my 1st preparation

1. The Age of Shakespeare
Prose
 Translators who were familiarished the
reading public with Spanish & Italian romance
& with Italian Novelle or Short stories.
 William Painter’s – Palace of Pleasure.
 John Lyly – Most important prose romance
writer in this period
 Euphues the anatomy of wit & Euphues and
his England.

2.  Euphues & his England
 1st part
 Young wealthy, handsome, clever Athenian
named – Euphues
 Traveled & reached – Naples
 Intimate friend – Philautus
 Discussed – philosophical & ethical
 While return – Letter – “A cooling carde for
Philautus & all fond lovers”
 Dissuade him from women’s society & the tender
passion.

3.  It is a sort of love story – without action – little
narrative – an excuse for endless discourse &
moralisings.
 2nd Part
 Euphues Visits England – Description of the
country, The court & The Manners of the isle.
 This was extraordinary – 10 editions
 Everybody read it who read anything
 The ladies of the court used it as a moral
handbook.
 A guide to polite behaviour
 A model of elegance in speech & writing – fame
to its style

4.  Enthusiasm for the classics
 The influence of Italian & Spanish Literature & a
widespread desire to lift & refine the vernacular
tongue led to all kinds of strange experiments in
English prose.
 Lyly’s Style – Euphuism
 Use of balanced antithesis – “ Suspect me –
Convince me; idleness – Lightness; Giving ear –
Answering; Talk – Toys” – Contrasted pairs.
 Alliteration
 Shrined, Heart, Trusty,Friend
 Shun, hereafter, Trothless, Foe
 Lyly – Free in similies, Word- Play & Punning

5.  Characteristics is a fondness for “non – natural
,natural history’, or the natural history, not of
science but of Myth & fable”.
 Attagen a astonishment bird –
 “Who never singeth any time after she is taken’;
of a precious gem, Draconities, which is found in
the dragon; of a herb, Dictannum, in which the
wounded deer always finds an unfailing remedy;
and so on.
 Shakespeare – Fantastic pseudo-science – Toad
as “ugly & Venomous” – “Precious jewel in his
head”.

6.  Sir Philip Sidney – Arcadia – 1581- Not Pub till
1613
 It carries – Tradition of older romances of
chivalry
 Unlike Euphues – no story; full of incident
 Adventures of the two friends – Pyrocles &
Musidorus try to win the 2 Arcadian princess
Philoclea & Pamela but large number of other
characters are introduced
 Each of whom become the centre of a separate
story & Episodes arise within episodes – Great
complication & Confusion of the plot.

7.  Owes much of its form to the pastoral Diana of
the portuguese Montemayor & the Arcadia of
the Italian Sannazaro.
 Like Lyly is prose is of an extremely ornate &
poetical kind & Beautiful in places.
 While It long run becomes wearisome – Total
want of simplicity & restrain
 Lodge & Greene – resemble Sidney in persons &
machinery of conventional pastoralism but style
fashioned upon Lyly.

8. Lodge’s Greene’s
 Rosalynde  Pandosto
 Euphues’ Golden Legacy  The triumph of time
 Furnished the raw materials  Furnished the raw materials
of of
 As you Like It  The Winter’s Tale
• Thomas Nash – Tendency towards romance – Realism of coarse
description
• Unfortunate traveller or The life of Jack Wilton – Record of
Adventure of the continent – Eg. Of Picaresque novel or novel of
rascality - it was popular in Spain – cultivated with great success
by Defoe.

9. Francis Bacon
 22nd January 1561  Knighted – 1603
 Trinity
College,Cambridge  Attorney General – 1613
 Father died on 1579  Privy Councilor – 1616
 Law profession – bar  Lord Keeper – 1617
1582  Lord Chancellor
 Queen Counsel – 1589  Baron Verulam – 1618
 The accession of James I  Viscount St. Albans –
 Died – 1626 1621
 Born for the service of
Mankind – Believed.  Due to official
 Knowledge – The glory malpractice – Imprisoned
of the creator & the relief & Banish from
of man’s estate Parliament & Court

10.  Wrote voluminious  Montaigne used the
 Advancement of word Essay in its
Learning original Etymological
 Novum Organum sense, now almost lost
& as equivalent to
 [Baconian method of assay - a trial or
studying nature] attempt.
 Essays or Counsels  Intended merely as
Civil & moral – 1597 dispersed meditations
 Enlarged – 1612, 1625 or informal thoughts
 Suggested by French on the subject.
thinker Montaigne  Concern themselves
 Matter & manner are for the most part with
Bacon’s own the conduct of life in
private & Public affairs

11.  Insight & sagacity are  His style
their salient qualities  General ornateness
 Did rather drive at a  Fondness for imagery
masculine & clear  Love of analogy
expression than at any
 Metaphor
fineness or affection of
phrases - Bacon  Much in the taste of the
according to his first time
biographer  Highly latinised
 Bacon’s power packing  Characteristic is
is thought into smallest marvelous terseness &
space, adapting a epigrammatic force
phrase in marlowe’s jew
of Malta

12. Other Prose Writer’s
 Raleigh – History of the  Richard Hooker –
world -1614 Ecclesiastical Polity –
 Foxe – Acts and 1594 – 97
Monuments or Book of  The Authorished version
Martyrs -1563 of The Bible – 1611
 Raphael Holinshed –  The Form of literature of
Chronicle of England, criticism developed
Scotland, and Ireland.  Sidney’s Apologie for
 Richard Hakluyt – poetrie – 1581
Principal Navigations,  William Webbe –
Voyages, Traffiques & Discourse of English
Discoveries of the Poetrie - 1586
England Nation  George Puttenham’s – Art
of English Poesie - 1589

13. Next Chapter
Age of Milton
Thank U
By
Cholan