Conf.univ.dr.

Alexei Chirdeachin

Renaissance English Literature

(1500–1660)
 Introduction
 After William Caxton introduced the printing press in England in 1476,
vernacular literature flourished.
 The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England
dating from the late 15th to the 17th century. It is associated with the
pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy
in the late 14th century. Like most of northern Europe, England saw little
of these developments until more than a century later. Renaissance style
and ideas were slow in penetrating England, and the Elizabethan era in
the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of
the English Renaissance.
 This Italian influence can also be found in the poetry of Thomas Wyatt
(1503–42), one of the earliest English Renaissance poets. He was
responsible for many innovations in English poetry, and alongside
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/1517–47) introduced the sonnet from
Italy into England in the early 16th century.
 Elizabethan Period (1558–1603). Poetry
 Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–99) was one of the most important
poets of the Elizabethan period, author of The Faerie Queene
(1590 and 1596), an epic poem and fantastical allegory
celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I.
 Another major figure, Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86), was an
English poet, whose works include Astrophel and Stella,
The Defence of Poetry, and
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.
 Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as those by
Thomas Campion (1567–1620), became popular as printed
literature was disseminated more widely in households.
 Elizabethan Period (1558–1603).
Drama
 Among the earliest Elizabethan plays are Gorboduc (1561) by Sackville and Norton,
and Thomas Kyd's (1558–94) The Spanish Tragedy (1592).
 Gorboduc is notable especially as the first verse drama in English to employ
blank verse, and for the way it developed elements, from the earlier morality plays
and Senecan tragedy, in the direction which would be followed by later
playwrights.
 The Spanish Tragedy is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between
1582 and 1592, which was popular and influential in its time, and established a new
genre in English literature theatre, the revenge play.
 William Shakespeare (1564–1616) stands out in this period as a poet and
playwright as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare wrote plays in a variety of genres,
including histories (such as Richard III and Henry IV), tragedies (such as Hamlet,
Othello, and Macbeth, comedies (such as Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It,
and Twelfth Night) and the late romances, or tragicomedies. Shakespeare's career
continues in the Jacobean period.
 Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher Marlowe, and
Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker, John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont.
 Jacobean period (1603–1625). A
General Outlook
 In the early 17th century Shakespeare wrote the so-called "problem plays", as well as a
number of his best known tragedies, including Macbeth and King Lear. In his final period,
Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays,
including The Tempest. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone
than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of
potentially tragic errors.
 After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson (1572–1637) was the
leading literary figure of the Jacobean era. Jonson's aesthetics hark back to the Middle
Ages and his characters embody the theory of humours, which was based on
contemporary medical theory. Jonson's comedies include Volpone (1605 or 1606)) and
Bartholomew Fair (1614). Others who followed Jonson's style include
Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the popular comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle
(probably 1607–08), a satire of the rising middle class.
 Another popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play, which was
popularized in the Elizabethan era by Thomas Kyd (1558–94), and then further developed
later by John Webster (?1578-?1632), The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi
(1613). Other revenge tragedies include The Changeling written by Thomas Middleton and
William Rowley.
 Jacobean period (1603–1625). Poetry
 George Chapman (c. 1559- c. 1634) is remembered chiefly for his famous
translation in 1616 of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into English verse. This was
the first ever complete translations of either poem into the English language.
 The translation had a profound influence on English literature and inspired
John Keats's famous sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816).
 Shakespeare popularized the English sonnet, which made significant changes
to Petrarch's model. A collection of 154 by sonnets, dealing with themes such
as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, were first published in a
1609 quarto.
 Besides Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, the major poets of the early 17th
century included the Metaphysical poets: John Donne (1572–1631),
George Herbert (1593–1633), Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and
Richard Crashaw. Their style was characterized by wit and metaphysical
conceits, that is far-fetched or unusual similes or metaphors.
 Jacobean period (1603–1625). Prose

 The most important prose work of the early

17th century was the King James Bible.
 This, one of the most massive translation
projects in the history of English up to this time,
was started in 1604 and completed in 1611.
 This represents the culmination of a tradition of
Bible translation into English that began with
the work of William Tyndale, and it became the
standard Bible of the Church of England.
 Late Renaissance (1625–1660). Poetry
 The Metaphysical poets John Donne (1572–1631) and George Herbert (1593–1633) were
still alive after 1625, and later in the 17th century a second generation of metaphysical
poets were writing, including Richard Crashaw (1613–49), Andrew Marvell (1621–1678),
Thomas Traherne (1636 or 1637–1674) and Henry Vaughan (1622–1695).
 The Cavalier poets were another important group of 17th-century poets, who came
from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English Civil War (1642–51).
(King Charles reigned from 1625 and was executed 1649). The best known of the
Cavalier poets are Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew and
Sir John Suckling. They were not a formal group, but all were influenced by Ben Jonson.
 Most of the Cavalier poets were courtiers, with notable exceptions. For example,
Robert Herrick was not a courtier, but his style marks him as a Cavalier poet. Cavalier
works make use of allegory and classical allusions, and are influenced by Latin authors
Horace, Cicero and Ovid.
 John Milton (1608–74) was the last great poet of the English Renaissance and published
a number of works before 1660, including A L'Allegro,1631; Il Penseroso, 1634; Comus (a
masque), 1638; and Lycidas, (1638). However, his major epic works, including
Paradise Lost (1667) were published in the Restoration period.