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  Elizabethan Age

  lizabeth I’s reign

The most significant period of the Renaissance falls on the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyne, she was born out of wedlock and later legitimized by an act of Parliament. Upon her mother’s execution, she fell out of favour and was allowed to appear at court only when Henry married Catherine Parr. During the reign of her half sister Mary I, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower.

When she came to the throne in 1558, she faced the problems of religious strife, unstable finance, a war with France and tense relations with Scotland. She ended the war with France and re-established the Church of England. She imprisoned her rival – Mary, Queen of Scots – and in 1587 had her executed for treason.

Elizabeth was a strong and cautious ruler who set her enemies against one another in order to strengthen the position of England. During her reign, England established itself as a major European power in politics, commerce and the arts. Her reign is considered by many as the Golden Age of English history, producing not only a gallery of authors of genius, some of whom have never been surpassed, but also prosperity for the entire nation. Merchants formed the East India Company in 1600. Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and other daring English adventurers explored the West Indies and the coasts of North and South America. The English explored and colonized distant lands, and wealth from the colonies poured into England.

For different reasons Elizabeth never got married and came to be known in history as the Virgin Queen. Long before her death, she had transformed herself into a powerful image of female authority, regal magnificence and national pride. She portrayed the image of herself as the humble wife to her superior husband, England, and as a servant of the people. Through controlling access to herself, Elizabeth had built her success on her ability to divide and conquer.

• Elizabethans

The Elizabethan Age was a time of great achievement in England.England’s success in commerce brought prosperity to the nation and gave a chance to many people of talent to develop their abilities. Explorers, men of letters, philosophers, poets and famous dramatists appeared in rapid succession. The great men of the so-called ‘Elizabethan age’ distinguished themselves in many fields and displayed a thirst for knowledge. They were often called the Elizabethans. Among the favourites of the Queen was the celebrated traveler Sir Walter Raleigh, who wrote poetry and history. Sir Walter organized expeditions to colonize North America. It was he who introduced tobacco and potatoes to England. He also founded a colony on the American coast which he called Virginia in honour of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. In 1595 he led an unsuccessful expedition to the Orinoco River (the present-day Venezuela) in search of gold. Later, during the reign of James I, he fell out of favour and spent 12 years in the Tower. There he wrote his famous History of the World. After the failure of his second expedition to the Orinoco in 1617, he was executed. Now the capital of North Carolina, USA, bears his name.

The Queen also favouredSir Francis Drake (1540-96), Admiral of Her Majesty’s Navy. He was the most renowned seaman of the Elizabethan Age – a pirate, a navigator, one of the greatest English sea captains in history. Drake made several slave-trading expeditions to West Africa and the Spanish Main. In 1577-1580 he circumnavigated the globe on board the Golden Hind.

Searching for the passage around the north of America he was the first European to sight the west coast of present-day Canada. Then he sailed across the Pacific to the Philippines, and headed across the Indian Ocean for the Cape of Good Hope. In 1580 returned into Plymouth Harbour with treasure and spices aboard.

Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake were the typical ‘new men’ of the Tudor making. The Queen and the government adapted themselves to the new existing circumstances. Where the interests of the nation were concerned, they relied on able men of all classes. The queen received treasures from her subjects even if they had been obtained through piracy.

• Defeat of the Invincible Armada

For years Elizabeth played a diplomatic game with the rival interests of France and Spain. During the Elizabethan age, preying on Spanish ships became almost a national pastime. By 1580 it was clear that England couldn’t avoid a direct military confrontation with Spain. The Spanish king Philip II began to assemble an enormous fleet to conquer Protestant England. Spain had the strongest fleet of ships called the Invincible Armada, which had never been defeated. In July 1588 the Invincible Armada reached England’s waters. Fornunately for England, Spanish ships were not built for sea-battles, while the English vessels were capable of maneuvering and fighting under sail: for Drake, the ship was a fighting unit. In 1588 the queen’s 30 ships lead by Francis Drake defeated the enemy fleet, and a terrible storm destroyed what was left of it.

The defeat of the Armada was announced in the first newspaper printed in England specially for the occasion. The idea was then forgotten and revived about 50 years later. The great victory inspired a burst of patriotism that was reflected in the poetry and especially the drama of the period.

