The greatest poet of the English Renaissance is. Renaissance literature

Before Elizabeth:

1. Throughout the 16th century, Italian literature was very popular in England. Under the influence of Italian models, many literary genres were reformed and new poetic forms were adopted. First of all, the reform touched poetry. In the last years of the reign of Henry 8, a circle of court poets transformed English lyrics into an Italian style. The most important figures in this reform were Wyeth and Serey.

2. Thomas Wyeth, famous for his education, having visited Italy and got acquainted with the culture of the Renaissance, became interested in Italian poetry and tried to imitate it in everything. In his early TV-ve there are only motives of love, and in the later one one feels disappointment in court life. His poetry has a bookish and artificial character. Most of all, Wyeth was fascinated by the poetry of Petrarch and, under his influence, introduced the form of the sonnet into English literature, until then unknown in England. Wyeth also imitated French and old English poets.

3. Henry Howard, Earl of Serey. He also fell in love with Italy. His early poetry is an imitation of Wyeth. He continued to improve the Italian sonnet in English. + Serey translated several songs of the Aeneid into English, here. Under Italian influence, blank verse is used.

4. Philip Sydney, studied in Paris until St. Bartholomew's night, then, having traveled to many countries, returned to his homeland. In the collection of sonnets "Astrophele and Stela" he sang Penelope Dever. + wrote the pastoral novel Arcadia and the treatise Defense of Poetry.

ELIZABETHEN

1. The greatest poet of the English Renaissance is Edmund Spenser. Focusing on foreign literature, he tried to create a purely English, national poetry. He received a good classical education. Early works - "The Shepherd's Calendar" (consists of 12 poetic eclogues) and, the beginning of work on the poem "The Fairy Queen" (9 poetic lines = "Spencer's stanza"), the first three books of which are dedicated to Elizabeth, they also brought him literary fame. Shortly before his death, he wrote a treatise On the Present Condition of Ireland. His first creations were 6 translations of Petrarch's sonnets and a translation of the Pleiades poetry. + wrote many lyrical poems. His poem "The Return of Colin Clout" is distinguished by satirical features.

The wide development of the lyrical and epic genres in literature aroused at that time interest in the theoretical problems of poetry as well. In the last quarter of the 16th century, a number of English poetics appeared, discussing questions of English versification, poetic forms, and style. Chief among these are The Art of English Poetry by George Puttenham and A Defense of Poetry by Philip Sidney.

2. In the 17th century, the novel also developed in England. The first English Renaissance novel was John Lily's Euphues. John Lily, having received a classical education at Oxford University, was also known as a playwright ("Sappho and Phaon", "Endymion"). Lily's novel consists of 2 parts: 1) "Euphues or the anatomy of wit" 2) "Euphues and his England." The novel was interesting to contemporaries rather than by the plot, but by the style that was called "eufuism" - this is 1) a flowery, especially refined speech that arose under strong Italian influence 2) a tendency to rhythmize prose speech. Such refined speech in life was not spoken. She influenced Shakespeare, but he very soon freed himself from her.

3. The traditions of the scholarly gallant and pastoral novel in English literature were continued by Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene, who simultaneously acted as playwrights. Lodge owns three novels. The best of them is Rosalind, which gave Shakespeare the plot of the comedy As You Like It. Lodge's style is replete with antitheses, comparisons, quotations from the classics and the latest foreign poets. He does not seek to convey historical truth or real life.

The early works of Robert Greene were also written in a "eufuestic" manner. In such works as "Morando or the Three Parts of Love", "Mamillia or the Mirror of English Ladies", Green pays attention to the plot less than witty dialogue, which most often takes the form of a dispute on philosophical topics. In Green's late TV-ve, a special group is made up of a number of small stories in which he deviates from his former conditional and gallant manner and gives a number of everyday pictures of real life, based on autobiographical memories. (On a penny of wisdom acquired by a million repentances”, “It is never too late”, etc.).

4. To the picaresque novel of the Spanish type, Thomas Nash's everyday novel "The Unfortunate Traveler, or the Life of Jack Wilton" also approaches. Nash was very poor and made his living by writing satires on London life ("Pierce the Pennyless's Petition to the Devil"), literary pamphlets against the writers and critics of his day. For his play "Isle of Dogs", in which England was ridiculed, Nash even went to prison (the play did not reach us). One of his most important works is The Unfortunate Traveler, with which Nash laid the foundation for the English everyday novel. (more than a Spanish picaresque novel).

6. At the end of the 17th century, with everyday novels of a special type, entirely designed for readers from artisans, industrial workers, etc. Thomas Delauney performs. His life is unknown. Gained fame as an author and singer of ballads and as a pamphleteer. Deloney's ballads are poetic responses to various events of current life. One of Deloney's novels (The Entertaining History of John Winchcombe, in his youth called Jack of Newbury) is dedicated to all the workers of the "English cloth". Although his books are little known now, they were once popular.

