The Middle Ages Roughly divided into three periods: the Anglo-Saxon, the Anglo-Norman, the 14th and

15th centuries
The Anglo-Saxon England:

I. Origin and Development:

1. Anglo-Saxon invaders from the North Europe to the southeastern part of England around 450 A.D. (including the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes) 2. From the 9th century on, the invasion of the Danes and the career of Alfred Re-introduction of Christianity in the 7th century: II. 1. Two Routes: from South: St Augustine of Canterbury, sent by Pope Gregory, to the Kingdom of Kent; from North: missionaries from Ireland 2. Impact on literacy: churchmen as renowned scholars (cf. Bedes Ecclesiastical History of English People; Alcuin; translation of Boethius Consolation of Philosophy and beginning of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under Alfred) III. Old English Literature: 1. A tradition of oral poetry: transcribed in manuscripts produced in monasteries 2. Largely on religious subjects: literacy limited to only churchmen 3. Germanic heroic poetry: orally performed in alliterative verse 4. The aristocratic or heroic values of the Germanic society: (1) Nation: a group of people related by kinship (2) King (loaf-protector): royal generosity as his greatest virtue (3) Retainers: with the obligations to fight to death for the king and to avenge his death; blood vengeance as a sacred duty 5. Conflict and Combination between the Germanic heroic and Christian values: 6. A Harsh World Vision: hardly concerning romantic love 7. Highly Formulaic Style, in a slow and stately pace with indirection: special vocabulary, figures of speech like synecdoche and metonym, kenning, apposition 8. Irony as a mode of perception: ironic understatement

Anglo-Norman England:
I. Origin and Development: 1. The Normans (i.e., Norsemen): Germanic descendants who had settled in northern France, conquering England in 1066 under William the Conqueror 2. The Powerful Reign of the Plantagenet: owning large territory in the south of France II. Linguistic and Cultural Exchanges: 1. Four languages co-existing: Latin (scholarly and international), French (courtly), the

Middle English, Celtic 2. Celtic Legends popularized: so-called Breton lays, told in the genre of romance 3. English literature drawing materials from French sources, which in turn derived from Celtic or Latin sources 4. A dialectic between religion and romance in medieval literature III. Romance of chivalry: 1. Definition: a long story in which knightly adventures are a means of exploring psychological and ethical dilemmas that the knight must solve, in addition to displaying martial prowess in saving ladies from monsters, giants, and wicked knights. Usually portraying illicit love affairs 2. Its principal creators: Chrtien de Troyes and Marie de France 3. Reflecting the literary taste and judgment of women: an imaginary court of love described by Andreas Capellanus in The Art of Loving Correctly 4. Romance as an aspiration of the lower nobility to rise in the world: 5. Mostly rollicking and rambling in its narrative style: 6. The Rise of Arthurian Romance: the foundation myth of the Britain a. The History of the King of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in Latin prose: drawing on Welsh oral tradition A Founding Myth: Brutus as the great grandson of Aeneasa royal genealogy created Arthur as the last great king that fought Anglo-Saxon invaders b. Le Roman de Brut by Wace, in French eight-syllable couplets: a free translation of Geoffrey of Monmoths work Creation of an atmosphere of courtliness and invention of the Round Table c. Brut by Layamon, in Middle English alliterative verse: adapting Waces work d. Morte dArthur by Sir Thomas Malory: drawing from a bunch of long prose romances in English, organizing most Arthurian legends into a unified narrative Nostalgia for an ideal, fictional past: a sense of the irretrievability of past glory IV. Other Anglo-Norman literary works:

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries:

The growing popularity of English language and the flowering of Middle English Literature I. The Black Death and its Consequences: The scarcity of labor and a sudden expansions of the possibilities for social mobility II. The Church as the target of popular resentment: cf. William Langlands satire III. The burgeoning capitalism: the growth of international trade and the influence of merchant class: 1. Cities and Commons in the Parliament as a major force in English public life: 2. The rise of newly educated laity as the Crowns administrators: cf. Chaucers rise in

the world IV. Three Major Poets of the 14th century: 1. Chaucer: drawing on the energy and sources of European literary movement 2. Langland: in the tradition of alliterative revival; the most clear-sighted vision of social and religious issues in his days, in the form of allegorical dream vision 3. Pearl Poet: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as the finest English romance, highly conscious and subversive of its own genre V. The War of Roses: the house of Lancaster versus the house of York The further decline of feudalism and the rise of towns as centers of commerce and culture VI. The Performance of Mystery Plays and Morality Plays: a sign of citys power Mystery Plays: Biblical stories dramatized and organized into a sequence or cycle, prepared and performed by city guilds on wagon stages Morality Plays: Allegorical representation of struggles between good and evil, with characters like Everyman, Friendship, Fortune, Knowledge, etc. VII. Imitators of Chaucer: such as John Lydgate and Robert Henryson, who imitated Chaucers styles and tried to continue his poetic projects Lydgates dream visions and The Fall of Princes: the former as a continuation of the previous centurys literary tradition and the latter as a new sense of tragedy VIII. The Conclusion of the Arthurian Saga: Thomas Malory adapted and abridged several 13th-century French prose romances to give a definite shape to the Arthurian legend, making Lancelot the primary hero. IX. The Introduction of moving-type printing by William Caxton: facilitating the expansion of literacy and the availability of books He printed Malorys manuscripts (which he organized into book form and gave the title Morte Darthur), Chaucers works, etc.

Beowulf
I. About the Text: 1. The oldest of the long poems in English Literature, composed around the 8th century, though the story had probably been orally transmitted, by scop, for some hundred years before it was recorded or rewritten by a Christian poet 2. Probably the only survivor of a cluster of Old English long epics, harking back to the tradition of Germanic heroic oral poetry, dispersed also in Iceland and Germany 3. The poet unknown, probably only one Christian, and the title given by modern editors II. Subject matter: 1. Concerning not feats in England but those in the Germanic North Europe, happening around the 5th century 2. Highly elliptical in references to historical or legendary background 3. Heavy allusions to the Christian Bible, but strangely only to the Old Testament 4. Based on the values of Germanic heroic code: a. Mutual trust and respect between the warrior-thane and king b. Royal generosity: the king as the ring-giver, dispenser of treasure c. Moral obligation to avenge a kinsmans death (by either killing the enemy or exacting wergild, man-price): line 459~72 (wergild paid for Ecgtheow; 2435~43 (on the inanity of revenge code) d. A sense of doom (tragic futility) permeating the whole society and the poem 5. The Conflict between Christian values and Germanic heroic code: p. 69 a. A Christianity that hadnt eliminated the pagan elements among the AngloSaxons (confusion between fate and God) b. The poets ironic treatment of the theme (cf. Finnsburg episode, p. 54~58) 6. Beowulfs struggle with fate and nature: a. A ritual of testing fate (p. 41): boast of past glory (639) vow of coming victory consciousness of possible doom (441~55; 1477~83) the courage under war, remembering ones vow (757~58, 1529~30) b. Dialectics of fate and courage: line 572~73, 1384 III. Discussion of Topics in the Text: 1. Germanic heroic code: a. An Ideal King: bravery4~11; His generosity: 20~24, 72~73, 384~85, 1020~23; an example of bad king1709~1722 b. Emphasis on male lineage, not the individual: line 194, 262~63 (his name, 343), 372~76 2. Christian references and didacticism: line 92~98 (to the Creation), 183~188 (insisting on Christianity as true faith), 440~41

3. Belief in fate: line 455, 733~35, 696~97 (confusion between God and fate), 2526~27, 2573~2575, 2814~2816 4. Evidence of the heroic code: line 129~33 (about code of revenge), 156 (about wergild), 1019~1023 (the war gift), 1458 (the sword Hrunting), 2606 (a thanes loyality) 5. The prevailing Harsh atmosphere: p. 43~44 (broil in Heorot), 1120~23 6. A sense of doom: line 81~85 (prediction of the future destruction of Heorot), 691~93 (consciousness of ones death in a foreign land), 1001~7 (death for all human beings), 1163~64 (suggesting future strife), 1202~14 (over the history of the gold torque), 1232~50 (unknown but unchangeable arrangement of fate), 2247~2266 (a dirge on the death of a nation) 7. Grendel and his clan: wild nature and matriarchy; line 102~07, 166~69 (inability to take over human status), 1282~84 (comparison to Amazon), 1355 (suggesting matriarchy) 8. The role of the royal women: line 63 (woman as source of domestic comfort), 620~22 (woman as peace maker in a feast), 1115~19 (a royal womans wish for peace between two nations), 1932~43 (example of a bad queen), 1980~82, p. 76 (possible outcome of Freawarus marriage) 9. Ironic understatement: line 138~40 (over Shields change of fortune), 598 (over the defeat of the Victory Danes), 792~93 (over Grendels death), 861~62 (over the weakening of Hrothgar) 10. Kenning: line 10 (whale-road), 36 (ring-giver), 200 (swans road), 268 (nations shield), 1039 (sword-play), 1209 (wave-vat), 1429 (sail-road), 1571 (heavens candle), 1905 (sea-shawl), 2072 (heavens gem), 2848 (tail-turner)

