英国文学史及选读 名词解释

Part One
①Beowulf: The national heroic epic of the English people. It has over 3,000 lines. It describes the battles between the two monsters and Beowulf, who won the battle finally and dead for the fatal wound. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use if alliteration. Other features of it are the use of metaphors(暗喻) and of understatements(含蓄).

②Alliteration: In alliterative verse, certain accented(重音) words in a line begin with the same consonant sound(辅音). There are generally 4accents in a line, 3 of which show alliteration, as can be seen from the above quotation.

③Romance: The most prevailing(流行的) kind of literature in feudal England was the Romance. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse(诗篇), sometimes in prose(散文), describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, usually a knight, as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournament(竞赛), or fighting for his lord in battle and the swearing of oaths.

④Epic: An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significantly to a culture or nation. The first epics are known as primacy, or original epics.

⑤Ballad: The most important department of English folk literature is the ballad which is a story told in song, usually in 4-line stanzas(诗节), with the second and fourth lines rhymed. The subjects of ballads are various in kind, as the struggle of young lovers against their feudal-minded families, the conflict between love and wealth, the cruelty of jealousy, the criticism of the civil war, and the matters and class struggle. The paramount(卓越的) important ballad is Robin Hood(《绿林好汉》).

⑥Geoffrey Chaucer杰弗里?乔叟: He was an English author, poet, philosopher and diplomat. He is the founder of English poetry. He obtained a good knowledge of Latin, French and Italian. His best remembered narrative is the Canterbury Tales(《坎特伯雷故事集》), which the Prologue(序言) supplies a miniature(缩影) of the English society of Chaucer’s time. That is why Chaucer has been called “the founder of English realism”. Chaucer affirms men and women’s right to pursue their happiness on earth and opposes(反对) the dogma of asceticism(禁欲主义) preached(鼓吹) by the church. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. 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(抑扬格) meter(the “heroic couplet”) to English poetry, instead of the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.

⑦【William Langland威廉?朗兰: Piers the Plowman《农夫皮尔斯》】


Part Two
The English Bible: The first complete English Bible was translated by John Wycliffe(约翰?威克

里夫). The Authorized Version is King James Bible made in 1611. The result is a monument of English language and English literature.

Renaissance: Renaissance or the birth of letters is an intellectual movement. Its two features are a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature and the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Humanism is the key-note of the Renaissance.

William Caxton威廉?卡克斯顿: He is the first English printer and invented in England the profession of publisher.

Thomas More托马斯?莫尔: The greatest of the English humanists was Thomas More, the author of Utopia《乌托邦》. He is also one of such “giants”(巨匠) of the Renaissance. He distinguished himself as a learned scholar, a master of Latin, a witty talker, a lover of music, an honest statesman , and a man of noble character, modest but steadfast(坚定的), to his convictions. He was a far-sighted thinker, aspired for a totally new society with happy, classless, and free from poverty and exploitation. He was one of the forerunners of modern socialist thought.

Utopia: It is More’s masterpiece, written in the form of a conservation between More and Hythloday, a returned voyager. It is divided into two books. The first book contains a long discussion on the social conditions of England. In the second book is described in detail an ideal communist society, Utopia. The name “Utopia” comes from Greek words meaning “no place” and was adopted by More as the name of his ideal commonwealth.

Philip Sidney菲利普?锡德尼: He is well-known as a poet and critic of poetry. His collection of love sonnets, Astrophel and Stella《爱星者与星》, was published in 1591.

Edmund Spenser埃德蒙?斯宾塞(莎翁之前最杰出的英国诗人)：The poet’s poet of the period was ES who was buried beside Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. ES has held his position as a model of poetical art among the Renaissance English poets, and his influence can be traced in the works of Milton, Shelley, and Keats. ES is the first master to make that language the natural music of his poetic effusions(感情的流露). His sonnets in Amoretti, together with Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella and Shakespeare’s sonnets ,are the most famous sonnet sequences of the Elizabeth Age.
【In 1579 he wrote The Shepherd’s Calendar《牧人日记》 which marked the budding(萌芽) of the Renaissance flower in the northern island of England. The faerie Queen 《仙后》 is his greatest work which was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.】

Francis Bacon: He is the founder of English materialist philosophy and the founder of modern science in England. His New Instrument is called the Inductive Method of reasoning. He is also the first English essayist. To give a few, “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark..” “Studies serve for delight.” “Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”

