英国文学问答题
Page 1-----------------------
English literature
The Renaissance Period
1. How to define the period of Old English literature?
English literature begins with the Anglo-Saxon settlement in England at about 450 BC and ends at 1066 BC, the year of the Norman Conquest of England. Of Old English literature, a few relics are still preserved. All of them are poems or songs by the Anglo-Saxon scop or gleemen who sang of the heroic deeds of old time.
2. What does Old English poetry include?
Generally speaking, the Old English poetry includes two groups: the religious group: the religious group and the secular one. The former is mainly on biblical themes. For example, Genesis A,<创
世纪I> Genesis B, 《创世纪II》and Exodus 《出埃及记》are poems based on the Old Testament;
while the latter shows the harshness of circumstance and the sadness of the human lot. A typical example is England’s national epic Beowulf.
3. What is the plot and theme of England’s national epic Beowulf?
Beowulf, nephew of the king of the Geats, hears that Hrothgar, a Danish king, is in great trouble. The kingdom of the king is harassed by a monster called Grendel. He at once sails there, grapples with the monster, and w ounds it fatally. Then comes Grendel’s mother, a she-monster, in revenge of her son. Beowulf follows her to her under-water cave and kills her with a giant sword. With
these honors won, he returns to his homeland and reigns as its king for 50 years. Then a
fire-breathing dragon comes out of its den and kills many people. Though old now, Beowulf still kills it single-handedly. But he, too, is fatally wounded and later died.
Thematically, this poem shows how the primitive people fight against the forc es of the natural
world under a wise and mighty leader.
4．What is Epic?
Epic is an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, like H omer’s Iliad and
Odyssey. It usually celebrates the feats of one or more legendary or traditional heroes. The action
is simple but full of magnificence. Today, some long narrative works, like novels that reveal an
age and its people are also called epic.
5. What is the Medieval Period in English Literature? How many parts can it be divided into?
The Medieval :Period in English literature starts at 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest,
and ends at about the 15th century. The early part of the period, i.e. from 1066 to the mid-14th
century, is almost a barren one in literary creation. While in
the latter period, starting from the
second half of the 14th century, English literature flourishes with the appearance of writers like Geoffery Chaucer, William Langland, John Gower, and others.
6. Compared with Old English Literature, what are the features of Medieval English Literature?
In comparison with Old English literature, Medieval English literature deals with a wider range of subjects. It is uttered by more voices and in a greater diversity of styles, tones and genres.
1
----------------------- Page 2-----------------------
And it is deeply influenced by the principles of the medieval Christian doctr ine, which are
primarily concerned with the issue of personal salvation. Romance becomes a popular literary
form, indicating the age to be a chivalric rather than heroic one.
7. What is the miracle play?
The miracle play, the medieval dramatization of a Biblical story (e. g. Cain and Abel) or of a
saint's life, was chiefly popular from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries . The term is
sometimes limited to plays on saints' lives. The Biblical plays are then called mystery plays.
8. What is morality play?
The morality play, a later medieval development, which remained popular well into the
sixteenth century, was an allegorical dramatization of the conflict between good and evil,
including such characters as Everyman, Gooddeeds, and Avarice.
9. Why is Chaucer regarded as "the Father of English poetry"?
Originally, Old English poems are mainly alliterative verses with few variations. Chaucer introduced from France the rhymed stanzas of various types to English poetry to replace it. In The
Romaunt of the Rose, he first introduced to English the octosyllabic couplet. In The legend of
Good Women, he used for the first time in English heroic couplet. And in his masterpiece, The
Canterbury Tales, he employed heroic couplet with true ease and charm for the first time in the
history of English literature.
Besides this, though he drew influence from French, Italian, and Latin models, he is the
first great poet who wrote in the current English language. His production of so much excellent
poetry is an important factor in establishing English as the literary language of the country. And he
made the dialect of London the foundation for Modern English speech. Small wonder later day
writer, John Drydon, would call him "the Father of English poetry".
10. What is Heroic Couplet?
Heroic couplet is a rhyming couplet of iambic pentameter, often containing a complete thought.
There is a fairly heavy pause at the end of the first line and a still heavier one at the end of the
second. Commonly there is a parallel or an antithesis within a line, or between the two lines. It is called heroic because in England, especially in the eighteenth century, it was much used for heroic (epic) poems.
11. What is Chaucer's literary achievement?
(1) First of all, he presented a comprehensive realistic picture of
his age and created a
whole gallery of vivid characters in his works, especially in The Canterbury Tales. (2) He
anticipated a new era, the Renaissance, to come under the influence of men like Petrarch and
Baecacio. In his works, the spirit of Renaissance can be already seen. (3) He developed his
characterization to a higher level by presenting characters with both typical qualities and
individual dispositions, (4) And he greatly contributed to the maturing of Eng lish prosody by
adopting different rhyming skills. Drydon called him "the Father of English Prosody"(诗体论。韵律学).
2
----------------------- Page 3-----------------------
12．What is popular ballad? How has English ballad developed?
Ballard is originally a song intended as the accompaniment to a dance. In the modern sense, a ballad is just a simple spirited poem in short stanzas in which some popular story is graphically narrated ．The English popular ballad flourished from the 12th century to the 15th century，reflecting the life of the people then ．And the most remarkable ones are the Robin Hood ballads. These are ballads about an outlawed hero who lives in the forest with his men, robs the rich and helps the poor. Major collections of these ballads did not begin until the 18th century and the most
creditable among them are Thomas Percy's Relics of Ancient English Poetr y, Walter Scott's
Minstrels of the Scottish Border, etc.
