Chapter I The Renaissance Period
一、学习目的和要求
通过本章学习，了解文艺复兴运动和人文主义思潮产生的历史，文化背景，认识该时期文学创作的基本特征和基本主张，及其对同时代及后世英国文学乃至文化的影响；了解该时期重要作家的文学生涯，创作思想，艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构，人物刻画，语言风格，思想意义等；同时结合注释，读懂所选作品，了解其思想内容和写作特色，培养理解和欣赏文学作品的能力。
二、考核要求
(一) 文艺复兴时期概述
1. 识记：（1）文艺复兴时期的界定
（2）历史文化背景
2. 领会: （1）文艺复兴运动的意义与影响
（2）文艺复兴时期的文学特点
（3）人文主义的主张及对文学的影响
3. 应用：文艺复兴，人文主义及玄学诗等名词的解释
Brief Introduction to the Renaissance Period
Definitions
of the Literary Terms:
1. The
Renaissance: The Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval to
the modern world. Generally, it refers to the period between the 14th &
17th centuries. It first started in
2. Humanism: Humanism is
the essence of the Renaissance. It sprang from the endeavor to restore a
medieval reverence for the ancient authors and is frequently taken as the
beginning of the Renaissance on its conscious, intellectual side, for the Greek
and Roman civilization was based on such a conception that man is the measure
of all things. Through the new learning, humanists not only saw the arts of
splendor and enlightenment, but the human values represented in the works.
Renaissance humanists found in the classics a justification to exalt human
nature and came to see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of
individual development in the direction of perfections, and that the world they
inhabited was theirs not to despise but to question, explore, and enjoy. Thus,
by emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present
life, they voiced their beliefs that man did not only have the right to enjoy
the beauty of this life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform
wonders. Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best
representatives of the English humanists.
3.
Spenserian stanza:
Spenserian stanza was invented by Edmund Spenser. It is a stanza of nine lines,
with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter & the last line in iambic
hexameter, rhyming ababbcbcc.
4.
Metaphysical poetry: The term "metaphysical poetry" is
commonly used to name the work of the 17th century writers who wrote under the
influence of John Donne. With a rebellious spirit, the metaphysical poets tried
to break away from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan love poetry. The
diction is simple as compared with that of the Elizabethan or the Neoclassic
periods, and echoes the words and cadences of common speech. The imagery in
drawn from the actual life. The form is frequently that of an argument with the
poet's beloved, with God, or with himself.
5. The Renaissance
hero: A Renaissance hero refers to one created by Christopher Marlowe
in his drama. Such a hero is always individualistic and full of ambition,
facing bravely the challenge from both gods and men. He embodies Marlowe's humanistic
ides of human dignity and capacity. Different from the tragic hero in medieval
plays, who seeks the way to heaven through salvation and god's will, he is
against conventional morality and contrives to obtain heaven on earth through
his own efforts. With the endless aspiration for power, knowledge, and glory,
the hero interprets the true Renaissance spirit. Both Tamburlaine
and Faustus are typical in possessing such a spirit.
（二） 该时期的重要作家
1.一般识记：重要作家的文学生涯
2.识记：重要作品及主要内容
3.领会：重要作家的创作思想，艺术特色及其代表作品的主题结构，人物塑造，语言风格，艺术手法，社会意义等。
4.应用：（1）莎士比亚和邓恩诗歌的主题，意象
（2）喜剧《威尼斯商人》的主题和主要人物性格分析
（3）哈姆雷特的性格分析
（4）史诗《失乐园》的结构，人物性格，语言特点等的分析
1. 一般识记
Brief
Introduction to the Author
English poet，born in
London, England, about 1552,and died in London, Jan 13, 1599.
2. 识记His Major Works
Spenser's most important work & masterpiece is The Faerie Queene, a great poem of its age. A complex moral,
religious, & political allegory, it is also an epic that exalts Queen
Elizabeth Ⅰ& the English
nation. According to Spenser's own explanation, his principal intention is to
present through a "historical poem" the example of a perfect
gentleman: "to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous &
gentle discipline." Its principal hero is the Arthur of medieval legend.
