英国文艺复兴

What is English Renaissance?

The Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern world. Generally, it refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries. It first started in Italy, with the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature. From Italy the movement went to embrace the rest of Europe. The Renaissance, which means rebirth or revival, is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the new discoveries in geography and astrology, the religious reformation and the economic expansion. In different countries, the movement occurred in different periods with different emphasis.

Humanism was a literary and philosophic system of thought which attempted to place the affairs of mankind at the center of its concerns. Originating in Italy during the Renaissance, it soon spread throughout most of western Europe. Humanist thought was based on a new reading of Greek and Roman Literature, an affirmation of the importance of Platonic philosophy, and a reinterpretation of the writings of Aristotle. It took as a major interest the life of man in the present, and unlike medieval philosophy , which postulated a City of God in the hereafter, it attempted to lay the foundations for a life of justice, nobility, and goodness on earth.Humanism was an attitude rather than a philosophy, non-dogmatic. According to humanists, man should mould the world according to his own desires, and attain happiness by removing all external checks by the exercise of the human intellect. Humanism was one of the most important factors giving rise to the Renaissance.

The Renaissance was a European phenomenon. It had its origin in north Italy in the fourteenth century , and spread northward to other European countries--to France, to Germany , to the Low Countries, and lastly to England. It revived the study of Roman and Greek classics and marked the beginning of bourgeois revolution. During the period of English Renaissance England enjoyed stability and prosperity. It became the strong power in the world and the mistress on the seas. The English Renaissance encouraged the Reformation of the Church. English King, Henry VIII, who started the Reformation, declared the break with Rome and became head of the English Church. Thus Catholicism was got rid of in England. Protestantism was established. The increasing of cloth industry stimulated the greed of the moneyed classes to seize more and more land out of the hands of the peasants. This is known as the Enclosure Movement. As a result of the movement, thousands upon thousands of peasants lost their land and became hired laborers for the merchants. In the Renaissance Period, scholars and educators who called themselves Humanists began to emphasize the capacities of the human mind and the achievements of human culture, in contrast to the medieval emphasis on God and contempt for the things of this world. So humanism became the keynote of English Renaissance.

English Renaissance is usually divided into three periods:

1) The first period called the beginning of the Renaissance started in 1516 and came to an end in 1578.

2) The second period known as the flowering time of the Renaissance was from 1578 to 1625.

3) The third period between 1625 and 1660 is the epilogue of the Renaissance.

In the second period, Queen Elizabeth ruled the country. For this reason it is also called Elizabethan Period. William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright of England, lived in the Elizabethan Period. So in the history of English literature, this period is often referred to as the Age of William Shakespeare.

Thus began the English Renaissance, which was perhaps England's Golden Age, especially in literature. Among the literary giants were Shakespeare, Spenser, Johnson, Sidney, Marlowe, Bacon and Donne. The English Renaissance had no sharp break with the past. From the first half of the 16th century, the English Renaissance began to develop into a flowering of literature. Many forms of writing appear: translation of classical literature, works on history, books describing discoveries and adventures. Poetry is an important sphere in expressing the voice and the energy of the age. (Sonnet and blank verse are used.) Most important is the drama, that is, the highest glory of English Renaissance of the 16th century.

William Shakesperare is the most popular and most widely respected writer in all English literature. His dramatic work is amazing in its variety: the histories and comedies of his early period(before 1600), the tragedies of the middle or ―tragic‖ period (1600-1608)，and the late period of romances or the period of serenity (1608-1612). The progression from one phase to the next indicates, in historical retrospect, the stages of growth in the playwright‘s awareness of life and the world of man.major works: The four great tragedies of Shakespeare is Hamlet （1601）, Othello （1604）, King Lear （1605）, Macbeth （1605）. The four great comedies is A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595), As You Like It (1599), Twelfth Night (1600), The Merchant Of Venice (1596). He no longer hated the world but accepted it with a smile of resignation and again turned to comedies—romantic comedies.main works: Cymbeline , The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, The Life of King Henry VIII.

At the beginning of the 16th century the outstanding humanist Thomas More(1478-1535) wrote his Utopia (1516) in which he gave a profound and truthful picture of the people's sufferings and put forward his ideal of a future happy society. At the end of the century the great English scientist and philosopher Francis Bacon(1561-1626) wrote his famous philosophical and literary works.

In the first half of the 16th century there appeared lyrical poems by Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) and other who initiated new poetical forms, borrowing freely from English popular songs and Italian and French poetry. Thus Wyatt was the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature.

In the second half of the 16th century lyrical poetry became widespread in England. Among the outstanding lyrical and epic poets of the time were Philip Sidney (1554-1586), and Edmund Spenser (1552-1599).

In simple terms, the Renaissance in England was caused by the spread of Renaissance learning and ideology from Italy, where it developed earlier (c. 1400–1500). The Renai ss ance embraced not only literature, but also art and architecture. In literary terms, the study of the classical poets led not only to their translation into English but the adaptation of their verse forms and systems of poetical metre, as well as the embracing of their themes and genres . An illustration of the linguistic explosion caused by the Renaissance is the addition of more than 10,000 new words to the language in a short space of time, mainly from Latin. The Renaissance also led to a rebirth of classical humanism, which encouraged knowledge of the arts, languages, and a generally broad and active education. This led to a great spirit of confidence and the urge to explore the potential that language, literature, and philosophy could offer and the heights that humans could reach.

A brief survey of significant historical and social events in the period, suggests that the flowering of English literature was part of a larger whole. The development of the printing press led to a communications revolution and increased literacy . There were 20,000 different publications in England between 1500 and 1640. There was a new curiosity , marked by discoveries in science, astronomy , and geography . Italian navigators Christopher Columbus and Sebastian Cabot explored into the ‗New World‘ in the 1490s. It was also a time of religious change; the English Reformation (under King Henry VIII) broke the English church away from Roman Catholicism in 1533, and the spread of Protestantism in Europe were both influential factors on literature and everyday life.