The renaissance

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THE RENAISSANCE

The historical context

THE RISE OF THE TUDOR DYNASTY
Henry VII made the monarchy stronger by getting royal land back from the Church and the nobles, by avoiding war and bringing peace. He chose his ministers among the country gentry and the urban middle classes.

THE REFORMATION
Henry VIII maintained a magnificent court and spent money by making the fighting fleet the best in Europe. The prelude to the breach with Rome was the anti – clericalism of the 12th century, which had found its expression in Wycliffe, Luther and Calvin. In 1521, Henry had been honoured by the Pope, with the title Defensor Fidei. But Henry, who had been married with Catherine of Aragon, who wasn’t able to give him a male heir, asked the Pope for a divorce, in order to marry Anne Boleyn; when he understood that the Pope wouldn’t have done it, he declared himself Supreme Head of the Church: the new Anglican Church was born. In 1536, Anne Boleyn was executed and the king married Jane Seymour, whose son, Edward VI, made Protestant doctrine accepted, with the Book of Common Prayer.
Mary I succeeded Edward and married Philip of Spain. Under her reign, Protestants were persecuted, and the Queen earned the title of Bloody Mary. In 1558, when shi died, Elizabeth became Queen.

THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH I
Elizabeth I was reddish – gold haired and was attractive rather than beautiful. She had a strong personality, a lively intelligence and a fiery temper; she had received a good education and she was a political genius, since he brought unity to England. She solved the religious question, trying to take a middle course by becoming Supreme Governor, instead of Supreme Head of the English Church. She moved round the country and her court was brilliant. The Queen was unmarried and she used her marriage ability as a political weapon, so that people make a cult of their Virgin Queen. The existence of Protestant England depended on her life, since the heir to the throne was Mary Stuart, catholic Queen of Scots, who had been executed in 1587. Explorations and trade expanded, making England a commercial and seafaring power. Elizabeth recognised Spain as her main enemy and the war started in 1588: the Spanish Armada was defeated, and England reached its peak of glory and unity.

THE BEGINNING OF THE STUART DYNASTY
After Elizabeth’s death, James VI of Scotland became the first Stuart king of England. He was a Protestant and a learned man, and his accession was greeted with relief, for it lessened the danger of civil war. Catholic were fined and Puritans disapproved England bishops. A new version of the Bible was made, known as King James Bible. In 1605, Catholic conspirators planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but they were put to death. James made peace with Spain, since war was too expensive and would make him dependent on Parliament, but England’s power declined because the king neglected the navy. In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers left England for America on the Mayflower, while the East India Company set up trading posts in India and Indonesia.

The social context

ORDER AND HIERARCHY
At the top of the social pyramid was the sovereign, accessible only to Privy Councillors. Below the sovereign was the nobility, whose members led a life of luxury and splendour; they had great responsibilities, for they had to serve the state and to patronize players and the theatre. Below the nobility came the knights, then the gentlemen, man of good birth and independent means, who had a general education of speaking, law, ethics and history. The Elizabethan age saw the rise of the yeomen, buying land, branching out into industries and improving their homes. The poor’s conditions became worse since landowners found they could make more money from sheep farming and enclosed the common land in the village. Begging was one of the consequences of enclosures. In the family, the father was the head and the ruler, while the women goods passed into his possession. Most women died in childbirth, but unmarried women were the group that suffered most: many of them could become nuns; the most of them become beggars.

WORDS AND MUSIC IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
There were folk songs and dance and ecclesiastical polyphony for voices, and there were produced music for stringed instruments and music for keyboard instruments. The different audiences weren’t exclusive. Most composers in the Middle Ages were also literary man or clerics, but in Shakespeare’s day there was a tendency for the professional musician and the professional man of letters to become distinct. The madrigal derived from the church music but treated the style in a more lively form.

