English Literature

The Elizabethan/Renaissance Period (1485-1660)

© Verity

Historical Context, 1485-1660

• 1492 – Columbus discovers America.

• 1509 – Henry VIII becomes king of England.

• 1517 – Martin Luther writes his 95 theses.

• 1513 – Birth of John Knox

• 1543 – Copernicus: heliocentric theory

• 1572 – St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

• 1607 – Settlement of Jamestown

• 1611 – King James Bible is published.

“Pendulum Swing”

• “The Golden Age of English Literature”

• Aka the English Renaissance/Tudor Period

• Life is no longer all about survival.

• There is now a middle class.

• There is both time and money to focus on the “finer things” such as education and literature.

• Humanistic emphasis on education resulted in an increase in reading in Europe.

Cultural Background

• Themes of breaking free

– from feudal system (rise of the middle class)

– from locational stagnation (easier transportation)

– from centralization and hoarding of knowledge and truth (printing press)

– from spiritual darkness (Reformation)

• Theme of being fresh and new

– Truth of the English Bible brought new life.

– New literary ideas, content, and form

Many-Wifed-Man

• Henry VIII (1491-1547)

– Issues with his lust and many wives led to his breaking papal supremacy of the Catholic Church.

– Established himself as the head of the (new) Anglican Church

– Centralized the English monarch’s power

– God used this man’s lust and anger problems to work about the smashing of the Catholic Church’s power.

“Virgin Queen”

• Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

– Last of the Tudors, Henry’s daughter through Ann Boleyn

– Shrewd, smart, militant, no-nonsense

– Preserved England from civil war (between the Protestants and Catholics) by firmly establishing the Anglican Church (Church of England) as a compromise.

“There is only one Jesus Christ and all the rest is a dispute over trifles.”

Elizabethan Literature

• King James Version: Remember that the Bible was the main reason why literacy burgeoned.

• Shakespeare

• Refined, elegant, technical

• New genres and forms

• Eclectic in influence and setting

• Academic: allusion to classical mythology and history

• Still retained a largely didactic purpose

• Moral earnestness

Teach Truth Through Delighting

“The greatest literature of our English cultural heritage, from almost any point of view, was written for the moral improvement of mankind…It assumed man’s helplessness and unworthiness of God’s favor.”

“As a whole, the writers of the Tudor Renaissance offer more to God’s people than those of any other period of British Literature.”

-British Literature, 2nd Ed., BJU Press

Humanism

• System of thought based around man and his ability to reason and rationalize

• Man is the measure of some things.

– Music, art

– Logic, rationalism

• Often led to the deification of man’s ability to reason and rationalize.

• The humanism of the Renaissance, while not inherently atheistic, led to the elevation of man’s mind to the point of self-perfection (Romantic

Period).

“The Renaissance Man”

• The men of the pen were often politically involved and given different levels of influence in state affairs.

– Poetic Politicians

• Their talents went beyond writing to exploring new lands, counseling kings, or administering at different levels of bureaucracy.

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

• Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII

• Refused to petition the Pope to have Henry’s marriage to Catherine (first wife) annulled and refused to recognize Henry as head of the English Church. For that, he was eventually beheaded.

• Great friend of Erasmus (one of the greatest “Christian” humanists)

• Wrote profusely

– History of King Richard III

– The Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer

Utopia

• Most famous for Utopia (1516)

– A fictional work that describes the “perfect” society based on reason and other humanistic principles

– Frame story written in dialogue form

– Interesting note: In Utopia there is religious toleration, but More showed intense zeal against the Protestant Reformation in his writing wars with Tyndale.

– Private property does not exist in Utopia.

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

• Adored by the English people as the perfect gentleman

• Sir Philip Sidney wrote Astrophel and Stella, a collection of sonnets and songs

– Astrophel represents Sidney, and Stella represents Penelope Rich, a woman with whom Sidney was in love

– The poems are written in the Italian Sonnet form.

• “Apology for Poetry” (essay)

• Arcadia: prose fiction

Sonnet #3 “Let dainty wits cry on the Sisters nine, (a)

That bravely mask’d, their fancies may be told: (b)

Or, Pindar’s apes, flaunt they in phrases fine, (a)

Enam’ling with pied flowers their thoughts of gold. (b)

Or else let them in statelier glory shine, (a)

Enobling new found tropes with problems old, (b)

Or with strange similes enrich each line, (a)

Of herbs or beasts which Inde or Afric’ hold. (b)

For me in sooth, no Muse but one I know: (c)

Phrases and problems from my reach do grow, (c)

And strange things cost too dear for my poor sprites. (d)

How then? Even thus: in Stella’s face I read (e)

What love and beauty be, then all my deed (e)

But copying is, what in her Nature writes.” (d)

Sonnet #1 “Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show

That she (dear She) might take some pleasure of my pain:

Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,

Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain;

I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe,

Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain:

Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow

Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burn’d brain.

