Е. В. Воевода английский язык великобритания: история и культура Great Britain: Culture across History Учебное пособие

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Содержание William Caxton The Gutenberg Bible The development of literacy and the English language Music, theatre and art Assignments (1) 2. Get ready to speak on the following topics The English Renaissance Church and state Break with Rome Henry VIII’s family life Renaissance in Europe Thomas More E Elizabethan Age lizabeth I’s reign Sir Francis Drake Defeat of the Invincible Armada The development of culture and science Sir Francis Bacon Elizabethan literature George Peele Edmund Spenser ... Полное содержание

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William Caxton

The 15^th century saw an event of outstanding cultural significance in Europe. In 1438 Johannes Gutenberg printed in Germany the first European book known as The Gutenberg Bible. The idea of printing quickly spread all over Europe. The first English printer was William Caxton.

Caxton was a farmer’s son born in Kent in 1422. At the age of 16 he went to London where he became an apprentice to a company of London merchants who traded in silk and woollen cloth. When his master left for Flanders, William followed him and spent over three decades of his life in Bruges. The boy quickly learned several European languages: French, Italian and German. He read a lot for pleasure and translated books from French into English. When his master died, he left most of his money to Caxton, who had become his partner by the time.

During a visit to Cologne, William saw a printing press and learned the method of printing. In 1473 he bought a printing press of his own and in 1476 printed the first English book. It was Caxton’s own translation of the ancient story of Troy. A few years later Caxton moved to London and set his printing press at Westminster. Later, he bought another printing press which was set up at Oxford. During the next 15 years Caxton printed 65 books, both in the original and in translation. One of the first books to be printed was Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In 1484 William Caxton printed Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Athur, the fullest record of the adventures of the knights of the Round Table.

Caxton made a great contribution to standardizing the English language. The concept of the norm had not existed before, it only appeared and was accepted as printed books spread all over England. The development of the printing technique promoted the spread of literacy and the literary norm.

• The development of literacy and the English language
  

Late medieval literacy>
The spread of literacy and the increased use of the English language were twin developments of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They reflected the feelings of patriotism and nationhood. The causes of this quiet linguistic revolution were complex, but among them was patriotism generated by the long French war, the popularity of Lollardy, the lead given by the Crown and the nobility and the greater participation of the English speaking men in the affairs of Parliament. A further factor was the emergence in the 14^th century of London as the settled capital of the kingdom, with York as another important administrative centre and Bristol as the second commercial centre. The regional dialect that was spoken in each of the three centres inevitably had to become comprehensible to the others. The dialect of London prevailed although it was greatly influenced by the Midlands dialect.

• Music, theatre and art

The 15^th century witnessed a new wave of Robin Hood ballads. It was also the time of minstrels as English poetry was meant to be chanted and sung. The nobles were taught to play musical instruments, sing and dance. Even at a barber’s, an English lord or a knight might see a lute and take a few cords. Sometimes barbers invited musicians to attract more clients. Folk songs took the form of carols, or polyphonic songs. Polyphony greatly influenced the prominent English composer of the 15^th century John Dunstable. The popularity and importance of music was so great that in the 16^th century Oxford and Cambridge universities introduced the degrees of Doctor and Bachelor of Music.

Huge audiences were attracted by plays and performances of different kinds: mysteries and miracles, or plays about the miraculous things performed by saints. Another type of play was moralite where the characters were abstract ideas, such as Friendship, Death, Power, Kindness, Virtue, etc. These plays were performed in market squares and during town fairs. The performances were arranged and paid for by merchants and artisans. Already in the 15^th century actors were professional.

In the 14^th and 15^th centuries the English art of portrait painting made a leap forward. The portraits acquired individual characters and features. The most famous work of art of the period is the portrait of Richard II painted in the 1390s. It shows a young man in royal attire whose face is not yet spoiled by power and passion. The portrait of Margaret Beaufort belonging to the second half of the 15^th century, depicts a grieving young woman concentrated on her prayer.

The 14^th and 15^th centuries are known as the period of Pre-Renaissance in England.

