Chaucer to Elizabeth

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 Question:-1 Write a brief note on Ban Jonson

               The poet, essayist, and playwright Ben Jonson was born on June 11, 1572 in London, England. His father, a minister, died shortly before his birth and his mother remarried a bricklayer.

                Jonson was raised in Westminster and attended St. Martin’s parish school and Westminster School, where he came under the influence of the classical scholar William Camden. He left the Westminster school in 1589, worked briefly in his stepfather’s trade as a bricklayer, then served in the military at Flanders, before working as an actor and playwright for Philip Henslowe’s theater compan

                  In 1594, Jonson married Anne Lewis and began to work as an actor and playwright. Jonson and Lewis had at least two children, but little else is known of their marriag

                 In 1598, Jonson wrote what is considered his first great play, Every Man in His Humor. In a 1616 production, William Shakespeare acted in one of the lead roles. Shortly after the play opened, Jonson killed Gabriel Spencer in a duel and was tried for murder. He was released by pleading “benefit of clergy” (i.e., by proving he could read and write in Latin, he was allowed to face a more lenient court). He spent only a few weeks in prison, but shortly after his release he was again arrested for failing to pay an acto

               Under King James I, Jonson received royal favor and patronage. Over the next fifteen years many of his most famous satirical plays, including Volpone (1606) and The Alchemist (1610), were produced for the London stage. In 1616, he was granted a substantial pension of one hundred marks a year, and is often identified as England’s first poet laureat

             Jonson’s circle of admirers and friends, who called themselves the “Tribe of Ben,” met regularly at the Mermaid Tavern and later at the Devil’s Head. Among his followers were nobles such as the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, as well as writers, including Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling, James Howell, and Thomas Carew. Most of his well-known poems include tributes to friends, notably Shakespeare, John Donne, and Francis Baco

              Ben Jonson died in Westminster on August 8, 1637. A tremendous crowd of mourners attended his burial at Westminster Abbey. He is regarded as one of the major dramatists and poets of the seventeenth century.

Early Life and Education

               Benjamin Jonson was born around June 11, 1572, in Westminster, England, shortly after the death of his father. His father had been a minister who claimed descent from the Scottish gentry, and had been imprisoned and suffered forfeiture under Queen Mary. Two years after his birth, Jonson’s mother married a bricklayer, and Jonson went to school in St Martin’s Lane.

            Despite the fact that the family was poor, Jonson received a good education after a family friend paid for his studies at Westminster school. Following this, Jonson was going to attend the University of Cambridge, but unwillingly had to leave to work with his stepfather as a bricklayer.

Military

               Following his work as a bricklayer, Jonson travelled to the Netherlands and volunteered to soldier with the English regiments of Francis Vere (1560–1609) in Flanders. A story has been told that Jonson fought and killed an enemy soldier in single combat, and took for trophies the weapons of the vanquished soldier.

Acting and Writing Career

                On returning home to England, Jonson turned his hand to playwriting and acting. As an actor, Jonson was the protagonist “Hieronimo” (Geronimo) in the play The Spanish Tragedy (ca. 1586), by Thomas Kyd (1558–94), the first revenge tragedy in English literature.

                 In 1597, he was working playwright employed by Philip Henslowe, the leading producer for the English public theatre, where the production of Every Man in His Humour (1598) established Jonson’s reputation as a dramatist. He had a fixed position in the Admiral’s Men, performing under Henslowe’s management at The Rose.

                Despite being employed as an actor, it is reported that Jonson was not a successful actor, and his talents were much better used as a writer. None of his early tragedies survive, however. An undated comedy, The Case is Altered, may be his earliest surviving play.

              Also in 1597, Henslowe employed Jonson to finish Thomas Nashe’s satire The Isle of Dogs (now lost), but the play was suppressed for alleged seditious content and Jonson was jailed for a short time in Marshalsea Prison and charged with “Leude and mutynous behaviour”. Two of the actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaw, were also imprisoned.

              A year later, Jonson was again briefly imprisoned, this time in Newgate Prison, for killing Gabriel Spenser in a duel on 22 September 1598 in Hogsden Field. He narrowly escaped the gallows by claiming benefit of clergy (meaning he was shown leniency for proving that he was literate and educated). While he was incarcerated, Jonson converted to Catholicism.

