VASS JUDIT

ENGLISH LITERATURE
PART ONE

FOR BILINGUAL CLASSES

 Old English Literature
410–1150

Historical Background
The Old English language and literature are rooted in the period called Anglo-Saxon times
between AD 410 and 1066. This was the early medieval period during which the Angles,
Saxons, Jutes, and Vikings invaded the British Isles later in 1066 the Norman took the rule of
Britain.
The language known as Old English, also called Anglo-Saxon, was the first form of English.
After the Norman invasion it was mixed with French and Latin, which was the language of the
Church for centuries, so there were many influences on English language and culture.
Wales became part of the Kingdom of England from 1282, but there were bitter wars against
the Scots during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In 1265, the first Parliament was
formed and English was introduced as the official language of the Kingdom in 1362. The city
of London grew to be the capital of the country, and the southern dialect of English became
the main spoken form of English.

Literature
The most significant Old English poem is Beowulf of the 8th century surviving in a
manuscript. It tells of two major events in the life of the Geatish hero Beowulf: his fight with
Grendel, a monster and 50 years later with a dragon who has attacked his people. In the fatal
combat Beowulf as well as his enemy are mortally wounded.
The importance of this poem, apart from being the greatest Old English piece of literature, lies
in its being the first major epic in a European vernacular language. The poem was written in
alliterative metre, the distinctive form of Old Germanic poetry including Old English. It
employed a long line divided by a caesura into two half-lines, each with a number of stressed
syllables. In Old English the lines normally were unrhymed and not organised in stanzas as
you can see in the following famous extract describing Beowulf’s funeral:
alegdon tha tomes Maurine theoden
haeleth hiofende hlaford leofne
ongunnon tha on beorge bael-fyra maest
wigend weccan wudu-rec astah
sweart ofer swiothole swogende leg
wope bewunden (Old English)

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The sorrowing soldiers then laid the glorious prince, their dear lord, in the middle. Then on
the hill the war-men began to light the greatest of funeral fires. The wood-smoke rose black
above the flames, the noisy fire, mixed with sorrowful cries. (Put into modern English)
Like everywhere in Europe the distinctive genre of the early medieval prose was the chronicle
written by the few literate monks among whom Bede is one of the most famous, author of the
History of the English Church and People written in Latin in the 8th century. Another
chronicle worth mentioning is The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which tells the history of England
from the beginning of Christian times to the 12th century. The Chronicle is the most
remarkable literary work among the numerous texts that were written during the reign of King
Alfred the Great.

Middle English Literature

1150⎯1485

Historical Background
The main historical events during this period were the Hundred Years War between France
and England (1337-1453), the Wars of the Roses between the royal houses of Lancaster and
York for the throne of England. In the mid thirteenth century, the Black Death (plague) took
its heavy toll of human life throughout the country. In 1381, the Peasant’s revolt broke out.

Literature
The English used from about 1100 to about 1500 is called Middle English, which largely
differs from Old English due to the French influence. These were the times, when national
identity and myth were created, and the first great masterpieces of English literature were
written among which the most influential was the legend of King Arthur, the story that
became extremely popular throughout Europe. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round
Table is the greatest national myth in English appearing first in the spoken tradition in Wales
in the 8th century, later becoming a complex legend with its main characters, Merlin, the
magician, Lancelot and Guinevere, with its symbolic features like the sword in the stone, the
myth of the Holy Grail. In the fourteenth century new Arthurian stories emerged, e.g. the
romance of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a greatly admired alliterative poem dating
from about 1375. This is one of the finest examples of chivalric romance popular in medieval
Europe from the 12th century, dealing with the adventures of legendary knights and celebrating

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chivalric moral code based on loyalty, honour, and courtly love. The plot begins in Arthur’s
court at a New Year’s feast when the green Knight appears, bearing an axe and a holly bough.
He challenges Gawain to cut his head off on the condition that Gawain agrees to have his head
cut off a year hence. Gawain accepts he challenge, cuts the knight’s head off, but the knight
picks it up and rides away. A year later Gawain sets off to keep his side of the bargain. On
Christmas Eve, he arrives at a beautiful castle where he is kindly received. The lord of the
castle makes an agreement with Gawain that each day he himself will hunt in the fields and
Gawain in the castle, and at the end of the day they will exchange spoils. For three successive
days, the lord hunts and Gawain is lured by the lord’s wife with kisses that he exchanges with
his host for the animals killed in the hunt, but on the third evening, he keeps the girdle, the
woman’s gift, thus breaking his bargain. He has to kneel to have his head cut off because of
his infidelity, but the lord only makes a slight cut in Gawain’s neck revealing that he is the
Green Knight and praises Gawain for resisting the temptation. On Gawain’s return to
Arthur’s court, they declare that they will wear a green girdle in honour of his achievement.

Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343⎯1400)

It is indisputably Chaucer, with whom English literature really begins as he was the first to
create a masterpiece of European importance, The Canterbury Tales, which is still regarded as
one of the most significant works in medieval literature, the English counterpart of Boccacio’s
Decameron. In his development, as a poet he was impressed by French and Italian literature
that conveyed Greek and Roman traditions as well. He wrote in Middle English, since at that
time Old English became outdated and was spoken only in the North of England. His works
represent a transition between the middle ages and the renaissance; his heroes live in a
changing society with changing values, some of them represent old times and thus seem to be
anachronistic in late medieval society, which is going through secularisation.
His life
Chaucer was the son of a London vintner and despite of his middle-class origin rose to high
positions in society. He had his vicissitudes during his restless life. He served in the king’s
court, in France was taken prisoner during the war and was ransomed by the king. With his
marriage, he became a prominent figure of his time. He travelled abroad on numerous
occasions on diplomatic missions to France and Italy where he could have met Petrarch and
Boccaccio. He was the first poet to be buried in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.

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The Canterbury Tales
Three synthesising masterpieces mark the culmination of medieval European literature in the
14th century: Divine Comedy by Dante, Decameron by Boccaccio and The Canterbury Tales
by Chaucer.
Though not similar in form, they are undoubtedly of the same conception i.e. of the universal
aspect of their authors, which helped them give a synthetic picture of their world.
The Divine Comedy in spite of its prevailing theological aspect conveys the new humanistic
ideology and can indubitably be called a literary encyclopaedia compressing in itself all the
scientific knowledge that were accumulated during the middle ages.
Decameron is already a truly renaissance work offering secular entertainment. Unlike Dante,
Boccaccio employs the concept of satire in drawing his characters; the dominating irony and
sarcasm of his style turns his short stories into a parody of his time.
Chaucer’s work has much in common with that of Boccaccio’s including his satirical intention
and subject matter based on everyday life and true-to-life characters. He also adapted some of
Boccaccio’s stories. The Canterbury Tales excels in joining European and English tradition.
His stories are derived from foreign and national sources as well. Chaucer is also an innovator
of English verse introducing new meters in poetry.
Though uncompleted, his masterpiece extends to 17,000 lines in prose and verse
predominantly written in rhyming couplet, which is based on a pair of rhyming lines of iambic
pentameters (ten syllables) later known as heroic couplet.
The author draws on Boccaccio’s Decameron regarding its structure and subject matter. The
frame story is similar to that of the Italian writer’s, the tales are narrated by imaginary
characters, 29 pilgrims on their way to the cathedral of Saint Thomas à Becket in Canterbury.
(Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury was assassinated on the king’s (Henry II) order in
the cathedral in 1170. Becket’s shrine at Canterbury became a famous place where miracles
were performed, and it was the objective of Chaucer’s pilgrims 200 years later.) The pilgrims
meet in an Inn from which they set off for Canterbury. The host of the inn suggests that they
should tell two stories each on their way to amuse themselves and the best story-teller should
be paid a supper by the others.
While designing his work, the poet planned to write 120 stories but he failed to carry out his
scheme.
The Tales begins with the General Prologue in which Chaucer sets the scene and gives a
detailed description of the pilgrims representing the traditional hierarchy of society, clerical
and lay, ranging from aristocratic knights to middle-class tradesmen, each of them embodying

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a certain social group with its way of life, virtues, faults and sins. The poet draws a rich and
colourful portrait of gallery with the intention of painting a global picture of the contemporary
life and the varieties of human nature. Each pilgrim is a fully realised individual and a
representative of his class at the same time. Not only does the author entertain his readers with
his extremely amusing stories but also creates a satirical tableau of man’s folly as well as a
moral lesson in the Parson’s edifying monologue about true Christianity.
Here are some of the main characters that epitomise Chaucer’s deep concern in the various
attitudes of his fellow creatures to the basic questions of life: religion, love etc. The Knight is
an honourable warrior, who fought for Christianity, The Monk, a fat lover of hunting and
luxury, who rejects work or study, The Wife of Bath, a vivid, gap-toothed widow, The
Pardoner, who sells allegedly holy relics and pardons from Rome, The Parson, a poor, diligent
cleric who aids parishioners with his own funds. The Knight’s narrative that celebrates
chivalric morale and courtly love is juxtaposed to the Miller’s story of a deceitful wife who
cheats his husband and to that of The Wife of Bath’s, in which a truly secular aspect of life is
revealed in the Wife’s joyous and garrulous attitude to religious morale. She prides herself on
having had five husbands and ridicules chastity, fidelity as well as celibacy, devoting herself
to earthly joys. The darkest portrait is given of The Pardoner, a characteristic figure of the
Church’s corruption at that time: covetousness, gluttony and simony. Chaucer, though a
Christian himself, condemns the corrupt cleric pining for money and wealth. As a
counterpoint to the Pardoner, he introduces The Parson, whose life and deeds are ruled by the
Gospel’s commandments. Read the following extracts from the General Prologue.
English Renaissance
1485–1649
The Renaissance
Renaissance is a French word that means re-birth in a double sense; on the one hand, it meant
the renewal of the antique, Greco-Roman spirit and art, on the other hand, the renewal of life
as such. It had two main movements, humanism and reformation. While the Middle Ages
were dominated by theology, the study of God, art, science and philosophy were regarded as
the 'servants' of it, Renaissance brought about essential changes in almost every field of life.
Instead of theology, humanism became the new ideology, which led to the secularisation of
culture; art and science gradually became independent of theology. It was in Italy that the
Renaissance began as early as the 14th century and spread over Europe during the following
two centuries. During intense excavations in Italy thousands works of antique art came to
light and led to an upsurge of Greco-Roman spirit, which influenced artists and gave birth to

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humanism. The medieval idea of asceticism began to fade and, as a result, earthly values
regained their importance. Renaissance brought about the development of natural sciences as
well as epoch making discoveries that shook the foundations of theology; it is suffice to
mention the heliocentric theory. A new scientific method emerged, empiricism. While
medieval art was saturated with theology and was symbolic conveying religious thought in the
first place, Renaissance art tended to be mimetic following the Aristotelian view of mimesis
that is the theory, that art must be the mirror of life i.e. entertaining and edifying at the same
time. Great changes took place in Literature as well. In the Middle Ages, literature was
overwhelmingly religious, didactic and written in Latin. By comparison, Renaissance
literature created Neo-Latin poetry based on the classical Latin of the Roman poets, Horace
and Virgil. Later on, during the Reformation, it became fashionable for the writers to write in
the vernacular. Not only the language but also the subject matter became secularised, arts
became less didactic and offering entertainment. New genres emerged: the sonnet, the short
story, etc. Dramatic art saw its renewal, too. Secular theatrical performances were prohibited
during the Middle Ages; the only form of dramatic art was the miracle play. The first
permanent theatres were built in the Renaissance, and the drama reached its highest point in
the works of William Shakespeare.
Historical Background
During this period, England went through great changes both in its religion and political life.
Henry VIII broke away with the Roman Catholic Church and was responsible for establishing
the Church of England representing the English type of Protestantism also called
Anglicanism. From a restricted point of view English renaissance is frequently referred to as
Elizabethan time as Queen Elizabeth I became the symbol of the Golden Age when England
grew to be the strongest Empire controlling the seas of the world after defeating the Spanish
Armada. Her royal court became one of Europe’s greatest cultural centres with its flourishing
arts and sciences.
Renaissance Poetry
English poetry was mainly influenced by Italian humanism, mostly by Petrarch and his Neo-
platonic ideas. Neo-Platonism was a philosophical system of humanistic thought elaborating a
hierarchy of spiritual levels through which the individual soul could ascend to the Divine. The
Neo-platonic poets showed love as a religious activity and the admired woman was none less
than the physical embodiment of divine beauty. Rarely does the mistress have individual
features as the poems reflect only her sublime picture. Renaissance poetry is highly elaborate

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putting great emphasis on form and poetic devices using a wide range of conceits: elaborated
metaphors or similes that render the style imaginative and eloquent.

