英美文学作家及作品 诺贝尔文学奖

第一篇：英美文学作家及作品 诺贝尔文学奖

奥斯卡 王尔德the important of being earnest 乔治 艾略特Silas Marner 织工马南传 乔治 艾略特Middlemarch米德尔马契

丹尼尔·笛福ROBINSON CRUSOE鲁滨逊漂流记 查尔斯·狄更斯A Tale of Two Cities双城记 华盛顿·欧文Rip van Winkle瑞普·凡·温克 威廉·福克纳Light In August八月之光 伊迪丝·华顿The Age of Innocence纯真年代 萧伯纳Mrs Warren's Profession华伦夫人的职业 西奥多 德莱赛SISTER CARRIE 嘉莉妹妹

1907 [英]吉卜林（1835-1907）获奖作品：《老虎！老虎！》。约瑟夫·鲁德亚德·吉卜林（1865～1936）英国小说家、诗人。主要作品有诗集《营房谣》《七海》，小说集《生命的阻力》和动物故事《丛林之书》等。1907年作品《老虎！老虎！》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“这位世界名作家的作品以观察入微、想象独特、气概雄浑、叙述卓越见长”。

1915 [法]罗曼-罗兰（1866-1944）获奖作品：《约翰-克利斯朵夫》。获奖类别：小说 1923 [爱尔兰]威镰-叶芝（1865-1939）获奖作品：《丽达与天鹅》。获奖类别：诗

威廉·勃特勒·叶芝（1865～1939）爱尔兰诗人、剧作家。主要作品有诗作《当你老了》、《丽达与天鹅》等。1923年作品《丽达与天鹅》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“由于他那永远充满着灵感的诗，它们透过高度的艺术形式展现了整个民族的精神 1925 [英]肖伯纳（1856-1950）获奖作品：《圣女贞德》。乔治·萧伯纳（1856～1950）爱尔兰戏剧家。共完成51个剧本。主要作品有《圣女贞德》等。1925年作品《圣女贞德》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“由于他那些充满理想主义及人情味的作品——它们那种激动性讽刺，常涵蕴着一种高度的诗意美”。

1930 [美]辛-路易斯（1885-1951）获奖作品：《巴比特》辛克莱·刘易斯（1885～1951）美国作家。主要作品有《大街》、《巴比特》、《阿罗史密斯》等。1930年作品《巴比特》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“由于他充沛有力、切身和动人的叙述艺术，和他以机智幽默去开创新风格的才华”

1932 [英]高尔斯华绥（1867-1933）获奖作品：《有产者》。

约翰·高尔斯华绥（1867～1933）英国小说家、剧作家。著有长篇小说《福尔赛世家》三部曲、《现代喜剧》三部曲和剧本《银匣》等。1932年作品《有产者》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“为其描述的卓越艺术——这种艺术在《福尔赛世家》中达到高峰”。

1936[美]尤金-奥尼尔（1888-1953）获奖作品：《天边外》。尤金·奥尼尔（1888～1953）美国剧作家。主要剧作有《天边外》、《安娜克利斯蒂》、《无穷的岁月》和自专性剧作《长夜漫漫路迢迢》等。1936年作品《天边外》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“由于他剧作中所表现的力量、热忱与深挚的感情——它们完全符合悲剧的原始概念”。

1938[美]赛珍珠（女1892-1973）获奖作品：《大地》。赛珍珠（珀尔·塞登斯特里克·布克）（女）（1892～1973）美国作家。主要作品有《大地的房子》三部曲：《大地》《儿子们》《分家》《母亲》《爱国者》《龙种》等。1938年作品《大地》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“她对于中国农民生活的丰富和真正史诗气概的描述，以及她自传性的杰作”。

1948[英]托-爱略特（1888-1965）获奖作品：《四个四重奏》。托马斯·斯特恩斯·艾略特（1888～1965）英美诗人、剧作家、批评家。主要作品有诗作《普鲁弗洛克的情歌》、《荒原》、《四个四重奏》；论著《传统与个人才能》、《批评的功能》、《诗与批评的效用》等。1948年作品《四个四重奏》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“对于现代诗之先锋性的卓越贡献”。

1949 [美]威镰-福克纳（1897-1962）获奖作品：《我弥留之际》。威廉·福克纳（1897～1962）美国作家。主要作品有长篇小说《喧哗与骚动》、《我弥留之际》、《押沙龙，押沙龙》等。1949年作品《我弥留之际》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“因为他对当代美国小说做出了强有力的和艺术上无与伦比的贡献”。

1950 [英]伯-罗素（1872-1970）获奖作品：《哲学-数学-文学》。帕特兰·亚瑟·威廉·罗素（1872～1970）英国数学家、哲学家。主要作品有《数学原理》、《哲学问题》、《教育与社会秩序》等。1950年作品《哲学—数学—文学》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“表彰他所写的捍卫人道主义理想和思想自由的多种多样意义重大的作品”。

1953 [英]温-丘吉尔（1874-1965）获奖作品：《不需要的战争》。温斯特·丘吉尔（1874～1965）英国政治家、历史学家、传记作家。曾任英国首相。主要作品有《马拉坎德远征记》、《第二次世界大战回忆录》、《英语民族史》等。1953年作品《不需要的战争》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“由于他在描述历史与传记方面的造诣，同时由于他那捍卫崇高的人的价值的光辉演说”。

1954 [美]海明威（1899-1961）获奖作品：《老人与海》。欧内斯特·海明威（1899～1961）美国作家。主要作品有《太阳照常升起》、《永别了，武器》、《丧钟为谁尔鸣》、《老人与海》等。1954年作品《老人与海》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“因为他精通于叙事艺术，突出地表现在其近著《老人与海》之中；同时也因为他对当代文体风格之影响”。

1962 [美]斯坦贝克（1902-1968）获奖作品：《人鼠之间》。约翰·斯坦贝克（1902～1968）美国作家。主要作品有《愤怒的葡萄》、《月亮下去了》、《珍珠》和《烦恼的冬天》等。1962年作品《人鼠之间》“通过现实主义的、寓于想象的创作，表现出富于同情的幽默和对社会的敏感观察”。

1969[爱尔兰]萨-贝克特（1906-1990）获奖作品：《等待戈多》。萨缪尔·贝克特（1906～1989）法国作家。主要作品有三部曲《马洛伊》、《马洛伊之死》、《无名的人》和剧本《等待戈多》等。1969年作品《等待戈多》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“他那具有奇特形式的小说和戏剧作品，使现代人从精神困乏中得到振奋”。

1976 [美]索尔-贝娄（1915-）获奖作品：《赫索格》。索尔贝娄（1915～2005）美国作家。主要作品有长篇小说《奥吉玛琪历险记》、《赫索格》、《洪堡的礼物》等。1976年作品《赫索格》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“由于他的作品对人性的了解，以及对当代文化的敏锐透视”。1978 [美]埃-巴-辛格（1904-1991）获奖作品：小说《魔术师-原野王》。艾萨克巴什维斯辛格（1904～1991）美国作家。主要作品有《撒旦在戈雷》、《卢布林的魔术师》、《奴隶》等。1978年作品《魔术师原野王》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“他的充满激情的叙事艺术，这种既扎根于波兰人的文化传统，又反映了人类的普遍处境”。

1981 [英]埃-卡内蒂（1905-）获奖作品：小说《迷茫》。埃利亚斯·卡内蒂（1905～1994）英国德语作家。主要作品有长篇小说《迷惘》等。1981年作品《迷茫》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“作品具有宽广的视野、丰富的思想和艺术力量”

1983 [英]威镰-戈丁尔（1911-）获奖作品：小说《蝇王-金字塔》。威廉·戈尔丁（1911～1994）英国作家。主要作品有长篇小说《蝇王》、《继承者》、《金字塔》、《自由堕落》、《看得见的黑暗》、《纸人》等。1983年作品《蝇王金字塔》获诺贝尔文学奖。

1987 [美]约瑟夫-不罗茨基（1940-）获奖作品：散文诗《从彼得堡到斯德哥尔摩》。约瑟夫·布罗茨基（1940～1996）苏裔美籍诗人。主要作品有诗集《韵文与诗》、《山丘和其他》、《悼约翰邓及其他》、《驻足荒漠》；散文集《小于一》等。1987年《从彼得堡到斯德哥尔摩》获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“他的作品超越时空限制，无论在文学上或是敏感问题方面都充分显示出他广阔的思想及浓郁的诗意”。

1993 [美国]托妮-莫里森托尼·莫里森（女）（1931～）美国作家。主要作品有长篇小说《最蓝的眼睛》、《秀拉》、《所罗门之歌》、《宝贝儿》、《爵士乐》等。1993年获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“其作品想象力丰富,富有诗意，显示了美国现实生活的重要方面”。

1995 [爱尔兰]谢默斯-希尼 希尼（1939～）爱尔兰诗人。主要作品有诗集《一位自然主义者之死》、《通向黑暗之门》、《在外过冬》、《北方》、《野外作业》、《苦路岛》、《山楂灯》、《幻觉》等。1995年获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“由于其作品洋溢着抒情之美,包容着深邃的伦理,揭示出日常生活和现实历史的奇迹”。

2001 英国 维-苏-纳保尔 代表作有《给毕斯沃斯先生一所房屋》、《河中一湾》及《幽黯国度》 维苏奈保尔（1932～）印度裔英国作家。1990

年被英国女王授封为骑士。主要作品有小说《神秘的按摩师》、《米格尔大街》、《河弯》、《岛上的旗帜》、《超越信仰》、《神秘的新来者》等。2001年获诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由：“其著作将极具洞察力的叙述与不为世俗左右的探索融为一体，是驱策我们从扭曲的历史中探寻真实的动力”。

2005 英国 哈罗德·品特 他的作品揭示了日常絮谈中的危机、强行打开了了压迫的封闭房间 《生日宴会》、《背叛》、《看门人》《回家》 哈罗德·品特（1930～），英国剧作家。2005年获诺贝尔文学奖。主要作品有《看房者》(TheCaretaker，1960)、《生日晚会》(TheBirthdayParty，1958)、《归家》(TheHomecoming，1965)等剧本。获奖理由是“他的戏剧发现了在日常废话掩盖下的惊心动魄之处并强行打开了压抑者关闭的房间。”

2007年 英国 多丽丝·莱辛（Doris Lessing，1919—）《金色笔记》 http:///43755.html 多丽丝·莱辛（1919～），英国作家。主要作品有《青草在歌唱》(1950年)、五部曲《暴力的孩子们》《玛莎·奎斯特》(1952)、《良缘》(1954)、《风暴的余波》(1958)、《被陆地围住的》(1965)以及《四门之城》(1969)、《金色笔记》(1962年)、《幸存着回忆录》(1974)、《黑暗前的夏天》(1973)等。获奖理由是“她用怀疑、热情、构想的力量来审视一个分裂的文明，其作品如同一部女性经验的史诗。” 2010年

马里奥·巴尔加斯·略萨（1936～），生于秘鲁阿雷基帕，是拥有秘鲁与西班牙双重国籍的作家及诗人。共创作了30多部包括小说、话剧和散文在内的作品，其代表作有小说《城市与狗》(1963年)《绿房子》(1965年)和《酒吧长谈》(1969年)等。2010年获得诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由是“因为他对权力结构制图学般的细腻描述和他对个人的抵制、反抗和挫败形象的尖锐刻画”。

2011年

托马斯·特朗斯特罗姆（1931～），瑞典诗人。1954年发表诗集《17首诗》，轰动诗坛。至今共发表163首诗，除《17首诗》外的作品集为《途中的秘密》、《半完成的天空》、《音色和足迹》、《看见黑暗》、《野蛮的广场》、《为生者和死者》和《悲哀贡多拉》十部诗集。2011年获得诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由是“因为通过他那简练、半透明的意象，让我们对现实世界有崭新的体验”。

2012年

莫言（1956～），原名管谟业，中国作家。自1980年代中期起，莫言以一系列乡土作品崛起，主要作品有《红高粱家族》、《天堂蒜苔之歌》、《檀香刑》、《丰乳肥臀》、《酒国》、《生死疲劳》、《蛙》等。2012年获得诺贝尔文学奖。获奖理由是“用魔幻现实主义的写作手法，将民间故事、历史事件与当代背景融为一体”。

2013年

爱丽丝·门罗（1931～），加拿大女作家，被誉为“加拿大的契诃夫”。1968年发表第一部短篇小说集《快乐影子之舞》（DanceoftheHappyShades），并获得加拿大总督文学奖。门罗以短篇小说闻名全球，其影响巨大的《逃离》2004年出版，她被称为“当代短篇小说大师”，以其精致的讲故事方式著称，清晰与心理现实主义是门罗的写作特色，因此获得2013年诺贝尔文学奖。

2014年

帕特里克·莫迪亚诺（1945～），法国小说家，是法国评论界一致公认的当今法国最有才华的作家之一。莫迪亚诺也被认为是“新寓言”派代表作家，作品探索和研究当今人的存在及其与周围环境、现实的关系。前期小说大都以神秘的父亲和二次大战的环境为主题，运用大量的回忆、想象，把现实和虚构结合起来，描写并未经历过的故事。2014年获得诺贝尔文学奖，获奖原因为帕特里克·莫迪亚诺的作品“唤起了对最不可捉摸的人类命运的记忆”，他的作品捕捉到了二战法国被占领期间普通人的生活。其代表作有《暗店街》、《八月的星期天》等。2015诺贝尔文学奖得主斯维特拉娜·阿列克谢耶维奇 在悲剧中探索人的心灵。现年67岁的白俄罗斯女作家、记者斯维特拉娜·阿列克谢耶维奇成为该奖项历史上第14位女性桂冠得主。“在过去的三四十年间，她一直专注于描写苏联和苏联解体后普通老百姓的生活。她的作品并不是关于那些历史事件本身，而更多地将目光投向普通人的情感历程。”

第二篇：英语专业考研英美文学作家作品顺口溜

外语用复试参考资料5分钟内记住英美文学教材上的所有主要作家

再重申一下: 下面的顺口溜只是用来方便记忆, 帮助你较容易记住提纲挈领的一些内容, 由骨及肉, 因此而记住更多的内容,(我之前曾看过一位网友介绍他通过英美文学的经验, 主题大致就是要记住树干, 到树枝, 再到树叶.他的话很有道理, 我基本上也是按他的原理做的.), 除此再无他用.因为是顺口溜, 顺口是第一位, 因此, 其中有些字看上去有些古怪, 有些牵强, 请不要太在意.能记住就可以了.上面五句为英国部分, 下面三句为美国部分.邓恩撕马赔沙弥

蒲伯吹笛,约翰逊感谢一班来自非州的斯文格格

布来克华华叫, 科学家济兹跟澳雪说拜拜.狄更斯爱喝不安宁的布丁.萧高叶踢死老乔

华盛顿爱上惠霍的梅姑娘.骑马在德来塞大战狄金森

罗伯特李只好以福克纳飞欧申奥.要使用好上面的顺口溜, 前提是你对他们应该有一个大致的了解, 否则你会很难知道who is who了.哈哈...下面我将顺口溜中的字对应的人名加上, 供大家参考.注意: 有些对应的是first name, 有些是last name, 有些则完全是为了顺口的需要而增加的, 无人名可对.邓恩John Donne撕Edmund Spenser 马Christopher Marlowe 赔Francis Bacon 沙William Shakespeare 弥John Milton

蒲伯Alexander Pope 吹笛Daniel Defoe ,约翰逊Samuel Johnson 感谢Richard Binsley Sheridan 一班John Bunyan 来自非Henny Fielding 州的斯文Jonathan Swift 格格Thomas Gray

布来克William Blake 华华William Wordworth 叫, 科Samuel Tayler Coleridge 学家济兹John Keats 跟澳Jane Austen 雪Percy Bysshe Shelley 说拜拜George Gordon Byron.狄更斯Charles Dickens 爱George Eliot 喝Thomas Hardy 不安宁Robert Browning 的布Bronte Sisters 丁Alfred Tennyson.萧George Bernard Shaw 高John Galsworthy 叶William Butler Yeats 踢T.S.Eliot 死老D.H.Lawrence 乔James Joyce.华盛顿Washington Irving 爱Ralph Waldo Emerson 上惠Walt Whitman 霍Nathaniel Hawthorne 的梅Herman Melville 姑娘.骑马Mark Twain 在德来塞Theodore Dreiser 大战Henry James 狄金森Emily Dickinson.罗伯特李Robert Lee Frost 只好以Ezra Pound 福克纳William Faulkner 飞F.Scott Fitzgerald 欧Ernest Hemingway 申奥Eugene O'Neill.理论上来说, 只需5分钟, 你就能记下教材上提及的所有附有作品分析的作家.然后, 每天有空时随口念念, 强化一下.就这么简单.

