Livro Proprietário -Literatura Inglesa I

LITERATURA INGLESA I

autor

HÉLCIO DE PÁDUA LANZONI

1ª edição SESES rio de janeiro  2015

Conselho editorial  luis claudio dallier; roberto paes; gladis linhares; karen bortoloti; marilda franco de moura Autor do original  hélcio lanzoni Projeto editorial  roberto paes Coordenação de produção  gladis linhares Coordenação de produção EaD  karen fernanda bortoloti Projeto gráfico  paulo vitor bastos Diagramação  bfs media Revisão linguística  hélcio lanzoni Imagem de capa  daniel rajszczak | dreamstime.com

Todos os direitos reservados. Nenhuma parte desta obra pode ser reproduzida ou transmitida por quaisquer meios (eletrônico ou mecânico, incluindo fotocópia e gravação) ou arquivada em qualquer sistema ou banco de dados sem permissão escrita da Editora. Copyright seses, 2015.

Dados Internacionais de Catalogação na Publicação (cip) L297l Lanzoni, Hélcio

Literatura inglesa I / Hélcio Lanzoni.



Rio de Janeiro : SESES, 2015.



88 p. : il.



isbn: 978-85-60923-35-9



1. Literatura inglesa. 2. Língua inglesa. 3. Old english. 4. Middle English.



I. SESES. II. Estácio. cdd 820

Diretoria de Ensino — Fábrica de Conhecimento Rua do Bispo, 83, bloco F, Campus João Uchôa Rio Comprido — Rio de Janeiro — rj — cep 20261-063

Sumário Prefácio 7 1. A Formação do Povo Inglês e da Língua Inglesa. As Lendas Celtas

9

Objectives 10 1.1  Britain Peoples - the origin 11 1.1.1  First peoples 12 1.1.2  The origins of English language. 13 1.1.3  Celtic Britain 15 1.1.4  Druids, War and Mythology 18 1.1.5  Invasion of Britain by the Romans 20 1.1.6  Rome in Need of a Capital in Britain 22 1.1.7  Roman Relations with the Druids 23 1.1.8  Modern Druidism 23 Reflection 24 Activities 24 References 25

2. Beowulf e a Literatura Anglo-Saxonica

27

Objectives 28 2.1  Anglo-Saxon Literature 29 2.1.1  Pagan Epic Poetry - Beowulf: A Literary Work. 29 2.1.2  The Plot and Structure of the Poem. 30 2.1.3  Features and Major Characters Analysis 31 2.1.4  Old English 33 2.1.5  Heroic and Historical Elements 33 2.1.6  Pagan and Christian Elements 35

2.1.7  Old English Religious Poetry 37 2.1.8  Old English Literature: some characteristics 37 Reflection 38 Activities 38 References 38

3. Literatura Inglesa Medieval

41

Objectives 42 3.1  Middle Ages: society, culture, language 43 3.1.1  Life in the Middle Ages 44 3.1.2  Middle English 45 3.2  Chaucer and the ‘Canterbury Tales’ 46 3.2.1  The Canterbury Tales 46 3.2.2  Chivalric Code 49 3.3  Chaucer's Knight 50 3.3.1  Chaucer's Knight's Tale 51 3.3.2  Characters Analysis 53 Reflection 54 Activities 55 References 55

4. Rei Arthur – História e Lenda.

57

Objectives 58 4.1  King Arthur- Historical aspects 59 4.1.1  The Enthroned Arthur 60 4.1.2  Was Lancelot the greatest Knight? 61 4.1.3  Was Guinevere an adulteress or not? 61 4.1.4  Did Percivale see the Grail or not? 62 4.2  The Knights 64 4.2.1  King Arthur gives the rules to the Knights 64

4.2.2  The Symbol of the Knights 65 4.3  Medieval Authors- Mallory and the Legend of Arthur 65 Reflection 70 Activities 70 References 70

5. O Renascimento e Shakespeare

71

Objectives 72 5.1  The Tudor and the Elisabethan Age 73 5.1.1  The Renaissance 74 5.1.2  Thomas More 74 5.2  Christopher Marlowe 76 5.3  Shakespeare’s life and career 78 5.3.1  Shakespeare’s Globe Theater 80 5.3.2  Shakespeare’s works 81 Reflection 84 Activities 84 References 85

Answer key

86

Prefácio Prezados(as) alunos(as), A literatura inglesa refere-se à literatura escrita em inglês por autores tanto da Inglaterra como de outros países. Como um dos elementos facilitadores da expansão da literatura inglesa, podemos citar o desenvolvimento histórico da arte de navegação, que na Inglaterra adquiriu status de prioridade estratégica, ampliando assim o poder político, econômico e cultural do país e sua presença e influência no mundo. Na literatura inglesa há diversos autores audaciosos, criativos e geniais que souberam cristalizar em suas obras elementos e sentimentos originados nas lendas e no folclore, nos sentimentos das pessoas simples e desconhecidas e nos personagens históricos, reconhecidos mundialmente. É imprescindível entender algumas características desta literatura para que possamos entender sua complexidade e formas. Se considerarmos o clima da Inglaterra, por exemplo, podemos entender o motivo dos poetas daquele país se referirem à neve, tempo nublado e cinzento e árvores nuas como sinais pesados de solidão e tristeza. Um nativo de um país cujo clima é majoritariamente quente precisa entender que o clima inglês influencia diretamente na personalidade daquele povo, o que fica evidente em sua forma de expressar sua arte, comportamento e literatura. Alguns, sofisticados, outros mais populares, diversos autoresajudaram a compor a diversidade do mosaico de textos que formam a Literatura de Língua inglesa. Bons estudos!

7

1 A Formação do Povo Inglês e da Língua Inglesa. As Lendas Celtas

A língua inglesa teve um longo período de evolução e transformação que perdurou por muitos séculos. Neste livro nós vamos discutir como as transformações da língua inglesa afetaram a literatura, uma vez que essas transformações refletem a vida e aspectos culturais da sociedade. Neste capítulo, o foco é na história da língua inglesa e todas as transformações que ocorreram por um longo período de tempo.

OBJECTIVES Para conhecer a literatura de um povo é importante conhecer também seu idioma e sua história. Só assim é possível compreender as fases e as razões que levaram determinados autores a escrever o que escreveram e da forma que escreveram. Você sabe quais as origens da língua inglesa? Você sabe quais línguas existiam antes na antiga Bretanha antes do inglês? Estas e outras questões serão respondidas ao longo do livro.

10 •

capítulo 1

1.1  Britain Peoples - the origin Archaeology suggests that for over 10,000 years people have been moving inside Britain and outside Britain, sometimes in great numbers. Therefore, the history of early Britain has traditionally been told considering the waves of invaders to the island. Britain' had no political meaning and no cultural identity and was just a geographical subject, before Roman times.Arguably this remained generally true until the 17th century, when James I of England and VI of Scotland sought to establish a pan-British monarchy. The characteristic of the island has changed, but slowly and far less completely than presumed by the old 'invasion model', and the idea of large-scale migrations, once the key explanation for change in early Britain has been widely degraded. Substantial genetic continuity of the population does not avoid profound changes in identity and culture. It is quite common to observe important cultural change, including the adoption of entire new identities, with little or no biological change to a population. The ‘British’ identity was only created in 1707 with the Union of England, Wales and Scotland, but millions of people since Roman times have thought of themselves as 'British', for example. Along the history the island contains multicultural groups and identities. Many of these groups looked beyond the seas, for their closest connections - they did not necessarily connect naturally with the other islanders, many of whom were more difficult to reach than their neighbors in Ireland or continental Europe. Looking at to Britain in isolation does not make any sense; we have to consider Britain with Ireland as part of the wider 'Atlantic Archipelago', closer to continental Europe and part of the North Sea world, like Scandinavia.

capítulo 1

• 11

©© WIKIMEDIA.ORG

1.1.1  First peoples

The first people from Britain, called 'Britons' actually were an ethnically mixed group. From the arrival of the first hunter-gatherers humans - following the retreating ice of the Ice Age northwards – to the beginning of recorded history is a period of about 100 centuries, or 400 generations. This is a long period of time, and we know very little about what happened through those years; it is hard even to answer completely the question, 'Who were the early peoples of Britain, or the called ‘Britons’?', because they did not leave any accounts of themselves.

12 •

capítulo 1

But it is possible to say that biologically they were part of the Caucasian population of Europe. The regional physical stereotypes familiar to us today, a standard widely thought as a result of the post-Roman Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions - red-headed people in Scotland, small, dark-haired folks in Wales and blondes in southern England – already existed in Roman times. So far as they represent reality, they perhaps attest the post-Ice Age colonization of Britain, or the first farmers of 6,000 years ago. Since the early stage, the constraints and opportunities of the multiple environments of the islands of Britain motivated a great regional diversity of culture. During prehistoric times there were plenty of small-scale societies, and many petty 'tribal' identities, typically lasting perhaps no more than a few generations before dividing, merging or becoming obliterated. These groups were in contact and discordance with their neighbors, and sometimes with more distant groups – the aspect of exotic imported objects testifies exchanges, alliances, relationships, and wars.

1.1.2  The origins of English language. We can divide historically the English language into three main periods: Old English (approximately 450 to 1100 AD), Middle English (1100 to 1500 AD) and Modern English (from 1500 on). Along the centuries, several other languages have influenced the English language. In the 5th Century AD Germanic tribes (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes) arrived in the British Isles from several regions of northwest Germany as well as Denmark. These tribes were warlike1 and banned most of the original, Celticspeaking population from England into Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. Some of these people migrated to the Brittany Coast of France and their descendants still speak the Celtic Language today. The Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different Germanic dialects over the years. This group of dialects created what linguists named Old English or Anglo-Saxon. The word "English" actually was in Old English "Englisc", and that originates from the name of the Angles. The Angles were named after Engle, their land of origin. Britain belonged to the Roman Empire for above 400 years and Latin was brought into Britain by the Romans. Many words from this period were coined2 1  Warlike: bélico 2  Coined (to coin): cunhada (cunhar).

capítulo 1

• 13

by the Roman army and foreign merchants. Some of these words werebelt (belt), weall (wall), candel (candle) and win (wine). The language spoken during the time before the Saxons was a mixture of various Celtic languages, spoken before the Romans came to Britain, and Latin. The influence of Celtic upon Old English was not strong. Actually, few Celtic words have lived on in the English language. But many places and river names originated from Celtic: Kent, York, Dover, Cumberland, Thames, Avon, Trent, Severn. Many Latin words were brought into the English language by the arrival of St. Augustine in 597 and the beginning of Christianity in Saxon England. As they were mostly worried3 with the naming of Church members and ceremonies, some words, such as presbyter, bishop monk, baptism and church came from Latin. Especially in the north of England, many Norse words were introduced into English by the Norsemen and Danes, who were known as Vikings, by the time they invaded the country in approximately 878 AD. Because the Vikings were Scandinavian, they spoke a language which, in its origin, was just as Germanic as Old English. This language was called Old Norse. Check the following table: UNTIL 449 450 TO 1100 A.D. 1100 TO 1500 1500 TO 1800 1800 UNTIL TODAY

Celtish Old English Middle English Early Modern English Late Modern English

As we can see, the English language formation is full of invasions, battles, wars. Actually, it has a very violent origin, for all of those invasions did not happen without fights and battles. For this reason, the first works of English Literature always mention heroes, battles, courage and bravery as their highest values.

3  Worried: preocupado

14 •

capítulo 1

1.1.3  Celtic Britain

©© WIKIPEDIA.ORG

According to Britain Express (2010), the Celts had many particular characteristics. Who were they? The Iron Age can be considered the age of the "Celts" in Britain. For over 500 years until the first Roman invasion, the Celtic culture spread throughout the British Islands. To define who they were, we can say that it is a modern and romantic reinterpretation of history to say that there is something called a "Celtic" people. Tribes of warriors4 who certainly wouldn’t have considered themselves as one unified people at the time is a good definition of “Celts”. The "Celts", as we traditionally regard them, exist mainly in the magnificence of their art and the words of the Romans who fought them. The trouble with the reports made by the Romans is that they were a mix of reports and political propaganda. It was politically common for the Celtic peoples5 to be considered barbarians and the Romans a great civilizing force. And history written by the winners is always biased. Where did they come from?over the centuries between 500 - 100 B.C. is the period that the people we call Celts progressivelycame into Britain. The Celts were very divided and given to fighting each other, so the idea of a Celtic invasion would have been out of question. Possibly there has never been an organized Celtic invasion. The Celts were a group of peoples weakly linked by cultural expression, language and religion, which were very similar. They were the people who brought iron working to the British Islands. Nevertheless, they did not have a central government, and they liked to fight each other and also against any non-Celt as well. They considered themselves great warriors, conquering the glories of battle. 4  Warriors: guerreiros 5  Peoples: povos

capítulo 1

• 15

The use of iron had awesome impacts. First, it changed trade and caused local independence. During the Bronze Age trade was essential, because it was not easy to find the necessary material to make bronze. Iron, on the other hand, was relatively cheap and available almost everywhere.

