BEGC 104
British Poetry and Drama – 14th to 17th Century
BEGC 104 Free Solved Assignment 2022 Jan
BEGC 104 Free Solved Assignment
Q. 1. Write short notes on the following in about 200 words each. (a) Courtly love sonnet
Ans. Edmund Spenser made the Spenserian stanza familiar. The Spenserian stanza is
lyrical, measured and greatly controlled. Spenser became a model of versification
for the English Romantic poets. In the 19th century, poets including Keats and
Byron, made use of the Spenserian verse. Spenser is also known as the poet of
allegory which he used in The Faerie Queene and The Shepherdes Calendar.
COURTLY LOVE SONNET
The Elizabethan love poets liked the courtly love sonnet or lyric. Wyatt introduced
the love sonnet to the English court audience. In the conventional courtly love
sonnet, which was taken from Italian poetry, the subject was the pining lover and
the beautiful but pitiless beloved. The sonnet provided the image of a man pleading
with a girl to respond to his love. The sonnets displayed the lover’s love-sick
self, dwelled on the charms of the girl and pleaded her to take pity on him. The
English poets had the expression of love and combined it with other literary
traditions and attitudes. They picked up the Chaucerian style and weaved it with
the Italian. Wyatt’s sonnet “They Flee from Me” is an example.

(b) The Elizabethan World
Ans. In a letter written to Walter Ralegh, Spenser had written his idea of what a
poet should be and the role he was to play in contemporary society. He wrote to
Ralegh that “The general end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman
or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline”. Spenser believed good
literature fashions a gentleman and makes him virtuous. Spenser wanted to be
recognized as a modern poet who belonged to the changing time capable of expressing
new developments in his society. That experimentation led to The Spenserian Sonnet
which later augmented a new canon of English poetry. The sonnet was new to English
writing and it required careful handling. Lyricism and folk culture gained
freshness of spirit and appeal in Spenser’s hands. It moved nearer to the English
idiom and widened the scope of poetic expression. It dwelt neither on narrative nor
moralizing, but focused on the mental state of an emotional person taken up with
the urge to live and express. He was the first English poet after Chaucer to have
become a representative voice of Elizabethan England. He is the forerunner of
Shakespeare and Milton. He is also known as the national poet of England writing
poems that presented the grandeur of the English kingdom and the rule of the queen.
According to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Spenser’s writings have the brightest and
purest form of nationality which was common in elder poets. There is nothing
unamiable and nothing contemptuous of others. To glorify their country, to elevate
England into a queen, an empress of the heart, this was their passion and object.
The nation needed at the time and Spenser filled that gap in English poetry. In
Spenser, the spirit of chivalry is entirely predominant, although with a much
greater infusion of the poet’s own individual self into it than is found in any
other writer. He has the wit of the southern with the deeper inwardness of the
northern genius.
Italian and Latin comedies were source for Elizabethan comedies. These comedies
used to be often romances in praise of patron or monarch. Love and suffering were
the main theme of Elizabethan comedies. During this period,history plays and
chronicles were common. As far as tragedy was concerned, they used Seneca as a
model. Being melodramatic, these tragedies used to be full of emotional speeches
and scenes. A great deal of stage views were used by playwriters skillfully.
Tragedies were concerned with the darker side of human characters such as
immorality, greed and cruelty. Most of the time they also touched the melancholic
aspects of human life. Almost all the playwrights of this age took interest in
contemporary politics and history….
Christopher Marlowe’s privileged and strange two-part tragedy Tamburlaine (1587-
1589) Thomas Kyd’s popular revenge tragedy The Spanish Tragedy (1589), William
Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1595), and Thomas Heywood’s
domestic tragedy A Woman Killed With Kindness (1603) are the most influential
tragedies. These models for tragic drama were developed by writers like George
Chapman, John Webster, John Ford, Philip Massinger, and James Shirley. A related
line of historical drama can be traced from John Bale’s moral history King John
(1539) through Marlowe’s Edward II (1592), Shakespeare’s first (Henry VI, Part One;
Henry VI, Part Two; Henry VI, Part Three; and Richard III) and second 15 (Richard
II; Henry IV, Part One: Henry IV, Part Two; and Henry V). Other historicals trace
Shakespeare and John Fletcher’s Henry VIII (1613), and Ford’s Perkin Warbeck
(1634). In Elizabethan England, travelling companies staged performances in barns
and yards and they were at the mercy of guilds. By the end of the 16th century, two
public playhouses had come up outside of London where the people enjoyed drama.
