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Mock-heroic English Poems
Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic qualities to such a point that they become absurd. History Historically, the mock-heroic style was popular in 17th-century Italy, and in the post-Restoration (England), Restoration and Augustan literature, Augustan periods in Great Britain. The earliest example of the form is the ''Batrachomyomachia'' ascribed to Homer by the Romans and parodying his work, but believed by most modern scholars to be the work of an anonymous poet in the time of Alexander the Great. A longstanding assumption on the origin of the mock-heroic in the 17th century is that epic (genre), epic and the pastoral genres had become used up and exhausted,Griffin,Dustin H. (1994) ''Satire: A Critical Reintroduction'p.135/ref> and so they got parodically reprised. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or exposing the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm —"in satire, irony is militant", according to literary critic Northrop Frye— but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to question. Satire is found in many a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alessandro Tassoni
Alessandro Tassoni (28 September 156525 April 1635) was an Italian poet and writer, from Modena, best known as the author of the mock-heroic poem ''La secchia rapita'' (''The Rape of the Pail'', or ''The stolen bucket''). Life He was born in Modena, to a noble family, from Bernardino Tassoni and Sigismonda Pellicciari. Having lost both parents at an early age, he was raised by the maternal grandfather, Giovanni Pellicciari. It was with Giovanni that, according to tradition, he first visited the bucket, which was later to inspire his major work, in the belfry of Modena's Cathedral. At the age of 13, Alessandro Tassoni was taught Greek and Latin by Lazzaro Labadini, a professor of Literature at the University. He then became a law student, attending university in Modena, then in Bologna, Pisa and Ferrara, where he eventually graduated. He appears to have been a rowdy youth, living for some time in Nonantola, from where he was expelled in 1595, due to several incidents in which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interregnum (England)
The Interregnum was the period between the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649 and the arrival of his son Charles II in London on 29 May 1660 which marked the start of the Restoration. During the Interregnum, England was under various forms of republican government (see Commonwealth of England; this article describes other facets of the Interregnum). Politics The politics of the period were dominated by the wishes of the ''Grandees'' (Senior Officers) of the New Model Army and their civilian supporters. They encouraged (or at least tolerated) several republican regimes. From 1649 until 1653 executive powers lay with the Council of State, while legislative functions were carried out by the Rump Parliament. In 1653 the Grandees, with Oliver Cromwell in the lead, dismissed the Rump, and replaced it with a Nominated Assembly (nicknamed the Parliament of Saints or Barebone's Parliament) made up of 140 nominees, 129 from England and Wales, five from Scotland and six from Irelan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Butler (poet)
Samuel Butler (baptized 14 February 1613 – 25 September 1680) was an English poet and satirist. He is remembered now chiefly for a long satirical poem titled ''Hudibras''. Biography Samuel Butler was born in Strensham, Worcestershire, and was the son of a farmer and churchwarden, also named Samuel. His date of birth is unknown, but there is documentary evidence for the date of his baptism of 14 February. The date of Butler's baptism is given as 8 February by Treadway Russell Nash in his 1793 edition of ''Hudibras''. Nash had already mentioned Butler in his ''Collections for a History of Worcestershire'' (1781), and perhaps because the latter date seemed to be a revised account, it has been repeated by many writers and editors. However, The parish register of Strensham records under the year 1612: "Item was christened Samuell Butler the sonne of Samuell Butler the xiiijth of February anno ut supra". Lady Day, 25 March, was New Year's Day in England at the time, so the year o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hudibras
''Hudibras'' is a vigorous satirical poem, written in a mock-heroic style by Samuel Butler (1613–1680), and published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678. The action is set in the last years of the Interregnum, around 1658–60, immediately before the restoration of Charles II as king in May 1660. The story shows Hudibras, a knight and colonel in the Parliamentary army, being regularly defeated, sometimes by the skills and courage of women, and ends with a witty and detailed declaration that women are superior to men. ''Hudibras'' is notable for its longevity: from the 1660s, it was more or less always in print, from many different publishers and editors, till the period of the First World War (see below). Apart from Byron’s masterpiece ''Don Juan'' (1819–24), there are few English verse satires of this length (over 11,000 lines) that have had such a long and influential life in print. The satire “delighted the royalists but was less an attack on the puritans than a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burlesque (literature)
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects."Burlesque" ''Oxford English Dictionary'', , accessed 16 February 2011 The word derives from the Italian ', which, in turn, is derived from the Italian ' – a joke, ridicule or mockery. Burlesque overlaps in meaning with , and travesty, and, in its theatrical sense, with [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romance (heroic Literature)
