Renaissance

 French term for „rebirth“ (of greek and roman ancient world)
 In opposition to Middle Ages („Dark Ages“), during which texts and philosophical ideas of
Classical Antiquity were mostly lost.
 Late 14th to the 17th century (most important: 15th & 16th century) -> Renaissance = Bridge
between Middle Ages and the Modern Era -> marks the beginning of the modern age
 Also referred to as Early Modern Period (closer connection to Modern Era)
 Beginning in the late 14thcentury (Late Middle Ages) in Italy (Florence) and later spreading to
the rest (north) of Europe.
 England: beginning of Renaissance: 1485, when the Battle of Bosworth Field ended the Wars
of the Roses and inaugurated (=eingeführt) the Tudor Dynasty.
 Elizabethan and Jacobean reigns = Golden Age of English Literature
 Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the
English Renaissance.
 Divided into two broad phases:
 Early Renaissance/High Renaissance (14-15th century)
 Northern Renaissance (1500 onwards)
 House of Medici: Italian dynasty that introduced system of artistic patronage (support
provided to artists by kings, noblemen, etc.) Ò later copied in England
 Important writers: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Erasmus of Rotterdam,
Montaigne, Rabelais, DuBellay, Ronsard, Lope de Vega, Cervantes, Sir Thomas More, Sir
Thomas Wyatt, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, William Shakespeare

 Characteristics of Renaissance
 Humanism
 Intellectual movement reaching back to the texts, ideas and values of
Ancient Greece and Rome
 Derived new knowledge by studying Classical texts
 Invention of printing press (1456: Johannes Gutenberg; 1476: William Caxton
in England): spread of Humanist ideas and knowledge
 Rise of individualism: emphasis on man rather than God
 Increased interest in education: propagating the study of Classical literature
and in a number of areas (not only practical knowledge)
 Emphasis on reason (=Vernunft) (most important human faculty, as opposed
to greed, lust, etc.)
 Adapting Classical pagan concepts to a Christian context
 Reformation
 Spread of Protestantism in Europe triggered by Martin Luther
 Protestantism:
 rejection of papacy
 criticism of the theory that Jesus is the saviour
 criticism of biblical interpretation
 Attain (erlangen) salvation (Erlösung) through an individual’s faith based on
the word of the Bible
 Religious conflict: Catholicism vs. Protestantism (religious wars)
 Consequences of Protestantism and its emphasis on the need to study the
Bible:
 Increased use of vernacular (=örtlich, einheimisch) languages in
written texts (before Renaissance: mostly Latin)

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  New printing technologies made Bible more accessible to common
people
 Increased level of literacy
 Geographical exploration
 Renaissance as the age of exploration: discovery of new lands
 Christopher Columbus: discovery of the New World in 1492
 Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh (first
attempt at establishing a colony in North America – failed)
 Encounters with indigenous people: initially interest (travel reports), later
violence and exploitation; encounters changed the way Europeans viewed
themselves and their society
 Scientific progress
 New methods for explaining natural phenomena
 Cosmology: geo-centric world-view (earth at the centre of universe) replaced
by helio-centric world-view (sun at the centre of universe); Copernicus,
Galileo Galilei
 References to geo-centric world view in Renaissance literature; helio-centric
model initially known to only a small group of astronomers and regarded by
the Church as heresy (=Ketzerei)

 Dark aspects of Renaissance:

 Plague = black death = pest -> reduced population -> people changed their attitudes
against the world -> concentrating on secular values
 because of the plague in Europe theatres in England had to be closed -> interruption
of dramatic writing.
 Numerous wars: religious wars as a result of the Reformation, war between England
and Spain, …
 Persecution of witch-craft
 Pessismistic views conveyed in works by Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More

Wars of the Roses

 English Renaissance inaugurated by end of Wars of the Roses
 Series of civil wars fought between
 House of Lancaster (red rose) House of York (white rose)

 struggle for English throne

 Lasted from 1455 (Battle of St Albans) to 1485 (Battle of Bosworth)

 1461: Henry VI (Lancaster) deposed (entthront) by Edward IV (York)

 1483: Edward IV dies; eldest son only a minor of 12 years Ò Edward‘s brother, Richard III,
rises to power
 Richard III removed all opposition (=Konkurrenz):
he sent Edward‘s surviving sons to the Tower of London, where they were murdered Ò
increased hostility against Richard and the House of York

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  Henry VII (Tudor, but relative of Lancaster) saw his chances due to increased hostility against
House of York

 1485: Battle of Bosworth; Richard III defeated by Henry VII Ò end of Wars of the Roses

 Henry VII’s accession to the throne Ò initiation of Tudor dynasty (1485 – 1603; until death of
Elizabeth I)

Henry VII Tudor (reign from 1485 – 1509)

 First Tudor monarch
 Primary concerns: secure his hold on the throne and unify the nation

 Marriage with Elizabeth York in order to bring about peace and unify the House of York
and the House of Lancaster
 Surrounded himself with famous writers and painters Ò art for propagandistic purposes;
Polydore Vergil (= Italian humanist, court historian, Henry VII commissioned him to write
“Historia Anglica” = about English history)

 1489: Treaty of Medina del Campo (Treaty =Abkommen, Vertrag) between England and

Spain: settled marriage between Henry VII’s eldest son, Arthur and the Spanish
princess, Catherine of Aragon

 Marriage between Henry VII‘s daughter, Margaret, and James IV, King of Scots Ò James VI
of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603 (initiation of Stuart dynasty)

Henry VIII Tudor (reign from 1509 – 1547) Henry VII’s 2nd son
 1509: Henry VIII ascends the English throne (eldest son of Henry VII, Arthur, died early)
 Excellently educated, but greedy (= gierig) for power Ò aggressive foreign politics
 Flourishing of art: surrounded himself with famous artists (Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt,
Hans Holbein the Younger (=painter))
 John Skelton, royal writer (orator regius = königlicher Sprecher) Ò propagandistic verses for
important events
 John Colet = was a priest and pastor (=Seelsorger) of Henry VIII
 William Tyndale & Miles Coverdale = translated the bible from Latin to English and created
the Matthew-Bible -> it became part of the Anglican Church.
 Relied on powerful advisors: Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Sir Thomas Cromwell

Diplomatic and political affairs often Dangerous position: usually executed

left to his advisors Ò very powerful upon losing Henry‘s confidence
figures

#1  Catherine of Aragon:
 Henry‘s first wife; initially married to Arthur, Henry VII’s eldest son

 Gave birth to Mary („Bloody Mary“)

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 but failed to produce a male heir Ò Henry VIII decided to divorce her, in order to
remarry
 Henry VIII needed papal admission for divorce Ò Cardinal Wolsey (Lord Chancellor
& Cardinal) responsible for negotiations, but failed to obtain permission

 Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church in Rome Ò beginning of Protestant Reformation in
England
 Parliament and Sir Thomas Cromwell in favour of break with Rome
 Act of Supremacy: established Anglican Church and declared Henry Supreme Head of the
Church of England
 Paradox: strongly Catholic despite break with Rome
 Had been granted the title „Defendor of the Faith“ (defensor fidei) for theological treatise
against Martin Luther
 Non-papal Catholicism rather than Protestantism: basically Catholic, but king rather than
pope as the head
 Dissolution of the Monasteries (= Auflösung der Englischen Klöster)
 Remove opposition (priests and monks were Catholic Ò unlikely to accept Henry VIII
as their spiritual head)
 Raise money and acquire land (sold to courtiers, in order to gain support)
 Act in Restraint of Appeals: work of Sir Thomas Cromwell, forbade appeals (=Gesuch) to
Rome.

#2  Anne Boleyn: second wife of Henry VIII

 was Henry VIII’s mistress during his marriage with Catherine of Aragon.
 Already pregnant before actual marriage Ò Henry VIII: hastening divorce from
Catherine of Aragon and re-marriage with Anne Boleyn
 gave birth to Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I) in 1533
 But, like Catherine of Aragon, she gave Henry no male heir
 Accused of infidelity (=Untreue) with several men, including her brother Ò executed

 1533: Act of Succession: guaranteed lawful succession of Henry‘s children with Anne Boleyn
 1534: Treason Act: opposition to acts punishable as treason
 Oath of Supremacy: accepting Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England Ò refusal to
do so punished as treason (Sir Thomas More)

#3  Jane Seymour: third wife of Henry VIII

 Gave birth to Henry‘s only legitimate son, Edward VI who was Henry VIII’s successor
 Died immediately after child birth

#4,5,6  Henry married three more times: Anne of Cleves (divorced) – Catherine Howard (executed)
– Catherine Parr (survived)

 mnemonic for his wives: divorced – beheaded – died – divorced – beheaded – survived
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6

Edward VI Tudor (reign from 1547 – 1553)

 1547: death of Henry VIII; had fixed line of succession before death:
1. Edward VI
2. Mary I
3. Elizabeth I

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  Edward still a minor of nine years when he ascended the throne Ò reliance on protectors
 First protector: Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset
 Implementation (=Einführung) of radical Protestantism; exclusion of Catholics
 Introduction of Book of Common Prayer; prayer book for Protestants written by Thomas
Cranmer
 But numerous problems: religious conflict, economic crisis, rebellion against social reforms,
etc.
 Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset dismissed, because unable to handle rebellions Ò
succession of John Dudley Earl of Warwick, the Duke of Northumberland  Warwick even
more ruthlessly (skrupellos) Protestant
 Persuaded Edward VI to exclude Mary I (Catholic) from succession and to name Lady Jane
Grey (Protestant; daughter-in-law of John Dudley Earl of Warwick, the Duke of
Northumberland) as his successor
 1553: death of Edward VI, at the age of 15
 Succeeded by Lady Jane Grey, but Reign of Lady Jane Grey lasted nine days („The Nine Days‘
Queen“) Ò deposed (entthronen) by Mary I

Mary I (Bloody Mary) Tudor (reign from 1553 – 1558)

 After deposing Lady Jane Grey, Mary proclaimed herself rightful Queen of England
 Staunch (eisern) Catholic Ò removed Protestant reforms by Edward VI and reintroduced
Catholicism:
 Outlawed the Book of Common Prayer
 Prohibited any attendance at Protestant church services
 Repealed Act of Supremacy Ò England reunited with Rome
Marriage with Philip II of Spain; English Parliament opposed to marriage
 Thomas Wyatt‘s Rebellion against Mary‘s decision to marry Philip II of Spain Ò
rebellion failed
 More brutal measures against Protestant opponent following Wyatt‘s Rebellion Ò
„Bloody Mary“
 De heretico comburendo = a law passed by Parliament under King Henry IV of
England in 1401, punishing heretics (Ketzerei) with burning at the stake
(=Scheiterhaufen).
 Execution of Thomas Wyatt, Thomas Cranmer (compiler of the Book of Common
Prayer), and Lady Jane Grey & husband
 Elizabeth I sent to the Tower under charge of high treason; after release from prison,
under house arrest at Woodstock
 Brutal measures harmed Mary‘s attempt at reintroducing Catholicism in England
 Lack of male heir in order to ensure Catholic succession
 1558: death of Mary I without successor

Elizabeth I Tudor (reign from 1558 – 1603)

 November 17, 1558: Elizabeth I proclaimed Queen of England

 Elizabethan reign at the centre of English Renaissance: Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher
Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson
 Well-educated, spoke several languages, politically adroit (= geschickt), surrounded herself
with good advisors
 Anglican martyr due to imprisonment under Mary I

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 Refusal to marry against advice of her ministers Ò „Virgin Queen“
 Refused marriage proposal by Philip II of Spain
 Political decision Ò marriage = not only loss of personal independence, but also loss of
independence of her kingdom
 1572: St. Bartholomew’s Day in France:
 Massacre of the Huguenots (= French Protestants)
 Religion:
 Solving religious problem by opting for middle way between Catholicism and radical
Protestantism (Puritanism) Ò Elizabethan (Religious) Settlement
 Essentially Protestant (Anglican) church with some Catholic elements (church
ceremonies, vestments of priests, hierarchy of church officials)
 Conflict with Spain; exacerbated (=verschlimmert) by Elizabethan Settlement
 1570: Elizabeth I excommunicated (=exclusion from church) by Pope Pius V ->
legitimized assassination Elizabeth I in the name of religion
 Fears of Catholic plots against Elizabeth I Ò execution of Catholic Mary Stuart
Queen of Scots in 1587
 Father: James V of Scotland
 1st husband: Francis II of France (died early after wedding)
 2nd husband: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley = cousin of Mary Stuart
 Spain
 1585: beginning of open war between England and Spain
 Dutch rebellion against Spanish rule due to suppression of Protestantism in
Netherlands Ò Eight Years‘ War
 Elizabeth supported Dutch rebels Ò triggered (=auslösen) war with Spain
 1588: Defeat of Spanish Armada
 Spanish ships destroyed by storm and superior military technology (faster
ships, more sophisticated guns) of England
 Established England as a dominant maritime force; strengthened Elizabeth‘s
position as a monarch
 Speech to her troops at Tilbury

 Many problems towards end of Elizabethan reign:

o Conflict with Spain
o Irish rebellions against Tudor colonial rule
o Plague and bad harvest
o Death of leading advisors
o Parliament‘s demand for greater independence
o Lack of heir

 Cult of the queen (Elizabeth I)

 Artefacts and practices consolidating (=festigen) Elizabeth’s power
 Manifested itself in several different ways: portrait painting, literature, Masques,
royal progresses, etc.
 Portrait painting:
 Renaissance: the great age of portrait painting
 Propagandistic portraits conveying the glory of Queen Elizabeth I
 Painters: George Gower, Nicolas Hilliard, Marcus Gheeraerts, …
 George Gower: Armada Portrait

 Images in the background: English fleet sailing in calm

waters vs. Spanish Armada destroyed by storm
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  Elizabeth‘s hand on the globe Ò domination of England
 Bows and pearls on dress Ò symbols of chastity
(Keuschheit) and virginity
 Sharp lines of dress Ò symbolizing secure border of
England
 Literature:
 Artistic patronage for literature written in honour of Queen Elizabeth I
 Rewarded money, titles, positions at court, … Ò writing as a political tool
 Edmund Spenser‘s failed attempts at obtaining position at court (The
Shepheardes Calender & The Faerie Queene)
 Use of specific names to refer to Elizabeth I: Diana (Roman goddess of
hunting, emblem of chastity), Cynthia (moon-goddess), Astrea (virgin
goddess of justice), Gloriana (in Edmund Spenser‘s The Faerie Queene)
 Decline of artistic patronage (because of tremendous increase of writers
producing art in honour of the Queen; advisors of the queen opposed to
artistic patronage)
 The cult brings out literature and literature fosters the cult
 Masques:
 = Short plays combining poetry, drama, dance, and music
 Expensive, only performed once or twice each
 Only in private theatres
 Particularly popular under Elizabeth I and James I
 Simple plots revolving around queenly figures
 Luxurious costumes
 Ben Jonson: important writer of Masques (with stage design by Inigo Jones)
 Also women were allowed to be actors
 Royal Progresses:
 Travelling through the countryside during summer months
 Accompanied by whole court
 Visiting powerful aristocrats living outside of London
 Purpose:
1) keep in touch with subjects in order to raise popularity
2) recreation (=Erholung)
3) escaping the Plague in London
 Theatricality:
 Renaissance culture: pervasive (tiefgreifend) theatricality
 Performative nature of Cult of the Queen (clip from Shekhar Kapur‘s
Elizabeth) Ò staging the Queen as powerful monarch and Virgin Queen:
 White make-up Ò purity and virginity
 Cutting off hair Ò Queen as spiritual figure (nuns)
 White dress with bows and pearls Ò virginity

Summary of Tudor kings & queens

 1485 – 1509 Henry VII Elizabeth of York

 1509 – 1547 Henry VIII (Anglican Church bec. of divorces)
 1547 – 1553 Edward VI (Protestant)
 1553 – 1558 Mary I (Bloody Mary) (Catholic) Philip of Spain
 1558 – 1603 Elizabeth I

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James I (reign from 1603 – 1625)
 1603: Elizabeth I died without an heir Ò succeeded by James I of England (James VI of
Scotland)
 Offspring of marriage between Margaret Tudor (daughter of Henry VII) & James IV of
Scotland Ò claim to the throne
 Change of dynasty: Tudor Ò Stuart (1603-1707)
 Golden Age of English letters continued: Shakespeare (Jacobean plays), Ben Jonson, …
 England & Scotland: two distinct countries with separate parliaments; but idea of unifying
the two countries (title: King of Great Britain)
 Parliament‘s increase in power Ò demanding more indepence
 Power struggle between the crown and Parliament; James believed in Divine Right of Kings
 Parliament‘s refusal to fund expensive court of James I
 Protestant monarch with Catholic background (Mary Stuart (=grandchild of Margaret Tudor),
his mother)
 Hampton Court Conference (1604): rejection of Puritanism; implementation of Catholic
practices in Church of England Ò Puritans offended
 English Church & monarch Ò Catholicism  English Parliament Ò Puritanism (merchants)

Shift in public opinion: Parliament

associated with freedom from tyrannical
monarchy
BUT: Catholics from this freedom;
discriminated by Parliament

 Gunpowder Plot (1605): failed attempt by Catholic rebels to blow up English Parliament Ò
Guy Fawkes‘s Day (5th Nov.), celebrating plot‘s failure with bonfires
 Foreign policy of appeasement: ending hostility with foreign powers
 Attempt at reconciliation (=Versöhnung) with Spain:
o Considerable power to Spanish ambassador
o Marriage negotiations with Spain Ò failed due to public disapprovement

Charles I (reign from 1625 – 1649)

 1625: death of James I Ò ascension of Charles I = James I’s son
 Power struggle with Parliament, religious conflict, financial problem due to expensive court,
foreign policy problems …
 Religious conflict: increasingly Puritan Parliament vs. Catholics supported by Charles I
(Catholic wife)
 Dissolution of Parliament (1629) Ò ruling without Parliament 1629-1640 („Eleven Years‘
Tyranny“ or „The Personal Rule“)
 Reintroduction of Parliament (1640): members still outraged (=aufgebracht) Ò outbreak of
Civil War (1642)
 Civil War (1642-1649): Cavaliers (Royalists) vs. Roundheads (Parliamentarians)
 Closure of theatres (1642): end of Golden Age of English letters, re-opened in 1660
 Victory of Parliamentarians Ò abolition of English monarchy & execution of Charles I
 Interregnum (1649-1660): ruled without a monarch

Interregnum (from 1649 – 1660)

 Commonwealth of England (1649-1653): ruled by Rump Parliament (members in favour of
Charles‘ execution)
 Protectorate (1653-1659): ruled by Oliver Cromwell (military leader during Civil War)

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  Oliver Cromwell (title: Lord Protector): ruled like a monarch Ò controversy
 Theatres not opened; considered places of immorality Ò interruption of dramatic writing
 1658: death of Oliver Cromwell Ò succeeded by son, Richard Cromwell
 Richard‘s fall from power Ò original Parliament reassembled (= wieder zusammensetzen)
and invited Charles II (= son of Charles I)to rule Ò Restoration of English monarchy (1660)

After Charles II ascended James II the throne = also son of Charles I

Summary of Stuart kings

James I (1603-1625) (descended from Henry VII's daughter Margaret)

Charles I (1625-1649)

Commonwealth
Charles II (1660-1685)
James II (1685-1688)
Mary, 1st daughter of James II (1688-94) William
nd
Anne, 2 daughter of James II (1702-14) George

Elizabethan World Picture

 Term coined by English historian E.M.W. Tillyard (all following is from him)
 The Elizabethan World Picture: A Study of the Idea of Order in the age of Shakespeare, Donne
& Milton (1943)
 Account of Elizabethan ideas and beliefs of how the universe operates
 Criticized and revised by Renaissance scholars: Elizabethan society and beliefs not as
homogenous and static as suggested by Tillyard
 Emphasis on order and hierarchy Ò in the interest of the ruling class
 Rich source of metaphors for Renaissance literature (Shakespeare, Jonson, …)
 Stephen Greenblatt:
 coined the term “new historicism”
 co-founder and co-editor of Representations
 general editor (with Abrams) of the Norton Anthology of English Literature
 Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (1980)
 Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England
(1988)
 Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (2004)
 The Greenblatt Reader (2005)

Old Cosmology
 Transition from heliocentric world view to geocentric world view in the Renaissance
 Still references to old cosmology in Renaissance literature
 Developed by Aristotle (Greek philosopher), Ptolemy (Egyptian astronomer), Thomas of
Aquinas (medieval philosopher and theologian)
 Cosmos as an ordered whole
 Structured along hierarchical lines
 Cosmos as a vast but finite space (limits: creation and Judgement Day)

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  Cosmos as a series of concentric spheres:
earth at the centre; planets orbit the earth on rotating
spheres
 Primum mobile (‚first mover‘): outermost
moving sphere responsible for movement of other
spheres (Christian context: God)
 Earth – Air – Fire – Moon – Mercury – Venus
– Sun – Mars – Jupiter – Saturn – Crystalline Heavens and
Stars – Primum Mobile
 Cosmic dance: movement of the planets
creates music (‚musica universalis‘ or ‚music of the
spheres‘) Ò universe bound together by harmony
 Music is inaudible for mortals (exception: the
monarch, Queen Elizabeth I Ò heavenly creature)
 Importance of music & dance in Elizabethan age Ò dancing as metaphorical practice
signifying cosmic dance

Dualism
 Opposition of earth and heaven
 Earth:
 Physically tiny
 At centre of spherical cosmos, lowest point of universe (farthest away from heavens
and God)
 Populated by fallen and mortal beings Ò marked by imperfection and corruption
 Beings on earth are bound by time Ò subject to change and decay
 Composed of four elements
 Heaven:
 Physically vast
 Orderly, constant and eternal
 Made up of a fifth element = ether or quintessence
 Place of constant light (earth: dark place)

Great Chain of Being

 Creation is ordered into hierarchical structures:
1. God
2. Angels
3. Human beings
4. Sensitive class: Animals
5. Vegetative class: Plants
6. Inanimate substances (four elements, minerals, metals, stones, …)
 Each group is defined according to its relation to groups immediately below and above it
 Human beings sharing characteristics of angels and animals
 Within each group also a hierarchy (animals: lions & dolphins; plants: oak tree; inanimate
objects: gold)
 Everything is linked together Ò changes in one group will affect the complete structure

Series of corresponding plains

 Ties in with Great Chain of Being Ò everything is linked together
 Macrocosm (order of the cosmos) – body politics (order in a political state)
 Sun (ruling planet) – king (ruler of state)
 Disorder in cosmos – civil discord in state
 Macrocosm (order of the cosmos) – microcosm (nature of human beings)
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  Storms & earthquakes – bad temper of individual
 Microcosm (nature of human beings) – body politics (order of political state)
 Commotions (= Unruhen) of mind – debate between king and counselors

Four Elements
 Goes back to Empedocles (ancient Greek philosopher)
 Hierarchy: earth Ò water Ò air Ò fire
 Characteristics associated with elements (temperature & humidity):
 Fire: hot & dry
 Air: hot & wet
 Water: cold & wet
 Earth: cold & dry

 Sharp division between everything below the moon (sub-lunary) and above the moon (super-
lunary)
 All sub-lunary matter:
 is subject to change and decay
 is made up of four elements
 All super-lunary bodies
 which are constant
 eternal and incorruptible (=unzerstörbar)
 are composed of fifth element (ether)

Four Humors
 Goes back to Hippocrates and Galen (ancient Greek physicians)
 Body fluids corresponding to four elements:
1. Yellow bile (=Gallenflüssigkeit) (fire)
2. Blood (air)
3. Phlegm (=Schleim) (water)
4. Black bile (earth)
 Mixture of humours constitutes human temperament and character
 Harmonious mixture of humours Ò inner equilibirum, noble temperament and character
 Uneven mixture of humours Ò predominance of certain qualities:
 Yellow bile (produced by spleen; dt. Milz) Ò choleric
 Blood (produced by liver) Ò sanguine
 Phlegm (produced by lungs) Ò phlegmatic
 Black bile (produced by gall bladder; dt. Gallenblase) Ò melancholic
 Uneven mixture of humours Ò increased risk of illness
 Diets and practices to restore balance of humours (excess of blood Ò apply blood-sucking
leeches, cut veins, …)

 Summary:
element common quality body fluid organ humour age season
fire hot, dry yellow bile liver choleric adolescence summer
earth cold, dry black bile spleen melancholic maturity autumn
water cold, moist phlegm kidney phlegmatic old age winter
air hot, moist blood heart sanguine youth spring

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Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (1980) (by Greenblatt)

-> Cover of Greenblatt’s book: Painter: Holbein, The

Amabssadors
-> Subtitle: From More To Shakespeare
-> French ambassadors in Renaissance context
-> Instruments concerning new sciences in Renaissance.
-> On the floor: Skull, seen from the side -> stands for death &
dark aspects of Renaissance (e.g. Plague)

-> Contents:
 At the Table of the Great: More’s Self-Fashioning and
Self-Cancellation
 Power, Sexuality, and Inwardness in Wyatt’s Poetry
 To Fashion a Gentleman: Spenser and the Destruction of the Bower of Bliss
 Marlowe and the Will to Absolute Play

 Self fashioning = a term introduced by Stephen Greenblatt

 It is used to describe the process of constructing one's identity and public persona according
to a set of socially acceptable standards.
 Greenblatt described the process in the Renaissance era where a noble man was instructed
to dress in the finest clothing he could afford, to be well versed and educated in art,
literature, sports, and other culturally determined noble exercises, and to generally compose
himself in a carefully intended manner.
 Upper class practiced self-fashioning
 Portraits: Prescribed behavior was created for the noblemen and women, and was
represented through portraits.
 Male rulers: depicted themselves with weapons -> show masculinity and power
 Women: beauty was the most important characteristic shown through fancy dresses
or jewelery -> represents purity, virtue (=Tugend) and modesty (=Bescheidenheit)
 Individuality: Men at the centre of the universe
 He questions masterpieces (e.g. Shakespeare)
 Provocative study: relation between great works (Shakespeare) & colonial powers
 Elizabethan age is no longer seen so great -> opposition to Tillyard.
 Use of European weapons (=diseases) against native Americans
 Political aspects

New Historicism

 Tillyard published a book about the Elizabethan world view -> new historicism is against
Tillyard.
 = Method on how to analyze a text
 Stephen Greenblatt belonged to New Historicism (He wrote Renaissance Self-Fashioning:
From More to Shakespeare (1980))
 Stephen Greenblatt coined the term “New Historicism”
 Method of New Historicism is differen from the traditional way of analysing
 Not analysing language, style, characters,...
 Based on parallel reading = read the literary text & a co-text of the same period
e.g.: historical documents
 Both texts are seen as equally important!
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  View literary text in the light of the co-text

 analyze the historicity of text & the textuality of history

history of that time historical phenomena foster texts

 Greenblatt wanted to analyze the literary influence on history and vice versa.
 Other approaches: reader-response theory, structuralism/post-structuralism, feminist
approach, biographical approach, psychoanalytical approach, queer-reading, post-colonial
approach,...

Prose Fiction
 Before Renaissance: Latin as lingua franca of learning and scholarship; English relatively
unimportant
 Renaissance: rising importance of vernacular languages
 Shaping English into a language of scholarship
 Introduction of new words from Latin (‘inkhorn terms’)
 Classical writers as models for prose style (Seneca, Cicero,…)
 Prose writing initially for factual rather than fictional texts (sciences, politics, religion, …)

Common Renaissance genres -> EXAM: know at least 2 authors each and his or her works (Moodle
Lecture 4 prose fiction survey)

 Translations
 Translation of the Bible after Act of Supremacy (initially forbidden by Catholic church)
Ò most important English translation: King James Bible (1603)
 Translation of Classical and contemporary foreign literature (Italian); adapted to
English context
 Educational/political treatises (=Abhandlungen)
 About how to educate a gentleman
 Many prose texts by humanists
 Primarily aimed at aristocrats
 Baldassare Castiglione: Il Cortegiano (courtesy (=Höflichkeit) book par exellence;
huge influence on English literature; translated by Sir Thomas Hoby as The Book of
the Courtier)
 Sir Thomas Elyot: The Governor (political dimension of education)
 Roger Ascham (tutor of Princess Elizabeth): The Scholemaster , Toxophilus (usage of
longbow)
 Italianate fiction
 Inspired by Italian literature
 Popularity of Italian literature despite critics‘ warnings (literature of Catholic country
Ò spoil English literature)
 John Lyly: Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit & Euphues and His England (famous for
their elaborate and artificial prose style = Euphuism)
 Travel reports
 Renaissance as era of geographical exploration
 Accounts of actual travels Ò immediacy of experience
 Often stories of disaster and failure
 Examples of travels:

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  Vasco de Gamma: from Portugal to India
 The English tried to reach the New World as well, but the Spanish
were before them, so they had to find a new route
 Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia:
 Name in honour of the “virgin queen” (=Queen Elizabeth)
 Failed to colonize Virginia, so the queen was angry with him
 To gain her grace again he wrote sonnets and other texts in her
honour
 He then tried to colonize Guiana (In south America)
 Examples of travel reports
 Thomas Hariot, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
(1588)
 Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and
Discoveries of the English Nation (1589): (= a collection of travel reports)
 no. 34 Voyage of Sir Francis Drake about the whole globe
(circumnavigation in The Golden Hind 1577-1580)
 no. 47 First voyage to the country now called Virginia (Ralegh in
1584)
 no. 54 The Spanish Armada
 no. 65 Discovery of Guiana by Sir Walter Ralegh
 Sir Walter Ralegh, The Discovery of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empire of
Guiana (1596)
 Picaresque novel
 Origin: anonymous Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tomes
 Term ‘picaresque’ derived from Spanish ‘picaro’ (en. rascal (= gemein, schuftig),
rogue (=boshaft))
 Hero is always a picaro
 Episodic structure
 Thomas Nashe: The Unfortunate Traveller (no travel report because fictional;
disadvantages of travelling abroad)
 Rhetorical Handbooks
 16th century: rise of the English language
 Poets concerned themselves theoretically with the use of language
 Euphuism = greek for “graceful” (= anmutig)
 formal & elaborate prose style originating in John Lyly’s work
 exaggerated, artificial style
 complicated syntax, many stylistic devices (e.g. assonance, alliteration,
similes,...)
 Sir Philip Sidney was against Euphuism
 Political writing
 Literary criticism
 Essays (on beauty,…)
 Chronicles (sources for Shakespeare‘s history plays)
 Satire/Fables
 Religious Pamphlets (kind of a flyer, used for propaganda)
 …

Thomas More (1478 – 1535)

 Born as son of prominent lawyer

 Working as page (dt. auch Page -> Hotelpage) for Archbishop of Canterbury
 Student at Oxford University and Inns of Court (law school)
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 Rise to power: lawyer Ò member of Parliament Ò advisor of Henry VIII Ò Lord Chancellor
 Also diplomate and theologian
 Staunch (=eisern) Catholic Ò radical measures (book burnings, imprisonments, executions)
 Resigned from his office after Henry‘s break with Rome
 Refusal to swear Oath of Supremacy and accept Henry VIII as head of church Ò execution for
high treason
 Catholic martyr due to execution Ò later canonized (=heiliggesprochen)
 Famous humanist scholar
 Acquainted (=bekannt) with many leading scholars in Europe
 Eramus of Rotterdam: published More‘s work in Continental Europe
 Advanced ideas and practices: educated everyone living in his household

Thomas More – Utopia

 Most important work by Thomas More

 Full title: Concerning the Best State of a Commonwealth and the New Island of Utopia
 First published in Latin in 1516 Ò probably aimed at international audience
 Translation into English in 1551 by Ralph Robinson (sixteen years after More‘s execution)
 About an ideal that cannot be achieved.
 Utopia = example of what is wrong with England/Europe
attack on social injustice
 More criticises his king indirectly -> hidden criticism
 Utopia is a serio-comic => serious topic & funny word plays (“no water”, “no place”)
 With Utopia More wanted to instruct & delight (learn something + have fun)
 It is a serious joke
 Followers of More: Brave new World, 1984, Animal Farm, Atlantis

 Characters:
 Thomas More (primary narrator; closely resembles historical More)
 Peter Giles (also based on historical figure; humanist scholar)
 Raphael Hythloday (narrator of Book II; entirely fictional; travelled to Utopia; is an
expert in nonsense)
 Structure:
 Introductory Letter
 Thomas More asking Peter Giles for permission to publish the book
 fictional letter from More to Giles; asking Giles to check manuscripts for
Book I and Book II Ò creating sense of authenticity
 Unclear facts:
 location of Utopia
 bridge in Amerault (to create sense of reality)
 Book I
 discussion between the three men of socio-political conditions and problems
in England Ò subtle criticism of England despite position at court
 discussion in an Antwerp (a city in Belgium) garden (= locus amoenus = nice
place)
 reader can adopt a role, or just view perspectives
 Raphael talks about private property and convinces More that common
property is good
 as long as social problems are not solved there will be a social gap
 the poor have to steal to survive
 Book II

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  fictional account of Hythloday‘s journey to Utopia and Utopian society ->
description of Utopia
 monologue
 river anyder (= no water)
 parallels with real world -> London and the river Thames
 no locked doors, gardens with many fruits & vegetables -> nobody is hungry
or homeless
 everything is alike to ensure that there is no hierarchy -> critic: loose of
individualism
 Attempts at plausibility:
 Historical figures (Thomas More, Peter Giles)
 Introductory letter (asking Giles to check manuscripts; giving reasons for missing
facts)
 Illustrations of Utopia
 Locating Utopia in the New World
 Irony & ambivalence:
 Name of Utopia: derived from Greek ou + topos (‘no place’); also pun on Greek eu +
topos (‘happy place’)
 Last name of Raphael Hythloday (‘babbler’, ‘someone who talks nonsense’)
 Last name of Thomas More (pun on Latin moria ‘folly’ = Torheit))
 Utopian society:
 positive aspects
 Equality among Utopians: no private ownership Ò all property is held in common
 Goods are stored in warehouses; people request what they need
 No homeless or hungry people
 No social classes (scholars and priests, but no merchants, lawyers, …)
 Obligatory work Ò no unemployment
 Importance of agriculture Ò obligatory agricultural work for two years
 Obligatory work in another trade considered important (weaving, carpentry,
masonry, …)
 Working day limited to 6h
 Avoidance of wars Ò benevolent (wohlwollend) towards foreign nations
 Engage in war only if necessary: to protect themselves or to gain new land when
population exceeds carrying capacity
 Religious tolerance Ò practice several religions (BUT: no tolerance for atheism)
 Assiduous (=eifrig) in their religious practice
 Rational attitude towards religion: willing to change religion as soon as another
religion proves to be better
 Rationally planned cities Ò no stench and crowded streets
 Free hospitals and free child-care
 Fun: no kind of pleasure is forbidden unless you don’t harm someone
 Travel: citizens can travel
negative aspects
 Euthanasia: elimination of old people and terminally ill people
 Patriarchal society: women inferior to men Ò perform lighter tasks, subservient to
husbands, … (BUT: no difference in education, enjoy respect of husband, accompany
husband to war Ò mutuality)
 Restricted personal freedom: closely monitored society
 Lack of individualism: identical cities; citizens wearing identical clothes Ò no
separate identity; boring sameness rather than individualism
 Slavery: two slaves in every household (foreigners or criminals)
 Evaluation of Utopian society:
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  Ambivalence: both positive and negative elements in Utopia
 More: disapproval of more modern aspects (religious tolerance, marriage customs,
social equality…)
 Critical stance: Advocating social reforms modelled on Utopia; but also casting
doubts on certain aspects of Utopian society

Thomas Nashe
 Was at university and became a professional writer
 Against the Puritans
 Involved in the Martin Marprelate Tracts to repress Puritan writing (Martin Marprelate was
the name used by the anonymous author or authors of the seven Marprelate tracts that
circulated illegally in England in the years 1588 and 1589. Their principal focus was an attack
on the episcopacy of the Anglican Church.)
 Criticised the Church of England.

The Unfortunate Traveller or the life of Jack Wilton (1594)

 Picaresque novel (description see above)
 Written in plain English prose -> At the beginning of his studies Nashe was in favour of
Euphuism but when he started writing himself he rejected Euphuism.
 Satire and pure fiction
 Hero = Jack Wilton (very strong & masculine character)
 Set during the reign of Henry VIII in Europe
 Content: The narrator, Jack Wilton, describes his adventures as a page during the wars
against the French, and his subsequent travels in Italy as page to the Earl of Surrey. In his
travels, Jack witnesses numerous atrocities, including battlefields, plague, and rape. He talks
about Germany and Italy
 Religious conflicts are also a topic (is baptism good or not?)
 Characterised by strong violence, xenophobia (=fear of unfamiliar things) and misogyny (=
hate women)
 Juliana’s attempt to kill Jack Wilton -> shows misogyny
 Unfortunate: Travelling is always unfortunate
 Message: Never leave England!

Epic
 Mixture of Prose & Poetry

 long narrative story metrical structure + rhyme scheme

 Content: Warriors, heros, myth, legend
 Heroic poetry = highest literature in the Renaissance (Sidney’s Defense of Poetry refers to
heroic poetry). About heroic stories with legendary and mythical elements.
 Written during the emergence of printing -> reach a large audience

 Edmund Spenser
 Born in London in 1552
 Graduated from Cambridge
 Published poetry
 Translated Italian (Petrarch) and French (du Bellay) poetry
 Went to Ireland (Dublin) and stayed there for a while but later there was the Irish
rebellion
 In 1589 he went back to London together with Sir Walter Raleigh.

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  He wrote “The Faerie Queene” and then showed it to Raleigh and asked for his
opinion. (Letter to Raleigh)
 Raleigh advised him to show it to Queen Elizabeth I and so he did
 Queen was delighted and rewarded Spenser with money
 But he wanted more money and so he wrote more parts of “The Faerie Queene”.
 1598: His castle “Kilcolman Castle” was burned down because the Irish didn’t like the
English. (Because the English tried to impose Protestantism and English culture on
Ireland)
 Flew to London
 Was married twice. His first woman died and then he married Elisabeth Boyle.

 The Faerie Queene

 Romantic story (temptation, princesses, dragons)
 First 3 books published in 1590
 Whole work of 6 books published in 1596
 Spenser originally planned to write 12 books but died before finishing ( 12 books – 12
allegories – 12 virtues)
 The Faerie Queene = praise of Queen Elizabeth I (Faerie queene is an allegory for
Elizabeth I)
 Heroic poetry -> about heroic stories with legendary and mythical elements
 Letter to Raleigh: After all 6 books of The Faerie Queene were published Spenser
wrote a letter to Raleigh where he talked about The Faerie Queene:
 Identified The Faerie Queene with huge epics of ancient writers.
 Compared Britain to Rome and London to Troy -> Britain will reach greatness
like Rome.
 Talked about models of The Faerie Queene:
 Homer: Iliad and Odyssey
 Virgil: Aeneid -> Spenser said that The Faerie Queene is the English
equivalent of Aeneid.
 Ariosto: Orlando furioso
 Tasso: Gerusalemme liberate
 Extract from the letter:
“[…] being a continued Allegory, or darke conceit […] The generall end
therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in
vertuous and gentle discipline […] I labour to pourtraict in Arthure, before he
was king, the image of a braue knight, perfected in the twelue morall vertues
[…]”
 Spenser describes the allegorical presentation of virtues through Arthurian
knights in the mythical "Faerieland".
 In the letter it is suggested, that Arthur represents the virtue of
Magnificence, which (according to Aristotle) is "the perfection of all the rest,
and conteineth in it them all"

 Faerie Queene should teach a didactic lesson

 Spenser’s Intention: “the generall end of the booke is to fashion a gentleman or
noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline”
 Spenser calls his work “a continuous allegory” -> it means that it contains many
layers of meaning
 Allegory (=a literary device in which characters or events represent or symbolize
ideas and concepts.) -> each individual in the story stands for an idea (e.g. justice)
2 levels of allegory:
1st: moral & spiritual level (abstract personifications)
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 2nd: historical & political level
 Gloriana = Typology for the Queen
 Una = One and only church (Protestant Chruch, Elizabeth
changed official religion to Protestantism)
 Faerie Land = England
 Many hints
 to the Queen
 private queen (natural)
 monarch (political)
 to Ireland
 to religious quarrels
 to Mary, Queen of Scots (politics)
 to England (= faerie land)
 Landscape: represents emotional/spiritual sides of the characters (e.g. trees
represent hero’s psych)
 Each book has a particular allegory:
 Book 1: Holiness (Redcrosse)
 Book 2: Temperance (Sir Guyon)
 Book 3: Chastity (Britomart)
 Book 4: Friendship (Cambel and Telamond)
 Book 5: Justice (Artegall)
 Book 6: Courtesy (Calidore)
 Spenser defends Allegory: it is good for moral education
 The story gives a portrait of King Arthur who is, in The Faerie Queene, suggested as
an ancestor of the Tudors and who was a great hero at that time (=great hero who
seeks the faerie queene in the faerie land)

 Content:
 In general: poem follows several knights in an examination of several virtues.
 The Redcrosse Knight dreams of the faerie queene and wants to search for
her
 In the dream she gave him the task of fighting a dragon
 The Redcrosse Knight accompanied by Una and a dwarf (who carries her
belongings).
 Book I, Canto I - Holiness
Book I tells the story of the knight of Holiness, the Redcrosse Knight. This
hero gets his name from the blood-red cross emblazoned on his shield. He
has been given a task by Gloriana, "that greatest Glorious Queen of Faerie
lond," to fight a terrible dragon (I.i.3). He is traveling with a beautiful,
innocent young lady, Una, and a dwarf as servant. Just as we join the three
travelers, a storm breaks upon them and they rush to find cover in a nearby
forest. When the skies clear, they find that they are lost, and they end up
near a cave, which the lady recognizes as the den of Error. Ignoring her
warnings, Redcrosse enters and is attacked by the terrible beast, Error, and
her young. She wraps him up in her tail, but he eventually manages to
strangle her and chops off her head. Error's young then drink her blood until
they burst and die.

 Book II, Canto 12 - Temperance

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 Guyon and Palmer (=Pilger) travel to Acrasia’s island (Acrasia = seductress of
knights). Along the way, they must brave blinding fog, the Gulf of
Greediness, and various water monsters. Always the expert guide, Palmer
leads them safely through these dangers. On the island, the two are beset by
wild beasts, which Palmer drives off with his magic staff. Guyon and Palmer
find the Bower of Bliss and force their way in past the guard, Genius. They
meet Excess, who offers Guyon wine she has made, but Guyon refuses and
destroys her cup. The men discover two naked women playing in a fountain,
and Palmer must remind Guyon to stay focused on his quest. Finally, they
find Acrasia with her lover, Verdant; Guyon and Palmer catch them in a net
then chain Acrasia. With Acrasia helpless, Guyon destroys the Bower of Bliss.
Guyon and Palmer make their way back to the ferry, and they are again
attacked by wild beasts. This time, however, Guyon knows that the beasts
are actually enchanted men, so he has Palmer change them back to their
true forms.

Analysis:
The three-day ferry ride to Acrasia’s island is easily associated with the three-
day interval between the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Similarly, the
journey over water can represent baptism or “crossing the Jordan” into the
Promised Land—only here the Bower of Bliss is a false Promised Land which
Guyon must destroy.

Guyon’s temperance is further tested when he stops to watch the naked

women play in the fountain. Palmer—the more experienced Christian of the
two—pulls Guyon away and helps him to stay on his path. That he is
tempted, however, reminds the reader of Guyon’s half-Fay nature and the
mixture of natural and spiritual that takes place within his being. The Bower
of Bliss is none too different from any faerie ring or woodland revel, but
Guyon must not give in to his Faerie (or pagan) nature. Guyon holds on to his
spiritual (or Christian) side and destroys the Bower in the end.

The final scene wherein Palmer turns the beasts back into men serves to
accentuate Guyon’s choice—he is a man, not a creature of the forest, and his
actions have led to the restoration of these men’s humanity as well.

 Characters:
 (King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th
centuries, who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the
defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details
of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention.)
Arthur is the central hero of the poem, although he does not play the most
significant role in its action. Arthur is in search of the Faerie Queene, whom
he saw in a vision. He represents the virtue of Magnificence.
 Faerie Queene represents Glory (hence, her name is Gloriana). Though she
never appears in the poem, the Faerie Queene is the focus of the poem; her
castle is the ultimate goal or destination of many of the poem’s characters.
She represents Queen Elizabeth I
 Una, is Redcrosse's future wife, and the other major protagonist in Book I.
She is meek, humble, and beautiful, but strong when it is necessary; she
represents Truth, which Redcrosse must find in order to be a true Christian.
She is the personification of the "True Church". She travels with the

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 Redcrosse Knight whom she has recruited to save her parents' castle from a
dragon. She has a white skin (standing for innocence)
 The Redcrosse Knight, hero of Book One, knight of holiness. He represents
England. Introduced in the first canto of the poem, he bears the emblem of
Saint George, patron saint of England; a red cross on a white background is
still the flag of England. The Redcross Knight is declared to be the real Saint
George in Canto X. He also learns that he is of English ancestry, having been
stolen by a Fay and raised in Faerieland. In the climactic battle of Book I,
Redcrosse slays the dragon that has laid waste to Eden. He marries Una at
the end of Book I, but brief appearances in Books II and III show Redcrosse
still questing through the world.
 Guyon, the Knight of Temperance, the hero of Book Two. He is the leader of
the Knights of Maidenhead and carries the image of Gloriana on his shield.
According to the Golden Legend, St. George's name shares etymology with
Guyon, which specificially means "the holy wrestler."

 Structure:
 Each book divided into 12 cantos
 1 canto: 30 – 87 stanzas
 At the beginning: Proem (= 4 stanzas, an introduction or preface)
 Every stanza is a Spenserian stanza (= especially designed for this book):
 9 lines
 line 1-8: iambic pentameter

1 foot consisting 5 stresses per

of 2 syllables, line (5 feet)
every second
syllable is stressed

 line 9: Alexandrine = iambic hexameter

 rhyme scheme: a b a b b c b c c

 Criticism/Analysis:
 Greenblatt: Why does Spenser avoid extremes in his story but the hero is
destroying the bower of bliss in the end. -> Destroying could be avoided
 Destroying because the bower’s joys threaten civilization
 Allegories:
 Gyant’s arrival in the Bower = European arrival in the new world
 Bower = Eden/paradise (Columbus used these words to describe the
new world)
 BUT: There is also a danger of the beauty (new world) -> Indians,
creatures, cannibalism. Like the Bower the Indians were also
destroyed.
 Irish colonial struggle in England: destruction of Irish identity and
fashioning of English identity
 Big criticism: Too much allegory!

Poetry – The Sonnet

 one of the first sonnet-writers: Dante Alighieri
 became famous in the 14th century in Italy with Petrarch’s sonnets
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  Il Canzoniere: (written in Italian, a collection of poems)
in vita di madonna Laura (1-263)
in morte di madonna Laura (264-366)
 = Collection of sonnets, about Petrarch’s love Laura
 central theme = rejected lover, despair, self-pity = typical for him
 biographical background: Laura was married and unreachable for Petrarch.
 he lived 250 years before the sonnet became popular in England
 decline on account of overproduction, parody
 Donne, Milton (religious, spiritual level)
 Romantic era: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley,...
 Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547): e.g. “The soote season”
Tottel’s Miscellany, Songs and Sonnets written by Henry Earl of Surrey and others
 Henry Howard modified the sonnet and made it popular in England
 He gave the sonnet the form of the English sonnet
 Was executed by Henry VIII

 Strucutre:
 14 lines
 iambic pentameter (1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1)
 two types of sonnets:

 Italian or Petrarchan sonnet: 1 octave + 1 sestet

 1 octave consisting of 2 quatrains: abba
abba
 1 sestet: cd e/c cd e/c

 English or Shakespearean sonnet: 3 quartrains + 1 couplet

 3 quartrains: abab abba variation of the
cdcd OR cddc sestet = embracing
efef effe sometimes after the
 1 couplet: gg quartrains there is a volta
(=turn) indicated by “but”

 Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) introduced Petrarch’s sonnets to England

 One of the artists Henry VIII surrounded himself with -> write to praise the king
 Thomas Wyatt‘s Rebellion against Mary‘s decision to marry Philip II of Spain Ò
rebellion failed
 Went to Italy and was impressed by Petrarch’s poetry
 His translations of Petrarch are also his interpretation of those sonnets

 Wyatt’s “Whoso list to hunt” is a translation of Petrarch’s “Una candida cerva”

(Canzoniere No. 190) (list = wish, desire)

 The poem:
Poet knows a worthy female deer

Who enjoys hunt?
Poet’s efforts have
been in vain & he is
tired
He can’t draw his
thoughts away from
the deer as she runs
before him he follows
exhausted.
1 WOSO list to hunt? I know where is an hind! Poet is no longer
CONTRAST
2 But as for me, alas! I may no more, up the chase
3 The vain travail hath wearied me so sore;
4 I am of them that furthest come behind. He is now at the back of
5 Yet may I by no means my wearied mind the hunting party
6 Draw from the deer; but as she fleeth afore
7 Fainting I follow; I leave off therefore, He gives up due to the futility of
8 trying to hold the wind in a net.
9 Seite 22 von 46
10
11
12
13
 Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt
As well as I, may spend his time in vain!
And graven with diamonds in letters plain,
There is written her fair neck round about;
' Noli me tangere ; for Cæsar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.'
He tells those who follow the hunt that,
just as for him, the pursuit is fruitless.
Picked out in diamond lettering there is a
collar around the neck of the hind. The
collar says ‘do not touch me, as I belong to
Caesar, and I am wild, though I seem
tame.’

 Analysis:
 Wyatt refashions the original poem:
Petrarch (original poem)
 beautiful landscape
 1 hunter hunts the hind
 Laura is reserved for a higher
power: Noli me tangere – white
stags (=Hirsche) were found 300
years after Caesar's death, their
collars (=Krägen) inscribed with the
command: Noli me tangere,
Caesaris sum – Do not touch me, I
am Caesar's.
 “for Caesar’s I am”
 idealism
 End: poet’s fall into the water
 Writer is alone with unattainable
 woman
Poem relies on implication
 Woman = Anne Boleyn who was believed to be Wyatt’s mistress
Wyatt
 bitterness
 many hunters => love chase
 „I leave off therefore“ Wyatt does
not see a chance of getting the
lady. Thought to be about Anne
Boleyn, with whom Wyatt had a
relationship before the King
became interested in her.
 I am... = she’s reserved for Henry
VIII
 bitterness
 Diamonds = symbols of chastity
 Writer is surrounded by other men
(hunters)

 Structure
 14 lines
 Iambic pentameter 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
 rhyme scheme: abba abba cdd cdd = Italian sonnet

 Sir Philip Sidney (1554 – 1586)

 histocrat
 went to Oxford
 travelled abroad
 fought in Ireland
 dedicated skills to Protestantism
 fighting in Spanish Netherlands -> there he died
 His sonnets were NOT about the queen
 He wrote “Astrophel & Stella”
 Sequence of 108 sonnets
 3 unauthorized (bec. after his death) editions were published
 became a hero after publishing when he was already dead
 Italian / Petrarchan sonnet (used rhyme Petrarchan rhyme scheme with
great freedom)
 Astrophel falls in love with Stella, she rejects him and they separate and she
gives him the last kiss
 Sidney connects Astrophil to himself and Stella to Penelope Devereux
 She triggered (=auslösen) his writing
 She married another man
 autobiographical situation
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  He wrote “ To the Moon” (= sonnet 31 in Astrophel & Stella)

 The poem:
setting the tone
of sadness 1 WITH how sad steps, O moon, thou climb’st the skies!
2 How silently, and with how wan (=blass) a face!
the moon has seen
3 What! may it be that even in heavenly place many lovers in his
4 That busy archer (=Bogenschütze) his sharp arrows tries? time because it has
Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted (= vertraut) eyes been here forever
5
Can judge of love, thou feel’st a lover’s case: The moon has seen
6 many cases of love
7 I read it in thy looks; thy languish’d (=ermattet) grace (=Grazie) and can judge love
8 To me, that feel the like, thy state descries (ich nehme wahr). therefore, but can
9 he also feel feelings
Then, even of fellowship, O Moon, tell me,
of love or
10 Is constant love deem’d (=erachtet) there but want of wit (=Verstand)? heartbrokenness?
women who only 11 Are beauties there as proud as here they be?
“love to be loved” 12 Do they above love to be loved, and yet
refuse or ignore Women who “love
13 Those lovers scorn (=Verachtung) whom that love doth possess? to be loved” use
those who are truly
in “constant love,” 14 Do they call ‘virtue’ (=Tugend) there—ungratefulness (=Undankbarkeit)? their virtues as an
excuse for their
rejection and
 Analysis: ungratefulness
 Lover already knows at the beginning that his love is unrequited
(=unerwidert) -> Tone of irony at the beginning = funny
 Sidney compares the moon to himself
 Moon is addressed twice (-> Apostrophe = writer addresses an
absent person or a personified abstraction)
 Moon is personified
 Moon is a companion in suffering, it is the Elizabethan lover on the
way to the stars but it will never reach the stars
 Like the moon (Astrophel) will never reach the stars (Stella) Sidney
will never reach Penelope Devereux (nobody will ever reach stars)
 Repetition of “how”
 Poet asks: Is loyalty foolish?

 Structure:
 14 lines
 Iambic pentameter 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
 rhyme scheme: abba abba cdcd ee

Italian octet English couplet

 Edmund Spenser (1552 – 1599)

 Details of his life -> see page 17
 He wrote “Amoretti and Epithalamion”
 Sequence of 89 sonnets
 “Amoretti” is a sonnet circle, part of “Amoretti and Epithalamion”
 Amoretti = little cupid = the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection
 Epithalamion = a public poetic celebration of marriage, especially for the bride
 memorializes (=jdm. ein Denkmal setzen) Spenser’s courtship of Elizabeth Boyle

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  turn in the whole sonnet collection: at the beginning the man suffers, then the
woman suffers

 He wrote “Sonnet XV” (sonnet 15 in “Amoretti”)

 The poem:

1 YE tradefull Merchants that with weary toyle,
2 do seeke most pretious things to make your gain:
3 and both the Indias of their treasures spoile,
4 What needeth you to seeke so farre in vaine?
5 For loe my loue doth in her selfe containe
6 all this worlds riches that may farre be found,
7 if Saphyres, loe her eies be Saphyres plaine,
8 if Rubies, loe hir lips be Rubies found;
9 If Pearles, hir teeth be pearles both pure and round;
10 if Yuorie, her forhead yuory weene;
11 if Gold, her locks are finest gold on ground;
12 if siluer, her faire hands are siluer sheene,
Volta, indicated 13 But that which fairest is, but few behold,
through “But” 14 her mind adornd with vertues manifold.
The poet asks: What is it that makes
the merchants search in vain for
treasures in lands far away?
Poet’s love contains all treasures in
herself: Saphyres (eyes), Rubies (lips),
Pearls (teeth), Ivory (forehead), Gold
(locks), Silver (hands)
The most beautiful thing about the poet’s
love is that in her mind she has all virtues.

 Analysis:
 Lady is not unreachable - > she is his future wife (=Elizabeth Boyle)
 Lady could also be Queen Elizabeth
 It’s a Balzon = praise of a woman’s body
 Both Indias = east and west
 Poet compares his love to treasures
 Saphyres, Rubies,... => typical Petrarchan idealisation of a woman
 Volta: turn from visual attributes (eyes, hair,...) to invisible attributes
(mind, soul, inner values)
 1st quatrain: about the merchants
 2nd & 3rd quatrain: about the poet’s situation
 couplets: twist

 Structure:
 14 lines
 Iambic pentameter 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
 rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee

 William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

 Wrote a total number of 154 sonnets

 Main addressee:
 Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton (1-126)
 Dark Lady (127-154)
 He turns conventions upside down: the unreachable lady (from other sonnets) is a fair young
man in his sonnets -> hidden biographical situation -> some suggest that he was bisexual.
 Dark Lady is in love with the poet & a young man but in the end all of them are unsatisfied
 Main plot in his sonnets: Fair young man and Dark Lady
 Secondary plot: the poet as contending (=kämpfend) lover

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  Craze for sonnets at Shakespeare’s time but his sonnets were published afterwards (when there
was already parody)
 Poet feels neglected & hurt because of an unreachable patron

 “Sonnet 18”

 The poem:

1 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Temper <-> time (similar)

2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; Death will not claim you for
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade his own.
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
11 Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, So long as there are people
12 When in eternal lines to time thou growest: on this earth, so long will
this poem live on, making
13 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, you immortal.
14 So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

 Analysis:
 Addressee: a friend of the poet
 Comparison between a summer’s day and the poet’s friend
 Friend’s beauty will never fade because it is preserved in the verse while nature
will fade
 Temporality of physical existence and eternity of verse
 Time = destroyer = destructive element = destroys beauty
 Summer’s day =
 metonymy for the whole season
 beautiful, warm nice, fertile
 fundament of comparison
 Summer’s imperfection is also shown: too hot, winds, clouds
 First 8 lines = about summer’s day, nature’s changing course is predicted
 Seasons are metaphors for stages of human life
Was not originally  “But” in line 9 = transition, contrast => it leads over from nature to the friend
Shakespear’s intention  Alliterations: day-darling; long-lives-life; fair-from-fair; chance-changing-course
(= repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words in close proximity)
 Anaphora: So long ... & So long ... (in last 2 lines), Nor... & Nor... , And... & And...
(= a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of successive phrases/lines)
 Topos = traditional motif (here: Immortalizing someone by verse, time does not
destroy poetry)
Originates in Horace: Monumentum aere perennius (= a monument more
durable than ore (=Erz))
 Comparison of summer & friend is inadequate because the friend is even more
beautiful

 Structure:
 14 lines
 Iambic pentameter 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1

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  rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
 English / Shakespearian sonnet – But -> the “but” divides the poem
into an octet and a sestet = Petrarchan style

 “Sonnet 130”

 The poem:

Visual: ordinary description & 1 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
comparison (eyes-sun, coral-lips, 2 Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
snow-breasts, wires-hair = not 3 If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
conventional way of describing)
4 If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
5 I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
“I have seen...” = personal 6 But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
“There is...” = impersonal 7 And in some perfumes is there more delight
8 Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
9 I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
Sound & music
10 That music hath a far more pleasing sound; Contrast in the couplets =
11 I grant I never saw a goddess go; twist = key to understand the
12 sonnet
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
13 And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare It gets clear that he doesn’t
14 As any she belied with false compare. mock the lady but his fellow
writers. Poet finds other
sonnets artificial
 Analysis:
 Satirical poetry = shows that the sonnet era comes to an end
 Comparison: Shakespeare sonnet 130 & Spenser sonnet 15
Shakespeare portrays the lady in a realistic way -> hints at a blazon.
Shakespeare takes up the topos to say that is lady is different and so
he denies the topos
 It’s a mock blazon = parody of a blazon
 Dedicated to the Dark Lady

 Structure:
 14 lines
 Iambic pentameter 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
 rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
 English/Shakespearian sonnet

Poetry - Metaphysical poetry

 Metaphysical poets:
 John Donne
 Andrew Marvell
 George Herbert
 Henry Vaughan
 Richard Crashaw
 Dr. Samuel Johnson: “The Life of Cowley”:
“The metaphysical poets were men of learning, and to show their learning was their whole
endeavour(=Bestreben). […] The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked (=gepaart) by violence
together; nature and art are ransacked (=durchwühlt) for illustrations, comparisons, and
allusions; …”
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  “metaphysical” -> name was given to them later in the 18 th century
 They are men of learning
 Illustrate abstract ideas by using concrete objects (often of science), objects that would
normally not occur to us in that context.
 Conceit
 = “Figure of speech, usually a simile or metaphor, that forms an extremely ingenious
(=erfinderisch) or fanciful (phantasiereich) parallel between apparently dissimilar or
incongruous (=unvereinbar) objects or situations.”
 = “As a literary term “conceit” has come to denote a fairly elaborate figurative device
of a fanciful kind which often incorporates metaphor, simile, hyperbole or oxymoron
and which is intended to surprise and delight by its wit and ingenuity. The pleasure
we get from many conceits is intellectual rather than sensuous (=sinnlich).”

 John Donne (1573 – 1631)

 Born in London
 Studied in Oxford & Cambridge
 Was secretly married to Anne More -> became a scandal -> he had to go to prison ->
ruined his career. (“Anne Donne, John Donne, Undone”)
 Went to France and left his wife behind
= Farewell
 “A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning”

 The poem:

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,

 Poet compares their division to death. And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

So let us melt, and make no noise,

 He wants her to be stoical on his
departure.
 They are no ordinary lovers -> there is
smth holy in their relationship.
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests (seufzen-Gewitter) move ;
'Twere profanation (Entweihung) of our joys
To tell the laity (Laien) our love.

 Their love is not disturbed by him going

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
away Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
 Their relationship doesn’t depend on But trepidation (Ängste) of the spheres,
physical things
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,

That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

 2 souls are 1 = he will come back Our two souls therefore, which are one,
 Gold doesn’t break when it is beaten
with a hammer -> it gets thinner
(expansion) Seite 28 von 46
 and so their relationship doesn’t break
when he has to go.
 Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery (dünn) thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses (Zirkel) are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,

Yet, when the other far doth roam (umherstreifen),
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect (aufrecht), as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Middle foot: Outer foot: Man
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ; Woman stays and leaves but comes
Thy firmness (Beständigkeit) makes my circle just, makes sure that he back to where he
can come back. started.
And makes me end where I begun.

 Analysis:
 His wife should accept his departure and avoid emotions
 Title sets the tone for the entire poem
 He intellectualizes emotions by comparing them to scientific aspects
(compass)
 Compass
 perfect symbol of unity -> circle will not end -> poem ends
with that symbol
 represents his journey
 What is metaphysical about this poem?
 Astonishing metaphysical conceits (comparing to scientific
objects)
 Mocking Petrarch: “...other lovers”; “...dull...”
 exaggeration taken from nature

 Structure:
 9 stanzas
 4 lines per stanza
 meter: iambic tetrameter
 rhyme scheme: alternating rhyme (abab...)

 Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678)

1. Studied at Cambridge
2. Supported Oliver Cromwell (fought against Scotland)
3. Poem addressed to a mistress

4. “To His Coy Mistress”

 The poem:

Had we but world enough, and time,
 About what they could do if they had time
 Oppositions: Seite 29 von 46
o time & eternity
o active & passive (love is passive)
o life & death
o east & west
 This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
IF My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear  Tone changes

Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
BUT Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
 Issue of death -> it destroys everything
 Pessimistic
 Time = enemy, obstacle
 Deserts = reference to death
 Line 31-32: couplets ironic
 Reader realizes: no matter how happy you
are, you will die
 macabre images (e.g. worms)
 Critics:
o Fear of death is too intense
o In the 2nd part the poet has complete
forgotten about the seduction.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue  About present situation

Sits on thy skin like morning dew,  What to do best
And while thy willing soul transpires  Carpe-Diem-Philosophy
At every pore with instant fires,  Push the lady to love
Now let us sport us while we may;  Overcome the lady’s avoidance
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,  Celebration of love & life
Rather at once our time devour,  Victory of love & life over time & death
THEREFORE Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

 Analysis:
 Seduction poem (man tries to seduce the lady)
 What is metaphysical about this poem?
 Logical structure: If, But, Therefore
 Seduction poem: he tries to seduce the lady, invites her to
love
 We will die, so let’s seize the day = Carpe Diem topos
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  Critics say that it isn’t a seduction poem but it’s about that it’s good
to make children.
 Catherine Belsey says about the poem:
 You have to place the poem in its context (= late
Renaissance)
 We today equate love with life (advertisements, films,
music,...)
 In 17th century the opposition between love & death was not
fixed.
 Holbein picture: we have to be aware of the
omnipresence of death at that time (e.g.: Skulls as
decoration)
 It is just a poem about a lonely person.

 Structure:
 3 part structure: If, But, Therefore
 Meter: iambic tetrameter
 Rhyme scheme: Octosyllabic rhyming couplets

Drama
 Survey
 English drama originates in the middle ages
 It was a creation of the church
 At the beginning: about episodes of the life of Christ
 In ecclesiastical (=kirchlich) Latin -> this was an obstacle for the great masses
 Performed at great catholic festivals (e.g. Easter)
 First Drama about the Friday before Easter (when the women came to the dead corps of
Christ)
 Vernacular language gradually introduced -> purely English plays were performed in the
church.
 Plays had to move outside the church because they got longer and all the people who
wanted to watch didn’t fit into the church
 The plays became more entertaining rather than religious education and the pope forbid
all plays in the church.
 Forbidding the clergy (=Klerus) to act

 Mystery / Miracle Plays came into being

 Focused on the representation of Bible stories
 Developed into a series of plays dealing with all the major events in the Christian
calendar, from the Creation to the Day of Judgment.
 Four complete extant (=erhalten) English biblical collections of plays from the
late medieval period
 these collections are sometimes referred to as "cycles":
o York Cycle (contained 48 short plays, it took 2 days to perform it)
o Wakefield Cycle
o Chester Cycle
o Ludus Coventriae
 each circle is made up of 5 groups:
1. Plays dealing with the Creation, the Fall of Man (Adam & Eve, paradise)

Seite 31 von 46
 2. Plays centering around the birth of Christ, developed from the old
Christmas play
3. plays presenting incidents in the life of Christ
4. Passion plays, developed from the early Quem Quaeritis
5. Ascension plays (Himmelfahrt)
 anonymous writers
 amateur actors
 town guilds (sponsored some plays)
 Many people wanted to see the plays -> they were performed on pageants =
stages that could move around from station to station
 Without scenery but the costumes were very important and precious
 Actors were religious and got paid -> escape from their pity
 Direct quotations from the Bible
 Also political scenes
 Tradition remained till today

 Morality Plays
 Longer than mystery plays
 Already divided into acts and scenes
 Clear indication of authorship
 Dramatised allegory (=Characters/events symbolize ideas/concepts) with didactic
intend
 Professional actors
 3 major topics:
 The coming of Death
 The debate of the heavenly Virtues
 The conflict between Vices (=Laster) & Virtues (=Tugend) for the soul of
man
 Typical situations:
 temptation
 debate & discussion (Dr. Faustus)
 Examples:
 Everyman (=Jedermann)
 About Everyman who is informed about his death
 He fears
 In the end: redemption (=Erlösung)
 The Castle of Perseverance (=Ausdauer)
 Mankind
 The Interlude of the Nature of the Four Elements (John Rastell)
 Magnyfycence (Political satire about Wolsey)
John Skelton
 Respublica (Against Reformation)
 Lusty Juventus (Robert Wever)
 Kynge Johan (King is more important than religion) (John Bale)
 In the early 16th century the morals changed -> Humanism -> religious content
became less important but morality became more important
 Were used as a vehicle of propaganda

 Interludes
 No longer on pageants
 During other festivities, without need for much space
 Comedy, aim at entertainment but serious background

Seite 32 von 46
  Secretly dealing with religious topics (bec. Henry VIII had problems with the
church)
 Examples
 Henry Medwall: Fulgens and Lucrece
 John Heywood: The Four Ps
 Under Henry VIII
 funny
 the P who tells the greatest lie wins something

 Comedy
 Humor is physical (fist-fights, etc...)
 Language = every-day-English
 Examples
 Nicholas Udall: Ralph Roister Doister (Miles Gloriosus)
 First comedy in English
 Elements of Latin comedy
 5 act division
 rhyming couplets
 simple plot
 William Stevenson?: Gammer Gurton’s Needle
 Vulgar
 Italianate comedy
 First prose comedy
 George Gascoigne: Supposes

 Tragedy
 Examples
 William Shakespeare: Hamlet
 influenced other plays concerning the structure of 5 acts:
1. Little action
2. Messenger occurs
3. Ghost
4. Death of a hero
5. Bloody action
 William Shakespeare: MacBeth
 also comedy-elements: the drunken porter -> creates a comic
relief
 Thomas Kyd?: Arden of Feversham
 about Mr. Arden & his wife -> a murder
 Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville: Gorboduc
 King has 2 sons and divides his kingdom
 One son kills the other
 Was performed to Queen Elizabetz -> message to her: get an
heir!

 The University Wits

 They were university graduates, professionals
 Created the basis for English theatre
 Kyd & Marlow introduced Elizabethan theatre

 Thomas Kyd:
 The Spanish Tragedy
Seite 33 von 46
  Elizabethan revenge tragedy
 Innovative devices
 Trap to identify the murderer
 About revenge & it’s justification
 John Lyly:
 Campaspe
 Endymion, the Man in the Moon
 The Woman in the Moon

 Thomas Nashe: (was a prose-writer too)

 Summer’s Last Will and Testament

 George Peele:
 The Battle of Alcazar
 The Old Wives Tale

 Robert Greene:
 Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
 The History of Orlando Furioso

 Christopher Marlowe:
 His tragedies:
 Tamburlaine (praises secular power = contrast to middle ages)
 Doctor Faustus
 The Jew of Malta (hero = villain)
 Edward II (history play, power struggle on a political level)
 His reputation has been growing after his death
 Studied at Cambridge
 Poor origins
 His heroes resemble himself -> focus on their personality
express themselves in very good verse (are poets)
fascinated by extremes
great ambitions
willing to go one step further
 Hot tempered – died in a tavern fight
 Arrogant & self-confident
 Revolutionary pioneer:
 Before his time there were only royal heroes
 in his plays there are heroes from different classes.
 Before his time there was a clear raise and fall of the hero
 in his plays there is a continuous struggle of the hero (forces
turn out to be too powerful and in the end the hero fails)
 He didn’t aim to teach a moral lessen!
 His contribution to English literature:
 Heros & Villains
 Perfection of blank verse
 Poetry of power & passion

Dr Faustus:
 Psychological struggle within the hero (who is not a royal hero)
 Not a play with action and fighting
 Was something new at that time
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  2 related versions: A-Text & B-Text but none of them represents exactly what Marlow really
wrote.
 A-Text: 1604
o omits much
 B-Text: 1616
o includes material added after Marlow’s death
o like light comedy elements
 The first performance was in The Rose (Bankside) after Marlow’s death by the Admiral’s Men
 Immense popularity

 3 part structure:
o Temptation (=Versuchung) -> signing the contract
o His life as work of magic
o His death

 Hero:
o confident
o wants to go beyond the limits and be God
o demands the right to know everything
o frustrated in the end
o Battle between good and evil angel within Faustus -> hell is trying to conquer his soul

 Content:
o Chorus at the Beginning: 1 person speaking a prologue (goes back to Greek Theatre
(Renaissance!))
 Where Faustus is born, his origins (humble family)
 His education (Wittenberg)
 Doctor of divinity (=Theology)
 Reference to Icarus: tells us that Faustus’ pride will lead to his downfall
o Act 1, Scene 1:
 Humble scholar Faustus sitting in his studies, surrounded by his books
 Soliloquy = when a character speaks to himself, alone on the stage. The aim
of this is to show the character’s thoughts and feelings.
The Soliloquy allows Faustus to make the audience aware of his dilemma
 Faustus rejects logic, medicine, law, divinity (=theology),
 He expresses his desire to expand -> wants to go beyond limitations
 His thirst for knowledge = a search for security
 He begins to be attracted by magic (line 52-54)
 “All things that move between the quiet poles shall be at my command”
-> he wants to be like God and leave everything which is human behind
 He reflects upon his actions
 The Good and the Evil Angel help to externalise the dilemma in Faustus
 Good Angel: tries to make him turn to God
 Evil Angel: tries to make him pursue (=fortfahren)
 It is clear from the beginning that Faustus is an easy catch for the devil
This gap creates  Audience: is aware of the danger from the beginning of the play
dramatic irony  Faustus: is not aware of the danger
o
 Faustus is not sure what he should do, he doubts (“?”) (line 2)
 He tries to encourage himself to continue although he has doubts (line 4)
 Good Angel: Turn to God again!
 Evil Angel: God loves thee not!
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  Pact with the devil: Faustus sells his soul to the devil (=Lucifer) in exchange
Mephistopheles (=servant of the devil) will be his servant for 24 years
 Lines 25 -27 & 29: wordings from the Bible in an ironic sense
 Signing the contract with his blood -> His body rebels (line 62) -> his blood
congeals (=gerinnen) -> Mephistopheles makes a fire to make the blood fluid
again
 “It is fulfilled” -> again direct wordings from the bible (originally said by
Christ on the cross)
o
 After signing: Faustus knows that he can never repent (Buße tun)
 Again a Soliloquy which allows Faustus to explain his thoughts to the
audience
 Good (you can repent) and evil (God cannot pity thee) angel speak to him
again
o Act 2 -4: His life with Mephistopheles as his servant
o Act 5:
 Scene 1: preparation for long soliloquy in scene 2 (line 35)
 Faustus is measuring his last hours on earth
 Old man: tries to bring him back to God -> he says that he can get
forgiveness. He says Faustus should “leave this dammed art”
 Faustus begins to believe the old man: “I do repent” BUT he does not turn to
God
 He asks Mephistopheles for redemption, calls him “good friend” -> he is the
wrong to ask for
 Irony: Faustus’ stupidity (=is a limitating factor)
 Scene 2: F’s final soliloquy
 Clock strikes 11, half past 11, quater to 12, 12
 Faustus can’t concentrate any more -> represented through disruptions of
the meter and incomplete lines
 Commas quicken the verse -> stress time! (line 153)
 Now he addresses God (line 155) -> he calls for saviour but the devil punishes
him
 Last words: “Ah” -> different meanings:
-> pain
-> accusation (=Vorwurf)
-> desperate for help
 Faustus disappears: Question: who is finally destroying him?

 Analysis by Dollimore
o He is a key figure in cultural materialism
o Said that literature is never neutral
o The play is no morality play, Faustus is not the archetypical new man
o Faustus is a divided person
o Play is also divided: Heaven & Hell, God & Lucifer, good & evil Angel = opposites that
constitute the human consciousness (?)
o F’s fall is his own fault
o God & Lucifer destroy Faustus finally
o F’s transgression (=Sünde, Vergehen) is rooted in dilemma & despair
o His transgression is religious & socio-political
o F is dissatisfied with his society but is bound to its structures

 Criticism:
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  Bad structure, less coherence between the scenes
 Superman qualities of the hero is the only focus -> minor characters totally neglected

 Theatres in Elizabethan time

 Public

 In Shoreditch and on the Bankside = outskirts of the town (Außenbezirke)

 All classes came there
 Too many people mixed
 not highly esteemed (=angesehen)
 Examples: The Curtain, The Fortune, The Globe, Bear Garden (=theatre +
place for animal fights)
 Stage on a raised platform
 The Swan (picture by Jan De Witt)
 The Globe:

Because of the lack of
stage properties
Shakespeare’s plays were
more about talking -> he
wrote plays especially for
the Globe.
No space for stage
properties but actors wore
precious costumes!
 Shakespeare was mainholder (he was also actor in his own plays)
 Built in 1599 during those 14 years it was
 Burned down in 1613 during a play London’s most successful theatre
 Was rebuilt afterwards with a new roof
 Closed when the puritans closed all theatres
 A reconstruction of it is still there today to visit (also plays there,
mostly Shakespeare)
 Polygonal
 Construction overshadowing the stage
 Trap door on the stage -> leading down to “hell”
 Pit = where the groundlings stood -> they had to pay very small
entrance fees so everybody could afford to go there
 Paradox: Those who paid less were nearest to the stage
 Roofed loges for the nobleman
 Stage was in the area where the audience stood -> surrounded by
the audience from 3 sides -> Apron stage
 Audience could also sit on the stage -> close intimacy between actors
& audience
 2 big pillars on the stage holding a construction that overshadowed it
 On the construction was the playhouse’s flag -> indicating that a play
was in progress or beginning
 Open to the sky -> no artificial lighting -> plays only in summer &
spring and not in the night -> half of the year the theatre was closed!

 Privat

 Indoor -> artificial lighting

 Examples: Blackfriars, Whitefriars
 Higher class audience -> higher entrance fees
 No paradox: seats closest to the stage were the most expensive ones
 All people seated
 1608 -> Shakespeare’s plays were also performed in private theatres ->
challenging for him because of different staging techniques (stage properties,
scenery,...)
 Inigo Jones
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 See page 7  Designed stages properties (also for Shakespeare)
 staged also Masques
 During the reign of James I
 Collaborated with Ben Jonson
o Ben Johnson wrote Masques, Inigo Jones staged them
o First collaboration: 1605: “Masque of Blackness”
o Wife of king James I, Anne of Denmark wanted to participate
in a masque and she wished the masquers to be disguised as
Africans.
o Stage properties became more important than the play itself
-> lead to a quarrel between Ben Johnson and Inigo Jones
o They quit working together

 Stages
 Globe theatre, public theatres -> apron stage
 stage surrounded on 3 sides by the audience
 Private theatre -> proscenium stage, picture-frame stage (like today)
 audience in front of the stage

 Playing Companies

 Adult companies
Challenge between the
lead actors of The Globe
Theatre and The Fortune
Theatre.
 Children’s or boy’s companies
 in public theatres, female roles performed by boys -> Edward
Kineston = last male actor for female roles (movie: “Stage Beauty”)
 needed patronage
 Lord Chamberlain’s Men
o Most important company
o Origin of the Name: At Shakespeare’s time George Carey was
the Chamberlain of the Household = usher
(=Zeremonienmeister) -> he patronized the company
o After king James I ascended the throne they changed their
name into The King’s Men.
o Lead actor = Richard Burbage -> played the principal roles in
Shakespeare’s plays
o At The Globe and Blackfriars
 Admiral’s Men
o Named after their patron Charles Howard who was an
admiral
o Philip Henslowe's Rose Theatre was home to the Admiral's
Men for a number of years, and Henslowe played a key role
as a blend of manager and financier.
o Lead actor = Edward Alleyn -> played the principal roles in
Marlowe’s plays
o They playedin The Rose Theatre and later in The Fortune
Theatre (which was build for them)
 In private theatres
 Children of the Chapel
o Choir boys
o At Blackfriars

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William Shakespeare (* 23.04.1564 Stratford -  23.04.1616 Stratford)
 Little know about his life
 3rd of 8 children
 Married to Anne Hathaway
 3 children: 1 daughter + twins (=daughter + son, son died early)
 Went to London to be an actor & a writer
 Returned later to Stratford, where he died
 It is not completely clear when Shakespeare’s career began/ended Elizabeth:
 last decade of Elizabeth’s reign – Plays from that time are called “Elizabethan Plays” 1558 – 1603
James I:
 first decade of James I reign – Plays from that time are called “Jacobean Plays”
1603 – 1625
 Authorship debate: Did he really wrote all his plays himself?
 Shakespeare’s acting company = Lord Chamerlain’s Men / King’s Men (King = King James I)
 He wrote a total number of 38 plays
 He wrote 4 categories of plays:
 Comedies
 Histories
 Tragedies -> subcategory: Roman Plays = 3 plays of Shakespeare that were set in
ancient Rome: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus
 Romances
 Plays between 1590 – 1602 = Elizabethan Plays
 Many history plays: Because of the anxiety that the queen will die without an heir
the people wanted to show her with the plays that it is important to have an heir.
 No play in 1603 (the Queen died)
 Plays between 1604 – 1612 = Jacobean Plays
 Reinforcement of the patriarchal society
 James I granted Shakespeare a licence to perform in London at the Globe theatre
 Expand audience
 Challenge between boys companies & the King’s Men -> King’s Men started to make more
tragedies because adult men are better in tragedies than children
 His last play = Henry VIII -> was a collaboration between himself and John Fletcher.
 His second last play = The Tempest = Farewell of Shakespeare
 In his final Phase S. wrote more romances:
 Because in 1608 S and his company got the permission to perform on Blackfriars (=
privat theatre)
 It was not possible to perform romances them in public theatres because of the
staging -> many staging properties needed

 Editing:
 At Shakespeare’s time, plays were regarded as short living things
 Plays were collaborations of actors & writers -> writers didn’t produce finished
versions
 Writing = first phase in a collaborative process
 Shakespeare was actor & shareholder & writer => he had a lot of influence
 Current editions of S’s plays = reconstructions of his original plays
 Foul papers = author's working drafts (=Entwürfe)
 Fair copy = Once the composition of a play was finished, a transcript or "fair copy" of
the foul papers was prepared, by the author or by a scribe in clear handwriting.
 Prompt-book = version of a text for an actor (=Rollenheft)
 contained all the information necessary for the performance
 prompter = guider (=Souffleur)
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  used as a source for printed text
 12 of Shakespeare’s plays were published during his lifetime -> in form of single-play
editions
 Two forms of printed text:
1. Quatro: one sheet folded twice creating 8 sides to write on = cheap
version
2. Folio: one sheet folded once creating 4 sides to write on = expensive
version

 There are so called “good” (=reliable) and “bad” (=unreliable, often called “pirated”)
sources

 e.g. manuscripts  on the basis of short hand notes taken

or prompts from by viewers (competitive writers) of the play
the author or on the basis of an actor’s memory

 1623: The first published collection of S’s plays is called “First folio” (contained 36
plays)
 title: Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories & tragedies.
 edited by John Heminges and Henry Condell
 Henry Condell = follower of the lead actor of the King’s Men (=Richard
Burbage)
 title portrait by Martin Droeshout
 edited by Shakespeare’s fellows (King’s Men)
 about 500 versions were published at the first time (first folio was sold out ->
second folio)

 At Shakespeare’s time the first form of copyright protection was called Stafioner’s
register

 Romeo & Juliet

 Written & performed in the 1590s (written in 1595 – Elizabethan play)

 Best known and most popular of his plays
 Many adaptations & imitations (Musicals, movies,...)
 Screen:
 Franco Zeffirelli, 1968
 Baz Luhrmann, 1996
 [Shakespeare in Love (1998)]

 Music:
 Gounod: Roméo et Juliette (opera)
 Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette (dramatic symphony)
 Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet (symphonic poem)
 Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (ballet version)
 Bernstein: West Side Story (musical theatre adaptation)

 About adolescent passion -> critics have not accepted it as a mature play
 Reason: the tragical action does not develop out of the characters – it is
rather fate
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 1st quarto published was a pirated edition (based probably on the memories of an
actor)
 2nd quarto published was a good edition
 Difference between the quarto versions and the folio version: prologue is only in the
quarto edition

 Structure
 The play is very symmetrical
 Prologue:
 In Shakespeare’s plays only Romeo and Juliet and Henry V have a
prologue
 2 prologues in the whole play, spoken by a chorus:

1. At the beginning of the first act, in English sonnet form:

 Introduction to the feud (=Fehde) between the
families, the location (=Verona), the two lovers and
their miserable end.
 It is already said that the two lovers will reunite their
families on cost of their lives. -> Because the
audience knows already WHAT is going to happen the
focus lies on HOW it is happening
 Lovers are doomed from the start
 Hints at the past – the present – the future
fight current situation death of
the lovers

2. At the beginning of the second act, in English sonnet form:

 Meeting of the two is restated = the two fell in love with
one of their enemies. It is also indicated that they will
find a way to meet.
 The difficulty of the love makes it even sweeter

 1st part of the play 2nd part of the play

love play – less tragical tragic

 5 acts
 Prologue and last speech (spoken by the prince) -> about their death
 Repetition is an important element in the whole play
 To summarise what has happened
 Example: 2nd prologue where the situation is again described
 Nurse also used for repetition: She informs Juliet about Tybalt’s
death (“a loved one has died” -> Juliet believes that she meant
Romeo)
 Friar: repeats what happened in the last act when explaining
everything to the prince

 1.5. Meeting at the ball (they talk in E. sonnet form, first kiss)
 2.2. Balcony scene 4 meetings of the
 2.6. Secret marriage lovers
 3.5. Reunion
have a counterpart

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  1.1. Fight on the street
 1.5. Tybalt realizing that Romeo is at the Capulet’s ball 4 violent scenes
 3.1. Tybalt kills Mercuito -> Romeo kills Tybalt
 5.3. Romeo kills Paris at Juliet’s grave

 Representation of time:
 Social time (=ancient grudge (=Groll), planning of Juliet’s marriage)
opposed to personal time (=between the lovers)

 Occurrence of the prince

 Prince brings judgement
 1.1. Street scene
 3.1. Banishing Romeo
 5.3. Reunites the families over the dead bodies of their children

 Act 3 represents a turning point

 Before: comical scenes, love develops, Capulet is a loving father and
eloquent host
 After: decline starts, Juliet withdraws from her Nurse, Capulet has
become a despotic, tyrannical father

Seperate  Romeo
introduction of  Has a delayed (=verzögert) entrance = to create excitement
Romeo and Juliet  Is a typical petrarchan lover
 Juliet is introduced in the 3rd scene

 Images:
 Light & Dark (Day & Night)
 In Romeo’s long meditations in the balcony scene (before he talks to
Juliet) he describes her as the sun, transforming night into day
 Dark is not always bad -> in the night Romeo and Juliet can meet ->
darkness means protection
 When Romeo has to leave Juliet after their wedding night they
pretend it is night so that Rome does not have to leave
 Stars
 Ambiguous usage – double role
 On the one hand: they are metaphors for a women’s beauty, shining
bright
 On the other hand: they are believed to be responsible for fate
 Juliet = she’s Romeo’s star but also his fate

 Feminist & Psychoanalytical Approach:

 Coming of Age in Verona by Coppelia Kahn – she analysed Romeo & Juliet
 The feud
 is the primary tragic force (remember: tragical action does not
develop out of the characters – it is rather fate)
 promotes masculinity because fighting in the feud means to be
masculine
He is in love with the daughter of the enemy
 Romeo is in a dispute:
He wants to defend his father’s tradition and fight for
his father’s honour like a man and be masculine
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  As opposed to boys, girls are believed to be never adolescent, childhood is
already described as motherhood (Juliet’s mom said “When I was at your age
I already have had children”, also the Nurse has a conservative point of view
on that) -> BUT: Juliet does not share her mother’s opinion.
 After their marriage Juliet changes her language and lies to her family
 Romeo and Juliet come of age by different rite de passages
(=Erwachsenwerden)
 Romeo: buried in the grave of the Capulets.
 Juliet: holds the dagger against herself.

 Julius Caesar

 setting = ancient Rome

 It is assumed that this play was the first play performed in the newly built Globe
theatre in 1599
 Is also in the first folio
 Julius Caesar is not the central character
 he dies in the 3rd act
 he appears only in 3 scenes
 Criticism: the play is not properly balanced because of the early death of
Julius Caesar there is no clear rise/fall of the main character
 He is an ambiguous person
o His enemies say he is too ambitious
o Others say he is humble (because he rejected the crown)
 We learn much about him from the remarks of others which sometimes
differ a lot
 The central drama is about Brutus
 He is the tragic hero
 The focus is on his struggle of honour, friendship and patriotism
 On the one hand there is his love for Caesar
 On the other hand there is his love for Rome
 Shakespeare’s source are the works of Plutarch
 Plutarch's best-known work is the Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of
famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common
moral virtues and vices.
 Critics have found analogies with modern England

 Structure/Content:
 5 Acts
 The first two scenes are an introduction about Caesar’s friendships with
Anthony, Brutus,...
 The hostility of some to Caesar’s ambition becomes clear

 3rd scene & Act 2

 The storm
o In Elizabethan time a storm is symbolizing the turmoil in the
society (Microcosm & Macrocosm)
o In Julius Caesar it symbolizes the civil disorder in Rome
o It is also a psychological element
 Stormy night before Caesar’s murder = the rise in action according to
Freytag’s pyramid
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  Like in Romeo & Juliet some characters fear the sunrise because they
know that something bad will happen – the wives express concerns
for their husbands
 interior scenes are also called domestic scenes

 3rd Act
 According to Freytag’s pyramid the 3rd act represents the climax
 Set in full daylight in the capitol and the forum in the presence of
many other people
 Caesar already dies at the very beginning of this act
 Turning point = bathing of the conspirators in Caesar’s blood and the
appearance of Anthony
 Anthony undermines Brutus’ actions and thereby sets his own
political career in motion
 Brutus and Anthony hold their funeral oration (=Grabrede):
o Brutus
 speaks in prose
 no presence of Caesar’s dead body
 rhetorical coolness
o Anthony
 speaks in verse
 shows the audience the dead body of Caesar
 in his speech he manages to turn the public
spectacle into a scene of grieving

 4th Act
 Anthony in Octavius’ tent
 Antony is shown in a very different way now:
o He seems to harden
o He would kill without feeling now
 Brutus seems to soften

 5th Act
 Also set in daylight
 Set in Philippi where Antony & Octavius defeat Cassius & Brutus

two military alliances

 terrible omens predict a bad end

 The difference of the way Brutus and Cassius die reflects their
different motifs to kill Caesar
o Brutus wants to kill Caesar because he loves Rome and he
thinks that killing Caesar would be the best for Rome.
He dies by stabbing himself.
o Cassius wants to kill Caesar because he hates Caesar
because Caesar doesn’t like him -> personal motives
He dies by getting stabbed by his slave
 Brutus remains detached from his friends

 Funeral oration of Anthony

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  The differences of the orations of Anthony and Brutus show that the way
how English should be used properly was a big concern at Shakespeare’s
time.
 Spoken in verse, simple diction
 Anthony carries the crowd with him by a series of short, direct statements
which are arranged in an order that manipulates their opinion
 Brutus gives him the permission to speak under the condition that he will not
blame the conspirators.
 Formally he does not blame them but he manages to turn the public opinion
against the conspirators through rhetorical manipulations (I’ve come to bury
Caesar, not to praise him”)
 He does not say explicitly that Brutus was wrong -> “Brutus is an honourable
man” -> Brutus must know what is right
 But he emphasises that Caesar was his friend
 Rhetorical question: He asks the Romans if augmenting Rome’s riches and
the humility of refusing the crown really is ambitious? -> the answer would
be “no” but he doesn’t expect an answer
 He states that all people present loved Caesar and therefore they should
pray now
 He wants to stir a rebellion
 He teases the audience with Caesar’s will and he says that he can’t read it
out because everybody would be too moved, and he has to cut short now
because he doesn’t want to annoy the conspirators (they allowed him to
speak)
 Now the audience starts to reject the word “honourable”, call the
conspirators traitors and they want revenge
 He is surprised by the audiences reaction
 He reads the will aloud:
 Caesar’s money goes to the citizens of Rome
 Caesar’s garden is now open for everybody
 He has successfully manipulated the audience
 Main reason for Anthony’s success: the structure he uses: short, direct
statements

 Marxist criticism
 One can draw analogies between Rome & England: The play is mainly about
the class struggle: Plebeians against Patricians

stand for the common people of Shakespeare’s time

 Cassius wants to win Brutus agreement because of class loyalty: He claims
that Caesar exceeded his own class, so he has to be stopped
 England at Shakespeare’s time: unemployment, disappointed and
dispossessed farmers,...
 Shakespeare uses the play as a vehicle of observation of political conflicts
 At his time, people had to wear special clothes according to their social
standard -> there should be a visible class distinction
 Parallel in the play in the first scene: The Plebeians are punished
because they didn’t dress properly according to the sumptuary law
(=Kleiderordnung).
 Theatres: At Shakespeare’s time people feared that theatres were favouring
social disorders.

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  Parallel in the play: The Puritans were afraid of the theatres because
they thougth it could be an arena where social quarrels might easily
break out.
 With Julius Caesar Shakespeare shows that tyranny can easily lead to chaos
 Money: Money was an important issue in England in the 16 th century as
there was a transition from feudal to capitalist (?) society.
 Parallel in the play: Cassius offers and accepts bribes, which Brutus
sees as corruption

 Feminist Approach – Coppelia Kahn

 She wrote “Warriors, wounds and women”
 = Critique of the ideology of gender in ancient Rome
 For us today ancient Rome seems so far away but for people living during
Renaissance it was crucial.
 King James (successor of Queen Elizabeth) used Roman imagery to justify his
reign
Augustus in
 Octavius = also called Augustus -> under his reign Rome witnessed a long
Shakespeare’s play
phase of peace = model for
was a model for
 King James liked to portray himself as bringing peace.
King James
 Rome & Renaissance England were both patriarchal societies -> patriarchal
society in England was reinforced when King James ascended the crown after
a female (Queen Elizabeth) leadership
 Shakespeare focuses on male heroes and puts the roman warriors in pairs:
 Antony & Octavius Brutus & Cassius
 within each pair there is competition, envy, rivalry and admiration ->
competition always overrules fraternity
 Neglect of women -> the focus is on male virtues, for example when Brutus’
wife, Portia, commits suicide she shows a strong will and is very stoic which
are normally male attributes.
 Brutus on the other hand reveals his female side because he hesitates a lot
(for example he hesitates to kill Caesar)
 Gender constructions in Renaissance England were not that stable: Female
Queen, male actors for female roles

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