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Chaucer's Work in General. It is usual and convenient to divide Chaucer's literary career into three periods, which are called his French, his Italian, and his English period, respectively. His genius was nourished on the French poetry and romance which formed the favourite reading of the court. Naturally the fashion, and his early work was done on French models. One of the first tributies (дань уважения) to Chaucer as poet came from France (Chaucer translated the popular Roman de la Rose) in 1385-6. Though France at that time was preparing to invade England, Chaucer's friend, Sir Lewis Clifford, returned from France bringing Chaucer a poem of generous praise, written by the leading French poet of the time, Eustache Deschamps. Deschamp's ballade, with the refrain "great translator, noble Geoffrey Chaucer", stressed Chaucer's role as a cultural intermediary who had made Le roman de la rose accessible to English readers. The poem praised Chaucer extravagantly for his brevity of speech, his wisdom, his practical learning. Deschamps himself, he wrote, would be only a nettle in Chaucer's poetry. The Book of Duchess (1369) belongs to this period, it is written wholly in the manner of reigning French school.

Then, almost certainly as a direct result of his visits to Italy, French influences disappear, and Italian influences take their place. In this second period (1370- 84), Chaucer is the disciple of the great Italian maters, for The House of Fame clearly owes much to Dante, while Troylos and Cryseyde is based upon and in part translated from Boccaccio's Filostrato.

Finally, he ceases to be Italian as he had ceased to be French, and becomes English. This does not mean that he no longer draws freely upon French and Italian material. He continiues to do this to the end. It simply means that, instead of being merely imitative, he becomes independent, relying upon himself entirely even when he used the borrowed themes. To this last period belong, together with sundry minor poems, the Canterbury Tales, in which we have Chaucer's most famous and most characteristic work.

Lecture 6. “The Canterbury Tales”

The Canterbury Tales. In his greatest work, the Canterbury Tales (1386-1400), Chaucer created a briliant and picturesque panorama of his time and his country. These are a collection of stories fitted (вставленная) into a general framework which serves to hold them together. Some of them were certainly written earlier, and before the framework had been thought of; but we put the Tales as a whole into Chaucer's third period, because it was then that most of them were composed, and that the complete design shaped itself in the poet's mind. That design explains the title. A number of pilgrims on the eve of their depature meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, where as it chances, Chaucer himself is also staying; and, he is easily persuaded to join the party. Pilgrimages were very popular in the fourteenth century; they were often undertaken, as here, in companies, partly for the sake of society by the way, and partly because of the dangers of the roads; Sometimes the pilgrims went as far afield as Rome and Jerusalem; but one of the favourite expeditions nearer home was to the shrine of the murdered St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury; The jolly host of the Tabard, Harry Bailly, gives them hearty welcome and a supper; after they satisfied, he makes a proposal: that to beguile the tedium of the journey each member of the party shall tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and two on the way back; that he himself shall be the judge; and that the one who tells the best tale shall be treated by all rest to a supper on their return to the Tabard Inn. The suggestion is applauded, and these Canterbury Tales are the result.

All these is explained in the Prologue, after which Chaucer proceeds to introduce his fellow - pilgtims. Though limited to what we may call the middle classes, the company is still very comprehensive. The military profession is represented by a knight, a squire, and a yeoman; the ecclesiastical, by a prioress, a nun (her secretary), a monk, a friar, a summoner, a pardoner (or seller of pardons), a poor parson, and a Clerk of Oxford, who is a student of divinity. Then we have a lawyer and a physician, and, running down the social scale, a number of miscellaneus characters whome one cannot well classify - a franklin (freeholder of land), a merchant, a shipman (sailor), a miller, a cook, a manciple(caterer of colleges), a reeve (land steward), a haberdasher, a carpenter, a weaver, a dyer, a tapycer (tapestry maker), a ploughman (the poor parson's brother), and a well - to- do west-country cloth-maker named Alicon, who however, is better known as the Wife of Bath. The pilgrims being 32 in all, the total number of tales, according to the Chaucer's plan, was to exceed that of Boccaccio's Decameron, but the auther failed to carry out this plan and only 24 tales were written.

