Commecs Perspective

Patron Cdr (Retd) Abdul Razaq PN Convener Dr. Uzma Naveed Incharge Rohana Tariq April 2018

Topic: Elizabethan Age

Christopher Marlowe Father of English Dramatic Poetry Muhammad Muzaffar Associate Professor The Renaissance Period in English literature is also called Elizabethan Period. The reign of Queen Elizabeth I was from the year of 1558 to 1603. This period is called the golden age of English literature. During this Period the most memorable achievement in English literature was in the field of drama. A little bit before Shakespeare Elizabethan drama was dominated by the “University Wits”, a professional set of literary men. The University Wits is a phrase used to name a group of late 16th century English playwrights who were educated at the universities like Oxford and Cambridge and who became popular secular writers. Prominent members of this group were Marlowe, Greene, Lyly, Peele, Lodge and Nash. Of this little constellation, Marlowe was the central sun and all others round him revolved as minor stars.

In 1587 Marlowe’s first play Tamburlaine was produced and it took the public by storm on account of its impetuous force , its splendid command of blank verse, and its sensitiveness to beauty. In this play Marlowe dramatised the exploits of the Scythian shepherd, Tamburlaine. Tamburlaine was succeeded by Doctor Faustus, a very famous play by Marlowe in which he gave an old medieval legend a romantic setting. Doctor Faustus is the story of a scholar who sells his soul to the Devil for worldly enjoyment and unlimited power. Doctor Faustus, a well-respected German scholar, grows dissatisfied with the limits of traditional forms of knowledge—logic, medicine, Page | 1 law, and religion—and decides that he wants to learn to practice magic. His friends Valdes and Cornelius instruct him in the black arts, and he begins his new career as a magician by summoning up Mephistopheles a devil. Despite Mephistopheles’s warnings about the horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil to return to his master, Lucifer, with an offer of Faustus’s soul in exchange for twenty-four years of service from Mephistopheles.

Mephistopheles returns to Faustus with word that Lucifer has accepted Faustus’s offer. Faustus again has second thoughts, but Mephistopheles bestows rich gifts on him and gives him a book of spells to learn. Later, Mephistopheles answers all of his questions about the nature of the world, refusing to answer only when Faustus asks him who made the universe. This refusal prompts yet another bout of misgivings in Faustus, but Mephistopheles and Lucifer bring in personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins to prance about in front of Faustus, and he is impressed enough to quiet his doubts. Armed with his new powers and attended by Mephistopheles, Faustus begins to travel and uses his new power on different occasions. As the twenty-four years of his deal with Lucifer come to a close, Faustus begins to dread his impending death. He has Mephistopheles call up Helen of Troy, the famous beauty from the ancient world, and uses her presence to impress a group of scholars. An old man urges Faustus to repent, but Faustus drives him away. Faustus summons Helen again and exclaims rapturously about her beauty. But time is growing short. Faustus tells the scholars about his pact, and they are horror-stricken and resolve to pray for him. On the final night before the expiration of the twenty-four years, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs for mercy, but it is too late. At midnight, a host of devils appears and carries his soul off to hell. In the morning, the scholars find Faustus’s limbs and decide to hold a funeral for him.

The story of the play is presented in a most fascinating manner. Marlowe’s Faustus is the genuine incarnation of the Renaissance spirit. The Jew of Malta, the third tragedy of Marlowe, is not so fine as Doctor Faustus, though it has glorious opening. His last play, Edward II, is his best from the technical point of view. Though it lacks the force and rhythmic beauty of the earlier plays, it is superior to them on account of its rare skill of construction and admirable characterization.

