literary works in history of english

8/3/2019 Literary Works in History of English

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LITERARY WORKS IN OLD, MIDDLE AND MODERN ENGLISH

OLD ENGLISH

Old English (nglisc, Anglisc, Englisc) orAnglo-Saxon is an early form of the English

language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts ofwhat are now England and southern and eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th centuryand the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary registerof Anglo-Saxon.

It is a West Germanic language and is closely related to Old Frisian. Old English had agrammar similar in many ways to Classical Latin, and was much closer to modern German andIcelandic than modern English in most respects, including its grammar. It was fully inflectedwith five grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), twogrammatical numbers (singular and plural) and three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine,and neuter). First and second person personal pronouns also had dual forms for referring to

groups of two people, in addition to the usual singular and plural forms. The instrumental casewas somewhat rare and occurred only in the masculine and neuter singular; it could typically bereplaced by the dative. Adjectives, pronouns and (sometimes) participles agreed with theirantecedent nouns in case, number and gender. Finite verbs agreed with their subject in personand number.

Nouns came in numerous declensions (with deep parallels in Latin, Ancient Greek andSanskrit). Verbs came in nine main conjugations (seven strong and two weak), each withnumerous subtypes, as well as a few additional smaller conjugations and a handful of irregularverbs. The main difference from other ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, is thatverbs can be conjugated in only two tenses (vs. the six "tenses" really tense/aspect

combinations of Latin), and have no synthetic passive voice (although it did still exist inGothic).

Note that gender in nouns was grammatical, as opposed to the natural gender that prevailsin modern English. That is, the grammatical gender of a given noun did not necessarilycorrespond to its natural gender, even for nouns referring to people. For example, so sunne (theSun) was feminine, se mna (the Moon) was masculine, and at wf"the woman/wife" wasneuter. (Compare German cognates die Sonne, der Mond, das Weib.) Pronominal usage couldreflect either natural or grammatical gender, when it conflicted.

From the 9th century, Old English experienced heavy influence from Old Norse, a

member of the related North Germanic group of languages.

Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Normaninvasion.

Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of common Ingvaeonic or"North-Sea Germanic" from the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after


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Christianisation in the late 7th century. The oldest surviving text of Old English literature isCdmon's Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a limited corpus of runic inscriptionsfrom the 5th to 7th centuries, but the oldest coherent runic texts (notably Franks Casket) date tothe 8th century.

The history of Old English can be subdivided in:

y Prehistoric Old English (c. 450 to 650); for this period, Old English is mostly areconstructed language as no literary witnesses survive (with the exception of limitedepigraphic evidence).

y Early Old English (ca. 650 to 900), the period of the oldest manuscript traditions, withauthors such as Cdmon, Bede, Cynewulf and Aldhelm.

y Late Old English (c. 900 to 1066), the final stage of the language leading up to theNorman conquest of England and the subsequent transition to Early Middle English.

The Old English period is followed by Middle English (12th to 15th century), Early Modern

English (ca. 1480 to 1650) and finally Modern English (after 1650).

Influence of other languages

In the course of the Early Middle Ages, Old English assimilated some aspects of a fewlanguages with which it came in contact, such as the two dialects of Old Norse from the contactwith the Norsemen or "Danes" who by the late 9th century controlled large tracts of land innorthern and eastern England which came to be known as the Danelaw.

Latin influence

A large percentage of the educated and literate population of the time were competent inLatin, which was the scholarly and diplomatic lingua franca of Europe at the time. It issometimes possible to give approximate dates for the entry of individual Latin words into OldEnglish based on which patterns of linguistic change they have undergone. There were at leastthree notable periods of Latin influence. The first occurred before the ancestral Angles andSaxons left continental Europe for Britain. The second began when the Anglo-Saxons wereconverted to Christianity and Latin-speaking priests became widespread. See Latin influence inEnglish: Dark Ages for details.

The third and largest single transfer of Latin-based words happened after the NormanConquest of 1066, when an enormous number of Norman words began to influence the language.

Most of these Ol language words were themselves derived from Old French and ultimately fromclassical Latin, although a notable stock of Norse words were introduced or re-introduced in Norman form. The Norman Conquest approximately marks the end of Old English and theadvent of Middle English.

One of the ways the influence of Latin can be seen is that many Latin words for activitiescame to also be used to refer to the people engaged in those activities, an idiom carried over from


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Anglo-Saxon but using Latin words. This can be seen in words like militia, assembly, movement,andservice.

The language was further altered by the transition away from the runic alphabet (alsoknown as futhorc or fuorc) to the Latin alphabet, which was also a significant factor in the

developmental pressures brought to bear on the language. Old English words were spelled, moreor less, as they were pronounced. Often, the Latin alphabet fell short of being able to adequatelyrepresent Anglo-Saxon phonetics. Spellings, therefore, can be thought of as best-attemptapproximations of how the language actually sounded. The "silent" letters in many ModernEnglish words were pronounced in Old English: for example, the c and h in cniht, the OldEnglish ancestor of the modern knight, were pronounced. Another side-effect of spelling OldEnglish words phonetically using the Latin alphabet was that spelling was extremely variable. Aword's spelling could also reflect differences in the phonetics of the writer's regional dialect.Words also endured idiosyncratic spelling choices of individual authors, some of whom variedspellings between works. Thus, for example, the word andcould be spelt eitherandorond.

Norse influence

The approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century:y Old West Norse dialecty Old East Norse dialecty Old Gutnish dialecty Crimean Gothicy Old Englishy Other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibilityThe second major source of loanwords to Old English were the Scandinavian words

introduced during the Viking invasions of the 9th and 10th centuries. In addition to a great many place names, these consist mainly of items of basic vocabulary, and words concerned withparticular administrative aspects of the Danelaw (that is, the area of land under Viking control,which included extensive holdings all along the eastern coast of England and Scotland).

The Vikings spoke Old Norse, a language related to Old English in that both derived fromthe same ancestral Proto-Germanic language. It is very common for the intermixing of speakersof different dialects, such as those that occur during times of political unrest, to result in a mixedlanguage, and one theory holds that exactly such a mixture of Old Norse and Old English helpedaccelerate the decline of case endings in Old English.

Apparent confirmation of this is the fact that simplification of the case endings occurredearliest in the north and latest in the southwest, the area farthest away from Viking influence.Regardless of the truth of this theory, the influence of Old Norse on the English language hasbeen profound: responsible for such basic vocabulary items as sky, leg, the pronoun they, theverb form are, and hundreds of other words.

Celtic influence


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Traditionally, and following the Anglo-Saxon preference prevalent in the nineteenthcentury, many maintain that the influence of Brythonic Celtic on English has been small, citingthe small number of Celtic loanwords taken into the language. The number of Celtic loanwordsis of a lower order than either Latin or Scandinavian. However, a more recent and still minorityview is that distinctive Celtic traits can be discerned in syntax from the post-Old English period,

such as the regular progressive construction and analytic word order in oppostition to theGermanic languages. Why these traits appear to be restricted to syntax and do not includevocabulary is not clear. However many common English words with early attestation in Britain,such as 'dog', 'bird', 'pig', have no apparent cognate in the West Germanic languages, leadingsome to speculate that their origin lies in the extinct Brythonic dialects of the 'contact' period.Due to the remoteness of the period, etymological attribution in modern dictionaries is generallygiven simply as 'Old English'.

Dialects

Old English should not be regarded as a single monolithic entity just as Modern English

is also not monolithic. It emerged over time out of the many dialects and languages of thecolonising tribes, and it was not until the later Anglo-Saxon period that they fused together intoOld English. Even then it continued to exhibit local language variation, the remnants of whichcontinue to be found in dialects of Modern English. [5] Thus it is misleading, for example, toconsider Old English as having a single sound system. Rather, there were multiple Old Englishsound systems. Old English has variation along regional lines as well as variation acrossdifferent times. For example, the language attested in Wessex during the time of thelwold ofWinchester, which is named Late West Saxon (or thelwoldian Saxon), is considerably differentfrom the language attested in Wessex during the time of Alfred the Great's court, which is namedEarly West Saxon (or Classical West Saxon or Alfredian Saxon). Furthermore, the differencebetween Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon is of such a nature that Late West Saxon is not

directly descended from Early West Saxon (despite what the similarity in name implies).

