{"id":230,"date":"2019-04-24T04:15:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T04:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp01.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=230"},"modified":"2019-05-17T12:01:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T12:01:03","slug":"elizabethan-age-in-paintings-and-pictures","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp01\/chapter\/elizabethan-age-in-paintings-and-pictures\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethan Age in Paintings and Pictures"},"content":{"raw":"
\"epgp<\/a>\r\n<\/span><\/div>\r\n \r\n

GENERAL INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Society is the motivational force behind every literary product. Social, historical, political and cultural background plays a vital role in the emergence and development of the literature of a particular age \/ era. As per Hudson, \u201cA nation\u201fs life has its moods of exultation and depression. Its epochs a strong faith and strenuous idealism, now of doubt, struggle and disillusion now of unbelief and flippant disregard for the sanctities of existence, and while the manner of expression will vary greatly with the manner of existence will vary greatly with the individuality of each writer, the dominant spirit of the hour, whatever that may be, will directly or indirectly reveal itself in his work.\u201d The spirit of the age influences the human psyche that creates the literature. Literature and society are indivisibly interconnected. Their mutual influence is the subject of study. It is also said that literature is also capable of moulding the society and its trends. In words of W.R. Goodman \u201eA great man of letters is the creature as well as the creator of the age in which he exists\u201f.<\/p>\r\n

Elizabethan Age : An Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

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Elizabethan Age, popularly known as the Age of Shakespeare or the brightest period of English poetry and drama extends from the accession of Queen Elizabethan to the throne of England in 1558 to the demise of James I in 1625. Elizabethan Age witnessed various, social historical, political and religious upheavals in England. It also welcomed some fresh influences imported from the other countries. It encouraged movements like Reformation in order to reform the English society and Church. Influence of Renaissance on Elizabethan literature was immense.<\/p>\r\n

Historical Background<\/strong>:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Queen Elizabeth\u201fs accession of the English Throne in 1558 marked the beginning of a new epoch. It is also known as the Age of Shakespeare. As per W. J. Long, \u201cIn the Age of Elizabeth all doubt seems to vanish from English History. After the reigns of Edward and Mary, with defeat and humiliation abroad and persecutions and rebellion at home, the accession of a popular sovereign was like the sunrise after a long night, and in Milton\u201fs words, we suddenly see England, \u201ca noble and\u00a0puissant nation, rousing herself, like strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks.\u201d Sir Francis Drake and Lord Charles Howard commanded the English naval force that defeated the \u201eSpanish Armanda\u201f that was supposed to be unconquerable. \u201cQueen Elizabeth\u201fs decisive defeat of the Invincible Armanda made England a world-class power and introduced effective long\u2013range weapons into naval warfare for the first time, ending the era of boarding and close-quarter fighting.\u201d (www.history.com\/this-day-in-history\u2026)<\/p>\r\n \r\n

During her reign England was packed with the feelings of patriotism that clearly echoes in the literature of this era. Literary exponents of this period like William Shakespeare and Spenser were not untouched with such historical and patriotic influences. When Spenser came to England with his poems and met Leicester and Sidney, he got a golden opportunity to meet all the favourites of Queen Elizabeth. W.J. Long writes. \u201eThe court was full of intrigues, lying and flattery, and Spenser\u201fs opinion of his own uncomfortable position is best expressed in a few lines from \u201cMother Hubbard\u201fs Tale\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Full little knowest thou, that has not tried<\/p>\r\n

What hell it is, in suing long to bide\u201f:<\/p>\r\n

To lose good days, that might be better spent;<\/p>\r\n

To waste long nights in pensive discontent;<\/p>\r\n

\u2026<\/p>\r\n

To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares;<\/p>\r\n

To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs;<\/p>\r\n

To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run,<\/p>\r\n

To spend, to give, to want, to be undone.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

One year after the defeat of Spanish Armada, Drake went to Portugal along with a huge force. In year 1590 these English fighters were helping the Dutch against the Spanish King. Brittany and Normandy were also witnessing the fight. Brest was captured by Brittany in 1594. In 1597, another expedition was ready to repeat the previous success.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

