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HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
Transition Period (1400-1550)
TRI ASTUTI (1401305004)
MEYGA KUSUMA ARIYANTHI
(1401305008)
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ARTS
FEBRUARY 2016
INTRODUCTION
Transition
Period (1400-1550)
This
era was born some great writers such as Shakespeare and Chaucer. Therefore,
this period was called a transition because a lot of displacements from mid
English to modern English and it was experiencing the transition. Moreover,
English language was transformed from Middle English to Modern English, from
various dialects to standart English (Yusuf, 2009).
The
core of this period was the result of many wonderful literary works but most of
the inspiration came from French writers because their works widely accepted by
English writers but the biggest impact falling on Chaucer who was widely
recognized as a poet of all the time in Scotland.
The
prose of that era made progress very well which gave birth to many poets
reliable along with his works, the most influential prose in this age was,
"morthe d'Arthur" written by Sir Thomas Malory which was telling the
story of King Arthur and his knights.
Drama
at this time was progressing well. In the 15th century was born a new school of
drama that carried stories about the merits of human nature or can be called
also "Moralities", contrasted completely with the drama in the Middle
Ages. There was also a new play made up for entertaining was
"Interludes" the most famous being "Fulgens and Lurcens".
DISCUSSION
Social
Background
The
century and a half following the death of Chaucer (1400-1550) is the most
volcanic period of English history. The land is swept by vast changes,
inseparable from the rapid accumulation of national power; but since power is
the most dangerous of gifts until men have learned to control it, these changes
seem at first to have no specific aim or direction. Henry V--whose erratic yet
vigorous life, as depicted by Shakespeare, was typical of the life of his
times--first let Europe feel the might of the new national spirit. To divert
that growing and unruly spirit from rebellion at home, Henry led his army
abroad, in the apparently impossible attempt to gain for himself three things:
a French wife, a French revenue, and the French crown itself. The battle of
Agincourt was fought in 1415, and five years later, by the Treaty of Troyes,
France acknowledged his right to all his outrageous demands (William J.
Long, 2004).
The uselessness of the terrific struggle
on French soil is shown by the rapidity with which all its results were swept
away. When Henry died in 1422, leaving his son heir to the crowns of France and
England, a magnificent recumbent statue with head of pure silver was placed in
Westminster Abbey to commemorate his victories. The silver head was presently
stolen, and the loss is typical of all that he had struggled for. His son,
Henry VI, was but the shadow of a king, a puppet in the hands of powerful nobles,
who seized the power of England and turned it to self-destruction. Meanwhile
all his foreign possessions were won back by the French under the magic
leadership of Joan of Arc. Cade's Rebellion (1450) and the bloody Wars of the
Roses (1455-1485) are names to show how the energy of England was violently
destroying itself, like a great engine that has lost its balance wheel. The
frightful reign of Richard III followed, which had, however, this redeeming
quality, that it marked the end of civil wars and the self-destruction of
feudalism, and made possible a new growth of English national sentiment under
the popular Tudors (William J. Long, 2004).
In the long reign of Henry VIII the
changes are less violent, but have more purpose and significance. His age is
marked by a steady increase in the national power at home and abroad, by the
entrance of the Reformation "by a side door," and by the final
separation of England from all ecclesiastical bondage in Parliament's famous
Act of Supremacy. In previous reigns chivalry and the old feudal system had
practically been banished; now monasticism, the third medieval institution with
its mixed evil and good, received its death-blow in the wholesale suppression
of the monasteries and the removal of abbots from the House of Lords.
Notwithstanding the evil character of the king and the hypocrisy of proclaiming
such a creature the head of any church or the defender of any faith, we
acquiesce silently in Stub's declaration that "the world owes some of its
greatest debts to men from whose memory the world recoils" (William J.
Long, 2004).
While England during
this period was in constant political strife, yet rising slowly, like the
spiral flight of an eagle, to heights of national greatness, intellectually it
moved forward with bewildering rapidity. Printing was brought to England by
Caxton (c. 1476), and for the first time in history it was possible for
a book or an idea to reach the whole nation. Schools and universities were
established in place of the old monasteries; Greek ideas and Greek culture came
to England in the Renaissance, and man's spiritual freedom was proclaimed in
the Reformation. The great names of the period are numerous and significant,
but literature is strangely silent. Probably the very turmoil of the age prevented
any literary development, for literature is one of the arts of peace; it
requires quiet and meditation rather than activity, and the stirring life of
the Renaissance had first to be lived before it could express itself in the new
literature of the Elizabethan period (William J. Long, 2004).
Remarkable Events at The Period
During
this period, there were many events that happened and influenced to the
literary works. During the 14th century, the Plantagenets and the House of Valois both claimed to be legitimate claimants
to the House of Capet and with it
France; the two powers clashed in the Hundred Years' War. The Black Death epidemic hit England; starting in
1348, it eventually killed up to half of England's inhabitants. From 1453 to
1487 civil war occurred between two branches of the royal family—the Yorkists and Lancastrians—known as the Wars of the Roses. Eventually it led to the Yorkists losing the
throne entirely to a Welsh noble family the Tudors, a branch of the Lancastrians headed by
Henry Tudor who invaded
with Welsh and Breton mercenaries, gaining victory at the Battle of
Bosworth Field
where the Yorkist king Richard III was killed
(Wikipedia, (2016)).
