrom several West German dialects that were brought to England byinvaders. For literary and administrative purposes it always existedalongside Latin. Nonetheless, by the eighth century it was spokenthroughout England, albeit existing in four distinguishable main forms.And it never stood still; by the ninth century, for example, there was aconsiderable Danish impact upon the language. But even if it was animported and constantly changing language, it was also an extremelypowerful and successful language. No other country in Europe at thistime could claim such a strong vernacular literary culture. From ourmodern perspective, however, we cannot help but be aware of the olderCeltic languages that Old English drove out. Old English was, in thissense, the language of the usurper, the invader and the interloper.

Its strength As we look at Old English in a longer time scale, we become more andmore aware of a curious combination of strength and vulnerability in it asa language. It displaced the Celtic languages, but with the NormanConquest the strongest vernacular written culture in Europe would beoverwhelmed and absorbed by another language or, to be more precise,by two languages. After the Conquest, English became subordinated toLatin as the language of learning and religion, while Norman Frenchbecame the language of the court and government. Old Englishcontinued to be used in some monastic centres through to the twelfthcentury, but, existing in isolation, a standard literary form of thelanguage could not be maintained.

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Post-Conquest After 1066, therefore, we enter a rather strange form of hiatus in thehistory of English literature; for almost two hundred years there is verylittle in the way of a vernacular literature. When English texts begin toappear again, there is, for one thing, a shift from alliterative measure torhymed metrical verse. From the point of view of the modern reader,however, the more significant development is that the post-ConquestEnglish texts are written in a form of English that, unlike the Germanic-influenced texts of the Old English period, clearly has some continuitywith the English we use today. In a word, Old English is itself replacedby Middle English.

Vulnerability When we look at Old English literature in this broader time scale, we cansee a degree of vulnerability in the language. Its strength and successduring the period of its ascendancy cannot be denied, but there is alwayssomething that pulls in the opposite direction. In literary texts that dealrepeatedly with wars, violence, and incursions there is perhaps anawareness that it is only wars, violence and incursions that have broughtOld English as a language into existence in the first place. In addition,the various dialects of Old English emphasize how the country remaineddivided.

Evolution After the Norman Conquest, by contrast, there is a growing recognitionof the English language, albeit a language that has evolved and changedconsiderably (with Old English, French and Latin words integrated intoit) as the native tongue that can be asserted against the Norman French ofthe new invader. The sense, however faint, of Old English as thelanguage that has displaced the older Celtic languages contribute to thedominant elegiac mood in Anglo-Saxon literature: that time passes, andthat all earthly things, including perhaps language itself, are insubstantialand subject to change.

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SELF-EVALUATION TEST

1. One of the major themes of Beowulf is the contrast between youth and age. Discuss.Answer: Compare the relationship between Beowulf as a young man and Hrothgar as anolder king. See how this parallels the later relationship between Beowulf and Wiglaf.Note the characteristics of Beowulf’s youthfulness by citing examples from his firstspeeches when he arrives in Denmark. Compare the tone and content of these speecheswith Beowulf’s speeches as an old man.

2. Analyze the various aspects of Beowulf’s personality. In what ways do you think he’s a hero?Answer: Note Beowulf’s superhuman qualities (for instance, his ability to stayunderwater for long periods of time, as he does during the battle with Grendel’s mother)that set him apart from other men. Discuss how he treats other people, citing examplesfrom the poem: his conversation with the Danish soldier when the Geats first arrive inDenmark, his dialogues with King Hrothgar and King Higlac. Discuss his personality interms of his capacity for loyalty, forgiveness, and generosity. Does his desire for fameand glory make him less a hero? Talk about why you think he insists on fighting thedragon alone, and relate this idea to the idea of the hero as a solitary and tragic figure.

3. Analyze the structure of the poem. Focus on how the historical digressions fit into the mainnarrative.

Answer: The poem is divided into two parts. In part one we see Beowulf as a young man,in part two as an aging king. The main narrative involves three battles: Beowulf andGrendel, Beowulf and Grendel’s mother, Beowulf and the dragon. The poem can bedescribed structurally by comparing parts one and two or by comparing the three battles.The poem can also be viewed as being structured around the character of Beowulf. In thecourse of telling the main story the poet frequently digresses with a related story from thepast. The relation of the historical digressions to the main narrative is another possibleinterpretation of how the poem was put together. Take any of the digressions- theFinnsburg Episode, for instance- and see how it relates to what’s going on in the mainnarrative. Discuss how the stories from the past are meant to parallel and illuminatewhat’s happening in the present.

4. Define the following terms: kenning, alliteration, litotes.Answer: A kenning is a phrase signifying a characteristic of a person or thing that thepoet uses instead of naming that person or thing directly. For example: a warrior mightbe described as “the helmet-bearing one” or a king as a “ring-giver.” Alliteration is therepetition of the same sounds or syllables in two or more words in a line. Litotes are aform of understatement, often intended to create a sense of irony. An example of litotescan be found in the poet’s description of Beowulf after he returns to Geatland fromDenmark (2165-69).

5. Why is the code of ethics between warrior and king so important to Anglo-Saxon society?Answer: Throughout the poem (beginning with the description of Shild in the Prologue)we see how the code of comitatus forms the backbone of Anglo-Saxon society. The kingknown for his generosity will attract the most warriors. In return, the warrior will pledgehis loyalty to the king and his country. Cite the Geat warriors’ refusal (with the exception

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of Wiglaf) to help Beowulf when he fights the dragon. Refer to Wiglaf’s speech to hiscowardly comrades, and discuss the idea that, as Wiglaf puts it, death is better than theviolation of the code.

6. What do you learn about Anglo-Saxon society from reading the poem?Answer: The poem deals with only one aspect of Anglo-Saxon society: the kings and thewarriors. The thief who steals the cup from the dragon is perhaps the only character inthe poem who isn’t a member of the aristocracy. The life of the kings and the warriors isvery formal and ritualistic. Their main forms of relaxation tend to be simple ones, likeeating and drinking. Discuss women’s role in the society and mention the womencharacters whom you think are most important.

7. Define an epic. Discuss the reasons why you would describe Beowulf as an epic poem.Answer: ‘Beowulf’ fits into the epic tradition that began with Homer’s ‘The Iliad’ and‘The Odyssey’ and Virgil’s ‘The Aeneid’. Like these earlier poems, ‘Beowulf’ deals witha few heroic events in the life of a single individual. Through an examination of thisperson’s life the epic poet attempts to reflect the history of his time. (It would be a goodidea to read the earlier epic poems and compare them to ‘Beowulf’.) Note the dignity ofthe style and tone, and the way past events are woven into the main narrative. AnalyzeBeowulf’s relation to Hrothgar and Higlac, his feelings about the feud between the Danesand the Hathobards, and how his personality embodies the most important characteristicand conflicts of Anglo-Saxon society.

8. In what way was the poet influenced by Christian tradition? Explain.Answer: The poet was indebted to the Christian tradition as it existed in England at theend of the seventh century. His point of view, his references to the Bible, his ethicalstandards are all Christian; he’s attempting to blend the pagan concept of fate with theChristian idea of grace. Beowulf defeats Unferth not by force, but by example, andUnferth hands over his sword, symbol of his strength. The audience for whom the poetwas writing was obviously familiar with the Christian references. At the approximatetime that the poem was composed, most of the AngloSaxon world had converted toChristianity. It might be said that Beowulf was a pagan epic adapted to the feelings of aChristian world.

9. Some critics feel that the major theme of the poem is the struggle between good and evil. Tellwhy you agree or disagree.

Answer: The monsters are necessary to the poem so that Beowulf can prove his heroicqualities. Beowulf is described as “the strongest man in the world” and in order to provehimself as a hero he has to fight against something super-human. Although the monsterspossess evil qualities that doesn’t mean that Beowulf and the warriors are necessarilygood. Analyze the characteristics of pagan society: the feuds, the conspiracies, theemphasis on material goods, the endless wars between countries. It’s a society wherekilling is accepted and rewarded. In the poet’s mind, society was as much a threat toitself as the monsters were.

10. How does the society of the Danes and the Geats change in the course of the poem?Answer: The poem begins on a positive note: it’s the beginning of a new reign ofprosperity for the Danish people. The bond between king and warrior- comitatus hasnever been stronger. A heroic figure like Beowulf is an accepted figure in this world. Theway to win glory and fame is by risking your life and performing acts of extreme braveryand courage. By the end of the poem we see how the value of the bond between warrior

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and king has diminished in importance. Beowulf strives to perform one last heroic act –killing the dragon – and loses his life. The Geat dynasty is on the brink of disaster. TheDanes are about to enter a feud with the Hathobards. Christianity is replacing paganismas the basis for ethical conduct.

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UNITATEA DE ÎNVĂŢARE II

MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE

Obiective: Parcurgerea celei de-a doua unităţi de învăţare va permite studentului:• înţelegerea literaturii medievale britanice în perioada care a urmat Cuceririi

normande;• aprecierea consecinţelor sociale, lingvistice şi literare ale Cuceririi normande;• înţelegerea procesului de formare şi maturizare a limbii engleze;• studierea celor trei etape ale activităţii creatoare a lui Chaucer, cu un accent

deosebit pe cea de-a treia etapă, cu poemul de referinţă Povestiri din Canterbury.

Ore de studiu: 6

Bibliography

Any HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE may prove useful to the student of literature.Different editions of The Pelican Guide to English Literature have been published: irrespective ofthe edition, the first two volumes cover the period analized in this Course of Lectures.

CHAUCER’S “THE CANTERBURY TALES” has also been translated in Modern English. Irecommend David Wright’s Translation (Oxford University Press, 1985).

The student may also find of equal interest the following volumes available in the Library of theUniversity of Craiova:

• Sîrbulescu, Emil. Cultură şi identitate naţională în Anglia medievală şi renascentistă(Craiova: SITECH, 2009)

• ______, Drama as Literature and Representational Art (Craiova, Editura Universitaria,2006)

• ______, Shakespeare and the Literature of the Renaissance (Craiova: UNIVERITARIA,2004).

• ______, Medieval British Literature: From Beowulf to The Canterbury Tales (Craiova:Beladi, 2003);

• ______, Incursiuni literare: ghid de literatură engleză şi americană. (Craiova: MJM,2002);

• _____, Landmarks: Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare. (Craiova: Scrisul Românesc,2002);

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I.A From the Norman Conquest to Chaucer

The Norman - Some historians argue that the event is not all that significant, that weConquest remember it simply as last of a series of conquests of lowland Britain,

and that it did not have all that much impact on the country;

- Other historians would take a different line (in the process, dismissingthe alternative view as a rather suspect form of English nationalism).They would argue that it is not the Norman invasion itself that issignificant, but how it affected the country, a new political and civilculture emerging, not immediately, but over the course of two to threehundred years. It is true that England, both strategically and culturally,became much more closely involved with France, but possibly theessential pattern of life did not change all that much because of the Battleof Hastings.

Consequences In terms of literature, we see the long-term consequences of the Conquestin the years between 1350 and 1400, one of the great periods of Englishliterature, when Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, the “Gawain”poet and others were all writing.

Social (a) Initially, the Conquest can be regarded as a military and politicalConsequences imposition upon England; until the accession of King John in 1199,

England became an extension of Northern France.

(b) The idea of Saxon subjection is embodied in a change that affectedthe status of the general mass of the English population; the Germanicconcept of ‘churl,’ the ordinary free man, farming his land but owingpersonal military service to his lord or king, was replaced by theconvention of the feudal villein, bound to the land and excluded frommilitary service.

Reactions (i) 1215 – the barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, thecharter ensuring rights against arbitrary imprisonment;

(ii) 1381 – the Peasants’ Revolt, a popular uprising, that took place in themiddle of the period when English literature was flourishing again.

(iii) Both the rebellion and the revival of literary activity can be regardedas signs of a new independence, of a throwing-off of shackles. But thesedevelopments in the second half of the 14th century should not beinterpreted simply as a reaction against the Norman French; it is more amatter of old and new impulses (including new impulses in the economiclife of the country after the plague – the Black Death – that swept acrossEurope in the second half of the 1340s) intermingling, and in the processproducing something different. As is the case again and again in Englishliterature, it is the clash of old and new, and how they spark together tostart a creative fire, that demands our attention.

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Linguistic (a) As a result of the Conquest, Norman French in official and literaryConsequences contexts, although, obviously, not in the day-to-day life of the majority

of the population, drives out Old English.

(b) There is very little English literature produced at the highest levels inthe period between 1066 and 1200. What exists reflects a small andinsular literary culture in retreat, helpless in the face of a continentalflowering of the arts that reveals a wide variety of forms and styles.

(c) The span from 1066 to 1350 is, indeed, sometimes designated as theAnglo-Norman period, because the non-Latin literature of that periodwas written mainly in Anglo-Norman, the French dialect of the newruling class in England.

(d) A confident vernacular literature only really re-emerges after 1350,when English became a permitted language in law courts, and in 1385,when English became widely used in schools. But it was a form ofEnglish markedly different from Old English, with many lexical loansfrom French, and the deletion of many Germanic words. This reorderingof language once more suggests how the thought processes of twocultures are likely to be found combining in the works of Chaucer andhis contemporaries.

Literary A sense of activity and intermingling is very clear in the variety ofConsequences Middle English literature. In broad terms, we can sum up Old English

literature as belonging to the HEROIC AGE, or HEROIC CULTURE.[“heroic” means concerned with epic, battles and legendary or mythicfigures; when applied to literature, it suggests a formal and dignifiedpoetry dealing with grand concepts, such as fate, honour, vengeance, andsocial duty. Its key theme is loyalty to one’s lord, or to God.] It is a gooddeal more difficult, however, to find one word that sums up MiddleEnglish literature, because the voices we hear are extremely diverse.

Genres There are some courtly romances, that call upon continental influences;there is, also, a strain of popular and dramatic literature (flourishing);there are, also, religious dramas, prose narratives, lyric poems, and,perhaps more intriguingly, a number of important works by womenwriters. Amidst such variety, however, it is consistently clear that theEnglish language itself is changing, and that a recognisably differentkind of social order is coming into being.

Sample Ther was also a Nonne, a PRIORESSE,That of hir smylyng was ful simple and coy;Hire gretteste ooth was but by Seinte Loy;And she was cleped madame Eglentyne. [named]Ful weel she soong the service dyvyne, [sang]Entuned in hir nose ful semely, [chanted]And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetishly, [elegantly]After the scole of Stratford ate Bowe. [school]

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(Chaucer, General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, II, 118-25)

Language notes These lines from Chaucer’s General Prologue (c. 1395) describe thePrioress, one of the pilgrims journeying towards Canterbury to visit theshrine of Saint Thomas à Beckett, who had been murdered by Henry II.We still need to translate the lines, but many of the words are close totheir modern form. Interestingly, the extract focuses on the Prioress’svoice, on how she sang and where she learned to speak French. It is as ifChaucer is aware that, in a society in a state of flux, it is the languagethat people use that provides possibly the clearest indication of the natureof that society and how it is changing.

I. B Geoffrey Chaucer

Currents of change We should not forget that, for the most part, literature in the Middle Agesremains the preserve of those in power. The intrusion of new voices,however, starts to explain the way in which the literature of the periodresponds to, but also helps create, currents of change. These currents ofchange are reflected in the rise of English as a literary language, thevernacular tongue expressing a distinctive sense of NATIONALIDENTITY, as opposed to Norman French or Latin and their associationswith the continent. This is an extreme version of a process that repeatsitself throughout English literature; new voices emerge that enable thecountry to redefine how it conceives and sees itself. There is often, butnot always, a sense of these voices as coarse and colloquial: a languagecloser to the language of everyday life is suddenly heard in contexts thatpreviously excluded the ordinary, the familiar. Of all English writers,none is more intriguingly participant in such a process than Chaucer.

Chaucer’s life Everything that we know about Chaucer’s life suggests someone at theheart of the established order:- when young, he served in the household of Prince Lionel, the son of

the King, Edward III;- subsequently, he might have studied law, and might have visited

Spain on a diplomatic mission;- from 1367 - he was an esquire to the royal household;- in 1359 he was with the king’s army in France;- 1372-3 – he was in Italy where he might have met the writer-scholars

Petrarch and Boccaccio;- he sat in Parliament and held various appointments under Richard II.The impression, clearly, is of a man at one with the status quo.

The French Phase When Chaucer started to write, in what is regarded as his first phase as awriter, he leaned heavily on French sources and French forms. This isevident in The Book of the Duchess (c. 1369), a poem on the death ofthe wife of John of Gaunt, and again in a translation of a French verseromance, The Romaunt of the Rose (possibly c. 1360), some of which isattributed to Chaucer.

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Dream-vision poetry Both poems belong to an establish convention: the DREAM-VISION. In adream-vision, an extremely popular form during the Middle Ages, thepoet falls asleep, usually on a May morning. In his dream he encounterseither REAL PEOPLE or PERSONIFIED ABSTRACTIONS; thecharacters he engages with represent a broad, if simplified, scenario oflife, in which human beings either act as they should or fail to do so.Dream-vision poetry can, as such, be seen as literature that reflects acourtly or chivalric ideal, the dream revealing an ideal which should, butall too obviously does not, pertain to the real world.

