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.

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Francis Bacon was born in London. His father was a government minister in Queen Elizabeth's court. In 1573, when he was only twelve, Bacon entered Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1576 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law. When he was sixteen, he travelled to France, Italy and Spain. At that time such European tours were typical for promising young men of good families.

In 1579 his father, who was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Queen Elizabeth, died and Bacon was recalled to England. In 1584 he was elected to Parliament and began his political career. He was re-elected to this position a number of times. Then he rose rapidly: he was knighted in 1603, became Solicitor General in 1607, Attorney General in 1613, a member of the Privy council in 1616, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in 1617, Lord Chancellor in 1618 and so on.

Bacon's political career ended that same year, when he was charged with misconduct in office, admitted his guilt and was fined. Retiring to the family estate, Bacon continued the writing and scientific experiments he had begun much earlier in life. In 1626, while he was conducting an experiment to determine whether stuffing a chicken with snow would prevent it from spoiling, he caught cold that developed into bronchitis, from which he died.

Although Bacon won fame in his day as a philosopher and scientist, he receives most attention today as an author, particularly an essayist. He introduced the essay form into English literature, and from 1597 to 1625 he published, in three collections, a total of fifty-eight essays. His essays were short, treated a variety of subjects of universal interest, and contained sentences so memorable that many of them are still quoted today.

Bacon is known also for other works, among them “The New Atlantis” (1626) which might be considered an early example of science fiction, in which he describes an ideal state. In 1620 “Novum Organum” (“The New Instrument”), written in Latin, was published. It influenced future scientific research with its inductive method of inquiry. Thus, scientists today owe their reliance on the inductive method of reasoning to Bacon. That is, he promoted the idea that generalizations should be made only after careful consideration of facts. This idea is obvious to us but it was revolutionary during Bacon's lifetime, when scholars preferred deductive reasoning - moving from generalizations to specifics.

The passage given below is from Bacon's essay “Of Studies”. The sentences of this essay are often quoted and they are an example of how much thought Bacon could include in a short piece of writing.

Of Studies (An extract)

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshaling of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and perfected by experience; for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruned by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bound in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know what he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend: Abeunt studia in mores! ...

Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599)

Known as the “prince of poets” in his time, Edmund Spenser is gene-rally regarded as the greatest non-dramatic poet of the Elizabethan age. He was born in London to a poor family and was educated at Cambridge on a scholarship. He studied philosophy, rhetoric, Italian, French, Latin, and Greek. Spenser is sometimes called “the poet's poet” because many later English poets learned the art of versification from his works. He created a sonnet form of his own, the Spenserian sonnet. He is the author of the poems “Shepherd's Calendar” (1579), “The Faerie Queene” (The Fairy Queen, 1595)), the sonnet cycle “Amoretti” (1594) and beautiful marriage hymns “Epithalamionion” (1594), “Prothalamion” (1595).

Spenser's “Shepherd's Calendar“ was dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney. In the work the author comments on contemporary affairs, some lines of it are didactic or satirical. This work consists of 12 eclogues, or dialogues, between shepherds (one for each month of the year). The most important of these is “October” which deals with the problem of poetry in contemporary life and the responsibility of the poet.

The poet's huge poem “The Faerie Queene” (only six books out of the planned twelve were completed) describes nature, or picturesque allegorical scenes. The stanza of the work was constructed by Spenser and is called the Spenserian stanza after him. Many other poets, e.g. Burns, Byron, Shelley, used Spenserian stanzas in some of their poems. Spenser, like all great artists, felt the form and pressure of his time conditioning his writing. He was aware of a desire to make English a fine language, full of magnificent words, with its roots in the older and popular traditions of the native tongue. He had the ambition to write (in English) poems, which would be great and revered as the classical epics had been. His mind looked out beyond the Court to the people, to their superstitions and faiths. In him the medieval and Renaissance meet, the modern and the classical, the courtly and popular.

The title of his sonnet cycle “Amoretti” means “little love stories”. The cycle is dedicated to Elizabeth Boyle. At that time Spenser was in love with her and his sonnets tell the story of their romance. His sonnets are melodious and expressive. One of the sonnets from “Amoretti” is given below:

Sonnet 75

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide and made my pains his prey.

“Vain man,” said she, “that dost in vain assay

A mortal thing so immortalize,

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eke my name be wiped out likewise.”

“Not so,” quoth I, “let bazer things devize

To die in dust, but you shall live in fame;

My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name.

Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.”

Sir Philip Sidney (1554 - 1586)

Sir Philip Sidney was a poet, scholar, courtier and soldier. He became famous for his literary criticism, prose fiction and poetry.

