Page 27 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

History of English Literature

Notes

Notes In terms of the entire century, John Guy (1988) argues that “England was economically
healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors” than at any time in
a thousand years.
It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and literature.
The era is most famous for theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that
broke free of England’s past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad,
while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most
certainly after the Spanish Armada was repulsed. It was also the end of the period when England
was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland.
The Elizabethan Age is viewed so highly because of the periods before and after. It was a brief
period of largely internal peace between the English Reformation and the battles between Protestants
and Catholics and the battles between parliament and the monarchy that engulfed the seventeenth
century. The Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a time, by the Elizabethan Religious
Settlement, and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism.
England was also well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had
come to an end under the weight of foreign domination of the peninsula. France was embroiled
in its own religious battles that would only be settled in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. In part
because of this, but also because the English had been expelled from their last outposts on the
continent, the centuries long conflict between France and England was largely suspended for
most of Elizabeth’s reign.
The one great rival was Spain, with which England clashed both in Europe and the Americas in
skirmishes that exploded into the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604. An attempt by Philip II of
Spain to invade England with the Spanish Armada in 1588 was famously defeated, but the tide of
war turned against England with an unsuccessful expedition to Portugal and the Azores, the
Drake-Norris Expedition of 1589. Thereafter Spain provided some support for Irish Catholics in a
debilitating rebellion against English rule, and Spanish naval and land forces inflicted a series of
reversals against English offensives. This drained both the English Exchequer and economy that
had been so carefully restored under Elizabeth’s prudent guidance. English commercial and
territorial expansion would be limited until the signing of the Treaty of London the year following
Elizabeth’s death.
England during this period had a centralised, well-organised, and effective government, largely a
result of the reforms of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Economically, the country began to benefit
greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade.
The “Early Renaissance” was all about Florence. Firenze, as it’s known to those who live there, was
the place in which to launch one’s artistic career in 15th-century Italy.
In the previous article on the Proto-Renaissance, several Republics and Duchies in northern Italy
were mentioned as artist-friendly. These places were quite serious in competing with one another
for the most glorious civic adornment, among other things, which kept a lot of artists happily
employed. How, then, did Florence manage to grab center stage? It all had to do with five
competitions. Only one of these was specifically about art, but they were all important to art.
The early Renaissance era signaled a new generation of art. It started in the early 14th century and
soared all the way to the 16th century, where the world of art was reborn and reshaped. This was
mainly represented in the northern part of Europe where it later matured and got more refined.
This period showed a huge interest in a person’s intellect and creative features. This period broke
away from the traditional aspect of art which primarily focused on church values.
This era showed a renewed interest in the classic art form. It showed great interest in the early
Greek and Roman styles of art. It inspired humanism and a close look into human anatomy. There
was a better understanding of the human form, instead of the traditional two-dimensional figure.
There was a sense of depth, perspective, proportion, and realism depicted throughout this era of

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