The Renaissance Period (1500-1600)

The Renaissance Period in English literature is also called the Elizabethan

Period or the Age of Shakespeare. The middle Ages in Europe were followed by the
Renaissance. Renaissance means the Revival of Learning, and it denotes in its broadest
sense the gradual enlightenment of the human mind after the darkness of the Middle
Ages.
With the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. by the invasion of the Turks, the Greek
scholars who were residing there, spread all over Europe, and brought with them
invaluable Greek manuscripts. The discovery of these classical models resulted in the
Revival of Learning in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The essence of this
movement was that “man discovered himself and the universe”, and that “man, so long
blinded had suddenly opened his eyes and seen”. The flood of Greek literature which the
new art of printing carried swiftly to every school in Europe revealed a new world of
poetry and philosophy. Along with the Revival of Learning, new discoveries took place in
several other fields. Vascoda Gama circumnavigated the
earth; Columbus discovered America; Copernicus discovered the Solar System and
prepared the way for Galileo. Books were printed, and philosophy, science, and art were
systematised. The Middle Ages were past, and the old world had become new. Scholars
flocked to the universities, as adventurers to the new world of America, and there the
old authority received a death blow. Truth only was authority; to search for truth
everywhere, as men sought for new lands and gold and the Fountain of Youth—that was
the new spirit, which awoke in Europe with the Revival of Learning.

The chief characteristic of the Renaissance was its emphasis on Humanism, which
means man’s concern with himself as an object of contemplation. This movement was
started in Italy by Dante, Petrarch and Baccaccio in the fourteenth century, and from
there it spread to other countries of Europe. In England it became popular during the
Elizabethan period. This movement which focused its interest on ‘the proper study of
mankind’ had a number of subordinate trends. The first in importance was the
rediscovery of classical antiquity, and particularly of ancient Greece. During the
medieval period, the tradition-bound Europe had forgotten the liberal tone of old Greek
world and its spirit of democracy and human dignity. With the revival of interest in
Greek Classical Antiquity, the new spirit of Humanism made its impact on the Western
world. The first Englishman who wrote under the influence of Greek studies was Sir
Thomas More. His Utopia, written in Latin, was suggested by Plato’s Republic. Sir
Philip Sidney in his Defence of Poesieaccepted and advocated the critical rules of the
ancient Greeks.
The second important aspect of Humanism was the discovery of the external
universe, and its significance for man. But more important than this was that the writers
directed their gaze inward, and became deeply interested in the problems of human
personality. In the medieval morality plays, the characters are mostly personifications:
Friendship, Charity, Sloth, Wickedness and the like. But now during the Elizabethan
period, under the influence of Humanism, the emphasis was laid on the qualities which
distinguish one human being from another, and give an individuality and uniqueness.

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Moreover, the revealing of the writer’s own mind became full of interest. This tendency
led to the rise of a new literary form—the Essay, which was used successfully by Bacon.
In drama Marlowe probed down into the deep recesses of the human passion. His
heroes, Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus and Barabas, the Jew of Malta, are possessed of
uncontrolled ambitions. Shakespeare, a more consummate artist, carried Humanism to
perfection. His genius, fed by the spirit of the Renaissance, enabled him to see life
whole, and to present it in all its aspects.
It was this new interest in human personality, the passion for life, which was
responsible for the exquisite lyrical poetry of the Elizabethan Age, dealing with the
problems of death, decay, transitoriness of life etc.
Another aspect of Humanism was the enhanced sensitiveness to formal beauty, and
the cultivation of the aesthetic sense. It showed itself in a new ideal of social conduct,
that of the courtier. An Italian diplomat and man of letters, Castiglione, wrote a treatise
entitled Il Cortigiano (The Courtier) where he sketched the pattern of gentlemanly
behaviour and manners upon which the conduct of such men as Sir Phillip Sidney and
Sir Walter Raleigh was modelled. This cult of elegance in prose writing produced the
ornate style called Euphuism by Lyly. Though it suffered from exaggeration and
pedantry, yet it introduced order and balance in English prose, and gave it pithiness and
harmony.
Another aspect of Humanism was that men came to be regarded as responsible for
their own actions, as Casius says to Brutus in Julius Caesar:
The Fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Instead of looking up to some higher authority, as was done in The Middle Ages,
during the Renaissance Period guidance was to be found from within. Lyly wrote his
romance of Euphues not merely as an exercise in a new kind of prose, but with the
serious purpose of inculcating righteousness of living, based on self-
control. Sidneywrote his Arcadia in the form of fiction in order to expound an ideal of
moral excellence. Spenser wrote his Faerie Queene, with a view “to fashion a gentleman
or noble person in virtuous and gentle disposition”. Though we do not look for direct
moral teaching in Shakespeare, nevertheless, we find underlying his work the same
profoundly moral attitude.
(a) Elizabethan Drama
During the Renaissance Period or the Elizabethan Period, as it is popularly called,
the most memorable achievement in literature was in the field of drama. One of the
results of the humanist teaching in the schools and universities had been a great
development of the study of Latin drama and the growth of the practice of acting Latin
plays by Terence, Plautus and Seneca, and also of contemporary works both in Latin and
in English. These performances were the work of amateur actors, school boys or
students of the Universities and the Inns of Court, and were often given in honour of the
visits of royal persons or ambassadors. Their significance lies in the fact that they
brought the educated classes into touch with a much more highly developed kind of
drama, than the older English play. About the middle of the sixteenth century some
academic writers made attempts to write original plays in English on the Latin model.

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The three important plays of this type are Nicholas Udall’s Ralph Roister Doister, John
Still’s Grummar Gurton’s Needle, and Thomas Sackville’s Gorbuduc or Ferrex and
Porrex—the first two are comedies and last one a tragedy. All these plays are
monotonous and do not possess much literary merit.
The second period of Elizabethan drama was dominated by the “University Wits”, a
professional set of literary men. Of this little constellations, Marlowe was the central
sun, and round him revolved as minor stars, Lyly, Greene, Peele, Lodge and Nash.
Lyly (1554-1606)
The author of Euphues, wrote a number of plays, the best known of them
areCompaspe (1581), Sapho and Phao (1584), Endymion (1591), and Midas (1592),
These plays are mythological and pastoral and are nearer to the Masque (court
spectacles intended to satisfy the love of glitter and novelty) rather than to the narrative
drama of Marlowe. They are written in prose intermingled with verse. Though the verse
is simple and charming prose is marred by exaggeration, a characteristic of Euphuism.
George Peele (1558-97?)
Formed, along with Marlowe, Greene and Nash, one of that band of dissolute young
men endeavouring to earn a livelihood by literary work. He was an actor as well as
writer of plays. He wrote some half dozen plays, which are richer in beauty than any of
his group except Marlowe. His earnest work is The Arraignment of Paris, (1584); his
most famous is David and Bathsheba (1599). The Arraignment of Paris, which contains
an elaborate eulogy of Queen Elizabeth, is really a court play of the Masque order. David
and Bathsheba contains many beautiful lines. Like Marlowe, Peele was responsible for
giving the blank verse musical quality, which later attained perfection in the deft hands
of Shakespeare.
Thomas Kyd (1558-95)
Achieved great popularity with his first work, The Spanish Tragedy, which was
translated in many European languages. He introduced the ‘blood and thunder’ element
in drama, which proved one of the attractive features of the pre-Shakespearean drama.
Though he is always violent and extravagant, yet he was responsible for breaking away
from the lifeless monotony of Gorboduc.
Robert Greene (1560-1592)
He lived a most dissolute life, and died in distress and debt. His plays
compriseOrlando Furioso, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Alphonsus King of Aragon
and George a Greene. His most effective play is Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, which
deals partly with the tricks of the Friar, and partly with a simple love story between two
men with one maid. Its variety of interest and comic, relief and to the entertainment of
the audience. But the chief merit of the play lies in the lively method of presenting the
story. Greene also achieves distinction by the vigorous humanity of his characterisation.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
The dramatic work of Lodge and Nash is not of much importance. Of all the
members of the group Marlowe is the greatest. In 1587 his first play Tamburlainewas
produced and it took the public by storm on account of its impetuous force, its splendid

