English Renaissance 1485-1625 Renaissance means Rebirth Was a flowering of art, literature, painting, science, etc Began in Italy with individuals like Leonardo Da Vinci (painter, sculptor, engineer, scientist, etc )
English Renaissance People s focus turned to human s place on earth instead of afterlife Learning included history, geography, poetry, and languages Printing turned to moveable type the Bible believed to be the first book published this way English became more standard as writers began to use common people s language
English Renaissance Age of Exploration Invention of the compass and study of astronomy opened the world to exploration Europeans (other than Vikings) began to venture into the oceans Protestant Reformation Publication of the Bible started a stink Questioning of the Roman Catholic Church Began with Martin Luther and his 95 Theses (a list of complaints against the Roman Catholic Church) Sparked by money, independent thinking, and science
English Renaissance War of the Roses ended & Tudor dynasty founded Henry VII restored monarchy & treasury Henry VIII son of Henry VII Catholic (right now) Ultimate renaissance man Had 6 wives Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, & survived.
Henry VIII s Wives Catherin of Aragon Catholic Married for 20+ years Only one child Mary Tudor Henry met and fell for Anne Boleyn Henry requested an annulment Pope said NO Henry requested a divorce Pope said NO Henry declared himself head of the Church of England Seized monasteries & lands held by the Catholic Church Granted his own divorce
Henry VIII s Wives Anne Boleyn protestant Married Henry after divorce Produced two children Elizabeth & still-born son Strong and independent minded Had many enemies at court Henry met & fell for Jane Seymour Henry had Anne executed on false charges of adultery, witchcraft, incest, & treason Anne's Ghost Story
Henry VIII s Wives Jane Seymour - protestant Had been a lady-in-waiting to both Catherine & Anne Son born Edward sickly & died young Jane died of a fever shortly after Edward s birth Henry didn t remarry for 3 years following her death He is buried next to her
Henry VIII s Wives Anne of Cleaves - protestant German Not attractive heavy boned Portrait was much more flattering than the real thing! Marriage annulled almost immediately They remained friends until Henry s death Anne was considered a sister of the king
Henry VIII s Wives Catherine Howard protestant Young and unchaste In love with a cousin Married to Henry only two years Beheaded on real charges of adultery, incest, and treason
Henry VIII s Wives Catherine Parr protestant Her mother had been Catherine s attendant Managed to outlive Henry VIII It is possible she had been in love with Thomas Seymour (Jane s brother) Catherine Parr's Ghost Story
An Allegory of the Tudor Succession: The Family of Henry VIII By: Lucas de Heere
King Edward VI Protestant King Henry VIII s only son Crowned at the age of 9 Died at age of 15 Named Lady Jane Grey (protestant) as heir Caused an uproar until they Privy Council named Mary Tudor the rightful heir
Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary) Practicing Catholic Restored Roman Catholicism to England Married to Phillip II of Spain Executed nearly 300 protestants burned at the stake Died of cancer (abdominal) after two phantom pregnancies
Queen Elizabeth I The Virgin Queen never married Last of the Tudor line Compared to William, the Conqueror Patron of the Arts Elizabeth has come to represent the Renaissance at its height Reestablished Protestantism all in moderation Still she had her problems
Mary, Queen of Scots Catholic great-granddaughter of Henry VII Married to Phillip II of Spain (yes, the same one who was wed to Mary I) Catholics wanted her crowned did not recognize Henry VIII s marriage to Anne Boleyn or Elizabeth as legitimate Mary in captivity, c. 1578 Mary was a prisoner for 19 years in England and the center for numerous plots against Elizabeth
Mary, Queen of Scots Elizabeth finally executed her in 1587 after a foiled murder plot Spain declared war on England (Elizabeth did execute the Queen of Spain) Spanish Armada attacked and was defeated by Privateers Privateers had been raiding and sinking Spanish vessels with Elizabeth s knowledge The execution of Mary, Q of S was just the excuse the Spanish needed Replica of Mary, Q of S s tomb
James I of England James VI of Scotland (son of Mary, Queen of Scots) Protestant Elizabeth named him her heir when he agreed to convert to Protestantism Continued Elizabeth s passionate support of the arts Macbeth was written by Shakespeare for James I Jacobean Era
