英国文学史及选读教案全套

闽江学院
教案
课程名称:主要英语国家文学史及文学作品选读1 课程代码: 31020022
授课专业班级：英语本科, 英语师范, 英语专升本
授课教师：吴文南
系别：外语系
2010年3 月2 日
1、使学生了解英国文学这门课的性质、学习方法、学习要求等；
2、使学生知道什么是文学以及各种文学形式。

教学重点与难点：什么是文学以及各种文学形式的概念。

教学方法与手段：讲授与讨论相结合。

教授内容：
General Introduction on Literature
Mainly, there are three kinds of literature: fiction, poetry, and drama.
I. Fiction
1)Definition: fiction created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may
base on a true story or situation.
2)Elements
1.Plot: a sequence of interrelated actions and events.
Five stages of plot: exposition, complication, crisis, falling action and resolution.
2.Characters: the people in fiction
Types of characters: protagonist vs. antagonist
Flat vs. round characters
Dynamic vs. static characters
3.Setting: place and objects in fiction
Types: natural, manufactured
4.Point of view: the angle or perspective from which the author observes and tells the
story.
5.Theme: what the author is to say in his story.
6.Style: the author’s particular way of telling his story.
7.Tone: the author’s attitude toward his subject or audience.
8.Symbolism: a key to extended meaning
9.Allegory: the author’s attempt to reinforce his theme by making his characters
represent some specific abstract ideas or qualities.
II.Poetry
1)Definition: classified as narrative or lyric.
2)Elements
1.Imagery
An image is a concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea.
2.Symbolism
A symbol is any object or action that means more than itself, any object or objection
that represents something beyond itself.
3.Sound: Rhyme, alliteration and assonance
III.Drama
1)Definition: a dialogue performed by actors on a stage before an audience.
2)Elements
1.Dialogue
2.Staging
3.Genres: comedy, tragedy and tragic-comedy.
1、使学生了解什么是英国文学。

2、使学生从整体沙上了解英国文学各个时期的历史背景、文学形式、主要作品、作家
等，以便在整体上对英国文学有一个清晰的认识。

教学重点：英国文学各个历史时期文学的历史背景、文学形式、主要作家作品。

教学方法与手段：讲授与讨论相结合。

教授内容：
A Brief Introduction to English Literature
1. Old English Literature（449A.D. ~ 1066）
1）History background：
The making of the England: Jutes, Angles and Saxons invaded Albion and combined into one United Kingdom-the England.
Their dialects gradually grew into a single language called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.
The transition from tribal society to feudalism
2) Main literature: poetry
3) Main writers: Caedmon, Cynewulf, Venerable Bede and Alfred the Great.
4) Main work: The Song of Beowulf <<贝奥武甫>>
2. Medieval English Literature (1066-15th century)
1）History background：
Feudal system was established
Roman Catholic Church controlled over the country.
2) Main literature: poetry, Romance, Popular ballad
3) Main writers and their works:
Geoffrey Chaucer 杰弗里·乔叟The Canterbury Tales《坎特伯雷故事集》
William Langland威廉·朗格兰Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》
Thomas Malory马洛里The Death of Arthur
Robin Hood Ballads《罗宾汉民谣集》
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight《高文爵士与绿衣骑士》
3. Renaissance English literature (late 15th century ~ early 17th century)
1）History background：
●The establishment of Tudor Dynasty (都铎王朝)(1485~1603)
●Religious Reformation
●The establishment of Protestantism
●Commercial expansion abroad
●The War with Spain
●Movement of Renaissance
●The thought of humanism arose
2) Main literature: poetry (sonnet and blank verse), drama, essay
3) Main writers and their works:
•Thomas More托马斯·莫尔Utopia《乌托邦》
•Edmund Spencer 埃德蒙·斯宾塞The shepherd’s Calendar《牧人日历》The Faerie Queene 《仙后》
•William Shakespeare
•Francis Bacon Essays《随笔集》
•Christopher Marlowe克里斯托弗·马洛Doctor Faustus《浮士德博士》
•Ben Jonson 本·琼生Volpone《福尔蓬奈》
4. English Literature of the Revolution and Restoration Period (17th century)
1）History background：
●English Revolution (1649)
●The establishment of a Commonwealth
●The monarchy was restored (1660)
●Glorious Revolution(1688)
2) Main literature: poetry, comedy, prose
3) Main writers and their works:
⏹John Milton 弥尔顿Paradise Lost《失乐园》Samson Agonistes《力士参孙》
⏹John Bunyan班扬The Pilgrim’s Progress《天路历程》
⏹John Dryden 德莱顿Alexander’s Feast《亚历山大的宴会》The Indian Queen《印
第安王后》
⏹John Donne多恩The Elegies and Satires《挽歌与讽刺》
18th century English literature-the age of Enlightenment
History background：
● A period of comparatively peaceful development
●Industrial Revolution
●Enlightenment（启蒙运动）
●The struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism.
2) Main literature: poetry, drama, fiction
3) Literature trends:
●a) neoclassicism
●b) realistic novel.
●c) Sentimentalism
●d) Pre-romanticism
4) Main writers and their works:
●Daniel Defoe 丹尼尔·笛福Robinson Crusoe《鲁滨逊漂流记》Moll Flanders《摩
尔·弗兰德斯》
●Jonathan Swift 乔纳森·斯威夫特Gulliver’s Travels《格列佛游记》
●Henry Fielding 菲尔丁Tom Jones《汤姆·琼斯》
●Thomas Gray托马斯·格雷Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard《墓园挽歌》
William Blake 威廉·布莱克Songs of Innocence《天真之歌》Songs of Experience《经验之歌》
Robert Burns 罗伯特·彭斯 A Red, Red Rose《一朵红红的玫瑰》
Richard Brinsley Sheridan理查德·布林斯利·谢里丹The School for Scandal《造谣学校》The Rivals《情敌》
Alexander Pope 亚历山大·蒲柏The Rape of the Lock《卷发遇劫记》
教学目的：
1．了解古英语文学的概况；
2．掌握古英语诗歌的特点。

