The Early Modern Period

Question 1

When is the Early Modern period timelined?

Answer 1

1. ca. late 15th - late 17th centuries
2. Reformation to Restoration 1534-1660s (Anglican church and rise of puritanism)
3. It started with the end of the war of roses (Tudor/Lancaster vs. Richard III)

Question 2

When does the Modern period begin?

Answer 2

1. The Glorious Revolution (1688) and the following initiation of parliamentary monarchy under William of Orange (Bill of Rights 1689)

Question 2

Which periods and notions did the Early Modern period cover?

Answer 2

1. The Renaissance: Revival of classical learning
2. Humanism
3. The Elizabethan Period
4. The Jacobean Period
5. The Civil Wars
6. The Interregnum
7. The Restoration Period

Question 3

What does the notion of Humanism characterize?

Answer 3

1. Rediscovery of Antiquity and Revival of classical education (Studia Humanitatis)
2. Scriptures were thus mainly written in greek and latin as sort of lingua francas.
3. It places the human being in the centre of interest (Goal is the perfection of the individual in living not in death).

Question 4

What are the septem artes liberales?

Answer 4

1. The Trivium: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic
2. The Quadrivium: Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy

The rhetoric arts in the Trivium are considered as central

Question 5

What are era defining notions of the Reformation period?

Answer 5

1. Anglican church isn’t equal to protestantism in continental europe.
2. It led to the division between puritans, protestants and catholicism.

Question 6

What are central notions of the Restoration?

Answer 6

1. The lack of central leadership after Elizabeth I. left no heir created anxiety especially as James I was disliked by the populus.
2. The conflict between puritans and other belief systems

Question 7

What are central notions of Restorationdrama?

Answer 7

1. Considered as heroic plays
2. They tended to be rather clearly black or white (Hero as a true Example)
3. Most famous author is Dryden

Question 8

What are central notions of Restorationcomedy?

Answer 8

1. Also referred to as the comedy of manners
2. Honor and a good regard, considered to be the most important topoi of the heroic drama, are revelaed as hypocritical ante in a game which consists of Lust and Greed.

Question 9

What is the difference between patent and illegitimate theatre?

Answer 9

Patent: Licensed by the king it was considered as serious drama
Illegitimate: Popular Entertainment with a mandatory Musicpart

Question 10

What are the languages of learning in the Middle English Period?

Answer 10

Latin and Greek

Question 11

What is the Revision of antique educations impact on literature at the time?

Answer 11

The centrality of rhetoric: The joy of doing things with words (To play around with them and so forth)

Question 12

What are the characteristics of Early Modern Literary Systems?

Answer 12

1. Oral culture, popular literature (Broradsheets, ballads: read by few but listened to by many; communal reading was stil a big part of society)
2. Print culture (Introduction of the printing press by William Caxton in the 1470s, but it took around 100 years to become the dominant medium and book production was a laborious, cost and staff intensive business)
3. Coterie (manuscript) culture (Coterie = Directed at the ruling elites of the country [had the money to pay for it])
4. There was a negative stigma on print with many authors seeing at their work as to pure to be spread to the masses and their works being publicizes post-mortem.
5. However, it is also the time that writers start to perceive writing as a profession (writing for profit) and realise the potential of the print market.
6. The elevation of English literature

Question 13

Name the four authors which were highlighted in the lecture as important during the elizabethan period

Answer 13

1. Sir Philip Sidney (among others wrote Arcadia and the Defense of Poesie)
2. Sir Thomas Wyatt & The Earl of Surry (Their petrarchan sonnets)
3. Edmund Spenser (The Faerie Queene [Wrote epics and poetry in a toned down petrarchism])
4. William Shakespeare (Wrote at the transition of the elizabethan and jacobean era)

Question 14

Name the two authors which were highlighted in the lecture as important during the Jacobean period

Answer 14

1. John Donne (Love poems and Holy Sonnets)
2. Andrew Marvell (Satires, political poems and pamphlets)

Question 15

What is metaphysical poetry?

Answer 15

Metaphysical poetry is like a puzzle, where the poet challenges the reader to think deeply about life’s big questions—love, death, and the divine—using clever metaphors and surprising comparisons to reveal new perspectives.

Question 16

What were common themes of metaphysical poetry?

Answer 16

1. Love and Spirituality: Many poems explore the connection between human love and divine experience.
2. Fate and Free Will: Questions about the control (or lack thereof) humans have over their destiny are central.
3. Mourning and Sin: The poets frequently reflect on life’s challenges and the spiritual consequences of human actions.
4. Conceits: Metaphysical poets are known for their use of conceits, which are extended metaphors or comparisons that are often surprising or paradoxical (Thinking something together that doesn’t really belong together).

