1、Part II The RenaissanceI Fill in the blanks.1. The 16th century in England was a period of the breaking up of _relations and the establishing of the foundations of _.2. _ broke off with the Pope, dissolved all the monasteries and abbeys in the country, confiscated their lands and proclaimed himself
2、head of _.3. The old English aristocracy having been exterminated in the course of the War of _, a new nobility, totally dependent on Kings power, come to the fore.4. Absolute monarchy in England reached its summit during the reign of _.5. _ was the first to introduce the sonnet into English literat
3、ure. In Elizabethan time, the three greatest sonnet writers are William Shakespeare, _ and _.6. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and _ are generally regarded as Shakespeares four great tragedies.7. During the twenty-two years of his literary work, Shakespeare produced _plays, _narrative poems and _ sonne
4、ts.8. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is one of _s best plays. And it is him who made _ the principal vehicle of expression in drama.9. _ is often referred to as the poets poet.10. Pope described Francis Bacon as the _, _, _ of mankind. Bacons works may be divided into three classes, the _, t
5、he _, the _ works.II. Find out the match from column B for each item in column A.(I) Find out the author and his work.A B1. ( ) Thomas More a. Gorge Green2. ( ) Edmund Spenser b. Eupheus3. ( ) John Lyly c. The Fairy Queen4. ( ) Marlowe d. Utopia5. ( ) Robert Greene e. The Jew of Malta(II). The relat
6、ionship with Hamlet.A B1. ( ) Ghost a. friend2. ( ) Claudius .b. mother3. ( ) Queen Gertrude c. father4. ( ) Horatio d. girlfriend5. ( ) Polonius e. girlfriends father6. ( ) Ophelia . f. uncle(III). The character in the play.A B1. ( ) The Merchant of Venice a. Desdemona2. ( ) As You Like It b. Corde
7、lia3. ( ) Hamlet c. Juliet4. ( ) King Lear d. Ophelia5. ( ) Othello e. Portia6. ( ) Romeo and Juliet f. RosalindIII. Define the literary terms listed below.1. Renaissance:1) The word, meaning “rebirth”, is commonly applied to the movement or period which marks the transition from the medieval to the
8、 modern in Western Europe. 2) In the usual sense of the word, Renaissance suggests especially the 14th, 15th, 16th, and early 17th centuries, the dates differing for different countries. 3) (It is best to regard the Renaissance as the result of a new emphasis upon and a new combination of tendencies
9、 and attitudes already exiting, stimulated by a series of historical events. )The new humanistic learning resulted from the rediscovery of classical literature is frequently taken as the beginning of the Renaissance on its conscious, intellectual side, since it was to the treasures of classical cult
10、ure and to the authority of classical writers that the people of the Renaissance turned for inspiration.2. sonnet: 1) It is a lyric poem of 14 lines with formal rhyme scheme, expressing different aspects of a single thought, mood, or feeling, sometimes resolved or summed up in the last lines of the
11、poem.2) The form originated from medieval Italy in about 1230-1240, and reached its peak with the Italian poet Petrarch. In the first half of the 16th century, Thomas Wyatt introduced the Italian sonnet into England and established English sonnet. The most famous English sonnet sequences appeared in
12、 Elizabethan times, including Sir Philip Sidneys Astrophil and Stella (1591), Edmund Spensers Amoretti (1595) and Shakespeares Sonnets (1593-1598). 3) The two main forms of the sonnet are the Patrarchan, or Italian, and the English, or Shakespearean. The former consists of an octave, or eight-line s
13、tanza, and a sestet, or six-line stanza. The octave has two quatrains, rhyming abba, abba; the first quatrain presents the theme, the second develops it. The sestet is built on a few different rhymes, arranged cddcee, cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce; the first three lines exemplify or reflect on the theme
14、, and the last three lines bring the whole poem to a unified close. Philip Sidneys sonnets are excellent examples of this style in the English language.4) The English sonnet consists of three quatrains, each rhymed differently, with a final, independently rhymed couplet that makes an effective, unif
15、ying climax to the whole. The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. 3. humanism:1) Broadly, this term suggests any attitude which tends to exalt the human elements or stress the importance of human interests, as opposed to the supernatural, divine elementsor as opposed to the grosser, animal element
