Elizabethan and Tudor

Poetry 08/02/2022

1. Tudor and Elizabethan Poetry: the advent of Italian fashions and

Elizabethan songs and sonnets

1.1 Introduction to the world of the Renaissance

- Change – key (Renaissance).

- Italian conventions.
- Influence of Latin both in written and spoken domains (monks, bishops…).
- Translation of the Bible.
- Beliefs:
 Humanism (a compromise between pagan humanism and religion).
 God measuring the world.

- The universe as a monochord.

1.2 RENAISSANCE: AN INTRODUCTION (The Renaissance in Europe - Change)

Why change? Things were different.

What evidence do historians have regarding the nature of change during the Renaissance?

• “Renaissance” describes the period in history from about 1400-1650. The painting “The Birth
of Venus” is an example of “Renaissance” painting. It is a distinct change from Medieval art. In
Medieval times, flesh was sin according to religious institutions and painting a naked female
body would be immoral. The seashell is also a symbol of sexuality/fertility (female). A woman
coming out of a seashell clearly reflects birth. Furthermore, the wings could be seen as a
representation of pagan Gods (references to Classical mythology and tradition). Flowers
embrace her body; it is glorifying a goddess’ body. Besides, the painting is full of movement,
there are many items denoting change and motion, impressive.

1.2.1 BACKGROUND

• By the 16th century, Europe experienced major changes in political, economic and social
conditions.

• These changes were evident in monumental works of art and in new economic and political
theories. For instance, Machiavellian ideas.

SLIDE A

Middle Ages: unnatural, image of Jesus Christ, static,

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Renaissance: realistic approach, closer to reality, steady, contains the same people but it is
different.

SLIDE B

Middle Ages: unnatural, image of Madonna and her child.

Renaissance: realistic approach, closer to reality, steady, the human figure is very well-built, he
emphasizes human anatomy, her appearance is different, real size.

SLIDE C

Middle Ages: in the Gothic church there are no open spaces, importance of height (to reach
God).
Renaissance: The Vatican has open spaces to gather people, focus on individuals, human being.

SLIDE D

Middle Ages: in the Gothic church there are no open spaces, importance of height (to reach
God).
Renaissance: huge, impressive, spacious.

SLIDE E

Middle Ages: in the Gothic church there are no open spaces, importance of height (to reach
God).
Renaissance: The Vatican has open spaces to gather people, focus on individuals, human being.

SLIDE F

Middle Ages: Dante’s “Inferno”. Make sure people go to Heaven.

Renaissance: Machiavelli’s The Prince. Different approaches, change in perspectives.

SLIDE G

Middle Ages: organized around a castle in order to prevent from attacks.

Renaissance: open city.

SLIDE H

Middle Ages: the manor, the church and the land.

Renaissance:

SLIDE I

Middle Ages: passions also change.

Renaissance: in Renaissance,

SLIDE J

SLIDE K

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Middle Ages: in the Gothic church there are no open spaces, importance of height (to reach
God).
Renaissance: appearance and showing are important.

SLIDE L

Middle Ages:
Renaissance:

SLIDE M

Middle Ages: in the Gothic church there are no open spaces, importance of height (to reach
God).
Renaissance: money system.

SLIDE N

Middle Ages: entertainment also changes. Entertainment was the punishment of animals.
Renaissance: inside theatre to show their skills.

SLIDE O

Middle Ages: heroes are those who save the nation.

Renaissance: heroes are those educated and intellectual people, artists, philosophers…

Homework
1. To what extent did the Renaissance change the lives of Europeans? Categorize the changes
that took place during the Renaissance as follows:

a. Political
b. Economic
c. Social
d. Religious
e. Cultural

2. Choose one among the following:

 Imagine a day in the life of a citizen living in the manor in Medieval Europe (write a
brief diary).
 Imagine a day in the life of a citizen living in the Renaissance City-State of Florence
(write a brief diary).

TO CONCLUDE…

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All things considered, the Renaissance was an age of rapid change during which people
turned from medieval values of hierarchy, community, and authority to embrace
individualism and realism. The Renaissance: a controversial idea (medieval antecedents).

