From Chaucer to Shakespeare – English – UGC NET – Notes

Some Important Years with Social, Political and Literary Events

Hundred Years’ War & Medieval Crisis (14th Century):

• 1337 – Beginning of the Hundred Years’ War (Conflict between France and England).

• 1346 – Battle of Crécy.

• 1348 – Outbreak of the Black Death in England.

• 1377 – Religious reform ideas of John Wycliffe.

• 1380 – Rise of the Lollard Movement.

• 1381 – Peasants’ Revolt (Led by Wat Tyler).

Wars of the Roses & Rise of the Tudors (15th Century):

• 1453 – Henry VI becomes mentally unstable; succession crisis begins.

• 1455 – First battle of the Wars of the Roses.

• 1476 – William Caxton introduces the Printing Press in England.

• 1485 – Battle of Bosworth – Henry VII defeats Richard III (Beginning of Tudor Dynasty).

Religious & Political Developments (16th Century):

• 1521 – The Pope grants Henry VIII the title “Defender of the Faith.”

• 1564 – Birth of William Shakespeare.

• 1582 – Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway.

• 1588 – Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Elizabethan & Jacobean Cultural Milestones:

• 1592 – Plague closes London theatres for two years.

• 1599 – Opening of the first Globe Theatre.

• 1600 – Foundation of the East India Company.

• 1611 – Publication of the King James Bible.

• 1613 – Globe Theatre burns down.

• 1614 – Globe Theatre rebuilt.

• 1616 – Death of William Shakespeare.

Major Literary Figures and their Works

John Lyly (1554–1606):

Major Plays:

• Women in the Moon

• Endymion (1592)

• Sapho and Phao

• Alexander and Campaspe (1584)

• Midas

• Mother Bombie

• Love’s Metamorphosis

Prose Romances:

• Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1579)

• Euphues and His England (1580)

Lyly is associated with the ornate prose style known as Euphuism.

Robert Greene (1558–1592):

Plays:

• Alphonsus, King of Aragon (1587)

• Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1589)

• Orlando Furioso (1591)

• The Scottish History of James IV (1592)

• A Looking Glass for London and England

Romances & Prose:

• Pandosto

• Mamilia

• Menaphon

• The Mirror of Modesty (1584)

• Arbasto: The Anatomy of Fortune (1584)

• The Triumph of Time (1588)

George Peele (1558–1598):

• The Arraignment of Paris (1584)

• The Famous Chronicle of King Edward I (1593)

• The Old Wives’ Tale (1594)

• The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe (1599)

Thomas Lodge (1558–1625):

• The Wounds of Civil War

• Rosalynde: Euphues’ Golden Legacy (1590)

• Phillis (1593)

• A Defence of Plays

Thomas Kyd (1558–1594):

• The Spanish Tragedy (1585–92)

• Cornelia (1593)

Pioneer of the revenge tragedy.

Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593):

• Tamburlaine the Great (Parts I & II) (1587–88)

• The Jew of Malta (1589)

• Edward II (1591)

• Doctor Faustus (1592)

• Hero and Leander (1593)

• The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage (unfinished)

Master of blank verse and the overreacher hero.

Thomas Nashe (1567–1601):

• Summer’s Last Will and Testament (1592)

• The Unfortunate Traveller (1594)

• The Anatomies of Absurdity

• The Terrors of the Night

Francis Bacon (1561–1626):

• Essays (1597, 1612, 1625)

• The Advancement of Learning (1605)

• Novum Organum (1620)

• The History of Henry VII (1622)

• Sylva Sylvarum

Father of empiricism and the scientific method in England.

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619):

• Delia (1592)

• The Complaint of Rosamond (1592)

• The Civil Wars (1595)

• Poetical Essays (1599)

• A Defence of Rhyme (1615)

Michael Drayton (1563–1631):

• The Harmony of the Church (1591)

• Idea

• The Shepherd’s Garland (1593)

• England’s Heroical Epistles (1597)

• The Barons’ Wars

• Poly-Olbion (1612)

• Nymphidia

William Shakespeare (1564–1616):

Early Poems:

• Venus and Adonis (1593)

• The Rape of Lucrece (1594)

• The Passionate Pilgrim (1599)

Histories:

• Henry VI

• Richard III

• King John

• Henry IV

• Henry V

• Henry VIII

Comedies:

• The Comedy of Errors

• The Taming of the Shrew

• Love’s Labour’s Lost

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• The Two Gentlemen of Verona

• Much Ado About Nothing

• The Merry Wives of Windsor

• As You Like It

• All’s Well That Ends Well

• Measure for Measure

Tragedies:

• Romeo and Juliet

• Titus Andronicus

• Julius Caesar

• Hamlet

• Othello

• Macbeth

• King Lear

• Antony and Cleopatra

• Coriolanus

• Timon of Athens

Romances (Late Plays):

