Features of classical English literature. Periodization of English literature and its historical conditionality

ENGLISH LITERATURE

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The history of English literature actually includes several “stories” of different kinds. This is literature belonging to specific socio-political eras in the history of England; literature reflecting certain systems of moral ideals and philosophical views; literature that has its inherent internal (formal, linguistic) unity and specificity. At different times, one or another “story” came to the fore.

The heterogeneity of definitions is fixed in the names that are usually given to different periods of English literature. Some periods are designated by the names of prominent political or literary figures (“Victorian Era”, “Age of Johnson”), others by the dominant literary ideas and themes (“Renaissance”, “Romantic Movement”), others (“Old English Literature” and “Middle English Literature”) - according to the language in which the works were created. This review also examines medieval English drama; the history of drama is presented in a separate article (see ENGLISH DRAMA).

Old English Literature.

Old English Literature. The history of English literature before the Renaissance is divided into two periods, each marked by both historical milestones and changes in language. The first, Old English period begins in 450-500 with the invasion of Britain by Germanic tribes, usually called Anglo-Saxon, and ends with the conquest of the island by William of Normandy in 1066. The second, Middle English period begins around 1150, when the indigenous language, forced out of use for some time, again became widespread as a written language. Before the Norman Conquest, the language of England was German, a variety of the dialects of the low-lying coasts of Germany and Holland, but during the Middle English period this language underwent many internal changes, and after the 13th century. considerably enriched by borrowings from French.

The art of book writing became known in England only after the Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity. The earliest and most productive school of Old English literature arose in Northumbria under the influence of Celtic and Latin cultures, but it was put an end to the raids of Scandinavian pagan Vikings that began around 800. In the south, in Wessex, King Alfred (reigned 871-899) and his successors successfully resisted the Vikings, which contributed to the revival of science and literature.

All this had two important consequences. Firstly, all surviving works in poetry and prose, including those dedicated to pagan times, belong to Christian authors, mainly from the clergy. There is no direct evidence of oral creativity of the pre-Christian period. Secondly, almost all manuscripts that have survived to this day were created later and mostly in the West Saxon dialect, regardless of what language they might have been originally written in. Thus, Old English is actually a foreign language for England, since Middle English and modern English primarily go back to the dialect of J. Chaucer and his contemporaries that existed in the region centered on London.

Unlike scholarly works and translations, fiction was created in verse. The bulk of the monuments of Old English poetry are preserved in four manuscript codices; they all date back to the late 10th and early 11th centuries. In the Old English period the accepted unit of versification was the long alliterated line, divided by a distinct caesura into two parts containing two strongly stressed syllables; at least one of them was alliterated in each part. The earliest English poet known by name is the Northumbrian monk Caedmon, who lived in the 7th century. The historian Beda the Venerable recorded his short poem on the creation of the world, the rest of Caedmon's writings are lost. From the poet Kynewulf (8th or 9th century) four poems have come down that undoubtedly belong to him: in the last lines of each he put his name, written in letters of pre-Christian German runic writing. Like Cunewulf, the unnamed authors of other poems combined elements of epic storytelling with Christian themes and certain techniques of the classical style. Among these poems, the Vision of the Cross and the Phoenix stand out, in which the interpretation of the Christian theme is marked by the restrained, often harsh spirit of the pagan faith of the Germans, especially noticeable in the elegies The Wanderer and the Seafarer, with great force revealing the themes of exile, loneliness and homesickness.

The German spirit and German stories were embodied in heroic poems (songs) about great warriors and folk heroes. Among these poems, Vidsid occupies an important place: here is a court storyteller (skop), who composed and performed such poems. He recalls the distant lands he visited and the great warriors, including real historical figures, whom he says he met. Fragments of two heroic works of the type that Vidseed could well have performed have survived: the Battle of Finnsburg and Valder. The greatest surviving poetic work of that era, in which the elements of Germanic heroic poetry and the ideas of Christian piety appear in absolute fusion and completeness, is the heroic epic Beowulf, probably created in the 8th century.

The formation of Wessex and the accession of King Alfred marked the beginning of a revival of science and literature that lasted until the Norman conquest of England. Alfred personally supported and directed this process. With the assistance of clergy scholars, he translated or commissioned translations of Latin texts important to the English understanding of European history, philosophy, and theology. These were the Dialogues and Pastoral Care (Cura Pastoralis) of Pope Gregory the Great (6th century), the compendium of world history of Orosius (5th century), the Ecclesiastical History of the Angles by Bade the Venerable and the Consolation of the Philosophy of Boethius (6th century). Alfred provided the translation of Pastoral Care with a preface in which he complained about the decline of learning and even literacy among the clergy of his day and proposed expanding education in Latin and English through church schools. Alfred came up with the idea of ​​​​creating the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which would record historical events based on fresh traces. After his death, the Chronicle continued to be kept in a number of monasteries; in the Peterborough Code, events were brought up to 1154. Poems were also recorded in it, for example, the Battle of Brunanburgh - an excellent example of Old English heroic poetry dedicated to specific events.

The authors of prose works that succeeded Alfred made valuable contributions not so much to artistic creativity as to the history of culture. Ælfric (died c. 1020) wrote several collections of sermons, lives of saints, and a number of works on grammar. Wulfstan (died 1023), Bishop of London, Worcester and York, also became famous as an author of sermons.

Middle English Literature.

Middle English Literature. The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought about profound changes in all areas of English life. Borrowed from France and implemented according to the French model, the feudal system transformed all social institutions, including cultural, legal, economic and political. Perhaps most importantly, Norman French became the language of the nobility and the royal court, while Latin continued to dominate learning. People did not stop writing in English, they continued to teach it, but for more than a century it retreated into the shadows, although it was spoken by the majority of the population. At the end of the 12th century. The English language became widespread again, its grammatical structure was significantly simplified, but the vocabulary of the conquerors only slightly affected its vocabulary. Intensive borrowing from French began only at the end of the 13th century. for a number of reasons, including under the influence of Chaucer’s poetry. Changes in language caused corresponding changes in the structure of verse. The rhythmic organization of a line increasingly relied on the total number of syllables rather than on stress alone, as in Old English; end rhyme replaced internal alliteration as the basis of poetic harmony.

The earliest Middle English texts, large and small, are religious or didactic in nature. Many of them are written in the southwestern and west-central dialects of the late 12th century. and by virtue of this directly continue the tradition of literature in West Saxon, which was widespread before the conquest. Among the didactic texts, the work “Rules for Hermits” (Ancrene Riwle) clearly stands out. Instructing three believing women leading the life of recluses, the author talks about various matters - moral, psychological and economic, turns to a sermon, a short story, an allegory, a parable, and writes in a lively conversational style. Another significant work of the era is the dispute poem The Owl and the Nightingale, marked by genuine humor and poetic skill.

The royal courts and nobles who settled in medieval castles craved literary entertainment no less than the courts of the kings who reigned during the Anglo-Saxon period, and they also preferred the heroic poem to other literary genres. The feudal environment, however, radically transformed the content, character and style of the poem, and in aristocratic circles of the 13th century. It was not relatively simple heroic poems that became famous, but chivalric romances. The hero of such a novel is, as a rule, a person at least semi-historical, but his actions consist not so much in ordinary battles and wanderings, but in exploits associated with supernatural bearers of good and evil, in the fight against supermagicians, servants of the devil, and in battles with using magical weapons like Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur. The hero's miraculous deeds can easily be interpreted in a Christian spirit as an allegorical depiction of the soul's struggle with evil temptations in the pursuit of perfection, although by their nature medieval chivalric romances were not allegorical.

In addition to the heroic beginning, the chivalric romance in Western literature of this period was enriched with a completely new set of feelings and motives, called courtly love. It was based on the premise that the main source of chivalry and great deeds was the love of a noble lady, who was traditionally portrayed as virtuous, refined, strict and almost unattainable. The cult of courtly love developed from the cult of the Virgin Mary, which played an extremely important role in medieval Catholicism. The cult of courtly love came to England along with French feudalism. In the novels King Horn and Havelock the Dane (both 13th century), the heroes, English by blood or adoption, expelled from their native kingdoms by usurpers, behave according to all the canons of courtly love: they return the kingdom with the sword and at the same time win the love of a beautiful lady.

The emerging self-awareness of the English was excited by two other novel cycles, one connected with the theme of the siege of Troy and the Roman descendants of the Trojans, the other with the figure of King Arthur. According to a beautiful legend, which was first published by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the descendants of those who fled from Troy settled in England in ancient times. As for King Arthur, he was known to those who read the compilation of British history attributed to Nennius (Historia Britonum, 9-11 centuries), where he is presented as the defender of Britain of the Romans and Celts from the invasion of Anglo-Saxon tribes in the 5-6 centuries. The greatest of the medieval English chivalric novels of the Arthurian cycle (Arthurian legends) is undoubtedly created in the 14th century. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The author of this novel may also own the poem Zhemchuzhina - an elegy on the death of a little girl; The didactic poems Purity and Patience can also be attributed to him. See also ARTHUR'S LEGENDS.

Moralizing literature generally experienced a period of change in the 14th century. a heyday, probably partly under the influence of the ideas of the religious reformer D. Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384). It took various forms: a detailed outline of world history, like Cursor Mundi; interpretation of church doctrine, like R. Manning's Handlyng Synne; reviews of the misdeeds of people of all kinds and conditions, like the work of Chaucer's friend D. Gower, written in French, The Mirror of Man (Le Miroir d"l"Homme). The most significant didactic poem of the century is the Vision of Peter the Plowman, owned by the author, who calls himself W. Langland in the text of the poem (preserved in three separate versions). This lengthy moralizing allegory contains satirical attacks on the abuses of church and state. It is written in ancient Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse (modified), which represents one of the most striking poetic achievements of all Middle English literature.

J. Chaucer (c. 1340-1400) is the highest embodiment of the English creative genius of the Middle Ages and one of the largest figures in English literature. He performed in almost all genres of literature of that time. Closely associated with the refined court, which absorbed the canons of chivalry and courtly love, Chaucer reflected its morals and way of life in many of his writings. Chaucer's style and prosody belong more to the French than to the domestic tradition; their influence on English poetry cannot be overestimated. Chaucer's language is clearly closer to modern English than to Langland's; The London dialect began to turn into a standard literary language mainly thanks to the poetry of Chaucer.

A highly independent poet, Chaucer used many traditional writing techniques to achieve the desired result. His writings, including lyrics and short poems, often reveal a combination of the original and the generally accepted. The Canterbury Tales, with their composition of garrulous, bickering, self-explanatory narrators and the embodiment of various forms of medieval literature, are the quintessence of the creative imagination of the era. Chaucer uses the fabliau in a particularly original way - a short poetic novella designed to amuse, satirical, mischievous, or combining both of these qualities. The plots of the few surviving English fabliaux are sometimes as fantastic as in the romances of chivalry, but circumstances allowed for realism in them, and Chaucer fully realized this opportunity. The stories of the Miller, the Majordomo and the Skipper are given in fablio form.

About a hundred years separating Chaucer's death from the accession of the Tudors did not bring significant innovations to the content and form of literary works. Throughout the 15th century. there was only one noticeable change - the moralizing satire became more and more evil as the medieval system of the universe deteriorated. The stern tone and terrible, sometimes apocalyptic images in the writings of religious reformers and poets were evidence of a growing sense of crisis.

Among Chaucer's followers, D. Lydgate (c. 1370 - c. 1449) was especially versatile and prolific. He imitated Chaucer's House of Glory in his Glass Castle, and translated secular and moral allegories and chivalric romances from French. Lydgate was a monk, but had connections at court and in big cities and often wrote poetry on commission. His contemporary T. Occleve (d. 1454) did the same, but wrote less. The Scottish imitators of Chaucer differed from the English in being more independent. Among them were King James I, who wrote primarily in a courtly style; R. Henryson (d. before 1508), author of the extraordinary continuation of Chaucer's poem Troilus and Chryseid; W. Dunbar (d. c. 1530), who worked in various poetic genres - secular and moral allegory, satirical vision, realistic dialogue, argumentative poem, burlesque and elegy.

In this age of sequels and imitations, The Death of Arthur T. Malory, although based on borrowed plots, has become an outstanding literary phenomenon. Its sources were a cycle of French chivalric novels in prose and two English ones in verse, together covering the period of the reign of King Arthur and the adventures of his main knights. The author's nostalgia for the past he idealized gives the entire work an intonational unity and, in a certain sense, characterizes the spirit of the century.

Malory's editor and publisher was the English pioneer W. Caxton (1422-1491), who served the English readers, whose circle had expanded significantly by the end of the 15th century, a great service, providing them with a whole library of domestic authors and translations from French and Latin. Caxton was the first to publish the works of a number of English writers, including Chaucer, Gower and Lydgate. The realization that what they wrote appeared in the form of a printed book that was read by the public (hence the original meaning of the word “publish”) quite naturally led authors to think seriously about style. Style has ceased to be the result of personal understanding between the reader and a narrow audience and has turned into a kind of generalized, normalized and indispensable prerequisite for mutual understanding between the writer and the reader. Another important consequence of the introduction of printing was the increase in the number of not just readers, but buyers of printed publications, who to a certain extent dictated what they would like to read.

The emergence of the middle class was a process that lasted not just the 15th century, but several centuries. However, its beginnings occurred in the time of Caxton and, in particular, announced itself with the development of the ballad and folk religious drama. In them one can find the first shoots of creative self-expression of that new social class, which belonged neither to the learned clergy nor to the noble nobility, but strived for learning and nobility in its own way.

Ballads are story songs by nameless authors, which existed in oral transmission and were structurally based on chorus and repetitions. The English ballad flourished in the 15th century, although some ballads date back to the early Middle Ages and others arose after the 15th century. Their plots are simple, the action is fast and intense, and the leading role is given to dialogue. The range of topics is wide - from legendary heroes like Robin Hood to supernatural forces. They owe much of their charm to the dramatic plot and clear, dynamic intrigue.

The roots of English drama go back to a time before the earliest ballads. In England, as elsewhere, performances on religious themes were initially mimetic in nature and consisted of dialogues in Latin, which were pronounced during the liturgy and supplemented it. Qualitative changes came when lay associations, such as guilds, began to stage religious plays outside the church in an expanded version and in the vernacular. The earliest example of an English drama of this type is the Act of Adam (Le Jeu d'Adam, 13th century), written in French and telling not only about the first fall, but also about Cain and Abel. It flourished from the 14th to the beginning of the 16th centuries. , drama was represented in two main forms: mysteries, in which biblical episodes ("sacraments") were played out, and morality plays - moralizing allegories. Drama was both a religious art and a folk spectacle, in the organization of which the entire community usually took part. This twofold nature explains the frequent (and striking) combination of splendor with realism, and sometimes with mischievous obscenity, which gives the plays their characteristic expressiveness.

Some moralists, such as Wycliffe and Manning, reviled the mysteries, mainly because they were performed under the auspices of the laity. However, staging the mystery required the cooperation of the church clergy in one form or another. Morality plays, like allegorical plays, contained less of the common people, or “secular.” The best and most famous morality play is Every Man (probably an adaptation of a Dutch source), a recreation of a person's spiritual journey from the first reminder of death to the consolation of the church's last rites and death.

Like the romances of chivalry and the later allegorical narratives, English religious drama was medieval in its essence. However, all these genres survived after the reign of the Tudors and influenced literature for a long time. Gradually, their canons changed more and more in comparison with European ones, acquiring a purely English specificity. The medieval heritage thus transformed was passed on to the writers of the Renaissance.

At the beginning of the 16th century. two poets, A. Barclay and D. Skelton, writing in the medieval tradition, brought something new to the content and interpretation of poetic themes. Barclay in the Eclogues (1515, 1521), translations and adaptations from Mantuan and Enea Silvio, discovered the pastoral theme in English poetry. Skelton's lively, original satire Fool Colin, written in short lines with uneven rhythm and end rhymes, satirized the clergy, Cardinal Wolsey and the court. However, the true beginning of new poetry is associated with the songwriters at the court of Henry VIII, who set a personal example for those close to him, excelling in poetry, academic pursuits, music, hunting, archery and other noble pastimes. At his court, almost everyone wrote poetry, but the renewal of poetry is primarily associated with T. Wyeth and H. Howard, Earl of Surrey. Like all courtiers of that time, they considered poetry only as a pastime for noble people and did not publish their poems, so most of what they wrote was published posthumously in the collection Songs and Sonnets (1557), better known as Tottel's Almanac. Wyeth introduced the Italian octave, terza and love sonnet in the style of Petrarch into English poetry and himself wrote courtly songs full of genuine lyricism. The Earl of Surrey cultivated the sonnet genre, but his main merit lies in the fact that with his translation of two songs of the Aeneid he made blank verse the property of English poetry.

A great achievement of the reign of Henry VIII was the development of the humanities by the students and followers of those Englishmen who at the end of the 15th century. made a pilgrimage to Italy, to the source of New Knowledge. The firm conviction in the power of ancient culture, with which they returned to their homeland, determined the activities of the Oxford reformers; these included Grosin, Linacre, Colet, More and Erasmus of Rotterdam, who visited England several times. They took up reforms in the fields of education, religion and church, government and social structure. In Utopia (1516, translated into English in 1551), written in Latin, in which Renaissance attitudes and values ​​are represented on almost every page, Thomas More outlined his ideas about the ideal state. T. Eliot's treatise on political prudence and the training of a nobleman, The Ruler (1531) and his later works indicate that in English, with minor borrowings from other languages ​​and the addition of new formations, one can successfully formulate the philosophical ideas that the author sought to convey to his compatriots. In 1545, R. Askem dedicated Toxophilus to Henry VIII, a treatise on archery and the benefits of noble open-air amusements for the education of a young man. The structure of his prose is more orderly and intelligible than Eliot's; he was the first to use various techniques for constructing phrases to express thoughts more accurately and clearly.

The poetry created between the end of the reign of Henry VIII and the beginning of the work of F. Sidney and E. Spencer hardly foreshadowed the unprecedented poetic “harvest” of the last twenty years of the century. An exception is T. Sackville's poems Introduction and Lamentations of Henry, Duke of Buckingham, published by him in one of the editions of the collection of tragic medieval stories, The Mirror of Rulers (1559-1610). Written in seven-line stanzas using iambic pentameters, they belong to the medieval tradition in theme and stylistic canon, but their composition fully corresponds to their mood, highly original, polished images and mastery of versification. These poems can be seen as an important link between medieval and modern poetry. Apart from these, only the poems of the skilled master J. Gascoigne and T. Tasser, as well as J. Tarberville, T. Churchyard and B. Goudge, stand out against the background of the mediocre poetry of the mid-century.

During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), called the Elizabethan period, the literature of the English Renaissance reached its peak of flowering and diversity; such an amazing concentration of creative genius is a rare phenomenon in the history of world literature. The reasons for such powerful “outbursts” of creative energy are always difficult to determine. In the Age of Elizabeth, its source was the simultaneous impact of existing cultural phenomena and factors on the English nation as a whole. The Reformation gave rise to an abundance of religious works - from the Book of Martyrs (1563) by D. Fox to the sublimely eloquent Laws of the Church Code (1593-1612) by R. Hooker; they included sermons, polemical pamphlets, breviaries, and religious poetry.

The most influential force that shaped the age was perhaps Elizabeth herself and all that she represented. If religious disputes geographical discoveries and classical education led the Elizabethans to a new understanding of their place in history, the world and the universe, then Elizabeth, with her royal grandeur and splendor of her reign, clearly embodied all this novelty and optimism. The century rightly bears her name: she forced her subjects to be imbued with a new self-awareness that took possession of their minds, global and at the same time purely national. That she was at the center of everything is confirmed by numerous works that nourished a strong sense of national pride and the nation's high destiny - The Faerie Queene (1590-1596) by Spenser, Henry V (1599) by Shakespeare, The Music Lover (1599) and The Defense of Rhyme (1602) ) S. Daniel, Polyolbion (1613, 1622) M. Drayton and others.

Drama and lyric poetry, these greatest achievements of the Elizabethans, were soon recognized as the most perfect forms for representing action and revealing personal feeling. Of the prominent people who wrote poetry, only a few published them, but many allowed what they wrote to diverge in manuscripts. Their poems often appeared in such collections as The Flower Garden of Belle Words (1576), The Phoenix's Nest (1593), and The Poetic Rhapsody (1602). Many poems were set to music by songwriters - W. Byrd, T. Morley, D. Dowland and T. Campion, who himself wrote the lyrics of his songs.

Despite the fact that lyric poetry was still considered “the master’s pastime,” the poems, responding to the spirit of the times, had a pronounced experimental character. Suddenly it was discovered that poetic speech was capable of conveying much more than it could in previous eras, and this gave depth and significance even to courtly love lyrics. The relationship between individual consciousness and the external world is often referred to as the interdependence of the microcosm (“small world,” man) and the macrocosm (“big world,” the universe). This central concept of the Age of Elizabeth and, more broadly, of the entire Renaissance found its most complete expression in the two leading genres of poetry - the pastoral and the sonnet cycle. Beginning with Spenser's Pastoral Calendar (1579), the pastoral becomes, on the model of Virgil's Eclogue, a very effective form of allegory, satire and reflection on moral themes. For the “shepherdess” of the Elizabethan pastoral, the macrocosm, the world of the stream, the valley and natural harmony, is internally correlated with the microcosm of his love experiences, thoughts about faith and society. Pastoral novels in prose, such as Arcadia (1580, published 1590) by Sidney, Menatho (1589) by R. Greene and Rosalind (1590) by T. Lodge, indicate how much importance was attached to the pastoral genre during the Renaissance. The number of pastoral comedies in Shakespeare is another sign of the dominant position of the genre.

The sonnet cycle arose from an even deeper impulse: to affirm the value of personal experience, usually love, as containing the whole world or universe. Being extremely common at that time, this form gave remarkable examples, including Diana (1592) by G. Constable, Phyllis (1593) by T. Lodge, Parthenophile and Parthenof (1593) by B. Barnes, The Mirror of Thought (1594) by Drayton, Love Sonnets (1595) by Spenser and Sonnets (1609) by Shakespeare. Perhaps the most brilliant cycle of sonnets is Astrophil and Stella (created in 1581-1583) by Sidney.

The poem is also richly presented. The pinnacles of the historical poem, imbued with powerful patriotism in the spirit of the popular chronicle plays of the era, are England of Albion (1586) by W. Warner, Civil Wars (1595, 1609) by Daniel and the Barons' Wars (1596, 1603) by Drayton. Among the meditative and philosophical poems, Orchestra (1596) and Know Thyself (Nosce Teipsum, 1599) by D. Davis stand out. The third dominant type of poem is a love narrative, with sensual images and language. Its main examples include Hero and Leander (1593) Cr. Marlowe, Venus and Adonis (1593) and Lucretia (1594) by Shakespeare. However, the greatest creation in this genre is Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590-1596), in which elements of a chivalric romance and a courtly narrative of love are fused into an artistic whole that represents one of the most significant phenomena in English poetry.

D. Lily, in his book Euphues, or The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and its sequel Euphues and His England (1580), was one of the first in England to attempt to purposefully use prose as a form of artistic writing. His style is characterized by an abundance of “witticisms,” that is, far-reaching and often highly learned comparisons, continuous alliteration, and exceptionally strict proportionality between sentences and individual words. Lily and the authors of pastoral novels sought to inculcate courtly values ​​and explore noble, sublime feelings. Another direction of Elizabethan fiction, represented by R. Greene’s pamphlets about swindlers and T. Decker’s ABC of Rogues (1609), depicts the life of the London “bottom” with savory realism, which, naturally, dictates a style that is not at all courtly, but much more rough, uneven and disheveled. Perhaps the most significant among the English picaresque novels is The Ill-Fated Wanderer (1594) by T. Nash. The speech of the swindler and "wanderer" Jack Wilton is a brilliant combination of jargon, wit, scholarship and unbridled volubility.

The need for translated literature also contributed greatly to the formation of the style of mature English prose. Some of the translations carried out in the Elizabethan era are among the most creative and accomplished in the history of English literature.

Throughout the 16th century. all these elements contributed to the development of English prose. The time of expansion of its borders occurred in the next century, and it began with the emergence of the canonical collective, the so-called. authorized translation of the Bible (1611).

By the middle of the 16th century. also refers to the birth of English literary criticism. It began with unpretentious works on rhetoric, such as The Art of Eloquence (1553) by T. Wilson, and on versification, like the first critical essay - Some Remarks on How to Write Poems (1575) by Gascoigne. Sidney, in his brilliant Defense of Poetry (c. 1581-1584, published 1595), brought together everything that had been said before him about the ancient “roots”, the comprehensive nature, essence, purpose and perfection of poetry. Those who wrote about it most often proposed improving English poetry by introducing a classical, i.e., metric, system of versification. Only after the prominent lyric poet Campion formulated the rules of versification in this system, and Daniel convincingly and sensibly refuted the provisions of his treatise with his essay In Defense of Rhyme (1602), were serious attempts to introduce the so-called. The “new versification” was put to an end.

Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, bequeathing the throne to James Stuart. Her death seemed to serve as an impetus for the general feeling of change and decline that marked the great works of the “Jacobite” era - the reigns of James I and Charles I. The upheavals that defined this era included scientific discoveries (including the triumph of the Copernican concept of the solar system) , the rationalism of Descartes and the growing religious strife between Catholics, adherents of the Anglican Church and Puritans - radical Protestants. The War of the Faiths reached its peak in 1649, when Charles I was executed and O. Cromwell established the Protectorate. This event marked a turning point in both the literary and political history of England. With the end of the Protectorate and the installation of Charles II on the throne, the period of Restoration began. It is so different from the previous one that it deserves separate consideration.

The general mood of the first half of the 17th century is perhaps most accurately described as the "exodus of the Renaissance", a time when the optimism and confidence of the Elizabethan Age gave way to reflection and uncertainty. The search for solid foundations in life gave rise to prose, the pages of which are among the best written in English, and the school of the so-called. "metaphysical" poetry, the best examples of which are not inferior to the great works of any other age.

Many of the most important prose works of the era owe their appearance to religious polemics. The most striking example of this kind is probably the Areopagitica (1644) - D. Milton's speech in defense of freedom of the press, but the controversy imparted poignancy to everything that was written in this century. The great cohort of preachers in English history - D. Donne, L. Andrews, T. Adams, J. Hall and J. Taylor - wrote artistically perfect sermons. The highest literary level is inherent in the introspective, subtly psychological Prayers (1624) of Donne, the clear Healing Faith (Religio Medici, 1642) of T. Brown, and the exquisitely expressive Holy Death (1651) of Taylor. Fr. Bacon, covering all areas of knowledge, gave the world the Increase of Sciences (1605) and the unfinished compendium of the scientific method, the Great Restoration (Magna Instauratio). The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) by R. Burton is a deep and witty study of the psychological deviations inherent in the imperfect nature of man. Leviathan (1651) by T. Hobbes remains a monument to political philosophy. Another important prose writer of the period is Thomas Browne; he shared the doubts of his age, but forged from them a style close to poetic, which contributed to the affirmation of the nobility of the spirit despite all the fallibility of man.

Historical and biographical prose acquired a more contemporary sound in works such as Bacon's History of Henry VII (1622), with its insightful artistic revelation of character; History of the Rebellion (1704) of the Earl of Clarendon; Ecclesiastical History of Britain (1655) and English Celebrities (1622) by the eccentric vernacular T. Fuller; the lives of Donne, Hooker, Herbert, Wotton and Sanderson, compiled by A. Walton, author of the deceptively simple idyll The Art of Fishing (1653).

It was also the first great century of the English essay, interest in which was revived in connection with the publication of Bacon's Essays in 1597; the latter soon had numerous followers and imitators, the most famous of them are N. Briton, J. Hall, O. Feltham and A. Cowley. These were also popular short forms essays as reflections and especially “characters” describing human types and properties. Their best examples belong to T. Overbury and his followers, as well as J. Hall, author of Virtuous and Vice Natures (1608). In style and logic of presentation, the characters had a certain similarity with the main poetic movement of the century - metaphysical, or “scientific” poetry.

At the beginning of the 17th century. three main ones prevailed poetic traditions, reflecting three ideas about the essence and purpose of poetry: myth-creating, platonic, romantic directions coming from E. Spencer; classic restrained manner of B. Johnson; the intellectual origin of metaphysical poetry is emphasized. It would be wrong, however, to think that these traditions were opposed to each other; on the contrary, they interacted and mutually enriched to such an extent that, for example, the poetry of J. Herbert or E. Marvell cannot be attributed to either the metaphysical or the “Johnsonian” school.

The tradition of Spenser, who became the voice of the great moralizing and heroic poetry of the Age of Elizabeth, turned out to be the least fruitful in the new, disordered reality of the 17th century. The greatest Spencerian of the century was M. Drayton. His Shepherdess's Wreath (1593), Endymion and Phoebe (1595) and Elysium of the Muses (1630) are beautifully executed, if derivative, experiments in the spirit of Spenser. Works of the second series in the same style include The Shepherd's Hunt (1615) and The Beautiful Virtue (1622) by J. Wither, British Pastors (1613-1616) by W. Brown, Acrids (1627), The British Idea (1627) and The Purple Island (1633) ) J. Fletcher.

Ben Jonson great playwright post-Shakespearean age, was also one of its most significant poets. In many respects, he is the first true classicist of English literature, for he followed the task of writing poetry in strict accordance with the canon of Horace and Virgil - restrained in intonation, precise, simple and expressive. In the troubled and gloomy Jacobite period, Johnson's poetry, balanced and, most importantly, full of noble dignity, had great moral and artistic power. Jonson's most inspired follower was probably the Devonshire country priest R. Herrick, author of the Hesperides and Sublime Stanzas, which appeared in 1648, the year before the execution of Charles I, and some of the most graceful and deceptively artless examples of erotic poetry of the century. Among the outstanding adherents of Johnson's style were the “cavaliers” - that is, the courtiers who took the side of Charles I in the Civil War. These included the author of the book Poems (1640) T. Carew, R. Lovelace and D. Suckling.