Marie de Frances Lanval

I. Biography: 1. Origin not known, probably a French aristocratic woman living in the Norman court set up in England 2. Writing twelve so-called Breton lays: short narrative verses sung originally by minstrels from either French Brittany or the Celtic parts of England 3. Also writing some Fables, which was claimed to be translation of an English version, which in turn had come from a Latin translation of the Greek originals by the legendary Aesopsuggesting how Classical culture was transmitted in the Middle Ages 4. With Chrtien de Troyes, one of the initiators of the chivalric (courtly) romance II. The Textual Background of Lanval: 1. The theme of fairy bride married to a mortal: a widely circulated theme in medieval literature; cf. Wife of Baths Tale in The Canterbury Tales 2. Chivalric Romance: description of love affair as a means of analyzing an individuals relationship with his/her society, exploring male and female desire 3. Lanval written in eight-syllable couplet, a standard form of French narrative verse III.Discussion of the Text: 1. The Conventional Virtues of Courtly Lover: lines 120~123 (obeying the ladys commands); pp. 132~33 (refusal to comply with a ladys demand for love as a serious offense); lns. 292~96 (insults in terms of beauty, not virtue); lns. 598~600 2. The whole legal case evolved around the existence and beauty of Lanvals lover: lns. 313~18; lns. 321~22; 361~62; 438~40 3. Courtly love in conflict with loyalty: lns 263~68; 408 Emphasis on secrecy: lns 141~47; 160~61; 329~30 Parallel between Lanvals two love affairs: turning around the axis of transgressiveness, womens initiatives, their powerful positions Lanval The fairy: Lanval Guinevere: Relatively free in sexual enjoyment: lns 127~28; 245; 474~75 Wealth as an important aspect of female desirability: p. 129; Beauty as another aspect of female desirability: p. 137 (502~03); lns. 530~31; IV. Interesting Points in the Plot: Women as more active and powerful than men: 2. The queen not punished at the end for intention of adultery, but humiliated for her inferiority in beauty:

4.

5.

6. 7. 8. 1.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

I. Textual History: 1. The best Arthurian romance in English: Gawain as the best knight in the English tradition vs. Lancelot in the French tradition 2. Written by the Pearl Poet: the romance, along with three religious poems, is found in a manuscript, very probably written by the same poet 3. Originated in a cultural center outside London, in the northwest midlands: however, the poem, the poet, and its audience must be sophisticated and know the European literary tradition very well 4. In the tradition of Alliterative Revival of the 14th century: actually the tradition never interrupted since the Norman Conquest 5. Drawing on folklore: the theme of beheading game (esp. the vegetation myth) 6. Strange Stanza Organization: Probably a combination between two Prosodies) An long block of unrhymed long lines with indefinite number of syllables (pervasively alliterative), plus five 6-syllable lines rhymed a b a b a (the first line, called bob, has only two syllables, but the rest lines, called wheel, six syllables) II. Major Themes: 1. The Conflict between Two aspects of Chivalry Code: Devotion to Christian ethical ideals vs. Concern over manners and gallantry Sir Gawain to be measured against the Christian ethical code of chivalry 2. An Anti-romance: relying on but subverting most literary conventions of romance, as developed since the 12th century Against the degraded aspect of the Chivalry code: Against the vanity of Arthurian legend: 3. Expounding and Valorizing the Christian aspect of the Chivalry code and the True significance of the Foundation Myth III. Discussion of the Text: 1. A lampoon against the Arthurian court: lines 90~106 (Arthurs vanity); 246~49 (an ironic defense); 280~82, 309~315 (the Green Knights dismissal of the Arthurs court); 468~69 (reluctance to admit humiliation); 2456~66 2. Courtly Manners and Speech: lines 343~61, 470~75 (to save the courts face), 916~27 (Gawain as an exemplar of the courtly values) 3. The Theme of Troth (Promise): 448~56 (a deadly appointment almost without punishment for missing it); 750~62; 1037~41, 1088~92 (courtly speech versus serious promise); 1022~23 4. The Christian ideals as symbolized by Pentangle: lines 619~61 (Gawain will violate almost all ethical rules laid down here)

5. Gawains temptation in terms of life and glory: lines 676~83, 1750~54, 1851~65, 1879~85 (the abuse of confession), 2030~31, 2118~25, 2193~94 6. Deception of senses: lines 800~01, 943~74 (hostess of the castle vs. an honored ancient lady), 1001 (the honor the old lady receives) 7. The Three Hunting Scenes (symbolic of Gawains possible fate if he violates Christian ethics): lines 1162~63; 1330~1353 (beheading); 1607 (beheading); 8. The Three Temptation Scenes (actually a struggle unfolded according to the code of knightly gallantry and the conventions of chivalric romance): 1178~79, 1560~61, 1730~31 (sudden switch from the bloody to the lascivious scene) a. Actually a hunt or a war: lines 1209~16; 1282~87, 1633, 1725, b. The hostesss resort to the chivalry code as weapon: lines 1230~40, 1291~1307, 1481~83, 1490~91, (1496), 1512~19 (reference to conventions of chivalric romance), 1525~27, 1657~63, 1771~75 (last attack) c. Gawains resort to the idea of humility, knightly manners, and pact as defense: lines 1241~47; 1266~67; 1395~97; 1501~02, 1540~45, 1768~69 (the end of tethers) d. Gawains only defense in truth and faith: 1780~95, 1811, 1823, 1934~35, 1941 (his failure), 2138~39, 2354~57, 2378~83 (true confession) e. Gawains failure to pass the test? 1750~52 (crushed under death threat) 9. Displacement of the conflict between two aspects of chivalry code to the figure of woman: lines 2414~28 10. Detailed Description of a Knights Equipment (a literary convention of the romance): 151~220; 567~618 (actually an irony, as the armory serves no purpose) 11. No Rambling narration (as in a conventional romance): lines 718~19

Geoffrey Chaucer
I. Historical Background: the breakdown of three estates and the rise of the middle class A complex, interrelated unstable system of strata where birth was no longer the only factor deciding the interaction II. Life and Civil Career: 1. The son of a wine merchant: fluent in French and educated in Latin 2. Serving as a page in a powerful noble house: the beginning of connection with the ruling class 3. Once captured and ransomed in the Hundred Years War 4. Several Diplomatic Missions to Spain, France, and Italy 5. Serving as Customs officer (Controller), justice of peace, and member of Parliament 6. Married into the Nobility: bridging the classes of commoner and nobility 7. Buried in a corner of Westminster Abbey, now called the poets corner III.Poetic Career: never mentioned in official records 1. French Period: French as the fashionable language of the court a. Chaucers models: lyrics and narratives about courtly love, in the form of dream visionderived from the 13th-century Romance of the Rose, a dream allegory b. Chaucers works: partial translation of the Romance and The original Book of the Duchess 2. Italian Period: Literary inspiration during his trips to Italy a. In direct contact with Italian Renaissance: new verse forms, subject matter, modes of representation b. Chaucers works: The House of Fame (still a dream vision, whose beginning affectionately parodies Dantes Divine Comedy), The Parliament of Fowls, Troilus and Criseyde (one of the best love poems in English), Legend of Good Women (a defense of women in the religion of love; his first experiment with a series of tales; unfinished) c. Boccaccios influence: in The Knights Tale and Troilus and Criseyde 3. Latin Influence: moral and religious works, usu. in translation Prose translation of Boethiuss Consolation of Philosophy, a didactic book popular in the Middle Ages 4. English Period: the climax of his poetic career at The Canterbury Tales IV. Chaucers Poetic Vision: as based on his ambivalent social position 1. Belonging to a new class of civil servant: an overlapping bourgeois and aristocratic social worlds 2. Being involved in and detached from a given situation at the same time: to view with both sympathy and humor the activities of different social levels