Dream-vision poems Chaucer calls upon the dream-vision convention in the two poemsmentioned so far, and also later in The Parlement of Foules (1372-86),The House of Fame (1379-80), and the prologue to The Legend of GoodWomen (1372-86). His liking for the form might suggest that Chaucerwas happy to work within the constraints of received literary moulds andideas; but most readers of these poems sense a degree of complication thatgoes beyond what we might expect to encounter. There is always aTENSION in dream poetry, because the form depends upon conveying theDISPARITY between high ideals and human frailty. As we might expect,desire, both sexual desire and the desire for money, is the most commonhuman weakness. But it is possible to argue that Chaucer’s dream-visionpoems have a more complex psychological dimension, conveying a subtlesense of needs that focus in the unconscious. It might seem misguided toimpose a modern concept such as psychology on Chaucer’s poems, butthey certainly convey an understanding of human diversity that subvertsany impression of a simple moral intention in the poems, something borneout by their self-consciousness about their own artifice and language.

Language matters When we start to look at Chaucer’s works, therefore, what we see are twoimpulses: (1) on the one hand, there is the debt to a received tradition: heworks within an established form that, to some extent, comes completewith an established way of looking at the world; (2) on the other hand,there is a sense of new feelings, new impulses, and new ways of thinkingabout life that Chaucer adds to the existing form.

This is to a large extent a matter of language. It is perhaps easier to graspthe idea in relation to The Romaunt of the Rose. It seems likely thatChaucer translated the first 1,700 lines of the poem, but in a way it doesnot matter who translated it. The essential point to grasp is that atranslation is never a straightforward conversion from what is being saidin one language to the same thing being said in another language; the actof translation transforms the text, introducing, as in The Romaunt of theRose, a whole way of thinking that is engrained in the English languageand which has no exact parallel in the French language. Consequently,Chaucer, writing in English, inevitably adapts, even as he adopts, foreignliterary modes, changing them in a way that reflects broader Englishcultural and historical concerns as well as more specific circumstances.

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The Italian Phase We see this again in Chaucer’s second phase as a writer, when he began tolook towards Italian literary influences. In the years between 1372 and1386 Chaucer wrote The Parlement of Foules, The House of Fame,Troilus and Criseyde, and The Legende of Good Women. The receivedstories and received forms that he calls upon enable him to explorefundamental questions about life. But, at the same time, working in hisown language, Chaucer is adding something new.

Troilus and Criseyde In Troilus and Criseyde (written in the 1380s), for example, we have atale of COURTLY LOVE, with the familiar complication that humansexual desire is at odds with a noble ideal. But the freshness of Chaucer’spoem is to a large extent a consequence of the way in which he movestowards a sense of Troilus and Criseyde as fully developed individuals,the poem as a whole articulating an idea about the psychological realitiesof love. Troilus and Criseyde as such, by its rewriting of a familiar story,contributes to a broader movement of cultural exchange; along with othertexts and a mass of historical evidence, it suggests a shift towards a newway of thinking about individual lives, a new way of thinking that willacquire increasing importance in Western society over the course ofseveral hundred years.

The English Phase It is in Chaucer’s third, English phase that he can most clearly be seen tobreak the mould of what he inherits from earlier writers and to forgesomething new that resonates beyond its time. The premise of TheCanterbury Tales is that pilgrims on their way to Thomas à Beckett’stomb at Canterbury divert themselves with the telling of tales; the 24stories told constitute less than a fifth of the projected work. Each tale toldis, however, a vivid exploration of the personality of the speaker, and theGeneral Prologue also provides an often amusing reflection of thepilgrims’ characters. The result is an extremely lively picture of thediverse range of people who lived in England during the late MiddleAges. Less obvious to the casual reader are the conventional formalelements in Chaucer’s conception of the work as a whole, and in thedesign of each tale. Transcending all else, is THE FRAMEWORK OFTHE PILGRIMAGE; this is a colourful cross-section of the main Englishsocial classes (there were three “estates” or groups – lords, priests, andlabourers, and Chaucer adds urban and professional people), but, howevervaried the people may be, they are united by their sense of a religiouspurpose in life.

Modes In terms of the separate tales, each belongs to an established mode: forexample, ROMANCE, EXEMPLUM, FABLIAU, and SERMON. But thestories are often told in such a vigorous manner, and so often focus onhuman weakness, that we are left with an overwhelming impression of thegap between polite literary forms and the rude untidiness of everyday life.This echoes the pattern in the conception of the work as a whole: the gapbetween the religious ideal of the pilgrimage and the all-too-human realityof the pilgrims.

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Society It might be argued that this is a disparity that could be identified at anypoint in history, but what interests us in The Canterbury Tales is the factthat we are seeing the social and religious aspirations of fourteenth-century people, and seeing secular and religious failings that aredistinctively characteristic of this society at this time. The text, as is thecase with any text, cannot be detached from the period of its production; itis, rather, trying to understand the late 14th century by seeking to articulatethe particular desires and weaknesses of this time in a certain set ofcircumstances.

The pilgrims’ voices The colloquial vigour of the poem is highly significant in this respect;there is a kind of polyphonic babble, a range of different and competingvoices from the characters that pulls against the sense of a purpose theyshare on the pilgrimage:- as pilgrims, they should all speak with one voice, but as people they

fail to do so;- the experience of each individual story supports this impression; a

complex tale develops within the essentially simple received formatso that even the crudest fabliau generates complex questions.

Diversity of life Chaucer is so proficient at illustrating human and social diversity that itis tempting to sum him up simply as a writer who is open to thediversity of life. There is seemingly a comic and tolerant tone in TheCanterbury Tales, as if Chaucer is only ever amused, and neveroutraged, by human conduct. Perfection is the exclusive preserve ofHeaven, human weakness is inevitable, and the appropriate response islaughter. It is a stance that seems compatible with Chaucer’s religiousbeliefs. If this is Chaucer’s position, then this also seems the rightmoment at which to remind ourselves that the second half of the 14th

century was characterised by increased religious policing on the part ofthe church authorities. While the church clamped down on waywardness,Chaucer was content to laugh. But possibly a more complex stance isin evidence in The Canterbury Tales, a poem which, despite its popularappeal, originates from a writer who was a loyal servant of the royalcourt.

Chaucer’s laughter Chaucer’s laughter is warm and generous, but actually a fairly harshlaughter is directed at anybody who might be judged to be a threat to theestablished order. What permeates the poem is an assumption that,although people have failings, all reasonable people, including thereader, share the same fundamental values as the poet. This is perhapsmost evident in his attitude towards the Wife of bath, a strong,independent woman who is not afraid to speak for herself, setting herown experience, gained in marriage, against biblical authority.

Excerpt Experience, though noon auctoritee [authority]Were in this world, is right ynogh for meTo speke of wo that is in marriage;For, lordynges, sith I twelve yeer was of age, [since]Thonked be God that is eterne on lyve,

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Housbondes at chirche dore I have had fyve.(The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, lines 1-6)

But the narrator’s amused tone is not really tolerant laughter so much aslaughter at the expense of a woman who does not know her place.

A positive picture The narrator adopts a self-deprecating manner, in which he affects to bethe most incompetent story-teller on the pilgrimage; his first tale is cutshort by the Host on the grounds of its exceptionally poor quality. Suchself-deprecation is, however, entirely consistent with the kind of ironicstance which, while appearing just to laugh at human absurdity, is inreality intolerant of difference. It is part of a kind of ideological sleight-of-hand in The Canterbury Tales, in which Chaucer treats the valuesheld by himself and the court as the values that everyone should share. Inthe same area, a profound sense of the importance of hierarchy permeatesthe whole; the Knight, who tells the first story, is at the top of the socialpyramid, and is treated with due deference. What, therefore, emerges inthe poem overall is a rather reassuring and essentially positive picture ofthe Middle Ages.

This is aided by the fact that Chaucer excludes uncomfortable evidencethat might unsettle things. This was a bloody and violent period, in whichno king could feel safe or established on the throne, but the poem offersno real sense of unrest in England. On the contrary, The CanterburyTales does not just endorse but helps establish an idea of a kind ofordered England, a world that we might nostalgically, but incorrectly,assume that once existed.

New voices Much of Chaucer’s power as a writer exists in the way that he seeks toachieve a SYNTHESIS. We have dealt with how new voices can pose athreat to the established order. What is so extraordinary in Chaucer isthat new voices are given far more exposure and prominence than in anyother writer of the period, yet they are all brought within the orbit ofChaucer’s masterly control.

In particular, Chaucer allows women far more space than the rigidboundaries of patriarchy permitted, opening up areas of experiencewhere they can articulate their desires. But Chaucer also finds room forthe aspirations of an upwardly mobile figure such as the Franklin, as wellas for the social pretensions of the Prioress and the humility of theParson, together with stringent criticism of church corruption.

In all of this, The Canterbury Tales is a work that looks to the future,and also looks to the past, and then, in negotiating between the two,creates a new voice, that of poised conservatism, that will remain centralin English literature for hundreds of years.

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SELF-EVALUATION TEST

2. The Canterbury Tales

_____ 1. The KnightA. sang bawdy songsB. was one of the most respected of the pilgrimsC. was an excellent woodsman, dressed in green

_____ 2. The Prioress’ gold brooch bore the inscriptionA. Honi soit qui mal y penseB. Nil sine magno laborumC. Amor vincit omnia

_____ 3. The Monk spent a good deal of timeA. in fasting and doing penanceB. justifying his extra-ecclesiastical activitiesC. extracting money from his congregants

_____ 4. The various guildsmen were represented by theA. Haberdasher, the Dyer, and the WeaverB. Shipman, the Carpet Maker, and the FranklinC. Reeve, the Carpenter, and the Manciple

_____ 5. In describing the Doctor of Physic, Chaucer mentioned his specialA. affection for goldB. affinity for the BibleC. ability to cure illness

_____ 6. The pilgrim who frequently quoted authorities on love was theA. FriarB. SummonerC. Wife of Bath

_____ 7. In the General Prologue, Chaucer relied heavily onA. scholarship and witB. subtlety and ironyC. sophistication and mood creation

_____ 8. The pilgrim with the fiery red complexion and the garlic breathwas theA. ReeveB. SummonerC. Pardoner

_____ 9. One could buy indulgences from the effeminateA. PardonerB. MancipleC. Franklin

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_____ 10. According to Chaucer’s original plan, the pilgrims would havetoldA. 58 talesB. 87 talesC. 120 tales

_____ 11. Many of the pilgrims hadA. mental problemsB. psychosomatic complaintsC. physical ailments

_____ 12. The Knight’s Tale dealt withA. an old carpenter from OxfordB. chivalry and ideal loveC. immorality and poetic justice

_____ 13. The perfect woman, Constance, was celebrated inA. Cook’s TaleB. Man of Law’s TaleC. Clerk’s Tale

_____ 14. The Introduction that is longer than the actual tale is theA. Wife of Bath’s PrologueB. Prioress’ PrologueC. Miller’s Prologue

_____ 15. The outspoken traveler with interesting opinions about marriageand celibacy was theA. Wife of BathB. Nun’s PriestC. Merchant

_____ 16. The Reeve and the Summoner told their tales in order toA. introduce a note of levity between two serious storiesB. impress the travelers with their personal braveryC. repay someone else

_____ 17. Balance for the Wife of Bath’s woman was provided byA. the maiden DorigenB. Patient GriseldaC. Innocent Rebecca

_____ 18. Chaucer’s language is characterized byA. double entendresB. clever punsC. sparkling metaphors

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_____ 19. Chanticleer, the talking rooster, was victimized byA. his lady, PerteloteB. the Nun’s PriestC. the sly fox

_____ 20. The Canterbury Tales end unusually with Chaucer’sA. comic epilogueB. retractionC. farewell to Harry Bailey, the Host

ANSWERS: 1. B 2. C 3. B 4. A 5. A 6. C 7. B 8. B 9. A 10. C 11. C12. B 13. B 14. A 15. A 16. C 17. B 18. A 19. C 20. B

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UNITATEA DE ÎNVĂŢARE III

SIXTEENTH CENTURY POETRY AND PROSE

Obiective• Studenţii vor studia poezia şi proza Renaşterii. Este analizat sonetul englez ca

formă poetică reprezentativă a sec. al XVI-lea, exemplificată prin sonetul lui SirThomas Wyatt, Whoso list to hunt.

• A doua secţiune este dedicată perioadei Reformei şi prozei secolului al XVI-lea.Literatura este prezentată în contextul Reformei, cu accent pe personalitateacovârşitoare a Reginei Elizabeta I. Sunt prezentate principiile Umanismului, cuexemplificări din lucrarea lui Thomas More, Utopia. Este menţionata importanţatraducerii Bibliei în limba engleză, contribuţia marilor aventurieri englezi RichardHakluyt şi Walter Ralegh, scrierile în proză ale lui Sir Philip Sydney (Arcadia) şiThomas Nashe (The Unfortunate Traveller).

• Cea de-a treia secţiune este dedicată sonetului englez, cu exemplificări dinciclurile de sonete ale lui Sidney şi Shakespeare.

• Cea de-a patra secţiune este dedicată în exclusivitate operei lui Edmund Spenser,şi cultului Reginei Elizabeta I cu exemplificări din Epithalamyon şi The FaerieQueene.

Ore de studiu: 8

Bibliography

MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE POETRY AND PROSE SAMPLES can easily be found indifferent editions of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Oxford Anthology ofEnglish Literature.

The student may also find of equal interest the following volumes available in the Library of theUniversity of Craiova:

• Sîrbulescu, Emil. Cultură şi identitate naţională în Anglia medievală şi renascentistă(Craiova: SITECH, 2009)

• ______, Drama as Literature and Representational Art (Craiova, Editura Universitaria,2006)

• ______, Shakespeare and the Literature of the Renaissance (Craiova: UNIVERITARIA,2004).

• ______, Medieval British Literature: From Beowulf to The Canterbury Tales (Craiova:Beladi, 2003);

• ______, Incursiuni literare: ghid de literatură engleză şi americană. (Craiova: MJM,2002);

• _____, Landmarks: Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare. (Craiova: Scrisul Românesc,2002);

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1. SIR THOMAS WYATT

The Sonnet (I) The literary form most commonly associated with the sixteenth centuryis the SONNET. The SONNET is a poem of 14 lines, which in itsPetrarchan form divides into an eight-line unit and a six-line unit; theoctave develops one thought, and there is then a change of direction inthe sestet. The form was widely used by Italian poets in the later MiddleAges, usually for love poems. Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey introducedthe convention into England in the early sixteenth century; the formflourished, its popularity reaching a peak in the 1590s, with sequences –a series of poems dwelling on various aspects of one love affair – by SirWilliam Sidney, Samuel Daniel, Thomas Lodge, Michael Drayton, andEdmund Spenser. The most celebrated sequence, published in 1609, butcirculating in manuscript in the 1590s, is by Shakespeare. As in theMiddle Ages, English Renaissance writers, it seems, have to turn to theContinent to find literary forms they can work with.

Whoso list to hunt This example, WHOSO LIST TO HUNT, is by Sir Thomas Wyatt, whoheld a number of posts in Henry VIII’s court, and was closely involvedwith Anne Boleyn, who became Henry’s second wife:

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,But as for me, alas, I may no more.The vain travail hath wearied me so soreI am of them that farthest cometh behind.Yet may I, by no means, my wearied mindDraw from the deer, but as she fleeth aforeFainting I follow. I leave off, therefore,Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,As well as I, may spend his time in vaine.And graven with diamonds in letters plainThere is written, her fair neck round about,‘Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am, [Touch me not]And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”

Points of interest The poem, written about 1526, is an adaptation of a sonnet by the well-known 14th century Italian writer PETRARCH, but, when it refers tohunting a deer that belongs to Caesar, seems to play teasingly, or perhapsanxiously, with Wyatt’s own, and now hopeless pursuit of Anne Boleyn.There are two points of immediate interest in Wyatt’s poem:(1) One is the reliance upon an imported literary text (the SONNET)(2) The second is that, whereas writers in the Middle Ages seem to be

asserting the value of the English language almost in defiance of theimported literary forms they were using, in Wyatt’s sonnet there isan independent voice that expresses itself confidently without anysense of the form providing a constraint.

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Language and nation It is as if the language has come of age. This linguistic confidence issynonymous with a developing national confidence, that the poets feelthey can hold their own with continental writers, rather than writing intheir shadow. In turn, the nation itself comes to be shaped through thelanguage and to take on its distinctive identity. This is implicit in Wyatt’ssonnet.

Complication At face value, “Whoso list to hunt” might seem a trifling poem. All itsays is that the poet is too weary to hunt any more, although he remainsintrigued by the elusive deer; others may pursue her, but the fact is thatshe is another man’s property, if, indeed, a man can possess such a wildcreature. One thing that adds interest to the poem is the sense of the lifeof an aristocrat that is conveyed:

• hunting deer is the recreation of a courtier; it calls upon the skillsrequired in warfare, but these have been adapted into the rituals of aleisurely pursuit;

• the reference to the diamond-studded collar underlines the point thatthis is a society concerned with good style rather than mere utility;

• writing the sonnet adds to the overall impression: the completeRenaissance gentleman will be proficient in all the arts, the art ofwriting just as much as the art of horsemanship.

