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At the top there is the king who is the owner of all the lands. He gave some lands (called fife-feudi) lords and nobles.

After that there are the Lords ( Vassal to king) who gave army, soldiers and horses to the king.

Kights ( Vassals to Lords) who fought for nobles and the king and have lands in change.

Peasant were at the bottom, they worked the lands for nobles and knights and have their protection in change.

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The original inhibitants of Britain were BRITONS, whose culture was a bit misteriours.

Pre Celtic best known mounuments are located in southern England: , Silbury Hill the largest burial mound in Europe, and Stonehege, the world famous circle of stones.

We don't know what "Stonehenge" exactly is, probably was a sort of astronomical clock used to mark the passing of the season.

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The Celts were Indo-European tribes from Europe and Asia Minor who settles England and were splitted in many different clans. The leaders og these clan were strong and warriors. The clans were proud of their indipendence.

Celts were an advanced society: they made iron weapons, wove their clothes and were exeperienced farmers and hunters.

They lived in hill forts surrounded by strong walls.

Women could fight as well the men. Queen Boudicca was one of the most famous Celtic female warriors who fought against Romans too.

The religious leaders of the Celts were called Druids.

Druids also acted as judges and doctor.

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In 55 and 54 B.C., Julius Caesar made military exepitions to Britain. The Roman conquest of Britain, howerever began in 43 A.C., under Emperor Claudius. To defend Britain from the Celts, the Roman built a long wall, named Hadrian's wall.

The Celtic tribes adopted to Roman civilization.

The Roman presence in Britain can still traced in the names of some towns ending in -chester and -cester (such as a Manchester or Leicester), in the road system and in foundations of some of today's major cities (including London, at the time called Londium).

The romans brought their civic orgaization to Britain and created an urban civilization on the Roman model. The Celtic chiefs and leading families adopted the Roman way of life.

In the late 4th Century, Britain graudally fell prey to invasion by Germanic tribes. The Roman had to withdraw from Britain in about 410.

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The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 verse tales, in the middle english. The stories are told by a group of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury.

The pilgrims start their journey from the Tabard Inn in Southwark and the host of the inn, Herry Baily, promises the teller of the best tale a free supper when they come back.

Among the pilgrims is Chaucher himself, who tells two stories: The General Prolouge which opens the Canterbury and Chaucer's Retractions which close it.

Pilgrimages were fairly common in the Middle Ages. Going on a pilgrimage could be a penitial act and it certainly could be dengerous: accidents. robbery and even drowning at the sea were far from infrequent.

Chaucer's pilgrims ride to warship of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. It was there that Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, had been murdered by followers of King Henry II..

Life as a journey was one of the oldest commonplaces in the world literature (the Divine Commedy is a literay exemple in this tradition) but Chaucer's pilgrimage was unprecedented. Harold Bloom suggests though the structure of the Canterbury Tales was mostly original it was inspired by the "pilgrim" figures of Dante and Virgil in the Divine Comedy. Chaucer's most obvious source Boccaccio's Decameron.

The difference between the Canterbury Tales and the Decamerons:

1. The Canterbury Tales:

- 24 tales +2 by Chaucer.

- 24 tellers + Chaoucer himself.

- Chaucer is one of the pilgrims.

- Time: 4 days.

- Setting: the road from London to Canterbury.

- Occasion: a pilgrimage.

- Tellers: from all layers of English society.

2. The Decameron:

- 100 tales + a poem.

- 10 tellers + Boccaccio as the author.

- Boccaccio isn't one of the tellers.

- Time: 10 day

- Setting: a villa outside Florence

- Occasion: the plauge of 1348

- Tellers: noble

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After Roman Empire, some Norther tribes invaded Britain: Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

The Britons fought against the Anglo-Saxons and this period produced a series of story around the Legend of King Arthur and his Knives of the Round table.

All the tribes that inveded Britain after Roman were of Germanic heritage.

They were hardy and and warlike race and belived in ideals of nobles behaviour.

King- the chuef- fought for his people risking his life in battle.

Lords- had to give their loyalty to the king and, for this, they had a war spoil.

The German society was ARISTOCRATIC but not in the modern way of the term.

It was a society ruled by men.