The sonnet
Not only did Petrarch influence his contemporaries with his ideas but also set an example with
the sonnet that became the favourite form of English poetry producing its own rhyming
pattern. The Petrarcahan sonnet consists of four stanzas (the first and the second called an
octave, the third and the fourth a sestet), rhyming as follows: abba/abba/cdc/cdc. The English
sonnet varies from poet to poet. The Shakespearean sonnet is not divided into stanzas, it
consists of three quatrains (4 lines) and a couplet. The rhyming pattern is: abab/cdcd/efef/gg

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) was a scholar, critic, diplomat and the first major poet of
English Renaissance. He is famous for his sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella, which is a
record of his hopeless love for Stella. The sonnet sequence was a fashionable form addressed
to a woman and expressing a dramatic love story. Sidney follows this tradition but moves
beyond it mixing the Neo-Platonic desire with self-mockery: ‘I am not I; pity the tale of me’
writes in one of his sonnets aiming at the self-destructive nature of his condemned love. In his
Defence of Poesie (1595) Sidney follows the Neo-Platonic approach to reality considering art
an absolute principle: ‘Nature’s world is brasen, the Poets only deliver a golden’.

Read the first sonnet from Astrophil and Stella. Consider the sonnet form and the images used
by the poet.
Sir Philip Sidney

Astrophil and Stella

1.

Loving in truth, and faine inverse my love to show,

That the deare She might take some pleasure of my paine:
Pleasure might cause her reade, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pitie winne, and pitie grace obtaine,

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 I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,
Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertaine:
Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunne-burn’d braine.
But words came halting forth, wanting Invention’s stay,
Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Studie’s blowes,
And others’ feete still seem’d but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak, and helplesse in my throwes,
Biting my trewand pen, beating my selfe for spite,
‘Foole’, said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write.’

This is a characteristic sonnet by Sidney based on conventional rhetoric and traditional

Petrarchan elements. Poetry is not only art but is a means to win love; the poet is subordinate
to his mistress who has no individual features. The poem differs from the Petrarchan prosody
in its structure built up of three quatrains and a couplet that imposes a witty conclusion at the
end. What reaches beyond convention is the comical self-portrait (‘Biting my pen…’)
juxtaposed to the hyperbole (‘the blackest face of woe’) of love approached here with irony.
Sidney sneers at the imitation of conventional conceits: ‘Studying inventions fine, her wits to
entertain’, ‘And others’ feete still seem’d but strangers in my way.’ Without authentic
emotions and style, poetry is a mere exercise as the last line states in an epigrammatic turn:
‘look in thy heart and write.’ which means true poetry stems from only real emotional
experiences. There is a sharp contrast between the depicted ‘woe’ and the playful, witty style
and irony.

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599)

Spenser was another major poet of the same period synthesising in his works antique,
medieval, and humanist thought. His literary fame was first established through the
Shepheardes Calendar (1579), written in 12 eclogues symbolising the twelve months and
idealising rural life. Being a Platonist, Spemser exalts nature over culture. (The eclogue is a
pastoral dialogue of Greek origin widely used in the Renaissance, often derived from Virgil.)
The Faerie Queen represents an allegorical commentary on the religious, political and social
scene, celebrating Queen Elizabeth. Spenser introduced here a new form now called the

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Spenserian stanza employing nine lines, eight pentameters and one hexameter. Its rhyme
scheme is ababbcbcc. He is also famous for his love poetry of which we have to mention
Amoretti and Epithalamion. Amoretti are a sonnet cycle celebrating his love for his later wife.
The sonnets were written in Petrarchan mode and they tell the story of the poet’s love first
rebuffed then returned by his mistress. The Spenserian sonnet is to some extent different from
that of Sidney’s. Its rhyming scheme is as follows: abab/bcbc/cdcd/ee; it was also used by
Keats, Rosetti, Yeats and Dylan Thomas.

Read the following extract from Amoretti. In what way does the text reflect Platonic ideas?

Sonnet. LXXV
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
but came the waues and washed it away:
agayne I wrote it with a second hand,
but came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.
Vayne man, sayd she, that doest in vaine assay,
a mortall thing so to immortalize,
for I my selue shall lyke to this decay,
and eek my name bee wyped out likewize.
Not so, (quod I) let baser things deuize
to dy in dust, but you shall liue by fame:
my verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
and in the heuens wryte your gloriuos name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
our love shall liue, and later life renew.

Amoretti were published together with Epithalamion a wedding ode containing twenty-four
stanzas telling the events of twenty-four hours of the wedding day rituals.
William Shakespeare (later dealt with in more detail) wrote 154 sonnets that were published
in 16o9 and have been debated ever since. We do not exactly know whom they were written
to; we only know that some were written to a beautiful young man, probably a friend, some to
a mysterious 'Dark Lady', the mistress of the poet. In his sonnets, Shakespeare turns away
from the Petrarchan tradition, and develops his individual style though in one of the poems he
reproaches himself for writing ‘ever the same:

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‘So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent.’ (Sonnet. LXXVII.)
This refers to his main subject matter i.e. love that reappears in almost every sonnet. Love for
Shakespeare is a complex state of mind rather than a simple feeling of attraction; we cannot
find conventional courtesy in his poems, because love is a paradoxical emotion: on the one
hand, it is a means of self-creation; on the other hand, it can lead to self-destruction. In the
sonnets, there are two different representations of love: one is a spiritual with elevating force
that makes the lover a better man; the other is a self-imposed slavery that can lead to the
disintegration of the personality. The subject matter of Shakespeare’s sonnets reaches beyond
mere love confession; the poems touch upon philosophical and ethical questions and give
insight into a contemplating mind. They are rich in imagery derived partly from the
archetypal heritage of world literature and individual reflections.
1. Read the following sonnet, and compare it with Spenser’s poem cited above. What is
common in them?
2. Compare the Hungarian translation by Szabó Lőrinc with the original and analyse the
metaphors used by the two poets.
William Shakespeare

Sonnet 18. (XVIII) 18. Szonett

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Mondjam: társad, másod a nyári nap?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Te nyugodtabb vagy, s az nem oly üde,
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May Hisz a május méz-bimbaira vad
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Szél csap, s túlrövid a nyár bérlete;
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, Az ég szeme néha gyújtva ragyog,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d S arany arca máskor túlfátyolos;
And every fair from fair sometime declines, S mind válik a széptől a szép, ahogy
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; Rútítja rendre vagy vakon a rossz.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, de a te örök nyarad nem fakúl
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; S nem veszíti szépséged birtokát;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, Ne mondja Halál, hogy rád árnya
hull:
When in eternal lines to time thou growest; Örök dalokban nőssz időkön át.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see Míg él ember szeme s lélegzete,

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 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. Mindaddig él versem, s élsz benne
te.
Szabó Lőrinc ford.
Love and art are two absolute principles in Shakespeare’s sonnets. The subject matter of this
poem is a poetic commonplace: art can immortalise mortals. It starts with a rhetorical
question, and in the subsequent lines, the poet compares the beloved to nature the image of
which is an anthropomorphic one. Archetypes (seasons) are drawn from Nature but can also
mean the different stages of human life, thus every image can be interpreted on two levels.
Shakespeare, with the help of metaphors, describes nature as a human being, which is why
the beauty of it means human beauty. (e.g. ‘eye of heaven shines') The natural and human
beauty is elevated to eternity with the help of art. However, there is a deep contrast between
Nature and Art. The concrete summer is subject to the devastating course of time, while the
'eternal summer' of the beloved is immortal, because the lines of the poem are immortal. Art
defeats time.

3. Here are two more sonnets by Shakespeare. Choose one to be analysed.

Sonnet 130. (CXX) Sonnet 75. (LXXV)

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; So are you to my thoughts, as food to life,
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red: Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the
ground,
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; And for the peace of you I hold such strife
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. As ‘twixt a miser and his wealth is found:
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
But no such roses I in her cheeks; Doubting the filching age will steal his
treasure;
And in some perfumes is there more delight Now counting best to be with you alone,
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. Then better’d that the world may see my
pleasure:
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know Sometime all full with feasting on your
sight,
That music hath a far more pleasing sound: And by and by clean starved for a look;
I grant I never saw a goddess go, Possessing or pursuing no delight,

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My mistress, when she walks, treads on the Save what is had or must from you be took.
ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day.
As any she belied with false compare. Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

John Donne (1572–1631)

His life
He was born into a Catholic family and educated at Oxford but his religion barred him from
taking a degree. After adventurous sailing at the seas he was elected Member of Parliament,
however, when he secretly married Anne More (by whom he had 12 children), he was
dismissed from the service and imprisoned. The next 14 years were hard times for him
hopelessly looking for employment. He depended on the charity of his friends, living in
Mitcham. In 1612, he moved to London helped by his patrons. James I insisted on Donne’s
entering the Church of England so he renounced his Catholic faith. He was made a chaplain-
in-ordinary and years later became the dean of St Paul’s Cathedral where he grew to be a
celebrated preacher of his time. After his wife's death Donne suffered from a deep depression
and devoted his life to preaching. His sermons were published after his death.

Donne’s Poetry
Apart from being a churchman, Donne was the leading metaphysical poet in the 17th century,
opening a new vein in English poetry. The term ‘metaphysical’ refers both to style and subject
matter. It was characteristic of the metaphysical poets to contemplate on religious and
philosophical questions; in doing so, they preferred new ways of expression and deliberately
avoided commonplace images. They followed the pattern of thought, which is reflected in the
logical framework of their poems. What is special about their new imagery is the connection
of the abstract with the concrete, the remote with the near, the sacred with the profane, in a
word, they were fond of paradoxes and took great delight in dialectic. Donne’s lyrics are
diverse in subject matter ranging from erotic love poems to religious and philosophical ones.
His wit never escapes him; his style is unique and inventive. He created a highly personal
imagery and more flexible rhythm closer to the spoken word.

