1.
Troilus and Cressida
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Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. It was described by Frederick S. Boas as one of Shakespeares problem plays, the play ends on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between Troilus and Cressida. The work has in recent years stimulated exceptionally lively critical debate and this is tragedy of a special sort—the tragedy the basis of which is the impossibility of conventional tragedy. Troilus and Cressida is set during the years of the Trojan War. Essentially, two plots are followed in the play, in one, Troilus, a Trojan prince, woos Cressida, another Trojan. They have sex, professing their love, before Cressida is exchanged for a Trojan prisoner of war. As he attempts to visit her in the Greek camp, Troilus glimpses Diomedes flirting with his beloved Cressida, while this plot gives the play its name, it accounts for only a small part of the plays run time. The majority of the play revolves around the leaders of the Greek and Trojan forces, Agamemnon, Ajax is originally chosen as this combatant, but makes peace with Hector before they are able to fight. Achilles is prompted to return to only after his dear friend and possible lover. A series of skirmishes conclude the play, during which Achilles catches Hector and has the Myrmidons kill him, the conquest of Troy is left unfinished, as the Trojans learn of the death of their hero. The story was a one for dramatists in the early 17th century. Thomas Heywoods two-part play The Iron Age also depicts the Trojan war and the story of Troilus and Cressida, but it is not certain whether his or Shakespeares play was written first. In addition, Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle wrote a play called Troilus and Cressida at around the time as Shakespeare. The play is believed to have written around 1602, shortly after the completion of Hamlet. It was published in quarto in two editions, both in 1609. No publication followed, however, until 1609, the stationers Richard Bonian,1609, and later that year issued the first quarto, but in two states. Some commentators have attempted to reconcile these contradictory claims by arguing that the play was composed originally around 1600–02, but heavily revised shortly before its 1609 printing. The play is noteworthy for its bitter and caustic nature, similar to the works that Shakespeare was writing in the 1605–08 period, King Lear, Coriolanus, in this view, the original version of the play was a more positive romantic comedy of the type Shakespeare wrote ca
2.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
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Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. With around 250 undergraduates and 200 postgraduates, it also has the second smallest student body of the colleges of the University. The College has traditionally one of the more academically successful colleges in the University of Cambridge. The colleges average position between 2003 and 2012 was 9th, and in the most recent rankings, placed in 10th, Corpus ranks among the wealthiest Cambridge colleges in terms of fixed assets, being exceptionally rich in silver. The Colleges endowment valued at £97. 4M at the end of June 2016 and its freehold land, the guild of Corpus Christi was founded in Cambridge in 1349 by William Horwode, Henry de Tangmere, and John Hardy in response to the Black Death. They determined to found a new college in the University of Cambridge, later the same year the new guild merged with an older guild, the Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which had been decimated by the Plague. The united guilds acquired land in the centre of town and their patron, the Duke of Lancaster, applied to King Edward III for a licence to found a new college, which was granted in 1352. Construction began immediately of a single modest court near the church and in 1356 it was ready to house the Master. The colleges statutes were drawn up in 1356, the united guild merged its identity with the new college, which acquired all the guilds lands, ceremonies, and revenues. The parade continued until the English Reformation, when the Master, William Sowode, the college continues to have a grand dinner on the feast day of Corpus Christi, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. The newly constructed court could house 22 fellows and students, the statutes laid down the rules governing the behaviour of fellows only. Students were not part of the foundation at this stage and would not come within the scope of the statutes for another 200 years. In its early centuries, the college was relatively poor and so could not construct new buildings and it had no chapel, so the members worshipped in St Benets Church next door. For many years, particularly during the Reformation when Catholic references were discouraged, Corpus was the only University college, although by no means the only University building, to be attacked. The revolt, which took place during the Corpus Christi week. The college claimed £80 in damages, in 1460 during the Wars of the Roses, the college paid for armaments including artillery and arrows, and protective clothing to defend the colleges treasures from a tempestuous riot. As a monument a talbot, the supporter of the Talbot family, was placed on the gable of Old Court. At the same time the Master, Thomas Cosyn, built the colleges first chapel, over the next few centuries, garret rooms were added in Old Court increasing student numbers
3.
