Age of Renaissance

Based on History of English Literature by Raghukul Tilak

(C) EARLY RENAISSANCE (1485-1560) OR THE FIRST HALF OF THE 16TH CENTURY

 

The Renaissance and the Reformation: Social Background

   The Early Renaissance marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world in England, a period characterized by the revival of classical learning and intense religious upheaval. The era began with the rise of the Tudor dynasty under Henry VII in 1485, which ended the feudal chaos of the War of the Roses and established a strong, centralized monarchy. This political stability allowed for the influx of the New Learning or Humanism. Following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Greek scholars fled to Europe bringing ancient manuscripts that revived interest in Greek and Roman philosophy. This shift moved the intellectual focus from Theocentric (God-centered) to Anthropocentric (Man-centered), emphasizing human potential and life on earth. The ideal figure of the age became the Humanist, who believed in the power of education to create virtuous citizens. Simultaneously, the invention of the printing press by William Caxton in 1476 revolutionized society by making books cheaper and knowledge more accessible. This fueled the Reformation, a religious movement initiated by Martin Luther that challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. In England, this took a political turn when Henry VIII broke with Rome in the 1530s to annul his marriage, declaring himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England. This led to the dissolution of the monasteries, which destroyed medieval monastic libraries but redirected learning toward secular universities like Oxford and Cambridge.

 

 Prose: Educationists and Religious Reformers

   Prose in this period was dominated by serious works of education and religious debate. Sir Thomas More was the leading Humanist of the age. His masterpiece, "Utopia" (1516), originally written in Latin, presents a socio-political satire that contrasts the corruption and poverty of contemporary England with an ideal island society. In Utopia, there is no private property, religious toleration is practiced, and everyone works for the common good, a radical vision that challenged the social order. Another significant figure was Roger Ascham, tutor to Queen Elizabeth I. In his work "The Schoolmaster" (1570), Ascham advocated for a more humane approach to education, arguing against corporal punishment and promoting the double translation method for learning Latin. He famously warned against the influence of Italian literature, calling such books enchantments of Circe. However, the most influential prose work of the century was the English Bible. William Tyndale was the first to translate the New Testament from the original Greek into English. His translation fixed the rhythm and syntax of the English language, coining phrases like the salt of the earth and let there be light. Although Tyndale was martyred, his work formed the basis of the "Great Bible" (1539), which Henry VIII ordered to be placed in every church, allowing the common people to hear the scriptures in their own tongue for the first time.

 

 Early Renaissance Poetry: Wyatt, Surrey, and the Sonnet

   English poetry was revolutionized during this period by the importation of Italian forms, specifically the works of Petrarch. The most important publication of the era was "Tottel's Miscellany" (1557), an anthology that posthumously published the poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey. Sir Thomas Wyatt is credited with introducing the sonnet to England. His poems, such as "Whoso List to Hunt," often deal with the pain of unrequited love and the cruelty of the mistress, adapting the Petrarchan conceit to the dangerous atmosphere of Henry VIII's court. Wyatt’s meter was often rough and irregular, intended to be read with a musical accompaniment. The Earl of Surrey, Henry Howard, built upon Wyatt’s work but smoothed the meter into the perfect iambic pentameter that would become the standard for English verse. Surrey is also responsible for two major innovations: he modified the rhyme scheme of the sonnet to the English form (three quatrains and a couplet), and in his translation of Virgil's "Aeneid," he invented Blank Verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). This form, free from the constraints of rhyme but structured by rhythm, became the primary vehicle for the great Elizabethan dramas and epic poetry that followed.

(D) THE ELIZABETHAN AGE (1558-1603) OR FLOWERING OF THE RENAISSANCE

 

 Social Background

   The reign of Queen Elizabeth I is considered the Golden Age of English history and literature. After the religious turmoil of previous reigns, Elizabeth established the Elizabethan Settlement, a middle-way religious compromise that brought relative stability and peace. This allowed the nation's energy to be directed toward creativity and exploration rather than civil war. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 fueled a massive surge of national pride and patriotism, which was reflected in the popularity of history plays. It was also an age of exploration, with figures like Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh expanding England's horizons. The dominant worldview was the Great Chain of Being, a hierarchical structure of the universe descending from God to angels, humans, animals, and plants. This concept of order was central to the literature of the time; writers believed that a violation of this order, such as the rebellion against a rightful king, would result in cosmic chaos.

