history of English literature
This "golden age"1 "represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music, and literature. The era is most famous for its theater William Shakespeare and many other posed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland
The Elizabethan age contrasts sharply with the previous and following reigns. It was a brief period of internal peace between the Wars of the roses in the previous century, the English Reformation and the religious battles between Protestants and Catholics before Elizabeth's reign, and then the later conflict of the English Civil War and the ongoing political battles between parliament the monarchy that engulfed the remainder of the seventeenth century. The Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a time, by the ElizabethanReligiousSettlement, and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism.
England was also well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had come to an end following the end of the ItalianWars, which left the Italian Peninsula impoverished. The kingdom of France was embroiled in the French war Religion(1562–1598). They were (temporarily) settled in 1598 by a policy of tolerating Protestantism with the Edict of Nantes In part because of this, but also because the English had been expelled from their last outposts on the continent by Spain's tercios, the centuries-long Anglo-French Wars was largely suspended for most of Elizabeth's reign.
The one great rival was HabsburgSpain, with whom England clashed both in Europe and the Americas in skirmishes that exploded into the Anglo-SpanishWar. An attempt by Philip to invade England with the Spanish Armada in 1588 was famously defeated.
England during this period had a centralised, well-organised, and effective government, largely a result of the reforms of Henry VII and Henry VIII as well as Elizabeth's harsh punishments for any dissenters. Economically, the country began to benefit greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade and persistent theft of Spanish and Portuguese treasures, most notably as a result of Francis Drake's circumnavigation
The term Elizabethan era was already well-established in English and British historical cochnsciousne
ss, long before the accession of Queen Elizabeth II , and generally refers solely to the time of the earlier queen of this name.
Chauser to renaissance
Introduction:
The period from Geoffrey Chaucer to the English Renaissance is generally considered the fifteen century , a time of significant transition and some stagnation in literature following Chaucer's death in 1400. While Chaucer himself demonstrated many Renaissance traits, including humanism and interest in classical learning, his work provided an essential foundation for the Renaissance by establishing the English language and vernacular poetry. The Renaissance, in turn, saw humanists grappling with Chaucer's legacy, ultimately rehabilitating him as a national poet whose work continued to influence subsequent literary development.
The period between chaucer and the reneissance:
- Chaucer's Legacy:Chaucer, who died around 1400, is considered a precursor to the Renaissance, embodying its spirit through his humanism and work in the vernacular English language.
- The Fifteenth Century "Barrenness":The century after Chaucer's death is often seen as a "barren" literary period, marked by a lack of originality and a reliance on Chaucer's imitators.
- Seeds of Change:However, this was also a time of growing commerce and industry , leading to a larger middle class with an appetite for literature.
- Humanist Influence:The intellectual shift in Italy, characterized by humanism and the rediscovery of classical antiquity, began to influence England.
- An English Masterpiece:Despite the intellectual trends favoring ancient models, humanists saw Chaucer as the most significant vernacular literary achievement before the 16th century.
- Ambivalence and Rehabilitation:Renaissance scholars debated Chaucer's place in the new literary landscape, but ultimately, he was celebrated and rehabilitated as the quintessential English laureate poet.
- Enduring Influence:Chaucer's foundational work, including his development of iambic pentameter , continued to influence later writers and the very development of English as a national language, making him an indispensable figure for the literary boom of the Renaissance.
- References: Elizabethan age
- chauser to renaissance
