The Medieval Period

Influence of the French culture

12^th -14^th centuries signify the formation of the English language & nation. This period is fully reflected in the works of Langland & Chaucer.

Christianity was an important factor in shaping of the medieval outlook. Christianity which substituted paganism in the ancient world spread quickly throughout Europe. As there was a period of decay, no law, the rich lived depraved life, Christianity with its idealism & its sermon of brotherhood & equity could serve as an outlet for the suffering & deprived. Christian community (consolidated by the enthusiasm of its members) developed into an organization with strict laws & definite rules. In the 3^rd century Christianity reached a new stage, the importance of this stage is great. There was a formation of a new class – Clergy. It was important & great force as it interpreted God for people & they could translate peoples’ needs in fact. More over clergy was a great economical force. The German tribes who invaded the Empire did not know how to cultivate the land & the church was the only organization which could teach them how to do it. The monasteries were excellent farms, schools which protected science & art. In fact church made arts for its particular purposes. Still the medieval scholar did not look for the new facts, his task was to interpret ideas given by church & those who challenged these ideas were punished by inquisition. Church has no serious rival. It taught people to think in terms of a really conclusive end. Acc. To church God was sovereign disposer of all things, & the sovereign judge of all men. The ascetic was one of the central heroes of medieval art.

Feudal hierarchy

God

King (the owner of all land)

Duke

Count

Baron

Knight

Vassal

Fundamental to feudalism was getting the land from the king. Each of the vassals in the ceremony of homage undertook to serve as a lord & the lord in return promised his protection. So big vassals created lesser vassals.

Society was divided into nobility, clergy & peasantry which in its turn were divided into serfs & yeomen (free).

The lord could take the land back after the death of his vassal.

Magna Carta – was the 1^st document of freedom & democracy. It was signed by Richard the Lion Heart.

Feudalism gave rise to knighthood. A knight was a man of noble birth, usually mounted man, at arms, serving the King, or other superior in return for a grant of land. System of chivalry meant that before becoming a knight man of noble birth was supposed to go through several stages.

- Stage of a page

- Squire

- Dubbed knight

He was bound to chivalry conduct – courage, courtesy, & defense of the deprived.

Representatives of the bourgeoisie knights came to be satirized.

Great Britain contained of several kingdoms: Northumbria (angles), Mercia (angles), Wessex (Saxons), Wales, Essex, East Anglia (angles), Brittany (Saxons), Kent (yutes), Sussex (Saxons), Scotland (Scots, Picts, Celts), and Cornwall (Britons).

The glory of the beginning of the English literature belongs rather to the north than to the south – it belongs to angles rather than to Saxons. At the beginning of the 7^th century Northumbria gained a position of superior. 617 – Edwin becomes the king & Britons, Mercians, Eastanglicans, Westsaxons submitted to him. There was time of peace that resulted in the development of literature & arts. In 1685 political supremacy of Northumbria passed away forever & for 2 more centuries the spiritual & intellectual forces that worked in Northumbria made it a centre from which the light of learning streamed over Western Europe.

In the monasteries Jarrow spend his great days Bede Venerabilis. Benedict – the founder of the monastery traveled to Rome 4 or 5 times & brought books, pictures & other works of art & he brought teachers with him – the best ones.

Bede is a proficient translator from Latin, Greek, & Hebrew. He is famous being a teacher. Among his numerous works one can find explanations & commentaries to the Bible, chronology, astrology, books of poetry & rhetoric. His favorite subject “Ecclesiastical history of English People” – it’s about introduction of Christianity into England.

E.g.

Before the need journey

No one is ever

In thought more wise

Than he hath need to consider

Ere his going hence

What to his soul

Of good & evil

After death day

Doomed will be (Bede)

Caedmon Hymn:

Now we must praise Heaven-keeper’s Warden

The Maker’s mind and his mood thought

The work of the glory father as he of every wonder

Eternal lord formed the beginning

The first shaped for earth’s children

Heaven for roof holy shape

The mid earth mankind Warden

Eternal lord afterward produced

For men the earth the rules Almighty.

This hymn has all the characteristic features of medieval English verse: alliteration, abrupt lines more like interjections, the absence of connecting particles, periphrasis (repetition of the same idea in various phrases). 8 lines here are about God & God’s might, 3 lines about God’s making the earth, 3 lines about the earth itself. The structure is very much symmetrical & the refrains give it a jazzy quality.

In 1655 a volume of Saxon poetry was published. It was believed to be the work of Caedmon from its agreement with Bede’s description. Some scholars consider this book to be written by several authors. The book consists of 5 parts:

1. Creation of the man

2. The fall of the man & angels

3. Later history to the death of Abraham

4. History of Daniel

5. Descend of Christ into Hell

Beowulf

Beowulf gives us much information about medieval civilization as such.

Names : Beowulf,

Hrodgar (king)

Heorot (palace)

Grendel (monster)

Wealdeo (queen)

1731 – The manuscript was destroyed in fire.

