Notes: History of English Literature

By Maryam Majeed

Anglo- Saxon Age

(670-1066) mid 5th century to mid 11
century
Socio-political conditions

 England was under Roman Empire before 410 A.D

 Invasion of Present day England by Germanic Tribes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes,
the barbaric, pagan and war-like people in the eyes of sophisticated Romans) in
mid of 5th century. They were from Denmark, these peoples were from north
 People of England were called Celts. Brittan’s
 Germanic: There native religion had multiple god, goddess. Pagan, barbaric.
 Roman England’s: religion was Christianity, but Germanics were pagans
 By 670 A.D. took over almost whole of the country.
 Angles was the source of the name “England”
 Sea voyage was very important in their lives that gave them a love for sea. There
literature reflects it like in Beowulf 16 words were used for sea. They steal sea
wealth.
 Early traces of Christian teaching as a result of the arrival of saint Augustine in 597.he
was a saint, a pope Gragery sent him to spread Christianity in England. He was 1st
archbishop of caterbury
 Alliterative Verse and heroic Poetry

Genres: Poetry

Deals with traditions of an older world and expresses another temperament and way of
living, it is the poetry of a stern and passionate people concerned with the primal things
of life such as mood, melancholy and fierce, yet with great capacity for endurance and
fidelity.

Alliterative verse and heroic poetry (describes deeds of heroes and warriors and
rulers) beuwulf pagan lit

1. Lyrical poetry-express personal emotions- Sea Farer

2. Epic Poetry-long narrative poems- Beowulf.. aman defeated 3 monsters.
3. Religious Poetry
 Poets

Pieces of Poetry

Waladare Widsith

The Fight at Finnesburg

Complaints of Deor : complaints of a lover

Beowulf: tale of adventures, its anonymous

A Wife’s Lament

The Wanderer

Caedmon( Christian) last judgement…, hymn(oldest)

Cynewulf Crist: metrical narrative of leading events of christs on

earth

 Prose
1. Historical Prose
2. Religious Prose last judgement and Christ

Writers of the age: mainly oral literature

Prose

This period is marked by the beginning of English prose. These are comparatively easy
to understand.

King Alfred (the glorious king of Wessex) ------------ Chronicles (trans. From Latin),
sermons, history chronicles

He wrote history, united England as one kingdom, he was Anglo Saxon king not celt. He
wanted to restore English culture(847-899) he noticed very few could read latin but a lot
could read old English. Old English was vernacular language. So he propsed to teach
people old english
Aelfric(a priest) ---------------------------------------------- Sermons in poetic prose, things
that survived were of king alfric, others are manuscripts of sermons history poetry and
bible translations

Anglo Norman Age (1066-1500)

Anglo(English)-French(Norman) Age/ Middle Ages/ Medieval Ages/ Dark Ages

 Normans from Normandy (France) defeated Anglo- Saxon King at the Battle of
Hasting by William on 14th october 1066,
 Language: Language of ruling class was French, Language of Religion was
Latin, Language of the common people was English and it flourished.
 Common people did not have access to Bible as they did not know its language
Latin therefore clergy men (people of church) and church officials exploited the
ignorance of the public. Started taking money from people in exchange for
penance(forgiveness)
 Absolute Authority of the church gave way to corruption in the church
 God centered world religion became a common force
 English of this period is termed as “Middle English”, initially associated with the
lower classes and with the passage of time it attained refinement and it climbed
the social ladder.called middle age because iits between old English and next
civilzed age.
 It is called the dark age because English was left ignored for about initial three
centuries
 Norman brought 2 things to England:
 1- latin civilization.
 2-
 3- romance language(french)
 Feudal Society king appointed feudal (own lands) every person has its
subordinates and the lowest class had to serve all upper classes.
 Every new age is a reaction of previous age, so the Christianity begin in
Anglo Saxon age flourished a lot in this era and it became the God
centered age. Also the English language flourished a lot.
 English literature was granduer in previous era but there’s a shift. Nobility is in
power so llit. Was influenced by it nobility( a French effect)
In this cristianity is in full power…
French and English mixed
Romance replaced heroic poetry
Genres

 Poetry
 Romances (Matter of France, Matter of Britain, Matter of Rome) focus on stories
of knights who went on adventures to win affection of a lady,
Sir Gawain and the green knights
Le Morte D’Arthur by Thomas mallory
 Drama (Miracle-stories from Bible mainly related to Prophets-, mystery-stories of
the saints- and morality plays-7 virtues( chastity, charity, temperance,deligenc,
kindness) and 7 sin were personified plays) (Started in the church, they talked
about the 7 deadly sins which are greed prse rath glutny)

Poetry

 Disappearance of old English poetry the poetry of these two time periods were
very different from each other.

