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Lecurer dr Daniela Brown

Course on Medieval and Renaissance Literature

Units 1& 2 Periodization and the Medieval Perspective upon the World

1. Periodization and Perspective

The Medieval Period, or the Middle Ages, occurred between the Fall of the Western Roman Empire1 (that marked the end of Classical Antiquity)2 and the beginning of the European Renaissance. In many ways, these middle times separate the ancient from the modern world.3 1. A. Classical Antiquity What? Where? & When? It refers to ancient Greek and Roman civilizations conventionally spanning between the period of the Greek poet Homer (8th-7th centuries BC) to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire (the 5th century AD. Characteristics: 1. The human being- the measure of all things 2. Polytheistic religion- the first anthropomorphic one, which expresses a feeling of confidence in the human power and his control of nature. The sacred destroyed by means of the Roman road and law (Rudolph Otto: The Sacred) Why this change? Too vast a territory to be administratively controlled. Barbarians wishing to plunder the territories of the Roman Empire 1. B. The Middle Ages What? The term was first used in Latin, medium aevum (middle age) in the 17th century by the people of the Renaissance, and it was meant to mark the long interval between Ancient Classicism and the Renaissance. The first phase (the Early Middle Ages) is characterised by 1. barbarian invasions 2. a return to rural life 3. the abandonment of once Roman cities. The second phase (The High/Central Middle Ages) is characterised by

September 4, 476 when Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain, dethroned the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus 2 Cultural period connected to the Mediterranean area largely spanning from about 8th century BC. (the poetry of Homer) to the Fall of the Roman Empire (5th century AD.) 3 http://www.saylor.org/courses/engl201/

2 1. the spread of Christianity all over Europe (with more and more monasteries founded everywhere). An extension of the knowledge and the religious art promoted in monasteries must have found their expression in the foundation of the first universities (the University of Bologna-1088, the University of Paris-1150, the University of Oxford-1167, the University of Cambridge-1209) and the construction of the huge Gothic cathedrals. 2. the development of burghs (medieval towns) with commerce flourishing 3. the political structure of feudalism implemented all over. The first Crusade was in 1095 and triggered a period of exploration of other lands, of founding monasteries in the Middle East. The rediscovery of Aristotles works4 (translated from Greek into Latin) made scholasticism attempt to make use of Aristotles way of applying logic (Aristotelian logic) to the Bible. 13th century scholar, Thomas Aquinas used Aristotles logic to prove the existence of God: Aristotle says that the human being is a rational animal: he can use reason to understand and explore the world, but his tools to know the world are his 5 senses. Aquinas continues Aristotle by saying that the human being remains limited in his power of knowledge through the senses (empiricism). Thomas Aquinas came to the conclusion that man should make use of logical argumentation in finding the truth, which represents the first cause or principle, the prime mover of everything in the universe, that is GOD. This is what scholasticism was about: to find God in theology, logic, law, natural philosophy and medicine. The third phase (the Late Middle Ages) is characterised by 1. the Great Famine (1315-1317) caused by severe climatic change 2. depopulation, caused by the Black Death (1347-1350) with about 35 million people that died
3. Papal turmoil 4. peasants revolts 5. wars: The Hundred Years War between England and France (1337-1453), the War of the Roses (1455-1485) between the House of Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (white rose). 6. the Late Middle Ages witnesses the emergence of nation states (France, England) and Catholic powerful kingdoms (Portugal, Aragon, Castile)

When? The period roughly known as the Middle Ages started with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire (the 5th century, see footnote 1) and lasted approximately until the end of the 15th century (the beginning of the Renaissance, the Fall of Constantinople or the Fall of the Eastern Roman Empire/ Byzantine Empire). Historically speaking, these 10 centuries are divided into: Early Middle Ages (or the Dark Ages, 5th century to the end of 10th century) High/Central Middle Ages (11th-end of 13th century) Late Middle Ages (14th century to 1453, the Fall of Constantinople). The last phase of the Middle Ages coincide with the first changes in the world perspective that are connected to the beginning of the Renaissance. Why the change? The growth of cities, trade, universities and culture showed people that there were rewards to be found in the life of the material world. But, this came into direct conflict with their religious aspirations -- aspirations which, in fact, had been fabricated by the Church. Christianity was a form of social control and it was in the 12th and 13th centuries that more people became aware of this fact (http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture3a.html)

Aristotle (384-322 AD) was taught by Plato and was the teacher of Alexander the Great. Some of his works are: Physics, Metaphysics, Poetics, Politics, De Anima, etc.