The Canterbury Tales

I. Original Plan: 120 stories within it Two stories told on the way to Canterbury and two more told on the way back for thirty pilgrims, but only twenty two are actually written, with two fragments II. Inspiration: 1. Witnessing the pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury and pilgrims as notorious story tellers 2. Medieval collections of stories under a framing story: Boccaccios Decameron III.A New Twist to the story-collection tradition: 1. The Diversity of story tellers in social background: In The Canterbury Tales, the story tellers represent a wide spectrum of ranks and occupations 2. The Diversity of story types: The tales told match the story tellers in genre, style, tone, and values 3. Two fictions created at the same time: that of the story teller and that of the story itself 4. The ingenuity of links: a sort of literary comment and dramatic interest added IV. The great popularity of the poem: more than 80 surviving manuscripts and twice printed by William Caxton V. The General Prologue: 1. Characterization: drawing from figures already existing in medieval literature, particularly the genre of estates satire, but representing an epitome of late medieval social life 2. The portraits depicted in the way our mind perceives reality randomly: details actually chosen carefully 3. Avoidance of overt moral judgment: a seemingly nave narrator whose comments betrays deeply ironic implication VI. Discussion of the Text: 1. The order of appearance: traditional aristocracy, ecclesiastics, down to the low-class laity, followed by newly rising middle-class professions (p. 17) 2. The knight and squire: Christian chivalry code and its degeneration (p. 18) 3. The nun, monk, friar, parson, pardoner, summoner: the ideal and corruption in the Catholic ecclesiastical order (p. 18, 19, 20, 23, 26) 4. The franklin and plowman: the lay order of ancient regime (p. 21, 24) 5. The merchant, a sergeant at law, cook, skipper, doctor, miller, manciple, reeve: the amoral, profit-oriented professions (p. 20, 22, 24) 6. The Oxford Cleric and Wife of Bath: the eccentrics (p.21) 7. Animal Imagery: a symbolic epitome of a characters personality 8. The Irony within the narrators navete:

Piers Plowman by William Langland I. About the Author: conjectures based on an ambiguous passage in C text
Probably an educated man intending to enter the Church II. About the Text: A dream vision: a story under the guise that the narrator has dreamed it An Allegory: a form suspected to be innate to dreams An extended metaphor in which characters, actions, scenes of a story are equated with definite moral, religious, social, political meanings: a form of representing abstract ideas in concrete formscharacters as personification of abstract qualities, for example. Alliterative in verse form: Organized in the format of passusstep in Latin: Popularity till the 16th century: its evocation in the Peasants Revolt in 1381 6. Controversial in its theological positions: considered a forerunner or prophesy of English Reformation III. Theme: 1. A souls long allegorical quest for the answer to a key Christian question: How one may save his soul?A quest unfolded at both individual and universal levels Starting from knowledge: The marriage of Lady Meed to False over the protests of Conscience Reason preaching and Repentance hearing confessions of Seven Deadly Sins Hope inspiring people to search for Truth (first appearance of Piers Plowman) (5) Piers pointing out the way and demanding the pilgrims to plow the half acre (Langlands conception of an ideal community) (6) Transformation of Piers to Christ in Passus 18: Christs crucifixion and Harrowing in the Hell with debates among the Four Daughters of God 2. Satire against the late medieval society: section on the Field of Folk, represented in terms if its failure to live up to an ideal society under Christian principles Especially savage, indignant satires against ecclesiastic corruption Also satire against wealthy laity who failed to relieve the poor of their miseries Elements of social realism in the representations of the Seven Deadly Sins 3. Sympathies with the sufferings of the poor IV. Discussion of the Text: The dreamer-narrators satire against the late medieval society in Fair Field of Folk 2. The futility of confessions: 3. A tortuous, painful pilgrimage to the Saint Truth: an allegorized account 4. An ideal arrangement of social roles as envisioned by Langland: men farming, women weaving, and the nobles protecting the commons

1. 2.

3.

4. 5.

(1) (2) (3) (4)

(1) (2) (3)

1.

Mystery Plays and Morality Plays

I. The nature and content of the mystery plays: 1. Definition of the term mystery: the spiritual mystery of Christs redemption of humankind 2. The content of the mystery plays: dramatizations of the Biblical stories from the Creation through major Biblical events in the Old to the life of Christ Old Testament: foretelling the Redemption New Testament: realizing the prophecy and recounting the redemption II. Controversy over the origin of mystery plays: 1. From dramatization of liturgical rituals in the Church, esp. those on Easter morning 2. From a tradition of vernacular religious drama: III. The production and stagecraft of mystery plays: 1. Composed as cycles: four of which have survived completeChester, York, Wakefield, Coventry 2. Produced in large towns by trade guilds, which were powerful in governance of the town 3. Performed on Whitsuntide or Corpus Christi: summertime 4. Performed on wagons as stages, which moved from one strategic point to another in a town several times in the day 5. Originally acted out by guild members, gradually replaced by professional companies 6. Plays usually written by clerics: providing entertainment and religious instruction 7. Elements of boisterous comedy as well as social criticism often involved 8. Constantly under revision: IV. Importance of the mystery plays: 1. Paving the way for the professional theatre of the Elizabethan age: still performed in the late 16th century: V. Discussion of the Wakefield Second Shepherds Play: 1. The Wakefield Master: probably a highly educated cleric, good at combining comedy and religion 2. Deliberate Anachronism: Yorkshire shepherds passing for those near Bethlehem Social criticism in their complaints against the taxes and cruel gentry Invoking the audiences trans-temporal sympathy and understanding 3. Daring parallelism in plot design: Maks trick in theft and Christs nativity Stolen sheep passing for a son in the cradle vs. Christ as the Lamb in the manger: (2) Charity shown by the shepherds vs. charity shown by Christ: the three shepherds in parallel with the three sages from the East (3) Secular sufferings replaced by the redemption promised by Christ 4. Characterization of Mak: probably imported from popular farce and anticipating farcical

(1) (2)

(1) (2) (1)

braggarts in Elizabethan stage VI. The nature and content of morality plays: 1. Composed individually, not in cycle: 2. Religious and moral in its explication of Christian doctrine of salvation: not through biblical stories, but through allegorical dramatization of mankinds struggle between vices and virtues 3. Involving no less broad humor than mystery plays: vices presented as clowns

The Sixteenth Century: Introduction

I. The Increasing linguistic self-confidence: II. The consolidation of the Tudor Dynasty after the Wars of the Roses: The court as the center of power and culture: royal power over feudal barons (1) The unity of politics and artistic cultures: The Rise of courtier culture: (1) Flamboyant dresses: the extravagant use of ruff (2) Experts in rhetorical, artistic, and social skills: an art of concealing art proposed in Il Cortegiano (3) Political intrigue: based on the principles of Machiavellis Il Principe, cultivating an atmosphere of paranoia caused by threats of duplicity and betrayal (4) Patronage system: channels through which favors were distributed (5) The Rise of Literature: motivated by the network of political/cultural motivations (6) Circulation of manuscripts among the elite: retaining fascination with the chivalric code (A vision of the idealized past) The Ascendancy of the City: flourished trade, higher incidence of literacy III. Renaissance: (rebirth of letters and arts) 1. Stimulated by the recovery of texts and artifacts from classical ages The worldly, individualist, human-oriented (as opposed to the medieval otherworldly, groupand God-oriented): (1) Man as the measure of all things: (2) The belief in a unified truth underlying all philosophical systems: Humanism: Belief in the malleability of the individuals: Mores Utopia (2) Focus on self-fashioning, on education: struggles for curriculum reform: (trivium and quadrivium) as preparation for public service 4. The study of Latin: not just for rhetoric but moral, political, philosophical truth 5. The question of language choice: pan-Euro intellectual community vs. nationalism: flourishing of translation (Homer, Plutarch, Ovid as well as Ariosto, Montaigne) IV. Reformation: 1. The Catholic Church as an all-encompassing institute with its monopoly of religious affairs of everyday life over the illiterate lay: Doctrines mediated by the clergy 2. Background: the corruption of the Catholic Church, fiercely attacked by Martin Luther at the University of Wittenberg, as a worldly conspiracy 3. Basic Tenets: Private conscience enlightened by a personal reading of the Scriptures, focusing on direct access to the word of God (sola scriptura and sola fide)

1. 2.

3.

2.

3. (1)

5.

1. 2.

(1)

4. The Origin of Reformation in England: dynastic politics and royal greed, not really Protestant (Divorce case over Catherine of Aragon for Anne BoleynAct of SuccessionThe Act of Supremacysuppression of monasteries, but no less against Reformation ideas) Translation of the Bible: William Tyndales version (as the core of the Great Bible) 6. Establishment of English Church: 42 articles of religion and Book of Common Prayer, formulated by Thomas Cranmer 7. Marys return to Catholicism: married to Philip II, King of Spain, nicknamed Blood Mary for her persecutions of Protestants 8. Elizabeths confirmation of the English Church: insisting on outward conformity to the Anglican Church and maintaining a balance between Catholic and Protestant tendencies V. Treatment of Foreigners and Colonial Activities: Discrimination against the Irish, the Jews, the Africans: A War of piracy against Spanish colonies in South America: the career of Francis Drake VI. Queen Elizabeth: 1. Female monarch in a male-dominant kingdom: an embarrassing situation 2. Apologies for female monarchy: historical/Biblical precedents and the theory of kings two bodiesbody natural and body politic 3. The idea of royal absolutism/divine devolution and its practical limitation: lack of extensive bureaucracy, limited financial resources, recalcitrant Parliament 4. Elizabeths cult of love: (turning her gender from a liability into an asset) (1) An atmosphere of romance around her court and an imagery of mythical goddess or Biblical heroine (2) Drawing on the secular discourse of courtly love and sacred one of Virgin Mary 5. The grim aspect of her rule: High-handed control along with political maneuvering: (2) Marriage negotiations: involving continuation of Tudor line, international diplomacy able to alter power balance in Europe (3) Conspiracies against her life: dissatisfaction with her compromise policy in religion (4) Military confrontation with Spain: the fall of Armada 6. Her winning qualities: theatrical command of public occasion, blending of grandiose rhetoric and love discourse, appropriation of masculine qualities VII. Literary Life: 1. Restrictions on publishing business: no sense of copyright, no royalties, low prices of literary manuscripts, no freedom of press, strict regulations of publishing, censorship 2. Different purposes of literary activities: (1) For the high-rank: a social grace and exalted form of play

2.