These playhouses were the Theatre (1576) and the Curtain (1577). They were followed
by Rose (1587), Swan (1595), Globe (1599), Red Bull (1605) and Hope (1614). All
were built outside of the city limits to avoid problems with the city government.
Some theatres were built inside the city limits but were the private playhouses,
allowing for a smaller and wealthier audience. Dramas presented through these
playhouses manifest the contemporary society to the audience. The patronage of the
court of the kingdom made the dramatic companies
The courts and counselors used to visit the theatres to enjoy drama and share
audience entertainment. Tragedy does not get success without audience’s interest in
serious matters of tragedy. At the theatres like the Red Bull especially during the
holidays the common men used to stand under the stage to evaluate the incidents of
the play. But at the Globe, there were courtiers, university men, gentlemen and
their wives and merchants for evaluation.
Section-B
Q. 1. Answer the following reference to the context in about 300 words each: (a) I
was aboute to wedde a wyf; allas,
What shold I bye it on my flesh so deere?
Yet hadde I leverewedde no wyf to-yeere!
Ans. Context: These lines are taken from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Explanation: In the days of King Arthur, the Wife of Bath begins, the isle of
Britain was full of fairies and elves. Now, those creatures are gone because their
spots have been taken by the friars and other mendicants that seem to fill every
nook and cranny of the isle. And though the friars rape women, just as the incubi
did in the days of the fairies, the friars only cause women dishonour-the incubi
always got them pregnant. In Arthur’s court, however, a young, lusty knight comes
across a beautiful young maiden one day. Overcome by lust and his sense of his own
power, he rapes her. The court is scandalized by the crime and decrees that the
knight should be put to death by decapitation. In these lines writer wants to
convey that “Oh my God,” interrupted the Pardoner just then. “By God and Saint
John, you sure do have a lot to say about marriage and sex! I thought about getting
married soon, but I’m not so sure I want my wife to have control over my life and
my body like that. Maybe I shouldn’t get married at all!”
(b) With thousand arrowes, which your eies have shot:
Yet shoot ye sharpely still, and spare me not,
But glory thinke to make these cruel stoures.
Ans. Context: These lines are taken from Sonnet LVII. Sweet warrior! when shall I
have peace with you by Edmund Spenser.
Explanation: In the sonnet LVII- (Sweet Warrior), Spenser the poet describes
himself as a mere slave pleading her in order to make her accept his proposal. The
sonnet continues the ongoing struggle the speaker suffers in dealing with an
unresponsive beloved. The lover addresses his beloved as a “Sweet warrior” and asks
a question “when shall I have peace with you?” The question is self evident of the
frustration and desperation in his tone. Like that of many Shakespearean sonnets,
this sonnet continues with the torment the speaker is going through while dealing
with an indifferent beloved. The lover asks her to end the war she has waged
against him as he cannot tolerate anymore. His powers have weakened and his wounds
have deteriorated. He says that the arrows shot from her eyes pierced through his
heart and make him unable to survive without her. In the final two lines he
requests her to “Make peace” “and graunt” him timely grace”, “so That” all his
“wounds will heale in little space.” Her attacks are the constant refusals that
make him suffer.
(C)For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,
And eek my name bee wyped out lykewize.
Ans. Context: These lines are taken from Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser.
Explanation: The poem begins by setting the scene: the speaker (the “I”) of the
poem is at the strand with his gal pal. The strand, in case you are not up on
Spenser’s lingo, is another name for the shore-you know, the sandy part of the
beach.So the speaker and his beloved are chilling at the beach, and he decides to
get all romantic and write her name in the sand. Aw, cuteness.
But then the waves wash away her name-sadness. Before we move on, let’s just take
note of the poem’s form. We know from the title that it’s a sonnet (what’s up, 14-
line poem) but we’re not so sure about the rhyme scheme yet. There’s no rhyming
going on in these lines. You might also want to note that the poem has ten-syllable
lines, which should put you on iambic pentameter alert.