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command of blank verse, and its sensitiveness to beauty, In this play Marlowe
dramatised the exploits of the Scythian shepherd who rose to be “the terror of the
world”, and “the scourge of God”. Tamburlain was succeeded by The Tragical History
of Doctor Faustus, in which Marlowe gave an old medieval legend a romantic setting.
The story of the scholar who sells his soul to the Devil for worldly enjoyment and
unlimited power, is presented in a most fascinating manner. Marlowe’s Faustus is the
genuine incarnation of the Renaissance spirit. The Jew ofMalta, the third tragedy of
Marlowe, is not so fine as Doctor Faustus, though it has a glorious opening. His last
play, Edward II, is his best from the technical point of view. Though it lacks the force
and rhythmic beauty of the earlier plays, it is superior to them on account of its rare skill
of construction and admirable characterisation.
Marlowe’s contributions to the Elizabethan drama were great. He raised the subject-
matter of drama to a higher level. He introduced heroes who were men of great strength
and vitality, possessing the Renaissance characteristic of insatiable spirit of adventure.
He gave life and reality to the characters, and introduced passion on the stage. He made
the blank verse supple and flexible to suit the drama, and thus made the work of
Shakespeare in this respect easy. He gave coherence and unity to the drama, which it
was formerly lacking. He also gave beauty and dignity and poetic glow to the drama. In
fact, he did the pioneering work on which Shakespeare built the grand edifice. Thus he
has been rightly called “the Father of English Dramatic Poetry.”
Shakespeare (1564-1616)
The greatest of all Elizabethan dramatists was Shakespeare in whose hands the
Romantic drama reached its climax. As we do not know much about his life, and it is
certain that he did not have proper training and education as other dramatists of the
period had, his stupendous achievements are an enigma to all scholars up to the present
day. It is still a mystery how a country boy, poor and uneducated, who came to London
in search of odd jobs to scrape a living, could reach such heights in dramatic literature.
Endowed with a marvellous imaginative and creative mind, he could put new life into
old familiar stories and make them glow with deepest thoughts and tenderest feelings.
There is no doubt that Shakespeare was a highly gifted person, but without proper
training he could not have scaled such heights. In spite of the meagre material we have
got about his life, we can surmise that he must have undergone proper training first as
an actor, second as a reviser of old plays, and the last as an independent dramatist. He
worked with other dramatists and learned the secrets of their trade. He must have
studied deeply and observed minutely the people he came in contact with. His dramatic
output must, therefore, have been the result of his natural genius as well as of hard work
and industry.
Besides non—dramatic poetry consisting of two narrative poems, Venice and Adonis
and The Rape of Lucrece, and 154 sonnets, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays. His work as a
dramatist extended over some 24 years, beginning about 1588 and ending about 1612.
This work is generally divided into four periods.
(i) 1577-93
This was the period of early experimental work. To this period belong the revision of
old plays as the three parts of Henry VI and Titus Andronicus; his first comedies—
Love’s Labour Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and A
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Midsummer Night’s Dream; his first chronicle play—Richard III; a youthful tragedy—
Romeo and Juliet.
(ii) 1594-1600
To the second period belong Shakespeare’s great comedies and chronicle plays –
Richard II, King John, The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV, Part I and II, Henry V, The
Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, As You
Like It and Twelfth Night. These plays reveal Shakespeare’s great development as a
thinker and technician. They show the maturity of his mind and art.
(iii) 1601-1608
To the third period belong Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies and sombre or bitter
comedies. This is his peak period characterised by the highest development of his
thought and expression. He is more concerned with the darker side of human
experience and its destructive passions. Even in comedies, the tone is grave and there is
a greater emphasis on evil. The plays of this period are—Julius Caesar, Hamlet, All’s
Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure; Troilus and Cressida, Othello, King Lear,
Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Timon of Athens.
(iv) 1608-1612
To the fourth period belong the later comedies or dramatic romances. Here the
clouds seem to have been lifted and Shakespeare is in a changed mood. Though the
tragic passions still play their part as in the third period, the evil is now controlled and
conquered by good. The tone of the plays is gracious and tender, and there is a decline in
the power of expression and thought. The plays written during this period are—
Cymbeline, The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale, which were completely written in
collaboration with some other dramatist.
The plays of Shakespeare are so full of contradictory thoughts expressed so
convincingly in different contexts, that it is not possible to formulate a system of
philosophy out of them. Each of his characters—from the king to the clown, from the
most highly intellectual to the simpleton—judges life from his own angle, and utters
something which is so profound and appropriate, that one is astonished at the
playwrigt’s versatility of genius. His style and versification are of the highest order. He
was not only the greatest dramatist of the age, but also the first poet of the day, and one
of the greatest of all times. His plays are full of a large number of exquisite songs, and
his sonnets glowing with passion and sensitiveness to beauty reach the high water mark
of poetic excellence in English literature. In his plays there is a fine commingling of
dramatic and lyric elements. Words and images seem to flow from his brain
spontaneously and they are clothed in a style which can be called perfect.
Though Shakespeare belonged to the Elizabethan Age, on account of his universality
he belongs to all times. Even after the lapse of three centuries his importance, instead of
decreasing, has considerably increased. Every time we read him, we become more
conscious of his greatness, like the charm of Cleopatra,
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety.
the appeal of Shakespeare is perennial. His plays and poetry are like a great river of
life and beauty.

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Ben Jonson (1573-1637)
Ben Jonson a contemporary of Shakespeare, and a prominent dramatist of his
times, was just the opposite of Shakespeare. Jonson was a classicist, a moralist, and a
reformer of drama. In his comedies he tried to present the true picture of the
contemporary society. He also made an attempt to have the ‘unities’ of time, place and
action in his plays. Unlike Shakespeare who remained hidden behind his works, Jonson
impressed upon the audience the excellence of his works and the object of his plays. He
also made his plays realistic rather than romantic, and introduced ‘humours’ which
mean some peculiar traits in character, which obsess an individual and govern all this
faculties.
Jonson was mainly a writer of comedies, and of these the four which attained
outstanding success are Volpone; The Silent Woman; The Alchemist; and Bartholomew
Fair. Two other important comedies of his, which illustrate his theory of ‘humour’ are—
Every Man in His Humour and Every Man Out of Humour. The Alchemist, which is the
most perfect in structure, is also the most brilliant realistic Elizabethan comedy.
Volpone is a satirical study of avarice on the heroic scale.Bartholomew Fair presents a
true picture of Elizabethan ‘low life’. The Silent Woman, which is written in a lighter
mood, approaches the comedy of manners. Ben Jonson wrote two tragic plays. Sejanus
and Cataline on the classical model, but they were not successful.
Ben Jonson was a profound classical scholar who wanted to reform the Elizabethan
drama, and introduce form and method in it. He resolved to fight against cheap
romantic effects, and limit his art within the bounds of reason and common sense. He
was an intellectual and satirical writer unlike Shakespeare who was imaginative and
sympathetic. His chief contribution to dramatic theory was his practice to construct
plays based on ‘humour’, or some master passion. In this way he created a new type of
comedy having its own methods, scope and purpose. Though he drew his principles
from the ancients, he depicted the contemporary life in his plays in a most realistic
manner. In this way Jonson broke from the Romantic tendency of Elizabethan drama.
(b) Elizabethan Poetry
Poetry in the Renaissance period took a new trend. It was the poetry of the new age
of discovery, enthusiasm and excitement. Under the impact of the Renaissance, the
people of England were infused with freshness and vigour, and these qualities are clearly
reflected in poetry of that age.
The poetry of the Elizabethan age opens with publications of a volume known
asTottel’s Miscellany (1577). This book which contained the verse of Sir Thomas Wyatt
(1503?-1542) and the Earl of Surrey, (1577?-1547) marks the first English poetry of the
Renaissance. Wyatt and Surrey wrote a number of songs, especially sonnets which
adhered to the Petrarcan model, and which was later adopted by Shakespeare. They also
attempted the blank verse which was improved upon by Marlowe and then perfected by
Shakespeare. They also experimented a great variety of metres which influenced
Spenser. Thus Wyatt and Surrey stand in the same relation to the glory of Elizabethan
poetry dominated by Spenser and Shakespeare, as Thomson and Collins do to Romantic
poetry dominated by Wordsworth and Shelley.