Question 17

What were the “take-home messages” from session 2

Answer 17

• the Early Modern period comprises a number of overlapping phases
  and political and religious as well as cultural and literary movements
• the educational programme of Humanism included the study of
  rhetoric, which indirectly boosted English as a literary language (see,
  e.g., sonnets), but popular literature in the vernacular also existed
• the ‘court’ was one centre of literary and cultural production (early
  sonnets, Petrarchism/Neo-Platonism, to metaphysical poets)
• but: different types of literature, publication formats and audiences
  coexisted:
• manuscript (cotérie culture: poetry, verse epic, sonnet cycles),
• book printing (= printing press with moveable type: poetry ‘taken’
  from the cotérie, sonnet cycles with a more ’bourgeois’ appeal),
• popular (woodblock) printing = broadsheets, ballads

Question 18

What are characteristics of Elizabethan Englands Society?

Answer 18

• population growth, enclosures, urbanization
• increase in overseas and home trade and ‘industry’ – the beginning of ‘capitalism’
• beyond feudalism: the rise of the lower gentry and the ‘middling sorts’
• religious identities: between protestant/puritan and catholic convictions (Within 40 years the religion has changed 4 times)
• between fixed hierarchies and new power relationships (The great chain of being)
• the status of Elizabethan World Picture: ordo universalis (The divine order with God at its helm) vs. anthropocentrism (Thinking from the human [The four bodily fluids])

Question 19

What were the facts on Shakespeares dramatic work outlined in the lecture?

Answer 19

1. theatre as a new medium of social and individual self-inspection (historical & contemporary)
2. Shakespeare’s career from patronage to the literary market: Lord Chamberlain’s Men (King’s Men after 1603)
3. Shakespeare’s 38 plays (see additional list) written between 1589 and 1613 (3 co-authored)
4. the Globe Theatre (outdoor) and/vs. the Blackfriars Theatre (indoor, since 1597)
5. print editions of Shakespeare’s works: quartos and First Folio = ‘F1’ (1623)
6. 17 plays only in F1, and many of the others in better quality than in previous print versions

Question 20

Where do we find the roots of elizabethan theatre?

Answer 20

In the mystery and morality plays that begin occuring in the Middle English period.

Question 21

What are the characteristics of Shakespeare’s dramatic works?

Answer 21

• emotional participation: human motivations, desires, anxieties, ambition, envy… (Depicts the depth of human emotion and character)
• distanced reflection: political responsibilities, good rulership (What makes a good ruler? An important topic due to the uncertainty of lineage at the time), lines of succession (history plays, Roman plays, the Romances)
• the spectacular and the philosophical
  (drastic violence and deep reflection in the tragedies and Roman plays)
• the dynastic and the domestic
  (history plays, tragedies: royal families)
• support or criticism of political system? (the Tudor myth reinforced by history plays?)
• human agency vs. fate: renaissance convictions vs. classical and medieval notions of order (Tension between order universalis and anthropocentric idea)
• ambivalence in evaluation: No ALL ‘good’ or ‘bad’ characters (Characterisation is always more subtle than in any other elizabethan plays [Here Othello is a great example especially in the forms of Iago, Othello, Cassio and Emilia]

Question 22

What are the sources of Shakespeares dramatic works?

Answer 22

• only three plays without sources: Love’s Labours Lost, A Midsummernight’s Dream, The Tempest
• history books (e.g. Holinshed’s Chronicles, Plutarch’s biographies of Roman emperors and notable Greeks and Romans)
• Latin comedies (Plautus, Terence)
• Italian narrative fiction (novelle),
  Giovanni Boccaccio: Decamerone (e.g. Othello)
• classical and medieval Romance narratives
• the principles of imitation, emulation (aemulatio), innovation (rather than invention). Thus he can be described as a great innovator but maybe not so much a inventer.

Question 23

What was the take-home message of the third session?

Answer 23

• in an anthropocentric world view, theatre can be regarded as a
  central medium, putting the human being ‘centre stage’ both
  physically and conceptually
• Shakespeare’s plays explore the breadth and ambivalence of all
  human emotions and motivations
• Shakespeare explored the opportunities of the relatively new nonnarrative medium of theatre on the basis of mostly narrative sources
• Shakespeare practiced aemulatio – representative of an Early
  Modern concept of authorship
• Shakespeare’s use of language demonstrates the influence of rhetoric
• the conditions of performance and the publication history of
  Shakespeare’s plays is responsible for the shape of the texts

Question 24

What are the features of Elizabethan prose fiction?