The six books of the poem illustrate the nature of particular virtues, such as,
temperance & justice. Other major works of Spenser are The Shepheardes Calender(1579),
a poem consisting of 12 eclogues-corresponding to the 12 months of the year;
Epithalamion (1595), a poem expressing the deep personal feelings
occasioned by the poets second marriage; Amoretti (1595), a series of
sonnets.
3. 领会His Influence
1) Main qualities of
Spenser's poetry
①a perfect melody
②a rare sense of beauty
③a splendid imagination
④a lofty moral purity & seriousness
⑤a dedicated idealism
2) In his writing,
Spenser drew on the conventions & thought of Classical, medieval, &
Renaissance literature. However, he added to his fusion of these diverse
elements much that was original, & his works inspired many later English
poets. He created a new stanza, called the Spenserian stanza, which is well
suited to narrative verse. His skills in writing melodious English verse &
his combination of emotion, erudition, & spiritual vision have won him the
admiration of generations of English poets. It is his idealism, his love of
beauty, &his exquisite melody that make him known as "the poets'
poet."
4. 应用
The Faerie Queene:
1) It is a long,
allegorical poem. In the poem, Spenser dramatized political, religious, &
moral themes by personifying them, or making them characters.
2)Plot: The story,
which is set against a background of Arthur & medieval legend, deals with
the adventures of six knights of the court of the fairy queen named Gloriana, who represents Queen Elizabeth Ⅰ of English.
The faerie Queen was left
unfinished at Spenser's death. It was originally planned as a 12-book poem. But
only 6 books were completed. The poem is particularly admired for the melodic
beauty of its language & for its rich content of philosophical &
mythological material presented in the form of vivid narratives.
1. 一般识记
Brief
Introduction
English dramatist &
poet,born in Canterbury, England, Feb, 6,1567, died
in Deptford, England, May 30, 1593. Marlowe was the first great English
Dramatist. He brought to the English stage a new concept of tragedy, one in
which the drama centers around the struggles of a man overwhelmed by his
passions & ambitions.
2. 识记
His Major
Works
His most famous
tragedies are Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, Tamburlaine
& Edward Ⅱ. In his plays, Marlowe
used blank verse, which he molded into a superb instrument for expressing
intense emotions. After his development of blank verse it became the standard
medium for English dramatic & epic poetry. His non-dramatic poetry includes
Hero & Leander, "the Passionate shepherd to His love,"
& a verse translation of Ovid's Amores.
Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (about 1589), generally considered his best
play, was based on a real Dr. Faustus, who was later associated with a medieval
legend of a man selling his soul to the devil. The play's dominant moral is
human rather than religious. It celebrates the human passion for knowledge,
power & happiness; it also reveals man's frustration in realizing the high
aspirations in a hostile moral order. The last scene, in which Faustus
confronts his doom, brilliantly renders the fear & agony of a condemned
man.
The Jew of
Tamburlaine is a play
about an ambitious & pitiless Tartar conqueror in the fourteenth century
who rose from a shepherd to an overpowering King. By depicting a great hero
with high ambition & sheer brutal force in conquering one enemy after
another, Marlowe voiced the supreme desire of the man of the Renaissance for
infinite power & authority.
3. 领会His Achievements &
Influence
Achievements: Marlowe's
greatest achievement lies in that he perfected the blank verse & made it the
principal medium of English drama.
His second achievement
is his creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama.
The theme of his works is the praise of the Renaissance spirit.
His
influence: A man of wide learning, Marlowe was one of the extra ordinary
poets & playwrights of his time. "Marlowe's mighty line," as Ben Jonson called his blank verse, was one of the most
important contributions to the art of English literature.
