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The Renaissance
15th_ 17th centuries
Elements of Literature
Pages 192-212
What was the Renaissance?
• Beginning in the late 1400s, the English
Renaissance marked changes in people’s values,
beliefs, and behavior.
• Renaissance=Rebirth
– There was a renewed interest in the classical
studies of Greek and Roman cultures
(neoclassicism).
– People generally became more curious! More
people learned to read and studied themselves and
the world around them.
• “The Renaissance Man”
It All Began in Italy
• Vasco de Gama’s voyage to
India in1498 spurred a new
system of trade and
interaction between East
and West.
• Michealangelo, da Vinci,
Galileo, Dante Alegheri,
Botticelli… They were all
Italian.
• Influence of the Church–
The Sistine Chapel (14731481)
The Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Humanism: What is a human being?
• What was humanism?
– an intellectual movement answering life’s tough questions
concerning we humans
• Harmony between intellect and religion?
Thomas More
Deiderius Erasmus
God Bless Gutenberg!
• Johannes Gutenberg and
his HUGE Bible (1455)
• One book on one printing
press led to more printing
presses and more books and
more printing presses and
more books…
• By 1500, relatively
inexpensive books were
available throughout
Europe—Effect: Literacy!
Thomas More and His Utopia
• 1516: More, a well-known humanist published
Utopia, a narrative describing a perfect world (irony
of name).
The Protestant Reformation: a Break in
the Church
• Before the Reformation, if you were Christian,
you were Catholic.. There was nothing else in
Christianity!
• Martin Luther in Worms, Germany
– “Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample
wages, but truth goes a-begging.”
• Sign of the times: new thought rebuking
longstanding traditions… There would be an
effect on religion!
I’m Henry the Eighth I am…
King Versus Pope: All for an Heir
• Kings of England and popes have been fighting
for generations.. but it all came to a boil with
Henry
• Here’s the deal: Henry wanted a son to pass
down the throne, but none of his wives bore
him one… Henry wanted a divorce, but the
Pope wouldn’t give him one…
• 1531, Henry: “I’m starting my own church– the
Church of England.”
The Wives of Henry VIII
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
(Beheaded)
(Died)
Anne of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr
(Divorced)
(Beheaded)
(Survived)
Catherine of Aragon
(Divorced)
Henry’s Children
• Mary Tudor: daughter of Catherine of Aragon;
known as Bloody Mary (we’re getting to that)
• Elizabeth: daughter of Anne Boleyn; I’m sure
you’ve all heard of her.
• Edward: son of Jane Seymour; Because of the
laws of succession, he was crowned first, but he
only ruled for six years before dying.
Mary Tudor a.k.a. Bloody Mary
• She took the throne when
Edward died in 1553.
• Mary was a devout, strongwilled Catholic (remember
who her mother was?!)
• She restored the pope’s power
in England… and also burned
about three hundred British
subjects at the stake for
remaining openly protestant.
• Married King Philip II of
Spain, but she died without
children… So who takes the
throne?
Good Queen Bess
• Remembered as one of
the most brilliant and
successful monarchs in
history
• Her first task:
reestablish law and
order in England!
– Reinstated the Church of
England
• Married to the state
• Strong will and nine
lives?
The Spanish Armada
• Because of Elizabeth’s refusal to marry Philip (exbrother-in-law) and also the execution of Mary Queen
of Scots, Spain did not really like Elizabeth very
much.
• In 1588, Philip assembled the Spanish Armada, and
attempted to attack England.
– Elizabeth proved herself!
Connection to Literature?
• During the Renaissance,
England (and Elizabeth)
became a symbol of peace
and a haven in Europe.
– Elizabeth was the
inspiration for and the
patron of many longlasting pieces of literature
from this time period.
(The Faerie Queene)
The End of an Era
• When Elizabeth died in 1603, the Renaissance
in England began to die with her.
• She was succeeded by her Scottish cousin
James I (daughter of Mary Queen of Scots).
• James was succeeded by Charles I, whose time
on the throne led to the English Civil War
during the 17th Century.
Sonnets
• A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem following a
set rhyme scheme.
• Rhyme schemes are found by looking at the
last word of a line of poetry and labeling it
with corresponding letters of the alphabet,
starting with “A.”
• The sonnet form is what named arrangement a
sonnet fits– Petrarchan, Spenserian, or
Shakespearean.
Petrarchan (Italian)
• Developed by the Italian poet Petrarch
• Only the first eight lines, or octave, have a set
pattern: ABBAABBA
• After the octave, there is a turn, a change in
tone or subject matter.
• Always find the rhyme scheme for all fourteen
lines, but if you see the ABBAABBA, it’s
Petrarchan!
Spenserian
• Developed by Renaissance poet Edmund
Spenser
• Divided into three quatrains (four lines) and
one couplet (two back-to-back lines that
rhyme): ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
• Here’s a memory trick: Remember the EE for
Edmund Spenser!
Shakespearean
• Developed by William Shakespeare
• Like Spenserian, this sonnet has three
quatrains and a couplet. Like Petrarchan, it
also has a turn at line nine.
• Here is its rhyme scheme:
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Whoso List To Hunt- Sir Thomas Wyatt
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, alas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
Sonnet 30
My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congeals with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.