English Renaissance

T.More Kelvin Noel Santiago S. The New Learning. __ While previous contributions to the study of antiquity were in Latin, the great and permanent enthusiasm for classical learning awaited the introduction of Greek studies into England. William Grocyn (c.1446-1519) studied at Florence and returned to be the first teacher of Greek at Oxford, and the introducer of the New Learning. Thomas Linacre (c.1460-1524) received a medical degree at Padua and return to found the Royal College of Physicians at London. At Oxford he taught Greek to Erasmus and Sir Thomas More. John Colet (c.1467-1519) returned from Italy to become dean of St. Paul's Cathedral and founder of St. Paul's School(1512), the first English secondary school devoted to the "New Learning". William Lily (c.1468-1522), wrote a Latin grammar that Shakespeare used and that would be the standard text in English schools almost to the 18th century. The greatest humanist of the age was Desiderius Erasmus (c.1466 -1536), who was Dutch by birth. His significance for english literature is readily undertood in view of the fact t hat up to this time western Europe was still possessed of a common language (Latin) and a common religion (Roman Catholicism). Erasmus' most famous work, Moriae Encomium (Praise of Folly) , was written in 1510 at the London home of Sir Thomas More . It satirizes the corruption of religion and learning, exalting Humanist ideals. Sir Thomas More Thomas More was born in Milk Street, London on February 7, 1478, son of Sir John More, a prominent judge. He was educated at St Anthony's School in London. As a youth he served as a page in the household of Cardinal Morton, who anticipated More would become a "marvellous man" Thomas More went on to study at Oxford under Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn. During this time, he wrote comedies and studied Greek and Latin literature. One of his first works was an English translation of a Latin biography of the Italian humanist Pico della Mirandola. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510. Around 1494 More returned to London to study law, was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1496, and became a barrister in 1501. Yet More did not automatically follow in his father's footsteps. He was torn between a monastic calling and a life of civil service. Wh ile at Lincoln's Inn, he determined to become a monk and subjected himself to the discipline of the Carthusians, living at a nearby monastery and taking part of the monastic life. The prayer, fasting, and penance habits stayed with him for the rest of his life. More's desire for monasticism was finally overcome by his sense of duty to serve his country in the field of politics. He entered Parliament in 1504, and married for the first time in 1504 or 1505. During the next decade, More attracted the attention of King Henry VIII. In 1515 he accompanied a delegation to Flanders to help clear disputes about the wool trade. Utopia opens with a reference to this very delegation. More was also instrumental in quelling a 1517 London uprising against foreigners, portrayed in the play Sir Thomas More , possibly by Shakespeare. More accompanied the King and court to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1518 he became a member of the Privy Council, and was knighted in 1521. More helped Henry VIII in writing his Defence of the Seven Sacraments , a repudiation of Luther, and wrote an answer to Luther's reply under a pseudonym. More had garnered Henry's favor, and was made Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523 and Chancellor

of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1525. As Speaker, More helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech. He is chiefly remembered for his principled refusal to accept King Henry VIII's claim to be supreme head of the Church of England, a decision which ended his political career and led to his execution for treason. Utopia (1515) Utopia (from Greek: no , and , place, i.e. "no place" or "place that does not exist," as well as "perfect place") is a fictional island near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean written about by Sir Thomas More as the fictional character Raphael Hythloday (translated from the Greek as "knowing in trifles") recounts his experiences in his travels to the deliciously fictional island with a perfect social, legal, and political system. The name has come to mean, in popular parlance, an ideal society. The term is sometimes used pejoratively, in reference to an unrealistic ideal that is impossible to realize, and has spawned other concepts, most prominently "dystopia". The book, written in classical Latin, is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Despite modern connotations of the word "utopia," it is widely accepted that the society More describes in this work was not actually his own "perfect society." Rather he wished to use the contrast between the imaginary land's unusual political ideas and the chaotic politics of his own day as a platform from which to discuss social issues in Europe. What probably first suggested the idea for Utopia to Thomas More was his work with Erasmus, when they jointly translated some of Lucian's works from Greek into Latin. Among these dialogues, one involved the story of Menippus, the Greek playwright, descending into the underworld and describing what he found there. The o ther significant influence was Plato's Republic , which is a far more politically motivated work about imaginary lands; it is referred to several times in Utopia . Another important source that influenced Thomas More's Utopia was Tacitus's Germania . In this book Tacitus describes the germanics' government and leadership as somewhat merit-based and egalitarian, with leadership by example rather than authority and that punishments are carried out by the priests. He mentions that the opinions of women are susceptible of/respected. Saint Agustine's De Civitate Dei can also be pointed out as another important inlfuence. The book presents human history as being a conflict between what Saint Agustine calls the City of Man and the City of God. The City of God is marked by people who forgo earthly pleasure and dedicate themselves to the promotion of christian values. The City of Man, on the other hand, consist of people who have stryed from the City of God. Another important source is Erasmus's Institutio Principis Christiani. This book basically makes reference to the proper way in which princes and kings should govern their kingdoms. According to Erasmus, one of the main virtues a king should possess is wisdom, portraying as an example David and his son Salomon. One of the most troublesome questions about Utopia is Thomas More's reason for writing it. Some of the ideas in it, such as the ease for its inhabitants' divorce, euthanasia and both married and wome priests, seem to be polar opposites of his beliefs and those expected of the devout Catholic that he was. The concept of religious toleration seems to particularly jar with the information we have about him as Lord Chancellor; that he was a keen persecutor of heretics, i.e.: Protestants. Similarly, the criticism of lawyers comes from a writer who, as Lord Chancellor, was arguably the most influential lawyer in England. Utopia is often seen as a satire and there are many jokes and satirical asides such as how honest people are in Europe, but these are usually contrasted with the simple, uncomplicated society of the Utopians. The other option is that More agreed with the ideas he was propounding. The met hod of making a story about an imaginary place told by an imaginary man has the effect of distancing More from his radical political thoughts. Apart from Utopia meaning "No place" several other lands are mentioned: Achora meaning "Nolandia", Polyleritae meaning "Muchnonsense", Macarenses meaning "Happiland" and the river Anydrus meaning "Nowater". These names are designed to emphasise the illusory nature of the work and

Raphael's last name, Hythlodaeus, meaning "dispenser of nonsense", helps to discredit his words among those who get the joke. The name Raphael, though, may have been chosen by More to remind his readers of the archangel Raphael who is mentioned in the Book of Tobit . In that book the angel guides Tobias and later cures his father of his blindness. While Hythloday may suggest his words are not to be trusted, Raphael meaning "God has healed" suggests that Raphael may be opening the eyes of the reader to what is true. The suggestion that More may have agreed with the views of Raphael is given weight by the way he dressed; with "his cloak was hanging carelessly about him"; a style which Roger Ascham reports that More himself was wont to adopt. Furthermore, more recent criticism has questioned the reliability of both Gile's annotations and the character of "More" in the text itself.

Sergio Herrera Blanco

Other works by Thomas More: As a writer, More is mainly known as the author of Utopia . Nevertheless, in spite of how long he spent as a lawyer and a public man, his literary production is quite great, apart from his translation of the Life of Johan Picus, Erle of Myrandula , a biography of Pico della Mirandola (1463-94), a Florentine aristocrat who had eschewed both the cloister and the court, and who had ended his life as a disciple of the reformist Dominican friar, Savonarola. He also wrote a great number of poems and pamphlets about devotion and religious controversy, both in English and in Latin. His polemic poems and writings are interesting as a revelation of some aspects of his personality, as a proof of his biblical and theological knowledge, and as an indicator of the aggressive and intolerant mood of the period, but they are by no m eans the most valuable production of his career as a writer. During the years 1514-18, when More was at work in Utopia , he was also engaged with what become an unfinished History of King Richard III . This History , written both in English and Latin parallelly, suggests that More was a careful student of the techniques of ancient Roman historians as well as an assembler of anecdotes drawn from contemporary witnesses. For More, Richard III is the type of the tyrant, a man physically and mentally corrupted clo se and secrete, a deepe dissimuler, lowlye of countynaunce, arrogant of heart, outwardly coumpinable (friendly) where he in wardely hated, not letting to kiss whome he thoughte to kyll. Richard embodies the shortcomings of a monarchic government and twists the web of loyalties centred on the person of the king for his own benefit. Shakespeare will be inspired by this to write the tragedy Richard III .

Another important work of him is Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation , written in 1534 while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, waiting for his penalty. In this work, More talks about the fear of Hungary in that time to be invaded by the Turkish Empire. That is what seems, but in fact, what More means is the fear of the English Catholics (Hungary) against the pressure of the Protestants (Turkish Empire). If we take this into an individualistic way of thinking, what More is trying to tell us is how men should behave in that moment, putting universal truth before relative truth, and, of course, before any particular commodity. The work is meant to be read as a dialogue between two characters, Anthony and Vincent, which represent More and a relative or a friend of him, who discuss about essential aspects of what is going to happen in England, and what could happen to every Englishman who stands faithful to the theological truth. This last sentence represents the situation of More himself, since he is going to be beheaded. Both Utopia and the Dialogue are still nowadays worthwhile to be read, although they may require a modernization for those readers who are not fond of prerenascent linguistic style. Eduardo Hernndez Gutirrez Sir thomas Elyot s major work was The Boke Named the Governour of 1531, the earliest treatise on moral and philosophy, the first latin-English dictionary and the Castel of Health a popular medicine book. Elyot was also very appreciated for his translations from classic tongues into English. The Boke Named the Governour is his most important work. The chief concern of this book is to demonstrate that the common good of the world depend on the education of the ruling upper classes. He did not dispute the principle of a soveraigne governour, Elyot sought to determine that those placed in authority have to be truly noble wits trained for public service, capable of broadly advancing the public good. The author map s out the different points of the education of a gentleman fit to rule and catalogues examples of well educ ated rulers in the past. Although his stress is on the importance of a modern boys learning on classical tongue grammars, and on his later advances into the study of rhetoric, cosmography, history and philosophy, Elyot showed an equal interest in the acqu isition of skills in drawing, sculpture, riding, hunting, swimming, music and dancing. The book is full of classical reminiscences taken from authors of the antiquity or borrowed from the humanists of Italy. Baldassare Castigliones Il libro del cortegiano influenced in this book with the cultivation of mind and body. As a prose writer Elyot enriched the English language with many new words . He was one of the most deliberate and a assiduous neologizers of the XVI Century, he used his knowledge on classics tongues to the enlargement of his native language. He acknowledged the need for borrowing words from Latin because of, as he said, the insufficiencie of our owne language. In The Knowledge which Maketh a Wise Man, from 1533, he proudly describes the king using many borrowed words as maturity, discretion or industry, remarking on the fact that The Boke named the Governour did not contain any borrowed word. He also wrote The Castle of Health a popular treatise on medicine, full of prescriptions and remedies selected from Galen and other medical authorities of the antiquity. His translations from Latin and Greek into English, in that time when everybody were anxious to share classical learning and only a few ones knew the classical tongues, and were reprinted over and over again. To this class belong: -The Doctrine of Princess, Made by the Noble Oratour Isocrates, and Translated out of Greek into English. - The Bankette of Science.

-The Education of Children Translated out of Plutarche . -The Image of Governance Compiled of the Actes and Sentences nNotable of the Most Noble Emperour Alexander Severus, Late Translated out of Greke into Englishe. It is a very tiring work to capitalize all the important works of tittles, but still you have to use them. On the other hand, there is no point in enumerating essay after essay if you heve not the intention of talking about them. Henry the VIII encouraged Elyot in the compilation on his Latin English -English lexicon and the Dictionary of Sir Thomas Elyot, Knight or his later title Bibliotheca Elyotae was the result, the earliest comprehensive Latin-English dictionary completed in 1538. Elyot wrote in 1540 The Defense of Good Women. He was a supporter of the humanist ideas concerning the education of women. In this writing he supports Thomas Moore and other humanist ideals of well educated wives who will give intellectual companionship for their husbands and education for their children. Two important books by Roger Ascham were Toxophilus and The Scholemaster . He is remembered as the author of these two treatises expounding decorum, eloquence and the values of English Humanism. Toxophilus , published in 1545, deals with to the topic of archery, promoting its benefits as a physical activity and giving importance to archery in the history of the country. It is a dialogue between Philologus and Toxophilus, two archers. The essay compares archery and rhetoric as acts requiring mental discipline, precision in choosing one word or weapon and regular practice through imitation of the best models. Toxophilus was also an example of the eloquence and the decorum called for in the dialogues, it was a model to imitate. The Scholemaster, published in 1570, provides a guide to educate children, along Elyots Boke Named the Governour, Aschams treatise was the most important guide to educational theory and practice of its time; it captures the humanist spirit of learning that emphasized elegance in rhetoric, the proper use of imitation and the importance of decorum. It is not a general treatise on educational method, it shows a way of teaching children to understand, speak and write in the Latin tongue. It consisted in the double translation of a model book and it was not intended for schools, it was specially prepared for the private education of youths in gentlemen or noblemen's houses. Aschams Scholemaster is also popular for being published in English, making a classical model of education available to more students than ever before, it was an English book written for English people. Many of the ideas were not original to Ascham but his effort to put those ideas into his native tongue made him the standard-bearer of English humanist education. A final distinction is that it is against beaten pupils and defends to inspire them to learn. To beate pupils was common in that time, the idea of Ascham supposed a great controversy. His letters were collected and published in 1576 and went through several editions, the latest at Nuremberg in 1611. Bibliography Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature , New York, Oxford University Press, 2004. Pujals, Esteban. Historia de la Literatura Inglesa , Madrid, Gredos, 1988. Abrams, M.H. (gen.ed). The Norton Anthology of English Literature . 5th ed. New York, London: Norton,1986.Vol. I Ian Ousby, Online ? Ed. [Cambrifge]Cambridge University Press, 1998 ref.16 de octubre 2007 ? Disponible en web. http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/morebio.htm