4. 应用Dr. Faustus
The selection of ActⅠfrom
Dr. Faustus is mainly about Faustus is showing his great ambition, that
is, if he had many souls, he would give them all to the Devil so that he could
control the world. In portraying Faustus, a more introspective &
philosophical figure than Tamburlaine, Marlowe
praises his soaring aspiration for knowledge while warning against the sin of
pride since Faustus's downfall was caused by his
despair in God & trust in Devil.
1. 一般识记Brief Introduction
William Shakespeare was
the greatest writer of plays who ever lived. His friend & fellow playwright
Ben Jonson said that Shakespeare was "not of an
age but for all time." The 18th-century English essayist Samuel Johnson
described his work as "the mirror of life." The 19th-century English
poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge spoke of "myriad-minded Shakespeare."
The 20th-century English dramatist George Bernard Shaw stressed his
"enormous power over language."
2. 识记His Life & Career
The exact date of
Shakespeare's birth is not known, but his baptism was recorded on April 26,
1564, in the parish register of Holy Trinity Church at Stratford-on-Avon. Since
it was customary to baptize infants within two or three days of birth, April 23
is regarded as a reasonable birth date. It is also the date on which he died in
1616. Generally, his dramatic career is divided into 4 periods.
The First Period
(1590-1594)-five historical plays & four comedies:
Henry Ⅵ, part Ⅰ (1590)
Henry Ⅵ, part Ⅱ (1590)
Henry Ⅵ, part Ⅲ (1591)
Richard Ⅲ (1592)
Titus
Andronicus (1593)
The Comedy
of Errors (1592)
The Two
Gentlemen of Verona (1594)
The Taming
of the Shrew (1593)
Love's
Labor's Lost (1594)
The Second Period
(1595-1600)-five historical plays, six comedies & two tragedies:
Richard Ⅱ (1595)
King John
(1596)
Henry Ⅳ, Part Ⅰ & Part Ⅱ(1597)
Henry V
(1598)
A Midsummer
Night's Dream (1595)
The Merchant
of Venice (1596)
Much Ado
About Nothing (1598)
As You Like
It (1599)
Twelfth
Night (1600)
The Merry
Wives of Winsor (1598)
Romeo &
Juliet (1595)
Julius
Caesar (1599)
The Third Period
(1601-1609)-Seven tragedies & two dark comedies:
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
Antony & Cleopatra
Troilus
& Cressida
Coriolonus
All's Well
That Ends Well
Measure for
Measure
The Fourth Period
(1609-1612)-Romantic tragic-comedies & two plays:
Pericles
Cymbeline
The Winte's Tale
The Tempest
Henry Ⅷ
The Two
Noble Kinsmen
Shakespeare's authentic
non-dramatic poetry consists of two long narrative poems: Venus & Adonis
& The Rape of Lucrece & his sequence of
154 sonnets.
3. 领会His Influence
1)
Contributions to language
Many words and commonly used phrases have been added to everyday English
vocabulary through their appearance in Shakespeare's works.
2) Effects
on literature
Shakespeare's plays & poetry have had a pervasive influence on world
literature. Most of the great literary figures of the world have been inspired
& stimulated by his achievement.
On the whole, however, Shakespeare's contribution has been to the language
& spirit of later writing rather than to its form. References &
parallels to Shakespeare's phraseology have occurred in literature since the
16th century.
Perhaps the greatest inspiration to subsequent authors has been Shakespeare's
capacity to depict life in all its complexity & to illuminate man's
character & destiny.
4. 领会 His Major Works
1) Drama
A. The
Merchant of
Theme: to praise the friendship between Antonio & Bassanio,
to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit & loyalty, & to
expose the insatiable greed & brutality of the Jew.
Plot: The play has a double plot (P39)
B. Hamlet
Hamlet is generally regarded as Shakespeare's most popular play on the stage,
for it has the qualities of a "blood-and-thunder" thriller & a
philosophical exploration of life & death. And the timeless appeal of this
mighty drama lies in its combination of intrigue, emotional conflict &
searching philosophic melancholy.
