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History of English Literature II Info: www.wwnorton.com/Nael + background from the introductions in Nael Dealing with the English canon: A canon = a selection of writings representative of a literary tradition, combining high art and human interest.0 Literariness = a quality which makes a text a literary text. reading: Nael p.32-49 ‘Beowulf’ Nael p.100-102 ‘The Wanderer’ Nael p.105-109 ‘Battle of Maldon’ - - - - - - - - - - - Short historic outline: In the 5th and 6th century, 3 Germanic tribes arrive in Britain, the Jutes, Saxons and Angles (547). The Jutes come to the rescue of the Britons. The Britons are a Celtic race that has arrived in Britain 2000-500BC. 55 BC, the Romans under Julius Caesar arrived, under Claudius they subdue England in 42 AD. The Britons withdrew to the Scottish mountains and attacked the Romans from there. The Roman leader Hadrian built a wall in 122 AD to protect his soldiers from Briton attacks. The cultural influence of the Romans was limited, in the Roman encampments only Latin was spoken. In 410 Rome was attacked by the Goths, in defence of their capital, all Romans returned to Rome. This left the Britons defenceless against the Scots. They called in the Jutes, who settled in Kent and drove away resisting Britons. Later, the Saxons and the Angles arrived. The Celtic dialects of the Britons were replaced by Germanic dialects!! This was a direct impact on culture and language! It is from these dialects that modern English descends. Poetry was orally composed, it was only written down as part of music or inscriptions. The people were mostly illiterate. There was a limited use of runes. Influence from Celtic and Roman missionaries: eg in 597AD, Roman missionaries taught some of the population how to read and write. The first Old English writings found date back to this period (7th century). Under the influence of these missionaries, the greater part of England was converted to Christianity. Through these conversions, there was an influence of other cultures from the mainland on the peoples of Britain. 1 In the 7th century there are 12 kingdoms in England, which merge from North to South into Northumbria(supremacy during the 7th century), Mercia (supremacy during the 8th century) and Wessex(supremacy during the 9th century). In the 9th century Egbert, the King of Wessex, is crowned king of England (in name only). At this time, there is no city life. There is no army, no organization and no protection against the Northmen. These Northmen are Vikings from Norway and Danes. They are raiders and perform multiple invasions of England in the 9th century. Alfred the Great(848-899) defends England and defeats the Northmen in 878, he drives the intruders back to the Danelaw in the North and East of England, thus returning peace and order to England. Alfred founds schools, rebuilds churches, brings over scholars from the mainland and encourages translations of texts. At the end of the 10th century under King Ethelred, England is in confusion again. There are renewed attacks by the Danes, and for some time, England is even part of the Danish empire. In 1016 King Canute (from Denmark) is King of England. In 1042 his sons die, England is independent again. The new king is Edward the Confessor, then his brother in law, the Earl of Wessex, Harold. His reign is contested by the despot William of Normandy, who becomes King William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings 1066. His sons succeed him, Rufus becomes William the 2nd, then Henry the 1st. Henry the 2nd is Henry Plantagenet (medieval period). Anglo-Saxon (Old English) Poetry (prose came later) A: Heroic Poetry (looks back to a heroic age) Beowulf The best-known Old English poem is Beowulf. It is an epic poem which describes the adventures of the hero Beowulf in epic verse. At the time it was written, Beowulf was already a hero. The first text was written around 1000 AD and had 3182 verse lines. As a poem, it was an oral composition, which used to be recited to harp music. The oral compositions date back to the 7th or 8th century, and the text is set in the 5th or 6th century. The text is set in Baltic, the home of the Saxons, Danes, Swedes and Geats, it focuses on a common heroic past. It is a combination of historic facts, secular legends, Christian legends and folklore. 2 Christianity was being introduced into a Pagan society (through missionaries), this atmosphere can also be found in Beowulf. A good example is Grendel, who is introduced as a relation to Cain, the first murderer. At the same time, Grendel stems from the land of the monsters, a reference to the Pagan past and mythology. The fight with Grendel symbolises the fight of good against evil, of humanity against its enemies. It is not a too bloody fight, the emphasis is not on this fight. The metaphorical and allegorical dimension is important here. In the society of those days, there is a bond of protection and friendship which is very important. This bond disappears for Hrothger, he loses society, and security is replaced by fear and death. Beowulf restores order and the people (through the renewed bond) are delivered. The beginning describes the death and burial of the founder of Denmark, the end describes the death of Beowulf. Grendel causes havoc to the Danes for 12 years!! This means, that the Danes resist him for 12 years, which puts them in a good light and keeps up their image. The poem is centered around 3 encounters with the supernatural world. As an introduction there is a lot of information about Beowulf, the Danes and their society. A good example for this is the meadhall. It is the practical and emotional meeting centre, it is where their feasts are held (mead=drink). Through the introduction of Unferth, it is shown that society is indeed very disrupted. Unferth cannot protect his lord, he is not keen or courageous. Therefore an outsider is needed to restore peace and calm. reading: Nael p.110-112 ‘Obituary for William the Conqueror’ There are similarities to be found in the Edda’s and Beowulf. Did these texts influence each other? The Icelandic saga’s were usually more detailed, with more blood and battles. Christianity assimilated a lot of the Pagan myths. Often, pagan stories were retold through times of growing Christian influence. However, Christianity always sought to overthrow Paganism! The Dream of the Rood This the oldest dream vision poem. It deals with the passion (crucifixion) of Christ through Germanic heroic context and code. It includes an old AngloSaxon cultural tradition, the riddle. 3 In the text, an inanimate object (Christ’s cross), speaks. The text consists of 156 lines, it is preserved in the Vercelli (place in Northern Italy) documents. The other version of the text consists of 50 lines of runes, carved in the Ruthwell cross (=>Ruthwell text). There is a definite relation between the two texts. It can be divided into two parts, up to line 77 and beyond. The cross deals with angels and blood, triumph and death or torture. The text goes back to the beginning, a tree is felled and realizes that it will be the death-tree of Christ. In this, it must obey god’s will, its duty. There is a celebration of death, as it brings forgiveness to mankind. The tree tells man to tell others of that vision, through this it brings understanding and faith. This is, at the same time, the function of the poem. The poem can be seen as a biblical story seen through everyman’s eyes and dreams. Christ, the Lord!, dies. This means that the crucial lord-vasall relation is destroyed. However, the protection remains ! B: Battle poetry This poetry used to be recited before going into battle. “Walldere” and “Finnsburgh”(a detailed battle account!) recall the time before the Angles came to Britain in the 5th century, they are early battle poems. “Brunanburgh”, which was translated by Alfred Lord Tennyson, and “The Battle of Maldon” survive from the 10th century. The Battle of Maldon The text was written shortly after the battle in 991. It shows the glory of going on in a hopeless situation, how glorious it is to die in the service of your lord or Christianity (“Lord grant my spirit grace” on p.107). The battle in itself was not very important. Nael p.105-109 ‘The Battle of Maldon’ C: Other types of poetry: the elegy(or lament) The Wanderer “The Wanderer”, like “The Seafarer”, is a heroic elegy. At first, the text had no title, it was added later by the publisher. It is the first dramatic monologue. The speaker in the poem is nameless. He is a seafarer, an earthwalker in exile. He has no lord and no companions or friends. He is in great distress and suffering, as he is all alone, this is the motive for the poem. He addresses the reader, saying that it is better not to talk about feelings, but he himself has to. An exile is to be distrusted by society. As such, he represents a symbol of feat for the humans of that age: the wanderer symbolizes being without a meadhall, a lord, companions and safety. Also: in Celtic and in Latin literature. 4 There is a marked contrast between the former, fortunate situation and the present situation of misery. Although the text is narrated in the first person, it is to be representative of all of us: as the narrator remains nameless, it is easy for the reader to identify with him. The first part is recited “I..”, “I..”; then the poem is more about man in general. There are a lot of questions: Where? Where? What.. (ubi sunt motif = the “where are they” motif), everything is gone! This represents the transitory nature of life. In the end, the remedy comes from the favour and comfort of the Father in heaven. There, there is stability, this is a Christian element of the text. D: Religious poetry Of course the “Dream of the Rood” also falls in this category. Caedmon’s Hymn to God (9 lines) is the base of religious verse in Old English. This text is also the only one certain to have been produced by Caedmon. Some other poems might as well have come from him, but we cannot be sure. The historian Bede gives information about Caedmon. Caedmon went from scripture to verse, his gift came through heavenly grace and inspiration. Nael p.24 from ‘An Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ Cynewulf is a name interwoven in the text of the same name. He was a Mercian king of the 8th or 9th century, or maybe from Northumbria. It is another good example of heavenly-based poetry based on latin sources. All in all, Anglo-Saxon poetry is serious poetry. There is Christian dogma being presented. There is no humor, as there used to be in the Anglo-Saxon riddles, and there is no love poetry either, except for one puzzling reference of two lines in a poem called “Wulf and Eadwacer”. It is mostly anonymous poetry, the producers are mostly unknown. It is also overall undateable poetry, manuscripts are dated, but not texts. Often it is also unplaceable poetry, the source of a certain mix of dialects is very difficult to make out. Historically, little care was taken to preserve Old English poetry, only 4 manuscripts remain. More care was taken to preserve latin writings. Anglo-Saxon prose Most prose of this period was functional, recording what people needed to know. Latin prose A good example of how serious Latin texts were taken is to be found in the writer 5 Bede (c.673-735) He was a very productive writer, at the back of the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, there is a list of 90 of his own documents. Bede is mostly remembered as a historian because of this work. It was completed in 731 and gives an account of Christianity in England from the beginning until his own day. Also, modern time keeping (=AD) was established by Bede. From age 7 to 59, his life was fully devoted to the church. Bede described scholarship as being inferior to the study of the scriptures. Bede was almost certainly the most learned man of his age. In the Historia, there are notes of acknowledgement to his sources. In fact, it comes down to a bibliography inserted into the text. Earlier in the 7th century, the laws of the land were recorded in written form. However, this does not count as prose. This only came later (although there was already Anglo-Saxon poetry!). Bede represents Anglo-Saxon prose in the Latin language. Old-English prose In the establishment of Old English as a literary language, King Alfred (king in 871) is very important. He defended his country against the Danes (Danelaw). Alfred had Latin documents translated into Old English, such as Bede’s Historia and Pope Gregory’s Pastoral Care. He himself assisted in the translations, and was an active stimulus for others to do the same. Alfred also sponsored the compilation of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the only vernacular history, apart from Irish annals, from 54BC up to the Norman Conquest. Aelfric (c955-c1010) He also wrote Old English prose, he did so during the time of the cultural renaissance of the 11th century. He was trained at Winchester and became a teacher and a monk in Dorset in 978, then until his death he was an abbot in Oxfordshire. He was concerned with the Christian truth. He wanted to give good instruction through functional prose. He produced a grammar and glossary’s. He also wrote 2 series of catholic ‘Homilies’ in an attempt to practically explain Christian scripture for domestic use, and ‘The Lives of the Saints’ (his work = religious texts). Wulfstan (d1023) He was the bishop of London and then Worcester, and then the archbishop of York. He was an advisor to the kings Ethelred and Canute. He was an acquaintance to Aelfric and helped draw up laws.His works ‘Intutes of Polity’ and ‘Sermo lupi ad anglos’ (=sermon of the wulf to the Anglo-Saxons) are full of guidance. 6 The ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ was begun during the reign of king Alfred and continued into the Norman time. It therefore serves to show the influence of the Northmen from Normandy (christianised!), and how their values differ from those of the English. The Northmen were a well-organized people, they created the ‘Domesday Book’, which is the first piece of Norman writing. It lists the English possessions of William of Normandy. He was the owner of the land and everything on and in it. He sometimes granted land to his lords, this can be seen as the beginning of the feudal system. Anglo-Normans subdued the Anglo-Saxons, so that culture gradually disappeared. It is the end of Old English literature, and the beginning of the influence of Old French literature. The Anglo-Norman Period Obituary for William the Conqueror This is a text in 3 parts, it is used as a good and as a bad example. The right way will lead to heaven. William is also described as cruel and hungry for power. Is the text part of a song? Criticism reigns in the text through the use of satire eg. holds dear above humans. Nael p.110-112 ‘Obituary for William the Conqueror’ During the Anglo-Norman period, French as a literary language crossed the Channel into England. There was also literature in Latin, but a lot less in English. French and Latin were the languages used in schools, churches and for the law. The most flourishing literary time of the Anglo-Norman period lasted from 1100 until 1225. Henry II Plantagenet(1133-1189) was the son of Matilda and Jeffrey Plantagenet, he later married Eleanore of Aquitaine, the divorced wife of king Louis VII of France. He was a very learned man, and stimulated the production of literature (like king Alfred in the Anglo-Saxon time). He spoke Latin, French and other languages. Still, no new Old English verse is produced, only some prose (Ang-Saxon Chronicle / sermons). New literary forms emerge in French and Latin. Romance = story in the French vernacular, a genre term for adventurous tales of honourable deeds. It is not the same as Romanticism (late 18th century)! Chanson de Roland It stems probably from the 11th century, it is an early romance. It is similar to an epic, it wants to be a chanson de geste(song of deeds). There is a 12 th century translation, the Roelandslied. 7 Roland was one of the peers(=warriors) of Charlemagne, killed in battle in 778. The chanson tells the tale of his death. The text is more elaborate than Beowulf. 3 Archangels accompany Roland to heaven. When they tell his fiancé (la belle Aude) of his death, she dies of shock. Emotions are important in romance. Later, this importance would increase even further. In the 12 th and 13th century, love becomes courtly love. The story of Britain, namely the story of the Briton king Arthur, is perfect for romance. Arthur was really a Briton king, who lived at the end of the 5 th century, and who was a warrior chief of the celts. The many, many stories in prose and verse about him are largely the product of legends and literature. Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric of Welsh origin who lived in the middle of the 12th century. He traced Arthur back to Brutus, the greatgrandson of Aeneas. Geoffrey wrote the History of the Kings of Britain in Latin prose (1136-8). It was translated into French verse by Wace, a Norman from Jersey. Wace uses 8-syllable couplets, dedicates the text to Eleanor of Aquitaine, and calls it Roman de Brut. He adds details, eg the concept of the round table. The characters gain a polite manner, rhetoric speech and general good behaviour. Arthur and his court become the ideal mirror for other European courts. For the first time, the idea of courtliness is introduced, but Arthur and his men are still warriors. In the romances of the 12th and 13th century, love becomes more important. The key element of the story is that the knight woes his beloved lady. Writers wrote for mixed audiences, men and women. Romances reflect the rise and fall of the aristocratic ideal of chivalry as a system of conduct expected of knights and noblemen. These were expected to serve Christ and their king, to protect the weak and to avoid villainy. The point of focus moves away from Arthur to his knights. A good example for this is Chrétien de Troyes, who writes stories about Sir Perceval and Sir Launcelot. During the 13th century, a group of anonymous writers produce the ‘Vulgate Cycle’, 5 very long prose romances that are critical of Arthur’s court. - the History of the Holy Grail - the Story of Merlin - Lancelot - the Quest for the Holy Grail - the Death of Arthur 8 The romances were probably written by clerics. There is critique on earthly chivalry, by contrasting it with spiritual chivalry. Arthur is pictured as weak and dependant on his knights and Queen Guinevere as adulterous (Lancelot). The court is portrayed as degenerating and in decline. Still, Arthur and his men are still national heroes until the late 15 th century (Sir Thomas Malloy: la Morte d’Arthur), which is strange, because he was really an enemy of the Anglo-Saxons.. he became an adopted hero. Layamon in 1190 translates Wace’s ‘Roman de Brut’ into Middle English alliterative verse, adding and expanding the original story even further. Through the times, there is always infusing of contemporate ideas into the story. A lay is a narrative tale in verse. Marie de France (fl.c.1180) She is the author of a number of lays. There is no further information about her at all. She is associated with the court of Henry II Plantagenet. Her adventure stories are combined with magic, they have entertainment value. Love is important in that it is often the fatal power and always difficult to control. Marie often sympathises with the women characters. In the story of the knight Lavalle, this knight is approached by lusty Queen Guinevere, but rejects her as he is promised to another woman. However, he was not supposed to tell (the other woman is a fairy), but in the end the fairy forgives him and all ends well. In the 14th century, there is a flowering of Middle English literature. Background Information: The church played a very important part, promoting education and literature. Before, education was only possible in the schools attached to cathedrals (Westminster, Canterbury, Winchester..). Part of the renaissance of the 12th century, however, was the emergence of universities (Paris, Oxford). There was a renewal in the interest for classical learning, and there was the development of a new and systematic way of thinking (scholasticism). “Schoolmen” studied at universities, which is the now orthodox way of studying. It emerged in the 11th century, flowers in the 13th century, but slowly declines in the 15th century. The church also encourages art, it finances the production of art in eg architecture, woodcarving, sculpture, wallpainting, illumination, bookprinting and literature. The church in fact uses the arts to make known the teachings of Christ to the illiterate masses. 9 François Villon said that the ballad should be used as a prayer. Literacy came through the church. At first, everybody depended on clerks (etym. clericus) and monks to copy texts. However, these clergymen take the original and devotional texts and turn them into medieval drama and gospel to spread the faith. In time, there would even be criticism of the representatives of the church (standing, authority, behaviour), but not of the basic truths. John Wyclif (c1330-1384) He was an early (would be) reformer, a dissident and critical academic. He criticized the misuse of papal power and the sale of indulgences. He was the 1st to call for a bible translation into English. Finally, 2 of his disciples (Nicholas of Hereford and John Purvey) do the job. His followers are generally known as the Lollards. The 100-yrs war (1337-1453) came about as result of a dynastic quarrel. William the Conqueror was king of England while still Duke of Normandy. In the 12th and 13th century the kingdom grew in France through diverse marriages. In the early 14th century the English still have Gascony and Gyenne. Philip the Strong wanted these territories to be part of the French kingdom again. He also presented himself as king of England. Edward III protects his kingdom and the country. Also there is the bigger picture.. Scotland.. The war of the Roses (1455-1485) is the English Civil war. The house of Lancaster(red) fights the house of York(white). It ends with the death of Richard III, who is defeated by Henry of the Tudors. The Black Death (the plague) raged all throughout the 14 th century. From 1348-1350, one third of the population dies. A lot of land is not cultivated anymore, prices rise, free labourers demand higher wages.. it is the beginning of the Peasants Revolt against the government. Still, there is a flowering of literature in the 14th century, also under Richard III although through no personal influence of his own. There is great variety, quality and quantity. There is the appearance of a new social class: the middle class. This is linked to a decline in monopoly of the church. In the middle ages, there are three estates: the aristocracy, the clergy and the commoners. In the early 14th century, changes happen. Cities become more important, they exert influence over life and become centres of power and population. In 1370, London has 40000 inhabitants and all sorts of craftsmen and traders. The appearance of the new middle class has its impact on literature. English as a language becomes a medium of general use (entertainment and communication) and gains a literary status. A good example is Geoffrey Chaucer, who writes his entire oeuvre in the English language. 10 Since the end of the Peterborough Chronicle in 1154, English secular prose was produced for practical purposes, English prose is mainly functional prose. But in the reign of Richard II, English came into general use. There is a reemergence of literary prose. There is travel literature (eg Sir John Mandevilles Travels 1366) and the Paston letters. This is a Middle English letter collection numbering over 1000 letters. It records the life of a mom and dad (John and Margaret) and their 3 children (John, John and Margaret). The mother is a businesswife who manages her husband’s estate. At the same time, she is a loving mother and wife. (position of the women). [The poetry written in that time is referred to as Ricardian poetry.] Geoffrey Chaucer (c1344-1400) He is called the father of English poetry. He perfected rhyme, though he was not the first to use it. He is born in London(1340-1344?) the son of a wine merchant (John). In 1357 he enters the household of prince Lionel. In 1359/60 he goes to France as part of the army of Edward III in the 100-yrs war. He is captured and released after payment of ransom. From 1370-78 he undertakes diplomatic missions on the continent. In 1372/3 he visits Italy, he will return in 1378. In 1374 he spends time at the English court. He dies 25.10.1400 and is buried in Westminster cathedral. Chaucer’s literary career can be divided into 3 periods: 1.) until 1370: His writings are based on French models (French dreamvisions). It is the poetry of Guillaume de Machant and the ‘Roman de la Rose’, a Roman in 2 parts: the 1st written 1237 by Guillaume de Lorris and the 2nd is written 1275 by Jean de Meung. Chaucer makes a partial translation of the roman. He also writes the ‘Book of the duchess’ on the occasion of the death of Blanche, the wife of John of Gaunt, an influential son of Edward III and the duke of Lancaster. 2.) 1370-1378, the Italian period. He bases his literature on Dante and Boccaccio. ‘House of Fame’ is about the adventures of Aeneas after the fall of Troy. ‘The Parliament of Fowls’ is about the mating of fowls on St.Valentines Day. The occasion is the betrothal of Richard II to Anne of Bohemia. ‘The book of good women’ is about nine classical heroines. It is written in couplets in iambic pentameter. ‘Troylus and Cressaide’ is written in the rhyme royal, in 7-line-stanzas with 5-foot iambic rhyme. 3.) 1386/7 The Canterbury Tales (unfinished). Chaucer’s project was to write down 120 tales, of which in the end only 22 were finished and another 2 begun. Nael p.215-235 “General Prologue” Nael p.253-281 “The Tale of the Wife of Bath” The collection features a collection of tales told by a large group of pilgrims coming together at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London. They undertake a journey to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas A.Beckett. He had been 11 murdered and was canonized only 32 days later, his shrine was glorious and a popular goal for pilgrims. This particular group of pilgrims is varied, there are different people from all walks of life, men and women, secular and religious, so obviously there are a lot of different tales told. The travellers don’t only represent their classes, but are also represented as individuals, the narrator is also one of the travellers, which brings the reader right into the narrative. In the general prologue, the different travellers are introduced and the scene is set. At the inn, the innkeeper holds a competition for a free meal, which is to be won by the teller of the best story. It is springtime, which is a peaceful setting when people are ready for change. This setting was used a lot as a literary device at the time. The characters: most of these are subtly criticized! - the knight: he represents chivalry (crusades) and shows no regard for his personal appearance. - the squire: he is a young lover, he deeds are deeds of valour to impress his lady. - the nun: she is well dressed, her courteousness is her dominant feature. It is criticized in between the lines, she cares only for mouse or dog, not for poor or weak. - the monk: he is typically characterized as a glutton and fond of huts, clothes.. he is not greedy though. - the friar: he is said to flatter people, especially women. He has pleasant speech, musical talent and a taste for money (greed!). - the merchant: he is fraudulous and dishonest. - the clerk: he is an impoverished scholar with an unhealthy appearance who is solely interested in learning. - the lawyer: he is self-important and presents himself to be very important, he is really a shady character! - the franklin: he is a neutral character. - group of 5: they are of the same social level (guildsmen), they are ambitious, successful, worldly citizens, who are accompanied by a cook. - the sailor: he is represented as rationally ruthless, and given to theft and murder. Still, he is a man of expertise. - the physician: this doctor is represented as an ambiguous figure, he impresses with his knowledge but there is doubt whether he is rich through exploitation. - the wife of Bath: she impresses with her dominant vitality, she is loud and boisterous and has had many lovers and 5 husbands. She wears a red dress. Her character is based on two traditions: on is misogynistic, criticizing women for their pride, and the other one is an elder character ready to pass on her life’s experience. - the parson: he is holy and learned, also patient. - the plowman: he is generous and skilful. he and the parson are people who help others. The plowman is seen as an ideal character and is therefore a key figure. 12 Through the descriptions of the individual characters, we are made to accept the point of view of the narrator, not the point of view of one of the conventional critics. The tale of the Wife of Bath In the general prologue, the wife of Bath is introduced as deaf but sexually active. Her own tale has a quite long prologue, in which she tells of her 5 marriages (3 older, 2 younger men), so that eventually the prologue is actually turn out to be longer than the tale itself. Chaucer shows his humorous side in this tale, the preceding texts are all religious. The wife always finds shortcomings in her husbands, never in herself. She asserts her individuality and the validity of her experience and thereby challenges the authorities of the past! The prologue: Her first 3 husbands are old and rich, the fourth a young reveller (who has a mistress?), and the fifth is a clerk from Oxford. He plays hard to get and is good in bed, and she is so besotted with him that she writes her estate on to his name on their marriage day. However, he keeps reading in a book that she hates, so that she tears pages out of it. He hits her (she is now deaf), but then they make up to the point that she regains possession of her estate. He burns his book. She is now on a so-called pilgrimage, but is the journey perhaps only meant to find her another man? The tale: The central question of the tale is, what women want most. The answer is simple: control. A knight has to be beheaded for raping a girl. The king leaves this decision to his wife, the queen, and her ladies. The queen sends the knight on a quest for 12 months and a day, he doesn’t find the answer to her question, however. On the last dance he sees fairies dancing, they flee. An old woman tells the knight the answer, in return she wants to marry him. He hates the idea, they quarrel. She tells him that nobility and respect come from within and have to be earned. He has the choice to be married to an ugly crone, who will be his constantly, or to be married to a beautiful woman who will be so only shortly. He responds: the answer is yours, honey! This is of course the right answer. The old crone turns into a beautiful maiden. In the tale, Chaucer has added a few elements to an already existing exemplum.. love, nobility, faithfulness. In the prologue, the wife is depicted as a self-conscious individual. She attacks the bible and the scriptures, which say that chastity is better than marriage. 13 She argues: L35: reference to Solomons many wives (700+300lovers) so that she must be allowed 5 marriages. L65: St.Paul’s counsel for chastity is not a commandment! She exercises the right to make her own judgment. L122: genitals are not only for functional use, but are also made to have fun! L148: chaste women and wives are compared to white and barley bread (both are good). In the tale of her husbands, it becomes clear that she pushes them around and puts her foot down to protect herself. She accuses them instead of letting them accuse her! These are all false or petty accusations, masking all her own offences. L385: she comes clear. She admits that she has made her husbands grovel, believing that they have hurt her. She even makes them give her gifts in exchange for sex! She is always in control. At the same time, the reader is forced to admit that the misogynist writers are right, in other words that women are devious, bad.. Under Richard II, mature poetic literature was written, so-called Ricardian Poetry. Next to Chaucer, another example for Middle English texts is ‘Piers Plowman’, a text supposedly originally written by William Langland (the vision of PP). It is a dream poem in alliterative style. This version consists of a prologue and a number of passus. The world is depicted as a fair field of folks between heaven and hell. The dreamer learns, and the reader through him. It is therefore an allegorical and didactic poem. It is a representation of 14th century society. It is not an ideal society, in which the clergy is shown to be corrupt and well-off people don’t help the poor. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain is King Arthur’s nephew. The poem is written in alliterative verse, the theme is that of prowess, gallantry and chastity. It combines praise and critique. Nael p.256 ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ The Green knight challenges the knights of the round table in a beheading game. Gawain beheads the green knight. One year later, Gawain is on a trip and enters a castle where the lord has gone hunting. He kisses the wife of the lord, at the end of the day he kisses the lord. The second day he kisses the wife twice and the lord twice. The third day, he gets three kisses and a sash of invulnerability. He returns the three kisses and keeps the sash. The next day, the lord returns, it turns out that he is the green knight. Gawain gets a slight cut on the neck for the taking of the sash. He is ashamed, for he is blamed. He returns to the court and is laughed at, he is now a different person. John Gower(1330-1408) wrote in Latin, French and English. 