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His love lyrics are collected in the Songs and Sonnets written over twenty years and are
distinguished by their colloquial force and erotic passion. Donne’s was a fulfilled love. His
love poetry is quite modern in its handling sensual love in all its aspects.

1. Read the following poem by John Donne and answer the questions below.

The Good-Morrow Jó reggelt

I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I Mit míveltünk I, mondd, míg végre nem lőn,
Did, till we lov’d? were we not wean’d till then? hogy így szeressük egymást? Tudja ég.
But suck’d on countrey pleasures, childishly? Mint kisdedek gyönyört szívtunk egy emlőn?
Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den? vagy horkoltunk, mint két álomszuszék?
T’was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee. Igen, a boldogok mind képzelődnek,
If ever any beauty I did see, de hogyha szépet láttam már előted
Which I desir’d, and got, t’was but a dreame of thee. s vágytam reá, csak álmodtam, felőled.

And now good morrow to our waking soules, Hát jó reggelt fölébredt lelkeinknek,
Which watch not one another out of feare; mely másra többé sohasem figyel.
For love, all love of other sights controules, A Szerelem már senkinek sem inthet,
And makes one little roome, an every where. és csöpp helyen fér csöndesen igy el.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, egy új világ kell bátor tengerésznek,
Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne térképet hoz ő a földi résznek
Let us poessesse one world, each hath one, and is one. de mi maradjunk egynek és egésznek.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears Arcom szemedbe és arcod szemembe,
And true plain hearts doe in the faces rest, a tiszta, hű szív egy arcot kutat.
Where can we finde two better hemipheares Van-e két félteke itt, jobb-e, szebb-e?
Without sharpe North, without declining West? hol nics kemény Észak, hunyó Nyugat?
What ever dyes, was not mixt equally; Ki csonka, a haláltól visszaretten.
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I Ha összeforradunk most önfeledten,
Love so alike, that none does slacken, none can die. meglásd, nem ishalunk meg majd mi ketten.

Kosztolányi Dezső fordítása

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 Questions
1. How do the lover’s past compare with their present?
2. Does the title have, if any, metaphorical meaning?
3. Why does he compare lovers to sea-discoverers? What is common in them and what is
the difference between them?

As time went by, Donne’s poetry became increasingly intellectual discussing the crucial
questions of his time when the known world was rapidly expanding and became more
confused, pessimistic. Donne expressed his contemporaries’ doubts in many of his
philosophical poems among which one of the greatest is An Anatomy of the World, which
contemplates on human life and death and gives a profound summary of a changing world.
Read the following extract and consider its argument. What has gone wrong in the world?

‘And new Philosophy calls all in doubt,

The Element of fire is quite put out;
The Sun is lost, and th’earth, and no mans wit
Can well direct him where to looke for it.
And freely men confesse that this world’s spent,
When in the Planets, and the Firmament
They seeke so many new; they see that this
Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies.
‘Tis all in pieces, all cohaerence gone;’

Now read the following extract from a 20th century Hungarian poem written by Ady Endre.
In what way does Ady’s poem resemble that of Donne’s regarding their aspects and poetic
language?

“Minden Egész eltörött,

Minden láng csak részekben lobban,
minden szerelem darabokban,
Minden Egész eltörött.“
(Kocsi-út az éjszakában)

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After his wife’s death, Donne wrote mournful poems; the parting with the beloved was so
depressing that his style lost its vigour; the only comfort remained in his faith promising
reunion with his lover. In his late years, he wrote the famous Holy Sonnets that express the
paradoxes of his belief. These are one-sided conversations with God; after a self-critical
summary of his life, the poet is ready to return to his creator, but the tone is tragic, the words
are full of fear and ambiguity.

6
This is my play’s last scene, here heavens appoint
My pilgrimage’s last mile; and my race,
Idly yet quickly run, hath this last pace,
My span’s last inch, my minute’s latest point;
And gluttonous death will instantly unjoint
My body and soul, and I shall sleep a space,
But my ever-waking part shall see that face
Whose fear already shakes my every joint:
Then, as my soul t’ heaven her first seat takes light,
And earth-born body in the earth shall dwell,
So fall my sins, that all may have their right,
To where they’re bred, and would press me, to hell.
Impute me righteous, thus purged of evil,
For thus I leave the world, the flesh, the Devil.

10
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me;
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou ‘rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

16
 And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou the?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

14
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue;
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthral me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Renaissance Drama
Elizabethan Theatre
Before the 16th century, there were no theatres in England. In The Middle Ages, like
everywhere in Europe, the Church prohibited secular performances. The only forms of
dramatic plays, the so called moralities or miracle plays represented religious drama and were
connected with Christian rituals performed at Christmas and Easter.

17
Elizabethan theatre has its roots in late medieval playing. The first vagrant groups travelled
from town to town and performed in market places or public houses (inns). During the
Renaissance there was a great demand for public entertainment and playing became
increasingly popular among the citizens. The Royal Court encouraged theatrical companies
but the Puritans strongly opposed to this kind of entertainment and they considered playing as
'a prelude to brothel'. When Elizabeth ordered that the public houses should provide
accommodation for travellers the inns more often served as temporary playing houses for
vagrant companies. However, the puritan governors of the City of London were hostile to
public entertainment and in 16oo all playing at inns was prohibited. Nevertheless, between
1576 and 1642 dozens of theatres were built to the North of London, outside the city. The first
playhouses were built in 1576. They were specially designed buildings; their structure
resembled the interior of traditional English public houses. There were two types of theatres:
the 'public playhouses' and the 'private houses'. The public playhouses were open
amphitheatres performing for common people, while the aristocracy visited the private houses
or ‘indoor halls’. The first public theatre was built in 1576 called simply The Theatre. Soon
after other theatres were erected: the Rose and the Swan. Shakespeare's theatre, the Globe
opened in 1599.
These public playhouses were designed according to the plan of public houses or inns. A
public playhouse was an open building with no roof on it, 12 metres high with a round shaped
yard or pit in the centre, 25 metres wide. The yard usually was surrounded by three ranks of
galleries. For playing the yard had a platform stage projecting from one side into the middle
and the cheapest position in the audience was a standing place in the yard around the stage.
The best places we find in the galleries in the 'lord's rooms' adjacent to the stage. The part of
the galleries from which the stage projected was called 'tiring-house' or 'dressing-room' for the
players. Sometimes the gallery over the stage was used for playing to supplement the stage
platform. (In the Romeo and Juliet it served as a balcony.) In the private houses there was
another system: the best places were in the pit closest to the stage and the poorest had their
seats in the galleries. The indoor halls were the first theatres to have a seating and pricing
system similar to that of in modern theatres.
In the open amphitheatres (like the Globe) there were no armchairs, most of the audience were
kept standing around the stage throughout the performance and even in the galleries there
were only bare benches for the wealthy patrons of the company.
The Elizabethan theatre was a commercial enterprise. The playing companies controlled the
entire enterprise of staging plays. They paid the playwrights and owned the plays absolutely,

18
and their main object was money. The audience had to pay for admission and 50 per cent of
the income was divided between the actors, the other half was kept to maintain the theatre.
(Shakespeare himself was the greatest shareholder of his theatre.) As the plays belonged to the
companies, they sometimes changed the playwrights' scripts that normally were just raw
material for the stage, because the Elizabethan dramas were written for the stage and not for
reading.
The repertory was always changing. The companies were expected to perform a different play
every afternoon - it meant 3o-4o plays in a year of which 14-21 was new. There was not much
time for rehearsing, and an average rehearsal of a new play took no longer than 2-4 weeks
while the actors had to perform other plays in the theatre.
Plays were staged with no scenery. The Elizabethan theatre was not a realistic performance in
our sense. Unlike most modern dramas, the plays did not depend on scenery to indicate the
setting (the place) of the action. Plays ran continuously without intervals or any pause between
the acts and scenes. One scene would follow another quickly, because there was no curtain to
close or open and no scenery to change. Although there was no scenery, various props were
used, such as swords, torches to indicate night, etc.
On the other hand, acting companies spent a lot of money on colourful costumes that were
aimed at producing visual splendour. Sound effects had an important part in the Elizabethan
drama; music also played a vital role.
The acting itself was not realistic - even in the adult companies women's parts were played by
men or boys. The early Elizabethan theatre did not intend to be realistic. The most popular
players were the clowns and the fools. The clown was a churlish, clumsy figure contrasted to
the high-flown words of other heroes, and the fool was a witty professional entertainer dressed
in the typical court dress.
Shakespeare's company represented great development in this aspect. The Shakespearean
actors invented a new way of acting called 'personation' of the character. This new way of
acting is reflected in Hamlet's famous words:
'the purpose of playing...both at the first and now was and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up
to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure.'
When James succeeded Elizabeth in 1603, he extended protection of the companies against
the city and acknowledged the pre-eminence of the Globe. (It was burnt down in 1613 during
the performance of Henry VIII.) In 1642, the Parliament passed a law that all the public
houses should be demolished. During Cromwell's protectoration, theatres were prohibited.

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Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
Marlowe was born as the son of a Canterbury shoemaker later educated in Cambridge where
he became a MA (Master of Arts). Though he acquired classical knowledge, he was of a
violent temperament and involved in criminal activities. In 1593, he was killed in a tavern
after a quarrel. In spite of his violent life, Marlowe was an admired playwright whose works
influenced Shakespeare. In As You Like It, he paid tribute to him as the ‘dead shepherd’.
Marlowe’s best dramas are Tamburlaine, Dr Faustus.
Dr Faustus is a drama in blank verse and prose published in 1604, and is the first
dramatisation of the medieval legend of a man who sold his soul to the devil. It was first
published in the Fuastbuch at Frankfurt and translated into English. Marlowe’s play follows
this translation in the general outline of the story, but has a deeper philosophical meaning.
Faustus, weary of the sciences, turns to magic and calls up Mephistopheles, with whom he
makes a compact to surrender his soul to the Devil in return for 24 years of life, during these
Mephistopheles shall attend on him and give him whatsoever he demands. Faustus’s greatest
demand is to be ‘great Emperor of the world’. In the end, his soul is carried away by the devil.
The tragedy ends with Faustus’s monologue. IDÉZET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (+ Goethe!)
Later it was Goethe, who wrote a world famous drama based on Faustus’s legend, but his
work largely differs from that of Marlowe’s. Goethe’s Faust represents a new literary hero that
we call ‘Faustian’ who tries to free himself from God and attempts to understand the world
with the help of his reason instead of mere faith. The play opens with a soliloquy by Faust,
disillusioned with the world. He enters into a compact with Mephistopheles to become his
servant in return of any moment of delight in which he would say: ‘Stay, thou art so fair’.
Mephistopheles tries to ruin Faust luring him by dishonest love, money, and power, but in the
end, he fails to seize his soul, because Faust becomes purified. He realises that true happiness
lies not in egotistic aims but in the service of man. God absolves him and his soul is carried
away by angels. Madách Imre’s drama The Tragedy of Man is also based on the Faustian
legend as well as Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita or Thomas Mann’s work
Doctor Faustus.

