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