Litearture: Chronology of Elizabethan Age

Litearture: Chronology of Elizabethan Age

Compiled by: Niyati Pathak

INTRODUCTION:-

Historians have divided English literature into periods for convenience. The numbers, dates or the names of the periods sometimes vary. The following list follows the prevalent practice of listing: 450-1066 Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period  (From the invasion of the Celtic England by Germanic tribes to the conquest of England in 1066 by the Norman French)

Anglo Saxon Period- Chronology

 Literature:

Poetry was written in the vernacular – Anglo Saxon – called Old English

Beowulf – the greatest of Germanic epics

Caedmon and Cynewulf wrote on religious and biblical themes 

Alfred the Great translated several books of Latin prose into Old English, and also recorded the important events in England.

1066-1500 Middle English Period

About 1500 – the standard literary language took the form of “modern English” 

1100-1350 – the non-Latin literature was produced in the French dialect (by the invades who were then the ruling class of England)

The important work of this period was Guillaume de Lorris’ and Jean de Meun’s Roman de la Rose

Later on, the narrative vernacular – middle English – became the literary language especially for religious writings

The secular literature became more popular in the second half of the 14th century. This was the age of Chaucer and John Gower. Remarkable works of this time were William Langland’s great religious and satirical poem Piers Plowmen, and Thomas Malory’s the famous prose romance called Morte d’ Arthur.

The 15th century poets: “Scottish Chaucerians”

King James I and Robert Henryson occupied chief position.

 15th century was remarkable for popular literature addressed to the upper class. It was the age of excellent songs and of folk ballads, and was the time of the miracle and morality plays.

1500-1600 The Renaissance (Early Modern) Period

1558-1603 Elizabethan Age(it was the manhood of Renaissance)

1603-1625 Jacobean Age

1625-1649 Caroline Age

1649-1660 Commonwealth Period

1600-1785 The Neo-classical Period

1660-1700 Restoration Period

1700-1745 The Augustan Age

1745-1783 The Age Of Sensibility

1785-1830 The Romantic Period

1832-1901 The Victorian Period

1848-1860 The Pre-Raphaelites

1880-1901 Aestheticism and Decadence

1901-1910 The Edwardian Period

1910-1914 The Georgian Period

1914- The Modern Period

1945- Post Modernism

ELIZABETH AGE :-(1558-1603)

Time:-

The period of queen Elizabeth's rule (1558 to 1603) is Elizabethn age. It Is also known as SHAKESPEARERIAN Age because Shakespeare we the dominating figure of this tie,. In the period, ENGLAND  ae a great development in trade marine power and  nationalistic feeling.Drama  witnessed highest growth of its own poetry too was not left behind. This period is a part of whole Renaissance movement.  "We suddenly see ENGLAND  a noble and punishment nation rousing herself, like a strong man after sleep , and shaping her invisible locks" writes W. J. LONG.

The great queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, and her reign lasting up to 1603, is golden age in the history of English literature. While the previous age was a Barren age as far as literature is concerned, the age Elizabeth is characterized by abundance of production in every Branch of literature. There was a renaissance of ancient Greek and Roman literature, mythology and culture, and this served as a source of inspiration to the countless writers of the period. There was also an awakening of the human mind to the vastness beauty and wonder of the world As a result of the discovery of America and the voyages of adventure undertaken by the Sailors of England and other countries of Europe. All of literature in the age. This period is generally regarded as the greatest in the history of our literature .It was marked by a strong national spirit, by patriotism, by religious tolerance, by intellectual progress and by unbounded enthusiasm. Such an age, of thought, feeling and vigorous action finds its best expression in the drama and wonderful development of the drama, culminating in shakes-pear, is the most significant characteristic of the Elizabeth an period .Though the age produced some excellent prose works it is essentially an age of poetry and the poetry is remarkable for its variety, its freshness, its youthful and romantic feeling. Both the poetry and the drama were permeated by Italian influence, which was dominant in English literature from Chancre to the Restoration. The literature of this age is often called the literature of Renaissance. Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist, Bacon the greatest prose-writer and essayist and Edmund Spenser is the greatest poet of the age.

QUEEN ELIZABETH I :-

★ BORN,SEPT.07,1533

GREEN WICH-LONDON, ENGLAND

CORONATION: JANUARY 15,1559

REIGN: MARCH 24,1603

 ★DIED:-MARCH 24,1603

   RICHMOND:-LONDON, ENGLAND.

 ★SCIENCE: NAVIGATION

                 CARTOGRAPHY

                 EXPLORING

★COLONIZATION:FIRST ATTEMPTS

                             RONOKE ISLAND(1587)

★ECONOMY:NATION/INTERNATIONAL TRADE

                    NAVAL POWER

                     ROYAL EXCHANGE (1565)

                   TRADING COMPANY (1599)

★RELIGION:CHURCH OF ENGLAND

                   ACT OF SUPREMACY

                   RELIGIOUS

★POLITICS: ANGLO SPANISH WAR (1585-1604)

                 CORNFLICT WITH IRELAND (1594-1603)

★CULTURE: RENAISSANCE

                  THEATRE/ART

CHARACTERISTIC'S FEATURES OF THE AGE :-

Revival of Interest in Greek Literature( The New Classicism):-

The ardent revival in the study of Greek literature brought a dazzling light into many dark places of interest. The new classical influences were a great benefit. They tempered & polished the earlier rudeness of English Literature.

★Abundance of Output

The Elizabethan age was rich in literary productions of all kinds. Singing is impossible when one’s hearts undeclared & at any moment one may be laid prostrate. Not till the accession of Queen Elizabeth, did a better state of things began to be. In the Elizabethan age, pamphlets & treatises were freely written. Sometimes writers indulged in scurrilous abuses which were of personal character. But on the whole, the output of the literature was very wide, & after the lean years of the preceding epoch, the prodigal issue of the Elizabethan age is almost embarrassing.

★The New Romanticism

The romantic quest is, for the remote, the wonderful & the beautiful. All these desires were abundantly fed during the Elizabethan age, which are the first & the greatest romantic epoch (period).  According to Albert, “there was a daring & resolute spirit of adventure in literary as well as the other regions, & most important of these was an un-mistakable buoyancy & freshness in the strong wind of the spirit. It was the ardent youth of English Literature & the achievement was worthy of it.”

★Translations in Elizabethan Age

The Elizabethan age witnessed translation into English of several important foreign books. Many translations were as popular as the original works. Sir Thomas North translated Plutarch’s Lives & John Florio translated Montaigne’s Essais. No less popular were the translations in poetry. E.g. Metamorphoses by Arthur Golding, Aristotle’s Orlando Furioso by Sir John Harrington, Tasso’s Terusalom Liberata by Richard Carew.

★Spirit of Independence

In spite of borrowings from abroad, the authors of this age showed a spirit of independence & creativeness. Shakespeare borrowed freely, but by the alembic of his creative imaginations, he transformed the dross into gold. Spenser introduced the ‘Spenserian Stanza’, & from his works, we got the impression of inventiveness & intrepidity. On the whole, the outlook of the writers during the age was broad & independent.

★Development of Drama

During the Elizabethan Age, drama made a swift & wonderful leap into maturity. The drama reached the splendid perfection in the hands of Shakespeare & Ben Jonson, though in the concluding part of the age, particularly in Jacobean Age, there was a decline of drama standards.

★Popularity of Poetry

Poetry enjoyed its hey-day during the Elizabethan age. The whole of the age lived in a state of poetic fervour. Songs, lyrics & sonnets were produced in plenty, & England became nest of the singing birds. In versification, there was a marked improvement. Melody & pictorialism were introduced in poetry by Spenser.

★Prose and Novel

For the first time, prose rose to the position of first rate importance. “Even the development of poetical drama between 1579 A.D. -1629 A.D., is hardly more extraordinary than the sudden expansion of English prose & its adaptation to every kind of literary requirement.” The dead weight of the Latin & English prose acquired a tradition & universal application. English Novel made its first proper appearance during this age.