The Prologue is a splendid masterpiece of realistic portrayal, the first of its kind in the history of English literature. All the characters are individualised, yet their typical quality gives unique value to Chaucer's picture of men and manners in the England of his time. The pilgrims are people from various parts of England, representatives of various walks of life, with various interests, tastes and predilections. Thus, " a worthy knight", just back from the wars. His dress and bearing are very plain and modest. This is Chaucer's ideal of a national champion. The knight's son, a gay young squire, thinks more of his dress and of song-making than of other chivalrous duties. He prefers the court to the battle - field. The knight's attendant, a yeoman in bright green colour of cloth, with a "mighty bow" in his hand. This forester, who has a hunting horn with him, recalls to the reader the image of Robin Hood. A Prioress who weeps when she sees a mouse caught in a trap, but turns her head when she sees a beggar in his "ugly rags". Her image, as well as those of the fat Monk, the jolly Friar, the Summoner (officer of the ecclesiastical court), the Pardoner and the "Doctor of Physic" are all treated in an ironical manner. With a feeling of sympathy Chaucer describes the Clerk, a poor philosopher who spends all his money on books, the Parish Priest, also "a poor parson of town" who reminds us of Wyclif and John Ball; According to the programme each of the pilgrims was to have told stories, and each of the narrators tells his tale in a peculiar manner, revealing his own views and character. Thus, we have the chivalry epic tale of the Knight in strange contrast with the coarse farcical story of the Miller.

His finest work as a narrative poet is the Knight Tale, which in accrdance with law of dramatic propriety is heroic in subject, chivalrous in sentiment, and romantic in tone. Based on the Teseide of Boccaccio, it tells of two young cousins of royal blood, named Palamon and Arcite, who, when Duke Theseus makes war against their city of Thebes, are taken captive by him, and imprisoned in a tower of his place. From their window one May morning they chance to see Emily, the beautiful sister of the Duke's wife, walking in the garden beneath; whereupon their life-long friendship is shattered and they become rivals in love. Arcite is presently ransomed; but unable to endure banishment from Emily, returns to Athens in disguise, and finds a menial place in the Duke's service. Then, after several years, palamon makes escape. The cousins meet in duel, but are interrupted by the Duke and the train as they ride out to hunt. Theseus dooms them both to death, but relenting on the petition of the ladies, spares (щадить) their lives on condition that each shall collect a hundred knights, and the case shall be decided in a great tournament, the hand of Emily being the victory's prize. In this tournament Arcite falls, and the story ends with the nuptials of Palamon and Emily. Brilliant in itself, this fine tale is also intensely interesting as the embodiment of that romantic spirit which, as we have seen, prevailed in the court circles of Chaucer's youth.

It should be noted that in no case the tales original in theme. Chaucer takes his raw material from many different sources. But whatever he borrows he makes entirely his own, and he remains one of the most delightful of English story - tellers in verse. His fourteenth century (or 'Middle') English looks very difficult at first, but only a little time and perseverence are needed to master it, and these will be amply (полно)repaid by the pleasure we find in the felicity (блаженство) of his diction and the melody of his verse. His descriptions of the country are often indeed in the conventional manner of his time, and his garden landscape and May flowers are to some extent things of tradition only. But he has a real love of nature and particularly of the spring, and when he writes of these, as in the Prologue and the Knight's Tale, the personal accent is unmistakable.

General Characteristics of Chaucer's Poetry.

Chaucer was not in any sense a poet of the people. He was a court poet, who wrote for cultured readers and a refined society. The great vital issues (спорный вопрос) of the day never inspired his verse. He made his appeal to an audience composed of the favoured few, who wanted to be amused by comedy, or touched by pathos (ч-л, вызывающее грусть), or moved by romantic sentiment, but who did not wish to be disturbed by painful reminders of plagues, famines and popular discontent.. It is true that, as we have seen, he felt the religious corruptions of the world about him, but on the whole he left burning questions alone. His was an easy-going, genial, tolerant nature, and nothing of the reformer went to its composition. Chaucer's temperament thus explains his relations with his age. Little touched by its religious or social movements, he responded readily to the influence of Italian humanism, and it is through him that its free secular spirit first expresses itself in English poetry. If Wyclif was "the morning star of the Reformation", Chaucer may be called "the morning star of the Renaissance".

