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Chinie Barunday

English Renaissance

Elizabethan and Jacobean period


Elizabeth’s reign was marked by intrigue, war, rebellion, and personal and party strife. Yet there have been solid foundations under the state and society that produced the wealth and victories of the Elizabethan Age and its attainments in literature, music, architecture, and science. The economy prospered in an era of unbridled individual enterprise.

 



The solid administrative system was based on national unity. A common sentiment kept the English together and set limits beyond which most of them would not carry disagreement. Elizabeth herself played a large part in holding her subjects together. Her religious policy, for example, was directed at stretching the already broad principles and practices of the Church of England so that they would cover near-Catholicism at one extreme and near-Congregationalism at the other.




The age of Elizabeth was marked by a remarkable flowering of culture. This was the English Renaissance, when ladies and gentlemen played the lute, sang madrigals, admired painting, and sought to dress as did their counterparts in Italy. The highest glory in the English Renaissance lay in its literature, in the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), and many others who shaped the English language for generations to come.


These Elizabethans and Jacobeans were exuberant, even in their refinement, full-blooded even in their learning. To a later generation, they were uncouth, undisciplined, too full of the gusto of life. To the nineteenth- century romantics, they were brother sin romance, and nineteenth-century scholars rediscovered the Elizabethan age. The love of excess is obvious in much Elizabethan writing: In the interminable, allusion-packed, allegory- made stanzas of the Faerie Queene; in the piling up of quotations from the ancient Greeks and Romans; in Shakespeare’s fondness for puns and rhetorical devices; In the extraordinarily bloody tragedies and exuberant comedies that made Elizabethan drama's second only to that of the ancient Greek.


The Elizabethan Renaissance, which ended with Queen Elizabeth’s death in 1601, merged into the Jacobean period, in which Shakespeare produced some of his finest work. One other important product of this period was the King James Version of the Bible. In 1604 Puritan theologians asked James I to support a new translation of the Scripture, and the committee of scholars to whom he committed the assignment completed the Bible in the form we know it today, divided into chapters and verses, in 1611. Because it was in English, and hence accessible to lay readers, it increased literacy and profoundly influenced the development of the English language.



The Jacobean, or Jacobethan, era was another phase of English Renaissance architecture, theatre, and decoration and formed a continuation, begun in the Elizabethan age, of the the Renaissance's penetration into England. The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI (15671625) of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I. The Jacobean era succeeds the Elizabethan Era and precedes the Caroline era, and specifically denotes a style of architecture visual arts, decorative arts, and literature that is predominant of that period. The term Jacobean era furniture is used here to refer to the period of both kings. The furniture of the Jacobean era was massive, and the early Jacobean carving can be recognized by its simplicity. 


The Jacobean plays evolved out of Elizabethan dramas, but around 1610, began to show a marked shift from the previous era's theatrical tradition. Since Shakespeare was not only such an influence, but also spread over into the Jacobean period, he is almost a literary era all his own.

The Jacobean era is named after King James I who ruled from 1603 until 1625. The third era of the Renaissance period in British literature defined by the reign of James I. The Renaissance period in British literature spans the years 1500 to 1660 and is usually divided into five subsections: Early Tudor, Elizabethan, Puritan which is also divided into Jacobean and Caroline, Commonwealth (or Puritan Interregnum). The Elizabethan Renaissance, which ended with Queen Elizabeth's death in 1601, merged into the Jacobean period, in which Shakespeare produced some of his finest work.


The Jacobean era refers to a period in English and Scottish history, which coincides with the reign of King James I (1603-1625). 


 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

 


What is a Sonnet?


  • The word sonnet is derived from the Italian word “sonetto,” which means a “little song” or small lyric. In poetry, a sonnet has 14 lines, and is written in iambic pentameter. Each line has 10 syllables.

  • Generally, sonnets are divided into different groups based on the rhyme scheme they follow. The rhymes of a sonnet are arranged according to a certain rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme in English is usually abab–cdcd–efef–gg, and in Italian abba–abba–cde–cde.. It has a specific rhyme scheme, and a volta, or a specific turn.



A poem that says true love will forever stay. Intricate words were chosen to describe his faithful love to his lover. If you really love the person with true intentions, there's no doubt that it would fade. The right person will always be the one that stays and makes you happy as the days passed by.

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