The Renaissance1500-1660

THE RENAISSANCE WAS AN AGE OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITIES, LIBERATED FROM THE POLITICAL CONSTRAINTS OF HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR AND POPE, FREE TO UNDERSTAND AND EXPRESS THEMSELVES FOR GOOD OR EVIL.

MOTTO: “MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS.”

Renaissance - rebirth (L. root “nas / nat” – birth; prefix “re” – again)

Renaissance Mindset

Revival of scholarship based on works of Aristotle and Plato

Queen Elizabeth established some free schools

Belief that 400 A. D. – 1500 A.D. had been a “dark night” of ignorance

Human Horizons Widened

VIEW OF WORLD WITH HUMAN KIND AT CENTER ;CONCERNED WITH HUMAN INTERESTS / VALUES

GOALS: PERFECTION OF INDIVIDUAL HUMAN CHARACTER AND REFORM OF PUBLIC EVILS IN CHURCH AND STATE

Humanism

SCIENCE *COPERNICUS (POLAND) -

heliocentric *GALILEO (ITALY) GEOGRAPHY SIR FRANCIS DRAKE (ENGLAND) HERNANDO CORTES (SPAIN) BALBOA (SPAIN) FOUNDING OF NORTH AMERICAN

COLONIES

Advances in Science & Geography

RELIGIOUS REFORM *MARTIN LUTHER’S NINETY-FIVE THESES

*HENRY VIII’S BREAK WITH CHURCH

*THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER WIDELY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH

*THE KING JAMES BIBLE WRITTEN IN ENGLISH (IAMBIC PENTAMETER)

Protestant Reformation

CULTURE *END OF FEUDALISM *EMERGENCE OF URBAN CULTURE AND CAPITALIST ECONOMY *EMERGENCE OF PROSPEROUS MIDDLE

CLASS * GROWTH OF LAY, NOT CLERICAL,

CULTURE

CULTURAL CHANGES

PRIZED MORAL / INTELLECTUAL NOBILITY

OVER BIRTHRIGHT SOCIAL CLASSES LESS RIGID; A MAN OF NATURAL TALENT COULD RISE TO THE TOP OF SOCIAL LADDER

SOCIAL CHANGES

LIFE NO LONGER SEEN AS A “JOURNEY THROUGH A VALE OF TEARS,” BUTAS A BEAUTIFUL, EXCITING END-IN-ITSELF

RENAISSANCE ART REFLECTS THIS NEW OPTIMISM ABOUT HUMAN LIFE

Changes in Attitude

TUDORS AND STUARTS RULED ELIZABETH, A TUDOR, RULED 45

YEARS. SINCE SHE NEVER MARRIED, ELIZABETH WAS SOMETIMES CALLED “THE VIRGIN QUEEN.” SHE CAME TO THE THRONE AT AGE 18.

THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND IS KNOWN AS THE ELIZABETHAN AGE.

ELIZABETHAN AGE

LITERATURE SHOULD BE STUDIED FOR ITS OWN SAKE AS WELL AS IN INTEREST OF

HUMAN VIRTUE *THE SONNET - a fourteen line

poem with a fixed pattern of rhyme and meter (Shakespearean, Petrarchan, and Spenserian)

* THE ESSAY, LOVE POETRY, DRAMA *ONE FORM: BLANK VERSE

(UNRHYMED IAMBIC PENTAMETER)

RENAISSANCE LITERATURE

CAVALIER POETS--LOYAL TO CHARLES I; wrote about love and patriotism

*METAPHYSICAL POETS (JOHN DONNE)

POETRY CHARACTERIZED BY HIGH INTELLECTUALISM, EVEN IN LOVE POETRY; AND CONCEITS

*REDISCOVERY OF ARISTOTLE’S POETICS

INFLUENCED DRAMA.

Poetry and Drama

COURTIERPATRIOT, SOLDIER, SCHOLAR,POET

EDUCATED IN CLASSICAL / MODERN LANG. SIGNS OF “MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL

NOBILITY:” RHETORICAL ELOQUENCE, REFINED DICTION, URBANE WIT, RECTITUDE OF CONDUCT

STILL DEVOUTLY RELIGIOUS BUT ENGAGED IN WORLDLY PURSUITS

IN LOVE WITH LIFE -- CARPE DIEM MOTIF

The Renaissance Man

HUMANS FIND EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS NECESSARY.

A HIGHER BEING OFTEN AIDS MAN IN HIS RIGHTEOUS BATTLES.

 NOTHING IS AS PAINFUL TO THE HUMAN HEART AS INSENSITIVITY OR BETRAYAL ON THE PART OF A LOVED AND TRUSTED PERSON.

 LIFE IS FULL OF OBLIGATIONS AND TRIALS.

HONOR CAN HELP ONE TO DO GOOD.

Themes for Hamlet

PAIN IS ASSOCIATED WITH UNREQUITED LOVE.

LIFE AND BEAUTY ARE TRANSITORY. TIME INEXORABLY ERODES ALL THINGS

MORTAL AND MATERIAL, BUT ART AND LOVE ARE ETERNAL.

IN PERIODS OF DESPAIR AND SORROW, THE THOUGHTS OF THOSE ONE LOVES ARE A SOURCE OF STRENGTH AND SUSTENANCE.

HONOR CAN HELP ONE TO DO GOOD

THEMES FOR POETRY

RECOGNITION OF A LOVED ONE’S MORTALITY STRENGTHENS LOVE FOR THAT PERSON.

LOVE CAN BE STRONG, STEADFAST, AND CONSTANT.

MANKIND NEEDS A HUMAN LISTENER. DEATH IS OFTEN SEEN AS GIVING REST.

LIFE IS FULL OF OBLIGATIONS AND TRIALS.

THEMES FOR POETRY