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 Another original writer belonging to the early Elizabethan group of poets who were
mostly courtiers, was Thomas Sackville (1536-1608). In his Mirror for Magistrates he
has given a powerful picture of the underworld where the poet describes his meetings
with some famous Englishmen who had been the victims of misfortunes. Sackville,
unlike Wyatt and Surrey, is not a cheerful writer, but he is superior to them in poetic
technique.
The greatest of these early Elizabethan poets was Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586). He
was a many-sided person and a versatile genius—soldier, courtier and poet—and
distinguished himself in all these capacities. Like Dr. Johnson and Byron he stood in
symbolic relation to his times. He may be called the ideal Elizabethan, representing in
himself the great qualities of that great age in English history and literature. Queen
Elizabeth called him one of the jewels of her crown, and at the age of twenty-three he
was considered ‘one of the ripest statesmen of the age’.
As a literary figure, Sidney made his mark in prose as well as in poetry. His prose
works are Arcadia and the Apologie for Poetrie (1595). With Arcadia begins a new kind
of imaginative writing. Though written in prose it is strewn with love songs and sonnets.
The Apologie for Poetrie is first of the series of rare and very useful commentaries which
some English poets have written about their art. His greatest work, of course, is in
poetry—the sequence of sonnets entitled Astrophel and Stella, in which Sidney
celebrated the history of his love for Penelope Devereax, sister of the Earl of Essex,- a
love which came to a sad end through the intervention of Queen Elizabeth with whom
Sidney had quarrelled. As an example of lyrical poetry expressing directly in the most
sincere manner an intimate and personal experience of love in its deepest passion, this
sonnet sequence marks an epoch. Their greatest merit is their sincerity. The sequence of
the poet’s feelings is analysed with such vividness and minuteness that we are convinced
of their truth and sincerity. Here we find the fruit of experience, dearly bought:
Desire; desire; I have too dearly bought
With price of mangled mind. Thy worthless ware.
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher prepare.
Besides these personal and sincere touches, sometimes the poet gives a loose reign
to his imagination, and gives us fantastic imagery which was a characteristic of
Elizabethan poetry.
Spenser (1552-1599)
The greatest name in non-dramatic Elizabethan poetry is that of Spenser, who may
be called the poet of chivalry and Medieval allegory. The Elizabethan Age was the age of
transition, when the time-honoured institutions of chivalry, closely allied to Catholic
ritual were being attacked by the zeal of the Protestant reformer and the enthusiasm for
latters of the European humanists. As Spenser was in sympathy with both the old and
the new, he tried to reconcile these divergent elements in his greatest poetic work—The
Faerie Queene. Written in the form of an allegory, though on the surface it appears to be
dealing with the petty intrigues, corrupt dealings and clever manipulations of politicians
in the court of Elizabeth, yet when seen from a higher point of view, it brings before us
the glory of the medieval times clothed in an atmosphere of romance. We forget the

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harsh realities of life, and lifted into a fairy land where we see the knights performing
chivalric deeds for the sake of the honour Queen Gloriana. We meet with shepherds,
sylvan nymphs and satyrs, and breathe the air of romance, phantasy and chivalry.
Though Spenser’s fame rests mainly on The Faerie Queene, he also wrote some
other poems of great merit. His Shepherd’s Calendar (1579) is a pastoral poem written
in an artificial classical style which had become popular in Europe on account of the
revival of learning. Consisting of twelve parts, each devoted to a month of the year, here
the poet gives expression to his unfruitful love for a certain unknown Rosalind, through
the mouth of shepherds talking and singing. It also deals with various moral questions
and the contemporary religious issues. The same type of conventional pastoral imagery
was used by Spenser in Astrophel (1586), an elegy which he wrote on the death of
Sidney to whom he had dedicated theCalendar. Four Hymns which are characteried by
melodious verse were written by Spenser in honour of love and beauty.
His Amoretti, consisting of 88 sonnets, written in the Petrarcan manner which had
become very popular in those days under the influence of Italian literature, describes
beautifully the progress of his love for Elizabeth Boyle whom he married in 1594.
His Epithalamion is the most beautiful marriage hymn in the English language.
The greatness of Spenser as a poet rests on his artistic excellence. Though his poetry
is surcharged with noble ideas and lofty ideals, he occupies an honoured place in the
front rank of English poets as the poet of beauty, music and harmony, through which he
brought about a reconciliation between the medieval and the modern world. There is no
harsh note in all his poetry. He composed his poems in the spirit of a great painter, a
great musician. Above all, he was the poet of imagination, who, by means of his art, gave
an enduring to the offsprings of his imagination. As a metrist his greatest contribution
to English poetry is the Spenserian stanza which is admirably suited to descriptive or
reflective poetry. It is used by Thomson in The Castle of Indolence, by Keats in The Eve
of St. Agnes, by Shelley in The Revolt of Islam and by Byron in Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage. On account of all these factors, Spenser has been a potent influence on the
English poets of all ages, and there is no exaggeration in the remark made by Charles
Lamb that “Spenser is the poets’ poet.”
(c) Elizabethan Prose
The Elizabethan period was also the period of the origin of modern English prose.
During the reign of Elizabeth prose began to be used as a vehicle of various forms of
amusement and information, and its popularity increased on account of the increased
facility provided by the printing press. Books on history, travel, adventures, and
translations of Italian stories appeared in a large number. Though there were a large
number of prose-writers, there were only two-Sidney and Lyly who were conscious of
their art, and who made solid contributions to the English prose style when it was in its
infancy. The Elizabethan people were intoxicated with the use of the English language
which was being enriched by borrowings from ancient authors. They took delight in the
use of flowery words and graceful ,grandiloquent phrases. With the new wave of
patriotism and national prestige the English language which had been previously
eclipsed by Latin, and relegated to a lower position, now came to its own, and it was
fully exploited. The Elizabethans loved decorative modes of expression and flowery
style.