★Elizabethan Prose :-

Elizabethan age was an age of Prose but the prose fiction works were not planned . They were not created but we're imitation or Translations.

The first major writer of Elizabethan Prose fiction was Lyly. His Euphues was published in 1570 and Euphues and his England in 1580. It was the first prose work .The plot is very thin and contains dialogues.and discourses. Every incidents proves to be opportunity for instruction. So his work can be called didactic.

=>The next was Sidney with his Arcadia,which was a romance in pastoral setting.Sidney indulged in fancy with sentiment 'S nd ideal scenes .The style of her  book is very picturesque . It is exavagents  on almost all occasions and is in fact a romance-epic written in prose.

=>The next notable figure is Robert Greene . His presentation to was quite picaresque . He was romantic and his main romances are pandosto , perimedes the Blacksmith and memohon. In his work attractive women characters  are always presen. The passeges of prose are also charming.

Greene was a part of the realism tend too. He showed rogury ( શઠતા) and many forms of rascaldom.

=>Thomas Hashe stands out as a perfect literary show man who with his world can keep the audiance spell-bound.( મંત્ર મુગ્ધ ). Pierce penniless, is an appeal to devil, but in that grab it is as atirical survey of the vices that time . The unfortunate Traveller presents a thrilling record of travels and adventures . This does not necessiate an organised plot, and the material is held together by presences personality of the narrator . It moves at a very steady pace.

=>John Bunyan's THE PILGRIMS PROGRESS is an allegorical story which deals with the Christians pilgrimage from the dit of destruction to the celestial ( સ્વર્ગીય)city.

=>Thomas Delaney produced three works between 1596 and 1600. They are thomas of reading , jack of Newbury and the genetal craft. The first two follow lylys rules. The third one sticks to the fact and narrates the career of simon Eyre, who from a  cobbler's apprentice becomes lord mylor.

◆GENERAL SURWAY :-

 1:- THE  POETIC TRANDS OF  THE AGE :-

Although several kinds of verse form were attempted in this age the epic romance,the pastoral, the verse tale, the gelegd, the sonnet, the lyric, the satire,it is largely an age of the last three. Following close upon the heels of the RENAISSANCE , it availed itself of all that the Freeland Latin classics had to offer but the form of whatever it chose to write is largely it's own . This is important  to hear in mind because in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries  the writers would be more attacked by its form than by its matter.

Ranking nest only to drama , poetry no less popular. For the first time it began to be published in anthropologies . The fashion was set by what has  come to be called , after the name of its printer, tottelsmisacellancy . It was published in 1557 and contained  the songs and sonnets of several authored , of whom Wyatt and Surrey are the chief . It was followed twenty years later by many other collections , of which only england helicon (1600) offered the richest fare: 

Sidney,Spenser,Drayton,lodge,Greene,Peele, Shakespeare, the poems included in these collection were largely songs and sonnets . But between 1593 and 1596 collection of sonnets were published seprately by the authors themselves.

◆The sonnet of the age :-

It was introduced into England by sir thomas Wyatt and henry Howard , dari of Surrey , in the first half of the sixteenth century , but while Wyatt more or less followed the original Italian or petrarchan form, Surrey changed it to three quatrains  in alternate tume and has since come to be fallowing petrarchan,all of whose sonnets celebrate his love for laura, the  writers wrote THIER sonnets in similar sequences addressed to some lady, supposed or real .

Love therefore is thier subject but it is sometimes conventional., And sometimes  real. Where it is the former , the writers follow certain set conversation the lady is always heartless, the lover ever pining for her sake. Where the sonnets are inspired by genuine love, 'with this key 'the poet 'unlocks his heart ' .

A few sonnets , however , were written on other  subjects such as 'sweetest content ,scare chamber ,sleep' and religious matters . Though the sonnet was originally brought over Frome italy ,it was the French practitioner of the form that inspired the english writers more. Of these Ronsard and de sporters were the more largely copied. In general, the language of the sonnets is rich nd the verse musical .Thought word and metre never so happily blended together.

◆The lyrical of the age :-

Borrowed Frome continental sources Greek, Latin,Italian , French, it took roots in the english soil because it created  to the people's growing interest in music. Among the people there were not only distinguished musicians but a regular class of professional singers who performed in streets , taverns , and other places. The lyric therefore soon found it's way into the drama to be similarly sung for the entertainment of the audiance. A sufficiently large number of lyrics written in this age, are of this nature. Sometimes even put in prose pamphlets.

Written and used for this purpose they are not heavy stuff:they express rather the holiday mood of the writer . Thier subjects are varied love , court life, nature, morality,dress,death the same subject may be treated differently by different poets.

They are generally impersonal,saying not what the writer thinks or feels but what is common experience . Even when the lyrics is written in the first person, it is everyman speaking and not the poet, this sometimes makes his treatment of the day than the communication of a genuinely felt experience.

In language and verification no better lyrics have since been written in english literature . As Arnold said of wordsworths nature poems , it seems as through they took writer s pen out of his hand and wrote themselves down on his behalf. They are spontaneous, they are light , they are sweet , and they are much else. While the passion for sonnet writing lasted but a few years, the lyric never went out of favor and was passed on to the next generation.

◆The satire of the age :-

The satire began in middle english poetry and Skelton gave it some form in the fifteenth century . But since it is a roman form which came to england only after the RENAISSANCE , it was in this age that age it began to be written systematically.it is not, however, characteristic of the age as the sonnet and the lyric are.

The satire thrives upon abuses,social or individual as this glorious period left little to desire, the very raw material of purpose also. When, it is modelled upon Juvenal, it is coarse and even abusive; when modelled upon Horace, it shows better taste. It's subject are: the courtier and life,the puritan, the women, the corrupt priests, the Englishman who aped French priya lian fashions. The heroic couplet was preferred to other stanza forms but it lacks the force that it was to acquire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

ELIZABETHAN DRAM:-

This was a golden period of drama . It  ends in Jacobean age. The drama had fine  beginning , glorious Climax an sudden end. No literary can grow and tack shape without peoples interest and encouragement. The english responded well. They saw drama's listened poetry. On the other ide the poets and Dramatists also reflected thier feelings. This prove helpful to each other .

"Whether an author found his pocket empty he knew that his best chance  of filling it promptly was on the stage. Therefore all the authors wrote or tide to write for theatre. There is hardly a poet or novelist of this period to write for theatre. There  is hardly a poet or novelist of this period who did not at some time turn his attention to drama.

EDWARD ALBERT

The Artistic Period of the Drama.

 The artistic is the final stage in the development of the English drama. It represent human life as it is.

◆The First Comedy

 The first true play in English, with a regular plot, divided into acts and scenes, is probably the comedy, “Ralph Royster Doyster.” It was written by Nicholas Udall, master of Eton, and later of Westminster school,The story is that of a conceited fop in love with a widow, who is already engaged to another man. The play is an adaptation of the Miles Gloriosus, a classic comedy by Plautus.

◆The First Tragedy

 Our first tragedy, “Gorboduc,” was written by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, and was acted in 1562, only two years before the birth of Shakespeare. It is the first play to be written in blank verse,:-)The story of “Gorboduc” is taken from the early annals of Britain and recalls the story used by Shakespeare in King Lear. Gorboduc, king of Britain, divides his kingdom between his sons Ferrex and Porrex. The sons quarrel, and Porrex, the younger, slays his brother, who is the queen’s favorite. Videna, the queen, slays Porrex in revenge; the people rebel and slay Videna and Gorboduc; then the nobles kill the rebels, and in turn fall to fighting each other. The line of Brutus being extinct with the death of Gorboduc, the country falls into anarchy, with rebels, nobles, and a Scottish invader all fighting for the right of succession. The curtain falls upon a scene of bloodshed and utter confusion.