Section-C
Q. 1. Discuss the character of Dr. Faustus.
Ans. From the very beginning it’s foreshadowed that Faustus is doomed for a tragic
end: illustrated vividly in the allusion to the story of Icarus the Chorus
discusses in the opening of the play. After Faustus becomes skilled in the dark
arts, he summons the devil Mephist, and shortly afterwards, renounces his trust and
allegiance to God completely. Faustus’s foray into the dark arts is the beginning
of the fall for his character, but it’s ultimately his flaws that lead to this
eventual tragedy. Throughout the story Faustus struggles profoundly with his faith
and what he should believe in. He’s drawn to the dark arts and the powers and
prestige it gives him, but at the same time he realizes that he’s ultimately living
a life completely devoid of God. This struggle is further symbolized through the
good angel and evil angel that give him advice many times throughout the story. As
the good angel tells him, he can repent at any time and God will forgive him of his
sins, saving him from the state and dammed fate he currently is in. However,
through what appears to be lack of inner strength, he always denies this choice,
thinking he has given himself up to a life of
damnation and there’s no going back. There’s a great struggle throughout the play
on Faustus s part, as he finds he can never give up this power that he gains from
magic completely. Faustus displays this inner struggle the few times he’s on the
verge of repenting, in an effort begin life again in God’s presence. However, each
time something tempts him and leads him astray: whether it be threats by Mephist or
the enticement of the deadly sins from Lucifer himself. Therefore, this inner
struggle of faith and lack of strength is one the key flaws in leading to his fall
as a character.
Dr. Faustus is described as being an incredibly wise man of stature that has risen
to great heights in life. The Chorus reveals at the opening of the play that
Faustus came from a family that was at the bottom of society, yet he has risen up
to a high, and respected, position: “Now is he born of parents base of stock”.
Faustus is further described as being a brilliant scholar who is well renowned
among others of his kind, and is a true Renaissance man. At the beginning of the
play, it’s clear that Faustus could be a master of many professions if he so
desired to in life. However, what Faustus wants is something greater: true power
and abilities that are beyond the limits of what a normal man can achieve. Faustus
in a long soliloquy discusses these high ambitions and dreams he has- of obtaining
riches, becoming infinitely knowledgeable and wise, and to even reshape the entire
continent of Europe. His ambitions appear initially overly prideful, but, they are
also shown as very grand and ambitious in scope. Therefore, these ambitions
illustrate Faustus as someone who is heroic and admirable in character. The fact
that Faustus decides to take part in the dark arts, is also, something to respect,
as the prospect of pushing the limits of what humans can achieve is a quite brave
and audacious concept. Faustus could have become an expert among many highly
respected professions, but instead, he decides to become involved in ‘magic’,
taking a road less travelled that proves to be both a dangerous and a risky venture
for his character, the man, who does not know what is good and what is bad. When
the Good Angle and the Evil Angel appear and speak of both the negative positive
aspects, the man Faustus prefers the Evil Angel and he cannot come out of the trap.
The scholar Faustus, however, tell him there is a positive aspect also. The Angels
can also be interpreted as one Dr. Faustus the scholar and Faustus the man.
When we first meet Faustus, he is a man who is dissatisfied with his studies in
dialectics, law, medicine, and divinity. Even though he is the most brilliant
scholar in the world, his studies have not brought him satisfaction, and he is
depressed about the limitations of human knowledge. In order to satisfy his thirst
for greater knowledge, he decides to experiment in necromancy. He wants to
transcend the bonds of normal human life and discover the heights beyond. One might
say that he wants to have Godlike qualities.
Faustus is willing to sell his soul to the devil under the terms of a contract by
which he will receive twenty-four years of service from Mephistophilis and, at the
end of this time, will relinquish his soul to Lucifer. At first he is potentially a
great man who desires to perform beneficial acts for humanity, but as a result of
his willingness to exchange his soul for a few years of pleasure, he begins to sink
toward destruction. He allows his powers to be reduced to performing nonsensical
tricks and to satisfying his physical appetites.
At various times throughout the drama, Faustus does stop and consider his dilemma
and comes to the verge of repentance. He often thinks about repentance, but he
consciously remains aligned with Mephistophilis and Lucifer, and never takes the
first steps to obtain forgiveness. By the end of the drama, when he is waiting for
his damnation, he rationalizes his refusal to mainto God.Online Study and E-
Learning
Throughout the drama, internal and external forces suggest that Faustus could have
turned to God and could have been forgiven. Ja the final scene, the scholars want
Faustus to make an attempt to seek the forgiveness of God, but Faustus rationalizes
that he has lived against the dictates of God, and he makes no effort to invoke
God’s forgiveness until the appearance of the devils. By then, he can only scream
out in agony and horror at his final fate.