As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric knight-errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest. It developed further from the epics as time went on; in particular, "the emphasis on love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the ''chanson de geste'' and other kinds of epic, in which masculine military heroism predominates." Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric, or burlesque intent. Romances reworked legends, fairy tales, and history to suit the readers' and hearers' tastes, but by c. 1600 they were out of fashion, and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel ''Don Quixote''. Still, the modern image of "medieval" is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word ''medieva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miguel De Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel ''Don Quixote'', a work often cited as both the first modern novel and one of the pinnacles of world literature. Much of his life was spent in poverty and obscurity, which led to many of his early works being lost. Despite this, his influence and literary contribution are reflected by the fact that Spanish is often referred to as "the language of Cervantes". In 1569, Cervantes was forced to leave Spain and move to Rome, where he worked in the household of a Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal. In 1570, he enlisted in a Spanish Marine Infantry, Spanish Navy infantry regiment, and was badly wounded at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571. He served as a soldier until 1575, when he was captur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Western literature, it is often labelled as the first modern novel and one of the greatest works ever written. ''Don Quixote'' is also one of the most-translated books in the world. The plot revolves around the adventures of a member of the lowest nobility, an hidalgo from La Mancha named Alonso Quijano, who reads so many chivalric romances that he either loses or pretends to have lost his mind in order to become a knight-errant () to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name . He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, who often employs a unique, earthy wit in dealing with Don Quixote's rhetorical monologues on knighthood, already considered old-fashioned at the time, and representing the most droll realism in contr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meo Patacca
"Meo Patacca" (Meo is a pet name and is short for Bartolomeo) or ''Roma in feste ne i Trionfi di Vienna'' ("Rome in jubilation for the Triumphs of Vienna") is the name of a poem in rhymes written by Giuseppe Berneri (1637–1700). The poem This poem is written in Romanesco, (the Italian dialect spoken in Rome) of the 17th century, and is important because it reveals some elements of both the language and the lifestyle of the Roman people in that period. It relates the story of a ''sgherro'' or a mercenary, who, at the news of the siege of Vienna, decides to organize an expedition to help free the city. The siege really took place in 1683 when the Ottoman army, led by Kara Mustafa Pasha (Bassà in the poem) besieged Vienna for two months. Just before leaving, however, it is reported that Vienna is free from the siege, so the collected money is then spent to organize a big party. The poem is composed of 1245 octaves, collected in 12 cantos. In the last verse or Canto there ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romanesco Dialect
Romanesco () is one of the central Italian dialects spoken in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, especially in the core city. It is linguistically close to Tuscan and Standard Italian, with some notable differences from these two. Rich in vivid expressions and sayings, Romanesco is used in a typical diglossic setting, mainly for informal/colloquial communication, with code-switching and translanguaging with the standard language. History The medieval Roman dialect belonged to the southern family of Italian dialects, and was thus much closer to the Neapolitan language than to the Florentine. A typical example of Romanesco of that period is ''Vita di Cola di Rienzo'' ("Life of Cola di Rienzo"), written by an anonymous Roman during the 14th century. Starting with the 16th century, the Roman dialect underwent a stronger and stronger influence from the Tuscan dialect (from which modern Italian derives) starting with the reigns of the two Medici popes (Leo X and Clement VII) a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giulio Cesare Cortese
Giulio Cesare Cortese (1570 in Naples, Italy – 22 December 1622 in Naples) was an Italian author and poet. Life Born to a well-to-do family, nothing is known of Cortese's early life, though it is thought that he was a schoolmate of Giambattista Basile. Receiving a degree in law, he tried life as a courtier in Spain and Florence, without any great success. Cortese apparently had some success in the Medici court as he was sent in 1599 to Spain as a member of a Medici delegation for the marriage of Philip III of Spain with Margaret of Austria (1584–1611), Margherita of Austria. In his "Tuscan" rhymes there is a fruitless attempt to catch the attention of the Counts of Lemos, the foremost representatives of the Spanish crown in Naples. He was a close friend of Luigi Caponaro, who he frequently cites in his work. Regardless of his commemoration by Basile in 1627, it is generally believed, due to several handwritten manuscripts, that Cortese lived at least until 1640 and it is con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
