What Was the Renaissance Like

1 . What was the Renaissance like? Account for its main features. The term â€Å"Renaissance† is from the same French word, meaning â€Å"rebirth. † It comes from the Italian Reenactments, â€Å"Re† meaning â€Å"again† and â€Å"nascence† meaning â€Å"be born. † The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages (Tuscany) and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Its influence affected literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual enquiry.As a cultural movement, the Renaissance period encompassed a rebellion of lassie-based learning, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. Traditionally, this intellectual transformation has resulted in the Renaissance being viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. Although the Renaissance saw revoluti ons in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo dad Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term â€Å"Renaissance man†.The leading intellectual trait of the era was the recovery, to a certain degree, of the secular and humane philosophy of Greece and Rome. Another humanist trend which cannot be ignored was the rebirth of individualism, which, developed by Greece and Rome to a remarkable degree, had been suppressed by the rise of a caste system in the later Roman Empire, by the Church and by feudalism in the Middle Ages. Medieval Christianity restricted individual expression, fostered self-abnegation and self-annihilation, and demented implicit faith and unquestioning obedience.Furthermore, the Church officially ignored man and nature. Http://www. Timpani. Com/renaissance. HTML Literature (characteristics): Emphasis on classical studies in t he expanding universities. -Increasing literacy among the laity. -Learning increased rapidly. -New schools were founded throughout Britain, in rural villages as well as cities. -Growth of a critical, skeptical type of scholarship, leading to scientific inquiry. -Increasing trade leads to individual wealth, general prosperity, nationalism, and materialism. -Gradual movement from unquestioned religious beliefs toward a more human- centered philosophy. Emphasis on human potential, not God's power, believing one's role in life should be action, not religious contemplation. Language: English had triumph over French as the spoken language. It became the language of scholarship, replacing Latin, and the language of theology. It had no bounds to its development. As regards vocabulary, much growth came from the learned words borrowed from Latin and Greek, but explorers and overseas tradesmen brought an influx of words from many foreign languages. New words were invented daily. Spelling was e rratic.In pronunciation, many words were stressed on different syllables from the ones currently emphasized. Changes in grammatical elements: -Pronouns: ye was replaced by you. -Verbs: the endings the changed to s. . Explain how the Philosophy of Humanism differs from the ideals held during the Middle English Period. Humanism is a system of thought that considers that solving human problems with the help of reason is more important than religious beliefs. It emphasizes the fact that the basic nature of humans is good. It is secular-minded – religion is no longer the orientation.Humanism was not a philosophy per SE, but rather a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval scholastic method, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, humanists would study ancient texts in the original, typically Ritter in Latin or ancient Greek, and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. A) Mention the key representatives among Humanists wri ters -Sir Thomas More: he was a humanist and lawyer, the first layman to become Chancellor. Best known for his work Utopia (no place or good place), which tells of an ideal state with the truly representative government.It was written in Latin, addressing to all scholars in Europe (names were in Greek). He describes his ideas of a perfect society. His work gave rise to the Utopian literature (new genre), presented as an ideal of perfection. Tyndale: was the first translator of the Renaissance, a defender of the faith who creates new words that didn't exist in English. His work as a translator was opposed in England and he was forced to live in Germany, where he produced the first English version of the Bible between 1525 and 1531 – King James: made the first authorized version of the Bible.He used an archaic language so as to sound formal, show respect, and create a more distant atmosphere. It was a collected work of all the previous translations. – Sir Thomas Eliot: w ith â€Å"The book named the Governor† -Protestant/Anglican: Tyndale, Coverall Protestant/Calvinist: Geneva Bible -Catholic: Today Bible b) Focus on Thomas More and explain why his Utopia is a Renaissance literary work Sir Thomas Mere's most famous work is essentially a dialogue between More, and an imaginary character Raphael Hathaway.In the conversation between the two men, More