16 •

capítulo 1

There are studies that have demonstrated that, in some scientific and economic aspects, the Celts were much more precise than the Romans. Calendars in Pre-Roman Celtic times were more accurate than the Roman ones. Possibly, they were more precise than the calendar we use nowadays, the Gregorian calendar. Besides, compared to the Roman world, the Celtic world was much more decentralized and several Celtic towns had high stone walls (up to five kilometers long) similar to those of Rome.

The curious thing about the Celts is that we don't know whether the hill6 forts were built by the Britons who inhabited the island to defend themselves from the Celts, or the Celts built them, as they moved their way into more dangerous territory. The hill forts were often small constructions on defensible hilltops. Some are very small and probably had no practical use for more than an individual family, though over time many larger forts were built. The time of the "Celtic conversion" of Britain saw a huge growth in the number of hill forts throughout the region. The clan was the basic unit of Celtic life, a kind of extended family. The term "family" is a bit weird for them, because the Celts practiced a peculiar form of child breeding; they didn't really raise them – instead, they farmed them out. Foster parents, often the brother of the real mother, actually raised the children. When the Celts weren't fighting, they were farmers. One of the amazing innovation that they brought to Britain was the iron plough7. Earlier ploughs were really weird, basically a stick with a pointed end harnessed behind two oxen. They were adequate only for ploughing the light upland soils. The heavier iron ploughs were an agricultural revolution all by themselves, once they made it possible for the first time to cultivate the rich valley and lowland soils. Concerning the role of women, the Celts owned the lands communally, and wealth was mainly based on the size of the cattle herd8 a person could have. The role of women was better than in most societies of that time. They had the option of becoming war leaders and they were equal to men, they had their own property, and could choose their own husbands.

6  Hill: colina, morro 7  Plough: arado 8  Herd: rebanho

capítulo 1

• 17

A written Celtic language was developed after Christian times, so for much of Celtic history they had just oral language to transmit their culture, specifically with poets and storytellers. These were very relevant to the Celts, and much of what we know of their history and traditions comes to us today because of old tales and poems

1.1.4  Druids, War and Mythology

©© WIKIMEDIA.ORG

They were a sort of glue that kept Celtic culture together. The Druids had their own universities, in which knowledge and their tradition was passed on. They had the privilege of addressing the king in council, and may have had even more authority than the king himself. They upheld the law and were ambassadors in war times, besides composing verse. There has been a lot of nonsense written about Druids, but they were very interesting; a sort of “special” priests, political advisors, teachers and healers. When it comes to their religion, their enemies in battle could have their heads cut off and shown as trophies. This may look barbaric, but to the Celt the head was considered the center of spiritual power. Therefore, in order to get that power for themselves they got the head of an enemy. From what we know of the Celts, they held many of their religious ceremonies in the forests and near sacred water, such as springs. But, as we saw, one thing we do know: the Celts valued human heads. The biggest problem with the Celts was that they simply loved war and wanted to fight all the time, even among themselves.The Celts loved war, but each tribe fought on their own, which meant that this cost them the control of the island. If a war wasn't taking place at the moment, it was necessary to start one. In addition, they enjoyed dressing themselves as scary as possible, sometimes dyeing themselves in blue and going into battle completely naked, screaming loudly towards their enemies.

18 •

capítulo 1

©© WIKIMEDIA.ORG

With elaborate weaponry and clothes, they had huge pride in their appearance in battle, with fancy helmets and bright shields for instance. Once the Romans and Celts were enemies, Roman descriptions of Celtic customs were often unfavorable. The Celts had an intense mythology and they did not, however, record their myths in writing, once they had hundreds of tales, passed on orally. Celtic mythology, according to our knowledge of the villains, the gods and the heroes. Came from other sources–especially Roman. Nevertheless, the Romans sometimes used Roman names to Celtic gods, so their accounts were not always trustworthy.

One tale from Celtic mythology is The Tragedy of Deirdre.Forced to live with Conchobar, the king, the sad Deirdre is unhappy and makes clear to the king that she hates him. In the end of the story, Deirdre kills herself by hitting her head against a rock. Deirdre's tragic tale inspired plays, poetry, etc. Each tribe worshipped a certain god, who protected and took care of the tribe. Some of them shared characteristics. Dagda, for example, is Ireland’s god of life and death. The Celts worshiped a variety of gods who appeared in their tales. Most were local deities and very powerful rather than gods with specific characteristics.

capítulo 1

• 19

There were a large number of relevant female deities among the Celts.Some of them had more clear roles. These included the "Great Queen" Morrigan, who appeared during battle as ravens. The horse goddess Epona, who was associated with death, fertility and water.Another deity was Brigit, goddess of metalworking, learning and healing – therefore a very important goddess. The supernatural played an important role in Celtic mythology as well as magic and magicians. A common theme was the magic cauldron. The cauldron of plenty was never empty and supplied great amount of food. The cauldron of rebirth brought slain warriors to life again. Merlin, in the Arthurian legends actually was Myrddin, a magician in the Welsh tales. Other important themes in the myths were voyages to mysterious and dangerous lands and larger-than-life heroes. The heroes experienced all sorts of adventures and often had to perform impossible tasks before marrying their loved ones. Love, romance, and mischief also figured prominently. The gods played tricks on humans and on one another. Animals changed shape at will.

CONNECTION Acesse o link http://www.misteriosantigos.com/celtas.htm para obter mais informações sobre os Celtas.

1.1.5  Invasion of Britain by the Romans For what reason did the Romans decide, in 43 AD, to invade Britain? Their empire already extended from the northern Rhineland to the Sahara, and from the Channel coast until the Caucasus. The important era of conquest had ended a few decades before. In the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, three legions had been destroyed by rebellious Germanic tribesmen in 9 AD, and the emperor Augustus concluded that the empire extended too much and stopped to call for new wars of conquest. Britain was an afterthought. Military security was not a reason, once the Channel was a very effective a frontier against invasions. Economics was not the reason, once the rulers of Rome were already the wealthiest men in all times. What would be better than a glorious victory in Britain to help Claudius secure his throne?

20 •

capítulo 1

©© MEUNIERD | DREAMSTIME.COM

The invasion of Britain was a war of prestige. The 'mad' emperor Caligula had been murdered in 41 AD, and an nebulous member of the imperial family, Claudius, had been elevated to the throne. The new emperor faced opposition from the Senate, Rome's House of Lords. Claudius needed a quick political fix to secure his throne. What better than a glorious military victory in Britain? In a few centuries, the Roman army had transformed the country from a small city-state into the biggest empire of its time. War was very profitable, once tribute, booty and slaves made Roman conquests more than pay for themselves.

Julius Caesar had invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC, focusing on conquest, but before he had beaten British guerrilla resistance, there was revolt in Gaul (today’s France) and he was sent away Britain had remained free – and mysterious, dangerous, exotic. In the popular Roman imagination, Britain was a place of wetland and forest, fog and mizzle, inhabited by violent blue-painted warriors. Here was a fine testingground of an emperor's fitness to rule.For the Claudian invasion, an army of 40,000 professional soldiers – half citizen-legionaries, half auxiliaries recruited on the wilder edge of the empire - were landed in Britain under the command of Aulus Plautius. The queen of the Iceni tribe, Boudicca, came close to beat the invaders, but the presence of Claudius himself made the Romans storm into the enemy capital at Camulodunum (present-day Colchester). But resistance continued elsewhere. Pushing into the southwest of Britain, the Romans fought a war of sieges to diminish the great Iron Age

capítulo 1

• 21

cliff forts of the western tribes. Driving through and beyond the Midlands, they encountered stiffening opposition as they approached Wales, where the fugitive Catuvellaunian prince, Caratacus, rallied the Welsh tribes on a new anti-Roman front. The oppression of the Roman empires left deep marks on the peoples in the Wales surrounding region. The diverse tribes joined forces to try to expel the common enemy (namely Rome) and almost succeeded in doing so. The place that is now called Moray, faced a Roman occupation in 84 AD. At that time, northern Britain fell under Roman forces. This represented the settlement of Rome in Britain – status that was due to last for centuries ahead.

1.1.6  Rome in Need of a Capital in Britain A small settlement that already existed was adjusted to become a centre of trade and administration. The Romans named it Londinium, which is today’s London. But the first Roman capital in Britannia, that was a new province, was at Colchester. The Thames River was a communication and transport highway and it didn't take long until the Romans realize its strategic importance. London became the heart at the center of a major network of roads built basically to serve troop movement and administrative communication. Not exactly by accident they also served the expansion of trade that rapidly made London the most important town, and even the capital, of the new province of Britannia. Instead of trying to conquer with force, Romans defined "client kingdoms" on the territory borders that they controlled directly. The Romans, therefore, followed the formula in Britain, once it had been successful in other places.The basic idea was that, in return for not being attacked, certain Celtic tribes agreed to ally to Rome. While the process of mopping up resistance continued, treaties with northern tribes and in East Anglia protected the frontiers.

22 •

capítulo 1

The stereotype that most people have regarding a Celtic warrior is a man wearing long hair and beard. Actually, their hair was cut short, and they were also shaven. The Celts did not wish to work together or have any kind of cooperation with Rome. Concerning their military power, they were able to face the romans, but were defeated due to a lack of interest of the different tribes in joining forces to face their fierce and common enemy.

1.1.7  Roman Relations with the Druids The Druids represented real political and administrative authority,not just a hierarchy in their religion. According to Roman standards, they could be tolerant with peoples they conquered and their religions. Despite this, they were genuinely horrified by what they considered the uncivilized practices of the Celtic Druids. Eradicating the Druids became important to Rome. The Romans saw themselves with the right and the duty to expand the Empire and apply the Roman way of life as a benefit for the civilization they conquered. The same attitude was employed centuries later exactly by what later became the British Empire.

1.1.8  Modern Druidism ©© WIC | DREAMSTIME.COM

Like occurred during the New Age movement, Druidism can adapt to a huge range of spiritual beliefs. So, those who are monotheists, polytheists, animists, orpantheists can adopt the philosophy of Druidism, which also is a religion that was used by the Druids. A nature-based religion, Druidism has many elements that are similar to New Age, but with anancestry focus and nature focus. It has no sacred Scripture, neither official dogma, so

capítulo 1

• 23

it can take many forms. Polytheistic Druids believed in gods and goddesses, and Monotheistic Druids believed in a god or goddess. Pantheistic and animistic Druids did not accept a personal God, who would exist in all things. Druidism depends on the individual and the way that he or she has chosen a god, besides the practice of tolerance of many diverse philosophical and spiritual traditions and it explains that one belief is not different from others. To become a Druid one had to learn stories and stand intensive training for years. There were the healers, the philosophers and teachers.

REFLECTION Most artifacts that are classified as Celtic, like the weaponry, jewelry, the hill-forts and art were not really related to ethnicity. They were more closely related to military, political and religious characteristics. We have to take into consideration the ever-present cultural sharing that typically occur when boundaries between diverse cultures are crossed. One important fact that should be taken into consideration is that it were the monks in the middle Ages who told us most of what is known about the mythology of the Celts. Their studies are based on manuscripts that recount most of the myths, legends and other forms of culture and life of the ancient Celts. As in other moments in history, sometimes certain facts are recorded in writing centuries after the events actually took place.

ACTIVITIES A literatura baseada no inglês antigo (Old English) não é muito extensa, como puderam observar ao longo desta unidade. 01. Como exercício de reflexão, enumere algumas características dos textos escritos em Old English.

EXPENDING YOUR KNOWLEDGE Schütz, Ricardo. "História da Língua Inglesa." English Made in Brazil . Online. 01 de outubro de 2013.

24 •

capítulo 1

REFERENCES BLOOM, H. O Cânone Ocidental. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 1995 BRITAIN EXPRESS. Celtic Britain. Disponível em: . Acesso em 07 fev. 2015. BRITAIN EXPRESS. Roman Invasion. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 07 fev. 2015. CARM What is Druidism? Disponível em: https://carm.org/druidism. Acesso em: 17 fev. 2015 Celtic Mithology. Disponível em: http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ca-Cr/Celtic-Mythology. html#ixzz3SgZnEsyq

capítulo 1

• 25

26 •

capítulo 1

2 Beowulf e a Literatura Anglo-Saxonica

O início da literatura inglesa é marcado pelo início da língua inglesa. A Bretanha já possuía povos nativos, os Celtas, e sofreu diversas invasões e influências culturais ao longo dos séculos: romanos, vikings e outros povos germânicos, gauleses, etc. Deste “caldeirão” de línguas emergiu aquela que hoje chamamos de inglês antigo (Old English). A primeira obra escrita nesse idioma foi Beowulf, um épico de autor desconhecido que retrata a figura do herói Anglo-Saxão que auxilia um rei a salvar seu reino de um terrível monstro. Apesar de ser considerada a primeira obra escrita em inglês, os eventos não se desenrolam na Bretanha e sim na Suécia. Neste capítulo você vai conhecer melhor este grande herói da literatura inglesa e compreender as características da literatura anglo-saxônica.