Q. 2. Write a critical appreciation on ‘Death Be Not Proud’.
Ans. The poet addresses death in the sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud”. Here, the poet
does not speak of the power of death or its inevitability. He reprimands death for
being too proud and remarks that for him death doesn’t hold sway over the world nor
can it overpower him individually. He argues that death is “for those whom thou
think’st, thou doest overthrow/die not”. The poet also calls Death “poore” – it is
not human beings who are the subject of pity but death itself deserves that
denigration. Note the assurance in the poet-subject’s words “nor yet canst thou
kill me”. He says death makes a picture of sleep and rest, while life keeps on
moving. When the best of men are taken by death, they shed only the bodily form.
Donne also suggests that death lives in the company of disease, squalor and war.
Simultaneously, he says that Death is a “slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate
men”.
Both fate and chance can cause deaths, kings can order executions, and desperate
men unthinkingly may kill people. The poet strips death of its power as an
independent agency. He suggests that to reach eternity we don’t need death since
“poppie and charms can make us sleepe as well/ and better than thy stroake”. Death
stands rebuked for swelling in conceit. Donne projects an unenviable picture of
death. Donne has personified death throughout the poem, stating it should not be
proud. Being proud is a human quality. Hence, death is given a human quality of
having feelings and emotions. Donne has also used metaphors in this poem. The first
is used in the opening line “Death, be not Proud.” Here, death is compared to a
proud man. The second is used in the ninth line, “Thou art slave to fate.” In the
last line in an extended metaphor where death is compared to the non-existent or
unrealistic object.
The major theme in “Death, be not Proud” is the powerlessness of death. It
comprises the poet’s emotions, mocking the position of death and arguing that death
is unworthy of fear or awe. Death gives birth to our souls. Thus, it should not
consider itself mighty, or superior as ‘death’ is not invincible. The poet also
considers death an immense pleasure similar to sleep and rest. For him, the drugs
can also provide the same experience. The poem foreshadows the realistic
presentation of death and firmly believes in eternal life after death. The poet has
presented death as a powerless figure. He denies the authority of death with
logical reasoning, saying the death does not kill people. It liberates their souls
and directs them to eternal life. He does not consider it man’s invincible
conqueror. Instead, he calls it a poor fellow without having free will. The arrival
of death is also compared with a short rest and sleep that recuperates a person for
the upcoming journey. The poet’s denial to the conventional approach of death gives
the reader a new interpretation. Donne has personified death throughout the poem,
stating it should not be proud. Being proud is a human quality. Hence, death is
given a human quality of having feelings and emotions.
John Donne revolted against the Elizabethans in manner and in matter. He rejected
the sweet, idealized Petrarchan, Platonic and Arcadian style and brought into
English poetry intellectualism, complexity, analysis farfetched imagery, wit,
medieval scholasticism and naturalness. He is not a metaphysical poet in the strict
philosophical sense. He is a metaphysical poet because of his style, wit, imagery
and intellectualism, and also because he is thoughtful and imaginative besides
being aware or the clash between the older physics on the one hand, and the new
science of Copernicus and Galileo and Bacon on the other. He is not a
representative poet of his age. But he was well aware of the iron age’ which he
satirizes. His poetry creates nety thoughts and expresses them in a new manner. He
yoked together heterogeneous ideas forcibly. His mind was nearer to Medievalism
than to the Renaissance. He adopted medieval mysticism and scholasticism enveloping
them within intellectualism. So his poetry contains experiences which appeal to the
modern mind. His lyrics are the cries of the Nightingale of the Jacobean Choir! His
rhythms are unconventional. His satires are rich in thought and wit. But they are
‘harsh, witty, lucid, full of a young man’s scorn offools’ and low callings, and a
young thinker’s consciousness of the problems of religion in an age of divided
faiths and oljustice in a corrupt world. As a poet of love he is superb. In range
and poignancy he is the greatest of love poets. His love is based on his
experiences. There are three strains in his love poetry – the cynical showing
contempt for women and their inconstancy; the Platonic expressing the union of
souls and making it a spiritual realization and the conjugal emphasizing the
physical and sensual pleasure. His conception of love differs from that ofhis
contemporaries.
His style is remarkable for its elaboration of a figure with ingenuity with its
rapid association of thoughts, with its telescoping of images and multiple
associations with its heterogeneity of material. The simplicity of language and
complexity of expression make his vocabulary plain and pure. His rhythmic movement
depends on his subtle, doubling and shiftings of the stress. The opening of his
poem is generally dramatic. He offers dramatic debates in verse. John Donne is a
great wit. His wit is new and natural, intellectual and ready-made, original and
sincere. Wit is his very genius, and it fashions his feelings and thoughts. Even
passion, sentiment and sensuality are controlled by wit. He is one of the great
image-makers. He gives sonorous and startling imagery. There is a great variety of
experience in his conceits which are often far-fetched and fantastic. They are
derived from science, nature, religion everyday-world medieval scholasticism, new
philosophy and learning. They are witty. Although Donne is the first poet in the
world in somethings”, yet he has some faults. “Donne”, added Ben Jonson, “for not
keeping of accent, deserved hanging. His tone is harsh and rugged. His irony is
bitter and humour coarse. His sentence structure is complex, and his meaning is
obscure.” Goose remarks. His writings, like his actions, were faulty, violent a
little morbid and even abnormal.