13. How would you define the term Renaissance?
This term refers to a great bourgeois cultural movement in Europe which began in the 14th century and continued to the mid-17th century. It first started from Italy and then spread all over Europe. Originally, the term means "rebirth" or revival . And the movement seems to be a rebirth or revival of ancient Greek and Roman culture, caused by a series of historical events, such as the
new discoveries in geography and astrology, the religious reformation and the economic
expansion. The Renaissance, therefore, in essence, is a historical period in which the European
humanist thinkers and scholars tried to get rid of those old feudalistic ideas in Medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that express the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic church.
14. How to define the term Humanism?
Humanism is a system of beliefs upheld by writers and artists of the Renaissance period in their fighting against medieval asceticism. It states that man is godly, that man is able to find truth, goodness and beauty, and that man is in control of the present life rather than being controlled by God. Briefly, humanism puts man at the center of their beliefs and takes man to be the measure of every thing while the former asceticism puts God at the center of their beliefs and takes personal salvation to be the most important thing on the earth for man.
15. What are the main characteristics of Humanist writings?
Humanist writings affirm the value of man and repudiate the absolute control of man by God.
They call for man's freedom in thinking, praise man's worldly aspirations, and denunciate the
feudalistic control of man's thought. They state that man has a right for earthly happiness and that
asceticism is against human nature. In them, reason and science are put into a very high place
while mysticism is thrown away. They are mostly realistic in essence.
16. What is the historical and cultural background of the English Renaissance ?
Because of the war of Roses within the country and its weak and unimportant position in world trade, Renaissance came later in England than in other European countries. But when it did come, it was to produce some towering figures in the English, and world literary heritage William
Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Sir Thomas More, Francis Bacon and a number of humanist
scholars.
The reign of Elizabeth I (1558~1603) was a period of political and religious stability on the one hand and economic prosperity on the other. The Church of England was re-established,
3
----------------------- Page 4-----------------------
ending the long time religious strifes commence and industry forged ahead as a result of the
enclosure movement at home and the opening of new sea routes in the world. England began to
embark on the road to colonization and foreign control that was to take it onto its heyday of
capitalist development.
17. What is blank verse?
This term, which was first brought into England by Surrey, is used to name tile
unrhymed iambic pentameter line in poetry.
18. What is Sonnet?
Sonnet is a type of poem consisting of one single fourteen-line stanza. It was perfected by the Italian poet in the 13th century and introduced into England in the early 16th century.
English sonnets, in terms of structure, largely fall into two classes, the Petrarchian or Italian
form and the Shakespearian or English form. The former divides its fourteen lines of iambic
pentameters into two parts, one octet and the other sestet; while the latter consists of three
quatrains and a final couplet. The three quatrains develop the poem's subject consistently and the
couplet condenses the emotion into an epigram.
19. How is English drama as a literary form developed in the Elizabethan period?
The Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream of the English Renaiss ance. Though
drama as a literary form could be dated back to the Middle Ages (5th-15th BC), it is not until the
Elizabethan age, under the influence of the Renaissance, that drama was developed into a
sophisticated and mature art form. And great dramatists like Christopher Malowe, William
Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson appeared on the stage.
By imitating the romances of Italy and Spain, embracing the mysteries o f the German
legend, and combining the poetic fancy with the facts of daily life, they made a vivid depiction of
the sharp conflicts between feudalism and the rising bourgeoisie in a transitio nal period. With
humours of the movement, abstractions of philosophical speculation, and intense vitality, this
extraordinary drama, with Shakespeare as the master, stands out as a mo nument of the
Renaissance, which is unrivaled for pure creative power by any other product of that epoch.
20. Why is Edmund Spenser regarded as “the poet’s poet?
Edmund Spenser (1552- 1599) is the author of The Faerie Queene, creator of the Spenserian stanza and one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance period in England. His poetry usually
enjoys five qualities: (1) a perfect melody; (2) a rare sense of beauty; (3) a splendid imagination;
(4) a lofty moral purity and seriousness and (5) a dedicated idealism. It is just his idealism, his love of beauty, and his exquisite melody that make him known as "the poet's poet".
21. What is the Spenserian stanza?
A Spenserian stanza is one that consists of eight five-foot iambic lines, followed by
an iambic line of six feet, rhyming ababbcbcc. It is so named because it was Spenser that first used this form in his masterpiece The Faerie Queene.
22．What is the structure of The Faerie Queene?
4
----------------------- Page 5-----------------------
According to Spenser himself, he intends to present through a "historic al poem" the
example of a perfect gentleman: "to fashion a
gentleman ornoble person in virtuous and gentle
discipline." So he speaks of 12 virtues of the private gentleman, and plans 12 books, each one with
a different hero distinguished for one of the private virtues. The hero of he roes, King Arthur,
possesses all of these virtues. He is to play a role in each of the 12 major adventures, which has its
own individual hero. The recurring appearances of Arthur serve as a unifying element for the
poem as a whole and so is Gloriana, the Faerie Queen, since it is from her court and at her bidding that each of the heroes sets out on his particular adventure. The heroes do not possess the virtues they represent at the beginning of the stories, they acquire them in the course
of their adventures. Unfortunately, Spenser only finished six of the 12 planned books.