Chronology of Chaucer's work:

Before 1372: The Romaunt of the Rose (Роман о розе)

The Book of the Duchness (1368 - 72)

The House of Fame (1378 -80) (Дом славы)

Anelida and Arcite

The Parliament of Fowls (1380 -82) (Птичий парламент)

Boece

Troilus and Criseyda (1382 -86) (Троил и Крессида)

The Complaint of Mars (probably around 1385)

The Complain of Venus

Palamon and Arcite (The Knight's Tale) (Паламон и Арсит)

The Legend of Good Women (Легенда о славных женщинах)

1388 - 92: The General Prologue and the earlier of The Canterbury Tales;

A Treatise on the Astrolabe (1391 -92, with additions in 1393 or later)

1392 - 95: Most of The Canterbury Tales, including probably the "Marriage Group (Брачная серия))

1396 - 1400: The latest of the Tales, including probably The Nun's Priest's Tale,

The Canon's Yeoman's Tale (Рассказ слуги каноника); The Parson Tale; and several short poems, including Scogan (K Генри Скогану)), Bukton, and The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse (Жалоба Чосера к своему пустому кошельку)

Лекция 7 Other Poets of Chaucer's Age

Chaucer's chief rival in poetry was John Gower (1332? - 1408). The two poets were long friends, and Chaucer's dedication of his Troylos and Cryceyde to the "moral Gower", as he calls him, and Gower's warm reference to Chaucer towards the end of his Confessio Amantis (Исповедь влюбленного), show their reciprocal esteem; but later on, jealousy and misunderstandings arose between them. Gower was a most industrious and well - meaning writer, and his work is extremely voluminous, learned, and careful; but for the most part he is hopelessly dull. Unlike Chaucer, who from the first realised the possibilities of the English tongue, he found it hard and of his three long poems, one - Speculum Meditantis - is in French; another - Vox Clamantis (Глас Вопиющего) - in Latin; the third - Confessio Amantis - in English. It is in this last named that he most distinctly challenges comparison with Chaucer. In temper and attitude towards life, the two poets differed radically. Gower took a very gloomy view of social conditions of the time. His Vox Clamantis is largely concerned with Wat Tyler's rebellion, his standpoint of that was a strong conservative. Gower had no sympathy with the teachings of Wyclif and his followers.

In striking contrast with both Chaucer and Gower, who were poets of the court, stands a third writer of this age, William Langland (1330? - 1400), who was essentially apoet of the people. Of the man himself we know very little. He seems to have been the son of a franklin; to have been born in the neighbourhood of malvern; and to had lived a life of poverty and struggle. Of his character, however, we a have a clear revelation in his work, the Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman (Видение о Петре - пахаре), an enormous allegorical poem, which runs to upwards (свыше) of 15, 000 lines. Rambling (бесссвязно), confused, and almost formless, the Vision has small claim to be regarded as a piece of literary art; but its defects on this side are redeemed (dopvtof.ncz) by its vigour and moral earnestness. Under the conventional device of a dream, or more exactly a series of dreams, the poet boldly attacts the social and ecclesiastical abuses (заблуждения) of the day, the greed and hypocrisy of the clergy, and the avarice and tyranny of those who sit in high places. Langland's spirit is strikingly puritanan democratic. He was not indeed a Wyclifite, nor politically was he a revolutionarist. But he was profoundly moved by the misery of the masses; he was an ardent (cтрастный) champion of their cause; and he sought to bring English religion back to the simplicity and purity of gospel truth. It is an interesting commentary upon the character of the poem that, written expressly for the people instead of for the court, its language and style are far more rustic and old - fashioned than those of Chaucer's work. Its dialect is a mixture of Southern and Midland English, and - the last important poem to be written in this way - it adheres (твердо придерживаться) to the Anglo - Saxon principle of alliteration:

In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne

I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were [3]

One other fourteenth century poet deserves passing mention - the Scottish John Barbour (1326? - 95), who for a time was Archdeacon of Aberdeen. As the real father of Scottish poetry, he holds (удерживает) a certain place in literature. His fame rests on (держится на) his long poem The Brus, in which the great deeds of Robert Bruce are recorded in spirited narrative.