• The development of culture and science

During Elizabeth's reign, England experienced the true cultural reawakening of thought and art. Elizabeth's court was a magnet, which attracted the most talented individuals of the era. Music, poetry, literature and drama flourished under Elizabeth's reign, largely due to the Queen's love of the arts. The Queen's tastes set the standards for the aristocracy and the rest of society; they fostered an atmosphere in which many of England's greatest writers found encouragement and financial support. A newly rich merchant class as well as the nobility wanted entertainment and fine arts and were willing to pay for them. Writers, painters, and musicians flocked to London, making it a European cultural centre. Elizabeth’s court became a center for poets, musicians, and scholars.

Elizabethanarchitecture changed the medieval styles of earlier times, bringing out the beauty of the Renaissance. More houses than churches began to be built. The most significant architectural features of the period were classical symmetry and ornateness. This was the Elizabethan visual expression of order and harmony. If you were to walk into a Renaissance house and glance up at the ceiling, you would see an example of this ornateness. Elizabethans typically made the ceilings and fireplaces extremely ornate. Instead of having art on the walls, they made the walls their own art form. Tall houses and towers were accented by elaborate gardens and stables. The most famous architect of the period, Inigo Jones, was famous for building Banqueting House of Whitehall in London.

The Elizabethans created an elaborate system of activities and events to keep themselves entertained.Queen Elizabeth was fond of hunting parties, dancing and music. Musical literacy was expected in the upper class of society. Many Elizabethans made their own music. The laborers would sing while they worked, and the townspeople would sing or play music after meals. The lute, virginal, viola, recorder, bagpipe and the fiddle were favored instruments of that time. A popular form of entertainment in the countryside was the ringing of church bells. In the major towns, official musicians gave free public concerts. The wealthy people hired musicians to play during dinner.

Music of this period became increasingly expressive and refined, and a knowledge and appreciation of music set apart the truly genteel members of the high social classes. In addition, court musicians gradually moved into their own music houses and guilds. Several different instruments became popular during the Elizabethan era, including the lute (a forerunner of the guitar, the viol (predecessor to the violin), viola da gamba (an early type of the cello) and the virginal (an English modification of the clavichord). The new form of secular music was the madrigal which originally came from Italy. The first English musician to compose madrigals was William Byrd. He founded one of the strongest and most famous musical schools, especially in virginal playing.

The Elizabethan era was a period of great advances in world exploration, medicine, and the study of the universe. The period brought great advances in medical science, particularly in the study of human anatomy and and surgical operations. Inventions of the period include the graphite pencil, the modern calendar, wind-powered sawmill, and the thermoscope (primitive thermometer).

In natural philosophy,Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), completed the break from the medieval scholastic method, laid down for the first time the classification of the natural sciences, and prepared the way for modern experimental science. Francis Bacon was a statesman, a philosopher and an essayist. He made a distinguished parliamentary career under Elizabeth I. As a scholar, he wrote mostly in Latin as he believed English would not last. He is also known for his Essays – a collection of brief witty observations on various subjects: reading, education, death, revenge, gardens, etc. The essays are admirably clear and simple and some statements are as memorable as poetry: ‘God Almighty first planted a garden’, ‘Revenge is a kind of wild justice’, ‘Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark’. According to some critics (or fanatics?), it was F. Bacon who wrote Shakespear’s plays among other things.

• Entertainments

From the beginning to the end of each year, Elizabethans found ways to keep themselves entertained. They were a creative group of people who pursued leisure activities with great passion. A major part of the Elizabethan lifestyle was connected with feasts and festivals. Every season of the year had special days that drew the people together to celebrate. One of the greater festivals of the year was held at Easter time. The Mayday celebration consisted of the decorating of the maypole and dancing around it. In the summer, bonfires were burned and dances were held to celebrate Midsummer's Eve on June 24. The winter holidays began with Christmas, ran through New Year's Eve and ended on the Twelfth Night, January 5. These holidays included gifts, bonfires, music and jollity.

Dancing was a popular activity and varied according to social class. The upper class favored courtly dances while ordinary people were more likely to do traditional ‘country’ dances.