7. An unusual rise in dramatic activity occurred in the second half of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At this time, many pay theaters appear in London. There is a growing interest in theatrical art. For these theaters, many playwrights work with Shakespeare at the head. Because Since the heyday of English drama falls approximately during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, this dramaturgy is usually called "Elizabethian". However, the old theater also continued to exist. There are still MORALITES. Now promoting humanistic ideas, an example is the works of John Bayle, who wrote plays on religious subjects and morality of theological content (about "John, King of England", which is the prototype of the chronicles")

Another common type of theatrical performance in England was interludes (plays of comic content with the participation of two or more persons). They served to develop everyday comedy and were similar to French farces. Interludes of John Heywood, who was close to Thomas More, have such an x-r.

With the development of humanism, the influence of samples of ancient drama increased. They began to imitate Terentius and Plautus. Nicholas Udell was the first to create a "correct" English comedy in 5 acts "Ralph Royster Doyster". Even more English in terms of everyday colors and composition techniques is John Steele's comedy Girton's Gossip's Needle.

Private and public theaters differed from each other in the composition of the audience and the ability of the acting groups. In the early 80s, John Lily, the author of the novel Eufues, made his comedies written for the court theater. These comedies are dramatic pastorals saturated with ancient mythology. In Lily's plays, graceful prose dialogue replaced the former verse speech.

Thomas Kidd and Christopher Marlo followed a different path.

Bishops don't care
That a neighbor lives from hand to mouth,
That Jill sheds her sweat
That Jack is oppressing his back over the arable land ...

(Translated by O.B. Rumer)

As a poet, Skelton is still closely associated with the traditions of the late Middle Ages. It draws on Chaucer and folk songs. Subsequently, the development of English Renaissance poetry took a different path. Striving for a more perfect, "high" style, English humanist poets depart from the "vulgar" traditions of the late Middle Ages and turn to Petrarch and ancient authors. It's time for English book lyrics. French poetry of the 16th century developed in the same way.

John Skelton Thomas Wyeth Henry Howard

The first poets of the new direction were the young aristocrats Thomas Wyeth (1503-1543) and Henry Howard (Earl Surrey, in the former Russian transcription Surrey 1517-1547). Both of them shone at the court of Henry VIII, and both experienced the brunt of royal despotism. Wyatt spent some time in prison, and Sarri not only ended up in prison three times, but ended, like Thomas More, his life on the chopping block. For the first time their works were published in a collection published in 1557. Contemporaries highly appreciated their desire to reform English poetry, to raise it to the height of new aesthetic requirements.

Wyeth was the first to introduce the sonnet into English poetry, and Sarri gave the sonnet the form that we later find in Shakespeare (three quatrains and a final couplet with a rhyming system: avav edcd efef gg). The leading theme of both poets was love. She fills Wyeth's sonnets, as well as his lyrical songs ("Lute of the Mistress", etc.). Closely following Petrarch (for example, in the sonnet "There is no peace for me, even though the war is over"), he sang about love that turned into sorrow (the song "Will You Leave Me?", etc.). Having experienced a lot, having lost faith in many things, Wyeth began to write religious psalms, epigrams and satires directed against the vanity of court life ("Life at Court"), the pursuit of nobility and wealth ("On Poverty and Wealth"). In prison, he wrote an epigram in which we find the following mournful lines:

I feed on sighs, shed tears,
The shackle ringing serves me as music...

(Translated by V.V. Rogov)

Wyatt and Sarri laid the foundations of English humanistic lyrics, which testified to the increased interest in man and his inner world. By the end of the XVI and beginning of the XVII century. refers to the flowering of English Renaissance poetry - and not only lyrical, but also epic. Following the example of the poets of the Pleiades, the English zealots of poetry created a circle solemnly named the Areopagus.

One of the most talented participants in the "Areopagus" was Philip Sidney (1554-1586), a man of versatile interests and talents, who raised English humanistic poetry to a high degree of perfection.

He achieves high artistic perfection in the development of the sonnet form. His love sonnets (the cycle "Astrophilus and Stella", 1580-1584, published in 1591) were a well-deserved success (Astrophilus means in love with the stars, Stella is a star). It was thanks to Sidney that the sonnet became a favorite form in the English Renaissance lyrics. In Sidney's poems, ancient myths are resurrected ("Philomela", "Phoebus judged Cupid, Zeus, Mars"). Sometimes Sidney echoes Petrarch and the poets of the Pleiades.

The true manifesto of the new school was Sidney's "Defense of Poetry" (c. 1584, printed in 1595), which in many respects echoes Du Belle's treatise "Defence and Glorification of the French Language." Only if the opponents of Du Bellay were learned pedants who preferred Latin to French, then Sidney considered it his duty to defend poetry (literature), which was attacked by pious Puritans. Peru Sidney also owns the unfinished pastoral novel "Arcadia", published in 1590. Like other works of this kind, it is written in a very conventional manner. A storm at sea, love stories, disguises and other adventures, and, finally, a happy ending make up the content of the novel, which takes place in the legendary Arcadia. The prose text includes many poems, sometimes very refined, written in a wide variety of sizes and forms of ancient and Italian origin (sapphic stanzas, hexameters, tercines, sextines, octaves, etc.).