OBJECTIVES Neste capítulo você verá que s anglo-saxões produziram excelente literatura, com temas épicos, religiosos e históricos. Sua poesia se caracterizou por complicadas e belas metáforas e jogos de palavras. Você compreenderá a importância da literatura anglo-saxonica e sua influência na literatura contemporânea. Entenderá, também, os conceitos de tradição, glória e honra com base no poema épico Bewoulf.

28 •

capítulo 2

2.1  Anglo-Saxon Literature The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes invaded Celtic Britain in the first half of the fifth century (the Old English or Anglo-Saxon period) up till the conquest in 1066 by William of Normandy. The Anglo-Saxons began to develop a specific type of written literature after their Christian conversion in the 7thcentury, once before that timetheir literature had been mainly oral. The development of literacy, learning and cultural life in the Anglo-Saxon England was influenced by the Church and the Benedictine foundations. Besides that, their Latin culture played an important role in many Anglo-Saxon poems, since scribal effort had been spent on the new language of culture: Latin. King Alfred was the main reason why this was possible, due to the further development of the programs in the late tenth century. Even though very little of it survives, Anglo-Saxon England is considered very rich in poetry. Nevertheless, the available part of Anglo-Saxon literature, which means little more than 30,000 lines, no more than that, is present in just four books, which were manuscripted. There is hardly no survival of purely preChristian compositions. The little survival of poetry was thanks to the Church: the result of the monastic revival in the last ten centuries. What is known as Old English literature comes from the Anglo-Saxon period, which was composed in the vernacular Anglo-Saxon. Pagan Elegies and Pagan Epic Poetry, Latin Writings and Old English Prose, and Old English Christian Poetry are included and considered early national poetry.

2.1.1  Pagan Epic Poetry - Beowulf: A Literary Work. Beowulf is the main Anglo-Saxon epic poem and has mysterious origin. Nobody knows who was the writer, when e where it was written or even the reason why it was written. Beowulf is a poem in the form of a narrative of 3,182 lines, written sometime between the 10th and 12th centuries and transmitted in a manuscript. Beowulf survived in only one version, in a manuscript copy that can be seen at the British Museum. The dating of this copy of Beowulf manuscript is still contradictory: some put it as early as 700 AD, while others think it was probably made by scribes of about the year 1000 AD. King Alfred admired Beowulf in the ninth century.

capítulo 2

• 29

The poem was printed in 1815 and is the longest Old English poem. Some Beowulf translations contain a prologue and numbered sections; however, the division of the text into numbered sections does not happen in other translations. Beowulf literary creation is traditionally placed in the Northumbria, at the age of Bede, who died in 735.

2.1.2  The Plot and Structure of the Poem.

©© WIKIPEDIA.ORG

The main part of the story is Beowulf's fights against two monsters:Grendel, a male, and his mother, a dragon. Beowulf is the hero of the poem.In general, the poem depicts two stories: the first is the youth of Beowulf and the second the old age of Beowulf. Beowulf is the hero of the Geats. The poem also introduces many incidental stories and digressions. In the first part Beowulf is young and reaches glory in a foreign land by fighting and exterminating Grendel, a monster who has been attacking Heorot, the hall of the Danish King Hrothgar. Then the hero kills Grendel's mother, who comes the next night to vindicate her son, in an underwater cave. After ruling his country remarkably well for fifty years, Beowulf is an old man in the second part of the story. A dragon shows up and attacks his kingdom, just like Grendel had done years before. Beowulf has to fight the dragon and, for this new challenge, requests the manufacture of a fireproof shield. The monster Grendel. In the end of the fight, Beowulf kills the dragon with the help of Wiglaf, but falls mortally wounded. After his death, the poem ends describing Beowulf’s funeral.

30 •

capítulo 2

The story of Beowulf represent the pagan heroic way of life. When he fights Grendel, he makes a choice and gets himself in a situation that allows no coming back. He has to live his heroic life until destiny claims for his life, and this fate, As stated before, he cannot quit.

2.1.3  Features and Major Characters Analysis Not only in its central character but also in its world and values, Beowulfis a typical heroic poem. Warriors are sometimes celebrating and sometimes fighting, and they are devoted to heroic acts and glory. However, the poem has a variety of specific characteristics: Beowulf as an epic; Historical Elements; Heroic Legend; Pagan and Christian Elements;Allegorical Elements; and Nordic and Germanic Elements. Let’s see now some features of the main characters of the poem. Hrothgar: Until Grendel terrorizes his kingdom, the king of the Danes, Hrothgar, enjoys prosperity and military success. He is a paternal figure to Beowulf and a model for the king that Beowulf is fated to become. Nevertheless, the leadership shown by Hrothgar, a wise and older ruler,is different from that shown by the young warrior Beowulf. Beowulf: strong and fearless, is the prince of Geats, "the greatest of all heroes". Once he makes a promise, he stands by his word, by whatever cost, even at the cost of his own life. He wants to be there for the people who are in great need to be saved from evil. He signifies the true heroic character because he is willing to risk his life for his ideals. Beowulf defeats three abominable monsters, two of which are descendants of Cain. Grendel: He is a monster that is half-man and half-beast. He is the first monster that Beowulf kills. Also he is enormous and has superhuman strength, which makes him invincible by the warriors of Denmark. He lives in the bottom of the lake not far from Heorot. Grendel is the descendant of Cain who represents evil and corruption. He has been battling Heorot, where Denmark's warriors live, for twelve years, causing suffering and misery. Grendel's Mother: Virtually invincible by any human being. She is another beast that Beowulf kills. As a vengeance for her son's death, she kills Aeschere. She is defeated by Beowulf in a fight under water.

capítulo 2

• 31

Unferth: He is a courtier, envious of Beowulf, who feels inferior to Beowulf. He does not believe Beowulf's power to defeat Grendel, claiming that it is luck that has been helping Beowulf in his previous encounters. Upon learning of Grendel's defeat, Unferth is impressed by Beowulf and presents him his sword as a sign of reconciliation. Wiglaf: He is a warrior who aids Beowulf against the battle with the dragon. At this point, Beowulf is an old aging king. He does not have the power anymore as he once had when he fought Grendel and his mother. Wiglaf's relationship with Beowulf is similar to that between Beowulf and the deceased King Hrothgar. Below is a part of the poem Beowulf, written in Old English:

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, syððanærest wearð feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum weorðmyndum þah, oð þæt him æghwylc ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan; þæt wæs god cyning! Ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned geong in geardum, þone God sende folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat, þe hie ær drugon aldorlease lange hwile; him þæs Liffrea, wuldres Wealdend woroldare forgeaf, Beowulf wæs breme --- blæd wide sprang--Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in. Swa sceal geong guma gode gewyrcean, fromum feohgiftumon fæder bearme,

32 •

capítulo 2

This poem provides an interesting overview of the way people lived in those days. It describes their life in the city, the awful creatures that they had to fight and their travels in their ships. Those people had a hard life both on land and sea. They did not like their lives, but they understood it well and did their best to survive.

2.1.4  Old English Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons, was used by the poet who wrote Beowulf. He used poetic diction, often old-fashioned words, A large number of specific compound words are commonly found in Old English verse, but many of them were originally coined by the poet. As a word is repeatedly heard in different contexts, old English vocabulary collects groups of meanings. The most common strategy used in Beowulf is called variation, when a word or expression is frequently repeated, not identically, but in each repetition a new concept is created. Words like Providence, Wyrd, Reputation Fate, and Glory, have a lot of associations, pagan and Christian alike. For example, King Hrothgar is called by Beowulf, "Shepherd of the Danes", "guardian of the people", "glorious hero", "son of Healfdene". This way, a new quality is added to Hrothgar with each title.. In order to create a complex and poetic picture of a certain event they are narrating, the Old English poets were able to apply a technique which allowed them to compound together simple comments as an alternative technique.

2.1.5  Heroic and Historical Elements The poet who wrote Beowulfdiscovered most of his material in Nordic-Germanic folklore, heroic legends, historical traditions and biblical sources. Specific comparisons exist between Beowulf and certain Scandinavian narratives. The alliterative verse form that the author used is another indication of the NordicGermanic tradition. The heroic legends dealt with in Beowulf are sometimes mixed with historical elements and folklore. Sometimes a historical figure is camouflaged in legends which the author of Beowulf uses to set off a character, such as the legend of Scyld himself, allegedly the founder of the Danish throne, a hero who settled an example of a strong king. His name is associated with the legend of a child coming in a boat with a sheaf of corn. capítulo 2

• 33

A Lenda de Beowulf é um filme de 2007 dirigido por Robert Zemeckis que retrata o poema épico homônimo escrito originalmente em inglês antigo (ou inglês arcaico) e considerado o primeiro da literatura Inglesa. Neste filme, foi utilizada uma técnica de captura de movimento, usada também no filme “O Expresso Polar”..

There are several things that are still unclear concerning the manuscripts of Beowulf. For one thing, the style of the handwriting indicates that it might have been written by two people instead of a sole writer. The people who wrote the text probably are not the author and it is unknown how much of the text was altered of embellished by the person (or persons) who wrote the poem. Nevertheless, the manuscript had been owned in the 16th century by Lawrence Nowell, a scholar. In 1818, Grímur JónssonThorkelin, a scholar from Iceland, transcribed the poem for the first time, but there are some questions concerning the accuracy of this version. To further protect the pages, which were decaying fast, paper frames were applied for each page of the manuscript in order to protect them from damage, even though this procedure had an undesirable side-effect: it covered the edges and, consequently, some letters.

34 •

capítulo 2

©© DMITRII KISELEV | DREAMSTIME.COM

2.1.6  Pagan and Christian Elements

Christian and biblical elements are evident in the poem. Some critics believe that Beowulf was created by a pagan poet, and that the presence of the Christian material is to be explained by subsequent removal of pagan, and interposition of Christian passages. Others have argued that the Christian elements represent the work of a poet with unclear and general knowledge of the faith. Most critics believe that the original author of Beowulf was a Christian who was capable of putting together both pagan and Christian elements in his text and that a reviser or interpolator has nothing to do with the Christian elements.

capítulo 2

• 35

The primitive material of Beowulf derived from pagan folk-tale, chronicle and legends appeared as a Christian poem, but this mutation is not a matter of altered phrases, or Christian faith’s interpolated references, but is an infusion of Christian spirit in a deeply universal way,, showing up thought the actions and governing motive and narrative. Nevertheless, there are certain pagan elements which resist to changes, or that the influence of the Christian spirit can only restrain partially. We know that the ideas of fidelity and good nobility were also deeply grounded in the early Germanic and pagan societies, so not all of these ideas can be attributed to Christian ideals. Many ideas of rightliving, such as loyalty and generosity, were derived from the idea of "comitatus", and the relationship between lord and thane. When the the author of Beowulf speaks of praise, the word does not have the Christian connotation suggested by the concept of "heavenly praise". he speaks about the praise of one's peers, praise which the warrior must obtain in order to be remembered by future generations. The concept of "hell" was known to the pagans, and the author of Beowulf makes reference to "hell" as the destiny of Grendel. Another important concept in Beowulf is "Fate”. In the Anglo-Saxon world Christianity and paganism existed simultaneously but in the Old English vocabulary there were only pagan terms with which Anglo-Saxons would incorporate Christian concepts. Aside from Beowulf, the only surviving works of early national epic poetry are a fraction of Deor's Lament, The Finnesburg Fragment, (50 lines), and two short pieces (63 lines together) of Waldere, The Battle of Maldon and The Battle of Brunanburh.

CONNECTION Access on the link below to get more information on Christian and Pagan elements. http://oaks.nvg.org/ap3.html

36 •

capítulo 2

2.1.7  Old English Religious Poetry Christian poetry seems to have grown in northern England along the 8thcentury, though most of this poetry has survived only in the late tenth century, in the West Saxon writings. Besides a lot of Christian poetry, monks produced several other artistic pieces, from sculptures to masonry. Much of this poetry is about the Old Testament: recounts of books and episodes. Much of this religious poetry is anonymous, but the names of two poets are known: Caedmon (670 A.D.), the first English poet known by name, and Cynewulf (late 8thor early 9thcentury). "Caedmonian" is the name given to the era of Old English poetry, whose focuses were on religious subjects. The traditional meter diction for Christian religious poetry was first used by Caedmon, who became the creator of a school of Christian poetry. Cynewulf was the poet of the second phase of the Christian poetry originally written in Old English and, therefore, most of the old religious poems were originally written by him or Caedmon.Anglo-Saxon religious poetry moves further with Cynewulf.

