1 00:00:21,230 --> 00:00:23,230 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Hello everyone. 2 00:00:24,070 --> 00:00:28,850 Welcome back to English Literature 101 for English 3 00:00:28,850 --> 00:00:32,490 students at the Islamic University of Gaza. This 4 00:00:32,490 --> 00:00:35,470 is again an introductory course into the history 5 00:00:35,470 --> 00:00:39,130 of English literature. The course again aims at 6 00:00:39,130 --> 00:00:41,190 understanding the development of English 7 00:00:41,190 --> 00:00:45,010 literature and literary texts in their historical 8 00:00:45,010 --> 00:00:48,670 context. I said last time that we are going to 9 00:00:48,670 --> 00:00:51,690 take this course mainly as a literature course, 10 00:00:52,170 --> 00:00:55,390 but again to study the historical background of 11 00:00:55,390 --> 00:00:58,950 the literary movements, literary texts, and 12 00:00:58,950 --> 00:01:02,990 literary figures. We need also to study not only 13 00:01:02,990 --> 00:01:07,050 how history and historical events influence 14 00:01:07,050 --> 00:01:09,630 literature, but also how literature sometimes 15 00:01:09,630 --> 00:01:15,250 influences history and people in general. Last 16 00:01:15,250 --> 00:01:20,090 time we spoke about Old English. Old English, the 17 00:01:20,090 --> 00:01:25,740 time when England was being made. England was in 18 00:01:25,740 --> 00:01:29,040 the process of making itself the England we know 19 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,500 now. Originally, there were people from all around 20 00:01:32,500 --> 00:01:36,080 Europe. We spoke about the natives, the Vikings. 21 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,440 We spoke about the French. We spoke about the 22 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:42,480 Germans. All these tribes, in a way or another, 23 00:01:42,660 --> 00:01:45,700 thought it would be probably safer in the island 24 00:01:45,700 --> 00:01:49,660 rather than in the continent, in Europe itself. 25 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:52,140 But later on, there were again more fighting and 26 00:01:52,140 --> 00:01:57,330 more wars inside the island. itself. Now early old 27 00:01:57,330 --> 00:02:03,170 English is mainly oral tradition. The poetry 28 00:02:03,170 --> 00:02:08,370 remained oral for a long time. People depended on 29 00:02:08,370 --> 00:02:12,360 their memory. Many of the poems were originally 30 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:16,060 meant to be sung somewhere so people memorized 31 00:02:16,060 --> 00:02:19,240 them. And in order to make a text memorable, easy 32 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:23,140 to remember, and easy to memorize, there were 33 00:02:23,140 --> 00:02:26,520 certain features that we spoke about last time. We 34 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:31,440 said they tried to be narrative in a way where the 35 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:34,630 poem mainly tells a story. Because stories, 36 00:02:34,810 --> 00:02:38,930 everybody loves stories. We like stories. If you 37 00:02:38,930 --> 00:02:41,610 need to memorize something, to immortalize 38 00:02:41,610 --> 00:02:44,050 something, to make it forever, to make it 39 00:02:44,050 --> 00:02:47,230 everywhere, every time, you put it in the form of 40 00:02:47,230 --> 00:02:49,970 a story. And then the themes. The themes were 41 00:02:49,970 --> 00:02:54,330 taken from real life, related to the people of 42 00:02:54,330 --> 00:02:57,660 that time. The themes touch. the lives, the 43 00:02:57,660 --> 00:03:01,200 aspects of everybody's life there and their 44 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:03,620 circumstances and everything. That's why the 45 00:03:03,620 --> 00:03:07,880 themes were, remember, battles, wars, fighting, 46 00:03:08,100 --> 00:03:11,240 struggle. And there were also personal themes, 47 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,640 like themes of happiness, themes of sadness, and 48 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:17,100 et cetera. We spoke also about religious themes. 49 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:20,560 And some of you noticed that the majority of texts 50 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,860 from Old English are religious texts. And that 51 00:03:25,860 --> 00:03:30,740 could be telling in the sense that we ask a 52 00:03:30,740 --> 00:03:33,620 question. Were people purely religious at that 53 00:03:33,620 --> 00:03:38,040 time? Is it because people were? Or is there 54 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:42,960 another explanation? Sometimes the poets or the 55 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:45,800 author was religious, and sometimes the church 56 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:48,380 chose a religious form rather than a religious 57 00:03:48,380 --> 00:03:55,290 form. OK. Okay, can you say that again and speak 58 00:03:55,290 --> 00:03:55,490 up? 59 00:04:06,750 --> 00:04:11,050 Exactly. So who could read and write at that time? 60 00:04:11,590 --> 00:04:16,870 The monks, the people of the church. The people of 61 00:04:16,870 --> 00:04:19,990 the church were probably the only people who could 62 00:04:19,990 --> 00:04:23,170 read and write, which means only those people 63 00:04:23,170 --> 00:04:27,070 wrote the poems down, and perhaps there was an act 64 00:04:27,070 --> 00:04:30,080 of selection. which means there could have been 65 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:32,600 some kind of censorship, where the monk would 66 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:37,100 choose the poem he likes, usually a poem with a 67 00:04:37,100 --> 00:04:41,120 religious theme other than probably secular theme 68 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:44,760 or something else. And then finally, we said Old 69 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,660 English in so many ways was a musical language, 70 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:51,580 especially when they wrote poetry. There was the 71 00:04:51,580 --> 00:04:54,520 caesura, the alliteration, the music, the rhythm 72 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:59,320 of poetry, everything was meant to make the poem 73 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:03,800 easy to remember and easy to memorize. Now, as we 74 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:08,660 move from Old English to Middle English, we speak 75 00:05:08,660 --> 00:05:11,660 about a society that is developing, a society that 76 00:05:11,660 --> 00:05:15,080 is in the making. We speak about the English 77 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:19,120 identity that is being made. Originally, people 78 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,360 again came from different parts of Europe, but now 79 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:28,400 they are in a part, in an area called England. And 80 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:31,340 many people started to seek this English identity. 