Political intrigue There is another level of complication evident in the poem. It lies inWyatt’s ability to write indirectly, not just about his pursuit of AnnBoleyn, but more generally about political intrigue; how, as a courtier, hemust yield to the power of the king, and that sexual desire mightmotivate men as much as political ambition. There is perhaps always asense of quarry – a woman, a secure post – that will remain permanentlyelusive. And even the poem’s tone is elusive. Is Wyatt just playing withan idea, or does the poem, written by a man who was not only involvedin intrigues, but also arrested on a number of occasions, offer anunsettling sense of the precariousness of court life, and the complex linkbetween private and public affairs?

Wyatt’s subtlety What we can be sure of is the subtlety of Wyatt’s performance.Petrarch’s sonnet provides him with a structure in which he producessomething that strikes us as entirely original. He takes the Petrarchanlove sonnet, with its hapless male lover and remote, idealized lady, andinvests them with an ambiguous resonance resulting in a kind ofdoubleness so that the poem is at once playful and darkly sinister in tone.

Court poetry What we must also note is that this poem, and the same is true of a greatdeal of poetry in the sixteenth century, is COURT-BASED. In the MiddleAges we often seem to hear the voice of the people, but in the Tudorperiod there is an assertion of royal authority. Things are not allowed toget out of hand; the court asserts its dominance, and this includes seizingthe initiative in literary discourse.

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The Sonnet (II) This begins to explain why the sonnet became established as thefavoured form in the sixteenth century. It is not enough to say there wasa fashion for sonnets; there are always social factors that determinefashions. Wyatt’s poem leads us toward an answer. There is a delight incontrol reflected in the idea of the poem’s set forms: life is complex, andthe pressures in life are diverse, but the poet has asserted an authorityover such complications.

This matches the political situation of the 16th century. England hadexperienced thirty years of civil war, the Wars of the Roses, between1455 and 1485, but the Tudor period, starting with Henry VII in 1485,sees a move from the chaos of civil war to effective, if authoritarian,government.

The poem also reflects a new respect for learning and education thatbecame evident in England under the Tudors; the sonnet acknowledges adebt to Italian culture and the classics, but is also an independentillustration in English of how the intellect can impose a pattern ofrational interpretation upon life.

The Sonnet (III) Yet there is always another dimension to sonnets: the two halves of thepoem do not exactly match, do not balance each other. Consequently,built into the very structure of the sonnet, there is an idea of life slippingbeyond the poet’s ability to control it. In terms of imagery, the poetspeaks of trying to hold the wind in a net, of trying, that is, to capturesomething elusive and invisible; and at a simple, but significant, level inthis poem, as in many 16th century love poems, THE WOMAN EVADESCAPTURE.

Central theme Wyatt’s writing, therefore, can be said to demonstrate his mastery of theintrigues of court and his mastery of the sonnet as a disciplinedintellectual composition, but the poem, both in terms of its content and interms of its intrinsic structure, simultaneously challenges the ability tocontrol and comprehend human experience.

This could be said to be the CENTRAL THEME of sixteenth centuryliterature: there is a constant assertion of control, of order, but thatcontrol is always being undermined, challenged or doubted.

This will become more evident in the 1590s, a decade which can berepresented as the period of the great sonnet sequences, but which canalso be viewed as almost anarchic in the diversity and excess of itsliterary and political activity.

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2. SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PROSE AND THE REFORMATION

The Reformation A new confidence in the English language is evident in the strength ofvernacular prose writing during the 16th century. At the same time, thefact that one of the most important prose works of the century, SirThomas More’s Utopia (1516), was written in Latin reminds us that avariety of impulses were at work at the time:- SIR THOMAS MORE was Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, but

resigned in 1532 because he could not agree with the king’secclesiastical policy and marriage to Anne Boleyn; he was executedin 1525.

- HENRY VIII was the second Tudor monarch. His father, Henry VII,had become the king in 1485, when he overthrew Richard III. HenryVIII came to the throne in 1509.

- In 1517, MARTIN LUTHER’s protest against the principle of papalindulgences began THE REFORMATION; this was essentially aprotest of the individual conscience against the authority of theCatholic Church.

- In 1534, Henry VIII was declared SUPREME HEAD ON THEEARTH OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH:

On the surface, it was because he wanted to obtain adivorce;

At a deeper level, it was a matter of Englanddeclaring its independence and separate identity.

Elizabeth I In 1547, Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by Edward VI (aged nine),Lady Jane Grey (for nine days), and, in 1558, by Elizabeth I.- Her first task was the RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENT of 1559, which

imposed the Protestant religion by law, though in such a way thatmost people could be accommodated within its terms. TheSettlement established England as a prime mover in the Reformationcause.

- The growing strength of England was made apparent in the defeat ofthe Spanish Armada in 1588.

- When Elizabeth died in 1603 it brought to an end over a hundredyears of Tudor rule, a period which can be characterized asdisplaying an increasing sense of national confidence andindependence.

Humanism In the first 45 or so years of Tudor government, England was still aCatholic country, and, as such, very much aware of its European identity.This is the context in which we have to consider Thomas More, a newkind of figure that appears in this period. In the 15th century, educatedEnglishmen began to catch a sense of the cultural and intellectual activitythat was flourishing in the Italian city states. The energy of trade and theconsequent affluence produced a new interest in recovering and studyingtexts from classical antiquity, and a new enthusiasm for learning, perhapsbest summed up in the term HUMANISM. The poetry of Wyatt and the

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Earl of Surrey is one manifestation of such humanist activity and of howthe Italian Renaissance affected England, but in More’s “Utopia” wegain an impression of something rather more weighty.

More’s ‘Utopia’ The book looks at European society, offering solutions for some of itsills; it does this primarily by citing, and proceeding to describe, UTOPIA,a perfect island state. It is a work that reflects a new kind of concern withquestions of government and political and social organization. If we wereto make a comparison with earlier texts, we might argue that, while OldEnglish writings focus on loyalty as the key value in a corrupt and harshworld, with religion as the only consolation, in a work such as More’sUtopia there is a far more positive sense of the human intellect and ofhuman capability.

Language matters Yet at the same time, even with More’s humanist scholarship and a newinterest in philosophy, history, literature and art, 16th century Englandwas geographically and culturally on the fringe of the continentalEurope. For men such as More, the question whether to write in Latin orEnglish was always a difficult one. More’s CHOICE OF LATIN signalsan awareness of being part of an intellectual community that extendsbeyond England as well as a kind of political conservatism. But thechoice of Latin also, possibly, conveys a sense of English as stillrelatively unstable and unproven as a language.

Roger Ascham The tutor of Elizabeth before she became queen, Ascham felt he shouldwrite in English, even though he found it easier to write in Latin orGreek. His book, Toxophilus (1545), which is about archery, includes asignificant section on the importance of using English. Ascham’scommitment to English was deeply intertwined with his sense of hisEnglish Protestant identity. In this connection, it would be hard toexaggerate the importance of the English Reformation in promotingEnglish as the inevitable choice for the writer of prose; at a fundamentallevel, it is only possible to express one’s separate and independentidentity in one’s own language.

The Hoy Bible The changes that came about in the 16th century are illustrated if weconsider the issue of the translation of the Bible. Before the Reformation,the Bible had been translated, but WILLIAM TYNDALE, whose NewTestament translation appeared in 1526, was burned as a heretic inBelgium and his translation was suppressed in England. In 1536,however, Henry VIII gave royal licence for an English Bible, which was,essentially, the Tyndale translation. In 1560, the so-called Geneva Biblewas presented to Elizabeth, and became the Bible in standard use formerely a century; it is less lofty and less Latinate than King James Bibleof 1611. The fact that the Bible was now available in English should beseen in conjunction with the fact that new books were printed, rather thanexisting in manuscript, and that by as early as 1530, it has beensuggested by some historians, over 50% of the population could read.

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Adventurers Many would argue that it is economic activity as much as political orreligious factors that prompts social and cultural change. In this respect itis important to pay attention to the activities of Elizabethan adventurersand the expansion of maritime activity.

Richard Hakluyt The Principal navigations, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the Englishnation was published in 1589, reappearing about ten years later in agreatly enlarged edition. It is a compilation of ships’ logs, salemen’sreports and economic intelligence; the author takes material as unshapedas a ship’s log, and moulds it into a narrative of self-identity. In no smallmeasure, this involves telling a seafaring nation that it is, indeed, a sea-faring nation destined to rule the world. Again and again, Hakluyt’smariners venture forth into a world that is beset by storms and danger,but they always seem to receive their reward. It is a form of divineprovidence, and perhaps particularly directed at the English who aresuitable recipients of such bounty.

Sir Walter Ralegh The History of the World (1614): Soldier, sailor, courtier, politician, poetand historian, Ralegh seems to embody the idea of Castiglione’s TheCourtier (1528), combining intellectual and heroic attributes. The book,unfinished as it is, starts with the Creation and gets as far as the secondcentury BC. It is an ambitious attempt to comprehend the past from theperspective of an Englishman, and through the medium of English. It isentirely consistent with the expansionist, colonial mission of England inwhich figures such as Ralegh sought to wrest control of Spanish colonieson behalf of Elizabeth.

But the years between 1603 and 1616, when Ralegh was imprisoned inthe Tower of London for treason, together with his execution in 1618,suggest the frailty of the concept of control in England during theElizabethan and Jacobean periods. Dissent, insurrection and rebellionwere common during the Tudor period, and were suppressed ruthlessly.As with the sonnet, the initial impression might be of an orderlinessunder firm authority, but the order that is established is fragile, andforces beyond the tight control of the royal court always threaten todisturb such harmony as has been established.

Sir Philip Sidney In the 16th century, the dominant voice is that of the courtly aristocrat, asis the case of Sir Philip Sidney’s prose romance The Arcadia. It is set inan ancient pastoral world where King Basilius has taken refuge to avoidthe prophecy of an oracle, and tells of the adventures of two princes,Musidorus and Pyrocles, who fall in love with the king’s daughters. Theplot is full of intrigues, while the text is punctuated by verse ecloguesand songs. As in Shakespeare’s late plays, The Tempest and The Winter’sTale, the effect is to heighten by contrast the themes of love and nature,but, as in all such works, the pastoral ideal is threatened from both withinand without, its harmony disturbed by murder and attempted rape. Whatmay strike modern readers most about The Arcadia is its sheerelaborateness intended to convey courtly sophistication, but also a certain

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eliteness. In this it is at an opposite remove from a work such as ThomasNashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller (1594).

Thomas Nashe The Unfortunate Traveller (1594) is an early example of the novel inEngland which focuses on the adventures of an English page on theContinent. Nashe creates a grim picture of a world that is almostanarchically untidy, a world in which the failings and excesses of theruling class are too apparent. Nashe was always a vigorous opponent ofthe growing power of the Puritans and their wish to control both thetheatre and writing. He represents a dissident stream of literature,including such popular forms as rogue literature and “coney-catching”pamphlets describing con-tricks played on innocent citizens. Here is agenuine alternative voice to that of the court, a voice rooted in everydaylife with all its hazards, but also a voice that is akin to popular journalismand popular fiction. In many ways, it is the voice of the future.

Religion It is in the area of religion that the vulnerability of the order establishedby the Tudor monarchs is most apparent. A new Protestant dispensationnaturally found itself in contention with Catholic orthodoxy, but it alsoproved insufficiently radical for many in the country. MARTINMARPRELATE was the name assumed by the author of a series ofpamphlets issued in 1558-9; these were extreme Puritan attacks onBishops, who were regarded as symbols of the Catholicism still infectingthe new Protestant church. As we enter in the 1590s, more and moredifferent voices begin to be heard, asserting their presence in an evergrowing variety of literary forms. Significantly, the government orderedcounter-attacks on the Puritan pamphlets, and also introduced censorship.Such actions acknowledged the strength of the forces that threatened itpolitically, but also indicate the way in which works of literature open upand draw attention to the faultiness of change. The Tudor period ischaracterized by strong central leadership, and this is echoed in a court-based literature that, as in the cleverness of so many sonnets, revels inpoise, authority and control. But the very fact of strong government isalso a recognition of the existence of disruptive forces in a changingcountry.

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3. THE SONNETEERS

Popular culture There are many examples of popular culture – songs, ballads, some prosefiction – that survive from the 16th century, and also texts by writers froma diverse range of social backgrounds, but more than in any other centuryit is necessary to pay attention to poetry as the preserve of the court, ofpeople who wrote as a civilized recreation.

Sonnet sequences The major sonnet sequences of the century were not written forpublication, merely circulated in manuscript amongst a select circle.These sonnet sequences were, for the most part, written by men whoselives were conducted on the public stage, as soldiers and politicians. Itwas very much a MALE CULTURE.

Astrophil and Stella Sidney’s sonnet sequence, published in 1591, five years after he died,was instrumental in inspiring the numerous other sonnet sequences of the1590s, including Shakespeare’s. It consists of 108 sonnets and 11 songs,and was written around 1582. The poems are addressed by ASTROPHIL(Greek for “star-lover” to STELLA (his “star”, derived from Latin).

Context Another context for the poem is provided by Sidney’s The Defence ofPoetry (1579-80), which, with its claim of the superiority of poetry tohistory and philosophy in questions of moral virtue, reveals the extent towhich Sidney was familiar with classics and European discussions aboutthe nature and function of art. Though entitled a “defence,” the workexudes confidence in the way that it reconciles a careful rhetoricalstructure with an engaging style. There is an impression of Sidneyabsorbing continental influences, transferring them to an English context,and writing with an air of independent authority.

Petrarch In a similar way, Astrophil and Stella as a sequence, takes everything itneeds in terms of convention and form from PETRARCH, but stands onits own as a major move forward in English poetry. It would be possibleto consider the sequence as a whole, which would demand attention tothe dramatic coherence of the narrative that develops, and the narrator inwhich the poems, cumulatively, create a sense of obsession, of beingcaught in a psychological impasse. It is probably more helpful here,however, to see the issues raised by one sonnet seen in isolation:

Sonnet 21 Your words, my friend, right healthful caustics, blameMy young mind marred, whom Love doth windlass so,That mine own writings like bad servants showMy wits, quick in vain thoughts, in virtue lame;That Plato I read for nought, but if he tameSuch coltish gyres, that to my birth I oweNobler desires, least else that friendly foe,Great expectation, wear a train of shame.For since mad march great promise made of me,If now the May of my years much decline,

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What can be hoped my harvest time will be?Sure you say well; your wisdom’s golden mineDig deep with learning’s spade; now tell me this,Hath this world ought so fair as Stella is?

(Astrophil and Stella, sonnet 21)

In this sonnet the speaker addresses a friend who has rebuked him forneglecting his studies in favour of Stella. The friend’s words of adviceare compared to a corrosive cure for the poet’s mind, which has beenpulled off its true course by love. What he writes is characterised by vainthoughts rather than weighty matters; his education in the classics shouldsteady him, rather than make him giddy. By birth the poet is a man ofgreat things, but where will such foolishness lead? The poet, then, in theclosing words of the poem, answers his friend: nothing in the world is asfair as Stella.

Complications As it is so often the case with a sonnet, this might appear to amount tovery little. But it is possible to unwrap layer upon layer of complicationin the poem’s language:(a) At a simple level, the poem tells us a great deal about the education

of a Renaissance gentleman. This includes reading the classics,acquiring proficiency as a writer, and generally experiencing a moraleducation that will prepare a young man for public life.

(b) What we are also likely to notice immediately is the cleverness withwhich the poem conveys its ideas. The most obvious technique isSidney’s play with metaphors, such as when he compares his writingto bad servants; servants, and words, should play their assigned role,rather than stepping out of line. But the poem itself is a wittydemonstration of words not being kept in check; indeed, it ischaracterized by just the kind of irresponsibility that his friendscondemn.

(c) At the end of the poem, in a clever reversal, he manages to turn thetables on his friend. He is condemned for writing “vain thoughts,”but when his friend addresses him, “… your wisdom’s golden mine /Dig deep with learning’s spade;…” the poet wins the argument bythe plainness of his closing statement. Again, however, this returnsus to the question of whether this is anything more than clever. Theanswer would seem to be that here, as in many sonnets, questions areraised about the status of writing and its relationship to meaning andtruth. The wit that is such a feature of sonnets – the kind of play withlanguage that is apparent in the poem – becomes so self-conscious asto become suspect. The poet is aware that he is constructing a kind ofself-enclosed verbal world which seems to relate to the real world,but which is possibly just a form of ingenious pattern-making.