第三篇：历届诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家

历届诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家

时间 作家 国籍 获奖理由

1901 苏立〃普吕多姆 法国 “是高尚的理想、完美的艺术和罕有的心灵与智慧的实证”

1902 特奥多尔〃蒙森 德国 “今世最伟大的纂世巨匠，此点於其巨著《罗马史》中表露无疑”

1903 比昂斯滕〃比昂松 挪威 “他以诗人鲜活的灵感和难得的赤子之心，把作品写得雍容、华丽而又缤纷”

1904 弗雷德里克〃米斯塔尔 法国 “他的诗作蕴涵之清新创造性与真正的感召力，它忠实地反映了他民族的质朴精神”

1904 何塞〃埃切加赖 西班牙 “由于它那独特和原始风格的丰富又杰出作品，恢复了西班牙喜剧的伟大传统”

1905 亨利克〃显克维支 波兰 “由于他在历史小说写作上的卓越成就”

1906 乔祖埃〃卡尔杜齐 意大利 “不仅是由于他精深的学识和批判性的研究，更重要是为了颂扬他诗歌杰作中所具有的特色、创作气势，清新的风格和抒情的魅力”

1907 约瑟夫〃鲁德亚德〃吉卜林 英国 “这位世界名作家的作品以观察入微、想象独特、气概雄浑、叙述卓越见长”

1908 鲁道尔夫〃欧肯 德国 “他对真理的热切追求、他对思想的贯通能力、他广阔的观察，以及他在无数作品中辩解并阐释一种理想主义的人生哲学时所流露的热诚与力量”

1909 西尔玛〃拉格洛夫（女）瑞典 “由于她作品中特有的高贵的理想主义。丰饶的想象力、平易而优美的风格”

1910 保尔〃约翰〃路德维希〃冯〃海塞 德国 “表扬这位抒情诗人、戏剧家、小说家以及举世闻名的短篇小说家，在他漫长而多产的创作生涯中，所达到的充满理想主义精神之艺术臻境”

1911 莫里斯〃梅特林克 比利时“由于他在文学上多方面的表现，尤其是戏剧作品，不但想象丰富，充满诗意的奇想，有时虽以神话的面貌出现，还是处处充满了深刻的启示。这种启示奇妙地打动了读者的心弦，并且激发了他们的想象”

1912 盖哈特〃霍普特曼 德国 “欲以表扬他在戏剧艺术领域中丰硕、多样而有出色成就”

1913 罗宾德拉纳特〃泰戈尔 印度 “由于他那至为敏锐、清新与优美的诗；这诗出之于高超的技巧，并由于他自己用英文表达出来，使他那充满诗意的思想业已成为西方文学的一部分”

1914 未颁奖

1915 罗曼〃罗兰 法国 “文学作品中的高尚理想和他在描绘各种不同类型人物时所具有的同情和对真理的热爱”

1916 魏尔纳〃海顿斯坦 瑞典“褒扬他在瑞典文学新纪元中所占之重要代表地位”

1917 卡尔〃耶勒鲁普 丹麦 “因为他多样而丰富的诗作——它们蕴含了高超的理想”

1917 亨利克〃彭托皮丹 丹麦 “由于他对当前丹麦生活的忠实描绘”

1918 未颁奖

1919 卡尔〃施皮特勒 瑞士 “特别推崇他在史诗《奥林帕斯之春》的优异表现”

1920 克努特〃哈姆生 挪威 “为了他划时代的巨著《土地的成长》”

1921 阿纳托尔〃法郎士 法国 “他辉煌的文学成就，乃在于他高尚的文体、宽闵的人道同情、迷人的魅力，以及一个真正法国性情所形成的特质”

1922 哈辛特〃贝纳文特〃伊〃马丁内斯 西班牙 “由于他以适切之方式，延续了戏剧之灿烂传统”

1923 威廉〃勃特勒〃叶芝 爱尔兰 “由于他那永远充满着灵感的诗，它们透过高度的艺术形式展现了整个民族的精神”

1924 弗拉迪斯拉夫〃莱蒙特 波兰 “我们颁奖给他，是因为他的民族史诗《农夫们》写得很出色”

1925 乔治〃萧伯纳 爱尔兰 “由于他那些充满理想主义及人情味的作品——它们那种激动性讽刺常涵蕴着一种高度的诗意美”

1926 格拉齐亚〃黛莱达（女）意大利 “为了表扬她由理想主义所激发的作品，以浑柔的透彻描绘了她所生长的岛屿上的生活；在洞察人类一般问题上，表现的深度与怜悯”

1927 亨利〃柏格森 法国 “因为他那丰富的且充满生命力的思想，以及所表现出来的光辉灿烂的技巧”

1928 西格里德〃温塞特（女）挪威 “主要是由于她对中世纪北国生活之有力描绘”

1929 保尔〃托马斯〃曼 德国 “由于他那在当代文学中具有日益巩固的经典地位的伟大小说《布登勃洛克一家》。”

1930 辛克莱〃刘易斯 美国 “由于他充沛有力切身科动人的叙述艺术，和他以机智幽默去开创新风格的才华” 1931 埃利克〃阿克塞尔〃卡尔费尔德 瑞典 “由于他在诗作的艺术价值上，从没有人怀疑过”

1932 约翰〃高尔斯华绥 英国 “为其描述的卓越艺术——这种艺术在《福尔赛世家》中达到高峰”

1933 伊凡〃亚历克塞维奇〃蒲宁 俄国 “由于他严谨的艺术才能，使俄罗斯古典传统在散文中得到继承”

1934 路伊吉〃皮兰德娄 意大利 “他果敢而灵巧地复兴了戏剧艺术和舞台艺术”

1935 未颁奖

1936 尤金〃奥尼尔 美国 “由于他剧作中所表现的力量、热忱与深挚的感情——它们完全符合悲剧的原始概念”

1937 罗杰〃马丁〃杜〃加尔 法国 “由于在他的长篇小说《蒂博一家》中表现出来的艺术魅力和真实性。这是对人类生活面貌的基本反映。”

1938 赛珍珠（珀尔〃塞登斯特里克〃布克）（女）美国 “她对于中国农民生活的丰富和真正史诗气概的描述，以及她自传性的杰作”

1939 弗兰斯〃埃米尔〃西兰帕 芬兰 “由于他在描绘两样互相影响的东西——他祖国的本质，以及该国农民的生活——时所表现的深刻了解与细腻艺术”

1940—1943 未颁奖

1944 约翰内斯〃威廉〃扬森 丹麦 “由于籍著丰富有力的诗意想象，将胸襟广博的求知心和大胆的、清新的创造性风格结合起来”

1945 加夫列拉〃米斯特拉尔 智利 “她那由强烈感情孕育而成的抒情诗，已经使得她的名字成为整个拉丁美洲世界渴求理想的象征”

1946 赫尔曼〃黑塞 德国 “……他那些灵思盎然的作品——它们一方面具有高度的创意和深刻的洞见，一方面象征古典的人道理想与高尚的风格”

1947 安德烈〃纪德 法国

“为了他广包性的与有艺术质地的著作，在这些著作中，他以无所畏惧的对真理的热爱，并以敏锐的心理学洞察力，呈现了人性的种种问题与处境”

1948 托马斯〃斯特恩斯〃艾略特 英国 “对于现代诗之先锋性的卓越贡献”

1949 威廉〃福克纳 美国 “因为他对当代美国小说做出了强有力的和艺术上无与伦比的贡献”

1950 帕特兰〃亚瑟〃威廉〃罗素 英国 “表彰他所写的捍卫人道主义理想和思想自由的多种多样意义重大的作品”

1951 帕尔〃费比安〃拉格克维斯特 瑞典 “由于他在作品中为人类面临的永恒的疑难寻求解答所表现出的艺术活力和真正独立的见解”

1952 弗朗索瓦〃莫里亚克 法国 “因为他在他的小说中剖析了人生的戏剧，对心灵的深刻观察和紧凑的艺术”

1953 温斯特〃丘吉尔 英国 “由于他在描述历史与传记方面的造诣，同时由于他那捍卫崇高的人的价值的光辉演说。”

1954 欧内斯特〃海明威 美国 “因为他精通于叙事艺术，突出地表现在其近著《老人与海》之中；同时也因为他对当代文体风格之影响”

1955 赫尔多尔〃奇里扬〃拉克斯奈斯 冰岛 “为了他在作品中所流露的生动、史诗般的力量，使冰岛原已十分优秀的叙述文学技巧更加瑰丽多姿”

1956 胡安〃拉蒙〃希梅内斯 西班牙 “由于他的西班牙抒情诗，成了高度精神和纯粹艺术的最佳典范”

1957 阿尔贝〃加缪 法国 “由于他重要的著作，在这著作中他以明察而热切的眼光照亮了我们这时代人类良心的种种问题”

1958 鲍里斯〃列昂尼多维奇〃帕斯捷尔纳克 苏联 “在当代抒情诗和俄国的史诗传统上，他都获得了极为重大的成就”

1959 萨瓦多尔〃夸西莫多 意大利 “由于他的抒情诗，以古典的火焰表达了我们这个时代中，生命的悲剧性体验”

1960 圣琼〃佩斯 法国 “由于他高超的飞越与丰盈的想象，表达了一种关于目前这个时代之富于意象的沉思”

1961 伊沃〃安德里奇 南斯拉夫 “由于他作品中史诗般的力量——他籍著它在祖国的历史中追寻主题，并描绘人的命运”

1962 约翰〃斯坦贝克 美国 “通过现实主义的、寓于想象的创作，表现出富于同情的幽默和对社会的敏感观察”

1963 乔治〃塞菲里斯 希腊 “他的卓越的抒情诗作，是对希腊文化的深刻感受的产物”

1964 让〃保尔〃萨特 法国 “因为他那思想丰富、充满自由气息和探求真理精神的作品对我们时代发生了深远影响”

1965 米哈伊尔〃亚历山大罗维奇〃肖洛霍夫 苏联 “由于这位作家在那部关于顿河流域农村之史诗作品中所流露的活力与艺术热忱——他籍这两者在那部小说里描绘了俄罗斯民族生活之某一历史层面”

1966 萨缪尔〃约瑟夫〃阿格农 以色列 “他的叙述技巧深刻而独特，并从犹太民族的生命汲取主题”

奈莉〃萨克斯（女）德国 “因为她杰出的抒情与戏剧作品，以感人的力量阐述俩以色列的命运”

1967 安赫尔〃阿斯图里亚斯 危地马拉 “因为他的作品落实于自己的民族色彩和印第安传统，而显得鲜明生动”

1968 川端康成 日本 “由于他高超的叙事性作品以非凡的敏锐表现了日本人精神特质”

1969 萨缪尔〃贝克特 法国 “他那具有奇特形式的小说和戏剧作品，使现代人从精神困乏中得到振奋”

1970 亚历山大〃索尔仁尼琴 苏联 “由于他作品中的道德力量，籍著它，他继承了俄国文学不可或缺的传统”

1971 巴勃鲁〃聂鲁达 智利 “诗歌具有自然力般的作用，复苏了一个大陆的命运与梦想”

1972 亨利希〃伯尔 德国 “为了表扬他的作品，这些作品兼具有对时代广阔的透视和塑造人物的细腻技巧，并有助于德国文学的振兴。”

1973 帕特里克〃怀特 澳大利亚 “由于他史诗与心理叙述艺术，并将一个崭新的大陆带进文学中”

1974 埃温特〃约翰逊 瑞典

“以自由为目的，而致力于历史的、现代的广阔观点之叙述艺术”

1974 哈里〃埃德蒙〃马丁逊 瑞典

“他的作品透过一滴露珠反映出整个世界”

1975 埃乌杰尼奥〃蒙塔莱 意大利 “由于他杰出的诗歌拥有伟大的艺术性，在不适合幻想的人生里，诠释了人类的价值”

1976 索尔〃贝娄 美国 “由于他的作品对人性的了解，以及对当代文化的敏锐透视”

1977 阿莱克桑德雷〃梅洛 西班牙 “他的作品继承了西班牙抒情诗的传统和吸取了现在流派的风格，描述了人在宇宙和当今社会中的状况”

1978 艾萨克〃巴什维斯〃辛格 美国 “他的充满激情的叙事艺术，这种既扎根于波兰人的文化传统，又反映了人类的普遍处境”

1979 奥德修斯〃埃里蒂斯 希腊 “他的诗，以希腊传统为背景，用感觉的力量和理智的敏锐，描写现在认为自由和创新而奋斗”

1980 切斯拉夫〃米沃什 波兰 “不妥协的敏锐洞察力，描述了人在激烈冲突的世界中的暴露状态”

1981 埃利亚斯〃卡内蒂 英国 “作品具有宽广的视野、丰富的思想和艺术力量。”

1982 加夫列尔〃加西亚〃马尔克斯 哥伦比亚 “由于其长篇小说以结构丰富的想象世界，其中糅混着魔幻于现实，反映出一整个大陆的生命矛盾”

1983 威廉〃戈尔丁 英国

1984 雅罗斯拉夫〃塞弗尔特 捷克斯洛伐克 “他的诗富于独创性、新颖、栩栩如生，表现了人的不屈不挠精神和多才多艺的渴求解放的形象”

1985 克洛德〃西蒙 法国 “由于他善于把诗人和画家的丰富想象与深刻的时间意识融为一 体，对人类的生存状况进行了深入的描写。”

1986 沃莱〃索因卡 尼日利亚 “他以广博的文化视野创作了富有诗意的关于人生的戏剧。”

1987 约瑟夫〃布罗茨基 美国 “他的作品超越时空限制，无论在文学上或是敏感问题方面都充分显示出他广阔的思想及浓郁的诗意”

1988 纳吉布〃马哈富兹 埃及 “他通过大量刻画入微的作品—洞察一切的现实主义，唤起人们树立雄心—形成了全人类所欣赏的阿拉伯语言艺术”

1989 卡米洛〃何塞〃塞拉 西班牙 “带有浓郁情感的丰富而精简的描写，对人类弱点达到的令人难以企及的想象力”

1990 奥克塔维奥〃帕斯 墨西哥 “他的作品充满激情，视野开阔，渗透着感悟的智慧并体现了完美的人道主义”

1991 内丁〃戈迪默 南非 “以强烈而直接的笔触，描写周围复杂的人际与社会关系，其史诗般壮丽的作品，对人类大有裨益”

1992 德里克〃沃尔科特 西印度群岛 “他的作品具有巨大的启发性和广阔的历史视野，是其献身多种文化的结果。”

1993 托尼〃莫里森（女）美国 “其作品想象力丰富,富有诗意，显示了美国现实生活的重要方面。”

1994 大江健三郎 日本 “通过诗意的想象力,创造出一个把现实与神话紧密凝缩在一起的想象世界，描绘现代的芸芸众生相，给人们带来了冲击。”

1995 希尼 爱尔兰

“由于其作品洋溢着抒情之美,包容着深邃的伦理,揭示出日常生活和现实历史的奇迹。”

1996 希姆博尔斯卡 波兰 “由于其在诗歌艺术中警辟精妙的反讽，挖掘出了人类一点一滴的现实生活背后历史更迭与生物演化的深意。”

