Thinking Activity: Renaissance Literature

Renaissance Literature

Thinking activity

After completing the unit of Renaissance literature our prof.Dr Dilip Barad Sir  gave us task as our thinking activity.This blog is response for that.

1.Write in brief about Edmund Spencer or Ben Jonson or Francis Bacon or on any one of their works.

   Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)                                                      

Life

Edmund Spenser was born in East Smith Field near the Tower of London and he was very poor.His education began at the Merchant Tailors' School in London and was continued in Cambridge.

Chaucer was his beloved master.After living Cambridge 1576 Spenser went to the North England,on some work or quest. Here is chief occupation was to fall in love & to record his melancholy over the lost Rosalind in the "Shepherd's Calendar".

Upon his friend Harvey's advise he came to London, bringing his poems.And here he met Leicester's and he also met Sidney and all Queens favorites.

In Kilcolman surrounded by great natural beauty , Spenser finisehed first three books of "The Faerie Queen."

In 1589 Raleigh visited him ,heard the poem with enthusiasm,hurried the poet of London and presented him to Elizabeth.

The first three books met with success and we're acclaimed as the greatest work in the English language.A yearly pention of 50 pounds was conferred by Elizabeth but rarely paid and the poet turn back to exile to Ireland again.

Soon after his written Spenser fail in  love with a beautiful Elizabeth,an Irish girl,wrote his "Amoretti"or sonnets in her honour.

In 1594 he married Elizabeth,celebrating his wedding with his "Epithalamion" one of the most beautiful wedding hymns in any language.

Spenser's next visit ti London was in 1595 when he published "Astrophel",an elegy on the death of his friend "Sidney" and three more books of "The Faerie Queen".

It is supposed that some unfinished parts of the "Faerie Queen"were burned in the castle.From this shock of this frightful experience Spenser never recovered.He returned to England heart broken and in the following year 1599 he died in an inn at West Minister.

Spenser's Major Work:

The Faerie Queen

Spenser's masterpiece is the epic poem The Faerie Queene. The first three books of The Faerie Queene were published in 1590, and a second set of three books were published in 1596. Spenser originally indicated that he intended the poem to consist of twelve books, so the version of the poem we have today is incomplete. Despite this, it remains one of the longest poems in the English language. It is an allegorical work, and can be read (as Spenser presumably intended) on several levels of allegory, including as praise of Queen Elizabeth 

Argument of "The Faerie Queen"

The hero visits the queen's court in fairy while she is holding a 12 days festival.On each day some distressed person appears unexpectedly tells a woeful story of distressed beauty or virtue and asks for a champion to right the wrong and to let the oppressed go free.Again the duty is assigned by the queen and adventures of these knights are the subjects of the book.

Here I am sharing the link Click here to get more information about this poetry.

The Shepherd's Calendar

                                            

The Shepheardes Calender is Edmund Spenser's first major work, which was published in  1579.The Shepheardes Calendar is a series of allegorical poems written by Edmund Spenser in 1579. There is one poem for each month, and each is narrated by a shepherd who ruminates on life and the issues of the day. Each poem is written in a different poetic style, and thus early critics considered the work more for its form than its themes and content, believing the work to be an experimentation in verse. 

Amoretti

This is a Sonnet cycle written in 16th century.T he cycle describes his courtship and eventual marriage to Elizabeth Boyle.It was a part of volume entitled Amoretti and Epithalamion.The volume included the sequence of 89 sonnets.

Poetical Form

For the faerie queen Spenser invented a new verse form which has been called since his day the Spenserian Stanza.Spenser's stanza is in nine lines,riming ababbcbcc.

Minor Poems:

• The Briar and the Oak

         .  (An allegory)

• Mother Hubbard's Tale

. (Satire on society)

• Astrophel

.            (Elegy on death of Sidney)

• Epithalamion

.  (Marriage hymn)

Characteristics of Spenser's poetry: 

1. A perfect melody

2. A rare sense of beauty

3. Splendid imagination

4. A lofty moral purity and seriousness

5. A delicate idealism

 Conclusion

Thus ,beacuse of all this things Edmund Spenser is known as "The Poet's Poet".This name was given gy Charles Lamb.