English troops were also helping the Dutch in 1600. In \u201eIreland Lord Mountjoy was again trying to restore order.\u201f \u201eYear 1601 proved to be lucky in form of two decisive victories of this age. Queen Elizabeth\u201fs death in year 1603 marked the end of various problems such as the battle with Spain. Before the death of the Queen, England had acquired the figure of world power in every respect. She increased the English boundaries at ocean and encouraged expeditions of discovery. In many respects the death of the Queen was the end of an era in England. But James the first\u201fs accession to the throne was another significant historical event of Elizabethan age.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Historical background of Elizabethan age period peeps through the literature of this age. In words of L.G. Salinger; \u201cThere were popular Moralities satirizing abuses, in which history was subordinate to general social ethics: the Armada battle in Wilson\u201fs Three Lords of London (1589) for instance, is reduced to a symbolic episode (a struggle for shields) while the legendary Kings in A Knack to know a Knave (1592) or Nobody and Somebody (c.1606) are merely vague ciphers for the magistrate in general.\u201d (Pg- 62-63) Spenser also used history of England in his Faerie Queene. Critics believe that Faerie Queene was composed to flatter the queen Elizabeth. The objective of this poem was to portray \u201cthe most excellent and glorious person of our sovereign the Queen and her kingdom in Faeryland.\u201d The Faerie Queene is the Queen Elizabeth herself. Gloriana is the portrayal of Queen. She also figures in Faerie Queen as Britomart, the lady knight symbolizing chastity, Mercilla, and Belphoebe, \u201ea pure, high \u2013 spirited maiden\u201f.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Elizabethan England also witnessed Nine years war within Spain<\/strong> (from 1594 \u2013 1603). K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar writes: \u201cWar was no doubt evil, but civil strife was the worst curse of all, and its spectre was seldom very far from the consciousness of the Elizabethans.\u201f Shakespeare in Hamlet portrays the preparations of war in the opening scene.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Marcellus: Why this same strict and most observant watch<\/p>\r\n

So nightly toils the subject of the land;<\/p>\r\n

And why such daily cost of brazen cannon,<\/p>\r\n

And foreign mart for implements of war;<\/p>\r\n

Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task<\/p>\r\n

Does not divide the Sunday from the week;<\/p>\r\n

What might be toward, that this sweaty haste<\/p>\r\n

Doth make the night joint- labourer with the day.<\/p>\r\n

(Hamlet,I, I, 71)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

In Marlowe\u201fs Tamburlaine, also great wars form the background of the play. Wars were also the cause of the anxiety for the people and the ruler. Shakespeare tries to expresses some tension in Henry IV:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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So shaken as we are, so wan with care,<\/p>\r\n

Find we a time for frighted peace to pant\u2026<\/p>\r\n

No more the thirsty entrance of this soil<\/p>\r\n

Shall daub her lips with her own children\u201fs blood,<\/p>\r\n

No more shall trenching war channel her fields,<\/p>\r\n

Nor bruise her flow\u201frets with the armed hoofs<\/p>\r\n

Of hostile paces<\/p>\r\n

(HenryV, I, i, 1)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Expansion of horizon <\/strong>was a chief feature of his age. As per K. R. S. Iyengar; \u201cThe discovery \u2013 partly by design, partly by accident- of the ocean routes to the East and, more important still, the discovery of the New World, made England\u201fs situation central between the Old World and The New, whereas it had hitherto been considered merely peripheral to the known world?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

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Famous Historical Events of Elizabethan Age<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Political Background:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Political history of Elizabethan age was the specimen of peace, balance and steadiness. The Queen achieved a proper balance at both the fronts-inside and outside of England. Political parties did not come into existence till that time. The theory of state was working on the Christian doctrine. In words of G.B. Harrison, \u201eIn the accepted theory the Queen was supreme head of Church and State, and she constantly insisted in her speeches and public documents that she was directly under God\u201fs special blessing.\u201f (pg173) People were following the established order blindly. Thomas More writes:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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For to the King God hath His office lent<\/p>\r\n

