Medieval and Renaissance English Literature
English literature spans roughly fourteen centuries. Its earliest period — Old English (450–1066) — produced the alliterative epic Beowulf; the Middle English period (1066–1500) culminated in Chaucer; and the Renaissance / Early Modern period (1500–1660) brought Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Shakespeare and Donne.
The "rebirth" of classical Greek and Roman learning that began in 14th-century Italy and reached England in the 16th century. Marked by humanism, individual achievement, the Reformation, the printing press (Caxton, 1476), exploration of the New World, and a flowering of poetry and drama.
Old English (Anglo-Saxon, c. 450–1066)
Literature in this period was composed in Old English (Anglo-Saxon), a Germanic tongue brought by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Texts were preserved by Christian monks.
- Beowulf (c. 700–1000) — anonymous epic of ~3,182 alliterative lines about the Geatish hero who slays Grendel, his mother and a dragon. Survives in the Nowell Codex manuscript.
- Cædmon's Hymn (c. 670) — earliest dated English poem.
- The Wanderer, The Seafarer — elegiac poems.
- King Alfred the Great (849–899) — translations and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Distinctive verse features: alliteration, kennings ("whale-road" for sea), caesura.
Middle English (1066–1500)
The Norman Conquest of 1066 introduced French and Latin vocabulary, transforming Old English into Middle English. The period saw the gradual rise of vernacular literature.
- Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340–1400) — "Father of English poetry".
- The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387–1400), a frame narrative of 24 stories told by pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury.
- Cast of characters: the Knight, Wife of Bath, Pardoner, Miller, Prioress, Squire, Franklin.
- Written in iambic pentameter rhyming couplets (heroic couplets).
- William Langland — Piers Plowman (c. 1370–90), alliterative dream-vision.
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1375) — anonymous Arthurian alliterative romance, attributed to the Pearl Poet.
- Sir Thomas Malory — Le Morte d'Arthur (1485, printed by Caxton). Definitive Arthurian compilation.
- Mystery, miracle and morality plays — Everyman (c. 1500).
"Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote / The droghte of March hath perced to the roote" — Chaucer, opening of The Canterbury Tales.
English Renaissance (1500–1660)
Subdivided into:
- Tudor / Henrician (1500–1558) — More, Wyatt, Surrey.
- Elizabethan (1558–1603) — Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Shakespeare.
- Jacobean (1603–1625) — late Shakespeare, Jonson, Webster, Donne, Bacon.
- Caroline & Commonwealth (1625–1660) — Milton, Cavalier poets, Metaphysicals.
Key figures and works
| Author | Dates | Major works |
|---|---|---|
| Sir Thomas More | 1478–1535 | Utopia (1516, in Latin) |
| Sir Thomas Wyatt | 1503–1542 | Introduced sonnet to English |
| Earl of Surrey | 1517–1547 | Blank verse pioneer; Aeneid translation |
| Sir Philip Sidney | 1554–1586 | Astrophel and Stella; An Apology for Poetry (1595) |
| Edmund Spenser | 1552–1599 | The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596); Amoretti; Epithalamion |
| Christopher Marlowe | 1564–1593 | Doctor Faustus; Tamburlaine; Edward II; The Jew of Malta |
| William Shakespeare | 1564–1616 | 37+ plays, 154 sonnets — covered in next lesson |
| Ben Jonson | 1572–1637 | Volpone; The Alchemist; comedy of humours |
| John Webster | 1580–1634 | The Duchess of Malfi; The White Devil |
| John Donne | 1572–1631 | "The Flea"; "Death Be Not Proud"; founder of Metaphysical poetry |
| Francis Bacon | 1561–1626 | Essays (1597, 1612, 1625); empirical method |
- Beowulf is the oldest surviving Old English epic (~3,182 lines).
- Caxton set up England's first printing press at Westminster in 1476.
- Chaucer is the father of English poetry; Canterbury Tales uses iambic pentameter.
- Spenser's Faerie Queene is in the Spenserian stanza (8 iambic pentameter + 1 alexandrine, rhyme ababbcbcc).
- Marlowe pioneered blank-verse drama; murdered at 29 in a Deptford tavern (1593).
- Donne founded the Metaphysical school using conceits, paradox and intellectual wit.
Spenser's The Faerie Queene
A six-book allegorical romance (originally planned in 12 books) praising Queen Elizabeth I as "Gloriana". Each book represents a knightly virtue: Holiness (Redcrosse), Temperance (Guyon), Chastity (Britomart), Friendship, Justice, Courtesy. Written in Spenserian stanza (rhyme: ababbcbcc).
"A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine" — opening of Book I.
Marlowe and the rise of blank verse
Marlowe's "mighty line" of unrhymed iambic pentameter made blank verse the dominant medium of English drama. Doctor Faustus (c. 1592) dramatises the legend of the scholar who sells his soul to the devil Mephistopheles in exchange for 24 years of knowledge and power.
"Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" — Doctor Faustus, Act V.
Sidney's Apology for Poetry
A landmark of English literary criticism (published 1595, written c. 1581) defending poetry against Puritan attacks. Sidney argues poetry teaches more effectively than philosophy or history because it combines moral instruction with imaginative delight.
The Metaphysical poets
A grouping coined retrospectively by Dryden (1693) and Samuel Johnson (1779). Key features: extended conceits, paradox, intellectual wit, colloquial tone, religious or amorous subjects.
- John Donne — Songs and Sonnets; Holy Sonnets; Devotions.
- George Herbert — The Temple.
- Andrew Marvell — "To His Coy Mistress"; "The Garden".
- Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw.
Theatres and patronage
- Public theatres opened in London: The Theatre (1576), The Curtain (1577), The Rose (1587), The Globe (1599), The Fortune (1600).
- Acting companies under royal/noble patronage — the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men) included Shakespeare.
- Theatres were closed by Puritans in 1642; reopened with the Restoration in 1660.
For CSS English Literature, anchor dates and quotes. Memorise: Beowulf (anon, ~700–1000), Canterbury Tales (Chaucer, 1387–1400, iambic pentameter), Faerie Queene (Spenser, 1590, Spenserian stanza), Doctor Faustus (Marlowe, 1592, blank verse), Astrophel and Stella (Sidney, 1591). Use one accurate brief quotation per author to strengthen answers.
Genres of the period
- Sonnet — Italian (Petrarchan: octave + sestet) and English (Shakespearean: 3 quatrains + couplet).
- Pastoral — idealised rural setting (Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd").
- Allegory — Faerie Queene, Everyman.
- Revenge tragedy — Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587); influenced Hamlet.
- City comedy and comedy of humours — Jonson.
Reformation context
The English Reformation under Henry VIII (1534 Act of Supremacy) disrupted Catholic culture and led to a flowering of vernacular literature and translation — the Tyndale Bible (1525) and the King James Bible (1611) transformed English prose forever.