3 The Medieval Perspective upon the World The Middle Ages was an age dominated by Christianity (the last anthropomorphic religion that brings about moral duality, (see Blaise Pascal5, Christian philosopher, mathematician, 17th century: the a topos man). This world was called the Middle Earth. God was in the centre of the Universe with Man (his best creation) a humble subject that was encouraged to live in poverty (like monks Dominic and Francis of Assisi), thus to be closer to Christ and God. This life was supposed to be a waiting room for the afterlife. Dilemma of power- between secular and religious 1. C. The Renaissance What? The Renaissance: a cultural movement, a way of thinking, a new perspective upon the world: a revival of ancient ideas and novel ones: the man of genius, the titan, the giant in the centre of Gods creation Renaissance- a term deriving from the Italian Rinascimento (to be reborn). It left an extraordinary imprint in the visual arts (painting, architecture, sculpture), literature, music, religion, philosophy, science, politics, ethics It developed the humanist method of studying (studia humanitatis or the humanities): grammar rhetoric poetry history moral philosophy. This meant that the people of the Renaissance focused their education on creating the ability to ones having a graceful, powerful civic discourse based on reason, fact, the search for truth and a Christian moral code. Where? & When? It started in Italy, Florence, in the 14th century (in Late Middle Ages), it spread through Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries and it lasted until the 17th century. Historically speaking, the beginning of the Renaissance is connected to the Fall of Constantinople (The Byzantine Empire) to the Turks (in 1453), whose consequence was a wave of Greek Byzantine scholars who emigrated to Western Europe bringing into cultural focus forgotten literary, historical and oratorical manuscripts of Ancient Greece and Rome. In England, the conventional year for the beginning of the Renaissance is 1500. Why this change? An arguable theory regarding the reasons for the change in perspective from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance seems to have the origins in the last phase of the Middle Ages (end of 13th century, beginning of 14th century): a combination of secular power, Christianity, development of commerce and independent city republics in Italy. Why Florence? The belief for which The Renaissance started in Florence, Italy is that this city led by the Medici family patronized the arts, especially in the 15th century (Lorenzo de Medici, 1449-1492), stimulating the arts and artists of genius (Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti) to an unprecedented degree, offering the world a new perspective upon man and the universe.
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The inventor of the mechanical calculator

4 2. Medieval Literature 2. 1. Characteristics of Medieval Writers in England 1. Writers (known or anonymous) belonged to the same international Church (Bolton IX) 2. Most of them wrote their manuscripts before 1440, before Guttenberg invented the printing press. 3. Writers wrote in one of the three languages: Latin, French and English, which was not spoken outside the British Isles 2.2. Division of Medieval and Renaissance Literature A. Old English (Anglo-Saxon Tradition) (5th to 11th centuries) B. Late Medieval literature (Anglo-Norman Tradition) (11th to 15th centuries) C. Renaissance Literature (Elizabethan and Jacobean Traditions) (16th to 17th centuries)

A. Old English (Anglo-Saxon Tradition) (5th to 1066)

General Characteristics: I. The Anglo-Saxon tradition- an importation and a combination of two cultures The form and the language: from North Germanic tribes (that had settled in east and south Britain starting with the 5thcentury). This language is known as Anglo-Saxon or Old English the literary impulse and intellectual goal: from Rome from the end of the 6th c., Roman Christians (596 AD, A Roman mission led by Augustine of Canterbury) who had come to convert the Germanic tribes (Bolton X). The language they used was Latin Roman Christians: Augustine, Pope Gregory the Great (or Gregory I, 6th c.)6 combined a continental Christian culture (in themes, argumentation, ethics) with Ancient Classical education II. About 30.000 lines of poetry survives in Old English in 4 manscripts III. Types:

