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Part One
The Anglo-Saxon Period
I. Fill in the following blanks.
1. In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by ____, the Roman conqueror, came with the ____ into Britain.
2. The ____ period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism.
3. Angles, Saxons and ____ usually known as Anglo-Saxons are the first Englishmen. Language spoken by them is called the Old English,
which is the foundation of English language and literature.
4. The literature of the Anglo-Saxon period falls naturally into two divisions, ____ and Christian.
5. In the 8th century, Anglo- Saxon prose appeared. The famous prose writers of that period were Venerable Bede and ________.
-saxon conquest happened in_______.
7. ____ is the oldest poem in the English language, and also the oldest surviving epic in the English language.
8. ____ is the first known religious poet of England. He is known as the father of English song.
9. The didactic poem The Christ was produced by ____.
10. The early inhabitants in the island now we call England were ____, a tribe of Celts. From the Britons the island got its name of Britain,
the land of Britons. The Britons were a ____ people.
II. Choose the best answer for each blank.
1. When we speak of the old English prose, the first name that comes into our minds is ____, who is the first scholar in English literature
and has been regarded as father of English learning.
a. William Shakespeare
b. Beowulfc. Julius Caesar
d. Venerable Bede
2. The most important work of Alfred the Great is ____, which is regarded as the best monument of the old English prose.
a. The Song of Beowulf
b. The Anglo-Saxon Chroniclesc. The Ecclesiastical History of the English Peopled. Brut
3. ____ is not only a prose writer but also a king of Wessex.
a. Alfred the Great
b. Venerable Bedec. Adam Bede
d. King Arthur
4. ____ is the first important religious poet in English literature.
a. John Donne
b. George Herbertc. Caedmon
d. Milton
5. In Anglo-Saxon period, Beowulf represented the ____ poetry.
a. pagan
b. religious
c. romantic
d. sentimental
6. Prose literature did not show its appearance until the ____century.
a. 6th
b. 7thc. 8th
d. 10th
7. The Anglo-Saxons were Christianized in the ____ century.
a. 5th
b. 6th c. 7th
d. 8th
8.
Beowulf
describes
the
exploits
of
a
____
hero,
Beowulf,
in
fighting
against
the
monster
Grendel,
his
revengeful
mother,
and
a
fire-breathing dragon.
a. Denmark
b. Scandinavianc. England
d. Norway
9. The Roman occupation lasted for about 400 years in Britain, and in ____, all the Roman troops went back to the continent and never
returned.
a. 55 B.C.
b. 78 A.D.
c.400 A.D
d.410 A.D
10.
English
literature
began
with
the
____
settlement
in
England.
Of
old
English
literature,
Beowulf,
the
national
epic
of
the
English
people, is an example of the mingling of nature myths and heroic legends.
a. Anglo-Saxon
b. Roman c. Norman
d. Britain
III. Explain the following terms.
1.
Epic2.
Alliteration3.
metaphor
IV
. Answer the following questions.
1. How many groups does the old English poetry fall into? What are they?
2. What are the main characteristics of Anglo-Saxon literature?
3. What are the main incidents of the poem Beowulf?
4. What are the writing features of Beowulf ?
5. What is the theme of Beowulf?
Part Two The Anglo-Norman Period
I. Fill in the following blanks.
1. In the year 1066, the Normans defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the battle of ____.
2. The fifteenth century has been traditionally described as the barren age in English literature. But it is the spring tide of English ____.
3. After the ____ Conquest, feudal system was established in English society.
4. By the time when England entered into feudal society, the society was divided into two classes: ____ and ____.
5. The romances were usually composed for the noble, of the noble, and had nothing to do with the ____.
Norman Conquest brought the body of customs and ideals known as ________into England.
7. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
is the culmination of the romances about______.
8. The border area between England and Scotland was a particular fertile soil for______.
9. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry was written down and recorded in the 18th century by________.
10. In English history, Robin Hood is a partly real and partly_______figure.
II. Choose the best answer for each statement.
1. In 1066, ____ led the Norman army to invade and defeat England.
a. William the Conqueror
b. Julius Caesar
c. Alfred the Great
d. Claudius
2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a verse romance of_______.
a. over 3000 lines
b. over 2000 lines
c. over 1000 lines
d. over 4000 lines
3. The prevailing form of Medieval English literature is the ____.
a. French
b. Latin
c. romance
d. science
4. After the Norman Conquest, three languages existed in England at that time. The Norman spoke ____.
a. French
b. English
c. Latin
d. Swedish
5. The most famous cycle of English ballads centers on the stories about a legendary outlaw called ____.
a. Morte d’Arthur
b. Robin Hood
c. The Canterbury Tales
d. Piers the Plowman
III. Explain the following terms:
1.