But words came halting forth, wanting Invention’s stay,

Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows,

And others’ feet still seem’d but strangers in my way.

Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite--

“Fool,” said my Muse to me, “look in thy heart and write.”

“Leave Me, O Love” “Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust;

And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things;

Grow rich in that which never taketh rust;

Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings.

Draw in thy beams and humble all thy might

To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be;

Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light,

That both doth shine and give us sight to see.

O take fast hold; let that light be thy guide

In this small course which birth draws out to death,

And think how evil becometh him to slide,

Who seeketh heav'n, and comes of heav'nly breath.

Then farewell, world; thy uttermost I see:

Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me.”

From An Apology for Poetry

• “So, then, the best of the historian is subject to the poet; for whatsoever action or faction, whatsoever counsel, policy, or war stratagem the historian is bound to recite, that may the poet, if he list, with his imitation make his own, beautifying it both for further teaching and more delighting, as it pleaseth him; having all, from Dante’s Heaven to his Hell, under the authority of his pen.”

• “If you have so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the sky of poetry…thus much I curse must send you….”

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

• Considered to be the most versatile poet since Chaucer

• A master of superior verse that greatly enriched England’s literary heritage

• He introduced the complex “Spenserian Stanza.”

– Made up of nine lines, with the last line containing six beats

• Most famous works are The Shepherd’s Calendar, The Faerie Queene, and Amoretti.

CANTO IIII “To sinfull house of Pride, Duessa guides the faithfull knight, Where brothers death to wreak Sansjoy doth chalenge him to fight. Young knight, what ever that dost armes professe, And through long labours huntest after fame, Beware of fraud, beware of ficklenesse, In choice, and change of thy deare loved Dame, Least thou of her beleeve too lightly blame, And rash misweening doe thy hart remove: For unto knight there is no greater shame, Then lightnesse and inconstancie in love; That doth this Redcrosse knight’s ensample plainly prove.”

The Faerie Queene • Epic poem and allegory written in the Spenserian

stanza

• Elements of Arthurian legend

• Spenser wrote “only” 6 of the 12 books he intended to write.

• Written to show people how to love virtue and hate vice (didactic purpose)

• Each character represents a virtue:

– Holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice, and courtesy

– For example, Redcrosse Knight embodies holiness.

Before the Faerie Queen…

• Also wrote The Shepherd’s Calendar (1579)

– 12 pastoral poems, one for each month of the year

– This established Spenser’s ability.

– Good practice for his Faerie Queene epic

– Like the Faerie Queene, Calendar is set in England rather than some foreign land.

Spenserian Sonnet Cycle: Amoretti

“Most glorious Lord of life, than on this day

Didst make Thy triumph over death and sin,

And having harrow’d hell, didst bring away

Captivity thence captive us to win,

This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,

And grant that we for whom Thou diddest die,

Being with Thy dear blood clean washt from sin,

May live forever in felicity.

And that Thy love we weighing worthily

May likewise love Thee for the same again,

And for Thy sake that all like dear didst buy,

With Love may one another entertain.

So let us love, dear Love, like as we ought;

Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught."

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

• A philosopher, historian, essayist,

Statesman

• Political career was ruined when he was convicted of taking bribes.

• Wrote New Atlantis

– A scientific utopia based on how he thought civic society should be run (on scientific knowledge)

• Considered to be the “father of modern science” for proposing scientific method

“Of Studies” • “To spend too much time in them [studies] is

sloth, to use them too much for ornament is affectation, to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar.”

• “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

• “Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.”

“Of Great Place”

“Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business [official duties]. So as they have no freedom; neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire, to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others and to lose power over man’s self.”

Sir Walter Raleigh 1554-1618

• Gallant, clever, mischievous knight of opportunity and captain of the Queen’s Guard

• Was not politically savvy enough to stay in the good graces of the monarchs and was eventually beheaded

• Well-rounded poet

• Infamous for his Roanoke Colony misadventure

“What is Our Life?” “What is our life? A play of passion.

And what our mirth but music of division?

Our mothers’ wombs the tiring houses be

Where we are drest for this short comedy.

Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is

Who sits and marks what here we do amiss.

The graves that hide us from the searching sun

Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.

Thus, playing, post we to our latest rest,

And then we die, in earnest, not in jest.”