• Pericles

• Cymbeline

• The Winter’s Tale

• The Tempest

Thomas Middleton (1570–1627):

• The Roaring Girl (with Dekker)

• Women Beware Women (1622)

• The Witch

• The Spanish Gypsy (1623)

• The Changeling (1624)

Thomas Dekker (1572–1632):

• Old Fortunatus (1599)

• The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1599)

• Satiromastix (1602)

• The Virgin Martyr (with Massinger)

• The Gull’s Hornbook (1609)

Ben Jonson (1573–1637):

Early Comedies:

• Every Man in His Humour (1598)

• Every Man Out of His Humour (1599)

• Cynthia’s Revels (1600)

• The Poetaster (1601)

Major Comedies:

• Volpone (1605)

• Epicoene (1609)

• The Alchemist (1610)

• Bartholomew Fair

Poems:

• The Forest (1616)

• The Underwoods

Known for the comedy of humours.

Other Important Works & Writers:

• Machiavelli – The Prince (1513)

• William Tyndale – English New Testament (1525)

• Coverdale – Bible (1535)

• Thomas North – Plutarch’s Lives (1579)

• Hooker – Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1593)

• Raleigh – History of the World

• Sackville & Norton – Gorboduc

• Nicholas Udall – Ralph Roister Doister

• John Still – Gammer Gurton’s Needle

• Holinshed – Chronicles (1577)

• Castiglione – The Courtier

• George Puttenham – The Art of English Poesy

• Richard Hakluyt – Principal Navigations

The Age of Chaucer

• The fourteenth century was a period of great political, social, religious, and literary activity. It was an age of transition, unrest, and transformation that shaped the foundations of modern England.

Political Conditions:

• Politically, the century was marked by the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. This prolonged conflict strengthened the spirit of national consciousness and patriotism in both countries. People began to identify themselves as Englishmen or Frenchmen, and the old idea of a universal Holy Roman Empire gradually faded.
• The English victories at the Battle of Crécy (1346) and the Battle of Poitiers (1356) filled the nation with pride. These victories were largely won by the English yeomen, which elevated the middle class in importance. Gradually, political power began slipping from the hands of the feudal nobility into the control of the rising middle class.
• The English Parliament gained prominence during this period. As Jusserand observed, by the end of the 14th century an Englishman could say that the business of the state was also his business, reflecting the growth of democratic tendencies.

Social Conditions:

• The period witnessed the rapid spread of democratic ideas. With the expansion of trade and commerce and the growth of towns, the middle class became a major economic and political force. This development accelerated the decline of the Feudal System.
• A serf could gain freedom by establishing residence in a town, which weakened the old manorial structure.

The Black Death:

The Black Death (1348) devastated England by wiping out nearly half the population.

The plague:

• Reduced the labour supply

• Increased the price of labour

• Decreased the price of goods

• Weakened the hold of serfdom

Attempts to control wages through legislation failed and caused resentment among labourers.

The Peasants’ Revolt (1381):

This tension erupted in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, led by John Ball and suppressed during the reign of Richard II.

John Ball’s famous words—

“When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman?”

—expressed early ideas of social equality. Though the revolt failed immediately, it fostered a lasting spirit of independence among the lower classes.

The revolt was largely caused by the contrast between:

• The luxury of the rich

• The poverty of the peasants

• Heavy taxation

• Economic inequality

Status of Women:

Women were generally considered inferior to men.

• Women of the lower class lived lives of hard labour and were mostly illiterate.

• Women of higher society displayed excessive delicacy and decorum.

• For upper-class women, marriage was the primary path to power and wealth.

• The only alternative was entering a nunnery.

Child marriage and the dowry system were common practices. Even Richard II married the child daughter of the French king.

To churchmen, women were often seen as the source of evil, while courtly poets idealized them. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s Squire represents courtly love:

“And born hym weel… In hope to stonden in his lady grace.”

Religious Conditions:

The fourteenth century was marked by deep corruption in the Church. The Papacy became associated with luxury, worldliness, and moral decay.

Foreign clergy appointed to English benefices sent wealth abroad, which stirred national resentment. When Europe experienced the Great Schism (1378), two rival Popes claimed authority:

• Pope Urban VI (supported by England)

• Pope Clement VII (supported by France)

This division weakened the authority of the Papacy.

The clergy were often:

• Ignorant

• Greedy

• Morally corrupt

Wycliffe and Reform:

John Wycliffe, known as the “Morning Star of the Reformation,” launched the Lollard Movement to reform the Church. He translated the Bible into English, making scripture accessible to common people.

Poets such as:

• Geoffrey Chaucer

• William Langland

• John Gower

exposed the corruption of church officials.

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer portrays:

• The Monk as worldly

• The Friar as greedy and pleasure-loving

Literary Activities:

• The Age of Chaucer marks the rise of the English language as a literary medium.