D. Donne, the third great poet of the century, was very different from Jonson. Beginning his life as an adventurer and courtier in the last years of Elizabeth's reign, he ended it as the venerable dean of St. Paul's Cathedral and an illustrious preacher. Donne borrowed poetic rhythms from spoken language and used complex phrases to dramatize feelings. The label "metaphysical poets", invented by S. Johnson and devoid of precise meaning, still accompanies Donne and his followers, although it is misleading, since it does not imply the philosophical content of their poetry, but the practice of using "fancy", that is, images, striking combination of seemingly incompatible thoughts and feelings.

Metaphysical poets included J. Herbert, R. Crashaw, G. Vaughan and T. Trahern. Herbert, the Anglican priest and author of the Temple (1633), was among them the acknowledged master. His poetry combines the drama and rationality of Donne with the restrained intonations and pervasive serenity that is the undoubted legacy of Jonson. Catholic and mystic Crashaw's poetry is characterized by frantic, sometimes disordered imagery that often teeters on the edge of bad taste, but remains always gripping and passionate. Vaughan, a doctor by profession, published a volume of Sparkling Flint (Silex Scintillans, 1651); his poems, recreating images of nature and imbued with a deep sense of its secrets, according to some, are the prototype of the romantic poetry of W. Wordsworth. Traherne's work is consonant with Vaughan's poetry. Marvell was the last metaphysical poet; The wide range of his work includes harsh religious lyrics, political satire and graceful sensual pastoral. In general, his poetry was complex, ironic, and intellectual.

Contemporaries of these poets were three others, in whose work there were signs of the poetic taste that reigned in the 18th century. A. Cowley, who was very popular during his lifetime, introduced the disorderly “Pindaric” ode into literary use. E. Waller, who wrote occasional poetry for a long time, succeeded in creating good examples of secular poetry in light style, which delighted readers. D. Denham revived interest in “local” or topographical poetry describing real landscapes.

During the Restoration, the main books of two leading poets of the era, D. Milton and D. Dryden, were created. The differences between them are indicative of the wide variety of religious, political and literary attitudes during the turbulent period that followed the restoration of the Stuart dynasty to the throne (1660).

Already in the first poetry collection of 1646, Milton (1608-1674) declared himself as the largest lyric poet late Renaissance. His pastoral elegy Lysiadas and the allegorical “mask” poem Comus are the pinnacle achievements in the genre. An extreme Protestant and supporter of Cromwell, Milton, after the fall of the Protectorate, gave up the hope of seeing the political kingdom of God on earth and believed that such could be established in the human heart. This is evidenced by the three masterpieces that he created, turning from journalism of the revolutionary years to poetry. Paradise Lost (1667-1674) is an epic poem not only about the first fall, but also about man’s desire to accept the personal doom of death, as well as the affirmation of the triumph and power of the human spirit, capable of creating good and evil in the image of God. From paradise without to paradise within the soul - such is the evolution of Milton's faith, as shown by his second great poem, Paradise Regained (1671), where the temptation of Christ by Satan in the desert becomes a key symbol of Milton's moral concept, and the drama Samson the Wrestler (1671): here the captive Samson, having accepted the guilt and purified by suffering, turns defeat into victory. Milton's greatness cannot be overestimated. Combining a powerful moral message with a brilliant generosity of poetic expression that sometimes breaks the boundaries of didactics, he changed the face of all subsequent English poetry.

Milton opposed the spirit of the Restoration, with its demands for secularization, mischievous freethinking and palace political intrigue. Dryden (1631-1700), on the contrary, was the flesh of his age. As a poet and literary critic, he reflected and largely defined the ideals of balance of power, sanity and social responsibility that were so significant to the Restoration period and the coming century.

In the literature of this time, the reaction to the strict restrictions of the Puritan regime was most clearly manifested in the brilliant dramaturgy of the Restoration period and in the lyrics of the second generation of cavalier poets. Talented amateurs, such as Charles Sedley, the Earl of Dorset, the Earl of Rochester and the Duke of Buckingham, wrote funny and often frivolous songs, and S. Butler subjected Puritanism to evil ridicule in the great satirical poem Hudibras.

In general, literature (with the exception of drama) from the Restoration of the monarchy to the accession to the throne of Queen Anne in 1702 was in striking contrast with the ease of morals of court society, the wit and spirit of fun in the works of its representatives. It was during this time that great works were created that embodied Puritan values. During the reign of Charles II, D. Bunyan, limited in his preaching activities by the strict limits of the law, wrote the Pilgrim's Progress and other significant books. However, the essence of the Restoration period was expressed in other literature. Marked by a spirit of skepticism, she equally opposed both the creative imagination of the Renaissance and the Puritan detachment from everything earthly. This literature found the canon that best suits its principles in the neoclassical “rules” that triumphed in the so-called. The classical age, which replaced the 17th century. These “rules” were not mere borrowings; they had already been tested to one degree or another in English literature, and Ben Jonson also emphasized the value of discipline of form and orderliness of style in classical examples.

The main feature of the poetry of this period is the use of the heroic couplet in all genres except song. Paired rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter were not an innovation, but in the century after the Restoration they were approached differently than in the time of Chaucer and his successors. The Restoration poets made the most of the expressive possibilities of the couplet, in which the content, rhythm and rhyme logically ended on the last syllable of the second line. This form required brevity and proportionality between lines and half-lines, and poets liked to achieve this. Dryden stated that the art of heroic couplet for him is embodied by the poetry of Waller and Denham: the first by harmony, the second by the power of verse. Dryden himself was a magnificent master of the heroic couplet.

The only innovation in the field of poetic form was the pseudo-Pindaric, or random, ode, which was introduced by Cowley, who sought to write in the spirit of Pindar, without, however, copying the division of the ode into stanza, antistrophe and epod. The result was a new type of ode, in which each stanza had its own meter and allowed a wide variation in line length and rhyme pattern. Dryden used this form in the Epistle to Lady Anne Killigrew and Alexander's Feast, and it has been used in English poetry ever since.

In content, the poetry of the Restoration differed from the poetry of previous periods. For love songs, such as the gentlemen wrote or inserted into their plays by Dryden and Aphra Behn, the skillful concealment of true feelings and deliberate artificiality are indicative. Light verse most often took the form of a subtle compliment or a poignant epigram, although it was left to Pryor and his Classical Age contemporaries to perfect these refined genres. Events in public life served as a source of poetic inspiration. Dryden wrote poems in the spirit of Virgil about the war with Holland and the fire of London. As poet laureate, he welcomed in verse the return of the duke from Scotland and the birth of a crowned heir. Waller described St. James's Park after reconstruction, and Cowley praised the newly established Royal Society.

However, events and persons contemporary to the authors did not always evoke praise. Even more characteristic of the century was the brilliant satire it generated. In defiance of Cowley's praises, Butler ridiculed the Royal Society in An Elephant in the Moon. The uniqueness of the satire of the Restoration is that it is not directed against vices as such, but against specific people or political parties. Even when it concerns religious polemics, the criticism usually has political overtones, as in Butler's Hudibras or D. Oldham's Satire on the Jesuits. Among the satirists of the era, Dryden occupies first place. In Absalom and Ahithophel, he, without stooping to abuse, poured contempt on the leaders of the Whig party; in the Reward ridiculed A. Shaftesbury, and in Mac Flecknow the Whig poet T. Shadwell.

Much attention was paid to poetic translation, which was carried out by both leading and third-rate poets. The palm in this area belongs to Dryden, who translated Ovid, Theocritus, Lucretius, Horace, Juvenal, Persius, Homer, Virgil, as well as Chaucer and Boccaccio. Despite all the differences in style and method of translation, there was a general tendency towards a free interpretation of the original, as in Dryden’s transcription of the Twenty-ninth Ode from the third book of Horace, which contains references to personalities and events in 17th-century England.

The development of prose went in the same direction as the development of poetry. Starting from individualism and stylistic beauty, she developed her own canon: clarity, intelligibility, spontaneity, smooth movement of a moderately long phrase. Having ceased to serve as an emotional release for authors, prose became the perfect means of presenting scientific facts and rational views. The main initiators of the renewal of prose are usually called Dryden, Cowley, D. Tillotson, T. Sprat, W. Temple and the Marquis of Halifax, but we should not forget that the brilliant self-taught Bunyan also participated in this, for the fusion of colloquial speech and biblical style in his works became the property of, although not such a refined, but much wider circle of readers.

The English novel has not yet been born; fiction, except for The Pilgrim's Progress, was represented only by translations of French gallant novels and imitations in this genre by Aphra Behn. The essay had not yet acquired its usual forms, although Halifax, Temple and, above all, Cowley, in the essay About Myself and a number of others, were moving towards this. One of the works of the Restoration period, which is still read with great interest today, was not intended for publication and was published a century and a half after its completion. This is the Diary of S. Pepys, where he, without hiding anything, recorded the events of his personal and public life from 1660 to 1669. As for memoirs, they had not yet been written in England more than in the 17th century. The most significant were the History of the Rebellion of the Earl of Clarendon and the History of My Time by G. Burnet. Few political essays like Halifax's Nature of an Opportunist still attract attention, despite the fact that works of this genre are usually short-lived.

The rationalism of Descartes and the materialism of Hobbes still dominated minds, but the century produced its own philosopher, who was to influence English thought much more significantly. The experience of the human mind by J. Locke laid the foundation for modern psychology, and the philosopher’s conclusions that there are no innate ideas and that’s all human knowledge stems only from experience, had a strong impact on all areas of theoretical thought. His essay The Reasonableness of Christianity contributed to the development of deism as a form of religion, and his Two Treatises on Government provided liberal political movements with a theoretical basis for a century. I. Newton's discoveries in optics, mathematics, physics and astronomy followed the constancy of scientific laws and gave rise to the concept of the “universal mechanism”.

Literary criticism flourished in the works of Dryden; however, few performed in this field. Temple published essays On Poetry and On Ancient and Modern Learning, which prompted a rebuke from R. Bentley, which began the so-called. "Battle of the Books" T. Rymer condemned the dramaturgy of the Elizabethans, J. Collier attacked the theater of the Restoration. Compared to their writings, Dryden's essays stand out as excellent criticism and excellent prose. His criticisms mostly took the form of casual prefaces to his own books. He does not try to construct patterns and does not allow “rules” to fetter common sense. His sober judgments are expressed in a style that is at once simple and sublime, restrained and impressive. Dryden's essays best help to understand the character of this man, who became the personification of the literature of the Restoration period.

During the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), a cohort of brilliant writers came to literature. Having published The Tale of a Barrel and the Battle of the Books in 1704, J. Swift gained fame as an excellent stylist and satirist. In 1709 A. Pope's Pastorals were published, followed by Essay on Criticism (1711) and The Rape of a Lock (1714). Dr. D. Arbuthnot, a close friend of Swift and Pope, published the satire The History of John Bull in 1712. In 1713, D. Gay published Rural Pleasures, and a year later - The Pastoral Week, an incomparable parody of pastoral poetry in the spirit of Spenser's Pastoral Calendar. From March 1, 1711 to December 6, 1712, the influential magazine “Spectator” was published, which published essays, the joint brainchild of J. Addison and his friend R. Steele.

The period when these congenial writers reigned in English literature is usually called the Classical Age. The years of the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus are considered the era of the highest prosperity of Ancient Rome, a time of solid order and universal peace. A similar picture was observed in England. After the execution of Charles I and the extremes of the Restoration, everyone passionately dreamed of order and a normal life. Writers of this era liked to think that their arrival marked the beginning of the English version of the Age of Augustus. They considered it their calling to give English literature something similar to the exquisitely precise word and serenity of the spirit of Virgil, the natural grace and polished style of Horace. Milton's shadow falls on this, as well as on later periods of English literature: among the best materials of the Spectator is Addison's series of critical essays on Paradise Lost, and Pope's ironic poem The Rape of the Lock owes many images and episodes to Milton's epic poem. However, the authors of the Classical Age, the “Augustinians,” preferred the small world of the living room and library to the big world of the universe and wondered whether it was possible to restore order to the microcosm of human society. Obsessed with the dream of a rationally organized life, they at the same time were the greatest satirists in the history of English literature, for a developed civilization presupposes the presence of satire as a tool for eradicating extremes, rudeness and stupidity in society.

Pop's work presents a method of versification typical of this century - a rhymed couplet, careful lexical and grammatical proportionality between parts of the verse and a heightened sense of each individual couplet as the main semantic poetic unit. The principles on which this method was based are called classicism. There are two such principles. First: art first of all imitates nature, therefore it is more perfect the more truthfully and accurately it does this. By “nature” we mean not so much landscapes and landscapes, but human nature, especially the relationships between people in society. The second fundamental principle of classicism follows from the first. Since art is an imitation of nature, firm, reasonably substantiated and immutable rules must apply not only to nature itself, but also to imitations of it. The poet must master these rules and strictly follow them in order to avoid extremes and absurdities in his work. This is why the English classicists placed common sense above all else. Committed to order and sanity, they experienced mortal horror of madness and senile insanity, which in their eyes were a threat to everything that man had built. In Swift's main satirical pamphlets, for example, the narrators are initially insane and therefore cause not laughter, but fear.

The spirit of poetry of the Classical Age is embodied by A. Pop (1688-1744). The plot of his most perfect creation, The Stealing of a Lock, is built on an ordinary, albeit daring trick of a society dandy. However, the author, depicting a closed, frivolous little world, poses serious problems of truth and lies, hypocrisy and morality, appearance and truth. Conscious self-restraint in choosing topics, tough moral position and the highest skill place Pope among the great English poets.

Pope's close friend D. Gay (1685-1732) gives amusing sketches of the street life of London in Trifles (1716), written in a polished heroic couplet. The setting of his irresistibly funny verse drama The Beggar's Opera (1728) is Newgate prison, and its “hero” is the king of outlaws Macheath. J. Thomson (1700-1748) was an innovator in the sense that he chose nature rather than human nature to “imitate.” In the large poem The Seasons (1726-1730), written in blank verse, he reproduced its changes over the course of twelve months with the precision of a landscape painter. His ardent love of nature contributed to the flowering of the landscape or "native landscape" poetry of Century Johnson, and ultimately to the great poetry of Romanticism.

Early 18th century especially notable for his works in prose. Addison and Steele perfected the essay genre. In “The Chatterbox” (1709-1711) and its more famous successor, “The Spectator” (1711-1712, 1714), they depict with gentle humor and good-natured satire the manifestations of human eccentricities in everyday life. Their essays are invariably maintained in the intonations of a calm, polite, benevolent conversation. Swift, on the other hand, is not afraid to be rude if it achieves the desired effect. His prose is the product of a lively mind and a keen moral sense. If Addison, the kindly "Mr. Spectator", gently ridicules eccentricities, then Swift exposes the basic depravity of human nature; his worldview is tragic at its very core.

The classical age witnessed the emergence of a new literary form - English novel, the leading genre of our time. This was preceded by the long development of English prose from Lyly and Nash to Swift and the improvement of its style so that it could become a means of personality analysis. Inherited from the 17th century. Defoe, Richardson and Fielding transformed the genre of the gallant and adventurous novel into an English novel - analytical, “realistic”, with personality as the main object of the image.

The London merchant and prolific journalist D. Defoe (1660-1731) wrote Robinson Crusoe (1719) - the first outstanding parable-novel in English about a man and his world. Defoe's assertion that Robinson Crusoe is not a work of fiction, but a supposedly "found" diary or memoir, is consistent both with his experience as a journalist and his reverence for "facts", and with the sentiments of sensible middle-class readers hungry for information about a world whose borders moved wider and wider. The enormous success of Robinson Crusoe prompted Defoe to write a novel about the pirate Captain Singleton (1720) and a sensational, although quite reliable, biography of the London criminal Moll Flanders (1722). Defoe's main characters, people forced to torture fate in unfavorable circumstances to find their place in a hostile world, suggested the type of hero to novelists of subsequent centuries.

S. Richardson's (1698-1761) first novel, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), was created, unlike Defoe's books, not to entertain the reader and broaden his horizons, but for the sake of moral enlightenment. This epistolary novel tells how Pamela Andrews, a poor but virtuous maid in the house of the wealthy Lord B., resists the persistent advances of her master, and he eventually becomes spiritually reborn and takes her as his wife. The moral of the story is unappealing - calculation and profit, but the self-revelation of the characters, the psychological drama of Pamela and Richardson's sophisticated style combine to produce a masterpiece of an early novel. Richardson continued his experiments with the epistolary form in the novels Clarissa (1747) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753).

G. Fielding (1707-1754) was in many respects the complete opposite of Richardson. The incompatibility of their characters prompted Fielding to write Joseph Andrews (1742), a burlesque parody of Pamela. Novel Tom Jones (1749) - comic masterpiece about the misadventures of a foundling who, trying to make his way in a hostile world and acting with the best intentions, always ends up in trouble. Both books testify to Fielding's tolerance and humanism, inclined to forgive the imperfections of human nature. His insightful satire on the eternal social vices was softer than Pop and Swift. Having completed their creative journey by the middle of the century, Defoe, Richardson and Fielding passed on the form of the novel they had developed to the authors who replaced them.

Literary eras are rarely named after literary critics. Criticism, by definition, is secondary to artistic creativity. S. Johnson (1709-1784) is an exception in this regard. Johnson's personality and intellectual power illuminate the second half of the 18th century. from a historical perspective, just as he himself reigned in literary circles during his lifetime. He professed middle-class views, was a conservative and a moralist, and placed a high value on common sense and basic decency; loved Richardson and deplored the witty, aristocratic Fielding. Johnson was called differently, most often - the "literary dictator" of London. He mostly used his enormous unquestioned authority to ensure that, shortly before the revolutionary coup in social thought and poetry, called the Romantic movement, once again, finally and irrevocably, to establish the dogmas of classicism in literature.

New trends, however, were already making themselves felt, especially in poetry. Although versification was still dominated by the complete couplet, and many of the conventions of the Classical Age, such as artificial epithets and personification, were still in use, poets began to experiment with other, freer and more expressive forms of poetry. J. Thomson in The Castle of Idleness (1748) and J. Beatty in The Minstrel (1771-1774) turned to the Spencerian stanza. W. Collins, W. Cooper and R. Burns gave the poetic foot a flexibility unusual for the Classical Age. In that transitional era, perhaps, only the poetry of Jonson himself, especially The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), provided a magnificent example of the established canonical couplet of the Classical Age.

In the poetry of Century Johnson, the realization began to ripen that the immediate momentary experiences of the poet are already a ready-made poetic theme. Partly under the influence of Milton, partly thanks to literary theories of the “sublime,” poetry moved towards a “pre-romantic” stage. According to the concept of “sublime” poetry, especially as expounded by D. Bailey in An Essay on the Sublime (1747) and E. Burke in On the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), the power of poetry increases as its theme approaches its limits, behind which the unknowable and unimaginable begins. High sadness, often inspired by thoughts that come to the churchyard, determines the intonation of Night Thoughts (1742-1745) by E. Young, The Grave (1743) by R. Blair and Elegy in a Country Cemetery (1751) by Gray, perhaps the most famous poetic work of this period. Landscape poetry continued to flourish, but as Collins's Ode to an Evening shows, the new poets preferred natural, unkempt rural landscapes to Pope's classical, planned gardens.

The temptation to experiment and the acuteness of perception characteristic of time paradoxically awakened in many authors an interest in the past. At the beginning of the century they began to collect and compose ballads. In 1765 Bishop T. Percy published Monuments of Ancient English Poetry, the first thorough and scientifically prepared collection of ballads. Gray and, above all, his poem The Bard contributed to the growth of interest in Scandinavian legends and the “sublime” ancient poetry. There were two poetic hoaxes: their authors skillfully imitated ancient poetic texts. In 1777, T. Chatterton published “Raulian” poems, and in 1760-1763, J. Macpherson published his “translation” of the poems of the ancient bard Ossian. Filled with deep melancholy, the poems had a strong influence on many, in particular Blake and Coleridge.

Finally, in poetry of the late 18th century. the humanistic principle intensifies, compassion for to the common man: The Abandoned Village of O. Goldsmith, works by Cooper, Crabb and Burns. This humanism was another manifestation of the cult of the “natural” and the result of the growth of democratic sympathy for that part of the population that had previously appeared in literature only as comic characters.

Johnson, of course, was himself the first prose writer of the era that bears his name. Being its best writer, he also became its best subject for description. Johnson's friend until his death, J. Boswell, created the Life of Johnson (1791), the most complete and authoritative of all English biographies, raising the biographical genre to the level of the highest art.

Apart from the Life of Johnson, the most significant prose of the period is represented primarily by the novel. Building on the traditions laid down by Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, writers have worked thoroughly on the form of the narrative, so that it often looks much more “modern” than in many 19th century novels. T. Smollett (1721-1771) developed the genre of the picaresque novel. His Roderick Random (1748) and Peregrine Pickle (1751), with their broken episodic composition and underlying spirit of raw, assertive vitality, are exemplary comic novels that humorously describe adventures on the high seas.

L. Stern (1713-1768) abandoned the “realism” of his predecessors for the sake of a reality of a different order - recreating the work of the remembering and reflective mind. In his masterpiece Tristram Shandy (1759-1767), the comic narrative form conceals a deeper psychological problem. Trying to tell the story of his life, Shandy discovers that some memories evoke other pictures and events by association, so that the “shape” of the novel is given not by life, but by the mind, which seeks to bring some order to life. Stern's style can be compared with the "stream of consciousness" method in modern fiction.

The sentimentality and self-disclosure of Richardson’s characters owes its appearance to a “sensitive” novel like The Man of Feeling (1771) by G. Mackenzie. Fielding's socio-psychological realism was continued in the novels Fanny Burney and The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) by Goldsmith. Arose and new genre- so-called a “Gothic” novel, testifying to the desire of its authors to depict the hyperreal and even supernatural in life. The poetics of the "Gothic" novel, with its melodrama, gloomy atmosphere, ghosts and monsters, was developed by H. Walpole in The Castle of Otranto (1765). The works of his followers became the same “pre-romantic” phenomenon in prose as the work of Gray, Collins and Burns - in poetry. Written in the Gothic vein are Vathek (1786) by W. Beckford, The Mysteries of Udolf (1794) by Anna Radcliffe and Ambrosio, or the Monk (1795) by M. G. Lewis, probably the most pathologically creepy example of the genre, the belated and completely “romantic” surge of which was Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley and which significantly influenced the Romantic writers.

The time of English romanticism is rightly designated as a “movement” rather than a “century”: the most important works of its representatives were published in the 26-year period from 1798 (the release of the Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge) to 1824 (the year of Lord Byron’s death). But these 26 years were among the most fruitful in English literature, and they can only be compared with the 26 years from the publication of Tamburlaine (1590) by Marlowe to the death of Shakespeare (1616).

The democracy of Burns and Goldsmith, the “sublime” sensitivity of Gray and Collins and the psychologism of Sterne contributed to the emergence of a new idea of ​​the poet as an ordinary person, but endowed with inspiration. The Romantics were revolutionaries not only in poetry, but also in politics. Blake embraced the revolutions in France and North America like the dawn of a new freedom over all of Europe; Wordsworth and Coleridge also welcomed the Great French Revolution - all the more bitter was their disappointment when it degenerated into a new type of political repression; Shelley and Byron, the last poets of the Romantic movement, considered themselves revolutionaries as much as poets.

The first great poet of the Romantic movement was W. Blake (1757-1827). A remarkably original personality, a convinced visionary, Blake was apparently unknown to the leading poets of Romanticism, although what he created was surprisingly close to the work of Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats. In Songs of Ignorance (1789) and Songs of Knowledge (1794), using a deceptively simple, “childish” writing style, he attacked the institution of the church and the political and economic system of exploitation with caustic irony. Thus, the basis of the Songs was righteous anger against the formal limitations put forward by the 18th century. concepts of "reasonableness" and "order". In the so-called "prophetic books", especially in the three great prophecies - the Four Zoons (unfinished), Milton (1808) and Jerusalem (1820) - Blake tried with amazing power and originality to imagine the personality of a person freed from the oppression of political, intellectual and sexual restrictions, which he imposes on himself.

W. Wordsworth (1770-1850) and S. T. Coleridge (1772-1834) heralded the romantic revolution in poetry with the release of Lyrical Ballads in 1798. The principle that animated their work was later called by one critic, following Carlyle, “the supernaturalism of the natural.” Coleridge sought to present the supernatural, the otherworldly in a real poetic and life context, while for Wordsworth the mysterious and supernatural are an integral part of ordinary existence. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, first published in the Ballads, Coleridge turns to the form of the ancient ballad to reveal the experience of a man who realized that everything in nature is sacred. Among Wordsworth's poems is one of Wordsworth's masterpieces, Lines Written a Few Miles from Tintern Abbey, a poetic reflection on the passage of time and the loss of youthful sensibility of those years when the poet felt closer to nature and its permeating spirit.

The lyrical ballads were an immediate and stunning success, but after this collection Coleridge and Wordsworth went their separate ways. Coleridge, who was struggling with his opium habit and his unsuccessful marriage, felt a decline in his creative powers. He wrote some great poems and many first-class ones, but the themes of loss of creative imagination and fear of an all-subduing poetic genius gradually prevailed in them. By the 1820s, Coleridge had abandoned poetry almost entirely and turned to literary criticism and theology. In the Biographia Literaria he left priceless memories of the early glorious days of the Romantic Movement; here he also gave his definition of the poetic imagination as “unifying” or “forming unity out of multitude” - perhaps the most important literary concept put forward by romanticism. For Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads ushered in a decade of unprecedented creative growth, culminating in the release of Poems in two volumes (1807). During these years, he wrote such masterpieces as Determination and Independence, Michael, Alone as a Cloud, I Wandered and an ode to Hints of Immortality through the Memories of Early Childhood. At the same time, he began work on a magnificent autobiography in verse, Prelude, published posthumously in 1850.

Created by P. B. Shelley (1792-1822) during his tragically short life, it ranks among the best pages of romantic poetry. His political views were extremely revolutionary; he remained a convinced atheist until the end of his days. He was close to Blake in that he considered the natural world to be at best a cover, at worst an illusion, and saw the only deity of the universe in the consciousness of man, who constantly strives to find order in the world around him. Asking in the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty the question of where the hope for immortality comes from, Shelley answers that it does not come from the outside, from gods or demons, it is born from “intellectual” beauty, which the human consciousness brings into the material world with the power of logic and imagination. All of Shelley's poetry is inspired by the search for ideal beauty and order, but the ideal remains elusive. In the epic drama Prometheus Unbound (1819), Shelley, in the spirit of Blake, traces the liberation of man from the shackles of illusions, without at the same time clarifying whether such liberation is final or just another link in the chain of revolutionary transformations. In the Ode to the West Wind, he anticipates an approaching uprising against tyranny and welcomes it, but the poet is afraid of the destruction that inevitably accompanies it. In his three great last poems - Epipsychidion (1821), Adonais (1821) and The Triumph of Life (1822, unfinished) - his poetic thought, beating in the grip of paradoxes and contradictions, perhaps reaches its highest point for the 19th century. incandescence A believer without God and an optimist without hope, Shelley is one of the most difficult but also "modern" poets of the Romantic movement.

Adonais Shelley is also an elegy to the memory of D. Keats (1795-1821). The son of a London groom who studied to become a doctor, Keats established his poetic genius in spite of the most difficult everyday circumstances. His novel in verse Endymion (1818) was panned by the leading critics of the day; he twice began an epic poem about the struggle between gods and titans - Hyperion, then the Fall of Hyperion - but left it unfinished. Besides the brilliant fragments of these great works, Keats wrote two magnificent little poems, the Lamia and the Eve of St. Agnes, and probably the greatest odes in all English literature - the Ode on Psyche, the Ode on Idleness, the Ode on a Nightingale, the Ode on a Grecian Urn, the Ode on Melancholy and Towards Autumn. Keats's romantic impulse found expression in the aesthetic fascination of consciousness before the creation of beauty, in a stable balance of feelings, to which he gave the famous definition of “negative ability.” This ability not to resist, not to think, but simply to perceive the difficult beauty and despair of human life is embodied in his sonnets, perhaps the most significant after Shakespeare's.

The last outstanding romantic poet was J. Byron (1788-1824). He emphasized more than once and at different times that the Romantic movement seemed to him absurd and excessively inflated; for him, the standard of perfection was the proportionality and orderliness of the poetry of Pop and the Classical Age. In many ways, Byron was the most complex, controversial, and certainly the most famous of the Romantic poets. Childe Harold's melancholic poem about wanderings, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, published in 1812, instantly glorified Byron. The cycle of adventure poems written over the next four years, including Gyaur, Corsair and Lara, was also extremely popular. In 1816, the court decided to separate Byron and his wife, and the poet left for Europe. From this time on, a new, darker and more bitter intonation increasingly appeared in his poetry. This bitterness is directed both against England and against the enthusiastically optimistic ideology of romanticism. In exile, Byron wrote the last two songs of Childe Harold, which are much stronger and more despairing than the first two, and began his main book, the novel in verse Don Juan (1819-1824), a chaotic satire of the romantic imagination. The hero of the novel constantly finds himself in situations that hurt his passionate romantic hopes and force him to look at things soberly. Recent critics have discovered in Don Juan elements that anticipate some modern phenomena, in particular the philosophy and literature of existentialism. The importance that Byron, a poet and an extraordinary, enigmatic personality, had on the writers of subsequent eras is difficult to overestimate.