23. How would you define the term “University Wits”?
What the term "University Wits" refers to is a group of .playwrights and pamphleteers in the Elizabethan age, of whom Nash, Greene, and Marlowe were the chief ones.
24. What is the moral lesson in Marlowe's Dr, Faustus?
Dr. Faustus is a play based On the German legend of a magician. The hero, Dr. Faustus,
aspires for knowledge and in order to get it, sells his soul to the devil. He experiences a lot of strange things ands finally meets his tragic end. The play's dominant moral is human passion for knowledge, power and happiness; it also reveals man's frustration in realizing the high aspirations in a hostile moral order. And the confinement to time is the cruelest fact of man's condition.
25. What is Marlowe's literary, achievement?
Marlowe's greatest achievement lies in that he perfected the blank verse and made it the principal medium of English. It is Marlowe who brought vitality and grandeur into the blank verse with his "mighty lines", which carry strong emotions.
Marlowe's second achievement is his creation of the Renaissance heroes f or the English
drama. Both Tumburlaine and Dr. Faustus, characterized by endless aspira tion for power,
knowledge and glory, are typical in possessing the true Renaissance spirit.
Owing to the above, though Marlowe is not strong in dramatic construction, and his women characters are some-how pale, he is still regarded as an eminent pioneer of the English drama.
26. Who is Thomas More and what is the content and theme of his Utopia?
Thomas More (1475~1535) was at first a humanistic scholar, then a lawyer, a spokesman
of London merchants who were the mainstays of the Tudor monarch, a nd later the Lord
Chancellor to Henry VIII from 1529 to 1532. As a middle class intellectual, he felt the need to push forward out of the confines of the feudal society and to consolidate a strong and enlightened national government. But as a humanist, he was disgusted with the ponderous measures and the
corrupt life of Henry VIII. Henry has no use for a servant who wanted t o help the people and
remould the society according to the 'humanistic philosophy. So he sent More to prison and later to death when they were in disagreement about Henry's divorce and his church policy.
Utopia is More's masterpiece, written in the form of a conversation betw een 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
5
----------------------- Page 6-----------------------
communist society Utopia. The name "Utopia" comes from two Greek words, meaning "no place",
and was adopted by More as the name of his ideal commonwealth. It has since been used to
designate the ideal state.
27. Roughly speaking, Shakespeare's literary career can be divided into three periods. What are the three periods? And what are his major works in each period?
Shakespeare's literary works can be divided into three periods: the first one from 1590
to 1600, the second from 1601 to 1608, and the third from 1609 to 1612.
In the first period, optimism prevails in most of the works, which i nclude histories,
comedies, and poems. In them, he portrayed young people just freed from feudal fetters. He sang
of their youth, love and ideals of happiness. The victory of their humanist ideal is inevitable,
though it is to be attained only after severe struggle against all obstacles. The heroes and heroines fight against destiny itself and mould their own fate according to their own will. As becomes the sons and daughters of the Renaissance, they trust not in God or King but in themselves, and their
efforts and good faith are crowned with success. His histories include Richard III, Henry IV,
Henry V, etc. Comedies include The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth
Night, etc. And all his poems, 154 sonnets and two long poems, The Rape of Lucrece and Venus
and Adonis, are written in this period, too.
In the second period, Shakespeare's optimism wanes and a strong touch of pessimism marks
most of the works, which reveal the society to be an evil one. The famous four tragedies of his
are all completed in this period, which include Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear.
The works in the third period are mainly tragicomedies and romances. C ymbeline , The
Winter's Tale, The Tempest,etc. There is a prevalent Christian teaching of atonement. Shakespeare
seems to have entered an imagined pastoral world. Thus, he could achieve what he failed to do in
the real world, i.e. to right the wrongs and to realize his ideals.
28. What is the theme of The Merchant of Venice?
The traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship betwee n Antonio and
Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, a nd to expose the
insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew.
But modern critics tend to view it from another aspect. Many people today regard the
play as a satire of the Christians' hypocrisy and their false standards of friendship and love, their
cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice aga inst Jews, here
represented by Shylock.
29. What are the common characteristics shown in the four great tragedies of Shakespeare?
Shakespeare's greatest tragedies are: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. They have
some characteristics in common. (1) Each portrays some noble hero, who faces the injustice of
human life and is caught in a difficult situation. His fate is closely connected with the fate of the
whole nation. (2) Each hero has his weakness of nature. Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince,
faces the dilemma between action and mind. Othello's inner weakness is mad e use of by the
outside evil force. The old king Lear, who is unwilling to totally give up his power, makes himself
suffer from treachery and infidelity. And Macbeth's lust for power stirs up ms ambition and leads
him to incessant crimes. (3) The whole play is usually centered about the hero. All characters and
6
----------------------- Page 7-----------------------
incidents serve but to set him off. (4) And along with the portrayal of the weakness or bias of the hero, the sharp conflicts between the individual and the evil forces in the society are also revealed.
30. How to analyze the complicated character of Hamlet?
Without knowledge of his character, Hamlet's story would hardly b e intelligible.
Hamlet is neither a frail and weak-minded youth nor a thought-sick dreamer.