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) • Considered by some to be the

greatest English playwright before Shakespeare

• His plays are full of violence, passion, and bloodshed; but they are also marked by a dignity of poetic language.

• Known for a hot and restless temper

• Died young in a brawl

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

• Famous Plays:

– Doctor Faustus

– The Jew of Malta

• Famous Poem:

– “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”

• Pastoral poem

The Tragical History of the Life

and Death of Doctor Faustus • Faustus is fascinated by necromancy, dark magic, and starts to

dabble in it. He summons a minor devil, Mephistophilis, through whom he makes a pact with Lucifer. The deal is that Mephistopholis will be Fuastus’s servant for 24 years, at the end of which, Faustus will pay his debt with his own soul.

• Even though he is given multiple chances to change his choice between good and evil, Faustus persists in this pact.

• Faustus regrets his pact at the end of the 24 years when the devils come and drag him off.

“My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!”

(Enter Devils)

“Adderrs and serpents, let me breathe awhile!

Ugly hell gape not! Come no Lucifer!

I’ll burn my boks – ah, Mephastophilis!”

Epilogue

(Enter Chorus)

“Cut is the branch that might have frown full straight,

and burned is Apollo’s laurel bough,

That sometime grew within this learned man,

Faustus is gone! Regard his hellish fall,

Whose Fiendful fortune may exhort the wise

Only to wonder at unlawful things:

Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits

To practice more than heavenly power permits.”

-Excerpt from Dr. Faustus

The Jew of Malta

• Similar to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

– Main character is a rich Jew (Barabas) who uses his wealthy status to get back at his enemies.

– He ends up hurting those closest to him as well.

– He ends up getting caught in the very plots he laid for his enemies.

• Themes: religious hypocrisy, revenge, strategy and deception

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

• William Shakespeare is recognized in most of the world as the greatest of all dramatists.

• His portrayal of a wide variety of characters reveals a deep understanding of human behavior.

• The use of poetry within his plays to express human motivation is considered one of the greatest accomplishments in literary history.

Shakespeare Biography

• Shakespeare was born in England 1564 and lived in Stratford-upon-Avon.

• Married at 18, but then left his wife to pursue acting

• He moved to London and achieved success as an actor and playwright.

• He is best known for the 38 plays he wrote, modified, or collaborated on.

Shakespeare’s Poems

• Shakespeare wrote narrative poems and a huge collection of sonnets.

• Sonnets 1-126 are directed toward a young man who was his patron.

• Sonnets 127-152 are directed to the “dark lady” he was in love with or who was his mistress (Bevington 183).

• Venus and Adonis

• Rape of Lucrece

Sonnet #116

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”

Shakespeare’s Dramas

Tragedies

• Hamlet

• Macbeth

• Othello

• Romeo and Juliet

• Julius Caesar

• King Lear

• Antony and Cleopatra

• Troilus and Cressida

Histories

• Henry IV, Parts I & II

• Henry V

• Henry VI, Parts I, II, & III

• Henry VIII

• King John

• Richard II

• Richard III

Shakespeare’s Drama Comedies

• Much Ado About Nothing

• The Merchant of Venice

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• The Tempest

• The Taming of the Shrew

• Twelfth Night

• The Winter’s Tale

• The Comedy of Errors

• The Two Gentlemen of Verona

• All’s Well That Ends Well

• As You Like It

• Love’s Labour’s Lost

• Measure for Measure

• Merry Wives of Windsor

Shakespeare’s (most famous) Poems

• Venus and Adonis

• The Rape of Lucrece

• A Funeral Elegy

• “To the Queen”

• “A Lover’s Complaint”

• The Phoenix and the Turtle

• The Passionate Pilgrim

• “All the World’s a Stage”

• Shakespeare coined about 1,700 words for the English language.

• His vocab included about 31,500

different words. (The average English

speaker uses maybe 10,000 words.)

“All the World’s a Stage” “All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the caAnd then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. nnon's mouth.”

Metaphysical Poets

• Characteristics:

– Metaphysical conceit

• A figure of speech that employs unusual images and interesting paradoxes

– Intellectual wit

– Learned imagery

– Subtle argument

• Their work has considerably influenced the poetry of the 20th century.

Important Metaphysical Poets

• John Donne

• George Herbert

• Henry Vaughan

• Thomas Traherne

• Abraham Cowley

• Richard Crashaw

• Andrew Marvell

John Donne (1572-1631)

John Donne: first and greatest of the early 17th century metaphysical poets

• Converted from Catholicism to Protestantism

• His early poetry revolved around carnal lust.

• His later poetry is about sin, forgiveness, and unconditional love.