Marlowe’s contribution to the Elizabethan drama is great .He has raised the subject matter of drama to a higher level. He has introduced heroes who are man of great strength and vitality, possessing the Renaissance characteristic of insatiable spirit of adventure. He gives life and reality to the characters, and introduces passion on the stage. He has made the blank verse supple and flexible to suit the drama, and made the work of Shakespeare in this respect easy. He has given the coherence and unity to the drama, which it was formerly lacking. He also gave beauty, dignity and poetic glow to the drama. In fact, he has done the pioneering work on which Shakespeare built the edifice. Thus he has been rightly called “The Father of English Dramatic Poetry”.

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Shakespearian Tragedy in Elizabethan Era Shaheena Mehboob Associate Professor The Elizabethan Age (1558- 1603) refers to the period of Elizabeth I’s reign and is characterized by vigorous intellectual thinking, an age of adventure and discovery, a time in which new ideas and new experiences were sought after. It was a period of peace between the English Reformation and the battles between Protestants and Catholics. The historians often showed the Elizabethan Age as ‘renaissance’ that inspired national pride through classical ideals.

The Elizabethan era was characterized by an innumerable list of wonderful writers which included Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spencer, Sir. Philip Sidney and many more. However, William Shakespeare is probably the most renowned poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan era who has contributed 37 plays and about 152 sonnets to English literature.

Drama, under Elizabeth’s reign became a unifying influence drawing people of different social classes together, since watching a play became a common experience and was not exclusively restricted to the upper class. Common people and royalty could enjoy the same performance in each other’s company, in separate seating arrangements.

Hamlet –a critical study of Shakespeare’s Tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark has remained the most perplexing as well as the most popular of William Shakespeare’s tragedies. Apart from the matchless artistry of its language, the play’s appeal rests in large measure on the character of Hamlet himself. Called upon to avenge his father’s murder, he is compelled to face the call of duty, morality and ethics that have been human concerns through the ages. In the wake of his father’s death, Hamlet can not stop pondering the meaning of life, and its eventual ending. Many questions emerge in his mind. What happens when you die? If you are murdered, then will you go to heaven? Do kings truly have a free pass to heaven? In Hamlet’s mind the idea of dying is not so bad. It is the uncertainty of the afterlife that frightens Hamlet away from suicide, even though he is obsessed with the notion.

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 heart-ache 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,

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The pangs of dispriz'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 fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn No traveller 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 pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.

The play has tantalized the readers and critics with what has become known as the ‘Hamlet mystery’ that of Hamlet’s complex behavior, most notably his indecision and his reluctance to act.

Freudian critics have located Hamlet’s motivation in the psychodynamic triad of the father-mother-son relationship. According to this view, Hamlet is disturbed and eventually deranged by his Oedipal jealousy of the uncle who married his mother too soon after his father’s murder. Other critics have taken a more conventional view of the tragedy by identifying Hamlet’s inherent tragic flaw as lack of courage or moral resolution. In this view Hamlet’s indecision is a sign of moral ambivalence that he overcomes too late. In short The tragedy of Hamlet is an agonizing confrontation between the will of a good and intelligent man and the uncongenial role - that of avenger - that fate calls upon him to play.

The role of avenger is a familiar one in Renaissance drama. In the opening description of Hamlet as bereft by the death of his father and distressed by his mother’s hasty marriage Shakespeare makes Hamlet an ideal character to assume such a role. His father, whom he deeply loved and admired, is recently deceased, and he himself seems to have been robbed of his birthright. Shakespeare points to Hamlet’s shock at Gertrude’s disrespect to the memory of his father, rather than his love for his mother, as the source of his distress. Hamlet’s suspicion is reinforced by the ghostly visitation and revelation of murder. If Hamlet had simply proceeded to act out the avenger role, the play would have lacked the moral and theological complexity that provides its special fascination. As a student of Theology, his knowledge complicates the situation. His accusation of incest is not an adolescent excess but an accurate theological description of a marriage between a widow and her dead husband’s brother. For an ordinary avenger the revelations from the ghost of a murdered father would have been more than enough, but Hamlet is aware of the unreliability of apparitions and consequently, reluctant to heed the ghost’s injunction to perform an action that seems objectively evil to him. Hamlet’s indecision is, therefore, not an indication of weakness but the result of his complex understanding of the moral dilemma with which he is faced. Page | 4

