The 15^th Century

The first English prose writer in this period was Sir Thomas Malory (1405-1471).

He appeared five years after Chaucer's death. Historians give at least 4 identities to him. He was a noble man but due to some unknown reasons he was in prison. (There had been another Malory who was a criminal but historians are not certain whether he was the prose writer).

Malory received an unknown French book in prison and under its influence he produced his own book about King Arthur i.e. "Mort d'Arthur"; it is a fascinating story of Arthur's adventures and death in form of poetry.

Historical Events

After a couple of years following Edward III's reign, another warrior king,  Henry V attacked France and defeated the French army; he was given the daughter of the old French king as his wife and a reward. On the other hand, Henry V was promised to become the king of France after the French king's death; but Henry died soon after his marriage and his one- year old son was crowned as King Henry VI.

Since the king was a child, a council of powerful people started ruling the country. The English court was divided into two households: The House of York and         The House of Lancaster.

Although the king grew up, he was insane and thus a plaything of the council and temporarily he got mad. All these factors led to a conflict between the House of York and The House of Lancaster and eventually a war, to decide who deserves the crown of England, was brought up. The war was called The War of Roses. The emblem of York was a white rose and that of Lancaster was a red rose. At last none of them won the battle. In fact, none of them deserved the kingdom, for all of them were illegitimate descendents while legitimacy was regarded a fundamental peculiarity for the kingdom.

After 5 years of war between nobles a member of the House of York, Edward IV came to the throne. After his death, his five -year old son was to become the king, but Edward's greedy and tough brother, Richard, declared that Edward's son was illegitimate and claimed the monarchy as King Richard III. "Richard III", portrayed by Shakespeare, was a villain. He killed his brother and imprisoned the two princes in the Tower of London.

Catherine, Henry IV's wife, fell in love with one of her court men, a low man named Tudor who was a Welsh. Without legal marriage Catherine brought him 5 illegitimate children. One of his grandsons, named Henry VII later claimed the kingdom of England during Richard III's reign and eventually defeated and killed him. He ascended the throne under the name of Tudor.

Tudors' dynasty belonged to neither Yorks nor Lancasters. Henry VII was very wise and a dictator. He married Edward IV's daughter and   this way he tried to make a link between all his enemies and himself. He had two sons: Arthur and Henry VIII. Arthur married a Spanish princess but he died soon and Henry VIII married his brother's widow.

William Caxton   (1422 - 1491)

After Chaucer, there was no significant literary figure in this century; yet, meanwhile, an important man, William Caxton appeared; (1422 – 1491). During 47 years of his age, he was a merchant, occupied in wool trade, and spent most of his time abroad. Once, he decided to translate a French romance about war. After he finished the translation, he was asked to copy it for some of his friends. Actually, it was a monotonous task, so he asked one of his friends engaged in printing for the job and at 50 he himself became a printer in Belgium. He began his new engagement; printing business, in England and he managed to print Chaucer, Malory and other writers' works. After his death, his pupils continued his profession and gradually, printing business pervaded the whole country.

The 15^th century was a barren period and for 150 years there was no trace of any literary figures and geniuses. Two literary forms were in fashion during The Middle Ages: Popular Ballads and Drama.

Ballad

Ballad is a kind of short narrative poem which was accompanied by music and dance and it used to be performed at public. The composition of ballads goes back to the year 1200 and some scholars esteem that the last ballad was composed in 1700.

 The Characteristics of Ballads:

1. They are mostly anonymous.

2. They are short narrative poems.

    In each ballad a story is told without further information about events and details.

    Just the climax is important.

3. They have tragic stories.

    The hero usually dies or is murdered by treachery or is a victim of love or war.

4. They have abrupt beginning.

     The story is short so it commences at the end and it starts without beginning.

5. They are simple in language.

    They were songs for ordinary people so they were not complex.

6. They have traces of supernaturalism.

     In most ballads one is able to trace supernaturalism; magic, monsters, unusual                                                                                      

     incidents and so on.

7. They are written in stanza form.

    They were written in stanzas; usually in quatrains.

8. They have refrains.

    Ballads were songs in which certain parts are repeated. Refrain is the repetition of        

    a word, a sentence, a phrase, etc, in a stanza.

9. They have impersonal narration.

    The narrator of a ballad is objective and gives no comments and shows no

    sympathy.

"Sir Patrick Spense" is an example of popular or folk ballads.