Forms of Poetry found: Dream Allegory story that is told as if happening in dream),
Ballads( tell story in short stanza), Fables (Stories with moral lessons animal
characters acting like humans), Faliau (mainly of French origin, a short narrative
poem, realistic and often coarse) and Lyrics (Religious, Political, of love, of sorrow)

Writers

Poets

 Geoffrey Chaucer the father of English poetry because of him English

climbed up
1. Canterbury Tales (Most Important work dealing with all strata of the
degenerative society of his time)
2. Romance of the Rose
3. Parliament of the Fowls
4. Legend of the Good Woman
 William Langland
1. Piers Plowman
 John Gower
2. Confession Amantis
 The Renaissance Period (1500-1600)

1. Age of Shakespeare/ Elizabethan Period/ Age of Enlightenment/

Age of Drama:
This period was considered as the age of enlightenment as it caused a huge
improvement in English literature. This period has very great poets and drama
writers such as Shakespeare.
2. Man centered world
This era is considered as man centered world as man was fully aware of himself as
crown of creatures.
3. The word Renaissance Means Rebirth: The term renaissance literally
means renewal, rebirth, or revival. This period of English history is considered as the
rebirth of English because it promoted the rediscovery of classical philosophy,
literature, and art. The Renaissance is credited with bridging the gap between the
Middle Ages and modern-day civilization.
4. Fall of Constantinople (Capital of Roman Empire) caused the
revival of Classical learning:
The fall of Constantinople and the remaining Byzantine territories led to a flood of
refugees traveling to Europe and especially Western Europe. Many settled in Italy
and in particular, many scholars found refuge in Italy. These refugees brought roman
and greeks culture. included grammarians, humanists, poets, writers, printers,
lecturers, musicians, astronomers, architects’ scribes, philosophers, scientists,
politicians, and theologians. They brought with them manuscripts from the
destroyed libraries of Constantinople and other Byzantine cities which resulted in
renaissance there.
Classical dramas
5. Three libidos: love for beauty, love for power, love for learning
Three libidos got much fame in this time period and these were the love for beauty,
love for power and love for learning. Many of the people wanted to excel in power,
beauty and of course learning. Started learning .

6. Translation of Bible in English: this allowed common people access to

bible.
7. Invention of Printing press:
In 1450, the creation of the Gutenberg print machine took into consideration
improved correspondence all through Europe and for thoughts to spread more
quickly. As a consequence of this development in the fourteenth century, a social
 development called humanism started to pick up force in Italy. It was easier to
spread learning.

8. Reformation Movement:
This movement means the movement for bringing about reforms in the Christian
Church. From the historical point of view, Reformation is a very important revolution
which led to the establishment of religions. The Reformation was a great 16th century
religious revolution in the Christian Church which had political, social and literary effects
9. More focus on man: on feelings of man./ humanist thought originated.
10. Objectivity shifted to subjectivity
11. Bifurcation of church (Catholic Vs Protestant) and reformation
movement: church split because of protestant reformation
Catholic church was corrupt so they wanted to purify it. Matin Luther (lived in
Germany and he posted 95 theses on the doors of the churches
and john kelvin started this movement. Catholics were conservative and misled
people. Protestants had a modern approach to the religion. They had an analytical
view of religion and they were dogmatic.
Roman catholic church- protestant
Henry viii

Protestant were different as they don’t recognize the authority of the pope. And they
believe that the bible (scripture) alone is authority, believe in individual worship
King henry widow of his brother….
12. Discovery of America: solar system/ /telephones
America was discovered in this period on October 12, 1492 by Columbus.