1997 达里奥〃福 意大利 “其在鞭笞权威，褒扬被蹂躏者可贵的人格品质方面所取得的成就堪与中世纪《弄臣》一书相媲美。”

1998 若泽〃萨拉马戈 葡萄牙 “由于他那极富想象力、同情心和颇具反讽意味的作品,我们得以反复重温那一段难以捉摸的历史。”

1999 君特〃格拉斯 德国 “其嬉戏之中蕴含悲剧色彩的寓言描摹出了人类淡忘的历史面目。”

2000 高行健 法国 “其作品的普遍价值，刻骨铭心的洞察力和语言的丰富机智，为中文小说和艺术戏剧开辟了新的道路。” 2001 奈保尔 英国 “其著作将极具洞察力的叙述与不为世俗左右的探索融为一体，是驱策我们从扭曲的历史中探寻真实的动力。”

2002 凯尔泰斯〃伊姆雷 匈牙利 “表彰他对脆弱的个人在对抗强大的野蛮强权时痛苦经历的深刻刻画以及他独特的自传体文学风格。”

2003 约翰〃马克斯韦尔〃库切 南非 “在人类反对野蛮愚昧的历史中，库切通过写作表达了对脆弱个人斗争经验的坚定支持。”

1901年诺贝尔文学奖

苏利〃普吕多姆

Sully Prudhomme 1839-1907 法国

生平年表

苏利〃普吕多姆(Sully Prudhomme,1939-1907)法国诗人，原名勒内〃弗朗索瓦〃普吕多姆。生在巴黎一个工商业者家庭，父亲是工程师。苏利〃普吕多姆自小聪颖好学，但由于健康原因未能入大学深造。早年当过职员、工程师、并从事过法律工作后转入诗歌创作。坚实的科学修养使他想沟通诗与科学；而强烈的哲学兴趣，使他更想从哲学思考中捕捉灵感，提炼诗的主题。

60年代前后曾参加帕尔纳斯派诗歌运动，并成为该派的代表人物之一。帕尔纳斯派是由一些标榜“为艺术而艺术”的高蹈派诗人组成的，是象征派的先驱。这扔诗人在艺术上主张远离现实，冷静、客观，抑制个人感情的直接抒发。

1865年，苏利〃普吕多姆发表第一部诗集国《韵节与诗篇》即露头角，引起诗坛重视。此后发表的诗集《孤独》（1869）、《徒劳的柔情》（1875）是抒情气息较浓的两部代表作，主要抒写孤寂的心境，失恋的爱情，充满忧郁的情调。但更受知识界赞赏的是两部哲理诗集《正义》（1878）和《幸福12首诗歌》（1888），诗集主要探讨人类意识与现代社会的冲突，有说教成分，比较晦涩难懂。此外，他还有诗集《考验》（1866）、《战争印象》（1870）、《法兰西》（1874）、《棱镜》（1886）、《诗的遗言》（1901）和散文著述《散文集》（1883）、《诗的考察》（1892）、《从巴斯卡得到的真信仰》（1905）。1900至1901年，他编辑出版了《苏利〃普吕多姆诗文集》。

苏利〃普吕多姆的诗歌长于提示人心灵演算的隐秘、幽微的感受和体验。更长于分析，无论是灵感诗还是哲理诗，都给读者留下了深刻印象。由于他创作上的成就，1881年，他被选为法兰西学院院士。1901年，瑞典学院为了“特别表彰他的诗作，它们是高尚的理想、完美的艺术和罕有的心灵与智慧的实证”，把第一个诺贝尔文学奖颁发给他。

1902年诺贝尔文学奖

特奥多尔〃蒙森

Theodor Mommsen 1817-1903 德国

生平年表

特奥多尔〃蒙森(Theodor Mommsen 1817-1903)德国历史学家，生于德国的的席莱苏维格（当时属于丹麦）的伽尔丁。父亲是乡村牧师，母亲是教师。在家庭的影响下，蒙森自小便喜欢和熟悉古罗马史。1938年考入丹麦的基尔大学法律系。1842年毕业，获法学博士学位。1843年，蒙森接受丹麦国王的奖学金，前往意大利，从事古罗马法律的考察研究工作。1847年返回祖国，应聘到莱比锡大学任法学教授，后因发表攻击俾斯麦的演说，1850年 被解聘。1852年在瑞士苏黎世大学担任罗马法教授；1854年转至布雷斯劳大学任教；1858年担任柏林大学古代史教授，并应柏林皇家学院之聘，主编期刊《文典》。1874年，再次被聘为莱比锡大学教授。1873至1882年，任德意志帝国国会议员，在议会中，他以自由派领袖的身份经常发表演说，抨击俾斯麦的国内政策，曾因“诽谤罪”受到司法机关传讯。蒙森为表示抗议，愤然退出议会。

蒙森的主要成就是对古代罗马历史的研究。五卷本《罗马史》（1854-1885，第四卷未完成）是他积30年的努力得以完成的史学巨著。渊博的学识和民主主义的信念，使他能以新的光辉烛照这个两千多年的古代社会。他热烈赞扬富于民主精神、奖掖科学、艺术的凯撒，而把庞掊只看作一个善于练兵的低级军官。在展示古罗马社会的政治、经济、军事、文化和风俗习惯方面，这部巨著具有百科全书般的广度。作品文笔洗炼，叙事生动，富于戏剧性，人特形象鲜明，具有很高的文学价值。《罗马史》的巨大成就，为作者赢得极高声誉，俾斯麦曾手持这部书对作者说：“尊著《罗马史》我拜读再三，你看，封皮都快要磨破了。”

蒙森的重要著述还有：《意大利南方方言》(1850)、《罗马编年史》(1859)、《罗马铸币史》(1860)、《民法集》(1866-1870)、《罗马公法》(1888)、《罗马刑法》(1899)等，由他主持编纂的《拉丁铭文大全》(16卷，1867-1959)不仅具有重要史料价值，而且具有很高的艺术价值，他为此书所写的序文被公认为现代最精彩的拉丁散文之一。

1902，由于他是“现存的最伟大的历史写作艺术大师，特别要提及他的里程碑著作《罗马史》”，蒙森获得诺贝尔文学奖。瑞典学院认为，《罗马史》“既有完整而广泛的学术价值，又有生动有力的文学风格……他的直觉能力与创作能力，沟通了史学家与诗人之间的鸿沟。”(颁奖辞)1994诺贝尔文学奖

大江健三郎

1935-

[日本] 生平年表

大江健三郎（1935～）日本小说家。生于爱媛县喜多郡大潮村。1954年考入东京帝国大学文科，两年后转入法文科，并在萨特哲学和欧美现代小说的影响下开始从事创作。短篇小说《奇妙的工作》（1957）使大江一举成名，获 “五月祭奖”，并为著名文艺评论家平野谦所盛赞。紧接着，《死者的奢华》（1957）又受到川端康成的称赞。中篇小说《饲育》（1958）获“芥川文学奖”。这一时期的作品大都表现青年学生厌恶现实却又不得不以矛盾、孤独的意识去思考现实及自身的精神状态。

1959年大学毕业后，大江作为青年左翼知识分子的代言人与开高健等一起访问过中国。自60年代初期起，大江的创作进入鼎盛期，重要作品有长篇小说《个人的体验》（1964），获新潮文学奖，《万延元年的足球队》（1967）获谷崎润一郎奖，《洪水涌上我的灵魂》（1973）获野间文艺奖，《倾听雨树的女人们》（1982）获读卖文学奖，系列短篇《新人啊，醒来吧》获大佛次郎奖，长篇三部曲《燃烧的绿树》（1993）获意大利蒙特罗文学奖。此外，还有随笔集《广岛札记》（互964）、《冲绳札记》（1970），理论著作《小说的方法》（1978）、《为了新的文学》（1988）等。

大江在小说创作观念上提倡与传统主流文化相对立的边缘文化，并擅长从性意识的角度观察人生，构筑文学世界。

1994 年，由于他的作品“通过诗意的想象力，创造出一个把现实和神话紧密凝缩在一起的想象世界，描绘出了现代的芸芸众生相，给人们带来了冲击”，而获得了诺贝尔文学奖。

2000高行健

1940-

[法国] 生平年表

高行健（1940—），原籍江苏泰州，出生于江西赣州。目前为法籍华人。２０００年１０月１２日获得诺贝尔文学奖。事后报导中称他为剧作家、画家、小说家、翻译家、导演和评论家。不过，高行健早期在国内，是以创作先锋戏剧著称。他与铁路话剧团创作员刘会远（中共元老谷牧的儿子）合作创作了《车站》《绝对信号》等话剧，由北京人艺演出，引起轰动。后来他又写了《野人》，采用更多探索手法，更展现出艺术魄力和深邃的历史感。《绝对信号》一剧，被列入“共和国５０年１０部戏剧”。高行健在大陆发表的作品不多，他在1981年发表《现代小说技巧初探》的小说评论，1984年发表中篇小说集《有只鸽子叫红唇儿》。

他的剧作集《彼岸》（The Other Shore）在一九八六年在大陆“清除精神污染运动”时遭北京当局禁演，翌年他即离开中国大陆赴法国，隔年再以政治难民的身分定居巴黎市郊的巴纽里，加入法国国籍。因此高行健的主要作品例如长篇小说《灵山》（据说台湾已经有了中文版）、《一个人的圣经》都只能在海外出版。他的画作也已在欧洲和美国展出。在报章中，有人称他为大陆异议作家。

高行健年表：

1962年从北京外国语大学毕业后任中国国际书店翻译。1971——1974到干校劳动，后来在皖南山区农村中学任教。1975年回北京，任《中国建设》杂志社法文组组长。1977年调中国作协对外联络委员会工作。1978年开始文学创作。1979年发表散文《巴金在巴黎》中篇小说《寒夜的星辰》。1981年调北京人民艺术剧院任编剧。创作《绝对信号》（于刘会远合作）《车站》《野人》等剧作，引起很大反响，并因其新的戏剧观念和思想内涵而发生争议。他大量吸收了西方现代派的戏剧手法，突破了话剧传统的时间结构，拓宽了戏剧表现空间，探索新的戏剧观念包括舞台观念。论著《现代小说技巧初探》（花城出版社）提出了新的文学观，强调小说要揭示现代社会矛盾，探索人物的内心世界，表现复杂的人性，尝试新的表现手法等，引起广泛的注意和争论。论文《谈小说观和小说技巧》也在1983年遭到批判。另外还出版过小说集《有只鸽子叫红唇儿》理论著作《现代戏剧手段初探》、《对一种现代戏剧的追求》和戏剧作品集《高行健戏剧集》等，90年代定居法国，继续从事创作和绘画，出版小说《灵山》等。

诺贝尔文学奖获得者高行健作品一览

戏剧：《绝对信号》、《野人》、《车站》、《模仿者》、《躲雨》、《行路难》、《喀巴拉山》、《独白》、《冥城》、《彼岸》、《逃亡》、《生死界》、《对话与反诘》、《夜游神》、《山海经传》

小说及评论集

《灵山》、《一个人的圣经》、《给我老爷买鱼竿》、《有只鸽子叫红唇儿》、《没有主义》、《现代小说技巧初探》、《高行健戏剧集》、《对一种现代戏剧的追求》

第四篇：历届诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家及获奖原因

历届诺贝尔文学奖获奖作家及获奖原因

(Nobel Prize Winners 0f Literature)1.1901 苏利.普吕多姆(Sully Prudhomme)法国 高尚的理想、完美的艺术、罕有的心灵与智慧的实证。

2． 1902 特奥多尔.蒙森(Theodor Monnsen)德国 今世最伟大的纂史大师，此点于其巨著《罗马史》中表露无疑。

3.1903 比昂逊(Bjornstjerne Martinius Bjornsun)挪威 他以诗人鲜活的灵感和真诚的赤子之心，把作品写得雍容、华丽而又缤纷。

4.1904弗雷德里克·米斯塔尔(Frederic Mistral)法国 他的诗作蕴涵着清新的创造性与真正的感召力，忠实地反映了自然景色及其人民的乡土感情。5.1905 何塞·埃切加赖(Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre)西班牙 因为他那具有独特、新颖风格的丰富而又杰出的作品，恢复了西班牙喜剧的伟大传统。6． 1905 亨利克.显克维支(Henryk Sienkiewicz)波兰 他在历史小说写作上的卓越成就。

7． 1906 乔祖埃·卡尔杜齐(Giosue Carducci)意大利 不仅是由于他渊博的学识和批判性的研究，更重要的是为了颂扬他诗歌杰作中所具有的特色创作气势、清新风格的抒情的魅力。

8.1907 约瑟夫·鲁德亚德·吉卜林(Rudyard Kipling)英国 这位世界著名作家的作品以观察入微、想像新颖、气概雄浑、叙述卓越见长。

9.1908 鲁道尔夫·欧肯(Rudolph Eucken)德国 他对真理的热切追求、对思想的贯通能力，以及他在无数作品中辩解并阐释一种理想主义的人生哲学时所流露的热诚与力量。

10.1909 西尔玛·拉耶勒夫(女)(Selma Lagerlof)瑞典 她作品中特有的高尚的理想、丰富的想像力、平易而优美的风格。

11.1910 保尔·约翰·路德维系·冯·海塞(Paul Heyse)德国 表扬这位抒情诗人、戏剧家、小说家以及举世闻名的短篇小说家，在他漫长而多产的创作生涯中，所达到的充满理想的、非凡的艺术才能。

12． 1911 莫里斯·梅特林克(Maurice Maeterlinck)比利时 他在文学上多方面的表现，尤其是戏剧作品，想像丰富，充满诗意的奇想。他的作品有时虽以神话的面貌出现，但还是处处充满了深刻的启示。这种启示奇妙地打动了读者的心弦，并且激发了他们的想像力。

13． 1912 盖哈特·霍普特曼(Gerhart Hauptmnn)德国 他在戏剧艺术领域中丰硕、多样而又出色的成就。

14． 1913 罗宾德拉纳特·泰戈尔(Rabinadranath Tagore)印度 由于他那至为敏锐、清新与优美的诗。这诗出之于高超的技巧，并由他自己用英文表达出来．使他那充满诗意的思想业已成为西方文学的一部分。

15． 1915罗曼·罗兰(Romain Rolland)法国 文学作品中的高尚理想和他在描绘各种不同类型人物时所具有的同情和对真理的热爱。

16． 1916 魏尔纳·海顿斯坦(Gustaf Verner Von Heidenstam)瑞典 褒扬他在瑞典文学新纪元中所占之重要代表地位。

17． 1917 卡尔·盖勒鲁普(Karl Adolph Gjellerup)丹麦 他多样而丰富的诗作，蕴涵了高尚的理想

1917 亨利克·彭托皮丹(Henrik Pontoppidan)丹麦 由于他对当前丹麦生活的忠实描绘。

18． 1919卡尔·施皮特勒(Carl Friedrich Spitteler)瑞士 特别推祟他在史诗《奥林匹亚之春》的优异表现。

19． 1920克努特·哈姆生(Knut Hamsun)挪威 为了他划时代的巨著(大地的生长)。

20． 1921 阿纳托尔·法郎士(Anatole France)法国 他辉煌的文学成就，乃在于他高尚的文体、宽宏的人道同情和迷人的魅力，以及一种真正法国性情所形成的特质。

21． 1922 哈辛特·贝纳文特·伊·马丁内斯(Jacinto Benavente)西班牙 他以适当的方式延续了西班牙戏剧的灿烂传统。

22.1927 威廉·勃特勒·叶芝(William Butler Yeats)爱尔兰 他那永远充满着灵感的诗，透过高度的艺术形式展现了整个民族的精神。

23． 1924 弗拉迪斯拉夫·莱蒙特(Wladyslaw Reymont)波兰 他的民族史诗《农民》写得很出色。

24． 1925 乔治·萧伯纳(George Bernard Shaw)爱尔兰 他那些作品充满理想主义及博爱，激励和讽刺中常蕴涵着一种高度的诗意美。

25． 1926 格拉齐亚·黛菜达（女）(Grazip Deledda)意大利 她由理想主义所激发的作品，透彻地描绘了她所生长的岛屿上的生活，在洞察人类一般问题上,表现了深度与怜悯。