The poem consists of 2 parts:

1. The youthful hero Beowulf kills 2 hateful man-devouring monsters.

2. Beowulf kills the dragon of the sea, but he’s wounded & dies.

The book in its early form belongs to very pagan times & possibly symbolizes constant struggle between man & the sea. The poem we know is a work of a Christian poet of the 8^th or 10^th century. By & by Beowulf & its characters appear to symbolize Christ gaining salvation for his people by his own death & descending into hell. Monsters represent the forces of evil. The whole poem represents the eternal struggle between forces of goodness & evil.

Summary:

Hrodgar built Heorot. People feasted there daily. That was hateful for Grendel & in the night he came 7 devoured 30 people. These affairs appeared till no man dared to sleep in Heorot. Young Beowulf with 14 companions came over the sea to fight with a monster. At night Beowulf was left to sleep in the hall. Grendel came to the palace & killed one man. Beowulf seized the monster & fought with him. Beowulf tore one of the monsters hands 7 Grendel fled home to die. Fest & gifts were given to Beowulf. The queen gave Beowulf a ring, a mantel to wear. When the feast was over everybody went to sleep. Grendel’s mother came to revenge her son. She slaughtered one of the king’s friends. Beowulf determines to find & kill the monster at the bottom o the lake. He dives into the water. In the gloomy cave he finds the monster & fights with him. At last with the help of the magic sword he cuts off her head. In the 2^nd part Beowulf is the king & he gives his life to save his people from a terrible dragon. His people mourn for him 7 they build on a sea-cliff a mound high & broad to be seen by sailors.

The 2 parts are not written in isolation. Glorifying the hero & culture is a typical picture of Germanic heroic age, the memory of which the English cherished as their own. English poet pictures a society, pagan, but strongly colored by Christian ideas. Christ-like Beowulf fights the embodiment of evil & in the end lays his life for the people. The 2 parts balance each other.

The poet painted a vast canvas of heroic deeds, a picture in which he glorified the past, but he never forgot to glorify his culture. He gives a spiritualized picture. In this respect “Beowulf” serves a purpose not unlike Virgil’s “Eneide”. Every poem glorifies the past, which belongs to the heritage of people. Virgil glorifies the pagan Greece; the heroic past of Gothic people was glorified in “Beowulf”. He gave us the society which depended on & was colored by Christian ideas, but still was pagan & heroic.

In the 2^nd part the main hero is made as Christ-like as the setting would permit. He fights mostly against the embodiment of evil. Some scholars think that the English poet knew “Eneide” & was influenced by it in composing his own poem. But more striking is the originality of “Beowulf” as far as the structure of the poem is concerned.

Every work of beauty is symmetry. If it’s asymmetrical, but a work of beauty, it presupposes the symmetry the reader should recreate. The 2 parts of “Beowulf” are balanced. The symmetry is not only a characteristic of each of the parts, but it gives us 2 ages – the old age & the young age of youth. These two ages are united by the heroic quality of life.

The greater part of the Saxon literature is anonymous. Of all writers no one can be identified with certainty. It’s doubted that Caedmon is the name of man & not rather a name suggestive of a scriptural character of his works. The difficulty increased by the fact that Northumbrian literature perished with the invasion of the Danes (preserved in a later west-Saxon form).

About 1050 Leofric gave to his cathedral library a gift of books. Among them there was 1^st large English book about various things “in lay wise wrought”, certain religious poems: “A dialogue between the virgin Mary & Joseph”, “Song of the three children”, “The last judgment”, “The Phoenix”, “The dream of the Rood”.

Cynewulf was a poet of the later part of the 8^th century. Some critics suppose that he lived from 750 to 825. Cynewulf’s works are marked as classic:

Thus I old & ready to leave my dying body, wove my word-crafh wonderously fashioned it, bondered sometimes, & siffed my thoughts fine in the deep night-time. About the Rood I knew not aright fill wisdom unveiled through its glorious might a wider knowledge to my heart’s thought.

Latin & French literature of the Norman period

It was influenced by Anglo-Saxon literature & it was reciprocal. We can not speak of dominating literature, but this influence was felt. It manifested itself in riddles. The text of some riddles is so imperfect that we can know neither the merit nor the author. But still some of them show a great skill of workmanship. They reflect many traces of old folklore – intimate picture of English life before the Norman Conquest.

E.g. Horn

“I was an armed warrior. Now the proud young champion covers me with gold & silver with curved & twisted wires. They drink wine out of me…”

Riddles are both important for history & literature of the country.

The most ancient forms of English folklore are charms:

E.g. For a swarm of bees

“Take earth east with thy right hand under thy right foot& say: I put it under foot, I have found it. Lo the earth can prevail against forgetfulness & against the mighty tongue of men. Cast gravel over them & say: Alight victorious women, descend to earth. Never fly wild to the wood. Be as mindful of my profit as every man is of food & fatherland.”