The cultural movement of the Renaissance emphasized the achievements of individuals, often at
the expense of the majority of people. The artists, writers, and scholars of this rebirth looked to
the Greek and Roman classics for inspiration, but at the same time, expressed an interest in the
world around them. The Renaissance first emerged in the Italian city-states, the product of
political turmoil and opportunities for individuals. As it spread northward, it was transformed by
monarchies seeking to bolster their authority in the wake of the breakdown of the old feudal
order. The greatest achievements of the Renaissance were in the fields of art, literature, and
architecture, but the movement influenced politics as well. Rulers developed new military and
diplomatic strategies but often neglected the poor. This era constituted a break with the Middle
Ages and Europe stood on the threshold of the modern period.

WHY Italy?
The Renaissance originated in Italy for several reasons:

 The most fundamental reason was that Italy in the later Middle Ages was the most
advanced urban society in all of Europe.
 Unlike aristocrats north of the Alps, Italian aristocrats customarily lived in urban
centers rather than in rural castles and consequently became fully involved in urban
public affairs.
 Moreover, since the Italian aristocracy built its palaces in the cities, the aristocratic class
less sharply set off from the class of rich merchants than in the north.
 Hence, whereas in France or Germany most aristocrats lived on the income from their
landed estates, rich town dwellers (bourgeois) gained their living from trade.
 In Italy, so many town-dwelling aristocrats engaged in banking or mercantile
enterprises and so many rich mercantile families imitated the manners of the aristocracy
that, by the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie
were becoming virtually indistinguishable.
 There was also a great demand for education in the skills of reading and counting
necessary to become a successful merchant, but the richest and most prominent families
sought above all to find teachers who would impart to their sons the knowledge and
skills necessary to argue well in the public arena.
 Italian schools created the best-educated upper-class public in all Europe, along with a
considerable number of wealthy patrons who were ready to invest in the cultivation of
new ideas and new forms of literary and artistic expression.
 Ancient roman monuments were omnipresent throughout the peninsula, and classical
Latin literature referred to cities and sites that renaissance Italians recognized as their
own.
 Italians were particularly intent on reappropriating their classical heritage in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries because they were also seeking to establish an
independent cultural identity in opposition to a scholasticism most closely associated
with France.

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  Roman literature and learning took root in Italy, so too did Roman art and architecture,
for Roman models could help Italians create a splendid artistic alternative to French
Gothicism.
 The Italian Renaissance could not have occurred without the underpinning of Italian
wealth.
 The Italian economy as a whole was probably more prosperous in the thirteenth century
than it was in the fourteenth and fifteenth.
 In Late Medieval Italy, intensive investment in culture arose both from an
intensification of urban pride and the concentration of per capita wealth.
 During the fourteenth century, cities themselves were the primary patrons of art and
learning.
 Among these great princes were the popes in Rome, who based their strength on
temporal control of the Papal States. The most worldly of the Renaissance popes
Alexander VI (1492.1503); Julius II (1503-1513); and Leo X (1513.1521), son of the
Florentine ruler Lorenzo de’ Medici- they employed the greatest artists of the day and
for a few decades made Rome the artistic capital of the Western World.

A new spirit emerges: Individualism, Realism, and Activism

 Humanism: the path to self-improvement

o Humanist curriculum
o Self-improvement books
o Women humanists
 The generosity of patrons: supporting new ideas
o Religious patronage
 The invention of the printing press: spreading new ideas

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The struggle between popes and emperors allowed the Italian city-states the opportunity to
govern themselves independently, using a variety of governments ranging from republic to
hereditary monarchies.

The Politics of individual effort

 The Italian city-states

 Florence: Birthplace of the Renaissance
o The Medici
o Sovonarola
 Venice: the Serene Republic?
o Overseas trade

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 Milan and Naples: two principalities
o Naples
 The Papal States
o Papal patronage
o The Borgia family
o Julius II
 The art of diplomacy
o Machiavelli

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The Renaissance encouraged individualism for some, but the family remained the most stable
structure in Renaissance life, and freedoms were limited for some members of society.

 Rising crime.