learns that Hathaway is a traveler who has been all over the world with America Vesuvius and had been left to explore the island of Utopia (nowhere). Hathaway explains how life in England has many evils in society in all aspects of life from political to social aspects. He then explains how the people of Utopia handled Hess everyday problems to make it the perfect nation. Sir Thomas Mere's Utopia is a satire – the name Raphael Hathaway meaner â€Å"dispenser of nonsense†-.The book also makes fun at many aspects of society in England during the time period such as the severity of crimin al law and the growing luxury of the wealthy class at the expense of the poor class's life of increased hardship. More can successfully accomplish the feat of criticizing the government because the character that is making the critical analysis of England is made up. By using this technique in Utopia, More can publicize his own thoughts on the nation thou being called out for treason to the crown. 3. Focus on the Sonnet Sonnet: short song, a lyrical poem in 14 lines. ) How does the Patriarchal sonnet compare to the Elizabethan sonnet? Patriarch wrote sonnets that consider love in an early renaissance sense; that is, they idealism the beloved lady, and they focus on the divine qualities she possesses, while lamenting the pain the speaker feels in not being with her. Each sonnet of fourteen lines considers one proposition in the opening octave of eight lines, and then considers the reverse or opposing view in the final sestets, or six lines. The switch from one view to its opposite is called the Volta.Shakespeare wrote sonnets in a much later period, and pokes fun at the idea that his beloved lady could possibly represent divine beauty. In addition, he took the English form of the sonnet, developed by the Earl of Surrey and Thomas Wyatt, which included a final rhyming pair of lines, called a rhyming couplet. Shakespeare then pursued the same proposition throughout the entire sonnet until the very end, often pushing the Volta to the final couplet. -Structure of the Sonnet Patriarchal sonnet: -Each line has 5 feet consisting of either one unstressed syllable followed by en stressed syllable (iambic pentameter).Each line has 10 syllables in all. -The poem is divided into two parts: the octave (8 lines – divided in two groups of 4 lines) and the sestets (6 lines – divided in two groups of 3 lines). -Between the octave and the sestets two main ideas are compared Octave: presentation, problem, argument, question. Sestets: solution, conclusion, answer. Or balance -The rhyme scheme at the end of each line of the octave is: baobab; the sestets often varies, CDC or ceded. Elizabethan, Shakespearean or English sonnet: -Each line is in iambic pentameter.The poem is divided into four parts: 3 quatrains (4 lines each) and a final couplet (2 lines). -The rhyme scheme is usually: ABA CDC fee / egg – Shakespeare. ABA Bcc CDC / e – Spencer. Http://suites 01 . Com/article/differences-between-the-patriarchal-and-the- Shakespearean-sonnet-a374838 b) Why can sonnets be equated to miniatures? C) Which is the function performed by the rhyming couplet in 16th century sonnets? The 6th-century sonnets were written to display the great cleverness, sophistication, and skill of the poet.Generally speaking, sonnets were more self- centered than their love rhetoric might initially suggest. Although they often purport to express private emotions from the poet to a beloved, they were usually meant not for private communication, but for â€Å"pu blic† consumption amongst a circle of Courtly readers. In other words, they were written to impress others rather than to convey genuine emotion. The great majority of 16th-century sonnets were written to explore unrequited romantic love. It was assumed that the speaker would be a besotted man and the beloved a resistant, disdainful, or otherwise unavailable woman.The speaker spends much of his time trying to persuade the beloved to sleep with him. Patriarch developed a number of conventions for describing love's varied pleasures and torments and the beauty of the beloved. Sonnets abound in wordplay: puns, double-entendre, multiple meanings, and clever figures of speech. The most common figures of speech used in 16th-century sonnets include the conceit, the blazon, and personification. Http://www. Lima. Ohio-state. Du/debarks/sonnet. HTML d) Which are the current themes in sonnets? Compare Patriarchal themes to Shakespearean themes. Courtly love: love as pain (unrequited); lov e as a labyrinth; love as passion stronger than will; loves as chains – you cannot escape. Art. -Time: poetry could stop the passage of time – preserve a particular moment. -Death. -Historical figures -Love at first sight, obsessive yearning and loveliness, frustration, love as parallel to feudal service; Patriarchal themes: The lady as ideally beautiful, ideally virtuous, miraculous, beloved in heaven, and destined to early death; Love as virtue, love as idolatry, love as sensuality; The god of love with