【正文】 he was sent on embassies to Italy. ? In 1373, he was made Controller of Customs in the Port of London. ? In 1385 he became Justice of the Peace and Knight of the Shire (Member of Parliament) for the County of Kent. ? In the period of 1389 to 1391, he served as Clerk of the King’ s Works . ? In 1391, he was appointed Forester of a royal forest in Somerset ? He died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, thus founding the “Poets’ Corner”. II. Literary Career 1. The French Period ? During this period Chaucer was mainly under the influence of the French literature. His earliest work was The Romaunt of the Rose《玫瑰傳奇》 , a free translation of a 13thcentury French poem The Roman de la Rose. In this period, Chaucer was trying his hand on meter, language and subject. 2 The Italian Period ? Chaucer‘ s journey to Italy in 1372 exerted a profound influence on his literary development by immersing him in the works of the great Italian writers such as Dante(但?。?, Petrarch （彼特拉克） and Boccaccio（卜迦丘） . The poet’ s own creativeness shows itself through borrowed themes. ? Works of this period: ? The House of Fame《聲譽(yù)殿堂》 ? Troilus and Criseyde《特洛勒斯和克里希德》 ? The Parliament of Fouls《百鳥會議》 ? The Legend of Good Women《貞潔婦女傳奇》 3 The Mature Period ? Apart from minor and miscellaneous works, Chaucer39。 the language and style are simple and straightforward. ? d)It was written for the noble class, so it had nothing to do with the mon people. ? e)It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtues. ? f)It contains perilous adventures more or less remote from ordinary life, even describes supernatural things. 2) Romance Cycles Romances falls into three cycles : 1)“matters of Britain”( adventures of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table), 2) “matters of France” (Emperor Charlemagne and his peers) 3)“matters of Rome”. (Alexander the Great and so forth) 3) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ? It is a verse romance of 2530 lines, derived from Celtic legend. ? A. Story: ? B. Analysis:1) alliterative verse 2) an account of a typical chivalric adventure (motifs) 3) concerned with the rights and wrongs of conduct 4) Its theme is a series of tests on faith, courage, purity and human weakness for selfpreservation. 5) structure: contains a prologue, an epilogue and its main ) the unknown author tries to make his romance the vehicle of a wise morality in which the humorously grotesque merges with the morally serious. 3 Popular Ballads ? 1) Introduction: ? Popular ballads are originally dance songs in verse form, usually in 4line stanzas, with the second and fourth lines rhymed. ? They are mainly literature of peasants, created collectively by people and constantly revised in the process of being handed down from mouth to mouth. ? There were several kinds of ballads: historical, legendary, fantastical, lyrical and humorous. ? 2) Ballads of Robin Hood ? The most famous cycle of English ballads centers on the stories about a legendary outlaw called Robin Hood. Robin Hood is partly a real and partly a legendary figure who lived during the reign of Richard I. He was the leader of a band of outlaws, and they lived in the deep forest. They often attacked the rich, waged war against the bishops and archbishops, and helped the poor people. Therefore, Robin Hood and his followers were constantly hunted by the sheriffs. Robin Hood ballads shows the fighting spirit, indomitable courage and revolutionary energy of the English peasantry. Ⅲ . Middle English Prose ? Thomas Malory is the only important prose writer in the fifteenth century. He wrote an important work called Morte d39。 mon English spoke old English。 教學(xué)難點： 1．主題與母題的區(qū)分； 2．《坎特伯雷故事集》中《序曲》的結(jié)構(gòu)特征及其蘊(yùn)含的宗教思想； 3．英語詩歌的韻律、格律特點； 4．學(xué)生對詩歌中古英語詞匯的理解。 教學(xué)目的 : 1．了解中世紀(jì)英語文學(xué)的發(fā)展?fàn)顩r； 2．掌握這一時期各種文學(xué)形式及代表人物的特點。 conflict in the form of battles or other physical forces bat。 God is called wonderwielder” 。 the chieftains are called the treasure keepers。 教學(xué)方法： 教師講授、學(xué)生報告與討論相結(jié)合 教授內(nèi)容： The AngloSaxon Period (449— 1066) Historical background ? Before410 ., Britain had been a Roman province. After the fall of the Roman Empire (410 .), the aboriginal Celtic population was conquered by the Teutonic Tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes who named the central part of Albion Anglia, or England. ? About 449 Jutes left Denmark, landed in the Isle of Tha. And Angled and Saxons followed. ? Angles, an important Teutonic tribe furnished their new home England. The dialects gradually grew into a single language called AngloSaxon, or Old English. Literature characteristics The literature of this period is divided into pagan literature and Christian literature. ? The former represent poetry and in form of oral sagas. ? The later represents the writings developed under teaching of the monks. ? The poetry was copied by the monks and has the religious coloring. ? Most of works can not find its scribe. ? Caedmon, the father of English song, is the first known religious poet of England. He wrote a poetic Paraphrase of the bible ? Cynewulf produced the didactic poem The Christ ? Alfred the Great (848901) wrote The AngloSaxon Chronicles. This book records the main happenings of the AngloSaxon period. It is the best monument of the Old English prose. Representative achievement of AngloSaxon period—The Song of Beowulf ? The Song of Beowulf is England’ s national epic. It was written by an unknown scribe at the beginning of the 10th century and was discovered in 1705. It reflects events which took place approximately at the beginning of the 6th century. ? The epic consists of 3182 lines and is to be divided into two parts. ? The main plot: Writing Features of the Poem: ? 1) It is