26． 1927 亨利·柏格森(Henri Bersgson)法国 他那丰富且充稿生命力的思想，以及所表现出来的光辉灿烂的技巧。

27． 1928 西格里德·温塞特（女）(Sigrid Undset)挪威 她对中世纪北欧生活之有力描绘。

28． 1929 保尔·托马斯·曼(Paul Thomas Mann)德国 他那在当代文学中具有日益巩固的经典地位的伟大小说《布登勃鲁克一家》。

29． 1930 辛克莱·刘易斯(Sinclair Lewis)美国 他充沛有力且深刻动人的叙述艺术，和他那以机智幽默创造新性格的才华。

30． 1931 埃利克·阿克塞尔·卡尔费尔德（Erik Karlfeldt）瑞典 他在诗作的艺术价值上从没有人怀疑过。

31． 1932 约翰·高尔斯华绥(John Galsworthy)英国 其描述的卓越技巧在《福尔赛世家》中达到高峰。

32． 1933 伊凡·亚历克察维奇·布宁(Ivan Bunin)俄国 他严谨的艺术才能使俄罗斯古典传统在教文中得到继承。

33． 1934 路伊吉·皮兰德娄(Luigi Pirandello)意大利 他果敢而灵巧地复兴了戏剧艺术和舞台艺术。

34． 1930尤金·奥尼尔(Eugene O'Neill)美国 他完全符合悲剧原始概念的剧作所具有的力量、热忱与深挚的感情。

35． 1937罗杰·马丁·杜加尔(Roger du Gard)法国 他的长篇小说《蒂博一家》中表现出来的艺术魅力和真实性，是对人类生活面貌的基本反映。36． 1938赛珍珠（珀尔·塞登斯特里克·布克）（女）(Pearl Buck)美国 她对于中国农民生活的丰富和真正史诗气概的描述，以及她传记方面的杰出成就。37． 1939 弗兰斯·埃米尔·西兰帕(Frans Sillanpaa)芬兰 他对祖国的本质以及该国农民的生活的深刻了解与细腻的描写。

38.1944 约翰内斯·威廉·扬森(Johannes V．Jensen)丹麦 借着丰富有力的诗意想像，将胸襟广博的求知心和大胆、清新的创造性风格结合起来。39.1945 加夫列拉·米斯特拉尔(女)(Gabriela Mistral)智利 她那由强烈感情孕育丽成的抒情诗，已经使得她的名字成为整个拉丁美洲世界的理的象征。40． 1946 赫春曼·黑塞(Hermann Hesse)德国 他那些灵思盎然的作品，一方面具有高度的创意和深刻的洞察力，一方面象征崇高的人道理想与高尚的风格。

41.1947 安德烈·纪德（Andre Gide)法国 在他意味深长的作品中：他以无所畏惧的对真理的热爱、敏锐的心理洞察力，呈现了人类的种种问题与处境。42.1948 托马斯·斯特恩斯．艾略特(T．S.Eliot)英国 对于现代诗之先锋性的卓越贡献。

43． 1949 威廉·福克纳（William Faulkner)美国 他对当代美国小说做出了强有力的和艺术上无与伦比的贡献。

44.1950帕特兰·亚瑟·威廉·罗素(Bertrand Russell)英国 他所写的捍卫人道主义理想和思想自由的多种多样、意义重大的作品。

45.195l帕尔·费比安·拉格克维斯特(Par Lagerkvist)瑞典 他在作品中为人类面临的永恒的疑难寻求解答时所表现出的艺术活力和真正独立的见解。46.1952 弗朗索瓦·莫里亚克(Francois Mauriac)法国 他在他的小说中剖析人生时，展示了对心灵的深刻观察和对艺术的激情。

47.1953温斯特．丘吉尔(Winston Churchill)英国 他在描述历史与传记方面的造诣，以及他那捍卫人的崇高价值的光辉演说。

48． 1954欧内斯特·海明威（Ernest Hemingway)美国 他精通于叙事艺术，突出地表现在其著作《老人与海》之中；同时他影响了当代文体风格。49.1955赫尔多尔·奇里扬。拉克斯奈斯（Halhdor Laxness）冰岛 他在作品中所流露的生动、史诗般的力量，使冰岛原已十分优秀的叙述文学技巧更加瑰丽多姿。

50． 1956胡安·拉蒙·希汀尼斯（Juan Ramon Jimenez）西班牙 他的西班牙抒情诗，成了高度精神和纯粹艺术的最佳典范.51.1957阿尔贝·加缪(Albert Camus)法国 在他重要的著作中，他以敏锐而热切的眼光照亮了我们这个时代人类良心面临的种种问题。

52.1958鲍里斯·列昂尼多维奇·帕斯捷尔纳克(Boris Pasternak)前苏联 在当代抒情诗和俄国的叙事诗传统上，他都获得了极为重大的成就。

53.1959萨瓦多尔·夸西莫多（Salvatore Quasimodo)意大利 他的抒情诗,以古典的火焰表达了我们这个时代中生命的悲剧性体验。

54.1960 圣琼·佩斯(Saint-John Perse)法国 他振翼凌空的气势与丰盈的想像，表达了一种关于对目前这个时代的富于意象的沉思。

55.1961 伊沃·安德里奇(Ivo Andric)南斯拉夫 他以史诗般的气魄从祖国的历史中追导主题并描绘人的命运。

56.1962 约翰·斯坦贝克(John Steinbeek)美国 通过现实主义的、富于想像的创作，表现出富于同情的幽默和对社会的敏感观察。

57． 1963 乔治·塞菲里斯(Giorge Seferis)希腊 他的卓越的抒情诗作，是对希腊文化深刻感受的产物。

58.1964 让·保尔·萨特(Jean-Paul Sartre)法国 他那思想丰富、充满自由气息和探求真理精神的作品对我们这个时代产生了深远影响。

59.1965米哈伊尔·亚历山大罗维奇·肖洛霍夫(Mikhail Sholokhov)前苏联 在那部关于顿河流域农村的史诗作品中所流露的活力与艺术热忱，小说《静静的顿河》描绘出了俄罗斯民族生活的某一历史层面。

60.1966萨缪尔·约瑟夫·阿格农（Shmuel Yosef Agnon)以色列 他的叙述技巧深刻而独特，从犹太民族的生命中汲取了主题。

1966 奈莉·萨克斯(女)(Nelly Sacks)德国 她杰出的抒情与戏剧作品，以感人的力量阐述了以色列的命运。

61． 1967安赫尔·阿斯图里亚斯(Miguel Angel Asturias)危地马拉 他的作品因植根于自己民族的特质和印第安传统而显得鲜明生动。

62．1968川端康成(Yasunari Kawabata)日本 他高超的叙事性作品以非凡的敏锐表现了日本人的精神特质。

63． 1969萨缪尔·贝克特(Samuel Beckett)法国 他那具有奇特形式的小说和戏剧作品，使现代人从精神困乏中得到振奋。

64． 1970亚历山大·索尔仁尼琴(Alexsander Solzhenitsyn)前苏联 他在追求俄罗斯文学不可或缺的传统时所具有的道德力量。

65． 1971巴勃鲁·聂鲁达(Pablo Nevada)智利 诗歌具有自然力般的作用，复苏了一个大陆的命运与梦想。

66． 1972亨利希·伯尔(Heinrich Boll)德国 为了表扬他的作品，这些作品具有对时代广阔的透视和塑造人物的细腻技巧，为德国文学的振兴作出了贡献。67． 1973帕特里克·怀特(Patrick White)澳大利亚 他那史诗般的气概与刻画人物心理的叙述艺术，将一个崭新的大陆带进了文学中。

68． 1974埃温特·约翰逊(Eyvind Johnson)瑞典 以自由为目的，而致力于历史的、现代的广阔观点的叙述艺术。

1974 哈里·埃德蒙·马丁逊(Harry Martinson)瑞典 他的作品透过一滴露珠反映出了整个世界。

69． 1975埃乌杰尼奥·蒙塔莱(Eugenio Montale)意大利 他杰出的诗歌拥有伟大的艺术性，在不适合幻想的人生里诠释了人类的价值。

70． 1976索尔·贝娄(Saul Bellow)美国 他的作品对人性的了解，以及对当代文化的敏锐透视。

71． 1977阿莱克桑德雷·梅洛(Vicente Aleixandre)西班牙 他的作品继承了西班牙抒情诗的传统，汲取了现在流派的风格，描述了人在宇宙和当今社会中的状况。

72.1978艾萨克·巴什维斯·辛格(Isaac Bashevis Singer)美国 他充满激情的叙事艺术，既扎根于波兰人的文化传统，又反映了人类的普遍处境。73.1979奥德修斯·埃里蒂斯(Odysseus Elytis)希腊 他的诗以希腊传统为背景，用感觉的力量和理智的敏锐，描写了现代人为自由和创新而进行的奋斗。74． 1980切斯拉夫·米洛什(Czeslaw Milosz)波兰 不妥协的敏锐洞察力，描述了人在激烈冲突的世界中的暴露状态。

75． 1981 埃利亚斯·卡内蒂(Elias Canetfi)英国 作品具有宽广的视野、丰富的思想和艺术力量。

76． 1982加夫列尔·加西亚·马尔克斯(Gabriel Garcia Marquez)哥伦比亚 其长篇小说以组织丰富的想像世界，揉混幻想与现实，反映出了整个大陆的生命矛盾。

77． 1983威廉·戈尔丁(William G．Golding)英国 他的小说具有清晰的现实主义叙述技巧以及虚构故事的多样性与普遍性，阐述了今日世界人类的状况。78． 1984雅罗斯拉夫·塞弗尔特(Jaroslav Seifert)捷克斯洛伐克 他的诗富于独创性、新颖、栩栩如生。表现了人不屈不挠的精神和多才多艺的渴求解放的形象。

79． 1985克洛德·西蒙(Claude Simon)法国 他善于把诗人和画家的丰富想像与深刻的时间意识融为一体，对人类的生存状况进行了深入的描写。80． 1986沃莱·索英卡(Wole Soyinka)尼日利亚 他以广博的文化视野创作了富有诗意的人生戏剧。

81． 1987约瑟夫·布罗茨基(Joseph Brodsky)美国 他的作品超越时空限制，无论在文学上或在敏感问题方面都充分显示出他广阔的思想及浓郁的诗意。82． 1983纳吉布·马哈蛮兹(Naguib Mahfouz)埃及 他通过大量刻画入微的作品以及洞察一切的现实主义，唤起人们树立雄心，从而形成了全人类所欣赏的阿拉伯语言艺术。

83.1989卡米洛·何塞·塞拉(Camilo Jose Cela)西班牙 他带有浓郁情感的丰富而精简的描写，对人类弱点有令人难以企及的想像力。

84.1990 奥克塔维奥·帕斯(Octavio Paz)墨西哥 他的作品充满激情，视野开阔，渗透着感悟的智慧并体现了完美的人道主义。

85.1991 内丁·戈迪默(女)(Nadine Gordimer)南非 她以强烈而直接的笔触，描写了周围复杂的人际与社会关系，其史诗般壮丽的作品，使人类获益非浅。86.1992德里克·沃尔科特(Derek Walcott)圣卢西亚 他的作品具有的巨大启发性和广阔历史视野，是其献身多种文化的结果。

87.1993托尼·莫里森(女)(Toni Morrison)美国 其作品想像力丰富．富有诗意，显示了美国现实生活的重要方面。

88.1994大江健三郎(Kenzaburo Oe)日本 他通过富有诗意的想像力，刨造出了一个把现实 与神话紧密浓缩在一起的想像世界，描绘了现代的芸芸众生相，给人们带来了冲击。

89.1995谢默斯·希尼(Seamus Heaney)爱尔兰 其作品洋溢着抒情之美，包容着深邃的哲理，使日常生活中的奇迹和活生生的往事得以升华。

90.1996申博尔斯卡(Wislawa Szymborska)波兰 其在诗歌艺术中警辟精妙的讽刺，挖掘出了人类一点一滴的现实生活背后历史的更迭与生命的演化。91.1997达里奥·福(Dario Fo)意大利 其在鞭笞权威，褒扬被蹂躏者可贵的人格品质方面所取得的成就堪与中世纪《弄臣》一书相媲美。

92.1998若泽·萨拉马戈(Jose Saramago)葡萄牙 他那极富想像力、同情心和颇具讽刺意味的作品，使我们得以反复重温那一段难以捉摸的历史。93． 1999君特·格拉斯(Gunter Grass)德国 其嬉戏之中蕴涵悲剧色彩的寓言；描摹出了人类淡忘的历史面目。

94.2000高行健(Gao Xinjian)法国 其作品的普遍价值，刻骨铭心的洞察力和语言的丰富机智，为中文小说和艺术戏剧开辟了新的道路。

95． 2001维迪亚达尔·苏拉伊普拉萨德．奈保尔(V．S．Naipaul)英国 他将逼真的叙事艺术和严正的观察能力结合于作品之中，驱使我们去认识那被掩盖的历史的存在。

96． 2002凯尔泰斯·伊姆雷(Imre Kertesz)匈牙利 他支撑起历史野蛮暴行之下脆弱个人体验的写作。

97． 2003约翰·马克斯维尔·库切(J．M．Coetzee)南非 2003他精确地刻碰了众多假面具下的人性本质，构思纤美精巧、文白韵味深刻、分析精辟人微。

98.2004年诺贝尔文学奖得主:埃尔弗里德·耶利内克 奥地利女作家 获奖理由:“她用超凡的语言以及在小说中表现出的音乐动感,显示了社会的荒谬以及它们使人屈服的奇异力量。”

99、哈罗德·品特（1930~），英国剧作家，获得2005诺贝尔文学奖。主要作品：《看房者》(The Caretaker，1960)、《生日晚会》(TheBirthdayParty，1958)、《归家》(TheHome鄄coming，1965)等.获奖理由是“他的作品揭示了日常絮谈中的危机、强行打开了了压迫的封闭房间。”

100、奥尔汉·帕穆克（1952~），土耳其作家土。2006诺贝尔文学奖获得者。主要作品：获，《赛福得特州长和他的儿子们》、《寂静的房子》等。获奖理由是他的作品“在寻找故乡的忧郁灵魂时，发现了文化碰撞和融合中的新象征”。

101.2007年10月11日晚上7时，诺贝尔文学奖委员会宣布，英国女作家莱辛获2007年诺贝尔文学奖。生于1919年，主要作品有《金色笔记》《青草在歌唱》等。

获奖理由：“这个表述女性经验的诗人，以其怀疑主义精神，火一样的热情和丰富的想象力，对一个分裂的文化作了详尽细致的考察”。102、2008年10月9日瑞典文学院宣布，法国著名作家让—马里·居斯塔夫·勒·克莱齐奥获得2008诺贝尔文学奖。主要作品有《诉讼笔录》（上海译文出版社，1998）、《金鱼》（百花文艺出版社，2000）、《流浪的星星》（花城出版社，1998）、《少年心事》（漓江出版社，1992）、《战争》（译林出版社，1994）、《乌拉尼亚》（人民文学出版社，2008）。

(注：1914、1918、1935、1940—1943年未颁奖)

第五篇：英美文学各个时期主要作家及作品原文中世纪

英美文学各个时期主要作家及作品原文/节选之 中世纪文学（自己整理的）时间：1066年诺曼征服—14世纪下半叶

这个时期可以分为2部分，中世纪早期，即1066—17世纪中叶，因为宗教压迫，没

有文学作品出现，是文学荒漠；而到了14世纪下半叶，英国文学才开始兴盛起来。代表人物：杰弗里-乔叟、威廉-兰格伦、约翰-高厄 代表作品：《高文爵士与他的绿衣骑士》（约翰-高厄）；《坎特伯雷故事集》（杰弗里-乔叟）

