ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD THROUGH THE RENAISSANCE (The Britannica Guide to World Literature)

   Perhaps the best way to start appreciating early English literature is to not think of it as literature at all. The earliest stories in the English language were not written for academic study but as an extension of the oral tradition of relating grand and fanciful tales for entertainment. 

   These stories, then, were the blockbuster summer movies of their day--tales of adventure and romance, with brave knights, beautiful women, horrible monsters, and mysterious spirits.

Over  the  centuries  these  stories  became  a  part  of English literature, and along the way, the gripping manner in which they were told made the leap from word of mouth to the page. This book will show how that transition was made as it takes you on a journey through time and literary development.  

   To  study  English  literature  from  the  Old  English period  to  the  Renaissance  is  to  witness  the  movement from one-dimensional action stories and religious lessons to stories with more subtleties of plot and character development  and  the  development  of  language  usage  from simple conventions to new uses of sound and meaning. In short, this period began the rich tradition of English literature that continues to grow today. 

CONTENT

Introduction:   10

Chapter 1: The Old 

English Period   21

Poetry  24

The Major Manuscripts     25

      Problems of Dating            25

      Religious Verse   26

      Elegiac and Heroic Verse    27

      Prose   29

      Early Translations 

into English   30

      Late 10th- and 

11th-Century Prose   32

      Signifi cant Figures 

      and Texts   33

      Notable Old

English Writers   33

      Notable Old 

English Texts   39

Chapter 2: The Middle

English Period   50

      Early Middle 

English Poetry   50

      Infl uence of French 

Poetry   51

Fabliau 53

      Didactic Poetry   54

      Verse Romance   54

Beast Epic 55

      Arthurian Legend  56

Breton Lay 59

      The Lyric  59

      Early Middle English Prose    61

      Later Middle 

English Poetry   63

      Alliterative Poetry  63

      Courtly Poetry  68

      Popular and 

Secular Verse   72

Political Verse 73

      Later Middle English Prose   73

      Religious Prose  74

      Secular Prose  75

      Middle English Drama          77

      Mystery Plays  77

      Morality Plays  81

Everyman 83

      Miracle Plays  83

      The Transition from 

Medieval to Renaissance      84

      Signifi cant Middle English

Literary Figures  86

      William Caxton  86

      Geoff rey Chaucer  88 

      John Gower  102

      Lawamon  104

      Robert Mannyng  104 

      Orm  106

      Richard Rolle  107

Chapter 3: The Renaissance

Period (1550–1660)  108

      Social Conditions  109

      Intellectual and Religious

      Revolution  109

      The Race for Cultural 

      Development  111

   Elizabethan Poetry

and Prose  114

      Development of the 

      English Language  115

      Sir Philip Sidney and 

Edmund Spenser  117

      Elizabethan Lyric   121

      The Sonnet Sequence       122

      Other Poetic Styles           123

      Prose Styles, 1550–1600   127

      Early Stuart Poetry 

      and Prose  130

House of Stuart  131

      The Metaphysical Poets    133

The Metaphysicals           133

      Ben Jonson and the 

Cavalier Poets  138

      Continued Infl uence of 

Spenser  140

Spenserian Stanza  141

      The Eff ect of Religion 

and Science on Early 

Stuart Prose   142

      Prose Styles  144

      John Milton and the 

Renaissance  146

      Milton’s Life 

and Works   148

      Milton’s Infl uence  173

Chapter 4: Elizabethan

and Early Stuart Drama  177

      Theatres in London 

and the Provinces  178

      Professional Playwrights     180

Blank Verse 181

   Christopher Marlowe          182

      Marlowe’s Works  184

      Literary Career  188

      Assessment  189

      William Shakespeare           191

      Shakespeare the Man        191

      Shakespeare’s 

Early Plays  197

      Plays of the Middle 

and Late Years  207

      The Poems   233

Collaborations and 

Spurious Attributions       236

      Questions of 

Authorship  237

      Playwrights after 

Shakespeare  240

      Ben Jonson  241

      Other Jacobean 

Dramatists  244

      The Last Renaissance 

Dramatists   246

Epilogue  249

Glossary  251

Bibliography  253

Index  257

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