CHAPTER IV

FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER

 

1.      THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

2.      LITERARY FEATURES OF THE AGE

3.      POETRY

4.      PROSE WRITERS

5.      THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS AND STYLE

 

 

 

CHAPTER IV

FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER

 

1.      THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

2.      LITERARY FEATURES OF THE AGE

2.1.   Poverty of Material

2.2.   Scottish Poetry

2.3.   The Development of Drama

2.4.   The Importance of the Period

3.      POETRY

3.1.   The Scottish Poets

3.1.1.     James I (1394-1437)

3.1.2.     Robert Henryson (1429?- c. 1508)

3.1.3.     William Dunbar (1460?-1530?)

3.1.4.     Gavin Douglas (1474?-1522)

3.1.5.     Sir David Lindsay (1490-1555)

3.2.   John Lydgate (1370-1451)

3.3.   Thomas Occleve / Hoccleve (1368?-1450?)

3.4.   Stepehn Hawes (1474?-1530?)

3.5.   John Skelton (1460-1529)

3.6.   Alexander Barclay (1475?-1522)

4.      PROSE WRITERS

4.1.   Reginald Peacock (1390?-1461)

4.2.   William Caxton (1422?-91)

4.3.   John Fisher (c. 1459-1535)

4.4.   Hugh Latimer (1485?-1555)

4.5.   Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

5.      THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS AND STYLE

5.1.   Poetry:

5.1.1.     (a) The pastoral.

5.1.2.     (b) Allegory

5.1.3.     (c) Ballads and carols

5.1.4.     (d) Decadence in style.

5.1.5.     (e) The Scottish proficiency

5.2.   Prose:

5.2.1.     (a) Latin down, English up

5.2.2.     (b) The translation of the Bible.

The Development of the English Bible

5.2.3.     (c) Continuous small improvements. No retrogression.

5.3.   The Drama

5.3.1.     Miracle-Play

5.3.2.     Morality-Play

5.3.3.     The Interlude

5.3.4.     The Earliest Dramas

5.3.4.1.           Tragedies

5.3.4.2.           Histories

5.3.4.3.           Comedies

5.3.4.4.           Summary

CHAPTER IV

FROM CHAUCER TO SPENSER

(DETAILED OUTLINE)

 

1.      THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

2.      LITERARY FEATURES OF THE AGE

2.1.   Poverty of Material

2.2.   Scottish Poetry

2.3.   The Development of Drama

2.4.   The Importance of the Period

3.      POETRY

3.1.   The Scottish Poets

3.1.1.     James I (1394-1437):

— The Kingis Quair (quire or book)

— Peblis to the Play

— Christis Kirk on the Grene.

3.1.2.     Robert Henryson (1429?- c. 1508):

— Morall Fabilis of Esope (r. r.)

— The Testament of Criseyde

— Orpheus and Euridice

— Robene and Makyne

— Garmond of Gude Ladies

3.1.3.     William Dunbar (1460?-1530?):

— The Goldyn Targe

— The Thrissil and the Rois

— The Dance of the Sevin Deidlie Synnis

— Tua Mariit Women and the Wedo

— The Lament for the Makaris

3.1.4.     Gavin Douglas (1474?-1522):

— The Palice of Honour

— King Hart

— Conscience

— The Aeneid (careful translation of Virgil)

3.1.5.     Sir David Lindsay (1490-1555):

— The Dreme (rhyme royal)

— The Testament of Squire Meldrum

— The Testament and Compleynt of Papyngo

— Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis.

3.2.   John Lydgate (1370-1451):

— The Fall of Princes (7000 verses)

— The Temple of Glass

— The Story of Thebes

—    London Lickpenny (livelier)

3.3.   Thomas Occleve / Hoccleve (1368?-1450?):

— The Regement of Princes

— La Male Règle

— The Complaint of Our Lady

—    Occleve's Complaint

 

3.4.   Stepehn Hawes (1474?-1530?):

— The Passetyme of Pleasure

— The Example of Virtue

— The Conversion of Swerer

— A Joyfull Medytacyon

3.5.   John Skelton (1460-1529):

— Garland of Laurell

— Why come ye nat to Court?