This charm belongs to one of the most ancient lines in English literature. It’s difficult to determine th time when this or that piece of folklore was written, they belong to the manuscripts of the 10^th century. In the charms there is a reflection of all pagan times 7 beliefs, & this means that Christianity won people to its sight very gradually. It also means that all beliefs, all superstitions were considered as pragmatically as a belief can be considered, because these superstitions do not really mean that there is a religious system in them. As far as literature goes charms & riddles are full of imagery in them. They contain synonyms & metaphors, personification is most often used as effective means to convey the meaning.

Riddles

E.g. Horn

“I was an armed warrior. Now the proud young champion covers me with gold & silver with curved & twisted wires. They drink wine out of me…”

Riddles are both important for history & literature of the country. People at that time liked very much to entertain themselves with riddles, which were taken from the real life. Over a 100 riddles are preserved & only a few owe to Latin samples. The riddles are English in nature & this is quite understandable, because if they were not taken from the real life, people would not be able to solve them. In this respect riddles are evidence of the culture. The structure of the riddles is very much peculiar, because of the long sentences & because of their rhythm. They depend o alliteration & repetition as many English songs & verses.

Octosyllabic couplet

Alfred the Great

“The Owl & the Nightingale”

Owl’s answer:

And yet thou sayest another thing

And fellest me that I can’t sing

That all my song is mourning drear

A fearsome sound for man to hear

That’s not sooth my voice is true

And fine & loud sonorous too

Thou thinkest ugly every note

Unlike the thinness of thy throat

My voice is bold & not forlorn

It soundeth like a mighty horn

Better I sing than thou at least

Thou chatterest like an Irish priest…

This shows us author’s sympathy for the owl. The world is not ready to recognize the beauty of the owl’s soul. Nightingale insists upon her superiority. The whole poem is written as an argument. Each participant supports his own point of view.

Medieval Lyrics

“Cuckoo song”

Summer is a commen in

Loudly sing cuckoo

Groweth seed & bloweth mead

And springeth wood anew

Sing cuckoo

Loweth after calf the cow

Bleateth after lamb the ewe

Buck doth gambol bullock

Merry sing cuckoo

Cuckoo, cuckoo! Well singest thou

Cuckoo! Nor cease thou ever now

Sing cuckoo now. Sing cuckoo!

Sing cuckoo! Sing cuckoo now!

William Langland

The long reign of Edward 3^rd was glorious & shameful. Great battles were won; captive kings were brought to England. Edward & his son were regarded as the 2 of the noblest knights in Europe. But the struggle between France & England was exhausting; miserable peasantry was obsessed with taxes, until at last they rose with revolution between countries. One of those who reflected this period was W. Langland. His work shows the powerful personality, gives us an idea of a person, who was a man of duty, who could get to the truth, investigate it.

At 1^st sight the poem is very simple & we can easily attribute it to the ghost of visions. They were very popular in literature. But it’s only at 1^st sight. Langland differed from practically all the authors of that time. He kept the direct alliterative energy of the lines & he gave us an all-embracing scope of allegorical design. Thee two aspects are very much complementary & they add to the effect of the poem. His poem can’t be described as the reflection of one man’s experience, as a narration of one man’s opinion. It’s a reflection of a society, of a civilization.

He came to London from Scotland at the age of 30 in 1332. The most popular his poem is “Peter the Ploughman”. For many years he gazed at the riots & very impatient life of England. He died about the close of the century.

Prologue

“Field full of folk”

In a summer season when soft was the sun

In rough cloth I robed me as if a shepherd were

In habit like a hermit in his works unholy

And through the wild world I went wonders to hear…

There are many manuscripts telling us of his poem & there appeared to be 3 additions. The earliest & shortest was finished in 1362 & expanded addition was written in 1377, & by 1390 he extended it even more. The poet falls asleep & sees a series of marvelous scenes. The author used a lot of personifications – vices & virtues, conscience, reason; he enters more allegorical personages like the Holy Church. All these appear in his poem, they act, speak, interact. There are many French words & this shows that French entered eagerly into the everyday language of England. Fewer resorts to rhyme fell back to the OE plan of alliteration. The opening lines show alliteration distinctly, but it’s steadily maintained through the thousands of lines of the poem.

In his dream the poet sees a tower, a beautiful tower – resident place of Truth. And opposite the tower he sees in a deep & dark valley a dungeon – resident place of Error (Sin), crowd of busy mortals, peasants whom he loved & pitied, lazy, sinful friars whom, he detested, a King Richard 3^rd, a strange figure – he himself, as he still lay sleeping, a beautiful lady – Holy Church comes up to him & complains, that nobody listened to her teaching. He begged that having seen the truth he wanted to know the false & so avoid it. His request is granted & main error showed bribery. He tells us that Lady Bribery came to London to be married to Falsehood; she was received well at court. But in song 5 Reason is described as preaching to people God Judgment for their sins. Still 7 deadly sins (pride, roth, covetousness=greed, lust, gluttony, envy, laziness) repent.

