Renaissance

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Lingue
Voto:	2.5 (2)
Download:	116
Data:	06.12.2000
Numero di pagine:	2
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

The historical context

Henry VII was the first king of the Tudor dynasty. His foreign policy aimed at making England’s trading position stronger. He spend money on the building of ships.
Henry VIII liked music and dancing; yet he was cruel and executed those who displeased him. The religious revolution arose from Henry’s quarrel with the Pope. He had been married to Catherine of Aragon, his brother’s widow, who some years later had given him a daughter, Mary, but was now unlikely to bear him a son. He had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn and asked the Pope for a divorce in order to marry her. Henry broke with Rome and declared himself “Supreme Head of the Church” in England. The lands and monasteries of the Church came under the power of the English State.
In 1536, Anne Boleyn, who had given him a daughter, Elizabeth, was executed, and the king married Jane Seymour. There was widespread poverty, a serious unemployment problem and prices were very high.
Edward VI, the son of Jane Seymour, made Protestant doctrine more fully accepted. On Edward’s death, Mary I, the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, succeeded him. She was Catholic and married Philip, heir to the throne of Spain. The nation saw their Queen wanting to make England subservient to Spain and there was a rebellion.
Elizabeth I had received a very good education and she could speak French, Latin, and Italian and above all she was a political genius of the first rank.
There was an extraordinary flowering of literature in the form of translation and original works. The Queen was unmarried and she used her marriage ability as a political weapon, encouraging the hopes of European princes.
Mary Stuart, Catholic Queen of Scots, widow of Francis II of France, married the Catholic Lord Darnley and reinforced her claim to the throne of England.
Lord Darnley was murdered by the Earl of Bothwell and Mary married her husband’s murderer. She fled to England and asked Elizabeth for protection. This did not prevent her from plotting against Elizabeth, who had her condemned to death and executed.
With the death of Elizabeth the Tudor line died out and James VI of Scotland, son of Mary, became the first Stuart king in England.

The literary context and codes

The English Renaissance covers a broad historical period and developed later than its European equivalents. This original English movement had a strong Protestant basis. England struggled to free itself from foreign force which it identified with Rome and the papacy.
Humanism encouraged confidence in the power of human reason to interpret Man and Nature.
The Elizabethan Age is considered the golden age of poetry because of the flourishing of songs and sonnets.
The sonnet came from Italy. The characteristics were: love sought, love satisfied, desire of a lady who cannot return the poet’s love.
The most important paradoxes is that the lover begs for her love yet does not wish her to surrender. The lady is beautiful yet cruel, desirable but chaste, the lover suffers yet does not want the end of suffering.
The Shakesperian sonnet consists of three quatrains and a final couplet.