The play opens with
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, appearing in a mood of world-weariness occasioned by
his father's recent death & by his mother's hasty remarriage with Claudius,
his father's brother. While encountering his father's ghost, Hamlet is informed
that Claudius has murdered his father & then taken over both his father's
throne & widow. This, Hamlet, is urged by the ghost to seek revenge for his
father's "foul & most unnatural murder." Trapped in a nightmare
world of spying, testing & plotting, & apparently bearing the
intolerable burden of the duty to revenge his father's death, Hamlet is obliged
to inhabit a shadow world, to live suspended between fact & fiction,
language & action. His life is one of constant role-playing, examining the
nature of action only to deny its possibility, for he is too sophisticated to
degrade his nature to the conventional role of a stage revenger.
By characterizing Hamlet, Shakespeare successfully makes a philosophical
exploration of life & death.
C. The
Tempest
The Tempest, an elaborate & fantastic story, is known as the best of
his final romances. The characters are rather allegorical & the subject
full of suggestion. The humanly impossible events can be seen occurring
everywhere, in the play. The playwright resorts to the supernatural atmosphere
& to the dreams to solve the conflict. To Shakespeare, the whole life is no
more than a dream. Thus, The Tempest is a typical example of his pessimistic
view towards human life & society in his late years.
2) Poems
A. Sonnets
The first 126 sonnets
are apparently addressed to a handsome young nobleman, presumably the author's
patron. The poems express the writer's selfless but not entirely uncritical
devotion to the young man.
Twenty of the sonnets
are about a young woman characterized as a " dark lady," whom the
poet distrust but cannot resist. The poems addressed directly to her are
perhaps the most remarkable in the sequence because their unsentimental tone is
unlike that of traditional love sonnets.
A philosophical theme
that appears in many of the sonnets is that of time as the destroyer of all
mortal things. Also expressed in the poems is the author's disillusionment with
the false ness of earthly life.
The form of the poems
is the English Variation of the traditional Italian, or Petrarchan,
sonnet, Shakespeare's sonnets have three quatrains, or groups of four lines,
& a final couplet. Their rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
A theme is developed & elaborated in the quatrains, & a concluding thought
is presented in the couplet.
B. Other
poems
Venus &
Adonis, in which Shakespeare made his first bid for literary patronage
& fame, is a conventional Elizabethan narrative poem. Its mythological
story, taken from Ovids Metamorphoses, tells of the
passionate love goddess who woos the reluctant youth Adonis.
The Rape of Lucrece, another narrative of
passion, is based on the semi historical story of the rape of a chaste Roman
matron by Tarquin, son of the king of
5. 领会His Major Theme
1) Shakespeare is
against religious persecution & racial discrimination, against social
inequality & the corrupting influence of gold & money.
2) He was a humanist of
the time & accepted the Renaissance views on literature.
6. 领会His Literary
Achievements
1)
Characterization
His major characters
are neither merely individual ones nor type ones; they are individuals
representing certain types. Each character has his or her own personalities;
meanwhile, they may share features with others. The soliloquies in his plays
fully reveal the inner conflict of his characters. Shakespeare also portrays
his characters in pairs. Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to
his characters.
The women in the plays
are vivid creations, each differing from the others. Shakespeare was fond of
portraying "mocking wenches," such as Kate of the Taming of the
Shrew, Rosaline of Love's Labor's Lost, & Beatrice of Much Ado
About Nothing, but he was equally adept at creating gentle & innocent
women, such as Ophelia in Hamlet, Desdemona in Othello, & Cordelia in King Lear. His female characters also
include the treacherous Goneril & Regan, the
iron-willed Lady Macbeth, the witty & resourceful Portia, the tender &
loyal Juliet, & the alluring Cleopatra.
2) Plot
Construction
Shakespeare's plays are
well known for their adroit plot construction. He seldom invents his own plots;
instead, he borrows them from some old plays or storybooks, or from ancient
Greek & Roman sources. There are usually several threads running through
the play, thus providing the story with suspense & apprehension.