The composition of the poem seems to be peculiar, because the main character appears in the poem only after the deadly sins repent. Then he goes to seek for the Truth. The idea of pilgrimage was rather common for medieval literature. The poem is unique because the author does not describe human nature but abstract notions, which meet with common people. 7 sins also go with people to seek the Truth. No one knows the way; all inquiries are in vain. Peter the Plowman appears right in this place where his advice is sought for. People ask him to show them the way to the Truth. But he says them that by olustry alone they can find the way to Truth. Then he says that if people help him to plough the land he will show them the way to Truth. Those who will not be engaged into plough should do other job. But some people wouldn’t work. Peter becomes angry & says that they would starve. In the later part of the poem Peter is raised & ennobled until he becomes identified with Jesus the Christ.

“Peter the Ploughman” as a work of literature tells us much about the author himself. It’s a purely personal creation. It bears a mask of unremarkable, powerful personality. It presents the coming together of the 2 formally established lines of tradition. It gives a mixture of the popular & the theological. These 2 traditions are reflected in the energetic, direct vitality of the alliterated line and the all embracing scope of the allegorical desire. These 2 aspects go hand in hand, because they add to each other. The visions give us a reflection of common experience of its author Langland & the whole society & civilization. Langland summarizes the whole epoch of English literature & life as well. Language of the work shows the power of conveying a clear picture of English life & the picture is perfectly factual, unadorned. But the choice of facts, the very idea of panorama suggests emotions that are fully exhibited.

This work is a summary of development of English literature. It’s a kind of development of a new genre of literature – Medieval Sermon.

In this very popular form of expression, preaches the natural tendency to deal with abstract qualities, virtues & vices was quite limited by the processes of Christian Methodology.

Nobody knows how 7 sins looked like, but Langland dramatizes & gives a picture of this or that thing. Langland tried to translate abstract notions into terms of people’s own experience.

Jeoffrey Chaucer

“The Canterbury Tales”

Chaucer was born in 1340 & died in 1400. He’s considered to be the greatest medieval author, the center of the English Medieval literature. Chaucer was the most remarkable innovator. He summed up medieval poetry, adapted certain themes & conventions of French & Italian medieval poetry for English poetry. He developed the art of literature itself beyond everything that is found in all medieval literature. In his “Canterbury Tales” he developed his art of poetry towards the art of drama & the art of the novel. He paved the way for the modern English literature. In his art centuries of oral & written literature are implicit.

Chaucer is a dramatic poet; his characters do not only tell us stories, but the author also shows us reaction of other people to their stories.

Chaucer is not the writer of the period, but the writer of the whole time. People of that time viewed the world in a similar way. There was a divine providence that gave reason to everything, even though the reason is not always obvious. For the most part people felt more secure of that time, because they knew their lives were following some divine plan. They had no need to question the plan. All those people had the same set of values & these values were represented in the world by the 2 structures: the class system & the Church. This very order was established by God & they never ever doubted it. Chaucer uses class structure very clearly. In the tales we see the knight first, because the knight is the highest ranking pilgrim in the tale.

Apart from the world line order was church hierarchy & it was also ordained by the God since everyone in the church was Roman Catholic (before Martin the Luther & his reformation). But within the church there was an inner struggle. Between the regular clergy (those who belong to the monasteries) the monk, the prioress & the friar (they went far collecting money for the monastery). Chaucer exemplifies the fight between those who belong to the regular clergy & to the secular clergy. He shows us an argument between the pardoner of the official church & the friar, who is in direct competition for money & religious influence. Both are supposed to avoid worldly goods, & both have enough money to live with.

In the prologue Chaucer gives us a wonderful description of the spring. In those times spring was the time when people went on a pilgrimage.

There are 29 main heroes in the whole composition:

Knight, Squire, Yeoman (servant), Prioress, Nun, three Priests, Monk, Friar, Merchant, Clerk of Oxford, Man of Law, Franklin (free-holder), Haberdasher, Dyer, Carpenter, Weaver, Carpet Maker, Cook, Shipman, Physician, Wife of Bath, Parson (parish priest), Ploughman, Miller, Manciple (steward), Reeve (bailiff), Summoner, Pardoner, Chaucer himself.

RENAISSANCE

14-17 centuries

The epoch of renaissance covered most countries of Western Europe. It included people from different countries, having distinct national traditions. Renaissance has given us the most flattering conception of human possibilities that men have ever known. But it could at the same time have shown people at the worst they had. A man as the most perfect creation of God & at the same time the weakest spiritually creature on earth was a distinct characteristic of renaissance, its philosophy & its code of behavior & life.

E.g. “Man is the paragon of animals & the quintessence of dust” (Shakespeare “Hamlet”)

The renaissance began in Italy as a new kind of consciousness, first described in Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

3R – Revival, Renewal, Rebirth

It was the revival of ancient classical culture, not the whole story of renaissance. It was a dearing & most innovative age. Revival of the past but in some cases rediscovering of the Roman & Greek literature became the guiding principle for a new classicism first in Ciceronian Latin & then in national languages of practically all European countries. The foundations of Rome & other ancient cities became a living influence upon the Italian sculpture, paintings & through these forms the ideals of renaissance were transmitted to other cultures. Renaissance architects, studying the survived monuments of antiquity mastered their principles & learned to surface the original, which is really very important. They not only copied original examples, but also went on creating new masterpieces.