WYATT AND SURREY THE NEW POETRY

It can be defined like the beginning of a "New Literary Era". Englishmen of the 16th century believed that they were innovators; England had not a great literary tradition, they felt, and they decided to begin with this New Literary Era. The first demonstration of this literary power was in poetry. The development was very fast. In the 1520's the only significant En glish verses were "the wild" and "poetry of vituperation" arising from well-worn medievalism. The new beginning was made during the reign of Henry VIII. In the 1530's Sir Thomas Wyatt was writing verse upon the subjects of the Renaissance in smooth versification and highly disciplined stanzas. He also introduces the Petrarchan fashion of lyric poetry. In the aristocratic spirit of the Renaissance most of the new poetry was circulating in manuscript. The great impact of much of this poetry was produced through anthologies rather than the individual publication of poet's works. Yessica Martn Garca A BRIEF HISTORICAL RETROSPECT The Italian poetry of the 16th century had itself been originally an imitation. There, in the 12th century had arisen a luxurious civilization whose poets, the troubadours, many of them men of noble birth, had carried to the furthest extreme the woman worship of Medieval chivalry. In this highly conventionalized poetry the lover is forever sighing for his lady. From Provence in France, Italy had taken up the style and among the other forms for its expression, in the 12th and 13th centuries, had devised the poem of a single 14 -line stanza which we call "the sonnet". The whole movement had found its great master in Petrarch, who, in hundreds of poems, mostly sonnets of perfect beauty, had sung the praises and cruelty of his nearly imaginary Laur a. Yessica Martn Garca

Sir Thomas Wyatt (Biography)

He was born in 1503. He studied at Cambridge. In his mature life was in contact with the court of the King Henry VIII. He had fulfilled royal missions for Henry VIII in France and Italy. Wyatt was also the English ambassador in Spain. However, Wyatt was not a very much wordly person, but a Protestant (under Henry VIII Protestant? I would check this statement!) seemingly of high and some what severe moral character. Wyatt was many times in prison because his disputes with the king and other problems. While he was in Italy, he acquainted himself with the Renaissance spirit, specially from the love poets, for example , Petrarch (his most important influence ). Impressed with the beauty of the Italian verse and contrasting rudeness of that contemporary England, he determined to remodel the style in the form of the English literature. Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into English poetry. He and Surrey became the parents of the English sonnet. At the end of Wyatt's life, he was retired to his house at Allington ( Kent) and he passed the time writing. Then, he died in 1542. Mara Zenaida Perera Belloch

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (Biography)

He was born in 1517. He was the son of the Duke of Norfolk. Surrey was an important man in politic matters and he had a lot of enemies (it may be interesting to discover why!).He studied

Latin, French, Spanish and Italian. First, he was more interested in French poets, but the major influence was Wyatt. Surrey was imprisioned by Henry VIII because there was a conspiration to usurp the crown from Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII; so , Surrey was executed by treason in 1547. In his literary works, he was important because, with Wyatt, he also contributed t o the introduction of the sonnet into English literature.Surrey improved Wyatt's sonnets and also wrote love poems after Italian and French models. Mara Zenaida Perera Belloch Things in common that Wyatt and Surrey have * In their life: Both of them went into prision because of political matters and they also were important men in politics. Wyatt and Surrey were related to the king's court (Henry VIII). They served, in one or another way, king Charles V (?). *In literature: They were influenced by the Italian sources, the Italian Renaissance and Petrarch. They introduced the sonnet into English literature.For this reason they were so important. Mara Zenaida Perera Belloch THE SONNET It begun in Italy, althought it must be said that Italian poetry imitated it from the poetry of Provence in France. The sonnet is composed by fourteen lines of iambic pentameter s and was introduced into England from Italy by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Yessica Martn Garca

n The Petrarchan sonnet The Petrarchan sonnet is also called the Italian sonnet and the rhyme scheme is: abbaabbacdcdcd. The first eight lines (octave) has always the same pattern, but the last six lines (sestet), frequently follows a different pattern, such as "cdecde","cdccdc", etc. So, the pattern of the sestets is flexible. However, the ending with a couplet is avoided and never permitted in Italy, and Petrarch himself never used it. The scheme of the Petrarchan sonnet was the background of the pre English sonnet; but when Wyatt introduced it, he ended the sestet with a couplet. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of many rhymed lines, more than any other sonnet. This is much easier to accomplish in Italian, a language more rich in rhyming words than English. In the Petrarchan sonnets, the model of inspiration is always the lady. Poems about love that is given to the beautiful lady ( an idealized lady).

Mara Zenaida Perera Belloch AN EXAMPLE OF AN ITALIAN OR PETRARCHAN SONNET: Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio (a) per aspro mare, a mezza notte il verno,(b) enfra Scilla e Caribdi; et al governo (b) siede il signore, anzi 'l nimico mio; (a) a ciascun remo un penser pronto e rio (a) che la tempesta e 'l fin par ch'abbi a scherno; (b) la vela rompe un vento umido, eterno, (b) di sospir, di speranze, e di desio; (a) pioggia di lagrimar, nebbia di sdegni (c) bagna e rallenta le gi stanche sarte, (d) che son d'error con ignoranzia attorto. (e) Celansi i duo mei dolci usati segni; (c) morta fra l'onde la ragion e l'arte, (d) tal ch'i' 'ncomincio a desperar del porto. (e) AN EXAMPLE OF A WYATT'S SONNET I find no peace I find no peace and all my war is done; (a) I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice; (b) I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise, (b) And naught I have and all the world I seize on; (a) That looseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison, (a) And holdeth me not yet can I scape nowise; (b) Nor letteth me live nor die at my devise, (b) And yet of death it giveth none occasion. (a) Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain; (c) I desire to perish, and yet I ask health; (d) I love another, and thus I hate myself; (d) I feed me in sorrow, and laugh in all my pain. (c) Likewise displeaseth me both death and life, (e) And my delight is causer of this strife.(e)
Yessica Martn Garca

The English sonnet It was also called the Elizabethan sonnet and later called the Shakespearean sonnet when Shakespeare began to use it. The English sonnet has the simplest and the most flexible pattern of all sonnets, consisting of three quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet: abab cdcd efef gg. It was the style used by Surrey. Mara Zenaida Perera Belloch AN EXAMPLE OF A SURREY'S SONNET Love that doth reign and live within my thought Love, that doth reign and live within my thought, (a) And built his seat within my captive breast, (b) Clad in the arms wherein with me he fought, (a) Oft in my face he doth his banner rest. (b) But she that taught me love and suffer pain, (c) My doubtful hope and eke my hot desire (d) With shamefast look to shadow and refrain, (c)

Her smiling grace converteth straight to ire. (d) And coward Love, then, to the heart apace (e) Taketh his flight, where he doth lurk and plain, (f) His purpose lost, and dare not show his face. (e) For my lord's guilt thus faultless bide I pain, (f) Yet from my lord shall not my foot remove: (g) Sweet is the death that taketh end by love. (g)
Yessica Martn Garca

SONNET'S TOPICS

The idolatry of a beautiful lady The lady's cruelty to her lover The lover's incapacity to sleep or eat or do anything except think about the lady The lover's burning desire The lover's renunciation to love Yessica Martn Garca THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THEIR WORKS: Wyatt and Surrey's works (the original ones, not precisely those that were translated from Italian authors, such as Petrach) are full of intentional personality. Wyatt, for instance, sang in his love-poetry, almost exclusively of his own suffering. The pleasures and pains of love are always present in their sonnets. It's actually the convention of expression which changes. The new convention is a convention of personal emotion, in which the poet pretends to be singing of his own heart expressing his feelings openly . Yessica Martn Garca Metrical contributions Wyatt: -His most interesting, though not his most succesful poems, are his sonnets.He was responsible for the introduction of the Petrarchan sonnet into the English poetry, following the Petrarchan sonnet tradition: fourteen lines formed by one octave and one sestet rhyming: abba abba cdcdcd. Wyatt also wrote poems with a change in the sestet, adding a final couplet: abba abba cddc ee. Some critics consider that Wyatt had a problem to handle the ten-syllabled iambic line. When he made translations from Italian sonnets, he usually tried to fit a regular number of syllables in each verse (ten syllables in order to follow the common English pattern, the iambic pentameter). However this was more difficult in English because it is a stressed-time language. This is why Wyatt is sometimes conceived as an unmusical poet who made forced lines and had to make use of lots of rethorical features to call the reader's attention. -The greatest of Wyatt's poems are his own original lyrics, made in brief and simple stanzas and written in the form of the ballad. These songs are much more numerous

than his sonnets and have a more delightful fluency and melody. Two examples are "Forget not yet" and "Say nay, Say nay". - Other innovation of Wyatt was the introduction of the Horatian satire (a moral poem reflecting on current follies). He wrote just three satires: two derived from Horace and one derived from the Italian poet Alamanni. The three of them show a freshness and a conversational tone that please in a different way. -Another of his innovations was the use of a characteristic part of the conventional Italian lyric, "the conceit". A conceit can be defined as an exagerated figure of speech or game of words which requires intellectual cleverness into extremely complicated lenghts of literal application. For example, in order to express that his lover blushes, he says that "his love, living in his heart, advances to his face and there encamps, displaying his banner." -He also made a version of the seven Penitential Psalms . It can be regarded as a single poem, since the prologues link the seven psalms together. The prologues are written in ottava rima and the psalms in terza rima, two forms he adopted from Italy. The terza rima consists of a three-line stanza with chain rhyme that usually varies (aba bcb cdc ded ...). The ottava rima consists of eight iambic lines with rhymes: abababcc. Surrey: -Like Wyatt, he was sensitive to the literary fashions that had invaded much of Europe from Italy and so, he also exercised and enlarged the English poetical language in translations and adaptions from Italian and Latin. While it was Wyatt who introduced the Petrarchan sonnet, it was Surrey who achieved an improvement of Wyatt's versification, securing fluency and smoothness. He used the rhyme scheme and the division into quatrains that now characterizes the English sonnet, later called "Shakespearean" sonnet: abab cdcd efef gg. -He is responsible for the introduction of the blank verse(a free verse with no rhyme). He used this form in his translation of the second and fourth books of Virgil's Aeneid. -Surrey also experimented the so called " poulter's measure", which consists of lines of twelve and fourteen syllables alternating.This form became very popular in the sixteenth century. As it was usual at that time, Surrey's and Wyatt's poems weren't published but after their deaths. They were published in 1557 by Richard Tottel in a collection of their songs and sonnets called Songs and Sonettes Written by the Right Honorable Lord Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Other . It's commonly known as Tottel's Miscellany and this book marks the beginning of the literature of the Elizabethan period. Paula Dharandas Mndez. Bibliography

- BOOKS: - BAUGH. A Literary History of England II. The Renaissance. EDITORIAL INFORMATION MISSING! - DAICHES, David . A critical History of English literarure ( from the beginnings to the 16th century). EDITORIAL INFORMATION MISSING! - MUIR, Kennet . Sir Thomas Wyatt -------------------------------------------------------------------- Web pages: -Sir Thomas Wyatt (en lnea)http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/wyatt.htm -Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (en lnea)http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/ henry.htm - Literatura inglesa I Thomas Wyatt (en lnea) http://webpages.ull.es/users/pdcrodas/literatura/wyatt.htm - Literatura inglesa I Henry Howard, Conde de Surrey (en lnea)http://webpages.ull.es/users/pdcrodas/literatura/surrey.htm - Sonnet central (en lnea) http://www.sonnets.org/ - The New English poetry (en lnea)http://www.bartleby.com/213/0803.html - Prosody form Chaucer to Spenser (en lnea)http://www.bartleby.com/213/1307.html

Elisabethan verse and prose narrative

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Elizabethan period had its name from Queen Elizabeth I (1558 -1603). During Elizabeth's reign, there was a stable situation in all senses because she had a good control on the conditions of the land. This was also the time of the Protestant Reformation lead by Martin Luther. This, of course, made some internal feuds (or disputes) in the Church, which meant that the members of the clergy did not stand as a sovereign power as they had in earlier periods of time. Parli ament was also not in its prime time at this time, which meant that these two powerful institutions in the country were momentarily weakened; the monarchy possessed the supreme power. The political control in this time carried by Elizabeth I may also have been the reason for her success, seeing that she avoided wars and lowered the taxes which made the economy expand. In the literary aspect, the Elizabethan period was a good time for literature in general because people believed in their possibilities as individuals and literature had a great development.

