Elizabethan Era PDF

1 WAR OF ROSES; A dynastic conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster which ended with the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Richard of York whose symbol was a white rose, was defeated and killed by the army of Henry Tudor of the House of Lancaster, whose symbol was a red rose. Henry’s victor...

1 WAR OF ROSES; A dynastic conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster which ended with the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Richard of York whose symbol was a white rose, was defeated and killed by the army of Henry Tudor of the House of Lancaster, whose symbol was a red rose. Henry’s victory marked the beginning of the Tudor era in England 2 HENRY VII Henry Tudor became king as Henry VII (Henry Tudor—> Henry VII) and married Elizabeth of York in order to unite the feuding families 3 HENRY VIII Henry VII was succeeded to the throne by Henry VIII, his son, that married Catherine of Aragon. Though he has a daughter, Mary, no queen had ever ruled over England. Henry applied to the Pope to annul his marriage. When the Pope rejected the request Henry VIII commanded the Archbishop of Canterbury to declare the marriage void, and, in a secret ceremony he married Anne Boleyn. This led to the break with Rome. 4 THE ACT OF SUPREMACY In 1534 the Act of Supremacy confirmed Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of England and separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry now proceeded to suppress the religious orders in England and to confiscate and sell their property 5 SUCCESSION GUARANTEED Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, had a daughter Elizabeth. Henry accused Anne falsely of adultery, incest and treason. She was tried, found guilty and executed in the Tower of London in 1536. Then, Henry married Jane Seymour, who bore his only son to survive infancy, Edward, and thus guaranteed the Tudor succession 6 THE SHORT REIGN OF EDWARD VI When Henry VIII died in 1547, he was succeeded by his nine year old son, Edward VI. In 1553 the young king Edward died. 7 BLOODY MARY In 1553 Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon was proclaimed queen. A devout Catholic, she was determined to restore Roman Catholicism in England. Mary was involved in a terrible persecution that made her very unpopular with her subjects. Several Protestants were sent to the stake and burned. This gave her the name of “Bloody Mary” 8 THE PURITANS As a result of Mary’s persecution many Protestants fled to Protestant cities like Geneva and Basel, where they came into contact with the ideas of John Calvin. When Queen Mary died the Protestants returned to England and formed a Calvinistic group known as ‘ the Puritans’ ( they were extreme Protestants that wanted to purify the Church of England and remove all traces of Roman Catholic practices) ex: all entertainment was immoral and something to abolish 9 ELIZABETH I An enlightened monarch. In 1558 Queen Mary (aka Bloody Mary) was succeeded by her half-sister , Elizabeth. ‘The middle Way’ in order to swing England back to Protestantism, Elizabeth promoted the ‘Second Act of Supremacy ‘ (first one was made by Henry VIII, her father) by which she re-established the Anglican Church. Given its balanced approach between Protestantism and Catholicism Elizabeth’s approach reform was known as the ‘middle way’ 10 FOREIGN POLICY (politica estera) Also known as ‘The Virgin Queen’ , Elizabeth had many suitors, one of whom was King Philip II of Spain. At that time marriage corresponded to political alliance, so Elizabeth rejected them all and never married bc she was determined not to offend any section- Protestant or Catholic - of her subjects on the one hand and to preserve her country from foreign domination on the other. 11 A FORMIDABLE RIVAL - MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS One of the great dangers Elizabeth had to face during her reign was Mary Stuart’s claim to the throne of England. Mary, the only daughter of James V of Scotland, was a descendant of Henry VII. After spending many years in France, Mary returned to Scotland to be proclaimed queen. During her absence, Scotland had become fervently Protestant and Mary, a Catholic, was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son, James. Mary fled to England to seek the protection of Elizabeth, whose right to the English throne was considered illegal by many Catholics. Mary was obviously a dangerous rival for Elizabeth, who ordered her execution in 1587 12 TRADE AND EMPIRE In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh established a colony on the east coast of North America, and called it ‘Virginia’ in honour of Queen Elizabeth ( aka the virgin Queen) This marked the beginning of the important imperial expansion of the 17th and 18th centuries and established British control over the Indian subcontinent Tell me smt about the relationship between Spain and England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth The Golden Age of Drama English Renaissance represents the Golden Age of English literature, bc of 1) drama 2) poetry (in particular sonnets) The most common poetic form of Elizabethan literature is the sonnet, a 14-line poetic composition which was brought to perfection by the Italian poet Petrarch. The three main sonneteers of the Elizabethan Age are ‘Philip Sidney’ ‘Edmund Spenser’ and the famous ‘William Shakespeare’ The role of London In the Elizabethan Age, London was one of the