 

Impact of the Renaissance on Elizabethan Literature

   The Elizabethan literary mind was characterized by an insatiable curiosity and a spirit of inquiry. Writers absorbed the influence of Niccolò Machiavelli, whose book "The Prince" introduced the concept of Realpolitik. This gave rise to the literary stock character of the Machiavel, a cunning villain who seeks power through manipulation and rejects morality, a type seen in Shakespeare’s Iago and Richard III. Simultaneously, the age was influenced by Neoplatonism, specifically the idea that physical beauty is a shadow or step toward Divine Beauty. This philosophy permeated the love poetry of the age, particularly in the sonnet sequences where the love for a beautiful woman elevates the poet's soul.

 

Elizabethan Prose

   While drama and poetry reached new heights, prose also developed unique styles. John Lyly wrote "Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit" (1578), which popularized a highly artificial and ornate style known as Euphuism. This style is characterized by elaborate sentence structures, excessive alliteration, and constant allusions to natural history and mythology, such as the chamomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows. In fiction, Thomas Nashe introduced the picaresque novel with "The Unfortunate Traveller," a realistic and gritty tale of a rogue's adventures. The crowning achievement of prose, however, was the "Authorised Version of the Bible" (King James Bible), published in 1611. Although released after Elizabeth's death, it was the culmination of the translation efforts of her reign. Written by a committee of 47 scholars, it used a vocabulary of roughly 6,000 words, relying on strong, simple Anglo-Saxon roots. Its majestic rhythms and eloquence have influenced English literature more than any other single book.

 

 Elizabethan Essay — Francis Bacon

   Francis Bacon introduced a new form of writing to England: the Essay. Inspired by the French writer Montaigne, Bacon is considered the father of the English essay. His approach was rooted in the new scientific spirit of inductive reasoning; he observed the world and drew practical conclusions. Bacon called his essays dispersed meditations, and they are designed to provide counsels, civil and moral. His style evolved significantly over his career. His early essays (1597) are curt, detached, and aphoristic, reading almost like a list of maxims. In later editions (1612, 1625), his style became warmer, more fluid, and richer in imagery. In essays like "Of Studies," he famously asserts that reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man, reflecting his utilitarian view that knowledge should be applied for success in life.

 

Renaissance Poetry

   The Elizabethan age was a period of prolific poetic production. Edmund Spenser, known as the Poets' Poet, attempted to create a great national epic with "The Faerie Queene." Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth (symbolized as Gloriana), the poem is a vast allegory where different knights represent virtues like Holiness and Chastity. Spenser invented a unique verse form for this work, the Spenserian Stanza, which consists of eight lines of iambic pentameter followed by a final line of six feet (an alexandrine). This final long line forces a pause, giving the poem a slow, melodic, and dreamlike quality. Sir Philip Sidney was another titan of the age. His "Astrophil and Stella" was the first major English sonnet sequence, sparking a craze for sonnets that lasted a decade. Sidney also wrote "The Defence of Poesy," the first major piece of English literary criticism, in which he argues that poetry is superior to both history and philosophy because it has the power to move men to virtuous action.

 

 Elizabethan Drama — Marlowe and the University Wits

   Before the 1580s, English drama was largely amateurish. The transformation into a sophisticated art form was achieved by the University Wits, a group of university-educated scholars including Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, and Robert Greene, who began writing for the public stage. They combined their classical learning with the popular appeal of the London streets. Christopher Marlowe was the most significant of this group. He revolutionized drama by establishing Blank Verse as the standard medium for the stage, known as his mighty line. Marlowe’s plays focus on the Renaissance Overreacher, a hero who is consumed by a single, infinite passion. In "Tamburlaine," the hero seeks infinite power; in "The Jew of Malta," Barabas seeks infinite wealth; and in "Doctor Faustus," the protagonist sells his soul for infinite knowledge. Marlowe’s tragic heroes differ from medieval ones because their downfall comes from their own internal ambition rather than the wheel of fortune.