13. Development in science:

Science was developed a lot in this era like solar system was discovered,
mathematical abbreviations and symbols were discovered.
14. Clash between Queen Marry Anne:

15. Reign of Queen Elizabeth (A patron of Drama):

It was the reign of queen Elizabeth and drama flourished a lot in this era especially
the shakepears dramas was of great interest for the queen.
16. Black death: disease…
17. Sea voyages:
 Travelers started a global campaign. They found new shipping routes to the
Americas, India, and the Far East, and explorers traveled to those areas. The
famous voyages were taken by Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus,
Hernand o De Soto and other explorers

Genres

 Poetry (narrative poems, Romantic epic, sonnets, Dramatic poetry)

 Prose (Essays, Prose Accounts: writind description of events)
 Criticism (Started)
 Drama (Proper Literary and commercial theatre started)

Drama

Tragedies, Comedies, Tragi-comedies, Historical Plays, Revenge Tragedies

University Wits( clever)

1. Thomas Lodge
2. Thomas Nash
3. George Peele
4. John Lyly
5. Robert Greene
6. Thomas kyd (Spanish tragedy)
7. Cristopher Marlowe (dr faustus,timberline,queen of carthage) he perfected
the blank verse(poetry that has meters but not rhyme)
Christopher Marlowe

Shakespeare
Around 37 Plays of all types

A classical as well as romantic dramatist

Famous Tragedies

King Lear, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth

Famous Comedies

It’s a drama in which end is happy vs tragedy

Mid-Summer night’s dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Tempest

Tragi-comedies

Merchant of Venice,
Historical Plays

Henry VI, Richard III

Ben Johnson

- Wrote comedies of Humour

Famous Plays

Everyman in his Humour, Everyman out of His Humour, Volpone

Prose

It was the origin of modern prose. It was used as a vehicle of various forms of
amusement and information. There were prose on history, travel, adventures and
translations of Italian stories.

John Lyly----------------------------------------- Euphues

Philip Sidney ------------------------------------Arcadia (an imaginative prose romance)

Francis Bacon ----------------------------------Bacon’s Essays (Of Studies, Of Revenge,

Of Higher Places)

(Full of worldly wisdom, conveys Machiavellian ideals of selfishness and utilitarian

approach, Terse Style, Brief and crisp sentences carrying the pearl of wisdom) he
influenced scientific methods. Emphysis on idea of observation

Criticism

Philip Sidney ------------------------------------------An Apology for Poetry/ Defense of Poetry

(A written response to Stephen Gosson’s objections to Poetry in which he glorifies

poetry and poet and comments on the contemporary English Drama)

Poetry

Sir Thomas Wyatt and Earl of Surrey----------- Tottel’s Miscellany (collection of Sonnets)

Philip Sidney ---------------------------------------- Astrophel and Stella (sequence of Sonnets)

Edmund Spenser----------------------------------The Faerie Queene (an allegorical

 commentary on the religious, political
and the social scene as well as a more
general poetic exploration of the nature
of the virtue)

--------------------------------------------- Shepherd’s Calendar (Pastoral Poem

about nature)

----------------------------------------------- Amoretti

Spenser: Greatest non-dramatic poet of his time/ introduced Spenserian stanza( it has 8
lines written in ayambic pentameter and one line of ayambic hexameter.

Mechavelli:

There is revival in learning, but morality decreased. Mechavelli shows it.

Previous age was exteme morality and morality is decreasing this era.

Elizabeth protestant she still tried to keep catholics happy as well.