The Romantic movement was named after its poets, but its prose also had its achievements. Leigh Hunt and C. Lamb, friends of Wordsworth and Coleridge, developed a form of subjective essay, abandoning the mentoring tone and thoughtful reasoning of Dr. Johnson for a more personal, often emphatically subjective style of writing. Their goal was not so much to express their point of view as to soften and ennoble the reader’s perception and feelings. W. Hazlitt (1778-1830) set himself more complex tasks and, as a thinker and stylist, was a more significant figure - the most influential critic in the Romantic movement after Coleridge. Hazlitt's concept of "response imagination" - the ability of the mind, through the comprehension of a literary work, to be imbued with the feelings of the artist-creator - expressed the spirit of the times and had a significant impact on literary theorists in the Victorian era.

Hazlitt's theoretical publications are largely supplemented by the Diaries (1896, 1904) of Dorothy Wordsworth, the poet's sister. Their wisdom and grace of style indicate another important quality of the prose of the Romantics. As the romantic poetry that was published became more closely related to the nature of personal experience, a very serious interest began to be shown in the latter, which had not previously been observed. This is one of the reasons why the letters of the great romantic poets are in such close connection with their work as literature has never known. The letters of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Byron are valuable not only in biographical terms, but also as works of art, and Keats's letters, marked by deep creativity and humanity, are among the greatest monuments of the genre in English literature.

During the years of the Romantic movement, the novel continued to develop according to its own laws in the works of its three largest and most influential masters. The name of Jane Austen (1775-1817) is associated with the emergence of the “novel of manners” in English literature. Having ridiculed the Gothic novel and the cult of the sublime in her first book, Northanger Abbey, she turned to a subtle study of the heartlessness and cruelty generated in the noble environment by differences in the social and economic status of people: the novels Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield -park (1814), Emma (1816) and Persuasion, published posthumously with Northanger Abbey in 1818.

W. Scott (1771-1832), whose narrative poetry was influential at the time, is now given more importance as a novelist. In his novels, especially the “Waverley cycle,” he gave the genre a new historical dimension, developing plots and revealing the characters of the characters against a broad historical and political background. Shelley's friend T. L. Peacock (1785-1866) wrote dialogue novels - The Abbey of Nightmares (1818), Crotchet Castle (1831) and others; his characters, openly based on the great people of the era, such as Coleridge and Wordsworth, have long conversations full of wit and gentle satire.

Thus, the novel, throughout the Romantic movement, retained its vitality as a genre and, more importantly, enriched its arsenal of visual means with new techniques and approaches - on the eve of the Victorian era, the great century of English fiction.

Victoria I ascended the throne in 1837 and ruled until her death in 1901. In terms of duration, only the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) can be compared with her reign in the entire history of England. Like the latter, Victoria gave her name not only to the political, but also to the literary era. The Victorian era was also a century of vigorous expansion, imperial ambition and deep faith in the future of England and all humanity. The tone for the era was set by the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, a brilliant exhibition designed to demonstrate England's superiority in the scientific, social and technical fields. The Victorians anticipated a number of problems considered purely modern; moreover, they thoroughly comprehended them. They were the first Englishmen to think about the industrial revolution and its possible consequences for culture and society. The Romantics were outraged by the blatantly unfair distribution of income not based on work and made prophecies of a creative and political revolution. The Victorians perceived this distribution as an obvious, albeit unpleasant fact, which had to be eliminated not by poetic visionary, but by painstaking everyday charitable work in the specific conditions of contemporary England.

The so-called "new humanism" dates back to 1842, when Lord Ashley presented a report on the terrible plight of miners, which refuted the optimism of T. B. Macaulay and other Whigs and destroyed the atmosphere of public complacency. Writers were among the first to demand reforms. T. Good wrote the Song of the Shirt, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning touched hearts with the poem The Cry of Children. Novelists, including Dickens, called even more urgently for change in society. B. Disraeli emphasized the monstrous social contrasts of Victorian England by giving his novel Sybil (1845) the subtitle “Two Nations,” meaning rich and poor. Elizabeth Gaskell described in Mary Barton (1848) the dire economic consequences of political clashes in her native Manchester. C. Kingsley in Yeast (1848) showed the hardships of the rural toiler and called for moral regeneration in England. Their social aspirations were shared by other prominent novelists, such as Charles Reed, Charlotte Brontë and W. Collins.

This was the great age of the English novel, when it became the moral and artistic voice of the whole nation, as has probably never happened before or since. Usually published in installments in monthlies and only then published in book form, novels of this era were the fruit of mutual understanding between author and reader, which immeasurably expanded the boundaries of the genre and its popularity. The narrator and his audience trusted each other and were ready to agree that, despite all the hardships of life, man is by nature good and deserves happiness.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was undoubtedly the most beloved, famous and in many ways the great Victorian novelist. His first novel Posthumous notes The Pickwick Club (1836-1837), an irresistibly funny gentle satire, was a runaway success. In subsequent novels, such as Oliver Twist (1837-1839), Dombey and Son (1846-1848) and David Copperfield (1849-1850), Dickens created a panorama of English society, especially its lower and middle classes, and showed this society with a completeness perhaps unprecedented in the entire history of the English novel. Dickens was well aware of the abominations of the age and the abject poverty to which many of his countrymen were doomed, and yet his books are animated by a faith in charity that nourishes the hope of the eventual elimination of social evils through the innate goodness of man. However, after David Copperfield, a novel that is emphatically autobiographical, the nature of Dickens's work changes dramatically. Bleak House (1852-1853) is a detailed analysis of the protracted process in the Chancery Court regarding the inheritance, painful for its participants. In addition, it is also a sober look at the hypocrisy and omnipotence of bureaucracy that is corroding society. The symbolism of the descriptions raises the novel to the level of great poetry, and the picture of the big city as a modern hell given on the first page remains unsurpassed. A similar view of society, only slightly softened by the appearance of sympathetic characters and depictions of charitable deeds, is found in Little Dorrit (1855-1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-1861) and the last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend (1864-1864). 1865).

W. M. Thackeray (1811-1863) wrote novels in a different vein. Under his pen, society, despite the external realism of the image, looked much funnier, and this was his programmatic setting. Thackeray's masterpiece Vanity Fair (1847-1848) is named after the town in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress - where all sorts of human sins are tolerated and encouraged. However, Thackeray interprets various forms of society's abuse of man not as sinful, but as caused by ultimately suicidal stupidity. Of all the Victorian novelists, perhaps only E. Trollope (1815-1882) was at peace with his age and shared its fundamental views. His most significant achievement is a series of novels about the fictional county of Barsetshire and its inhabitants. The most important books in the cycle are The Guardian (1855), Barchester Towers (1857) and The Last Chronicle of Barset (1866-1867).

Having known illness, desperation and hopelessness since childhood, living in the north of England in a house among the bleak marshy moors, the three Brontë sisters - Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848) and Anne (1820-1849) - fled from reality into the world jointly created fictions, which was hardly conducive to the creation of great novels. Nevertheless, during 1847 three of their outstanding books were published. Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre was published first and immediately won over readers. The story of governess Jane and her employer, a mysterious, Byronic figure, introduced an element of the supernatural into realistic Victorian prose in the spirit of the Gothic novel and romantic traditions. In Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, the protagonist Heathcliff is tormented by the torment of his obviously doomed love for Cathy. This is one of the greatest, most mysterious and ruthless love stories in the English language. Anne Brontë was inferior to her sisters in the art of storytelling, but in her novel Agnes Gray, tenderness and peace, unknown to Charlotte and Emily, emerge through the dense romantic atmosphere.

The work of Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), who wrote under the pseudonym George Eliot, represents a synthesis of the best in the Victorian novel. Dickens's preoccupation with social issues, Trollope's realism in recreating provincial life, and the romantic impulse of the Brontë sisters combine in her books to form perhaps the most comprehensive artistic panorama of society in all of English literature. She began with Scenes from the Life of the Clergy (1857), unpretentious, although expressive pictures of provincial morals, but in The Mill on the Floss (1860), Felix Holt (1866) and especially in Middlemarch (1871-1872) she revealed contemporary life in all its depth and with the unrivaled power of creative imagination.

J. Meredith (1828-1909) was the last of the great Victorian novelists. In The Trial of Richard Feverel (1859) and The Egoist (1879), he resorts to a complex, refined intellectual style to expose the vices of hypocrisy and pretense. Both Meredith and George Eliot paid great attention to the development of the novel as an artistic form and thereby contributed to the growth of the creative self-awareness of novelists, which deeply influenced H. James, J. Conrad, and all modern masters of fiction.

The poets of the Victorian era, no less than its novelists, were both heirs and opponents of the Romantic revolution. The work of the three great Victorian poets, Tennyson, Browning and Arnold, can be likened to an attempt to turn the gaze from the mirror of the romantic imagination to the real picture of the 19th century. and to make poetry again a worthy voice of the public, the conscience of the times.

The creative development of A. Tennyson (1809-1892) coincides so much with the evolution of the Victorian worldview that he acts as a prophet of the century and at the same time its mirror. His early poems, such as The Lady of Shalott, The Lotus Eaters, and Mariana, are attempts to penetrate the realm of the relationship between consciousness and the external world and the self-sufficient artistic imagination with its dangers. The mature Tennyson, however, turns to the theme of human history. He had a strong interest in the heroic and its manifestations in times aggravated by doubts and a sense of personal insignificance. This is one of the topics big cycle poems Royal Idylls (1859), an epic adaptation of Malory's book about King Arthur, but here the medieval knights show a strikingly modern, that is, Victorian, complex of feelings. Tennyson's greatest poem is perhaps In Memoriam, a long elegy to the memory of a friend of his youth. In a poem that was written over 17 seconds extra years, the poet enters into an argument with himself regarding the place of man in the universe and the meaning of life. Overcoming doubts, he gradually comes to a solid, multifaceted faith based on stoicism and self-discipline. After the publication of the poem in 1850, Tennyson's work became the recognized and undisputed poetic voice of the era.

R. Browning (1812-1889) became an idol of the reading public only in the 1860s. His poetry is quite difficult to understand, but its complexity goes back to the enormous erudition and rich vocabulary that he uses when exploring the psychological motives of human behavior. Browning's poetic method is in many ways similar to that of the novelist: like George Eliot and Meredith, he seeks the key to human nature by considering the properties of individual characters. Browning is famous primarily as a master of the “dramatic monologue,” when a character, narrating about himself, involuntarily reveals more to the reader than he thinks. In contrast to the smooth flow of Tennyson's rational verse, Browning's lines are abrupt, the rhythm constantly jumps, reflecting the specific modulations of living individual speech. A brilliant example of such an expressive dramatic monologue is the Bishop ordering a tomb for himself in the Church of St. Praxeds. After his marriage to Elizabeth Barrett (1846), Browning lived in Italy until her death in 1861. Italy is the setting of many of his outstanding works, including the great poem The Ring and the Book (1868-1869), a novel in verse based on the famous murder case . In Browning's interpretation, each of the main participants in the tragedy puts forward his own version of “how it all happened,” refuting the testimony of the others.

The third great poet and leading literary critic of the Victorian era was M. Arnold (1822-1888). His poetry can be seen as an attempt at self-determination as an intellectual and humanist in the face of industrial expansion and a crisis of faith. Arnold was born into a deeply devout family, but in his mature years he no longer considered traditional religion a reliable moral support in life. The core of his views was the conviction that in an age of skepticism, poetry is the only moral compass. Not in the sense that it should become an elementary moral sermon, but in the sense that, reflecting the diversity of life, it should penetrate deeper into the essence of things than is available to scientific methods of research. His motto as a critic was “disinterest”; by it he meant the refusal of the critic (and, of course, the poet) “to share superficial political and practical judgments about ideas, which the majority will certainly express...” Arnold most clearly outlined his views on the importance of criticism as the guardian of culture in the collection of essays Culture and Anarchy (1869) and in lectures he gave while professor of poetry at Oxford. Although his poetic work did not achieve the ideal he set, it remains a moving evidence of the poet’s struggle with the feeling of alienation from the age that he called the iron age.

In the second half of the century a group of poets emerged with a completely different approach to Arnold's problem of anarchy and culture. D. G. Rossetti (1828-1882), W. Morris (1834-1896) and A. C. Swinburne (1837-1909) considered the values ​​of art and the values ​​of society to be polar opposites, and this excluded for them the very idea of ​​​​the solvability of contradictions, what Tennyson, Browning and Arnold aspired to. Their poetry marks a transition to the position of pure aesthetics, which proclaimed that only art gives meaning to life. Formalistic in tone, romantic and sensual in themes and images, their poetry influenced the formation of the so-called. aestheticism of the 1890s. The complete break of O. Wilde, L. Johnson, O. Beardsley and other writers and artists with their contemporary culture largely anticipated the poetic attitudes of the 20th century.

The Victorian era left brilliant prose of a wide thematic variety: political, religious, art, and philosophical works. It would be a stretch to speak of a certain Victorian style to these works, but the century nevertheless cultivated such virtues as clarity, thoroughness and “high seriousness” (M. Arnold’s definition). They, apparently, give Victorian prose its recognizable character. Another typical trait is a "scholarly" or "teaching" character. The century's leading essayists were not just researchers or expositors, but teachers who explicitly taught the reading public how to think correctly.

T. De Quincey (1785-1859), unlike his contemporaries, for example Carlyle, refrained from overt didactics. His most famous work is Confession of an English Opium Addict (1822) - an autobiographical narrative about the fight against the opium habit; in descriptions of narcotic visions, its expressiveness approaches romantic poetry. De Quincey's literary criticism is impressionistic (essay On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth). T. B. Macaulay (1800-1859) was perhaps the first great "exemplary" Victorian. His fundamental History of England (1848-1855), lively, partial and somewhat pompous, contains all the components of the Victorian worldview - optimism, liberalism, moderate utilitarianism and the historiosophical approach. T. Carlyle (1795-1881) embodied the transition from the Romantic movement to the Victorian era. One of the greatest historians in English literature, he placed at the center of his historical concept the figure of the hero, the great man who, despite defeat and hopelessness, affirms faith in life and transforms reality for the better: The French Revolution (1837), Heroes and Hero Worship (1841), Past and Present (1843).

J. G. Newman (1801-1890), the “sage” and outstanding Anglican theologian of the first half of the century, shocked the British scientific world in 1845 by converting to Catholicism. However, his writings, both before and after his conversion, are distinguished by equanimity and common sense - despite the boiling passions that his activities caused. In the Apology of My Life (Apologia pro Vita Sua, 1864) and the Grammar of Concord (1870), he brilliantly justifies his choice of an authoritarian hierarchical church in an era of skepticism. J. S. Mill (1806-1873), like Newman, opposed the utilitarian, obsessively practical philosophy of his time. He called not for the imposition of universal truth, but for a joyful, if difficult, acceptance of the uncertainty of all positive knowledge and for support for the liberal demand for freedom of opinion for everyone. His Autobiography (published posthumously in 1873), On Liberty (1859) and The Oppressed Condition of Woman (1869) are considered masterpieces of his skeptical but humane philosophy.

Latest in time outstanding master Victorian prose writer was D. Ruskin (1819-1900). An art critic, like Arnold, he, unlike the latter, did not idealize culture as the only viable form of faith in his age, but saw in art and culture historically established phenomena that were devalued by the modern way of life with its cult of industry and utilitarianism. His essays on architecture, painting and the creative imagination, which formed the books The Stones of Venice (1853), Modern Artists (1856-1860) and Sesame and Lilies (1865), radically influenced the "aesthetes" - poets and critics of the late 19th century. The largest of them were W. Pater (1839-1894) and O. Wilde (1854-1900). In Essays on the History of the Renaissance (1873), Pater collected lyrical essays thematically around such great masters as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Wilde's aestheticism, shaped by Pater, was embodied in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), a manifesto of hedonism with an unexpectedly high moral denouement.

M. Arnold died in 1888, and in the next decade many probably decided that with his passing a holistic view of the place of literature in society had collapsed. For Arnold, the heights of literature are moralizing works that can serve as a guide to action. It is the fruit of man's most successful attempts to apply ideas to life. Arnold believed that the greatest works of poetry and drama will certainly show that their merits are not in the perfection of style or composition, but in the depth of themes of lasting importance to the life of every person.

In the 1870s and 1880s, Arnold's concept was criticized, and in the 1890s it was dealt a serious blow. A new interest arose in individual consciousness and the subjectively colored picture of reality as it is perceived. Art as aesthetic pleasure, creativity as a self-sufficient act and irrespective of the moral impact of what is created, content as a secondary category in relation to artistic form and style - these approaches, formulated by W. Pater gracefully and subtly, and O. Wilde with brilliance and insight, turned minds . G. James's experiments with narrative perspective, when events are presented exclusively from the point of view of one of the characters, as well as his essays on literature and art, also had a significant influence on the writers whose work determined the shape of the literature of the next decades. Many of the original authors popular at the beginning of the new century, such as Shaw, Kipling, Wells or Galsworthy, were heirs of Arnold, attaching great importance to the social and moral content of their writings, but such writers as Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Lawrence, Ford and T. S. Eliot, although they had their own ethical positions, nevertheless relied on aestheticism, which took shape at the end of the 19th century, to expand the boundaries of the novel and poetry.

Of the authors whose work can be called transitional, the most significant was T. Hardy (1840-1928). His literary biography changed course with the beginning of the new century: having completed his fruitful career as a novelist with the publication of Jude the Invisible in 1896, he transferred into poetry the passion and depth of generalizations that gave his novels the character of tragedies. Hardy wrote many lyric poems - short, ironic, idiosyncratic in form and devoid of traditional "poetry" - and the epic drama in verse Dynasty (1903-1908), which depicts Europe during the Napoleonic era.

For at least three other outstanding writers, their creative blossoming coincided with the turn of the era. In the mid-1880s, G. James (1843-1916) created two novels with broad social implications, The Bostonians and Princess Casamassima. The narrowing of themes in the novels of the second half of the 1890s What Maisie Knew and An Inconvenient Age partly speaks to the literary fashion of the decade for exquisite descriptions of the minutiae of social life, but both novels were at the same time a focused experiment in a new writing technique. James's focus on the literary craft led to a powerful burst of creative energy in the early 20th century. The novels The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Cup (1904) together are a major milestone in the history of literary prose.

R. Kipling (1865-1936) remained true to himself all his life: the “black imp” (as G. James called him) went to school, finding his theme and style, in British India and in the 1890s attacked London, branding aesthetes as a “long-haired trash” and asserting himself in poetry and prose as a prophet of the imperial idea, without relying on any broad public opinion. His work had the greatest resonance at an early stage, when his life experience and beliefs opened up a completely new sphere of perception and worldview to his amazed compatriots. Kipling's later works, often marked by a deeper development of the theme and a perfect style, are dictated by a strong commitment to the political and social views of the past.

W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) began as a nostalgic romantic, and much of his early poetry was influenced by W. Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites. Having developed a spectacular style of symbolic writing in his mature years, Yeats exchanged the metaphorical Ivory Tower for the very material Ballylee Tower in the west of Ireland. He rebuilt this stronghold of Norman times, made it his home - and glorified it in poems imbued with a sense of historical continuity, national identity and the realities of everyday life. Yeats never ceased to comprehend the meaning of what was happening around him - the Irish literary revival, for which he created plays for a long time; the struggle of fellow tribesmen for independence, which resulted in the Easter Rising of 1916; Europe's drift from war to war. Over time, his poetry was molded into rigid forms under the influence of discoveries in writing techniques made by his younger colleagues, primarily E. Pound. Despite his strong adherence to esoteric philosophy, Yeats in The Tower (1928) and The Spiral Staircase (1933) showed himself to be the undisputed poetic genius of the new century.

Among the writers of the first rank who started back in the 19th century is J. Conrad (1857-1924). His first novels, Ohlmeyer's Caprice (1895) and The Negro with Narcissus (1897), earned him fame as a singer of the exotic and the high seas. However, his work was closely linked to its time, as evidenced by the novel Nostromo (1904), a tale of revolution and counter-revolution, dictatorship, persecution and torture in a society whose members were mired in competition for the possession of material wealth.

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) was initially distinguished by conservatism, both in his writing style and in his desire to preserve and establish the best in liberal English thought. In the novel Howard's End (1910), which combines a fascinating plot and a parable beginning, he shows that the confrontation between the uneducated bureaucratic and merchant classes, on the one hand, and the cultural intellectual classes, on the other, will lead to disaster if they do not find mutual language. The same theme is explored in a broader context in the novel A Passage to India (1924): the almost irreconcilable contradictions dividing the races and classes of British India are depicted as analogous to the condition of all mankind.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) made her debut in 1915 with the novel Outward Journey, followed by the equally realistic Night and Day (1919); however, Woolf's talent was essentially poetic and impressionistic. Mrs. Dalloway (1925) is a subtle recreation of one spring London day through the prism of perception of the tangible and visible side of existence and elusive instantaneous states of consciousness. Woolf's masterpiece, the novel To the Lighthouse (1927), imparts to refined sensory photography the perspective and completeness of a great painting.

The mighty genius of J. Joyce (1882-1941) was much more controversial. After Dubliners (1914), a collection of stories about Dublin life, marked by the influence of French naturalism, he wrote the outstanding autobiographical novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and finally created Ulysses (1922), a completely unusual and unique creative phenomenon of the 20th century. In Finnegans Wake (1939), Joyce's experiment with the root structures of language goes so far that only narrow specialists can understand the text of the work.

A passionate critic of society, in the spirit of Ruskin and Carlyle, D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) amazed and shocked many with his focus on sexual experience: the writer considered sexual relationships vital for modern man. Lawrence first introduced this theme in Sons and Lovers (1913), his first major book, which impressively depicts the life of the working class from which the writer himself came. In the duology Rainbow (1915) and Women in Love (1920), Lawrence explores the sexual side of existence with disconcerting thoroughness. The last novel Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) presents the author's views with the utmost frankness, so that the book was banned for a long time in the UK and the USA.

Two writers made significant contributions to the essay genre. M. Beerbohm (1872-1956), author of numerous theater reviews, essays and parodies, became famous for his elegance of style and wit. G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), creator of The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and the stories of Father Brown (1911-1935), used his keen wit and paradoxical manner to defend Christianity - unlike the agnosticism of many contemporaries, including H. G. Wells (1866-1946). The latter put into the form of novels the diverse thoughts and assumptions that arose in his tenacious scientific mind while observing the rapidly changing picture of modern England - and the whole world. In his best works, Wells proceeded from his own experience and, albeit typical of his time, perception, which gives his writings more artistic force and vitality than can be found in the work of A. Bennett (1867-1931), who turned to the techniques of French realism , depicting the English province, or D. Galsworthy (1867-1933), who unfolded in the Forsyte Saga (1922) and Modern Comedy (1929) a reliable panorama of the life of several generations of a family belonging to the upper class. With the same type of works, which can equally serve as documents of both literature and social history, the next generation featured J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) and C.P. Snow (1905-1980). Novelist, short story writer and playwright W. S. Maugham (1874-1965) portrayed life of the British abroad without any embellishment. J. Carey (1888-1957), drawing on his rich life experience, created a series of novels about Europeans and the indigenous population in Africa, as well as the trilogy Surprised Herself (1941), To Be a Pilgrim (1942) and First Hand (1944), in which entertaining and often funny portraits of English nonconformists and rebels are given.

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), a master storyteller, experimented with storytelling techniques, particularly changing the “point of view.” F. M. Ford (1873-1939) was also an experimenter - in the impeccable style of the novel The Good Soldier (1915) and the tetralogy Parade's End (1924-1928), which brilliantly embodied the method of “stream of consciousness,” i.e., reproducing involuntary associations in character's consciousness. A similar method was developed by Dorothy Richardson (1873-1957) in the series of interconnected novels Travel (1915-1938). The novels of Jean Rhys (1894-1979) are remarkable for their insightful exploration of the characters of women - unrequited victims in a world dominated by men. Between the wars, outstanding works were produced by W. Lewis, Rebecca West and J. C. Powis, but the leading artist was Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969). She ruthlessly exposed the passions hidden beneath the seemingly genteel existence of upper-class families at the turn of the century. The same causticity, but further enhanced by a wide interest in various theories (Huxley), hatred of totalitarianism (Orwell) and a keen sense of the comic (Waugh), is marked by the books of these writers. O. Huxley (1894-1963) explored the dangers of a purely speculative, calculated to the last detail approach to life in the novels Chrome Yellow (1921), Counterpoint (1928), Beautiful new world(1932) and Time Must Stand Still (1945). Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949) by J. Orwell (1903-1950) and the terrifying dystopia Brave New World (in Russian translation Brave New World) are three of the most famous warning novels of the 20th century. The openly Catholic writer I. Vo (1903-1966) expressed his attitude towards social criticism differently. His satirical novels about English society after the First World War, Decline and Fall (1928), Vile Flesh (1930), A Fistful of Ashes (1934), and Sensation (1938) are masterpieces of the bitter comedy of manners. G. Green (1904-1991), the author of novels-parables about grace and redemption - Power and Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), The End of One Love Affair (1951), At the Price of Loss (1961) and Human Factors (1978).

M. Lauri (1909-1957) published only one significant novel during his lifetime, At the Foot of the Volcano (1947), but this romantic prose poem about the death of a drunken consul in Mexico stands among the few truly classical works modern English literature. In novels such as Death of the Heart (1938) and In the Heat of the Day (1949), Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) explores the complexity of interpersonal relationships. Among the novels of Henry Green (1905-1973) about the working class and high society- Existence (1929), Joy Ride (1939), Falling in Love (1945) and Nothing (1950). L. Durrell (1912-1990) brought recognition to the Alexandria Quartet (1957-1960), with its contrapuntal structure, refined style and realistic recreation of the scene.

After World War II, a group of writers emerged called the Angry Young Men. It included K. Amis, D. Brain, A. Sillitoe and D. Wayne. In their socialist-inspired novels, they attacked the English class system and its declining culture. Amis's most brilliant and funniest novel (1922-1995), Lucky Jim (1953), is a scathing critique of the elite of British university circles. Sillitoe (b. 1928), as shown by his novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) and the title story of the collection, The Lonely Runner (1961), has no equal in revealing the mentality and character of representatives of the working class.

W. Golding (1911-1993) in the books Lord of the Flies (1954), The Heirs (1955), Visible Darkness (1979) and Rituals of the Long Voyage (1980) created a fictional universe, which in its unusualness resembles the world of medieval allegories. The source of his pessimism is his conviction in the bestial nature of man and his distrust of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge. Muriel Spark (b. 1918) in the apparently traditional comedies of manners Memento mori (1959), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) and others never cease to amaze with the surrealism of episodes and situations and the irony of metamorphoses, highlighting the consciousness and souls of the characters in an effort to establish moral standards . Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) shows in her novels how the ability to objectively perceive others fuels love and morality, while blind egocentrism leads to pathology. E. Powell (b. 1905) chronicled English life in the first half of the century in a series of novels, A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-1976), which has been compared to M. Proust's epic In Search of Lost Time. The sorcerer of words E. Burgess (b. 1917) followed Huxley and Orwell in considering the collapse of liberalism, describing in A Clockwork Orange (1963) a degenerate future society mired in violence. In the novels and stories of E. Wilson (1913-1991), the mental state of the characters shows the decay of modern England; His most significant novels are The Middle Ages of Mrs Eliot (1958), Late Calling (1964) and Set the World on Fire (1980). Charming comedies of manners brought posthumous recognition to Barbara Pym (1913-1980), who, like Jane Austen, painted the routine of everyday existence with subtle strokes on small canvases. D. Storey (b. 1933) used his experience as a professional rugby player in the novels Such is the Sporting Life (1960) and A Temporary Life (1973).

The most significant modern novelists are Margaret Drabble (b. 1939), Doris Lessing (b. 1919) and D. Fowles (b. 1926). Drabble is sometimes accused of being small-minded because she writes about women establishing themselves in a world dominated by men, but her novels Golden Realms (1975), The Ice Age (1977) and Broke (1980) raise pressing socio-political issues. At the center of Doris Lessing's books is the political evil that poisons people's lives. Over time, she turned from describing a racist society in Africa ( early stories, the novel The Grass is Singing, 1950) to the exploration of the destiny of women in his masterpiece The Golden Diary (1962) and allegories on the theme of the Fall and collective atonement in the cycle of fantasy novels Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979-1983). Fowles's exceptional gift for narrative is evident in his existential allegory of free will and the need to transform man into a being of "natural" morality, or "Aristo", - the novels The Collector (1963), The Magus (1966), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), Daniel Martin ( 1977), Worm (1985).

In turn-of-the-century poetry, conservative traditions are represented by the work of poet laureates R. Bridges (1844-1930) and D. Masefield (1878-1967). The first, in a sophisticated classical manner, sang the serenity of the spirit and the delights of solitude; the second performed in different genres, but became famous for his vividly written poems and first-class sea ballads. On the eve of the First World War, poets spoke who wrote without any special pretensions and in traditional forms; they were called Georgians. The most famous of them, R. Brooke (1887-1915), died in military service. W. Owen (1893-1918), a more original and promising poet, was killed a week before the end of the war. R. Graves (1895-1985) survived the trenches and became a prolific poet and novelist with his own inimitable style. The contemporaries of the Georgians were Imagists, mostly tertiary poets, although at one time Imagism was famous because D.H. Lawrence and E. Pound were associated with it. Imagists strove for poetry that was clear and precise, complex in rhythm, simple in language. They were instrumental in preparing the way for the poetic revolution ushered in by US-born T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) with Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) and The Waste Land (1922). In the work of Eliot and most later poets, most notably Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), clear poetic speech gives way to combinations of images or symbols that act primarily on the subconscious. In skillful hands, this method allows one to achieve amazing richness and capacity of verse. The Waste Land provides a terrifying panorama of a dying civilization; here the entire history of the West is presented in its full sense - and Eliot needed only about 400 lines for this. Eliot's other significant work, the Suite Four Quartets (1943), is striking in its unity of symbolic composition and intense thought.