his arrows, fires, whips, chains; War within the self- hope, fear, Joy, sorrow.Conceits, wit, urbane cleverness; disputations and scholastic precision; Allegory, personification; Wooing, exhortation, outcry; Praise, blame; self-examination, Self-accusation, self-defense; Repentance and the farewell to love. Shakespeare themes: One interpretation is that Shakespearean sonnets are in part a pastiche or parody of the three-centuries-old tradition of Patriarchal love sonn ets; Shakespeare consciously inverts conventional gender roles as delineated in Patriarchal sonnets to create a more complex and potentially troubling depiction of human love.He also violated many sonnet rules, which had been strictly obeyed by his fellow poets: he plays with gender roles, he speaks on human evils that do not eve to do with love, he comments on political events, he makes fun of love, he speaks openly about sex, he parodies beauty, and even introduces witty pornography e) Account for the main contributions made by renaissance consenters: Wyatt, Surrey, Lily, Sidney and Spencer. To do so, focus in the themes these consenters privilege and the main devices they employ. Provide 2 examples of their poetry. ** Wyatt: Betrayal is a prevalent theme in Watt's work.Typically, the narrator is the wronged person and the poem serves to expose betrayals involving affairs of the heart along with political and social treachery. In Watt's work, the fickle nature of women can rear it s head at any time and a courtier could be given the cold shoulder on the whim of the king – especially true in Henry Vic's time. For example, in ‘They Flee From Me', the narrator details being forsaken both by a woman he loved and by acquaintances who once sought his guidance. Watt's narrators experience lash out from the pain but also dejectedly accept their position.In ‘My Heart I Gave Thee', the narrator realizes that to pursue the one who wronged him is pointless. Still, the betrayed are not without their cutting words and extreme motions. ‘Lug! My Fair Falcon', believed to have been written during Watt's imprisonment, contains vivid imagery (like lice away from dead bodies they crawl') to illustrate the cruelty of betrayal. Even God abandons him. He follows Patriarchal theme of courtly love ** Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey The tight rhyme scheme is not Surrey's only sonic device: there's plenty of alliteration, too. Brittle beauty†, â€Å"tickle treasure†, â€Å"slipper in sliding†, â€Å"Jewel of Jeopardy† are among the most noticeable examples, but almost every line makes use of the device to some degree. Influenced by Wyatt, he popularizes English form of sonnet while adding the theme of nature. He did much to establish the tradition of courtly concerned with arts and letters. He translated the Amended, making first use of blank verse (unrushed iambic pentameter). ** John Lily He is best known for Pushes (puppyish – style) which has trivial and twisted plots but was read for its alliterative style and extravagant language.He is involved in the writing of Drama. He takes his imagery from classical learning. There are classical allusions, symmetry, parallelism, alliteration. People loved it so much that he wrote a second part of Pushes. * Sir Philip Sidney He was the first English literary critic. He argues that poetry has the function of both teaching and delighting. The great end of learning is the living of a virtuous life, and the inspired poet can lead readers to the highest truths. Prose: -Arcadia: as Lily, he uses the prose for ornamental use and has a twisted plot. Device used: pathetic fallacy, beyond personification.He gives inanimate objects willing and feelings of their own. He uses imagery from nature – sounds more fresh. Poetry: -Catastrophes and Stella: first sequence of related sonnets in English. Catastrophes (star lover) – Stella (star) *Edmund Spencer: He was the first important modern English poet. His poetry continues in the allegorical verse tradition of the Middle Ages. His allegories, however, were much more complex than previous ones on three levels: moral, historical, and personal. Allegories were suggested by the character's names: Vanity, Queen of Pride, Gluttony.Readers should be alert to the multilevel meaning of each character. Spencer divides a nine line stanza, rhyming Babcock, now known as the Spenserian stanza. The first eigh t lines of the stanza are in iambic pentameter, the last is an Alexandrine (iambic hexameter). Faerie Queen: culmination of allegorical tradition. It brings together history, folklore, patriotism, political thought, humanism, Protestant idealism, epic and romance, etc. Amaretto: a sonnet sequence f) Analyses The Hind by Wyatt and the sonnet that begins â€Å"Since brass, nor stone†¦ By Shakespeare. The Hind by Wyatt Wyatt uses the sonnet form, which he introduced to England from the work of Patriarch. The Patriarchal sonnet typically has 14 lines. The first 8 lines, or octet, introduce a problem or issue for contemplation and the remaining