The Renaissance – Its meaning the Renaissance is a French word which means re-births revival or reawakening. This was both a revival of ancient classical mythology, entreasure and culture as well as a reawakening of the human mind after the long sleep of the dark Middle Ages, to the wonder, the glory and the beauty of human body and the world of nature. It was period of great illumination in the life of humanity. It was a revival of the cult of beauty, the beauty of woman, the beauty of nature and the beauty of art and literature. It began in Italy as early as the 14th century with Petrarch and others and was greatly stimulated by the fall of Constantinople in 1453 by the invention of printing in Germany about his time and great discoveries of scientists and navigators followed.
The Renaissance was an intellectual rebirth which "showed itself in the effort of the individual to free himself from the rigid institutions of the Middle Ages, feudalism and the church; and to assert his right to live, to think and to express himself in accordance with a more flexible secular code". (Moody and Lovett). As men got more freedom and became more enlightened they refused to accept the medieval view that this life should be sacrificed to the future. Instead, they were attracted more and more to the present world and endeavoured hard to get mastery over it "through wealth or statecraft, of discovering its secrets through exploration or scientific development, of heightening its enjoyment through art and literature." Thus, Renaissance, as Symonds points out, "denotes the whole transition from the Middle Ages to the modern world". Michelet calls it "the discovery by mankind of himself and of the world". Sichel also remarks: "It was a movement, a revival of man's power, a reawakening of consciousness of himself and of the universe." In the words of Tillyard, "Renaissance was the manifestation of new life, an outburst of virtuous floridity after the cramping restraints and withering asceticisms of the Middle Ages."
POETRY
It was the spirit of Renaissance humanism which fostered poetry. It has all the freshness and vigour of a youthful race. The bleakness of post-Chaucerian period is over, but from the time of Wyatt and Surrey until we reach Sir Philip Sidney, English poetry is interesting more for its promise than for its performance. We are still in the experimental period.
1. Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516-47). These two poets were Italian travellers, and in bringing back to England the inspiration they had gained from Italian and classic models they remade English poetry. Really they are the first modern poets; the first who have anything of the modern manner. The book that contains their poems is Songs and Sonnets, known as the Tottle's Miscellany, bearing the name of its publisher. It was published in 1557 after the death of the poets and is the first great landmark of early Renaissance poetry.
Wyatt's first object was to restore to English verse the nobility, grace and harmony it had lost. He was deeply influenced by Petrarch. He modelled his work upon Italian models but in course of time he attempted a great variety of metrical experiments —songs, madrigals, sonnets and elegies. Occasionally they are imitative but have touches of grace, freshness and fantasy.
Wyatt introduced sonnet, which became immensely popular in English poetry. He strictly followed the Petrarchan form with octave of eight lines and sestet of six lines, with the rhyming scheme a b b a, a b b a, c d e, c d e. He wrote no memorable sonnets, but he inaugurated sonnet writing. His imitations of Petrarch brought bold and new images into English. Wyatt's true ability as a poet is revealed not by the sonnet but by a number of songs and lyrics that he composed.
As a pioneer of personal or autobiographical poetry, Wyatt stands first in modern English poetry. At times he sounds an intimately personal note. He writes about his joy on leaving Spain for England, his feelings in the Tower, his life as a courtier and as a country gentleman enjoying hunting and other outdoor games. Dante's sonnets are for Beatrice, Petrarch's for Laura, and it is guessed that Wyatt's sonnets were inspired by Henry's second queen, Anne Boleyn. It is the remarkable feature of his poetry since the whole bulk of medieval poetry is impersonal.
In his lyrics Wyatt combines the sweetness, the simplicity, the melody and the spontaneity of the medieval minstrels and the courtly grace and refinement of a man of learning and culture. Such lyrics as "Awake my lute", "Forget Not Yet", "The Lover's Appeal" etc. are eminent examples of poetic power. Mark the following lines from "Forget Not Yet":
Forget not then thine own approved
The which so long hath thee so loved,
Whose steadfast faith yet never moved
Forget not this !
Wyatt was a careful innovator and painstaking experimenter with verse forms. Besides the sonnet, he introduced into English the Italian term rima, the ottava rima and many lyric measures. His style is concise and his diction well chosen. Albert remarks that the very conciseness of his sonnets "represents a great advance on the prolixity and uncouthness of much earlier poetry." Pinto too points out: "It was the union of the popular tradition of lyric poetry with the courtly that was to achieve such great things in Elizabethan age, and it seems to have been Wyatt who discovered the secret."
2. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547). Surrey is seen rather as the disciple of Wyatt than an independent force. His sonnets are more effective than those of Wyatt. He modified and adapted the sonnet to English use, making it a poem of three quatrains followed by a couplet, with the rhyming scheme a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g. Shakespeare adroitly used this form and rendered it immortal. The Petrarchan form is perhaps the more impressive, the modified English form the more expressive.
Surrey was the first poet to use blank verse, in his translation of two books of Aeneid. He did not originate the blank verse, as it had been used in Italy a few years before in a translation of that work. In order to avoid the monotony of rhymed verse, he let the sense run from line to line and thus imparted to blank verse its most characteristic feature. Pinto remarks: "If Wyatt had the glory of bringing the sonnet into English poetry, it is to Surrey that we owe our great epic and dramatic measure of blank verse." All great poets—Marlowe, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Collins, Wordsworth, Shelley and many others have been indebted to Surrey as far as the use of blank verse is concerned.
English poetry suffered a great loss by their premature death at an early age. Their influence could not be felt immediately; "a whole generation passed before the lead of Wyatt and Surrey was followed." It was during the Age of Shakespeare that their poetry fired the imagination of young poets. Stopford A. Brooke writes about their influence: "They were both Italian travellers, and in bringing back to England the inspiration they had gained from classic and Italian models they remade English poetry. They introduced a new kind of poetry, the amourist poetry— a poetry extremely personal; and personal as English poetry had scarcely ever been before."
3. Thomas Sackville (1536-1608). He was a great humanist whose only contribution to English poetry is the Induction which he wrote for The Mirror of Magistrates. It is a compilation of a series of stories narrating the misfortunes of the great figures in English history. The Induction is written in Chaucerian stanza and allegorical form of the Roman de la Rose. Sometimes there is Dantesque intensity about it. He has a sureness of touch and a freedom from technical errors which make him superior to Wyatt and Surrey. His imaginative energy is suggestive of the great poets who were to follow.
PROSE
The prose of early Renaissance consists largely of translations. The revival of classical learning contributed much to the development of prose. "The study of the great classics set free the minds of men, stirred and gave life to letters, woke up English prose from its sleep, and kindled the young English intelligence in the universities." The prose-writers of this period were educationists and reformers rather than creative writers.
The Educationists
1. Desiderius Erasmus. He was a renowned Dutch scholar and humanist whose His Praise of Folly, originally written in Latin, was translated into English. It is a biting satire on vice, wickedness, folly and corruption in contemporary society. Long calls it "a song of victory for the new learning, which had driven away vice, ignorance and superstition, the three foes of humanity."
2. Sir Thomas More (1418-1535). More, one of the early humanists, was the first celebrated prose-writer of great literary significance. He wrote the history in English, of Edward V's life and Richard III's usurption. The simplicity of his genius showed itself in the style, and his wit in the picturesque method and the dramatic dialogue that graced the book. More's most famous work Utopia (1516) was written in Latin, but was translated afterwards in 1551, by Ralph Robinson. It is the "true prologue of Renaissance". It presents More as a Sagacious observer of his times and as an adventurous dreamer who was Plato's disciple. Its inspiration is twofold. Its form was furnished by the maritime discoveries of the Portuguese and the Spaniards, and its content was inspired by Plato's dream of ideal state, revealed in The Republic.
More opposes vehemently the old conceptions and traditions, and the accepted order of society. He makes fun of scholastic philosophy and asserts the superiority of Greek over Latin. He advocates the study of Plato, Aristotle and Plutarch. He opposed the spirit of chivalry which encouraged war and glorified the warriors. As a humanist he hated war. So he was the first modern pacifist. Utopia has been called "the first monument of modern socialism". More extols democratic communism —people's state, elected government, equal distribution of wealth and nine hours' work a day. Long remarks that in More's Utopia "we find for the first time, as the foundations of civilized society, the three great words, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity."
More disapproves medieval asceticism and glorifies the healthy enjoyment of life, and the senses which reveal to us the beauty and wonder of God's creation. He advocates religious toleration. All religions are equal in the ideal state. More is the first advocate of secularism.
Utopia was in part a scholar's dream of what might be, in part a reformer's dream of what should be. It "stands alone as representing England's contribution to pure humanism."