Sidney was born in Penshurst in Kent. He was of high birth and received an education that accorded with his background: studied at Shrewsbury School, followed in 1568 by Christ Church College, Oxford, which he left in 1571 without taking his degree, because of an outbreak of plague. For several years he travelled in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and the Netherlands, managing to study music and astronomy along the way.

In 1575 Sidney returned to England and to Elizabeth's court. He accompanied Elizabeth on a visit to the estate of the Earl of Essex, where he met the Earl's thirteen-year-old daughter, Penelope. Later he immortalized her as Stella of his sonnet cycle “Astrophel and Stella”. It was published in 1591, and consisted of 108 sonnets and 11 songs, and usually regarded as his greatest literary achievement.

Philip Sidney is also the author of the prose fiction “Arcadia”. Some critics consider “Arcadia” the most important original work of English prose written before the 18th century. This book was published in 1590, in revised form, as “The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia”. Though written chiefly in prose, it contained some poems. Lost for more than three hundred years, two manuscript copies of Sydney's original “Arcadia” were finally found in 1907.

Sidney's third major literary achievement was a pamphlet titled “Apology for Poetry”, published in 1595. In it the author polemized with those who denied poetry, and its right to exist. Sidney proclaimed the great importance of poetry because of its power to teach and delight at the same time. The pamphlet is usually considered the single most outstanding work of Elizabethan literary theory and criticism.

In 1583 Sidney was knighted and married Frances Walsingham, the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's Secretary of State. In 1585 Queen Elizabeth sent him to the Netherlands to join the Protestant forces there. In September 1586, in a miner skirmish, Sydney received a bullet wound in the left thigh. Medical care of that time was still primitive, and Sidney died of his wound twenty-six days later.

All the works of Sidney were published some years after his death. His works had a great influence on English literature of the time.

Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)

Christopher Marlowe was one of the greatest dramatists of his time. He was the first Elithabethan writer of tragedy.

Marlowe was born in Canterbury and studied at Cambridge. Born in the same year as Shakespeare, he was killed in a brawl when he was only twenty-nine. If Shakespeare died at twenty-nine, his greatest plays would have remained unwritten, and we would scarcely know his name. Yet, Marlow, by the time of his death had already established himself as a powerful dramatist, earning the title “father of English tragedy”. He wrote the tragedies: “Dido, Queen of Carthage”, “Tamburlaine the Great”, “The Jew of Malta”, “The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus”, a chronicle history play “Edward II”.

Marlowe's literary activity lasted a few years, but he created an immortal place for himself in English drama and poetry. Marlowe established his theatrical reputation with “Tamburlaine the Great” written about 1587. In this tragedy Marlowe wrote about the great conqueror, Tamburlaine.

In “Tamberlaine the Great” the author tells how a Scythian shepherd rises from his lowly birth, and by the power of his personality becomes conqueror of the world. Elizabethan spectators found a keen pleasure in watching a brave but ruthless hero struggle against titanic forces on his way to the success. The story of Tamburlaine seemed to them an idealization of the lives of adventurers.

As we know, an outstanding feature of Renaissance ideology was the belief in man, himself the master and creator of his destiny. Marlowe's tragedies portray heroes who passionately seek power - the power of absolute rule (Tamburlaine), the power of money (Barabas, the Jew of Malta), the power of knowledge (Faustus). Marlowe delights in the might and the strong will of his heroes.

Marlowe's major achievement lay in adapting blank verse to the stage. Ben Jonson expressed admiration when he referred to “Marlowe's mighty line”. Marlowe's ability to compress thought, image and idea into superb lines of blank verse paved the way for Shakespeare and later practitioners of the art.

In addition to his plays, Marlowe wrote one of the most famous of Elizabethan lyric poems, `The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” This carpe diem poem is an invitation to the pastoral life, the happy peaceful life of country shepherds.

Supplement

Carpe Diem Poetry

Among the new types of literature imported into England during the Renaissance was carpe diem poetry. Carpe diem is Latin for “seize ( take advantage of) the day” and this poetry dealt with the swift passage of time and transiency of youth. Usually the speaker of such a poem was a young man, and usually he was urging a young woman to take advantage of life and love while she was still young and attractive. The carpe diem theme, which goes back to Horace and other Roman poets who wrote verses in Latin, achieved great popularity in Renaissance England. The reasons of it are explained by the fact that life spans were really shorter at that time. Illness, accident, war, and the executioner's axe killed men and women in their prime. The biographers of the English authors illustrate it by the point that Bacon was 65 when he died of bronchitis; Marlowe was 29 when he was killed; Spenser died at 47; Sidney died because of a battle wound at 32; Shakespeare lived only 52 years. Their average age at death was 45. Obviously, it was necessary to “seize the day” at an early age, for life was indeed short. The most famous carpe diem poem is Marlowe's “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”. Below some stanzas from this poem are given:

 The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Come live with me and be my love'

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dales and fields,

Or woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,

Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,

By Shallow rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses

And a thousand flagrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,

With coral clasps and amber studs -

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me and be my love.

