3. Interlude.
The interlude, which grew out of the morality, was intended, as its name implies, to be used more as a filler than as the main part of an entertainment. As its best it was short, witty, simple in plot, suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet, or for the relaxation of the audience between the divisions of a serious play. It was essentially an indoors performance, and generally of an aristocratic nature.
Chapter 3 English Literature in the Renaissance I.A Historical Background II. The Overview of the Literature （1485-1660）
Printing press—readership—growth of middle class—trade-education for laypeople-centralization of power-intellectual life-exploration-new impetus and direction of literature.
Humanism-study of the literature of classical antiquity and reformed education.
Literary style-modeled on the ancients.
The effect of humanism-the dissemination of the cultivated, clear, and sensible attitude of its classically educated adherents. 1. poetry
The first tendency by Sidney and Spenser: ornate, florid, highly figured style.
The second tendency by Donne: metaphysical style—complexity and ingenuity.
The third tendency by Johnson: reaction——Classically pure and restrained style.
The fourth tendency by Milton: central Christian and Biblical tradition. 2. Drama
a. the native tradition and classical examples.
b. the drama stands highest in popular estimation: Marlowe – Shakespeare – Jonson. 3. Prose
a. translation of Bible; b. More; c. Bacon. II.English poetry.
1. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard （courtly makers） （1） Wyatt: introducing sonnets.
（2） Howard: introducing sonnets and writing the first blank verse. 2. Sir Philip Sidney—poet, critic, prose writer （1） Life: a. English gentleman;
b. brilliant and fascinating personality; c. courtier. （2） works
a. Arcadia: pastoral romance;
b. Astrophel and Stella （108）: sonnet sequence to Penelope Dvereux—platonic devotion. Petrarchan
conceits
and
original
feelings-moving
to
creativeness—building of a narrative story; theme-love originality-act of writing.
c. Defense of Poesy: an apology for imaginative literature—beginning of literary criticism. 3. Edmund Spenser
（1） life: Cambridge - Sidney's friend - ―Areopagus‖ – Ireland - Westminster Abbey. （2） works
a. The Shepherds Calendar: the budding of English poetry in Renaissance. b. Amoretti and Epithalamion: sonnet sequence c. Faerie Queene:
l The general end——A romantic and allegorical epic—steps to virtue. l 12 books and 12 virtues: Holiness, temperance, justice and courtesy. l Two-level function: part of the story and part of allegory （symbolic meaning）
l Many allusions to classical writers. l
Themes:
puritanism,
nationalism,
humanism
and
Renaissance
Neoclassicism—a Christian humanist. （3） Spenserian Stanza.
III.English Prose 1. Thomas More
（1） Life: ―Renaissance man‖, scholar, statesman, theorist, prose writer, diplomat, patron of arts
a. learned Greek at Canterbury College, Oxford; b. studies law at Lincoln Inn; c. Lord Chancellor; d. beheaded.
（2） Utopia: the first English science fiction.
Written in Latin, two parts, the second—place of nowhere.
A philosophical mariner （Raphael Hythloday） tells his voyages in which he discovers a land-Utopia.
a. The part one is organized as dialogue with mariner depicting his philosophy.
b. The part two is a description of the island kingdom where gold and silver are worn by criminal, religious freedom is total and no one owns anything. c. the nature of the book: attacking the chief political and social evils of his time.
d. the book and the Republic: an attempt to describe the Republic in a new way, but it possesses an modern character and the resemblance is in externals. e. it played a key role in the Humanist awakening of the 16th century which moved away from the Medieval otherworldliness towards Renaissance
secularism. f. the Utopia
（3） the significance.
a. it was the first champion of national ideas and national languages; it created a national prose, equally adapted to handling scientific and artistic material.
b. a elegant Latin scholar and the father of English prose: he composed works in English, translated from Latin into English biography, wrote History of Richard III.
2. Francis Bacon: writer, philosopher and statesman
（1） life: Cambridge - humanism in Paris – knighted - Lord Chancellor – bribery - focusing on philosophy and literature.
（2） philosophical ideas: advancement of science—people:servants and interpreters of nature—method: a child before nature—facts and observations: experimental. （3） ―Essays‖: 57.
a. he was a master of numerous and varied styles.
b. his method is to weigh and balance maters, indicating the ideal course of action and the practical one, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, but leaving the reader to make the final decisions. （arguments） IV.English Drama 1. A general survey.
刘炳善《英国文学简史》完整版笔记（免费）