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John Lyly (1554-1606)
The first author who wrote prose in the manner that the Elizabethans wanted, was
Lyly, whose Euphues, popularized a highly artificial and decorative style. It was read and
copied by everybody. Its maxims and phrases were freely quoted in the court and the
market-place, and the word ‘Euphuism’ became a common description of an artificial
and flamboyant style.
The style of Euphues has three main characteristics. In the first place, the structure
of the sentence is based on antithesis and alliteration. In other words, it consists of two
equal parts which are similar in sound but with a different sense. For
example, Euphues is described as a young man “of more wit than wealth, yet of more
wealth than wisdom”. The second characteristic of this style is that no fact is stated
without reference to some classical authority. For example, when the author makes a
mention of friendship, he quotes the friendship that existed between David and
Jonathan. Besides these classical allusions, there is also an abundance of allusion to
natural history, mostly of a fabulous kind, which is its third characteristic. For example,
“The bull being tied to the fig tree loseth his tale; the whole herd of dear stand at gaze if
they smell sweet apple.”
The purpose of writing Euphues was to instruct the courtiers and gentlemen how to
live, and so it is full of grave reflections and weighty morals. In it there is also criticism
of contemporary society, especially its extravagant fashions. Though Puritanic in tone, it
inculcates, on the whole, a liberal and humane outlook.
Sidney’s Arcadia is the first English example of prose pastoral romance, which was
imitated by various English authors for about two hundred years. The story related
in Arcadia in the midst of pastoral surrounding where everything is possible, is long
enough to cover twenty modern novels, but its main attraction lies in its style which is
highly poetical and exhaustive. One word is used again and again in different senses
until its all meanings are exhausted. It is also full of pathetic fallacy which means
establishing the connection between the appearance of nature with the mood of the
artist. On the whole, Arcadia goes one degree beyond Euphues in the direction of
Sfreedom and poetry.
Two other important writers who, among others, influenced Elizabethan prose
were: Malory and Hakluyt. Malory wrote a great prose romance Morte de Arthurdealing
with the romantic treasures of the Middle Ages. It was by virtue of the simple directness
of the language, that it proved an admirable model to the prose story-tellers of the
Renaissance England. Richard Hakluyt’s Voyages and other such books describing sea
adventures were written in simple and unaffected directness. The writer was conscious
of only that he had something to tell that was worth telling.
The Elizabethan Age
The term ‘the Elizabethan Age’ is a very vague and flexible one. Strictly speaking, it may
be said to be even misleading. Although titles like ‘Jacobean Age’ are also frequently
used in literary criticism, the general practice is to regard the entire period from 1580 to
1660 as the Elizabethan age in spite of the fact that Queen Elizabeth reigned only during
a small part of it. If we were to adhere strictly to historical dates, then the only two
writers who are really and completely ‘Elizabethan’ are Marlowe and Spenser.

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Yet in spirit, the work of writers like Milton and Browne is akin to that of the
Elizabethans and they are, therefore, referred to as Elizabethan writers. As Saintsbury
reminds us, all the seed of the whole period called Elizabethan was sown, and not a little
of it had come up, before the Queen’s death ; and secondly, the quality of the period
1580-1660 is essentially one and indivisible. This usage has the advantage of keeping
both sets of facts in view, and specially of directing attention to the characteristics of the
first generation of the period, the generation which, as typified by Spenser, ended a little
before the last days of Elizabeth’s own life closed.

The Renaissance
The most important influence on the Elizabethan age was that of the Renaissance. This
was felt in England considerably later than, over the Continent because it, in fact,
travelled through Germany, Italy and France to reach this country. Marlowe and
Shakespeare wrote when the impact of the Renaissance was at its height and the same is
tram of Spenser in so far as poetry is concerned. The most important upset of the
Renaissance was the liberation of the human spirit from the binding restraints of the
Middle Ages. Wonder and curiosity, which are the essentials of romanticism, were
reawakened. There was a been interest in classical literature, to the extent that classical
legends became popularly known, and in Shakespeare s plays, even person from lower
life often make allusions to them. The Renaissance was humanistic in its trend and this
humanism is an important characteristics of the literature of the day. The Renaissance
had its own code of values. One of them was the concept of justly earned glorious fame,
and we find that this is the ideal for which the heroes of Elizabethan literature, whether
in prose or drama, strive. The most outstanding example of this is, of course, the lust of
the Marlovian hero to achieve the impossible. Renaissance writers placed before them
the ideal of the complete man. Whereas the renaissance encouraged the love of beauty, a
balancing influence was exercised by the Reformation which encouraged the pursuit of
virtue and righteousness.
Social and Political Background
By and large, the Elizabethan age was one of peace but it was not the type of peace which
produces complacency or causes stagnation. This was caused by the fact that specially
during the reign of Elizabeth I, there were constant threats of invasion from abroad. The
reason for this was commercial rivalry, specially in exploiting newly discovered colonies,
and the main enemy England bad to fear was Spain. English sea-captains were able to
blunt the Spanish force by destroying their formidable Armada. Later, there was another
factor which tended to produce a feeling of insecurity or, at least, aroused a fear that
anarchy might follow the death of the Queen. These fears were, of course to prove
completely unjustified. The Elizabethan age was one in which the nation made great
economic strides. Trading settlements were founded abroad, including the famous East
India Company. Curiously enough, even the Reformation led to great economic
competition by encouraging the idea of thrift and by relating worldly prosperity to
divine favour. One of the embittering phenomena of the age was the rise of Puritanism,
specially in its fanatic and often hypocritical form. Satire at the expense of the Puritans
is a recurrent feature of Elizabethan literature.
Elizabethan Prose

10
The Elizabethan age in literature is famous primarily for its poetry whether dramatic or
non-dramatic but its achievement in prose, although less spectacular, is by no means
negligible. The age produced many great prose writers, including Bacon at one end and
Browne at the other. It is true, however, that no single prose writer of the time holds the
same rank in prose that Spenser holds in poetry ; perhaps, indeed, no single writer, not
even Dryden, ever has held that rank. For prose, the lower and less intense harmony, is
the more varied and indefinitely adjustable instrument. And while it is conceivable that
one man––indeed Shakespeare has very nearly done so ––should catch up and otter in
hint and intimation at least, the whole sum of poetry, no one could do the like in prose.
Here, too, the comparative newness of the form had its inevitable effect ; even the period
of sheer experiment and exploration was not over when the sixteenth century ended.
Very great advances had been made in both, and, above all, the antinomy of prose, the
opposition, of the plain and ornate styles which was to dominate the rest of its history,
was for the first time clearly posed and definitely worked out on either side. This could
not have happened in the earlier period of mere or main translation as regards subject,
of tentative accumulation of vocabulary and experimental adaptation of arrangement.
Elizabethan Poetry
Although the drama of the age is predominantly poetic, there was also a considerable
amount of non-dramatic poetry, even by dramatists line Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.
The representative poet of the age, however, is Spenser. His contribution to English
poetry cannot be over-estimated. His greatness as a poet does not depend entirely on
the high estimation which the writers and readers of the day placed on the Faerie
Queene. In fact, so far as Spenser’s epic is concerned, it had some detractors also. All the
same, it is indisputable that Spenser practically created the diction and prosody of
English poetry as both have subsisted in the main to the present day. He did not, of
course, finish the creation. Shakespeare had to come, and Milton, at Last, before that
was done ; but he did a great deal more than begin it. His versification had to receive not
a little extension, and became an infinite process. Spenser is often called the ‘poets’
poet’, and the compliment is not an inappropriate one, for his influence on other poets,
both of his own age and of succeeding ages, was considerable. Still, even though
Shakespeare’s major output was dramatic, the impact of his poetry also was
tremendous.
Elizabethan Drama
The Elizabethan age was, and continues to be, the most glorious period which English
drama has ever seen. The achievement of the age in this respect was unique, for it was
neither in the realm of reconstruction and recovery, nor of orderly extension, but really
of innovation and even invention. Three entire centuries have failed to produce any new
really fertile cross, or to import, in conditions suitable to the climate, any foreign form
capable of standing comparison with that Elizabethan play, which shook itself into
shape, a hundred minor hands, besides those of Marlowe and Shakespeare aiding, by
the date of the production of Every Man in His Humour; The typical Elizabethan
dramatist does not attempt to isolate action or situation merely ; his play is but a piece
of the life of the actors––their life is but a piece of larger and ever larger lives. Nothing is
superfluous, irrelevant, common, unclean ; everything may and shall go in. The intenser
nature of the interests, of tragedy may give to the working of tragic plays a closer unify
than that of comic ; the majesty or the pathos of some particular character may dwarf in

