Äðóãîå : Ïðåäñòàâèòåëè Ðåíåññàíñà (Representatives of the renaissance and thair contribution to the literatur...
Ïðåäñòàâèòåëè Ðåíåññàíñà (Representatives of the renaissance and thair contribution to the literatur...
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THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
RENAISSANCE
AND THAIR CONTRIBUTION TO THIS PERIOD
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Student: Stepanov Michael
Leonidovich
Teacher: Zolotukhina Lyudmila Alexevna
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CONTENTS
Introduction………………………………………………………………3
The
Renaissance………………………………………………………….4
Thomas
More…………………………………………………………….5
The
works of Thomas More……………………………………………...6
“Utopia”…………………………………………………………………..7
Second
period of the Renaissance………………………………………..8
Edmund
Spenser………………………………………………………….9
The
“Fairy Queen”……………………………………………………….11
The
development of the drama. The theatres and actors…………………12
Conclusion………………………………………………………………..15
Used
literature…………………………………………………………….16
Introduction
I have heard about the Renaissance not so long
ago: last year when I was in 10`th form, but do not think that I never knew
about this period earlier. Of course I knew but I just did not know how is it
called. Actually I always had a great interest to unusual and pleasantly
sounding words. So when I have heard the word “renaissance” my attention was
immediately attracted by it. My firs association to this word was something
magnificent, brilliant and rustling like a woman`s dress of 18`th century. Soon
I have known that the Renaissance is the period of English literature and art.
From that time my wish to know about its place in art was becoming stronger and
more strongly. I wanted to know more about this period in English art: when did
it start, who were the representatives of this period and what did they write,
what did they think about. It is not all what I wanted to know about but I can
not tell you all questions because I had plenty of them.
Now I know more about this period of English
literature but nevertheless I still have not calmed down. I have many questions
till today and I want to clear up this business. So let`s investigate this
period together and find out some new facts…
The Renaissance
The
“dark” Middle Ages were followed by a time known in art and literature as the
Renaissance. The word “renaissance” means “rebirth” in French and was used to
denote a phase in the cultural development of Europe between the 14th
and 17th centuries.
The
wave of progress reached the shores of England only in the 16th
century. The ideas of the Renaissance came to England together with the ideas
of the Reformation (the establishment of the national Church) and were called
the “New Learning”. Every year numbers of new books were brought out, and these
books were sold openly, but few people could read and enjoy them. The
universities were lacking in teachers to spread the ideas of modern thought.
So, many English scholars began to go to Italy, where they learned to
understand the ancient classics, and when they came home they adapted their
classical learning to the needs of the country. Grammar schools (primary
schools) increased in number. The new point of view passed from the schools to
the home and to the market place.
Many
of the learned men in Italy came from the great city of Constantinople. It was
besieged and taken by Turks in 1453. All the great libraries and schools in
Constantinople had been broken up and destroyed. The Latin and Greek scholars
were driven out of the city, glad to escape with their lives and with such
books as they could carry away with them. Being learned men, many of them
found a welcome in the cities and towns in which they stopped. They began to
teach the people how to read the Latin and Greek books which they had brought
with them and also taught them to read the Latin and Greek books which were
kept in many towns of Europe, but which few people at that time were able to
read.
Foreign
scholars and artists began to teach in England during the reign of Henry VIII.
In painting and music the first period of the Renaissance was one of
imitation. Painting was represented by German artist Holbein, and music by
Italians and Frenchmen. With literature the case was different. The English
poets and dramatists popularized much of the new learning. The freedom of
thought of English humanists revealed itself in antifeudal and even
antibourgeois ideas, showing the life of their own people as it really was.
Such a writer was the humanist Thomas More.
Thomas More
(1478-1535)
Thomas
More, the first English humanist of the Renaissance, was born in Milk Street, London on February 7, 1478, son Sir John
More, a prominent judge. Educated at Oxford, he could write a most beautiful
Latin. It was not the Latin of the Church but the original classical Latin. At
Oxford More met a foreign humanist, and made friends with him. Erasmus
believed in the common sense of a man and taught that men ought to think for
themselves, and not merely to believe things to be true because their fathers,
or the priest had said they were true. Later, Thomas More wrote many letters
to Erasmus and received many letters from him.
