Elizabethan_Prose

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH PROSE IN THE ELIZABETHAN AGE The Elizabethan age was the most creative age in the history of English literature. The age is called The Golden Age of English poetry in remembrance of such great sonneteers and song writers as Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Constable and others. The age is also called the Golden Age of English drama; for this age was raised to the height of glory by such playwrights as Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare, Kyd and others. This age should also be regarded as a Golden Age of English prose, for in this age English prose was set on the track of glory by such great prose writers as Lyly, Greene, Lodge, Nashe, Deloney and Dekker with Sir Philip Sidney on the forefront. We should note that the age reaped the full harvest of the Renaissance. The Renaissance spirit of humanism, liberalism and romanticism found full play in the growth and development of English prose in the Elizabethan Age. We should note that at the outset, the Elizabethan prose turned to translation of foreign books, especially the Italian Novella or Short romantic stories. The Elizabethan in general had developed a natural craze for reading stories. Caxton’s printing press could bring books of stories to the doorsteps of the readers. Indeed there was a great demand for books of various disciplines among the enlightened Elizabethans. For want of native material books of continental literature were translated, the Palace of Pleasure, written by William Painter in 1566 was a great book. But it contained foreign tales. Tragical Discourses by Geoffrey Fenton was published in 1567. This book was also a collection of foreign tales. Petite Palace by George Pettie, published in 1576 was a collection of legendary tales. However this book was the only book which was not a translation, but an original writing. The most interesting of the early Elizabethan prose friction was The Adventures of Master FJ by George Gascoigne. It was published in 1573. Gascoigne was the first original novelist skilled in the art of characterization and art of description. The above prose writers of the Elizabethan age should be regarded as the pathfinders. Following in their footprints there came these young University Wits to whom the Elizabethan prose in particular is indebted. Of the original prose writers of the Elizabethan age, John Lyly was the most famous; he was born in 1554 and died in 1606. In 1578 he published his curious book, Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit. He also wrote another fiction entitled Euphues and his England ( the second part to Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit) which appeared in 1580. The publication of these two titles created a sensation in the country circles. Although the books contained love stories with thin plots, they were intended to be read as books of conduct for aristocratic youths. The moral of the book tells us that love making is unethical. Through these two books Lyly introduced an inimitable style. His books are full of epistles dealing with Platonic love. Slight is the subject of those books, but Lyly became important by the style introduced by him. It is undoubtedly an unique style. The style is known as Euphuism. The beauty of the style lies in the perfect use of balanced phrases, intricate alliteration, classical allusion, and ornate epithets. In our modern age this style is censored as an affected style. However affected it is, Lyly’s style breathed life and force into the existing prose. We should remember Lyly with gratitude for his contribution of structural integrity to English prose. We should remember Sir Philip Sidney for his contributions to the Elizabethan prose. He was born in 1554 and died in 1586. Though he died an untimely death he could contribute a lot, to both Elizabethan poetry and Elizabethan prose. He was famous for his masterpiece the pastoral romance, Arcadia which was published posthumously in 1590. Arcadia was modeled on the Spanish pastoral Romance. This prose work should be regarded as the first pastoral romance in English. As Sidney was a poet he could catch the idyllic beauty of the Welton Woods. Sidney’s Arcadia can not be called a true prose. It may be better be called a piece of poetry in the form of prose. However, it could exert great influence upon the drama of the age. Sidney’s Welton Woods was the model for Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden, Bohemia and the Island of Prospero. We should also recall the contributions of Robert Greene,(Lyly disciple and successor) to the development of Elizabethan prose. He was born in 1558 and died in 1592. Greene may be regarded as a literary chameleon. He was an expert imitator of the styles of his predecessors. But as he was a talented writer, his imitation