British Literature From Chaucer To The End of The 17 Century

H I
Yashwantrao Chavan
Maharashtra Open University
M. A. (English)
ENG 526 (Semester - I)
ENG 546 (Semester - II)
(Group-5, Elective Paper-IV)
British Literature from Chaucer

to the End of the 17th Century
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K J
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Prof. (Dr.) N. J. Pawar Dr. D. V. Muley
Vice-Chancellor, Registrar,
Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Shivaji University, Kolhapur.
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Director BCUD, Finance and Accounts Officer,
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Controller of Examination Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg,
Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune.
Dr. (Smt.) Vasanti Rasam Prof. (Dr.) A. N. Joshi
Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Director, School of Education,
Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Y. C. M. O. U. Nashik.
Prof. (Dr.) B. S. Sawant Shri. J. R. Jadhav
Dean, Faculty of Commerce, Dean, Faculty of Arts & Fine Arts,
Prof. (Dr.) S. A. Bari
Dr. T. B. Jagtap
Director, Distance Education,
Dean, Faculty of Science,
Kuvempu University, Karnataka.
Shivaji University, Kolhapur.
Prof. Dr. (Smt.) Cima Yeole
Dr. K. N. Sangale (Member Secretary)
Dean, Faculty of Education, Director, Centre for Distance Education,
n B. O. S. MEMBERS OF ENGLISH n
Chairman- Shri. J. A. Mhetre
Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Arts, Science and Commerce, 17, Malhar Peth, Satara
l Prof. (Dr.) P. A. Attar l Shri. G. M. Shikalgar,

Professor and Head, Dept. of English, Bhogawati Mahavidyalaya, Kurukali,
Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Tal. Karveer, Dist. Kolhapur.
l Shri. B. M. Ladgaonkar, l Dr. Ashok Thorat
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Mahavidyalaya, Warananagar, Ganeshkhind Road, Aundh, Pune.
Dist. Kolhapur.
l Dr. Shreedhar Gokhale
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Raje Ramrao Mahavidyalaya, Jath, Poona University, Poona, Aundh Pune.
Dist. Sangli.
l Dr. Rajagopal G.
l Shri. Pandurang Rangrao Shewale English and Foreign Languages
Shri. Shahaji Chh. College, 296, 'C', University, Hyderabad.
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Mahavidyalaya, Urun-Islampur, Tal. Walwa,
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(iii)
Centre for Distance Education British Literature from Chaucer to the End of
Shivaji University, the 17th Century
Kolhapur. M. A. Part-I English Group-5, Elective Paper-IV
Writing Team
Author’s Name Unit No
Prof. B. S. Magade 1, 2
Kisan Veer College, Wai
Shri. Y. S. Kalamkar 3, 7
F-1/16, H.D.F.C. Colony, Telco Road,
Chinchwad, Pune.
Mrs. H. S. Mane 4, 5
Arts and Commerce College, Mayani
Prof. V. B. Kulkarni 6, 8
Shikshanmaharshi Bapuji Salunkhe Mahavidyalaya, Karad
Dr. Satish Ghatge 9

Kakasaheb Chavan College, Talmavale
n Editors n
Shri. J. A. Mhetre
Chairman, B.O.S. in English
Shivaji University, Kolhapur
Lal Bahadur Shastri College, Satara
Prof. Y. S. Kalamkar Prof. V. B. Kulkarni

F-1/16, H.D.F.C. Colony, Telco Road, Shikshanmaharshi Bapuji Salunkhe
Mahavidyalaya, Karad
Chinchwad, Pune.
(iv)
Preface
Dear students,
This book contains Self-instructional Materials on the Elective
Paper IV British Literature from Chaucer to the End of the 17th
Century. Have you seen the syllabus prescribed for this paper?
If not, read it carefully. There is a detailed list of the texts
prescribed from the English Literature of the 16th and the 17th
centuries. It is not possible to print entire texts prescribed in this
book. But, each unit in this book gives you a very detailed idea
of what is in the text, whether it is a novel or a play or the poems
prescribed from an anthology. Even then, we advise you to read
the original play, the novel as well as the poems prescribed in the
syllabus. In this paper, you are supposed to be familiar with the
trends and cross-currents in the British Literature in these two
centuries. Naturally, the first Unit in this book deals with the
general topics related to the trends in the development of poetry,
drama, fiction, etc. in this period. The texts prescribed should be
studied keeping in mind these trends, their characteristic features
and the contribution made by the individual writer or a poet
prescribed for the detailed study.
Each unit is interspersed with ‘Check Your Progress’

exercises, which are simple questions requiring answers in a
word, a phrase or a sentence each. The purpose of these Self-
check exercises is to make you go back to the main unit and get
your answers for these questions on your own. The model
answers are, of course, given at the end of each unit. But you
should not look them up before you have tried to write your own
answers.
(v)
Each unit gives you a list of reference books. You should find time to visit a
college nearby to have a look at the original books as well as books on appreciation
of poetry, drama, novel, etc.
There are exercises given at the end of each unit, which contain broad-
answer type questions which you have to face in the final examination. Try to write
answers to these questions with the help of the material in the units. Write
answers in your own English, and try to refer to the books on the history of the
British Literature.
We wish you best luck in your final examination.
Editors
(vi)
British Literature from Chaucer to the End of
the 17th Century
M. A. Part-I English Group-5, Elective Paper-IV
CONTENTS
1. General Topics 1
2. The Nun's Priest's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer 30
3. British Poetry of the 17th Century 57
4. The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) 96
5. MACBETH by William Shakespeare 123
6. The Double Dealer by William Congreve 145
7. The Unfortunate Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton 165

by Thomas Nashe
8. Utopia by Thomas More 187
9. Apology for Poetry by Sir Philip Sidney 210
(vii)
Each Unit begins with the Section Objectives -
Objectives are directive and indicative of :

1. What has been presented in the Unit and
2. What is expected from you
3. What you are expected to know pertaining to the specific Unit,

once you have completed working on the Unit.
The self check exercises with possible answers will help you to
understand the Unit in the right perspective. Go through the possible
answer only after you write your answers. These exercises are not
to be submitted to us for evaluation. They have been provided to
you as Study Tools to keep you in the right track as you study the Unit.
(viii)
Unit-1
General Topics
Index
1.0 Objectives:
1.1 Introduction:
1.2 Miracle and Morality Plays:
1.2.1 Check Your Progress
1.2.2 Terms to Remember:
1.3 Elizabethan Poetry:
1.3.1 Check Your Progress:
1.4 Elizabethan Theatre:
1.5 Restoration Drama:
1.6 Summary:
1.7 Answers to Check Your Progress:
1.8 Exercises:
1.9 References for further study
1
M.A. I (English) : British Literature…1
1.0 Objectives:
After completing the study of this unit, you will
 come to know about the Miracle and Morality plays.
 know about the Elizabethan Poetry.
 learn the structure of the Elizabethan Theatre.
 understand the salient characteristics of the Restoration Drama.
 be able to answer the questions on the general topics mentioned above.
1.1 Introduction:
This unit deals with the discussion of the general topics related to the British
literature from Chaucer to the end of the 17th century. It also studies these topics with
reference to the texts prescribed in these survey topics.
1.2 Miracle and Morality Plays:

The Miracle plays were based on the stories in the Bible and were performed in
or near the churches. Many events in the Biblical mythology were suitable subjects
for them. These early plays are called Miracle or Mystery plays and Morality plays.
They are among the earliest formally developed plays in the medieval Europe. They
developed from the 10th to the 16th century.
Historical Origin:
Mystery or miracle plays originated as in simple tropes. They were the verbal
embellishments of liturgical texts. Eventually these liturgical dramas acquired
popularity and began to be organized by local communities and became more
common in the later Middle Ages. The term mystery play or mysteries is derived
from the Latin word, misterium. The Catholic Church eyed mystery or miracle plays
warily. Until the beginning of the thirteenth century, they were performed by priests
and monks, but Pope Innocent III was threatened by their popularity and forbade any
priest or monk from further acting. This decision by the Catholic Church made a
lasting imprint on the history of the Western theatre, as drama, which until this time
had been a mode of expression almost entirely used for religious purposes now fell
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into the hands of those outside the church. Outside the church, the players and
writers enjoyed more freedom, expression and performance, and began to pay
attention to the entertainment value of their performance. New types were invented.
The morality plays developed during the Medieval period. The morality plays
attempted to educate through entertainment. It is thought that the Dominican and
Franciscan orders of Christian monks developed the morality play in the 13th century
by adding actors and theatrical elements to their sermons. The purpose of this was
that the illiterate masses could more easily learn the basics of Christianity through
dramatic spoken word. This made complex topics such as original sin and atonement
easier. By personifying vices, virtues, the Devil and the Good Angel, stories of
temptation were made accessible to those who were unable to read them themselves.
Characteristics:
Miracle or mystery plays developed from the representation of Bible stories in
churches with accompanying antiphonal song such as the Quem Quaeritis. The
subjects of the miracle plays were various: the disobedience of Adam and Eve; Noah
and the great flood; Abraham and Isaac; events in the life of Christ; and so on. They
were enacted by people of the town on a kind of stage on wheels called a pageant.
This was moved to different parts of the town, so that a play shown in one place
could then be shown in another. Several miracle plays were being performed at the
same time in different places. They were serious and religious in intention. There
was a natural tendency for the characters in the play to become recognizably human
in their behaviour.
The characters in the Morality plays were not people such as Adam and Eve or
Noah; they were virtues such as Truth or vices such as Greed or Revenge which
walked and talked. In short, they were personifications of good and evil. Morality
plays typically contain a protagonist who represents either humanity as a whole or a
smaller social structure. This alignment of characters to the virtues and vices
provides the play’s audience some moral guidance. Morality plays are the result of
the dominant belief of the time, that human beings can repent for their sins and attain
the entry into heaven if they follow the narrow path of virtues and avoid vices.
The main theme of the morality play is this: Man begins in innocence, then falls
into temptation, then he repents and is saved. The central action is the struggle of
man against the seven deadly sins that are personified into real characters. It is the
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allegory of vices and virtues fighting over Man’s soul. This allegorical application of
theatre to Christianity is intended to help the audience understand the greater
concepts of sin and virtue. The three greatest temptations that man faces in morality
plays are The World, The Flesh, and The Devil. It is stressed that “Sin is inevitable”
but that “repentance is always possible”. Morality plays were not holiday-specific;
they could be performed at any time of the year, as repentance may occur at any time
of the year.
Structure:
Mystery plays typically revolve around the Old Testament, the New Testament,
and the stories of saints. Unlike the farces or comedies of the time, they were viewed
by audiences as non-fiction, historical tales. The plays began rather short, but grew in
length over time. They were performed not by professionals, but by dramatic
associations formed in all large towns for the express purpose of performing mystery
plays.
The scenes of a mystery play are not derived from one another—each scene is
linked only by facilitating the ideas of eternal salvation. The plays could use as few
as one or as many as five hundred characters, not counting the chorus. They typically
ran over several days. Places were represented somewhat symbolically by vast
scenery, rather than truly represented. For example, a forest could be presented by
two or three trees. And although the action could change places, the scenery
remained constant. There were no curtains or scene changes. Thus, audience could
see two or three sets of action going on at once, on different parts of the stage. The
costumes, however, were often more beautiful than accurate, and actors paid for
them personally.
The shape of the stage remains a matter of some controversy. Some argue that
performances took place on a circular stage, while others hold that a variety of
shapes were used—round, square, horseshoe, and so on. It is known for certain,
however, that at least some plays were performed on round stages.
Characters could be famous saints and martyrs, pagans and devils, or even
ordinary people, such as tradesmen, soldiers, peasants, wives, and even sots
(drunkards). Mystery plays were famous for being heavily religious, yet also
exceptionally down to earth, and even comic.
4
Passion plays were specific types of mystery plays, revolving around the story of
Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. They were exceptionally popular in the
fifteenth century. Famous writers of mystery plays include Andreas Gryphius, Hugo
von Hoffmansthal, and Calderon.
English Miracle and Morality Plays:
There are four complete English biblical collections of miracle plays. The most
complete is the York cycle of forty-eight pageants. There are also the Towneley plays
of thirty-two pageants. The most famous plays of the Towneley collection are
attributed to the Wakefield Master, an anonymous playwright who wrote in the
fifteenth century. The best known pageant in the Towneley manuscript is The Second
Shepherds' Pageant, a burlesque of the Nativity.
Miracle plays, or Saint's plays, are now distinguished from mystery plays as
they specifically re-enacted miraculous interventions by the saints, particularly St.
Nicholas or St. Mary, into the lives of ordinary people, rather than biblical events;
however both of these terms are more commonly used by modern scholars than they
were by medieval people, who used a wide variety of terminology to refer to their
dramatic performances. Robert Chambers, writing in 19th century notes that
"especially in England, miracle stands for religious play in general".
One of the best known fifteenth century Moralities is Everyman, which was
translated from the Dutch. It is the archetypal morality play. It is the story of the end
of Everyman’s life, when Death calls him away from the world. The characters take
on the common pattern and represent broader ideas. Some of the characters in
Everyman are God, Death, Everyman, Good-Deeds, Angel, Knowledge, Beauty,
Discretion, and Strength. The personified meanings of these characters are hardly
hidden. The premise of Everyman is that God, believing that the people on earth are
too focused on wealth and worldly possessions, sends Death to Everyman to remind
him of God's power and the importance of upholding values. The emphasis put on
morality, the seemingly vast difference between good and evil, and the strong
presence of God make Everyman one of the most concrete examples of a morality
play. At the same time, most morality plays focus more on evil, while Everyman
focuses more on good, highlighting sin in contrast.
5
A) Choose the correct alternative from the ones given below each of the
following:
1) Miracle plays were in verbal embellishments of -----------
a) simple books b) liturgical texts
c) complex texts d) holy books
2) The central action of the morality plays is the struggle of man against the --
----------- .
a) the Satan b) eight confinements
c) seven deadly sins d) vices
3) There are------------ complete English biblical collections of miracle plays.
a) four b) seven c) five d) eight
4) One of the best known fifteenth century Moralities is
a) The Second Shepherds' Pageant b) York cycle
c) Towneley plays d) Everyman
5) The protagonist of the morality plays represents---------------
a) maturity b) humanity c) community d) divinity
B) Fill in the blanks in the following sentences:
1) The term mystery play or mysteries is derived from the Latin word-------
2) The play enacted by people of the town on a kind of stage on wheels is
called----------------
3) The characters in the Morality plays were -----------------
4) Sin is inevitable but that ------------------is always possible.
5) Mystery plays typically revolve around the ---------------
C) Answer each of the following in one word/phrase/sentence of the following:
1) What is Mystery or Miracle play?
2) Who developed the morality plays in the 13th century?
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3) What was the purpose of the Morality plays?
4) What is the main theme of the morality plays?
5) Who were the characters in the miracle plays?
 Miracle or mystery plays- drama of the late mediaeval times, always with
religious subjects
 Morality plays- drama of the 15th century, using arguments between
different values, such as Youth, Death, etc.
 Misterium- a play performed by the craft guilds, a mystery play
 tropes- verbal decoration
 Quem Quaeritis- a short musical performance set
1.3 Elizabethan Poetry:

Often considered a “golden age” in English history, the Elizabethan Era is the
period associated with the 45- year reign of Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I, from
1558 to 1603. At the height of the English Renaissance came the emergence of
English literature and poetry.
The Elizabethan period (1558 to 1603) in poetry is characterized by a number of
developments. The introduction and adaptation of themes from the Italian poetry,
models and verse forms from other European traditions and classical literature, the
emergence of Elizabethan song tradition, the emergence of courtly poetry often
centred around the figure of the monarch, and the growth of a verse-based drama are
among the most important of these developments.
Early Renaissance Poetry:
With a small number of exceptions, the early years of the 16th century are not
particularly notable. Douglas’ Aeneid was completed in 1513 and John Skelton
wrote poems that marked transition from the late Medieval and Renaissance styles.
The new king, Henry VIII, was something of a poet himself. The most significant
English poets of this period were Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey. Thomas
Wyatt was among the first poets to write sonnets in English.
7
Elizabethan Song:
A wide range of Elizabethan poets, including Nicholas Grimald, Thomas Nashe
and Robert Southwell wrote songs. The greatest of all the songwriters was Thomas
Campion. The songs were generally in anthologies such as Richard Tottel‘s Songs
and Sonnets (1557) which mainly consisted of the sonnets by the Wyatt and Surrey,
besides there were songbooks that included printed music to enable performance.
These performances formed an integral part of both public and private entertainment.
By the end of the 16th century, a new generation of composers, including John
Dowland, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Weelkes and Thomas Morley
were helping to bring the art of Elizabethan song to an extremely high musical level.
Wyatt was responsible for introducing not only sonnet, but also rondeau, epigrams
and satire. The Earl of Surrey was the first to introduce blank verse into English,
which later became a vehicle for the verse drama. A number of miscellanies of songs
such as The Paradise of Dainty Devices, The Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions
were published and became popular in the Elizabethan period.
The Canon of Elizabethan Poetry:
The central figures of the Elizabethan canon are Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip
Sidney and William Shakespeare. You are going to study selections from their poetry
in the anthology prescribed for you. Spenser, who contributed to all the forms of
poetry, from songs to Epic poetry, was responsible for creating poetic diction for
English poetry.
Elizabethan Courtly Poetry:
With the consolidation of Elizabeth's power, a genuine court sympathetic to
poetry and the arts in general emerged. This encouraged the emergence of poetry
aimed at the idealised version of the courtly world.
Among the best known examples of this are Edmund Spenser's The Faerie
Queen (1589-96), which is effectively an extended hymn of praise to the queen. The
Faerie Queen deals with twelve knights representing different virtues. It is an
allegorical work with nine layers of meanings. This courtly trend can also be seen in
Spenser's Shepheard’s Calender (1579), a poem in twelve books. This poem marks
the introduction into English the context of the classical pastoral. Spenser married
Elizabeth Boyle when he was over forty. The joy that he felt is expressed in
Epithalamion (1595). It is an almost perfect marriage song. The explorations of love
8
found in the sonnets of William Shakespeare and the poetry of Walter Raleigh and
others also implies a courtly audience.
Elizabethan Sonnets and Love Poetry:
The sonnet form was almost always used for love poetry at the time. The ideal
for any poet was to write a sonnet sequence, a series of interconnecting poems.
William Shakespeare wrote a sequence of 154 sonnets. The sonnets of Shakespeare
were probably written between 1593 and 1600. Many of them refer to a young man
of a good family, and may be addressed to William Herbert or the Earl of
Southampton. We have to remember that alongside the sonnets, he wrote several
long poems such as Venus and Adonis and Lucrece on the subject of love. Many of
them were written in the Jacobean period. Spenser wrote 88 sonnets which were
published in 1595 with the Epithalamion, under the title, Amoretti. Philip Sidney was
a true Elizabethan gentleman of many activities- courtier, statesman, poet and
soldier. His book of sonnets, Astrophel and Stella (1591) is the great expression of
thoughts and feelings of the time. Spenser and Sidney adopted the Petrarchan form of
sonnet, but Shakespeare, following The Earl of Surrey developed typical English
sonnet.
Usually the sonnet, and the other love poetry, idealize the poet’s mistress, often
listing her physical perfections in quite exaggerated ways. Often, the poet is
presented as dying of love because of some unkindness on her part. Sometimes it was
fairly clear that the poet was not emotionally engaged at all but wanted to show off
how clever he was with his images and smooth verse form. The pastoral was also a
favourite genre for all this, using idealised life of shepherds and shepherdesses.
Elizabethan Verse Drama:
Elizabethan verse drama is widely considered to be one of the major
achievements of literature in English. William Shakespeare exploited verse drama,
which served both as courtly masque and popular entertainment. He also dealt with
all the major themes of contemporary literature and life. Elizabethan Drama began
with the efforts of the ‘university wits’, such as Thomas Kyd, Lyly, George Peele,
Marlowe, Robert Green, Thomas Lodge and Thomas Nashe. They had academic
training from Oxford and Cambridge, and were able to combine classical form of
drama with the Elizabethan spirit and passion. They were fond of heroic themes and
the lives of great figures like Tamburlaine. Among them, Marlowe was the one to
perfect the use of blank verse as a medium of Drama.
9
Influence of Classicism on Elizabethan Poetry:
Gavin Douglas' Aeneid, Thomas Campion's metrical experiments, and Spenser's
Shepheardes Calender and plays like Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra are all
examples of the influence of classicism on Elizabethan poetry. It remained common
for poets of the period to write on themes from classical mythology; Shakespeare's
Venus and Adonis is the example of this kind of work.
Established Poetic Style:
Typically, Elizabethan verse was a very smooth kind of verse. Poets like
Shakespeare, Sidney and Spenser had done wonders with the English language,
which was changing quickly as it emerged into its modern form. They had managed
to make English appear quite sophisticated, imitating Latin and Greek models of
verse. It had regular metre and rhythm, and was often written in quite complicated
forms. Spenser's epic poem, The Faerie Queene, is written in a special stanza form
invented for it, which is still called the Spenserian stanza.
Reaction to the Tradition:
The 17th century saw a number of changes, political as well as social. There was
great dissatisfaction among the merchants and traders over the Princely wars and
taxes to be for it. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, there was tension in the
political atmosphere, which resulted in the Civil War and deposition of kingly power.
There was growth of new knowledge in the field of science. The Geographical
discoveries and accounts of the travellers to the distant lands created new awareness.
All this resulted into a change of mood and breaking away from sweet mellifluous
Elizabethan poetry. The metaphysical poetry of John Donne and others marked a
break from the old tradition and reflected new knowledge or change of mood in their
poetry.
following:
1) Elizabethan Age is often considered a --------------
a) golden age b) silver age
c) iron age d) platinum age
10
2) Songs and Sonnets is a creation by ---------
a) Nicholas Grimald b) Thomas Nashe
c) Robert Southwell d) Richard Tottel
3) Epithalamion is an almost perfect---------
a) love song b) marriage song c) patriotic song d) pastoral poem
4) --------------------- was among the new generation of composers.
a) John Donne b) Gavin Douglas c) William Byrd d) William Herbert
5) William Shakespeare wrote sonnets.
a) 80 b) 154 c) 143 d) 155
B) Fill in the blanks of the following sentences:
1) The Faerie Queen deals with ---------------.
2) Sir Philip Sidney’s book of sonnets is--------.
3) Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra is the example of the influence of -----
----------on Elizabethan poetry.
4) The Elizabethan period in poetry is----------------.
5) Venus and Adonis, a long poem, mainly deals with --------
C) Answer each of the following in one word/phrase/sentence:
1 Who were among the first poets to write sonnets in English?
2) What contribution did verse drama make in the Elizabethan age?
3) What forms of poetry did the Elizabethan poets practise?
4) Who wrote first in reaction to the earlier Elizabethan verse?
5) What does Spenser's Shepherd’s Calendar, a poem in twelve books, mark?
 allegory- story which teaches a moral lesson, in which people and places
stand for other ideas.
 pastoral- style based on an ideal picture of country life, in which the
natural world is seen as beautiful and good.
11
 classical pastoral- a mode of poetry that assumes an aristocratic audience
with a certain kind of attitude to the land and peasants
 metaphysical poetry- the poetry of John Donne and others in the early 17th
century, known for its use of new ideas and argumentative speech idiom.
 sonnet- a poem of 14 lines with a fixed form
 Renaissance- rebirth of literature
1.4 Elizabethan Drama:

English Renaissance Drama, also known as early modern English Drama,
refers to the plays produced by the University Wits between the Reformation and the
closure of the theatres in 1642. It includes the plays of Robert Green, George Peele,
Christopher Marlowe and many others followed the monumental work of William
Shakespeare.
Terminology:
English Renaissance Drama is sometimes called "Elizabethan Drama." The
term "Elizabethan Drama", however, properly covers only the plays written and
performed publicly in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603). As
such, "Elizabethan theatre" is distinguished from Jacobean Drama and Caroline
Drama. "English Renaissance theatre" or "early modern theatre" refers to all the
three sub-classifications taken together.
Background:
Renaissance theatre derived from several medieval theatre traditions, such as the
mystery plays that formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of
Europe during the Middle Ages. The mystery plays were complex retellings of
legends based on biblical themes, originally performed in churches but later
becoming more linked to the secular celebrations that grew up around religious
festivals. Other sources include the morality plays and the "University drama" that
attempted to recreate Greek tragedy. The Italian tradition of Commedia dell'arte as
well as the elaborate masques frequently presented at court also contributed to the
shaping of public theatre.
12
Companies of players attached to the households of leading noblemen and
performing seasonally in various locations existed before the reign of Elizabeth I.
These became the foundation for the professional players that performed on the
Elizabethan stage. The tours of these players gradually replaced the performances of
the mystery and morality plays by local players. At court, the performance of
masques by courtiers and other amateurs was apparently common in the early years
of Elizabeth. It was replaced by the professional companies with noble men as
patrons, who grew in number and quality during her reign.
The City of London authorities were generally hostile to public performances,
but its hostility was overmatched by the Queen's taste for plays. Theatres sprang up
in the suburbs, especially in the liberty of Southwark, accessible across the Thames
to the city dwellers. The companies maintained the pretence of performance before
the Queen.
Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was
concerned. With the development of the private theatres, drama became more
oriented toward the tastes and values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of
the reign of Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres,
which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades.
Theatres:
The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential
enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama—once they were in
operation, drama could become a fixed and permanent rather than a transitory
phenomenon. The crucial initiating development was the construction of The Theatre
by James Burbage and John Brayne in Shoreditch in 1576. The Theatre was rapidly
followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595),
(the Globe 1599), the Fortune (1600), and the Red Bull (1604).
Archaeological excavations on the foundations of the Rose and the Globe in the
late twentieth century showed that all the London theatres had individual differences.
The public theatres were three -storey high, and built around an open space at the
centre. Usually polygonal in its plan to give an overall rounded effect (though the
Red Bull and the first Fortune were square), the three levels of inward-facing
galleries overlooked the open centre, into which jutted the stage—essentially a
platform surrounded on three sides by the audience, only the rear being restricted for
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the entrances and exits of the actors and seating for the musicians. The upper level
behind the stage could be used as a balcony, as in Romeo and Juliet or Antony and
Cleopatra, or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in Julius
Caesar.
Usually built of timber, lath and plaster and with thatched roofs, the early
theatres were vulnerable to fire, and were replaced with stronger structures. When
the Globe burned down in June 1613, it was rebuilt with a tile roof; when the Fortune
burned down in December 1621, it was rebuilt in brick.
A different model was developed with the Blackfriars Theatre, which came into
regular use on a long-term basis in 1599. The Blackfriars was small in comparison to
the earlier theatres and roofed rather than open to the sky; it resembled a modern
theatre in ways that its predecessors did not. Other small enclosed theatres followed
notably the Whitefriars (1608) and the Cockpit (1617), with the building of the
Salisbury Court Theatre in 1629. The London audience had six theatres to choose
from: three surviving large open-air "public" theatres, the Globe, the Fortune, and the
Red Bull, and three smaller enclosed "private" theatres, the Blackfriars, the Cockpit,
and the Salisbury Court. Audiences of the 1630s benefited from a half-century of
vigorous dramaturgical development; the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare and
their contemporaries were still being performed on a regular basis (mostly at the
public theatres), while the newest works of the newest playwrights were abundant as
well (mainly at the private theatres).
Around 1580, when both the Theatre and the Curtain were full on summer days,
the total theatre capacity of London was about 5000 spectators. With the building of
new theatre facilities and the formation of new companies, the capital's total theatre
capacity exceeded 10,000 after 1610. In 1580, the poorest citizens could purchase
admittance to the Curtain or the Theatre, for a penny; in 1640, their counterparts
could gain admittance to the Globe, the Cockpit, or the Red Bull for exactly the same
price.
In addition to the religious mystery plays on pageant wagons and on circular
stages resembling modern "theatres in the round," dramatic entertainments were
performed in the great halls of royal and noble houses. Plays were also offered by
travelling bands of actors on portable stages set up at fairs and other crowd-gathering
occasions. In the sixteenth century, enclosed inn yards were also used.
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The first permanent theatre in England was located in Middlesex, just outside
the walls of London. The Theatre, as it was called, was created by James Burbage,
father of Richard Burbage, the famous actor. There is little direct information about
the appearance of The Theatre. It was dismantled in 1598 and its timbers were
carried to the Bank side, south of London across the Thames River. When it was
reassembled in 1599 it was called The Globe. What is known about The Globe
probably applies to The Theatre as well.
The age of Shakespeare—and of Marlowe, Kyd, Chapman, Ben Jonson and a
host of other dramatists—extends roughly from 1590 to 1625. During this period
London probably had more theatre space in ratio to its population than at any other
time. Excluding informal theatre spaces such as the great halls of the nobility and
such organizations as the Inns of Court (where England's lawyers were trained), there
were seven open-air theatres and four indoor theatres. The open-air theatres could
accommodate audiences of 2000 to 3000 spectators. The indoor theatres were much
smaller and could accommodate 300 to 400 spectators.
The outdoor theatres relied on natural light. They used few stage props and no
stage sets in the modern sense of the-term. These seeming limitations encouraged
several of the most brilliant features of Elizabethan drama. The lack of stage sets
allowed the dramatists to create rapid, extremely fluid actions. Scenes succeeded
each other without interruption, somewhat in the manner of twentieth-century
movies. The lack of stage sets forced the Elizabethan dramatists to create what might
be called a theatre of imagination. Since the scenes were not presented visually,
they had to be evoked by poetic language. When we speak today of Shakespeare's
magnificent poetry, we are referring to an element of his dramas that resulted from
this absence of scenery.
The Elizabethan stage was a thrust stage surrounded on three (perhaps on all
four) sides by the audience. There was continuous contact between the actors and the
spectators. Taking advantage of this, Shakespeare and his contemporaries filled their
plays with asides, anachronisms, topical allusions and other devices that allowed the
actor to speak directly to the audience. The most brilliant of these devices is the
Shakespearean soliloquy, but a careful reader will find innumerable other examples
throughout the plays. The glories of Shakespeare's drama are thus directly related to
the characteristics on which they were originally presented.
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Performances:
The acting companies functioned on a repertory system; unlike modern
productions that can run for months or years on end, the troupes of this era rarely
acted the same play two days in a row. Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess ran for
nine straight performances in August. Consider the 1592 season of Lord Strange's
Men at the Rose Theatre as far more representative. They performed 23 different
plays, some only once, and their most popular play of the season, The First Part of
Hieronimo, (based on Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy), 15 times. They never played the
same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in a week. The workload
on the actors, especially the leading performers like Edward Alleyn, must have been
tremendous.
One distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males.
Until the reign of Charles II, female parts were played by adolescent boy players in
women's costume.
Costumes:
Since Elizabethan theatre did not make use of lavish scenery, instead leaving the
stage largely bare with a few key props, the main visual appeal on stage was in the
costumes. Costumes were often bright in colour and visually entrancing. Costumes
were expensive, however, so usually players wore contemporary clothing regardless
of the time period of the play. Occasionally, a lead character would wear a
conventionalized version of more historically accurate garb, but secondary characters
would nonetheless remain in contemporary clothing.
Playwrights:
The growing population of London, the growing wealth of its people, and their
fondness for spectacle produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality,
and extent, although most of the plays written for the Elizabethan stage have been
lost.
The men (no women were professional dramatists in this era) who wrote these
plays were primarily self-made men from modest backgrounds. Some of them were
educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but many were not. Although William
Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors, the majorities do not seem to have been
performers.
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Not all of the playwrights fit modern images of poets or intellectuals. Christopher
Marlowe was killed in an apparent tavern brawl, while Ben Jonson killed an actor in
a duel. Several probably were soldiers.
The profession of dramatists was challenging and far from lucrative. A
playwright, working alone, could generally produce two plays a year at most; in the
1630s Richard Brome signed a contract with the Salisbury Court Theatre to supply
three plays a year. Shakespeare produced over 40 solo plays in a career. He was
financially successful because he was an actor and a shareholder in the company for
which he acted and in the theatres they used. Ben Jonson achieved success as a
purveyor of Court masques, and was talented at playing the patronage game that was
an important part of the social and economic life of the era. Those who were
playwrights pure and simple fared far less well; the biographies of early figures like
George Peele and Robert Greene, and later ones like Brome and Philip Massinger,
are marked by financial uncertainty, struggle, and poverty.
Playwrights dealt with the natural limitation on their productivity by combining
into teams of two, three, four, and even five to generate play texts; the majority of
plays written in this era were collaborations, and the solo artists who generally
eschewed collaborative efforts, like Johnson and Shakespeare, were the exceptions to
the rule. Thomas Heywood would famously claim to have had "an entire hand, or at
least a main finger" in the authorship of some 220 plays. A solo artist usually needed
months to write a play (though Jonson is said to have done Volpone in five weeks);
Henslowe's Diary indicates that a team of four or five writers could produce a play in
as little as two weeks. Admittedly, though, the Diary also shows that teams of
Henslowe's house dramatists—Anthony Munday, Robert Wilson, Richard Hathwaye,
Henry Chettle, and the others, even including a young John Webster—could start a
project, and accept advances on it, yet fail to produce anything stageworthy. (Modern
understanding of collaboration in this era is biased by the fact that the failures have
generally disappeared with barely a trace; for one exception to this rule, see: Sir
Thomas More.)
Genres:
Genres of the period included the history play, which depicted English or
European history. Shakespeare’s plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard III
and Henry V, belong to this category, as do Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and
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George Peele's Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First. There were also a
number of history plays that dealt with more recent events, like A Larum for London,
which dramatizes the sack of Antwerp in 1576.
Tragedy was a popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally popular,
such as Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta. The audiences particularly liked revenge
dramas, such as Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.
Comedies were common, too. A sub-genre developed in this period was the city
comedy, which deals satirically with life in London after the fashion of Roman New
Comedy. Examples are Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday and Thomas
Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
Though marginalised, the older genres like pastoral (The Faithful Shepherdess,
1608), and even the morality play (Four Plays in One, ca. 1608-13) could exert
influences. After about 1610, the new hybrid sub-genre of the tragicomedy enjoyed
an efflorescence, as did the masque throughout the reigns of the first two Stuart
kings, James I and Charles I.
Printed Texts:
Only a minority of the plays of English Renaissance theatre were ever printed;
of Heywood's 220 plays noted above, only about 20 were published in book form. A
little over 600 plays were published in the period as a whole, most commonly in
individual quarto editions. (Larger collected editions, like those of Shakespeare's,
Ben Jonson's, and Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, were a late and limited
development.) Through much of the modern era, it was thought that texts of the play
were popular items among Renaissance readers which provided hefty profits for the
stationers who printed and sold them. By the turn of the 21st century, the climate of
scholarly opinion shifted somewhat on this belief: some contemporary researchers
argue that publishing plays was a risky and marginal business — though this
conclusion has been disputed by others. Some of the most successful publishers of
the English Renaissance, like William Ponsonby or Edward Blount, rarely published
plays.
A small number of plays from the era survived not in printed texts but in
manuscript form.
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The Closure of the Theatre:
The rising Puritan movement was hostile toward theatre, as they felt that
"entertainment" was sinful. Politically, playwrights and actors were clients of the
monarchy and aristocracy, and most supported the Royalist cause. The Puritan
faction, long powerful in London, gained control of the city early in the English Civil
War, and on September 2, 1642 ordered the closure of the London theatres. The
theatres remained closed for most of the next eighteen years, re-opening after the
Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The re-opened theatres performed many of the
plays of the previous era, though often in adapted forms; new genres of Restoration
comedy and spectacle soon evolved, giving English theatre of the later seventeenth
century its distinctive character.
following:
1) The Globe Theatre emerged in -----------------.
a) 1604 b) 1587 c) 1577 d) 1599
2) The Elizabethan stage was surrounded on -----------by the audience.
a) three sides b) four sides c) every side d) all sides
3) According to the Puritan movement "entertainment" was-------
a) painful b) wonderful c) sinful d) shameful
4) The upper level behind the stage could be used as ---------
a) a court b) a place to change drapery
c) a platform d) a balcony for a scene or speech
5) Shakespeare produced over 40 --------- in a career.
a) tragedies b) history plays c) comedies d) solo plays
B) Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with appropriate expressions:
1) The first permanent theatre in England was located in -------------.
2) The outdoor theatres relied on -------------------.
3) The First Part of Hieronimo is based on------------.
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4) Renaissance theatre derived from several----------------- traditions
5) Blackfriars Theatre came into regular use on a long-term basis in-----
C) Answer the following in one word/phrase/sentence:
1) Who were the University Wits?
2) Who initiated the development in the construction of The Theatre?
3) What devices did Shakespeare and his contemporaries use in their plays?
4) What costumes did Elizabethan actors use?
5) Whose tastes and values did Elizabethan drama address?
 Jacobean theatre -associated with the reign of King James I, 1603–1625
 Caroline theatre -associated with King Charles I, 1625 until the closure of
the theatres in 1642
 aside- a speech spoken by the actor for the benefit of the audience but not
to be heard by the fellow actor on the stage.
 soliloquy- a speech spoken aloud to oneself.
1.5 Restoration Drama:

In 1660, Charles II, the exiled king of England was restored i.e. brought back as
the king of England. The period from 1660 to 1689 is generally known as the
Restoration period in the history of English literature.
Restoration literature is the English literature written during this historical
period, which corresponds to the last years of the direct Stuart reign in England,
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly
homogeneous styles of literature that centred on a celebration of the restored court of
Charles II. It is a literature that includes extremes, for it encompasses both Paradise
Lost and the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high-spirited sexual comedy of The
Country Wife and the moral wisdom of The Pilgrim's Progress. It saw Locke's
Treatises of Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments and
holy meditations of Robert Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy
20
Collier, and the pioneering of literary criticism from John Dryden and John Dennis.
In general, scholars use the term "Restoration" to denote the literature that began and
flourished under Charles II, whether that literature was the laudatory ode that gained
a new life with restored aristocracy, the eschatological literature that showed an
increasing despair among Puritans, or the literature of rapid communication and trade
that followed in the wake of England's mercantile empire.
Historical Context:
During the first half of the 17th century, in the reign of Cromwell, English
literature was influenced by Puritan religious feelings, and the intermittent presence
of official censorship; for example, Milton's Areopagitica (which was against
censorship) and his later retraction of that statement. While some of the Puritan
ministers of Oliver Cromwell wrote poetry that was elaborate and carnal such as
Andrew Marvell's "Mower" and "To His Coy Mistress". At the time of the Civil War,
poetry was dominated by metaphysical poetry of the John Donne, George Herbert,
and the Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace and others. Drama had developed the late
Elizabethan theatre traditions and had begun to mount increasingly topical and
political plays for example, the drama of Thomas Middleton. When the theatres
opened after 1660, the plays available for performance were those of late Elizabethan
period. Though plays were forbidden, operas were not. As a result the operatic form
of tragedy, which came to be known as Heroic Tragedy was staged in the early
Restoration period. It was not, however, suitable to the taste of the new, rich and
powerful middle class audience.
In the 1670s and 1680s, a gradual shift occurred from heroic to pathetic tragedy,
where the focus was on love and domestic concerns, even though the main characters
might often be public figures. After the phenomenal success of Elizabeth Barry in
moving the audience to tears in the role of Monimia in Thomas Otway's The Orphan
(1680), "she-tragedies" (a term coined by Nicholas Rowe), which focused on the
sufferings of an innocent and virtuous woman, became the dominant form of pathetic
tragedy. Elizabeth Howe has argued that the most important explanation for the shift
in taste was the emergence of tragic actresses whose popularity made it unavoidable
for dramatists to create major roles for them. With the conjunction of the playwright
"master of pathos" Thomas Otway and the great tragedienne Elizabeth Barry in The
Orphan, the focus shifted from hero to heroine. Prominent she-tragedies include John
Banks's Virtue Betrayed, or, Anna Bullen (1682) (about the execution of Anne
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Boleyn), Thomas Southerne's The Fatal Marriage (1694), and Nicholas Rowe's The
Fair Penitent (1703) and Lady Jane Grey, 1715.
In the history of the drama Dryden occupies a peculiar place. He had no great
genius for the theatre, and yet he imposed his ideas upon the English play-going
world. He was that unusual product, a politician with a poetical mind. For a time he
was attached to the Puritans, and wrote an ode on the death of Cromwell; but on the
accession of Charles II, he found no difficulty in transferring his muse to the royalist
party. Towards the end of his stormy life he became a Roman Catholic.
Dryden's influence was greater than would be thought possible from a study of
any one of his dramas. Of certain of his plays he said, "I knew they were bad enough
to please, even when I wrote them." He had no sense of the ridiculous, nor any
conception of a natural, sincere portrayal of human nature. He was the main
contributor to the genre of Heroic Drama.
Restoration drama is best known, then, not for its tragedies but for its
comedies. The characters in Etherege’s The Man of Mode (1676). Congreve’s Love
for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700) are extremely amusing in their
portraits of love and the social strain of marriage. Wycherley achieved renown for
The Country Wife (1675). These comedies, especially The Country Wife caused great
controversy for their apparently licentious subject matter.
Genre in Restoration drama is peculiar. Authors labelled their works
according to the old tags, "comedy" and "drama" and, especially, "history", but these
plays defied the old categories. From 1660 onwards, new dramatic genres arose,
mutated, and intermixed very rapidly. In tragedy, the leading style in the early
Restoration period was the male-dominated heroic drama, exemplified by John
Dryden's The Conquest of Granada (1670) and Aurengzebe (1675) which celebrated
powerful, aggressively masculine heroes and their pursuit of glory both as rulers and
conquerors, and as lovers. These plays were sometimes called by their authors'
histories or tragedies, and contemporary critics would call them after Dryden's term
of "Heroic drama". Heroic dramas centred on the actions of men of decisive natures,
men whose physical and (sometimes) intellectual qualities made them natural
leaders. In one sense, this was a reflection of an idealized king such as Charles or
Charles's courtiers might have imagined. However, such dashing heroes were also
seen by the audiences as occasionally standing in for noble rebels who would redress
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injustice with the sword. The plays were, however, tragic in the strictest definition,
even though they were not necessarily sad. They were presented as operas.
Many comedies on the theme of marital disharmony has been edited and
published by the foremost Restoration playwright John Vanbrugh (1664-1726).
There is a critical introduction, wide-ranging annotation, and an informative
bibliography, which together illuminate the plays' cultural context and theatrical
potential for reader and performer alike.
This new anthology provided seventeen key plays by twelve dramatists of the
Restoration period, designed specifically for course material, with annotations and
judiciously modernized texts. It offers a representative sampling of the types of play
of the period, including plays by both men and women - sex comedy, moral comedy,
heroic drama, Shakespearean adaptation and political history.
Renaissance and Restoration drama can be studied in its historical and socio
cultural contexts. Organized thematically, it particularly considers how political
events such as the build up to the English civil wars, the revolution itself and then the
restoration of the monarchy impacted on the late 16th- and 17th-century stage.
Among the topics explored will be unruly sexualities; violence and eloquence;
political pornography; staging London; the court masque; and domestic tragedy. A
selection of drama from among the following playwrights would feature on the
course: Marlowe, Kyd, Shakespeare, Jonson, Heywood, Ford, Massinger, Webster,
Middleton, Dekker, Beaumont, Fletcher, Cary, Davenant, Wycherley, and Aphra
Behn.
Restoration comedy is notorious for its sexual explicitness, a quality
encouraged by Charles II personally and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court.
The best-known 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 macho lifestyle of unremitting
sexual intrigue and conquest. The Earl of Rochester, real-life Restoration rake,
courtier and poet, is flatteringly portrayed in Etherege's Man of Mode (1676) as a
riotous, witty, intellectual, and sexually irresistible aristocrat, a template for
posterity's idea of the glamorous Restoration rake. Wycherley's The Plain Dealer
(1676) was highly regarded for its uncompromising ideas.
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Parody of Heroic Drama:
Other writers, Davenant, Etherege, and Sir Robert Howard, had also produced
specimens of heroic plays, and by the time The Conquest of Granada reached the
stage these clever gentlemen had grown tired of the species. Compared to Dryden
they were nobodies in the literary world; but among them they contrived a hilarious
burlesque called The Rehearsal, in which these showy but shallow productions were
smartly ridiculed. Dryden is represented as Bayes (with reference to his position as
the poet laureate), and his peculiarities of speech and plot are amusingly derided.
Though The Rehearsal was condemned as "scurrilous and ill-bred," yet it served a
useful turn in puncturing an empty and overblown style.
Nature of Restoration Comedy:
In almost every important respect, Restoration drama was far inferior to the
Elizabethan. Where the earlier playwrights created powerful and original characters,
the Restoration writers were content to portray repeatedly a few artificial types;
where the former were imaginative, the latter were clever and ingenious. The
Elizabethan dramatists were steeped in poetry, the later ones in the sophistication of
the fashionable world. The drama of Wycherley and Congreve was the reflection of a
small section of life, and it was like life in the same sense that the mirage is like the
oasis. It had polish, an edge, and perfection in its own field; but both its perfection
and its naughtiness now seem unreal.
The heroes of the Restoration comedies were lively gentlemen of the city,
profligates and loose livers, with a strong tendency to make love to their neighbours'
wives. Husbands and fathers were dull, stupid creatures. The heroines, for the most
part, were lovely and pert, too frail for any purpose beyond the glittering tinsel in
which they were clothed. Their companions were busybodies and gossips, amorous
widows or jealous wives. The intrigues, which occupy them, are not, on the whole, of
so low a nature as those depicted in the Italian court comedies. Over all the action is
the gloss of superficial good breeding and social ease. Only rarely do these creatures
betray the traits of sympathy, faithfulness, kindness, honesty, or loyalty. Millamant
and Mirabell, in Congreve's Way of the World, are the most charming of these
Watteau figures.
Everywhere in the Restoration plays are traces of European influence. The Plain
Dealer of Wycherley was an English version of The Misanthrope of Molière; and
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there are many admirable qualities in the French play, which are lacking in the
English. The Double Dealer recalls scenes from The Learned Ladies (Les femmes
savantes); and Mr. Bluffe, in The Old Bachelor, is none other than our old friend
Miles Glorious, who has travelled through Latin, Italian and French comedy. The
national taste was coming into harmony, to a considerable extent, with the standards
of Europe. Eccentricities were curbed; ideas, characters, and story material were
interchanged. The plays, however, were not often mere imitations; in the majority of
them there is original observation and independence of thought. It was this drama
that kept the doors of the theatre open and the love of the theatre alive in the face of
great public opposition.
Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the
Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been
banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660
signalled a renaissance of English drama. Restoration comedy is notorious for its
sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and
by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. The socially diverse audiences included
aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on, and a substantial middle-class segment.
These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing,
by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses,
and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. This period saw the first professional
woman playwright, Aphra Behn.
following:
1) At the time of the Civil War in England, the dominant trend in English
poetry was that of --------------------.
a) metaphysical poetry b) Caroline poetry
c) Elizabethan poetry d) Pre-Raphaelite poetry
2) John Dryden's The Conquest of Granada is the best example of -----
a) poetic drama b) mock epic c) heroic drama d) heroic epic
3) A Man of Mode is the creation by ---------
a) Dryden b) Etherege c) Wycherley d) Davenant
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4) The form of The Rehearsal is------------
a) comedy b) burlesque c) tragedy d) satire
5) The term "she-tragedies"- is coined by-------
a) Mr. Bluffe b) Nicholas Rowe c) Aphra Behn. d) John Donne
1) The period of English Restoration is ------------------.
2) During the early 17th century English literature was dominated by --------
influence.
3) In the 1670s and 1680s, a gradual shift occurred from heroic to---- tragedy.
4) The heroes of the Restoration comedies were lively---------------of the city.
5) The first professional woman playwright of the period was--------------.
C) Answer the following questions in one word/phrase/sentence each:
1) Why do scholars use the term “Restoration”?
2) What did she-tragedy focus on?
3) What was the central character in Heroic drama like?
4) Who had produced specimens of heroic plays?
5) Why was Restoration drama far inferior to the Elizabethan Drama?
 burlesque- formal style in verse or prose
 "she-tragedies"- a term coined by Nicholas Rowe which focused on the
sufferings of an innocent and virtuous woman.
 eschatological literature: literature about Death, Heaven, Hell, etc.
1.6 Summary:
The four main sections in this unit enable students to know about the British
literature with special reference to the early plays, Elizabethan poetry and theatre and
Restoration drama.
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1.2.1
A) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a, 4-d, 5-b.
B) 1) misterium
2) a pageant
3) virtues and vices
4) repentance
5) Old Testament
C) 1) The play that told religious stories.
2) Dominican and Franciscan.
3) The purpose of morality play was that the illiterate masses could more
easily learn the basics of Christianity
4) Man begins in innocence, man falls into temptation, man repents and is
saved.
5) Saints, martyrs, pagans and devils or ordinary people
1.3.1
A) 1-a, 2-d, 3-b, 4-c, 5-b.
B) 1) twelve Knights
2) Astrophel and Stella
3) classicism
4) 1558 to 1603
5) love
C) 1) Thomas Wyatt and Surrey
2) both courtly masque and popular entertainment.
3) sonnet, epigram and other lyrical forms (mainly borrowed from Italian
poetry)
4) John Donne
5) the introduction into English the form of the classical pastoral.
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1.4.1
A) 1-d, 2-a, 3-c, 4-b, 5-d.
B) 1) Middlesex
2) natural light
3) Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy
4) medieval theatre
5) 1599
C) 1) It includes the drama of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and
many other world-famous playwrights.
2) James Burbage and John Brayne
3) asides, anachronisms, topical allusions and other devices
4) Costumes were often bright in colour and visually entrancing.
5) of an upper class audience.
1.5.1
A) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b, 4-c, 5-b.
B) 1) 1660 to 1689
2) Puritan
3) pathetic
4) gentlemen
5) Aphra Behn
C) 1) Scholars use the term "Restoration" to denote the literature that began and
flourished after the Restoration of Charles II as the king
2) the sufferings of an innocent and virtuous woman.
3) Heroic dramas centred on the actions of men of decisive natures, men
whose physical and intellectual qualities made them natural leaders.
4) Davenant, Etherege, and Sir Robert Howard, had also produced specimens
of heroic plays
5) The Elizabethan playwrights created powerful and original characters while
the Restoration writers portrayed repeated content.
28
1.8 Exercises:
1. Write a note on Miracle and Morality plays
2. Comment on the Elizabethan poetry with special reference to the poems
prescribed.
3. Explain the structure and development of the Elizabethan Theatre.
4. Illustrate the salient features of the Restoration Drama with special
reference to the plays prescribed.
1.9 Further Reading:

1. Beadle, Richard, and Pamela M. King (eds.). 1999. York Mystery Plays: A
Selection in Modern Spelling. Oxford: University Press.
2. Beadle, Richard (ed.). 1994. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English
Theatre. Cambridge University Press.
3. Chambers, E. K. 1923. The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
4. Daiches, David. 1997. A Critical History of English Literature Vol. 1 and 2,
New Delhi: Allied.
5. Goss, Sir Edmond. 1953. Restoration Plays. London: J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd.
6. Gurr, Andrew. 1992. The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642. Third edition,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7. Holman, C. Hugh and Harmon, William (eds.) 1986. A Handbook to Literature.
New York: Macmillan Publishing.
8. Hume, Robert D. 1976. The Development of English Drama in the Late
Seventeenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
9. K. Young. 1962. The Drama of the Medieval Church (2 vol., 1933); and
anthologies ed. by A. W. Pollard (8th ed. 1927) and V. F. Hopper and G. B.
Lahey.
10. Robert A. Potter. 1975. The English Morality Play: Origins, History, and
Influence of a Dramatic Tradition London: Routledge.