The four main dialectal forms of Old English were Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish, andWest Saxon.[6] Each of those dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the island.Of these, all of Northumbria and most of Mercia were overrun by the Vikings during the 9thcentury. The portion of Mercia that was successfully defended and all of Kent were thenintegrated into Wessex.

After the process of unification of the diverse Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in 878 by Alfredthe Great, there is a marked decline in the importance of regional dialects. This is not becausethey stopped existing; regional dialects continued even after that time to this day, as evidencedboth by the existence of Middle and Modern English dialects later on, and by common sense people do not spontaneously adopt another dialect when there is a sudden change of politicalpower.


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The first page of the Beowulf manuscript

However, the bulk of the surviving documents from the Anglo-Saxon period are writtenin the dialect of Wessex, Alfred's kingdom. It seems likely that with consolidation of power, it became necessary to standardise the language of government to reduce the difficulty ofadministering the more remote areas of the kingdom. As a result, documents were written in theWest Saxon dialect. Not only this, but Alfred was passionate about the spread of the vernacular,and brought many scribes to his region from Mercia to record previously unwritten texts.

The Church was affected likewise, especially since Alfred initiated an ambitiousprogramme to translate religious materials into English. To retain his patronage and ensure thewidest circulation of the translated materials, the monks and priests engaged in the programmeworked in his dialect. Alfred himself seems to have translated books out of Latin and intoEnglish, notably Pope Gregory I's treatise on administration, PastoralCare.

Because of the centralisation of power and the Viking invasions, there is little or nowritten evidence for the development of non-Wessex dialects after Alfred's unification.

Thomas Spencer Baynes claimed in 1856 that, due to its position at the heart of theKingdom of Wessex, the relics of Anglo-Saxon accent, idiom and vocabulary were bestpreserved in the Somerset dialect.


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Phonology

The inventory of classical Old English (i.e. Late West Saxon) surface phones, as usuallyreconstructed, is as follows.

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

Stop p b t d k

Affricate t (d)

Nasal m n ()

Fricative f (v) () s (z) () (x) () H

Approximant r j w

Lateral

approximant l

The sounds marked in parentheses in the chart above are allophones:

y [d] is an allophone of /j/ occurring after /n/ and when geminatedy [] is an allophone of /n/ occurring before /k/ and //y [v, , z] are allophones of /f, , s/ respectively, occurring between vowels or voiced

consonantsy [, x] are allophones of /h/ occurring in coda position after front and back vowels

respectivelyy [] is an allophone of // occurring after a vowel, and, at an earlier stage of the

language, in the syllable onset.

Monophthongs Short Long

Front Back Front Back

Close i y U i y u

Mid e () O e () o

Open

The front mid rounded vowels /()/ occur in some dialects of Old English, but not in the bestattested Late West Saxon dialect.

Diphthongs Short (monomoraic) Long (bimoraic)First element is close iy[9] iy

Both elements are mid eo eo

Both elements are open

Grammar


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Morphology

Unlike modern English, Old English is a language rich with morphological diversity. Itmaintains several distinct cases: the nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and (vestigially)instrumental. The only remnants of this system in modern English are in a few pronouns.

Syntax

Old English syntax was similar in many ways to that of modern English. However, therewere some important differences. Some were simply consequences of the greater level ofnominal and verbal inflection e.g., word order was generally freer. In addition:

y The default word order was verb-second and more like modern German than modernEnglish.

y There was no do-support in questions and negatives.y Multiple negatives could stack up in a sentence, and intensified each other (negative

concord).y Sentences with subordinate clauses of the type "When X, Y" did not use a wh-type word

for the conjunction, but rather used interrogative pronouns as a word related to "when",but a th-type correlative conjunction (e.g. X, Yin place of "When X, Y").

Orthography

Main articles: Anglo-Saxon runes and Old English Latin alphabet

The runic alphabet used to write Old English before the introduction of the Latin

alphabet.

Old English was first written in runes (futhorc) but shifted to a (minuscule) half-uncialscript of the Latin alphabet introduced by Irish Christian missionaries[10] from around the 9thcentury. This was replaced by insular script, a cursive and pointed version of the half-uncialscript. This was used until the end of the 12th century when continental Carolingian minuscule(also known as Caroline) replaced the insular.


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The letter t (called eth oredh in modern English) was an alteration of Latin d,and the runic letters thorn and wynn are borrowings from futhorc. Also used was asymbol for the conjunction and, a character similar to the number seven (, called a Tironiannote), and a symbol for the relative pronoun t, a thorn with a crossbar through the ascender(). Macrons over vowels were rarely used to indicate long vowels. Also used occasionally

were abbreviations for a following m orn. All of the sound descriptions below are given usingIPA symbols.

Conventions of modern editions

A number of changes are traditionally made in published modern editions of the originalOld English manuscripts. Some of these conventions include the introduction of punctuation andthe substitutions of symbols. The symbols e, f, g, r, s are used in modern editions,although their shapes in the insular script are considerably different. The long s is substitutedby its modern counterpart s. Insular is usually substituted with its modern counterpart g(which is ultimately a Carolingian symbol).

Additionally, modern editions often distinguish between a velar and palatal c and gwith diacritic dots above the putative palatals: , . The wynn symbol is usuallysubstituted with w. Macrons are usually found in modern editions to indicate putative longvowels, while they are usually lacking in the originals. In older printed editions of Old Englishworks, an acute accent mark was used to maintain cohesion between Old English and Old Norseprinting.

The alphabetical symbols found in Old English writings and their substitute symbolsfound in modern editions are listed below:

Symbol Description and notes

aShort //. Spelling variations like land ~ lond "land" suggest it may have had arounded allophone [] before [n] in some cases)

Long //. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short a inmodern editions.

Short //. Before 800 the digraph ae is often found instead of . During the 8thcentury began to be used more frequently was standard after 800. In 9th centuryKentish manuscripts, a form of that was missing the upper hook of the a part wasused. Kentish may be either // or /e/ although this is difficult to determine.

Long //. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short in

modern editions.

b

Represented /b/. Also represented [v] in early texts before 800. For example, the word"sheaves" is spelled scabas in an early text but later (and more commonly) asscafas.

c

Except in the digraphs sc, cg, either /t/ or /k/. The /t/ pronunciation is sometimeswritten with a diacritic by modern editors: most commonly , sometimes or .Before a consonant letter the pronunciation is always /k/; word-finally after i it is


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always /t/. Otherwise, a knowledge of the historical linguistics of the word is neededto predict which pronunciation is needed. (See The distribution of velars and palatals inOld English for details.)

cg [dd] (the surface pronunciation of geminate /jj/); occasionally also for //

d

Represented /d/. In the earliest texts, it also represented // but was soon replaced by and . For example, the word meaning "thought" (lit. mood-i-think, with -i- as in"handiwork") was written mdgidanc in a Northumbrian text dated 737, but later asmdgeanc in a 10th century West Saxon text.

Represented // and its allophone []. Called t in Old English (now called eth inModern English), is found in alternation with thorn (both representing the samesound) although it is more common in texts dating before Alfred. Together with itreplaced earlier d and th. First attested (in definitely dated materials) in the 7thcentury. After the beginning of Alfred's time, was used more frequently for medialand final positions while became increasingly used in initial positions, although bothstill varied. Some modern editions attempt to regularise the variation between and

by using only .[11]

e Short /e/.

Either Kentish // or /e/ although this is difficult to determine. A modern editorialsubstitution for a form of missing the upper hook of the a found in 9th centurytexts.

Long /e/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short e inmodern editions.

ea Short //; after, , sometimes // or //.

aLong //. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ea inmodern editions. After, , sometimes //.

eo Short /eo/; after, , sometimes /o/

oLong /eo/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short eo inmodern editions.

f /f/ and its allophone [v]

g

// and its allophone []; /j/ and its allophone [d] (when after n). In Old Englishmanuscripts, this letter usually took its insular form . The /j/ and [d]pronunciations are sometimes written by modern editors. Before a consonant letterthe pronunciation is always [] (word-initially) or [] (after a vowel). Word-finallyafteri it is always /j/. Otherwise a knowledge of the historical linguistics of the wordin question is needed to predict which pronunciation is needed. (See The distribution ofvelars and palatals in Old English for details.)

h/h/ and its allophones [, x]. In the combinations hl, hr, hn, hw, the secondconsonant was certainly voiceless.

i Short /i/.