Philip Sidney Edmund Spencer

Another outstanding poet of the XVI century. was Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), who took an active part in the creation of the Areopagus. He excellently wrote musical sonnets ("Amoretti", 1591-1595), marriage hymns, including "Epithalam", dedicated to his own marriage, as well as Platonic "Hymns in honor of love and beauty" (1596). Great success fell to the share of his "Shepherd's Calendar" (1579), dedicated to Philip Sidney. Adhering to the tradition of European pastoral poetry, the poem consists of 12 poetic eclogues according to the number of months in a year. The eclogues deal with love, faith, morality and other issues that attracted the attention of humanists. The May eclogue is very good, in which the aged shepherd Palinodius, joyfully welcoming the arrival of spring, vividly describes the folk holiday dedicated to merry May. The conventional literary element recedes here before the expressive sketch of English folk customs and mores.

But the most significant creation of Spencer is the monumental chivalric poem "The Fairy Queen", which was created over many years (1589-1596) and earned the author the loud fame of the "Prince of Poets". Through the efforts of Spencer, England finally found a Renaissance epic. In the Poetics of the Renaissance, including Sidney's A Defense of Poetry, heroic poetry has always been given pride of place. Especially high was Sidney's "Aeneid" by Virgil, which was for him the standard of the epic genre.

The poem makes extensive use of elements of the courtly novels of the Arthurian cycle with their fabulous fantasy and decorative exoticism. After all, the legends about King Arthur arose on British soil, and King Arthur himself continued to be a "local hero" for the English reader, the personification of British glory. Moreover, it was in England in the 16th century. Sir Thomas Malory, in the vast epic "The Death of Arthur," summed up the tales of the Arthurian cycle in a majestic manner. But Spencer relied not only on the tradition of T. Mallory. He combined it with the tradition of W. Langland and created a knightly allegorical poem, which was supposed to glorify the greatness of England, illuminated by the radiance of virtues.

In the poem, King Arthur (a symbol of greatness), having fallen in love in a dream with the "faerie queen" Gloriana (a symbol of glory, contemporaries saw Queen Elizabeth I in her), is looking for her in a fairy-tale land. In the form of 12 knights - companions of King Arthur, Spencer was going to bring out 12 virtues. The poem was supposed to consist of 12 books, but the poet managed to write only 6. In them, knights perform feats, personifying Piety, Temperance, Chastity, Justice, Politeness and Friendship.

In the XVI century. there was also the formation of the English Renaissance novel, which, however, was not destined to reach the heights that the French (Rabelais) and Spanish (Cervantes) novels reached at that time. Only in the XVIII century. The victorious march of the English novel across Europe began. However, it was in England during the Renaissance that the utopian novel arose, with all the characteristic features inherent in this genre. Contemporaries warmly accepted F. Cindy's pastoral novel Arcadia. Noisy, although not lasting success fell to the lot of John Lily's educational novel "Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit" (1578-1580), written in an exquisite style, called "Euphuism". The content of the novel is the story of a young noble Athenian, Eufues, traveling through Italy and England. Human weaknesses and vices are opposed in the novel by examples of high virtue and spiritual nobility. In "Euphues" there is little action, but much attention is paid to the experiences of the characters, their heartfelt outpourings, speeches, correspondence, stories of various characters,

The most astonishing success was achieved by English literature of the 16th century. in the field of drama. Remembering the English Renaissance, we certainly first of all remember Shakespeare. And Shakespeare was by no means alone. He was surrounded by a galaxy of talented playwrights who enriched the English theater with a number of wonderful plays. And although the heyday of the English Renaissance drama did not last very long, it was unusually stormy and multicolored. Renaissance drama took hold on the English stage. But in the country the folk theater, which was formed in the middle of the century, continued to play an active role. Addressed to the mass audience, he often in traditional forms responded vividly to the questions put forward by the era. This supported his popularity, made him an important element of public life. But not all traditional forms have stood the test of time. Relatively quickly, the mystery, rejected by the Reformation, died out. But the interlude continued to loudly declare itself - the most mundane and cheerful genre of medieval theater and morality - an allegorical play that raised certain important questions of human existence.

The highest circles disapprovingly looked at plays containing seditious thoughts, and Queen Elizabeth in 1559 simply forbade the production of such morality plays.

With all the obvious conventionality of the allegorical genre in English morality of the 16th century. vivid everyday scenes appeared, and even allegorical characters lost their abstractness. Such was, for example, the clownish figure of Vice (Vice). Among his ancestors we find Obedala from the allegorical poem by W. Langland, and among the descendants - the fat sinner Falstaff, vividly depicted by Shakespeare.

But, of course, colorful genre scenes should first of all be sought in interludes (interludes), which are an English variety of French farce. Such are the interludes of John Heywood (c. 1495-1580) - cheerful, spontaneous, sometimes rude, with characters directly snatched from everyday life. While not taking the side of the Reformation, Haywood at the same time clearly saw the shortcomings of the Catholic clergy. In the interlude "The Pardoner and the Monk" he makes the greedy ministers of the church start a brawl in the temple, as each of them wants to pull as many coins out of the pocket of the believers.