Epic poetry
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An epic poem, epic, epos, or epopee is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that the Homeric epics and these works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all Western epic self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems, classical epic employs dactylic hexameter and recounts a journey, either physical or mental or both. Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, another type of epic poetry is epyllion, which is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. The term, which means little epic, came into use in the nineteenth century, the most famous example of classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64. The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions, in these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early twentieth-century study of living oral traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and this facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance, poets in literate societies have sometimes copied the epic format. The earliest surviving European examples are the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgils Aeneid, other obvious examples are Nonnus Dionysiaca, Tulsidas Sri Ramacharit Manas. In his work Poetics, Aristotle defines an epic as one of the forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry, an attempt to delineate ten main characteristics of an epic, Begins in medias res. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe, Begins with an invocation to a muse. Begins with a statement of the theme, contains long lists, called an epic catalogue. Shows divine intervention on human affairs, features heroes that embody the values of the civilization. Often features the tragic heros descent into the Underworld or hell, the hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society the epic originates from, many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture. Conventions of epics, Preposition, Opens by stating the theme or cause of the epic and this may take the form of a purpose, of a question, or of a situation. Invocation, Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus, the poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero
4.
Geoffrey Chaucer
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Geoffrey Chaucer, known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first poet to be buried in Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey, among his many works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. He is best known today for The Canterbury Tales, Chaucers work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin. Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London sometime around 1343, though the precise date and his father and grandfather were both London vintners, several previous generations had been merchants in Ipswich. In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffreys father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure. In the City Hustings Roll 110,5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for the king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the Kings Works. In 1359, in the stages of the Hundred Years War, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, Elizabeths husband. In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims, Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum, and Chaucer was released. After this, Chaucers life is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward IIIs queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford and it is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. His son, Thomas Chaucer, had a career, as chief butler to four kings, envoy to France. Thomass daughter, Alice, married the Duke of Suffolk, thomass great-grandson, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, was the heir to the throne designated by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffreys other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey, Agnes, an attendant at Henry IVs coronation, Chaucers Treatise on the Astrolabe was written for Lewis. According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the Inner Temple at this time and he became a member of the royal court of Edward III as a valet de chambre, yeoman, or esquire on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for court employment and he travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, two other literary stars of the era were in attendance, Jean Froissart and Petrarch
5.
Middle English
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This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English developed out of Late Old English, seeing many dramatic changes in its grammar, pronunciation and this largely forms the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by the era of Early Modern English, by that time, a variant of the Northumbrian dialect was developing into the Scots language. During the Middle English period many Old English grammatical features were simplified or disappeared, noun, adjective and verb inflections were simplified, a process that included the reduction of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw an adoption of Norman French vocabulary, especially in areas such as politics, law. Everyday English vocabulary remained mostly Germanic, with Old Norse influence becoming apparent, significant changes in pronunciation took place, especially for long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift. Little survives of early Middle English literature, most likely due to the Norman domination, poets wrote both in the vernacular and courtly English. It is popularly believed that William Shakespeare wrote in Middle English, the latter part of the 11th century was a period of transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English. The influence of Old Norse certainly helped move English from a synthetic language towards a more analytic or isolating word order and it was, after all, a salutary influence. The gain was greater than the loss, there was a gain in directness, in clarity, and in strength. The change to Old English from Old Norse was substantive, pervasive and it is most important to recognise that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw these endings must have led to confusion, tending gradually to become obscured. This blending of peoples and languages resulted in simplifying English grammar. There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the cultures that arose in the 12th century. Sometimes, and particularly later, words were taken from Latin, giving such sets as kingly, later French borrowings came from standard rather than Norman French, this leads to such cognate pairs as warden, guardian. The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not, of course, change the language immediately, the general population would have spoken the same dialects as before the Conquest, these changed slowly until written records of them became available for study, which varies in different regions. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, Early Middle English has a largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, but a greatly simplified inflectional system
6.