The world picture

THE CHAIN OF BEING
The Tudors had a system of beliefs based on a general conception of order. The universal order had three main forms: a chain, a series of corresponding planes, and a cosmic dance. The chain stretched from God to the meanest of inanimate objects and every small part of creation was a link in the chain. First there is the inanimate class: the elements, liquids, and metals. Next there is the vegetative class. Than there is the animal class leading up to man, who has not only existence, life and feeling, but also understanding. Finally there are the angels, linked to man through the community of understanding, but freed from attachment to the lower faculties. The man had the unique function of binding together all creation. The Elizabethans were interested in human nature, especially in the conflict between the passions and reason.
The second picture of the world was horizontal, and consisted of a number of planes, in order of dignity but connected with a net of correspondences. The different planes were the divine and angelic, the universe of macrocosm, the body politic, man of the microcosm, and lower creations.
The idea of the cosmic dance was linked to the notion that the created universe was itself in a state of music, of perpetual dance. The angels and saints dance to the music of heaven, the planets and stars dance to the music of the spheres in which they are fixed, natural things duplicate the planetary dance, for example, the seas dance in obedience to the moon. The whole universe was governed by divine will, so subordination and unity were the natural rules for the state and the Queen became the symbol of stability and unity. The Elizabethans were obsessed with the fear of chaos and the fact of mutability, since chaos meant the cosmic anarchy before creation.
The 16th century was restless in the atmosphere created by the new geographical discoveries and the new wealth, by political upheaval and religious wars. Nicolaus Copernicus created a new model of the Solar System in which the Sun was at the centre, with the Earth and other planets moving in a combination of circular movements around it.

ELEMENTS AND HUMOURS
Ancient medical science described man as a mixture of the four elements (air, fire, earth and water) composing the universe. The old philosophy held that the body contained four fluids called humours, each corresponding to one of the elements, and that good health depended upon their harmonious relationship. The element of fire was connected with choler, a humour which produces burning fevers; water corresponded to phlegm, that could be recognized in colds; the earthy humour of black bile was cause of melancholy and depression; air was connected with the humour of blood, encouraging lively and gaiety. The sanguine man appeared robust, with good temperance, charm and liveliness; the phlegmatic man was sluggish and drowsy, and his body was fat and pallid, with feeble wits; choleric man had a mean stature, was leanness, frizzled, with rough skin, and it appeared fierce, arrogant, imperious and unruly; the melancholic man was deprived of a lively energy and good spirits.

The literary context

NEW LEARNING
The English Renaissance developed later than in Europe, and it was a typical English movement, since England struggled to free itself from Rome and the papacy. The movement was characterized by its Protestant and Puritan basis, influenced by the Reformation. The English literature lacked the pagan serenity of the Italian Renaissance and was less committed to the visual arts. Erasmus of Rotterdam had stressed the importance for the Christian student of studying classical literature. The New Learning was established in Grammar Schools and at the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Humanism encouraged confidence in the power of human reason to interpret Man and Nature.

THE SONNET
The Renaissance is considered the golden age of poetry because of the flourishing of songs and sonnets. The sonnet came from Italy and dealt with love sought, love satisfied but desire of a lady who cannot return the poet’s love, making the sonnet the poetry of longing. The lady is the embodiment of both physical and moral qualities. The duality between the attraction towards perfection and the unhappiness caused by the lady’s coldness drives the poet to madness. The sonnet is full of paradoxes: the lover begs for the lady’s love but he doesn’t wish her to surrender, the lady is beautiful but cruel, desirable but chaste. The feelings of the woman are never explored. In many sonnets, love for the woman turns into love for God, and this is the reason why the sonneteer expects no physical consummation of his love.
The sonnet is composed of 14 lines. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided into one octave plus a sestet: the octave presents a situation, with a turning point at the end of the 8th line, the sestet contains the solution to the problem or personal reflections. The Shakespearian sonnet consists of three quatrains and a final couplet; the quatrains present a theme or three different arguments, the conclusion is in the final couplet. The Petrarchan tradition had a great success in England because of the veneration for Queen Elizabeth I, who was referred by poets as Cynthia or the Faerie Queen.

THE MIRROR OF LIFE
The vitality of language made the Elizabethan age outstanding in literary history. Literature was characterized by the persistence of popular customs, and language addressed to a mixed public trained in listening and accustomed to group life. So drama was the main form of Elizabethan art. The central theme of literature is the clash between individuals and the claims of social order.