2.
Romance
Ballad
IV. Answer the following questions.
1. What is the influence of the Norman Conquest upon English language and literature?
2. Make comments on the romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
3. How many groups do the great majority of the romances fall into? What are they?
4.
What
is
the
most
important
department
of
English
folk
literature?
And
make
comments
on
its
most
famous
cycle:
the
Robin
Hood
Ballads.
5. Make comments on the ballad “ Get up and Bar the Door”.
Part Three
The Age of Chaucer
I. Historical Background
1 .The Hundred Years’ War with France (1337
-1453)
Disputes between England and France were common. A war with France lasted, on and off, for a hundred years. It was fought entirely in
France, where English bowmen defeated the heavily armed French knights in the famous battle of Crecy and Agincourt, and the
whole of France were nearly fell into English hands. Eventually, however, partly through the inspiration of the brave girl Joan of
Arc,
and
partly
through
the
effective
use
of
guns,
which
had
only
just
been
invented,
the
French
drove
the
English
from
their
country for good. England became completely severed from France.
2. The peasant Uprising of 1381
Mounting feudal oppression in the second half of the 14th century led to th
e peasants’ revolts. The ruling class thrice passed the so
-called
Statutes of Labourers in parliament, stipulating that all able-bodied men and women under sixty be required to work for any one at
the rate of wages fixed in 1347 or before, and those who refused to do so be arrested or declared outlaws. On top of this, heavy
land-rents and enforced services were practiced as before, and consequently many peasants fled from the land to the towns while
some went to forests and organized themselves as bandits o
r outlaws. All these events led inevitably to the great peasant’s rising in
1381.
The fourteenth century is remarkable historically for the decline of feudalism
for the growth of the English national spirit during the
Wars with Frances, for the prominence of the House of Commons, and for the growing power of the labouring classes.
II. The Development of literature
In the second half of the 14th century, English literature flourished after three centuries of comparative lull.
The age produced five writers of note. They are William Langland who voiced the social discontent, preached the equality of men and
dignity of labour John Wyclif, the greatest of English religious reformers and the first translator of the Bible; John Gower, the
scholar and literary man, criticizing the social life; John Mandeville, the traveler, romancing about the wonders to be seen broad.
Above all there is Chaucer. He was the representative writer of the century. Therefore, the 14th century is usually called “
The Age
of Chaucer
”.
William Langland and His Piers the Plowman
Piers the Plowman exists in three versions. It is a long poem of 7, 000 lines. The poem describes a series of wonderful dream the author
dreamed. The poem is in two distinct parts. The first contained the vision of Piers. The Second contained a series of visions called
“ The Search for Dowel, Dobet, Dobest”.
“Piers Plowman” is an allegory of
life.
In it
Langland presents a vivid picture of the life in feudal England. Its artistic
m
erit
may be
shown by its portraits of the Seven Deadly Sins. It was very popular throughout the 14th century and 15th century.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340
—
1400)
In the period of Medieval English, literature found its best expression mainly in poetry.
The most famous and the greatest poet of the
time was Geoffrey Chaucer, who is often called the father of English poetry.
1. Chaucer’s Life ( p.11)
2. His Literary Career
Chaucer’s literary careers are roughly divided into three parts, corresponding to the three periods of his life.
(1)
The French Period
The Romaunt of the Rose, a translation from the French poem “ Roman de la Rose”
The Book of the Duchess, Chaucer’s first important original work.
(2)
The Italian Period
The House of Fame
The Assembly of Fouls
Troilus and Cryseyde
The Legend of Good Women
(3)
The English Period
The Canterbury Tales ------
Chaucer’s masterpiece.
3. Selected Reading
An Excerpt from the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales
The
whole
work consists
of
a
prologue
and
twenty-four
tales.
Twenty-two
tales
were
written
in
verse
form,
two
in
prose
form.