Individualism as self-interest: life during the Renaissance

 Growing intolerance
 Economic boom times
o Wool and silk
o Banking
 Slavery revived
o Sources of slaves
 Finding comfort in family
o Family alliances
 Children’s lives
o Childhood hardships Although some experienced harshness and inequality
during the Renaissance, this period also produced great artists who combined
classical ideals, the religious themes of the medieval period, and the realism of
their own era to create works of enduring beauty.

An age of talent and beauty: Renaissance culture and science

 Artists and artisans

 Architecture: echoing the human form
o Human architecture
o Domes
o Town planning
 Sculpture comes into its own
o Michelangelo’s David
 Painting from a new perspective

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 o Linear perspective
o Raphael and Alberthi
 Science or pseudoscience?
o Astrology and alchemy
o Mathematics and anatomy
 Leonardo da Vinci: The “Renaissance man”
o Painting (Mona Lisa)
o Scientific notebooks

As feudalism disintegrated in northern Europe, monarchs concentrated their royal authority and
encouraged the incorporation of Renaissance ideas into their own cultures.

Renaissance of the “New monarchies” of the north: 1453-1640

 France: under the Italian influence

 Louis the Spider
o Italians in France
 English Humanism
o Thomas More
o Renaissance Queens
 Renaissance London: a booming city
o The South Bank
 England’s pride: William Shakespeare

Critical questions
A new spirit emerges: Individualism, Realism and Activism

1. Why is the idea of the Renaissance considered controversial?

2. What is a general definition of the Renaissance?
3. What factors might explain why the Renaissance began in the Italian city-
estates?
4. What were some of the defining characteristics of the Renaissance?
5. What were the interests of the humanists?
6. How were female humanists treated?
7. What was the role of patrons and patronage during the Renaissance?
8. How did the invention of the printing press facilitate the spread of Renaissance
ideas?

The politics of individual effort

9. What made the Italian city-estates so prone to conflict?

10. Why did individual effort become so important in this context?
11. What problems did Florence confront in the fourteenth century?
12. What made the republic of Venice more stable than Florence?
13. How did Visconti and Sforza families rule Milan?
14. What was distinct about Naple’s government?
15. How did the popes rule the papal states?

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 16. What advantages and disadvantages did they face?
17. What were Machiavelli’s ideas about diplomacy and political power?

Individualism as self-interest: life during the Renaissance

18. Why was crime such a serious problem in Renaissance cities?

19. How did Jews experience the growth of intolerance during this period?
20. What were the different sources of economic prosperity for the Italian cities?
21. Why was slavery reintroduced?
22. Where did the slaves come from?
23. Wat was the significance of the family during the Renaissance?
24. How did the importance of family alliances impact women?
25. How did people raise the children?

An age of talent and beauty: Renaissance culture and science

26. What were the origins of the majority of Renaissance artists?

27. What were the sources of inspiration for Renaissance architectural
achievements?
28. What did Michelangelo’s David symbolize?
29. How did the standing of sculpture as an art form change in this period?
30. What new techniques did painters employ?
31. What were pseudoscientific studies?
32. How did science contribute to innovations in the visual arts?
33. What were the numerous talents and interests of Leonardo Da Vinci?

1.3 Historical context

• 15th c. society was still Medieval, and it still rests Nationalism and the Modern State.

1.3.1. The Problem of Succession (Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV, Edward V, and
Richard III) ed on the military ideal.

• Personal and international disputes were settled by recourse to arms, and this was considered
a virtue.

• The cannon, the musket, and the longbow were replacing the armoured knight, but the code
was still the same.

• The kingly ideal was stil Richard I, the Lion Hearted: chivalry, piety, military prowess, and the
spread of God’s word united in 15th c. Trebuchet, a siege him.

The war with France

• Historians see now the war with France in 1413 as the need to redirect domestic policy.
Lawlessness and heresy were the two main problems Henry V encountered.

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•Sir John Oldcastle was a sort of “puritan” who wanted to extinguish corruption in the church
and in the monarchy.

•In 1414 he planned to kidnap the king and lead the city of London in revolt against the godless
leaders of society, but his plot failed.

•He escaped until 1417, but his followers were captured and burned as heretics.

The martyrdom of Sir John Oldcastle (in Acts and Monuments by John Fox, 1563)

•In 1414 France was almost at civil war, with an insane Charles VI on the throne.