The list of literature used:

1. Гардон Д. Жизнь и время Чосера. -М.: Радуга, 1986

2. Benson L. O. The Reverside Chaucer. Harward University, 1987

3. Gritchuk M.A. English for students of Literature. - M.: Vyssaya Scola, 1983

4. Klimenko E., Egunova N. English Literature reader. -M-L: Uchpedgiz, 1952

5. Hudson H. W. An Outline History of English Literature. Bombay.: B.I. Publications, 1964, p. 17- 29

LECTURE 8

Poetry, prose and drama of the fifteenth century.

Popular ballads.

With Chaucer English literature made a brilliant beginning, but it was only a beginning, and after his death it enters upon a long barren period (бесплодный период) in its history. It is perhaps that the fifteenth century was not in England an age of great men in any field of activity. But we must also recognise that even when talent exists it depends upon favourable conditions for its expression, and in the fifteenth century conditions were the reverse of favourable. The country was distracted by political conflicts, which culminated in the thirty years' struggle for power (1455 - 86) between the House of York and Lancaster. In these Wars of the Roses many of the great nobles were killed. The low state of education has also to be emphasised. Mental activity in the universities was wasted in endless and profitless controversies over the dry abstractions of mediaeval philosophy. In fifteenth century England, therefore, there was little enough to inspire, and much to repress literary genius.

Poetry of the fifteenth Century. The poor quality of fifteenth century verse is at once suggested (допускать мысль, подсказывать) by the fact that the greater part of it is imitative. Nearly all poets tried to walk in Chaucer's footsteps and, style. Of these Chaucerians, who were numerous, the best known are Thomas Occleve, or Hoccleve (1370? - 1450?), and John Lydgate (1370?- 1451), both of whom were very voluminous. Hoccleve wrote a long poem called The Governail of Princes, in Chaucer's seven - line stanza and in the prologue, in which he tells us much about himself, describes his grief on Chaucer's death and sings his master's praises. Lydgate, a learned Benedictine monk of Bury St. Edmunds, his productions being the Storie of Thebes (designed as a new Canterbury Tale), the Troy Boke, and the Falles of Princes - the last based on French paraphrase of a Latin work of Boccaccio. But on the whole, like all imitative things in art, such productions are of slight permanent value.

The best poetry of the fifteenth century, however, was written in Scotland, where, though the influence of Chaucer was marked, the spirit of of originality was far stronger than in the south. There is not much originality, indeed, about The King's Quair, a long poem in which James I of Scotland (1394 - 1437) tells of his love for the Lady Jane Beaufort, who afterward became his wife; but the the genuineness of its personal feeling gives life to its verse. In William Dunbar (1465? - 1530?), the greatest British poet between Chaucer and Spenser, the individual quality is much more apparent. His graceful allegorical poem, The Thistle and the Rose, composed to commemorate the marriage of James IV of Scotland, is quite in the manner of Chaucer's early poetry. But in his satirical ballads and in his remarkable Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins, there is a combination of vigour, broad humour, and homely pathos, which belongs wholly to the character of the poet and to his native soil. The true Scottish quality is also in Gawain or Gavin Douglas (1474 - 1522), Bishop of Dunkeld, whose Palice of Honour is full of Chaucer, while his original prologues to the successive books of his translation of the Eneid bear the stamp of the writer's own maind and stile.

The treatment of nature by these Scottish poets in general is specially interesting. Chaucer's May morning and garden landscape had become a convention which his English disciples were content to reproduce. In Scottish poetry, too, the convention reappears, but on the other hand we often find real Scotch scenery painted manifestly (ясно) by men who, instead of adopting a mere literary fashion, had studied and were trying to depict the nature about them for themselves. Scottish poets did much to bring the love of nature into later English literature.

