-
Outline of
The Renaissance
Period
文艺复兴
14th -- mid-17th
I. Historical Background
II.
Definition
of Renaissance and Humanism
III.
Distinguished Writers
1.
Edmund Spenser
埃蒙德
.
斯宾塞
opher
Marlowe
克里斯托弗
·
马洛
2.
3.
William Shakespeare
Francis
Bacon
弗朗西斯
·
培根
4.
5.
John Donne
约翰
.
邓恩
6.
George Herbert
乔治
.
赫伯特
7.
Andrew Marvell
安德鲁
.
马维尔
8.
Ben Jonson
9.
Robert Herrick
10.
John Milton
Religious Reformation
Roman Catholic
天主教
Church
------
Church of England
Queen Elizabeth (Tudor)
(1558-- 1603)
“
Balance
”
the rising middle
class
中产阶级
------
feudal lords
封建贵族
Protestants
新教徒
------
Catholics
天主教徒
1588
English
navy
海军
Spanish navy
The
word
“
Renaissance
”
means
revival
复兴
or
rebirth
再生
,
and
the
Renaissance
in
England
means
the
revival
of
arts
and
sciences
of
ancient
Greece
and Rome
after long years of
neglect
忽视
in the
medieval
中世纪
time.
Humanism is the essence of the
Renaissance.
Humanism
人文主义
is
both
the
keynote
主基调
of
the
Renaissance
and
the
intellectual
liberation
思维解放
movement.
The
humanists took interest in human life and human
activities and gave expression to
the
new feeling of admiration for human beauty, human
achievement.
Chief Achievements
诗歌
prosperous
“
a
nest of singing birds
”
Sonnet
十四行诗
2. Drama
戏剧
Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare
blank verse
London--- centre
of drama performance
一
Edmund Spenser
(1552-- 1599)
Masterpiece?
The Faerie
Queene
仙后
incomplete English epic
poem
1
This
masterpiece is dedicated to _____.
Queen Elizabeth
2
Spenser
plans 12 books, each one with a hero standing for
a different
moral virtue
3
Largely symbolic, the poem
follows several knights in their adventures to
test their
virtues:
Holiness, Friendship, Justice, Courtesy,
etc
.
4
Two main
characters that serve as the unity of the book
are
Arthur and Gloriana
Comments on Spenser
Spenser
was
the greatest non-dramatic
poe
t of the Elizabethan Age.
Spenser has been called the
“
poets
’
poet
”
, because
of his idealism,
his love of beauty,
and his exquisite
精美的，敏锐的
melody
旋律
.
二
Christopher Marlowe
(1564--1593)
University
Wits
大学智慧
The name
is given by some modern literary historians to a
group of English poets and
playwrights<
/p>
剧作家
.The
most
important
member
of
the
group
was
Christopher
Marlowe.
representative works
Tamburlaine the Great
帖木儿大地
The
Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
浮士德
The Jew of
Malta
马耳他的犹太人
Achievements
1
Marlowe
’
s
greatest
achievement
lies
in
that
he
perfected
the
blank
verse
and
made2 it the principal medium of
English drama.
无韵诗
2 His second achievement is his
creation of the
Renaissance
hero
for English drama.
3
His
work
paved
the
way
for
the
plays
of
the
greatest
English
dramatist---
Shakespeare.
Blank verse
refers to verse
written in unrhymed
iambic
抑扬格
pentameter
五步格
抑扬格的五音步诗
.
Very popular verse form in English
poetry and extensively employed the Renaissance.
三
Shakespeare
well-known as a poet ,actor, and
playwright
Generally, his
dramatic career is divided into four periods.
1) Apprenticeship
--------
History plays and Comedies
2)
Individualized
---------
History plays and Comedies and Tragedies
3) Great tragedies-----
-The
Four Greatest Tragedies and Dark comedies
4) Romantic tragicomedies
四大悲剧：《哈姆雷特》（英：
Hamlet
）、《奥赛罗》（英：
Othello
）、《李尔王》（英：
King
Lear
）、《麦克白》（英：
Mac
Beth
）《罗密欧与朱丽叶》（
Romeo and
Juliet
）
喜剧：《仲夏夜之梦》（
A Midsummer
Night's Dream
）、《威尼斯商人》（
The
Merchant
of Venice
）
< br>、
《第十二夜》
（
Dvenad
tsataya noch
）
、
《皆
大欢喜》
（
《
As you like
it
》
）
。
Sonnet
pentameters
抑扬五音步
in English.
The English/
Shakespearean sonnet comprises three quatrains and
a couplet, rhyming
“
ababcdcdefef
gg
”
.
It is a
lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal
length, iambic
Shakespeare
’
s
Achievements
1. Shakespeare
represented
the trend of
history
in giving voice to the desires
and
aspirations
of
the
peare
wrote
a
number
of
plays
with
the
history
of
England as their background.
So
his
plays
include
the
whole
transitional
过渡期的
period
of
England
from
medieval time to modern time.
2.
Shakespeare
’
s
humanism
In his early stage,
his plays were
overflowed
泛滥，溢出
with
optimistic
spirit
, in
comedies or
tragedies
，
firm
belief in the
nobility
高贵，
贵族
of human nature and in
the
power of love.
But
as
the
years
went
on
Shakespeare
knew
about
human
nature,
the
more
he
was
depressed
at the ugliness of human nature. This
pessimistic
悲观的
outlook appears
in his
tragedies.
3.
Shakespeare
’
s
characterization
In his
plays he described
a great number of
characters
,
Shakespeare
’
s characters
are
“
round
”
. In his characters, vice
缺点
and virtue commingle
混合
and that is true
of
the common sense of
humanity.
4.
Shakespeare
’
s
originality
独创性
Shakespeare
drew
most
of
his
materials
from
sources
known
to
his
audience;
from
other
writers
’
plays.
But
his
plays
are
original
because he instilled into the
old
materials a
new
spirit
that gives new life to his
plays. The best example is
Hamlet
.
5.
Shakespeare as a
great poet
Shakespeare was not only a
great dramatist,
but also a
great poet.
They are rich in images,
metaphors
隐喻
and
symbols.
6. Shakespeare as
master of the English
language
TEM 8
Exercise
1
“What’s in
a name? that which we call a rose by
any other name
would smell as
sweet;” this is a perfect example of
____ as one design features of
languages.
A. duality
B. creativity
C.
arbitrariness
D.
displacement