(2) For lower-rank: ways of gaining protection, career advancement, financial reward 3. Centers of patronage: the court, the big families, the city (center of book trade and home to public theatres), the universities (fostering university wits) VIII. Cultural Styles of the Elizabethan Age: (Ex: What is the pastoral?) 1. A rhetoric culture: luxury and copiousness in language and abundant use of figures (thus prolixity and verbal self-display, called euphemism) Widespread musical literacy: hence the preference for melodious poetic language 3. Taste for elaborate, intricate, but regular designs: Belief in the universe as a construct of beauty, concord, and harmony 4. Sense of wonder: Admiration for the creation of the second naturean art of successful imitation, exquisite workmanshipbut not really representational accuracy 5. Emphasis on the didactic aspect of art through the creation of a perfect nature, as a model to be emulated in actual life 6. Literary Conventions that functioned as a shared cultural code: each literary mode assigned for different motives (1) Pastoral mode: a world inhabited by shepherds, celebrating leisure, humility, and contentment; combined with different genres for various motives, but (at least superficially) homely in motives and concerns (2) Heroic mode: a world of divine forces and national heroes, celebrating honor, courage, loyalty, leadership, and endurance; the epic as the chief genre, with Faerie Queene as the prime British example (3) General Elizabethan indifference to the generic purity: IX. The Elizabethan Theatre: 1. Violation of the Three Unities: 2. Former traditions of drama: (1) Genres: mystery play, interlude, morality play (2) Actors: companies of players, technically a noblemans servants 3. Tension with the church: 4. Classical influences: esp. Seneca for tragedy and Plautus, Terence for comedy 5. Music and dance as integrated elements: 6. Hostility to the theatre: 7. Other forms of public spectacles:

Thomas More and Utopia I. Biography: 1. Torn between lives of public service and religious devotion 2. Close friendship with Desiderius Erasmus: The Praise of Folly and Utopia as intellectual games, playing on subversive, unsettling wit 3. Influential writing of The History of King Richard III: setting the stereotype of Richard III as a deformed, murderous tyrant 4. Struggle against Protestantism: refusing to take oath of religious loyalty to Henry VIII; beheaded as a martyr II. Utopia: 1. Influences: Platos Republic, systems of monastic community and market society, peasant revolts demanding a more just distribution of wealth, Amerigo Vespuccis account of the New World, of formerly unknown societies organized around different principles Deliberately different from popular travel accounts of faraway lands in content and style: 2. The vision of an impossibly well-organized and rich society: as an ideal model for imitation for the real society 3. A dialogue between the 16th-century European society with Utopia: the underside of the imaginary society suggested III. Discussion of the Text: 1. Debate over the advantages of public service: p. 509-10 (harking back to Mores own dilemma) Service or servitude? Honor to the friends and relatives? Welfare to the public?: power struggle within the court 2. The Customs and Institutions of Utopia: (Based generally on practical considerations and pure rationality; control-oriented society with state intervention; implied comparison with England, cf. p. 513) (1) Economic system: collective farms, scientifically organized farming (2) Communism: dispensing with money and despising precious metals A virtual impossibility: as the exchange values/functions of precious metals still in Utopians minds (3) Marriage: negative principle of reasoning, aiming to reduce promiscuity (4) Religion: contradictions in Christian humanism a. Idea of religious freedom combined with wishful thinking about the superiority of Christianity: the project of missionary work

(1) (2) (3)

b. Belief based on reason, discussions, against fanaticism: in fear of religious wars c. Definite belief in soul; belief in rewards or retribution in afterlife, against morning over deaths: 3. The dialectics between frame account and central account: (1) Fictional More as different from real-life More: ambiguity about his true attitude to the institutions in Utopia (2) The imaginary country as a pure antithesis to the real world: not clear whether the latter is worse off than the former, as the contrast is too drastic to be fully appreciated about its advantages or disadvantages. (3) Utopia serves more as an ideal to expose the corruptions of the present society, not to be realized literally (4) Changes or the Old Ways: Is it ever so easy to change institutions drastically as to achieve an ideal social system right away?

Edmund Spenser I. Biography: 1. Educated in a Protestant background: Cambridge 2. With a set ambition to become a great poet: an assiduous experimenter in meter forms, hence the title, poets poet 3. Long sojourn in Ireland: fervent support of English colonial regime II. The Shepheardes Calender: In the tradition of pastoral poetry: Deliberately archaic, thus rustic, language: in imitation of Chaucers linguistic style Twelve eclogues titled with the months of the year III. The Faerie Queen: 1. Extremely complex, multi-layered moral allegory: not static embodiment of certain attributes, but gradual development to the attributes Also historical allegory: also volatile in reference A national epic: separate, individual knightly deeds contributing to the glory of the nation A chivalric romance: meandering plot development with elements of romance genre 5. Spenserian stanza: 9 lines, first 8 lines in iambic pentameter and the last line in iambic hexameter, with a rhyming scheme, ababbcbcc IV. Discussion of the Text: 1. Moral allegory: the serpent Error (p. 633), the palace of pride (p. 663), the queen of pride, Lucifera (p. 665), Duessa (p. 680), fall of princes (p. 685), despair (p. 730), House of Holiness (Canto X) 2. Religious allegory (mostly anti-Catholic allusions): the woman in scarlet (p. 647, p. 701); the figure of blind Catholic faith (p. 656; Corceca & Abessa); the lion as protector of faith (cf. 654); the dragon of the Revelation (p. 702); p. 667 (Idleness as a Catholic monk) 3. Epic convention: p. 681 (Descent to Hell), p. 708 (retelling the past), p. 628, 751 (invocation of Muses), p. 633, 659 (epic simile) 4. Redcross Knight: his recklessness (p. 632); credulity (p. 647); verbal infelicity (p. 672); p. 710 (a concluding judgment of his character), p. 729 (his recklessness in confronting Despair), p. 748 (against bloody warfare), p. 748 (finally elevated as St. George) 5. Distrust in imagery: p. 642 ~ 44 (Archimagos witchery); p. 650 (Duessa vs. Fraelissa; also a moral allegory), p. 720 ~21 (Duessa unrobed), p. 691(satire against idolatry), p. 703 (lament on the function of seeing) 6. Chivalry convention invoked but distrusted (but, the codes of chivalry still structures the plot): p. 648, 649 (Fradubios ill-fated chivalric adventure), 664 (Malvenu), p. 677

1. 2. 3.

2. 3. 4.

7.

(Duessas encouragement to Sansjoy), p. 701, p. 748 Biblical Allusions: p. 663, p. 719

Philip Sidney I. Biography:

1. The most beloved courtier of the Elizabethan court: legends born after his death 2. Ardent Protestantism: an eyewitness of the Massacre of St. Bartholomews Day, thus strengthening his Protestant faith 3. An active patron of letters: Edmund Spenser as the primary beneficiary 4. An un-favored courtier: distrusted by the Queen, banished for his strong opposition to the Queens intended betroth to the Duke of Anjou 5. Appointed by the Queen as the governor of a territory in the Netherlands, engaging in wars with Spain and killed.

II.

Literary Achievement:
1. Arcadia and New Arcadia: an epic romance in prose 2. The Defense of Poesy: to defend imaginative literature and exalt the role of the poet, the freedom of the imagination, and the moral value of the fiction. 3. Astrophil and Stella: one of the first English sonnet cycles

III.

Discussion of Sonnet:
1. An Italian poetic form: developed in Italy in the 13th century, perfected by Petrarch, introduced into Renaissance England 2. Two major forms: Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet: octave + sestetnarrative + comment Shakespearean (English) sonnet: 3 quatrains + coupletepigrammatic end Varied rhyme schemes: 3. Poetic styles: Primarily love lyrics in its early development: the male poet enamored with his indifferent lady lover, tortured in his passion Religious themes later introduced by John Donne and John Milton Concentrated expression of idea or passion Use of conceitsuncommon figures of speechin its early development

IV.