81 00:05:31,460 --> 00:05:36,080 The Englishness of English started to be developed 82 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:41,280 at that time. People wanted to feel some kind of 83 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:44,520 harmony. They wanted to feel that they belonged to 84 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,220 this place. They wanted to see common interests 85 00:05:47,220 --> 00:05:50,760 and common issues among themselves. And when we 86 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:53,920 speak about Middle English literature, we speak 87 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:57,320 about the most famous literary figure of that 88 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:03,500 time. The man who is considered the father of 89 00:06:03,500 --> 00:06:07,480 English literature, or English poetry in 90 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:12,320 particular. His name is Chaucer. His name is 91 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:16,860 Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer, by so many 92 00:06:16,860 --> 00:06:20,340 people, is considered the father of English 93 00:06:20,340 --> 00:06:22,940 literature. When we speak about early middle 94 00:06:22,940 --> 00:06:27,520 English, this is the man who was working on some 95 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:30,680 kind of literature to reflect the English identity 96 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:35,060 that is being made, the society that is developing 97 00:06:35,060 --> 00:06:41,830 probably from all aspects. I will Remember last 98 00:06:41,830 --> 00:06:43,450 time when we spoke about Old English, we spoke 99 00:06:43,450 --> 00:06:47,510 about the features of the period, the authors, the 100 00:06:47,510 --> 00:06:49,870 literature. And then we discussed the literature. 101 00:06:50,590 --> 00:06:53,670 Now I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to 102 00:06:53,670 --> 00:06:57,750 give you samples from extracts from poems by 103 00:06:57,750 --> 00:07:00,610 Chaucer. And from these samples, from the poetry 104 00:07:00,610 --> 00:07:05,170 we have, we need to try to guess and to deduce the 105 00:07:05,170 --> 00:07:08,310 features of not only literature and poetry and 106 00:07:08,310 --> 00:07:12,000 language, but also of life. The most important 107 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:15,620 literary work of that time, again by Chaucer, is 108 00:07:15,620 --> 00:07:19,880 The Canterbury Tales. Canterbury Tales is a long 109 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:26,980 poem of 24 stories by Chaucer. Now, before I say 110 00:07:26,980 --> 00:07:30,660 much here, let's go directly to the text. And 111 00:07:30,660 --> 00:07:33,600 again, the aim is to see whether the text reflects 112 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:39,000 the time, the age, or not, and in what sense. Look 113 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,750 at this, number one. Remember what we call two 114 00:07:42,750 --> 00:07:47,630 lines of verse that rhyme? What we call them? A 115 00:07:47,630 --> 00:07:50,130 couplet. A couplet. Thank you. Can you read 116 00:07:50,130 --> 00:07:52,050 someone? Please. 117 00:07:57,130 --> 00:07:57,650 Philosopher. 118 00:08:01,570 --> 00:08:07,790 In his coffer. Thank you. Someone else? Please. 119 00:08:08,110 --> 00:08:11,090 But although he was a philosopher, nevertheless, 120 00:08:11,370 --> 00:08:13,750 he had only a little gold in his pocket. Thank you 121 00:08:13,750 --> 00:08:16,650 very much, please. But although he was a 122 00:08:16,650 --> 00:08:19,170 philosopher, nevertheless, he had only a little 123 00:08:19,170 --> 00:08:22,210 gold in his pocket. Okay, one final reading, 124 00:08:22,450 --> 00:08:26,510 please. But although he was a philosopher, he had 125 00:08:26,510 --> 00:08:30,890 only a little gold in his pocket. Nevertheless, 126 00:08:31,570 --> 00:08:35,510 but although he was a philosopher, Nevertheless, 127 00:08:36,070 --> 00:08:39,230 he had only a little gold in his coffer. Again, 128 00:08:39,290 --> 00:08:41,870 this is the modern English writing. But if you 129 00:08:41,870 --> 00:08:46,230 look at your book, you will be able to read the 130 00:08:46,230 --> 00:08:50,230 Middle English text. You will at least be able to 131 00:08:50,230 --> 00:08:55,690 recognize some of the words. And the words that 132 00:08:55,690 --> 00:09:00,190 you can't read can easily be guessed from the 133 00:09:00,190 --> 00:09:03,110 context there. So if everyone goes to the book, 134 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:17,420 Okay. 135 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:27,240 Page 1313. 136 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,860 Go to page 13, everyone. This is Chaucer, page 12 137 00:09:52,860 --> 00:09:58,160 and page 13. Look at the original English text. 138 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:05,120 Okay, look at the text here, page 13. Can you try 139 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:07,720 to read the middle English? This is also, this is 140 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,740 not like typical middle English, but this is 141 00:10:10,740 --> 00:10:13,920 close. Remember old English? We couldn't read old 142 00:10:13,920 --> 00:10:17,470 English. Because in so many ways, it's a totally 143 00:10:17,470 --> 00:10:20,430 different language. But Middle English is the 144 00:10:20,430 --> 00:10:23,490 start of what we call the English language that we 145 00:10:23,490 --> 00:10:26,210 have now. It's not exactly what the language we 146 00:10:26,210 --> 00:10:29,910 have now, but this is the beginning. Can you read 147 00:10:29,910 --> 00:10:31,330 the English one text? 148 00:10:35,010 --> 00:10:39,990 In his coffer. 