Here the Shepherd tempts his love with exaggerated and high-flown pictures of the joys of pastoral life. This poem has generated many responses, and many parodies. The best and the most famous of them was “The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd”. (In Greek and Roman mythology, a nymph was one of the lesser goddesses of nature, who lived in seas, rivers, fountains, springs, hills, woods, or trees. The word came to be applied to any beautiful or graceful young woman. )

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee and be thy love.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy bed of roses,

Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,

Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,

In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy bed of straw and ivy buds,

Thy coral clasps and amber studs,

All these in me no means can move

To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last and love still breed,

Had joys no date nor age no need,

Then these delights my mind might move

To live with thee and be thy love.

Later John Donne (1572-1631) parodied Marlowe in “The Bait”. The following lines may show how well he succeeded in doing it: The Bait

Come live with me, and be my love,

And we will some new pleasures prove

Of golden sands, and crystal brooks

With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run

Warmed by thy eyes, more than the sun.

And there th' enamoured fish will stay,

Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,

Each fish, which every channel hath,

Will amorously to thee swim,

Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be'st loath,

By sun, or moon, thou darkenest both,

And if myself have leave to see,

I need not their light, having thee.

For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,

For thou thyself art thine own bait;

That fish, that is not catched thereby,

Alas, is wiser far than I.

Each new movement in poetry altered the basic carpe diem theme to suit its own style and philosophy. Among the cavalier poets Robert Herrick (1591-1674), also a member of the clergy, wrote a carpe diem poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”. But he does not attempt seduction; instead he advises girls to marry while they are young, or else there may be no takers:

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today,

Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,

The higher he's a-getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he's to setting.

Then be not coy, but use your time,

And, while ye may, go marry;

For, having lost but once your prime,

You may forever tarry.

 John Milton, a Puritan, the 17th century poet, also wrote on the carpe diem theme, but he followed another approach. In the sonnet “On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-Three” he frets over not having accomplished anything important by that point in his life, but he ends by placing his faith in heaven.

The concern with time that is major aspect of the carpe diem theme continues to appear in literature through the years up to the present.

Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637)

Ben Jonson was reared to the bricklayer's trade and had no benefit of a formal university education. But, by force of will, became a great scholar of the classics and consequently affected English literature for nearly two hundred years.

Jonson's major contribution to poetry was to adapt the poetic forms that had been used by the classic writers of ancient Rome. Jonson was influenced by poets who had composed centuries before in Latin. He introduced to English specific and strong language, great order and balance. He is considered the forerunner of English neoclassicism.

Ben Jonson is the author of the best English satirical comedies. Among his best works are: “Volpone, or the Fox”(1606), “The Silent Woman”, “The Alchemist”(1610), “Bartholomew Fair”.His hostility to tyrants was expressed in his tragedies “Sejanus His Fall” (Sejunus's Fall), and “Catiline His Conspiracy” (Catiline's Conpiracy).

Ben Jonson was also a fine lyric poet. His miner poems and the songs in many of his plays are true masterpieces. But it was in the genre of satirical comedies that Ben Jonson became leader and excelled all other dramatists. Jonson's comic manner of depicting characters typical of contemporary life influenced the whole English literature. He was friendly with Shakespeare. King James made him poet laureate. A number of young poets of his time, including Herrick and Lovelace respecting Jonson's talents, called themselves the “Sons of Ben”. Among his followers we may list the novelists of the enlightenment and such writers of later periods as Charles Dickens, Bernard Shaw and John Boynton Priestly.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

A poet and playwright William Shakespeare is the favorite author of millions of readers all over the world. No other writer's plays have been produced so often and read so widely in so many different countries. He had a greater influence on the world literature than any other author.

William Shakespeare was born in 1564, on April 23 in Stratford-on-Avon, in England. His father, John Shakespeare, was a prosperous glove maker of Stratford who, after holding miner municipal offices, was elected high bailiff (the equivalent of mayor) of Stratford. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, came from a family of landowners.

In his childhood Shakespeare attended the Stratford Grammar School.

Shakespeare's contemporaries first admired him for his long narrative poems “Venus and Adonis” (1593) and “The Rape of Lucrece” (1594).

In 1599 the best-known of Elizabethan theatres, the Globe, was built and Shakespeare became a leading shareholder and the principal playwright to the theatre company. He was also an actor, but not a first-rate one: the parts he played were the old servant Adam in “As You like It” and the Ghost in “Hamlet”.