THEATRES AND ACTING COMPANIES
Until James Burbage built the first permanent theatre in 1576, players had not stable home. Permanent theatres were circular or octagonal and there were three tiers of roofed galleries. The stage, known as apron stage and covered by the shadow, jutted out into the yard, so that the players were surrounded on three sides when the theatre was full. A tiring house was behind the scene, where there was also an inner scene. There was also an upper stage, and the topmost area was used by musicians. The action was continuous, with no break of the illusion.

Words and meaning

MICROCOSM AND MACROCOSM
The concepts of macrocosm and macrocosm underline the correspondence between the individual and the universe. In ancient times, there was the belief that the world was animated with a soul, and this interpretation found its most famous expression in the Platonic myth told in Timeo. The correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm, rejected in Aristotle’s philosophy, reappeared in the thought of the Stoics and in the work of Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno and Tommaso Campanella. Magic meant control of nature by enchanting or taming it.

Authors and texts

I FIND NO PEACE
Thomas Wyatt
This sonnet was written by Thomas Wyatt, one of the most popular Elizabethan sonneteers, for one of his lovers, in imitation of Petrarca’s Pace non trovo.
Comprehension
1. The poet is speaking whit his own voice.
2. The poet says that he can’t find peace because his love can’t be returned from the woman he loves.
3. Love locks him.
4. The poet is able to see without his eyes and to speak without his tongue thanks to the power of love.
5. The poet says that he loves another, but he hates himself because he loves a woman that cannot return his love since she’s married with another man and because maybe also he is married.
6. The poet is food on by sorrow linked to love, since he proves sorrow loving and not being loved.
7. Love causes his strife.
Sound patterns
1. abba abba cddc gg
Wyatt
Petrarch
Rhyme scheme
Abba abba cddc gg
Abab abab cde cde
Number of quatrains
3
2
Number of tercets
/
2
Number of couplets
1
/
2. Alliterations point out the antithesis of the poet’s feelings.
3. Lines aren’t of the same length; the longest lines are 4, 5, 9, 12 and 13; they emphasise certain words.
Language and meaning
1. Wyatt uses the rhetoric device of oxymoron to express his personal feelings.
2. peace – war
fear – hope
burn – freeze
fly – arise
naught – seize on
looseth – locketh
holdeth – scape
live – die
eye – tongue
perish – health
love – hate
sorrow – laugh
death – life
delight – strife
This device describes the ambiguity of this love.
3. The poet uses the antithesis to explain the ambiguity of this love.
4. Each of Wyatt’s oxymoron has a corresponding one in Petrarch’s sonnet and the images are presented in the same order.
5. Wyatt’s sonnet is a translation of Petrarch’s one.
Contextualization
The lady embodies all physical and moral qualities, she’s beautiful yet cruel, desirable but chaste, she’s fair and her feelings are never explored.

ONE DAY I WROTE HER NAME
Edmund Spenser
This sonnet was written by Edmund Spenser, and it’s taken from the sequence Amoretti; it deals with the topic of immortality achieved through poetry and art.
Comprehension
1. This poem is a dialogue between the poet and his beloved.
2. The pronoun “she” is referred to his beloved.
3. She tells him that he’s a vain man because he wants to eternise a mortal thing.
4. The poet doesn’t agree with her, since he believes that he can eternise her beauty through his poetry.
Sound patterns
1. abba bcbc cdcd gg
2. The sonnet is divided into three quatrains and a final couplet, so we can say that it’s an Elizabethan sonnet.
3. Alliterations, repetitions and musical parallelisms underline the immortal love.
Language and meaning
1. The words referring to nature belong to the semantic area of the sea.
2. The recurrence of the same lexical units conveys an effect of musicality and express the feeling of sorrow of the poet.
3. From line 5 to the end, the sonnet is written in direct speech.
4. The tone of the poet’s answer is solemn and melancholic; there is an antithesis with the preceding lines, since a sentiment of hope is expressed, instead of a sentiment of sorrow.
5. The poet may be hinting at hope, immortality and power of poetry and art.
6. In line 12 there is the image of the angelical woman, that conveys an idea of immortality and purity. It has the effect of eternise her and her name.
7. The mention of the Apocalypse expresses an antithesis between the mortality of people and the eternal love.
The message of the poem is that poetry has a great power that can win the passing of time.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born at Stratford – Upon – Avon in 1364. Some information about his life are conjectural. He was the eldest son of eight, and his father could give him no better education than his own employment, so in Shakespeare works we hardly find any traces of an imitation of the classics. He married Anne Hathaway, and in 1584 he left his home town and went to London, where he was received into one of the companies and became writer. He got support from the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his poems. Most of his plays were performed in the Globe Theatre. Hi died when he was 52 years old, and 7 years after his death, some friends published his plays in the First Folio.

