The English Renaissance

• Renaissance


  A cultural and artistic movement that began in Italy in the late 14th century
• Humanism


  • The major intellectual movement of the Renaissance
  • Humanists believed that the study and imitation of the classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome would bring about a cultural rebirth
  • Man was regarded as a 'microcosm', and his capacity for self-improvement and self-analysis became the focus of study
• English Renaissance


  Developed later than its European counterparts and covered the historical period from 1509, when Henry VIII became king, to 1660, when the Restoration began
• English Renaissance


  • A period of great innovation and accomplishment, as well as one of questioning of old assumptions in poetry and drama
  • Its main feature was its strong Protestant basis, influenced by the Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII
  • Lacked the pagan serenity of the Italian Renaissance and was less linked to the visual arts
  • Investigated human passions, showed confidence in the power of human reason to interpret man and nature, and promoted the dignity of English as a literary medium
• New Learning


  Humanism as it was also called in England, was established in grammar schools all over the country and in the two universities, Oxford and Cambridge
• English writers


  • Acquired confidence in their own language as an artistic means and this, combined with the classical training they had received in grammar schools, produced the greatest achievements in the fields of drama and poetry
  • This can be seen particularly in the works of Thomas Wyatt, Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) and William Shakespeare
• Development of prose


  Influenced by several factors, including an increase in the printing of books, more widespread literacy and the rise of a reading public
• Elizabethan view of the world

  • Based on a conception of order known as the 'Great Chain of Being'
  • The chain stretched from God - the whole universe was governed by divine will - to inanimate objects, and every part of creation was a link
  • Man had the function of linking together all creation
  • Social hierarchy was a product of nature
  • Subordination and unity were the natural rules for the state
  • The monarch became the symbol of stability and unity
• New model of the solar system proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)


  According to which the Sun (and not the Earth as previously thought) was at the centre, with the planets orbiting around it
• This order was seriously weakened by the new model of the solar system proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)