It is interesting to note that though poetically poor, the fifteenth century did much to foster a love of poetry among the English people. Songs and ballads were widespread among the populace of England and Scotland; they were created and preserved by the people and that is why they are, in full justice, termed "the popular ballads". There are various kinds of ballads: historical Chevy Chase Охота на Чевиотских холмах, The Battle of Otterburn Отернберская битва, legendary, fantastical Thomas Rymer (Томас Раймер), Clerk Saunders (Школяр Сандерс), lyrical Child Waters (Чайльд Уотерс), Helen of Kirkconnel (Елена из Кирконеля). English balladry includes also a great number of humorous ballads which were in general very popular in Great Britain. They reveal the unbounded (беспредельный) optimism, ingenuity and resourcefulness of common people. Get up and Bar the Door (Cтупай, закрой двери), The Crafty Farmer (Ловкий фермер) are good examples of a humorous ballad.

Of paramount importance (первостепенной важности) are the beautiful ballads in which Robin Hood 's feats are celebrated. Robin Hood is a partly historical and partly legendary character. The first mention of Robin Hood in literature is in Langland's The Vision of Piers, the Plowman (Видение о Петре пахаре ~ 1362- 1377). He is also spoken of in several chronicles of the 15 th and 17th centuries.

In the History of Great Britain written in Latin and published in 1521 we are told that Robin Hood and his friend Little John lived at the time of King Richard the Lion- Heart. Robin Hood, a Saxon by birth, is a man with a twinkle in his eye, a man fond of a merry joke and a hearty laugh, was an outlaw, a robber, but he, says the chronicle, robbed only the rich and never molested the poor and needy. The character of Robin Hood is manysided. Strong, brave and clever, he is at the same time tender - hearted and affectionate. His hatred for the cruel oppressors is the result of his love for the poor and downtrodden (угнетенным). Robin Hood and his archers, proceeds the chronicle, were invincible and the King's and baron's soldiers could do nothing to them. Other historians date the years of his life to the 13th century, and also stress his popularity among the people.

The various ballads of Robin Hood were united at the beginning of the 16th century into cycle called A Merry Geste('exploit) of Robin Hood in which the whole life of the hero is portrayed.

The ballads of Robin Hood gained great popularity in the second half of the 14th century, at the time of the struggle of the peasants and artisans against their masters and exploiters.

Many English writers of the Renaissance and later times mention Robin Hood's name in their works or even introduce him as one of the heroes (W. Shakespeare, As you Like It; B. Jonson, The Sad Shepherd; Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; J. Keats, Robin Hood and others).

The ballads played an important role in the development of English poetry up to the 20th century.

Prose of the Fifteenth Century.

The great prose production of the fifteenth century, which is the one really book of the age, is the Morte Darthur (Смерть Короля Артура) of Sir Thomas Malory.

This work is a compilation made from a number of French romances dealing with different portions of vast cycle of legends which had grown up about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, Malory's object (цель) being to digest the scattered stories into a connected summory. To this end (цель) he treated his materials with a very free hand, selecting, rejecting, abridging, adapting, and rearranging, to suit (приспосабливать) his prose. His narrative has little unity or propotion, but we must give him full credit (похвала) for the measure of success whoch he certainly achieved. In an age when the mediaeval spirit was fast dying and the old feudal order rapidly (быстро) becoming a thing of the past, Malory, a man of retrospective mind, looked back with sentimental regret, and his book is full (in Caxton's words) of " the noble acts, feats of arms of chivalry, prowess (доблесть), hardiness (cмелость), humanity, love, courtesy, and very gentleness (доброта)" which formed at least the ideal of the ancient system of knighthood. The Morte Darthur holds a high place in literary history not only on account of из-за its intrinsic interest, but his also because it has been a well-spring источник of inspiration to many modern poets such as Matthew Arnold, Swinburne, William Morris, and pre - eminantly (превосходящий других) Tennyson, whose Idylls of the King are largely based upon it. In style, it is artless, for Malory pays little attention to grammar, and his sentence structure is often faulty (несовершенный). But he is wonderfully racy (колоритный) and picturesque, and on occasion (иногда) he becomes really impressive.