James I of England Jamestown is named for him Dark spot in rule was his persecution of the Puritans Commissioned a retranslation and rework of the Bible known today as the King James Version
Elizabethan Age Literature Explosion of cultural energy architects, sculptors, painters, composers, & writers Narratives, poetry, dramas, and comedies all expressed the spirit of the renaissance Elizabethan Poetry Sonnets are the most famous remnant of Elizabethan poetry Poets moved away from narratives in favor of lyrical poems Sonnets Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare a sonnet is a 14 line poem usually written in iambic pentameter with a varying rhyme scheme Sonnets were often written in collections called cycles that told a loose story
Elizabethan Age Literature Two primary types of sonnets English Divided into three quatrains (sets of 4 lines) and a couplet (set of two lines) The couplet provides the theme (main point) for the sonnet Rhyme Scheme Shakespearean or Spenserian Shakespearean - abab cdcd efef gg Spenserian abab bcbc cdcd ee Petrarchan or Italian Divided into an octave (set of 8 lines) which presents a problem or a quest and a sestet (set of 6 lines) which solves it Rhyme Scheme abbaabba cdecde or cdcdcd
English Sonnet Spenserian Sonnet 30 My love is like to ice, and I to fire a How comes it then that this her cold so great b Is not dissolved through my so hot desire a But harder grows the more I her entreat? b Or how comes it then that my exceeding heat b Is not delayed by her heart frozen cold. c But that I burn much more in boiling sweat, b And feel my flames augmented manifold? c What more miraculous thing may be told c That fire which all thing melts, should harden ice, d And ice which is congealed with senseless cold, c Should kindle fire by wonderful device? d Such is the power of love in gentle mind, e That it can alter all the course of kind. e
Spenserian Sonnets Spenser born to a working class family and made it all the way through Cambridge Most famous for The Faerie Queenallegory of good and evil dedicated to Queen Elizabeth (The Faerie Queen herself) Sonnets Part of Amoretti means little love poems 89 sonnets about a courtship of a woman named Elizabeth (Spenser s wife was named Elizabeth) The courtship was not exactly working out that well for the speaker in the sonnets
Sonnet 1 - Spenser Explains that his love is the sole inspiration for his poetry 1 st Quat Speaking to the poetry Leaves of paper (the poems); lily hands (his love s hands) holding the poem 2 nd Quat happy lines happy b/c his love will look at them To read the sorrows & heartache the speaker feels 3 rd Quat Happy rhymes (again happy poetry) will finally understand why I write for her Couplet - theme My poetry is to please her alone and no one else s opinion matters
Sonnet 30 - Spenser Paradox an apparent contradiction which is actually true 1 st quat love = ice; speaker = fire Why doesn t his fire dissolve her cold? And how can it make the cold grow? 2 nd quat Why doesn t her severe cold hinder his fire & how is it that it makes his fire grow? 3 rd quat It s amazing that fire can freeze ice and ice can feed fire Couplet Theme Love is so powerful that it can alter even the laws of nature
Sonnet 35 - Spenser Another paradox speaker longs to look on his love even though it causes him pain and suffering 1 st Quat Eyes long to see her even though he can only wish he had her 2 nd Quat Can t live w/o seeing her, but can t survive while watching her knowing he can t have her He starves himself of life wishing for her Narcissus (classical allusion) 3 rd Quat His eyes want nothing else not even the things he loved before Can t even bear to look at what he loved in the past Couplet Theme There is nothing glorious in the world except her
1 st Quat Sonnet 75 - Spenser He writes her name on the sand twice the tide washed it away 2 nd Quat She scolds him for trying to immortalize something that is mortal She will be erased from time just like her name was from the sand 3 rd Quat He disagrees b/c his poetry will keep her alive forever Couplet Theme Their love will live on through this poem when all the rest of the world is gone