~>Christopher Marlowe:-

The first great dramatist of the time was Christopher Marlowe. Though he lived a short life, he wrote some powerful tragedies, which are counted among the great works of English stage. He showed originality both in choice of subject matter and the use of blank verse. His powerful blank verse strengthens the drama and the development of character heightens the sense of tragedy. His first tragedy Tamburlaine the Great is written in blank verse with colorful images of power and violence.

 ◆WORKS :-

★TAMBURLAINE -THE GREAT

★A JEW OF MALTA

★DR. FAUSTUS

★EDWARD II

Doctore Faustus :-

=>Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus is based on the well-known story of a man (Faustus) who sold his soul to the devil in order to power and riches in the life. Faustus is mad for intellectual power. He agrees to give his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles in return for twenty-four years of splendid life. During these years the devil must serve him and give him what he wants. Finally, when Faustus has to face death, he is filled with fear and the end of the play is very tragic.

~>William Shakespeare:-

William Shakespeare is taken as the finest dramatist of all times. He began his career as a play actor and then moved to play writing. He had great dramatic as well as poetic gift. His plays look like a living world of people. His characters have both individual and universal qualities.At the beginning Shakespeare wrote historical plays by improving the works of other writings.

◆HIS TRAGEDIES :- 1- HAMLET ,

                                 2-MACBETH

                                 3 -OTHELLO

                                4-KING LEAR

◆COMEDIES :-

1 -MUCH DO ABOUT NOTHING

2-MID SUMMERS NIGHT DREAM

3- AS YOU LIKE IT

4- TWELFTH NIGHT

In this plays we see universality because he presented unknown dark parts of the nature .Fate also plays it's role in his plays.

UNIVERSITY WITS:-

The term university wits was not used in thier lifetime ,but was coined by george saints bury, a 19th century journalist and author .Saints bury argues the' risingsap'. Of in two separate "branches of the national tree." The university wits is a phrase used to trace of late 18th ce.English playwrights and pamphleteers who were educated at the universities Oxford for Cambridge and who became popular secular writers. It was the earliest stage of the development of drama as a popular means of entertainment in public theaters and playhouses.

◆CHARACTERISTICS:-

Elizabethan group

Historian invent

Attending Oxford or Cambridge

Pioneer of english drama

Rival of Shakespeare

Educated RENAISSANCE writer.

◆MEMBERS OF UNIVERSITY WITS:-

1 JOHN LYLY

2 THOMAS KYD

3 GEORGE PEELE

4 ROBERT GREENE

5 CHRISTOPHER MARLOW

6. THOMAS NASH

7 THOMAS LODGE

In the 1580s, the writings of the University Wits (Marlowe, Greene, Lyly, Kyd, and Peele) defined the London theatre. Though grounded in medieval and Jacobean roots, these men produced new dramas and comedies using Marlowe's styling of blank verse. Shakespeare outdid them all; he combined the best traits of Elizabethan drama with classical sources, enriching the admixture with his imagination and wit.

★CHRISTOPHER MARLOW

Renaissance for developing black verse as avehical for dramatic development.

Johnson characterised Marlow's usage of blank verse "mighty light"

Cambridge graduate

Short career aa allah weight

★DOCTOR FAUSTUS

★A JEW OF MALTA

★TAMBURLAINE

★ROBERT GREENE

First negative critic of Shakespeare

Wrote prose romances and pamphlets

Friar bacon and friar binigay

A grats -worth of write, bought with a million of repentance (Attack on Shakespeare)

Plays

★THE CHEMICAL HISTORY OF ALPHONSUS AND ENGLAND

★FRIAR BACON AND FRIAR BUNGAY

★THE HISTORY OF ORLANDO FURIOSO

★ THE SCOTTISH FOR A ROMANTIC SETTING

★THOMAS NASH

★UNFORTUNATE TRAVELLER

★THE TERRORS OF THE NIGHT

★SUMMERS LAST, WILL AND TESTAMENT

★THE ISLE OF DOGS

★THE ANATOMY OF ABSURDITY

★HAVE WITH YOU TO SAFFRON WLDEN

Political last will and Testament (written for  child actores)

★THE ISLE O DEGS

(the unfortunate Traveller)

(Prose narrative)

★JOHN LYLY

Lylys greatest service to drama consists in his writing plays in prose.

Lylys sparkling dialogues gave Shakespeare an excellent  modl to follow. Sought to raise the bar on sophisticated prose .The result of over elaboration was a comically elegant style  open to parody

=>BEST PLAYS

 ★ALEXANDER AND CAMPASE

★MIDAS

★ENIMION

★SAPHO AND PHAO

●ENDIMINATIO (debates the nature of love)

●EUPHUS,OR THE ANATOMY OF WIT (Popular prose romance )

★THOMAS LODGE

Not much of a dramatist more of a collaborator

★SPANIAH TRAGEDY

★HOUSEHOLDERS PHILOSOPHY

A looking glance for london and england .

(Collaborated with robert Greene )

★ROSALYNDE (Source or Shakespeare 'S AS YOU LIKE IT)

★GEORGE PEELE

Commercial dell'Arte influenced his comedies utilized  several sub plots in parady of original plot. The arraignment of paris (court drama,flattery of the queen), Old wives 'tale (room -com-pay-withi-a-play)

◆PLAYS

★THE ARAYGEMENT OF PARIS

★THE FAMOUS CHROICLE OF KING EDWARD

★THE OLD WIVES TALE

★THE LOVE OF KING DACID AND BATHSHEBA

  

★THOMAS KYD

Pretty obscureguy but we think we at least know about the Spanish tragedy usage of semacam devices -irony ,heroic violence, rhetorical soliloquies, etc.

★THE SPANISH TRAGEDY (most popular paly of 16th century )

★THE WITTY WAY

★THE HEROIC THEME

 Great figures in fiction and history

Ornate description s

Long rhetorical speeches

★BLANCK VERSE

-Medium for heroic style

-Allowed for the implementation of strong text.

-IMAGES OF VIOLANCE AND EMOTION

-Lack of humour

->LYLY  being the only exception

●THUS WE SEE THE TRANSFOMARION OF POPULAR DRAMA

 ★ This are some of the activities during Elizabethan era

★SPANISH ARMADA :-

  ● In 1588, Philip II of Spain sent this fleet to fetch his soldiers in the Netherlands and then invade England. Although it was supposed invincible, the Armada was defeated by the English navy.

 ●Spain (ruled by Philip ii)and England (ruled by Elizabeth I ) initially got on well. Philip ii was keen to mary Elizabeth. There was friendship between the two countries . However this friendship very quickly turned to tension and rivalry. Eventually war broke out. In July 1588, Philip ii sent a huge Armada of 130 ship's and 30,000 men. Philip had been married to Mary Tudor (Elizabeth's sister ). In 1559. He wanted all countries to be Catholic.

●Thus, the 1559 Elizabethan religious settlement angered him greatly . Spain had colonies in the  new world . Some english sailors such as sir Francis Drake had been robbing spanish treasure ship's from the new world (1570-80s). Elizabeth encouraged this ! Spain was willing stir up trouble for Elizabeth whether possible . Offering money and and troop to help. Elizabeth s decision to sign the death warrant of the Catholic mary queen of Scots in 1587. Enormously angered Philip. He clearly saw this as terrible. France was a traditional enemy of both England and spain -both countries had united against france in the past.In 1562 civil war broke out in France ,meaning she was no longer a threat to either country for over 30 years. In 1572 Elizabeth secretly help the duch rebel against Philip ii she knew a rebellion in the Netherlands would keep spanish for the first time England and spanish was actually fighting fighting each other . In many 1588 a massive invasion fleet or or 'armada'sailed from the port of Lisbon. It was  made up of 130 ship's fitted with 2,500guns. They carried 30,000 soldiers and sailors. This great war fleet was bound for England.