教学重点：
1．古英语诗歌的分类及特征；
2．熟悉《贝武奥甫》及写作特点；
3．英语修辞手法头韵、抑言陈述。

教学难点：分析史诗《贝武奥甫》中头韵、抑言陈述手法的运用。

教学方法：教师讲授、学生报告与讨论相结合
教授内容：
The Anglo-Saxon Period (449—1066)
Historical background
•Before410 A.D., Britain had been a Roman province. After the fall of the Roman Empire (410 A.D.), the aboriginal Celtic population was conquered by the Teutonic Tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes who named the central part of Albion Anglia, or England.
•About 449 Jutes left Denmark, landed in the Isle of Thanet. And Angled and Saxons followed.
•Angles, an important Teutonic tribe furnished their new home England. The dialects gradually grew into a single language called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.
Literature characteristics
The literature of this period is divided into pagan literature and Christian literature.
•The former represent poetry and in form of oral sagas.
•The later represents the writings developed under teaching of the monks.
•The poetry was copied by the monks and has the religious coloring.
•Most of works can not find its scribe.
•Caedmon, the father of English song, is the first known religious poet of England. He wrote a poetic Paraphrase of the bible
•Cynewulf produced the didactic poem The Christ
•Alfred the Great (848-901) wrote The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. This book records the main happenings of the Anglo-Saxon period. It is the best monument of the Old English prose.
Representative achievement of Anglo-Saxon period—The Song of Beowulf •The Song of Beowulf is England’s national epic. It was written by an unknown scribe at the beginning of the 10th century and was discovered in 1705. It reflects events which took place approximately at the beginning of the 6th century.
•The epic consists of 3182 lines and is to be divided into two parts.
•The main plot:
Writing Features of the Poem:
•1) It is not a Christian but a pagan poem. The whole poem presents us an all-round picture of the tribal society and Christian culture.
•2) The use of the strong stress and the predominance of consonants are very notable in this poem. Each line is divided into two halves, and each half has two heavy stresses.
•3) The use of the alliteration is another notable feature. Three stresses of the whole line
are made even more emphatic by the use of alliteration.
•4) A lot of metaphors and understatements are used in the poem. For example, the sea is called "the whale-road" or "the swan road"; the soldiers are called "shield-men"; the chieftains are called the "treasure keepers"; human-body is referred to as "the bone- house”; God is called "wonder-wielder”; monster is referred to as "soul-destroyer". Literary terms:
•Alliteration: a repeated initial consonant to successive words.
e.g. 1.To his kin the kindest, keenest for praise.
2.Sing a song of southern singer
•Epic: It is, originally, an oral narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style. Epics deal with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and grandeur. Typically, an epic includes several features: the introduction of supernatural forces that shape the action; conflict in the form of battles or other physical forces combat; and stylistic conventions such as an invocation to the Muse, and set speeches couched in elevated language. They summarize and express the nature or ideals of an entire nation at a significant or crucial period of its history. Eg: Iliad 《伊利亚特》，Odyssey《奥德赛》Paradise Lost 《失乐园》，The Divine Comedy《神曲》。