•The claim of Henry V to the French throne was absurd (the English throne had been il egally
acquired by his father) but the king’s attitude was a reflection of his character rather than a
matter of law.

•Legend has him for a hero, the paragon of kingly and knightly virtues: loyal, just, upright,
honourable, able, chivalric and pious.

•But he was hard, overambitious, bigoted, sanctimonious and domineering.

Henry V

•The attractive image of an irresponsible prince engaging in escapes of juvenile bravado is

Shakespearean legend, not history.

•He had been trained in warfare and at 26, he was a veteran at that.

•Religiously he was a fanatic who believed that war depended not on numbers but on the power
of God.

•He raised an army by the indenture system and crossed to France in 1415.

•Warfare was not very chivalric but more businesslike, with long months of destructive
campaigning, guerrilla operations and the battering of walled towns.

•Paris saw wolves at night.

Falstaff and Henry V

•Peasants sought refuge in the walled towns, and even the sheep learned to run for safety when
they heard the bells of nearby churches.

•The Black Death contributed to the depopulation of France, but mercenaries on both sides
completed the destruction.

•Henry landed with 2,000 mounted men-at-arms, 6,000 archers (half on horseback) and about
1,000 more in his headquarters.

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•In winter, his exhausted army encountered about 50,000 enemies at Agincourt, and Henry V’s
belief that God, not man, won the battles was confirmed:

•The English lost 300 men; the French 3 dukes, a grand constable, 8 counts, 1,500 knights and
about 4,500 men- at-arms.

•Agincourt was won by the efficiency of the English archers, but the rest of the war was not that
heroic.

•Cannons destroyed the walled cities and were more important than armoured knights.

•The Burgundy-Orleans feud revived and divided the French: Philip of Burgundy joined the
English in response to his father’s murder.

The Battle at Agincourt

•The Treaty of Troyes torn France to pieces.

•Charles VI was allowed to keep his crown, but Henry V was to marry the king’s daughter,
princess Catherine, and to be pronounced the true and rightful heir.

•Henry undertook to defend all of France.

•The English Parliament ratified the Treaty.

France after the Treaty of Troyes (1420)

•Unfortunately for England, Henry V died in 1422 of dysentery and exhaustion.

•Had he lived two more months he would have become king of the two realms, for Charles VI
followed him to the grave.

•The heir to the two kingdoms was a 6 year-old baby, Henry (VI).

•Conquest of other areas of France continued, but the Dauphin, the future Charles VII was
ineffective until Joan of Arc moved him to re-conquer his kingdom.

Marriage of Henry V and Catherine of France

Henry V’s tomb at Westminster

Henry VI (1442-1461)

• The 15th c. understood the story of Joan of Arc as a miracle.

Probably it had more of politics, finance and nationalism than even of Joan’s ability to convince
the Dauphin.

• The voices she heard took her to the sacrifice altar: she was tried, found guilty of heresy and
witchcraft, and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen in 1431.

• It was an act of political necessity, but even the English soldiers believed they had burned a
saint.

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Joan of Arc, the Maiden of Orleans

• In 1435 Burgundy deserted England as its ally.

• The English crown was bankrupt, with a child-king, a weary parliament, and an increasingly
irresponsive aristocracy.

• The defence of the dual monarchy was unsustainable: the French subjects were unwil ing to
pay for their own defence and to contribute to the crown (the English cal ed them the “God-
damns”).

• Great magnates tried to control politics,

•Henry VI was more rejecting the arrangement that Henry V had suited for the established in his
will that his brother monastery than for the Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester should be crown,
regent for England and his brother John, Duke of Bedford, the defender of the French territories.

•So, his Lancastrians relatives and other great magnates manipulated him, enriched themselves
at his expense and abused the king’s justice.

•In 1445, Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou.

•Margaret was a forceful and determined young woman who dominated her husband and put
him at the head of complex and dangerous political alliances with the Beaufort branch of the
house Lancaster to guarantee the succession of her son Edward, Prince of Wales.

Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou.

Lancaster and York (1327-1485)

•By 1447, the only Lancastrians left were members of the Beaufort family.

•Richard, duke of York, opposed the Beauforts (il egitimate bastards who Parliament had
recognized but to whom it had denied royal hereditary rights), and the foreign queen.

