The English Renaissance was a
cultural and
artistic movement in England during the late 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries.[1] It is associated with the pan-European
Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. As in most of the rest of
Northern Europe, England saw little of these developments until more than a century later within the
Northern Renaissance. Renaissance style and ideas were slow to penetrate England, and the
Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance. Many scholars see its beginnings in the early 16th century during the reign of
Henry VIII.[2] Others argue the Renaissance was already present in England in the late 15th century.
The English Renaissance is different from the
Italian Renaissance in several ways. The dominant art forms of the English Renaissance were
literature and
music.
Visual arts in the English Renaissance were much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance. The English period began far later than the Italian, which was moving into
Mannerism and the
Baroque by the 1550s or earlier.
England had a strong tradition of literature in the English
vernacular, which gradually increased as English use of the
printing press became common by the mid-16th century.[1] This tradition of literature written in English vernacular largely began with the Protestant
Reformation's call to let people interpret the Bible for themselves instead of accepting the
Catholic Church's interpretation. Discussions on how to translate the Bible so that it could be understood by laymen but still do justice to God's word became contentious, with people arguing how much license could be taken to impart the correct meaning without sacrificing its eloquence. The desire to let people read the Bible for themselves led
William Tyndale to publish his own translation in 1526, giving way to
Sir Rowland Hill's publication of the
Geneva Bible in 1560, marking the re-establishment of the Church of England at the accession of Elizabeth I. These would be predecessors to the
King James Version of the Bible.
Another early proponent of literature in the vernacular was
Roger Ascham, who was tutor to Princess Elizabeth during her teenage years, and is now often called the "father of English prose." He proposed that speech was the greatest gift to man from God and to speak or write poorly was an affront.[3] The peak of English drama and theatre is said to be the
Elizabethan age; a golden age in English history where the arts, drama and creative work flourished.
Morality plays emerged as a distinct dramatic form around 1400 and flourished in the early
Elizabethan era in England. By the time of
Elizabethan literature, a vigorous literary culture in both drama and poetry included poets such as
Edmund Spenser, whose verse epic The Faerie Queene had a strong influence on
English literature but was eventually overshadowed by the lyrics of
William Shakespeare,
Thomas Wyatt and others. Typically, the works of these playwrights and poets circulated in manuscript form for some time before they were published, and above all the plays of
English Renaissance theatre were the outstanding legacy of the period. The works of this period are also affected by
Henry VIII's declaration of independence from the Catholic Church and technological advances in sailing and cartography, which are reflected in the generally nonreligious themes and various shipwreck adventures of Shakespeare.[4]
Edmund Spenser was best known for
The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty. He is considered one of the great poets of his time.
The English Renaissance saw significant scientific progress. The astronomers
Thomas Digges and
Thomas Harriot made important contributions;
William Gilbert published his seminal study of magnetism, De Magnete, in 1600. He was the first to discover that the Earth was itself a dipole magnet as well as the first to correctly explain why a nautical compass worked as it did.[10]
Substantial advancements were made in the fields of cartography and surveying.
John Dee was the court astronomer for
Elizabeth I and an influential mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist.
Sir Francis Bacon was the pioneer of modern scientific thought, and is commonly regarded as one of the founders of the
Scientific Revolution. His works are seen as developing the
scientific method that party invented modern science.[11] Historian
William Hepworth Dixon stated: "Bacon's influence in the modern world is so great that every man who rides in a train, sends a telegram, follows a
steam plough, sits in an easy chair, crosses the channel or the Atlantic, eats a good dinner, enjoys a beautiful garden, or undergoes a painless surgical operation, owes him something''.[12] English thought advanced towards modern science with the
Baconian method.[13]
English achievements in exploration were noteworthy.
Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1581. This was the first English circumnavigation, and third circumnavigation overall in history.