In
the
prologue, the author reveals his plan for writing this work , and vividly describes the teller of each tale. In The Canterbury Tales,
Chaucer uses lines of ten syllables and five accents each, and the lines run in couplets.
4. The Social Significance of The Canterbury Tales
(1)
He is a first realistic writer. In his masterpiece, Chaucer gives us a true to life picture of the society of his time. It is Chaucer who
created a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life.
(2)
As a forerunner of humanism, he praises man’s energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. His tales exposes and satirizes
the evils
of his time.
(3)
Chaucer used for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter which is to be called later as the heroic couplet.
His language is vivid and exact. He is a master of word-pictures.
5. Language of The Canterbury Tales
In Chaucer’s age the English language was still divided by dialects, th
ough London was rapidly making East-Midland into a standard
language. Chaucer’s English was the London dialect. He is considered to be a great master of the English language, for he gre
atly
increased the prestige of English as a literary language and extended the range of its poetic vocabulary and meters.
III. Literary Term
Allegory : A tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Thus, an allegory is
a
story
with
two
meanings,
a
literal
meaning
and
a
symbolic
meaning.
The
most
famous
allegory
in
English
literature
is
John
Bunyan’s
The Pilgrim’s
Progress.
Bunyan’s
hero,
Christian,
makes
s
journey
to
the
Celestial
City,
during
which
he
meets
such
characters as Hope, Shame, and Despair.
Heroic Couplet : The rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter.
IV Suggested Questions
1. What is the function of the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales?
2. What is Chaucer’s contribution to English language?
3. What is the social significance of The Canterbury Tales?
Part Four
The Age of English Renaissance
I. Fill in each blank.
1. The Wars of the Roses (1455-85) between the House of ____ and the House of ____ struggling for the Crown continued for 30 years.
2. Because of the conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the King of England, hence the far-reaching movement of ____ took
place in England, started by Henry VIII.
3. The introduction of ____ to England by William Caxon (1476) brought classical works within reach of the common multitude.
4. The 16th century in England was a period of the breaking up of feudal relations and the establishing of the foundations of ____.
5. In Elizabethan Period, ____ wrote more than fifty excellent essays, which made him one of the best essayists in English literature.
6. ____ is often referred to as “the poets’ poet”.
7. Spenser is generally regarded as the greatest non-dramatic poet of the Elizabethan Age. His fame is chiefly based on his masterpiece
____.
8. From the first half of the 16th century, ____
began to develop into a flowering of literature and then England became “a nest of singing
birds”.
9. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and ____ are generally regarded as Shakespeare’s four great tragedies.
10. ____ was the most gifted of the university wits. He produced in all six plays and several poems.
II. Choose one or more than one suitable answers for each statement.
1. The first complete English Bible was translated by _____________
a. William Tyndal
b. James I
c. John Wycliffe
d. Bishop Lancelot Andrewes
2. ____was the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature.
a. Thomas Wyatt
b. William Shakespeare
c. Philip Sidney
d. Thomas Campion
3.
The
epoch
of
Renaissance
witnessed
a
particular
development
of
English
drama.
It
was
____
who
made
blank
verse
the
principal
vehicle of expression in drama.
a. Christopher Marlowe
b. Thomas Loge
c. Edmund Spenser
d. Thomas More
4. From the following, choose the one which is not Edmund Spenser’s work: ____.
a. The Shepherd’s Calendar
b. Epithalamion
c. The Faerie Queene
d. Amoretti
e. Astrophel and Stella
5. At the beginning of the 16th century the outstanding humanist ____ wrote his Utopia in which he gave a profound and truthful picture of
the people’s suffering and put forward his ideal of a future happy society.
a. Thomas More
b. Thomas Marlowe
c. Francis Bacon
d. William Shakespeare
6. English Renaissance Period was an age of ____.
a. prose and novel
b. poetry and drama
c. essays and journals
d. ballads and songs
6. ____ and the Authorized Version of the English Bible are the two great treasuries of the English language.
a. Chaucer
b. Spenser
c. Shakespeare
d. Ben Johnson
7. The keynote of the English Renaissance was _________.
a. humanism
b. reformation
c. Enclosure movement
d. realism
8. Elizabethan poetry is remarkable for its variety, freshness, youthfulness and its___________.
a. prosperity
b. lyrical nature
c. romantic feeling
d. nostalgia
9. __________is credited with introducing the blank verse into English poetry.