14 ‘Le Miroir de l’homme’ is a long didactic poem written in the mid 1370’s. ‘Vox Clementis’ is written against the social evil of the times. ‘Confessio Amantis’ was very popular at the time. The text survives in more than 50 manuscripts and in three different versions, the last was completed in 1393. The narrative is a dialogue between Genius, a priest, and Amans, a lover. Genius hears the confession of Amans. He takes him through the seven deadly sins, telling him what not to do. He persuades him to give up courtly love and look for a higher love. Christianity is questioned in a Christian world, this is the religious angle of the text. John Gower knew Chaucer. Both are later called the fathers of English poetry. Texts by both authors were printed by Paxton, who introduced printing in England. Paxton himself only wrote translations. Through printing, literacy in the general population increased. Drama In the early-12th century, there are Latin-craft miracle and mystery plays. An example for these is the ‘Mystère d’Adam’ of the Anglo-Norman period. English drama is catholic in origin. After the 10th century, religious drama spreads across Europe. Biblical history is now accessible in Latin and the vernacular. These are mainly serious plays, but still one has to remember that comedies were to come out of these plays at a later stage. These plays are at first performed by town guilds and crafts of performers. The subjects are biblical: Adam, Noah, Isaac, etc. Analogue to the calendar of the church, winter is the time of the Christmas plays. These are traditionally performed on a pageant, a stage on wheels. There is a tendency for the characters to be recognizable as human beings. There is always comic potential to enlighten the theme. Another kind of play is the morality play. This came at a later stage, into the 16th century. It shows the fate of the individual and represents man in general, in all his virtues and vices. The characters are sometimes represented allegorically: they are called greed, truth, etc. ‘The castle of Perseverance’(1405) features 36 actors. ‘Everyman’ (=Elkerlijk) is translated in 1495, it is about everyman’s life in the face of near death. After the Stuart and Tudor age comes the Renaissance! It is a golden age of creativity, which has its opposers (John Ruskin) and people in favour of it(Jules Michelet). Jacob Buckhardt’s definition as ‘the civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy’(1860) is one with regard to individualism and modernism. 15 However, there is an exaggeration of the ‘clash’ between the dark middle ages and the early modern period. Also, Burckhardt exaggerates the presupposed clash between Italy and Europe. He forgets the innovations of the middle ages, and the fact that many of the ideas of the middle ages survived into the Renaissance period. It is only recently, that Burckhardt’s definition has been criticized (by medievalists). In total, the movement from one age into the next was much more gradual. The term ‘rebirth’ is right, and from the 14th century onward this term was used. But it was not a new term: it had been used before, by Virgil among others. In other words: it was not the first that the people of one age characterized their age as such. It was the first time that the term was applied to a scholarly and artistic movement instead of just to a politic movement. Petrarch was an Italian humanist, he is defined by Burckhardt as the first modern man. Still, Petrarch had many medieval ideas. Castiglione’s ‘Book ofthe Courtier’ is defined as one of the pillars of the Renaissance, Castiglione was however deeply indebted to the medieval tradition of courtly love. The evidence shows, that there have been earlier Renaissances, eg in the 9 th century during the reign of Charlemagne, and during the 12 th century. Both times there was a scholarly rise and a return to classicism. The Renaissance is therefore only ‘a’ renaissance. Key features of the Renaissance are humanism, the protestant reformation, the invention of printing and moveable type, new philosophies, perspective in the arts, polyphony and harmony in music. Key features of the Renaissance: Humanism There is a return to classical standards in literature, philosophy, grammar, the plastic arts, science. The term ‘humanism’ is in use since the 19 th century. There are broad cultural views, such as openmindedness, reasonableness and refinement. These views are thought to be the outcome of the human sciences. There is the study of ancient Greek and Roman texts. Before, Greek and Hebrew were neglected and the texts in those languages had to be mediated by Latin translations. Humanism, however, goes back to the original writings.. In that sense it is closely related to the protestant reformation, as the protestant reformers wanted to return to the original Greek and Hebrew bible texts and to interpret these in their vernacular languages. There was a 16 lot of interest in these undertakings, combined with rising nationalist feelings. The protestant reformation The bible became more important, more so than the church itself. Humanism offered the tools to study the original bible texts, and their original meanings. The belief of the Protestants was that the original gospel and the epistles of St. Paul should be justified by faith alone. The Catholics thought that this should also happen by work, good deeds and the buying of indulgences. The Protestants saw Christ as a mediator between god and man, whereas in the Catholic faith Christ is the replacement for the Virgin Mary and the Saints. In the Protestant church there is no transubstantiation (bread becomes the body of Christ), in contrast to the Catholic religion. The consequence of all this is that in the Protestant church, the believer has to fall back on himself, at least in theory. In practice, the Protestant churches had their opinions just like the Catholic churches. Printing and moveable type It helped to spread the new religious ideas. In Europe Gutenberg, and in Britain Caxton advanced printing, and through it new learning. New philosophies There was a conflict between the traditional way of thinking and the new philosophies. Traditionally, there is a great chain of order in being, everything is related and there is the unity of creation. This is challenged by among others in Machiavelli ‘Il Principe’(1513): Machiavelli’s strategy is to ignore the great chain of being. Be concerned with yourself, life is not a unity. It is important to seem virtuous, not to be virtuous. Copernicus ‘On the revolution of the celestial spheres’(1543), in which he criticizes Ptolemaeus. Montaigne ‘Apology for Raymond Sebond’(1569) portrays a negative view of culture, it alienates humans from nature. Culture only produces a dull, mechanistic routine. The poem ‘An anatomy of the world’ by John Donne illustrates the pessimism of the period. 17 The English Renaissance The English Renaissance begins with Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian. He defeats Richard III of York at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, this battle ends the war of the roses. Henry marries Richard’s cousin Elisabeth of York and becomes Henry VII. Henry VII is a rich and unpopular king because of his heavy taxing and because of the distance he keeps to his subjects. He has no trust for his nobility, but gets a lot of respect because he has returned peace to the land. He dies 1509, leaving the throne to his son Henry VIII. Henry VIII(1491-1547) is a patriotic Englishman, a merry and jovial monarch who is loved by the people. Still, he is also cruel and ruthless, and has inherited his father’s greed. He spends the treasure on his wars with France. He is best known for his six marriages. The 6 wives of Henry VIII: I.) Catherine of Aragon was first married to his brother, Prince Arthur, who died in 1502, and was Henry’s way of establishing a diplomatic relationship. For Henry to be able to marry her in 1510, a special papal dispensation was necessary. Catherine leaves Henry a daughter, who will later become Mary I, but no son. As Henry wants a male heir to the throne, he decides to divorce her after 18 years of marriage and look out for wife no.2. II.) Anne Boleyn had caught the eye of Henry VIII, and he wanted to marry her. However, to do this he needed a divorce, which had to be granted by the pope. The pope was not willing to do so, however, since he had given a special dispensation for the marriage to Catherine before. Henry VIII takes a drastic step: he creates the church of England with himself as the Defender of the Faith, which is now independent of the Catholic Church. In 1533 he marries Anne Boleyn. She gives Henry his second daughter, who will later become Elizabeth I, but no son. Henry decides to look for another wife and has her executed for adultery and incest in 1536. III.) Jane Seymour is finally able to provide Henry with a male heir, the future Edward VI. She dies in that childbirth in 1537. IV.) Henry marries Anne of Cleves in 1540, in an effort to tie relations with the Protestant Germans on the continent. Later that year, he divorces her again. V.) The same year, 1540, he decides to marry Catherine Howard, but after two years he tires of her, too. She is executed for adultery and treason in 1542. VI.) Henry’s last wife is Catherine Parr. She survives him after his death in 1547. 18 Henry VIII, the Renaissance Monarch At his court, he is surrounded by poets such as Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard (the Earl of Surrey) and John Skelton. There are also humanists there, such as Thomas More, and artists, such as Hans Holbein. Henry has 55 beautifully decorated palaces built for him, one of them, Hampton Court, is a present of Cardinal Wolsey. Henry VIII is responsible for the dissolution of the monasteries in England. He sells the land to his nobles to ensure their loyalty. The monasteries are rich and important centres of the communities. The pope is not happy with this, there are rebellions. Also, new schools have to be built afterwards. Henry VIII dies in 1547, leaving Edward VI as king although he is only nine years old. Edward VI is king from 1547 until 1553. In effect, his uncle Edward Seymour, the brother of Jane Seymour and Duke of Somerset, rules the country. He is later replaced by John Dudley, the Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland. Both men had their own agendas. They make Edward draw up a will and appoint a successor, Lady Jane Grey. She is a great-granddaughter of Henry VII and granddaughter of Mary Tudor, sister to Henry VIII. Lady Jane Grey succeeds Edward VI for nine days as an interim queen. She is a protestant and married to the son of John Dudley, Gilbert Dudley. After 9 days Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII, surfaces and has Lady Jane Grey executed. Mary I was a catholic and wanted England to return to catholicism again. She is known as Bloody Mary for the great number of protestants she had executed. She was married to king Philip II of Spain but lived with him for less than a year as he died in 1548. Mary I was queen from 1553 until her death in 1558. Mary I is succeeded in 1558 by Elizabeth I, daughter of Anne Boleyn. In 1568, Elisabeth I is visited by Mary Stuart, the queen of the scots and catholic greatgranddaughter of Henry VII. Mary Stuart is fleeing from scottish lords and needs help to get back on the throne. Elizabeth doesn’t really want to help her, as Mary Stuart has stronger legal claims to the throne! After all, Anne Boleyn’s marriage to Henry VIII had never been recognized by the church, and Henry VIII had never officially recognized her as his daughter. Elizabeth I ended up imprisoning Mary Stuart for 19 years, after which evidence was found that there had been a plot between her and Philip II, so that Elizabeth I finally had a reason for having Mary Stuart executed in 1588. Elizabeth I is queen from 1558 until 1603. In 1568, England is already on the high road to prosperity. Sir Francis is travelling the seas, and there is the exploration of the new world (Columbus 1493). The Reformation in England can be divided into 2 phases: 19 I.) The first is relatively short and focused, as it is driven by Henry VIII’s desire to marry Anne Boleyn. It was the result of the secular motive for the creation of the church of England. Church practices were not really modified, and as Henry VIII was orthodox in his beliefs, the church of England remained essentially catholic in its doctrine. The move away from the catholic church meant that many protestants came to England. Henry VIII didn’t like this, however, and made out six articles to stop the influx of protestant ideas. He actively tried to stop the denial of the transubstantiation and the clergy from marrying. II.) The second phase lasted a lot longer, in fact up to the Glorious (bloodless) revolution of 1688, which effected the deposition of king James II and the accession to the throne of William III of Orange. How far should the reformation proceed? The catholics wanted toleration and the return of England to catholicism, while the protestants (= all kinds of puritans) wanted to move away from catholicism to complete freedom for protestantism in England. Edward VI was a protestant with protestant advisors. Together they reshaped the church of England along protestant lines, it effectively became protestant. At first these changes are moderate, but later extremists wanted all traces of catholicism gone. Mary I undoes everything Henry VIII and Edward VI have done. This goes to show that Bloody Mary was a very determined woman. She wanted papal authority reestablished in England, and had the divorce of king Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon annulled. In the 5 years of her reign she had more people burned than Elizabeth I in during her 45 years in power. She even had Elizabeth I - her half-sister – locked up in the Tower, interrogated and spied upon constantly. Many people flee England for Switzerland or Germany during her reign, these are called the Marian exiles. After the death of Mary I, these exiles return. In the meantime, they had made contact with calvinists and lutherans, this would later influence the church of England. After the death of Mary I, her half-sister Elizabeth I takes the throne. She is a moderate-minded protestant queen, and her reign can be characterized by the Elizabethan settlement, which is basically a return to the later years of the reign of her father, Henry VIII. She tries to reconcile the catholics and protestants in England, she has her own ideas about the order of things. She politically neutralized the factions and made them dependant on her. She first definded the church of England as a blend of catholicism and calvinism (Genevan Protestantism). 