Illustration from John Heywood's SPIDER AND FLY, 1556

From the end of the 16th century the social life of England became more and more dynamic, - after all, the time was not far off when a bourgeois revolution broke out in the country - that atmosphere of intense, and sometimes contradictory creative searches, which are so characteristic of the "Elizabethian drama", which forms the highest peak in history, will be understandable English Renaissance Literature.

Robert Green writes at his desk

In the history of English literature, Robert Green (1558-1592) entered as a gifted playwright, was awarded the high degree of Master of Arts at Cambridge University. His play Monk Bacon and Monk Bongay (1589) enjoyed great success. When working on it, Green relied on the English folk book about the warlock Bacon, which was published at the end of the 16th century. Like the German Faust, the monk Bacon is a historical figure. The prototype of the hero of the folk legend was Roger Bacon, an outstanding English philosopher and naturalist of the 13th century, who was persecuted by the church, which saw him as a dangerous freethinker. The legend turned the monk Bacon into a warlock and connected him with evil spirits. In Greene's play, Bacon is given a significant role. At a time when interest in magic and all kinds of "secret" sciences grew in Europe, Green brought onto the stage a colorful figure of an English warlock who owns a magic book and a magic mirror. In the end, Bacon repents of his sinful aspirations and becomes a hermit. But the leading theme of the play is still not magic, but love. The true heroine of the play is a beautiful and virtuous girl, the daughter of a forester Margarita. The Prince of Wales falls in love with her, but she gives her heart to the Prince's courtier, Earl of Lincoln. No trials and misadventures are able to break her stamina and fidelity. Struck by Marguerite's resilience, the Prince of Wales stops his harassment. The bonds of marriage unite lovers. Demonic intricacies are not needed where great human love reigns.

About George Green, Wakefield field watchman, which was released after Green's death (1593) and probably belongs to him. The hero of the play is no longer an arrogant warlock who renounces his sinful craft, but a valiant commoner, like Robin Hood, sung in folk songs " By the way, Robin Hood himself appears on the pages of the comedy. Hearing about the prowess of George Green, he seeks a meeting with him. The play recreates a situation in which the English state is threatened both by internal and external danger, for a group of English feudal lords led by Count Kendal and in alliance with the Scottish king raises an uprising against the English king Edward III.

It is no accident that contemporaries saw Grin as a folk playwright. Joining this opinion, a prominent Russian scientist, an expert on the English theater of the Shakespeare era N.N. Storozhenko wrote: “Indeed, the title of a folk playwright does not suit anyone like Green, because we will not find so many scenes in any of his contemporary playwrights, so to speak, snatched alive from English life and, moreover, written in pure folk language, without any admixture of euphuism and classical ornamentation"

A friend of R. Green at one time was the talented poet and playwright Christopher Marlo (1564-1593), the true creator of the English Renaissance tragedy.

Christopher Marlo

Mention should also be made of Marlo's play "Edward II" (1591 or 1592), close to the genre of historical chronicle, which attracted Shakespeare's close attention in the 1990s.

When compiling this material, we used:

1. The history of the culture of Western Europe in the Renaissance. Bragin Volodarsky Varyash. 1999
2. World artistic culture. From its inception to the 17th century. (Essays on history). Lvova E.P., Fomina N.N., Nekrasova L.M., Kabkova E.P. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2008. - 416 p.: ill.
3. Distance Education Center MGUP, 2001

The heyday of English literature of the Renaissance falls on the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century, when a crisis of humanism was clearly indicated in a number of Western European countries. English Renaissance literature can be considered perhaps the youngest of the Renaissance literature in the West. But, developing rapidly, young literature soon surpassed its predecessors, especially in theater field. It was intended to reflect the complexity of life in England at that time, with its sometimes tragic contradictions. In the country, which, thanks to the great geographical discoveries, found itself in the center of new world trade routes, the process of bourgeois development began to proceed rapidly. It was facilitated by the fact that as a result of the long internecine wars of the Scarlet and White Roses (1455-1458), the English feudal lords largely exterminated each other. Instead of the old aristocracy, a "new nobility" appeared, which gradually became bourgeois. At the same time, the process of formation of the nation and national identity was rapidly proceeding in England.

A certain influence on the formation of English humanistic literature was exerted by the earlier humanism of other European countries (Erasmus of Rotterdam, I. Vives, and others).

Having reached its peak in the 16th - early 18th centuries, English humanism also had a preparatory period, falling at the end of the 14th century. Humanistic features were already laid in the work Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), the author of a remarkable work in verse form, The Canterbury Tales, which is not inferior in artistic brightness and cheerfulness to Boccaccio's Decameron.

Oxford University becomes the center of humanistic thought. The most striking figure among the Oxford humanists was Thomas More (1478-1535), politician (chancellor of King Henry VIII), philosopher and writer, author of the famous Utopia.

