MEDIEVAL LITERATURE IN BRITAIN: THE CHIVALRY ROMANCES

Middle English prose of the 13th century continued the tradition of Anglo-Saxon prose – didactic and directed toward ordinary people rather than aristocratic society.The fact that there was no French prose tradition was very important to the preservation of the English prose tradition, formed with the help of the story-tellers and historians.Poetry took a lyrical turn under the impact of French sources.
In the 13th century the romance, an important continental narrative verse form, was introduced in England. It drew from three rich sources of character and adventure:

the legends of Charlemagne (the matter of France);
the legends of Greece and Rome (the matter of Troy and the matter of Rome);
the British legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (the matter of Britain).

We generally define chivalry as a system of ethical ideals that arose from feudalism and had its highest development in the 12th and 13th centuries. Chivalric ethics originated mainly in France and Spain but spread rapidly to the rest of the Continent and England. Young noblemen were taught from early childhood the principles of both Christian and military morality and conduct. Piety, honour, valour, courtesy, chastity and loyalty were the chief chivalric virtues. 

The chivalry romances include for the first time in literature a deep psychological analysis, a description of the heroes’ inner feelings. Although the narrative element gets a considerable place, the description of different events is not the main purpose of these works, as the spiritual life of the Middle Ages is present in them to a great extent.

Man’s rights to love and happiness on earth (and not only in Heaven, as promised by the church) are proclaimed here. The chivalry romances generally present love as a noble sentiment, in contrast with the ecclesiastical morals that considered it a dirty aspect of human nature. It is true that in the legend about the Holy Grail the author(s) tried to preach the idea of renouncing earthly goods and devoting one’s activities to purity, which was to be rewarded after death, but this is a theme that gets only a secondary place in the chivalry literature.However, it is obvious that the romances idealized the idea of chivalry. They described the refined and delicate manners of the knights, who came to find the ancient manners rough and unfit and who adopted the notion of politeness and noble behaviour. In real life – and there is plenty of evidence to prove this – the knights were not exactly the embodiment of lofty ideals: they could be arrogant and false, mean and uncivil. But the romance knight was always presented as generous, loyal, honest and brave.Women, who in Anglo-Saxon times had been but a shadowy part of a man’s universe, get a new status in the chivalrous romances: they are an ideal worth fighting for.

Renaissance in England

              The Renaissance is generally referred to as a series of literary and cultural movements in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. These movements began in Italy and eventually expanded into Germany, France, England, and other parts of Europe. The English Renaissance dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century is associated with the pan-European Renaissance. The great Renaissance scholars studied the great civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome and came to the conclusion that their own cultural achievements rivaled those of antiquity.The word renaissance means “rebirth”, “renewal”. The idea of rebirth originated in the belief that Europeans had rediscovered the superiority of Greek and Roman culture after many centuries of what they considered intellectual and cultural decline. The Renaissance was marked by an intense interest in the visible world and in the knowledge derived from concrete sensory experience. It turned away from the abstract speculations and interest in life after death that characterized the Middle Ages. Although Christianity was not abandoned, the otherworldliness and monastic ideology of the Middle Ages were largely discarded. The focus during the Renaissance turned from abstract discussions of religious issues to the morality of human actions. The civilization of the Renaissance was the creation of prosperous cities and of rulers who drew substantial income from their urban subjects in the Italian city-states and the countries of England and France.

       Renaissance attitudes and philosophy had a complex influence on the evolution of literature. The humanist reverence for the classics of ancient Greece and Rome tended to stifle spontaneous literary creation and to encourage imitation of classical authors. However, the restless curiosity of the Renaissance, the interest in the world, and the exposure to urban influences created a demand for a vernacular, or native, literature that expressed the new excitement and variety of contemporary life. Moreover, Renaissance individuality, with its concern for personal fame, encouraged writers to try daring experiments in order to win praise from the critics and support from influential patrons.The sonnet was introduced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century. His sonnets and those of his contemporary, Henry Howard the Earl of Surrey, were chiefly translations from the Italian of Petrarch and the French of Ronsard and others. While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Surrey who gave them the rhyme scheme, meter, and division into quatrains that now characterizes the English sonnet. 