Sports played a major role in the leisure time of the Elizabethan Age. Some of the indoor games included dice, chess, checkers and a variety of card games. Some of the outdoor sports and games included golf, horse racing, swimming, fishing, hunting, fencing, duelling and cricket. At that time a man was supposed to be skilled at tennis, bowling, archery and hunting. While the upper class enjoyed tennis, common people preferred football. All levels of society enjoyed the sport of hunting. Horses, dogs and hawks were kept and trained for hunting deer, rabbits and other wildlife.

• Elizabethan literature

By the middle of the 16^th century, education was spreading among the sons of common citizens. The development of literary competence of the language and advances in education were followed by new printing techniques. Accelerated output of printed books made lyric poetry and prose publicly available.

The Tudors badly needed educated diplomats, statesmen and officials. The new learning implied a systematic schooling in Latin and Greek authors.

English poetry and prose burst into sudden glory in the late 1570s. The greatest literature created during the Elizabethan Period falls into two categories: poetry and drama. Influenced by the Italian sonnets, which had been introduced into the English language by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) during the reign of Henry VIII, English poets began to construct their own variations on the intricate, highly structured poetic form. Influenced by Italian sonnets, English writers of the period began introducing complicated poetic structures in both verse and prose. Writing was a social fashion of this time, a pastime enjoyed by the nobles as well as by men of lower stations.

The other great literary achievement of the Elizabethan Period was the drama, a form which was rooted in centuries of popular folk entertainment and which had been adapted into the religious plays of the Middle Ages.

Elizabethan drama was greatly influenced by Roman authors whose works were translated from Latin into English. Lawyers at the Inns of Court translated the works of Seneca and in their spare time tried to imitate the Roman philosopher. University students translated Roman plays into English and tried to write plays of their own imitating the Roman patterns. The nobility took pleasure in translating Latin poetry: the Earl of Surrey translated Virgil using blank verse. Comedy was developed in the Royal Court itself, in the entertainments given by the Children of St. Paul’s and other choir schools before the Queen. These children, only boys, actred plays written by the first ‘polite’ comic dramatist of the period, John Lyly (1554?-1606). Elizabeth I was a patrom of drama and encouraged its development by frequently attending performances, whether in the Inns of Court, University, or at the royal levels.

The most famous pre-Shakesperian writers of drama were George Peele, Robert Greene (comedies), Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe (tragedies). They belonged to the group known as the ‘University Wits’.

The University Wits were, as the name suggests, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, men with learning and talent but no money. Unlike the church clerks of the Middle Ages, they could not make a career in the Church as monasteries had been dissolved by Henry VIII. (The monastery had always been taken for granted as a safe place for a penniless scholar who did not wish to become a priest.) All that suggested itself was novel writing and writing plays for the stage.

Ancient literature taught the playwrights to seek new forms and to bring in new progressive ideas. The new drama represented characters and problems topical of the time. Most plays were written in verse. The second period of the Renaissance in England was characterized by the splendour of its poetry. Highly emotional lyrical poetry became widespread. Blank verse and the Italian sonnet were introduced. A new, English form of verse appeared – the nine-line stanza. The country was often called ‘a nest of singing-birds’.

The three great poetic geniuses of Elizabethan times were Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare. All were typical Renaissance men, trained in the classics, fond of fine living, full of restless energy and ideas. Today the fourth name can be added, John Donne.

• Edmund Spenser

The most prominent poet of the pre-Shakespearean time was Edmund Spenser. He was born in London in 1552 to the family of a free journeyman for a merchant’s company. When Edmund came of age, he went to Cambridge University as a sizar, a student who paid less for his education than others and had to wait on the wealthier students at mealtimes. While at college, he acted in the tragedies of the ancient masters and this inspired him to learn and to write poetry.

