British_Literature
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John Milton's Paradise Lost The Morgan Library & Museum Online Exhibitions -
William Blake's World: "A New Heaven Is Begun" | Introduction September 11, 2009, through January 3, 2010 William Blake (1757–1827) occupies a unique place in the history of Western art. His creativity included both the visual and literary arts. In his lifetime he was best known as an engraver; now he is also recognized for his innovative poetry, printmaking, and painting. Blake's keen perception of the political and social climate found expression throughout his work. His strong sense of independence is evident in the complex mythology that he constructed in response to the age of revolution.
William Blake's World: "A New Heaven Is Begun" The Morgan Library & Museum Online Exhibitions -
GEOFFREY CHAUCER, English poet. The name Chaucer, a French form of the Latin calcearius , a shoemaker, is found in London and the eastern counties as early as the second half of the 13th century. Some of the London Chaucers lived in Cordwainer Street, in the shoemakers' quarter; several of them, however, were vintners, and among others the poet's father John, and probably also his grandfather Robert. Legal pleadings inform us that in December 1324 John Chaucer was not much over twelve years old, and that he was still unmarried in 1328, the year which used to be considered that of Geoffrey's birth. The poet was probably born from eight to twelve years later, since in 1386, when giving evidence in Sir Richard le Scrope's suit against Sir Robert Grosvenor as to the right to bear certain arms, he was set down as "del age de xl ans et plus, armeez par xxvij ans."
The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) [Chaucer Biography]
E211 Guide to Chaucer Pronunciation
E211: British Literature to 1760 Pronouncing Chaucer's English Alfred Drake | Uni Hall 329 | W 3-4 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com Linda Georgianna, UCI
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Questions
Education: Ph.D., University of Michigan B.A., M.A., University of Kentucky Teaching: English Composition I and II British Literature Survey I and II Romantic Literature Victorian Literature Modern British Literature Anglo-Irish Literature Irish Myth and Folklore Teaching and Research Areas: The Invention of Tradition in Browning, Yeats and Pound Robert Browning’s Later Poetry Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations of Pope Thomas Hardy’s Poetry James Joyce Contemporary Irish Poetry The English Novel Irish Myth and FolkloreWitchcraft Documents [15th Century]
Back to Medieval Source Book | ORB Main Page | Links to Other Medieval Sites | The really intense period of persecution of witches did not come until the late 16th and 17th centuries. The basic doctrines of the later witchcraze were laid down in documents of the later medieval period. These documents built on longstanding folk beliefs which were put in vaguely academic dress. There has been much recent discussion of whether witches actually existed. For a long period the whole discussion was seen as a mirror of psychological anxieties.
Baragona's Chaucer Page - Primarily for Students of EN413 Syllabus This website is a link on the Chaucer Metapage.
Chaucer 341 Course Page @ Virginia Military Institute
Pronunciation Help First 18 lines of the General Prologue Whan that Aprille with his shoores soote Wan thot A'prill with his sure-es so-tuh The drought of March hath perced to the roote The drewgt of March hath pear-said to the row-tuh And bathed every vein in swich liquor And ba-thed every vane in sweech lee-coor
The Canterbury Tales Prologue--whan that aprille
It fell about the Martinmas time, And a gay time it was then, When our goodwife got puddings to make, And she ’s boil’d them in the pan. The wind sae cauld blew south and north, And blew into the floor; Quoth our goodman to our goodwife, ‘Gae out and bar the door.’ ‘My hand is in my hussyskap, Goodman, as ye may see, An’ it shou’dna be barr’d this hundred year, It ’s no be barr’d for me.’
Get Up and Bar the Door [image 435x500 pixels]
The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon Society - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com
Beowulf , The Seafarer, and the Wanderer accurately reflect the values and ideals of Anglo-Saxon society by illustrating what happens when the chain of loyalty is broken, when a society is without a lord, and the conflict of Christianity and paganism. Out of the four values most important to the Anglo-Saxons, loyalty was the most important; when men are no longer loyal to their lord their society collapses. Loyalty formed the backbone of Anglo-Saxon society and was the only way in which law and order could be maintained and people protected. Loyalty was also the only way through which men acquired wealth and fame. When a man's oath of loyalty is broken, it is a betrayal to the highest value of the society. This is clearly illustrated in Beowulf .
Anglo-Saxon is the language that was spoken more than a thousand years ago in the southern part of what is now England. It is also called Old English and is the mother tongue from which Modern English is descended. But to speakers of Modern English it looks like an entirely different language. The following example, the first few lines from the epic poem Beowulf , will persuade you that we're not talking Shakespeare here: hwæt we gar-dena in geardagum, þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. oft scyld scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas, syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc þær ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning! (A translation of this is given at the end of this entry.)
h2g2 - Anglo-Saxon (Old English)
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Turning the Pages™, the British Library
Council on Library Resources Commission on Preservation and Access Preliminary Results Electronic Beowulf: British Library The original thousand-year-old manuscript of Beowulfs epic combats has been digitized by high resolution cameras.