№20 The Elizabethan Period of English Literature and Main Representatives
The Elizabethan era (second half of the 16th - early 17th century) is a period
in English history that saw the flourishing of art and poetry, music and theatre, and
was home to famous people such as William Shakespeare and Christopher
Marlowe, the history of the era includes great monuments of English books, the
poetry of Edmund Spenser and Philip Sidney, and the geographical discoveries of
previously unknown lands by Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Humphrey Gilbert
and Richard Gravely. Elizabeth I had never seen France, but she praised the work
of sailors, poets and playwrights.
The reign of the Queen is considered to be the heyday of humanist theatre.
William Shakespeare was a great representative of the English Renaissance. At
that time, many painters worked in the country. In order to paint royal portraits,
strict rules and restrictions were specially developed. Thus, portraits of Elizabeth
had to be created only with the help of samples made by masters of the queen's
choice. There were also strict canons for the creation of court portraits; later, the
canons were extended to all portraits of aristocratic subjects. The composition of
the portraits was as follows: static, no emotions on the faces, they looked ‘lifeless’,
but the clothes were painted with great care.
The Elizabethan era was a dynamic period of English history that saw
the humanistic philosophy of the Renaissance, the transformation of the
country into an empire, and the growth of the nation's self-awareness, which
became the most powerful stimulus for the development of the English
language and literature. Brought up with a reverence for ancient history and
classical languages, Elizabethans obviously saw parallels between modernity
and the heyday of the Roman Empire in the age of Augustus.
The experience of the Romans, who synthesised the achievements of
Greek and their own culture in their work, may have seemed particularly
significant for the British during the formation of the British Empire. The
break with Catholic Rome explained the nation's desire to present itself as a
true heir to the Roman spirit, and the beginnings of comparative studies,
stimulated by the comparison of different translations of the Holy Scriptures,
became a prerequisite for comparing the works of the ancient classics and
their Renaissance followers, helping to select the best of them and cultivate it
on national soil, copying, adapting and surpassing the famous works.
In the Elizabethan era, the strengthening of the royal court as a centre
of power and humanistic culture was accompanied by the emergence of
courtly literature in English, the main genre of which genre of which was
lyrics. English society formed an environment for which
love poetry, primarily in the form of Petrarchanism, was of a certain
cultural value.Researchers believe that important factors in the development
of English courtly poetry were the fascination with Neoplatonism, the ideas of
M. Ficino and B. Castiglione, the acquaintance with ‘love literature’ and the
love etiquette of Italians, as well as the development of printing, which became
a powerful channel for dissemination a powerful channel for the
dissemination of ideas and texts.
E. Spencer ‘Shepherd's calendar’
‘The Art of English Poetry’ by J. Putnam
Christopher Marlowe The Plays
‘The Merchant of Venice’ William Shakespeare
