Chapter 2 The Renaissance Period

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Chapter 2 The Renaissance Period

1．Renaissance (from 14th century to 17th century)

Definition: Renaissance is a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy, which marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world.

Reasons: the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the new discoveries in geography and astronomy, the religious reformation and economic expansion

2．The English Renaissance

（1）Historical Changes

Cade’s rebellion

Wars of Roses

（2）Religious Reformation

Martin Luther

Henry Ⅷ

Significance: a reflection of the class struggle waged by the new rising bourgeoisie against the feudal class and its ideology.

（3）Introduction of the Printing

William Caxton—the first person who introduced printing into England.

3．Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) (the poets’ poet)

（1）His Life:

Edmund Spenser was born in London around 1552.

As a young boy, he was educated in London at the Merchant Taylors’ School and matriculated by Cambridge.

In July 1580 Spenser went to Ireland, in the service of the newly appointed lord deputy, Arthur Grey.

In Ireland Spenser acquired Kilcolman Castle north of Cork for his use. The beautiful scenery of his district appears again and again in his poetry.

In 1589, Sir Walter Raleigh visited Spenser there and persuaded him to publish the first three book of The Faerie Queene.

In 1589, a fierce Irish rebellion forced Spenser to abandon Kilcolman Castle. He never recovered from the shock of this frightful experience. He returned to England heartbroken and died in the following years.

（2）Major Works:

The Shepheardes Calender 《牧人月历》

Amoretti 《小爱神》 Epithalamion 《喜颂》

The Faerie Queene 《仙后》

(Spenserian stanza)

4. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

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（1）Life：

Born two months before Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe was the son of a poor Canterbury shoemaker, but he was much better educated than Shakespeare. He was educated at the town grammar school and then at Cambridge.

When he came to London in 1584, his soul was surging with the ideals of the Renaissance, which later found expression in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.

While in London, Marlowe became an actor and associated himself with the Admiral’s Men, a company of actors for whom he wrote most of his plays.

In 1587, when he was only twenty-three years old, he produced his tremendously successful play Tamburlaine the Great, which brought him instant recognition.

From the time of his first great success, Marlowe had only six years to live and he produced all his great works while Shakespeare was serving his apprenticeship.

（2）Major Works:

Plays：

Tamburlaine the Great / Timur 《帖木儿》

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus 《浮士德博士的悲剧》

The Jew of Malta 《马耳他的犹太人》

Edward the Second 《爱德华二世》

Poems:

Hero and Leaner 《海洛与勒安德尔》 The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 《激情的牧人致心爱的姑娘》

5. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

（1）Life:

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564.

His father, John Shakespeare, was a successful glover and alderman originally from Snitterfield, and his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer.

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare probably was educated at the King’s New School in Stratford.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway.

After the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, and twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11. It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592.

From 1594, Shakespeare’s plays were performed only by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company owned by a group of players, including

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Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London.

After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new king, James I, and changed its name to the King’s Men.

In 1599, a partnership of company members built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, which they called the Globe.

In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Records of Shakespeare’s property purchases and investments indicate that the company made him a wealthy man.

By 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages.

After 1606–1607, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616.

（2）dramatic Poems:

Two long narrative poems & 154 sonnets

Venus and Adonis 《维纳斯与阿多尼斯》

The Rape of Lucrece 《鲁克丽丝受辱记》

补充：

Sonnet :

abab bcbc cdcd ee

abba cddc effe gg

abba caac dccd ee

abab cdcd efef gg

（3）Dramatic Career:

the years up to 1594

the years from 1594-1600

the years from 1600-1608

the years after 1608

（4）Drama:

Comedies

The Merchant of Venice 《威尼斯商人》

A Midsummer Night’s Dream 《仲夏夜之梦》

History Plays

Henry Ⅳ 《亨利四世》

Henry Ⅵ 《亨利六世》

Tragedies

Hamlet 《哈姆雷特》

Othello 《奥赛罗》

King Lear 《李尔王》

Macbeth 《麦克白》

Romances

The Tempest 《暴风雨》

（5）Artistic Features of Shakespeare’s Plays

Characterization:

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The major characters in his plays are not simply type ones representing certain group or class of people, but are individuals with strong and distinct personalities. Structure:

Shakespeare’s plays are generally well organized, with harmony and order disbalanced at the beginning, social conflicts sharpened in the middle and harmony and order restored at the end.

Language and Style

He is a master of English language.

6. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

An English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and father of the scientific method；the first English essayist

（1）Life:

Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London. Biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his early years owing to poor health (which plagued him throughout his life), receiving tuition from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a strong leaning towards Puritanism. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, on 5 April 1573 at the age of twelve. It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious intellect, and was accustomed to calling him ―the young Lord Keeper‖.