SONNETS
The sonnets can be divided into two sections. The first is addressed to a fair youth, probably the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare’s patron, and they are organised into sonnets devoted to the theme of increase and sonnets dealing with time, seen as an antagonist. The second section is addressed to a dark lady who, even if she’s physically unattractive, is desirable. Shakespeare’s sonnets were published in 1609, and they were 154 sonnets in decasyllables made up of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The style of the sonnets is characterised by rich descriptive language, the use of rhyme, the adaptation of stress to the movement of emotions and the multitude of cultural references implied.

SHALL I COMPARE THEE
William Shakespeare
This sonnet closes the sequence on the theme of increase devoted to the fair youth and develops the theme of awareness of the transience of beauty.
Comprehension
1. The two terms of comparison are the summer’s day and the beloved. The one which proves the better is the beloved, since her beauty won’t fade.
2. The poet will make the addressee eternal with his poem.
3. A question: line 1
The answer: line 2
The justification to the answer: from line 3 to 8
A promise: from line 9 to 12
The result of the promise: lines 13 – 14
Sound patterns
1. abba cdcd efef gg. The poem is a Shakespearian sonnet since it’s composed of three quatrains and a final couplet.
2. The turning point lies in line 9.
3. The enjambment is between line 9 an line 10.
Language and meaning
1. There is a great use of the pronoun “you”, giving the poem a dramatic feature.
2. The image of summer connects the part of the poem concerning nature and its laws with the one concerning art and its symbolic order. This image acquires, in the second part, the meaning of youth and beauty.
3. Winds; summer; the sun, Death.
4. The poet says that poetry can eternise time.
1.

THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS
William Shakespeare
This sonnet is a celebration of real love, which never alters but goes deeper. This feeling can oppose time and defeat its deterministic laws.
Comprehension
1. The poet thinks that any marriage may admit impediments, but not that of true love.
2. The greatest love doesn’t change.
3. The troubles of life doesn’t overcome love.
4. Love is a guide.
5. Time can’t change real love.
6. The poet thinks that nobody can prove the opposite.
Sound patterns
1. Layout: three quatrains and a final couplet (Shakespearian sonnet).
Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
Turning point: line 9
2. Inversion: lines 1 – 2
Alliteration: line 6
Enjambement: lines 2 – 3
Repetition: lines 2 and 4
Language and meaning
1. The beginning of the poem introduces the reader to the core of the poet’s argument, giving the poem the quality of a dramatic monologue.
2. Negative sentences prevail in the poem and they are use to state.
3. Ever – fixed mark → strength, stability
Star → guide
The poet draws upon the semantic area of navigation.
4. Time is personified through the use of a capital letter, the use of verbs referring to human actions, the use of adjectives defining human qualities.
Time is defined as brief and sickle.
5. The couplet has the function of closing the argument as a sort of epigram.
6. With the marriage of true minds, Shakespeare means the won of real rove and constancy over the passing of time.
Contextualization
The antagonist of Time, in each poem, is love.

MY MISTRESS’ EYES
William Shakespeare
This sonnet belongs to the sequence addressed to the dark lady, and Shakespeare talks about her in a unusual way.
Comprehension
Her eyes are nothing like the sun;
Her lips aren’t as red as coral;
Her breasts are dun;
Her hair are like black wires;
Her cheeks aren’t red and with;
Her breath is stinky;
Her voice isn’t musical.
The lady is ugly and not attractive, she’s the opposite of the angelical woman.
Sound patterns
1. abab cdcd efef gg; the sonnet is composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, so it’s a Shakespearian sonnet.
2. In the first line there are 10 syllables.
3. The metre is iambic.
4. There are 5 feet in the first line.
5. ˘/ˉ = iambic; ˉ/˘ = trochaic
Language and meaning
1. The terms of comparison share the feature of being negative: they deny the woman beauty and disappoint the reader’s expectations.
2. The couplet has the function of comment and summarize what the poet said before.
3. The language used by Shakespeare in this sonnet is realistic.
Contextualization
This sonnet can be defined “anti – Petrarchan” since the described lady isn’t an angelical woman, such as Petrarch’s beloved.