PROSE NARRATIVE

In the Elizabethan period there are several important authors who are considered to be Lyly's predecessors: William Painter who wrote The Palace of Pleasure (a collection of 101 erotic tales); George Pettie, A Petite Palace of Pettie His Pleasures, in which he uses alliteration, antithesis, etc., that contributed to the style of Euphues; and, finally, George Gascoigne, who wrote The Adventures of Master F.J., in which he makes a description of the English country-house life. After Queen Elizabeth I, in the seventeenth century, prose fiction was no longer popular in England (people preferred historical prose and translations of classical writers).

JOHN LYLY

John Lyly was the grandson of William Lily (the author of a celebrated Latin Grammar) and also one of the 'University Wits' (a group whose members were notable English playwrights of the late sixteenth century) was born in Kent in 1554. He received his early education in the King's School, Canterbury, but then he studied in Magdalen College, Oxford, obtaining his degree in 1575 . He died in 1606.

Leticia Machn Hernndez John Lylys Works: Lyly wrote lots of comedies like: Endymion (1591), Campaspe (1584), Sapho and Phao (1584), Gallathea (1592), Midas (1592), and Mother Bombie (1594). Lylys other plays include Loves Metamorphosis (though printed in 1601, possibly Lylys earliest play), and The Woman in the Moon . Of these, all but the last are in prose. Nevertheless Lyly was a prose writer too and its important to mention too his classical and mythological plots. Lyly must also be considered and remembered as a primary influence on the plays of William Shakespeare, and in particular the romantic comedies. In addition to the plays, Lyly also composed at least one entertainment. Elisa Ruiz Gonzlez Euphues Euphues (if you use italics you don not need to use -you should not use - inverted commas) is one of Lyly's most representative works. During the Renaissance, didactic purposes (regarding morals, values, manners...) were common, and that was precisely one of his aims when he wrote this novel. He portrayed the higher social classes as they wanted to be seen (well educated, polite). In fact, texts like Lyly's Euphues were very relevant in a historical period such as the Elizabethan Era, as it was characterised by an economic and general stability that implied the social progress that aroused these gentlemen's aim for keeping up appearances having literature as a model.

A work thought to have influenced Euphues very much is The Schoolmaster by Roger Ascham. Lyly found the name for his protagonist and probably the germ of its moral in the writing of this humanist and Protestant author. Hence that Lyly's Euphues has the natural virtues that Ascham praises (intellect, well-endowment).

The book tells the story of how a young, witty gentleman who went from Athens to Naples where he faces both friendship and love. The moral of the story is obvious; wit is not wisdom and though it is useful, there is always a consequence (wit can be a very good thing if it is used correctly). The book is divided in two parts: The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England . Also, the theme of Wit and Experience could be structured in five parts or episodes which are: Wit rejects wisdom; Wit meets Friendship and Love; Wit chooses Love; Wit loses Friendship; Betrayed by Love; Wit repents its wilfulness and so recovers Friendship.

Sara Torres Prez and Paula lvarez Ramos Robert Greene He was an English dramatist, poet, and essayist. He was born in Norwich, England, and studied at Cambridge University. Greene was one of the first men in Britain to make a life out of writing. The huge production of pamphlets, treatises and miscellaneous prose shows his increase of his inputs. Greenes numerous pamphlets, called Coney -Catching, were full of colour and stories close to the people who had been cheated by criminals who stole the money they had earned. These stories are always told from the perspective of former cheaters who had recanted from their acts. Most important works: Arbasto, the Anatomy of Fortune, Tullys Love, Pandosto, the Triumph of Time and Mamillia. Some of these works show Green's development from a more artificial style, following "Euphuism", to a less artificial one which anticipated the so-called "Cony-catching panphlets" that would be superseeded by his autobiographical pamphlets. This part is highly deficient in content. Not only you do not have developed this author, you do not have said a word on the works you have mentioned either. Sara Torres Prez Thomas Nashe He was born in Lowestof, England. He studied at Cambridge University where he gr aduated in 1589; the next year Nashes father died and then, he had to move to London. He stood up because of his brilliant talent with which he used to create his famous pamphlets. He became friends with other Cambridge students, such as Christopher Marlowe or Robert Greene, who, like him, wanted writing to let him earn a living. He maintained a literary controversy against the Harvey brothers who criticized Greenes work. Due to this, he felt inspired to write Pierce Penniless: His Supplication to the Devil a very successful satire. Another pamphlet worth to mention is Christ Teares over Jerusalem which criticizes Londons vice of that poque. Nashe wrote the first English picaresque novel, The Unfortunate Traveller which became a very influent work in English narrative because it brings forward overseas novels. Once again, I miss some comments on those novels! Thomas Deloney (1543-1600) It is known that he had a good knowledge of Latin and probably French. Before starting his career as a writer he was a silk-weaver, and he combined both jobs for some time. His earliest

extant works are some pieces of popular poetry (e.g. The Lamentation of Beckles and The Death and Execution of Fourteen Most Wicked Traitors , written in 1586). From that period onwards, little of his work is extant but there is no doubt that during his time he was writing prolifically. His novels deal with the life of travelling craftsmen, with legends, customs and with the topography of certain districts (around which the Elizabethan textile industries were centred). The most remarkable ones are: Thomas of Reading (in honour of clothiers); Jack of Newbury (which celebrates weaving); and The Gentle Craft (which praises the shoemakers job). He wrote about fifty ballads but his work as a novelist, in which he ranks with Greene and Nashe, is considered more important. His style is natural, simple and direct and his works are written with light and humour. Two of his ballads are: The Book of Silk Weavers (which has disappeared) and The Antiquities of Berkshire (in which he makes reference to a real fact of local topography, as he mentions five yearly fairs). Richard Hakluyt (1552-1616) He was a geographer, a clergyman, a translator, collector and editor of adventure and discovery narratives. He attended Westminster School and he linked to his religious devotion the study of geography. He pursued his interests at Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained a deep knowledge about languages in order to collect and translate exploration narratives. Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation (written in 1589) is regarded as the most notable of his narratives of adventure, and it was much enlarged in its second edition. Paula lvarez Ramos Verse Narrative: The most important work of verse narrative in the Elizabethan period is A Mirror For Magistrales . It is a collection of biographies of famous English people. The biography itself was written in verse and in first person. This is a continuation of Lydgates The Fall of Princess , which was a series of tragical stories written in the 15 th century. A Mirror For Magistrates indicates its function through the title, it was meant for men with public responsabilities (magistrates), in order for them to learn from other peoples mistakes. The first edition was published in 1559 and it contained 19 stories. In the second edition (1563) 8 new stories were added. This one contains poetry from authors like Thomas Sackville and Thomas Churchyard. The last one was published in 1610 with 91 new stories, of which the final one was a tribute to Queen Elizabeth.

There were many writers who imitated A Mirror For Magistrates namely W. Warner in Albions England , S. Daniel in A Complaint of Rosamund (this was A Mirror For Ladies) and M. Drayton in Heroical Epistles which contains the love letters of 12 pairs of famous English lovers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/ WEBSITES Attention to the bibliography! It is not cited correctly! A Literary History of England edited by Albert C. Baugh

John Lyly (The Humanist as Courtier) by G.K. Hunter http://www.bibliomania.com/0/5/130/frameset.html http://www.wikipedia.org/ http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1930

SIDNEY

Sir Philip Sidney was born the 30 of November of 1554 and he had the honour of being baptised by Philip II of Spain. Sidneys father was an important person in Elizabeth Ist court; therefore she named him Lord Deputy Governor of Ireland.

th

Sir Philip Sidney was the most illustrious English example of what we now call The Renaissance Man, since he was an Elizabethan courtier, states-man, poet, soldier and patron of scholars and poets, considered the ideal gentleman of his day. According to some critics, after Shakespeares Sonnets Sidneys Astrophel and Stella is considered the finest Elizabethan sonnet cycle. His The Defense of Poesy introduced the critical ideas of Renaissance theorists to English. After private tutelage Sidney went to Shrewsbury School, until he was ten years old, where through three years, he was very concerned with Calvinism, the lecture of the classics, and French knowledge. In that school, he coincided with Fulk Greville, who was Sidneys follower in the composition of sonnets. In 1568 Sidney went to the University of Oxford, to Christ Church, where he received tha traditional education of that age. But because of a serious epidemic the university closed in 1571, and he left it taking no degree, so he went on to complete his education by travelling over to the continent. In 1572 he began travelling and spent three years in so doing. In 1575 Sidney returned to England, living the life of a popular and eminent courtier. In 1577 he was sent as ambassador to the German Emperor and the Prince of Orange. His real mission was to feel out the chances for the creation of a Protestant League. Yet, the budding diplomatic career was cut short because Queen Elizabeth I found Sidney to be perhaps too ardent in his Protestantism, the Queen prefering a more cautios approach. Upon his return , Sidney attended the court of Elizabeth I and was considered the flower of chivalry. At some uncertain date, he compossed a major piece of critical prose that was published after his death under the two titles The Defense of Poesy and Apology for Poetry . Around 1576, Sidney begun Astrophil and Stella which includes 108 sonnets and 11 songs.

In 1580 he went to Wilton House, where he lived with his sister, and there he wrote a long, elaborate epic romance in prose which latter on he called Arcadia. Widney was succesor of Wyatt despite tha fact that he composed his sonnets half a century after. However, many of his contemporaries thought that Sidney was greater than Wyatt. In 1583, he married Frances Walsingham. And he also was proclaimed knight in those days. In 1586, Sidney dies fighting against Catholic forces in the Northlands , he was killed in England and on the Continent (how is that possible? To be killed in two different places?) as few Englishman below the rank of royalty had ever been killed.???
The Arcadia The work by Sir Philip Sydney called the Arcadia has been one of the most read books in the English literature . During the XVII century the romance form wasnt alive , therefore the most sentimental selections of the Arcadia appeared in regular intervals. The Old Arcadia was written about 1518, it is based on the Italian prototyp e the Arcadia by Sannazaro (I have been unable to eliminate the italics for these words: by Sannazaro is not part of the tittle of that Arcadia!) (1501). Sidney finished the Old Arcadia in 1580 and two years later he begun to work on a revision called The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia (1590) as well as in the so- called the New Arcadia, which he never completed, he only created the first two books and an unfinished third book. Some critics considered that Sidney based the Arcadia in the Italian Arcadia by Sannazaro , Diana by Montemayor and also in the French Romance Amads de Gaula . The story of the Arcadia is about Basilius, Duke of Arcadia which has moved together with his family from the court to the country in hopes of avoiding the prediction of an or acle, the story goes through a lot of adventures and finally it ends up with the fulfilment of the prophecy. The Old Arcadia is a prose romance, it had survived in half a dozen manuscripts copies and is divided into 5 books or also called " acts ", these acts are separated by eclogues which where partly verse, narrative, prose and lyrical but the main story handles in the acts. The New Arcadia (1590), is an attempt to turn a pastoral romance into a prose epic while The Old Arcadia includes songs the New Arcadia omits most of them attempting to a more elegant and elaborated rhetoric and also the earlier adventures which had been narrated in eclogues are now moved into the main story. The changes between the Old and the New Arcadia were due to his classical and neoclassical studies made in The Defence of Poesy . Birgit Anna Schwab

A GREAT PIECE OF CRITICISM: THE DEFENSE OF POESY

During the Renaissance, every courtier had to be trained in the art of sprezzatura , this mean that though applying any effort in the things that they did, they didn't have to seem so doing. Sidney possessed cultivated skills tempered with this term, or aristocratic carelessness. The Defense of Poesy reflects the humanist education which Oxford had given to him, locking that he is involved in the Renaissance world. In 1579, Stephen Gosson published School of Abuse, an attack on poetry, which claimed that the main reason for the rejection of poetry was that it was a waste of time. Sidney looks poetry as a way of education, society principles and moral influence. The characteristics which make the Defense of Poesy a great piece of criticism are the vindication of the spirit of poetry and the democratic attitude. He begins his defense arguing about the superiority of imagination over facts. Sidney planned the work on the lines of the classical defense, combining it with the power of poetry to instruct. He said that poetry is the best art that teaches us how we have to act. Sidney claims that poets were first philosophers. Plato was ci ted by the opponents of poetry because he excluded poets from his Republic as liars. He made multiple studies of his Defense and he rewrote The Arcadia . Sidney starts the work speaking of the antiquity of poetry and its dignity as the source of other forms of knowledge and he is constantly defending the concept of poetry in each part of the essay. Sabrina Germanotta Martn

Astrophel and Stella

Astrophel and Stella which includes 108 sonnets and 11 songs, is the first in a long line of Elizabethan sonnet cycles by Philip Sidney. Most of the sonnets in Astrophel and Stella are influenced by Petrarchan conventions, including traditional methods. In Astrophil and Stell a, Sidney tells his love to a lady which he calls as Star, Stella is star and Astrophil is a star -lover. Astrophil is Sidney himself, and through the sonnets, we see that he also admits that a star and a human who is a star-lover will not be together at all. This is really ironical. Throughout the sonnet, Astrophel has a fight between his love for Stella and his mind. Because Stella is married, Astrophel knows very well that he can never have a relationship with her.But Astrophel cannot stop loving her. The sonnets are full of dialogues between Reason and Love in which Astrophel admits that Reason is correct, but he can not help stop loving her. There are only two characher in sonnets, Astrophil and Stella. Stella is the heroine of the poem. Astrophil is bei ng refused by her again and again, but he still tries to have her. I think he likes the idea of having her more than having her in real. In the first sonnet he explains his motivation for composing the sonnet sequence. He believes that if his love were to read the sonnets, she would eventually return his affection.She is going to pity him and she will accept him. He tells that he is writing from his heart. In the last sonnets whose development is really different from the first ones, he accepts that Stella will not be his. This is really different from the traditional methods, as he does not say that he will die for her in despair or he will not do anything but loving her, waiting all his life. He is realy relaxed and his attitude is different from the tradi tionals. That is an important fact which makes Astrophil and Stella important. Another fact is that Astrophil and Stella was not printed and published for a long time before and after his death, this was normal as he was not writing to live on. He did not need to write to earn money, he already had money. Caglar Ariz

WAHT ABOUT ASTROPHIL AND STELLA?