 Puritan Age 1600-1660

 Movement to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices,
maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should
become more Protestant.
 People of puritan age were very dogmatic and extremist kind of people.
 Two kings ruled England:
 Jacobean Period of James 1 1603-1625 after elizebeth, she was vrgin so thore
given to james
 Caroline period of Charles 1 1625-1649
A conflict between king and parliament there were a lot of conspiracies, a clash
between parliamentarian and king, king tried hard to spress them. The political
system formed during that time period is called as despotism which means rule
of a single person. So all the powers lie in the single hand, king. When authority
is assigned to a single person, it effects everyone and if he takes his own
decision, it causes troubles for everyone.so the people were trying to have a
representative of their own. So the clash was going on and people would have
tried to have reforms with reference to different aspects of life.
 Cromwell’s Dictatorship
Puritan people under the leadership of Cromwell’s, imposed a dictatorship and
they defeated Charles 1 and they beheaded him. He ruled England afterwards.
 Political Unrest: from the very beginning there was a political unrest.
 End of Monarchy: Cromwell also ended the monarchy
 Religious reforms: they were introduced under the rule of puritan people. These
rules or reforms were very strict so initially the good ideas, or their fight for the
right of common people and for the liberty of common people, their focus on
 idealism and improvement of the morality of the individuals and of the
government of the rulers, were lost. A very restricted kind of environment was
introduced under the leadership of Cromwell and they started effecting different
kind of amusements.
 Closure of theatre: they closed the theaters as they claimed that this form of
literature is effecting the morals of the people because they are depicting
conflicts and intrigues that is why people are following them and their molarity is
being degenerated.
 Idealism; political and religious: they wanted idealism that is high moral and
ethical values, both politically and religiously but they couldn’t achieved it.
 Pragmaticism; practicality pragmatic approach: this time period can be marked
as a new renaissance because they came up with modern spit and the credit
goes to puritan people for introducing the spirit of observation and a systematic
analysis of facts, feelings and ideas. They were not the people who believed in
everything happening across them. Rather they analyzed the facts and started
reaching their own conclusions. So this spirit of science was popularized by the
great man who existed during this time period, Francis Bacon and Ben jonson.
There thought effected the thoughts of puritan people.
Newton and descartes
 1, previous on humanism, this on religion
 Previous Literature on beauty; sensuality, focus on practicality.
 Moral awakening from intellect

Genres
 Art of biography: it wasn’t considered a literary thing that time but it paved the
way for prose writing like it polished it. So a new form of prose writing was
introduced during this time period, the Art and biography, that later led to the art
of autobiography.
Poetry
 John Milton represent this age.
 John Donne
There were three schools of poetry:
1- The poets of metaphysical school: who talks about metaphysical elements in
his poetry. This poetry was highly philosophical and it was full of conceits and
exaggerations. So the meaning of poetry was quite hard to be understand y the
common people. It was quite complicated that needed a lot of deliberation, a lot
of thoughts and efforts to understand it. e.g. John Donne----- the progress of
the soul, an anatomy of the world
2- The poets of Spenser school: poets who worked under the influence of
Spenser and his style of writings
 3- The cavalier poets: these pets followed the poet Ben Johnson. This poetry
followed the classical method of poetry. John Milton followed this tradition.J.M.
was greatly influenced by the age and he believed in high idealism.r.t every
aspect of the life. He was a puritan and his poetry reflects his religion like
“paradise lost”. ___written in epic style.
Lycidas-----pastoral Elegy written for his university fellow death
Comus
The hymn

Prose John Bunyan

Restoration Period 1660-1700

 Restoration of Monarchy by Charles II:
This period was named restoration because it was the restoration of the monarchy that
is the kingship. As there was dictatorship for 11 years, and it ended with the death of
chromswell. There was no worthy person to get hold of the country so it provided a
chance to the Charles 2, the son of Charles 1.
 French influence on life and literature due to the French brought up of the
monarch
 The king was raised in france and he was taught the French so the French ways in
life and literature were quite obvious.
 surrounded by corrupt and degenerate ministers: his ministers were not loyal to
him.
 Moral degradation and loosened moral standards not only in the monarchy and
the lead class but also in the lower class.
 Foppery: foppery was quite obvious.
 Focus on elite class:
 Religious and Political Conflicts: there were more secular elements that’s why the
conflicts arose.
 Revolution: scientific
 Profligacy was glorified in the royal court.
 Corruption was rampant in all walks of life.
 The Great Fire of 1665 and the Plague that followed were popularly regarded
as suitable punishments for the sins of the profligate and selfish King.
 rapid development of science and Royal Society: established royal society in
which experiments were carried out and the people became more straight forward in
the discussion of science.
 The interest in science began to grow. The growing interest in science
resulted in the beginning of rational inquiry and scientific and objective
outlook.
 Objectivity, rationality and intellectual quality also enlivened the literature of
this period.
 Restoration Comedy and Reopening of the theatres: we have only comedy
written during this time period. Though there were some other forms of literature like
tragedies but only comedy got fame.
 Moral looseness or the Comedy of manners: the characters were superficial and
foppery was common. The character of the comedy has no moral or ethical values
because of the French influence. It is called the comedy of manners because it
shows the behaviours of that peoples
 Comedy writers
 William Congreve-----------The Way of the World
The Restoration Heroic Tragedy (The Restoration Tragedy is artificial. Its
emotions are unreal, it’s like a melodrama)
 John Dryden
Poetry: Rustum and Suhrab
Critic: Essay on Dramatic Poetry
 John Bunyan (prose writer) --- The Pilgrim’s Progress---dream Allegory (a story
that has a layers of meaning) …. It is also termed as a moral allegory because it
has a very strong influence of the religion.

