A Brief History of English Literature
M.Mustaque
July 14, 2025
CHAPTER 1
OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
The Old English language or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest form of English. The period is a
long one and it is generally considered that Old English was spoken from about A.D. 600
to about 1100. Many of the poems of the period are pagan, in particular Widsith and
Beowulf.
The greatest English poem, Beowulf is the first English epic. The author of Beowulf is
anonymous. It is a story of a brave young man Beowulf in 3182 lines. In this epic poem,
Beowulf sails to Denmark with a band of warriors to save the King of Denmark, Hrothgar.
Beowulf saves Danish King Hrothgar from a terrible monster called Grendel. The mother
of Grendel who sought vengeance for the death of her son was also killed by Beowulf.
Beowulf was rewarded and became King. After a prosperous reign of some forty years,
Beowulf slays a dragon but in the fight he himself receives a mortal wound and dies. The
poem concludes with the funeral ceremonies in honour of the dead hero. Though the
poem Beowulf is little interesting to contemporary readers, it is a very important poem in
the Old English period because it gives an interesting picture of the life and practices of
old days.
The difficulty encountered in reading Old English Literature lies in the fact that the
language is very different from that of today. There was no rhyme in Old English poems.
Instead they used alliteration.
Besides Beowulf, there are many other Old English poems. Widsith, Genesis A, Genesis
B, Exodus, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Wife’s Lament, Husband’s Message, Christ and
Satan, Daniel, Andreas, Guthlac, The Dream of the Rood, The Battle of Maldon etc. are
some of the examples.
Two important figures in Old English poetry are Cynewulf and Caedmon. Cynewulf wrote
religious poems and the four poems, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles, Christ and Elene
are always credited with him. Caedmon is famous for his Hymn.
Alfred enriched Old English prose with his translations especially Bede’s Ecclesiastical
History. Aelfric is another important prose writer during Old English period. He is famous
for his Grammar, Homilies and Lives of the Saints. Aelfric’s prose is natural and easy and
is very often alliterative.
CHAPTER 2
Middle English Literature
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,Geoffrey Chaucer
Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born circa 1340 in London, England. In 1357 he became a
public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster and continued in that capacity with the
British court throughout his lifetime. The Canterbury Tales became his best known and
most acclaimed work. He died in 1400 and was the first to be buried in Westminster
Abbey’s Poet’s Corner.
Chaucer’s first major work was ‘The Book of the Duchess’, an elegy for the first wife of his
patron John of Gaunt. Other works include ‘Parlement of Foules’, ‘The Legend of Good
Women’ and ‘Troilus and Criseyde’. In 1387, he began his most famous work, ‘The
Canterbury Tales’, in which a diverse group of people recount stories to pass the time on
a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
William Langland, (born c. 1330—died c. 1400), presumed author of one of the greatest
examples of Middle English alliterative poetry, generally known as Piers Plowman, an
allegorical work with a complex variety of religious themes. One of the major
achievements of Piers Plowman is that it translates the language and conceptions of the
cloister into symbols and images that could be understood by the layman. In general, the
language of the poem is simple and colloquial, but some of the author’s imagery is
powerful and direct.
PERIODS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DRAMA
In Europe, as in Greece, the drama had a distinctly religious origin. The first characters
were drawn from the New Testament, and the object of the first plays was to make the
church service more impressive, or to emphasize moral lessons by showing the reward of
the good and the punishment of the evil doer. In the latter days of the Roman Empire the
Church found the stage possessed by frightful plays, which debased the morals of a
people already fallen too low. Reform seemed impossible; the corrupt drama was driven
from the stage, and plays of every kind were forbidden. But mankind loves a spectacle,
and soon the Church itself provided a substitute for the forbidden plays in the famous
Mysteries and Miracles.
MIRACLE AND MYSTERY PLAYS
In France the name miracle was given to any play representing the lives of the saints,
while the mystère represented scenes from the life of Christ or stories from the Old
Testament associated with the coming of Messiah. In England this distinction was almost
unknown; the name Miracle was used indiscriminately for all plays having their origin in
the Bible or in the lives of the saints; and the name Mystery, to distinguish a certain class
of plays, was not used until long after the religious drama had passed away.
The earliest Miracle of which we have any record in England is the Ludus de Sancta
Katharina, which was performed in Dunstable about the year 1110. It is not known who
wrote the original play of St. Catherine, but our first version was prepared by Geoffrey of
St. Albans, a French schoolteacher of Dunstable. Whether or not the play was given in
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, English is not known, but it was customary in the earliest plays for the chief actors to speak
in Latin or French, to show their importance, while minor and comic parts of the same play
were given in English.