3) Language
In
Shakespeare's time, English grammar & spelling were not yet formalized, so
Shakespeare could freely inter charge the various parts of speech, using nouns
as adjectives or verbs, adjectives as adverbs, & pronouns as nouns. Such
freedom gave his language an extraordinary flexibility, which enabled him to
express his thoughts as easily in poetry as in prose.
Most of Shakespeare's
dramatic poetry is in blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter. His bland
verse is especially beautiful & mighty. He has an amazing wealth of
vocabulary & idiom. His coinage of new words & distortion of the
meaning of the old ones also create striking effects on the reader.
7. 应用Selected Readings
1) Sonnet 18
Theme: a profound
meditation on the destructive power of time & the eternal beauty brought
forth by poetry to the one he loves.
Imagery: a summer's
day-youth
the eye of heaven-the
sun
2) The
Merchant of Venice
Theme: To praise the
friendship between Antonio & Bassanio, to
idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit & loyalty, & to
expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew.
3) Hamlet
This is one part of
Hamlet's most famous monologue. Hamlet, facing the dilemma of action &
mind, is hesitating whether he should revenge for his father, which may bring
him death, or he should suffer & hide his hatred for his uncle in his deep
heart, which may secure his life.
1. 一般识记Brief Introduction
English Renaissance
philosopher, essayist, statesman, born in London, England, Jan 22,1561 and died
in London, April 9 1626.
One of the outstanding
figures of the Renaissance, Bacon made important contributions to several fields.
His chief interest were science philosophy, but he was also a distinguished man
of letters & held several high governmental positions during the reign of
king JamesⅠ. He was one of the
earliest & most eloquent spokesmen for experimental science. He lays the
foundation for modern science with his insistence on scientific way of thinking
& fresh observation rather than authority as a basis for obtaining
knowledge.
2. 识记His works
As an author, Bacon is
most famous for his Essays, which deal with such subjects as honor, friendship,
love, & riches. Written in a terse, polished style, with many learned
allusions & metaphors, the essays rank with the finest in English
literature.
Bacon's other important
literary works include The New Atlantis, an account of an ideal society
& an imaginary voyage, & The History of the Reign of King Henry Ⅶ, a perceptive psychological study of Henry's
mind & characters.
His works can be
divided into three groups：
First group: The
Advancement of Learning (1605)
Novum Organum (1620)
(Latin version)
Second group: Essays
Apophthagmes New & Old (1605)
The History
of the Reign of Henry Ⅶ (1622)
The New
Atlantis (unfinished)
Third group: Maxims
of Law
The Learned
Reading upon the
Stature of
Uses (1642)
3. 领会 His Major Works
Essays
The term
"essay" was borrowed from Montaigne's Essais, which appeared from 1580 to 1588. Bacon learned
from Montaigne, the first great modern essayist, the
economic & flexible way of writing. However, as a practical &
prudential man, he intends to write for the ambitious Elizabethan &
Jacobean youth of his class & tell them how to be efficient & make
their way in public life.
Bacon's essays are famous for their brevity, compactness & powerfulness.
The essays are well arranged & enriched by Biblical allusions, Metaphors
& cadence.
4. 领会His achievements
As a literary man, Bacon is the first English essayist, whose Essays won him a
high place in the history of English literature.
As a philosopher, he is the founder of English materialistic philosophy. He
advocates the inductive method of reasoning. In his famous plea for progress,
Bacon demands three things: 1) the free investigation of nature, 2) the
discovery of facts instead of the blind belief in theories 3) the verification
of results by experiment rather than by argument. In our day, these are the ABC
of science, but in Bacon's time they were revolutionary, Marx called him
"the real father of English materialism & experimental science of
modern times in general."