Sir Philip Sidney A true Renaissance man very well-educated and well-traveled Born into the aristocracy life of privilege A favorite of Queen Elizabeth (after a short falling out with her) Fought bravely for England and died as a result of a battle Wrote the first great sonnet sequence in English Astrophel and Stella cycle of 108 sonnet plus 11 songs that deal with Sidney s love for Penelope Devereaux. Astrophel = Sidney; Stella = Devereaux Both these sonnets deal with lovesickness & unrequited love Devereaux married someone else
Sonnet 31 - Sidney English sonnet due to the division not necessarily the rhyme scheme Apostrophe addresses someone or something which cannot respond Sidney speaks to the moon 1 st Quat Asks the moon why so sad Suggests maybe the moon is lovesick as well 2 nd Quat If you (the moon) know as much about love as legend says you can understand Moon s grief is like his
Sonnet 31 - Sidney 3 rd Quat & couplet Series of questions Is love considered foolish there? Are your beauties (women) as stuck up as ours? Do they want to be loved, but don t want to love? Is being ungrateful considered a virtue (desireable trait)? The speaker reveals his own situation by addressing the moon He tells us of his lovesickness and the unreturned love of the girl through his questions to the moon
Sonnet 39 - Sidney 1 st quat Addresses sleep asks it to come to him Compliments it as a place of peace and release for all people 2 nd Quat Asks sleep to shield him from Despair (personified) And to make his inner battle stop 3 rd Quat & couplet Offers sleep all his comforts if sleep will just come to him If sleep refuses, he will see nothing but Stella
Shakespearean Sonnets Most are English 3 quatrains and a couplet abab cdcd efef gg Most sonnets were thought to be composed when the theaters were closed b/c of the plague Three (sometimes four) classifications Time/Nature Deal with the passage of time and wasted opportunity & celebrate Nature and its many faces Young Man most believe he was a very close friend of Shakespeare, but some suggest they may have been lovers Dark Lady last 25 of the sonnets Seems to be romantically involved with both the speaker and the young man
Sonnet 29 Pity Party sonnet It is one of the young man sonnets 1 st Quat He is having no luck with anything or anybody Feeling sorry for himself Even heaven is deaf to his cries Hates his own life! 2 nd Quat Begins to wish himself like others Better future, better looking, more friends, one man s talent and another s intelligence Least happy even with things that used to bring him joy
3 rd Quat Sonnet 29 Almost hating himself He happens to think of this other person Uses a simile compares the way he feels then to a bird soaring into the heavens Couplet Theme When he remembers the relationship he shares with this other person, he wouldn t change places with a king.
Sonnet 106 Makes fun of earlier sonnets that spent their entire content celebrating the beauty of someone He makes fun of those in order to express the beauty he finds in this person 1 st Quat He sees the descriptions of beautiful people in the poetry of the past 2 nd Quat If they spent that much time on the others pieces and parts They would certainly have tried to express their appreciation of this person s beauty
Sonnet 106 3 rd Quat All the earlier poets were simply preparing us for your beauty They would not have been able to express this individual s beauty Couplet theme The writers of the past would have tried, and failed; but the present writers could not even speak at all This woman/man is so beautiful that no one past or present could possible express that beauty
Sonnet 116 Shakespeare s definition of True Love 1 st Quat he is not trying to cause trouble if you think you know what love is, he s not trying to change your mind Starts with what love is not Doesn t change when situations do Doesn t bend to be removed just b/c someone wants to remove it
2 nd Quat Sonnet 116 Uses metaphors to state what love is 3 rd Quat Mark (a point) never shaken by life s storms Star (point of navigation) for all people he s saying I f you don t have it you navigate through life looking for it. Time s fool personification Love doesn t fade with youth or beauty Doesn t change with time doesn t fade away Lasts to the end of time
Couplet Sonnet 116 He says if he is wrong then he has never written and no man has ever truly loved Sarcasm obviously he has written b/c we are reading something he wrote Theme is found throughout the poem it is the definition of love
Sonnet 130 Dark Lady Sonnet Uses irony & imagery 1 st Quat Introduces his love Dull eyes, pale lips, brown skin, black wirey hair 2 nd Quat Continues to describe her no color in her cheeks Perfume smells better than her breath