Academic Review - The Elizabethan Renaissance
February/13/2017 01:37 PM Filed: Academic Reviews
Author: A. L. Rowse
(Ivan R. Dee)
The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Cultural Achievement
A. L. Rowse divides his study of Elizabethan achievements into nine essays, each an excellent overview of major accomplishments and prominent figures. Published in 2000 by Ivan R. Dee, this text is a valuable history and humanities reference.
The Elizabethan period is characterized by the problems and social upheavals that occurred as a result of the Reformation. Rowse condemns the destruction of property and art during the extremism of the iconoclastic movement.
“The Drama as Social Expression” discusses playwrights and events that surrounded their careers, such as building theaters and outbreak of the plague. Rowse not only analyzes the lives of dramatists, he puts the popularity of their plays in correct context and provides a unified perspective of history. He emphasizes society’s naturalness and the Elizabethan tendency not to repress emotion, attributing the expansion of drama to the growth of London.
Rowse describes Elizabethan acting as declamatory, gestural, and stylized. “The actor’s delivery was that of the orator, addressed to the audience even more than to the stage.”
His background on John Lyly is essential for those interested in Court society, a playwright whose career ended in the 1590s when the boys’ companies lost favor. Shakespeare learned from Lyly’s dialogue. Rowse praises Shakespeare for his ability to write anything and appeal to the general population. The transition from drama to literature occurred in 1616.
In “Language, Literature and Society” Rowse marks a new beginning with writers Sidney and Spenser in the 1580s. He discusses Shakespeare’s “bawdy” language and defines Marlowe’s contribution as an ability to “marry splendid verse to the stage.”
Lyly is often credited as the first English novelist. Our use of the word “euphemism” originates with this writer. Rowse describes George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Donne as geniuses who reacted against the “dominant Elizabethan” in poetry. Chapman he calls an intellectual with a hatred for the common man. Jonson he labels unromantic and satirical. Donne, he says, was a persecuted Catholic.
England led Europe in keyboard music, establishing the basis for Western technique. Rowse elaborates on many contributions in “Words and Music,” an essay that provides a good overview, along with details a musician might appreciate. Musical developments became coordinated with poetry. Rowse remarks, “One of the significant features of Renaissance music all over Europe was its impregnation by the music of the people in song and dance.”
The madrigal, though originating in Italy, was popular in England. The ballad was written over and over with different words. Art songs were more sophisticated and lyrics did not change. Lute songs and virginals for the keyboard became popular. Instrumental music was created during the Renaissance, and chamber music in the home resounded.
In “Architecture and Sculpture” Rowse discusses how an “insular society” felt the impact of the Renaissance. He describes English work as gauche experimentation. He believes accomplishments were integrated with foreign inspiration. Architecture saw its peak in the 1580s. It no longer exhibited obvious classical influences. The most significant book on architecture was published by Sir Henry Wotton in 1624.
“Painting” is a short chapter. “One cannot say that the English reached any high accomplishment in this field, though there was an enormous amount of it, for the Elizabethans disliked blank spaces,” Rowse writes.
In “Domestic Arts” he explores applied arts such as embroidery, tapestry weaving, and furniture. Embroideries were used in costume and furnishing. Books had embroidered bindings. Even carpets with linen embroidery on canvas were popular. Gentry demanded heraldic panels on cushion covers. Costumes were a reflection of class and rank. Rowse describes Elizabethan furniture as “sparse and somewhat sombre.” People left oak pieces in their natural state.
“Science and Society” provides an overview of notable scientists and achievements. Rowse asserts that wise men led the blind in a time when most remained ignorant. Class differences prevented certain men, and particularly women, from pursuing education. Structured society frowned on disturbing accepted traditions that benefited a small percentage of the population while the majority suffered.
Improvement in the quality of maps and oceanic navigation changed the world. English mariners learned from the Portuguese and the Spanish, translating their textbooks. Rowse classifies Thomas Hariot as the most original scientific intellect among the Elizabethans. Hariot studied cartography and in 1585-1586 accompanied Raleigh to the first American settlement in Roanoke colony.
Dr. William Gilbert, a leading London physician, laid the foundations of electrical science and researched gravitation. Rowse disputes the common opinion of Bacon, claiming this scientist opposed simple induction and preferred the method of elimination.
“Nature and Medicine” discusses naturalists, doctors, and diseases. England was behind Italy, France, and Germany in medical science and city sanitation. Unsanitary practices, rats, and exposure to soldiers returning from the Netherlands in 1563 and 1603 led to the two heaviest epidemics of the plague. The last major outbreak was in 1665. Better hygiene and sanitary methods may have played a part. Evidence of severe psychological and physical incapacitation can be seen in literature. Treatment of gunshot wounds increased in importance, while psychiatry emerged as a new profession.
One of Rowse’s most informative chapters is “Mind and Spirit.” He examines theologians and philosophers, particularly those who advanced the Reformation. “Observe that, in the realm of religion and theology, the sixteenth century spent most of its mental energy on dispute,” Rowse states.
He points out that playwright Christopher Marlowe had been labeled an atheist, when in reality the writer had an “impersonal, cosmic conception of deity.” Anyone not an orthodox was considered an unbeliever. Rowse asserts the conflict between Reformation and Counter-Reformation set back intellectual progress rather than advancing it, and “tolerance came only with the relaxation of belief.” He sees Puritanism as an obstruction. At the root of the dispute may have been the Calvinist doctrine of predestination.
Rowse believes the Church of England is an idiosyncratic combination of Catholic and Protestant. His thesis points toward the Reformation as the cause of problems, whereas other historians see the Reformation as an attempt to solve them.