《农夫皮尔斯》（威廉-兰格伦）

特点：这一时期，民间通俗文学占重要位置，展现当时人们的各种生活。但创作上有失新

颖。此外还大量反映中世纪基督教的教义，表现人类自救。

中世纪盛行的文学形式还有骑士抒情诗。这种诗歌以叙述性的韵文或者散文歌颂骑

士的冒险以及其它的英雄事迹。主题常常是寻找妖怪、解救美女。最为著名的代表人物是乔叟，他从法国文学之中引进了各种压尾韵的诗章，取代了古英诗之中的头韵（如《贝尔武弗》）。在《坎特伯雷故事集》中他运用了英雄双行体（关于英雄双行体我将在以后后的贴子之中介绍）。这在这个英国文学史上都是首创。在这一作品之中，他将诗歌艺术进一步向戏剧和小说靠拢。他是英诗之父。

以下是英美文学界三位大师的介绍和《坎特伯雷故事集》介绍；《农夫皮尔斯》节选；《高文爵士与他的绿衣骑士》节选 中世纪文学

（一）概述

古英语文学 英格兰岛的早期居民凯尔特人和其他部族，没有留下书面文学作品。5世纪时，原住北欧的三个日耳曼部族——盎格鲁、撒克逊和朱特——侵入英国。他们的史诗《贝奥武甫》传了下来。诗中的英雄贝奥武甫杀巨魔、斗毒龙，并在征服这些自然界恶势力的过程中为民捐躯。它的背景和情节是北欧的，单掺有基督教成分，显示出史诗曾几经修改，已非原貌。按照保存在一部10世纪的手抄本里的版本来看，诗的结构完整，写法生动，所有的头韵、重读字和代称体现了古英语诗歌的特色。

6世纪末，基督教传入英国，出现了宗教文学。僧侣们用拉丁文写书，其中比德所著的《英国人民宗教史》（731年完成）既有难得的史料，又有富于哲理的传说，受到推崇，并已成了英文。

此后，丹麦人入侵，不少寺院毁于兵火，学术凋零。9世纪末，韦塞克斯国王阿尔弗雷德大力抗丹，同时着手振兴学术，请了一批学者将拉丁文著作译成英文，并鼓励编写《盎格鲁—萨克逊编年史》，这是用英国当地语言写史的开始。

中古英语文学 1066年诺曼人入侵，带来了欧洲大陆的封建制度，也带来了一批说法语的贵族。古英语受到了统治阶级语言的影响，本身也在起着变化，12世纪后发展为中古英语。文学上也出现了新风尚，盛行用韵文写的骑士传奇，它们歌颂对领主的忠和对高贵妇人的爱，其中艺术性较高的有《高文爵士和绿衣骑士》，它用头韵体诗写成，内容是古代亚瑟王属下一个“圆桌骑士”的奇遇。

14世纪后半叶，中古英语文学达到了高峰。这时期的重要诗人乔叟的创作历程，从早期对法国和意大利作品的仿效，进到后来英国本色的写实，表明了英国文学的自信。他的杰作《坎特伯雷故事集》用优美、活泼的韵文，描写了一群去坎特伯雷朝圣的人的神态言谈；他们来自不同阶层和行业，各人所讲的故事或雅或俗，揭示了多方面的社会现实。同时，还有教会小职员兰格伦写的头韵体长诗《农夫皮尔斯》（一译《农夫彼得之梦》），用梦幻的形式和寓意的象征，写出了1381年农民暴动前后的农村现实，笔锋常带严峻的是非之感。同样宣泄下层人民情绪的还有民间歌谣，它们往往是在长时间的口头流传之后才写成的，其中最初见于15世纪抄本的罗宾汉歌谣，描绘了一群农民劫富济贫、打击教会僧侣和执法吏的事迹，传颂至今。（王佐良）

《贝奥武甫》

《贝奥武甫》 英国的一部英雄史诗，是英国文学中第一部重要作品。它用古英语写成，是继希腊、罗马史诗之后欧洲最早的一部用本民族语言写成的史诗。

全部古英语诗歌现在保存下来的不过3万行，其中有英雄诗、宗教诗、抒情挽歌、格言、谜语、咒语，而以《贝奥武甫》为最长（3，182行），为最完整。

史诗中的历史人物，据记载生活在5至6世纪。史诗故事发生在和当于现在的丹麦和瑞典南部——当时盎格鲁—萨克逊人居住的地方。从5世纪中叶起，这些民族不断向不列颠移民。大约8世纪前半叶，关于贝奥武甫的传说才在他们定居的不列颠写成文字。现存的唯一手抄本约成于10世纪末。1731年手抄本在一次火灾中被烧毁几行，但基本完整，于1815年第一次排印出版。

全诗除开场白外，共分43节，由两个故事组成，第一个故事又可分为两个部分。第一部分包括开场白，写丹麦王朝的始祖许尔德的葬礼，接着写许尔德的后裔丹麦王赫罗斯加建造了一座宫殿，取名鹿厅，但经常受到附近沼泽地带一个半人半兽的怪物格伦德尔的袭击，一夜就被杀死30名守卫武士。它骚扰的12年，消息传到耶阿特族（今瑞典南部）国王许耶拉克的侄子贝奥武甫耳中，他率领14名武士前往援助。赫罗斯加在鹿厅设宴招待他们。宴会之后，贝奥武甫和武士们留在厅内守候。夜间格伦德尔破门而入，摸着一个武士，把他吃了；再要摸时，被贝奥武甫扭住，经过一场搏斗，怪物断了一只胳膊，负伤逃回沼泽。第二天赫罗斯加设宴庆祝，王后赠送礼物，歌手歌唱芬恩的故事。第二部分写夜间格伦德尔的母亲前来替子报仇，抢走了一个大臣。次日贝奥武甫追踪到沼泽，独自潜入湖底把女妖杀死，把格伦德尔头颅割下，回到鹿厅。赫罗斯加又设宴庆祝，并向贝奥武甫致辞。贝奥武甫携带大批礼物回到许耶拉克宫廷，在宴席上把礼物献给许耶拉克，许耶拉克也给他大量犒赏。

第二个故事写许耶拉克死后，他的儿子赫阿德勒德继位。赫阿德勒德死后，贝奥武甫继位，统治了50年。这时有个逃亡奴隶盗得一些窖藏的宝物，被看守宝物的火龙发现，为了报复，它到处骚扰为害。年老的贝奥武甫决定为民除害，带领威耶拉夫等11名武士处罚。在投入战斗前，他向随从的武士讲了耶阿特人过去和互残杀的一段历史。然后独自去同火龙厮杀。他的剑断了，又被龙吐的火炙伤。随从的武士都逃跑了，只剩下威耶拉夫一人上前帮助贝奥武甫把龙杀死，贝奥武甫也因伤势过重而死。威耶拉夫悲愤地谴责那些逃跑的武士，并派人回去报告消息。最后，耶阿特人在海滨把贝奥武甫火化，把他的骨灰连同火龙的宝物埋葬了。贝奥武甫的陵墓成为航海者的灯塔。

这部史诗的内容一部分是史实，一部分是传说，其中提到的人物如赫罗斯加、许耶拉克都是历史人物，诗中一些插曲也提到历史任务。而主要人物贝奥武甫和他的事迹则基本上来自传说。历史因素和传说因素结合起来反映了氏族社会解体时期的生活。诗中反映了血仇必报和部落之间频繁的战争，也反映了氏族内部国王与他的亲属和臣属之间矛盾的激化。贝奥武甫无论作为亲属和臣属都无懈可击。作为国王，他是氏族的保卫者，直至献出生命。对于邻族，一反互和仇视的态度，而是助其除害，对邻族国王，也克尽臣属效忠的精神。从各方面说，他都是一个理想人物。

这部史诗基本上是氏族社会的产物。但从5、6世纪起经过近300年口头流传，到8世纪才在英国写成。这时英国已基督教化，写者大半是僧侣，因此史诗里也有基督教色彩，如氏族社会和信的命运有时同上帝等同起来，把代表自然力或恶的格伦德尔说成是该隐的后代。诗中也反映了现世的一切都将消亡以及宿命观点。不过从整体说，史诗仍保存了基督教以前的特色，高贵的品性，如仁爱、荣誉感、慷慨、勇敢等美德被充分肯定。

史诗结构严谨，选材集中。它以葬礼开始以葬礼结束，中间写贝奥武甫一生中两件大事。诗中有大量插曲，起到对比或类比或暗示的作用，如宴会上有人即席唱希格蒙德斩龙的故事，来同50年后贝奥武甫斩龙呼应。歌者唱芬恩的妻子调停血仇失败的故事，来烘托赫罗斯加嫁女与邻族消弭血仇的企图的失败。这些插曲今天读来显得突兀，但对当时听众却是很熟悉的。

史诗节奏悠闲而庄严，对话和叙述交替，有时加入诗人的议论，如格伦德尔进入鹿厅看到武士时，大喜过望，准备饱餐一顿（，）诗人就从旁评论道：“但今夜以后，他就再也遇不到吃人的运气了。”诗人善用这种压低语气的修辞手法来表现对命运的讽刺。

《贝奥武甫》象古英语其他诗歌一样，不用尾韵，而用头韵，即每个字开头的辅音或元音和同或和似算对韵。每行诗分为两个半行，各有两个重读字，重读字一般押头韵，因此每行最多可以有四个头韵，（用句号“。”更好：录入者注）一般前半行两个，后半行一个头韵的诗句较多。另一个特点是使用“代用词”，如诗中把海称为“鲸鱼之路”，国王是“颁赏金环的人”，武士叫“持盾的人”等，增强了语言的形象性。史诗的形式也显示出维吉尔史诗的影响。（杨周翰）

（三）乔叟

乔叟（约1343~1400）英国诗人。出生于伦敦一家富裕的中产阶级家庭，父亲是酒商兼皮革商。乔叟可能上过牛津大学或剑桥大学。1357年进入宫廷，任英壬爱德华三世的儿媳阿尔斯特伯爵夫人身边的少年侍从。1359午，随爱德华三世出征法国，被法军俘虏，后被爱德华赎回。1366年，乔叟和菲莉帕结婚。菲莉帕的妹妹后来嫁给爱德华的次子兰开斯特公爵，乔叟因而受到兰开斯特公爵的保护。同时，乔叟也是爱德华三世的侍从骑士。1369年，兰开斯特公爵责特约翰的元配夫人布兰希逝世，乔叟写了悼亡诗《公爵夫人的书》（1369~1370）来安慰他的保护人。1370至1378年之间，乔叟经常出国访问欧洲大陆，执行外交谈判任务。他曾两度访问意大利（1372~1373；1378），这对他的文学创作起了极为重要的作用。他发现了但丁、薄傲丘和彼特拉克的作品，这些作品深刻地影响了他的创作，使他从接受法国文学传统转向接受意大利文学传统。从而74年开始，乔叟担任了二些公职。他先被任命为伦敦港口羊毛、皮革关税总管（1374~1386），后来被英王理查二世任命为皇室修建大臣（1389~1391），主管维修公共建筑、公园、桥梁等。乔叟还担任过肯特郡的治安官（1386），并当选为代表肯特郡的国会议员（1386）。后来乔叟还担任过管理萨默塞特郡皇家森林的森林官（1391）。乔叟于1400年10月25日在伦敦逝世，葬于威斯敏斯特教堂里的“诗人之角”。

乔叟把属于中古英语的东中部方言——伦敦方言——提高成为英国的文学语言。他又善于继承和吸收法国诗人和意大利诗人的诗歌技巧，并且运用这些技巧来丰富和提高英诗的表达能力。乔叟的最早的作品之一是他翻译的法文诗《玫瑰传奇》（1370）。这个英译本的前1，700行诗一般公认为出自乔叟的手笔。这个作品和上面提到的《公爵夫人的书》都是用八音节双韵诗体写成的，都显示出法国爱情诗的影响。后来，乔叟写了《声誉之官》（1379或1380），也是用八音节双韵诗体写成，但是这个作品却早示出意大利诗人但丁的《神曲》的影响。因此可以把《声誉之宫》看成是乔叟从接受法国文学传统转变到意大利文学传统的过渡时期的作品。不久后，乔叟翻译了罗马哲学家博埃齐鸟斯的著作《哲学的安慰》（约524），易名为《博埃齐马斯》（1381或1382），是英文散文译本。约在同一时期，乔叟还写了《百鸟会议》（1382），是用“君王诗体”写成的。这种诗体采用七行诗段的形式，每行为十个音节，韵脚为ababbcc。乔叟是第一个使用这种诗体的英国诗人，但“君王诗体”的名称却来自苏格兰国王詹拇斯一世，他曾用这个诗体写拙苏格兰方吉爱情诗《国王的书》。实际上这个作品受了乔叟的影响。在写成《百鸟会议》数年以后，乔叟写了《派拉蒙和阿色提》，后来改编成为《骑士讲的故事》。在《贞节妇女的传说》（1386）里，乔叟第一次使用于音节双韵诗体。这个诗体非常重要，因为乔叟的杰作《坎特伯雷故事集》（1387~1400）就是用这个诗体写成的。这个诗体后来演化成为“英雄双韵体”，在新古典主义时期垄断了英国诗坛。除上述作品外，乔叟还写了爱炭故事长诗《特罗伊拉斯和克菜西德》（1385）。这部作品是甩“君王诗体”写成的。以上的作品都属于乔叟创作的意大利时期。在这个时期内，乔叟在意大利文学的影响下，进一步发展了法国文学的骑士爱情诗歌的传统，把现实主义因素逐渐加入到这个诗歌传统里来。这主要表现在乔叟的最早的杰作《特罗伊拉斯和克莱西德》一诗里。这部作品取材于薄咖丘的爱情故事诗《菲洛斯特拉托》。乔叟扩展、发挥、改动了薄仇丘的作品，把他自已的现实生活经验放进这个古老的爱情故事里面，以至于有些批评家把乔叟的《特罗伊拉斯和克莱西德》看成是最早的一部现实主义小说。

1387年开始了乔叟创作的成熟期。他写了《坎特伯雷故事集》的总序。他一生的最后十几年大约都用在写这个故事案上面，但并未完成。尽管如此，乔叟的《坎特伯雷故事集》在西方中世纪和文艺复兴时期的故事集当中却是独一无二的，因为乔叟的故事集不仅是一个故事集，而且是一个艺术整体。我们可以把它看作乔叟的现实主义艺术的结晶。《坎特伯雷故事集》的内容如下：一群香客聚会在伦敦泰晤士河南岸一家小旅店里，他们准备到离伦敦70英里外的坎特伯雷域去朝拜殉教圣人托马斯•阿•贝克特的圣祠。作者在总序里对每一位香客都作了生动、细致的描写。连诗人（乔叟）在内，香客们一共是31位，代表中世纪英国社会的各阶层。骑士和他的儿子见习骑士代表贵族阶级和骑士精神，伴随他们的是仆人，一名自耕农。接着是一群教会人物，为首的是一位女修道院长，侍候她的人有一名尼姑和三名教士。其他的教会人物有一位和尚和一名托钵僧，其他社会阶层的代表有一位商人、一位牛津大学学生（在14世纪，大学生也属于僧侣阶层，毕业后要担任神职）、律师、自由农民——一位富有的中等地主。还有一群城市中间阶层人物，如一名衣帽商，一名木匠，一名纺织匠，一名染坊工人，一名制挂毯的工人，以及一名厨师，一名船员或水手，一位医生。巴斯城的妇女——“新女性”的代表，她经营织布生意很发财。乡村牧师——僧侣阶层中社会地位最低下的成员，在乔叟笔下他却是十分高贵的人物。农夫——他是乡村牧师的弟兄，是一个穷苦的农民。还有磨房主、粮食采购员、田产经纪人、教会法庭的差人、教会经售赎罪券者。香客中以后两种最不齿于社会。最后还有诗人乔叟本人。晚饭后，旅店主人哈里•贝利建议香客们在去坎特伯雷城的来回路上各讲两个故事，他启告奋勇做向导，并担任裁判，看谁的故事讲得最好，可以白吃一餐好饭。总序到此结束。《坎特伯雷故事集》的其余部分包括故事和衔接段落。乔叟没有完成他的预定计划，故事集只有23个故事，其中有两个（厨师和见习骑士各自讲的故事）没有讲完。还有7处缺衔接段落。大多数的故事，和总序一样，都是用双韵诗体写成的，只有两个故事是用散文写的（一个是诗人乔叟自已讲的《梅里白的故事》，另一个是乡村牧师讲的故事）。还有4个故事（律师、女修道院长、牛津大学学生，以及第二个尼姑各自讲的故事）是用七行诗段（称为“君王诗体”）写的。另外，和尚讲的故事是用八行诗段雾的。这些故事可以分成四组：