Web Pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Philip_Sidney ? www.bookrags.com http://bibs.slu.edu/sidney/index.html http://www.sonnets.org/sidney.htm http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/sidney.htm http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/sidbio.htm http://www.sonnets.org/sidney.htm http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/s/sidney.htm http:// www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6542 Bibliography Books:Sidney, Philip, Sir (1554-1586)Gregor, Keith KERMODE, HOLLANDER, BLOOM, PRICE, TRAPP and TRILLING. The Oxford Anthology of English Literature (volume I). EDITORIAL DETAILES ARE MISSED! DUNCAN-JONES. Sir Philip Sidney, The Old Arcadia . Oxford University press, 1994. ALBERT, BROOKE and A.SHAABER. Literary History of England ( II Renaissance).-------------------------EDITORIAL DETAILS , Astrophil and Stella : the action frame of reference Microforma? / Keith Gregor (1996) , A defence of poetry / Philip Sidney; edited with an introduction and notes by Jan van Dorsten (1971)

SPENSER

Edmund Spenser's life:

Edmund Spenser was born in 1552 abou the time of the accesion of Mary the Catholic queen in London, we know that he was born in that city bacause of his poem "Prothalamion".

Another information that we can observe in another of his works (Amoreti) is that of his mother's names called Elizabeth.

Edmund Spenser is the great Protestant poet of the sixteenth century England; during his life he has to work for a living, first as a secretary and then as a civil servant and public official.

Many other authors talked about Spenser, for instance: John Hughes who said that this poet is much better known by his work than by the history of his life.

Spenser made his own writtings with personal references and informantions, making the poertry itself an autobiographical archive.; he was also known as a "New Poet" because he did not follows the way of writing of the others poets, for instance: Wyatt and Surrey.

Finally he died in 1599 because of the tensions that he had been under. He was at that time about 47 years old and in the highest part of his career both as a poet and as a public official.

I don't really know why you don't use capitals whenever necessary: proper names,

after full stops, etc. This is cause enough to fail any exam or essay

The Sepherds Calendar The publication of The Sepherds Calendar in 1579 marked Spensers formal entry as the "New Poet.

The eclogue or pastoral dialogue has its origin in Sicilian folk song and it first came into the literature in the work of Theocritus,Bion and Moschus, Greek Sicilian poets of the third century B.C.

It was a form widely used in the Renaissance,deriving more often from the eclogues of Virgil than directly from the Greek pastoralists.

By the time Spenser was writing there were eclogues in Italian and French as well as in Renaissance Latin, and pastoral poetry (poetry dealing with sepherds or ideal sepherds) was established as an accepted poetic form. Not only was the pastoral well established in Renaissance poetry by Spensers time, it had also been frequently used in allegorical manner for moral and satirical purposes.

Almost any aspect of human life could be represented through the elemental activities of the sepherds.Rural work has always been an obvious prototype of all human endevour, being the primal human activity. The work of the sepherds is not only an obvious example of rustic labour it also includes the elements of guardianship, which makes it easy to discuss either political rules or spiritual leaders in pastoral terms. The elemental background of pastoral activities also makes pastoral poetry an appropiate vehicle for the presentation of the more elemental human emotion such as love or grief.

Linking his eclogues together in a calendar, Spenser found a happy way of combinig unity and diversity as well as combining the simple and the rustic with the elaborate and sophisticated. By varying the degree to which the seperds were allegorical, he could variate the tone form the navely pastoral to the elaborate and formal. And by making the sepherds compete in singing matches in a formula that goes back to the Greek pastoralists, he was enable to introduce into his pastoral frameworks a diversity of lyrical poems in different styles.

The poet who most influenced him in his allegorical use of the pastoral was the fifteenth-century Italian poet, Baptista Spanuoli, known in literature as Mantuaus or Mantuan, whose ten Latin eclogues on moral and religious themes were used as a schoolbook through Europe. But Spenser also knew Teocrithus and Bion, the Latin eclogues of Petrarch, Boccaccio and the two French eclogues of Clement Marot. In short Spenser was working confidently in a European tradition, both classical and humanist.

In the January eclogue the sephed Colin Clout, who is Spenser himself is complaning of his unrequited love for Rosalind. Spenser thus adapts a Petrarchan form to a pastoral setting.

The April eclogue is a formal singing in praise of Elizabeth.

The May eclogue is a dialogue between two sepherds in which through the obvious pastoral disguise, Spenser attacks idle, deceitful and wordly High Curch clergy, whose fondness for elaborate ritual offended Spensers Protestant idealism.

The October eclogue is in many ways the most important of all, for it voices, for the first time in English, the High Renaissanse ideal of poetry. Although the

presentation of this perfect pattern is accompained bu Cuddies complaints that the age of great poetry is dead, the exortations of his friend Piers sound the louder note. The arguments reads like a summary of Sidneys Defence of Poetry. The November eclogue is a lament for the death of some maiden of great blood, whom he calleth Dido. It is based on a similar poem by Marot. The lamet is introduced as a song sung for pleasure rather than an expression of personal grief. The December eclogue is an imitation of Marots eclogue au roy in wich the poet looks back over his poetic career as the change from the spring of his days to the present time.

In this varied collection of eclogues Spenser presented himself to the public as Englands new poet. Technically, they are of the very great interest: the thirteen different verse forms wich Spenser includes in the twelve eclogues (two of them new to the Englich verse and five Spensers new invention) show what Engligh verse crafmanship was capable of, and they also point forward to later developments.

They are also important for drawing together traditions from the golden age of Medieval English poetry, from the Latin and the Greek classics and form the Renaissanse literature of Italy and France, and synthesize them happily into the English poetry.

The Faerie Queen. It is Spensers masterpiece . It tries to put together almost every current of European thought and expression and convention which had reached the sixteenth century. To

Spenser as to Sidney the true end of poetry was delightful teaching. He meant The Faerie Queen to be a text book of morals and manners for noble and gentle persons, expressed in the delightful form of chivalric romance. It also exalts true love, leading to marriage, over courtly love, which leads only to adultery.

Of the total plan of 12 books, Spenser only completed six. According to the original conception, each knight symbolized, in his adventures the search for perfection through a particular virtue. The first three books appeared in 1590 with the authors epist le to his friends Sir Walter Raleigh, offering hints for interpretation of the work and indicating a plan of twelve books in all.

The Faerie Queen is a synthesis of Elizabethan culture and it influenced many future English poets. The main story is described in the letter to Raleigh as the quest of Arthur, who appears intermittently throughout, for Gloriana, who is one of the projections of Elizabeth in the poem as a most royal queen or empress. The Queen also appears as Belphoebe, a most virtuous and beautiful lady and in other guises.

Book I: depicts the knight of holiness, Redcross, whose mission is to protect Una and free her besieged parents from a Dragon. The book is concerned with the fate of the individual Christian seduced by false religion and finally triumphant with the assistance of truth.

In Book II: Guyon is the Patron of temperance. Having established a Christian framework of reference in Book I, Spenser draws some of the ideas in this book from classical sources. Guyons adventures depict an Aristotelian definition of

virtue as the mean between de fect and excess, and his voyage to Acrasias Bower of Bliss is strongly colored by the story of Odysseus.

In Book III: both the narrative technique and the nature of the quest change Britomart, the female knight of chastity.

Book IV: is the book of friendship. It continues the stories of the separated lovers from the previous book and reunites most of them.

Book V: is the most topical. It concerns the quest of Arthegall, the knight of justice, to destroy the giant Grantorto and to rescue Irena. Its incidents allude to Elizabeths dealings with the Netherlands, France, Spain and Ireland.

Book VI: recounts the mission of Calidore, the knight of courtesy, to capture the Blatant Beast. Towards the end of the book, in a pastoral interlude, he stumbles across Colin Clout, the poet-shepherd of The Shepheardes Calender , piping to the three Graces dancing on Mount Acidale.

Spenser blends heroic poetry with allegory. The heroic models for the poem are distantly the epics of Homer and Virgil, while Spensers immed iate Italian predecessors are Ariosto and Tasso, especially Ariostos Orlando Furioso. Spensers stanzaic form varies Ariostos ottava rima and adds a final alexandrine to produce the nine-lined Spensarian stanza which he bequeathed to later poets such as Thomsom and Byron. Spensers minor works:

Daphnaida:

It is an elegy upon the death of the daughter of Henry Lord Howard. Daphnaida is notable for its lovely metrical structure and delicated balance of parts.

Complaints:

Was published in 1591 about two years after the shepherdes calendar. It is a collection of nine of Spenser's poems and all the poems are complaints and meditations of the world's vanitie.

some of those poems are:

The Ruines of Time: it is the first poem in complaints,is dedicated to Lady Countess of Pembroke, sister of sir Philip Sidney.

The poem falls into 4 mains divisions:

riotic lament a necrology of the Dudley and Bedford families. a eulogy of poetry a complaint of the world's vanity

Eulogy: is a speech or a writing in praise of a person or thing. The term eulogy may refer to a funeral oration given in tribute to a person who have recently died.

The Tears of the Muses : It appears to us principally as a kind if manifesto of the new poetry in England. The string upon which the Muses harp, therefore is the prevailing ignorance against which they have to contend.

Amoretti:

Amoreti was publisher together with the Epithalamion . The sonnet-sequence is the story of Spensers courtship of Elizabeth Boyle. Amoretti would hold the unique position of an English sonnet sequence celebrating a courtship which led to marriage.

.characteristics:

1.We do not know nothing about the lady of Amoretti except that her name was Elizabeth.

2. In Amoretti we are able to see the traditional convention of the Petrarchan lady, and here the lady of Spenser is like the others, she is present in most of the amorettis sonnets like angelic, divine, but in the others she is represented as cruel.

.the sonnets : in all the sonnets Spenser employs his special form of linking quatrains: abab-bcbc-cdcd-ee.

.the content: the sequence is divided into three unequal parts:

- sonnet 1-62: dealing with unrequited love. - sonnet 63-84: dealing with the lovers happiness - sonnet 85-88: dealing with the lovers brief separation, before their marriage. Ephitalamion: Spensers Epithalamion belong to a literary genre which may be

traced

It was published together with Amoretti and they have the same autobiographical frankness as Colin Clout's Come Home Again . It comes after the lyrics of the Shepherdes Calendar and Amoretti, and it marks the culmination of his development in the personal and intimate poetry of love. You have just said nothing about this poem. Prothalamion : is one of the casual results of Spensers visit to London in 1596.It was composed in honor of the double marriage of lady Elizabeth and Lady Katherine to Master Henry Gilford and Master William Peter.

Its metrical form derives from the Italian canzone.

Astrophel: it is an elegy printed in the same volume as Colin Clout Come Home Again. It is the first group of poems by various authors on Sidneys death.

Colin Clout Come Home Again : he wrote it in 1595 in form of an allegorical pastoral. It is autobiographical and the account of one of his travels. Deficient enough. You say nothing about his, again!

Fowre Hymns: published in 1596 where dedicated to Margaret, Countess of Cumberland and Mary, Countess of Warwick. Some of its central themes are related to love, beauty and immortality.

Spenser also wrote prose called A View of the Present state of Ireland. It was written in prose and it is perhaps the best example of the expository dialogue in sixteen century English literature. It is a dialogue between two Englishmen. In the first part: Irenius an expert on Irish affairs, describes to Eudoxus the evil custo ms of the Irish, condemning their nomadic practices, their religion, their social and

familiar organization. In the second part: he outlines a program for the military pacification of Ireland.

