part one 2. the anglo-norman period (1066---1485)
TRANSCRIPT
PART ONE
2. The Anglo-Norman Period (1066---1485)
Historical Background
Literary Types
1.Medieval Romance
2. Popular Ballads
Representative Poet:
Geoffrey Chaucer
Norman Conquest and its Influence
1. On English Society
2. On English Language
Literary Type 1: Romance
• Content of Romance
• Romance Cycles
The Content of Romance
Knight
A knight is simply a mounted warrior wearing heavy armor,riding a war-horse, and fighting with sword and lance . Chivalry was a code of conduct to which all knights adhered. A knight swore to defend the weak and to uphold virtues like compassion, loyalty, generosity and truthfulness.
•
• He would always defend a lady. • He would speak only the truth. • He would be loyal to his lord. • He would be devoted to the church. • He would be charitable and defend the poor and helpless. • He would be brave. • When on a quest, he would remove his armor and arms only while
sleeping. • He would never avoid dangerous paths out of fear. • He would be on time for any engagement of arms, like a battle or
tournament. • Upon returning to his home or lord's court from an adventure, he
would always tell of his escapades. • If taken prisoner, he would give up his arms and horse to his opponent
and not fight the opponent again without the opponent's consent. • He would fight only one-on-one against an opponent.
Knighthood is conferred.
The Romance Cycles
Marriage of King Arthur and Guinevere
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Literary Type 2:
Popular ballad
Ballad
• A narrative poem written in four-line stanzas, characterized by swift action and narrated in a direct style. Two forms: the folk ballad and the literary ballad .
The Folk Ballad • The anonymous folk ballad (or popular
ballad), was composed to be sung. It was passed along orally from singer to singer, from generation to generation, and from one region to another. During this progression a particular ballad would undergo many changes in both words and tune.
• Primarily based on an older legend or romance, this type of ballad is usually a short, simple song that tells a dramatic story through dialogue and action, briefly alluding to what has gone before and devoting little attention to depth of character, setting, or moral commentary. It uses simple language, an economy of words, dramatic contrasts, and frequently refrain.
Refrain
• A repeated line or group of lines, usually at the end of a stanza. The less technical term is 'chorus'.
The Literary Ballad
• The literary ballad is a narrative poem created by a poet in imitation of the old anonymous folk ballad. Usually the literary ballad is more elaborate and complex; the poet may retain only some of the devices and conventions of the older verse narrative. Literary ballads were quite popular in England during the 19th cent. Literary ballads are meant to be read rather than sung.
Ballad Stanza
The ballad stanza is a quatrain rhyming abcb, and alternating four-stress and three-stress lines.
Quatrain?Rhyme?Stress?
Rhyme 押韵
• The repetition of the same vowel sound in words, including the last stressed vowel and all the speech sounds following that vowel: gay, day, play; wall, fall; bowed, proud; season, treason. It includes end rhyme and internal rhyme.
End Rhyme
• If the rhyme occurs at the ends of lines, it is called end rhyme.
Example 1: In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? ---William Blake
• Example 2:
With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.
---Housman
Rhyme Scheme 韵式
The pattern of rhymes in a poem is called rhyme scheme, indicated by English letters such as abcb or aabb or abab or abba.
Internal Rhyme 行中韵• Internal rhyme occurs within the verse-line.
Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing.
---T. Nashe
Discussion Questions
• why was Allin happy one day and then sad the next?
• how did Robin disguise himself so that the Bishop would let him into the Church?
• how did Robin get the "religious authority" to marry Allin and his bride?
A. Identify the ballad characteristics of the poem.
B. What story elements are introduced in the 1st 3 stanzas?
(Setting):
_____________________________________
(Situation): _____________________________________
(Conflict): _____________________________________
Discussion Questions
Get Up and Bar the Door
B. What story elements are introduced in the 1st 3 stanzas?
(Setting):__________________________________________________________
(Situation): __________________________________________________
(Conflict): _________________________________________________________
Summary: This ballad is a humorous incident on the age-old theme of the battle of the sexes. A stubborn husband and wife are both unwilling to be the one to get up and bar the door. To end their bickering, they decide to stop talking: the first who breaks the silence will bar the door. When intruders arrive, pull a knife, and threaten to rob and harass them, the man protests. The woman, however, jumps for joy: Her husband has spoken first, so he will have to get up and bar the door.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 -1400)乔叟
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 -1400)乔叟
• LifeMajor WorksThe Canterbury Tales坎特伯雷故事集
• Chaucer’s Contribution to English Literature
The Canterbury Tales
Outline of the Story
The General Prologue
Social Significance of
the Work
Language and Form
Canterbury
• Words or phrases or any expressions that create pictures in the reader’s mind are images. Images can appeal to senses: seeing, hearing, touch, taste, smell and movement.
Image (意象)
Spring---Thomas Nashe
Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring.
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The palm and May make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear ay birds tune this merry lay:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,
In every street these tunes our ears do greet:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
Spring! The sweet Spring!
–
– The non-literal uses of language
such as similes, metaphors,
personifications, apostrophe, allusion
and other figures of speech are also
images.
Fog---Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
• Images can create atmosphere/mood and convey theme through verbal pictures.
Image is the soul of the significance of a poem.
• These are the opening lines with which the narrator begins the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. The imagery in this opening passage is of spring’s renewal and rebirth. April’s sweet showers have penetrated the dry earth of March, hydrating the roots, which in turn coax flowers out of the ground; Zephyrs, the warm, gentle west wind, have breathed life into fields and wood; The sun is shining brightly and genially; and the birds chirp merrily. These fresh and vigorous images combine to provide readers with a picture of the return of spring.