Troilus
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Troilus is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homers Iliad, which scholars believe was composed by bards, in Greek mythology, Troilus is a young Trojan prince, one of the sons of King Priam and Hecuba. Prophecies link Troilus fate to that of Troy and so he is ambushed and murdered by Achilles, Sophocles was one of the writers to tell this tale. It was also a theme among artists of the time. Ancient writers treated Troilus as the epitome of a dead child mourned by his parents and he was also regarded as a paragon of youthful male beauty. In Western European medieval and Renaissance versions of the legend, Troilus is the youngest of Priams five legitimate sons by Hecuba, despite his youth he is one of the main Trojan war leaders. He dies in battle at Achilles hands, in a popular addition to the story, originating in the 12th century, Troilus falls in love with Cressida, whose father has defected to the Greeks. Cressida pledges her love to Troilus but she switches her affections to the Greek hero Diomedes when sent to her father in a hostage exchange. Chaucer and Shakespeare are among the authors who wrote works telling the story of Troilus, within the medieval tradition, Troilus was regarded as a paragon of the faithful courtly lover and also of the virtuous pagan knight. Once the custom of courtly love had faded, his fate was regarded less sympathetically, little attention was paid to the character during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, Troilus has reappeared in 20th and 21st century retellings of the Trojan War by authors who have elements from both the classical and medieval versions of his story. For the ancient Greeks, the tale of the Trojan War, the characters death early in the war and the prophecies surrounding him demonstrated that all Trojan efforts to defend their home would be in vain. His symbolic significance is evidenced by linguistic analysis of his Greek name Troilos and it can be interpreted as an elision of the names of Tros and Ilos, the legendary founders of Troy, as a diminutive or pet name little Tros or as an elision of Troië and lyo. These multiple possibilities emphasise the link between the fates of Troilus and of the city where he lived, given this, it is unfortunate that the Cypria—the part of the Epic Cycle that covers the period of the Trojan War of Troilus death—does not survive. Indeed, no complete narrative of his remains from archaic times or the subsequent classical period. Most of the sources from before the Hellenistic age that even referred to the character are lost or survive only in fragments or summary. Partially compensating for the texts are the physical artifacts that remain from the archaic. The story of the circumstances around Troilus death was a theme among pottery painters
7.
Cressida
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Cressida is a character who appears in many Medieval and Renaissance retellings of the story of the Trojan War. She is a Trojan woman, the daughter of Calchas, a Greek seer, in later culture she becomes an archetype of a faithless lover. The characters name is derived from that of Chryseis, a character who appears in the Iliad but has no connection with Troilus, Diomedes or Calchas. Indeed, the story of Troilus and Cressida does not appear in any Greek legends but was invented by the twelfth century French poet Benoît de Sainte-Maure in the Roman de Troie. It is the Italian author and poet Boccaccio who makes the decisive shift in the name in Il Filostrato. This poem is the first work dedicated to telling the story of the love triangle rather than to the tale of the Trojan War. Geoffrey Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde is a version of the story based on Boccaccio. Several other British authors then took up the tale, for example Robert Henryson in his The Testament of Cresseid and William Shakespeare in his Troilus, Cressida has most often been depicted by writers as false Cressida, a paragon of female inconstancy. As soon as she has betrayed Troilus, she has fulfilled her purpose, such is the case in Benoît, Guido, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare. Chaucers poem, however, at least portrays a more sympathetic Criseyde showing an awareness of her literary status, Alas. Henrysons treatment is unusual in that he looks at events after the end of the traditional tale and his poem takes up the repentant Cresseids story after she has developed leprosy and been abandoned by Diomedes. Christa Wolf provides another degraded future for the character in Cassandra by once more naming her Briseis and including the Homeric story of her slavery to Achilles and Agamemnon. Jack Lindsays novel Cressidas first lover, a tale of ancient Greece explores another area untouched in standard narratives, some authors have attempted to exonerate the character by having her choose Troilus over Diomedes. In both of these cases, Cressidas being true to Troilus is associated with her death as part of the tragic events. In Shakespeares Troilus and Cressida, we first hear of Cressida in Act 1 Scene 1, Pandarus and Troilus are discussing how the latters unspoken love for the formers niece, Cressida, is preventing him from performing on the battlefield. She first appears in person in the scene, speaking to her manservant before Pandarus enters. They commence into witty banter while a parade of Trojan soldiers heads past, when Troilus walks by Pandarus tries to convince Cressida of his merit, but she teases him, saying she has heard Achilles, a Grecian warrior, is far more impressive. Once Pandarus exits Cressida admits in a soliloquy that she does in fact love Troilus, in her own words, She next appears in Act 3 Scene 2, when Pandarus leads her on stage wearing a veil to meet with Troilus
8.