In 1613, after the Globe had been destroyed by fire during a performance of “Henry VIII” he retired and stopped writing. By then he was very ill. He died on April 23, 1616 and was buried in the Holy Trinity church in Stratford where he was christened.

Although some of Shakespeare's plays were published during his life-time, not until his death was any attempt made to collect them in a single volume. The first edition of Shakespeare's collected plays appeared in 1623.

Shakespeare's works are truly immortal, and will retain their immortality as long as the human race exists. He is a true classic; every new generation finds something new and unperceived in his works. His popularity all over the world grows from year to year. More than four hundred years after his birth the plays of Shakespeare are performed even more often than they were during his lifetime. They are performed on the stage, in the movies, and on television. They are read by millions of people all over the world.

Shakespeare's Plays

Most scholars agree that there exist 37 plays written by Shakespeare. Traditionally, Shakespeare's plays have been divided into three groups: comedies, histories, and tragedies. All of the works of the great playwright are written in four periods of his literary career. Each of these periods reflects a general phase of Shakespeare's artistic development.

The first period includes all the plays written in 1590-1594. His comedies “The Comedy of Errors”, “The Taming of the Shrew”, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, the histories “Henry VI” (Parts I, II, and III), “Richard III”, “King John”, and the tragedy “Titus Andronicus” were written during this period. They belong to different genres, but they have much in common. The plots of these plays follow their sources more mechanically then do the plots of Shakespeare's later works. Besides, these plays generally emphasize events more than the portrayal of characters.

During the second period (1595-1600) Shakespeare brought historical drama and Elizabethan romantic comedy to near perfection. The comedies “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, “Love's Labour's Lost”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “As You Like It”, “Much Ado About Nothing”, “Twelfth Night”, “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, the tragedies “Romeo and Juliet”, “Julius Caesar” and the histories “Richard II”, “Henry IV” (Parts I and II), “Henry V” were written at this period, and in them the great playwright demonstrated his genius for weaving various dramatic actions into a unified plot, showed his gift for characterization.

During the third period (1601-1608) Shakespeare wrote his great tragedies (“Hamlet”, “Troilus and Cressida”, “Othello”, `King Lear”, ”Mac-beth”, “Timon of Athens”, “Anthony and Cleopatra”, “Coriolanus”), which made him truly immortal. Every play of this period, except for “Pericles”, shows Shakespeare's awareness of the tragic side of life. Even the two comedies of the period “All's Well That Ends Well” and “Measure for Measure” are more disturbing than amusing. That is why they are often called “problem” comedies or “bitter” comedies. “Pericles” represents Shakespeare's first romance - a drama, which is generally serious in tone but with a happy ending.

Shakespeare's sonnets were also written during the third period of his literary career.

The fourth period (1609-1613). During this final period Shakes-peare wrote three comedies (“Cymbeline”, “The Winter's Tale”, “The Tempest”) and the history “Henry VIII”. (Some critics state, that the History “Henry VIII” is written together with John Fletcher).

The last years of Shakespeare's career as a playwright are charac-terized by a considerable change in the style of drama. Beaumont and Fletcher became the most popular dramatists of that time, and the plays of Shakespeare written during the fourth period are modeled after their dramatic technique. All of them are written around a dramatic conflict, but the tension in them is not so great as in the tragedies, all of them have happy endings

Chronology of Shakespeare's plays

One of the main problems in the study of Shakespeare was that of the chronology of his plays. A famous Shakespearian scholar, Sir Edmund K. Chambers, solved it in 1930. His chronological table is considered the most convincing one. The double dates in it indicate the theatrical season during which the particular play was first performed.

1590-1591. Henry VI, Part II

Henry VI, Part III

1591-1592. Henry VI, Part I

1592-1593. Richard III

The Comedy of Errors

1593-1594. Titus Andronicus

The Taming of the Shrew

1594-1595. The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Love's Labour's Lost.

Romeo and Juliet.

1595-1596. Richard II.

A Midsummer Night's Dream.

1596-1597. King John.

The Merchant of Venice.

1597-1598. Henry IV, Part I.

Henry IV, Part II.

1598-1599. Much Ado About Nothing.

Henry V.

1599-1600. Julius Caesar.

As You Like It.

Twelfth Night.

1600-1601. Hamlet.

The Merry Wives of Windsor.

1601-1602. Troilus and Cressida.

1603-1604. All's Well That Ends Well.

1604-1605. Measure for Measure.

Othello.

1605-1606. King Lear.

Macbeth.

1606-1607. Antony and Cleopatra.

1607-1608. Coriolanus.

Timon of Athens.

1608-1609. Pericles.

1609-1610. Cymbeline.

1610-1611. The Winter's Tale.

1611-1612. The Tempest.

1612-1613. Henry VIII.