Long /i/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short i inmodern editions.


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ie Short /iy/; after, , sometimes /e/.

eLong /iy/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short ie inmodern editions. After, , sometimes /e/.

k /k/ (rarely used)

l /l/; probably velarised (as in Modern English) when in coda position.m /m/

n /n/ and its allophone []

o Short /o/.

Long /o/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short o inmodern editions.

oe Short // (in dialects with this sound).

eLong // (in dialects with this sound). Rarely found in manuscripts, but usuallydistinguished from short oe in modern editions.

p /p/

quA rare spelling of /kw/, which was usually written as c (= cw in moderneditions).[12]

r/r/; the exact nature of /r/ is not known. It may have been an alveolar approximant []as in most modern accents, an alveolar flap [], or an alveolar trill [r].

s /s/ and its allophone [z].

sc // or occasionally /sk/.

t /t/

th

Represented // in the earliest texts but was soon replaced by and . For example,the word meaning "thought" was written mdgithanc in an 8th century Northumbriantext, but later as mdgeanc in a 10th century West Saxon text.

An alternate symbol called thorn used instead of. Represents // and its allophone[]. Together with it replaced the earlier d and th. First attested (in definitelydated materials) in the 8th century. Less common than before Alfred's time, fromthen onward was used increasingly more frequently than at the beginning ofwords while its occurrence at the end and in the middle of words was rare. Somemodern editions attempt to regularise the variation between and by using only.

u/u/ and /w/ in early texts of continental scribes. The /w/ u was eventually replaced by outside of the north of the island.

uu/w/ in early texts of continental scribes. Outside of the north, it was generally replacedby .

Long /u/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short u inmodern editions.

w /w/. A modern substitution for.

Runic wynn. Represents /w/, replaced in modern print by w to prevent confusion with


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p.

x /ks/ (but according to some authors, [xs ~ s])

y Short /y/.

Long /y/. Rarely found in manuscripts, but usually distinguished from short y in

modern editions.

z/ts/. A rare spelling for ts. Example: /betst/ "best" is rarely spelled bezt for morecommon betst.

Doubled consonants are geminated; the geminate fricatives /, ff and ss cannot bevoiced.

Literature

Old English literature, though more abundant than literature of the continent before AD1000, is nonetheless scant. In his supplementary article to the 1935 posthumous edition ofBright'sAnglo-Saxon Reader, Dr. James Hulbert writes:

In such historical conditions, an incalculable amount of the writings of the Anglo-Saxonperiod perished. What they contained, how important they were for an understanding of literaturebefore the Conquest, we have no means of knowing: the scant catalogs of monastic libraries donot help us, and there are no references in extant works to other compositions....How incompleteour materials are can be illustrated by the well-known fact that, with few and relativelyunimportant exceptions, all extant Anglo-Saxon poetry is preserved in four manuscripts.

Some of the most important surviving works of Old English literature are Beowulf, anepic poem; theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of early English history; the Franks Casket, an

early whalebone artefact; and Caedmon's Hymn, a Christian religious poem. There are also anumber of extant prose works, such as sermons and saints' lives, biblical translations, andtranslated Latin works of the early Church Fathers, legal documents, such as laws and wills, andpractical works on grammar, medicine, and geography. Still, poetry is considered the heart ofOld English literature. Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous, with a few exceptions,such as Bede and Caedmon.

Text samples

Beowulf

The first example is taken from the opening lines of the epic poemBeowulf. This passagedescribes how Hrothgar's legendary ancestor Scyld was found as a baby, washed ashore, andadopted by a noble family. The translation is literal and represents the original poetic word order.As such, it is not typical of Old English prose. The modern cognates of original words have beenused whenever practical to give a close approximation of the feel of the original poem. Thewords in brackets are implied in the Old English by noun case and the bold words in parenthesesare explanations of words that have slightly different meanings in a modern context. Notice how


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whatis used by the poet where a word like lo orbeholdwould be expected. This usage is similarto what-ho!, both an expression of surprise and a call to attention.

Line Original Translation

[1] Hwt! w Gr-Dena iner-dagum, What! We of Gare-Danes(lit. Spear-Danes) in yore-days,

[2] od-cyninga, rymefrnon,

of thede(nation/people)-kings, did thrum (glory) frayne(learn about by asking),

[3]h elingas ellenfremedon.

how those athelings (noblemen) did ellen(fortitude/courage/zeal) freme (promote).

[4]Oft Scyld Scfingsceaena ratum,

Oft did Scyld Scefing of scather threats (troops),

[5]

monegum mum,

meodosetla oftah,

of many maegths (clans; cf. Irish cognate Mac-), of mead-

settlements atee (deprive),

[6]egsode eorlas. Syanrest wear

[and] ugg (induce loathing in, terrify; related to "ugly")earls. Sith (since, as of when) erst (first) [he] worthed(became)

[7]fasceaft funden, h sfrfre ebd,

[in] fewship (destitute) found, he of this frover (comfort)aboded,

[8]wox under wolcnum,weormyndum h,

[and] waxed under welkin (firmament/clouds), [and amid]worthmint (honour/worship) threed (thrived/prospered)

[9] ot him hwylc raymbsittendra oth that (until that) him each of those umsitters (those"sitting" or dwelling roundabout)

[10]ofer hronrde hranscolde,

over whale-road (kenningfor "sea") hear should,

[11]gomban gyldan. t wsgd cyning!

[and] yeme (heed/obedience; related to "gormless") yield.That was [a] good king!

A semi-fluent translation in Modern English would be:

Lo! We have heard of majesty of the Spear-Danes, of those nation-kings in the days ofyore, and how those noblemen promoted zeal. Scyld Scefing took away mead-benches from bands of enemies, from many tribes; he terrified earls. Since he was first found destitute (hegained consolation for that) he grew under the heavens, prospered in honours, until each of thosewho lived around him over the sea had to obey him, give him tribute. That was a good king!


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The Lord's Prayer

This text of the Lord's Prayer is presented in the standardised West Saxon literary dialect.

Line Original Translation

[1] Fder re e eart on heofonum, Father of ours, thou who art in heaven,

[2] S n nama ehlgod. Be thy name hallowed.

[3] Tbecume n re, Come thy riche (kingdom),

[4]ewure n willa, on eoran sw swon heofonum.

Worth (manifest) thy will, on earth as also inheaven.

[5]re edhwmlcan hlf syle s td,

Our daily loaf do sell (give) to us today,

[6] and forgyf s re gyltas, sw sw wforgyfa rum gyltendum.

And forgive us of our guilts as also we forgiveour guilty[13]

[7]And ne eld s on costnunge, acls s of yfele.

And do not lead thou us into temptation, butalese (release/deliver) us of(from) evil.

[8] Sle. Soothly.

Charter ofCnut

This is a proclamation from King Cnut the Great to his earl Thorkell the Tall and the

English people written in AD 1020. Unlike the previous two examples, this text is prose ratherthan poetry. For ease of reading, the passage has been divided into sentences while the pilcrowsrepresent the original division.

Original Translation

Cnut cyning gret his arcebiscopasand his leod-biscopas and urcyl eorland ealle his eorlas and ealne his eodscype, twelfhynde and twyhynde,gehadode and lwede, on Englalande

freondlice.

Cnut, king, greets his archbishops and hislede'(people's)'-bishops and Thorkell, earl, and all hisearls and all his peopleship, greater (having a 1200shilling weregild) and lesser (200 shilling weregild),hooded(ordained to priesthood) and lewd(lay), in

England friendly.And ic cye eow, t ic wylle beonhold hlaford and unswicende to godesgerihtum and to rihtre woroldlage.

And I kithe(make known/couth to) you, that I will be[a] hold(civilised) lord and unswiking(uncheating) toGod's rights(laws) and to [the] rights(laws) worldly.