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William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
His life
William Shakespeare, playwright and poet was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, on 26 April
1564. His father was a glover, a dealer and a bailiff and justice of the peace. We know very
little about Shakespeare's education, but he might have studied at the local grammar schools,
however no records for the period remained. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway who was
eight years his senior and gave birth to four children in the following years. Nothing is known
of Shakespeare's beginnings as a writer, the first allusion to him as a man of the theatre is
from 1592, when in a pamphlet he is called by the nickname 'Shake-scene'. By that time he
was a significant figure on the London literary scene and was the leading member of the Lord
Chamberlain's Men. Later they developed into London's leading company, occupying the
Globe Theatre from 1599.Shakespeare became a fashionable playwright, but his family
remained in Stratford. However, he was gradually withdrawing to his birthplace, where he
bought a substantial house, New Place.He died on 23 April and was buried in Holy Trinity.
Very few Shakespearean works were printed in his lifetime; the only exceptions are his
sonnets and two narrative poems. Only half of his scripts were printed, some in reported texts
now known as 'bad quartos.' He wrote his plays not for the press but for the stage. It was only
after his death that two of his friends began to prepare his works for the press, known as the
First Folio, which appeared in 1623.
From the 19th century onwards doubts have been raised about the authenticity of his works i.e.
some critics argues that it was not Shakespeare who wrote the plays but Francis Bacon
(Baconian Theory), the question has not been settled, now and then new ideas emerge about
the ‘origin’ of Shakespeare’s works. However, Ben Jonson, a contemporary and friend to the
playwright commemorates him in the First Folio as the ‘Sweet Swan of Avon.’ We do not
have any evidence to question Shakespeare’s genius.
Early works: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet
Middle plays: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear, and Othello
Late works: The winter's Tale, The Tempest
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–1596)

The plot
Hermia, ordered by her father Egeus to marry Demetrius, refuses, because she loves Lysander,
while Demetrius has formerly professed love for her friend Helena, and Helena loves
Demetrius. Under the Law of Athens, Theseus, the duke, gives Hermia four days to obey his

21
father; or else she must suffer death or enter a nunnery. Hermia and Lysander agree to leave
Athens secretly in order to be married where the Athenian law cannot pursue them, and to
meet in a wood. Hermia tells Helena of the project, and the letter tells Demetrius, who follows
Hermia to the wood, and Helena Demetrius, so that all four are that night in the wood that is
the favourite haunt of the fairies. Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, have
quarrelled, because Titania refuses to give up to him a little changeling boy for a page. Oberon
tells Puck, a mischievous sprite to fetch him a certain magic flower, of which he will press the
juice on the eyes of Titania while she sleeps, so that she may fall in love with what she first
sees when she wakes. Overhearing Demetrius in the wood, Oberon orders Puck to place some
of the love-juice on his eyes, but so that Helena shall be near him when he does it. Puck
mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and as Helena is the first person Lysander sees he at once
falls in love with her, who thinks he is just making a jest of her. Then Oberon applies the
charm to Demetrius’s eyes; he on waking first sees Helena, sot both Lysander and Demetrius
are now wooing her. The ladies begin to abuse one another and the me go off to fight for
Helena Meanwhile Oberon has placed the love-juice on Titania’s eyes, who wakes to find
Bottom the weaver near her, wearing an ass’s head; Titania at once falls in love with him.
Oberon reproaches her, for bestowing her love on an ass, and again demands the changeling
boy, whom she surrenders, whereupon Oberon releases her from the charm. Puck throws a
thick fog about the human lovers and brings them together in order to apply remedy to their
eyes and awakening, they return their former loves. Theseus and Egeus appear on the scene,
the runaways are forgiven, and the couples married. The play ends with the ‘play’ of ‘Pyramus
and Thisbe’, comically acted by Bottom and his fellow tradesmen, to grace these nuptials and
those of Theseus and Hippolyta.

The play was written roughly at the same time as Romeo and Juliet; both are centred on love
as subject matter but A Midsummer Night’s Dream is more complex regarding its
psychological approach to human nature. While Romeo and Juliet can be regarded as a
romantic tragedy of youthful love, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream the tragic tune is repressed
by grotesque elements. This is a prototype of Shakespeare’s comedies derived from folk
rituals, Carnivals and Masques. Bakhtin in his study on Rabelais argues for a tradition of folk
carnival existing as opposition to the feudal culture. In his interpretation, Carnivals represent
‘the people’s second life’. The elements of the topsy-turvy world of folk carnivals evidently
influenced Shakespeare’s comedies. There is a typical structure in them noted by Northrop
Frye, who distinguishes three stages in the plot.

22
1. stage: An anti-comic society imposes restrictive laws (Egeus - Athens)
2. stage: Confusion and loss of identity (Wood)
3. stage: Confusion resolved
Apart from these characteristics, several other comic elements turn up in Shakespeare’s
comedies: disguise, changing sex etc.
The structure of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is built on symbolic counterpoints:
Athens Wood
Civilised world Natural world
Rational Irrational
Mortals Fairies
Reality Dream
These are however, not real counterpoints, because in a sense they represent the different sides
of human nature: reason – instinct; down-to-earth way of thinking – idealism, gentility –
violence. Artistically they are separated by contrasting symbols but on the other hand,
Shakespeare himself deliberately mixes them with each other. The elements of irrationality or
violence can be found in both Athens and the wood. (Egeus would send his daughter to death
if she did not follow his order. Helena is complaining about Demetrius’s harsh treatment and
about her own irrational attitude to it: ‘The more I love, the more he hateth me’. Hermia: ‘The
more I hate, the more he follows me.’ The irrational, disruptive impulses of love are
compressed in Titania’s lust for Bottom. Here, in the symbolic centre of the play meet the
sublime and the ridiculous, as they represent the contradictory character of love: its spiritual
and animal tendencies. It is most grotesque that the only mortal figure that is brought in
contact with the fairies is the most rustic one. Nevertheless, are not Lysander, Demetrius or
Egeus ridiculous? Is Demetrius more rational?
The counterpoints of the plot mirror each other; there is nothing in the nighttime wood that
cannot happen in the daylight Athens. Shakespeare draws several plot rhymes: Theseus and
Hyppolita are preparing for their wedding while Oberon and Titania are separated because of
jealousy. The tradesmen are preparing their play while the fairies are holding their carnival.
These plot rhymes, the juxtaposition of contrasting tones i.e. eloquent and comic, reflect the
paradoxes of the human world. The Moon, which is an archetype of dreams and desires moves
throughout the play reflecting the lunatic frenzy of the creatures. The tone tends to vibrate
between the comic and the tragic. In Romeo and Juliet, despite its tragic conclusion, there are
numerous farcical scenes, puns, and hilarious mockery, while in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
the comic elements are shadowed by the possibility of tragic or violent outcome of the

23
conflicts. In the end, Shakespeare dissipates the spell under which his characters revealed their
irrationality; order is restored on the surface. However, Bottom’s stuttering about his dream
can convince us that the confusion remains though repressed by the social order. Puck’s
reconciling words at the end of the play are lyrical and ironical at the same time: ‘all is
mended’.
Hamlet
The Plot
Old Hamlet, king of Denmark is recently dead and his brother Claudius has assumed the
throne and married his widow Gertrude.Young Hamlet returning from university at
Wittenberg learns from the ghost of his father that Claudius murdered him by pouring poison
into his ear. The ghost commands him to avenge the murder without injuring Gertrude.
Hamlet warns his friend Horatio and the guards that he intends to pretend madness, and
swears them to secrecy. After his famous monologue ('To be or not to be'), he repudiates
Ophelia, whom he has loved. He arranges a performance with a vagrant group of actors in
order to lay a trap to his uncle who during the performance gets furious and leaves the scene.
Hamlet refrains from killing Claudius while he is at prayer, but kills Polonius in her mother's
room. Claudius sends him to England with sealed orders that he should be killed. Hamlet
outwits him arranging the deaths of his old friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who were
his uncle's agents. During Hamlet's absence, Ophelia has gone mad with grief from Hamlet's
rejection of her and her father's death and is found drowned. Her brother, Laertes, returning
from France determines to avenge Ophelia's death. Claudius arranges a fencing match
between Hamlet and Laertes giving the latter a poisoned foil that causes the death of both
young men. Gertrude has drunk a poisoned cup intended for Hamlet who kills Claudius in the
last scene. Fortinbras, prince of Norway appears and gives Hamlet a military funeral.

Hamlet

The tragedy was written in blank verse that was introduced by Marlowe in English drama.
Blank verse is based on unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Hamlet represents classical
tragedy that was formed during the renaissance. It normally contains five acts divided into
several scenes. The plot of a classical tragedy unfolds as a conflict between the main
character, the protagonist and the surrounding world that wants to impose its authority,
against which he rebels. Thus, the real conflict breaks out between different attitudes and

24
values. Through the incidents, the protagonist is led into calamity by a fatal error that
results in his downfall. Classical tragedies deal with moral questions and are aimed to
achieve a catharsis (purification) in the audience.

ACT I Shakespeare sets the scene, introduces the main and minor characters and the
makes us feel the tension between them.
Like almost every Shakespearean drama, it starts with a dialogue between minor characters,
which is a good means to evoke the atmosphere of the world in which the protagonist lives.
In the first scene we listen to the guard’s and Horatio’s reflections full of tension because of
the ghost’s appearance that anticipates the tragedy and casts a shadow on Denmark, where
people live in fear they do not yet know why.
Marcellus: ‘Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land,’ (Act I, Scene I)
Marcellus: ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ (Act I, Scene I)
Hamlet: ‘I doubt some foul play:’ (Act I, Scene II)
At the beginning of Scene II, we enter the royal court where Claudius announces his marriage
with Gertrude, the widow of late Hamlet, and makes it clear that he is to be the new King of
Denmark, which is not so evident as it is Hamlet, who is the lawful inheritor of the throne.
Claudius’s speech is calm and eloquent showing deep concern in the welfare of the state, but
he actually usurps the throne thus forcing his will on the court that obeys him. It is only
Hamlet, who expresses open aversion to their marriage and their joyous behaviour soon
after his father death: ‘I am too much i’ the sun’ Both Claudius and Gertrude reproaches him
for mourning his father ‘too long’ and they try to persuade him to accept the new situation.
Claudius: ‘…………………. think of us
As of a father; for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne’
Claudius reveals his real aim: apart from being suspicious of Hamlet’s hostile behaviour, he
needs Hamlet’s presence in the court to have him accepted as the new father and king, which
is why he prohibits the prince to return to Wittenberg. As his mother entreats Hamlet to
remain, he has no other choice but obey against his own will. In his bitter soliloquy, he
accuses his mother of forgetting his late husband too soon and we first can face Hamlet’s
inner conflict between his own moral self and his sense of duty:
Hamlet: ‘But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue!’