29
Unit-2
THE NUN’S PRIEST’S TALE
Geoffrey Chaucer
Index
2.0 Objectives:
2.1 Introduction:
2.2 The Poet: Life and Works:
2.3 Summary of the Tale:
2.4 Major and Minor Characters:
2.5 Themes and satirical Perspectives:
2.6 Summary:
2.8 Exercises:
30
2.0 Objectives:
 know about the life and works of Chaucer.
 be familiar with the story narrated by the Priest.
 learn the character/s in the, Nun’s Priest’s Tale
 learn the theme/s of the, Nun’s Priest’s Tale
 be able to answer the questions on the, Nun’s Priest’s Tale
2.1 Introduction:
This unit begins with the discussion of the life and works of the poet. It also
studies the poem in terms of its plot/summary, character/s, theme/s, satire and the
style of the narration.
2.2 The Poet: Life and Works:

Chaucer was born in London almost certainly in the year 1340. His father John
Chaucer was a wine merchant of considerable wealth and reputation in the city. As a
boy Chaucer was probably sent to St. Paul’s school, one of the best schools in
England at the time. He studied arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. He spoke
French as well as English from his childhood. He worked as a page boy in the house
of King Edward III’s daughter-in-law, Elizabeth of Ulster. We do not know how the
son of a tradesman became a page in a royal household. He was in the courts of
many kings such as Edward, Richard II and Henry IV and worked as a poet and a
gentleman. The war in 1359-1360 made him a soldier in France. He went abroad
many times on diplomatic work in France and Italy. He was trained at a law-school
called the Inner Temple and became a Justice of peace in Kent in 1385. In 1386 he
represented the area in the parliament. Married to Philippa, he had two sons and a
daughter. In 1369, he wrote The Book of the Duchesse, which is full of French
influence. This poem was based on a French tradition, which uses dream as a vehicle
for love poetry, and it is believed that Chaucer composed this as a lament on the
death of Blanche of Lancaster, John Gaunt’s first wife.
31
In 1372, his King sent him to Genoa and Florence where, it is quite possible, he
rubbed shoulders with the famous Italian poets, Boccaccio and Petrarch. It is
believed that these two poets and also Dante were a great influence on Chaucer’s
work.
In 1374, Chaucer was appointed Controller of Customs for the port of London
and lived in a fine house above Aldgate.
In 1376, he was attached to the Embassies of France and Lombardy. He was
rewarded for his faithful service by being made the Knight of Kent and he sat in
Parliament from that time.
Chaucer’s first great work was Troilus and Criseyde, which was completed
around 1385.
His wife died in 1387, but he still enjoyed the patronage of John of Gaunt
throughout his lifetime.
In April 1388, Chaucer embarked on a Pilgrimage to Canterbury to pay homage
to the martyr, St. Thomas ' Becket, who was Chancellor of England in 1155, and was
a close friend of Henry II. Henry made Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury with a
view to obtaining more control over the church in England. However, Becket’s
loyalty was to the church and he was exiled for six years. When Becket eventually
returned, he was still a thorn in the side of King Henry, and four misguided Knights,
wishing to ingratiate themselves with the King, murdered Becket in Canterbury
Cathedral. Henry did penance for this crime and Becket was acclaimed a martyr,
being canonized in 1173.
The experiences Chaucer obtained from his Pilgrimage led him to write his most
famous work, The Canterbury Tales in 1387. This was a huge project, which
Chaucer never managed to complete. However, it does give an incredible insight into
Medieval England and can be rightly acclaimed as a classic.
The work was written using a dialect, which originates from the London area,
and went on to become the basis of modern English. So he is called the father of
modern English.
Around 1390, Chaucer became the Clerk of the King’s Works, and then in 1399
he became Deputy Forrester.
32
He died in 1400. Chaucer’s life gave him rich opportunities for the observation
of men and their affairs in great variety from the lives of Kings and diplomats to
those of soldiers and bailiffs, carpenters and peasants.
following:
1. Chaucer’s book, Book of the Duchesse shows the influence of -----
literature.
a) Italian b) Latin c) French d) Greek
2. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales gives us an incredible insight into------
a) Old Age b) Medieval England c) 15th century d) Anglo Saxon
3. French tradition uses dream as a vehicle for -------------
a) love poetry b) sonnet c) ballad d) epic
4. Chaucer married ----------
a) Prioress b) Margaret c) Lucy d) Philippa
5. ----------------- was Chaucer’s close friend.
a) Edward II b) Henry II c) Knight d) Becket
1. Chaucer embarked on a Pilgrimage to Canterbury to pay homage to-------
2. The war in 1359-1360 made him a ------------- in France.
3. Chaucer’s experience from his Pilgrimage led him to write his most famous
work-----------------
4. In 1376, he was attached to the Embassies of France and --------
5. Chaucer worked as a page boy in the house of ----------------------
1. Why is Chaucer called the father of modern English?
2. What was Chaucer’s first great work?
3. What did Chaucer study when he was schooling?
33
4. On which tradition is the poem, ‘Book of the Duchesse’ based?
5. By whom was Chaucer influenced in his literary career?
 page- attendant, servant
 diplomatic work- work concerned with political policies or decisions mainly
about foreign relations
 lament- sorrow
 exiled- banished
 penance- repentance
2.3 Plot of the Poem:

The Knight stops the Monk from continuing the story since he can no longer
bear the dismal tales of woe and sorrow. He says that it is more gratifying to hear a
tale about the rise in fortune of a poor man. The Host heartily agrees with the
Knight’s interruption and asks the Monk to tell something else. He adds that the
Monk’s Tale was so boring that he would have long ago fallen asleep were it not for
the jingling of his bridle bells. He asks the Monk to tell a story about hunting instead.
But the Monk is in no mood to indulge in frivolities and says that somebody else
should tell a story. The Host then asks the Nun's Priest to tell a pleasant tale.
This story takes place in the farmyard of a widow and her two daughters.
Once upon a time there lived an old widow along with her two daughters in a
small cottage near a meadow. The widow led a very simple life since her income was
frugal. Her meadow was enclosed with a wooden fence. Here the widow kept a
magnificent cock named Chaunticleer. In the entire land Chaunticleer was
unsurpassed in crowing. His voice was mellower than the mellowest organ. He had
an instinctive knowledge of equinoctial cycles and revolutions of the planet. He thus
"told the hour better than any clock in abbey-tower". His comb was redder than the
choicest coral and crenulated like a castle wall. He had a glossy black beak and a
body of burnished gold. Moreover, Chaunticleer was also blessed with the power of
speech. This cock had seven hens at his disposal. The hen with the brightest
34
feathered throat was the lovely and gracious Lady Pertelote. Her social poise and
gentility had captivated Chaunticleer’s heart.
Early one morning when Chaunticleer was sitting with his wives on the perch
with the lovely Pertelote sitting next to him, he began to lurch and groan like a man
who was badly troubled with a dream. When Pertelote asked him the reasons for his
groans, Chanticleer recounted a ghastly dream he had in which a beast was about to
seize him and then kill him. The description of the yellow-red beast with black tipped
ears, narrow snout and glowing eyes fits the appearance of a fox.
Pertelote rebuked Chaunticleer for his cowardice in being afraid of dreams and
declared that he had quite lost her love by showing fear. She firmly asserts that
dreams are the result of overeating, flatulence and imbalance of bodily humours. She
is certain that an excess of red bile or choler caused Chaunticleer’s dream. She
quotes Cato in support who stated that dreams are meaningless. She urges
Chaunticleer to take some laxative to purge himself of choler and prescribes him a
diet of worms as a digestive.
Chaunticleer thanks Pertelote for her advice but maintains that dreams aren’t
meaningless but rather they foreshadow the joys and tribulations that one undergoes
in life. He then proceeds to quote a string of ancient authorities in support of his
argument. He recites Cicero’s story of two friends on a pilgrimage who couldn’t find
any lodging in a busy town. They are thus forced to Part Company. While one found
room in an inn, the other had to sleep in a farmyard barn. At night in the first
pilgrim’s dream his friend appeared and said that he was sleeping in an ox’s stall and
would be murdered at night unless he came to his aid. The pilgrim ignored the dream
and went back to sleep. However, he had the same dream twice and at the third time
his friend appeared and said that he had been murdered for his gold and his body had
been tossed in a dung laden cart at the town’s western gate. The next day, the pilgrim
awoke early and went to the barn in search of his friend. The innkeeper informed the
pilgrim that his friend had already left early at dawn. However, when the pilgrim saw
an ox-stall he became suspicious and went to the west gate and found his friend’s
body in a dung cart.
Chaunticleer then expiates on the certainty of punishment overtaking the
murderer. He gets so engrossed by his rhetoric that he digresses from his argument.
He then tells another story about two men who were to set sail the next day for some
35
distant country. As luck would have it one of the men dreamt at night that they would
drown if they set sail the next day. When the man told his friend about his dream, he
laughed it off and dismissed the dream as a delusion. The friend set sail according to
the plan and after some distance his ship capsized and he was drowned.
Chaunticleer tells Pertelote that it is thus foolish to disregard the warnings posed
by dreams. He proceeds to quote some more authorities in support. He cites the
example of St. Kenelm who foresaw his own murder in a dream. He cites Macrobius’
commentary on Scipio’s dream to confirm that dreams are indeed forewarnings of
future events. He also reminds Pertelote about the dreams of Joseph and Daniel of
the Old Testament, Croesus, King of Lydia, and Andromache. He winds up his
argument with a flourish and concludes that he doesn’t require any laxatives.
He has probably been too rude to Pertelote; Chaunticleer changes the subject
and praises her remarkable beauty. He then quotes a Latin phrase, "In principio /
Mulier est hominis confusio". He says that his love for her makes him defy all
dreams. He then gallantly struts about the barnyard amidst the adulation of his seven
wives.
In the meanwhile a sly black fox named Daun Russel had crept into the yard and
was hiding among the cabbage leaves waiting for the opportune moment to attack
Chaunticleer. In mock-heroic tone the Nun's Priest compares Daun Russel the fox to
such traitors as Iscariot, Ganelon and Sinon. The Nun's Priest bewails that
Chaunticleer ignored the warning in his dream and jumped down from his perch. He
then digresses into a lengthy discussion about predestination and free will.
The Nun's Priest resumes his story of a cock and describes how the fox caught
Chaunticleer. Chaunticleer was delightedly watching a butterfly as it glided over the
cabbage patch when he suddenly noticed the fox who was hiding there. His natural
instinct bade him to flee from his arch enemy but the fox restrains him by praising
his excellent voice. The fox asserts that he is Chaunticleer’s friend and had only
come to hear him sing. He cunningly tells Chaunticleer that he wants to see if
Chaunticleer can surpass the melodious voice of his father’s voice.
Chaunticleer was overcome with the fox’s flattery and closing his eyes burst
into a song. At that very moment the fox leapt up and grabbed Chaunticleer by the
neck and ran into the woods. Chaunticleer’s wives unleashed a torrent of outcry and
lamentation at this tragedy. Pertelote shrieked the loudest of all. The screeching of
36
the hens awoke the widow and her daughters who saw the fox carrying away
Chaunticleer. Immediately their cries for help gathered a number of men and women
who chased the fox. Even the farm animals joined in the chase. This created a
hideous racket and it seemed as if the very skies were falling down.
However there was a reversal of fortune. Chaunticleer goaded the fox into
hurling curses at the crowd chasing him. The foolish fox was enchanted by this
suggestion and when he opened his mouth Chaunticleer broke free and flew to a high
perch on a tree. The fox realizes that God sends ill luck to those who talk when they
should keep quiet; while Chaunticleer realizes that fortune doesn’t favour those who
shut their eyes when they are required to look. Thus, the Nun's Priest ends his tale
with a moral.
Notes:
The Nun's Priest’s Tale is a wonderfully crafted short story and a beast fable that
provides an excellent example of Chaucer’s vast learning and scholarship. The tale
abounds with an impressive number of diverse scholastic references ranging from the
Bible to Greek philosophy and from medieval medicine to theology. Like
Shakespeare, Chaucer felt no hesitancy in borrowing material for his stories from
earlier writers. The Nun's Priest’s story of the cock and the fox is based on an
Aesopian fable. Chaucer probably adapted the French ‘Roman de Renard’ by Marie
de France and the German ‘Reinhart Fuchs’ for his beast fable. However, Chaucer
has made the tale more real and interesting. He also adds the characters of the widow
and her daughters and places his story in their humble farmyard.
The Nun's Priest’s Tale also speaks volumes for Chaucer’s skill as a craftsman
and short story writer. Chaucer’s choice of the Nun's Priest for telling the tale is a
brilliant stroke of luck. The tale is perfectly suited to its teller. The Nun's Priest is a
religious man and is expected to be a man of vast learning and knowledge. His story
is thus replete with learned allusions. The fable also has all the traditional ingredients
of an exemplum that the Nun's Priest could preach. The reader can easily associate
the Nun's Priest with the moral of his fable. The tale focuses attention upon the Nun's
Priest himself and it may be a comment on Priest’s own position. Like Chaunticleer,
the Nun's Priest too is ruled by women and evidently does not like it.
The Nun's Priest’s Tale is a mock epic and is absolutely hilarious because of the
ridiculous disparity between the manner of writing and the subject matter. An epic is
37
usually a long, narrative poem on a serious subject, narrated in a formal and elevated
style. It is centred on a quasi-divine figure on whose actions depend on the fate of an
entire nation. The Nun's Priest’s Tale also has as its central character, a cock named
Chaunticleer on whom nothing but his own life depends. Nonetheless it’s a long
narrative poem and adopts various conventional features of the heroic poem. The
setting of an epic is ample in scale. However, Chaunticleer is owned by a widow and
has a barnyard as his hall. The action of an epic involves superhuman deeds in battle
such as Achilles’ feats in the Trojan War. However Chaunticleer’s plight is his being
stalked and carried away by a fox, to be eaten as a meal. His journey takes him from
the yard to the edge of a wood. Chaunticleer escapes by a reversal of Fortune. The
fox had tricked Chaunticleer through flattery and he, in turn, tricks the fox. At the
end of the tale both have learned survival strategies.
The Nun's Priest’s Tale also discusses two favourite themes of Chaucer - dreams
and predestination - with weighty classical, philosophical and medical allusions.
Chaucer held that dreams were visions of the future and thus had metaphysical
importance. This view established that God in some way already determined the
future. However, Pertelote explains Chanticleer’s dream medically and does not see
it as a prophecy of the things to come. She even prescribes some laxatives and
digestives to the ailing cock. Chaunticleer insists that his dream is prophetic and
supports his argument with references to Cato, St. Kenelm, Daniel and Joseph from
the Old Testament, Andromache and Hector.
Although the Nun's Priest’s Tale is a conventional beast fable, Chaucer
overcomes the restrictions of the genre by endowing his animals with human
qualities. When the cock vainly swaggers in the farmyard before his adoring wives,
the reader automatically associates him with a courtly lover. The lovely lady
Pertelote’s mockery of her husband’s queer ideas about the prophetic importance of
dreams aptly reflects wifely behaviour. But at the same time the reader is not allowed
to forget that this is a story of a cock and fox. Although the author highlights the
human aspects of these animals, they are nevertheless creatures of the barnyard. The
fact that they speak in such a learned and noble way is an indirect comment on how
absurd human aspirations can be.
Chaucer also deals with the problem of women’s position in society.
Traditionally women were seen as the source of evil, and Eve was denounced for
38
causing the fall of man. The Nun's Priest obviously holds this view but dismisses it
as a joke.
following:
1. The name of the cock was---------------
a) Host b) Chaunticleer c) Monk d) Frier
2. The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is ------------
a) short story b) Greek Philosophy c) long story d) beast fable
3. The Nun’s Priest is a kind of -------------- character.
a) social b) religious c) political d) co-operative
4. Chaunticleer groaned because he had a --------------
a) ghastly dream b) sweet dream c) nightmare d) wonderful dream
5. Women in the 14th century were considered to be the source of --------
a) envy b) Eve c) goddess d) evil
1. A sly black fox named ------------------ had crept into the yard.
2. The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is based on-----------------.
3. The hen was the lovely gracious --------------------.
4. At the end of the tale the cock and the fox learned --------------.
5. Widow’s daughter saw ------------------ carrying away Chaunticleer.
1. Where does the story of The Nun’s Priest Tale take place?
2. To whom does fortune not favour?
3. What is a mock-epic?
4. How did the fox trick Chaunticleer?
5. What is the theme of The Nun’s Priest’s Tale?
39
 "In principio / Mulier est hominis confusio"- "Woman is man’s whole
joy and happiness"
 quasi-divine- not human
2.4 Major and Minor Characters:

Chaucer is the first best painter of character. He presents each of his pilgrims
with minute details of dress, physical features, peculiar manners and idiosyncrasies
of character. He has portrayed the characters with the skill of a dramatist and a
novelist. In the preliminary portraits Chaucer has clearly differentiated the various
characters by giving to each one of a different profession. In Chaucer’s day, each
rank, trade or profession had its own distinctive features even to the smallest detail of
costume. All the characters are not portrayed in the same detail. That is how these
characters came to be both types and individuals in one. The typical and individual
traits are cleverly combined. Moreover, Chaucer’s method of characterization is
primitive. He paints details haphazardly with casualness and delightful negligence. It
creates the impression of reality. Sometimes, details of dress come first and character
afterwards and sometimes vice-versa. His characters depict universal nature of man.
They are true to all generations. Vividness, contrasts and comparisons are remarkable
in the characterization. Each character differs from the other one in his calling,
manner, vice, virtue, lightness, gravity, openness etc. Thus, here is God’s plenty.
Like Shakespeare and Fielding, Chaucer portrays character objectively, impartially
and disinterestedly. His presentation of characters is humours and ironical. Irony and
satire are among the most striking features of his characterization. Finally, the
success of these characters is considerably due to the variety in method and attitude
in the different characterizations.
In the Nun's Priest's Tale, every character is satirized in the story except for the
single ideal character, the widow. All the other characters such as Chaunticleer,
Lady Pertelote, and the fox were all satirized. These Characters were mainly
satirized to poke fun at the swelled pride of knights and the idea of courtly love, and
how egocentric these ideas really were.
40
The story starts out with an overly perfect description of Chanticleer, and how
he was a beautiful rooster, and how well he could sing. This shows partly how
Chanticleer thinks about himself, which almost leads to his death.
That night, Chaunticleer has a terrifying dream. He dreams a fox comes and eats
him. He tells this to Lady Pertelote. She has loved him since he was seven days old.
She calls him a coward, and immediately wants nothing to do with him. This shows
how deep this "courtly love" really goes. She explains that the dream was probably
something that he ate, and was nothing more than a nightmare.
Chaunticleer, as the self-absorbed rooster, is not going to let his pride get
destroyed. He fights back and gives many examples about people who have paid no
heed to dreams and it had cost them later. But when Chaunticleer is done, you can
see he is just rambling on to save his pride, because at the end of his explanation, he
says, "I defy all visions and dreams!" totally contradicting the argument he made just
a few minutes ago. Chaunticleer is shown to be a pompous courtier. He, very glibly,
talks about predestination and free-will, which is very comic. But at the same time,
Chaucer gives expression to the current debate on this subject.
When the fox does come to Chaunticleer's house, we can think that after that
dream, Chaunticleer would have nothing to do with this fox. But once again,
Chanticleer's pride comes into play. The fox knows he has a giant ego, and uses it to
his advantage. He flatters the rooster, and tells him what he wanted to hear. So
Chaunticleer comes out and the fox catches him in his mouth.
Chaunticleer finally starts to understand what his pride is doing to him. He
knows he can't do this again. But he uses the fox's tactics to his benefit by flattering
him. He flatters the fox into opening his mouth and Chaunticleer flies into a tree. The
fox tries to tempt his pride again, but Chaunticleer has learnt his lesson from his
previous follies, and doesn't come down.
The Chracters:
The Nun’s Priest:
He accompanies the Nuns and his main task is to hear their confessions.
The Host
He may be called "Harry Bailly": The proprietor of the Tabard Inn where the
pilgrims to Canterbury stay before beginning their journey. He accompanies the
41
pilgrims on their journey. It is the Host who devised the scheme of the tales,
proposing that each tell two tales on the way to Canterbury, and he frequently
mediates arguments between pilgrims and suggests who shall tell the next story. He
has a bit of a class complex, and can be seen regularly being servile to the upper-
class and higher-status characters.
The Knight:
A noble fighter who served in the Crusades. He travels with his son, the Squire.
The Knight tells the first tale, a romantic tale of a love triangle between two knights
and a woman they both love.
Chaunticleer:
This rooster, peerless in his crowing, has seven hen companions, the most
honoured of which is Pertelote. He dreams that he will be chased by a fox, a
prophecy that comes true. He is also a strong believer in this prophetic power of
dreams. Chaunticleer's name means clear-voiced, or bright-song.
Pertelote:
The most favored of Chanticleer's companions, this hen is essentially his 'wife.'
She dismisses his idea that dreams predict future events, claiming that his ill temper
stems from stomach maladies. But her advice to find healing herbs ultimately leads
to the fulfillment of his prophecy.
She is a parody on the romantic conception of the lady. She has all the qualities
that the great lady should possess. She is courteous, discrete and debonair. She has
the magical quality of the charm. She knows her value; like the medieval lady, she
insists upon courage in her husband, she must feel that she is wedded to a hero.
Dionysius Cato:
He was among the moralists who were most popular in Chaucer’s day though
his wisdom was of a somewhat trite order, and it is certainly this to which
Chaunticleer objects.
42
following:
1. Almost all the characters are satirised to make fun of-------------
a) Friar’s happiness b) pride of Knights c) society d) women
2. The fox in the story is ----------------
a) kind b) generous c) cruel d) an egoist
3. A noble fighter who served in the crusades is called -------------
a) Friar b) Knight c) proprietor d) soldier
4. Pertelote doesn’t believe in --------------
a) prediction b) predestination
c) prophetic d) danger to the cock’s life
5. The striking feature of Chaucer’s characterisation is ----------
a) openness b) gravity
c) roundedness d) satirical presentation
1. ---------------- was one of the ancient moralists.
2. Chaucer’s character are both types and ---------------
3. Chaunticleer dreams that he will be chased by --------
4. The task of the Nun’s priest is to hear-------------
5. Chaunticleer insists that ------------ are signifiers.
1. Which character in this tale is not satirised?
2. What is the name of the host?
3. What method does Chaucer apply for characterization?
4. What do Chaucer’s characters depict?
5. Who devised the scheme of the tales?
43
 Dionysius Cato- the author of Disticha de Moribus, to whom Chaunticleer
refers with obvious contempt
2.5 Themes and satirical Perspectives:

"The Canterbury Tales" is a complex work with several overlapping thematic
concerns. The poem represents the English society of the fourteenth century. All
the three fundamental strata of medieval society-the Knighthood, the spiritual clergy
and the toiling agricultural classes - have ample representation in the portraits of the
Knight, Parson and Ploughman. The well - born gentility is represented through the
Prioress and the Monk. The medieval manor is depicted through the Miller and the
Reeve. The Merchant, the innkeeper Host, the Manciple, the Cook, and the five
guildsmen represent the middle classes. The professional class is depicted through
the Sergeant at Law and the Physician. Provincial England is also represented
through the Wife of Bath and the Sea captain from Dartmouth.
Another prominent theme is Chaucer’s critique of the church of medieval
England. The Canterbury Tales provides the reader with a picture of a disorganized
Christian society in a state of decline and obsolescence. Chaucer is aware of the
corruption of the clergy and draws an ironic portrait of the Prioress and presents
satiric portraitures of the Monk, the Friar, the Summoner, and the Pardoner. The
ideal portrait of the Parson counterbalances the moral depravity and corruptness of
the other ecclesiastics and represents what should be. Chaucer’s ironic praise of the
Prioress’s affectations, classical beauty, and attachment to worldly concerns only
serves to highlight her inappropriateness as the head of a religious convent. Her
achievements would have been more suitable for a fashionable lady of the society.
Similarly Chaucer’s approbation of the Monk’s delight in the finer things of life and
passion for hunting is aimed at eliciting the reader’s disapproval, as they go against
his monastic vow of poverty. His frequent hunting expeditions contravene the
monastic vow of leading a cloistered life and devoting oneself to studies.
The irony is intensified when Chaucer commends the Monk’s refusal to follow
the rules laid down by St. Benedict. The Friar is first praised for his humility,
courtesy, virtuousness, and ability to extract money from the poor. Chaucer
approvingly says that the worthy Friar had arranged the marriage of many young
44
women at his own cost. The readers only realize a moment later the Friar’s motive
for doing so, and are filled with derision at his lechery. Similarly, Chaucer praises the
Friar’s knowledge of the taverns and bars in town and agrees that it is unprofitable to
associate with the poor. Thus, in the portraits of the ecclesiastics Chaucer praises
those qualities which are diametrically opposed to their profession. There is a sort of
ascending scale of moral depravity and corruption from the indulgent portrait of the
worldly Prioress to the portrait of the dissolute Friar. But Chaucer reserves his
maximum acrimony for the Summoner and the Pardoner. The Summoner’s main
function was to summon sinners before the ecclesiastical courts for justice. It is
extremely ironic for a corrupt Summoner who is himself guilty of committing sins, to
bring sinners to justice. His repulsive physical appearance is an indicator of his
diseased soul. Chaucer strongly condemns the Summoner’s acceptance of bribes and
the philosophy that the purse is the archdeacon’s hell, which implies that the only
punishment is to the purse of the sinner. The ‘gentile’ Pardoner is the representation
of evil. He sells indulgences and dupes naïve people by selling them false relics.
Moreover, the hypocritical crook always preaches against avarice even while he
himself is guilty of the same sin. The Canterbury Tales thus, constitutes a passionate
attack on the decadence and corruption of the medieval church. Chaucer exposes the
evils attacking the very root of Christianity. Chaucer’s portrait of the ideal Parson
indicates his desire for reform and revitalizes Christianity.
The problem of the position of women and the issue of marriage
relationships constitutes yet another strand of thematic concern. Many critics
seriously hold the tales told by the Wife of Bath, Clerk, Merchant, and Franklin.
These tales consist of a serious debate on what constitutes the ideal marital
relationship. The Wife of Bath presents a strong case for the emancipation of women.
In the Middle Ages marriage was considered to be inferior deed while celibacy was
highly prized. The sexual act was considered dishonourable even within marriage.
The Wife of Bath argues in favour of marriage and says that virginity was only for
those who wanted to lead a perfect life. Moreover, she argues that the sexual organs
were made for both procreation as well as pleasure. She argues through her Prologue
and Tale that women desire sovereignty in marriage. In the Middle Ages women
were expected to be subservient and were expected to love, honour and obey their
husbands. The Wife of Bath’s assertion that women should have sovereignty in
marriage thus amounts to a heresy. The Clerk’s Tale is an indirect response to the
45
Wife of Bath’s argument. The Clerk puts forth a diametrically opposite view and
draws the sketch of a totally submissive woman in the character of Griselda. The
Merchant in distinct contrast to the Clerk’s ideal depiction of the submissive Griselda
opines that marriage is basically an undesirable state. The Merchant puts forth the
view that happiness in marriage can only be achieved by self-imposed blindness.
When old January’s sight is restored, he allows himself to be blinded to the true facts
and let’s himself believe that his wife is faithful to him. The Franklin takes the
middle path between the Clerk’s insistence on patience and submissiveness and the
Wife of Bath’s demand of sovereignty. The Second Nun’s Tale is the final tale
dealing with the themes of love and marriage. Cecilia submits to marriage but attains
sovereignty by her husband’s consent. Cecilia’s marriage is on a higher plane of
existence and upholds saintliness in love. Neither she nor her husband achieves
sovereignty over each other. Rather both subjugate themselves to the divine will.
The Canterbury Tales may be allegorically interpreted as a book about the way
of life of man in the world. The book metaphorically represents human life as a one
way journey on earth, to the heavenly city of Jerusalem, through the device of the
pilgrimage. The pilgrimage is thus not merely a physical journey to an actual place
but also a metaphor or symbol of an inner journey of the soul towards God. This
interpretation is supported by the Parson’s Prologue where he expresses a desire to
lead the pilgrims to the celestial city of Jerusalem: "And Jhesu, for his grace, wit me
sende / To shewe you the way, in this viage, / Of thilke parfit glorious pilgrimage /
That highte Jerusalem celestial". Thus the journey from one city to another may be
seen as the journey from the worldly city to the city of God.
The Canterbury Tales also uphold the highest ideals of conduct -‘trouthe’ and
honour in duty, constancy, faith and patience in times of adversity, purity and
saintliness in love. These themes recur in several tales told by the noble characters.
For instance, the thematic concern of the Knight’s Tale is the chivalric code of
conduct. The tale praises courage and valour in war and also courtesy, truth and
honour. It represents Arcite and Palamon’s idealized love for Emily. Their love is
pure and untainted by any unchaste thoughts. The only possible end for their love is
marriage. Arcite and Palamon fight a just to retain their honour and seek a solution
for their conflicting love for Emily. The theme of honour and truth in relationships is
continued in the Franklin’s Tale. Here Arveragus leaves Dorigen for an extended
period to acquire skills required in warfare. This is the traditional conception of
46
honour being gained through fighting battles. But in the Franklin’s Tale ‘honour’ is
not accorded so much importance as ‘trouthe’. Arveragus is ready to give his wife to
Aurelius for the sake of truth. He tells Dorigen to honour her promise even though
adultery was the most dishonourable thing in the Middle Ages. The Sergeant at
Law’s Tale takes up the thematic concern of the Christian virtue of constancy and
patience in times of adversity. The Sergeant at Law tells the tale of Constance who
retains faith in the goodness of the Blessed Virgin even in the most excruciating
circumstances of her life. This theme is continued in the Clerk’s Tale of the
exemplary patience of Griselda. During the Middle Ages saintliness and purity in
love was emphasized. The Second Nun’s Tale of St. Cecilia takes saintliness in love
as its thematic concern. Cecilia converts her husband to Christianity and both
surrender themselves to the will of God.
Another of Chaucer's main interests, the Boethian themes of Fortune, Fate,
Freedom and Providence, are reflected at the heart of the Tale, as Chaunticleer is
confronted with the fox he was warned about in his dream, a dream he had insisted
on was a true warning of the coming disaster. When the announced disaster comes,
he is so engrossed in sexual pleasure that he seems to have forgotten the warnings
entirely. Morality demands that he should pay the price of his negligence; yet he
suddenly turns the tables on the Fox with his quick thinking, which owes nothing to
the dream- vision. His escape is a tribute to his native intelligence, nothing more.
The problem of predestination and foreknowledge had always intrigued
Chaucer. He treats this serious subject in the most frivolous manner in the Nun's
Priest’s Tale by making a cock and a hen discuss this metaphysical issue. Chaucer
believed that dreams were visions and forewarnings of future events, and thus had
metaphysical importance. This view established that God determines the future in
some way. The cock Chaunticleer holds that his dream is prophetic and supports his
argument with weighty references to Cato, St. Kenelm, Daniel and Joseph from the
Old Testament, Andromache and Hector.
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is one of the most popular and most intriguing stories in
the whole Canterbury Tales. At its heart is a version of a well-known variety of beast
fable, popular in the Middle Ages, where a fox tricks a cock into singing with his
eyes shut, and then grabs him; the cock in turn tricks the fox into speaking, and
escapes. Such fables are usually not very long and their message is clear, while the
47
Nun's Priest's version is embedded in a complex variety of expansions and
developments which complicate both the telling and the interpretation of the Tale.
Many of the passages by which the Tale is expanded are marked by lofty
rhetoric and use exemplar, or references to science, or philosophy in ways quite out
of keeping with the basic beast- fable conventions. Digressions become increasingly
frequent and fragmentary as the Tale reaches its climax, and the final "moral" of the
Tale is not clearly stated.
The main difficulty occurs when we try to offer an explanation for all this. In
other Tales, the assumed "personality" of the Narrator can often be invoked, as with
the Wife of Bath's Tale. In the present case, though, the Nun's Priest is unknown and
undefined. Instead, the Tale has to be seen in the light of some of the overall themes
and narrative strategies of the Canterbury Tales.
It may well be one of the last Tales to have been composed. It shows a great
mastery of the ways in which narrative breaks down and fails when it is attempting to
entertain readers/listeners and give them solace as well as sentence. One of the main
complicating features is the Tale's use of stylistic parody. At several points the main
characters, Chaunticleer and Pertelote, are described in terms better suited to the
high-born characters of courtly romance. At the climax, the Narrative employs a
variety of exclamations and literary references that would be better suited to a heroic
story of high significance.
The Tale mirrors its own difficulty in finding an interpretation in the lengthy
disputation between Pertelote and Chaunticleer as to the possibility of finding truth
and meaning in a dream. One of the fundamental tensions within the Canterbury
Tales comes from the apparent impossibility of telling the truth by narratives that are
often essentially fictional. Some narrators tell "true stories" of saints' lives, in an
attempt to avoid this trap, while the last Parson's "Tale" rejects narrative altogether
and expresses the truth in the form of a moral and theological treatise about sin and
forgiveness.
The Nun’s Priest Tale is the first notable English satire upon pedantry,
astronomy and those astronomical methods of computing the date. Chaucer ridicules
its display of unnecessary learning. Medieval medicine, which consists in making the
hen an authority on ‘complexion’ and ‘humours’ is criticized. It is also a satire upon
a burlesque of the popular romances of the day.
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There is no substantial depiction of the nun's priest in Chaucer's General Prologue,
but in the tale's epilogue, the Host is moved to give a highly approving quick portrait
which highlights his great physical strength and presence. "The Nun's Priest's Tale"
offers a lively and skilfully told story from a previously almost invisible character.
following:
1. The state of Christian society reflected in Chaucer’s work was in the -------
a) developed state b) corrupted state
c) state of decline d) developing way
2. Wife of Bath represents ---------------
a) all women b) few women
c) slavery of women d) women’s emancipation
3. In the Middle Ages marriage was considered to be-------
a) superior b) inferior c) acceptable d) praise-worthy
4. Monk’s refusal to follow the rules of religion resulted in-------
a) comedy b) satire c) tragedy d) irony
5. Pardoner is the representation of --------------
a) evil b) good manners c) philosophy d) virtue
1. The Friar is first praised for his------------.
2. Cecilia’s marriage upholds---------------- in love.
3. Prioress stands for --------------
4. The Summoner’s main function was to summon ----------
5. A fox tricks a cock into -----------------
1. What were the three strata of medieval society?
2. What does Chaucer strongly condemn?
49
3. What does The Canterbury Tales metaphorically represent?
4. What is the metaphysical importance of dreams?
5. Who has laid down the religious rules?
 ecclesiastical- religious
 satire- art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous
2.6 Summary:
The four main sections in this unit enable students to know about the plot,
characters, themes, irony and satirical perspective of the poem.

2.2.1
A) 1- c, 2-b, 3- a, 4-d, 5-b
B) 1) St. Thomas Becket
2) soldier
3) The Canterbury Tales
4) Lombardy
5) Elizabeth of Ulster
C) 1) because he made use of dialect that originate from London on the basis of
modern English
2) Troilus and Criseyde
3) Chaucer studied arithmetic, geometry and astronomy
4) French Tradition
5) Chaucer was influenced by Italian poets Boccaccio and Petrarch
2.3.1
A) 1- b, 2- d, 3- b, 4- a, 5- d
B) 1) Daun Russel
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2) Aesopian fable
3) Lady Pertelote
4) survival strategies
5) The fox
C) 1) The story takes place in the farmyard of a widow.
2) Those who shut their eyes when they are required to look.
3) A ridiculous long narrative poem on a serious subject.
4) The fox tricked Chaunticleer through flattery.
5) Dreams and predestination
2.4.1
A) 1- b, 2-d, 3- b, 4- a, 5-d
B) 1) Dionysius Cato
2) individuals
3) a fox
4) confessions
5) dreams
C) 1) widow
2) Harry Bailly
3) Primitive
4) universal nature of man
5) The Host
2.5.1
A) 1-c, 2-d, 3-b, 4-d, 5-a
B) 1) humility
2) saintliness
3) classical beauty
4) sinners
5) singing
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C) 1) The Knighthood, the spiritual clergy and the toiling agricultural classes.
2) Summoner’s acceptance of bribes.
3) human life as a one way journey on the earth.
4) Dreams were visions and forewarnings of future events.
5) St. Benedict
2.8 Exercises:
1. Analyze ‘The Nun's Priest’s Tale’ as a mock - heroic beast fable.
2. What are the themes pervading the Nun’s Priest’s Tale?
3. Analyze the plot structure of ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale’.
4. Comment on Chaucer’s representation of the fourteenth century English
society.
5. Comment on Chaucer’s portraiture of the ecclesiastic characters and the
state of the church in the fourteenth century.
6. Discuss Chaucer’s technique of characterization in ‘The Nun’s Priest’s
Tale’.
7. “A roguish playful irony is one of his commonest weapons; satire and
serious admiration help, but good humour is always in his right hand.”
Elaborate it from Chaucer’s ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale’.
2.9 Further Reading:

A. Books for References:
1. Chaucer, Geoffrey. 1966. A Selection of His Works edited by Kenneth O.
Kee, College Classics in English: General Editor: Northrop Frye, pp. 178-
205. New York: The Odyssey Press.
2. Daiches, David. 1997. A Critical History of English Literature Vol. 1 and
2, New Delhi: Allied; 2.
3. Ford, Boris (ed.) 1998. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature Vol. 2
and 3,London: Penguin.
52
B. Cross References:
1. ALLEN, JUDSON BOYCE. "The Ironic Fruyt: Chantecleer as Figura."
Studies in Philology 66 (1969):25-35.
Compares the description of Chauntecleer to exegetical commentaries and
shows that "allegorical clues" in Nun's Priest's Tale "force themselves upon
us." Yet, the relation between the effictio and the cock-as-preacher tradition
is ironic: "mock epic, mock sermon, and mock allegory" comprise a gentle
criticism of "taking exegetical method too seriously."
2. BESSERMAN, LAWRENCE L. "Chaucerian Wordplay: The Nun's
Priest and his Womman Divyne." Chaucer Review 12 (1977):68-73.
Reveals the multiple meanings of the Nun's Priest's assertion that he "kan
noon harm of womman divyne," exemplifying how Chaucer's rich semantic
ambiguity functions.
3. BLAKE, N.F. "Reynard the Fox in England." In Aspects of Medieval
Animal Epic. Edited by E. Rombauts and A. Welkenhuysen.
Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, series 1, no. 3. Louvan: University Press; The
Hague: Nijhoff, 1975, pp. 53-65.
Places Nun's Priest's Tale in the context of four other Middle English tales
of the fox and argues that, like the others, its source was not a version of the
French Roman de Renart, but rather a moral fable of the preaching
tradition.
4. BLOOMFIELD, MORTON W. "The Wisdom of the Nun's Priest's
Tale." In Chaucerian Problems and Perspectives: Essays Presented to
Paul E. Beichner, C.S.C. Edited by Edward Vasta and Zacharias P.
Thundy. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979, pp.
70-82.
Formally a beast-epic of the wisdom literature tradition, the Nun's Priest's
Tale mocks its epic conventions--dreams, pursuit, rhetoric, and language.
Yet, this mockery of the too-serious ironically affirms the wisdom of proper
perspective. Compares Chauecr's tale to Robert Henryson's Taill of Schir
Chantecleir and the Foxe.
53
5. BOULGER, JAMES D. "Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale." In Literary
Studies in Memory of Francis A. Drumm. Edited by John H.
Dorenkamp. Worcester, Mass.: College of the Holy Cross; Wetteren,
Belgium: Cultura Press, 1974, pp. 13-32.
Assesses the mediational value of humour in Nun's Priest's Tale, describing
how it modifies both morality and skepticism, and characterizing the Priest
as a gaudium spiritus who mediates between the Parson's morality and the
Host's mirth. The tale encourages the faithful acceptence of a providential
world, "with all the moral folly, intellectual pretension, and human
fallibility in it."
6. BROES, ARTHUR T. "Chaucer's Disgruntled Cleric: The Nun's
Priest's Tale." PMLA 78 (1963):156-62.
Affirms the dramatic appropriateness of Nun's Priest's Tale to its teller by
detailing how and where the tale "twits" the Prioress's fastidiousness, her
domination of the Priest, and the mawkishness and grotesquery of her tale.
7. DEAN, NANCY. "Chaucerian Attitudes towards Joy with Particular
Consideration of the Nun's Priest's Tale." Medium AEvum 44
(1975):1-13.
Examines the range of heavenly and earthly joys depicted in Canterbury
Tales and evaluates their moral validity in Boethian terms and in
comparison to contemporary thought. Suggests that Chaucer prefers the
"serene intellectual joy" of the Nun's Priest to the Knight's and Monk's
"strenuous view of living."
8. FRIEDMAN, JOHN BLOCK. "The Nun's Priest's Tale: The Preacher
and the Mermaid's Song." Chaucer Review 7 (1973):250-66.
Examines the appropriateness of the Nun's Priest's Tale to its teller,
assessing its similarities to exemplary sermons and arguing that the Priest's
theme is anti-feminist. Form and theme are consistent with the Priest's
occupation.
9. HOY, MICHAEL. "The Nun's Priest's Tale." In Chaucer's Major
Tales. Edited by Michael Hoy and Michael Stevens. London: Norton
Bailey, 1969, pp. 135-62.
54
Explores Chaucer's manipulation of oppositions and changing perspective
which produce irony and constructive satire in Nun's Priest's Tale. The
masterful shifts of style and rhetoric in the tale deftly contrast the rustic and
the courtly, the learned and the lewd, the human and the animal, holding
them in dynamic tension that requires interpretive participation from the
audience.
10. KAUFFMAN, CORRINE E. "Dame Pertelote's Parlous Parle."
Chaucer Review 4 (1970):41-48.
Uses medieval herbals to demonstrate that Pertolote's laxatives in Nun's
Priest's Tale, supposed cures for Chantecleer, would have been extremely
dangerous, possibly fatal. Pertelote's misinformation perhaps extends
Chaucer's satire of women in the tale.
11. LUMIANSKY, R. M. "The Nun's Priest in the Canterbury Tales."
PMLA 68 (1953):896-903.
Characterizes the Nun's Priest as an intellectual but timid man by assessing
the dramatic interplay of the pilgrims. The Host's complaint about his wife
and his altercation with the Monk provoke the Priest's antifeminist
comments and his rebuttal of the Monk's Tale. The Host returns the favor
by praising the Priest in language he earlier applied to the virile Monk.
12. MANN, JILL. "The Speculum Stultorum and the Nun's Priest's Tale."
Suggests that Nigel of Longchamps' Speculum Stultorum inspired
Chaucer's ironic use of beast fable in Nun's Priest's Tale since both
emphasize the disjuncture between animal and human nature and the
difficulty of "applying moral analysis to animals." Chaucer's reference to
the Speculum in his tale and the similarity of the two suggest that, through
his tale, Chaucer lampoons the moralizing of comic fables.
13. MANNING, STEPHEN. "The Nun's Priest's Morality and the
Medieval Attitude Towards Fables." JEGP: Journal of English and
Germanic Philology 59 (1960):403-16.
Exemplifies a range of medieval attitudes towards fables and their moral
value, and suggests that the Nun's Priest's exhortation to find a moral in his
55
tale is ironic, a lampoon of those who felt that a poem "had to have some
moral in order to justify its existence."
14. MYERS, D.E. "Focus and 'Moralite' in the Nun's Priest's Tale."
Assesses Nun's Priest's Tale from three widening perspectives: as a simple
fable, the tale moralizes against flattery; as a rhetorical address to a court
audience, it advises rulers; in the dramatic context of Canterbury Tales, it
reflects back on the Priest who advises the Knight and the Monk but fails to
see the tale's reflexive allegory about a "preacher-prelate"-- himself.
15. PRATT, ROBERT A. "Some Latin Sources of the Nonnes Preest on
Dreams." Speculum 52 (1977):538-70.
Investigates Chaucer's debt to Robert Holcot's commentary on the Book of
Wisdom for the dream materials of Nun's Priest's Tale. Influenced by
exemplary tales from Cicero, Albertus Magnus, and Valerius Maximus,
Chaucer transformed Holcot's commentary in the debate on dreams
between Pertelote and Chauntecleer.
16. PRATT, ROBERT A.. "Three Old French Sources of Nonnes Preestes
Tale." Speculum 47 (1972):422-44, 646-68.
Explores the relations among Nun's Priest's Tale and its analogues,
demonstrating that Chaucer's tale was based upon Marie de France's Del
cok e del gupil, enriched by Pierre de St. Cloud's Roman de Renart and the
anonymous Renart le contrefait. Chaucer's tale parallels each analogue in
ways significant enough for all of them to be considered sources.
17. SCHEPS, WALTER. "Chaucer's Anti-Fable: Reductio ad Absurdum
in the Nun's Priest's Tale." Leeds Studies in English 4 (1971):1-10.
Examines Chaucer's manipulation of the generic features of Nun's Priest's
Tale as a beast fable, and argues that the multiple moralizations of the tale,
its sharp differentiation of human and bestial, and its illustrious depiction of
Chauntecleer parody the genre. The tale is an "anti-fable."