a. Thomas Wyatt
b. Philip Sidney
c. Henry Howard
d. William Shakespeare
10. As a philosopher ___________is praised by Marx as “the progenitor of English materialism” because he stressed the impor
tance of
experience ,r experiment.
a. Thomas More
b. Francis Bacon
c. Edmund Spenser
d. Philip Sidney
III. Find the relevant match from column B for each item in column A.
A
B
1. (
) Christopher Marlowe
a. Utopia
2. (
) Shakespeare
b. The Jew of Malta
3. (
) Edmund Spenser
c. The Faerie Queene
4. (
) Thomas More
d. The Merchant of Venice
5. (
) Henry Howard
e. The Sooth Season
6. (
) Francis Bacon
f. A midsummer Night’s Dream
7. (
)
Hermia
g. The New Instrument
8. (
) Ben Jonson
h. Volpone
9. (
)
Juliet
i. Astrophel and Stella
10 (
) Sir Philip Sidney
j Romeo and Juliet
IV. Explain the following terms:
1. Sonnet
2. Blank verse
3. Spenserian stanza
4. Humanism
5. Renaissance
6. University Wits
V
. Answer the following questions.
1. How much do you know about English Renaissance?
2. What are the characteristics of Spenser’s poetry?
much do you know about Thomas More’s Utopia?
4 What is the writing style of Bacon’s essays?
5. What features do Shakespeare’s plays
possess?
Part
Five
The Seventeenth Century
I. Fill in each blank.
1.
In
1642,
civil
war
broke
out
in
England.
The
royalists
were
defeated
by
the
parliament
army
led
by
____.
In
1649,
Charles
I
was
sentenced to death, and England was declared to be a commonwealth.
2. The Revolution Period is also called ____, because the English Revolution was carried out under a religious cloak.
3. After the death of Cromwell, the Parliament recalled Charles II to England in 1660; then followed the ____ period.
4. In Revolution Period ____ towers over his age as William Shakespeare towers over the Elizabethan Age and as Chaucer towers over the
Medieval Period.
5 ____ wrote his masterpiece The Pilgrim’s Progress during his second imprisonment.
6. ____ gives a vivid and satirical description of Vanity Fair which is the symbol of London at the time of Restoration.
7. Paradise Lost took its material from ___________.
8. The main literary form in literature of Revolution Period is _________.
9. The poetry of Donne represents a sharp _____ with that written by his predecessors and contemporaries.
10. In English literature, the Restoration period is traditionally called “Age of _______”.
II. Choose the best answer for each blank.
1. In 1649, ____ was beheaded. England became a commonwealth.
a. James I
b. James II
c. Charles I
d. Charles II
2. Which was not written by Milton? ____.
a. Areopagitica
b. Lycidas
c. L’Allegro
d. Song to Celia
3. The finest thing in Paradise Lost is the description of hell, and ____ is the real hero of the poem.
a. God
b. Satan
c. Adam
d. Raphael
4. Who is the founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry? ____.
a. John Donne
b. George Herbert
c. Andrew Marwell
d. Henry Vaughan
5 To His Coy Mistress is one of ___’s famous poems? ____.
a. John Donne
b. George Herbert
c. Andrew Marwell
d. Richard Crashaw
6. Another school of poetry prevailing in 17th century was that of ____, i.e. those verse-writers, often knights and squires, who sided with
the King against the Parliament and Puritans.
a. Metaphysical Poets
b. Cavalier Poets
c. John Milton
d. John Dryden
7. The literature of the Revolution Period is ______the literature of the Elizabethan Period.
a. different from
b. as prosperous as
c. more romantic
d. same as
8. The poems by the Metaphysical poets are full of farfetched__________.
a. humour
b. satire
c. conceits
d. criticism
9. In The Pilgrim’s Progress , the allegorical narrative is based on the idea of _____.
a. a journey
b. Christian’s dream
c. Christian’s adventures
d. a sailor
10. Paradise Lost was written in_______.
a. Spenserian stanza
b. rhyming couplet
c. blank verse
d. allegory
III. Explain the following terms.
1.
2.
3.
Metaphysical poets
Cavalier poets
Conceits
IV. Find the relevant match for column A from column B.
A
B
1. (
) John Dryden
a. Death Be Not Proud
2. (
) John Milton
b. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
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