Drama: The Miracle Play圣

迹剧 The Morality Play道德剧 寓意剧
The Interlude幕间节目

Christopher Marlowe克里斯托弗?马洛: The most gifted of the “university wits” was Christopher Marlowe. His best work include 3 of his plays, Tamburlaine《帖木儿大帝》(1587), The Jew of Malta《马耳岛的犹太人》(1592), and Doctor Faustus《浮士德博士》(1588). He was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama. His work paved the way for the plays of the greatest English dramatist——Shakespeare——whose achievements were the monument of the English Renaissance. 【His plays show the spirit of the rising bourgeoisie, its eager curiosity for knowledge, its towering pride, its insatiable(不知足的) appetite for power won by military, might, knowledge, or gold. The theme of his plays is the praise of individuality freed from the restraints of medieval dogmas and law, and the conviction of the boundless possibility of human efforts in conquering the universe. The heroes in his plays are merely individualists, their individualistic ambition often brings ruin to the world and sometimes to themselves.】

William Shakespeare: Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. His dramatic creation often used the method of adaptation（改革）. Shakespeare long experience with the stage and his intimate knowledge of dramatic art thus acquired make him a master hand for playwriting. Shakespeare was skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet, and the dramatic blank verse. He was especially at home with the blank verse. Shakespeare was a great master of the English language. Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers over the world.
① The great comedies: A Midsummer Might’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night.
② The great tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth.

The Merchant of Venice: 威尼斯富商安东尼奥Antonio为了成全好友巴萨尼奥Bassanio的婚事，向犹太人高利贷者夏洛克Shylock借债。由于安东尼奥贷款给人从不要利息，并帮夏洛克的女儿私奔，怀恨在心的夏洛克乘机报复，佯装也不要利息，但若逾期不还要从安东尼奥身上割下一磅肉。不巧传来安东尼奥的商船失事的消息，资金周转不灵，贷款无力偿还。夏洛克去法庭控告，根据法律条文要安东尼奥履行诺言。为救安东尼奥的性命，巴萨尼奥的未婚妻鲍西娅Portia假扮律师出庭，她答允夏洛克的要求，但要求所割的一磅肉必须正好是一磅肉，不能多也不能少，更不准流血。夏洛克因无法执行而败诉，害人不成反而失去了财产。剧本的主题是歌颂仁爱、友谊和爱情，同时也反映了资本主义早期商业资产阶级与高利贷者之间的矛盾，表现了作者对资产阶级社会中金钱、法律和宗教等问题的人文主义

思想

Ben Jonson本?琼森: Of the many contemporaries and successors of Shakespeare, the most well-known was Ben Jonson. He wad a prolific(多产的) dramatist, writing dozens of plays, including tragedies, comedies, and ,masques(假面剧). Jonson’s comedies are “comedies of humours.” Every Man in His Humour《人各有癖》is one of his best comedies.


Part Three
John Milton: His nickname was “The lady of the Christ’s” when he was in college. Milton was political in both his life and his art. He wrote the greatest epic Paradise Lost《失乐园》in English literature. Milton is a master of the blank verse. He first use blank verse in non-dramatic works. Milton is a great stylist and famous for his grand style. He has always been admired for his sublimity(高尚) of thought and majesty of expression.

Paradise Lost: It is Milton’s masterpiece. It’s a long epic in 12 books, written in blank verse. The stories were taken from the Old Testament: the creation, the rebellion in Heaven of Satan and his fellow-angles; their defeat and expulsion(驱逐) from Heaven; the creation of the earth and of Adam and Eve; the fallen angles in hell plotting against God; Satan’s temptation of Eve; and the departure of Adam and Eve from Eden.【The finest thing in Paradise Lost is the description of hell, and Satan is the real hero of the poem. He is firmer than the rest of the angles and the spirit questioning the authority of God.】
Samson Agonistes《力士参孙》: It is a poetical drama modeled on the Greek tragedies. It deals with the story of Samson from the “Books of the Judges” in the Old Testament.

John Bunyan: John Bunyan, the son of a poor tinker, was born in the little village of Elstow. He had a sensitive imagination. When he was about 17, Bunyan enlisted in the parliament army, and served during the decisive battle of Naseby in 1645. After the Restoration, he was flung into Bedford prison in 1660, for refusing to obey the law prohibiting religious meetings. With the characteristic diligence Bunyan set to work in prison making shoelaces, and so earned a living for his family. In the prison, he wrote the book “The Pilgrim’s Progress”（《天路历程》） which was published in 1687. Bunyan cherished a deep hatred of both the king and his government.

The Pilgrim’s Progress: It is a religious allegory(讽喻). It tells of the spiritual pilgrimage(朝圣) of the Christian, who flies from the City of Destruction(毁灭之城), 【meets with the perils and temptations(诱惑) of the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, and Doubting Castle(疑虑之城), faces and overcomes the demon Appollyon, and finally comes to the Delectable Mountains and the Celestial City.】 Bunyan intends to satirize the state trials in the reactionary(反动派的) reigns of Charles II and James II.

