Old English Literature (AD 450 – 1066) The Middle English literature (1066 – 1485)

At the end of the fifteenth century, a new type of play appeared. These short plays and revels were performed at noble households and at court, especially at holiday times. These short entertainments, called "Interludes", started the move away from the didactic nature of the earlier plays toward purely secular plays, and often added more comedy than was present in the medieval predecessors. Since most of these holiday revels were not documented and play texts have disappeared and been destroyed, the actual dating of the transition is difficult. The first extant purely secular play, Henry Medwall's Fulgens and Lucres, was performed at the household of Cardinal Morton, where the young Thomas More was serving as a page. Early Tudor interludes soon grew more elaborate, incorporating music and dance, and some, especially those by John Heywood, were heavily influenced by French farce.

Not only were plays shifting emphasis from teaching to entertaining, they were also slowly changing focus from the religious towards the political. John Skelton'sMagnyfycence (1515), for example, while on the face of it resembling the medieval allegory plays with its characters of Virtues and Vices, was a political satire against Cardinal Wolsey. Magnyfycence was so incendiary that Skelton had to move into the sanctuary of Westminster to escape the wrath of Wolsey.

The first history plays were written in the 1530's, the most notable of which was John Bale's King Johan. While it considered matters of morality and religion, these were handled in the light of the Reformation. These plays set the precedent of presenting history in the dramatic medium and laid the foundation for what would later be elevated by Marlowe andShakespeare into the English History Play, or Chronicle Play, in the latter part of the century.  
 
Not only was the Reformation taking hold in England, but the winds of Classical Humanism were sweeping in from the Continent. Interest grew in the classics and the plays of classical antiquity, especially in the universities. Latin texts were being "Englysshed" and latin poetry and plays began to be adapted into English plays. In 1553, a schoolmaster named Nicholas Udall wrote an English comedy titled "Ralph Roister Doister" based on the traditional Latin comedies of Plautus and Terence. The play was the first to introduce the Latin character type miles gloriosus ("braggart soldier") into English plays, honed to perfection later by Shakespeare in the character of Falstaff. Around the same time at Cambridge, the comedy "Gammer Gurton's Needle", possibly by William Stevens of Christ's College, was amusing the students. It paid closer attention to the structure of the Latin plays and was the first to adopt the five-act division.

Writers were also developing English tragedies for the first time, influenced by Greek and Latin writers. Among the first forays into English tragedy were Richard Edwards' Damon and Pythias (1564) and John Pickering's New Interlude of Vice Containing the History of Horestes (1567). The most influential writer of classical tragedies, however, was the Roman playwright Seneca, whose works were translated into English by Jasper Heywood, son of playwright John Heywood, in 1589. Seneca's plays incorporated rhetorical speeches, blood and violence, and often ghosts; components which were to figure prominently in both Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.

The first prominent English tragedy in the Senecan mould was Gorboduc (1561), written by two lawyers, Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, at the Inns of Court (schools of law). The play is also important as the first English play in blank verse. Blank verse, non-rhyming lines in iambic pentameter, was introduced into English literature by sonneteers Wyatt and Surrey in the 1530's. Its use in a work of dramatic literature paved the way for "Marlowe's mighty line" and the exquisite poetry of Shakespeare's dramatic verse. With a new ruler on the throne, Queen Elizabeth I, who enjoyed and encouraged the theatrical arts, the stage was set for the body of dramatic literature we today call Elizabethan Drama.

14. Three periods of Shakespeare's literary activities.

William Shakespeare is the greatest of all playwrights and poets of all times. Not much is known of his life. He was probably the son of a businessman and was born in 1564 in Stradford-upon-Avon. He probably attended the local grammar school and got a classical education. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway and had 3 children. Little is known of his life before 1592, when he appeared as a playwright in London. Soon he became an actor playing supporting roles like the ghost in "Hamlet". In 1599 Shakespeare became a part owner of the Globe Theatre in London.