Siege of Troy
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In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homers Iliad. The Iliad relates four days in the year of the decade-long siege of Troy. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the fairest, in exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helens husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris insult. After the deaths of heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods wrath, few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, in 1868, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was a real city at what is now Hissarlik in Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars, whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. The events of the Trojan War are found in works of Greek literature. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, the most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed sometime between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. Each poem narrates only a part of the war, the Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey concerns Odysseuss return to his home island of Ithaca, following the sack of Troy. Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics, the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony. Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from an included in Proclus Chrestomathy. The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain, both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems
9.
Long poem
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The long poem is a literary genre including all poetry of considerable length. Though the definition of a poem is vague and broad. The long poem traces its origins to the ancient epics, such as Homers Iliad, with more than 220000 verses and about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem in the world. It is roughly ten times the size of the Iliad and Odyssey combined, roughly five times longer than Dantes Divine Comedy, in English, Beowulf and Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde are among the first important long poems. The long poem thrived and gained new vitality in the hands of experimental Modernists in the early 1900s and has continued to evolve through the 21st century. The long poem has evolved into a term, encompassing many subgenres, including epic, verse novel, verse narrative, lyric sequence, lyric series. Lynn Keller describes the poem as being a poem that is simply book length, but perhaps the simplest way to define long poem is this. Susan Stanford Friedman describes the poem as a genre in which all poems that are not considered to be short can be a considered a part. Only a broad definition can apply to the genre as a whole, in general, a poem is a long poem when its length enhances and expands upon the thematic, creative, and formal weight of the poem. Though the term long poem may be elusive to define, the term is now getting the attention it deserves. The poem is about how long, and thee length. The genre has gained importance both as a form, and as a means of collective expression. A long poem often functions to tell a tale of the tribe, or a story encompasses a whole cultures values. Ezra Pound coined the phrase, referring to his own long poem The Cantos, the long poems length and scope can contain concerns of a magnitude that a shorter poem cannot address. The poet may also serve as a poet-prophet with special insight for his or her own tribe, in Modern and Contemporary long poems the tale of the tribe has frequently been retold by culturally, economically, and socially marginalized persons. Various poets have undertaken a revisionary mythopoesis in the long poem genre, since the genre has roots in forms that traditionally exclude poets who have minimal cultural authority, the long poem can be a fundamental re-vision, and function as a discourse for those poets. These re-visions may include neglected characters, deflation of traditionally celebrated characters, and this revision is noted especially by feminist critical work that analyzes how women are given a new voice and story through the transformation of a previously masculine form. Lynn Keller notes that the long poem enabled modernists to include sociological, anthropological, many long poems deal with history not in the revisionary sense but as a simple re-telling in order to prove a point. Then there are those who go a step further and recite a places or peoples history in order to teach, like revisionary mythopoesis, they may attempt to make a point or demonstrate a new perspective by exaggerating or editing certain parts of a history
10.