149 00:10:40,430 --> 00:10:44,620 So how many words are familiar to you? Probably 150 00:10:44,620 --> 00:10:47,160 most of them. Even the words that look weird, 151 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:49,720 because again there were no standards for 152 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:52,260 spelling. And even grammar wasn't still fixed 153 00:10:52,260 --> 00:10:55,440 then, at that time. But the spelling, look at the 154 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:58,440 spelling. This is the word had. And they would be 155 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:03,130 throwing the E letter here and there. OK? Now, the 156 00:11:03,130 --> 00:11:06,230 modern English makes it clearer for us. But 157 00:11:06,230 --> 00:11:09,890 although he was a philosopher, nevertheless, he 158 00:11:09,890 --> 00:11:13,510 had only a little gold in his coffer. What do you 159 00:11:13,510 --> 00:11:16,110 notice about this? What does the text communicate 160 00:11:16,110 --> 00:11:20,690 with you? Look at the couplet. Do you notice 161 00:11:20,690 --> 00:11:23,490 anything? This is poetry. This is Middle English. 162 00:11:24,230 --> 00:11:27,350 What is the theme? What is the form? Is there 163 00:11:27,350 --> 00:11:30,430 anything you can notice here that makes you, hmm? 164 00:11:31,060 --> 00:11:36,640 Interesting what the poet is doing here. Yes? So 165 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:42,740 it's 166 00:11:42,740 --> 00:11:46,320 talking about a philosopher. And the poet is 167 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:51,620 telling us, the text is telling us that he had a 168 00:11:51,620 --> 00:11:56,320 little gold in his coffer, in his drawer, probably 169 00:11:56,320 --> 00:12:02,440 safe, where people hide money. Valuables. Very 170 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:05,960 good. So what does it mean? Do you notice anything 171 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:09,640 here? Yes? That he wasn't seeking and searching 172 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:12,100 for money. He was searching for knowledge and 173 00:12:12,100 --> 00:12:13,800 being a philosopher. Very good. What is a 174 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:16,480 philosopher? It's generally a person of knowledge, 175 00:12:16,680 --> 00:12:21,000 a person who seeks knowledge. In a way, this guy 176 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,280 is a philosopher. How much gold does he have? How 177 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:26,920 much money does he have? A little. A little gold. 178 00:12:27,700 --> 00:12:32,960 OK. What else? Please. I think the person cares 179 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:37,060 more about giving people information more than 180 00:12:37,060 --> 00:12:39,260 getting money. Is this in the text, or are you 181 00:12:39,260 --> 00:12:42,180 guessing? I'm guessing. OK, you're guessing that a 182 00:12:42,180 --> 00:12:44,940 philosopher is supposed to be dedicated to people, 183 00:12:45,020 --> 00:12:48,840 to knowledge, to his society, the community, or 184 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:51,280 her, of course, if we're talking about a female 185 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:55,880 philosopher. What else do you notice? What else 186 00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:58,260 can you tell from the text? 187 00:13:01,310 --> 00:13:05,830 What difference can 188 00:13:05,830 --> 00:13:08,230 you notice? What is the major difference between 189 00:13:08,230 --> 00:13:13,210 this and Old English? In Old English, it includes 190 00:13:13,210 --> 00:13:16,930 a caesura. Okay, there's no caesura here, right? 191 00:13:18,300 --> 00:13:21,660 This is Europe started to disappear physically, 192 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:24,520 but it also still existed. We'll talk about this 193 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:27,920 later on. It is now no longer marked by the space. 194 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:30,360 It could be marked by a comma or semicolon or full 195 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:32,660 stop in the middle of the line or something. 196 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:33,000 Please. 197 00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:43,200 Okay, so now we have a new theme. People remember 198 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:46,060 in the old English literature, we spoke about 199 00:13:46,060 --> 00:13:49,060 people mainly dedicated themselves to fighting, to 200 00:13:49,060 --> 00:13:51,820 war. Poetry was mainly either about religion and 201 00:13:51,820 --> 00:13:55,360 God or about heroes and heroism. But here we have 202 00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:58,400 new, because like I said, people started to settle 203 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:04,390 down, to form cities and towns. to feel united. If 204 00:14:04,390 --> 00:14:07,170 you feel safe, if you start to build your own 205 00:14:07,170 --> 00:14:09,790 civilization, you start to look for other jobs. 206 00:14:10,390 --> 00:14:15,610 You no longer only produce heroes or Monks. Now 207 00:14:15,610 --> 00:14:18,410 you need there are philosophers in the society. So 208 00:14:18,410 --> 00:14:21,650 these new themes started to appear in Middle 209 00:14:21,650 --> 00:14:24,230 English. And this is a natural step to the 210 00:14:24,230 --> 00:14:27,150 development. Yes? He gives such a picture of his 211 00:14:27,150 --> 00:14:31,530 society. He mentions also another things like 212 00:14:31,530 --> 00:14:37,330 love, also death. That's true. But here, let's 213 00:14:37,330 --> 00:14:39,250 focus on the text now. See what the text 214 00:14:39,250 --> 00:14:42,390 communicates with us. Now let me ask you a 215 00:14:42,390 --> 00:14:42,690 question. 