Part One English Literature

Chapter 1 An Introduction to Old and Medieval English Literature & The Renaissance Period

A. Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative an­swers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the bracket.

( ) 1.______, a typical example of Old English poetry, is regarded today as the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons.

A. The Wife's Complaint B. Beowulf

C. The Dream of the Rood D. The Seafarer

( ) 2. It's Chaucer alone who, for the first time in English litera­ture, presented to us a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society in his masterpiece ______.

A. The Canterbury Tales B. The Legend of Good Women

C. The Romaunt of the Rose D. Troilus and Criseyde

( ) 3. In The Legend of Good Women, Chaucer used for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter, which is to be called later ______.

A. the Spenserian stanza B. The heroic couplet

C. the blank verse D. The free verse

( ) 4. The Elizabethan ______ , in its totality, is the real main­stream of the English Renaissance.

A. poetry B. novel

C. humanism D. drama

( ) 5 Dr. Faustus is a play based on the ______legend of a magi­cian aspiring for knowledge and finally meeting his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the Devil.

A German B. British

C French D. American

( ) 6 Christopher Marlowe's greatest achievement lies in the fact that he perfected______and made it the principal medium of English drama.

A, the heroic couplet B. the free verse

C. the blank verse D. the Spenserian stanza

( ) 7 Christopher Marlowe's second achievement is his creation of for the English drama.

A the Byronic hero B. the Renaissance hero

C the Realistic hero D. the Romantic hero

( ) 8 The fir^st and second parts of______are undoubtedly the most widely read among Shakespeare's history plays.

A Henry V B. Richard II

C. Henry IV D. Richard III

( ) 9 The most important and popular comedy written by Shakespeare is______.

A Rorneo and Juliet B. Twelfth Night

C The Merchant of Venice D. As You Like It

( ) 10. ______ , the first of the great tragedies, is generally regarded as Shakespeare's most popular play on the stage.

A The Merchant of Venice B. Hamlet

C King Lear D. Julius Caesar

( ) 11. ______ is based on a widespread legend in northern Europe.

A. Tamburlaine B. The Jew of Malta

C. Hamlet D. The Winter's Tale

( ) 12. "______, the best of his final romances, is a typical example of Shakespeare's pessimistic view toward human life and so­ciety in his late years.

A. The Tempest B. King Lear

C. Cymheline D. Pericles

( ) 13. ______ Essays is the first example of that genre in English literature.

A. John Milton's B. Francis Bacon's

C. Montaigne's D. Thomas Gray's

( ) 14. ______is the leading figure of the metaphysical school.

A. John Milton B. John Donne

C. John Bunyan D. John Keats

( ) 15. ______ is indeed the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf.

A. Paradise Lost B. Paradise Regained

C. Samson Agonistes D. 'The Faerie Queene

B. Complete each of the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook.

1. Generally speaking, the Old English poetry that has survived can be divided into two groups: the______ group and the ______one. .

2. Though essentially still a ______ writer, Geoffrey Chaucer bore marks of ______and anticipated a new era to come.

3. John Dryden, who modernized several of the Canterbury tales, called Chaucer the ______of English poetry.

4. Christopher Marlowe gave new vigor to the blank verse with his "______".

5. It is Edmund Spenser's idealism, his lore of beauty, and his exquisite melody that make him known as "_______".

6. A Renaissance hero is always _______and full of_______, fac­ing bravely the challenge from both gods and men.

7. In portraying Faustus, Marlowe praises his soaring aspiration for knowledge while warning against _______ since Faustus's downfall was caused by his despair in_______and trust in Devil.

8. Christopher Marlowe's brilliant achievement as a whole raised him to an eminence as the _______of English drama.

9. In his romantic comedies, Shakespeare takes a(n) _______atti­tude toward love and youth, and the romantic elements are brought into full play.

10. Compared with the idealism of other plays, The Merchant of Venice takes a step forward in its realistic presentation of hu­man _______and human_______.

11. Hamlet has the qualities of a "_______" thriller and a philo­sophical exploration of_______and_______.

12. In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare has a profound meditation on the _______power of time and the _______ beauty brought forth by poetry to the one he loves.

13. In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare shows a faith in the_______of po­etry.

14. Essays have been recognized as an important landmark in the development of English _______.

15. The most striking feature of John Donne's poetry is precisely its tang of reality, in the sense that it seems to reflect life in a _______rather than a _______world.

16. Samson Agonistes is the most perfect example of the _______ after the Greek style in English.

C. Decide whether the following statements are true or false and write your answers in the brackets.

( ) 1. The story in Beowulf took place in Scandinavia.