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War with France broke out, when Edward III claimed the vacant throne of France. One of the most famous victories in English history was achieved by Henry V at Agincourt in 1415, as Black Death which wiped out between 30% and 60% of the population.

Under the reign of the English king Henry VI, French obtained spectacular victories thanks to Joan of Arc, the so-called "pucelle d'Orléans" (French for "young girl from Orléans).

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The general Proulogue keeps some of the characteristic of the original Middle English text, including its rhymed couplets.

The author describes the time of the year (spring).

After these general remarks, Chaucer introduces himself as one of the pilgrims: on his way to Canterbury he stays at the Tobard Inn, where he meets a group of people going to the same destination.

Before beginning his work, Chaucer tells us he wants to introduce his follow pilgrims: he will describe them according to their character, circumstances and clothing

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The wife of Bath is one of The Canterbury tale's most vivid characters. She comes from Bath, a town in the South of England.

The description of her clothing and physical apparence is not only realistic but also an psychological portrait. She is a woman of means and proparty.

Despite all her charity and boasted religion, she goes to church mostly to show off her costly dress.

Even her pilgrimages all over Europe have less to do with her devotion than with her desire to travel and meet people.

The five husband she has had and her phisical features testly her innate sensuality

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The Tudors-Historical and social background

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The Tudors-Historical and social background

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The rise of Tudors dinasty coincided with the changement of England from a medieval to a modern ceuntry.

The Renainence was a rivival of the classical learn.

Renainence - the re-birth of arts, literature, scienze and philosophy thanks to the inventions of compass and of printing.

Henry II

After the war of the teo roses and the defeat of York. The Lancaster family gave the start of Tudors. The first was Henry VIII , a model of a new Renaissance mom:

intelligent, athletic and cultured. He was a devoted catholic and was called "the defensor fidey" for that. He married Chaterine of Aragon, his brother widow.

She didn’t gave to him a male heiz but a daughter, Mary. So, he decided to noice the pope about his intention to devorce by Chaterine but the pope refused. Henry commanded the archibishop of Canterbury declaize avoid his marriage with Chaterine and married, secretly, his pregnant lover Anna Boleyn. In 1534, with the act of supremacy, he proclaimed himself

the Head of a new Church - The Anglican Church.

Anne Boleyn

Their marriage only lasted three years. She had a daughter, Elizabeth, but Henry was waiting for a male heir. Anne was accused of adultery, incest and conspired to kill the King and so was executed.

Jane Seymour

Eleven days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Henry married Jane Seymour who gave him a male heir, the future Edward VI, but she died after two weeks her son's birth. Henry was a unhealthy child and he died after few years.

Anne of Cleves

Henry, then, to maintain political relations with the German duke of Cleves, married Anne of Cleves even if he was horrified by her appearance. Six month later Henry annulled the marriage because Anne liked a life of wealth, luxury and popularity at Tudor court. Henry's next wife, Catherine Howard, was accused of adultery like her cousin Anne Boleyn and was beheaded.

Catherine Parr

In 1543, at the age of fifty, Henry married for last time. His sixth wife, Catherine Parr, was a devote noblewoman and supported female education.

Henry died in 1547 at the age of 55.

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When Elizabeth I came to the throne absolutely needed a period of internal peace.

So, she managed a balance between Catholics and Protestants (Puritans). This compromise guarateed a long period of internal peace and commercial power.

She knew that, to solve the problem of foreign policy, Britainwhen Philip needed a fleet and a big development of overseas trade. So, she encouraged the expansion of navy and supported the exporation.

It was an age of wars, travel and commerce but Britain grow up.

The biggest British enemy was Spain.

Elizabeth supported Dutch Protestant fighting against Spain and sent ships to America to fight against Spanish ships of Philip II.

Frictions between these two countreis increased a lot and in 1588 Britain entered in war with Spain when Philip II prepared a strong fleet, called "The invincible armada" for the invasion of England. But, the heavy Spanish ships were defeated by the light and fast British ships that pushed the Armada inside a Storm and was destroyed.

This victory increased Elizabeth's prestige all over Europe.

The "Armada portrait"

Elizabeth I was a very "social" queen. In that period "portrait" was a big propaganda's instrument and Elizabeth used a lot this instrument.

