Literature
in English Society
Before 1660
A
Historical Survey
Brother Anthony, An
Sonjae
Sogang University
Press
Seoul, Korea
Contents
Introduction....................................................................................... vii (below)
1. Literature and Society before 1066..................................................... 1
Caedmon's
Hymn................................................................................ 1
Christianity
enters England.............................................................. 2
Bede........................................................................................................ 3
The
Germanic Inheritance................................................................. 4
The
Dream of the Rood...................................................................... 6
Relations
with the European Continent........................................... 8
The
Genesis Poems.............................................................................. 8
Heroic
Poetry.......................................................................................
10
Beowulf.................................................................................................
11
The
Elegies...........................................................................................
12
The
Vikings..........................................................................................
14
King
Alfred the Great.........................................................................
15
Monastic
Revival..................................................................................
17
From
Maldon to Hastings...................................................................
17
The
Celtic tradition: Ireland, Scotland, Wales..............................
19
2. The Middle Ages before 1300.................................................................
23
Social
history.......................................................................................
23
The
Universities...................................................................
25
The
Church...........................................................................
26
The
development of narrative literature..........................................
28
Geoffrey
of Monmouth........................................................
28
Layamon's
Brut....................................................................
29
Fine
amor.............................................................................
30
The
Matter of Britain..........................................................................
32
Tristan
and Iseult................................................................
32
Marie
de France...................................................................
32
Chrétien
de Troyes..............................................................
33
Arthurian
Romance after Chrétien.................................
34
The
Matter of Rome and Antiquity...................................................
36
Le
Roman d'Eneas..............................................................
36
Le
Roman de Troie.............................................................
36
Le
Roman de Thebes..........................................................
37
Alexandre
le Grand............................................................
38
The
Matter of France..........................................................................
38
The
Song of Roland............................................................
39
The
Matter of England........................................................................
39
King
Horn.............................................................................
40
Havelok
the Dane................................................................
41
Sir
Orfeo................................................................................
42
Bevis
of Hampton and Guy of Warwick.......................... 44
Other
narrative forms........................................................................
45
Fabliau
and beast-fable......................................................
46
Lyric
poetry in France........................................................................
46
Lyric
poetry in England......................................................................
47
Le
Roman de la Rose..........................................................................
48
Dante
Alighieri....................................................................................
49
3. The Fourteenth Century.........................................................................
52
Social
and political history................................................................
52
The
Black Death and the Peasants' Revolt.....................
52
Wyclif
and the Lollards......................................................
53
The
Hundred Years' War...................................................
54
Alliterative
poetry................................................................................
54
Wynnere
and Wastoure......................................................
56
Pearl.......................................................................................
57
Piers
Plowman.....................................................................
59
Alliterative
romances.........................................................
64
Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight....................................
65
Lyric
Poetry in England.....................................................................
67
Lyric
Poetry in France.......................................................................
70
Religious
Prose...................................................................................
70
Julian
of Norwich................................................................
72
Margery
Kempe...................................................................
73
4. Petrarch and Boccaccio, Chaucer and Gower.................................. 75
Petrarch
.............................................................................................. 75
Boccaccio..............................................................................................
79
Geoffrey
Chaucer................................................................................
80
The
shorter works...............................................................
81
Troilus
and Criseyde..........................................................
83
The
Canterbury Tales.........................................................
87
John
Gower...........................................................................................
98
5. The Fifteenth Century............................................................................. 102
Poetry
after Chaucer.......................................................................... 103
Thomas
Hoccleve................................................................. 103
John
Lydgate (?1370-1449).............................................. 105
Robert
Henryson.................................................................. 106
William
Dunbar................................................................... 107
Charles
d'Orléans............................................................... 110
Renaissance
Humanism..................................................................... 114
Saint
Anselm........................................................................ 115
Scholasticism....................................................................... 115
Raimon
Lull.......................................................................... 115
Nicolas
of Cusa.................................................................... 116
Marsilio
Ficino..................................................................... 117
Pico
della Mirandola........................................................... 118
Renaissance
Political Thought......................................................... 119
Niccolo
Machiavelli............................................................. 122
6. Drama before 1550..................................................................................... 126
Mystery
Play Cycles........................................................................... 126
The
Second Shepherd's Play............................................. 128
Morality
Plays...................................................................................... 131
Everyman.............................................................................. 133
Skelton's
Magnyfycence................................................... 135
Bale's
King Johan............................................................... 136
Interludes.............................................................................. 136
Introduction
This book surveys in a very general way the evolution of
English literature of the Middle Ages. It focuses on as many individual works
and writers as possible, situating them in a broad historical and social
context.
