课外拓展 伊丽莎白时期的名词解释

课外拓展（伊利莎白时期的名词解释）

1. Renaissance:

Renaissance (

“< /p>

rebirth

”

) is the name commonly applied to the

period

of

European

history

following

the

Middle

Ages;

it

is

usually

said

to

have begun in Italy in the late fourteenth century and to have continued, both

in

Italy

and

other

countries.

In

this

period

the

European

arts

of

painting,

sculpture, architecture, and literature reached an eminence not exceeded in

any

age.

The development

came

late to

England

in

the

sixteenth century,

and did not have its flowering until the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. It

also has been described as the birth of the modern world out of the ashes of

the dark ages; as the discovery of the world and the discovery of man; and

as the era of the emergence of untrammeled individualism in life, thought,

religion, and art.

2.

Elizabethan

period

(

Elizabethan

age

):

Strictly

speaking,

it

refers

to

the

period

of

the

reign

of

Elizabeth

I

(1558~1603).

The

term

“

Elizabethan ,

”

however,

is

often

used

loosely

to

refer

to

the

late

sixteenth

and

early

seventeenth centuries, even after the death of Elizabeth. This was a time of

rapid

development

in

English

commerce,

maritime

power,

and

nationalist

feeling-the defeat of the Spanish armada occurred in 1588. It was a great (in

drama the greatest) age of English literature

—

the age of Sir Philip Sidney,

Christopher

Marlowe,

Edmund

Spenser,

Shakespeare,

Sir Walter

Raleigh,

Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, and many other extraordinary writers of prose

and of dramatic, lyric, and narrative poetry.

3. Drama

: It is the form of composition designed for performance in the theater,

in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated action,

and utter the written dialogue. (The common alternative name for a dramatic

composition is a play.) In poetic drama the dialogue is written in verse, which

in English is usually bland verse. Almost all the heroic dramas of the English

restoration

period,

however,

were

written

in

heroic

couplets

(iambic

pentameter lines rhyming in pairs). A closet drama is written in dramatic form,

with dialogue, indicated settings, and stage directions, but is intended by the

author to be read rather than to be performed.

4. Jacobean age

: It is the reign of James I

(1603~1625), which followed that of

Queen

Elizabeth.

This

was

the

period

in

prose

writings

of

Francis

bacon,

John

Donne

’

s

sermons,

Robert

Burton

’

s

anatomy

of

melancholy,

and

the

King James

’

s translation of the

Bible

. It was also the time of Shakespeare

’

s

greatest tragedies and tragicomedies, and of major writings by other notable

poets and playwrights including john Donne, Ben Jonson, Michael Drayton,

lady

Mary

wroth,

sir

Francis

Beaumont

and

john

Fletcher,

john

Webster,

George Chapman, Thomas Middleton, Philip Massinger, and Elizabeth Cary,

whose notable biblical drama

The Tragedy of Mariam

,

The Faire Queene

of

Jewry

was the first long play by an Englishwoman to be published.

5. Sonnet

: It is a lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic

pentameter lines linked by an intricate rhyme scheme. There are two major

patterns of rhyme in sonnets written in the English language: (1) the Italian

or

Petrarchan

sonnet

(named

after

the

fourteenth

century

Italian

poet

Petrarch) falls into two main parts: an octave (eight lines) rhyming

abbaabba

followed

by

a

sestet

(six

lines)

rhyming

cdecde

or

some

variant,

such

as

cdccdc

.

(2)

The

earl

of

surrey

and

other

English

experimenters

in

the

sixteenth century also developed a stanza form called the English sonnet, or

else the Shakespearean sonnet, this sonnet falls into three quatrains and a

concluding couplet:

abab cdcd efef gg

. There was one notable variant, the

Spenserian

sonnet,

in

which

Edmund

Spenser linked

each

quatrain

to

the

next by a continuing rhyme:

abab bcbc cdcd ee

.

6.

Essay

:

It

is

any

short

composition

in

prose

that

undertakes

to

discuss

a

matter,

express

a

point

of

view,

persuade

us

to

accept

a

thesis

on

any

subject, of simply entertain. The essay discusses its subject in nontechnical

fashion, and often with a liberal use of such devices as anecdote, striking

illustration,

and

humor

to

augment

its

appeal.

A

useful

distinction

is

that

between

the

formal

and

informal

essay.

The

formal

essay,

or

article,

is

relatively impersonal: the author writes as an authority, or at least as highly

knowledgeable, and expounds the subject in an orderly way. In the informal

essay(or

“

familia r

”

or

“

personal

essay

”

),

the

author

assumes

a

tone

of

intimacy with his audience, tends to deal with everyday things rather than

with

public

affairs

or

specialized

topics,

and

writes

in

s

relaxed,

self- revelatory, and sometimes whimsical fashion.

7. Soliloquy

: Soliloquy is the act of talking to oneself, whether silently or aloud.

In drama it denotes the convention by which a character, alone on the stage,

utters his or her thoughts aloud.

8. Hymn

: The term derives from the Greek

Hymnos

, which originally signified

songs

of

praise that

were for the

most part addressed

to

the

gods,

but

in

some instances to human heroes or to abstract concepts. In current usage it

denotes a

song

that

celebrates

god or expresses

religious feelings

and

is

intended primarily to be sung as part of a religious service.

9. Spenserian stanza

: It is a longer form devised by Edmund Spenser for the

Faerie Queene

(1590~1996)

—

nine lines, in which the first eight lines are

iambic pentameter and the last iambic hexameter, rhyming ababbcbcc.

10. Miracle play

: The miracle play had as its subject either a story from the

bible,

or

else

the

life

and

martyrdom

of

a

saint.

In

the

usage

of

some

historians, however,

“

miracle

play

”

denotes

only

dramas

based on

saints

’

lives, and the term

“

mystery play

”

is applied only to dramas based on the

bible.

11. Morality play

: Morality plays are medieval allegorical plays in which personified

human

qualities

acted

and

disputed,

mostly

coming

from

the

15

th

century.

They

developed into the interludes,

from

which it is

not

always

possible to

distinguish

them, and hence had a considerable influence on the development of Elizabethan

drama

12.

Interlude

:

Interlude

(Latin,

“

between

the

play

”

)

is

a

term

applied

to

a

variety

of

short

stage

entertainments,

such

as

secular

farces

and

witty