Metaphysical poets(玄学派诗人): About the beginning of the 17th century appeared a school of poets called “metaphysicals” by

Samuel Johnson, the 18th century writer. The works of the Metaphysical poets are characterized, generally speaking, by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form. John Donne is the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry.

John Donne(约翰????多恩): He is the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry, lived and wrote during the succeeding reigns of Elizabeth I, James and Charles I. His poems can be divided into two categories: the youthful love lyrics(抒情诗) and sacred(宗教的) verse(诗篇).

John Dryden(约翰?德莱顿):The most distinguished literacy figure of the Restoration Period was John Dryden, poet, playwright and critic. During this period of revolution and counter-revolution, Dryden turned with the tide. He was a prolific writer. His plays show the usual immorality of the age and have all been deservedly forgotten by posterity with the only exception of all for love《一切为了爱》【, a tragedy dealing with the same story as Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra】.Dryden established the heroic couplet and he was the forerunner of the English classical school of literature in the next century.

Part Four
Classicism: English literature of the Restoration period was modeled on the literature of France where classicism was then prevailing. The classicists upheld reason, law and order in literature. According to classicism, drama, poetry and prose should all be controlled by some fixed rules. The classicists modeled themselves on Greek and Latin authors. Rimed couplet obeys the three unities (三一律)of time, place and action, regularity in construction. Poetry following the ancient divisions, should be lyric, epic, didactic(教诲的)，satiric, or dramatic.
The English enlighteners: The enlighteners fought against class inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place all branches of science at the service of mankind by connecting them with the actual needs and requirements of people. The representatives of the Enlightenment in English literature were Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the essayists, and Alexander Pope, the poet. 【These writers criticized different aspects of contemporary England, discussed social problems, and even touched upon morality and private life. The literature of the Enlightenment in England mainly appealed to the middle class readers.】

Richard Steele(斯梯尔) and Joseph Addison(艾迪生): They are linked together by the ties of a life-long friendship and the partnership in literary career. Their writings afford a new code of social morality for the rising bourgeoisie. They give a true picture of the social life of England in the 18th-century. In the hands of Addison and Steele, the English essay had completely established itself as a literary genre(流派). Addison’s chief contribution to literature lies in his essays written for The Tatler and The Spectator.

The Spectator: It was a daily paper, publishing one ess

ay every day. Its general purpose is “to enliven morality with wit, and to temper(缓和) wit with morality.” It preached moderation, reason, self-control, civility(礼貌), refinement(高尚) and good taste.

Alexander Pope(亚历山大?蒲柏): He is the most important English poet in the first half of the 18th century. When he was only 22, his poem Essay on Criticism《论批评》was published. He is a great master of verse in England and in Europe. Pope is the most important representative of the English classical poetry, though he lacked the lyrical gift.

【Essay on criticism: It tells the poet and critics to write and appreciate poetry according to the principles set up by the old Greek and Roman writers.】

【Essay on man《论人》: It is a philosophical poem in heroic couplets. It consists of 4 letters addressed to Lord Bolingbroke, a philosopher of the time. The idea is summed up in a well-known line: “One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.”】
Jonathan Swift: Swift is one of the greatest masters of English prose. His language is simple, clear and vigorous. He said, “Proper words in proper places, makes the true definition of a style.” Swift is a master satirist, and his irony is deadly which as shown in his Modest Proposal《温和的建议》and his greatest work is Gulliver’s Travels.

Gulliver’s Travels: It is Swift’s greatest work. The first part of it appeared in October 1762 and by November the book was in everybody’s hand. In the first part Gulliver describes his shipwreck in Lilliput(小人国). In the second part, the voyage to Brobdingnag(大人国) is described. The third part is a satire on philosophers and projectors. In the last part, Gulliver’s satire is of the bitterest. Gulliver’s Travels gives an unparalleled(无与伦比的) satirical depiction of the vices of his age.
【Pamphlets on Ireland: two of the most famous ones are The Drapier’s Letters《德拉皮尔的信》and A Modest Proposal. The Irish series reached its climax in A Modest Proposal (1729), in which Swift suggested, with bitter irony, that the poverty of the Irish people should be relieved by the sale of their children “at a year old”, as food for the rich. “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and herefore very proper for landlords.”】
Daniel Defoe: Defoe is chiefly remembered as the author of Robinson Crusoe, his masterpiece. His other interesting books are Captain Singleton(1720)《辛格尔顿船长》, Moll Flanders(1722)《摩尔弗兰德斯》and Colonel Jacque(1722)《大疫年记事》.
Robinson Crusoe: The story takes place in the middle of the 17th century, in the family of an old English gentleman, Mr. Crusoe. The old man designs his son, Robinson, for the law, but the young man has set his mind on becoming a sailor. The character of Robinson Crusoe is representative of the English bourgeoisie at the earlier stages of its development. He is most practical and exact.
Samuel Richar