216 00:14:45,500 --> 00:14:51,040 Is little gold a 217 00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:53,400 lot of money or not? Like, little gold. Like, 218 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:55,260 let's say, I don't know, a handful of gold. If I 219 00:14:55,260 --> 00:15:01,560 give you this much gold, it's still a lot of 220 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,520 money. And what does it mean here? So this is a 221 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:09,740 philosopher who has a little gold. But still, 222 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:14,250 little gold is still a lot of money. So the 223 00:15:14,250 --> 00:15:18,290 question is, is Chaucer here making fun? Is he 224 00:15:18,290 --> 00:15:21,570 being ironic, you know, being ironic? In a way, 225 00:15:21,650 --> 00:15:23,770 he's saying that this is a philosopher. He only 226 00:15:23,770 --> 00:15:27,650 has a little gold in his coffer. If he has a 227 00:15:27,650 --> 00:15:32,290 coffer where he puts gold, probably the author 228 00:15:32,290 --> 00:15:36,130 here is trying to make fun of the philosopher. The 229 00:15:36,130 --> 00:15:39,890 philosopher is not doing his job. of being a 230 00:15:39,890 --> 00:15:43,650 philosopher to take care of knowledge, educate 231 00:15:43,650 --> 00:15:47,250 people, seek knowledge. He's more interested in 232 00:15:47,250 --> 00:15:50,450 collecting money than anything. So the society 233 00:15:50,450 --> 00:15:55,070 that was, again, fighting among itself now has 234 00:15:55,070 --> 00:15:57,950 different themes, different topics. But now people 235 00:15:57,950 --> 00:16:01,150 started to be, remember, Beowulf. Beowulf, what 236 00:16:01,150 --> 00:16:04,490 did he do? He's fighting the enemy. He fought the 237 00:16:04,490 --> 00:16:07,790 enemy. He sacrificed himself, not only for his 238 00:16:07,790 --> 00:16:11,990 people, but for other peoples. But now we have the 239 00:16:11,990 --> 00:16:16,130 scientist, the knight, the nun. The philosopher is 240 00:16:16,130 --> 00:16:19,310 seeking his own personal interest. This is the 241 00:16:19,310 --> 00:16:22,290 theme of selfishness. The society started to have 242 00:16:22,290 --> 00:16:25,430 its own vices. When we are threatened, when we are 243 00:16:25,430 --> 00:16:29,650 during war, people come closer to each other. We 244 00:16:29,650 --> 00:16:31,790 are united, but when people 245 00:16:34,850 --> 00:16:40,110 Settle down, feel safe, what happens? Exactly, we 246 00:16:40,110 --> 00:16:42,850 become selfish and selfish. What do you notice 247 00:16:42,850 --> 00:16:43,950 also about the form? 248 00:16:47,730 --> 00:16:51,610 There's no caesura here. What else? Is there any 249 00:16:51,610 --> 00:16:57,960 source of music? Where's the rhyme? Oh, yeah. The 250 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:02,460 rhyme is the last sound in a line of verse, the 251 00:17:02,460 --> 00:17:05,380 last sound or couple of sounds. That's the rhyme. 252 00:17:05,660 --> 00:17:08,100 Creates music. But although he was a philosopher, 253 00:17:08,460 --> 00:17:11,840 there was a little money, there's a little gold in 254 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:17,100 his coffer. So philosopher and coffer, they rhyme. 255 00:17:17,740 --> 00:17:21,420 You know what rhyme is? The last sound or the last 256 00:17:21,420 --> 00:17:27,200 couple of sounds in a line of verse. So again, new 257 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:31,300 themes, new forms. We have rhyme, and we have no 258 00:17:31,300 --> 00:17:35,300 cestura here, but a new theme is starting to show 259 00:17:35,300 --> 00:17:40,300 up. Let's see another example and come back to the 260 00:17:40,300 --> 00:17:45,740 second one here. OK. Again, if you look at the 261 00:17:45,740 --> 00:17:52,760 book, page 12, there's this tale, The Nun's Tale. 262 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,840 The Nun's Tale. We move from talking about the 263 00:17:57,840 --> 00:17:59,680 philosopher to talking about, you know, the nun is 264 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:03,460 like the monk, the female monk. The nun is a woman 265 00:18:03,460 --> 00:18:07,840 who dedicates herself to the church, to God. She 266 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:11,780 vows not to marry, not to have kids, just 267 00:18:11,780 --> 00:18:14,700 everything is dedicated to God, love of God. 268 00:18:15,380 --> 00:18:19,080 That's the nun. There's the monk, and then there 269 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,840 is the nun. OK? Look at the English, the Middle 270 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:26,910 English text. Can someone try to read, please? Can 271 00:18:26,910 --> 00:18:31,570 you read it? Look at the words. Can you find 272 00:18:31,570 --> 00:18:34,750 familiar words? Are there familiar words? They 273 00:18:34,750 --> 00:18:38,290 have the English letters that we have now. So they 274 00:18:38,290 --> 00:18:41,490 look strange, weird. So can you read this? Don't 275 00:18:41,490 --> 00:18:44,510 look below. Look at the original text. Can you 276 00:18:44,510 --> 00:18:46,850 read? Please. No, here. 277 00:18:57,120 --> 00:19:02,040 And she was all consistent and tender heart. 278 00:19:02,100 --> 00:19:05,460 Tender heart. Very good. Good reading. Whether you 279 00:19:05,460 --> 00:19:09,080 understand every single word or not, but still you 280 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:13,420 can read this. The words look different because of 281 00:19:13,420 --> 00:19:17,400 the lack of spelling rules. Someone else, read the 282 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,560 original text. Please, raise your voice. Who in 283 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:23,860 her way of smiling was very ineffective and 284 00:19:23,860 --> 00:19:29,950 modest, and all was Sentiment and tender. This is 285 00:19:29,950 --> 00:19:33,550 not the original text. The original text, if you 286 00:19:33,550 --> 00:19:36,250 read the original text again, it's going to get 287 00:19:36,250 --> 00:19:40,690 easier and easier. So this is smiling. Strange how 288 00:19:40,690 --> 00:19:42,590 they're spelling it, but you're going to recognize 289 00:19:42,590 --> 00:19:44,230 it. Go again for the original text. 290 00:19:48,870 --> 00:19:54,350 Very good. Let's now go back to the modern, 291 00:19:54,490 --> 00:19:59,740 modernized text. Who here is a reference to? The 292 00:19:59,740 --> 00:20:04,020 nun. In The Nun's Tale. Who in her way of smiling 293 00:20:04,020 --> 00:20:08,940 was very unaffected and modest. And all was 294 00:20:08,940 --> 00:20:10,520 sentiment and tender heart. 295 00:20:14,660 --> 00:20:17,680 Again, let's comment on the text. Take one minute. 