The Renaissance Period | The Renaissance Period in English Literature notes | The Renaissance Period notes pdf| History of English Literature

 

The Renaissance Period | Historical Background in English Literature | The Renaissance Period in English Literature notes | The Renaissance Period | The Renaissance Period notes pdf | The Renaissance Period notes | History of English Literature

History_of_English_Literature

#Lecture No. 03

Topic: The Renaissance Period | Historical Background

English Literature and Linguistics notes

Dear Students! No movement comes on scene from a single factor. There are many factors that drive any movement on the main road; there are also some factors behind the Renaissance movement, which we are going to discuss today. But before going back to our original topic, I would like to let you know that English literature has always been influenced by neighboring countries. What happened in neighboring countries would also happen in England and, of course, in English literature. Likewise, the Renaissance is not the original product of England. Actually, the Renaissance started somewhere in Italy in the fields of art and architecture, but later it spread to neighboring countries like France and England.

The essence of this movement was that “man discovered himself and the universe”, and that “man, so long blinded had suddenly opened his eyes and seen”. 

*  What was the Renaissance?

⮞ Renaissance means re-birth. From about 1500 to 1600 the world was reborn in many ways.

⮞The Renaissance was a revival of classical learning and a flowering of arts and culture starting in Italy and spreading throughout Europe in the 14th through early 17th centuries. “Classical learning” refers to the study of ancient Greek and Latin writers, mathematicians, and philosophers. Scholars began to focus less on Christian-related writings and more on pre-Christian art and thought.

* Historical Background: Cause for Renaissance

1. Religion Reformation

The very first factor to bring Renaissance is the demand of reformation in religion. John Wycliff played his vital role in bringing this kind of reformation during the age of Chaucer. His mission was further carried by another figure, Martin Luther. He was a monk, but he was not contented with the practiced religious form. The only literate people of that era were of ecclesiastic class. They people modified religion according to their own benefits and misled and looted decent people on the name of religion. Martin Luther said that it was the right of any person to read Bible himself so that he may come to know the real essence of religion.

2. Sectarianism

After the end of the War of the Roses (1453-87), Tudor Dynasty came to power in England. Henry VIII was the ruler of English from 1509-1547. He desired to annul his first marriage as he had no heir from his wife.

However, polygamy was prohibited under the rule of the Catholic Church. Thus, he fell into conflict with the Church.

He was even excommunicated by Church, but he did not pay heed to it. To fulfil his desire he, for the first time in the History of England, King Henry VIII established himself as the head of the Church of England in England, bringing together the political and religious spheres (1529-39). As part of a backlash against the Catholic Church in many regions of Europe, he severed all ties with the Catholic Church and the Pope in Rome. Protestantism gained popularity and provided a completely different perspective on how people relate to God. At the top of the Great Chain of Being, which led down to the rest of humanity, animals, insects, and so on, the king or queen became the human being on Earth who was most closely related to God.

This step of his influenced every aspect of English including life, culture, literature, thoughts etc from that time onward.

3. Scientific Discoveries

On the other hand, new worlds were discovered and new ways of seeing and thinking developed. Columbus discovered America in 1492, Copernicus and Galileo made important discoveries about the stars and planets, Ferdinand Magellan sailed all round the world. So that was a shift of human mind to something not fixed by religious authorities. Blood circulation was also discovered during the same time that broaden human mind and inspired him to search for truth. The Renaissance was worldwide.

 

Books were printed, and philosophy, science, and art were systematized. The Middle Ages were past, and the old world had become new. Scholars flocked to the universities as adventurers in the new world of America, and there the old authority received a death blow. Only truth was authority; to search for truth everywhere, as men sought for new lands and gold and the Fountain of Youth, was the new spirit, which awoke in Europe with the Revival of Learning.

4. Constantinople

Fall of Constantinople is also a cause of bringing Renaissance. It made a flood of people spread around the world with old Greek manuscripts with them. People read these manuscripts and brought revival of Old Greek learning which rightly is called Renaissance.

These were some factors that I tried to bring before you. 

* Renaissance Wonder and Love of Beauty

⮞ Both writers and readers of the Renaissance marveled at the world, which seemed to be designed by a master artist or craftsman. Writers strove to be as creative as the creator of the world.

 

⮞ People of the Renaissance loved design and valued beauty and elaboration. Today’s common minimalist writing style, which strives for the quickest and shortest way to say anything, would neither have impressed nor interested readers and writers of the Renaissance.

 

Garden at Hampton Court, an important palace during the reign of the Tudors during the

English Renaissance.

⮞ Renaissance drama and poetry are full of the kinds of heightened drama to be found in Marlowe’s plays: life and death, high-stakes power struggles, human passions at their most extreme, conveyed in the most gorgeous language possible.

* Writers

MARTIN LUTHER: Protestantism originated with Luther’s 95 Theses in Wittenberg in 1517. Later it became the official national religion of England.

CHARLES DARWIN: His work On the Origin of Species (1859) undermined the religious and biblical beliefs and led to the emergence of new ideas that challenged the old beliefs.

ERASMUS: He challenged the narrowness of the Catholic Church. He criticized the unnecessary rituals, the sale of pardon paper etc. He wished to return to the values of the early Church. In order to do so, he produced a Greek edition of Scriptures in place of existing Latin one.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: He travelled in search of the Indies in 1492 and landed first in the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola and was credited with having discovered the Americas. This discovery also opened the eyes of the world.

COPERNICUS AND GALILEO: They established and postulated scientifically that Earth is not the Centre of the universe as believed by the people.

* Important Features

The English Renaissance has many important features. Some of the important features are—

humanism, Intellectual rebirth, thirst for knowledge, freedom of thought and action, scientific outlook, love for beauty, love for adventure, love for the remote past, the spirit of discovery, individualism, desire for unlimited wealth, earthly pomp and power and so on.

1. The chief characteristic of the Renaissance was its emphasis on Humanism, which means man’s concern with himself as an object of contemplation. 

2. Other important feature of the Renaissance is intellectual rebirth or regeneration. It conveys the idea that for centuries. Europe had been dead intellectually and then by some means, had recovered life. The rebirth or regeneration came to Italy first and then to other European countries.

3. Freedom of thought and action is another important feature of the Renaissance. An awakening of the minds of men, freedom of thought, and action were the dominant passions of the Renaissance.

4. Thirst for knowledge is another important feature of the Renaissance. It was an age of great curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Man, desire to know the unknown and to see the unseen.

5. Scientific Outlook: During the Renaissance period, European explorers and scientists contributed significantly to the development of inquiry.

6. Love for adventure: The age Renaissance was an age of great curiosity and love for adventure. During this age, people show their love for adventure. In the 15th century, Columbus reached America and Vasco da Gama reached India. This kind of love for adventure influences the Renaissance greatly.

7. Love for beauty is another feature of the Renaissance. Here beauty signifies the beauty of culture, the beauty of the civilized world the beauty of women, and so on. We notice this kind of love for beauty in Renaissance literature.

8. The desire for unlimited power and wealth is another important feature of the Renaissance. England’s trade and Commerce improved, and the country grew rich and prosperous. Dr.Faustus by Christopher Marlowe is one of the best examples of the Renaissance play in which the hero sold his soul to Lucifer only to get earthly wealth and power.