16th c. England This all has particular relevance in 16th century England. Just as the courtmaintains power but is aware of the fragility of the regulation that itmaintains over the country, so Sidney’s sonnet seems to acknowledge theprecarious nature of the control that the poet maintains. This isparticularly an issue in a Protestant country. In a state that has rejected

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the authority of the Catholic Church, with what authority does the kingor queen speak? Is there any substance to titles such as “Supreme Headon Earth” of the English Church, or is this a little like the spuriouscontrol evident in a sonnet, merely a form of ingenious word play?

The gender issue Can a love poem, however, really be described as having such far-reaching implications as these? Not directly, of course. There is nohidden political agenda in Sidney’s poem: it is not about the Protestantand Catholic churches or the position of Elizabeth I in relation to thePope. But the gender issue in the poem does echo the larger issues raisedabove. In a love poem, it is usually the case that a male poet addresses amale subject; essentially, he strives to bring her under his control. But thewoman remains free and elusive (hence the need to return to her insonnet after sonnet). The issue of control, and the fragility, perhapsimpossibility, of control is thus always well to the fore in a love poem. Itis this troubling problem that connects to larger social and politicalquestions outside the text.

Shakespeare The issues mentioned above are also central to Shakespeare’s sonnets,but Shakespeare takes everything a stage further. This is partly a matterof ability, that Shakespeare can outperform the verbal gymnastics of anyof his contemporaries. But it is also a matter of Shakespeare writing inthe 1590s, as the control maintained by Elizabeth became more and morestrained, and also because Shakespeare is outside the established order ofthe court and more open to an idea of flux and instability.

Addressee As an illustration of this, the majority of Shakespeare’s sonnets areaddressed to a man; it is a characteristically clever move, for itimmediately unsettles the usual convention of a love poem, that the malecontrols the elusive woman. A conventional love poem may question theassumptions inherent in such thinking, but many of Shakespeare’ssonnets start by unsettling even our own initial expectations and ways ofthinking.

Meanings At a straightforward level, Shakespeare’s sonnets obviously have a greatmany insightful things to say about the experience of being in love, and itwould be foolish to deny the way in which they communicate with manyreaders, but a history of English literature, rather than just drawingattention to the timeless qualities in Shakespeare’s writing, should alsobe concerned with the way these sonnets function in their own time.Some of these points are evident in the following sonnet:

Sonnet 64 When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defacedThe rich proud cost of outworn buried age;When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;When I have seen the hungry ocean gainAdvantage on the kingdom of the shore,And the firm soil win of the watery main,Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;

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When I have seen such interchange of state,Or state itself confounded to decay,Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate:That Time will come and take my love away.This thought is as a death, which cannot chooseBut weep to have that which it fears to lose.

Textuality The poet places himself outside the normal span of life, imagining theprocess of decay, of buildings razed to the ground, the ocean eating intothe shore, and state – in the sense of material existence, but also, as in“state occasion,” meaning worldly grandeur – decaying. He then turnsfrom these lofty themes to the subject of his love, and, in a manner thatechoes Sidney’s sonnet, switches from verbal ingenuity to a plainstatement about his loss. We could point again, therefore, to thetextuality of Shakespeare’s sonnet, the way in which there is a kind ofgap between the verbal game and the reality of loss. And just as inSidney’s sonnet, this raises questions about how we control andcomprehend life.

Daily experience But a rather different picture of daily experience is offered inShakespeare’s sonnet, a picture that doe not resemble the courtlyimpression in a Sidney sonnet. There is a sense of a commercial society;Shakespeare uses the words “rich” and “cost” as in finance; there is, withthe sea references, an awareness of maritime activity; and “store” and“loss” seem to be as much business concepts as images of the changinglandscape. There is something deeply significant about this. Over thecourse of the following centuries, Britain will increasingly see itself as abusiness-based trading nation; just a few years in the future, the CivilWar can be interpreted as a confrontation between the court and theeconomic interests of a new class of men.

People’s lives Shakespeare’s sonnet can be said, therefore, to be moving towardsarticulating a sense of the new way in which people are beginning tostructure, think about, and make sense of their lives. But the lack ofbalance in a sonnet again works effectively; the complicated time shifts,the way in which, as soon as an image is offered, that image is destroyed,and the intrusion of personal concerns into the broader concerns viewedin the poem, all serve to create a sense of disorder that makes the poemunsettling.

Doubleness It is this DOUBLENESS, this method of moving beyond the confines ofthe moment to larger issues of cultural change, and capturing that notionof change in the very forms of the text, which enables us to see why thespeaker fears the workings of time. Again and again, Shakespearesurpasses his predecessors in the sonnet, both in the way that he conveysa new stage in 16th century life, and in the amount of slippage anddisturbance that he acknowledges in a poem.

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4. EDMUND SPENSER

Biography The sonnet might be the form that is most typical of the 16th century, butit is not the only form poets employed. Let us consider the example ofEDMUND SPENSER. Born in 1552, in 1580 he became secretary to LordGrey de Wilton, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and was given lands there. In1588 he acted as one of the “undertakers” for the settlement of Munster,and was clearly part of the establishment of colonial rule in Ireland. It isthis that provides the dark background to his work, especially The FaerieQueen, his unfinished epic. Committed to an idea of the public role ofpoetry as a vehicle for developing a Protestant culture in England, hisliterary career started in 1569 with the translation of a number of texts,including sonnets by Petrarch and an anti-Catholic tract by a DutchCalvinist. The Shepheardes Calender, a pastoral poem, looking back to alost golden age, followed in 1579; significantly, it includes a panegyricto Eliza (Elizabeth I), the queen of shepherds. In the same year, on thedeath of lady Howard, he wrote an imitation of Chaucer’s “Book of theDuchess,” and in 1595 he published Amoretti, a sonnet sequence, andEpithalamion, a marriage poem. Colin Clout’s Come Home Again,another pastoral poem, followed, then Four Hymns and Prothalamion,another marriage poem, in 1596. He then wrote a prose dialogue, A Viewof the Present State of Ireland. His crowning achievement, however, wasThe Faerie Queen, the first three books appearing in 1590, and thesecond three in 1596. The six completed books together with theMutability Cantos appeared in 1609, two years after Spenser’s death.

The moral poet When a poet produces a work on the scale of The Faerie Queene there isa temptation to see the writer’s earlier works as merely preparation forthe great work. With Spenser, as is the case with JOHN MILTON andParadise Lost there is some substance in such a view. Spenser is aserious and moral poet; even the sonnets in his sonnet sequence are neverfrivolous in the way that might be said of some other 15th century sonnet-writers. Consider, for example, his ode Epithalamion, which appears atthe end of his sonnet sequence. The poem celebrates Spenser’s marriageto Elizabeth Boyle at Cork, in Ireland, in 1594. Its 24 stanzas representthe hours of Midsummer’s Day (June 24th). In this short extract, Spenserdescribes his bride:

Loe, where she comes along with portly paceLyke Phoebe from her chamber of the East,Arising forth to run her mighty race,Clad all in white, that seemes a virgin best.

(II, 148-51)

Epithalamion It is the delicate beauty of Spenser’s writing that is most apparent. Heseems to create a perfect world, a world where happiness is the dominantemotion. There is little evidence of the darker aspects of experience thatwe encounter in so many works of literature. Yet there is a slight sense ofnot facing up to the real world in “Epithalamion”; the poem moves soslowly, and the preparations for the wedding are so detailed, that is as if

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Spenser wishes to delay the moment of commitment. After Midsummer’sDay, after the wedding, everything will be a little bit darker. In a relatedway, we might note how the female figure in the poem is contained withthe dominant masculine code of writing: the woman is beautiful, butnever troublesome, and never given a voice, never allowed to speak. It isa little surprising to realise that this poem was written in the 1590s, forwhat we also come across in this decade is a surge of competing voicesand different forms. Implicit in Epithalamion is an idea of holding anestablished order together, but Spenser is holding it together in a decadewhere we find evidence of instability, confusion, and change: almost15,000 people died of the plague in London in 1593, and there weretwelve riots in the city in the month of June, 1595. Thus, Epithalamionseems to belong to a timeless world, but in the 1590s, with Elizabethgrowing old, and the absence of a direct heir, it is apparent that time isrunning out for the Tudors. Epithalamion seems to offer an impression ofa timeless world, but much of the other activity, particularly satiricalwriting that survives from this decade, conveys a sense of the furiousupheaval of the 1590s.

The Faerie Queene It is clear that Spenser is fully aware of the complexity of the worldaround him. Indeed, as a representative of the English crown in Ireland,and with the destruction of his house in Ireland in Tyrone’s Rebellion of1598, he could not have avoided the unrest of the 1590s. But while apoem such as Epithalamion seeks to create a peaceful timelessness, TheFaerie Queene attempts to hold together a unified vision of the world.

Elizabeth I As with any poem, it is open to question how to begin a criticaldiscussion of it, but with The Faerie Queene it seems natural to start withthe fact that it is dedicated to Elizabeth I, who, in real life, in the way sheprojected an image of herself, and in the manner of her public statements,provided the coherence that held the country together. This wassupported by numerous agents and servants of the crown, all dedicated tosupporting her authority, but overwhelmingly, and almost in the mannerof the leaders of the former countries of Eastern Europe, she sought tounite the country through the force of her personality and, even more,through the projection of an image of herself as semi-divine. Spenser’spoem is not only permeated with this sense of Elizabeth, but is also veryactively contributing to and helping to create the myth.One of the waysin which The Faerie Queene achieves the mythic glorification of thequeen is by retreating to a world of medieval romance where theprinciples and values of chivalry can be kept alive. Indeed, as he relatesstories about knights, Spenser is continuing the tradition of providing amodel of conduct for a gentleman, in this instance a Protestant Englishgentleman.

Stanza pattern The poem follows the adventures of six knights who encounter threats totheir honour and integrity, but, as we might expect, outwit, repel or fightoff all such threats. It is, although unfinished, a poem on a massive scalebut employs a standard stanza pattern throughout, the so-calledSPENSERIAN STANZA:

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A gentle knight was pricking on the plaine, Y cladde in mightie armies and siluer shielde,

Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine, The cruell markes of many a bloudy fielde; Yet armes till that time did he neuer wield:

His angry steede did chide his foming bitt, As much disdayning to the curbe to yield: Full iolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

The consistent use of this stanza pattern creates an interesting effect; thepoem can flirt with danger, but repeatedly everything is made safe, ineffect embraced in and subdued by the untroubled repetition of thisstanza pattern. Essentially, the Faerie Queene, aided by her loyal knights,can cope with and subdue every challenge, every hint of insurrection andevery sign of danger. There is even a kind of magic about the way inwhich the court can maintain such good order.

Criticism But can such a poem still be interesting to read? There was a time whencritics seemed to focus almost exclusively on the peacefulness,coherence and confidence of the poem. Critics today, however,concentrate more on the signs of strain in the poem, including, forexample, the seductiveness of the idea of a knight abandoning hisprinciples and commitment to moral virtues. Possibly, the poem paysmore attention to the threats, and takes them more seriously, than somecritics would have registered in the past. There is evidence of a lack ofpoise and control in the poem, as threats are considered that, in someway, echo or seem to relate to the Irish experiences of Spenser,especially in Books V and VI where the text is constantly disrupted byviolent images and an idea of violent forces.

Modernity The most telling point about The Faerie Queene is simply the fact that itis unfinished. It was Spenser’s death that prevented the poem fromprogressing further, but it is perhaps just as valid to suggest that the kindof diversity and unrest that we witness by the 1590s cannot really beembraced within the unified vision of one poem, even a poem on thescale of The Faerie Queene. In that sense the poem, even as it looks backto Chaucer and the medieval romance tradition, oddly anticipates themodern world where it becomes increasingly impossible to connecteverything else.

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SELF-EVALUATION TEST

1. Which of the following statements accurately reflects the status of England, its people,and its language in the early sixteenth century?

a. English travelers were not obliged to learn French, Italian, or Spanish during theirexplorations of the Continent

b. English was fast supplanting Latin as the second language of most Europeanintellectuals.

c. English travelers often returned from the Continent with foreign fashions, much tothe delight of moralists.

d. Intending his Utopia for an international intellectual community, Thomas More wrotein Latin, since English had no prestige outside of England.

e. all of the above.

2. Which of the following sixteenth-century works of English literature was translated intothe English language after its first publication in Latin?

a. Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus

b. William Shakespeare’s King Lear

c. Thomas More’s The History of King Richard III

d. William Shakespeare’s Sonnets

e. Thomas More’s Utopia

3. Which royal dynasty was established in the resolution of the so-called War of the Rosesand continued through the reign of Elizabeth I?

a. Tudor

b. Windsor

c. York

d. Lancaster

e. Valois

4. Which of the following shifts began in the reign of Henry VII and continued under hisTudor successors?

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a. the growing authority of the Pope over domestic English affairs

b. the expansion of England’s colonial possessions

c. the rise in the power and confidence of the aristocracy

d. the countering of feudal power structures by a stronger central authority

e. the emancipation of serfs

5. From which of the following Italian texts might Tudor courtiers have learned the art ofintrigue and the keys to gaining and keeping power?

a. Castiglione’s The Courtier

b. Dante’s Divine Comedy

c. Boccaccio’s Decameron

d. Machiavelli’s The Prince

e. Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso

6. Who authored Il Cortigiano (The Courtier), a book that was highly influential in theEnglish court, providing subtle guidance on self-display?

a. Cavalcanti

b. Castiglione

c. Pirandello

d. Boccaccio

e. Machiavelli

7. Between 1520 and 1550, the population of London:

a. remained constant.

b. fell from 375,00 to barely 100,000.

c. doubled from 60,000 to 120,000.

d. doubled from 600,000 to 1,200,000.

e. is impossible to estimate.

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8. Who introduced the art of printing into England?

a. Elizabeth Eisenstein

b. Johannes Gutenberg

c. Henry VIII

d. William Tyndale

e. William Caxton

9. To what does the phrase “the stigma of print” refer?

a. lead poisoning contracted from handling printer's ink

b. the brutal punishment for printing without a license

c. the pre-Reformation ban on printing the Bible in English

d. the perception among court poets that printed verses were less exclusive

e. all of the above

10. Which of the following sixteenth-century poets was not a courtier?

a. George Puttenham

b. Philip Sidney

c. Walter Ralegh

d. Thomas Wyatt

e. all of the above

Correct answers: 1-d; 2-e; 3-a; 4-d; 5-d; 6-b; 7-c; 8-e; 9-d; 10-a

UNITATE DE ÎNVĂŢARE IV

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

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Obiective:

Cea de-a patra unitate de învăţare abordează opera lui Shakespeare în contextul domnieiReginei Elizabeta I şi a Regelui James I. Studenţii vor avea posibilitatea studierii opereilui Shakespeare care este abordată în patru secţuni, după cum urmează:

• Shakespeare in context – este o prezentare a contextului politic, religios şi culturalîn care şi-a desfăşurat activitatea William Shakespeare.

• Comediile şi piesele istorice – Mult zgomot pentru nimic, Richard II, JuliusCaesar.

• Tragediile: Hamlet, Regele Lear, Othello, Macbeth.• Piesele târzii: Antoniu şi Cleopatra, Furtuna.

Ore de studiu: 8

Bibliography

For individual volumes of SHAKESPEARE’s plays I highly recommend The ArdenShakespeare. As for the complete works, I recommend the following editions:

• Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, editors. The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works.(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. The volume contains a General Introduction andindividual introductions to the plays and poems by Stanley Wells.

• Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. The Norton Shakespeare (Based on the OxfordEdition). (New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997). It boasts a seventy-fivepages, richly illustrated General Introduction, as well introductions to the individual playsand poems, all extremely useful to the student of Shakespeare.

The student may also find of equal interest the following volumes available in the Library of theUniversity of Craiova:

• Sîrbulescu, Emil. Cultură şi identitate naţională în Anglia medievală şi renascentistă(Craiova: SITECH, 2009)

• ______, Drama as Literature and Representational Art (Craiova, Editura Universitaria,2006)

• ______, Shakespeare and the Literature of the Renaissance (Craiova: UNIVERITARIA,2004).

• ______, Medieval British Literature: From Beowulf to The Canterbury Tales (Craiova:Beladi, 2003);

• ______, Incursiuni literare: ghid de literatură engleză şi americană. (Craiova: MJM,2002);

• _____, Landmarks: Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare. (Craiova: Scrisul Românesc,2002);

1. Shakespeare in Context

Elizabeth’s reign Elizabeth I died unmarried and without a direct heir in 1603. It seemsmore than a coincidence that William Shakespeare’s most celebrated

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works, his major tragedies, were written around this time. Hamlet wasprobably first performed in 1600 or 1601; then, after the death ofElizabeth, Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), and Macbeth (1605-6) werestaged in rapid succession. The reign of Elizabeth can be characterized asa successful period in English history, with commercial and militarysuccesses (most notably, the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588)contributing to a growing sense of national confidence. In addition,Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement of 1559, enforcing the Protestantreligion by law, cemented a sense of the national identity. But the veryidea of imposing a uniform religious identity on people does begin todraw attention to fundamental problems in the Elizabethan period,problems that were to become more acute in the latter years of thequeen’s reign.

