LECTURE 2. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE. THE RENAISSANCE AND THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE AND POERTY (1603-1660)

THE RENAISSANCE.

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are the period of the European Renaissance or New Birth. The Renaissance movement first received definite direction from the rediscovery and study of Greek literature, which clearly revealed the unbounded possibilities of life to men who had been groping dissatisfied within the narrow limits of medieval thought. To the minds which were being paralyzed under this system, Greek literature brought the inspiration for which they longed. For it was the literature of a great and brilliant people who had aimed to «see life steadily and see it whole», who had found in pleasure and beauty some of the most essential constructive forces, and had embodied beauty in works of literature and art where the significance of the whole spiritual life was more splendidly suggested than in the achievements of any, or almost any, other period.

Soon the study of Greek was introduced into England and was the stimulus of literary culture. While Greek was speaking so powerfully to the cultivated class, other forces were contributing to revolutionize life as a whole and all men’s outlook upon it. The invention of printing absolutely transformed all the processes of knowledge and almost of thought.

Sir thomas more and his «utopia»

One of the most attractive and finest spirits of the Renaissance was Sir Thomas More. More’s most important work was his «Utopia», published in 1516. The name, which is Greek, means No-Place, and the book is one of the most famous of that series of attempts to outline an imaginary ideal condition of society.

«Utopia,» broadly considered, deals primarily with the question which is common to most of these books and in which both ancient Greece and Europe of the Renaissance took a special interest, namely the question of the relation of the State and the individual. It consists of two parts. In the first there is a vivid picture of the terrible evils which England was suffering through war, lawlessness, the wholesale and foolish application of the death penalty, the misery of the peasants, the absorption of the land by the rich, and the other distressing corruptions in Church and State. In the second part, in contrast to all this, a certain imaginary Raphael Hythlodaye describes the customs of Utopia, a remote island in the New World, to which chance has carried him. To some of the ideals thus set forth More can scarcely have expected the world ever to attain; and some of them will hardly appeal to the majority of readers of any period; but in the main he lays down an admirable program for human progress, no small part of which has been actually realized in the four centuries which have since elapsed.

The controlling purpose in the life of the Utopians is to secure both the welfare of the State and the full development of the individual under the ascendancy of his higher faculties. The State is democratic, socialistic, and communistic, and the will of the individual is subordinated to the advantage of all, but the real interests of each and all are recognized as identical. Everyone is obliged to work, but not to overwork; six hours a day make the allotted period; and the rest of the time is free, but with plentiful provision of lectures and other aids for the education of mind and spirit. All the citizens are taught the fundamental art, that of agriculture and in addition each has a particular trade or profession of his own. There is no surfeit, excess, or ostentation. Clothing is made for durability, and everyone’s garments are precisely like those of everyone else, except that there is a difference between those of men and women and those of married and unmarried persons. The sick are carefully tended, but the victims of hopeless or painful disease are mercifully put to death if they so desire. Crime is naturally at a minimum, but those who persist in it are made slaves (not executed, for why should the State be deprived of their services?). Detesting war, the Utopians make a practice of hiring certain barbarians who, conveniently, are their neighbors, to do whatever fighting is necessary for their defense, and they win if possible, not by the revolting slaughter of pitched battles, but by the assassination of their enemies» generals. In especial, there is complete religious toleration, except for atheism, and except for those who urge their opinions with offensive violence. «Utopia» was written and published in Latin; among the multitude of translations into many languages the earliest in English.