296 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:23,160 Look at the text. What do you notice? What is new? 297 00:20:25,700 --> 00:20:28,480 The poet saying, what is he communicating with us? 298 00:20:29,180 --> 00:20:33,860 What is the theme? What do you notice about the 299 00:20:33,860 --> 00:20:38,960 language, about the form, the music? Who are the 300 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:46,980 characters? Okay. And the nun is? She's the main 301 00:20:46,980 --> 00:20:55,760 character. The nun is a woman or a man? A woman, a 302 00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,900 woman who is supposed to dedicate her life to the 303 00:20:58,900 --> 00:21:02,500 church, to God. Now, remember the old English 304 00:21:02,500 --> 00:21:07,120 texts? We discussed, thank you, all men. We 305 00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:12,080 discussed probably 10 texts. And almost all of 306 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:16,480 them were about heroes, about someone who hears 307 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:20,220 the voice of God, someone who loses his job, 308 00:21:20,740 --> 00:21:24,690 someone who fights dragons and monsters. But now, 309 00:21:24,810 --> 00:21:29,790 for the first time, we have a woman in a text. And 310 00:21:29,790 --> 00:21:31,850 the woman is not only a character. It's not only 311 00:21:31,850 --> 00:21:34,230 mentioned in passing. She's the main character. 312 00:21:34,310 --> 00:21:38,270 There's a tale in her name. Look at the title. The 313 00:21:38,270 --> 00:21:44,530 Nun's Tale. So we deduce that, we come to the 314 00:21:44,530 --> 00:21:48,590 conclusion that, in Middle English, women started 315 00:21:48,590 --> 00:21:54,460 to appear, to take space and to take room. They 316 00:21:54,460 --> 00:22:01,120 became main characters in the text. What else is 317 00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:03,560 there in the couplet? Please. 318 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:10,160 OK. 319 00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:17,520 So she smiles. She influences people. And you're 320 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:19,620 talking about crossing the lines of being a nun. 321 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:24,980 Where can you see that? It says unaffected. Then 322 00:22:24,980 --> 00:22:29,000 in the other line, it all was simple. OK. In the 323 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,960 first line, who in her way of smiling was 324 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:34,800 unaffected and modest. Modest, like she's 325 00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:39,700 dedicated. Because this is what generally, listen, 326 00:22:40,140 --> 00:22:43,320 at that time, and even now in so many cultures, 327 00:22:43,740 --> 00:22:47,020 women, the most important thing about women is 328 00:22:47,020 --> 00:22:50,120 modesty. It's their modesty. And modesty is 329 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:54,620 usually defined by man. OK? Which is something 330 00:22:54,620 --> 00:22:57,120 probably we'll talk about later on. But usually 331 00:22:57,120 --> 00:23:01,460 women live under the rules of men for ages and 332 00:23:01,460 --> 00:23:04,940 ages. In so many ways, this is not good. And 333 00:23:04,940 --> 00:23:07,600 that's why women start to struggle to take their 334 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:12,950 rights, their equal rights. So the nun is doing a 335 00:23:12,950 --> 00:23:17,290 role to dedicate herself to God and religion. And 336 00:23:17,290 --> 00:23:20,130 the first line, yes, she's unaffected and modest. 337 00:23:20,790 --> 00:23:23,130 She's playing. She's doing her job. But in the 338 00:23:23,130 --> 00:23:25,370 second line, there is a word that we need to 339 00:23:25,370 --> 00:23:25,990 notice here. 340 00:23:29,410 --> 00:23:34,310 She was all sentiment. What's sentiment? 341 00:23:35,990 --> 00:23:41,380 Sentiment's emotions of love. emotions of feelings 342 00:23:41,380 --> 00:23:45,780 of love and tender heart. In other ways, again 343 00:23:45,780 --> 00:23:49,600 similar to the story of the philosopher, this is a 344 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,400 woman, a nun who is supposed to be dedicated her 345 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:58,280 life to God, but instead she cares more about her 346 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:04,000 love and emotions than anything else. Again, This 347 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:08,600 is Chaucer trying to criticize the society using 348 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:12,580 what we call, again, irony. He says something, but 349 00:24:12,580 --> 00:24:14,740 he means something else. He says, this philosopher 350 00:24:14,740 --> 00:24:17,840 has a little gold. And then we go, oh my god. 351 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:21,560 Still, this is a lot of money. And see this nun? 352 00:24:22,860 --> 00:24:27,080 She's all about sentiment and tender heart. Oh. So 353 00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:34,480 the nun is also in the strictest sense of the 354 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:39,660 word, is not a conventional nun. But what is new 355 00:24:39,660 --> 00:24:44,320 here is the fact that women started to appear to 356 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:47,000 take her to be part of this. Although generally, 357 00:24:47,060 --> 00:24:48,900 generally at the beginning they were just objects 358 00:24:48,900 --> 00:24:52,700 of admiration. They were just objects for men to 359 00:24:52,700 --> 00:24:57,200 admire. My question is here. Can you see this nun? 360 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:02,800 Can you see her as someone rejecting the norms of 361 00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:07,220 the society, someone defying, resisting the roles 362 00:25:07,220 --> 00:25:10,940 imposed upon her? My question again, here we have 363 00:25:10,940 --> 00:25:14,000 a nun who's supposed to be a nun, but she's 364 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:17,980 breaking the rules of being a nun. Is breaking the 365 00:25:17,980 --> 00:25:22,680 rules here? Part of the woman doing something, 366 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:28,440 what is she doing? Possibly. Yeah. Yeah. 367 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:34,560 Okay. 368 00:25:38,180 --> 00:25:39,580 Okay. 369 00:25:49,510 --> 00:25:52,230 and sentiment. Again, generally, you're not 370 00:25:52,230 --> 00:25:55,590 supposed to fall in love with life, with things, 371 00:25:55,690 --> 00:25:59,830 with people, like men-women relationships. But 372 00:25:59,830 --> 00:26:03,230 this woman is breaking the rules. Does it say 373 00:26:03,230 --> 00:26:06,070 something? When the philosopher broke the rules, 374 00:26:06,150 --> 00:26:10,270 we said he's a hypocrite, a fake philosopher, 375 00:26:10,610 --> 00:26:16,280 because he is interested in collecting money. And 376 00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,860 now, is this a fake nun, or is this woman doing 377 00:26:18,860 --> 00:26:22,200 something important? 