5. 应用 Of Studies
Of Studies is the most
popular of Bacon's 58 essays. It analyzes what studies chiefly serve for, the
different ways adopted by different people to pursue studies, & how studies
exert influence over human character. Forceful & persuasive, compact &
precise, Of Studies reveals to us Bacon's mature attitude towards
learning. Bacon's language is neat, priest, & weighty. It is some what
affected, like the water in the reservoir, restricted & confined.
1.一般识记 Donne & the
Metaphysical Poetry
John Donne: English
poet & Clergyman, born in London, England, 1572, and died in London, Mar.
31 1631. Donne is the leading figure of the 17th-century "metaphysical
school." His poems give a more inherently theatrical impression by
exhibiting a seemingly unfocused diversity of experiences & attitudes,
& a free range of feelings & attitudes, & a free range of feelings
& moods. The mode is dynamic rather than static, with ingenuity of speech,
vividness of imagery & vitality of rhythms, which show a notable contrast
to the other Elizabethan lyric poems, which are pure, serene, tuneful, &
smooth running. The most striking feature of Donne's poetry is precisely its
tang of reality, in the sense that it seems to reflect life in a real rather
than a poetical world. "Metaphysical Poetry" is commonly used to name
the work of the 17th-century writers who wrote under the influence of John
Donne. With a rebellions spirit, the metaphysical poets tried to break away
from the conventional fashion of the Elizabethan Love poetry. The diction is
simple as compared with echoes the words & cadences of common speech. The
imagery is drawn from the actual life. The form is frequently that of an
argument with the poet's beloved, with God, or with himself. George Herbert,
Andrew Marvell, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan,
Abraham Cowley, & Thomas Traherne are also
considered to be metaphysical poets. They wrote on a variety of religious &
secular themes, & to express their ideas, they used startling, highly
imaginative comparisons known as conceits. A conceit is a combination of
thoughts or images that are not usually associated with one another.
The finest works of the
metaphysical poets combine intellectual subtlety with great emotional power.
The poems reflect a broad knowledge of science, art, & other branches of
learning. At the same time, metaphysical poems express an intense awareness of
common human feelings & experiences, such as jealousy, the loss of
religious faith, the complexities of love & the fear of death. Although the
imagery of metaphysical poetry is frequently strained, the language is often as
natural & direct as ordinary speech.
2识记His major works
In his life, Donne
wrote a large number of poems & prose works, His poems are especially
admired for their unique combination of passionate feeling & intellectual
wit. Many of his poems rank with the finest in the English language. Among his
most famous works are the poems Death Be Not Proud, "Go & Catch
a Falling Star," The Ecstacy, & A
Valediction Forbidding Mourning.
Most of The Elegies
& Satires & a good many of The Songs & Sonnets were written in the
early period. He wrote prose works mainly in the later period. His sermons,
which are very famous, reveal his spiritual devotion to God as a passionate
preacher.
His works are classified as songs & sonnets, epistles, elegies, &
satires. When read in chronological order, the poems reveal his development
from "Gay Jack Donne," a reckless & cynical youth, to Dean John
Donne, a man devoted to God.
Donne's great prose
works are his sermons, which are both rich & imaginative, exhibiting the
same kind of physical vigor & scholastic complexity as his poetry. For
example, the well-known Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1623-1624).
Written when he was seriously ill, they contain the famous passage: "No
Man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a
part of the main… Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in
mankind, & therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls
for thee."
3. 领会 Characteristics of His
Poems
Donne's poetry is
subtle, complex, & often startling. He made expert use of such poetic
techniques as the paradox, a statement that seems contradictory but actually
contains truth, & the conceit, a pertinent comparison between 2 apparently
dissimilar things.
His early Lyrics most
exist in The Songs & Sonnets. Love is the basic theme. Donne holds
that the nature of love is the union of soul & body. The operations of the
soul depend on the body. Idealism & cynicism about love coexist in Donne's
love poetry.
As a religious poet,
his chief power is shown in the Holy Sonnets & the last hymns.