The goal was to advertise the power and the strenght of "The Vergin Queen" ( Veergin becaouse she never married to be stricly convetraded on her country).

"The Armada portrsit" was a big propaganda for Britain and Elizabeth after the defeat of the Spanish invincible armada.

Elizabeth was portrayed in a very rich dress full of pearls and rubins. The portrait is full of symblolyc elements:

Pearl - means the purity of the Queen (Vergin)

Rubins - rubins red colours contrast the pearls white purity, mean power and strenght.

Other symbolic elements is the round neckcollar - Elizabeth face is in the middle and is brilliant like the middle of the sun with its rages.

The right queen's hand lays on a globe but exactly on the Americas, the new continent to be colonized.

In the foreground, behind Elizabeth, there are two scenes: on her left hand there are some ships in a terrible storm (Spanish Armada) while on the right hand there are some ships on a calm sea (British fleet blessed by God).

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Bloody Mary and The persecution of the Protestant

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Bloody Mary and The persecution of the Protestant

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When Henry VIII died, Edward VI, his 9 years old son, succeded tp the throne, After 6 years, the young king died and Mary, the frist daughter of Henry, was proclamid queen.

She was the frist woman crowned monarch. A devote and obsessive Catholicism, took her to be very unpopular because involves in a terrible persecution: Several Protestant were sent to the stake and burned. For this reason she was called "The bloody Mary".

Queen Mary died childless and was succeded by her half-sister, the 25 years old Elizabeth.

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English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English thaetre, or as Elizabeth theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642.

New pubblic outodoor playhouse* are buildt.

In the North city were the Theatre and the Curtain.

*The English word "play" comes from old English "plega" that has some meaning of the word "Ludus" (game or enterteiment).

In the South part of the river Thames was build the Globe.

The players were considered vagabonds and they had put themself under the protection of a noble man, they were called "Lord Chamberlain", or under the queen, and they were called "the Kings man". Female roles were act by the young mans.

The descprition of the theatre:

1. the flag

2. the room below the roof, probaly a storage.

3. the stage roof that was often painted blue.

4. the balcony, that space cuold be used by the actors for scenes played on a level higher than the sage. For example, the famous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.

5. the inner stage used for indoor scenes (rooms, tombs..)

6. the side doors used for the actors' entrances and exits.

7. the front stage is the stage used by the actors, more expensive, for seating

8. the arena, or pit, where the spectators standing and payed one penny

9. the steps

10. the galleries cost an additional penny

11. the turrets that containg the external staircases,

London theatres in the 16th century

In the South side of the Thames. A new theatre was called the Globe, it was a public outdoor playhouse, attended by the upper classes and ordinary people anlike. Performances took places in the afternoon, during daylight hours.

The rounded structure of the Globe and its stage were the visible expression of the great commonplace of the Elizabethan theatre- "all the word's a stage". This idea is central to Shakespear's plays.

The Jacobean theatre

The theatre was also provides a powerful metaphors for the division of England in the early 17th ceuntury, after Elizabeth's death. Whereas previously playhouses had been attended by all classes, now there was a division between public outdoor theatres and private indoor ones. Plays mainly fot the nobilty were only performed at noblemen's palaces or at Court. The lower and the highter classes were no longer part of the same audience. The Puritans middle class looked the theatre as a place of predition.

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He was born on 23rd April 1564 in Sttratford-upon-Avon. His father John was a glover and a wool dealer who rose to prominence in civic life. Shakespeare was born in a plague year, and outbreaks of the plauge would follow him throughout his life.

He probably attended Stratford's grammar school. He married Anne Hathaway, eight years older than him. It was probably at his time that he decided to go to London to work in the theatre. From the birth of the twins, untill 1592, we have no record pf Shakespeare's whereabouts. The Shakespeare's themes were:

Love

Power

Jelousy

Revenge

Death

Magician and supernatural

Why is different studying Shakespreare?

Shakespeare is different from all the others important writers, like Dante, he known all over the world because their masterpiece are actual and immortal.

Shakespeare's playwrights

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, a few poems and 154 sonnets. Shakespeare's plays fall into four basic groups. There are the histories (a historical play is a play dealing with real events in history); the comedies (a comedy is an amusing play usually with a happy ending); the tragedies (a tragedy is a serious play with a sad ending); and in the last year of his career, between 1608 and 1611, he was producing a kind of romantic tragi-comedy exemplifed by "The Tempest".