Praise of Folly the two greatest books which appeared in England during
this period are undoubtedly Erasmus's Praise of Folly (Encomium
Moriae) and More's Utopia, the famous "Kingdom of
Nowhere." Both were written in Latin, but were speedily translated into
all European languages. The Praise of Folly is like a song of victory
for the New Learning, which had driven away vice, ignorance, and superstition,
the three foes of humanity. It was published in 1511 after the accession of
Henry VIII. Folly is represented as donning cap and bells and mounting a
pulpit, where the vice and cruelty of kings, the selfishness and ignorance of
the clergy and the foolish standards of education are satirized without mercy.
Then, Utopia More's Utopia, published in 1516, is a powerful and
original study of social conditions, unlike anything which had ever appeared in
any literature (William
J. Long, 2004).
Tyndale's New Testament Greater than
either of these books, in its influence upon the common people, is Tyndale's
translation of the New Testament (1525), which fixed a standard of good
English, and at the same time brought that standard not only to scholars but to
the homes of the common people. Tyndale made his translation from the original
Greek, and later translated parts of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. Much of
Tyndale's work was included in Cranmer's Bible, known also as the Great Bible,
in 1539, and was read in every parish church in England. It was the foundation
for the Authorized Version, which appeared nearly a century later and became
the standard for the whole English-speaking race (William J. Long, 2004).
This period was the arrival of
printing.The status of Lo Morte
Darthur owes much to its printing
by William Caxton(1422), an entrepreneur
who had learned printing in Cologne and Bruges and set up a press near
Westminster Abbey in 1476. Most of the eighty books he printed were religious,
but the first was his translation of a history of Troy; he also printed a Canterbury Tales in 1477. He translated from
French works such as The Book of the Order
of Chivalry, a guide to knightly
conduct, addressed ‘not to every comyn man ... but to noble gentylmen’. Common
men could not read, but ‘quality’ marketing had begun. Chivalry was dying, but
manners could be learned (Alexander, 2000).
Table Of Remarkable Events And Literature
|
HISTORY
|
LITERATURE
|
||
|
1413.
|
Henry V
|
||
|
1415.
|
Battle of Agincourt
|
||
|
1422.
|
Henry VI
|
1470.
|
Malory's Morte d' Arthur
|
|
1428.
|
Siege of Orleans. Joan of Arc
|
1474(c).
|
Caxton, at Bruges,
|
|
1453.
|
End of Hundred Year's War
|
prints the first book in
|
|
|
1455-1485.
|
War of Roses
|
English, the Recuyell of the
|
|
|
1461.
|
Edward IV
|
Histories of Troye
|
|
|
1483.
|
Richard III
|
1477.
|
First book printed in
|
|
England
|
|||
|
1485.
|
Henry VII
|
1485.
|
Morte d'Arthur printed
|
|
by Caxton
|
|||
|
1492.
|
Columbus discovers America
|
1499.
|
Colet, Erasmus, and More
|
|
1509.
|
Henry VIII
|
bring the New Learning to
|
|
|
Oxford
|
|||
|
1509.
|
Erasmus's Praise of
|
||
|
Folly
|
|||
|
1516.
|
More's Utopia
|
||
|
1525.
|
Tyndale's New Testament
|
||
|
1534.
|
Act of Supremacy. The
|
1530(c).
|
Introduction of the
|
|
Reformation accomplished
|
sonnet and blank verse by
|
||
|
Wyatt and Surrey
|
|||
|
1539.
|
The Great Bible
|
||
|
1547.
|
Edward VI
|
||
|
1553.
|
Mary
|
1557.
|
Tottel's Miscellany
|
|
1558.
|
Elizabeth
|
||
The Characteristics Of Literary Works,
Literary Works and Its Writers
At transition period, the literature changed from
oral to written. Focus shifted from the text to reader. Reader was given more
importance than writer. Value of self-expression and originality are upgraded
(upheld). English established as literary language by adapting, translating and
imitating Greek and Latin texts. Feudalism, chivalry and church were on their
decline (Gangane, 2015).
Wyatt and Surrey. In 1557 appeared probably the first
printed collection of miscellaneous English poems, known as Tottel's
Miscellany. It contained the work of the so-called courtly makers, or
poets, which had hitherto circulated in manuscript form for the benefit of the
court. About half of these poems were the work of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542)
and of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517?-1547). Both together wrote amorous
sonnets modeled after the Italians, introducing a new verse form which,
although very difficult, has been a favorite ever since with our English poets. Surrey is noted, not for any especial
worth or originality of his own poems, but rather for his translation of two
books of Virgil "in strange meter." The strange meter was the blank
verse, which had never before appeared in English. The chief literary work of
these two men, therefore, is to introduce the sonnet and the blank verse,--one
the most dainty, the other the most flexible and characteristic form of English
poetry,--which in the hands of Shakespeare and Milton were used to make the
world's masterpieces (William
J. Long, 2004).
Malory's Morte d'Arthur. The
greatest English work of this period, measured by its effect on subsequent
literature, is undoubtedly the Morte d'Arthur, a collection of the
Arthurian romances told in simple and vivid prose. Of Sir Thomas Malory, the
author, Caxton in his introduction says that he was a knight, and completed his
work in 1470, fifteen years before Caxton printed it. The record adds that
"he was the servant of Jesu both by day and night." Beyond that we
know little except what may be inferred from the splendid work itself. Malory
groups the legends about the central idea of the search for the Holy Grail.