11
presentation as in attention the episodes and the interludes ; but the principle is always
the same.
Elizabethan Theatre Companies
The first public ‘playing-places’ in London were the Inns, the first recorded
performances being in 1557 at the Boar’s Head, Aldgate, and the Saracen’s Head,
Islington, Permanent theatres were built in areas outside the city jurisdiction, because of
the strict City regulations of 1574. The first two public theatres, James Burbage’s
Theatre, and Henry Laneman’s Curtain, were built in the Liberties on the north bank of
the Thames in 1576, as was the first private theatre, Richard Farrant’s Blackfriars. Till
1608, no adult company normally played in a private theatre, but the King’s Men took
over the Blackfriars in that year. Of the many children’s companies in the Elizabethan
and Jacobean period, the two most dominant were the Children of St. Paul’s, and the
Children of the Chapel Royal. Elizabethan actors sought the patronage of some
nobleman as much for prestige as a protection against the harsh laws relating to the
theatrical profession. Although a company .adopted the livery of its patron, in other
ways it was left to seek its own fortunes. One of the bat-known companies was the
Chamberlain-King’s Men, to which Shakespeare himself belonged. The leading
dramatists were attached more or less permanently to some theatre company and were
therefore familiar with the talents of the actors for whom they created roles. The
women’s parts were, of course, played by boys throughout the Elizabethan Age.
Elizabethan Prose
The Elizabethan age has well been called a "young" age. It was full of boundless vigour, re-awakened
intellectual earnestness, and unfettered, soaring imagination. The best fruits of the age are enshrined in
poetry in which all these elements can be befittingly contained. In poetry there are restrictions of
versification which exerted some check on the youthful imagination and vigour of the Elizabethans.
Consequently, Elizabethan poetry is very great. But prose does not admit of any restrictions, and the result
is that Elizabethan prose is as one run amuck. Too much of liberty has taken away much of its merit.

During the fifteenth century, Latin was the medium of expression, and almost all the important
prose works were written in that language. It was in the sixteenth century, particularly in its later half, that
the English language came to its own. With the arrival of cheap mass printing English prose became the
popular medium for works aiming both at amusement and instruction. The books which date from this
period cover many departments of learning. We have the Chronicles of such writers as Stowe and Holinshed
recapturing the history of England, though mixed with legends and myths. Writers like Harrison and Stubbs
took upon themselves the task of describing the England not of the past but of their own age. Many writers,
most of them anonymous, wrote accounts of their voyages which had carried them to many hitherto
unknown lands in and across the Western Seas. Then, there are so many "novelists" who translated Italian
stories and wrote stories of their own after the Italian models. There are also quite a few writers who wrote
on religion. And last of all there is a host of pamphleteers who dealt with issues of temporary interest.
Though the prose used by these numerous writers is not exactly similar, yet we come across a basic
characteristic common to the works of all: that is, the nearness of their prose to poetry. "The age," says G. H.
Mair, "was intoxicated with language. It went mad of a mere delight in words. Its writers were using a new
tongue, for English was enriched beyond all recognition with borrowings from the ancient authors, and like
all artists who become possessed of a new medium, they used it to excess. The early Elizabethans' use of the
new prose was very like the use some educated Indians make of English. It was rich, gaudy and overflowing,

12
 though, in the main, correct." A. C. Ward observes in Illustrated History of English Literature, Vol. I: "Our
modern view of prose is strictly and perhaps-too narrowly practical and utilitarian or functional. Prose, we
hold, has ajob to do and should do it without fuss, nonsense, or aesthetic capers. It should say what it has
to say in the shortest and most time-saving manner, and there finish." But we find Elizabethan prose far
from this commonly accepted principle. It is colourful, blazing, rhythmic, indirect, prolix, and convoluted.
Rarely does an Elizabethan prose writer call a spade a spade.
The-prose works of the Elizabethan age fall into two categories:
(i) Fiction
(ii) Non-Fiction.
Let us consider them one by one.
FICTION
The fiction of the age of Elizabeth is generally "romantic" in nature in the sense that it is of the kind
of romance. Many forms of fiction were practised in the age. Some important forms and their practitioners
are as follows :
(i) The romances of Lyly-, Greene, and Lodge
(ii) The pastoral romance of Sir Philip Sidney
(iii) The picaresque novel of Nashe
(iv) The realistic novel of Delony.
John Lyly (1554-1606):
Lyly in his romance displays all the peculiarities of Elizabethan prose which we have mentioned
above. At the age of twenty-four he came out with his Euphues or the Anatomy of Wit (1578) which took
England by storm. This work which may only very roughly be termed the "first English prose novel" was an
agglomeration of a thousand elements many of them alien to the nature of the novel proper. The "plot" of
the work is the simplest imaginable. Euphues is a man of learning and culture belonging to Athens (which
evidently stands for Oxford). He goes to Naples (which stands for London) to lead a life of pleasure. There
he-becomes intimate friends with a young man Philautus who introduces him to his fiancee, Lucilla.
Euphues attracts Lucilla's love, and the two friends exchange taunting letters. But Lucilla plays him false
and elopes with a stranger. Euphues, heart-broken, returns to Athens, and he and Philautus become friends
again. The plot is simple but very long essays on such topics as love and the education of children, with
many rhetorical letters and lengthy dialogues, are grafted on to the thin'Stem of the storv. In 1580 Lvlv
came out with, a sequel. Euphues and His England, in which is narrated the arrival of Philautus and
Euphues in England, and Philautus' unsuccessful courtship of Camilla, a maid of honour to Queen
Elizabeth. This volume pays a glowing tribute to the English nobility, particularly the courtiers. "Lyly was,"
to quote Tucker Brooke, "most careful to depict them, not as they were, but as they would have liked to have
themselves regarded." To quote the same critic, "in the last fifteen pages a portrait of Queen Elizabeth [is]
probably the most elaborately flattering that much flattered sovereign ever received."
What is remarkable about Lyly's work is not its matter but its terribly manneristic prose style which
has come to be dubbed as "Euphuism." It came to be parodied and derided by a long chain of writers from
Shakespeare to Scott, though it also excited imitation in a very large number of writers now justly forgotten.
The cool Drayton declared that Lyly taught his countrymeiilo speak and write "all like mere lunatics."
Nevertheless, if Lyly was a lunatic there was method in his madness. He did employ a well-thought-out plan
which has the following characteristics:
(i) The first is the principle of symmetry and equipoise obtained generally by the employment of alliteration,
balance, and antithesis. See, for instance, such an expression as "hot liver of a heedless lover", or the
description of Euphues as "a young gallant of more wit than wealth, yet of more wealth than wisdom."