( ) 2. The English Renaissance was perhaps England's Golden Age, especially in literature.

( ) 3. Shakespeare's greatest tragedies are_: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Tempest.

( ) 4. Shakespeare's major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones. They are individuals representing certain types.

( ) 5. Donne's great prose works are his sermons.

( ) 6. Milton is regarded to be the greatest prose writer of his age.

( ) 7. In Samson Agonistes, Milton borrows his story from a Ger­man legend.

( ) 8. Edmund Spenser's masterpiece The Shepheardes Calender is a great drama of its age.

( ) 9. Paradise Lost is actually a story taken from the New Testa­ment.

( ) 10. With the Norman Conquest starts the medieval period in English literature.

( ) 11. The story of the Wife of Bath is one in The Canterbury Tales.

( ) 12. Redcrosse Knight in The Faerie Queene symbolizes the An­glican Church.

( ) 13. Tamburlaine is a play about an ambitious and pitiless Roman Conqueror in the 14th century.

( ) 14. In the plays of Shakespeare's last period, there is a preva­lent Christian teaching of atonement.

( ) 15. Death and love are the basic themes in John Donne's The Songs and Sonnets.

( ) 16. John Donne frequently applies conceits in his poetry.

( ) 17. John Milton's epic poems were very much influenced by the Bible and Greek classics.

( ) 18. Though a romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet is permeated with optimistic spirit.

( ) 19. Shakespeare writes all his sonnets in the popular English form of three quatrains and a couplet.

( ) 20. "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is considered to be one of the most beautiful lyrics in English literature.

D. Name the author of each of the following literary works.

1. The Canterbury Tales 2. The Faerie Queene

3. Paradise Lost 4. "Death, Be Not Proud"

5. "The Sun Rising" 6. "Of Studies"

7. Macbeth 8. Tamburlaine

9. "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"

10. Dr. Faustus

E. Define the literary terms listed below.

L Renaissance 2. Humanism

3. Spenserian stanza 4. Metaphysical poetry

5. The Renaissance hero

F. For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret it.

1. "A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine, Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde, Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine, The cruell markes of many a bloudy fielde;

Yet armes till that time did he never wield:

His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,

As much disdayning to the curbe to yield _:

Full jolly knight he seemed, and ik\re did sitt,

As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt. "

2. "Had I as many souls as there be stars I'd give them all for Mephistophilis!

By him I'll be great emperor of the world, And make a bridge through the moving air To pass the ocean with a band of men; I'll join the hills that bind the Afric shore And make that country continent to Spain And both contributory to my crown; The Emperor shall not live but by my leave, Nor any potentate of Germany. "

3. "Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. "

4. "But thy eternal summer shall not fade. Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st_:

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life the thee. "

5. ".. .

You may as well go stand upon the beach And bid the main flood bate his usual height; You may as well use question with the wolf, Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb; You may as well forbid the mountain pines To wag their high tops and to make no noise When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven; You may as well do any thing most hard As seek to soften that — than which what's harder? His Jewish heart. "

6. "To be, or not to be — that is the question; Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? ..."

7. "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. "

8. "Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus,

Through windows and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?

9. ". . .

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. "

10. ". . .

Though changed in outward luster, that fixed mind And high disdain, from sense of injured merit, That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, And to the fierce contention brought along Innumerable force of spirits armed, That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring, His utmost power with adverse power opposed In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, And shook his throne. ..."

G. Give brief answers to the following questions.

1. Briefly comment on Geoffrey Chaucer's works and his literary achievements.

2. What contribution did Christopher Marlowe make to English literature?

3. Please describe Christopher Marlowe's Renaissance heroes.

4. What kind of character is Fanstus?

5. Briefly comment on the main tragic heroes in Shakespeare's four greatest tragedies.

6. Why is John Milton the greatest writer of his time?

7. What does Milton intend to tell the reader by writing Paradise Lost?

H. Short essay questions.

1. Give a brief analysis of Hamlet's characterization.

2. Summarize Shakespeare's literary career.

3. Please analyze Satan, the hero in John Milton's Paradise Lost.

Chapter 2 The Neoclassical Period

A. Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative an­swers. Choose the one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets.

( ) 1. ______is the most successful religious allegory in the English language.

A. Genesis A B. Exodus

C. The Pilgrim's Progress D. The Holy War

( ) 2. Alexander Pope worked painstakingly on his poems and final­ly brought to its last perfection______Dryden had success­fully used in his plays.

A. the heroic couplet B. the free verse

C. the blank verse D. the Spenserian stanza

( ) 3. The object of______novels was to present a faithful picture of life, "the just copies of human manners," with sound teaching woven into their texture, so as to teach them to know themselves, their proper spheres and appropriate man­ners.