The Canterbury Tales
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The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387–1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of Peace and and it was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The prize for this contest is a meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. He uses the tales and descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, Chaucers use of such a wide range of classes and types of people was without precedent in English. Although the characters are fictional, they offer a variety of insights into customs. Often, such insight leads to a variety of discussions and disagreements among people in the 14th century, structurally, the collection resembles The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was seminal in this evolution of literary preference, while Chaucer clearly states the addressees of many of his poems, the intended audience of The Canterbury Tales is more difficult to determine. Chaucer was a courtier, leading some to believe that he was mainly a court poet who wrote exclusively for nobility, the Canterbury Tales is generally thought to have been incomplete at the end of Chaucers life. In the General Prologue, some thirty pilgrims are introduced, according to the Prologue, Chaucers intention was to write two stories from the perspective of each pilgrim on the way to and from their ultimate destination, St. Thomas Beckets shrine. Although perhaps incomplete, The Canterbury Tales is revered as one of the most important works in English literature, not only do readers find it entertaining, but it is also open to a wide range of interpretations. The question of whether The Canterbury Tales is finished has not yet been answered, there are 83 known manuscripts of the work from the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, more than any other vernacular literary text with the exception of The Prick of Conscience. This is taken as evidence of the popularity during the century after Chaucers death. Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought to have been complete at one time, even the earliest surviving manuscripts are not Chaucers originals, the oldest being MS Peniarth 392 D, compiled by a scribe shortly after Chaucers death. The most beautiful of the manuscripts of the tales is the Ellesmere Manuscript, the first version of The Canterbury Tales to be published in print was William Caxtons 1478 edition. Only 10 copies of this edition are known to exist, including one held by the British Library, since this print edition was created from a now-lost manuscript, it is counted as among the 83 manuscripts. In 2004, Professor Linne Mooney claimed that she was able to identify the scrivener who worked for Chaucer as an Adam Pinkhurst. No authorial, arguably complete version of the Tales exists and no consensus has been reached regarding the order in which Chaucer intended the stories to be placed, textual and manuscript clues have been adduced to support the two most popular modern methods of ordering the tales. Some scholarly editions divide the Tales into ten Fragments, however, between Fragments, the connection is less obvious
11.
Roman de Troie
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Le Roman de Troie is a 40,000 line poem by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, probably written between 1155 and 1160 as a medieval retelling of the epic theme of the Trojan War. It inspired a body of literature in the called the roman antique. The Trojan subject itself, for which de Sainte-Maure provided an impetus, is referred to as the Matter of Troy, le Roman de Troie influenced the works of many in the West, including Chaucer and Shakespeare. In the East it was translated into Greek as The War of Troy, of medieval works on this subject, only Guido delle Colonnes Historia destructionis Troiae was adapted as frequently. After she is handed over to her father during a hostage exchange and this love triangle would be the central subject of a number of later works. The dedication of the poem, to a riche dame de riche rei, generally believed to be Eleanor of Aquitaine, consort of Henry II, is buried deep within it and it serves to date the poem to the years before Eleanors imprisonment by Henry in 1173
12.