教学目的:
1．了解中世纪英语文学的发展状况；
2．掌握这一时期各种文学形式及代表人物的特点。

教学重点：
1．中世纪英国文学的总体特征；传奇、民谣的特点；
2．《高文爵士和绿衣骑士》的主题、母题分析；
3．罗宾汉民谣分析；
4．威廉•朗格兰及《农夫皮尔斯》介绍；
5．乔叟的《坎特伯雷故事集》分析，乔叟的文学贡献；
6．英语诗歌知识介绍。

教学难点：
1．主题与母题的区分；
2．《坎特伯雷故事集》中《序曲》的结构特征及其蕴含的宗教思想；
3．英语诗歌的韵律、格律特点；
4．学生对诗歌中古英语词汇的理解。

教学方法：教师讲授、学生报告和课堂讨论相结合
教授内容：
•Medieval period(1066-ca.1485)
Historical Background (what is the most important event in this period?)
1. The Norman Conquest
In 1066, at the battle of Hastings, William, the energetic Duke of Normandy, defeated the Anglo-Saxons and became the King of England.
2. The Consequence of the Conquest
●Politically, a feudal system and a centralized government was established in England .
●Religiously, the Rome-backed Catholic Church had a much stronger control over the
country.
●Great changes took place in languages: the Norman lords spoke French; common English
spoke old English; Latin became the principal tongue of church affairs and was used by the clergymen and scholars. ( As a result, many terms employed by the Normans were adopted into English language.)
●Normans brought to England their own literature.
Ⅱ. Medieval English Literature
☐ 1.A brief survey:
☐The period, from 1066 up to the mid-14th century, is almost a barren period in literary creation. In the second half of the 14th century, English literature starts to flourish. In comparison with Old English literature, Middle English literature is uttered by more voices, deals with a wider range of subjects and is in a greater diversity of styles, tones and genres.
☐Romance is the most prevailing kind of literature. Popular ballad occupies an important position.
☐The Middle English literature reflects the principles of the medieval Christian doctrine and emphasizes the humanity of Christ and the imagery of human passion.
☐ 2. Medieval Romance
1)The features of Romance
☐a)The romance was a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero.
☐b)Hero: usually the knight, a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons, who sets out on a journey to accomplish some goal -- to protect the church and the king, to attack infidelity, to rescue a maiden, to meet a challenge, or to obey a knightly command.
☐c)The structure is loose and episodic; the language and style are simple and straightforward. ☐d)It was written for the noble class, so it had nothing to do with the common people.
☐e)It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues.
☐f)It contains perilous adventures more or less remote from ordinary life, even describes supernatural things.
2) Romance Cycles
Romances falls into three cycles :
1)“matters of Britain”( adventures of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table),
2) “matters of France” (Emperor Charlemagne and his peers)
3)“matters of Rome”. (Alexander the Great and so forth)
3) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
●It is a verse romance of 2530 lines, derived from Celtic legend.
● A. Story:
● B. Analysis:1) alliterative verse 2) an account of a typical chivalric adventure (motifs) 3)
concerned with the rights and wrongs of conduct 4) Its theme is a series of tests on faith, courage, purity and human weakness for self-preservation. 5) structure: contains a prologue, an epilogue and its main body.6) the unknown author tries to make his romance the vehicle of a wise morality in which the humorously grotesque merges with the morally serious.
3 Popular Ballads
▪1) Introduction:
▪Popular ballads are originally dance songs in verse form, usually in 4-line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed.
▪They are mainly literature of peasants, created collectively by people and constantly revised in the process of being handed down from mouth to mouth.
▪There were several kinds of ballads: historical, legendary, fantastical, lyrical and humorous.
▪2) Ballads of Robin Hood
▪The most famous cycle of English ballads centers on the stories about a legendary outlaw called Robin Hood. Robin Hood is partly a real and partly a legendary figure who lived during the reign of Richard I. He was the leader of a band of outlaws, and they lived in the deep forest. They often attacked the rich, waged war against the bishops and archbishops, and helped the poor people. Therefore, Robin Hood and his followers were constantly hunted by the sheriffs. Robin Hood ballads shows the fighting spirit, indomitable courage and revolutionary energy of the English peasantry.
Ⅲ. Middle English Prose
⏹Thomas Malory is the only important prose writer in the fifteenth century. He wrote an
important work called " Morte d'Arthur" (Death of Arthur) .
⏹Malory's tale begins with the mysterious birth of Arthur and ends with his equally
mysterious death.
Ⅳ. William Langland
▪ 1. Introduction
▪William Langland was born in the western midland of the country, living from about 1330 to about 1400. In 1362, he began his famous poem Piers the Plowman , which had been repeatedly revised, and of which three texts have been left to us. It was written in the old alliterative verse: each line contained three alliterated words, two of which were placed in the first half, and the third in the second half.