More wrote in Latin. He never sought to mould English prose. His style is formless and his sentences are interminably long. In English literary history More is remembered for the originality of his ideas and the logical way in which they have been expounded. His Utopia "is the representative book of that short but well defined period which we may call English Renaissance before the Reformation". It, in the words of Moody and Lovett, "became the ancestor of a whole of fiction, of which Bacon's New Atlantis is an early and H. G. Wells's Modern Utopia a modern example".
3. Roger Ascham (1515-68). He was a great educationist. He was the tutor of Queen Elizabeth. He dedicated his first work Taxophilus, or the School of Shooting (1545) to the king. It was written for the pleasure of yeomen and gentlemen of England in their own tongue. Ascham apologises for this, and the apology marks the state of English language: "Everything has been done excellently well in Greek and Latin, but in the English tongue so meanly that no man can do worse." But "I have written this English matter, in the English tongue for English men. Ascham's second work, The Schoolmaster (1570) contains intellectual instructions for the young.
Ascham was a great scholar of Latin. His style, though frequently marked by Latinisms, acquired the precision and economy of great Latin masters like Cicero and Seneca. He was the first English writer who wrote "the English speech for the English men." He retained the use of alliteration and antithesis, but following the good classical models he wrought out a clear, concise, and yet not overconcise style. He formed a prose style at once simple and straightforward, yet never bald and unmusical. Ascham's quaint English has its own charm. He laid the foundations of the English "more Teutonic and less Latin than the English of Chaucer". He is undoubtedly "the first English stylist".
4. Sir Thomas Elyot (1490-1546). He wrote Governor (1531), a treatise on moral philosophy and education. It is full of the spirit of antiquity and abounds with Greek and Latin reminiscences. His prose is less of the people and less spontaneous than More's, but it is more restrained and classical.
5. Sir John Cheke (1514-57). He was a teacher of Greek art at Cambridge. His book The Heart of Sedition is full of humanism and the influence of antiquity. To him both form and matter were equally important. His prose is vigorous, argumentative, eloquent and humorous. His attempt to reform English prose is noticeable.
The Reformers
The reformers did memorable work for the development of English language and literature. They prepared the language for the Elizabethan writers, by its version of the Bible.
1. Sir John Tyndale (1484-1536). He occupies on immortal place in the history of English literature for The Translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. He was the first to be inspired by Luther's example and as early as 1522 he began to translate the New Testament into English. Tyndale was persecuted and put to death in 1536. His translation of the Bible was completed by his friend Miles Coverdale in 1535. This translation formed the basis for The Authorised Version of the Bible of 1611. Its style and tone is popular. It is the traditional prose, purged from triviality, ornateness and pedantry. It is simple and yet a little quaint to which the beauty of the original texts and a certain magic-of style clings in varying degree. Tyndale's aim was to make the Bible readable even to peasants. So his prose is remarkable for simplicity, clarity, lucidity and directness. It is also remarkable for its poetic cadences, for its music and melody, for its poetic imagery, and for its sense of rhythm and harmony. Its phrases are unforgettable and its words have great beauty and power. Legouis writes about its importance: "It appealed to all classes, penetrated by way of religious feelings to all minds, and gave a certain beauty to the speech even of the most ignorant and uncultivated, while it militated against the tendency to pedantry of the most learned." S. A. Brooke also writes: "Many millions of people now speak the English of Tyndale's Bible, and there is no book which has had, through the Authorised Version so great an influence on the style of English literature and the standard of English prose."
2. Thomas Cranner. His The English Prayer Book is a good deal mixed with Latin words, and its style is sometimes weak or heavy, but on the whole it is a fine example of stately prose. Its prose is sonorous and musical. Its influence on English prose cannot be ignored.
3. Latimer: His Sermon on the Ploughers and others were delivered in 1549 and in 1522, wrote in a plain, shrewd style, which by its humour and rude directness made him the first preacher of the day.
Reformation "fixed and confirmed our English tongue, but at the same time it brought in through theology a large number of Latin words (acknowledge and confess) in the Prayer Book which is a good example of both these results."
The English prose style was marked by a number of significant improvements. Albert writes: "There was a perceptible increase in skill. Due to increased practice, there was a growing perception of the beauties of rhythm and cadence, and in the purely formal sense, there was the appearance of the prose paragraph. Above all, the chief prose styles—the ornate, the middle and the plain—are appearing faintly but perceptibly. With their arrival the rapid development of English is assured."
