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1、Lecture 3The Elizabethan Age(II)English LiteratureTeaching Objectives and Requirements1 Help the students know some information about the origins of English drama.2 Help the students have a good understanding of Shakespeare.3 Make sure the students have a better understanding of Hamlet(Act 3,Scene 1
2、,Lines 55-86).1.1 Four kinds of play Miracle playsMorality plays Interlude1 A sketch of the history of English drama True drama The miracle play had as its subject either a story from the bible,or else the life and martyrdom of a saint.In the usage of some historians,however,“miracle play”denotes on
3、ly dramas based on saints lives,and term“mystery play”.back Morality plays were dramatized allegories of a representative Christian life in the plot form of a quest for salvation,in which the crucial events are temptations,sinning,and the climactic confrontation with death.The usual protagonist repr
4、esents Mankind,or Everyman;among the other characters are personifications of virtues,vices and Death,as well as angels and demons who contest for the prize of the soul of Mankind.back Interlude is a term applied to a variety of short stage entertainments,such as secular farces and witty dialogues w
5、ith a religious or political point.In the late fifteen and early sixteenth centuries,these little dramas were performed by bands of professional actors;its believed that they were often put on between the courses of a feast or between the acts of a long play.Blank verse is unrhymed poetry,typically
6、in iambic pentameter,and,as such,the dominant verse form of English dramatic and narrative poetry since the mid-16th century.Blank verse was adopted by Italian Renaissance writers from classical sources;it became the standard form of dramatists.Christopher Marlow used blank verse for dramatic verse.
7、back1.3 Ben Johnson The last great Elizabethan and probably the first poet Laureate(1616)and the first dictator in English history Every Man in His Humor(established his reputation as a playwright)A realistic writer Remembered today chiefly as a playwright Calls Shakespeare“the Soul of the Age,”and“
8、Not of an age but for all time”2 William Shakespeare Shakespeares literary career Shakespeare as a playwright(37 plays:14 comedies,12 tragedies,and 11 historical plays)Shakespeare as a poet(154 sonnets,as well as two long poems)(Chang Yaoxin,51-53)Three major periods of Shakespeares literary life:1.
9、The first period:1590 to 1600,22 plays:11 comedies,three tragedies and eight historical plays.2.The second period:1601 to 1608(the period of tragedies),marked by gloom and depression combined with masterly workmanship.3.The third period:1609 to 1612(the period of dramatic romances),full of unrealist
10、ic compromises and fantasy.Henry,Richard,and Henry,and the best comedies he wrote in this period are A Midsummer Nights Dream,The Merchant of Venice;Much Ado about Nothing,As You Like It;and Twelfth Night;as well as his first masterpieces in tragedy,Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar In this period
11、he produced his four great tragedies:Hamlet,Othello,King Lear,and Macbeth,which represent the climax of his dramatic power.In each of those plays there is an intense moral struggle,a less joyous view of life,and a profound view of philosophy.He touches all the depth of human passion and human traged
12、y,treachery,lust,jealousy,ingratitude,madness of man,etc.It is a period of restored serenity and tolerant resignation.He no longer hated the world but accepted it with a smile of resignation.He writes no more historical plays full of bloody horrors;no more tragedies in which the whole world goes cra
13、shing down with the hero;and no more comedies filled with sprightly wit.However,he finds life once more worth living,and the world beautiful,enchanting,and fantastically attractive.(The Tempest)Chief achievements and characteristics of Shakespeares drama 1)The progressive significance of his themes
14、2)His successful character portrayal 3)His master-hand in constructing plays 4)The ingenuity of his poetry 5)His mastery of English languageShakespeares themes Through his plays,he touched almost every aspects of human life,of human pleasures and human tragedies.Shakespeare paints in his dramas a fa
15、ithful panorama of the decline of old feudal nobility and the rise of the Tudor monarchy,which represented the interests of the English bourgeoisie.Moreover,he is perhaps the perfect expression of Renaissance humanism.backShakespeares character portrayal In his 37 dramas,Shakespeare created a large
16、group of lifelike characters who live and struggle,suffer and rejoicerepresenting all the complexities and implications of real life.He wrote about his own people and for his own people.backShakespeares play construction Shakespeare is a master-hand for every form of dramacomedy,tragedy,and historic
17、al plays.Moreover,his tragedies may have comic elements,and his comedies include sardonic commentaries on human frailty.He is skillful at recreations.The plots of Shakespeares plays are well-arranged according to the requirement of the theme and content.The action is developed freely,without being h
18、indered by the rules of the classical unities(action,place and time).backShakespeares Poetry In his creation of dramas,he succeeded in combing the two sides of his talentShakespeare the poet and Shakespeare the dramatistinto one and produced the most remarkable poetic dramas in England or perhaps in
19、 the whole world.The lines in his plays are not mere decorations but all have their own values.They serve as a vehicle of utterance to all the possible sentiments of his characters.backShakespeares Language Shakespeares command of vocabulary was the largest among the Elizabethan dramatists.He used m
20、ore than 16000 different words and enriched the English language with his own coinage.Under his hand,words glow with life.He uses the English language the greatest freedom and ease,so that all the speeches fit all the characters that use them.Hamlet 1)The story of Hamlet 2)Hamlet(Act 3,Scene 1,Lines
21、 55-86)3)The character of Hamlet4)The theme of HamletThe character of Hamlet Hamlet is Prince of Denmark and he is a man of Renaissance with humanists ideala soldier,scholar,courtier,the glass of fashion and the mold of form.When he first appears in the play,he is in the state of depression,because,
22、first he found the evil and corruption in his country:the world to him is“an un-weeded garden,the time is out of joint.O cursed spite,That ever I was born to set it right!”Secondly,he,from the ghost,knows the real cause of his fathers death.Therefore,the most important problem he is facing now is to
23、 avenging his fathers death.But the situation he is in is very dangerous in which he had to fight against that stronghold of feudalism with his uncle on the top.So he feigned madness.Here we can say he is a little resourceful himself.Besides this,he is a melancholy,hesitant,reasonable and philosophi
24、cal man as well as a great moralizer,and a slow avenger of his fathers death.At other times he did have chance to act but he remains puzzled,undecided,and skeptical,dallies with his purposes,till the occasion is lost,and finds out some pretense to relapse into indolence and thoughtfulness again.For
25、this reason he refuses to kill the king when he is at his prayers.He also disgusts at evil things,such as his uncles drunkenness,his loathing of his mothers sensuality,his astonishment and horror at her shallowness,his contempt for everything pretentious or false.He is far from a perfect humanist,an
26、d he is a man himself.back It expresses the sharp contradiction between the rising bourgeoisie and the feudal power through a bloody revenge.It also shows that England was no longer a merry England as it was before.Its a country full of disturbances,social evils.It also praises Hamlets struggle agai
27、nst his evil uncle.The theme of Hamlet back A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines with rhyme arranged according to definite scheme.It was introduced by Thomas Wyatt into England.Shakespearean sonnet:the English sonnet,having 14 lines with three quatrains and one couplet that make an effective an
28、d unifying climax to the whole.It has a consistent rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.Discussion of Sonnet 18Reflection Questions and Assignments1 Do you notice any hints or clues about chivalry in Hamlet?2 What is the central importance of Hamlets most famous soliloquy:“To be,or not to be”?3 Pre-read Chapter 5 in the textbook A Survey of English Literature.4 Read Paradise lost(Excerpt)in the book Selected Readings,and answer the questions in the Selected Readings.Thank you!