In his poems, Donne
frequently applies conceits, i.e. extended metaphors involving dramatic
contrasts. His poetry involves a certain kind of argument, sometimes in rigid
syllogistic form. With the brief, simple language, the argument is continuous
throughout the poem.
4. 应用Selected
Readings
1) Death
Be Not Proud, one of Donne's Holy Sonnets, is an almost
Startling put-down of poor death. Staunchly Christian in its pare expectation
of the resurrection, Donne's poem personifies death as an adversary swollen
with false pride & unworthy of being called "mighty &
dreadful." Donne gives various reasons in accusing death of being little
more than a slave bossed about by fate, chance, kings & desperate men-a
craven thing that keeps bad company, such as poison, was & sickness.
Finally, Donne taunts death with a paradox: "death, thou shalt die."
The sonnet is written
in the strict Petrarchan pattern. It reveals the
poet's belief in life after death: death is eternal.
2) The
Sun Rising
The persona
apostrophizes the sun as " unruly" because the sun enters the lovers'
secret room without their approval. The speaker criticizes the sun pays too
much attention to such things as sex & that he should not be behaving so
tediously as to stick to his rule & enter without thinking twice into such
a place as lovers dwell.
1.一般识记 Brief Introduction
John Milton, English poet & prose
writer, born in London, England, Dec. 9, 1608, and died in London, Nov 8, 1674.
Milton was one of the greatest poets in the English
language & one of the towering figures in all literature. His masterpiece, Paradise
Lost, is considered the unsurpassed English epic poem. It is a powerfully
imaginative & dramatic work, based in part on the Biblical story of the
temptation & fall of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden. Milton, a deeply
religious man, wrote the epic " to justify the ways of God to men."
He is also famous for his graceful lyric poems, such as Lycidas,
L'Allegro, & for his intensely moving
sonnets.
2. 识记His literary achievements
Milton's literary achievements can
be divided into three groups: the early poetic works, the middle prose
pamphlets & the last great poems.
1) Education & Early Poetry
Milton's education would
ordinarily have led him to a post in the Church of England. He was a Puritan,
however, & his religious vies conflicted with those of the Church. After
his 7 years at
2) Middle Period & Prose Pamphlets
In 1638, Milton began a 15-month tour of the
Continent, where he met the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei.
Upon his return to
3) Later Years & Major Poetry
After the Restoration in 1660, Milton was imprisoned.
His release was brought about mainly through the efforts of his friends,
notably the poet Andrew Marwell, After that time he
devoted himself to his 3 major poetical works: Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise
Regained (1671), & Samson Agonistes (1671).
Among the three, the first is the greatest, indeed the only generally
acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf; & the last one is
the most perfect example of the verse drama after the Greek style in English.
3.领会His Major Works
1) Lycidas
It is a collection of elegies dedicated to Edward
king, a fellow undergraduate of Milton's at
Cambridge, who was drowned in the Irish Sea. The poem begins with grief & a
feeling of immaturity; then the grief is deepened by the sense of irrecoverable
loss in the silencing of a young poet. With this bitter sense of loss,
2) Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost, an epic poem in 12
books, written in blank verse, represents the fullest expression of Milton's genius. The poem vividly portrays the story of
Satan's rebellion against God & his tempting of Adam & Eve to eat the
fruit of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The theme is the "Fall of
Man," i.e. man's disobedience & the loss of
Working through the tradition of a Christian humanism,
3) Paradise Regained
Milton followed Paradise Lost with a shorter &
less brilliant religious religious epic, Paradise
Regained, which describes the New Testament story of Christ's victory over
Satan in the wilderness.
4) Samson Agonistes
Milton's last important work was
the magnificent poetic drama Samson Agonistes,
which presents the Biblical story of Samson in the form of a Greek tragedy. The
blind & suffering Samson is strongly reminiscent of Milton himself.
The theme of Samson Agonistes
is a more vital & personal one. The picture of
6. 应用Selected Reading
Analyze Satan, the hero in John Milton's
Paradise Lost.
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