the literary bacground(1)poetry

8/13/2019 The Literary Bacground(1)poetry

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Poetry, drama and prose in

the Renaissance



Humanism and the Renaissance

The most important development in the sixteenth century was the revival ofinterest in classical culture known as Humanism

In Humanism the focus of attention was no longer God but man

For the first time man was explored as an individual and idea that a mancould shape his own destiny was widely accepted

From Italy, Humanism spread to other countries where it was embraced bygreat men of learning such as Erasmus, Montaigne and More

The re-awakening of interest in classical Greece affected all aspects ofculture and took place during the period of the Renaissance

Compared to other European countries such as Italy, the Renaissance came

relatively late to England and flourished under the reign of Elizabeth I,when the classics were widely studied and writers such as Plutarch andSeneca were translated into English

The first great exponent of the renaissance was Thomas More



Thomas More

Thomas More was one of the most influential figures of his day

He was appointed Lord Chancellor by Henry VIII, making him themost powerful man in England after the king

He was a deeply religious man and refused acknowledge Henry VIIIas the Head of the Church of England

Because of this he was arrested and beheaded in 1535.

His greatest work, Utopia, an attack on the evils of English society,was widely read in England and in many other countries

Utopia is written in the form of a dialogue between More and

imaginary traveller and it is divided into two books: in the first book,More blaimed England for its corruption, criticises religiousintolerance, the exploitation of workers and cruelty to animals

In the second book he describes the imaginary island of Utopia, whichhas the best possible form of government, a society based on shared

property, education and religious tolerance



Poetry

Nowhere was the influence of Italian models (Dante,Petrarch, Boccacio)more strongly felt than in poetry

The Petrarchan sonnet was intoduced to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt andthe Earl of Surrey

His sonets were largely translations or imitations of those of Petrarch

He changed structure of the poetic form thus creating what became knownas the Elizabethan sonnet

Wyatt changed the rhyming scheme of the sestet, creating a quatrain and acouplet

The final pattern for the Elizabethan sonnet were three quatrains(four lines)and a couplet (two lines)



Phillip Sydney and Edmund Spencer

Sir Philip Sydney excelled in the Elizabethan sonnet form

In his sequence of 108 sonnets Astrophel and Stella, he addresses

his lover Stella and explores the theme of love (variations on thePetrarchan model and his sonnets to Laura)

Sidney inspired a literary trend which continued throughout theElizabethan period and produced notable works (Amoretti written bySpencer and 154 sonnets written by Shakespeare

Edmund Spencer wrote eighty-eight sonnets, the Amoretti,celebrating his love for Elizabeth Boyle

Italian influence was also evident in his great work The ShepherdesCalender inspired by the fifteeneth-century Italian writer who wroteallegorical pastorals



Faerie Quenne

Spencer masterpiece is Faerie Quenne

The Faerie Quenne is a religious and political allegory but only halfof the work was completed

Each book recounts the adventures of a knight who represents one

of the twelve virtues that make a perfect gentleman The main theme of the work is the glorification of Queen Elizabeth

and her court

In fact, at the end of the story, Prince Arhur, the most importantknight, is to marry the Faerie Queene Gloriana, who represented

Queen Elizabeth Spencer introduced a new metre into English poetry called the

Spenserian stanza(consisted of eight lines of ten syllables plus atwelve-syllable line containing six iambic feet)



Drama

After the schism from Rome and Reformation, Henry VIII put anend to medieval religious drama

Plays of Plautus, Terence,Seneca were translated into English andSenecas tragedies were popular and created a taste for horror and

bloodshed An example of Senecas influence on English drama can be seen in

the works of Thomas Kyd

His highly popular play about bloody revenge called The Spanishtregedy has many Senecan elements

Early English Renaissance playwrights accepted some of theconventions of classical theatre but they adapted the form to suittheir needs and they did not content with producing poor imitationsof classical models



Drama flourished under Elizabeth I and James I for several reasons:

Plays could be understood by the illiterate

There had been a strong theatre- going tradition since Middle Ages

The theatre was patronished by the Court and the aristocracy

The language of drama was less artifical than that of poetry

There was a great number of talented playwrights

The prosperity of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods meant thatpeople had both the time and money to go to the theatre



Drama was strictly linked to the Elizabethan world view

Early Elizabethans believed that a hierarchy existed in the naturalworld which ascended from inanimate objects to animals: men,angels and God

Man was the central link in this chain and he was the centre of the

universe because the moon, the sun, the planets and the starsrevolved in orbit around the earth

A number of factors weakened Elizabethan beliefs in the principle ofuniversal order

The development of modern science established that the earth and

other planets revolved around the sun In The Prince Machiavelli rejected the notion of a divinely political

hierarchy and explained how political power could be won and heldwith no refference to the will of God



The actors were direct descendants of Medieval street performers

They worked in companies patronised by a nobleman, whose namethe company took

The nobleman gave them a letter of permission which allowed them

to travel around the country and perform without fear ofpunishment

Companies generally played in London in the winter and spring andtravelled around the county

When Shakespeare was acting there were approximately twenty

companies of actors in London Female parts were played by boys and some actors doubled for two

or more minor parts



The theatres

Until the building of permanent playhouses, plays were performed ininns, on a platform raised in the yard

Guests at the inn watched the performances from the second- storygalleries, while the common people took their places in front of thestage

Playhouses were at first built outside the city walls because theywere considered to be centres of corruption

The first playhouse built in London was The Theatre in 1576,followed by The Rose, The Swan and The Globe(1599)

The company to which Shakespeare belonged, The Lord

Chamberlain¨s man, was one of the few companies that owned itsown playhouse

By the end of Shakespeare career they had two theatres: The Globeand The Blackfriars



Elizabethan theatre

Elizabethan theatres were built with the inn yard model in mind

They were polygonal or circular and open to the sun and rain

In the case of Globe, the open courtyard and three semi circulargalleries that surrounded it could hold more than 1500 people

The stage had two main parts:1.the outer stage was a platform where the main action of the playtook place and it was covered by a roof but had no front or sidecurtains

2. the inner stage stood behind the outer stage and was concealed

by a curtain, this stage was used when a scene took place in moreconfident place or when a character was supposed to overhear theaction on the main stage, on either side of the inner stage therewas a door through which actors entered and disappeared



Bellow the floors of the outer andinner stages was a large cellarcalled hell

Actors in “hell” would make

appearances through trap doors

into the main outer stage In the theatre were used many

special effects

Often were used animal organsand blood to make battle scenesmore realistic

The audiences became veryinvolved in the play, particularythe spectators in the yard, whowere very close to the action



The two outstanding playwrights of the era were ChristopherMarlowe and William Shakespeare

Ben Johnson made a satire on greed and corruption called Volpone

The main character Volpone is a rich avaricious Venetian,

surrounded by people who pretend to be his friends Johnson also wrote a series of masques

A masque was an elaborate form of court entertaiment originallydeveloped in Italy

The plot was slight and often introduced mythological and

allegorical elements



Prose

Prose in the Renaissance did not reach the same standards aspoetry or drama

The geographical expeditions of the era gave rise to travel literature(Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake)

The great interest in classical literature led to the translation ofmany books into English(Thomas Norths translation of PlutarhsLives, Chapman translation of Homer and Patericks Machiavelli)

One of the most important figures in the development of Englishprose style was Francis Bacon

He wrote in Latin and in English and he is best remmembered forhis Essays

Bacon rejected ornate Elizabethan style and replaced it with morestraight-forward style



Made by Ivan Podnar

the literary bacground(1)poetry

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