Beowulf is the oldest poem in the English language, and the most important specimen (范例、典范)of Anglo-Saxon literature, and also the oldest surviving epic in the English language.
The romance is a popular literary form in the medieval period（中世纪）. It uses verse or prose to sing knightly adventures or other heroic deeds.
Geoffrey Chaucer, one of the greatest English poets, whose masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales（《坎特伯雷故事集》）,was one of the most important influences on the development of English literature.
Chaucer is considered as the father of English poetry and the founder of English realism.
二．文艺复兴Renaissance
Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries. It marks a transition(过渡) from the medieval to the modern world.
It started in Italy with the flowering of painting, sculpture（雕塑） and literature, and then spread to the rest of Europe. Humanism is the essence of Renaissance -----Man is the measure of all things.
This was England’s Golden Age in literature. Queen Elizabeth reigned over the country in this period. The real mainstream of the English Renaissance is the Elizabethan drama. The most famous dramatists in the Renaissance England are Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.
The greatest of the pioneers of English drama was Christopher Marlowe.
Francis Bacon was the best known essayist of this period. “Of Studies”is the most popular of Bacon’s 58 essays.
Thomas More ——Utopia
Edmund Spenser——The Faerie Queene
相关练习
1. Which is the oldest poem in the English language?
A. Utopia
B. Faerie Queene
C. Beowulf
D. Hamlet
2. _____ is the father of English poetry.
A. Edmund Spenser
B. William Shakespeare
C. Francis Bacon
D. Geoffrey Chaucer
3. ____ is not a playwright during the Renaissance period on
England.
A. William Shakespeare
B. Geoffrey Chaucer
C. Christopher Marlowe
D. Ben Johnson
三．莎士比亚William Shakespeare
“All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”——William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is considered the greatest playwright in the world and the finest poet who has written in the English language. Shakespeare understood people more than any other writers. He could create characters that have meaning beyond the time and place of his plays. His four tragedies are Hamlet(《哈姆雷特》), Othello(《奥赛罗》), King Lear(《李尔王》) and Macbeth(《麦克白》). Shakespeare’s sonnets, 154 in number, are the only direct expression of the poet’s own feelings; Sonnet 18 deserves its fame because it is one of the most beautifully written verses in the English language 诗选
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
（我怎能将你与夏日相比? /你比它更温和可爱： /动人的花蕾在五月咆哮的风中颤抖， /夏日的美好时光也绝不长久：）
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;
（太阳的金色光芒虽然耀眼， /却常常以灰暗的面貌出现；/再美貌的物什都逃不过凋谢，/命运流转或无意间将其拆解；）
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal line to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breath or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
（可你如夏日般不会褪色, /你的美貌也将永存; /死神无法夸耀你曾在它的阴影中游荡, /伴随永恒的诗篇你将留存。/只要人类生生不息我的诗句能被见证, /你就会在传承中得到永生！）
相关练习
1. Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies are the following works except ____.
A. Hamlet
B. King Lear
C. Romeo and Juliet
D. Othello
2. The Essence of Renaissance, the most significant intellectual movement, was_____.
A. Geographical exploration
B. Religious reformation
C. Publishing and translation
D. Humanism.
3. In “Sonnet 18”, Shakespeare_________________.