2.1.8  Old English Literature: some characteristics Concerning the linguistic features, Old English texts have distinct graphic and phonological characteristics, being completely different from contemporary English. Concerning their literary aspects, the remaining fragments of Old English literature are supposed to materialize graphically centuries of the past oral literature tradition. That is the reason why most of the fragments have unknown or anonymous authors. This is the case of the epic poem Beowulf, considered the first English literary text. One curiosity about Old English poetry: the descriptions of sad events or cruel situations are more common and in better writing than the situations of happiness. Besides texts which exalt the honor and value of the warrior, there are also other texts which narrate the adventures of the seamen. These narratives compound the Exeter Book. Two of them are famous and were translated into Modern English: The Seafarer and The Wanderer. In addition, there is one more influence on the formation of English language and Literature: The presence of Latin language, brought by the Romans and, after them, by the religious missions who went to Britain to Christianize the

capítulo 2

• 37

pagan Anglo-Saxons. From this influence came the Miracle and Morality plays, as well as versions of parts of the bible into Anglo –Saxon language. Therefore, we can say that there were three great thematic centers in the literature of the Angle-Saxon or Old English period: war, battles and heroism; travels and travelers and some religious themes. This scenery, however, is not static, and it changes radically after the Norman Conquest, in 1006, as we shall see later on in this course.

REFLECTION In this unit we studied the evolution of English Language and Literature from its very beginning. The focus here was The Old English Poetry, like Beowulf. You can have a deeper comprehension of the topics and works mentioned in this unit reading some texts, watching movies and visiting some websites.Enjoy and learn!

ACTIVITIES Com base no que você aprendeu sobre o poema épico Beowulf, responda a pergunta abaixo: 01. Como o poema Beowulf está estruturado? Como a estrutura está relacionada como o tema ou temas desenvolvidos no poema?

EXPANDING YOUR KNOWLEDGE Para uma melhor compreensão sobre ‘Beowulf”, leia a obra abaixo: ALLARD, JOE (Editor),; NORTH, RICHARD (Editor). “Beowulf and Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures “

REFERENCES BLOOM, H. O Cânone Ocidental. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 1995 BRITAIN EXPRESS. Celtic Britain. Disponível em: . Acesso em 07 fev. 2015.

38 •

capítulo 2

BRITAIN EXPRESS. Roman Invasion. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 07 fev. 2015. BURGESS, A. English Literature. Essex: Longman, 1989. CEVASCO, M.E. & LELIS, V. Rumos da Literatura Inglesa. São Paulo: Ed. Ática. Série Princípios, 1990. OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE- disponível em: . Acesso em: 15 fev 2015. SANDERS,A. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.

capítulo 2

• 39

40 •

capítulo 2

3 Literatura Inglesa Medieval

Pudemos observar que durante o processo de formação da língua inglesa a região esteve permeada de guerras, batalhas, heróis e conquistas. Os Anglosaxões desenvolveram uma tradição de escrita vernacular em inglês que influenciaria a Europa medieval como um todo. Neste capítulo, o foco é nesse processo de assimilação, sua influência na idade média inglesa e todas as transformações que ocorreram em razão disso.

OBJECTIVES Neste capítulo serão abordados fatos históricos que vão esclarecer o contexto em que Geoffrey Chaucer viveu e criou sua obra “Canterbury Tales”, uma das pedras fundamentais da literatura do Ocidente, uma coleção fenomenal de histórias de cavalaria e alegorias morais. Essas histórias ajudaram - assim como Dante e Cervantes fizeram em suas respectivas culturas literárias - a sedimentar a literatura de todo um país.

42 •

capítulo 3

3.1  Middle Ages: society, culture, language Middle Ages in England begins in 1066, after the Norman invasion and conquest of the Island. From that moment on, the Normans took over the political power and ruled over England until 1399. As it is widely known, during the Middle Ages the Catholic Church was the most powerful institution in Europe, helping to promote, to keep or to destitute kings and their regimes. Historically speaking, England never had strong political relationships with Rome, except for the time of Norman domain over the British Islands. This domain brought great changes in the social and political structures of the Englishnation, which were reflected in the literary works of that time. One of the main changes that could be noticed was the imposition of the Norman language (French) to the English court and all its documents, official papers and everything related to it. This fact influenced heavily the flexible and open structures of the English language, which was still in a process of formation and evolution. Many words and expressions were incorporated to English, despite of1 its Germanic roots2 presence in the vocabulary, phonology and syntax. The Norman influences collaborated to the consolidation of the English Language, which becomes different, more likely to the English spoken today. Latin was mostly used for written language, especially that of the Church. Meanwhile, The English language, as the language of the now lower class, was considered a vulgar tongue. Some particular characteristics of the Middle English can be observed by reading its medieval texts. Some of its grammatical elements, such as inflections for verbs and pronouns, were present in the Modern English, spoken in the 17th century. The contact with the Norman culture offered new literary characteristics to English writers, brought from Italy and France, with its Greek mythological figures and themes that were not known or not explored by the Germanic and Nordic cultures.

1  Despite of: apesar de 2  Roots: raízes

capítulo 3

• 43

3.1.1  Life in the Middle Ages

©© KAMENSKY | DREAMSTIME.COM

In order to guarantee safety and defense, people in the Middle Ages formed small communities around a central lord or master. Most people lived on a manor3, which consisted of the castle, the church, the village, and the enclosing farmland. These manors were isolated, with occasional visits from vendors, pilgrims4 on their way to the Crusades, or soldiers from other regions.

In this "feudal" system, the king donated land grants or "fiefs" to his most important aristocrats, barons, and bishops, in payment for their contribution of soldiers for the king's armies. At the lowest levels of society were the peasants or laborers. In exchange for living and working on his land, known as the "demesne," the lord offered his peasants protection. Nobles shared their land among the lesser aristocracy, who became their servants or "vassals." Many of these vassals became so powerful that the kings had a hard work controlling them. By 1100, certain barons had castles and courts that were compared to the king's; they could be serious threats if they were not pleased in their dealings with the crown. 3  Manor: vila 4  Pilgrims: peregrinos

44 •

capítulo 3

Although peasants worked the land and produced the goods necessary to the nobleman and his castle, the vassals had to pay all the heavy taxes imposed by the nobles and they were required to give to the castle much of what they harvested. Actually, the peasants belonged to the lords, who were associated with the church and acted as judges in applying the medieval laws. It should be no surprise that women, whether they were aristocrats or laborers, held a difficult position in society. They were largely circumscribed to household tasks such as cooking, baking bread, tailoring, weaving, and spinning. However, they also hunted for food and fought in battles, learning how to use weapons to defend their homes and castles. Some medieval women held other occupations. There were women farriers, merchants, and druggists. Others were midwives, worked in the fields, or were engaged in creative enterprises such as writing, playing musical instruments, dancing, and painting.

3.1.2  Middle English In about 1200 AD, English had changed a lot, because it was mostly being spoken instead of written for about 300 years. The use of Old English came back, but with many French words added. This language was called Middle English. Most of the words inserted in the English vocabulary are words of power, such as crown, castle, court, parliament, army, mansion, beauty, poet, romance, duke, servant, peasant, traitor and governor. In this sense, Middle English is the vernacular language spoken and written in England between 1100 and 1500 AD, the descendant of Old English and the ancestor of Modern English. It can be divided into three periods: Early, Central, and Late. Early Middle Englishfrom about 1100 to about 1250- during which the Old English system of writing was still in use. The Central period happened from about 1250 to about 1400, and it was characterizedby the gradual development of literary dialects, and the use of an orthography greatly influenced by the Anglo-Norman writing system. It was also marked by the borrowing5 of many Anglo-Norman words and the increment of the London dialect, used by such poets as John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century flourishing of English literature. The Late Period marks the transition to Modern English. 5  Borrowing: empréstimo

capítulo 3

• 45

The main form of secular literature in later medieval England is the Middle English romance. There is an estimate that eighty (or even more) metrical and alliterative verse romances were composed between1225 and1500. The Middle English romances give us a very instigating view about the medieval settings and provoke a new thought about cultural aspects of medieval life and its concerns. It is important to highlight that the English Middle Ages produced the precursor of the modern novel and strongly influenced the contemporary popular fiction.

3.2  Chaucer and the ‘Canterbury Tales’ The English which was used from about 1100 to about 1500 is called Middle English, and the most important poet of the time was Geoffrey Chaucer. He is usually called the father of English poetry, even though, as we have already seen, there were many other English poets before him. As we should expect, the language had changed a lot in the 700 years since Beowulf and it is much easier to read Chaucer in Middle English than anything written in Old English. Chaucer (1343-1400) was responsible for a great shift6 in English Literature. His ‘Canterbury Tales’ are not only registers of substantial linguistic changes, but also a radically different way to perceive and describe, in a sensible and more realistic way, his society and all its details. He describes all kinds of people, professions, social classes, individual motivations and emotions, beliefs and relationships. These themes were never used in the previous literary period. His masterpiece, ‘The Canterbury Tales’, written in 1386, approximately, can be considered a huge mosaic of the Medieval English World.

3.2.1  The Canterbury Tales A popular literary convention of the 14th century is the collection of tales. Among these tales Boccaccio's Decameron is the best-known example before Chaucer's time, but many scholars consider Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales superior to his precursors. He produces this effect both in the dimension and intensity of the stories in his collection, from the courtly tone of 'The Knight's Tale' to the harsh and often profane humor of other tales. 6  Shift: mudança, alteração de rota

46 •

capítulo 3

He does so also in the detail and humor of the structure holding the stories together. His account of the pilgrims as they ride from London to Canterbury, with their constant quarreling and rivalry, amounts to a comic masterpiece in its own right. In this compilation of tales, the characters are thirty pilgrims who are going to Canterbury, to visit Thomas Becket temple, killed inside his own cathedral in 1170. Because of it, he is considered a martyr and a saint who can produce miracles. After they go out from Southwark they make a deal: each one of them has to tell two tales in the pathway to Canterbury and two other tales in their way back Southwark. The person who tells the best tale will get a prize: a free dinner in the Tabbard Inn. In each tale, social, moral and religious subjects are presented and show details of those people’s lives, with7 humor and wit. Of this ambitious total of 120 stories, Chaucer completed only 24 by the time of his death. Even so the collection amounts to some 17,000 lines - mainly of rhyming verse, but with some passages of prose. The pilgrims represent all areas of society from upper class to humble craftsmen (the only absentees are the laboring poor, unable to afford a pilgrimage of this kind). There are respectable people from the various classes - such as the knight, the parson and the yeoman - but the emphasis falls mainly on characters who are pretentious, mendacious, avaricious or lecherous8. In Chaucer's Prologue of Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims are strongly characterized, one by one. The pilgrims for the most part tell tales closely linked to their station in life or to their personality. Sometimes the anecdotes even reflect mutual antagonisms. The miller gives a scrupulously comic account of a carpenter being cuckolded. Everyone laughs heartily except the attendant, who began his career as a carpenter. The reeve gets his own back with an equally outrageous tale of the seduction of a miller's wife and daughter. Concerning its literary aspects, this work has stylistic marks which refer to Italian and French writers. Nevertheless, the aspect that deserves greater examination is the way the characters are built and presented. Chaucer’s characters differ from the ballads, poems and plays that preceded them because they are not allegorical figures, legends or myths. They are very similar to real people, with deep psychological characteristics and individual particularities such as mood, desires, qualities and faults, like every common person. 7  Wit: sagacidade 8  Lecherous: devassos

capítulo 3

• 47

The majority of the tales of this work put together many elements of that time’s culture and society, like humor, legends, jokes, morals, religion, economy, relationships, all blended with poetic techniques such as alliteration, rhyme, quotations from other literary works and the bible. Most of the tales has a prologue in verse, followed by the narrative. Read below the prologue of Canterbury Tales When April's gentle rains have pierced the drought Of March right to the root, and bathed each sprout Through every vein with liquid of such power It brings forth the engendering of the flower; When Zephyrus too with his sweet breath has blown Through every field and forest, urging on The tender shoots, and there's a youthful sun, His second half course through the Ram now run, And little birds are making melody And sleep all night, eyes open as can be (So Nature pricks them in each little heart), On pilgrimage then folks desire to start. The palmers long to travel foreign strands To distant shrines renowned in sundry lands; And specially, from every shire's end In England, folks to Canterbury wend: To seek the blissful martyr is their will, The one who gave such help when they were ill. Now in that season it befell one day In Southwark at the Tabard where I lay, As I was all prepared for setting out To Canterbury with a heart devout, That there had come into that hostelry At night some twenty-nine, a company Of sundry folk whom chance had brought to fall In fellowship, for pilgrims were they all

48 •

capítulo 3

CONNECTION Acesse o link http://www.historiadomundo.com.br/inglesa/lingua-inglesa.htm para conhecer mais sobre o Inglês Médio e as outras fases do inglês.