⑴传奇（包括爱情、魔术、骑士探险等故事），如骑士、巴斯城的妇女、见习骑士和自由农民各自讲的故事：

⑵度诚和道德教育故事：如律师、牛津大学学生、筹二个尼姑、卖赎罪券者、女修道院长、乔叟自已（《梅里白的故事D、医生和乡村牧师讲的故事。

⑶喜剧或滑稽故事：如磨房主、田产经纪人、厨师、托钵僧、教会法庭差人、“商人、”教士的仆人、船页讲的故事。

⑷动物寓言，如尼姑的教士和粮食采购员讲的故事。

不属于上列四类的还有和尚讲的关于大人物下台的“悲剧”故事以及乔叟讲的嘲讽传奇《托波斯爵士》。和尚和乔叟讲的故事过于冗长、乏味，被其他香客打断。

从以上的分类可以看出乔叟的高度写作才能。他熟悉中世纪欧洲文学所有的类型，能够运用每一种文学类型的技巧来写出优秀的作品。下列的故事一般公认为是《坎特伯雷故事集》里最好的：

⑴骑士讲的故事——关于派拉蒙和阿色提爱上艾米里亚的爱情悲剧故事，⑵卖赎罪券者讲的故事——关于死神降临贪财者身上的劝世寓言故事。

⑶尼姑的教士讲的故事——关于狡猾的狐狸和虚荣的公鸡的动物寓言故事。这是乔叟的杰作，他把一个陈旧的寓言故事转化成一出现实主义的喜剧，内容丰富多彩，语言生动活泼，雅俗共赏。

⑷商人讲的故事——关于“一月”和“五月”的故事（即关于老夫少妻的家庭纠纷的故事）。

⑸自由农民讲的故事——关于忠诚爱情和慷慨行为的故事。

事实上，《坎特伯雷故事集》里的每一个故事都有它的独到之处，读者可以各取所需。除了这些有趣的、深刻的故事外，故事之间的衔接段落也值得赞扬。在这些段落里，乔叟显示出他的戏剧才能，人物性格写得鲜明、突出，对话滑稽、有趣。尤其是巴斯城妇女讲的故事的序言和卖赎罪券者讲的故事的序言，写得最为精彩。

乔叟虽然是个宫廷诗人；他的生活经验却是多方面的。他熟悉14世纪英国社会各阶层的人物，也了解当时的欧洲社会。他熟悉法语和意大利语，但坚持用英语创作。他对英国社会不同阶层人物的语言，都能运用自如。他处理的题材面很广，对不同的题材采取不同的处理方法，写作技巧和手法也是各式各样的。由于他的视野广阔，观察深刻，他写的14世纪英国社会的人物具有超国界的特点，也就是说，乔叟善于写人的普遍的、共同的特点，因此他的作品能够在世界范围内长期吸引读者。乔叟热爱生活，热爱人。他虽然也善于嘲笑和讽刺人们的缺点和错误，但他的总的人生态度是同情和宽容。乔叟是一位严肃的诗人，一方面给读者提供极大的乐趣，另一方面仍对读者进行教育，希望读者成为更理智、更善良的人。但乔叟不愿直接对读者进行说教，总。寓教导于娱乐之中。在关于忠诚爱情和慷慨行为的故事（自由农民讲的故事）里有这样一句话：“真诚是人所能够保持的最高尚的东西。”这是乔叟的道德准则，也是他的艺术标谁。乔叟忠诚于真理，忠诚于现实，忠诚于自然（包括人性），忠诚于艺术。乔叟的艺术是现实主义的艺术，他开创了英国文学的现实主义传统。莎士比亚和狄更斯在不同程度上都是乔叟的继承人和弟子。在中国，乔叟的杰作《坎特伯雷故事集》有方重的散文译本。

（李赋宁）

以下为《坎特伯雷故事集》介绍；《农夫皮尔斯》节选；《高文爵士与他的绿衣骑士》节选 Context

The Canterbury Tales is the most famous and critically acclaimed work of Geoffrey Chaucer, a late-fourteenth-century English poet.Little is known about Chaucer’s personal life, and even less about his education, but a number of existing records document his professional life.Chaucer was born in London in the early 1340s, the only son in his family.Chaucer’s father, originally a property-owning wine merchant, became tremendously wealthy when he inherited the property of relatives who had died in the Black Death of 1349.He was therefore able to send the young Geoffrey off as a page to the Countess of Ulster, which meant that Geoffrey was not required to follow in his ancestors’ footsteps and become a merchant.Eventually, Chaucer began to serve the countess’s husband, Prince Lionel, son to King Edward III.For most of his life, Chaucer served in the Hundred Years War between England and France, both as a soldier and, since he was fluent in French and Italian and conversant in Latin and other tongues, as a diplomat.His diplomatic travels brought him twice to Italy, where he might have met Boccaccio, whose writing influenced Chaucer’s work, and Petrarch.In or around 1378, Chaucer began to develop his vision of an English poetry that would be linguistically accessible to all—obedient neither to the court, whose official language was French, nor to the Church, whose official language was Latin.Instead, Chaucer wrote in the vernacular, the English that was spoken in and around London in his day.Undoubtedly, he was influenced by the writings of the Florentines Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, who wrote in the Italian vernacular.Even in England, the practice was becoming increasingly common among poets, although many were still writing in French and Latin.That the nobles and kings Chaucer served(Richard II until 1399, then Henry IV)were impressed with Chaucer’s skills as a negotiator is obvious from the many rewards he received for his service.Money, provisions, higher appointments, and property eventually allowed him to retire on a royal pension.In 1374, the king appointed Chaucer Controller of the Customs of Hides, Skins and Wools in the port of London, which meant that he was a government official who worked with cloth importers.His experience overseeing imported cloths might be why he frequently describes in exquisite detail the garments and fabric that attire his characters.Chaucer held the position at the customhouse for twelve years, after which he left London for Kent, the county in which Canterbury is located.He served as a justice of the peace for Kent, living in debt, and was then appointed Clerk of the Works at various holdings of the king, including Westminster and the Tower of London.After he retired in the early 1390s, he seems to have been working primarily on The Canterbury Tales, which he began around 1387.By the time of his retirement, Chaucer had already written a substantial amount of narrative poetry, including the celebrated romance Troilus and Criseyde.Chaucer’s personal life is less documented than his professional life.In the late 1360s, he married Philippa Roet, who served Edward III’s queen.They had at least two sons together.Philippa was the sister to the mistress of John of Gaunt, the duke of Lancaster.For John of Gaunt, Chaucer wrote one of his first poems, The Book of the Duchess, which was a lament for the premature death of John’s young wife, Blanche.Whether or not Chaucer had an extramarital affair is a matter of some contention among historians.In a legal document that dates from 1380, a woman named Cecily Chaumpaigne released Chaucer from the accusation of seizing her(raptus), though whether the expression denotes that he raped her, committed adultery with her, or abducted her son is unclear.Chaucer’s wife Philippa apparently died in 1387.Chaucer lived through a time of incredible tension in the English social sphere.The Black Death, which ravaged England during Chaucer’s childhood and remained widespread afterward, wiped out an estimated thirty to fifty percent of the population.Consequently, the labor force gained increased leverage and was able to bargain for better wages, which led to resentment from the nobles and propertied classes.These classes received another blow in 1381, when the peasantry, helped by the artisan class, revolted against them.The merchants were also wielding increasing power over the legal establishment, as the Hundred Years War created profit for England and, consequently, appetite for luxury was growing.The merchants capitalized on the demand for luxury goods, and when Chaucer was growing up, London was pretty much run by a merchant oligarchy, which attempted to control both the aristocracy and the lesser artisan classes.Chaucer’s political sentiments are unclear, for although The Canterbury Tales documents the various social tensions in the manner of the popular genre of estates satire, the narrator refrains from making overt political statements, and what he does say is in no way thought to represent Chaucer’s own sentiments.Chaucer’s original plan for The Canterbury Tales was for each character to tell four tales, two on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back.But, instead of 120 tales, the text ends after twenty-four tales, and the party is still on its way to Canterbury.Chaucer either planned to revise the structure to cap the work at twenty-four tales, or else left it incomplete when he died on October 25, 1400.Other writers and printers soon recognized The Canterbury Tales as a masterful and highly original work.Though Chaucer had been influenced by the great French and Italian writers of his age, works like Boccaccio’s Decameron were not accessible to most English readers, so the format of The Canterbury Tales, and the intense realism of its characters, were virtually unknown to readers in the fourteenth century before Chaucer.William Caxton, England’s first printer, published The Canterbury Tales in the 1470s, and it continued to enjoy a rich printing history that never truly faded.By the English Renaissance, poetry critic George Puttenham had identified Chaucer as the father of the English literary canon.Chaucer’s project to create a literature and poetic language for all classes of society succeeded, and today Chaucer still stands as one of the great shapers of literary narrative and character.Language in The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales is written in Middle English, which bears a close visual resemblance to the English written and spoken today.In contrast, Old English(the language of Beowulf, for example)can be read only in modern translation or by students of Old English.Students often read The Canterbury Tales in its original language, not only because of the similarity between Chaucer’s Middle English and our own, but because the beauty and humor of the poetry—all of its internal and external rhymes, and the sounds it produces—would be lost in translation.The best way for a beginner to approach Middle English is to read it out loud.When the words are pronounced, it is often much easier to recognize what they mean in modern English.Most Middle English editions of the poem include a short pronunciation guide, which can help the reader to understand the language better.For particularly difficult words or phrases, most editions also include notes in the margin giving the modern versions of the words, along with a full glossary in the back.Several online Chaucer glossaries exist, as well as a number of printed lexicons of Middle English.The Order of The Canterbury Tales The line numbers cited in this SparkNote are based on the line numbers given in The Riverside Chaucer, the authoritative edition of Chaucer’s works.The line numbering in The Riverside Chaucer does not run continuously throughout the entire Canterbury Tales, but it does not restart at the beginning of each tale, either.Instead, the tales are grouped together into fragments, and each fragment is numbered as a separate whole.Nobody knows exactly what order Chaucer intended to give the tales, or even if he had a specific order in mind for all of them.Eighty-two early manuscripts of the tales survive, and many of them vary considerably in the order in which they present the tales.However, certain sets of tales do seem to belong together in a particular order.For instance, the General Prologue is obviously the beginning, then the narrator explicitly says that the Knight tells the first tale, and that the Miller butts in and tells the second tale.The introductions, prologues, and epilogues to various tales sometimes include the pilgrims’ comments on the tale just finished, and an indication of who tells the next tale.These sections between the tales are called links, and they are the best evidence for grouping the tales together into ten fragments.But The Canterbury Tales does not include a complete set of links, so the order of the ten fragments is open to question.The Riverside Chaucer bases the order of the ten fragments on the order presented in the Ellesmere manuscript, one of the best surviving manuscripts of the tale.Some scholars disagree with the groupings and order of tales followed in The Riverside Chaucer, choosing instead to base the order on a combination of the links and the geographical landmarks that the pilgrims pass on the way to Canterbury.Plot Overview

General Prologue At the Tabard Inn, a tavern in Southwark, near London, the narrator joins a company of twenty-nine pilgrims.The pilgrims, like the narrator, are traveling to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury.The narrator gives a descriptive account of twenty-seven of these pilgrims, including a Knight, Squire, Yeoman, Prioress, Monk, Friar, Merchant, Clerk, Man of Law, Franklin, Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapestry-Weaver, Cook, Shipman, Physician, Wife, Parson, Plowman, Miller, Manciple, Reeve, Summoner, Pardoner, and Host.(He does not describe the Second Nun or the Nun’s Priest, although both characters appear later in the book.)The Host, whose name, we find out in the Prologue to the Cook’s Tale, is Harry Bailey, suggests that the group ride together and entertain one another with stories.He decides that each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back.Whomever he judges to be the best storyteller will receive a meal at Bailey’s tavern, courtesy of the other pilgrims.The pilgrims draw lots and determine that the Knight will tell the first tale.The Knight’s Tale

Theseus, duke of Athens, imprisons Arcite and Palamon, two knights from Thebes(another city in ancient Greece).From their prison, the knights see and fall in love with Theseus’s sister-in-law, Emelye.Through the intervention of a friend, Arcite is freed, but he is banished from Athens.He returns in disguise and becomes a page in Emelye’s chamber.Palamon escapes from prison, and the two meet and fight over Emelye.Theseus apprehends them and arranges a tournament between the two knights and their allies, with Emelye as the prize.Arcite wins, but he is accidentally thrown from his horse and dies.Palamon then marries Emelye.The Miller’s Prologue and Tale

The Host asks the Monk to tell the next tale, but the drunken Miller butts in and insists that his tale should be the next.He tells the story of an impoverished student named Nicholas, who persuades his landlord’s sexy young wife, Alisoun, to spend the night with him.He convinces his landlord, a carpenter named John, that the second flood is coming, and tricks him into spending the night in a tub hanging from the ceiling of his barn.Absolon, a young parish clerk who is also in love with Alisoun, appears outside the window of the room where Nicholas and Alisoun lie together.When Absolon begs Alisoun for a kiss, she sticks her rear end out the window in the dark and lets him kiss it.Absolon runs and gets a red-hot poker, returns to the window, and asks for another kiss;when Nicholas sticks his bottom out the window and farts, Absolon brands him on the buttocks.Nicholas’s cries for water make the carpenter think that the flood has come, so the carpenter cuts the rope connecting his tub to the ceiling, falls down, and breaks his arm.The Reeve’s Prologue and Tale

Because he also does carpentry, the Reeve takes offense at the Miller’s tale of a stupid carpenter, and counters with his own tale of a dishonest miller.The Reeve tells the story of two students, John and Alayn, who go to the mill to watch the miller grind their corn, so that he won’t have a chance to steal any.But the miller unties their horse, and while they chase it, he steals some of the flour he has just ground for them.By the time the students catch the horse, it is dark, so they spend the night in the miller’s house.That night, Alayn seduces the miller’s daughter, and John seduces his wife.When the miller wakes up and finds out what has happened, he tries to beat the students.His wife, thinking that her husband is actually one of the students, hits the miller over the head with a staff.The students take back their stolen goods and leave.The Cook’s Prologue and Tale

The Cook particularly enjoys the Reeve’s Tale, and offers to tell another funny tale.The tale concerns an apprentice named Perkyn who drinks and dances so much that he is called “Perkyn Reveler.” Finally, Perkyn’s master decides that he would rather his apprentice leave to revel than stay home and corrupt the other servants.Perkyn arranges to stay with a friend who loves drinking and gambling, and who has a wife who is a prostitute.The tale breaks off, unfinished, after fifty-eight lines.The Man of Law’s Introduction, Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue

The Host reminds his fellow pilgrims to waste no time, because lost time cannot be regained.He asks the Man of Law to tell the next tale.The Man of Law agrees, apologizing that he cannot tell any suitable tale that Chaucer has not already told—Chaucer may be unskilled as a poet, says the Man of Law, but he has told more stories of lovers than Ovid, and he doesn’t print tales of incest as John Gower does(Gower was a contemporary of Chaucer).In the Prologue to his tale, the Man of Law laments the miseries of poverty.He then remarks how fortunate merchants are, and says that his tale is one told to him by a merchant.In the tale, the Muslim sultan of Syria converts his entire sultanate(including himself)to Christianity in order to persuade the emperor of Rome to give him his daughter, Custance, in marriage.The sultan’s mother and her attendants remain secretly faithful to Islam.The mother tells her son she wishes to hold a banquet for him and all the Christians.At the banquet, she massacres her son and all the Christians except for Custance, whom she sets adrift in a rudderless ship.After years of floating, Custance runs ashore in Northumberland, where a constable and his wife, Hermengyld, offer her shelter.She converts them to Christianity.One night, Satan makes a young knight sneak into Hermengyld’s chamber and murder Hermengyld.He places the bloody knife next to Custance, who sleeps in the same chamber.When the constable returns home, accompanied by Alla, the king of Northumberland, he finds his slain wife.He tells Alla the story of how Custance was found, and Alla begins to pity the girl.He decides to look more deeply into the murder.Just as the knight who murdered Hermengyld is swearing that Custance is the true murderer, he is struck down and his eyes burst out of his face, proving his guilt to Alla and the crowd.The knight is executed, Alla and many others convert to Christianity, and Custance and Alla marry.While Alla is away in Scotland, Custance gives birth to a boy named Mauricius.Alla’s mother, Donegild, intercepts a letter from Custance to Alla and substitutes a counterfeit one that claims that the child is disfigured and bewitched.She then intercepts Alla’s reply, which claims that the child should be kept and loved no matter how malformed.Donegild substitutes a letter saying that Custance and her son are banished and should be sent away on the same ship on which Custance arrived.Alla returns home, finds out what has happened, and kills Donegild.After many adventures at sea, including an attempted rape, Custance ends up back in Rome, where she reunites with Alla, who has made a pilgrimage there to atone for killing his mother.She also reunites with her father, the emperor.Alla and Custance return to England, but Alla dies after a year, so Custance returns, once more, to Rome.Mauricius becomes the next Roman emperor.Following the Man of Law’s Tale, the Host asks the Parson to tell the next tale, but the Parson reproaches him for swearing, and they fall to bickering.The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale

The Wife of Bath gives a lengthy account of her feelings about marriage.Quoting from the Bible, the Wife argues against those who believe it is wrong to marry more than once, and she explains how she dominated and controlled each of her five husbands.She married her fifth husband, Jankyn, for love instead of money.After the Wife has rambled on for a while, the Friar butts in to complain that she is taking too long, and the Summoner retorts that friars are like flies, always meddling.The Friar promises to tell a tale about a summoner, and the Summoner promises to tell a tale about a friar.The Host cries for everyone to quiet down and allow the Wife to commence her tale.In her tale, a young knight of King Arthur’s court rapes a maiden;to atone for his crime, Arthur’s queen sends him on a quest to discover what women want most.An ugly old woman promises the knight that she will tell him the secret if he promises to do whatever she wants for saving his life.He agrees, and she tells him women want control of their husbands and their own lives.They go together to Arthur’s queen, and the old woman’s answer turns out to be correct.The old woman then tells the knight that he must marry her.When the knight confesses later that he is repulsed by her appearance, she gives him a choice: she can either be ugly and faithful, or beautiful and unfaithful.The knight tells her to make the choice herself, and she rewards him for giving her control of the marriage by rendering herself both beautiful and faithful.The Friar’s Prologue and Tale

The Friar speaks approvingly of the Wife of Bath’s Tale, and offers to lighten things up for the company by telling a funny story about a lecherous summoner.The Summoner does not object, but he promises to pay the Friar back in his own tale.The Friar tells of an archdeacon who carries out the law without mercy, especially to lechers.The archdeacon has a summoner who has a network of spies working for him, to let him know who has been lecherous.The summoner extorts money from those he’s sent to summon, charging them more money than he should for penance.He tries to serve a summons on a yeoman who is actually a devil in disguise.After comparing notes on their treachery and extortion, the devil vanishes, but when the summoner tries to prosecute an old wealthy widow unfairly, the widow cries out that the summoner should be taken to hell.The devil follows the woman’s instructions and drags the summoner off to hell.The Summoner’s Prologue and Tale

The Summoner, furious at the Friar’s Tale, asks the company to let him tell the next tale.First, he tells the company that there is little difference between friars and fiends, and that when an angel took a friar down to hell to show him the torments there, the friar asked why there were no friars in hell;the angel then pulled up Satan’s tail and 20,000 friars came out of his ass.In the Summoner’s Tale, a friar begs for money from a dying man named Thomas and his wife, who have recently lost their child.The friar shamelessly exploits the couple’s misfortunes to extract money from them, so Thomas tells the friar that he is sitting on something that he will bequeath to the friars.The friar reaches for his bequest, and Thomas lets out an enormous fart.The friar complains to the lord of the manor, whose squire promises to divide the fart evenly among all the friars.The Clerk’s Prologue and Tale

The Host asks the Clerk to cheer up and tell a merry tale, and the Clerk agrees to tell a tale by the Italian poet Petrarch.Griselde is a hardworking peasant who marries into the aristocracy.Her husband tests her fortitude several ways, including pretending to kill her children and divorcing her.He punishes her one final time by forcing her to prepare for his wedding to a new wife.She does all this dutifully, her husband tells her that she has always been and will always be his wife(the divorce was a fraud), and they live happily ever after.The Merchant’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue

The Merchant reflects on the great difference between the patient Griselde of the Clerk’s Tale and the horrible shrew he has been married to for the past two months.The Host asks him to tell a story of the evils of marriage, and he complies.Against the advice of his friends, an old knight named January marries May, a beautiful young woman.She is less than impressed by his enthusiastic sexual efforts, and conspires to cheat on him with his squire, Damien.When blind January takes May into his garden to copulate with her, she tells him she wants to eat a pear, and he helps her up into the pear tree, where she has sex with Damien.Pluto, the king of the faeries, restores January’s sight, but May, caught in the act, assures him that he must still be blind.The Host prays to God to keep him from marrying a wife like the one the Merchant describes.The Squire’s Introduction and Tale

The Host calls upon the Squire to say something about his favorite subject, love, and the Squire willingly complies.King Cambyuskan of the Mongol Empire is visited on his birthday by a knight bearing gifts from the king of Arabia and India.He gives Cambyuskan and his daughter Canacee a magic brass horse, a magic mirror, a magic ring that gives Canacee the ability to understand the language of birds, and a sword with the power to cure any wound it creates.She rescues a dying female falcon that narrates how her consort abandoned her for the love of another.The Squire’s Tale is either unfinished by Chaucer or is meant to be interrupted by the Franklin, who interjects that he wishes his own son were as eloquent as the Squire.The Host expresses annoyance at the Franklin’s interruption, and orders him to begin the next tale.The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale

The Franklin says that his tale is a familiar Breton lay, a folk ballad of ancient Brittany.Dorigen, the heroine, awaits the return of her husband, Arveragus, who has gone to England to win honor in feats of arms.She worries that the ship bringing her husband home will wreck itself on the coastal rocks, and she promises Aurelius, a young man who falls in love with her, that she will give her body to him if he clears the rocks from the coast.Aurelius hires a student learned in magic to create the illusion that the rocks have disappeared.Arveragus returns home and tells his wife that she must keep her promise to Aurelius.Aurelius is so impressed by Arveragus’s honorable act that he generously absolves her of the promise, and the magician, in turn, generously absolves Aurelius of the money he owes.The Physician’s Tale

Appius the judge lusts after Virginia, the beautiful daughter of Virginius.Appius persuades a churl named Claudius to declare her his slave, stolen from him by Virginius.Appius declares that Virginius must hand over his daughter to Claudius.Virginius tells his daughter that she must die rather than suffer dishonor, and she virtuously consents to her father’s cutting her head off.Appius sentences Virginius to death, but the Roman people, aware of Appius’s hijinks, throw him into prison, where he kills himself.The Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale

The Host is dismayed by the tragic injustice of the Physician’s Tale, and asks the Pardoner to tell something merry.The other pilgrims contradict the Host, demanding a moral tale, which the Pardoner agrees to tell after he eats and drinks.The Pardoner tells the company how he cheats people out of their money by preaching that money is the root of all evil.His tale describes three riotous youths who go looking for Death, thinking that they can kill him.An old man tells them that they will find Death under a tree.Instead, they find eight bushels of gold, which they plot to sneak into town under cover of darkness.The youngest goes into town to fetch food and drink, but brings back poison, hoping to have the gold all to himself.His companions kill him to enrich their own shares, then drink the poison and die under the tree.His tale complete, the Pardoner offers to sell the pilgrims pardons, and singles out the Host to come kiss his relics.The Host infuriates the Pardoner by accusing him of fraud, but the Knight persuades the two to kiss and bury their differences.The Shipman’s Tale

The Shipman’s Tale features a monk who tricks a merchant’s wife into having sex with him by borrowing money from the merchant, then giving it to the wife so she can repay her own debt to her husband, in exchange for sexual favors.When the monk sees the merchant next, he tells him that he returned the merchant’s money to his wife.The wife realizes she has been duped, but she boldly tells her husband to forgive her debt: she will repay it in bed.The Host praises the Shipman’s story, and asks the Prioress for a tale.The Prioress’s Prologue and Tale

The Prioress calls on the Virgin Mary to guide her tale.In an Asian city, a Christian school is located at the edge of a Jewish ghetto.An angelic seven-year-old boy, a widow’s son, attends the school.He is a devout Christian, and loves to sing Alma Redemptoris(Gracious Mother of the Redeemer).Singing the song on his way through the ghetto, some Jews hire a murderer to slit his throat and throw him into a latrine.The Jews refuse to tell the widow where her son is, but he miraculously begins to sing Alma Redemptoris, so the Christian people recover his body, and the magistrate orders the murdering Jews to be drawn apart by wild horses and then hanged.The Prologue and Tale of Sir Thopas The Host, after teasing Chaucer the narrator about his appearance, asks him to tell a tale.Chaucer says that he only knows one tale, then launches into a parody of bad poetry—the Tale of Sir Thopas.Sir Thopas rides about looking for an elf-queen to marry until he is confronted by a giant.The narrator’s doggerel continues in this vein until the Host can bear no more and interrupts him.Chaucer asks him why he can’t tell his tale, since it is the best he knows, and the Host explains that his rhyme isn’t worth a turd.He encourages Chaucer to tell a prose tale.The Tale of Melibee Chaucer’s second tale is the long, moral prose story of Melibee.Melibee’s house is raided by his foes, who beat his wife, Prudence, and severely wound his daughter, Sophie, in her feet, hands, ears, nose, and mouth.Prudence advises him not to rashly pursue vengeance on his enemies, and he follows her advice, putting his foes’ punishment in her hands.She forgives them for the outrages done to her, in a model of Christian forbearance and forgiveness.The Monk’s Prologue and Tale The Host wishes that his own wife were as patient as Melibee’s, and calls upon the Monk to tell the next tale.First he teases the Monk, pointing out that the Monk is clearly no poor cloisterer.The Monk takes it all in stride and tells a series of tragic falls, in which noble figures are brought low: Lucifer, Adam, Sampson, Hercules, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Zenobia, Pedro of Castile, and down through the ages.The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue

After seventeen noble “falls” narrated by the Monk, the Knight interrupts, and the Host calls upon the Nun’s Priest to deliver something more lively.The Nun’s Priest tells of Chanticleer the Rooster, who is carried off by a flattering fox who tricks him into closing his eyes and displaying his crowing abilities.Chanticleer turns the tables on the fox by persuading him to open his mouth and brag to the barnyard about his feat, upon which Chanticleer falls out of the fox’s mouth and escapes.The Host praises the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, adding that if the Nun’s Priest were not in holy orders, he would be as sexually potent as Chanticleer.The Second Nun’s Prologue and Tale

In her Prologue, the Second Nun explains that she will tell a saint’s life, that of Saint Cecilia, for this saint set an excellent example through her good works and wise teachings.She focuses particularly on the story of Saint Cecilia’s martyrdom.Before Cecilia’s new husband, Valerian, can take her virginity, she sends him on a pilgrimage to Pope Urban, who converts him to Christianity.An angel visits Valerian, who asks that his brother Tiburce be granted the grace of Christian conversion as well.All three—Cecilia, Tiburce, and Valerian—are put to death by the Romans.The Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue and Tale

When the Second Nun’s Tale is finished, the company is overtaken by a black-clad Canon and his Yeoman, who have heard of the pilgrims and their tales and wish to participate.The Yeoman brags to the company about how he and the Canon create the illusion that they are alchemists, and the Canon departs in shame at having his secrets discovered.The Yeoman tells a tale of how a canon defrauded a priest by creating the illusion of alchemy using sleight of hand.The Manciple’s Prologue and Tale

The Host pokes fun at the Cook, riding at the back of the company, blind drunk.The Cook is unable to honor the Host’s request that he tell a tale, and the Manciple criticizes him for his drunkenness.The Manciple relates the legend of a white crow, taken from the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses and one of the tales in The Arabian Nights.In it, Phoebus’s talking white crow informs him that his wife is cheating on him.Phoebus kills the wife, pulls out the crow’s white feathers, and curses it with blackness.The Parson’s Prologue and Tale As the company enters a village in the late afternoon, the Host calls upon the Parson to give them a fable.Refusing to tell a fictional story because it would go against the rule set by St.Paul, the Parson delivers a lengthy treatise on the Seven Deadly Sins, instead.Chaucer’s Retraction

Chaucer appeals to readers to credit Jesus Christ as the inspiration for anything in his book that they like, and to attribute what they don’t like to his own ignorance and lack of ability.He retracts and prays for forgiveness for all of his works dealing with secular and pagan subjects, asking only to be remembered for what he has written of saints’ lives and homilies.WILLIAM LANGLAND(1330-1400)The Vision of William Concerning 'Piers the Plowman.'

Incipit liber de Petro Plowman Prologus

PROLOGUE The Field Full of Folk 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne, I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were, In habite as an hermite vnholy of workes, Went wyde in þis world wondres to here.Ac on a May mornynge on Maluerne hulles, Me byfel a ferly of fairy, me thou¥te;I was wery forwandred and went me to reste Vnder a brode banke bi a bornes side, And as I lay and lened and loked in þe wateres, I slombered in a slepyng it sweyued so merye, Thanne gan I to meten a merueilouse sweuene, That I was in a wilderness wist I neuer where;As I bihelde in-to þe est an hiegh to þe sonne, I seigh a toure on a toft trielich ymaked;A depe dale binethe a dongeon þere-Inne, With depe dyches & derke and dredful of sight, A faire felde ful of folke fonde I there bytwene, Of alle maner of men þe mene and þe riche, worchyng and wandryng as þe worlde asketh Some putten hem to þe plow pleyed ful selde, In settyng and in sowyng swonken ful harde, And wonnen that wastours with glotonye destruyeth.And some putten hem to pruyde appareiled hem þere-after.In countenaunce of clothyng comen disgised.In prayers and in penance putten hem manye, Al for loue of owre lorde lyueden ful streyte, In hope forto haue heuenriche blisse;As ancres and hermites that holden hem in here selles, And coueiten nought in contre to kairen aboute, For no likerous liflode her lykam to plese.And somme chosen chaffare they cheuen the bettere, As it semeth to owre sy¥t that suche men thryueth;And somme murthes to make as mynstralles conneth, And geten gold with here glee giltles, I leue.Ac iapers & iangelers Iudas chylderen, Feynen hem fantasies and foles hem maketh, And han here witte at wille to worche ¥if þei sholde.That Poule precheth of hem I nel nought preue it here: Qui turpiloquium loquitur is luciferes hyne.Bidders and beggeres fast aboute ¥ede, With her belies and her bagges of bred ful ycrammed;Fayteden for here fode fou¥ten atte ale;In glotonye, god it wote gon hij to bedde, And risen with ribaudye tho roberdes knaues;Slepe and sori sleuthe seweth hem eure.[...]