“Romeo and Juliet”

“Romeo and Juliet” is a tragedy based on “Romeus and Juliet”, a poem by the English author Arthur Brooke. It was first published in 1597 and first performed in 1596.

Romeo and Juliet is a story of love and hate. It deals with two teen-aged lovers in Verona, Italy, who are caught in a bitter feud between their families, the Montagues and the Capulets. It is a story of two young people who fall in love at first sight, marry secretly because their families are bitter enemies, and die because each cannot bear to live without the other. It is also a story of two families whose hatred for each other drives a son and daughter to destruction. Only after they have lost their children the parents learn the folly of hatred and agree to end their feud. Love eventually conquers hate, but at a terrible cost.

It is not a simple story of good and bad people, for all the major characters bear some responsibility for the disaster. Romeo and Juliet have little chance to preserve both their love and their lives in the hatred that surrounds them. They are driven to destruction by events they cannot control. Yet the final choice is theirs, and they choose to die together instead of living apart.

Shakespeare sets the scene of “Romeo and Juliet” in Verona, Italy, as earlier tellers of the story had done. The time of the action is vague, although it clearly takes place at some time before Shakespeare's days.

Although he sometimes uses prose, Shakespeare has written most of his play in poetry, because that was the way plays were written during his lifetime. Some of the lines rhyme, but most of them are written in blank verse.

The tragedy blames the adults for their blind self-interest.

“H a m l e t, Prince of Denmark”

“Hamlet” is one of Shakespeare's greatest creations, but it is also considered the hardest of his works to understand. Some critics count it even mysterious. The source of the plot can be found in a Danish chronicle written around 1200. The plot of the tragedy is following: a usurper Claudius murders his brother, the lawful king, and seizes the throne. The son of the murdered king and lawful heir to the throne Hamlet, discovering the crime, struggles against usurper. But the struggle ends tragically for him too.

As you see, there is nothing mysterious in the plot of the tragedy, but mysterious is the complex character of Hamlet himself. First we see Hamlet plunged into despair: he is grieved by the death of his father, shocked and horrified by the inconstancy and immorality of his mother, filled with disgust and hatred for Claudius, and begins to be disgusted with life in general.

Later, after talking to the Ghost, he learns of the murder of his father. He sincerely wants to kill Claudius, and avenge for his father. The readers also want him to do so. But Hamlet delays and goes on delaying. He even rejects a chance to kill Claudius while he is on his knees in prayer. Why does he delay avenging his father's murder? Why can't he make up his mind? This is the mystery. Various explanations have been offered by a number of critics, but still they have not come to a conclusion, which could satisfy all the readers and investigators of Shakespeare.

Instead of Claudius Hamlet, by mistake, kills Polonius, Ophelia's father. It happens because Polonius, the king's adviser, decides to eavesdrop on Hamlet while the prince is visiting his mother in her sitting room. He hides behind a curtain, but Hamlet becomes aware that someone is there. Hamlet stabs Polonius through the curtain and kills him.

The king, Claudius, exiles Hamlet to England for the murder. He also sends secret orders that the prince be executed after he arrives in England. But Hamlet intercepts the orders and returns to Denmark safe and sound. He arrives in time and sees Ophelia's burial.

Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and the girl whom Hamlet loves. She goes insane after her father's death and drowns herself. Laertes, Ophelia's brother, blames Hamlet for his sister's and father's death. He agrees to Claudius's plan to kill Hamlet with a poisoned sword in a fencing match. Laertes wounds Hamlet during the duel, and is wounded himself by the poisoned weapon. Hamlet's mother, watching the match, accidentally drinks from a cup of poisoned wine prepared by Claudius for Hamlet. Dying from the wound, Hamlet kills Claudius. At the end of the play, Hamlet, his mother, Claudius, and Laertes all lie dead.

The role of Hamlet in this outstanding play is considered one of the

greatest acting challenges of the theatre. Shakespeare focused the play on the deep conflict within thoughtful and idealistic Hamlet. Hamlet reveals this conflict in several famous monologues. The best known of them is his monologue on suicide, which begins with “To be, or not to be.”

Hamlet

To be, or not to be - that is the question:

Whether `tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them. To die - to sleep -

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. `Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die - to sleep.

To sleep - perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death -

The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

No traveler returns - puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn away

And lose the name of action. …

( Act 3, Scene 1.)

Shakespeare's Comedies

Shakespeare's comedies did not establish a lasting tradition in the theatre, as did those written by Ben Jonson. Jonson's plays portray the everyday life of their time with the exaggerated satirical characters. Shakespeare's comedies are composed on opposite principles. The scenes of his comedies are usually set in some imaginary country, and the action is based on stories that are almost fairy-tails. But the characters placed in these non-realistic settings and plots, are true-to-life and are depicted with the deep knowledge of human psychology for which Shakespeare is famous. Each comedy has a main plot and one or two sub-plots, and sometimes sub-plots attract even more attention than the main plots. The comic characters of these plays always have English colouring, even if the scene is laid in other countries.