Her grip on power Many people, both Catholics and Puritans, were less than happy withElizabeth’s religious settlement. For Puritans, the official version ofProtestantism, with its bishops and retention of some aspects of Catholicritual, was incompatible with their vision of a much more austerereformation of the church and its services. Such differences of opinionwere echoed in politics. Elizabeth, understandably, wished to maintain atight grip on power, and was notoriously reluctant to summonParliament.

Independence But Parliament during Elizabeth’s reign began to display itsindependence in an unprecedented manner. What we see in both religionand politics is the presence, and growing assertiveness, of a variety ofvoices all demanding their say in how the country conducted itself. Itcan, of course, be argued that we would encounter a variety of voices inany society at any time, but it is particularly in the nature of anexpansionist trading nation, the kind of nation England was developinginto in the late 16th century, that it will be characterized by independentvoices. The dynamic energy displayed by the merchant class is no lesspresent in religious, political, and social life generally, with a similarenergy and potential for disruption. The overlapping of business andpolitics is evident, for example, in 1601 in the way Elizabeth was forcedto retreat on the question of the crown’s monopoly over grantingmanufacturing and trading licences.

Politics & Religion As long as Elizabeth remained alive, however, she seemed able to holdtogether conflicting interests in the nation, managing to control oreliminate its dissident members. We can point, for example, to the failureof an attempted rebellion by the Earl of Essex in 1601, an abortive coupthat led to his execution (his son, it is relevant to note, was a leader of theParliamentary army during the Civil War). The means by which thequeen held the country together is an intriguing and complex subject, butone important subject was the way in which Elizabeth projected animage of herself as the embodiment of the nation. But the problem withan image is that it is nearly always at odds with, or a covering over of,reality. In the 1590s in particular, more and more discontented voiceswere heard in the country, fuelled by various factors: bad harvests, the

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growing enclosure of commons, poverty and oppression. Even within thecourt there was impatience with an elderly monarch, who procrastinatedrather than accepting change. But the most serious threat was the sensethat the unity of the nation might fall apart with the death of the queen,particularly as there was no direct heir. It had been agreed that James VIof Scotland would succeed to the English throne, but when he didsucceed, as James I, many of his new subjects were intensely suspiciousof his intentions. After all, his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, had been aCatholic – might he not seek to impose Catholicism upon the country?

Context In this context – the closing years of the reign of the reign of Elizabethand the opening years of the reign of James I, who increasingly alienatedthe Puritans with his High Church views, and who also found himself atodds with Parliament – that Shakespeare writes. His plays, in both alight-hearted and a serious way, repeatedly feature rebellious characterswho challenge established authority. A substantial number of the playsfeature monarchs who, in unsettled times, have established a degree ofstability, but just as many feature monarchs and other authority or fatherfigures who fail miserably in asserting control. Drama at any time is theideal medium for a debate about leadership, as a play’s plot is built uponthe premise of conflict and confrontation, but this was especially the casein Elizabethan England.

Theatres The new playhouses, based in London, were close to the very heart of thepolitical life of the country, but also in touch with the new and dynamicforces in society and its expanding business and intellectual environment.Such rapid shifts in a society – London’s population soared duringShakespeare’s lifetime and its growth outstripped every other city inEurope – destabilise and question accepted structures, raising doubtsabout order and government. At the same time, it is important torecognise that a play is a performance, an illusion created on the stage,and that a play can self-consciously draw attention to the way in which itis an illusion; in particular, it can draw attention to the manner in whichthe illusion of order, and especially the authority of monarchical rule, iscreated. The various elements touched on here, including worries aboutwhat might happen following the death of the queen, all come together inShakespeare’s great tragedies at the start of the seventeenth century. Thepoint at which we have to start, however, is when Shakespeare embarksupon his career as a dramatist, in the ferment of new ideas, politicalactivity and social unrest of the 1590s.

2. Shakespeare’s Comedies and Histories

The first decade Shakespeare’s career in the theatre begins with three plays about HenryVI, written between 1590 and 1592 (the dates for all of Shakespeare’s

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plays are conjectural). It is more illuminating, however, if we look at hisfirst decade as a whole, dividing the plays into three groups:a. There is a variety of early plays, plays which might be regarded as

apprentice works in which Shakespeare is learning his craft: The TwoGentlemen of Verona, Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors,Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Romeo and Juliet.

b. There is a group of English History plays written between 1592 and1599: Richard III, Richard II, King John, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV,and Henry V. Julius Caesar, first staged in 1599, is one ofShakespeare’s Roman plays, but is considered in this section as it isin many ways the logical culmination of the English History plays,taking up their central concerns, though it considers them in adifferent context.

c. During this decade, specifically between 1594 and 1600 (or possiblyas late as 1602) Shakespeare also wrote his great comedies which,because of shared themes, also demand to be seen as a group: AMidsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The MerryWives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It andTwelfth Night.

Sources & models Before turning to the plays themselves, however, we need to considerhow such works, which seem to have very little in common with thenative English mystery or miracle plays came into existence. TheRenaissance revival of classical learning and of classical texts promptedan interest in Roman drama which, in turn, provided a model that anumber of English writers began to imitate: a five-act structure, dramaticrules to be observed, and established types of plot and character. Theinfluence of these classical models can be seen in Shakespeare’s firstcomedy, The Comedy of Errors, which both formally and in terms ofcontent is indebted to the works of the Roman comic poet and dramatistPLAUTUS (c.254-184 BC). It was, however, the Roman playwrightSENECA (c.4 BC – AD 65) that English writers turned to for a model oftragedy. By 1574, commercial acting companies were established inLondon, and Senecan tragedy as it had developed in Renaissance Italyprovided a form in which the stage could be littered with dead anddismembered bodies. We can instance THOMAS KYD’s The SpanishTragedy (c.1587), in which the revenge hero, whose son has beenmurdered, bites out his tongue on stage after killing the murderers, andShakespeare’s first tragedy, Titus Andronicus (1593-94), which featuresrape, mutilation, and cannibalism. By the 1590s the London stage wasthriving, and Shakespeare’s company was enjoying considerablepopularity, becoming a favourite of the queen – The Merry Wives ofWindsor was written at royal insistence. But, as a commercialplaywright, Shakespeare also occupied a position outside the culture ofthe court. This leads directly to one of the central questions aboutShakespeare’s plays: DID HE WRITE IN DEFENCE OF THEESTABLISHED ORDER, OR AS SCEPTICAL CRITIC OF ITSPOLITICAL VALUES?

Much Ado

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About Nothing It is a question that we can start too consider as we look at Much AdoAbout Nothing. The play might seem to be just a piece of frivolousentertainment: love creates disorder in society, but by the end, as alwayshappens in a comedy, social order is restored. If we look a little deeper,however, we can see a gap between public performance and howcharacters feel and think. At the wedding, for example, Claudio plays therole required of him until the point where he reveals his disdain for Hero.There is an issue here about the difference between the parts people playin public and a seething discord underneath. Indeed, just behind the goodhumour of the court, but curiously part of it, is the malevolent villainy ofDon John.

Pattern The PATTERN seen here is always evident in Shakespeare’s comedies:there is always a gap between the attractive idea of social order,represented in the public face that characters present to the world, andthe more complex feelings and desires that motivate people. This isperhaps easier to recognise in a DARK COMEDY such as The Merchantof Venice. Life in Venice is, on the surface, polished and urbane, butbelow the surface are complicated questions about the relationshipbetween money, the law, race, justice and mercy. The play ends withorder restored, but has exposed difficult areas of conflict.

Social conventions In Much Ado About Nothing, the society represented is one characterisedby male rule. This is the conventional order of life. But there issomething distasteful about Claudio’s attitude towards women,illustrated in the way that he relies upon Don Pedro to woo Hero for him.The woman seems little more than a chattel. Indeed, when she is told thatHero is dead, Claudio is quite prepared to marry her cousin, even thoughhe has never seen her (she turns out to be Hero in disguise). Much AdoAbout Nothing is, then, a play that celebrates the restoration of theconventional order at its conclusion, but which along the way has madesome telling points about the assumptions inherent in the establishedorder. This kind of questioning is evident in all of Shakespeare’s plays:Over and over again, he examines the foundations upon which social andpolitical life is constructed, identifying the forces that motivate and shapesociety. Central to his plays is the idea that much of social life resemblesa performance on a stage, in which people play parts (including the rolesassociated with their different genders), but that this public performanceis an illusion that is easily shattered.

The History plays A deconstruction of role-playing is implicit in Shakespeare’s comedies,but explicit in his histories. Shakespeare’s principal history plays dealwith a line of English monarchs from Richard II through to the defeat ofRichard III by Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. The period covered isthe century up to 1485, the last thirty years of which were dominated bythe Wars of the Roses. The traditional approach to these plays is tosuggest that they provided arguments that supported the legitimacy of theTudor dynasty. Just as Spenser’s The Faerie Queene endorsed Elizabeth,Shakespeare’s history plays can be looked at in the same way: as textsthey identify the dangerous motives of rebels, and which, by implication,

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endorse the manner in which the present monarch deals withtroublemakers. This line of argument can be applied to a play such asRichard II.

Richard II The play deals with Richard banishing Bolingbroke and thenconfiscating his lands to help finance a war in Ireland. Bolingbrokesubsequently invades England and deposes Richard, ascending to thethrone as Henry IV. At the simplest level, an inadequate king has beenreplaced by a man with more political right to be considered king ofEngland. But there is more involved than this, for Richard II is also aplay that looks at the past as a way of thinking about the present. At theclose of the sixteenth century, as it became clear that the queen would diewithout a direct heir, there was a troubled interest in questions ofsuccession.

Meanings Richard is quite unlike Elizabeth, who commanded respect and loyalty.But what we can see is that, when Richard II focuses on the rhetoric andstaging of authority, parallels start to emerge between Richard’sperformance as king and the kind of performance we associate withElizabeth, though not in any direct or crude way. The parallels can beseen in the problems associated with the fact that there might well be agap between the impression and the real substance of power. Elizabethseems more solid and secure than Richard II, but she is growing old, andthe country might be only a heartbeat away from civil disorder.Similarly, Richard certainly seems powerful. A single word from himcauses the banishment of Bolingbroke. As if to demonstrate his power,Richard then reduces the sentence from ten to six years, seemingly inresponse to the grief of Bolingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt (he is alsoRichard’s uncle):

Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyesI see thy grieved heart. Thy sad aspectHath from the number of his banish’d yearsPlucked four away. [To Bolingbroke] Six frozen winters spent,Return with welcome home from banishment.

(Richard II, I.iii.208-12)

Function of language Generally, there is an impressive quality to Richard’s language,something that seems almost god-like. But the truth is that Richard’swords do not carry all that much authority. Indeed, in a later scene, whenGaunt makes a speech where he plays with his name, punning on the ideaof being physically gaunt, the status of words, and of language, is notonly questioned, but also, in effect, undermined:

O, how that name befits my composition!Old Gaunt, indeed: and gaunt in being old.Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?For sleeping England long time have I watch’d;Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt.

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(Richard II, II.i. 73-8)

Power games We become aware of the frailty of any order that is established throughlanguage. At this point, traditional criticism would start to discussRichard’s flaws as a human being, that he cannot rise to the challenge ofthe position he occupies, preferring words to action, but more recentcritical discussions of Shakespeare would identify a broader issue in theplay. Rather than simply being interested in Richard as a character, theplay asks fundamental questions about the construction and exercise ofpower in the running of a country. Richard II looks at how the languageof a king, together with the ritualised and stylised way in which he, likeany monarch, or indeed any political leader, presents himself, is crucialin the control of the state. But as Shakespeare looks at these things, thereis a sense of the constructed, and therefore fragile, nature of this hold onpower.

Characters This should become clearer if we think about the characters werepeatedly encounter in Shakespeare’s plays. His focus is nearly alwayson rulers, specifically kings, or on father figures in positions of authority;this is true in the comedies just as much as in the tragedies and histories.By contrast, Shakespeare’s contemporary, Ben Jonson often focuses onordinary people in London, the kind of people that, at a later stage inliterary history, we might encounter in novels. In Jonson, a great many ofthe characters are commonplace rogues, selfishly pursuing their ownprivate interests; in Shakespeare, the characters are, time and time again,people openly or covertly challenging, subverting, or simply mocking theauthority of the leader. The kind of way in which Shakespeare isinterested in political questions is perhaps seen at its clearest in JuliusCaesar.

Julius Caesar The play dramatises the assassination of Caesar when he is at the heightof his power both as a soldier and as ruler of Rome. As is the case in theEnglish history plays, order and stability seems elusive; there are rebels(in this case, the conspirators against Caesar), and the hero himself isalso fallible. Caesar returns to Rome after his military triumphs, butvarious figures are beginning to turn against him. A conspiracy develops,in which even Brutus, an old friend of Caesar’s, becomes involved. Theconspirators murder Caesar. Mark Antony, who has not been involved,swears vengeance for Caesar’s death, and is victorious in the subsequentbattle at Phillippi. Brutus kills himself.

Roman or English? Julius Caesar, as a Roman play, is, of course, at a remove from Englishlife, but deals in a very direct way with contending forces in society, andquestions of power and resistance. As such, and the same can be saidabout all Shakespeare’s plays, it deals with issues that were of concern tothe Elizabethans, but also engages with problems that are still of concernto a modern audience. Questions about leadership and challenges toleadership were of particular relevance as Elizabeth grew older; it couldperhaps be anticipated that, with the accession of James I, there would bea far more unsettled state of affairs, and that the working relationship

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between crown and country that Elizabeth had established would fallapart. But as well as engaging with current anxieties, Julius Caesar, likethe history plays, and in a way that is not true of English plays beforeShakespeare’s, seems to touch upon a political reality that is still relevanttoday. For example, the play starts with a crowd, who have come out tocelebrate Caesar’s victory; increasingly, the presence of the people as awhole – as volatile, dangerous and unpredictable as they may be – is afactor that has to be considered in any political situation.

Central issue Nevertheless, the central issue in Julius Caesar is the gap betweenCaesar’s claim to be above ordinary men, a being who is semi-divine likethe stars, and the challenges to that assumption of authority. What wehave to recognize, however, is that the play does not offer a detachedcommentary on these political tensions; Shakespeare is not in possessionof some kind of superior wisdom. On the contrary, the play is a productof the anxieties and uncertainties of the closing years of the Elizabethanperiod. In an almost instinctive way, as Richard II, Julius Caesar senses,teases out, and brings into definition the undercurrents of thought andfeeling that, in retrospect, we see as characterizing the period.

3. Shakespeare’s Tragedies

The tragic vision Plays are traditionally divided into comedies and tragedies. Tragedy hasits origins in Greek drama, specifically in the plays of the Atheniandramatists such as AESCHYLUS, SOPHOCLES, and EURIPIDES. Thecentral concept is that a character is afflicted by some kind of suffering,but preserves his or her dignity in the face of this affliction. It is oftenpointed out that the tragic vision is incompatible with Christianity, in thatChristianity offers the good their reward in heaven. In tragedy the herofaces the worst the world has to offer, but there is no sense ofcompensation beyond the present. It is, furthermore, often argued that themost impressive quality of a tragedy, particularly of a Shakespeareantragedy, is the way in which the main character articulates his sense ofthe situation he finds himself in. Shakespeare’s four principal tragedies,Hamlet (1600), Othello (1604), King Lear (1605) and Macbeth (1605-6),appear almost as a sequence in the period before and after the death ofElizabeth. It would seem logical to argue, therefore, that they are playsthat are in a very direct way prompted by the political anxieties of thistime. But if this is the case, we might wonder why the plays can still soactively hold our interest today. One argument is that these great playsare timeless, offering a particularly insightful vision of the humancondition. It is, however, perhaps more convincing to argue that, in theprocess of engaging with contemporary political concerns, they alsoconvey a sense of fundamental tensions and movements in Westernthinking, the legacy of which still affects us today.

Hamlet This is most obvious in relation to Hamlet, and possibly explainswhy this is commonly regarded as Shakespeare’s greatest play. Inthis play, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, has married Hamlet’s mother,

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Gertrude, just a month after the death of her husband. In addition,Claudius has claimed the throne, ignoring the rights of his nephew.Hamlet discovers that his father was murdered by Claudius. After agreat deal of procrastination Hamlet kills Claudius; he is himselfkilled by Polonius’s son, Laertes, who, unlike Hamlet, is anuncomplicated young man who immediately seeks revenge againstHamlet for causing the death of his father and, indirectly, the deathof his sister, Ophelia.

Approaches We can see how the play deals with the issues that concerned theElizabethans so much, specifically questions of succession and politicalintrigue at court, but very clearly there is a good deal more going on inthe play. In order to make sense of the experience of the work, criticsused to latch on to the character of Hamlet, considering how he dealswith the moral dilemma he faces. Such an approach to the play had agreat deal of theatrical appeal, in that star actors were given an unrivalledopportunity to play the part of an introspective, deep, troubled, andthoughtful man. The problem with such an approach, however, is that itseems to reduce the significance of the play in that it makes it a littlemore than a character study.

