Early Modern Period 1
English Renaissance
Renaissance
• Term invented by 19th c. historians
• Transna;onal movement
• 14th century in Italy, End of 15th in England
• Tudor dynasty (result of the Wars of the
Roses) – 5 monarchs
• Henry VIII
• Elizabeth I
Renaissance
• Rediscovery of old learning vs. discovery of
new worlds
• Geographic and scien;fic discoveries
• 1492 Christopher Columbus
• Economic gain vs. ideological/religious
crusade
• Copernicus and Galilei – revolu;on in
astronomy
Reforma;on
• Clash between the doctrines of the Roman
Catholic Church (and their actual realiza;on)
and the learning based on pre-Chris;an
thought
• Importance of transla;ng the Bible into
vernacular
Transla;ons of the Bible
• 4th century AD – the Vulgate
• 1380 John Wycliff
• 16th century William Tyndale – his New
Testament 1526 – Landmark of English
cultural history
• 66 books of the Bible – 66 different styles –
different registers and tones
Renaissance Language
• It was itself a language in the middle of a radical
and rapid transi;on – many things used e.g. by
Shakespeare fell out of use soon a^erwards
• 3rd person singular th (-s) doth – does was archaic
even in his days
• Thou/you
• Shakespeare invented or first used around 1700
words
• Syntax was not so rigidly fixed as it is now
Elizabethan Rhetoric
• delight in life reflected in the delight in language,
pleasure in verbal games – intellectual pleasure
• Full of (sexual) innuendo and rudeness
• Word puns – mul;ple interpreta;ons
homonyms, paronomasia
anaphora (deliberate repe;;on of words)
epanalepsis (similar words at the beginning and
end of a sentence or line)
antanaclasis
Shakespeare’s Puns
• Paronomasia - rhetorical device
• exploi;ng the confusion between words being in
some way similar (homonyms, homophones,
homographs) but with different meanings.
Romeo and Juliet
– Mercu8o: “Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you
dance.”
– Romeo: “Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes
with nimble soles; I have a soul of lead … So stakes
me to the ground I cannot move…”
Shakespeare’s Puns
• Antanaclasis – rhetorical device
• Repe;;on of a word or a phrase but with a different
meaning
“We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall
all hang separately.” (Benjamin Franklin)
Othello: (on how to murder his wife)
It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,–
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!–
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light:
Renaissance/Elizabethan Age
• Age of rela;ve peace and prosperity
• Suppor;ng of art, architecture
• New hymns for Anglican service
• Painters, sculptors, many of them were not
English, some of them moved to England (Hans
Holbein)
• English Renaissance is more verbal than visual (as
opposed to Italian)
Renaissance – Educa;on
• Growth of English educa;onal ins;tu;ons – steep
increase in the number of schools and children (boys)
with access to educa;on
• Grammar schools
• Public schools (outside home)
• Oxford and Cambridge improved and expanded
• “humanis;c” curriculum: focus shi^s from Chris;an
theological texts (studied in Middle Ages) to “classical
humani;es”: philosophy, history, drama and poetry
• La;n and Greek drilled in order to be able to read
Classics in original
Poetry
• Lyric rather than narra;ve poems
• Sonnet, experiments with forms, but also old medieval
tradi;on
• Sonnet cycle – series of sonnets that fit loosely together to
form a story
• Wri;ng of sonnets – part of educa;on of a gentleman
• Poems “ar;ficial” – ar;s;c, idealized images and decora;ve
language
• Love poetry – private and personal emo;onal experience
but also social and poli;cal inten;ons – Sir Thomas Wyam’s
“Whoso list to hunt” as an apologe;c text
• Common poe;c conven;ons but also their subversions: the
idealized subject can be male or not so ideal (Shakespeare’s
sonnet 130: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”)
Sonnet
• Sonnet: 14 lines
• Two kinds: Italian (Petrarchan)
English (Shakespearean)
• Italian: octave (proposi;on or ques;on) and
sestet (solu;on)
9th line - turn
iambic pentameter or hexameter
a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-e-c-d-e or c-d-c-c-d-c
Sonnet
• English sonnet:
3 quatrains and a couplet
• Rhyme scheme: a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g
• Iambic pentameter
Other Developments in Poetry
• Christopher Marlowe
– Brilliant in the use of BLANK VERSE (unrhymed iambic
pentameter)
– His use established blank verse as the preeminent meter
for verse drama and epic poetry
• Edmund Spenser: experiments with verse forms
• Spenserian stanza: 9 lines
(8 iambic pentameter, 1 hexameter)
• Spenserian sonnet
three quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter
rhyme scheme abab bcbc cdcd ee.
Literary Cri;cism
Sir Philip Sidney
• Defence of Poesy (1595)
beginning of English literary cri;cism
- Defence of imagina;ve poetry (literature) against the
amacks from religious and other authori;es (past or
present)
- Plato’s belief that poets can lead people to immorality (The
Republic, Book III) reflected in some contemporary circles
(puritan)
- Systema;c use of examples from a large number of sources
and advanced logical argumenta;on to refute all the claims
of the cri;cs
Significant influence over the subsequent English literary
cri;cism
Sources and further reading
• hmps://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare/
language
• hmps://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/ar;cles/key-
features-of-renaissance-culture
• hmps://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/ar;cles/love-
poetry-in-renaissance-england
