British Literature: The Renaissance--16th Century Quiz

Answer: William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616, and while he certainly is most well known for his masterful plays, he was just as skilled at composing poems and songs. Many of his sonnets are interpreted as some of the most romantic pieces ever written about love, and Sonnet 116 rivals the Biblical First Corinthians, Chapter 13, for a definition of love.

His collection of sonnets can be divided into three sections, and many readers are shocked to learn of the true subjects of these poems. The first section, which includes Sonnet 1 through 17 are celebrating the beauty, not of a young woman, but of a young man, and the speaker urges him to marry. Sonnets 18 through 126 are directed toward the same young man and seem to focus additionally on the destructive power of time and how it can be countered by love, friendship, and poetry. Sonnets 127 through 154 are about the speaker's attraction for a dark-skinned, sensual and tempting lady.

Answer: Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth, of the House of Tudor, lived from 1533 to 1603 and ruled England from 1558 until her death. She was one of the most influential and powerful monarchs England ever had. She also made some significant literary contributions: she wrote several artistically constructed letters and speeches; made prose translations from Boethius and Plutarch; translated poetic selections from Psalms, Petrarch, Seneca, and Horace; and composed original poems of her own. "On Monsieur's Departure" is one of her most well-known originals.

The relationship that she has lost is either that with the French duke of Anjou, with whom she broke off an engagement in 1582, or the earl of Essex, Elizabeth's "favorite" who led an abortive rebellion and was executed for treason in 1601.

In the first two lines of the poem, she writes, "I grieve and dare not show my discontent, / I love and yet am forced to seem to hate". Elizabeth faced severe skepticism that she as a woman could rule effectively and was often hesitant to show any emotion for fear that others would think she was too hysterical.

However, this approach led many to think of her as un-womanly and cold. She was "damned if she did and damned if she didn't". Despite her attempts, however, to hide her grief for this man, it haunted her as is made evident by the wonderfully written lines seven through eight: "My care is like my shadow in the sun, / Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it". She compares her grief to a shadow, something that never leaves her, something she can neither escape nor catch.

Answer: Utopia

"Utopia" actually has a much longer title that, when translated from the original Latin, reads accordingly: "A Truly Golden Little Book, No Less Beneficial Than Entertaining, of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia". Of course, most of us simply refer to the text as "Utopia".

The book has had a great history of influence and controversy. While the Catholic Church now considers More a saint, many bishops of the sixteenth century labeled "Utopia" "prohibited". While Communists have praised More's work for its pre-Marxist vision of the abolition of private property, Marx himself had nothing but scorn for "Utopian" socialists. Finally, while liberal members of the middle class have admired More's advocacy of free public education and freedom of expression, they are tremendously bothered by his support of forced labor camps and slavery.

More was born in 1478, and, despite being King Henry VIII's lord chancellor, confidant, and friend, he was beheaded in 1535 because he refused to renounce his Catholic faith and swear an oath affirming that Henry, instead of the pope, was the supreme head of the church in England.

Answer: Sir Thomas Wyatt

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder lived from 1503 to 1542. He served as King Henry VIII's Clerk of the King's Jewels, performed several diplomatic missions to France and the Netherlands, and then was an ambassador to Spain. As a poet, he translated many of the Italian Petrarch's sonnets and composed a few of his own, thus acquainting the English with the sonnet form--albeit the Italian sonnet form--which would become one of the most popular lyrical poetic forms used by the English for a few centuries afterward.

The "Whoso list to hunt" sonnet is one of Wyatt's most famous translations; it metaphorically compares a woman to a hind or deer, the pursuit of the woman to a hunting expedition, and the man pursuing her to a hunter. The hunt is a futile one, for trying to catch the deer is like trying to "hold the wind" in a net, and while she may "seem tame", she is "wild for to hold". During his life he was imprisoned in the Tower of London after being accused of adultery with Henry VIII's wife at that time, Anne Boleyn.

While Boleyn and several other men were executed, for some reason Wyatt was deemed innocent and spared. Later, he was imprisoned again, this time on trumped up charges of treason by his enemies in Henry VIII's court, but again he was spared. He died at the age of thirty-nine, not from execution, but as a result of a fever he was suffering.

Answer: Thomas Campion

Like most Renaissance writers, who were interested in classical literature, Thomas Campion could read and write in Latin. Many poems written in classical Latin often made use of quantitative verse, which relies on careful positioning of syllables in a line of poetry based on how long it takes to pronounce them. Campion so loved this kind of metrical pattern that he tried to incorporate it in his own poetry written in English.

Not only was such an attempt with the English language difficult, but also many English readers were unfamiliar with this style, having grown used to poetry's having a meter, such as iambic pentameter, based on patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.

His attempt at using quantitative verse can be seen in the lyrics of his "Rose-cheeked Laura". Consider the first stanza of that poem, for example: "Rose-cheeked Laura, come, / Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty's / Silent music, either other / Sweetly gracing".

He does not use rhyme, and he does not pattern the syllables according to stress as he does in "When to her lute Corinna sings", which stresses or emphasizes "to", "lute", "-rin-", and "sings" if you say the line out loud.

Answer: Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh lived from 1552 to 1618, when he was executed by the order of King James I, who not only doubted Raleigh's loyalty to him but also bowed to pressure from Spain to end Raleigh's life. Raleigh had established himself as a serious enemy of Spain's, and had never hidden his hatred of that country.