biggest cities in the world. It was a city of entertainment. In particular, the area around Southwark, there an Elizabethan Londoner could find brothels (bordelli) bear-baiting and bull-baiting arenas, and theatres. Theater going was one of the most typical pastimes, Londoners chose to go there to be entertained, this is shown by the fact that the original word for theatre was ‘playhouse’ , a compound deriving from the combination of play (game) + house Elizabethan theatres They were very different from today’s theatres. They were open-air and had the shape of a big wooden amphitheatre with a square stage. People stood around it for the entire duration of the play, these ppl were called ‘groundlings’ and paid one penny to see the show. On one hand, thanks to their position,groundlings could follow the play closely and interacted with the actors, oh the other hand although they were not sheltered by any roof, hence they weren’t protected against bad weather. The richest members of the audience sat along roofed benches and had a gallery (or balcony) which was used for actions requiring two different levels. (such as Romeo’s and Juliet’s famous balcony scene) It was impossible to create artificial darkness in an Elizabethan theatre. Plays were staged in the afternoon and playwrights could exploit only the power of daylight. If night scene was needed, actors relied on the use of basic props, a candle, for instance. In a theatre that was essential empty, language played a very important role as it provided the audience with all the details about the play The audience who went to see an Elizabethan play was of mixed of provenance (provenienza) and represented all the social strata of Elizabethan society (royalty, nobles, members of the court and common people) They all gathered in one single space. —-> theatregoers used to go to theatre not just to watch a play and to be entertained, but also to meet other people, to socialize, to do business or just to show off So theatre=/ not just for fun In fact, they talked during the show, interacted with the actors and even made explicit comments on the actions being staged. Playwrights and Actors Playwrights (drammaturghi) did NOT ‘own’ the plays they wrote:the play belonged to the company and the money earned by staging them was shared by the members of the company. Actors were considered ‘vagabonds’ by Elizabethan law:in order to avoid being sent to prison, actors were forced to organise themselves in companies and to put themselves under the protection of a rich and noble person to survive. Actors were shareholders (azionisti) of their companies: this meant profit influenced their actions and decisions, they owned their own plays and often their own playhouses. Women were not allowed to act on the Elizabethan stage bc it was considered immoral for them ——> this meant that female parts were acted by male actors. Elizabethan plays It represents a perfectly balanced mix of tradition and innovation. There are two features that Elizabethan playwrights derived (hanno ‘derivato’) from the dramatic tradition of medieval and miracle plays: 1) one is the mix of tragedy and comedy, which led to the creation of a peculiar dramatic genre called ‘tragicomedy’; 2)the other is the avoidance of the so called ‘Aristotle’s unities of action, time and space’ [action—> either comedy or traged, one at a time; time—> 24 hours ( mattina—> sera, sera—>mattina) ——> for this reason the main plot was always linked to one or more sub-plots, the action occurred in many different places and the time frame was very fluid Differences between the Renaissance and medieval times before plays were staged in either churches or on the street, while now we have theaters (playhouses) Companies (its a real job) =/ guild (it was not considered a real job) To learn smt=/ to entertain and for social purposes religious themes =/ various themes Both aren’t following 3 Aristotle units William Shakespeare (23 April 1564-1616) Much information about Shakespeare’s life is conjectural (a guess about something based on how it seems and not on proof). Apparently, Shakespeare, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptized on 26 April 1564, so this means he was probably born on April 23rd. He was the son of a rich merchant, who gave him the chance to attend the local grammar school and receive a good education , it seems he could read and understand Latin, but not Greek. In 1582 Shakespeare married a local woman, Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older than him, the couple had 3 children. Almost nothing’s is known about Shakespeare’s life from 1584 when he seems to have left Stratford to make his fortune in London, to 1592 for this reason these are called the ‘lost years’. In 1594 Shakespeare started working for the Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors protected and funded by the Lord Chamberlain, after a while the company found the money to build their own playhouse, called the Globe. In 1603, when James I succeeded Elizabeth to the throne, the company went under the protection of the king and was called ‘King’s Men’ (means they were famous, appreciated bc they started as a company not so known but now they are) He died dies in Stratford in 1616. It is believed he died on the same day as his bday. The First Folio of 1623 During Shakespeare’s time plays were not supposed to be printed. In an age when copyright did not exist, I’m order to avoid plagiarism, it was better for a company not to print