Giovanni Boccaccio
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Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Boccaccio wrote a number of works, including The Decameron. The details of Boccaccios birth are uncertain and he was born in Florence or in a village near Certaldo where his family was from. He was the son of Florentine merchant Boccaccino di Chellino and an unknown woman, Boccaccios stepmother was called Margherita de Mardoli. His father worked for the Compagnia dei Bardi and, in the 1320s, married Margherita dei Mardoli, Boccaccio may have been tutored by Giovanni Mazzuoli and received from him an early introduction to the works of Dante. In 1326, his father was appointed head of a bank, Boccaccio was an apprentice at the bank but disliked the banking profession. He persuaded his father to let him study law at the Studium and he also pursued his interest in scientific and literary studies. His father introduced him to the Neapolitan nobility and the French-influenced court of Robert the Wise in the 1330s, at this time, he fell in love with a married daughter of the king, who is portrayed as Fiammetta in many of Boccaccios prose romances, including Il Filocolo. Acciaioli later became counselor to Queen Joanna I of Naples and, eventually and it seems that Boccaccio enjoyed law no more than banking, but his studies allowed him the opportunity to study widely and make good contacts with fellow scholars. His early influences included Paolo da Perugia, humanists Barbato da Sulmona and Giovanni Barrili, in Naples, Boccaccio began what he considered his true vocation of poetry. Works produced in this period include Il Filostrato and Teseida, The Filocolo, the period featured considerable formal innovation, including possibly the introduction of the Sicilian octave, where it influenced Petrarch. Boccaccio returned to Florence in early 1341, avoiding the plague of 1340 in that city and he had left Naples due to tensions between the Angevin king and Florence. His father had returned to Florence in 1338, where he had gone bankrupt, the pastoral piece Ninfale fiesolano probably dates from this time, also. In 1343, Boccaccios father remarried to Bice del Bostichi and his children by his first marriage had all died, but he had another son named Iacopo in 1344. In Florence, the overthrow of Walter of Brienne brought about the government of popolo minuto and it diminished the influence of the nobility and the wealthier merchant classes and assisted in the relative decline of Florence. The city was further in 1348 by the Black Death. From 1347, Boccaccio spent much time in Ravenna, seeking new patronage and, despite his claims and his stepmother died during the epidemic and his father was closely associated with the government efforts as Minister of Supply in the city. His father died in 1349 and Boccaccio was forced into an active role as head of the family
13.
Misogyny
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Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. Misogyny can occasionally be found within sacred texts of religions and mythologies, according to sociologist Allan G. Johnson, misogyny is a cultural attitude of hatred for females because they are female. Johnson argues that, Misogyny. is a part of sexist prejudice and ideology and. Misogyny is manifested in different ways, from jokes to pornography to violence to the self-contempt women may be taught to feel toward their own bodies. Dictionaries define misogyny as hatred of women and as hatred, dislike, the counterpart of misogyny is misandry, the hatred or dislike of men, the antonym of misogyny is philogyny, the love or fondness of women. The term misogyny itself comes directly into English from the Ancient Greek word misogunia, the earlier, longer, and more complete passage comes from a moral tract known as On Marriage by the stoic philosopher Antipater of Tarsus. Antipater argues that marriage is the foundation of the state, and he uses misogunia to describe the sort of writing the tragedian Euripides eschews, stating that he reject the hatred of women in his writing. He then offers an example of this, quoting from a lost play of Euripides in which the merits of a wife are praised. The other surviving use of the original Greek word is by Chrysippus, in a fragment from On affections, here, misogyny is the first in a short list of three disaffections—women, wine and humanity. Chrysippus point is more abstract than Antipaters, and Galen quotes the passage as an example of a contrary to his own. What is clear, however, is that he groups hatred of women with hatred of humanity generally and it was the prevailing medical opinion of his day that wine strengthens body and soul alike. So Chrysippus, like his fellow stoic Antipater, views misogyny negatively, as a disease and it is this issue of conflicted or alternating emotions that was philosophically contentious to the ancient writers. Ricardo Salles suggests that the general view was that man may not only alternate between philogyny and misogyny, philanthropy and misanthropy, but be prompted to each by the other. Aristotle has also accused of being a misogynist, he has written that women were inferior to men. The Timaeus warns men that if they live immorally they will be reincarnated as women, the Republic contains a number of comments in the same spirit, evidence of nothing so much as of contempt toward women. Even Socrates words for his bold new proposal about marriage, suggest that the women are to be held in common by men. He never says that the men might be held in common by the women, misogynist is also found in the Greek—misogunēs —in Deipnosophistae and in Plutarchs Parallel Lives, where it is used as the title of Heracles in the history of Phocion. It was the title of a play by Menander, which we know of from seven of Strabos 17 volume Geography
