K J Somaiya College of Arts And Commerce, Vidyavihar, Mumbai-77

ENGLISH, Paper-VII (Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods); SEM-V (2021-22)

NAME: RUKAIYA ALIASGAR SUTERWALA

ROLL NO: 32

CLASS: TYBA

DIV: A

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 6TH OCTOBER 2021

PROFESSOR: MORE SIR

TOPICS SELECTED:

2. Study, research, and write a detailed one on any of the literary terms
prescribed in the syllabi of English, Paper-VII (Elizabethan and Jacobean
periods) outlining its overall impact on the literature written during the
Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The answer should be unique, relevant, and
self-explanatory in terms of its application and significance to the topic.

3. You have been entrusted with the responsibility of interviewing one of the
celebrated Elizabethan poets. Draft the script of interview in such a way that the
interview gives insights into his\her notable collection of works, the significant
themes, imagery and symbolism, and any other vital aspect of his\her poetry.
2. Study, research, and write a detailed one on any of the literary terms
prescribed in the syllabi of English, Paper-VII (Elizabethan and Jacobean
periods) outlining its overall impact on the literature written during the
Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The answer should be unique, relevant, and
self-explanatory in terms of its application and significance to the topic.

UNIVERSITY WITS

WHAT ARE UNIVERSITY WITS?

University Wits were a group of young dramatists who wrote and performed in
London towards the end of the 16th century. They are called University Wits
because they were witty students of Cambridge or Oxford. They were all more
or less acquainted with each other and most of them led irregular and uncertain
life. Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Nash, Robert
Greene, George Peele and John Lyly were the members of this group. Their
plays had some common characteristics.

University Wits had a fondness of introducing heroic themes in their dramas.

They often took it from the lives of great figures. They gave heroic treatment to
the heroic themes. Their dramas usually had variety, splendid description and
violent incidents. Their chief aim was to achieve strong and sounding lines. The
best example was Marlowe, who is famous for his use of blank-verse. Again,
the themes, used in their dramas, were usually tragic in nature. There was lack
of real humor in their dramas. The only exception was Lyly. His “The Woman
in the Moon” is the first example of romantic comedy.
IMPACTS AND FEATURES OF UNIVERSIITY WITS:

University Wits were poets and playwrights with a philosophical bend of mind;
they wrote plays for earning their livelihood and were not patronized by anyone.

Renaissance Drama began with the decline of Protestantism and Morality plays.
Moralities were over taken by secular thoughts and reformers used morality to
portray their own views. Secular morality took a long step to form rudimentary
comedy called “Interludes”. Interludes were sketches of a nonreligious nature,
some plays were called interludes that are today classed as morality plays. John
Heywood, one of the most famous Interlude writers, brought the genre to
perfection in his The Play of Wether and the The Play called the Fource. John
Heywood was a playwright whose short dramatic interludes helped put English
Drama on the road to the fully developed stage comedy of the Elizabethans. He
replaced biblical allegory and the instruction of the morality play with a comedy
of contemporary personal types that illustrate everyday life and manners. The
plays of the University Wits had several features in common: There was a
fondness for heroic themes, such as the great figures of “Tamburlaine” in the
play, “Tamburlaine the Great”. It is a play written in two parts of Cristopher
Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur.

Heroic themes needed heroic treatment: great fullness and variety; splendid
descriptions, long swelling speeches, and handling violent incidents and
emotions. These qualities, excellent when held in restraint, only too often held
to loudness and disorder. Their style was also heroic. Their chief aim was to
achieve strong and sounding lines, magnificent epithets and powerful
declamation. This again led to abuse and mere bombast, mouthing, and in worst
cases to nonsense. One of the best examples of such cases is in Marlowe’s
work, the result of which is quite impressive. The themes were usually tragic in
nature, for the dramatists were as a rule too much in earnest to give heed to
what was considered to be the lower species of comedy.

Elizabethan age dramas are a series of improvements upon 14th century plays
and Causer’s literature and towards the end of the age, literature becomes
realistic and puritan in theme. The most magnificent representatives of the
writers of real comedies is Lyly, who in such plays as “Alexander and
Compaspe” and “Endymion” gives us first examples of romantic comedy.