The highest development of all literary genres reached in the era of the English Renaissance dramaturgy, which had deep folk foundations and was not alien to the influence of ancient authors, especially Plautus and Renaissance Italian novelists. For its approval on the stage of English theaters, a lot was done by a group of playwrights, Shakespeare's predecessors, nicknamed "university minds" for their high education (J. Lily, R. Green, T. Kid, K. Marlo, etc.).

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) - a brilliant playwright and bard poet not only in Renaissance England, but throughout the world and of all times. With constant success, his ageless dramatic works are performed on the theater stages, in various languages, in front of many generations of spectators of the changing world. To Shakespeare the playwright and poet is a capacious description of the figures of the Renaissance as "titans in the power of thought, passion and character" (F. Engels). His titanism - in the extraordinary depth of revealing the contradictions of his complex era, reflected in the characters of his heroes with their passions, quests, doubts, foresight of the future, in showing how an unjust social order perverts the "wonderful creature" - man - and how a man still turns out to be able to win all the abominations and injustices of life.

The paucity of information about the life of Shakespeare gave rise to the emergence of the middle of the XIX century. hypothesis, according to which the author of 37 plays, two poems and 154 sonnets was not the actor William Shakespeare, but some other person who, for unknown reasons, wished to hide his name. Thus, the "Shakespearean question" was born, which resulted in a long dispute between "Stratfordians" and "anti-Stratfordians", based on a huge gap between "the content of Shakespeare's works and his being." The answer to this question was given by the scientific secretary of the Shakespeare Commission at the Russian Academy of Sciences I.M. Gililov in the book "The Game about William Shakespeare, or the Secret of the Great Phoenix" (M., 1997). Shakespeare's mystery is akin to the mystery of Atlantis. Shakespeare, as it turned out, is a huge mysterious country, patiently waiting for more than two centuries to bring to light its treasures buried under a layer of obscurity. Thanks to this book, the mysterious country "Shakespeare" begins to "emerge" from the depths of the unknown. Its author knows the history of the "Shakespearean question" well; problems of authorship, and therefore chose the only true path - the scientific one. It can be argued that this is no longer a version, but itself clue. Despite the scientific character of the book by I.M. Gililov, the support of each phrase by documents and facts collected by previous generations of researchers and most of all by the author - no other answer to the question about the authorship of Shakespeare's works seems to be possible for the author of the section. The greatest hoax in history, as I.M. Gililov, done by a married couple Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland (1576-1612), and Elizabeth Manners, Countess of Rutland (1585-1612). Mankind will continue to use the name "Shakespeare", but at the same time know who is behind him.

Shakespeare creates works of enduring ideological and artistic value. Outstanding poetic works include his 151 sonnet, created between 1592 and 1598 (published in 1609). Their lyrical hero is a man of the Renaissance, who has a high idea of friendship, love, art and concern for the fate of all mankind. The picture of triumphant evil makes life almost unbearable for him. He is unbearable to see "Dignity that begs for alms. / A lie mocking at simplicity, / Insignificance in luxurious attire / And straightforwardness, which is reputed to be stupidity, / And stupidity in the mask of a sage, a prophet, / And a clamped mouth of inspiration, / And righteousness in the service of vice..." (translated by S. Marshak). However, this darkest of sonnets (66) ends with the decision to stay alive for the sake of a friend: "Everything is vile that I see around, / But it's a pity to leave you, dear friend." In some sonnets, care for a friend, whose image at times develops into all future generations of people, is even more noticeable, which gives the poems a life-affirming character. The artistic form of sonnets, sincere, devoid of exaggeration, created according to the law of truthful art, proclaimed in 21 of 54 sonnets, is distinguished by great perfection: "In love and in word - truth is my law", "Beautiful is a hundred times beautiful, crowned with precious truth."

Dramatic Chronicles Shakespeare, from which his path as a playwright began, nine plays, called by the names of kings - "King John", "Richard II", "Richard III" and others reproduce mainly pictures of the life of medieval England. Although the nobility acts as the main characters in them, there is also a wide social (“Falstaffian” background), where ruined knights (Falstaff and others), and proud Shakespearean yeomen, and artisans, and servants, and soldiers act. The chronicles present the attitude of the people to events and rulers ("Henry VI"). As a force directing the course of history, Shakespeare puts forward the "call of the Time", approaching the idea of historical regularity.

Comedy Shakespeare's works are distinguished primarily by their great cheerfulness, the atmosphere of fun that reigns in them.

In comedies, everything human always wins - smart and kind, triumphing over the stupid and evil ("The Merry Wives of Windsor", "Two Veronets", etc.) - This shows the author's faith in the victory of good principles in life, his ability, laughing, to part with the survivor.

Tragedy is a hymn to the glory of great Renaissance love, which does not take into account the medieval feudal enmity of the families to which the lovers belong. "Romeo and Juliet" (1595). It carries a bright life-affirming beginning. Young Romeo and Juliet die, but the age-old feudal prejudices that instilled enmity in the families of their parents, who are reconciled over the bodies of their children, are also buried.

