Britští autoři

Geoffrey Chaucer

• born around 1342 London

• 1st writer who wrote in English (E author) - new, young lang.

• from middle class family (father was a merchant, sold wine for the royal court → important family) → educated as noble

  • could be placed as a page

  • got in touch with influential people

  • could speak French, Italian, English, Latin

• 1385 - living in Kent

• served under 3 kings Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV

"upper class used to speak F, lower E"

"R used to write in Latin"

• soldier, diplomat

• participated in 100 years war

  • he was taken captive (prisoner) → repaid

• travelled a lot (France, Flanders (part of Belgium), Italy)

  • knew Italian Literature (Danta, Boccaccio, Petrarch (he met him)) → he was influenced by it

• representative of Renaissance (rebirth (of antic))

Renaissance

• interest in Greek and Roman cultures

  • civilized way of life

    • diminished after they left E

  • bible and other ancient works

  • people were impressed by these cultures

  • the focus on this life, "now"

"before, people were focused on afterlife"

The Book of Duchess

• poem in memory of a lady who died

The Legend of Good Women

• kind of female history of Europe

The Parliament of Fowls

• political satire, members of parliament are represented by birds

The Canterbury Tales

• written in English

  • incompleted → originally 120 stories (only 24 written)

  • framed structure (story made of stories)

  • journey of pilgrims (all social classes) to Canterbury to the oldest church established by monk St. Augustine

    • to respect st. Thomas Becket who sacrifice himself for the church, to ask for "help" etc.

    • travelling was dangerous in these time, so people travelled in groups

  • knight and his servant, priest, scholar from Oxford, doctor, sailor, miller, nun, wife of Bath

    • each of them tells a different story (before a story there is always an introduction (prolog))

    • the wife of Bath

      • one of the funniest characters

      • for first time she got married at 12

      • had 5 husbands, ready for 6th

      • confident, intelligent (using arguments from the Old Testament and also from the New Testament – she knew the Bible very well)

      • not pure, she is not afraid of her body

Tomas Beckett

• *1120 in London

• Archbishop of Canterbury, Chancellor of E

• at first friends with the King (Henry II), but later conflicts over the rights and privileges of the church

  • the king wanted control the church

  • T. B. gave his property to the poor

• murdered by the king's followers in Canterbury Cathedral → scandal

  • canonised by Pope Alexander III

  • became martyr

• people started to make pilgrimages to the tomb of T. B. (in groups from London to Canterbury) → inspiration for Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales

• knight and his squire - heroic story

• miller - humorous (pornographic story)

• nun - romantic story

• clerk (know how to read, write) - story about Roman history

• pardoner - travel place to place selling pardons

• ...

John Milton

1. 1608 (London, Baker Street)–1674, 17th centuary

   1. century of great transformation, the Tudors dynasty was over, Elizabeth died, no child – the Stuarts