• Poems:

– “The Flea”

– “The Canonization”

– “Death be not Proud” (“The Compass” is part of this.)

“A Hymn to God the Father” “Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun, Which was my sin, though it were done before? Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run, And do run still, though still I do deplore? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, For I have more.

(II) Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won Others to sin, and made my sin their door? Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun

A year or two, but wallowed in a score? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, For I have more.

III. I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore ; But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore ; And having done that, Thou hast done ; I fear no more.”

“The Compass” excerpt

“If they be two, the are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two;

Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes not show

To move, but doth, if th’ other do.

And though it in the centre sit,

Yet when the other far doth roam,

It leans, and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must

Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end, where I begun.”

“No Man Is An Island”

• “No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend's were. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.”

Epigrams

• “I am unable, yonder beggar cries/

To stand, or move: If he says true, he lies.”

• “If in his study he hath so much care/

To hang all old strange things, let his wife beware.”

• “John Donne—

Anne Donne—

Undone.”

George Herbert (1593-1633)

» Born in Wales to a prominent family and heritage

• George Herbert’s poems are characterized by precise language, metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery.

• The theme of Herbert’s poems is God’s love

• “Redemption,” “Love,” “Aaron”

• Creative structure: The Temple volume, including “The Altar”

“A broken ALTAR, Lord thy servant rears, Made of a heart, and cemented with teares:

Whose parts are as thy hand did frame; No workmans tool hath touch'd the same

A HEART alone Is such a stone, As nothing but

Thy pow'r doth cut. Wherefore each part

Of my hard heart Meets in this frame, To praise thy Name:

That if I chance to hold my peace, These stones to praise thee may not cease.

O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine, And sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine.”

“The Altar” by George Herbert, part of The Temple

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,

Though foolishly he lost the same,

Decaying more and more,

Till he became

Most poore:

With thee

O let me rise

As larks, harmoniously,

And sing this day thy victories:

Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne

And still with sicknesses and shame.

Thou didst so punish sinne,

That I became

Most thinne.

With thee

Let me combine,

And feel thy victorie:

For, if I imp my wing on thine,

Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

-“Easter Wings” from The Temple

“Redemption” “Having been tenant long to a rich Lord, Not thriving, I resolved to be bold, And make a suit unto him, to afford A new small-rented lease, and cancell th’ old. In heaven at his manour I him sought : They told me there, that he was lately gone About some land, which he had dearly bought Long since on earth, to take possession. I straight return’d, and knowing his great birth, Sought him accordingly in great resorts ; In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts : At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth Of theeves and murderers : there I him espied, Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.”

Cavalier Poets “Soldier Poets”

• Reacted to the flamboyance of the

Spenserians, as well as the verbosity of the metaphysical poets

• Themes: Love, war, loyalty to the king, and living the good life

• Wrote in a casual, amateur, affectionate style, using colloquial language

• Demonstrated that poetry could concern the minor, everyday pleasures and sorrows of life.

Important Cavalier Poets

• Richard Lovelace

• Sir John Suckling

• Robert Herrick

• George Wither

• Edmund Waller

• Sir Thomas Carew

Richard Lovelace

• “Stone walls do not a prison make,/ Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take/ That for an hermitage.” –To Althea, from Prison

• “I could not love thee, dear, so much,/ Lov'd I not Honour more.” –To Lucasta, Going to the Warres

Ben Jonson (1572-1637) • Controversial: wrote some

graphic, lewd plays

• Well-known playwright and poet

• England’s first poet laureate

– An officially appointed court poet who composed poetry for special occasions

• Most Famous Plays:

– Bartholomew Fair, The Alchemist, Volpone (comedy)

• Famous Poems:

– “To Celia” “On My First Son”

“On My First Son”

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy ; My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy.

Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.

Oh, could I lose all father now ! For why Will man lament the state he should envy?

To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage, And if no other misery, yet age !

Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say, Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.

For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loves may never like too much.

John Milton (1608-1674) • “The last great poet of the English

Renaissance”

• Was educated in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, and Dutch

• Blind by the time he wrote Paradise Lost, about the fall of Adam and Eve

– Through it he desired to “justify the ways of God to man”

– Written in blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter

– Spans 12 books

John Milton

• Other works include:

– Lycidas (pastoral elegy)

• Tribute written for Milton’s friend

who drowned

– Paradise Regained (about the return of Christ)

– Samson Agonistes (closet tragedy)

• A “Greekified” version of Samson

and his downfall

“When I consider how my light is spent

E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,

And that one Talent which is death to hide,

Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, least he returning chide,

Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,

I fondly ask; But patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts, who best

Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and waite.”

“On His Blindness” John Milton