In 1576, he went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the English ambassador at Paris.

The sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted Bacon to return to England.

In 1584, he took his seat in parliament.

He became Bencher in 1586, and he was elected a reader in 1587, delivering his first set of lectures in Lent the following year.

In 1596, Bacon became Queen’s Counsel.

In 1598 Bacon was arrested for debt.

The accession of James I brought Bacon into greater favor. He was knighted in 1603.

In 1613, Bacon was finally appointed attorney general.

Bacon’s public career ended in disgrace in 1621. After he fell into debt, a Parliamentary Committee on the administration of the law charged him with twenty-three separate counts of corruption.

On 9 April 1626 Bacon died of pneumonia outside London.

（2）Major Works:

The Advancement of Learning 《学术的进展》

Novum Organum 《新工具》

Essays 《论说文集》

Of Study 《论读书》

（3）Writing Styles of Essays— directness, terseness, forcefulness

Bacon’s essays are noted for their clearness, brevity and force of expression.

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Bacon’s chief concern is to express his thought with clearness and in as few words as possible.

Bacon’s sentences are short, pointed, incisive and often of balanced structure. Many of them have become wise old sayings.

7. John Donne (1572-1631)

The founder of the ―metaphysical school‖

（1）Life:

John Donne was born in London, England, into a Roman Catholic family at a time when open practice of that religion was illegal in England.

Donne’s father died in 1576, leaving his wife, Elizabeth Heywood, the responsibility of raising their children.

In 1577, his mother died, followed by two more of his sisters, Mary and Katherine, in 1581.

Donne was a student at Hart Hall, now Hertford College, Oxford, from the age of 11.

In 1591 he was accepted as a student at the Thavies Inn legal school, one of the Inns of Chancery in London. In 1592 he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court.

By the age of 25 he was well prepared for the diplomatic career he appeared to be seeking.

During the next four years he fell in love with Egerton’s niece Anne More, and they were married just in 1601 against the wishes of both Egerton and Anne’s father, which ruined his career.

Anne bore him 12 children in 16 years of marriage. His wife died on 15 August 1617, five days after giving birth to their twelfth child. Donne mourned her deeply, including writing the 17th Holy Sonnet.

Donne became a Royal Chaplain in late 1615, Reader of Divinity at Lincoln’s Inn in 1616, and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Cambridge University in 1618.

It is thought that his final illness was stomach cancer, although this has not been proved. He died on 31 March 1631 having written many poems, most only in manuscript.

（2）Major Works:

The Songs and Sonnets 《歌与十四行诗》

Satires 《讽刺诗》

Elegies 《挽歌》

Essayes in Divinity

8. George Herbert (1593-1633)

The saint of the metaphysical school

（1）Life:

Herbert was born in Montgomery in Wales. His family was wealthy, eminent, intellectual and fond of the arts.

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Herbert entered Westminster School at or around the age of 12 where he became a day student.

Herbert later was admitted on scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1609 where he graduated first with a Bachelors and then with a masters degree in 1613 at the age of 20.

After graduating from Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge (where he achieved degrees with distinction), Herbert was elected a major fellow of his college.

In 1618 he was appointed Reader in Rhetoric at Cambridge and in 1620 he was elected to the post of Cambridge University orator, whose duties would be served by poetic skill. He held this position until 1628.

In 1624 he became a Member of Parliament, representing Montgomery shire. He took up his duties in Bemerton, a rural parish in Wiltshire, about 75 miles southwest of London in 1630. Here he preached and wrote poetry; also helping to rebuild the church out of his own funds.

Suffering from poor health, Herbert died of tuberculosis.

（2）Major Works:

The Temple 《神殿》

9. The Metaphysical Poetry

（1）Definition:

The term is commonly used to name the work in the 17th century written by the writers who wrote under the influence of John Donne.

（2）Representatives:

John Donne & George Herbert

（3）The General Features of the School:

The diction is simple and echoes the words and cadence （节奏） of common

speech.

The imagery is drawn from the actual life yet subtle, the extended metaphors

for such images are typically called ―metaphysical conceits‖. (Conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison.)

The form is frequently that of an argument with the poet’s loved, with God, or

with himself.

10. Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

The first poet laureate in the history of English literature

（1）Life:

Ben Jonson was born in London about the year 1573. His father, an impoverished clergyman, died shortly before his birth. His mother remarried a bricklayer two years later.

Jonson attended school in St. Martin’s Lane, and was later sent to Westminster

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School, where one of his teachers was William Camden. Jonson remained friendly with Camden, whose broad scholarship evidently influenced his own style, until the latter’s death in 1623.

By about the age of twenty he was back in London and married Anne Lewis in 1594.