Standardization of English:

• The East Midland dialect became the standard language of London and the Universities, largely due to the influence of Geoffrey Chaucer.
• Other dialects such as Southern, Northumbrian, and Kentish gradually declined in literary importance.
• The Canterbury Tales stands as a landmark in both English literature and the development of Modern English.

Rise of English Prose:

The age also witnessed the foundation of an original English prose style.

Important prose writers include:

• John Wycliffe

• John Mandeville

• Thomas Malory

Their prose was no longer merely imitative but original and individual.

Major Literary Figures:

The five outstanding literary figures of the age were:

• The anonymous author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

• William Langland

• John Gower

• John Wycliffe

• Above all, Geoffrey Chaucer

Literary Forms Developed:

The age developed several important literary forms:

• Allegory

• Ballad

• Narrative poetry

• Metrical romance

New poetic metres such as:

• Rhyme Royal

• Ottava Rima

• Heroic Couplet

came into fashion.

Main Poetical Works of Chaucer

Main poetical works of Chaucer are broadly divided into three classes corresponding the three periods of his life:

French Period (1359-72):

• Chaucer was considerably influenced by French masters such as Machaut, Guillaume de Lorris, and Jean de Meung. The poems of this period were written under the French influence and exhibit a zest for life and sense of animation for the glories of love and life. Like the French masters of poetry, Chaucer exercised restraint in the expression of his emotion. He tempered his irony with wit and provoked smiles rather than unchecked laughter. This subdued character of his poetry is in conformity with French models. Everything during this period of Chaucer’s workmanship is French. In the words of Legoius, “A Frenchman may enter Chaucer’s country and be conscious of no change of sky or climate”.
• The main work of this period is The Romaunt of the Rose, a lengthy allegorical poem, written in octosyllabic couplets and directly based upon Le Roman de la Rose of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung. The poem consists of 7,700 lines. It is a fragment and was once entirely ascribed to Chaucer, but recent research suggests that only the first part is his work. The other poems of this period are The Book of the Duchess (also known as Dethe of Blanche the Duchesse), written after the death of Blanche, wife of Chaucer’s patron John of Gaunt; Compleynte to Pite, a graceful love poem; and A.B.C., a prayer translated from the French.
• Italian Period (1373–1386) – In 1372, Chaucer visited Italy and came in contact with Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Among them, Boccaccio exercised the deepest influence on Chaucer’s art during this period, while Dante and Petrarch had comparatively little influence.
• The chief work of the second or Italian Period is Troilus and Criseyde, a poem of 8,200 lines adapted from Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato (“the love-smitten one”). The main difference between Boccaccio and Chaucer is that the latter emphasises character rather than passion. Boccaccio laid stress on passion and voluptuousness, whereas Chaucer was drawn to the study of character.
• Troilus is the perfect lover, so finely drawn that even Shakespeare could only heighten the dramatic intensity. Pandarus, originally a young friend in Boccaccio, is transformed by Chaucer into the uncle of Criseyde, embodying humorous, worldly, cynical wisdom. Criseyde is the boldest reconstruction; in Chaucer she becomes “the woman in love”, portrayed with remarkable psychological subtlety.
• “The complex characters of Criseyde and Pandarus,” says Albert, “reveal a new subtlety of psychological development and indicate Chaucer’s growing insight into human motives.” The poem is notable for its narrative charm and the masterly use of rhyme royal stanza (seven-line stanza). Unlike much Mediaeval poetry, which often lacks finish, Troilus and Criseyde achieves dexterity, beauty, and pathos of a high order.
• In Troilus and Criseyde, Chaucer presents a finished romance enriched with interest of character, incident, and dramatic power. Though somewhat long and marked by digressions, it surpasses earlier medieval works in artistic control.
• The House of Fame, written in octosyllabic couplets, is an allegory of a dreamy type. It combines lofty thought with simple homely language. In a dream, the poet is carried by a great eagle from the Temple of Venus to the Hall of Fame, where the House of Fame stands upon a rock of ice.
• The poet watches a number of aspirants for fame approaching the throne, some accepted while others refused entry. For the conception of the poem, Chaucer was indebted to Ovid, Dante, and Virgil, but its humour and craftsmanship are distinctly his own. The poem displays strong irony and satire, more powerful than in his earlier works.
• The entire poem is satirical in content. Chaucer satirises the capriciousness of Fame. Her house, built on ice, symbolizes the fickleness of fame. Names melt away, and judgments are made by mere whim, not justice. The theme throughout is the instability and uncertainty of fame.
• The third major work of this period is The Legend of Good Women. Chaucer planned nineteen legends of virtuous women but completed only eight. The best known is the story of Thisbe. The poem is written in heroic couplet, a form later perfected by Alexander Pope.
• Two other important poems of this period are Anelida and Arcite and The Parlement of Foules, the latter notable for its comic spirit and vivid characterization of birds.