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Pandarus
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Pandarus /ˈpændərəs/ or Pandar /ˈpændər/ is a Trojan aristocrat who appears in stories about the Trojan War. In Homers Iliad he is portrayed as an energetic and impetuous warrior, in Shakespeares play Troilus and Cressida, he is portrayed as an aged degenerate and coward who ends the play by telling the audience he will bequeath them his diseases. In Homers Iliad, Pandarus is an archer and the son of Lycaon. Pandarus, who fights on the side of Troy in the Trojan War, in Book Four, he shoots Menelaus and wounds him with an arrow, sabotaging a truce that could potentially have led to the peaceful return of Helen of Troy. He is goaded into breaking the truce by the gods, who wish for the destruction of Troy and he then wounds Diomedes with an arrow and acts as Aeneas charioteer. He is later killed by Diomedes, whose spear strikes him in the face, Pandarus is also the name of a companion of Aeneas in Virgils Aeneid. Pandarus is not to be confused with Pandareus, boccaccio himself derived the story from Le Roman De Troie, by 12th-century poet Benoît de Sainte-Maure. This story is not part of classical Greek mythology, both Pandarus and other characters in the medieval narrative who carry names from the Iliad are quite different from Homers characters of the same name. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem Troilus and Criseyde, Pandarus plays the role, though Chaucers Pandarus is Criseydes uncle. Chaucers Pandarus is of special interest because he is constructed as an expert rhetorician, when his linguistic fireworks fail at the end of the story, the proverb and human rhetoric in general are questioned as reliable means of communication. William Shakespeare used the story again in his play Troilus. Shakespeares Pandarus is more of a bawd than Chaucers, and he is a lecherous, in The Dukes Children by Anthony Trollope when the Duke of Omnium suspects Mrs Finn of encouraging his daughters romance he refers to her as a she-Pandarus. In The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima, a panderer is, specifically, a bawd — a male who arranges access to female sexual favors, the manager of prostitutes. Thus, in law, the charge of pandering is an accusation that an individual has sold the services of another. The verb to pander is also used in a general sense to suggest active or implicit encouragement of someones weaknesses. This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in the public domain
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Robert Henryson
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Robert Henryson was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. His poetry was composed in Middle Scots at a time when this had become a state language and it is one of the most important bodies of work in the canon of early Scottish literature. His writing consists mainly of narrative works highly inventive in their development of story-telling techniques and he generally achieved a canny balance of humour and high seriousness which is often multi-layered in its effects. This range is extended in his Testament of Cresseid with its more tragic vision. Overall, his themes and tone convey an impression of humanity. He was a rhetorician and remains to this day one of the finest in the Scots language. An example is his use of psychology to convey individual character in carefully dramatised. His surviving body of work amounts to almost exactly 5000 lines, Henrysons surviving canon consists of three long poems and around twelve miscellaneous short works in various genres. The longest poem is his Morall Fabillis, a tight, intricately structured set of thirteen stories in a cycle that runs just short of 3000 lines. Two other long works survive, both a little over 600 lines each, as with his longer works, his outward themes often carry important subtexts. Internal evidence has been used to suggest that the Morall Fabillis were composed during the 1480s, there is no record of when or where Henryson was born or educated. If this was the poet, as is assumed, then the citation indicates that he had completed studies in both arts and canon law. With no record of him as a student in Scotland, it is thought that he graduated in a university furth of the land, possibly in Leuven. Almost all early references to Henryson firmly associate his name with Dunfermline, direct unconfirmed evidence for this connection occurs in 1478 when his name appears as a witness on abbey charters. If this was the poet, then it would establish that one of his functions was as notary for the abbey, an institution which possessed and managed a vast portfolio of territory across Scotland. The almost universal references to Henryson as schoolmaster are usually taken to mean that he taught in and had some duty to run the school for Dunfermlines abbatial burgh. Dunfermline, as a burgh with capital status, was routinely visited by the court with residences directly linked to the abbey complex. There is no record of Henryson as a poet
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The Testament of Cresseid