Later he found himself employed, like Shakespeare, as actor and reviser of plays in the theatre.

About 1598 he displayed his distinguishing realistic style in the comedy Every Man in His Humor, which was acted by Shakespeare’s company.

The plays which Jonson produced the following years were chiefly satirical comedies.

In 1616, he was appointed Poet Laureate and received a substantial pension. In 1616 he stopped writing for the stage and gave himself to study and serious work.

Jonson died on 6 August 1637.

（2）Major Works:14 comedies & 2 tragedies

Every Man in His Humor 《人人高兴》

Volpone 《福尔蓬奈》

The Alchemist 《炼金士》

Sejanus His Fall 《西亚努斯的覆灭》

Catiline His Conspiracy 《卡塔林的阴谋》

11. Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

The cavalier poet (knights and squires sided with the King against the Parliament and Puritans)

（1）Life:

Born in London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith, who fell out of a window when Robert was a year old (whether this was suicide remains unclear).

The tradition that Herrick received his education at Westminster is groundless. It is more likely that (like his uncle’s children) he attended The Merchant Taylors’ School.

In 1607 he became apprenticed to his uncle, Sir William Herrick, who was a goldsmith and jeweler to the king.

The apprenticeship ended after only six years when Herrick, at age twenty-two, matriculated at St John’s College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1617.

Robert Herrick became a member of the Sons of Ben, a group centered upon an admiration for the works of Ben Jonson.

In the wake of the English Civil War, his position was revoked on account of his refusal to make pledge to the Solemn League and Covenant.

Herrick became the vicar of Dean Prior again in the summer of 1662 and lived there until his death in October 1674, at the age of 83.

（2）Major Works:

Hesperides 《金苹果园》

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12. John Milton (1608-1674)

（1）Life:

John Milton was born in Bread Street, London, on 9 December 1608, as the son of the composer John Milton and his wife Sarah Jeffrey.

In 1625, Milton was admitted to Christ’s College, Cambridge. While Milton was a hardworking student, he was also argumentative to the extent that only a year later, in 1626, he got suspended after a dispute with his tutor.

In 1632, Milton took his M.A. at Cambridge, after which he retired to the family homes in London and Horton, Buckinghamshire, for years of private study and literary composition.

As customary for young gentlemen of means, Milton set out for a tour of Europe in the spring of 1638, and he returned home in July 1639.

The Civil War was brewing in 1639, and the Long Parliament was convened in 1640. Milton began writing pamphlets on political and religious matters. In the spring of 1642, Milton married Mary Powell, 17 years old to his 34, but the relationship was an unhappy one, and Mary left him to visit the family home briefly thereafter, and did not return.

Milton had made plans to remarry, when Mary Powell returned. The two seem to have reconciled, since their daughter Anne was born in 1646. The year 1647 saw the death of both Milton’s father and his father-in-law. The year 1652 was one of many personal losses for Milton. In February, Milton lost his sight. This prompted him to write the sonnet When I Consider How My Light is Spent. In May, 1652, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Deborah, and died a few days later. In June, one year-old John died.

In 1663, Milton remarried again, to Elizabeth Minshull, a match his daughters opposed.

Milton died of kidney failure on 8 November 1674.

（2）Major Works:

Paradise Lost 《失乐园》

Paradise Regained 《复乐园》

Samson Agonistes 《力士参孙》

（3）Paradise Lost

a. Content

b. Theme and Characterization

The main idea of the poem is the heroic revolt against God’s authority.

In the poem God is no better than a selfish despot, seated upon a throne with a chorus of angels about him eternally singing his praise. His long speeches are hardly pleasing. He is cruel and unjust in punishing Satan.

Adam and Eve embody Milton’s belief in the power of man. Their carving for knowledge adds a particular significance to their character. It is this longing for knowledge that opens before mankind a wide road to an intelligent and active life.

c. The Image of Satan

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The finest thing in Paradise Lost is the description of hell, and Satan is the real hero of the poem. Like a conquered and banished giant, he remains obeyed and admired by those who following him down to hell.

It is Satan who, overcoming so many obstacles makes man revolt against God. Though defeated, he prevails, since he has won from God part of his angels, and almost all the son of Adam.

To Milton, the proud and somber Satan represents the spirit of rebellion against an unjust authority.

（4）Features of Milton’s Poetry

Milton was a great revolutionary poet of 17th century. He was also an outstanding political pamphleteer of the Revolution Period.

Milton is a great stylist. His poetry has a grand style. It is because he made a life-long study of classical and biblical literature.

Milton is a great master of blank verse. He used it as the main tool in his masterpiece Paradise Lost. His blank verse is rich in every poetic quality and never monotonous.

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