Brit Lit: Late Renaissance--Early 17th Century Quiz

Answer: John Milton

John Milton lived from 1608 to 1674. He is known mostly for his epics "Paradise Lost", "Paradise Regained", and "Samson Agonistes"; however, he wrote much more than this: several sonnets; other lyrical poems such as "L'allegro", "Il Penseroso", and "Lycidas"; and several prose pieces he wrote in defense of the Commonwealth of England without a monarchical government and the freedom of the press and speech.

After the failure of his first marriage, he also wrote defending the right of individuals to divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Wife" is most likely about his second wife, who died during childbirth. Milton went blind in 1652 and never had the opportunity physically to see his second wife. One can only imagine the torture of finally being able to "see" her in a dream and then being forced to leave her all over again by waking up to blindness and her absence from his life. Milton captures the pain most poignantly with the plainest of words in the last line of the poem: "I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night".

Answer: John Donne

John Donne lived from 1572 to 1631. Donne is usually categorized as a methaphysical poet, the group of English poets from the early seventeenth century who tried to reinforce the traditional lyrics of love and spiritual devotion but incorporated an intellectual energy theretofore unwitnessed.

They often relied on conceits--exaggerated and complex comparisons or metaphors that extend through much or all of the poems in which they are found. For example, in "The Flea" he tries to suggest to a woman that their having sexual intercourse together will be as harmless as the flea's drinking her blood and then her killing the flea.

In "A Valediction", he tries to persuade his lover that she should not grieve over his impending departure because their love is stronger than any other in the world.

He conveys this to her by comparing the two of them to the legs of a mathematical compass: he grows erect the nearer he comes to her, he revolves around her, she makes all that he does perfect, and no matter how far he wanders away from her he always ends up back next to her again.

In 1615, Donne became a priest in the Anglican Church. His poetry took on a different subject matter as he began to write his "Holy Sonnets" (i.e. the one that begins "Death be not proud") and his "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" (in which is found his "Meditation 17" with the famous passage about how "no man is an island" and how we should "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee").

Answer: To His Coy Mistress

Andrew Marvell lived from 1621 to 1678. He was a good friend of John Milton's and was instrumental in saving Milton from execution and negotiating his release from prison as Milton had been arrested and charged with treason for his support of the Cromwell regime and the regicide of King Charles I. Had he not done so, we would not have "Paradise Lost". Marvell contributed much to the poetry of his time through his own successful efforts at writing.

He is known for his exploration of what it means to be human by representing the complex and unresolvable dichotomy of being human.

For example, his "The Dialogue Between the Soul and Body" portrays the conflct that exists not only between the soul and the body but also between physical nature and spiritual grace.

The poem mentioned in the question--"To His Coy Mistress"--represents the conflict between flesh and spirit, sexual intercourse and platonic love. It also revolves around a popular theme of the Renaissance--"carpe diem", the philosophical approach to life that argued that the world and time are limited and that we should take advantage of every opportunity for happiness that we can.

The poem ends with these lines: "Thus, though we cannot make our sun / Stand still, yet will we make him run".

Answer: Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes lived from 1588 to 1679. His masterwork "Leviathan" is considered by many to be the most important work of English political theory published up to that time (1651). Hobbes argued for the existence of an all-powerful government run by, if not a monarch, then some other dictatorial body.

This government should incorporate the individual wills of all of its people so that the individual citizens no longer possessed any will, rights, or freedoms separate from the will of the sovereign. Such a government also would require the church to be a subordinate institution subject to the will of the sovereign. Thus, ideally, human conflict would eventually come to an end, at least within that particular nation but perhaps within the whole world if one world government could be established.

Interestingly, while Hobbes argued that nothing spiritual existed, he also argued that such a belief did not negate the existence of God; rather, God was a material being just as human beings are.

His title "Leviathan" was taken from the book of Job in the Old Testament of the Bible. Leviathan is the primordial sea creature mentioned in Job, Chapter 41, that is generally accepted as a symbol of God's power, something beyond all human measure and comprehension. Hobbes uses the term to represent what he believes the power of the state or of the government should be. Of course, some interpret Job's use of Leviathan to mean the power of Satan, which, in turn, supplies a whole other meaning to Hobbes' use of the word.

Answer: Francis Bacon

Sir Francis Bacon lived from 1561 to 1626. During Elizabeth I's reign, Bacon enjoyed a privileged life as part of a noble family connected to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, one of the queen's most trusted advisors. However, under the reign of her successor James I, Bacon's career began to flourish.

He was knighted in 1603, became attorney general in 1613, became lord chancellor and Baron Verulam in 1618, and achieved the title of Viscount St. Albans in 1621. However, that same year he was prosecuted and found guilty of twenty-three counts of corruption and accepting bribes, fined, imprisoned, and stripped of his offices.

In the literary world, he is lauded for his contributions to the development of English prose writing, particularly essays, which he helped lift to a literary art form.

His ideas also contributed greatly to his culture's understanding of morality and politics, and his emphasis on a scientific approach to acquiring knowledge would set the stage for the Enlightenment era.

His belief that each individual should think logically for him or herself and approach others' ideas with discernment is captured in his famous words from "Of Studies": "Read not to contradict nor to believe, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested".

Answer: The Collar

George Herbert lived from 1593 to 1633. Like Donne, Herbert is classified as a metaphysical poet and spent the last years of his life as a priest as well. His reputaion as a writer rests solely on his one book of poems--"The Temple"--a collection he gave to a friend under the condition that the friend would read the poems after Herbert's death and then publish the book if it were worthy, or burn it if it were not. "The Collar" is one of the most famous of his poems.