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The Testament of Cresseid is a narrative poem of 616 lines in Middle Scots, written by the 15th-century Scottish makar Robert Henryson. It is his best known poem and it imagines a tragic fate for Cressida in the medieval story of Troilus and Criseyde which was left untold in Geoffrey Chaucers version. After wandering for a while amongst the Greek soldiers, seeking their company, she returns to the home of her father Calchas and they remove her youth and good looks, leaving her ill and ugly. Her symptoms being similar to those of leprosy, she is considered a social outcast. There she laments her fate until a fellow leper woman encourages her not to sigh over things which cannot be changed, in time, however, cold and hunger wears her down and she is forced to beg for a living. One day, whilst she is begging, Troilus and the garrison of Troy pass by, recognising Cresseid, Troilus is greatly moved, and he gives up a great deal of wealth to the lepers before riding off, almost fainting for grief when he reaches Troy. Upon finding out her benefactors identity, Cresseid is also overcome with emotion and she berates herself for her treatment of him, before sitting down to write her will, dying soon after. A modern English translation by Seamus Heaney, which included seven of his fables from The Morall Fabillis, was published in 2009. Cresseid, daughter of Calchas, who is punished for breaking her vow of love to Troilus Troilus, one of the sons of Trojan king Priam, in the Testament, he is a priest of Venus and Cupid. The gods Cupid, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Phoebus, Venus, Mercury, throughout the poem, Henryson makes use of the rhyme royal, a rhyme scheme introduced and popularised by Geoffrey Chaucer, and set out as follows- ABABBCC. The stanzas are seven lines each in length, and in iambic pentameter. However, in the section in which Cresseid laments her fate from the colony, the stanzas are nine lines in length. Kalamazoo, Michigan, Medieval Institute Publications,1997, the Testament of Cresseid and Seven Fables. Bloomsbury House, London, Faber and Faber Ltd,2009 Gray, English Writers of the Late Middle Ages, no.9. Kindrick, Robert L. Monarchs and Monarchy in the Poetry of Henryson, in Actes du 2e Colloque de Langue et de Littérature Ecossaisses. McDiarmid, Matthew P. Robert Henryson in his Poems, adam J. Aitken, Matthew P. McDiarmid, and Derick S. Thompson. Patterson, Lee W. Christian and Pagan in The Testament of Cresseid, in The Learned and the Lewed. The seiknes incurabill in Henrysons Testament of Cresseid, the Testament of Cresseid and the High Concise Style
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Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
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Chivalric romance
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As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent. Still, the image of medieval is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons. Originally, romance literature was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman, Occitan, and Provençal, during the early 13th century, romances were increasingly written as prose. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love. Unlike the later form of the novel and like the chansons de geste, the earliest forms were invariably in verse, but the 15th century saw many in prose, often retelling the old, rhymed versions. Many influences are clear in the forms of chivalric romance, the epics of Charlemagne, unlike such ones as Beowulf, already had feudalism rather than the tribal loyalties, this was to continue in romances. The romance form is distinguished from the epics of the Middle Ages by the changes of the 12th century. This occurred regardless of congruity to the material, Alexander the Great featured as a fully feudal king. Chivalry was treated as continuous from Roman times, historical figures reappeared, reworked, in romance. The entire Matter of France derived from known figures, and suffered somewhat because their descendents had an interest in the tales that were told of their ancestors, unlike the Matter of Britain. Hereward the Wakes early life appeared in chronicles as the embellished, romantic adventures of an exile, complete with rescuing princess, fulk Fitzwarin, an outlaw in King Johns day, has his historical background a minor thread in the episodic stream of romantic adventures. The earliest medieval romances dealt heavily with themes from folklore, which diminished over time, morgan le Fay never loses her name, but in Le Morte dArthur, she studies magic rather than being inherently magical. Still, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being. In Italy there is the story called Il Bel Gherardino and it is the most ancient prototype of an Italian singing fairy tale by an anonymous Tuscan author. It tells the story of a young Italian knight, depleted for its magnanimitas, other examples of Italian poetry tales are Antonio Puccis literature, Gismirante, Il Brutto di Bretagna or Brito di Bretagna and Madonna Lionessa. Another work of a second anonymous Italian author that is worth mentioning is Istoria di Tre Giovani Disperati e di Tre Fate, some romances, such as Apollonius of Tyre, show classical pagan origins. Tales of the Matter of Rome in particular may be derived from such works as the Alexander Romance
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