25
Scene III is the shortest of the play but most important for us to understand the new
atmosphere in the royal court. We enter Polonius, The Lord Chamberlain’s house and listen to
the dialogues between Laertes ad Ophelia then between Polonius and his daughter. Laertes
teaches Ophelia a moral lesson trying to persuade her to keep away from Hamlet.
Laertes: ‘For he himself is subject to his birth’
‘And keep you in the rear of your affection,’
As we have known little of Hamlet up to now, we could take his advise as a thoughtful
warning, the proof of brotherly concern and love. However, listening to Polonius’s lesson
given to Laertes with the aim of teaching him wisdom, we cannot help feeling hypocrisy:
Polonius: ‘Give thy thoughts no tongue,…
‘Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.’
It is clear that Polonius reveals his own attitude, the attitude of the courtier who wants to
know everybody but does not want to give himself away. At first his advise may sound wise
and tactful expressing his fatherly love and concern in his child’s future advancement in
society. However, when he prohibits Ophelia to meet Hamlet, his reasoning reveals his hidden
motives and his real self.
Polonius: ‘Tender yourself more dearly;
Or… you’ll tender me a fool.’
It is not Ophelia’s virtues that he is so deeply concerned in but his own high position in the
royal court that he fears to lose now that Claudius has become King. Polonius is the most
characteristic figure of the new regime that has been established by Claudius and which is
based on servility, and Polonius wants to serve him regardless of his daughter’s happiness.
Ophelia obeys: ‘I shall obey my lord’
Servility, unconditional obedience and spying; these are the pillars on which Claudius
intends to build his authority. Polonius understands it and is ready to meet the demands by
teaching his children hypocritical morale and spying on Hamlet without being asked that is of
his own accord.

SCENE V – In this scene Hamlet meets his father’s ghost who tells the prince how Claudius
murdered him. Hamlet’s reaction, ’Oh my prophetic soul!’, makes us understand that he has
already been suspicious of his uncle. From this point of view, the ghost can be interpreted
as the embodiment of Hamlet’s suspicion. It is also an interesting point to contemplate on

26
that only those who remember and respect the late King can see his ghost. (Hamlet, Horatio,
the Guards)
The ghost orders Hamlet to avenge his father’s death, and the prince swears to carry out his
task:
‘I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live’
With these words, Hamlet breaks with his past and abandons everything that used to be
important to him. At Wittenberg University he was preparing for a different life, the life of a
philosopher not that of an avenger, but his moral duty forces him to take the burden of a son
and a prince responsible for his country:
'The time is out of joint - O cursed spite
that ever I was born to set it right.'
This is one of the key sentences of the play, which shows the discrepancy between the task of
the protagonist and his character. Hamlet was born to be a philosopher not an avenger. The
ghost ordered to take revenge on Claudius, but Hamlet wants more: he intends to restore
justice and morale in Denmark. His task would be easier if he were Laertes or Fortinbras who
represent old medieval custom in which taking revenge was natural. At variance with them,
Hamlet suffers from a moral conflict that stems from his conscience, the conscience of an
enlightened man. He cannot restore justice by resorting to violence. That is why he does not
rush to kill Claudius, first he wants to know the truth, whether Claudius is guilty or not. Some
critics say he is a man of reflection rather than action and his mental power makes him unable
to act when it is necessary, but this is not true, because Hamlet does act all the time according
to his character which is shaped by high moral principles. When he makes up his mind to act
according to his father’s order, he determines to do it alone. That is why he takes farewell
from Ophelia in the famous ‘dumb-show’. He does not utter a word, pretends to be mad as if
he were drawing her picture and walks away with his eyes fixed on her. This is a symbolic
message, that he still loves her, but Ophelia cannot understand it. He does not want to tell her
his troubles, because he does not want to use her as a medium that is to corrupt her.
First he pretends madness to divert the King’s attention, then he lays a trap for him in the
famous ‘Mouse trap’ scene, but he cannot have any evidence against Claudius.In his mother’s
room he kills Polonius, this is Hamlet fatal fault, after which he too becomes guilty .The
reason for Hamlet's hesitation lies in here. He knows in advance that he is forced to solve the

27
insoluble, to restore morale in a 'poisoned' society. As there is no legal way to achieve it (there
is no definite evidence against Claudius), what remains is either doing nothing or acting,
which means destroying himself. If he takes revenge, he himself becomes guilty and thus
cannot restore justice. That is why he delays action, more exactly his own death. For Hamlet
to kill Claudius without being convinced of his sin, means killing his own moral self. It is
not for philosophy's sake that he contemplates so much on death and after-life. It is the
certainty of the approaching death that he is facing repeatedly. His enemy, Claudius, however,
has no moral scruples, he sends several spies after Hamlet, who simply has no chance to
defend himself. The tragedy is based on a ‘moral structure’: everybody dies, who becomes
guilty. The only exception is Ophelia, who becomes the innocent victim of the events.

Although the play focuses on Hamlet's character, namely on his internal conflict, we can draw
up several sub-themes that flow in to the main stream of the plot: fathers and sons, lovers,
men in power, honesty-falsehood, friendship-betrayal and there is Shakespeare's ars poetica as
well. Hamlet is a tragedy of moral sensitivity in a wicked world.

Hamlet's Soliloquy (Act III, Scene I)

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, – to sleep, –
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die; – to sleep; –
To sleep! perchance to dream! ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

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For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.

In his monologue, Hamlet contemplates on the ultimate philosophical and moral questions.
First he raises the question: what is nobler, to live and suffer or to die. However, the ultimate
question - whether there is life after death - cannot be answered by him. It is shown in the
contradictory possibilities he draws up. Death ' the undiscovered country' might be an absolute
consummation or, on the contrary, it might be a threatening dream. The uncertainty makes
him hesitate between life and death. All the offences enumerated in his bitter words are eternal
human complaints that show how deeply he is concerned about them. Hamlet would like to
see the world around him a better one that is why he wants to act. However, he does not want
to commit anything that is morally wrong.

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 The Augustan Age
1713–1789

Classicism (Neo-Classicism)
The two literary movements that dominated the eighteen-century literature were Classicism or
Neo-Classicism and Sentimentalism.
Classicism has different roots. It was inspired by the Renaissance tradition and it meant the
renewal of the antique conception of arts. In the background, we can also find rationalism the
leading philosophical tendency of the 18th century.
The most prominent figures of European classical aesthetics were Boileau, Winckelmann and
Pope. The main ideas of classicism are elaborated in their works. Classicism was governed by
judgement, reason, decorum and nature. Aristotle’s Poetica and Horace's Ars poetica can be
regarded as the major influences. Aristotle’s views on drama were for them almost gospel.
Classicist aesthetics was normative, they set up definite rules concerning artistic forms, and
they distinguished between superior and inferior genres and styles. According to their
conception, tragedy, ode, elegy and pastorals were the superior genres, i.e. those written in
verse. It was a time when classical forms flourished in literature. Artists often referred to
antique mythology; the classicist poetry is full of pastoral, Latin elements. To follow Latin
tradition was almost compulsory. Classicist poetry was largely didactic, moralising, and
rhetorical. Moral and aesthetic beauties were closely connected, because they followed
Horace’s views, that art must be both entertaining and edifying.
Classicism was a rather controversial movement: on the one hand, it developed high-flown,
brilliant styles, enriched artistic expressions and forms; on the other hand, it suppressed
originality and imagination.

Eighteenth Century Novel

The development of the novel up to Fielding

Stendhal called the novel ' a mirror that wanders along the road'. This is an ingenious
definition as the novel was born on the road in the form of the picaresque. Among the

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antecedents, we have to mention the heroic epic from the antiquity and the romances of
chivalry from The Middle Ages.
The Picaresque. During the 16-17th centuries, the heroic epic becomes outdated and writers
try to find a more suitable form. This new form is the picaresque the first example of the
traditional novel. While the heroic epic was written in verse and built on set structure
elements such as myth and the supernatural qualities of the hero, the picaresque, though
emerges from the heroic epic, is written in prose, the hero is often a common man' a picaro'
and the plot is built on his adventures on the road. In this aspect, the picaresque can be
regarded as the continuation of the Odyssey with its travelling hero. However, in the
picaresque there is no development in character, because the writer concentrates on the
unusual events instead of the inner world of the protagonist. Don Quixote by Cervantes is a
quasi-picaresque (a parody) that is considered the progenitor of the modern novel.

The Birth of the Traditional Novel

The picaresque tradition develops in two directions: 1. Thesis Novel. In the 18th century
travel books were in great demand and writers tried to make this type of novel more complex
by deepening its subject matter. The thesis novel is a more developed form of the travel book,
which apart from conveying the adventures of the hero tries to draw a satirical picture of the
contemporary society. Every thesis novel has a philosophical background, a thesis that is to be
supported or rejected throughout the plot. Thus a thesis novel concentrates on society, on
social life and there is still no significant development in the characters. (Voltaire: Candide,
Defoe: Robinson Crusoe, Swift: Gulliver)
2. Sentimentalist Novel. Parallel with the thesis novel there developed another type that is
often called 'Ich-Roman', because it concentrates on the emotional life of man and its
characteristic feature is psychologism. The genre is also different, it is often written in letters
or journals that are more suitable to convey the inner world of the hero. They can be regarded
as the forerunners of romanticism. (Sterne: A Sentimenal Journey, Richardson: Pamela,
Goethe:Werther)
Later on a more developed form of the novel emerged, the 'Bildungsroman'. The adventures
have a deeper meaning; they serve as a means in the education of the main character and lead
to self-improvement. It has a double aim: the development of the main character and the
portrayal of the social environment. (Goethe: Wilhelm Meister, Fielding: Tom Jones)

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Daniel Defoe (1660–1731)
Daniel Defoe was born in London, the son of a butcher. The original name of the family was
Foe, and he changed his name to Defoe later. He became established as a hoisery merchant in
Cornhill, having travelled in France, Spain and he was absorbed by travel throughout his life.
His first works were written with satirical intentions, e.g. The True-Born Englishman, in
which he attacked the prejudice against a king of foreign birth. (17o1) For a satirical
pamphlet, The Shortest Way with Dissenters he was imprisoned and pilloried. He was later
pardoned and became the secret agent of the Tory party. Between 1703 and 1714, Defoe
travelled around the country testing the political climate. Meanwhile he wrote numerous
political pamphlets. Defoe was an extremely versatile and prolific writer and produced 56o
books, but the work for which he is best known is Robinson Crusoe.

Robinson Crusoe (1719)

The first English novel was based on a tale familiar to Defoe and he added many incidents
from his own imagination to his account of Crusoe, presenting it as a true story. The author
tells us how the shipwrecked Crusoe with the help of a few utensils built himself a house,
domesticated goats, and made himself a boat. He describes the perturbation of his mind
caused by a visit of cannibals, his rescue from death a native he later names Friday, and finally
the coming of an English ship whose crew are in a state of mutiny the subduing of the
mutineers, and Crusoe's rescue.
Robinson Crusoe is one of the most popular books in the world and the reason for its success
undoubtedly lies in its adventurous character. The story is a marvellous fable of survival,
appraisal of human abilities and spirit. Crusoe on the uninhabited island faces absolute
solitude, abandonment and tremendous hardship. He has to survive, to defend himself and
make a living. In the lapse of many years and through sheer hard work, he builds a 'kingdom'
in order to recreate in a primitive environment the missing comforts civilisation has
established. Thus, Crusoe can be regarded as the protagonist of mankind.
Left to his own devices he learns all the crafts he needs to build a house and maintain himself.
Through his hard life, we can follow the development of civilisation. As a young man, he
ignored his father's warning concerning peaceful and virtuous life, seeking adventures trusting
only his own abilities relying only on his own wit. Here, on the island, in his solitude begins
he read the Bible and appreciate God's grace.