Two major poets, Eliot's older contemporaries, were not affected by new trends. The phantasmagoric poetry of W. de la Mare (1873-1956) is mainly in the traditional genres of ballads and songs. A. E. Houseman (1859-1936) wrote polished poems in the common pastoral or bucolic style. But most of the young poets of the 1930s became followers of Eliot, who strengthened his authority with numerous and significant critical works. Leading among these poets were W. H. Auden, St. Spender, S. Day Lewis, and L. McNeice. Their creative achievements are varied and varied. Auden (1907-1973) in such collections as The Orators (1932) and Behold a Stranger! (1936), contributed to the renewal of poetic language and successfully used poetry as a commentary on contemporary reality.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a generation of “revelation” poets emerged, the best of them being D. Thomas (1914-1953). Treating poetry as a mystery, they recreated reality in a highly subjective, sometimes surreal manner, based on the multiplicity and self-development of metaphors.

The most interesting phenomenon of poetry in the 1950s was the work of the poetry group “Movement,” which included K. Amis, D. Davey, T. Gunn, Elizabeth Jennings and others. All of them abandoned romantic pathos in favor of the simplicity of poetic speech and restrained ironic intonation. The leading poet of the Movement was F. Larkin (1922-1985); in his collections Indebted to Another (1955) and Trinity Weddings (1964), the deceptively unpretentious form of the verse hides a complex interweaving of skepticism and a not unconditional, but still acceptance of life.

The poetry of T. Hughes (1930-1999) glorifies the frantic power of self-awareness, accessible to a genius or an animal, but usually suppressed by a person. Its culmination is the cycle of grotesque and bitterly ironic poems The Raven (1970), the “hero” of which nullifies God’s attempts to create a harmonious universe. J. Hill's compact, exquisitely crafted poems (b. 1932) combine soulful lyricism with depictions of the abominations of political and racial intolerance. The Irishman S. Heaney (b. 1939) owns vivid examples of meditative lyrics: he returns to memories of childhood on a small farm and mourns the victims of religious strife in Ulster.

A number of modern poets show a marked interest in the diversity of aspects of culture. T. Harrison (b. 1937) relies on history and his own memory, turning to the unclaimed experience of generations of working people who were not given the opportunity to express themselves in mainstream literature. J. Fenton (b. 1949), a former journalist and correspondent from Vietnam, describes the nagging sense of human defenselessness. K. Rhine (b. 1944) is known as a master of bright, witty metaphors that highlight everyday existence in a new way. D. Davis (b. 1945) develops forms of clear “classical” rhyming verse, celebrating love and spiritual values. Also of note are such poets as Fleur Adcock, E. Motion, C. G. Sisson, J. Wainwright, C. Tomlinson and H. Williams.

LITERATURE

Anthology of New English Poetry. L., 1937

History of English Literature, vols. 1-3. M. - L., 1943-1958

Anikst A. A. History of English literature. M., 1956

English short story. L., 1961

Poetry of English Romanticism. M., 1975

From modern English poetry. M., 1976

From a modern English novel. M., 1979

English poetry in Russian translations (XIV-XIX centuries). M., 1981

Writers of England about literature. M., 1981

English short story of the 20th century. M., 1981

Old English poetry. M., 1982

Alekseev M.P. Russian-English literary connections. L., 1982

English poetry in Russian translations. XX century M., 1984

A modern English story. M., 1984

English classical epigram. M., 1987

England in a pamphlet: English journalistic prose of the early 18th century. M., 1987

English Literature 1945-1980. M., 1987

English and Scottish folk ballad: The English and Scottish Popular Ballad. M., 1988

The beautiful captivates forever: From English poetry of the 18th-19th centuries. M., 1988

English lyric poetry of the first half of the 17th century. M., 1989

The Englishman's House: An English Classic Novel. M., 1989

English sonnet of the 16th-19th centuries: English Sonnets 16 to 19 Centuries. M., 1990

Vanity of Vanities: Five Hundred Years English aphorism. M., 1996

Everyone knows the plot of Daniel Defoe's novel. However, the book contains many other interesting details about the organization of Robinson’s life on the island, his biography, and inner experiences. If you ask a person who has not read the book to describe Robinson’s character, he is unlikely to cope with this task.

In the popular consciousness, Crusoe is a smart character without character, feelings or history. The novel reveals the image of the main character, which allows you to look at the plot from a different angle.

Why you need to read

To get acquainted with one of the most famous adventure novels and find out who Robinson Crusoe really was.

Swift does not openly challenge society. Like a true Englishman, he does it correctly and witty. His satire is so subtle that Gulliver's Travels can be read as an ordinary fairy tale.

Why you need to read

For children, Swift's novel is a fun and unusual adventure story. Adults need to read it to get acquainted with one of the most famous artistic satires.

This novel, although artistically not the most outstanding, is definitely iconic in the history of literature. After all, in many ways he predetermined the development of the scientific genre.

But this is not just entertaining reading. It raises problems of the relationship between creator and creation, God and man. Who is responsible for creating a being who is destined to suffer?

Why you need to read

To get acquainted with one of the main works of science fiction, as well as to experience complex issues that are often lost in film adaptations.

Difficult to pick out best play Shakespeare. There are at least five of them: “Hamlet”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Othello”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”. The unique style and deep understanding of life's contradictions made Shakespeare's works an immortal classic, relevant at all times.

Why you need to read

To begin to understand poetry, literature and life. And also to find the answer to the question, what is better: to be or not to be?

The main theme of English literature in the early 19th century was social criticism. Thackeray in his novel denounces his contemporary society with the ideals of success and material enrichment. To be in society means to be sinful - this is approximately Thackeray’s conclusion regarding his social environment.

After all, the successes and joys of yesterday lose their meaning when a well-known (albeit unknown) tomorrow looms ahead, which we all will sooner or later have to think about.

Why you need to read

To learn to relate more simply to life and the opinions of others. After all, everyone in society is infected with “fair ambitions” that have no real value.

The language of the novel is beautiful, and the dialogue is an example of English wit. Oscar Wilde is a subtle psychologist, which is why his characters turned out to be so complex and multifaceted.

This book is about human vice, cynicism, the difference between the beauty of the soul and body. If you think about it, to some extent each of us is Dorian Gray. Only we do not have a mirror on which sins would be imprinted.

Why you need to read

To enjoy the stunning language of Britain's wittiest writer, to see how much one's moral character can deviate from one's appearance, and to become a little better person. Wilde's work is a spiritual portrait not only of his era, but of all humanity.

The ancient Greek myth about a sculptor who fell in love with his creation takes on a new, socially significant meaning in Bernard Shaw's play. How should a work feel towards its author if this work is a person? How can it relate to the creator - the one who made it in accordance with his ideals?

Why you need to read

This is Bernard Shaw's most famous play. It is often staged in theaters. According to many critics, Pygmalion is a landmark work of English drama.

A universally recognized masterpiece of English literature, familiar to many from cartoons. Who, at the mention of Mowgli, does not hear Kaa’s drawn-out hiss in his head: “Man-cub...”?

Why you need to read

As an adult, it is unlikely that anyone will take up The Jungle Book. A person has only one childhood to enjoy Kipling's creation and appreciate it. So be sure to introduce your children to the classics! They will be grateful to you.

And again the Soviet cartoon comes to mind. It's really good, and the dialogue in it is almost entirely taken from the book. However, the images of the characters and the general mood of the story in the original source are different.

Stevenson's novel is realistic and quite harsh in places. But this is a good adventure work that every child and adult will read with pleasure. Boarding boards, sea wolves, wooden legs - the nautical theme beckons and attracts.

Why you need to read

Because it's fun and exciting. In addition, the novel is divided into quotes, which everyone should know.

Interest in the deductive abilities of the great detective is still great today thanks to the huge number of film adaptations. Many people are familiar with the classic detective story only from films. But there are many film adaptations, but there is only one collection of stories, but what a one!

Why you need to read

H. G. Wells was in many ways a pioneer in the genre of science fiction. Before him, people were not at odds with, he was the first to write about time travel. Without the Time Machine, we would not have seen either the film Back to the Future or the cult TV series Doctor Who.

They say that all life is a dream, and a bad, pitiful, short dream at that, although you won’t have another dream anyway.

Why you need to read

To look at the origins of many science fiction ideas that have become popular in modern culture.

The conqueror of the Danes, who devastated Britain for almost two centuries. Alfred did a lot to restore the destroyed culture, to raise education; he himself was a writer and translator (he translated, among other things, Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History”, written in Latin, into Anglo-Saxon).

Anglo-Norman literature

In the second half of the 11th century, England was subjected to a new invasion by the Normans. It falls under the rule of the Normans, who for several centuries established the dominance of the Norman dialect of the French language and French literature in England. A long period begins, known in history as the period of Anglo-Norman literature.

During the first century after the Norman invasion, literature in the Anglo-Saxon language almost disappeared. And only a century later, literary monuments of ecclesiastical content and later secular ones, which were translations of French works, again appeared in this language. Thanks to this mixture of languages, the Latin language again acquires great importance among educated society.

The period of French domination left an important mark on the subsequent history of English literature, which, according to some researchers, is more connected with the artistic techniques and style of French literature of the Norman period than with the ancient Anglo-Saxon literature from which it was artificially torn off.

Literature of social protest

But he was not the only founder of the new English language. Chaucer did a common cause with his famous contemporary John Wycliffe (-). Wycliffe adheres to the accusatory literature directed against the clergy, but he, the forerunner of the Reformation, goes further, translates the Bible into English, and addresses the people in his fight against the papacy. Wyclif and Chaucer, with their literary activities, arouse interest in the earthly nature of man, in personality.

The next century saw great interest in living folk poetry, which already existed in the 13th and 14th centuries. But in the 15th century this poetry shows especially active life, and the most ancient examples of it, preserved to this day, belong to this century. Ballads about Robin Hood were very popular.

Renaissance

Renaissance Ideals in Literature

Thomas More is a typical representative of English humanism. His “Utopia” is a public organization built in the spirit of humanist ideals. Its goal is the happiness of a person, the well-being of the entire community. Medieval spiritualism, those consolations that the Catholic Church offered beyond the grave in exchange for earthly suffering, are alien to him. He desires joy here on earth. Therefore, in his community there is no property, compulsory labor prevails for all its members, work alternates in the city and in the countryside, complete religious tolerance is established, thanks to the ideal organization of society there are no crimes, etc.

Bacon's work is a book from which one can develop positive thought. The author proceeds from observation and experience as sources of knowledge of the truth; he believes that he does not know what lies beyond them.

The 16th century was the heyday of English humanism, which arose here later than in Italy and met with the Reformation. Classical literature and Italian poetry provide big influence on English literature.

Elizabethan era

Locke denied innate ideas and declared the impressions that our senses receive from external objects to be the only source of all knowledge. Following Milton, Locke anticipated Rousseau's theory of the social contract and the right of the people to refuse obedience to authority if it violates the law. During the era of Cromwell, the theater died down, classical traditions were maintained only among the persecuted supporters of the royal house. After the Restoration, the theater opened again, funny comedies of manners with not always decent content appeared (Wycherley, Congreve and others), gallant literature was revived, and, finally, classicism of the French type arose. Its representative was John Dryden (1631-1700) - a typical unprincipled poet of the dissolved court society of the restoration, an unsuccessful imitator of Corneille and Racine, who strictly defended the three unities and, in general, all classical rules.

Augustinian era

After 1688, with the establishment of the Constitution, the tone of literature was set by the bourgeoisie, whose influence was clearly felt both in novels and on the stage. The new consumer demands his own literature, images of family virtues, honest merchants, sensitivity, nature, etc. He is not touched by tales about classical heroes, about the exploits of the aristocratic ancestors of court society. He needs a satire on loose secular mores. Moralizing and satirical magazines appeared - “Chatterbox”, “Spectator”, “Guardian” - Stil and Addison, with talented everyday essays exposing luxury, emptiness, vanity, ignorance and other vices of the society of that time. The exemplary classical poetry of Pope, the author of the Essay on Man, is didactic, satirical and moral in nature. England gave impetus not only to the liberation ideas of the French encyclopedists, but also laid the foundation for moralizing sentimental literature, that novel of morals that spread throughout Europe. Samuel Richardson, author of Pamela, Clarissa and Grandisson, brings out virtuous bourgeois girls and contrasts them with dissolute aristocrats, idealizes bourgeois virtues and forces the corrupted representatives of the chewing golden youth to reform.

Godwin, in his novel “The Adventures of Caleb Williams” and other works, defends the most revolutionary ideas of his time, not only in the field of politics, but also in the field of education and marriage, and goes ahead of the then English revolutionary thought. The so-called “Lake school” (from the place of residence around the lakes) includes a number of poets. Of these, Wordsworth was the head of the school. A dreamy poet in love with nature of small phenomena, which he knew how to make sublime and touching, he, together with his friend Coleridge, was a representative of that movement in romanticism, which, along with love for nature, introduced simple, unartificial language, images of patriarchal antiquity, contemplation and dreaminess. The third poet of the lake school, Southey, wrote in the spirit of his friends, adding fantastic pictures of the exotic countries of Mexico, India, and Arabia to the idyllic images of lake poetry. And the poets of the lake school were interested in the revolution, but not for long. Wordsworth and Coleridge traveled to Germany, where they were influenced by German romantic idealism and ended their journey in pure contemplation.

Next to the populist romanticism of the lake school, the greatest poet of the era, Byron, was a representative of revolutionary aristocratic romance. Despising the high society society with which he was connected by his origin, having cut himself off from his class, not seeing anything attractive in the representatives of capital, greedy and corrupt traders, Byron in his youth burst out with a fiery speech in defense of the workers, but later did not return to this issue, until all his life he remained a declassed aristocrat, a rebellious individualist revolutionary, a singer of dissatisfied, disappointed natures, starting with the mysterious demonic wanderers and robbers (“Gyaur”, “Lara”, etc.). The same image is deepened in “Childe Harold,” which became the subject of widespread imitation in European poetry. Byron ended with a protest against the universe and world order in his godless tragedies (“Manfred” and “Cain”). Towards the end of his life, Byron came close to political and social satire (“Don Juan”, “ Bronze Age"). Extreme individualism, a sense of dissatisfaction, an attraction to the East and exotic countries, a love of nature and solitude, dreams of the past near ruins and monuments - all this makes Byron a poet of English romanticism, and his angry, accusatory protests against all forms of violence and exploitation, his connections with the Italian Carbonari and the struggle for the liberation of Greece made him a singer of freedom in the eyes of the European intelligentsia. His friend Percy Bysshe Shelley, a brilliant lyric poet, also an aristocrat, like Byron, combines in his poetry the world of fantastic romance with a revolutionary protest against the emerging bourgeois-capitalist society. In his poem “Queen Mab,” he depicts this society where everything is “sold in the public market,” where, with the help of severe hunger, the owner drives his slaves under the yoke of wage labor. Shelley appears as a similar revolutionary-romantic in his other poems (“Laon and Cytne”, “Prometheus Unchained”, etc.). His wife Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, is a pioneer of the question of the scientist's responsibility. Walter Scott shows, like two great poets, a tendency towards antiquity. He was the creator of the historical novel (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Quentin Durward, The Templars, etc.), in which he knew how to combine verisimilitude and realism with rich romantic fiction and depict the most dramatic moments of the national history of Scotland and England.

In the first third of the 19th century. The first stage of the struggle between the nobility and the industrial bourgeoisie, which is increasingly becoming master of the situation, ends. The struggle against the Corn Laws, Chartism and the performances of the working class, powerfully declaring their demands, push feudal romance and patriarchal-dreamy poetry into the background. The city with its practical interests, the growing bourgeoisie, the beginning social struggle between it and the working class become the main content of English literature, and realism - its predominant form. Instead of a medieval castle - a factory town, instead of distant antiquity - vibrant modern industrial life, instead of fantastic images of inventive imagination - an accurate, almost photographic, image of reality. Bulwer-Lytton, still continuing the traditions of romanticism, an aristocrat by birth, filling his novels with transformations, miracles and criminality, leaves us, however, a number of literary documents of social significance, depicting the process of impoverishment and decay of the nobility (novels - “Pelgam”, “Night and Morning” " and etc.).

Realism and the turn of the century

Dickens, the most famous writer of this era, develops a broad picture of the life of bourgeois-capitalist society in his famous novels: “Hard Times”, “David Copperfield”, “Dombey and Son”, “The Pickwick Club”, “Nicholas Nickleby”, etc., creates a gallery of capitalist types. Dickens's petty-bourgeois, humane, intellectual point of view prevents him from taking the side of the revolutionary part of the working class. He gives stunning pictures of the dryness, greed, cruelty, ignorance and selfishness of capitalists, but he writes for the instruction of the exploiters and does not think about organizing the forces of the exploited. Its goal is to touch human hearts with the spectacle of suffering, and not to awaken hatred and call for rebellion. Thackeray, the author of the novels Vanity Fair and Pendennis, is more embittered, more sarcastic and cruel in his criticism of the noble-bourgeois society. The author sees no way out. He is filled with pessimism and irritation. He, like Dickens, is unable to understand the liberating role of the emerging revolutionary labor movement. Oscillating as always between big capital and the labor movement, petty-bourgeois thought sought conciliatory paths. Kingsley in his novels “Yeast” and “Alton Locke” he depicts the horrors of exploitation and need, but sees salvation in Christian socialism, in the “Spirit of God”, in the repentant rich people who turned to charitable causes. Disraeli, later a famous lord Beaconsfield, the leader of the Tories (the novels “Sibilla”, etc.), depicting in bright colors the vices of bourgeois-aristocratic society and the misfortunes of peasants and workers, speaks out negatively against the revolution and sees saviors in the person of energetic and active aristocrats who take upon themselves the work of building the people’s well-being. Not only the novel, but also lyric poetry is inspired by social themes, and the main question raised by the era - the question of the exploitation of the working class by capital - is resolved in a spirit of vague humanity and moral improvement. Poets like Thomas Hood or Ebenezer Elliot (cm.), in their poems they depict individual moments of the difficult existence of workers and urban poverty, create songs against the Corn Laws, and give images of working women driven by poverty to prostitution and suicide. But their positive ideals also boil down to charity: to some lady who comprehended her duty thanks to an edifying dream and devoted her life to alleviating the lot of the poor.

As we get closer to end of the 19th century V. in European, in particular in English literature, the realistic and social trends begin to give way to the reviving ideas of individualism and aestheticism. Instead of militant capitalists, paving the way for themselves with struggle and energy, creating enterprises, instead of Dombey and Gradgrinds, the tone for literature is beginning to be set by those representatives of the bourgeoisie who received their capital by inheritance, who did not go through the harsh school of life, who can enjoy the heritage of their fathers, who have become lovers and connoisseurs arts, buyers of expensive paintings and elegant volumes of poetry. A literature of refined experiences and fleeting impressions is flourishing. Individualism, pure art, eroticism, the cult of moods are the distinctive features of the literature of the end of the century. True, the main theme of the era - the organization of society, the abolition of exploitation, the position of the working class - occupies a large place in literature, but socialism at the end of the century is aesthetic socialism. John Ruskin proceeds from the ideal of a beautiful life, calls society back to the old patriarchal craft forms of production and rebels against industrialism and capitalism. He inspires the school of artists known as the Pre-Raphaelites, among whom we see Rossetti and William Morris, the author of the novels “The Dream of John Bol” and “News from Nowhere”, a defender of socialism and at the same time a passionate esthete, who, together with Rossetti, sought the ideals of beauty in past centuries, who dreamed of causing a social revolution by aesthetic education workers. Next to the Pre-Raphaelites - Tennyson, a poet of pure art, free from the motives of social struggle, Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Swinburne, in whose poetry the ideals of eternal beauty and the protection of the exploited are vaguely intertwined. The most popular of the poets of this movement was Oscar Wilde, “the king of aesthetes”, in his “Planes” and in the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, who created the “religion of beauty” and the cult of liberating fiction, proclaiming the only reality of the creation of art, asserting that art creates life, and not vice versa.

The continuing growth of the industry introduces new topics into literature - urbanism, machinism. Literature becomes dynamic, satire against the capitalist way of life develops. Bernard Shaw is the most brilliant and paradoxical of satirical writers, a virtuoso of sophistry, a witty author of hoaxes, a moderate socialist, who, however, intends to improve the situation of the workers with the help of the bourgeoisie. H.G. Wells is the author of science fiction novels, imbued with the pathos of technology, depicting the wonders of industry, magically transforming life, connecting planets, allowing a person to move into both the past and the future. This process of simultaneous growth of socialist tendencies and conservative-individualistic and aesthetic aspirations is accompanied by a number of diverse literary phenomena. Imperialism and chauvinism, which has its representative in the person of Chamberlain, the Boer War, the cult of Kitchener - all this finds its literary reflection in the works of Rudyard Kipling, the most talented of nationalist writers, the author of colonial stories and poems, where the colonial policy of England is exalted, where oppression backward peoples is glorified as the implementation of a great civilizing mission.

Another phenomenon is the reaction against machinism, causing a revival in the literature of religious movements, impulses in other world, theosophy, spiritualism, occultism, etc. Already Samuel Butler and George Meredith, so dissimilar in other respects, are however doing a common job, paving the way for spiritualism, trying to build a new religion on the foundations of modernity, using experience and research for this. We find features of romantic symbolism in the works of Yeats, a representative of the so-called. “Celtic revival”, and another of its representatives, also an Irishman, more prone to realism and naturalism, Synge. Another form of protest against machinism was Nietzscheanism, the cult of force and hypertrophied aestheticism, all those modernist ideas, the influence of which is easy to discern not only in Oscar Wilde, but also in the work of Stevenson, a sophisticated author of exemplary adventure novels, as well as George Moore, who spoke almost the language of Zarathustra (in “Confession of a Young Man”) about his contempt for compassion and Christian morality, about the beauty of cruelty, strength and the beauty of crime.

This same hostility to the industrial age gave rise to a current of pessimism in English literature among those writers who could not reconcile machinism with peace of mind. James Thomson is one of the wonderful poets, through all of whose poetry the main theme runs as a leitmotif - the torment of life, the gloomy grandeur of despair. The most popular and, perhaps, the deepest of the pessimists is Thomas Hardy, the creator of the grandiose dramatic epic “The Dynasts” and a number of novels, mainly from the life of the village and province. According to his teachings, the fate of man is weighed down by a dark and evil fate, an incomprehensible accident, a cruel inevitability. The enemy of prejudice and modern marriage, which places a burden on women, the enemy of civilization in the spirit of Rousseau or Tolstoy Hardy finds no way out of the thoughts tormenting him. The same pessimism permeates George Robert Gissing, a writer of everyday life of the London lower classes and the starving literary bohemia, a student of Dickens, but deprived of his humor and his philanthropic faith, who expected nothing equally “neither from the philanthropy of the rich, nor from the rebellion of the poor.” The basic tone of Joseph Conrad's work is also pessimistic. Conrad is one of the most powerful and difficult writers modernity, amazes with the richness and diversity of the language. He strives to penetrate into the depths of human nature and use all means to convey the impression of the real to our consciousness: “the colorfulness of painting, the plasticity of sculpture and the magical effect of music.” He depicts all types of human suffering, he does not idealize man, because he is convinced that ineradicable egoism makes a person a wolf to another person. There is more everyday life and healthy realism in Arnold Bennett, a portrayer of the morals of the lower strata of the provincial bourgeoisie, and more true social instinct in Galsworthy, who sees the source of social conflicts in the existence of private property. Chesterton- an enemy of flabbiness, a preacher of activism, but the activism of medieval corporations, a zealous Catholic, convinced that the development of industry is the source of social slavery. James Barry- writer of everyday life of Scottish peasants, Conan Doyle - famous author of historical and police novels, Robert Hichens- satirist and romantic, Israel Zangwill- the author of “Children of the Ghetto”, a writer of everyday life of the Jewish poor, and a number of other, less significant ones, complete the literary activity of the older group of modern writers. Clarence Rook- author of works about the life of the London poor, working class.

The paths of the new generation have not yet been clearly outlined. In most cases, these are realists, who, however, are not averse to touching on the occult powers of the soul. After the desire for clarity, which originated in French traditions, English literature experienced a period of strong Russian influence, ch. arr. Dostoevsky. This influence corresponds to amorphism in literature, a reaction against French plasticity. Hugh Walpole, one of the most fashionable novelists, himself easily follows fashion; Oliver Onions gained fame with a trilogy in which he describes bohemia, models, typists, poor artists, etc.; Gilbert Cannan , Compton Mackenzie , Lawrence and a number of other young writers who are currently attracting the attention of the English reader touch on a wide variety of topics, depict various classes of society, criticize social values, but their own worldview most often comes down to a vague humanitarianism. They are stronger in criticism than in their positive ideas, and none of them has yet succeeded in surpassing the great "old men" like Shaw, Wells or Hardy.

World War II period and later

• "Angry Young Men" Angry young men)

Dystopia:

Detective:

Science fiction:

History of English literature

Literature of the early Middle Ages

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

The British Isles were already known to the Phoenicians and ancient Greeks under various names. Greek writers have preserved information that back in the 5th century BC, the Carthaginian resident Gimilko visited these islands. In the next 4th century there was a story, compiled by the Greek Pytheas, about a journey to this distant country from the colony of Massilia (future Marseilles). During that era, the islands were inhabited by Celtic tribes. It is certain, however, that these tribes were not the first settlers of the islands; before them here

lived the Picts, Atecotts, and Caledonians. The Celts came to Britain around the 6th century BC as conquerors from the European continent.

Information about the Celts of Britain was rather scarce until the time it was conquered by the Romans. Britain was originally called Albion. This name is probably of Celtic origin. However, how

The Greeks and local Celtic sources also knew another name for the country - Britain (Βρεττανικη, Britannia, Brython, etc.). The etymological meaning of this name is not clear enough; apparently, it was a generic nickname for one of the most important Celtic tribes. The Celtic tribes also called themselves “British” (britanni), contrasting themselves with the Scots, Picts and, subsequently, the Saxons.

Caesar's story about his two campaigns against Britain in 55-54. BC, included by him in “Notes on the Gallic War” (Book IV, Ch. 20-36 and Book V, Ch. 8-23), represents one of the most important sources of information about life and customs

British Celts on the eve of the Roman conquest. Caesar's first campaign was short-lived and not very successful; for the second time, Caesar defeated the Britons, but did not stay in Britain for long and retired back to Glia, receiving tribute and taking hostages.

The lasting conquest of Britain by the Romans did not begin until a century later, in the 40s AD, under Emperor Claudius. The Romans ruled Britain for almost four centuries. In 407, Roman legions were recalled from Britain to defend Rome against the Gothic hordes of Alaric; the Britons were left to their own forces to fight the threatening enemies.

Roman rule in Britain was limited mainly to the flat part of the country, a significant area of ​​which remained uncultivated. In the north and west the islands continued to exist and

independently develop the Celtic language and culture.

All Celtic tribes of Britain were characterized by a tribal system. A form of partarchal clan ("clan"), which was characteristic of the Celtic tribes in the Roman era and the remnants of which survived in the Celtic regions of Britain until the end of the 18th century. (for example, in the highlands of Scotland), was not the form of their original tribal structure. Even in the time of Caesar, remnants of matriarchy remained in Britain and in some places polyandry (polyandry) persisted. F. Engels in his work “The Origin of the Family, Private

property and the state", developing a comparative description of the decomposition of tribal life among the Celts and Germans, on the basis of various Welsh, Irish and Scottish monuments, establishes that "among the Celts

in the 11th century, paired marriage was by no means supplanted by monogamy" (Marx-Engels, Works, vol. XVI, part I, p. 109.).

Economic life of the Celts; like other peoples at the stage of the patriarchal-tribal system, it was determined by the fact that the land was in communal decline and its cultivation was carried out jointly.

After the departure of the Roman legions from the country, the British Celts did not remain independent for long. Already in the middle of the 5th century. Britain was conquered by West Germanic tribes known collectively as the Anglo-Saxons. The resettlement of these tribes to Britain, according to the “Ecclesiastical History of the Angles” by the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede, began in 449, and according to British and continental sources - somewhat earlier, around 441-442. About a century later, the entire south, center and north The east of what is now England was occupied by tribes of Saxons, Angles, Jutes and Frisians, who brought their language and religion to their new homeland.

The struggle was long and fierce; it lasted about a century and a half and ended only at the beginning of the 7th century. Pressed by the Anglo-Saxon conquerors, the Britons partly left their homeland altogether, moved en masse to the continent and settled in Armorica (present-day Brittany). Another part of the Celts remained in a number of western regions, for example in Cornwallis (Cornwall) - in the extreme southwest, in Wallis (Wales) - in the west of central England, in Strathclyde - in the north-west of England. These areas were conquered only much later - Cornwall in the 9th century, Strathclyde in the 11th century, and Wales only in the 13th century. The entire northern, mountainous part remained Celtic

Scotland, where neither the Roman legions nor the Anglo-Saxon squads could penetrate. The language of the Scots who inhabited it in some areas of north-west Scotland has been preserved to this day. Ireland also remained Celtic; The first attempts to conquer it date back to the 12th century, but only in the 16th century did these attempts begin to become more persistent on the part of the British, who were striving for the complete economic and political subjugation of Ireland.

The Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain had the character of a mass migration; so the plow of the Anglo-Saxons completed here the work that their sword began. The Anglo-Saxons brought their economic way of life to Britain, their

primitive culture and were not inclined to borrow from the Celts even their more advanced agricultural technology, which they, in turn, adopted from the Romans. They preferred to settle in new places, avoiding cities and creating new settlements. We conclude this, by the way, from the fact that the Anglo-Saxons almost did not change the British or Roman names of cities, but themselves gave names mainly to rural areas or rivers.

Even Christianity, in the first centuries after its adoption by the Anglo-Saxons, did not destroy the deep national enmity between them and the remaining free Celts. And yet, it is precisely on the basis of Christian culture that we can talk about Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultural interaction in the early centuries of the joint life of these peoples in Britain. In later historical eras the contact between the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon worlds manifested itself in much more diverse forms. In the period immediately following the Norman Conquest (1066), ancient Celtic traditions, preserved in the Celtic part of England and in Brittany, fertilized French and English medieval literature, served as the basis for

a complex series of chivalric novels about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Political, ethnic, cultural and literary relations between England and Ireland in all centuries of English history have been the subject of intense attention and struggle and have been repeatedly depicted in fiction.

literature.

Having occupied Britain, the Anglo-Saxons settled here in tribes. The northeast was inhabited by the Angles, the center and south by the Saxons, and the extreme southeast (Kent, Isle of Wight) by the Jutes. From the moment of the conquest, independent

the development of Anglo-Saxon political and social life, culture, and language, which was closely dependent on the new conditions of the historical existence of these tribes and soon quite sharply distinguished them from the rest of their continental relatives. The process of decomposition of tribal life, which began on the continent, noticeably intensified after the resettlement to Britain. Social differentiation, the separation, from the total mass of free members of the community, clan, tribe, of a special layer of “nobles” who most actively participated in the conquest of new lands, an increase in property inequality, the number of slaves, among whom there were many enslaved Celts - all these are signs of deep social changes that

The Anglo-Saxon tribes had to survive in the very first centuries after the resettlement. Between the 6th and 11th centuries, which accounted for the oldest period of Anglo-Saxon history in Britain, Anglo-Saxon society underwent a very complex evolution that dramatically changed the entire nature of social life on the island, culture and language.

The social organization of the Anglo-Saxons is known to us from a whole series of legislative texts, the so-called “Truths,” preserved from the 7th century.

The Anglo-Saxons had a fairly significant class of free people - both warriors and farmers. Legislative monuments divide the people into four categories of earls - the patrimonial nobility and privileged landowners; Kerlov - free farmers who made up the bulk of the population; letov, among whom, apparently, there were descendants of the defeated tribes who retained personal freedom; and, finally, slaves. Gradually, however, the difference between the free farmers-curls and the nobility

increased; this process is noticeable already in the 7th century.

The basis of the social organization of the Anglo-Saxons was the village, a rural community governed by its own gathering. Several villages made up a territorial district called hundreds (hundred), which also had its own assemblies, which had judicial and administrative functions. Several hundred made up the counties. The counties were partly formed from previous small kingdoms, and partly represented artificially formed military-administrative districts. The population of the county gathered twice a year for a meeting. As for royal power, initially weak, it gradually strengthened due to social differentiation and the desire for state unification of individual barbarian kingdoms.

In the early era there were seven separate kingdoms: Kent, inhabited by Jutes; three Saxon kingdoms - east, south and west (Sessex, Essex and Wessex), two English - East Anglia and Northumbria - and the mixed Anglo-Saxon middle kingdom of Mercia - inhabited from the south by the Saxons and from the east by the Angles. These kingdoms did not, however, form a state federation and often fought among themselves for political and cultural dominance in the country. Some state unity was realized only in the 9th century. At first, the dominant position, political and cultural, belonged to Northumbria, where, thanks to its proximity to the Celtic Christian monasteries, the enlightenment of the Angles was at a higher level than that of other Germanic tribes. During the 8th century. hegemony passed to Mercia. Finally, in the 9th century. hegemony was finally established in the kingdom of the West Saxons, Wessex. During the reigns of Alfred the Great (871-901) and his son Edward I (901-925), Wessex also enjoyed cultural and literary dominance. At this time, the Wessex dialect became predominant throughout England.

For the process of political unification of individual kingdoms into one

state whole, two facts were of utmost importance: the fight against

the Scandinavian conquerors of Britain and the adoption of Christianity by the Anglo-Saxons.

The long war with the Scandinavians required the centralization of power,

creation of an army and a new administrative apparatus. Christianity with it

church organization that subjugated individual barbarian kings to its

influence, also greatly contributed to the eventual merger of the country into one

state whole.

Literature in the Anglo-Saxon language that arose among

Anglo-Saxon tribes after their migration to Britain, developed here

until the Norman Conquest and died out about a century after

battle of Hastings (1066). This literature represents an outstanding

historical and artistic, interest primarily because, for

with the exception of Celtic and Irish epic, it is the oldest poetry

Europe. However, this literature has reached us only in minor fragments,

from which we can only guess about the wealth of the irretrievably lost

Major works of Anglo-Saxon literature before the king's era

Alfred is currently preserved in four handwritten "codes", if

1) the Beowulf manuscript, written by two scribes in the 10th century; the last of them, finishing the correspondence of Beowulf,

I also added here a poem about Judith;

2) the so-called "Exeter Code",

one of the most important collections of Anglo-Saxon works

writing, which combines the main so-called "lyrical

poems", poetic riddles, monuments of didactic and religious poetry

Anglo-Saxons, which arose at different times, between the 8th and 10th centuries;

3); manuscript belonging to Junius,

one of the first researchers of the Anglo-Saxon

poetry (now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), otherwise called

"Cadmon Codex", since it contains religious epic poems,

at one time attributed to the Anglo-Saxon poet Caedmon (Genesis,

"Exodus", "Daniel", "Christ", etc.);

4) a manuscript kept in the cathedral of the northern Italian city of Vercelli (Vefcelli),

where it came, apparently, from some Anglo-Saxon who was making a pilgrimage to Rome. This manuscript

includes, in addition to sermons and the prosaic life of St. Guthlac, also late epic poems on religious subjects(“Andrew”, “Elena”, “The Fates of the Apostles”, etc.). These four codices undoubtedly constitute only the insignificant remnants of the rich writing that was once in circulation.

Regarding the dating of the monuments, the opinions of scientists differ greatly. It is enough, for example, to say that such works as “Vidsid” or “Lamentations of Deora” are placed by researchers between the 7th and 10th centuries. and that the more precise dates of many monuments are in most cases still unknown.

The development of Anglo-Saxon literature, primarily poetry, is a long and extremely complex process. Although we cannot judge it with sufficient completeness, however, we have the right to talk about many things

speak with confidence. There is no doubt about the existence of a rich epic tradition among the Anglo-Saxons, which was firmly held among the population despite the influence of the Christian Church. Despite the fact that most of the texts of Anglo-Saxon literature have come to us in relatively late manuscript copies bearing certain traces of monastic and church culture, a certain part of the monuments directly suggests the existence of more ancient primary sources. We will begin our presentation with an analysis of these sources.

Chapter 1

FOLK EPOS

At the end of the 6th century, the Anglo-Saxons still did not have literature in their own

sense of the word. Initially they used runic writing,

common among many Germanic tribes.

The monuments of runic writing of the Anglo-Saxons that have reached us are very

are not numerous: at the same time, its most interesting examples belong to the late

time. These are, first of all, the inscriptions on swords, cups and household items.

household items found in various places in England; these items are carved

runic signs, which were often given magical meaning, small

sayings, spell formulas. Found in France, near Clermont-Ferrand

there was a so-called "rune casket" of Anglo-Saxon origin;

its runic text consists of several poetic lines on the topic of

whalebone from which this casket is made. This monument dates back to the 8th century.

The casket in question is known in literature under the name “Franks casket”. It was found in Auzon (France) in the 19th century and was donated to the British Museum in 1867, where it remains to this day. The missing right panel of the casket was discovered in 1890 in Italy and is now kept in the National Museum in Florence. The panels of the casket are covered with carved bone drawings and inscriptions made in runic characters and Latin letters. For more than 1,300 years, the drawings and inscriptions of the casket have kept the secret of their first owners.

That mystery remained unsolved, otherwise the casket would not have survived. Over time, the old secret lost its meaning, and the casket began to be used as an ordinary box. But all the information that the casket carried acquired a completely different meaning in our modern world and became an even greater secret, which was now reliably kept by other guards: the loss of the roots of the “Old English” language and ignorance of the “Anglo-Saxon” runes. If the British had known that the inscriptions on the casket were made in Britain by peoples who spoke the language of the Slavs and wrote in Slavic runes, it would hardly have been openly kept in the British Museum. And how confused historians, linguists, experts on religions, etc. were with this casket. and so on. - you can judge for yourself if you familiarize yourself with the works of these specialists on this issue. Suffice it to say that so far not even the text written in Latin letters has been read.

To read what is written on the panels of the casket, there is no need to travel back in time and study the “Old English” language, the “Old Germanic” culture and learn the non-existent “Anglo-Saxon” runes in the rather distant past. All these Germanophile inventions appeared in the 17th - 19th centuries and were launched into scientific circulation as indisputable truths by the “Germans” themselves. Living in Europe without a decent history was somehow inconvenient. It was these newly-made Christians who grabbed for themselves everything that was left of the peoples of Europe after their devastating crusades.

In central, northern, northeastern and southeastern Europe in the first millennium AD, there was one pan-European runic writing - this is the runic writing of the Slavs or, if someone thinks that this would be more accurate, the Proto-Slavic runic writing. In southern Europe, the Etruscans had ancient runic writing, but we will not touch on it here. Therefore, you can try to read the runic inscriptions on this casket using Slavic runes in the Slavic (Russian) language.

One of the most famous runic monuments is the inscription on

a stone cross near the village of Ruthwell; in the South-West

present Scotland; there is a small religious poem carved here

century; its location and language point to the north of England. Means,

The Anglo-Saxons used runic writing even when writing in

Latin and vernacular languages ​​were already in a flourishing state among them.

Oral communication was of great importance in the early centuries of Anglo-Saxon history.

literature. In the songs and stories of the Anglo-Saxons who conquered Britain, there is a long

over time, echoes of the legends and plots that made up the content were preserved

German poetry on the continent in more early period. But processing them

took place under the influence of new historical conditions of life

Anglo-Saxons in Britain, in particular under the noticeable influence of Christianization

barbarian tribes, the influence of the monastic school, contact with

Latin culture, etc. All, or almost all, monuments that have reached us

Anglo-Saxon poetry bears clear traces of this treatment.

From a number of evidence we conclude that the Anglo-Saxons had songs

associated with the pagan religious cult: wedding songs, drinking songs,

military, workers, funeral laments, etc. Choral songs (dreamas) and

individual (sangas) were performed throughout the Anglo-Saxon

period. Even in the late Anglo-Saxon era, they undoubtedly wore quite

worldly character, as the church treated them with the same

hostility, although she could not eradicate them from everyday life. Already in canonical

Ælfric's rules (early 11th century) states that priests must

prohibit pagan songs at funeral feasts. About Dunstan, later

Archbishop of Canterbury (924-988), it is known that he himself in his youth

taught "ancient songs of our grandfather's pagan times." (avitae gentilitatis

vanissima carmina), favored professional singers (hyistrionum frivolas

incantationum noenias) and played the harp himself. And about the Wessex prince Aldhelm

chroniclers said that he, a skilled singer and poet, stood on the bridge

at the crossing leading to the church, and stopped with the sounds of a folk song

careless people who left the temple too early.

About the various genres of folk ritual and lyric poetry we can

one can only guess also mainly on the basis of later evidence.

Among the Anglo-Saxons, wedding songs were undoubtedly common. In glosses

the Latin term "epitalamium" is translated by the corresponding

Anglo-Saxon designations brydleap or brydsang. Apparently these songs

the Anglo-Saxons performed alternating parts of the choir, interfering with each other

into dialogue. About how much the Anglo-Saxon marriage ceremony was dramatized,

can be concluded from its curious description in the Latin "Acts of the Saxon

Gerward" (Gesta Gerwardi Saxonis), compiled by an anonymous cleric according to

stories of the warriors of this famous fighter against the Norman troops

William the Conqueror (the manuscript of the Acts dates back to the 13th century).

Funeral laments were also common, but not a single example of them was found.

preserved.

We know about the existence of magical spell formulas among the Anglo-Saxons,

"spells" (originally of a metric nature, convenient for

memorization). Over a dozen texts of similar conspiracies have survived, although

that have come down to us in the later records of the Anglo-Saxon era (sometimes

prosaic), but undoubtedly based on the ancient pagan tradition.

These are the conspiracies about a good harvest, about the well-being of the bee hive, about

the return of lost cattle, good luck in travel and, most often, about

protection from diseases. About the Anglo-Saxons' penchant for gnomic poetry, we

we have plenty of evidence; This is also confirmed by a significant number

poetic riddles of the 7th-8th and later centuries that have come down to us. But that's it

these riddles were influenced by the school and monastery, and their connection with

genres of folk gnomic poetry are recognized mainly when

comparison with the poetry of the ancient Scandinavians. Narrower distribution area

there should have been teaching, priestly poetry of the pagan cult.

The art of composing songs and complementing them accompanied by musical

instruments were held in high esteem by the Anglo-Saxons. A skilled singer

who knew how to “wisely conduct cunning speech” probably received professional

appearance Along with folk singer-musicians (gleoman) already at an early stage

Anglo-Saxon culture we meet a professional squad singer -

osprey (scop), separated from the composition of the vigilantes, similar to those who

were available to continental Germanic tribes. His art gave him

special honor and generous gifts. Osprey was one of the chief's or king's inner circle;

at feasts he sat at his feet and sang ancient songs to the sound of the harp. Osprey was

custodian historical legend clan, tribe, princely squad, gave

wise advice, instilled courage and other virtues in warriors, and sometimes how

a particularly trusted person carried out important, responsible assignments. Art

Representatives of the nobility probably also learned to “sing and say” from him. King

Alfred, a youth at the Wessex court, could enjoy day and night

"Saxon epic songs" (saxonica poemata), - talks about this

his biographer and contemporary Asser.

A small work of Anglo-Saxon poetry "Widsid" (i.e.

"multi-wanderer"), which for a long time was considered one of the oldest

monuments of Anglo-Saxon literature that have come to us, paints an image of precisely

such a singer.

The poem "Widsid" is one of the most complex in all Anglo-Saxon

literature still arouses great controversy. Its main part is occupied

"catalog" of countries allegedly visited by the singer, and those residences where he

received with honor; at the same time he resorts to the fiction of personal

"autobiographical" memories. Among the glorious rulers who

Vidsid visited, the names of the most famous German heroes are named

epic tales. The inconsistencies of this work were explained by the fact that a number of

names were inserted into the poem subsequently, although the opinions of researchers about these

interpolations are very different. In any case, this poem is close

in its own way literary technique to "Beowulf" and a group of early lyrical

works may serve as evidence of fame in England

continental Germanic epic cycles.

Another work in which the singer is described, "skop", is called

"Deora's Lamentation" It is a lyrical monologue embedded in

mouth of Deor's lament.

Deor says that he once sang with the Geodenings and was loved by them,

until he was replaced by the “lord of songs” Heorrenda, who took away from him

and favor of the court and fief (landryht). Deor finds consolation for himself

only in that he recalls a whole string of famous images of heroic

sagas, heroes of ancient legends. They all also experienced various misfortunes, but

their grief was finally over. Each of the given examples of experiences

several verses (from two to seven), and each stanza is accompanied by one

the same melancholic chorus (“All this has passed, and this too shall pass”),

giving a special lyrical flavor to the whole work. This exquisite

the form of construction of the poem, as well as features of language and interpolation, probably

made by the hand of a Christian scribe, force scientists to bring its date closer

creation at a later time. The poem was originally dated

VII-VIII centuries, now it is increasingly referred to as the 9th and even 10th centuries. But examples

and the strophic form of the monument, chorus, etc. testify to its

proximity to the folk song warehouse.

A number of examples of epic poems that grew on the basis of folk heroic

genre, among the monuments of ancient Anglo-Saxon poetry known to us, we

We also find a number of works that can be conditionally attributed to

works of a lyrical or lyrical-epic nature. Genre-accurate

distinctions in this case are hardly possible; already in the above

works, for example, in "The Lamentations of Deor", there is a strong

lyrical element. In the works to which we turn, this element

strengthened so much that it is decisive. Some of them can directly

be called heroic elegies. The time of origin of all these elegies

defined differently and with great difficulty; some of them are worn

imprint of Christian culture. Among them, however, there are three works,

somewhat isolated from the rest of Anglo-Saxon lyric poetry, these are poems

love. Conventionally, they are designated by the following titles: “Message from the spouse,”

"A Wife's Lament" and "Wolf's Poem". The last two are especially striking

lack of Christian features and a peculiar flavor that makes you remember

about such later heroic elegies of the Scandinavian epic as lamentation

Gudrun or Brynhildr's complaint in the Edda. "Message from the Spouse" - short

a poem that has come down to us in a single manuscript (Exeter Codex,

l. 123 et seq.), represents the speech of the messenger sent by him

a gentleman with a runic letter (the letter is inscribed on a piece of wood,

separated from the ship) to his wife or bride with an invitation to follow him

overseas, to his new homeland. From the poem we learn that the author of the message

was forced, having moved away from his homeland, to wander alone, but now he

received the throne and state. He hopes that the young woman, remembering their

mutual vows, will come to him and make his happiness complete. This

the poem seems to be the lyrical ending of some saga, an epic

legend - which one exactly has not yet been established. It expresses

a mood of peace of mind, happy confidence in the future.

The relationship between a man and a woman described here is sincere, sincere,

full of tender lyricism. The time of appearance of this monument is attributed to the period

between the 7th and 10th centuries

Dating of the second work - "Complaints" or "Lamentations of the Wife" -

causes the same controversy as the first; former researchers (Trautman)

attributed it to the last third of the 7th century. (660-700), newer works more often

They date it back to the 8th and even the end of the 9th century. (Schücking). In "Message from a Spouse", speech

was about the random, unforeseen separation of lovers; in "The Wife's Complaint" we

we feel a drama, the meaning of which can only be guessed at. At first

happy, the spouses lived only for one another; while the husband

wandered the distant seas, his wife waited for him with impatience and anxiety. But

she was slandered in front of her husband, separated from him, and now she lives in exile.

Separated from all the joys of life, she sometimes feels overwhelmed by grief,

then, on the contrary, she becomes embittered at the thought of the injustice that has befallen her

share. The love she can't overcome makes her even worse

suffering:

I'm sad because

That I found a husband for myself, created just for me,

But unhappy and full of sadness in his mind.

He hid his heart from me, having the thoughts of a killer,

But a joyful look. Often we promised each other

That no one will separate us,

Except for one death: but everything has changed a lot,

And now everything goes as if it never happened

Our friendship did not exist. I'm forced from far and near

Tolerate my lover's hatred.

I was forced to live in the forest

Under an oak tree in a dugout.

This earthen house is old, but I am still tormented by one long desire.

These valleys are gloomy, these hills are high,

The hedges of an enclosed place, full of thorns, are bitter to me.

My home is gloomy. Often absence

Here my master subjected me to torment!

This lyrical monologue has power, genuine pathos, and strength.

real passion, similar, despite the difference in situations, to passion

heroines of the Edda: Sigrun, whom even death itself cannot separate from

Helga, Gudrun, who cries tears of blood over the lifeless body

her husband Sigurd. In the Lamentations of an Abandoned Anglo-Saxon Woman we

we find poetry characteristic of ancient Scandinavian literature - poetry

loneliness and the same parallelism of nature and human moods; heroine

acutely feels the hostile nature surrounding her; these hills oppress her,

gloomy forests, thorn hedges that marked the place of her exile. The only difference is

in the restraint of tone, which contrasts with the unbridled passions of the heroines

"Edda", as well as in greater subtlety of psychological shades.

Interpretations of this remarkable monument of Anglo-Saxon poetry

very diverse. It is most likely that this time we are dealing with

somehow from an epic saga; the complaint of an abandoned and slandered woman

refers to the central moment of the tale, when the heroine’s grief reached

its limit.

The third poem we are interested in (The Poem about Wulf) had

a kind of fate. It has come down to us in a single manuscript (Exeter

codex), where placed at the beginning of the collection of “poetic riddles”, long

attributed to the Anglo-Saxon poet Cunewulf. According to the place he occupies

in manuscript; and also because of the extreme difficulty of interpretation, it is long

time was considered a poetic riddle and has been preserved to this day in scientific

literature conventional title "The First Riddle". Her interpretations were

contradictory. Recent studies have irrefutably established that before

us a fragment of a lyric-epic poem, close in form to “Deor”

or "The Wife's Lamentations." This is the story of separated lovers yearning for each other

about a friend. And this time the poem does not fully reveal the plot,

limiting itself to hints that, apparently, were quite understandable to modern

readers or listeners. Probably, in this poem they also appear once well

familiar images of the heroic saga.

Most scientists deny the influence of ancient and

even book poetry and more readily connects their origin with one or

several Anglo-Saxon or continental ones that have not reached us

German epic cycles.

One of the most remarkable works of this group of monuments

is a short poem known under the title "The Mariner" and

found in the same Exeter Code (l. 81-83). The first verses of the poem give

amazingly masculine pictures of the winter ocean. Poet, on behalf of

navigator, describes the severe cold. His joints are numb, his legs

freeze to the ship; rainfall along with hail falls on his head;

storms drain his strength; There is darkness, hunger and loneliness all around. He hears

the sad cries of seabirds flying over the waves, and in their voices for him

memories of the past await:

But my heart is bursting out of my chest,

My spirit is torn along with the waves,

Above the homeland of the whale (sea), rushing far away

To the spaces of the earth, and returns back again

Burning and greedy: cry, desert bird;

Pushing my heart irresistibly along the road of whales,

On the waves of the ocean.

Anglo-Saxon poetry eagerly returns to pictures of the ocean. IN

"Beowulf" and in the first Anglo-Saxon poetic retellings of biblical

In legends, pictures of the sea especially attract poets. But in "The Navigator" these

the paintings are full of special subtle picturesqueness. The poem glorifies the courage of struggle,

she is full of greatness and heroism.

The dating of this monument ranges between the 8th and 10th centuries.

Close to this work is another, known under the title "The Wanderer"

(Exeter Code, l. 76-78). Here the monologue is apparently put into the mouth

a warrior or close associate of the king, who, after the death of his lord

forced to wander alone in a foreign land and wander through the cold

to the sea to find a new master or comforter. He plunges into

sad memories of the past; it seems to him that he is again in

feast hall, hugs and kisses his beloved leader and lays his head and hands

on his lap - an obvious hint at the squad custom. The more painful

awakening from these memories: he sees a bird of breakers bathing in

sea ​​foam and snow falling from the dark sky. These pictures are so specific that

the devastation that the wanderer sees. Everywhere he meets bare walls without

roofs, open to the winds and storms, rich chambers that have become ruins... Not

one can see in them prouder warriors: some died in battle and were buried, others

torn to pieces by wolves or pecked by birds of death - crows, greedy for

dead people. Only in the last verse is there some glimmer of hope, some

she is a dark hint of future joy from heaven, in which one can discern a trace

Christian worldview. Hence the attempts of some researchers to attribute

This is a work from the period of the Danish invasions of the 9th century. (sometimes more precisely: to

867-870), which destroyed Anglo-Saxon culture and caused

pessimistic moods in Anglo-Saxon poetry. Perhaps, however,

that this poem also has a more ancient basis, but has been subjected to

subsequently processed.

A number of verses of "The Wanderer" textually coincide with verses of another

small lyrical poem "The Ruins" (Exeter Codex, l. 123-124),

giving wonderfully complete pictures of the destroyed and devastated

cities. Unfortunately, this poem has come to us in a badly damaged

form. The idea of ​​death and decay is the same here as in The Wanderer, but it

evokes in the poet’s imagination not only scenes of the past, but also curious

an abundance of visual details describing the real ones standing in front of it

ruins A picture of a ruined city and its wide white fortress wall,

which has been stained many times with blood, this “testimony of reigns”,

presented in clearly realistic tones, despite some conventions of style and

metaphors such as “the work of giants” or “the horned treasure of the walls” (i.e.

turrets or loopholes on the walls) or “the embrace of the grave, the cruel embrace of the earth.”

The sight of the ruins brings to mind pictures of the past for the poet. It was time

when all these buildings stood shining and magnificent, abundant with bathing halls and

chambers for feasts, full of human joy, until fate

changed everything with its vicissitudes. The "days of killing" came, and death took away

many warriors; the earthen ramparts were empty and the vast "purple" halls had collapsed

and stand without a roof; "their tiles ran away from the roof frame." And there is no time

men feasted here in armor, joyful in heart, sparkling with gold,

"proud and warmed by wine", casting glances at their wealth, money,

possessions and jewelry...

This wonderful poem once again testifies to love.

Anglo-Saxons to the historical past and their interest in ancient

heroic sagas. The love for the pagan past was supposed to grow stronger in

the period of forced implantation of Christian culture and even more

intensify during the fight against the Danes, when they came to life again and were subjected to

a kind of “romantic” idealization of the heroic legends of antiquity. These

historical reasons can explain the persistence of paganism among the Anglo-Saxons

legend, which for a long time still made its way through the alien shell in the monuments

Christian writing and finally died out only under the blows

Norman conquerors. Perhaps the same interest of the Anglo-Saxons IX-X

centuries we owe to the historical past the preservation of a great epic

poem about Beowulf, representing the only example of Anglo-Saxon

heroic poem on a traditional folk plot. In Anglo-Saxon

literature, it stands apart among the numerous poems of the new religious

The poem about Beowulf has come down to us in a single manuscript from the beginning of the 10th century.

written by two different scribes. This manuscript is currently kept

at the British Museum in London. It is open relatively late. In the press

(Wanley's Catalog of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts) it is mentioned for the first time in

1705, but already in 1731 it was badly damaged by fire. First published it

the Dane Thorkelin in 1815, and the first English edition dates back to 1833.

The poem splits into two parts, connected only by personality

main character, Beowulf. Each of these parts mainly talks about

the exploits of Beowulf; the first (verses 1-1887) tells how Beowulf

delivered the neighboring country from two terrible monsters, in the second (from verse 2220

to the end), - how he reigned in his homeland and happily ruled for fifty

years since he defeated a fire-breathing dragon, and he himself died from the attacks inflicted on him

a dragon of poisonous wounds and was buried with honor by his squad. Basics

the division of the poem is disrupted by a number of inserted episodes that are extremely

important for the question of the origin of the poem, for clarifying its complex

composition, time of occurrence, etc.

The introduction to the poem is a story about the legendary founder of the Danish

kings Scylde Skefing, who miraculously, even in infancy,

sailed to the shores of Denmark in a boat full of treasures, and when he grew up he became king and

ruled the country happily for a long time. The Scylding family also ruled happily in Denmark.

One of Scyld's descendants, King Hrothgar, son of Healfden, was lucky in

wars, and therefore rich. One day he decided to erect a vast and

a richly decorated chamber for feasts with his retinue, built it on

surprised the whole world and called it “Heorot” (“chamber of the deer”). But not for long

The cheerful cries of the feasters, the singing of singers and the sounds of harps were heard there.

Not far away, in the “swamp,” was the lair of the terrible monster Grendel. One day

at night Grendel crept up to the wondrous Hrothgar chamber, in which after

After a merry feast, the carefree squad settled down to rest. The monster has arrived

on the sleeping ones, snatched thirty knights at once and quickly carried them into their lair,

tormenting and devouring them. In the morning, screams of horror gave way to cries of joy; bitter

the complaints became even louder and more bitter when he began to appear in the ward every night

a monster after its bloody prey. In vain did the king grieve and lament

Hrothgar: He could not avert trouble. His chamber was empty, the feasts stopped,

everyone was overcome by despondency and great sorrow.

The rumor of this disaster finally reached the land of the Geats (Geats -

Scandinavian tribe of Gauts, inhabiting the southern regions of Sweden); heard about it

the bravest of the knights of King Hygelac - Beowulf. He ordered the ship to be equipped

and "by the way of the swans" hastened to the aid of Hrothgar; together with the Beowulfs they swam and

14 bravest warriors of Hygelac. King Hrothgar received them with honor. When

the feast arranged in their honor ended, Beowulf remained with his fellow Geats

in the ward, and the Danes went home.

At midnight, Grendel appeared from his swamp and quickly recaptured the castles from

doors, crept up to the Geats, grabbed one, crushed his bones and began

suck blood. Before he could reach for another, Beowulf's mighty hand

grabbed him, and a terrible struggle began between them. The whole building shook.

Grendel, gathering all his strength, rushed, the veins in his shoulder were torn, the bones

jumped out of their joints, and his entire arm, right up to his shoulder, remained in the hands of

Beowulf.

Wounded to death, Grendel crawled into his swamp. Hrothgar arranged

honor of the winner feast. He presented Beowulf with rich gifts: armor, helmet and banner,

whose shaft was of pure gold, a precious sword and eight horses with

an expensive saddle. The Queen brought him a cup of greeting and placed it in both hands

she put hoops of twisted gold on him, rings on his fingers, on his shoulders -

top dress, and around the neck - a precious necklace, the heaviest of all

necklaces in the world. The feast continued cheerfully and noisily with loud songs from the singers,

glorifying the exploits of ancient heroes. Many people's heads are heavy with honey...

But then, in the dead of midnight, the doors of Heorot rattled again, and into the hall

a new monster burst in, looking like a woman: it was Grendel’s mother,

came to avenge the death of her son. The Danes woke up in fright, but

Beowulf, who rested in the chambers specially assigned to him, was not with them.