Thomas
More began life as a lawyer. During the reign of Henry VII he became a member
of Parliament. He was an active-minded man and kept a keen eye on the events
of his time. The rich landowners at the time were concentrating on
sheep-raising because it was very profitable. Small holders were not allowed
to till the soil and were driven off their lands. The commons (public ground)
were enclosed and fields converted into pastures. The mass of the agricultural
population were doomed to poverty. Thomas More set to work to find the reason
of this evil. He was the first great writer on social and political subjects
in England.
Fourteen
years after Henry VIII came to the throne, More was made Speaker of the House
of Commons. The Tudor monarchy was an absolute monarchy, and Parliament had
very little power to resist the king. There was, however, one matter on which
Parliament was very determined. That was the right to vote or to refuse to
vote for the money. Once when the King wanted money and asked Parliament to
vote him 800.000, the members sat silent. Twice the King’s messengers called,
and twice they had to leave without an answer. When Parliament was called
together again, Thomas More spoke up and urged that the request be refused.
After a long discussion a sum less then half the amount requested by the King
was voted, and that sum was to be spread over a period of four years.
Thomas
More was an earnest Catholic, but he was not liked by the priests and the Pope
on account of his writings and the ideas he taught. After Henry VIII quarrelled
with the Pope he gathered around himself all the enemies of the Pope, and so in
1529 More was made Lord Chancellor (highest judge to the House of Lords). He
had not wanted the post because he was as much against the king’s absolute
power in England as he was against the Pope. More soon fell a victim to the
King’s anger. He refused to swear that he would obey Henry as the head of the
English Church, and was thrown into the Tower on April 17. Parliament, to
please the King, declared More guilty of treason, and he was beheaded in the
Tower on July 6, 1535.
The Works of Thomas More
Thomas
More wrote in English and in Latin. The humanists of al1 European countries
communicated in the Latin language, and their best works were written in Latin.
The English writings of Thomas More include:
·
Discussions and political
subjects.
·
Biographies.
·
Poetry.
His
style is simple, colloquial end has an unaffected ease. The work by which he is
best remembered today is “Utopia” which was written in Latin in the year 1516.
It has now been translated into all European languages. “Utopia” (which in
Greek means “nowhere”) is the name of a non-existent island. This work is
divided into two books.
In
the first, the author gives a profound and truthful picture of the people’s
sufferings and points out the socia1 evils existing, in England at the time.
In the second book More presents his ideal of what the
future society should be like.
The
word “utopia” has become a byword and is used in Modern English to denote an
unattainable ideal, usually in social and political matters. But the writer
H.G. Wells, who wrote an introduction to the latest edition, said that the use
of the word “utopia” was far from More’s essentia1 quality, whose mind abounded
in sound, practical ideas. The book is in reality a very unimaginative work.
“Utopia” describes a perfect social system built on
communist principles.
“Utopia”
First
book
While on business in Flanders, the author makes the acquaintance of a certain
Raphael Hythloday, a sailor who has travelled with the famous explorer Amerigo
Vespucci. He has much to tell about his voyages, Thomas More, Raphael Hythloday
and a cardinal meet together in a garden and discuss many problems. Raphael has
been to England too and expresses his surprise at the cruelty of English laws
and at the poverty of the population. Then they talk about crime in general,
and Raphael says:
“There
is another cause of stealing which I suppose is proper and peculiar to you
Englishmen alone.”
“What
is that?” asked the Cardinal.
“Oh,
my lord,” said Raphael, “your sheep that used to be so meek and tame and so
small eaters, have now become so great devourers and so wild that they eat up
and swallow down the very men themselves. The peasants are driven out of their
land. Away they go finding no place to rest in. And when all is spent, what can
they do but steal and then be hanged?”
Second Book
The
disastrous state of things in England puts Raphael Hythloday in mind of a
commonwealth (a republic) he has seen on an unknown island in an unknown sea. A
description of “Utopia” follows, and Raphael speaks “of all the good laws and
orders of this same island.”
