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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