DRAMA
This period marks the real beginning of English drama. The renewed study of classical drama shaped English drama in its formative years. Seneca influenced the development of English tragedy, and Plautus and Terence directed the formation of comedy. The classical drama gave English drama its five acts, its set scenes and many other features. Regular English tragedy, comedy and historical play were successfully written during this period.
1. Comedy: The influence of classical drama, especially of Plautus and Terence, is evide..it on Nicola Udal's Ralph Roister Doister (1553), the earliest extant comedy. It is the first English comedy of the classical school, which is divided into acts and scenes. It is a play in five acts. The dramatist has also attempted to construct a coherent, well-knit plot. It is not a mere actionless farce or scanty debate, but a comedy full of incident and adventures well ordered and well planned. Some of the characters have the influence of Terence, others have been taken from real English life. The witty lovers, the testy old fathers, and the intriguing servants show the influence of Terence. There is raciness and freshness in dialogue which indicates that the playwright had heard or studied the rough but bright and interesting conversation of the earlier interludes.
Gammar Gurtan's Needle (1575), written by an unknown writer, is another comedy of the classical style. It has more realistic touches. The rustic setting, the rural types speaking country dialect and natural dialogue show that its author had not forgotten to look at life as well as Terence.
2. Tragedy: Early English tragedies were highly influenced by the Senecan pattern, which forbade the intermingling of comedy and tragedy. The neoclassic tragedy of the Senecan type demanded dignified rhetoric rather than free expression of emotion, narration rather than the display of action, static qualities rather than movement. The popular audience, intoxicated by Renaissance ideal of liberty and humanism, were wholly on the side of lyricism, liberty and action. So, a new genre, known as tragicomedies, written presumably for the more popular audiences, came into existence. In course of time the neoclassical tragedies either disappeared or they themselves began to take on elements borrowed from the popular drama.
The first complete tragedy in English of the Senecan type is Ferrex and Porrex, better known as Gorboduc (1562) which was written by Thoman Norton and Thomas Sackville. In it appear the main features of Senecan tragedy. In it monstrous crime dominates. The motif for the crime is revenge for some earlier wrong. Then there is retribution for that crime. There are certain redeeming features in it, which mark a departure from the Senecan type. The authors deliberately did away with the old chorus of the Senecan tragedy, and substituted for it allegorical dumb shows. In it blank verse is used for the first time for dramatic purpose. The blank verse is rigid and stiff, it lacks the flexibility for its success on the stage. Its theme is taken from English history. It is permeated with patriotic feelings. The authors show a sense for dramatic form. It is the first regular English tragedy and the direct forerunner of Kyd's Spanish Tragedy.
The example of Gorboduc was followed by Thomas Hughes' The Misfortunes of Arthur (1588), Robert Wilmont's Tragedy of Tancred and Gismund (1567-68) and George Gascoigne's Jocasta (1566), while all these plays betray clearly their indebtedness to Seneca in style and treatment of theme. It is noticeable that each one deals with what is virtually a romantic subject. The native traditions have left their mark on drama.
3. Tragicomedies: Early tragicomedies catered to the taste of popular audiences and contributed to the development of romantic tragedy. These plays are bound together by certain ties. Everyone mixes lamentable tragedy with pleasant mirth, or presents an atmosphere which may be called neither comic, not tragic. In this way they are thoroughly romantic and differ from the neoclassical dramatic pattern. The writers of tragicomedies drive away extraneous moral. The abstract types and characters disappear. Some memorable plays of this type are Whetstone's Right Excellent and Famous History, Preston's A Lamentable Tragedy, Richard Edward's Damon and Pithias (1569-70) and R. B.'s Apius and Virginia (1567-8).
4. Chronicle History: Along with the alien classical tragedy arose a healthier native breed of historical plays. They combined both tragic and comic elements. The union of tragedy and comedy was alien to the classical drama, and it was the cardinal characteristic of the Elizabethan stage. Early historical plays were The Troublesome Reign of John, King of England (1590), Tragedy of Richard the Third (1590-4), The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth (1588) and The Chronicle History of Lear (1594). Most of the plays are weak in construction and in characterisation. But they show the establishment upon the English stage of a type of drama in which the morality tradition, the Senecan model and the interlude have all played their parts. They show love of action and romantic incident, the passion for freedom of expression and for poetic dialogue, which is always to be associated with the rise and development of the Elizabethan drama.
We have reached the development of drama up to the nineties of the sixteenth century. The national English drama which was soon to appear was a fusion of all these influences, popular, Italian and classical.
No comments:
Post a Comment