Korean students of English literature often have little
or no detailed knowledge of British history or culture, yet they use histories
of English literature in which the main outlines of English history are assumed
to be familiar. This leads to difficulties. On the other hand, in many
histories of literature, the individual works are assumed to be familiar and
nothing is quoted at length or explained. Again, this causes problems.
In Sogang University, the main textbook for courses in
English Literature is the two-volume Norton Anthology of English Literature.
This anthology is very useful, but the introductions are often fragmentary and
unclear, while students in a survey course can do almost nothing with the huge
extracts from the major works that the Anthology provides.
In the pages that follow, surveys of and quotations from
as many works as possible are set in a narrative about writers, works, and
their historical contexts, English and European. The expected readership is of
undergraduate and graduate level, students in survey courses as well as those
looking for general background information about a particular period or writer.
Some may be surprised to find quite long discussions of French or Italian
literature and philosophy; they are included because it is not possible to
separate English literature from its European context, the works in question
have all played a major role in England and should be familiar to students.
Given the book's very general character, it has seemed
best to keep the bibliographical information to a minimum. Each writer and
topic has been the object of innumerable studies. Therefore each section or
chapter ends with a short list of recently published works in which students
will find full bibliographical information for a higher level of detailed
research, as well as more precise introductions to each of the topics
mentioned.
Every aspect of English literature has been discussed at
great length by many scholars. This book is only a general introduction written
in a deliberately simple style, the author could never acknowledge in detail
the multiple sources he has been informed by at every point. In addition, there
are so many different opinions about almost every detail that it has seemed
better not to quote directly from critical works, and not to use footnotes or
endnotes.
Students wishing to have a rather fuller degree of
concentrated information on a particular writer or work may turn first to The
Oxford Companion to English Literature or a similar encyclopedic work.
Beyond that, and the various general studies indicated after each section or
chapter, there is no end to the variety of studies available.
It is a pity that this book cannot provide pictures.
Many aspects of medieval culture, be it the buildings, the clothing, or the way
of daily life, become much clearer from photographs and illustrations. Students
are advised to look for illustrated histories of the period while they are
studying.
Index
Abelard,
Peter 39
Aelfric 27
Agincourt,
battle of 154
Aidan 4
Alcuin 12
Alexandre
le Grand 57
Alfred
(life and works) 23
Alliterative
Revival 85
Ancrene
Riwle 40
Ancrene
Wisse 40
Aneirin 31
Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle 25
Anselm,
Saint 172
Appositive
style 10
Aquinas
on knowing
God 173
Aristotle
rediscovery
of 39
Arthur
first mentioned 31
Augustine
of Canterbury 3
Bale, John 205
Battle
of Maldon, The 27
Beast-fable 69
Becket,
Archbishop Thomas 36
Bede, life
of 5
Benedict
Biscop 4
Benoit de
Sainte-Maure 56
Beowulf 16
Bernard of
Clairvaux 40
Bevis of
Hampton 68
Black Death 81
Boccaccio,
Giovanni 120
Boniface 12
Brut (Layamon's) 44
Brut
(Roman de) 44
Caedmon's
dream and hymn 1
Canterbury 4
Canterbury
Tales, The 132
Canzoniere (Pet¡©rarch's) 117
Carolingian
Renaissance 12
Castiglione,
B¡©aldassare 183
Castle
of Per¡©severance, 198
Caxton, William 155
Celtic
