صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Seventeenth century prose often has great rhythmic beauty as in the Religio Medici of Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), epigrammatic terseness as in the Essays of Francis Bacon (1561-1626), intellectual power as in the Areopagitica of John Milton (1608-1674), and colloquial grace as in The Complete Angler of Isaak Walton (1593-1683). On the whole, however, English prose did not assume its modern form until after 1660. The prose of the years 1550-1660 was still in the formative stage it had not acquired the qualities which are valued in modern prose: clearness, ease, simplicity, and adaptability. It was overmastered by the soaring imagination of the Renaissance, and often seems to the modern reader too fanciful, quaint, shapeless, and heavy to be of more than historic interest.

One great contribution, however, was made by Francis Bacon in the essay.

The essay was first developed as a genuine literary form in France by Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592). His Essais are thoughts about life written in a pleasant, informal style. The form was introduced into England by Francis Bacon whose Essays, short reflections upon such abstract matters as "Truth," "Studies," and the like, were published in 1597 and again in enlarged form in 1612 and 1625. A different type of essay, the "Character," a short analysis of some common type of personality, was developed in the seventeenth century, notably by Thomas Overbury (1581-1613).

Drama

After 1550 the drama reached a height never equaled and never surpassed in English literature. The early drama lacked variety, dignity, form, and emotional truth. It was crude in substance and in expression. To reach perfection the drama needed a settled place in English life, a vehicle

of expression suited to its needs, a sense of form, and dramatists who saw life vividly and truthfully. All these things came with the Renaissance. The comedy of Plautus and Terence, the tragedy of Seneca, and the criticism of Aristotle and Horace gave a sense of literary art; the blank verse of Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) gave a literary medium which was brought to perfection by Shakespeare; the establishing of theatrical companies and the building of theaters in London created a steady demand for plays; and the "spacious times" of Elizabeth, times rich in color, energy, discovery, change, and, above all, national enthusiasm, brought to London a group of dramatic writers such as the world has never seen in a single nation at a single time. Within less than fifty years after the first modern English comedy and tragedy were played, English drama was enriched by a bewildering variety of dramatic forms. As Polonius says in Hamlet: "The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoralcomical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light."

The editors of the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays (1623) divided his plays into three groups: comedies, histories, and tragedies. This will serve well enough as a workable division of dramatic literature after 1550.

To the Elizabethan a tragedy was, generally, a play which depicted the unhappy fate of persons of high rank or of important position in the state. The downfall of these persons was brought about sometimes by circumstance over which they had no control, sometimes by some fault within their own natures. Often the action of the tragedy was bound up with the fate of a nation; often it was influenced by supernatural agencies. It always ended unhappily, usually with the death of the chief characters. Such motives

as treachery, tyranny, and revenge were common. The tone of tragedy was dignified and serious though comic scenes might be used for relief; and the blank verse in which they were composed was often of great beauty and power.

Elizabethan tragedy may be divided into three groups: romantic tragedy, typified by Shakespeare's Macbeth and Hamlet, the tragedy of great romantic personalities; classical tragedy, typified by Ben Jonson's Sejanus and Catiline, the tragic story taken from Roman sources and modeled upon Roman tragedy; and domestic tragedy, typified by Thomas Heywood's (c.1581-1640?) A Woman Killed with Kindness, a sensational story based on contemporary crime.

The Elizabethan history play is dramatized history based upon the popular histories of the period such as Holinshed's Chronicle or Plutarch's Lives. History plays were usually tragic in their nature, often with a strong admixture of comedy, and differed from tragedy chiefly in their lack of a definite and compelling structure of plot. The tremendous patriotism and national pride roused by the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 gave a great impetus to plays based upon England's past. Shakespeare's Richard III, King John, and Henry V are history plays in which the interest in political complications and national glory is the dominating element.

Comedy for the Elizabethans was of various types. Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors is an out-and-out farce in which the humor of mistaken identity is worked beyond all probability. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and As You Like It are romantic comedy, stressing not so much humor as gayety and joy. The characters are well-born, the emotion is refined, and final happiness after difficulty is the basic theme. Romantic comedy often has elements of sadness as in The Merchant of Venice and The Winter's Tale, but the ending is always happy. Ben Jonson developed in Volpone and The

Alchemist the satirical "comedy of humors." His theory was twofold: that men are often overmastered by a single trait or "humor" such as credulity or greed, and that human nature is usually mean and low. There is in Jonson little gayety or beauty. His satire is sharp and cynical.

One lesser type of dramatic literature needs mention: the masque. The masque was really a theatrical entertainment depending for its effect upon song, dance, scenery, and pageantry rather than upon genuine dramatic qualities of plot, characters, or dialogue. The great writer of masques was Ben Jonson, though the masque most familiar to students of literature is Milton's Comus, acted in 1634.

The chief forms of literature developed between 1550 and 1660 may be summarized as follows:

I. Poetry

a. Lyrical poetry

1. Song Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, Herrick

2. Sonnet-Sidney, Shakespeare, Milton

3. Ode-Cowley

4. Elegy-Milton

b. Narrative poetry

1. Allegory Spenser: Faerie Queen

2. Long narrative-Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis; Marlowe: Hero and Leander

3. Pastoral poetry-Spenser: Shepherd's Calendar

c. Descriptive poetry

Milton: L'Allegro and Il Penseroso

II. Prose

a. Essay

Bacon: Essays

b. Miscellaneous prose

1. History

Hakluyt: The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffics and

Discoveries of the English Nation

2. Varied forms

Browne: Religio Medici

Walton: The Complete Angler

III. Drama

a. Tragedy

Norton and Sackville: Gorborduc or Ferrex and Porrex

Marlowe: Tamburlaine

Shakespeare: Macbeth, Hamlet

Jonson: Sejanus

Beaumont and Fletcher: The Maid's Tragedy
Heywood: A Woman Killed with Kindness

[blocks in formation]

The sixteenth century in England was a time of great expansion. Discovery, exploration, invention, travel, commerce, science-in all fields men's minds were active as never before in the world's history. In literature this intellectual activity showed itself in a wide extension of its scope, producing the complete works of Spenser and Shakespeare and the early works of Milton.

Early in the seventeenth century, however, the impetus of the Renaissance wore itself out. New questions of religion and of government centering in the great movement which we call Puritanism, began to occupy men's minds to the exclusion of literary interests. These questions culminated in the Puritan Revolution which executed Charles I, banished his family from England, centered political power in the English Parliament, and almost completely repressed literature and art. In 1642 the theaters were closed, and until King Charles II returned from France in 1660, English

« السابقةمتابعة »