Chapter 1 The Renaissance (1500 - 1603)

I. What is meant by “Renaissance”?

The word “Renaissance” was first used by Jules Michelet, a French historian (1780
- 1874). First of all, “Renaissance” means not only “the revived interest in Greek
and Roman literatures” but also “the discovery of the world and human beings”.
More than that, it implies “the awakening of men’s mind, the awakening of
individual spirit and secularism”.

I.1. Renaissance: the revived interest in Greek and Roman literatures

It is obvious that, in the Middle Ages, people did read and study Greek and
Roman literatures, but the number of readers of these literatures were
very limited among scholars and literary men. Now, thanks to Petrarch’s
and Boccacio’s enthusiasm in propagating the spirit of humanism in Greek
and Roman literatures, and thanks to the invention of the printing
machine, the number of readers of ancient writers increased greatly and
the reading and studying of Greek and Roman literatures became an
interest. In this period, the spirit of humanism became assimilated with
the studying of those literatures.

I.2. Renaissance: the discovery of the world and human beings

The Renaissance was a great age of discoveries, geographical and

scientific.

In geographical field, Christopher Columbus discovered America; Amerigo

Vespucci and Vasco da Gama discovered the Phillippines; Magellan
travelled around the world and discovered several lands and islands. These
great geographical discoveries opened new horizons and bright prospects
for European people: they longed to discover other continents and people.

In scientific field, Newton discovered “Law of Gravity”, Galileo and

Corpenicus discovered the stars and the stellar system, and Kepler
discovered the orbits of planets. These scientific discoveries had deep
influence on the concepts of the Middle Ages about the position and
destiny of men in the Universe.

In the Middle Ages, men completely lost their values and position. The
Church of Rome taught them that men were symbols of evils and sins, that
they were slaves in this temporary world. They lived and waited for their
emancipation from this earthly hopeless life. They lived and prepared
themselves for future life in paradise.
 In the Renaissance, men were reborn. They began to accept this world
with a much more optimistic attitude. They enjoyed their present life and
realized this earthly life was beautiful and interesting, that men had the
right to live and enjoy everything on earth.

I.3. Renaissance: the awakening of men’s mind, the awakening of

individual spirit and secularism

Middle Ages men despised materialistic and sexual desires. Renaissance

men were quite different: new land discoveries, new luxurious life, new
economic political and social life all created new will and eagerness in
them. Spiritually, they began to lead a revolt against the strict, cramped
and austere pattern of life in the Middle Ages.

In this age there was also a great shift in the outlook. The thought of the
Middle Ages was essentially God-centred. But humanism, by its very
nature, placed a new importance on created things. Humanists came to
look on the world as a good thing in its not merely a place to win salvation.
This emphasis on the importance of temporal things led to a de-emphasis
of God and the eternal life. Renaissance men were no more subordinated
to God. Their happiness was here, on earth, and it depended on their own
strength and ability to achieve it. Men were their own guides to truth and
happiness.

II. The Elizabethan Drama

II.1. The Origins of the Elizabethan Drama

The Origins of the Elizabethan Drama may ultimately be traced to the

“Mysteries” and “Miracles”, which were performed during the Middle
Ages in order to instruct the people in the essential facts of the Bible.
These performances were at first given in the churches, but later on, the
“Miracles” were played on movable stages in the streets.

Out of the “Miracles” arose the “Moralities”, in which virtues and vices
such as Sin, Grace, Repentance, Hope, Belief, Justice, were personified. A
humorous element soon crept into these allegorical productions, which
became a vehicle for satire. On the other hand, “Interludes” (dramatic
dialogues with song and clowneries) were sometimes introduced into
them in order to relieve the attention of the spectators. These interludes -
in which the characters were generally drawn from real life - enjoyed great
popularity and soon assumed an independent existence; from them the
English Drama was directly evolved.
II.2. Theatres and Performances at the Close of the 16th Century

From the beginning of the 16th

century, there had been in England
numerous companies of actors
playing either in London or in
provincial towns. But they were
regarded by many people as
“rogues and vagabonds” and their
social status was very uncertain
until 1572, when it was provided that actors should be authorized to play
under the protection of some powerful personage: the company would
bear its protector’s name, and the players be called his “servants.”

Performances were at first given in inn-yards, the actors playing on a field

platform erected on trestles; later on, regular theatres were built. The
companies of actors did not comprise any women: the feminine parts
were played by boys whose voice had not yet broken.

II.3. William Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Drama

England during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign is considered to have reached its
greatness and glory. The Queen herself was the symbol of the glory of the
country. Despite plagues and other calamities, England grew prosperous
and powerful and deserved to be called “Merry England”.

When William Shakespeare came to London to carry on his theatre work,

he found everything in his favour: the theatre alive and strong, people
enjoying going to the theatre and plays shrewdly written for the public’s
taste. Since the first public theatre was opened in 1576, a group of
talented men called the University Wits had already developed new types
of plays out of old forms and had learned what the public wanted.

During the years 1590 - 1600 the whole nation became intensely
interested in its past. People loved to watch plays which sang of patriotism
and of their kings. In order to meet this demand, Shakespeare wrote ten
plays of this kind.

Unlike Shakespeare, most playwrights of the time were more practical

men, bent on making a living rather than a noble calling. They may have
been well-educated, but they were more eager to fill the theatres than to
please the public and the critics. As a result, drama in England, from the
start, was almost a popular art rather than a learned and classical art as it
was in France.