3.2.2  Chivalric Code All the knights were expected, above all, to fight with bravery and to demonstrate military professionalism and courtesy. When knights were taken as prisoners of war, they were customarily held for ransom in somewhat comfortable neighborhoods. This same standard of conduct did not apply to non-knights (archers, peasants, foot-soldiers, etc.) who were often mutilated after capture, and who were viewed during battle as mere barrier to knights' getting to other knights to fight them. Chivalry developed as an early pattern of professional ethics for knights, who were relatively prosperous horse owners and were expected to provide military services in exchange for property. Early notions of chivalry entailed loyalty to one's lord and courage in battle, similar to the values of the Heroic Era. During the Middle Ages, this grew from simple military professionalism into a social code including the values of gentility, nobility and treating others judiciously. In The Song of Roland ( 1100), Roland is described as the ideal knight, showing resolute loyalty, military expertise and social affability. In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (c. 1205), chivalry had become a mix of religious duties, love and military service. Ramon Llull's Book of the Order of Chivalry (1275) shows that by the end of the 13th century, chivalry entailed a recitation of very specific duties, including riding warhorses, attending games, holding Round Tables and hunting, as well as endeavoring to the more aethereal virtues of "faith, moderation, charity, justice, hope, strength, and loyalty. Knights of the late medieval era were expected by society to keep all these skills and many more, as highlighted in The Book of the Courtier, a work of Baldassare Castiglione. According to the protagonist, Count Ludovico, the first and true profession of the ideal courtier "must be that of arms." Chivalry, derived from the French word chevalier ('cavalier'), at the same time showed skilled horsemanship and military service, and these remained the primary occupations of knighthood throughout the Middle Ages. capítulo 3

• 49

Sacred goals were what Christian armies started to devote themselves to. With the time, the Church required that knights protect the weak and defenseless with their weapons and any other means they had available. Women, orphans, and churches were the top priority in terms of protection. During the period of the Crusades, then, there was a mutual influence between the Church and Chivalry. As a consequence, the first Crusades clarifiedthe procedures and moral code of the knights. With the progress of Renaissance humanism and moral relativism, the knight–and chivalry along with him–lost much of his importance to society, and the ideal of chivalric romance was fundamentally rejected in Niccolò Machiavelli's Il Principe (1532) and more directly disdain in Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote (1605–1615). The medieval literary genre of chivalric romance had been the apogee of idealism and romanticism in literature, but in the 16th century Machiavelli instructed aspiring political rulers to be ferociously pragmatic and to apply the principle that the ends justify the means, directly counter to the high-flown idealism of late medieval chivalry. Later, the grandiloquent values of chivalric romance were heavily satirized in Cervantes's Don Quixote, which portrayed the charmingly idealistic protagonist as a lovable but hopelessly delusional imbecile.

3.3  Chaucer's Knight Truth, honor, "freedom” and courtesy is what archetypal medieval knight should have. There's no irony here. The Knight is ever honored for his courage. He's truly been through the wars; his tunic is still discolored by his chain-mail armor because he's going on his pilgrimage direct from his latest Crusade. Chaucer uses all the traditional descriptions because the Knight represents what every knight should be, but usually isn't. We usually hear about the Knight's fatal fights than about how he looked like, because his actions are more important to his public (who, like us, are excited by news of foreign wars and travel) than his appearance and also to his own code of knightly behavior. Pay attention in those aspects during Chaucer's Knight Tale, which deals with two other worthy knights whose behavior dictates who will win or lose the lady they both love.

50 •

capítulo 3

3.3.1  Chaucer's Knight's Tale

©© WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Duke Theseus of Athens wins the country of the Amazons and marries Queen Hippolyta, taking her and her beautiful sister Emelye back to Athens. To his perplexity, he sees sad women, but not because of his return. These women have lost their husbands during the siege of Thebes, and Thebes' cruel tyrant Creon refuses to allow the burial of the bodies. Theseus promises vengeance and goes to Thebes, where he beats Creon and comes back bringing back the remains of those women's husbands.

capítulo 3

• 51

In a mass of bodies, pillagers find the young royal Theban knights Palamon and Arcite, who are cousins. They are still alive. Theseus sends them to Athens to be imprisoned for life, and returns home. One morning, locked in a tower Palamon looks at Emelye walking in the garden, and falls immediately and crazily in love with her. As he explains his love to Arcite, his cousin also spies Emelye and he is also imprisoned by her beauty. Instantaneously the cousins, who have been as close as brothers since birth, become enemies over the love of Emelye. Perotheus, a duke who also knows Arcite comes to Athens to see Duke Theseus. When Perotheus knows the knight is Theseus' prisoner, he asks for Arcite's release. Theseus agrees but decides that Arcite never appears in any Theseus' lands, under risk of death. So Arcite comes back to Thebes, heartbroken because he can never again see Emelye. At least Palamon, closed in the tower, can look at her, he sighs. Meanwhile Palamon moans that he is miserable, but lucky Arcite can gather an army in Thebes and return to conquer Athens to win the lady. Arcite can't handle with this situation and decides to come back to Athens to see Emelye once more. He is unrecognizable because of his pallor and thinness from lovesickness so he is able to become a page at Theseus' court, still venerating Emelye. One morning Arcite is walking in a grove, claiming that it is not far that he can't even reveal his real identity. What he doesn't know is that Palamon has escaped from prison and is overhearing every word from behind a bush. He goes out and vows to kill Arcite for loving Emelye. The two agree to meet the next day and fight to death, but when they do, Theseus, Queen Hippolyta, and Emelye arrive and see the fight. So Palamon tells Theseus that he and Arcite love Emelye and admits they did not obey him and because of it they deserve to die. Theseus does not want this end and decides that a tourney will be better. Who wins this tournament, which consists in a battle where each knight may enlist other knights and the winner shall have Emelye as a prize. Palamon prays to Venus, goddess and planet of love. Arcite prays to Mars, god of war. In the heavens, Saturn promises Venus that her favorite, Palamon, shall win. Palamon is arrested, and Arcite wins the tournament.But as Arcite comes in order to accept Emelye, the ground is shaken by Saturn. Because of that, Arcite is killed when his horse falls. Years pass, and when mourning for Arcite is over, Theseus states that life must continue and orders the marriage of Palamon and Emelye, once Palamon hadto stand so long for her love. With this happy event, the tale ends.

52 •

capítulo 3

A literatura medieval nos fornece inúmeros exemplos de duas visões opostas: a literatura de cavalaria, que nos mostra o cavaleiro errante com qualidades ímpares e extremamente idealizado; e a literatura dos peregrinos, uma alegoria dos peregrinos representando o povo. Nenhuma dessas duas imagens realmente se ajusta à literatura de Chaucer. Nos contos de cavalaria de Chaucer ele combina elementos literários aparentemente inconciliáveis, inclusive as duas abordagens acima, mas insiste no merecimento dos cavaleiros.

3.3.2  Characters Analysis Theseus: We can see Theseus, the wise duke, as firm but fair, as the strong conqueror, but also as the figure who, like God, dispenses justice along with mercy. Because of that, some researchers have seen Theseus as the major character in the Knight's Tale. He personifies the ideal of equitable and feasible leadership. That is why he rules Athens, the venerable center of learning and reason. He conquers the Amazon nation because it is clear that a man should be the higher power over women. (This is according to the values of knighthood, not exactly Chaucer's own view. Chaucer mocks at some of the aristocrat conventions even though he greatly admires the Narrator-Knight's behavior.) In the whole tale Theseus represents order, making a spectacle of tournaments and ceremonies–such as the hunting of the hart--that are played by well established rules. Arcite: He does believe that Theseus is not really his "mortal enemy," nor is his cousin Palamon. But Arcite is the dearest of Mars, the god of war, so he does not listen to reason. On the contrary, he follows his own willingness, which first leads him to go against his cousin, then against his own good luck. He had his life saved in two different moments but cursed his luck because he is set free instead being put to death. We are meant to see Arcite as a man crazy in his willfulness. He is blind to his good luck: he even complains about men who deplore fortune's twists, but it is exactly what he's doing. Because of Mars he wins the tournment, but he does not realize that fortune is changeable. Only at his death he begins to see reason and ends the hate he's been holding for so long against Palamon.

capítulo 3

• 53

©© WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Palamon: Whether Palamon got the lady Emelye because he's the best and more courageous knight is a good question. He certainly is valiant in the tourney --it takes twenty men to arrest him--and he tells the real facts to Theseus about the real identity of Arcite and their shared love for Emelye. But he suffers in jail, believing that "man is committed" to "God's observance." Readers have different views about this battle: some think that both men are ideal knights from a romance, others think that indeed neither one of them is worthy of the lady. Some might think that both are equally worthy, since each has his faults and blind spots yet sincerely upholds what he thinks is right. Emelye: Emelye is the object of affection of the two cousins. Is it possible to see her like that? For it's hard to see her as much more than an object. Part of the humor of the Knight's Tale comes from the fact that these two knights are languishing over beautiful Emelye for years, while she doesn't even know they exist. They are ready to kill each other because of her, yet we discover that she would rather stay a virgin than marry either one of them. The readers may not be so sure how to view her because we can see her only through with the eyes of the two knights, who see her in different views. A clue may be in the way she accepts the dictates of Diana, the goddess of chastity, that she must marry; and so she casts a friendly eye on Arcite when he wins her hand.

REFLECTION In this unit we studied the evolution of English Language and Literature from its very beginning until the Middle Ages, time during which English began to achieve a relative linguistic stability. Geoffrey Chaucer was the most important poet of this time. His works reflect realistically the language and the society of his contemporaries.

54 •

capítulo 3

You can have a deeper comprehension of the topics and works mentioned in this chapter reading some texts, watching movies and visiting some websites. It is really important and enjoyable to read, at least, some of the Canterbury Tales. P. Vizzioli’s translation is an excellent one, if you prefer to read it in Portuguese.

ACTIVITIES Como maior autor desse primeiro período da Idade Média, vamos refletir sobre algumas questões sobre a obra Canterbury Tales, de Chaucer. Retorne aos textos dados nessa unidade e responda a pergunta abaixo: 01. De qual país (ou paises) Chaucer obteve inspiração e ideias para escrever The Canterbury Tales?

EXPANDING YOUR KNOWLEDGE Para uma melhor compreensão sobre Chaucer e “Os Contos da Cantuária”, leia a obra abaixo: CHAUCER, G. Os Contos de Cantuária (trad. De Paulo Vizzioli).São Paulo: T.A.Queiros Editor, 1990.

REFERENCES BURGESS, A. English Literature. Essex: Longman, 1989. CEVASCO, M.E. & LELIS, V. Rumos da Literatura Inglesa. São Paulo: Ed. Ática. Série Princípios, 1990. SANDERS,A. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. UNIVERSITY OF YORK. English and related literature. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 15 fev. 2015. WARD, A.C. História da Literatura Inglesa. Lisboa: Editorial Estúdios Limitada, 1959.

capítulo 3

• 55

56 •

capítulo 3

4 Rei Arthur História e Lenda.

Se o Rei Arthur é uma lenda ou um fato histórico são questões que povoam a literatura há séculos. O que se sabe que é que ele foi um herói no tempo em que foi criado. Várias são as teorias e vários são os contos escritos por diversos autores, em diferentes épocas, sobre esse personagem nobre, heroico e corajoso. Neste capítulo, daremos uma visão geral sobre esse personagem lendário, bem como dos autores medievais que se encantaram com esse personagem, que hipnotiza os leitores ao redor do mundo até hoje!

OBJECTIVES Compreender a simbologia do lendário Rei Arthur, bem como as fontes históricas que trazem registros sobre ele são fatores importantes para que possamos entender como as influências culturais, religiosas e históricas exercem um papel preponderante na literatura medieval, com foco no Rei Arthur de Mallory.

Essas e outras questões serão tratadas ao longo desse livro

e esperamos que você possa formar sua opinião sobre o assunto. Lenda ou História?

58 •

capítulo 4

4.1  King Arthur- Historical aspects The big question is: Was Arthur a true, historical character or only a hero of fiction? We have to decide for ourselves. Arthur represents a man who was the essence of good against evil, light against darkness, and that eternal, neverending fight between what is right or wrong. A very important characteristic of Arthur's life is his skills as a general and knight but the character of King Arthur is most known as a leader, a fair ruler, despite his rigid judgment of Guinevere and Lancelot. There are two theories about the name Arthur. One of them says that it may be a form of Artorius, a Roman name. The other, corroborated by J. D. Bruce, says that probably it is the Celtic the name Artos Viros, which means bear man. Arthur is showed as a military leader in the early Latin chronicles and as a king and emperor in later romance. King Arthur defeated the barbarians in a dozen battles. Later, he got power and eventually went to battle with the Romans. He came back home thinking that his nephew Mordred had enhanced the pattern of rebellion and taken Guinevere, the Queen. The old stories tell that after the death of King Uther there was no king ruling1 all of England. Tradition relates that Merlin had put a sword in a stone, saying that whoever took it out would be king. Merlin crowned Arthur the King of Britain after Arthur took the sword from the stone. This led to a rebellion which Arthur was the winner. Then he received the round table as a dowry from Guinevere’s father after he married her. The episode in which a Knight throws Excalibur into the lake happened after Arthur fought his last battle against his nephew, Mordred, who was killed by Arthur, but during the fight he was also mortally injured. The correct date of Arthur's death is uncertain. Geoffrey of Monmouth gives it as AD 542. Malory establish his life in the fifth century. Geoffrey Ashe uses the argument that Arthur is to be identified with the historical Celtic king Riothamus, at least in some aspects.

