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This document provides an overview of Elizabethan literature, art, and thought during the late 16th century in England. It discusses the rise of poetry, drama, and history writing during this period, which produced enduring works by authors like Shakespeare, Spenser, and Marlowe. While painting and sculpture did not achieve the same national tradition, English architecture flourished with magnificent homes. The document also notes advances in science from figures like Copernicus, though older beliefs still held sway among many. Overall, the Elizabethan era was a time of great creative achievement and optimism in England.
This document provides an overview of Elizabethan literature, art, and thought during the late 16th century in England. It discusses the rise of poetry, drama, and history writing during this period, which produced enduring works by authors like Shakespeare, Spenser, and Marlowe. While painting and sculpture did not achieve the same national tradition, English architecture flourished with magnificent homes. The document also notes advances in science from figures like Copernicus, though older beliefs still held sway among many. Overall, the Elizabethan era was a time of great creative achievement and optimism in England.
This document provides an overview of Elizabethan literature, art, and thought during the late 16th century in England. It discusses the rise of poetry, drama, and history writing during this period, which produced enduring works by authors like Shakespeare, Spenser, and Marlowe. While painting and sculpture did not achieve the same national tradition, English architecture flourished with magnificent homes. The document also notes advances in science from figures like Copernicus, though older beliefs still held sway among many. Overall, the Elizabethan era was a time of great creative achievement and optimism in England.
Session 1: Elizabethan Literature, Art and Thought
(Summary extracted from The Reign of Elizabeth, J.B. Black, The Oxford History of England).
The sixteenth century in England seems to be a time and place specially
rewarding for the men of action. However, the countless adventures on land and sea that made England respected and feared, and opened up the world to English enterprise, produced an exaltation of the soul which the poet and the philosopher, through their genius, transmuted into the field of writing, producing some of the most beautiful and enduring works of literature. Like Drake and Cavendish, Shakespeare and Bacon also circumnavigated the earth and grew rich with their findings, even if they were purely virtual, intellectual… One feels that the literature produced during this period is more universal in its appeal than at any other period, which makes us wonder whether the great literature of an age is necessarily a mirror of its history. Because if it is too localistic and parochial, it will diminish its universal appeal. We will see that even if the literature of the later sixteenth century has much to say of contemporary life in its social aspect, politics is introduced in a more indirect manner. Politics and literature do not seem to come together as much as, at least in the same way it interconnects in modern writing. Some critics consider that the Elizabethans were non-political in their writing, that writers as well as the multitude in the streets were not really interested in the struggle for power in the political arena. This is not completely true, as we will see in Shakespeare’s historical plays, but it is quite descriptive since it is often difficult to find political allusions in Elizabethan texts. If Elizabethans in general were not too interested in the political manouverings of their men of power, they cannot be called evasive or romantic in their tastes either. The age of Elizabeth was an age of optimism, of experiment, of constructive achievement. So the present was really full of interest for men of letters. This period, then, which we call “Elizabethan” as applied to literature does not coincide in scope with the beginning and ending of Elizabeth’s reign. It refers to a period of time stretching from about the end of the second decade of that reign to almost the closing years of her successor’s. When Elizabeth died the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays were still unwritten, and the dramatists who stand nearest him in the quality of their work – Middleton, Webster, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ford and Rowley- were still in their teens. Of the better known authors only five, among them Sidney, Marlowe and Spenser, ended their lives within the confines of her reign, so we claim a poetic licence when we speak of Elizabethan literature, since we will continue our study well into Jacobean times.