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However, Crusoe is a true capitalist and coloniser. When he rescues Friday from death, he
does not treat him as equal and the first words he teaches him are 'yes' and 'master'.
What makes the book most enjoyable is its personal style, its immediacy. Defoe uses the
vocabulary of the average man. The book reaches beyond the popular travel books by making
his hero a universal symbol of human frailty and strength at the same time. This thesis novel
deals with a fashionable theme of the period, which is civilisation versus nature. The writers
of the age of Enlightenment wrote many books, mostly satirical ones that are built on the
contrast of the sophisticated civilisation and the natural instincts already subdued in man.
Rousseau had a strong nostalgia for nature while Voltaire, Swift and Defoe gave a more
complex insight into the problem showing that both worlds have their advantages and
disadvantages. Defoe in his novel votes for the civilised and creative man who, at the same
time does not forget that his freedom is based on God's grace.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin after his father's death. He was educated at Trinity College,
Dublin. Later he became secretary to Sir William Temple in England, but being unsatisfied
with his position, he returned to Ireland where he was ordained and took a prebend. Two years
later, he returned to Temple, but when he died, Swift returned to Ireland. He became dean at
St Patrick's, Dublin, and he is buried there. Apart from literary works, he wrote several
political pamphlets of which the most famous is A Modest Proposal, in which he suggested a
way to solve the Irish problem by selling the children to England to be eaten. It was a bitter
satire, but many readers took it seriously.

Gulliver's Travels

In the first part Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon on a merchant ship, relates his shipwreck on the
island of Lilliput. The inhabitants of the island are six inches high, and everything is
miniature compared to Gulliver's world. Owing to this diminutive scale, the pomp of the
emperor, the civil feuds of the inhabitants, the war with their neighbours are made to look
ridiculous. It is a satire of the English society, the political parties in the description of
the wearers of high heels and low heels.
In the second part, Gulliver is accidentally left ashore on Brobdingnag, the land of the giants.
It is the very contrast of Lilliput, and Gulliver becomes miniature compared to the

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inhabitants. After inquiring into the European civilisation, the king sums up his impression.
'By what I have gathered from your own relation...I cannot but conclude the bulk of your
natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to
crawl upon the surface of the earth.'
The third part leads us to the flying island of Laputa and its neighbouring continent and
capital Lagado. Here the satire is directed against philosophers, men of science, historians. In
Laputa Gulliver finds the wise men so wrapped up in their speculations as to be utter fools in
practical affairs. At Lagado, he visits the Academy of Projectors, where professors are
engaged in extracting sunshine from cucumbers and similar absurd enterprises.
In the fourth part Swift describes the Utopian country of the Houyhnhnms, who are horses
endowed with reason, their rational, clean and simple society is contrasted with the brutality
of the Yahoos, beasts in human shape and with human vices. In the end, Gulliver becomes
alienated from his own species.
Though mostly considered a children's book, Gulliver's Travel is one of the bitterest
satires that was ever written in the world. With the help of a fantastic journey on
imaginary places, Swift ridicules everything that he finds wrong in our civilisation. We
are given a distorted picture of the contemporary society with the help of absurd events
and behaviour on the characters' part. Man imagines himself wise and strong but in
Swift's distorted mirror, he becomes ignorant and weak. Surveying all the fields of
civilised life, he only finds fault with everything. The 'democratic' political system is full
of petty intrigues, where the debates become ridiculous fighting for position only. Men
of science are cut off reality and no real development is seen in everyday life. Technical
achievements are used to make wars against enemies, social institutes does not serve for
the benefit of man. In a word, the moral state of our world is disappointing for Swift.
Swift’s Gulliver had a great influence on Hungarian writers, it is suffice to mention Tarimenes
by Bessenyei György, Capillaria by Karinthy Frigyes (who translated Swift’s work) and last
but not least Kazohinia by Szathmári Sándor. The latter work is about the travels of a modern
Gulliver and was published in 1941.

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)

Laurence Sterne was born the son of a military man and spent most of his childhood in
various barracks in Ireland and England. He was educated at Cambridge, Jesus College and

34
after taking holy orders earned a reputation as a good country pastor. However he suffered
from tuberculosis and later when he was much affected he with his family went to France
where they lived at Toulouse in order to cure themselves. In 1765 he went for an eight-month
tour in France and Italy, which provided him with much of his most famous work, A
Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, which was published in 1767. His health
rapidly collapsed and he died in London in 1768.

A Sentimental Journey

The narrator, Parson Yorick is a man of great sensibility who sets out to travel through France
and Italy. At the end of the book he has gone little further than Lyons. The work begins in
medias res and ends ambiguously in mid-sentence. Sterne's intention with the book was 'to
teach us to love the world and our fellow creatures'. Unlike in other travel books here the
emphasis is put not on the events that take place but on the inner world of the narrator. His
very sensitive mind is the mirror through which we perceive the world described. There is no
plot in the traditional sense of the word. The book is a chain of loosely connected episodes
and monologues based mostly on the reflections and self-reflections of the narrator. Sterne
was much influenced by Locke's philosophy that is known as sensualism the theory of which
states that at birth our mind is tabula rasa and all knowledge we acquire through our senses,
that is impressions. What Parson Yorick is interested is the inner world of the characters he
meets during the journey. The book is full of poetic descriptions of places and people, the
novel is the first example of a new method in prose writing which became very frequent in the
20th century and is called the 'stream of consciousness'. Thus Sterne's novel can be regarded
as a turning point in the history of the novel as it tries to discover the inner self of the hero
instead of describing adventures. What is Sterne's aim is to transcend the self and self-love to
acquire fellow feeling that is lyrically shown in the famous bird-scene.
'In my return back through the passage, I heard the same words repeated twice over: and
looking up, I saw it was a starling hung in a little cage. - 'I can't get out - I can't get out', said
the starling.
I stood looking at the bird: and to every person who came through the passage it ran
fluttering to the side towards which they approached it, with the same lamentation of its
captivity. -'I can't get out’, said the starling - God help thee! Said I, but I'll let thee out, cost
what it will: so I turned about the cage to get to the door: it was twisted and double twisted so

35
fast with wire, there was no getting it open without pulling the cage to pieces - I took both
hands to it.
The bird flew to the place where I was attempting his deliverance, and thrusting his head
through the trellis, pressed his breast against it, as if impatient - I fear, poor creature! Said I,
I cannot set thee at liberty - 'No', said the starling - 'I can't get out - I can't get out, said the
starling.'

The Romantic Age

(1789–1832)

Romanticism was the most dominant literary movement that followed classicism. The word
was derived from the Latin word 'roman' that was a term for non-Latin prose works in the
Middle Ages. It was used first in English literature; in fact, it was born in Britain. At first it
only meant 'exotic', 'adventurous', later on in France it became the synonym of 'freedom' in
Victor Hugo's vocabulary. The most theoretical approach to Romanticism we find in German
criticism. Schlegel said: 'Classicism expresses infinite ideas in finite forms, while
Romanticism expresses universal phenomena through the particular. (Victor Hugo: 'When I
speak of myself, I speak of you.') Writers very seldom use the term 'romantic' it was common
to regard themselves as 'modern' poets.
Romanticism developed a different concept of art than that of Classicism. It created new
artistic attitude to life, brought new genres and poetic language. The main ideas of the
European Romanticism are liberalism and nationalism, because in this period both the
individuals and nations tried to liberate and identify themselves.
The most characteristic features of Romanticism
Romantic writers put an emphasis on freedom both in life and art. This is the age of the cult of
individuals, great personalities, geniuses, and art. They rebelled against the rationalistic views;
Romanticism belongs to the non-rational way of thinking. According to the romantic
philosophy life is a mystery that cannot be revealed by reason only through intuition, and the
most adequate way or medium for it is art. Romantic writers rejected strict classical rules
because they emphasised originality, imagination. While Classicism divided genres and styles
into well differentiated groups, romantic poets tended to create new 'mixed' genres that
combined for example epic, dramatic and lyrical features: novel in verse, lyric drama,
romance, ballad, song. They created a highly metaphorical language - a romantic poem is full

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of music and images that express mystery. Romanticism was not a united movement, it had
different tendencies, currents: interest in folk tradition, history, exotic cultures, the
supernatural, and the inner world.

Romantic Poetry
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Burns was born one of seven children to a farmer in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father wanted
him to be well educated so he attended different schools where he was given a good
knowledge in English, including classic authors from Shakespeare onwards, and he learnt
French as well. He took to reading and began writing verses as early as his school years. He
lived a double life as a farmer and a poet. The experience of poverty most probably
contributed to his enthusiasm about the French Revolution. His first book Poems, chiefly in
the Scottish Dialect appeared in 1786 and became an immediate success. Burns was asked to
collect old Scottish songs for The Scots Musical Museum. He collected, amended, and wrote
some 200 songs, which include many of his best-known lyrics, such as Auld Lang Syne. For
all his work, he took no money regarding it as his patriotic duty. He settled down in Ellisland
with his wife, and was appointed Excise officer and moved to Dumfries. In 1791 he published
his last major poem, Tam o’ Shanter. In 1795, he joined the Dumfries Volunteers and died the
following year of heart disease.

William Blake
(1757-1827)
© Vass Judit
His Life
Blake did not go to school, but was apprenticed to an engraver then became a student at the
Royal Acadamy. Later he was employed as an engraver by a bookseller, and introduced to
progressive intellectuals the followers of Swedenborg, whose mycticism deeply influenced
him. Blake set up a print shop where he engraved and published his Songs of Innocence in
1789 then Songs of Experience in 1794.
His poetry
Blake belongs to the first generation of English Romanticism who has his own special view of
the world. He turns away both from the materialistic philosophy of the Enlightenment and the
Puritanical interpretation of Christianity. Instead, he accepts the Swedenborgean concept of
the world as a spiritual structure in which God is Divine Man from whom emanate the two

37
worlds of nature and spirit. The end of creation is the approximation of Man to God. Blake’s
apocalyptic and visionary works stem from here. ‘Imagination is the Divine Body in Every
Man.’ His diction is unique among the romantics; what is characteristic of his language is its
symbolic handling of the subject matter thus being a forerunner of the symbolists in the 19th
century.
The Songs of Innocence contains lyrical songs that reflect an untroubled, harmonious world
and state of mind, the unity of mind with nature, man and God. Blake uses pastoral language
and simple vocabulary characteristic of children. (The Lamb)
The Songs of Experience depicts unity destroyed by society, the fragmentary nature of the
world: cruelty, hypocrisy, and selfishness.