Discussion of The Defense of Poesy:

1. 2. 3. 4. The Names for the Poet: prophet (in Latin); maker (in Greek) Poet: the maker of the golden second nature (p. 936-37) Definition of Art: mimesis, with the end to teach and delight Three kinds of poets: divine ones; philosophical ones; the right ones (the poets proper); Poetry vs. Verse: spirit vs. apparel 5. Poetry as surpassing history and moral philosophy: poetic justice; skills of moving people to goodness

6. Discussion of several kinds of poetry: based on didacticism; arranged according to Renaissance literary hierarchy.

Elizabethan Theatre
I.

Violation of generic purity and dramatic unities:

1. Mingling of the high and low elements: 2. Ignoring the principles of unities of plot, time, space:

II. The emergence of freestanding, permanent public theatre & a rich vital theatrical tradition:
1. The tradition of mystery plays and morality plays: which Protestants resented 2. The tradition of organized wandering companies of players, under noble patronage 3. The interludes: staged dialogues on religious, moral, political themes, reflecting the humanistic training of argumentation (approaching an issue from multiple perspectives) 4. Earlier forms of drama taking after sermons: problematic relationship with the Church 5. Source of Classical influence in tragedy: Senecas style as a model for Renaissance tragedy: violent plots, resounding rhetorical speeches, ghosts thirsting for blood (cf. revenge tragedy like Thomas Kyds Spanish Tragedy and Shakespeares Hamlet) (cf. villain tragedy like Shakespeares Richard III and Macbeth; violating Aristotles precept against choosing a wicked person as the hero) 6. The history play: often returning back to the theme of killing a king, an ultimate challenge to royal authority) 7. Source of Classical influence for comedy: Elements like plots based on intrigue, division into acts and scenes, type characters as rascally servant and the cowardly braggart soldier 8. Other types of comedy: romantic comedy (noble characters for whom love conquers all); domestic comedy; City comedy (bourgeois characters in a London setting in a satirical tone); humor comedy (type characters created according the medical theory of humor) 9. music and dance as commonly incorporated into play acting 10. Elaborate costumes for actors but almost no props on stage The Culture of Spectacular Performance in the Elizabethan Age: The Layout of the Renaissance Theatres and Their Activities: 1. Financially risky ventures: 2. Playhouses located outside the London City: 3. General Hostilities to the Theatre: congested traffic, threat to public health, haunts of criminals like pickpockets or prostitutes, temptation to idleness, theatrical transvestism 4. Repertory Companies: usu. Including an actor-player

III. IV.

Christopher Marlowe
I. Biography: 1. Son of a shoemaker, graduate of Cambridge: 2. Probably a spy or agent provocateur serving the Queen: 3. Short life ended in a tavern brawl, probably an assassination politically provoked Theatrical Career: 1. Tragedies with overreachers as their principal characters: demonstrating boundless energy and ambitionthe impulse to strive ceaselessly for absolute power Tamburlaine for absolute power; Jew of Malta for infinite riches; Dr. Faustus for transcendental knowledge 2. High-sounding, rhetorically powerful blank verse as the feature of characters speeches: Marlowe probably as the first dramatist to attempt it in British Theatre Discussion of the Play: 1. Powerful opening soliloquy: revealing Faustus yearning for Godhead, not contented with being only a human 2. Allegorical elements: Conflicts between Good Angel and Bad Angel as concrete representations of inner, psychological struggle; also cf. the Old Man (p. 1019) 3. Faustus foolhardiness about his loss of soul: p. 998, 999, 1004, 1005 One reason why Faustus seems self-contradictory in his selective disbelief in the existence of hell and damnation is that he would hold on to comforting ideas but ignoring painful ones. 4. Horrifying depiction of black-magic rituals: p. 1002 5. Faustus concern and despair about the eternal welfare of his soul: p. 1001, 1019, 1021 6. Faustus disappointment with Mephastophilis service: 1006 7. Scenes of horseplay and practical joking (suggesting the triviality of Faustus return for the sacrifice of his precious soul): p. 999, 1008 (basically a sub-plot), 1011, 1015

II.

III.

William Shakespeare
Biography: 1. Almost nothing known about his youth: except his early gunshot marriage: 2. Fruitful connection with the Lord Chamberlains Men, later the Kings Men: emerging out of hostile circumstances and moving into the Globe or the Blackfriars 3. Profusion and Confusion of the editions of his works: quartos and folio 4. Classification of his plays (roughly chronologically ordered): i. History plays: Richard III as an early achievement; two parts of Henry IV and Henry V as exploration of Englands transition from feudal system to nation state) Romantic comedies: Twelfth Night as one of his greatest comedies Tragedies: indicative of an existential and metaphysical darkening iv. Problem plays: comedies more biting in tone, uneasy with its conventions, questioning the values of the characters and resolution of the plots v. Romances: concerned with patterns of loss and recovery, suffering and redemption, despair and renewal 5. Death in contemporary and subsequent honor: He was not of an age, but for all time. Discussion of His Works: (I) Sonnet sequence: 1. Circulated in manuscripts and winning Shakespeare great reputation: 2. Differences from sonnet conventions: addressed to a young man and later to a sensuous dark lady, intimating even love triangle in some sonnets 3. Shakespearean rhyme scheme and argumentative style: three quatrains with a closing couplet; often intense in emotion and dense in association 4. The theme of time, death, and eternity harped on; 5. The theme of female beauty, sexual lust, betrayal (II) King Lear: 1. An old, widely known story, believed to be historical: with a mythical quality of folktale and accidentally topical feature; 2. Departure from the source in its ending with Cordelia and Lears deaths: unacceptable in the 18th century and tampered for a different ending 3. A Double Plot: reinforcing the motif of the main plot and indicating that politics in aristocratic family could be a source of evil 4. Strange Public Love Test: originated in Lears psychological needs and preservation of dignity, with Cordelias humiliating truth speaking(Act I, scene 1) 5. Language: abuse (p. 1111), disuse (p. 1111~12), twisted (p. 1118~19, 1133)

ii. iii.

6. Lears Anger/Madness: p. 1124 (angry over loss of name), 1128 (curse on Gonerils sterility), 1131 (for Fools sarcasm over his foolishness), 1143 (for facing the reality of being old), 1146, 1153 7. Kents Anger: p. 1113, 1135 (lacking in communication skill) 8. The Politics of retirement: p. 1118 (Edmunds forged letter), 1125 (Fools mocking), 1141 (Fools sarcastic comment on filial piety) 9. The Presence of Bodies: sexual bodies (as the denied basis of both legitimate lineage and domestic conflict): p. 1110 (sexual pleasure over paternal duty), 1117 (an illegitimate sons self-assertion through his sexual origin), 1173 (Lears disgusting exposure of a rational beings sexual irrationality) 10. Human/Animal Dialectic & Abundant Animal Imagery: p. 1139 (Edgars reduction to the status of beast), 1146 (Lears comment on human proximity to beastthrough poverty), 1154 (Lears understanding of human proximity to beastthrough Edgars disguise), 1191 (humans fundamental identity with beast); (mostly curses for lack of humanity) p. 1123, 1166 (Albanys disgust with Goneril) 11. Justice Mocked: III, xi; III, xii; p. 1174 (as a contrast between form and substance) 12. Dynastic politics versus Filial duty: p. 1129 (the threatening number of knights kept by Lear and condition of divided authority), 1156 (Edmunds sacrifice of filial piety for national loyalty), 1181 (The concern of national security over personal grievances) 13. Childhood/Old Age dialectic = Foolery/Wisdom: p. 1126 (father/daughter reversal), 1127, 1131 (being old before being wise), 1178, 1179 (Lears own recognition of father /daughter reversalhis redemption) 14. The Theme of Nothing: p. 1111, 1118, 1125, 1174 15. The apocalyptic dream of last judgment and redemption: p. 1119 16. Negative world vision: p. 1163 (on human relationship to gods); 1175 (on human birth and death related to crying) 17. One Way Outsympathy & stoicism: p. 1152 (Lears rare moments of sympathy), 1159, 1163 (a serious blow to Edgars stoicism), 1183 18. Another Way OutGods judgment: p. 1163, p. 1164, p. 1187 19. Still Another Way OutSelf-understanding and Escape: p. 1179, 1183