Renaissance Drama in England

The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama.The Italian Renaissance had rediscovered the ancient Greek and Roman theatre, and this was instrumental in the development of the new drama, which was then beginning to evolve apart from the old mystery and miracle plays of the Middle Ages.The Italians were particularly inspired by Seneca (a major tragic playwright and philosopher) and Plautus (comic clichés, especially that of the boasting soldier had a powerful influence on the Renaissance and after).

The decade of the 1590s, just before Shakespeare started his career, saw a radical transformation in popular drama. A group of well- educated men chose to write for the public stage, taking over native traditions. They brought new coherence in structure, and real wit and poetic power to the language. 

They are known collectively as the "University Wits," though they did not always work as a group, and indeed wrangled with each other at times. According to some critics of his time, Shakespeare was vulgar, provincial and overrated. His mastery of poetic language and of the techniques of drama enabled him to combine these multiple viewpoints, human motives, and actions to produce a uniquely compelling theatrical experience. England’s greatest playwright, William Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. His epitaph reads:The "First Folio" is of major importance to William Shakespeare as it is the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. The copper-engraving picture of William Shakespeare is signed Martin Droeshout on the title-page of the ‘First Folio’ (1623). 

As a Shakespearean tragedy represents a conflict which terminates in a catastrophe, any such tragedy may roughly be divided into three parts. 

A. The first of these sets forth or expounds the situation, or state of affairs, out of which the conflict arises; and it may, therefore, be called the exposition. 

B. The second deals with the definite beginning, the growth and the vicissitudes of the conflict. It forms accordingly the bulk of the play, comprising the Second, Third and Fourth Acts, and usually a part of the First and a part of the Fifth. 

C. The final section of the tragedy shows the issue of the conflict in a catastrophe.

   The application of this scheme of division is naturally more or less arbitrary. The first part glides into the second, and the second into the third, and there may often be difficulty in drawing the lines between them. 

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Medieval Drama in England

In England the folk-plays, throughout the Middle Ages sometimes took the form of dances (Morris dances). Others, exhibited with much fighting and buffoonery, had a slight thread of dramatic action. Their characters gradually came to be a conventional set, partly famous figures of popular tradition, such as St. George, Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and the Green Dragon. The real drama of the Middle Ages grew up from the regular services of the Church. The process of dramatizing the services in church contributed to the development of drama.Sometimes, in the later period, original and very realistic scenes from actual English life were added. Comic treatment was given to the Bible scenes and characters themselves. Noah's wife, for example, came regularly to be presented as a shrew, who would not enter the ark until she had been beaten into submission; and Herod always appears as a blustering tyrant, whose fame still survives in a phrase of Shakespeare's coinage - 'to out-Herod Herod.'

The morality plays had as their main theme choosing the right way in life and saving one’s soul.

Some of the moralities were anonymous; others were by known authors.

The best known of the former type is Everyman (late 15th century), which probably was derived from a Dutch source but was thoroughly Anglicized. In the play the protagonist Everyman learns that everything material he has gained in life deserts him as he journeys into the Valley of Death; in the end only the allegorical personage Good Deeds accompanies him.

Renaissance drama was strongly indebted to Medieval drama, just as Medieval poetry had a deep impact upon the poetry to come.

By the advent of the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries, most European countries had established native traditions of religious drama and farce. Little had been known of classical drama during the Middle Ages, but they were to be rediscovered during the Renaissance.

English Literature in the 14th century

                  The 14th and 15th centuries were characterized by conflict in the political and military fields both at home and abroad, and also in the daily life of villages. War with France continued intermittently throughout the period, and included the Hundred Years' War from 1337 to 1453.
Chivalry ideals were cultivated by the King and his courtiers as a useful way of persuading men to fight, by creating the idea that war was a noble and glorious thing. The 14th century in England did not mean political and government problems only. The outbreak of the Black Death in 1348 brought about profound social and economic changes. The disease killed between one third and one half of the population, and was followed by further outbreaks in 1361 and 1369. This population decline resulted in severe labour shortages and in the abandonment of a large number of villages.

                 Towards the end of the 14th century, there appeared some other revolutionary movements, and the beginning of the war between England and France (1337 – 1453) brought its contribution to the development of social contradictions as well.The 15th century was a period of transition: the Middle Ages were coming to an end, and the foundations of modern society were being laid. 