              After being released from prison, Every Man in His Humour (1598) was produced, with William Shakespeare being among the first actors to be cast. Jonson followed this in 1599 with Every Man out of His Humour, a pedantic attempt to imitate Aristophanes.

               Shortly after this, Jonson became embroiled in a public feud with playwrights John Marston and Thomas Dekker when he was wiring for the Children of the Chapel Royal at Blackfriars Theatre in 1600. This became known as the “War of the Theatres”. Cynthia’s Revels, which satirises both Marston and Dekker, was followed by Poetaster (1601). Dekker responded with Satiromastix. Despite this, Jonson later reconciled with with Marston, and collaborated with him and George Chapman in writing Eastward Ho! (1605). However, the play’s anti-Scottish sentiment briefly landed both Jonson and Chapman in jail, and Jonson had further trouble with the English authorities because of his work.

Masques and Royal Patronage

               Following his release from prison and the English reign of James VI and I in 1603, Jonson entered a period of good fortune and productivity. He welcomed the King and James I valued his learning highly, leading to him being asked to write his popular, elegant masques. He also enjoyed the patronage of aristocrats such as Elizabeth Sidney (daughter of Sir Philip Sidney) and Lady Mary Wroth.

             Two of his most well-known masques were written during this time — The Satyr (1603) and The Masque of Blackness (1605). The Masque of Blackness was praised by Algernon Charles Swinburne as the consummate example of this now-extinct genre, which mingled speech, dancing and spectacle. Jonson’s masques were performed at Apethorpe Palace when the King was in residence. Jonson often collaborated with designer Inigo Jones on his masques.

             During this period, Jonson also produced his most successful comedies, beginning in 1606 with Volpone and following with The Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), Bartholomew Fayre (1614) and The Devil Is an Ass (1616). The Alchemist and Volpone were immediately successful. Jonson’s remaining tragedies, Sejanus His Fall (1603) and Catiline His Conspiracy (1611), were not well received due to their rigid imitation of classical tragic forms and their pedantic tone. In 1611, Jonson gave up writing plays for the public theatres for a decade, possibly because of his success with masques.

             In 1616, Jonson published his Workes, becoming the first English writer to dignify his dramas by terming them “works”. For this, he was ridiculed. However, in the same year, he received a yearly pension of 100 marks (about £60), leading some to identify him as England’s first Poet Laureate.

Scotland

             On 8 July 1618, Jonson set out from Bishopsgate in London and walked to Edinburgh, arriving in Scotland’s capital on 17 September. Here, he initially stayed with John Stuart, a cousin of King James, in Leith, and was made an honorary burgess of Edinburgh at a dinner laid on by the city on 26 September. Jonson stayed in Scotland until late January 1619.

Return To England and Decline

            On his return to England, Jonson was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Oxford University. He continued to write masques, until his productivity began to decline in the 1620s.

           He resumed writing regular plays in the 1620s, but these are not considered among his best, and a fire destroyed his library in 1623. When James I died in 1625, Jonson lost much of his influence at the court and, with the accession of King Charles I, he felt neglected by the new court. However, he was named City Chronologer in 1628 and Charles increased Jonson’s annual pension to £100 and included a tierce of wine and beer.

              Later that year, he suffered the first of several strokes which left him bedridden, but he continued to write. Jonson produced four plays during the reign of Charles I, but none of these plays were successful.

Death

              Jonson died on or around August 6, 1637 and his funeral was held the next day. Upon his death, two unfinished plays were discovered among his mass of papers and manuscripts. One was The Sad Shepherd, and, although only two acts are extant, this represents a remarkable new direction for Jonson: a move into pastoral drama.

              Jonson was buried in the north aisle of the nave in Westminster Abbey. A monument to Jonson was erected in about 1723 by the Earl of Oxford and is in the eastern aisle of Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner.

Marriage and Children

                In 1594, Jonson married Anne Lewis. They married at the church of St Magnus-the-Martyr, near London Bridge. While the marriage was unhappy, the couple had several children. St. Martin’s Church registers indicate that Mary Jonson, their eldest daughter, died in November 1593, at six months of age. Then a decade later, in 1603, Benjamin Jonson, their eldest son, died of Bubonic plague when he was seven years old. 32 years later, a second son, also named Benjamin Jonson, died in 1635. In that period, Ann Lewis and Ben Jonson lived separate lives for five years.