Hamlet believes that he must have greater certitude of Claudius’s guilt if he is to take action. The device of the play within a play provides greater assurance that Claudius is suffering from guilty conscience. Seeing a reaction of his father’s death and Claudius’s response stiffens Hamlet’s resolve to act, but once again he hesitates when he sees Claudius in prayer. Hamlet’s inaction in this scene is not the result of cowardice or of moral ambiguity but rather of the very thoroughness of his commitment. Having once decided on revenge, he wants to destroy his uncle body and soul. After he leaves Claudius in prayer, the irony of the scene is intensified, for Claudius reveals to the audience that he has not been praying successfully and was not in a state of grace at all.

Circumstance has forced upon the prince a role whose enormity has over-whelmed the fine emotional and intellectual balance of a sensitive, well-educated man. . Gradually he is shown regaining control and arming himself with cold determination to do what he has decided is the just thing. Even then, it is in the carnage of the concluding scenes that Hamlet finally carries out his intention. Having concluded that ”the readiness is all,” he strikes his uncle only after he has discovered Claudius’s final plan to kill him.

A lot of things happen, all in quick succession. Osric brings Hamlet an invitation to fence with Laertes and Hamlet agrees. The duel happens before the court and everything comes apart. Claudius poisons a cup of wine hoping to kill Hamlet that way. However, Queen Gertrude drinks it accidently killing herself. Laertes is using a poisoned blade. He wounds Hamlet then they scuffle and end up swapping swords and Hamlet wounds him. When Laertes asks forgiveness, pointing blame to Claudius Hamlet realizes that he’s been betrayed again. Hamlet stabs his uncle with poisoned blade. By the end of Act V Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius Laertes all are dead. Fortinbras is handed the crown of Denmark and he picks up the pieces of shattered kingdom.

Elizabethan Age Erum Izhar Lecturer To understand ‘Elizabethan Age’ of English history, first we need to understand the political and religious background which paved the way to its particular form; second we need to have insight of literary taste and temperament that had evolved and finally flourished during this age. The word ‘Elizabethan’ comes from Elizabeth I, the Queen of England and Ireland who came from the House of Tudors. She ruled England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death on 24 March 1603.She was preceded by Mary I and followed by James I.

Political background of the era needs to be understood by general readers. Tudor was a dynasty. The first monarch of this dynasty was Henry Tudor who came into power after a series of wars fought between the two houses of the dynasty known to be the House of Plantagenet, and the House of Lancaster respectively. He called himself Henry VII and married a lady, Elizabeth of York. Their first son, Arthur, died 20 weeks after his marriage and could not succeed the throne. However, the second son, Henry VIII succeeded him when the father died in 1509.

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Henry VIII became the ruler in 1509 and ruled till 1547. At his death, his nine years old boy Edward VI became the king who was born from his third wife. He could not survive for long and died at the age of 15 in the year 1553. He was succeeded by his step sister Mary I who was the daughter of Henry VIII from his first wife. She died on 17th November 1558 and was succeeded by Elizabeth I, her step sister and the daughter of Henry VIII from his second wife.

Religious background also needs to be related to the Tudors. They were passing through the phase of Reformation which was the outcome of Renaissance. ‘Renaissance began from Italy when a painter Georgio Vasari coined the term ‘rinascita’ (rebirth of art). An Italian poet and scholar Petrarch and his friend Boccacio were also great collectors of antique manuscripts while Greek scholars also brought manuscripts to Italy. In England also, there was a new hunger for knowledge in particular the old one. When these texts were read in the west with the help of translation and printing press, a new thinking emerged- Renaissance had stepped in.