A. John Bunyan's B. Alexander Pope's

C. Jonathan Swift's D. Henry Fielding's

( ) 4. ______has been regarded by some as "Father of the English novel" for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel.

A. John Bunyan B. Henry Fielding

C Daniel Defoe D. Jonathan Swift

( ) 5. Of all the 18th century novelists ______was the first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a "comic epic in prose. "

A. Henry Fielding B. Daniel Defoe

C. John Bunyan D. Jonathan Swift

( ) 6.______brings Henry Fielding the name of the "Prose Homer".

A. The Pilgrim's Progress B. Tom Jones

C. Robinson Crusoe D. Colonel Jack

( ) 7. ______was very much concerned with the theme of the vani­ty of human wishes and tried to awaken men to this folly and hoped to cure them of it through his writing.

A. Samuel Johnson B. Jonathan Swift

C. Richard Brinsley Sheridan D. Thomas Gray

( ) 8. ______was the only important dramatist of the 18th century.

A. Alexander Pope B. Richard Brinsley Sheridan

C. Samuel Johnson D. George Bernard Shaw

( ) 9. The Rivals and______are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw.

A. The School for Scandal B. The Duenna

C. Widowers'' Houses D. The Doctor's Dilemma

( ) 10. ______is mainly a story about two brothers, the hypocriti­cal Joseph Surface and the good-natured, imprudent and spendthrift Charles Surface.

A. The Rivals B. The School for Scandal

C. The Duenna D. Pizarro

( ) 11. ______is a sharp satire on the moral degeneracy of the aris­tocratic-bourgeois society in the 18th century England.

A. The Rivals B. Gulliver's Travels

C. Tom Jones D. The School for Scandal

( )12. The poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is re­garded as the most representative work of______.

A. the Metaphysical School B. The Graveyard School

C. the Gothic School D. the Romantic school

( )13. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard",______best and most representative work, has been ranked among the best of the 18th century English poetry.

A. Alexander Pope's B. Thomas Gray's

C. Samuel Johnson's D. William Blake's

( )14. In his novel, Robinson Crusoe, Defoe eulogizes the hero of the______.

A. aristocratic class B. enterprising landlords

C. rising bourgeoisie D. hard-working people

( )15. As the representative of the Enlightenment, Pope was one of the first to introduce ______to England.

A. rationalism B. criticism

C. romanticism D. realism

B. Complete each of the following statements with a proper word or a phrase according to the textbook.

1. The Dunciad is generally considered to be Pope's best ______ work.

2. An Essay on Criticism is a ______poem written in ______.

3. Gulliver's Travels contains ______ parts, each dealing with one particular voyage during which Gulliver meets with ship­wreck or piracy or some other ______.

4. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams, Written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes turns from a burlesque into a "comic epic in______", whose subject is "the true______" in human na­ture.

5. Tom Jones is a masterpiece on the subject of______.

6. Fielding shared the contemporary view of the English enlighteners that the purpose of the novel was not just to ______, but to ______.

7. Henry Fielding adopted "the ______narration" in which the author becomes the "all-knowing God".

8. The panoramic view Tom Jones provides of the______-centu­ry English country and city life with scores of different places and a whole gallery of about ______characters is superb.

9. Tom Jones's 18 books of epic form are divided into three sec­tions; in the country, on the ______and in______.

10. As a lexicographer, Samuel Johnson distinguished himself as the author of the first English______by an Englishman.

11. In literary creation and criticism, Samuel Johnson was rather ______, openly showing his dislike for much of the newly rising form of literature.

12. "To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield" is a letter written in a refined and very polite language, with a bitter undertone of______and______.

13. "To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield" shows its author's strong indignation at the Lord's ______.

14. Sheridan is much concerned with the current______issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day.

15. The School for Scandal has been regarded as the best since Shakespeare.

16. Thomas Gray has been remembered as the leader of the ______poetry of his day.

17. Thomas Gray's poems, as a whole, are mostly devoted to a ______or meditation on life.

18. Thomas Gray's poems are often marked with the trait of a highly artificial diction and a ______word order.

C. Decide whether the following statements are true or false and write your answers in the brackets.

( )1. Jonathan Swift defined a good style as "proper words in pr­oper places".

( )2. Henry Fielding's early experience in poetry writing contrib­uted a lot to his later career as a novelist.

( )3. The History of Jonathan Wild the Great, is a satiric biog­raphy that harks back to Fielding's early plays.

( )4. John Bunyan was the first to give the modern novel its str­ucture and style.