“I made the neither a Heaven-like being, nor a being altogether earthly, neither a mortal, nor immortal, in order to make thee your own maker, being absolutely limitless, so that you are able to mould thy own personality. You may degrade & become an animal or you may rise to a God-like being all due to your own inner will” (Picco della Mirandella “On Human dignity”)

In these words Mirandella summed up the spiritual experience in renaissance & the changes in the human conscience it caused. These words can be considered as the answer to the eternal question: If God knows all about the past & the future why he did not predict the Fall of the human being.

Never before had you been inspired by such a multitude of different ideas & inspirations & now freedom & choice enable human being to free himself of overwhelming domination of the church & sin & now men had to give immediate solutions to all the problems of existence. Before it the church had practically prescribed the human behavior in all spheres of life. Now human being has to find his own way of life by himself. Now there had appeared lots of different thinkers & artists – Time produced the Genius. All things concerning politics & mode of life, which troubled human being, were all set forth in the renaissance epoch & one of the most outstanding writers, who began breaking out from the medieval civilization, was Dante.

Dante

He lived to complete one of the world’s greatest masterpieces – The Comedy. The Divine Comedy is not only one of the greatest masterpieces, but it’s the final masterpiece of middle ages. Dante included in his comedy all he knew, & this was really considerable – medieval history, science, theology, philosophy etc. Nevertheless there is another quality that dominates this great work of renaissance – the presentation of man, Dante himself. Here one can stand for all men, man is an individual & in the poem we find all his experience that he was confronted by during his journey. We get acquainted with his pain, sorrow, joy. There are not only portraits, descriptions of nature, of different places, but it’s the narrative. We come to know Dante himself most fully, & it was his personality that was leading in age – new age, new literature of Bocaccio, Petrarca etc. the book is highly symbolic. Dark woods symbolize a superstition, which caused character’s suffering & anguish after the death of Beatrice. The figure of Virgil stands for the philosophic & scientific lessons, which saved the character from despair & enabled him to enter the path of truth. These lessons help to suppress his vices & passions. Beatrice means theology & faith which lighted his road to peaceful contemplation. Dante manifests the appearance of new factor of humanity & the appearance of public opinion. He provided his own point of view & the relationship between opposing factors. Here the individual comes to the foreground, & the authority of the church – background.

Renaissance is associated with the unending gallery of portraits, inspired personalities, glowing with inner light, people’s faces of rare beauty or irregularity of feature. The main thing is that it’s always great, representing not life but being bigger than life.

We oppose an individual to a crowd. But we should idealize the epoch, because it was essentially cruel bearing no mercy for the poor & weak. It was the epoch of ending of class struggle, of ruthless politicians resorted to any means to satisfy their urge for power. It was an epoch summed by Micallo Macevalli in one sentence: “If I’m strong than I’m the low”. It was the epoch of freedom & limitation & Baldasary Costillione, the diplomat & the courtier, the scholar & the soldier wrote “the book of the Courtier”, setting forth the same regulations & limitations as to conduct the young man, who wants to enter the public carrier. According to his book a young man should be well born, trained a horsemanship, he should be ready to be a soldier, trained the use of arms, knowledgeable in literature & painting, sweet with ladies etc. All these traits Costillione called 1) “grace” – being able to make difficult actions seem easy; 2) “discretion” – knowing how to make most situations without making enemies.

Still it was the epoch o genius, of great individuals, of great achievements, great discoveries.

Renaissance had its national features in every country of Europe. In England with the Chaucer’s death (1400) the development of English literature comes to a standstill & we can not speak of any literature in England for a century. Until in the middle of 15^th century the cost of war & lack of success brought a conjunct between the king & the parliament. Through the century England observes the struggle of 2 rival families & this struggle periodically degrades to a civil war. At those times England was a country of social violence. The dynastic struggle seemed to have ended when Henry 8^th became a king in 1509, but the nation was soon drawn into the religious & political conflicts. That swept across Europe with the reformation. Not until Elizabeth 1^st succeeds to the throne in 1558 did England once more provide the climate in which as the nation so its literature could flourish.

Shakespeare(1564-1616)

He was born on the 23^rd of April in Stratford upon Avon on the 6^th year of Queen Elizabeth reign (1564). His father was chief magistrate in Stratford; his mother belonged to the oldest local family. Shakespeare attended Grammar school which had very good reputation & rather distinguished teachers. He knew Latin & Greek a little. He was receiving from nature. In 1578 his father appeared to be in very reduced circumstances & he pawned his wife’s land. There were 5 living children of whom he was the oldest & had to take care. He was engaged in a very notorious work, because in his works we can find many technical & legal terms, which are used with the nicest accuracy. In November he married Ann Hathaway & next year a daughter Susanna was born. 1585 – 2 more children, twins – Hamlet & Tudoth. Some time after he left his children & went in London to seek for his fortune. Three companies of actors visited Stratford in 1584, young Shakespeare felt moved to follow their example. In 1587 Hayers visited Stratford & perhaps he was already among them. In 1589 his name appeared in the list of players who were described as “Her Majesty Poor Players”. 1594 – The theater “Globe” was built for Queen’s players. Shakespeare began working in London in 1588, when “Armada” was defeated. The time chronology of his plays can’t be determined. In the burning of the “Globe” probably many of his original manuscripts perished.

