The Renaissance

1500-1660 The Renaissance 1558-1603 Elizabethan Age

1603-1625 Jacobean Age

1625-1649 Caroline Age

1649-1660 Commonwealth Period

1500-1660 The word “Renaissance” means “rebirth.” It is the name applied to the period of European

history following the Medieval Era. In this period the arts of painting, sculpture,

architecture, and literature reached an eminence not exceeded by any civilization in any age.

It is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of artistic geniuses as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Also known in history as the first great Romantic period in English poetry because it witnessed the rise of some of the greatest poets in the language.

It is also called the Golden Age of English literature, specifically drama.

The Elizabethan

Age

Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

Elizabethan Poetry and Prose (1558-1603 A.D)

Many imitators of Chaucer appeared after his death, but few are of great interest.

Before the great literary age in 1579, two poets wrote works of value: Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey.

Sir Thomas Wyatt Earl of SurreyImitated Italian Sonnet after 14th century

Italian poet Petrarch (abbaabba)English Sonnet or Shakespearean

Sonnet (ababcdcdefefgg)First brought the sonnet to England Wrote the first blank verse in English

Sonnet: 14 – line lyric poem of fixed form and rhyme pattern written in a single stanza. (Italian and Shakespearean)

Blank Verse: verse without rhyme, usually in lines of five iambic feet.

Humanists Their language is modern and their

outlook different from that of Medieval poets like Chaucer.

This movement was marked by a fresh interest in Greek and Latin classics and new experiments in both prose and verse.

This is part of a lover’s prayer to his girl by Wyatt:

And wilt thou leave me thus That hath loved thee so long In wealth and woe among; And is thy heart so strong As for to leave me thus?Say nay! Say nay!

Subject: A doting lover’s hopes and pains

Shakespeare wrote sonnets between 1593-1600: Sonnet 17

Who will believe my verse in time to come, (a)If it were fill'd with your most high deserts? (b)Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb (a)Which hides your life and shows not half your parts. (b)If I could write the beauty of your eyes (c)And in fresh numbers number all your graces, (d)The age to come would say 'This poet lies: (c)Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.' (d)So should my papers yellow'd with their age (e)Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue, (f) And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage (e)And stretched metre of an antique song: (f)But were some child of yours alive that time, (g)You should live twice; in it and in my rhyme. (g)

Elizabethan Poetry, Prose, & Drama (1558-1603 A.D)

Edmund Spencer: first proper Elizabethanpoet who wrote The Shepherd’s Calendar. (pastoral poem) Combined Shakespearean and

Italian sonnet forms. The Faerie Queene (1589-96) Devised the Spencerian Stanza.

Pastoral: Concerning the life of shepherds.Spencerian Stanza: The verse has 9 lines, the last has 6 feet, the others 5.

Elizabethan Poetry, Prose, & Drama (1558-1603 A.D)

The Elizabethan age produced a surprising flow of lyrics. Lyric Poetry: gives expression and more focus to the poet’s thoughts and feelings (prominent towards the end of the Elizabethan age)

Best lyrics in dramatic works are Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1601):

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?

Also Christopher Marlowe’s The Passionate Shepherd to his Love. (1599):

Come live with me and be my love,And we will all the pleasures proveThat hills and valleys, dales and fields Woods or steepy mountain yield.

Sir Walter Raleigh wrote another poem as the girl’s answer:

If all the world and love were young And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,These pretty pleasures might me moveTo live with thee and be thy love.

Christopher Marlowe The greatest dramatist before

Shakespeare was Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593).

He wrote five plays:1- Tamburlaine2- Doctor Faustus3- The Jew of Malta4- Edward II5- Dido, Queen of Carthage

Christopher Marlowe In this handful of plays appears the first

true voice of the Renaissance, of the period of new learning, new freedom, new enterprise, of the period of worship of Man rather than God:

The dawn that Marlowe sang into our skiesWith mouth of gold and morning in his eyes.

Christopher MarloweMarlowe sums up the New Age: The old restrictions of the Church and the limitations on knowledge have been destroyed. The world is opening up and the ships are sailing to new lands. Wealth is being amassed. The great national aggressors are rising.

