The Renaissance period saw a revival of learning in Europe following the Middle Ages. Greek scholars fled Constantinople after its fall and spread Greek manuscripts, enlightening Western minds. This led to new discoveries and a focus on humanity. In England, the Renaissance spirit was strongest during the Elizabethan period. Writers like Shakespeare produced great works of drama and poetry focusing on human qualities and individuality. This was inspired by humanism and the rediscovery of classical works. The Renaissance marked a transition between the medieval worldview and modern thought.

1. The Renaissance period
(1500-1600)
Prof. Sanaullah
Malik

4. Elizabethan period or The Age of
Shakespeare
 Revival of Learning
 Enlightenment of human mind after the darkness of the
Middle Ages.
 With the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. by the
invasion of the Turks, the Greek scholars who were
residing there, spread all over Europe, and brought with
them invaluable Greek manuscripts.

5. Essence of The Movement:
 “Man discovered himself and the universe”
 “Man, so long blinded had suddenly opened his eyes and
seen”.
 New discoveries took place
 Vascoda Gama circumnavigated the
earth; Columbus discovered America; Copernicus
discovered the Solar System and prepared the way for
Galileo.
 Truth only was authority

6. This Movement Started in Italy by Dante,
Petrarch and Boccaccio in the fourteenth
century

8. Chief Characteristic: Humanism
 Man’s concern with himself as an object of contemplation
 Rediscovery of classical antiquity
 The first Englishman who wrote under the influence of
Greek studies was Sir Thomas More. His Utopia, written in
Latin, was suggested by Plato’s Republic.
 During the Elizabethan period, under the influence of
Humanism, the emphasis was laid on the qualities which
distinguish one human being from another, and give an
individuality and uniqueness.

9.  Men came to be regarded as responsible for their own
actions, as Casius says to Brutus in Julius Caesar:
‘’The Fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.’’
 Spenser wrote his Faerie Queene, with a view “to fashion
a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle
disposition”.

10. ESSAY & Drama
 This tendency led to the rise of a new literary form—the
Essay, which was used successfully by Bacon.
 In drama Marlowe probed down into the deep recesses of
the human passion. His heroes, Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus
and Barabas, the Jew of Malta, are possessed of
uncontrolled ambitions.
 Shakespeare, a more consummate artist, carried
Humanism to perfection. His genius, fed by the spirit of
the Renaissance, enabled him to see life whole, and to
present it in all its aspects.

11. ‘’University Wits’’
 A professional set of literary men. Of this little
constellations, Marlowe was the central sun, and round
him revolved as minor stars, Lyly, Greene, Peele, Lodge
and Nash.
 Lyly (1554-1606)
• The author of Euphues, Sapho and Phao (1584)
• Mythological plays
 George Peele (1558-97?)
• He was an actor as well as writer of plays. He wrote
some half dozen plays, which are richer in beauty than
any of his group except Marlowe.
• David and Bathsheba (1599)

12.  Thomas Kyd (1558-95)
• Achieved great popularity with his first work, The
Spanish Tragedy.
• He introduced the ‘blood and thunder’ element in drama
 Robert Greene (1560-1592)
• He lived a most dissolute life, and died in distress and
debt. His plays comprise Orlando Furioso, Friar Bacon and
Friar Bungay, Alphonsus King of Aragon and George a
Greene.
• Comic elements

13. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
 Christopher Marlowe was an English writer from the
Elizabethan era, whose work influenced William
Shakespeare's writing as well as the writing of generations
to follow.
 In 1587 his first play Tamburlaine was produced and it
took the public by storm on account of its impetuous
force, its splendid command of blank verse, and its
sensitiveness to beauty.
 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
 Jew of Malta

14. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

18. Qualities of A great mind:
 Endowed with a marvellous imaginative and
creative mind, he could put new life into old
familiar stories and make them glow with deepest
thoughts and tenderest feelings.
 His dramatic output must, therefore, have been
the result of his natural genius as well as of hard
work and industry.