378 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:28,380 Yeah, about being all about sentiment and love. 379 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:37,000 I'm not sure. I'm not sure whether there were, you 380 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,200 know, like, I'm not sure someone would force her, 381 00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:42,940 like, physically to be a nun. But sometimes 382 00:26:42,940 --> 00:26:46,320 society leads you to a particular conclusion. But 383 00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:48,440 it's not clear. But thank you very much for asking 384 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:52,060 this question. Maybe, so we deduce, if this woman, 385 00:26:52,180 --> 00:26:54,960 if this nun is not doing her job as a nun, maybe 386 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:59,160 in the beginning she was forced. Or she was put in 387 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,140 a position where she had no choice. But my 388 00:27:02,140 --> 00:27:05,950 question again, what does it tell? if this woman 389 00:27:05,950 --> 00:27:09,030 is not following the rules of being a nun, the 390 00:27:09,030 --> 00:27:13,450 rules of the church. Is she a hypocrite or is she? 391 00:27:13,550 --> 00:27:19,210 She's a woman following her heart. Personality, 392 00:27:19,490 --> 00:27:21,610 like to challenge that given. 393 00:27:24,510 --> 00:27:28,970 Thank you very much. In a way or another, this is 394 00:27:28,970 --> 00:27:32,530 someone, a person who's trying to have a voice for 395 00:27:32,530 --> 00:27:35,890 women. Probably the voice is not that loud and 396 00:27:35,890 --> 00:27:38,910 clear, but this is someone resisting the rules of 397 00:27:38,910 --> 00:27:42,330 the society, even resisting the rules of the 398 00:27:42,330 --> 00:27:46,270 church. And for her, being a man is not what the 399 00:27:46,270 --> 00:27:49,010 church decides. It's what her tender heart 400 00:27:49,010 --> 00:27:56,270 decides. Please. choose to be a nun to not go 401 00:27:56,270 --> 00:28:01,490 under a man, to not be forced by a man. I think 402 00:28:01,490 --> 00:28:04,690 she would be a nun and hide her feelings and show 403 00:28:04,690 --> 00:28:07,830 that she's strict rather than being under a man. 404 00:28:08,830 --> 00:28:10,710 In general, that could be. That is possible. But 405 00:28:10,710 --> 00:28:13,290 it's not here in the text. In the text, we have a 406 00:28:13,290 --> 00:28:16,610 woman who defies the rules of being a nun, breaks 407 00:28:16,610 --> 00:28:19,170 the rules in a way to change the image of women, 408 00:28:19,270 --> 00:28:24,620 to give women a place. We'll talk about this later 409 00:28:24,620 --> 00:28:29,420 on as we move talking about English literature. 410 00:28:29,780 --> 00:28:33,680 Another example here, it's from The Knight's Tale. 411 00:28:35,300 --> 00:28:37,640 You know the knight? Beowulf, in a way, was a 412 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:41,880 knight, a warrior, a fighter, a strong man with a 413 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:46,820 horse and a sword. What were they supposed to be, 414 00:28:46,940 --> 00:28:50,180 to be doing, knights? What is the job of a knight? 415 00:28:51,610 --> 00:28:57,410 To protect, to fight, to defend. They are in a way 416 00:28:57,410 --> 00:28:59,910 soldiers, but they are not just ordinary soldiers. 417 00:29:00,090 --> 00:29:04,830 They are strong, noble fighters. Again, heroes. 418 00:29:05,650 --> 00:29:09,210 What did Beowulf do? He died defending others. 419 00:29:10,030 --> 00:29:14,290 Sacrificed his life. This is originally what a 420 00:29:14,290 --> 00:29:17,510 knight was supposed to be. Is this knight a 421 00:29:17,510 --> 00:29:21,310 traditional knight from Old English? Or is there 422 00:29:21,310 --> 00:29:23,750 something else? Can you please read? Someone read 423 00:29:23,750 --> 00:29:25,910 the original text first. Read the original text 424 00:29:25,910 --> 00:29:29,430 and speak up. And therefore, I am pleased for my 425 00:29:29,430 --> 00:29:31,630 brother, in each man for himself, 426 00:29:34,150 --> 00:29:38,930 There's none other. Can you translate this? Do you 427 00:29:38,930 --> 00:29:42,270 understand what it's saying? Can you understand 428 00:29:42,270 --> 00:29:46,550 the text, the language? A little bit. What are the 429 00:29:46,550 --> 00:29:47,350 difficult words? 430 00:29:49,850 --> 00:29:53,330 Other? We know other. There's an extra O there. 431 00:29:54,110 --> 00:29:56,990 It's other. Read it again and you say, oh my God, 432 00:29:57,050 --> 00:30:00,690 these are the words I know. King is weirdly 433 00:30:00,690 --> 00:30:05,820 spelled. and himself. But when you read it again, 434 00:30:06,060 --> 00:30:09,700 you realize that this is the English of today, but 435 00:30:09,700 --> 00:30:13,400 with different spelling. So again, this is a 436 00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:16,740 Middle English. We can read Middle English. OK, 437 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:19,820 now someone please read the modernized text, 438 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:20,660 please. 439 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:29,100 Very good. 440 00:30:29,220 --> 00:30:30,400 One more, please. 441 00:30:37,650 --> 00:30:40,150 There is no other. This is supposed to be king. 442 00:30:40,310 --> 00:30:41,450 Okay, one more final. 443 00:30:47,370 --> 00:30:50,950 And each man for himself, there is no other. I 444 00:30:50,950 --> 00:30:54,870 dropped the word way from the book because it's 445 00:30:54,870 --> 00:30:58,110 just added. There's no need to add it here in the 446 00:30:58,110 --> 00:31:03,870 translation. I'd like to go for this version. And 447 00:31:03,870 --> 00:31:08,590 the four at the king's court, my brother. What 448 00:31:08,590 --> 00:31:10,810 happens at the king's court when a knight is 449 00:31:10,810 --> 00:31:13,590 telling a story? Traditionally, people are 450 00:31:13,590 --> 00:31:18,180 competing to show that they are strong. To be 451 00:31:18,180 --> 00:31:21,980 heroes, to defend. But what happens at the king's 452 00:31:21,980 --> 00:31:27,600 court? Each man for himself. 