There
is no private property in Utopia. The people own everything in common and enjoy
complete economic equality. Everyone cares for his neighbour’s good, and each
has a clean and healthy house to live in. Labour is the most essential feature
of life in Utopia, but no one is overworked. Everybody is engaged in usefu1
work nine hours a day. After work, they indulge in sport and games and spend
much time in “improving their minds” (learning)-All teaching is free, and the
parents do not have to pay any schoo1 fees. (More wrote about things unknown in
any country at that time, though they are natural with us in our days.)
For
magistrates the Utopians choose men whom they think to be most fit to protect
the welfare of the population. When electing their government, the people give
their voices secretly. There are few laws and no lawyers at all, but these few
laws must be strictly obeyed.
“Virtue,”
says Thomas More, “lives according to Nature.” The greatest of all pleasures is
perfect health. Man must be healthy and wise.
Thomas More’s “Utopia” was
the first literary work in which the ideas of Communism appeared. It was highly
esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in More’s time and again grew very
popular with the socialists of the 19th century. After More, a
tendency began in literature to write fantastic novels on social reforms, and
many such works appeared in various countries.
SECOND
PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE
THE
PREDECESSORS OF SHAKESPEARE
The
most significant period of the Renaissance in England falls to the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. England’s success in commerce brought prosperity to the nation
and gave a chance to many persons of talent to develop their abilities.
Explorers, men of letters, philosophers, poets and famous actors and dramatists
appeared in rapid succession. The great men of the so-called “Elizabethan Era”
distinguished themselves by their activities in many fields and displayed an
insatiable thirst for knowledge. They were often called “the Elizabethans”, but
of course the Queen had no hand in assisting them when they began literary
work; the poets and dramatists had to push on through great difficulties before
they became well known.
Towards
the middle of the 16th century common people were already striving
for knowledge and the sons of many common citizens managed to get an education.
The universities began to breed many learned men who refused to become
churchmen and wrote for the stage. These were called the “University Wits”,
because under the influence of their classical education they wrote after Greek
and Latin models. Among the “University Wits” were Christopher Marlowe, Thomas
Sackville, John Lyly, George Peele, Robert Greene, Thomas Kyd and Thomas Nash;
Christopher Marlowe being the most distinguished of them. The new method of
teaching classical literature at the universities was to perform Roman plays in
Latin, Later the graduates translated these plays into English and then they
wrote plays of their own.
Some
wrote plays for the court, others for the public theatres. But the plays were
not mere imitations. Ancient literature had taught the playwrights to seek new
forms and to bring in new progressive ideas. The new drama represented real
characters and real human problems which satisfied the demands of the common
people and they expected ever new plays. Under such favourable circumstances
there was a sudden rise of the drama. The great plays were written in verse.
The
second period of the Renaissance was characterised by the splendour of its
poetry.
Lyrical
poetry also became wide-spread in England. The country was called a nest of
singing birds. Lyrical poetry was very emotional. The poets introduced blank
verse and the Italian sonnet. The sonnet is a poem consisting of fourteen
lines. The lines are divided into two groups: the first group of eight lines
(the octave), and the second group of six lines (the sestet). The foremost poet
of the time was Edmund Spenser. He wrote in a new, English, form: the nine-line
stanza.
EDMUND SPENSER
(1552-1599)
Edmund
Spenser was born in London in 1552. Though his parents descended from a noble
House, the family was poor. His father was a free journeyman for a merchant’s
company. When Edmund came of age he entered the University of Cambridge as a
“sizar” (a student who paid less for his education than others and had to wait
on (to serve) the wealthier students at mealtimes).
Spenser
was learned in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French. His generation was one of the
first to study also their mother tongue seriously. While at college, he acted
in the tragedies of the ancient masters and this inspired him to write poetry.
Spenser
began his literary work at the age of seventeen. Once a fellow-student
introduced him to the famous Sir Philip Sidney, who encouraged him to write
(Sidney was the author of an allegorical romance in prose called “Arcadia” that
had become very popular as light reading among the court-ladies of Queen
Elizabeth). At the age of twenty-three, Spenser took his M.A. (Master of Arts)
degree.
Before
returning to London he lived for a while in the wilderness of Lancashire where
he fell in love with a “fair widow’s daughter”. His love was not returned but
he clung to this early passion; she became the Rosalind of his poem the
“Shepherd s Calendar”. Spenser’s disappointment in love drove him southward -
he accepted the invitation of Sir Philip Sidney to visit him at his estate.
