Renaissance Renaissance means Rebirth revival -Rebirth of interest

Renaissance • “Renaissance” means “Rebirth” (revival)-Rebirth of interest in the Greek and Latin classics • Renaissance was a flowering of the arts that swept through Europe starting in Italy in about the late 14 th century

Gutenburg’s printing press 1. 2. 3. 4. made it possible to mass-produce written works Books for everyone Rediscovered manuscripts Science & philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome – distributed on large scale 5. Standardization of the English language 6. Renaissance man: a person of broad education & interest (e. g. 4 -5 languages)

• Explorations: 1492 – New World Exploration; Christopher Columbus • Protestant Reformation: Erasmus questioned the Catholic Church’s interpretation of the Bible • In 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of grievances to the church door (Ninety-five Thesis) = Protestantism

Protestant Reformation • • 1. 2. 3. 4. Protestant Reformation – swept through Europe, caused wars, persecution of both Catholics and Protestants Protestant Denominations: Grmany – Lutherans Switzerland – Calvinism Scotland – Presbyterians England – Anglicans/Puritans

Philosophy of Humanism • They believed, as Alexander Pope was to phrase it much later, that "the proper study of mankind is man", rather than scholastic theology. Theology was no longer accepted as the mother of all sciences

• Humanism: belief that church should only rule spiritual, not civil or scientific matters. People control their own destinies. • Humanity based curriculum in the Universities: history, geography, poetry, modern languages

Thomas More (1478 -1535) • a lawyer, a scholar, a friend of Erasmus of Rotterdam and of Holbein the painter; • greatly esteemed by Henry VIII, who made him Lord Chancellor in 1529. But More would not accept Henry as head of the church, and would not publicly deny the authority of the pope. Henry thought to enforce the support of the distinguished man by imprisoning him in the Tower of London. More would not capitulate, and was executed in 1535 for treason. • (He was canonised four hundred years later. )

The Tudors - Henry VIII • Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary • Anne Boleyn and Princess Elisabeth • Jane Seymour and Prince Edward • Anne of Cleves • Catherine Howard • Catherine Parr

• Utopia (meaning: nowhere) - published in Latin in 1516 • Utopia is a fictitious travel report on the strange nature and customs of a newly discovered people. • More satirises the fetish character which money had come to acquire: it does not exist in Utopia; jewels are children's playtoys which they soon grow out of; gold and silver are used for chamber pots and as chains for criminals. • property is held in common, everybody works, everybody receives good education; • there is complete freedom of religion; • Conditions in England are contrasted most unfavourably with those in "primitive" Utopia: the greed, corruption, cruelty to the poor and ignorance are denounced.

• Reestablished the Church of England. Insisted on religious moderation • Fought against domination from the French and the Spanish (defeated the Armada) • Elizabethan age

Titans of the Renaissance the dramatists - the people who wrote plays and wrote for theater: • William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, • Ben Jonson (Volpone, The Alchemist )

poets Edmund Spenser (epic allegorical play The Faerie Queene ), John Donne (the head of the metaphysical poetry movement, the works of which often used clever conceits and were philosophical and spiritual in nature)

essayists/thinkers • Philip Sidney (major work -The Defense of Poesy - the first example of literary criticism in the English language), • Francis Bacon - the father of empiricism, he created a logical, verifiable way to conduct scientific research.

Drama • began to take on its modern form in the playhouses of London in the 16 th and 17 th centuries • The richest property of Elizabethan theater was neither furniture, nor dress, but language. The English language was undergoing an explosive expansion during this period - neologisms

enigmatic figure • an atheist (atheists were dealt with as harshly as heretics) • leading a lawless life, keeping many mistresses, consorting with ruffians: living the 'high life' of London's underworld • it's suspected that he was a secret agent for Queen Elizabeth - served his country in France as a spy • Gay? ? “all they that love not tobacco and boys are fools” • a violent and mysterious death in 1593 - murdered when he was only 29 years old • a rival to Shakespeare - Had Marlowe lived, he might have become an even greater poet than Shakespeare.

• was born in Kent, the son of a shoemaker • baptized in Canterbury in 1564 • university educated - got a Bachelor of Arts degree, and then a master's, from Corpus Christi College in Cambridge • served the English government in some secret capacity • and seems to have had an ambivalent relationship with Catholicism - persistent hint of atheism in Marlowe’s plays

incredibly popular and influential playwright • • wrote some poems and translations of Latin works Dido, Queen of Carthage (1587) Tamburlaine the Great (1587) - an Asian emperor Timur the Lame - up from being a shepherd to being a ruler - a turning point in Elizabethan drama (it introduces rich language, complex plotting, and complex themes) a sequel - The Jew of Malta (1592) - the tale of a merchant, the Jew named Barabas, who plots revenge against Malta because they made him penniless (Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice ).

posthumously • Edward II (1592) - about a king who is destroyed by his homosexual love for a favorite courtier, execution of Edward II • The Massacre at Paris (1593) - about the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris in 1572 • The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592) - edited after Marlowe's death • an adaptation of a German legend. Dr. Faustus, a scientist and magician who is obsessed by the thirst of knowledge. He acquires supernatural gifts that even allow him to go back in time and wed Helen of Troy, but in the end he has to surrender his soul to the devil. • (the most popular version of the story, the German playwright Goethe's rendition, came over 200 years later)

• Of all his dramas, the one with most lasting impact is probably The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus • focuses on the moral drama of the Renaissance man • favorite themes - ambiguous protagonists, man’s attempt to become greater than himself • blank verse

• Faustus, University of Wittenberg. He has mastered rhetoric, philosophy, and theology, law and medicine. He knows everything that a university can teach him, but he seeks the knowledge contained in necromantic books, books of the black art. • Mephistopheles • What, precisely, would you sell your soul for? • Knowledge is power

• What might Christopher Marlowe have achieved had he not been killed so young? • He created some of the foundation stones on which the great edifice of Shakespearean drama would erect itself.

• courtier, a soldier, a political player, and politician who wrote this poem as a literary gesture of devotion to the court • son of a prosperous cloth-maker and was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School and at Pembroke College, Cambridge • an assistant to the provincial governor in Ireland • 'A View of the Present State of Ireland' • his reputation as a poet was outstanding • the sonnet cycle Amoretti and his 'Epithalamion', published in 1595 - written for Spenser's bride-to-be, Elizabeth Boyle, to commemorate and celebrate their love

• • based on the legends of Arthur Allegory Spenserian stanzas “big three” literary devices—allegory, irony, and ambiguity • The subject of the poem is England itself, and it embodies the moral virtues of the nation in a band of knightly heroes

allegory • representing something abstract through something concrete - or, in the literary sense, it's using characters (or sometimes events or people) to stand in for higher ideas • each knight of Arthur's Round Table stands in for some kind of desirable virtue (e. g. a knight named Redcrosse is meant to represent holiness. The cross on his chest symbolizes Christianity, and it is red because it is by the blood of Christ that we are all redeemed) • another major part of Spenser's allegory was incorporating Elizabeth into his story as the Faerie Queen. Her name is Gloriana.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1590; 1596) A LONG narrative poem, an allegorical epic in six books. Each book contains twelve cantos, each of which contains at least 40 stanza. Each stanza is composed of nine lines. 1 -8 are iambic pentameter, and 9 is iambic hexameter (alexandrine); each stanza is rhymed ababbcbcc. This form is called a Spenserian stanza.