Of dread, of justice, power and command,<\/p>\r\n

Hath bid him rule, and will\u201fd you to obey;<\/p>\r\n

And, to add amples majesty to this,<\/p>\r\n

He hath not only lent the king His figure,<\/p>\r\n

His throne and sword, but given him His own Name,<\/p>\r\n

Calls him a God on Earth.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

She followed the policy of compromise and balance<\/strong>. It was a phase of religious tolerance<\/strong>. When Catholics and Protestants started raising their heads against each other she favoured both the parties. Protestants and Catholics followed her with equal devotion. Anglican Church turned into reality due to the efforts of the Queen. Anglicanism is sort of middle course or in other words a compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism. Positive effects of this religious peace reflect into the literature of this era.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Defeat of Spanish Armada and expansion of geographical boundaries <\/strong>were two major political events. Queen Elizabeth was unmarried. Problem of succession was the source of worry for English people. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex did not have a cordial relation with Queen. Essex rebelled against the Queen Elizabeth and was killed on 25 February, 1601. But unfortunately on March 24th, 1603, England lost its wise and sagacious queen forever. As per Harrison; \u201cKing James was immediately accepted as King, without dispute, and there was a very general feeling of relief that this dangerous problem had been settled without bloodshed or anarchy.\u201d After Queen\u201fs death, the wars with Spain came to an end since King James was on friendly terms with Spanish King. But dignified court life soon disappeared, and fast degeneration was seen in the fashionable manners.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

It was also called an age of conspiracies and planning.<\/strong> Queen was a protestant and Catholics wanted to kill, and replace her with a Catholic. Ridolfi plot, Throckmorton Plot, and Babington plot were such plots. Earl of Northumberland was against monarchy. After the Queen\u201fs death, in the Bye plot, Catholics planned to kidnap King James. And most famous is Gunpowder plot. This plot was discovered on the night before its execution. It was a plot \u201eto blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament. It was discovered in time with eight conspirators executed, including Guy Fawkes, who became the iconic evil traits in English Lore.\u201f (Wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Elizabethan-era)<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Political events, conspiracies and rebellions make a core area Elizabethan literature. In words of L.G. Salinger, \u201eThe main themes behind Shakespeare\u201fs histories are the main themes of Tudor political thought- kingship, the sinfulness of rebellion against God\u201fs deputy on earth, the problems arising from royal misgovernment.\u201f (pg- 62) Almost all the big historical and political events were taken up by the poets and dramatists of Elizabethan age. Histories of baronial wars were taken up by Daniel and Drayton in their verse.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Drake\u201fs voyages were ready to write a new history and to open up the new gates for the colonization. Industrial towns were providing employment to the people. As per W.J. Long; \u201eHakluyt famous collection of Voyages, and Purchas, His pilgrimage, were even stimulating to the English imagination than to the English acquisitiveness\u2026 Cabot, Drake, Frobisher, Gilbert, Releigh, Willoughby, Hawkins, - a score of explores reveal a new earth to men\u201fs eyes, and instantly literature creates a new heaven to match it.\u201f (Pg. 100-101). Writings of Hakluyt inspired Marlowe to make Dr. Faustus assign the new tasks to Mephistopheles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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I\u201fll have them fly to India for gold<\/p>\r\n

Ransack the ocean for orient pearl<\/p>\r\n

And search all corners of the new round world<\/p>\r\n

For pleasant fruits and princely delicacies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Spenser\u201fs Faerie Queen is political allegory, where Gloriana represents Queen Elizabeth.<\/p>\r\n

Arthur\u201fs love for the Fairy Queen (Gloriana) represents Lord Leicester\u201fs soft feelings for Queen.<\/p>\r\n

Arthur\u201fs enmity with Giant Orgoglio represents Leicester\u201fs wars against the Roman Catholic faith.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Cultural Background:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

It was an age of social contentment and religious tolerance. It was also an age of learning, violence, brutality, superstition, court-corruption, and intellectual liberty. All these features of this age reflect themselves into the literature of this period. Great advances in the field of human anatomy, surgical operations and medicines made this period scientifically advanced. Galileo \u2013 Galilee\u201fs invention of thermo scope, hydrostatic balance are big inventions of this age. Despite such inventions and scientific advances people still had strong faith in superstitions, and supernaturalism. These people believed in magic mystery, supernatural powers, witches, ghosts, spirits, devils and magicians. Krishna Gupta writes: \u201eDuring the Elizabethan period much importance or significance used to be attached to certain equipments of magic such as books, robes, wands etc., without which the magicians could not perform any of the magic tricks.\u201f In The Tempest also Shakespeare has used this feature. Caliban wants to grab that book of magic:<\/p>\r\n \r\n