Works, Influence and Style

Drama

              Jonson’s work for theatres was in comedy, aside from two tragedies, Sejanus and Catiline, that largely failed to impress Renaissance audiences. All of Jonson’s plays vary slightly, with his earlier plays presenting looser plots and less-developed characters than those written later, for adult companies.

                In many of his early plays, plot is secondary to comedic events, and many of them are hypocritical and ill-tempered. Plays that were written in the middle of his career are more city comedies, usually with a London setting, themes of trickery and money, and a distinct moral ambiguity.

             

              Despite this, his plays all follow a similar style, and he wanted to write pieces that revived the classical premises of Elizabethan dramatic theory. However, he did often abstain from distant locations, noble characters, romantic plots and other staples of Elizabethan comedy, focusing instead on the satiric and realistic inheritance of new comedy and setting his plays in contemporary settings. His plays also had darker motives, such as greed and jealousy, and his characters were more recognisable.

Poetry

             Jonson has been called a pioneer in cavalier poetry and he is remembered for his revival of classical forms and themes, his subtle melodies, and his disciplined use of wit. His work is clearly influenced by his classical learning, with some of his better-known poems being close translations of Greek or Roman models and showing careful attention to form and style.

                In his poetry, Jonson accepted both rhyme and stress to mimic classical qualities, while his writing was satirical and largely in a genre that was popular among late-Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences.

Shakespeare

             Jonson’s relationship with Shakespeare has been speculated upon for many years. The two men knew each other; Shakespeare’s company produced a number of Jonson’s plays, at least two of which (Every Man in His Humour and Sejanus His Fall) Shakespeare certainly acted in. However, it is now impossible to tell how much personal communication they had and whether they were friends.

                It is thought that Jonson’s poem “To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare and What He Hath Left Us” exemplifies the contrast which Jonson perceived between himself, the disciplined and erudite classicist, scornful of ignorance and sceptical of the masses, and Shakespeare, represented in the poem as a kind of natural wonder whose genius was not subject to any rules except those of the audiences for which he wrote.

               After the English theatres were reopened on the Restoration of Charles II, Jonson’s work, along with Shakespeare’s and Fletcher’s, formed the initial core of the Restoration repertory. It was not until after 1710 that Shakespeare’s plays (ordinarily in heavily revised forms) were more frequently performed than those of his Renaissance contemporaries. Many critics since the 18th century have ranked Jonson below only Shakespeare among English Renaissance dramatists.

Historical Significance

            Jonson is and was, even in his day, influential to the writers that came after him, providing the blueprint for many Restoration comedies, as well as for literary figures in more modern times. Unfortunately, in the Romantic era, Jonson suffered the fate of being unfairly compared and contrasted to Shakespeare, and thus his statical comedies were not as popular.

             In the 20th century, Jonson’s body of work has been subject to a more varied set of analyses, broadly consistent with the interests and programmes of modern literary criticism. Studying Elizabethan themes, it can be seen how Jonson’s work was shaped by the expectations of his time.

             Jonson’s works, particularly his masques, offer significant information regarding the relations of literary production and political power, and he is seen as an author whose skills and ambition led him to a leading role both in the declining culture of patronage and in the rising culture of mass media.

Major works

            Jonson's first major play was Every Man in His Humour. It was performed by a theater group called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. William Shakespeare performed the lead role. This play is a model of what is called the "comedy of humors," in which each character's action is ruled by a whim (impulse) or affectation (artificial behavior meant to impress others). After this play Jonson wrote Every Man out of His Humour in 1599 or early 1600, followed closely by Cynthia's Revels (1601) and Poetaster (1601).

          Jonson gained fame when he wrote Volpone, or the Fox in 1606. It was loved not only by the people in London but also by the scholars at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This was a major success for Jonson. After Volpone, Jonson wrote Epicoene, or the Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614).

Question:-2-Can you defferentiate  general characteristics of  renaissance litrature with that of age of Chaucer  and age of  revival of learning??