Themes In these circumstances it makes more sense to search for the largerthemes that are implicit in the play, regarding Hamlet himself as simply adevice that helps bring these larger themes to life. These larger themesare, as suggested above, in part a matter of the immediate politicalconcerns of the Elizabethans, but what we can also see is the manner inwhich a corrupt political situation is created at the court, and, rather thanacting in accordance with family or tribal loyalties, or (as, for example,was the case with Thomas More in the reign of Henry VIII) in line withthe dictates of religion, Hamlet as an individual has to make decisionsand choices about his participation in the political process. There is away in which the burden is placed on the individual in an unprecedentedfashion. But there is even more involved than this: the very notion of theindividual, a concept which from this point on will feature more andmore in Western thinking, is perhaps realised and given substance for thefirst time in Hamlet. There is a shift from a world view where everyoneknows their place in a scheme of things to a world view where people arenot defined in advance in this kind of way.

A new emphasis And with this shift there comes a new emphasis on the interiority ofhuman beings, on their unknowable qualities as opposed to their knownsocial positions. Hamlet himself pretends to be mad, but the force of hisacting is to throw into doubt any fixed conceptions about the differencesbetween reason and madness. Suddenly, and in particular in Hamletsoliloquies, a new interior world is open up, a world which questions theold certainties of understanding:

To be, or not to be – that is the question;Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

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The slings and arrows or outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep –No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heart-ache and the thousand natural shocksThis flesh is heir to.

(Hamlet, III.i.56-63)

And suddenly, too, the language of tragedy has changed, withimage following hard upon image, creating an effect of speechconfronting the edge of chaos, and of a speaker confounded bycontradictions, puzzles and uncertainties as well as pain, anger andgrief.

Succession Hamlet deals with a disrupted succession to the throne; an order that isdesirable, of one generation following the previous generation in anuntroubled way (a fact that would be underlined by Hamlet inheriting thethrone from his father who is also called Hamlet), is at odds with theactual state of affairs.

King Lear

The two plots King Lear also deals with a disrupted succession; the king decides toabdicate in favour of his daughters, but this immediately produces amutually destructive conflict between Goneril and Regan, Lear havingbanished their youngest sister, Cordelia, for her refusal to flatter him. Shereturns with an army to save her mad father, who has been driven out ofdoors by the sisters; Lear and Cordelia are taken prisoner. Cordelia ishanged and Lear dies over her body. Running parallel to this plot is asecond plot which sees the illegitimate Edmund deceive his fatherGloucester into banishing his legitimate son, Edgar; Edmund thenbetrays Gloucester, who is punished by blinding for helping the madLear. Like Lear, Gloucester dies of a broken heart, though reunited withEdgar.

Vision Traditionally the play has been thought of as a kind of apocalyptic visionin which the two plots serve to reinforce each other, with the charactersacting as symbols of goodness and evil. There is evidence for this viewin the play, which has elements in common with both myth and parable:• the mad Lear and the blind Gloucester come to self-knowledge

through suffering;• the vicious cruelty of Goneril and Regan leads to their destruction,

but this does nothing to change the world or solve the problems ofinjustice and poverty the play raises.

Historical moment On the surface, therefore, King Lear might appear to stand free of itshistorical moment; the play is set in a pagan world, a remote past ofelemental storms, unnamed gods and dark landscape. But, as with Julius

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Caesar, this removal of the play from 17th century English society is onlytrue from one angle.• From another angle, its concern with the division of the kingdom and

the disastrous consequences of Lear’s decision to abdicate hisresponsibilities seems to echo the fears and anxieties that surroundedthe death of Elizabeth and the succession of James I; his actions andtheir consequences reflect the sense of uncertainty and trepidationabout what would happen.

• By the date of King Lear James had already succeeded to the throne,but the political worries about the government of the kingdom and itsunity remained.

• It is not a coincidence that the best-known historical event from theperiod – the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in which Guy Fawkesconspired with others to blow up the House of Commons – comes ata moment of transition in the constitutional history of the country,England having joined with Scotland in 1603.

• Similarly, also locking the play into a specific time frame is aconcern with the gap between the idea of the king as a semi-divinefigure able to command and the reality of his mortality andweakness. It is as if the play is at once concerned that the kingdomwill fall apart, but also intensely questioning of any pretensions ofkings to be above ordinary mortals. Here we might point to the wayJames I distanced himself from his English subjects by asserting hisdivine right to rule, commanding both their obedience and love.

Premonitions The play catches the contradictions of these various contemporaryaspects of monarchy and political government, and their complexinteraction. But, as with Hamlet, in engaging with immediate politicalanxieties, the play also starts to grasp a sense of far more fundamentalchanges in the nature of political and social life, changes that continue tohave reverberations even today. Lear and his retinue seem to belong toan older kind of order, conforming to an established set of convictions.But those who set themselves up in opposition to Lear and Gloucester arepeople of a new kind, with new ideas of political expediency, disdainingtraditional loyalties in favour of personal advantage.

There is, it can be argued, a kind of premonition of the English Civil Warof 1642-60 in King Lear in the way that the play recognises an inevitableconflict between those representing the established order in society andcharacters who are the representatives and embodiment of new impulseswithin society. The world changes, and the traditional ruling structuresand conventions can never cope adequately with the new state of affairsor with the new voices that insist on being heard.

Cultural change Time and time again, Shakespeare returns in the tragedies to arecognition of a moment of deep cultural change, its profound effectsregistered in the language as meanings accumulate, overloading eachword. Some examples of this are stunningly clear: nothing is morepowerful in King Lear than the way in which the word ‘nothing’,

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repeated at key moments, comes to sum up both the negative state towhich Lear is reduced and the positive value of Cordelia’s love.

Othello Othello is not a representative of the old or established order in society.On the contrary, he is a social outsider, a man who has won hisreputation, and achieved his position, by his resourcefulness as a soldier.The way in which this is made most obvious is in the fact that he is anAfrican, a Moorish outsider – some might suggest an interloper – inVenice.

Plot Othello secretly marries Desdemona, but her father has himarrested and put on trial for stealing his daughter. The couple arefreed and Othello sent to Cyprus as general-in-chief to protect theisland against threats from the Turks. Iago deceives Othello intobelieving Desdemona is having an affair with his lieutenantCassio; mad with jealousy, Othello strangles her beforediscovering the truth. Othello then kills himself.

Motivation Iago’s immediate motive is that Cassio has been promoted over hishead; he is angered by this breech of the conventions of hierarchy,favour and preference. But this new, and unsteady, situation, wherean old set of rules has all but disappeared, creates a state of affairsthat is frightening, in that the most extreme anti-social feelings – inparticular Iago’s racism – are given a chance to rule. Raw appetiteand twisted feelings of desire are both let loose, but also, in Iago’sbrutal devaluing of women and love, there is a modern cynicismand irony. Here he is speaking to Desdemona about women:

Come on, come on; you are pictures out a-doors,Bells in your parlours, wildcats in your kitchens,Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,Players in your housewifery, and hussies in your beds.

(Othello, II.i.109-12)

With the old checks gone, a kind of anarchic situation materialises,symbolised in the play’s great storm and the threat of the Turkishinvasion. There is a sense of a world that is changing, that isexpanding, and, with the disappearance of the old safeguards andsafe horizons, new, unstable and destructive forces are releasedand given the opportunity to wreak havoc.

Macbeth An anarchic, violent state of affairs is the very essence of Macbeth.Stirred on by his wife and tempted by the prophecies of the Witches thathe shall be king, Macbeth murders the king of Scotland, Duncan. Then,in order to make himself safe, he has his noble Banquo and his sonkilled, and also Macduff’s family. Duncan’s son, Malcolm, however,escapes the slaughter, and, with the help of Macduff, overthrows

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Macbeth’s tyrannical rule and kills him. The plot is short, brutal andviolent, with Macbeth’s manliness and ambition put to the test by hiswife.

Broken order As in Othello, the established order is broken; as in Hamlet and KingLear, the line of succession is also broken, as if to signal a breaking-upof the old traditional structures as new, ambitious, self-regarding peoplecome to the fore. There is a GENDER ISSUE here as well; the worldwould be manageable if everyone kept to their assigned role, but here is awoman who steps out of line, who refuses to conform to her assignedrole. Corrupt, violent forces are unleashed, and again, as in Othello, it isa catastrophe that ensues.

Political unrest In all four of the major tragedies there is a sense of an established orderthat has collapsed or is in the process of disintegrating. As suggested, thisseems to reflect a sense of unrest as James I became king, as the countrycomes under new, and indeed foreign, rule. But there is something elseinvolved here as well, something that connects with, and in a senseannounces for the first time, the principal thrust of Western experiencefrom this point forward. Over the last four hundred years there hasalways been a sense of society changing, of things defyingcomprehension and control as the world seemingly gets bigger and morecomplex.

Out of control One of the things that can be said about Shakespeare’s plays, particularlyhis tragedies, is that they not only identify this new sense of the worldrunning out of control, but also manage to give expression to theperception, making it a central feature of the way in which the tragicheroes find the world bewildering. It is because of this that the tragediesstill speak to us. It is not that we are like Hamlet, or Lear or Othello orMacbeth, but that what they have to say about the way in which theworld no longer holds together or makes sense echoes our ownimpression of a complicated society, and indeed a complicated world,that defies simple analysis and explanation. Wonderfully, the tragediesarticulate this bewildering sense of complexity, of things running out ofcontrol, of everything teetering on the edge of chaos. The tragedies standat this edge, looking into the abyss that lies just beyond language.

4. Shakespeare’s Late Plays

Direction Macbeth was followed by Antony and Cleopatra (1606-7), Timon ofAthens (1607), Pericles (1608), Coriolanus (1608), Cymbeline (1610),The Winter’s Tale (1610-11) and The Tempest (1611), and, rather lesssignificantly, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen (both 1612-13).

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There is perhaps something a little surprising about the directionShakespeare takes with these late plays; on the one hand, a group ofplays about Ancient Rome, and, on the other, a group of plays that aremost commonly referred to as romances. It is as if Shakespeare isdeliberately taking a step back both from his own time and from theabyss of the tragedies to present plays that adopt a different perspectiveon the problem of change. With the Roman plays, it is the case ofreturning to one of the issues at the heart of Julius Caesar. Shakespeareexamines the reasons why the world’s greatest civilization and empireshould have collapsed and disappeared (Rome held a particularfascination for Renaissance England, standing as a kind of model for itsown imperial ambitions and self-estimation). With the romances, there isa shift to the world of fairy tale and magic, to the distant, the remote andthe improbable, where children are lost and recovered, and time isovercome.

Antony and Cleopatra If we turn to Antony and Cleopatra first, we can identify something of adifference from Shakespeare’s earlier plays in the way that the actionshifts rapidly between Rome and Egypt, bringing the two into collision.

Plot Mark Antony, the same Antony that avenged Caesar’s assassination, isco-ruler of Rome, but has fallen in love with Cleopatra, queen of Egyptand Caesar’s former mistress. He abandons his wife and Rome, andcrowns himself and Cleopatra joint rulers of the Eastern part of theRoman Empire. Octavius, Caesar’s nephew, defeats them in a sea battle.Antony blames Cleopatra; thinking she is dead, he commits suicide, butlives long enough to discover she is alive. He dies in her arms. Cleopatrathen kills herself; she dies as she succumbs at the poisonous bite of asnake.

Theme Thematically, what is at the heart of the play is a division betweenpassion and duty. Shakespeare is continuing his exploration of thequestion of leadership and power, and how Antony is led away from hisresponsibilities by a passion that destroys him. There is a danger here, aswith the tragedies generally, of turning the play into a character studyand ignoring its larger ideas, the way in which, for example, the historyof the Roman empire has to be seen as pertinent to the current history ofRenaissance England, the country that can, even at this early stage ofimperial expansion, sense its potential for world domination. We mustacknowledge, however, that there are others (including a broad cross-section of general readers, drama critics, and theatre audiences), whocould challenge the kind of academic, historical and contextual approachto Shakespeare we are commending, arguing that this kind of focus onthemes and issues can only operate at the expense of proper attention tothe dramatic effectiveness of the plays, and, perhaps more particularly,proper attention to Shakespeare’s language.

Language But this is not necessarily the case; indeed, it can be argued that we areonly going to appreciate Shakespeare as a poetic dramatist if we

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recognise the resonances of his language. Consider the following linesfrom Antony and Cleopatra:

Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide archOf the rang’d empire fall! Here is my space.Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alikeFeeds beasts as man. The nobleness of lifeIs to do thus, when such a mutual pairAnd such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,On pain of punishment, the world to weet [know]We stand up peerless.

(Antony and Cleopatra, I.i.33-40)

Aesthetic impression Antony says that love is much more noble than Rome, which, as far as heis concerned, can be destroyed. He speaks of Rome melting into the riverTiber, as if it is something that could dissolve, and of the arch of itsempire collapsing like a building. He then refers to Cleopatra s his‘space’, suggesting something grander, more free and unbounded thanRome. Image follows upon image. The point that needs to be made,however, is that we cannot look at the language of a Shakespeare play inisolation. The aesthetic impression is stunning, but there is far moreinvolved than just beauty, delicacy and ingenuity. The language is soeffective because it gives expression to the complex themes at the heartof the play. In this particular instance, for example, it is the aptness andthe richness of Shakespeare’s use of metaphor that enables him topresent a sense not just of the immediate dilemma facing the characters –Antony’s defiance of Rome is hedged by suggestions of violence as if tounderline the dangerous path he is taking – but of a whole society inferment. It is not just the lovers who will be affected but the empire, the‘world’, the earth and its kingdoms.

The play as a play What we also need to bear in mind – and this is something that becomesincreasingly important during the course of Shakespeare’s career asplaywright – is that he is always aware of the play as a play, as aspectacle on a stage. In Antony and Cleopatra there is a great deal ofattention paid to staging, to the way in which Cleopatra in particulardisplays herself to the world; an image is projected, and it is the imagethe world at large accepts. It is this kind of presentation of a public facethat makes life coherent and manageable, but what Shakespeare alwaysmanages to suggest simultaneously is the element of feigning involved,that we are constantly aware of the gap between the ordered andorganised performance we see on stage and life’s more fundamental lackof order. In terms of a critical approach to Shakespeare, an awareness ofthe theatrical qualities and effectiveness of his plays here coincidesentirely with an awareness of how the issues the plays confront areembodied in their dramatic form.

The Tempest This kind of self-consciousness about the play itself explains why, at theend of his career, Shakespeare returns to comedy, reviving comic form in

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the late romances. In The Tempest, Prospero, the Duke of Milan, hasbeen deposed by his brother and now lives on an island with hisdaughter, Miranda. He is served by a spirit, Ariel, and a monster,Caliban. Fate draws Prosper’s brother, Antonio, near to the island andProspero conjures up a storm which lands Antonio and his party on theisland. There Ferdinand, the son of the king of Naples, falls in love withMiranda. Their betrothal masque, a supernatural dance of spirits dressedas deities, is disrupted by Caliban’s plot to kill Prospero. Ariel persuadesProspero to forgive both Caliban and Antonio; he does so, gives up hismagic and returns as duke to Milan.

Escapism To many Prospero has seemed a figure like Shakespeare himself, whogave up his art at the end of his career. Others have seen The Tempest asessentially a piece of escapism. These responses, however, miss the wayin which the play presents its emphasis on spectacle: how we arrange lifeinto patterns, giving it shape and form, but how, by doing so, we become,paradoxically, aware of the randomness of life, its lack of pattern.Shakespeare, it can be argued, returns to comedy precisely because, morethan tragedy, it allows us to glimpse the chaos of life that we screenourselves from. But this should not lead us into thinking thatShakespeare has lost interest in the changing nature of the society of hisday. Indeed, The Tempest not only deals with issues concerning theconstruction, deployment and excesses of power, but also deals with asociety that is beginning to define itself much more explicitly in terms ofits identity as a trading nation and colonial power.

The play’s modernity Shakespeare so effectively offers a sense of the deeper movements ofchange as the 16th century yields to the 17th that we might feel there isnothing left for others to say. Essentially, it might be argued that, indealing with the immediate political anxieties of Elizabethans, his playsoffer a sense of the moment at which the medieval world, which inretrospect can seem manageable and comprehensible, yields to thebaffling complexity of the modern world, with its new impulses and newpriorities. But Shakespeare, in fact, offers just one perspective on thisprocess of change. If we look more broadly at Elizabethan, Jacobean,and, subsequently, Restoration drama, we see that other playwrights alloffer their own distinct sense of a changing world; as is often the case inEnglish literature, it is the variety of voices that can be heard at any onetime that demands attention.

SELF-EVALUATION TEST

Hamlet1. Is Hamlet mad or sane? Discuss.

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Answer: Hamlet is a complex and ambiguous character, and his madness comes in twoforms: One is the emotional overreaction that results from the shock of his situation; theother is the pretended madness of double-meaning puns and seeming irrelevancies heemploys in his dealings with Claudius and Polonius. These two are closely bound uptogether. For instance, the fact that he is under severe emotional stress in his first scenewith Claudius and the court (Act I, Scene ii) is made dear by the violent soliloquy thatfollows immediately afterward. On the other hand, people have often explained theemotional violence of his scene with Ophelia by suggesting that he knows their meeting isbeing watched by the King and Polonius. Because of Hamlet’s complex and unstablenature, every reader must decide for himself at what points in the play Hamlet truly is oris not mad.