453 00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:37,820 Each man for himself, there is no other. No other 454 00:31:37,820 --> 00:31:42,560 person I care about except myself. Selfishness. 455 00:31:44,750 --> 00:31:49,490 Again, we have a knight who is not a knight. Why? 456 00:31:49,630 --> 00:31:52,190 Because knights chose us, trying again to 457 00:31:52,190 --> 00:31:54,410 communicate with us the idea that knights now 458 00:31:54,410 --> 00:31:58,010 don't belong in a modern society in a way. They 459 00:31:58,010 --> 00:32:01,330 belong to the past, to stories, to the epics of 460 00:32:01,330 --> 00:32:04,710 the past. In modern society, people are settling 461 00:32:04,710 --> 00:32:08,840 down more and more. There are no, like there were 462 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:10,300 wars. When you speak about Middle English, you 463 00:32:10,300 --> 00:32:13,540 speak about there's the 100-year war between 464 00:32:13,540 --> 00:32:17,100 England and France that lasted for over 110 years. 465 00:32:17,940 --> 00:32:22,060 There were people dying every day. But in so many 466 00:32:22,060 --> 00:32:24,060 ways, people started to settle down and live 467 00:32:24,060 --> 00:32:29,440 relatively in peace. So a knight is no longer a 468 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:33,040 knight, like a nun is no longer a knight. And a 469 00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:34,920 philosopher is no longer a philosopher. This is a 470 00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:37,800 society. This is a poet that is exposing his 471 00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,140 society. He's talking about the vices, the 472 00:32:40,140 --> 00:32:43,900 problems, but presenting a realistic image about 473 00:32:43,900 --> 00:32:46,400 the society. Because yes, we want to defend 474 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:49,380 others. Yes, we want to fight for others. Yes, we 475 00:32:49,380 --> 00:32:51,940 love others. But we usually don't forget 476 00:32:51,940 --> 00:32:55,820 ourselves. It's good to be selfless. But if you 477 00:32:55,820 --> 00:32:58,120 are totally selfless, that's not realistic. 478 00:32:59,150 --> 00:33:02,890 Because you need to gain something yourself. So 479 00:33:02,890 --> 00:33:08,360 the heroic image of the old English. That the 480 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:12,060 image that we see in Beowulf is turning into a 481 00:33:12,060 --> 00:33:16,200 realistic image in Chosar, where people are 482 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,000 presented as people with weaknesses, with vices, 483 00:33:20,820 --> 00:33:25,600 not as pure, complete people. Notice also here we 484 00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:30,560 have the rhyme. Again, what is the rhyme? The last 485 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:34,380 sound 486 00:33:34,380 --> 00:33:38,490 or couple of sounds in a line of verse. Do these 487 00:33:38,490 --> 00:33:45,990 lines rhyme? Let's hear brother, other. Modest and 488 00:33:45,990 --> 00:33:50,210 hard probably imperfect rhyme. And a final example 489 00:33:50,210 --> 00:33:58,230 here is again from Chaucer, the second part. What 490 00:33:58,230 --> 00:34:04,840 is this world? What do men ask for? Now with his 491 00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:09,120 love, now in his cold grave, alone without any 492 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:10,300 companionship. 493 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,340 If I give you this text without telling you this 494 00:34:16,340 --> 00:34:20,450 is from over a thousand years ago or less, You're 495 00:34:20,450 --> 00:34:23,810 not going to know. Because this question of, what 496 00:34:23,810 --> 00:34:26,010 is this life? What is this world? What do men, 497 00:34:26,090 --> 00:34:28,690 what do people ask for? What do you want in life? 498 00:34:29,050 --> 00:34:32,430 These are questions that are modern, questions of 499 00:34:32,430 --> 00:34:36,370 today, of the 21st century. But again, this is 500 00:34:36,370 --> 00:34:39,830 something that Joshua asked a long, long time ago, 501 00:34:39,890 --> 00:34:42,410 that poets asked thousands of years ago and 502 00:34:42,410 --> 00:34:43,790 hundreds of years ago. And this is, again, the 503 00:34:43,790 --> 00:34:47,770 beauty of poetry. Poetry crosses time and crosses 504 00:34:47,770 --> 00:34:51,430 race and all obstacles to talk to us, to address 505 00:34:51,430 --> 00:34:55,150 us. Now, and again, this is one reason why Chaucer 506 00:34:55,150 --> 00:34:58,230 is the father of English literature. He was a fine 507 00:34:58,230 --> 00:35:02,890 poet, an excellent poet, who captured the heart, 508 00:35:03,110 --> 00:35:06,050 the mind of English, of England, the English 509 00:35:06,050 --> 00:35:09,950 people in a society that was being modernized, 510 00:35:10,050 --> 00:35:16,080 being made. Notice again, In the original text, 511 00:35:16,220 --> 00:35:19,480 there is also a rhyme, but we lose it in the 512 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,260 translation. What is this world? What do men ask 513 00:35:22,260 --> 00:35:27,280 for? Meaning, no matter what you do. Remember the 514 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,620 question about what it means to be a human being? 515 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,620 What it means to be a human being in Beowulf, the 516 00:35:33,620 --> 00:35:37,020 same question is now still being asked. What does 517 00:35:37,020 --> 00:35:39,620 it mean to be a human being? Because no matter how 518 00:35:39,620 --> 00:35:42,260 powerful, how strong, no matter how much money, 519 00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:45,360 how much gold you collect, what is this world? 520 00:35:45,820 --> 00:35:51,000 What do men ask for? What? Love, money, happiness? 