The Renaissance

THE RENAISSANCE (end of 15^th– beg. of the 17^th c)

HISTORY:

• The Tudor Years: stabile monarchy (Henry VII),
• The Church of England (Henry VIII),
• The first steps into creating the British Empire (Elizabeth I.)

ECONOMY AND SOCIETY:

• The British economy is rural and self-sufficient.  Towns are populated by merchants and craftsmen;
• Colonial expansion under Elizabeth I is facilitated by building a fleet for transportation and military purposes;
• The East India Company starts doing business with Asia;
• Due to economic progress and prosperity, interest in culture and learning grows.

IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE:

English Renaissance follows Italian Renaissance

Humanism – the dominant cultural ideology:

• The revival of interest in classical literature (Greek, Latin).
• Shift of focus from God (central to the Middle Age ideology) to man; in Humanism the individual is more important than deity. Man is capable of shaping his own destiny.
• Interest in local culture; Henry VIII’s Reformation puts an end to Religious drama and rekindles the tradition of Miracle and Mystery Plays.

LITERATURE:

POETRY

• The Elizabethan sonnet, inspired by the Petrarchan sonnet, introduced by Sir Thomas Wyatt
• Edmund Spenser creates the Spenserian stanza (new meter in English poetry).

DRAMA

• Thomas Kid– influenced by Seneca (intrigue, horror, corruption, villains)
• Cristopher Marlowe uses blank verse and writes genuine tragedy. Was a great influence on Shakespeare.

Elizabethan Drama

• Theatre appeals to all social classes. Theatre language is less artificial than the language of poetry.
• Dominated by the principle of order (if the natural order is disturbed, the result is chaos)
• Acting is considered an immoral profession (women’s roles are played by men)
• There is no scenery in the plays
• The message of the play is transmitted mainly through language
• The Globe Theatre is built in 1599.