The English Renaissance
1485-1625
What is the Renaissance?
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French word: “rebirth” or “renewal”
Began in Italy
Return to studying ancient texts…
 Greece
 Rome
What made the Renaissance?
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Interest in humans
Introduction of universities
Gutenberg and moveable print
Use of vernacular
Age of Exploration
Reformation
How do the ideas
of the
Reformation
arrive in England?
Arrival of Reformation in England
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Henry VIII
Originally, Catholic
Wanted divorce …
Refused!
Remarries
King becomes religious
leader of England
 Break with Rome
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The Tudors
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Edward VI
 Only surviving son of Henry VIII
 Becomes king…
 Then dies
The Tudors
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Mary I (“Bloody Mary”)
 Roman Catholic
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What are the implications for her rule?
 Restore authority of Roman church
 Return England to Catholic country
 Oppression of Protestants
The Tudors
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Elizabeth I
 Educated during Renaissance
 Unity under Protestant Religion
 Friend of the Arts
What does this have
to do with literature?
Renaissance in Literature
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New developments in three areas:
 Poetry
 Prose
 Drama
Renaissance Poetry
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Lyric poetry:
 Not a full story
 Single speaker
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Sonnets and sonnet cycles
 Sonnets: 14-lined lyric poem
 Sonnet cycle: Group of sonnets on single
theme
Renaissance Poets
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Philip Sydney
 Sonnet cycles
 Key to shaping sonnet form
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Edmund Spenser
 Epic poem The Faerie Queen
 Spenserian stanzas: nine-line units
Renaissance Poets
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Christopher Marlowe
 Playwright
 Lyric poet
 Pastoral verse: looking at the country life
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William Shakespeare
 Playwright
 English sonnet/Shakespeare sonnet
Elizabethan Drama and Prose
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No longer religious
References to ancient texts
Drama written in verse
King James Bible
What will we
experience in future
readings?