Renaissance was one of the reasons of ‘Reformation’- the next phase. Other reason was corruption of Catholic Church. Reformation started from 16th century when a reaction was prevailed against medieval Roman Catholic doctrine and practices. In Italy a priest and scholar Martin Luther helped to prevail Reformation that split the church in Europe into Catholic and Protestant.

In England, Henry VIII was of Catholic mindset while his son Edward VI supported Protestant doctrine. The next ruler, Mary I was once again Catholic and for her ruthlessness and cruelty came to be called as ‘Bloody Mary’. After her death, Elizabeth I, the last monarch of the house of Tudors sought a compromise between the two.

Elizabeth could write English, Latin, and Italian. Under Grindal, a talented and skillful tutor, she also progressed in French and Greek and at the end of her life, she was also believed to speak Welsh, Cornish, Scottish and Irish. To denote literary developments during her reign, we can use the term ‘Shakespearean Age’ that also includes ‘Elizabethan Age’. The age begins with the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558 and ends with the death of James I in 1625. The slot of sixty seven years can be divided into three periods: the first 21 years we can call as ‘the preparation of Elizabethan literature’, the second 24 years as ‘the time of having its peak’ and the last 22 years as its ‘decline’. The first two eras are called Elizabethan and the last one is called Jacobean.

Edmund Spenser Sir Walter Raleigh Shakespearean Age ranks as one of the greatest by virtue of its production. However, remaining confined to Elizabethan Age only we see the literary contribution of the age. Men like Spenser, Bacon and Shakespeare grew in this period and England began to enjoy full effect of the revival of learning. Edmund Spenser, known for his ‘Shepheardes Calender’ in 1579 can be called the opening of Elizabethan literature. The man is best known for ‘Faery Queene’ into which Queen Elizabeth’s story is given and she is portrayed as ‘Gloriana’. The next great poet of the age is Philip Sidney best known for the sonnet Page | 6

‘Astrophel and Stella’ the first of the famous English sonnet sequences and ‘Arcadia’, a romance. Walter Raleigh, the man knighted by the queen in 1585 was yet another name is known for his poems like ‘What is Our Life’ and ‘The Lie’. In 1616, the man went on an expedition and on his return he was beheaded for some fake charges in the reign of King James I.

Before emerging as the greatest playwright of the Elizabethan Age, Shakespeare had been preceded by Thomas Kyd, George Peele, Thomas Lodge, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nash- a group contributing to the evolution of a drama in the particular form to be called as ‘Shakespearean’. Critics have agreed to subdivide the 24 years of Shakespeare’s active writing into four periods: the period of experimental work (1558-93), the period of great comedies and chronicle plays (1594- 1600), the period of great tragedies (1601- 1608), and the period of later comedies or dramatic romance (1608-1612). The most significant quality of his work is variety, surpassed by none. He promoted both drama and poetry, ruled the world of imagination became the most quoted writer. His vocabulary is estimated to be consisted of 15000 words against John Milton who contained half of it.

The era is also marked with the names of Thomas Campion, a composer, a writer of masques and a poet whose work ‘Rose-cheeked Laura’ is considered as classic and John Lyly best known for his book ‘Euphues’. Christopher Marlowe is also an important name of this period. His important work is contained in the form of tragedies between 1587 and 1593 –Tamburlaine the Great, Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta and Edward II. These luminaries and their contribution made the period as the most significant one in the history of English Literature.

The year 1602 brought a phase of depression for the queen who suffered a series of deaths of her friends. In March 1603, she fell sick and reflected the state of melancholy and died on 24th March 1603. Elizabeth's coffin was carried downriver at night to Whitehall, on a barge lit with torches. At her funeral on 28 April, the coffin was taken to Westminster Abbey on a hearse drawn by four horses hung with black velvet. Elizabeth was interred in Westminster Abbey, in a tomb shared with her half-sister, Mary I.

The Latin inscription on the tomb, "Regno consortes & urna, hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis", translates to "Consorts in realm and tomb, here we sleep, Elizabeth and Mary, sisters, in hope of resurrection".

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