※Old English period (the Anglo-Saxon period)
The Anglo-Saxon period is the earliest recorded time period in English history.
The Anglo-Saxon period is from 450-1066.
The Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes.
※Alliteration 頭韻
It is known as the“initial rhyme”.
Alliteration is the repetition of beginning consonants sound at the beginning of two or more words that are next to or close to each other.
For example, Pride and Prejudice.
※Romance
It originally means the native language, as opposed to Latin, and later it means a tale in verse embodying the life and adventures of knights.
The contents of romance are usually about love, chivalry and religion.
Loyalty to king and lord is the theme of the romance.
The romances are composed not for the common but for the noble, and by the poets patronized by the noble.
※Epic史詩
It was called Heroic Poetry, long and narrative poems that record the adventures of a hero whose exploits are important to the history of a nation.
Epics always embody the nation’s central belief and values.
The representative of epics are Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and in old English period, Beowulf.
※Kenning雙字隱喻
It was a compound word, serving as indirect metaphors that are very picturesque. It is like a mini-riddle.
For example, “helmet bearer” stands for “warrior”.
※Heroic couplet 英雄雙韻體
Heroic couplet is a rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter.
It is Chaucer who used it for the first time in English in his work The Legend of Good Woman.
※Iambic Pentameter五步抑揚格
It is a style of writing poem in lines of ten syllables with emphasis on the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth syllable, and it has 5 feet.
※ Ballad民謠
A ballad is a short and narrative poem that tells a story, and it is always in musical form.
The beginning is often abrupt. And the theme is often tragic.
The story is often told through dialogue and action.
※Allegory寓言
A story with two meanings: literal meaning and symbolic meaning.
It is a tale in verse in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities.
※Renaissance文藝複興
Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th century.
The word Renaissance originally means “rebirth”, and its ideal was Humanism.
It began in the 14th century in Italy, and later spread to France, Spain and England.
※Humanism人文主義
Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance, which emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life.
Human beings should be given the full freedom to enrich their intellectual and emotional life.
※Enclosure Movement圈地運動
The reasons of the Enclosure Movement are the rising of the burgher class, the discovery of the new sea routes and the wool trade.
The result of it is that two opposite classes came into being, the capitalist class and the laboring class.
※Edmund Spenser
He was a great poet at the English Renaissance period.
He wrote the book, The Faerie Queen, which is a an unfinished allegorical romance.
He used the Spenserian stanza in his allegorical romance, The Faerie Queen..
※The Spenserian Stanza
It was a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his allegorical romance, The Faerie Queen.
Each stanza contains nine lines in total, eight lines in iambic pentameter, followed by a single line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of theses lines is “ababbcbcc”.
※Drama戲劇
Drama is a composition in prose or verse, adopted to be acted on a stage, in which a story is related by means of dialogue and action, and is represented with accompanying gesture, costume, and scenery, as in real life.
※University Wits大才子學派
A group of scholars during the Elizabethan Age graduated from Oxford or Cambridge.
They came to London with the ambition to become professional writers.
The representatives are Robert Greene, Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe.
※Christopher Marlowe