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CHAPTER V

THE RENAISSANCE

I. ENGLAND IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

The century following the death of Chaucer was for England a time of political and social disturbance. The deposition of Richard II. in 1399 left the succession to the throne open to dispute among the other descendants of Edward III. Henry IV., who took the throne from Richard, was a strong ruler; and his son Henry V. was a wonderful soldier who won the famous victory over the French at Agincourt (1415) and captured Paris, where he was crowned King of France. His early death left the throne to his baby son, Henry VI., who grew up to be one of the weakest of English kings. His title to the throne was assailed by a grandson of Edward III., Richard, Duke of York, and thus began the long civil war known as the War of the Roses, between the supporters of the two rival families of Lancaster and York. Not until 1485, when the last of the York kings, Richard III. (who had gained the throne by the murder of his two little nephews), was defeated at Bosworth by Henry Tudor, and the conqueror took the throne as Henry VII., was England finally at peace.

During the weak rule of Henry VI., when England was steadily being defeated by the French, and during the disturbed reigns which followed, the wealth which the country had gained under the Edwards was wasted. The ruin of many of the great feudal families by the civil war deprived. literature of their support and patronage. The most interesting literary products of this period are to be found in the narrative songs or ballads composed and sung for the common people, and in the early popular religious dramas. Among the commons, also, the religious revival which Wyclif

had begun, continued, though the Lollards, as his followers were called, were persecuted by successive sovereigns of both houses. This popular revival prepared the way for the English Reformation, which we shall treat of shortly. At the same time the intellectual movement of the modern world, known as the Renaissance, was having its effect in England, though its full influence did not appear until after the country had settled down to peaceful pursuits under the strong rule of the Tudor kings.

II. THE RENAISSANCE AND THE REFORMATION

The Renaissance Defined. The Renaissance, or Rebirth, is the name given to the great awakening which marks the end of the Middle Age. Its chief cause was the partial recovery of classical literature, art, and civilization, and of the idea therein expressed of man's life as belonging to himself, and of the world as a place for his development and satisfaction. This recognition of individual freedom, as opposed to the rigid system of living and thinking prescribed by feudalism and the church, may properly be called a rebirth of the human spirit. Signs of the change are found in every direction, but they all point to the development of man's personal energy, accompanied by an intense interest in the present world. Instead of renouncing the world as a temptation, at the command of the church, men began to devote themselves to gaining mastery over it through wealth and political power, to discovering its secrets by exploration and scientific experiment, to setting forth its pleasures and adding to them by art and poetry.

The Renaissance in Italy.-Already in the time of Chaucer the spirit of the Renaissance had taken possession of Italy. The division of that country into small states multiplied the opportunities of the individual to gain personal distinction in government or in war. Its situation on the commercial highway between the East and the West was favorable to the acquisition of wealth. The disposition of the Italians, and their opportunities, led them naturally toward the enjoyment. of the world about them. Accordingly, the despots and the

merchant princes, when they had gained their power or wealth, made their courts and palaces centres of magnificent and cultivated life, the resort of artists and learned men. The fact that Italy possessed the relics of classical civilization,--buildings, statues, manuscripts,-constantly reminded its inhabitants of the ideals of the ancient Romans, and furnished examples, in all the arts, of perfection of form on which the new taste for beautiful things was nourished. The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 drove many Greeks to seek shelter in Italy. They brought with them a knowledge of the language and literature of Greece, and thenceforth more than ever the Italian cities became centres for the study of the classics, and for the spread of the classical spirit of interest in human life and in all its opportunities a spirit which gave to this revival of learning the name Humanism.

From Italy the influence of Humanism spread to other nations, which in their turn contributed elements to the new world which was being created. Spain and Portugal, by sending Columbus to America and Vasco da Gama to India, made the world a larger place for men to act in. The Germans, in the invention of printing, supplied the means by which the new knowledge of all kinds could be diffused widely among men. And Germany, as the home of Copernicus, gave birth to the astronomical discoveries which taught men that the earth, instead of being the centre of the universe, was but one element in a single solar system.