Christopher MarloweThe spirit of human freedom of limitless human power and enterprise that Marlow’s plays convey:

Tamburlaine is the great conqueror, the embodiment of tyrannical power;Barabas, the Jew of Malta, stands for monetary power;Faustus represents the most deadly hunger of all, for the power which supreme knowledge can give.

The Age of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded asthe greatest writer in the English language. He is often called England's national poet. His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

The Jacobean

Age

James I (1603-1625)

Jacobean Era (1603-1625 A.D) Jacobean era: Lyrical works lost their force and metaphysical poetry began. Metaphysical Poetry: poems that are less

beautiful and musical, containing more tricks of style and images to attract attention.

Metaphysical (as applied to poetry): showing clever tricks of style and unlikely comparisons.

Jacobean Era (1603-1625 A.D)

John Donne: greatest metaphysical poet but it is difficult to find a complete poem by him which is faultless. Best works were Songs and Sonnets.

Here lies a she sun and a he moon thereShe gives the best light to his sphereOr each is both, and all, and soThey unto one another nothing owe.

Edmund Spencer vs. John Donne

Spencer DonneVerse is musical Contained tricks of style

and unusual images to attract attention.

Sound is beautiful

Sweet SourGentle and smooth Fiery, rough, harshness,

and toughness

More interested in heart or eye

More interested in mind

Jacobean Era (1603-1625 A.D) Dramatist Ben Jonson: known as “Rare Ben

Jonson” wrote poetry, prose, and drama To Celia: one of Jonson’s best lyrics. Known as Shakespeare’s contemporary Best known for his satirical (showing foolishness)

plays: Volpone (1606) and The Alchemist (1610). Jonson influenced later younger Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets.

Jacobean Era (1603-1625 A.D)

Known as father of English Literary Criticism. (Poetic abilities) Judges work as whole.

Criticized Shakespeare, Spenser, and Donne. A kind of Novel produced: John Lyly’s Euphues

(1578-80) Euphues: known for it’s style – alliteration and

similes. Simile: A method of describing something by

comparing it to something else using “like” or “as”. E.g. She looks like a red rose.

John Lyly’s Eupheus: impact on style. The term 'euphuism' was added to the language referring to Lyly’s style.

“They are commonly soonest believed that are best beloved, and they liked best whom we have

known longest”

Jacobean Novelists: Robert Greene and Thomas Nash.

Thomas Nash: Picaresque novels (Spain): novels based on adventures (in different places) of men who are wicked but lovable

Jacobean novels: little value – started false beginning, and died out.

Caroline Age

Charles I (1625-1649)

Caroline Era Caroline Era (1625-1649): In Drama, the

Caroline period has often been regarded as a diminished continuation of the trends of the previous two reigns.

In poetry, however, the Caroline period saw the flourishing of the Cavalier poets.

Caroline Era If the Elizabethan era was the golden

age of English drama, the Caroline age was nearly as rich in the realm of non-dramatic poetry, bringing as it did the beginnings of the career of John Milton, in addition to the poets of the movements already mentioned.

Caroline Era Cavalier Poets: 17th century poets who supported

King Charles I and his supporters (Royalists) during the English Civil War. Some poets are:- Robert Herrick: Considered by people of his time to be the best living lyric poet - writes about English country and its flowers.- Richard Lovelace: To Althea, from Prison- Sir John Suckling: wrote poetry using wit.

Poetry of Cavalier poets were light in style and secular (worldly) in subject.

John Milton and his time John Milton (1608-1674): Second poet after

Shakespeare. Influenced the Victorian Age (1837-1901) and

Romantic Movement (1820-1900) Works divided into three categories:1. Shorter Poems2. Prose (mainly concerned with church affairs,

divorce, and freedom)3. Greater Poems. 1652: famous sonnet (Sonnet 18 – On His

Blindness)

John Milton and his time Greatest lyrical epic poem: Paradise Lost

(1667) - written in 12 books (blank verse) about a scene of the whole universe including Heaven and Hell. Hell is described like this:

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round As one great furnace flamed- yet from those flames No light, but rather visible Served only to discover sights of woe Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all.

John Milton and his time Paradise Lost contains hundreds of

remarkable thoughts put into musical verse.The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. (Book 1, 254)

Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. (Book I, 263)

Paradise Regained (1671):is more severe.