The Early Seventeenth Century

(Stuart Kings; Jacobean or Caroline Age) I. Transition in political power: 1. The tensions between the monarch and his people; between England and Scotland: 2. The unpopular Stuart kings: endorsing royal absolutism and in constant conflict with the Parliament 3. The indecorous and disorderly court: constantly in financial crisis but still a center of literary patronage Mounting religious tensions: 1. Disruption of religious toleration: the Gunpowder Plot as a turning point, intensifying the conflict between the Catholics and Protestants but strengthening James Is authorities 2. Death of Prince Henry (shattering the hope of international Protestant movement) and Marriage Negotiations for Prince Charleswith princesses of Catholic countries over the peoples disaffection: 3. The Ascent of Charles I and the Turning to Catholicism: fierce resistance from the parliament, the peerage, Puritans, wealthy bourgeoisie 4. Two Bishops War breaking out over Archbishop Lauds imposition of Episcopal hierarchy upon Presbyterian Scotland Literary Activities of the Time: 1. Old regime of ideas vs. the new one: The Ptolemaic universe, with a sense of analogical order, in conflict with the Copernican one, with an emphasis on science and experiment 2. Royal and local courts as the center of literary activities: masques, esp. under Charles I, developing the cult of platonic love (Ben Jonson as the representative composer) 3. The Church: sponsoring the composition of sermons (highly rhetorical and ornate) 4. The City and the Theatre: Drama as the only channel (besides noble patronage) through which writers could win their livings (rise of City Comedies) 5. Change in Poetic Style (The Three Main Figures): colloquial and witty plain style for John Donne (gentleman amateur and coterie-oriented; learned, speech-like, unmelodic, dramatic, with metaphoric conceits), Ben Jonson (professional author and public/social, with classical values of simplicity, restraint, economy, decorum, good workmanship; decorum as the guiding principle), and George Herbert (focusing on religious sensibility with artistic subtlety) 6. Familiar essay: Francis Bacon (public and worldly voice) 7. The Rise of female writers in public sphere: 8. Literary and artistic life as a center of political/religious contention: the case of William

II.

III.

V.

Prynne IV. English Revolution: 1. The Consequences: The ascent of capitalism and bourgeois liberalism 2. Three fundamental questions the Revolution evolved around: 1) mode of church government; 2) relationship between state and religion; 3) the source of political power 3. The convening of the Long Parliament and the outburst of debates: (the pamphlet war, causing the emergence of public forum and prototypical newspaper) 4. Rise of Puritan power: ideas of Godly Preachers, Holy Communities, Covenant, and New Israel 5. Irish Revolt and its consequences: breaking down of negotiation over the issues of army control and episcopacy; Calvinist theory of contract used as excuse against the King 6. The First Civil War and the Toleration Controversy: proliferation of small sects 7. The purge of the Parliament, the Execution of Charles I and the threatened Republic founded by the Rump Parliament: 8. The ascent of Oliver Cromwell and the chaos after his death, ended with the restoration of Charles II: Literature and Culture during the Revolution: 1. The Damage to Theatrical Literature: shutting down of theatres, though with certain extent of dramatic activity 2. Royalist (Cavalier) Poetry: upholding royalist culture and the courtly ideal of good life; Love lyrics (on carpe diem and times trans-shifting themes) with a Cavalier persona (charming and bawdy in argument); urbanity, smoothness in style, with attention to classical models; fashion for melodic rhymed stanzas and iambic pentameter couplet 3. Essays: in philosophy, Thomas Hobbes Leviathan (the idea of absolute and indivisible sovereignty based on social contract; in scholarly biography, Izaak Waltons Life of Donne; Thomas Brownes Religio Medici 4. Political polemics in the form of tract: Eikon Basilike (purportedly by Charles I; representing the King as a martyr); The Commonwealth of Oceana (picturing a republic founded on scientific principles) 5. Female Autobiographies, polemical tracts, prophecy: 6. Two Literary Giants from the revolutionary side: Andrew Marvell and John Milton 7. Conclusion: a literature combining intellectual strength, emotional passion, and linguistic artfulness

John Donne
I. Biography: 1. An outsider all his life: born in a Catholic household, but converted to the English Church at young ages (with satires on the corruption of British social life and soul-searching quest for true religion; with witty representations of himself as a master in the bedroom or as an adventurer in love elegies) 2. Hope of advancement dashed with his secret marriage with one niece of Sir Thomas Egerton; financial straits and early death of his wife 3. An ecclesiastical career, arranged by James I, finally accepted by him: 4. A great preacher of his time for his highly intellectual sermons: richly metaphorical style erudite, dramatic, witty 5. A myth of transformation: from the Rake Jack Donne to the Reverend John Donne (propounded by his biographer Izaak Walton 6. A no less misleading term: the Metaphysical Poets Prosody: 1. Cerebral: drawing on learned and obscure discourses 2. Dramatic: a feeling of immediacy, mirroring the effect of speech uttered at the climatic moment of emotion (cf. The Flea) 3. Conceit: drawing on very distant analogies, especially interchanging between religious and sexual imagery (cf. The Flea, Holy Sonnets no. 14) 4. A revolution in the tradition of love lyrics, esp. sonnet: Underlying Concepts: 1. Microcosm versus Macrocosm: Two ideas in analogical, oppositional relationship (private world of the lovers thus prized over the wider, public world 2. Religious Holiness versus Sensual Enjoyment: Again, in analogical as well as oppositional relationship to explore their potential connections 3. Reversal of Expected Hierarchy: for example, microcosm overwhelming macrocosm

II.

III.

Ben Jonson
I. Biography 1. The first literary writers to published his collection of works: against the literary norm 2. A tough and turbulent early years: joining a war, imprisoned for murder, converting to Catholicism (though returning to the Church of England later) 3. Establishing himself in the court and the theatre: composing masques and popular plays (comedy of humors: Every Man in His Humor) 4. Embroidered in the War of Theatres: 5. A capacity for friendship: the so-called sons of Ben, inaugurating the country-house poem genre 6. Inaugurating the small genre of country-house poem: To Penhurst 7. Adherence to classical models and values: moderation, civility, graciousness Literary Style: 1. In comedy: the detached, satiric perspective of an outsider 2. In poems: looking back to the classical precedents, praising moderation and civility 3. In plays: seethed with an almost uncontrollable imaginative energy and lust for abundance. Masque: 1. A courtly form of praise, entertainment, and political idealization, symbolization the perfection of the Stuart court 2. Usually performed only once on the Twelfth Night, ended with a feast and all-night dancinga very chaotic night, and highly expensive in preparation 3. A Multi-media event: dancing as its essence, combined with song, speech, ornamented costumes and masks 4. Villains played by professional actors while dancers were members of the court Discussion of Volpone: 1. A city comedy: a dark satire on human greed, reflecting the rise of a money economy 2. Abundant animal imagery: characters animal names under the disguise of a foreign language 3. Drawing heavily on classical precedents: less original than hilarious 4. Hilarious repartees and misunderstandings: p. 1312, 1314 5. Fooling with oneself out of greed: p. 1317, 1346, 1372 6. Mosca as the key figure: p. 1338, 1355 7. The futility and fatuity of justice system: p. 1369, 1370

II.

III.

IV.

8. A universe almost reversed in moral values: p. 1382, 1390 Plot Summary of Volpone The setting is Venice. Act One begins, as Volpone (the fox) and his close servant Mosca (the fly) celebrate Volpones morning worship of his gold: After this blasphemous adoration, Mosca flatters Volpone, stressing that his fortune was not made by oppressing the poor. Then in a soliloquy, Volpone exposes his method: Volpone is a shameless villain, quite open about his deceptions, inviting the audience (through Mosca) to admire his skills at manipulating human greed. The play then has an interlude in which Volpones creaturesa dwarf, a eunuch and a foolentertain him in grotesque imitation of court entertainments. The action begins with the arrival, one by one, of Volpones clients, whom he despises. To receive them he pretends to be terribly sick. The first is Signor Voltore (the vulture) who is a lawyer. Mosca assures him that he is Volpones only heir. Then comes Corbaccio (the raven), who is old and deaf and impatient. He offers some medicine that Mosca recognizes as a poison and then produces a bag of gold. Mosca says he will use it to excite Volpone to make a will in Corbaccios favour and then suggests that Corbaccio should make a will naming Volpone his sole heir, in place of his son, as proof of his love. When the next client comes, Corvino the merchant (the crow), Volpone seems to be at deaths door, though he still has the strength to grasp a pearl and diamond Corvino has brought. Mosca invites Corvino to shout insults at him, saying that he is quite unconscious, and then suggests that they should suffocate Volpone with a pillow. This frightens Corvino, though he does not condemn Mosca for the idea. Finally, after mentioning the English visitor Lady Would-be, Mosca tells Volpone of the beauty of Corvino's young wife, who is jealously guarded. This makes Volpone long to see her. Act Two begins with the plays sub-plot; the English traveler Sir Politic Would-be holds a conversation with another English traveler, Peregrine, showing himself to be vain and foolish. Volpone arrives disguised as a mountebank and begins a long speech boasting of the qualities of his special medicine. Corvino's wife, Celia, throws down some money from a window and Volpone tosses back his potion. Corvino suddenly appears and chases him away. Volpone is love-struck and asks Mosca to get Celia for him. Meanwhile we see Corvino violently abusing his wife, mad with jealousy. Mosca arrives, saying that Volpone is a little better after using the mountebanks potion! The doctors, he says, have decided that he should have a young woman in bed with him, so that some of her energy may pass into him. Mosca says that one of the doctors offered his daughter, a virgin. Then he assures Corvino that