Answer 24

• great variety of narrative prose genres (Writers picked up traditions but the topics changed)
• great variety of topics: from heroes to criminals, from romance to jokes (Sex and crime just as Sir Gawain)
• anonymous print market, increasing diversity of (new) audiences
• literacy, evolving ‘middle-class’ readership (Leads to topoi that concern the lifes of the middle class and the depiction of middle class lifes)
• increase in silent reading (private [non read out loud to others] reading) although communal reading remains into the 19th century [fireside poets].
• slow decrease of explicit didacticism
  (Horace: prodesse et delectare) – learning to deal with fictionality (away from the classical doctrine that the poet needs to entertain and educate)

Question 25

Why can elizebethan prose be considered as precursors of the novel?

Answer 25

1. It was the time of experiments in style and media format
2. Authors created genre mixtures such as George Gascoignes TThe Adventures of Master F.J. due to the increasing relevancy of print (They also now wrote specifically for silent reading).
3. There was exuberant rhetoric and elevated language
4. It was the time of the picaresque romance (A story of a servant that goes from one service to another…This is usually quite the cynical narrative)

Question 26

What are the important texts of the Jacobean Period?

Answer 26

1. Shakespeare’s late tragedies (Othello, King Lear, Macbetth, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus) and his Romance plays (Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, Tempest)
2. Metaphysical poetry - coterie literature
3. John Donne, love poems and Holy Sonnets
4. Andrew Marvell, satires, political poems, pamphlets

Question 27

What is metaphysical poetry?

Answer 27

Metaphysical poetry refers to a style of poetry that emerged in the 17th century, characterized by intellectual and philosophical exploration, clever wordplay, and intricate metaphors. It is most famously associated with poets like John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and Henry Vaughan. The term “metaphysical” was later applied by critics, particularly Samuel Johnson, to describe these poets’ work.

Key Features of Metaphysical Poetry:
Use of Conceits
Philosophical and Spiritual Themes:
Intellectual Tone:
Paradox and Complexity:
Colloquial Language:
Abrupt Openings:

Themes in Metaphysical Poetry:
Love
Religion
Mortality
Nature and Science

Question 28

What is coterie literature?

Answer 28

Coterie literature refers to writings produced within and often for a small, exclusive group of people who share common interests, social status, or intellectual goals. The term “coterie” suggests a private circle or community, and in literary contexts, it often describes works intended for limited circulation among a select audience, rather than for mass publication or a broad readership.

Characteristics of Coterie Literature:
Exclusive Audience
Personal and Intimate
Limited Distribution
Refined or Niche Subjects
Collaborative Nature

Question 29

What are characteristics of the Interregnum to Restoration period?

Answer 29

1. Religious and political antagonisms (puritanism vs. catholicism and parliamentarism vs. monarchists)
2. There is only little Interregnum literature, it mostly narrated christianity for moral education purposes. (Time of High puritanism, e.g. John Bunyan)
3. There was no public theatre for 18 years under puritan rule.

Question 30

What are famous examples of literature of the Interregnum to Restoration period?

Answer 30

1. The Epic: e.G. John Miltons Paradise Lost (1667/74)
2. Popular appeal of allegory in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress
3. John Dryden’s famous poetry

Question 31

What are the characteristics of the Restoration theatre?

Answer 31

1. The return of stage performance after 18-year Puritan ban.
2. Indoor theatres (e.G. Blackfriars bridge allowed for more special effects and a closer connection to the audience).
3. Women on the stage.
4. Proscenium stage with shutters and new stage technology.
5. Access became more socially restricted. (Only two licensed theatres in London)

Question 32

What are the characteristics of the Restoration Comedy?

Answer 32

1. comedy of manners (saturized manners of the upper classes)
2. audience involvement (asides)
3. intrigue, deceit, wit, sex
4. Thomas Hobbes: “Homo homini lupus est” (Underlying philosophy remaining from pre-restoration [a very negative picture of humanity as egoistic which then requires us to have usurpathors [legitimization]).
5. later: protests against the”licentiousness of the stage”
6. The importance of Wit (If you are witty enough to fool others you are in the right)
7. The division between the urban and the rural

Question 33

What is the historic background of Early northern american Liiterature in English?

Answer 33

1. First settlements: Jamestown and Virginia (1607)
   - royal charters became trading companies employed by the crown.
2. Puritan migration to the new land 1620s to 1640s because they allowed religious freedom.
3. It is the age of discovery and conquest.

Question 34

Which is the main genre and its themes of Early North American Literature in English?

Answer 34

Colonial writing: Descriptions of travels, mapping the land, praising economic promise, but also captivity narratives and religious narratives.

Question 35

What were the take-home messages after the fourth session?