1  Ruling (to rule):

capítulo 4

• 59

4.1.1  The Enthroned Arthur The noble Arthur, from Lancelot du Lac (French, early fourteenth century) raged2 since the Renaissance when Arthur's history was passionately defended, partly because the Tudor monarchs traced their lineage to Arthur and used that connection as a justification for their reign. In general, modern schooling has generally supposed that there was some true person at the center of the legends, not exactly a king with a bunch of knights in brilliant armor. Historically speaking, maybe we can find a historical basis to the character; it is clear that he would have achieved great popularity as a warrior battling the Germanic invaders of the late fifth and early sixth centuries. But the debate will continue because there is no conclusive evidence for or against Arthur's historicity.However, one thing cannot be denied: the influence of the character of Arthur on music, art, and literature from the Middle Ages until our present time. Although there have been various historical novels that try to allocate Arthur in a century different from his, it is the legendary character of the Middle Ages. It is such a strong figure, the creator of an order of the best knights in the world that appears in the major versions of the legend from Malory to Tennyson to T. H. White. A nuclear point to the myth is the downfall of Arthur's kingdom. It is frustrated in the chronicle tradition by the betrayal of Mordred. In the romance tradition treason is made possible because of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere. Many of us only know of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere, but there were many other characters that were base to the legends and stories about Camelot, the Round Table, and the Holy Grail. Much significance must have the Lady of the Lake, King Mark, Merlin, Sir Mordred, and Morgan Le Fay.

CONNECTION Para melhor compreensão sobre a lenda do Rei Arthur, acessem o link abaixo e assistamKing Arthur- Sound of Britain, que oferece um panorama de época extremamente intistigante. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKFLpfv4hSY

2 Raged:

60 •

capítulo 4

4.1.2  Was Lancelot the greatest Knight? Lancelot is entirely the creation of Chretien de Troyes and is as such no part of historical investigation. Some academics have tried to link the story of Lancelot to various companions and/or opponents of Arthur. The answer is yes, according to Chretien de Troyes. He was who created Lancelot and added him to Arthur's reign as a Knight of the Round Table. In his four romances, Chretien portrays Lancelot as the best of all the knights because of all the qualities that make a knight successful, such as skilled in arms and chivalry and courtly love. Lancelot is the king's champion, fighting challengers and going on missions in the king's name. He is time and again the symbol of Arthur's justice. Those who have any doubt about the queen's fidelity are made to pay by fighting Lancelot. He is the most famous of the knights and the most talented. But he is not the most perfect. That honor falls to his son, Galahad. It is interesting to note here that Lancelot is vilified by some for carrying on an adulterous romance with Guinevere while at the same time glorified by others for generate Galahad, the perfect knight, from a love meeting with Elaine, to whom he was not married. (Some stories say they did marry, but the breeding was before that.) And as Lancelot has been a better knight-at-arms than Gawain, in the same way Galahad is a best knight-in-spirit in comparison to Lancelot. As the legend writers turned to the Holy Grail3, they assimilated the idea of purity of body and mind; Lancelot did not complete the profile. Galahad saw the Grail and noted the Grail Quest; the father was reduced to seeing a pale vision and dying knowing that his own son caused his lack of ability to see the gorgeous object. Lancelot was the best at arms but piety was not one of his abilities.

4.1.3  Was Guinevere an adulteress or not? If Guinevere really was an adulteress it is to be found entirely in the Legends. The story of Guinevere, also called Ganhumara, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, is very old and returns to the Triads that mention the name Gwenhwyfar is used by three queens of Arthur. The tradition in the Welsh culture also has the story of Gwenhwyfar's abduction by Melwas.The end of the episode has two different 3  Holy Grail: cálice sagrado

capítulo 4

• 61

versions. In the first, Arthur rides to rescue Gwenhwyfar and kills Melwas. In the second version, a 6th-century monk who wrote in Arthur's time, Gildas, includes Badon Hill but Arthur is not mentioned as a dispute mediator. The legends, of course, would change this rescuer to Lancelot and would assimilate this story into the Love Triangle aspect of the relationship between Arthur's best knight and his queen. But Lancelot is entirely the imagination of Chretien de Troyes and is not a part of historical investigation. As for Mordred, or Modred and whom academics think was also called Medraut, the tale of his catching the throne with the help of the queen is to be found in Geoffrey. Later writers would hold Guinevere blameless4 in this, but Geoffrey says she broke her marriage vows to Arthur and settled in as Modred's queen. When Arthur came back to fight his nephew, Guinevere fled to a monastery (Geoffrey doesn't say which) and lived out her days there in contrition. Chretien de Troyes was the man who could explain to us the adultery story of Lancelot and Guinevere. He was the author who created Lancelot and put him as a Knight of the Round Table to the court of Arthur. He was who said the queen so loved Arthur's First Knight that she gave herself to him voluntarily. He it was who said the two were so ashamed and yet not shameful. Other writers would build on this theme. Sir Thomas Mallory introduced the idea that Arthur's continuing not knowing at all would serve as a pattern of distrust of his authority by his knights; they also would not believe his ability to rule if he couldn't see or admit such an obvious thing. Mallory would add the story of how Arthur found his queen guilty of treachery and sentenced her to death by being burned at the stake and how Lancelot saved her and carried her off. Arthur and Lancelot fought, of course, and Mallory follows Geoffrey in placing Guinevere in a monastery.

4.1.4  Did Percivale see the Grail or not? The character of Percivale probably is based on Peredur, a character who has his own tale in the Mabinogion. Peredur begins as a country waif, brought up by his mother and innocent about the world. He has many high and low adventures. One of his two uncles tells him never to ask about the significance of what he sees. At the court of the other uncle, he sees a procession containing a bleeding something and a head on a platter. 4  Blameless: sem culpa

62 •

capítulo 4

The adultery probably is the cause of all that is wrong with Arthur's court, according to Tennyson. Because of his sin, Lancelot cannot contemplate the full glory of the Holy Grail. Modern writers suggest that the adultery was inevitable because Guinevere didn't really love Arthur. The hero has further adventures, followed by a trip to Arthur's court, where an unidentified woman asks him why he didn't ask the significance of the bleeding thing or the head on a dish. In response to his claim of ignorance, she tells him that his simple question would have healed the man and the land. In the Welsh tale of Peredur, he story of Percivale's seeing the Holy Grail has its beginning. In the works of Chretien de Troyes we can see for the first time Percivale in the fable. Percivale's father is dead, and his mother raises him in ignorance of knights and about the issues in the world. He is decided to have some adventures and gets what becomes a bad advice: Don't ask about the importance of something you do not understand because you can be considered rude because of it. He goes to the Grail Castle, where he sees a bleeding lance and a grail made of silver. Percivale fails to ask the important question of the wounded man: What does afflict you? He does not see the Grail, and the land and the man suffer once more. Now, Chretien says graal, not grail. To him, the grail is not the cup from which Jesus and his disciples used at the Last Supper nor the cup which Joseph of Arimathea took the blood of Jesus at the crucifixion. It is important to explain that a graal is a serving dish or platter; it is not a cup or anything else. Yet, Robert de Boron unified these ideas and changed graal to grail. Later writers would keep the graal spelling and also the cup idea. So, since Robert, the Holy Grail has been a cup and Percivale is one of three knights who sees it, the other two are Galahad, who dies of ecstasy soon after, and Bors, who comes back to Camelot with the news of the realization of the Grail Quest. So, the answer for this question: did Percivale see the Grail? can be yes and no.

capítulo 4

• 63

4.2  The Knights Although almost everyone has heard of the Knights of the Round Table, many people are not familiar with any of the Noble Knights Besides, even Lancelot is something he was not, in the vision of many people. The Knights were men of courage, prestige, dignity, courtesy, and morality and grace. They protected ladies and damsels, honored and fought for kings, and undertook dangerous quests.

4.2.1  King Arthur gives the rules to the Knights God makes you a good man and. The Round Table was founded in moderation, humility, and modesty. They were supposed never to be outrageous, nor killers, and always flee treachery. Also, they were expected not to be cruel, and always help ladies, damosels, and gentle women. They were supposed to be good for all ladies and fight for their struggles, and always be affable and never be unmerciful to those who ask for mercy, for a knight that is respectful and kind has favor in every place. They should never hold a lady or gentle woman against her will. They must keep the word to all and be full of religiosity and faith. Right must be defended above all. They must be able to separate good from evil and the vain glory of the world, because great pride makes great sorrow. It is a venerable knight action to help another dedicated knight when he sees him in a great danger, as well a venerable man should be reluctant to see a worshipful man in shame, Remover trecho e substituir por: for it is considered cowardice to see a person suffering for any reason and do nothing to alleviate his pain. A good man should fo to another man what he would like to get for himself. It should never be said that a brother has injured or slain another brother. They should have charity, abstinence and truth. The ultimate goal to be reached is to avoid anything that will dishonor the fair name of Christian knighthood for only by immaculate and honorable lives should bravery emerge in the lives of the knights.

64 •

capítulo 4

4.2.2  The Symbol of the Knights King Arthur gave the emblem of the Knights of the Round Table as a part of the ceremony of their being made a knight. All the knights should wear it around the necks. The principal idea of the Order of the Knights was the love of God, men, and noble actions. The cross in the emblem means that they were to live pure and immaculate lives, and then gain the Holy Grail. The Red Dragon of King Arthur represented their fidelity to the King. The Round Table represented the Eternity of God, the equality, unity, and fellowship of the Order, and singleness of purpose of all the Knights.

4.3  Medieval Authors- Mallory and the Legend of Arthur ©© WIKIPEDIA.ORG

The outlaw Mallory was from an old Warwickshire family miserably adjusted with the House of York around 1460, when Warwick changed to the Lancastrian camp. Malory was in his twenties when he succeeded to the ancestral heritage. He

served with the Earl of Warwick at Calais in 1436, got married a few years later, and in 1449 obtained a second estate that of his sister's husband. As far as we know, during this time he was a respectable and perhaps welloff citizen. In 1450 he turned outlaw — and with a revenge. Between 1450 and 1451 he was accused of many major crimes — burglary, two cattle raids, several extortions, a rape, and an attempted assassination. He was arrested, but escaped by swimming a moat and immediately after his

capítulo 4

• 65

escape sank to what was for medieval men the worst of depravities — robbing churches. He was again imprisoned and kept in prison from 1451 to 1454. When he gained freedom he came back to his criminal activities, was again arrested and again broke out. He gained a royal pardon in 1455, probably by the Duke of York, and managed to serve for his shire in Parliament for a year; but two years later he was in debtors' prison (Ludgate); and he went to Newgate Prison later (1459). He may have been released upon the restoration of Henry VI in October, 1470. His die occurred in March 14, 1471, and he was buried in the St. Francis chapel in the suburbs of London. Although Thomas Malory actually may not have been the author of Le Morte d'Arthur, there is no evidence that his criminal activities interfered in the authorship of the work. Malory's legend of Arthur is essentially secular in its nucleus. Even the Grail Quest, according Mallory's view, is more secular than holy and ironic in spirit: it shows nobility of soil and, at the same time, through its slaughter of many of Arthur's knights, it dangerously weakens the kingdom. If the God of Mallory's universe is a God of love as a regulator of destiny, Merlin — half man, half wizard and even devil— is his only accessible prophet. Although history mentions very little about Arthur until the twelfth century, he was apparently a strongly established folk hero. He is the main character in numerous ancient Welsh and Irish legends that are impossible to date, and by the early twelfth century, some academics think, he may have been known in northern Italy and France, where names possibly derived from Arthurian folklore happen. But the legend was solidified in 1137, with the release of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. According to the author, the Historia translates an old book in the British language. Except for his earliest readers, no one else has believed him. Imaginary sources were a standard strategy of medieval writers. However, it is not impossible that the basis of Geoffrey's work was folk history, perhaps even written folk history. At all events, the nucleus of Geoffrey's work is clearly patriotic. It gives a British hero as noble as the Norman hero Charlemagne to the English and Anglo-Norman aristocracy. It traces England's genesis to the fall of Troy and the dispersion of the Trojan heroes — that cloudy antiquity when, for instance, Romulus fled from Troy to Rome, Tuscan to Tuscany, and Brutus to Britain — and by settling British power as coeval with Roman and French power, it raises Britain out of its submissive

66 •

capítulo 4

position with respect to European kingdoms. This pseudo-history was accepted as fact in the Renaissance. Arthur became not only a vital symbol of British national spirit, but the practical model of real medieval and Renaissance kings. He was the greatest mythical kings of Geoffrey. Edward III, like Arthur, had a Round Table and twelve fellows; Henry VII traced his claim on one side to King Arthur.

CONNECTION Acesse o link: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm para conhecer mais sobre as lendas do Rei Arthur e seus cavaleiros.