Tragedies- Romeo and Juliet (love and death), Othello (jelousy), King Lear (power), Hamlet (revenge).

Famous speeches in emoticons:

By Hamlet: To be or not to be, that's the question. To die, to sleep no more. To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream.

To 🐝 or or not to 🐝, that’s the ❓. To ☠️ maybe to 💤.

By the balcony scene by Romeo and Juliet:

A rose is always a rose also it's colour is different it's smell always good.

A 🌹 is always a 🌹 also it’s 🎨 is different it’s 👃🏼always good.

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Hamlet character's

Hamlet:

Queen Gertude (mother)

King of Denmark (father)

Ophelia (Hamlet old love) -> Laertes (brother) -> Polonius (father)

Prince Clauddius (uncle and his father assassin)

The plot

Hamlet's father, the King of Denmark, has been murdered and has been succeded by his brother, Claudius. Claudius has also married Gertrude, the widowed queen. Hamlet is bitterly distresses by his father's death and by the unacceptable speed with which his mother has remarried. His father's ghost appears and tells him that he was murdered by his own brother.

At court Hamlet pretends to be mad, using his feigned madness as a way of hiding his true feelings and his plans. The court expect him to marry Ophelia but Hamlet rejects Ophelia, whom he once loved.

A company of travelling actors appears at court and Hamlet invites them to perfom a play that was similar to the story of the murder of the King. Hamlet's suspicions are confirmed bt Claudius's reactions. Hamlet visits his mother and accidentaly kills Polonius (father of Ophelia).Ophelia, maddened by grief, has drowned herself.

Claudius plots with Laertes (Ophelia's brother) to kill Hamlet in a fencing metch. Laertes has posioned a sword. In the duel, however, the two men exchange swords and Leartes is killed by his own posioned.

Compared and contrast between “The Lion King” and “Hamlet”

Hamlet takes place in Denmark during the Middle Ages, while The Lion King is set in the jungle. The protagonists are Hamlet and Simba. We don't know the age of Hamlet, while Simba is presented in two moments of his life (youth and the beginning of adulthood).

Their fathers are the King of Denmark and Mufasa. Both of them were murdered by their own brothers (Claudius and Scar).

In both stories, there is a supernatural element: the ghost of the father appears to the son to tell him the truth. In Hamlet, the ghost (Hamlet's father) reveals that he was assassinated by his brother. In The Lion King, the same thing happens.

Hamlet ends with the protagonist avenging his father's death, but he dies too. The Lion King ends with Simba avenging his father's death and becoming the Jungle King.

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Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's best known tragedies and the most famous love story of all time.

He put love at the centre of a tragedy.

Romeo and Juliet is also the tragedy of youth.

Shakespeare makes it clear that Romeo and Juliet are victims sacrificed so that their families might be reconcilied at the end of the play.

The plot

The story is set in Verona, where the Montagues and Capulets are bitter enemies. The plot begins when Old Capulet organizes a ball for his daughter’s marriage to Paris. However, at the party, Romeo and Juliet fall in love and soon decide to marry in secret, helped by Friar Lawrence.

The tragedy begins when Romeo kills Tybalt in a street fight and is exiled from the city. To escape a forced marriage to Paris, Juliet takes a potion to fake her death. Romeo, unaware of the plan, thinks she is truly dead and kills himself at her tomb. Upon waking and finding Romeo dead, Juliet kills herself too. In the end, the two families finally reconcile over the bodies of their children.

Only your name is my enemy (balcony scene).

This passage is part of Romeo and Juliet's celebrated love duet under Juliet's balcony. It's night.

Juliet doesen't know that Romeo is below, listening. In literary terms her speech is called a soliloquy or a monolouge. The function od the soliloquy is to reveal to the audience a characther's real feelings and intentions.

Juliets opposes the substance of things to the power of words: Romeo is not just a name (Montague) but a flesh-and-blood person made of hand, foot, arm, face. etc..

The text contains examples of Middle English words. Match each word to its Modern English translation.

