• he was born when the Hundred Years War with France had begun
• when he was in his 20ties the English language was established as the language of the law- courts
• his father was a wine merchant
• he studied the arts and sciences and the literature of France and Italy
• he was imprisoned during he was soldier, by the king gave him his freedom back
• by the frequent journey on the continent he was one of the best-equipped English poets
• he made lot of achievements, one of them is that he create politer language by using the France elegance in English
• he first started use the MODERN ENGLISH

The Canterbury Tales /second half of 13. century/

• early renaissance, he brought renaissance to the English
• wrote in English of London dialect
• his masterpiece,
• it show us that he stood on his own feet,
• he gave English new qualities – pictures of real people, observation of life and a new view of life, tolerant, humorous and loving humanity
• it is a collection of stories told by various pilgrims on their way from London to Thomas Becket’s grave in Canterbury. Chaucer left us in his work a collection of typical representatives of 14th century English society. We meet the Knight, the Miller, the Student, the Pardoner, the Lawyer, the Cook, the Sailor, the Ploughman and the Merchant. One of the best characters is the Wife of Bath who is a woman of very strong opinions and witty speech
• it is long work, but still unfinished

Troilus and Criseyde

• next greatest Chaucer’s work
• love-story taken form the annals of the Trojan War
• moral of the faithlessness of women
• it is not only tragic, but also full of humour, and its psychology is so modern tat it reads in some ways like a modern novel
• it can be called the first full- length piece of English fiction

Other is works become to be boring and unfinished…But his short love poems written in French forms cannot be mentioned.

Interlude the English Bible

Consist from OLD and NEW TESTAMENT

• Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew, is a collection of poems, plays, proverbs, prophecy, philosophy, history, theology – a massive anthology of the writings of the ancient Jewish people
• New Testament, originally written in Greek, contains the Gospels and the story of the spreading of Christianity by its first propagandists

Translation of Bible was prosecuted, because the Church was afraid that the ordinary people might interpret texts of the Bible in his own way as opposed to the way of the Church. It was originally written in Latin in Mediaeval Europe.

JOHN WYCLIF (1324-84)

• he was a clergyman who found many abuses in the Church and he wanted to reform them
• he wanted t o man in the street to have access to the Bible
• he made the first complete translation of both Testaments in 1380

AUTHORSIED VERSION
-King James I. of England wanted to translate Bible to the English
-In 1611 the work of 47 learned men was done and that translation known as the Authorised Version was printed

6. The Beginning of Drama

-Imitation
-Magic – sympathetic magic
-Many people believe, that the first drama was based on 4things:

• The mimetic faculty,
• Sympathetic magic
• Belief in gods
• Fear of starvation
• Fertility myths
• Resurrection
• Greek Drama
• Stoicism
• Dramatic unities
• Greek and Roman Comedies

7. The Beginnigs of English Drama

• the English drama – place of origin, the Christian Church
• in 9th century dramatic dialogue inserted into the Mass for Easter Sunday – the resurrection of the Christ (dialogue btw. Angel and the 3 Marries)
• there were also similar dramatic presentation on Good Friday, Christmas

Miracle plays (all the religious plays of the Middle Ages)

• plays about the Gospel characters and the miracles of the saints
• they moved from Churches to church yard and than to the town

Mystery plays

• cycle of plays based on incidents from the Bible
• organisation of skilled man
• it takes a long time to show the whole programme
• all of them are anonymous

Morality plays

• semi – religious plays
• not a guide play, not take as its subject from Bible
• it tried to teach a moral lesson trough allegory

8. Early Elizabethan Drama

• the story of Elizabethan drama begins in the Inns of Court of London
• it begins with tragedies written by gentlemen who practise the law and in their spare time thy to copy Seneca

Blank verse - verse without rhyme

Elizabethan theatre – a building indistinguishable form an inn in architecture
-not moving on to fresh inns and fresh audiences, but allowing the fresh audiences to come to them

9. William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

• he was born in Stratford, made unwise marriage, migrated to London, amassed a fortune, came back a wealthy citizen, died
• he wrote for making money

Poetics began with two long poems:

• Venus and Adonis
• The Rape of Lucrece

-He always gave to his audience what they want, for example if they wanted violence or pornography, he provide it in Titus Andronicus.
-If the farce of mistaken identity was required, he could, with his Comedy of Errors