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Unit 4: The Renaissance-Elizabethan Age

use of the term, which they see as a product of presentism — the use of history to validate and Notes
glorify modern ideals.

Did u know? The word Renaissance has been used to describe other historical and cultural
movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the
12th century.

4.6 Elizabethan Age
The earlier half of Elizabeth’s reign, also, though not lacking in literary effort, produced no work
of permanent importance. After the religious convulsions of half a century time was required for
the development of the internal quiet and confidence from which a great literature could spring.
At length, however, the hour grew ripe and there came the greatest outburst of creative energy in
the whole history of English literature. Under Elizabeth’s wise guidance the prosperity and
enthusiasm of the nation had risen to the highest pitch, and London in particular was overflowing
with vigorous life. A special stimulus of the most intense kind came from the struggle with Spain.
After a generation of half-piratical depredations by the English seadogs against the Spanish treasure
fleets and the Spanish settlements in America, King Philip, exasperated beyond all patience and
urged on by a bigot’s zeal for the Catholic Church, began deliberately to prepare the Great
Armada, which was to crush at one blow the insolence, the independence, and the religion of
England. There followed several long years of breathless suspense; then in 1588 the Armada sailed
and was utterly overwhelmed in one of the most complete disasters of the world’s history. There
upon the released energy of England broke out exultantly into still more impetuous achievement
in almost every line of activity. The great literary period is taken by common consent to begin
with the publication of Spenser’s ‘Shepherd’s Calendar’ in 1579, and to end in some sense at the
death of Elizabeth in 1603, though in the drama, at least, it really continues many years longer.
Several general characteristics of Elizabethan literature and writers should be indicated at the
outset.
1. The period has the great variety of almost unlimited creative force; it includes works of
many kinds in both verse and prose, and ranges in spirit from the loftiest Platonic idealism
or the most delightful romance to the level of very repulsive realism.
2. It was mainly dominated, however, by the spirit of romance.
3. It was full also of the spirit of dramatic action, as befitted an age whose restless enterprise
was eagerly extending itself to every quarter of the globe.
4. In style it often exhibits romantic luxuriance, which sometimes takes the form of elaborate
affectations of which the favorite ‘conceit’ is only the most apparent.
5. It was in part a period of experimentation, when the proper material and limits of literary
forms were being determined, oftentimes by means of false starts and grandiose failures.
In particular, many efforts were made to give prolonged poetical treatment to many
subjects essentially prosaic, for example to systems of theological or scientific thought, or
to the geography of all England.
6. It continued to be largely influenced by the literature of Italy, and to a less degree by those
of France and Spain.
7. The literary spirit was all-pervasive, and the authors were men (not yet women) of almost
every class, from distinguished courtiers, like Raleigh and Sidney, to the company of hack
writers, who starved in garrets and hung about the outskirts of the bustling taverns.

4.7 Prose Fiction

The period saw the beginning, among other things; of English prose fiction of something like the
later modern type. First appeared a series of collections of short tales chiefly translated from
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