CONTRIBUTION OF UNIVERSITY WITS TO THE ELIZABETHAN

DRAMA:

After the establishment of The Theater in 1576 there came a huge competition
in the production of drama. Novelty in drama is always needed for success. The
managers were finding such men who could patch up old plays with new
matters. A bunch of bohemian writers associated with either Oxford or
Cambridge University came forward in the literary canvas with their handful of
contribution in the field of drama they are called “University Wits”. They
absorbed the new renaissance spirit and synthesizing the vigour of the native
tradition with more refined classicism. The group consisted of seven famous
playwrighters. So they were known as “The Seven Stars of the Cosmos”
Lyly’s play contain attractive lyrics. He was the first dramatist to write
essentially high comedy. His best plays are: Alexander, Sapho and Phao,
Endimion, Midas, love’s Metamorphosis, The Wife in the Moon etc.

Peele is noted for hid poetric style and decorative phrases. His contributions are
flowery. He wrote the Arraignment of Paris, The chronicle of Edward I, The
Old wives’ Tale etc.

Greene was a poet, pamphleteer, proto-novelist and playwright. He is powerful

for his romantic setting. His plays include Alphonsus, King of Aragon,Orlando
Furioso,Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay etc.

Kyd brought the Senecan taste of horror ghost, hangings, stabbing, madness,
pistoling and suicide. He influenced Shakespeare also. His notable contribution
is Spanish Tragedy which flows the line of Elizabethan Revenge tragedy.

Marlowe typifies the Renaissance spirit more completely than any other
University Wits. He made heroic theme popular. Marlowe’s used of blank verse
as an effective and pliant medium of tragic utterance. All his plays are
tragedies-Tamburlaine, The jew of Malta, Edward ll, Doctor Faustus etc.

Lodge was popular for his romance, Rosalynde. His only original play is The
woundes of Civile War.
Nash made tremendous contribution to comedy. His comedies attack so many
current abuses in the state. His most popular play is Summer’s Last Will and
Testament.

CONCLUSION:

Besides, contribution to the field of drama, the University Wits in general and
Lyly in particular contributed a lot for the development of English prose.

Lyly’s greatest service to the drama consists in his writing plays in prose. His
plays prepared a way of Shakespeare’s “A Mid-summer Nights Dream” and
“As You Like It”. Lyly is best known for his romantic prose work “Euphues”
that gave English language Euphuistic style. Thus, in the arena of drama and
prose the University Wits played a major role.

3. You have been entrusted with the responsibility of interviewing one of the
celebrated Elizabethan poets. Draft the script of interview in such a way that the
interview gives insights into his\her notable collection of works, the significant
themes, imagery and symbolism, and any other vital aspect of his\her poetry.

Today we are interviewing the most famous poet of Elizabethan period that is
Sir Philip Sidney.
How are you sir today? I’m pleased to meet you! Shall we start the interview?

 Interviewer: Sir when did you first start writing? Who influenced you to
write?

Sir Philip Sidney: Well, around 1578 I had begun writing. It was an
“unexpected vocation”, in The Defence of Poetry. In these my not old
years idlest times having slipped into the title of a poet. I wrote 108
sonnets and 11 songs of Astrophil and Stella around 1582 and I circulated
in manuscript form amongst Sidney’s noble friends. Returning to England
in 1575, I met Penelope Devereux. Although she was much younger to me,
she inspired me for my famous Sonnet sequence of 1580s, Astrophil and
Stella.

 Interviewer: What is your opinion on poetry?

Sir Philip Sidney: My notion of “fore-conceit” means that a conception of

the work must exist in the poet’s mind before it is written in free form,
the limitations of nature and independent form nature, poetry is capable
of “making things either better than Nature brighten forth or quite a new
forms such as never were in nature”. To me, poetry is an art of imitation
for specific purpose, it is imitated to teach and delight. According to me,
poetry is simply a superior means of communication and its value
depends on what is communicated. So even history when it is described
in a lively and passionate expression becomes poetic.

