ELIZABETHAN PERIOD

The development of English Literature during the Renaissance Era.

1. THE ELIZABETHAN PERIOD QUEEN ELIZABETH’S LIFE CHARACTERISITCS OF ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE

2. QUEEN ELIZABETH’S REIGN England prospered in the second half of Elizabeth’s reign. Elizabeth’s reign saw playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, poets like Edmund Spenser, and men of science and letters like Francis Bacon. The age was generally considered one of the golden ages in English Literature.

3. QUEEN ELIZABETH’S REIGN Initially, a certain amount of class conflict arose over the production of plays on the basis of their “immorality”. Plays became more socially respectable which gave rise to the integration of theater subjects in exclusive boys school like St. Paul’s and Merchant Taylor’s. Elizabeth herself was known for being a very good dancer and a particularly talented musician.

4. ELIZABETH’S FINAL YEARS A ssociated with supernatural imagery, especially to Diana While old age brought her reverence, it also brought loneliness: Elizabeth outlived all of her advisors and friends.

5. ELIZABETH’S FINAL YEARS She became very fearful of a conspiracy against her led by Jesuits and ordered to a private hunt for Catholic conspirators. England’s economy started to go downhill. The elderly Queen said, “Though God hath raised me high”, she considered it her greatest happiness and glory to have “reigned with your loves”.

6. ELIZABETH’S FINAL YEARS In March of 1603, Elizabeth contracted a cold. She signed a document the day before she died making King James I of Scotland as the rightful heir, even though he was the son of her nemesis, Queen Mary. Her duty completed, Elizabeth died at Richmond Palace in London on March 1603.

7. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE

8. 1. REVIVAL OF INTEREST IN GREEK LITERATURE Brought a dazzling light into many dark places of interest. Tempered and polished earlier rudeness of English Literature

9. 2. ABUNDANCE OF OUTPUT Pamphlets and treatises were freely written. Sometimes writers indulge in scurrilous abuses which were of personal character.

10. 3. THE NEW ROMANTICISM All the desires were abundantly fed during the Elizabethan age – the first and the greatest romantic epoch! According to Albert, “it was the ardent youth of English literature and the achievement was worth it”.

11. 4. TRANSLATIONS IN ELIZABETHAN AGE Sir Thomas North translated Plutarch’s Lives. John Florio translated Montaigne’s Essais .

12. 5. SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE Shakespeare borrowed freely, but by the alembic of his creative imaginations, he transformed the dross into gold. Spenser introduced the “Spenserian Stanza” and from his works, we got the spirit of inventiveness and intrepidity.

13. 6. DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMA Drama reached splendid perfection in the hands of Shakespeare and Ben Johnson, though in the concluding part of the age (Jacobean), there was a decline of drama standards.

14. 7. POPULARITY IN POETRY Songs, lyrics and sonnets were produced in plenty. England became the nest of the singing birds. Melody and pictorialism were introduced in poetry by Endmund Spenser.

15. 8. PROSE AND NOVEL The dead weight of the Latin and English prose acquired a tradition and universal application. English Novel made its first proper appearance during this age.