16、s. 2) In a more specific sense, humanism suggests a devotion to those studies supposed to promote human culture most effectivelyin particular, those dealing with the life, thought, language, and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. In literary history the most important use of the term is to desig
17、nate the revival of classical culture which accompanied the Renaissance.4. tragedy:1) Tragedy is concerned with the harshness and apparent injustice of life. 2) It usually recounts an important and causally related series of events in the life of a person of significance. The events would culminate
18、in trials and catastrophes of a hero, who falls down from power and whose eventual death leads to the downfall of others. Often the heros fall from happiness is due to a weakness in his character, a weakness such as the excessive pride of Faustus, the overweening ambition of Macbeth, or the uncontro
19、lled jealousy of Othello, which brings self-destruction. 3) The tragic action aroused feelings of awe in the audience, who often leave the theatre with a renewed sense of the seriousness and significance of human life. The word catharsis is often used to describe the audiences feelings. It means the
20、 purging from the mind of the feelings of pity and fear the play has aroused.5. essay:1) The term refers to literary composition devoted to the presentation of the writers own ideas on a topic and generally addressing a particular aspect of the subject. Often brief in scope and informal in style, th
21、e essay differs from such formal expository forms as the thesis, dissertation, or treatise.2) The development of the form may be considered a result of the Renaissance emphasis on the individual, which fostered exploration of ones inner self in relation to the outside world.6. classicism: 1) As a cr
22、itical term, classicism is a body of doctrine thought to be derived from or to reflect the qualities of ancient Greek criticism. Classicism stands for certain definite ideas and attitudes, mainly drawn from the critical utterances of the Greeks and Romans or developed through an imitation of ancient
23、 art and literature. These include restraint, restricted scope, dominance of reason, sense of form, unity of design and aim, clarity, simplicity, balance, attention to structure and logical organization, chasteness in style, severity of outline, moderation, self-control, intellectualism, decorum, re
24、spect for tradition, imitation, conservation, and good sense.IV. Answer the following questions.1. Give a summary about the English literature during the Renaissance period.Answer: a) English literature in the Renaissance Period is usually regarded as the highlight in the history of English literatu
25、re. In the second period of English Renaissance, that is, in Elizabethan Period, English literature developed with a great speed and made a magnificent achievement.b) The greatest and most distinctive achievement of Elizabethan literature is the drama. Thus appeared a group of excellent dramatists.
26、They are John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, George Peele, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Johnson.c) Next to the drama is the lyrical poetry. Elizabethan poetry is remarkable for its variety, its freshness, its youthfulness, and its romantic feeling. A group of great poets appea
27、red, such as Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser. In that time, writing poetry became a fashion, and Queen Elizabeth herself was also a poet.d) Besides drama and poetry, there were also some prose writings, though not so many, such as Thomas Mores Utopia, which may be thoug
28、ht as the first literary masterpiece of the English Renaissance, and Francis Bacons Essays, which makes the author one of the best essayists in English literature.2. Give a brief comment on The Merchant of Venice.Answer:a) Of Shakespeares earlier comedies, The Merchant of Venice is certainly the mos
29、t outstanding one in which Shakespeare creates tension, ambiguity, a self-conscious and self-delighting artifice that is at once intellectually exciting and emotionally engaging. The sophistication derives in part from the play between high, outgoing romance and dark forces of negativity and hate. b
30、) The traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassano, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, and to expose the insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew, but later, especially after the holocaust committed by the Nazi Germany during t
31、he Second World War, it is very difficult to see Shylock as a conventional evil figure. And many people today tend to regard the play as a satire of the Christian hypocrisy and their false standard of friendship and love, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice aga