The 15th century in English literature is a period not of production but of preparation to the great intellectual awakening of the century following.
LECTURE 9

The 16th century

RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND.

PRINTING, INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND

The 16th century in England was a period of the breaking up of feudal relations and the establishing of the foundations of capitalism.

Manufacturies were developing and the trade was rapidly growing. The enclosure превращение общинных земель в частную собственность) drove thousands of peasants off their lands and many of them settled in towns.

It was a time when, accоrding to Thomas More, "sheep devoured [au] men."

At the beginning of the 16th century absolute monarchy was formed in England. In order to undermine the power of independent feudal lords and strengthen his own role, king Henry disbanded their feudal bodyguard.

The progress of bourgeois economy made England a powerful state and enabled her in 1588 to inflict (нанести) a defeat (поражение) on the Spanish Invincible Armada.

The victory over her most dangerous political rival consolidated Great Britain's might on the high seas and in world trade. Numerous English ships under admirals Drake, Hawkins and others, who were both traders and pirates, ploughed the seas, visited America and other distant countries bringing from them great fortunes that enriched and strengthened the crown. They were those who established first English colonies.

Together with the development of bourgeois relationships and formation of the English national state this period is marked by a flourishing of national culture known in history as the Renaissance (French for "revival"). The period in English literature generally called the Renaissance is usually considered to have begun a little before 1500 and to have lasted until 1660.

That revival began, as we have learned, with Petrarch and Boccaccio in the fourteenth century in Italy, when wealthy men, like the Florentine banker, Cosimo de' Medici, and his grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, became munificent(щедрый) patrons of scholarship and the arts, when monastic libraries were ransacked (ограбить) and innumerable longforgotten treasures of Greek and Latin literature brought to light. Indeed, a great number of the works of classical authors were translated into English during the 16th century. English scholars crossed the Alps to study at Padua, Bologna, and Florence, bringing back with them the inspiration which they had received in these great centres of culture; Young Englishmen of rank (рядовые) considered a visit to Italy a necessary part of their education in the arts of life, and in this way another channel was opened up through which Italian humanism flowed into English soil.

In the development of literature this revival of learning worked in two ways: it restored the spirit and ideals of pagan antiquity; and it presented writers with (подарить) literary masterpieces which they might take the models for their own efforts (достижение). For these two reasons the Renaissance is rightly regarded as a chief force in the making of modern European literature. Hence the importance of the fact that England now began to share in(участвовать) in this new movements. In the early period English authors felt the impact of classical learning and of foreign literatures. During the reign of Elizabeth, England became a world power; its drama and ita poetry attained great heights in the work of such writers as Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, and Shakespeare.

Nor must we forget how much the progress of new learning were helped by the introduction of printing, which by multiplying books, popularising knowledge, and disseminating (распространять) ideas, did more than any other agency(cредство) to change the spirit of the world. William Caxton, who, setting up his press at Westminster in 1476, became first English printer, thus deserves recognition as one of the great forerunners of the intellectual revival of the sixteenth century.

Лекция 10. Caxton. The Man who brought printing to England.

The circumstances of the invention and development of printing in western Europe (the Chinese and Japanese had a form of printing centuries before) are so obscure that it is impossible to assign the invention to any country, person, or exact date. It is fairly certain that the most important development of the art took place in Mainz, Germany, during the 1440s and 1450s. The earliest existing books that can be dated is an Indulgence (Mainz, 1454); the most famous existing early book is the Gutenberg Bible (Mainz, 1456). From Mainz the art spread to other countries, reaching England in 1476, when William Caxton set up his famous press at Westminster. Caxton had learned printing on the Continent, and at Bruges, probably in 1475, had brought out the first book printed un English, the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. The first printed books in England were probably Pamphlets, some in Latin, but the first dated English book printed in England was Caxton's Dicts or Saying of the Philosophers (1477). Before his death Caxton had printed about a hundred separate books and had done much to direct the public taste in reading. He specialized in translations, poetry, and romances, two of his most important books being his edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1438) and his publication of Malory's Le Morte Darthur (1485).