20.  Besides non—dramatic poetry consisting of two narrative
poems, Venice and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and 154
sonnets, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays. His work as a dramatist
extended over some 24 years, beginning about 1588 and
ending about 1612. This work is generally divided into four
periods.
 (i) 1577-93
 Early experimental work including Henry VI, his first
comedies—Love’s Labour Lost, The Two Gentlemen of
Verona, The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night’s
Dream; his first chronicle play—Richard III; a youthful
tragedy—Romeo and Juliet.

21. (ii) 1594-1600
 Shakespeare’s great comedies and chronicle plays – Richard II,
King John, The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV, Part I and II, Henry V,
The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About
Nothing, As You Like It and Twelfth Night.

22. (iii) 1601-1608
 Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies and sombre or bitter
comedies.
 This is his peak period characterised by the highest
development of his thought and expression.
 He is more concerned with the darker side of human
experience and its destructive passions.
 The plays of this period are—Julius Caesar, Hamlet, All’s
Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure; Troilus and
Cressida, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and
Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Timon of Athens.

23. (iv) 1608-1612
 Later comedies or dramatic romances. Here the clouds seem
to have been lifted and Shakespeare is in a changed mood. Though the
tragic passions still play their part as in the third period, the evil is
now controlled and conquered by good.
 The plays written during this period are—Cymbeline, The
Tempest and The Winter’s Tale.
 Though Shakespeare belonged to the Elizabethan Age, on
account of his universality he belongs to all times.
 Every time we read him, we become more conscious of his
greatness, like the charm of Cleopatra,
‘’ Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety.’’

25. Ben Jonson (1573-1637)
 Ben Jonson a contemporary of Shakespeare, and a
prominent dramatist of his times, was just the opposite of
Shakespeare. Jonson was a classicist, a moralist, and a
reformer of drama.
 In his comedies he tried to present the true picture of
the contemporary society.
 Two other important comedies of his, which illustrate his
theory of ‘humour’ are—Every Man in His Humour and
Every Man Out of Humour

26. (b) Elizabethan Poetry
 Poetry in the Renaissance period took a new trend. It was
the poetry of the new age of discovery, enthusiasm and
excitement.
 The poetry of the Elizabethan age opens with
publications of a volume known as Tottel’s
Miscellany (1577). This book which contained the verse
of Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey, marks the
first English poetry of the Renaissance.

27. Sir Philip Sidney(1554-1586)
 Queen Elizabeth called him one of the jewels of her
crown.
 As a literary figure, Sidney made his mark in prose as well
as in poetry. His prose works are Arcadia and
the Apologie for Poetrie(1595).
 His greatest work, of course, is in poetry—the sequence of
sonnets entitled Astrophel and Stella.
 The greatest of these early Elizabethan poets was Sir
Philip Sidney (1554-1586). He was a many-sided person and
a versatile genius—soldier, courtier and poet—and
distinguished himself in all these capacities.

28. Spenser (1552-1599)
 The greatest name in non-dramatic Elizabethan poetry is
that of Spenser, who may be called the poet of chivalry.
 The Faerie Queene
 Written in the form of an allegory, though on the surface
it appears to be dealing with the petty intrigues, corrupt
dealings and clever manipulations of politicians in the
court of Elizabeth.
 Shepherd’s Calendar (1579)
 He occupies an honoured place in the front rank of
English poets as the poet of beauty, music and harmony,
through which he brought about a reconciliation between
the medieval and the modern world.
 Charles Lamb said that “Spenser is the poets’ poet.”

29. (c) Elizabethan Prose
 The Elizabethan period was also the period of the origin
of modern English prose.
 Books on history, travel, adventures, and translations of
Italian stories appeared in a large number.
 Sidney and Lyly made solid contributions to the English
prose style when it was in its infancy.
 The Elizabethan people were intoxicated with the use of
the English language which was being enriched by
borrowings from ancient authors.
 The Elizabethans loved decorative modes of expression
and flowery style.

30. John Lyly (1554-1606)
 The first author who wrote prose in the manner that the
Elizabethans wanted, was Lyly,
whose Euphues, popularized a highly artificial and
decorative style. It was read and copied by everybody.
 ‘Euphuism’ became a common description of an artificial
and flamboyant style.
 The purpose of writing Euphues was to instruct the
courtiers and gentlemen how to live.