The monster was driven away, and in the morning Beowulf went in search of him.

The tracks led him to a terrible swamp, and where the water was under a steep bank

was stained with blood, where terrible snakes and monsters swarmed, Beowulf

fearlessly descended into the abyss.

Beowulf spent the whole day descending to the bottom, fighting off water monsters;

He barely touched the bottom when he grabbed hold of Grendel's mother, and she dragged him into

an unknown corner of the abyss where water did not penetrate. He attacked her with a sword

blows, but they could not harm her. Then, seizing a moment, he tore

from the wall a huge sword, “the product of giants,” and, gathering all his strength, killed her;

with the same sword he cut off the head of dead Grendel and wanted to take it with him

ancient weapon of the giants, but the sword, like ice, melted in his hands until

handles.

Great was the joy, great and joyful was the new feast arranged by Hrothgar in

liberated Heorot, the gifts that the king bestowed on the hero, seeing off

him to his homeland. The first part of the poem ends with a description of Beowulf's arrival

to Hygelac. This is followed by a noticeable omission in the manuscript.

In the second part of the poem, Beowulf appears as an old man. Upon the death of the king

Hygelac and his son, he reigned peacefully over the Geats in continuation

fifty winters When a terrible dragon appeared in his land and began to devastate

fire the country in revenge for the cup stolen from the treasures he guarded,

the elderly Beowulf decided to kill him in single combat. He slays the dragon

head, but his strong sword shatters into pieces, and the dragon bites through

with his poisonous tooth the neck and chest of the knight. The monster is killed, but also the winner

mortally wounded: this is Beowulf's last victory. He orders to be taken out of the cave

treasures to admire before death, establishes a routine

his funeral and dies. On the whale cape the faithful Geats build a fire,

they place Beowulf's armor and body on it. The fire burns: the widow laments

hero, the warriors cry. A high burial mound is erected over the ashes; around

His twelve mighty knights sing the glory of the fallen leader.

Extremely complex composition poem is striking. In the form in which

it has reached us; it is undoubtedly a monument of late origin.

It is, however, probably based on more ancient editions of one or more

several tales dating back to folk song traditions. From here - everything

difficulties in analyzing and dating the poem and serious disagreements among its

researchers.

It is indisputable that the poem belongs to examples of heroic folk epic.

This is evidenced primarily by the content of the poem and its central

image. Beowulf embodies the traits of a true folk hero,

performing feats for the benefit of many people. He releases friendly

the Danish people from terrible monsters, Grendel and his mother. In the second part

In the poem, he appears as the “father of the people”, saving his homeland from the dragon.

The life of the squad depicted in the poem shows that the work as a whole

arose in the era of the beginning of the decomposition of the tribal system, but long before

how the feudalism that replaced it was formed. This is indicated in

features, patriarchal relationships between the "kings" Hrothgar and

Beowulf and their "subjects":

Old school scholars regarded Beowulf as the only

a monument testifying to the rich epic tradition of pagan times,

destroyed by the intolerant attitude of the Christian Church towards her. It was believed that

the poem, in its most essential features, was created even before the adoption

Anglo-Saxons of Christianity and that it is based, subsequently

processed, shorter heroic songs. Other early

resettlement of the Anglo-Saxons to Britain, therefore, until the 5th century, and tried

reveal its mythological basis. However, over the last thirty years

the attitude of Western European researchers towards Beowulf is strong

has changed. Most scientists are now inclined to consider this monument not

as a gradually created folk epic, but as a homogeneous whole, as

a book poem written by a Christian cleric no earlier than the 8th or even 9th century.

The poem is now more often seen not as an organic continuation of the most ancient,

continuous tradition of oral songwriting, but a product of book culture,

a monument of writing, which both with its poetic technique and its

historical writings and legends, in works of Christian

writing and not alien even to ancient literature.

When analyzing Beowulf, one should, however, strictly distinguish between two

question: the question about the handwritten text of the monument that has reached us and the question about its

possible prototypes and its origin. Late emergence of the current

at our disposal the editors can hardly be doubted, but from this there is still

it does not follow that we must abandon the reconstruction of its primary sources and, according to

hypothetical necessity, the history of its origin and early historical

fate. In the last question it is precisely the critical attitude towards

some trends of modern bourgeois science, often deliberately

denying the folk origins of medieval poetry.

The central episodes of the first part of the poem are the battles of Beowulf with Grendel and

his mother - have a number of parallels in ancient sagas and folk tales about

a monster that breaks into houses and kidnaps people. In the second part of Beowulf

There are also analogies with common German legends. Some researchers

found here traces of contamination of two different types of legends about the dragon -

the struggle of Thor with the world serpent (Iormungandr) and Sigurd with the serpent Fafnir.

It is curious that already in the first part of the poem there is an inserted episode (verses 874-897)

about the battle of Sigmund, Siegfried's father, with the dragon guarding the treasure, and that in

the Anglo-Saxon poem preserved the name of Sigmund's father - Wels, while

northern (Scandinavian) sources call it Volsungr, i.e. replace

proper generic name. However, in the episode about Beowulf's fight with the dragon there is

a number of characteristic differences from similar continental Germanic legends:

Beowulf fights the dragon to free his country from

monsters, and not out of simple daring; Beowulf's companions at the beginning of the battle

see the danger to which their leader is exposed, but are afraid to help him

help, with the exception of the faithful Wiglaf; It is characteristic, finally, that the episode

ends with the death of the hero.

One thing seemed particularly noteworthy to all Beowulf researchers:

circumstance: Beowulf is not an Anglo-Saxon hero; the action of the poem is also not

confined to England; in the first part of the poem it probably occurs in

Zealand, the second - in Jutland. Neither the Angles nor the Saxons accept any

participation in the events depicted in the poem. This feature of the poem was interpreted

variously: some attributed the composition of the epic tale of Beowulf to the time

before the Anglo-Saxons migrated to Britain, when, living on the continent, they

neighbors with the Danes; others, on the contrary, affirmed it later

the emergence, for example, during the period of Danish invasions, which brought with them new

for the Anglo-Saxons, northern legends and a special interest in the genealogy of the Danish

kings. Beowulf is not a historical figure, but can be found in the poem -

however, in the form of brief episodes or even just random hints -

among themselves and with their southern German neighbors. Historical and geographical

the nomenclature of the poem indicates that the tales processed in the poem are more likely

could have developed in the first half of the 6th century, in the area lying to the north

from the continental homeland of the English tribe.

Along with possible traces of oral poetic technique in Beowulf

we, however, encounter even more traces of careful and, perhaps,

multi-temporal literary processing of text. This is evidenced before

in total there is a large volume of the poem (3183 verses). It has been suggested that

initially both parts of the poem were not connected with each other; battle story

with Grendel and his mother, essentially related to the story of the battle with the dragon

only the personality of Beowulf. However, the character of the hero as he is presented

in both parts of the poem, just as language and metrics indicate that if

even both parts could have arisen at different times, then, in any case,

chronologically they are not far apart from each other.

There is no doubt that the literary treatment of the poem has been done

has undoubtedly undergone very significant changes. He threw out names

pagan gods and too obvious traces of Germanic mythology and introduced elements

Christian ideas. For example, he considers Grendel a descendant

Cain, calls sea monsters a fiend of hell, regrets the paganism of the Danish

king, even believing that the Danes did not know how to fight Grendel, because

that they did not know the “true God”. Most of the inserts are borrowed not so much

from the New Testament, how much from the Old Testament: the names of Abel, Cain, Noah, mentions of

flood - all this directly goes back to the biblical book of Genesis, which attracted

attention of Anglo-Saxon Christian poets and translated by them into

Anglo-Saxon poetry. Speaking about Grendel, the poet remembers the giants,

calling them "giants" and clearly confusing the Christian tradition of Satan with

classic legends of the Titans rebelling against the Olympians.

Christian influence is felt, however, not only in these interpolations,

clearly contradicting the pre-Christian basis of the poem; it spreads

Christian elements penetrated deeper into the structure of the poem than it seems at first

sight; Beowulf himself is essentially turned into a kind of Christian

ascetic; he is distinguished by modesty and “fearing God”; he is a defender

orphans and at the end of the poem thanks heaven for what he could leave to the people, at the cost

his life, the wealth captured from the dragon. The last episode of the poem -

the description of the hero’s death is generally distinguished by very characteristic contradictions

Traces of literary processing in the Christian spirit of a previously existing

legends.

In the final version of the poem, Beowulf, on the one hand, resembles

Christian "snake fighters", like St. George, on the other hand, based on biblical

figures like the savior of the people - Moses, so well known

Anglo-Saxon poets based on retellings of the Bible. Christian's share

scribe who worked on the processing of the poem, some

features that make it possible to bring Beowulf closer to the works of antiquity

literature. There is also no doubt that the author of Beowulf was familiar with

Christian epic poet Yuvenko (beginning of the 4th century), whose poem

(Historia Evangelica) skillfully combined evangelical content with

imitations of Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Horace, etc. This poem early

became the basis of Christian school education and was rewritten many times

and aroused the interest of medieval scribes.

That the version of the poem about Beowulf that has come down to us belongs to

Anglo-Saxon scribe of the 8th-9th centuries. finally, it is clear from the poetic

poem techniques. All surviving works of Anglo-Saxon poetry are written

the so-called ancient Germanic alliterative verse, which was not used

only in Anglo-Saxon, but also in Old High German and

Old Scandinavian poetry between the 8th and 13th centuries. Alliterative

the verse was characteristic of both the oral ancient Germanic heroic epic and

monuments of writing. The main organizing principle of this metric

system was the division of each poetic line into two hemistiches, in

of which there were two main rhythmic stresses; while consonant sounds,

standing before one or both main stresses of the first hemistich,

should have been repeated (i.e. alliterated) before the initial stress

second hemistich.

The alliterative technique of Beowulf is distinguished by strict consistency and

great art; other characteristic features of the style are associated with it

poems: stringing together synonyms and frequent use of metaphors. Abundance of metaphors

constitutes, generally speaking, one of the features of Anglo-Saxon poetry and

brings it closer to Scandinavian poetry. The poet always prefers to say "tree

joy" instead of "harp", "son of the hammer" instead of "sword", "whale road" or

“swan path” instead of “sea”, “battle lindens” instead of “shields”, “forgers of wars”

instead of “warriors”, etc. Some metaphors are particularly sophisticated and

even a kind of “mannerness”, which, however, was especially valued. In this sense

The stylistic technique of Beowulf is brilliantly developed.

The poem about Beowulf was probably widespread in the 9th-10th centuries. in a number

handwritten lists. In selected works of Anglo-Saxon writing

one can discern traces of its influence: such, for example, is the poem “The Fates of the Apostles”

Cynewulf, which contains textual borrowings from Beowulf, the poem

about the Apostle Andrew, Judith and, perhaps, a song about the death of Byrhtnot

Essex. In the 19th century Beowulf has attracted widespread attention not only

scientists, but also poets. It has been transmitted a lot in modern English poetry

times: the most interesting experiments of this kind are considered to be poetic translations

William Morris (1895) and Archibald Strong (1925). Many times

it was also retold for children and youth (especially widespread in

England and America received a prose retelling of the poem, made

writer, Russian by origin, Z. A. Ragozina in 1898 and

went through a number of publications). L. Botkin first translated "Beowulf" into

French (1877); however, to the Russian reader "Beowulf" is still

known only from free retellings and small translations from it

excerpts.

Apart from Beowulf, which has come down to us in more or less complete form, we

We have several more excerpts from the epic works of the Anglo-Saxons.

This is, first of all, a fragment of a song about the Battle of Finnsburg, which concludes

I only have 48 verses. The manuscript of this passage, from which it was

printed back in 1705, now, unfortunately, lost. "Battle

at Finnsburg" is all the more interesting for us because it is also discussed in "Beowulf"

(verses 1068 et seq.). On the day of victory over Grendel, at the feast, the king's singer

Hrothgar sings in Heorot about how the 60 Danes with Hnaf and Hengest

(Hengest) at the head, invaded the possessions (burg) of the Frisian king Finn.

It is about this battle that the fragment that has come down to us narrates, which, according to

According to all data, about a quarter of the entire work as a whole. Khnef dies

in the battle, but the Danes fight courageously for another five whole days. Finn loses

almost all of his sons and relatives. Finally, peace is made, and Khnef's body

According to custom, it is ceremonially burned at the stake. But peace does not last; feeling

revenge again calls everyone to battle, which, according to the exposition of this song in

Beowulf ends with the death of both Finn and Hengest. Surviving fragment

takes us directly into the middle of the battle and begins with Hengest's speech to

to his warriors. The description of the bloody battle that began after this differs

colorfulness and strength. “The shine from the swords came from such a way,” the poet notes, “

as if the whole of Finnsburg was on fire,” and adds: “I have never heard

about such a battle in the war, about a more beautiful battle..."

The dating of this curious monument meets significant

difficulties. The expected small volume of the work, due to its

poetic and stylistic structure, makes us think that we have

it is not a question of a great epic poem, but of a short heroic song; with another

hand, language data indicate a later origin of that now lost

manuscripts on the basis of which we know this monument (X-XI centuries). Should

think that this song was of great importance to the Anglo-Saxons

spread, and over quite a long period of time. About her

Its popularity is evidenced, in particular, by its retelling in Beowulf,

allowing us to establish what was discussed in the lost parts.

No less interesting are fragments of another epic work -

"Waldere", preserved in two random handwritten sheets of the 10th century

(originals are kept in Copenhagen).

The random nature of the passages that have come down to us does not prevent, however,

in order to recognize in them fragments of the Anglo-Saxon edition of the Germanic

epic tale of Walter of Aquitaine. Anglo-Saxon edition

quite close to Eckehart's Latin poem "Valtari, powerful with the hand"

(Waltarius manu fortis). The story as a whole tells how at court

the ruler of the Huns, Attila, was educated once given to him as

hostages: Walter, son of the Visigoth king in Aquitaine, Hildegund, daughter

the king of the Burgundians, and Hagen, a Frankish youth of noble family. Further

Hagen, and then Walter with his beloved Hildegund, various

their adventures along the way, etc. The first surviving Anglo-Saxon

fragments tells about the attack on those fleeing from Attila Waldere (Walter)

with Gildegund of the Burgundian king Gunther (also known from the German "Song of

Nibelungs"), together with Hagen and the warriors, and about the victory of Walder over

them. The second fragment talks about how tired of the unequal battle

Valdere invites Gunther to go to peace and promises in exchange for his

release to give him, along with other treasures, forged by Weland and

the magic sword that served Dietrich and other illustrious men, to which Gunther

doesn't agree. Probably this saga, like the previous one, also

enjoyed considerable popularity among the Anglo-Saxons: you can talk about this

conclude, by the way, from a number of geographical names found in

areas of Britain early colonized by the Anglo-Saxons: so, in the current

In Wiltshire there was a "Walder spring", in Somersetshire there was a "road

Valdere" and others.

Along with the ancient heroic songs, the Anglo-Saxons also had

historical songs composed at a later time under the direct influence

impression of the event. Such songs appear all the way back to Norman

conquest of England, and maybe later. It has reached us, although damaged.

and incomplete form, one of these historical songs of late times,

telling about an event known from other historical sources and

thanks to this, amenable to fairly accurate dating. This is a song about the battle of

Maldone and the death of Alderman Byrhtnoth of Essex.

The event referred to in this song occurred in 991, when

a squad of Scandinavian Vikings invaded Essex County and

The Pente River reached the town of Maldona. Alderman Essex hurried to

helping the city besieged by the Scandinavians and died in battle with them. In its own way

the poetic structure of the song is very close to similar works of more

early time; it is written in ordinary alliterative verse. with their own

with its metaphors and high pathos of heroic style, it also reminds one of the song about

the battle of Finneburg, and individual episodes of "Beowulf": the chain mail men sing

"terrible songs", Scandinavian warriors are called "wolves of death", etc.

First it tells how Byrhtnoth put his men in battle formation

and, having encouraged them, dismounted from his horse. On the other side the messenger of the Scandinavians loudly and

menacingly offered Byrhtnoth to buy the world with golden rings, but Byrhtnoth firmly

clutched his shield, waved his ash spear and answered in anger: “Do you hear

you, sailor, what do these people say? Instead of tribute he wants to give you spears

with poisonous points and old swords." The battle begins; they are already circling in

in the air there are crows and an eagle, greedy for carrion. An enemy spear pierces Birhtnoth;

young Wulfmer, son of Wulfstan, removes this spear from the body of a dying man

alderman and throws it at his enemies. Confusion among the Anglo-Saxons

gives way to fighting courage, and they rush forward to avenge

Birhtnota.

Much lower in artistic merit are those few

historical songs that are included in the Anglo-Saxon annals. Although

some of them are older than the songs about the Battle of Maldon, but their text is undoubtedly

damaged; it is spoiled not only by the peculiarities of the recordings themselves, but probably

and alterations that were supposed to give a specific tendency to these

works when included in the prose text of the chronicle. Better than others

a song (or, rather, an excerpt from it) has been preserved about the battle of Brunanburg,

chronicled in 937. It tells of the victory of King Athelstan

(925-940) over the united Scots, Britons from the Strathclyde region and

Scandinavian Vikings. Popularity of this work in English

poetry of the 19th century, his wonderful poetic translation contributed a lot,

made by Tennyson. In addition to this song, the Anglo-Saxon annals include

four more similar works: 1) About the liberation by King Edmund from

the Danes in 942 in a number of cities (Leicester, Nottingham, Stamford, Derby, etc.); 2)

About the coronation of King Edgar in Bath in 973; 3) "Cry" about persecution

monks under Edward II (975-979); 4) On the death of King Edward the Confessor

All these works indicate that secular poetry with

with completely “worldly” plots continued its existence throughout

Anglo-Saxon era. However, already from the end of the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons

Clerical poetry also began to be created, entirely owing to the influence

Christian Church and monastic culture. This poetry is known to us a lot

better than just described; many of its creators, mostly

anonymous, undoubtedly possessed great poetic talent.

CHRISTIAN MONASTERY LITERATURE OF THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Christianity entered Britain in the Roman era. In III or early

IV century it passed from here to Ireland. Celtic Christian Church of Britain

and Ireland did not depend on the Roman one, was not in relations with it and in

was different from her in many ways. The Celtic Church did not attach much importance

fasting and repentance, did not know the celibacy of the clergy, did not know icons and had

peculiar rituals (partially borrowed from Celtic pagan

cults).

All the Anglo-Saxon tribes that inhabited Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries were

still pagan. In their new homeland they long revered the Germanic

pagan gods. Trouble testifies that they also had their own priests. In

in any case, the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain was accompanied by

a kind of “de-Christianization” of the British Celts. Christianity

migrated from here to Ireland, partly to Wales and Scotland.

New Christianization of Britain, primarily Anglo-Saxon

tribes, begins at the end of the 6th century. In 597, Pope Gregory sent to Britain

Christian mission led by Augustine, ordering it to zealously fight

"heresies" of the Celtic clerics. The mission was a success. But the missionaries met

strong competition from the Irish. A struggle between two churches began:

Ancient British and Anglo-Saxon. This struggle often took on

political in nature.

Despite resistance and relapses of paganism (for example, mass

return to paganism in Kent and Essex after the death of Æthelbert in 616),

the process of Christianization of all of Britain ended already in the 7th century. Little by little

Britain became covered with a network of monasteries and schools. The school received special fame

founded by Augustine in Canterbury. Anglo-Saxon monasteries became

that time the center of medieval science and art. Not studied here

only theology, but also sciences, partially saved by the Latin Church

from the ruins of the Roman Empire. At that moment when the laws of classical

versification became alien to the Italian clergy, English monks and

bishops wrote Latin poetry, in comparison with which New Latin poetry

continental Europe at this time seemed as barbaric as they

themselves before the poems of Virgil and Horace. Manuscripts of classical works

Anglo-Saxons during their travels across the continent and gathered in

monastic libraries of Kent, Wessex and Northumbria.

The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons had extremely important consequences.

The struggle between the Roman and Celtic churches in Britain is over

victory of the Roman Church. The old church structure was replaced by another,

organized according to international standards. A new church created by labor

Roman missionaries, led to close communication with Rome and the European West

in general, and introduced new elements into Anglo-Saxon culture. Christianization

the Anglo-Saxons were significantly strengthened by their international dynastic and

diplomatic relations and contributed to the development of national unity and

statehood. The interests of the church coincided with the interests

Anglo-Saxon kings and the top of Anglo-Saxon society. Striving for

accumulation of wealth, the church supported the development of land ownership in Britain

property. Christian culture in the early stages of its development

Anglo-Saxons was the culture of the top of Anglo-Saxon society, the culture

Latin par excellence, which for a long time remained alien to the bulk

illiterate population. Hence the coexistence of traditional Anglo-Saxons

Germanic pagan elements and newly borrowed - Christian, -

intertwined in all areas of cultural and literary development.

Anglo-Saxon culture reached its peak in the 6th-10th centuries. To that

The flowering of Anglo-Saxon literature also dates back to this time, both in Latin

language and in the vernacular.

Simultaneously with the adoption of Christianity by the Anglo-Saxons, the Latin language as

the language of worship and church books became among them, as elsewhere in the medieval

Europe, a tool of clerical education, the language of science and school. Main

Monasteries and monastic schools became the breeding grounds for this enlightenment:

here future clerics received the basics of church education, here

gradually the main centers of literacy and the most important

book depository, here, finally, philosophical and scientific thought developed,

although constrained by the framework of clerical ideology, it was still based

still, to a small extent, on the riches of ancient literature. Part

monastic education, in order to better master Latin speech, included

medieval Christian worldview; for the same purposes in monasteries

Latin versification was encouraged.

In the early monastic centers of England, in Kent, Wessex, Northumbria,

7th and 8th centuries A number of Latin writers and poets appeared. Names

Aldhelm, Ceolfrid, Tatwin, Felix, - especially Bede and Alcuin,

They became widely known outside their homeland.

Aldhelm (640-709), brother of the Wessex king Ina, was abbot

one of the first Anglo-Saxon monasteries - Malmesbury - and

subsequently Bishop of Sherborne. His Latin works, prose and

poetic, preserved in a significant number of lists. Aldhelm

belongs to "In Praise of Virginity" written in prose (De laudibus

virginitatis sive de virginitate sanctorum), decorated with a number of examples from

the Bible and legends about Christian saints. Aldhelm turned to the same plot

once again, expounding it in skilfully constructed and not devoid of poetry Latin

hexameters (De laude virginum). However, they gained much greater popularity

he does not like these typical monastic works, imbued with the idea

Christian asceticism, but a collection of Latin poetic "Riddles"

(Aenigmata), in which, along with the influence of continental Latin

literature, one also senses familiarity with folk Anglo-Saxon

The Anglo-Saxons were partial to the genre of riddles. Particularly flourished

rn in the 8th century, in Latin and Anglo-Saxon languages, in schools and in

court circles; it was also widespread at the court of Charlemagne, among

Franks, where Alcuin planted it. The riddle was not simple for the Anglo-Saxons

fun. Having grown up based on pagan mythological thinking, she

corresponded to the characteristics and forms of medieval consciousness and determined

one of the most important methods of school teaching at that time.

The Riddles of Aldhelm consist of one hundred Latin poems.

Their sources are the Latin riddles Symphony (end of the 5th century) and partly,

probably folk riddles. It is characteristic that in the "Riddles" of Aldhelm

Biblical and exegetical themes are far from being decisive. In them

a lot is said about animals, plants, stones, stars, various phenomena

nature, as well as about utensils, household items and tools.

Writing soon after Aldhelm, and partly based on his models, Tatvin,

Archbishop of Canterbury, Eusebius, Winfried-Boniface and others have already withdrawn

much more space for Christian concepts and strengthened the element

edification. Tatvin's riddles include, for example, themes such as "Adam",

"Altar", "Cross"; they operate with abstract ideas like

"Virtues" or "Vices". This collection was supplemented by Eusebius. He brought it again

the number of riddles is up to one hundred, like Aldhelm, and he has even more

visual and abstract are mixed and there is a special predilection for

oppositions (for example, fire and water, death and life, truth and

not true). Twenty poetic Latin riddles of Winfried-Boniface

(680-755) are devoted exclusively to sins and Christian virtues. IN

folk theme. He talks about the most common natural phenomena and

objects of material everyday life, the descriptions of which are mixed with various

observations and reflections. All these riddles, both Latin and

Anglo-Saxon, have exceptional cultural and historical interest; They

introduce us to the environment of an Anglo-Saxon house, monastery, school, they

introduce us to various aspects of the social life of the Anglo-Saxons, with

level of their knowledge, with the characteristic features of their ideas about the external

world and man.

In Anglo-Saxon riddles, partly influenced by Latin ones,

there is great diversity poetic devices make it difficult to guess.

If the riddle does not expand here to real "myth-making", then, in

in any case, it is not inferior to him in the poetic way of expression.

Let us give as an example the beginning of an Anglo-Saxon riddle:

I was a brave fighter; now a proud hero covers me,

Young man, gold and silver,

Wire bent into a spiral. Then my husbands kiss me.

Diligent comrades. Sometimes a horse carries me:

Through the forests, or sea stallion (ship)

Carries me along the waves, shining with jewelry.

Sometimes a girl, decorated with gold,

Fills my chest; then I must, deprived of ornaments,

Lying around naked and headless;

Then I hang again, in wonderful jewelry,

I am blessed on the wall, where warriors feast, etc.

Solution: bull horn.

Aldhelm was undoubtedly an expert in Latin versification and possessed

almost virtuoso versification technique. In his "Riddles" and others

Latin poems, he discovers a love for the so-called acrostics

and TV poems. So, for example, his “Riddles” are preceded by a large poetic

introduction in hexameters: the initial letters of the verses written in a row

introductions form an acrostic: "Aldhelmus cecinit millenis versibus odas"

(“Aldhelm composed a thousand poetic odes”); the same sentence comes from

the last letters of each poetic line (telestic).

More great fame than Aldhelm, however, not in the field of Latin

poetry, and as a scientist, historian and prose writer acquired all

medieval Europe Beda, nicknamed the Venerable (Beda Venerabilis,

673-735). What we know about his life is based mainly on

a brief autobiographical note included in his Church History

English." He was born in the northeast of England, in the current county of Durham

(Durham). At the age of seven he was sent to the famous Wearmouth

monastery, and in 682 he moved to the neighboring monastery, Jarrow, where he spent the entire

his life, completely devoting himself to concentrated scientific and literary

activities. Like Aldhelm, Bede was an excellent Latin stylist and

a great connoisseur of ancient literature. Interesting is his special commitment to

Virgil: he quotes verses from the Aeneid and imitates his favorite poet in

a short eclogue about the coming of spring.

Bede left over forty-five Latin works for the most

various topics. There are also philological works here, for example “On

spelling" (De orthographia), a guide to learning Latin with

Latin-Greek dictionary, “On the art of versification” (De arte metrica)

and works on natural science, for example “On the Nature of Things” (De natura retum) -

cosmography containing 51 chapters: its sources were Isidore of Seville and

several books (books 2-6) of Pliny’s “Natural History”, the manuscript of which

chronologies (De temporibus), theological works - homilies and commentaries on

books of the Old and New Testaments, lives of saints, historical works, educational

manuals on meteorology, physics, arithmetic, music, medicine, etc. Not

Bede also forgot his native Anglo-Saxon language; in his writings

a noticeable love for folk legends and songs; at the end of his life he undertook

translation into Anglo-Saxon of the Gospel of John, which has not reached us;

he dictated the last chapter of this translation to one of his students in

the last hours of his life; before his death he said several

Anglo-Saxon poetry recorded by his student Gutbert. These five

poetic lines are dedicated to death; in content and form they are, however,

closer to the Latin hymn than to Anglo-Saxon folk poetry.

Of all Bede's works, his Ecclesiastical History is the most important.

Angles" (Historia ecclestastica gentis angiorum), in five books, completed

in 731. This work is one of the foundations of medieval historiography and the first

history of the Anglo-Saxons. Bede's task was, in fact, to give a history of the development

Christian Church in England, but he paid a lot of attention to political

history of the Anglo-Saxon states. Least independent in work Troubles

introductory chapters (1-22), which deal with the history of Britain from the time of Julius

Caesar and the Christian Church among the Britons before the Anglo-Saxon conquest; how

However, the presentation moves closer to the time of Bede himself, especially

His work becomes original and valuable. He uses documentary

historical evidence, memories of various historical

figures and often includes these documents in his narrative. "Church

the history of the English" is not a dry medieval chronicle; Bede has a noticeable desire

give not a simple chronological list of events, but a more or less coherent one

story about them. The presentation is lively, clear and often very

poetic details.

One of the episodes in the story of Trouble is known to Russian readers from the novel by I.

S. Turgenev "Rudin" (chapter III), where, however, it is not presented quite accurately

and is erroneously called a "Scandinavian legend". It talks about

Saxon leader of the 7th century, who invited King Eadwin to accept religion

monks who came from Rome. " Human life- said this

Anglo-Saxon warrior to the king - reminds me of those gatherings that you

you arrange it in the hall in front of the fire in winter. It's warm inside, but it's raging outside

storm with heavy rain or snowstorm. Imagine that a sparrow

will fly through one door and, flying through the entire hall, disappear into another; while he

is in the hall, it is sheltered from the storm, but this is a calm, safe moment

is short, and, having emerged from the cold, he returns to the cold again. That is life

people: it is visible for some time, but what precedes it and

what follows is unknown."

