ENGLISH RENAISSANCE
The English Renaissance flourished during the 16th century and it was very
different from Italian one. In Italy there was a period of great instability, a
great explosion of individual expression. In Northern Europe the reformation
promoted individual genius and encouraged the study of various different
subjects: philosophy, literature, morality, sociology, science and religion.
This boost was helped by the printing press, brought to England by Caxton in
1476. For example the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge expanded greatly
during the Renaissance. The human figure and human thought began to be more important
than the Divine sphere; this idea influenced the new cultural movement called
Humanism. The spirit of the Renaissance was characterized
by intellectual curiosity, in particular towards the culture of Ancient Greece,
which had been somewhat opposed by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages
because of its paganism and spirit of free analysis. A key figure of
Renaissance humanism was Erasmus of Rotterdam, who translated the Bible. By
spreading Latin throughout Europe, he hoped to create a lingua franca and his
humanist way of thinking had a strong influence on a generation of writers. The
Renaissance was an age of confusion, because the old mythical medieval ideas
coexisted with the new progressive discoveries of science. The most important
science discovery by Copernicus was that Earth and the other planets orbit
around the Sun, but he didn't publish his theory until his death, in 1543, for
fear of Church censorship. In fact, this new view of Earth's position made it
more difficult to give man the cosmic importance assigned to him in Christian
theology.
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare was born in Stratford upon Avon, from a quite rich family.
He studied at Stratford Grammar School, where he learnt a little Latin, but
there is nothing certain about him. We know that he didn't go to the University
and the other writers made fun of him.In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway, eight
years older than him, and they had a daughter and a son.
He established in London and worked at London Theatre, firstly he looked after
the horses, then he became an actor, a playwright and then a share.
He didn't publish anything, because of the competition between companies and
because drama wasn't considered an art. We have the tests because people
sometimes wrote down dialogues while they were watching plays, but it's very
difficult to decide what he really wrote and when he did it. Critics use 3
different methods:
1. The internal reference: he talks about a certain historical event, so we
know it was written after it.
2. The external reference: other writers talk about his plays.
3. The literary evidence: play itself tells it: style, use of words, or for
example the use of poetry and prose.
His production is divided into 4 periods:
1. 1590-1595: Experimentation: He takes inspiration from English facts of 1400
(Henry VI, Richard II). He tries different genres, copying plays of Christopher
Marlowe, or inspiring at Seneca, Plautus ('Titus Andronicus', The
Comedy of Errors).
2. 1595-1600: He focuses on romantic comedies: a Midsummer night dream, the
Merchant of Venice, Much noise about nothing, Romeo and Juliet.
3. 1600-1607: Period of great tragedies (Hamlet (revenge tragedy), King Lear,
Macbeth, Othello) and historical plays (Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra).
It's the pessimistic period.
4. 1607-1612: Period of tragicomedies (romances): we see a sort of solution or
hope for human conditions, after the pessimistic period: The Tempest (in which
there's a happy end).
5. 1612: when he retired.He eventually died at the age of 52.
Romeo and Juliet
The story starts with a battle between the servants of the two rivals families,
Montague and Capulet, put down by the Prince of Verona. Count Paris, a young
nobleman, talks to Capulet asking to marry his daughter, Juliet. Capulet
invites him to attract the attention of Juliet during a ball of that night.
Meanwhile Juliet's mother tries to persuade her to accept to marry Paris, also
if she don't like him.
Romeo, Montague's son, is infatuated of a Capulet, Rosalind, and he goes to the
ball to see her, with his friends Mercutio and Benvolio. But there he meet,
instead of Rosalind, Juliet and they fall in love. Romeo remain in the Capulet
garden after the party, to stay with Juliet, and in the famous balcony scene,
they declare their love for each other.
The next day, with the help of Juliet's Nurse and the Friar Lawrence, Romeo and
Juliet get married in secret, hoping to bring peace between the two families.
Tybalt invites Romeo, but he refuses to fight because they are now kinsmen
because Romeo has married Juliet. Mercutio, who doesn't know this, is angered
by Tybalt's insolence and decides to fight him. But Mercutio is wounded and
dies, wishing 'a plague on the two houses. Romeo, angered, kills Tybalt.
The Prince punishes Romeo with the exile. So he sees Juliet one last time and
he goes to Mantua. Juliet now has to marry Paris after 3 days, but the Friar
Lawrence gives her a potion that put her to a 'supposed-death' for
forty-two hours. But unfortunately Romeo learns about Juliet's death from a
servant, for this he buys a poison, he returns to Verona in secret, and goes to
the Capulet's crypt and dies near Juliet. When Juliet awakes and sees Romeo
dead, she kills herself with his dagger.
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