The English Renaissance
Renaissance
1. general info
Time span:
As a literary movement the Renaissance took place in a transitional period from 14 through 16th century when across the Europe feudalism was undergoing an inevitable collap and capitalism was burgeoning to the fore.
Spreading
As a literary movement the Renaissance began to emerge in 14th century in Italy and the Turk's Conquest of Constantinople (now Istanbul: port city of Turkey: then center of Mediterranean civilization for thousand years) in 1453 drove the
Greek teachers to Italy from where ancient Greek and Roman cultures spread to other places, further help the spreading of the new thoughts around. Later, it was spread to France, Spain, The Netherlands
and England. In 15th and 16th century, scholars of western European countries manifested great interest in the Greek and Latin cultures, so the art and science of the ancient Greece and Rome was resurrected. In French: Renaissance|| Rebirth in English.
2. Humanism
晋国历史The ideal of renaissance was humanism, which emphasized the welfare of human beings:
According to Humanism:
A. It was against the human nature to sacrifice the happiness of this life for after-life happiness.
中纬度B. People should enjoy full freedom to enrich their intellectual and emotional life.
C. In religion, reformation of church demanded.
D. In art and literature, in prai of men instead of God and churches, and their pursuit of happiness in this life.
3. characteristics
Characteristics of literature of this period:
a. In prai of man, not God or churches (yet it was the mainstream in the previous Middle Age.)
长安莲花山b. Pursuit of happiness of this life (against any abstinence)
c. Education advocated (against ignorance and the practice of
obscurantism)
d. Realistic methods accepted (abstract way of writing given up)
Renaissance in England
1. The oxford reformers(15th c.)
Henry Ⅷ(1509-1547)
Oxford
Scholasticism
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A group of students and later teachers traveled to Italy and studied there, further, introduced classical literature to England and advocated a reformation of education on a humanistic line by emphasizing the study of Greek and Latin and cular science in opposition to the rigid church dogmas of the medieval.
They helped spread the light of a new science and new world outlook, combated medieval scholasticism, helped build the new literature in the later decades of the 16th century. They were later called the Oxford Reformers.
2. Reprentative writers
1. Thomas More (1478-1535)
Thomas More (1478-1535): humanistic leader of early 16th century, Lord Chancellor to Henry Ⅷ, who gave up his life rather than bow to Henry as head of the English Church. Masterpiece: Utopia
取消分页符2. Wyatt and Howard
Two poets of importance before the Elizabethan Age: Wyatt & his disciple Howard.
Sir Thomas Wyatt (-1542): He introduced the Italian sonnet into England from Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374) Petrarchan sonnets influenced the Elizabethan Age greatly.
Henry Howard (-1574), Earl of Surrey, friend and disciple of Wyatt.
The Elizabethan age (or the age of Shakespeare)
1. Literary span
Literary period doesn't always correspond exactly with historic events. The Elizabethan Age actually extends 10 years or so after the Queen's death in 1603.[ElizabethⅠ:1558-1603]
2. Social conditions—reformation in England
1. Firm Control of Churches
In the dark Middle Ages, a whole network of Church government –the Christendom developed and firmly established throughout the
whole area under the control of churches. Supremacy with churches over even the kings of the coun
如何优雅的怼人tries under control and arbitrary interference into the affairs of all kinds: political and cular affairs. People's mind strictly directed by religious belief, Heretics verely punished.
2. Religious reformation
Religious Reformation: people cead to look upon themlves as living only for God and a future world after death, which aroud individuals from mental stupor and rvility to intellectual freedom and inquiry.
In 1531, Henry Ⅷ (1509-1547) declared himlf head of the Church of England, and made England a Protestant nation.
Protestantism had the basic tenet focusing on man's ability and duty to ek God by and for himlf without such intermediaries as priest, saint or sacrament. In esnce, it was a bourgeois movement to free itlf from church limitations.
3. Prosperity under Elizabeth
Prosperity under Elizabeth:
A period of rapid growth and development marked the beginning of modern capitalist England.
Greatest a power of the world: defeat of the Spanish invincible Armada; exploration into the New World after the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus's discovery in 1492; Trade routes developed to India; etc
“The sun doesn't t on British Empire"
3. great names
1. Edmund Spenr(1564—1599)—poetry
Edmund Spencer (1552-1599)--poetry
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Greatest non-dramatic poet of the age, first master of English ver, he made the natural music of his voice. follower of Chaucer. masterpiece: Faerie Queene—an allegory
Spencerian Stanza:
a nine-line stanza;
the first 8 lines are iambic pentameter lines and the ninth line has two more syllables;
rhyming ababbcbcc.
Later, it was followed by Thomson, Keats, Shelley, and Byron.
2. Christopher Marlowe (1564—1595)and the university wits—drama
Christopher Marlowe (1564—1595)—drama:
Marlowe (1564-1595):
Drama is the chief claim of the Age. Morality play Everyman at the end of the 15th century marks the beginning of modern drama.Influence from the classics: At universities, humanist teaching fostered the enthusiastic study, acting, and imitation of Italian and Greek comedies and tragedies. From the classic plays, the English dramatists learned the cret of a well-knit play, a literary polish far beyond the shapelessness of medieval drama. Characterization, unity and the progression of a plot through five acts were taught to the first known dramatists. the dramas were classical in form but English in content. Influence from popular taste: Growing demands for plays. no regular newspaper and few books, theatre became the only source of intellectual pleasure for most of the spectators, therefore, many Londoners of that time were theatergoers.
Marlowe (1564-1595):
Marlowe: the greatest predecessor of Shakespeare and the greatest pioneer of English drama.
His achievements :
He made blank ver the principle instrument of English drama He replaced the stilted heroes of previous drama by man of vitality and passion ---- he created the Renaissance hero for the English drama. University Wits
They studied at Universities of Oxford or Cambridge. They t up as professional writers, lling their learning and wits to the London public of playgoers, and to the reading public as well. They wrote for the popular playhou.
3. Ben Jonson (1562—1637)
Ben Jonson (1562-1637):
Shakespeare's most formidable rival and most well-known successor.
English drama declined becau of the slackened current of enthusiasm and powerful opposition from the counterforce, esp. the Puritans, bitter opponents of drama since the building of the 1st playhou in 1576, who even forced the closing of the theatres in
1642 under Charles Ⅰ
4. Francis Bacon(1561—1626)—pro微信解除黑名单
5. William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