SHAKESPEARE THE DRAMATIST
Only half of Shakespeare’s plays were printed during his lifetime, some time after being performed. The works are dated combining external evidence, internal evidence and stylistic evidence. External evidence is the most valuable and consists in a clear reference to a play; internal evidence is when the play includes an reference to an event; stylistic evidence is the most difficult and consists of basing on the changes in Shakespeare’s style. The language is compact and full of meaning, flexible and expressive. Shakespeare doesn’t take his characters from only one social class; hierarchy forms the background for every play, but the emphasis is on aristocracy. Family ties concur in contrasting form, suggesting contrasts between the older and the younger generation. There are also symmetrical correspondences. There are stage directions, since it’s the text provides information about the atmosphere of a scene.

ROMEO AND JULIET
Romeo, the son of Lord Montague, who is the head of a Veronese family at feuding with Capulets, and Juliet, Lord Capulet’s daughter, are the protagonists of this tragedy. The first act covers a whole day, and it’s composed of dialogues about the courtly love; it ends with the scene of the masque and the meeting of Romeo and Juliet. The second act is concentrated on the development of the relationship between the two lovers and t ends with their secret wedding. The third act is the central one since it’s full of movements. The fourth act is the preparation for the final tragedy: deviated information have brought about the division of the characters into two groups. The fifth act consists of Romeo’s movement to Mantua, where he’s gone, after killing Tybalt, and the final death of the protagonists.

THE PROLOGUE
Romeo and Juliet begins with a sonnet, spoken as a Prologue by the chorus, where the private emotional experience of the lovers is explored in relation to the social context and the ideas of love, death and destiny. Comprehension
1. The scene is set in fair Verona.
The play deals with the two families of the Montagues an the Capulets.
An ancient grudge has been between them for a long time.
The Chorus doesn’t give any reason for the feud.
2. The children of these two families are in love with each other.
They meet a piteous end.
Their deaths end the family strife.
3. The subject of the play is the love affair between the two rival families’ children and their death.
The play will last two hours.
The audience is asked to pay attention at the play.
Characters and dramatic technique
1. “we”: lines 12 and 14 → referred to the actors’ company.
“you”: line 13 → referred to the audience.
2. The adverb “here” is referred to the play itself.
3. The function of the prologue is that of introducing the characters, introducing the story and setting the scene
Language and meaning
1. Love: star – cross lovers, death – marked love;
Death: grudge, mutiny, civil blood, foes, strife, death – marked love, rage, end.
The phrase “death – marked love” sums up the sad end of the two lovers.
2. The themes of the play are love, death and family feud.