DO YOU KNOW THAT
When Richard I was taken prisoner, over half the price of his ransom was paid in wool. Any book printed before 1501 is called an incunabula. The first English book was printed in Bruges, Flanders. Caxton was the first to introduce the use of the apostrophe as a norm.	?

ASSIGNMENTS (1)


1. Review the material of Section 1 and do the following test. Check yourself by the key at the end of the book.


Test 1

1. The Anglo-Saxon tribes were

1. the Angles; b. the Scots; c. the Britons; d. the Jutes.
   

2. The Romans lived in

2. villages; b. towns
   

3. The Tower of London was built by

1. the Normans; b. the Celts; c. the Romans.
   

4. The English “chester” (as in Manchester) comes from the ___ word “castra”.

2. Latin; b. Saxon; c. Norman.
   

5. The days of the week take their names from the names of ___ gods.

1. Germanic; b. Celtic; c. Roman.
   

6. Christianity was brought to England ___ 1066.

2. before; b. after.
   

7. The Venerable Bede wrote

1. the first Anglo-Saxon history; b. the first code of laws; c. the Bible in English.
   

8. “Beowulf” is a poem about the adventures of a ___ hero.

1. Scandinavian; b. Anglo-Saxon; c. Celtic.
   

9. William the Conqueror won the battle at

2. Waterloo; b. Hastings; c. Trafalgar.
   

10. The first registration of the population was held under

a. the Romans; b. the Danes; c. the Normans.

11. The first English printer was _____ .

a. Johannes Gutenberg; b. William Caxton; c. Geoffrey Chaucer

12. The process of evicting peasants and turning farmlands into pastures is known as the policy of _____ .

a. the open field; b. manufactures; c. enclosures

2. Get ready to speak on the following topics:

1. The first settlers on the British Isles. Stonehenge. The Celts on the British Isles; traces of Celtic culture in present-day Britain.
   
2. The Roman conquest of Britain. The impact of the conquest on the development of culture on the British Isles; traces of Roman culture in present-day Britain.
   
3. The Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain. The origin of the English language. The impact of Christianity on the Anglo-Saxon culture. Anglo-Saxon literature (Caedmon, the Venerable Bede, Beowulf).
   
4. The Scandinavian invasion of Britain, its impact on the political and cultural life of the country (Danelaw, King Canute). The role of King Alfred the Great in the history of Britain.
   
5. Distinctive features of the language in the Old English period. Celtic, Latin and Scandinavian borrowings in the English language. The history of English place-names.
   
6. The Norman conquest of Britain, its impact on the political and cultural life of the country. The Domesday Book. The first universities. Magna Carta and the beginning of Parliament. Thomas Becket. English literature of the 11^th-13^th centuries (Robin Hood, King Arthur). Changes in the language.
   
7. The economic development of England in the 14^th-15^th centuries. The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381; the abolition of slavery. The Hundred Years War. The Wars of the Roses. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. Changes in the language in the Middle English period. William Caxton.
   

III. Topics for presentations:

• The invasions of early Britain and their impact on the political, economic and cultural development of the country.
  
• The Norman Conquest and its impact on various spheres of life in England.
  
• England’s economic growth in the 14^th-15^th centuries.
  

SECTION 2

The English Renaissance



1. General characteristic of the period

The 16^th century, also known as the Tudor age, was a highly remarkable period in English history. The Tudors restored peace and order after a long period of feudal wars, formalized Protestantism, and presided over increased trade, exploration and naval strength that set England on the path to world power. Тhe Tudor epoch was a time of resolute changes in the English state system. The first Tudor king Henry VII established absolute monarchy; his son Henry VIII broke away from Rome bringing in Reformation; and his granddaughter Elizabeth I brought glory to the country defeating Spain and promoting the spread of Renaissance in England. During the reign of the Tudor dynasty England turned gradually into a modern national state – centralized, sovereign, based on uniform system of the general law with the Church subordinated to the state.

It was the time of great geographical discoveries and the beginning of colonization of America.