Bede's writings, in particular his Ecclesiastical History of the Angles,

enjoyed great fame in the medieval world and survived into

a large number of lists. One of the best lists of the 8th century, undoubtedly

Anglo-Saxon script, is now kept, along with a number of other medieval

English manuscripts, in the State Public Library of Leningrad.

For the level of Latin Christian monastic education in England

VIII century it is significant that Bede was no exception: almost simultaneously with

Other figures who were equally well-read in the literature also worked with him in the same field.

classical literature and combining an interest in theology and church

dogma with a passion for classical poetry. In the 8th century one of the most important

The city of York was the center of Latin Christian education in England. Friend

Bede, Egbert, brother of King Eadbert of Northumbria and Archbishop of York

(732-766), founded a library in York containing a rich collection

the works of the church fathers, as well as classical writers. It was founded by him

the famous school in York, where Alcuin was educated, later himself

became the head of this school, and even later became one of the main

figures of the so-called "Carolingian Renaissance" among the Franks.

Alcuin (actually Alchwine, in the Latinized form - Alcuinus or

Albinus; 735-804) was born in Northumbria, perhaps in York itself, in

noble Anglo-Saxon family. Even in childhood, destined for the church

activities, he was sent to school at the episcopal see and soon converted

attracted the attention of his mentor Elbert, who, going to Italy

for books, took Alcuin with him, and then, becoming Archbishop of York

(from 766), transferred control of the school to him. In 781 Alcuin set off again

to Rome and during this trip met in Pavia with the King of the Franks, Charles

The Great One, who invited him to his court. In 782 Alcuin appeared to

Karl and was immediately appointed head of the court school and teacher

royal sons. In the first decade of his life, the Franks of Alcuin had quite

often traveled to his homeland. But gradually his connection with his fatherland weakened.

After the murder of the Northumbrian king Ethelred (796), he decided not to

return to England and lived with the Franks until his death. In 796

he received from Charlemagne the famous abbey of Martin of Tours.

Thanks to the works of Alcuin, the Tours school quickly became exemplary; it collected

students who came from afar came into their walls.

Alcuin's activities belong, although not equally, to history

Anglo-Saxon and Frankish education; its various scientists and

literary works relate more to Carolingian history than

Anglo-Saxon writing, But Alcuin always felt an interest in history

and the poetry of his homeland. Even in Alcuin's Latin educational books, which received

such a distribution on the continent, many features slip through

Anglo-Saxon literature, for example, a love of riddles, adapted,

like Aldhelm, Tatvin and others, to the needs of school teaching.

Alcuin owns three textbooks in Latin, where he separately

sets out "grammar", "rhetoric" and "dialectics", i.e. the first cycle of the school

sciences of that time (trivium); they are all composed in a dialogical form

questions and answers modeled on the Christian catechism. The first of these books

"Grammar" is preceded by a short introduction about the tasks and goals of scientific

education, at the head of which, according to Alcuin, should be theology. One of

the most interesting pedagogical works of Alcuin is the peculiar

a guide for exercising logical abilities and developing wit,

compiled by him for the son of Charlemagne - Pepin (776-810); it wears

title "The dispute between the royal and noble youth Pepin and the teacher

Albino" (Disputatio regatis et nobilissimi juvenis Pippini cum Albino

Scholastico) and presents intricate questions with answers to them.

Compare, for example: “Pippin: What is a letter? - Alcuin: Fear of history. - Pepin:

What is a word? - Alcuin: Traitor of the soul. - Pepin: Who gives birth to the word? -

Alcuin: Language. - Pepin: What is language? - Alcuin: Scourge of the air..." etc.

The same forms typical of medieval consciousness are reflected here.

logical thinking, which we have already encountered when characterizing

Anglo-Saxon riddles. Alcuin also owns a number of theological works,

two moral and philosophical treatises and, finally, many Latin poems

and poems. Alcuin's largest poetic work - created in England

poem in Latin hexameters "On the Kings and Bishops of York" (De patribus

regibus et sanctis ecclesiae Euboriciensis). For most of the poem

the most important source was Bede's Ecclesiastical History, but since it

brought only to 731, and Alcuin also talks about his time, then

The last part of the poem is especially valuable from a historical perspective:

from here we learn a lot of interesting things about Alcuin's teachers, about the state of the York

school, about its library, about teaching methods, etc. Alcuin wrote a number of other

elegiac poems; Of these, the most interesting is the elegy for

regarding the destruction of the Anglo-Saxon monastery of Lindisfarne by the Danes in 793

(De clade Lindisfarnensis monasterii), one of the major cultural centers

England in the 8th century.

In his "Ecclesiastical History of the Angles" (Book 4, Chapter 24) Bede says,

which is not far from one of the Northumbrian monasteries (Streoneshalh, later

known by the Danish name Whitby) there lived a certain shepherd named Caedmon

(Caedmon). Nature refused him the gift of songs, so when, according to custom,

they handed him a harp at the feast so that he could sing something, Caedmon

was forced to refuse and, ashamed, left. One evening he left

likewise from the feast to the stable, which was to watch that night, and

asleep. In a dream he had a vision: a commanding voice ordered him to sing about

creation of the world in their Anglo-Saxon language (in sua, id est Anglorum

lingua). He immediately began to improvise beautiful poems. Waking up

Caedmon remembered them and composed his first song; others followed her.

Soon, rumors about the new self-taught singer reached the abbess of the monastery, Gilda.

She took him to the monastery and ordered some well-literate monks

retell the scriptures to Caedmon; everything he heard from them, he

immediately turned it into beautiful songs, so that those who taught

his. “Thus he sang,” writes Bede, “the creation of the world, the beginning of human

generation and everything that is told in the book of Genesis; Israel's exodus from Egypt

entry into the promised land and many other stories of scripture,

the sufferings of Christ, the resurrection and ascension and the preaching of the apostles; also about

terrified doomsday and the torments of hell and the sweetness of the kingdom of heaven he composed

many songs about God's mercy and judgment; in everything he sought to distract people from

inclination to sin and kindle in them the love of virtue." Songs of Caedmon, according to

according to Bede, they aroused everyone's attention; he himself became a monk and

"died like a saint"; many of the English, adds Bede, imitated him, but

“no one managed to create such works”, “since he was inspired

God, and he learned nothing from people."

Based on the mention in this story of the abbess

Gilda, then the events that Bede narrates should relate to

in the second half of the 7th century, Gilda, a Northumbrian princess, founded

her monastery in 657 and was its energetic manager until

death itself (680), or at least until 674, when she suffered

serious illness. It is very possible that at her monastery there really was

there was a self-taught poet who created poetic improvisations on

religious themes, but we have no reason to think that he was the first

to do this and, especially since he surpassed all his followers.

The monastic character of this legend is immediately apparent. Its purpose was

point out the "divine inspiration" of the clerical singers and contrast

religious themes of their works to previous pagan songwriting

Anglo-Saxons. No information about Caedmon other than what is said about him

Trouble, it didn’t survive; Moreover, we currently cannot attribute

to him none of those works which for a long time were considered to be his

belonged.

At the beginning of the 17th century. Archbishop Esher found an ancient

Anglo-Saxon manuscript of the 10th century, which collected a number of poetic poems

in the vernacular language, with religious content. Range of religious topics, as if

processed by Caedmon, was outlined by Bede in such detail and definitely that

one of the first experts on Anglo-Saxon writing, Francis Junius

(1589-1677), publishing the said manuscript for the first time, did not think twice

attribute the works collected in it to Caedmon, precisely on the basis

evidence of Bede (Caedmonis Monachi Paraphrasis Poetica Geneseos ac

praecipuarum sacrae paginae historiarum, abhinc annos MLXX Anglo-Saxonicae

conscripta, et nunc primum edita a Francisco Junto, Amsterdam, 1655).

The manuscript has since been subjected to multiple studies. It's interesting that

Caedmon's name is not mentioned even once. Historical and philological criticism

XIX century finally eliminated the possibility of attributing these poems to Caedmon and in

in particular, showed that between individual poetic works of this

cycle there are very important stylistic differences.

We can associate only a few poetic lines with the name of Caedmon,

preserved by Beda in the above story. Trouble quotes the beginning of that one

“song” or “hymn”, which Caedmon supposedly composed for the first time; In some

manuscripts of the "Ecclesiastical History of the Angles" this "hymn" is given not only in

Latin translation, but also in the Anglo-Saxon original. Here's his Russian

Now we should praise the guardian of the heavenly kingdom,

The power of the creator and his thought,

The deeds of the father of glory, like him,

Eternal Lord, laid the foundation for every miracle,

First he created for the children of men

The sky is like a roof, holy creator;

Then he created an earthly dwelling, the guardian of the human race,

Land for people, mighty ruler.

It is no coincidence that the hymn is dedicated to the creation of the world. Biblical book of Genesis

was especially loved by Anglo-Saxon religious poets because it

was in complete contradiction with pagan cosmology and had

essential for propaganda Christian teaching about the world. Pagan

myths considered nature pristine and told about the origin of the gods;

Christian missionaries, on the contrary, taught about the creation of the universe from eternity

deity and painted in front of the audience scenic paintings from the book of Genesis.

Bede attributes to Caedmon poetic retellings of not only biblical

books, but also the Gospels. A number of similar religious poems in Anglo-Saxon

the language has actually been preserved. We are undoubtedly dealing, if not with a school,

then with whole group religious poets who wrote in England in VII and VIII

centuries. At present it seems almost impossible to determine

what in these poems is a reworking of older works, including

including, perhaps, even the same Caedmon, and what arose later and outside of any

dependence on it.

One of the oldest poems in this cycle is probably

poetic transcription of the book of Genesis. The version of the poem that has survived

in the Codex Junius, consists of two separate works; in large text

poem (2935 verses) a small poem was inserted (verses 235-851),

written much earlier, and by a much less talented poet. More

the later parts of the poem arose, perhaps, from the desire to supplement and renew

revise the original edition, but they differ greatly

artistic independence; the beginning of the poem is especially remarkable,

where a very picturesque and poetic story is told about the fall of the rebellious angel from

creator of the universe. In many ways it is reminiscent of Milton's Paradise Lost.

and this similarity may not be accidental: Milton probably saw the first

edition of this ancient Anglo-Saxon poem (1655). Following the fall

angels in the Anglo-Saxon poem the creation of the world is described, then the creation

Adam and Eve and the Fall; the narrative continues in full agreement with

biblical source up to the episode about the sacrifice of Isaac. All this

set out in alliterative verses, the technique of which is quite close to that of

friendship poetry. In a number of places the closeness to the druzhina epic is especially

palpable. Descriptions of battles or seascapes (in the picture of the flood) are given

reminds me of similar passages in Beowulf or the Battle of Finnsburg.

Early Anglo-Saxon religious poems also include a fragment

a poetic retelling of the book of the prophet Daniel (765 verses, ends at ch.

V, verse 22 of the biblical book). It contains a small work of more than

early times: the song of the three youths thrown into the fiery furnace (verses

363-449), is a joyful hymn to the glory of the creator. Latin original of this hymn

was a regular part of the Sunday liturgy; probably in the same liturgical

purposes it was translated into Anglo-Saxon. Soon, however, he served

the core of a small epic work, which subsequently went through another

edition, which has reached us. Its main purpose is to warn secular

rulers from a disdainful attitude towards the church and its ministers;

The material for this was the story of Nebuchadnezzar, around which, according to

advantage, and the action is focused. The poem talks about arrogance

Nebuchadnezzar, his transformation into a stag (instead of the biblical bull) and,

finally, about his conversion.

(An outstanding place in the cycle of Anglo-Saxon religious epics is occupied by

"Exodus" is also an adaptation of a biblical book, however, different from all

similar attempts. This is a self-contained epic tale of exodus.

Jews from Egypt, about their passage through the Red Sea and about their destruction in it

waves of Pharaoh's troops. In the center is the image of Moses. One of the main

features of the poem - the extreme length of presentation of the biblical

story: 35 lines of biblical text turned into 600 poetic lines

from primitive-realistic, too “objective” and somewhat naive

descriptive style of such an Anglo-Saxon poem as Genesis, and from

the diversity of the narrative style of Beowulf; its strength is in its image

pathetic scenes. The last episode is a moment of supreme poetic

"cold sea, noisy abyss" to the Egyptians. Avoiding poetic cliches, he

tries in every possible way to diversify the manner of presentation; constantly resorts to

refined metaphors, uses words in new meanings and the most

peculiar combinations; there are often such complex images, How

“air helmet”, “shadow of the shield of the day”, etc.

Anglo-Saxon religious poetry is largely anonymous;

however, besides the name of the legendary Caedmon, another name has come down to us

Anglo-Saxon poet, whose personality is mysterious in many respects,

but still reveals itself with slightly greater historical accuracy. This

The name of Cynewulf, which has come down to us because the author himself wrote

his runic signs interspersed in the final lines of some of his

works. Criticism destroyed a number of legends created around this name in

XIX century. These legends were based primarily on certain verses

poem "Elena" (verses 1258, 1261 et seq.), which were interpreted as

autobiographical confessions of the poet himself; based on them, Cunewulf

was represented as a man who in his youth belonged to the number of wandering singers,

who enjoyed honor and favor at the princely courts, sang at feasts. IN

in later years, Cunewulf allegedly complained bitterly about worldly pleasures

of his youth. He was once also credited with the already mentioned small

Anglo-Saxon religious poem about the "Cross of Christ", carved in runes

on the Ruthwell Cross. Its initial poems also allowed for the possibility

see in them, of course, very conditional, autobiographical confessions of the author.

This is a typical Christian vision poem. A cross appears to its author in a dream,

on which Christ was crucified on Calvary; the cross tells its story and

the story of the crucifixion and orders to tell about this vision. Then the poet's heart

is imbued with joy, and he again finds peace and tranquility, which

was previously deprived, indulging in thoughts about worldly vanity, about barren years

of his youth and his lonely old age. This is a poem for Kynewulf

was attributed mainly for psychological reasons: "mental

those years of his life that were devoted to secular poetry, and the subsequent

"healing" - by turning to Christian themes, from which he in his

creativity was no longer going to go away; thus the poem about the cross was announced

one of Kynewulf's early works. All these constructions turned out to be

artificial, and the life story of Kynewulf, created according to the type of legend about

Caedmone, was gradually destroyed by philological research: language

The poem about the cross turned out to be different from the language of the works of Kynewulf.

That Cunewulf, in contrast to Caedmon, did not need

some literate cleric who would record his oral improvisations,

can be seen, for example, from the same “Helen”, where Kynewulf directly refers to

the books he read (verse 1255); he recounts the legend of a Christian saint in

in complete agreement with “how I found it in books.” These books could be

only in Latin.

Peru Cynewulf, most likely a cleric, although not a “scholar”

theologian" - belong primarily to those works in which he himself, with

with the help of runic "secret writing", gave his name: Christian epic

poems about Helen and Juliana, the second part of the poem about Christ, “The Fates of the Apostles.” WITH

with a high degree of probability, based on stylistic analysis, Kynewulf

is also credited with one of the editions of the poetic treatment of the life of St. Gutlac;

as for all other works that, according to the scientific tradition of the 19th century.

were associated with his name, then they can hardly belong to him; are as follows

for example, a poem about the Apostle Andrew, a poem about the cross, a collection of riddles, in

who also tried, but unsuccessfully, to discover a cryptogram of his name,

poem about the Phoenix, etc.

"Helen" is based on the Christian legend of Queen Helen, the mother

Emperor Constantine, who allegedly found the cross of Christ and the “holy nail.”

"Juliania" is also a poetic adaptation of the legend of the Christian

martyr, whose life hagiographical works date back to the times

Emperor Maximian.

It is curious that in both of these works by Kynewulf the heroines are

Christian women, who had not yet played such a role in the Anglo-Saxon

"The Fates of the Apostles" (Fata apostolorum), a short poem in 95

lines followed by runic signs hiding the name of the author, according to

According to a number of researchers, it is an epilogue to the poem “Andrey”. In him

tells about the wanderings of the twelve apostles after the death of Christ; By

in its form the poem is close to those early Christian lives in which

the most entertaining element for readers were travel stories,

close to the late Greek “travel novels”.

From a new side, Cunewulf appears before us in the poem about Christ; she

full of religious symbolism and allegorism. The main source of this poem

is one of the sermons of Pope Gregory, which informed the poem and special

edification and many features of its symbolic images. As for

many Christian scribes, things and phenomena of this world are valuable to the poet

only insofar as they can be used as religious

characters. The moon, for example, which alternately shines in the sky and then goes out, serves

a symbol of the church, from time to time oppressed by pagans or

short-sighted worldly rulers; the sun is a symbol of deity and

his immeasurable radiance for the entire universe; sea ​​voyage is mentioned in

as an allegory of human existence. Cunewulf glorifies Christ and, in

in complete agreement with its Latin source, consistently lists

"six phases" in his life. In this work, Kynewulf addresses his

readers a request not often found in Anglo-Saxon writing

pray for the salvation of his soul. All his works are characterized by horror of

"Last Judgment".

The image of Cynewulf, resurrected before us after the latest research,

much paler and more stencil-like than the one that was once created;

judging by the works that undoubtedly belong to him, Kynewulf is more

was distinguished by the Christian-monastic education of his time, than

originality and strength of original poetic talent; he is completely

is dominated by Christian apologetics. On the other hand, his poems

like earlier religious epics, have more or less sharp

pronounced features of the traditional Anglo-Saxon epic style and

unconsciously adapt familiar

poetic forms of the old druzhina epic. The phenomena of biblical and

Christian mythology are often interpreted in the images and formulas of the squad

poetry. Christ turns out to be the leader of the squad here, the apostles - the warriors,

Patriarchs turn into Edelings, Christian doctrine spreads

not through sermons, but in battles proving the power of the new faith. The slightest

the occasion is used to introduce descriptions traditional for epic poetry

battles, sea voyages, etc. Thus, in this poetry a characteristic

the contradiction between the traditional epic form and the new religious

Cunewulf was surrounded by a number of Anglo-Saxon religious poets.

Of the works of this type that have come down to us, we are primarily attracted to

attention to those poems that were once attributed to him; here is the apostolic

legend, and lives, and poetic paraphrases of various parts of the gospel, and,

finally, religious and edifying poems. The Legend of Andreas

probably based on Greek apocrypha and depicts this apostle as

a proud and powerful warrior. He rushes to the aid of Matthew, who

is in captivity in the land of the Myrmidons and is already doomed to death by them: Christ and

two angels in the form of shipbuilders take him there on a boat. Arriving at the place

Andrei consoles Matthew, he himself is captured and tortured, but in

in the end it creates a great miracle. "And he saw that along the walls rose

mighty foundations, huge pillars, furrowed by storms, the construction of ancient

giants." "Listen to me, marble blocks! - the apostle shouts to them, - I conjure

you in the name of God, before whom all living creatures tremble. Let from the foot

your water streams will rise and swallow up the people!" "And immediately the stone

cracked, foam-covered streams poured out of the crevices, and by morning stormy waves

covered the earth." Picture of the rioting sea and the death of the Myrmidon troops in it

is close to those seascapes that the author of "Exodus" painted, and superfluous

times testifies to the love of Anglo-Saxon poets for describing the sea, in

especially in a storm, in moments of a formidable struggle between the elements: “The waves grow, the streams

raging, lightning flashes, and water fills everything, and screams are heard everywhere

dying."

The legend of Guthlac, an Anglo-Saxon hermit and saint,

who died at the beginning of the 8th century, in the Exeter Manuscript Codex consists of two

parts. The first (verses 1-790) is early and was probably created shortly after

who personally knew the saint. On the other hand, this part of life is quite

closely follows the prose Latin version of the Life of Guthlac (Vita

Guthlaci), written by Friar Felix of Crowland. First part

Anglo-Saxon poetic treatment of Guthlac's life is

an interesting historical source, although there is a sense of imitation in it

traditional hagiographical motifs; life is told here in detail

a saint who belonged to a noble family, who spent his youth wildly,

but repented, went to a monastery, then retired into the desert

the area where he glorified himself with severe ascetic deeds. He lives

in the forest, communicates with wild animals, he is tempted by devils who one day

lift him into the air - this place of life stands in undoubted connection with

literature of Christian "visions" - and, finally, he receives fame as

is felt, for example, in Guthlac’s dying speech, in the description of the coming

spring, green and flowering meadows, etc.

Following the first part of the legend, but much later, it was created

its continuation (the so-called "Guthlac B"), with a volume of more than five hundred

poems (verses 791-1353). It was this second part of the life that was attributed

Kynewulf, based on the data of stylistic analysis; its differences from the first one

are often quite significant. In everything related to Google, the author in

features closely follows his prosaic Latin life, but

the narrative element at times takes a back seat to the

how death came into the world thanks to Adam and Eve, before mentioning

how she befell Guthlac.

Kynewulf's inherent manner of using Christian symbols

(images of the animal world in particular) is related to the one that probably arose at that time

At the same time, the early Anglo-Saxon edition of the so-called "Physiologist",

which has come down to us only in fragments. "Physiologist" - a book that had in the middle

century universal distribution (known, by the way, in

ancient Russian literature). In this book, descriptions of animals or inherent in them

properties are obtained unique, sometimes very unexpected,

religious and symbolic applications. Surviving Anglo-Saxon

fragments of "The Physiologist" tell the story of a panther, a whale and a partridge.

To the same type of Anglo-Saxon allegorical-didactic

poems includes the short poem "Phoenix" (which was also attributed

Kynewulf), symbolically interpreting the pre-Christian myth in

church-Christian sense. The myth of the Phoenix bird miraculously rising from

its ashes, - of very ancient origin. In the 4th century. Latin was created

poem (Carmen de ave Phoenice) attributed to an early Christian writer

Lactation and became widespread in medieval Europe

due to the possibility of different Christian interpretations of it: for others

The Phoenix was a symbol of Christ, for others - the immortality of the soul, for others -

resurrection of the flesh, etc. It was this Latin poem that formed the basis

the basis of the Anglo-Saxon poem about the Phoenix. The Latin original is pretty close

conveyed in Anglo-Saxon verse and accompanied by an explanation that under

Phoenix should be understood as a person who left heaven, but after a terrible

the ships will return there again. An interesting feature of the poem is

his landscapes are, first of all, a description of the blissful island in the far East,

where there is neither heat nor cold, rain or snow, winter or summer, where unknown

illness and death; in this country, in a green grove surrounded by blooming

valleys, lives a wondrous bird, the Phoenix. Having lived a thousand years, she seeks death and

renewal, flies to Phenicia, builds a nest for itself on a tall palm tree, and burns

here from sun rays; from its ashes a new Phoenix is ​​born, brighter and more beautiful

former. In a detailed description of both the bird itself and the nature surrounding it

The brightness and richness of colors are remarkable. The author is often called "the first

colorist" in English poetry. The phoenix "looks like a peacock", but its plumage

even richer; around his neck there is, as it were, a ring of sun rays, and vigilant

his eyes are like precious stones, skillfully set by a jeweler

countries where the air is full of scents, where flowers never fade or fall

to ever green meadows. The old Anglo-Saxon epic was characterized by

completely different landscapes - pictures of winter nature, cold, the cold depths of the sea;

poetic paraphrases of biblical books were introduced into Anglo-Saxon poetry

sunlight, brightness, exotic paradise landscapes; poem about phoenix

added to it echoes of ancient ideas about the “golden age” and the blessed

the land of immortality and eternal youth.

Eastern sources underlie Anglo-Saxon didactic

monument, the so-called dialogues of Solomon and Saturn. They reached us in

incomplete and damaged in two editions - poetic and prose;

in both Solomon and Saturn test each other's wisdom by suggesting difficult

questions and tasks, with Solomon remaining the winner. First half of the poem

full of mysterious allegorism; the content of the conversation is power

symbolic image of the Lord's prayer (Pater noster); she is strong against

unclean; each letter of it is a weapon against the ancient serpent. First letter "P"

(Latin "P") - "warrior with a long pole, with a golden tip", A - strikes

him with terrible force, T - torments him, stabs his tongue and crushes his cheeks, etc.

d. In the second half of the poem, the conversation between Solomon and Saturn concerns issues

cosmogony and moral teachings. "Tell me which land will never

has a human foot stepped on it? What is this miracle that not a single star can resist?

neither a stone, nor a wild beast, nor anything on earth?" Answer: "Time (yldo)."

in subsequent works of this kind, Saturn was replaced by Marcol (Marcol,

Marcolf), Morolf, etc., representative of popular wisdom, depicted

the prince of the Chaldeans, who is familiar with all the countries of the East.

Didactic poetry was a favorite genre of Anglo-Saxon

literature; however, the group of monuments of this kind that have come down to us unites

under this general concept a number of works different style and warehouse. IN

some of them show stronger elements of Christian symbolism and

edification, others, on the contrary, are distinguished by a great abundance of everyday

household details and practical instructions. Anglo-Saxon poems about the dispute

souls with bodies, known in several editions, are written on the topic,

widespread in Christian writing of all Germanic-Romance and

Slavic world, but are curious about the early date of its origin (IX-X centuries)

and many unique features. Going back, apparently, to Latin

to the original source, they stand out from among similar medieval monuments

the severity of its colors, the merciless detail in the description of the body,

separated from his soul and lying in a coffin; soul depressed by sins

body, flies to him at night and talks about the future trial of

them when they reunite. In the morning, at the first rooster crow, the soul

flies away, and the lifeless body lies unresponsive in the coffin; worms devour the corpse and

with jaws sharper than needles, they sharpen it, getting into the eyes and ears, eating the tongue:

"The corpse that was previously covered with various robes will cool down and become a flock

worms and earth food. May this be remembered by all people." The dispute between the soul and the body

remained a very popular theme in English poetry for a long time; besides

Anglo-Saxon monuments in two codes (Exeter and Vercelli),

a number of Anglo-Saxon fragments are also known, the Latin poem of the end

XII century, probably written in England, Middle English poems of the XIII-XV centuries. And

many other. Subsequently, the English approached the same topic.

"cemetery poets" of the 18th century, and in the 19th century the medieval "Dispute of the soul with

body" with all the features of its form and images was revived by the American poet

Longfellow in his poem "The Grave".

From a historical and everyday point of view, two Anglo-Saxon

didactic poems known under the titles: “Gifts of Man” and “Fates

man", in which pictures of Anglo-Saxon social life serve,

although in different ways, for the purposes of Christian instruction. The first of these poems

optimistically tries to assure his readers of the expediency of everything

world order, including the social structure on earth.

The goodness of God is revealed in each of the people, the world needs them all,

each in his own way, and no one should prefer the activities of another; author

looks at the life around him and rejoices that there are warriors and

builders, musicians and bird catchers, blacksmiths, monks and scientists. The second poem is still

more curious; she also tries to give a complete picture of life, but the author's conclusions

not so serene and blissful: he is interested in the differences in human destinies,

and he describes with particular clarity the fickleness of human

prosperity and cruel misfortunes that await a person at every step.

The works that have come down to us represent, apparently, insignificant

part of a lost whole. This allows us to judge wealth and

artistic merits of Anglo-Saxon literature, one of the most

remarkable in the general composition of European literature of the early Middle Ages.

Anglo-Saxon prose literature was created later than poetic and

moreover, in a different area than most ancient poetic monuments

England. The poets of the "school of Caedmon", probably Cunewulf, as well as

Old English poets who wrote in Latin are associated with

north-eastern regions of England, predominantly with residence

English; later prose literature was created in the territory

West Saxons, in Wessex, and was largely the result

vigorous and multifaceted activities of King Alfred of Wessex (Aelfred,

849-901), nicknamed the Great, one of the most prominent figures

Anglo-Saxon history.

The heyday of Anglo-Saxon prose occurred from the end of the 9th century to the beginning of

XI century, the period of political hegemony of Wessex and the dominance of its dialect,

which then rose to the level of “general English” written language. Ancient

the poetic tradition at this time, if not completely interrupted, then fades;

the creative period of Anglo-Saxon poetry is left behind; current one

Wessex literature from the end of the 9th century. there is already mostly literature

prosaic.

Between the heyday of Anglo-Saxon epic and lyric poetry

and sometimes the development of scientific, philosophical or historical prose, entirely

subordinate to the tasks of practical construction of life, lies deaf and

troubled time in Anglo-Saxon history known as the "Danish"

invasions." In the 9th century, the Scandinavians, as a result of overpopulation and due to

the disintegration of the tribal system in their homeland began to increasingly undertake

systematic devastating raids on the coastal areas of the western and southern

Europe. England entered the orbit of these invasions early and very noticeably

experienced the blows of the Danish squads; in 868 in the east of England

the first permanent settlement of the Scandinavians had already formed; they soon became

sail here no longer in small groups for the sake of individual robberies, but

large detachments pursuing the goals of the real conquest of the island,

threatening the independence primarily of the north-eastern regions of England,

and then the whole country as a whole. Alfred's reign fell on one of the

the most acute periods of the struggle between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes.

Alfred was the son of King Aethelwulf. His elder brother, Ethelred, was

killed in a battle with the Danes, and in 871 Alfred was elected by a meeting of leaders

Wessex king. The first half of his reign passed in continuous

fight against the Danes. Before Alfred's eyes, the Danes are getting wider and stronger

were established in England. To their numerically superior forces, he

initially could only oppose his small and poorly trained

irregular army; one day it was broken, and he himself was forced to flee

to the wooded and marshy areas of Somerset, bordering Cornwall. Hiding

in the remote and inaccessible areas of the country, Alfred gradually gathered with

forces, gathering around himself loyal troops from the inhabitants of Wessex and others

regions. Resuming his actions against the Danes, in 878 he defeated

them a brilliant victory. As a result, Alfred secured the south and west for himself

England. Then he annexed London to his possessions. With the Danish king

Guthrum concluded a treaty with Mercia, by virtue of which the Danes recognized

Alfred his possessions. A time of relative calm has arrived in Wessex. WITH

from this moment Alfred could begin the work of establishing his state,

which emerged from the trials exhausted, destroyed, almost feral. Almost

not everything had to start over again. And Alfred set about it with

exceptional energy and determination. He built a fleet

reorganized the army, based on the old Anglo-Saxon “truths”, compiled

new legislative code, made significant reforms in the field

management. Even Herder in his “Ideas for the History of Mankind” compared

Alfred with Charlemagne, and Voltaire wrote in his Essay on Morals that he

"doubts whether there ever existed a man more worthy of respect

descendants than Alfred the Great, who rendered such important services to his homeland."