• 2. Piers the Plowman
The poem describes a series of wonderful dreams the author dreamed.
•It is written in the form of a dream vision.
•The poem is also an allegory which uses symbolism to relate truth.
•The poet uses indignant satire in his description of social abuses caused by the corruption prevailing among the ruling classes, ecclesiastical and secular.
•The poem is written in alliteration.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Ⅰ. Life
•Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London around 1340.
•At the age of 17, he served as a page to Elizabeth .
•At the age of 19, he served with the English army in France and married to Philippa was at the age of 26.
•Between the year of 1372 and 1378 , he was sent on embassies to Italy.
•In 1373, he was made Controller of Customs in the Port of London.
•In 1385 he became Justice of the Peace and Knight of the Shire (Member of Parliament) for the County of Kent.
•In the period of 1389 to 1391, he served as Clerk of the King’s Works .
•In 1391, he was appointed Forester of a royal forest in Somerset
•He died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, thus founding the “Poets’ Corner”. II. Literary Career
1. The French Period
●During this period Chaucer was mainly under the influence of the French literature. His
earliest work was The Romaunt of the Rose《玫瑰传奇》, a free translation of a 13th-century French poem The Roman de la Rose. In this period, Chaucer was trying his hand on meter, language and subject.
2 The Italian Period
●Chaucer‘s journey to Italy in 1372 exerted a profound influence on his literary
development by immersing him in the works of the great Italian writers such as Dante(但丁）, Petrarch （彼特拉克）and Boccaccio（卜迦丘）. The poet’s own creativeness shows itself through borrowed themes.
●Works of this period:
●The House of Fame《声誉殿堂》
●Troilus and Criseyde《特洛勒斯和克里希德》
●The Parliament of Fouls《百鸟会议》
●The Legend of Good Women《贞洁妇女传奇》
3 The Mature Period
●Apart from minor and miscellaneous works, Chaucer's chief literary interest in the last 14
years of his life was The Canterbury Tales, his masterpiece. Chaucer had reached full maturity in his literary creation, free from any dominant foreign influence.
Ⅲ. The Canterbury Tales
1. The Framework
●The framework here refers to a narrative, which is composed for the purpose of
introducing and connecting a series of tales.
●Chaucer's work consists of three parts: The General Prologue, 24 tales, two of which left
unfinished and separate prologues to each tale with links, comments, quarrels, etc. in between.
●Chaucer originally planned to have a group of 30 pilgrims with each to tell two stories on
the way to Canterbury and another two on the way back. So the total stories of the collection would be 120, some 20 stories more than Boccaccio's. But Chaucer had actually completed only 22 stories, with two more existing in fragments.
2. The General Prologue
•The General Prologue is usually regarded as the greatest portrait gallery in English literature. The purpose of the General Prologue is not only to present a vivid collection of character sketches, but also tries to reveal the author's intention in bringing together a great variety of people and narrative materials to unite the diversity of the tales by allotting them to a diversity of tellers engaged in a common endeavor, to set the tone for the story-telling, to make clear the plan for the tales, to motivate the telling of several of tales and to introduce the pilgrims and the time and occasion of the pilgrimage. Ranging in status from a Knight to a humble Plowman, the pilgrims are a microcosm of 14th-century English society.
3. The Tales
• A. There are all together 24 tales with the Knight‘s tale at the beginning, the Parson’s tale at the end, and the Clerk‘s tale and others stretching in between. These tales represent nearly every variety of medieval stories at its best, which can be divided into different groups such as Romance, Fabliau （讽刺性寓言诗）, Saints’Legends（到的冲高的人的传奇）, Homilies（说教）, Moralities, Devotions and Marriage.
•B: story telling:
4. A Brief Analysis of the first stanza
▪ 1.The first eleven lines are a chant of welcome to the Spring with its harmonious marriage between heaven and earth which mellows vegetations, pricks birds and stirs the heart of man with a renewing power of nature. Thus, the pilgrimage is treated as an event in the calendar of nature, an aspect of the general springtime surge of human energy which wakens man's love of Venus (natural love).
▪ 2.The pilgrimage is also treated as an event in the calendar of divinity, an aspect of religious piety which draws pilgrims to holy places.
▪ 3.The structure of this opening passage can be regarded as one from the whole Western tradition of the celebration of spring to a local event of English society, from natural forces in their general operation to a specific Christian manifestation.