As folk tradition continued (such as in the tales recorded in the much later Welsh Mabinogion), the further development of the Arthur legend in England was almost entirely political. Only Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a few aristocrat tales such as Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale, and a half dozen Scottish Arthurian pieces stand outside the general trend. Wace's Roman de Brut, a poem in French apparently presented to the wife of Henry II of England in 1154, closely paraphrases Geoffrey and keeps the patriotic spirit, merely adorning it with verse. Layamon's Brut, which began as an English paraphrase of Wace, amplifies the nationalistic spirit of the poem in three aspects- first, by using the English language; second, by substituting native alliterative meter for Wace's continental poetic form, octosyllabic couplets; and third, by introducing new events and a new intensity of emotion — to achieve more than double the length of Wace's poem. Another English alliterative poem, the Morte Arthure, composed in the midfourteenth century, during the reign of Edward III, has political implications of a somber sort. Here Arthur's victories happen alongside to Edward's, Arthur's battles powerfully parody Edward's battles, and Arthur's tragedy — a fall through pride-warns Edward that a similar destiny may look for him. The poem is the primary source of Malory's Arthur and King Lucius sequence and may, in the opinion of some academics, have provided Malory with a model for political comment through romance. Considering that the Morte Arthure poet identified Arthur with Edward, Malory change details as if to equalize Arthur

capítulo 4

• 67

and Henry V, abolishes the tragic conclusion of the poem, and then perhaps sets the glory of Arthur — and of Henry V — in ironic balance with what came next in the England of Malory. Naturally, the Arthurian legend shown in Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae was developed along very different aspects in France. It provided not a national myth, but subject matter for fiction. It gave material for the relatively short "Breton lays" popular in France in the mid-twelfth century and after (not all of the lays are Arthurian), and it provided themes for the more complex verse "romances." The earliest and perhaps the first written which have survived are those of Chretien de Troyes, elegant and artificial creations of older Arthurian stories of (possibly) Welsh origin. Here the tales become topics for moral allegory, illustrations of virtuous behavior, politeness, and educated conversation. Verse romances of this kind usually became popular outside France — in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Germany; in England the French influence had a consequence in the Arthurian Christian parable, Sir Gawain arid the Green Knight. O Rei Arthur que conhecemos hoje é uma coleção de lendas diferentes, escritas por autores diferentes, em momentos diferentes. Entretanto, são todos unidos pelo tema comum de que o Rei Arthur foi um general britânico que lutou contra tribos anglo-saxãs e garantiu que a Grã-Bretanha permanecesse um país esplêndido do Ocidente do Sec. V.

In the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, French verse romance was substituted to prose and to still more ingenious and elaborate art. It was to this form, the prose romance that Malory turned most frequently for his material. Whereas French verse romances were relatively genuine with respect to plot, the prose romances became a somber medieval forest of complexity. A given romance might have many main plots, hundreds of digressive episodes), and too many characters for the reader to remember. Academics are not sure about how these prose romances work, and anything we say must be speculative; but since they are Malory's central point, some speculation is needed.

68 •

capítulo 4

There is no doubt about one thing: the greatest of the prose romances begin by dissolving the Aristotelian idea that a work must be intelligible. Like the elaborate interweave work in medieval painting, manuscript illumination, and church decoration, they intentionally confront intellectual comprehension. They are scared with symbols of obscure meaning, with apparently meaningful but largely separate verbal repetitions, and with slight relationships between plots and between characters. They were written backward, so to speak, beginning with a "given" of Arthurian romance — for instance the fact that a certain knight has a certain magical sword — and explaining how the unexplained detail came about. If the prose romance form has any meaning in itself, it would seem to be this: like the universe as the Christian Middle Ages thought it, the prose romance is complex beyond all intelligibility, yet secretly ordered just as the incomprehensible world around us is slightly ordered by God's plan. Knights go on missions, suffer more disturbance, confusion, and reversals than the mind can keep; yet no significant events produce, hundreds of pages later, their final effects. Because of some of these events, the motive of characters is carefully plotted and explained; and though events within any given plot may be isolated by the interference of events from other plots, no fact is isolated in the whole process of the cycle's flow of reality. This art form does not have anything seemed, even remotely, in English literature. But in simplifying the French prose romances, Malory did more than decrease an amazing complex art to mere adventure. Malory gave the legend new significance and altered the premise of Arthurian legend. It was possible because he rejected some of the religious mystery and introduced an apparent realism to it. Mallory's legend involves dozen of characters whose names and family relationships, though significant, are sometimes confused. There are several motives for this mess in the text. Malory wrote in prison, possibly under less than ideal conditions; he used sources which were themselves sometimes mysterious or complicated; he regularly changed some names for goals of his own but frequently let the name found in the source flow; he sometimes mistaken his French sources; he left any perfect copy of his work — we have only Caxton's much edited version and one scribal manuscript riddled with mistakes.

capítulo 4

• 69

REFLECTION There are lots of movies related to Medieval England. For instance, the movie: Brave Heart (Coração Valente), starring Mel Gibson, shows the context of invasion, fights and battles between tribes of the English Islands, I this case, Scots and English. The battle scenes are close to the ones describe in this unit. Another movie you should see is King Arthur (Rei Arthur), which tells the legend and also shows the battles between English kings and the German invaders There are some references to Celtic and pagan myths and culture as well as to Christian values. Enjoy and learn!

ACTIVITIES 01. Quem eram os Cavaleiros e o significado da Távola Redonda nas lendas do Rei Arthur?

EXPANDING YOUR KNOWLEDGE The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arthurian Legends Ronan CoghlanPublisher: Houghton Mifflin (P) (June 1995)

REFERENCES BURGESS, A. English Literature. Essex: Longman, 1989. CEVASCO, M.E. & LELIS, V. Rumos da Literatura Inglesa. São Paulo: Ed. Ática. Série Princípios, 1990. SANDERS,A. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. Thomas Mallory Byography. Disponível em http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/le-morte-darthur/ thomas-malory-biography. Acesso em: 26 fev. 2015. UNIVERSITY OF YORK. English and related literature. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 15 fev. 2015. WARD, A.C. História da Literatura Inglesa. Lisboa: Editorial Estúdios Limitada, 1959.

70 •

capítulo 4

5 O Renascimento e Shakespeare

Todos já ouviram o nome do mais famoso poeta e dramaturgo inglês. Existem também diversos personagens criados por ele que têm sido famosos no mundo todo há séculos: Hamlet, Romeu e Julieta, Othelo, Macbeth, dentre outros. Até mesmo as famosas palavras de Hamlet “ser ou não ser” são citadas nas mais diversas situações e lugares. O que mais você sabe sobre este grande escritor, com relação ao contexto histórico e social em que ele viveu? O que você sabe sobre sua vida, carreira e textos famosos?

OBJECTIVES Nesta capítulo serão abordados fatos históricos que vão esclarecer o contexto em que Shakespeare viveu e criou sua obra. Serão apresentados também elementos de sua vida pessoal e familiar, que nos ajudarão a compreender melhor algumas de suas escolhas e atitudes.

72 •

capítulo 5

5.1  The Tudor and the Elisabethan Age Their name remaining at the evidence of European history, the Tudors are the most famous royal dynasty in England. The Tudors wouldn’t feature in the media, like movies and TV series, without something to hold people’s attention. The Tudors –Henry VIII and his three children- Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, and Henry VIII’s father, Henry VII. This line was briefly broken only by the nine day rule of Lady Jane Grey. This family includes some of England’s most famous and most highly regarded monarchs, each with of fascinating personalities. The Elizabethan Era is a period during which Queen Elizabeth I ruled over England and promoted economic, religious and political reforms in her country, besides a great cultural improvement, sponsoring1 poets, dramatists, , writers and the incentive for the construction of great theaters in the capital city, London. After a serious conflict between her father’s heirs2 - herself included, she ascended to the English throne. The main cause of the conflicts was related to religious reasons: the fight between Catholics and Protestants for political power. The period during which Western Europe moved towards the early modern era, leaving the medieval times behind, English was ruled by the Tudors, who were are also relevant for their acts. The relationship between laymen and monarchs was changed during the Tudors rule, and the also altered the administration of the government and the way people viewed and worshipped monarchy. After the death of Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, who was Protestant and the founder of the Anglican Church, his older daughter, Mary, became the Queen of England, supported by the king of Spain, her husband, who was Catholic. When Mary died, there was a direct heir to the English throne: the young Elizabeth, who was protestant like her father. She also inherited a very turbulent, violent and poor country to rule. Despite the odds, she proved to be a valuable leader and England became one of the most powerful countries in Europe in few years. That was a time in history when all the National States and countries were defining themselves as Modern States. One of the characteristics of this era is the separation between religious power and political power. In Elizabethan England, this separation was more visible than in Spain, Portugal, Italy, among other Catholic countries, where the Catholic Church still had great influence upon the kings and queens.

1  Sponsoring (to sponsor): Patrocinar 2  Heirs: herdeiros

capítulo 5

• 73

Probably, this political situation may have influenced Shakespeare’s creations, because many of his plays, as we will see, deal with some aspects of this theme: political power, State, thrones, kings, queens, princes, nobleman.

5.1.1  The Renaissance However, what is really important to remember now is that during Elizabeth’s reign3 culture flourished all over England, especially in London. There were many noblemen at the court who sponsored dramatists, actors, shows and performances, all of them supported by the queen. It was a great time for the art of the drama. It was called Renaissance in reference to the rebirth of the classic values of art, science and philosophy, which was cultivated among the ancient Greeks and Romans, long before the Middle Ages. During almost ten centuries, all the cultural affairs were concentrated in monasteries, under the Catholic Church supervision. It was a period when all cultural aspects had the idea of God as a central one. During the Renaissance, the idea of Man as the center of the culture, as it was in the ancient Greece, changes the points of view and, culturally, it is called Anthropocentric. This radical change was responsible, among other things, for the development of the Sciences and the Arts too. One example of this period that is universally known is Leonardo da Vinci: his inventions, discoveries and artistic works, as the painting of “Mona Lisa”. Some other examples are the Italian artists Michelangelo and Raphael. This is due to the fact that the Renaissance was a very strong movement in Italy. In Portugal, one can mention Camoes, in Spain, Miguel de Cervantes and, in England, the great name was William Shakespeare. There is no doubt that he was a genius, but one cannot forget that the context is very important for the development of great talents. In the next topic, we will present some information about Shakespeare’s life and career.

5.1.2  Thomas More Sir Thomas More was a supporter of the Humanist movement. More opposed the move to what was called the Reformation in England – a stance that led to More being executed. Thomas More was a leading Roman Catholic, and a major figure in the reign of Henry VIII. 3  Reign: reinado

74 •

capítulo 5

©© GEORGIOS KOLLIDAS | DREAMSTIME.COM

Born in 1478, More had the advantage of being born into a rich family. More went to St. Anthony’s School in London because John, his father, was a judge in an era when very few people were educated. He also got some education with Archbishop Moreton before moving to Oxford University. More started a successful career as a lawyer in the Inns of Court in London after he left Oxford. When he became a MP in 1504, Thomas More went into politics, in which he made his way in this area, once in 1510 he was appointed Under-Sheriff in the City of London. More was known in Western Europe as a Humanist intellectual and also developed a reputation in both law and politics. Inevitably, More came to the attention of Henry VIII, who sent him to the Spanish Netherlands as a commercial ambassador in 1515. In 1518, More was made a member of the King’s Council. This was the beginning of an association that would culminate in More’s execution. But two years before, in 1516, he wrote ‘Utopia’ – a publication that made Thomas More even closer to Henry VIII. In 1521, Thomas More became a knight and also received the arduous mission of refining Henry’s reply to Martin Luther. Even though their association got closer, they could never be viewed as real friends. In 1523, More was elected as Speaker of the House due to Henry’s influence. More was sure that areas of the Catholic Church needed to be modernized or even reformed, once he remained a Catholic. He believed that the Catholic Church maintained a very strict discipline in doctrine and practice. But More also believed that any change to the Church had to come from the Catholic Church itself. Thomas More believed that Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Bucer, etc., were following very individual views of Protestantism. For him, the Protestants were very undisciplined in their doctrine and practice. In 1528, ‘Dialogue concerning Heresies’ was published and it attacked the Lutherans. ‘Supplication of Souls’ came one year later. In 1529, More’s relationship with Henry got stronger when he was appointed Chancellor, the

capítulo 5

• 75

first layman to be in this powerful position, after the fall of Cardinal Wolsey. Nevertheless, in May 1532 More resigned from this position. Under the Submission of the Clergy, in May 1532 Convocation passed. This meant that no legislation would pass without the knowledge and agreement of the king. Once it took away the independence that he thought that the clergy needed to work properly, More considered that this move went too far. The loyalty to the Pope, which were clearly challenged by the Submission of the Clergy, and the freedom of conscience that all clergy had to have, according to his views, led to More’s resignation, even though officially the resignation had to do with health problems. The Succession Act was passed in 1534, and made Thomas More take an oath saying that he repudiated the Pope, that the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry was invalid, and that the children of Anne Boleyn and Henry should belegitimate heirs to the throne. Thomas More refused to take the oath, which made Henry furious, once he believed that More had to pay for the king’s generosity, once it was he who had promoted More to the position of Chancellor. On April 17, 1534, More was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was charged with treason and there was only one possible result – that he was guilty. Thomas More was beheaded in Tower Hill on July 6th, 1535.