dson: He wrote a long tale, Pamela《帕米拉》【Richardson “had enlarge the knowledge of human nature.” His main achievement as a novelist lies in his technique to show characters as personalities, thinking and feeling for themselves with the author himself absent from the stage, refusing to intervene in the action.】
Henry Fielding: His first novel Joseph Andrews《约瑟夫?安德鲁传》was published in 1742. 【His Jonathan Wild《大伟人乔纳森.菲尔德传》appeared in 1743. Amelia (1751)《阿米莉亚》was his last novel. 】In the brief space of 9 years, Fielding wrote 26 plays. His plays include regular comedies, adaptations from the French, farces(闹剧), burlesques（滑稽戏）, and dramatic satires. As a satirist, he had the zeal(热心) of a social reformer. Fielding’s greatest work is the history of Tom Jones《汤姆?琼斯》. He is the founder of the English realistic novel. Some features of Fielding’s novels: 1) Fielding’s method of relating a story: The story may be told directly by the author. 2) Satire in Fielding’s novels: Satire abounds everywhere in Fielding’s works. There are 2 kinds of satire. One is the humorous satire which is meant to be instructive and corrective. On the other hand, there is a kind of grim satire, which is used to lash the cardinal evils of the corrupt ruling classes. 3) Fielding believed in the educational function of the novel. 4) Style: Fielding is a master of style. His style is easy, unlabored and familiar, but extremely vivid and vigorous.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The School for Scandal《造谣学校》
Samuel Johnson: He is a lexicographer(词典编纂者), critic and poet and he was buried in Westminster Abbey. His dictionary was published in 1775 which marked the end of English writers’ reliance on the patronage(赞助) of noblemen for support.
Oliver Goldsmith奥利弗?哥尔德斯密斯: He was a poet , novelist, dramatist and essayist, all combined in one person. He is an important writer of Johnson’s circle. His two poems, The Traveler《旅游人》and The Deserted Village《荒村》, are both written in heroic couplet, consisting of two iambic pentameter(五音步诗行/英雄诗体) lines linked by rhyme, which was the ruling poetic form in the 18th century. The vicar of Wakefield 《威克菲尔德的牧师》, The Good-Natured Man, The Citizen of the World《世界公民》.
Edward Gibbon爱德华?吉本: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire《罗马帝国衰亡史》
Sentimentalism: sentimentalists appealed to sentiment, “to the human heart.”
Thomas Gray: He took 6 years to compose his famous Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard《墓园挽歌》, which is a model of sentimentalism poetry. It shows a keen interest in the English countryside and a sincere feeling for the life of common people. The poet meditates(沉思) in village cemetery(墓地) on the graves of the humble and poor that surround him.
William Cowper: He is one

of the representatives of sentimentalism.
William Blake(威廉?布莱克): The best of Blake’s short poems is to be found in these two little collections of lyrics, Songs of innocence《天真之歌》, contains poems which were apparently written for children, and Songs of experience《经验之歌》. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell《天国与地狱的婚姻》is important for its expression of Blake’s spirit of revolt against oppression. The whole temper of Blake’s genius was essentially opposed to the classical tradition of that age. Blake’s revolutionary passion came near to that of Shelley. For these reasons, Blake is called a Pre-Romantic or a forerunner of the Romantic poetry of the 19th century. 【The contrast between songs of innocence and songs of experience is of great significance. It makes a progress in the poet’s outlook on life. In the earlier collection, port’s first glimpse of the world was a picture of light, harmony, peace and love. Later years, experience had brought a fuller sense of the power of evil.】
Robert Burns(罗伯特?彭斯): Burns is the national poet of Scotland. He is remembered mainly for his songs written in the Scottish dialect on a variety of subject. Numerous are Burn’s songs of love and friendship, which describes the poet’s own emotions with such vividness and simplicity. Bruce at Bannockurn is a typical song of patriotism(爱国主义). 【This patriotism is inseparately bound up with Burn’s passionate love of his native country.】 Burns was an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution. Burns also achieved success in the field of satire. His songs are Scottish to the core. It is here that we have the best, the truest and fullest revelation of the poet’s mind and heart. They are entirely his own. He was himself in his own rural theme. His great success was also largely due to his comprehensive(广泛的) knowledge and excellent mastery(精通) of the old song tradition.