English Language Studies: The Renaissance Period (1500-1600)

The Renaissance Period in English literature is additionally called the Elizabethan Period or the Age of Shakespeare. the middle Ages in Europe were followed by the Renaissance. Renaissance means rebirth. From about 1500 to 1600, the planet was reborn in some ways . The Renaissance began in Italy, especially in art and architecture, within the fifteenth century. As England became the foremost powerful nation in Europe within the late sixteenth century, new worlds were discovered and new ways of seeing and thinking developed. It prompted Revival of Learning, and it denoted in its broadest sense the gradual enlightenment of the human mind after the darkness of the center Ages. With the autumn of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. by the invasion of the Turks, the Greek scholars who were residing there, spread everywhere Europe, and brought with them invaluable Greek 'manuscripts. the invention of those classical models resulted within the Revival of Learning within the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The essence of this movement was that man discovered himself and therefore the universe", which "man, goodbye blinded had suddenly opened his eyes and seen". The flood of Greek literature which the new art of printing carried swiftly to each school in Europe revealed a replacement world of poetry and philosophy. along side the Revival of Learning, new discoveries happened in several other fields. Vascoda Gama circumnavigated the earth; Columbus discovered America; Copernicus discovered the system and ready the way for Galileo. Books were printed, and philosophy, science, and Art were systematised. the center Ages were past, and therefore the old world had become new. Scholars flocked to the schools , as adventurers to the new world of America, and there the old authority received a death blow. Truth only was authority ; to look for truth everywhere, as men looked for new lands, gold and therefore the Fountain of Youth that was the which awoke in Europe with the Revival of learning

In England there was a crucial change in religion and politics when King Henry VIII made himself the top of Church of England, bringing church and state together. He cut all contact with the Catholic Church and therefore the Rome, a part of a reaction against the Catholic Church in parts of Europe, Protestantism became more and more important, and gave an entire new vision of man's relation with God. The king or queen became the person on earth who was closest to God, at the top of the good Chain of Bing which led right down to the remainder of mankind, animals, insects then on.

The chief characteristic of the Renaissance was emphasis on Humanism, which suggests man's concern with himself as an object of contemplation. This movement started in Italy by Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio within the fourteenth century, and from there it spread to other countries of Europe. In England, it became popular during Elizabethan period. This movement which focused its interest on the right study of mankind' had variety of subordinated trends. the primary in importance was the rediscovery of classical antiquity, and particularly of ancient Greece. During the medieval period, the tradition-bound Europe had forgotten the liberal tone of old Greek world and its spirit of democracy and human dignity. With the revival of interest in Greek Classical Antiquity, the new spirit of Humanism made its impact on the Western world. the primary Englishman who wrote under the influence of Greek studies was Sir More . His Utopia written in Latin, was suggested by Plato's Republic. Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence of Poesie accepted and advocated the critical rules of the traditional Greeks.

The second important aspect of Humanism was thediscovery of the external universe, and its significance for man. But more important than this was that the writers directed their gaze inward, and have become deeply curious about the issues of human personality. within the medieval morality plays, the characters are mostly personifications: Friendship, Charity, Sloth, Wickedness and therefore the like. But now during the Elizabethan period, under the influence of Humanism, the stress was laid on the qualities which distinguish one person from another, and provides an individuality and uniqueness. Moreover, the revealing of the writer's own mind became filled with interest. This tendency led to the increase of a replacement literary form- the Essay, which was used successfully by Bacon In drama Marlowe probed down into the deep recesses of the human passion. His heroes, Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus and Barabas, the Jew of Malta, are possessed of uncontrolled ambitions. Shakespeare, a more consummate artist, carried Humanism to a T . His genius, fed by the spirit of the Renaissance, enabled him to ascertain life whole, and to present it altogether its aspects.

It was this new interest in human personality, the eagerness for all times , which was liable for the exquisite lyrical poetry of the Elizabethan age , handling the issues of death, decay, transitoriness of life etc.

Another aspect of Humanism was the improved sensitiveness to formal beauty, and therefore the cultivation of the aesthetic sense. It showed itself during a new ideal of social conduct, that of the courtier. An Italian diplomat and man of letters, Castiglione, wrote a treatise entitled Il Cortigiano (The Courtier) where he sketched the pattern of gentlemanly behaviour and manners upon which the conduct of such men as Sir Phillip Sidney and Sir Raleigh was modelled. This cult of elegance in prose writing produced the ornate style called Euphuism by Lyly. Though it suffered from exaggeration and pedantry, yet it introduced order and balance in English prose, and gave it pithiness and harmony.

Another aspect of Humanism was that men came to be considered liable for their own actions, as Casius says to Brutus in Julius Caesar:

The Fault, dear Brutus, isn't in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Instead of looking up to some higher authority, as was wiped out the center Ages, during the Renaissance Period guidance was to be found from within. Lyly wrote his romance of Euphues not merely as an exercise during a new quite prose, but with the intense purpose of inculcating righteousness of living, supported self-control. Sidney wrote his Arcadia within the sort of fiction so as to expound a perfect of ethical excellence. Spenser wrote his Faerie Queene, with a view to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and delicate disposition". Though we don't search for direct moral teaching in Shakespeare, nevertheless, we discover underlying his work an equivalent profoundly moral attitude.