-----------------------------------SHAKESPEARE-------------------------------------------

---------------------METAPHYSICAL------------------------------------------

Cavalier Poets
The Cavalier poets were the school of English poets of the 17 th century that supported King Charles I during the Civil War in England between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists. This war took place because Charles I wanted to reign without a Parliament, something that could not happen because the Parliamentarians won the war. In fact, the Cavaliers were called like this because they defended Charles I. The word Cavalier comes from the Latin term caballarius , that means 'horseman' and that was used to refer those people who fought on the side of Charles I, who was called the Cavalier King. This group was composed by Robert Herrick, John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew and Ben Jonson, who was the best known and influential of all the poets. They were the main writers that formed the group, but in some cases they were six since Andrew Marvell, a metaphysical poet, was included in the group because he shared some characteristics with the Cavalier Poets such as the elegant way of writing. Something characteristic of these writers was that all of them, with the exception of Robert Herrick, were courtiers because they received a special treatment from the king. Robert Herrick did not receive this treatment but he was included in the group of the Cavaliers because his characteristics and his style were very similar to the one that the other writers had. Although they wrote a lot of poetry and some of their works were really important, many of it was not considered very important in style because it was classical and it was also considered secular in theme because it did not deal with Catholic themes (Has Catholicism anything to do with their Protestantism? I suggest you use "religious themes" which of, course oppose "pagan" ones!) , like in the poem titled "To Lucasta, going to the wars", in which Lovelace wrote about war, honour and their duty to the king. Taking into account that the Cavalier and the Metaphysical poets shared the same period and they influenced each other, there are some similarities between them, but also a lot of differences. One of these similarity is the use of persona or mask, so for the Cavalier poets, who used it often in the appearance of a military person, and also for the metaphysical poets, who used it to express an internal dramatic conflict in his works. One of the most clear differences is that the Cavalier poets wrote about secular things, that are themes not based on religion and the metaphysical poets wrote about religious things in many of their works. Another difference could be the way in which each group wrote because the Cavaliers used a style more polished and elegant in most part of their works, with the exception of some of Jonsons epigrams and, on the other hand, the metaphysical wrote in a more paradoxical/philosophical way (their poetry in most cases is far from rude, as you say) and explicit way. (Ada Martn Prez)

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

Biography. Ben Jonson was born in 1572. He was the posthumous son of a clergyman and, although he had a turbulent and tough early life, from the very beginning of his life he showed an interest for classical learning. He studied at Westminster School, where he found his love for literature. In spite of all this, he could not continue his education because he was forced to work at his stepfathers trade of bricklaying, something that he could not endure. After this, he joined the army and he married Anne Lewis on 1594, with whom he had a daughter that was

the main theme of one of his poems. He started his career on literature and acting and it was later when he started to write plays. He began this career in the late Elizabethan theatre and he dominated the London literary world during the early decades of the century, when he became a favourite of James I, who appointed him Poet Laureate on 1616. After this, he also joined the theatrical company of Philip Henslowe in London as an actor and as a playwright.
He died in 1637 and was buried in Westminster Abbey under the inscription O rare Ben Jonson on his tomb. (Ada Martn Prez) Characteristics. He was influenced by classical writers as Horace, Martial and Seneca, this last one specially in his reflective pieces. Jonson inherited from all these writers the generic models such as the epitaph, the epigrams, the love and funeral elegies, verse satires, verse letters, odes and songs. The adaptation of these classical genres into English was his greatest contribution to the English literature. Another contribution was the development of a plain style that contrasted with the one that the metaphysical poets used. He created this style because he thought it was suitable for rational discourse and appropriate for intelligent readers. Some characteristics of his poetry was the colloquial language he used and the lack of studied ornamentation. He wanted to find methods that would satisfy those men of taste and education that governed society and to whom Jonson felt literature was addressed. Apart from these contributions, he was also known because of the importance he had in the decline of the sonnet in this time. This happened because Jonson and Donne did not agree with the characteristics of the Petrarchism and the Italian sonnet, so they did not develop this kind of poetry and it came into a decline. (Ada Martn Prez) Works. He was very important as a playwriter because of plays as The Isle of Dogs ,

in which he collaborated with another writer that made him imprisoned during a few months until he was liberated by the king. This relationship between Jonson and the court is going to be present in many works. His second known play was Everyman in His Humour , which was an adaptation from Plato and was performed with William Shakespeare in the cast. This play is important because from the time it was performed it began a relationship between both authors. But the one which is considered Jonsons masterpiece is Volpone, or The Fox , written during his best years. Jonsons poetry can be divided into three main groups: Epigrams; The Forest; and Underwoods. Epigrams is a collection of poems that are characte ristically coarse and contain non-dramatic poetry. They are much influenced by Marcial and Horace. The Forest is a collection of 15 poems that includes a great variety such as epistles, odes and songs. The most important one here is the song To Celia that he wrote as a real Cavalier. And finally Underwoods is a posthumous collection of works that is divided into two groups: devotional pieces and love poems. It contains sonnets, epistles and five elegies that are very different from the rest of the poems but they share many things (the themes of love and sex, the lack of shame or rules in expression) and are similar to the manner of Donne. In fact, one of them appears in an edition of Donne's poems. Finally, there is another collection of works under the title Works, where they are included masks, plays, lyric pieces and reflected pieces (influenced by Seneca). (Haridian Martn Gmez)

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Robert Herrick was born in 1591. Son of a London goldsmith, he was apprenticed early to a rich uncle, also a goldsmith, but at the late age of twenty-two he went to Cambridge to study at St. Johns College. Some years after he graduated, in 1623,

he was ordained and for the next six years he lived in London where he was a devoted member of Ben Jonsons circle winning a reputation as a fashionable poet, although his poems only circulated in manuscripts. Later, in 1629 he obtained the living of Dean Prior (chief) in Devonshire and took up the life of a country clergyman, but he never felt totally in tune with his surroundings. As he writes in one of his poems:More discontents I never had, / Since I was born, than here, /Where I have been and, still am, sad/ In this dull Devonshire. Maybe was this sense of alienation from London and from the cultural cosmopolis which the tribe of Ben had meant for him, which led to the extensiveness of his output of verse. Herrick was ejected from his parish when he refused to subscribe to the Solemn League and Covenant in 1647 because he was a Royalist, apparently lived in London an returned to his discontents in Devon in 1660 after the restoration of King Charles II, where he remained until his death in 1648. Herrick never wrote much after the publication of Hesperides and Noble Numbers . Hesperides (published with Noble Numbers in 1648),was named for the golden apples that Hercules had to gather in the garden with that name and was his only published work. It consists of more than 1400 short poems (some, admittedly, consisting of a single couplet) that had a great influence from Horace, Catullus, Martial, the Anacreon's poems, and the epigrams of the Greek anthology as we can deduce from the title of his collection. These influences provided form, tone of voice, allusions, images, and strategies of rhetoric. The subject and scene of Herricks poems either came often from the rural life around him, or from memories of his life at London. He also wrote religious poems published parallel to Hesperides. Though their diction and style are quite similar to that in Hesperides, their modes never interpenetrated, as in the poetry of Donne or Crashaw, Noble Numbers is widely considered an inferior work. Herricks poetry was forgotten for more than a century, from his dea th to the late 18th century. His popularity increased throughout the nineteenth century, rising to its peak when, in Studies in Prose and Poetry (1894), Swinburne hailed him, with characteristic extravagance as the greatest son writer -as surely as Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist-ever born of English race. Herricks poems are not famous because of the wit characteristics of the Metaphysicals, or by his ingenious paradoxes or dark ambiguities and borrowings from books of Emblems: Compared with Donne, for example, he is deficient in deep religious feeling, emotional intensity, intellectual power and high moral seriousness. Many of his extensive collection of poems are trivial and insipid, but many others contain an ingenious artistry and musical delight barely surpassed by any other poet of his time. His famous poem To Anthea, Who May Command Him Any Thing represents the Cavalier ideal of love between the sexes at its noblest and firmest, free of any false and excessive extravagance or erotic insinuations. Herricks virtuosity lays in his responses to colours, shapes, smells, sounds, tastes and textures of the world but he is also acutely sensitive to the properties and potentialities of language: the weight of words; the sensuous values of consonants and vowels; the melodic flow of verse; the varied shapes of metrical patterns; the way in which metrical rhythms can be adjusted to correspond with a shift of emotional mood. One of his favourite devices is to introduce a Latinism quite unexpectedly into a passage largely made up of common everyday words, thereby varying the simplicity of the language and breaking the gentle flow of

monosyllables by a heavy polysyllable. In To Dianeme, the lazy sensuality of the verse is lent a certain weight and solemnity by the dignity of Principalities and by the wholly unforeseen use of the word Assention. To conclude wit h Herricks poetry it is important to remember that the reason why Herricks poetry is so well remembered is not because of the use of a particular rhyme scheme. Robert Herrick is famous because his response to the world is immediate and intuitive rather than deeply considered and analytical. Because Herricks technical skills reveal themselves in tiny strokes of artistry rather than in any virtuosity of language, metrical invention, or mastery of complex imagery. It is above all in the handling of texture, the control of vowel and consonant, the harmony of his numbers, the felicity of phrase and the sense of design, in which Herrick excels, what have made him a place within the English poetry. (Doali Rodrguez Luis)

Thomas Carew (?-1640)

Biography. The date of his birth is uncertain but 1598 is generally the most accepted year, although sometimes it appears that he was born on 1594 or 1595. He belonged to an influential family that educated him at Corpus Christi College, in Oxford, but he left the University without a degree and later he became secretary to Sir Dudley Carleton, who was the British ambassador at Venice. But after a few months there, Carew returned to England for reasons not fully known and searching for an employment. Once in England, he was with Lord Herbert at the French Court and, after the accession of Charles I, he won the kings favour, who had a high opinion of his wit and abilities. In 1620s, he joined the tribe of Ben and in 1630 he was made a gentleman of Charles I, who named him poet laureate, although the poet laureate of the court in that time was Ben Jonson. He died in 1640 and he was buried in Westminster. Characteristics. He was influenced by Jonson and Donne, from whom he took some characteristics and elements. But he also resembled Herrick because they had the same influences and they moved in the same social circles, so, somehow, they influenced each other. They both had a strong artistic sense and they shared some simillitudes like the treatment they gave to love, since they did not use the purest or most poetical form. Another common characteristic is that they wrote verses to the King, to the Duke of Buckingham and to Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, whose beauty is the theme of many Cavalier lyrists such as Herrick and Suckling. He also goes back in the time making allusions to some classical writers like Horace, Catullus, Martial and Anacreon. Although love is the most important theme in Carew's poems and he mostly wrote about women, in some cases he also wrote about mental dignity and virtue. He was considered a love-poet, although much of his poetry was sexually beyond the norms of his age. He was also considered a libertine, but this reputation never damaged his works, in fact, he has been described as the founder of the school of courtly amorous poetry. He worked long at high elegant verses, indeed he was a conscientious poetic craftsman. He had little sensibility and reputation for dryness that contrasts with the sensual passion that he used in themes about gallantry. Works. He was a playwright and his most famous work was a courtly masque called Coelum Britannicum , a work that was undertaken at the royal command and performed at Whitehall. It is full of jokes and allusions to an important work of an

Italian philosopher called Giordano Bruno. Giordano Bruno was dedicated to the study of Aristotelian philosophy and Saint Thomas Aquinas theology. Talking about his poems, there is a division between those ones which are poems from 1640 and then additional poems from the 1642 edition so there are not collections as Jonson's poems. It is relevant in his poems that there are a lot of allusions to the classical world and also that he were, as the other Cavalier poets, very realist. An example of that is the treatment of the topic of the sexual act. One of his famous poems is that one called: "An Elegy upon the Death of Dr.Donne". It has been published under the name 'elegy' and also under the name 'epitaph' but both are the same poem. It is considered one of the best pieces of criticism, one of the finest elegies of the period and a tribute to Donne's contribution to the English poetry and language in which employs a very beautiful language and a very high verses to praise him. After his death, his poems were collected and published without any care because some of them were ommitted and others that did not belong to him were added like Jonson's "To Celia" and one of Herrick's lyrics. (Jolimar Rodrguez Reyes)

Sir John Suckling (1609-1642)

Biography. He was born at Whitton in 1609. He belonged to an old and prominent Norfolk family that let him study at Trinity College in Cambridge and became one of the members of James I household. He was matriculated in law but, as most of the Cavalier and Metaphysical poe ts, he didnt finish his career. When his father died, he became an orphan with a great inheritance that permitted him to travel to France and Italy and get in touch with the classical culture. He also joined English soldiers and was named knight. His reputation and wealth arrived during the years that he spent writing at court. Characteristics. Suckling was seen as the typical Cavalier lyrist because of the way he wrote (with ease and wit). However, he was best known as the most libertine of all the Cavaliers. Suckling conceived poetry a pastime and he never joined any school. Thats why we cant find regularity in his works. On the one hand, his poems lack the depth of feeling and Suckling is proud of that. Some of his poems are sensuous and even obscene. In this sense, we can find an approximation to Herrick. On the other hand, there are poems which are full of spiritual exaltation. He also represented the natural quality of a gentleman which consists on the fact that no matter how hard you have been working on some poem or any kind of speech, but you should treat it always as if it were a natural, easy and spontaneous action. As a result of that, his verse is witty, decorous and sometimes naughty. Cavalier poets were not interested in meter but in the content and in transmitting ideas. In order to get that, Suckling makes a perfect accord between the theme and rhythm. Works. Another characteristic Cavaliers had in common was the fact that all of them wrote plays, although they all were known mainly because of their poetry. In the case of Suckling, he wrote four plays including his well-known Aglaura which was performed twice for Charles I. It has two different endings: one of them is tragic and the other one is a happy outcome. It is important because it introduces the the song Why so Pale and Wan , Fond Lover? for the first time. In it Suckling laughs constantly at love and he shows boastfully how an unpledged heart is. In this poem, Suckling combined his audacious wit with the heart???(what do you mean?). Its an anti -Petrarchan poem because apart from including some libertine aspects, the mask or persona is saying that if the lady doesnt love you, you shouldnt love her as Petrarchan poets did, but you must forget her and look for another one. Another work of poetry to take into account is Ballad upon a Wedding, which is

about a farmer who describes with a picturesque language a wedding at which he has been present. In this poem the most important things are the descriptive touches, its wit and spirit. But what is considered Suckling s most important achievement to English literature is the fact that he created a free and fresh adaptation to the epithalamium , which was one of the accepted forms of the Elizabethan art-lyric. (Haridian Martn Gmez)

