Представители Ренессанса (Representatives of the renaissance and thair contribution to the literature)

Представители Ренессанса (Representatives of the renaissance and thair contribution to the literature)

CONTENTS

Introduction………………………………………………………………3

The Renaissance………………………………………………………….4

Thomas More…………………………………………………………….5

The works of Thomas More……………………………………………...6

“Utopia”…………………………………………………………………..7

Second period of the Renaissance………………………………………..8

Edmund Spenser………………………………………………………….9

The “Fairy Queen”……………………………………………………….11

The development of the drama. The theatres and actors…………………12

Conclusion………………………………………………………………..15

Used literature…………………………………………………………….16

Introduction

I have heard about the Renaissance not so long ago: last year when I

was in 10`th form, but do not think that I never knew about this period

earlier. Of course I knew but I just did not know how is it called.

Actually I always had a great interest to unusual and pleasantly sounding

words. So when I have heard the word “renaissance” my attention was

immediately attracted by it. My firs association to this word was something

magnificent, brilliant and rustling like a woman`s dress of 18`th century.

Soon I have known that the Renaissance is the period of English literature

and art. From that time my wish to know about its place in art was becoming

stronger and more strongly. I wanted to know more about this period in

English art: when did it start, who were the representatives of this period

and what did they write, what did they think about. It is not all what I

wanted to know about but I can not tell you all questions because I had

plenty of them.

Now I know more about this period of English literature but

nevertheless I still have not calmed down. I have many questions till today

and I want to clear up this business. So let`s investigate this period

together and find out some new facts…

The Renaissance

The “dark” Middle Ages were followed by a time known in art and

literature as the Renaissance. The word “renaissance” means “rebirth” in

French and was used to denote a phase in the cultural development of

Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries.

The wave of progress reached the shores of England only in the 16th

century. The ideas of the Renaissance came to England together with the

ideas of the Reformation (the establishment of the national Church) and

were called the “New Learning”. Every year numbers of new books were

brought out, and these books were sold openly, but few people could read

and enjoy them. The universities were lacking in teachers to spread the

ideas of modern thought. So, many English scholars began to go to Italy,

where they learned to understand the ancient classics, and when they came

home they adapted their classical learning to the needs of the country.

Grammar schools (primary schools) increased in number. The new point of

view passed from the schools to the home and to the market place.

Many of the learned men in Italy came from the great city of

Constantinople. It was besieged and taken by Turks in 1453. All the great

libraries and schools in Constantinople had been broken up and destroyed.

The Latin and Greek scholars were driven out of the city, glad to escape

with their lives and with such books as they could carry away with them.

Being learned men, many of them found a welcome in the cities and towns in

which they stopped. They began to teach the people how to read the Latin

and Greek books which they had brought with them and also taught them to

read the Latin and Greek books which were kept in many towns of Europe, but

which few people at that time were able to read.

Foreign scholars and artists began to teach in England during the

reign of Henry VIII. In painting and music the first period of the

Renaissance was one of imitation. Painting was represented by German

artist Holbein, and music by Italians and Frenchmen. With literature the

case was different. The English poets and dramatists popularized much of

the new learning. The freedom of thought of English humanists revealed

itself in antifeudal and even antibourgeois ideas, showing the life of

their own people as it really was. Such a writer was the humanist Thomas

More.

Thomas More

(1478-1535)

Thomas More, the first English humanist of the Renaissance, was born

in Milk Street, London on February 7, 1478, son Sir John More, a prominent

judge. Educated at Oxford, he could write a most beautiful Latin. It was

not the Latin of the Church but the original classical Latin. At Oxford

More met a foreign humanist, and made friends with him. Erasmus believed

in the common sense of a man and taught that men ought to think for

themselves, and not merely to believe things to be true because their

fathers, or the priest had said they were true. Later, Thomas More wrote

many letters to Erasmus and received many letters from him.

Thomas More began life as a lawyer. During the reign of Henry VII he

became a member of Parliament. He was an active-minded man and kept a keen

eye on the events of his time. The rich landowners at the time were

concentrating on sheep-raising because it was very profitable. Small

holders were not allowed to till the soil and were driven off their lands.

The commons (public ground) were enclosed and fields converted into

pastures. The mass of the agricultural population were doomed to poverty.

Thomas More set to work to find the reason of this evil. He was the first

great writer on social and political subjects in England.

Fourteen years after Henry VIII came to the throne, More was made

Speaker of the House of Commons. The Tudor monarchy was an absolute

monarchy, and Parliament had very little power to resist the king. There

was, however, one matter on which Parliament was very determined. That was

the right to vote or to refuse to vote for the money. Once when the King

wanted money and asked Parliament to vote him 800.000, the members sat

silent. Twice the King’s messengers called, and twice they had to leave

without an answer. When Parliament was called together again, Thomas More

spoke up and urged that the request be refused. After a long discussion a

sum less then half the amount requested by the King was voted, and that sum

was to be spread over a period of four years.

Thomas More was an earnest Catholic, but he was not liked by the

priests and the Pope on account of his writings and the ideas he taught.

After Henry VIII quarrelled with the Pope he gathered around himself all

the enemies of the Pope, and so in 1529 More was made Lord Chancellor

(highest judge to the House of Lords). He had not wanted the post because

he was as much against the king’s absolute power in England as he was

against the Pope. More soon fell a victim to the King’s anger. He refused

to swear that he would obey Henry as the head of the English Church, and

was thrown into the Tower on April 17. Parliament, to please the King,

declared More guilty of treason, and he was beheaded in the Tower on July

6, 1535.

The Works of Thomas More

Thomas More wrote in English and in Latin. The humanists of al1

European countries communicated in the Latin language, and their best works

were written in Latin. The English writings of Thomas More include:

. Discussions and political subjects.

. Biographies.

. Poetry.

His style is simple, colloquial end has an unaffected ease. The work

by which he is best remembered today is “Utopia” which was written in Latin

in the year 1516. It has now been translated into all European languages.

“Utopia” (which in Greek means “nowhere”) is the name of a non-existent

island. This work is divided into two books.

In the first, the author gives a profound and truthful picture of the

people’s sufferings and points out the socia1 evils existing, in England at

the time.

In the second book More presents his ideal of what the future society

should be like.

The word “utopia” has become a byword and is used in Modern English to

denote an unattainable ideal, usually in social and political matters. But

the writer H.G. Wells, who wrote an introduction to the latest edition,

said that the use of the word “utopia” was far from More’s essentia1

quality, whose mind abounded in sound, practical ideas. The book is in

reality a very unimaginative work.

“Utopia” describes a perfect social system built on communist

principles.

“Utopia”

First book

While on business in Flanders, the author makes the acquaintance

of a certain Raphael Hythloday, a sailor who has travelled with the famous

explorer Amerigo Vespucci. He has much to tell about his voyages, Thomas

More, Raphael Hythloday and a cardinal meet together in a garden and

discuss many problems. Raphael has been to England too and expresses his

surprise at the cruelty of English laws and at the poverty of the

population. Then they talk about crime in general, and Raphael says:

“There is another cause of stealing which I suppose is proper and

peculiar to you Englishmen alone.”

“What is that?” asked the Cardinal.

“Oh, my lord,” said Raphael, “your sheep that used to be so meek and

tame and so small eaters, have now become so great devourers and so wild

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