Secular poems (the theme is secular, but with Christian spirit) (lyrical or epical) :

battles & past heroic deeds: Beowulf (epical poem, 9th c), The Battle of Maldon (about the Anglo-Saxons who fought and lost a battle at Maldon in Essex against the Vikings in 991) monologues of a personal nature: The Ruin (8th c.) (reflective description of the ruins of a Roman city7, presumably Bath. The Christian ethos deals with the reflection on the decline of great civilizations. The Wifes Lament/ Complaint (10th c.) (the speaker is a woman, presumably a foreigner, who married a man whose relatives disapprove of his marriage. He and his wife are banished overseas for some crime he had committed and she is lamenting about the situation. I sing this song about myself, full sad, My own distress, and tell what hardships I Have had to suffer since I first grew up, Present and past, but never more than now;
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Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine and other monks to Britain in 596 to convert the Angles and the Saxons to Christianity. He is the patron saint of musicians, teachers and students. 7 Hamer, Richard. Trad. A Coice of Anglo-Saxon Verse. London: Faber and Faber, 1985, p.25

5 I ever suffered grief through banishment.8 Both The Ruin and The Wifes Lament are in The Exeter Book9
The Seafarer (also in the Exeter Book) is an elegy (a lament) of a sailor who describes the hardships at sea in wintertime. The voyage is compared to mans journey through life, spiritual journey in which he has to come closer to God

riddles and proverbs Christian poetry: close translations of biblical texts/versified passages from the Bible (Caedmon 7th c., the only fragment surviving is his Hymn)10 poems of saints lives or hagiographies (Cynewulf about 9th c: Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Elene) Fates of the Apostles: poems about the death of the apostles who defended their creed Juliana: she prefers to die rather than marry a pagan Elene: she embarks upon a quest to find the Holy Cross and spread Christianity prayers allegories (characters stand for ideas)

Conclusions to Secular and Christian poetry

1./ Juxtaposition of Christian and pagan worlds 2./ The secular Germanic or Anglo-Saxon tradition builds a model of the warrior with a strong belief in fate and an urge to die heroically on the battlefield 3./ The Christian layer builds the image of the saint as the saint warrior, fighting for his faith 4./ Both the secular and the Christian perspectives aspire to order and stability in life and in afterlife, therefore this type of poetry imposes models of behaviour for disciplining wilderness and individual fears
Bibliography: Pillat, Monica. Unpublished Taught Course on Medieval and Renaissance Literature. University of Bucharest, Department of English Language and Literature, 1983. Bolton, W. F. Ed. The Middle Ages. Vol1. London: Penguin Books, 1993 Hamer, Richard. Trad. A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse. London: Faber and Faber, 1985 http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture3a.html http://www.saylor.org/courses/engl201/

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Hamer. Ibid. p73 The Anglo-Saxon texts are all gathered in four important book or codices: a./ The Junius Manuscript or Caedmon Manuscript (an illustrated 10th c . anthology of poetry on Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ, Satan) b./ The Exeter Book or Codex Exoniensis (a 10th c. anthology of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It contains: The Ruin, The Wifes Lament, Juliana, The Husbands Message, Christ, The Seafarer, The Wanderer, The Whale, Riddles) c./ The Vercelli Book (late 10th c. A combination of poetry and prose. It contains: The Fates of the Apostles, Elene) The codex is in Vercelli Library in Italy. d./ The Nowell Codex (early 11th c.) (A combination of poetry and prose. It contains: Beowulf, Alfreds translation of St. Augustines Soliloquies, Judith, Wonders of the East) 10 Caedmons Hymn: Now let us praise the Guardian of the Kingdom of Heaven the might of the Creator and the thought of his mind, the work of the glorious Father, how He, the eternal Lord established the beginning of every wonder. For the sons of men, He, the Holy Creator first made heaven as a roof, then the Keeper of mankind, the eternal Lord God Almighty afterwards made the middle world the earth, for men. (Translated from Old English)