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Remember<\/p>\r\n

First to posses his books; for without them<\/p>\r\n

He\u201fs but a sot, as I am, nor hath not<\/p>\r\n

One spirit to command.<\/p>\r\n

It was a great age of learning, and knowledge. Sir Francis Bacon extricated \u201escience from its philosophical entanglements\u201f gave it \u201ea new lease of hope\u201f.<\/p>\r\n

Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend,<\/p>\r\n

The wondrous Architecture of the world<\/p>\r\n

And measure every wand\u201fring planet\u201fs course,<\/p>\r\n

Still climbing after knowledge infinite,<\/p>\r\n

And always moving as the restless spheres,<\/p>\r\n

Wills us to wear ourselves add never rest\u2026.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

At the time of composition of these lines of Tamburlaine new scientific theories like Copernican hypothesis, belief in astrology and alchemy, in magic and witchcraft were at their peak. Gilbert worked on magnetism and Harvey on the circulation of blood. Ralegh favoured the natural magic of the alchemists and the Neo-Platonists- \u201enot the brabblings of the Aristotelians, but that which bringeth to light the inmost virtues, and draweth out of nature\u201fs hidden bosom to human use.\u201f Later on Bacon solved those problems that were the source of tension for Ralegh.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The court life inspired Campion to compose songs, Spenser to write \u201eSpousal Verse\u201f, Prothalamion, and Davies to write Orchestra, A Poem of Dancing (1996).<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Yet therein now doth lodge a noble peer,<\/p>\r\n

Great England\u201fs glory and the Worlds wide wonder,<\/p>\r\n

Whose dreadful name, late through all Spaine did thunder,<\/p>\r\n

And Hercules two pillors standing neere,<\/p>\r\n

Did make to quake and feare :<\/p>\r\n

Faire branch of honor, flower of chevalrie,<\/p>\r\n

That fittest England with thy triumphs fame,<\/p>\r\n

Joy have thou of thy noble victorie,<\/p>\r\n

And endless happinesse of thine owne name<\/p>\r\n

That promiseth the same:<\/p>\r\n

(Prothalamion)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Queen\u201fs court festivals gave opportunities to poets, actors, musicians, and craftsman to perform. In the plays of Shakespeare we \u201eget hold of the spirit of Elizabethan holidays\u201f. Morris \u2013 Dances, sword \u2013 dances, wassailing, mock ceremonies of summer kings and queens and of lords of misrule, mummings, disguising, masques \u2013 and a bewildering variety of sports, games, shows and pageants improvised on traditional models,\u201f were indivisible part of Elizabethan culture. Other celebrations include Shrove Tuesday, Hocktide, May Day, Whitsuntide, Midsummer Eve, Harvest \u2013 home, Halloween, and Christmas celebrations. C.L. Barber writes that, \u201cHere one cannot say how far analogies between social rituals and dramatic forms show an influence and how far they reflect the fact that the holiday occasion and the comedy are parallel manifestations of the same pattern of culture, of a way that men can cope with their life.\u201d (Approaches to Shakespeare, pg \u2013 233 \u2013 34) Elizabethan age is also famous for its music.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Cittern, a simplified form of lute, having four strings was used in musical performances. Tabor and pipes were also used. Ariel in The Tempest and Feste in Twelfth Night play pipe and tabor. Horns, as the instrument for hunting music was used in A Midsummer Night\u201fs Dream. The organ was used in theatre. The regal was used in melancholic music. In Shakespeare\u201fs works like, Love\u201fs Labour\u201fs Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night\u201fs Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor there are performances sung by either solo singer or by the chorus. Ophelia\u201fs mad song is very famous. The Tempest is also packed with music and songs. Edward J. Dent rightly remarks that;<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\u201cMusic was obviously an attraction to Elizabethan audiences, and it has been shown that the Shakespearian theatre eventually became sufficiently prosperous to be able to hire as many musicians as might be wanted.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Renaissance & Reformation:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