5.2  Christopher Marlowe Despite his short career, Christopher Marlowe's produced "Doctor Faustus", considered one of the most controversial and well-known plays At the frontline of the dramatic renaissance in the 16th Century,Christopher Marlowe was a playwrightand also a poet, whose works influenced generations of writers and also Shakespeare. The truth behind his sudden death still remains suspicious and unresolved. He was born in Canterbury, England, in 1564. Christopher Marlowe's lived only 29 years and his literary career lasted less than six years. Nevertheless, his achievements ensured his lasting legacy, especially the play “The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus”. Marlowe got his degree as bachelor of arts in 1584. Three years later, his master's degree was not provided by the university, once it hesitated in granting

76 •

capítulo 5

him his degree due to spread doubts on his imminent conversion to Roman Catholicism due to his frequent absences from classes. Word also spread on the possibility that he would study elsewhere. Despite all these gossips, he was awarded his master's degree on schedule. After 1587, Christopher Marlowe was in London, writing for the theater and possibly also involved in government service. His supposed first play, Dido, Queen of Carthage, was t published in 1594, but probably it has been written while he was still a student at Cambridge. According to records, the play was performed between 1587 and 1593by the Children of the Chapel, a company of young actors. The second play of Christopher Marlowe wasTamburlaine the Great (published 1590). In terms of the use of blank verse, it was his very first play written this way. It was played in London on the regular stage and this play may be considered the startof a more mature period of the Elizabethan theater. Another characteristic of this play is that it was the last to be published, once he had an early death. Some academics argue that Doctor Faustus quickly followed Tamburlaine, and that Marlowe then started to write Edward the Second, The Massacre at Paris, and lastly The Jew of Malta. According to the Marlowe Society's chronology, the order was: The Jew of Malta, Doctor Faustus, Edward the Second and The Massacre at Paris, with Doctor Faustus being performed first (1604) and The Jew of Malta last (1633). What is not disputed is that he wrote only four plays after Tamburlaine and they enhanced his legacy and influenced generations to come. The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus is the Marlowe's most famous play, but, as is the case with most of his plays, it has survived only in a corrupt form, and when Marlowe actually wrote it has been a topic of discussion. Doctor Faustus is acknowledged as the first dramatized version of the Faust legend that tells the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. While versions of story began appearing as early as the 4th century, Marlowe diverge significantly by having his hero unable to regret and have his contract annulled at the end of the play. He is warned to do so throughout by yet another Marlowe variation of the retelling--a Good Angel--but Faustus ignores the angel's advice continually. In the end, Faustus finally seems to regret for his actions, but it is either too late or just simply irrelevant, as Mephistopheles collects his soul, and it is clear that Faustus exits to hell with him. capítulo 5

• 77

Especially in his use of the blank-verse line and language, Marlowe was followed by several sixteenth century dramatic poets , In Marlowe's Tamburlaine, the prologue states its author's opinion about the verse at his time. A barbaric foreign hero was offered to the audience instead of a traditional and local hero. Due to his plays, English drama could never be the same again, especially because he paved the way to other to came, like William Shakespeare.

5.3  Shakespeare’s life and career ©© NICKU | DREAMSTIME.COM

William Shakespeare’s biographical data is scarce. According to some critics, as Anthony Burgess, Shakespeare never intended to promote himself or his personal life in his plays, verses or any other kind of texts and registers. Even the texts of his plays were collected and published by one of his friends after he died. During his lifetime,

Shakespeare composed dramas for the stage and for the actors who would act, giving each actor his piece of text. None of them had the whole text in hands. It was a very common practice during that time. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford, were he attended the grammar school. He married Anne Hathaway, had three kids and moved to London alone. There, he worked as an actor before becoming a playwright himself. After some years and many plays, he was famous and had gotten a fortune with his plays. He went back to his hometown after a great fire had consumed his “Globe Theatre” in London. He died in Stratford in 1616. What is amazing is the fact that Shakespeare himself had never thought

78 •

capítulo 5

of his works as literary pieces that would be the most famous classic texts of Western Literature. He was not worried about posterity. He was concerned with the spectacle, the playhouse and the audience. This, probably, is what gives his plays the intense life and vitality they have, even after 400 years of their first presentations. According to Burgess: Shakespeare seemed to have little interest in leaving an exact version of his life’s work to the unknown future. Nor did Shakespeare seem to think of his plays as literature: He had no interest in the reader in the study, only in the audience in the playhouse. The playhouse was everything to Shakespeare, the dramatist. Whenever we start to read one of his plays we should create in our mind a theatre like Shakespeare’s Globe and imagine the play performed there. (BURGESS, 1989, p. 75)

This is a very important fact: we should imagine the scene on the stage when we read the text of a play by Shakespeare. Originally, his plays were conceived to be on the stage, not in a book. This means that the text was created to be seen and heard as actions taking place. But, as Burgess also reminds us, the stage actually used by Shakespeare and his actors was very different from the ones we usually see nowadays. He writes that: “There was very little of the ‘let’s pretend’ in Shakespeare’s theatre. No scenery, no period costumes, no attempt at convincing the audience that they were in ancient Rome, Greece or Britain […] Similarly, the stage could be a real stage and a forest at the same time, a stage and a ship at the same time.

The swiftness of Shakespeare’s action, his rapid changes of scene, demand – if naturalism is wanted – a medium as fluid as the cinema, and it is in films that Shakespeare has come into his own for many people today.” (BURGESS, 1989, p. 75)

The point is: Shakespeare’s plays can build, with strong structures, a fictional environment4 with the power of the words. Words are the most important 4  Environment: ambiente

capítulo 5

• 79

elements of this poet’s great art. It does not matter whether the scenery is full of machinery or the characters5 are dressed properly or not. Everything happens as the words are said and replied, generating actions, reactions, situations, thoughts, doubts, deaths and, certainly, much fun. His art was and still is, based in life. The poet’s main concern was his audience, live people who were there, paying attention, getting involved by the play. They were the reason of his art, which was made for them. The plays were made in order to let everyone in the audience understand everything on the stage. This was a very difficult task, considering that Shakespeare’s audience6, in public theaters, was formed by all kinds of people, from the poorest to the richest and noblest ones. And he successfully satisfied everyone of them. In his plays, there are very sophisticated scenes and words, but they also have love scenes, action and blood7, debate and learning. Shakespeare- more than any other dramatist of his time and after, was a great story teller. He knew that what entertains the audience is not exactly the story told, but the way it is told. It makes all the difference. Summing up8: Shakespeare’s life disappears, turns into a shadow behind his works. And his works are the center of our studies.

5.3.1  Shakespeare’s Globe Theater One of most famous playhouse’s of all time as well as the theater where many of Shakespeare’s greatest plays were performed is called the Shakespeare Globe Theatre or The Globe Theatre. Built from oak , this great theater used to be the most important of the play houses in old London. With a capacity of 3000 people, William Shakespeare was a co-owner of the Globe Theatre, whose fame rivaled with that of the playwright himself. The decision to build the famous playhouse in 1598was the answer to many of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’s issues. With the end of a lease on the Blackfriars Theatre in 1597, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (Shakespeare, J & R Burbage, G Bryan, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope and Will Sly) had anywhere else to easily perform their plays. 5  6  7  8 

Characters: personagens Audience: platéia, público Blood: sangue Summing up (to sum up): resumir, concluir

80 •

capítulo 5

This troupe of actors needed a new playhouse and fast as their rivals, The Admiral’s Men already had the Rose Playhouse to perform their plays.O course,a playhouse to perform was what Lord Chamberlain’s people would need, except for one detail: no money. Although James and Richard Burbage of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men had financial resources, they needed more. They had to be creative – therefore, a new approach was paramount. Following the original plan, the playhouse was finished and opened in 1599, with a capacity to sit 3000 people in circular and innovative shape. The playhouse allowed the owner to earn good money, both from their own performances and from other groups’, due to rental contracts. The playhouse was built according to the engineering standards of its time, three stories high and as a large circular structure. The theater looked pretty much like a modern-day football stadium, because a small straw roof covered just part of the area, leaving the center uncovered. In 1613 occurred a tragedy in the playhouse: after firing a cannon during the play Henry VIII. The roof caught fire and the playhouse burned completely. Nevertheless, the theater was rebuilt after one year, on a different location. In this new theater, the dangerous straw roof was replaced and tiles were used instead.

CONNECTION Acesse os sites a seguir para ler mais informações sobre Shakespeare: http://www.suaperquisa.com/shakespeare/ http://www.pensador.inf/poemas_de_wiliam_shakespeare_amor/

5.3.2  Shakespeare’s works The first texts written and published by Shakespeare were not dramas, but lyrical poems: Venus and Adonis (1593). This book of poems was carefully edited by the author and had a great success. After that, he dedicated himself to write plays9: historical plays, comedies and tragedies. His career developed and some critics divide his production in several phases. Roger Gower (1999), for instance, suggests the following phases for Shakespeare’s plays: 9  Plays: peças teatrais

capítulo 5

• 81

Phase 1 1590-1591

Henry VI part 1

1591-1592

Henry VI parts 2 and 3

1592-1593

Richard III The Comedy of Errors

1593-1594

Titus Andronicus The Taming of the Shrew

1594-1595

Two Gentlemen of Verona Love’s Labour’s Lost Romeo and Juliet

These plays are characterized by a variety of different modes (different types of comedies and tragedies); end-stopped blank verse (where line ends at the end of a sentence or at a strongly marked pause); quite a lot of rhymed10 lines; no great complexity of imagery. Phase 2

1595-1596

Richard II

1595-1597

A Midsummer’s Night Dream

1596-1597

King John The Merchant of Venice

1597-1598

Henry IV parts 1 and 2

1598-1599

Much Ado about Nothing Henry V

10  Rhymed: rimado

82 •

capítulo 5

Julius Cesar The Merry Wives of Windsor As you Like it Twelfth Night

1599-1600

This phase is noted for more mature11 style and more flexible syntax and rhythm; more concentrated imagery; a mixture of comedies and ‘history’ plays. Phase 3 1600-1601 1601-1601 1601-1601 1604-1605

Hamlet Trolius and Cressida All’s Well that Ends Well Measure for Measure

The so called ‘problem plays’ ( a term used by the 19th century critics who found it difficult to detect Shakespeare’s intentions); difficult to interpret; somber12 in tone.

CONNECTION Acesse o link abaixo para ler a obra Hamlet em português: http://cultvox.locaweb.com.br/livros_gratis/hamlet1.pdf

Phase 4

1604-1605

Othello

1605-1606

Macbeth King Lear

1606-1607

Anthony and Cleopatra

1607-1608

Coriolanus Timon of Athens

The great tragedies, showing a way of thought unlike the Greek tragedy or earlier English tragedy; a full developed style. 11  Mature: maduro 12  Somber: sombrio

capítulo 5

• 83

Phase 5 1608-1609 1609-1610 1610-1611 1611-1612

Pericles Cymbeline The Winter’s Tale The Tempest

The romances or reconciliation plays; little or partial realism of the tragedies; tragedy transformed into reconciliation of the opposing elements.

REFLECTION To finish this unit, let’s think about these words:

“In the area of drama, no one matched William Shakespeare in terms of variety, profundity, and exquisite use of language. His subject matter ran the gamut, from classical Greco-Roman stories to contemporary tales of unrequited love. Shakespeare is known for his ability to shift between comedy and tragedy, from complex character study to light-hearted farce.

He is likewise highly regarded for the exquisite formal structure which all of his plays demonstrate. This goes beyond just acts and scenes, but encompasses the emotional and psychological arc of the action in the drama. More than anyone else, he elevated the English language to a level of sumptuousness that previous generations would not have thought possible.”(Disponível em: . Acesso em: 28 fev 2015).

ACTIVITIES Um dos ditados mais populares vem de uma das mais importantes obras de Shakespeare, Hamlet. Baseado nisso, responda: 01. Por que Hamlet pronuncia a frase “ser ou não ser”(to be or not to be)?

84 •

capítulo 5

EXPANDING YOUR KNOWLEDGE As obras de Shakespeare foram traduzidas em dezenas de idiomas e estão presentes praticamente em cada ponto do nosso planeta. Em temos de traduções para a língua portuguesa, é preciso tomar cuidado, pois este genial autor inglês usa termos e expressões típicas da época e que, para serem corretamente traduzidos, dependem de um extensivo trabalho de pesquisa. No link abaixo você vai encontrar uma tradução muito boa da obra de Shakespeare. WANDERLEY, J. Sonetos. Ed. Civilização Brasileira, 1990.

REFERENCES ABOUT EDUCATION. Shakespeare Comedies. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 22 fev. 2015. Absolute Shakespeare. The Globe Theater. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 27 jan. 2015. BURGESS, A. English Literature. Oxford: Longman, 1990. BLOMM, H. O Cânone Ocidental. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Objetiva, 1994 DENTON, JAQUES SNIDER. The System of Shakespeare's Dramas. St. Louis: G. T. Jones and Company, 1877. Shakespeare Online. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 05 jan. 2015 GREENBLAT, ET ALL. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ninth Edition, Independent Editors, 2009. SONNETS IN CONTEXT. Shakespeare. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 13 fev. 2015. SPARK NOTES. Disponível em: