The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe in which there was a Renaissance dances belong to the broad group of Historical dances While we know that people danced in Europe long before the Renaissance, the first Renaissance Literature refers to the period in European literature, which began in Italy during the 15th century and spread around Europe through Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600 Renaissance painting bridges the period of European art history between the art of the Middle Ages and Baroque art. Renaissance philosophy was the period of the History of philosophy in Europe that falls roughly between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment During the Renaissance, the rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the invention of Printing Renaissance technology is the set of European artifacts and customs spanning roughly the 14th through the 16th century Early Modern warfare is associated with the start of the widespread use of Gunpowder and the development of suitable weapons to use the explosive French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 14th The Renaissance in the Low Countries is the cultural period that roughly corresponds to the 16th century in the Low Countries. The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in Northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. The Renaissance in Poland (Odrodzenie literally 'Rebirth' lasted from the late 15th century to the late 16th century and is widely considered to be the Golden Age of Polish culture This article is about the Spanish Renaissance of the 15th-16th centuries A cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time or at least with the heyday England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest This era in English cultural history is sometimes referred to as "the age of Shakespeare" or "the Elizabethan era," taking the name of the English Renaissance's most famous author and most important monarch, respectively; however it is worth remembering that these names are rather misleading: Shakespeare was not an especially famous writer in his own time, and the English Renaissance covers a period both before and after Elizabeth's reign. William Shakespeare ( baptised Romance and reality The Victorian era and the early twentieth century idealised the Elizabethan era

Poets such as Edmund Spenser and John Milton produced works that demonstrated an increased interest in understanding English Christian beliefs, such as the allegorical representation of the Tudor Dynasty in The Faerie Queen and the retelling of mankind’s fall from paradise in Paradise Lost; playwrights, such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, composed theatrical representations of the English take on life, death, and history. Edmund Spenser (c 1552 &ndash 13 January, 1599) was an important English Poet and Poet Laureate best known for The John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was an English royal Dynasty that lasted 118 years from 1485 to 1603 a period known as the Tudor period The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser, published first in three books in 1590 and later in six books in 1596 Paradise Lost is an Epic poem in Blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. William Shakespeare ( baptised Nearing the end of the Tudor Dynasty, philosophers like Sir Thomas More and Sir Francis Bacon published their own ideas about humanity and the aspects of a perfect society, pushing the limits of metacognition at that time. Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535 from 1935 Saint Thomas More, was an English Lawyer, author and statesman who in his lifetime gained Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban KC QC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626 was an English Philosopher, Statesman, and author Metacognition is the Knowledge (ie awareness of one's Cognitive processes and the efficient use of this Self-awareness to self-regulate these cognitive England came closer to reaching modern science with the Baconian Method, a forerunner of the Scientific Method. The Baconian method is the investigative method developed by Francis Bacon. Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena

Slow transition and mixture

The steadfast English mind clung to the old order of things, and relinquished with reluctance the last relics of a style that had been for centuries a part of its life. If it must have the egg and dart, it would keep the Tudor flower too. Thus all the Renaissance that came into England, after the bloody Wars of the Roses made it possible to think of art and luxury, paid toll to the Gothic on the way, and the result was a singular miscellany, for its Gothic had now forgotten, and its Renaissance had never known why it had existed. The Wars of the Roses (1455–1485 were a series of dynastic Civil wars fought in England between supporters of the Houses of Lancaster and York It is rather the talent with which the medley of material was handled, the broad masses, yet curious elaboration, and the scale of magnificence, that give the style its charm rather than anything in its original and bastard composition. ^[1]

Something of this same charm is to be found in most of the literature of the era, in accordance with that subtle relationship existing between the literature and the art of any period. It is in the lawless mixture of Gothic and Grecian characterizing the Elizabethan that Shakespeare peoples his A Midsummer Night's Dream with Gothic fairies reveling in the Athenian forest, and poet Edmund Spenser fills his pages with a pageantry of medieval monsters and classic masks. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, suggested by " The Knight's Tale " from Edmund Spenser (c 1552 &ndash 13 January, 1599) was an important English Poet and Poet Laureate best known for The Shakespeare is a peculiar product of the Renaissance. The machinery of The Tempest and the setting of The Merchant of Venice are direct results of its spirit. The Tempest is a comedy written by William Shakespeare. It is generally dated to 1610-11 and accepted as the last play written solely by him although The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598 ^[1]

Comparison of the English and Italian Renaissances

The English Renaissance differs from the Italian Renaissance in several ways. The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 14th First, the dominant art forms of the English Renaissance were literature and music, and the Visual arts were much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily Visual in nature such as Painting, Photography The English period began far later than the Italian, which is usually considered to begin with Dante, Petrarch and Giotto in the early 1300s, and was moving into Mannerism and the Baroque by the 1550s or earlier. Francesco Petrarca ( July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374) known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar Mannerism is a period of European art which emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. In contrast, the English Renaissance can only be said to begin, shakily, in the 1520s, and continued until perhaps 1620.

The Italian and English Renaissances were similar in sharing a specific musical aesthetic. Traditionally the aesthetics of music or musical aesthetics concentrated on the quality and study of the beauty and enjoyment ( Plaisir and In the late 16th century Italy was the musical center of Europe, and one of the principal forms which emerged from that singular explosion of musical creativity was the madrigal. A madrigal is a type of Secular vocal music composition written during the Renaissance and early Baroque eras In 1588, Nicholas Yonge published in England the Musica transalpina—a collection of Italian madrigals "Englished"—an event which touched off a vogue of madrigal in England which was almost unmatched in the Renaissance in being an instantaneous adoption of an idea, from another country, adapted to local aesthetics. Nicholas Yonge (c 1560 &ndash buried October 23, 1619) was an English singer and publisher (In a delicious irony of history, a military invasion from a Catholic country—Spain—failed in that year, but a cultural invasion, from Italy, succeeded). English poetry was exactly at the right stage of development for this transplantation to occur, since forms such as the sonnet were uniquely adapted to setting as madrigals (indeed, the sonnet was already well-developed in Italy). The sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in Lyric poetry from Europe. Composers such as Thomas Morley, the only contemporary composer to set Shakespeare, and whose work survives, published collections of their own, roughly in the Italian manner but yet with a unique Englishness; many of the compositions of the English Madrigal School remain in the standard repertory in the 21st century. Thomas Morley (1557 or 1558 &ndash October 1602 was an English Composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance, and the The English Madrigal School was the brief but intense flowering of the musical madrigal in England mostly from 1588 to 1627, along with the composers who

The colossal polychoral productions of the Venetian School had been anticipated in the works of Thomas Tallis, and the Palestrina style from the Roman School had already been absorbed prior to the publication of Musical transalpina, in the music of masters such as William Byrd. This article is about the musical term See Antiphon (person the orator of ancient Greece In music history the Venetian School is a term used to describe the Composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes Thomas Tallis (c 1505 &ndash 23 November 1585) was an English Composer. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 - 2 February 1594 was an Italian Composer of the Renaissance. The Roman school is the education system of the Ancient Rome. William Byrd (c 1540 &ndash 4 July 1623 was an English Composer of the Renaissance.

While the Classical revival led to a flourishing of Italian Renaissance architecture, architecture in Britain took a more eclectic approach. Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and Elizabethan architecture retained many features of the Gothic, even while the occasional building such as the tomb in the Henry VII Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey, or the French-influenced architecture of Scotland showed interest in the new style. Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Henry VII Lady Chapel, now more often known just as the Henry VII Chapel is a large Lady chapel at the far eastern end of Westminster Abbey built The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a large mainly Gothic church

Criticisms of the idea of the English Renaissance

The notion of calling this period "The Renaissance" is a modern invention, having been popularized by the historian Jacob Burckhardt in the nineteenth century. Jacob Christoph Burckhardt ( May 25, 1818, Basel, Switzerland &ndash August 8, 1897, Basel was a Swiss The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The idea of the Renaissance has come under increased criticism by many cultural historians, and some have contended that the "English Renaissance" has no real tie with the artistic achievements and aims of the northern Italian artists (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello) who are closely identified with the Renaissance. The term cultural history (from the German term) refers both to an Academic discipline and to its subject matter Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all Donatello ( Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi; c 1386 &ndash December 13, 1466) was a famous early Renaissance Italian Indeed, England had already experienced a flourishing of literature over 200 years before the time of Shakespeare when Geoffrey Chaucer was working. Geoffrey Chaucer (c 1343 – 25 October 1400? was an English author poet Philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and Diplomat. Chaucer's popularizing of English as a medium of literary composition rather than Latin was only 50 years after Dante had started using Italian for serious poetry. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. At the same time William Langland, author of Piers Plowman, and John Gower were also writing in English. William Langland (ca 1332 - ca 1386 is the conjectured Author of the 14th-century English Dream-vision Piers Plowman. Piers Plowman (written ca 1360 &ndash 1399) or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman ( William's Vision of Piers Plowman) is the title John Gower (c 1330 – October 1408 was an English Poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. The Hundred Years' War and the subsequent civil war in England known as the Wars of the Roses probably hampered artistic endeavor until the relatively peaceful and stable reign of Elizabeth I allowed drama in particular to develop. The Hundred Years' War (Guerre de Cent Ans was a prolonged conflict lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne vacant with the extinction of the senior The Wars of the Roses (1455–1485 were a series of dynastic Civil wars fought in England between supporters of the Houses of Lancaster and York ^[1] Even during these war years, though, Thomas Malory, author of Le Morte D'Arthur, was a notable figure. Sir Thomas Malory (c 1405 – 14 March 1471 was an English writer the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. Le Morte d'Arthur (spelled Le Morte Darthur in the first printing and also in some modern editions Middle French for la mort d'Arthur For this reason, scholars find the singularity of the period called the English Renaissance questionable; C. S. Lewis, a professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature at Oxford and Cambridge, famously remarked to a colleague that he had "discovered" that there was no English Renaissance, and that if there had been one, it had "no effect whatsoever"

Historians have also begun to consider the word "Renaissance" as an unnecessarily loaded word that implies an unambiguously positive "rebirth" from the supposedly more primitive Middle Ages. Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963 Medieval literature is a broad subject encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe beyond and during the Middle Ages (encompassing the one thousand The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the Some historians have asked the question "a renaissance for whom?," pointing out, for example, that the status of women in society arguably declined during the Renaissance. Many historians and cultural historians now prefer to use the term "early modern" for this period, a neutral term that highlights the period as a transitional one that led to the modern world, but does not have any positive or negative connotations. The early modern period is a term used by historians to refer to the period in Western '''Europe''' and its first colonies which spans the three centuries between

Other cultural historians have countered that, regardless of whether the name "renaissance" is apt, there was undeniably an artistic flowering in England under the Tudor monarchs, culminating in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was an English royal Dynasty that lasted 118 years from 1485 to 1603 a period known as the Tudor period

Major English Renaissance figures

William Shakespeare, chief figure of the English Renaissance, as portrayed in the Chandos portrait (artist and authenticity not confirmed). William Shakespeare ( baptised The "Chandos" portrait is one of the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare ( 1564 &ndash 1616)

The major literary figures in the English Renaissance include:

• Francis Bacon
• Thomas Dekker
• John Donne
• John Fletcher
• John Ford
• Ben Jonson
• Thomas Kyd
• Christopher Marlowe
• Phillip Massinger
• Thomas Middleton
• John Milton
• Sir Thomas More
• Thomas Nashe
• William Rowley
• William Shakespeare
• James Shirley
• Sir Philip Sidney
• Edmund Spenser
• John Webster
• Sir Thomas Wyatt

Thomas Tallis, Thomas Morley, and William Byrd were the most notable English musicians of the time, and are often seen as being a part of the same artistic movement that inspired the above authors. Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban KC QC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626 was an English Philosopher, Statesman, and author Thomas Dekker is the name of Thomas Dekker (writer (1572&ndash1632 Elizabethan poet and dramatist Thomas Dekker (actor (born 1987 John Donne (pronounced like done, dʌn 1572 – 31 March 1631 was a Jacobean poet preacher and a major representative of the Metaphysical poets John Fletcher may refer to Sir John Aubrey-Fletcher 7th Baronet, 7th Baronet (1912-1992 John Robert Aubrey-Fletcher, heir-apparent (born John Ford ( baptised April 17, 1586 &ndash c 1640? was an English Jacobean and Caroline playwright and poet born in Ilsington Benjamin Jonson ( c 11 June 1572 &ndash 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance Dramatist Thomas Kyd ( 3 November 1558 – 16 July 1594) was an English Dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy Philip Massinger (1583 &ndash March 17, 1640) was an English Dramatist. Thomas Middleton (1580 &ndash 1627 was an English Jacobean playwright and Poet. John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535 from 1935 Saint Thomas More, was an English Lawyer, author and statesman who in his lifetime gained William Rowley was an English Jacobean Dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers William Shakespeare ( baptised James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 &ndash October 1666 was an English Dramatist. Sir Philip Sidney ( November 30, 1554 &ndash October 17, 1586) became one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures Edmund Spenser (c 1552 &ndash 13 January, 1599) was an important English Poet and Poet Laureate best known for The John Webster (c 1580 &ndash c 1634 was an English Jacobean Dramatist, and a late contemporary of William Shakespeare. Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 &ndash October 11, 1542) was a 16th century English lyrical Poet. Thomas Tallis (c 1505 &ndash 23 November 1585) was an English Composer. Thomas Morley (1557 or 1558 &ndash October 1602 was an English Composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance, and the William Byrd (c 1540 &ndash 4 July 1623 was an English Composer of the Renaissance. Elizabeth herself, a product of Renaissance humanism trained by Roger Ascham, wrote occasional poems such as On Monsieur’s Departure at critical moments of her life. Renaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century Roger Ascham (c 1515 - 23 December 1568) English scholar and didactic writer famous for his prose style his promotion of the vernacular On Monsieur’s Departure is an Elizabethan poem by Elizabeth I of England herself

References

See also