Chronicles

One of the earliest plays is thought to be “Henry VI” in 1594. it’s believed that soon afterwards Shakespeare wrote “Richard III”. In it he entered to the path more natural for his genius. In this play he gave us more beauty & less violence. Before the close of the century he completed his “Henry IV” & “Henry V” – these are his chronicles & “Henry VIII” belongs to later time.

When we speak about Shakespeare’s early chronicles we can say that though they were written with great talent, they are no more than chronicles, the aim of which was to glorify the past of England, to teach political & moral lessons, to bring together on the stage as many famous people as it was possible.

“Richard III” was different from many Shakespeare’s plays of the kind, because the author tied the whole action around the character. It was the first time, when character as such was used by a playwriter as a spring that was supposed to develop the action of a play. The character justified the atmosphere that reigned around him 7 he was responsible for the consequences that were soon to follow.

At that time the English did not quite realize what the history was. All the types were recognizable as they were within the scope of people’s experience, the knowledge that people possessed. English past was suggestive of such types of characters. Feudal storms tormented the country & this gave Shakespeare the opportunity to portray 6 types of kings. We can divide the kings into 2 groups:

ü king John, Richard II, Henry VI – representatives of the impotence of absolute power.

ü Henry V, Henry IV, Richard III – representatives of strength of absolute power

King John was a crowned criminal, weak even in his crimes.

Henry VI – a crowned saint, weak even in his sanctity.

Richard II – sentimental, gracious sovereign.

Henry IV – a usurper, a resolute man.

Henry V’s strength is a majestic strength of eternal truth.

The chronicles of Shakespeare produce rather depressing impact on the reader – they are full of most atrocious events & facts^ assassination, treachery, blood, dissected hands & feet, torn out tongues.

“Richard III”

It’s a chronicle that may serve as a bridge between chronicles & Shakespeare’s great tragedies, because here the charge was placed not on the events, but on the character of Richard III, the villain, but very clever one, the person, whom you cannot sum up as good or bad.

Interest in the character prevails. He’s deformed (in the time of ideal human bodies), he’s clever & ambitious, but he’s not a king – he cannot exercise his abilities. He commits crimes, he’s cunning & cynical, but at the same time he can be very convincing. He can attract people to his side, charm women & all of a sudden you ask: “Why? Why is that so?”. When you start analyzing the situation you come to a conclusion that Richard is a liar & a traitor & at the same time he’s honest.

Sh. does not speak in abstractions. The cause of failures of people is that they are not true to themselves (they think better of themselves). Richard III is different.

But I, that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time

Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,

And that so lamely and unfashionable

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them -

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to see my shadow in the sun

And descant on mine own deformity.

Comedies

Meanwhile Shakespeare has written beautiful comedies. Sometimes his characters don’t seem individuals, because the way they speak is generalized. They all lack the gift of natural speech. By the time his masterpieces appeared his talent was formed 7 his comedies reveal a mind that could embrace the whole world.

“Twelfth night”

This is a comedy that has a great deal of force. This force is somehow set against the backgroundof exquisite characters like the character of Viola. Such characters give a play a more romantic tone, but the appeal of the play is based on the comic side of it. It seems reading a play that everything is bright & beautiful.

When that I was and a little tine boy,

With hey ho, the wind and the rain,

A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,

With hey ho, etc.

'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,

For the rain, etc.

But when I came, alas, to wive,

With hey ho, etc.

By swaggering could I never thrive,

For the rain, etc.

But when I came unto my beds,

With hey ho, etc.

With toss-pots still had drunken heads,

For the rain, etc.

A great while ago the world begun,

[With] hey ho, etc.

But that's all one, our play is done,

And we'll strive to please you every day.

“Much ado about nothing” is a comedy heightened by a strict of tragedy. We have a tragedy within a framework of a comedy.

Tragedies

In every of his tragedies Shakespeare explored major human passion, except “Hamlet” & “King Lear”. There is major passion Shakespeare explores but this does not mean that other aspects of life are not investigated.

“Romeo & Juliet”

The major passion is the feeling of love. People begin with liking – it develops – you become infatuated – possessiveness – jealousy – degradation of love. This tragedy is all about love. The law of life becomes reversed (from “like” it becomes “give”).

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea

The more I give to thee

The more I have…”

“Othello”

The major passion is the feeling of jealousy. It’s only at first sight we can say that Shakespeare’s purpose was to explore jealousy. Jealousy of passion is degradation. In “Othello” it could develop into something extreme. Othello is a person who was quite gullible & because of it he lost his integrity & by his own death he regained it. It’s also a play about dignity of man.