●The Armada is famous because at that time England was a small nation with a little navy and they were facing the greatest power in the world (spain).They defeated spain. It marked the beginning of England's mastery of the seas. The great history of the english navy began, as did serious English exploration and colonization . The Spanish monarch, Philip ii, was angry that queen  Elizabeth had not punished sir Francis Drake and other english seadogs for plundering spanish ship's. Philip was a devout Catholic. He felt it was his duty to invade and conquer England in order to convert the country back to the church of rome. The two fleets met in the english channel . There were many more spanish ship's than the english ship's but the english ship's were smaller and easy to manoeuvre. This would turn out to be a great advantage for the english . On 6 august 1588. The spanish Armada ancoured at Calais. The english filled eight ship's with flammable material and set fire to them. They sent in fire ship's to panic the Spaniards and scatter the armadas formation . The armadas formation,the famous crescent,had proved extremely successful in previous campaign as it allowed all ship's to fire their heavy guns simultaneously. The spanish panicked and fled to the poem sea, straight into the gunfire of the waiting english. In the open sea, the Armada wasn't in formation , so the spanish ship's were easy targets fir the english artillery .

●An important reason why the english were able to defeat the armadas was that the wind blew the spanish ship's northwards. Strong winds and terrible rain forced many ship's onto rocks near Ireland . The english celebrated their victory with medal saying 'GOD BLEW AND THEY WERE SCATTERED'.

◆Work sited :- 

http://thinking-literature.blogspot.in/2017/10/important-mcqs-on-elizabethan-literature.html

http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/elizabeth/section9.rhtml

http://epicworldhistory.blogspot.in/2012/05/spanish-armada.html

General Characteristics: Age of Chaucer

Source: https://niyatipathak.blogspot.com/2018/09/age-of-chaucer-1340-1400.html

Age of Chaucer (1340-1400)

By: Niyati Pathak

General Characteristics of the Age:

·         The first significant period in the literary history of English literature.

·         Marks new era of new learning.

·         Chaucer’s age was the turbulent period – social, political, and religious challenges.

·         Chaucer was born in the reign of Edward III, lived through Richard II and died in the reign of Henry IV.

·         Upsurge of national sentiments in the era.

·         Normans invaded England in 1066.

·         The East Midland Speech became the language of the capital city and the universities.

·         French and English amalgamated to form Standard English.

·         In 1362 a statute ordained that English would be the language of law courts.

·         The Papal interference was strongly resented.

·         In 1348-49 the terrible Black Death occurred. One third population of England was carried off.

·         It reappeared in 1362, 1367 and 1370.

·         As the result the labour became scarce.

·          The church which was the seat of power and prestige was infected with corruption, moral turpitude and superstitions.

·         John Wycliffe (1320-84) challenged the authority of Catholic Church and tried to revive spiritual Christianity in England.

·         The Lollard Movement was the first important opposition to Catholicism in England to expose corruption in the Church.

·         Church used to controlled men’s thoughts and feelings and it was the clerics who interfered in temporal affairs of common men.

·         Italy started reviving the study of the literature of classical antiquity. The theological slavery was weakened.

·         The two Italian writers, Petrarch (1304-74) and Boccaccio (1313-75) were the pioneers of the great revival.

·         The spirit of humanism was one of the formative influence of the age of Chaucer, engendered the quickened sense of beauty, the delight in life and the free secular spirit.

·         Root says in this regard, “the movement of Renaissance first assumed definite form, and our modern world began.

Poetry in Chaucer’s Age

 ‘Amalgam of love, religion and chivalry and humanism and secular spirit’

The Prominent poets of Chaucer’s Age:

1.       Chaucer (1340-1400)

2.       William Langland (1332-1400)

3.       John Gower (1332-1408)

The prose writers of Chaucer’s Age:

1.       John of Trevisa

2.       Travels of Sir John Mandeville

3.       Chaucer

4.       John Wycliffe.

Important Notes –Chaucer and his works:

·         Pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales assembled in Tabard inn.

·         The pilgrims were welcomed by jolly host Harry Baillie.

·         Chaucer employed Heroic Couplet in his prologue and Canterbury Tales.

·         Chaucer effectively used rhyme royal in Troilus and Criseyde and arranged in stanza consisting ten syllabic lines and having seven lines in each stanza.

·         Pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales visiting the shrine of Thomas-a-Becket.

·         Wife of Bath in the Canterbury Tales tells about her five marriages.

·         Chaucer’s physician in the doctor of physique was heavily depending of astrology.

·         Spenser called Chaucer ‘the well of English undefiled’.

·         Chaucer introduced the Heroic Couplet in English verse and invented the rhyme royal.

·         Matthew Arnold criticised Chaucer for lacking high seriousness.

·         The pilgrims marched towards Canterbury in the month of April.

·         A free supper was the prize for the best story teller among the pilgrims.

·         Matthew Arnold called Chaucer, ‘the father of our splendid English poetry.’

·         Long called Chaucer’s prologue to the Canterbury Tales as the prologue to modern fiction’.

·         S D Neil remarks “had Chaucer written in prose, it is possible that his Troilus and Criseyde and not Richardson’s Pamela would be celebrated as the first English novel.

Importance......

1)       Chaucer’s best descriptions, of man, manners and place, are of the first rank in their beauty, impressiveness, and humour. Even when he follows the common examples of the time, as when giving details of conventional spring

 mornings and flowery gardens , he has a vivacity that makes his poetry unique.



THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (1350-1450)

The period now under review is quite short. It includes the greater part of the reign of Edward III and the long French wars associated with his name: the accession of his grandson Richard II (1377); and the revolution of 1399,the deposition of Richard, and the foundation of the Lancastrian dynasty .From the literary point of view, of greater importance are the social and intellectual movements of the periods: the terrible plague called the Black Death, bringing poverty, unrest, and revolt among the peasant, and the growth of the spirit of inquiry, which was strongly critical of the ways of church, and found expression in the teaching of Wyclif and the Lollards, and in the stern denunciations of Langland.

LITERARY FEATURES OF THE AGE :

1   1. The standardizing of English.

French and English have amalgamated to form the standard English tongue, which attains to its first full expression in the works of Chaucer.

2. A curious 'MODERN' NOTE begins to be apparent at this period. There is a sharper spirit of criticism,  more searching interest in man’s affairs, and a less childlike faith in, and a less complacent acceptances of, the establish order. The vogue of romance, though it has by no means gone, is passing, and in Chaucer it is derided. The freshness of  the romantic ideal is being  superseded by the more acute spirit of the drama, which even at this early time is faintly foreshadowed.

3. Prose:

The era sees the foundation of an English prose style. Earlier specimens have been experimental or purely imitative; now, in the works of Mandeville and Malory, we have prose that is both original and individual. The English tongue is now ripe for a prose style. The language is settling to a standard; Latin and French are losing grip as popular prose mediums and the growing desire for an English Bible exercises steady pressure in favour of a standard English prose.

 4. Scottish Literature:

For the first time in our literature, in the person of Barbour (1316 (?)-9 95), Scotland supplies a writer worthy of note. This is only the beginning; for the tradition is handed on the powerful group Who are mentioned in this age.

His life :

The date of his birth is uncertain, but it is now generally accepted as being 1340. He was born in

 London, entered the household of the wife of the Duke of Clarence (1357), and saw military

service abroad, where he was captured. Next he seems to have entered the royal household,

for he is frequently mentioned as the recipient of royal pensions and bounties. When Richard II

succeeded to the crown, Chaucer was confirmed in his offices and pensions, and shortly afterwards.

He was sent to Italy on one of his several diplomatic missions. He was first poet to be buried in what

 is now known as poets corner in west minister Abbey.

His poems :

The order of chaucer’s poem cannot be ascertained with certitude. But from internal evidence they

can as a rule be approximately dated.

It is now customary to divide the Chaucerian poems into three stages. THE ITALIAN, and THE

FRENCH, and THE ENGLISH of which is the last is a development of the first two.