Shakespeare's work as a playwright is subdivided into 3 periods. Written in the first period, Shakespeare's plays are mostly history plays like "Henry VI", and comedies with strong elements of farce. His masterpiece of this period is "Romeo and Juliet". In the second period Shakespeare wrote a number of comedies where he moved away from farce towards romance. In the third period, after 1600, appeared his major tragedies - "Hamlet", "Othello". They presented a clear opposition of order to chaos, good to evil. Shakespeare was a great poet and would be well known for his poetry alone. His major achievement as a poet is his sonnets, first published in 1609. A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines, with a moral at the end. The sonnets are addressed to some "W.H.", and to mysterious "Dark Lady of Sonnets". The sonnets deal with the great themes of love, friendship, death, change and immortality. Shakespeare looks at his own poetry as a means of immortality. Shakespeare's sonnets are excellent. They are full of harmony and music; they praise love, friendship and beauty, though there is no sentimentality in them. Shakespeare's poetry is at the summit of human achievement. Many centuries have passed since his death in 1616, but Shakespeare is still considered to be the greatest of all playwrights and poets. The prideses of Shakespeare. The most brilliant period of English literature was in the second half of the 16'th and begining of 17'th centure. Sometimes it's called "Elizabethen age" after quen Elizabeth 5. England had become a geat world power. It had established wide commercial contact with countries And rich trading company had been organaized. The english people were now a great nation and the english language inriched was now not unlike the language of Chaucer. Many famous poetical and prose works appeared. Among those who inriched the literary haritage of this period ere sir Philip Sydney, Adnond Spenser and Christother Marlowe. There were fine works of poetry and prose in the Elizabethen age but the greatest hight's of literature of this period were riached in drama. 2. Life of Shakespeare. The great poet and dramatist William Shakespeare is often called by his people "Our National Bard", "The Immortal. Poet of nature" and "The Great Unknown". More than two hundred contemporary references to Shakespeare have been located amoung church records, legal records, documents in the Public Record Office, and miscellaneous repositories. When these owe assembled, we have at least the sceleton out line of his life, begining with his baptist on April 26, 1564, in Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon, and ending with his burial there on April 25, 1616. Shakespeare native place was Sratford-on-Avon, a little town in Warwickshive, which is generally described as being in the middle of England. Shakespeare's father, John, was a prosperious glove maker of Stratford who, after holding minor municipal offices, was elected high bailiff of Stratford. Shakespeare's mother Mary Arden, came from an affluent family of landowners. Shakespeare probably recieved his early education at the exellent Stratford Grammar School, supervised by an Oxford graduate, where he would have learned Latin smattering of Greek. In 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who lived in a neighboring hamlet. The first child born to Ann and William was their daughter Susanna. In about two years Ann bore him twins a boy and a girl, Hamlet and Jidith. Then life in Stratford became intolerable for William Shakespeare and he dicided to go to London and began a theatrical career. Shakespeare major activity lay in the field of drama. He became a full shaveholder in his acting company, he was partowner of "the Globe" theatre and later of "the Blackfriars" theatre, and in 1597 he purchased property in Strarford. Including new place, one of the largest houses in the town. He probably refired there about 1610, travelling of London when necessary to take cave of his theatrical business. In all, 154 sonnets seguence. The sonnets were probably written in the 1590 but were first published in 1609. 3. Shakespeare's works. Shakespeare's literary work is usually divided into three periods. The first period of his creative work falls between 1590 and 1600. Shakespeare's comedies belong to the first period of his creative work. They all are written in his playful manner and in the brilliant poetry that conveys the spectator to Italy. Some of the first plays of the first period are: "Richard 3" (1592), "The comedy of errors" (1592), "Romeo and Juliet" (1594), "Julius Caesar" (1599), "As you like it" (1599), 1600 - "Twelve night". Shakespeare's poems are also attributed to the first period, "Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece", and 154 sonnets. "Venus and Adonis" was the first of Shakespeare's works that came off the press. The second period of Shakespeare's creative work during from 1600 to 1608. His famous tragedies appeared at this time. In the plays of this period the dramatist reaches his full maturity. He presents great humans problems. His tragedies and historical plays made Shakespeare the greatest humanist of the English Renaissanse. Some plays of the second period: 1601 - "Hamlet", 1604 - "Othello". Shakespeare's plays of the third period are called the "Romantic dramas". There is no tragic tension in these plays. This period lasted from 1609 till 1612. 1609 - "Cymbeline", 1610 - "The Winters Tale", 1612 - "Henry 8".