also sometimes became endowed with some added charm. He is of those who imitated the prettinesses and artifices of euphuism. In imitation of Lyly, Greene wrote the following short novels --- Mamillia(pub 1583), was intended to warn the young men against the seemingly pure love which might seduce them to lust.; The Mirror of Modesty; The Card of Fancy. Though an imitator, Greene should ever be remembered for his most popular romance Pandosto, published in 1588. This romance provided Shakespeare with the plot of The Winter’s Tale. Pandosto is marked by better narratives, shorter soliloquies and lesser Euphuism than other books. He also wrote Arbasto Greene modeled his Menaphon( pub in 1589) on Sidney’s Arcadia. We should note that perhaps the best of Greene’s Euphuistic romance is To His Love published in 1589. Though Greene is known as an imitator, his writings are not devoid of the sparks of his originality. He contributed in his own way to the development of Elizabethan prose. Thomas Lodge was born in 1558 and died in 1625, he became famous for his euphuistic romance Rosalinde published in 1590. This romance was the source of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Although Lodge imitated Greene’s style of romantic tale, he surpassed his master by introducing masculine material borrowed from Chaucer. Thomas Dekker( he wrote social studies and pictures of London life) was born in 1570. He was famous for his realistic portrayal of contemporary life. Dekker should be regarded as the first realistic in the romantic age. Dekker was inspired by Greene’s social consciousness and realistic outlook. Dekker realistic prose work include Gull’s Horn Book(1609) gives a lively picture of varieties of fools and rogue in London with an irony that is humorous rather than biting; Bellman of London; Lantern and Candlelight; The Seven Deadly Sins of London; News from Hell brought by the Devil’s Carrier, all published between 1606 and 1608. We should note that Dekker’s characters are all idealized vagabonds. Thomas Nash born in 1567 was famous for his travel romance. He should be regarded as the first writer of what is called travelogue for his famous book The Unfortunate Traveler or The Life of Jack Wilton. The story relates the life of Jack Wilton, a page in the reign of Henry VIII who becomes an adventurer. Thomas Deloney, born in 1543 is remembered for his famous prose work Gentle Craft (containing stories dedicated to shoemakers), Jack of Newbery( which celebrates a wealthy weaver) and Thomas of Reading( which honours the clothiers). These books tell the stories of weavers and shoemakers of his time. Jack of Newbery deals with the weavers: the hero is a heroic weaver who rises to become a famous and wealthy clothier (he marries his master’s widow and prospers marvelously) employing large number of people. The Gentle Craft deals with the shoemakers, and contains the tale which Dekker used as the plot of his Shoemakers’ Holiday. Deloney should ever be remembered for his sympathy and fellow feelings with the poor craftsmen of his time. He was the first to show that even those poor folks could have some stories of their lives. We have so far given an account of the fiction and prose of Elizabethan age. As the age was intellectually very sound, it inspired a number of scholars to write non-fictional prose, Raphael Holinshed wrote his famous Chronicles whose first edition appeared in 1577 and the enlarged edition in 1587, is a compilation of English, Scottish, and Irish history deriving from a variety of earlier sources( including Hall, and Sir Thomas More’s Richard III). Thomas North published his scholarly translation of Plutarch’s Lives, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans(1579) .Both the books where the source of Shakespeare’s history plays. In this age Richard Hakluyt published his Principal Navigations, Voyages, (Traffiques) and Discoveries of the English Nation( it appeared in 3 volumes between 1598 and 1600). The first volume tells of voyages to the north; the second to India and the East; the third, which is larger than the other two, to the New World. There was another great scholar who contributed a great deal to the enrichment of English prose. He was Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He was the first to introduce in English the literary genre, known as the Essay. This essay was innovated by the French philosopher Montaigne. Bacon was both a scholar and a creative genius. It may be said that he took the name Assay from Montaigne; but the style is his own. Bacon was the first to introduce the intellectual, impersonal, reflective essay in a style which is inimitable. Brevity is the soul of Bacon’s essay. The words chosen by him are crisp and pithy. His sentences though small, speak volumes. It may be said that the Elizabethan intellectual prose finds its culmination in Bacon.