their plays so they could not be stolen by rival companies, everyone was jealous of each other. Shakespeare’s plays represent an exception: although some of them had been printed in good and bad editions (good and bad quartos, bad = full of mistakes, low quality etc /// quartos= format of the page on which they were published ) —-> they were collected and printed as a single volume in 1623 by Henry Condell and John Heminges, two of Shakespeare’s fellow actors. He wrote 37 plays , divided into 3 main categories: Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories. The subdivision of S. plays is also called ‘Canon’ 1)internal references: found in the text itself. For example, a mention of a particular political even or date 2)external references: found in other documents from the time, such as letter or diaries. If a contemporary of Shakespeare mentions seeing or hearing about a specific play, that record helps to establish the date by which the play must have been written 3) stylometric analysis: This method analyzes the linguistic style of the plays, such as Shakespeare’s use of vocabulary, meter, and grammar. By comparing the style of a particular play to others with known dates, scholars can estimate when it was written. Shakespeare’s Canon There are 6 sub-groups. ⁃ English History Plays: plays about English history, covering the reigns of English kings from the 12th to the 16th centuries. These plays stage the history of the English nation from the ‘Hundred Years War’ to the War of Roses. They represent a portrait of Medieval and early modern England. ⁃ Roman Plays:deal with events taken from Roman history (f.e Julius Caesar). These plays are all set in Ancient Rome. The main theme is power, how it is gained and how dangerous it is. ⁃ Comedies:many of the comedies draw inspiration from Italian short stories (novelle) involve marriage, mistaken identities and usually have a happy ending. ⁃ Problem Plays/Dark Comedies: this group refers to some plays, which cannot be considered as proper tragedies but are more similar to comedies with a dark, pessimistic side ⁃ Tragedies: f.e. Hamlet, Othello or Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet. They represent the apex of English Modern literature and tackle themes such as the tragic destiny of mankind, human foolishness and man’s loneliness in the universe -Romances: Shakespeare’s last plays are called ‘romances’ and include plays which contain elements of tragedy + comedy = tragicomedies. They’re characterized by fictional almost improbable plots, contrast between virtue and vices, magic and the supernatural HAMLET PLOT the king of Denmark has been murdered and had been succeeded by his brother, Claudius. He also married the widowed queen, Gertrude. Once Hamlets father’s ghost appears and tells him that he was murdered by his own brother, and that Hamlet must avenge his father’s murder. At court Hamlet pretends to be mad, as a way of hiding his true feeling and plans. He also rejects Ophelia, whom he once loved. A company of travelling actors appears at court and Hamlet invites them to perform a play. (= play- within -the-play ) That’ll cause Claudius to reveal his guilt,Hamlet’s suspicions are confirmed by Cladius’ reactions. Hamlet visits his mother,criticizing her harshly for marrying Claudius, and accidentally kills Polonius who’s spying on him. Laertes,Polonius’ son,demands revenge for his father’s death. His sister Ophelia maddened by grief has drowned herself. Claudius plots with Laertes to kill Hamlet in a fencing match. Laertes has a poisoned sword—> in the duel however, the two men exchange swords and Laertes, who has now understood the falsity of Claudius’ actions, is killed. Gertrude drinks wine from a poisoned cup which Claudius has prepared for Hamlet and dies. Hamlet, now dying from a wound from the poisoned sword, kills the king before he dies. In the final scene Fortinbras, the prince of Norway, arrives and claims the throne of Denmark. Medieval and Renaissance Man Hamlet can be seen as a revenge tragedy after the manner of Seneca in which Hamlet is expected to avenge his father, but the character brings a number of Renaissance attributes into play and creates a conflict in terms of mentality and view of human nature. Hamlet is a philosopher, inspired by humanist ideas: for this reason he can be seen as the prototype of the ‘new man’ of Renaissance, a man who has lost his faith in religion,reflects on the abilities of the human mind and speculates on the meaning of life and death Sonnets Style S. they contain 154 poetic compositions in the form of Sonnets. They are 14-line poems in iambic pentameter. I’m the Elizabethan Age there were two main kinds of sonnets: 1)the Italian ( or Petrarchan ) sonnet = they are composed of an octave (8-line-stanza) and a sestet (6 line stanza) rhyming ABBA ABBA CDE CDE 2)the English (or Shakespearean/Elizabethan) sonnet= they are composed of three quatrains (4-line -stanza) and a final couplet (2-line-stanza) rhyming ABAB ABAB CDCD EFEF GG In Shakespeare’s sonnets the first three quatrains contain a series of reflections on a particular problem which is seen from different perspectives and in all its complexity. The final couplet introduces a turning point and usually draws an unexpected conclusion or expresses a a paradox or ironic comment Main Themes There are universal themes such as love, beauty,art, time and death. Conventionally the most common one is love, which is explored from a variety of perspectives