Page 36 - DENG402_HISTORY_OF_ENGLISH_LITERATURE

Unit 4: The Renaissance-Elizabethan Age

4.8 Summary Notes

Spenser, an M. A. of Cambridge University, was well read in much of the ancient classical
literature which had then begun to be commonly known.
The earlier half of Elizabeth’s reign, also, though not lacking in literary effort, produced no
work of permanent importance.
In 1578 Lyly, at the age of twenty-five, came from Oxford to London, full of the enthusiasm
of Renaissance learning, and evidently determined to fix himself as a new and dazzling
star in the literary sky.
In literature the imitations of ‘Euphues’ which flourished for a while gave way to a series
of romances inaugurated by the ‘Arcadia’ of Sir Philip Sidney.

4.9 Keywords
Renaissance : It was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th
century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to
the rest of Europe.
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 collec
tions of short tales chiefly translated from Italian authors, to which tales
the Italian name ‘novella’ (novel) was applied.

4.10 Review Questions

1. What is classical mythology?
2. What is the Renaissance? Explain.
3. What do you man by Elizabethan age? Explain.
4. What is prose Fiction?

Answers : Self Assessment

1. moral temper 2. religious activity 3. spenser
4. illustration 5. England

4.11 Further Readings

Books History of English Literature, Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi, 2004: Long. W.J.
An Outline of History of English Literature, G. Bell and sons, London, 1930:
Hudson, W.H.
A History of English Literature-Arthur-compton-Rickett, UPSPD, New Delhi.

Online links history-world.org/renaissance.htm
www.bartleby.com/213/1601.html
media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/74/07645868/0764586874.pdf

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