Ic nam me to gemynde a gewrituand a word, e se arcebiscop Lyfingme fram am papan brohte of Rome,

I nam(took) me to mind the writs and the word thatthe Archbishop Lyfing me from the Pope brought ofRome, that I should ayewhere(everywhere) God's


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t ic scolde ghwr godes lof upparran and unriht alecgan and full friwyrcean be re mihte, e me godsyllan wolde.

love(praise) uprear(promote), and unright(outlaw)lies, and full frith(peace) work(bring about) by themight that me God would(wished) [to] sell'(give).

Nu ne wandode ic na minumsceattum, a hwile e eow unfri onhanda stod: nu ic mid godes fultumet totwmde mid minum scattum.

Now, ne went(withdrew/changed) I not myshot(financial contribution, cf. Norse cognate in scot-free) the while that you stood(endured)unfrith(turmoil) on-hand: now I, mid(with) God'ssupport, that [unfrith] totwemed(separated/dispelled)mid(with) my shot(financial contribution).

a cydde man me, t us mara hearmto fundode, onne us wel licode: anda for ic me sylf mid am mannum eme mid foron into Denmearcon, e

eow mst hearm of com: and thbbe mid godes fultume foreneforfangen, t eow nfre heonon foranon nan unfri to ne cym, a hwile e ge me rihtlice healda and min lifby.

Tho(then) [a] man kithed(made known/couth to) methat us more harm had found(come upon) than us wellliked(equalled): and tho(then) fore(travelled) I,meself, mid(with) those men that mid(with) mefore(travelled), into Denmark that [to] you most harm

came of(from): and that[harm] have [I], mid(with)God's support, afore(previously)forefangen(forestalled) that to you never henceforththence none unfrith(breach of peace) ne come thewhile that ye me rightly hold(behold as king) and mylife beeth.

MIDDLE ENGLISH

The term Middle English literature refers to the literature written in the form of theEnglish language known as Middle English, from the 12th century until the 1470s, when theChancery Standard, a form of London-based English, became widespread and the printing pressregularized the language. Between the 1470s and the middle of the following century there is atransition to early Modern English though in literary terms the characteristics of the literaryworks written does not change radically until the effects of the Renaissance and ReformedChristianity become more apparent in the reign of King Henry VIII. There are three maincategories of Middle English Literature: Religious, Courtly love, and Arthurian, though much ofGeoffrey Chaucer's work stands outside these. Among the many religious works are those in theKatherine Group and the writings of Julian of Norwich and Richard Rolle.

Early period

After the Norman conquest of England, the written form of the Anglo-Saxon languagecontinued in some monasteries but few literary works are known from this period. [citation needed]Under the influence of the new aristocracy, Law French became the standard language of courts,parliament, and polite society. As the invaders integrated, their language and literature mingled


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with that of the natives: the Norman dialects of the ruling classes became Anglo-Norman, andAnglo-Saxon underwent a gradual transition into Middle English. Since political power was nolonger in English hands the West Saxon literary language had no more influence than any otherdialect so Middle English literature is written in many dialects depending on the situation of thewriters.

While Anglo-Norman or Latin was preferred for high culture and administration, Englishliterature by no means died out, and a number of important works illustrate the development ofthe language. Around the turn of the thirteenth century, Layamon wrote his Brut, based onWace's twelfth century Anglo-Norman epic of the same name; Layamon's language isrecognisably Middle English, though his prosody shows a strong Anglo-Saxon influenceremaining. Other transitional works were preserved as popular entertainment, including a varietyof romances and lyrics. With time, the English language regained prestige, and in 1362 itreplaced French and Latin in Parliament and courts of law. Early examples of Middle Englishliterature are the Ormulum and Havelock the Dane.

The Mercian dialect thrived between the 8th and 13th centuries and was referred to by JohnTrevisa, writing in 1387:

For men of the est with men of the west, as it were undir the same partie of hevene, acordeth

more in sownynge of speche than men of the north with men of the south, therfore it is that Mercii, that beeth men of myddel Engelond, as it were parteners of the endes, understondeth

better the side langages, northerne and southerne, than northerne and southerne understondetheither other

Late period

It was with the fourteenth century that major works of English literature began once againto appear; these include the so-called Pearl Poet's Pearl, Patience, Cleanness, and Sir Gawainand the Green Knight; Langland's political and religious allegory Piers Plowman; Gower'sConfessio Amantis; and the works of Chaucer, the most highly regarded English poet of theMiddle Ages, who was seen by his contemporaries as a successor to the great tradition of Virgiland Dante.

The latter portion of the 14th century also saw not only the consolidation of English as awritten language, taking over from French or Latin in certain areas, but a large shift from primarily theological or religious subject matter to that of a more secular nature. Literatureduring this period also saw a growth in the amount of (secular) books being copied in English.

Thus, the latter portion of the 14th century can be seen as the most significant period in thehistory of the English language.

The reputation of Chaucer's successors in the 15th century has suffered in comparisonwith him, though Lydgate and Skelton are widely studied. At this time the origins of Scottishpoetry began with the writing ofThe Kingis Quairby James I of Scotland. The main poets of thisScottish group were Robert Henryson, William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas. Henryson andDouglas introduced a note of almost savage satire, which may have owed something to the


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Gaelic bardic poetry, while Douglas's version of Virgil'sAeneidis one of the early monuments ofRenaissance literary humanism in English.

Many morality plays and miracle plays were produced. Sidrak and Bokkus is an exampleof late Middle English literature.

Caxton and the English language

William Caxton printed four-fifths of his works in English. He translated a large numberof works into English; Caxton translated 26 of the titles himself. Caxton is credited with printingas many as 108 books, 87 of which were different titles. However, the English language waschanging rapidly in Caxton's time and the works he was given to print were in a variety of stylesand dialects. Caxton was a technician rather than a writer and he often faced dilemmasconcerning language standardisation in the books he printed. (He wrote about this subject in thepreface to hisEneydos.) His successor Wynkyn de Worde faced similar problems.

Caxton is credited with standardising the English language (that is, homogenising regionaldialects) through printing. This facilitated the expansion of English vocabulary, the developmentof inflection and syntax and the ever-widening gap between the spoken and the written word.

However, Richard Pynson, a Frenchman who started printing in London in 1491 or 1492and who favoured Chancery Standard, was a more accomplished stylist and consequently pushedthe English language further toward standardization.

MODERN ENGLISH

Early Modern period

Elizabethan Era

The English playwrights were intrigued by Italian model: a conspicuous community ofItalian actors had settled in London and Giovanni Florio had brought much of the Italianlanguage and culture to England. It is also true that the Elizabethan Era was a very violent ageand that the high incidence of political assassinations in Renaissance Italy (embodied by NiccolMachiavelli's The Prince) did little to calm fears of popish plots. As a result, representing thatkind of violence on the stage was probably more cathartic for the Elizabethan spectator.Following earlier Elizabethan plays such as Gorboduc by Sackville & Norton and The Spanish

Tragedy by Kyd that was to provide much material forHamlet, William Shakespeare stands outin this period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare was not a man of lettersby profession, and probably had only some grammar school education. He was neither a lawyer,nor an aristocrat as the "university wits" that had monopolised the English stage when he startedwriting. But he was very gifted and incredibly versatile, and he surpassed "professionals" asRobert Greene who mocked this "shake-scene" of low origins. Though most dramas met withgreat success, it is in his later years (marked by the early reign of James I ) that he wrote whathave been considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear,


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Macbeth,Antony andCleopatra, and The Tempest, a tragicomedy that inscribes within the maindrama a brilliant pageant to the new king. Shakespeare also popularized the English sonnetwhich made significant changes to Petrarch's model.

The sonnet was introduced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century.

Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as by Thomas Campion, became popular asprinted literature was disseminated more widely in households. See English Madrigal School.Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker,John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont. Had Marlowe (15641593) not been stabbed at twenty-nine in a tavern brawl, says Anthony Burgess, he might have rivalled, if not equalledShakespeare himself for his poetic gifts. Remarkably, he was born only a few weeks beforeShakespeare and must have known him well. Marlowe's subject matter, though, is different: itfocuses more on the moral drama of the renaissance man than any other thing. Marlowe wasfascinated and terrified by the new frontiers opened by modern science. Drawing on Germanlore, he introduced Dr. Faustus to England, a scientist and magician who is obsessed by the thirstof knowledge and the desire to push man's technological power to its limits. He acquires

supernatural gifts that even allow him to go back in time and wed Helen of Troy, but at the endof his twenty-four years' covenant with the devil he has to surrender his soul to him. His darkheroes may have something of Marlowe himself, whose death remains a mystery. He was knownfor being an atheist, leading a lawless life, keeping many mistresses, consorting with ruffians:living the 'high life' of London's underworld. But many suspect that this might have been acover-up for his activities as a secret agent for Elizabeth I, hinting that the 'accidental stabbing'might have been a premeditated assassination by the enemies of The Crown. Beaumont andFletcher are less-known, but it is almost sure that they helped Shakespeare write some of his bestdramas, and were quite popular at the time. It is also at this time that the city comedy genredevelops. In the later 16th century English poetry was characterised by elaboration of languageand extensive allusion to classical myths. The most important poets of this era include Edmund

Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. Elizabeth herself, a product of Renaissance humanism, producedoccasional poems such as On Monsieurs Departure.

Jacobean literature

After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson was the leading literaryfigure of the Jacobean era (The reign of James I). However, Jonson's aesthetics hark back to theMiddle Ages rather than to the Tudor Era: his characters embody the theory of humours.According to this contemporary medical theory, behavioral differences result from a prevalenceof one of the body's four "humours" (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) over the otherthree; these humours correspond with the four elements of the universe: air, water, fire, and

earth. This leads Jonson to exemplify such differences to the point of creating types, or clichs.

Jonson is a master of style, and a brilliant satirist. His Volpone shows how a group ofscammers are fooled by a top con-artist, vice being punished by vice, virtue meting out itsreward.

Others who followed Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the brilliantcomedy, The Knight of the BurningPestle, a mockery of the rising middle class and especially of


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those nouveaux riches who pretend to dictate literary taste without knowing much literature atall. In the story, a couple of grocers wrangle with professional actors to have their illiterate son play a leading role in a drama. He becomes a knight-errant wearing, appropriately, a burningpestle on his shield. Seeking to win a princess' heart, the young man is ridiculed much in the wayDon Quixote was. One of Beaumont and Fletcher's chief merits was that of realising how

feudalism and chivalry had turned into snobbery and make-believe and that new social classeswere on the rise.

Another popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play, popularizedby John Webster and Thomas Kyd. George Chapman wrote a couple of subtle revenge tragedies,but must be remembered chiefly on account of his famous translation of Homer, one that had aprofound influence on all future English literature, even inspiring John Keats to write one of hisbest sonnets.

The King James Bible, one of the most massive translation projects in the history ofEnglish up to this time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. It represents the culmination

of a tradition of Bible translation into English that began with the work of William Tyndale. It became the standard Bible of the Church of England. This project was headed by James Ihimself, who supervised the work of forty-seven scholars. Although many other translations intoEnglish have been made, some of which are widely considered more accurate, manyaesthetically prefer the King James Bible, whose meter is made to mimic the original Hebrewverse.

Besides Shakespeare, whose figure towers over the early 17th century, the major poets ofthe early 17th century included John Donne and the other Metaphysical poets. Influenced bycontinental Baroque, and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism,metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures, such as a compass or a mosquito,

to reach surprise effects. For example, in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", one of Donne'sSongs and Sonnets, the points of a compass represent two lovers, the woman who is home,waiting, being the centre, the farther point being her lover sailing away from her. But the largerthe distance, the more the hands of the compass lean to each other: separation makes love growfonder. The paradox or the oxymoron is a constant in this poetry whose fears and anxieties alsospeak of a world of spiritual certainties shaken by the modern discoveries of geography andscience, one that is no longer the centre of the universe. Apart from the metaphysical poetry ofDonne, the 17th century is also celebrated for its Baroque poetry. Baroque poetry served thesame ends as the art of the period; the Baroque style is lofty, sweeping, epic, and religious. Manyof these poets have an overtly Catholic sensibility (namely Richard Crashaw) and wrote poetryfor the Catholic counter-Reformation in order to establish a feeling of supremacy and mysticism

that would ideally persuade newly emerging Protestant groups back toward Catholicism.


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Restoration literature

John Milton, religious epic poem Paradise Lostpublished in 1667.

Restoration literature includes both Paradise Lostand the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the

high spirited sexual comedy ofThe Country Wife and the moral wisdom ofPilgrim's Progress. Itsaw Locke's Two Treatises on Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experimentsof Robert Boyle and the holy meditations of Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres fromJeremy Collier, the pioneering of literary criticism from Dryden, and the first newspapers. Theofficial break in literary culture caused by censorship and radically moralist standards underCromwell's Puritan regime created a gap in literary tradition, allowing a seemingly fresh start forall forms of literature after the Restoration. During the Interregnum, the royalist forces attachedto the court of Charles I went into exile with the twenty-year-old Charles II. The nobility whotravelled with Charles II were therefore lodged for over a decade in the midst of the continent'sliterary scene. Charles spent his time attending plays in France, and he developed a taste forSpanish plays. Those nobles living in Holland began to learn about mercantile exchange as well

as the tolerant, rationalist prose debates that circulated in that officially tolerant nation.

The largest and most important poetic form of the era was satire. In general, publication ofsatire was done anonymously. There were great dangers in being associated with a satire. On theone hand, defamation law was a wide net, and it was difficult for a satirist to avoid prosecution ifhe were proven to have written a piece that seemed to criticize a noble. On the other hand,wealthy individuals would respond to satire as often as not by having the suspected poetphysically attacked by ruffians. John Dryden was set upon for being merelysuspectedof havingwritten the Satire on Mankind. A consequence of this anonymity is that a great many poems,some of them of merit, are unpublished and largely unknown.

Prose in the Restoration period is dominated by Christian religious writing, but theRestoration also saw the beginnings of two genres that would dominate later periods: fiction andjournalism. Religious writing often strayed into political and economic writing, just as politicaland economic writing implied or directly addressed religion. The Restoration was also the timewhen John Locke wrote many of his philosophical works. Locke's empiricism was an attempt atunderstanding the basis of human understanding itself and thereby devising a proper manner formaking sound decisions. These same scientific methods led Locke to his three Treatises onGovernment, which later inspired the thinkers in the American Revolution. As with his work onunderstanding, Locke moves from the most basic units of society toward the more elaborate, and,like Thomas Hobbes, he emphasizes the plastic nature of the social contract. For an age that hadseen absolute monarchy overthrown, democracy attempted, democracy corrupted, and limited

monarchy restored, only a flexible basis for government could be satisfying. The Restorationmoderated most of the more strident sectarian writing, but radicalism persisted after theRestoration. Puritan authors such as John Milton were forced to retire from public life or adapt,and those Digger, Fifth Monarchist, Leveller, Quaker, and Anabaptist authors who had preachedagainst monarchy and who had participated directly in the regicide of Charles I were partiallysuppressed. Consequently, violent writings were forced underground, and many of those whohad served in the Interregnum attenuated their positions in the Restoration. John Bunyan standsout beyond other religious authors of the period. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory


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of personal salvation and a guide to the Christian life. Instead of any focus on eschatology ordivine retribution, Bunyan instead writes about how the individual saint can prevail against thetemptations of mind and body that threaten damnation. The book is written in a straightforwardnarrative and shows influence from both drama and biography, and yet it also shows anawareness of the grand allegorical tradition found in Edmund Spenser. During the Restoration

period, the most common manner of getting news would have been a broadsheet publication. Asingle, large sheet of paper might have a written, usually partisan, account of an event. However,the period saw the beginnings of the first professional and periodical (meaning that thepublication was regular) journalism in England. Journalism develops late, generally around thetime of William of Orange's claiming the throne in 1689. Coincidentally or by design, Englandbegan to have newspapers just when William came to court from Amsterdam, where there werealready newspapers being published.