In a summer season, when soft was the sun, I enshrouded me well in a shepherd's garb, And robed as a hermit, unholy of works, Went wide through the world, all wonders to hear.And on a May morning, on Malvern Hills, strange fancies befell me, and fairy-like dreams.I was weary of wand'ring, and went to repose On a broad green bank, by a burn-side;As I lay there and leaned and looked on the waters, I slumbered and slept, they sounded so merry.Came moving before me a marvellous vision;I was lost in wild waste;but where, I discerned not.I beheld in the east, on high, near the sun, A tower on a hill-top, with turrets well wrought;A deep dale beneath, and a dungeon therein, With deep ditches and dark, and dreadful to see.A fair field full of folk, I found there between, Of all manner of men, the mean and the rich, All working or wand'ring, as the world requires.Some ploughed with the plough;their play was seldom;Some sowing, some earning, with sweat of their brows, The gain which the great ones in gluttony waste.In pride of apparel some passed on their way, And in costliest clothing were quaintly disguised.In prayer and in penance some placed their delight, And all for our Lord's love lived strictly and hard, In hope to have after their heavenly meed;These hermits and anchorites held to their cells, Not caring to roam through the country around For doles of sweet dainties, their flesh to delight.Some chose to be chapmen, to chaffer for gain;As it seems to our sight, such surely succeed.And some, to make merry, as minstrels are wont, Getting gold with their glee, yet guiltless, I trust.As for jugglers and jesters, all Judas's children, That feign silly fancies, apparelled as fools, Having wit, if they willed it, to work as they oughtis a lie, I'd say!

(5)

But Arthur would not eat till all were served.He bubbled to the brim with boyish spirits: liked his life light, and loathed the thought of lazing for long or sitting still longer.So his young blood boiled and his brain ran wild, and in many ways moved him still more as a point of honor never to eat on a high holiday till he should have heard a strange story of stirring adventures, of mighty marvels to make the mind wonder, of princes, prowess, or perilous deeds.Or someone might come, seeking a knight to join him in jousting, enjoying the risk of laying their lives on the line like men leaving to fortune the choice of her favor.This was the king's custom at court, the practice he followed at pleasant feasts held in his hall;

therefore with bold face

he stood there straight and tall.As New Years proceeded apace

he meant to have mirth with them all.(6)

So he stood there stock-still, a king standing tall, talking of courtly trifles before the high table.By Guinevere sat Gawain the Good, and Agravaine of the Heavy Hand on the other side: knights of great worth, and nephews to the king.Baldwin, the bishop, was above, by the head, with Ywain, Urien's son, sitting across.These sat at the dais and were served with due honor;and many mighty men were seated on either side.Then the first course came with a clamor of trumpets whose banners billowed bright to the eye, while kettledrums rolled and the cry of the pipes wakened a wild, warbling music whose touch made the heart tremble and skip.Delicious dishes were rushed in, fine delicacies fresh and plentiful, piled so high on so many platters they had problems finding places to set down their silver bowls of steaming soup: no spot was clear.Each lord dug in with pleasure，and grabbed at what lay near:

twelve platters piled past measure，bright wine, and foaming beer.(7)

I need say no more how they served the food, for what fool would fancy their feast was a famine? But a new noise announced itself quickly enough to grant the high lord leave to have dinner.The music had finished but a moment before, the first course just served, and set before the court, when a horrible horseman hurtled through the doors, his body as brawny as any can be, so bull-necked, big-thighed, bulky and square, so long-legged, large-limbed, looming so tall I can hardly tell if he were half troll, or merely as large as living man can be--a handsome one too;as hearty a hulk as ever rode horse.His back and chest were broad as a barrel, but he slimmed at the waist, with a slender stomach, and his face was well formed, with features sharp and clean--

Men sat there gaping, gasping

at his strange, unearthly sheen，as if a ghost were passing，for every inch was green.(8)

He was got up in green from head to heel: a tunic worn tight, tucked to his ribs;and a rich cloak cast over it, covered inside with a fine fur lining, fitted and sewn with ermine trim that stood out in contrast from his hair where his hood lay folded flat;and handsome hose of the same green hue which clung to his calves, with clustered spurs of bright gold;beneath them striped embroidered silk above his bare shanks, for he rode shoeless.His clothes were all kindled with a clear light like emeralds: His belt buckles sparkled, and bright stones were set in rich rows arranged up and down himself and his saddle.Worked in the silk were too many trifles to tell the half of: embroidered birds, butterflies, and other things in a gaudy glory of green and inlaid gold.And the bit and bridle, the breastplate on the horse, and all its tackle were trimmed with green enamel, even the saddlestraps, the stirrups on which he stood, and the bows of his saddle with its billowing skirts which glimmered and glinted with green jewels.The stallion that bore him was the best of its breed it was plain，a green horse great and strong，that sidled, danced and strained，but the bridle-braid led it along，turning as it was trained.(9)

He was a fine fellow fitted in green--And the hair on his head and his horse's matched.It fanned out freely enfolding his shoulders, and his beard hung below as big as a bush, all mixed with the marvelous mane on his head, which was cut off in curls cascading to his elbows, wrapping round the rest of him like a king's cape clasped to his neck.And the mane of his mount was much the same, but curled up and combed in crisp knots, in braids of bright gold thread and brilliant green criss-crossed hair by hair.And the tossing tail was twin to the mane, for both were bound with bright green ribbons, strung to the end with long strands of precious stones, and turned back tight in a twisted knot bright with tinkling bells of burnished gold.No such horse on hoof had been seen in that hall, nor horseman half so strange as their eyes now held in sight.He looked a lightning flash，they say: he seemed so bright;

and who would dare to clash

in melee with such might?

(10)

Yet he had on no hauberk, nor a helmet for his head, neither neck-guard nor breastplate to break heavy blows, neither shaft nor shield for the shock of combat.But he held in one hand a sprig of holly that bursts out greenest when branches are bare;and his other hand hefted a huge and awful ax, a broad battleax with a bit to tell(take it who can)with a large head four feet long: the green steel down the grain etched with gold, its broad edge burnished and bright, shaped razor-sharp to sheer through steel, and held high on a heavy staff which was bound at the base with iron bands gracefully engraved in bright green patterns.A strap was strung through the steel head, running loop after loop down the length of the handle, which was tied with tassels in abundance, attaching by rich braids onto bright green buttons.This rider reined in as he rode through the doors direct to the high dais without a word, giving no greeting, gazing down on them all.His first word came when he stopped.“Where,” he said, “is the master of these men? I've a mind to see his face and would fancy a chat with the fellow who wears the crown.”

To each lord he turned

and glancing up and down

he fixed each face to learn

which knight held most renown.(11)

They stared at the stranger, stunned, a very long time.For each man wondered what it might mean that man and mount both shone a shade as green as the grass, and greener even than green enamel glows when gold makes it brighter.All eyes were on him, and some edged closer, wondering what in the world he would do.They had seen enough strange sights to know how seldom they are real;therefore they feared him for a phantom, a sending from the Unseen Realm.So of all those noble knights, none dared answer but sat there stupefied by the strength of his voice.A silence fell filling that rich hall as if they'd all fainted or suddenly slept: their voices just vanished at their height.Some, I suppose, were not floored，but chose to be polite，letting their leader and lord

be first to speak to that knight.(12)

Arthur stood watching adventure advance and answered quickly as honor bid, neither awed nor afraid, saying, “Wanderer, know you are welcome here.dismount, if you may;make merry as you wish, and we may learn in a little while what you would like.” “So help me God who sits on high,” he said, “No.” “It is not my purpose to pass any time in this place.But I have been told that your reputation towers to heaven: that your court and castle are accounted the finest, your knights and their steeds as the sturdiest in steel, the best, the boldest, the bravest on earth, and as fitting foes in any fine sport.True knighthood is known here, or so the tale runs, which is why I have come calling today.You may be sure by this branch that I bear that I come in peace, with no plans for battle.I have a hauberk at home, and a helmet too, and other weapons I know well how to wield.Yet as war is not my wish I am wearing soft silk, but, if you are as bold as men believe you to be，you will be glad to grant me the game that is mine by right.”

Then Arthur said, “I swear,”

“most courteous, noble knight，if you'd like to battle bare，you'll not fail to find a fight.”

(13)

“Never fear,” he said, “I'm not fishing for a fight with the beardless children on the benches all about.If I were strapped on steel on a sturdy horse no man here has might to match me.No, I have come to this court for a bit of Christmas fun fitting for Yuletide and New Years with such a fine crowd.Who here in this house thinks he has what it takes, has bold blood and a brash head, and dares to stand his ground, giving stroke for stroke? Here!I shall give him this gilded blade as my gift;this heavy ax shall be his, to handle as he likes.and I shall stand here bare of armor, and brave the first blow.If anyone's tough enough to try out my game, let him come here quickly and claim his weapon!I give up all rights;he will get it for keeps.I'll stand like a tree trunk--he can strike at me once, if you'll grant me the right to give as good as I get in play.But later is soon enough，a full year and a day.Get up, if you think you're rough，let's see what you dare to say!”

(14)

If at first he had stunned them, now they sat stone-still: the whole hall, both high and low.The mounted man moved in his saddle, glared a red glance grimly about, arched his bushy brows, all brilliant and green, his beard waving as he waited for one man to rise, to call or came forward.He coughed loudly, stretched slowly, and straightened to speak.“Hah!They call this King Arthur's house, a living legend in land after land? Where have your pride and your power gone, your bragging boasts, your big words? The glories and triumphs of the Round Table have toppled at the touch of one man's words!What? Fainting with fear, when no fight is offered?” He let out a laugh so loud that Arthur winced with shame;the blood shot to his flushed face and churned

with rage and raised a storm

until their hearts all burned.All king in face and form，he reached that rider, turned，(15)

and said, “Look here, by heaven!Have you lost your mind? If you want to be mad, I will make you welcome!Nobody I know is bowled over by your big words, so help me God!Hand me that ax--I will grant you the gift you beg me to give!” He leaped lightly up and lifted it from his hand.Then the man dismounted, moving proudly, while Arthur held the ax, both hands on the haft, hefted it sternly, considered his stroke.That burly man bulked big and tall, a head higher than anyone in the house.He stood there hard-faced, stroking his beard, impassively watching as he pulled off his coat, no more moved or dismayed by his mighty swings than anybody would be if somebody brought him a bottle of wine.Gawain, sitting by the queen，could tell the king his mind:

“Lord, hear well what I mean，and let this match be mine.”

(16)

“Grant leave, good lord,” said Gawain to the king, “to stir from my seat and stand by your side;that I might rise without rudeness from this table without fear of offending your fair queen, and come before your court as a counselor should.It is plainly improper, as people know well, to point this proposal at the prince himself.Though you may be eager to act for yourself, there are so many bold knights on the benches all about, none more masterful in mind maybe than move move under heaven, nor many built better for the field of battle.Of all your men of war I am the weakest and least wise, and my life little enough to lose, if you look at it clearly.My only honor is that you are my uncle;my only boast is that my body carries your blood.Since this whole matter is such a mockery, it is not meant for you;and I am first on the field: let this folly be mine.If my claim is uncalled-for let the court judge;I will bear the blame.”

They huddled hushed around

and all advised the same:

respect the royal crown，and give Gawain the game.(17)

Then the king commanded him to rise and come forward, and he stood quickly, walked with stately steps to kneel before the king and claim his weapon.Arthur handed it over and held up his hand to give him God's blessing.With a glad smile he charged him to be hardy in heart.“Cousin, careful,” he said, “cut him but once.and if you teach him truly, I trust you will find you can bear the blow that he brings you later.” Gawain went to the warrior, weapon in hand, not the least bit bashful, as bold as can be.Then the Green Knight said to Gawain, “We should go over our agreement before we begin.First, knight, I would know your name, told truly as one I can trust.” “My name is Gawain,” he said, “I give it in good faith, as I will give you a blow and bear what comes after.At this time in twelve months I will take a blow back from what weapon you wish, but from no other knight alive.”

The other answering spoke，“Sir Gawain: good.I derive

great pleasure from the stroke

your hardy hands will drive.”

(18)

“Gad!” the Green Knight said.“Sir Gawain, I am glad that your fist will fetch me the fun I hoped to find.You have quickly retold in trustworthy words a correct account of the contract I asked of the king, save one stipulation that I must state: let it stand as your oath that you will seek me yourself, and search anywhere you feel I may be found to fetch back the same wages I am paid today before this proud court.” “Where should I look?” Gawain asked, “Where do you live?” “By Him that made me, your house is not known to me, neither do I know you, knight, nor your court nor your name.But teach me truly, tell me where to find you and I shall work my wits out to win my way there.I give my plain promise;I pledge you my word.” “That is enough for a New Year's pledge;you need say no more,”--So the green man answered gracious Gawain--“If I'm telling the truth, why, when I've taken your tap, and you've lopped me lovingly, you'll learn at once of my house and my home and how I am named.Then you can try my hospitality and be true to our compact.Or I'll have no words to waste, which would be well for you: you'd relax in this land, and not look for me further.But stop!

Take up the grim tool you need，and show me how you chop.”

“Gladly, sir,” he said, “Indeed,”

and gave the ax a strop.(19)

The green knight got ready, feet firm on the ground;leaned his head a little to let the cheek show, and raised the rich riot of his hair so the nape of his neck was naked and exposed.Gawain held the ax high overhead, his left foot set before him on the floor, swung swiftly at the soft flesh so the bit of the blade broke through the bones, crashed through the clear fat and cut it in two, and the brightly burnished edge bit into the earth.The handsome head fell, hit the ground, and rolled forward;they fended it off with their feet.The red blood burst bright from the green body, yet the fellow neither faltered nor fell but stepped strongly out on sturdy thighs, reached roughly right through their legs, grabbed his graceful head and lifted it from the ground, ran to his horse, caught hold of the reins, stepped in the stirrup, strode into the saddle, the head dangling by the hair from his hand, and seated himself as firmly in the saddle as if he were unhurt, though he sat on his horse without a head.He swiveled his bulk about;

the ugly stump still bled.They gaped in fear and doubt

because of the words he said.(20)

For he held the head up evenly in his hand, turned the face toward the top of the high table, and the eyelids lifted and looked on them all while the mouth moved, making these words: “Gawain, get ready to go as you have promised, Seek me out, sir;search till you find me as sworn here in this hall where all these knights heard.I charge you, come as you chose to the Green Chapel to get as good as you gave--you've got it coming and will be paid promptly when another year has passed.Many men know me as the Knight of the Green Chapel, so search faithfully and you'll not fail to find me.Come, or be called a faithless coward!” He roared like a raging bull, turned the reins, and drove for the door, still dangling the head, while fire flashed from the horse's feet as if its hooves were flints.Where he went no one knew, nor could they name the country he came from nor his kin.What then?

The king and Gawain grinned

and laughed at the Green Knight when

they knew full well it had been

a portent to their men.(21)

Though High King Arthur's heart was heavy with wonder he let no sign of it be seen, but said aloud with a king's courtesy to his lovely queen: “Beloved lady, never let this dismay you.It is good to get such games at Christmas, light interludes, laughter and song, or the whole court singing carols in chorus.But truly, I can turn now to my table and feast;as my word is good, I have witnessed a wonder.” He turned to Sir Gawain and tactfully said, “Hang up your ax;it has cut all it can.” It was attached to a tapestry above the high table for all men to marvel on who might see it there, as a true token of a tale of wonder.Then they sat in their seats to resume their feast, Gawain and the king together, while good men served them the rarest, dearest delicacies in double portions, with whole batteries of the best foods, and the singing of bards.The day finished, and their feast was filled with joy and zest.Sir Gawain, have a care

to keep your courage for the test，and do the deed you've dared.You've begun: now brave the rest.