13
(ii) Secondly, there are the very numerous references to the classical authorities, even for very well-known facts.
(iii) Thirdly, there is the mass of allusions to natural history, generally of the fabulous kind.
All these devices are used for the purpose of decoration. But our complaint is that the style is over-
decorated, to the point of being monotonous and insipid, even though it affects poetic beauties. To quote
Compton-Rickett, Lyly's style "suffers from the serious defect of ignoring the distinction between prose and
verse. It is the prose of an age that found its most effective medium in verse."
Robert Greene (1560-92):
Greene was a patent imitator of Lyly, and later that of Sidney, after he came to know of
his Arcadia. Though in his actual life he was a debauchee of the worst kind yet in his works he was quite
didactic. His several "novels" include Pandosto (1588) which very obviously furnished the plot for
Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. His other important works are Menophon (1519), Mamilia (1583), and The
Card of Fancy which was published within a decade of Euphues and, as A. C. Ward says, "reproduces its
mannerisms of style, its elaborately artificial and voluble conversations, its classical embellishments, its
images and comparisons from natural history (for Greene, like Lyly, drew upon Pliny), its frequent and
lengthy soliloquies." The frequency of letters may have furnished Richardson with a model of epistolary
novel. In his Life and Death of Ned Brown, a notorious pick-pocket, Greene provides hints for the low-life
scenes we meet with in the novels of Smollett and Defoe.
Thomas Lodge (1558-1625):
He was another writer of Euphuistic novels the best of which is Roslynde, Euphues Golden
Legacie (1590). In his tricks of style Lodge imitates Lyly, but his matter is derived from Greek pastoral
romance. The work is significant because it furnished Shakespeare with the plot of As You Like It. Further,
it includes, like Greene's Menophon, some very charming lyrics.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86):
Like Lyly, Sidney also prompted a number of imitators. His Arcadia (1590) is the first pastoral
romance in English prose, just as Spenser's The Shepherd's Calendar is the first verse pastoral romance.
All the happenings of the story are envisaged in an imaginary land of idyllic beauty with shepherds,
shepherdesses, running brooks, and lush scenery. It tells the story of Basilius, king of Arcadia, who settles
in a village with his wife and two daughters named Pamela and Philoclea. Two princes from abroad come
to Arcadia and start courting the two girls. One disguises himself as a shepherd and the other as an Amazon.
Complications start when both Basilius and his wife fall in love with the "Amazon", the former taking him
to be a real Amazon and the latter, after discovering his real identity. Everything is finally unravelled by
Euarchus, king of Macedonia and father 6f one of the princes. Everything ends happily. This was the first
version of the Arcadia, known as the Old Arcadia. In the revised version Sidney included many
complications and also added'much symbolism and didacticism which rendered it almost of the nature of
The Faerie Queene. In the Arcadia, observes Daiches, "Ideal love, ideal friendship, and the ideal ruler are,
directly and indirectly, discussed, suggested, and embodied."
The style of the Arcadia is as artificial and attitudinised as that of Euphues. It is, to quote Daiches
again, "highly 'conceited', full of elaborate analogies, balanced parenthetical asides, pathetic fallacies,
symmetrically answering clauses and other devices of an immature prose entering suddenly into the world
of conscious literary artifice. "One of Sidney's constant devices is to take a word and, somewhat like
Shakespeare, toss it about till its meaning is sucked dry. AS an example of pathetic fallacy consider his
reference to the cool wine which seems "to laugh for joy" as it nears a lady's lips. Similarly the water drops
that slip down the bodies of dainty ladies seem to weep for sorrow. The name that a beautiful lady utters is
perfumed by the scent of her breath. When the princesses put on their clothes, the clothes are described as
"glad." And so forth.
Thomas Nashe (1567-1601):

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 Nashe had a taste for buffoonery, satire, reckless savagism, and effrontery. He is best known for his
vigorous pamphlets. He also wrote the first English picaresque novel The Unfortunate Traveller, or The
Life of Jack Wilton (1594) which is a tale of the adventures of a page named Wilton in the reign of Henry
VIII. It was perhaps suggested by the Spanish Lozarillo de Thormes. It has also been called the first English
historical novel as it introduces as characters suc'h known figures of yore as Erasmus, Sir Thomas More,
and the Earl of Surrey. But Nashe jumbles up all the historical details with reckless abandon and
irresponsibility without minding gross inaccuracies and anachronisms. The adventures of Jack Wilton take
him through half of Europe which (particularly Italy) is described with all its sordidness, crime, culture,
and beauty. The novel has no form. It is made up of, to quote Compton-Rickett, "a series of episodes lightly
strung together." -It is hopelessly incoherent at times. In his prose style Nashe follows neither Lyly nor
Greene nor Sidney. His sentences are short and striking, but sometimes he is carried away by a flood of
words. "Nashe," says A. C. Ward, "was drunk with words, even besotted by them." Anyway, his strength was
acknowledged by his contemporaries, and he had many imitators'.
Thomas Deloney (1543-1600):
Deloney, a silk-weaver by profession, exhibited even weaker sense of form and structure than
Kashe. His three tales Jack ofNewbwy, The Gentle Craft, and Thomas of Reading (all 1590) show him as a
story teller of the bourgeois craftsmen. In the second named he glorifies the craft of Shoemakers. Deloney's
style is quite homely, and he was,read and appreciated by a vast number of people, particularly craftsmen,
whom he had tried to flatter. In spite of his gifts of description he does not manage to give pattern, unity of
action, or even unity of tone or mood to his stories.
NON-FICTION
Richard Hooker (15547-1600):
Hooker's masterly work Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Policy is the greatest of the non-fictional
prose works of the Elizabethan age. It began appearing volume by volume in 1594 and continued till the
author's death. It was the first book in England which used English for a serious philosophic discussion.
Hooker was a Protestant who combined the piety of a saint with the simplicity of a child. His purpose in
writing the book was to defend the Church of England and to support certain principles of Church
government. Hardin Craig in A History of English Literature edited by himself maintains :
"As originally written the eight books were already on a very high level of theological and legal
argument. The first book is Hooker's famous general treatise on law. The second argues that divine law or
scripture is not the only law that ought to serve for our direction in things ecclesiastical. The effect of the
third is to make of the Church an independent and self-directing social institution within the State. The
fourth claims for the Church the right to adjust its position, free, on the one side, of Rome and, on the other,
of Geneva. The fifth book...deals with the established practices of the Church of England. The fragmentary
sixth is largely on penitence...The seventh treats the power and position of bishops, and the eighth is a most
significant treatise on the relation of the Church to the secular government. Hooker admits the right of the
secular government to establish and control the Church, but declares that the powers of the Crown are
derived from the consent of the governed a expressed in a parliament of the people."
Hooker modelled his style on Cicero. Though his diction is simple yet the syntax is highly Latinized,
but not without much harmony and studied flow. The style is as much removed from vulgarity as from
pedantry. Ruskin was later to seize upon this style and use it in his earlier works, particularly Modern
Painters.
Bacon (1561-1626):
Exactly opposite to Hooker's Ciceronian style was Bacon's English prose style which has been
called style coupe or anti-Ciceronian style. Much of what Bacon wrote appeared in the age of James I.
However, the first edition of his Essays appeared in 1597. that is, within the age of Elizabeth. Bacon
borrowed the term and the conception of the essay from the French writer Montaigne whose Essais first

15
appeared in 1580. In spite of the fact that Bacon took them lightly, his essays make pretty heavy reading.
They are full of memorable aphorisms which have passed into everyday speech. The scope of his essays is
vast, and they embrace all kinds of issues, but, mostly, those of practical life. By writing his essays Bacon
became "the father of the English essay." Even though his essays differ from the kind which was later
established in England, he is a worthy predecessor of the line of essayists ranging from his own times up to
ours.