For four centuries after this first recorded play the Miracles increased steadily in number
and popularity in England. They were given first very simply and impressively in the
churches; then, as the actors increased in number and the plays in liveliness, they
overflowed to the churchyards; but when fun and hilarity began to predominate even in
the most sacred representations, the scandalized priests forbade plays altogether on
church grounds. By the year 1300 the Miracles were out of ecclesiastical hands and
adopted eagerly by the town guilds; and in the following two centuries we find the Church
preaching against the abuse of the religious drama which it had itself introduced, and
which at first had served a purely religious purpose. But by this time the Miracles had
taken strong hold upon the English people, and they continued to be immensely popular
until, in the sixteenth century, they were replaced by the Elizabethan drama.
The early Miracle plays of England were divided into two classes: the first, given at
Christmas, included all plays connected with the birth of Christ; the second, at Easter,
included the plays relating to his death and triumph. By the beginning of the fourteenth
century all these plays were, in various localities, united in single cycles beginning with
the Creation and ending with the Final Judgment. The complete cycle was presented
every spring, beginning on Corpus Christi day; and as the presentation of so many plays
meant a continuous outdoor festival of a week or more, this day was looked forward to as
the happiest of the whole year.
Probably every important town in England had its own cycle of plays for its own guilds to
perform, but nearly all have been lost. At the present day only four cycles exist (except in
the most fragmentary condition), and these, though they furnish an interesting
commentary on the times, add very little to our literature. The four cycles are the Chester
and York plays, so called from the towns in which they were given; the Towneley or
Wakefield plays, named for the Towneley family, which for a long time owned the
manuscript; and the Coventry plays, which on doubtful evidence have been associated
with the Grey Friars (Franciscans) of Coventry. The Chester cycle has 25 plays, the
Wakefield 30, the Coventry 42, and the York 48. It is impossible to fix either the date or
the authorship of any of these plays; we only know certainly that they were in great favor
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The York plays are generally considered to be
the best; but those of Wakefield show more humor and variety, and better workmanship.
The former cycle especially shows a certain unity resulting from its aim to represent the
whole of man’s life from birth to death. The same thing is noticeable in Cursor Mundi,
which, with the York and Wakefield cycles, belongs to the fourteenth century.
After these plays were written according to the general outline of the Bible stories, no
change was tolerated, the audience insisting, like children at “Punch and Judy,” upon
seeing the same things year after year. No originality in plot or treatment was possible,
therefore; the only variety was in new songs and jokes, and in the pranks of the devil.
Childish as such plays seem to us, they are part of the religious development of all
3/22
M.Mustaque
July 14, 2025
CHAPTER 1
OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
The Old English language or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest form of English. The period is a
long one and it is generally considered that Old English was spoken from about A.D. 600
to about 1100. Many of the poems of the period are pagan, in particular Widsith and
Beowulf.
The greatest English poem, Beowulf is the first English epic. The author of Beowulf is
anonymous. It is a story of a brave young man Beowulf in 3182 lines. In this epic poem,
Beowulf sails to Denmark with a band of warriors to save the King of Denmark, Hrothgar.
Beowulf saves Danish King Hrothgar from a terrible monster called Grendel. The mother
of Grendel who sought vengeance for the death of her son was also killed by Beowulf.
Beowulf was rewarded and became King. After a prosperous reign of some forty years,
Beowulf slays a dragon but in the fight he himself receives a mortal wound and dies. The
poem concludes with the funeral ceremonies in honour of the dead hero. Though the
poem Beowulf is little interesting to contemporary readers, it is a very important poem in
the Old English period because it gives an interesting picture of the life and practices of
old days.
The difficulty encountered in reading Old English Literature lies in the fact that the
language is very different from that of today. There was no rhyme in Old English poems.
Instead they used alliteration.
Besides Beowulf, there are many other Old English poems. Widsith, Genesis A, Genesis
B, Exodus, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Wife’s Lament, Husband’s Message, Christ and
Satan, Daniel, Andreas, Guthlac, The Dream of the Rood, The Battle of Maldon etc. are
some of the examples.
Two important figures in Old English poetry are Cynewulf and Caedmon. Cynewulf wrote
religious poems and the four poems, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles, Christ and Elene
are always credited with him. Caedmon is famous for his Hymn.
Alfred enriched Old English prose with his translations especially Bede’s Ecclesiastical
History. Aelfric is another important prose writer during Old English period. He is famous
for his Grammar, Homilies and Lives of the Saints. Aelfric’s prose is natural and easy and
is very often alliterative.
CHAPTER 2
Middle English Literature
1/22
,Geoffrey Chaucer
Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born circa 1340 in London, England. In 1357 he became a
public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster and continued in that capacity with the
British court throughout his lifetime. The Canterbury Tales became his best known and
most acclaimed work. He died in 1400 and was the first to be buried in Westminster
Abbey’s Poet’s Corner.
