The Elizabethan world view the chain of being

The Elizabethan world view: the chain of being

The Elizabethan world view: macrocosm and microcosm Diagram showing the sympathies between the macro and microcosm, featured in Athanasius Kircher's Mundus Subterraneus (1665)

The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre Observe degree, priority and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office and custom, in all line of order; And therefore is the glorious planet Sol In noble eminence enthroned and sphered Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, And posts, like the commandment of a king, Sans cheque to good and bad: but when the planets In evil mixture to disorder wander, What plagues and what portents! what mutiny! What raging of the sea! shaking of earth! Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shaked, Which is the ladder to all high designs, Then enterprise is sick! How could communities, Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, The primogeniture and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, But by degree, stand in authentic place? Take but degree away, untune that string, And, hark, what discord follows! Troilus and Cressida I, 3, 538 -563

CASCA: Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero, I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam, To be exalted with the threatening clouds, But never till tonight, never till now, Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. Eithere is a civil strife in d with the heaven, Or else the world too saucy with the gods Incenses them to send destruction. Julius Caesar I, 3. Calphurnia: When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. II, 2.

Menenius Agrippa There was a time when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly, thus accused it: That only like a gulf it did remain I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, And, mutually participate, did minister Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. The belly answer'd— […] 'True is it, my incorporate friends, ' quoth he, 'That I receive the general food at first, Which you do live upon; and fit it is, Because I am the store-house and the shop Of the whole body: but, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain; And, through the cranks and offices of man, The strongest nerves and small inferior veins From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live: and though that all at once, You, my good friends, '—this says the belly, mark me, — […] The senators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members; Coriolanus, I, 1.

The Elizabethan world view: theory of humours

Main trends in Elizabethan literature 1. Drama: The golden age of drama (next two chapters) 2. Prose: two developments: → Development of a style inspired from Cicero: elaborate, ornate prose. This led to ‘euphuism’ (from John Lyly’s Euphues, 1578). → The development of political and philosophical writing. Prose is used to explore political, social and philosophical problems in a style which is meant to be clear. 3. Poetry: → Pastoral poetry (imitation of Theocritus and Virgil). Cf, Sidney’s Arcadia. → Allegory: continuation of medieval trend but also imitation of classical epic poems. Cf Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. → Satire and Epic (after classical models) → First experiment (by the Earl of Surrey) with blank verse. → Adaptation of the sonnet (from Petrarch) by Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey. Original form = Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet: abba cde Shakespearean sonnet = abab cdcd efef gg

Thomas More (1478 -1535): Utopia Describes the travels of a scholar to a far-away island. Ideal commonwealth governed in a fair and reasonable way (the reverse of feudal society). No vice, no private property, no desire for gold. War is condemned and religious toleration is encouraged. The point of the book (as of later utopias) is not to give a description of a possible ideal society but to use irony, humour and satire to make the readers judge their own society and think about ways of improving it. Map of the Island of Utopia, book frontispiece, 1563

Edmund Spenser (1552 -1599): The Faerie Queene Both an epic chivalric romance and an allegory. Only six books were completed although twelve were planned. Each book tells an exploit performed by a knight. Each knight is an allegorical embodiment of the twelve cardinal virtues defined by Aristotle (Red Cross Knight = Holiness; Sir Guyon = Temperance; Britomart = chastity; Arthegall = justice). The quest for Gloriana gives the book its unity. Spirit of romance: full of dragons, enchantresses and magicians.

iii Upon a great adventure he was bond, That greatest Gloriana to him gave, That greatest Glorious Queene of Faerie lond, To winne him worship, and her grace to have, Which of all earthly things he most did crave; And ever as he rode, his hart did earne To prove his puissance in battell brave Upon his foe, and his new force to learne; Upon his foe, a Dragon horrible and stearne. Book I, Canto I Dedication to Elizabeth I on Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1596).

Sir Philip Sidney (1554 -1586) Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done; neither with so pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too much loved earth more lovely. Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden. The Defense of Poesy / An Apology for Poetry (1595). Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain, — Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain, — I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe; Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain, Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain. But words came halting forth, wanting invention's stay; Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows; And others' feet still seem'd but strangers in my way. Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes, Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite, "Fool, " said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write. " Astrophel and Stella, Sonnet 1.