Martin Frobisher explored the
Arctic. The first attempt at English settlement of the eastern seaboard of North America occurred in this era. In 1583,
Humphrey Gilbert sailed to Newfoundland, taking possession of the harbour of
St. John's together with all land within two hundred leagues to the north and south of it. In 1584, the queen granted
Sir Walter Raleigh a charter for the colonisation of
Virginia; it was named in her honour. Raleigh and Elizabeth sought both immediate riches and a base for privateers to raid the Spanish treasure fleets. In 1600, the queen chartered the
East India Company in an attempt to break the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of far Eastern trade.[15][16] It established trading posts, which in later centuries evolved into
British India, on the coasts of what is now India and
Bangladesh. Larger scale colonisation to
North America began shortly after Elizabeth's death. Originally
chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies",[17][18] the
East India Company rose to account for half of the world's trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s,[19] particularly in basic commodities including
cotton,
silk,
indigo dye,
sugar,
salt,
spices,
saltpetre,
tea, and
opium.[19] The East India Company was the most powerful corporation in history.[20][21]
Visual arts
England was slow to produce visual arts in Renaissance styles like the rest of Northern European, and the
artists of the Tudor court were mainly imported foreigners until after the end of the Renaissance;
Hans Holbein was the outstanding figure. The
English Reformation produced a huge programme of
iconoclasm that destroyed almost all medieval religious art, and all but ended the skill of painting in England. However, England under the Tudor dynasty was a thriving home for arts. An international community of artists and merchants, many of them religious refugees, navigated to England for royal patrons. English art was to be dominated by
portrait painting and
landscape art, for centuries to come.[22]
The significant English invention was the
portrait miniature, which essentially took the techniques of the dying art of the
illuminated manuscript and transferred them to small portraits worn in lockets. Though the form was developed in England by foreign artists, mostly Flemish like
Lucas Horenbout, the somewhat undistinguished founder of the tradition, by the late 16th century natives such as
Nicolas Hilliard and
Isaac Oliver produced the finest work.[23] The portrait miniature had spread all over Europe by the 18th century.[24]
Prince Henry by
Robert Peake the Elder in 1610. His foot rests on a shield bearing the device of the Prince of Wales, a title conferred on him the same year.
The Rainbow Portrait of
Queen Elizabeth I. Later portraits of Elizabeth layer the iconography of empire—globes, crowns, swords and columns—and representations of virginity and purity.
English Renaissance music kept in touch with continental developments. Elizabethan music experienced a shift in popularity from
sacred to
secular music and the rise of instrumental music. Professional musicians were employed by the
Church of England, the nobility, and the rising middle-class. Elizabeth was fond of music and played the
lute and
virginal, sang, and even claimed to have composed dance music.[26] She felt that dancing was a great form of physical exercise and employed musicians to play for her while she danced. The interests of the queen were expected to be adopted by her subjects. All noblemen were expected to be proficient in playing the lute and "any young woman unable to take her proper place in a vocal or instrumental ensemble became the laughing-stock of society". Music printing led to a market of amateur musicians purchasing works published by those who received special permission from the queen.[27]
The
Elizabethan madrigal was distinct from, but related to, the Italian tradition. The most famous composers for the Anglican Church were
Thomas Tallis and his student
William Byrd. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and in Europe.[28] Both composers were Catholics and produced vocal works in both Latin and English. Secular vocal works became extremely popular with the importation of Italian musicians and compositions. The music of the late Italian madrigal composers inspired native composers who are now labelled as the
English Madrigal School. These composers adapted the text painting and polyphonic writing of the Italians into a uniquely English genre of
madrigal.
Thomas Morley published collections of madrigals which included his own compositions as well as those of his contemporaries. The most famous of these collections was The Triumphs of Oriana, which was made in honour of Queen Elizabeth and featured the compositions of Morley,
Thomas Weelkes, and
John Wilbye among other representatives of the English madrigalists.
Instrumental music was also very popular. The most popular solo instruments of the time were the
virginal and the
lute. The virginal was a popular variant of the
harpsichord among the English and one of Elizabeth's favourite instruments to play. Numerous works were produced for the instrument including several collections by William Byrd, namely the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and Parthenia. The lute strung with sheepgut was the most popular instrument of the age. Lutes could be played as solo instruments or as accompaniment for singers. Compositions of the latter variety were known as
lute song. The most popular Elizabethan composer for the lute and of lute songs was
John Dowland. Several families of instruments were popular among the English people and were employed for the group music making. If all of the instruments in an ensemble were of the same family they were considered to be in "
consort". Mixed ensembles were said to be in "
broken consort". Both forms of ensembles were equally popular.
The key composers from the early Renaissance era also wrote in a late Medieval style, and as such, they are transitional figures.