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Unit-3
British Poetry of the 17th Century
Index
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Elizabethan Poetry in General
3.2 The Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney
3.2.1 Loving in Truth
3.2.2 With How Sad Steps
3.2.3 Just Exchange
3.2.4 Farewell World
Check Your Progress-1
3.3 The Poetry of Spenser (1552-1599)
3.4 William Shakespeare : Sonnets
3.5 The Poetry of Milton (1608-1974)
3.6 The Metaphysical Poetry of John Donne, George Herbert and Andrew Marvell
3.7 Summary
3.8 Terms to Remember
3.9 Answer to Check Your Progress
3.10 Further Exercises
57
3.0 Objectives :
After the completion of this unit, you will be able to –
 learn characteristics of the Elizabethan Poetry.
 understand and appreciate selected poems of Sir Philip Sidney as an
Elizabethan poet.
 study and understand Spenser’s Prothalamion as a representative poem of
Shakespearean times.
 study and appreciate selected sonnets of Shakespeare.
 study and understand Metaphysical Poetry of the 17th Century, of John
Donne and Andrew Marvell and George Herbert.
 study and understand Milton’s Lycidas as pastoral poetry.
3.1 Elizabethan Poetry in General.

Elizabethan period of the English poetry is described as the ‘nest of Singing
Birds’, because, in this small island country, within that half century or so, there
were about 200 poets producing a great variety of lyrical poetry. The Elizabethan
poetry was mostly influenced by the Italian Renaissance poetry. The courtiers of
England, who went to Italy and France, were fascinated by the romantic love poetry,
sonnets, madrigals and other lyrical forms of poetry current in those countries. Sir
Thomas Wyatt and Earl of Surrey published the first collection of songs and sonnets,
which became known as Tottel’s Miscellany, published in 1557. The dominant
theme of this lyrical poetry was, of course, love. The lover in this poetry worshipped,
adored his lady, or complained of her cruelty, expressed joys and sorrows and
despair and variety of moods in the life of love. Sometimes there was a sad note that
this life and its pleasures are passing, not permanent. A number of collections of
lyrical poetry came up after this, such as The Paradise of Dainty Devices, and
Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions, etc.
The Elizabethan poetry was greatly influenced by the ancient Greek and Roman
poetry, which was available to them in translations. And the Elizabethan poets freely
imitated, borrowed and copied contemporary Italian and French poetry. English was
then language in the making. The poets created new poetic vocabulary from Latin,
58
Italian and French. There were no fixed rules of grammar. This was a challenge to
the native genius, and the poets freely experimented on the new forms of poetry
borrowed from the continent.
3.2 The Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney : (1554 - 1586)

Sir Philip Sidney was one of those aristocrats of the 16th Century England, who
had traveled widely, and who were familiar with the poems and poets of France and
Italy. He wanted to inspire poets and writers in English and enrich English poetry
following the Itlaian and the French models. He made sonnet–writing popular in
England. His collection of sonnets was published in 1591 under the title Astrophel
and Stella. These sonnets express his own love story. He was in love with the
daughter of the Earl of Essex, Penelope. He writes under the name of Astrophel
addressing his sonnet sequence to his lady-love, Stella.
There are four sonnets selected here from the collection. Read the following
discussion of these sonnets, keeping the text before you.
3.2.1 Loving in Truth : (Summary)
This is a sonnet from the sonnet sequence ‘Astrophel and Stella’, which deals
with the traditional theme of love.
The speaker truly loves the lady, and in the hope of giving her pleasure, he
writes to her in verse. This pleasure of reading poetry would make her know his
love-lorn state of mind, and she might then take pity on him, and the pity will turn
into the favour of love.
To create pity in her mind, he tries to find words to express his intense sorrow.
He therefore, tries to find novel imagery to amuse her. He looks for guidance from
the poetry of other poets, so that some fresh ideas may shower on his brain. (oft
turning others leaves – reading the poetry of other poets.)
But words came to him slowly. Ideas were found wanting. Images are the
children of nature (natural wit), and studies (that is learning) is the step-mother that
drives them away. And what others wrote appears strange to the poet.
He uses the metaphor of a pregnant woman in her pangs of giving birth to a
child. [great with child to speak – being pregnant (with words) Helpless in my throws
– in my pangs of childbirth] His ‘trewand pen’ i. e. idle pen does not work properly.
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Finally, the Muse (of poetry) says to him, ‘you fool look into your heart and then
write’.
Comment on the poem :
This is a typical Spenserian Sonnet of 14 lines, divided into two parts – octave
(8 lines) and sestet (6 lines). In the octave, the poet declares his intention of writing
to the lady, in poetry, to describe his painful, love-lorn state of mind. This might
amuse and please her and finally he might win her love. But, in the sestet, he finds
that imitation of other poets and their imagery does not help him at all. The
conclusion is, poetry should find source only in one’s heart.
Amusing the lady with his poetic complaint, creating pity in her mind, and
finally waiting for pity to turn into love, are the stages of his wooing the lady. The
first five lines, thus, lead to a climax resulting into creation of love in the mind of the
lady. But, in the sestet, the poet states how imitative poetic expression does not help.
Poetry should spring from one’s own heart.
This sonnet is indirectly a criticism of imitative Elizabethan poetry. He says
‘invention’ does not come from studies or imitation of others. He cannot, therefore,
follow in the footsteps of others. (feet – foot steps) The lesser poets of this period
borrowed ideas from the Italian love poetry, or freely translated from Italian into
English.
The rhyme scheme of the sonnet is abab, abab in the Octave (the first eight
lines), and c d c d, e e in the sestet (the six lines). This form was difficult to manage
in English as rhyming words in the English vocabulary were difficult to find in
comparison with Italian.
3.2.2 With How Sad Steps -
Summary :
This sonnet is addressed to the Moon. The poet feels that the Moon is climbing
up the sky sadly and silently, his face is melancholy. So the poet questions the Moon,
whether the god of love (Cupid) is busy even in the heaven (‘The busie archer’ is
Cupid, the god of love in Greek Mythology). The poet suggests that the Moon is
smitten by love, and therefore looks so sad.
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The poet himself is familiar with the state of mind of the one fallen in love. So
he tells the moon that his is the case of a lover. The poet is able to discover the
Moon’s languishing and pining for love because he himself feels the same. (to descry
– find out, discover).
Since the poet and the Moon are the fellows of the same condition, the poet
wants to know if faithful (constant) love is supposed to be foolishness even in the
Heaven. He wants to know if the beautiful ladies are as proud there as they are on the
earth.
The ladies there like to be loved, and yet do they scornfully treat the lovers
whose love they possess? Is it ungrateful there to be virtuous? (this is a reference to
his lady ‘Stella’ who plays the role of a stony – hearted woman, who despises her
devoted lover)
This is another Petrarchan sonnet. The poet watches the faint light of the Moon
and considers the Moon to be languishing in love. He can read the state of mind of
the Moon because the poet himself is in love and pining for the love of his lady.
In the second part of the sonnet (sestet), the poet tries to find out whether in the
Heaven also beautiful ladies win love but hate the lover. He is indirectly complaining
against the beautiful ladies. These ladies have virtue, but the other name for their
virtue is ungratefulness. They possess love but they are not grateful to the lover
whose love they possess.
Like the first Sonnet this one is also a variation on the theme of love. In the love
songs, normally, the lover complains against the beautiful lady, who is proud,
scornful and does not confess her love.
The rhyme scheme in this sonnet is different. It is abba, abba, cdcd, ee.
3.2.3 Just Exchange :
This poem is not a sonnet. The first line of the poem is repeated in the middle
and at the end, and serves to be a refrain.
Summary of the poem :
The speaker in the poem is probably a lady. She and her lover possess each
other’s hearts. This is a ‘just exchange’, giving one for getting another. She keeps his
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heart as a possession dear to her. And he too cannot miss her heart in his possession.
This is the best bargain they have.
Her heart keeps him and her united. And her heart in his possession guides his
feeling and thoughts. He loves her heart, because it was once his own. And she
cherishes his heart because it is within herself.
This is a poem divided into two stanzas of five lines each. The idea is that the
lovers exchange their hearts. This exchange is fair because one thing is given for
another, and both are very dear to each one of them. The poet uses the metaphor of
commercial bargain in this exchange of heart.
His heart in her keeps both of them united. And her heart within him guides his
feelings. Her heart in his possession is very dear to him, because it was his own. And
she also cherishes his heart within her.
This is the song of the love fulfilled. It is not pining or languishing heart as in
the first two sonnets. The repetition of the first line in the middle and at the end
strengthens the feeling to a great satisfaction of successful love, and two hearts at
peace with each other. In your study of stylistics (Core paper III), you can see how
such verbal repetition is used in poetry.
3.2.4 Farewell World :
This sonnet is different from the love poems we discussed earlier. In this sonnet
the poet bids farewell to this world, and to Love also. For him, love is something that
turns to dust. So, he advises his mind to aspire to higher things, in other words, he
wants to think of spiritual matters. The spiritual life never acquires rust. It brings
pleasure.
He tells Love to withdraw its rays and become humble. Instead, love should be
employed to serve that sweet power which brings permanent freedom. It is like
clouds opening and the light breaking out from them, and shining down on us to
grant us sight to see.
He wants to hold fast to that light, which can guide him through the course of
his life from the birth to the death. He warns how evil force may make one to slip, if
he is trying to seek heaven.
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He, therefore, says good bye to the world. He has already experienced the most
of this world. And now, he wants eternal love (of God) to live within him.
Comment on the Poem :
This is a sonnet with the theme of spiritual love. The poet is tired of mundane
love, which only turns to dust. The love of God does not rust, it is eternal and brings
pleasure.
The poet, however, feels the power of worldly love. So he entreats this worldly
love to control its power, and let the light of heaven shine, which can give him sight
to see.
This sonnet marks the progress of the poet from physical love to the spiritual
love, which is everlasting, and which can guide his life from the birth to the death.
This may be the influence of Platonic philosophy which considers this visible,
physical world as temporary, and emphasizes the need to escape it and to aspire to
higher spiritual life.
Even these three sonnets show how Sidney is different from the crowd of the
lesser Elizabethan poets, who merely translate or copy. Simplicity, use of spoken
idiom, the use of language of argument are the features of his poetry, which we find
in the practice of the best Cavalier and the Metaphysical poets.
 Check Your Progress I :
A) Fill in the blanks in the following :

1. In the sonnet Loving in Truth, the poet wishes to win love of the lady by
creating ______ in her mind.
2. The poet thinks that Learning (studies) is the _______ of the natural that
wit drives away the images.
3. The sonnet ‘With How Sad Steps’ is addressed to the ______.
4. The busie archer in this sonnet is used for _________.
5. The poem Just Exchange is about the ______ of hearts.
6. The sonnet, ‘Farewell World’, is about ________ love.
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B) Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each :
1. What metaphor does Sidney use in the poem ‘Just Exchange’?
2. What similarity does Sidney find between him and the Moon?
3. What does the muse of poetry advise the poet?
4. Why does the poet bid farewell to this world?
3.3 The Poetry of Spenser (1552-1599)

Let us first know Spenser as the foremost Elizabethan poet, who gave full
expression to the Renaissance poetry. His first poem, ‘The Shepherd’s Calendar’,
was dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney in 1579. It is a pastoral poem. Spenser was well-
versed in the classic Roman literature. He took his B.A. and M.A. degrees at
Cambridge, where he came under the influence of Protestantism and also Platonic
philosophy. His poetic career started with the pastoral poetry, and flowered into the
great epic ‘The Faerie Queene’. Meanwhile, he wrote the marriage hymns,
Prothalamion and Ephithalamion, the sonnet sequence ‘The Amoretti’. ‘The Faerie
Queene’ is an allegorical epic poem with as many as nine different layers of
meaning. The characters in it are modeled to some extent on the contemporary
political-historical scene; for example, Gloriana, the Queen is modeled on Queen
Elizabeth. Spenser is described as the Poets’ Poet, because he created poetic diction
and tried different forms of poetry to serve as models to the future generations.
In this section, we are going to study his marriage hymn, Prothalamion, a lovely
bridal song. ‘Prothalamion’ was written to celebrate the double marriage event, one
of Lady Elizabeth and the other of Katherine Somerset, both, the daughters of the
Earl of Worcester. Epithalamion celebrates Spenser’s own marriage with Elizabeth
Boyle, in 1594.
Note these words and expressions which may not be familiar to you :
Sweet breathing zephyrus : gentle and fragrant west wind.
Titan – the sun god
rutty – marked with furrows or roots. The bank of the river is ‘rutty’.
Against the Brydale day : in preparation of the wedding day.
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flood : the river
entrayled : entwined
feateously : skillfully
dazie : daisy (a flower)
two swannes : two brides (the brides, clothed in white are described as swans).
Leda : In the Greek mythology Leda was the daughter of Thesius, the king of
Sparta. Jove (the king of Gods) saw her bathing in a river, and, enchanted
by her beauty, changed himself into a swan and raped her. She gave birth to
Helen.
Eftsoones : straight away or immediately
array : dress
Peneus waters : Peneus is a river flowing through Tempe in Thessaly (in Northern
Greece).
Her heart – quelling sonne : the son of Venus (Cupid) who tempts or enthralls the
hearts of people.
assoile : absolve
Cynthia : Diana, the moon-goddess.
bauldrieke : belt
Prothalamion is a word coined by Spenser to name the wedding ceremony. This
is a long poem modeled on the classical Latin poetry of the poets such as Catullus.
Here is for you the summary of this marriage song. Since it is rather unfamiliar
English, we have given you the paraphrase of the poem.
The Summary (with the Paraphrase of the stanzas).
The day was calm. The west wind, gentle and fragrant, was blowing softly. The
hot sun was shining mildly and pleasantly on account of the sweet west wind. As I
was dissatisfied about my fruitless day at the court of the Prince, in a sullen mood
and vain expectations took a walk along the bank of the river Thames to ease my
sorrowful mind. The bank of the river was marked with furrows and a variety of
flowers, and the lawns were decorated with those beautiful flowers fit for the bridal
chamber of the maidens and to crown their lovers.
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M. A. I (English) : British Literature…5
The poet says, he saw a group of nymphs by the side of the river. They were the
lovely daughters of the river. Their greenish locks of hair were loose, and as they
were ones the brides, each one of them carried a small basket of flowers, entwined
beautifully by fine green twigs. They gathered the flowers such as violets, daisies and
lilies as well as primroses to decorate the horses of their bridegrooms.
Then he saw two swans. These swans were actually two brides dressed in white,
who came gently down the river. The poet is reminded of the mythological story of
Jove turning into a swan to love Leda. He says Jove as a swan and Leda were not as
white as these two brides. Even the gentle stream of the river spared its waves not to
soil the pure white feathers of these swans and to spoil their beauty.
The river–nymphs, who had gathered enough flowers ran hastily to see the
swans, white as silver, as they came floating on the crystal stream of the river; and
they were full of wonder to see them, and filled their eyes with their beauty. They felt
they had never seen such beautiful sight of lovely birds. They appeared to be the
heavenly birds that came down from the sky. They did not appear to be born of
earthly parents; but the children of angels. They were the children born of the sweet
season of summer when the earth puts on fresh dress. They (the birds) appeared to be
fresh as day.
The nymphs, who had gathered flowers in the baskets came forward and
showered their store of fragrant flowers upon those beautiful birds. The flowers
thrown by them spread over the water of the river, which appeared to be like the river
Peneus in the northern Greece. The white lilies spread over the water appeared like
the floor of the bridal chamber. Two nymphs made two garlands of flowers gathered
from the meadows and presented them to the snow-white birds, singing this song :
They prayed for the gentle birds (the brides), which appeared to be the
ornaments of the world and glory of the heaven. They may have joy and they may
join their love. “Goddess ‘Venus, the Queen of Love, and her son, Cupid, should
smile on you. His smile has quality to remove the feelings of dislike between the
lovers, and any bad feeling among friends. Let there be peace in your hearts loyal to
each other, and let there be plenty of food in your house, and let there be pleasures of
chaste married life, so that you may have children, who will redouble your joy and
confound your enemies.”
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In this way the nymphs ended their prayer, and all others joined that wonderful
prayer, which prayed that their wedding day should not be long. There was an echo
of this prayer from the neighbouring ground. The two joyful birds passed along down
the stream, which also gently murmured to them, but the stream did not have a
tongue to speak out. However, it showed its affection making the water run slow, and
all the birds of the river flocked around these two birds which excelled among them
in beauty, just as the Moon outshines the lesser stars in the sky. (Cynthia – the moon
goddess). The other birds attended the lovely birds and lent them their best services.
Finally, they came to London, the city which (the poet says) ‘brought me up
kindly, which gave me the means to live. Though (he says) I come from another
place, I belong to the ancient family.’ (Spenser claims that he belongs to the family
of Spencers of Althorpe in Northamptonshire). The brick towers where the Templar
knights once had their residence, are now the place where students of law live. There
was a royal palace (the residence of the Earl of Essex) where the poet received gifts
and blessings from the great Lord. He (the poet) very much misses the favours of that
Lord now in his friendless circumstances. But it is not fit to talk about old sorrows
now at the time of joy.
Now there lives a great Lord (the Earl of Essex), whose name became famous
even in all Spain. The two pillars of Hercules (two mountains facing each other on
both sides of the strait of Gibralter) shake with fear at the name of this Lord. He was
the climax (the flower) of the chivalry, who brought fame to England through his
victories. The fame of the queen Elizabeth might ring throughout the world.
From the high towers of the castle two noble Lords (the bridegrooms) came like
the shining sun, followed by a train of attendants. They were both graceful and of
lovely stature, fit for the chamber of any queen, both endowed with gifts of wit. They
looked like twin Joves (the King of Gods). They received the two brides, and at the
fixed time they married their brides.
We have already noted that this poem is a marriage hymn (song), celebrating the
marriages of two brides. Spenser wrote two marriage hymns, Epithalamion and
Prothalamion. The first one is praised by the critics as the finest formal marriage
hymn. But Prothalamion is criticized for lacking a unity of design. In this poem, in
the 8th stanza, the poet brings in the element of his personal life. He did not belong to
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London, but the city of London nurtured him. He expresses his gratefulness for the
Lord, the Earl of Essex. This personal element, and the praises heaped upon his
patrons in the 9th stanza and his nostalgic love of London become the weakness of
the poem, lacking in unity. He also uses stock epithets such as fair, gentle, fine,
noble, which mar the quality of the poem. It lacks intensity of feeling because the
poet expresses his personal frustration of being ‘friendless’.
He uses two lines, as a refrain asking the river Thames to flow softly until the
wedding day is over. There is no variation, so these lines create monotonous effect.
However, this marriage hymn follows the convention strictly and presents a stylized
picture of the brides and the bridegrooms. The nymphs picking flowers to welcome
the brides and the briderooms’ references to the Greek mythological characters like
Jove and Leda, Venus and Cupid are quite expected devices. But we must remember
that Spenser was working within the tradition of classical Greek and Roman poetry.
 Check Your Progress 2 :
A) Choose the correct alternative from the ones given below each statement:
1. Prothalamion is a
(a) song of love (b) wedding hymn
(c) prayer to the Muse (d) song praising the king
2. The Swans coming down the river reminded the poet of
(a) cupid, the god of love (b) the fairies
(c) the mythological story of Jove & Leda (d) two beautiful ladies
3. The river nymphs on the bank of Thames were
(a) singing songs of welcome
(b) directing the swans to the place of the ceremony
(c) gathering flowers
(d) waiting for the princess to appear
4. The Swans who came down the river were actually
(a) the heavenly birds (b) two princesses
(c) two nymphs (d) two brides in the bridal dress
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5. The poet, Spenser, is thankful to _______ for bringing him up kindly.
(a) the Earl of Essex (b) senior Lord Southampton
(c) the city of London (d) Queen Elizabeth
6. The theme of Prothalamion is ______
(a) Spenser’s gratitude for Earl of Essex.
(b) the beauty of the brides.
(c) Spenser’s love for the city of London.
(d) The wedding of two brides.
7. Prothalamion is criticized for –
(a) its classical imagery and form.
(b) digression of the personal elements.
(c) lack of seriousness.
(d) the use of convention.
B) Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each :
1. Why was the poet in a sorrowful mood?
2. How did the river Thames treat the brides?
3. What did the river nymphs do for the brides?
4. What did the nymphs pray for the brides?
3.4 William Shakespeare : Sonnets

3.4.1 You know Shakespeare as the foremost Elizabethan dramatist, who wrote
famous comedies like ‘As you Like it’, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, etc. and the
tragedies like ‘Hamlet’, ‘King Lear’, ‘Othello’, and also the history plays as well as
problem plays. But, Shakespeare was also a great poet. In the Elizabethan period,
sonnet–writing was a great craze. A number of minor poets practised writing sonnets,
imitating and translating Italian or French sonneteers. There were some honourable
exceptions like Sir Philip Sydney, Spenser, Donne and Drayton. Shakespeare must
have started writing sonnets well before 1599, because his first printed sonnets,
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sonnet No. 138 and 144 appeared in a collection, ‘The Passionate Pilgrim’, published
by William Jaggard in 1599. Shakespeare wrote a sequence of 154 sonnets. The full
text of these sonnets was published in 1609 by the printer Thomas Thorpe.
The first 26 sonnets are addressed to the fair youth. In the very first sonnet
Shakespeare urges this young man to marry and perpetuate his beauty in his children.
This fair youth could be either male or female – Adonis or Helen of the Greek
mythology. But, some critics thought Shakespeare was expressing his love for a
beautiful young man, a homosexual attraction. From sonnet No. 26 onward, upto
sonnet 126, there is the theme of ups and down in the relationship between the poet
and the fair youth. There is a period of estrangement (as the poet himself goes away),
and suspicion of the rival, again the renewal of love and reconciliation, and so on.
There are sonnets expressing different moods. From the sonnets 127 to 154, the poet
addresses the mysterious Dark Lady. This lady might have stolen the heart of the Fair
youth, the poet’s angel, which agonises the poet, and he expresses deep despair
(sonnet 144).
From the formal point of view, Shakespeare does not use Petrarchan model.
Rather, he uses the one first practised by the Earl of Surrey, with three stanzas of four
lines each and a couplet. Shakespeare perfected this form, and it became wellknown
as Shakespearean sonnet. This form proved suitable for English because English has
fewer rhyme words than Italian. The Petrarchan form needs repetition of rhymes in
the octave (8 lines), and another set of rhymes in the sestet. Shakespeare develops the
idea in the three stanzas, and the couplet in the end clinches the theme. The rhyme
scheme generally is abab cdcd efef and gg. Let us now study the sonnets prescribed
for you.
3.4.2 Sonnet 1 From Fairest Creatures –
Summary :
This sonnet is addressed to the Fair Youth. The poet urges him to marry so that
the memory of his beauty can be retained even after his death.
The poet says to the Youth : from beautiful persons like you we wish increase of
beauty. Your beauty should not die with you. A grown-up person would eventually
die, but his child may keep the memory of his/her beauty alive. But, you are involved
in your own beauty and your bright eyes; and like a burning candle you consume
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your own beauty. (self-substantial fuel – fuel generated by yourself). The poet
suggests ‘you (the friend) admire and think of your won beauty like Narcissus’.
There is abundance of beauty in you, but, by refusing to marry and procreate, you are
making famine of beauty. (If you do not marry and procreate children, there will be
famine of beauty). You are, thus, your own enemy, and you are being cruel to
yourself.
You are the fresh and beautiful (ornamental) creation of the world, and you are
the only source of the spring (the beauty) to come (through your children). But you
bury your beauty in yourself. (the bud of rose holds the promise of a full-blown
flower, but the Fair youth seems to bury this beauty within himself). He is the young
miser (churl - miser) who is wasting his beauty by hoarding it (keeping it to himself,
not spreading it through his children).
In the final couplet, the poet urges the Fair youth to take pity on the world.
Otherwise, the beauty that is due to the world will be eaten (consumed or enjoyed)
only by you or by the grave, after your death.
There is a lot of guessing about who could be this Fair Youth. He may be the
Earl of Southampton, or Lord Pembroke, or a handsome boy-actor. The central
theme of the sonnet is ‘marry and procreate beauty resembling you’. It is said that the
young Earl of Southampton did not want to marry, though his mother insisted upon
it. Early marriages in those days were in practice, and the Earl’s mother wanted to
have a heir to the rich heritage. Whoever this Youth may be, the argument in the
sonnet is that the beauty should not be wasted, it should be recreated through
marriage.
As pointed out above, the rhyme scheme of the sonnet is abab, cdcd, efef and
gg. The couple coming at the end warns the Fair youth that his beauty would be only
the food for the grave.
3.4.3 Sonnet 2 : Shall I Compare Thee –
This sonnet addressed to the Fair youth is in the praise of his beauty. And while
praising him the poet wishes to immortalize him through his poetry.
The poet would like to compare the Fair youth with the summer season. But, the
youth is much more kind and gentle than the summer. In the month of May, there can
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be stormy winds which can threaten the lovely flowers, and the period of summer is
rather short. But the Fair youth’s summer (i. e. his youth) is eternal. In the summer,
sometimes the sun is very hot, and his gold complexion becomes dim. Every
beautiful thing sometimes loses its beauty, either by chance or on account of the
changes in nature. But, your summer (youth) will not become faint; and will not lose
the beauty that you possess. The Death cannot boast that you are ever under his
power, because you will be the part of these lines (of poetry) which are eternal.
As long as human beings breathe (live on this earth), or their eyes can see, these
lines will live, and these will give life to you.
This is one of the best sonnets of Shakespeare. The poet is quite confident that
his poetry can immortalize the person whom he praises. He compares the Fair Youth
with the pleasant summer season. The summer season is only temporary. It will pass.
But the fair youth’s summer (his beauty) shall remain, because this beauty will be
immortalized in the lines of poetry. The idea that poetry can be immortal and it can
immortalize the person praised in it was a common idea in the Elizabethan period.
We find it in the sonnets of Spenser, Michael Drayton and others. However,
Shakespeare beautifully develops it in the three stanzas, and the couplet at the end
occurs as the rightful conclusion of the theme of immortality of the poetry, and its
power to immortalize the Fair Youth.
3.4.4 Sonnet 3 : When in the Chronicle –
This sonnet again is composed in the praise of the beauty of the Fair youth.
The poet says that in the history (the wasted time) the poet has come across
descriptions of men and women (wights – men and women). Their beauty inspired
beautiful poems, which praised the beauty and handsomeness of the ladies and the
knights now dead.
The pens of the old masters would have liked to describe the sweet beauty of the
hand and foot the lip and the eye and the brow (of those beautiful men and women),
which you (the Fair youth) possess now.
They praised those men and women, but their praises were only the future
descriptions of your beauty. These descriptions only foreshadowed your beauty of
this time. They must have looked into future but only dimly peering into it,
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speculating about your beauty. They (the past writers) did not have skill necessary to
sing your beauty.
We now see you in the present time, and we wonder about your beauty but we
also lack speech to praise it.
This sonnet is a variation on the theme of the unparalleled beauty of the Fair
youth, and the poet’s extravagant admiration of it.
The idea is that, in the past, the poets have praised men and women for their
beauty. But the poet says that these poets tried to describe only the beauty of the Fair
youth, which they guessed looking into the future.
The poet suggests that neither the poets in the past nor the present ones
(specially the poet himself) could adequately describe his beauty. The poets only
wonder at the Fair youth’s beauty but cannot describe it adequately.
Beauty, love and the praises of beauty are the usual themes of the Elizabethan
sonnets. Shakespeare composed his sonnets in the same tradition. But the brilliance
of Shakespeare’s sonnets is in their masterly craftsmanship.
Shakespeare, thus, continues to praise and celebrate the beauty of the Fair youth.
3.4.5 Sonnet 4 : Marriage of True Minds –
This sonnet is about True Minds to be united. In this sonnet Shakespeare defines
True Love.
The poet says, -
I may never allow any obstructions to the union of true minds that love each
other. (There is a sentence in the marriage service of Christians : ‘If any of you know
cause, or just impediment, why these two persons should not be joined together in
holy matrimony, ye are to declare it). True love remains constant even when the
other one is unfaithful, (or there is loss of beauty in the course of time). True love
does not withdraw itself, even if the other party withdraws (removes love).
True Love is like a permanently fixed sea-mark which guides the ships which
have wandered away from their route. It is not shaken even in the tempests. True
Love is like a star which serves as a guide to any ship to find its way. The value
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(worth) of this star may be unknown, but a navigator can direct his course by that
star’s altitude (height). The poet suggests that the value of love is unknown. But it
can guide you.
True love cannot be a play-thing of Time. In other words, it does not change
with time. The beauty (rosy lips and checks) may vanish in the course of Time, but
true love does not change as the hours and weeks pass. It lasts to the very end.
In the final couplet, the poet vows that his definition of True Love, his judgment
of it is right. If this judgment is proved to be an error, and it is proved against him,
then he says, he has never written anything and no man has really loved. In other
words, in this couplet, he asserts that true love exists.
The poet praises and defines true love in this sonnet. True love is forever, above
all errors and trials in the life of a man. Love does not change even though the other
party proves to be faithless or untrue. It does not change over the period of time or on
account of the loss of beauty.
He uses the image from the sea-travel. The sea-marks (the buoys) remain at one
place through tempests, guiding the ships. Similarly, true love remains constant
inspite of any ups and downs in life. The true love here is the result of painful
experience of mistakes made and estrangement and the lessons learned from life.
This sonnet is a meditation on the theme of perfect love. There is no complaint.
There is no plea to the Fair youth to be faithful. The poet is confident that he has
experienced this true love himself, and asserts its existence.
This sonnet is one of the maturest expressions of love in the Elizabethan love
poetry. The form is usual, three quatrains and the final couplet.
 Check Your Progress : 3
A) Choose the best alternative from the ones given below each of the following
statements :
1. In the sonnet ‘From Fairest Creatures - ’ the poet accuses the Fair youth of–
(a) being unfaithful. (b) being involved in his own beauty.
(c) not obeying his parents. (d) marrying too late.
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2. In the sonnet ‘Shall I Compare Thee -’ the poet –
(a) advises the Fair youth to enjoy the summer of his youth.
(b) promises to rescue him from the fear of Death.
(c) assures him to immortalize him through his poetry.
(d) warns him of the shadow of Death.
3. In the sonnet ‘When in the Chronicle - ’ the poet says –
(a) the descriptions of beautiful men and women of the past served him as a
model.
(b) the old masters could have described the Fair youth’s beauty.
(c) that in the past ladies and gentlemen were not as beautiful as the Fair youth.
(d) that the old masters described only the beauty of the Fair youth which they
guessed looking into the future.
4. In the sonnet ‘Marriage of True Minds’ the poet -
(a) defines true marriage.
(b) explains how two lovers must remain faithful to each other.
(c) compares true love with the star in the sky.
(d) maintains how true love remains the same in any circumstances.
5. The sonnets of Shakespeare (in this selection) are addressed to
(a) his patron. (b) a beautiful lady.
(c) a dark lady. (d) a handsome young man.
3.5 The Poetry of Milton (1608-1974)

Milton, though a staunch puritan, was essentially the poet of the Renaissance.
He combined the influences of the Renaissance and Reformation both, in his poetry.
He was thoroughly trained in the classical learning and scholarship. Politically, he
was the member of the party of the English Protestants, and regarded that the
Reformation of the Church under Queen Elizabeth was incomplete. In Cromwell’s
reign, he was the Latin Secretary, a sort of foreign minister in the government. His
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poetry, from the beginning, reflects his deep religious sentiment, but as a result of his
learning in the classical Greek and Roman literature, there is ample use of images
and allusions from Greek and Roman mythology. He also carefully followed the
forms of ancient poetry. His early poetry, L’Allegro and Il’ Penseroso, the twin
poems are pure product of the Renaissance. But later, Comus onwards, his poetry
becomes serious and reflects the spirit of Reformation in the classical Renaissance
forms of poetry. The elegy, Lycidas, adopting the classical form, expresses puritan
sentiment and the criticism of the corruption in church. His last three works, the
epics Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained; and Samson Agonistes which is written
in the form of Greek Tragedy, express his religious spirit and moral philosophy.
Milton was held in high esteem by the English poets and critics. The greatness
of his poetry is found in the sublimity of his thought and his style. His style is lofty
and suitable to the magnificent themes in his poetry. Wordsworth compared Milton’s
style to the voice of the sea, and Tennyson described Milton as the god-gifted organ
voice of England.
In this section, we are going to study Milton’s Lycidas, a pastoral elegy.
Lycidas is one of the wellknown elegies in the history of English poetry. Milton
has adopted in it the form of Greek Pastoral elegy. It is written to mourn the death of
Edward King, Milton’s college-friend and also a fellow poet. He was drowned at sea.
As Lycidas is a pastoral elegy, the poet, as a shepherd, mourns the death of a brother
shepherd. Since Milton uses the Greek classical form of elegy, he uses pastoral
conventions, allusions to Greek mythology together with Christian religious thought.
Here is the summary of this elegy for you, together with notes on the references
to the classical mythology and difficult expressions.
3.5.1 Summary of the Elegy – Lycidas :

In the first 22 lines the reason for mourning is stated. The young shepherd
Lycidas had suddenly died. His friend, the surviving Shepherd, must gather flowers
for funeral, and pray for the peace of the soul of Lycidas. Milton invokes the Muse of
poetry to enable him to lament the death of his friend.
The two shepherd-poets grew together and learned at Cambridge, and were
together in studies as well as other activities. According to convention, the poem
describes how the nature mourns the death of Lycidas.
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The poet in a pessimistic mood questions the purpose of his dedication to
poetry, if, like his friend, he is also snatched away by Death, it is then better to live
life of pleasure. In, our effort to win fame (as poet) we deny ourselves many things.
But before we reap the fruit of our success the Death claims us. However, Pheobus
(Apollo, god of youth, beauty, music and poetry) answers the poet that it is upto God
to reward the poet, not men. Any dedicated effort will be rewarded by God.
In the second part (from lines 85 to 131) the poet describes how the nature
mourns the death of Lycidas. The poet invokes the Muses of the pastoral poets. The
fountain Arethusa is in Syracuse (Sisily) where the Latin poet, Theocritus used to
live, and the river Minicius is associated with Virgil’s Eclogues (both Latin pastoral
poets). The poet introduces then, the procession of the mourners. He questions how
his friend died. The sea-god Neptune, and Hippotades, the God of Wind declare that
there was no storm and they were not responsible for the death of his friend. The ship
was built during an eclipse, so it sank into the sea. The river god Camus, who
represents Cambridge university, joins the procession and mourns the death of
Lycidas. The last of the mourners is St. Peter who represents the universal church.
He praises Lycidas as the true shepherd-priest who would have devoted his life to the
service of his flock. Here, Milton criticizes the corrupt clergy, contrasting the ideal
service of Lycidas with their sinful activities.
In the third part of the elegy (from lines 132 to 185), the poet first invokes
Sisilian Arethusa (the Muse of pastoral poetry), and Alpheus the river god and her
lover. He asks the vales of Sicily to shower flowers on the hearse of Lycidas.
But, the poet is unhappy that the corpse of Lycidas could not be recovered from
the sea. The poet imagines that the bones of Lycidas must have been hurled far away
to the end of the land where St. Michael stands guard. He prays St. Michael to restore
Lycidas.
The poet tells the mourners that Lycidas is not dead, that he will rise again like
the sun through the power of Christ. So they should stop mourning. Lycidas is
received into the kingdom of heaven, and he is made deity of the place where he is
drowned. This deity will protect the lives of the travelers.
The poem ends with an epilogue, as in the classical tradition. There is the third
person narration declaring that the Shepherd’s song is over, the sun has set, and
tomorrow the Shepherd must take his flock to another pasture.
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This elegy is composed in eleven stanzas with eight to thirty-three lines each.
There are mostly the lines of ten syllables with five stresses, and some lines have six
syllables with three stresses. Each stanza closes with a rhymed couplet.
In the prologue of this elegy the poet uses symbols of evergreen myrtle, laurels
and ivy, which are symbols of poetic fame. He claims that he is forced to write this
poem because of the sad occasion of the death of Lycidas. He refers to the plucking
of berries before they are ripe, which suggests that the poet is yet immature and
rather reluctant to write poetry. But the occasion demands it.
Invocation to the Muses is a classical convention in poetry. Through this
invocation he overcomes his unwillingness to write poetry and the fear of his
insufficiency appears to him baseless. He must mourn Lycidas, his friend, so that the
fellow-poets will also mourn his death when he dies.
Milton carefully uses the conventions of the pastoral elegy. Through the pastoral
imagery, he links the poem to the whole tradition of western literature. According to
the pastoral convention, Milton shows how nature mourns the untimely death of
Lycidas. Willows and hazel copses shall not fan their leaves with joy at the sound of
music. The death of Lycidas is compared with the canker killing the rose-bud, the
worm killing the lambs and the frost killing the flowers. These examples show how
untimely death cuts short the artistic career of a poet.
The reference to water-nymphs (who were far away and could not save Lycidas)
links the mythic tradition of Wales, of the ancient Britain, the river Dee and the
Celtic folk tradition. The poet says, even the presence of the water-nymphs would
not have saved Lycidas. He recalls the Greek myth of Orpheus, who could not be
saved even by his goddess mother from the enraged Bacchantes. (the angry Greek
goddesses). The untimely death of the fellow-poet makes Milton think over his own
life. What is the use of this dedication to poetry, of self-denials, if Death snatches
you away? Is it not better to enjoy life? The theme of the poem, thus, changes from
Lycidas (King) to Milton himself. The god of poetry and arts, Apollo, however,
warns him that the poets are rewarded by God, not by men. They get divine favour
not earthly fame.
Fitting the tradition of Pastoral elegy, Milton introduces the procession of
mourners. They include Triton, Hippolades, the gods of wind, the spirit of the
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university of Cambridge – Camus, and St. Peter (who holds the keys of the kingdom
of heaven). St. Peter praises Lycidas describing him as the true-Shepherd-priest but
indirectly passes angry remarks against the corrupt Anglican clergy. The hireling
Shepherds who work only for money and material gains represent the false clergy.
Towards the end, when the poet realizes that the body of Lycidas (Edward King)
is not found, he conjectures that it must have been washed to the Hebrides, or to the
end of the world where St. Michael guards Britain, looking towards Spain. This is an
allusion to the conflict between Britain and Spain, as well as to the Protestant and
Catholic Church.
Milton’s allusions to the Church politics as well as to the Britain’s conflict with
Spain and allusions to personal element have affected the pure theme of the elegy –
mourning the death of a friend. The death of Edward King appears only to be an
excuse to voice Milton’s own feelings about the clergy and the Roman Catholic
Church.
Milton raises the question, why a poet like him, instead of enjoying pleasures of
life, should submit himself to the rigorous discipline. This question relates to the life
of any creative artist in the context of the likelihood of premature death. The theme
of this elegy, therefore, is not one dimensional. It is a complex theme mourning the
death of a fellow poet and also the poetic career of the poet who is mourning. E. M.
W. Tillyard says
“Most criticism of Lycidas is off the mark, because it fails to distinguish
between the nominal and the real subject, what the poem professes to be and what it
is about. It assumes that Edward King is the real, whereas he is but the nominal
subject. Fundamentally, Lycidas concerns Milton himself; King is but the excuse for
one of Milton’s personal poems.
The theme of this pastoral elegy is thus controversial, but its complexity itself is
its merit. Great poetry invokes different critical opinions. And this is the greatness of
Lycidas.
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 Check Your Progress 4 :
following statements :
1. Milton’s Lycidas mourns the death of –
(a) his friend and poet Davenant.
(b) the young Shepherd near Cambridge.
(c) Edward King.
(d) Philip Sidney.
2. The poet blames ________ for their absence where Lycidas died.
(a) the other Shepherds. (b) the sea-gods
(c) the guardian water nymphs (d) the Muses
3. The Muse Calliope could not save _______ from the attack of the angry
Maenads.
(a) Lycidas (b) Orpheus (c) her daughter (d) her husband
4. The sea-god and the god of wind say that –
(a) they were not present at the time of Lycidas’s death.
(b) Lycidas’s death was caused by the storm.
(c) Lycidas’s ship was built during an eclipse, which caused his death.
(d) St. Michael standing guard at the end of the world will save Lycidas.
5. The theme of Lycidas is –
(a) the corruption in the Anglican Church
(b) the death of a shepherd.
(c) the cruelty of the sea-gods.
(d) the death of Edwand King, the poet and Milton’s own poetic career.
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3.6 The Metaphysical Poetry of John Donne, George Herbert and
Andrew Marvel.
3.6.1 Let us first understand what Metaphysical Poetry is.
In the 17th century there were two groups of English poets. One group followed
Ben Jonson, who wrote smooth, easy, classical poetry which is noted for its clarity
and directness of expression. The poets who followed Ben Jonson were called the
‘Sons of Ben’. In the first unit of this paper, you have come across a brief note on the
Cavalier Poets and their poetry. They wrote poetry in the manner of Ben Jonson.
There was another group that followed John Donne. John Donne’s poetry was
remarkably different in style and content, in the use of imagery and also the
awareness of great many changes in the field of knowledge. They made use of
imagery drawn from new knowledge and discoveries in the field of science,
geography, astronomy, etc. In their poetry they tried to express ideas and feelings
about the complex and changing world of their time. John Donne in his poem ‘The
First Anniversary’ says :
And new Philosophy calls all in doubt,
The Element of fire is quite put out
The sun is lost, and th’earth, and no man’s wit
Can well direct him where to looke for it.
He further says ‘- all coherence gone’. This is precisely the feeling the modern
English poets of the early 20th century, like T. S. Eliot and Pound, felt. Donne was
aware of the impact of recent scientific and geographical discoveries on the
traditional life and thought which is reflected in his poetry. Dryden described the
poetry of Donne and his followers, as Metaphysical. This term may be misleading,
because these Metaphysical poets did not have any coherent philosophical or
religious thought. In fact, they were concerned with the lack of coherence and also
lack of certainty in the changing world.
What is the difference between the Elizabethan Poetry and the Metaphysical
poetry? You can see that typical Elizabethan poetry is simple and it usually
expressed conventional themes. The Elizabethan poets consciously copied the forms
of poetry borrowed from others. The minor Elizabethan poets merely translated the
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Italian love poetry. But Metaphysical poets were intelligent and cultivated
intellectuals. They were experienced, learned, and possessed new knowledge. They
experimented with poetic expression, new stanza forms, and above all new imagery.
They were analytical and logical while dealing with their experience. They combined
thought and feeling in their poetry. As T. S. Eliot says ‘thought to Donne was an
experience, it modified his sensibility’. The imagery these poets used was based
upon their perception of similarity between very different, unlike things. For
example, Donne addresses his wife in these words :
O my America, my new found land
He compares two lovers with a pair of compasses, one leaning on the other. One is at
home while the other moves around. The metaphysical poets do not use imagery
merely as an ornament. They use it for communication of their thoughts and feelings.
Their poetry has a dramatic quality, as they use the idiom of speech, colloquial and
natural tone, without limitations of convention. Read these poems on your own, and
then read these summaries.
3.6.2 The Poetry of John Donne (1572 - 1631)
John Donne was, at first, a Roman Catholic. But he later became converted to
the English church. He was an excellent preacher. He was educated at the
universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but was not awarded a degree because he was
a catholic.
Here you have three poems of John Donne. You should read the following
discussion of these poems, keeping the text of the poems before you because it is not
possible to print entire text of the poems from the books prescribed for you. These
poems of John Donne are from his ‘Songs and Sonnets’, the lyrical poetry.
The Good – Morrow (Summary) The poem is addressed to the lady the
speaker loves. As already said, Donne uses speech idiom, which brings naturalness to
his songs of love. The poem begins with a rhetorical question :
I wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we lov’d?
In fact, the first four lines are questions which speculate about what the lover
and the lady did till they fell in love with each other. Were they just children still
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attached to their mothers? Or did they sleep like the mythical ‘seven sleepers’ who
slept in a den for two hundred years? The speaker tells the lady that he dreamt only
of her as his desired lady-love.
He bids good-morning to their souls, which have awakened into this experience
of love. They need not watch each other, because their love for each other banishes
all other love. Their love changes their room into the whole world. The speaker says,
let the voyagers discover new worlds and let them show the map of the other worlds.
For them, they have their own world of each other. His face in her eyes, and her face
in his, are their two worlds. There cannot be other two hemispheres like these.
Things which are not equally mixed come to an end. But, he says, they love each
other equally well, so their love will never die.
Comments on the Poem :
This song shows a number of aspects of the Metaphysical poetry. The reference
to the ‘sea – discoverers’ alludes to the recent geographical discoveries – America
and West Indies. The line ‘what every dyes, was not mixed equally’ refers to the
knowledge of ‘chemistry’. These references show the poet’s awareness of the affairs
of the world, the new science and their relation to his life of love.
Another aspect is the speech idiom he uses right from the beginning. The
expression ‘by my trouth’ is colloquial expression, swearing to express impatience.
The reference to ‘the seven sleepers’ den’ is an allusion to the story in the Bible. The
tone is argumentative. The question – ‘what we did till we loved’ suggests that there
was no life worth talking about until they started loving each other. The speaker in
the poem disregards all other love except their own for each other. Naturally, their
room becomes their world outside which nothing exists for them.
The ‘good morrow’ is the greeting he expresses to the experience of their newly
awakened love.
3.6.3 Lovers Infiniteness :
Like ‘The Good Morrow’, this too is love-song addressed to a lady. The poem
has again a logical structure based upon giving and having ‘all’ love. In the first
stanza, the poet is not sure that his lady has offered ‘all’ her love. If this is so, how
can he get what remains? Because he has spent all his tears, sighs, oaths and letters in
the entreaty of the lady. So, he cannot get any more love than he had in the initial
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bargain. If she did not give him all her love, some others must have got the part of it.
The stanza ends on the note of despair that he cannot hope to get her ‘all’.
In the second stanza there is another possibility. Suppose the lady gave him ‘all’
the love, which she had at that time. But, other men may have entreated her with
tears and sighs and oaths. And this may have created new love in her heart. Now, this
new love was not promised by her to the poet. The poet argues that her heart was
given to him as a gift. So whatever new love grows there, he should have it.
The poet is not yet happy with this also. Suppose, he has all the love. Then, who
has all cannot have any more. But his love grows everyday, and she must reward him
for it. But, the lady cannot give her heart every day, and if she cannot, then she,
perhaps, never gave it.
This is a riddle (a puzzle) of the life of love. The lady may give away her heart.
Yet it remains with her. In other words, in losing her heart, she saves it. Finally, he
comes to the conclusion that they can have ‘a more liberal’ way of solving this
puzzle. Instead of ‘changing’ hearts, they should join them. Then they can be one,
and possess each other, and their love can then be infinite.
The poet uses the imagery of ‘commercial bargain’ in this poem. He appears to
have bought the lady’s love by paying the treasure of his tears, vows, etc. Other
people may have their stock of tears, vows; and they may buy her love, because she
may not have given him all. The words ‘bargain’ and ‘stock’ support this idea of
exchange’.
He uses the terms ‘infinite’ and ‘all’ in the sense Aristotle used it. ‘Infinite’ is
defined as ‘that of which you have taken much, but there is always more to take’.
And ‘all’ means ‘of which something is missing’. His final proposal of ‘being one’
perhaps suggests physical union rather than Platonic love.
Like ‘The Good Morrow’, this poem has also the structure of logical argument,
and complex syntax.
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3.6.4 Valediction Forbidding Mourning :
Summary :
This poem must have been written when Donne went to the Continent (the
European countries) in 1611. This is one of the poems which celebrate married love.
The poet is bidding farewell to his wife as he proceeds on his journey. He tells
his wife not to mourn (weep) on his going away. Good men who die, do not make
any noise. They whisper to their soul to go away. The friends, watching, do not know
how the souls of the good men pass away. They do not make a show by weeping
tears and sighing aloud. They do not, thus, make public their love in the presence of
the common people.
The movement of the earth may create harmful events and cause fears in the
minds of people. But, the movement of the spheres like the milky way, is far greater,
yet there is no noise. The love of the common people depends on the presence of
each other, and cannot bear absence, because their love is physical. It needs physical
presence. But, the poet’s and his lady’s love is refined love and does not need
physical presence.
Their souls are two, but they are one, and even though he is going away, their
love would expand rather than suffer separation. Their souls like a sheet of gold, will
expand when beaten. They are like two legs of the compasses (Geometrical
instrument to draw a circle). One leg of the compasses is a fixed foot, but the other
one moves. The fixed foot is the wife, and the other one is the husband. The fixed
foot leans on the other and follows its movement. And when the other foot (the
husband) comes back home, it grows erect. His wife, thus, help him run around to
draw his circle complete. In other words, he would come back home after his work,
and his wife would be at home waiting for him.
Metaphysical poetry draws its name from its use of elaborate metaphor
(conceit), unusual imagery which uses current knowledge of science and discoveries.
This poem provides examples of these characteristics of metaphysical poetry.
The trepidation of spheres refers to the movement of the universe, and the
movement of the earth is its movement round its axis. It creates fears because it was
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believed to cause earthquakes. There is here analogy between ordinary love and the
heavenly love.
Another analogy is between ‘dull, sublunary love’ which depends on the
physical presence of the lovers – eyes, lips, etc; and the refined love which does not
need bodily presence.
There is unusual comparison of two lovers with a geometrical instrument of two
compasses one learning on the other. This is the wellknown and rather farfetched
image, and yet, it is typical of the Metaphysical poets, who were able to see likeness
between two extremely dissimilar things.
The poem is a beautiful variation on the theme of two lovers parting – a scene of
saying farewell – though for a short time.
3.6.5 The Poetry of George Herbert (1593 - 1633)
Herbert was educated at Westminster School and later attended Trinity College
of Cambridge University. He worked there as a Reader in Rhetoric. He became an
Anglican priest after his theological studies in Cambridge. Herbert wrote mostly
religious lyrics. He is constantly concerned with the relationship between God and
man. His lyrics are, therefore, direct talk with God in the intimate tone like our saint
poets Tukaram and others. He is considered to be a metaphysical poet in the sense
that, like Donne, he also uses speech idiom, his lyrics also show combination of
intellect and feeling. He uses imagery from familiar things of everyday life, but, like
Donne, he surprises readers with rather unusual comparisons. Let us look at his two
poems prescribed in this selection.
Even Song : The Summary :
The poet is thankful to the god of Love, who has given him eyes to see, strength
to work and to play. But, he is much more thankful to God above, who gave him the
sight of his son, i. e. Jesus Christ. God deprived himself of the company of His only
son, and offered Him to the devotees like the poet.
The poet asks himself, a rhetorical question – what has he brought for God to
pay for this love? Has he done anything to pay back this debt of the favour of God?
He ran and ran but could not produce anything except foaming at the mouth and fire
and fumes of his troubled mind.
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And inspite of this failure, God tells man, that it is sufficient, now you take rest
for your work is over. And he closes the tired eyes of the man. In this way God,
shelters us until we are corrected, and puts new wheels on the clock of our disordered
life.
The poet thinks over this – he muses – which action shows that God loves us
more? Is it the day (life)? or the night (the final repose)? The journey ahead or the
rest at the harbour? The walk, or the rest in the garden? God, he says, is full of love.
God sends favours to man from above. And, the poet enjoys rest (happiness) more in
this love of God, than in his bed.
As already pointed out, George Herbert’s poetry is religious and devotional. He
is preoccupied with God’s love for man, and the way to earn this love.
As in the poems of Donne, Herbert also uses speech idiom, rhetorical questions,
and there is complex syntactic structure in his poem, to help him express his deep
religious feeling. Herbert does not use imagery from science or new knowledge. Nor
does he use unusual comparisons like Donne. He uses images from the experience of
everyday life.
The metaphor of day and night is used to show how God is with man in life as
well as death. Life is like a journey, and death is the rest either in the garden or at the
harbour. The poet is happy with any state, because he feels the presence of God.
The title Even Song suggests the song for final rest. Whether it is the Day (life)
or Night (Death), God’s love is with you. The poet feels the grace of God any way.
3.6.6 The Pulley :
The Pulley is a mechanical device to pull something up. Herbert uses this
conceit (an extended metaphor) to express God’s ways to man in this poem. Man,
who is God’s creation, must finally go back to God. The poem is the illustration of
how God arranges things in such a way that man must go back to Him.
When God created man, there were glassful of blessings with him. God wanted
to bestow all these blessings on man; all the riches of the world lying around should
be bestowed on man. So, God first gave man the gift of strength. Then He gave man
the beauty, then wisdom, honour and pleasure. Almost everything was given, except
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one thing that remained at the bottom. It was ‘Rest’. Then God began to think, if he
gave everything to man, even this final gift of ‘Rest’, man will appreciate and value
only these gifts and forget God. And this way the man as well as God would be the
losers.
So God decided to keep the ‘rest’ with himself. Let man be restless. He may
become rich, but his wealth would not earn him rest. He would grow tired of it. If not
goodness of heart, at least the weariness of worldly wealth will bring man back to
God. It would be the Pulley to bring man back to God.
Commentary on the poem :
The Pulley is a simple poem, with an argument that God has generously given
all the gifts to man. But the worldly gifts are not enough for man to get ‘rest’ or
happiness. His desire to acquire more and more will make him wearie, tired; and
finally he will have to surrender to God. The pulley here is the device to pull man
back to God.
The meaning of ‘rest’ here should be taken in a wider sense of ‘contentment’. If
man is not content with what he has got, he will be restless, and unhappy. This
unhappiness will finally make him surrender to God. ‘The Pulley’ is thus, an
argument to illustrate the way of God to man.
The poem has 4 stanzas with five lines each; and a simple rhyme scheme ababa.
The conceit of the Pulley is indirectly expressed.
3.6.7 The Poetry of Andrew Marvell : (1621-1678)
Andrew Marvell’s father was an Anglican priest. He was educated at Trinity
college, travelled widely in the European countries, worked as a tutor to the daughter
of Lord Fairfax, and like Milton spent much of his career in the service of the state.
His lyrical poetry shows his metaphysical style of writing. But, he was a versatile
poet showing Elizabethan spirit rather than that of Restoration period. He does not
however, write a mellifluous, conventional Elizabethan poetry. His poetry is
intellectual and hard-lined like the poetry of Donne. His poems on a garden show
him to be a true lover of nature.
Here, in this selection, we are going to study his celebrated poem ‘To His Coy
Mistress’ which reveals his metaphysical style and the use of imagery.
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To His Coy Mistress :
The poem is addressed to the lady-love, who hesitates to respond to the
entreaties of the lover. She keeps him away disdainfully rejecting his pleas. The
languishing lover is impatient with this ‘coyness’ of the lady and argues with her in
this poem to respond to his love. He says :
‘If we had enough time and the whole world with us, your shyness would not be
a crime’. He playfully tells her how they could pass the days of their love. She would
spend her time collecting rubies on the bank of the river Ganges in India. And he
would be at the river Humber entreating her that he would love her ten years before
the Flood. And she can refuse until the time of the conversion of the Jews to
Christianity. His love for her would grow like vegetables Vaster than Empires. He
would then spend hundred years to praise her eyes, and keep gazing at her forehead
for two hundred years. And two hundred years each he would devote to praise her
breasts. And thirty thousand years to praise the other parts. Thus, he would be able to
devote hundreds of years to praise her. She deserves to be praised like this, and he
thinks his love for her cannot admit anything less than this.
After this hyperbolic praise, in the next stanza, he seriously tells her how it is
urgent for them to fulfil their love. The fast-paced chariot of Time is drawing near.
The Time is passing quickly. And beyond it, there is nothing but endless desert – the
vast eternity – after death. Her beauty would be buried in a marble tomb; and it
would not echo his love song for her. Her virginity would then be the food for
worms. And the honour, she so long preserved, would come to dust. His own desire
for her would be turned into the ash. The grave is a place where you find privacy, but
no one can embrace there and love.
Now the youth shines on her face bright as dew drops in the morning. And there
is burning desire at every pore. He, therefore, entreats her to play this game of love
until they can. Like a hunting bird, they should gobble up their Time at once go,
rather than pining for love in a desultory manner. He tells her to gather together the
whole pleasure of youth into one ball and have it. They should struggle to grab
pleasure which is locked in the iron gates of life. They cannot stop the sun. The sun
(time) cannot be stopped, but they can make the sun run. They can speed up their life
of love.
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This poem by Andrew Marvell is one of the finest examples of Metaphysical
poetry. The playfulness of the beginning, describing humorously the process of
wooing the lady, is suddenly followed by serious awareness of Time passing quickly,
and beyond there is only the vast eternity. The last lines of the second stanza :
The Grave’s a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
give an ironical touch to make the lady aware of the waste of youthful life.
The image of the birds of prey devouring the pleasures is a very powerful visual
image. The image of ‘The iron gates of Life’ suggests that the pleasures are locked
by conventions, and the lovers must struggle to violently tear their pleasures from it.
Making the sun run, is again a very expressive image for fast life.
following statements :
1. The Speaker in the poem wishes good morning
(a) to the lady he loves. (b) to himself as he wakes up.
(c) to each other’s souls. (d) to no one in particular.
2. The questions in the first stanza of the poem ‘The Good Morrow’, suggest
that –
(a) the speaker is ignorant about the early life of himself and of the lady.
(b) he wants to know what the lady did before falling in love with him.
(c) he considers their life before falling in love insignificant.
(d) he is curious about their childhood.
3. In the song ‘Lovers Infiniteness’, the poet loses hope to get ‘all’ love
because –
(a) his lady is not faithful to him. (b) she has no more love to give him.
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(c) he does not have the stock of tears, sighs, oaths etc to bargain for more
love.
(d) she had not promised all her love to him.
4. Loves infiniteness is achieved by the poet –
(a) by getting all love from the lady.
(b) barring her from offering love to others.
(c) by offering more and more sighs, tears, etc. to entreat the lady.
(d) by joining their hearts together.
5. In the song Valediction Forbidding Mourning the poet, forbids his wife
weeping because –
(a) he does not like tears while going on a tour.
(b) her beauty would be spoiled by weeping.
(c) good people do not make a show of their grief.
(d) he does not want others to see her weeping.
6. The poet, Herbert, is greatly thankful to God
(a) for the life on this earth.
(b) because God has given him good means of life.
(c) for God has given him the sight of his own son, Jesus.
(d) because God has given him everything though he has given God
nothing.
7. In Herbert’s poem, ‘The Pulley’ illustrates
(a) a mechanical device.
(b) the influence of God on man’s life.
(c) God’s gift to man.
(d) a device to pull man towards God.
8. The image of the hunting bird in ‘To His Coy Mistress’, suggests that –
(a) he is the hunting bird and his prey is the lady.
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(b) he wants his lady to be like him.
(c) he and his lady should snatch and devour their pleasures.
(d) he is eager to marry the lady quickly.
3.7 Summary :
This unit covers the early Elizabethan poetry starting with the poetry of Sir
Philip Sidney, and covering the landmarks such as Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton.
Though Milton belongs to the 17th century and the Age of Puritanism, his poetry
largely relates to the spirit of the Renaissance. The English poetry of the second half
of the 17th century is, in a way, a reaction against the sweet Elizabethan poetry. We
come across here the strong-lined Metaphysical poetry.
The Elizabethan lyrical poetry was dominated by sonnet – writing. The spate of
Sonnets started by Sidney, and then Thomas Wyatt and Earl of Surrey, greatly
influenced the poets of the time. They imitated, translated, borrowed and thus,
enriched English poetry as well as its vocabulary. Milton, however, introduces
classical note along with his puritan Christian faith. His ‘Lycidas’, a pastoral poem,
mourns the death of a fellow poet using the form of ancient classical poetry, but
expresses religious – sentiment and thought of poetic career in general. Spenser, in
his Prothalamion, also uses conventional classical poetry. This excellent marriage
hymn is criticized for mixing the personal element, in it.
Shakespeare, like Sidney’s ‘Astrophel and Stella’ and Spenser’s ‘Amoretti’,
wrote a sonnet sequence addressed to the Fair Youth and then to a mysterious Dark
Lady. He uses the form suitable for English, which came to be known as
Shakespearean Sonnet.
The selections from the Elizabethan poetry here, can only give a glimpse of its
variety and achievement. But, the 17th century saw a great upheaval in Britain in the
social and political sphere. There was civil war, establishment of the Common
Wealth, the influence of the Puritan church and again the Restoration of the kingship
after 1660. Besides, there were discoveries of the New World, new science and new
knowledge. These changes affected poetry also. Two different schools of poetry – the
Courtly Poetry and the Metaphysical Poetry – reflected the new spirit.
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The poems of John Donne, Herbert and Andrew Marvell are together classified
as Metaphysical poetry. They have some common characteristics such as the use of
unconventional imagery, uneven stanza form, use of speech idiom, unusual
comparisons, use of new knowledge of Geography and science as well as allusions to
the Biblical and classical mythology. Dr. Johnson called this poetry as the strong-
lined poetry. And it has earned its name ‘metaphysical’ on account of its use of new
philosophy and science.
The poems of John Donne and the poem by Andrew Marvell ‘To His Coy
Mistress’, are unusual love poems. Donne uses his knowledge of chemistry and
Geography, and Marvell’s poem similarly ranges over time and space in a hyperbolic
wooing of his lady. Herbert’s poem, expressing religious sentiment, uses the image
of a pulley, which is a mechanical device.
3.8 Terms to Remember :

