Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard, Eugène Delacroix (1839)
The English Renaissance was one of the most significant and culture-inspiring periods in English history. Heavy hitting authors spawned major works and scores of plays and poems and books and stories to express their thoughts and ideas. This was also a time period of economic development for England, as it interacted with the continent of Europe more and more. For English teachers around the world, this is the wellspring of English literature: the life and works of William Shakespeare, probably one of the most impactful authors who wrote in the English language. The English Renaissance and Elizabethan Age was the birthplace of modern English as a language, and marked the beginnings of the modern uses of the English tongue (such as the use of certain phrases and slang, and even more modern spellings of words, etc.). In addition to major developments in language, major changes in science, philosophy, art, and music spread across Europe, focusing on a necessary perspective shift from the Middle Ages.
The two anchor texts that we will be using in this unit are two of Shakespeare's most well-written and most popular plays: The Tragedy of MacBeth and The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Review the notes for these ground-breaking pieces of literature to make sure that you are ready for class. Use the secondary texts for this unit that are linked below; some links to the anchor texts for this unit are available in the Online Texts tab.
Lecture Notes on Elizabethan England
Handout on lecture notes for Elizabethan England
Handout on the Themes of Elizabethan Drama
Lecture Notes on Medieval vs. Renaissance Art
Handout on the Origins of Tragedy
Handout on Plot Structure of Shakespearean Tragedy
Handout on Elizabethan Poems
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick and Poem Analyses
Handout on Pastoral Love in Elizabethan England
Queen Elizabeth I Speech at Tilbury handout
Lecture Notes on The Tragedy of MacBeth
Fortune's Wheel article and poem handout
Handout on Fuseli's "Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers" Painting
Handout on MacBeth Monologue
Lecture Notes on The Tragedy of Othello
Themes of Othello handout
Iago's Monologue (Act I Scene 3) and Questions handout
One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts by Shirley Jackson, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fantasy House, Inc., copyright 1955Â
Elizabethan Age / English Renaissance and Othello Study Guide