20 Under the reign of Elizabeth I, religion is no longer a divisive issue, unlike the rest of Europe, which suffers from religious wars. Religions tensions only resurfaced during the reign of James I and Charles I/II. Then, religion will be divisive issues again (+/-1630-40) as well as one of the causes of civil war in England. Bible translations The bible was always extremely important to the protestants. The bible incorporates the guidelines for christian behaviour, it is the single guide for the faith and practice of the individual, instead of priest formerly. In that respect, bible translations are extremely important. Also, not many people at the time knew Latin. Bible translations go back a long time, to John Wyclif and the Lollards in the 14th century and before that, Bede (Historia Ecclesiastica). William Tyndale makes the first attempts in the 16th century. He only managed to translate the New Testament, and did so in Germany, where he met Martin Luther, as he received no support from the bishop of London. Miles Coverdale had the first complete bible in English printed in Zurich in 1535. This was still during the reign of Henry VIII, when the church of England was essentially catholic. Later on, there were more bible translations, eg the Great Bible in 1540, but all go back to Tyndale and Coverdale. In 1560 the first Calvinist bible was produced in England, this was the Geneva bible. It was a popular household bible, used among others by Spenser and Shakespeare. It was not replaced until King James commissioned the authorized King James Bible. All these bibles tried to strip the catholic influence out of the bibles. There was also a humanist impulse to do so (to study writings in their original versions), and translations went back to greek and hebrew bibles. In the beginning, the Reformation wanted reforms, and they wanted reforms without the interference of the catholic church. Luther, however, didn’t want to change the catholic church or even start a new church. His 95 theses were an attempt to start a discussion. Later reformists, eg the Calvinists, wanted a new church. The Counter-Reformation took form in the order of the Jesuits (priests and missionaries), and also there was an authorized catholic bible translation. The Reims/Douai bible had the old testament translated in Douai and the new testament translated in Reims, it was recognized by the catholic church. Here, the humanist influence to study the original texts also played its part. 21 Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) He was trained as a lawyer. He is the author of ‘Utopia’. From early on in life, he is part of the humanist circles with eg William Lyly and John calet. He is a friend of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. Already early in life, he is a courtier of Henry VIII. In 1515 he comes to Flanders as part of a trade embassy, there he plans ‘Utopia’. In 1516, ‘Utopia’ is published at Basel. More is a convinced catholic. He has great difficulty accepting Henry VIII’s flirtations with protestantism. As he cannot accept the church of England (formed 1528), and the act of defiance this meant to the pope, he resigns in 1532. In 1534 he is forced to take an oath of supremacy (putting the king’s authority above that of the pope), and refuses. He is subsequently imprisoned and executed in 1535. ‘Utopia’ is about an ideal society or commonwealth. It reflects More’s fascination with the world, and criticizes the problems in England of the time, eg regarding to the contemporary views on the education of women. More himself had three daughters and one son. His daughters were all educated in the same way as his son. At the time, protestantism urged everybody to learn how to read and write, but otherwise there was no education. His eldest daughter Margaret writes many things in Latin and later marries William Roper, More’s biographer. Petrarchist literature Francesco Petrarca(1304-1374) was an Italian. He had a great knowledge of the classics and his own distinctive poetic style (the petrarchan sonnet). His girlfriend Laura is to him the icon of divine perfection. He uses hyperbolec language and paradoxical oppositions and writes love poetry. However, the love relations he describes never develop into anything, since the man always ends up rejected. In the 16th century there are numerous imitations of Petrarch for more than a century, his poetry is “in”. Hans Wagner’s definition of Petrarchism: Sex has no part in this poetry, although it is typically about love. Man is a devoted slave. In his state of love he is close to death, truly lovesick. He is a lost soul between fear and hope and thinking of death as a result of rejection. The woman is usually portrayed as a tyrant who doesn’t feel love. Love is always bittersweet, a mixture of pain and joy. In Petrarchan poetry, women and love are always in a fixed formula. Sometimes, there are mythological aids being used, such as the angel Cupid, or earthly comparisons (her eyes shone like diamonds). Among the followers of Petrarch were Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) and Jacopo Sannazarro(1456-1530). 22 Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) Sir Thomas Wyatt was the first in Renaissance England to translate and imitate Petrarch. Wyatt, and his contemporary Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, are credited with introducing the sonnet into English poetry; he translated ten of Petrarch's sonnets, composed original sonnets, and worked in other poetic forms, such as the lyric, song, and rondeau. Furthermore, he introduced an innovation in the sonnet: whereas in Italy, there was variation in the rhyme scheme of the sestett at the end of the sonnet, Wyatt always used CDDCEE, which ultimately became the standard English and Scottisch sonnet feature. In translating poems, Wyatt used to recreate them and give them a new feel instead of just translating them literally. Nael p.527 ‘Whoso list to hunt’ This is Wyatt’s rewriting of ‘una candida cerva’. The poem is about a deer hunt. This hunt will never be succesful, as the deer is already spoken for, she is Caesar’s. Petrarch describes her as a doe with golden horns and a collar which says: let no one touch me, for it has pleased Caesar to set me free. Wyatt turns this into ‘this deer is Caesar’s’, and the image of love is replaced by the image of greed. Is the wife Anne Boleyn? She was the wife of Henry VIII! Henry Howard (c1517-1547) The Earl of Surrey is another imitator of Petrarch. In the 1560’s, however, petrarchan poetry goes out of fashion until the 1580’s/90’s, when there is a new phase of creativity and new leading figures emerge. Writers like Sir Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser produced sonnet sequences which often had a common theme or the same speaker as the connecting element. Sidney produces a sonnet sequence called ‘Astrophel and Stella’ in 1591, which he has written in the 1580’s and which is very influential. The first sonnet sequence is written by Thomas Watson and called ‘Hekatompathia’ , passionate century of love. This literary interest is the origin of a general renewal of interest in italian things in the 1590’s, eg in clothing, music, manners (eg ‘The book of the courtier’ by Castiglione). Sidney and Spenser are also educated by humanism and grammar. There is also the reaction against protestantism emerging. English at that point is only an insignificant northern language spoken only by the English! There is now an effort to give English some literary value, the impulse to do so comes from an amalgam of renaissance ideas combined with a nationalist urge. 23 It is the time of the establishment of the church of England, and the challenge of the Elizabethan legitimacy as rightful heir to the throne. In the national literature, a moral and religious identity is being created, shaped to support rennaissance ideas and protestant beliefs. Sir Philip Sidney is not just an imitator of Petrarch, he does his own thing, and expects others to do so as well. Nael p.920 ‘Astrophil and Stella’ In this poem, Sidney is very critical of mere imitators. Other petrarchan imitators include Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton and Edmund Spenser (Amoretti 1595). Shakespeare (Sonnets 1609 but written 1590’s) and John Donne were critics of Petrarch in the 17th century. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) Born in 1554, his parents are both aristocrats. His dad is a courtier. In 1571 he leaves university and travels to the continent. He returns 1575 and wants to gain prominence as a politician. Still, only once is he sent to Prague. This does not turn out well for him.He decides he wants to be a poet. In 1583 he is restored to favour and knighted, in 1585 he is made governor of Vlissingen. In 1586 he succumbs to wounds received in a raid against the Spanish in Zutphen, led by his uncle Duddley, the Earl of Leicester. Sidney’s writings are directed at the queen and court (eg ‘The Lady of the Lay’), others are closer connected to his family (‘The countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia’ (1582) is for his sister Mary, the countess of Pembroke). He is in love with Penelope Deveraux, who marries someone else. ‘Astrophil and Stella’ (starlover and star) reflects these emotions. In 1578/9 he writes his ‘Defense of Poesy’ (aka ‘An Apologie for Poetrie’). It is a reply for those who have said that poesy or imaginative literature is immoral because it is literally untrue and does not reflect reality. A good example for imaginative literature is Spenser’s ‘Fairie Queene’. Nael p.936 ‘Defense of Poesy’ His text gives a religious and moral context and justification for such literature in a protestant state. Poetry offers skills and insights important to man, monarch and nation. Sidney wants to make a new beginning with an important function for poetry in culture. He wants to make English culture as important as the classic European cultures. According to Sidney, the role of the poet is to create a new world in which to worship god. Edmund Spenser (c1552-1599) He was born presumably in London, the son of a clothmaker in the city. In 1561 he attends the Merchant Tailor’s school, a school with a fine 24 reputation of which the headmaster is Richard Mulcaster, a famous humanist. There, he produces his first literary texts. He starts out with translations from the French (‘Het Theatre’ by Jan Van der Not), published in ‘A Theatre for Wordlings’ He also writes a series of epigrams, short poems which are republished in 1591 in his ‘Complaints’. His poems are published in 1569, when he enters university at Cambridge, where he will get his BA 1573 and MA in 1576. Spenser is also interested in politics, especially the troubles in Ireland. In 1577 he makes his first trip to Ireland, and on his return in 1579 he enters the services of the Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley, where he meets Sir Philip Sidney. Spenser becomes friends with Sidney and his circle of friends, the Sidney circle. In 1579 he publishes his first original text, ‘The Shepheardes Calendar’, which he dedicates to Sidney. This work demonstrates the great poetic flexibility of the English language. ‘The Shepheardes Calendar’ is a series of 12 pastoral poems written in a variety of meters and employing a vocabulary of obsolete words and coined expressions to give a suggestion of antiquity. It is highly innovative and also looks back to Chaucer and the classics. 1580 Spenser was appointed secretary to the new lord deputy of Ireland. Thereafter, Spenser lived mostly in Ireland, near Cork, where he completed the first part of his great allegory, his masterpiece ‘The Faerie Queene’ In 1589 he was visited by the English poet, courtier, and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, who recognized the merit of the poem and brought Spenser to England to publish it and to make the poet known to Queen Elizabeth I. Spenser received an enthusiastic reception, and his poem was hailed on the publication of its first three books in 1590. Accompanying the three books is an introductory letter, specifying Spenser’s intentions, to Sir Walter Raleigh. ‘The Faerie Queene’ is Spensers masterpiece, it is a unique and complex amalgam of a protestant religious political allegory with medieval chivalric romance. Spenser brings in Prince Arthur, but also bases the work on Italian writings by Torquato Tasso and Ludovico Ariosto. The poem is partly written in praise of Queen Elizabeth I, who is called Gloriana in the poem and only thinly disguised. Unable to secure further patronage, however, he remained in England for about a year and published a collection of short poems entitled ‘Complaints’ (1591), a collection of moral poems mostly dating back to the 1570’s, before returning to Ireland. 25 In Ireland he also writes ‘Colin Clout came home again’, which is published in 1595. It is about his trip to England from 1589 to 1591, and an account of his stay at the Elizabethan court. 1594 he gets married for the second time, to Elizabeth Boyle, for whom he writes ‘Amoretti’, a group of love sonnets including ‘Epithalamion’. The poems1 celebrate his marriage. Usually, an epithalamian is sung outside the bridal room on the wedding day. 1596 Spenser returns to England, as he wants to publish books 4,5 and 6 of ‘The Faerie Queene’. However, King James VI of Scotland had taken offence by some of the allegories towards his mum (Mary Stuart,Queen of Scots). King James VI consequently refuses to let ‘The Faerie Queene’ be read in Scotland and complains to Queen Elizabeth I about Spenser. ‘A view on the present state of Ireland’ reflects Spensers opinions on the Irish cause. It was published in 1633 and only circulated in manuscript. Spenser himself dies in 1599 in serious financial difficulties. His funeral was paid for by He lies buried near to Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. Together with Sidney, Spenser had created a new distinctive poetic style, which was at the same time accessible and sophisticated. Nael p.624-627 ‘The Faerie Queene’ (fragment at the top of p.625) ‘The Faerie Queene’ As originally planned, according to his introductory letter addressed to Raleigh, the work was to consist of 12 books, each made up of 12 cantos; only 6 books were completed, however, in addition to 2 cantos entitled “Mutabilitie” (published 1609) that follow the sixth book. As outlined in the introduction, Gloriana, the queen of Fairyland, represents both glory and Queen Elizabeth I, in whose honor 12 knights, who represented the qualities of the chivalric virtues, engage in a series of adventures. Throughout the narrative, the figure of Arthur, the perfect knight, also appears. The six completed books relate the adventures of the knights who represented the qualities of holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice, and courtesy. The fragment on mutability was to have been devoted to the theme of constancy. Spenser’s aim with this text was teaching, in his words “to fashion noble gentlemen in noble virtues”, in the text he even explained how he wanted to teach. He even considered to publish another 12 books if the first 12 were well received. Spenser presents the reader with doctrine made palatable by delighting the reader as well as educating him (instruction + entertainment). He refers to Homer, Virgil, Ariosto and Tasso. It is enlightenment with epic tradition, in 26 which the English language through ‘The Fairy Queene’ must now enter. Sidney’s ‘Defense of Poesy’, shows the importance of such epic poetry(p945). Shakespeare (the poet) (1564-1616) His early life is obscure. He was the son of a prosperous merchant in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was probably born in April 1564. Some people put the date on the 23rd, but since this is St.George day, who is the patron saint of England, this is doubtful. The next document about Shakespeare is a licence for marriage to Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a local farmer, in November 1582. Since their first daughter Suzanna was born only 7 months later, this was probably a forced marriage. There is a possible reference to Shakespeare in 1581, but the name given is Shakeshaft and the position referred to that of a tutor of a catholic family. Since Shakespeare at the time would have been just 17 years old, this reference is doubtful. On the other hand, it is consistent with John Aubrey, a 17th century biographer, who states that in his early years, Shakespeare had been a schoolmaster in the country. Shakespeare probably went to London in the later 1580’s. Shakespeare’s first texts are histories or plays, but there is no order or date to the texts. Shakespeare is attacked in print in 1592 by his rival, Robert Green. In 1593 and 1594 most theatres remained closed due to the plague. He also publishes a few poems, among which ‘The passionate pilgrim’, in a collection of writings (he + others!) in 1590. Some of the sonnets are republished later in ‘Sonnets’. He writes some other incidental poetry. Shakespeare’s poetry around 1592/3 is mostly verse prose, eg ‘Venus and Adonis’, although almost all of his work at this time is part of his minor poetry. Like ‘Rape of Lucrece’ in 1594, it is static and heavily moralising. Another example is ‘The phoenix and the turtle’, which is a cryptic and allegorical poem, an adaptation of part of a poem called ‘Love’s Martyr’ by Robert Chester. His texts are surely no bedside reading, they already reflect his skills, but his plays are better. The collection ‘Sonnets’ features part of his major poems. It is a sonnet sequence devoted to love, and sometimes called the English languages greatest collection of lyrics. It is said that ‘Sonnets’ is the text that has gotten the most critical attention in the English language. ‘Sonnets’ is adressed to a man (the fair youth) and a woman (the dark lady). There have been numerous attempts to identify these two people, but they remain unsuccesful to date. The text needs to be placed in the social and erotical context of the day. Like Giorgio Melchiori said, sonnet writing is an activity typical for courtiers. 27 Nael p.1042 ‘Sonnet Nr 147’ (of the ‘Sonnets’) The subject of the speaker is his distress. He is like a patient in a fever, who has been told he is past cure. He is also like a madman. He has no understanding of his infatuation and cannot stop it, it is like a viscious circle. Somehow he realises this woman is not for him, is even wrong for him, but there is no escape from this hell. Is this poem adressed to the dark lady? Woman Writers in the Renaissance period Isabelle Whitney (fl.1567-1573) She was born in cheshire in a middle-class family. Her brother was called Jeffrey, after their father. Jeffrey the brother was a famous emblematist (EMBLEMATA) and published a famous collection of emblems of continental style (“A choice of emblems and other devices”), which was printed in Leiden by Christoph Plantijn. Jeffrey had studied at Cambridge and later on joined the Earl of Leicester in the Lowlands. His collection is published in 1586, it even influences Shakespeare. Isabelle had another brother, Brooke, an elder sister Anne, and two younger sisters who later worked as servants in upper class London. The reason we know so much about her family is, that she kept a lively correspondence by mail going with her whole family. 