A fresh movement from Italy and France reached England in form of The Renaissance. W.J. Long writes: \u201eGreek ideas and Greek culture came to England in the Renaissance and man\u201fs spiritual freedom was proclaimed in the Reformation\u201f. Renaissance is defined as revival or rebirth of classical learning and arts from the bonds of dogmatic or rigid opinion. Hudson also writes that \u201eIn the development of literature this revival of learning worked in two ways: it did much to emancipate thought from the bondage of medieval theology by restoring the generous spirit and ideals of pagan antiquity; and it presented writers with literary masterpieces which they might take as models for their own efforts.\u201d English literature also received love of beauty, sensuousness and rich colour effect from Italian sculpture and painting. The entire English scene was floating in the vogue of Italian fashion and manners.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Sailor\u201fs voyages were touching new horizons and new harbours. New sciences and discoveries of Arabs were \u201eopening men\u201fs eyes to the unexplored realms of Nature.\u201f (Long) Entire Europe was flooded with Greek literature and learning. Malory\u201fs Morte d\u201fArthur was a remarkable publication of this age. Erasmus\u201f Praise of Folly and Thomas More\u201fs Utopia were originally composed in Latin. Long remarks; \u201cIn this Utopia we find for the first time, as the foundations of civilized society, the three great words, Liberty, Fraternity, Equality, which retained their inspiration through all the violence of the French Revolution which are still the unrealized ideal of every free government.\u201d (pg \u2013 94)<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Renaissance culture and atmosphere became ingredients in many of Shakespeare\u201fs Plays. The Merchant of Venice is the example of such plays. M. St. Clare Byrne; \u201cThe Venetian background of The Merchant of Venice is negligible; so far as local colour is concerned. It amounts to references to the Rialto, to a gondola and to the \u201etranect\u201f or common ferry to Mantua and Padua and Rome. But if these things are negligible, the emotional atmosphere of Renaissance culture in which the play is set is all \u2013 important. The grace, the dignity, and the sweet \u2013 gravity of the verse, translate the characters from the London \u2013 Venice of their creation into that scene of timeless abstraction which is Renaissance feeling.\u201f (pg.194). Cymbeline is also written in Renaissance manner. Atmosphere, imagery and Sonnets are the biggest contribution of Shakespeare in the field of Elizabethan poetry. Sonnet was originally cultivated in Italy under the guidance of Dante and Petrarch. Sonnet in form of Italian influence was imported by Wyatt and Surrey to England.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Shakespeare\u00a0 used\u00a0 his\u00a0 knowledge\u00a0 of\u00a0 Greek \u00a0and\u00a0 Roman\u00a0 classics\u00a0 in\u00a0 writing\u00a0 his\u00a0 plays. Shakespeare was influenced by Seneca, a Roman philosopher and statesmen. Shakespeare adopted Senecan model for his plays.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Spenser was also influenced by Renaissance and Reformation. The Renaissance refers to the movement stimulated by the fall of Constantinople, resulting in \u201ethe dissemination\u201f of Greek scholarship and Byzantine art.\u201f Spenser was also inspired by Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, Seneca, and Tasso. Eloyt, Wilson, Ascham, Lyly, Castiglione and Skelton influenced him deeply. Spenser has been called \u201ethe child of the Renaissance and the Reformation\u201f, by Rickett. About his poetry Hudson remarks that it is \u201esteeped in the humanism of the classics and Italian literature, and it everywhere testifies to the strenuous idealism and moral earnestness of Protestantism.\u201d It is said that he adopted the description of the voyage to the Bower of Bliss from Homer\u201fs Odyssey. Virgilian phrases are also present in Spenser\u201fs poetry. Classical stories, myths and symbols have been used in abundance in the Faerie Queene.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Spenser like a true Renaissance humanist portrays the idealised picture of men and human life. He wrote to reform the society. Entertainment and amusement was not his aim. Moral teachings form an indivisible part of his poetry.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The noble heart that harbours virtuous thought<\/p>\r\n

