lecture 3---the english renaissance& shakespeare

Lecture Three,The English Renaissance & Shakespeare,The Renaissance,The Renaissance: an intellectual movement sprang firstly in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. Two features are striking of this movement: One is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature; The other is the keen interest in the activities of humanity. Key-note: Humanism.,The English Renaissance,The English Renaissance stretched from later 15th century to early 17th century. From the first half of the 16th century, the English Renaissance began to develop into a flowering of literature. The highest glory of the English Renaissance is drama.,Drama,The form of composition designed for performance in the theater, in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated action and utter the written dialogue. (The common alternative name for a dramatic composition is a play.),William Shakespeare (1564-1616),William Shakespeare (1554-1616) playwright, poet,The Birthplace of Shakespeare,Stratford-on-Avon,Shakespeares Literary Works,His literary works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long poems. The Great Tragedies: “Hamlet”, “Othello”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth” The Great Comedies: “A Summer Nights Dream”,“The Merchant of Venice”, “As You Like It”, “Twelfth Night”,Periods of Shakespeares Dramatic Composition,Shakespeares career as a dramatist may divide into four major phases.,The First Period(1590-1594) This period is the period of his apprenticeship in play-writing. Works: “Henry VI”, “The Comedy of Errors”, “Loves Labors Lost”, “Romeo and Juliet”, etc.,The Second Period (1595-1600) This period is his mature period, mainly a period of “great comedies” and mature historical plays. It includes 6 comedies, 5 historical plays and 1 Roman tragedy. His sonnets are also thought to be written in this period.,The Third Period (1601-1607) The third period of Shakespeares dramatic career is mainly the period of “great tragedies” and “dark comedies”. It includes 5 tragedies, 3 comedies and 2 Roman tragedies. Major works written in this period:“Hamlet”, “Othello”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”, “Antony and Cleopatra”.,The Fourth Period (1608-1612) The fourth period of Shakespeares work is the period of romantic drama. It includes 4 romances or “reconciliation plays”.,Shakespeares Literary Position,Shakespeare and the Authorized Version of the English Bible are the two greatest treasuries of the English language. Shakespeare has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers in world literature.,“Hamlet”,“Hamlet” is considered the summit of Shakespeares art. The story comes from an old Danish legend. Its written in the form of blank verse.,The Character of Hamlet,Hamlet is a humanist, a man who is free from medieval prejudices and superstitions. He has an unbounded love for the world instead of the heaven.,Starting from his humanist love of man, he returned to those around him with the same eagerness. He loves good and hates evil. A king and a beggar are all one to him.,His intellectual genius is outstanding. He is a close observer of men and manners. He easily sees through people. His image reflects the versatility of the men of the Renaissance.,The Melancholy of Hamlet,The key-note of Hamlets character is melancholy. But his melancholy is not the negative kind.,Reasons : 1)His mental world has gone through the shock of a personal wrong to an awakening of his great responsibility in reforming the world as a whole. But to realize his ideal in his time was beyond him. This is the cause of Hamlets profound melancholy.,2)He has the opportunity of killing the king, yet he refuses to do so. Because when the king is praying, if he kills him, he will send him to the heaven. More importantly, the villain has become the king, if he is killed abruptly, it will cause panic to the people and danger to the state.,Sonnet（商籁体/十四行诗）,Sonnet is an exact form of poetry in 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter with considerable variations in rhyme scheme. The basic sonnet forms include the Italian sonnet (the Petrachan sonnet), the English sonnet (the Shakespearian sonnet), and the Spenserian sonnet. The English sonnet rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.,*The sonnet was born in Sicily in the first half of the thirteenth century. It was introduced into English language by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard.,Sonnet 18,Questions: Who does “thee” refer to? Whats the theme of this poem?,十四行诗之18,Shall I compare thee to a summers day? 我该把你比作夏日吗？ Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 你比夏天更可爱更温婉:,Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 狂风会把五月的娇蕊吹落, And summers lease hath all too short a date: 夏天出租的期限又太短暂:,Rhyme: a b a b,Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 有时天上的眼睛照得太热, And often is his gold complexion dimmed, 他金色的面容常常变阴暗,And every fair* from fair* sometime declines, 一切事物总不免凋敝, By chance, or natures changing course untrimmed: 被机缘和自然的代谢摧残:,Rhyme : c d c d,But