All these plays are written in easy-flowing verse and light, tripping prose. The text is full of jokes and puns, but some of the texts contain topical allusions, which are hard to understand for the readers of our time. All the comedies tell of love and harmony, at first disturbed, and finally restored. In them Shakespeare supports the right of a human being to free choice in love, despite the existing conventions and customs. More often Shakespeare embodies this tendency in female characters. His typical comedy heroines are brave, noble, free in speech, and enthusiastic.

Another motif stressed in the comedies is the contrast between appearance and reality. Shakespeare makes his readers understand the importance of self-knowledge. In the complicated plots of Shakesperian comedies the heroes and heroines often select wrong partners because they have formed wrong opinions about their own characters, that is they do not know or understand their own self and feelings. But their mistakes are treated good-humourdly and the comedies end happily, because at the end of the plays the characters understand themselves and those they love.

“Twelfth Night”

This comedy centres on the typical Shakesperian conflict between true and false emotion. Duke Orsino tries to convince himself that he is in love with Countess Olivia and grows more absorbed by his feelings after each rebuff received from her. But Olivia is in deep grief for her dead brother and renounces all joy of life.

The solution of the complicated plot is provided by the twin sister and brother, Viola and Sebastian. They become separated during a shipwreck. Finding herself stranded in the country of Illyria, Viola disguises herself as Cesario, a page, and enters the service of Duke Orsino. The duke sends the page to woo the countess Olivia for him. But Olivia falls in love with Caesario. The marriage of Orsino to Viola and Sebastian to Olivia brings the comedy to happy ending.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

In addition to his plays and two narrative poems, Shakespeare wrote a sequence of 154 sonnets. His sonnets were probably written in the 1590s but first published in 1609.

Shakespeare's sonnets occupy a unique place in the Shakespearian heritage, because they are his only lyrical pieces, the only things he has written about himself.

The three main characters in the sonnets are the poet, his friend and the dark lady. The poet expresses the warmest admiration for the friend. The dark lady is the beloved of the Poet; unlike the idealized ladies in the sonnets of Petrarch and his followers, she is false and vicious, but the poet, though aware of the fact, can't help loving her. And then comes the tragedy: the friend and the dark lady betray the poet and fall in love with each other.

By reading between the lines of the sonnets, we may see a tragedy in Shakespeare's life, a tragedy that he might not have fully understood himself. Despite the author's intention, we feel that the poet's friend, who is praised so warmly, is a shallow, cruel and petulant man; the dark lady is wicked and lying. Thus, in the sonnets we may see the great misfortune of a genius, who wasted his life and soul for the sake of persons unworthy of him.

There is a major theme running through the cycle: the theme of the implacability of Time. How can one triumph over it? The poet gives two answers: the first is: one lives forever in one's children, in one's posterity. The second is one may achieve immortality if one's features are preserved by art, and particularly in poetry.

Scholars and critics have made many attempts to discover all the mysteries of Shakespeare's sonnets, as they may shed light on his life, but generally to no avail. It is important to remember that Shakespeare's sonnets were written at a time when such sequences were fashionable, and thus the sonnets may be more an exercise in literary convention than in autobiography. Here is one of these sonnets:

LV

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rime;

But you shall shine more bright in these contents

Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

And broils root out the work of masonry,

Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn

The living record of your memory.

`Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity

Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room

Even in the eyes of all posterity

That wear this world out to the ending doom.

So, till the judgment that yourself arise,

You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

The sonnets show how Shakespeare's poetic style was forged and perfected; to some extent they raise the veil over his private life, of which we know so little.

UNIT 4. ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE 17TH CENTURY

General background

The seventeenth century is in many ways the century of transition into our modern world. The Civil Wars separated men from the older ways of living and the religious controversies killed much that had remained lively in the national imagination since the Middle Ages. Elizabeth I died in 1603 leaving no heir. Her cousin James VI of Scot-land became King James I of England In England James governed the two countries as separate kingdoms. He was a member of the House of Stuart, which ruled England for most of the period from 1603 to 1714. James was an arrogant and superstitious man who quarrelled often with Parliament. After James died in 1625, his son Charles I ascended to the throne.