Poetry teaches and delights, but that is not at all. Poetry has the power to
move the mind and to stir the heart. It is by its power to move the minds,
 it influences the behavior and conduct. Poetry is an art of imitation, a
representing counterfeiting or figuring forth, to speak metaphorically a
speaking picture, with this end-too teach and delight.

 Interviewer: What are the types of poetry according to you?

Sir Philip Sidney: There are three kinds of poetry according me, they are
religious poetry, philosophical poetry and poetry as an imaginative
treatment of life and nature. I call special attention to the third class of
poets, for “these be they that, as the first and most noble sort may justly
be termed vates”.

Many Golden lives about the “role of a poet in the society” have been in
print. To you what is the role of poet in today’s society?

A poet should act as a mirror to the society as well as its spokesperson

especially of whose who can’t speak for themselves.

 Interviewer: What are the common themes or the structures used in your
poems?

Sir Philip Sidney: Well, the sixteen century is a time of scientific,

historical, archaeological, religious and artistic exploration. More
attention was being allotted to probing into to the depts. Of the human
psyche and it was unto the artists and poets rather than the priest and
scholars to examine and mirror these internal landscapes. The “Little
world of man” was reflected through various artistic forms, one of which
was the sonnet, which was conventionally used for dedications, moral
epigrams and the like. Traditionally, most sonnets dealt with theme of
 romantic love and in general the sonneteer dealt with the over-riding
concern of the self and the other, the latter of which normally referred to a
mistress, friend or a familial relations. I nevertheless wrote with my
Elizabethan readers in mind as my characters spoke in English accents,
voiced English concerns and evoked the spirit of time.

In my poem “The Nightingale” the main theme is of men’s verses

women’s pain. I have compared a woman’s pain to a man’s. in stating
that the Nightingale’s song is the expression of pain, I suggest that
women are not only able to express their emotions they are expected to.
However, I casts doubt on the validity of woman’s pain, stating that her
only cause of pain is “Tereu’s love” minimizing the anguish of rape.
Furthermore, I call her complaints “womanlike” in nature. According to
me men’s pain must be represented because it is worse than the pain that
woman suffer at the hands of the men. According to me, the source is
“craving” and “wanting” a woman’s love and touch. Men are always
stronger sex, capable of overcoming and harming woman, they must
suffer “the thorns” of their own pain internally. According to me male
longing is more painful that of a female’s rape. In this poem I have
expressed my own pain because of which people thought I was a
hypocrite.

 Interviewer: How according you is the end of all learning?

Sir Philip Sidney: Virtuous action is the end of the learning, and I set out
to prove that the poet, more than anyone else, fulfils this end. The poet
improves upon history, for example vice and virtue for human imitation, I
make virtue succeed and vice fall and this history can seldom do.
 Interviewer: Stephen Gosson makes charges as
1) Poetry is waste of time
2) Poetry is mother of lies and
3) It is nurse of abuse.
How you would like to answer these charges?
Sir Philip Sidney: Well, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Poetry is the
source of knowledge and a civilizing force. No learning is so good as that
which teaches and moves to virtue and that nothing can both teach and
amuse so much as poetry does. Ancient Greek society respected poets. The
poets are always to be looked up. So poetry is not waste of time.
The poet does not lie because he never affirms that his fiction is true and can
never lie. The poetic truths are ideal and universal. Therefore poetry cannot
be a mother of lies. I reject that poetry is the source of abuses. To me it is
people who abuses poetry, not the vice-versa. Abuses are more nursed by
philosophy and history than by poetry. On the contrary, poetry helps to
maintain morality and peace by avoiding such violence and bloodsheds.
Moreover, it brings light to knowledge.