Though he is
deprived of his right to the throne, he is still loved and respected by everyone. Though a scholar, he is also fearles and impetuous in action. We see him rushing after the
Ghost, killing Polonious, dealing with Claudious' agents, boarding the pirate, leaping into the grave and at last executing his revenge. A mere scholar can never do such things.
Hamlet is a humanist, a man who is free from medieval prejudices and superstitions.
He has an unbounded love for the world rather than for heaven. He cherishes a profound reverence
for man and a firm belief in man's power over destiny. Such a delight in nature and man is
characteristic of the humanists of the Renaissance.
His intellectual genius is outstanding. He is a close observer of man and manners. His quick perception drives him to penetrate below the surface of things and question what others take for granted. So he is forever unmasking his world.
From these we may know that Hamlet is not a mere scholar, simpl y meditative by
nature. On the country, Hamlet is a man of genius, highly complicated and educated, a man of profound perception and sparkling wit. He is a scholar, soldier, and statesman all combined. His image reflects the versatility of the men of the Renaissance.
And it is just because he is blessed with such a profound perception that he, through his personal wrongs, perceives something rotten in the state affairs and his sense of personal wrongs grows to disgust for a world in which such crimes prevail. He seems to understand that his mere
revenge upon his uncle would in no way solve the problems that trouble a nd upset him. His
responsibility is thus enlarged into a radical transformation of society. But to realize this in hisown
time was beyond him. This, and this only, is the cause of his profound melancholy and his delay in action. So Hamlet's melancholy expresses, in a way, the crisis of humanism at the end of the 16th
th
century and the beginning of the 17 century.
31. Why is it said that Shakespeare's heroines are "the daughters of the Renaissance"?
In Shakespeare's plays, he shows an equalitarian attitude toward women. His heroines no longer cling about the neck of a father or a husband, unable to defend themselves. Instead, they are of a new type. They are witty, bold, loving, optimistic and faithful. They are happy and make the others happy. They carry their destinies with them and in speaking and thinking as well as in
feeling are men's equals or even superiors. Though there are moments
of weariness and frailty,
their courage never fails them in times of danger. And with every pang of affection and anxiety they only grow stronger and more capable of coping with the situation. In the ideal women of his plays, the heart and head sway equal.
This is best exemplified in the character of Portia, heroine of The Merchant of Venice. She is beautiful, prudent, resourceful and witty. She chooses her own husband and is capable of rising to an emergency. She is independent in character and takes her own path of life.
In a word, Shakespeare's heroines are the masters of their own fates and in them, the
influence of the Renaissance can be also seen. Some people even call them "daughters of the
7
----------------------- Page 8-----------------------
Renaissance". Their splendor is unprecedented in the English history and it is not until the modern age that women characters again obtain equal position with men.
32. What is unique about the plot of The Merchant of Venice?
The Merchant of Venice has a double plot. (1) On the one hand, a poor young man,
Bassanio, borrowed some money from his friend Antonio so that he can court Portia, a rich and
beautiful girl. He succeeded in winning her but their joy was marred by a letter from
Antonio. (2)
Antonio's money was all invested in mercantile expeditions and what he lent to Bassanio was
borrowed from Shylock, the Jewish usurer. Antonio agreed to give him a pound of his flesh if he failed to return the money in time. Antonio's letter now. said that his ships had all been lost on the sea and he was to let the Jew have a pound of his flesh.
The plots join in the trial scene. The bond issue came before a court of law. While nobody
could persuade Shylock to withdraw his request, Portia, disguised
as a young lawyer, appeared
and quickly solved the problem. Antonio was saved and Shylock had to undergo severe penalties. At this happy ending, several pairs of lovers get married and Antonio's ships, unexpectedly, were reported to be on their way back, instead of having been lost on the sea.
33. What is Shakespeare's literary achievement?
(1) Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. He maintains that
the purpose of dramatic performance is "to hold, as it were, the mirror up to nature". In his works, he paints the decline of the old feudal nobility and the vice of the new Tudor monarch. Besides, his plays have good plots and life-like characters too. His drama is an expression, a monument of the English Renaissance since he wrote about his own people for his own time.
(2)Shakespeare is amazingly prolific Within 22 years, he produced 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 long poems. No two of his play invoke the same feeling or image among the audience. He is a master-hand for every form of drama-comedy, tragedy, and historical plays. He gives us a world of full-blooded people who live and struggle, suffer and rejoice-representing all the complexities and implications of real life.
(3)Shakespeare was skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet, and the dramatic blank verse. And he is a great master of the English language. He used a vocabulary
larger than any other English writers. Many of his new coinage and turns of expressions have
become every-day usage in English life. Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the English
Bible are the two great treasures of the English language.
(4) Hence, Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the su mmit of the
English Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers the world over.
34. Who is Bacon and what are the three classes of his works?
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a representative of the English Renaissa nce, is a
well-known philosopher, scientist and essayist. He lays the foundation for modern science with his
insistence on scientific way of thinking and fresh observation rather than authority as a basis for
obtaining knowledge. His Essays is the first example of that genre in English literature, which has
been recognized as an important land-mark in the development of English pro se. And some
phrases have even entered the English literary tradition. His works can be di vided into three
groups. The most important works of his first group, the philosophical one s, include The
8
----------------------- Page 9-----------------------
Advancement of Learning (1605), written in English; Novum Organum (1620), an enlarged Latin version of The Advancement of Learning, etc. His literary works are in the second group, among
which the most famous is his Essays. And the third group is his profession al works, including
mainly Maxims of Law and The Learned Reading upon the Statute of Uses.