Conflicts between the monarchy and Parliament worsened. Civil war broke out in 1642 between the king's followers, who were called Cavaliers, and Parliament's chief supporters called Puritans. Oliver Cromwell, a puritan member of Parliament, headed the Parliamentary army. He brought victory to the Parliamentary forces and temporarily ended the monarchy in 1649. Charles I was tried and beheaded in January 1649. The House of Lords was abolished, and a commonwealth (or Republic) was proclaimed. Later, frightened by the rising revolutionary spirit of the masses, Cromwell intensified his oppression and in 1653 imposed a military dictatorship on the country. It lasted till his death in 1658.

As neither the common people nor the upper classes were satisfied with the results of the Puritan Revolution, the monarchy was restored after Oliver Cromwell's death. Charles II, the son of the executed king, ascended the throne in 1660. Charles II's reign was followed by the brief reign of his brother James II, who came to the throne in 1685. The years between 1660 and 1688 are called the “Restoration”.

By that time two main parties had been formed in Parliament, one representing the interests of businessmen, the other, the interests of the land-owners and clergy. The two parties hated each other so much that the insulting nicknames of “Whigs” for businessmen and “Tories” for landowners were invented. Later, these names came to be used officially.

In 1688 the Parliament worked out the Bill of Rights, according to which the royal power, the armed forces, and taxation were brought under the control of Parliament. King James fled to France, and in 1689 the crown was offered to his daughter Mary and her husband William of Holland. These events were called the “Glorious Revolution”, a revolution without violence or bloodshed. Thus constitutional monarchy was established, which marked the end of the whole revolutionary epoch of the 17th century.

The political struggle involving the broad masses of the English popu-lation led to the publication of pamphlets and laid the foundation of journalism and the periodical press. The English people took a tremendous interest in all the political events of the time. The greatest of all publicists during the Puritan Revolution was the poet John Milton. His pamphlets gave theoretical foundation to the struggle of the puritans against the monarchy.

In Elizabeth's time verse was the dominant form of literature. Poetry dominated in the English literature of the early seventeenth century. The poet John Donne and his followers wrote what later was called metaphysical poetry, that is complex, highly intellectual verse filled with intricate and prolonged metaphors. Ben Jonson and his disciples, called “the sons of Ben” or “the tribe of Ben”, developed a second main style of poetry. They wrote in a more conservative, restrained fashion and on more limited subjects than the metaphysical poets. A great poet of the century, John Milton had a style of his own, and he remained outside both Donne's and Jonson's influence.

John Milton (1608 - 1674)

The greatest poet of the XVII century John Milton was born in London on December 9, 1608. Milton's father was a prosperous scrivener in London. He was also an amateur composer.

From childhood Milton learned to love music and books; he read and studied so intensely that at the age of twelve he had already formed the habit of working until midnight. At first Milton attended st. Paul's school. His progress in every department of knowledge was very rapid, and at the age of sixteen he went to the University of Cambridge. On graduating, Milton retired to his father's country place, Horton, in Buckinghamshire. There he gave himself up to study and poetry. Many of Milton's poems were written at Horton. These comprise the first period in his creative work.

Milton had long wished to complete his education by travelling, as it was the custom of the time. In 1638 he left England for a European tour. He visited France and Italy. He met the great Galileo, who was no longer a prisoner of the Inquisition, but was still watched by catholic churchmen. Milton succeeded in getting into the house where Galileo was kept. His meeting with the great martyr of science is mentioned in “Paradise Lost” and in an article about the freedom of the press. In 1639 he returned to England, just when the struggle between the king and the puritans began. For some time Milton had to do educational work, and the result of it was a treatise on education.

Milton kept a keen eye on the public affairs of the time. The years between 1640 and 1660, the second period in his literary work, were the years when he wrote militant revolutionary pamphlets. When the Republican Government under Cromwell was established in 1649, Milton was appointed Latin Secretary to the council of state. The work consisted chiefly of translating diplomatic government papers into Latin and from Latin.

In his pamphlets, most of which were written in Latin, Milton supported the Parliamentary cause against the Royalists. During his years as Latin Secretary and journalist Milton wrote only a few sonnets.

Milton had weak eyes even as a child; in 1652 he lost his eyesight completely. With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Milton was discharged from office. All his famous pamphlets were burnt by the hangman. But the poet's military spirit was not crushed. He and his family moved to a small house not far from London, and Milton again began to write poetry. Milton's years of retirement became the third period in his literary work. During this period he created works that made him one of the greatest poets of England. These were his great epic “Paradise Lost” completed by 1667, and then, the second epic “Paradise Regained” and a tragedy, “Samson Agonistes” both written by 1671.

The story of “Samson” is taken from the Bible. Samson, the great hero, is imprisoned and blinded, but manages to destroy his enemies, although he perishes himself. Some character features of the hero of the tragedy are identical with those of the author, Milton. In it Milton shows that he remained faithful to his ideals. It is considered his most powerful work.