•In 1449, erosion of government at court and throughout the realm was such that Parliament
declined to grant money for troops to defend the last ports in France, for they feared that great
lords might use the money in their own private wars.

•In 1450, a popular insurrection, known as Jack Cade’s Rebellion, took place near London.

• Jack Cade’s (alias “John Amendal e”) demands against the misrule of Lancastrians were:

1. the king was giving away too much of the crown lands and could not live on his own;
2. there was corruption in the col ection of royal revenues;
3. the Commons were not elected freely, and were control ed by the rich and mighty;
4. court parasites were using royal justice to seize the land of their opponents and of poor folk
with no influence at court;
5. England was losing the war in France, which was a dishonour to the memory of the heroes of
Agincourt;

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6. high offices of state were given to favourites.

• Cade was killed and his followers ended in the gallows.

•The war with France was reaching a humiliating conclusion.

•Anarchy and civil war were appearing in England.

•The Yorkist claimant to the throne wanted to remove the descendants of Henry IV from it.

Nationalism and the Modern State. The Reformation.

1.3.4 Tudor society

The Sixteenth century (14
 1485: accession of Henry VII, inaugurates age of the Tudor sovereigns.
 1509: accession of Henry VIII.
 1517:
 1534.
 1557:
 1558:
 1576:
 1588:
 1603:

The Tudor Period

 Modern era starts – much more info/events.
 Covers 118 years mostly XVI c.
 Only 5 monarchs: 5 kings and 2 queens.
 Tudors – strong dynasty after weak late medieval monarchs.
 Main features – practical, order, centralized power.
 Medieval Britain over?
 Basic changes occur:
o Rise of nationalism in Europe, Spain, France…
o Feudalism over. Not of a sudden.
o Discovery of New-World-England uninterested at first press (Caxton).
o Rise of towns and middle class.
o Humanist movement.
o Man, not God, as center of universe.

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Henry VII
 “New monarch” In line
o His model was that of a strong feudal king.
o But this did not make him a medical monarch because of his efficiency.
o He was opportunistic, mercurial, cunning, brutal and practical.

POLITICAL TURNMOIL

 .
 .
 .
 .
 .
 .
 .
 .

 In 1516, Sir Thomas more’s Utopia: in part a medieval dream deflecting the perfect
harmony of monastic life, in part a fantasy inspired in the discovery of the New World, in
part a joke dealing with gold chamber pots and children playing marbles with gems, but
above all the application of reasoned thought to the problems of good government. It was
based o the idea that man, by the exercise of his own rational mind, could construct a
reasonably perfect society. Utopia was on this earth, the work of human beings: making did
not have to wait for heaven or divine grace to achieve peace and happiness.

THe world of americi Vespucci

He painted the map showing the parts from America which were discovered.

COSMOLOGY

 16th and 17th centuries: universities still based their teaching on Aristotle. The Christianized
Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology rests on the opposition of earthly versus heavenly.
 Aristotle’s belief that the universe had always existed could not be assimilated by
Christianity, which took Plato’s myth of the Demiurge; this is similar to the tension between
the traditional Greek chaos preceding the universe and the Christian God-creator (creating
ex-nihilo).

Ptolemaic perception of the universe

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These concepts will be found in the poems:

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Man, the Microcosm Artist: Fludd, Robert from his book Utrisque Cosmi Maioris. Date:
1617.

Man is placed at the very center (not God).

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The music of the spheres

 Caused by the friction of the spheres.

 Pythagorean theory accepted by Plato (Republic X) and repudiated by Aristotle (On
the Heavens II, ix).
 But popularized by Macrobius (Commentary II, iii).
 Plato supposed that eight sirens sang the heavenly notes.
 These were later identified with the nine Muses and still later identified with the
nine orders of angels.

Leonardo da Vinci’s “ Vitruvian Man”

 Originally known as “The proportions of the human body according to Vitruvius”, it

is a drawing made in about 1490. It is accompanied by notes based on the work of
the Roman architect Vitruvius.
 The drawing, which is in ink on paper, depicts a man in two superimposed positions
with his arms and legs apart and inscribed in a circle and square. The circle is the

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representation of the world sphere, the perfect shape. Follows the ideals of
proportion.

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Astronomy = Astrology

 These disciplines were not differentiated: the astronomer practiced as an

astrologer casting horoscopes and predictions (judicial astrology).
 Planets were identified with pagan gods and influenced human life, climate
changes and the rise and fall of nations.
 It was universally accepted, but when it conflicted with man’s free will and God’s
providence (because of its determinism) it was condemned by theologians).
Changes in cosmology
 Observation of the planets showed that the planets did not have circular orbits (as
Plato and Aristotle had assumed).
 Ptolemy devised a complex system of eccentric and epicycles that worked
mathematically, but did not fit the tradition.
 Aristarchus held that the sun was at the center of the universe, with the planets
rotating around it and on their own axes.
 Changing the cosmological model would mean changing the moral and religious
perspective.
 In the Renaissance,

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IMPORTANT: Save the phenomena – at a social level, the notion of Renaissance
appearance (keeping appearance).

Francis Bacon
 A philosopher of science, in The New organum (1620): utilitarian: through
experimentation, science must control nature to the benefit of man.
 In The New Atlantis (1627), he described his ideal scientific community
(materialized in 1662 in The Royal Society).
 By the end of the 17th c. Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology survived only as a poetic
myth.
 Yet, the new cosmology magnified God as the creator of an infinite and
unknowable cosmos, and made humankind focus on self-knowledge.
 Influence on poetry:
o The macro- and microcosm.
o The poem as microcosm (unified, ordered, finite whole).
o Concordia discors / Discordia concors; unity through variety.
o Correspondences between macro and microcosms are presented by means
of metaphor and conceit.
 The superlunary and sublunary.
 The music of the spheres.
 The ether and the four elements.
 The dual nature of man.

Man must control nature for his own benefit.

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Importance of wit – the importance of a poet is to gain recognition.

William Caxton was the first English printer. He was appointed King’s printer in 1476
after setting up his press at Westminster.

Everyday life

 Dangerous: violent (even clergymen walked armed at night).

 Criminals used unlit streets and the king’s highways.
 240 constables in London (too few for such a large city).
 Law enactment was ritualistic and violent as well.
 Itches, toothaches, gout, bladder stones, ulcers and sores were common.
 Everyone was afraid of the plague and smallpox.
 There was neither anesthesia for the soldier nor any remedy for the syphilis of the
lover.

Law enactment in Tudor England

 Traitors: draw to the gallows (or gibbet) on a sled, hanged, and cut down alive,
castrated, disemboweled, decapitated and quartered.
 Thieves: if theft was over one shilling, hanging.
 Poisoners: boiled alive.
 Witches and heretics: burned at the stake.
 Murderers: hanged I chains until dead.
 Fraudulent merchants and slanderers: the pillory.
 Drunkards, rioters, name-callers, bawds, and scolds: the stocks.
 False jurors: forced to ride with their faces.

Economy

 The horse replaced the ox.

 Wool was:
o Sheared and carded in cottage bought in large quantities by clothier.
o Delivered to the spinners and the yarn and transported to town to be
woven and dyed.
o The final product carried to drapers and merchants who stored and shipped
it for sale in national and foreign markets.
o Weavers under roof in clothier’s house -> factories: 15th c. Clothier ->
prototype of industrial entrepreneur.
o Provided transportation and paid workers by piece work or by the hour.
o Used farmer’s wives and children for labor.
o Avoided older towns with their guilds and restrictions.

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 Merchant Adventurers (London association).
o Membership became necessary for anyone trading with Antwerp.
o Provincial merchants either joined or went bankrupt.
o Made legal their claim for cloth trade with the Netherlands (1486).
o They recommend Henry VII to ease

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Renaissance beliefs

1. Numerology
2. The Laws of Correspondences

Renaissance Themes and Commonplaces

1. Courtly Love
2. The Pagan Gods
3. Platonism and Neoplatonism
4. Stoicism
5. Cosmology
6. The Golden age and the Garden of Eden
7. Views of history
8. Biblical Exegesis and Typology
9. Theories of Poetry
10. Allegory
11. Conventions, Modes, and Genres
12. Verse patterns
13. Commonplaces

TEXTS

1. Sir Thomas Wyatt “Go burning sighes”

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