1567 Isabelle had her first text published: “A copy of a letter, lately written in meter by a yonge gentlewoman to her unconstant lover”. This makes Isabelle Whitney the earliest woman British writer to haver her own secular work published. She even earned money by her pen (first woman to do so.). There are a number of assumptions derived from this work: that there was grief over a bad relationship, maybe caused by an insufficient dowry. Also, that the text serves as a warning of a similar fate to other maidens. 1573, she publishes her second work “A sweet nosegay” (=bouquet of flowers or herbs). The work also contains a number of senecan aphorisms, which are witty statements about youth, some adaptations of work from 1572, some words of conventional wisdom. There are also her letters from/to family/friends, in which sometimes the lucklessness of her situation is stressed, she is ‘but’ middle-class trying to make money. The last work which we are sure is written by Isabelle Whitney is her ‘Will And Testament’. In it, a strong mixture of irony and complaint can be found. Nael p.606-614 ‘Will And Testament’ 28 A number of other unsigned texts are attributed to Isabelle Whitney, but on circumstancial evidence only. Will and Testament There is bitterness, as the woman is too poor to live in the city and must therefore move to the country. There is a description of London combined with a lot of social critique, especially about the distinction between the poor and the rich. The relation between the woman and the city is that of a lover who cannot depart, a bit like the petrarchan scheme in sonnet 147 by Shakespeare. Also, in a normal testament, most people are not entirely whole in body and in mind, and not weak in the purse either. Here, there is a reversal of that situation. Mary (Sidney) Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1562-1621) She was an educated woman as she had had private tutors who had taught her the modern languages as well as latin (though not greek). She joins her mother as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth from 1575-1577. Then she marries Henry Herbert, the second Earl of Pembroke. She is 15 years old at the time, he is 40. They live at Wilton House in Wiltshire, which is a stately house that Mary turns into a safe haven for protestant poets. She acts as a patron and encourages them in their work. Among the writers staying at Wilton House are eg Edmund Spenser, Fulke Greville, Samuel Daniel and most importantly her brother, Sir Philip Sidney. She is very close with him, they share their poetic aspirations as well as calvinist ideas. In 1586, Sir Philip dies, having completed 43 Psalm translations (from the Songs of David) out of a planned set of 150. He took on this work at Wilton House. There is good reason to believe that Mary was closely involved in this work. After Sir Philip’s death, she decides to finish this project. It takes her 15 years to revise and complete the psalm translations. She finishes the job in 1599 and dedicates it to her brother and Queen Elizabeth. Still, the translations remain unpublished until 1823, but there is strong evidence that they circulated in manuscript. Ben Jonson knew them, John Donne praised them and George Herbert is influenced by them. It is an amazing collection incorporating a wide range of meter and rhyme stanzas. Sometimes, the form is over-emphasized, often there is a little too much concern for technique, so that the psalms themselves are overshadowed. Mary’s other work includes a 1590 adaptation of the tragedy ‘Antoine’ by Robert Garnier into blank verse (=unrhymed iambic pentameter). In 1592, Mary publishes a translation of a version of Philippe de Mornay’s “Discours de la vie et de la mort”. 29 In 1593, she finishes ‘Arcadia’. This work was begun by her brother for herself in 1582, published after his death as ‘New Arcadia’ in 1590, then revised and added to by Mary. In the early 1590’s, she invites Samuel Daniel as a tutor to her eldest son, William. During his stay at Wilton House, she encourages him in his literary work. As a result, there are many references to Mary Sidney in his work, eg dedications. There are many eulogies and dedications to Mary Sidney, eg by Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nash, Michael Drayton, Edmund Spenser, Fulke Greville, Samuel Daniel etc. When her husband Henry Herbert dies in 1601, she stops writing. She occupies herself with family and estate matters until her death of smallpox in London in 1621. Nael p.958-960 ‘To The Angel Spirit of the Most Excellent Sir Philip Sidney’ (=introduction to the collection of translated psalms) Elizabeth Tudor (1533-1603) As an unofficial (bastard) child of Henry VIII, her mother was killed when she was three years old and was locked in the Tower by her half-sister (Bloody Mary) for her protestantism. As a queen, she survived the small pox, several plots to kill her, she even survived the spanish armada sent by King Philip II of Spain in 1588. Elizabeth was a very prolific and eloquent writer, a 2000 collection of her writings shows how productive she was. It numbers 24 speeches, 15 poems, 39 prayers and 103 letters. At the time it was common practice for the nobility to converse with each other in verse. The fact that it took until 2000 to put together this vast collection is that the material was scattered all over Europe. Also, the fact that literature by women writers was until recently not thought very important, made things more difficult. Another difficulty is that the genres in which Elizabeth wrote wer not thought to be major genres. There are no epics and no plays, and the few poems that there are were thought to be mostly occasional pieces and too much embedded in a political context. Now, however, there is an interest in creating a canon of female authors. The prayer has now gained a new literary status and perspective. ‘The doubt of future foes’ Most of Elizabeth’s poetry was never intended to be read beyond her court. This one is a veiled threat to Mary Stuart, that was circulated by Elizabeth’s courtiers as having been written by one of her servants, it was written in 1568. In 1568, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, visited Elizabeth to seek refuge 30 from scottish lords. She was imprisoned for 19 years in the Tower and then executed. Nael p.594 ‘The doubt of future foes’ 16th century Prose John Foxe (1516-1587) He studies at Oxford, where he achieves his BA in 1537 and his MA in 1539. It is also where he develops his extreme protestant views. There were complaints lodged against him while he is a fellow at Magdalen College, as he protests against some of the college’s practises and rules. He objects in a long letter to reject the required celibacy. In the end, he resigns and gets married. In the early 1550’s, there are a lot of troubles in England (bloody Mary 15531558). Foxe is, in fact, one of the Marian exiles, fleeing to Strassburg in 1554). He writes a pamphlet in latin, he doesn’t want catholicism to be brought back into England (Mary’s goal), he is against any change in religion. He also writes ‘Acts and Monuments’, six books (732 pages) in latin published in 1559, including stories of reformists being prosecuted by the catholics. He starts out with the early reformers, Wycliffe and John Hus. Still, the book is not fiction, as Foxe also bases himself on eye-witness accounts of prosecuted protestants, viz. victims of bloody Mary. At the death of Queen Mary, Foxe himself returns to England. ‘Acts and Monuments’ is translated into English in 1563, it is so succesful that the second edition of 1570 had to be present in all churches in England by court order. The impact for the protestants was enormous, influencing the anti-catholic feelings and also nationalism. Nael p.551 from ‘Acts and Monuments’ Sir Thomas Hoby (1530-1566) He translates ‘the courtier’ by Baldassare Castiglione, a book that describes the italian gentlemen of the Renaissance. It is a book on what constitutes the perfect courtier, and it is published in 1528. Hoby starts his translation in 1552, it is published in 1561. The book will later become an enormous influence on Sidney and Shakespeare, and also on life at court. According to Sidney, the perfect courtier would be the perfect body to the queen’s perfect soul. The courtier is not purely dedicated to platonic love, he also has a body. Through his body, he should also strive to reflect the goodness of the queen or king he serves. A courtier should be, among other things: wellborn, not fat, amiable, not womanish, not a babbler, not a liar, wellspoken, not envious, sober, wise, just, good at drawing, dancing, painting, singing, he should hunt, swim, and run well, and know chivalry with horse and arms. He 31 should possess these qualities to love better the beauty of the mind, than of the body. At the end of the list, there is also a shortlist of the characteristics and qualities required by the perfect gentlewoman. Other 16th century prose includes Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’. Sir Sidney’s ‘Arcadia’(1593) was written as entertainment for ladies. It was very popular, there were 13 editions in the 17th century alone, 2 sequels and numerous imitations were written. ‘Arcadia’ was translated into all modern european languages. By 1725 there had been a 14th edition and the book had been rewritten in modern English. Through its popularity, it has a huge influence on the development of the novel (eg on Richardson). 16th century Theatre/Drama During the Middle Ages, there were mostly religious plays/drama such as mystery plays or miracle plays. Still, there had also been secular drama, eg the farce, and secularized moralities (eg taking classical gods and putting them in political contexts). Examples of this secular drama were disguisings and mummings (danced pantomimes), interludes and masques. In drama, the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance was more apparent in England than in the rest of Europe. English drama displays characteristics both of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It has to be seen in a national as well as an international context. Elizabeth I outlawed religious drama, with the obvious result of a rise in secular drama. In the 1570’s, acting had a legal status, english theatre was under the control of the government. An acting company had to have a licence to perform. This required the patronage of a nobleman or aristocrat, who sponsored the acting group with a fixed sum of money per year. Still, often extra earnings were necessary (and made). The performance of plays was not allowed within the city of London. This led to a situation, where all theatre buildings were built outside the city, mostly on the other side of the Thames in Soutwark. The first permanent theatre building was ‘The Theatre’, it was built in 1576 by James Burbage, the head of the Earl of Leicester’s Men, a licenced group since 1574. The company for whom Shakespeare wrote his plays were the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. These turned into the King’s Men, after a decree which required all companies to be licensed to a member of the royal household. 32 The theatre was well-liked by the aristocracy but disliked by the mostly puritan merchant class, who considered imaginative literature to be immoral. In 1577, the preacher John Northbrooke publishes a treatise about the pros and cons of theatre, in which the wisdom of age argues against youth. The treatise was the ‘Treatise against Dicing, Dancing, Plays, Interludes and other idle Pastimes’. In the treatise, there are objections on moral grounds, as plays draw people away from wholesome work they are led towards idleness, vanity and lust. Plays are not condemned outright, though, they are all right as long as they are used as a educational tool. The problem was, that not every play could be used as an educational tool. A play might contain romantic scenes! Furthermore, plays had to be in latin, and not for the public eye but private sessions only. The puritan influence was not to be underestimated, they often found ways to keep even licenced theatre companies from performing, often using their influence in the local government to prevent plays being put on. Still, the theatre bloomed. As the interest grew, new plays were needed. In the pre-Shakespeare era, there was a group called the University Wits, consisting of university-educated people who introduced classical and continental standards into English plays. Members were Robert Green (1558-1592) (=the 1st to attack Shakespeare in print, Thomas Kyd (1558-1594), John Lyly (1554-1606) and most importantly Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593). Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) Kyd is believed to have written a lost version of Hamlet, the Ur-Hamlet. He also produced the “Spanish Tragedy” in 1589, based on Seneca. His adaptation of the Roman playwright leads to the first English tragedies. At the time, these were more popular than Shakespeare’s plays.. In the play, Horatio, the son of the Marshall of Spain, is in love with Belimperia. However, he is killed by Belimperia’s brother Lorenzo and the Prince of Portugal. The reason is, that Lorenzo has arranged for the Prince of Portugal to marry Belimperia. Before Belimperia is taken away to be married, she writes a letter in her own blood to Horatio’s father, explaining the situation. Horatio’s father wants to avenge the murder of his son, and feigns madness to cover up his moves. This ‘madness’-theme also hints towards a lost Ur-Hamlet. Kyd also writes “Cornelia”, an adaptation of the play by Robert Garnier. (≈ Mary Sidney) In 1593, he is suspected of heresy and taken into custody. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) 33 He was born in Canterbury, the son of a shoe-maker. He is in fact only two months older than Shakespeare. He attends Kings College in Canterbury and goes to university in Cambridge on a scholarship in 1580. (There is no evidence that Shakespeare ever acquired an university education!) In 1587 he receives his MA, because the Privy Council instructs the Cambridge University to do so on the basis of good service to Queen Elizabeth I. He was probably in the Secret Service. In 1587, Marlowe settles in London and becomes part of the literary scene. He is an outstanding playwright. By 1593 he has already written 7 amazing plays, while in comparison Shakespeare has produced nothing during that time, that could be called comparable to the intense and poetic style of Marlowe’s tragedies. The chronology of the 7 plays is not entirely clear. 1) Tamburlaine The Great Part One 2) Tamburlaine The Great Part Two These plays were being performed by 1587/8, indicating Marlowe wrote them while still at Cambridge. Perhaps these are his first plays. 3) Dido, queen of Carthage. Idem Cambridge. This play was written in collaboration with Thomas Nashe. (This was a common practice, Shakespeare used to write with a person called Fletcher.) From 1589-1593 stem the controversial plays: 4) Massacre at Paris: This is a propagandistic dramatization of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre at Paris in 1572,when thousands of protestants in France were slaughtered. Probably 1589/90. 5) The Jew of Malta. Probably written in 1589/90. This play is critical of the leaders of the christian community. 