Richard

Lovelace

(1618-1658)

Biography. Richard Lovelace was born into an old and wealthy family in Woolwich. He was the eldest son of Sir William Lovelace and he was educated at Charterhouse School and at Gloucester Hall, in Oxford. Lovelace was considered the most handsome and witty of all the Cavalier Poets, he was said to be the most Cavalier of them all, maybe because he was not so libertine as the other writers. He was very interested in the literary continental fashion, something that made him travel to France and the rest of Europe in some occasions. In 1642 he was chosen by the Cavalier Party to present a petition that asked for a restoration of the bishops, liturgy and the common prayer, but this petition was rejected and he was sent to a prison called Gate House, where he wrote his song "To Althea, from Prison". After this, he was imprisoned a second time because he was in favour of the Royalist cause. In this time, he prepared his volume of poems titled Lucasta: Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, etc. , that was published in 1649. At the end of his life he became very poor because of supporting the Royalists and he died in miserable surroundings in London in 1658. Characteristics. He had the same characteristics that the other writers had. He used to write about love in many of his works and also about chivalric themes like war and his duty to the King. Most of his works are about love because they are addressed to women, who used to be Lucy Sacheverell, whom he often called Lux Casta. Works. In one of his most famous song titled "To Althea, from Prison" he combines the iambic tetrameter and the iambic trimeter. In this song, the speaker poet is explaining the lady that he is in prison and that, in spite of that, he feels really close to her. This is reflected in the vocabulary he uses: he repeats the word liberty through the whole poem and he uses words like wings, gates... Another well-known song is the one titled "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars". Again the main topic of the song is the love because it is addressed to a woman, like the other one. This time, the speaker poet is telling the lady that he is going to war, so here it is unavoidable use chivalry vocabulary, such as sword, horse, shield... (Ada Martn Prez)

Bibliography
Books: 1-BAUGH, Albert C. A Literary History of England. 2nd ed. London etc.?: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970. 2-KERMODE, Frank. The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Modern British Literature/ Frank Kermode, John Hollander . New York etc.?: Oxford University Press, 1973. 3-ABRAMS, M.H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company, cop.2000.

4-SANDERS, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature . 3rd ed.Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004 5-SCHMIDT, Michael. Lives of the Poets . New York: Vintage, 2000. 6-CORNS,Thomas N. The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry: Donne to Marvell. 1st ed. 5th reprint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 7- PRESS, John. Writers and Their Works. Herrick. Longman for the British Council Group Ltd., 1971. 8- FORD, Boris. The New Pelican guide to English Literature . Volume II: The Age of Shakespeare. Penguin Books, 1982. 9- KING, Bruce. MacMillan ? History of English Literature . Seventeeth-century. English Literature. McMillan?. London, 1982. Websites: http://www.bartleby.com http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/

JOHN MILTON

Historical Introduction After the death of Elizabeth I (1603) without issue, it was James of Scotland the one with enough power to be the King as James I. His son, Charles I of England, had problems with the Parliament, which he dissolved. There were 11 years of tyranny (1629-1640), until the monarch restored the Parliament. But the hostility between the monarch and the Parliament produced a Civil War, the beheading of the King and the years of Republic. Early Life John Milton (1608-1674) was a studious boy who obtained a MA degree cum laude at Christ's College, Cambridge. Some of his most important writings of his years at Cambridge are On the Morning of Christ's Nativity , L'Allegro and Il Penseroso . During those years he also wrote six poems in Italian: five sonnets (an octave and a sextet) and a canzone (fifteen hendecasyllabic lines). The theme of them is love. On the Morning of Christ's Nativity is Milton's first great English poem. It was written in the Christmas of 1629 and it is composed of a Prelude (rhyming ababbcc) and The Hymn itself (aabccbee). The theme is not Nativity but Incarnation, which was the promise of the Nativity. The Prelude states the paradox of the human infant and his divine power. The opening presents a historical setting: Nature awaits the advent of her Creator. Then, the birth of Christ initiates a universal harmony. Finally there is an abrupt transition from the celestial to the infernal: the Day of Judgement comes to restore us with Him in the Glory. L'Allegro and Il Penseroso were designed as companion pieces. They are two pastoral poems that reflect the enjoyment of a day from two different perspectives. L'Allegro praises the cheerful sides of of life and literature whereas Il Penseroso is in praise of the contemplative life of study and meditation. After College, Milton spent six years studying by himself. He was entrusted to write a masque for the inauguration of the Earl of Bridgewater as Lord President of Wales (1634). A Mask is in honor of chastity: it is a celebration of the Platonic and Christian love. It is written in blank verse. In 1637 a Milton's collegemate died drowned. Milton wrote the elegy Lycidas to commemorate the death of his friend (as some other collegemates did). It is a pastoral elegy in which a shepherd mourns the death of his friend, who is called Lycidas. The poem is composed of 193 lines irregular in rhyme and meter. The structure is complex, so there are different theories about it. Although we find different voices in the poem, Milton says it is a monody (a lyrical lament for one voice); we can understand that as a monody the story is told by just one person. Milton's Latin poetry Before Milton had any English relevant poem, he had written some of his most important poems in Latin. By the time he wrote Nativity, Milton had already written

most of the Elegiarum liber and some of his occasional poems of the Sylvarum liber. Milton's Latin poetry was included in the collections of his poetry in 1645 and 1673. His Latin poetry can be divided into two parts: Elegiarun liber and Syvarum liber.Within the Elegiarum liber apart from the elegies some Epigrams were included in which was called Epigrammata. The elegies included two epistles to Charles Diodati;an elegy to his old tutor, Thomas Young, and two poems in which Milton reveals his sensuosus intensity. Epigrammata included epigrams mocking the "Gunpowder Plot" (a failed attempt to kill James I, his family and most of the Protestant aristocracy in 1605); some dedicated to the Italin singer Leonora Baroni and other people he met in his travel to Italy.The metre in the Elegiarum liber is mainly the elegiac metre of Milton's early favourites: Ovid, Propertius and Tibullus. The chief poems of the Sylvarum liber are In quintum Novembris, Natura non pati senium, Ad patrem, Mansus and Epitaphium Damonis. The metric of them was the hexametre. Milton's Latin poetry is one of the most studied in English literature. The originality of the works (not its beauty properly) made Milton reach an European status mainly because their controversial nature. The originality of his works is due to his own talent to transmit his own feelings in a kind of literature known for his imitative tradition, the use of Christian features where pagan features were included by the classics, and the use of modern topics instead of trying to reproduce antique situations and attitudes. His main influences were Virgil Ovid and Tibullus. Miltons Pamphlets and Politics As a secretary of foreign languages: Milton became Secretary of Foreign Tongues on 20th March 1649. He had started to sympathize with tha party of rebellion against the King. His appointment as Secretary for Foreign Tongues did not come about as a result of political lobbying, because by vocation he was a poet, a scholar, and a teacher. When the king was dead, England's destiny was in the hands of Oliver Cromwell as President of the Council. In this period Milton wrote the regicide pamphlets ( Eikonoklastes , The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio ). He needs this job because he earned much money. He had thrown in his lot briefly with the Presbyterians. He clearly made an energetic civil servant, and the record of his first year of work is impressive: an official Latin translation of Parliaments Declaration, establishing its new Republican government. First defence: It was as a piece of propaganda.The First Defence also called Defensio Regia Pro Carolo Primo was written by Claudius Salmasius, but the following year Milton was ordered to write a defence of the English people by the Council of State. Given the European audience and the English Republic's desire to

establish diplomatic and cultural legitimacy, Milton worked much slower than usual. On 24 February 1652 Milton published his Latin defence of the English People, Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio . Milton's pure Latin prose and evident learning, exemplified in the First Defence, quickly made him the toast of all Europe. Defensia Secunda: The Defensio Secunda has been described as the greatest of Miltons prose works and one of the greatest of the worlds rhetorical writings. In 1654, in response to a Royalist tract, Regii sanguinis clamor , that made many personal attacks on Milton, he completed a Second Defence of the English Nation , Defensio Secunda , which praised Oliver Cromwell, now Lord Protector, while exhorting him to remain true to the principles of the Revolution. The Defensio Secunda is a remarkable account of Miltons innocence. In this Defence he briefly tried to justify the ending of the Long Parliament and Cromwells seizure of absolute power. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates : Milton defends the right of people to execute a guilty sovereign. He gives a theory of how people come into commonwealths and come to elect kings. He explains what the role of a king should be, and conversely what a tyrant is. The Anti-episcopal pamphlets 1641-1643: Puritanism dominates Milton's thought. Until May, 1641, he took no public part in the rising dispute over the reform of the church. The anti-episcopal pamphlets inevitable express the convictions which were to condition Miltons ultimate solution of the Puritan dilemma. He gives expression to his belief in the peculiar pride which should be characteristic of every Christian. He explores with human affection. The Divorce Tracts 1643-45: the divorce tracts themselves were a direct result of his unfortunate union with Mary Powell. His treatment of divorce made it a representative case of conscience. The emphasis on this pamphlets is not on reformation and divine prescript but on liberty and free reasoning. The Aeropagitica : It is a speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England. It was published on November, 1644. Areopagitica is among history's most influential and impassioned philosophical defences of the principle of a right to free speech. The Political Pamphlets 1649-54: they defended the freedom necessary for people. They are written to the preservation of true liberty and determinable only according to the principles of absolute justice. In these pamphlets a similar association of Christian liberty with the Kingdom of Christ was almost inevitable. He was obliged to write these pamphlets because of violent events of the Restoration of Charles II. He was in favour of Commonwealth and in its influence. The final political pamphlets illustrated the application of Christian Liberty in the political sphere and the necessity of denying equal privileges. De Doctrina Christiana : his opinion about the church is reflected in De Doctrina Christiana. The doctrine contradicted both Miltons conception of the nature of God and his view of human nature. The assertion of the liberty of good men

involved the allowance of a degree of liberty to all men. It was at once a record of his conclusions and a preparation for the tasks in his later years. Last Works In the last part of his life Milton is blind and he composed his works in his mind and later he dictates to his assistants. Paradise Lost It is an epic poem made in blank verse; it is a lengthy poem and is the most famous work by Milton.The fist edition was composed in 1667 in ten books ,the second edition is published in 1674 in twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgils Aenid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. The poem is divided in two stories, the first one, is in media res. It starts when Lucifer and the other rebel angels have been defeated and cast down by God into Hell and Lucifer must employ his rhetorical ability to organize his followers. At the end of the debate Satan says that he is going to corrupt the Earth. In the second one is the history of Adam and Eve and how they are corrupted by Satan, the history offers a new focus on the traditional history. The protagonist of this epic is the Satan. Seen from a modern perspective, it may appear to some that Milton presents Satan sympathetically, as an ambitious and proud being who defies his Creator. The story incorporates Paganism, classical Greek references and Christianity within the story. He greatly admired the classics but intended this work to surpass them. There are some conflictive themes like marriage and Idolatry. Marriage is a contract made by both man and woman so they have equal access to divorce, as they do to marriage. Milton still believes that it will unavoidably lead to idolatry simply because of the nature of humans. Instead of placing their thoughts and beliefs into God, as they should, humans tend to turn to erected objects and falsely invest their faith. Paradise Regained The poem was published in 1671 in four books and was based on the Gospel of Luke's version of the Temptation of Christ. The poem was considered inferior to Paradise Lost for many critics, as it offers less complexity in characterization and moral ambiguity. But this is less a consequence of stylistic inadequacy than of narrative constraints, as the Temptation is less open to interpretive license than the Creation Milton sets out to reverse the 'los s' of Paradise. We can see the use antonyms along all the poem, reinforcing the idea that everything that was lost in the first epic is going to be regained by the end of the

mini-epic. This work focuses on the idea of "hunger", both in a literal and in a spiritual sense. Samson Agonistes It is a poem published in the year 1671. Its story begins in media res. Samson has been captured by the Philistines, had his hair, the container of his strength, cut, and is blinded. Samson's blindness is not a direct analogy to Milton's. Samson's blindness is a expression of the institive nature of Samson, following more his insticts than reason . Some of the chorus's lines in Samson Agonistes are rhymed, like suggesting a return of the "chain of rhymes", like a reflection of Samson's imprisonment. Bibliography MILTON, John. Poetical Works of Milton . Bush, Douglas (ed.). London: Oxford University Press, 1969. WOODHOUSE, A. S. P et al. A Variorum Commentary on the Poems of John Milton. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.
Evans J.M. "Paradise lost" and the Genesis Tradition .Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1968 Griffin Dustin, H. Regaining Paradise : Milton and the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge : University Press, 1988

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ John_Milton ?