The terms and difficult expressions are included in the discussion of each poet.
3.9 Answer to Check Your Progress :

A) 1. pity
2. step-mother
3. the moon
4. cupid, the god of love
5. bargain
6. spiritual love or love of God.
B) 1. the metaphor of commercial bargain.
2. Like the poet, the Moon is also pining for love.
3. The muse of poetry advises the poet to look within himself and not copy
others.
4. The poet aspires to higher kind of love, spiritual love, so he wishes to bid
farewell to this world.
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A) 1. wedding hymn.
2. the mythological story of Jove and Leda.
3. gathering flowers.
4. two princesses – the brides.
5. the city of London.
6. The wedding of two brides.
7. digression of the personal element.
B) 1. The poet, Spenser, was in a sorrowful mood because he had a fruitless day
at the court of court of the Prince.
2. The river Thames made the water flow slowly and murmured to the brides.
3. The river nymphs had gathered flowers, which they showered over the
brides (the Swans)
4. The rivers nymphs prayed that the brides should have joy, Venus and Cupid
should smile on them, and they should soon join their love.
A) 1. being involved in his own beauty.
2. assures him to immortalize him through his poetry.
3. that the old masters described only the Fair youth’s beauty which they
guessed looking into the future.
A) 1. (c) Edward king.
2. (c) the guardian water-nymphs.
3. (b) Orpheus
4. (c) Lycidas’s ship was built during an eclipse, which caused his death.
5. (d) the death of Edward King and Milton’s won poetic career.
A) 1. (c) to each other’s souls.
2. (c) he considers their life before failing in love as insignificant.
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3. (c) he does not have the stock of tears, sighs, oath. Etc to bargain for more
love.
4. (d) by joining their hearts together.
5. (c) good people do not make a show of their grief.
6. (c) God has given him the sight of his son, Jesus.
7. (d) a device to pull man towards God.
8. (c) he and his lady should devour their pleasures.
3.10 Further Exercises :

1. Comment on the merits and demerits of Spenser’s Prothalamian as a
marriage hymn.
2. Explain the contributions to the sonnet-writing made by Philip Sydney, The
Earl of Surrey, and Shakespeare.
3. What are the characteristics of Metaphysical poetry? Explain with reference
to the poems by John Donne, Herbert and Andrew Marvell.
4. Comment on Milton’s ‘Lycidas’ as a pastoral elegy.
3.11 References :
1. Daiches, David.: A Critical History of English Literature, (Secker and
Warburg)
2. Bush Douglas.: English Literature in the Earlier Seventeenth Century
(1600-1660), Oxford, (Clarendon Press).
3. de Sola Pinto, V. (1950): The English Renaissance, 1510-1688, in
‘Introductions to English Literature’, II ed. B. Dobree (London).
4. Leisham, J. B. (1934): The Metaphysical Poets, (London).
5. Grierson, Herbert (1921) (ed.): Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the
Seventeenth Century, (Oxford).
6. A Guide to English Literature, ed. Boris Ford; The Age of Shakespeare,
Pelican Book, (1956). 

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Unit-4
The Jew of Malta,
Christopher Marlowe
Index
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 State of the British Drama before The University Wits
4.1.2 The Jew of Malta : Its stage history and sources
4.2 The Jew of Malta
4.2.1 The story in brief
4.3 Critical Commentary
4.5 Answers to Check Your Progress
4.6 Exercises
4.0 Objectives :
After studying this unit, you will be able to :
 learn about the life and times of Christopher Marlowe, the Elizabethan
dramatist, a predecessor of Shakespeare.
 understand the contribution of the University Wits (like Marlowe and
others) to the development of English Drama.
 learn and be familiar with the story of Marlowe’s play ‘The Jew of Malta’.
 have the summary of each act of the play
 study in detail the characters in the play
 have a critical commentary on the play and the characters in it.
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4.1 Introduction :
Christopher Marlowe was born at Canterbury and educated at Cambridge. He
did not join his father’s profession of Tanning and shoe-making. He acquired his
B.A. degree in 1584 and M. A. in 1587, both from Cambridge University. He had
acquired a taste in Drama right from his school days in Canterbury. He took up a
career as a dramatist, after his traveling abroad as a secret service agent. He joined
Lord Admiral’s company of players, which performed all his plays.
Marlowe’s dramatic career lasted just for six years, from 1587 to 1593. He is
said to have been killed in a tavern brawl at the house of Eleanor in Deptford. But
there is a dispute about it. It is said that Marlowe was invited to Deptford by one Mr.
Ingram Frizer, and was assassinated on political grounds. Frizer claimed that
Marlowe had attacked him, and was killed by him in self-defence.
Marlowe was involved in the work as a secret agent at the instructions of Sir
Frincis Walsingham, who was interested in uncovering Catholic resistence to
Elizabethan policy in religious practice or in direct political actions. After his death,
there was a campaign against him branding him to be subversive and dangerous. This
might have endangered some politicians, and therefore he might have been
assassinated. But there is no proof of what really happened to cause the tragic death
of Marlowe.
Marlowe was considered to be a colourful character, but also rebel and an
atheist. It is not possible to say how far these opinions are true. Marlowe’s life is a
mystery. His play ‘Dr. Faustus’ does not support the view that he was anti-religion or
against God.
In unit No. 1, you have already learnt the nature of the Elizabethan drama and
theatre, how it began with Miracle and Morality plays, and how the University Wits
such as Robert Greene, George Peele, Lyly etc. contributed to the Elizabethan
Drama. These University Wits were responsible for laying the foundation of
Elizabethan Drama.
Christopher Marlowe was one of the University Wits. He was the first one to
help the English Drama come out of old Morality plays and rambling Interludes. He
took up ambitious themes and stories for his plays. His first play, Tamburlaine,
brought high passion and poetry to the form of English Tragedy. However, the play
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is like series of scenes based on episodes or incidents, without any plot structure as
such. His second play, Dr. Faustus, is his highest achievement in the Tragic Drama.
His The Jew of Malta, which you are going to study in this unit, is also tragedy of a
Jew merchant, ambitious of wealth and power. Later, it became one of the sources
for Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Marlowe’s Edward II is the first history
play in the history of the British Drama.
4.1.1 State of the British Drama before The University Wits :
In the twelfth century, from the reign of Henry II, there were Miracle Plays, the
stories taken from the legends of saints and the acts of miracle connected with the
Virgin Mary : There were also Mystery Plays, which presented stories taken from the
scriptures. Their objective was didactic. By the 15th century the whole cycles of the
Miracle and Mystery play were amalgamated. Though these were mainly biblical
narratives, the players introduced the element of humour in them. The plays were
performed in the Corpus Christi festival founded in the year 1264, and eventually
became very popular. The plays began to be performed outside the church in the
open air, during the summer season and the plays were produced by the various
trade-guilds.
By the 15th century, the place of Miracle plays was taken up by the Morality
Plays. These plays personified abstractions like Virtues and Vices, Good and Evil.
They were allegorical in nature. To provide comic relief in the staging of the
Morality plays, the writers introduced comic. Interludes, for example, the tricks of
vice, the attendant of the Devil in the play. Later on, Interlude itself became an
independent comic drama. Everyman is the only existing Morality Play of this
period.
The New Learning, or the spirit of the Renaissance, played decisive part in the
development of the British Drama. The newly educated young men from the
universities of Oxford and Cambridge, who had hardly any employment, turned to
the theatre. They were quite familiar with the ancient Greek and Latin Drama. They
were greatly influenced by the Tragedies of Seneca, and comedies of Plautus, both
Latin Dramatists. The first regular tragedy produced in English was Gorboduc or
Ferrex and Porrex, by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton. The first comedy,
produced under the influence of Plautus, was Ralph Roister Doister, a comedy full of
incidents and adventure. Another comedy, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, is a realistic
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English comedy. There were also early history plays such as The Famous Victories
of Henry the Fifth; and The Chronicle History of King Leir.
The young scholars, who graduated from the Oxford and Cambridge University,
known as University Wits, came on the scene of the British Drama in the second half
of the 16th century. These included Robert Green, George Peele, Lyly, Thomas Ldge,
Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe.
Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, written in the style of Seneca, became
very popular. John Lyly mostly wrote romantic comedies such as Endymion,
Alexander and Compaspe, Mother Bombie, etc. George Peele’s Old Wives Tale is a
satirical play criticizing the popular drama of his time. He also wrote a history play;
King Edward The First. Robert Greene’s most popular play is Friar Bacon and Friar
Bungay, Robert Greene is credited with creating the heroines of the Elizabethan
drama. His Margaret and Dorothea are excellent portraits of women, which later
became models for Shakespeare’s heroines in his comedies.
As already stated, Marlowe was the leading dramatist among the University
Wits. His main contribution to the Elizabethan Drama is the fashioning and polishing
Blank Verse as the medium for poetic drama. Blank Verse is the unrhymed iambic
pentametre (i. e. it has five feet of iambic with weak-strong rhythm). Earl of Surrey
first used it in his translation of Virgil’s Aeneid.
In conclusion of this introduction, we can say that the University Wits in general
and Marlowe in particular were responsible for the development of the Elizabethan
Drama which saw its flowering in Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies.
4.1.2 The Jew of Malta : Its stage history and sources :
Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta was probably written in 1589, but it’s the earliest
edition available is of the year 1633. Theatre manager, Henslowe’s diary shows that
this play was presented in the revised form in 1601. The performance of this play
greatly influenced Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. Shakespeare’s The Merchant of
Venice is partly influenced by this play. The play was performed in Germany also.
Sources :
Marlowe must have been familiar with the story of the Jew of Malta, from the
old plays such as The Jew and Matchwell. Besides, during this period there were
several historical writings and travellers’ accounts from which he might have drawn
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his material for the play. For example, there was combat between Christian Knights
of Malta and the Turk warriers. Marlowe made changes in the sources to suit his
purpose. He makes the Knight of Malta pay tribute to the Turk invader, but this is
historically not true. The incident of Barabas betraying the Knight of Malta might
have been borrowed from the story of Nicolas de Villegagnon’s siege of Tripoli.
Marlowe must have been familiar with the history and life of the Jews as reflected in
the Jewish elements in the play.
Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each :

1. What kind of Drama existed in English before the Elizabethan period?
2. Who were the University Wits?
3. Which is the earliest tragedy in the British Drama?
4. Which is the earliest comedy in the British Drama?
5. Which play of Marlowe influenced Shakespeare and Ben Jonson?
6. What is the most important contribution of Marlowe to the English Drama?
4.2 The Jew of Malta :

(Act – wise story in brief)
[Dear student, you must read the original play. The act-wise summary given here is
detailed and helpful to you to write notes on characterization, etc. But, you must read
the text and also the reference material.]
Characters in the Play :
1. Ferneze : Governor of Malta
2. Lodowick : his son
3. Selim Calymath : son to the Grand Seignior
4. Martin Del Bosco : Vice-admiral of spain
5. Mathias : a young gentleman
6. Jocomo
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7. Barnardine : Friars
8. Barabas : A Wealthy Jew
9. Ithamore : a slave
10. Pilia – Borzia : a pick-pockett, attendant to Bellamira, a courtesan
11. Two merchants :
12. Three Jews.
13. Knights, Bassoes, officers, guard, messengers, Carpenters
14. Katharine : Mother of Mathias
15. Abigail : daughter to Barabas
16. Bellamira : a courtesam
17. Abbess :
4.2.1 The story in brief :
The Jew of Malta is a revenge tragedy set on the background of historical
conflict between the Turk invaders from the Ottoman Empire and Christian power of
Spain for the supremacy of the Mediterranean. The action of the play takes place on
the island of Malta in the Mediterranean sea. Barabas, the wealthy Jew; is the central
character in the play, who is motivated for his desire to acquire wealth and power.
The Turks make him the governor of Malta, but, after that he sells Malta back to the
Christians. He openly confesses his motive
‘why, is not this
A Kingly kind of trade to purchase towns
By treachery, and sell’ em by deceit?
(Act V. v. 49-51)
Barabas possesses more wealth than the whole of Malta. He has only one daughter,
Abigail. When the Turk Prince arrives in Malta demanding tribute, the Governor of
Malta orders Barabas and other Jews to pay the money. Some Jews accept to pay, but
Barabas refuses to do so. His property and goods and his wealth are seized by the
order of the Governor. His house is also turned into a nunnery. Barabas, driven by
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the motive of revenge, starts a campaign to bring about the fall of the Governor of
Malta.
His daughter becomes a nun to help her father. The house of Barabas is the
nunnery, where he has kept hidden a lot of wealth. With the help of his daughter he
gets hold of this wealth in diamonds and gold, and he is able to buy a new house for
himself. He gets back Abigail also from the nunnery. The Governor’s son, Lodovick,
and another knight, Don Mathias, are both attracted towards Abigail on account of
her beauty. Barabas makes them fight against each other, and both die in a duel. But
Abigail is really in love with Mathias. When she learns about the death of Mathias,
she is very sorry. She, then, becomes a nun again. Barabas plans to poison all in the
nunnery along with his daughter. Barabas and his Turkish save, Ithamore, kill a
couple of Friars as they become aware of their crimes. Barabas poisons even his own
daughter. His slave, Ithamore, starts blackmailing Barabas with the help of a
prostitute, Bellamira. Barabas poisons both and their friend also. Meanwhile the
Turks attack Malta because the Governor, at the instance of the Spanish Lord, does
not pay the tribute. Barabas helps the Turks in this attack, and he is rewarded by the
Turks making him the governor of Malta. After becoming the Governor, Barabas
plans against Turkish ruler. But, former Governor of Malta turns tables on him and
traps him in his own plan and kills him. The Governor of Malta, however, saves life
of the son of Turk Emperor and his officers.
Act – wise summary of the play :
Prologue :
Before the play begins, there is a prologue by Machevill, a ghost that wishes to
‘present the tragedy of a Jew’ who is greedy for gold. Machevill refers to the the
death of ‘Guise’ – who is the Duke of Guise. He was the leader of the massacre of
Huguenots in 1572, and he died in 1588.
Machiavelli was a cunning politician, whose book Prince was an advice to the
Princes. Machiavelli was rather unscrupulous in his guidance. Though the kings and
princes hated him, they did read his book and followed his advice.
Note the lines spoken by him about religion :
I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
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He says, the kings become kings through their might, and the laws were then made
‘written in blood’ as Draco did. Draco was the Athenian author of the inhuman laws
in 624 B. C. Like Draco, Phalaris was a very cruel Cicilian ruler in the 6th century B.
C., who roasted his enemies in fire, and was killed in the same way.
Act I : Scene 1 and 2 :
Place : Baradas is sitting in his house counting heaps of gold pieces.
Barabas has ships going to different countries from Italy and Greece to Persia
and India. He is happy to do trade with the Arabians and Indians, who pay
generously. But he is not happy to sell his oils and wines to southern Italy and Uz
(near Palestine) becuasue they pay in silver. He admires the wealthy Moor, who
stocks pearls like pebble stones and has bags of gems such as opals and sapphires
and rubies.
He is waiting for the news of his ships from Egypt and Alexandria. A merchant
enters and gives him the news that his ships of Speranza have arrived. The second
Merchant comes and tells him the news of safe arrival of his ships from Alexandria.
Barabas is very happy to possess so much wealth.
He asks, who is honoured in this world without his wealth? He observes that he
would not mind being hated as wealthy Jew rather than being pitied in Christian
poverty. He says, Christians, despite their faith, are full of malice, falsehood and
pride.
He gives names of rich Jews in different countries, who have amassed wealth,
and says, the Jews are far less in number so they cannot be kings. But, let the
Christians be the kings and let them give peaceful rule. He says he has only one
daughter, Abigail, just as Agamemnon, the ancient King of Greece had a daughter,
Iphigenia.
Then three Jews come to see him, and tell him that there is a meeting in the
senate house where the Jews have been asked to remain present. In the Senate
meeting Ferneze, the Governor of Malta tells them that the Emperor of Turkey has
sent Great Selim Calymath (the son of the Emperor), to demand arrears of ten years
of tribute. The Governor tells Barabas and the other Jews that he needs their help to
pay the tribute. The officer says the Jews are required to pay one half of their wealth.
If anyone refuses to pay, he will have to become a Christian; and anyone who denies
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to pay shall lose all his wealth, i. e. all his wealth and property would be taken over
by the state. Barabas, who denies to pay, loses all his property, even his own house.
The Governor gives his house to the church to turn it into a nunnery. Barabas is, thus,
reduced to beggary. Other Jews pay half their property and go away. Barabas is
angry and argues with the Governor. How can he be punished for the transgression of
his tribe long back? Some Jews are Sinners, but Christians are also sinners. However,
the Governor does not pay any attention to him, and he is driven out.
His property, the money and his house are taken up by the officers. Other Jews
try to console him, giving example of Job (from the Bible) who also had lost his all.
But Barabas tells them to leave him alone.
Then enters his daughter, Abigail, who is turned out of the house. She is
unhappy on account of her father. But Barabas assures her that he has secretly kept
enough wealth under the boards of his house. He advises his daughter to become a
nun, find her place again in the house and then, in the midnight find the hidden
treasure and pass it on to him. Abigail, therefore, approaches the Friars and the
Abbess, and seeks admission to the nunnery as a nun. Barabas pretends to be angry
with her. But whispers to her where and how he has hidden his gold and silver, pearls
and diamonds, etc. and tells her that he would come early morning, outside the
house, at her bedroom window.
Mathias, a young gentleman, notices Abigail entering the nunnery as a nun, and
he is sorry for her. Lodowick, the son of the Governor is also with him. Mathias
praises the beauty of Abigail. Both of them decide to meet Abigail.
[Note : The reference to Agamenon. He sacrificed his daughter for his own
benefit. Later, Barabas also kills his daughter, poisoning her because
she becomes Christian.]
Act 2 : Scene 1 and 2 and 3 :
Barabas, carrying a light, is waiting outside the nunnery, for his daughter
Abigail. It is darkness of very early morning. Abigail finds all the gold the pearls and
Jewels hidden under the plank. Baradas appears below the window, where Abigail
hails him, and throws down the bags of his treasure. He promises to free her from the
nunnery very soon.
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In the next scene, Del Bosco the Vice Admiral of the King of Spain arrives in
Malta with his ship, Flying Dragon. He met with the Turkish fleet at sea, there was a
fight in which the Turks were defeated and drowned, and he took the living ones as
prisoners. He wants to sell the prisoners as slaves in Malta. Bosco, at the request of
the Maltese knights, persuades the Governor not to pay tribute to the Emperor of
Turkey. He tells the Governor that the Spanish King is really the owner of the island
of Malta and the King may expel the Governor. He promises the help from the King
of Spain in case of Turks’ attack. The Governor then permits the sell of Turkish
prisoners.
The third scene opens at the market place in Malta. Officers bring the Turk
slaves, among them there is one called Ithamore. Barabas has already freed his
daughter from the nunnery. He has become wealthy again and has bought a house for
himself, as big and beautiful as the Governor’s house.
As he is walking towards the market place, he meets. Lodovick, the Governor’s
son, who is eager to see Abigail. Barabas is aware of this. Lodovick asks Barabas if
he would help him get a diamond. He actually means Abigail, Barabas and
Lodovick, both talk about a diamond, but both, metaphorically, refer to Abigail.
Baradas, has evil intention of killing Lodovick as well as Mathias, who are attracted
towards his daughter.
Baradas bargains for a slave. He rejects one, who looks stout and might eat
more. He finally buys Ithamore, a Turkish slave, thinking he would help him in his
evil plot against the Christians. He buys Ithamore for hundred crowns. He tells
Lodovick to come to his house, and promises him the diamond. Mathias enters with
his mother, Katharine. He finds Lodovick privately talking to Barabas, and wonders
what they must be talking about. Barabas tells Lodovick that Abigail loves Mathias,
but he plans to frustrate the hope of both, his daughter and Mathias.
Katharine, Mathias’s mother has come to buy a slave. Barabas whispers to
Mathias that he should not show any acquaintance before the mother, and invites
Mathias to come to his house later. Mathias is suspicious of Lodovick and Barabas
talking to each other, but Barabas tells him that its only about a diamond and not
Abigail.
Barabas has bought Ithamore, the Turk, as a slave. Barabas tells Ithamore to
avoid any kind of affection (love), sympathy and feeling of fear, and learn to smile
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when the Christians suffer. He recounts to Ithamore his own anti-Christian actions at
night, killing groaning sick people, poisoning the wells, encournging Christian
thieves. During the war between France and Germany, he killed people on both
sides. After the war, as a money-lender, he extorted money from the people, sent
them to jail, turned people mad. He boasts of having more wealth than the whole
town of Malta. Ithamore is no less wicked. At Jerusalem, he had spread a kind of
powder on the ground where people were kneeling in prayer, and made them
cripples. He had set Christian villages on fire, cut the throats of travellers and so on.
As Barabas is talking to Ithamore, Lodovick comes in. Barabas asks Abigail to
receive him and treat him well. He whispers to her to pretend that she loves him.
Abigail does not like it. She tells her father that she is in love with Mathias. But,
Barabas would not listen to her. Abigail and Lodovick go into the house. Then enters
Mathias. Barabas tells him that he would like Abigail to marry him, but Lodovick
keeps sending her gifts, though she refuses to receive them. He also tells Mathias that
Lodovick even now is with Abigail. He asks Mathias to go a way, and promises him
that he would warn Lodovick not to come again. As Lodovick and Abigail are seen
coming, hand in hand, Mathias is very angry, but Barabas makes him go. Barabas
tells Lodovick that Mathias has sworn to kill him. He stops angry Lodovick from
fighting, when he sees Mathias coming. Lodovick goes away. And now, Barabas is
free to promise the hand of Abigail to Mathias.
He tells Mathias that Lodovick has gone to his (Mathias’s) mother. Mathias is
afraid that Lodovick would tell his mother about Abigail, and she might even die
learning this. So he goes away. Abigail does not like the deception organized by her
father. She says, she would tell them both everything and make them friends again.
But Barabas askes Ithamore to lock her up in the house.
Barabas then prepares a letter supposed to be written by Lodovick to Mathias,
and asks Ithamore to give it to Mathias. Ithamore is delighted with the stratagem
planned by Barabas to make Lodovick and Mathias fight a duel.
 Check Your Progress II :
1. What does Barabas think of Christians?
2. What does Barabas prefer to be?
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3. Why is Barabas dispossessed of all his property and the house?
4. Why does Barabas advise Abigail (his daughter) to become a nun?
5. Why did Del Bosco the Spanish Vice-Admiral come to Malta?
6. Why does Maltese governor decide not to pay tribute to the Emperor of
Turkey?
7. Who does Barabas buy as a slave? Why?
8. What advice does Barabas give to the slave?
9. What anti-Christian actions did Barabas carry out in the past?
10. How is Ithamore like Barabas in being anti-Christian?
11. Who are Lodovick and Mathias?
12. What stratagem is planned by Barabas to make Lodovick and Mathias
fight?
Act 3 : Scene 1 to 6 :
Bellamira, who enters the scene, is a courtesan (a prostitute). She is unhappy
that she hardly gets any client now-a-days, since Malta has been besieged. Only
people like a Pilla-Borza (a pick-pocket) visit her. As she is talking to herself, a pick-
pocket enters with a bag of silver stolen by him. He hands over this bag to her. But
they see Ithamore coming. He has a bag of hundred gold coins given by Barabas. He
has already delivered the message of duel to both, Lodovick and Mathias.
In the next scene, Mathias and Lodovic enter. They fight and both fall dead.
Barabas, who has witnessed the fight and encouraged them, goes away before other
people come.
Governor Ferneze, Mathias’s mother Katherine and attendants enter the scene.
Katherine and Ferneze both are terribly grieved. Katherine first blames Lodovick.
But, they soon realize that these two best friends have killed each other, and they
must find out who or what must have made them fight.
In the third scene, Ithamore is delightfully laughing at the neatly plotted villany
by Barabas, making both young men fight and kill each other. Abigail, who finds
Ithamore laughing, asks him for the reason. She learns how her father has brought
about the killing of the two young men and now earnestly decides to become a nun.
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Abigail asks Ithamore to bring any Friar from the new nunnery. When Friar
Jacomo comes she entreats him for admission to the nunnery, and goes with the
Friar.
In scene four, Barabas gets the letter from his daughter Abigail that she has
sought admission to the nunnery. He realizes that Abigail knows his plotting to get
the two young men killed. He knows that she has not only renounced him, the father,
but also the Jewish religion. He declares that his daughter would not inherit his
wealth, nor would she have his blessing. She is like Cain, who murdered his own
brother and therefore cursed by Adam. He makes Ithamore his sole heir.
He asks Ithamore to bring a pot of rice. He poisons it with some powder which
blinds and poisons, but only after forty hours of taking it in. He tells Ithamore to put
the poisonous pot of rice at the dark entry at the nunnery. The inmates of the nunnery
do not see the person who brought it, nor do they make any enquiry about it.
Barabas wants to poison Abigail with this pot of rice, like Alexander was killed
after heavy drinking, and Pope Alexander VI was poisoned by his son Borgia.
Ithamore promises to take this rice pot, which, he says, is enough to poison the whole
stable of Flanders mares.
In scene V, Bosco (or Bashwas), a representative of Emperor of Turkey meets
the Governor of Malta and his knights. He demands the tribute promised by the
Governor in one month’s time. But, the Governor plainly tells him that the heathens
(meaning the Turks) will not have any tribute. He tells Bosco that the Maltese
themselves will break down the walls of the city, take away all the goods to Sicily,
and allow the sea to overflow Malta. Bosco threatens that Calymath would certainly
do all this by the brass bullets.
So the Maltese Governor makes his knights ready for war.
In scene six, the Friars of the nunnery discover that all the nuns are sick and
almost dying. The abbess has asked the Friars to hear their final confession. Abigail
is also dying, and wants to confess to Friar Jacomo, but he has gone to confess other
nuns. Friar Barnardine listens to the confession of Abigail, who tells him her father’s
role in the deaths of Mathias and Lodowick. Fr. Barnardine goes to see Barabas to
make him confess his crime, taking Jacomo with him. He does not tell Friar Jacomo
what Abigail confessed as it is against the rule.
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Act IV Scenes 1 to 4 :
The scene opens with Barabas and his slave, Ithamore enjoying their success in
poisoning the nuns. They see Friar Jacomo and Friar Barnardine coming towards
them. Friars accuse Barabas of wicked deeds and ask him to repent. Friar Barnardine
reminds him of Mathias and Lodowick. Barabas then knows that Abigail must have
confessed. He pretends to be very repentant and asks the Friars to make him a
Christian and offers them all his wealth. The description of his wealth tempts the
Friars, and they both would like to baptize him and urge him to come to their house.
The Friars quarrel over this, claiming Barabas for their house. Barabas, then, sends
Friar Bernardine to his house with Ithamore, and tells Friar Jacomo to come to
confess and baptize him at one o’clock. Ithamore and Barabas strangle Friar
Bernardine to death, and make him stand on the way of Friar Jocomo, leaning on his
staff as if he is alive. Friar Jacomo finds Friar Bernardine standing thus in his way
and angrily strikes him with his staff. Friar Bernardine falls down. He is already
dead. But Jacomo now thinks that he has killed Bernardine. Jacomo pleads with
Barabas not to inform the law and let him go, but Barabas and Ithamore hand him
over to the magistrates.
In the second scene, Pilia-Borza (the pick-pocket) and the prostitute Bellamira
enter, talking about the letter Bella wrote to Ithamore and the pick-pockett was asked
to deliver. Ithamore has handed over Jocomo to the law, and is, perhaps, waiting for
the execution of the Friar.
Ithamore, in his soliloquy, talks about how the Friar patiently accepted his death.
Ithamore has been invited to Bella’s house. Bella has declared her love for Ithamore
in the letter. So he goes to see her. Bella tells him that she loves him. Ithamore says
he would like to have his master’s wealth for her sake. But the master has hidden it
underground. Bellamira and the pick-pockett are together in conning Ithamore.
Bellamira asks Ithamore if knows any secrets of the Jew. She suggests that the Jew
can be blackmailed. Ithamore catches the idea and says, he would write to Barabas to
part with half his wealth as a bargain for not revealing his secrets. Ithamore writes to
Barabas to send him three hundred crowns otherwise he would confess all. The pick-
pockett takes the letter and goes. Bellamira would like to marry Ithamore, and he
says, they should leave this land and go away to Greece. As he is dreamily talking
about his plans, the pick-pockett enters. The Jew has given him only ten crowns, he
says. Actually the pick-pockett has got three hundred from the Jew. Ithamore writes
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another letter demanding five hundred crowns. The pick-pockett goes away, and
Bellamira carries Ithamore to the feast and then to bedroom.
In the third scene, Pillia-Borza, the pick-pockett, who has given Ithamore only
ten crowns out of three hundred, approaches Barabas for five hundred crowns.
Barabas says he has lost his key. The pick-pockett offers to pick the lock or climb up
the window to get the gold. Barabas knows that he is betrayed but he has to part with
five hundred crowns. When the pick-pockett goes away, Barabas plans to go in
disguise to see what Ithamore is doing with the money.
In the fourth scene, Bellamira is making Ithamore drink. The pick-pockett has
arrived, and Ithamore asks him for money from the Jew. The pick-pockett asks him
what he would do if the Jew refuses to pay. Ithamore, under the influence of wine,
starts talking about the murders. He tells them how Barabas brought about the death
of Mathias and Lodovick, and how he took the poisoned rice to the nunnery and all
the nuns were killed. He also tells them how cleverly the Friar, Barnardine was
strangled by him, and Friar Jacomo was implicated of the murder. The pick-pockett
whispers to Bellamira that he must inform this to the Governor. But before that
Bellamira would like to have more gold. Ithamore lies in the lap of Bellamira.
Barabas enters under the disguise of a French musician. Bellamira invites him in.
Ithamore offers him drink. Bellamira would like to have the flower, a nosegay, which
Barabas has in his hat. Barabas has already poisoned the flower, the smell of which
would cause the death of all of them. Ithamore tells Bellamira to give Barabas (the
musician) a crown. And he keeps drinking. Ithamore talks about Barabas, how he
eats pickled grasshoppers and sauced mushrooms, how he does not change his
clothes, etc. Barabas goes away pleading he is not well. Ithamore and Bellamira plan
to get more gold from Barabas. The pick-pocket volunteers to go and deliver the oral
message.
 Check Your Progress III :
1. Who is Bellamira? Why is she unhappy?
2. Why does Abigail become a nun second time?
3. How does Barabas kill the nuns and his daughter?
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4. Why does Friar Bernardine go to see Barabas? Whom does he take with
him?
5. How is Friar Bernardine killed?
6. How does Barabas implicate Jacomo of the murder of Friar Bernardine?
7. What does Bellamira suggest Ithamore to do to get money from Barabas?
8. How does the Pick-Pockett deceive Ithamore?
9. How does Barabas poison Bellamira and Ithamore?
10. How do Bellamira and the Pick-pocket come to know of the crimes of
Barabas and Ithamore?
Act V : Scenes 1 to 5
The Governor of Malta appears along with his officers and knights, and tells
them to prepare for the fight if Calymath, the Turk, attacks. Bellarmira and the Pick-
Pocket approach them and tell the Governor the crimes committed by Barabas.
Bellarmira tells the Governor that Ithamore, who has been the slave of Barabas
would give evidence of the crimes. The officers bring Barabas and Ithamore.
Ithamore tells the Governor how Barabas forged a false letter of challenge and got
both the young men to fight. He also confesses how Friar Bernardine was strangled
and the nuns as well as Abigail were poisoned by Barabas. Barbas is taken to prison.
But, shortly the officers report that Bellarmira, Ithamore and Barabas were dead.
Actually, Bellarmira and Ithamore die of the poisoned flower, and Barabas, who has
drunk poppy and cold mandrake juice, is only temporarily unconscious pretending
death. At the order of the Governor, the body of Barabas is thrown over the walls.
When all of them go away, Barabas rises. He meets Calymath, Bassoes and the
Turk soldiers. He guides them to a secret passage by which he takes five hundred
soldiers into the town and opens the gates for the Turkish army. Maltese Governor
and his knights are taken prisoners. Calymath promises Barabas to make him
Governor of Malta.
In the second scene, Calymath and his soldiers appear with their prisoners – the
Maltese Governor and his knights. Calymath makes Barabas the Governor of Malta.
He also appoints Turk soliders as bodyguards for Barabas.
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When everyone goes away, Barabas thinks over the profit of being a Governor.
He knows that Malta people hate him; so his life will always be in danger. He cannot
get friends or bags of money being in authority. This is for him an unprofitable post.
So he asks to bring to him Ferneze, the previous governor. Barabas tells him that it is
not his policy to destroy Malta. On the other hand, he wants Malta for his prosperity
as well as prosperity of Malta. He promises to destroy Calymath and his soliders.
Ferneze says he would procure money from the citizens and recompense Barabas if
he frees Malta from the yoke of the Turks. Barabas may continue to the governor.
But Barabas says no. He asks Ferneze to go free, and get money from the citizens.
He plans to invite Calymath and his officers for a feast. He wants Ferneze to be
present there and do exactly what Barabas tells him to do. Ferneze agrees to do it. He
goes to get money as promised. Barabas is happy about his plan. As a Jew, he is
interested in making profit for himself. He can be friendly only to those from whom
he can have advantage.
He plans to destroy Calymath’s soldiers and at the same time destroy Calymath.
In the third scene, a messenger from the new governor, Barabas, arrives to
deliver the invitation of Barabas for the feast. Calymath, at first, is reluctant to accept
invitation for a feast in the town recently razed by him in the war. But the messenger
tells him that the feast is arranged for the soldiers in a monastery outside the city, and
Calymath and his bassoes would be feasted in the house of Barabas. Messenger also
tells him that Barabas has a big, very expensive pearl to give to him as a present.
Finally, Calymath accepts the invitation.
In the fourth scene, Ferneze instructs his knights to wait outside until they hear a
long cannon fired. Then they should come and rescue him. Then the knights go
away.
In the fifth and the last scene, Barabas is making preparations along with the
carpenters. He pays the carpenters when they have finished their job.
The messenger arrives and tells Barabas that Calymath has accepted the
invitation. Fernez comes with the money and informs Barabas that he has been able
to gather a hundred thousand pounds.
Barabas tells him what he should do. The army of Calymath would be in the
monastery. He has already put explosives under it, to blow it and kill the whole
army. With the help of the Carpenters he has built a beautiful gallery, where he is
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going to hold the feast. When the cable attached to it is cut, the gallery would
collapse and Calymath and his officers would fall into the deep pit. He tells Ferneze
to cut the cord (the cable) at the sound of a shot from the tower. Ferneze agrees to do
what he is told. Barabas boasts to himself about his plan. He has purchased the town
by treachery, and now he is selling it by deceit. Was ever there a greater falsehood in
the world?
He welcomes Calymath and his officers. He requests Calymath to come up the
stairs. But Ferneze stops him. the knight within orders for sounding the charge, and
Ferneze cuts the rope. Barabas, who is standing in the gallery, collapses into the pit
below. Ferneze tells astonished Calymath that this was a plan devised by Barabas to
kill him. Calymath prepares to run away, but Ferneze stops him. Barabas realizes that
it is his end. So he tells Ferneze how he got his son killed, and he tells Calymath how
he has planned his overthrow. Thus he dies.
Ferneze tells Calymath that Barabas wanted to kill him, but he, Ferneze, chose
to save his life. Calymath wants to go, but Ferneze tells him that Barabas has
destroyed the whole of his army. He needs new men to man his ship. Ferneze tells
him that his (Calymath’s) father should recompense Malta for the destruction and
free Malta from the yoke of the Turks. Then only Calymath can go. Ferneze tells
Calymath that until this is done, he will have to remain prisoner in Malta.
 Check Your Progress IV :
1. Who inform the Governor of the crimes committed by Barabas?
2. Who gives evidence against Barabas?
3. How do Bellamira and Ithamore die?
4. How does Barabas pretend death?
5. How does Barabas help Calymath conquer Malta?
6. How is Barabas rewarded by Calymath?
7. Why does Barabas decide to sell back Malta to the Maltese Governor?
8. How does Barabas destroy Calymath’s army?
9. Where does Barabas arrange the feast for Calymath?
10. What job is Ferneze supposed to do at the feast?
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4.3 Critical Commentary :
[You already have act-wise summary. Here only critical observations are given.]
1. Barabas :
Machiavelli, who opens the action of the play, was a political theorist and
historian, who was known in the Elizabethan England as a scheming, ungodly and
diabolical person, who recommended deception in the practical politics and was
against morality. The choice of the prologue figure, therefore, is quite befitting the
play’s central character, Barabas, the Jew, who is the past master in deception and
cruelty. In the Prologue Machiavelli plainly states, ‘I count religion but a childish
toy.’
In this Tragedy of the Jew, Brabas is painted wholly as a bad man, while
Aritstotelian view of a tragic hero is a man of high-standing who is essentially good,
but makes a mistake and comes to a tragic end. He invites sympathy, but the Jew
Barabas does not invite any such sympathetic feeling. Talking to his Turkish slave,
Ithamore, Barabas recounts all his past cruel deeds visited on the Christians. And
Ithamore also tells him how he burned the Christian villages, etc. Barabas is happy
with him, and says, “we are villains both, both circumcised, we hate Christians
both.” (Act Ii, scene 3)
Action of the play from the beginning to the end is full of stratagems of Barabas
and the people who fall victim to it. The villainy or wickedness of Barabas is
directed towards the Christians. If his wicked actions had been motivated by the
Governor’s action of taking away his property and money, it would have been at
least partly justified. But, he has been shown wicked throughout his life. he gives an
account of his wickedness to Ithamore, how he kills sick people at night, poisons the
wells of the Christians, and encourages thieves.
After the Governor’s merciless punishment, he becomes vengeful. Though
Mathias has done no wrong to him he gets him killed. The nuns in the monastery are
innocent, but he poisons all of them along with his daughter. He and Ithamore
strangle Friar Bernardine and implicate Friar Jacomo. And finally, he betrays Malta
to the enemy, the Turks. This is not enough. He betrays even the Turks and plans
murder of the whole army.
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After becoming the Governor of Malta, he realizes that he has no use of this
kind of power. He is essentially a Jew merchant interested in amassing wealth. So he
is ready to betray the Turk and sell back Malta to Ferneze, the Governor for hundred
thousand pounds. Barabas is thus shown to be unscrupulous. He does not spare even
his own daughter.
Barabas is presented as a complete Anti-hero. His very name is taken from the
Bible. Barabas was a thief imprisoned by the king of the Jews along with Jesus
Christ. And the Jews prefer him to be released instead of Jesus. The name Barabas,
thus, echoes the divide between the Christians and the Jews right from the Biblical
times.
Abigail :
Abigail, a very young girl of fourteen, is loyal first to her father, and helps him.
She converts from one religion to the other for the sake of her father. She does not
use religion for her own purpose. She is in love with Mathias, who is a Christian. She
renounces the father as well as Jewish religion, when she realizes what her father has
done. She is motivated in her life only by love, once for her father and then for
Mathias. The Jew of Malta is the most cynical of all Marlowe’s plays. But, the
character of Abigail in it shines as the only innocent one. She escapes the wicked
world of Barabas and Ithamore, where people like her cannot live.
Ithamore :
Ithamore is a Turkish prisoner, a Muslim by religion, bought as a slave by
Barabas. He and Barabas are like-minded anti-Christians. Barabas rightly says to
him:
‘we are villains both.
Both circumcised. We hate Christians both.
Like Barabas, Ithamore has also plagued Christians. He set fire to Christian villages,
cut the throats of the travelers, made people cripples, and enjoyed their sufferings. He
helps Barabas in all his plotting. He delivers deadly messages, strangles. Friar
Bernardine and laughs at the death of young men Lodovick and Mathias. But, the
lure of the beautiful prostitute, Bellamira, turns him against Barabas also. He
blackmails Barabas, but he himself is duped by the pick-pockett, who does not pay
him the crowns brought from Barabas. Under the influence of wine he confesses the
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crimes committed by him and Barabas. He is murdered by Barabas, along with
Bellamira with a poison-smelling flower.
The character of Ithamore is not drawn by Marlowe, as true to its type. He is
only an unlettered Turk soldier captured and sold as a slave. But, he is made to speak
highly romantic love poem to Bellamira. It uses references to Roman and Greek
mythology, which would be unfamiliar to a soldier like him.
The Plot Construction in The Jew of Malta :
The Jew of Malta is divided into five acts as was the practice of the Renaissance
Drama. Each act has varying number of scenes, and some scenes are very short. But,
the action progresses in a chronological manner.
The Prologue by Machevill introduces the theme, viz. the Tragedy of a Jew,
who is interested only in amassing money by any means. The conflict between
Barabas the Jew and the power of Maltese Governor starts with the Ottoman
Emperor demanding heavy tribute from Malta, which the Governor wants the Jew
merchants to pay. Barabas alone refuses to pay, as a result his property is
confiscated. Barabas already hates Christians, and Governor’s remarks about the
Jews further anger him.
The first act, thus, sows the seeds of further revengeful actions. In the Second
Act, with the help of his newly bought slave, Ithamore, Barabas cunningly brings
about a duel between Lodovick, the Governor’s son and Mathias, and both die
fighting. Meanwhile, he uses his daughter to recover his wealth hidden in his old
house now turned into a nunnery.
In the third act, Marlowe introduces the character of a courtesan, Bellamira, who
is assisted by a pick-pocket. The action of the play progresses with the help of these
minor characters. Abigail comes to know how her father got Mathias killed, and she
enters the nunnery. Barabas poisons her and the nuns with the help of Ithamore.
Ithamore is lured by Bellamira and who makes him blackmail Barabas for gold
crowns. Though both Bellamira and Ithamore die poisoned, they report the crimes of
Barabas to the Governor.
The play becomes eventful and complex the third act onwards. In the fourth Act
Barabas ingenuously brings about the deaths of the Friars Bernardine and Jacomo.
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The scene in which the Friars vie with each other to baptize Barabas and get his gold,
throws light on the corruption among the catholic clergy.
The fifth act is crowded with a lot of action. It includes the death of Ithamore
and Bellamira, who are poisoned, and Barabas, who pretends to be dead, is thrown
out. He is found by the Turks, whom be helps to conquer Malta, becomes the
governor himself. But, eventually he betrays the Turks also.
Barabas comes to a tragic end by his own action of deception. Governor Ferneze
turns tables on him, saving the Turk Calymath, discovering the plot of Barabas to kill
him. Barabas himself falls into a cauldron devised for Calymath.
The Action of the play gathers speed after the third act and becomes rather
complex.
The Theme of The Jew of Malta :
The central theme of the play is the tragic end of a mighty Jew, Barabas, who
would go to any length to retain his wealth, and plan revenge against anyone coming
in his way.
The theme is realized on the background of Ottoman Emperor demanding heavy
tribute from Malta, which Maltese Governor can pay only by forcing the Jews.
The prologue introduces the theme saying how the Jew, who wants to see his
money bags to be always full comes to a tragic end. However, there are a number of
issues related to the religious background and personal conflict between the players
of the action.
There is a theme of conflict between the Jews and the Christians on the one
hand, and Christian powers and the Muslim conquerors on the other. On the
background of this historical conflict, the Jew tries to work out his revenge upon the
Christian power of Malta.
There is a tragic love story of the Jew’s daughter Abigail, and a Christian youth
Mathias, frustrated by the Jew’s theme of revenge and Anti-Christian feeling.
The tragic end of the Jew is engineered by the introduction of the minor
characters like a courtesan and a pick-pockett.
In another minor theme, the selfish motive of the Catholic clergy is satirized,
when the Friars fight and abuse each other to get Barabas in their house.
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Over-riding the story, there is a theme of deception all round. Barabas deceives
the young men, Lodovick and Mathias, telling them lies and sending false messages.
Ithamore deceives Barabas. Even the pick-pockett deceives Ithamore by not paying
him the money extorted from Barabas. The Friars try to deceive each other. And
Barabas deceives Jacomo planting the murder of Bernardine on him. Finally, Barabas
tries to deceive and trap Calymath in a deadly plan. But, Ferneze, the ex-governor of
Malta deceives Barabas paying him in his own coin, and sending him to his death.

