Transcript The English Renaissance: Celebrating Humanity

The English Renaissance:
Celebrating Humanity: 1485-1625
Life in Elizabethan and Jacobean England
• London expanded greatly as a city
• People moved in from rural areas and
from other European countries
• Strict class system
• Busy and crowded; lots of commerce,
craftsmen
• Grew into substantial port and admired
European city
Southwark:
suburb known
for its “vice” –
theaters,
gaming,
prostitution, etc.
London was a cesspool—“The Thames was a beautiful sewer”
and disease and criminals ran wild.
The ground
sloped toward the
river so that
human and
animal waste
would – drain
down to the river.
It worked, mostly.
London & The Thames
Architecture:
Theatres
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Punishment for
Offenses against the
State:
- hanged until half
dead, then taken down
and quartered alive;
members and bowels cut
from their bodies, and
thrown into a fire,
provided near hand and
within their own sight,
even for the same
purpose
Other Less
Serious Offenses:
- murder: hanging
till dead
- theft: stocked,
then whipped;
pressed to death;
branded
- suicide: stake
driven through their
hearts
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Crime & Punishment
I’m baaack…
The London Bills of Mortality
 main source of mortality statistics
of plague deaths fm. 1600s1830s (1/3 pop. dies in London)
 used as way of warning about
plague epidemics
 made in London after outbreak of
plague in 1592
 After the 1603 outbreak, they
were made on a weekly basis
 gave everybody information as to
increases or decreases in number
of deaths.
 collected by Parish Clerks and
published every week
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Four serious outbreaks of the
disease occurred in 1563, 1593 ,
1603 and 1608.
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In 1563, in London = over
20,000 people died
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In 1665 the Great Plague of
London killed 16% of pop.
(17,500 out of the population
of 93,000)
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The same outbreak of 1563
claimed 80,000 people in
England
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December 1592-December 1593
Stow (Elizabethan archivist)
reported 10,675 plague deaths
in London, a city of
approximately 200,000 people
Theatres (The Globe, The
Swan, and The Rose) closed in
the summer months.
In 1563, Queen Elizabeth
moved to Windsor Castle +
had gallows erected to hang
anyone arriving from London.
How many times do we have to go through this???
{
Family lost to the plague:
sisters Joan, Margaret ( just
babies) and Anne (aged 7)
brother Edmund (aged 27)
only son Hamnet (aged 11)
Conditions in London :
no sewage system
waste just dumped into the
River Thames
Life expectancy = 35 yrs.
How did the plague affect the hero of our tale?
Shakespeare's London:
- overcrowded, rat-infested, sexually promiscuous,
with raw sewage flowing in Thames, was hub for the
nastiest diseases known to man. Here are the worst of
the worst.
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Smallpox: high fever, vomiting, excessive bleeding, and pus-filled
scabs that leave deep pitted scars
Syphilis: (pox) no antibiotics meant fever, body aches, blindness,
full body pustules, meningitis, insanity, and leaking heart valves.
Typhus: Crowded, filthy conditions,/near total lack of bathing =
body lice that defecated on skin when scratched. Just one minor
cut/sore for the typhus infected feces to enter bloodstream>high
fever, delirium, and gangrenous sores.
Malaria: (ague) fever, unbearable chills, vomiting, enlarged liver,
low blood pressure, seizures, and coma
And don’t forget the plague! What a fun place…
What next? FIRE? Are you KIDDING me?????
How does anybody survive this place?

September 2, 1666: a small fire on Pudding Lane, in
bakery of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II
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baker and his family escaped but fear-struck maid
perished in the blaze
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most London houses = wood and pitch construction,
dangerously flammable, and the fire spread to hay/feed
piles on the yard of the Star Inn at Fish Street Hill, took
off
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strong wind sent sparks igniting Church of St. Margar +
then spread to riverside warehouses + wharves filled
with hemp, oil, tallow, hay, timber, coal and spirits…
Renaissance = rebirth
Rebirth of:
•interest in learning, especially that of ancient Greece
and Rome
•civilization in general
•arts and sciences
•Reaction to “Dark Ages” of medieval
Europe
•Movement away from the restrictions
of the Church
Remember that creepy Pardoner?
Historically speaking…
UK
represent!
Exploration by sea: John Cabot, 1497
Religious rifts:
New sense of nationalism prompted many to
question ethics in and teachings of Church
Questioning of Papal authority and Scripture
Erasmus (Dutch) – version of New Testament
Thomas More – Utopia
Protestant Reformation sparked by Martin
Luther’s 95 theses
The Monarchy:
strengthening themselves and the nation
Henry VII:
•Catholic
•Restorer of national economy and prestige of
monarchy
Henry VIII:
•Catholic, at first…
•Supports Pope against religious dissenters
(“Defender of the Faith”)
But…
•Church’s refusal to annul his marriage leads to break from Catholicism
•Dissolves Church ownership of property, monasteries
•Has Thomas More executed for refusing to renounce Catholic faith
•Marries 6 times
•Fathers Elizabeth and Mary; has a son, Edward, with his 3rd wife,
Jane Seymour
More Tudor action…
Edward, Henry VIII’s son, rules from the ages
of 9-15 (whatever; that’s like a 7 grader ruling your country)
th
Parliament drastically changes religious practices
•English replaces Latin
•Book of Common Prayer required in public worship
England is on its way to becoming a Protestant nation until…
We’re
back,
baby!