4.The transition from nature to divinity is emphasized by contrast between the physical
vitality which conditions the pilgrimage and the spiritual sickness which occasions the
pilgrimage, as well as by parallelism between the renewal power of nature and the
restorative power of supernature (divinity)..
5. It is a model of narrative compression, with an 18-line periodic sentence that
composes of a subordinate clause (line 1-11) of 79 words and a main clause (line 12- 18) of 49 words, expressing the essential idea of the whole work.
IV．Contributions
• 1. Forerunner of Humanism
•Chaucer affirms men’s and women’s right to pursue earthly happiness and opposed asceticism (avoiding physical pleasures and comforts). He praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life and he exposes and satirizes the social vices, including the corruption of the Church.
• 2. The founder of English Realism
•Chaucer, for the first time in English literature, presents to the readers a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time and describes a series of vivid characters from all walks of life in The Canterbury Tales.
• 3. Father of English poetry (called by John Dryden)
•Chaucer introduces from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to replace the old Engli sh alliterative verse. He’s the first to use the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter, which is to be called the heroic couplet. Thus, he lays the foundation of the English tonic-syllabic verse.
• 4. Master of the English language
•Chaucer is the first great poet who wrote in the current English. His production of so much excellent poetry is an important factor in establishing English as the literary language of the country. Chaucer uses London dialect in his writings and he contributes to making it the foundation for modern English speech.
Knowledge of poetry
I. Rhythm(韵律)
1.syllable: a word or part of a word which contains one vowel sound(元音).
2. Stress: a word or part of a word which should be pronounced with more force.
3. Rhythm:
In English, words of two syllables always contain one that is stressed syllable and one that is unstressed; longer words contain one stressed syllable and two or more unstressed syllables. Unstressed syllables are marked with a curve “︶” and stressed, with a dash “—”.
e.g. above suffer around standing
terrible disaster political procession
In a line of poetry, when the stressed and unstressed syllables of all the words are arranged in a definite order, the line will rise and fall in a musical way. And this musical flow, or the rise and fall of language in poetry, is called “rhythm”.
e.g. My heart is like a singing bird.
II. foot(音步)
● 1. definition: foot is the unit of rhythm and contains two or three syllables, one of which
is stressed.
● 2. 4 kinds of foot:
● A. iambus(︶—): consists of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
e.g. Appear, besides , attack , supply.
● B. Trochee(—︶): consists of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable.
e.g. holy, upper, failing
● C. anapaest(︶︶—):consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed
syllable.
e.g. reappear, indistinct, incomplete, on the hill
● D. dactyl(—︶︶): consists of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
e.g. messenger, merrily , property , accident
III. meter(格律)
● 1. The meter of a line of poetry is determined by the kind of foot used and by the number
of feet in a line. The longest poetical line contains 8 feet.
●Monometer单音步诗行, dimeter二音步诗行, trimeter三音步诗行, tetrameter四音步诗
行, pentameter五音步诗行, hexameter六音步诗行, heptameter七音步诗行, octameter 八音步诗行（八步格）.
● A line of five iambic feet is an iambic pentameter line.
● A line of six dactylic feet is a dactylic hexameter line.
●
e.g. but every eye was fixed on her alone.
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore
IV.Rime
●Rime is a repetition of the same sound at the end of two or more lines.
● E.g. day, may; wore, adore.
V.stanza
1. A stanza is a group of two or more consecutive lines bound together by end rime.
2. Usually, we use letters to represent the rime scheme（押韵方式).
● A. couplet: aa bb cc…..
● B. terza rima（三行换韵）：aba bcb cdc ded…..
● C. Quatrain(四行诗体): there are 4 rime schemes
1)abcd
Then come home, my children, the sun in gone down
And the dews of night arise.
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appear in the skies.
2) aaba
A book of Verses underneath the Bough
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--- and Thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness----
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
3) abab
4)abba
● D.quintette: ababb
● E .sextette: ababcc
● F.septette: ababbcc
●G.octave: abababcc
●H. nonette: ababbcbcc
Heroic Couplet(英雄双韵体）
● 1. They are poetry composed in iambic pentameter. In this form of poetry, lines consisting
of five iambic feet rime together in pairs.
● 2. The rime scheme :aa bb cc …..
poem→stanza→line→foot→syllable
教学目的：
1．了解文艺复兴及人文思想的内涵；
2．了解文艺复兴英国文学的发展概况；
3．掌握这一时期诗歌、戏剧及散文的特征及代表作家及作品。