[These terms or Vocabulary items are from the original text]
  attain to Peter’s Chair : become Pope.
  Draco : The Athenian author of inhuman laws (624 B-C) (so we say
‘Draconian law’)
  Samnites : people of Southern Italy.
  Uz : the place bordering Palestine
  Candy-shore : Crete
  Malta Road : the harbour of Malta
  factor : agent (Barabas talks about his agents at the port)
  hapless : unlucky
  policy : deliberate cunning (used in the play repeatedly in this sense)
  fond : foolish
  Ego mihimet sum simper proximus : I am my own best friend. (correct
version : Proximus sum egomet mihi)
  Primus Motor : God, the first mover
  ecstasy : fury, madness (Barabas is furious losing his property)
  portagues : gold coins
  orisons : prayers
  Cytherea : Goddess Venus
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  Bueno para todos mi ganado no era : my flock was not good for all –
(meaning : Barabas says that his money is not to be used by all.)
  Hermoso placer de los dineros : beautiful pleasure of money.
  cozening : cheating
  hospitals : alms-houses
  Ormus : trading city on the Persian Gulf
  spurca : base, filthy
  batten : grow fat
  blood of Hydra : Hydra was the serpent with nine heads.
  Hodi tibi, cras mihi : Today you, tomorrow me.
  hempen tippet : noose of hangman’s rope
  muschatoes : moustache
  coupe de gorge : cut his throat
  catzery : involved with prostitutes
  Grand Cham : Emperor of Tartary
  Janizaries : Turkish infantry
  culverin : a long cannon
4.5 Answers to Check Your Progress :

I 1. There were Miracle and Morality Plays prior to the Elizabethan period, in
England.
2. The University Wits were a group of scholars who turned towards the field
of Drama and theatre in England.
3. Gorboduck or Ferrex and Porrex.
4. Ralph Roister Doister
5. The Jew of Malta
6. Marlowe perfected Blank Verse as the medium for poetic drama.
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II 1. Barabas thinks Christians are full of malice, falsehood and pride.
2. Barabas prefers to be a wealthy Jew.
3. Barabas refuses to pay his contribution to pay the tribute, so his property is
confiscated by the Governor.
4. His wealth in diamonds and pearls etc is hidden under a plank, so he
advises Abigail to become a nun and get back his wealth for him.
5. Del Bosco comes to Malta to sell the Turkish prisoners as slaves.
6. Maltese Governor is advised by Del Bosco not to pay tribute, and promised
help.
7. Barabas buys Ithamore, the Turk as a slave because he might help him in
his evil plot.
8. Barabas advises Ithamore to avoid all affection, feeling of fear and learn to
smile when Christians suffer.
9. Barabas killed groaning sick people, poisoned wells, encouraged Christian
thieves, extorted money, turned people mad, etc.
10. Ithamore also carried out anti-Christian activities, burning Christian
villages, killing travelers, etc.
11. Lodovick is the Governor’s son, and Mathias is a young gentleman in love
with Abigail.
12. Barabas sends forged challenge letters for duel to make them fight.
III 1. Bellamira is a prostitute (a courtesan) and she is unhappy as she is not
getting any clients.
2. Abigail, in love with Mathias, learns about his death through the planning
of her father.
3. Barabas sends poisoned rice to the nunnery, which kills the nuns and
Abigail.
4. Friar Bernardine goes to Barabas to make him repent, and takes Jacomo
with him.
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5. Friar Bernardine is strangled by Ithamore under instruction of Barabas.
6. Barabas makes the body of Bernardine stand in the way of Jacomo, who
strikes Bernardine and the body falls down.
7. Bellamira tells Ithamore to threaten Barabas of disclosing his crimes if he
does not pay.
8. The pick-pockett keeps the money given by Barabas and says he did not
pay.
9. Barabas, in the disguise of a French musician, gives a poisoned flower to
Bellamira and Ithamore, the smell of which kills them.
10. Ithamore under the influence of wine talks about his and Barabas’s crimes.
IV 1. Bellamira and the pick-pockett tell the Governor how Barabas committed
crimes.
2. Ithamore gives evidence against Barabas.
3. Bellamira and Ithamore die after smelling the poisoned flower given by
Barabas.
4. Barabas drinks poppy and cold mandrake juice, which make him
temporarily unconscious.
5. Barabas takes Calymath’s 400 soldiers by a secret way into the city and
opens the gates.
6. Barabas is made the Governor of Malta by Calymath.
7. Barabas realizes that Malta people hate him, and he would not be able to
earn money by being a Governor.
8. Barabas puts explosives in their camp and kills the army in the explosion.
9. Barabas arranges to hold the feast for Calymath on a newly constructed
gallery.
10. Ferneze is supposed to cut the cable, so that the gallery collapses and
Calymath and his officers fall into the pit.
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4.6 Exercises :
1. Examine critically The Jew of Malta as a revenge tragedy.
2. Examine the Characterization of Barabas as an anti-hero created by
Marlowe.
3. Write a note on the role played by the minor characters – Bellamira, the
pick pockett in The Jew of Malta.
4. Write short notes on the following :
(a) Lodovick and Mathias
(b) Tragic love story of Abigail
(c) The Pick-Pocket
(d) Ithamore
4.7 Further References :

1. Lupton, Julia Reinhard, (2004), ‘The Jew of Malta’, in The Cambridge
Companion to Marlowe, ed. Patrick Cheney, Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, pp. 144-57.
2. MacLure, Miller, ed. (1979), Marlowe : The Critical Heritage 1588 – 1896,
London : Routledge.
3. Riggs, David (2004), The World of Christopher Marlowe, London : Faber and
Faber.

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Unit- 5
MACBETH
William Shakespeare’s
Index:
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Text
5.3 Characters in the Play
5.4 A Summary of the Play
5.5 Act-wise Summary of the Play
5.6.1 Themes
5.6.2 Plot Construction
5.6.3 Art of Characterization
5.7 Critical Interpretation of the Play
5.9 Check Your Progress
5.10 Exercises
5.11 References for further Study
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5.0 Objectives
 know about the drama as a distinct form of literature.
 the life-sketch of William Shakespeare.
 be able to answer the questions on the play.
5.1 Introduction
In the previous unit, you studied Marlowe’s fine tragedy ‘The Jew of Malta’. In
this unit, you will study shakespearean tragedy Macbeth. This unit begins with the
life-sketch of William Shakespeare and universality of Shakespeare’s plays. William
Shakespeare belongs to the Elizabethan period. Drama flourished in this age. It also
discusses about William Shakespeare’s greatness as a dramatist, Shakespearean
tragedy, Macbeth as a great tragedy, its sources, theme, story, act- wise summary,
etc.
5.1.1 Life and Works of William Shakespeare
First the action, then the story, then the play; that seems to be the natural
development of the drama. To act a part seems as natural to human instinct. The
drama is a story put into action by living performers. The drama has long history.
The development of drama can be divided into three periods-
1) The Religious Period
2) The Moral Period
3) The Artistic Period
William Shakespeare’s works belong to the third period. William Shakespeare
was born at Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire on 23rd April, 1564. His father John
Shakespeare was a Glover and merchant. William Shakespeare’s mother Mary Arden
was the daughter of a landowner. William was the third child in the family.
It is usually held that Shakespeare went to the free Stratford Grammar School at
the age of seven and stayed there till he was fourteen or sixteen. At the age of
eighteen, Shakespeare got married to Anne Hathaway. They had two children from
this marriage.
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Shakespeare left Stratford in 1586, and came to London. He must have been
actively engaged in writing plays by 1592. The complete list of Shakespeare’s works
is as follows:
FIRST PERIOD, EARLY EXPERIMENT. Venus and Adonis, Rape of Lucrece,
1594; Titus Andronicus, Henry VI (three parts), 1590-1591; Love’s Labour’s Lost,
1590; Comedy of Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1591-1592; Richard III,1593;
Richard II, King John, 1594-1595.
SECOND PERIOD, DEVELOPMENT. Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, 1595; Merchant of Venice, Henry IV (first part), 1596; Henry IV (second
part) , Merry Wives of Windsor, 1597; Much Ado About Nothing, 1598; As You Like
It, Henry V, 1599.
THIRD PERIOD, MATURITY AND GLOOM Sonnets (1600-?), Twelfth Night,
1600; Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, 1601-
1602; All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, 1603; Othello, 1604; King
Lear, 1605; , 1606; Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, 1607.
FOURTH PERIOD, LATE EXPERIMENT. Coriolanus, Pericles, 1608; Cymbeline,
1609; Winter’s Tale, 1610-1611; The Tempest, 1611; Henry VIII (Unfinished).
Thus, Shakespeare has written ‘thirty-seven plays’. These plays can be divided
into four major types: 1) Comedies, 2) Tragedies, 3) Romances, and 4) Historical
Plays.
Many of the critics and researchers have praised Shakespeare as the world’s
greatest dramatist. Shakespeare borrowed the themes from the others writings, and
shaped it according to his genius. He was a gifted writer. His works possess the
organized strength and infinite variety, the throbbing fullness and vital complexity.
Shakespeare has command over all the complexities of thought and feeling. He
writes about every aspect of human life. The greatest thinkers, critics, poets,
philosophers could not fathom his greatness.
5.1.2 Shakespeare’s conception of tragedy:
Shakespeare wrote world - famous tragedies. He had no pre-conceived
conception of an ideal tragedy before he took to writing his tragedies. He had widely
read classic literature. Shakespeare added his own keen observations on life, its
mystery, terror and the supernatural forces working upon it. He also added his
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philosophy of life in his plays. Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear are the great
tragedies written by William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare’s tragedies are
serious in nature, yet there are comic elements in them.
His themes: The first main point common to all his tragedies is that the themes of all
his tragedies are essentially thrilling and often melodramatic. There are ghosts,
madness, the graveyard scenes, murders in them. All these are sensational or
melodramatic scenes. There is spiritual crisis in every tragedy which creates certain
effects on our minds.
The Tragic Hero: Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are noble in nature. They belong to
high class family. They are Kings, Princes or generals. Hamlet is the Prince of
Denmark, Macbeth is a great general of Scotland and Othello is a great warrior. They
possess a fatal flaw-‘tragic trait’ which leads themes to their tragic end.
Fate and supernatural elements: Tragic fate and supernatural powers make the
tragedy possible. Shakespeare’s conception of tragedy involved fatal forces. Fate
appears as an invisible actor in plays.
Conflict: Conflict is soul of Shakespeare’s plays. It is either at the physical level or
at the level of mind. The conflict and action ends in the fall of the hero, who is
essentially good. There is conflict between good and evil in the Shakespearean
tragedy. Finally, there is the triumph for good and the evils are always punished. The
inner conflict is infinitely more intense than the external conflict. The inner conflict
is psychological, moral and spiritual. It creates deep effect on the readers or
spectators. These are the marked characteristics common to all the tragedies written
by William Shakespeare.
5.2 The Text - Introduction

Macbeth is classed among Shakespeare’s four great tragedies. It was published
th
on 8 November, 1623. Macbeth seems to belong to Shakespeare’s middle period
5.2.1 Sources of the play
Shakespeare combined a variety of different sources for the writing of his plays.
Most of the plays have more than one sources. He shaped the stories according to his
genius. Thus original story is changed beyond recognition and Shakespeare breathes
into it a new life. The stories of his plays are enriched by fancy, imagination, the gift
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of characterization, humour, wit, romantic sentiment, tragic issue, pathos, rich plots,
psychological insight into characters, etc. Holinshed’s, Chronicle and Scott’s
Discovery of Witchcraft are the sources of Macbeth. Other authorities, that
Shakespeare is supposed to have consulted, are Andre’s Original Chronicle George
Buchanan’s History of Scotland, King James’ Demonology. Over-ambitiousness,
bloodshed, psychological crisis are the major themes of the play.
5.3 Characters in the play

5.3.1 DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Duncan- King of Scotland.
Malcolm- His Son.
Donalbain
Macbeth - Generals of the King’s Army.
Banquo
Macduff
Lennox
Ross
Menteith- Noblemen of Scotland.
Angus
Caithness
Fleance- Son to Banquo
Siward- Earl of Northumberland, General of the English Forces.
Young Siward- his Son.
Seyton- an Officer attending on Macbeth.
A Boy-son to Macduff.
An English Doctor.
A Scotch Doctor.
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A Sergeant.
A Porter.
An Old Man.
Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macduff.
Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth.
Hecate.
Three Witches.
Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants and
Messengers.
The Ghost of Banquo and other Apparitions.
Scene : Scotland: England.
5.3.2 Character- sketches
A) Macbeth
Like Hamlet, Macbeth is the most complex character depicted by William
Shakespeare. He is ambitious, but tempted by others to commit crime. He is certainly
a great soldier, a loyal and devoted subject of Duncan, who deserves the praise and
gratitude of the king. But he lacks strong will-power, so the witches could exercise a
subtle influence upon him. The witches and Lady Macbeth are agents of evil and
Macbeth is victimized to their influence.
Macbeth has strong imaginative power, so we see him searching of the heart
before he agrees to commit the murder. He imagines the murder of Duncan. He is
dominated and tyrannized by the imagination. He fulfills his ambition by murdering
his king and then to secure his power, he commits other murders-first Banquo, then
Macduff’s wife and children. Naturally, he became the tyrant ruler, who destroyed
many lives, murdered innocents. Besides this, he is sensitive, having intellectual
emotion, and also self-torturing playing with conscience, cold-blooded and selfish.
Such is the mighty dramatic character Shakespeare gave to the world.
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B) Lady Macbeth
Next to Macbeth Lady Macbeth is the most important character in the play. She
is ambitious resourceful and diabolic. It is her love for her husband that leads her to
crime. She knows limitations of her husband. Macbeth lacks strong will -power, yet
he is ambitious and knowing this Lady Macbeth promotes her husband in the act of
crime. Lady Macbeth plans the murder of Duncan. Thus, she undertakes a task
which is really very difficult for any woman. Lady Macbeth is realist and fearless
too. She goes back to the death-chamber to deposit the daggers.
Like her husband, Lady Macbeth also suffers from nervous breakdown. She is
troubled by her conscience. She tries to suppress her conscience, but she fails to do
this. Lady Macbeth knows limitations of her husband, so she takes the initiative in
the matter. She really loves her husband, so she suffers from loneliness. She is more
practical than her husband.
C) Banquo
Banquo is also a General of the King’s army. He is equally brave to Macbeth.
But after the victory in the battle, he is less honoured by the king also. The three
witches narrated prophecy to Macbeth and Banquo too, but like Macbeth he is not
tempted by future prospects. He even warns Macbeth that such prophecies may
bring disaster and tempt to commit crime. He tries to forget the prophecy. But
Macbeth does not get mental peace until Banquo is dead. Macbeth asks the
murderers to kill Banquo. Thus, this brave, honest soldier is killed for no fault in
him. Compared to Macbeth, Banquo is not selfish or tempted by power.
D) Macduff
Macduff is also the General in the Kings army. He is noble and blameless, and
loyal also. He is brave and intelligent. He suspects Macbeth from the very
beginning, which proves true afterwards. Though, he gets the news of the murder of
his wife and children, he does not lose his heart, but performs his duty honestly. In
the battle, he has only one aim in view- the slaying of Macbeth. Thus, he takes
revenge of the murder of his wife and children.
E) Duncan
Duncan is the King of Scotland. He is an old generous king, and is lord and
supported by his subjects. He has two sons- Malcolm and Donalbain. He is kind,
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honest king. He trusts his officers so that he is easily killed by Macbeth for the greed
of the throne.
5.4 A Summary of the Play

The play opens with the discussion of the three witches in thunder and lightning.
They decide to meet again when the battle will be over. For them fair is foul and
foul is fair.
Macbeth is a brave General of the King’s army. He has conquered the rebel
Macdonwald. The King Duncan is very much pleased to listen this and order the
immediate execution of Cawdor and gives his title to brave, victorious Macbeth.
Three witches talk about past, present and future; they also tell the prophecy of
Macbeth. Now, Macbeth is amazed at the predictions of these three strange women.
But he decides to leave it all to the mercy of God. The king Duncan praises Macbeth
and Banquo for their victory in the battle. But the King declares Malcolm as the
Prince of Cumberland; it spurs Macbeth’s ambition and thus, he makes some evil
plans to achieve the kingship which the witches predicted.
Macbeth discloses the prophecy of the witches in his letter sent to Lady
Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is more ambitious and greedy, so she decides to encourage
her husband to achieve the kingship promised by the witches. But she has fears of
Macbeth’s moral principles and gentle nature. But she remains firm in her decision.
At this moment she gets the news that the king is coming in the castle as her guest
that very night. She takes it as an opportunity to realize the prophecy. When Macbeth
enters, Lady Macbeth attempts to persuade Macbeth for the murder of Duncan.
The King Duncan enters in the castle with his attendants. They admire the castle
and the pleasant atmosphere. The King asks Lady Macbeth to conduct him to
Macbeth, his host. Further Macbeth enters in the castle, but he is deeply sunk in his
thoughts. He thinks about the effects of committing crime. Moral thoughts persuade
him from the planning of killing Duncan, but Lady Macbeth promotes him for this
bloody act, she even promises her help for this.
The second act opens in the court of Macbeth’s castle. It is midnight and
Banquo is walking around the courtyard. Suddenly, Macbeth enters. Banquo is
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surprised to see him at this time. Further, Banquo tells him about the King’s
offerings and also gives a diamond ring given by Duncan.
Macbeth asks servants to leave. He remains alone, and in his illusion, he sees
dagger, blood spots. He is tortured by his own thoughts, yet he enters in the Chamber
of Duncan and murders Duncan. Lady Macbeth supports him by positive thoughts
and takes the daggers from his hands and keeps them into the hands of the sleeping
officers. Now, Macbeth is troubled by his conscience. His mind tortures him and he
feels:
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?”
Shortly after, Lady Macbeth re-enters and asks Macbeth to keep up courage. She also
blames for his timid nature.
Soon Macduff, Banquo, Lennox, Malcolm and Donalbain come to know about
murder of the King. Lady Macbeth pretends, as if she is grief-stricken. Ross also
narrates his experiences of the last stormy night. Everybody gets frightened by the
murder of Duncan, but they cannot believe that the two officers in the king’s
chamber committed the crime. Macduff informs Ross that Macbeth has been
declared as the new King.
Now, Macbeth the new King, wishes to raise certain issues, concerned with
Duncan’s murder in council. He asks Banquo to hold it the next day. He also held
Malcolm and Donalbain as guilty. When Macbeth is left alone, he thinks Banquo
and his children may be dangerous to him in future. Meanwhile, the attendant comes
with two fellows who are supposed to be the murderers.
Macbeth now starts talking with them. He convinces them that, Banquo is their
real enemy and he should be murdered. They make the planning of Banquo and his
son’s murder.
Lady Macbeth enters. She sees Macbeth in a frightened condition. She asks her
husband the cause of his worries. Macbeth tells that there is no peace of mind until
the danger is totally eliminated. But she asks him to forget gloominess and to appear
happy before everybody.
Further, as it was already decided, the two murderers come in the palace of
Forres, a third one is joined them. As Banquo and his son Fleance enter, they attack
them. Banquo is murdered but Fleance escapes. The murderers give the information
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about the murder to Macbeth. Macbeth is seen among his guests and enjoying
Banquet. When Macbeth regrets the absence of Banquo, suddenly the ghosts of
Banquo appears and takes the seat reserved for Macbeth. The ghost is only visible to
Macbeth, he curses the ghost. To see this, Lady Macbeth warns her husband not to
behave so before his guests. But again Banquo’s ghost appears and Macbeth repeats
his wild words for the ghosts. Now, Lady Macbeth tells the guests about poor health
of Macbeth and asks them for forgiveness. They all left the party.
Further, Lennox enters; he is worried about the murders one after another. He
suspects that Macbeth is the real murderer. At this very moment the lord enters and
tells that Malcolm and Macduff are making preparation of the war against Macbeth.
They wish success to Malcolm and Macduff.
Now, Macbeth is eager to know prophecy of the witches. Three witches again
appear before him, they bring different sights which disturbed his mental peace. He
is troubled by the possibility of Banquo’s children becoming king. Then, Lennox
comes with news of Macduff’s flight to England. Macbeth sends soldiers to kill his
wife and child. Ross enters in Macduff’s castle. Lady Macduff blames her husband
for leaving her and children in such a critical time, but Ross defends Macduff and
thus supports her. Then a messenger comes and warns Lady Macduff of coming
danger, but before she could do something, murderers enter and the young son of
Macduff is stabbed to death. Lady Macduff is also killed by the murderers.
Now, Malcolm and Macduff are seen in the palace of Edward the Confessor,
King of England. In order to test Macduff, Malcolm talks with him in contrast
manner, but at last, he assures Macduff’s loyalty and love for Scotland. At this very
moment, Ross enters. Macduff is eager to know about the latest news of Scotland.
When Ross tells about Lady Macduff and her children’s death at the hands of the
agents of Macbeth, Macduff is grief- stricken. He blames himself for this tragedy.
Anyhow, he controls himself, and prepares himself for the further action against
Macbeth.
In the last act, Lady Macbeth is seen as troubled by her own conscience. She
walks in sleep. The doctor has been called, he observes the sleep-walking scène and
suspects the truth but he dares not to speak of them. He tells the waiting woman that
lady Macbeth needs the services of a priest rather than of a physician.
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According to the plannings made earlier, with the help of the King Edward of
England, Malcolm, Macduff, Siward and his son, marched against Macbeth with ten
thousand strong soldiers. A servant gives the news to Macbeth. Macbeth is seen
consulting doctor about the health of Lady Macbeth. The doctor expresses his own
helplessness in this type of mental cases. Macbeth cries indignantly.
Then he prepares to resist the siege of the enemy. He hopes that he will be
successful. At this moment Macbeth hears a cry of woman, Seyton tells the news of
the death of Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is greaf-stricken. He feels, life is meaningless.
In his soliloquy he says,
“Out, out brief candle,
Life but a walking shadow,
a poor player.
That struts and frets his
hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more;
It is a tale.
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing”.
The castle at Dissonance is surrendered without any resistance. Macbeth is seen
fighting in the battle. Malcolm has almost achieved the victory, so old Siward
requests Malcolm to enter the castle. Macduff challenges Macbeth with his sword.
Macbeth still is sure of his imperviousness. He has firm faith on witches’ prophecy
that he has no need to fear to any man born of woman. Now, Macduff reveals his
pre-mature birth, hearing this Macbeth curses witches, for he has been deceived by
their prophecy. Now, he fights with Macduff and at last Macbeth is killed.
At last, the victorious Macduff hails Malcolm as the King of Scotland. All the
soldiers, lords cheer of their victory and new sovereign Malcolm gives
sincerest thanks to all.
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5.5 Act- wise Summary of Macbeth
Act - I
Macbeth is one of the greatest tragedies written by William Shakespeare. It
begins with the three Witches in Scotland, deciding to meet again after a battle.
Thunder and storm and the very appearance of three witches create a gloomy picture,
at the beginning of the play.
Further, Macbeth is introduced as a brave man who brought victory against
Cawdor. Duncan greets this news with great joy.
The next scene opens with the meeting of three witches. They talk about past,
present and future. The third one tells that, Macbeth would be the next King.
Banquo and Macbeth also ask them about their future prospects, but witches vanish
without responding them.
Banquo is suspicious of the prophecy of the three witches but Macbeth comes
under their impression. Now, he starts thinking of killing King Duncan to make
prophecy fact.
King Duncan declares that his son Malcolm will be the new Prince of
Cumberland. Now Macbeth sees Malcolm as a threat or obstacle for his dream of
becoming a king. Thus, his ambitiousness changes his morality. He seriously thinks
of killing Duncan.
When Lady Macbeth learns about Three witches’ prophecies that is the future
prospects of her husband, she asks the gods to remove from her all signs of
compassion, replacing these with cold remorseless, ruthlessness and fearlessness.
Now she plans to kill King Duncan. On the same night, the king Duncan comes to
stay at their castle. Lady Macbeth welcomes King Duncan. Macbeth also comes and
greets the king. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth again speak on the issue of prophecy
made by the witches. Macbeth thinks morally, there is dilemma in his mind, but Lady
Macbeth is firm and blames her husband for his fearful and weak temperament. She
uses different tricks to persuade Macbeth for the murder of the king. They both plan
to kill King Duncan in his sleep while he is a guest at their castle.
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Act – II
Banquo comes in the castle. He tells about his torturous thoughts to Macbeth
and reminds Macbeth about witches’ prophecy. Macbeth asks him not to take it
seriously. At midnight the king is in fast sleep. According to their plan, Macbeth
goes in the bed-chamber of the king and murders with dagger. News of King
Duncan’s death reaches all and they held the two guards as the murderers of King
Duncan. But Macduff is suspicious about it. The king Duncan’s two sons fled to
England and Macbeth is crowned as the new King of Scotland.
Act – III
Macbeth is guilt- ridden and restless, but Lady Macbeth supports him and
creates enough courage in his mind. Now Macbeth arranges for several murders,
feeling that every one of them is the obstacles for his rule. Banquo is killed with the
help of two murderers. In the party, Banquo’s ghost appears; it tortures the new king
Macbeth. Macbeth again meets the three witches, but he is not happy with their
prediction. Lennox, Lords and Duncan’s son discuss about the planning of war
against the new king Macbeth. Accordingly, an army is being formed in England to
fight against Macbeth.
Act – IV
The three witches prophesied before Macbeth. Macbeth is happy to know that
he need not to fear from a man born of a woman. But he is disturbed by the prophecy
that Banquo’s descendants will rule Scotland rather than Macbeth’s descendants.
Macbeth behaves very cruelly with the people. Macduff complains tyranny of
Macbeth before Macduff and the King Edward of England. Now Macbeth plans to
murder Lady Macduff and her son. Two murderers kill them. Ross gives this news
to Macduff. Macduff feels very sad and he blames himself for this tragedy. But he
controls himself and decides to take revenge of it. Now Malcolm decides to leave
England because everything is ready for their invasion of Scotland
Act – V
Now gradually Lady Macbeth loses her courage. She feels guilty, her
conscience tortures her. She cannot suppress her guilt anymore. Her insanity
becomes clear, and doctor is called to treat her. The doctor and a gentlewoman talk
about Lady Macbeth’s sleep- walking scene. Macbeth is disturbed by this. Soon, the
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news came that, Scotland is invaded by Malcolm with loyal lords and soldiers and
the King of England helped him for this. Macbeth laughs at them because he is still
sure of the witches’ prophecy. We learn that Lady Macbeth is dead Malcolm orders
his men to cut down branches of trees from the Birman wood and use it as umbrella
and march towards Macbeth’s castle at Dussinane. Soldiers followed the order, thus
the battle begins. Macbeth fights still he is sure that, he is unable to be killed by a
man naturally born, but Macduff tells that his mother gave him immature birth and
he has born by caesarin section. At the end Macbeth is killed by Macduff. Thus, this
most ambitious man is killed Malcolm is declared as the new King of Scotland.

5.6.1 Themes
Ambition:
Overambitiousness is the most important theme of Macbeth. Ambition inspires
with unholy forces to commit crime or evil conduct which results into fear, guilt. The
theme of Macbeth centres on how ambition and greed can over- power morality and
infest human nature
The main theme of Macbeth is the destruction fashioned when ambition goes
unrestrained by moral constraints. It is presented through the main two characters,
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is a brave Scottish General who is not
naturally inclined to commit crime yet, he desires power. He murders King Duncan
and afterwards he is guilt-ridden. Towards the end of the play, he almost becomes
mad.
Lady Macbeth pursues her goals with greater determination. She promotes her
husband to kill Duncan and give enough support and guidelines to keep courage and
mental strength. But her conscience tortures her. At the end, both of them meet
tragic end. Shakespeare shows that women are also sources of violence and evil.
Lady Macbeth’s behavior shows that women are ambitious and cruel or violent like
men. Shakespeare also focuses on masculinity and violent nature of man.
The difference between kingship and tyranny:
Duncan is always referred as ‘king.’ King is always expected as kind, gracious,
stable, affectionate. Duncan is shown as really a good king. In contrast to that,
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Macbeth is referred as ‘tyrant’; he is greedy, cruel. He brings chaos for the subjects
in Scotland. He murders those whom he sees as a threat to his throne.
Internal conflict:
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth experience mental agony. Macbeth sees a blooded
dagger floating in the air. He also sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in a chair at a feast.
Lady Macbeth in her sleep-walking scene says that her hands are stained with blood
and cannot be washed away by water. It is psychological crisis suffered by both of
them.
Violence:
From start to the end of the play we see bloodshed, murder, repeated violence
etc. Macbeth murders King Duncan, with the help of agents he murders lords,
officers, and also innocents and at the end, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are also dead.
Thus by the end of the play blood seems to be everywhere.
5.6.2 Plot- construction
Macbeth is organized into five acts, and each act contains several scenes. The
play opens with a discussion among the three witches. They appear again and again
between major scenes to comment on events. The plot is very simple. Major focus
is on the actions of Macbeth. Events are followed one after another. Almost all the
major and minor characters are introduced in the first part of the play. Prophecy of
the three witches is the major force for the development of action. Macbeth comes
under the impact of prophecy and is driven to commit crime. He murders Duncan
and thus, to hide crime one murder is followed by other many murders. But his
conscience tortures him. His soul becomes restless. It also happens with Lady
Macbeth who urges him to commit crime. Both meet tragic end.
5.6.3 Art of Characterization
William Shakespeare is highly praised by many of the scholars for his immense
variety of characters in his plays. It is the fact that Shakespeare always tried to keep
up with the people’s needs. Compared to other plays, Macbeth is by far the shortest
play, but like his other plays, it has also fascinating characterization. Shakespeare
presents his philosophy of life through his characterization. Macbeth shows man’s
helplessness under suspense. Like characters sketched by Shakespeare in his other
plays, Macbeth has also common features.
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It is the fact that Shakespeare’s heroes and heroines belong to high class family.
The second thing is, they have some weaknesses or tragic flaw. The third thing is
there lies variety in his characterization. The next thing is, his heroines are superior
to heroes etc. These are some common aspects of his art of characterization.
Macbeth presents human psychology through the characters like Macbeth, Lady
Macbeth, and Macduff etc. Lady Macbeth is dominant, mentally strong than her
husband. She presents different identity of women. Shakespeare offers sharp re-
interpretation of both men and women. In Macbeth Shakespeare shows that
traditional concept of gender roles that is violent men and feeble women is not true.
Macbeth is mentally weak than Lady Macbeth. She knows her husband’s weaknesses
and one of them is his pride. She exploits it well. This pride leads him to downfall.
5. 7 Critical interpretation of Macbeth.

5.7.1 Moral in the play
Many of the critics have discussed about moral lesson put forth by William
Shakespeare in his plays. Macbeth’s character is the best study of the devastating
effect of crime upon human soul. The play is about crime and its psychological
effects. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are engaged in crime. Crime always
carries with it, its punishment, and mental agony is the most severe punishment.
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth get punishment. They suffer from psychological
and spiritual crisis. They feel guilty, disillusioned after their criminal act. Their
conscience tortures them. Sleep- walking scene reveals psychological effect and
mental torture of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth in her sleep-walking seems to see the
blood- spot sticking to her fingers and she cries:
Here’s the smell of the blood still,
all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Macbeth’s fear, unrest, repeated thoughts are the results of his psychological
crisis. Macbeth, who loved morals, sinks himself in criminal act and thus ruins
himself. Thus, crime and retribution is the moral in the play.
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5.7.2 The theme of ambitiousness in Macbeth
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are ambitious, but Lady Macbeth is more
ambitious than her husband. She is ambitious for the prospects of her husband.
Macbeth comes under the impression of Lady Macbeth and also of the witches and
for this reason he is engaged in the act of crime. Macbeth could have resisted Lady
Macbeth’s persuasion and the solicitation of the witches but he fails to do that
because he himself is ambitious he can’t hold back his ambition. Thus, over-
ambitiousness ruined them all.
5.7.3 Macbeth as a typical Shakespearean tragedy
Shakespeare’s all famous tragedies are written on the same pattern. They have
common characteristics. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth have also the same
features or common elements.
Shakespeare disregarded traditional concept of tragedy and thus paved the new
way for the development of the form. Aristotle talked of three unities that are time,
place and action, but Shakespeare didn’t care for this. He shifted the scenes from
place to place and country to country. He lets a lot of time for his action yet he never
disturbed the total effect of the play.
Shakespeare’s all the heroes belong to high class society; they are princes or
dukes, kings etc. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, Othello is the military General of
Venice and Lear is the King of Britain. Likewise Macbeth is the military general of
Scotland.
‘Character is destiny’ is true of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Hamlet suffers because
of over- thinking nature, King Lear suffers because of mistaken identity and thus
Macbeth suffers because of overambitiousness. Thus, there is a sense of moral
order in a Shakespearean tragedy. Thus, Shakespearean tragedy implies the ruin of a
noble nature through the existence of some serious inherent weakness moved by
certain circumstances.
Further, conflict is shown on both the level – internal and external. But the real
tragedy lies in the spiritual and psychological crisis of his characters. Macbeth
experiences spiritual barrenness and nothingness.
Supernatural element has an important place in Macbeth also. In Macbeth the
supernatural appears in the form of the three witches the ghosts of Banquo and of
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Duncan and also in the form of hallucinations. Macbeth comes under the impression
of the three witches. They drive Macbeth on the bloody path of murder, and this fatal
force that brought tragedy in his life. It is a tragedy between good and evil.
Thus, Macbeth has all the characteristics of Shakespearean tragedy.
5.7.4 The Supernatural elements in Macbeth
Shakespeare, especially in his tragedies, uses the supernatural elements. It
manifests itself in various forms such as ghosts, Witches, hallucinations and storm
etc. get delight in spiritual agony of man.
In Macbeth, three witches play an important role in bringing tragedy in the life
of Macbeth. They control the actions of Macbeth. They are awful inspirers of
murder, violence and insanity. They fire Macbeth with ambition and greediness.
Further Banquo’s and Duncan’s ghosts are the creation of the heated imagination and
horror-stricken spirit of Macbeth. They intensify the tragic tone in the drama.
Hallucinations show spiritual agony of Macbeth.
Thus, Shakespeare uses the supernatural element which creates an atmosphere
of mystery and terror. Their features are heightened by imagination.

 Victimized – wronged, mistreated
 Conscience – sense of right and wrong
 Diabolic – evil
 Dagger – blade, carving knife
 Prophecy – forecast
 Melodramatic - sensational, over-emotional
 Throbbing- agonizing, aching
 Hallucination - illusion, vision etc.
 Awful - terrible, unpleasant
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5.9 Check Your Progress
A) Answer the following questions in word/ phrase/sentence each:
1) Who is Macbeth in the play Macbeth?
2) Who is Duncan?
3) What is the supernatural element used by Shakespeare in Macbeth?
4) “The water of the whole ocean cannot wash my hands”. Who says and
why?
5) How does Shakespeare expose psychologically disturbed condition of Lady
Macbeth?
6) Who kills Macbeth in the battle?
7) What moral do you get from Macbeth?
8) Who is Banquo?
9) Who utters the words ‘Here is the smell of blood skill’.
10) How many sons Duncan has?
11) Where did Duncan’s sons run away after the death of their father?
12) Where does Macbeth see the ghost of Banquo?
B) Choose the correct alternatives.
1) ‘Macbeth’ is one of ………..
a) Tragedies b) Comedies c) Historical plays d) Romances.
2) The three witches appear for the first time in drama Macbeth:……………
a) in the first act b) in the second act
c) in the third act d) in the fourth act
3) ………is suspected of Duncan’s murder.
a) Macbeth b) Lady Macbeth c) Banquo d) Macduff
4) ……..forest is mentioned in the play Macbeth.
a) Forest of Arden b) Birman forest c) Forest of Wessex d) None of these
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5) Ross and Angus are ……………
a) Knights b) Noblemen c) Soldiers d) None of these
6) Shakespeare’s plays have been classified into ……………classes.
a) Two b) Four c) Three d) Five
7) Malcolm and Donalbain are ……..
a) King Duncan’s brothers b) Lady Macbeth’s brothers
c) King Duncan’s sons d) None of these
8) …… birth is mentioned as unnatural in the play.
a) Macduff’s b) Macbeth’s c) Donalbain’s d) Ross’
9) Lady Macbeth suffers from mental disease called …….
a) Insomnia b) Mania c) Gout d) Sleep-walking
10) ………. says, ‘God bless us’ when the King Duncan is murdered.
a) Banquo b) Ross c) The Servant d) Malcolm
11) Duncan is the King of ………….
a) Denmark b) England c) France d) Scotland
12) Three witches prophesied that………..children would be kings.
a) Macbeth’s b) Duncan’s c) Banquo’s d) Macduff’s
13) Macduff goes to England ………….
a) To avenge the death of Lady Macbeth
b) To avenge the death of King Duncan
c) To seek Military aid against Macbeth d) None of these
14) Shakespeare wrote ……………. plays.
a) Twenty – three b) Forty – two c) Sixteen d) Thirty – Seven
15) ……… says, ‘‘unsex me, here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top
full of direct cruelty’’.
a) Lady Macduff b) Lady Macbeth c) Duncan d) Macbeth
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A) 1) Macbeth is the General in the army of King Duncan of Scotland.
2) Duncan is the great King of Scotland. He is murdered by Macbeth.
3) Three Witches.
4) After the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth’s conscience tortures him and
these words come out from his soul.
5) In sleep-walking scene.
6) Macduff.
7) Over-ambitiousness brought tragedy for Macbeth, so it should be controlled
8) Banquo is the General of the King’s Army.
9) Lady Macbeth utters these words.
10) Two sons.
11) Duncan’s sons ran away to England and Ireland after the death of their
father.
12) Banquet Hall.
B) Answers to Check Your Progress.
1) a) Tragedies
2) a) In the first act
3) a) Macbeth
4) b) Birman forest
5) b) Noblemen
6) b) Four
7) c) King Duncan’s sons
8) a) Macduff
9) d) sleep-walking
10) c) The Servant
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11) d) Scotland
12) c) Banquo’s
13) c) To seek Military aid against Macbeth
14) d) Thirty – Seven
15) b) Lady Macbeth
5.10 Exercises:
1) What kind of atmosphere is created in Macbeth?
2) Is there any message in the play? Illustrate.
3) Discuss psychological crisis of Lady Macbeth.
4) ‘Over-ambitiousness is the major theme of Macbeth’ Illustrate.
5.11 References for further study.

1) Emma, Smith (Ed.) (2004), Shakespeare’s Tragedies, New Delhi: Blackwell
Publishing.
2) Khandelwal K. N.(undated) Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Agra: Laxmi Narain
Agarwal.
3) Long, William J. (2003) English Literature, Delhi: A. I .T. B. S. Publishers.