35. What are the characteristics of Bacon's Essays?
Bacon's essays are famous for their brevity, compactness and powerful ness. And the
neatness, the preciseness, the gravity, and the weightiness are the essential qualities of his
writings.
The theme of the essays vary, including his personal opinions on friendship, love, old age,
beauty, public performance, etc. The essays are well arranged and enriched by Biblical allusions, metaphors and cadence. So the reasoning
is very persuasive.
36. What is Metaphysical Poetry?
"Metaphysical poetry is commonly used to term the works of the 17th century poets
who wrote under the influence of John Donne (15754 1631)! leading figures of the school are
Marvell, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, and Henry Vaughan. With a rebelli ous spirit, the
metaphysical poets tried to breakaway from the conventional fashion of Elizabethan love poetry.
The diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neo classic periods, and
echoes the words and cadences of common speech. The imagery is drawn from actual life. The form is frequently that of an argument with the poet's beloved with God, or with himself.
37. What are the characteristics of Donne's poetry?
John Donne is the leading figure of the "Metaphysical school. His poe ms give a more
inherently theatrical impression by exhibiting a seemingly unfocused diversity of experiences and attitudes, and a free range of feelings and moods.
The mode is dynamic rather than static, with ingenuity of speech, vividness of imagery and vitality of rhythms, which show a notable contrast to the other Elizabethan lyric poems which are pure, serene, tuneful, and smooth-running. The most striking feature of Donne's poetry is its tang of reality in the sense that it seems to reflect life in a real rather than a poetical world.
In Donne's. early lyrics, Love is the basic theme. He holds that the n ature of love is the
union of soul and body. But in his late religious poems, he shows an element of conflict or doubt.
In his poetry, Donne frequently applies conceits, i.e. extended metaphors involv ing dramatic
contrasts.
Donne's images are linked with new resources such as law, psychology and philosophy which
endow his poetry with learning and wit, and which provide certain intellectual difficulties.
Donne's poetry involves a certain kind of argument. With a brief, simple language, the
argument is continuous throughout the poem. It is not only playful but also paradoxical; it is not
only witty, but implies different kind of feelings, which can only be interpre ted through the
rhythms and inflections of the verse.
38. What is Conceit?
Conceit is a far-fetched metaphor or simile. Originally a "concept" or "idea", conceit
9
----------------------- Page 10-----------------------
came to mean a striking parallel between two highly dissimilar things, such as the comparison of
the sun partly obscured by a cloud to a lover whose head is resting on a pillow. The metaphysical
conceit is more far-fetched and less trivially ornamental, and generally more original.
39. What is the background of John Milton's writings?
Milton lives in the 17th century, a century of revolution and restor ation in the
English history. During the Tudor dynasty (1485~1603), the crown seemed to be able to win the
support of the English bourgeoisie. But at the end of Elizabethan's reign, clashes between the
two appeared and under Charles I, the situation became worse as he insisted upon absolute
monarch and paid no attention to the people's cries. A civil war broke out in 1642 and lasted till
1649. The revolutionary camp won and England became a Republic. Later, th e revolutionaries
split up and Cromwell, leader of the big bourgeoisie, put down the middle bourgeoisie and
declared dictatorship. After his death, Parliament recalled Charles I1 to England in 1660. The
Restoration ushered in a period of white terror to the country. Many Republ icans were killed.
Then, afraid of another revolution, the big bourgeoisie expelled Charles II and invited William,
Prince of Orange, from Holland, to be king of England in 1688. This was called "Glorious
Revolution", glorious because it was bloodless and there was no revival of t he revolutionary
demands.
40. Who is Milton? What are his major works? And what is the social significance of his writings?
John Milton, the greatest 17th century English poet and writer of political pamphlets,
serves as the representative writer of the English revolutionary camp. During the Revolution, he
used his pen as the weapon in fighting against the king and the Catholic Church, His
representative works in this period are Defense of the English People (1650), Second Defense of
the English People (1652), and Areopagitica(1644).
During the Restoration period, he composed the greatest of his works, P aradise Lost
(1667), Paradise Regained: (1671), and Samson Agonistes (1671). They all have a Biblical origin
and are famous till today for their magnificence in structure and elegance of language. Many
English and European writers were deeply influenced by his writings.
41. What is the content of Milton's Paradise Lost?
Paradise Lost is Milton's masterpiece, which includes 12 volumes, i.e. more than ten
thousands lines. The story is taken from the Old Testament；
Satan and other angels rebelled
against God, but they are defeated and driven from Heaven into Hell. In revenge Satan escapes
from the Hell and goes to the Garden of Eden. He induced Adam and Eve, first man created by
God, to disobey God's demand and eat the fruit of the Forbidden Tree. As a result, Adam and Eve
are driven out of Eden because of their sin of disobedience. Thus the theme of the poem becomes
clear: the "Fall of Man", i.e. man's disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime
cause---Satan.