Elizabethan Poetry
Elizabethan age was a great age of English literature. During this time the writing of poetry was the
part of education among the educated people. That is why many books of poetry by different writers
appeared during this age.

The proper Elizabethan literary age began in 1579, but before that year, Sir Thomas
Wyatt and Earl of Surrey made their poetic contributions. Sir Wyatt brought the sonnet form Italy
and made it popular in England. He followed the tradition of the Petrarchan sonnet with octave and
sestet. There was later changed into English sonnet style by Shakespeare, who divided the sonnet
into three quatrains summed up by a couplet. The Earl of Surrey wrote the first blank verse in
English. The Elizabethan age produced many beautiful lyrics. One of the finest lyricists was Sir
Philip Sidney.

William Shakespeare as Poet

The greatest dramatist Shakespeare was also a great poet of this age who wrote around 130
sonnets and they are very famous in English literature. He developed a new form of sonnet called
the English sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet, which rhyme abab cdcd efef gg. It is different from
Petrarchan sonnet. Many of his sonnets refer to a girl, a rival poet and a dark-eyed beauty.

Edmund Spencer
Edmund Spencer was a famous poet who introduced the Elizabethan age properly. In 1579, he
wrote The Shepherd’s Calendar, a poem in twelve books, one for each month of the year. His
greatest work was The Faerie Queen. Though it was planned to be written in twelve books, he could
complete six of them. It is an allegorical work with three themes: a political theme, a moral theme,
and a fairy tale. More than the story, this work is known for its magic feeling, wonderful music in
verse, and the beauty of the sound. It is written in Spenserian stanza of nine lines, with the rhyme
scheme ababbcbcc.

Lyrics of the Elizabethan Age

The Elizabethan age produced many beautiful lyrics. One of the finest lyricists was Sir Philip Sidney,
who was a courtier, statesman, soldier and a poet. His books of sonnets Astrophel and Stella was
printed in 1591, after his death. Another great poet was Sir Walter Raleigh, who was also a soldier,

16
sailor, explorer, courtier and a writer. Some examples of best Elizabethan lyrics can be found in the
plays of Shakespeare. His longer poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece are rather
cold and without feelings. But the occasional lyrics found in his dramas are full of feelings and
passion. The famous dramatist Marlowe has also written some fine lyrics.

The Metaphysical Poets

When the songs and sonnets of the great Elizabethan age passed away slowly, the lyrical power
began to lose its force. The following age, the Jacobean Age, was more interested in the mind than
in heart or eye. A group of poets, known as the Metaphysical poets, began to write poems which
were less beautiful and less musical, but contained tricks of style and strange images. These poets
tried to say what they hoped had never been said before. They had their own thoughts and they
found their won manner of expressing them. They searched all fields of knowledge, science, as well
as, nature, for comparisons. This mad their poetry difficult to understand.

The metaphysical style was started by John Donne, early in the 17th Century. Donne was a lawyer
and a priest, and he also wrote religious poetry. He wrote many good things but no perfect poetry.
His songs and sonnets are his finest works. He had made good use of direct speech to give a
colloquial touch to his poems. He also used dramatic realism in his poetry. He said effective things in
a few words.

The Metaphysical element was first seen in the love poems. If followed the example of the Italian
writers whom Donne had taken as his masters. Donne’s influence was seen in the religious poets
that followed him. One of them was George Herbert. He wrote poetry that was simpler than Donne’s
because his experience was narrower. But his imagery appealed to the mind rather than the senses.
Henry Vaughan considered both Donne and Herbert as his masters. He was more lyrical and gave
sensitive descriptions of nature. Richard Crashaw showed the influence of Donne in the use of
conceits. But he gave importance to the emotional and sentimental sides of conceits. Andrew
Marvell combined Donne’s wit with lyrical beauty.

Elizabethan Lyric
Next to drama, lyrical poetry was the most popular, significant, and representative literary genre of
the Elizabethan age. In the sixteenth century, particularly in the last two decades, there was a tremendous
outburst of lyrical expression and the whole air was thick with ear-filling melodies of the songsters of the
age. "England, Merry England", in Legouis' words, "was a nest of singing birds."
The generation of the lyrical spirit in the Elizabethan England may be explained by reference to the break
which, consequent upon the Renaissance, England registered with the murky Middle Ages, a period too
steeped in religious spirit to hold a brief for that passionate abandon which is the soul of lyricism. The

17
Elizabethans felt themselves to be free, and this sense of freedom found a suitable medium in the writing
of songs and lyrics which did not require much of discipline, either emotional or artistic. The Elizabethans
thought intensely, lived intensely, and wrote intensely. Intensity was the thing. And this intensity has,
naturally enough, a recourse to lyricism. Moreover, there were Italian and French precedents not to be
discredited in an age which gloated in copying the foreign modes in writing as well as behaving. Some
Italian and French strains are easily discernible in the rich orchestration of Elizabethan lyrical poetry.
Lyrics and songs became the order of the day. Legouis observes: "And the song was everywhere, sung in
halls and parlours and trolled along the roads. It was in towns and in the country, on the stage and in
romances. It filled whole collections; some poets specialized in it...England, destitute of the plastic arts,
became the impassioned lover of song."
Variety of Theme and Treatment:
The lyrical impulse of the Elizabethans found expression in a great variety of poetic forms. Some of
these forms are the pastoral lyric, sonnet and sonnet sequence, the formal ode, epithalamion, madrigal,
conzone, roundelay, catch, and lyrical elegy or the dirge. Thus Elizabethan lyricists arrogated to themselves
a great deal of freedom both in the matter of theme and treatment. On the one hand some lyrics and songs,
such as those of Robert Southwell, are steeped in deep religious sentiments, and on the other hand, there
are some others which are frankly sensuous and even heavy with erotic Italianism which was in the
Elizabethan air and a sight of which is provided by such poems as Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and
Marlowe's Hero and Leander, and even more by Marston's Pigmalion and Drayton's The Barons War. The
lyricists dealt with such themes as love, war, patriotism, and so on, but most of all, love. In spite of alLtftis
thematic variety, one thing was common in all the songs and lyrics; and that was the lightness of touch
giving them freshness and charming simplicity. They are never, to quote a critic, "overweighted with
meaning, nor at their best are they overcharged with convention or with ornament."
Collections of Lyrical Verse—"-Song Books":
In the sixteenth century there-was a raging vogue for the collections of lyrical verse which were
commonly known as "song books". These collections were publications of men of unrefined and
undiscriminating taste. The exquisite flowers ofgreat lyrical genius were strung-m these collections along
with the indifferent productions of very inferior minds. Nevertheless, these collections were much more
popular than the works of individual authors separately published. The vogue of the song book started in
1557 with the appearance of Tottel's Miscellany which comprised chiefly the songs and sonnets of Wyatt
and Surrey. The last of the famous collections was Davidson's .Poetical Rapsody which appeared in 1602.
In between 1557 and 1602 there flowed an uninterrupted torrent of such song books. There was not a single
year which did not see the publication of one or other of such collections of lyrical verse. Even to name these
collections would be a lengthy task. Many of them appeared under the titles instinct with a kind of poetry
of their own. Let us just name a few of the most important collections. They are
(i) The Paradise of Dainty Devices, 1576.
(ii) A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions, 1578.
(iii) A Handful of Pleasant Delights, 1584:
(iv) The Phoenix Nest, 1593.
(v) The Passionate Pilgrim. 1599.
(vi) England's Helicon 1600.
(vii) England's Parnassus 1600.
(viii) Belvedere 1600.
As we have already said, the contents of these collections are a curiously mixed stuff. As Legouis
says, "exquisite poems are elbowed by others which are mediocre or even deplorable; the worst rhymsters
are associated with the true poets". The Dainty Devices, which included contributions from some thirty