1) FRENCH STAGE :

The Romaunt of the Rose: 

(The Romaunt) is a partial translation into Middle English of the French allegorical poem, le Roman de la Rose (le Roman). Originally believed to be the work of Chaucer, the Romaunt inspired controversy among 19th-century scholars when parts of the text were found to differ in style from Chaucer's other works. Also the text was found to contain three distinct fragments of translation. Together, the fragments—A, B, and C--provide a translation of approximately one-third of Le Roman.

There is little doubt that Chaucer did translate Le Roman de la Rose under the title The Romaunt of the Rose: in The Legend of Good Women, the narrator, Chaucer, states as much. The question is whether the surviving text is the same one that Chaucer wrote. The authorship question has been a topic of research and controversy. As such, scholarly discussion of the Romaunt has tended toward linguistic rather than literary analysis.

Scholars today generally agree that only fragment A is attributable to Chaucer, although fragment C closely resembles Chaucer's style in language and manner. Fragment C differs mainly in the way that rhymes are constructed. And where fragments A and C adhere to a London dialect of the 1370s, Fragment B contains forms characteristic of a northern dialect.

The Book of the Duchess:

The Book of the Duchess is the first of Chaucer's major poems. Scolars are uncertain about the date of composition. Most scolars ascribe the date of composition between 1369 and 1372. Chaucer probably wrote the poem to commemorate the death of Blanche of Lancaster, John of Gaunt's wife. Notes from antiquary John Stowe indicate that the poem was written at John of Gaunt's request.

The poem begins with a sleepless poet who lies in bed reading a book. The poet reads a story about Ceyx and Alcyone and wanders around in his thoughts. Suddenly the poet falls asleep and dreams a wonderful story. He dreams that he wakes up in a beautiful chamber by the sound of hunters and hunting dogs. The poet follows a small hunting dog into the forest and finds a knight dressed in black who mourns about losing a game of chess. The poet asks the knight some questions and realizes at the end of the poem that the knight was talking symbolically instead of literally: the black knight has lost his love and lady. The poet awakes and decides that this wonderful dream should be preserved in rhyme.

2) ITALIAN STAGE :

The Parliament of Fowls :

The Parliament of Fowls is also known as The "Parlement of Foules", "Parliament of Foules," "Parlement of Briddes," "Assembly of Fowls" or "Assemble of Foules". The poem has 699 lines and has the form of a dream vision of the narrator. The poem is one of the first references to the idea that St. Valentine's Day was a special day for lovers. As the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, The Parliament of Fowls has been passed down in fourteen manuscripts (not including manuscripts that are considered to be lost). Scholars generally agree that the poem has been composed in 1381-1382.

The plot is about the narrator who dreams that he passes through a beautiful landscape, through the dark temple of Venus to the bright sunlight. Dame Nature sees over a large flock of birds who are gathered to choose their mates. The birds have a parliamentary debate while three male eagles try to seduce a female bird. The debate is full of speeches and insults. At the end, none of the three eagles wins the female eagle. The dream ends welcoming the coming spring.

The letter has a fine opening and in the characterization of the birds, shows chaucer’s true comic spirit. Troilus and Criseyde is a long poem adapted from Boccaccio but its emphasis on character it is original, and indicative of the line of chaucer’s   development. This both poem chaucer’s best narrative work.

The House of Fame  : 

(House of Fame in the original spelling) is a Middle English poem by Geoffrey Chaucer, probably written between 1379 and 1380, making it one of his earlier works. It was most likely written after The Book of the Duchess, but its chronological relation to Chaucer's other early poems is uncertain. The House of Fame is over 2,000 lines long in three books and takes the form of a dream vision composed in octosyllabic couplets. Upon falling asleep the poet finds himself in a glass temple adorned with images of the famous and their deeds. With an eagle as a guide, he meditates on the nature of fame and the trustworthiness of recorded renown. This allows Chaucer to contemplate the role of the poet in reporting the lives of the famous and how much truth there is in what can be told.

The third or English group contains work of the greatest individual accomplishment.

The  achievement of this period is the Canterbury tales, though one or two of the separate tales may

 be of slightly earlier composition. For the general idea of the tales Chaucer may be indebted to

Boccaccio, but in near every important feature the work is essentially English. The separate tales are

linked with their individual prologues, and with dialogues and scarps of narrative.

                 There are two prose tales, Chaucer’s own Tale of melibee and The Parson’s Tale ; and nearly all the others are composed in a powerful and versatile species of the decasyllabicor heroic couplet.

HIS PROSE 

1)  The Tale of Melibee (also called The Tale of Melibeus)

            The story concerns Melibee who is away one day when three enemies break into his house, beat  his wife Dame Prudence, and attack his daughter, leaving her for dead. The tale then proceeds as a long  debate mainly between Melibee and his wife on what actions to take and how to seek redress from his enemies. His wife, as her name suggests, counsels prudence and chides him for his rash opinions.

The discussion uses many proverbs and quotes from learned authorities and the Bible as each make their points. Dame Prudence is a woman discussing the role of the wife within marriage in a similar way to the Wife of Bath and the wife in The Shipman's Tale.

2) The Person ‘s Tale:

The subject of the parson's "tale" (or rather, treatise) is penitence. It may thus be taken as containing    inferential criticism of the behaviour and character of humanity detectable in all the other pilgrims,    knight included. Chaucer himself claims to be swayed by the plea for penitence, since he follows the Parson's Tale with a Retraction (the conceit which appears to have been the intended close entire cycle) in which he personally asks forgiveness for any offences he may have caused and (perhaps) for having deed  to write works of worldly vanitee at all (line 1085).         

The parson divides penitence into three parts; contrition of the heart, confession of the mouth,        and satisfaction. The second part about confession is illustrated by referring to the Seven Deadly sins  offering remedies against them. The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed,gluttony, and lust; they are "healed" by the virtues of humility, contentment, patience attitude, mercy, moderation, and chastity.

   

FEATURES OF HIS POETRY : 

The first thing is that strikes the eye is the unique position that Chaucer’s work occupies in the literature of the age. He is first, with no competitor for hundreds of years to challenges his position.Among Chaucer’s literary virtues his acute faculty of observation is very important. He was man of the world, mixing freely with all type of mankind; and he used his opportunities to observe the little peculiarities of human nature.Chaucer’s best descriptions, of man, manners and place, are of the first rank in their beauty, impressiveness, and humour. Even when he follows the common examples of the time, as when giving details of conventional spring mornings and flowery gardens, he has a vivacity that makes his poetry unique.

“ The bisy larke, messager of day,

Salueth in her song the morwe gay,

And firy phocebus riseth up so bright

That all the orient laugheth with the lighte.”

The knight’s Tale

The prevailing feature of chaucer’s humour is its Urbanity: the man of the worlds kindly tolerance of the weakness of his erring fellow mortals. He lays an emphasis on pathos, but it is not overlooked. In the poetry of chaucer’s the sentiment is human and unforced. We have excellent example of pathos in the tale of the ‘prioress’ and in ‘The Legend of good women’. Chaucer’s stories viewed strictly as stories, have most of the weakness of his generation : a fondness for long speeches, for pedantic digressions on such subjects as dreams and ethical problems, and for long explanation when non are necessary. His Metrical skill: The seven lined stanza a b a b b c c has become known as the Chaucerian or rhyme royal. He shows the skill that is as good as the very best apparent in the contemporary poems.We many summarize chaucer’s achievement by saying that he is earliest of the great moderns. In comparison with the poets of his own time, and those of the succeeding century, the advance he makes is almost starting. All the chaucerian’s features help to create this modern atmosphere. He is indeed a genius ; he stands alone, and for nearly two hundred years none dare claim equality with him.

