Theme 4: Renaissance. Renaissance in English literature Plan

Narrative poetry. A narrative poem tells a story. Shakespeare’s “Venus and Adonis” and Spenser’s “The Faerie Queen” are the examples of narrative poetry.

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   Sir Thomas More
   

(1478-1535)

One of the outstanding representatives of the English Renaissance was Sir Thomas More. He was a great English author, statesman, and scholar. More was born in London, probably in 1477 or 1478. He studied at Oxford. More began his career as a lawyer in 1494, and became an undersheriff of London in 1510, and then held various high positions. He served as Lord Chancellor, the highest judicial official in England, from 1529 to 1532. But More resigned because he opposed King Henry VIII’s plan to divorce his queen. He was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept the king as the head of the English church. More has since become an example of the individual who places conscience above the claims of authority. The Roman Catholic Church declared him a saint in 1935.

More published his famous work “Utopia” at the age of thirty-eight. It was written in Latin. “Utopia” is an account of an ideal society, with justice and equality for all citizens. This masterpiece gave the word “utopia” to many languages of the world. “Utopia” is divided into two books.

Book I contains a conversation between More himself, the Flemish humanist PetrusAegidius, and a philosophical sailor Raphael Hythloday. Their conversation deals with social and economic conditions in Europe and in England.

Book II is dedicated to Hythloday’s description of the island of Utopia (meaning Nowhere), which he visited during one of his journeys. It is a state that has achieved absolute social and economic harmony.

In “Utopia” the author criticizes the social system of England. He ad-vances the proposal that education should be provided for everybody, men and women. He advocates tolerance for every form of religion. Wars and Warriors are abolished in Utopia. Kings are also attacked in this book. More writes “The people choose the king for their own sakes and not for his”. Many of More’s reforms have been built into the modern world.

The book is interesting because it reflects the Renaissance, its learning, its enthusiasm for new ideas. “Utopia” was read in Latin by every humanist in Europe all over the continent. More became the most shining example of the New Learning in England. He brought the Renaissance, the modern way of thinking into English literature. “Utopia” was famous in its contemporary days but it still remains as a most suggestive discussion of the ills of the human society.

Thomas More is also well-known in world literature for his prose and poetry, written in English and Latin. He wrote his fine English work “A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation” while he was in prison. His other works include “The History of King Richard III”, written in English in 1513 and a series of writings in Latin in which he defended the church against Protestant attacks.

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