Introduction

             The period from 1340 to 1400 in English literature is known as the Age of Chaucer. To understand Chaucer’s works well, we should keep in mind the major events of this age. The important events of this period are stated below:

 

The historical background (1350-1450):

               The age of Chaucer includes the greater part of the reign of Edward III and the long French wars associated with his name; the accession of his grandson Richard II and the revolution of 1399, the deposition of Richard and the foundation of the Lancastrian dynasty. From the literary point of view of greater importance are the social and intellectual movements of the period; the terrible plague called the Black Death, brining poverty, unrest and revolt among the peasants, and the growth of the spirit of inquiry, which was strongly critical and found expression in the teachings of Wycliff and the Lollards, and in the stern denunciations of Langland.

                Chaucer lived and wrote in a world where the half shadows of the middle Ages were only beginning to scatter before the clear dawn light of modern culture. He, first of all men in England , reacted to the stimulation and emancipating movement called the renaissance, as it stirred in the souls of men beyond the Alps and his artistic consciousness escaped from the rigid bonds, the cramping conventionalities, the narrow inhibitions of the Middle Ages. From them he emerged into the world of living actualities that he exhibits in his powerful later word. In this sense, he was far beyond his age.

Literary Features of the Age:

                The standardizing of English: With Chaucer, the egglish language has shaken down to a kind of average – to the standard of the East Midland speech, the language of the capital city and of the universities –French and English have amalgamated to form the standard English tongue, which attains to its first full expression in the works of Chaucer.

A Modern Note 

                The real modern note begins to be apparent at this period. There is a shaper spirit of criticism, a more searching interest in man’s affairs and a less childlike faith in, and a less complacent acceptance of the established order. The vogue of the romance, though it has by no means gone, is passing and in Chaucer it is derided. The freshness of the romantic ideal is being superseded by the more acute spirit of the drama which even at this early time is faintly foreshadowed. Chaucer is regarded as the first English short story teller and the first English modern poet. He attempted the mew realistic task of portraying men and women as they were and described them so that the readers could recognize them as their own acquaintances. His characters have, for this reason, become a permanent treasure of English literature. Chaucer is the first great English writer to bring the atmosphere of romantic interest about the man and woman and the daily work of one’s own world which is the aim of nearly all modern literature, another more modern feature is that the age of anonymity is passing away with Chaucer.

Prose

             The age of Chaucer begins the foundation of an English prose style. Earlier specimens of prose were mainly experimental or purely imitative. But in the prose works of Malory and Mandeville, we get both original and individual prose. The English tongue is now ripe for a prose style. The language is setting to a standard; Latin and French are losing grip as popular prose mediums and the growing desire for an English bible exercises as steady pressure in favor of a Standard English prose.

Scottish Literature

              For the first time in English literature, in the person of Barbour (1316-1395) Scotland supplies a writer worthy of note. This is only the beginning, for the tradition is handed on to the powerful groups of poets of the succeeding period.

Medieval Chivalry:

             Chaucer’s England was predominantly medieval in spirit. And the most outstanding feature of the Middle Ages was chivalry. Chaucer’s Knight is a true representative of the spirit of medieval chivalry which was a blend of love, religion, and bravery. He has been a champion of not fewer than fifteen battles in the defense of Christianity. Even the tale that he tells is, like him, imbued with the spirit of medieval chivalry-though nominally it has the ancient Greece for its setting and has for its two important characters the two Greek heroes who’are said-to have flourished in an unspecified ” period of history. Chaucer almost completely medievalizes this story to enable us to have a taste of the chivalry of his age.

                 We must, however, point out here that the spirit of true chivalry was breathing its last in the age of Chaucer. The Knight, in fact, is a representative of an order which was losing its ground. The true representative of the new order is his young son, the Squire, who has as much taste for revelry as for chivalry. He is “a lover and a lusty bachelor.” He is singing and fluting all the day and love-struck as he is, he sleeps “no more than a nightingale.” However, we justly wonder if he could have proved himself another Arcite or another Palamon. At any rate, he truly represents the marked change in the world of chivalry which was fast coming over the age of Chaucer.