Satan: Paradise Lost

Satan as the Hero of John Milton's "Paradise Lost"

By Niyati Pathak

The very descriptions of Satan’s physical dimensions and the size of the tools he carries mark him out as a kind of hero. His limbs are long and large; his bulk is as huge as that of the Titan who fought against Jove or that of Leviathan which God of all His works created hugest that swim the ocean stream. He has a mighty stature so that, when he rises, the flames on both sides of him are driven backward and roll in billows. He carries a ponderous, massy, and large shield on his shoulder. This shield is compared to the moon as seen through a telescope. His spear is so big that the tallest pine tree would be but a wand by comparison, etc. This description may be valid if we consider the epic as showing Satan as a character who "materializes hope, basing his hopes to gain power on the acquisition of land" (Fenton, 2003: n.p.).Combined to these great qualities, Satan was the first of created beings who, for endeavoring to be equal with the highest and to divide the empire of Heaven with the Almighty, was hurled down to Hell. His aim was no less than the throne of the universe. His ambition was the greatest, and his punishment was the greatest, but not so his despair, for his fortitude was as great as his sufferings. Slotkin (2004, as cited in Smilie, 2013) is also of the view that "God's punishments turn their victims into allegories of their own crimes" (114), a notion confirmed by Satan's famous assertion "Myself am Hell" (IV. 75). His strength of mind was matchless as his strength of body. His power of action and of suffering was equal. He was the greatest power that was ever overthrown, with the strongest will left to resist or to endure. He was baffled, not confounded. He still stood like a tower, proudly eminent in shape and gesture. An outcast from Heaven, Hell trembles beneath his feet; Sin and Death are at his heels, and mankind are his easy prey. Milton’s has rightly said in Book I:

All is not lost; the unconquerable will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield,

And what else is not to be overcome. (106-109).

The above words indicate that the sense of Satan’s punishment seems lost in the magnitude of it; the loss of infinite happiness to himself is compensated in thought, by the power of inflicting infinite misery on others. Yet Satan is not the principle of malignity, or of the abstract love of evil, but of the abstract love of power, or pride, of self-will personified. His love of power and contempt for suffering is never once relaxed from the highest pitch of intensity (…) After such a conflict as his, and such a defeat, to retreat in order to rally, to make terms, to exist at all, is something; but he does more than this-he found a new empire in Hell, and from it conquers this new world, wither he bends his undaunted flight. The poet has not in all this given us a mere shadowy outline; the strength is equal to the magnitude of the conception.

Wherever the figure of Satan is introduced, whether he walks or flies, it is illustrated with the most striking and appropriate images: so that we see it always before us, gigantic, irregular, portentous, uneasy, and disturbed- but dazzling in its faded splendor, the clouded ruins of a god. The deformity of Satan is only in the depravity of his will; he has no bodily deformity to excite our loathing or disgust. Milton was too magnanimous and opens an antagonist to support his argument by the bye-tricks of a hump and cloven feet. He relied on the justice of his cause, and did not scruple to give the devil his due. Some persons may think that he has carried his liberality too far, and injured the cause he professed to espouse by making him the chief person in his poem. Considering the nature of his subject, he would be equally in danger of running into this fault, from his faith in religion, and his love of rebellion; and perhaps each of these motives had its full share in determining the choice of his subject.

The Romantic view has persisted since Blake and Shelley emphatically expressed it. The argument is, in brief, that, since God is so unpleasant and Satan is a being of such magnificent vitality. According to Prince (1962), Milton must have "put his heart and soul into the projection of Satan" in spite of his consciously different purpose (3). Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid offers a partial parallel. In the ancient epic the nominal hero seems to be greatly overshadowed by a character with whom we were not intended to sympathize. For many readers, Virgil’s most vital and central figure is Dido. She alone is humanly and tragically real, while Aeneas, the embodiment of Roman virtue, and Jupiter are, like Milton’s Adam and God, pallid, self-righteous, and irritating. To persons of this way of thinking, there seems to be a central discord in both poems, a conflict between the poet’s intention and the result. Both Dido and Satan, it appears, are much too great and attractive for their functional role as villains. It would seem, therefore, that Virgil, and Milton wanted to set forth certain orthodox principles but were carried away unconsciously by their hearts and imaginations (Williamson, 1965). No doubt, artists have sometimes produced effects different from what they intended. But both Virgil and Milton have clearly given us the impression of knowing what they were about. It would for this reason be impossible to believe that these poets should in their major works reveal a fundamental religious and moral contradiction.

Those who glorify Satan regard Milton’s God as an almighty King Charles, a tyrant against whom it was glorious to rebel. In King’s (2000) opinion, this is a wild notion in view of the fact that "Milton conceived of God as the supreme source and symbol of love, mercy, justice, reason, and order" (18). The fact is simply that the modern world has moved quite away from the old assumptions and doctrines of religious, ethical, social, and cosmic order and right reason. Among the general reading public, three out of four persons instinctively sympathize with any character who suffers and rebels, and pay little heed to the moral values and responsibilities involved, because in such cases, the sinner is always right, and authority and rectitude are always wrong. This instinctive response has grown the stronger as religion and morality have been increasingly undermined by romantic naturalism and sentimentalism.

The common fallacy begins with a basic misunderstanding of the beginning of Paradise Lost, namely, Satan’s first speech delivered as he surveys his followers rolling in the fiery gulf, confounded through immortal. "Our response to this speech is prepared for through the picture of the archangel torn by wholly evil passions" claimed Murray (1967: 50). But even if there were no such preparation, the speech itself in every line should arouse horror and repulsion. It is a dramatic revelation of nothing but egoistic pride and passion, of complete spiritual blindness. The "potent victor in his rage" is blind and blasphemous description of God. Nothing that the "victor" can inflict will make Satan "repent or change." This phrase is a rejection of all Christian teaching. Satan’s "injured merit" is a figment of his own egoism, quite the opposite of the real and selfless merit of Christ. "What though the field be lost? / All is not lost…" (I. 99). These famous lines embody, not the spirit of the Puritan armies, but the spirit of Hitler. Satan sees only a conflict between himself, the world conqueror, and a temporarily superior force; he cannot see that it is a conflict between evil and good. "The unconquerable will" is not the religious and naturalistic will to power. "Sturdy of revenge" and "immortal hate" brand themselves. "Courage never to submit or yield" is not true courage; it is the courage of a wolf at bay; it is desperate perseverance in evil. In short, if we think that defiance is splendid regardless of what is defied and, if we read this speech with a thrill of sympathy in reading the speeches of such Shakespearean villains as Iago, Edmund, and Macbeth. According to King (2000), even Walter Landor, a romantic revolutionary, could say: "There is neither truth nor wit is saying that Satan is the hero of the piece unless, as is usually the case in human life, he is the greatest hero who gives the wildest sway to the worst passions" (20).

There is no conflict here (in this first speech of Satan) between Milton’s intention and the result, and there is none later, even when Milton leaves dramatic speech to create its own effect. Those who admire the rebel of the first speech also admire him when he declares:

… Here at least

We shall be free …

To reign is worth ambition though in hell:

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. (I. 258-263)

But to those who understand and realize Milton’s principles, which are everywhere made clear, such words show how far Satan is from understanding true liberty. The tyrant of Milton’s poem, as some have seen, is not God but Satan.

Of course, Satan has heroic qualities. He is brave, strong, generous, loyal, prudent, temperate, and self-sacrificing. And if Satan has heroic virtues, so has Macbeth; both characters possess the emotional advantage of fighting against odds, while the representatives of goodness and right have irresistible power (Williamson, 1965). The situation in fact is essentially the same. Satan is overthrown when Christ is armed with the might of God; Macbeth, who has leagued himself with the powers of Satan, is overthrown by the English army which is, says Malcolm, the instrument of the powers above. Both poets, though imaginatively capable of creating a great villain, are constrained by their traditional faith in Providence and the ultimate triumph of good to bring divine power to the defeat of evil and, compared with the dauntless archangel and the bloody tyrant at bay, Christ and Malcolm may not win much of our sympathy. In a critical essay, Anderson (2010) states that, for the purpose of allowing readers to uphold or reject divine law, Milton includes elements in the poem contrary to the will of God. These elements add to the paradoxical nature of Satan’s portrayal, and "these conflicting aims ultimately lend contrary thematic values to the poem" (198).