There he finished writing his “Shepherd’s Calendar”. The poem was written in 12
eclogues. “Eclogue” is a Greek word meaning a poem about ideal shepherd life.
Each eclogue is dedicated to one of the months of the year, the whole making up
a sort of calendar.
The
publication of this work made Spenser the first poet of his day. His poetry was
so musical and colorful that he was called the poet-painter.
Philip
Sidney introduced the poet to the illustrious courtier, the Earl of Leicester,
who, in his turn, brought him to the notice of the Queen. Spenser was given
royal favour and appointed as secretary to the new Lord-lieutenant of Ireland.
Thus he had to leave England for good.
The
suppression of Ireland provoked many rebellions against the English. English
military governors were sent confiscate the lands of the rebels and to put
English people on them. Spenser was sent to such a place near Cork. He felt an
exile in the, lonely castle of Kilcolman, yet he could not help admiring the,
changeful beauty of the place.
The
castle stood by a deep lake into which flowed a river (the Mulla). Soft
woodlands stretched towards mountain ranges in the distance. The beauty of his
surroundings inspired Spenser to write his great epic poem the “Faerie Queen”
(“Fairy Queen”), in which Queen Elizabeth is idealized.
Sir
Walter Raleigh who was captain of the Queen’s guard, came to visit Spenser at
Kilcolman. He was greatly delighted with the poem, and Spenser decided to
publish the first three parts. Raleigh and Spenser returned to England
together. At court Spenser presented his “simple song” to the Queen. It was
published in 1591. The success of the poem was great. The Queen rewarded him
with a pension of 50 pounds, but his position remained unchanged. Poetry was
regarded as a noble pastime but not a profession; and Edmund Spenser had to go
back to Ireland.
The
end of his life was sorrowful. When the next rebellion broke out, the
insurgents attacked the castle so suddenly and so furiously that Spenser and
his wife and children had to flee for their lives. Their youngest child was
burnt to death in the blazing ruins of the castle. Ruined and heart-broken
Spenser went to England and there he died in a London tavern three months
later, in 1599.
THE “FAIRY QUEEN”
The
poem is an allegory representing each court of Queen Elizabeth. The whole is an
interweaving of Greek myths and English legends.
Spenser
planned to divide his epic poem into twelve books. The 12 books were to tell of
the warfare of 12 knights. But only six books of the “Fairy Queen” were finished.
The first two books are the best and the most interesting. The allegory is not
so clear in the rest.
Prince Arthur is the hero of the poem. In a vision he sees Gloriana, the Fairy
Queen. She is so beautiful that he falls in love with her. Armed by Merlin he
sets out to seek her in Fairy Land. She is supposed to hold her annual 12-day
feast during which 12 adventures are to be achieved by 12 knights. Each knight
represents a certain virtue: Holiness, Temperance, Friendship, Justice, Courtesy,
Constancy, etc., which are opposed to Falsehood, Hypocrisy and others in the
form of witches, wizards and monsters.
Spenser
imitated antique verse. One of the features of those verses was the use of “Y”
before the past participle, as “Yclad” instead of “clad” (“dressed”). He was
the first to use the nine-line stanza. In this verse each line but the last has
10 syllables, the last line has 12 syllables. The rhymed lines are arranged in
the following way: a b a b b c b c c.
A gentle knight was pricking on the
plain, a
Yclad in mighty arms and silver
shield, b
Wherein old dints of deep wounds did
remain, a
The cruel marks of many a bloody field;
b
Yet arms till that time did he never
wield; b
His angry steed did chide his foamy
bit, c
As much disdaining to the curb to
yield; b
Full jolly knight he seemed, and fair did
sit, c
As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters
fit. c
THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DRAMA
THE
THEATRES AND ACTORS
First Period
The
development of the drama in England was in close connection with the appearance
and development of the theatre. Since ancient times there existed in Europe two
stages upon which dramatic art developed. The chief place of performance was
the church, and second to it was the market place where clowns played their
tricks.