Shakespeare did not have any fancy notions. He listened to what the
public said, and he was quick to direct changes in popular taste. He wrote
his plays to be acted, not read. He took whatever forms were attracting
 attention and made them better. To save time he borrowed plots and put
down other men’s thoughts in his own words. In this sense, Shakespeare
was a great borrower.

A dramatist in those days was also likely to be an actor and producer. He

joined a company and became its playwright. He sold his manuscripts to it
and kept no personal rights in them. Revising old plays and working with
another man on new ones were common. No manuscripts of Shakespeare,
for this reason, have survived, because they were not printed.

Shakespeare, in spite of this, wrote most of his plays for the Globe Theatre
and the Elizabethan stage had much to do with his plays. Because the
stage was open and free, it permitted quick changes and rapid action. As a
result, “Antony and Cleopatra” has more than 40 changes of scene. The
outer stage, projecting into the audience, encouraged speech-making. This
may be the reason for the long and impassioned speeches of the plays.
There are more than 40 such speeches in “Macbeth”. Besides,
Shakespeare mixes horseplay with philosophy and coarseness with lovely
poetry.

For this theatre, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays. The chief sources of
his plots were Plutarch’s “Parallel Lives of Illustrious Men”, Raphael
Holinshed’s “Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland” and some
Italian novelle or short tales. He borrowed a few plays from older dramas
and from English stories. What he did with the sources is more important
because the changes he made, not the original, show his genius as a
dramatist.

III. Typical Author: William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) - The

Greatest Humanist and the Idol of the Renaissance Age

“No household in the English-Speaking world is properly furnished unless it

contains a copy of the Holy Bible and one of
the works of William Shakespeare. It is not
always thought necessary that these books
should be read in maturer years, but they
must be present as symbols of religion and
English culture.

Shakespeare has not always been so

symbolic a figure. He was an actor and
playwright, when neither actors nor the
stage were regarded as respectable or of
any importance. The notion that he was the
supreme genius of the English race did not begin until he had been dead more than
a century; but since then it has become so firmly accepted that no schoolboy can
avoid a detailed study of at least one of his plays.”
 (Introducing Shakespeare - G.N. Harrison)

Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon in 1564. The exact day of his birth is
unknown, but scholars have assumed he was born on April 23rd. Shakespeare’s
father, John Shakespeare, was a well-to-do merchant and responsible citizen. The
dramatist’s mother, Mary Arden, was a daughter of a distinguished family.

William had a good grammar school education. Adversity, however, fell upon John
Shakespeare, his fortunes declined, and in 1577 the boy was removed from
school, either to be apprenticed to his father’s business, or to earn an
independent living. Five years later, at the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway,
by whom he had three children: Susan (1583), and the twins Hamnet and Judith
(1585). Hamnet, his only son, died and was buried at Stratford in 1596.
The reasons which compelled him to leave Stratford are imperfectly unknown. In
1587, we found Shakespeare in London where he soon became connected with
the stage. No documents tell us exactly on what day he was accepted as an actor
in the company of the Earl of Leicester, but there is evidence that he belonged to
it in 1594. His first works appeared in 1590’s. He wrote for the company of actors
who played at the Theatre. Then the new Globe Theatre was built where
Shakespeare’s plays were staged.

In 1611, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, where, as early as 1597, he had

purchased one of the largest and finest houses: NEWPLACE. There he spent the
last years of his life. He died on April 23rd, 1616 and was buried in the church of
Stratford.

In 1714, a monument was erected in his memory in the Poet’s Corner of

Westminster Abbey. The house in which he was born was acquired by public
subscription in 1846 and it has become a place of pilgrimage and a centre of
tourism.

Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and 154 sonnets.

Scholars distinguish three periods in Shakespeare’s works:

(1) The early period (roughly from 1590 to 1600), during which he wrote
mainly gay comedies and dramatic histories. This is the period of optimism
of William Shakespeare.

(2) The middle period (roughly from 1600 to 1608), during which he wrote
great tragedies and bitter comedies. This is the period of maturity of
William Shakespeare.

(3) The late period (roughly from 1609 to 1612), during which he wrote
legendary and lyrical plays, and tragic comedies.
Shakespeare was a great humanist. He was the enemy of medieval ideas, religious
and racial discrimination. In his works, he affirmed the principle of equality, the
equal moral value of people of all classes and all races.

Shakespeare was neither a purely tragic nor a purely comic writer; he dealt with
both the tragic and comic sides of life, because in actual life, these two sides are
closely connected. There was a drama in England before Shakespeare, but it was
he who created a real drama, and it was he who raised the English theatre to the
heights it has never since reached.

More than three centuries and a half have passed since Shakespeare’s death but
scholars in different countries continue to study his works, and his plays are still
performed and will be performed for many years to come. His continued
popularity is due to many things: his plays are filled with action, his characters are
believable, and his language is thrilling to hear or read. Underlying all this is
Shakespeare’s deep humanity. He was a profound son and student of people and
he understood them. He had a great tolerance, sympathy, and love for all people.
His plays and his characters remind the audience that this world can be a gentle
and lovable place. For all this, William Shakespeare still lives on as a superb
playwright and poet not only of England but also of the world.