Signs of Renaissance in England. In the fourteenth century, England, the home of Chaucer and Wyclif, seemed quite prepared to take part in this forward movement of the modern world. During the fifteenth century something of the early impulse was lost; but there were abundant signs that the promise of new life was not dead. For one thing, the decline of the old noble families, which were cut off by the civil war, left an opening for "new men," as they were called, to come to the front. The passing away of feudalism made the merchant class of more importance, and tended to replace the aristocracy of birth by that of wealth. Thus in England as in Italy we have one essential condition of the Renais

sance, the wider opportunity for individual development. The example of foreign countries was not without influence. In 1476 Caxton set up the first printing press in London. Before this date one of the Oxford colleges had engaged an Italian teacher of Greek, and by the close of the century Englishmen had begun to go freely to Italy to study with the Italian humanists. They returned to make Oxford and Cambridge homes of classical scholarship, and especially of the "new learning," as Greek studies were called. This revival of learning had, in England as in Italy, a marked effect upon literature. It turned men's minds strongly toward the discussion of theories of culture and education, and the relation of the individual to society. Further, it set models for imitation, and standards of literary excellence. It is true, this tendency in time became an impediment to native English literature, and we find in poetry and the drama that writers who wished to express themselves in their own way had to struggle to free themselves from forms prescribed by the authority of the Greeks and the Latins. On the whole, however, the revival of learning furnished the youthful literature of England with a very necessary schooling and discipline.

The Court of Henry VIII.-The centre of Renaissance literature in England, however, was not the university, but the royal court, especially after the accession of Henry VIII. in 1509. The new king was ambitious to take a leading part in the affairs of Europe, and his diplomacy, by bringing England into the family of continental nations, opened many channels for foreign influence, which soon manifested itself in dress, building, art, and letters. Naturally Italy, as the most advanced country of Europe, gave most to this new civilization of England. The king, indeed, in his own character resembled strongly some of the Italian princes of the time, who mingled the enlightenment of the statesman with the suspicious cruelty of the despot. In setting aside the relics of feudalism and allowing men of low birth to rise to the highest distinction by personal service of the sovereign, he set a premium upon individual character and ability. The men who played for power in his service had need of skill

in a game where the stakes were the highest, and defeat fatal. Moreover, Henry resembled the typical sovereigns of the Renaissance in his fondness for art, learning, and magnificent display. He was himself a musician, a lover of architecture, and the patron of painters, poets, and learned men.

Sir Thomas More.—The most gracious figure of the court of Henry is that of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535). In his early days More was a student of the new learning at Oxford, and though later thrown into active life as member of Parliament and minister of the king, he never lost interest in the intellectual movement of the time. He was captivated by the dignified conception of human character which appeared in the more serious men of the Italian Renaissance; and in the accounts of his own life, notably that by his son-in-law, William Roper, we catch something of the spirit of a man who sought not only righteousness but beauty of life—who made living a fine art. In his most famous work, Utopia (1515-1516), More tried to show how this ideal might be realized for all men, under a properly organized social system. The book is written as the narrative of a sailor, returned to England after a voyage to a mysterious island, Utopia, in which the inhabitants have learned to live by reason. The commonwealth of Utopia is a form of what we should call socialism. By simplicity of life, and the equal sharing of its burdens, the Utopians have reduced the necessary labor of each person to a few hours a day. They have no personal wealth, and hence are free from the evil and crime which spring from its possession. The adjective "utopian" has been used ever since More's time to denote a state of society desirable but impossible. The book is altogether characteristic of the hopefulness and enthusiasm of the early Renaissance, when men dared to dream of the perfection of human beings in a perfect state.

The New Poetry. In the later years of Henry VIII., the refinement of court life developed the practice among the courtiers of addressing the sovereign, the ladies of the court, or each other, in verse. Among the courtly poets of the time are two who, for their reform of English metrical structure by the use of models imported from Italy, may be called

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