Chaucer’s first major work was ‘The Book of the Duchess’, an elegy for the first wife of his
patron John of Gaunt. Other works include ‘Parlement of Foules’, ‘The Legend of Good
Women’ and ‘Troilus and Criseyde’. In 1387, he began his most famous work, ‘The
Canterbury Tales’, in which a diverse group of people recount stories to pass the time on
a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
William Langland, (born c. 1330—died c. 1400), presumed author of one of the greatest
examples of Middle English alliterative poetry, generally known as Piers Plowman, an
allegorical work with a complex variety of religious themes. One of the major
achievements of Piers Plowman is that it translates the language and conceptions of the
cloister into symbols and images that could be understood by the layman. In general, the
language of the poem is simple and colloquial, but some of the author’s imagery is
powerful and direct.
PERIODS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DRAMA
In Europe, as in Greece, the drama had a distinctly religious origin. The first characters
were drawn from the New Testament, and the object of the first plays was to make the
church service more impressive, or to emphasize moral lessons by showing the reward of
the good and the punishment of the evil doer. In the latter days of the Roman Empire the
Church found the stage possessed by frightful plays, which debased the morals of a
people already fallen too low. Reform seemed impossible; the corrupt drama was driven
from the stage, and plays of every kind were forbidden. But mankind loves a spectacle,
and soon the Church itself provided a substitute for the forbidden plays in the famous
Mysteries and Miracles.
MIRACLE AND MYSTERY PLAYS
In France the name miracle was given to any play representing the lives of the saints,
while the mystère represented scenes from the life of Christ or stories from the Old
Testament associated with the coming of Messiah. In England this distinction was almost
unknown; the name Miracle was used indiscriminately for all plays having their origin in
the Bible or in the lives of the saints; and the name Mystery, to distinguish a certain class
of plays, was not used until long after the religious drama had passed away.
The earliest Miracle of which we have any record in England is the Ludus de Sancta
Katharina, which was performed in Dunstable about the year 1110. It is not known who
wrote the original play of St. Catherine, but our first version was prepared by Geoffrey of
St. Albans, a French schoolteacher of Dunstable. Whether or not the play was given in
2/22
, English is not known, but it was customary in the earliest plays for the chief actors to speak
in Latin or French, to show their importance, while minor and comic parts of the same play
were given in English.
For four centuries after this first recorded play the Miracles increased steadily in number
and popularity in England. They were given first very simply and impressively in the
churches; then, as the actors increased in number and the plays in liveliness, they
overflowed to the churchyards; but when fun and hilarity began to predominate even in
the most sacred representations, the scandalized priests forbade plays altogether on
church grounds. By the year 1300 the Miracles were out of ecclesiastical hands and
adopted eagerly by the town guilds; and in the following two centuries we find the Church
preaching against the abuse of the religious drama which it had itself introduced, and
which at first had served a purely religious purpose. But by this time the Miracles had
taken strong hold upon the English people, and they continued to be immensely popular
until, in the sixteenth century, they were replaced by the Elizabethan drama.
The early Miracle plays of England were divided into two classes: the first, given at
Christmas, included all plays connected with the birth of Christ; the second, at Easter,
included the plays relating to his death and triumph. By the beginning of the fourteenth
century all these plays were, in various localities, united in single cycles beginning with
the Creation and ending with the Final Judgment. The complete cycle was presented
every spring, beginning on Corpus Christi day; and as the presentation of so many plays
meant a continuous outdoor festival of a week or more, this day was looked forward to as
the happiest of the whole year.
Probably every important town in England had its own cycle of plays for its own guilds to
perform, but nearly all have been lost. At the present day only four cycles exist (except in
the most fragmentary condition), and these, though they furnish an interesting
commentary on the times, add very little to our literature. The four cycles are the Chester
and York plays, so called from the towns in which they were given; the Towneley or
Wakefield plays, named for the Towneley family, which for a long time owned the
manuscript; and the Coventry plays, which on doubtful evidence have been associated
with the Grey Friars (Franciscans) of Coventry. The Chester cycle has 25 plays, the
Wakefield 30, the Coventry 42, and the York 48. It is impossible to fix either the date or
the authorship of any of these plays; we only know certainly that they were in great favor
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The York plays are generally considered to be
the best; but those of Wakefield show more humor and variety, and better workmanship.
The former cycle especially shows a certain unity resulting from its aim to represent the
whole of man’s life from birth to death. The same thing is noticeable in Cursor Mundi,
which, with the York and Wakefield cycles, belongs to the fourteenth century.
After these plays were written according to the general outline of the Bible stories, no
change was tolerated, the audience insisting, like children at “Punch and Judy,” upon
seeing the same things year after year. No originality in plot or treatment was possible,
therefore; the only variety was in new songs and jokes, and in the pranks of the devil.
Childish as such plays seem to us, they are part of the religious development of all
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