— The Tunnynge of Elynour Rummynge

— Dirge of Edward IV

— The Bowge of Court

— Magnificence

3.6.   Alexander Barclay (1475?-1522):

— The Shyp of Fools

— Certayne Ecloges

4.      PROSE WRITERS

4.1.   Reginald Peacock (1390?-1461):

— The Repressor of Over-much Blaming of the Clergy (c. 1445)

— The Book of Faith

4.2.   William Caxton (1422?-91):

— The Dictes and Sayengis of the Philosophers (1477)

— The Recueyll of the Histories of Troye (1471)

— Game and Playe of the Chesse (1475)

4.3.   John Fisher (c. 1459-1535):

— The Ways to Perfect Religion

4.4.   Hugh Latimer (1485?-1555):

— Two volumes of sermons

4.5.   Sir Thomas More (1478-1535):

— Utopia (Latin)

— The Life of John Picus

— The Historie of Richard III

5.      THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY FORMS AND STYLE

5.1.   Poetry:

(a) The pastoral.

(b) Allegory.

(c) Ballads and carols. "I sing of a mayden"

(d) Decadence in style. Several reasons not clear: lack of talent, rapid decay of final –e.

(e) The Scottish proficiency The Scottish poets: content to imitate Chaucer, sometimes carried Chaucer's descriptive-allegorical method too far, and made their poems lifeless: Dunbar's Golden Targe, Douglas's The Palice of Honour. Peculiar Scottish features: breezy and sometimes vulgar humour, robust independence and common sense; a note of passion and pathos; and a sense of the picturesque both in nature and in man à  Lyndsay's Satyre of the Three Estaitis, Dunbar's Lament fo the Makaris, and at the close of Henryson's Testament of Cresseid.

5.2.   Prose:

(a) Latin down, English up. Not outstanding achievement, but growing of venacular and waning of Latin.

(b) The translation of the Bible.

The Development of the English Bible:

— Antecedents: Bede's Gospel of St John into Old English prose, the Lindisfarne Gospels (about 1000) ang the prose of Aelfric (about 1000), the efforts on the Psalms and the Pauline epistles during the Anglo-Norman period, in spite of the fact that English translations did no flourish, owing to influence of French and Latin.

— Wycliff (1320-84), two versions of the Bible

— John Purvey, the second.

— William Tyndale (?-1536)

— Miles Coverdale (1488-1568), an edition of his translation in 1535 was the first complete English Bible to be printed.

— 1537 finely printed version of "Thomas Matthew", said to be by John Rogers, a friend of Coverdale or Coverdale himself.

— 1539, The Great Bible, the first of the authorized versions, executed by a commission of translators, working under the command of Henry VIII and based on Matthew's Bible.

— Another notable translation, the Calvinistic Geneva Bible (1560), or "Breeches Bible".

— 1568, The Bishops' Bible, translated by a committee of bishops and learned men; a counterblast to the Breeches Bible.

— 1611, The Authorized Version.

— A number of small improvements which represents no small advance.

(c) Continuous small improvements. No retrogression.

— a growing perception of the beauties of rhythm and cadence

— The chief prose styles —the ornate, the middle, and the plain— are appearing faintly but perceptibly.

5.3.   The Drama

Mimes (Middle Ages), popular mumming à morris dancing and simple dramatization of the feats of Robin Hood and Saint George.

5.3.1.     The introits or tropes at mass, the liturgical drama, and the miracle plays

5.3.2.     Miracle-Play:

—      Chester, York and Wakefield Cycles.

—      The Cornish play of The Three Maries.

5.3.3.     MoraLity-Play:

—      Everyman

5.3.4.     The Interlude:

— John Heywood: The Play of the Four P's & Johan Johan.

5.3.5.     The Earliest Dramas

5.3.5.1.           Tragedies:

—  Gorbuduc, or Ferrex and Porrex (1562) by Thomas Sackeville and Thomas Norton.

—      Appius and Virginia (1563, anon.).

—      Jocasta (1566).

—      Historie of Horestes (1567, anon.).

—      Thomas Preston's Cambyses, King of Percia (1570).

Hughes's Misfortunes of Arthur (1588).

5.3.5.2.           Histories:

—      The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth (before 1588).

—      The Troublesome Raigne of King John (before 1591).

—      The Chronicle Histoy of King Leir (1594).

5.3.5.3.           Comedies:

—      Nicholas Udall's Ralph Roister Doister (1551).

— Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575) of disputed authorship

5.3.5.4.           Summary: