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Thomas More (1477-1535) – was the first person to write of a “utopia”. More’s
book imagines a complex, self-contained community set on an island, in which
people share a common culture and way of life. It is unclear as to whether the book
is a serious projection of a better way of life, or a satire that gave More a platform
from which he discussed the chaos of European politics. More was an English
lawyer, writer, and statesman. He was at one time, one of Henry VIII’s most
trusted civil servants, becoming Chancellor of England in 1529.

Utopia by Thomas More

More travels to Antwerp as an ambassador for England and King Henry VIII. While
not engaged in his official duties, More spends time conversing about intellectual
matters with his friend, Peter Giles. One day, More sees Giles speaking to a
bearded man whom More assumes to be a ship's captain. Giles soon introduces
More to this new man, Raphael Hythloday, who turns out to be a philosopher and
world traveler. The three men retire to Giles's house for supper and conversation,
and Hythloday begins to speak about his travels.

Hythloday has been on many voyages with the noted explorer Amerigo
Vespucci, traveling to the New World, south of the Equator, through Asia, and
eventually landing on the island of Utopia. He describes the societies through which
he travels with such insight that Giles and More become convinced that Hythloday
would make a terrific counselor to a king. Hythloday refuses even to consider such
a notion. A disagreement follows, in which the three discuss Hythloday's reasons for
his position.

To make his point, Hythloday describes a dinner he once shared in England with
Cardinal Morton and a number of others. During this dinner, Hythloday proposed
alternatives to the many evil civil practices of England, such as the policy of capital
punishment for the crime of theft.

His proposals meet with derision, until they are given legitimate thought by the
Cardinal, at which point they meet with great general approval. Hythloday uses this
story to show how pointless it is to counsel a king when the king can always expect
his other counselors to agree with his own beliefs or policies.

Hythloday then goes on to make his point through a number of other examples,
finally noting that no matter how good a proposed policy is, it will always
look insane to a person used to a different way of seeing the world.
Hythloday points out that the policies of the Utopians are clearly superior to those
of Europeans, yet adds that Europeans would see as ludicrous the all-important
Utopian policy of common property.

More and Giles do disagree with the notion that common property is superior to
private property, and the three agree that Hythloday should describe the
Utopian society in more detail. First, however, they break for lunch.
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Back from lunch, Hythloday describes the geography and history of Utopia. He
explains how the founder of Utopia, General Utopus, conquered the Isthmus
on which Utopia now stands and through a great public works effort cut away the
land to make an island. Next, Hythloday moves to a discussion of Utopian society,
portraying a nation based on rational thought, with communal property, great
productivity, and no rapacious love of gold, no real class distinctions, no poverty,
little crime or immoral behavior, religious tolerance, and little inclination to war. It
is a society that Hythloday believes is superior to any in Europe.

Hythloday finishes his description and More explains that after so much talking,
Giles, Hythloday, and he were too tired to discuss the particular points of Utopian
society. More concludes that many of the Utopian customs described by
Hythloday, such as their methods of making war and their belief in communal
property, seem absurd. He does admit, however, that he would like to see some
aspects of Utopian society put into practice in England, though he does not believe
any such thing will happen.

Summary:

The narrator, Thomas More, arrives in Bruges, in present-day Belgium, and meets
his friend Peter Giles. Giles introduces More to Raphael Hythloday, an explorer who
has seen much of the world. More, Giles, and Hythloday go to More’s house, and
Hythloday describes his travels. Giles asks him why he hasn’t offered his services to
rulers, who could use his knowledge of diverse customs and practices to improve
society. More and Giles explain that a person of learning and experience has an
obligation to use his talents to better humanity. Hythloday, unconvinced, attempts
to demonstrate why offering one’s wisdom to government is not desirable.

Key words:

o Utopia – a word used to describe a perfect imaginary world; from Greek

ou-topos meaning “no place” or “nowhere”. It was a pun – the
almost identical Greek word eu-topos means “a good place”.

o General Utopus – the founder of Utopia; the one who conquered Isthmus.

o Isthmus – the place where Utopia stands

o Utopian Society – a nation based on rational thought; a society which

Hythloday believes is superior to any in Europe.

o Antwerp – a city in Bruges, in present-day Belgium

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o More – who travels to the aforementioned above city as an ambassador for

England and King Henry VIII; he eventually rose to the position of
Lord Chancellor, the most powerful office in England next to the king
himself but he abandoned pragmatism for the ultimate ideal of
martyrdom.

o Peter Giles – a friend of More, who introduced More to a bearded man

named Hythloday.

o Raphael Hythloday – a philosopher and world traveler, who once traveled

with Vespucci. Hythloday in Greek means “speaker of nonsense”.

o Amerigo Vespucci – a noted explorer; More thought Vespucci was a

fraud.

o Cardinal Morton – the one who gave legitimate thought regarding

Hythloday’s proposal of alternatives to the many evil civil practices
of England, such as the policy of capital punishment for the crime of
theft.

Analysis:

Hythloday, a fictional character, plays an ambiguous role in Utopia. On one hand,

Giles describes him as wise and well traveled and therefore qualified to comment on
a wide range of issues.

Hythloday has traveled with the famed explorer Amerigo Vespucci, but since the
author More and many others thought Vespucci was a fraud, it is unclear whether
Hythloday’s association with Vespucci lends him credibility or suggests that
Hythloday is prone to exaggeration.

Hythloday in Greek means “speaker of nonsense,” which may suggest that

Hythloday’s remarks, despite being blended with factual elements from the author
More’s life, should be taken with a grain of salt.

More and Hythloday’s conversation about placing one’s talents at the service of a
ruler demonstrates a conflict between two ways of thinking. Hythloday believes in
the purity of the ideal of truth, whereas More believes such purity has no value and
that talents must be put to public use, even if the original ideal is compromised by
doing so.

More is committed to the Humanist ideal of individual conscience and wrestles with
the problem of whether one can remain true to one’s principles and to truth while in
the employment of a ruler. As Hythloday attempts to demonstrate, reality would
force a conscientious person to make many concessions to power and corruption.
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However, More and Giles argue that the wise cannot leave leadership to the corrupt
and must attempt to better society when possible. The author More struggled with
the issue of whether to join the service of the king or remain a philosopher, and at
the time he wrote Utopia, More was on the cusp of joining the king’s service.

The argument between the narrator More and Hythloday suggests an internal
argument between More and himself as he struggled to choose between remaining
free to pursue the ideal and compromising that ideal for the sake of social utility.

He eventually rose to the position of Lord Chancellor, the most powerful office in
England next to the king himself, but he ultimately abandoned pragmatism for the
ultimate ideal of martyrdom.

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

The Faerie Queene, written by Edmund Spenser in the late 1500s, is an allegorical
tale created to teach its readers how to live up to the six virtues Spenser explores
in each book. Instead of providing an instruction booklet about how to lead a
sinless life, Spenser portrays each virtue and vice through the knights'
quests. The Faerie Queene is divided into six books, each one dedicated to a
specific virtue: holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice, and
courtesy.

Book 1 – Virtue of Holiness: follows the adventure of the Redcross Knight, who
represents the virtue of holiness. He encounters the deceptive Duessa,
Archimago, and the House of Pride. The virginal Una, who represents Truth,
initially aids the Redcross Knight in his journey; however, after his encounter with
the monstrous Errour and her cannibalistic offspring, the Redcross Knight
wanders away from his guiding light and proceeds into an illicit relationship with the
deceptive Duessa, whose very name means 'duplicity'.

The Redcross Knight only learns the virtue of holiness after his fall from
grace. Duessa leads him into the House of Pride, where the Knight meets
Lucifera, the female representation of Satan, and her court of sin: Idleness
followed by Gluttony, Lechery, Avarice, Envy, and Wrath. The Knight's
ignorance causes him to consummate with Duessa, leaving him too weak to fight
the giant Ogoglio. When Una and Prince Arthur come to rescue the Knight, Una
reveals Duessa's true form and redeems the Redcross Knight by taking him to
the House of Holiness after his triumphant battle over the monster Despair. With
renewed strength, the Redcross Knight defeats the dragon that held Una's parents
imprisoned.
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Book 2 – Virtue of Temperance: shifts the point of view to Sir Guyon, who
represents the virtue of temperance. His major heroic act is destroying the
Bower of Bliss controlled by Acrasia, an evil witch who lures men to her bower
with sexual appeal but then magically transforms them into beasts. Sir Guyon
devotes himself to destroying the witch and her bower.

Accompanied by Knight Palmer and Prince Arthur, Guyon encounters many

beasts and adventures on the journey to the island. He gets into skirmishes with
characters like the evil knight brothers Pyrochles and Cymochles, the beast
Mamon, and a group of violent men attacking a castle. Additionally, he must forge
through the dangerous waters and confront the monsters of the Gulf of
Greediness, fight off the wild beasts on the island, and ignore the seductive
women of the island. Eventually, they find Acrasia. Binding Acrasia with nets,
Sir Guyon ultimately destroys the Bower of Bliss.

Book 3 – Virtue of Chastity: introduces the reader to the lady knight

Britomart, who represents the virtue of chastity and is on a quest to find her
beloved Artegall. Unlike Book I and Book II, Book III is set up as a collection of
separate love stories that are interwoven into a pattern of relationships
representing both chaste and unchaste love affairs.

The first love affair is Britomart's, whose love for Artegall occurs after she
sees him in a magic mirror. Meeting previous characters such as Sir Guyon,
Prince Arthur, and the Redcross Knight, Britomart must confront foes such as
the seductress Malecasta, who is the very representation of unchaste lust.
Compared to other chaste characters like Florimell, Britomart's chastity does not
need to be tested because her chastity is embedded within her very nature.
After she meets the knight Scudamore and helps him rescue his betrothed,
Amoretta, Britomart continues her journey to find Artegall by the end of Book III.

Book 4 – Virtue of Friendship: in its elaboration on the virtue of friendship, is

also a collection of stories. From Britomart's rescue of the fair Amoretta to the
false friendship between Blandamour and the envious Paridell, Book IV
explores friendship as a social and public virtue that contrasts the private virtues of
Books I-III.

When Britomart proves to be Amoretta's knightly champion in a battle to preserve

Amoretta's chastity, the two women express their true friendship through their
devotional commitment. On the other hand, characters like Blandamour and
Paridell become the illustration of a destructive friendship ruled by jealousy
and exploitation. Such representations of true and false friendships become
interwoven in a book that continues the exploits of the chaste characters introduced
in Book III.
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Book 5 – Virtue of Justice: returns to Artegall's adventure as he travels with

Talus to rescue Eirena from her captor Grantorto. Representing the virtue of
justice, Artegall's adventure begins after he receives his quest from the Faerie
Queene. After encountering a squire and a knight named Sanglier fighting over
a lady, Artegall acts as a benevolent and mindful judge, testing his subjects to
see who truly loves the lady in question.

By defeating various foes, Artegall extends his just hand across the kingdom into
Mercilla's court, where Prince Arthur and Artegall help maid Samient in
defeating the evil king and queen, Souldan and Adicia. After watching Duessa's
trial and execution over her many crimes, Artegall finishes his quest, rescuing
Eirena from the monstrous Grantorto and driving the hags Distraction and
Envy away along with their Blatant Beast, a representation of scandal and
dishonor.

Book 6 – Virtue of Courtesy: follows Calidore as he spreads the social virtue of

courtesy. Book VI starts with Calidore defeating Crudor and his wife Briana,
then teaching them the virtue of courtesy. Calidore continues his adventure,
eventually meeting Knight Calepine and his lady Serena, who was bitten and
poisoned by the Blatant Beast.

The narrative diverges into separate adventures, with Serena and Calepine meeting
Prince Arthur to find a cure for the Blatant Beast's poison, and Calidore
encountering the beautiful Pastorella who helps him in his journey. While Serena
and friend Timias learn that the cure to the Blatant Beast's poison is the
combination of virtue, self-control, and forthrightness, Calidore rescues his
rival Coridon from a brigand and defeats the Blatant Beast's scandalous mouth by
binding it together. Courtesy, which is contrasted to the personification of
Disdain and Scorn, is able to beat the Blatant Beast, but it is also suggested that
it cannot kill the Beast for good.

Major Characters:

Redcross Knight - He is the hero of Book I, the representation of holiness.

Wearing the second-hand armor of past knights, the Redcross Knight's trials include
encountering and defeating Duessa and Despair to preserve his holiness.

Sir Guyon - The hero of Book II, the representation of temperance. Guyon
learns both moderation and self-control in the face of anger, sex, greed, and
ambition.

Britomart - The hero of Book III, the representation of chastity. Unlike the
Redcross Knight and Guyon, who sometimes fall from their appointed virtues,
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Britomart's virtue of chastity is bound up with the power of love, and she remains
chaste throughout her adventure. Britomart is a formidable knight, significant
because of her strong female role.

Artegall - Britomart's beloved, as well as the representation of justice in

Book V. Along with his companion Talus, Artegall ventures to rescue Eirena
from Grantorto.

Calidore - As the hero of Book VI, Calidore comes to represent the virtue of
courtesy in its most chivalric sense. Just as chastity is natural to Britomart,
courtesy is embodied within Calidore as he ventures to stop the Blatant Beast.

Essays of Francis Bacon

1. Of Truth

Of truth is Bacon’s great work of prose which shows his keen observation of human
beings with their attributes of truth and lie. In the beginning, he states that people
generally do not care for the truth. Moving on he describes the reasons why people
do not like the truth. First, the truth is difficult to acquire without hard work and
man is ever reluctant to work hard. Moreover, truth makes people bound to a
certain fact. It diminishes the freedom.

According to Bacon truth is like a bright day which shows the real self. Truth is like
a pearl that shows what is visible to naked eye. People lie because it covers their
real personality. Bacon rightly says that “A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.”
The mixture of truth and lie makes things interesting and pleases everyone.

Bacon compares lie with a snake crawling on its belly instead of walking on its feet.
The false person has to let his head down because he feels guilty all the time due to
his habit of speaking falsehood all the time to earn benefits in business. Bacon
quotes Montaigne who said that “a liar is a man who is brave towards God but is
coward towards men.”

Therefore, Bacon concludes his essay with didacticism by giving a tinge of Christian
morality. The essay is rich in manner and matter. This is a council, civil and moral
and should be read slowly to understand the lucid and condensed prose style of
Bacon.

2. Discuss of Revenge

Francis Bacon is against private revenge. He says that revenge is outside of law
.Bacon points out that ignoring a wrong makes a man superior to the person who
committed the first wrong. Bacon points out that wise men have enough to do with
the present and the future rather than taking revenge. Since a wrong in the past
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cannot be made right, it's best to concentrate on trying to influence the present and
future.

Bacon adds that no man seeks to do harm for its own sake and that getting mad at
someone trying to better himself is not worth it. If a man does harm because he's
just bad, well, that's his nature, and his ill nature dictates his actions.

If, Bacon argues, one engages in revenge that has no lawful remedy, then that
revenge might be tolerable, but he warns that the person seeking revenge should
make sure there is no law that will punish him. And it's only right that the person
one is seeking revenge upon understands that he's the target because that
knowledge may make him sorry for his original action.

Bacon ends the essay pointing out that public revenge on bad leaders is "for the
most part fortunate" but reminds his reader that private revenge is "unfortunate”.

3. Marriage and Single

Sir Francis Bacon explores the themes of independence, liberty, and marriage,
throughout his essay "Of Marriage and Single Life." Bacon examines the positives
and negatives attached to being single and married. Bacon comments on the liberty
that being single provides individuals who wish to live free from the restraints and
responsibilities of marriage.

He also mentions that single men have the time and money to give back to society
in charitable ways. Bacon believes that single men are often "best friends, best
masters, best servants." However, Bacon also writes that being single can make a
man "cruel and hardhearted" because he does not enjoy the tenderness and love
that married men often experience.

Bacon proceeds to explain that he believes that only middle-aged men should get
married at the right time and discusses why wives choose to marry bad husbands.

Bacon recognizes that independence gives single men liberty which provides them
the opportunity and capital to help society but can also make them callous in
certain situations. He also explores the positives and negatives of being married
throughout the essay.

4. Of Friendship

Bacon establishes the importance of friendship by implication when he says

"whatsoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." He expands on
this theme in the same paragraph by saying that, without friends, the "world is but
a wilderness."
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Bacon's essay is centered on what he calls the "fruit of friendship," of which there
are three, and the first is the ability to get rid of all one's frustrations by having a
true friend to listen. Bacon lived in an era when men believed that our bodies were
controlled by "humors" earth, air, fire and water and if the humors became
unbalanced in our bodies, we got sick.

Bacon likens the balance of humors in the body to balance in the mind, and one
restores balance to the mind by unburdening on self to a friend. The next section of
the essay is a long discussion of friendships and failed friendships in classical
Roman history, and then Bacon articulates the "second fruit of friendship," which is
the result of discussing one's problems with a sympathetic friends, and in the
process of "communicating and discoursing with another," one actually becomes
"wiser than himself.“

But the second fruit has another half that is just as important, and that is counsel
from the friend, which, according to Bacon, is "drier and purer" than the counsel
that comes from within oneself. Bacon compares the third fruit of friendship to a
pomegranate, which hundreds of kernels. Bacon argues that there are many things
a man cannot do for himself--praise himself (modestly), ask for help that a friend
can do for him with no embarrassment. These are among the many kernels of
friendship embodied in the third fruit.

5. Discuss of Love

Francis Bacon's essay "Of Love" details questions and answers regarding the very
complicated concept of love. The essay begins by comparing love to the stage.
According to Bacon, love mirrors the stage because it is filled with comedy, tragedy,
mischief, and fury. Like the plays produced on the stage, love is multidimensional.

Bacon goes on to state that love makes people act in very different ways. People,
consumed by love, will find themselves filled with "great spirits" and "weak
passion(s).”

Perhaps the most thought-provoking statement that Bacon makes in the essay is
"That it is impossible to love, and to be wise." This could force one to think that to
be in love makes them stupid.

Bacon goes on to present the different aspects of love. There is in man’s nature, a
secret inclination and motion, towards love of others. Here, Bacon readily admits
that love possesses a power which no man can control. Regardless of the will to
give love, love will, itself, spread out among those around him.

6. Discuss of Parents and Children

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All kinds of emotions and feelings of parents for their children, whether it is joy,
grief, or fear, are private and personal that they don’t share with others. Having
children make it easier for the parents to tolerate the hard labor that will benefit
their children and ensures their prosperous future. However, for the parents, it is
hard to tolerate the hardships since they think that these hardships or calamities
will hinder their children’s well-being.

It is sometimes observed that parents don’t treat their all children with an equal
affection; they discriminate between them which is not preferred, especially on the
behalf of the mother. Bacon baked this argument with a quotation from Salomon
that if a son does something appreciating, he is father’s son but if a son does
something shameful, he is mother’s son. It is the duty of the parents to choose a
right profession for their children as soon as possible. However, if a child grows and
shows interest in a totally different profession, the parents shouldn’t impose their
selection on them. They should allow them to go on their own way.

Younger children are generally fortunate since they get a strong motivation for the
hard work by their elder brothers. However, the motivation to hard work declines
where the elder brother is disinherited, and the young child hopes to get all the
beneficiary of wealth from parents.

7. Discuss of Studies

Highlighting the importance of studies, Bacon’s essay illustrates the role studies
play in an individual’s daily life. For Bacon, the study is always related to the
application of knowledge in practical life. At the beginning of his essay, Bacon
describes the three main purposes of study including studying for gaining delight,
studies done for ornamenting one’s life and studying in order to improve one’s
ability.

The author is the notion that only learned and well-read men can execute plans
effectively, manage their daily affairs with expertise and lead a healthy and stable
life. He further states that reading makes a full man; conference leads to a ready
man while writing makes an exact man. Bacon also puts forward some demerits of
study as he thinks that studying for a prolonged period of time may lead to
laziness.

He also condemns the act of studying from books solely without learning from
nature around. The essay Of Studies further asserts the benefits of studies by
considering this act as a medicine for the defects of human mind and the source of
enhancing one’s wit. While discussing the importance of studying in an individual’s
life, the essayist informs his readers about the benefits of reading good books. For
Bacon, some books are only meant to be tasted; others are there to swallow while
some books are meant for chewing and digesting properly.
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Therefore, the readers must choose wisely before studying any book to enhance
his/her knowledge about the world around. Bacon concludes his essay by
suggesting that studies assist an individual in removing the defects of his/her mind
as every problem of the human mind carries special importance for the individual
and the world.

8. Discuss of Youth and Age

In this essay Bacon tries to compare the traits young and old age. In the starting of
the essay Bacon mentions that it is possible for a young man to have the maturity
of that of an old man but says that it is a very rare case. He compares youth to the
first ideas or thoughts and says that they are never as wise as the seconds.

But then again, the new inventions or discoveries of the youth seem to be more
refreshing than those of the aged ones as their imagination are better. Even though
the youth are full of desires and ambitions they are not matured enough to act on
those desires until they are of a certain age.

He says that both young as well as aged have qualities that are unique such as
Young men are better to invent, old men better to judge, Young men are better in
doing, old men in calculating risks, Young men are better for new projects, old men
for settled business.

Young men, he says, are full of excitement and new ideas, never stay quiet, are up
to create a change and are innovative in nature. Even if their attempts fail, they do
not stumble, they keep going until they get the result they are looking for. They are
like an unsteady horse he says, which doesn’t stop or turn.

Whereas aged men are quite opposite, they think and consult too much, and are
too steady to be adventurous and at the end are happy with the minimum rate of
success that they achieve. He says that the young have visions whereas the aged
have dreams which are not as sound compared to the former. He says that there
are some who think beyond their age, but it diminishes along with their age, who
have better grace in youth than in age.

Survey of Works and Contribution in Drama

1. Christopher Marlowe

Notwithstanding his significance as “one of the towering presences in English

drama” (Engle & Rasmussen 2014:209), "[t]he facts of Marlowe´s life are few,
scattered and of doubtful accuracy" (Riggs 2006:205), so that any account of the
playwright’s biography is bound to remain fragmentary.

Born in 1564, in the same year as Shakespeare and potentially only two months
before the latter, Christopher Marlowe grew up as the son of a cobbler in
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Canterbury. After visiting the local King’s School, he took up his studies at Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge, in 1580 on a scholarship, where he commenced to write
plays and poems. After graduating with a B.A., Marlowe was initially denied
admission to proceed to an M.A., "on the ground that he intended to go abroad to
join the dissident English Catholics in Rheims" (Greenblatt & Abrams 2006:1003).
An intervention by the Privy Council, that successfully demanded Marlowe’s
admission, reveals that the poet, at that time, had already started to work "as
some kind of secret agent" (Greenblatt & Abrams 2006:1003) The specific nature of
that employment and of the relatively well-documented "contacts with the secret
service between 1587 und 1589" (Riggs 2006:205), however, remain obscure, and,
in this regard, the statements in literature are largely speculative: "The likeliest
possibility is that he served as a spy or agent provocateur against English Catholics,
who were conspiring to overthrow the Protestant regime" (Greenblatt & Abrams
2006:1003).

In the following years, Marlowe is documented to have been involved in "a series of
clashes with the law" (Engle & Rasmussen 2014:209) ultimately leading to a short
period of imprisonment. In 1591, after his release, Marlowe lived in London,
together with his friend Thomas Kyd, who should later, "when put under torture"
(Engle & Rasmussen 2014:210) accuse him of atheism and treason. In the spring of
1593 (some sources indicate the 30th of May, others the 3rd of June) Christopher
Marlowe, aged 29, was stabbed in a tavern in Deptford, "in what the inquest
describes as a quarrel over the bill" (Engle & Rasmussen 2014:210). While the
exact circumstances of his violent death remain unresolved, modern biographical
research on the playwright has worked out that "the murderer and the others
present in the room at the inn had connections to the world of spies, double agents,
and swindlers to which Marlowe himself was in some way linked." (Greenblatt &
Abrams 2006:1003).

2. William Shakespeare

The works of William Shakespeare, "dramatist, man of the theatre and poet"
(s.v. "Shakespeare". Drabble 2006), have been subject to extensive research
relatively early in the realms of literary criticism and, among those concerned with
his life and his works, we find illustrious names such as Dryden, Pope, Coleridge or
Dr. Johnson (cp. "Shakespeare". Drabble 2006). Yet, despite his outstanding
importance in the history of English literature, "the extent and loudness of the
documentary silence are startling" (Worden 2006:24) when it comes to
Shakespeare‘s life and character.

The rarity of contemporary sources documenting his biography, although

unsurprising for a time where his profession was yet to acquire the esteem it is
awarded today, (cp. Boltz 2009:118f) leaves several blank spaces in Shakespeare’s
life and any attempts to gain access to his biography and character via his works
appears problematic as well: "To anyone interested in the relationship of art to the
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life of the artist, Shakespeare presents an impossible challenge. He is unknowable"

(Worden 2006, 23). Nevertheless, several biographical facts can be compiled, which
are commonly perceived as verified:

As the son of the glove maker John Shakespeare, William Shakespeare was born in
1564 in Stratford upon-Avon. He was baptized on 26 April 1564, and his birthday,
for which no explicit documentation exists, is commonly assumed to be the 23rd of
April. William’s father was successfully involved in various commercial, political and
administrative activities, but "later suffered financial and social reverses, possibly
as a result of adherence to the Catholic faith" (Greenblatt & Abrams 2006:1058), so
that it is unclear whether "Shakespeare may or may not have had a Catholic
upbringing" (Worden 2006:23).

Documented facts about his youth and early education are rare, but it is commonly
assumed that Shakespeare attended the local grammar school, where he acquired
"a reasonably impressive education, including a respectable knowledge of Latin"
(Greenblatt & Abrams 2006:1058).

Other than for Christopher Marlowe, there are no sources indicating that
Shakespeare proceeded to any form of higher education at Oxford or Cambridge. In
the autumn of 1582, aged 18, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, with
whom he was to have three children in the course of the following three years.

The passage of seven years after the birth of his twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585
is often referred to as the "lost years" (Boltz 2009:141) by biographical
researchers, since no verifiable documentation concerning either his occupation or
his whereabouts during that time exists. Some researchers have, however,
conjectured a potential employment as a schoolmaster for this period, which has, in
turn lead to further speculation about William Shakespeare being identical with one
William Shakeshafte, who is recorded to have worked as a Catholic teacher in Lea
Hall, Lancashire, in 1581.

Yet, reliable evidence for this theory is missing and Shakespeare reappears in the
sources no earlier than in the year 1592, when he is documented as having been
working as an actor and playwright in London. From 1594 onwards he was a
"leading member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men" (s.v. "Shakespeare". Drabble
2006), that were later renamed ‘The King’s Men’.

It was this ensemble with which Shakespeare worked closely and productively
throughout his career and to whose success and constantly increasing prestige he
contributed significantly. The reciprocal fecundity of this collaboration is reflected in
Shakespeare’s own financial and societal success, which culminated in the
construction of the Globe Theatre – a renowned open-air stage built exclusively for
Shakespeare’s company, which, after 1599, used it successfully for their
performances. While Shakespeare lived and worked in London until 1611, his family
resided in New Place, a "handsome house in Stratford“ (Greenblatt & Abrams
Celine Quijardo

2006:1058) and it is assumed that the poet himself, after having finished The
Tempest, retreated there as well.

It was, in any case, New place, where William Shakespeare signed his will in March
1616 and where he eventually died on 23 April 1616 – if the inscription on his grave
in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is to be believed.

3. Ben Jonson

In terms of biographical information on Ben Jonson, the youngest of the

three Renaissance playwrights under study, biographers have profited greatly from
both Ben Jonson’s relative self-confidence as a playwright and a poet, which lead
him to "create a powerful representation of himself in his poetry and his prologues"
(van den Berg 2000:1)17 and William Drummond of Hawthornden’s detailed notes
of their Conversations from the year 1619 (cp. Jonson & Drummond 1923). Hence,
whereas for Shakespeare the opposite has been claimed to be the case (cp. above),
Ben Jonson appears "to stand before us a stable and knowable self" (van den Berg
2000:1).

Born in 1572 as the posthumous son of a minister, Ben Jonson was a pupil at
Westminster School, where he studied with the antiquarian scholar and headmaster
William Camden, whose influence on the young Ben Jonson is supposed to have set
"the foundation of [his] humanist values" (van den Berg 2000:7). Nevertheless,
Ben Jonson had to take up a "loathed apprenticeship as a bricklayer" (van den Berg
2000:2) in his adolescent years, during which he married Anne Lewis. Three
children resulted from this marriage, two of whom Jonson and his wife were to lose
early.

Truly bereaved after the death of his daughter at the age of six months and his
first-born son at the age of eight, Jonson expressed his grief in two affectionate
epitaphs. By 1596 Ben Jonson had quitted the apprenticeship and had started to
work as an actor and, soon after, as a playwright. His collaboration with Thomas
Nashe in a scandalous play named The Isle of Dogs, which is lost today, lead to his
imprisonment and when he, having just been released, killed his fellow actor,
Gabriel Spencer, in a duel, he managed to escape execution only narrowly by
pleading benefit of clergy.

Now "branded […] as a fellon" (s.v. "Jonson". Drabble 2006) and having converted
to Catholicism during his time in jail, "Jonson was now more than ever a marginal
figure" (Greenblatt & Abrams 2006:1324). The 1598 performance of Every Man in
His Humour by the Lord Chamberlain’s Man, "with Shakespeare in the cast“(Jonson.
Drabble 2006), however, heralded the start of his rise "to prominence as a
playwright and a man of letters" (van den Berg 2000:1).

His societal and financial advancement was overshadowed only by two instances of
conflict with the authorities, in connection with unwelcome plot elements of Sejanus
Celine Quijardo

and Eastward Ho! And a quarrel with John Marston and Thomas Dekker, that should
become known as The War of the Theatres. Regardless of these issues, that may
partly be attributable to the "quarrelsome spirit" (Greenblatt & Abrams 2006:1325)
biographers rather unanimously ascribe to Jonson, he established himself at James’
I court and, in 1616, at the peak of his career, even gained "the vague title of‚ Poet
Laureate‘“(Engle & Rasmussen 2014:214).

In the course of his life, Ben Jonson "gathered about himself a group of admiring
younger men" (Greenblatt & Abrams 2006:1325), as well as numerous patrons and
friends from the literary and courtly circles – among them, of course, William
Shakespeare, for whose posthumously published First Folio of 1923 he famously
wrote a laudatory preface. The 1616 Folio edition of Ben Jonson’s own plays, which
initiated a new appreciation of the art form and into whose meticulous editing
Jonson put immense effort, is a further indicator of Ben Jonson’s self-confidence as
a playwright as well as of the prospering of his career after the ascension of James
I.

Yet, after having earned an honorary MA from the University of Oxford in the same
year of 1616, Ben Jonson "abandoned the public stage for ten years" (s.v.
"Jonson". Drabble 2006), and his later plays could not live up to his earlier
successes. In 1628 Ben Jonson suffered a stroke, which, as is suspected, may have
left him bedridden for the last nine years of his life until his death in August 1637,
after which he was buried in Westminster Abbey.