A Cross-section of Society

                 The Canterbury Tales gives us a fairly authentic and equally extensive picture of the socio-political conditions prevailing in England in the age of Chaucer. Each of the thirty pilgrims hails from a different walk of life, and among themselves they build up an epitome of their age. Each of them is a representative of a section of society as well as an individual. Even though the chief events of the age are not dealt with exhaustively by Chaucer, the thirty pilgrims provide us with the taste of life in the England of Chaucer. Chaucer was not a reformer but a delineator of reality. Legouis remarks  “What he has given is a direct transcription of daily life, taken in the very act,” as it were, and in its most familiar aspects. Chaucer’s work is the most precious document for whoever wishes to evoke a picture of life as it then was….

Trade, Commerce, and Craf

                  For the first time in history the trading and artisan sections of society were coming to their own in the age of Chaucer. With the fast expansion in trade and commerce merchants had become prosperous and so had the craftsmen whose goods they traded in. We are told by Chaucer that the Haberdasher, the Carpenter, the Weaver, the Dyer, and the Tapicer were well clothed and equipped. Their weapons were not cheaply trimmed with brass, but all with silver. They were so respectable-looking tha

         " Well seined each of them a fair burge

                 To sitten in a yeldhalle, on a days"

             They were no longer despised by the nobility. The Merchant is a typical representative of his class, and the forefather of Sir Andrew Freeport, the merchant who is a member of the Spectator Club as delineated by Addison and Steele in the eighteenth century. His character-sketch as done by Chaucer exudes prosperity. He is always talking about the increase in his income and knows well how to make money in the market place. The countrymen and merchants have always made the two most common objects of humour and satire. But Chaucer lets the Merchant go without much of satire, perhaps in recognition of the importance that his class had gained in his ag

Medicine

              Chaucer’s portrait of the Doctor of Physic is fairly representative of the theory and practice of medicine in his age. The knowledge of astronomy (rather astrology) was a must for a physician as all the physical ailments were supposed to be the consequences of the peculiar configurations of stars and planets. That is why the Doctor, too, was, “grounded in astronomy.” However, ”his study was but little on the Bible” perhaps because he had not much time to spare from his professional studies. He had amassed a fortune in the year of the great plague and was keen to keep it with him

        He fcepte that he wan in pestilenc

                For gold in phisik is a cordial

                    Therefore he lovede gold in special

             Gold in the form of a colloidal solution was administered as a tonic fay physicians. However, Chaucer has a sly dig at the Doctor in his reference to his gold-loving nature

The Church

               Through the ecclesiastical characters in The Canterbury Tales Chaucer constructs a representative picture of the condition of the Church and her ministers in his age. The Church had then become a hotbed of profligacy, corruption, and rank materialism. The Monk, the Friar, the Summoner, the Pardoner, and the Prioress are all corrupt, pleasure-loving, and materialistic in outlook. They forget their primary duty of guiding and edifying the masses and shepherding them to the Promised Land. The Monk is a fat. sporting fellow averse to study and penance. The Friar is a jolly beggar who employs his tongue to carve out his living. The Prioress bothers more about modish etiquette than austerity. The Pardoner is a despicable parasite trading in letters of pardon with the sinners who could ensure a seat in heaven by paying hard cash. The Summoner is, likewise, a depraved fellow. These characters fully signify the decadence that had crept into the Church. The only exception is the “Poor Parson’ apparently a follower of Wyclif who revolted against the corruption of the Church.

The New Learning:

              Though Chaucer’s age was essentially medieval, yet some sort of a minor Renaissance was evident. The French and Italian contemporary writers influenced considerably the course of English literature and thought. Petrarch arid Boccaccio, the two Italian writers, in particular, exerted this influence. The seeds of humanistic culture of the ancient Greeks, too, can be identified in this age. The “Clerk of Oxenford” represents the “new” intellectual culture which had percolated .into fourteenth-century England long before the Renaissance. He is an austere scholar who prefers twenty books of Aristotle’s philosophy on his bed’s head to gay clothes and musical instruments.

Conclusion

              Chaucer idealized the middle-class life in medieval England, and his ideas were revolutionary for that time. His vernacular English was also revolutionary for that time. The age of Geoffrey Chaucer is a time period that was defined by literary and cultural developments. the development of the vernacular language, the emergence of masses as an important literary audience, and the rise of gothic horror all contributed to this time period which still has great interest today