Q. 3. Discuss the ending of the play Macbeth.
Ans. The Tragic End: In the next scene, set in the country near Dunsinane, soldiers
talk how Malcolm and Macduff backed by the English forces are fast approaching
Scotland. They will meet near Birnam wood. They call Macbeth as the “tyrant”. They
also realise how he will no longer be able to sustain his rule. Macbeth has failed
as ruler because they say “Those he commands move only in command./nothing in
love.”
Birnam wood marches to Dunsinane, and that no one born of woman can kill him. After
knowing Lady Macbeth’s condition, he instructs the Doctor to “Pluck from the memory
a rooted sortow.” Meanwhile, the soldiers in Malcolm’s army are ordered to prepare
by cutting down a bough and hold it before them and wait for the opportune moment.
When Macbeth is informed of Lady Macbeth’s death, he philosophizes about life:
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player;
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more, it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
It implies the transience of life. The messenger informs Macbeth of a moving grove
and his worst fears prove to be true. According to the witches his safety was
incumbent on Birnam wood moving up to Dunsinane. He thought this to be an
impossibility but soon enough realizes the witches’ tone was one of “equivocation”.
Still Macbeth is confident of his invincibility as he believes that there can be
none not born of a woman. Macbeth realises the real meaning of the witches’
prophecy. He calls them “juggling fiends” that “palter with us in a double sense.”
Macbeth is finally slain by Macduff. In the final scene in the castle, as Macduff
enters with Macbeth’s decapitated head. This shows the beginning of another cycle
of violence. The play ends with Malcolm’s coronation at Scene.
Macbeth is infused with blood. Macbeth resorts to violence to fulfil his ambition
to be the king. Macbeth demonstrates the nature of evil and corruption of the human
soul. In Macbeth evil is the opposite of humanity, and the deviation from that
which is natural for humankind, yet the root of evil is in the human heart. At the
beginning of the play Shakespeare takes care to show them Macbeth as a great
popular hero, loved by the king and respected and honored by the whole of Scotland.
Shakespeare builds that in many ways. When Macbeth gets the idea of murdering
Duncan and being elected king we follow him down that road as Shakespeare lets us
into his mind with several soliloquies. Macbeth is hesitant. He is still a good
man, and we are basically on his side as there are no counterarguments. We also see
him as someone who wants to be king but shrinks from the act he has to commit to
get there, but he is bullied and manipulated by Lady Macbeth and forced into it.
The point is that Shakespeare wants us to be there with Macbeth and so at this
point, we are identifying with him and wanting him to win. When he kills Duncan
it’s done off stage, and all we see is the blood on his hands and his sense of the
horror of what he has done. It’s not particularly horrifying for the audience as we
don’t see the killing: if Shakespeare had presented the assassination onstage we
would have responded differently. But now Macbeth, crowned king, begins to be
paranoid. Shakespeare moves us away from the inner life of Macbeth and we have
scenes where other characters talk about his violent suppression of anyone he
regards as a threat. We see the murder of his best friend, Banquo, and we hear of
other atrocities. But then we have a scene with an intelligent and endearing child,
the son of Macduff, chatting with his mother, wondering what’s happened to his
father, who has fled to England. Macbeth’s hired killers enter and begin their
slaughter of Macduff’s family, on the orders of Macbeth, starting with the killing
of the child.
This scene occurs right in the middle of the play-the apex of a structure that
leads up to it, with the audience on Macbeth’s side, and follows it with our horror
at what a villain he is allowing us to rejoice in his defeat – another violent act
in which he is beheaded, and his head displayed onstage. Shakespeare has
manipulated our response and turned us completely. The scene depicting the brutal
killing of a child takes us away from our support for Macbeth, leading us to an
appalled sense of horror at his actions.
The scene is central in every way. The scenes immediately adjacent to it, reflect
each other, and it goes back to the beginning and forwards to the end of the play
in that way, the scenes before that scene and after it reflecting each other at
every step, all pointing to that supreme act of violence.
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