“Good name in man & woman dear my lord

Is the immediate jewel of their souls

Who steals my purse steals trash

‘Tis something nothing

‘Twas mine – tis his - & has been slave to thousands

But he that filchers has from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me bad indeed…”

When Othello recovers his integrity as a human being, he will not beg mercy on the strength of his past greatness. He sums up himself & others with objective self-knowledge & he comes out his own sentence offering himself by his last gesture as a sacrifice to his victim. Since it’s only one way to reunion open to him.

“I kissed thee ere I killed no way by

Killing myself to die upon a kiss”

“Hamlet”

Hamlet embodies an essential concern of his time. Hamlet expresses the marvelousness of human possibilities & the vile background of human actions.

Any analysis of “Hamlet” is oversimplified. Critics say that. It’s not a plot that gives us Hamlet as a medieval prince, who because of certain factors comes to see the world in a different way. “Hamlet” describes a conflict between two sets of values, two manifestations of human consciousness. It’s a conflict between a free mind being chained by conservative traditions & ideology depending upon some accepted regulations of society, some attitudes to people. It’s everliving dissatisfaction of an intellectual human being made to act a it was prescribed by the situation, that had been created by someone else.

Some critics consider Hamlet to be neurotic, a person, whose mind is destroyed, as being influenced by all sorts of Freudian complexes (he could play a part in what was going on). But “Hamlet” should be considered as all sorts of attitudes that determine human life (attitude to family, friends, sex, politics, court etc.)

So the situation that’s given by Shakespeare is oversimplified, because it’s just like a stand. The plot was borrowed.

“Hamlet tries to clarify the situation & he wants to understand it better. He tries to overcome natural indecision, because being a man of ideas he knows that hint is not enough (if you find some person guilty you should prove it. Laertes is not tortured by any doubts; his actions are predetermined by regulations. Hamlet is not so – he is a human being & he wants to prove that Claudius is guilty. This gives Shakespeare an opportunity to express his ideas.

People consider hamlet to be insane & neurotic. Against this background he sees how people react. He comes to understand that all the institutions & beliefs people have are false – he is shocked by this because his new humanistic idea does not have any basis (The medieval soil of atrocities is not fertile enough to let the seeds of free mind grow. The more he gets involved the more he gets disappointed in a human being.

It’s not difficult for Hamlet to solve the situation. It’s very difficult for him to solve it in a new vision. Hamlet deliberately prolongs the time of his suspicions. When Claudius finds out that Hamlet is dangerous, he ships him away from the country.

Paradox – Hamlet’s philosophizing, which is close to many people brings him to destruction. He gives up his ideals to come back to Earth & to solve the situation.

So Hamlet acts decisively, he is very clever, he returns to Denmark. Then he has to suffer the death of Ofelia & he is moved beyond measure of suicide. He is very much upset by the reaction of Laertes. Nevertheless he solves situation in action & he puts the bearing 7 responsibilities of a prince – kills the king.

The degree to which Hamlet gives up a battle to act as a man rather than ффы a prince shows us the level on which humanism can be considered. In the play Hamlet repeats the word – “man”.

“He was a man, take him for all in all

As thou art a man give me the cup …”

His attitude to man as a human being points the departure. Hamlet understands that the laws that determined the life of people are unjust, that wisdom is helpless when it tries to deal with tyranny, cruelty, that these are the integral part of human life. He asks himself a question: “What man can do about it?” Then he stops doing it & transforms a man into prince. Hamlet is obsessed by contradictions. He’s desperate & unease. Man is the “paragon of all animals”. That’s the cause for his melancholy.

“King Lear”

A king has three daughters. He is going to retire – wants to divide his kingdom – wants daughters to express their love (to get the best part of it). But it’s not a fairy-tale.

The play begins with what many plays & fairy-tales end. It’s a play giving us a story about a king, who through suffering becomes a man. It’s full of contradictions & paradoxes. It’s a tragedy of a man, who now being crazy comes to see the world as it is.

The opening scene shows us Lear, every inch of king, disposing his kingdom. In “King Lear” Shakespeare reveals from the very start the society that is in turmoil & king Lear representing the old generation, who feels that time is out of joint.

“Love cools friendship, fails off

Brothers divide, in cities mutinies

In countries, discord, in palaces treason

And the bonds crack’d twixt son & father…”

“King Lear’s” story is more complex & moving. No hero at all. He’s the king to whom the forms of kingship & hierarchy are the basis of reality in the world. It’s Cordelia, who is the hero. She speaks the word of expiring humanity.

“I love your Majesty

According to my bond, no more, nor less…”

Shakespeare is a realist & he wants to describe the world around him; he gives us real situations, describes real relationships. When he chooses some device he makes it real because the device itself is real. When he describes a storm he uses his descriptions on different levels. It’s natural/ it’s an elemental storm. It comes out as natural as it can be, but it’s a social storm at the same time & it shakes the divided kingdom. It’s the inner storm that drives Lear mad. All storms are connected 6 interconnected to reinforce one another & all these storms give us a crisis, one of the most extraordinary representations of all crises in all art. In the 1^st storm scene comes the 1^st hint of resolution. The storm is not a breakdown, it’s a breakthrough. It’s the 1^st breakthrough of humanity.