18
writers, proved very popular and ran into no fewer than ten editions. Far from what the title may lead one
to expect, the poems included in it are marked by perfect sobriety. The songs are relatively few, and all of
them perfectly serious. The Phoenix Nest, according to the title, contains, "the most rare and refined works
of noblemen, worthy knights, gallant gentlemen, masters of art, and brave scholars." These authors do not
lend themselves to identification, but it is certain that almost all of them were men of Oxford. England's
Helicon contained one hundred and fifty poems, some out of which are, according to Tucker Brooke, "the
finest lyrics that had appeared from Tottel's Miscellany to Shakespeare." As regards England's Parnassus
the same critic avers that "its selections are neither made with taste nor classified with care. The lover of
poetry cannot read it and the scholar cannot rely upon it, but neither can safely disregard it. " A Poetical
Rhapsody contained forty poems by Francis Davidson, eighteen by his brother Walter and sixty-five by
"Anomos" who has not yet been identified, and some lyrics by Sidney, Campion, Constable, and others. The
importance of The Passionate Pilgrim is that in it were for the first time published some of the sonnets of
Shakespeare which were then in private circulation and were to be printed in a body only in 1609.
Some Lyricists Considered:
To enter into a more than thumb-nail treatment of the work of even the more important of
Elizabethan lyricists is a task quite prohibitive in magnitude. NoElizabethan with even the slightest claim
to poetic inspiration, or courtly refinement, or even plain cleverness, could do without producing at least a
few songs and lyrics. Let us cast a hurried glance at the most prominent of Elizabethan lyricists.
Spenser inserted some lovely songs in his Shepherd*s Calender. However, he is too sophisticated
and elaborate, so that some of these songs have almost the appearance of odes. Sidney's songs and lyrics
are much more airy. The eleven songs which Xe inserted among the one hundred and eight sonnets
of Astrophel and Stella are. the best of their kind. and are vastly superior to the songs he introduced
in Arcadia, most probably because they have the genuineness and intensity of his personal feeling at their
core. Some of Sidney's most famous and most delightful songs are those with the following refrains:
To you, to you, all sons, of praise is due; Only Joy! Now here you are; and
Who is that this dark night?
Marlowe, the wielder of "the mighty line", who in Tamburlame "led" the audience "to the stately tent of
war" to thrill them with "the high astounding terms" of Tamburlaine 's speech, "laid", in the words of
Legouis, "his sonorous trumpet aside one day to play a pastoral air on a reed pipe. He sang a reed pipe. He
sang the shepherd's call to the shepherdess, 'Come, live with me and be my love "Raleigh came out with the
song of the shepherdess:
If all the world and love were young.
Lyrics and Music:
All these songs and lyrics were full of harmony and had the capability of being set to music. We
have already referred to some collections of lyrical verse which were very popular among Elizabethan
readers. There were other collections, too, and equally popular, which included both verses and music.
Tucker Brooke maintains : "Much of the finest Elizabethan lyric [is] found in the collections that the
musicians made for household singing, for the English musicians in this period were, like the poets, the
greatest in Europe." Among these musicians-cum-song-writers the most prominent were William Byrd,
Nichols Yonge, John Dowiand, and Thomas Campion. Byrd is rather heavy and didactic. Yonge's songs are
too obviously imitations of Italian airs. Dowiand was credited with a "heavenly touch upon the lute", and
though he was decidedly a better lutanist than poet yet some of his songs are quite interesting.
Campion as a poet is much better than Dowiand and though he was a doctor of medicine by
profession who sought entertainment in music yet he was, as Legouis says, 'a true poet". He wrote a few
masques which contained songs and lyrics. Campion as a lyricist is much airy and fresh. Compton-Rickett
observes: "Campion's songs are light as thistledown, and float away in the air."
The Dramatists:

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 Some of the best of Elizabethan songs and lyrics are to be found in plays of the age. It was a practice
with playwrights then, and it continued till the Restoration, to insert-quite frequently songs and lyrics in
their works. And though these songs and lyrics have a contextual significance and appropriateness yet many
of them can be enjoyed and appreciated by themselves too. Lyly's famous songs are Cupid and my
Campaspe played and O yes, O yes, if any maid. George Peele's Arraigment of Paris has some wonderfully
lovely songs. So are the cradle-songs in Greene's Menaphon, Weep not, my wanton and the madrigal in
Lodge's Rosaline:
Love in my bosome like a bee
Doth suck his sweet:
Now with his wings he plays with me,
Now with his feet.
Within my eyes he makes his nest.
His bed amidst my tender breast.
Shakespeare's songs are in a class apart. They are so different thematically from one another that they defy
all classification. But all of them are exquisitely fresh and full of first-hand impressions of nature. Most of
them fit in with the scenes in which they are recited and cannot be properly wreched out of their context.
Their tone and content are alike appropriate to the occasion. Consider, for instance, the jeeringly ironical
lines of the fool in King Lear, the incantations of the witches in Macbeth, the carousing songs of lago
in Othello, and in the same play, Desdemona's pathetic willow song. The versification of Shakespeare's
songs is as varied as their content, and in all cases is fitted to the mood of the intended speaker with a rare
ingenuity and insight.
Shakespeare's contemporaries do not show the same skill and imagination in the writing of songs
and lyrics for their plays. But some successful attempts may here be mentioned:
Dekker' s Co Id's the wind and Art thou poor;
nd Fletcher's Lay a garland on my hearse Hence all your vain delights and Drink today and drown all sorrow
Call for the robin redbreast; and finally,
s Come, my Celia, let us prove and Drink to me only with thine eyes (which does not, however, occur in a play,
but his collectin entitled Underwoods).
Sonnets and Sonneteers:
The sonnet is a very discipl ined form of lyrical poetry, ft has to have fourteen lines arranged in one
of the various rhyme-paiterns. and each line is to be, more or less, an iambic pentameter. The sonnet had
its origin around the fourteenth century in Italy from where it was imported into England by Wyatt who
modelled his own sonnets closelv on the pattern used by the Italian poet, Petrarch. The amorous and
idealistic, if not artificial, sentiments expressed by Petrarch in /^is sonnets were also aped by Wyatt. Surrey
also wrote sonnets, but he employed another kind of rhyme-scheme which came later to be called the
Shakespearean pattern, after the name of Shakespeare who also adhered to it in his sonnets. Whereas
Petrarch and Wyatt divided the sonnet into two parts-an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines) mutually
separated by a pause-Surrey and Shakespeare divided the sonnet into four parts-three quatrains (four lines
each) and the ending couplet. The Petrarchan octave had the rhyme-scheme abba, abba, and the sestet, one
of the many. The Shakespearean sonnet has the rhyme-scheme a b a b c dc d efefgg. Spenser tried a
somewhat different pattern-a babbcbccd'cdee. Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare were the most prominent
among Elizabethan sonneteers. Their sonnet sequences are combinations of autobiographically genuine
sentiment and convention. There were many other sonneteers, too. About two thousand of the sonnets
written in the last two decades of the sixteenth century are extant even today.

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