Milton died on November 8, 1684 and was buried in London. Milton's works form a bridge between the poetry of the Renaissance and the poetry of the classicists of a later period. Milton's works are characterized by their duality (which means that two independent views go together). He chooses his themes from the Bible, but under his treatment they became revolutionary in spirit.

“Paradise Lost”

“Paradise Lost” is an epic, divided into twelve books, or chapters. The characters are God, three guardian angels - Raphael, Gabriel and Michael, Sa-tan and his rebel angels, and the first man and woman - Adam and Eve. Satan, who revolts against God, draws his side many rebel-angels and is driven out of Heaven. They fall down into the fires of Hell. But Satan is not to be overcome. He hates God who rules the universe, autocratically. Though banished from Heaven, Satan is glad to have gained freedom. He pities the rebel-angels who have lost life in Heaven for his sake, and decides to go on with the war against God.

Adam and Eve are allowed by God to live, in Paradise, in the Garden of Eden, as long as do not eat the apple that grows on the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. Satan, who has been driven from the Garden of Eden by the guardian angels, returns at night in the form of a serpent. Next morning, the serpent persuades Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and to take another one for Adam. Eve tells Adam what she has done. Adam's reply is described in the following way:

Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length

First to himself he inward silence broke: _-

O, fairest of Creation, last and best

Of all God's works, creature in whom excelled

Whatever can to sight or thought be formed,

Holy, divine, amiable or sweet!

How art thou lost!...................................

......................... . Some cursed fraud

Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown,

And me with thee hath ruined; for with thee

Certain my resolution is to die.

How can I live without thee? How forgo.

Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined,

To live again in these wild woods forlorn?”

So Adam decides to eat the fruit for love of Eve. As a punishment, God banishes Adam and Eve to the newly created world, where they have to face a life of toil and woe. The angel Michael shows Adam a vision of the tyranny and lawlessness which are to befall mankind.

Milton's sympathies lie with Adam and Eve, and this shows his faith in man. His Adam and Eve are full of energy. They love each other and are ready to meet all hardships together. When they are driven out of Eden, Eve says to Adam:

 “..................but now lead on;

In me is no delay; with thee to go

Is to stay here; without thee to stay

Is to go hence unwillingly; thou to me

Art all things under Heaven, all places thou

Who for my willful crime art banished hence”.

Thus, in his “Paradise Lost” John Milton had created the images of Adam and Eve, the first men and woman, who were faithful to their love.

John Dryden (1631-1700)

John Dryden was the outstanding English poet from the Restoration in 1660 to the end of the 17th century. He was born to a Puritan family in London and graduated from Cambridge University in 1654.

Dryden wrote verse in several forms: odes, poetic drama, biting satires, and translations of classic authors. His early poem “Heroic Stanzas on the Death of Cromwell“ was published in 1659. A year later it was followed by “Astraea Redux”, which celebrated the Restoration of the Stuart line to the throne.

In 1667 Dryden published “Annus Mirabilis”, a poem commemorating three events of the previous year: the end of the plague, the Great Fire of London, and the Dutch War. This is a most unusual feat in transferring almost immediately contemporary events into poetry.

Dryden wrote notable prose as well, including literary criticism of Shakespeare, Chaucer, and others. His venture into political satire began in 1681, with the publication of “Absalom and Achitophel”, written after an unsuccessful attempt by Charles' illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, to seize the throne. In 1682 he wrote another literary satire “Mac Flecknoe”.

Dryden was a talented translator too. His translation of Virgil's “Aeneid”, published in 1697, was extremely popular. As a translator, he also rendered Juvenal, Ovid and Chaucer, and the best of his prose in the preface of 1700 to the “Fables”, in which, in the year of his death, he introduced some of his translations to the public. His range cannot be estimated without a consideration of his criticism and his plays in verse.

UNIT 5. ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE 18TH CENTURY (ENLIGHTENMENT IN ENGLAND)

General Background

The eighteenth-century philosophical impulse known as the Enlightenment rested on five general beliefs: the inevitability of progress; the perfectibility of man and his institutions; the efficacy of reason; the beneficence of God; and the plentitude and perfection of nature. It stressed the primacy of science over theology, skepticism over authority, reason over faith. The philosophers of the Enlightenment were convinced that it was within man's capacity, by applying reason to his problems, to discover those great laws by which all human and natural activity could be explained. Possessing such knowledge, men could then direct their efforts toward building a society in which progress was certain and continuous. The temper of the Enlightenment was orderly, progressive, hopeful. In the eighteenth century England achieved, politically and economically the position of a great power in Europe. Eighteenth century England was distinguished also in science and philosophy. (Isaac Newton, David Hume, Adam Smith). The most active sections of population at that time were the commercial classes that are the middle classes.