6) Edward II. This play brings up the homosexuality of Edward II in a new way. 7) Dr.Faustus. This play deals with witchcraft, a current topic at the time. Marlowe was often called an atheist, and he was sometimes in trouble with the government. On the other hand, he had powerful friends, eg Sir Walter Raleigh and diverse connections in the Secret Service. Marlowe dies in 1593 in suspicious circumstances, he is killed in a pub brawl over the payment of a bill. There are many theories concerning this highly unlikely death, some doubting his death, some suggesting he lived on as 34 Shakespeare. The men arrested in connection with his stabbing were briefly held and then quietly released after a few days. General info on drama in the 16th and 17th century: Plays were at first mostly performed in the courtyards of inns and taverns. Later, proper theatre buildings were constructed, the first one in 1576. There were public outdoor theatres and private indoor theatres. The outdoor (arena) theatres could hold up to 2000-3000 people, which goes to show how popular drama was at the time. Theatre buildings came in all shapes and sizes (round, octagonal, rectangular..). The pit or the yard was were the groundlings stood. At the time it was usual to watch a play while standing in the pits, these standing spectators were called groundlings. The stage was roofed, this roof was named the heavens. The yard was not roofed. The galleries were roofed and held seats. Some of the galleries were owned or rented by the aristocracy. At the rear end of the stage was the tiring house, were the actors retired to change costumes and to wait for their cue to come on stage. There were usually two doors to the tiring areas, these could represent places far away from England. Above the tiring house was the musicians’ gallery, and on the third level, there was a hut containing machinery or storage space for the instruments. On top of the hut was a flag to indicate whether there was a play on that night or not. As for the setup of the private indoor theatres: these were generally smaller and therefore couldn’t hold as many people. They were fully roofed. They were the place for acting companies to show their plays during the winter, when it was too cold to perform outside. A good example of an indoor theatre is Blackfriars’, which opens in 1576. It was a former monastery, hence the name. Blackfriars’ is the first indoor theatre in England. It closes in 1584 and is reopened in 1596. From 1610 on, the Kings’ Men(Shakespeare), use it for their winter performances. William Shakespeare (the plays) Shakespeare arrived in London in the late 1580’s, pursuing a theatrical career. He started out writing histories, eg the 3 parts of Henry VI, and comedies, such as ‘The comedy of Errors’, ‘The 2 gentlemen of Verona’ and maybe also ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. We only know that by the early 1590’s he is popular enough to be attacked in print by critics. In 1592, Robert Green writes a critique on Shakespeare: ‘A Grope’s worth of witt’. In it, it says that Shakespeare was known as a poet to bombast out a blank verse, and as a playwright. There is a direct reference to a line of the third part of Henry VI (‘the only Shakescene in the country’). In 1593, the theatres close due to the plague. 35 In 1594, the theatres reopen. Shakespeare joins the ‘Lord Chamberlains’ men’. and continues to write plays for them for the rest of his life. He writes more comedies, histories and also tragedies, at an average of 2 plays per year. Comedies: “Love’s labour lost”(1599-1600), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, “Twelfth Night”, “As you like it” and “Much Ado about nothing”. historical plays: “Richard II Part 1/2”, “Henry IV Part ½”, Henry v” tragedies: “Romeo & Juliet”, “Julius Caesar”, “Hamlet”. All this is written in the Elizabethan period (-1603). Shakespeare continues his effort in the Jacobean era, the era of King James I. tragedies: “Othello”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”, “Anthony and Cleopatra”. comedies: there are no successors to the comedies of the final year of the Elizabethan era. Instead, there are problem plays, these go beyond the limits of the genre of comedy. They have a darker tone and deal with serious moral issues. Good examples are “Measure for measure” and “All’s well that ends well”. These tendencies (of the problem plays) continue also in the romances of 1609-1611. “The Tempest”, “The Winter’s Tale”, “Cymbeline”. They have a mixture of comedy, folk tale and masques in them. There are now also plays with magical qualities, as eg Prospero in “The Tempest”. This is especially noticeable if one compares Shakespeare’s later plays with his early ones. 1613 A cannon used in a play sets the roof of the ‘Globe’ on fire. This was probably the reason why Shakespeare stopped writing. He dies in 1616. In 1623 there appears the first publication of the First Folio (posthumous) of Shakespeare’s plays. They are published by two former colleagues of Shakespeare, two actors named Hemmings and Condell. They are responsible for the edition of the texts in the first folio. There is an argument that all these plays could never have been written by this bard from Stratford-upon-Avon. There is after all not one single piece of evidence to link this man to any literary text or activity whatsoever. All the evidence is posthumous, and most comes from the First Folio. Scholars have come up with names, who they deem capable of producing this big volume of texts and plays: Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere (the 17 th Earl of Oxford), William Stanley (6th Earl of Derby). 36 In the 16th and 17th century, when a writer was popular, there were many people who wrote eulogies about them to praise them for their work (≈ Mary Sidney). There is not a single eulogy about Shakespeare or about his work. There is one poem that survives, and this is the one that Ben Johnson wrote as a preface to the first folio. Another problem is, that the writer of this huge volume must have had a really broad and wide knowledge about a number of subjects: classics, law, foreign languages, aristocratic manners, sports, etc. There is no evidence that Shakespeare had access to all this information. There is only unspecified evidence, like the text fragment from Robert Green, linking Shakespeare to the theatre, but nothing direct from his lifetime to prove he was indeed an actor. The first folio is the first source to put him in the acting business, and it is posthumous! Shakespeare’s will and testament are known. They contain a list of furniture and a detailed description of his belongings. There is no library mentioned, neither are books or manuscripts. The will bequests Shakespeares belongings to 3 actors. The only evidence of Shakespeare’s handwriting are six almost illegible signatures. Three of these are on his will. None of them are from before 1612, and they are all different. The common thing is that the first syllable of his name is always spelled ‘Shak’, not ‘Shake’-speare. There exist no autographed versions of his plays. There are no texts of his in his own handwriting, just printed editions of his texts of his own lifetime, that is to say before 1623. At the time, there was no copyright, printers could publish almost anything and do so without having to pay anybody. The texts to popular plays were in great demand, but they were hard to get. Usually, only one text existed per play, and that one copy belonged to that actors’ group themselves. It was usually kept behind lock and key to prevent other theatre companies from getting their hands on it and cashing in on other companies’ plays. Printers used to bribe actors, so that usually one part would be correct, another mostly correct and the rest guesswork. The texts were fundamentally unreliable, there was often little resemblance with the plays as they were being performed on stage. Another method for obtaining texts was to pay somebody to go and watch a play several times, so they could learn parts of it by heart, or take notes, to be used as the base for the reproduced texts. Hamlet exists only in three printed texts and not one autographed version. The three printed texts are from 1603 (1st quarto), 1604/5 (2nd quarto), 1623 (first folio). These versions are all different! 37 The conclusion we must draw is, that Shakespeare may have written a ‘Hamlet’ play, but we don’t know what it looked like. Extract of the commemorative poem by Ben Johnson. Guest lecture by Rod Lyall, about literature in the 17th century. Important dates: 1603: James I becomes King at the death of Elizabeth I 1625: death of James I, outbreak of civil war 1642: Start of the first civil war, theatres are closed. 1649: the execution of Charles I, England=republic 1660: Charles II is invited back from exile, restoration 1688: the Glorious Revolution, England is protestant. Nael p.1273 John Donne ‘Good Friday, 1613.Riding Westward’ In Donne’s poem, there is an emphasis on the contrast between the death in the West and the Promised Land represented by the East(in the after-life!) but both are really one. There is a merging of the old images of Christ and the new images of mapping the world. John Donne (1572-1631) He is often identified as a Jacobean Poet. On the other hand, there are many arguments to contest this. A lot of Donne’s love poetry and his satires were written before 1603. Even though it might not have been published until 1633, a lot of his poetry circulated in manuscript. This was at the time an accepted method of letting ones poetry become known, instead of the vulgar method of simply publishing it. Another argument is, that the term ‘Jacobean’ is very anglo-centric. James the first had been king James VI in Scotland since 1567, although he may not have been fully in control before 1585 or 1579, when he took an official function in Edinburgh. James I himself was a published poet (in verse and prose), a lot of his work, including his instructions to his son Henry on how to be king, was republished in 1603 in London, when he became king! In fact, that particular piece was the best-seller of 1603. Furthermore, the Jacobean period took place before 1603 aa well, in Scotland! When James I became king of England, there was a convergence of cultures, two court cultures merged. The question must also be asked, how much continuity there was at the time, as well as when Charles I became king, as the Nael mainly emphasizes the differences between the periods. The changing of the monarchies was perhaps a more subtle process. 38 What is described in the Nael as “metaphysical poetry” (eg by Donne, Herbert) is perhaps poetry created by a minority of the poets of the period. This term focuses on one specific aspect of poetry, its approach to metafore, and the fact that the emphasis is first on the intellectual understanding, and then on the emotional grasp. However, there is no metaphysical period, this poetry is just a phenomenon that occurs at that moment/period in time. The difficulty in characterizing a period lies in the fact that by differentiating, one distorts reality. There is a definite relation between public life and politics on the one hand, and art on the other hand. Public preferences and the circumstances, under which a text is published, all come under outside influences. In 1642, under the influence of the protestant government, all theatres are closed until 1660. This means, that for almost twenty years, no plays may be performed, including Shakespeare, and all this because the protestants considered plays to be immoral. Ben Jonson (1572-1637) He was the most widely read author at the time. He was first a dramatist, and - like Shakespeare - he was not a university man. He sought his opportunity to be a writer through theatre, and made his name through writing court masques with spoken texts, against a background of music and ballet, and with elaborate scenic arrangements. He was largely sponsored by the wife of James I, queen Anne of Denmark, and Inigo Jones. The problem was that there were three courts. There was the court of James I (a protestant), who had a limited literary interest, the court around queen Anne (a secret catholic), and the court of the eldest son, Henry (the hope of all puritans and nationalists). Through him, the influence of the group around Sidney and Spenser continues. Jonson chose for the gentlemanly way of circulating his manuscripts, instead of publishing them. In 1616, however, he publishes a collection of his works. In the same year, king James also publishes a collection of his writings, it was almost king against commoner. Jonson’s style was very different from that of John Donne. It was plain, urbane, civilized and followed latin models like Horace. It could sometimes be satirical, too, though in another manner than John Donne’s poetry. His satire tended towards that of the Cavalier poets (royalists) such as Suckling or Loveless. His works were published during the 1620’s and 30’s, up until and even during the civil war. 39 In the middle of the 17th century, the great writers included Andrew Marvell(1621-1678) and John Milton (1608-1674), both of whom were on the side of the republic and Parliament. This counted especially for Milton, who was a civil servant under Cromwell. Both Marvell and Milton were ambiguous figures, as neither supported the more repressive side of the regime. Milton even wrote some important work on tolerance and against censorship, which didn’t hold with protestant views. Both men had to deal with the failure of the revolution. Marvell’s work was written and published before those times, and there is no surviving reaction on the failure of the revolution. Milton, however, in 1667 wrote Paradise Lost, which was first published in 1667 in ten books, and in 1674 in twelve books. John Milton was a blind man later in life, still he had an amazing epic vision of the whole of human history. At the same time, he was able to conceive a very enigmatic Satan figure. Satan had failed to rebel against God (since god had to win!), but was very attractive even in failure. Nael p.1832 ‘Paradise Lost’ (book 1) Milton wrote this text after the collapse of the republic, like Donne’s work it represents a vision of human experience. In a way, Paradise Lost can be compared to a baroque cathedral (eg St.Paul’s), which was built on the burnt-down building which stood in its place before. The Baroque Period The term was first used by an art historian called Heinrich Wölfflin in “Renaissance und Barock” in 1888. It stems from the Portuguese word “Barocco”, meaning misshapen pearl. It is used for the stylistic phase following the Renaissance. The Baroque period is said to have begun in Italy as early as 1580 (H.Wölfflin). The term is used as a period classification covering the art forms of music (Vivaldi), architecture (churches in Southern Germany, Austria, Bernini), painting and sculpture, but the application of the term to literature proves to be more problematic. Features and characteristics of the baroque period can be found in poetry in the writings of Marino (1569-1625), and the Spanish authors Luis de Gongora (1561-1627) and Lope de Vega (1562-1635). In France, there was Francois de Malherbe. In the baroque influence in literature, there was a high degree of theatricality and a very elaborate use of rhetorical devices. There is a preoccupation with appearances over reality. There is also a concern with the outer over the inner. 40 In the English literature, there has always been a preference of indigenous terms for description (eg elizabethan, jacobean, metaphysical literature). The baroque approach is international in its angle. In 1955 a scholar called Sypher found two English poets as exemplifying the baroque period, John Milton and Richard Crashaw (1612-1649). In 1974, Harold Segal wrote a book on the baroque poem, including a list of English baroque writers, featuring: John Donne, George Herbert, John Milton, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell and Anne Bradstreet. Some even attribute baroque features even to some of the works of Shakespeare. The international baroque approach compares similarities in Italian, English, Spanish and other national literatures, implying the two way influences between them. The indigenous classifications are of course still workable. Terms as Cavalier and Elizabethan literature can still be useful to point out cultural polarities. Cavalier was the name of the supporters of the king in the war against Parliament. They represented court culture under Charles I and his son, Charles II. Cavalier was a term originally used by the parliamentary opposition in the 1630’s to the 1650’s. Among the Cavalier poets were Thomas Carew, John Suckling and Richard Lovelace. The Cavalier poetry was usually witty, musical, often sung with musical accompaniment. It was the time of the famous English composers, eg. Nicolas Lanei, or Henry and William Lawes. Nael p.1670-1671 Richard Lovelace ‘To Lucasta, Going to the Wars’ Popular themes for Cavalier poetry were love, sex and music. Many of the Cavalier poets actually went to war! Nael p.1676 Edmund Waller ‚Song’ This poem is an invitation to love, a rose is used to persuade a woman into having sex. This directness is very different to the poetry of Sidney and Spenser and poets of their time. The poetry is written in simple stanzaic forms, it has no intricate sonnets but a more common and simple style. A Major Poet of the time, who was influential in that he preferred a simple and straightforward style, was the poet and playwright Ben Jonson. Together with John Donne, he had the greatest influence on the Cavaliers. Ben Jonson (1572-1637) He was born in 1572/3: that means that he was born before the 25 th of March 1573, which was the start of the new year in England. For our time count it was 1573, in theirs it was still 1572. (Julian vs Gregorian calendar). 