The tragedy "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" (1601) is distinguished by exceptional depth and complexity. It is no coincidence that thousands of scientific studies are devoted to it. The profound socio-psychological and artistic meaning of the tragedy is manifested in the affirmation of the need to fight against evil, in the utmost indignation against everything that distorts the nature of man, depriving him of true humanity.

The spokesman for this indignation and the defender of humanity is Hamlet - a typical Renaissance figure with his inherent sharpened critical thought, strength of passion and character. In the play's prologue, Hamlet, a Danish prince, a student at the University of Wittenberg, sees the shadow of his murdered father, who asks his son to take revenge on the killer. The father was an ideal for Hamlet: "he was a man, a man in everything." The killer of Hamlet's father is his uncle Claudius, vile and power-hungry, "pulling off the precious crown and putting it in his pocket." It soon became clear to the humanist Hamlet that the crime of Claudius was only a particular case of the evil reigning in the Danish kingdom, where "something was obviously rotten." An expression of this rottenness is also the behavior of Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, who too soon after the death of her husband became the wife of Claudius, which especially hurts the soul of her son. The seal of the royal court with its rottenness lies even on the young bride of Prince Ophelia. Hamlet eventually comes to the inevitable painful conclusion that not only Denmark, but the whole world is "a prison, and an excellent one: with many locks, dungeons and dungeons." It is also clear to Hamlet that "the age is shaken" and that he, Hamlet, is responsible for giving it strength. Therefore, the specific, private task facing Hamlet - revenge for his father - develops for him into an awareness of the need to fight the evil of the age. His task becomes immensely more complicated and becomes incredibly difficult for him, who is essentially fighting alone. Hence the tragic reflections of Hamlet over its severity, as can be seen from his famous monologue "To be or not to be ...", which deals with the most diverse forms of evil in the world around us: about the "oppression of the strong", "the arrogance of the authorities", about insults caused by "uncomplaining merit", and much more. Under the weight of fulfilling his task, Hamlet dies, expressing with his fate the fate of the humanists of his time. Although "a violent crowd is partial to him," he remains a lone wrestler. And this is his tragedy. The only true friend of the prince remains alive - Horatio, who will fulfill the last will of Hamlet: to tell the truth to people about him. "The hero is defeated not by enemies, not by his own weakness, but by history" (A. Kettle). Fortinbras comes to the Danish throne, standing much higher than the villain Claudius, but "not able to understand what Hamlet understood" (A. Kettle). The image of Hamlet, very complex psychologically, received different interpretations during his stage incarnation. The story of the Danish prince is raised by the genius of Shakespeare to the expression of the tragedy of all mankind at a certain stage of development.

The subsequent tragedies of the playwright also differ in great depth of problems and expressiveness in the depiction of characters, in the disclosure of human passions. AT "Othello" the clash of the bearers of Renaissance traits - Othello and Desdemona - with the cynicism and predation of the anti-humanistic forces embodied in Iago is again shown. And although the collision of "nobility and trust in man" (A. Pushkin) with deceit and meanness leads here to a tragic outcome - to the death of an innocent, full of charm of Desdemona and then Othello, the moral victory remains with the bearers of humanism. Othello, who executed himself for the crime committed through the fault of Iago, dies enlightened, regaining his former faith in man.

The tragedy "King Lear" presents two worlds: the world of true humanity and the opposing world of predators and callous egoists, embodied in Lear's eldest and middle daughters Goneril and Regan, Cornwall and Edmund. The composition of the world of humanity in tragedy changes. First it is Lear's youngest daughter Cordelia and Kent, then Edgar joins them, then Lear himself with his jester and Gloucester. Particularly noteworthy is the fate of Lear, who joins the world of humanity, having gone through immeasurable suffering, giving him the opportunity to fully understand all the lies and illusions of his former life. By the power of grandiose generalizations, Shakespeare, behind the tragedy of Lear, who found himself without a roof over his head, saw the fate of many English "homeless unfortunates", doomed to poverty by the criminal system of "fencing". Although the ending of "King Lear" is tragic - the noble Cordelia and the enlightened Lear perish - nevertheless, he is not without optimism, and even to a greater extent than in "Hamlet".

Shakespeare's work is fundamentally deeply folk, humanistic and realistic. The principles of realism are not only practically embodied in his dramaturgy, but are also directly set forth in his works, and especially expressively in Hamlet. Shakespeare's work is a great synthesis of the Renaissance, combining its achievements and discoveries. It is immortal and ageless. He is inspired by composers, painters, filmmakers.

· heroic on stories from nat. the history of the times of the Gothic kings, the struggle with the Moors, the struggle of kings with recalcitrant feudal lords, the unification of the Spanish. monarchy ("Fuente Ovejuna"), the discovery of America. Patriotism, idealization of antiquity, the power of Spain.