2. The Great Discoveries


The old trade routs between Europe and Asia were not only long but implied transshipment of goods: all goods were passed on from merchant to merchant along the rout, each taking a substantial profit. The sea voyages were purely coastal as the ships were primitive basin-shaped vessels. The high cost of transportation of goods made it unprofitable to carry bulky merchandise. The imported goods were mainly objects of luxury. And yet, trade with the East, which was in the hands of small groups of merchants or towns, like the Hanseatic towns, flourished. Each route was a jealously guarded monopoly and the so-called ‘owners’ guarded them even by armed force.

For Europe, the 15^th century was the time when nation states were growing up in place of the old Duchies. The new states had strong centralized governments which had no share in the old routs and were anxious to develop new routs of their own and destroy the monopoly of Venice, Genoa and the Hanseatic League.

The 15^th century witnessed great changes in the technique of ship-building and navigation. Spain and Portugal developed the caravel for coastal trade in the Atlantic. The compass, known since the 12^th century, was perfected. In 1492 Columbus reached the West Indies. Six years later, Vasco da Gama made a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. When he returned to Lisbon from India with a cargo which repaid sixtyfold the cost of his voyage, the effect was shattering. Overseas voyages followed in a quick succession. These events were the climax of a long series of changes transforming the relations between Europe and the East and the beginning of European contacts with the American continent.

The American continent proved to be rich in gold and silver beyond any dreams. As it was impossible to keep the precious metals within Spain and Portugal, they spread over Europe stimulating the commerce of Spain’s rivals: France, Holland and England. England>

H

3. Absolute monarchy
enry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty, felt that he had to restore the English Crown to its former position. The Wars of the Roses had undermined agriculture, trade and industry. Moreover, they had undermined confidence in monarchy as an institution: the king was seen as unable, or unwilling, to protect the rights of all his subjects. The royal government was manipulated by individuals who fell in and out of favour. The king had to restore his right not only to reign, but also to rule.

Henry VII firmly believed that wars damaged the development of trade. Remembering the lessons of the civil war he forbade any nobleman to keep armed men. At the same time, the king built a regular army that obeyed nobody but himself. Henry strengthened England’s prestige and wealth by six commercial treaties that restored England’s position in the European market. Realising that England’s future depended on international trade, Henry freely spent money on building ships for a merchant fleet.

Henry VII made peace with France. In order to avoid military conflicts with Spain and Scotland he married his elder sons Arthur, and after his death, Henry, to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, and his daughter Margaret to King James IV of Scotland. It was also during his reign that England started its famous policy of ‘divide and rule’, preventing any country of Europe from becoming overwhelmingly strong.

Although Henry refused to help Columbus who approached him in search of financial support, the king backed the voyages of James Cabot, a Venetian sailor in the English pay, who in 1497 discovered Newfoundland and sailed along part of the North American coast. That stirred England’s interest in North America.

Henry VII was known for the efficiency of his financial and administrative policies. He introduced new methods of government concentrating all power in his hands. The ministers were personally selected by the king for their ability, shrewdness and loyalty. The king was preoccupied with utmost economy. In a relatively short period of time he managed to establish a system of checks, the record of which never left his hands. He personally looked through all the record books and signed every page. When Henry VII died in 1509, he left about 2 million pounds, a vast sum equal to at least 15 years’ ordinary revenue at the time.

Henry VII is known as the founder of an absolute monarchy.

• H
  
  
  4. Reformation
  enry VIII’s reign
  

One of the major events of the 16 century was the Reformation – a grandiose revolution in consciousness of people, revision of substantive provisions of Christian dogmas and of divine service. The reformation split Europe, having opposed to each other blocks of the Protestant and Catholic countries, and England was steadily involved in the conflict with powerful Catholic powers.

King Henry VIII waged costly wars on the Continent and in Scotland. He centralized administrative authority, made use of Parliament’s powers and incorporated Wales into England. Henry also built a modern Royal Navy and got the nickname ‘Father of the English Navy’. Upon his death, he left a modern fleet of 53 warships. He patronized the arts and astronomy and was well-read in theology. At the same time, he was pleasure-seeking and wasteful with money. He spent so much on maintaining a magnificent court and wars, that his father’s money was soon gone. Gold and silver from America added to the economic inflation. In order to raise more money, Henry ordered to reduce the amount of silver used in coins. Although this step resulted in immediate profit, it led to a dramatic rise in prices. Within twenty-five years, the English coinage was reduced to a seventh of its value.