The Rebirth of Drama   (The 5^th – The 15^th Century)

A very important literary form, drama, was born during The Middle Ages. Drama used to exist in ancient Greece and Rome. But after the emergence of Christianity, the church banned it, for it was considered immoral. Drama was just read to people and was not performed. However, during The Middle Ages, the same power that had discouraged drama, gave it a birth.

On certain religious occasions, for example Easter, a very short piece of play started to emerge in the church. That is to say priests acted out a very short piece of Bible in the church. In fact, they were quite smart, for through performance they could instruct and teach people better. The very first dramatic work was a play performed on Easter, with a subject concerning the occasion. It was in Latin and was titled "Quem Quaeritis?" i.e. "Whom do you seek?"  It consisted of three sentences. The scene was after the crucifixion when three Christian women came to Christ's grave and searched for Him, but they did not find their lord. Then the angels came and asked them whom they sought. They said Christ, and the angels replied that He had risen. Although the language of the play was Latin, people understood it because they were familiar with Bible.

Little by little, people became interested in drama and more people gathered in churches to see the performance. Consequently, there was not enough room for them and the plays had to be performed outdoors. But a large number of people rushed to watch the plays as they became more interested, thus, they changed the place of the performance to market places. The players were not priests anymore since they were not allowed to perform plays outside churches; as a result, priests were replaced by ordinary people. This change brought about a change in the language of plays, thus they were performed in English.

But drama still needed a kind of authority, so a group of people called Trade Guilds took the responsibility. Despite these great changes, the subject matter remained religious.

There was an annual festival during which all the guilds had to perform their own plays i.e. a story from Bible, from dawn to dusk. They had wheeled platform with which each group entered the town and performed its play at all the stations so that all people could watch it. These plays, based on Bible and performed by ordinary people, were called Mystery Plays. "Mystery" means "job" and the name was quite appropriate since the plays were held by guilds.

Another kind of plays, Miracle Plays, also developed during The Middle Ages. The subject matter of these plays was religious, based upon the lives of the saints.

The third kind of drama was Morality Plays whose subject matter was also religious but they had no characters representing real people. They were full of allegories i.e. certain qualities in man, for instance virtue and evil were personified and performed by people. The story was a moral teaching. The most famous Morality Play is titled "Everyman". The central figure is a sample of any human being called Everyman. He is confronted with Death and is quite terrified. He was not able to postpone the inevitable. So, in order not to be alone, he asked his friends, Kindred, Friendship, Beauty, Wealth, etc., to accompany him but all of them refused. Death tells him that the best friend to accompany him is his Good Deed; but Good Deed is in prison and Everyman has to save her. The prison was actually Everyman's sins. He finds out that just through confession he will be able to save her; he does so and goes through salvation.

The 16^th Century

Accession of Henry VII   (1458)

Tudors' reign starting with Henry VII was a period during which we can trace order and governmental authority; (almost during the time of all Tudors). In the early period of Henry VII 's reign certain changes took place:

1. About a decade before Henry VII won his throne, the art of printing with                             moveable type, a German invention, had been introduced into England by       William Caxton. Literacy had been increasing during 15^th century, so that many more people could read than before. This was due to the fact that there were more copies of books available so that the books were not expensive anymore. (Before this invention, people used to write the copies down).                                                                                                                                

2. Seven years after Henry VII came to throne, Christopher Columbus discovered America. The consequence of this discovery was to affect England's place in the world profoundly for, in the next century they became great colonizers and merchant adventurers. Goods and new products flooded into the continent, thus trade flourished and England became rich.

3. Henri VII made commercial treaties with European countries; England, which had always been a sheep raising country, began to manufacture and export significant amounts of cloth.

Renaissance

A very important incident, previously started in Italy in the14^th century, pervaded the whole continent during the 15^th and 16^th centuries was Renaissance.

Renaissance was actually the rebirth and revival of art and literature after The Middle Ages on the basis of the ancient and classical thoughts of Greece and Rome. The event can be regarded as the major change during 16^th century. People started looking back on the golden age of literature and art and gradually great artists and scholars of ancient Rome and Greece became the teachers of Renaissance period. In this taking models, they approached the surface i.e. learned other genres rather than romance, and the new ideas and thoughts. A lot of Greek and Latin books were discovered by the scholars and were studied attentively.

In general, Renaissance, the growth of wealth, the appearing of the middle class, the growth of population and literacy were the major events of this century.