· “Cloak and sword” according to the noble costume. These are everyday comedies, “comedies of manners”. ("Dog in the Manger", "Girl with a Jug"). Here the play is a “mirror of life”. Personal and family conflicts generated by love are shown > everything is based on the game of feelings. Traditional motives and conventional techniques (ex: secret dates, serenades, duels). A parallel intrigue of masters and servants. The plays are upbeat and witty. The driving force is chance, the comedy is the result of misunderstandings. There are many grotesque characters · little about the people, but they express Lope's social and political views. In terms of intelligence and moral qualities, a peasant = an aristocrat (ex: "Reasonable in his house"). Social issues.

4. "Fuente Ovehuna" (=sheep's key) imbued with revolutionary pathos, the hero is not one character, but the masses of the people under the influence of violence in the peasant masses social consciousness awakens the concept of honor is an extra-class category, synonymous with the dignity of the human person historical perspective (marriage of Ferdinand with Isabella = annexation of the kingdom of Aragon to Castile = unification of Spain) 5. theater technique:

? XVI - scaffolding from boards, in the village in the open air, in the city - in the courtyards of buildings · 2/2 XVI - special. theater buildings (1e1574). There is no curtain, but the costumes are luxurious · the court theater is cool the complex structure of the performance – before and after – dances, songs 6. Lope's followers:

· Tirso de Molina (XVI-XVII) – monk and historiographer. Everything, like Lope, just came up with the genre of religious and philosophical dramas. "The Seville mischievous" is the first adaptation of the legend of Don Juan. The hero is still primitive - he conquers not with attractiveness, but with deceit or a promise to marry. "Pious Martha".

· Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (XVI-XVII) – few pieces, but more carefully processed. "The Weaver of Segovia", "The Doubtful Truth".

Guillen de Castro (XVI-XVII) - often took stories from the folk romances "The Youth of Sid".

38. Analysis of one of the plays by Lope de Vega.

39. Common hack of the English Renaissance.

The renaissance in England coincides chronologically with the Tudor period, from the accession of Henry 7 to the death of Queen Elizabeth. Under the Tudors, England experienced a complete upheaval in all areas of economic and social life, turning it from a feudal to a classical country. During this period, England had an extraordinary flowering in all areas of thought and creativity. The process of development of this new culture proceeded in England under specific conditions, which gave it a special xp, throughout the 16th century. From the end of the 15th century, the impoverishment of the countryside began, caused by the capitalist manufacturing industry and trade. = new alignment of class forces in England. + the community of economic and political interests of the most powerful classes, which were equally interested in supporting the absolute monarchy of the Tudors, the landed nobility and the bourgeoisie. The reason for the unification was the consequences of the War of the Scarlet and White Roses - the almost complete destruction of the old feudal nobility, castles that passed into new bourgeois hands, the sale of very extensive church lands during the reformation period, the introduction of capitalist methods in all areas of economic life in the countryside and in the city. Trade, navigation are developing, communication with the rest of Europe is being established. However, at the same time, the poverty of the people increased rapidly. Many uprisings of the poor broke out in the village (of which the most striking was the uprising of Robert Keth). The disintegration of the bourgeoisie and the absolute monarchy, and the growth of political antagonism between them, also intensified. This is followed by a crisis of humanistic culture. The revival in England, spanning over a 100 year period, went through several developments. Its early period coincided with the Reformation. This determined the bathroom features of English humanism. Questions of religion for all early humanists played an important role. In the second period, the situation changes. By destroying the economic and political power of the church, royal power undermines its authority and its strong ideological influence. The fact that the Renaissance in England (along with the European one) was a late historical phenomenon (+ language) was also of significant importance. The greatest flowering of the ideas of the Renaissance falls in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (15581603). During this period, the bourgeoisie and Protestant England triumph over the "invincible armada", the feudal Catholic monarchy of Spain. England becomes the largest maritime power, sending its merchant ships to all countries and strengthening ties with all the states of Europe. This is also the period of the greatest balance of power between the nobility and the bourgeoisie, national unification and high political upsurge. Court literature is developing unprecedentedly before; along with the ancient classics, the works of Italian, French, and Spanish writers are translated in England. The scientific-philosophical movement is developing widely. Fiction is developing extraordinarily broadly. The English novel is developing rapidly: chivalrous, shepherd, adventurous and real-life, a rich dramaturgy arises with Shakespeare at the head. Late humanism is painted in pessimistic tones, the enemy of the humanists is the new society. Built on capitalist property and profit.

William Grosin, Thomas Lynacre and John Colet were members of the circle of young scientists in the 15th century at Oxford University. They were united by an interest in the ancient world and new science. The most prominent among them was Thomas More.

(See No. 40. THOMAS MORE AND European UTOPISM) Francis Bacon (15611626) was the greatest English philosopher and scientist of the Renaissance. He belonged to the new nobility, studied at the University of Cambridge, lived for some time in Paris. Studied law. He was elected to Parliament, then retired to his estate, not far from London, and devoted himself to scientific work. After the accession to the throne of James1, Bacon returns to politics, but he is soon condemned by parliament for bribery and returns to his scientific work. In 1605, he published a treatise "On the Prosperity of the Sciences", then he wrote a number of philosophical works - on the classification of scientific disciplines, on ancient knowledge on issues of astronomy, natural science, etc. The most important of these was the "New Aragon", so named in contrast to the "Organon" of Aristotle. In this essay, Bacon severely criticized scholastic science and recommended a new method based on the empirical study of nature. Bacon is a materialist. Bacon also occupies an important place in the history of English prose, as the author of "Experiments" (English). This book consists of short essays or episodes in which Bacon expounds his views on various issues of philosophy, morality and social life. Bacon is also the author of the Latin autotopic novel The New Atlantis, in which he glorifies science, considering the progress of scientific technology as the basis for the future of a happy life for mankind.