42. What is the new development of English literature in the 17th century?
The spirit of unity and the feeling of patriotism ended with the reign of Elizabeth I, and England was convulsed with the conflict between the two antagonistic camps, the Royalists and the Puritans. Much of the literature of this revo1ution-and-restoration period was concerned
10
----------------------- Page 11-----------------------
with the tremendous social upheavals of the time. Milton defended the Englis h commonwealth
with his pen. Even after restoration, Milton, together with ,Bunyan, continued to defend in their works the ideals of the revolution, "the good old cause", and expose the reactionary forces with
powerful language. Besides them, there were also some other poets and writer s whose works
express quite different ideas, including the Metaphisicals and Cavalier poets, like John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, and Robert Herrick.
11
----------------------- Page 12-----------------------
The Neoclassical Period
1. What is the "Neoclassical Period" in English literature?
The neoclassical Period is the one in English literature between 1660 and 1798. That is,
between the return of the Stuards to the English throne and the full asserti on of Romanticism
which came with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
2. What is the Enlightenment Movement?
The Enlightenment Movement was a progressive Movement, whic h flourished in
France and swept the whole Western Europe at the time. It was a furtherance of the Renaissance
from the 14th to the 17th century. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of
modern philosophical and artistic ideas. The eighteenth century marked the beg inning of an
intellectual movement in Europe known as the Enlightenment Movement.
3. What's the background of the Enlightenment movement in English history?
The Enlightenment Movement period in Britain is not a tranquil one. There are a lot of
great political events happened during this period. They are the Restoration of King Charles II in
1660, the great Plague in 1665, the Great London Fire, Glorious Revolution in 1689, the Industrial
Revolution and so on. There was constant strife between the monarch and the parliament,
between the Tories and the Whigs, between opposing religious sects such as the Roman
Catholicism, The Anglican Church and the Dissenters, Between the ruling class and the laboring
people, between British colonialists and colonists, etc. In short, it was an age full of conflicts and
divergence of values.
4. What are, according to the neoclassicists, the standards for literature during the neoclassical
period?
Neoclassicists had fixed rules for almost every genre of literature;
Prose should be precise, direct, smooth and flexible
Poetry should be lyrical, epical, didactic, satiric or dramatic, and each class should be
guided by its own principles;
考试课程：英国文学史及选读考核类型：A 卷 考试方式：闭卷出卷教师: XXX 考试专业：英语考试班级：英语xx班 I.Multiple choice (30 points, 1 point for each) select from the four choices of each item the one that best answers the question or completes the statement. 1._____，a typical example of old English poetry ,is regarded today as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. A.The Canterbury Tales B.The Ballad of Robin Hood C.The Song of Beowulf D.Sir Gawain and the Green Kinght 2._____is the most common foot in English poetry. A.The anapest B.The trochee C.The iamb D.The dactyl 3.The Renaissance is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, which one of the following is NOT such an event? A.The rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture. B.England’s domestic rest C.New discovery in geography and astrology D.The religious reformation and the economic expansion 4._____is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. A.The Pilgrims Progress B.Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners C.The Life and Death of Mr.Badman D.The Holy War 5.Generally, the Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries, its essence is _____. A.science B.philosophy C.arts D.humanism 6.“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”(Shakespeare, Sonnets18)What does“this”refer to ? A.Lover. B.Time. C.Summer. D.Poetry. 7.“O prince, O chief of my throned powers, /That led th’ embattled seraphim to war/Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds/Fearless, endangered Heaven’s perpetual king”In the third line of the above passage quoted from Milton’s Paradise Los t, the phrase“thy conduct”refers to _____conduct. A.God’s B.Satan’s C.Adam’s D.Eve’s
