British Literature (Middle Age Renaissance) 5th century

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  Anglo-Saxon came from northwestern Europe and settled in England
  
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  no written literature
  
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  songs and sagas – love of freedom, love of home, warriors, religious feelings
  

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  Christianity
  
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  monks in monasteries – mostly elegies, war poems, heroic epics
  
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  language – old English
  
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  Beda Venerabilis – one of first chronicles; Anglo-Saxon chronicle
  
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  Beowulf – the oldest medieval epic (anonymous)
  

- describes society and life of ancient time

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  2 languages – Norman French (spoken word) – brought by William the Conqueror
  

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  conflict between English and Norman French  “Middle English” language
  
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  romances brought by minstrels (pilgrims)
  
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  heroic and romantic stories x cruel reality (wars, illnesses, poverty)
  
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  in lit. religious texts, chronicles, heroic and love poetry and romances
  
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  book press
  
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  John Wycliff - theologian and translator of the Bible
  
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  Geoffrey Chaucer – Canterbury tales – description of society
  

- pilgrims travel to a Canterbury and narrate tales for a joy

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  revolt against the church’s authority
  
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  inspiration from antique
  
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  Elizabethan Age
  
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  rights for individual freedom
  
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  sonnets, love poems
  
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  Christopher Marlowe – Dr.Faustus
  
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  Francis Bacon – philosopher
  
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  William Shakespeare – born in Stratford
  

- dramatist, sonnets

- inspiration from history + his time

- famous for – language, scenes of plays (one differs from another), strong characters

- historical drama – Richard III.

- comedies – As you like it

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  John Donne, Ben Johnson – dramatists