The Lake Poets

William Wordsworth (177o-185o) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772- 1834) are known
as the Lake Poets because they lived and wrote their poems in the Lake District in the
northwest of England. They were the authors of a book called Lyrical Ballads that were
published in 1798 and became an important landmark both in English and European romantic
poetry.
It was a joint enterprise, Wordsworth and Coleridge divided their task: to convey the mystery
of the world in different ways. Wordsworth took incidents from common life, mostly from
nature and brought about essential changes in poetic style depending on the colloquial force of
the spoken language. John Keats said that Wordsworth lead poetry back to everyday life. He
tried to avoid stylisation. Nature serves as a means to reveal mystery as it reflects the whole
Universe including man's soul. In his poems, the concrete picture or scene becomes a
metaphysical symbol; descriptions can be interpreted in two or more levels.
Coleridge tended to convey mystery through a visionary poetry. He called 'Imagination' his
'shaping spirit.' While Wordsworth transforms everyday phenomena into metaphysical ones,
Coleridge does the reverse transforming the metaphysical into 'physical'.

William Wordsworth: I wondered lonely as a cloud

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I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

This is one of Wordsworth's most typical poems regarding its subject matter and style. On the
surface we can find concrete pictures, descriptions of nature, but everything has a hidden
meaning, nature and especially the daffodils become metaphysical symbols. We learn what
nature meant to Wordsworth and how it served as a means to express the sublime. The poem
has an extremely condensed metaphorical language. In the first two lines, the poet sets the
scene and draws a self-portrait of him. ('I wondered lonely as a cloud') His image is at once
bodiless, sublime, which expresses his high-spirited, meditative mood. All of a sudden, he
catches the sight of the daffodils - which must have been an everyday thing for him, but now,
in his elevated mood, it becomes something more. At first, only the beauty of the scene that
catches his eyes - then the concrete picture becomes a vision of the whole Universe. The
everyday moment turns into the moment of ecstasy. Later on the memory of this moment turns
into a spiritual energy, that is inspiration. ('inward eyes' )The poem is an ars poetica too. Art is
intuition and intuition is the way that can restore the unity of the world, unity of the physical
and spiritual world of man. The poem is a reconstruction of the moment of revelation: the

39
microcosm: (daffodils, lake, the poet) resemble the macrocosm; the outer world influences the
inner world and vica versa thus life becomes mystery and a celebration of beauty and art.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Ballad is originally a narrative poem telling in a dramatic manner some tragic incident or
legend. The story is told simply, impersonally often interrupted by vivid dialogues. Ballads are
normally composed in quatrains with alternating four-stress and three-stress lines, the second
and fourth lines rhyming. The rhythm is iambic. The ballad form flourished in the Middle
Ages (folk songs) particularly strongly in Scotland from the 15th century onward. Since the
18th century poets, e.g. Coleridge and Goethe have written imitations of the popular ballad's
form and style.
This is one of the most characteristic poems of Coleridge. It is a narrative poem of symbolic
adventures. The poem can be interpreted from different aspects because the subject matter of
the ballad is complex.
The story is an allegorical one that is built on archetypal elements of poetry: sea (life), ship
(fate of the individual), sailor (protagonist of mankind), storm (crisis in life), harbour (God's
mercy')
The events have a symbolical meaning. The mariner's adventures at sea are particular and
universal at the same time, because Coleridge compresses into it man's life in general. The
mariner's guilt and fate recall Cain's legend that is why the story can be interpreted from moral
point of view as 'crime and punishment'. Coleridge himself draws the moral conclusion in the
end: He prayeth best, who loveth best/All things both great and small:/ For the dear God who
loveth us/He made and loveth all.
However, it also has a deeper meaning because this can be regarded as the spiritual journey of
mankind. The mariner's awakening self reflects the history of man from innocence through
guilt to consciousness. The albatross symbolises divine care. When the mariner kills the bird,
he turns away from God, thus provoking divine curse. The curse is mitigated when he begins
to regret his sin.

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The poem is full of supernatural elements that make the ballad visionary. The handling of
visual details is truly romantic. The supernatural events externalise the hero's changing
consciousness. Changes in Nature mirror his soul.
John Keats (1795-1821)

Keats was a solitary figure among the second romantic generation. He went his own way,
which was the way of imagination. His main concern lies in the spiritual life and the
metaphysical. He created a world of his own which is the sublime counterpart of reality. He
wrote lyrical poems and narrative ones as well. His first works were inspired mostly by
secondary experiences: literary models and antiquity. There is a strong nostalgia in him for the
past both antique and medieval. His most characteristic feature at the early stage was the
desire to escape from contemporary reality. 1818 was a crucial year - he was left alone. One of
his brothers went to America the other died and he himself discovered his own illness:
tuberculosis. He fell in love with Fanny Brawne to whom he wrote numerous poems. Death
and love - these experiences inspired his greatest works, the odes that were written in a
sequence in 1819. What are common in them are the subject matter, and the new form. In
these visionary odes, he contemplates on life and death, mortality-immortality, art and reality.
Each ode emerges from a central symbol (Urn, Nightingale, Psyche, Autumn) and the poetic
language is highly condensed and metaphorical. He compressed the very essence of his
attitude to life and art into these poems. The new form is a stanza, Shakespearean and
Petracan at the same time.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

The poem has been discussed for a long time; there are many different interpretations
especially about the last two lines. The subject matter of the ode is a complex one including
life and death, mortality-immortality, poetry-reality. It can be regarded as Keat's ars poetica as
well. The central symbol of the poem is an imaginary Urn that is the embodiment of Beauty
that makes the poet contemplate on various things.
The ode begins with the description of the Urn and ends in a rhetorical statement, conclusion.
Although the pictures on the Urn are concrete and Keats depicts them in detail, the very first
sentence in which he refers to the Urn as an 'unravished bride' elevates the object to the
metaphysical. The urn with its pictures is concrete and timeless at the same time. It is full of
paradoxes: on the one hand it is a kind of 'frozen art', unchangeable, eternal, on the other it

41
represents life itself because Keats enlivens the pictures by a dynamic language. The pictures
become as vivid as whole biographies. There are archetypal figures on it: a piper, who is the
symbol of the artist, the lovers, and the ritual process. Each picture depicts the moment before
fulfilment. We can 'hear', 'see' and 'touch' the pictures. Keat's language is extremely sensuous.
The Urn becomes a double symbol: it symbolises life as such in its sublime image, and it is art
itself, because in Keats's conception it is art that can elevate mortal life to immortality. In
reality everything is subjected to the destroying forces of time, to death.
The last sentence ties aesthetic and moral beauty together.

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)

Byron belongs to the second generation of the Romantics - the most peculiar and the most
influential. While at home he was regarded as a rebellious figure, on the Continent he was
admired both the man and the poet. He created a fashion with his life and art; many poets
imitated his style and attitude. At home he was often criticised even attacked. Wordsworth
called him 'a monster', Coleridge 'satanic'. In Europe he was the very embodiment of a new
era. Goethe regarded him as 'the greatest genius' of the century; he even drew a symbolical
portrait of Byron in the second part of Faust. Euphorion (Helen's and Faust's child) represents
Byron's genius that is burnt in self-consuming passion. Goethe wrote about Byron that he is
'not antique not modern, he is the present day.'
Byron made the greatest impression on the Russian Romantics: Pushkin, Lermontov.
He was a controversial personality - on the one hand, he was an aristocratic rebel, preaching
liberty, freedom, and supporter of the Greek war. On the other hand he was deeply pessimistic
almost a nihilist. While the other Romantics have a tendency to escape reality, Byron takes the
courage to face it. His independent personality highly developed self-reflection enables him to
draw a realistic rather than romantic picture of the world. He is not typically romantic. He
does not worship Imagination like his contemporaries; he likes to rely on Reason.

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NINETEENTH CENTURY NOVEL

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

Pride and Prejudice
The Plot
The novel was published in 1813. Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their five daughters at
Longbourn. As they do not have a son, their property is due to pass to a cousin, William
Collins. Charles Bingley, a rich young bachelor, takes Netherfield, a house near Longbourn,
bringing with him his two sisters and his friend Fitzwilliam Darcy. Bingley and Jane, the
eldest of the Bennet girls, fall in love. Darcy, though attracted to the lively and spirited
Elizabeth, offends her by his supercilious behaviour at a ball. This dislike is increased by the
account given her by George Wickham, a dashing young officer, of the unjust treatment he has
met with at Darcy's hands. The aversion is further intensified when Darcy, disgusted with the
vulgarity of Mrs Bennet, separates Bingley from Jane. Meanwhile the fatuous Mr Collins,
urged to marry by Lady Catherine, proposes to Elizabeth. When firmly rejected he promptly
transfers his affections to Charlotte Lucas, a friend of Elizabeth's, who accepts him. Staying
with the newly married couple in their parsonage, Elizabeth again encounters Darcy, who,
captivated by her in spite of himself, proposes to her. Elizabeth rejects him on the grounds of
his offending pride. Greatly mortified, Darcy in a letter justifies himself and makes it clear
that Wickham is an unprincipled adventurer. On an expedition to the north of England with
her uncle and aunt, Elisabeth visits Pemberley, Darcy's home in Derbyshire, believing Darcy
to be absent. However, Darcy appears, welcomes the visitors and introduces them to his sister.
His manner is now gentle and attentive. News reaches Elizabeth that her sister Lydia has
eloped with Wickham. With help from Darcy the fugitives are traced, their marriage is
arranged. Bingley and Jane are reunited and become engaged. Darcy and Elizabeth also
become engaged. The story ends with their marriages.
The novel depicts rural England's everyday life with its typical characters and is can be
regarded as the forerunner of realism. Its main subject- matter is the relation between social
convention and individual morality. Jane Austen deliberately chooses a narrow world in order
to show the model of social mentality. The plot is built around the marriage-seeking business,

43
which in itself renders the events half comic, though sometimes-tragic overtones are mixed
with irony. Pride and Prejudice excels in its well-structured, concentrated plot and
characterising technique. Characters are revealed in action and conversation. Jane Austen's
style is Latinate but vivacious, it is full of irony and witty dialogues, and sentimentalism is
carefully avoided throughout the story. Her main concern lies in the paradoxical character of
human relationships; she reveals it through different marriages in order to show us the
contradictions that can be found between social position and private feeling. Almost every
character wears a social masque that is removed with the help of humorous scenes and
relentless irony.
Convention proves to be stronger than private feeling and often leads to hypocrisy as we can
see it in the relationship of Mr and Mrs Bennet, Mr Collins and Charlotte, Mr Wickham and
Lydia. The only exception is Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage the main characters' story. Mr
and Mrs Bennet have become alienated during the years, and no remnants of past love can be
found in their everyday life. Charlotte and Collins will never be a real couple, because of the
total lack of love. Lydia's and Wickham's marriage is built on precarious adventure, however,
Elizabeth and Darcy will probably live in mutual understanding because their love led them to
self-improvement. Their relationship began with despise and misunderstanding. Elizabeth
depended entirely on personal judgement and Darcy put social position before private feeling.
The events make them abandon their prejudices and pride and discover themselves and each
other while the others remain the same.