40. Thomas More and European utopianism.

Thomas More (14781535). Born in the family of a poor London judge. Studied at Oxford University. There Thomas studied ancient writers and their works. After graduating from university, he writes Latin epigrams, satires, translations of Greek anthology poets, etc. When Henry8 ascended the throne, Thomas began to quickly rise through the ranks. During a trip to Flanders, Thomas conceived and partially wrote the most famous of his works - "Utopia", thanks to which he can safely be called the first representative of utopian socialism. Thomas dedicated his work to a friend of Erasmus, who published it - Peter Aegidius. More invented the word "Utopia" himself, which in Greek means "non-existent, unprecedented place." More's book consists of conversations with a certain Raphael Githlodeus, who was a companion of Amerigo Vespucci, and after that he traveled to many countries, including visiting the island of Utopia. In the first part of the book - a sharp criticism of the modern social structure, in the second, as an example - a description of the social structure on the island of Utopia. The form of More's work was not new in the literature of the time. Before and during its creation, late Greek adventure novels, travel and legends about the "earthly paradise" were already known. But in the era of humanism, this form is transformed. Under More's pen, she receives new features and a completely different ideological aspiration. More used the treatise of Blessed Augustine "On the City of God", built as a "Utopia" on the opposition of the ideal and sinful state system + classical literature, in particular the writings of Plato + English reality, as sources of new ideas. More sees the main cause of the disaster that has engulfed England in private property, in the presence of which there can be neither justice nor public well-being. And of all forms of private property, money is the worst. In "Utopia" archaic features are visible. Mora's further work is not so interesting. His "History of Richard" remained unfinished, however, this work is one of the first examples of the new English humanist historiography. However, Mora was changed by luck. When King Richard 3 embarked on the path of reformation, More refused to swear allegiance to him as the head of the Anglican Church, and did not support his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. For which he was arrested and executed.

41. General description of the literature of the Elizabethan time.

Before Elizabeth:

Throughout the 16th century, Italian literature was very popular in England. Under the influence of Italian models, many literary genres were reformed and new poetic forms were adopted. First of all, the reform touched poetry. In the last years of the reign of Henry 8, a circle of court poets transformed English lyrics into an Italian style. The most important figures in this reform were Wyeth and Serey.

Thomas Wyeth, famous for his education, having visited Italy and got acquainted with the culture of the Renaissance, became interested in Italian poetry and tried to imitate it in everything. In his early TVwe there are only motives of love, and in his later one one feels disappointment in court life. His poetry has book and artificial hr. Most of all, Wyeth was fascinated by the poetry of Petrarch and, under his influence, introduced the form of the sonnet into English literature, until then unknown in England. Wyeth also imitated French and old English poets.

Henry Howard, Earl of Serey. He also fell in love with Italy. His early poetry is an imitation of Wyeth. He continued to improve the Italian sonnet in English. + Serey translated several songs of the Aeneid into English, here. Under Italian influence, blank verse is used.

Philip Sydney, studied in Paris until St. Bartholomew's night, then, having traveled to many countries, returned to his homeland. In the collection of sonnets "Astrophele and Stela" he sang Penelope Dever. + wrote the pastoral novel Arcadia and the treatise Defense of Poetry.

THE ELIZABETHES 1. The greatest poet of the English Renaissance is Edmund Spenser. Focusing on foreign literature, he tried to create a purely English, national poetry. He received a good classical education. Early works - "The Shepherd's Calendar" (consists of 12 poetic eclogues) and, the beginning of work on the poem "The Fairy Queen" (9 poetic lines = "Spencer's stanza"), the first three books of which are dedicated to Elizabeth, they also brought him literary fame. Shortly before his death, he wrote a treatise On the Present Condition of Ireland. His first creations were 6 translations of Petrarch's sonnets and a translation of the Pleiades poetry. + wrote many lyrical poems. His poem "The Return of Colin Clout" is distinguished by satirical features.

2. In the 17th century, the novel also developed in England. The first English Renaissance novel was John Lily's Euphues. John Lily, having received a classical education at Oxford University, was also known as a playwright ("Sappho and Phaon", "Endymion"). Lily's novel consists of 2 parts: 1) "Euphues or the anatomy of wit" 2) "Euphues and his England." The novel was of interest to contemporaries rather than by the plot, but by the style that was called "eufuism" - this is 1) a flowery, especially refined speech that arose under strong Italian influence 2) a tendency to rhythmize prose speech. Such refined speech in life was not spoken. She influenced Shakespeare, but he very soon freed himself from her.