32、inst Jews.3. Read Bacons “Of Studies” carefully, and use it as an example to illustrate Bacons writing style.Answer:Bacons essays are famous for their brevity, compactness, and powerfulness. Yet there is an obvious stylistic change in his Essays. The sentences in the first edition are charged and cr
33、owded with symmetries. They are composed in a rather affected way. However, the final edition not only enlarges the range of theme, but also brings forth the looser and more persuasive style. The essays are well arranged and enriched by biblical allusions, metaphors, and cadence.V. For each of the q
34、uotation listed below please give the title of the literary work from which it is taken, then give a brief analysis of them.1. To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And b
35、y opposing end them. To die, to sleep: With this regard their currents turn awry,And lose the name of action. Answer: 1) This quotation is taken from Hamlet.2) Analysis: Hamlet is urged by the ghost to seek revenge for his fathers foul and most unnatural murder. But Hamlet has none of the single-min
36、ded blood lust of the earlier revenges. It is not because he is incapable of action, but the cast of his mind is so speculative, so questioning, and so contemplative. That action, when it finally comes, seems almost like defeat, diminishing rather than adding to the stature of the hero. Trapped in a
37、 nightmare world of spying, testing and plotting, and apparently bearing the intolerable burden of the duty to revenge his fathers death, Hamlet is obliged to inhabit a shadow world, to live suspended between fact and fiction, language and action. His life is one of constant role-playing, examining
38、the nature of action only to deny its possibility; for he is too sophisticated to degrade his nature to the conventional role of a stage revenger. For such a figure, soliloquy is a natural medium, a necessary release of his anguish, and some of his questioning monologues possess surpassing power and
39、 insight, which have survived centuries of being torn from their context. But our interest is not only in Hamlet the tragic hero for this play but also Shakespeares most detailed exposure of a corrupted court “an unweeded garden” in which there is nothing but a foul and pestilent congregation of vap
40、ours. By revealing the power-seeking, the jostling for place, the hidden motive, the courteous superficialities that veil lust and guilt, Shakespeare condemns the hypocrisy and treachery and general corruption at the royal court.2. Shall I compare thee to a summers day?Thou art more lovely and more
41、temperate: So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.Answer: 1) This poem is taken from Shakespeares Sonnets.2) Analysis: Though they are well with the general tradition of Elizabethan sonnet cycles, Shakespeares sonnets are in several ways unique. T
42、he principal person addressed by the poet is not a woman but a young man; the dark lady, when she appears, is vastly different from the Delias and Celias of Petrarchan convention. More importantly, the depths of moral and aesthetic contemplation in Shakespeares sonnets are far more profound than we
43、find in other Elizabethan cycle. With 3 exceptions (99, 126 and 154) Shakespeare uses the sonnet in the popular English form, first fully developed by Shakespeare. The couplet usually ties the sonnet to one of the general themes of the series, leaving the quatrains free to develop the poetic intensi
44、ty, which makes the separate sonnets so memorable. Shakespeares sonnets constitute a vast landscape of metaphor, surprising often because it seems to anticipate the atmosphere of some of the later plays. In this landscape are some vividly recognizable figures the poet, the friend, the Dark Lady, and
45、, more indefinite, the rival poetPart III The Period of Revolution and RestorationI. Fill in the blanks.1. The 17th century was a period when _ impeded the further development of capitalism in England and the _ could no longer bear the sway of _.2. There were religious division and confusion and a l
46、ong bitter struggle between the peoples Parliament and the Throne_ fighting against the _ who helped the king.3. After _s death, monarchy was again restored (1660). It was called the period of the _.4. The Glorious Revolution in _ meant three things: the supremacy of _, the beginning of _, and the f
47、inal triumph of the principle of _.5. The Puritans believed in _ of life. Under the powerful influence of them, the theatres were closed in _. And the Revolution Period is also called _, because the English Revolution was carried out under a religious cloak.6. Restoration created a literature of its own, that was often _ and _, but on the whole _ and _. The most popular genre in the literature of the Restoration was that of _ whose chief aim was to entertain the licenti