And is with child of glorious great intent,<\/p>\r\n

Can never rest, until it forth have brought,<\/p>\r\n

The eternal brood of glory excellent.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Reformation was a political and religious movement against the vices of Catholic Church and Roman Papacy. Hudson appropriately remarks that: \u201cWhile the Renaissance aroused the intellect and the aesthetic faculties, the reformation awakened the spiritual nature; the same printing press which diffused the knowledge of the classics put the English Bible into the hands of the people; and the spread of an interest in religion was inevitably accompanied by a deepening of moral earnestness.\u201d Martin Luther King raised his voice against the supremacy of Pope. A new reformed form the Church came into existence. Puritanism developed due to the released forces of Reformation. \u201eChristian humanism\u201f may be called the offspring of Puritanism and humanism. Theological Prose reached at its peak. William Tyndale\u201fs translation of the New Testament and publication of The Authorized Version of the Bible (1611) were example of such writings. Influence of Renaissance and reformation comes out in form of literary works of Ben Jonson, John Milton and Bunyan. Reformation also inspired chronicle writers. Edward Hall\u201fs Chronicle (1548) and Raphael Holinshed\u201fs Chronicles (1578) were two major chronicles of this time. In words of L.G. Salinger: \u201eThe triumph of humanism, however, involved a profound conflict of cultural standards; for \u201ecivility\u201f especially in its Puritan setting, meant reducing the \u201ebarbarous influence of folk tradition and popular taste.\u201f (pg \u2013 70) In the age of Reformation, \u201ethe spoken literary forms of preaching and acting dominated the printed forms.\u201f<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In Shakespeare\u201fs works we notice the influence of classical learning. He was Greeko \u2013 roman mythology and images in his plays and poems. About his imagery Caroline F.E. Spurgeon writes that \u201c\u2026there are \u2026 a lesser number of classical images\u2026. There are also small numbers from art in general (painting, sculpture, etc.), a similar small number from the theatre, from natural science and from proverbs and popular sayings.\u201d In Romeo and Juliet he uses classical images of \u201ecupid\u201f, \u201eAurora\u201f, \u201ePhoebus and Phaeton\u201f, and \u201eVenus\u201f. In Hamlet also he uses classical references such as \u201eHyperion to a Satyr\u201f, \u201eNiobe all tears\u201f, \u201eHercules\u201f, \u201eNemeanlion\u201f, \u201eLethe Wharf\u201f. \u201eCyclops and Mars\u201f, \u201eVulcan\u201fs stithy\u201f, \u201eHyperion & Jove, Mars\u201f, \u201eThe Herald Mercury\u201f, \u201ePelion and Olympus\u201f, and Ossa. Shakespeare\u201fs Sonnet 55 is famous for the \u201etheme of the triumphant immortality of his celebration of his love in verse\u201f from Horace, Ovid, or from a paraphrase of Ovid in Meres\u201fs Palladis Tamia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Not marble, nor the guilded monuments<\/p>\r\n

Of princes shall out live this powerful rime,<\/p>\r\n

But you shall shine more bright in these contents<\/p>\r\n

Then unswept stone, besmeer\u201fd with sluttish time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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When wastefull warre shall Statues over \u2013 turne,<\/p>\r\n

And broiles roote out the worke of masonry,<\/p>\r\n

Nor Mars his sword, nor warres quick fire shall burne,<\/p>\r\n

The living record of your memory.<\/p>\r\n

Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity<\/p>\r\n

Shall you pace forth, your praise shall stil finde roome,<\/p>\r\n

Even in the eyes of all posterity<\/p>\r\n

That weare this world out to the ending doome.<\/p>\r\n

So til the judgement that your selfe arise,<\/p>\r\n

You live in this, and dwell in lovers eies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Sonnet 59 is also based on theme of Ovid\u201fs cyclical creed. Shakespeare was very much influenced by Golding\u201fs\u00a0 translation of Ovid\u201fs\u00a0 Metamorphoses.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Whether we are mended, or where better they,<\/p>\r\n

Or whether revolution be the same.<\/p>\r\n

Oh sure I am the wits of former daies,<\/p>\r\n

To subjects worse have given admiring praise.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Influence of Italian writings and classical literature peeps through the songs and lyrics of Elizabethan poets. John Lyly\u201fs Alexander and Campaspe, Thomas Campion\u201fs \u201eWhen Thou Must Home\u201f, Thomas Nashe\u201fs \u201e Litany in Time of Plague\u201f, Sir Philip Sidney\u201fs Astrophel and Stella and Christopher Marlowe\u201fs Hero and Leander are examples of works containing lyrics and songs exhibiting classical influence and touch.<\/p>\r\n

Big Literary Events in Elizabethan Period<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
you can view video on Elizabethan Age in Paintings and Pictures<\/strong><\/td>\r\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nReference\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n