2018年自学《英国文学选读》试题及答案 1. What are Shakespeare ’s achievements? a. Shakespeare represented the trend of history in giving voice to de desires and aspirations of the people. b. Shakespeare’s humanism: more important than his historical sense of his time, Shakespeare in his plays reflects the spirit of his age. c. Shakespeare’s characterization: Shakespeare was most successful in his characterization. In his plays he described a great number of characters. d. Shakespeare’s originality: Shakespeare drew most of his materials from sources that were known to his audienc e. But his plays are original because he instilled into the old materials a new spirit that gives new life to his plays. e. Shakespeare as a great poet: Shakespeare was not only a great dramatist, but also a great poet. Apart from his sonnets and long poems, his dramas are poetry. f. Shakespeare as master of the English language. 2. What are the basic characteristics of ballads? a. The beginning is often abrupt. b. There are strong dramatic elements. c. The story is often told through dialogue and action. d. The theme is often tragic, though there are a number of comic
《英国文学史及选读》第一册复习要点 1. Beowulf: national epic of the English people; Denmark story; alliteration, metaphors and understatements （此处可能会有填空，选择等小题） 2. Romance （名词解释） 3. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: a famous roman about King Arthur’s story 4. Ballad（名词解释） 5. Character of Robin Hood 6. Geoffrey Chaucer: founder of English poetry; The Canterbury Tales (main contents; 124 stories planned, only 24 finished; written in Middle English; significance; form: heroic couplet) 7. Heroic couplet (名词解释)8. Renaissance（名词解释）9.Thomas More——Utopia 10. Sonnet（名词解释）11. Blank verse（名词解释）12. Edmund Spenser “The Faerie Queene” 13. Francis Bacon “essays” esp. “Of Studies”（推荐阅读，学习写正式语体的英文文章的好参照，本文用词正式优雅，多排比句和长句，语言造诣非常高，里面很多话都可以引用做格言警句，非常值得一读） 14. William Shakespeare四大悲剧比较重要，此外就是罗密欧与朱立叶了，这些剧的主题，背景，情节，人物形象都要熟悉，当然他最重要的是Hamlet这是肯定的。他的sonnet也很重要，最重要属sonnet18。（其戏剧中著名对白和几首有名的十四行诗可能会出选读） 15. John Milton 三大史诗非常重要，特别是Paradise Lost和Samson Agonistes。对于Paradise Lost需要知道它是blank verse写成的，故事情节来自Old Testament，另外要知道此书theme和Satan的形象。 16. John Bunyan——The Pilgrim’s Progress 17. Founder of the Metaphysical school——John Donne; features of the school: philosophical poems, complex rhythms and strange images. 18. Enlightenment（名词解释） 19. Neoclassicism（名词解释） 20. Richard Steele——“The Tatler” 21. Joseph Addison——“The Spectator”这个比上面那个要重要，注意这个报纸和我们今天的报纸不一样，它虚构了一系列的人物，以这些人物的口气来写报纸上刊登的散文，这一部分要仔细读。 22. Steel’s and Addison’s styles and their contributions 23. Alexander Pope: “Essay on Criticism”, “Essay on Man”, “The Rape of Lock”, “The Dunciad”; his workmanship (features) and limitations 24. Jonathan Swift: “Gulliver’s Travels”此书非常重要，要知道具体内容，就是Gulliver游历过的四个地方的英文名称，和每个部分具体的讽刺对象; （我们主要讲了三个地方）“A Modest Proposal”比较重要，要注意作者用的irony 也就是反讽手法。 25. The rise and growth of the realistic novel is the most prominent achievement of 18th century English literature. 26. Daniel Defoe: “Robinson Crusoe”, “Moll Flanders”, 当然是Robinson Crusoe比较重要，剧情要清楚，Robinson Crusoe的形象和故事中蕴涵的早期黑奴的原形，以及殖民主义的萌芽。另外注意Defoe的style和feature，另外Defoe是forerunner of English realistic novel。 27. Samuel Richardson——“Pamela” (first epistolary novel), “Clarissa Harlowe”, “Sir Charles Grandison” 28. Henry Fielding: “Joseph Andrews”, “Jonathan Wild”, “Tom Jones”第一个和第三个比较重要，需要仔细看。他是一个比较重要的作家，另外Fielding也被称为father of the English novel. 29. Laurence Sterne——“Tristram Shandy”项狄传 30. Richard Sheridan——“The School for Scandal” 31. Oliver Goldsmith——“The Traveller”(poem), “The Deserted V illage” (poem) (both two poems were written by heroic couplet), “The Vicar of Wakefield” (novel), “The Good-Natured Man” (comedy), “She stoops to Conquer” (comedy),
····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线
····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线
····································密························封························线································ 学生答题不得超过此线
班级_________________学号姓名考试科目英美文学史及作品选读【（1）】B卷闭卷共 5 页 学生答题不得超过此线····································密························封························线································
班级_________________学号姓名考试科目英美文学史及作品选读【（1）】B卷闭卷共 5 页 学生答题不得超过此线····································密························封························线································
英国文学选读样题答案 一、选择题（本大题共15小题，每小题1分，总计15分） 1---5 ABCCC 6---10 ABBAB 11---15 BBAAC 二、填空（本大题共10小题，每小题2分，总计20分） 1．Heroic 2 comedies 3. couplet 4. metaphysical poetry 5. Eve 6. My Luve’s Like a Red, Red, Rose 7.Houyhnynms 8. Coleridge 9. Odes 10. Emily Bronte 三、诗歌分析（本大题共4个小题，每小题分值见各小题，共20分） 1．William Wordsworth; I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 2．Iambic tetrameter; ababcc ababcc 3. The waves beside them danced; but they _ / _ / _ / - / Out-did | the spark|ling waves | in glee: _ / _ / _ _ _ / A po|et could |not but |be gay, _ / _/ _ / _ _ In such | a jo|cund com|pany: _ / _ / _ / _ / I gazed--|and gazed-|-but lit|tle thought _ / _ / _ / _ / What wealth |the show |to me |had brought: 4. 水波在边上欢舞，但水仙 比闪亮的水波舞得更乐； 有这样快活的朋友做伴， 诗人的心儿被欢愉充塞； 我看了又看，却没领悟 这景象给了我什么财富。（黄杲炘） 四、小说分析（本大题共5个小题，每小题分值见每小题，共20分） 1.Jane Eyre; Sharlotte Bronte 2.He had a mad wife who set the building on fire and climbed to the roof of the building. He tried to save her. But the staircase broke and he fell down He was wounded and became blind. 3.When Jane knew that Mr. Rochester had a wife. She was surprised and fled from Thornfield. Mr. Rochester was very sad at it.