six lines, or sestets, offers a resolution or an opinion. Wyatt uses iambic manometer. This meaner that there are five pairs of syllables, each with the stress on the second syllable. It is the most common rhythm used in traditional poetry and was used by Shakespeare in his sonnets, poems and plays.Iambic pentameter, though a regular rhythm, was thought to be closest to ordinary speech patterns, so it is an attempt to imitate but also elevate the sounds of everyday conversation. By opening the poem with a question, the narrator challenges the reader. There is an invitation in his words, and the use of an exclamation mark at the end of the first line implies excitement at the idea. As hunting was a popular pastime in the court of Henry VIII, this suggests a poem along the lines of Henry Vic's own most famous lyric, ‘Pastime With Good Company.However, problem within the octet is revealed in line 2 as the poet tells us that he is no longer part of the hunt. An exclamation mark is used in line 2, again to emphasize emotion, but this time frustration and regret. This is a passionate yet contradictory introduction. Line 3 makes use of assonance to reveal the poet's earlier hunting efforts as Vain travail' which has tired him out to the point of physical pain. We can see that the memo is an extended metaphor for the end of a relationship. The metaphor is an excellent choice in terms of the Tudor court and the possible situation to which it is attributed.The poet is now at the tail end of the pursuit, although, he says in line 5 that his mind has not deviated from the hunt. Wyatt makes use of enjambment (breaking a phrase over more than one line of verse) and caesura (concluding a phrase within the first half of a line of verse) across lines six and seven to highlight the discord represented by the end of the relationship as he subverts and challenges his own chosen structure. In line 8, the poet uses the concluding line of the octet to stress the futility of his former quest. He uses the metaphor of catching the wind in a net to emphasize the pointlessness of his chase.The final sestets begins with line 9 reiterating the appeal to those who wish to join the hunt, but he continues in to line 10 to explain that the pursuit will be in vain for them too. Again there is an exclamation mark to indicate an intensity of feeling. Line 11 continues the extended metaphor as an explanation of why his hunt of this ‘hind', and that of others who pursue her, is so pointless. She has a bejewel collar, indicating she already has an owner. Her collar is adorned with the Latin phrase ‘Noel Me teenager' meaning touch me not'. This expression refers to a phrase spoken by Jesus to Mary Magdalene in the Bible.The design also includes the name of her owner – for Career's I am. ‘ If we identify the poem as referring to Anne Volley, then her new owner would be King Henry VIII; the pair were married around the time when this poem was composed and Wyatt could no longer compete for her affections. By describing Henry using the allusion of Caesar, Wyatt bestows on his monarch the qualities of a reputation of greatness and incisive rule. Caesar was, like Henry, a leader early in late teens, a handsome and strong young man and was significant in the political and aesthetic changes and developments of his realm.Both were literate, charismatic and influential. However, other less favorable parallels can be drawn. Both Caesar and Henry VIII incurred huge debt during their respective offices. There were many subjects who were held captive, sometimes executed, on charges of treason. Caesar faced questions regarding his sexuality and his unsuitable choices of women. Wyatt may also be alluding to these less appealing aspects of Caesar in his comparison if we see the suasion in the poem to be borne of frustration and anger. Http://www. Graveside. Mom/collected-poems-of-sir-Thomas-Wyatt/study- guide/sections/ Sonnet 64 discusses the â€Å"lofty towers I see down-razed,† the â€Å"brass† which is â€Å"eternal slave to mortal rage,† or a victim to war, and the destruction of â€Å"the kingdom of the shore† by the â€Å"hungry ocean. † Here again, â€Å"brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea† can escape the ravages of ti me. Line 3 asks, â€Å"How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,† characterizing beauty as the plaintiff in a legal dispute. Time is thus characterized as an unfair warrant, against which delicate beauty stands no chance in court.The legal terminology is continued in the following line with the use of the word â€Å"action. † The idea of time's â€Å"rage† links Sonnet 65 to the previous sonnet. In Sonnet 64, â€Å"brass† is described as an â€Å"eternal slave to mortal rage. † The term â€Å"rage† in association with time is also seen in Sonnet 13, which refers to the â€Å"barren rage of death's eternal cold. † Lines 6-8 present a metaphor of the seizure of a city, which would be the final destruction of war. In line 6, â€Å"the wrathful siege of battering days,† refers to ruin and