教学重点：
1.文艺复兴及人文思想对英国文学的影响；
2.文艺复兴时期英国文学的总体特征，诗歌、戏剧及散文的发展状况；
3.莎士比亚的主要作品及创作特点，《哈姆雷特》、《威尼斯商人》及十四行诗分析。

教学难点：
1．十四行诗及无韵诗的特征；
2．《哈姆雷特》中反映出来的人文精神。

教学方法：教师讲授、戏剧表演、学生报告及课堂讨论相结合。

讲授内容：
The Renaissance English Literature（ca.1485-1603）
学习目标：
1了解文艺复兴及人文思想的内涵；
2.文艺复兴时期英国文学的总体特征，诗歌、戏剧及散文的发展状况；
3掌握这一时期诗歌、戏剧及散文的特征及代表作家及作品。

4.培根散文特点。

5.莎士比亚的主要作品及创作特点，《哈姆雷特》、《威尼斯商人》及十四行诗分析；
I. Historical background
In 1485，the Wars of the Roses(1455-1485) came to an end，and following the invention of printing and Tudor dynasty which was established by Henry VII in 1485. Henry VIII，whose needs for the annulment of his first marriage in order to father a son and heir, ended the rule of the Catholic Church in England, closed (and largely destroyed) the monasteries --- which had for centuries been the depositors of learning, history, and culture --- and established himself as both the head of Church and the head of state.
Protestantism became the official national religion.
The Enclosure movement compelled peasants to become the hired laborers for the merchants.
The commercial expansion and the rise of bourgeoisie.
The war with Spain: in 1588, the Spanish Armada was defeated. England had sovereignty over the seas. London developed in size and importance as the nation’s capital，and from the foundation of the first public theatre in London，the stage became the forum of debate，spectacle，and entertainment. Hand in hand with the growth in theatrical expression went the growth of Modern English as a national language.
Ⅱ. Introduction to Renaissance
Renaissance marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world. It first started in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. The word “Renaissance” means rebirth or revival. In essence, it is a historical period in which
the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, and to lift the restriction in all areas placed by the Roman Catholic Church authorities.
Two features of renaissance:
1.It is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. People learned to
admire the Greek and Latin works as models of literary form.
2.It is the keen interest in the activities of humanity.
Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance. It reflected the new outlook of the rising bourgeois class. Humanists emphasize the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life and believe that man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders by removing all the external checks by the exercise of reason. They also expressed their rebellious spirit against the tyranny of feudal rule and ecclesiastical domination.
III. English Literature in the Renaissance Period
English literature in the Renaissance Period is usually regarded as the highlight in this history of English literature. In Elizabethan Period, English literature developed with a great speed and made a magnificent achievement, especially the drama. Thus appeared a group of excellent dramatists. They are John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, George Peele, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.
Next to the drama is the Lyrical Poetry. In that period, writing poetry became a fashion. England then became " a nest of singing birds". The famous poets of that period were Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser.
There were not so many prose writers. In the beginning period, the great humanist, Thomas More, wrote his famous prose work "Utopia", which may be thought of as the first literary masterpiece of the English Renaissance. In Elizabethan Period, Francis Bacon wrote more than fifty excellent essays, which make him one of the best essayists in English literature.
3.1 Poetry in the Renaissance Period
1). Thomas Wyatt(1503-1542)
He is the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature.
2). Philip Sidney (1554-86)
Astrophel and Stella
3). Edmund Spenser (1552 -1599)
Spenser is often referred to as "the poets' poet".
Spenser’s fame in English literature is chiefly based upon his masterpiece The Faerie Queene.
In 1579, he wrote The Shepherd’s Calendar, a pastoral poem in twelve books, one for each month of the year.
Writing Features of “ The Faerie Queene”
a. The long poem is written in the form of allegory. It has sweet melody and its lines are very。