THE MASQUE
Romeo, the heir of the Montagues, attends the ball of the Capulets and falls in love with Juliet, the daughter of the house. Romeo is the prototype of the platonic lover.
Comprehension
1. The scene is set at the great ball of the Capulets.
2. Romeo is speaking about Juliet.
3. Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet.
4. When Romeo and Juliet meet, he kisses her and she returns his kiss.
Characters and dramatic technique
1. Romeo’s monologue makes the audience aware of his love for Juliet.
2. Romeo embodies the Renaissance code of courtly love since he compares Juliet to light and perfection, such as the angelical woman.
3. Juliet returns Romeo’s kiss.
4. Juliet is an unconventional and passionate girl.
5. The dialogue between the two lovers shows that they are both very young and impulsive since they follows their instinct, and they love each other despite the feud between their two rival families.
6. The stage direction used at the end of the dialogue isn’t important, since we can see what is happening on the scene.
Language and meaning
1. The two speakers use poetry.
The rhyme scheme is: aabb ccdd aa
Juliet → brightness ← Ethiop jewel; Juliet → purity ← dove.
The use of rhyme brings forth the antithesis between light and darkness.
Touch: touching hers, profane, lips, smooth, rough touch, kiss, hand, palm.
Sight: beauty, place of stand, sight.
Sight imply beauty and it’s joined to courtly love conventions.
2. abab cbcb dede ff.
It’s a sonnet.
It’s made up of three quatrains and a final couplet.
There are irregularities in the stress pattern.
There are many run on lines, for example in lines 11 – 12 and 13 – 14.
They are significant since they point out their passion and they underline the metaphor and the antithesis.
Sight is linked to courtly love; touch evokes an image of physical love.
Juliet → purity ← holy shrine; Romeo’s lips → pursue an ideal ← blushing pilgrims.
Stated premiss: “Saints do not move” even if they grant favours by intercession of prayers.
Implied premiss: Juliet stands for a saint.
Conclusion: Juliet doesn’t move and returns Romeo’s kiss.
Connection
The theme of this passage isn’t keeping with the poetic tradition of the time since Juliet shows a tendency to be concrete in her use of language, so we can say that she isn’t idealized, but she is a real woman. Juliet is an unconventional character since she is extremely realistic and she returns Romeo’s kiss, despite the courtly love conventions.

THE BALCONY SCENE
This is the most famous scene of all the tragedy, where the two lovers declare their love to each other. While Romeo praises Juliet’s beauty with neoplatonic images in the style of the courtly tradition, Juliet turns out to be an unconventional character. When she asks why Romeo is a Montague, she reflects upon the relationship between a name and what it stands for; she underlines that Romeo is her lover and also an enemy by his name.
Comprehension
The scene is set under Juliet’s balcony.
It takes place at night.
Romeo stands under Juliet’s balcony.
Romeo describe Juliet as the sun.
Juliet asks Romeo to reject his name since his name in an enemy.
The two lovers reveal their love to each other.
Characters and dramatic technique
1. This situation symbolizes the distance between their two families.
2. Romeo utters this monologue while Juliet is present on the scene.
The nocturnal setting links the monologue to the here and now.
3. love: lines 10 – 12;
beauty: lines 4 – 6;
light: lines 4 – 5.
4. passionate, impulsive, tender, spontaneous.
5. The transition from monologue to dialogue creates suspense.
6. Juliet points out the difference between a name and what it stands for.
Juliet is impulsive, realistic and unconventional.
7.
Act I
Act II
Romeo
He embodies courtly love conventions.
He’s influenced by Juliet’s speech and he’s ready to destroy her name.
Juliet
She’s an unconventional character since she returns Romeo’s kiss.
She tries to separate appearance from reality.
Language and meaning
1. All the images having to do with light are referred to Juliet’s beauty.
This expression represents Romeo’s being impulsive and young.
2. The Masque: sight → dialogue between Romeo and Juliet → touch;
The Balcony Scene: sight → dialogue between the two lovers → hearing.
3. Reality: thyself, hand, foot, arm, face.
Appearance: name, Romeo, title, word.
Juliet’s reflection upon language shake the medieval code since it tries to destroy the fixed order.
Romeo shares Juliet’s view even if he’s influenced by her.

HAMLET
Two months after Hamlet’s father’s death, Queen Gertrude has married her brother in law, Claudius, who has become king. The ghost of the late king of Denmark has appears to Hamlet and tell him he had been murdered by Claudius, who poured poison in his ear while he was sleeping. He asks Hamlet to avenge him. Hamlet pretends to be mad but Polonius, the king’s counsellor, thinks his madness is caused by his love for Ophelia. Hamlet arranges for a troupe of actors to perform the “Murder of Gonzago”, a play whose story is similar to the one revealed by the ghost. While watching the play, Claudius rushes away and goes to pray, but Hamlet doesn’t kill him. During a discussion with Gertrude, Hamlet kills Polonius who’s hiding behind a curtain to spy their conversation. The king sends Hamlet to England to make him killed, while Ophelia goes mad and dies. Her brother Laertes wants revenge and Claudius plots Hamlet’s death in a duel with Laertes. For Claudius plot, Gertrude, Laertes and Hamlet are poisoned, but when he’s dying, Hamlet kills Claudius and asks Horatio to tell his story and to elect Fortinbras king.