In addition to the accomplishments mentioned in the question, Raleigh also introduced the potato to Ireland and introduced tobacco in general to all of Europe. He was known for his extravagant dress, dramatic lifestyle, violent temper, religious doubts, and the favoritism bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth I. Christopher Marlowe's poem "The Passionate Shepherd" was a pastoral advocating an idealistic simple rural life.

In the poem, a shepherd pleads with a woman to come and live with him in the meadow, where nature will provide for all of their needs. Raleigh apparently found such an idea a ridiculous one, and he composed an anti-pastoral in response. Raleigh has the shepherd's love interest respond to the shepherd's request by saying that youth, love, and the world are impermanent and that the shepherd cannot guarantee her that all of her life's needs will be met in the future if they are living in nature.

The poem is basically a realist's perspective of life in contrast to a romantic's perspective.

Answer: The Faerie Queene

Unlike many of the poets of the English Renaissance who were born of privilege or social distinction, Edmund Spenser was born of parents of only modest means. He attended Pembroke College at Cambridge as a "sizar", or an impoverished student on scholarship.

He went on to become one of England's greatest poets, but he obviously did not achieve such a ranking easily and without toil. "The Fairie Queene" was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, and the chaste title character who is portrayed with nearly goddess-like stature is a representation of the Queen herself. Almost every poet of the English Renaissance had to seek out patronage in this manner, meaning that an artist had to flatter someone of the nobility with his art so that that person of privilege would bestow some sort of a reward--a stipend, an office, etc.--on the artist. Spenser achieved the Queen's recognition and earned a fifty-pound annual stipend; however, what he really had wanted was a position back in England because he had grown weary of life in Ireland where he had been stationed as secretary to Ireland's Lord Deputy. "The Fairie Queene" is an allegory, meaning that its characters represent abstract qualities so that the story must be read not only literally but in a symbolic manner.

For example, the Red Crosse Knight represents "holiness" and is traveling with Una, the beautiful lady, who represents innocence and purity. He is on his way to fight Errour, who represents sinfulness. Thus, if holiness is to defeat sinfulness, it must gird and shield itself with purity.

Answer: Astrophil and Stella

Sir Philip Sidney lived from 1554 to 1586, and some critics have argued that his "Astrophil and Stella" (or "Astrophel and Stella") is the best sonnet sequence in the English language. The sonnet sequence is patterned after the Italian poet Petrarch's idea of writing several sonnets about one man who chases a woman he loves only to be frustrated by her refusal to love him in return.

While all of the sonnets in a sequence are concerned with the same two individuals, each sonnet is written so that it may be read as an individual poem as well.

In Sidney's sequence, Stella rejects Astrophil's offers of love, attention, and affection; however, Astrophil cannot escape his desire for her. His situation is represented through their names: "Astrophil" is from the Greek for "star lover", and "Stella" is from the Latin for "star"; thus, he is fated to pursue her and love her but also fated never to have her as they "speak different languages", so to speak.

In Sonnet #31, he notices the moon appears sad, deduces that the moon is suffering from unrequited love as he is, and begins speaking with the moon hoping they may commiserate with each other.

In this moment, Astrophil cannot have his star so settles for the company of the moon. He then makes such statements that represent his frustration: love is a behavior that demonstrates a lack of intelligence, beautiful women are prideful, women love to be loved but don't want to love in return, women are ungrateful and consider such a quality to be a virtue, etc. Sidney also wrote one of the greatest prose romances in English--"Arcadia"--and one of the most important pieces of literary criticism--"A Defense of Poesy".

Answer: The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Christopher Marlowe lived from 1564 to 1593. Despite the fact that "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" is derived from old German folk lore, Marlowe's English audience was terrified by the events they witnessed and the words they heard from the play.

The English seriously believed in devils and their presence on Earth. To make the audience more frightened, the producers of the play would create the effects of unexplained sounds coming from mysterious locations in the play house and of spirit-like appearances of "extra" devils on stage or among the audience.

While most consider Shakespeare the greatest playwright to come from this era, few people realize that Marlowe is the playwright who first used unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, in his plays, starting with "Tamburlaine", thus contributing to the elevation of drama as a "legitimate" literary pursuit akin to poetry. Shakespeare imitated Marlowe by writing his plays in the same blank verse.

Answer: The Tragic Life of King Edward the Fifth

The "Henry VI" plays are some of Shakespeare's earliest overall, and scholars speculate that "Part Three" was composed between 1590 and 1591. "King John" was written sometime between 1594 and 1596. Finally, "Henry VIII" was one of his last plays, composed sometime between 1612 and 1613. Shakespeare died in 1616.

Other history plays of his are the following: obviously, the "First Part" and "Second Part of Henry Sixth" but also "The Tragedy of Richard Third", "The Tragedy of King Richard Second", the "First Part" and "Second Part of Henry the Fourth", and "The Life of Henry the Fifth". "Richard III" is one of the more famous histories, with its famous lines about "the winter of our discontent" and "my kingdom for a horse". Perhaps, however, "Henry V" is the most famous; it includes the "St. Crispin's Day Speech" that Henry V delivers to his troops as they are about to storm Agincourt in France.