Volpone would not be able to harm her, and he urges Corvino to find someone first, since Volpone might change his will. Corvino decides to offer Celia! Act Three begins with Moscas praise of himself. He meets Corbaccios son, Bonario, who belongs to a different universe; he is honest and frank and despises Mosca. Mosca pretends to weep, and Bonario is at once touched with pity. Mosca then tells him that his father is making a will leaving everything to Volpone, disinheriting him! He offers to bring him to the place where it will be done. There follows an interview between Volpone and Lady Politic Would-be, who settles down and offers to make him some medicines. Volpone finds her a torment; Mosca arrives and urges her to leave quickly because he has just seen Sir Politic rowing off with a famous prostitute! As she leaves, he brings Bonario into the house, telling him to hide in a cupboard from where he will hear his father disinherit him. Then things become complicated, Corvino arrives with Celia, earlier than Mosca had expected them. He sends Bonario out into the corridor, while Corvino tells Celia why she is here. As a noble and faithful wife, she is horrified and begs him not to ask her to do such a thing. He insists, with horrible threats if she does not obey. At last Mosca drags him out, leaving Celia alone with Volpone who leaps from the bed, and begins to woo her, even singing an erotic carpe diem song. Volpone is almost mad with desire and begins to describe various kinds of erotic activities they could perform. She prays for pity and, when he seizes her, screams. Bonario rushes in to save her and carries her off, wounding Mosca on the way. Volpone and Mosca are horrified, but Corbaccio's arrival gives Mosca an idea. He tells Corbaccio that Bonario has learned of his plan with the will and is threatening to kill him; Voltore has also come, unseen, and overhears Mosca flattering Corbaccio. He challenges him, and Mosca at once explains that he had planned that Bonario should kill his father, whose property would come to Volpone and so to Voltore. Voltore believes him; Mosca then says that Bonario has run off with Celia, intending to say that Volpone had tried to rape her so as to discredit him. Voltore decides to bring this matter to the judges, in order to stop Bonario. Act Four begins with the continuation of the Sir Politic sub-plot; Lady Would-be thinks that Peregrine is the famous prostitute disguised and begins to scold him. Mosca comes and tells her that she is wrong, that the woman in question has been brought to the judges. The court scene begins. As the judges enter, they are on the side of the young people and order Volpone to be brought in, although Mosca and the others assert he is too weak to move. Voltore speaks, claiming that Celia and Bonario had long been lovers, that they had been caught, but forgiven by Corvino; that Corbaccio had decided to disown his son for his vice, and that Bonario had come to Volpone's house intending to kill his father. Unable to do so, he says, he

attacked Volpone and Mosca, and resolved with Celia to accuse Volpone of rape. Corbaccio publicly rejects Bonario as his son; Corvino swears that his wife has cheated him with Bonario. Mosca supports their story with his wound. In addition, he claims to have seen Celia in the company of Sir Politic, and Lady Politic bursts in, claiming that she has seen them too! The entry of Volpone, carried in apparently dying, seemingly quite unconscious and paralyzed, is decisive for the judges. The two young people are arrested and Mosca sends away the hopeful clients, each of them convinced that Volpones fortune is theirs. Act Five finds Volpone recovering from the strain. He orders his creatures to announce his death in the streets; then he makes a will in which Mosca is declared his heir and goes to hide behind a curtain, intending to watch the effect on each one. Voltore arrives first, as Mosca is busy making a list of goods; Corbaccio follows, then Corvino, and Lady Politic. Each is surprised to see the others. Volpone comments on their conduct in asides from behind the curtain. Mosca continues to write, then hands them the will, that they read together, although Corbaccio only finds Mosca's name a while later than the others. Mosca sends Lady Politic away first, then Corvino, Corbaccio, and finally Voltore, after giving to each a moralizing summary of their previous actions. Volpone is delighted, wishes he could see their disappointment out on the streets. Mosca suggests that he disguise himself as a common sergeant. There is an interlude where Peregrine in disguise tells Sir Politic that he has been denounced as a foreign agent. Sir Politic decides to disguise himself in a huge turtles shell; Peregrine brings in some merchants to admire the beast, and they torment Sir Politic. He decides to leave at once. Volpone dresses as a soldier, Mosca has put on a nobleman's dress; they plan to go walking in the streets, but Mosca tells us he plans to make Volpone share his fortune with him, and stays behind in control of the house. Volpone congratulates each of the clients on their good fortune, and enjoys their fury. They are all going to the court, where Bonario and Celia are to be sentenced. Voltore suddenly begins to repent, and is about to tell the truth, it seems. He has written certain aspects of the truth in his notes. The others claim that he has been bewitched; news of Volpone's death supports their story. As Voltore is about to speak, the disguised Volpone whispers to him that Mosca wants him to know that in fact Volpone is not yet dead and that he is still the heir. Voltore pretends to collapse and Volpone declares that an evil spirit has just left him. He rises, and declares that Volpone is alive. Mosca comes in, and insists Volpone is dead. Meanwhile, Volpone has realized Mosca's plan against him; he tries to negotiate in whispers, but Mosca rejects him and asks the judges to punish him. In despair, Volpone throws off his disguise, and everything becomes clear; Bonario and Celia are freed, Mosca is condemned to be a perpetual prisoner in our galleys, prison ships where no one survived long. All Volpone's fortune is confiscated to help the sick, and he is to stay in

prison until he is sick and lame indeed. Voltore is banished, Corbaccio sent to a monastery to die, Corvino will be rowed round Venice wearing asss ears then put in the pillory, and Celia is returned to her family with three times her dowry.

John Webster I. Websters contribution to Renaissance Drama: 1. Combination of sublime poetry and lurid gothic horror: 2. Creation of rebellious, independent, sexually active heroines: 3. Vision of a metaphysically dark, morally corrupt, death-ridden world Themes of the play The Duchess of Malfi: 1. Flattery and corruption of the court: p. 1433, 1436, 1474, 1478, 1495 2. The Duchesss self-assertion in sexual matters: p. 1443, 1444, 1460, 1462, 1465 3. Bosola as a cynicdespising the corruption of the world but not rising above it: p. 1434, 1439, 1440, 1446, 1448, 1470, 1487 ~ 88 (cynicism returned upon himself) 4. The Dukes incestuous resentment over the Duchess: p. 1441, 1457, 1458, 1480 5. The Dukes consequent madness: p. 1492 6. The idea of womens treachery: p. 1455, 1496 7. Omens of bad fortune: p. 1454, 1501 8. Invocation of death imagery: p. 1477, 1479, 1484, 1485 ~ 87, Plot summary: The recently widowed Duchess of Malfi is forbidden by her brothers, The Cardinal and Ferdinand, to remarry. Defying them, she seeks a clandestine alliance with her steward, Antonio. He accepts her advances and they are secretly married. Meanwhile, the Duchess brothers enlist Bosola, a spy, to monitor their sisters actions; he joins the Duchess household. After a number of years, the Duchess becomes pregnant and bears Antonios child. They disguise her pregnancy but Bosola discovers the ruse and informs Ferdinand, who is outraged. However, the brothers choose to refrain from revenge until they know who fathered the child. The Duchess and Antonio have two more children before Ferdinand visits his sister. Though treating her with affection, he still believes the Duchess children to be bastards. Ferdinand contrives a late visit to the Duchess bedchamber where he confronts her with her indiscretions. She reveals her marriage; Ferdinand declares it unacceptable. When he departs, he leaves a knife, encouraging her to commit suicide. Instead, the Duchess, to save her

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husband Antonio, publicly condemns and exiles him, claiming that he failed to pay certain bills, thereby removing him from harm. She plans on joining him shortly in exile. The Duchess mistakenly takes Bosola into her confidence and acting on his advice, she goes to the shrine of Loretto, before joining Antonio. At the same time, Bosola travels to Naples, informing Ferdinand of the Duchess plans and Antonios role. Ferdinand pursues them. After reuniting with Antonio and revealing their marriage to her household, the Duchess staff deserts her. Bosola, clearly in the service of Ferdinand, brings a letter subtly demanding Antonios death. After Bosola leaves carrying her refusal to her brother, the Duchess, believing herself safe, urges Antonio to take their eldest son and escape to Milan, which he does. Bosola returns to take the Duchess prisoner. Once captured, Ferdinands revenge on the Duchess is a series of horrible indignities as he attempts to drive her mad. Finally, on her brothers orders, Bosola strangles the Duchess and her two youngest children. In the last moments of her life, Bosola repents his involvement, revealing that Antonio still lives. However, Antonio is soon murdered attempting to reconcile with The Cardinal. Bosola, transformed by the Duchess nobility and denied a reward by the Duchess brothers for his crime, slays both brothers. In the final scene, a courtier brings in the eldest son of the Duchess of Malfi and Antonio. He is proclaimed ruler of the lands held by his mother and uncles. George Herbert I. 1. 2. 3. II. 1. Biography: Derived from a wealthy, aristocratic family: His advancement in the University: His earnestness with the pastoral duty The major theme of his religious lyrics: The tensions and anxieties in his relationships to God: as that of friend with friend, but essentially unequal 2. Inability for his poems to praise God: 3. A Biblical poetics: relying on the language, metaphors, symbolism of the Bible 4. Emblem poetry: emblem portraying the New Testament Temple in the human heart, Christian as a plant or flower in Gods garden Carpe Diem