2. Why does Hamlet hesitate before taking revenge?Answer: Many answers have been offered to this question: Psychologists believe withErnest Jones that Hamlet’s unconscious “Oedipal” desire to kill his father and marry hismother prevents him through guilt from killing Claudius. Nineteenth-century critics whosaw in Hamlet an over-imaginative, idealistic poet-philosopher concluded that he had tooweak a hold on reality to achieve his revenge; others have maintained that the act itselfwas against his religious or philosophic principles. In contrast, there has always been aschool of thought that holds that Hamlet, in a complex position and faced with a cleverand suspicious opponent, was in fact striving actively to accomplish the difficult task ofkilling a heavily guarded king, but lacked the opportunity. In this interpretation the keyscene is that in which Hamlet kills Polonius, thinking it may be the king, here he does nothesitate. Those who disagree point out that Claudius’ Prayer Scene is clearly meant byShakespeare to be a turning point and a test of Hamlet’s will. On the other hand, anElizabethan audience would have understood the hero’s reluctance to kill a man atprayer, though some later critics have found it “barbaric” for him to plan Claudius’damnation. Since this question is at the heart of Hamlet’s “mystery,” it is too ambiguousfor any one answer to be correct.

3. To what extent is Claudius a good king? Give examples.Answer: Shakespeare’s genius is nowhere shown better than in his decision to make acomplex and fascinating character out of the hero’s opponent—a man who could be (andis in other Shakespeare plays) no more than a superficial, stock villain with no traitsother than his evil. Claudius, in his scenes with the court and with Laertes, repeatedlyshows his tact and judiciousness, his skill at dealing with people, and his desire to keepDenmark at peace and on good terms with its neighbours. Though he hardly conveysdeep feeling for Gertrude, he also never treats her with less than husbandly respect. It isonly the knowledge of his guilt and the fear of his crime being found out that drives himto evil and vindictive measures. In the Prayer Scene he begins to repent and refrains onlyfrom fear of punishment. Because of his unpardonable crime, he must ultimately bepunished, but there is no question that Shakespeare meant us to regard him as a man inwhom good and evil are mixed, and who might have lived a noble life if not for hiscriminal act.

4. Compare Laertes and Hamlet as characters, showing how their stories contrast with oneanother.

Answer: Though fundamentally honourable, Laertes has been misled by his “politic”father, Polonius, into believing that the most important part of honour is its outwardform. For Hamlet, a philosopher who pursues the life of the mind, only the inner truth

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can bring a man to peace with himself. Consequently, while Hamlet struggles with hisown soul but is for the most part good-humoured and charming with others, Laertes oftenreveals a hot temper and a peremptory and cynical arrogance. Raised to distrusteverything but outward show, Laertes cannot believe in anyone else’s good motives. Hewill not believe Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is serious (though both Hamlet and the queenconfirm it later); he quarrels with the priest over the funeral; and he refuses to acceptHamlet’s apology before the fatal duel. At the same time, because his anger issuperficial, he is easily led by a hypocrite like Claudius into a conspiracy—somethingwhich Hamlet would never have done in his position.

5. Discuss the different views taken of the ghost by Marcellus, Horatio, Hamlet. Explain which isrevealed by the play to be most valid.

Answer: Before the ghost appears, Horatio, as an educated skeptic, sees it as a “fantasy”or hallucination of the guards. Barnardo suggests that it is a good omen—the late king’sspirit is protecting Denmark, which must arm again for war. Horatio, on the contrary,draws precedents from Roman history to show that it is an omen of evil. Both Marcellusand Horatio fear that it may be an evil spirit intending to damn or destroy Hamlet.Hamlet himself seems to toy with this idea at times; however, he accepts the ghost’sstory, at first cautiously and then unquestioningly after the Play Scene. At the same time,though, he disregards its instructions, provoking its appearance in his mother’s room,which appears to calm him and help him accept his destiny. By the end of the play, thereis no question that the ghost was speaking the truth. Whether its advice was good andheaven-sent, however, is unclear, considering the death and destruction to which itsdesire for revenge has led.

6. Go through the many deaths in Hamlet. In what way is each brought on by the characterhimself or herself and so part of what is called poetic justice?

Answer: The murder of Polonius, though perhaps an excessive punishment for hiseavesdropping, is the inevitable outgrowth of his spying on behalf of a king whose moralpurposes he never questions. Similarly, Hamlet’s execution of Rosencrantz andGuildenstern is warranted by their having put themselves so trustingly in Claudius’hands. Laertes and Claudius, as the former points out, are fittingly caught in their owntrap, and the queen’s poisoning is a logical result of her having trusted, despite herbetter judgment, in a marriage she knows to be incestuous. Hamlet’s own death, finally,is the tragic result of his having postponed his revenge till he is caught up in thecircumstances of Claudius’ counterplot; he is in a sense sacrificed to his responsibilities.In addition, he is expiating his murder of Polonius. Only Ophelia’s drowning whileinsane seems an excessive punishment for the comparatively minor sins of trusting herfather and telling Hamlet one small lie in the Nunnery Scene. On the other hand,Shakespeare is at pains to examine the danger the world holds out for those who trust tooinnocently to others’ motives. Ophelia trusts her father and brother blindly, as they trustClaudius, and like them she is destroyed.

7. How does Hamlet’s advice to the players relate to the theme and action of Hamlet.Answer: Hamlet’s description of the naturalism, balance, and honesty he looks for inacting are artistic equivalents for the sincerity and equanimity he is searching for in reallife. He wants a true friend who “is not passion’s slave,” and he does not want an actorto “out-Herod Herod” by expressing passion in an exaggerated way. He wants clowns

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“not to speak more than is set down” for them, and he wants Polonius not to be a“tedious old fool.” For a man with Hamlet’s ideals the world is out of joint with itself,only in art, which is made consciously, can he hope for perfection.

8. What does Hamlet learn from the gravedigger?Answer: Hamlet’s confrontation with the gravedigger, a man happy enough to sing at hiswork even while surrounded by death, teaches Hamlet that “the readiness is all”—thatthere is no escaping one’s destiny—and that all paths lead to the grave. At the same time,the gravedigger reveals to Hamlet how time passes, altering everything in a natural way.The gravedigger began his work the day Hamlet’s father defeated Fortinbras and Hamlethimself was born. The skull they handle is that of Yorick, the court jester, who was in hisway a second father to Hamlet, warm and loving, and a jovial drinking companion andpractical joker to the gravedigger. Now he is only a skull, and his bones are beingshoveled aside to make room for the young Ophelia. Death, it seems, cannot be dependedon to respect youth and innocence any more than it respects age, wisdom, or strength.

9. How does the First Player’s “Hecuba” speech reinforce the themes of the play?Answer: First, the speech is significant as an example of Hamlet’s refined taste, since itcomes from a play too learned and intelligently written to be popular. Next, the story itcontains reflects on Hamlet’s situation. Pyrrhus, who kills King Priam in revenge for themurder of his father, Achilles, is a model of the man of action, which Hamlet craves tobe. The second section of the speech describes the grief of Priam’s wife, Hecuba, after hisdeath, and thus is both a criticism of Gertrude (who has not shown a similar degree ofgrief over her husband King Hamlet) and a warning to Hamlet of the emotions he maytrigger if he kills her new husband. The speech both urges Hamlet on to action and putshim off by showing him the difference between his own behavior and that of amythological king. The First Player’s real tears and his sincerity in delivering the speechtorment Hamlet, because they remind him of his own conflicting impulses and of hisinability to feel sufficient desire for revenge or sufficient grief over his father’s death.

10. “Tragedy,” wrote the critic Eric Bentley, “is extraordinarily dependent on comedy.” Discusswhat he meant by this, and cite five examples of it in Hamlet.

Answer: Comedy is necessary in a tragic work to give respite to the tragic feelings weexperience. It also heightens and intensifies the tragic emotion by its extreme contrast.Comedy and tragedy are entwined in Hamlet, because the tragic hero himself is both apartly comic character and a master of witty repartee even while under the strongestemotional pressure. Hamlet has the disturbing gift of laughing at his own grief as well asat the shortcomings of the world in general. His laughter strengthens the plot, bybecoming one of the qualities of his mind that enable him to evade his mission andpostpone his revenge. In his own mind Hamlet is a fool, trapped in tragedy by the factthat the rest of the world is made up of even bigger fools, who lack his ability to laugh athimself. Claudius does not see anything funny in his situation as a murderer and as anincestuous husband; but Hamlet, calling him “my mother” and “uncle-father” can jokeabout it. The only character with whom Hamlet is wholly serious is Gertrude; he evencalls his father’s ghost ‘old mole.’

3. King Lear1. In Act II, Scene ii, the disguised Kent draws his sword on Oswald and attempts to engage himin a duel. The cowardly Oswald backs off, fearing that he will be murdered. If they had not beeninterrupted by the party from within the castle, would Kent have slain Oswald? How would hejustify it? If not, why?

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Answer: Does the tone of Kent’s badgering suggest that he really intends to commitmurder? Doesn’t the scene have comedic overtones, especially Kent’s description ofOswald? Kent has a firm sense of justice. Listen to what he says when he tries toconvince Lear that banishment of Cordelia is wrong. Even when he is introduced to thebastard, Edmund, he is the soul of propriety. On the other hand, Oswald is allied withGoneril, whom Kent has seen taunting and abusing Lear. The handwriting is on the wall.In his defense to Cornwall, Kent certainly talks boldly about doing away with Oswald.Perhaps this would have kept Goneril’s message from being delivered and the course ofthe play would have taken a different turn.

2. Since Albany is painted in such virtuous colors and behaves so nobly throughout the play, whydoesn’t he take over the rule of the entire country at the end? Why does he pass it on?

Answer: Albany has claimed that his fight with France is for the restoration of Lear’srights; it is not a war over property. Would we regard him so highly if he suddenlydecided that he now had a right to take over everything? Go back over what Albany hasto say at various times and you will see that greed has never been a part of his character.You’ll also discover other reasons to support his final position. Consider, too, Albany asa representative of one faction; that is, the North. Wouldn’t the threatened civil war eruptin earnest if he placed himself on the throne?

3. The great villains—Cornwall, Regan, and Goneril—die offstage. Only Edmund, their equal invillainy, and Oswald, a “subvillain,” are slain in front of the audience. How do you account forthis? Why don’t we witness all the villains getting their punishment? Does it make anydifference?

Answer: Despite the explicit horror of the blinding scene, Shakespeare was notparticularly interested in presenting gory details on stage. People were killed only whentheir death moved the action of the drama forward.

4. Do you think Edgar would make a good king of England? Why?Answer: To evaluate Edgar’s qualifications, you have to consider not only his owndevelopment but the errors of his predecessor. Review the balance of their behaviour andyou will find definite signs of character that may be proper or may be problems forEdgar. Within the text of the play there is enough material to develop a projectedcharacter sketch for Edgar, which should guide your answer.

5. Was Shakespeare secretly “antimonarchist”?Answer: There are two angles to consider. The first is obviously your view of his attitudetoward Lear as king. That he pointed out Lear’s failures is certain. But how does hebalance them with Lear’s redeeming qualities? And are they necessarily the failures of aking, or of a man? The other view is the more general picture of “rulers” that comes uphere and there throughout the play. It is more subtle but still applies to the question. Thisincludes the final decision to leave Edgar in charge. Will he be a worthy successor?

6. What is the position of women as presented in King Lear?Answer: It’s fairly safe to assume that Shakespeare reflected the views of his time.There’s little suggestion of prehistoric England, despite the general setting. But withoutgoing to outside references, a picture may be developed from the play itself. Women arepresented as both daughters and wives, and there are only three of them—Goneril,

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Regan, and Cordelia. That in itself tells us that it’s essentially a man’s world. But womendo not lack power. As you review their relationships and their comments, you willdevelop a broader understanding of women in the “natural order,” too, which was one ofShakespeare’s concerns.

7. Without a vast stage to sweep across, how does Shakespeare show the sense of urgency andforward motion we feel throughout the play?

Answer: There are references at the start of several scenes that indicate a passage oftime. Review them and you will discover the chronological length of time that passes inthe course of the action. Just as important is the image of a journey taken by the focalcharacters of the main and subplots. The discussion of movement and travel helps sustainthe momentum. And, of course, the constant entrances and exits as the only way ofbeginning and ending scenes should be considered.

8. Is it fair to attribute Goneril’s and Regan’s behaviour to greed?Answer: There are many reasons for their behaviour, and greed is certainly one of them.When rumours are reported of differences growing between Albany and Cornwall (III, i),the reason given is the desire to control the entire kingdom. But what we know of Albanymakes us suspect that it is Goneril, rather than her husband, who is behind the rumour.Consider, too, the confrontation scene with Lear. More than a desire to be rid of theburden of accommodating his retinue, isn’t the desire for power over him a kind ofgreed? And, in their wanting Edmund, doesn’t the ultimate greed lead to their finaldestiny? As you review their moves throughout the play, you’ll discover that greed playsan important part.

9. Is there a difference between the father-daughter relationships and the father-son relationshipsin the play? If so, how is it shown?

Answer: Overall, the point being made is broader than one of gender. But there aredifferences. The laws of inheritance come into play here. Lear bequeaths his kingdomspecifically to his daughters, but Gloucester’s estate would go without question to hisfirstborn male heir. For the sake of parallels, however, most of the thematic concern iswith children in general. It is more than a matter of verse, which puts the stress where itis in Lear’s observation:

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it isTo have a thankless child.(Act I, Scene iv, lines 279-80.)

Consider the comments made by both fathers, as well as others, and a case may be madefor both the specific and general views.

10. Do Lear’s daughters represent separate fragments of his own character and personality?Answer: Lear displays an incredible number of sides in the course of this play. If youextract certain traits, you can see them appear in one daughter or another. For example,he is obviously stubborn. But in the very first scene, Cordelia is easily his match inholding on to a position once it is taken. His concern for quantity over quality is shownby the contest he sets up between the three daughters: “How much do you love me?”Goneril and Regan hurl quantity at him in Act II, Scene iv, when they ask why he needsso many knights.

4. The Tempest1. What is your final judgment of Prospero? Analyze his character carefully, considering his badpoints as well as his good ones.

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Answer: He’s a loving father. He’s wise and scholarly. He commands Ariel only until heaccomplishes his plan; then he frees him. He forgives his enemies, including Antonio andSebastian, who don’t seem to deserve forgiveness. His past errors—trusting too much inAntonio and Caliban—have been on the side of kindness.

But Prospero isn’t perfect; he’s a harsh, angry man. He breaks up the lovely masque forFerdinand and Miranda when his anger overcomes him. He may have a sense of justiceconcerning his own wrongs, but he doesn’t seem to mind if his own behaviour hurtsinnocent people. Thus, he horrifies Miranda with his cruelty to Ferdinand; he lets kindlyold Gonzalo weep while he punishes Alonso. In addition, his earlier foolishness hascaused suffering. In giving Caliban too much freedom, he allowed the monster to attemptto rape Miranda. In giving Antonio too much freedom, he lost his dukedom in Milan. Thisresulted in dire consequences for the city in the form of the annual tribute that Milan,under Antonio, must pay Naples.

2. Consider the role of physical beauty in the play.Answer: This theme develops mainly in connection with Miranda, Ferdinand, andCaliban. Miranda associates beauty with moral goodness. Thus, in her “brave newworld” speech in Act V, she assumes that because Alonso’s party looks noble—“Howbeauteous mankind is!”—they must be noble: “How many goodly creatures are therehere!” Shakespeare’s audience really did associate goodness with beauty; after all,according to the Bible, God created humanity “in his own image.” Miranda has twoadditional reasons to make this association. First, Ferdinand is extremely good-looking,a “thing divine,” and she’s in love with him. Second, her main experience of evil hasbeen the ugly Caliban. Prospero notes that Caliban becomes even uglier as he growsmore evil: “as with age his body uglier grows,/So his mind cankers.” Caliban’s mother,too, was evil and deformed: the “foul witch Sycorax” was “grown into a hoop” with“age and envy.” But by including Antonio and Sebastian among the creatures whomMiranda calls “goodly,” Shakespeare reminds you that reality is more complex than thissimple symbolism.

3. Discuss the parallels among the various schemes in the play, and the reasons for these parallels.Answer: The three plots in ‘The Tempest’ are (1) Antonio’s plot, with the aid of Alonsoand Sebastian, to usurp the dukedom from Prospero, a dozen years before the beginningof the play; (2) Antonio and Sebastian’s plot to kill Alonso and Gonzalo and makeSebastian King of Naples; (3) Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo’s plot to kill Prosperoand make Stephano ruler of the island. All three of these schemes aim to replace arightful ruler with a wrongful one.

