英国文学简史Part 1 Early and Medieval English Literature

Part on: Early and medieval english literature
早期和中古时期的英国文学
I.Beowulf <贝奥武夫>
Features of Beowulf<贝奥武夫>的特点
(1)Certain accented words in a line begin with the same consonant sound.,每一行的重读单词以相同的辅音开始。

(2)Other features of Beowulf are the use of metaphors and of understatements.《贝奥武夫》的另一些特点是隐喻和低调陈述的大量运用。

II The Romance
(1)The Content of the Romance传奇文学的内容
The most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England was the romance. It was a long composition, sometimes n verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. The central character of romances was the knight.
封建时期的英国最流行的文学形式是传奇文学。

传奇文学的作品篇幅较长，有时是诗歌的形式，有时是散文的形式，描写贵族英雄的生活和冒险故事。

传奇文学的中心人物是贵族出身的善于使用武器的骑士。

(2)The Romance Cycles传奇文学的类型
a.Matters of Britain(adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table)“取材于英国的作品”（亚瑟王和他的圆桌骑士）
b.Matters of France(Emperor Charlemagne and his peers)“取材于法国作品”（查理曼大帝和他的贵族）
c.Matters of Rome(Alexander the Great and so forth)“取材于罗马的作品”（亚历山大大帝）
d.The romance of King Arthur is comparatively the most important for the history of English literatur
e.比较起来亚瑟王的传奇故事是英国文学史中最重要的。

III Langland郎兰
(1)The Class Nature of Piers皮尔斯的阶级本质
He has no intention of upsetting the feudal order of society, only of setting it on a proper course.他没打算要推翻封建社会制度，只是想让他想合适的方向发展。

(2)Artistic Features艺术特点
In the main, Piers the Plowman is a realistic picture of medieval England.最重要的是，《耕者皮尔斯》是一幅反映中世纪英国的现实图画。

IV The English Ballads英国民谣
(1)The Ballads民谣
The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad. A ballad is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.英国民间文学中最重要的一个分支是民谣。

民谣是一个以歌曲形式讲述的故事，通常每节有四行，第二行和第四行押韵。

(2)The Robin Hood Ballads罗宾汉民谣
a.Robin Hood is a partly historical and partly legendary character.罗宾汉是一个传奇人物，但历史上也有有关他的事迹的记载。

b.The dominant key in his character is his hatred for the cruel oppressors and his love
for the poor and downtrodden.他性格中最主要的特点是对残酷压迫者的憎恨和对穷人、受压迫人民的深爱。

c.Another feature of Robin’s view reverence for the King.罗宾汉还有另外的观点，就是对国王的尊敬。

d.The Robin Hood ballads show the fighting spirit, indomitable courage and revolutionary energy of the English peasantry. In them are best exemplified the views of the exploited classes of feudal society.罗宾汉民谣毕竟描述和表现了英国农民斗争的精神、不屈不挠的勇气和革命的斗志。

它们最好的体现了封建社会受压迫阶级的生活观。

V Chaucer乔叟
(1)Chaucer’s Literary Career 文学生涯
The first period consists of works translated form French, as The Romaunt of the Rose. The second consists of works adapted from the Italian, as Troilus and Criseyde. The third includes The Canterbury Tales, which is purely English.第一个时期包括从法语翻译过来的作品，如《玫瑰传奇》；第二个时期包括从意大利改变的作品，如《特洛伊罗斯和克瑞西达》；第三个时期包括完全用英语写成的《坎特伯雷故事集》。

(2)The Canterbury Tales坎特伯雷故事集
a.Outline of the Story故事概要
Incomplete as they are, these tales cover practically all the major types of medieval literature; courtly romance, folk tale, beast fable, story of travel and adventure, saint’s life, allegorical tale, sermon, alchemical account, and others. All these tales but two are written in verse.尽管很不完整，但是这些故事几乎涵盖了中世纪文学所有的主要类型：宫廷传奇文学、民间故事、动物寓言、旅行冒险故事、圣徒的生活、寓言故事、布道、炼金术的叙述等等。

除了两个故事以外，其他的都是以诗歌的形式写下来的。

b.The Prologue《总序》
The Prologue provides a framework for the tales. It contains a group of vivid sketches of typical medieval figures.《总序》为所有的故事提供了一个框架，它包括一系列对中世纪人物十分形象的描述。

It is no exaggeration to say that the Prologue supplies a miniature of the English society of Chaucer’s time. Looking at his word-pictures, we know at once how people lived in that era. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism.”可以毫不夸张的说，《总序》是乔叟锁生活的英国社会的缩影。

读者他的文字，就像是在看一幅图画，从中我们可以了解到在那个时代人们的生活状况，这也是乔叟为什么被称为“英国现实主义创始人”的原因。

c. The Tales故事
The stories which the pilgrims tell are well suited to their different characters. 朝圣者们所讲的故事很适合他们本身不同的人物身份。

d.Social Significance社会意义
The Canterbury Tales is more than a mere collection of true-to-life pictures.Taking the stand of the rising bourgeoisie, Chaucer affirms men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes the dogma of asceticism preached by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man;s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of
life. His tales expose and satirize the evils of the time.《坎特伯雷故事集》不仅仅是一个真实描绘生活的图片集。

站在正在崛起的资产阶级立场上，乔叟肯定了人们在世上追求幸福的权利，反对教会所鼓吹的禁欲苦行教义。

作为人文主义的先驱者，他赞扬了人类的活力、学识、机敏和对生活的热爱。

他的故事揭露和讽刺了当时的社会罪恶。

Living in a transitional period, Chaucer is not entirely devoid of medieval prejudices. He is religious himself. There is nothing revolutionary in his writing, though he lived in a period of peasant rising. While rightly praising man’s right to earthly happiness, he sometimes likes to crack a rough joke and paint naturalistic pictures of sexual life. These are Chaucer’s weak points. But these are, however, of secondary importance compared with his achievement as a great poet and storyteller.乔叟生活在一个过渡时期，他并不是完全没有中世纪的那些偏见，他自己也有宗教信仰，尽管他生活在农民起义时期，但是在他的作品中体现不出任何革命的成分。

他一方面工整地赞扬人们追求幸福的权力，但是有时也喜欢开一些粗俗的玩笑，描绘一些两性生活的自然图景，这些是乔叟的缺点和不足之处，但是和他作为一个伟大诗人和故事讲述者所取得的成就相比，这些缺点就显得微不足道。

e.His Language语言
Chaucer’s language, now called Middle English, is vivid and exact.乔叟当时用的语言现在成为中世纪英语，其语言形象、准确。

Chaucer’s contribution to English poetry lies chiefly in the fact that he introduced from France the rhymed stanza of various types, especially the rhymed couplet of 5 accents in iambic meter (the “heroic couplet”) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.乔叟对英语诗歌的贡献主要在于他的英语诗歌中运用了从法国引进的各种不同的押韵诗节，尤其是，有5个中银的抑扬格的双韵体诗即英雄双行体，来代替就是的盎格鲁-撒克逊时期的头韵体。

Though drawing influence from French, Italian and Latin models, he is the first great poet who wrote in the English language. His production of so much excellent poetry was an important factor in establishing English as the literary language of the country. The spoken English of the time consisted of several dialects, and Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the standard for the modern English speech.尽管乔叟受到来自法国、意大利和拉丁文雪经典的影响，他仍然是地一个用英语写作的伟大诗人。

他创作了这么多优秀的诗歌作品，使英语成为这个国家的文学语言。

当时的口头英语包括许多种方言，而伦敦方言能称谓现代英语的标准，很大程度上是乔叟的功劳。