Renaissance is described as the discovery of man and the universe. During The Middle Ages everything was overruled by the church. They believed that man has come to this world because of the Original Sin, so he is not here to enjoy but to suffer, he is a sinful creature by nature with no hope and improvement in life and in order to become happy in another world, he has to live a pious life. This was advocated by churches during The Middle Ages. The scholars of Renaissance period were lured toward the ancient Greek philosophy of life, declaring that man is the center of the universe and the most beautiful and intelligent of all creatures. The gods and goddesses of the ancient Greece have the physical form of human beings. From this moment on, Renaissance scholars discovered man and believed in him as a perfect being. The retrieval of the Greek and Roman doctrine and art is called        The New Learning.

Humanism

Humanists were the scholars who believed in the dignity of mankind and tried to ennoble him. They also believed that through work man can have his paradise here in this world and progress awaits him. Erasmus was a famous Dutch humanist and a priest. After abandoning the church, he started wandering all over Europe and wrote tirelessly. He had a good deal of knowledge of Greek and Latin and in England he made friend with Sir Thomas More, a catholic humanist. These two scholars were both opposed to the corruption and abuses common in churches and believed in slight reforms within the church. But they were not approved by all scholars. Meanwhile, a new religious movement, the Reformation, was brought about, led by a German theologian named Martin Luther.

Martin Luther's Reformation    (1517)

From the point of view of those who supported it Reformation was a return to pure Christianity, cleansing the church of all the filth that had accumulated over the centuries.

Two great theorists of Catholicism of the time were Peter Lombard  and Sir Thomas Aquinas who brought the following theory: Man has free will but the problem is that he falls into sin easily. His nature has a great tendency toward sin unless he could be able to gain God's grace, God's mercy and favor toward mankind, thus be protected. God's grace is achieved through 7 sacraments.

1. Baptism

A ceremony making a person's admission into the Christian church by the time he   is born either by dipping him in water or by sprinkling him with water, and often giving him/her a Christian name. This symbolic action, to admit a baby to the church is administered in a church and by a priest.

2. Confirmation

When a baptized child grows up, he admits his full membership of the Christian church by his own will and in his own words in the church.

3. Matrimony

The union of a man and a woman is legitimate only if they are made couple in the church by a priest, so marriage is a holy action.

4. Penance

This sacrament includes Confession, Absolution and Penance.

When a catholic person commits a sin, he has to confess it to a priest in the church in order to be forgiven i.e. Confession.

Absolution is the formal declaration by a priest that a person's sin has been forgiven i.e. the priest is the person who decides whether God will forgive a person or not.

Penance is the punishment that one imposes on oneself to show that one is sorry for the sin he did and wants to be forgiven. He may fast or pay the church.

5. Eucharist   (Mass Ceremony, Performed on Easter)

It is a ceremony in the church during which people are given a small portion of bread and a sip of wine by the priest. It is believed that through a miracle the bread will change into the flesh and the wine will transform into the blood of Christ. A Christian with such flesh and blood will go through salvation and have a free soul.

6. Ordinance

Priesthood is possible only through a special ceremony. It is not easy to become a priest.

7. Extreme Unction

When a Christian dies, his body will undergo certain formalities e.g. the action of anointing with oil, etc. as a religious rite.

These sacraments prove the domineering influence of the church on the lives of people. Over 14 centuries after Christ's death, Catholic Church grew more and more powerful in authority and wealth. The bishops and cardinals were the princes of the churches. On the other hand, the followers of the church, ordinary people became poor. Accordingly, people could not tolerate the situation and revolted.

Martin Luther had the courage to oppose all the abuses of the church. The Protestants were those who protested the sacraments and believed that Christ's teachings had altered a lot through centuries. They declared that the very first source of knowledge is the Bible.

Protestants believed in:

1. Bible

The Latin Bibles in the churches were not intelligible for ordinary people; therefore, Protestants started translating Bible into different languages. Luther translated it into German.

2. Direct Contact with God

Catholics believed that there is no direct relationship between God and man. A sinful man has to undergo seven sacraments to gain God's grace otherwise; he will be a lost soul with no hope for salvation. Protestants denied any intermediary agent between God and man. They believed that man can reach salvation and contact God by his soul and thought and his faith.

3. No Papal Authority

Protestant claimed that there is no need for priests, popes and in general hierarchy and they are all corrupt. The bishops were all subjects to Roman Catholic Church from which Protestant separated later.

4. A Church with No Property

Catholic churches were supreme proprietors all over the continent, possessing all kinds of property such as land, cash, etc. Protestants believed in a church with no property; besides, they believed in a church just as a place for gathering and being preached by an elder. The preacher according to them has to be a simple man who is familiar with the Bible. This very fact causes a difference between a Protestant priest and a Catholic one. The former can marry since he is a simple ordinary man, but the latter has to remain chaste all his life as he takes a holy place.