Spenser began his literary work at the age of 17. Once, a fellow-student introduced him to the famous Sir Philip Sydney, who encouraged him to write. Sydney himself was the author of an allegorical romance in prose called “Arcadia” which had become very popular as light reading at court. At the age of 23, Spenser took Master’s degree and shortly after graduating from Cambridge fell in love with ‘a fair widow’s daughter’. Although his love was not returned, it inspired him to write his first poem The Shepherd’s Calendar. The publication of the poem made Spenser the first poet of the day. His poetry was so musical and colourful that he was called the poet-painter. Spenser was brought to the notice of the Queen where he was given royal favour and appointed secretary to the new Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

It was in Ireland that Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, an epic poem describing a 12-day feast honouring the Queen of Fairyland. It was a public poem addressed to Elizabeth I. The poem is a combination of the medieval allegory and the Italian romantic epic, of Christian belief and mythology of King Arthur. Spenser imitated antique verse which was supposed to remind the reader of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, whom Spenser greatly admired.

When Spenser presented ‘his simple song’, as he called it, to the Queen, the success of the poem was tremendous. The Queen rewarded him with a pension of 50 pounds, but his position remained unchanged. Poetry was regarded as a noble pastime, but not a profession. Edmund Spenser had to go back to Ireland. Spenser died in 1599. He will always be remembered and appreciated for the beauty of his verse.

• Christopher Marlowe

One of the first dramatists of the time was Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593). He lived a short life and died at the age of 29. Marlowe was born to the family of a shoemaker and was able to go to Canterbury Grammar School when he was 14. Upon graduating a few years later, he won a scholarship which enabled him to go to Cambridge University. There he got acquainted with Sir Philip Sydney, the leader of the University Wits. Like most of the University Wits, Marlowe had a wild reputation – he was believed to be an atheist, to keep mistresses and to be acquainted with thieves. Yet, this reputation may have been a clever and deliberate disguise: it is possible that he was a secret agent for the Queen’s Government. Marlowe died a young man. He was stabbed to death in a ‘tavern brawl’ under strange circumstances, and his death still remains a mystery. Christopher Marlowe was a great poet and dramatist who might have become as great as Shakespeare had he not been killed so untimely.

Marlowe started his career as an actor at The Curtain, but after he had broken a leg during a performance, he had to give up acting and took to writing plays. He was the first in England to approach history from a political point of view. Marlowe’s reputation as a dramatist rests on four plays: Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Edward II.

Marlowe sums up the New Age: the old restrictions of the Church no longer exist, limitations on knowlegde have been destroyed, the world is opening up. Marlowe’s plays convey the spirit of human freedom, enterprise and limitless human power. He was fascinated by power: Tamburlaine is the embodiment of tyrannical power; the Jew of Malta stands for the power of money; Edward II suffers from loss of power and Faustus represents the power which supreme knowledge can give.

The University Wits, including Marlowe, paved the way to Shakespeare, the greatest of all humanists who marks the highest point of English Renaissance drama.

• John Donne

The Elizabethan Age produced a poet whose works were fully appreciated only in the 20^th century, who seems to be the product of the Atomic Age. John Donne (1573-1631) started as ‘Jack Donne’, a soldier, lover, drinker, writer of passionate amorous verses. He ended as Doctor John Donne, bishop, Dean of St. Paul’s, great preacher and one of the most respected men in the country. And yet these two extremes coexisted in him all his life. As a passionate lover, he was always analytic and thoughtful, tryoing to explain his passion almost scientifically. As a priest, he addressed God with the fierceness of a lover. Donne invented many new verse forms of his own.

In his poetry, which reflects his character, extremes meet. When his passion is most physical, he expresses it most intellectually. He is always startling and always curiously modern. It is from his poem For Whom the Bell Tolls that E. Hemingway borrowed the title for his novel.

DO YOU KNOW THAT

King Henry VIII introduced family names in Wales. The Welsh used to have their own family names with those of their father and grandfather. From 1535 the Welsh were forced to use the British name model in law courts and on official papers. King Edward VI (born 1537 – died 1553), the only surviving son on Henry VIII was the protagonist of the Prince in the novel “The Prince and the Pauper” by M. Twain. He reigned only 6 years, 160 days. Foreign visitors noted that women had greater freedom in England than anywhere else in Europe. Although they had to obey their husbands, theu were not kept hidden in their homes. When a guest – even a stranger – appeared in the house, he was received with a kiss by all, when he left, again he was sent with a kiss.

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LECTURE 5