It is surprising to observe that under the given circumstances, the second half of the 14th century marked a great developement of literature. Wonderful artistic works appeared, describing in a more or less explicit way, life in that eventful period. Four important writers defined the spirit of the time in their literary creations: 

William Langland

John Gower

Geoffrey Chaucer 

Geoffrey Chaucer is regarded as England's first poet of world importance who deserves to be called „the morning star of English poetry”.The novelty of his poetic artistry and his deep interest in the aspects of his society prove that a new spirit was already at work in the 14th   century English literature.Chaucer was born in 1343 in London, although the exact date and location of his birth are not known. His father and grandfather were both London vintners and before that, for several generations, the family were merchants in Ipswich. His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales appeared quite naturally, as to tell stories or to go on pilgrimages was in the air of the time. Somewhere about 1386, the poet planned to collect about 120 to 124 tales and to put them together in one single work, as told by a number of about 30 pilgrims on their way to the tomb of Thomas-à-Becket in Canterbury. The „General Prologue” in itself is the splendid creation of a genius. It begins with a brief description of nature in spring time, not extremely ornamented, but very suggestive. It is April, everything exhales an air of joy, the birds are singing, the sun is shining and the flowers are in bloom. The relationship between man and nature is observed, even if in a rather mocking tone.

The tales present varied themes, as their sources of inspiration were also varied, and the characters only retell them. They belong to all types of medieval literature. They were inspired from:

the chivalry romances (e.g. the Knight’s tale, the Squire’s tale);

the burlesque of chivalry romance (e.g. Chaucer’s tale of Sir Thopaz)

adaptations of the Arthurian cycle that have become folk fairy tales (e.g. the Wife of Bath’s tale)

stories based on medieval scriptural stories which have a moralizing tendency (the Sergeant of Law’s Tale, the Monk’s Tale. The Nun’s tale)

the French fabliaux (the Miller’s tale, The tales of the Reeve, Merchant, Friar, Summoner, Cook, Shipman)

one tale sugessted by the French romance Le Roman de Renard ( the Nun’s story of the cock Chanticleer, who managed to cheat on Russel, the fox).

Anglo-Saxon Literature

              English literature is one of the oldest European literatures. Based on the material provided by the wanderings of the Germanic tribes, it underwent many changes, nevertheless managing to preserve its originality.

              British literature is literature from the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. By far the largest part of this literature is written in the English language, but there are also separate literatures in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx and other languages. Northern Ireland is the only part of Ireland still part of the United Kingdom and it possesses literature in English, Ulster Scots and Irish. Irish writers have also played an important part in the development of English-language literature. 

The Celts, who came from the Danube and upper Rhinelands, entered Britain after 700 B.C. in successive waves.

Celtic society was rurally based and its centre was the tribe.

Their religion was polytheist. The druids played an important part in the life of Celtic society.The Romans first came to Britain under Julius Caesar (54-55 B.C.) and later under Claudius (42 A.D.).

The Britons were defeated and took refuge behind the mountains. In Wales, Scotland, Cornwall or the Isle of Man they preserved their culture and language.

The Roman invasion of Britain was a significant event ever to happen to the British Isles. It affected language, culture, geography, architecture and even the way of thinking. 

The Roman Empire collapsed in 410 A.D. and after the Roman legions left Britain several Celtic kingdoms emerged in the Romanized parts of England.

The Germanic migratory tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came about A.D. 449 and once again the Britons had to change places.

At the beginning of 1066, Edward the Confessor ruled England. He was 61 years old,  and was dying.  King Edward had no children,  so succession  was difficult.  There was no direct heir to the English throne.

King Edward died on January 5th - in the first week of the new year. As King Edward had no children, it was uncertain who would rule next.

Christianity came at the pagan Anglo-Saxons from two directions:

The Celtic Church, pushed back into Wales, Cornwall, and particularly Ireland, made inroads in the north from an early base on Lindisfarne Island.

The Roman Catholic Church approached from the south, beginning with the mission of St.Augustine to Aethelbert, King of Kent, in 597. 

The first literary productions were oral and anonymous.

The ancient scribes used a primitive alphabet (the letters of which were called Runes), but the Runes were replaced by the Roman alphabet in the 9th – 10th centuries.

The writing materials of ancient Britain included the old “boc” – a wooden tablet coated with wax and written upon with a style made of bone or metal.