41 His father died before Jonson was born, he was raised by his stepfather, a master bricklayer in London. Ben is educated at Westminster School, and there receives a secondary school education. Afterwards, he works as an apprentice to his father for a short while, and then leaves to join the army in the Netherlands. In the early 15950’s, he is a wandering player, a strolling actor. In 1597 he is back in London, where he joins the Earl of Pembroke’s Men. Jonson often ran into trouble with the law. In 1598 he is imprisoned and accused of killing a fellow actor. He was very lucky that he wasn’t hanged, a friend used his influence to get him off. In 1598, he also writes “Every Man in his humour”, the same year it is performed. It is the first time that one of his plays is performed on stage. Together with “Everyman out of his humour”(1599) and “Cynthia’s Revels” (1600), the play belongs to the ‘war of the theatre’s’. That was the name used for an exchange of insults started by a colleague of Jonson, John Marston. He had included a funny portrait of Jonson in one of his plays. Jonson was not amused and reacted in “Every Man out of his humour” in 1599. Marston replies, Jonson reacts in “Cynthia’s Revels” in 1600, a third party (Thomas Dekker) is involved… the dispute continues until 1604. It illustrates the rivalry present in professional theatre. In 1603, Jonson writes “Sejanus, his Fall”, a roman play, for the occasion of James I becoming king of England, he dedicates the play to his king as a welcome. The theme of the play is conspiracy. This proves to be a bad choice. He is even suspected of treason by the privy council. Jonson is subsequently imprisoned and questioned. In 1604, Johnson writes “Eastward Hoe” together with Marston and Chapman. It is a play full of political allusions, a parody on the Scottish men and their manners. As James I became king of England, he brings some noblemen with him from the North. These are all successful at court, a fact Jonson makes fun of. Again, Jonson is imprisoned. Still, his work is so successful, that in 1605, the King himself becomes Jonson’s patron. Jonson continues writing plays and masques (with Inigo Jones). The actors in these masques are often members of the nobility, not layman actors. Sometimes, they are even members of the royal household. One of them even featured the “winter queen”, Elizabeth of Bohemia, a daughter of Charles I. The productions of these masques was usually very costly. The nobility sometimes even lent their houses for money. Jonson wrote a remarkable series of masques: (these are all comedies) “Volpone”(a comedy, the basis for his reputation today), “Epicoene, the silent woman”, “The Alchemist”, “Bartholomew Fair” 42 Jonson had a remarkably large and diverse oeuvre of satires, epigrams, elegies etc., and all were published within his own lifetime, which goes to show how popular he was. In 1616, he published “The Worckes”, a collection of all his writings. The publication was a scandal, as it was generally taken that to publish one’s work was to vulgarise it. For Jonson, however, it was a conscious attempt to reach a wider audience, and to take his writings out of the courts and to the people. His collection was not spectacularly well received at the time, but surely must have influenced Cordell and Hemmings by serving as a model for the First Folio of Shakespeare. In 1616, Jonson was given a pension by the king for life. It was a sign of his approval and his patronage, and it meant that Jonson could keep on writing without having to worry about money any more. By 1616, Jonson had already written his best work. The play “The devil is an ass” of the same year was not very successful. Jonson subsequently stopped writing for a number of years, but stayed in the literary scene. He had his own literary circle, Cavalier poets who proudly called themselves the ‘Sons of Ben’. In 1618, Jonson went to Scotland on foot, to visit a fellow (baroque) poet, Sir William Drummond of Hawthornden. Drummond recorded his conversations with Jonson. It is not known, whether Jonson was aware of this at the time. In 1619, Jonson returned to England, where he writes “My picture left in Scotland”, which he sends Drummond as a present. Back in England,he continued writing masques. In 1631, he had a falling out with Inigo Jones and stopped writing masques. Nael p.1409 Ben Jonson ‘My Picture Left in Scotland’ After the death of King James I, Jonson returns to the theatre and starts writing plays again, without ever returning to his peak level of writing again. Jonson provided the plays, whereas Jones supplied the rest of the set: the costumes, the stage effects, etc. Jonson dies in 1637, a further collection of his poetry is published after his death in 1640, it is called “The Underwood”. A further collection of his notes “Timber or discoveries” is also published. Jonson is an example of the growing professionalization of writing. He starts out from humble origins, but is able to gain high social status on the basis of his literary reputation! This is remarkable, especially when considering the times he was imprisoned. John Donne (1572-1631) 43 John Donne is known for his metaphysical poetry, which is obscure, but also subtle and passionate. He was born as a child of catholic parents. At the time, it was physically dangerous to be a practising catholic, it was even difficult for a catholic to hold on to a job. Donne entered Oxford University, but was not allowed to take a degree. The same thing happened when he continued his studies at Lincoln Inn, one of the four Inns of Court, the Law Schools. He was again not allowed to take a degree. He was known to be active in cultural life, as a theatregoer. He also wrote a new kind of worldly, erotic poetry. In 1601 he married An More, who was related to his employer. The marriage took place in secret, but his employer found out and Donne lost his job. For a while he and his wife led a life in disgrace and went through a period of financial insecurity, but soon Donne rehabilitated himself, drawing the attention of the king. In time, Donne converted to the Church of England, he was even ordained to be a priest in 1615, and was made Dean of St.Paul’s Cathedral in 1621, where he wrote sermons and meditations. Donne’s life is often regarded in two separate periods: that of the young, daring Elizabethan poet, versus that of the learned Jacobean religious doctor. This view is too oversimplified! Often a combination of both sides of his personality can be found. Donne was extremely popular in the early 17th century, reports of circulation of his manuscripts show that he might easily be called the most popular, even. After his death in 1631, his work was printed and a first edition appeared in 1633. However, since it was very untidy and full of mistakes, a second edition appeared already in 1635. Nael p.1236 John Donne ‘The Flea’ This is a seduction poem. The speaker is interested sexually in a woman and uses metaphors, images and general persuasion to get her into bed. This appears to be a feeling that is not reciprocal, and the reason for that is that she is still a virgin. The flea has already sucked blood from the woman, but the man is denied access (blood on loss of virginity). The flea has the advantage on him, since it has not been refused. The man now tells the girl, that the blood is unimportant (while it is to him!). At the same time, the flea has also sucked the man’s blood. The mingling of their blood inside the flea recalls sex (mixing of bodily fluids). The man argues that, since this has already happened inside the flea, it might as well happen in the outside world! The blood of innocence that appears when the flea is killed shows that she is still a virgin. Maybe, the killing of the innocent insect also means that 44 since this is the way in which she deals with innocence, why not lose her virginity as well, then? In a way, Donne reshapes the petrarchan sonnet tradition, he uses known images (the flea) in his own special way. George Herbert (1593-1633) Herbert is a distant relative of Sir Philip Sidney. He studies at Cambridge University, where he is a brilliant student, who is clearly destined for a career in public life. In 1615 he takes on the job of orator at Cambridge University, where he composes speeches and adresses in latin for official occasions (royal visits ...), in fact he holds a kind of PR-job there. For unclear reasons Herberts decides to resign his post in 1627. He becomes a priest, a country parson. He is parish priest in Bemerton near Salisbury until his death of TB in 1633. Herbert is regarded as technically the most accomplished poet in English literature. His entire poetry in religious in content. Herbert has always been read for that reason, though since the beginning of the 20 th century, his poetry is also praised for the poetry itself. There is a huge collection of 170 poems, known as “The Temple”. It was published after Herbert’s death in 1633. His poetry often appears deceptively simple, yet it is very skillfully composed. He was the first poet to come up with his own title’s for his poems. Normally, poems got their names or titles from the publisher or editor. The fact, that Herbert himself titled his poetry, is important in that way, that the title of his poetry often gives the reader a clue on how to approach his poetry. Herbert’s poetry is different from Donne’s in that it is more characterized by quiet surprises and insights, it is more subtle but like Donne, Herbert helped create a new petrarchan tradition. Often, Herbert characterizes the church or god like an unresponsive mistress. Nael p.1609 George Herbert ‘The Collar’ The title is like an emblematic image, the speaker is likely a priest. He wants to get rid of the collar, maybe he is thinking about leaving the church. The collar might be seen as the collar of a slave, who finds it hard to serve a demanding and unfair lord. Is it perhaps an animal’s collar? An animal knows only passions, so the poem has now gained an extra dimension apart from the ratio one. The man can no longer think rational, he is angry. Choler refers to being choleric (angry). He is in a state of rebellion. A caller could mean that it is a calling poem, the man receives has lost his calling and needs another call from god. When that call comes, “Child”, he turns 45 from an angry man into one ready again to enter the life of service and submission. He needed that one word (not slave but child) to put everything back in perspective. The term “metaphysical” was first used by John Dryden in an essay about dramatick poesy (about Donne). Samuel Johnson also uses the term ‘metaphysical’ in 1779 in “Life of Cowley”, which is about the life of Abraham Cowley, but the term is used in an unflattering way. People didn’t think highly of metaphysical poetry then. Nature and art are ransacked for images, the reader is seldom pleased, according to Johnson. Abraham Cowley is another metaphysical poet, as are Donne, Herbert, Richard Crashaw and Henry Vaughan. John Milton (1608-1674) Milton is the most important poet of the 17th century. He is born in London in a protestant household. His father is a convert from Catholicism, Milton’s family is now allied to the puritan cause. Milton’s father is a succesful businessman. Milton has private tutors, then goes to St.Paul’s school, and graduates a bachelor at Magdalin College in Cambridge in 1629. Nael p.1774-1781 ‘On The Morning of Christ’s Nativity’ (= This is Milton’s first major work in English instead of latin.) By 1629 he has written a lot of latin verse already. Milton also wrote in Greek and Italian and had an active reading knowledge of 6 more languages, including Hebrew. In 1632 he returns home to his family in London, where he doesn’t work, but does the things he loves best: studying and reading. Milton has a great memory: he knows the entire King James Bible by heart. He reads everything he can get his hands on. In 1638 he embarks on his Grand Tour through Europe, a customary undertaking to round off one’s education. He meets famous scholars and members of the royalty. In his alba amicorum he collects other people’s writings / notes / drawings, it serves as a diary and as a sort of passport, and at the same time as a reminder of the things he has accomplished. His Grand Tour only lasted 15 months, he only gets to tour France and Italy, where he meets Galileo Galilei. In 1639 he feels that he has to go back to England because of the political situation there. The war of the bishops has begun. Milton felt it his duty to serve the republican cause back home. He becomes a public secretary. In 1642 he marries Mary Powell, who leaves him after six weeks on the grounds of incompatibility. She returns, however, and will be the mother of his 4 children. Milton is a little embittered by this episode. In the years 46 1643-1645 he publishes a series of pamphlets in favour of divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. Milton, in other words, is not just a poet, but also a pamphleteer.µ His most important pamphlet is called the Arepagitica (in Nael!), which he writes in 1644. It is in favour of free speech and against censorship. It is written in response to public condemnation of his arguing for divorce on grounds of incompatibility. During the 1640’s, he gradually loses his eyesight. By the winter of 1651/2 he is completely blind. He still had to produce his major works by then! ‘Paradise Lost’ is written at that stage. He dictates the work to his daughter. His loss of vision is often referred to in his oeuvre, also in Paradise Lost. Nael p.1814 “When I consider How My Light Is Spent” (=blindness) Milton approved of the killing of Charles I in 1649 (regicide). He still opposed the monarchy upon its restoration in 1660. Nael p.1813 ‘To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652’ In the early 1650’s, he is a supporter of Oliver Cromwell(=sonnet). He changes his attitude, however, when Oliver Cromwell is Lord Protector, he feels that the king is gone only to be replaced the new tyranny of Cromwell. When Charles II is brought back to England, Milton is imprisoned, but soon manages to get out with the help of friends who intervene on his behalf. He was lucky in that respect, many regicides died in prison. Mary Powell dies in 1652, his second wife dies in childbirth. It is a very black period in his life, but it is his most productive. In 1667 ‘Paradise Lost’ is published a first time in 10 books. In 1674 it is published a second time, in 12 books (=today version). Milton also publishes ‘Paradise Regained’, a brief epic on the temptation of Christ by the devil in the wilderness. ‘Samson Agonistes’ si a closet drama, which means that it is a play only meant to be read, and not performed. It is about the bible hero Samson, he with the long hair and the bitch girlfriend Delilah. In 1674 Milton dies. ‚Paradise Lost’ is about man’s first disobedience. It is the story of Adam and Eve as they are driven out of Eden (story from the book of Genesis). It is a long and detailed narrative poem. It is at the same time the story of Satan, who once was the brightest angel in heaven. Satan rebelled against God and even led his supporters in a war against God. He loses and is punished and kicked out of heaven. As a revenge he seduces Eve in the disguise of the infernal serpent to eat of the sacred fruit, and to persuade Adam to do so also. Nael p.1818 ‘Paradise Lost’ (the first verses of book 1) 47 All in all, the civil war is a very important period in the history of Great Britain. Charles I Charles I is the son of James VI. In 1625 he marries Henrietta Maria, the catholic sister of the French king Louis XIII. It is the year that he first comes to the throne of England. He firmly believes in the divine right of kings, who should have absolute power. He was supposed to govern England with the assistance of Parliament, however. The first Parliament of 16+25 lasts 4 years. Parliament was very critical of him and distrusted him. It believed him to be strongly influenced by his favourite and chief minister, George Velliers, the duke of Buckingham. In 1629 Charles I dissolves Parliament and decides to rule by himself. He does so for 11 years. He appointed people who were loyal to him to assist him, such as William Land (bishop). England was governed by an absolutist clique. In 1637 Charles has the idea of trying to force Episopalianism on Scotland. Scotland was hitherto Presbyterian country, church elders were lay people appointed by a committee of other laymen, a very democratic system of church rule. Episcopalians had bishops, that were appointed by the king of England. The scots didn’t take this sitting down, they were prepared to fight almost immediately. They defeated the royalist army. The problem for Charles I was that he had to ask Parliament for money to fund his wars. This left Parliament in a very powerful position. Charles went ahead anyway and called forth Parliament once again. The first time this happens is known as the Short Parliament, everybody got together, but no agreement was reached, so the Parliament was dismissed again. The second one, the Long Parliament, was called together in 1640. The Parliament offered the king money in return for some constitutional changes. Charles I refused. The conflict was at first political, and later on became military. The first civil war was from 1642-1645 saw the roundheads (supporters of parliament with a characteristic hairdo) defeating the cavaliers (royalists). The final battle was at Naseby. 