It is impossible to satisfactorily date the beginning of the novel in English. However, longfiction and fictional biographies began to distinguish themselves from other forms in Englandduring the Restoration period. An existing tradition ofRomance fiction in France and Spain was

popular in England. The "Romance" was considered a feminine form, and women were taxedwith reading "novels" as a vice. One of the most significant figures in the rise of the novel in theRestoration period is Aphra Behn. She was not only the first professional female novelist, butshe may be among the first professional novelists of either sex in England. Behn's most famousnovel was Oroonoko in 1688. This was a biography of an entirely fictional African king who hadbeen enslaved in Suriname. Behn's novels show the influence of tragedy and her experiences as adramatist.

As soon as the previous Puritan regime's ban on public stage representations was lifted, thedrama recreated itself quickly and abundantly. The most famous plays of the early Restoration period are the unsentimental or "hard" comedies of John Dryden, William Wycherley, and

George Etherege, which reflect the atmosphere at Court, and celebrate an aristocratic macholifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest. After a sharp drop in both quality andquantity in the 1680s, the mid-90s saw a brief second flowering of the drama, especially comedy.Comedies like William Congreve's The Way of the World (1700), and John Vanbrugh's TheRelapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697) were "softer" and more middle-class in ethos,very different from the aristocratic extravaganza twenty years earlier, and aimed at a wideraudience. The playwrights of the 1690s set out to appeal to more socially mixed audiences with astrong middle-class element, and to female spectators, for instance by moving the war betweenthe sexes from the arena of intrigue into that of marriage. The focus in comedy is less on younglovers outwitting the older generation, more on marital relations after the wedding bells.

Augustan literature

The term Augustan literature derives from authors of the 1720s and 1730s themselves, whoresponded to a term that George I of England preferred for himself. While George I meant thetitle to reflect his might, they instead saw in it a reflection of Ancient Rome's transition fromrough and ready literature to highly political and highly polished literature. Because of theaptness of the metaphor, the period from 1689 1750 was called "the Augustan Age" by criticsthroughout the 18th century (including Voltaire and Oliver Goldsmith). The literature of the


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period is overtly political and thoroughly aware of critical dictates for literature. It is an age ofexuberance and scandal, of enormous energy and inventiveness and outrage, that reflected an erawhen English, Scottish, and Irish people found themselves in the midst of an expandingeconomy, lowering barriers to education, and the stirrings of the Industrial Revolution.

The most outstanding poet of the age is Alexander Pope, but Pope's excellence is partiallyin his constant battle with other poets, and his serene, seemingly neo-Classical approach topoetry is in competition with highly idiosyncratic verse and strong competition from such poetsas Ambrose Philips. It was during this time that James Thomson produced his melancholy TheSeasons and Edward Young wrote Night Thoughts. It is also the era that saw a seriouscompetition over the proper model for the pastoral. In criticism, poets struggled with a doctrineofdecorum, of matching proper words with proper sense and of achieving a diction that matchedthe gravity of a subject. At the same time, the mock-heroic was at its zenith. Pope's Rape of theLockand The Dunciadare still the greatest mock-heroic poems ever written.

In prose, the earlier part of the period was overshadowed by the development of the

English essay. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele's The Spectatorestablished the form of theBritish periodical essay, inventing the pose of the detached observer of human life who canmeditate upon the world without advocating any specific changes in it. However, this was alsothe time when the English novel, first emerging in the Restoration, developed into a major artform. Daniel Defoe turned from journalism and writing criminal lives for the press to writingfictional criminal lives withRoxana andMoll Flanders. He also wrote a fictional treatment of thetravels of Alexander Selkirk called Robinson Crusoe (1719). The novel would benefit indirectlyfrom a tragedy of the stage, and in mid-century many more authors would begin to write novels.

Jonathan Swift

If Addison and Steele overawed one type of prose, then Jonathan Swift did another. Swift'sprose style is unmannered and direct, with a clarity that few contemporaries matched. He was a profound skeptic about the modern world, but he was similarly profoundly distrustful ofnostalgia. He saw in history a record of lies and vanity, and he saw in the present a madness ofvanity and lies. Core Christian values were essential, but these values had to be muscular andassertive and developed by constant rejection of the games of confidence men and their gullies.Swift'sA Tale of a Tub announced his skeptical analysis of the claims of the modern world, andhis later prose works, such as his war with Patridge the astrologer, and most of all his derision ofpride in Gulliver's Travels left only the individual in constant fear and humility safe. After his"exile" to Ireland, Swift reluctantly began defending the Irish people from the predations of

colonialism. His A ModestP

roposal and the Drapier Letters provoked riots and arrests, butSwift, who had no love of Irish Roman Catholics, was outraged by the abuses and barbarity hesaw around him.

Drama in the early part of the period featured the last plays of John Vanbrugh and WilliamCongreve, both of whom carried on the Restoration comedy with some alterations. However, themajority of stagings were of lower farces and much more serious and domestic tragedies. GeorgeLillo and Richard Steele both produced highly moral forms of tragedy, where the characters and


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the concerns of the characters were wholly middle class or working class. This reflected amarked change in the audience for plays, as royal patronage was no longer the important part oftheatrical success. Additionally, Colley Cibber and John Rich began to battle each other forgreater and greater spectacles to present on stage. The figure of Harlequin was introduced, and pantomime theatre began to be staged. This "low" comedy was quite popular, and the plays

became tertiary to the staging. Opera also began to be popular in London, and there wassignificant literary resistance to this Italian incursion. This trend was broken only by a fewattempts at a new type of comedy. Pope and John Arbuthnot and John Gay attempted a playentitled Three Hours After Marriage that failed. In 1728, however, John Gay returned to the playhouse with The Beggar's Opera. Gay's opera was in English and retold the story of JackSheppard and Jonathan Wild. However, it seemed to be an allegory for Robert Walpole and thedirectors of the South Sea Company, and so Gay's follow up opera was banned withoutperformance. The Licensing Act 1737 brought an abrupt halt to much of the period's drama, asthe theatres were once again brought under state control.

An effect of the Licensing Act was to cause more than one aspiring playwright to switch

over to writing novels. Henry Fielding began to write prose satire and novels after his playscould not pass the censors. Henry Brooke also turned to novels. In the interim, SamuelRichardson had produced a novel intended to counter the deleterious effects of novels in Pamela,orVirtue Rewarded(1740). Henry Fielding attacked the absurdity of this novel with two of hisown works, Joseph Andrews and Shamela, and then countered Richardson's Clarissa with TomJones. Henry Mackenzie wrote The Man of Feelingand indirectly began the sentimental novel.Laurence Sterne attempted a Swiftian novel with a unique perspective on the impossibility ofbiography (the model for most novels up to that point) and understanding with Tristram Shandy,even as his detractor Tobias Smollett elevated the picaresque novel with his works. Each of thesenovels represents a formal and thematic divergence from the others. Each novelist was indialogue and competition with the others, and, in a sense, the novel established itself as a diverse

and open-formed genre in this explosion of creativity. The most lasting effects of theexperimentation would be the psychological realism of Richardson, the bemused narrative voiceof Fielding, and the sentimentality of Brooke.

18th century

During the Age of Sensibility, literature reflected the worldview of the Age ofEnlightenment (or Age of Reason) a rational and scientific approach to religious, social,political, and economic issues that promoted a secular view of the world and a general sense ofprogress and perfectibility. Led by the philosophers who were inspired by the discoveries of theprevious century (Newton) and the writings of Descartes, Locke and Bacon.

They sought to discover and to act upon universally valid principles governing humanity,nature, and society. They variously attacked spiritual and scientific authority, dogmatism,intolerance, censorship, and economic and social restraints. They considered the state the properand rational instrument of progress. The extreme rationalism and skepticism of the age lednaturally to deism; the same qualities played a part in bringing the later reaction of romanticism.The Encyclopdie of Denis Diderot epitomized the spirit of the age.


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During the end of the 18th century, Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto,created the Gothic fiction genre, that combines elements of horror and romance. The pioneeringgothic novelist Ann Radcliffe introduced the brooding figure of the gothic villain whichdeveloped into the Byronic hero. Her most popular and influential work The Mysteries oUdolpho 1794, is frequently cited as the archetypal Gothic novel. Vathek 1786 by William

Beckford, and The Monk1796 by Matthew Lewis, were further notable early works in both thegothic and horror literary genres.

