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23 views4 pages

Lecture 2

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artistzinou99
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University of Ghardaia

Faculty of Letters and Languages


English Department

Lectures of the First Semester

Module: Literature
Level: 2nd Year Licence
Lecturer: Dr. Fatima Yahia

Academic year: 2023/2024

1
History of English Literature

Lecture 2

I.1.5 English Renaissance (1500/1660)/ 15th and 16th Century:

I.1.5.1 Historical Background:

All the events below characterize the historical background of the English Renaissance:

 After introducing the printing press in England, in 1476 by William Caxton.


 It is associated with the European Renaissance in Italy, in the late 14th century.
 The transition from the medieval world to the modern one.
 Revival of letters.
 The Elizabethan Era in the second half of the 16th century is considered as the height
of the English Renaissance.
 Thinkers tried to get rid of the old feudalist ideas and they were interested in rising
bourgeoisie.
 They recovered the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman
Catholic Church.
 Interest in the humanity activities.
 Enclosure movement and commercial expansion.
 Emphasis on the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life: belief
in the right to enjoy the beauty of this life and the ability to perfect the individual and
to perform wonder (humanism1).

I.1.5.2 Literature:

The Italian influence is found in the poetry of Thomas Wyatt. He is an earliest English
Renaissance poet. He made many innovations in English poetry. Also, Henry Howard, Earl
of Surrey, introduced ‘the sonnet’ from Italy into England in the early 16th century2.

1
Compton-Ricket, A. (date unknown).History of English Literature: New York: Dodge Publishing CO, (pp. 27-
30)
2
ibid, (p.30)

2
I.1.5.3 Elizabethan Period (1558–1603):

I.1.5.3.1 Poetry:

The list below includes the main poets of the Elizabethan Period:

 Edmund Spenser : one of the most important poets of the Elizabethan period; he wrote
The Faerie Queene (1590/1596). It is an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating
the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I.
 Sir Philip Sidney wrote Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poetry, and The
Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.
 Thomas Campion: his poems intended to be set to music as songs3.

I.1.5.3.2 Drama:

Drama was born under the shadow of the Church and nurtured for religious purposes. The
value of the spectacular appeal in an age when printing was unknown is of profound
importance, and had not the Church fostered the drama for her own purposes during the
Middle Ages, it would not have been the force it was in the age of the Renaissance 4. The
famous authors and literary works of this period include:

 Gorboduc, by Sackville and Norton.


 Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.
 The Spanish Tragedy is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd. It was popular
and influential in its time, and established a new genre (the revenge play) in English
literature theatre.

 William Shakespeare, in this period, was a poet and playwright. He wrote plays in a
different genres as histories (Richard III and Henry IV), tragedies (Hamlet, Othello,
and Macbeth), comedies (Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, and Twelfth
Night) and the late romances, or tragicomedies.

 Shakespeare's career had continued to the Jacobean period.

3
Alexander, M. (2013). A History of English Literature. USA: Palgrave Macmillan, (pp.50-51)
4
Compton-Ricket, A. (date unknown).History of English Literature: New York: Dodge Publishing CO, (pp.29)

3
 Other authors: Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker, John Fletcher, and
Francis Beaumont5.

I.1.5.4 Jacobean period (1603–1625):


I.1.5.4.1 Drama:

Shakespeare wrote the ‘problem plays.’ Among his works of tragedies is Macbeth and King
Lear. The Tempest is a famous sign of his tragicomedy. The poet and dramatist Ben Jonson
became the leading literary figure after Shakespeare’s death. Jonson’s comedies are
represented in Volpone and Bartholomew Fair6.

I.1.5.4.2 Poetry:

Shakespeare popularized the English sonnet. On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer is
John Keats’s famous sonnet. In addition, a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes of
the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, were first published in a 16097.

I.1.5.4.3 Prose:

The most important prose work of the early 17th century was the King James Bible. Also,
the period was famous of Bible translation into English by William Tyndale8.

I.1.5.5 Late Renaissance (1625–1660):

In this period, the Metaphysical poets John Donne and George Herbert were still alive.
However, a second generation of metaphysical poets emerged where it witnessed the
popularity of the writings of Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, Thomas Traherne, and
Henry Vaughan9.

5
Alexander, M. (2013). A History of English Literature. USA: Palgrave Macmillan, (pp.143-46)
6
ibid, (p. 146)
7
Compton-Ricket, A. (date unknown).History of English Literature: New York: Dodge Publishing CO, (pp.29
8
ibid
9
Alexander, M. (2013). A History of English Literature. USA: Palgrave Macmillan, (pp.149-54)

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