the Renaissance
Hello everyone and welcome again! This
time’s topic is about drama of the renaissance
1. Historical Background
The renaissance is one of the widely
acknowledged periods in the European history and civilization, it is known as
an intellectual movement that started in the 14th century and lasted
until the16th one. The term is of French origins literarily means “Rebirth”. The term Renaissance was first used retrospectively
by the Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in his book Lives
of the Most Eminent Painters, published in 1550. The renaissance period is mainly
characterized by a surge of an immense interest in the Classical Antiquity’s
thought, intellect and values.
Italy is
the cradle of the renaissance and from Italy it spread to the other European countries,
actually, it is important to
explain why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy.
Scholars had observed many characteristics unique to Florence’s cultural life
and that is what might have caused this movement. Others emphasized the role of
the Medici, “a banking family and later ducal ruling house”, in patronizing and
activating arts. Lorenzo de Medici (1449-1492) played the role of catalyst for
a huge amount of arts patronage. He used to encourage the men of his country to
commission works from Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo
Buonarroti. They were the leading artists of Florence. The renaissance brought with it revolutionary advancements and changes in
science, literature and Arts. There were so many factors that stimulated these
changes atop which overseas explorations, substitution of the Copernican for
the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the demise of the feudal system, the revival
of the classical Antiquity as well as the rise of the humanist philosophy.
II. Defining Renaissance:
It is during this period that people started to boldly share their ideas
and think outside the box, they defied religious verdict
and ideology through confronting the church and discerning its deceptive nature.
W. R. Goodman defined
the Renaissance as follows:
The Renaissance
was in essence an intellectual rebirth. It showed itself in the effort of the
individual to free himself from the rigid institution of the Middle Ages,
feudalism, and the church; and to assert his right to live, to think, and to
express himself in accordance with a more flexible secular code.[1]
Indeed , relying on Goddman’s definition, the
renaissance freed the human mind from the constrains of religion.
also M. H.
Abram stated that:
The Renaissance involved a rebirth of letters and arts
stimulated by the recovery and study of text from classical antiquity and the
development of new aesthetic norms based on classical model. It also unleashed
new ideas and new social, political, and economic forces that displaced the
otherworldly and communal values of the Middle Ages, emphasizing instead the
dignity and potential of the individual and the worth of life in this world.[2]
In literature, the major literary figures of this age
were: Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, and Sanazzaro from Italy;
Erasmus from Netherland; Montaigne and Rabelais from France; Lope de Vega and
Cervantes from Spain; Sir Thomas More, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Edmund Spenser, Sir
Philip Sidney, Shakespeare and Sir Francs Bacon from England.
VI.
Characteristics of the Renaissance :
The renaissance period in brief was characterized by mainly 4
important traits :
1. The revival of the
classical Antiquity
Which is shown vehementy through the revival of the
old forms of arts mainly sculpture
2. The rise of the
logical thinking and favouring it over emotions
Which paved the way towards many thinkers of the
experimental school in philosophy such as David Hume and John Locke
3. the rise of the humanist philosophy
The term humanism was coined in the nineteenth
century. It referred mainly to the new conception of man in the Renaissance.
The idea of an individual was a vital element of this conception.17
J.
A. Cuddon maintained that humanism as “a European phenomenon was a more worldly
and thus more secular philosophy; and it was anthropocentric. It sought to
dignify and ennoble man”. Humanism, according to him, helped man to be
civilized and to make him realize his potential powers and gifts, and to reduce
the difference between potentiality and attainment.
The study of Greek has an important role in Italian
humanism; some have argued that the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 caused
the escape of many Greek scholars to Italy taking their manuscripts with them
and that is what promoted the interest in the classical past and particularly
in Plato’s works which were imperfectly known previously.[3]
Francesco
Petrarca was one of the earliest important Italian humanists. He revived
interest in Cicero as a model for prose style, and he was also the author of
some significant works in Latin and Italian. His Florentine followers, Giovanni
Boccacio, Collucio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, and Lorenzo
Valla, carried on translating of important classical works in order to recover
the missing manuscripts from classical antiquity.
4. Elizabethan Golden
Age :
The reign of Queen Elizabeth I
was one of the great periods of English history, perhaps the greatest one. It
was known as the Elizabethan Age. In this age, England became a unified nation
that was able to be firm and stable against the states like Spain which was
planning to attack England. It was an age of great and famous men, of
explorations and discoveries, of poetry and music, of revival of learning, and
above all mature drama. English drama reached its climax, “a height which has
never been surpassed.” [4]“The
chief literary glory of the great Elizabethan age was its drama, but even
before it several plays appeared which showed that a great development had
taken place.”[5]
V. Elizabethan
Drama
Elizabethan drama was preliminarily influenced by
three elements; the native tradition, the Latin and Italian drama. These
elements could be found in almost every Elizabethan plays. The mystery,
miracle, morality, and interlude represented the development of the native
tradition. Seneca was the model for tragedy, and Plautus and Terence supplied
the hinterland suggestions for comedy.[6]English
tragedy, in particular, was not developed out of liturgical plays, but from Seneca’s model. His
tragedies were marked by fear, exaggerated character-drawing, violence and
rhetorical language supported by emotional hyperboles. His impact was felt for
the first time in the Latin plays of the universities in general and Cambridge
in particular. He became the first classical playwright and all his works had
been translated into English. Many of the future dramatists such as Marlowe and
Peele were students in the university when Seneca’s impact was strong. Gorboduc
was the first English play that embodied Seneca’s form.
During the reign of queen Elizabeth I
drama flourished due to:
v
The social welfare people lived in
which allowed them to enjoy entertaining spectacles of drama
v
The queen’s personal interest and appreciation
for art especially drama
v
The rise of acting companies and
acting as a profession
v
The playwrights were mostly writing
their plays under royal patronage which made them productive.
[1]2. W. R. Goodman, History
of English Literature.Vol. 1, (Delhi: Doaba House,
2009), pp. 285-286.
[2] M. H.
Abrams, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature .5thed.,
Vol.1,
(USA: WW. Norton & Company, Inc., 1987), p. 240.
4. Denys Hay, The Italian Renaissance in
Its Historical Background,
[3]
Richard Dutton, p. 29.
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