Chapter Five
The English Renaissance
1. Historical background
2. The enclosure movement
3. Humanism
4. The flourishing of drama
England enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity
during the reign of Queen Elizerbeth (1558 - 1603).
The Queen maintained a balance of power between
the feudal lords
the rising burghers
the Protestants
the Catholics
In 1588 English navy defeated the Spanish Armada.
strengthened the power of the monarch and accelerated
the awakening of national consciousness
England became a naval power.
The reason of the enclosure movement
1. the rising of the burgher class
2. the discovery of the new sea routes
3. the wool trade
The result of the enclosure movement
the capitalist class
the labouring class
two opposite classes
Renaissance
Time: began in the 14th century
ended in the 17th century
Place : began in Italy
spread in France, Spain, the Netherlands,
England
Origin: from a French word
Meaning: rebirth
Ideal: humanism
In the 15th and 16th centuries, scholars in western
European countries had a keen interest in the
Greek and Latin culture. That is, the art and
science of ancient Greece and Rome were being
born again after long years of neglect. Its ideal is
humanism.
Humanism
----humanist scholars took great interest in the welfare
of human beings
---- man should be given full freedom to enrich their
intellectual and emotional life
----in religion demand the reformation of the church
----in art and literature, praise man and the pursuit of
happiness in this life
----shattered the shackles of spiritual bondage of
man’s mind by the Roman Catholic Church
----opened his eyes to a “brave new world” in front
of him
Edmund Spenser
(1552? ----- 1599)
Born: in a rather poor family --- clothmaker
Education: The Merchant Taylor’s school
the greatest Humanistic schools
classic language
literary masterpiece
Cambridge
B.A. in 1573
M.A.in 1576
to be a sizar
Experience:
His works:
The Shephearde’s Calender
The Faerie Queene
A View of the Present State of Ireland
Amoretti
Epithalamion
Prothalamion
Four Hymnes
The Shephearde’s Calender
• The first important work
• A pastoral poem in 12 parts
• It is written in the tradition of Virgil’s verse
dialogues in a rural setting with shepherds and
shepherdesses who adopt classical, French, or
English peasants names.
• Theme: love, poetry, and religion
• Lyrical poetry
The Faerie Queene
* Major achievement
* Unfinished allegorical romance
* original plan: 12 books
*story: the advantures of 12 knights despatched
by the Faerie Queene, Gloria
* Gloria ----- Glory and Queen Elizabeth
* result: six books
* Six virtues: Truth, Temperance, Friendship,
Justice, Chastity, and Coutesy
The Knight: the Red Cross, or Holiness
the true religion of the Anglican Church
to destroy a dragon
his companion
Glorious Queen of Faerie
Her beauty is too dazzling
to the ordinary eye, so she
concealed it behind a veil.
They traveled together and
many events took place.
Una
Her parents were
imprisoned by dragon
in a tower of brass.
Fought and won
*The Red Cross knight is happily united with Una by marriage,
but shorly after, he has to leave her and report his success to
the Faerie Queene.
The Spenserian stanza
is a group of eight lines of iambic pentameter
followed by a six-stress iambic line, with a
rhyme scheme ababbcbcc.
a stressed and an unstressed
foot
In the last thirty years of the 16th
century there was a flourishing of drama.
nothing like it since
never seen before
Reasons:
1. Cities and towns grew rapidly in the 16th century.
2. There was no other means of entertainment.
The first:
in 1576
“The Theatre”
famous actor James Burbage
Shakespeare
The structure of the Elizabethan theatre
1. The Globe was a circular wooden
structure with a stage like an apron
stretching out in the center.
2. The stage had two storeys, with an
inner room at the back of the first storey.
3. An opening at the top of the theatre, rain
and snow would come in.
4. There were no seats and the majority of
the audience would stand around the stage.
5. Around the circular wall there were “galleries”
with seats where the wealthy people went.
6. A few wealthy and influential people could
be provided with a seat on the stage.
* not performed by professionals, nor by
The first modern drama
guilds
* in the case of the miracle plays
* written by a school master
* performed by choir boys before 1556
* Ralph Royster Doyster
* comedy
The tragedies
The Roman dramatist Seneca
performed in Cambridge by students
Students began to follow
University Wits
translate into English
His influence reached the public
University Wits
in 16th century a number of university students
began to write plays after the model of Roman
dramatist and they were the predecessors to
Shakespeare. Robert Greene, Thomas Kyd and
Christopher Marlowe
Robert Greene
Educated at Cambridge and Oxford
James IV
Thomas Kyd
The earliest specimen of revenge plays of
“blood and thunder” drama in England
Christopher Marlowe
(1564 --- 1593)
Born: in Canterbury
Family: son of shoemaker
Education: at Cambridge
Social position: the most prominent of University Wits
Writing time: from 1587 to 1592
Death: be murdered
Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter, used in
his dramas and it was the chief verse
form used by Shakespeare.
His works:
Tamburlaine the Great
(1587)
his first play
The story is about Timur the Tartar.
rebels, triumphs
a shepherd
like a tempest
ruthlessly cruel
the Persian king
seated on the carriage driven by the captive king
plan to attack the
Ming Emperor
rave against the gods
Represents the Renaissance desire
for infinite power and authority.
The tragic History of Doctor Faustus
(1592)
the Renaissance desire for infinite knowledge
Dr. Faustus
tired
turns
signs
theology, philosophy, medicine, law
magic books
a contract with the devil
sells his soul to the devil
satisfy his demand for 24 years
The end: surrender of his soul to the devil
His limitation: his plot construction is loose and his characters
are merely embodiments of ideas.