tradition 30
Chanson
de Roland, La 59
Chansons
de geste 58
Charlemagne 12
Charles
d'Orléans 166
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Book of
the Duchess 124
Canterbury
Tales 132
Complaint
123
House of
Fame 125
life of 122
Parliament
of Fowls 124
Troilus and
Criseyde 126
Chivalry 35
Chrétien de
Troyes 50
Christ
and Satan 9
Cistercians 40
Cleanness 88
Cligès 51
Cloud of
Unknowing, The 110
Concatenation
in Pearl 90
Confessio
Amantis 149
Corpus
Christi plays 191
Courtly
love 47
Cuchulain 32
Cusa,
Nicolas of 175
Dame
Sirith 70
Danes 23
Daniel 9
Dante
Alighieri 75
Dares and
Dictys 56
Days of the
week (names of) 8
De
casibus (Boc¡©caccio's) 121
Decameron (Boccaccio's) 121
Deschamps,
Eustache 107
Divina
Commedia (Dante) 76
Domesday
Book 35
Dominic
(Saint) 40
Dominicans 40
Dream of
the Rood, The 9
Dream-vision 11,
87
Dunbar,
William 162
Dunstan of
Canterbury 26
Ecclesiastical
History (Bede) 2
Eckhart,
Meister 108
Edward II 80
Edward III 80
Edward the
Confessor 28
Eleanor of
Aquitaine 36
Elegy (Old
English) 19
Erec 51
Everyman 201
Exeter
Book, The 20
Fabliau 69
Ficino,
Marsilio 176
Filocolo
(Boccaccio's) 121
Filostrato (Boccaccio's) 121
Fine
amor 47
Finn 32
First
Crusade 35
Francis of
Assisi (Saint) 40
Franciscans 41
Froissart,
Jean 83
Fulgens
and Lucrece 207
Galahad 54
Genesis 9
Genesis
Poems 13
Geoffrey of
Monmouth 43
Germanic
society 7
Gest
Historiale of Troy 57
Gildas 31
Gothic 34
Gower, John 148
Guido de
Columnis 56
Guillaume
de Lorris 74
Guy of
Warwick 68
Harley
Lyrics 72,
84
Havelok
the Dane 62
Henry III 37
Henry V 154
Henry VI 154
Henry VII 156
Henryson,
Robert 160
Heywood,
John 207
High Middle
Ages 34
Hilton,
Walter 109
Historia
Destructionis Troiae 57
Historia
Regum Britanniae 43
Hoccleve,
Thomas 156
Humanism 114
Humanism (Renaissance) 171
Hundred
Years' War 83
Huss, John 83
Interludes 206
Jean de
Meung 74
Joan of Arc 154
Joseph
d'Arimathie 53
Julian of
Norwich 110
Kempe,
Margery 112
Kennings 10
King Edwin
(conversion of) 5
King
Horn 61
King
Johan (Bale's) 205
Lancelot 51
Langland,
William 91
Lanval 49
Lateran
Council 41
Laura 116
Layamon 44
Lindisfarne 4
Lollards 82
Lull,
Raimon 174
Lydgate,
John 159
Lyric Poetry
12-13th c.,
Fren¡©ch 70
13th c.,
English 72
14th c.,
English 103
14th c.,
French 107
Machaut,
Guillaume de 107
Machiavelli,
Nicolo 184
Magna Carta 37
Magnyfycence
(Skelton's) 204
Malory, Sir
Thomas 169
Mankind 200
Marie de
France 49
Medwall,
Henry 206
Mendicant
orders 41
Merlin 53
Morality
Plays 198
Morte
Arthure 54,
99
Morte
D'Arthur (Malory's) 169
Mystery
Play Cycles 190
Norman
Conquest 29,
34
Normandy
(origin of) 26
Otium 182
Owl and
the Nightingale, The 70
Patience 88
Pearl 88
Peasants'
Revolt 82
Peasants'
Revolt 155
Pepin 12
Perceval 51
Petrarch's
view of Man 172
Petrarch, Francesco 116
Pico della
Mirandola 178
Piers
Plowman 91
Pisan,
Christine de 107
Plantagenets 36
Political
Thought 179
Population
in 14th century 81
Pride of
Life, The 198
Prince,
The (Machiavelli's) 184
Rastell,
John 207
Regiment
of Princes, The 156
Renaissance
(Italian) 115
Revelations
of Divine Love 111
Richard II 81
Richard III 155
Richard the
Lionheart 37
Riddles 11
Robert de
Boron 53
Robin Hood 37
Rolle,
Richard 109
Roman
d'Eneas, Le 55
Roman de
la Rose, Le 73
Roman de
Renart, Le 70
Roman de
Thebes, Le 57
Roman de
Troie, Le 56
Romances 48
Rutebeuf 71
Seafarer,
The 20
Second
Shepherd's Play, The 193
Sir Gawain and the
Green Kni¡©ght 100
Sir
Orfeo 65
Skelton,
John 204
Song of
Roland, The 59
Summa
theologiae 42
Testament
of Cresseid, The 160
Thomas
Aquinas (Saint) 41
Triads
(Welsh) 31
Tristan and
Iseult 48
Troilus
and Criseyde 126
Troubadours 46
Troy
Book, The 57
Tudors 156
Twelfth
century Renaissance 39
Universities
(rise of) 39
Vikings 23
Vita
nuova, La 75
Wace 44
Wakefield
Master 193
Wanderer,
The 20
Wars of the
Roses 155
William the
Conqueror 29
Wisdom 200
Wulfstan 27
Wyclif,
John 82
Wynnere
and Wastoure 86
Yvain 51