Though many of the stories, like Tristram and Isolde, are purely pagan, Malory
treats them all in such a way as to preserve the whole spirit of mediæval
Christianity as it has been preserved in no other work. It was to Malory rather
than to Layamon or to the early French writers that Shakespeare and his
contemporaries turned for their material; and in our own age he has supplied
Tennyson and Matthew Arnold and Swinburne and Morris with the inspiration for
the "Idylls of the King" and the "Death of Tristram" and
the other exquisite poems which center about Arthur and the knights of his
Round Table (William
J. Long, 2004).
·
POETRY
The
transition period was also called imitative
period because many poems written imitated the style of Chaucer. Chaucer
influenced also spread to the poets of Scotland and they were often called
"Scottish Chaucerians". The poets include Robert Henryson
(1430-1506). William Dunbar (1465-1530), and Gavin Douglas (1474-1522)
(Rahmawati, 2011).
English
poets that provided a new atmosphere in the transition period were Sir Thomas
Wyatt (1503-1542), a poet who introduced the Italian sonnet form into the
repertoire of British literature and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547).
Both poets were introducing forms of different poems by other poets, and
contributed greatly to the development of British literatures (Rahmawati,
2011).
Because
Wyatt often went abroad, he was much influenced by the poems of Italian and
Latin. Most of his poems in the form of translation and imitation, especially
sonnets of love (poem consisting of 14 lines), and didactic poems such as
satire and Epistles (letters). Love Sonnet in its original form was a literary
work that similar to a narrative about a knight in the middle Ages, the
contents of the story; knight must show loyalty to his girlfriend in a way to
fight on the battlefield (Rahmawati, 2011).
·
DRAMA
During
the period of transition, besides the religious dramas, it also developed non
religious or secular drama; drama that was usually played in the market square
by using stage that could be moved (Stage on Wheels). Although it was a secular
drama, it was still religious. Theme of the story was usually a battle between
Good and Bad (evil). In the next, elements of religious and didactic faded and
developing a new kind of drama. In this drama, all kinds of elements were
preferred such as the structure of the form. The goal was no longer to teach
(didactic) but focused on entertainment (Rahmawati, 2011).
·
PROSE
The literary work at the transition periode was not much different from
medieval times. Translations were very influential among the people at this
period was a translation of the New Testament (1525) conducted by William
Tyndale (1484-1536) (Rahmawati, 2011).
Romance prose that most prominent was "Morte d'Arthur" (1470) by Sir
Thomas Malory. The romance about king Artur and his knights. This work had very
important role in the further development of English literature because it
became a source of material and inspiration for famous poets such as
Shakespeare and Tennyson (Rahmawati, 2011).
The Spirit and romantic
idealism was at climax. But the change from medieval to modern was slow and imperceptible.
But, England was characteristically medieval , the strange amalgam of love, war
and religion reached perhaps its fullest development at this time (Gangane,
2015).
CONCLUSION
This transition period is at first one of decline from the
Age of Chaucer, and then of intellectual preparation for the Age of Elizabeth.
For a century and a half after Chaucer not a single great English work
appeared, and the general standard of literature was very low. There are three
chief causes to account for this: (1) the long war with France and the civil
Wars of the Roses distracted attention from books and poetry, and destroyed of
ruined many noble English families who had been friends and patrons of
literature; (2) the Reformation in the latter part of the period filled men's
minds with religious questions; (3) the Revival of Learning set scholars and
literary men to an eager study of the classics, rather than to the creation of
native literature. Historically the age is noticeable for its intellectual
progress, for the introduction of printing, for the discovery of America, for
the beginning of the Reformation, and for the growth of political power among
the common people. Malory's Morte d'Arthur, a collection of the Arthurian
legends in English prose. The Miracle and Mystery Plays were the most popular
form of entertainment in this age.
The Spirit and romantic
idealism was at climax. But the change from medieval to modern was slow and
imperceptible. Yet, England was characteristically medieval , the strange
amalgam of love, war and religion reached perhaps its fullest development at
this time (Gangane,
2015).
REFERENCES
http://www.slideshare.net/yusuf_k/week-iv-transitional-period
http://andiummulfatimah.blogspot.co.id/makalah-sastra-inggris-priode-transisi.html
http://www.slideshare.net/vaibhavgangane22/the-age-of-chaucer-43607543
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England
Alexander, Michael. 2000. A History of
English Literature. London: MACMILLAN PRESS LTD.
J. Long, William. 2004.
English literature its history and its significance for the life of the
english-speaking world. (E-book)