 Interviewer: Can you please explain us poetry’s superiority over

Philosophy and History?
Sir Philip Sidney: Poetry is the first light giver to ignorance, as it
flourished before any other art or science. The first philosophers and
historians were poets; and such supreme works as the psalms of David
and the dialogues of Plato are in reality poetical. Among the Greeks and
the Romans, the poet was regarded as a sage or prophet and no nation has
been without poets. While the philosopher teaches by precept alone and
the historian by example alone, the poet conduces most to virtue because
he employs both the precept and example.
 Interviewer: Can you please tell us something about the imagery and
symbolism used in your poems?
Sir Philip Sidney: I want to convey messages with the help of the literary
element that is symbolism. In “Sonnet 75” and “Astrophil and Stella”
there is the presence of symbolism. This element is a cornerstone to these
poems and helps the reader think deeper beyond the literal meanings of
words and how they represent something greater. The use of symbolism
also makes the readers mind think about how the sentences state
something literally, but also have a deeper meaning. If these elements
were not to be used, then the poems would lose some of their charisma
because most sonnets have a deeper meaning to be conveyed with the use
of help of symbolism.
In Astrophil and Stella there are three main types of symbols which I
have used, they are sun which symbolizes Stella’s eyes the thing that
brings light into my dark days. Like the sun, stars also symbolizes Stella.
Stella in Latin means “star”. She is a rare star. I find her different from all
other stars that is all other women- with which I am familiar. King
symbolizes figures of power in the sequence and are used to demonstrate
the power dynamics between men and women and lovers more generally.
I also use the kings and kingship in the sequence related to my political
agenda.
The symbols used in my poem “The Nightingale” is the Nightingale
itself, the month of April, the thorn and Tereus.

 Interviewer: How does one even begin to judge poetry? Is there some
yardsticks that help you define a “good” poem from a not so great one?
Sir Philip Sidney: For all its subjectivity, it’s certainly possible to solve
criteria to assess the effectiveness of a poem. And that’s because a poem
is a verbal entity. For instance, it’s not the emotion that makes a particular
 love poem successful, but how the emotion is expressed. There are ways
of working and refining the “how”. That’s the craft of poetry, which can
be as exacting as the work of a weaver or goldsmith.

 Interviewer: Do you have any particular audience in mind when you

write, an ideal reader?
Sir Philip Sidney: Yes, I often do imagine a certain type of reader when I
write- my version of the ideal reader. Sometimes this might resemble a
friend or fellow poet I know. At other times, this might be a person I wish
I knew. Basically, this is my idea of a subtle, attentive, fine-tuned listener,
if I’m certain that a poem has been fashioned with a measure of care and
rigor and honestly, I stand by it. If it doesn’t find a sympathetic reader, I
might simply grow more protective of it!

 Interviewer: Can you put light on or tell us something about your major
works?
Sir Philip Sidney: My most famous work is “Astrophil and Stella”. Then I
wrote Countless of Pembroke’s Arcadia in the end of sixteenth century. It
was a long work of prose and took a lot of time to complete my work. It is
sometimes known by abbreviated name of Arcadia. I wrote “defence of
poesy” written in 1579, which was a new response to an old charge against
the legitimacy of poetry, one that had been leveled against the literary arts.
Then in my poem “Nightingale” I used Italian meter which was first to
attend the English literary tradition. My sonnet “Ring out Your Bells” was
under the title of “Dirge”.

 Interviewer: Sir, have you ever had a work rejected?

Sir Philip Sidney: Often-often! Every writer has. And it goes on. Partly it
is a question of taste, your work will appeal to one editor and not others.
 There is a two way flow between the work and the reader, and some
readers turn away from what others adore.

 Interviewer: Can you give any advice to someone wanting to write and
publish poetry?
Sir Philip Sidney: Read as much as you can, find out the poets you
admire and read their poems closely, maybe learn them by heart, work
them into your own sound world. No one ever wrote a good poem who
isn’t passionate reader and lover of other people’s poem too. Go to
poetry’s reading, join workshops, share your work with other people, than
start sending out to magazines. But research the magazine , to see it if the
kind of poetry it publishes is the sort you would want to write. Go to
poetry school, they provide a lot of help and also visit various
communities because they are very keen on sharing ideas about poetry.

Thank you so much for giving your precious time to me. Hope we meet soon
again.

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