Romanticism

William Blake is considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visualarts of the Romantic Age

The changing landscape of Britain brought about by the steam engine has two majoroutcomes: the boom of industrialism with the expansion of the city, and the consequentdepopulation of the countryside as a result of the enclosures, or privatisation of pastures. Most

peasants poured into the city to work in the new factories.

This abrupt change is revealed by the change of meaning in five key words: industry (oncemeaning "creativity"), democracy (once disparagingly used as "mob rule"), class (from now alsoused with a social connotation), art (once just meaning "craft"), culture (once only belonging tofarming) but the poor condition of workers, the new class-conflicts and the pollution of theenvironment causes a reaction to urbanism and industrialisation prompting poets to rediscoverthe beauty and value of nature. Mother earth is seen as the only source of wisdom, the onlysolution to the ugliness caused by machines.

The superiority of nature and instinct over civilisation had been preached by Jean Jacques

Rousseau and his message was picked by almost all European poets. The first in England werethe Lake Poets, a small group of friends including William Wordsworth and Samuel TaylorColeridge. These early Romantic Poets brought a new emotionalism and introspection, and theiremergence is marked by the first romantic Manifesto in English literature, the "Preface to theLyrical Ballads". This collection was mostly contributed by Wordsworth, although Coleridgemust be credited for his long and impressive Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a tragic ballad aboutthe survival of one sailor through a series of supernatural events on his voyage through the southseas which involves the slaying of an albatross, the death of the rest of the crew, a visit fromDeath and his mate, Life-in-Death, and the eventual redemption of the Mariner.

Coleridge and Wordsworth, however, understood romanticism in two entirely different

ways: while Coleridge sought to make the supernatural "real" (much like sci-fi movies usespecial effects to make unlikely plots believable), Wordsworth sought to stir the imagination ofreaders through his down-to-earth characters taken from real life (in "The Idiot Boy", forexample), or the beauty of the Lake District that largely inspired his production (as in "LinesComposed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey").


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Lord Byron

The "Second generation" of Romantic poets includes Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelleyand John Keats. Byron, however, was still influenced by 18th-century satirists and was, perhaps

the least 'romantic' of the three. His amours with a number of prominent but married ladies wasalso a way to voice his dissent on the hypocrisy of a high society that was only apparentlyreligious but in fact largely libertine, the same that had derided him for being physicallyimpaired. His first trip to Europe resulted in the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, amock-heroic epic of a young man's adventures in Europe but also a sharp satire against Londonsociety. Despite Childe Harold's success on his return to England, accompanied by the publication ofThe Corsair his alleged incestuous affair with his half-sister Augusta Leigh in1816 actually forced him to leave England for good and seek asylum on the continent. Here he joined Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary, with his secretary John William Polidori on theshores of Lake Geneva during the 'year without a summer' of 1816. Polidori's The Vampyre waspublished in 1819, creating the literary vampire genre. His short story was inspired by the life of

Lord Byron and his poem The Giaour.

One of Percy Shelley's most prominent works is the Ode to the West Wind. Despite hisapparent refusal to believe in God, this poem is considered a homage to pantheism, therecognition of a spiritual presence in nature. Shelley's groundbreaking poem The Masque oAnarchy calls for nonviolence in protest and political action. It is perhaps the first modernstatement of the principle of nonviolent protest.[2] Mahatma Gandhi's passive resistance wasinfluenced and inspired by Shelley's verse, and Gandhi would often quote the poem to vastaudiences.

Mary Shelley

The plot for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is said to have come from a nightmare she hadduring stormy nights on Lake Geneva in the company of Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and JohnPolidori. Her idea of making a body with human parts stolen from different corpses and thenanimating it with electricity was perhaps influenced by Alessandro Volta's invention and LuigiGalvani's experiments with dead frogs. Frankenstein's chilling tale also suggests modern organtransplants, tissue regeneration, reminding us of the moral issues raised by today's medicine. Butthe creature of Frankenstein is incredibly romantic as well. Although "the monster" is intelligent,good and loving, he is shunned by everyone because of his ugliness and deformity, and thedesperation and envy that result from social exclusion turn him against the very man who createdhim.

John Keats did not share Byron's and Shelley's extremely revolutionary ideals, but his cultof pantheism is as important as Shelley's. Keats was in love with the ancient stones of theParthenon that Lord Elgin had brought to England from Greece, also known as the ElginMarbles). He celebrates ancient Greece: the beauty of free, youthful love couples here with thatof classical art. Keats's great attention to art, especially in his Ode on a Grecian Urn is quite newin romanticism, and it inspired Walter Pater's and then Oscar Wilde's belief in the absolute value


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of art as independent from aesthetics.

Some rightly think that the most popular novelist of the era was Sir Walter Scott, whosegrand historical romances inspired a generation of painters, composers, and writers throughoutEurope. Scott's novel-writing career was launched in 1814 with Waverley, often called the first

historical novel, and was followed byIvanhoe. His popularity in England and further abroad didmuch to form the modern stereotype of Scottish culture. Other novels by Scott which contributedto the image of him as a Scottish patriot includeRob Roy.

In retrospect, we now look back to Jane Austen, who wrote novels about the life of thelanded gentry, seen from a woman's point of view, and wryly focused on practical social issues,especially marriage and choosing the right partner in life, with love being above all else. Austen'sPride andPrejudice would set the model for all Romance Novels to follow. Jane Austen createdthe ultimate hero and heroine in Darcy and Elizabeth, who must overcome their own stubbornpride and the prejudices they have toward each other, in order to come to a middle ground, wherethey finally realize their love for one another. Austen's other most notable works include; Sense

and Sensibility,MansfieldPark, Persuasion andEmma. In her novels, Austen brings to light thehardships women faced, who usually did not inherit money, could not work and where their onlychance in life depended on the man they married. She brought to light not only the difficultieswomen faced in her day, but also what was expected of men and of the careers they had tofollow. This she does with wit and humour and with endings where all characters, good or bad,receive exactly what they deserve. Poet, painter and printmaker William Blake is usuallyincluded among the English Romanticists, though his visionary work is much different from thatof the others discussed in this section.

In America, with the essays and poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson began an explosion ofAmerican English literature, which included the publication of Herman Melville's Moby Dick

and the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.

Victorian literature

It was in the Victorian era (18371901) that the novel became the leading form of literaturein English. Most writers were now more concerned to meet the tastes of a large middle classreading public than to please aristocratic patrons. The best known works of the era include theemotionally powerful works of the Bront sisters; the satire Vanity Fairby William MakepeaceThackeray; the realist novels of George Eliot; and Anthony Trollope's insightful portrayals of thelives of the landowning and professional classes.

Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s, confirming the trend for serial publication. Dickens wrote vividly about London life and the struggles of the poor, but in agood-humoured fashion which was acceptable to readers of all classes. His early works such asthe PickwickPapers are masterpieces of comedy. Later his works became darker, without losinghis genius for caricature.

The Bronte sisters were English writers of the 1840s and 1850s. Their novels caused asensation when they were first published and were subsequently accepted into the canon of great


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English literature. They had written compulsively from early childhood and were first published,at their own expense, in 1846 as poets under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Thebook attracted little attention, selling only two copies. The sisters returned to prose, producing anovel each in the following year. Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne'sAgnes Grey were released in 1847.

An interest in rural matters and the changing social and economic situation of thecountryside may be seen in the novels of Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, and others.Leading poetic figures included Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth BarrettBrowning, Matthew Arnold, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti.

The novels of George Eliot, such asMiddlemarch, were a milestone of literary realism, andcombine high Victorian literary detail with an intellectual breadth that removes them from thenarrow confines they often depict. Novels of Thomas Hardy and others, dealt with the changingsocial and economic situation of the countryside. Wilkie Collins epistolary novel The Moonstone1868, has been acclaimed as the first detective novel in the English language.[4]

The premier ghost story writer of the 19th century was Sheridan Le Fanu. His worksinclude the macabre mystery novel Uncle Silas 1865, and his Gothic novella Carmilla 1872, tellsthe story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire. Bram Stoker'sseminal horrorDracula, has been attributed to a number of literary genres including vampireliterature, horror fiction, gothic novel and invasion literature.

