15th Century Literature

1. 15TH CENTURY
DREARYAND BARREN PERIOD IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

2. HISTORY
Caxton’s Printing press: first printing press in England
English Humanism: matter of thought and training rather than spontaneous emotion
Oxford reformers: John Colet, Erasmus andThomas More
Tottel’s Miscellany: collection of songs and sonnets written byWyatt and Surrey
Bible translations: religious prose
A timeline of the actions leading up to the famous event
Caxton’s printing
(1476)
English
humanism
Oxford reformers
(1500-1530)
Tottel’s
miscellany(1557)
Bible translations

3. WILLIAM CAXTON
 English prose spearhead in 15th century with caxton’s translations
 Businessman, diplomat , writer and publisher
 England’s first printer: set first printing press in England in 1476.
 The first printed book of him is “The Recuyell of the Histories of
Troye”
 Translated from French ,Latin and Dutch Literature
 He put in print Canterbury tales
 Compared with others,he cannot be said to have advanced the
art of English prose,but made it available to the public.

4. ”
“
I wish to go beyond the fire that burns me
Petrach
Humanism:
 Movement started in the 14th century to 16th century
 Revival of classical influence of Latin and Greek, flowering of arts and literature-cultural rebirth
 Developed a new learning concentrated on thought and training rather than emotions
 Started in Italy, moved through France,Germany and reached England
 It established in England through courts and university

5. OXFORD REFORMERS

6. OXFORD REFORMERS
• A work not designed to offer biographies of the persons named, but to carefully study
their joint work at Oxford
• Title is misleading because they only advocated reforms,did not undertake any
• Eventhough they were in Oxford, London was the real centre of influence
• They were in touch with the court of HenryVIII
• They were not in the mainstream of any religious life or polical agenda of the time

7. THOMAS MORE’S UTOPIA
 Published in Latin in 1516
 Translated into English in 1551
 The word ‘Utopia’ in Greek means no place
 Inspired by Plato’s Republic and explorer AmericoVespucci
 Work largely based on the voyages of More itself
 Book is divided into two parts: first part dealing with criticism of political and social system
Second part –description of the island utopia
 Presents an ideal society where there is no discrimination on the basis of money,gender and practices
 Structures in the form of a discussion between Peter Giles, Raphel Hythloday andThomas More

8. TOTTEL'S MISCELLANY : SONGSAND SONNETS OF HENRY
HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY, SIRTHOMASWYATT AND OTHERS
 First printed collection of miscellaneous poems in
1557
 Contains the works of courtly makers and poets
which had circulated in manuscript for the benefit
of court
 Half of the poems byThomas Wyatt and Henry
Howard,Earl of Surrey
 It got its name from its publisher,RichardTottel
o Tottel’s Miscellany, however, was not intended as
a songbook, but as a book of verse
o Part of the miscellany’s wider significance was
due to its role in popularising the sonnet.
o Wyatt and Surrey were the earliest writers of the
sonnet in English and the fourteen-line sonnet
dominates the collection, inaugurating a vogue for
sonneteering that would, in part, define the
English literary renaissance.

9. CONTRIBUTIONS OFWYATT AND SURREY
Thomas Wyatt
• Introduced sonnet form to England, in imitation
of Italian poet Petrarch.
• Unlike Petrarch, who idealizes love as
transforming,Wyatt stresses the anguish and
disillusionment of love
• Petrarchan sonnet: a sonnet form popularized by
Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme
scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of
several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.
Henry Howard,Earl of Surrey
• Introduced blank verse to English poetry: Blank
verse is a verse without rhymes, composed in iambic
pentameter.
• Wrote a verse translation ofVergil’s Aeneid in which
he devised a new verse form in English– BlankVerse.
• ThomasWyatt tried his best to translate Italian
sonneteer; on the other hand, Surrey not only tried
but also reformed the style of writing sonnets.
• Invented Shakespearean sonnet form: The
Shakespearean sonnet is made of three quatrains
(four-line stanzas) and one couplet (a two-line
stanza).

10. BIBLETRANSLATIONS
Year Author Significance
14th Century AD John Wycliffe Bible Translated from the LatinVersion.
First translation of the entire Bible in English.
1516 Erasmus ( Greek NewTestament) Enriched it with Latin annotations and
explained what Bible really meant
1526 WilliamTyndale(Tyndale New
Testament)
Translated byWilliamTyndale.
First translation into English from the Greek
text.
Contained only the NewTestament.
1535 Miles Coverdale(Coverdale Bible) Translated by Miles Coverdale.
First complete Bible in modern English.
NewTestament was translated from the
Greek text, but the OldTestament from Latin
and German translations.
1539 The Great Bible Primarily translated by Miles Coverdale.
First "authorized version," or version
sanctioned by the EnglishCrown.
Also known as the "Cranmer Bible" and
"Whitchurch's Bible."

11. BIBLETRANSLATIONS REMAINING
Year Author Significance
1560 The Geneva Bible First English Bible translated
entirely from the original
languages.
First English Bible translated by a
committee.
First English Bible to contain verse
numbers.
1568 The Bishop’s Bible Second authorized version of the
English Bible
1611 The King JamesVersion of Bible Also known as the "Authorized
Version" or AV.
Used the "Bishop's Bible" as its
starting point.
Underwent a substantial revision
in 1769, where it took the basic
form it has today.