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

-Samuel Pepys( 23-2-1633 / 27-5-1703) -Life and CharacterSamuel Pepys was born in Fleet Street, London. He lived almost 70 years, which is a long th life time in the 17 century. He was the fifth child of John Pepys and Margaret Kite. This marriage produced eleven children. His origins didnt provide Pepys a consi derable wealth or power or a great legacy of culture. He studied at Saint Pauls School, place in which he began learning mathematics and the classics. Then he was transferred to Trinity School (a sort of lawyers college) for a short period of time, then, he obtained a scholarship to study at Magdalene College, Cambridge. These years of learning provide him a taste for Latin classics (particularly for Ovid and Cicero), mathematics and shorthand. He also showed great interest in music (in fact he played some instruments). Throughout his life, Samuel Pepys had many jobs, which resulted in a great passion for culture, curiosity for many areas of life and his great amount of knowledge: -Household official of his protector and relative Sir Montagu, man that la ter became Lord Sandwich, an important figure of Pepys time. Administrator of taxes, clerk in the Exchequer, book-keeper and Secretary of the Navy, the work in which he stayed the longest, he even took lessons from experts of the area (such as shipbuilding or measuring of timber) in order to know deeply things of his job (another detail that illustrates the huge curiosity of Pepys). And for a short period of time (the English parliamentarian system of the time and Pepys's election to it did not really fit into what we call "legislatura") he was a member of the English Parliament. He got married in 1654, a year before he got his graduation, with Elizabeth Saint -Michael, a young girl of 15 years old, whose parents were French. She died because of a fever in 1669. They had no children. Pepys never got married again, although it was known he had some affairs and adventures during his marriage with Elizabeth. In 1665 he got into the Royal Society. Apart from the influence of such institution on his writing, the R.S provided him a lot of speeches by many of the most important cultural figures of the time. As it has been said said above, Samuel Pepys was a man of huge curiosity for culture and learning, a man that enjoyed life with vitality and optimism. (Notice that I have eliminated some statements here that either are not correct or dificult to understand!) He really liked oratory, so he usually went to church to listen speeches, but not only the Anglican ones. According to his fair and unbiased temper, he was delighted hearing not only Anglican speeches, so he went to such churches as the Presbyterian, or even to hear Catholic masses. It gives us an idea of the kind of man he was, a tolerant one. He was more interested in culture, in knowledge, in becoming a virtuoso rather than creating economic wealth or an interest in business (I am not that sure!). To sum up, Samuel Pepys was a man that enjoyed life intensely, that is something clear once is read the Diary. He possessed a great passion for culture and curiosity for all kind of areas of life, a taste for the Classics, Science and Music.

-The beginning of the Diary and its historical backgroundIt is important to remark the importance of the historical events that took place in the days in which Pepys began to keep his Diary. There was a tremendous instability at the end of 1659. The death of Oliver Cromwell meant the death of the only figure th at had the capacity of holding together a revolutionary government. In october 1659 military men took over the government. In this moment of political confusion English people began to get scared because of a possible war for the power, and really hoped a new and stable political scheme that provided safety, tranquillity and social efficiency, whether it was a parliament or a monarchy. Anyway the revolutionary army had scarce power. Soldiers were paid badly and the most important section of the army was against the coup. In this ambient, on th December 1659, the apprentices in the city mobbed the soldiers, on 13 , the fleet (the th Navy) declared for a parliament and in the 19 the Common Council of the City of London st secured a promised of a free Parliament. On January 1 , Pepys began to write the Diary. Although this is not the objective and specifically right reason of the beginning of the Diary it is obvious that the excitement and concerns of those days caused the impulse to write. Anyway this interest for social/political ideas is shown in the Diary, for example, in the previous months to the Restoration of Charles II. But apart from these things, there might be some other factors that produced the keeping of the Diary. -The Pepys's own character, his love for life, the diary is a consequence of his pursuit or happiness, his energy and strength made possible the Diary. -He used this writing as a way to heightening his enjoyment for life, through it, he could expand that feeling. -With the Diary he could record all the historical facts, and that way he could read and revise the amount of information more than once, any time he wanted. -Characteristics of the DiaryThe Diary of Samuel Pepys is a group of six volumes that describes the period from st th January 1 1660 to May 30 1669. It forms a text of about one million two hundred and fifty thousand words approximately and about three thousand pages. He began the Diary when he was twenty six and ended up when he was thirty six. Samuel Pepys and his Diary belonge to English History because it puts together both the intellectual and the colloquial value . From the merely observant point of view, it is shown the political and social aspects of Pepys's time, so it possesses a great power as document, as a portrait of reality. But on the other hand, there is the depiction of a th personal life, which provides the way of life of the London of the 17 century, a domestic and prosaic atmosphere of that time. So, probably, the greater contribution of Pepys Diary is the mixture of these two aspects. This narration has, as a consequence of his nature, a total honesty. Literature had by its own nature the intention of being published, in most of the cases, or at least to be shown but in this aspect, the Diary is the opposite. It is a private work, according to this, the point of view of the text it is completely sincere, and the treatment of the feelings is not influenced by censorship or any kind of hindrance. The fact of being a Diary provides it no kind limitations, all this lies on the privacy of the text. All is written in a very concise, clear and precise language.

By Pepys time, it was usual that cultured people kept a Diary. Some nobles even went to prison because of his diaries. In fact, Pepys spent two short periods of time on jail, but it didnt affect his social position, but he always kept in secret the exi stence of his Diary. Authenticity and naturalness: It is provided thanks to Pepys actual interaction in the facts that took place. Pepys witnessed the fall and decapitation of Charles I, the Republican movement of Cromwell, and actually took part in many of the stories told in the Diary: the organization of the Navy (his place of work for a lot of time) or the expansion of the Royal Society (he was president for some years). But the two most intense and t ragic events of the Diary were the fire of London in the first days of September 1666 in which describes these days in a very intense way, a tragedy that destroyed the 80% of the houses in London, caused by a protractred drought and wind. (Pepys described also the consequences of this, the lack of solidarity of rich people, the lack of food, the suffering in the hard winter of London) and the Plague that killed one hundred thousand (100.000) people. The close contact between the narrator and the facts he is depicting is the issue that recreates that realistic atmosphere. But even these horrible facts are mixed, during the narration, with other trivial issues of his personal life. For example there are passages in which after talking about his day, he says how many people has died that week because of the pla gue. That is another characteristic feature of the Diary, that, lets say, ecclecticism of the text, in which many kinds of details are mixed. The huge amount of characters of the Diary seems to have no connections, except for the figure of Pepys. The narrator is the one that links and produces bounds between all the characters. Pepys acts as the cohesion of all things of the Diary The style of the Diary of Samuel Pepys is plain and vital, which is linked with the spirit of empiricism, typical of the Royal Society. Pepys was president of the R.S. during two years. It was an organization (officially constituted in 1662, altougth it has antecedents since 1645) with the purpose of talking weekly about the study of natural and humanistic science, and the establishment of correspondence in the scientific community, among other things. What it is really fundamental in the relationship between R.S and Pepys is how it influenced his style. R. S was a organization that proclaimed empiricism and being concise as base of his modus operandis The taste of Pepys for neatness, order and precision in the writing of his diary denotes the influence of R.S style and not only in his diary. The oratory, the speeches, those were things that Pepys really liked through his life and that the R.S had as one of his basis. (Again, I have eliminated a rather confusing paragraph here and a very repetitive one!) The curiosity of Pepys provides a psychological introspection of characters and of himself. It is the conjunction both of curiosity and subjective point of view the aspect that gives a psychological portraits of the persons related to his own world. The shorthand used by Pepys was the one created by Thomas Shelton. Shorthand is the change and modification of language into cipher in order to write faster, the ordinary alphabet is transfomed to create this new coded language. He used it because of its speed and simplicity, it was easy to understand and the use of short hand was beginning to be a usual thing in the intellectual and clerical (related with the clerks not with the church!) th circles of the 17 century. There is a parallel work to the Diary, called the companion. It is an amount of information, a guide of consulting that gives additional details. Pepys abandoned the Diary in 1669. As it is said in the final pages of the Diary he believed he was going to lose vision. That never happened but he suffered astigmatism for many years, fact that made him leaving his Diary.

John Bunyan
John Bunyan, village thinker, had no other ambition in his writings than to serve his own faith and to help his fellows. He owes his position primarily to his talent as a writer. He combines dramatic genious and vigorous faith and helps us more than any other writer to understand Puritanism, both, as an intellectual movement and a way of life. Bunyan was born in Elstow, near Bedford in 1628. He didn't have much of an academic preparation as he only studied at school for about 2 - 4 years. Soon after this he joined the Parliamentary army because 225 recruits from Bedford had been demanded and although he could have regained his freedom in 1645 he decided to join another regiment, which was destined to Ireland. We don't know the reasons why he wanted to visit the country but whatever they may have been, they were dissapointed as he never reached Ireland. Two years later he was back in civilian life and soon got married to a young woman who bought him more than femenine tenderness, her grestest gift to him was the example of her own piety. Bunyan's conversion starts when he begins to transform the restless youth int o a strong man who had won the mastery of his own soul. This growth cannot be sumarized; it must be read in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners . He began to frequent the village church, to read the Bible feverishly and to give up assumptions which seem ed sinful to him. Bunyan totally disagreed with the teachings of Quakers and took part in writen debates against some of their leaders like Edward Burrough and George Fox. In 1658 Bunyan was indicted for preaching without a lisence, however, he continued doing so and did not suffer imprisonment untill November 1660. At first he was confined for 3 months but on his refusing to conform or to desist from preaching, his confinem ent was extended for almost 12 years. It was in this period when he managed to finish his allegorical novel The Pilgrim Progress . He was released in 1672 when Charles II issued the Declaration of Religious Indulgence. Three years later he was in prison onc e again for preaching (because Charles II withdrew the declaration he had issued ). Six months later he was free and as a result of his popularity he was not again arrested. He died on 31st August, 1688 (as a result of a bad cold he had ).

Introduction to his Writings

Bunyan's woks represent in one way a culmination of certain kinds of Puritan writings and in other it looks forwad to the development of the English Novel. He has a special interest in spiritual autobiographies and allegorical stems. He also s hows his embryo novelist technique by translating his ideas into vivid, realistic terms reflecting the daily life of the ordinary people from England. Spiritual autobiographies are a genre of non-fiction prose that dominated Protestan writings during the 17 th century. The most important example may posibly be Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners . So many of these autobiographies were been writen in the time and all followed the same pattern. They began with a sinful youth and then a gradual awakening of spiritual feelings. The person would repent, fall into sin, repent once more and fall into sin another time and so on, this cycle could last for years.

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

This is one of the most important and famous books of Christian Literature. It's an autobiographical volume about his spiritual life. Bunyan describes it as a " Relation of the work of God upon his own soul ". Grace Abounding is a record of his inner religious life and in particular of his experience of conversion. This book was composed and published while he was in prision because of his religious principals.

John Bunyans The Pilgrim Progress from this World to that which is to Come
The Pilgrims Progress is Bunyans fictionalization of his previous work Grace Abounding. He owes something to previous Puritan allegory and dialogue, especially to Arthur Dents The Plain Mans Path and to all those chap-books romances he used to read when he was young. In the prefatory verses he describes how once he began to turn from composing a sermon on the way to salvation to fiction, he could not stop himself; the creative process asserted itself and his thoughts multiplied like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly. The first part of The Pilgrims Progress was published early in 1678. It is the product of Bunyans years of imprisonment; most likely it was likely written in the later years of his first imprisonment, thus following immediately after the composition of Grace Abounding. It may have been completed during his second, shorter imprisonment of six months. This first part introduces a gallery of characters, many of them humorous or satirical portraits of hypocrites, but it has in the forefront of the narrative a single hero, Christian the Pilgrim. It remains the drama o f the individual soul, and the question of what shall I do to be saved? and those points set the tone of the whole work. So it takes the archetypical theme of mans life seen as a journey starting from the City of Destruction (allegorically meaning The Earth, the worldly existence) to the Celestial City (allegorically meaning Heaven). The second part was published six years after the publication of the publication of the first part, that is, in 1684. We must highlight the fact that the second part of The Pilgrims Progress is an independent book written in response to the popularity of the first part, so it is not a true sequel. This second part of Bunyans work is almost a bustling, social affair in comparison to the first part. Here, Christians wife , Christiana, her children, and her friend Mercy, escorted by Greatheart go on a more leisurely pilgrimage. The pilgrims traverse again the route covered by Christian on his way to the Celestial City. Here Bunyan seems less concerned with the spiritual struggles and temptations of the individual Christian soul.

The Pilgrims Progresss main tenets

- The Pilgrims Progress is Bunyans allegorical fictionalization of his previous work Grace Abounding. - This change led him to a less personal but more universa l truth. - Christian as the sole character but instead of the empty introspective space of Grace Abounding, there is a crowded world for the hero to move through. - The use of the allegory to familiarize and naturalize Bunyans perceptions to us.