It has been the practice of all epic poets to select someone personage, whom they distinguish above all the rest, and make the hero of the tale. This is considered essential to epic composition, and is attended with several advantages. It renders the unity of the subject more sensible, when there is one principal figure, to which as to a center, all the rest refer. In the words of Fuller (1944), "it tends to interest us more in which enterprise which is carried on; and it gives the poet an opportunity of exerting his talents for adorning and displaying one character with peculiar splendor" (15). It has been asked, who then is the hero of Paradise Lost? The Devil, it has been answered by some critics; and, in consequence of this idea, "much ridicule and censure have been thrown upon Milton" (Rudrun, 1966: 25). But they have mistaken that author’s intention, by proceeding upon a supposition that, in the conclusion of the poem, the hero must need be triumphant, whereas Milton followed a different plan and has given a tragic conclusion to a poem otherwise epic in its form. For Adam is undoubtedly his hero; that is, the capital and most interesting figure in his poem.

The figure of Satan has always fascinated readers of Paradise Lost. Some have claimed him as the secret hero of the story. But that is a misunderstanding. An adversary of God had to be massive dramatic stature, and it was a triumph that Milton succeeded in drawing him to such a scale. The misinterpretation springs from the tendency in human nature to romanticize the rebel and the fighter against odds. To understand Satan we must not lose sight of the treachery of his rebellion, or against whom it was directed, and how his frustrated rage expresses itself in a cruel effort to destroy creatures that have not harmed him. His speeches are impressively high-sounding but when examined they prove to be boasts and lies (Broadbent, 1972). Milton has exposed all those false romantic notions of heroism as egotistical magnificence, the idea that heroic energy in a bad cause is admirable.

As stated by Dunbar (1980), Blake made the following observation regarding Paradise Lost: "The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of angels and at liberty when of devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the devil’s party without knowing it" (16). In Blake’s opinion, Satan was a symbol of desire, energy, and the vital creative force which enable man to live most fully. God represented old, life-denying reason and passivity which are only the shadow of desire. Certainly the conventional Heaven and rationalizing God of Paradise Lost are pale and unconvincing when compared to the descriptions of Hell and the tremendous energy and courage of Satan. Satan has been imagined and described in this poem with a wealth of vivid detail which no other character in it can equal. Satan is, by any standards, a character of epic stature.

The reason why Satan is so fully imagined and so fascinating is partly that Milton felt inspired by him and partly that it is always much easier to create evil people that ideally good ones. (Adam is a "mixed" character because though created good, he falls, but though mixed, he too has been imagined with the greatest sensitivity and fullness). Milton wanted to show that evil fascinated our first parents. Eve fell when Satan made disobedience seen attractive to her. Evil can be interesting, can inspire us, and can even have its own perverse beauty. Milton strongly condemned evil but he could yet show it at work in Satan’s temptations, and he found a splendid symbol for it in Pandemonium.

In Books I and II of Paradise Lost, Satan is depicted as heroic, but his is false heroism as it is based on false beliefs and unworthy aims and aspirations. It was Shawcross (1972) who considered Satan’s heroism as "false heroism that has its dramatic side and a certain interest" (34). Satan may be perverse, but his desire for revenge gives him energy, and his energy makes him exciting and interesting. He has all the attributes of an epic hero and all the attraction. At the beginning of the poem he is placed in a dramatic situation. His reactions to this situation have a thrilling effect on us. His speeches are full of stirring, highly emotive words such as "liberty," "oppression," and "freedom." It was partly their deep love of liberty that caused the Romantics like Blake and Shelley to respond so warmly to the character of Satan. Satan is markedly like a romantic hero (such as the characters in Byron’s Oriental tales). But Milton was not a romantic poet, and his treatment of Satan shows the weaknesses of the romantic position. Milton relentlessly exposes the willful, self-centered revengefulness of Satan, though on the surface this attitude of Satan looks like heroism.

Satan, as portrayed by Milton, was a new kind of character in epic poetry. In medieval and Renaissance literature, the devil was usually presented in a monstrous form. Tasso, for example, depicted Satan with blood-shot eyes, blood-dripping jaws, a mouth as high as a whirlpool. A devil of this kind is grotesque, and is intended to frighten the reader. Such a devil cannot convey to the reader the nature of sin or temptation. Sin and temptation are parts of human or almost human form. Milton’s devil is superhuman, but he also shows the full range of human characteristics. In depicting him, Milton departed from the crude tradition of earlier religious epics and seems to have adopted ideas from the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage. As has been stated by Daiches (1976), most of the villains in the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama have enough human characteristics to save them from becoming mere monsters. Milton too humanizes his Satan. Satan’s character has depth. It shows changes of mood: the fluctuations of revengefulness, pride, and despair. It is realistic and near-heroic, whereas earlier devils were merely monsters.

Satan is proud, of course. But beneath this pride lies a tormenting sense of despair. This despair overwhelms him until at last only the desire for revenge reigns supreme in his nature. In Book IV, he experiences "troubled thoughts" for:

Within him Hell

He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell

One step, no more than from himself, can fly

By change of place. Now conscience wakes despair

That slumbered; wakes the bitter memory

Of what he was, what is, and what must be. (20-25).

Satan embodies the powerful idea that Marlowe’s devil Mephistopheles expresses when he speaks to Faustus in the latter’s study: "Myself am Hell, nor am I out of it." Tillyard (1938) commented on this by saying that Satan’s words regarding the change of place, which will never change his mind, suggest his heroic stature and a mind that will not relent, but will follow the plan of revenge till the end, no matter what the results are.

Satan’s outward appearance shows his spiritual decline. In Book IV he has degenerated to such an extent that, when he is discovered tempting Eve, his former companion in Heaven, Gabriel, does not immediately recognize him. In Book XI he returns to Hell after successfully destroying the innocence of Adam and Eve, and is turned into the serpent whose form he had adopted when concealed in Paradise. The passages describing Satan’s appearance are like a chart indicating his moral decline from the imaginative picture of an "Archangel ruined" which exactly describes him at first. These passages emphasize the reality behind Satan’s evasions and pretence. They increase our awareness of the hollowness of Satan’s heroic postures. They also keep before our eyes the deceptiveness which is a great part of the experience and pleasure of sin.

The first two books of Paradise Lost show that Satan mainly as seen through his eyes. Milton’s brief comments on Satan seem out of tune with the stirring quality of Satan’s speeches. These comments seem harsh and unsympathetic but they serve to remind us of the extent to which we are being carried away by Satan’s glamour and rhetoric. We are struck by the splendors of the heroic setting and we are made to experience the pleasurable excitement of coming into contact with sin. In both books I and II we almost forget the distinction between goodness and self-centered energy. Satan makes high-sounding speeches. He dramatizes his situation. He makes himself an epic hero. He deceives his followers by thrilling their imaginations. But, if we analyze his speeches, we find that there are several evasions on Satan’s part and that he makes certain assertions which are unsupported by evidence.

A passage from Book I will serve as an illustration of what has been said above. In his first speech to Beelzebub, Satan gives us an account of the reasons for their failure to win the war in Heaven. In the main part of the speech (Lines 94-124), Satan makes a series of high-sounding assertions and rhetorical gestures. But these assertions have no real basis according to Lewis (2005). He speaks of his "fixed mind" and "high disdain from sense of injured merit" which made him rebellious when God placed the Son in the position which Satan believed should have been assigned to him. This is merely an expression of jealousy, selfishness, and failure to love God. In describing his rebellion he represents God as a tyrannical overlord:

And to the fierce contention brought along

Innumerable force of Spirits armed,

That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,

His utmost power with adverse power opposed

In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,

And shook his throne. (I. 100-105).

These words show not only manipulations of the truth but also self-deception. Book VI makes clear that the battle was never dubious. The idea of God’s throne being shaken shows merely wishful thinking. The lines that follow betray further unsupported assertions:

All is lost-the unconquerable will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield,

And what is else not to be overcome?

