英国文学史名词解释.docxVIP

英国文学史名词解释 Romance: The romance was a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. The medieval romances were tales of chivalry or amorous adventure occurring in King Arthurs court. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an example of a medieval romance. Ballad: It is a story in poetic form, often about tragic love and usually sung. Ballads were passed down from generation to generation by singers. The medieval ballads are ballads of Robin Hood. Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 19th century English ballad. Heroic couplet: They are poetry composed in iambic pentameter. In this form of poetry, lines consisting of five iambic feet rime together in pairs. The rime scheme :aa bb cc ….. Renaissance: Renaissance marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world. It first started in Italy in the 14 th century and gradually spread all over Europe. The word “Renaissance” means rebirth or revival. In essence, it is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, and to lift the restriction in all areas placed by the Roman Catholic Church authorities. Two features of renaissance: It is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. People learned to admire the Greek and Latin works as models of literary form. It is the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Sonnet: A lyric poem of fourteen lines whose ryhme scheme is fixed. The rhyme scheme in the Italian form as typified in the sonnets of Petrarch is abbaabba cdecde. The Petrarchian sonnet has two divisions: the first is of eight lines (the octave), and the second is of six lines (the sestet). The rhyme scheme of the English, or Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg. The change of rhyme in the English sonnet is coincidental with a change of theme in t