Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance¹ I.A Historical Background
　　II.The Overview² of the Literature （1485-1660）
　　Printing press—readership—growth of middle class—trade-education for laypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetus³ and direction of literature.
　　Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity⁴ and reformed education.
　　Literary style-modeled on the ancients.
　　The effect of humanism-the dissemination⁵ of the cultivated, clear, and sensible attitude of its classically educated adherents⁶.
　　1. poetry
　　The first tendency by Sidney and Spenser: ornate, florid, highly figured style.
　　The second tendency by Donne: metaphysical style—complexity and ingenuity⁷.
　　The third tendency by Johnson: reaction——Classically pure and restrained style.
　　The fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian⁸ and Biblical tradition.
　　2. Drama
　　a. the native tradition and classical examples.
　　b. the drama stands highest in popular estimation: Marlowe – Shakespeare – Jonson.
　　3. Prose
　　a. translation of Bible;
　　b. More;
　　c. Bacon.
　　II.English poetry.
　　1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard （courtly makers⁹）
　　（1） Wyatt: introducing sonnets¹¹.
　　（2） Howard: introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse.
　　2. Sir Philip Sidney—poet, critic, prose writer
　　（1） Life:
　　a. English gentleman;
　　b. brilliant and fascinating personality;
　　c. courtier.
　　（2） works
　　a. Arcadia: pastoral romance;
　　b. Astrophel and Stella （108）: sonnet¹⁰ sequence to Penelope Dvereux—platonic devotion.
　　Petrarchan conceits¹² and original feelings-moving to creativeness—building of a narrative¹³ story; theme-love originality-act of writing.
　　c. Defense¹⁴ of Poesy: an apology for imaginative literature—beginning of literary criticism.
　　3. Edmund Spenser
　　（1） life: Cambridge - Sidney's friend - “Areopagus” – Ireland - Westminster Abbey.
　　（2） works
　　a. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance.
　　b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequence
　　c. Faerie Queene:
　　l The general end——A romantic and allegorical epic—steps to virtue¹⁵.
　　l 12 books and 12 virtues¹⁶: Holiness, temperance, justice and courtesy.
　　l Two-level function: part of the story and part of allegory （symbolic¹⁷ meaning）
　　l Many allusions¹⁸ to classical writers.
　　l Themes: puritanism, nationalism, humanism and Renaissance Neoclassicism—a Christian humanist.
　　（3） Spenserian Stanza¹⁹.
　　III.English Prose
　　1. Thomas More
　　（1） Life: “Renaissance man”, scholar, statesman, theorist, prose writer, diplomat²⁰, patron of arts
　　a. learned Greek at Canterbury College, Oxford²¹;
　　b. studies law at Lincoln Inn;
　　c. Lord Chancellor²²;
　　d. beheaded.

　　（2） Utopia: the first English science fiction.
　　Written in Latin, two parts, the second—place of nowhere.
　　A philosophical²³ mariner²⁴ （Raphael Hythloday） tells his voyages in which he discovers a land-Utopia.
　　a. The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting²⁵ his philosophy.
　　b. The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silver are worn by criminal, religious freedom is total and no one owns anything.
　　c. the nature of the book: attacking the chief political and social evils of his time.
　　d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way, but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals.
　　e. it played a key role in the Humanist awakening²⁶ of the 16th century which moved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissance secularism²⁷.
　　f. the Utopia
　　（3） the significance.
　　a. it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic²⁸ material.
　　b. a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose: he composed works in English, translated from Latin into English biography, wrote History of Richard III.

　　2. Francis Bacon: writer, philosopher and statesman
　　（1） life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris – knighted - Lord Chancellor – bribery²⁹ - focusing on philosophy and literature.
　　（2） philosophical ideas: advancement³⁰ of science—people:servants and interpreters of nature—method: a child before nature—facts and observations: experimental.
　　（3） “Essays”: 57.
　　a. he was a master of numerous and varied³¹ styles.
　　b. his method is to weigh and balance maters, indicating the ideal course of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, but leaving the reader to make the final decisions. （arguments）#p#分页标题#e#
　　IV.English Drama
　　1. A general survey.
　　（1） Everyman marks the beginning of modern drama.
　　（2） two influences.
　　a. the classics: classical in form and English in content;
　　b. native or popular drama.
　　（3） the University Wits.
　　2. Christopher Marlowe: greatest playwright³² before Shakespeare and most gifted of the Wits.
　　（1） Life: first interested in classical poetry—then in drama.
　　（2） Major works
　　a. Tamburlaine;
　　b. The Jew of Malta;
　　c. The Tragical³³ History of Doctor Faustus.
　　（3） The significance of his plays.
　　V. William Shakespeare
　　1. Life
　　（1） 1564, Stratford-on-Avon;
　　（2） Grammar School;
　　（3） Queen visit to Castle;
　　（4） marriage to Anne Hathaway;
　　（5） London, the Globe Theatre: small part and proprietor³⁴;
　　（6） the 1st Folio, Quarto;
　　（7） Retired³⁵, son—Hamnet; H. 1616.
　　2. Dramatic career
　　3. Major plays-men-centered.
　　（1） Romeo and Juliet——tragic love and fate
　　（2） The Merchant of Venice.
　　Good over evil.
　　Anti-Semitism.
　　（3） Henry IV.
　　National unity³⁶.
　　Falstaff.
　　（4） Julius Caesar
　　Republicanism vs. dictatorship.
　　（5） Hamlet
　　Revenge
　　Good/evil.
　　（6） Othello
　　Diabolic character
　　jealousy³⁷
　　gap between appearance and reality.
　　（7） King Lear
　　Filial ingratitude³⁸
　　（8） Macbeth
　　Ambition vs. fate.
　　（9） Antony and Cleopatra.
　　Passion vs. reason
　　（10） The Tempest
　　Reconciliation³⁹; reality and illusion.
　　3. Non-dramatic poetry
　　（1） Venus and Adonis; The Rape⁴⁰ of Lucrece.
　　（2） Sonnets:
　　a. theme: fair, true, kind.
　　b. two major parts: a handsome young man of noble birth; a lady in dark complexion⁴¹.
　　c. the form: three quatrains and a couplet.
　　d. the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
　　VI.Ben Jonson
　　1. life: poet, dramatist, a Latin and Greek scholar, the “literary king” （Sons of Ben）
　　2.contribution:
　　（1） the idea of “humour”.
　　（2） an advocate of classical drama and a forerunner⁴² of classicism in English literature.
　　3. Major plays
　　（1） Everyone in His Humour—“humour”; three unities⁴³.
　　（2） Volpone the Fox