15. W.Shakespeare "Hamlet”, "Romeo and Juliet”, "Macbeth”, "A Midsummer Night's Dream”

Hamlet is an enigma. No matter how many ways critics examine him, no absolute truth emerges. Hamlet breathes with the multiple dimensions of a living human being, and everyone understands him in a personal way. Hamlet's challenge to Guildenstern rings true for everyone who seeks to know him: "You would pluck out the heart of my mystery." None of us ever really does.

The conundrum that is Hamlet stems from the fact that every time we look at him, he is different. In understanding literary characters, just as in understanding real people, our perceptions depend on what we bring to the investigation. Hamlet is so complete a character that, like an old friend or relative, our relationship to him changes each time we visit him, and he never ceases to surprise us. Therein lies the secret to the enduring love affair audiences have with him. They never tire of the intrigue.

The paradox of Hamlet's nature draws people to the character. He is at once the consummate iconoclast, in self-imposed exile from Elsinore Society, while, at the same time, he is the adulated champion of Denmark — the people's hero. He has no friends left, but Horatio loves him unconditionally. He is angry, dejected, depressed, and brooding; he is manic, elated, enthusiastic, and energetic. He is dark and suicidal, a man who loathes himself and his fate. Yet, at the same time, he is an existential thinker who accepts that he must deal with life on its own terms, that he must choose to meet it head on. "We defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow."

Hamlet not only participates in his life, but astutely observes it as well. He recognizes the decay of the Danish society (represented by his UncleClaudius), but also understands that he can blame no social ills on just one person. He remains aware of the ironies that constitute human endeavor, and he savors them. Though he says, "Man delights not me," the contradictions that characterize us all intrigue him. "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!"

As astutely as he observes the world around him, Hamlet also keenly critiques himself. In his soliloquys he upbraids himself for his failure to act as well as for his propensity for words.

Hamlet is infuriatingly adept at twisting and manipulating words. He confuses his so-called friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern — whom he trusts as he "would adders fang'd" — with his dissertations on ambition, turning their observations around so that they seem to admire beggars more than their King. And he leads them on a merry chase in search of Polonius' body. He openly mocks the dottering Polonius with his word plays, which elude the old man's understanding. He continually spars with Claudius, who recognizes the danger of Hamlet's wit but is never smart enough to defend himself against it.

Words are Hamlet's constant companions, his weapons, and his defenses. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a play that was later adapted into a film, playwright and screenplaywright Tom Stoppard imagines the various wordplays in Hamlet as games. In one scene, his characters play a set of tennis where words serve as balls and rackets. Hamlet is certainly the Pete Sampras of wordplay.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a play about two lovers that come from two different feuding families. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet must keep their relationship a secret due to the feud and Juliet’s father tries to force her to marry Count Paris. The reluctance of the two families to accept Romeo and Juliet’s relationship tragically results in the deaths of both lovers. Ironically, their deaths end the feud and bring the families together.

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the idea of one character becoming both victim and villain is introduced. Macbeth falls prey to others’ deception, and is supplanted with greed and hate when he is tricked by three witches. When told that he is going to be King of Scotland, Macbeth does whatever he can to ensure his prophecy. In Macbeth’s quest for power, he gains a flaw that ends in a deteriorated relationship with Lady Macbeth, and his eventual defeat.

The "Midsummer Night's Dream" was first printed in 1598. It seems to have been an object of care to Shakespeare, as the earliest printed copies are more carefully corrected than usual. It went early into two editions. Theseus and Hippolyta had their origin in Chaucer's "Knight's Tale."  
 
The scene is supposed to be laid in Athens, in which case Athens must have been a mediaeval principality as to manners and customs. Theseus, having conquered the Queen of the Amazons, is about to wed her when the action opens. He shows himself at once kindly and jovial. The Amazonian lady is matter-of-fact and business-like. I see reason to fear he got the worst share in his matrimonial bargain.