An Outline of the Literature of the English Renaissance
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE RENAISSANCE L Changes influencing the Literature of the Sixteenth Century 1. In language: such as (a) changes in pronunciation due for example to the dropping o¿ final e as a, separately sounded syllable; metrical regularity of Chaucer's verse no longer appreciated; (?) the consequent breaking down of old metrical standards and the introduction of freakish forms ("PoulteVs measure"; "Skel- tonic" verse, etc.). Later in the century, the attempt to adapt classical quantitative verse to English (The Areopagus, etc.). 2. In thought : such as (a) the new nationalism, due to the political changes made by Henry VIII and Elizabeth; (i) the revival of interest in the classics (Humanism) which had been almost unknown in the Middle Ages; (c) cosmopolitanism, due to travel; the influence of Italy and France, refle
...cted in Chaucer, again becomes prominent. 3. In literary themes: such as the introduction of the sonnet and other forms of subjective literature; the pastoral; the new theory of the epic; the novel; the essay; the drama. ?. Early Humanism in England 1. Humphrey of Gloucester (1391-1447) 2. Colet (1466-1519) and Erasmus (1465-1536) 3. Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) (a) Utopia (Latin version, 1516; English translation by Ralph Robinson, 1551) 4. Early translations from the classics (a) Phaer's Aeneid (1558-1562). Two books of the Aeneid also translated by Surrey, in blank verse. (?) Seneca was translated by Jasper Heywood and others, 1581. (c) North's Plutarch (1579) was famous for its influence on Shakspere. ?. Transitional Poetry of the Early Sixteenth Century 1. John Skelton (c. 1460-1529) (a) Author of various translations and adaptations of humanistic works. (?) Influenced by Chaucer in Garlande of Laurell, a medley of all sorts ...
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