ContentsChapter ⅠENGLISH LITERATURE OF THEANGLO-SAXON PERIOD 1
1．The Historical Background 1
2．“Beowulf”the National Epic of the Anglo-Saxons 3
3．Minor Anglo-Saxon Poetry Caedmon and Cynewulf 11
4．Anglo-Saxon Prose: Bede; Alfred; “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”; Aelfric 16
Chapter ⅡENGLISH LITERATURE OFTHE LATE MIDDLE AGESSection ⅠEnglish Literature from the Mid-11th Century tothe Mid-14th 26
1．The Background: Political and Social 26
2．Folk Literature and Religious Literature from theMid-11th to the Mid-14th Century 28
3．Early Alliterative and Metrical Romances in the 12th,13th and Early 14th Centuries 33
Section ⅡEnglish Literature of the Second Half of the 14thCentury 39
1The Background: Political and Social 39
2John Wycliffe; John Gower; William Langland 42
3Geoffrey Chaucer 49
1．The Background: Political and Social 61
Section ⅢEnglish Literature of the Fifteenth Century 61
2．The English and Scottish Popular Ballads: “RobinHood Ballads” 63
3．Early English Drama: Folk Drama; The MysteryPlays; The Miracle Plays; The Morality Plays 72
4．The English Chaucerians; Early Scottish Poetry andthe Scottish Chaucerians 77
5．English Prose of the 15th Century: Sir Thomas Maloryand His “Le Morte d Arthur” 81
Chapter ⅢENGLISH LITERATURE OFTHE RENAISSANCESection ⅠThe Historical Background: Economic, Politi-cal and Cultural 85
1．The Renaissance in Europe 85
2．Stages and Trends of English Literature of the Renais-sance 89
Section ⅡEnglish Literature of the Early 16th Century 91
1．The Oxfofd Reformers; Thomas More 91
2．Court Poetry: Skelton; Wyatt and Surrey 97
3．Morality Plays and Interludes of the 16th Century:David Lyndsay; John Heywood 102
Section ⅢEnglish Literature of the Second Half of the 16thCentury 105
1．Court Poetry: Philip Sidney; Edmund Spenser 105
2．Prose Fiction: Lyly, Lodge, Greene, Sidney, Nashe,Deloney 113
3．Pre-Shakespearean Drama: English Drama underClassical Influence; University Wits: Lyly, Peele,Lodge, Nashe, Greene, Kyd and Marlowe 121
1．Shakespeare s Life and Literary Career 133
Section ⅣShakespeare 133
2．Shakespeare s Poems and Sonnets 134
3．Early Period of Shakespeare s Plays: History Plays(“Richard Ⅲ”, “Henry Ⅳ”, Parts 1 and 2, “HenryⅤ”); 138
Early Tragedies(“Romeo and Juliet”, “JuliusCaesar”); Comedies(“The Merchant of Venice”,“Much Ado about Nothing”, “As You Like It”,“Twelfth Night”) 138
4．Mature Period of Shakespeare s Plays. Tragedies(“Hamlet”, “Othello”, “King Lear”,“Macbeth”,“Antony and Cleopatra”, “Coriolanus”, “Timon ofAthens”) 138
Tragi-Comedies(“Measure for Measure”,“All s Well that Ends Well”, “Troilus and Cressida”) 150
5．Last Period of Shakespeare s Dramatic Career: “Peri-cles”, “Cymbeline”, “The Winter s Tale”, “TheTempest”, “pericle”, “Henry Ⅷ” 167
6．General Comments on Shakespeare:Shakespeare sProgressive Significance and Limitations; 167
His Indebted-ness to the English Dramatic Tradition; His Character-Creations; His Plot Construction; His Mastery ofLanguage; His Literary Influence 170
Section ⅤEnglish Literature of the First Quarter of the17th Century 182
1．Drama of Shakespeare s Contemporaries: Ben Jonson,Chapman, Dekker, Thomas Heywood, Beaumont andFletcher 182
2．The Decline of Drama in Early 17th-Century Englandup to the Closing of the Theatres in London in 1642:Marston, Tourneur, Webster, Ford, Middleton, Mass-inger, Shirley 197
3．Francis Bacon 209
4．The King James Bible and Other Prose in Early 17thCentury 218
5．English Non-Dramatic.,Poetry in the First ThirtyYears of the 17th Century: John Donne, Ben Jonson,the Spenserians 221
1．The Political Background from the Eve of the EnglishBourgeois Revolution to the Downfall of StuartAbsolutism(1625-1688) 231
Chapter ⅣENGLISH LITERATURE DURING THE ENGLISHBOURGEOIS REVOLUTION AND THE RESTORATIONSection ⅠThe Historical Background: Political andIdeological 231
2．The Ideological Background of English Literature in the17th Century 234
to 1660 238
1．Minor English Poets and Prose Writers of the Period 238
2．The Pamphlet Literature of the Levellers and theDiggers: John Lilburne and Gerrard Winstanley 248
Section ⅢJohn Milton 262
1．Milton s Life and Literary Career 262
2．Milton s Early Works 265
3．The Middle Period of Milton s Literary Career: HisProse and His Sonnets 270
4．“Paradise Lost”, “Paradise Regained” and “SamsonAgonistes” 286
Section ⅣEnglish Literature of the Restoration 302
1．John Bunyan 302
2．John Dryden 308
3．The English Drama of the Restoration 316
4．Minor English Poetry and Prose of the Restoration:Samuel Butler s “Hudibras” and the Diaries of SamuelPepys and John Evelyn 323
Section ⅡMinor Currents of English Literature from 1625