Renaissance文艺复兴时期的英国文学史

Main writers and their works

1.Edmund Spenser (1552-1599）


1. Edmund Spenser (1552-1599） “the poet’s poet”, creator of Spenserian stanza Faerie Queen 2. Utopia
Renai源自文库sance
Lead-in Questions 1. What is English Renaissance? 2. What is the Background of English Renaissance? 3.Do you know any writers or works of that period?


Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.
Sonnet 18

‵ ′‵ ′ ‵ ′‵ ′ ‵ ′ Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? ‵ ′ ‵ ′‵′ ‵ ′ ‵ ′ Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Background




The establishing of the foundations of capitalism in England. Absolute monarchy in England at the beginning of the 16th century. Peace and prosperity during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. England becoming a mighty naval power after the victory over the Spanish Armada.

2. Period of rapid growth and development



Romeo and Juliet Midsummer Night’s Dream Julius Caesar HenryIV HenryV As You Like It
3. Period of gloom and depression
2. Thomas More (1478-1535 ）


3.Francis Bacon (1561-1626 ）

3. Essays Of Studies 4.The greatest playwright before Shakespeare The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (master piece ） Tamburlaine the Great, The Jew of Malta,
4. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593）

William Shakespeare (1564-1616） 1.Early Period
Two Gentlemen of Verona Henry VI Richard III The Taming of the Shrew Love’s Labour Lost The Comedy of Errors
Renaissance
1.The movement began in Italy in the 14th century. 2.In the 15th and 16th century European scholars had keen interest in the Greek and Latin culture. 3.The ideal of the movement was Humanism.



King Lear Othello Hamlet Macbeth
4. Period of restored serenity.

The Winter’s Tale Tempest
Shakespeare’s Sonnets
What is sonnet? 1. Sonnet is a type of poem consisting of one single fourteen-line stanza （诗段，节） 2. It was perfected by the Italian poet in the 13th century and introduced into England in the early 16th century. 3. English sonnets, in terms of structure, largely fall into two classes: a. the Petrarchian or Italian form: its fourteen lines of iambic （抑扬格） pentameters （五音步） are divided into two parts: one octet （八行诗） and the other sestet（六行诗） b. the Shakespearian or English form: consisting of three quatrains（四 行诗） and a final couplet.（双韵体）The three quatrains develop the poem’s subject consistently and the couplet condenses the emotion into an epigram.（箴言）