The Knight:
I am of the highest social standing
of the pilgrims. I am the epitome
of chivalry. Chaucer idealizes me.
I am always modest and never
boorish. I am going to Canterbury
to give thanks to God for keeping
me safe during all my exploits.
The Squire: I am the son of the Knightand am quite a lady’s man. Iam twenty years old andvery proud of my appearance.(Some call me a dandy.) Iwill be a candidate forknighthood. I sing lusty
songs,compose melodies, and ride ahorse well.
The Yeoman:
I am the attendant to the
Knight and the Squire. I
look like Robin Hood. I
am also an expert
woodsman and an
excellent shot with a bow
and arrow.
The Nun (Prioress):
I am the first Church figure and the
first woman to be mentioned. My
Christian name is Madame Eglante. I
am a gentle lady – well-educated and
well-mannered. I try to imitate the
ladies at Court. I am very tender
hearted, especially toward animals. I
have three hound dogs whom I treat
very well. I try never to drop food on
My clothes. You can tell from my
description that I secretly long for a
more worldly life.
The Wife of Bath:
Bath is an English resort city. I am somewhat
deaf because my 5th husband hit me (14th c.
wife abuse). I am an excellent seamstress and
weaver. I have been on pilgrimages to
Jerusalem,Rome, etc. I am gap-toothed which
is a sign of luck. You decide if I’m lucky –
I’ve had 5 husbands! I enjoy a good joke. I
give love advice. I’m always first at the alter
to give my offerings. I love to wear bright
crimson stockings and wrap heavy sashes
about my body. I told the story that had the
moral that husbands should obey their wives..
Musical Characteristics-Metrical Rhythm
• Rhythm refers to the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.In poetry, the rhythm ofLines is described through two terms:
meter and foot.
Meter 节拍,音步The regular pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables. Usually a stressed
syllable is marked with “ /” , and an
unstressed syllable is marked with “ ︺” . Names for some common Meters:
Iamb(iambic 抑扬格 ): ︺ /
• She walks| in beau|ty, like |the night
Of cloud|less climes |and star|ry skies;
---Byron
• Shall I |compare |thee to |a sum|mer’s day?
Thou art |more love|ly and |more tem|perate:
---Shakespeare
trochee(trochaic): / ︺
• Tell me |not in |mournful |numbers,
Life is |but an |empty |dream!
For the |soul is |dead that |slumbers,
And things |are not |what they |seem.
---Longfellow
anapest(anapestic): ︺ ︺ /
• As I came| to the edge |of the woods.
• The Assy|rian came down |like a wolf |on the fold,
And his co|horts were gleam|ing in pur|ple and gold.
dactyl(dactylic): / ︺ ︺
• Just for a |handful of |silver he |left us,
Just for a |riband to |stick in his |coat.
Foot 音步• A unit of poetic meter of stressed and unstressed sylla
bles is called a foot. Names for some feet: trimeter: 3 feet tetrameter: 4 feet pentameter: 5 feet hexameter: 6 feet heptameter: 7 feet octameter: 8 feet The number of feet in a line, coupled with the name
of the foot, describes the metrical qualities of that line.
No. of Lines
What It’s Called
What It Is
2 Rhymed couplet 2 lines with identical rhymes
2 Heroic couplet 2 iambic pentameter lines with identical rhymes
3 Triplet or tercet 3 lines—any rhyme scheme or meter
3 Terza rima Rhyme scheme—aba bcb cdc ded……
4 quatrain 4 lines-any rhyme scheme, any length and meter
4 Ballad stanza Rhyme scheme---abcb
6 sestet 6 lines
8 octave 8 line stanza
8 Ottava rima 8 lines—iambic pentameter; rhyme scheme—abab abcc
9 Spenserian stanza
14 sonnet
Rhyme押韵
• The repetition of the same vowel sound in words, including the last stressed vowel and all the speech sounds following that vowel: gay, day, play; wall, fall; bowed, proud; season, treason. It includes end rhyme and internal rhyme.
End Rhyme
• If the rhyme occurs at the ends of lines, it is called end rhyme.
Example 1: In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? ---William Blake
• Example 2:
With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.
---Housman
Rhyme Scheme 韵式
The pattern of rhymes in a poem is called rhyme scheme, indicated by English letters such as abcb or aabb or abab or abba.
Internal Rhyme 行中韵• Internal rhyme occurs within the verse-line.
Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing.
---T. Nashe
Other Sound Effects
• Besides the rhyme, there are other sound devices employed in verse, the majors ones of which include alliteration, assonance, consonance and onomatopoeia.
Assonance 元音迭韵 • The repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
---Dyron Thomas
Thou foster child of silence and slow time.
---John Keats
Consonance 辅音韵• The repetition of similar consonant sounds
in a group of words.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
---T. Hardy
And all the air a solemn stillness holds.
---Thomas Gray
Onomatopoeia 拟音 , 象声词
• The use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning. The names of some birds are onomatopoetic, imitating the cry of the bird named: cuckoo, owl. Some onomatopoetic words are hiss, clang, rustle, drip, whisper, murmur, meow.
Structure
• A long poem usually consists of a number of lines grouped into lines called STANZAS. Names for some common stanzas with different number of lines:
• It is the mood and attitude of the poet or speaker towards his subject. Tone is decided by overall analysis of all the elements involved in the poem(diction, sentence patterns, images, and so on).
It is described in ordinary language, such as “cold”, “melancholy”, “cynical”, “calm”, “confident”, “angry”, “serious”, “ironic” , “solemn” , “objective” , “humorous” , “boastful,” etc.
Chaucer’s Contribution
• Iambic pentameter
• English language
• Forerunner of English Renaissance
• Founder of realistic tradition of English literature