That glory never shall his wrath or might

Extort from me. (I. 106-111)

Milton here exposes the emptiness of heroic postures. The word "glory" used by Satan is, for example, utterly meaningless. For God to exact obedience from his own servant could hardly be any significant triumph. Satan’s language would be appropriate only if the struggle had been between equals. His manipulations and abuses of language in Paradise Lost threaten can be viewed, as an attempt on Satan’s part to "take over the power of God’s words" (Forsyth, 2003, as cited in Morrison, 2009. 175), and that he challenges God for control and dominance of the serpent image.

There is in Milton’s Satan a unique combination of epic grandeur and falseness. We become aware of this through Milton’s direct comments on Satan, through his description of Satan, and through the epic similes he employs. Often, of course the description of Satan can be taken at their face value. Also, such similes as those pertaining to his spear and shield are intended merely to produce a sense of size and wonder. But other descriptions and similes serve to build up an implicit sense of danger and menace which is to become explicit afterwards. For instance, there is the comparison of Satan with a sea-monster when he is "prone on the flood" (I. 200-2008). In this comparison, size is the dominant impression. But once the impression of hugeness has been created, the simile extends itself into the picturesque story of the small skiff and the sailor’s delight at finding shelter on a darkened sea. The story here is one of deception. The reader experiences the same feeling as the benighted sailor must have experienced, namely, a feeling of having been deceived. The sailor was not safe but only thought that he was. Similarly, Milton means to say, man is deceived into a sense of security and then ruined by sin. Nicolson (1963) has commented on this point, saying that "the epic simile of Leviathan is a miniature version of Eve’s experience in sinning" (37).

Critics have often refused to pay attention to Milton’s plain words about the character and conduct and moral situation of Satan. They have often preferred to concentrate on Satan’s heroic and romantic aspects, thus missing the truth of Milton’s portraiture of the Devil. Satan is the enemy of God and man. That is his role in the story, and he must be equal to his role as the adversary of the Almighty. He must be shown as possessing the virtues and the powers which are necessary for him to play his part as the Arch-fiend. He must be shown as a towering genius. But we must never be allowed to forget that his genius is devilish. All his virtues are in fact corrupted by his situation and by the uses to which he puts his powers.

The original sin of Satan is the same as man’s-disobedience to God. The motive from which he acted was pride. Many think that Satan’s pride is a reflection of Milton’s own, that Milton unconsciously sympathizes with him, and that Satan therefore is the real hero of the epic. But this is a mistaken approach. Satan’s pride makes him claim equality with God. It is this excessive sense of his own importance that governs all his conduct, and it makes him irretrievably evil. This fact (namely, that Satan is evil) determines his whole situation, his actions, and his words at every stage. He is incapable of repentance. He is a lost soul to "whom hope never comes that comes to all." This fact is summed up at the end of Satan’s opening soliloquy in Book IV: "Evil be thou my good." It is a human instinct to admire the courage of despair and chivalrous devotion to a lost cause. Such courage Satan has, and such chivalry he does possess, and these have always aroused the admiration of readers. To simple-minded moderns, unversed in theological speculations, this admiration seems only right and proper. But Milton knew and repeatedly tells us that all Satan’s words and deeds were perverse and vain. Many insist on regarding Satan as a Byronic hero, or give him all the credit for courage and endurance and leadership which they give to all worthy epic heroes. If we are to understand Milton’s Satan, we must stop regarding him as a great unfortunate. This of course he is, like Macbeth, but like Macbeth he is wicked and unrepentant to the end. This makes him a great tragic figure but not an epic hero. To regard him as the hero of Milton’s epic is to stultify the poet’s whole intention.

Is Satan the hero of Paradise Lost? We might think so had we not read beyond the first book. But to trace his story in the poem to its inglorious close is to dispel the impression. Milton can scarcely intend that we should regard him as ‘hero’-as worthy of sustained admiration-one who passes from the splendor of archangelic being to the state of loathsome reptile. Because Satan’s character is round, it changes significantly from Book I though Book X, in which he makes his final appearance as a miserable creature, suffering from hell, but unable to repent. In Book I he is courageous and heroic with so many grand qualities, but as we see him in Book X, a complete degeneration has taken place in his character, which is illustrated by the different shapes he takes; from a determined hero into a cursed serpent. (www.sparkenotes.com).The hideous metamorphosis in Book X (504-532) is the necessary contrast to those scenes at the beginning of the epic in which the great rebel does appear in heroic grandeur: and we must look on both pictures. If Paradise Lost narrates the fall of man, it narrates too-and no less clearly-the fall of man’s temper. The self-degradation of Satan is complete: outward and inward: of the form and of the spirit: a change-ever for the worse-of shape and mind and emotion.

There is the outward sign. Before his expulsion he is pre-eminently a lustrous being, clothed with ethereal radiance and glory. And afterwards he retains something of this original brightness: howbeit much has passed from him. But gradually what was left decreases in proportion as the evil in him prevails: so that Uriel perceives the foul passions that dim his face (IV. 124-130); while Gabriel marks his "faded splendor wan" (IV. 870). And the Cherub Zephon taunts him therewith (IV. 835-840). Equal is his loss of physical force. On the fields of Heaven he does not fear to meet Michael in combat (VI. 246-260); in the Garden of Eden he doubts himself a match for Adam. In fact he is glad that he has to deal with the woman, not the man (IX. 480-488).

Nor is this because of lost strength alone. He shuns the "higher intellect" of Adam (IX. 483), who would be better able than Eve to see through his arguments and so resist temptation. He is conscious of his own decline in intellect. The strong intelligence which inspires his speeches in the first two books has degenerated, by perverse use, into mere sophistical slyness, a base cunning. He is no more the mighty-minded archangel: he is naught but the serpent-"subtlest beast of all the field" (IX. 86) Lastly, every impulse in him towards good has died out. The element of nobility that redeemed his character at the outset from absolute baseness has been killed. In evil he moves and has his being so that he confesses "all food to me becomes bane"; and in destroying lies his sole delight (IX. 118-119).

Conclusion

In conclusion, we, therefore agree that there has been any conflict here, as is often alleged, between Milton’s intention and the result. Satan is not only a rebel but a tyrant. His words show how far he is from understanding true liberty. He has heroic qualities, as we have already seen. He is brave, strong, generous, loyal, prudent, temperate, and self-sacrificing. But if he has heroic virtues, so has Macbeth; and Macbeth is a villain. The reason why Milton has endowed Satan with these qualities is that an adversary to God had to be of massive dramatic stature and that the power that was to seduce Eve must have an impressive personality and character. The misinterpretation arises from the tendency in human nature to romanticize the rebel and the fighter against odds. Satan’s heroism is false heroism because it is based on false beliefs and unworthy aims. False heroism has its dramatic side, and a certain interest. There is no doubt that Milton has used his poetic and dramatic powers to the full in portraying Satan. But that was natural. Milton felt inspired by Satan, and it is always much easier to create evil characters than ideally good ones. Hardly therefore shall we believe that Milton meant us to see in the fallen and ever falling archangel the hero of Paradise Lost. That position surely belongs to Adam.Who is the real hero of the paradise lost .... ?

Though Satan is described by some as the hero of Paradise Lost, two things argue against Satan as hero, though Milton does make him sympathetic by endowing him with feelings of remorsefulness with pity and compassion for his rebel angels (he is, after all, still an angel). However, though sympathetic, Satan always dispels these higher, selfless qualities with determination to do harm and eventually avenge himself. The two things that argue against Satan as hero are: (1) Milton's description of him in Book I, since the description shows that, although he has brilliant qualities, his spirit and heart are set on intentionally doing harm and leading others (angels who also still have their angelic qualities and callings) to continually do harm. (2) Though only hinted at in early books, The Son of God enters the story later on and is Milton's true hero. This early focus on the antagonist and delayed entrance of the protagonist hero may be confusing to modern readers because, in our experience, the hero normally enters the story on or near page one.