- Wherefore ---> for whar reason/why

- Thy ---> your

- Thou ---> you

- Wilt ---> will

- 'tis ---> it is

- Thee ---> you

- Thine ---> your

Text:

JULIET O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.

What's Montague? It is not a hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

ROMEO I take thee at thy word.

Call me but love, and i'll be new baptiz'd;

Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

JULIE If they do see thee, they will murder thee.

ROMEO Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye

Than twenty of their swords!

Romeo and Juliet actuality

This tragedy well represents the contrast between young and old. He makes the generation galp clear from the beginning to end: there is no communication between parents and children, and the young people's death are explicitly presented as a generous and disinterested and the old characters as tyrannical and cruel.

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Virginia Wolf was a prominent English author of the early 20th century.

In order, Woolf reconstructs the history of English literatutre from the point of view of the women. Wolf described the life of Judith, Shakespeare's imaginary sister.

The plot

Judith Shakespeare was a fictional character. In his life, William Shakespeare had a lot of opportunities:

he could go to the school and learn latin and elements of grammar and logic, he went to London for work.

Judith was quick and gifted like her brother. She wasn't allow to read and to write bacouse she was a girl and the girl couldn't study in that period. Her parent's reaction were that they spoken to herv sharply but kindly.

She decided to escape to London for her marriage. When she went to London she had the desidre to become an actress, but when the people discovered her desire they laughed in her face.

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Key plot details:

The setup: Iago, furious after begin passed over for a promotion in favor of Cassio, plots to destroy Othello. He uses Roderigo to incite trouble and manipulate Desdemona's father.

The manipulation: while stationed in Cyprus, Iago plants suspicion in Othello's mind, utilizing a lost handkerchief as "proof" of Desdemona's infidelity.

The downfall: consumed by jealous rage, Othello murders Desdemona by smothering her in their bed.

The aftermath: Emilia, Iago's wife, exposes the plot, leading to Iago's arrest and Othello's suicide.

Major themes:

Jealousy: highlighted by Iago as a "green- eyed monster" that consumes Othello.

Manipulation and deceit: Iago tricks nearly every character to fuel his revenge.

Race and outsider status: Othello's position as a Moor ( black man) in white Venetian society makes him vulnerable to manipulation and prejudice.

The play explores the devastation caused by jelousy, racism, and blind trust in an evil, manipulative character.

Act 1

Roderigo has been pursuing Desdemona, a Venetian noblewoman. One night, he hears from Iago that Desdemona has secretly married his General, the Moorish Othello. Iago were jelous about the fact that Othello were at the high rank and for this he decided to tell about the merriage at Desdemona's father, Brabantio, becouse he dislikes having Othello as a son-in-law. When Brabantio known about the merriage immeditaly angrily and tells to his army to arrest Othello, but at that moment, officers arrive to summon Desdemona's father to an urgent meeting of the Senate. Full of fury, Brabantio goes to the council.

Bramantio claims vengance against Othello, he was already there and Othello explains how his storoies of military action have helped him earn Desdemona's love. After Desedemona was called to defend her marriage but her father disowns her and she chooses to go with Othello. She plans to travel in the care of Cassio and Emilia (Iago's wife).

Act 2

In Cyprus, Montano ( the governor of Cyprus) and Cassio, Iago, Desdemona and Emilia disembark. Othello soon arrives with news that storms at sea have dispersed the Turkish fleet. Rodrigo confesses doubts about his potential to woo Desdemona, but for Iago there is still hope. He urges Roderigo to challenge Cassio in a duel. When the night comes, Iago gets Cassio drunk and Roderigo incites his anger. Montano is stabbed during his attempt to contain Cassio. Othello is angered by the fight and blames Cassio.

Act 3

The next day Iago convinces Cassio to ask to Desdemona for help in reminder his post. When Cassio asks, Desdemona agrees.

Meanwhile, Iago sown push jelousy in Othello's mind.

With no reason to suspect Iago of bad intension, Othello begins to watch his wife.

Othello becomes angry when Desdemona cannot find the handkerchief that he gaves to her. The handkerchief is embroidered with strawberries. But Desdemona hadn't lost the handkerchief. Iago had instructed Emilia to take it. Iago then hide the handkerchief where Cassio would find it. Othello gets jelous and suspects her of infidelty.