THE END….

Augustan Age
Age of reason and Logic-Pseudo-classical age-Neo-classical Age-Age of Satire and
Parody Age of Prose

The writers like Dryden, Swift and Pope were likened to Virgil, Ovid and Horace Glorious
revolution

Rise of Journalism, Reading public, Poetic Diction

First English Dictionary

Genres
Poetry Drama Prose Criticism Novel
-Poetic Diction -Comedies Journalistic Realistic
-Heroic couplet Prose Journalistic
-Reason and logic -Essays Epistolary
focused Long Prose
Thomas Gray Oliver Addison and Samuel Denial Defoe
-Elegy Written in Goldsmith Steele Johnson -Robinson Crusoe
Country -She Stoops to their Tattler -Lives of -Moll Flanders
Churchyard Conquer And Spectator Poets -Roxana
(Periodicals)
Alexander Pope Richard Jonathan Pope Richardson
-The Rape of the Sheridan Swift -Essay on -Pamela
Lock -Rivals -Modest Criticism -Clarissa
-The Dunciad Proposal
-The Tale of
the Tub
-Battle of the
Books
-Gulliver’s
Travels

Tobias Smollett
-Roderick Random
(1748)
-The Adventures of
Peregrine Pickle
Henry Fielding
-Joseph Andrews
-Tom Jones
Laurence Sterne
Tristram Shandy
-A Sentimental Journey
Through France and
Italy

Novel
-The novel is more complicated than the tale.
Factors Responsible for the Rise of Novel in the 18th Century

1. Rise of Middle Class

The 18 century in England social history is characterized by the rise of the middle
th

class. Because of tremendous growth in trade and commerce, the England merchant
class was becoming wealthy and this newly rich class wanted to excel in the field of
literature also.
This class was neglected by the high-born writers and their tastes and aspirations were
expressed by the novelists of the time. The Novel was, in fact, the product of middle
class. With the rise of middle class, hence, the rise of the novel was quite natural.
2. Growth of Newspapers and Magazines

In the 18 century, the appearance of newspapers and magazines attracted a large

th

number of readers from the middle class. These new readers had little interest in the
romances and the tragedies which had interested the upper class. Thus need for new
type of literature rose that would express the new ideas of the 18th century and this new
type of literature was none but novel.
3. Rise of Realism

The 18th-century literature was characterized by the spirit of realism and romantic
features like enthusiasm, passion, imaginations etc. declined in this period. Reason,
intellect, correctness, satirical spirit etc. were the main characteristics of 18th-century
literature. The English novel had all these characteristics.

4. Role of Women
In the 18th century, women of upper classes and the middle classes could partake in
a few activities of men. Although they could not engage themselves in
administration, politics, hunting, drinking etc. hence, in their leisure time, they used
to read novels.

5. Decline of Drama
The decline of drama also contributed to the rise of the novel in the 18th century. In the
18th century, drama lost its fame that it had in the Elizabethan Age. It did not remain an
influential literary form. Hence some other had to take its place and its place was filled
by the English novel after 1740 A.D. Thus the decline of drama led to the rise of the
English novel.