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Unit: 6
THE DOUBLE DEALER
William Congreve
Index:
6.0 Objectives.
6.1 Introduction.
6.2 Restoration Comedy/Comedy of Manners.
6.3 Outline Summary of the Play.
6.4 Major/Minor Characters.
6.5 Act-wise Summary and Critical Comments.
6.6 Terms to Remember.
6.7 Check Your Progress-I
6.8.1 Themes.
6.8.2 Plot Construction.
6.8.3 Art of Characterization.
6.9 Check Your Progress-II
6.10 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’
6.11 Exercises.
6.12 References for further Study.
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6.0 Objectives:
After studying this unit, you will be able to –
 know about Restoration Comedy/Comedy of Manners.
 know Congreve as a well-known Dramatist of Restoration Comedy
 know The Double Dealer as a Comedy
 understand the Social Life in the Restoration Period
 understand General Appreciation of The Double Dealer.
6.1 Introduction:
In the previous unit, we have studied Shakespeare’s tragedy-Macbeth and much
more about tragedy. In the present unit, we are going to study another type of play-
comedy, with special reference to William Congreve’s The Double Dealer. It studies
various human relations and social atmosphere in the Restoration Period.
A) Life and Works of William Congreve:
Life: William Congreve was born in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, England (near
Leeds) in 1670.His parents were William Congreve and his wife Mary. His father
was a soldier who was soon after his son’s birth placed in command of the garrison
at Youghal. Congreve spent his childhood in Ireland. His father was settled there
during the reign of Charles II. He was educated at Trinity College in Dublin. There,
he became friend of Jonathan Swift. Their friendship lasted throughout the life. Then,
he came to London to study; law but felt himself pulled toward literature, drama and
fashionable life. Artistically, he became the disciple of John Dryden.
During his literary career, he produced comedies, one tragedy and some poems.
In his later life, he withdrew from the theatre. His literary output from 1700 was
restricted to the occasional poem and some translation. He never married. He was
famous for his friendships with prominent actresses and noblewomen, including
Anne Bracegirdle, for whom he wrote major parts in all his plays, and Henrietta
Godolphin, second Duchess of Marlborough, daughter of the famous general, John
Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough.
During 1710, he suffered both from gout and from cataracts on his eyes. In late
September 1728, he suffered a carriage accident, from which he never recovered. He
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died in London in January 1729, and was buried in the Poet’s Corner in Westminster
Abbey.
His literary works:
1. The Old Bachelor (1693): This is his first comedy which brought him
tremendous success and great praise by John Dryden.
2. The Double Dealer (1694): This comedy was not received by the same
applause by the public.
3. Love for Love (1695): It is supposed to be his best acting play, almost repeated
the success of the first.
4. The Mourning Bride (1697): It is a tragedy. It brought Congreve great
reputation and proved his most popular production.
5. The Way of the World (1700): It’s Congreve’s masterpiece. It is supposed the
unequalled masterpiece of English comedy.
6. Discourse on the Pindaric ode (1706): It brought some order into the
unrestrained form which poets since Abraham Cowley had employed.
B) Introduction to the Play:
The Double Dealer is Congreve’s second play. Though it is comedy, it has many
touches of tragedy. The theme of the play is subordinated to plot.Hence, the
complexities of the intrigue, perplex rather than illuminate. The villain, Maskwell
who is the active agent of the plot is superior to the hero, Mellefont, of the
play.Mellefont remains almost passive throughout the play.Maskwell’s plots puzzle
the brain by their intricacy.Mellefont cannot fulfill his role as hero, which is to defeat
the cunning tricks of lady Touchwood, a condition set by his mistress Cynthia,
because the play must show ‘secret vice’ defeating itself.
Congreve gave much importance to the design, rules and three unities of the
drama. He designed the moral first, and invented the fable to suit that moral. Hence,
the play could not be proved as a popular and successful play.
6.2 Restoration Comedy/Comedy of Manners:

The theatres were closed in 1642 by Commonwealth ordinance in England. The
Puritans then, came into the power. They tried to stop all immoral things, including
the theatres. But this type of suppression by the Puritans couldn’t last for a long time.
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In 1660, the monarchy was restored. The King Charles II came to the throne of
England. During this period of 18 years, many actors left England and went to
Germany.
As soon as Charles II returned to his throne, the actors who had been out of the
nation came back to England. They formed companies. The audience was a very
select one. It was almost entirely composed of the court and of those who attached
themselves to the court circle. Though this audience was a very small class, it
included many of the most cultivated, the most intelligent, and the wittiest men of the
time, and they patronized theatre eagerly.
During this Restoration Age, a brilliant group of dramatists made Restoration
Comedy glorious in English literature.
Major dramatists of this group observed the people, their manners, fashions,
society, and political issues minutely. The audience for Restoration drama was more
restricted-both geographically and socially-than it had been before the closing of the
theatres. There was no dramatic activity of any consequence outside London and the
two theatres within London catered to wits and gallants who went to the play as
much for the purpose of engaging in amorous intrigues or of displaying their own
dress and manners as of seeing and enjoying a dramatic performance. The dramatists
took every opportunity of ridiculing the middleclass virtues and as often as not
presented the citizenry as made up of foolish and jealous husbands whose wives were
fair game for seduction by court gallants.
Almost at the end of 17th century, a new kind of comedy appeared. It is known
as Comedy of Manners. This kind of play was hard and bright, witty and heartless.
This type of comedy deals with the relations and intrigues of men and women living
in a sophisticated upper-class society, and relies for comic effect in large part on the
wit and sparkle of the dialogue. The following are important dramatists of this type.
1. George Etherege (1634-1690): He was the first accomplished practitioner of
the Comedy of Manners. His first play was
 The Comical Revenge or Love in a Tub (1664),combined a comic plot
dealing with gallants, fools, ladies of varying degrees of wit and honesty
with a subplot having conflicting loves and loyalties.
 She Would if She Could (1668) was his next play. It is a more consistently
polished performance.
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 The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter (1676) is his most brilliant
comedy. It gives a picture of the immoral manners of the society of the day,
but has no proper plot.
2. William Wycherley (1640-1715): He had vigour, industry, and a certain
dashing literary style; but the coarseness of his plays is at once due to the
observation of manners, and to the desire to please the public taste.
 The Country Wife (1675): It is a coarse play with some fine wit in it.
 The Plain Dealer (1676): It was modelled on Moliere’s Le Misanthrope.
The play is a strange mixture of savage indignation and restoration wit. In
it, he is a puritan attacking the vices of the age in a satirical manner.
 Love in a Wood (1671): The main strength of this play lies in the scenes
involving the hypocritical Alderman and Lady Flippant. The play is a
confused mixture of varied stock situations and characters.
 The Gentleman Dancing-Master (1672): It is an amusing force and is trivial
in conception and execution. It is not representative of his major talent as a
dramatist.
3. William Congreve: is introduced already.
4. Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726): He wrote three successful comedies. These
plays are an unsatis-factory mixture of personal gaity, some conventional
adultery and intrigue.
 The Relapse(1696) :
 The Provoked Wife(1697) :
 The Confederacy (1705) :
Vanbrugh’s characters are distinct, his plots interesting, but his writing
unremarkable. These plays were in general rather coarse, clever, bright, and partly a
reflection of the behaviour of upper-class society of the time. But not all people of
the day were like the characters in them. These comedies are valuable as studies in
manners.
5. George Farquhar (1678-1707): He is a link between the drama of Congreve
and more modern comedy of Goldsmith and Sheridan. These plays are over-
flowing with animal spirits and, although coarse, are not vicious. He makes us
laugh from pleasure oftener than from malice. His best comedies are
 Love and a Bottle(1699)
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 The Recruiting Officer (1706)
 The Beaux Stratagem (1707)
Farquhar’s characters are more like ordinary people. His dialogue lacks polish.
6. Thomas Shadwell (1642-92): His best plays are
 Epsom Wells (1672)
 True Widow (1678)
 The Sullen Lovers (1688)
 The Squire of Alsatia (1688)
 Bury Fair (1689)
Shadwell stood outside the development of the comedy of manners and imitated
closely Jonson’s comedies of humours.His plays are generally coarse but plots are
well-constructed. His style lacks literary grace.
All these and other comedians of the Restoration specifically pictured the external
details of life, the fashions of time, its manners, its interests. The places of the scenes
were drawing rooms, coffee houses, streets and gardens of London. Their characters
were chiefly people of fashion, and their plots were, for the most part, love intrigues,
often borrowed from the French, both developed with clever dialogue.
6.3 The Outline Summary of the Play:

The Double Dealer is the second play of Congreve. All the Acts of the play take
place in Lord Touchwood’s house. Though the hero of the play is Mellefont,
Maskwell, the villain is more dominant and important than any other character in the
play. Mellefont wants to marry Cynthia, the daughter of Sir Plyant. Maskwell too, is
eager to get the hand of Cynthia.
Lady Touchwood was infatuated with her husband’s nephew Mellefont and
confessed her desire to him.Mellefont who had pledged himself to Cynthia, rebuked
Lady Touchwood, whereupon she attempted to end her life. When he prevented her
in the attempt, she vowed revenge. Fearing the designs of Lady Touchwood,
Mellefont engaged his friend Careless to keep Lady Plyant, Cynthia’s stepmother,
away from Lady Touchwood. Maskwell pretended to be the friend of Mellefont.He
became Lady Touchwood’s lover, both for his sensual delight and for an opportunity
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to put her in a position where she would be a willing tool against the innocent
Mellefont.
We see in the play, how women dominated men for spending money. The male
characters like Sir Plyant, Lord Froth, and Lord Touchwood are easily deceived by
their wives. Maskwell uses intrigues after intrigues, and makes Cynthia, Mellefont,
Lady Touchwood etc.his victims. In the end of the play, all his secret plots are
revealed by Careless, and Mellefont and Cynthia both are saved from Maskwell’s
clutches. The women characters like Lady Plyant,Lady Touchwood, Lady Froth and
their secret love affairs, immorality and comic characters like Lord Froth try to create
liveliness in the play, but Congreve doesn’t seem succeeded in it.
6.4 Major/Minor Characters:

The characters portrayed in this play represent fashions, immorality, intrigues
of high society of Congreve’s time. But the characters like the hero of the play-
Mellefont, is portrayed very weakly in comparison with the villainous character of
Maskwell.The following are major characters in the play:
1. Mellefont:
He is a young nephew of Lord Touchwood. He is in love with Cynthia-the
daughter of Sir Plyant by a former wife. He is a simple, shy, straight forward man
who never thinks ill of others and can’t understand the secret plots/plans of others
about him and his beloved. He is a happy fashionable man who gives up, his loose
ways of life on finding woman truly worthy of his love. He is an honest and serious
lover seeking the hand of Cynthia. In the process of getting her hand, he has a rival-
Maskwell.
At first, Lady Touchwood is fascinated by his personality. She falls in love with
him who is, by relation, her own nephew. Her behaviour, language, speech with him,
seems to be very immoral. But he doesn’t show any response to her.Hence,she tries
to catch him, with the help of Maskwell’s crooked plans, in her net; but all her plans
of deceiving him are revealed at the end of the play.Mellefont is saved by Careless.
Mellefont lacks the manners like solemnity, brilliance etc. He is a mediocre. Lady
Plyant is under impression that Mellefont loves him, and so, like Maskwell, she also
becomes an obstacle in his marriage with Cynthia. It is Maskwell, who, with the
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secret plans with Lady Touchwood and Lady Plyant, tries Mellefont to keep away
from Cynthia. He easily deceives Mellefont. In order to get the sanction of Lady
Touchwood to his marriage with Cynthia, he pretends that he is really in love with
her.
Mellefont is so gentle that he refuses Cynthia’s idea of marriage by eloping with
him. In the end of the play, after revelation of Maskwell’s villainous plan, Lord
Touchwood unites both these lovers and gives them permission of marriage.
Though, Mellefont is the hero of the play, we can’t see him, anytime, in action.
Maskwell overcomes him in this area.
2. Maskwell:
He is the villain of the play. He is the Double Dealer whose villainy can be
admired only because of its audacity. He is a gallant to Lady Touchwood and a
pretended friend to Mellefont. He is a pensioner of Lord Touchwood. He plots to
become his benefactor’s heir and marry an heiress-Cynthia.
He is very clever and crafty. His study of the other charachers is very precise. He
observes them keenly and finds out their weaknesses and in a way, by blackmailing
deceives them easily. He is the active agent of the plot. He is the incarnation of
treachery, villainy and lust. He conspires against Lady Touchwood as well as against
Mellefont in order to defame them and win the hand of Cynthia. He also becomes
Lady Touchwood’s lover, both for his sensual delight and for an opportunity to put
her in a position where she will be a willing tool against the innocent Mellefont.
In spite of all his tricky plots, he can’t succeed in his desire of getting the hand of
Cynthia. At the end of the play, Careless reveals all his plans and he was caught red
hand and was seized by Lord Touchwood’s servants for the further punishment.
Thus, Maskwell is treacherous, cunning and a hypocrite.
3. Cynthia:
She is the principal female character in the play. In comparison with Mellefont,
she is portrayed very skillfully. She outshines all the men characters in the play. She
is the daughter of Sir Paul by a former wife. She is good looking, young and witty
woman. She loves Mellefont from the bottom of her heart. Though, there are many
obstacles in her marriage with him, she is ready to clash with any of them. She is
resolved to marry with him. When she comes to know that her parents and Maskwell
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are opposing her plan and trying to persuade her not to marry Mellefont, she strongly
refuses them. She was even ready, and insisted Mellefont, to run away from home in
order to marry. But, Mellefont refuses to do so.
Maskwell tries his level best to get her hand, but can’t succeed in it. She has the
boldness and daring to fight with the world. She is not like the other female
characters in the play, which are immoral and are running after men. She is confidant
and happy with Mellefont. She never keeps an eye on any other men around her.
As she is the daughter of Sir Paul, she inherits tremendous wealth. But, in order to
marry Mellefont, she is ready to leave all her wealth too. It shows her true love for
him. Congreve has portrayed her character as a symbol of pure love in contrast with
the immorality of women of the time.
Only at the end of the play, she falls a prey, to the crafty plan of elopement,
designed by Maskwell. As per plan, they are going to change their dresses under the
guidance of Say grace, the parson, and elope through the horse-coach. But, it is
careless who saves them by revealing Maskwell’s plan. Then, Cynthia asks Lord
Touchwood, to listen to the dialogue between Lady Touchwood and Maskwell about
their love affair, behind the curtain. When, he is convinced, he declares that he would
punish the guilty and would give Cynthia’s hand in the hands of Mellefont, very
happily. And thus, the true lovers are united, finally. Through her character, we come
to know, that though Congreve is depicting the vicious pictures of the contemporary
society, he strives to make love and marriage a serious business.
4. Lord Touchwood:
He is yet, another important character in the play. He is Mellefont’s uncle. Like
other men characters in the play, he can’t control his wife’s immoral behaviour. He is
an old foolish husband who is bullied by his wife and keeps him cool in spite of her
adulterous conduct.
Being foolish in his behaviour, he is easily deceived by Maskwell. He can’t
understand Maskwell’s plan. He doesn’t allow Mellefont to marry with Cynthia. On
the other hand, he approves Maskwell’s marriage with Cynthia. He even decides to
appoint him, instead of Mellefont, his heir.
In the beginning, when he learns that Lady Touchwood loves Mellefont, he is
shocked. But can do nothing to his wife. He becomes angry with Mellefont. He
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decides not to allow Mellefont to marry with Cynthia. At the end of the play, he
comes to know the treacherous plan of Maskwell and his wife, and arrests Maskwell
and makes his wife repent. He is shocked to hear their dialogues of love. He allows
Mellefont to marry Cynthia. Like Sir Plyant and Lord Froth, he also is shown as a
puppet in the hands of his wife.
Minor Characters:
Besides the major characters, there are many other minor characters. They are as
following-
1. Lady Touchwood:
She is the wife of Lord Touchwood. She represents the rich women who had
immoral relations with many other men, of the time. She is adulterous by her
conduct. At first she loves Mellefont, her nephew, but later on turns to Maskwell.
She treats her husband like a servant. She is the real controller of the family. She co-
operates Maskwell who helps her to take revenge upon Mellefont for his non-
response in her love. But when their plan is failed and she is completely exposed at
the end, she feels guilty and repents. She is morally very loose character.
2. Lady Froth:
She is the wife of Lord Froth. She is a great coquette and pretender to poetry, wit
and learning. She writes songs, poems, elegies, satires, play etc. According to her, a
person in love must write always. It was a fashion of the 18th century. She is quite
fashionable and sneers at Mellefont because, she thinks, he lacks manners like
solemnity, brilliance etc. She pretends that she has true love for her husband. She is
mad in love with Brisk. She shows great respect for her husband in front of him, but
in reality she is not happy at all with him. She belongs to the class of unfaithful
wives. She sacrifices her honour to Brisk.
3. Lady Plyant:
She is the present wife of Sir Paul Plyant. She is insolent to her husband. She can
be easily deceived by anybody. Hence, she believes in an intrigue, played by Lady
Touchwood and Maskwell. The intrigue is that Mellefont loves her. She is under
impression that he loves her passionately and so, she opposes his marriage with
Cynthia thinking that it will be incest. She promises Maskwell, if he helps her to
unite with Mellefont; she will give Cynthia’s hand in his hand, and will give him all
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her fortune. According to her husband, she is fine, well-spoken; but sometimes,
rather hasty. She is the real head of her family. It is she who gives money to her
husband for expenditure. She is also in love with Careless. Her behaviour clearly
suggests that she is a woman of loose character. She is always ready to have other
lovers, she allows herself to be seduced by Careless in her own house.
4. Sir Paul Plyant:
He is an uxious, foolish, old knight. He is brother to Lady Touchwood and
father to Cynthia. He is completely under control of Lady Plyant. He becomes very
sad, when he comes to know that there is love-relation between his wife and
Mellefont. Hence, at first, he opposes Cynthia’s marriage with Mellefont. He
virtually pushes his wife into adultery and thus, makes himself a cuckold .He always
praised his wife and has no daring to oppose her in any way. He is unhappy because
he has no son, and only a daughter. He has to take money from his wife for
expenditure. When he discovers a letter by Careless to Lady Plyant, which expresses
love, he becomes very sad. When he knows the truth that it is a plan of Careless, he
becomes very happy again.
5. Lord Froth:
He is a solemn coxcomb. He doesn’t like to laugh with public. He never laughs
at any comedies. He loves to be alone. He is a cuckold. Even though, he finds his
wife embracing Mr.Brisk, he neglects them. It shows that indirectly, he is supporting
her immoral behaviour.No doubt he feels very sad about his wife and his friendship
with Mr. Brisk and he says that a friend first enters into one’s bosom, and then into
bed. Even after knowing this, he is unable to save his wife which shows his
helplessness in this case. Like a fool, he goes on praising his wife and her beauty
calling her ’charming witty angel’. He represents the helpless and henpecked
husbands of his time.
6. Careless:
He is Mellefont’s friend. As a true witty and clever man and good friend of
Mellefont, he saves him from the wicked plot designed by Maskwell and Lady
Touchwood. He is a handsome young man towards whom Lady Plyant is attracted
easily. He knows that women are deceptive. Lady Plyant runs after him madly. She
describes him as eloquent, easy, graceful, having good shape, good complexion,
good teeth, etc.
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7. Mr. Brisk:
Mr. Brisk is another witty character in the play. He too, is a coxcomb.
Mellefont tries to seek help from him and wants to know secret plans of Lady
Touchwood from him. He is a well mannered fellow easily deceived and used by
Lady Plyant. He supports foolishness of Lord Froth and immoral conduct of Lady
Froth. His affair with her is discovered by Lord Froth when they are embracing each
other. But he is clever enough to persuade Lord Froth that they are practising dance.
6.5 Act-wise Summary and Critical Comments:

Through the Prologue, the dramatist speaks about his work and expects the
mercy of spectators for his play. Critics are expected to judge the play in a fair and
just manner. It throws light on the English cuckold and the prologue pities them. It
throws light on the immoral conduct of the rich people of the time.
All the action takes place in Lord Touchwood’s house. There are five Acts in the
play.
Act-I
The play opens with a dialogue between the hero-Mellefont, and his friend
Careless. Brisk joins them. They go on talking about women, Lady Touchwood’s
secret plans about Mellefont and her behaviour. Mellefont calls her a ‘revengeful
woman’ and a passionate woman who is stepping forward to him immorally.
Careless observes Lady Touchwood as a ‘handsome and cunning, and naturally
wanton’.
Lord Froth, Mellefont, Brisk and Careless go on talking about comedy, wit and
laughter. Lord Froth points out that he never laughs after watching comedies.
Through the dialogue between Maskwell and Lady Touchwood, we come to
know their love for each other, we know about their intrigue to be played on Lady
Plyant that Mellefont loves her. Thus, the seeds of future action are sown in the
Act-I.
There are three scenes. Almost all important characters are introduced in it.
Sufficient light is thrown on their nature, behaviour and planning.
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Act-II
The second Act opens with the dialogues between Cynthia and Lady Froth. The
heroine Cynthia is introduced here. The character of Lady Froth is developed in this
Act. She is a pretentious Lady who writes songs, poem, elegies, satires etc. We know
about her foolish logic that a man/woman in love must write. It used to be a fashion
of the eighteenth century. She says that Mellefont lacks manners like solemnity,
brilliance etc.
Cynthia and Mellefont talk about their marriage. Sir Paul and Lady Plyant
quarrel over man-woman relationship and their superiority.
We are told that Sir Plyant is not happy with Cynthia’s marriage with Mellefont.
He is doubtful about the relationship between Mellefont and Lady Plyant. Lady
Plyant is under impression that Mellefont passionately loves her. She opposes his
marriage with Cynthia because, according to her, it will be incest.
Maskwell admits that he loves Cynthia. He makes a secret plot, with Lady
Plyant’s help; to break up Mellefont’s would-be marriage with Cynthia. Lady Plyant
promises him to give Cynthia’s hand in his with all her fortune.
In this Act, we know much about Lady and Lord Froth, Cynthia and Maskwell.
Maskwell is presented as highly treacherous, cunning and hypocrite. There is only
one scene in this Act.
Act-III
The third Act opens with the dialogue between Lady and Lord Touchwood,
about Cynthia’s marriage with Mellefont. Maskwell discloses an intrigue that Lady
Touchwood has called him into her bedchamber at eight o’clock at night. Another
intrigue is planned by Maskwell. According to it Mellefont should come at 8 o’clock
at night in Lady Touchwood’s bedchamber and pretend to angry with Maskwell.
Because of this discovery (her love-affair with Maskwell), she would obey Mellefont
mutely.
Lady Plyant’s love for Careless and their each other’s praise is presented here.
Sir Plyant’s helplessness for having no son as an heir is also mentioned here.
The Act points out the female dominance over male; and absurd poems with
correct rhyme of Lady Froth are quite laughable. There are three scenes in this Act.
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Act-IV
This Act opens with the dialogue between Cynthia and Mellefont, about their
marriage. She expresses her desire to marry with him by running away from the
house .Sir Plyant is not happy with their marriage; but Lady Plyant convinces him
about that marriage.
Lord Froth sees his wife and Brisk embracing each other, though they pretend
that they are practising dance. Sir Plyant gets and reads a love letter by Careless to
Lady Plyant. He feels very sad about friendship and his wife. But when Lady Froth
snatches that letter and threatens him to give divorce, he becomes helpless.
As per Maskwell’s intrigue, Mellefont sees Lady Touchwood kissing Maskwell,
at night. She asks Mellefont to forgive her and promises him not to behave like this
in future. At the same time Maskwell brings Lord Touchwood there, and convinces
him about Mellefont’s love with his wife.
This Act presents intrigues after intrigue. Some of them are revealed. We see
very good use of ‘aside’ for expressing real thoughts in the minds of the characters.
They throw light on the true nature of characters. There are five scenes in this Act.
Act-V
This Act opens with the dialogue between Lady Touchwood and Maskwell.
Maskwell convinces Lord Touchwood not to permit Cynthia to marry Mellefont. He
decides to give her hand in Maskwell’s hand.
Here another intrigue by Maskwell is seen, as per the plan Cynthia and
Mellefont should elope through the horse coach, in disguise, with the help of Say
grace, the priest. Careless warns them that they are being deceived by Maskwell.
Maskwell’s love affair with Lady Touchwood is revealed by Cynthia and Lord
Touchwood. Lord Touchwood is shocked to see this.Finally, all the plot of Maskwell
is disclosed and he is arrested. Lady Touchwood also repents much. Cynthia and
Mellefont are united.
This Act presents the revelation of all the villainous plots. Villains are punished
and true lovers are united. There are five scenes in the Act.
In the epilogue, the dramatist appeals the readers, and spectators to judge the
play and to think properly about the fable and moral of the play.
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6.6 Terms to Remember:
 Wanton : Licentious, sexually promiscuous.
 Coquette : a woman who flirts.
 Coxcomb: an ostentatiously conceited man, a dandy a jester.
 Cuckold : the husband of an adulteress.
 Uxorious : excessively fond of one’s wife.
 Intricacy : very complicate.
 Puritan : a member of a group of English Protestants who sought simplify
and regulate forms of worship after the reformation; a person practising
extreme strictness in religion or morals.
6.7 Check Your Progress-I

A) Answer the following questions in one word/phrase/sentence each:
1. Give the name of the most famous comedy of Congreve.
2. In which year The Double Dealer was published?
3. Who is the villain in the play?
4. Who is Cynthia?
5. What is the relation between Mellefont and Lord Touchwood?
B) Rewrite the following sentences by choosing the correct option given below
them:
1. Congreve’s friendship with ……… lasted throughout the life.
a) Collier b) Etherege c) Swift d)Shadwell
2. Sir Paul Plyant is the ………. of Lady Touchwood.
a) Uncle b) brother c) nephew d) father
3. Lady Plyant is Cynthia’s ………..
a) Mother b) sister c) mother-in-law d) step mother
4. In the end of the play … brings together Cynthia and Mellefont
a) Lady Touchwood b) Lord Touchwood
c) Lady Plyant d) Lord Plyant.
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5. Lady Plyant offers …….. pounds as an allowance to Sir Plyant, from the
amount brought by steward
a) 50 b) 60 c) 55 d) 65
6.8 Critical Commentary:

6.8.1 Themes:
The Double Dealer is a comedy of manners. Hence, the major themes of comedy
of manners are found in the present comedy too.
1. Immorality/Adultery: It is one of the dominant themes of the Restoration
Comedy. The social atmosphere, especially of upper class, was full of immorality,
sexuality and love affairs. Almost all female characters except Cynthia represent this
theme. Lady Touchwood is infatuated by Mellefont and Maskwell, Lady Plyant is
mad in love with Careless, and Lady Froth runs after Brisk. They do not care much
for their husbands. They treat them like servants. Licentious behaviour is an
important theme, here.
2. Intrigues: Most of the comedies of that time used to have love intrigues as
a major theme. These intrigues are generally in case of women and their love affairs.
In The Double Dealer, Maskwell is the master of intrigues. One after the other, he
uses intrigues and deceives Mellefont, Cynthia, and Lady Touchwood etc. He is
supported by Lady characters like Lady Touchwood, Lady Plyant and Lady Froth.
But, in the end of the play, all the intrigues are disclosed and vice is punished and
virtue is rewarded.
3. Love, Sex and Marriage: This is a recurrent theme of The Double Dealer.
True love is found between Cynthia and Mellefont. Marriage of them is also true and
honest. But marriages of Lady Plyant, Lady Touchwood and Lady Froth are only for
show, because though they are married, all of them have love affairs. For them,
marriage has no importance. Sexual relations with men other than husband were a
fashion of the day. Restoration society suffered a lot due to this problem. Lady
Touchwood kisses Maskwell in her bedchamber at night and Lady Froth’s embracing
Brisk, throw light on this theme. Women are coquettes. Marriage is scoffed at and
attempt is made to rationalize sexual relationships.
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4. Foolish and weak husbands: The husbands in the play are shown foolish
men. Sir Plyant, Lord Touchwood and Lord Froth are the representatives of such
husbands of that society. They are cuckolds. Their wives are having love affairs with
other men; they can’t do anything and behave like helpless, weak men. Their wives
dominate them in every sense.
6.8.2 Plot Construction:
According to Aristotle, plot is a chain of events. Action of a play is carried
onwards through these events. In his letter to Charles Montague, one of the Lords of
the Treasury, Congreve writes about the plot-“I made the plot as strong as I could,
because it was single; and I made it single, because I would avoid confusion, and was
resolved to preserve the three unities of drama”.
There are five Acts in the play. Each Act contains several scenes. Almost all the
important characters are introduced in the very first Act. Even the seeds of the future
action are sown in this Act. Act no.2, 3 and 4 carry/continue the love intrigues,
conflict between vice and virtue, good and bad, the licentious behaviour of women
especially and Maskwell’s ‘design’, etc. The Act 5 is the result and judgment on
these actions. There, we see vices punished and virtue rewarded. All the villainous
plots of Maskwell and Lady Touchwood are exposed and the true lovers-Cynthia and
Mellefont, are joined. The dialogues, foolishness of the characters, revelation of plots
create comic effect in the play.
All the Acts take place in London, in Lord Touchwood house. Immorality and
other themes are beautifully revealed in the plot. The unities of place, time and action
are followed strictly.
6.8.3 Art of characterization:
Congreve depicts the life of the contemporary high society with care free
abandon. The present comedy presents love intrigues, coquetry and cuckold.
Immorality of wives and helplessness of husbands are beautifully portrayed by
Congreve. All female characters, except Cynthia, and their husbands are the
examples of them.
While portraying the character of the hero-Mellefont, we come to know that
Congreve seems not at his best; on the other hand, his portrayals of the villain-
Maskwell, and the heroine-Cynthia, he is at his best. Their characters outshine
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Mellefont’s character, though he is the hero of the play. Treachery, villainy and lust
of Maskwell is more powerful than honesty and true love of Mellefont. Lady
Touchwood, Lady Froth and Lady Plyant are always ready to have other lovers, and
so, they belong to the class of adulterous and unfaithful wives. But Cynthia, though
in the midst of treacherous people, is steady and constant in her love for Mellefont.
The play tries to instruct and reform the society by exposing and denouncing the
vices which have some bearing on public welfare. The Double Dealer portrays the
upper class characters, The Old Bachelor presents comic characters, Love for Love
presents characters of manners and The Way of the World again represents the upper
class selfish characters.
6.9 Check Your Progress-II

A) Answer the following questions in one word/phrase/sentence each:
1) Give two major themes of the The Double Dealer.
2) What does Congreve say about the plot of the present play?
3) Which class of society is represented by the major characters in the play?
4) Whose character does outshine all other characters in the play?
B) Rewrite the following sentences by choosing the correct option given below
them:
1) Cynthia and Mellefont represent ……… love
a) adulterous b) true c) deceptive d) none of these
2) Maskwell and Lady Touchwood meet at night …….
a) on the terrace b) in the gallery
c) in the drawing hall d) in her bedchamber
3) According to Congerve, The Double Dealer has …….. plot
a) complex b) simple c) single d) none of these
4) In comparison with Maskwell, Mellefont’s character is rather ……..
a) passive b) active c) hyper-active d) none of these
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6.10 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’-I and II
I A) 1) The Way of the World
2) 1694
3) Maskwell
4) Daughter to Sir Plyant by a former wife, and the beloved of Mellefont.
5) Lord Touchwood is the uncle of Mellefont.
B) 1) c-Swift
2) b-brother
3) d-step mother
4) b-Lord Touchwood
5) a-50 pounds
II A) 1) Immorality and intrigues.
2) ‘I made the plot as strong as I could, because it was single; and I made
it single, because I would avoid confusion, and was resolved to
preserve the three unities of the drama’.
3) upper class
4) Cynthia’s
B) 1) b-true love
2) -in her bedchamber
3) c-single
4) a-passive
6.11 Exercises:
1) How does Congreve depict the contemporary social life?
2) Comment on the characterization in the play.
3) ‘His (Congreve’s) comedies depict love intrigues of the rakes who pursue
women of wit, beauty and fortune’ Explain.
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4) Comment on ‘Congreve was a dramatist of a different cast. Though still
depicting the vicious features of the contemporary society, he strove to
make love and marriage a serious business’.
5) ‘Cynthia is a heroine who outshines all the men’ Justify the statement.
6.12 Reference for further study:

1) J.Ahluwalia (1993): ‘The Comedy of the Eighteenth Century’,
Mehra offset Press, New Delhi.
2) David Daihess (reprint-1992): ‘A Critical History of English Literature’
(Vol-Three)
3) W.R.Goodman (reprint-2000): ‘A History of English Literature’ (Vol-one)
Doaba House, Booksellers and Publishers, Delhi.
4) Edward Albert (1989): ‘Short History of English Literature’, Deep and
Deep Publications, New Delhi.

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Unit-7
The Unfortunate Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton,
Thomas Nashe
Index
7.0 Objectives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The Story in Brief
7.3 Summary and Comments
7.6 Exercises
7.0 Objectives :
After studying this unit you will be able to :
 understand general characteristics of the Elizabethan prose.
 learn Thomas Nash’s contribution to the realistic narration of prose of this
period.
 know how Nashe linked the episodes in his narrative to the historical events
of his time.
 understand and study this short novella by Nashe as one of the very first
picaresque novels in English.
 learn how the writers like Nashe shaped the narrative style in English
fictional prose.
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7.1 Introduction :
In this unit we are going to study a short novel by Thomas Nashe. The title of
the novel is The Unfortunate Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton. Before we talk
about this novel, let us see who this Nashe was.
Thomas Nashe (1567-1600), was the son of a clergyman (a priest), and was
educated at St. John’s college, Cambridge. He came to London, and, perhaps,
worked as a secretary for different noblemen. He was a friend of the dramatist Robert
Greene one of the University Wits, Being orthodox and conservative, he was a sort
of cultural critic of his times, as we can see from his works like The Anatomie of
Absurdities and the preface he wrote to Robert Greene’s play Menaphon. He was a
trenchant critic of Romances of his time, and severely criticized puritans, astrologers,
women (for their modern ways), and ballad-mongers. He was very good at
caricaturing and satirizing, which we can see in his Lenten Stuffe, the prose work.
The late 16th century was the beginning of the English and the Elizabethan
prose. John Lyly’s Euphues, Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, and Thomas Nashe’s The
Unfortunate Traveller are the three most notable works of the prose fiction of this
period. Nashe described himself as an anti-romantic, anti-sentimentalist, and a hard-
headed person. In his fiction, he always dealt with facts, though he sometimes
exaggerated to make the truth more effective. In his The Unfortunate Traveller, he
wanted to show how real life is as exciting and as rich as the wild romances.
7.2 The story in brief :

As said earlier this novella or a short novel is an episodic narration in the first
person. Jack Wilton, the protagonist, tells us his adventures and experiences. He is
attached to the court of King Henry VIII as a page (an attendant gentleman), but he
has bad reputation on account of his exploits. A brief summary of each of these
episodes narrating Jack Wilton’s adventures is given here. The 16th century English
was still in the process of becoming modern English. Naturally, when you try to read
the actual text, you will come across old spellings, unfamiliar constructions, some
words gone out of the language, and a lot of use of Latinate phrases. Ignore the Latin
phrases. This summary is however, comprehensive and should help you to
understand this novella very well.
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Episode 1 :
King Henry VIII, has besieged the town Tournay (in 1513). There is a military
camp in which a big, burly inn-keeper sells cider wine to the soldiers. and supplies
food-stuff also. This inn-keeper styles himself as a baron, a nobleman by descent.
You must have read Shakespeare’s play King Henry IV. The comic character of big,
fat Falstaff may be the descendant of this inn-keeper. Jack Wilton plays a practical
joke upon him. Jack tells him that the King suspects him to be helping the enemy
(the French King), and spying for the French. He says that the King suspects that the
inn-keeper sends secret letters and a lot of corn to the enemy. The inn-keeper is
frightened. He treats Jack with great respect, offering him free wine, and entreats him
to show him the way out. Jack then advises him to offer free wine to the soldiers in
the camp. This would prove his loyalty to the English King. The inn-keeper acts on
the advice of Jack, and offers free wine to the soldiers. The king is happily surprised,
and soldiers are also happy. But the King comes to know how Jack has hoodwinked
the inn-keeper, and Jack is punished by whipping. But this exploit of Jack later on
proves to be a great entertainment among the courtiers.
Jack Wilton then boasts about a number of his achievements of this kind, and
tells the readers that the account of these exploits should have been written down in a
book for the future generations to serve as a guide for them. He addresses the readers
as ‘gentle readers’ and requests them to be gentle to him, and asks them to make use
of his practical jokes.
Episode 2 :
In this military expedition of the King, Jack later comes across “an ugly
mechanicall Captain”. This Captain does not have a cap of his own. So Jack finds an
old velvet cap for him discarded by one of the Lords. Like Jupiter, the king of gods,
this captain used to threaten the soldiers under him.
This captain and jack used to play the game of dice (a game of gambling)
together. Jack was clever with the dice and earned money, but this captain swallowed
most of Jack’s earnings. Here Jack tells the reader how money is important in the life
of man. He says, “Money is like the marigold, which opens and shuts with the
‘Sunne’ : if fortune smileth or one bee in favour, it floweth; if the evening of Age
comes on, or it falls into disgrace, it fadeth and is not to be found”. So Jack decides
to teach this Captain a lesson, and have his purse (money) back.
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Jack knows that there is a job to be done for the secret service, and for this a
very intelligent man, with all his five senses effective, is required. So Jack decides to
persuade the so-called Captain to take up this assignment. He goes to the Captain’s
cabin, where the captain, having nothing to do, is busy polishing and cutting his
nails. Jack tells him how there is no income any more form the game of dice, and
unless something is done, they would be driven to extreme condition of poverty.
Your promotion depends on your bravery in the war. And in the days of the seige of
no one listens to you. Unless you do some rare service, you cannot climb to a higher
post (and greater income). And there is a chance for you to do a job. The King wants
to trick a great man on the enemy side by some means. If without wasting any time,
you undertake this job and work it out before the King finds any other way to get it
done, your career for life time will be made.
Jack very graphically describes the reaction of the Captain, who is shown to be a
fool admiring himself – “he stretcht out lims (limbs), scratcht his scabd elbowes
……. set his cap over his eyebrows like a polititian, and then folded his armes one in
another, and nodded with the head ………”
Jack, then, decides to fan his mood further and tells him briefly what he is
supposed to do. Jack also describes a rosy picture of the future for him if he
succeeded. He praises the Captain for his qualities – “how like a woolfe he can smell
a man without seeing him, like a hare he must sleepe with his eyes open” – how he
must be familiar with all, and trust none, “drinke, carouse, and lecher with him out of
whom he hopes to wring the matter, sweare and forsweare, rather than be suspected,
and in a word, have the art of dissembling at his fingers ends as perfect as any
courtier.” It is interesting to see how Jack obliquely praises the Captain :
“Admit that you had neither wit nor capacitie,
as sure in my judgement there is none equal
unto you in idiotisme (idiotism), yet if you
have simplicitie and secrecie, serpents theselves
wil thinke you a serpent, for what
serpent is there but hydes his sting –
He, thus, calls the captain to be an idiot, a dim-wit and full of deceit like a serpent.
He also warns him not to be carried away by the others, who might think spying to
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be a mean kind of job. He points out how ancient great Greek heroes like Ulysses,
Diomed and Nestor also went to the Trojan camp as spies.
Listening to all this the Captain is very eager to set out for this job of spying.
Jack has to provide him with some money, which he does. He requests Jack not to
tell anyone about his secret job, and promises that he would come back in a short
time and successful.
When the Captain is gone, Jack goes straight to the Marshall Generall of the
field (with all love and kindness, he says), and reports to him that such and such a
man has fled to the enemy and has offered his services to them. The Captain goes to
the court of the French King, rails against the King of England, and says that he
wants to have revenge upon him. He requests the King of France to listen to his
advice, and he would drive away the King of England within three days from the
walls of Turwin. The King of France closely questions the Captain and finds out that
he is lying. Then the Captain is handed over to the officers for torturing him at the
wheel and find the truth of his mission. When tortured the Captain confesses that he
has come to murder the King of France and ‘for nothing else’, and that a Nobleman’s
Page, Jack Wilton had set him up to this. The officers laugh at him, call him a fool,
and realize that some cunning person must have played a trick upon him. He is
whipped soundly and is sent back to the King of England.
Episode 3 :
Jack Wilton then tried his trick upon a Swedish Captain, who was always on the
look out for a woman. Jack disguised himself as a woman in the dress according to
the custom of those days, and who would give company for half a crown. The Swiss
Captain courted the woman, (i. e. Jack), gave her about six crowns. Jack, in the guise
of a woman, never came back.
Then he played a trick on the clerks in the monastery, who were very stingy,
and, in Jack’s opinion, they were in league with Satan. They were scornful of the
servants of noblemen. They were very finical about cleaning their beards with rose-
water, shining their shoes, and washing their hands soiling more water than a camel
does in a flowing stream.
Jack says to the readers, “You may think of me anything you like, but I am quite
confident that God has sent me as a scourge (instrument for the punishment) for
these finical clerks.” So he decides to punish them. In his opinion these boastful pen-
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wielding braggarts were all cowards who would not dare to throw penful of ink on
the enemy’s face. He, therefore, created false alarm, went about shouting that they
were all surrounded by the enemy, that someone had betrayed and they must run for
their life. The clerks all, immediately took to flight, leaving behind their pens and
paper and money. Jack and his band of the fellows had an open field for looting.
1. Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each.

