(5) England: Notable Writers (and their Works) and Notable Literary Developments

970 - The Exeter Book (All Facts)

• Manuscript that consists of lyric and elegiac Anglo-Saxon English poetry

• Includes poems like “The Seafarer”

• Includes poems by Cynewulf such as “The Dream of the Rood”

995 - The Battle of Maldon (All Facts)

• Old English poem describing and celebrating the namesake battle that occurred 4 years prior to its publication in which an Anglo-Saxon army failed to repulse a Viking raid

• Old English poem whose central theme was feudal loyalty

• Although extant, its beginning and ending are lost

Miracle / Mystery Plays (All Facts)

• Form of drama popular in the medieval period, especially in England

• The first one of the namesake was performed at Dunstable in England around 1100

• They were performed in Latin

• They were performed in churches

• They drew on both the scriptures (biblical themes) and lives of the saints

• They were enacted in popular style in England and throughout Europe by the 1400s

1330 - 1386 - William Langland: Piers Plowman (All Facts)

• Vernacular poem by the namesake English parson

• Poem that was essentially an allegory of the soul’s journey to find salvation

• Poem which attacked corruption in the Church and in the state

• Poem which was an appeal on behalf of the poor and plea for spiritual equality

• Considered by many to be one of the greatest works of English literature of the Middle Ages

  • It is known to have influenced Geoffrey Chaucer's “Canterbury Tales”

• It brought to Middle English the alliterative tradition of Anglo-Saxon verse in a series of 11 “dream visions”

• It contains the first known reference to the literary tradition of Robin Hood tales

1370 - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (All Facts)

• Anonymous chivalric Arthurian romance in Middle English alliterative verse

1300s - Pearl (All Facts)

• Middle English poem that is considered one of the most important surviving Middle English works with elements of medieval allegory and the “dream vision” genre

1470 - Thomas Malory: Le Morte d’Arthur (All Facts)

• Work which was a retelling of the Arthurian legends

• Work which essentially unified Arthurian legend in epic prose romance

• Work which was translated by the namesake compiler from French sources into English

• Work whose admirably plain style and creative adaption of medievalism to modern thought deeply influenced later writers

• Work which was published by William Caxton

1422 - 1491 - William Caxton (All Facts)

• English Printer (Merchant) and Writer

  • He was a key figure in the development of English printing

• He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, and, as a printer, to be the first English retailer of printed books

  • He is credited with the first dated book printed in the English language, the “Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers”

  • He is credited with the first English publication of the Arthurian legends written by Thomas Malory, the “Le Morte d’Arthur”

• From his printing works and offices in Westminster, he also published foreign works

• He made all kings of writings widely available including

  • chivalric romances

  • history

  • philosophy

  • an encyclopedia

• Printed poster had rolled off his press, advertising the thermal cures at Salisbury

1343 - 1400 - Geoffrey Chaucer (All Facts)

• English Writer and Poet

  • He is considered the “Father of English Poetry” and “Father of English Literature”

  • He is considered the first truly native English poet

  • He was a giant of English poetry

• He came from a well-to-do family of vintners with court connections

  • For example, his father was deputy butler to King Edward III of England

• He received a court education as a page and was put into the service of John of Gaunt

• He fought for England against France during the Hundred Years’ War

  • He was taken prisoner and later ransomed

  • He came back enthused by the French fashion for poems of courtly love

• He was able to read in English, French, Italian, and Latin

• He was influenced by French and Italian styles of literature

  • He borrowed tales from Giovanni Boccaccio

• He prospered at the court of King Edward III of England

  • He became a controller of customs and a magistrate

• By the reign of King Richard II of England, he was granted a daily jug of wine

  • All of that ceased, however, when John of Gaunt, the namesake’s patron, went to Spain

  • Thus, the namesake was set at leisure

• He was England’s best-loved writer at the time

• He died whilst his most famous and ambitious poetic cycle was still incomplete

  • This poetic cycle focused on his band of pilgrims from the namesake English town, whom he drew with a mixture of shrewdness and pithy humor

• He was buried in Westminster Abbey

• 132 years after his death, his poetical works were published in a collected edition

1387 - Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Cressida (All Facts)

1395 - Geoffrey Chaucer: Canterbury Tales (All Facts)

1330 - 1408 - John Gower (All Facts)

• English Poet

• He was

  • a contemporary of William Langland

  • a friend of Geoffrey Chaucer

1330 - 1408 - John Gower: Confessio Amantis (All Facts)

• Poem which told moralistic stories of courtly love

• Long English Poem with moral and political themes

1370 - 1451 - John Lydgate (All Facts)

• English Poet and Monk

  • He is considered an imitator of Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio

• He is known for his many works including

  • the “Troy Book”

  • the “Siege of Thebes”

1374 - 1479 - John Fortescue: Commendation of the Laws of England / “De Laudibus Legum Angliae” (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author praised English law over Roman law

• Work which was famous for its discussion on the “Presumption of Innocence” principle

1478 - 1535 - St. Thomas More (All Facts)

• He was a greatly respected lawyer and the under-sheriff of the city of London

• He was loved by his fellow citizens who regarded him as “the fairest of judges, the general patron of the poor”

• He was a man of simple tastes, noted for his gentle sense of fun and his in those around him

• He was “born for friendship”

• He made his name as a writer early in his career when he wrote a biography and condemnation of King Richard III of England

• He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and beheaded after refusing to take the oath to Anne’s issue demanded by the Succession Act; he is thus considered a martyr in the Roman Catholic Church

1516 - St. Thomas More: Utopia (All Facts)

• Written in the Renaissance Humanist tradition

  • It was known as the “golden little book” by the Humanists at the time

  • It was published at Louvain

  • It was written by the namesake while he was in service to King Henry VIII

  • It was later translated from Latin into English

• It is a shrewd, sometimes furious look at European society

  • It is an indictment of its harsh rulers at the time

  • It is a guide to the construction of an ideal civilization, as it was written in such a style

• The title refers to an island somewhere off the New World, coming from the Greek meaning “no place”

• It is about a people who

  • are distanced from all the social ills of Europe

  • live a communal existence, sharing equally in their food, government, clothes, houses, education, and wars

  • are a part of a deeply religious community, in which God rewards by an afterlife of immortality

• Many saw the book differently, including

  • as a fantasy, a humorless travelogue of a land which could exist in the dreams of an idealist

  • as a comedy, with humorous intent