Mary I takes throne
•Restores Roman practices to Church of England
•Restores authority of Pope over English Church
•Known as “Bloody Mary” for ordering execution
of about 300 Protestants
And I could use
a drink. Make
it a…hmm…
Mary rules for 5 years, and then…
Cate Blanchett
Elizabeth I takes the throne!
•Classically educated; patron of the arts
•Reinstated monarch’s rule over Church of England,
ending religious turmoil
•Established climate of religious compromise
•Known as one of the best rulers in English history
•Spoiler alert! Dies in 1603
Hey, I wonder if that’s where
they got the name for the
Elizabethan period…
Elizabeth…
arrgh…
The Mary Stuart problem:
I rule!
(literally and
figuratively)
•Catholics considered Mary Stuart, Queen of
Scotland, rightful heir to throne of
England (marriage annulment issues)
•Imprisoned by cousin, Elizabeth, for 18 years
•Hatched numerous Catholic plots against her
•Elizabeth let her live, punished Catholics
•Parliament insisted on beheading Mary in 1587
Life after Elizabeth…
James I
the Stuarts
(well, James VI of Scotland, but James I of England)
•Son of Mary Stuart
•Named by Elizabeth as her successor
•Protestant
Hey, I wonder if that’s where
they got the name for
•“Jacobean” era (from Latin for James)
Jamestown…
•Expanded England’s position as world power (colony in VA)
•Believed in “divine right” of monarchs
•Power struggles with Parliament
•Persecuted Puritans (who migrated to Plymouth
Colony)
I may have
divine right, but
this outfit is just
wrong…
Smell
you
later,
Jimmy!
Finally, the good stuff…
Renaissance Poetry
Lyric over narrative poetry
Sonnets! Yeah!
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Sonnet cycle: A series of sonnets, usually fit loosely
together to form a story
Big men on campus: Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser,
Shakespeare
Two major rhyme schemes: Petrarchan/Italian and
Shakespearean
Shakespearean rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Psst! Sonnet: 14 lines,
iambic pentameter,
various rhyme schemes.
Word!
Psst! Lyric poem:
a short poem with
one speaker (not
necessarily the
poet) who
expresses thought
and feeling.
Many sonnets consist of 8 lines
setting up one idea, 4 lines
responding to that idea, and a
concluding couplet at the end.
Rock and roll!
Pastoral poetry
•Idealized rustic simplicity of rural life
•Heavy hitters: Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter
Raleigh
I’m a poet, soldier,
explorer, historian and
member of the Royal
Court. I am The Man - the
true Renaissance man!
Hey, I wonder if
that’s where they
got the name for
Raleigh, NC…
Renaissance Drama
Turned away from religious focus and toward classical Greek
and Roman tragedies and dramas
Christopher Marlowe: First major dramatist
(1580s)
Shakespeare (1564-1616)
•Started as actor
•Famous playwright by 1592
•37 Plays: most can be categorized as
tragedy, comedy, or history
•Deep understanding of what it
means to be human helps maintain
popularity
And I might have gotten credit for stuff you wrote!
Too bad, suckah!
People say that if
I’d lived past 30 I
might have
eclipsed
Shakespeare as
England’s
greatest
playwright!
Dang!
Renaissance Prose
Not as popular as poetry
Which is the
more satisfying
bacon:
pioneering
English author
or tasty
breakfast meat?
Names to drop:
Sidney, Raleigh and Thomas Nashe
Sir Francis Bacon: essays, science, philosophy
King James Bible
•Translated Latin Bible into English
•Huge achievement—probably most important in
English Renaissance
•54 scholars worked 7 years!
•Influential, used to this day
Important Dates
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1485: Thomas More publishes Utopia
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1534: Church of England established
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1535: Thomas More executed
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1549: The Book of Common Prayer issued
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1558: Elizabeth I becomes Queen
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1563: More plague: 20,000 Londoners die
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1564: Shakespeare is born!
Important Dates (Cont.)
1594: Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet
 1599: The Globe Theater opens
 1603: Queen Elizabeth I dies; James I becomes
King of England.
 1606: Guy Fawkes executed for Gunpowder Plot
 1607: Royal Colony of Jamestown established
 1611: King James Bible published
 1616: Shakespeare dies
 1620: Pilgrims land on Plymouth Rock
 1625: King James I dies.
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