It is difficult to describe everything that was written or thought at such a
prolific time, so let us just review some of the themes that were most in fashion. In the first place there was a colossal amount of printed matter connected to patriotism: such as biographical, historical and geographical works. The best historians of this time were Bacon, Candem and Daniel (thanks to their works: History of Henry VII, Annales…Regnante Elizabetha, History of England, respectively).Very famous as well was Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffics, and Discoveries of the English Nation. These massive works were not simply a reflection of the growing patriotism but they were also inspired by the conviction that history repeats itself, and therefore one can extract from history a lot of useful information to apply in the present and future. History was written in verse as well as prose; for the popularity of verse at this period was greater (can you imagine reading a history book of today in verse?). The Mirror for Magistrates, a composite work by many hands and based upon Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, became the reservoir of England’s tragic history. The great importance of these works lies not so much in their literary value (which is rather scarce), but in their immense popularity at the time. An underlying function of these historical accounts is the development of the “Tudor Myth”. The Tudor monarchs wanted to stabilize the dynasty and to prevent a revolution they began to foster the fanciful tale that the Tudor monarchy rested in lineal descent all the way to Cadwallader, the last of the old British kings; and they added to this tale the myth that king Arthur would one day return, thereby creating the idea that the first Tudor was king Arthur resurrected. This cult of Arthur seems to run like a refrain through the whole period, applying also to Queen Elizabeth, who seemed to be the embodiment of Merlin’s prophecy. Side by side this new interest in the history and geography of the nation came a movement for the study of the English language and literature. Manifestoes, treaties, on orthography and pronunciation, the superiority of the English over all languages, of the need for purity in the use of English, were printed one after the other. Crazy theories were defended, such as Gascoigne’s, who defended that “The most English words are of one syllable: so that the more monosyllables that you use, the truer Englishman you shall seem.” Their national pride did not hinder the Elizabethans from becoming interested in the history and literature of other nations. Actually during this time of the Renaissance, translators looted the classics, translating into English the works of Ancient Greece and Italy. Modern French and Spanish literature was also translated. But the foreign literature that was most popular among the English was the Italian: Boccaccio, Tasso, Machiavelli, the tales of contemporary Italian writers provided the dramatist with content for their comedies. When we proceed to present the core of Elizabethan literature, selection becomes more difficult. The genre of poetry was omnipresent, the sonnet and the ballad being the most popular forms. The aristocratic form of the sonnet was specially used for love poetry (but except for the sonnets of Shakespeare, Sidney and Spenser, they seemed to communicate not true emotion but a purely artificial one dedicated to a goddess, so many sonnets where full of Dianas, Delias, Corinnas, Auroras, etc.), whereas the popular ballad was used to move the hearts of the multitude telling the exploits and sufferings of famous heroes like Robin Hood or the Earl of Essex. The development of prose as an instrument of literary expression must be regarded as one of the minor triumphs of the age, even though the writers that took part in it where often overshadowed by the genius of those who indulged in the more popular form of poetry. However, little improvements were made to advance the use of prose. Their didactic tales where often used by dramatists as the bases for their plays. But the separation between themes and topics found fit for each genre was still not very clear. Writers began to see the descriptive powers of prose and its potential for satirical and realist writing (books were written describing the underworld of London urban life with its thieves, swindlers, and loose women. Greene was a precursor of this type of prose and his work Pandosto supplied Shakespeare with his plot for A Winter’s Tale. Of all the genres, drama is the crowning achievement of Elizabeth England in the field of literature. More than any other creation, drama gathered up and expressed the emotional and intellectual life of the age in every dimension. So we make open a parenthesis here, since this will be the topic for our whole course, and we continue with other fields of knowledge. With respect to the fine arts (painting, sculpture, architecture…) we have to admit that Elizabethan England did not manage to develop a truly national tradition. In painting, except for the miniature work of Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, there was no native school of painting. In regard to sculpture and architecture the same general criticism applies. There are no English creative minds to match the great masters of the Continent. However, when we turn from public buildings to private, a different picture presents itself. The glory of Elizabethan England lies depicted for us in the magnificent dwelling houses. The palaces and manor houses which were raising all over the country were a blend between classical models and traditional designs, and the outcome was very original. In the field of music, England was highly developed, with many great masters of both sacred and secular music. In the realm of physical science the age of Elizabeth coincides with the beginnings of a great revolution in human thought, traceable, in the first place, to the Polish astronomer Copernicus, who introduced the scientific world to a new cosmic system based upon observation, calculation, and deduction. Copernicus was, in fact, the Columbus of the heavens. His investigations into the movements of celestial bodies exercised an influence on astronomical thought comparable to that which the unveiling of the Atlantic and the discovery of America exercised on geography. For over 1400 years Ptolemy, with his conception of a geocentric universe had been the canonical book for astronomers. It is important to note, however, that knowledge of the scientific progress of the period was confined to a very small group of enthusiasts. The lay mind was slow to accept the changes. “Come, Mephistopheles, let us dispute again, and argue of divine Astrology”, says Dr. Faustus in Marlowe’s play, and Mephistopheles replies with a disquisition based on Ptolemaic astrology. Side by side with this persistent belief in the old cosmic order there existed a conviction that the heavenly bodies exercised a profound influence on human affairs. Moreover, Elizabethan England was full of superstitious beliefs regarding all sorts of supernatural entities; fairies, witches, elves. Even though, little by little, the authorities became less willing to exercise their power against those accused of witchcraft.