1646 saw the surrender of Charles I to the Scots. He was put in the hands of Parliament in 1647, who considered his return to power, but Charles refused the offer they made. This was the cause for the outbreak of the second civil war, which lasted only for a few months during 1648. 48 During the First Civil War, a strong leader of the Parliamentarians emerged out of nothing. It was Oliver Cromwell, whose earlier life remains a mystery. He united the Parliamentarian forces. His regiment was known as the ironsides (yzervreters). He was soon second in command to the new model army of the Parliamentarians, a military man who had become politically active. After 1648, Parliament had become tired of negotiations with Charles, so they decided to abolish the monarchy. By the end of 1648 they had also abolished the privy council, the courts of the exchequer, the courts of admiralty and other institutions. These were replaced by a Council of State and committees and subcommittees. Parliament wanted to put Charles on trial, they accused him of high treason, and he was executed the 30th of January 1649. His son had left England and returned to Scotland in 1650, they had him crowned Charles II in defiance of England. He even had Scottish support to invade England, but he couldn’t recover the monarchy quite so easily. The first time he tried to do so, thousands died at the battle of Dunbar. His second try was also unsuccesful. As he wasn’t very popular at home by now, either, he went to seek refuge with his mother in France. He roamed through Europe for 9 years, until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Charles II stayed in Flanders, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, for about five years. This meant, that his court and entourage were also moved here. Reputedly he visited the Rubenshuis, which was then the home of William Cavendish, the Duke of Newcastle. Many of Charles’ entourage were literary active here, eg Margaret Cavendish, wife to the Duke. She wrote “The life of William..”, an account of the civil war from a royalist point of view out of Flanders. She complained, that William was not rewarded for his services in any way. Several such accounts exist. Another one is by Lucy Hutchinson, who wrote her account from a Parliamentarian point of view. The text shows that she had a very clear idea about what was going on, and was able to trace the origins of the civil war. She finds causes all the way back to the reign of Henry VIII. It is –like many such accounts- an ego-document. This means, that the target audience is her own family. Lucy Hutchinson wanted her children to know the events that had happened in those turbulent times, and how her husband and she were motivated to do the things they did. This was clearly very important to her, since her husband, Colonel Hutchinson, was persecuted during the restoration for being a regicide. Her children should be able to find out, why their father was being treated that way. Nael p.1726: ‘Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson’ The biography was a popular genre at the time. John Aubrey even collected them, publishing a collection of them called ‘Brief Lives’. John Aubrey: see also Shakespeare. 49 Another literary genre popular in the 17th century is the diary. Samuel Pepys (1638-1703) He is the son of a tailor. He goes to St.Pauls School and attends Magdalen College at Cambridge. In 1656 he is employed by his cousin, Sir Edward Montague, the Earl of Sandwich. Both of them started out as supporters of Parliament, then later turned royalist. After the restauration, this proved advantageous to them. For Pepys it means that he becomes a civil servant. He moves steadily upward, starting out as a clerk of the king’s ships and ending up as secretary to the admiralty, a very important job. On 1/1/1660 he starts his diary, which he keeps up until May 1669. He only stops writing in it because he wrongly fears that he is going blind. The diary presents the reader with a day-to-day account of life in London, eg at the time of the great fire of 1666. There are a lot of Pepys’ personal views on his job, religion (comments on sermons etc.), but also on theatre. Pepys loved the theatre and went there often. His diary presents us with a calendar of which play was staged where and when, and even of who was present at which shows. Due to his function, Pepys met a great number of important people, a lot of his conversations with them are written down in the diary. Pepys was a married man, but he had lots of affairs. His hanky panky is described in a combination of French and English. As Pepys’ account was written in shorthand, a very common practice at the time, and only the names and references to places were originally in longhand, it took a very long time to decipher all of the diary. A first edition could only be published in 1825. Nael p.2127: ‘October the 25th,1668’ Theatre in the 17th century Jacobean Theatre started with the accession of James VI to the throne of England, when he became James I of England in 1603. This date was of great importance to the organization of London Theatre. James had always been interested in theatre, even when still in Scotland (in opposition to the calvinists there). Within a few weeks of his arrival in London, he patronized the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. This means that he became their patron, they were now the King’s Men. His wife patronized the Lord Worcester’s Men, ergo the Queen’s Men. Even their 9-year-old son had his own Theatre company. In fact, this means that there was conscious support of the theatre by the entire royal family and household. The theatres all prospered during the reign of James I. New Theatres were built, eg 1604 the ‘Red Bull’, where the Queen’s Men performed next to their attendances at ‘The Curtain’. In 1608, the indoor ‘Blackfriar’s Theatre’ was first used by the King’s Men. 50 From that moment on, there were regular indoor performances. This meant that the conditions of the performances were now different. Artificial lighting had to be used instead of daylight, and the situation was advantageous to the use of scenery and effects. This in turn proved to have an impact on the writing process. Another important aspect was that tastes changed in theatre. The court masque becomes popular, and scenery and scenic effects are more widely used and on a grander scale. These changes are already visible in Shakespeare’s later oeuvre. In ‘Measure for Measure’ , which is the first play performed by the King’s Men, there is even a direct reference to King James I. In Shakespeare’s tragedies (Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra) the author concentrates on power and possible abuses of power, this may also be seen as an indirect reference to kingship. The theme is taken up by his younger contemporaries. Shakespeare also reconceptualizes the comic genre, introducing the problem plays and removing them from romance. Comedy becomes troubled and a problematic genre. There is also a new kind of tragedy, centered on the theme of revenge. Hardly anybody survives this new kind of play, which was very popular during the Jacobean age, so that many were written. A very violent and corrupt society is represented in these plays. A good example is George Chapman ‘Bussy d’Ambois’(1604) or John Webster’s ‘The White Devil’(1612) or ‘The Duchess of Malfi’(1614). Incest is also a popular theme in Jacobean and Carolinic theatre. John Ford writes ‘The broken Heart’ and ‘T’is a pity she’s a whore’, both of these plays are centered on incest. Comedies also underwent changes: satire becomes more important. The foremost playwrights of the genre are Ben Jonson, John Marston and John Middleton. Mostly, they wrote ‘city comedies’ which were mostly set in London, except for ‘Volpone’ by Jonson, which is set in Venice. In these comedies, the manners of the middle class are ridiculed. These people are mainly well-to-do businessmen that are fakers and pretend to be a better kind of people by use of a thin veneer of politeness. Theatre-wise, the Jacobean and Carolinic period are not very different. In 1642 the Carolinic period ends (civil war) and Parliament decides the closure of the theatres. At that time, there were 6 public theatres, 7 private theatres, 3 court theatres and lots of inns and public places where plays were being performed. In 1632, William Prynne (a puritan) publishes an attack on the immorality of theatre, dancing and other such pastimes called ‘Histrio-Mastix’. Basically, 51 all who perform plays are pagans, and all those who go to see them are whores and whore-masters. As some of his remarks seem to be aimed at the wife of Charles I, Henrietta Maria, he is not very popular at court. He is imprisoned, and part of his ears are cut off. He doesn’t desist, however, and so the whole of his ears are cut off and his cheeks are branded. He still doesn’t give up, however, he even gets out of prison on the eve of the civil war! In 1642 one of the first decrees of Parliament is the closure of all theatres. But even though the theatre buildings themselves were demolished not all theatrical activity was stopped. From 1646 onwards, all dramatical performances that Parliament found out about (spies!) were raided and everybody present fined on the spot. Still, Parliament didn’t manage to stamp out all english theatre. Plays were still being performed in secret, and Parliament had forgotten to forbid the publication of plays! Therefore, there exist dramatic links between the pre1642 and the post-1660 situation, eg the folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher. When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, there were changes for the better. He issued a payton to William Davenant and Thomas Killigrew, he gave them the permission and exclusive right to stage plays in London. This meant also that there were new theatre companies. Killigrew helped set up the King’s Men, and Davenant helped set up the Duke’s Men (James, the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II). New locations were needed for the theatres to be performed at, too. Plays had been performed at tennis courts and riding schools, until there were two new venues: the Duke’s Theatre and the Royal Theatre. Another spectacular innovation was the introduction of women actresses! It was the first time that women were allowed on stage. Charles II had seen this phenomenon during his stay in Europe and in 1662 decreed that all female roles had to be performed by women from that moment on. The audiences after 1660 were generally much more homogenous and sophisticated. They were noblemen, gentlemen of the courts and their wives, the country gentry (squires) and their ladies, highly placed civil servants and businessmen. The theatre had become a thing for the wealthy classes. An acting troop would consist of about twenty people and there would be performances every afternoon, six days out of seven. Since in general a play was expected to run only about three days, the mornings would be spent rehearsing the following plays. There would be a lot of adapted or rewritten plays, and also many new ones. In the summer, the court moved to the countryside. The 18th century 52 In this century, there were many radical changes in every aspect of life for the common man. There is a clear break between the medieval world and the modern world. At the time, the Renaissance was considered to have such a break (opinion of Burkhart), but looking back now, the break in the 18th century is even more prominent. In the beginning of the 18th century, British society was mostly agricultural, and there was the feudal system. Towards the end of the century, the country was definitely heading towards the Industrial Revolution, and the landowning aristocracy had definitely lost power to the trading middle classes. In 1603, there had been the union of the crowns between Scotland and England, in 1707 there was the Union of the Parliaments, the Scottish Parliament was united with the English Parliament in Westminster. 1776 there was the loss of 13 colonies to the USA. There were other colonies gained, however. These were to be the foundation for the later empire. The monarchy had the house of Hannover. It loses its absolutist ambitions and yields power to Parliament. The power went to the Cabinet Government with a powerful prime minister at its head. There was the rise of the Tories and the Whigs, which meant that there were clearly defined political factions. It was a period of Aufklärung, Enlightenment. The relationship between man and god was reconsidered, it was no more of prime concern. Man’s relation to his fellow man became more important. Society was seen to be crucial to man’s survival. Civilized behaviour was seen to be very necessary in this. Politeness, refined tastes, propriety, manners became important. People are taught to behave in a refined and decent manner. Empathy is admired as an important moral characteristic. Addison and Steele and their followers stress these factors. Nael p.2481: Steele: “The Gentleman; The Pretty Fellow” They stress the importance of politeness and manners. The periodical essay is now the literary form par excellence to stress the importance of empathy. Feelings become important, it is the very early beginnings of what will result in the Romantic period. Feelings were even considered to be more important than reason by some. To be able to express and share these feelings was important, and this in the age of reason! 53 It is also the age of the utopian beliefs (≈ Thomas More), it is the age of John Locke. Utopian visions resurface and lie at the basis of the revolutions (USA, France). Locke was of the opinion that the human mind is a clean slate at the time of his birth. It is then filled in by the sum of experiences during the human life. This puts enormous importance on the matter of education. Children can be turned into good human beings by steering them using correct education, all this in the purpose of creating a better world. It is also the age when women demand more freedom and education. An important figure in this is Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797). There is “The vindication of the rights of Woman” in 1792, it is the earliest earliest substantial work in the history of the women’s movement in Great Britain. There is also the rise of the novel, which started out as a didactic instrument to teach manners and good taste. Scotland is part of the UK now, the people there are now trained to speak proper English, they take allocation lessons to be able to be part of the new world. There are always the two extremes: the nationalists and the ones with the desire to join the important cultural movements in the UK. An important question eg is whether to write in Scottish or English. Still, the Scots were by no means backward, they played an important part in the Enlightenment, even. Important figures were Francis Hutchison, David Hume, Adam Smith, William Robertson and Adam Ferguson. There is also the cult of the sentiment. ‘Virtuous Sensibility’ ! This is not to be confused with sentimentalism! The origins are to be found in the writings of the Earl of Shaftesbury (=theory). He stresses the importance of feelings in bringing about virtuous actions in man. He believes that man is naturally disposed to appreciate the beauty of feelings and right actions (≈ Sidney), through the exercise of moral sense. Observing natural beauty and experiencing art will ultimately lead to virtuous behaviour. The response to this theory was put into practice for the first time by James Thomson, who wrote a poetic cycle called the ‘Four Seasons’. In it are a lot of detailed descriptions of landscapes and stories of positive of positive workings of emotions. More significantly, the importance of feelings can be found in the sentimental novels. Examples are Richardson’s “Pamela”, which Fielding parodizes in “Shamela” and “Tom Jones”. The peak of this movement comes in the second generation, a good example is Mackenzie’s “The Man of Feeling”. By the time the parodies started, the vogue was over. 54 Feelings were an important feature of this age of rationalism; they weren’t a reaction, however, but just something that happened at the same time. 55