 

 William Shakespeare

   William Shakespeare stands as the culmination of the Elizabethan literary age. He did not follow the classical rules of Jonson but instead created a romantic, comprehensive drama that mingled kings and clowns, tragedy and comedy. His career is generally divided into four periods. The First Period (1590-1595) was one of experimentation, where he imitated the styles of Marlowe and Lyly in plays like "Richard III" and "Love's Labour's Lost." The Second Period (1595-1600) saw the perfection of the Romantic Comedy in "As You Like It" and "Twelfth Night," and the maturation of the History Play with "Henry IV," featuring the great comic creation Falstaff. The Third Period (1600-1608) is his tragic phase, producing his four great masterpieces: "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," and "Macbeth." In these plays, Shakespeare probes the deepest questions of existence, evil, and the human psyche, moving beyond the simple revenge motives of his predecessors to explore the internal landscape of the soul. His Final Period (1608-1613) produced the Romances, such as "The Tempest," which are characterized by a serene, forgiveness-oriented tone, often featuring older protagonists who orchestrate reconciliation, mirroring Shakespeare’s own farewell to the stage. His genius lay in his Negative Capability, the ability to negate his own personality to fully inhabit the diverse characters he created.

(E) EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (1603-1660) OR THE PURITAN AGE

 

Social Background: Rise of Puritanism and Civil War

   The period began with the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 and the accession of James I, marking the beginning of the Stuart dynasty. While the Elizabethan era was characterized by national unity and a balance between religious factions, the Seventeenth Century was defined by fracture and conflict. The Stuart kings, James I and his son Charles I, believed in the Divine Right of Kings, a doctrine asserting that monarchs derive their authority directly from God and are therefore not accountable to earthly parliaments. This belief clashed violently with the rising power of Parliament, which represented the wealthy merchant classes and the gentry. Simultaneously, a religious divide deepened. The Court remained High Church Anglican with sympathies toward Catholicism, often perceived as decadent and morally loose. In opposition, the Puritans—a radical Protestant faction—grew in influence. They sought to purify the Church of England of all remaining Catholic rituals, advocated for strict moral codes, and viewed the elaborate artifice of the court and the theatre as sinful. These political and religious tensions culminated in the English Civil War (1642–1651) between the Royalists (Cavaliers) and the Parliamentarians (Roundheads). The war ended with the execution of King Charles I in 1649, a shocking event that shattered the concept of monarchy in Europe. England became a republic, known as the Commonwealth, under the strict Puritan rule of Oliver Cromwell. This social upheaval had a profound impact on literature. The Puritans closed the theatres in 1642, ending the golden age of English drama. Literature shifted from the romantic and courtly themes of the Elizabethans to more serious, theological, and political subjects. John Milton emerged as the intellectual and literary champion of this Puritan movement. Serving as the Latin Secretary to Cromwell's government, Milton used his pen to defend the regicide (killing of the king) and to argue for republican liberty, freedom of speech, and religious conscience, explicitly linking the political revolution with a spiritual one.

 

Literary Background: The Age of Transition and Melancholy

   The literature of this period reflects a dramatic shift in sensibility. The boundless optimism and humanism of the Renaissance evaporated, replaced by a mood of introspection, cynicism, and melancholy. This shift is often termed the Jacobethan gloom. Intellectually, the unified medieval worldview was collapsing. The New Philosophy or the scientific revolution led by figures like Copernicus and Galileo shattered the comforting belief that the Earth was the stable center of the universe. The poet John Donne famously captured this anxiety in "The First Anniversary," writing that the new philosophy calls all in doubt, the element of fire is quite put out. Writers no longer celebrated Man as the center of creation but instead focused on the transience of life, the corruption of society, and the complexity of the human psyche.

 

Jacobean Drama: Satire, Tragedy, and Tragicomedy

   With the mood turning darker, drama moved away from Shakespeare's romantic comedies toward biting satire and gruesome tragedy. The settings often shifted to corrupt Italian courts, which served as thin disguises for the perceived corruption of the English court under James I. Ben Jonson was the dominant figure of Jacobean comedy. Unlike Shakespeare, Jonson was a rigid Classicist who adhered to the ancient Greek rules of the Three Unities (Time, Place, and Action). His major contribution was the Comedy of Humours, based on the medieval medical theory that human character is governed by four bodily fluids or humours: blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy. In plays like "Volpone" and "The Alchemist," Jonson presents characters who are not well-rounded human beings but caricatures driven by a single obsessive passion, usually greed or lust. "Volpone," for instance, is a beast-fable where men behave like predatory animals—the Fox, the Vulture, and the Crow—satirizing the avarice of the rising capitalist class. Alongside Jonson’s satire, the duo of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher rose to prominence, pioneering the genre of Tragicomedy. Their plays, such as "Philaster," blended the danger and high stakes of tragedy with the happy resolutions of comedy, often featuring intricate plots of romance and betrayal that influenced Shakespeare's late Romances. However, in pure tragedy, John Webster stands out as the master of the macabre. His works, particularly "The Duchess of Malfi" and "The White Devil," are famous for their Charnel House atmosphere—a fascination with death, decay, and physical torture. Webster explores the skull beneath the skin, exposing the grim reality of mortality behind courtly glamour. In "The Duchess of Malfi," the heroine is a noblewoman who asserts her right to marry for love, defying her two brothers, the Ferdinand and the Cardinal. These brothers, driven by incestuous jealousy and greed for her estate, torment her with wax figures of corpses and a troop of madmen before strangling her. Webster’s drama is a powerful critique of a corrupt patriarchal society that crushes female agency.