Its merit rests not only in its candid reminder that "men of God" are still men with human feelings and shortcomings, but also in its witty use of metaphoric and punning language.

The "collar" not only simultaneously represents a clerical collar and a slave's collar, but it is also a pun on "choler" (the anger the priest expresses throughout the entire poem) and "caller" (a reference to the heavenly voice that "calls" to him, both admonishingly and comfortingly, at the end of the poem).

Answer: To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Robert Herrick lived from 1591 to 1674. He is usually categorized as a cavalier poet or one of the "Sons of Ben", a reference to the poets influenced by Ben Jonson. In 1648, he published his volume of poetry entitled "Hesperides", which contained over four hundred compositions with such titles as "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", "Upon Julia's Clothes", and "Upon the Nipples of Julia's Breast".

Interestingly, he later became a priest and published an appendix to his poetic collection called "Noble Numbers", which contained religious poems.

His most famous poem is "To the Virgins". Its first three stanzas create a rather somber mood as the reader, after being reminded of how short life is and how miserable growing older is, is warned to take advantage of every opportunity at happiness because these opportunities are fleeting.

However, these first three stanzas are made to seem playfully manipulative after the reader encounters the fourth and final stanza in which the speaker makes it obvious that he is, as the title suggests, addressing young women and implying that they may never experience sexual intercourse if they keep holding on to their virginity, for they are growing older and soon no one will want them.

Answer: Richard Lovelace

Richard Lovelace lived from 1618 to 1657. He is considered one of the quintessential cavalier poets who focused on the ideals of women, wine, and royalism. The cavalier poets' support of the English monarchy was significantly brave during an era when Puritanism prevailed culturally and politically and kings (particularly Charles I) and those who supported them lost their heads.

Other cavalier poets include Sir John Suckling, Thomas Carew, Robert Herrick, and Ben Jonson. The lines quoted in the question are the last stanza of "To Althea, from Prison" and are some of the most recognizable in the history of English poetry. Lovelace also wrote "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars", which contains these other famous lines: "I could not love thee, dear, so much, / Loved I not honor more".

Answer: Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson lived from 1572 to 1637. When he published his "Works" in 1616, he was not only ridiculed for his audacious assumption that his writings were so important that they would need to be preserved after his death, but also because he placed himself in the same sphere as the king, James I, who had recently published all of his political writings under the same title. Certainly, Jonson was a noteworthy playwright, having written "Every Man and His Humor" in 1598, "Volpone" in 1606, and "The Alchemist" in 1610.

He also was a great poet, and his "On My First Son" is indicative of his skill at epigramatic poetry, a kind of poetry that relied on the use of iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets, each couplet written in a self-contained manner so that it could be read apart from the poem as a brief witty remark.

For example, the opening lines read, "Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; / My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy"; writing about his grief suffered at the loss of his seven-year-old son, he refers to the literal Hebrew translation of his son's name "Benjamin"--"child of my right hand". Later, he writes, "Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, 'Here doth lie / Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry'"; to refer to his son as his greatest creation is great praise indeed coming from a poet who though so highly of his own ability to write. Jonson led an interesting life.

He was imprisoned at least twice in his life, once for writing the scandalous play "The Isle of Dogs" and later for killing a man in a duel. He also was accused of being a conspirator involved in the Gunpowder Plot but removed suspicion by volunteering to serve as a spy infiltrating the Catholic leaders believed to be involved in the Plot.

Answer: Paradise Lost

John Milton published "Paradise Lost" in ten books in 1667 and in twelve books in 1674. While he had had the idea for "Paradise Lost" for quite some time, he seriously devoted his life to its composition after he was blind. He thus had to rely heavily on dictation and the tedious process of revising by having others read back to him his own words. Apparently this was not a daunting task for an individual who could read Latin and Greek by the time he was five years old. "Paradise Lost" constantly challenges its readers to reconsider their understanding of freedom, heroism, human nature, love, and justice.

In Book 3, Milton describes a scene in which God and his Son watch Satan exit the gates of Hell as he leaves to go destroy mankind by tempting them into sin. God explains that he knows exactly what Satan is going to do and that Satan will succeed at what he is going to do.

However, God refuses to stop Satan. He explains that if he interferes, he will be controlling not only Satan's choices but the choices of Adam, Eve, and all of their progeny.

He will not control their choices because he does not wish to be a tyrant, nor does he wish others to do good because they had no choice but to do good. He wants others to choose good freely and because they sincerely love good. Thus, Milton explains the existence of evil: evil exists because we choose it. God has given us free will, and instead of choosing God and good, we choose to do the opposite. God could put an end to evil, but that would essentially mean putting an end to freedom and thus creating robots of us all. "Paradise Lost" is also interesting because it initially portrays Satan as the epic's hero. Satan is the classical heroic figure: he has great strength, great intelligence, and great charisma; he is a warrior with great bravery and determination; he possesses an unconquerable will and refuses to accept defeat. However, Satan falls from this heroic position because he devotes his life to selfishness, hatred, revenge, and the destruction of life. He is replaced by Adam as the hero, for although Adam sins and loses paradise just as Satan loses it, Adam repents and rededicates himself to the service of God and love. Thus, Milton recreates the epic by replacing the classical hero with the Christian hero--a new kind of hero for a new age.