H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells invented a number of themes that are now classic in the science fiction genre.The War of the Worlds 1898, describing an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using

tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry, is a seminal depiction of an alieninvasion of Earth. The Time Machine is generally credited with the popularization of the conceptof time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. Theterm "time machine" coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Scotland of Irish parents but his Sherlock Holmesstories have typified a fog-filled London for readers worldwide

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant London-based "consulting detective",famous for his intellectual prowess. Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short storiesfeaturing Holmes, from 1880 up to 1907, with a final case in 1914. All but four Conan Doyle

stories are narrated by Holmes' friend, assistant, and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson.

Literature for children developed as a separate genre. Some works become globally well-known, such as those of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, both of whom used nonsense verse.Adventure novels, such as those of Robert Louis Stevenson, are generally classified as forchildren. Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, depicts the dual personality of akind and intelligent physician who turns into a psychopathic monster after imbibing a drugintended to separate good from evil in a personality. His Kidnapped is a fast-paced historical


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novel set in the aftermath of the '45 Jacobite Rising, and Treasure Island 1883, is the classicpirate adventure. At the end of the Victorian Era and leading into the Edwardian Era, BeatrixPotter was an author and illustrator, best known for her children s books, which featured animalcharacters. In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale oPeter Rabbit in 1902. Potter eventually went on to published 23 children's books and become a

wealthly woman. Her books along with Lewis Carroll s are read and published to this day.

The Lost World literary genre was inspired by real stories of archaeological discoveries byimperial adventurers. H. Rider Haggard wrote one of the earliest examples, King Solomon'sMines, in 1885. Contemporary European politics and diplomatic manoeuvrings informedAnthony Hope's swashbuckling Ruritanian adventure novel The Prisoner of Zenda. An importantforerunner of modernist literature, Joseph Conrad wrote the novelHeart of Darkness in 1899. Asymbolic story within a story or frame narrative about an Englishman Marlow's foreignassignment, it is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of theWestern canon.

English literature since 1900

Rudyard Kipling

The major lyric poet of the first decades of the 20th century was Thomas Hardy. Followingthe classic novels Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the MaddingCrowd, Hardy thenconcentrated on poetry after the harsh critical response to his last novel, Jude the Obscure. Themost widely popular writer of the early years of the 20th century was arguably Rudyard Kipling,a highly versatile writer of novels, short stories and poems, and to date the youngest everrecipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Kipling's works include The Jungle Book, The ManWho Would Be King and Kim, while his inspirational poem If is a national favourite. Like

William Ernest Henley's poemInvictus that has inspired such people as Nelson Mandela whenhe was incarcerated,[5]If is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism, regarded as atraditional British virtue. Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands 1903, defined the spy novel.The Kailyard school of Scottish writers, notably J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, presented anidealised version of society and brought elements of fantasy and folklore back into fashion. The1905 novel The ScarletPimpernelby Emma Orczy, is a precursor to the "disguised superhero".In 1908, Kenneth Grahame wrote the children's classic The Wind in the Willows, while theScouts founder Robert Baden Powell's first bookScouting for Boys was published. John Buchanpenned the adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps in 1915. Strongly influenced by his Christianfaith, G. K. Chesterton was a prolific and hugely influential writer with a diverse output. AldousHuxley's futuristic novelBrave New World, anticipates developments in reproductive technology

and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of theideals that form the basis of futurism.

Modernism

The movement known as English literary modernism grew out of a general sense ofdisillusionment with Victorian era attitudes of certainty, conservatism, and objective truth. Themovement was greatly influenced by the ideas of Romanticism, Karl Marx's political writings,


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and the psychoanalytic theories of subconscious Sigmund Freud. The continental artmovements of Impressionism, and later Cubism, were also important inspirations for modernistwriters.

James Joyce, 1918

Although literary modernism reached its peak between the First and Second World Wars,the earliest examples of the movement's attitudes appeared in the mid to late 19th century.Gerard Manley Hopkins, A. E. Housman, and the poet and novelist Thomas Hardy represented afew of the major early modernists writing in England during the Victorian period.

The first decades of the 20th century saw several major works of modernism published,including the seminal short story collectionDubliners by James Joyce, Joseph Conrad'sHeart oDarkness, and the poetry and drama of William Butler Yeats. Joyce's magnum opus Ulysses, isarguably the most important work of Modernist literature, and has been referred to as "ademonstration and summation of the entire movement".[6] It is an interpretation of the Odyssey

set in Dublin, and culminates inFinnegans Wake

Virginia Woolf

Important novelists between the World Wars included Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster,Evelyn Waugh, P.G. Wodehouse and D. H. Lawrence. Woolf was an influential feminist, and amajor stylistic innovator associated with the stream-of-consciousness technique. Her 1929 novelA Room of One's Own contains her famous dictum; "A woman must have money and a room ofher own if she is to write fiction".[7] T. S. Eliot was the preeminent English poet of the period.Across the Atlantic writers like William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and the poets WallaceStevens and Robert Frost developed a more American take on the modernist aesthetic in their

work.

Important in the development of the modernist movement was the American poet EzraPound. Credited with "discovering" both T. S. Eliot and James Joyce, Pound also advanced thecause of imagism and free verse. Gertrude Stein, an American expat, was also an enormousliterary force during this time period, famous for her line "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose."

Other notable writers of this period included H.D., Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, W.H. Auden, Vladimir Nabokov, William Carlos Williams, Ralph Ellison, Dylan Thomas, R.S.Thomas and Graham Greene. However, some of these writers are more closely associated withwhat has become known as post-modernism, a term often used to encompass the diverse range of

writers who succeeded the modernists.

Post-modern literature

The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain tendencies in post-World War IIliterature. It is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of themodernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionablenarrators, etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature.


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Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define and there is littleagreement on the exact characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature. HenryMiller, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, TrumanCapote, Thomas Pynchon.

Post World War II

George Orwell

One of the most significant writers in this period was George Orwell. An essayist andnovelist, Orwell's works are considered among the most important social and politicalcommentaries of the 20th century. Dealing with issues such as poverty in The Road to WiganPier and Down and Out in Paris and London, totalitarianism in Nineteen Eighty-Fourand Animal Farm, and colonialism in Burmese Days. Orwell's works were often semi-autobiographical and in the case ofHomage to Catalonia, wholly. Malcolm Lowry is best knownforUnder the Volcano.

Agatha Christie was a crime writer of novels, short stories and plays, best remembered forher 80 detective novels and her successful West End theatre plays. Christie's works, particularlyfeaturing the detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, have given her the title the 'Queen ofCrime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of thegenre. Christie's novels include,Murder on the Orient Express,Death on the Nile andAnd ThenThere Were None. Another popular writer during the Golden Age of detective fiction wasDorothy L. Sayers. The novelist Georgette Heyer created the historical romance genre.

J. R. R. Tolkien

An informal literary discussion group associated with the English faculty at the University

of Oxford, were the "Inklings". Its leading members were the major fantasy novelists; C. S.Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Lewis is known for his fiction, especially The Chronicles of Narnia,while Tolkien is best known as the author ofThe Hobbitand The Lord of the Rings.

In thriller writing, Ian Fleming created the character James Bond 007 in January 1952,while on holiday at his Jamaican estate, Goldeneye. Fleming chronicled Bond's adventures intwelve novels, including Casino Royale (1953), Live and Let Die (1954), Dr. No (1958),Goldfinger (1959), Thunderball (1961), and nine short story works. In Anthony Burgess'sdystopian novelA Clockwork Orange (1962), the main character Alex's exercise of free will iscurtailed by the use of a classical conditioning technique. Burgess creates a new speech in hisnovel that is the teenage slang of the not-too-distant future. Roald Dahl rose to prominence withhis children's fantasy novels, often inspired by experiences from his childhood, which are notable

for their often unexpected endings, and unsentimental, dark humour. Science fiction novelistArthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, is based on his various short stories, particularly TheSentinel. Some notable writers in the latter half of the 20th century include Margaret Atwood,Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, J. G. Ballard, Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore,William Golding and Salman Rushdie. Ian McEwan'sAtonement(2001), refers to the process offorgiving or pardoning a transgression, and alludes to the main character's search for atonementin wartime England. His 2005 novel Saturday, follows an especially eventful day in the life of asuccessful neurosurgeon.


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