(a) What does Jack tell the Cider Merchant to frighten him?
(b) What does the Cider Merchant do to please the king?
(c) Why is Jack displeased with the ‘Mechanical Captain’?
(d) What job does Jack find for the Captain?
(e) Why does the Captain accept the job suggested by Jack?
(f) What does the Captain promise to do for the King of France?
(g) How is the Captain punished?
(h) How does Jack trick a Swedish Captain?
2. Fill in the blanks in the following statements using one of the expressions
given below :
dice, Turwin, page, marigold, scourge,
(a) Jack Wilton is attached to the court of the King of England as a _______.
(b) Jack and the Mechanical Captain used to play _______ and earn money.
(c) Jack says, “Money is like ______ which opens and shuts with the sun?
(d) The Captain promises the French King that he would drive away English
King from the walls of ______.
(e) Jack believes himself to be the ________ sent by God to punish the finical
clerks.
Episode IV :
After the Campaigne of Turwin, Jack comes back to England. But there is an
epidemic of ‘sweating sickness’ in London. He very humorously describes how
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sweating affected people and the atmosphere in the city. The masters who wanted
their servants to work until they sweat, did not want them to sweat at all; The Bible
says ‘earn thy living with the sweat of thy browes’, but Jack says people earned their
‘dying’ with the sweat of their brows. The tailors who could stitch shirts of very thin
cloth were in fashion. He humorously says a fat man was not allowed near the court
because fat men sweat a lot. Afraid of this sweating sickness, Jack leaves England.
He had heard that the King of France and that of Switzerland were in conflict. So he
decides to join the war for the side that was stronger. He describes, in great detail, the
horrible slaughter, blood-shed on both sides, soldiers of both sides lying in their own
blood, dead bodies trampled everywhere. After witnessing this battle at Marignano,
he goes to Munster in Germany. Here there is a revolt of the Anabaptists against the
Emperor and the Duke of Saxony. This conflict was going on for a year or two, but
there came famine, and the Anabaptists were forced to take on the fight on a
particular day. Jack describes in detail the army of the Anabaptists made up of the
cobblers, and iron-mongers and other poor craftsmen, who have hardly any weapons
except their own tools. Their leader is John Leiden. He and his men pray to God
before the battle begins. Jack is evidently not in Sympathy with these poor men. He
ridicules their preparations and their prayers. He even criticizes the Greek
Philosopher, Diogenes, who condemned worldly wealth. He does not forget to
ridicule the foreign (Roman Catholic) churches and praise the church of England.
The Anabaptists’ rising was mercilessly put down. Jack describes how they
were killed and John Leiden was hanged. Since Jack had no war to fight in Germany,
he returned to England.
In England he met his old master, the Earl of Surrey. He praises the Earl of
Surrey, as his master and as an excellent poet and a brave, generous nobleman of
many accomplishments. The Earl falls in love with a lady named Geraldine, who
comes from Italy to attend on Queen Katherine. The Earl of Surrey, whose second
love is poetry, decides to travel to Italy famous for love poetry. He asks Geraldine
her permission to let him come to Italy; which she grants him. She tells him to go to
Italy as the ancient Greek hero Aenaes, but not forget her. She tells him to defend her
beauty, when he goes to Florence, against anyone who challenges it. Jack then goes
to Italy with the Earl of surrey, where they meet great scholar, Erasmus, and also the
English politician and Scholar Sir Thomas Moore (who wrote utopia). From there
they both go to Wittenberg. Jack presents satirical picture of the university heads
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who gather there to meet and praise the Duke of Saxonie. Graduates from the
university in their beggarly dresses, as well as the corrupt (burgers) members of the
town council also gather there. A group of craftsmen, mechanical men come to meet
the Duke and welcome him. Their spokesperson makes a speech welcoming the
Duke, promises good treatment to the Duke’s horses. Jack ridicules the gathering of
these poor people. There is a play presented for the amusement of the Duke and his
retinue. The name of the play is Acolastus, the Prodigal Child, which is supposed to
be comic. Jack describes its presentation humorously. Next day, Jack and his master,
the Earl of Surrey come across the ‘Solemn’ discussion group of Luther and his
followers. Jack satirises their discussions, commenting that these so-called scholars
have nothing to say of their own, but borrow everything from the text of Tully, the
great ancient Latin scholar. These people praise not only the Duke but even his dog,
addressing their orations to it. In this gathering, Cornelius Agrippa, the magician
gives his performance, together with very admirable imitations of the great masters
like Plautus, Tully and others. Agrippa had shown to Sir Thomas Moore, in a dream,
how Troy was destroyed. The Earl of Surrey and Jack request Agrippa to show the
‘lively image’ of Geraldine in a mirror. They see her weeping on her bed. On seeing
this, Surrey instantly composes a song, addressed to her. Inspite of the pleasant
company at the court of the Emperor, Jack and his master continue their journey
because Jack’s master, Surrey, wants to travel through Italy.
In Venice, Jack and his master (now acting as the servant-companion), get a
residence in the house of a prostitute called Tabitha. This woman makes proposal to
the Earl of Surrey (thinking him to be the servant) to kill his master, and he can then
be the master of her house. The Earl enacts his part of a servant very well, and later
on exposes the woman. Jack agrees to let her go if she pays him ten thousand coins
of gold. She agrees, but later he finds that those coins are not gold at all. These false
coins bring them into trouble. They both are arrested. Even the agent who had got
them the place of that bad woman, deceives them. He wrongly interpretes what they
say and what the officers say. As a result they have to stay in jail. There they come
across a woman called Diamante, who is the victim of wrongful suspicion of her
husband. Her husband by name Castaldo, believes the rumour spread by one Isaac
Medicus about the poor woman. Isaac used to go to Castaldo for borrowing money.
When he could not get it, he tried this way to have revenge upon him. The woman,
Diamante, was beautiful, and really very honest. She was not at all aware of the
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cunning of the people like Isaac. The Earl of Surrey sometimes thinks she is his
Geraldine, and writes a song in her praise and talks to her about his love. But, Jack is
successful with his plain speaking to win her love. She wants to teach a lesson to her
husband.
Jack appeals to one Mr. John Russell, a gentleman of the court of King Henry
VIII, and through him requests Petro Aretino, the chief Inquiiter (Chief Inquiry
officer) to hear the case of Diamante favourably. Jack has some special words to
speak about this Aretino. This man was very clever with his pen. It was Sharp like a
sword. He could set his readers on fire, start rebellions. He could also praise a man
and make him drunk on those words of praise. He did not spare oven the princes.
Jack thinks that one of Machiavely’s followers might have written the tracts
published under Aretino’s name after his death. Diamante is given her freedom and
also the possession of her husband’s property. She agree to go with Jack out of
Venice for the birth of her child, as she is then pregnant. With the wealth of
Diamante, Jack also can live like a nobleman and does not need help of the Earl of
Surrey. He still goes about as the Earl of surrey and comes to Florence. The real Earl
follows him there and surprises him. Jack then confesses his mistake but pleads that
he spent the money of his lady (Diamante) generously taking the name of his master.
He assures his master that he did not do anything dishonourable. He decides to
remain again the servant of his master, the Earl of Surrey.
In Florence the Earl of Surrey discoveres his fiance, Geraldine, and he is so full
of emotion that he instantly composes a sonnet in praise of her.
1. Answer the following questions in one word, a phrase or a sentence each :
(a) Why does Jack leave England soon after coming back from Turwin?
(b) What was the trouble at Munster in Germany?
(c) What was Jack’s attitude towards John Leiden and his men?
(d) Why does the Earl of Surrey decide to travel to Italy?
(e) What play was performed for the amusement of the Duke of Saxonie?
(f) How does Jack Satirize Luther and his followers who gather for discussion?
(g) What proposal does Tabitha make to the Earl of Surrey? (as a servant)?
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(h) Why are Jack and his master arrested in Venice?
(i) How does Jack help Diamante?
(j) How does Jack get money to spend lavishly?
2. Say whether the following statements are True or False?
(a) Geraldine was the native of England.
(b) The Earl of Surrey went to Italy for the love of poetry.
(c) Diamante was in Prison for stealing.
(d) Carmel Agrippa was a performing magician.
(e) Jack demanded Ten Thousand gold coins from Tabitha.
Episode IV :
The Earl of Surrey, according to the custom of the Chivalry, declares that his
lady is the most beautiful, and challenges any one to a duel, who disputes this claim.
Geraldine, being the resident of Florence, the Duke of Florence does not take offence
of this declaration. He invites the Earl of Surrey, treats him well, and organizes a
competition of jousting (a battle). There is an elaborate description of this jousting
competition and every knight who took part in it. The Earl of Surrey defeates all his
opponents and earns great name. He feasts with the Duke and other noblemen, but he
gets a message from the King of England to return immediately to England.
After the departure of his Lord, Jack Wilton sets out to travel through Italy with
his lady, Diamante. He goes to Rome, where the acquaintance of Diamante’s dead
husband, finds confortable accommodation for them to live, and shows them all the
statues and monuments in Rome. Jack visits the shrines in Rome, among them the
wonderful church of Seven Sibyls. You find there, he says, all their prophesies
enrolled, and the record of various gods and goddesses; and how they are
worshipped. He says if he tells the miracles and stories he heard about the graves of
the martyrs and the relicks brought from Jerusalem, he would be considered a
monstrous liar. Instead of telling the stories of this grand city, he says, he prefers to
talk about his own misfortunes.
While wandering in Rome, he put on clothes of light colours and imitated
fashions of other countries, besides he wore his hair long. As a result the boys
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gathered around him wondering who he was. The officers of the law also stopped
him and made enquiries. He was allowed to go because he was an Englishman and
did not know the customs of Rome. In Rome, Gentlemen wore black dress, and
people cropped their hair because of the heat. In Rome he saw a wonderful house of
a merchant. It was built in a round shape using green marble. There was overhanging
vault of crystal, with the sun, moon and stars moving, creating light music of
spheres. The floor was decorated with painted flowers, which appeared quite real.
The walls were painted with all kinds of trees, birds perching on their branches. He
exclaims, ‘Oh Rome, if you have such exciting objects, what is heaven in
comparison?’ The hospitals in Rome, he says, were like houses of noblemen, the
places of great comfort for the soldiers.
He then describes the horrors of the epidemic of plague that visited Rome in the
hot summer, and how thousands of people died in it.
While there was this epidemic of plague, another disaster visited the people. A
Spaniard bandit called Esdras of Granada and his band attacked and looted the
houses of rich people, raped their women and killed. Jack’s residence was also
attacked. His Diamante was taken away forcibly. After killing the maid, Zanie, and
other men, the bandit Esdras tried to seduce the beautiful Matron, Heraclide, (the
mistress of the house), telling her that he had a blessing of Pope because he had
carried out murders for him. He told her he would give her jewels and gold. But the
Matron threatened him that she would breathe infection of plague on him because
she herself had buried many bodies infected by plague. The bandit did not listen to
her prayers or threat, but raped and killed her. Her husband, who was unconscious,
came to consciouness, and suspected Jack Walton for rape and murder of his wife.
Jack was taken prisoner and would have been hanged. But one English Lord, who
was banished came to his rescue. The bandit’s assistant named Bartol, meanwhile,
came to a barber’s shop and there in the presence of others made a confession of how
the bandit had committed rape and murder. This is how Jack Wilton came out of
prison. The English Lord told him that he should not have strayed away from
England. He pointed out how God had cursed the Israelites making them go out of
their country. It is better to remain like a freeman in one’s own country rather than
suffer the proud airs of Italians and Spaniards and humour them.
The English Lord then starts pointing out how Englishmen are the most plain-
dealing people. They like to listen to the news and like to eat and be praised. He tells
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us how Italians and Spaniards take advantage of this simple-mindedness of the
Englishmen. He does not fully agree that man must travel to earn wisdom or wit. He
says one must have a natural foundation in him to benefit from the traveling. The wit
is nothing but experience. And you can learn a lot of it from the books in which men
have recorded their experiences. You can benefit from such books without moving
out of your house. You can learn about accidents, crimes like poisoning, etc. from
the stories of others, you need not endanger your life to have this experience in
France, Italy, etc.
He says, what do you learn in France? You learn there falsehood in friendship,
laziness, to love people only for one’s own pleasure. He ridicules people who live in
France for a period of twelve years. They speak strange English, put on gray cloaks,
walk seriously by folding their hands. They have only learnt how to tell difference of
one wine from the other.
What does one learn from Spain? A hat that fits only the skull, a doublet (a
jacket) which fits the stomach. In Spain you learn the fashion of Spanish clothes,
their bragging, and you learn how to talk badly of your own country. The Spaniard is
a braggart soldier. And Italy, he says, teaches us how to cringe and salute. Italy
teaches us to be non-believers. It indulges in the art of whoring (going to prostitutes),
poisoning and homosexuality. The only good thing Italy teaches us is to be an
excellent courtier; a hypocritical knight at the court. A notorious man, a villain is
said to have visited Italy.
The Danes and Dutchmen are simple men but drunkards. The brewers and wine-
makers pray for them because, they are the customers.
a) Why does the Earl of Surrey challenge knights to a duel?
b) What does Jack say about the stories of miracles and martyrs in Rome?
c) Why do boys gather round Jack as he wanders about in Rome?
d) What disasters visited Rome when Jack was there?
e) Why was Jack taken prisoner?
f) How did Jack come out of prison?
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g) What does the banished English Lord say about traveling?
h) What is the English Lord’s opinion about the English people?
i) According to the English Lord what does one learn traveling in France?
j) What does a traveler learn from Spain according to the English Lord?
2. Say whether the following statements are True or False.
a) In Rome gentlemen cropped long hair and put on white dress.
b) Geraldine, Surrey’s lady was the resident of Florence.
c) The bandit Esdras claimed that he had the blessing of the Pope.
d) The Matron Heraclide’s husband suspected Jack of killing his wife.
Episode V :
He (the English Lord) is unhappy that he is banished from England like an
outlaw. For some time, the Pope provided maintenance for him, but another Pope
came and it was stopped. He, then, tried to get some help from the Cardinals. But, he
is unhappy like a fish out of water. He realizes that the air, fire, water, bread from
any other country does not prove to be good for a man. The fruit tree from a cold
country cannot grow in a hot country. He, therefore, advises Jack to go back to his
country, England.
Jack listened to this advice, and then took his leave. The English Lord asked him
to visit his house and gave his address to Jack. As Jack was going, it started raining
heavily. He, therefore, tried to find shelter, and fell into a cellar of a Jew named
Zadoch. Here he saw his Diamante kissing a servant boy. Jack was about to beat and
scold her, when the Jew came down hearing the noise of the fall, and took Jack
prisoner charging him of looting. This Jew, named Zadoch, sold Jack to one Dr.
Zacharie, who wanted to use the body of the prisoner for trying his medicines and
operating upon him for the body parts. Luckily, when Jack was being carried as a
prisoner, Juliana, who was one of the women kept by Pope, happened to see this
young man of beardless face, and made enquiries about him. Later, she sent a
message to Dr Zacharie to send the prisoner to her, but the Jewish doctor refused.
Juliana sent for Zacharie because the Pope fell ill. The doctor prescribed and gave
some medicine. Juliana mixed a little poison into it and gave it to the Pope. The Pope
fell down and became almost dead. After his recovery, he asked Juliana what
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medicine she gave him. Juliana craftily blamed Zacharie. As a result, Zacharie’s
moveable goods, his property were confiscated, and even his prisoner Jack was taken
to the chamber of Juliana, who lodged him in a room.
Meanwhile, Doctor Zacharie, who sensed the great danger to him and the whole
Jew Community, knew that this was caused by Juliana, and wanted to revenge the
wrong done by her. He went to Zadoch, who severely abused the Pope, and the
Christians in general and heaped many curses on them. But, Dr. Zacharie silenced
him and asked him if he had with him a bond-maid, divinely beautiful. Zadoch called
Diamante. The doctor explained to Diamante what she must do. She would be sent to
Juliana as a maid, a gift from Zadoch. And Diamante should poison her by mixing
poison in her broth or meal or drink. If she did it, she would be free from her bond as
a slave, and would receive a lot of dowry. Zadoch, who does not have a child, would
make her his heir.
Diamante knows that the only way to escape from the hell of the Jew is to agree
with this proposal. She is taken to Juliana as a gift, and Juliana is happy. But when
Zadoch goes away, Diamante tells Juliana everything. Juliana, then, keeps Diamante
under her protection and promises to treat her as a daughter. But, Jack Wilton, the
young man, is also in her captivity. She makes advances to him and demands
physical love.
Meanwhile, Juliana tells the Pope the evil planned by Zadoch and Zacharie.
Zacharie runs away, but Zadoch is put into chains and fetters and is executed
publicly. Diamante then becomes the chief of Juliana’s bed chamber, and she is also
asked to look after what Jack needed. Jack and Diamante, both are surprised when
they meet, but they cannot express their joy for fear of Juliana. Jack is very much
disturbed by Juliana’s advances and her demands; and wants to escape this prison
somehow.
He gets an opportunity to escape the prison of Juliana. The Ambassador of
Spain comes to see the Pope for presenting some gift, and many other rich presents.
There is a feast. Juliana is also invited to it, and she goes to it with all the pomp and
show, in a decorated chair, carried by four men, and her bond women and a hundred
page-boys following her train. She left the charge of her house with Diamante. Jack
and Diamante take this opportunity to run away, looting all the money and valuables
of Juliana. When Juliana comes back, she discovers how she has been looted. She
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sends her servants in search of Jack and Diamante, but they find nothing. Juliana
wants to a bottle of spirit (wine) to revive herself. This bottle is put near the bottle of
poison (brought by Diamante) on the top shelf. The maid brings the glass of this
poison and pours it into Juliana’s mouth, who had swooned. This kills Juliana. Later,
Pope takes pity on her, but makes her drink the remaining poison. Meanwhile, Jack
and Diamante go on their journey of escape, all the time afraid that someone must be
following them. But, they go safe. They stay at the town of Bologna, and one day
they become bold enough to come out. They learn that a murder is caught and being
executed. So they go to see it. He is Cutwolf, the brother of Bartol, who was the
assistant of the bandit Esdras, who raped and killed Heraclide. Cutwolf tells people
what he did and why. He is just a poor cobbler of Verona. He heard that his brother
Bartol was murdered by Esdras.So he closed his shop and went in search of Esdras to
kill him to avenge the death of his brother. He found Esdras. Esdras requested him
not to kill him. But Cutwolf shot him in the mouth so that he should not plead any
more.
After Cutwolf’s execution, Jack marries Diamante, and leaves Italy to go back
to England.
a) How did Jack find Diamante after his meeting with the English Lord?
b) Why did Dr. Zacharie buy Jack from the Jew Zadoch?
c) Who was Juliana?
d) How did Juliana happen to see Jack?
e) How did Jack become a possession of Juliana?
f) Why was Diamante sent as a gift to Juliana by the Jew Zadoch?
g) What did Dr. Zacharie promise Diamante?
h) Why did Diamante accept the doctor’s proposal?
i) How did Jack and Diamante escape from Juliana’s captivity?
j) How did Juliana meet her death?
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2. Say whether the following statements are True or False?
a) Dr. Zacharie tried to poison the Pope.
b) Juliana bought Jack from the Jew named Zadoch.
c) Diamante disclosed the plan of Dr. Zacharie to Juliana.
d) Juliana wanted to keep sexual relationship with Jack.
7.3 Summary and Comments :

The unfortunate Traveller is a short novel, a narrative of episodes, in the life of
Jack Wilton. As pointed out earlier, it is the first person narration. It is the beginning
of picaresque fictional narrative in English. It is not a novel in the modern sense of
the term, with plot construction, character development, etc. yet, we must remember
that it is one of the important forerunners of the novel form that developed in the 19th
and the 20th century. Thomas Nashe was neither romantic nor a sentimentalist. He
was a realist by nature, and he believed that the real life that appears in the narratives
of travellers and historians is as exciting as the wild inventions in romances.
The protagonist of this novella, Jack Wilton, is a page boy who has just passed
his teens and is attached to the court of the king. He is either in need of money or he
has to play a trick on someone just for the fun of it. This is how he makes fun of a
cider merchant, who is pompous. A Captain spends the money Jack earns in the
game of dice. And to take revenge on him, Jack sends him to the enemy camp as a
spy. He is gullible enough to be taken in by him. Though very young, Jack has wit,
ability to read a character, and power of persuasion. He exercises his qualities as he
sets out on a journey through Europe. He sets out on this journey with his master, the
Earl of Surrey. He is not unduly worried by morality considerations. But when
necessary, he can prove helpful to others. Thus, he helps Diamante in the case
against her husband. He travels with her to Rome and other places.
Jack calls himself an unfortunate traveler because he suffers misfortune in his
journey, and twice he could have lost his life or perished in jail for no fault of his.
But, he is lucky to have beautiful Diamante on his side in the final lap of his
adventurous journey. His encounter with amorous Juliana would have proved
dangerous for him. But, luckily the fate brings Diamante to Juliana through the Jew
named Zadoch. And Diamante’s honesty wins a position for her in Juliana’s palace.
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Diamante and Jack not only escape Juliana’s prison, they also get a lot of money.
The unfortunate traveler is not really so unfortunate. He is rewarded with a beautiful
wife that brings him fortune in real sense of the word.
It is an interesting narration in a racy language and graphic descriptive prose.
Though it is interesting first person narration, the historical events are loosely
used in it. The battle of Marignano and the revolt of Anabaptists at Munster are
events with 19 years between them. But in the narration there is no time lag. Thomas
Nashe himself had never traveled. He made use of the oral and written travel
accounts and experiences.
The episode of Jack Wilton and the Earl of Surrey exchanging their roles
(Servant as the master), has no convincing reason. Nashe must have used it following
this convention used in the old romances.
The master and the servant visit the Duke of Saxonie. There they see the
magical performance of Agrippa. The Earl of Surrey requests the magician to show
the lively image of his beloved Geraldine in the magic mirror. He looks at Geraldine
weeping in his memory. It is while going to Italy, before leaving Germany, they
exchange their status, the Earl becomes the page and Jack, the master. In the
establishment of Tabitha, the prostitute, they are in trouble. Her plan to murder the
master (here Jack is the master) and make the servant the lord of the house fails,
because the Earl exposes her. The amount of false coins given by her land, both, the
master and the servant in Prison. They are rescued by Pietro Aretino, the celebrated
Italian writer. After the visit to Florence, Surrey is called back to England. And Jack
is on his own in his travel to the other European countries.
The trope of Romance is parodied in the episode in which surrey meets
Geraldine in Florence. The duels and jousting in this episode is the parody of
Chivalric convention we come across in Sidney’s Arcadia. There is description of the
life in Italy based on the romances read by Nashe. The horrors of the epidemic of
plague are also based on the description from Lanquet.
Nash was, thus, a pioneer of picaresque fiction, and of realistic prose narrative
later developed by Defoe and others.
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(Note : ignore the Latin expressions in the original text)
 page : an attendant to a nobleman, a young man of a good family.
 cosnd (cosened) : deceived or duped
 stratagemicall (strategic) : skillful
 much company, much knavery : many people, many acts of cheating.
 much curtesie, much subtiltie : if a man is too polite, he is very skillful in
cheating.
 keisar : king
 tapster : one who serves wine
 made privie : made to share (the secret)
 bolted out the whole complotment : blurted out the entire plot or story.
 ulysses, Nestor, Diomed : Ancient Greek heroes who took part in the
Trojan war.
 polt-foot tale : a story without any foundation.
7.5 Answer to Check Your Progress :

 Check Your Progress I
1. (a) Jack tells the Cider Merchant that the king suspects him to spying for the
enemy, the French King.
(b) The Cider Merchant gives free wine to the soldiers in the camp.
(c) The Mechanical captain spent the cream of Jack’s earning’s at the game of
dice.
(d) Jack finds for the captain a job of spying against a great man in the French
King’s court.
(e) Jack creates a rosy picture of the Captain’s future as a politician, which
tempts the captain.
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(f) The captain promises the French King that he would suggest a way to drive
away the English King from the walls of Turwin.
(g) The Captain is racked on the wheel and beaten and then sent back to
England.
(h) Jack went to the Swedish Captain in the disguise of a woman and got six
crownes from him.
(i) Jack hated the clerks of the monastery for their hypocrisy and high airs.
2. (a) page (b) dice (c) marigold (d) Turwin (e) scourge
1. (a) There was an epidemic of sweating sickness in England which made Jack
leave England.
(b) In Munster, there was rising of the Anabaptists.
(c) Jack does not appear to have any Sympathy for John Leidan and his men,
because he ridicules them in his narration.
(d) The Earl of Surrey loves poetry and Italy was then the centre of love poetry.
(e) The play Acolastus (the prodigal child) was performed for the Duke of
Saxonie.
(f) Jack says that Luther and his followers had nothing original to say, but only
what Tully has already said.
(g) Tabitha, who believes the Earl to be the servant, wants him to murder his
master and he, then, would become the Lord of the house.
(h) Jack and his master are arrested in Venice for false coins they possess.
(i) Jack appealed to Aretine, the officer for enquiry, and sought release of
Diamante.
(j) Diamante got possession of her husband’s money and property and as she
married Jack he got money to spend.
2. (a) False. She was the native of Florence.
(b) True.
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(c) False. She was imprisoned because her husband accused her of disloyalty.
(d) True.
(e) True.
 Check Your Progress III
1. (a) The Earl of Surrey, according to the Chivalric tradition, wants to defend the
fame of beauty of his lady.
(b) Jack satirically says, if he told the stories behind miracles and martyrs,
people would call him a liar.
(c) Jack has put on clothes of light colour imitating fashions of other countries,
and wears his hair long.
(d) In Rome, there was severe epidemic of plague, and to add to it the bandits
attacked the houses of the rich people, looting and raping women.
(e) The matron of the house where Jack stayed was raped and murdered, and
her husband after regaining consciousness suspected Jack for it.
(f) The assistant of Esdras the bandit, Bartol confessed the murder and rape
committed by Esdras, so Jack was released from Prison.
(g) The banished English Lord spoke against traveling, as you have to face
insults from the other countrymen.
(h) The English Lord believes the English to be the plainest people, who love
to listen to the stories, and their own flattery.
(i) The English Lord believes that traveling in France teaches us falsehood in
friendship, love men for our own pleasure and laziness.
(j) According to the English Lord, a traveler traveling in Spain borrows
Spanish fashion and learns to talk badly of his own country.
1. (a) As Jack was walking in search of Diamante, it started raining, and Jack
trying to take shelter under a building fell down in the vault of a Jew, where
he saw Diamante.
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(b) Dr. Zacharie needed the young man to dissect him and use his body parts
and blood for his experiments.
(c) Juliana was one of the concubines (keeps) of the Pope.
(d) Jack was being taken, bound in ropes, by Dr. Zacharie, when Juliana saw
him and was attracted by his youth.
(e) Juliana wanted Jack from Dr. Zacharie, but when he refused, she involved
Zacharie in poisoning the Pope and Dr. Zacharie’s possessions were
confiscated.
(f) Zadoch, the Jew, on the instruction by Dr. Zacharie, sent Diamante as a gift
to Juliana to poison her.
(g) Dr. Zacharie promised Diamante freedom from the bond, and a lot of
money.
(h) To accept the doctor’s proposal was the only way before Diamante to
escape merciless treatment of the Jew.
(i) When Juliana went to the feast offered by the Spanish Ambassador to Pope,
Diamante was the in-charge and she and Jack ran away together.
(j) Juliana asked her maid to bring her the jar of Spiritus vini, but the maid by
mistake brought the jar of poison put there and gave it to Juliana.
2. (a) False. Juliana mixed poison in the medicine of the Pope to discredit
Zacharie.
(b) False. Dr. Zacharie bought Jack from Zadoch.
(c) True.
(d) True.
7.6 Exercises :
1. Write a note on Jack Wilton’s adventures in Italy.
2. Attempt a character sketch of Jack Wilton from his escapeds.
3. Consider Thomas Nashe’s ‘The Unfortunate Traveller’ as a precursor of the
novel form.
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7.7 References :
1. A Guide to English Literature, Vol. 2 : The Age of Shakespeare, Ed. Boris
Ford, A Pelican Book.
2. Daiches David : A Critical History of English Literature, (Secker and
Warburg)
3. Grierson, Herbert, (1929) : Cross Currents in English Literature of the
Seventeenth Century, London.
4. Krapp, G. P. (1915) : The Rise of English Literary Prose, New York.

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Unit-8
UTOPIA
Index
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Utopia Book – I
8.2.1: Explanation
8.3 Check Your Progress – I
8.4 Utopia Book – II
8.4.1 Explanation
8.5 Check Your Progress – II
8.6 Chief Characters in Utopia
8.7 Summary / Plot
8.8 Critical Interpretation of Utopia
8.10 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ – I and II
8.11 Exercises.
8.12 References for further Study.
8.0 Objectives:
After studying this unit, you will be able to –
 understand Thomas More’s ideas about the ideal Commonwealth
 know various themes of ‘Utopia’.
 know the social / political and religious picture of the Sixteenth Century
England and the Utopians.
 know the financial, judicial and military life of the Utopians.
 understand the quality of More’s writing.
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8.1 Introduction:
In the previous unit we have studied the stark reality of England and her society
given by Thomas Nashe in his fiction The Unfortunate Traveller. But in the present
unit, we are going to study the imaginative ideal world of the Utopians. More’s
expectations are useful even for the present people.
A) Introduction to Thomas More:
Sir Thomas More, the son of Sir John More, a justice of the King’s Bench, was
born in 1478, in London. After his earlier education, he was admitted as a page to the
household of Cardinal Morton, at the age of fifteen. Morton was pleased with the
quick wit of young More. At the age of nineteen, he studied Greek, in Canterbury
College, Oxford. In 1499, he left Oxford to study Law in London, at Lincoln’s Inn.
At the age of twenty one, he became a member of the Parliament and was made
Under – Sheriff of London. He offended Henry VII by opposing a subsidy, and
retired from public life. But he became favourite of Henry VIII. In 1529, he was
made Chancellor.
A staunch adherent to the Church of Rome, he is said to have practised in his
chancellorship severities against the Reformers very inconsistent with the theory of
the Utopia.
When Henry broke with Rome, More would not follow him and denied an oath
affirming the validity of the King’s marriage with Anne Boleyn. The result was, in
1535, he was beheaded. His acquaintance with Erasmus at Oxford, proved of great
importance and help for him, till his death.His fame rests on:
(1) Utopia
(2) History of the Life and Death of King Edward V.
B) Introduction to Utopia:
Utopia was written in Latin, in two parts. The Second part was written first
towards the close 1515. The first part was written, early in 1516. Utopia was first
printed at Louvain, late in 1516, under the editorship of Erasmus, Peter Giles, and
other of More’s friends in Flanders. Then in November, 1518, More revised it and
printed by Frobenius at Basle. Its first publication in the English translation was
made by Ralph Robinson in 1551. Gilburt Burnet translated it with more literary skill
in 1684.
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Utopia is a work of a scholarly and witty Englishman, who attacks in his own
way the chief political and social evils of his time. Plato’s Republic and Plutarch’s
account of Spartan life under Lycurgus influenced him much. The dramatic setting of
the work is done with great ingenuity and humorous circumstantiality. More
professes to be only a transcriber; he simply writes down what he remembers of a
conversation with a restless traveller, Raphael Hythloday. Raphael had met in his
travels with the commonwealth of Utopia (Nowhere), and More draws him out to
give an account of it. Under the dramatic guise, disclaiming all responsibility for the
opinions, More utters freely political advice that might have been unpalatable but for
its witty accompaniments of time, place and circumstances. More’s fame lasted
chiefly due to this fiction Utopia. He ranks with Sir Philip Sidney as one of the most
popular characters in our history.
8.2 Utopia: Book I [Students should go through the original text carefully.]
8.2.1 Explanation
i. The Meeting at Cardinal Morton’s House: While travelling as Henry the
Eight’s ambassador in the Low Countries in the early 1500, More, encounters his
friend, Peter Giles, who introduces him to an acquaintance of his, Raphael
Hythloday. He was a great traveller. He went on telling his experiences to More.
While continuing his story, he told that once he was dining at Cardinal Morton’s
house. There was a lawyer there who commended the severe execution of justice
upon thieves. The lawyer could not understand why there were so many robbers and
thieves though they knew the severe punishment. Raphael spoke freely before the
Cardinal that the punishment was too strong for the crime, and that was why it
wasn’t working. His argument, that men were driven to stealing through desperation,
was refuted by the lawyer’s opinion that there were enough jobs for these people to
choose from. Raphael then took the position that many men were severely injured in
war, and therefore couldn’t work in the trade they used to work in before they went
to war. Further, Raphael argued that the aristocracy played a large part in creating
thieves. He pointed out that idle noblemen hired many people to work on their land,
but these people picked up no useful skills. When they became sick, or their lord
died, they were thrown out into the world, where, without skills or money, they had
to steal to feed and clothe themselves and their families. According to another reason
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given by Raphael, the number of thieves and beggars in England was increasing
because the rich used to take over that land where there were many sheep yielding
softer wool. Hence, agriculture in that land used to stop producing corns. So, the
people in that area, couldn’t continue their farming. No doubt, people had to turn to
stealing and begging. Raphael suggested a solution that those lands should be
restored and to control the avarice of nobility of increasing amounts of land. Then
employment would rise and the number of thieves and beggars would fall. To
Cardinal’s question why there should not be capital punishment, Raphael answered
that human life was of more worth than money, and God hadn’t asked them to kill.
On the other hand, he suggested that they should be punished as in Persia. There,
thieves were asked to do public works and if they became idle, they used to be
whipped. Otherwise, they could be used as guides. By their odd uniform, cropped
hair and small piece of ear cut down, they could be easily identified. They were
allowed to take food, drinks from friends, but were forbidden to accept money. If
they tried to escape or handle arms, death was the punishment. And those who
helped them used to get slavery as punishment.
More thanked Raphael for his account of the meeting at Cardinal Morton’s
house.
ii. Hypothetical Meeting at the French Court: Raphael then told a
hypothetical story, and asked More what he thought, if he proposed good laws to
Kings, showing them all their flaws and evils. Raphael was certain that he would be
driven out of the Court or he would be laughed at. He then gave an example of a
hypothetical meeting at the French Court, where each Council Member was
recommending the King tactics to expand the French territory and advantage over
another nation. The tactics included ruthlessness and disregard for the other nation.
Raphael imagined that the example and mistakes of the rulers of Utopia regarding the
expansion of Kingdom made their own people miserable. Hence, Raphael suggested
that the kings should improve their ancient kingdoms and should try to flourish them,
should love their people, should live among them and govern them gently.
iii. Council for Financial Affairs: On the discussion regarding a method to
increase king’s treasures, Raphael imagined, one of king’s financial advisers
suggested currency manipulation, another suggested a pretence of war, the other
suggested punishing the public for breaking laws that had been forgotten about by
the king himself. On this, Raphael spoke that it was wrong idea that increasing the
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king’s treasure should not be a main focus of the Court. Further he spoke that the
people of a country chose a king for their good, and to rule over them justly.
He gave an example of the Macarians, the neighbours of the Utopians, whose
law stated that the king was never to have more than one thousand pounds of gold in
treasures. This would increase commerce and exchange, and there would be free
circulation of money.
iv. The Discussion about Public Service: When Raphael asked More if the
ideas mentioned in ‘Council for Financial Affairs’ would be favoured in Court, More
refused and asked Raphael to engage himself in public affairs. More pointed out
that, slowly and steadily and through compromise and patience, Raphael might
change the system for the better. Further, he pointed out that there would not be
perfection, but at least the system would be less evil than before. Raphael here
disagreed with More, and compared his idea with that of Plato’s idea for the common
wealth. Raphael opined that as long as the money was the standard of all things, he
could not think that a nation could be governed either justly or happily. He believed
that by restricting wealth in government, evils might be decreased. Then he started to
speak of Utopia where there were very few laws, and even then much equality;
where virtue was rewarded and every man had everything he wanted.
8.3 Check Your Progress:

I) Answer the following questions in one word / phrase / sentence each:
1) In which year was the first part / book of Utopia written?
2) Who introduced More to Raphael Hythloday?
3) According to Raphael, what should not be a main focus of the Court?
4) What was the law of the Macarians regarding the gold in treasure?
5) Through what Raphael might change the system?
II) Rewrite the following sentences by choosing the correct option given below
them:
1) Utopia was written in ___________ language.
a) English
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b) Greek
c) Latin
d) French
2) The second part / book of Utopia was written in _______
a) 1514
b) 1515
c) 1516
d) 1517.
3) Thomas More worked as ________ of Henry the Eighth.
a) an ambassador
b) messenger
c) teacher
d) friend.
4) According to Raphael _____ played a large part in creating thieves.
a) poverty
b) friendship
c) idleness
d) aristocracy.
5) As per the Persian Law, thieves were asked to __________
a) do public works
b) be whipped
c) commit suicide
d) leave their town
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8.4 Utopia – Book II [Students should go through the original text carefully]
8.4.1 Explanation
i. Of their Towns, Particularly of Amaurot: Here, we get the description of
the main city / town of the Utopian Kingdom. Raphael lived in this city called
Amaurot for five years. On one side of it, there was a hill, and on the other, a river
called Anider. The river originated 80 miles above Amaurot in a small spring.
Water was supplied to the town through pipes. Whole city was surrounded by high
and thick wall in which there were forts and towers, good streets and some buildings.
There was a garden behind the houses. Due to proper cultivation of gardens, they
used to get flowers, fruits, vines, herbs etc.
They preserved the records of the state and town, and their history, in a perfect
manner, e.g. in the beginning, the houses of the Utopians used to be only huts – very
mean and low; but later on, they were three storeyed buildings and made of stones,
bricks and plaster. The roofs of those buildings were flat. There was a layer of plaster
which used to help to resist the fire, on those roofs. The windows were glazing with
glass. The cloth of linen was gummed to the windows through which light and wind
used to come freely in the houses.
ii. Of their Magistrates: Every year, in Utopia, 30 families used to choose
one Magistrate who was anciently called Syphogrant; now they called him Philarch.
There was one more Magistrate over every 10 Syphogrants. His ancient name used to
be Tranibore; the Modern name was Archphilarch. The 200 Syphogrants used to
choose the Prince from a list of 4 who were named by the people of 4 divisions of the
town.
Before choosing the Prince, Syphogrants were taking an oath for choosing the
fittest candidate for the post of Prince. The whole process was secret. The Prince
could live Prince throughout his life unless he was removed upon suspicion of some
design to enslave the people. Tranibores were chosen every year, but for the most
part, they were continued, other Magistrates were chosen only for a year.
Every third day, Traibores used to meet the Prince for the consultation about the
state and other affairs Everyday, two Syphogrants were called into the Council
Chamber. There was a fundamental rule that no final conclusion relating public could
be taken, unless it was discussed first, for 3 days in the Council.
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This process helped them not to conspire to change the government and enslave
the people. So, first any important matter was sent to Syphogrants, then to all the
families of their divisions and after that it was reported to the Senate, and rarely, if
very important matter was to be reffered to the Council of the whole island. There
was one rule that no debate would take place on the same day when the matter
proposed. It helped them not to take any hasty decision because of their bias, without
any consultation. The matter used to be debated in the next meeting thoughtfully, so
that, it would not bring any danger to their reputation.
iii. Of their Trades, and Manner of Life: The people of Utopia were well
acquainted with agriculture. Besides agriculture, every man had some peculiar trade
like manufacturing wool or flax, masonry, smith or carpenter’s work. All the people
used to have same clothes, except the distribution between male and female, and
married and unmarried. Women were dealing with the wool or flax trade. Magistrate,
used to take utmost care that a son shouldn’t change his father’s trade. Rarely, he was
allowed to do so.
The Syphogrants observed that nobody would become idle or slave. Their day
was divided in the following way- 6 hours work (3 before and 3 after dinner) 8 hours
sleep and the use of the remaining hours, depended upon the people themselves. But
during those hours, they were advised to do some exercises, reading etc. Before day
– break everyday, public lectures were organized but it was not compulsory for the
people to attend them. After supper they used to entertain themselves by music or
discourse for an hour. Their games were different, in them vices were punished 6
hours of work were strictly observed.
Idle husbands, priests, noblemen and their families, and lusty beggars in other
nations could create nothing but in Utopia, everybody worked. A few people who
got some exemption from labour, could use their time to make a considerable
advancement in learning and were ranked among learned men from whom
ambassadors, priests, Tranibores, Prince, etc were chosen.
The Utopians preserved their buildings carefully and if needed, repaired it
quickly. The builders used leather and skin clothes when at work. Their production
was more than necessary. Magistrate never used to engage the people in unnecessary
labour because the chief aim of the constitution was to regulate labour by the
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necessities of the public. They allowed people as much time as was necessary for
improvement of their minds, in which they thought the happiness of life consisted.
iv. Of Their Traffic: An Utopian family consisted not less than 10 and more
than 16 persons. If the number of the people in their nation was increased too much,
some were sent to neighbouring continent. The oldest man of the family used to
govern the family.
Every city was divided into 4 equal parts, and in its centre, there used to be a
market place. Father used to collect, the things that his family needed. Here, the
market herbs, fruits, bread, fish, fowl and cattle were also brought. It was all free of
charge. The killing of the beast was done only by the slaves at certain places.
On each side of the street, there used to be 15 halls on each side for
Syphogrants. Every town had 4 public hospitals. Stewards used to take care of the
ill as per the prescriptions of the skilful physicians. The Utopians used to distribute
the best things left in the market equally among the Prince, chief priest, Tranibores,
the ambassadors and the strangers.
Their dinner was prepared by women from every family turn by turn. Men and
women sat in separate opposite lines for dinner, children under 5 took their dinner
with their mothers, and children above 5 to marriage, ate silently whatever was given
to them. The best dishes were first served to the old and to the young later Dinner
and supper began with a short lecture on morality. Their dinners were very quick
because they had to go for work after it and suppers long because they used to sleep
after it. They never took supper without music. Fruits were served after meat. At the
dinner tables, they used to burn perfumes and sprinkle about fragrant ointments and
sweet waters so that nothing could cheer up their spirits.
v. Of the Travelling of the Utopians: For travelling the Utopians used to
take leave from Syphogrants and Tranibores, and passport from the Prince. While
travelling no provisions were carried by them. Every- where they were treated like
home. A man without leave and passport was punished as a fugitive and sent home
disgracefully. If anybody wanted to travel in the country houses he had to labour
with them. There were no ale houses, taverns, corruption, and factions among them.
After storing things for the island for 2 years, the overplus material used to be
exported to other nations. In its return, they used to bring back iron, silver and gold
to the island. Much part of their treasure was in the bonds that were in the name of
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the town. This treasure was to be used at war time. For them iron was more
important than silver and gold. More criticizes human greed for gold and silver by
saying that nature gives all the best things like water and earth, and hides from us
useless and vain things under the ground.
The Utopians had made great discoveries in music, logic, arithmetic and
geometry, like the Greeks. Their study of astronomy was good. They knew the
philosophy of the cause of saltiness of the sea, of its ebb and flow, etc.
They inquired into the nature of virtue and pleasure. They examined properly
what was good for body and mind. Their chief dispute was the happiness of man.
They had some religious principles –
a. Man’s soul was immortal.
b. God gave rewards for good and virtuous actions and punishment for vice after
this life.
c. They didn’t believe in snatching pleasures of others.
d. They believed in nature’s support to man for getting true pleasure.
e. For them, hunting was the basest and indecent. It would, they believed, corrupt
their mind, with cruelty.
They believed in the pleasures of body and pleasures of mind. Bodily pleasures
provided perfect health and pleasures of mind gave them delight of contemplation.
They esteemed pleasure of mind the most because it used to arise from true virtue
and good conscience. They didn’t believe in fasting thinking that it would weaken
the strength of man.
More praised the Utopians because they pursued knowledge. Their
pronunciation was exact and correct. Their language was nearer to the Persian
language. They had great honour for Plutarch and Lucian’s wit. They had the books
of Aristophanes, Homer, Euripides, Sophocles, and of the historians like Thucydides,
Herodotus and Herodian.
The Utopians owed the art of printing and the manufacture of paper, to the other
nations. Before that they used to write on the barks of trees or on parchment.
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vi. Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages: In Utopia, prisoners of war
were not made slaves, but the criminals and the condemned persons had to be slaves.
Such slaves were perpetual labourers and were always chained. Poors of the
neighbouring countries, used to offer their own services as slaves. They were treated
in better manner than their own slaves, and were allowed to stay there or go away.
The Utopians took the utmost care of the patients, Those suffering from
incurable diseases were advised by priests and magistrates and allowed to die by
eating opium and could save themselves from torture and misery. This death was
called ‘voluntary death’. Those who died without advice of priests were given no
honour and thrown into a ditch.
While talking about their marriage, the readers are told that the age of marriage
for man was 22 and for a woman 18. For marriage, they must have a warrant from
the Prince. They chose wives in a ridiculous and absurd manner. The bride and
bridegroom used to be present naked by some elder man and woman. It was done
purposely, because they wanted to check out if any deformity was among their
bodies. They did not allow polygamy or divorces. If any adultery or insufferable
perverseness was found, the Senate used to dissolve that marriage. The guilty were
not allowed to remarry. The married couple could separate from each other by
mutual consent and could find another suitable partner with whom they could live
happily. The adulterer and adulteress were condemned to death. But if even after
they were forgiven by the Prince, they made mistake of the same kind, he might
punish them with death.
The Utopians had very few and simple laws and no lawyers because they
believed that lawyers disguised matters. Husbands had power to correct their wives
and the parents to chastise their children. The greatest public punishment for great
crime was slavery. If slaves became rebellious, they were treated like wild beasts
and finally put to death. They didn’t like to paint their faces for beauty.
The statues of worthy men were erected at the market places for inviting people
to the love of virtue.
The magistrates, treated people kindly, hence they were called fathers. The
Prince, high priest used to join common people forgetting their positions.
The Utopians didn’t like the league and treaties with other nations. They
believed no man as an enemy, unless he injured them. Instead of League of Nations,
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they believed in partnership of nations. They also believed that kindness and good
nature could unite men better than any agreement.
vii. Of Their Military Discipline: The Utopians thought war as a brutal thing
and hence, glory obtained by war was in fact, inglorious. Though the men and
women were being trained up in military exercises, they used it only defend
themselves and their friends or to make free the oppressed nations from tyranny.
The Utopians would be both troubled and ashamed of bloody victory. They
used to offer trophies to the successful people in the bloodless victories. After the
declaration of war, secretly they used to affix places in enemy countries and used to
promise rewards to those who would kill the enemy Prince. If they caught him alive,
the sum would be doubled. Their rewards used are gold and great revenues in enemy
lands. Thus, by this, they used to corrupt their enemies. In order to shorten the war
they thought it a wise course and an act of mercy and love to mankind to prevent
great slaughter of people in the war. They used to hire, soldiers chiefly from
Zapolets, 500 miles away to the east of Utopia. Zapolets were very hard and lived on
hunting. They were ready to fight even for a low pay but they did never have any
kind of commitment to anybody. At the time of war, they used to forget their
friendship and relationship. For them money was more important than any other
thing in the world.
No Utopian was forced to join war against his will because his lack of courage
and cowardice would dishearten others too. But such people, who had good bodies
though they were not brave, were used by the Utopians for war when their nation
was invaded. They used to be put aboard their ships or on the walls of their towns,
so that they couldn’t run away. Sometimes, their whole family including wives,
parents etc. were sent on the foreign war so that, together they could fight well and
till the end of the war. After obtaining the victory, they used to kill less people and
rather would take them as prisoners. When their army was on the threshold of defeat
they allowed them to escape, and then with the help of reserved force they would
suddenly attack disorderly and escaped soldiers, and kill them.
The Utopians used to fortify their camps with large and deep trenches. Their
armour was strong for defence, but not very heavy. With it, they could even swim.
They used arrows. They didn’t have swords, but fought with a pole- axe which used
to be very sharp and heavy.
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They took much care for not destroying enemy lands, corns and even their
horses. Any unarmed man except a spy was not hurt by them. If the town
surrendered, they gave protection to it and gave rewards to the people of the town
who encouraged other to surrender.
After the war, they used to collect money, land from the conquered. Their
revenue used to be increased up to 7, 00,000 ducats every year. Such revenue was
assigned for wars.
viii. Of Their Slaves and Religions: The Utopians worshipped the sun, moon
and even some eminent men of virtue and glory. The wise among the Utopians
worshipped only invisible, eternal Deity spread all over the Universe. Such Being
was known as Father of All. The Supreme Being who made and governed the world
was called Mithras.
Before the arrival of Utopus, there used to be quarrels concerning religions
among the people. He made a law that nobody should draw others to their religions
by force, but by persuasion. If it was done by force by anybody, he used to be
condemned to banishment or slavery. This law helped to preserve public peace.
Nobody was allowed to degenerate dignity of human nature.
They didn’t believe in death of soul, but believed that after death, there was a
state of reward and punishment. They didn’t lament on death because they thought
that man should go to God silently and without misery. While carrying their bodies,
they used to sing hymns. They used to burn the dead body and in that place used to
set up a pillar with inscription in honour of the deceased.
They didn’t believe in auguries (omens) and other useless superstitions. But they
showed great honour to those miracles that showed effects and indications of the
presence of the Supreme Being.
In order to obtain happiness after death, they always did good things and worked
hard. For this, they used to visit the sick, mend high ways, repair bridges, cleanse the
ditch, etc. There were two types of such people –
1) Most holy people, who remained unmarried and away from worldly pleasures.
2) Some preferred to marry, produce children and enjoy any type of pleasure. The
men who led severe lives were called in their language Brutheskas.
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Every town used to have 13 priests and one from every temple. 7 of them used
to go with the force on war. The remaining priests used to worship God and inspect
the manners of the people. Their wives used to be the most extraordinary women of
the country. Rarely old widows were chosen as priests.
There was no punishment for the crime of the priests. On the battle field, they
used to kneel down to pray God for the victory of their side without much bloodshed.
They used to restrain fury of their people and enemy, even after their victory.
The first and the last days of every month and year were celebrated as festivals.
Their months were measured by the course of the moon and years by the course of
the sun. Such first days, in their language were called Cynemernes and the last days
Trapemernes.
Their temples were magnificent, nobly built, extremely spacious, little dark
within. There was little darkness because priests thought that too much light might
dissipate the thought. There were no images of god in the temples. By meeting in
the evening of the festival, they used to thank god for their good success during the
season and on the very next day, again for the future season. Men and women used to
sit separately in the temples.
They never offered any living creature in sacrifice to God. They burnt incense
and other sweet odours and many wax light during their worship. These ceremonies
used to elevate men’s souls and give them more energy and cheerfulness during the
divine worship.
The people used white garments and the priests party coloured clothes,
composed of the plumes of several birds. After the priest’s arrival, all bowed their
heads in reverence to him, and then used to sing hymns with the help of some
musical instruments. Their vocal and instrumental music was very passionate and
suitable to every occasion. They believed that their religion was the truest of all the
other religions.
ix. More’s Conclusion: Thomas More claimed that the constitution of Utopia
(Commonwealth) was the best in the world. He criticized other governments calling
them conspiracy of the rich and they pretended that they worked for Managing the
Public, but in reality, they pursued their personal purposes. They asked poor people
to work hard at low rates and thus, oppressed them. Thus, the public wealth was
divided among the rulers and representatives of the public. So, they themselves
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became richer and all others poorer. Hence, the frauds, thefts, robberies, quarrels,
treacheries, murders, witchcrafts used to happen among other nations.
More expected that the whole world should imitate the Utopians in all the ways
because in their life, there was no place for ambition and faction. Thus, More had
proved through the mouth of Raphael that the Utopians were superior to all others in
every sphere of life.
8.5 Check Your Progress:

I) Answer the following questions in one word / phrase / sentences each:
1) What was the name of the river on the other side of Amaurot?
2) By which name the Utopians used to call Syphogrant?
3) What kinds of clothes were used by the builders?
4) For travelling, who used to give Utopians the passport?
5) What was the method of choosing wives / husbands of the Utopians?
II) Rewrite the following sentences by choosing the correct option given below
them:
1) Among the Utopians, the age of marriage for a man was ___.
a) 18
b) 20
c) 22
d) 24
2) Zapolets were living ________ miles away to the east of Utopia.
a) 80
b) 150
c) 140
d) 500
3) The men who led severe lives were called _______________
a) Brutheskas
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b) Mithras
c) Steward
d) Syphogrant
4) After war their revenue used to increased upto _____ ducats.
a) 5, 00,000
b) 6, 00,000
c) 7, 00,000
d) 8, 00,000
5) The adulterer and the adulteress used to be punished with ____
a) death
b) slavery
c) banishment
d) none of these
e)
8.6 Chief Characters in Utopia:
1) Thomas More: Author and main character of the book. He sees his friend,
Peter Giles, while travelling, and is introduced to Raphael Hythloday, who describes
Utopia. His interest in government and travel lead to a debate with Raphael and the
description of Utopia, on which the book is based.
2) Peter Giles: More’s friend, whom More sees in the Low Countries, and
who introduces More to Raphael.
3) Raphael Hythloday: A well travelled friend of Giles, who does not believe
in the present system of government, but rather in that of Utopia, which he thinks, is
the only true commonwealth. He lived in Utopia for five years, and describes every
aspect of it to Giles and More. The book is based on this description.
4) Cardinal Morton: A Cardinal whom Raphael once visited, and whose
counsellors agree with his opinions, whatever they may be. The Cardinal saw some
wisdom in Raphael’s remarks. The account of the meeting at the Cardinal’s house
showed how counsellor applaud whatever their superiors want, and how Raphael’s
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advice would be of no use to the King, and therefore, Raphael should not become a
counsellor to the King.
5) Prince: The ruler of Utopia, elected by the Magistrates, he rules for life.
His son does not take his position when he dies; instead a new prince is elected.
6) Utopus: The founder, and first ruler, of Utopia. A very wise man who
ordered Utopia to be separated from the rest of the continent by a channel, as he felt
that Utopians were superior to the rest of the people. Besides, he made many laws,
including one that states that all Utopians must believe in a Divine Being, but that
may practice whichever religion they choose.
7) Brutheskas: Utopia’s priests are known as Brutheskas. There are two types
of priests: those that do not marry and believe that they should not engage in any
pleasure, and those that marry and enjoy life to the point that it does not interfere
with their labour. There are few priests, so that priesthood may remain a highly
dignified position, and also because it is difficult to find people good enough to be
priests.
8.7 Summary / Plot

Thomas More was traveling in the Low Countries when he saw his friend, Peter
Giles. Giles introduced him to a well – travelled friend of his, Raphael Hythloday.
Raphael spoke of many countries and their policies and laws, and freely
criticized the laws of their own countries. When More asked him why he didn’t join
the King’s services as a counselor, Raphael said he was happy with his way of life.
Furthermore, he did not think his services would be appreciated, as his ideas were
very different from the ideas of those around him. Raphael gave an account of a
meeting of Cardinal Morton’s house, and then hypothesized about what would
happen if he were to express his opinion in other meetings. He then began speaking
of a country, Utopia, which he thought was ruled very well and was a perfect
country.
More begged Raphael to speak more of Utopia, and he did. He first told of their
towns, which were all as identical as possible, and had maximum of 6,000 families.
He then spoke of their Magistrates, who were called Philarchs, and were chosen
every year by thirty families. An Archphilarch overlooked every ten philarchs. The
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Utopians’ manner of life was unusual, as gold was of no value and everything was
therefore, free. Also, they spent their lives in the city and in the suburbs, living in
each place for two years at a time. Laws dictated that they were not to travel without
a ‘passport’, which could only be obtained from the Prince and states where and for
how long they were allowed to travel. Slaves and marriages were spoken of, next.
Prisoners of war were not taken as slaves, unless they fought in the battles; women
were not to be married before 18 and men before 22. Sexual encounters before
marriage were prohibited as were polygamy and adultery. There were no lawyers in
Utopia as everybody defended himself or herself in court.
Their military discipline was such that everyone trained for the army on a daily
basis, however, the Utopians prefer to hire armies rather than to let their own people
go to war and as money did not matter much to them, they could do that without
much discomfort. Women were encouraged to join their husbands at war.
Religion was the last topic that was spoken and there were many religions in
Utopia as people were free to practise whatever they believed. However, the law
stated that they must all believe in one Supreme Divine Being and that they were
forbidden to believe that the human’s soul used to die with his body. Raphael spoke
of the way the country and the people dealt with the issues and problems associated
with each of those topics and how we could learn from them and their wisdom.
When Raphael finished his description, More had further questions and
thoughts. However, he did not voice them, as it was apparent that Raphael was tired.
The only thing he did say was that he wished their government would adapt some of
Utopia’s rules, but he saw little hope of that happening.
8.8 Critical Interpretation of Utopia:

8.8.1 The Aim of Utopia:
In the conclusion of Utopia, More gives in detail the picture of an ideal society
which forms the exact opposite of the society of his time. More attacks society at
roots. It is on various spheres of life. The people of his time didn’t understand him.
He did not desire to be understood by the people. Hence, he wrote Utopia in Latin,
and concealed his thoughts in the garment of satire. This give him greater freedom in
the expression of his opinions.
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For some, Utopia is an imitation of the Platonic Republic, and for some it is only
a fantasy. Some believe that it is “a source of excellent doctrines and useful
ordinances, from which states will construct their institution.” According to some, it
is a book which gives directions to rulers how to govern their states. Like
Machiavelli’s Prince and Erasmus’ Manual for Christian Princes Utopia also has the
same aim: to show princes how they should govern.
The island of Utopia is, in fact, England. More designed to show how England
would look and what shape her relations with abroad would assume if she was
communistically organized. He concludes Utopia, “However, there are many things
in the commonwealth of Utopia that I rather wish, than hope, to see followed in our
governments.” If we study Utopia minutely we come to know that it was not the idle
dreaming of a leisure hour, but the result of a profound insight into the essentials of
the social, political, religious and economic tendencies and of his age.
8.8.2 More’s socialism:
More’s personal character may be regarded as one of the causes of his socialism.
According to Erasmus, More’s great friend, he was very friendly and helpful. But
only sympathy with the poors cannot make anyone a socialist. For this the socialist
sentiments and ideas should grow of this interest; a person should have profound
economic insight.
In More’s time, the humanists were capable of formulating a theoretical
socialism. More was one of such champions. For him no class had a special interest.
He believed that all people should be busy in their work. They should select work as
per their choice or as assigned to them by elders. They must be helpful to one
another, if all of them did different jobs, they all will have employments, and there
won’t be any problem of poverty and unemployment. His actual working on various
positions like Member of Parliament, Chancellor, Under-Sheriff, etc. suggests that it
was well acquainted with the economic condition of the people. Inequality by
capitalism/ communism was not favourable to him. For an ideal state, he hoped
equality among all the people. The social structure of the Utopians, suggests the
same; no greed for anything in excess. Hythloday argues injustice as inequality in
possessions and justice as equal distribution, and recommends it for the whole
population. According to him, it will result in abundance and happiness for all men.
There is no private property and the citizenry are assigned positions in the workforce
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to suit the needs of production in the economic plan. Every citizen is trained as an
agricultural worker, as well as in at least one non-agricultural craft or profession.
Employment in either agriculture or crafts is completely according to the needs of the
states.
8.8.3 Major Themes of Utopia:
(i) Common Welfare versus Private Interest: The abolition of private
property is one of the important themes of Utopia. On this point, we see the
disagreement between More and Hythloday about the interpretation of English
Society. Hythloday defends communism as practised by the Utopians.
According to Utopians, pride is the source of many crimes. Wealth is an
important reason for that. By eliminating private property or wealth, Utopians would
like to remove it. In Utopia everyone works and there was no poverty, whereas,
outside Utopia (feudal societies) there was much poverty and unequal distribution of
labor. Utopians feared that private property would produce more harm than good. So,
individual and private activities were discouraged by them. Privacy was a frightening
notion for the Utopians.
(ii) Systemization and Uniformity: Originally, the island Utopia was not like
a natural paradise. It was the commander-Utopus, who painstakingly planned
systematically and transformed the savage island into a paradise. The perfection is
expressed in uniformity. The land is urbanized with various systems of cities, houses,
gardens, roads, even the clothes worn by men and women, their dining systems, etc.
All the cities in Utopia have exactly the same language, customs, laws and
institutions. The society follows a master plan handed down from generation to
generation. Thus, all their life-activities were systematized carefully, so that there
would be no factions and no quarrels
(iii) Morals, Education of Citizens and Civic Virtue: The Utopians are well-
educated. Their celebration of virtue is like the Greek philosopher’s they devote
much of their time and energy towards the moral education of the young people. The
ideas of the beauty, justice and happiness are also integrated by them. Like Plato’s
‘Republic’, Utopia is ruled by philosophic minded individuals. They erect the statues
of their ancestors as a means of presenting an example of virtue. There, virtue is
defined in circular manner: it is the moral of character of an individual who supports
society, an individual who serve as the pillars of society are considered virtuous.
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Family and state worked together to carefully transfer the values of the older
generation to the younger generation.
(iv) Exploration through Travel and Philosophy: More’s philosophical
exploration is founded upon the belief that the contemplation and discussion of
philosophy can initiate the process through which the society is improved. The
exploration of a fictitious Utopian island is the honey that makes the medicine of
serious philosophical contemplation easier to stomach
The exploration of the new and unknown regions of the world is shown by the
adventures of travellers. These travellers were motivated largely by myths and stories
of New World, especially the idea of perfect paradise. Utopia is a moral exploration
through which reader may see himself in others and make amends.
8.9 Terms to Remember:

 Syphogrant : Ancient name for magistrate
 Tranibore : A syphogrant who works over every ten syphogrants.
 Philarch : In Utopian language a syphogrant.
 Mithras : Utopian’s name for the Divine Being.
 Amaurot : The Capital of Utopia.
 Archphilarch : Utopian’s name who rules over ten philarchs.
 Ducat : Utopian currency. The gold ducat was first coined in Venice, in
the 13th century.
8.10 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress ‘ I and II

Book- I
I) 1. 1516
2. Peter Giles.
3. Increasing money
4. The king should never have more than one thousand pounds of gold in
their treasure.
5. Compromise and patience.
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II) 1. c)- Latin
2. b)- 1515
3. a) – an ambassador
4. d)- aristocracy
5. a)-do public works
Book-II
I) 1. Anider
2. Philarch
3. Leather and skin clothes.
4. Prince
5. Presenting bride / bridegroom naked in the presence of some serious elder
man/ woman.
II) 1. c) -22
2. d)-500
3. a)-Brutheskas
4. c) - 7, 00,000
5. b) - Slavery.
8.11 Exercises :
1. Write a comprehensive note on Utopia, as an island.
2. What role of the Magistrates is described in Utopian kingdom?
3. How does More describe the Utopian ideas about their religion?
4. Describe More’s thoughts and ideas regarding the Utopian military
discipline and war.
5. What are the ideas of More regarding the Utopian’s marriage and slaves?
6. What does More say about the Council for financial affairs?
7. Write a note on the travelling and public service in Utopia.
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8.12 Reference for further study :-
1) Sullivan, F.D.S. (editor) : The Utopian Version: Seven Essays on the
Quintessential Thomas More’, San Diego State University, California, 1983.
2) Minto William : ‘A Manual of English Prose Literature’ Atlantic Publishers and
Distributors, B-2, Vishal Enclave, New Delhi, 1995.
3) David Daiches : ‘A Critical History of English Literature’, Volume I. Allied
Publisher Ltd. , 15. J.N. Heredia Marg, Bombay.
4) Davis. J. C. (1981) : ‘Utopia and the Ideal Society: A Study of English Utopian
Writing.’ Cambridge University Press.
5) Kautsky, Karl : ‘The Roots of More’s Socialism In Sir Thomas More (1516)
Utopia.’ Robert M. Adams trans. and ed. New York: W.W. Norton 1975.

