2 The Renaissance Period

The Renaissance Period （1509 -1660）Part I: What is Renaissance? (Definition and Essence)✧Renaissance means “rebirth‖. It meant the reintroduction into Western Europe of the full culturalheritage of Greece and Rome.•It first started in Italy during the 14th century when there developed an interest in the manuscripts surviving from ancient Greece and Rome.•The intellectual wisdom of ancient Greece and Rome encouraged a rebirth of human spirit, a realization of human potential for development and creation.•文艺复兴意思是―重生‖，它指的是西欧重新引入希腊和罗马的文化遗产。

文艺复兴起源于14世纪的意大利，当时人们对古希腊和罗马的存在的手稿开始很感兴趣。

古希腊罗马的智慧鼓舞着人文精神的复兴，使人们认识到人类自我发展和创造的潜能。

✧Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance, for the Greek and Roman civilization was based on such aconception that man is the measure of all things. [古希腊辨者普罗泰戈拉的名言―人是万物的尺度‖。

（即以人为本）)]•Thus, by emphasizing the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life, they voiced their beliefs that man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of this life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.•The Renaissance marks a transition from the medieval to the modern world. Generally, it refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries.•It first started in Italy, with the flowering of painting, sculpture and literature. From Italy the movement went to embrace the rest of Europe.•It is actually a movement stimulated by a series of historical events, such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the new discoveries in geography and astrology, the religious reformation and the economic expansion.•Therefore, in essence, it is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe, to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church.Part II: the English Renaissance1. Historical Background•The Renaissance was slow in reaching England not only because of England’s separation from the Continent but also because of its domestic unrest. The Wars of Roses (1455-1485)are example to show how the energy of England was violently destroying itself.•It was not until the reign of Henry VIII(1509-1547) that the Renaissance really began to show its effect in England.•With Henry VIII’s encouragement, the Oxford reformers, scholars and humanists introduced classical literature to England. Education, based upon the classics and the Bible, was revitalized and literature, already much read during the 15th century, became even more popular. Thus began the English Renaissance, which was perhaps England's golden Age, especially in literature.•The English Renaissance had no sharp break with the past. Attitudes and feelings which had been characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries persisted well down into the era of Humanism and Reformation.•The long reign of Henry VIII was marked not only a steady increase in the national power at home and abroad but also by the entrance of the religious reformation from the Continent.•It was Martin Luther(1483-1546), a German protestant, who initiated the Reformation. He believed thatevery true Christian was his own priest and was entitled to interpret the Bible for himself. The Protestant movement was seen as a means to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption and superstition of the Middle Ages. The colourful and dramatic ritual of the Catholic Church was simplified.Indulgences, pilgrimages and other practices were condemned.•Henry VIII was regarded as a faithful son of the Catholic Church but he cut ties with Rome later because he needed a new wife for a legitimate male heir. When he declared himself through the approval of the parliament as the Supreme head of the Church of England in 1534, the Reformation in England was in its full swing.•One of the major results was the fact that the Bible in English was placed in every church and services were held in English instead of Latin so that people could understand. By the middle of Elizabeth’s reign, Protestantism had been firmly established, with a certain of compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism.•Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanists.2. Elizabethan era•The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558–1603).Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history.•The Elizabethan drama, in its totality, is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance.•The most famous dramatists in the Renaissance England are Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson, who wrote plays with such universal qualities of greatness.•By imitating the romances of Italy and Spain, embracing the mysteries of German legend, and combining the fictions of poetic fancy with the facts of daily life, they made a vivid depiction of the sharp conflicts between feudalism and the rising bourgeoisie in a transitional period.•And with humors of the moment, abstractions of philosophical speculation, and intense vitality, this extraordinary drama, with Shakespeare as the master, left a monument of the Renaissance unrivaled for pure creative power by any other product of that epoch.Part III: William ShakespeareLife and fame•26 April 1564 (baptized) – 23 April 1616•an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.•He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".Literary CareerShakespeare’s dramatic career extended from about 1590 to 1613.• 1. period of apprenticeship(1590-1600):History plays: Richard III, Henry IV: parts1 and 2, Henry V Comedies: The Merchant of V enice, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth NightEarly tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Julius CaesarSonnets: more than 100• 2. period of maturity(1601-1607)Tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Timon ofAthensTragi-comedies: Measure for Measure, All’s Well that Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida • 3. period after retirement(1608-1613)Tragi-comedies: Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, the Tempest,History play: Pericles ,Henry VIII•His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems.•His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.•莎士比亚塑造了性格鲜明的人物形象，展现了封建制度和资本主义制度交替时期波澜壮阔的历史画面，宣扬了人文主义和个性解放。