The
church exhibited Bible-stories, called “Mysteries”; they also had “Miracles”
which were about supernatural events in the lives of saints. Both, the miracles
and mysteries were directed by the clergy and acted by boys of the choir on
great holidays. It has become a tradition since then to have men-actors for
heroines on the English stage.
Second Period
Early
in the 15th century characters represented human qualities, such as
Mercy, Sin, Justice and Truth, began to be introduced into the miracle plays.
The plays were called “Moral plays” or “Moralities”. They were concerned with
man’s behaviour in this life. The devil figured in every ply and he was the
character always able to make the audience laugh. Moralities were acted in town
halls too.
Third Period
It
was about the time of King Henry VIII, when the Protestants drove theatricals
out of the church, that acting became a distinct profession in England. Now the
actors performed in inncourt yards, which were admirably suited to dramatic
performances consisting as they did of a large open court surrounded by two
galleries. A platform projected into the middle of the yard with dressing rooms
at the back, There was planty of standing room around the stage, and people
came running in crowds as soon as they heard the trumpets announcing the
beginning of a play. To make the audience pay for its entertainment, the actors
took advantage of the most thrilling moment of the plot: this was the proper
time to send the hat round for a collection.
The
plays gradually changed; moralities now gave way to plays where historical and
actual characters appeared. The popular clowns from the market-place never
disappeared from the stage. They would shove in between the parts of a play and
talk the crowds into anything.
The
regular drama from its very beginning was divided into comedy and tragedy. Many
companies of players had their own dramatists who were actors too.
As
plays became more complicated, special playhouses came into existence. The
first regular playhouse in London was built in what had been the Black friars
Monastery where miracle plays had been performed before the Reformation. It was
built by James Burbage and was called “The Theatre” (a Greek word never used in
England before). Later, “The Rose”, “The Curtain”, “The Swan” and many other
playhouses appeared. These playhouses did not belong to any company of players.
Actors travelled from one place to another and hired a building for their
performances.
The actors and their station in life
During
the reign of Queen Elizabeth the laws against the poor were very cruel.
Peasants who had lost their lands and went from town to town in search of work
were put into prison as tramps. Actors were often accused of being tramps, so
trave1ling became impossible. The companies of players had to find themselves
a patron among the nobility and with the aid of obtain rights to travel and to
perform. Thus some players called themselves “The Earl of Leicester’s
Servants”, others-“The Lord Chamberlain’s Men”, and in 1583 the Queen appointed
certain actors “Grooms of the Chamber” All their plays were censored lest there
be anything against the Church or the government.
But
the worst enemies of the actors were the Puritans. They formed a religious sect
in England which wanted to purity the English Church from some forms that the
Church retained of roman Catholicism. The ideology of the Puritans was the
ideology of the smaller bourgeoisie who wished for a “cheaper church” and who
hoped they would become rich one day by careful living. They led a modest and
sober life. These principles, though moral at first sight, resulted in a
furious attack upon the stage. The companies of players were actually locked
out of the City because they thought acting a menace to public morality.
The
big merchants attacked the drama because players and playgoers caused them a
lot of trouble: the profits on beer went to proprietors of the inns and not to
the merchants; all sorts of people came to town, such as gamblers and thieves,
during the hot months of the year the plague was also spread strolling actors.
Often apprentices who were very much exploited by the merchants used to gather
at plays for the purpose of picking fights with their masters.
Towards
the end of the 16th century we find most of the playhouses far from
the city proper.
Conclusion
So this is the end of my investigation of the
Renaissance. Of course this is not full information about this period of art
and I do not deny it — it is too sated with different kind of events and detailes that we will never remember. Do not forget that the word “renaissance”
means “rebirth” — the appearance of something new and unordinary.
The period of the Renaissance
has marked by itself the birth of new directions of art and thoughts. For the
first time we can see here the birth of the real ideas of communism that were
declared by Thomas More. For the first time we can watch the appearance of
fantastic novels on social life.
Great changes were in theatre
too. The most important fact is that theatres became not only city sightings
but and the sightings of provinces that made art accessible almost for
everyone.
So I think that we have known
many new and interesting facts from this period, all important things were
said. I hope that you, my reader, have read this work with pleasure and without
boredom.
Used literature
“The World literature” – encyclopedia
“The collection of Spenser`s
works”
“Oxford ecyclopedia”
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