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》】
英国文学史 Part one: Early and Medieval English Literature Chapter 1 The Making of England 1. The early inhabitants in the island now we call England were Britons, a tribe of Gelts. 2. In 55 B.C., Britain was invaded by Julius Caesar. The Roman occupation lasted for about 400 years. It was also during the Roman role that Christianity was introduced to Britain. And in 410 A.D., all the Roman troops went back to the continent and never returned. 3. The English Conquest At the same time Britain was invaded by swarms of pirates（海盗）. They were three tribes from Northern Europe: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. And by the 7th century these small kingdoms were combined into a United Kingdom called England, or, the land of Angles. And the three dialects spoken by them naturally grew into a single language called Anglo -Saxon, or Old English. 4. The Social Condition of the Anglo -Saxon Therefore, the Anglo -Saxon period witnessed a transition from tribal society to feudalism. 5. Anglo -Saxon Religious Belief and Its Influence The Anglo -Saxons were Christianized in the seventh century. Chapter 2 Beowulf 1. Anglo -Saxon Poetry But there is one long poem of over 3,000 lines. It is Beowulf, the national epic of the English people. Grendel is a monster described in Beowulf. 3. Analysis of Its Content Beowulf is a folk lengend brought to England by Anglo -Saxons from their continental homes. It had been passed from mouth to mouth for hundreds of years before it was written down in the tenth century. 4. Features of Beowulf The most striking feature in its poetical form is the use of alliteration, metaphors and understatements. Chapter 3 Feudal England 1）T he Norman Conquest 2. The Norman Conquest The French -speaking Normans under Duke William came in 1066. After defeating the English at Hastings, William was crowned as King of England. The Norman Conquest marks the establishment of feudalism in England.
1.The national epic of the Anglo-Saxons is ____. A Robin Hood B Sir Gawain and the Green Knight C The Canterbury Tales D Beowulf 2. ____was the most outstanding single romance on the Arthurian legend written in alliterative verse. A The Canterbury Tales B Piers the Plowman C Sir Gawain and the Green Knight D Beowulf 3. ____was famous for The Canterbury Tales. A Geoffrey Chaucer B John Milton C William Shakespeare D Francis Bacon 4. Most of the ballads of the 15th century focused on the legend about ____ as a heroic figure. A Green Nights B Gawain C Robin Hood D Hamlet 5.In the 16th century, Thomas More’s work ____became immediately popular after its publication. A Paradise Lost B A Pleasant Satire of the Three Estates C Of Studies D Utopia 6. ____was Edmund Spencer’s masterpiece which has been regarded as one of the grea t poems in the English language. A Amoretti B The Shepherd’s Calendar C The Faerie Queene D Four Hymns 7. ____ is from Shakespeare’s sonnet No.18. A “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” B “To be or not to be: that is the question” C “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” D “No longer mourn for me when I am dead” 8. _____, the “father of English poetry” and one of the greatest narrative poets of England, was born in London about 1340. A. Geoffrey Chaucer B. Sir Gawain C. Francis Bacon D. John Dryden 9.The four great tragedies written by Shakespeare are Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and ___ _. A. Antony and Cleopatra B. Julius Caesar C Twelfth Night D King Lear 10. Which of the following does not belong to Shakespeare’s romantic love comedies? A Twelfth Night B The Tempest C As You Like It D The Merchant of Venice D C A C D C C A D B 1. All of the following are the most eminent dramatists in the Renaissance England except______.
英国文学史资料British Writers and Works I. Old English Literature & The Late Medieval Ages
1．{The Isles of Greece} QUESTIONS: 1. Who is the writer of these lines? Byron 2. It is taken from the writer's masterpiece entitled ___ "Don Juan"_________. 3. Who is "Sappho" in line 2? Sappho is an ancient Greek poetess , known for her passionate love lyrics. 4. Who is "Phoebus" in line 4? It's Apollo, the Greek Sun-god. 5. Whom does the "Scian muse" refer to? Homer, because Scio claimed to be the birthplace of Homer. 6. What does the whole section "The Isles of Greece" write about? The section "The Isles of Greece" is among Byron's most effective poetical utterances on national freedom. All the 16 stanzas are supposed to have been sung by a Greek singer at the wedding feast of Don Juan and Haidee on the isle of Greece. In the song, by contrasting the freedom enjoyed by the Greek ancient people with the enslavement of the early 19th century Greeks under the Turkish rule, the poet calls on the Greeks to struggle for their national freedom and liberation. 7. This selection consists of two six-lined stanzas of iambic tetrameter, with a rime scheme of ___ Ababcc__________ What does the poem mainly write about? This poem is about the beauty of nature. There is a vivid picture of the daffodils, mixed with the poet’s philosophical and somewhat mystical thoughts. What is the rime scheme in each stanza? ababcc 2．I wandered lonely as a cloud 1.What does the poem mainly write about? This poem is about the beauty of nature. There is a vivid picture of the daffodils, mixed with the po et’s philosophical and somewhat mystical thoughts. 2.What is the rime scheme in each stanza? ababcc 3. What is the poet’s view on nature? And how is that view shown in this poem? Wordsworth’s conception of nature is that nature has a lot to do with man, it can not only refresh one’s soul and fill one with happiness, but it can also be reduced into a beautiful memory which will comfort one’s heart when in solitude. In the narrative poem, the poet successfully compared his loneliness with the happy daffodils. The daffodils, the symbol of the nature, bring great joy and relief to the speaker. The diction of this poem is, in general, simple, direct, and clear. The image of the daffodils conveys qualities of movement and radiance through carefully chosen words. At first sight, the flowers are seen as “fluttering and dancing”; then the poet compares the flowers to the “stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way”, and then to the “sparkling waves” of a nearby lake. The daffodils are described as “golden”, not yellow, because “golden” suggests more than a color; it connotes light. These words of movement and radiance create a picture of nature as vital, animated, and glowing. Words for joy (glee, sprightly, gay, jocund, bliss) are used in a crescendo that suggests the intensity of the speaker’s happiness.