“My wits begin to turn” – does not only mean that he realizes that he’s going crazy, but that his wits come to see things in a real way – addresses to a fool:

“ Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?

I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow?

The art of our necessities is strange

And can make vild things precious. Come, your hovel.

Poor Fool and knave, I have one part in my heart

That's sorry yet for thee.…”

These words show the change in directions – the way from self-pity, pride, revenge, kingliness towards fellow feeling & cooperation, that are the minimum qualities of humanity.

“Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,

Your [loop'd] and window'd raggedness, defend you

From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en

Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp,

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,

That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,

And show the heavens more just.”

The final vision is inseparable from what he’s come to be. In “King Lear” Shakespeare explored suffering in all its representations. In the beginning of the play he suffers from refused obedience – suffers as a trusting man who is deceived. He’s humiliated, his pride is hurt – as a lonely hermit his self-imposed duty is to pray the God for mercy & every of humanity. Suffering becomes more & more inclusive 7 the last stage of it may be called anguish. He’s so much shocked by Cordelia’s death that he can’s bear his present state & the only way for him is death.

In “Macbeth” Shakespeare gave us definition of man:

“Life is but a walking shadow, a poor play

That struts & frets his hour upon the street

And then is heard no more…”

Sonnets

Sonnets are a very important part of Shakespeare creations. They express the vision of life. There are 4 types of sonnets:

1. The Italian sonnet (the sonnet of Petrarca)

2. The Spenserian sonnet

3. The English sonnet

4. The Blues sonnet

The Italian sonnet – the original form of the sonnet according to Williams was the Italian sonnet. Developed by the 14^th century poet Petrarca, it consisted of an eight line octet & six line sestet. Each section of an Italian sonnet has a specific rhyme scheme & a specific purpose. The rhyme scheme for the octet is ABBAABBA, & the purpose of the octet is to present the situation or a problem. The rhyme scheme for the sestet can be either CDECDE or CDCDCD & the purpose of the sestet is to comment on the situation or problem posed in the octet.

When this is used in English it’s usually iambic pentameter & as Williams writes “the tradition is a strong one”.

Sonnet 140 (Petrarca)

Translated by H. Landsman

Love who rules my thinking as his empire

And in my heart has placed his principal throne

Like a warrior storms into my forehead’s dome

Sets up his flag & makes his outpost there

She who teaches me to love & suffer

And who wishes reason, modesty & reverence

Would tame my great desire & wild exuberance

Casts aside and denigrates our order

So terror stricken love flees to my heart

Abandoning his was-plans and his tents

And lays there hopeless, trembling & laments

When my lord is afraid what is my part

But to stay with him until the final knell

For his end is good…

Spenserian sonnet form – sonnet variation developed in the 16^th century by English poet Edmund Spenser. While very few poets used this form, it serves as a bridge between the Italian sonnet & Shakespearian one. In the Spenserian sonnet the rhyme scheme used is ABABBCBCCDCDEE & there does not appear to be a requirement that the initial octet sets up a problem, which the closing sestet answers. Instead the form is treated as 3 quatrains, followed by a couplet. Again iambic pentameter is used. Spenserian sonnets are also descriptive, but to an extent. Then a couplet comes, which plays the role of a conclusion. So it’s half descriptive, half conclusive.

Sonnet LIV

Of this world theater in which we stay

My love as the spectator idly sits

Beholding me that all the pageants play

Disguising diversely my troubled wits

Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits

And waste in mirth like to a Comedy

Soon after when my joy to sorrow flits

I wail & make my woes a Tragedy

Yet she beholding me with constant eye

Delights not in my mirth nor rues my smart

But when I laugh, she mocks and when I cry

She laughs & hardens evermore her heart

What then can move her? If nor mirth nor moan

She is no woman but a senseless stone.

The English sonnet – a form was developed by Shakespeare himself to accommodate the Italian sonnet to relatively rhyme-poor English, avoiding the requirements for triple rhymes in the sestet. The rhetorical pattern of the poem changes slightly as the situation or problem, presented in the octet, is dealt with tentatively in the next 4 lines & summarily in the couplet. Some English sonnets develop through a series of 3examples of 3 quatrains with a conclusion in the couplet. The rhyme scheme of the English sonnet is ABABCDCDEFEFEGG. Shakespeare gas eliminated the close linking via rhymes to allow more flexibility in the English, which does not provide as many rhyming possibilities as Italian.

See the154^th sonnet by Shakespeare

Shakespeare shows us that we can express much in little. Precise form does not tolerate any freedom of expression.

Translation is an art of gains & losses. But there are things which should remain as they are which can not be violated. It’s the form of the sonnet that can’t be dispensed with. It’s the meaning of the sonnet which can’t be ruined. Shakespearian sonnets produce upon the reader the impression of life full of predicaments & it’s the poet’s desire to do a way to predicaments & the idea of such form full of limitations to do the way with life’s limitations gives one the notion of what the conflict really means as a mechanism which makes life develop.