Answer 35

1. Beside poetry and drama, prose fiction also flourished in Elizabethan England
2. Broad range of audiences (from cotérie to print market), formats
   (from epic romance to chapbooks) and genres (from pastoral to
   jokes), including long narratives (= forerunners of the novel)
3. The influence of rhetoric visible in Euphuism
4. Hard times for imaginative literature in the Civil War and Interregnum (except writing with a religious focus)
5. Theatre plays returned to the (new) stages with a vengeance in the Restoration (esp. comedy)
6. Dissenting (Puritan) emigrants were the first North-American authors.

Question 36

What did Thomas Wyatt’s poetry introduce to England?

Answer 36

The italian sonnets.

Question 37

What is typical of the storyline in petrarchan sonnets?

Answer 37

They never allow for the lover to reach his goal.

Question 38

How do the worldviews of the middle ages and the early modern periods differentiate?

Answer 38

1. Middle ages: Theocentric worldview (God at the centre/Death-oriented)
2. Anthropocentric worldview (The human at the centre/Life-focused)

Question 39

Why did Sir Philipp Sidney feel like he had to defend poetry?

Answer 39

Because of the reembursement of platonism through humanist teachings.

Question 40

How was prose romance published?

Answer 40

One a book deemed sellable the author send it to scriptors which make handwritten copies.
Due to this being very expensive writers often took sponsors or “ahead” payments (subscriptions).

Question 41

What is Neo-platonism?

Answer 41

Plato et al. developed the idea that the universe is ruled by the abstraction of the perfect. (We live in an imperfect world but strive for its betterment).

Question 42

What does petrarchism refer to?

Answer 42

The unreachable perfection in person of the lady.

Question 43

What does “Wit” refer to?

Answer 43

Ones skill in using language and humour (As a writer you have to be able to show off your wit).

Question 44

Why are some of Shakespeare’s years lost?

Answer 44

Shakespeare’s lost years are most likely due to him being recusant (catholic in hiding).

Question 45

What are the four bodily fluids (humours) and how do they affect the being according to early modern belief systems?

Answer 45

Most likely developed by Hippocrates it assumes that the body is organized around four fluids which determine the behavior of all beings (Once there is to much of one the character becomes imbalanced).

1. blood (Sanguine [Hysterical])
2. yellow bile (Choleric)
3. black bile (Melancholic)
4. phlegm (Phlegmatic)

Question 46

According to shakespearean morale: What is beautiful?

Answer 46

That what is good.

Question 47

In which sense did the people want to HEAR a play rather than see it?

Answer 47

People wanted to enjoy the fact that you can play with language and the various ways the writers would be able to manipulate language.

Question 48

What was said about Shakespeare’s writing style?

Answer 48

1. He barely used stage directions.
2. He wrote for the theatre without the intention of the publication of his plays.
3. He knew he had to address a varied audience. (He wrote for the masses but also attracted noblemen)
4. The plays were constructed from individual speeches (He wrote the speeches first)

Question 49

In which context did Shakespeare write his plays?

Answer 49

1. At the crossroads between the elizabethan and the jacobean period.
2. The cities were ruled by puritans. (He had to be aware of censorship)
3. Theatres were part of the entertainment district outside of London.

Question 50

How were Shakespeare’s works published?

Answer 50

1. They were published according to the copies scribed for the theatre.
2. In 1623 17 of his plays were published in a first folio.
3. Before that theatre wouldn’t be considered worthy of a folio. If it hadn’t been for Ben Jonsons works there would be no first folio today. He published his plays himself.
4. The quarto editions were printed in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Copyright hadn’t been invented yet.

Question 51

Why did the Interregnum period come about?

Answer 51

People were unhappy about Charles I costly wars which led to him wanting more and more taxes from parliament which it eventually refused. After a series of revolts the civil war ended in defeat for the royalists with Oliver Cromwell taking over as Lord Protector turning britain from a monarchy into an autocracy. All of this challenges the belief of a given world order (the great chain of being).

Question 52

What was Charles I also known as?

Answer 52

The “merry” monarch (He knew how to party and brought influences from French court culture to England)

Question 53

What is a dissenter?

Answer 53

Those who left England in order to live out their religion.

Question 54

What is typical of puritan american literature?

Answer 54

1. It wanted to tell the story as it was.
2. They were non-fictional accounts.
3. Tensions between worldly experience and spirituality

Question 55

What is American Exceptionalism?

Answer 55

The belief that those in America are people chosen by god to create new fortune (They knew the texts were published in England and thus tried to convince others to come over).

It is based on the idea of predestination that the puritans had been selected by god in order to establish gods kingdom in the new world.