521 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:57,360 At the end of the day? Now with his love. Now in 522 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:03,490 his old cold grave. A really terrifying image when 523 00:36:03,490 --> 00:36:06,650 someone feels like not only in a grave, in a cold 524 00:36:06,650 --> 00:36:09,830 grave, see the now, now, the repetition of now. 525 00:36:10,630 --> 00:36:13,830 This, by the way, this creates a caesura. The 526 00:36:13,830 --> 00:36:17,110 question, the pause, the caesura. Now with his 527 00:36:17,110 --> 00:36:22,510 love, now with a sad tone here, alone without any 528 00:36:22,510 --> 00:36:23,790 companionship. 529 00:36:26,990 --> 00:36:27,570 Say again. 530 00:36:33,420 --> 00:36:36,560 Thank you very much. And this is Chaucer. Chaucer 531 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:39,760 was not only about fighting battles and wars, he 532 00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:44,380 was bringing us a broad array of themes and 533 00:36:44,380 --> 00:36:47,880 issues. Now, can we talk about the features, the 534 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,360 characteristics of English literature, of English 535 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:54,120 poetry mainly in Middle English? Can you tell? 536 00:36:54,810 --> 00:36:57,170 What do you notice? What new things do we have 537 00:36:57,170 --> 00:37:00,090 here? Listen, so now we have the text and we try 538 00:37:00,090 --> 00:37:03,390 to understand the society, how the text reflects 539 00:37:03,390 --> 00:37:10,090 life. One, and raise your voice. Number one, new 540 00:37:10,090 --> 00:37:16,270 themes such as love, money, hypocrisy, 541 00:37:18,430 --> 00:37:25,130 change. Please. Oh, yes, important themes related 542 00:37:25,130 --> 00:37:29,290 to women. They started as minor, minimal. They 543 00:37:29,290 --> 00:37:32,830 started as objects of admiration. But later on, 544 00:37:33,450 --> 00:37:37,210 every now and then, we find very strong women who 545 00:37:37,210 --> 00:37:39,790 challenge and defy, like your friend here 546 00:37:39,790 --> 00:37:44,510 suggested, to try to change the image people have 547 00:37:44,510 --> 00:37:47,490 about women. Please. The language is softer. The 548 00:37:47,490 --> 00:37:51,910 language is closer to the language of today. Well, 549 00:37:52,170 --> 00:37:54,550 it's sometimes not recognizable because of the 550 00:37:54,550 --> 00:37:58,350 different spelling. But upon several readings, we 551 00:37:58,350 --> 00:38:01,830 can make sense. We can make sense of many of this. 552 00:38:01,950 --> 00:38:04,990 Yes? No caesura? No, there's no caesura, the 553 00:38:04,990 --> 00:38:08,930 physical gap. But still, it disappeared in a way 554 00:38:08,930 --> 00:38:12,010 or another. But sometimes we have it in 555 00:38:12,010 --> 00:38:13,550 punctuation marks. Yes? 556 00:38:17,910 --> 00:38:21,350 Yes. Remember, at the beginning it was all about 557 00:38:21,350 --> 00:38:24,310 heroism, all about praise, all about elegy, 558 00:38:24,550 --> 00:38:26,530 praising the dead, praising God, praising the 559 00:38:26,530 --> 00:38:31,190 heroes. But now we have irony, new techniques, 560 00:38:32,590 --> 00:38:34,990 irony, using irony to say something and to mean it 561 00:38:34,990 --> 00:38:38,590 because people became more and more intelligent. 562 00:38:39,130 --> 00:38:39,310 Please. 563 00:38:45,220 --> 00:38:48,760 Okay, so the idealistic image we had of pure 564 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:51,020 heroes, of complete perfect people started to 565 00:38:51,020 --> 00:38:56,980 change into realistic pictures The last point to 566 00:38:56,980 --> 00:39:00,790 conclude Chaucer begins the Canterbury Tales, 567 00:39:00,910 --> 00:39:04,170 which, again, consists of 24 stories. He 568 00:39:04,170 --> 00:39:07,550 originally intended them to be 120, but he only 569 00:39:07,550 --> 00:39:13,090 wrote 24 stories. And he started the whole poem 570 00:39:13,090 --> 00:39:19,650 with the description of spring. Spring, new life, 571 00:39:19,870 --> 00:39:24,780 symbolizing regeneration, rebirth, in a way he was 572 00:39:24,780 --> 00:39:27,980 saying that this is England, this is the spring of 573 00:39:27,980 --> 00:39:30,460 England, this is the beginning for England. We 574 00:39:30,460 --> 00:39:33,920 plant the seeds and the spring begins in April. 575 00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:38,260 Now when we say April in English literature, April 576 00:39:38,260 --> 00:39:44,740 has been made famous mainly because of Chaucer, 577 00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:49,000 and then later on in the 20th century by T.S. 578 00:39:49,100 --> 00:39:52,480 Eliot. T.S. Eliot begins his most famous poem, The 579 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:57,280 Waste Land, by mentioning April. Do you know what 580 00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:00,740 he says? T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land. 581 00:40:12,380 --> 00:40:16,260 One mark if you know the first verse of the first 582 00:40:16,260 --> 00:40:20,060 line in The Waste Land. T.S. Eliot is the greatest 583 00:40:20,060 --> 00:40:24,720 20th century poet. He's American and British. His 584 00:40:24,720 --> 00:40:31,440 most famous poem is The Waste Land. What is the 585 00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:33,320 first line? One mark. 586 00:40:36,540 --> 00:40:38,680 One mark if you know. He says, 587 00:40:43,420 --> 00:40:48,060 April is the 588 00:40:48,060 --> 00:40:54,520 cruelest month. April is the cruelest month. 589 00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:59,080 Remember, in so many ways, when he says April is 590 00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:02,360 the cruelest month, he's reminding us of Chaucer. 591 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:08,180 He's connecting his poem from Chaucer, the father, 592 00:41:08,660 --> 00:41:11,360 the most important figure of early English poetry. 593 00:41:13,420 --> 00:41:18,080 Do you know why? Can you tell why? Why did T.S. 594 00:41:18,140 --> 00:41:22,020 Eliot begin his poem, The Wasteland, with, April 595 00:41:22,020 --> 00:41:24,960 is the cruelest month, contradicting Chaucer, who 596 00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:28,160 praised April as the month of spring and life and 597 00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:31,580 generation? I'll let you think of this question. 598 00:41:32,220 --> 00:41:36,400 I'll stop here. And we meet next time, inshallah. 599 00:41:36,540 --> 00:41:40,580 And we'll be talking about other texts from Middle 600 00:41:40,580 --> 00:41:41,780 English. Do you have any question?