EARLY INFLUENCE OF EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE ON ENGLISH
Renaissance
The word ‘renaissance’ is of French origin, and means ‘rebirth’. Renaissance is a social wave that marks the beginning of the Modern Age in Europe. Dating a period from the 14th to the 17th century, this is regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe.
Renaissance, (French: “Rebirth”) period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages and conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in Classical scholarship and values. The Renaissance also witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper, printing, the mariner’s compass, and gunpowder. To the scholars and thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of Classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation. https://www.britannica.com/event/Renaissance
Migration of Greek scholars to Florence and parts of Italy
Italy, the cradle of European renaissance: The Renaissance began in Florence, (the capital city of Italy) in the 14th century.
The Renaissance is credited with bridging the gap between the Middle Ages and modern-day civilization.
A new interest in classical scholarship and values.
Exploration and discovery of new lands
Changed views in science
Loss of trust in Church and religion
Decline of Feudal system
Scientific inventions (especially, press and paper)
Humanism
Humanism is an intellectual movement which is seen as an earliest expression of Renaissance. It was initiated by secular men of letters rather than by the scholar-clerics who had dominated medieval intellectual life. Humanism began and achieved fruition first in Italy. Its predecessors were men like Dante and Petrarch. The fall of Constantinople provided humanism with a major boost, for many eastern scholars fled to Italy, bringing with them important books and manuscripts and a tradition of Greek scholarship.
Features of Humanism:
Syncretism: It stressed the unity and compatibility of the truth found in all philosophical and theological schools and systems, a doctrine known as syncretism.
Emphasis on the dignity of man: In place of the medieval ideal of a life of penance as the highest form of human activity, the humanists looked to the struggle of creation and the attempt to exert mastery over nature.
Quest for a rebirth of a lost human spirit and wisdom: In the course of striving to recover it, the humanists worked towards a new spiritual and intellectual outlook and in the development of a new body of knowledge.
The effect of humanism was to help men break free from the mental strictures imposed by religious orthodoxy, to inspire free inquiry and criticism, and to inspire a new confidence in the possibilities of human thought and creations.
Some Humanist Scholars:
Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More, John Colet
English Renaissance
The English Renaissance is associated with the pan-European Renaissance which started in Italy. In England, it dates from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. A milestone that marks the end of the Medieval period in England is the rise of the Tudors (1485), and this is considered to be the start of English Renaissance as well.
The English Renaissance is different from the Italian Renaissance in several ways. The dominant art forms of the English Renaissance were literature and music. Visual arts in the English Renaissance were much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance.
England had a strong tradition of literature in the English vernacular, which gradually increased as English use of the printing press became common by the mid 16th century.
England was very slow to produce visual arts in Renaissance styles, and the artists of the Tudor court were mainly imported foreigners until after the end of the Renaissance. The English Reformation produced a huge programme of iconoclasm that destroyed almost all medieval religious art.
Major literary figures in the English Renaissance include:
Francis Beaumont
George Chapman
Francis Hubert
Thomas Dekker
John Donne
John Fletcher
John Ford
Ben Jonson
Thomas Kyd
Christopher Marlowe
Philip Massinger
Thomas Middleton
Thomas More
Thomas Nashe
William Rowley
William Shakespeare
James Shirley
Philip Sidney
Edmund Spenser
William Tyndale
John Webster
Thomas Wyatt
Geoffrey Chaucer, who ushered in the modern age in English literature, is well addressed to as the Morning Star of English Renaissance.
Prepared by Jacob Eapen Kunnath
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