• Church and state
  

Although Henry VIII’s father had become powerful by taking over his nobles’ lands, the lands owned by monasteries and abbeys remained untouched. The Church was a huge and powerful landowner. Since it was controlled from Rome, it was an international organization with Spain and France struggling for control over Papacy. For one thing, the Catholic Church could work against the king’s authority, for another, taxes paid to the Church reduced the king’s income. At the same time, the Church was losing its respect and popularity with the population as the clergy often failed to perform church services but lived in wealth, comfort and sin.

But the European ideas of Reformation proclaimed by Martin Luther in Germany and John Calvin in Geneva were not very popular in England, although the English humanists demanded reform of the Church from within. In 1521 the king got the title ‘Defender of the Faith’ from the Pope for his best-selling book criticizing Luther’s teaching. But a break with Rome became a political necessity five years later.

• Break with Rome
  

In 1526, Henry VIII decided to obtain a divorce from his wife, Catherine of Aragon, or, strictly speaking, a papal declaration that his marriage was invalid since Catherine had previously been married to his brother. One of the real reasons for the divorce was the fact that Catherine could not provide a male heir to secure the future of the Tudor dynasty. Their only surviving child was Princess Mary. Another reason was that Henry was planning an alliance with France against Spain and Catherine was a Spanish princess. There would have been no problem for Henry with the Pope if Rome had not just been taken by Cathrine’s nephew, King Charles V of Spain. For political and family reasons the king of Spain objected to the divorce. Pope Clement did not want to anger either Charles V or Henry VIII. When he finally forbade the divorce, Henry broke away from Rome by the Act of Supremacy (1534) which declared that the king of England was supreme head of the Church of England. Through several Acts of Parliament, England became politically a Protestant country, even theough the popular religion was still Catholic. Henry VIII established the Protestant Reformation in England by creating the Church of England with the monarch as the supreme head.

When the Church was brought under the control of the State, the king took the English Reformation further. He ordered to have a careful survey of all Church property, the first properly organised tax survey since the time of the Domesday Book. Henry VIII closed down 823 monasteries and confiscated their property. As Church lands and property were sold to the rising classes of merchants and landowners, Henry’s policy made him popular with them. Monastery buildings were either neglected or destroyed and the stone was used as building material. The suppression of monasteries was the greatest act of official destruction in British history.

• Henry VIII’s family life
  

As for Henry VIII’s family life, he married Anne Boleyne who bore him a daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I. Anne was suspected of adultery and beheaded in 1536 and Henry married Jane Seymour who died in 1537 leaving him a son. Then came Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves which was latter annulled. Henry’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery in 1542. His last marriage was to Catherine Parr who survived him and died in 1548, a year after his death. Henry VIII died of leg ulcer which made his last years a misery.


H

5. Counter-Reformation
enry VIII’s son Edward, who came to the throne at the age of 9, reigned only 6 years and died of tuberculosis. There was an unsuccessful attempt to shift the royal succession of the Tudor to the Dudley family. Although Edward’s cousin Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen, she was never crowned as Henry VIII’s elder daughter took control of the kingdom and had Lady Jane Grey executed in the Tower of London. The crown went to Mary Tudor also known as Bloody Mary. The only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary was a Catholic. She reestablished Roman Catholicism as the nation’s only creed and burned 283 Protestant martyrs. After marrying King Philip of Spain she joined Spain in a war against France and lost the remaining English possession on the Continent, Calais (1558). Upon her death, the throne went to her half sister Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyne.


6. Renaissance

humanists

• Renaissance in Europe
  

Together with the ideas of the Reformation came the ideas of the Renaissance. Emerging from feudal despotism, the Renaissance in Europe developed all that was original in medieval ideas by the light of antique arts and literature. The literature and the fine arts of the Renaissance were notable for their glorification of man and the discovery of his virtues. The names of Dante, Petrarch, Bocaccio, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in Italy; Rabelais in France; Erasmus in the Netherlands; Copernicus in Poland; Thomas More, Francis Bacon and Shakespeare in England make the treasure throve of world cultural heritage.

The great geographical discoveries evoked a lively interest in nature, history and life in other countries. There was hardly any man of importance at the time who had not travelled extensively, who did not speak four or five languages, who did not shine in a number of fields. Albrecht Durer was a painter, an engraver, a sculptor and an architect. Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, a mathematician and an engineer. Machiavelli was a statesman, a historian, a poet and the first notable military author of his time.

The wave of progress reached the shores of England only in the 16^th century. Foreign scholars and artists appeared in England during the reign of Henry VIII. In painting and music, the first period of the Renaissance was that of imitation. Painting was represented by the German artist Holbein, and music by Italians and the French. With literature the situation was different. Much of the new learning was popularized by native English poets and dramatists. The freedom of thought of English humanists revealed itself in anti-feudal and even anti-bourgeois ideas, showing the life of their own people as it really was.

• Thomas More
  

The most prominent figure of the time was Thomas More (1478-1535), the first English humanist of the Renaissance. The son of a prominent judge, he was educated at Oxford and could write a most beautiful Latin and Greek. On his return to London in 1494, More continued to study law at Lincoln’s Inn and in 1501 became barrister. While he was at Lincoln’s Inn, More decided to dedicate himself to monastic service. It was only his sense of duty and responsibility that made him serve the country in the field of politics.

In 1499 More made friends with Erasmus of Rotterdam who spent a number of years in England teaching at Oxford and Cambridge and greatly influenced the ideas of English scholars and philosophers. Their acquaintance turned into a lasting friendship and correspondence. When Erasmus wrote his famous work Praise of Folly in 1509, he dedicated it to Thomas More.

During the reign of Henry VII, he became Member of Parliament (1504 or 1505) and later was made Speaker of the House of Commons (1523). As Speaker he helped the establish the parliamentary priviledge of free speach. One of his first acts as an MP was to urge a decrease in a proposed appropriation for Henry VII. Although the Tudor monarchy was absolute, and Parliament had little power to resist the king, there was one privilege which Parliament enjoyed: to grant money to the monarch. When Henry VII wanted Parliament to grant him 800,000 pounds, the Members of Parliament sat silent until Thomas More spoke up and urged that the request should be refused. After a long discussion, a sum less than half the amount originally requested, was granted and that sum was to be spread over a period of 4 years. In revenge, the king imprisoned More’s father who was released only after the king’s death in 1509.

During the next decade, More attracted the attention of Henry VIII. He accompanied the king on his visit to Flanders, was made a member of the Privy Council and finally was knighted in 1521. Thomas More was an earnest Catholic and helped Henry VIII in writing his Defence of the Seven Sacraments criticising Luther. In 1529 Thomas More was made Lord Chancellor, the presiding officer in the House of Lords and the highest judge.

But when Henry VIII broke with Rome Thomas More refused to swear allegiance to him as the head of the Church of England. Neither could he recognize the legitimacy of Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyne. Soon More fell a victim to the king’s anger. He was accused of treason, thrown into the Tower, and finally beheaded in 1535. His last words were: ‘The King’s good servant, but God’s first.’ He was canonized in 1935.

• ‘Utopia’
  

Thomas More wrote both in Latin and in English. His English writings include discussions and political subjects, biographies and poetry. The work by which he is remembered today is Utopia which was written in Latin in 1516. By now it has been translated into all European languages. Utopia, which in Greek means ‘nowhere’, is the name of a non-existing island. The author gives a profound and truthful picture of the people’s sufferings, points out the social evils existing in England and presents his idea of what the future society should be like. The word utopia has become a byword to denote an unattainable ideal, usually in social and political matters. Thomas More’s Utopia was the first book to proclaim the ideas of communism. It was highly esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in More’s time and grew popular again in the 19^th century.

• E
  
  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 favoured Sir 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.

Elizabethan architecture 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>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.