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Unit-9
Apology for Poetry
Sir Philip Sidney
Index
9.0 Objectives
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Apology for Poetry : (The Text)
9.2.1 Poetry as the First Light-giver
9.2.2 Poetry : the Most Effective Medium
9.2.3 Poet is the Maker
9.2.4 Poetry Teaches and Delights
9.2.5 Philosophy/History vs Poetry
9.2.6 The Persuasive Power of Poetic Imitation
9.2.7 Poetic Kinds
9.2.8 Objections to Poetry
9.2.9 Sidney’s Defence
9.3 Summary
9.6 Exercises
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9.0 Objectives :
After studying this unit you will be able to :
 learn about Sidney’s reaction to Stephen Gosson’s attack on the plays and
poetry in The School of Abuse.
 understand Sidney’s comprehensive argument in defence of poetry and
literature in general.
 learn about Sidney’s utilitarian as well as didactic view of literature.
 learn Sidney’s Apology as the first attempt to present a critical theory of
literature in general and poetry in particular.
9.1 Introduction :
In the units from 1 to 7, you have studied poetry and plays in English produced
by the celebrated literary artists of the age of Chaucer and the Elizabethan as well as
the 17th century England. You have had comprehensive introduction to the beginning
of the plays and theatre, art as well as development of poetry in English under the
influence of Italian and French poets. You are also familiar with the development of
English drama through the Elizabethan period upto the Comedy of Manners in the
second half of the 17th century.
In this unit, you are going to study the first comprehensive critical theory of
poetry or literature in general in Sir Philip Sidney’s Apology for Poetry. Even though
it is an answer to Gosson’s trenchant attack on the contemporary poetry and plays,
Sidney’s Apology is the first attempt to theorize about literature in general. Since it is
a defence of poetry, it naturally tries to look at literature from utilitarian point of
view, which is consistent with the moral argument in Aristotle’s Poetics, in which
Aristotle has also defended poetry arguing against Plato’s attack on the poets and
poetry. Stephen Gosson being a clergy, in his The School of Abuse, attacks all
secular literature, equating poets with pipers, players and jesters; calling them ‘father
of lies’, and charging them of diverting men from virtue and making the country
effeminate (womanish), through love songs and sonnets. Stephen Gosson not only
attacked and ridiculed the poets and poetry, he dedicated his ‘The School of Abuse’
to Philip Sidney, as if to tease him for his practice as a poet.
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You have already noted while studying Sidney’s sonnets that he was patriotic
and wanted to enrich English poetry, because, being a multi-lingual, he knew the
new poetry in Italy and France. In this Apology for Poetry, Sidney glorifies poetry.
He intended to inspire poets ‘for uttering sweetly and properly the concepts of the
mind’, and he is quite confident that English, his mother tongue, is no less capable of
expressing such thoughts and feelings in poetry.
Sidney argues that the poet is really the ‘maker’, a creator. He does not merely
‘imitate’ nature but creates an ideal universe which can teach as well as delight the
readers. You can see that Sidney’s Apology for Poetry is much more than his answer
to Gosson. Being a poet himself, and also well-read in literatures of Italy and France,
Sidney very patiently defends poetry against the charges of grossness and corrupting
minds of the readers.
Let us now read, the argument of Sidney defending poetry as well as developing
a classical theory of literary criticism.
9.2 Apology for Poetry : (The Text)

[It is not possible to reprint the whole text here. However, we are giving you here
extensive summary of Sidney’s text. If necessary, you can use the original text for
any specific reference.]
I Sidney playfully begins his defence. He tells us how one Italian master of
horsemanship, John Pugliano, proudly and with strong affection, described greatness
of horsemen as soldiers, and greatness of horse as the noblest creature. Sidney
undertakes to defend the art of poetry in the same manner, that is ‘with strong
affection and weak argument’, because writing poetry, he says, is his ‘unelected
vocation’. Sidney here confesses that he is motivated to defend poetry on account of
his strong affection for it, but his argument may be weak like Pugliano’s. He is, thus,
rather modest in his defence.
9.2.1 Poetry as the first light-giver :
Sidney argues that those who castigate (criticize) poetry are ungrateful, because
poetry was the first source of knowledge in every nation and every language. Poetry
was the first ‘nurse’, who fed the seekers of knowledge, with small doses of milk,
and prepared them to understand tougher knowledge. In ancient Greece, only the
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poets such as Homer, Musaeus and Hesiod, imparted knowledge through poetry.
Amphion, the poet, is said to have moved stones with his poetry to build the city of
Thebes, and Orpheus could influence even the beasts by his music. In Latin and
Italian, poets were the treasures of knowledge. Similarly, in English the poets like
Gower and Chaucer delighted the readers and encouraged them to learn.
9.2.2 Poetry : the most Effective Medium :
The philosophers of Greece had to take help of poetry to express their ideas and
thoughts. There were scientists like Thales, Empedocles and Parmenides who
explained their natural philosophy in poetry. Even war matters were explained by
Tyrtaeu in poetry. All these learned people were first the poets, and only through
poetry they could impart highest knowledge. In Plato’s works, inside there was
Philosophy but skin was poetry; in other words, the philosophical thought was
dressed in poetry. Plato, in his works imagines the women of Athens speaking things
which in real life they would not speak even if tortured. Plato made use of all poetic
devices to make his descriptions poetical. Even historians, though they promise to
tell the truth only, have gladly borrowed the style and devices of poetry to tell what
happened. Herodotus, the famous Greek historian, and his followers made use of
poetic devices for passionate descriptions of battles, and the orations of the kings and
their captains making appeal to their soldiers. They must have studied poetry to be
able to use language effectively.
Sidney gives examples of countries like Ireland, and the barbarian tribes like the
Red Indians, and also the Britons, Saxons and Danes, who had poets though no
learning of any other kind.
Greeks and Romans were the originators of scientific studies in the Western
world. Romans called a poet ‘vates’, meaning a diviner, foreseer (who can look into
the future) or a prophet. They made use of poetry to write about their discourses in
science. The oracles of Delphos and Sibylla, in the ancient times were delivered in
poetry only. Even the psalms of David are nothing but divine poetry. They are
written to a metre. He has made use of the figures like personification used in poetry.
The description of God appearing in all His majesty, the joyfulness of beasts, and
even hills leaping is nothing but poetry. Finally, Sidney points out that rightly used
the poetry deserves to be welcomed rather than ousted.
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 Check your Progress I :
Answer the following questions in one word, a phrase or a sentence each :

a. Why does Sidney say that the detractors of poetry are ungrateful?
b. How does, according to Sidney, poetry imparts knowledge?
c. How, according to Sidney, Philosophers benefited from poetry?
d. How did the historians use poetry?
e. Why are the Psalms of David, poetry?
9.2.3 Poet is the Maker :
Sidney, then, points out the origin of the word poets, which in Greek was
‘poiein’ meaning ‘to make’. He is happy that in English the word ‘poet’ has been
retained. Sidney takes up this argument of a poet as a ‘maker’ or ‘creator’ comparing
the poet with astronomer, natural philosopher (scientist), geometrician, moral
philosopher and so on. He argues that all these depend on Nature. But the poet is the
only one who is not tied down or subjected to Nature. With his imagination he
creates another world, better than the real world or totally a new world, in which you
come across novel creations like heroes (such as Achiles, Hercules, etc.) demigods
and Cyclops, Furies and Chimeras, etc. Thus, the poet is a parallel creator like
Nature. He is not restricted by the Nature or dependent on its gifts, because with his
wit and imagination he can freely range over the new world.
Sidney further argues that the world created by the poets is far richer than the
one shown by Nature. The poetic landscapes are full of pleasant rivers, trees full of
fruit, sweet smelling flowers. But, the world of Nature is brazen (harsh, without
beauty), while the world created by poetry is golden. Then Sidney asks if Nature has
produced ideal men as poetry has created. He gives examples from the poetic
creations – Theagenes as a constant lover, Pylades as an ideal friend, Orlando a
valiant hero, Cyrus as the noblest Prince, and Virgil’s epic hero Aeneas. The poets
know what is ideal, and they create characters to exemplify this ideal. The poets have
created these excellent models for people to learn from them and imitate. Poetry
bestows upon the world excellent characters like Cyrus and Aeneas. God has created
man in his own image, and,
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therefore, Man is far above the second (created) nature. Man knows what perfection
is with the help of his wit (wisdom), but, after the Fall of Adam, Man’s will is
infected and Man cannot reach perfection. Yet, the poet is able to show this
perfection in the characters created by him.
9.2.4 Poetry teaches and delights :
Sidney, quoting Aristotle, agrees that poetry is an art that imitates, and by
imitation he means representing or speaking metaphorically. And the aim of this
representation is to teach and delight. He classifies poetry into three categories :
(1) divine poetry such as the Psalms of David, Songs of Solomon, Hymns of Moses
and Deborah, etc.
(2) The second kind is the philosophical and moral kind of poetry, or poetic
discourse of natural sciences, or historical poetry. Whether these should be
rightfully called poetry is another matter.
(3) The third kind of poetry is the poetry proper, because it teaches as well as
delights. This poetry is pure invention, the product of the poet’s imagination.
Sidney gives an example of painting, an imaginary portrait of Lucretia, who
takes other’s blame on herself and suffers. The artist never saw Lucretia, but the
painting is the outward manifestation of virtue. This is what the poet does making
use of imagination.
Sidney further classifies the poetry proper into the genres such as Heroic, Lyric,
Tragic, Comic, Satiric, Iambic, Elegiac, pastoral, etc. This classification, he says,
depends upon the subject or matter they deal with. He makes a distinction between
verse and poetry proper, because, as he has already pointed out, even history and
philosophy make use of verse as a medium. And there were poets who did not make
use of verse form; for example Xenophon; who wrote a heroic kind of poetry on ‘the
portrait of a just empire’, which is prose. Heliodorus wrote the sweet love story of
Theagenes and Chariclea in prose. Mere writing in verse does not make anyone a
poet.
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a. How is the poet, according to Sidney, a maker?
b. In what way astronomers, moral philosophers, scientists, different from a
poet?
c. What does Sidney say about the real world and the world created by the
poet?
d. How is poetry superior to Nature in the creation of man?
e. What, according to Sidney, is the aim of Poetry?
9.2.4 Philosophy/History vs Poetry :
Sideny examines the claims of moral philosopher, the historian and others. He
says, Astronony, mathematics, natural sciences, history are all serving sciences. They
do not help man to be virtuous; to lift up his mind to the divine experience. Moral
philosophers with serious face, roughly dressed, with their contempt for outward
things cannot teach man. The historian, surrounded by old ‘mouse eaten records’
considers himself authority over things thousand years ago, but knows little about the
present time. He says, philosopher tries to teach virtue through old books of the
academicians, but he (historian) shows virtue in action in the battles. The historian
claims to teach the present generation to follow the foot-steps of the leaders of the
past. He says the experience of the old times in better than witty discourses of the
philosophers. If the philosopher states moral principles, the historian shows their
models in history.
Sidney says, in this dispute between the moral philosopher and the historian,
only the poet can be the moderator. The philosopher has his moral principles, but his
language is dry and abstract and difficult to grasp. The historian shows what is, but
does not show what should be. He lacks general principles.
The poet is able to demonstrate how the ‘precept’, the moral principles can be
exemplified effectively through the creation of characters. He is able to combine
general moral principles with concrete examples. And he is able to influence the
readers, which the philosopher cannot do with his wordiness and historian with his
mere facts. The poet gives perfect picture of what philosopher would like to teach.
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Tully, the historian, tried to show the power of love for our own country – the
national spirit. But Anchises, in Homer’s poetry, far more powerfully expresses this
spirit, standing in the midst of the burning Troy. And Ulysses, living in the most
beautiful land of Calypso, feels greatly unhappy and sourly misses his Ithaca, though
it is dry and beggarly. Philosophers only talk about anger as a temporary attack of
madness, but the poet/dramatist Sophocles shows it powerfully in the scene of Ajax
killing and whipping sheep and oxen thinking them to be the army of the Greeks.
Poets are thus able to make effective representation of feelings of love, anger,
friendship, etc., which a philosopher can hardly do. What then is more powerful way
of teaching – philosophical instruction or make-believe imagination of the poet?
Sidney agrees that only a few poets can be accomplished in their art, and if there are
mediocre poets, it is not the fault of the art of poetry. But, at the same time, it is true
that even Jesus Christ took help of poetry while preaching humbleness and charity
and mercy using the parable of the lost child. He says, philosophers do teach, but
their teaching is not understandable. But, what the poet says is digestible even to the
very tender stomachs. i. e. even lay men can understand the moral precepts through
poetry. The stories of Aesop is the proof of it; as pretty allegories of animals teach
virtue much more effectively than dry philosophy. The historian who tells true stories
of the past may be considered better than the poet, who tells us only imaginary
stories. But, Aristotle has already answered this. Aristotle has said that Poetry is
more philosophical than history, because poetry deal with universal ideas, while
history deals with only the particular. Poetry tells us what should be said or done, and
history tells us what is or was. Poetry, Sidney argues, teaches us what should be
avoided and what followed, by examples.
Besides, poetry presents virtue in the best possible light. It is in poetry that
virtue is rewarded and vices are punished. This does not happen in History. Sidney
illustrates this pointing out how Socrates was put to death just because he questioned
unreasonable practices; but cruel Severus lived prosperous life. Pompei and Cicero,
in Roman history were killed. Many tyrants lived happily while the virtuous suffered,
as shown in the historical account.
Talking about philosophy, Sidney says that philosopher may teach methodically,
but you can teach someone if only he is motivated to learn. And philosopher, with his
dry arguments, cannot motivate. Only the poet can move or influence people by art.
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Aristotle has also pointed out that the fruit of teaching should be Praxis (the practical
use of knowledge) and not merely Gnosis (knowledge of spiritual mystery).
9.2.5 The Persuasive Power of Poetic Imitation :
Sidney, quoting Aristotle, points out how things which are horrible, cruel battles
and monsters, are made delightful in poetic presentation. Amadis de Gaule (a
poetical work) though not so perfect, was able to influence people to learn courtesy,
liberality and courage. The illustrations in poetry, like Aeneas carrying his old father
Anchises on his back is a model act for the young men. On the other hand
Philosophers engage themselves in boring disputes about contemplative life and
active life, etc. The wise Philosophers like Plato and Boethius knew this, and so they
made use of poetry to dress their philosophy. Even the bad men, who dislike
preaching, are delighted by poetry (plays, etc), which makes them love goodness
without being aware of it. To show the power of poetic imitation, Sidney gives two
examples. The People of Rome once boycotted the senate. Menenious Agrippa, the
senator and great orator, knew that his oratory or philosophical maxims would be of
no use to persuade people. So he went to them like a poet and told them a story –
how, once, the parts of the body rebelled against the stomach and refused to feed this
idle stomach which only ate but did not work. But, as a result these body parts
themselves became weak and helpless. This simple poetic narration united the people
with the Senate. The other example is that of David, who left God and indulged other
in adultery and murder. Nathan the Prophet persuaded David telling him the story of
a beloved lamb ungratefully stolen from its master. This simple poetic narration
made David repent and he was united with God.
Poetry, thus, is able to teach by way of giving joy to people. It teaches while
delighting. Sidney, here defends mixing of the poetic genrs – comedy being mixed in
tragi-comedy, prose mixed in poetry and pastoral mixed in epic-heroic poetry, etc.
He says that these kinds, separately, are good, but their mixture need not be hurtful.
1. Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each :
a. Why isn’t philosopher a good teacher?
b. What, according to Sidney, is the difference between a historian and a poet?
c. How is a poet able to inspire national spirit?
218
d. How did Jesus Christ preach humbleness and charity?
e. What, according to Sidney, is the merit of Aesop’s fables?
f. How did Agrippa, the Roman Senator persuade people?
2. Fill in the blanks in the following with appropriate expressions :
i. A Philosopher claims to teach _________ but his language is dry and
abstract.
ii. The historian shows what is, but the poet shows ________.
iii. The philosopher talks about the feelings such as anger but the poets make
___________ of feelings.
iv. ______ made use of the parable of the lost child for preaching humbleness
and charity.
v. In poetry ________ are rewarded and _______ are punished.
9.2.6 Poetic kinds :
Sidney, then briefly discusses each kind of poetry – pastoral, lyric, elegiac,
satiric and comic, etc. He thinks the pastoral poetry and the lyrical sometimes
describe the misery of the people, and the Elegiac poetry arouses pity and describes
wretchedness of the world or the satiric poetry makes people laugh at the folly. These
kinds may be sometimes misliked. And finally says it is the comic poetry that invites
anger of the critics. Comedy is the imitation of the common errors, which are most
ridiculously presented in the comedies. Anyone who watches them would not like to
be such comic character. The critics have disliked comedies on this account. But he
defends this comic representation of the follies. In Geomentry, he says, you must
know the straight line as well as oblique and in Arithmetic you have to know odd as
well as even numbers. In life also, you can value the beauty of virtue by contrasting
it with filthiness of evil. And this is what the comedy does revealing our follies in our
private and domestic matters. Any man having these follies or vices shown in the
comedies, cannot bear the contempt and ridicule from the people.
Similarly, Tragedy (tragic drama) shows the greatest or ugly ulcerous evil in the
tragic character or in the the society. Kings and tyrants see their own tyranny and evil
deeds and their effect and are terrified. Tragedy reveals how there is uncertainty in
life, how golden roofs (rich houses) have weak foundations. Even Alexander
219
Pheraeus, the great tyrant, who had killed many without pity, could not control his
tears while watching a tragic play. But the critics, perhaps, do not dislike tragedy.
Is it the Lyrical poetry then that displeases the critics? But, Sidney says, lyrics
praise virtue, give moral advice, sing hymns addressed to heaven. When he himself
heard the ballads of Percy and Douglas sung by a blind beggar in an unskilled voice,
he could not resist tears. When in Hungary, he had heard songs of great deeds of
valour of their ancestors, which moved the hearts of brave soldiers.
The critics, the backbiters of poetry, cannot say a word against Heroic poetry. It
sings the deeds of heroes like Achilles, Cyrus, Aeneas, Turnus, etc. The Heroic
poetry exemplifies the highest kind of truth, and makes justice and magnanimity
shine through it. Sidney praises Heroic Poetry to be the best and most accomplished
form of poetry, because it is very moving and instructive. The lofly, moral image of
the hero makes the reader/hearer wish to be worthy and brave like the hero. The
example of a great hero like Aeneas, obeying and carrying out God’s and his father’s
commandments is imprinted in the mind of the reader. But the critics of poetry are
like some good women, who are often sick, but do not know what really ails them.
9.2.7 Objections to Poetry :
Sidney claims that poetry is the most ancient form of learning from which other
branches of knowledge have developed. The Greek and the Roman, both have
described poetry to be prophesying and making, and the poet is the maker, who
creates his won material while other arts and sciences depend on others. Even holy
scriptures and our saviour used poetry for good effect saying this, Sidney takes up
the objection to the art of poetry and answers them.
The detractors of poetry scorn the art of rhyming and versing. Sidney has
already pointed out that mere rhyming and versing does not make poetry. But he
points out the use of rhyming and verse technique. You have to choose the best
possible words to fit a particular measure. Rhyming is a skill, and it helps memory
greatly. It is because of this rhyming that we can easily remember lines from the
poetry of Virgil, Horace and Cato (the great Latin poets). Rhyming is useful even in
the discourses of Logic, mathematics, etc. because it is sweet and orderly and the
best for memory. So no one can speak against it.
220
Another objection to Poetry is, that there are many other fruitful fields of
knowledge, and a man ought to spend his time in learning them than on poetry.
Besides, Poetry, they say, is the mother of lies. Thirdly, poetry creates wrong desires
in us, like Siren’s sweet songs, it awakens in us sinful desires. Before the outcome of
Poetry, men were full of courage, engaged in martial wots; but now they indulge in
poetry and spend time in idleness. They also say that Plato banished poets from his
ideal republic.
9.2.8 Sidney’s Defence :
(i) Are the Poets Liars?
Sidney answers these objections one by one. He says, the learning which teaches
as well as delights is the best. Therefore the ink and paper are more profitably used in
writing poetry. The second charge against a poet is that he is a liar. But, Sidney says
the poet is scarcely a liar in comparison with others. Astronomers and Geometrician
claim to have measured the height of the stars in the sky. The physians point out
things good for curing sickness, but send their patients to hell. A historian affirms
many things about the cloudy past. All these affirm one thing or the other, which
may not be true at all. But the poet does not claim that he is telling us the truth. He
never affirms anything. How can he be a liar? A poet does not refer to any authority
that what he says is true. He does not talk about ‘what is or what is not’, but ‘what
should be or should not be’. He is not therefore lying. We cannot say that Aesop, in
his animal tales, is lying, because everyone knows animals cannot speak. If you write
on a door the name ‘Thebes’, even a child would not say it is Thebes. Poets write
allegorically and figuratively. The critics say that the poets give names to their
characters; since there are no such people, they are liars. Sidney argues, the poets are
making pictures, and to make these pictures lively, they give them names. He points
out in a game of chess, we give the name of Bishop to a piece of wood.
(ii) Charge of sinfulness :
The most important ‘abuse’ or charge the detractors of Poetry have is that poetry
trains men in ‘wanton sinfulness and lustful love’. The comedies teach sinful love
rather than speak against it. They also object to the lyrics because lyrical songs are
full of passion, and elegiac poetry makes people weep. If love of beauty is a fault
then, Sidney says, many of his philosopher friends spend their time praising it. If
some poetry indulges in sinful passion, they should not blame the art of poetry for it.
221
It is the fault of men who use poetry in this manner. Sidney does not deny that poetry
which is defined as ‘figuring forth good things’, may deal with unworthy things. But,
in this poetry is abused, for which one should not blame poetry. If poetry is rightly
used, it can do ‘most good’. For instance, skill of physic can also be abused. It can
teach how to poison someone. The knowledge of law is used to help the crooked.
Even God’s word is abused and becomes blasphemy. You can use sword to defend
your country, but also to kill your father. So we should not blame poetry for its
wrong use.
(iii) Poetry is not against action :
It is claimed that before coming up of poetry our countrymen took delight in
action, and not in things of imagination. They believed in doing worthy things rather
than writing about them. Sidney says, even Sphinx (the oracle in the shape of half
lion, half human) would not be able to tell what this time or period was; because no
one can remember what really came before. England was in no time without poetry.
Sidney points out that even Turks and Tartars (who were considered barbarians)
delighted with poets and their poetry. There was Homer wellknown to all before
Greece came to be known. It is from Homer that the learned men first acquired
knowledge, and the warriors (the active men) learnt what courage is. Alexander the
Great took Homer’s epics with him on the campaigne, and not his school-master,
Aristotle. He killed Callisthenis the philosopher for his philosophical stubborn
arguments, but wished that Homer were alive. The other warrior, Fulvius took the
poet Ennius with him to war. Cato, the philosopher, did not like it, but Fulvius liked
it. Scipio Nasica, known as the best Roman, loved poets and poetry.
1. Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each :
a. Why does comic poetry invite anger of the critics?
b. How does Sidney defend comic poetry?
c. According to Sidney, how does Tragedy affect the kings and tyrants?
d. How does Sidney defend lyric poetry?
e. What does Sidney say about Heroic Poetry?
f. How do the Greek and Roman describe a poet?
g. How is rhyming useful?
222
2. Fill in the blanks in the following using appropriate expressions :
a. The detractors of poetry say that poetry awakens in us ________.
b. Sidney answers this charge by blaming ________ for ______.
c. Sidney says the poet does not talk about what is or what is not, but_______.
d. The detractors of poetry say that poetry makes men indulge in _______ and
keeps them away from doing ________.
e. Sidney quotes the example of ________ who took Homer’s epics with him
going on war.
(iv) Plato’s objections
Sidney, who esteemed Plato the philosopher, above all others, had to defend
Poetry against Plato’s remarks against the poets. Among the Philosophers, Plato was
the most poetical. But, he wanted to banish the poets from his ideal Republic. Sidney
examines Plato’s argument against poets. Philosophers, who benefited from poetry in
their learning, started spurning (hating) Poetry like ungrateful apprentices. Seven
cities of Greece fought against each other to claim the Poet Homer as their citizen,
but many cities banished philosophers as not being fit to be their members. Plato
accused poets of spreading wrong notions about the gods, telling baseless light
stories about them, young men, therefore, should not be exposed to such poetry.
Sidney points out that the stories about gods were already known to people
through the Greek mythology. The poets only imitated them. Even Plutarch, the
historian, included in his writing the discourses of Isis and Osiris. The pagan religion
of those days believed in many gods of many kinds.
He says, Plato’s intention was only to drive away wrong opinions about gods. In
his dialogue called Ion, Plato bestows high praise on the poets. Plato actually wanted
to banish the abuse of poetry rather than poets. On the other side, there are admirers
of poetry such as Alexander, Caesar, Scipio, etc. The Roman Philosopher, Laelius,
called himself a poet. Socrates himself translated the fables of Aesop into poetry.
Plutarch the historian himself took help of poetry to teach history. Poetry is not the
art of lying, but of telling the higher kind of truth, it does not make men womanish,
223
but makes them courageous, and it strengthens man’s wisdom. It should be honoured
rather than banished.
(v) The state of Poetry in England :
Sidney, then, expresses his regret that in England poetry is given step-motherly
treatment. Poetry which was favoured by kings and princes all over other countries,
and many of them themselves poets, is given no welcome in England. Perhaps men
without any merit undertook to write poetry and were happy enough to be rewarded
by printers.
Poetry, he says, cannot be ‘drawn by the ears’ (i. e. it cannot be forcibly
produced). Poetry is a divine gift, and not just a skill. If there is genius, then only
poetry is created. Sidney, of course, does not deny importance of skill or exercise. He
quotes example of mythical Daedalus, who had three wings for flying – poetry also
needs Art, Imitation and Exercise. He further warns that artificial rules and mere
patterns of imitation are not useful.
He then gives examples of the achievement in English poetry beginning with
Chaucer. He wonders, how in those dark ages, Chaucer was able to have such clear
vision of poetry. He praises Chaucer’s Troilus and Cressida. He also mentions the
Mirror of Magistrates and the poetry of the Earl of Surrey of his own time. He
praises Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar, and defends Spenser’s not using rustic
language for this pastoral poem.
(vi) English Drama :
Then Sidney turns to English Tragedies and Comedies. He severely criticizes
the plays for not observing rules of civility and skilful poetry. He praises the earliest
tragedy, Gorboduc, for its rhetorical speeches, and the style of the Italian tragedy
writer Seneca, and for its morality. But, he points out the faults in Gorboduc from the
point of view of unity of time and place; prescribed by Aristotle in his Poetics. The
stage in Gorboduc represents many places, violating the unity of place, and the action
ranges over many days, which should be for a day only. Tragedy, Sidney argues, is
tied down to the laws of poetry. It is not a history to have months and years of action
to cover. Sidney describes these violations of the unity of place and time as ‘gross
absurdities’.
224
He also criticizes mixing tragedy and comedy. He calls such tragic – comedies
as ‘mongrel’ plays which mix up kings and clowns. He knows that the ancient Latin
dramatists also wrote tragic-comedies, e. g. Plautus wrote Amphitrio, but, he says
they did not mix wedding music with funerals. He criticizes comedy writers who
believe that to delight means to make people laugh aloud. A sight of beautiful
woman would delight us but not move us to laughter. We laugh at deformity, but it is
not a matter of delight. We are delighted when there are good occasions and chances,
but we laugh at mischiefs or mistakes. Sidney, thus, makes a distinction between
comedy that delights and the one that makes us laugh. We may laugh at mad antics
but they would not delight us. Sidney does not approve of such laughter. According
to Aristotle, the comedy should make people laugh at sinful things. It is not proper to
laugh at people who do not speak English well, because it is not their mothertongue.
Such comedy, he says, is like an unmannerly daughter bringing disgrace to the
mother, poetry.
(vii) English Lyrical Poetry :
Sidney criticizes the lyrical poetry of the lesser Elizabethan poets, the songs and
sonnets. He says many songs of love are nothing but bad imitations. If he were a
mistress, he would not believe that there is love in those poems. These poets use
bombastic phrases, which do not express real feeling. The Diction of their poetry is
also affected, it is like a painted woman. They use far fetched expressions, which
appear strange to common Englishman.
There are writers, he says, who copy or try to imitate Tully and Demosthenes
(wellknown Latin poets and orators). They should keep with them the collection of
phrases and figures of speech of these poets (Nizolian paper-books) for careful
translation and then only imitate them. Here Sidney charges the contemporary
English poets of badly imitating the Latin masters. These English poets intersperse
their poetry with so many figures of speech. Sidney compares them with Indians
(Red Indians in America of those days) who put on rings on ears, nose, lips, etc to
beautify themselves. He gives example of Tully to show how repetition of expression
can be justified sometimes because it is necessary to express emotion like anger. He
criticizes poets for making too much use of the stories of beasts, and fowls and
fishes, which is very tedious, because there is hardly any judgement or logic involved
in their use. He gives example of the great Roman orators, Antonius and Crasus, who
225
pretended not to know the art of oratory, and made use of plain, simple language, and
could effectively persuade the people. They, of course made use of this sparingly.
In his opinion, some courtiers showed better style than many learned professors.
It is so because, these courtiers practice art which fits nature (which is not artificial),
while the professors of learning try to make a show of artistry, instead of hiding the
art. This is only abusing art, going away from nature. Though he is talking about
oratory here, he says that poetry and oratory have close relationship in the business
of using words. He says, the poets should try to make right use of manner and matter,
(art and content), in their poetry.
Discussing Rhyme, Sidney points out that English has advantage over Italian
and French languages, because English has all the three kinds of rhyme – masculine,
feminine and middle rhyme. Italian and French lack one or the other. English also
has a device, Caesura, [a pause or a kind of breathing place in the middle of a line]
which Italian and French do not have.
 Check Your Progress V :
I) Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each.
a. Why did Plato, want to banish poets?
b. Why did the seven cities in Greece fight against each other?
c. Why does Sidney accuse philosophers of being ungrateful?
d. How does Sidney defend poets against the charge of misrepresenting gods?
e. What does Sidney say about the state of poetry in England?
f. Who, according to Sidney, is responsible for the state of poetry in England?
g. Which three wings does poetry need, according to Sidney?
h. What is Sidney’s objection to the English drama?
i. What does Sidney say about the English poets using animal stories?
Conclusion :
In conclusion, Sidney says that poetry breeds virtue, it is delightful and
whatever faults are told against it, are actually the faults of bad poets, and not of
poetry. He believes English to be the fittest language for writing poetry. He claims,
226
quoting Aristotle, that poets preserved the ancient mythology of Greek gods, and as
Bembus (the Greek scholar) says, poets brought civility to the people in the society.
Scaliger has said that Virgil’s poetry is far more effective in making a man honest
than any argument of a philosopher.
9.3 Summary :
Sidney’s Apology is actually an answer to Gosson’s The School of Abuse, in
which Gosson mainly criticizes dramatic poetry being practiced in England. Sidney,
however, answers the detractors of the poetry and the poets, right from Plato to
Gosson. He points out how Philosophers and Historians from ancient times have
made use of poetry to effectively teach their ideas. Men of action like Alexander the
Great preferred Homer the poet over a philosopher, while going on their warring
expeditions.
Sidney says that poets who have no merit are responsible for the abuse of
poetry. The art of poetry should not be blamed for its misuse by such poets. He
defends poetry and the poets saying that poets are not concerned with merely ‘what
is’; they illustrate by example ‘what should be’. They create ideal characters, heroes
such as Aeneas, Achilese, Ulysess, etc God created man in His own image, but after
the Fall, human beings are imperfect creatures. The poet, however, is able to create
perfect beings. The poets are the creators; and have divine powers of creation. He
also points out how poets have great power of persuasion. They are better teachers,
because, they teach by showing examples, and delight while teaching. On the other
hand the discourses of the philosophers and Historians are drab and tedious. He
compares Philosophers and Historians on the one hand and Poets on the other, to
show the advantage of poetry over both.
Sidney has great respect for Plato, therefore, he answers Plato’s objections to
poetry rather cautiously. He says that Plato recognizes the power and great appeal of
poetry. Plato himself was a poet. Plato actually criticized the lesser practioners of
poetry, who merely translate or write without any judgement. Sidney criticizes
mixing of genres – tragedy and comedy. He is also critical of lyric poetry in English.
But, at the same time, he defends the use of rhyme and verse not only in poetry but in
teaching and memorizing.
227
We can see that Sidney’s main defence of poetry is that poetry teaches morality
better than the philosophers, and at the same time delights the readers. He very much
regrets the state of poetry in his own times, and holds bad poets responsible for it.
But, at the sane time he blames Philosophers and Historians for being ungrateful to
the art of poetry, which they have used for their own purpose.
Sidney’s Apology is an excellent piece of Neo-classical criticism that takes the
line of teaching and delighting as the dual function of the art of poetry. This is what
the ancient Latin critic Horace also says in his Art of Poetry.

 Homer : Ancient Greek epic poet, who wrote Iliad and Odyssey.
 Hesiod : Ancient Greek historian as well as poets
 Orpheus :
 Thales, Empedocles and Parmenides : Ancient Greek Philosopher – scientists,
who made use of verses to express their ideas
 Herodotus : an ancient Greek historian, who used poetry as a medium to narrate
history.
 Vates : Latin word for a poet, which means a prophet or a diviner.
 Prosopopoeias : personification, (a pretended speaker)
 Poiein : the Greek verb ‘to make’ and the origin of the word ‘poet’, meaning
‘maker’.
 Theagenes : Greek heroes. Theagenes was a hero in a Greek romance,
Aethiopica. Orlando was a hero of Orlando Furioso Pylades was a
 Pylades : friend of Orestes.
 Orlando :
 Cyrus : Ancient Greek king
 Aeneas : Trojan hero, after the Trojan war, he leaves Troy, carrying his old
father, Anchises, and arrives in Italy. He is supposed to be the founder of Rome.
 Achilles : Greek hero in Trojan war
 Anchises : Father of Aeneas
228
 Sonnazzaro : These two mixed prose with poetry. Sidney defends the practice
of mixing genres, saying if separately they are good, their mixture is also
 Boethius : good.
 Sphinx : The most ancient oracle (predicting things). Half lion, half human.
Sidney says, even Sphinx cannot tell us the time when there was no poetry –
meaning poetry is the most ancient art.
 Cato : Roman Senator. He did not like Fulvius taking Ennius on the military
Campaigne.
 Fulvius : Roman Chief of the army
 Ennius : ancient Latin poet
 Daedalus : The Vulcan (master smith) of gods - who fashioned
 wings to fly : He made three wings for himself to be able to fly. Sidney suggests
that successful poet also needs three wings – art, imitation and exercise.
9.5 Answers to Check Your Progress :

I a. The detractors of poetry have taken help of poetry, and poetry was the first
source of learning.
b. Pretry imparts knowledge gently like a nurse feeding a child with small
doses of milk.
c. Philosophers took help of poetry to express their ideas and thoughts
effectively.
d. Historians, like Herodotus; claim to tell the truth, borrowed the style and
devices of poetry to tell it.
e. Psalms of David are written to a metre; and make use of figures of speech
like personification, etc.
II a. The poet is a maker, a creator, because the poet is not tied down to Nature
as astronomers and scientists are.
b. Astronomers, scientists and moral philosophers are restricted by Nature, the
reality around.
229
c. Sidney argues that poetry has created ideal men, but in the real world there
are no such heroes like Orlando, Cyrus, etc.
d. Poetry is superior to Nature because poetry creates golden world, while the
world created by Nature is brazen.
e. The aim of poetry, according to Sidney, is to create perfection in the
characters in poetry.
III 1. a. The philosopher cannot be a good teacher because his language is dry
and abstract and difficult to understand.
b. The Historian states merely the facts, but the poet gives perfect picture
of national spirit working in the characters such as Anchises and
Ulysses.
c. The poet is able to inspire people with national spirit through the
stories of great heroes like Ulysses and Anchises.
d. Jesus Christ taught humbleness and charity using a parable of the lost
child.
e. Aesop’s fables teach moral precepts through allegorical stories of
animals, which are entertaining as well as easily understood.
f. Agrippa did not tell people any philosophical maxims, instead he told
them an allegorical story of the stomach and the other parts of the
body.
2. i. A Philosopher claims to teach moral principles but his language is dry
and abstract.
ii. The historian shows what is, but the poet shows what should be.
iii. The philosopher talks about the feelings such as anger but the poets
make effective representation of feelings.
iv. Jesus Christ made use of the parable of the lost child for preaching
humbleness and charity.
v. In poetry virtues are rewarded and vices are punished.
230
IV 1. a. Comic poetry represents follies making people laugh at them, which
the critics dislike.
b. Sidney defends comic poetry saying that you must know the straight
line as well as the obligue one, similarly you must know virtues as well
as vices.
c. Sidney says that Tragedy affects the kings and the tyrants by terrifying
them of the effects.
d. Sidney defends the lyrical poetry saying that lyrics praise virtue and
give moral advice.
e. According to Sidney the Heroic Poetry shows the highest kind of truth
and makes justice shine through it.
f. The Greek and the Romans call a poet a maker or a creator.
g. Sidney says that rhyming is useful because it helps memory, being
sweet and orderly.
2. a. The detractors of poetry say that poetry awakens in us sinful desires.
b. Sidney answers this charge by blaming poets for the wrong use of
poetry.
c. Sidney says the poet does not talk about what is or what is not, but
What should be .
d. The detractors of poetry say that poetry makes men indulge in sinful
passion and keeps them away from doing heroic deeds.
e. Sidney quotes the example of Alexander the Great who took Homer’s
epics with him going on war.
V a. Plato wanted to banish poets from his ideal Republic because poets spread
wrong notions about gods.
b. The seven cities in Greece fought against each other to claim Homer as
their own citizen.
c. Philosophers made use of poetry to tell their ideas, but blame poetry instead
of thanking it.
231
d. Sidney points out that the stories of gods and goddesses have already been
told in the Greek mythology.
e. Sidney says in England poetry is given step-motherly treatment.
f. Sidney says bad poets, who without merit practiced poetry, are responsible
for the state of poetry in England.
g. Poetry needs three wings (like Daedalus), which are Art, Imitation and
Exercise.
h. Sidney blames English dramatists for not observing rules of civility, and for
mixing tragedy and comedy.
i. Sidney criticizes English poets for making too much use of animal stories,
without any logic.
9.6 Exercises :
1. Philip Sidney’s Apology for Poetry is a Neoclassical defence of poetry.
comment on this.
2. Explain how Philip Sidney answers the charges against poetry.
3. What does Philip Sidney think of the poetry and drama in England in his
own times?
4. Write short notes on the following :
a. Sidney’s views on Philosophers Vs Poets
b. Sidney’s camparison between Philosophers and Historians.
c. State of Poetry in England during Sidney’s time.
d. Usefulness of Rhyming and Verse.

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British Literature From Chaucer To The End of The 17 Century

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British Literature From Chaucer To The End of The 17 Century

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H I

(Group-5, Elective Paper-IV)

British Literature from Chaucer

SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY, KOLHAPUR

Prescribed for M. A. Part-I

Copies : 2,000 ISBN- 878-81-8486-368-0

l Prof. (Dr.) P. A. Attar l Shri. G. M. Shikalgar,

Author’s Name Unit No

Dr. Satish Ghatge 9

Prof. Y. S. Kalamkar Prof. V. B. Kulkarni

Each unit is interspersed with ‘Check Your Progress’

We wish you best luck in your final examination.

2. The Nun's Priest's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer 30

3. British Poetry of the 17th Century 57

4. The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) 96

5. MACBETH by William Shakespeare 123

6. The Double Dealer by William Congreve 145

7. The Unfortunate Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton 165

8. Utopia by Thomas More 187

9. Apology for Poetry by Sir Philip Sidney 210

Objectives are directive and indicative of :

2. What is expected from you

3. What you are expected to know pertaining to the specific Unit,

1.2 Miracle and Morality Plays:

1.3 Elizabethan Poetry:

1.4 Elizabethan Drama:

1.5 Restoration Drama:

1.9 Further Reading:

2.2 The Poet: Life and Works:

2.3 Plot of the Poem:

2.4 Major and Minor Characters:

2.5 Themes and satirical Perspectives:

2.7 Answers to Check Your Progress:

2.9 Further Reading:

3.1 Elizabethan Poetry in General.

3.2 The Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney : (1554 - 1586)

A) Fill in the blanks in the following :

3.3 The Poetry of Spenser (1552-1599)

3.4 William Shakespeare : Sonnets

3.5 The Poetry of Milton (1608-1974)

3.5.1 Summary of the Elegy – Lycidas :

3.8 Terms to Remember :

3.9 Answer to Check Your Progress :

3.10 Further Exercises :

Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each :

4.2 The Jew of Malta :

4.4 Terms to Remember :

4.5 Answers to Check Your Progress :

4.7 Further References :

5.2 The Text - Introduction

5.3 Characters in the play

5.4 A Summary of the Play

5.6 Critical Commentary

5. 7 Critical interpretation of Macbeth.

5.8 Terms to Remember

5.11 References for further study.

6.2 Restoration Comedy/Comedy of Manners:

6.3 The Outline Summary of the Play:

6.4 Major/Minor Characters:

6.5 Act-wise Summary and Critical Comments:

6.7 Check Your Progress-I

6.8 Critical Commentary:

6.9 Check Your Progress-II