The Renaissance and Restoration

Nicholas Hilliard, 'Young Man Among Roses'

Explore the main features that separate the Renaissance from the Middle Ages.

http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance

http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/16century/review/summary.htm

1- Write down at least four important changes that took place in the Renaissance society .

As you have just read, the Renaissance was the beginning of the modern world in the areas of geography, science, politics, religion, society and art. And English, in the hands of writers like Shakespeare, became the modern language we can recognize today. The invention of printing meant that all kinds of writing were open to anyone who could read. Many new forms of writing developed. But the most important form of expression was the theatre. This was the age of Shakespeare, and the Golden Age of English Drama.

2- The most famous line in all English literature is probably: “To be, or not to be, that is the question”. It was pronounced by a character of Shakespeare´s . Who was deciding whether to go on living, or to die? Why should he face such a conflict?

hhttp://shakespeare.palomar.edu/timeline/summarychart.htm

ttp://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_001.html

http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/hamlet001.html

http://usefultrivia.com/biographies/william_shakespeare_001.html

William Shakespeare´s main works are plays grouped into comedies, tragedies and historic plays, and many of which were first performed at the famous Globe Theatre , which finally belonged to Shakespeare himself and some other members of his theatre company called the Chamberlain´s men. However, he also wrote some poetry: his 154 Sonnets cover a wide range of subjects such as love, loss, loneliness, mystery, the passing of time…

Read one of his sonnets while you listen to the audio reading at the Norton Archive site.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/4081/146.html

http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/noa/audio.htm

3- Which subject, from the ones mentioned above, do you think is the central theme in this sonnet? Mention some words in the poem that you believe are connected with the theme.

4- Shakespeare´s major tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet

These tragedies involve a deep study of human emotions such as: ambition, jealousy, revenge, family and love.

Find out about the plots of these tragedies and match every play with the corresponding emotion it deals with.

http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc12.htm

http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html

http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/shakespeare025.html

5- Even though many of Shakespeare´s plots were not original, his command of language turned them into actual masterpieces. His words are an endless source of popular sayings and quotations. Almost every line encloses a profound message. Try to translate into Spanish either 5 lines from one of the monologues at this site

http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_william.html

or 2 quotations from his plays at

http://www.notable-quotes.com/s/shakespeare_william_quotes.html

6- However, other playwrights, contemporary to Shakespeare, were even more successful than him at that time. They enjoyed the Golden Age of English Drama, when plays addressed a wide, popular and dedicated audience.

Find out the titles of his best known plays:

A_Christopher Marlowe wrote a play about a man who sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge: …

B_Ben Jonson´s second known play was performed in 1598 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the Globe with William Shakespeare in the cast. Jonson became a celebrity, and there was a brief fashion for 'humours' comedy, with characters who represented a temperament, or humor, of humanity: …

C_Thomas Kyd wrote the most popular and influential tragedy of Elizabethan times. Inspired by the tragedies of Seneca, it tells the story of Horatio, the only son of the marshal of Spain. Revenge and madness remind the audience of Shakespeare´s Hamlet: …

D_John Webster wrote about a widowed Duchess who was forbidden to marry again by her brothers: …

http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc24.html

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/benbio.htm

http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc25.html

http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc27.html

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In the 1620, the taste for violence, corruption and sexual feelings at the stage began to cause a reaction from extreme Protestants, the Puritans. This led to the closure of the theatres in 1642 and the end of the Golden Age of Theatre.

7- The most admired poet in Shakespeare's day was Edmund Spenser His major contribution to English poetry was an allegorical epic poem, The Faerie Queene. The poem links the Tudor dynasty with the Arthurian tradition It remains the longest epic poem in the English language, and has inspired writers like John Milton .Who do you think is the “faerie queene” he celebrates as Gloriana, the national heroine who brings peace and wealth to the nation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Spenser

8- Paradise Lost (1667) is the major epic poem in English, written by the 17^th century poet, John Milton. He had also thought about using the English myth of King Arthur, but finally he decided to use a more general subject. Which one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost

9- A group of English lyric poets of the 17th century were called the Metaphysical Poets. Their works were criticized for difficulty and for lack of feeling. They used unusual and paradoxical images in their complex poems.

Look up in the encyclopedia and write the names of some of these poets.

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/

10- One of the concerns of the Renaissance man was the search for new values and the exploration of new worlds. On the other hand, the new society of the Restoration was much more worried about stability. They tried to prevent the risk of another political revolution and as the new middle classes became more and more affluent they became more fond of stable values. This contrast can be noticed in two prose texts belonging to this period : John Bunyan´s The Pilgrim´s Progress and Thomas More´s Utopia. Can you link each with one of the two different stages mentioned before?