Adapted from a popular old German legend
Tired with the study of Medieval knowledge (Theology, Philosophy, Medicine, Law), Dr. Faustus turns to magic book and signs a contract with the devil Mephistopheles. He sells his soul to the devil on the condition that the latter will satisfy every demand of his for a period of 24 years.
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Queen Elizabeth (Tudor) (1558-- 1603)
“Balance” the rising middle class ------ feudal lords
Protestants ------ Catholics
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Historical Background 1. Renaissance in Europe: 14th -- mid-17th Slow in reaching England, Why? a. separation from the continent b. domestic unrest: 1st, Wars of the Roses: 1455-1485 (aristocrats) 2nd, Hundred Years War: 14th-15th (Bri-Fran)
education
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Representative works:
ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱ• • • • Tamburlaine the Great (1587-1588) The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1589) The Jew of Malta (1590) “The passionate shepherd to his love”
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Comments on him:
Spenser was the greatest non-dramatic poet of the Elizabethan Age. Spenser has been called the “poets’ poet”, because of his idealism, his love of beauty, and his exquisite melody. Spenser has exerted great influence on later poets.
Comedies
Tragedies
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
3) Great tragedies
Four tragedies
Dark comedies 4) Romantic tragicomedies
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium-Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.-Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!-Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena.
The old aristocracy was wiped out.
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
King Henry VIII of the Tudor House (1509-1547) Roman Catholic Church
Church of England Religious Reformation
Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Humanism:
Humanism is both the keynote of the Renaissance and the intellectual liberation movement.
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Edmund Spenser (1552-- 1599)
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
The Faerie Queene
incomplete English epic poem
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Generally, his dramatic career is divided into four periods.
1) Apprenticeship:
History plays Comedies 2) Individualized: History plays
The humanists took interest in human life and human activities and gave expression to the new feeling of admiration for human beauty, human achievement.
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Chief Achievements
1.Poetry: prosperous
“a nest of singing birds”
sonnet
2. Drama:
Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare blank verse London--- centre of drama performance
2 long narrative poems
154 sonnets
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
sonnet
a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length, iambic pentameters in English
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Then a series of adventures and romances follow the signing of the contract. First his romance with a woman, then his visit to Alexander the Great and later a visit from Helen of Troy. The play ends with Faustus’ forced surrender of his soul to the devil.
It is a very popular verse form in English poetry. It was extensively employed in English poetry of the Renaissance.
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
His work paved the way for the plays of the greatest English dramatist--- Shakespeare.
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Blank verse refers to verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
Achievements:
Marlowe’s greatest achievement lies in that he perfected the blank verse and made it the principal medium of English drama. His second achievement is his creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama.
1588 English navy Spanish navy
Lecture 2 The Renaissance Period
The word “Renaissance” means revival or rebirth, and in this particular context, it means the revival of arts and sciences of ancient Greece and Rome after long years of neglect in the medieval time. “Renaissance, therefore, in essence, is a historical period…. Roman Catholic Church.”