Ben Johnson

(1573-1637)

"Personally Johnson is the most commanding literary figure among the Elizabethan.For 25 years he was the literary Dictator of London,the chief of all the wits that gathered nightly at the old Devil Tavern.With his great learning ,his ability and his commanding position as poet Laureate,he set himself squarely against his contemporaries and the romantic tendency of the age."

                                         

                                             -W.J.Long

If Shakespeare voliolated the rules ,Johnson strictly followed them.He was a classic in this sense.He brought "humorous comedy".

Life: 

    

Johnson was born at West Minister about the year 1573.His father was an educated gentleman ,had his property confiscated and was himself thrown into prison by Queen Mary.

To know more about his life and work please click here to watch video.

Work of Johnson:

Johnson's work is in strong contrast with Shakespeare.He fought against romantic tendency and restore the classic standard.Thus the whole action of his drama usually covers only few hours or a single day.He never takes liberties with historical facts as Shakespeare does.His dramas are logically constructed.

Tragedy and comedy are kept apart from a few of Johnson's scenes we can understand batter than from all the plays of Shakespeare.

His Comedies:

A Tale of A Tub:(1596)

The last of his plays to staged during his lifetime.A Tale of a Tub was first performed in 1633 and published in 1640 in the second folio of Johnson's work.

The Isle of Dogs(1597):

He wrote this play along with Thomas Nash.The paly was performed probably by Pembroke's Man,at tha Sawang Theater in bankside in July or August 1597.It was immediately suppressed and no copy of it is known to exist.

Every Man In His Humour(1598):

The play was performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1598 at the Curtain Theater.Captain Bobadill one of the most important characters of Johnson's plays appear in this play.

Other Comedies:

• Volpone or The Fox

• The Alchemist

• The Silent Woman

• The Bartholomov Fair

• Every Man Out of His Humour

Other Works:

• Sejanus-1603

• Catiline-1611

• The Satyr

• The Penalties

• Masque of Blackness 

• Masque of Beauty

• Hue & Cry After Cupid 

• The Masque of Queens

2.Can we differentiate general characteristics of Renaissance literature with that of Reformation / Restoration or Neo-classical or Romantic or Victorian or Modern literature?

The answer is that Yes, we can differentiate the general characteristics of Renaissance literature with that of Reformation / Restoration or Neo-classical or Romantic or Victorian or Modern literature. 

I would like to compare general characteristics of Renaissance literature with that of Romantic literature.

General Characteristics	Renaissance Literature	Romantic Literature
Definition of the age	A cultural movement that began in Italy,the rebirth of learning caused by the discovery of Greek and Latin manuscript.	UAn artistic movement that valued imagination and feeling over intellect and reason.
Time period of the Age	14th century to 17th century	late- 18th century to mid- 19th century
Known as	The Golden Age	Romantic Revival
Genre	Drama	Poetry
Metaphor for the age	The first creative period of English literature:The sun rise after long night(dark age)	The second creative period of English literature.
Major characteristics	Religious tolerance, Social contentment, Political peace.	Imagination & creation, The beauty of nature, Rise of modern magazine.
Subject of the writing	Humanism, Patriotism, Human nature.	Supernatural elements, Nature and common man, Reason and science to imagination.
Major Writers	Edmund Spenser Thomas Sackville Philip Sidney George Chapman Christopher Marlowe William Shakespeare Ben Johnson Francis Bacon Richard Hooker Philip Sidney Walter Raleigh	William Wordsworth Samuel Coleridge Robert Southey Lord Byron John Keats Charles Lamb P.B.Shelley Jane Austen

Thus,we can say that both ages were the most significance ages in the histroy of English literature.

References

William J.Long History Book

Wikipedia-Edumand Spenser

Wikipedia--Ezabethan Age

Words-1386