Antonio and Sebastian’s plot against Alonso parallels the original plot against Prospero,and it serves two functions. First, because Shakespeare observed the classical unities andrestricted the action of The Tempest to one day, he sacrificed certain dramaticpossibilities. It’s less exciting to have Prospero simply tell Miranda about the plot than itwould have been to show it. But by introducing a new plot that’s so similar to the originalone, Shakespeare retains some of the drama without having to spread the action overtwelve years. Second, although Prospero tells Miranda of Antonio’s villainy, you alsowitness it; thus, it makes a much stronger impression upon you.

The Caliban-Stephano-Trinculo plot parodies the Antonio-Sebastian plot as well as theoriginal plot. Its function is mainly comic, though it relates thematically to the rest of the

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play because it again shows characters attempting to rise above their proper place insociety.

4. Compare and contrast Ariel and Caliban.Answer: Although Ariel and Caliban are both magical beings of Prospero’s island, theyare opposites. Ariel is light, airy, intelligent; Caliban is heavy, earthbound, stupid. WhenProspero summons Ariel, the spirit arrives as quickly as thought; when he calls Caliban,the monster complains and delays as long as he can.

The beings are also opposed in their sense of morality. Caliban is amoral. He shows noremorse about his attempted rape of Miranda. When he plots with Stephano and Trinculoto kill Prospero and seize the island, he gives no thought to the morality of his actions.Ariel, in contrast, is an extremely moral character.

His speech to the “three men of sin” in Act III is practically a sermon on the classicChristian message of the necessity of repentance. Moreover, Ariel has suffered for hisgoodness: Caliban’s mother, the “foul witch Sycorax,” imprisoned him in the cloven pinetree because he was “too delicate” to carry out her horrible commands.

Ariel and Caliban do resemble each other in their desire for freedom. But Ariel cravesfreedom because it’s part of his nature to be free; although he serves Prospero loyally,having a master is alien to his makeup. Caliban, however, is by nature a slave; he onlywants freedom because he’s too lazy to work. When he acquires freedom, he misuses it.He needs a master to exercise the authority he can’t muster over his own appetites.

5. Analyze Gonzalo’s character, and explain the old councillor’s function in the play.Answer: Gonzalo is the embodiment of the good Christian: kind, cheerful, patient,faithful and—as you know from his actions when Prospero and Miranda were cast out tosea—charitable. Unlike Alonso, he never loses faith that Providence is watching overthem or that they’ll locate Ferdinand. Unlike Prospero, he never succumbs to anger, evenwhen Antonio and Sebastian mock his attempts to cheer the King.

Gonzalo is also rather an old bumbler, however, and he talks too much. Even in his greatspeech on Providence, he continues for too long and says too much: his assertion thatthey all have acquired self-knowledge isn’t true for Sebastian or Antonio, nor probablyfor Gonzalo either. But these shortcomings make Gonzalo a more believable character;perhaps they even make him more likable than he would be if he were always right.

6. Examine the play from a Christian point of view.Answer: To answer this question you can point to several Christian themes, which fallinto three general categories: providence and patience; forgiveness; repentance. AsProspero tells Miranda, they were brought to the island by divine providence. A goodChristian, like Gonzalo, has faith in this divine benevolence and patience with thecircumstances of his life. A man of little faith, like Alonso, is impatient and pessimistic.You can also argue that Prospero embodies providence within the play, because hecontrols so much of the action and ultimately, despite his initial anger, forgives even hisunrepentant enemies.

As to forgiveness, the main question throughout is whether Prospero will overcome hisanger and forgive his enemies. Christians, of course, are expected to forgive. Revenge is

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not a Christian attribute. As Prospero observes, forgiveness is a nobler action thanvengeance.

Closely related to the theme of forgiveness is the concept of repentance. Prospero tellsAriel of repentance. Prospero tells Ariel that all he really wanted when he punished the“three men of sin” was to make them repent their wrongdoing. Ariel delivers thismessage in his harsh speech to the three after the banquet in Act III. In this action,Prospero again parallels the Christian God, who is ready to forgive any penitentwrongdoer. This parallel develops problems, however, when Prospero forgives Antonioand Sebastian, wrongdoers who don’t repent.

7. Discuss the pairing of characters. How does this technique help Shakespeare convey histhemes?

Answer: Before answering this question, you might want to list the various pairs.Sometimes the pairing seems insignificant: Adrian and Francisco, Stephano andTrinculo, the master and the boatswain. Antonio and Sebastian are both evil, usurpingbrothers, but their similarities don’t tell you much about their characters.

You learn more when paired characters are contrasted. For example, Prospero’s wisdomis more apparent when compared to Alonso’s foolishness. At times, Alonso is also pairedwith Gonzalo, and Alonso’s lack of faith is more evident in contrast with the kind oldcouncilor’s extreme patience and faith in providence.

Ariel and Caliban are almost precise opposites, and you can argue that their oppositionfunctions symbolically: Ariel represents spirit and intelligence, Caliban flesh andappetite. Ferdinand and Miranda are paired romantically, in a way that’s traditional onstage as well as in life. The pairing gives the play an aura of symmetry and simplicity,and contributes to its magical, fairy-tale atmosphere.

8. Explain Prospero’s fall from power in Milan. What lessons does he need to learn in order tobecome a good ruler?

Answer: Prospero tells the story of his downfall in Act I. You can argue that he lost hisdukedom because his hunger for knowledge was too great. (In this aspect, he resemblesAdam and Eve, who lost Eden after eating from the tree of knowledge because theywanted to become god-like.) He gave up ruling for study, foolishly turning over the reinsof government to his brother Antonio and thus failing to observe degree, as Antoniowasn’t the rightful ruler. He later erred similarly with Caliban, giving the creature morefreedom and more education than were appropriate to his low degree. Thus, Prosperomust learn two important lessons. The first is a lesson in self-control: he must keep hishunger for knowledge in check so that he can properly attend to his duties as ruler.Secondly, he must use his authority to see that others don’t exceed their proper degree;he must keep his subjects in their places.

9. Prospero calls Caliban “a born devil, on whose nature/Nurture can never stick.” Discuss thethemes of nature and nurture in The Tempest.

Answer: To answer this question, you should focus on Caliban and Miranda. The themeof “nurture” refers to education; that of “nature” describes a person’s general makeup.

Miranda has a high nature – a noble temperament, a sense of morality, and ample self

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control. She benefits from her education; Prospero’s teachings make her a better person,and she becomes a fine young woman.

Caliban, however, has a low nature that can’t be educated. He has so little self-controlthat he tries to rape Miranda, and he so lacks any moral sense that instead of regrettinghis crime, he cries, “Would’t had been done!” Caliban, however, does exit on a positivenote. His final speech—“I’ll be wise hereafter,/And seek for grace”—suggests that evenif he has the nature of a born slave, he may have learned, at least temporarily, to accepthis low degree. In this he contrasts with the unrepentant Antonio and Sebastian, whocan’t excuse their villainy by claiming low natures.

10. Consider Ferdinand and Miranda both as representatives of the play’s themes and ascharacters. State your opinion as to their credibility.

Answer: Ferdinand and Miranda embody the theme of reconciliation. Through their love,their fathers—Alonso and Prospero—find a way to end their hostility.

Both Ferdinand and Miranda are contrasted with the low-natured Caliban. WhileCaliban is governed by his appetites, Ferdinand is a model of self-control. He has thediscipline and the stamina to accomplish the burdensome tasks that Prospero assignshim. As he explains at the beginning of Act IV, he respects the value of chastity—unlikeCaliban, the would-be rapist.

Miranda benefits from the education Prospero has given her; on the other hand, Calibanhas only learned to curse. In addition, Miranda has acquired the advantages of educationwithout the accompanying corruption of civilization. When she declares her love toFerdinand in Act III, she’s straightforward because she hasn’t learned coyness ordeception. Shakespeare’s audience would certainly have regarded this innocence as avirtue.

You’ll have to examine Ferdinand and Miranda’s scenes closely to decide whether youthink their characters are believable or too good to be true. They have all the virtues ofhigh nature and fine education, and they may remind you of a fairy-tale prince andprincess. Shakespeare has, however, included details that make them appear morehuman. For example, Miranda disobeys her father when she tells Ferdinand her name.Later, she demonstrates her naivete by including Antonio and Sebastian among the“goodly creatures” she praises.

Ferdinand has some human attributes also. He’s impulsive enough to draw his swordagainst Prospero. At the beginning of Act IV, after he’s exchanged some very admirablesentiments with Prospero on the subject of chastity, his future father-in-law has toreprimand him for embracing Miranda a little too warmly.

SUBIECTE EXAMEN

1. Structure and pattern of “Beowulf”2. “Beowulf” and the tradition of epic poetry3. The importance of Old English

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4. Chaucer’s second (Italian) phase5. Chaucer’s first (French) phase6. Pagan vs. Christian values in “Beowulf”7. Chaucer’s third (English) phase8. Chaucer’s language9. “The Canterbury Tales” a positive picture of the middle ages10. “The Seafarer” and “The Wanderer” as elegies11. “The Dream of the Rood” as a dream-vision poem12. Social consequences of the Norman conquest13. Linguistic consequences of the Norman conquest14. Literary consequences of the Norman conquest15. Sir Thomas More and Humanism16. Language matters in 16th century England17. the translation of the bible18. The sonnet as a favoured form in the Middle English literature19. Levels of complication in sir Thomas Wyatt’s “Whoso list to hunt”20. Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene”21. Sir Philip Sidney’s “The Arcadia”22. Epic vs. romance in Middle English literature23. The historical context of Shakespeare’s work24. The first decade of Shakespeare’s work25. The plot of Shakespeare’s Hamlet26. Main themes of Shakespeare’s Hamlet27. Shakespeare’s sources and models28. Hamlet in the context of Shakespeare’s time29. Shakespeare’s English history plays30. Julius Caesar and its relevance to an Elizabethan audience31. The tragic vision of Shakespeare’s main tragedies32. Layers of meaning in Shakespeare’s King Lear33. Othello as a social outsider34. The essence of Shakespeare’s Macbeth35. “Richard II is a play that looks at the past as way of thinking about the present.”

Comment.36. Shakespeare’s late plays37. The plot of Shakespeare’s Othello38. Shakespeare’s return to comedy in The Tempest

EXAMEN DE LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ- MODEL -

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I. Read the following poem carefully before you choose your answers. Write your answers on aseparate sheet of paper, as follows: 15 – C; 20 – D; etc. DO NOT WRITE ON THE TESTPAGES. DO NOT FORGET TO WRITE YOUR NAME ON THE ANSWER SHEET.

(1) AGAINST that time, if ever that time come,(2) When I shall see thee frown on my defects,(3) When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,(4) Call’d to that audit by advis’d respects;(5) Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,(6) And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,(7) When love, converted from the thing it was,(8) Shall reasons find of settled gravity;(9) Against that time do I ensconce me here,(10) Within the knowledge of mine own desert,(11) And this my hand, against my self uprear,(12) To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:(13) To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,(14) Since why to love I can allege no cause.

(1609)

Vocabulary Notes:(Line 1) Against = anticipând(Line 3) When as = când

hath cast his utmost sum = şi-a încheiat socotelile(Line 4) audit = bilanţ

advised respects = examinare atentă(Line 5 ) strangely = ca un străin(Line 8 ) Shall reasons find of settled gravity = Va găsi motive grave bine stabilite(Line 9 ) I ensconce me = mă întăresc(Line 10) Within the knowledge of = cunoscând(Line 11) uprear = ridic(Line 12) To guard the lawful reasons on thy part = Să apăr motivele care îţi justifică

atitudinea(Line 14) Since why to love I can allege no cause = O dată ce nu pot invoca nici un motiv

pentru a te determina să mă iubeşti

1. The speaker of the poem is addressing(A) an unspecified general audience(B) a friend of the speaker’s beloved(C) a lover(D) a former lover

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(E) a legal adviser

2. The speaker imagines a time in the future when he might(A) no longer be in love(B) no longer be loved(C) be even more deeply in love(D) be able to explain why he is in love(E) look back fondly on his present happiness

3. In lines 1-12, which of the following is a main verb?(A) “come” (line 1)(B) “shall see” (line 2)(C) “shalt pass” (line 5)(D) “shall find” (line 8)(E) “do ensconce” (line 9)

4. In line 5, the adverb “strangely” means:(A) oddly(B) be even more deeply in love(C) in a distant manner(D) eerily(E) none of the above

5. In lines 1, 5, and 9, “against” is best understood to mean:(A) in opposition to(B) in repetition of(C) in contrast to(D) in preparation for(E) in rejection of

6. The “reasons” mentioned in line 8 are best characterized as:(A) scientific explanations for a natural force(B) arguments against rationality itself(C) arguments for the importance of loving(D) logical explanations for the absence of love(E) counterarguments to the speaker’s propositions

7. If the speaker is implying in line 10 that he is not deserving of love, which of the followingmost strongly supports the implication?

(A) “defects” (line 2)(B) “utmost sum” (line 3)(C) “strangely” (line 5)(D) “love, converted” (line 7)(E) “settled gravity” (line 8)

8. The tone of the poem can best be described as(A) playful and lighthearted(B) hesitant and confused(C) confident and determined(D) reasoned and optimistic

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(E) self-deprecating and apprehensive

9. One theme of the poem appears to be that(A) unrequited love is still sweet(B) time transforms lust into love(C) the value of true love cannot be calculated(D) relationships should be controlled by laws(E) reason is insufficient to explain love

10. Which of the following best describes the language of the poem?(A) Concrete and matter-of-fact(B) Euphemistic and prosaic(C) Metaphoric and logical(D) Informal and conversational(E) Ironic and amused

II. Chose an answer for each of the following questions. Write your answers on a separate sheetof paper, according to the following model: 25 – D; 31 – C, etc.

1. Which people began their invasion and conquest of southwestern Britain around 450?A. the Danes; B. the Anglo-Saxons; C. the Geats

2. Beowulf may have been first told by a scop who was a(n)A. traveling entertainer; B. monk; C. epic hero

3. Two conflicting codes in Beowulf areA. Christian and pagan; B. materialist and idealist; C. political and spiritual

4. According to Chaucer’s original plan, the pilgrims would have toldA. 58 tales; B. 87 tales; C. 120 tales

5. A Shakespearean history play is based primarily onA. British sourcesB. Greek and Roman sourcesC. Italian and French histories

6. Shakespeare’s comedies are called romantic comedies becauseA. They typically involve lovers whose hearts are set on each other but whose lives

are complicated by a number of misunderstandings.B. The conflicts present are more amusing than threatening.C. All of the above.

7. Shakespeare’s four principal tragedies – Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth –appear almost as a sequence

A. during the reign of Elizabeth IB. after the death of the queenC. before and after the death of Elizabeth

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8. Both Hamlet and King Lear deal withA. Madness and natureB. A disrupted succession to the throneC. Humanistic ideals

9. Othello’s gift to Desdemona wasA. A diamond ringB. A silk dressC. His mother’s handkerchief

10. Prospero’s farewell to his art has been compared toA. Queen Elizabeth’s farewell to her reignB. Shakespeare’s farewell to poetryC. Miranda’s farewell to the island

B. Develop on the following topic(s):(TOPIC AS GIVEN IN THE ‘EXAMINATION TOPICS’ LIST YOU HAVE ALREADYRECEIVED)

WARNING: DO NOT EXCEED ONE PAGE.

SummaryLine 1 opens the poem by signalling that the speaker is imagining some future situation that mayor may not come to pass (“if ever that time come”).

Lines 2-4 refer to “thee” and “thy love,” indicating that the poem is addressed to the speaker’slover. The speaker fears that, in the future, his lover will no longer care for him. This person mayone day disapprove of him (“frown on my defects”). In lines 3-4, the lover’s affection ispersonified as an accountant adding up money (“thy utmost sum”) and deciding that loving thespeaker is a waste.

Lines 5-8 explore the speaker’s growing fears further.

Lines 5-6 imagine the speaker’s lover coldly ignoring him when the two pass in the street (“whenthou shalt strangely pass”), coldly because the warmth of “that sun, thine eye” is not cast on thespeaker for long. Lines 7-8 once more personify the lover the speaker believes he has lost. Here,paradoxically, love is no longer caring but instead finds logical reasons to reject the speaker.

In lines 9-12, the speaker returns to the present time. Preparing for his projected loss, he claimsno argument in his defence (“this my hand against myself uprear”) and instead supports hislover’s choice (“the lawful reasons on thy part”).

Lines 13-14 expand upon the points made in lines 9-12. Again, the speaker reiterates that thelover has good reason for leaving him, supported by “the strength of laws.” He, in comparison,can offer no good reason for the lover to stay: “why to love I can allege no cause.” With thisclosing line the speaker states that there are no good reasons for loving him at all, and, in a largersense, there are no good reasons why we ever love anybody. Perhaps the reader is left to think wejust love because we love. And so, despite the images of logic and reasoning that fill the poem,the speaker implies that love may well defy all argument.

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ANSWER KEYI. II1 – C 1 – B2 – B 2 – A3 – E 3 – A4 – C 4 – C5 – D 5 – A6 – D 6 – C7 – A 7 – C8 – E 8 – B9 – E 9 – C10 – C 10 – B