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This age is also known as Elizabethan period or
the age of Shakespeare.
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Renaissance means the revival of learning, and
it denote in its broadest sense the gradual enlightenment of the human mind
after the darkness of the Middle Ages.
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Along with the revival of learning, new
discoveries took place in several other fields. Vascoda Gama circumnavigated
the earth; Columbus discovered America; Copernicus discovered the solar system
and prepared the way for Galileo. Books were printed, and philosophy, sciences,
and art were systematised. Men sought for new lands and gold and the fountain
of youth- that was the new spirit, which awoke in Europe with the revival of
learning.
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The major concept of emphasise, during the
period was, “humanism”, - which means
man’s concern with himself as an object of contemplation. This movement was
started in Italy by Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio in the 14th
century, and from there it spread to other countries of Europe. It had a number
of subordinate trends:
- The rediscovery of classical antiquity, and particularly of ancient Greece. Europe had forgotten the liberal tone of old Greek world and its spirit of democracy and human dignity. The first English man who wrote under the influence of Greek studies was Sir Thomas more. His “utopia”, written in Latin, was suggested by Plato’s “republic”. Sir Philip Sidney in his “defence of poesie” accepted and advocated the critical rules of the ancient Greeks.
The discovery of external universe, and its
significance for man. But more important than this was that the writers
directed their gaze inwards, and became deeply interested in the problems of
human personality. In the medieval morality plays, the characters are mostly
personifications: friendship, charity, sloth, wickedness and the like. But now
during the Elizabethan period, under the influence of humanism, the emphasis
was laid on the qualities which distinguished one human being from another, and
give an individuality and uniqueness. Moreover, the revealing of the writers
own mind became full of interest. This tendency led to the rise of a new
literary form- “the essay”, which was used successfully by bacon. In drama
Marlowe probed down into the deep recesses of the human passions. His heroes,
Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus and Barabbas, the Jew of Malta, are possessed of uncontrolled
ambitions. Shakespeare, a more consummate artist, carried humanism to
perfection. His genius, fed by the spirit of the renaissance, enabled him to
see life whole, and to present it in all its aspects.
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Humanism was enhanced sensitiveness to formal
beauty, and the cultivation of the aesthetic sense. It showed itself in a new ideal
of social conduct, that of the courtier. An Italian diplomat and man of
letters, Castiglione wrote a treatise entitled “cortigiano” (the courtier)
where he sketched the pattern of gentlemanly behaviour and manners upon which
the conduct of such men as Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh was
modelled. This cult of elegance in prose writing produced the ornate style
called “euphuism” by lily.
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Another aspect of humanism was that men came to
be regarded as responsible for their own actions, as Casius says to Brutus in
Julius Caesar: “the fault, dear Brutus,
is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
Instead of looking up to some higher authority, as was done in the Middle
Ages, during the renaissance period guidance was to be found from within. Lyly wrote
his romance of Euphues not merely as an excuse in a new kind of prose, but with
the serious purpose of inculcating righteousness of living, based on self-
control. Sidney wrote his arcadia in the form of fiction in order to expound an
ideal of moral excellence. Spenser wrote faerie queen, with a view “to fashion a
gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle disposition”
Though we do not look for direct moral teaching in Shakespeare,
nevertheless, we find underlying his work the same profoundly moral attitude.
NOTE: Rest other features of the age will be talked about in the next blog.
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