European enlighteners of the 18th century. must have been especially close

rising from the depths of centuries and in many ways still unclear, the image of this Wessex

king, who brilliantly combined in his person a military leader, legislator,

philosopher, historian and writer. In 1835, the great drama about Alfred began

write N.V. Gogol. Subsequently, about the fragments of this drama that have come down to us

N.G. Chernyshevsky, who compared Alfred, responded sympathetically

this "distributor of education and organizer of state order,

subduing external and internal enemies", with a grandiose image of the Russian Tsar

Alfred's education, which he began to expand after

establishment of peace, was immediately and completely subordinated to the tasks of practical

activities; he never showed any particular attraction to theological

metaphysics, neither to astrology, nor to etymological, grammatical and

stylistic hobbies of the writers who preceded him. Judging by his

literary works, he knew and loved old Anglo-Saxon poetry. His

contemporary and first biographer Asser says that as a child Alfred

demanded that "Anglo-Saxon poems" (saxonica) be read aloud to him

poemata) and quickly memorized them until he learned to read himself.

Alfred's attraction to prose was the result of a purely practical

the purpose of his literary activity; it wasn't so much about execution

purely artistic tasks, how much about satisfying pressing needs

literate population. In England during his time there was a great shortage of

books, practical guides for various purposes; acquaintance with

the Latin language at this time, in his own words, almost completely disappeared.

Therefore, his activities were limited almost exclusively to translations,

which, in his opinion, there was a special need. Alfred tried to do

a number of Latin works accessible to a wider circle of readers

philosophical, theological and historical content. In parallel with this

he took a number of measures to restore education, improve morality,

raising church discipline, renewing scientific and literary

activities. Destroyed monasteries were rebuilt and new ones were founded; And

both of them were replenished with foreign monks who were supposed to serve

mentors in faith and literary pursuits. In the newly organized

monastery schools taught literacy to those who did not intend themselves to

church activities. Alfred obliged all free people of the kingdom

learn to read and write in Anglo-Saxon; those who expected to become

clergy, were required to study Latin. Alfred arranged for his children

was to give new books. Alfred began to compose them himself with the help of specially

the scientific circle he had selected, which included Bishop Werfert of Worcester,

Plegmund, later Bishop of Canterbury, chaplains Æthelstan and

Werwulf, Asser, later Bishop of Sherborne and author of a biography

Alfreda, etc.

Alfred's scientific circle bears little resemblance to the Latin "academy" under

Frankish court of Charlemagne, the main organizer of which was the Anglo-Saxon

Alcuin. Alfred's employees and he himself did not practice Latin

poetry, and translated scientific and philosophical works. Alfred

translated as if according to plan, keeping in mind the practical purpose of the translated

works, translated freely, shortening and modifying the originals, adapting

them to the level of your reader, making insertions and additions, distributing and

The history of English literature actually includes several “stories” of different kinds. This is literature belonging to specific socio-political eras in the history of England; literature reflecting certain systems of moral ideals and philosophical views; literature that has its inherent internal (formal, linguistic) unity and specificity. At different times, one or another “story” came to the fore. The heterogeneity of definitions is fixed in the names that are usually given to different periods of English literature.

Main periods of English literature:

1. Middle Ages:

A) Anglo-Saxon literature (Usually the beginning of English literature is attributed to the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon period. The first major monuments of Anglo-Saxon literature - Latin monuments - belong to representatives of the clergy:

- Aldhelm, who lived in the second half of the 7th century, author of florid prose and poetry

- Trouble the Honorable(672-735) - author of the famous "Ecclesiastical History of the Angles"

- Alcuin(died 804) - learned monk, expert in grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, who moved to the court of Charlemagne at the age of 60.

The most ancient monuments Anglo-Saxon language, then major poetic works reach us from the 11th century, not counting documentary monuments, chronicles, and legal texts. Writers from the Christian clergy revised some pagan poems (Vidsid, Deor's Complaint).

The most remarkable monument of ancient English poetry is the poem about Beowulf. It describes events dating back to the first half of the 6th century, the era of the struggle between the Franks and the Goths.

The "Golden Age" of Anglo-Saxon literature before the Norman invasion - the era of Alfred the Great, the conqueror of the Danes, who devastated Britain for almost two centuries. Alfred did a lot to restore the destroyed culture, to raise education; he himself was a writer and translator (he translated, among other things, Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History”, written in Latin, into Anglo-Saxon).

B) Anglo-Norman literature (In the second half of the 11th century, England was subjected to a new invasion of the Normans. It fell under the rule of the Normans, who for several centuries established the dominance of the Norman dialect of the French language and French literature in England. A long period began, known in history as the period of Anglo-Norman literature. In During the first century after the Norman invasion, literature in the Anglo-Saxon language almost disappeared. And only a century later, literary monuments of ecclesiastical content and later secular ones, which were translations of French works, again appeared in this language. Thanks to this mixture of languages, Latin again acquired great importance among educated society language. The period of French domination left an important mark on the subsequent history of English literature, which, according to some researchers, is more connected with the artistic techniques and style of French literature of the Norman period than with the ancient Anglo-Saxon literature from which it was artificially torn off.)

IN) Literature of social protest (In the middle of the 13th century, poetry of political and social protest appeared, castigating the vices of the nobility and clergy, protesting against taxes, against the abuses of officials and even the king, covering up his favorites and dissolving parliament for this purpose. This satirical literature, emerging from among the people, finds its completion in the 14th century in Langland’s poem “The Vision of Peter the Plowman,” which, although written in a moralizing spirit, is not without revolutionary significance.

With the intensification of social struggle, literature in the 14th century acquired great public interest.

By the 14th century, a new English language was being formed, combining elements of the Anglo-Saxon and French languages. The Normans played a large role in the spread of Celtic stories (The Tales of King Arthur) throughout European poetry. Already around 1300, the English priest Layamon used these tales for his poem Brutus.)

D) Chaucer and Wyclif(The greatest English writer of the 14th century was Chaucer (1340-1400), author of the famous “Canterbury Tales.” Chaucer simultaneously ends the Anglo-Norman era and opens the history of new English literature.

To all the richness and diversity of thought and feeling, subtlety and complexity emotional experiences, characterizing the previous era, he gave expression in English, completing the experience of the past and capturing the aspirations of the future. Among English dialects, he established the dominance of the London dialect, the language spoken in this large commercial center, where the residence of the king and both universities were located. But he was not the only founder of the new English language. Chaucer did a common cause with his famous contemporary John Wycliffe (1320-1384). Wycliffe adheres to the accusatory literature directed against the clergy, but he, the forerunner of the Reformation, goes further, translates the Bible into English, and addresses the people in his struggle against the papacy. Wyclif and Chaucer, with their literary activities, arouse interest in the earthly nature of man, in personality.

The next century saw great interest in living folk poetry, which already existed in the 13th and 14th centuries. But in the 15th century this poetry showed a particularly active life, and the most ancient examples of it, surviving to our time, belong to this century. Ballads about Robin Hood were very popular)

2. Renaissance(In the 16th century, the development of capitalism proceeds rapidly. Landowners prefer the wool industry to cultivating the land. Sheep breeding leads to landlessness among peasants. The discovery of America, the growth of industry and cities are increasingly pushing England to fight for supremacy on the seas and will soon give Shakespeare an opportunity in The Merchant of Venice » talk about a rich merchant whose ships transport goods all over the world.

At the beginning of the 16th century and at the beginning of the next, there are two great literary monuments: Thomas More's Utopia and Francis Bacon's Novum Organum.

Thomas More is a typical representative of English humanism. His “Utopia” is a public organization built in the spirit of humanist ideals. Its goal is the happiness of a person, the well-being of the entire community. Medieval spiritualism, those consolations that the Catholic Church offered beyond the grave in exchange for earthly suffering, are alien to him. He desires joy here on earth. Therefore, in his community there is no property, compulsory labor prevails for all its members, work alternates in the city and in the countryside, complete religious tolerance is established, thanks to the ideal organization of society there are no crimes, etc.

Bacon's work is a book from which one can develop positive thought. The author proceeds from observation and experience as sources of knowledge of the truth; he believes that he does not know what lies beyond them. The 16th century was the heyday of English humanism, which arose here later than in Italy and met the Reformation. Classical literature and Italian poetry have a great influence on English literature.

The sonnet form flourished, introduced by Thomas Wyatt and followed by the more talented Earl of Surrey.

John Lyly writes the novel "Euphues", which marked the beginning of euphuism. The best novel in this style is Rosalind by Thomas Lodge.

The shepherd's romance, characteristic of the Renaissance, became widespread in England. One of the most famous novels of this kind is “Arcadia”, written by Philip Sidney. The fame of Sidney, who was imitated by dozens of poets over the course of a whole century, was shared by Edmund Spenser, the author of the famous “Fairy Queen,” a poem that attracted his contemporaries not with the depth of its content, but with the bizarre diversity and brightness of colors, intricate and complex intrigue, the extraordinary fantastic nature of the plot, and the splendor of the paintings. and images. But English literature of the Renaissance reaches its greatest brilliance in the field of theater. In the 15th century, the medieval mystery became a frozen form and showed no tendency to further development, thanks to the reformation, which supplanted it, promoting the development of other dramatic genres. The following are becoming popular: morality plays, scenes based on scenes from sacred history, “interludes”, comic performances that gradually replaced mystery plays and morality plays, “masks” - magnificent, very complex performances combining mythology, allegory and extravaganza, accompanied by symbolic dances and music, the forerunners of ballet and operas.

Elizabethan era: In the era of Elizabeth, the theater reaches such a flourishing, which history has not known, meets the tastes of all classes of society, depicting tragic moments of English history, tragedies of kings and aristocracy, and family dramas of the bourgeoisie, and the rude morals of the urban lower classes, introducing jokes and humor , equally captivating both the aristocracy and the urban crowd. Most of the playwrights of the Elizabethan era are marked by originality and talent, reflecting the prevailing tastes of one or another group of the population: Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Webster. All these names were obscured by the name of Shakespeare)

3. The era of Cromwell and the Restoration(This was the English theater under Elizabeth and her successors - James I and Charles I. After the victory of the bourgeois revolution of 1648, which executed the king, the English theater was again persecuted, and literature acquired a harsh character. Poetry gave way to prose. Brutal political struggle led to the disappearance of literature for entertainment and gave impetus to the development of political literature. Writers and thinkers of the era of Cromwell (who ruled until 1658) and the Restoration - John Milton (1608-1674), Thomas Hobbes (1578-1679), John Locke (1632-1704) - staged the most important problems of democracy, the church, education, freedom of the press, religious tolerance, etc. It was this educational movement that had a powerful influence on French philosophers in the next century, from where it spread throughout Europe. Milton, defending the revolution against the monarchy, published “Defense of the English People” and the famous "Areopagitica" - a wonderful pamphlet in defense of freedom of the press. In his poem "Paradise Lost" he was a representative of Puritan ideals, spoke about the beginning of the world, about the struggle between God and Satan, about the expulsion of the first people from paradise, thus again recreating biblical tales, transforming them according to the ideas of the Renaissance. Another pathetic work of the Puritan trend is “The Pilgrim's Progress” by John Bunyan (1628-1688). Locke denied innate ideas and declared the impressions that our senses receive from external objects to be the only source of all knowledge. Following Milton, Locke anticipated Rousseau's theory of the social contract and the right of the people to refuse obedience to authority if it violates the law. During the era of Cromwell, the theater died down, classical traditions were maintained only among the persecuted supporters of the royal house. After the Restoration, the theater opened again, funny comedies of manners with not always decent content appeared (Wycherley, Congreve and others), gallant literature was revived, and, finally, classicism of the French type arose. Its representative was John Dryden (1631-1700) - a typical unprincipled poet of the dissolute court society of the restoration, an unsuccessful imitator of Corneille and Racine, who strictly defended the three unities and, in general, all classical rules.)

4. Augustinian era ( After 1688, with the establishment of the Constitution, the tone of literature was set by the bourgeoisie, whose influence was clearly felt both in novels and on the stage. The new consumer demands his own literature, images of family virtues, honest merchants, sensitivity, nature, etc. He is not touched by tales about classical heroes, about the exploits of the aristocratic ancestors of court society. He needs a satire on loose secular mores. Moral and satirical magazines appeared - “Chatterbox”, “Spectator”, “Guardian” - Stil and Addison, with talented everyday essays exposing luxury, emptiness, vanity, ignorance and other vices of the society of that time. The exemplary classical poetry of Pope, the author of the Essay on Man, is didactic, satirical and moral in nature. England gave impetus not only to the liberation ideas of the French encyclopedists, but also laid the foundation for moralizing sentimental literature, that novel of morals that spread throughout Europe. Samuel Richardson, author of Pamela, Clarissa and Grandisson, brings out virtuous bourgeois girls and contrasts them with dissolute aristocrats, idealizes bourgeois virtues and forces the corrupted representatives of the chewing golden youth to reform. Sterne writes his "Sentimental Journey" and "Tristram Shandy". Fielding is the author of "Sir Joseph Adrouse" and "Tom Jones", less sentimental than Richardson, but just as moralizing, just as attentive to family relationships, an observant realist, covering the morals of both towns and villages. Goldsmith, the author of The Vicar of Wickfield, and a number of other writers create a truly sensitive epic of the works and days of bourgeois society. The exponent of these sentiments in the lyrics is Thomson, author of “The Seasons”. And in drama, England is a pioneer and creates not only sentimental theater, but also its theory. New playwrights - Lillo, author of The Merchant of London, portraying touching story reformed young merchant, Cumberland, Edward Moore destroyed the three unities, abolished the poetic form and solemn language. classical tragedy and proved that not only sovereigns and nobles are exposed to misfortunes and suffering - ideas that formed the basis of Diderot’s thoughts on drama. Daniel Defoe with his famous novel “Robinson Crusoe” is the most complete ideologist of the middle bourgeoisie, expressing its desires and the idea that it has about itself and its place in the state. Jonathan Swift, in his famous Gulliver's Travels, caustically ridicules modern English society.

Second half of the 18th century. in general, it is rich in diverse talents, illuminating from different sides the psychological changes that accompanied the growth of the bourgeoisie, which gradually occupied dominant positions. Among others, it is necessary to note T. Smollett, the author of adventure novels - “The Adventures of Roderick Random”, “The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle”, which combine elements of classicism with the artistic techniques of Spanish picaresque, with romantic fiction and at the same time with real images - novels, in which there is a lot of humor, satire and even the bitterness of a person not spoiled by success. Next is Sheridan, author of the famous comedy “The School for Scandal,” a witty and angry satire on social vices. Among the poets of this era, two are major predecessors of romanticism: Collins, in whose “Odes” the romantic invention, rich and varied content, tenderness of feeling and elegiac moods do not quite get along with the Pindaric classical tradition, which restrains his free inspiration; Thomas Gray, writer of elegies, whose classical sense of proportion regulates the impulse of free inspiration without prejudice. The features of approaching romanticism are even more evident in Mackenzie’s novels (“Man of Feelings,” “Julia de Rubinier”). Mackenzie imitated Stern, Richardson and Rousseau, but introduced into his work that confusion of opposing feelings, that complexity of experiences that would later become characteristic of romanticism. Walpole's "Castle of Otranto" is already a real "Gothic novel" with medieval castles, their secrets and eerie moods. Clara Reeve came out of the Walpole school. In her novel (“The Old English Baron”) there is more natural feeling; there are also elements of Richardsonian moralizing. Following her is Anna Radcliffe, who can be considered the first representative of romanticism. Novels: “The Castles of Altin and Denbane”, “The Mysteries of Udolpho”, “The Italian”, etc. - a typical genre of romantic novel with dungeons, daggers, secret doors, sensitive flawless girls pursued by bandits, noble devoted servants, etc. In “The Italian” anticipates the type of Byronian hero. )

5. Romanticism ( Romanticism - as a school - did not exist in England. Here, as in France and Germany, there was no group of writers united on a romantic platform. And yet, a number of typical signs of romanticism that distinguished English literature in the first decades of the 19th century give the right to talk about the romantic movement in England. These signs were: protest against classical rationality, especially against classical rules and opposition to individual poetic freedom; further, interest in nationality and antiquity, in the Middle Ages - as opposed to Antiquity, which was the main content of classicism; interest in the exotic, which attracted the attention of English romantics to Scotland, the land of ancient folk songs and legends. Nature and the countryside flow into English romantic poetry in a wide stream. Finally, revolutionary sentiments, passion for the French Revolution, and political radicalism played a major role in English poetry of the romantic period. The singer of the village, a republican and an admirer of the French Revolution was Robert Burns. Godwin, in his novel “The Adventures of Caleb Williams” and other writings, defends the most revolutionary ideas of his time not only in the field of politics, but also in the field of education and marriage, going ahead of the then English revolutionary thoughts. The so-called "Lake School" (from the residence around the lakes) includes a number of poets. Of these, Wordsworth was the head of the school. A dreamy poet in love with nature of small phenomena, which he knew how to make sublime and touching, he, together with his friend Coleridge, was a representative of that movement in romanticism, which, along with love for nature, introduced simple, unartificial language, images of patriarchal antiquity, contemplation and dreaminess. The third poet of the lake school, Southey, wrote in the spirit of his friends, adding fantastic pictures of the exotic countries of Mexico, India, and Arabia to the idyllic images of lake poetry. And the poets of the lake school were interested in the revolution, but not for long. Wordsworth and Coleridge traveled to Germany, where they were influenced by German romantic idealism and ended their journey in pure contemplation. Next to the populist romanticism of the lake school, the greatest poet of the era, Byron, was a representative of revolutionary aristocratic romance. Despising the high society society with which he was connected by his origin, having cut himself off from his class, not seeing anything attractive in the representatives of capital, greedy and corrupt traders, Byron in his youth burst out with a fiery speech in defense of the workers, but later did not return to this issue, until all his life he remained a declassed aristocrat, a rebellious individualist revolutionary, a singer of dissatisfied, disappointed natures, starting with the mysterious demonic wanderers and robbers (“Gyaur”, “Lara”, etc.). The same image is deepened in “Childe Harold,” which became the subject of widespread imitation in European poetry. Byron ended with a protest against the universe and world order in his godless tragedies (“Manfred” and “Cain”). Towards the end of his life, Byron came close to political and social satire (“Don Juan”, “The Bronze Age”). Extreme individualism, a sense of dissatisfaction, an attraction to the East and exotic countries, a love of nature and solitude, dreams of the past near ruins and monuments - all this makes Byron a poet of English romanticism, and his angry, accusatory protests against all forms of violence and exploitation, his connections with the Italian Carbonari and the struggle for the liberation of Greece made him a singer of freedom in the eyes of the European intelligentsia. His friend Percy Bysshe Shelley, a brilliant lyric poet, also an aristocrat, like Byron, combines in his poetry the world of fantastic romance with a revolutionary protest against the emerging bourgeois-capitalist society. In his poem “Queen Mab,” he depicts this society where everything is “sold in the public market,” where, with the help of severe hunger, the owner drives his slaves under the yoke of wage labor. Shelley appears as a similar revolutionary-romantic in his other poems (“Laon and Cytne”, “Prometheus Unchained”, etc.). His wife Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, pioneered the question of the scientist's responsibility. Walter Scott, like two great poets, reveals a tendency towards antiquity. He was the creator of the historical novel (Ivanhoe, Rob-Roy, Quentin Dorward, The Templars, etc.), in which he knew how to combine verisimilitude and realism with rich romantic fiction and depict the most dramatic moments of the national history of Scotland and England .

In the first third of the 19th century. The first stage of the struggle between the nobility and the industrial bourgeoisie, which is increasingly becoming master of the situation, ends. The struggle against the Corn Laws, Chartism and the actions of the working class, powerfully declaring their demands, relegate feudal romance and patriarchal dreamy poetry to the background. The city with its practical interests, the growing bourgeoisie, the beginning social struggle between it and the working class become the main content of English literature, and realism - its predominant form. Instead of a medieval castle - a factory town, instead of distant antiquity - vibrant modern industrial life, instead of fantastic images of inventive imagination - an accurate, almost photographic, image of reality. Bulwer-Lytton, still continuing the traditions of romanticism, an aristocrat by birth, filling his novels with transformations, miracles and criminality, leaves us, however, a number of literary documents of social significance, depicting the process of impoverishment and decay of the nobility (novels - “Pelgam”, “Night and Morning” " and etc.)

6. Realism(Dickens, the most famous writer of this era, develops a broad picture of the life of bourgeois-capitalist society in his famous novels: “Hard Times”, “David Copperfield”, “Dombey and Son”, “The Pickwick Club”, “Nicholas Nickleby”, etc. , creates a gallery of capitalist types. Dickens's petty-bourgeois, humane, intellectual point of view prevents him from taking the side of the revolutionary part of the working class. He gives stunning pictures of the dryness, greed, cruelty, ignorance and selfishness of capitalists, but he writes for the instruction of the exploiters and does not think about organization forces of the exploited. His goal is to touch human hearts with the spectacle of suffering, and not to awaken hatred and call for rebellion. More embittered, more sarcastic and cruel in his criticism of the noble-bourgeois society Thackeray, author of the novels “Vanity Fair”, “Pendennis”. Author not sees a way out. He is filled with pessimism and irritation. He, like Dickens, is unable to understand the liberating role of the emerging revolutionary labor movement. Oscillating as always between big capital and the labor movement, petty-bourgeois thought sought conciliatory paths. Kingsley, in his novels “Yeast” and “Alton Locke,” depicts the horrors of exploitation and need, but sees salvation in Christian socialism, in the “spirit of God,” in the repentant rich who turned to charitable causes. Disraeli, later the famous Lord Beaconsfield, leader of the Tories (novels “Sibilla”, etc.), depicting in bright colors the vices of bourgeois-aristocratic society and the misfortunes of peasants and workers, speaks out negatively against the revolution and sees saviors in the person of energetic and active aristocrats who take on itself the business of building the people's well-being. Not only the novel, but also lyric poetry is inspired by social themes, and the main question raised by the era - the question of the exploitation of the working class by capital - is resolved in a spirit of vague humanity and moral improvement. Poets, like Thomas Hood or Ebenezer Elliot (q.v.), in their poems depict individual moments of the difficult existence of workers and urban poverty, create songs against the Corn Laws, and give images of working women driven by poverty to prostitution and suicide. But their positive ideals also boil down to charity: to some lady who comprehended her duty thanks to an edifying dream and devoted her life to alleviating the lot of the poor.

As we approach the end of the 19th century. in European, in particular in English literature, the realistic and social trends begin to give way to the reviving ideas of individualism and aestheticism. Instead of militant capitalists, paving the way for themselves with struggle and energy, creating enterprises, instead of Dombey and Gradgrinds, the tone for literature is beginning to be set by those representatives of the bourgeoisie who received their capital by inheritance, who did not go through the harsh school of life, who can enjoy the heritage of their fathers, who have become lovers and connoisseurs arts, buyers of expensive paintings and elegant volumes of poetry. A literature of refined experiences and fleeting impressions is flourishing. Individualism, pure art, eroticism, the cult of moods are the distinctive features of the literature of the end of the century. True, the main theme of the era - the organization of society, the abolition of exploitation, the position of the working class - occupies a large place in literature, but socialism at the end of the century is aesthetic socialism. John Ruskin proceeds from the ideal of a beautiful life, calls society to the old patriarchal craft forms of production and rebels against industrialism and capitalism. He inspires the school of artists known as the Pre-Raphaelites, among whom we see Rossetti and William Morris, the author of the novels “The Dream of John Bol” and “News from Nowhere,” a defender of socialism and at the same time a passionate esthete, who, together with Rossetti, sought the ideals of beauty in past centuries, who dreamed of causing a social revolution through the aesthetic education of workers. Next to the Pre-Raphaelites are Tennyson, a poet of pure art, free from the motives of social struggle, Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, Swinburne, in whose poetry the ideals of eternal beauty and the protection of the exploited are vaguely intertwined. The most popular of the poets of this movement was Oscar Wilde, the “king of aesthetes”, in his “Planes” and in the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, who created the “religion of beauty” and the cult of liberating fiction, proclaiming the only reality of the creation of art, asserting that art creates life , and not vice versa.

The continuing growth of the industry introduces new topics into literature - urbanism, machinism. Literature becomes dynamic, satire against the capitalist way of life develops. Bernard Shaw is the most brilliant and paradoxical of satirical writers, a virtuoso of sophistry, a witty author of hoaxes, a moderate socialist, who, however, intends to improve the situation of the workers with the help of the bourgeoisie. H.G. Wells is the author of science fiction novels, imbued with the pathos of technology, depicting the wonders of industry, magically transforming life, connecting planets, allowing a person to move into both the past and the future. This process of simultaneous growth of socialist tendencies and conservative-individualistic and aesthetic aspirations is accompanied by a number of diverse literary phenomena. Imperialism and chauvinism, which has its representative in the person of Chamberlain, the Boer War, the cult of Kitchener - all this finds its literary reflection in the works of Rudyard Kipling, the most talented of nationalist writers, the author of colonial stories and poems, where the colonial policy of England is exalted, where oppression backward peoples is glorified as the implementation of a great civilizing mission.

Another phenomenon is a reaction against machinism, causing a revival in literature of religious movements, impulses into the other world, theosophy, spiritualism, occultism, etc. Already Samuel Beutler and George Meredith, so dissimilar to each other in other respects, are however doing a common cause, pioneering path towards spiritualism, they are trying to build a new religion on the foundations of modernity, using experience and research for this. We find features of romantic symbolism in the works of Yeats, a representative of the so-called. “Celtic revival”, and another of its representatives, also an Irishman, more prone to realism and naturalism, Synge. Another form of protest against machinism was Nietzscheanism, the cult of force and hypertrophied aestheticism, all those modernist ideas, the influence of which is easy to discern not only in Oscar Wilde, but also in the work of Stevenson, a sophisticated author of exemplary adventure novels, as well as George Moore, who spoke almost the language of Zarathustra (in “Confession of a Young Man”) about his contempt for compassion and Christian morality, about the beauty of cruelty, strength and the beauty of crime.

This same hostility to the industrial age gave rise to a current of pessimism in English literature among those writers who could not reconcile machinism with peace of mind. James Thomson is one of the wonderful poets, through all of whose poetry the main theme runs as a leitmotif - the torment of life, the gloomy grandeur of despair. The most popular and, perhaps, the deepest of the pessimists is Thomas Hardy, the creator of the grandiose dramatic epic “The Dynasts” and a number of novels, mainly from the life of the village and province. According to his teachings, the fate of man is weighed down by a dark and evil fate, an incomprehensible accident, a cruel inevitability. An enemy of prejudice and modern marriage, which puts a burden on a woman, an enemy of civilization in the spirit of Rousseau or Tolstoy, Hardy does not find a way out of the thoughts tormenting him. The same pessimism permeates George Robert Gissing, a writer of everyday life of the London lower classes and the starving literary bohemia, a student of Dickens, but deprived of his humor and his philanthropic faith, who expected nothing equally “neither from the philanthropy of the rich, nor from the rebellion of the poor.” The basic tone of Joseph Conrad's work is also pessimistic. Conrad is one of the most powerful and complex writers of our time, striking in the richness and diversity of his language. He strives to penetrate into the depths of human nature and use all means to convey the impression of the real to our consciousness: “the colorfulness of painting, the plasticity of sculpture and the magical effect of music.” He depicts all types of human suffering, he does not idealize man, because he is convinced that ineradicable egoism makes a person a wolf to another person. There is more everyday life and healthy realism in Arnold Bennett, a portrayer of the morals of the lower strata of the provincial bourgeoisie, and more true social instinct in Galsworthy, who sees the source of social conflicts in the existence of private property. Chesterton is an enemy of flabbiness, a preacher of activism, but the activism of medieval corporations, a zealous Catholic, convinced that the development of industry is the source of social slavery. James Barry - a writer of everyday life of Scottish peasants, Conan Doyle - a famous author of historical and police novels, Robert Hichens - a satirist and romanticist, Israel Zangwill - author of "Children of the Ghetto", a writer of everyday life of the Jewish poor, and a number of other, less significant ones, complete the literary work of the eldest group of contemporary writers.

The paths of the new generation have not yet been clearly outlined. In most cases, these are realists, who, however, are not averse to touching on the occult powers of the soul. This influence corresponds to amorphism in literature, a reaction against French plasticity. Hugh Walpole, one of the most fashionable novelists, himself easily follows fashion; Oliver Onions gained fame with a trilogy in which he describes bohemians, models, typists, poor artists, etc.; Gilbert Cannan, Compton Mackenzie, Lawrence and a number of other young writers who are currently attracting the attention of the English reader touch on a wide variety of topics, depict various classes of society, criticize social values, but their own worldview most often comes down to a vague humanitarianism. They are stronger in criticism than in their positive ideas, and none of them has yet succeeded in surpassing the great "old men" like Shaw, Wales or Hardy.)

7. The period of World War II and later ( Graham Greene, Iris Murdoch, Harold Pinter, Aldous Huxley, JK Rowling and others. )