Emily Bronte (1818-1848)

She was the daughter of an Irishman, perpetual curate of Haworth, Yorkshire. She and her
sisters (Anne and Charlotte) were mainly educated at home, they read widely and wrote stories
an poems. Emily was for a time in 1837 governess and in 1842 went to Brussels with
Charlotte to study languages, but she returned by the end of the year and remained in Haworth
for the rest of her brief life. Wuthering Heights was published in 1847. It was only after
Emily’s death that it became widely acknowledged as a masterpiece. Unlike Charlotte, Emily
had no close friends, wrote few letters, her poems and prose works reveal a passionate
personality inclined to mysticism.
János Pilinszky, one of the greatest 20th century Hungarian poet, on his trip to Yorkshire wrote
a poem paying tribute to her unparalleled talent and life.

44
Pilinszky János: In memoriam N.N.
Te férfiakál is férfiabb,
te bátraknál is bátrabb,
legalább szégyelted magad
megadni a halálnak?
Azesztelenül gyönyörű
és kőszívűre égett, hogy roppant meg a súly alatt
gyönyörű szüzességed?
Valamikor, te nyomorult,
még hitted a szerelmet!
Most élősdiek seregét
etetheti a tested.
Kit nem vigasztalt senki se,
most betömi a szádat,
a magányosan zokogót
a tömeges gyalázat.
Elterülve a többiek
földes-agyagos ágyán,
közösködőn és mocskosan,
velőtrázón paráznán
soha se lettél volna több,
mint férgek között féreg?
S nem csupán itt, a föld alatt
veszett el vad szemérmed?
Te életfogytig lázadó,
valóban ennyi volnál,
nem több a csontig élvező,
levetkező halottnál?
Saját végeddel kérdelek:
a gőggel égő évek,
az olthatatlan büszkeség,
ha végül úgy se véd meg,
az egész életünk mit ér?
Szólj, rovarok arája,

45
ha öröklétre születünk,
mért haluk meg hiába?

Wuthering Heights

The Plot. (The novel was published in 1847.) The story is narrated by Lockwood and Mrs
Dean who had witnessed the lives and destinies of the owners of Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange.Events are set in motion by the arrival of Heathcliff, picked up in the
streets of Liverpool by Mr Earnshaw, he brings him home to bring him up as one of his
children. Bullied and humiliated after Earnshaw's death by his son Hindley, Heathcliff finds
consolation in his friendship with Catherine. Their friendship develops into an intense
attachment, but Heathcliff, overhearing Catherine tell Nelly that she cannot marry him
because it would degrade her, leaves the house. He returns three years later to find Catherine
married to Edgar Linton. Heathcliff is determined to take revenge on Hindley and Edgar
Linton. On the one hand, he contributes to the total destruction of Hindley; on the other hand,
he marries Edgar's sister Isabella only to treat her brutally. After a mutual confession in love
with Heathcliff, Catherine dies in childbirth. Edgar Linton dies after trying in vain to prevent a
friendship between Cathy and Heathcliff's son, Linton. Heathcliff forces Cathy to marry
Linton in order to secure the Linton property. Linton dies very young. Affection is gradually
developed between Cathy and Hareton whom she does her best to educate. Heathcliff, after
revenging himself, longs to die hoping to be reunited with Catherine whose ghost has haunted
him since she died.

Emily Bronte's masterpiece inevitably is one of the most popular novels in the world. Its
popularity is due to the exciting plot as well as to the deep psychological insight into human
nature, which is offered by the author. Although, it carries some traits of the Gothic novel (e.g.
haunting ghost, mystery, the touch of the supernatural) the story reaches far beyond the Gothic
tradition and represents in itself an early psychological novel. Bronte offers a sharp-sighted
exploration of different attitudes to life as such through eternal characters and situations in a
microworld that however, shows the amplitude of ancient tragedies.
There is a peculiar disparity between the style of the narrators and the world described. Bronte
deliberately chose two narrators ( Mr Lockwood and Mrs Dean), who represent common sense
set against the self-consuming passion of the main characters. Instead of an omniscient
narrator the account of the events is given by two persons who embody social convention or

46
an everyday view of life, they only convey what they have seen or heard that is facts without
interpretations (Mrs Dean's down-to-earth way of thinking is balanced with her deep concern
in the destinies of her masters and mistresses.) Convention and nonconformity that is one of
the subject matters of the novel is thus reflected both in the characters and the narration.
The events take place in Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, in two neighbouring
places that are symbolical as it is indicated in their names. Wuthering Heights is the world of
exaggerated passions, love and hatred, nonconformity, uncivilised manners and freedom,
while Thrushcross Grange epitomises convention, cool reasoning, refinement, civilised
behaviour, and self-control. The two different places with their typical dwellers represent the
different layers of human nature: irrational and rational, subconscious and conscious. The
Earnshaws, Catherine and Hindley together with Heathcliff belong to the passionate and
irrational world; the Lintons represent social convention, common sense. Nevertheless, due to
Catherine's choice, the two worlds become intertwined when she marries Edgar Linton though
identifies herself with Heathcliff. ' I am Heathcliff - he's always in my mind-... as my own
being.' Marrying Linton, Catherine wants to enter another world, more conventional.
However, she becomes torn between the two worlds: living in Thrushcross Grange she dreams
about the Heights and feels confined. Her 'divided' feelings bring about mental illness and she
dies without reconciliation. Catherine's ghost that haunts Wuthering Heights symbolises not
only Heathcliff's mental disturbances but also her failure in joining the two worlds.
However, the two worlds - rational and irrational - are joined in almost every character, which
is natural, as we are a mixture of the two different aspects. The difference stems from
somewhere else: the question is which is the dominant feature in our attitude. Both common
sense and passion can lead to destruction as it is shown in Edgar Linton's behaviour. On the
one hand, he is a tender husband; on the other hand, he becomes a vindictive brother when he
treats her sister cruelly just because she married Heathcliff. Linton's sister makes a wrong
choice, too. Like Catherine, she becomes attracted by another world (Heathcliff) and falls prey
to a bitter disillusion. Domestic happiness is unattainable in either marriages, Catherine and
Heathcliff's passionate love leads to self-destruction, in Heathcliff's case even to brutality,
which is a kind of self-punishment.
The novel follows the destinies of two generations: the first causes chaos, revenge and
irrationality consumes their lives, it is embodied in Heathcliff's son who is sickly and dies
young. The two worlds become reconciled in Cathy's and Hareton's love in the end.

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American Literature in the Nineteenth Century

Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter (1850)

The events take place in the Puritan New England of the 17th century. The main character of
the story is Hester Prynne who has been sent to America by his aged husband, of whom she
has known nothing ever since. Left to her own devices and being alone, she falls in love with
Arthur Dimmesdale, a young minister and gives birth to a child. The local community
condemns her and sentence her to wear for the remainder of her life the red letter A, which
means adulteress. Her husband arrives when she is standing in the pillory with her baby in her
arms. She refuses to reveal the name of her lover and goes to live on the outskirts of the town,
an object of contempt and insult with her child, Pearl. She earns her living by making
embroidery and devotes herself to works of mercy thus gradually wins the forgiveness and
respect of the townsfolk. In the meantime, Chillingworth (her husband) as a physician
discovers their secret and takes his revenge by torturing Dimmesdale who did not have the
courage to share Hester's punishment. Hester suggests that they flee to Europe but Arthur
lacks the will, makes public confession instead, and dies.
The novel represents the criticism of Puritanism, which was the dominant ideology for about a
century in America, but it also takes a critical view of Emerson's theory on self-reliance. It
focuses on moral questions and follows the destinies of three people whose lives become
interdependent Puritanism was a religious movement based on a rather rigid and strict moral
code that preferred the interest of the community to the individual freedom.
Hester Prynne breaks the law and becomes subjected to the ordeals of an adulteress. It is
characteristic of her pride and strong affections that she should not escape but take the burden
of remaining in the place of her shame. She accepts her punishment but does not become
pious which is symbolically expressed in the rich embroidery of the scarlet letter. We can
follow her gradual transformation, the adulteress develops into an 'angel'. Repressing her
earlier self she devotes her life to her child and to those who need her help. It seems as if her
self-imposed punishment rescues her, but in reality it is self-denying love, which is inherent in
her, that redeems her. There is a symbolic scene in the forest when after seven years,
Dimmesdale meets Hester and the latter throws away the scarlet letter the token of their
ordeals. Hester suggests relying on themselves and fleeing from the community that is the
rigid moral code and begin a new and free life somewhere in Europe. However, it is

48
impossible, not only because of Dimmesdale's lack of courage but also because of a stronger
law, the law of the age. Hester in her inner development reached a point, which is beyond her
competence: the freedom from the society and its imposing laws. On the other hand, she is the
only one who regains her integrity because her position as an outcast made it possible for her
to contemplate on life as such from an independent aspect. It is her self-denying love that
elevates her to grace, while the strict moral code could only humiliate her.
The other two characters, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale are juxtaposed to Hester's inner
development. While her way leads from guilt to purity, their lives end in moral disintegration,
because they do not dare to face the community. Chillingworth denies his wife, wants to take
revenge, and becomes morally distorted sunk in his cruelty. Dimmesdale, though makes a
public confession in the end, dies because remorse consumes his soul and body. He preferred
his position as a minister to love and becomes a hypocrite thus embodying the weak points of
Puritanism.

Edgar Allan Poe (18o9-1849)

Poet and short story writer, Poe opened a new vein in romantic literature. The novelty of his
attitude was very similar to that of E.T.A. Hoffmann, the German contemporary writer. Both
of them were mostly interested in the inner world of their characters and were tempted to
discover the subconscious layers of human psyche. They created a new literary genre the
detective story, which, however, deals not only with criminal actions but tries to give an
insight into the darker sides of human nature as such. Long before modern psychology, they
created the doppelgänger opening the double nature of a character that leads to mental
illnesses.
Poe is a master of the short story, which is the most condensed form of writing. It is usually
built around an unusual event in the life of the protagonist, which reveals his or her true
character, or frequently enough leads to self-reflection, to a higher understanding of the self.
The unusual event is very often shadowed with some mysterious veil or the touch of the
supernatural. However, Poe likes rational approaches to the supernatural and likes giving
logical explanations, while embarrassing his readers with sometimes even horrific plots like
that of the Murders in the Rue Morgue.
The Masque of the Red death
This is one of the shortest and most symbolic stories of Poe, which deals with the ultimate
questions of life and death. The plot itself resembles the frame story of Boccaccio's

49
Decameron: a devastating pestilence, here it is called the Red Death forces some people to
hide from it. Prince Prospero summons a thousand hale friends and retires to 'the deep
seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys'. They try to scare away the Red Death by fastening
the gates of iron, and devoting themselves to sophisticated pleasures. The greater part of the
story is a detailed description of the bizarre suite, the embodiment of Prospero's character.
Here everything is symbolic and mirrors the double nature of his inner world: his yearning for
life and pleasure, and his attempt to escape the threatening death. However, the bizarre beauty
of his suite is 'shrouded in black velvet' which means that the more he seeks pleasure the more
he fears death. 'There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite
of chambers. However, in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each
window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire that projected its rays through the tinted glass
and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and
fantastic appearances.' The sensuous and painting-like description of the chamber is a
symbolic picture of Prospero's soul, just like the 'gigantic clock of ebony' that strikes the hour
of the approaching death. 'And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice
of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand.' The narrative is built on the dramatic
suspense, namely the appearance of the Red Death in the end. The masquerade turns into
horror as the Masque of the Red Death appears, silent and threatening.

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