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The Elizabethan
World Picture
The World Picture:
•An ordered universe arranged in a fixed
system of hierarchies
•The order can be altered by man’s sin and
the hope of his redemption.
ORDER
• Everything had a place and an order in
life, and everything played off other
actions.
Example:
The sun, the king, primogeniture hang
together; the war of the planets is echoed by
the war of the elements and by civil war on
earth…creation out of the confusion of
chaos.
Order cont’d
• Cosmic order is one of the master themes
of Elizabethan poetry, drama, and art.
• They were obsessed with keeping earthly
order; terrified that it might be upset; and
fearful of the chaos that might follow.
• What might happen if Providence relaxed?
What if the laws of nature stopped functioning?
SIN
• The scheme of salvation was pervasive
in the Elizabethan age (think about the
Crusades, the Pardoner and Chaucer’s
other clergy members, and Everyman)
• English literature was permeated by
Christian dogma
How does one reach redemption…
SIN cont’d
• The universe was created after some “divine
idea”: hence the universe was good
…but the universe is a copy and thereby
corrupted from perfection.
BUT FEAR NOT! Man can rise above
imperfections and reach towards heaven
through poetry.
Elizabethans felt that poetry was not only
“more instructive than history or philosophy
[but that] poetry was man’s effort to rise above
his fallen self and to reach out towards
perfection.”
The Chain of Being
• Imagine a chain (or ladder) being stretched
from the foot of God’s throne to the most
inanimate objects.
• Every speck of creation is a link in the
chain.
• “hierarchy” of the Medieval Ages plays into
the Elizabethan Age
Bath Cathedral
Angels
climbing
towards
heaven
The Bottom of the Chain
I.
Mere Existence: Inanimate Class
a.
Elements, liquids, metals
i.
Differences in virtue: water is nobler than earth;
the ruby than topaz, etc.
The Chain cont’d
II.
Existence & Life: Vegetable Class
a.
Plants
i.
The oak is nobler than the bramble, etc.
The Chain cont’d
III.
Existence, Life, & Feeling: The
Sensitive Class (3 grades)
a.
b.
c.
Those that have touch but no memory or
movement like the shellfish, moss, etc
Those with touch, memory, and movement, but
no hearing, like ants.
Those with all faculties like horses and dogs,
etc.
The Chain cont’d
IV. Existence, Life, Feeling, &
Understanding: Man
a.
b.
Linked to all levels below him; earthly levels
Attempts to be linked to the levels above
him; heavenly levels
The Chain cont’d
V.
Existence, Understanding, but
Free from Attachment to the
Lower Levels: Angels
The Chain cont’d
•
•
•
This “chain” is more like a “ladder”
because there is a possibility of change.
There is a progression: the elements
nourish the plants; the fruits nourish the
beasts, and the flesh of the beasts
nourish man.
This is all done with one tendency…
The tendency of man to move upwards
toward God.
The Chain &
Shakespeare
• Shakespeare was always
concerned with man’s position on
the chain between beast and angel.
Nature & Astrology in the
Chain
• Nature: above man but below angels;
an intellectual being?
• Elizabethan scholars think of Nature as
nothing but a tool of God
• Think of Nature and “Fate,” as being
both fickle and slightly unknowing
Nature & Astrology in the
Chain cont’d
• Astrology: obeys God’s changeless
order & are responsible for the vagaries
of Fortune on earth
• Christianity was young and growing, but
there was a general terror of the stars
and the practice of astrology
Nature & Astrology in the
Chain cont’d
• Three things play havoc in man’s lives:
God, Nature, Stars (astrology)
• A belief that man has it in him to survive
the blows of Fortune
• Fortune and Nature, as tools of God,
help to educate man
How Man/Woman Fit into
the Grand Scheme
• Reason & Understanding
• Does man always choose to use
those things wisely?
• We must never forget that the
Elizabethan thoughts of understanding
are in close relation to the fall of man.
The natural thirst for knowledge and
wisdom still survive, but the soul’s
instruments have been impaired and
often shirk or ignore the labor by which
knowledge is obtained.