 

Poetry of the Age: Metaphysical, Cavalier, and Puritan

   Poetry in the early seventeenth century divided largely into two schools: the Metaphysical poets and the Cavalier poets, with Milton standing as a towering figure of his own. The Metaphysical Poets, led by John Donne, revolted against the smooth, sweet music of Elizabethan verse. Their poetry is characterized by the Metaphysical Conceit, a startling and far-fetched metaphor that compares two highly dissimilar things to prove an intellectual point. A famous example is in Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," where he compares two lovers to the legs of a stiff twin compass; though they are apart, they are eternally joined, and one moves only in response to the other. This poetry is difficult, argumentative, and intellectual, using colloquial speech and rugged rhythms rather than perfect meter. It attempts to unify thought and feeling, appealing to the mind as much as the heart. In stark contrast to the intellectual rigour of the Metaphysicals were the Cavalier Poets, often called the "Sons of Ben" because they admired the polished, classical style of Ben Jonson. Key figures include Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and Sir John Suckling. These poets were Royalists who supported King Charles I. Their poetry mirrored the courtly lifestyle: graceful, witty, and musical, focusing on themes of love, beauty, and loyalty. They famously championed the theme of Carpe Diem (Seize the Day), as seen in Herrick’s "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time," which urges the reader to gather ye rosebuds while ye may, reflecting a desire to enjoy life amidst the looming threat of war. John Milton is the defining poetic genius of the age. Often called the last Elizabethan, he bridged the gap between the Renaissance love of art and beauty and the Puritan zeal for God and morality. His early poetry, such as the pastoral elegy "Lycidas," shows his mastery of classical forms while simultaneously launching a critique against the corrupt clergy of the Church of England. However, his greatest contribution belongs to the post-Restoration period, though it is the product of the Puritan mind. "Paradise Lost" (1667) is the greatest epic in the English language, written in Grand Style blank verse with complex Latinized syntax and epic similes. The poem retells the biblical story of the Fall of Man, with the stated aim to justify the ways of God to men. It is famous for the character of Satan, whom Milton depicts with such heroic energy and defiance that critics like William Blake and Percy Shelley argued Milton was of the Devil's party without knowing it. Yet, Milton’s true intent was to show that rebellion against God, no matter how charismatic, leads to the degradation of the self. His final major work, "Samson Agonistes," is a closet drama that serves as a tragic autobiography; like the biblical Samson, Milton was blind, politically defeated, and living among the enemies of his faith (the restored Royalists), yet he remained spiritually unconquered.

 

Prose in the Early 17th Century

   While the Elizabethan age produced the simple, direct prose of the Bible and Bacon, the seventeenth century developed the Baroque Style. This prose was intricate, heavy, ornate, and highly rhythmic. Writers delighted in long, winding sentences packed with learned quotations and Latin vocabulary. Robert Burton’s "The Anatomy of Melancholy" is the masterpiece of this eccentric scholarship. Ostensibly a medical treatise on depression, it expands into a massive, encyclopedic examination of all human emotion, history, and folly, structured as a collage of authorities and anecdotes. Sir Thomas Browne was another major prose stylist, a physician who blended religion and science. In his famous work "Urn Burial" (Hydriotaphia), inspired by the discovery of Roman burial urns in Norfolk, Browne meditates on the nature of burial customs, the futility of seeking earthly fame, and the vastness of oblivion. His prose is celebrated for its sonorous, organ-like musicality and its melancholic grandeur, perfectly capturing the somber and reflective mood of the age. Additionally, the political chaos of the Civil War produced the first masterpiece of English political philosophy: Thomas Hobbes's "Leviathan" (1651). Writing in a direct, logical style, Hobbes argued that without a strong, absolute sovereign to keep order, human life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, a grim reflection of the era's violence.