II. III.

I. Definition: Seize the day, time is fleeting, make love now The theme of trans-shifting of time: Anxiety over Old Age and Death:

John Milton
I. Biography: 1. A highly self-conscious poet: resemblance with Edmund Spenser (beginning with the pastoral and ending with the epic) In his self positioning as a national bard: Speaking for the whole nation: In his pursuit of the ideal poetic career: highly knowledgeable and linguistically versatile Coming from the background of wealthy bourgeoisie: From the Anglican Church to Puritanism: with his growing sense of poetic mission Also from the orthodox to the heretical: showing contempt for the Anglican Church Involvement in the Revolution: ending up as Latin Secretary to Cromwells Protectorate Attack against prelacy and bishop; Defense of divorce; Defense of press freedom 4. Personal Tragedies before and during the Restoration: unhappily married, impoverished, blind, ill, in loss of dear family members, but also a time of profuse poetic production II. Discussion of His Poetic Works (except for Paradise Lost) 1. Lycidas: One of the three greatest pastoral elegies in English literature, in memorial of a Cambridge contemporary, dealing with uncertainty of human endeavors (anxiety over mortality and poetic creativeness) The Christian and Classical associations of the shepherd figure: Either as prophet and pastor OR as carefree figure of harmonious existence with Nature The Conventions of Pastoral Elegy: recollection of past friendship; questioning of a young, promising life cut short; procession of mourners; flower passage Areopagitica: In defense of freedom of speech or press freedom Public Sonnets: revolutionizing the Petrarchan tradition, on public and grand occasions Paradise Regained: Jesus temptation by Satan in the Wilderness for forty days 5. Samson Agonistes: A classical closet tragedy, with resemblances between the Biblical hero and the author himself (Both PR and SA concern achievement of self-understanding and clear sense of mission) 6. Christian Doctrine: Denial of the Trinity; Insistence on Free Will; Inspiration of the Spirit over the Scriptures and Ten Commandments

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III. Discussion of Paradise Lost: The explicit purpose: To justify the ways of God to men Plot Summary: Book I: Satan, vanquished leader of the Fallen Angels, regroups his followers in Hell and summons a council to renew a Vain War with Heaven Book II: After discussion by the devils, Satans plan is adopted to annoy God by annexing the newly created World. Satan preempts the mission of reconnaissance and travels through Chaos toward the World. (The episode of inversion of the Trinity: Devil, Sin, Death) Book III: From his Heavenly throne God perceives Satans invasion and informs His Son of Satans future success in seducing mankind. The Son of God offers himself as ransom for man. Book IV: Satan contemplates the beauty of the Created World. Eavesdropping, he learns of the Forbidden Fruit from the talk of Adam and Eve. At night in the form of a toad Satan whispers temptation to Eve. Book V: On the next morning Eve relates her dream to Adam and is comforted. After morning prayers they attend to their pleasant duties in the Garden. The archangel Raphael is sent by God to warn Adam and Eve: he explains how Lucifer, jealous at the promotion of Christ, incited angels to rebel against God. Book VI: Raphael recounts the three days war in Heaven: the surge of the Son of God against the rebels, the casting of the rebels out of Heaven to Hells torment, and the triumphant return of the Son to the throne of God. Book VII: Raphael describes the six days of creation, after Satans downfall. Book VIII: Adam inquires from Raphael about the structure of the universe, receives some answers, and is told to concern himself with his own affairs. Adam tells Raphael what he remembers about his own creation and also about his first meeting and nuptials with Eve. After admonishing Adam against passion, Raphael departs. Book IX: Encountering Eve alone, Satan persuades her to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Adam, knowing better, eats of the fruit in his loving resolve to share her fate. Book X: God sends His Son to pronounce judgment and in pity to clothe the pair. Sin and Death invade the Created World, and Satan returns to Hell nastily to boast of his triumph. After lamentations, Adam and Eve are reconciled and plead to God for mercy. Book XI: Sent to dispossess Adam and Eve from Paradise, the archangel Michael reveals to Adam the course of history up to the Flood. Book XII: Michael reveals to Adam the mission of the Son of God and attendant means whereby Adams descendants may regain Paradise within themselves. He then conducts the first parents out of Eden.

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Subversion of epic tradition: everything Greek, considered pagan, is slighted A married couple, not a martial hero, as the protagonist as of the epic b. The tragic eating of a piece of food, not military victory, as the climax of the epic c. Though mythical in scope, totally human in conditions: the issue of facing desires and temptations d. Invocation of Holy Spirit, not the pagan Muse Poetic Stylesin rushing, enjambled, blank-verse lines; an orchestra of various tones: 5. The transformation of Satans figures throughout the play: his selfish pride From a failed but indomitable leader, a manipulative politician, a cunning deceiver, to a squatting toad and insinuating snake Satan as an evil hero: p. 1820, 1823, 1833, 1876 (fear of submission), b. Devils martial glory: p. 1830 c. Satans sophistry: p. 1832 (cause of revolt), 1836, 1842 (claim of leadership), 1845 d. Satans envy: p. 1870, 1875 (burden of gratitude), 1882, 1964, e. Satans self-degeneration: p. 1891, 1965 6. The figure of Eve: p. 1887 (as obedient wife), p. 1883, 1888 (human curiosity), p. 1968 (her dangerous argument for exercise of free will) 7. The figure of Adam: p. 1969 (firm belief in God before Fall) The touchy issue of human free will: p. 1860 Against Calvinist idea of predestination: p. 1861~62 The dialectics between Good and Evilthrough knowledge: p. 1879, 1881, p. 1976 The allegory of Sin and Deathobscene parody of Trinity: p. 1852 Regaining Paradise Through Ones Heart:

A Model Question with a Model Answer IV. Short Essay Question: 1. In Chaucers Canterbury Tales, how do the two aristocratic pilgrims, the Knight and Squire, represent the original spirit of the medieval chivalry code and its degeneration respectively? Answer: The Knight represents the original spirit of the chivalry code because he has fought for the Christian faith against Muslims. According to the narrator, he has participated in the wars of the Crusade against Muslim invaders that threatened Christian countries. Though he is of noble origin, he is modest and polite to people around him, and he is dressed simply. However, his son, the Squire, fights not for the Christian faith but for his ladys grace. He tries to win in the wars so that he can win his lovers hearts. He is devoted to courtship, singing, playing music, writing poems to make his lady happy. He is dressed up fancifully like a dandy. In conclusion, the Knight is concerned about religious love, but the Squire cares about secular love. The Millers Tale I. The Millers intrusion into the arranged order of story telling: symbolic of the lower middle-class disruption of the former social structure: Knowledge vs. Ignorance: 1. Marital fidelity: advantages and disadvantages 2. Gods way of managing the world: obscurantism 3. Science: prying into Gods secrets 4. A dialectic without favoring either side: Sinister reference to the Clerk and the Reeve: 1. The clerk as a meek target of other story tellers satirical jokes 2. arguments among story tellers Aristocratic Courtly Love versus Lower-class straightforward sexuality: Amoral world of the tale: 1. All male characters suffering misfortunes of one kind or another, but Alison facing

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no form of punishment

A Definition of Allegory A form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, either in prose or verse, are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. Thus, it represents one thing in the guise of anotheran abstraction in that of a concrete image. The characters are usually personifications of abstract quality, the action and the setting representative of the relationships among these abstractions. Allegory attempts to evoke a dual interest, one in the events, characters, and setting presented, and the other in the ideas they are intended to convey or the significance they bear. The characters, events, and setting may be historical, fictitious, or fabulous; the test is that these materials be so employed that they represent meanings independent of the action in the surface story. Such meaning may be religious, moral, political, personal, or satirical. Thus Spensers The Faerie Queene is on one level a chivalric romance, but it embodies moral, religious, social, and political meanings. Bunyans Pilgrims Progress describes the efforts of a Christian to achieve a godly life by triumphing over inner obstacles to his faith, these obstacles being represented by outward objects such as the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair. It is important but by no means always easy to distinguish between allegory and symbolism, which attempts to suggest other levels of meaning without making a structure of ideas the controlling influence in the work, as it is in allegory.