- Sense of personal urgency, the tremendous need to find the force driving Christian along the road to his final entry to the Celestial City. - Naturalness got thanks to the familiar behaviour of people as we know them and also to the appearance of a wide variety of beliefs with the combination of religious vision with loving and also due to the exact observation of human character. - Ideal Puritanism with Christian as the central figure, there are lots of examples of his extremely Puritan behaviour: o He forgets about his family and leaves the City of Destruction just thinking about getting the right road to the Celestial City. o Prayer is seen as the main and best weapon against temptation o The Bible is thought to provide a key to every problem of life and though t. o Sin as the first awakening of the soul, that is, the original sin represented by the burden Christian carries on his back until he gets to Heaven. Bibliography: The Diary of Samuel Pepys , edited by R.C. Latham and W. Matthews, 1 published: 1970, Portugal St. London, G-bell and sons ltd http://www.sant-cugat.net/laborda/2004Pepys.pdf John Bunyan , by Henry A. Talon, edited by Roger Sharrock, 1 published: 1956, Penguin Books, Grosvenor Street, London. The Pilgrim Prilgrims , by John Bunyan, edited by Roger Sharrock, 1 published 1965, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan 1 published: 1987 by W.R. Owens, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and The Pilgrim Prilgrims from this World to that st which is to Come by John Bunyan 1 published; 1966, edited by Roger Sharrock, Oxford University Press, Ely House, London.
st st st st

THE POETRY OF THE RESTORATION

The Poetry of the Restoration THE RESTORATION Restoration literature is the English literature written during the historical period commonly referred to as the English Restoration (1660-1700). In general, the term is used to denote homogeneous styles of literature that centre on a celebration of or reaction to the restored court of Charles II. Dealing with the poetry of the Restoration period, we have to say that the Restoration was an age of poetry. Not only was poetry the most popular form of literature, but it was also the most significant form of literature, as poems affected political events and immediately reflected the times. It was, to its own people, an age dominated only by the king, and not by any single genius. Throughout the period, the lyric, historical and epic poem were developed. Poetry became so important at the time because it was created by important people of the time, courtly people. Lyric poetry, in which the poet speaks of his own feelings in the first person and expresses a mood, was not essentially common in the Restoration period. Poets expressed their points of view in other forms, usually public or formally disguised poetic forms such as odes, pastoral poetry One of the characteristics of the period is its devaluation of individual sentiment and psychology in favour of publ ic utterance and philosophy. Formally, the Restoration period had a preferred rhyme scheme. Rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter were by far the most popular structure for poetry of all types. There were many important authors at the time, but the most important were Dryden, Rochester, Buckingham, and Dorset. All of them were attached to the court of Charles and they all dominated the verse pattern. Aphra Behn , by contrast, was an outsider who was profoundly royalist. The court poets follow no one's (or "no") particular style, except that they all show sexual awareness, a willingness to satirize, and a dependence upon wit to dominate their opponents. When Charles II became the king of England many things in England changed, he was a king who was really concerned with the arts. As a matter of curiosity, he was known as the Merrie Monarch. With Charles II and the Restoration period in England it is important to mention that it was a moment of changes in England politically speaking and also in the church. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Rochester was born on 1st April of 1647 in Oxfordshire. He was the son of one of Charles II most loyal followers in exile. Maybe for this reason he received a special treatment when he dedicated those satires to the king. When his father died, the young Wilmot inherited the Earldom of Rochester and his fathers not very extensive estate in Oxfordshire in his eleventh year. He won the kings favour at the Restoration and, in 1664, after education at Oxford and on the continent, took a place at court, at the age of seventeen. There he soon distinguished himself as The man who has the most wit and the least honour in England. In 1667 he married Elizabeth Mallet, a witty heiress whom he had attempted to abduct two years earlier. Samuel Pepys describes the event in his diary for 28 May 1665. His career was no less stormy. His satiric wit, directed not only at ordinary mortals but at Dryden and Charles II himself, his practical jokes and his affairs embroiled him in constant quarrels and exiles . He told his biographer that For five years together I was continually drunk. By the age of thirty-three Rochester was dying, presumably from syphilis, other venereal diseases and the effects of alcoholism but just before his death, however, he was converted to Christianity; and for posterity Rochester became a favorite moral topic: the libertine who had seen the error of his ways. During his lifetime, his songs and satires were known mainly f rom anonymous manuscript circulation; most of Rochesters poetry was not published under his name until after his death. He also did translations from classical authors such as Ovid, Horace or Seneca, Lucretious and Anacreon. He was also interested in theatre, in addition to an interest in the actresses. He wrote his best-known dramatic work Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery ,which has never been successfully proven to be written by him. His works were at once admired and infamous. He wrote many satir es and lampoons. In 1674, Rochester wrote A Satyr on Charles II, which criticized the king for being obsessed with sex at the expense of his kingdom, consequently, Rochester fled from the court. A Ramble in St Jamess Park (Text) The Poem is developed at St James Park. This kind of scenes abounded in Restoration. Once enjoyed exclusively by the royal families, many parks were open to the public by the time of The Restoration. Aristocrats went there to show the latest fashions, socialize

and flirt. St James was a more exotic and erotic public park. James I stocked the park with leopards, antelopes, crocodiles, ducks Charles II opened St James for the public and was himself a frequent visitor. When Rochester and him were fine with each other, the libertine went to St James, if not, it was because Rochester had done something wrong: write something that angry the king, By night, St James became a place for prostitution and sexual activity. Lord Rochester talks in this poem about these nocturnal couplings with apparent first-hand knowledge. Sexual freedom was a common theme in court life and both sexes were quite free in their favours. (This satire does not deal with any of the King's sexual problems!) Corinna, one the speakers regular lovers, ignores him and takes up three gentlemen, three pretenders to social, intelletual and sexual position, the position of the wits of the time. Rochester extends the ideal of honesty into the sexual area and insists that reason should be used to increase and prolong pleasure. This is an example of Rochesters sex ideal Honest, generous lust. It means that he accepts lust when it comes by a kind of symbiotic relationship, not only give to others without attraction or sexual feeling. Rochester was an icon for his time, a witty courtier, brave in battle, the kings friend, popular with women and able to walk the dangerous pathways of court. --I do relly miss the comment on other pf Rochester's poems and satires that can be clasified into "literary, philosophical,religious, social and political". John Dryden John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England. Dryden was born in Northamptonshire in 1631. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a Kings Scholar . In Westminster, during this period,he embraced a very different religious and political spirit encouraging Royalism and High Anglicanism. Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetorics and the presentation of arguments for both sides of a given issue. This is a skill which would remain with Dryden and influenced his later writing and thinking, as much of it displays these dialectical patterns. The Westminster curriculum also included weekly translation assignments which developed Drydens capacity for assimilation. This was also to be exhibited in his later works. His first published poem, an elegy with a strong royalist feel

on the death of his schoolmate Henry, Lord Hastings, alludes to the execution of King Charles I, which took place on 30 January 1649. In 1650 Dryden went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he would have experienced a return to the religious and political ethos of his childhood. Dry den would have followed the standard curriculum of classics, rhetoric, and mathematics. In 1654 he obtained his BA, graduating top of the list for Trinity that year. Arriving in London during The Protectorate, Dryden obtained work with Cromwells Secretary of State, John Thurloe. Shortly thereafter he published his first important poem, In Heroique Stanzas (1658)(Look for the title of the poem, since what you have written within inverted commas is just the poetical form/patten of the poem!) , a eulogy on Cromwells death which is cautious and prudent in its emotional display. In 1660 Dryden celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II with Astraea Redux , an authentic royalist panegyric (a formal public speech or written verse delivered in high praise of a person or thing) a generally studied and discriminating eulogy, not expected to be critical. After the Restoration, Dryden quickly established himself as the leading poet and literary critic of his day and he transferred his allegiances to the new government. Along with Astraea Redux , Dryden welcomed the new regime with two more panegyrics; To His Sacred Majesty: A Panegyric on his Coronation (1662) and, To My Lord Chancellor (1662). These poems suggest hat Dryden was looking to court a possible patron, but he had, instead, to make a living writing for publishers, not for the aristocracy, and thus ultimately for the reading public. These, and his other nondramatic poems, are occasional and celebrate public events. In November 1662 Dryden was proposed for membership in the Royal Society. However, Dryden was inactive in the Society's affairs and in 1666 was expelled for non-payment of his dues. On December 1, 1663 Dryden married Lady Elizabeth(?). Dryden died in 1700 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. He was the subject of various poetic eulogies, such as Luctus Brittannici: or the Tears of the British Muses; for the Death of John Dryden and The Nine Muses . Poetic Style Dryden was one of the dominant literary figures and influences of his age. He established the heroic couplet as the standard meter of English poetry, by writing successful satires, religious pieces, fables, epigrams, compliments, prologues, and plays in it; he also introduced the alexandrine and triplet into the form.

His subject-matter was often factual, and he aimed at expressing his thoughts in the most precise and concentrated way possible. Although he uses formal poetic structures such as heroic stanzas and heroic couplets, he tried to achieve the rhyt hms of speech. In his poems he established a poetic diction appropriate to the heroic couplet, which was a model for his contemporaries and for much of the 18 th century. Drydens heroic couplet became the dominant poetic form of the 18 th century. Drydens greatest achievements were in satiric verse: the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe ? , a more personal product of his Laureate years, was a lampoon that circulated in manuscript and an attack on the playwright Thomas Shadwell. This line of satire continued with Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and The Medal (1682.) His other major works from this period are the religious poems Religio Laici (1682), written from the position of a member of the Church of England; his 1683 edition of Plutarchs Lives Translated from the Greek by Several Hands in which he introduced the word biography to English readers; and The Hind and the Panther (1687) which celebrates his conversion to Roman Catholicism. I so really miss some other comments on these last satires you mention, since the description you give of them is not enough to know neither what they are about nor what they represent.

MacFlecknoe? (Text)
It is a mock-heroic satire written by John Dryden. It was written after the English Restoration, when King Charles II came to power, Mac Flecknoe is full of irony and criticism. It is a direct attack on Thomas Shadwell, another prominent poet at this time. Written about 1678, but not published until 1682, "Mac Flecknoe" is the outcome of a series of disagreements between Thomas Shadwell and Dryden. Shadwell fancied himself heir to Ben Jonson and to the variety of comedy which the latter had commonly written. Shadwells poetry was certainly not of the same standard as Jonsons, and it is possible that Dryden wearied of Shadwells argument that Dryden undervalued Jonson. The poem illustrates Shadwell as the heir to a kingdom of poetic dullness, represented by his association with Richard Flecknoe, an earlier poet Dryden disliked, but Dryden does not use belittling techniques to satirize him. The multiplicity of allusions to 17th literary works and to classic Greek an d Roman literature with which the poem is riddled, demonstrates Drydens complex approach to satire, and the fact that he satirizes his own work as well shows his mastery over and respect towards the mock-heroic style in which the poem is written.

The poem begins in the tone of an epic masterpiece, presenting Shadwell's defining characteristic as dullness, just as every epic hero has a defining characteristic. Thus, Dryden subverts the theme of the defining characteristic by giving Shadwell a negative characteristic as his only virtue. Dryden uses the mock-heroic through his use of the heightened language of the epic to treat the trivial subjects such as poorly written and largely dismissible poetry. The juxtaposition of the lofty style with unexpected adjectives such as 'dullness' provides an ironic contrast and makes the satiric point by the obvious disparity. In this, it works at the verbal level, with the language being carried by strong compelling rhythms and rhymes. APHRA BEHN The personal history of Aphra Behn, one of the first Englishwomen credited to earn her livelihood by authorship, is unusually interesting but very difficult to unravel and relate. She was almost certainly born in Wye, near Canterbury, on July 10, 1640.

In 1663 Aphra visited an English sugar colony on the Suriname River, in Surinam, nowadays an independent country situated on the north of Brazil. During this trip Behn was supposed to have met an African slave leader, whose story formed the basis for one of h er most famous works, Oroonoko . The veracity of her journey to Suriname has often been called into question; however, enough evidence has been found that most Behn scholars today believe that the trip did indeed take place. Oroonoko was published in 1688 and it concerns the tragic love of its hero, an enslaved African in Surinam and the authors own experiences in the new South American colony. Thanks to this novel we realize that Aphra Benh was concerned with the social problems of her time as for example is the matter of slavery. Slavery at the time caused several problems for black people; they were treated as if they were animals and very often were separated from their families, to make them work really hard. Shortly after her return to England in 1664 Aphra married Johann Behn, who as a merchant of German extraction. Little conclusive information is know about Aphras marriage, but did not last for more than a few years. Some scholars believe that the marriage never existed and Behn made it up purely to gain the status of a widow, which would have been much more beneficial for what she was trying to achieve. She was reportedly bisexual. By 1666 Behn had become attached to the Court, where she was recruited as a political spy to Antwerp by Charles II. After that she became the lover to a prominent and powerful royalist, and from him she obtained political secrets to be used to the English advantage.

Aphra spend some time of her life in prison. By 1669 an undisclosed source had paid Aphras debt and so she was released from prison, starting from this point to become one of the first women who wrote for a living. She cultivated the friendship of various playwrights, and starting in 1670 she produced many plays and novels, as well as poems and pamphlets (as I told you, I do really miss some of the examples you mention here and I expected you to have completed your search after I had corrected them in the class!) . Her most popular works included The Rover , Love-letters Between a Noble-Man and his Sister , and of course Oroonoko . Aphra Behn died on April 16, 1689, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. She was quoted as once stating that she had led a life dedicated to pleasure and poetry. Bibliography WALKER, K. Rochesters Poems . Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984 MICHAEL, A. A History of English Literature. London, 2000 www.druidic.org/roc-bio.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ John_Wilmot_2 ? _Earl_of_Rochester http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ John_Dryden ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_literature http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Aphra_Behn ? EDITED BY H.T. SWEDENBERG England in the Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century : Essays on Culture and Society , 1972 MARTIN PRICE, The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, 1973 Some of the bibliographical details regarding publication information are missing!
nd