English Literature. William J. Long
verse.
5. Quote or read passages which show Chaucer's keenness of observation, his humor, his kindness in judgment, his delight in nature. What side of human nature does he emphasize? Make a little comparison between Chaucer and Shakespeare, having in mind (1) the characters described by both poets, (2) their knowledge of human nature, (3) the sources of their plots, (4) the interest of their works.
6. Describe briefly Piers Plowman and its author. Why is the poem called "the gospel of the poor"? What message does it contain for daily labor? Does it apply to any modern conditions? Note any resemblance in ideas between Piers Plowman and such modern works as Carlyle's Past and Present, Kingsley's Alton Locke, Morris's Dream of John Ball, etc.
7. For what is Wyclif remarkable in literature? How did his work affect our language? Note resemblances and differences between Wyclif and the Puritans.
8. What is Mandeville's Travels? What light does it throw on the mental condition of the age? What essential difference do you note between this book and Gulliver's Travels?
| CHRONOLOGY, FOURTEENTH CENTURY | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HISTORY | LITERATURE | |||
| 1327. | Edward III | |||
| 1338. | Beginning of Hundred Years' | |||
| War with France | 1340(?). | Birth of Chaucer | ||
| 1347. | Capture of Calais | |||
| 1348–1349. | Black Death | 1356. | Mandeville's Travels | |
| 1359. Chaucer in French War | ||||
| 1360–1370. | ||||
| Chaucer's early | ||||
| or French period | ||||
| 1373. | Winchester College, first | |||
| great public school | 1370–1385. | Chaucer's Middle or | ||
| Italian period | ||||
| 1377. | Richard II. Wyclif and the | |||
| Lollards begin Reformation | 1362–1395. | Piers Plowman | ||
| in England | ||||
| 1381. | Peasant Rebellion. Wat Tyler | 1385–1400. | Canterbury Tales | |
| 1382. | First complete Bible in | |||
| English | ||||
| 1399. | Deposition of Richard II. | 1400. | Death of Chaucer | |
| Henry IV chosen by Parliament | (Dante's Divina Commedia, | |||
| c. 1310; | Petrarch's | |||
| sonnets and poems, 1325–1374; | ||||
| Boccaccio's tales, c. | ||||
| 1350.) |
CHAPTER V
THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING (1400–1550)
I. HISTORY OF THE PERIOD
Political Changes. The century and a half following the death of Chaucer (1400–1550) is the most volcanic period of English history. The land is swept by vast changes, inseparable from the rapid accumulation of national power; but since power is the most dangerous of gifts until men have learned to control it, these changes seem at first to have no specific aim or direction. Henry V--whose erratic yet vigorous life, as depicted by Shakespeare, was typical of the life of his times--first let Europe feel the might of the new national spirit. To divert that growing and unruly spirit from rebellion at home, Henry led his army abroad, in the apparently impossible attempt to gain for himself three things: a French wife, a French revenue, and the French crown itself. The battle of Agincourt was fought in 1415, and five years later, by the Treaty of Troyes, France acknowledged his right to all his outrageous demands.
The uselessness of the terrific struggle on French soil is shown by the rapidity with which all its results were swept away. When Henry died in 1422, leaving his son heir to the crowns of France and England, a magnificent recumbent statue with head of pure silver was placed in Westminster Abbey to commemorate his victories. The silver head was presently stolen, and the loss is typical of all that he had struggled for. His son, Henry VI, was but the shadow of a king, a puppet in the hands of powerful nobles, who seized the power of England and turned it to self-destruction. Meanwhile all his foreign possessions were won back by the French under the magic leadership of Joan of Arc. Cade's Rebellion (1450) and the bloody Wars of the Roses (1455–1485) are names to show how the energy of England was violently destroying itself, like a great engine that has lost its balance wheel. The frightful reign of Richard III followed, which had, however, this redeeming quality, that it marked the end of civil wars and the self-destruction of feudalism, and made possible a new growth of English national sentiment under the popular Tudors.
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In the long reign of Henry VIII the changes are less violent, but have more purpose and significance. His age is marked by a steady increase in the national power at home and abroad, by the entrance of the Reformation "by a side door," and by the final separation of England from all ecclesiastical bondage in Parliament's famous Act of Supremacy. In