Main Features of Anglo-Saxon Poetry: No rhyme;

The rhythm and musicality were provided by alliteration;

Each line was divided into two parts with the help of a caesura;

Parallelism;

Metaphors (“kennings”);

An interweaving of fantastic and real, heathen and Christian elements;

Gloomy atmosphere

                      The first prose works in Old English appeared beginning with the 8th century.

Much of the older literature of Christian England was written in Latin and dealt mainly with historical issues.

Generally speaking, when we refer to Anglo-Saxon prose, we refer to “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of texts in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. Multiple manuscript copies were made and distributed to monasteries across England, and were independently updated. In one case, the chronicle was still being actively updated in 1154.

The development of Anglo-Saxon Literature was suddenly checked by the Norman Conquest, which introduced a foreign idiom and changed not only the language, but also the customs and the whole cultural spirit of the country.

Vergiliu - Eneida

                         Poet latin, autor al epopeei in versuri Aeneis, considerata epopeea nationala a romanilor. Multe din datele biografice nu sunt sigure, cele mai multe informatii dateaza din perioada antica tarzie sau provin din legende ale evului mediu timpuriu.

              Eneida, alcatuita in hexametri in 12 carti, este considerata epopeea nationala a romanilor, bazata pe legenda conform careia, Enea, erou troian de origine divina, dupa caderea Troiei si lungi peregrinari, ajuns in Latium, pe tarmurile Italiei, fondeaza o colonie, din care va rezulta mai tarziu Roma. Cele 12 carti ale epopeei sunt grupate in doua parti. Primele 6 carti infatiseaza evenimentele care au avut loc in al saptelea an de rataciri pe mare. Dupa ce flota lui Enea este aruncat de furtuna pe tarmurile Africii, regina Cartaginei, Didona, ii gazduieste pe troieni. Didana se indragosteste de Enea, aceasta insa, in urma indemnului lui Jupiter -  o paraseste pt a-si indeplinii menirea intemeierii unui stat infloritor in Italia. Dezamagita, Didona se sinucide, injunghindu-se cu sabia lui Enea. In ultimele 6 carti se povesteste debarcarea lui Enea in Italia, la gurile Tibrului. Aici se casatoreste cu Lavinia, fiica regelui din Latium.
         Vergiliu a murit inainte de a-si desavarsi opera. Augustus a dat ordin legatarilor testamentari ai poetului, Varius si Tucca, sa nu distruga manuscrisul cum dorise Vergiliu, ci sa-l publice ca atare, cu un minimum de prelucrari. Chiar neadusa la perfectiune, Eneida a fost recunoscuta de la inceput drept una din capodoperele literaturii, alaturi de epopeele homerice, Iliada si Odiseea, care i-au servit ca model, influentand generatiile ulterioare de scriitori, pana in perioada umanismului.
          Opera incepe cu asa zisa retragere a grecilor de pe pamantul troian si aparitia calului de lemn in fata cetatii. Enea, conducatorul troienilor, este indemnat de catre mama lui, Venus-Afrodita sa plece din cetatea Troiana. Acesta primeste un semn ca fiul lui va fi aparat de zei si isi pierde sotia. Troienii naufragiaza in insula lui Licurg, de unde, pleaca. Ajunsi pe insula Delos, oracolul zeului Apollon ii trimite in Creta und eciuma se napusteste asupra lor. Enea sfatuit de Afrodita, merge la regina Didona, dar actioneaza din nou facandu-i sa s eindragosteasca unul de celalalt, mai tarziu cununandu-i pe cei doi.
Ajuns in Italia, Enea merge in infern pt a-i cere tatalui sau sfaturi. Acolo o intalneste si pe sotia lui care nu a vrut sa ii vorbeasca. Troienii pleaca in tara regelui Latinus. Acesta avea o fiica, pe Lavinia care era promisa regelui Turnus. Juona o trimite pe Alecta sa puna ura intre regi. Astfel incepe razboiul. Juona ii tine partea lui Turnus, aparandu-l. Amazoarele i se alatura, dar troienii omorand-o pe regina lor, ii sperie armata lui Turnus. Enea este ranit crunt de o sageata, dar mama lui il vindeca. Junona nu renunta pana nu o trimite pe sora lui Turnus sa-l apere. Cea din urma incercare fu in zadar. Pentru o clipa, Enea, se gandeste sa nu il omoare pe Turnus dar amintindu-si de moartea prietenului sau Palas, il injunghie.