Leonel Power was an English composer of the late
medieval and early Renaissance music eras. Along with
John Dunstaple and
Walter Frye, he was one of the major figures in English music in the early 15th century.[29][30] Power is the composer best represented in the Old Hall Manuscript. He was one of the first composers to set separate movements of the
ordinary of the mass which were thematically unified and intended for contiguous performance. The Old Hall Manuscript contains his mass based on the
Marian antiphon,
Alma Redemptoris Mater, in which the antiphon is stated literally in the tenor voice in each movement, without melodic ornaments. This is the only cyclic setting of the mass ordinary which can be attributed to him.[31] He wrote mass cycles, fragments, and single movements and a variety of other sacred works.
John Dunstaple (or Dunstable) was an English composer of
polyphonic music of the late
medieval era and early Renaissance periods. He was one of the most famous composers active in the early 15th century, a near-contemporary of Power, and was widely influential, not only in England but on the continent, especially in the developing style of the
Burgundian School. Dunstaple's influence on the continent's musical vocabulary was enormous, particularly considering the relative paucity of his (attributable) works. He was recognized for possessing something never heard before in music of the
Burgundian School: la contenance angloise ("the English countenance"), a term used by the poet
Martin le Franc in his Le Champion des Dames. Other leading composers include
Robert Johnson,
John Taverner,
Thomas Morley,
Orlando Gibbons, and
John Blitheman.
The colossal
polychoral productions of the
Venetian School had been anticipated in the works of
Thomas Tallis, and the
Palestrina style from the
Roman School had already been absorbed prior to the publication of Musica transalpina, in the music of masters such as
William Byrd. The Italian and English Renaissances were similar in sharing a specific
musical aesthetic. In the late 16th century Italy was the musical center of Europe, and one of the principal forms which emerged from that singular explosion of musical creativity was the
madrigal. In 1588,
Nicholas Yonge published in England the Musica transalpina—a collection of Italian madrigals that had been Anglicized—an event which began a vogue of madrigal in England which was almost unmatched in the Renaissance in being an instantaneous adoption of an idea, from another country, adapted to local aesthetics. English poetry was exactly at the right stage of development for this transplantation to occur, since forms such as the
sonnet were uniquely adapted to setting as madrigals. Composers such as
Thomas Morley, the only contemporary composer to set Shakespeare, and whose work survives, published collections of their own, roughly in the Italian manner but yet with a unique Englishness; interest in the compositions of the
English Madrigal School has enjoyed a considerable revival in recent decades in Europe.[32][33]
The wool trade, which had carried the economic life of England in the late
medieval period, was no longer as prosperous as it had been and there was less disposable wealth for architectural projects. Under Elizabeth, farming was encouraged resulting in a recovery that put a vast amount of wealth into the hands of a large number of people. Elizabeth built no new palaces, instead encouraging her courtiers to build extravagantly and house her on her summer progresses. A large number of small houses were built, and at the same time many country mansions were constructed. Many of the earlier medieval or Tudor manors were remodelled and modernised during Elizabeth's reign. Civic and institutional buildings were also becoming increasingly common.[34]
The most famous buildings, of a type called the
prodigy house, are large show houses constructed for
courtiers, and characterised by lavish use of glass, as at "
Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall",
Wollaton Hall,
Montacute House,
Hatfield House and
Burghley House, the style continuing into the early 17th century before developing into
Jacobean architecture. Lesser, but still large, houses like
Little Moreton Hall continued to be constructed and expanded in essentially medieval
half-timbered styles until the late 16th century. Church architecture essentially continued in the late medieval
Perpendicular Gothic style until the Reformation, and then stopped almost completely, although
church monuments, screens and other fittings often had classical styles from about the mid-century. The few new church buildings post-Reformation were usually still Gothic in style, as in
Langley Chapel of 1601.[36]
It was also at this time that the
long gallery became popular in English manor houses, often displaying
painting collections and decorated ceilings. This was apparently mainly used for walking in, and a growing range of
parlours and
withdrawing rooms supplemented the main living room for the family, the
great chamber. The
great hall was now mostly used by the servants, and as an impressive point of entry to the house.[34]
The decorative arts became increasingly rich in color, detail, and design by the
Jacobean era. Materials from other parts of the world, like mother-of-pearl, were now available by worldwide trade and were used as decoration.[38] Familiar materials, such as wood and silver, were worked more deeply in intricate and intensely
three-dimensional designs.[38] Architecture in the Jacobean era was a continuation of the Elizabethan style with increasing emphasis on classical elements like columns and obelisks.