( )5. Tom Jones is generally considered Sheridan's masterpiece.

( )6. Tom Jones consists of 18 books, each with an essay before it.

( )7. Samuel Johnson compiled A Dictionary of the English Lan­guage single-handedly.

( )8. The School for Scandal and The Rivals are regarded as true classics in English comedy.

( )9. Love is the constant theme in Sheridan's plays.

( )10. Thomas Gray's writing style is sophisticated and allusive.

( )11. "The Vanity Fair" is a well-known part in The School for Scandal.

( )12. The first part of Gulliver's Travels is about Gulliver's expe­rience in Brobdingnag.

( )13. Pope made his name as a great poet with the publication of The Rape of the Lock.

( )14. Thomas Gray was not a prolific poet.

( )15. Bunyan's style was modeled after that of the English Bible.

( )16. Pope emphasizes that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion, good taste and decorum.

( )17. An Essay on Criticism exerts great influence upon Pope's contemporary writers in advocating the classical rules.

( )18. Lilliput is a place described in Tom Jones.

( ) 19. As a very successful poet, Thomas Gray accepted the Poet Laureateship in 1757.

( )20. In The Pilgrim's Progress there is a predominant metaphor—life as a journey.

D. Name the author of each of the following literary works.

I. The Pilgrim's Progress 2. An Essay on Criticism 3. The Dunciad 4. The Rape of the Lock 5. Robinson Crusoe 6. Gulliver's Travels

7. "A Modest Proposal"

8. The History of Jonathan Wild the Great

9. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

10. "To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield"

11. The Rivals 12. The School for Scandal

13. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

E. Define the literary terms listed below.

1. The Enlightenment Movement

2. Neoclassicism

3. The Graveyard School

4. The heroic couplet

5. Gothic Novel

F.

A) For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then^ briefly interpret it.

1."...

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,

Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

False eloquence, like the prismatic glass.

Its gaudy colors spreads on every place;

The face of Nature we no more survey,

All glares alike, without distinction gay.

2."...

Expression is the dress of thought, and still Appears more decent as more suitable. A vile conceit in pompous words expressed Is like a clown in regal purple dressed:

3. "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. "

4. "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Awaits alike the inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave. "

B) Read the quoted parts carefully and answer the questions in English.

1. "And, moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind, here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false swearers, and that of a blood-red color. "

A. Identify the author and the title of the novel from which this passage is taken.

B. Identify the name of the fair.

C. Summarize the meaning of the passage.

2. "I consulted several things in my situation which I found would be proper for me_: 1st, health and fresh water I just now mentioned; 2ndly, shelter from the heat of the sun; 3rdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether men or beasts; 4thly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my expectation yet. "

A. Identify the author and the title of the novel from which this passage is taken.

B. Who is the narrator?

C. Explain the meaning of the last thing mentioned in the pas­sage.

3. "Two days after this adventure, the Emperor, having ordered that part of his army which quarters in and about his metropo­lis to be in a readiness, took a fancy of diverting himself in a very singular manner. He desired I would stand like a colos­sus, with my legs as far asunder as I conveniently could. He then commanded his general (who was an old experienced leader, and a great patron of mine) to draw up the troops in close order, and march them under me; .. .’

A. Identify the author and the title of the novel from which this passage is taken.

B. Who is the narrator?

C. What does the passage tell us?

4. "When each of the combatants had borne off sufficient spoils of hair from the head of her antagonist, the next rage was against the garments. In this attack they exerted so much violence, that in a very few minutes they were both naked to the middle. "

A. Identify the author and the title of the work from which this passage is taken.

B. What is the passage describing?

C. What are the names of the two combatants?

5. "Why, I believe I should be obliged to borrow a little of your morality, that's all. — But brother, do you know now that you surprise me exceedingly, by naming me with Lady Teazle — for faith, I always thought you were her favourite. "

A. Identify the author and the title of the work from which this passage is taken.

B. Who is the speaker?

C. Whom does "brother" refer to?

G. Give brief answers to the following questions.

1. What's the theme of The Pilgrim's Progress!

2. Briefly comment on Alexander Pope's literary outlook.

3. Please comment on Alexander Pope's literary achievements.

4. What is An Essay on Criticism mainly about?

5. Try to give an analysis of Robinson Crusoe.

6. Why is Tom Jones a successful novel?

7. Comment on Samuel Johnson's literary outlook.

8. What is Samuel Johnson's language style?

9. Briefly introduce the theme of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".

H. Short essay questions.

1. Give an analysis of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

2. What kind of writer is Henry Fielding?

3. Please give your comment on Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his major works.