Inigo Jones may be the most famous English architect of this period, with lasting contributions to classical public building style; his works include the
Banqueting House in the
Palace of Whitehall and the portico of
Old St Paul's Cathedral (destroyed in the
Great Fire of London). Significant Jacobean buildings include
Hatfield House,
Bolsover Castle,
Aston Hall, and
Charlton House. Many churches contain fine monuments in Jacobean style, with characteristic motifs including strapwork, and polychromy. The mason and sculptor
Nicholas Stone produced many effigies for tombs as well as architectural stonework.
Society
There was a wide range of leisure activities entertaining both the nobility and the common classes. Among these leisure activities were
team sports,
individual sports,
games, dramatics,
music, and
the arts. The annual summer fair and other seasonal fairs such as
May Day were often bawdy affairs. Watching plays and performing arts became increasingly popular. All English towns sponsored plays enacted in town squares followed by the actors using the courtyards of taverns or inns (referred to as inn-yards) followed by great open-air amphitheatres and then the introduction of indoor theatres called playhouses. This popularity was helped by the rise of great playwrights such as
William Shakespeare and
Christopher Marlowe using theatres such as the
Globe Theatre. Before theatres were built, actors travelled from town to town and performed in the streets or outside inns.[39] Miracle plays were local re-enactments of stories from the Bible. They derived from the old custom of
mystery plays, in which stories and fables were enacted to teach lessons or educate about life in general.[40]
Music was greatly enjoyed throughout this era, as seen through quite a few family evenings including musical performances. English children were taught to sing and dance at a very early age and became used to performing in public during such evenings. Keyboard instruments such as
harpsichords,
clavichords,
dulcimers and
virginals were played.
Woodwind instruments like
crumhorns, and
flutes and stringed instruments such as
lutes and
rebecs were also widely used. Royal court dances included the
pavane and
galliard, the
almain and the
volta.[41]
There was an expansion of education and apprenticships in 14th-16th century England.[42] Boys were allowed to go to school and began at the age of 4, they then moved to
grammar school when they were 7 years old. Apprenticships were the main route for youths to enter skilled trades and crafts.[43] In 1562 the
Statute of Artificers and Apprentices was passed to regulate and protect the apprenticeship system, forbidding anyone from practising a trade or craft without first serving a 7-year period as an apprentice to a master.[44]Guilds controlled many trades and used apprenticeships to control entry.[45] Many towns and villages had a parish school where the local vicar taught boys to read and write. Brothers could teach their sisters these skills. At school, pupils were taught English, Latin, Greek, catechism and arithmetic.[46]
Criticism
The notion of calling this period a ''renaissance" is a modern invention, having been popularized by the historian
Jacob Burckhardt in the 19th century. England had already experienced a flourishing of literature over 200 years before the time of Shakespeare.
Geoffrey Chaucer's popularizing of
English as a medium of literary composition rather than
Latin occurred only 50 years after
Dante had started using
Italian for serious poetry, and Chaucer
translated works by both Boccaccio and Petrarch into
Middle English. At the same time
William Langland, author of Piers Plowman, and
John Gower were also writing in English. In the fifteenth century,
Thomas Malory (author of Le Morte D'Arthur),
John Lydgate, and
Thomas Hoccleve were notable figures.[47]
Other cultural historians have countered that, regardless of whether the name "renaissance" is apt, there was undeniably an artistic flowering in England under the
Tudor monarchs.[48]
Major English Renaissance authors
Major literary figures in the English Renaissance include:
^Klein, Jürgen (2012),
"Francis Bacon", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University,
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^Wernham, R.B (1994). The Return of the Armadas: The Last Years of the Elizabethan Wars Against Spain 1595–1603. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 333–334.
ISBN978-0-19-820443-5.
^Scott, William.
"East India Company, 1817–1827". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Senate House Library Archives, University of London.
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^Airs, Malcolm, The Buildings of Britain, A Guide and Gazetteer, Tudor and Jacobean, especially chapters 1, 3 and 8, 1982, Barrie & Jenkins (London),
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^Theresa Coletti (2007). "The Chester Cycle in Sixteenth-Century Religious Culture". Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 37 (3): 531–547.
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10.1215/10829636-2007-012.