Chapter 3 Renaissance II

1. Chapter 3 Renaissance II Shakespeare Other Writers

2. Contents • Explanation of sonnet • Petrarchan sonnet • Shakespearian/English sonnet • Understanding and appreciatining Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 • Simple analysis of Sonnet 18 • Shakespeare’s place and influence • Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) • Ben Jonson (1573 -1637)

3. Explanation of Sonnet • What is sonnet? A sonnet is a short song in the original meaning of the word. Later it became a poem of 14 lines, with each line consisting of 10 syllables which can be broken up into five feet (pentameter) of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (iambic) –hence iambic pentameters. It was first written by the Italian poet Petrarch. Then it was introduced to England by Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey. There are two types of sonnets: Shakespearian or Elizabethan or English sonnet and Petrarchan sonnets. What clearly distinguishes the two, however, is the rhyming schem.

4. Petrarchan Sonnet (a literary term) • In this kind of sonnet, there are two parts. The first eight lines, called an octave, present an argument with a rhyming scheme of abba abba, Or: abba cddc Or: abab cdcd; the last six lines, called a sestet, present another argument, following a rhyming scheme cde cde, or: efefef. There is no rhyming couplet.

5. Shakespearian Sonnet (a literary term) • In sonnets of this kind, the first three quatrains have a distinct rhyming scheme like abab cdcd efef, or: abba cddc effe, and ends with a coupletrhyming gg. In the three quatrains the theme is put forward and developed, and in the couplet thesonnet ends with a surprise conclusion or a shift of ideas. So Shakespeare’s sonnet is called English sonnet.

6. ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (a) (a) (a) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (b) (b) (b) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (b) (b) (a) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (a) (a) (b) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (a) (c) (c) (An octave: the ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (b) (d) (d) first argument) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (b) (d) (c) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (a) (c) (d) ↓ ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (c) (e) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (d) (f) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (e) (e) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (c) (f) (a sestet: the other ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (d) (e) argument) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (e) (f) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (a) (a) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (b) (b) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (a) (b) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (b) (a) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (c) (c) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (d) (d) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (c) (d) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (d) (c) ↓ ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (e) (e) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (f) (f) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (e) (f) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (f) (e) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (g) (g) ∨-∨-∨-∨-∨- (g) (g) Petrarchan sonnet Shakespearian sonnet

7. Introduction to Shakespeare’s sonnets • The first 17 sonnets are written to a young man, urging him to marry and have children,thereby passing down his beauty to the next generation. These are called the procreation sonnets. Most of them, however, 18-126, are addressed to a young man expressing the poet's love for him. Sonnets 127-152 are written to a “dark lady”, expressing his strong love for her. The final two sonnets, 153-154, are allegorical. The final thirty or so sonnets are written about a number of issues, such as the young man's infidelity with the poet's mistress, self-resolution to control his own lust, beleaguered criticism of the world, etc.

8. Understanding and appreciating Sonnet 18 • Analysis of content and meaning: The 1st line begins with a question: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? The second line “Thou art more lovely and more temperate” is positive as well as negative to the first line. It affirms that the author like to “compare thee to a summer’s day”, but you are “more lovely and temperate”. A summer’s day can not match your beauty. This is the negative implication.

9. This line ends with a colon that indicates that the following lines(the next four lines 3, 4, 5and 6) will tell why a summer’s day can not match “thee”. Because “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,/And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:/Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,/And is often is his gold complexion dimmed:/. Lines 7 and 8 states a forever truth: And every fair from fair sometime declines,/By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed:/

10. The main idea of this sonnet lies in the next four lines (9, 10, 11 and 12).The couplet in the end gives the reason and offers the condition to the above four lines: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”. “Eternal summer” in line 9 is a metaphor, referring to “thy eternal beauty”. The sonnet not only praises the beauty of the author’s beauty, but also the eternity of poetry. Shakespeare achieves the goal of serving a double purpose. He makes the beauty of his friend motionless, into the poem so that the beauty is distillated and eternalized.

11. The difference between “a summer’s day”of nature and “thy eternal summer”is that summer of nature will disappear with time going,i.e. the beauty of summer in nature can not exist forever. Summer’s beauty is fleeting there in nature once a year; however, “thy eternal summer” is not that way. Your beauty will exist forever, never decaying, because you live in this poem that will live as long as there are human beings.

12. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee Simple analysis of Sonnet 18

13. This is probably one of the most famous of all sonnets. But it does dot stand in isolation. It is linked with so many of Shakespeare’s other sonnets through the themes of the descriptive power of verse: the ability of the poet to depict the fair youth adequately; and the immortality that lives in these “eternal lines”. It is noticeable that here the poet is full of confidence that his verse will live as long as there are people living on the Earth, whereas later he apologizes for his poor wit and his humble lines which are inadequate to express

14. All the youth’s excellence. Now, perhaps in the early days of his love, there is no such self-doubt and the eternal summer of the youth is preserved forever in the poet’s lines. The poem also works to achieve its objective through dispraise. The summer’s day is found to be lacking in so many respects (too short, too hot, too rough, sometimes too dingy), but curiously enough one is left with the impression that the young man is in fact like a summer’s day at its best, fair, warm,sunny, temperate, one of the darling buds of May, and that all his beauty has been wonderfully highlighted by this comparison. The poet’s main concern here is Beauty and Poetry.

15. Shakespeare’s place and influence • He has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of the English Renaissance, the greatest of all dramatists the world over • His influence upon English language and thought is beyond calculation: all English writers of any importance cannot escape from his influence either directly or indirectly, either in thought, content or in dramatic form or language; he also exerted influence upon many writers in other countries through his various translations of his works.

16. Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) • His writings are remembered for two things: (p64) • He is among the earliest English essayists and is regarded the founder of English essays, the founder of English materialist philosophy and the founder of modern science in England. • His major works: (p65) 1. The subjects of his essays: (The last paragraph of p65) 2. His Essays:Essays was the first of its kind to appear in English literature. Of the 58 essays in its final edition, more than half are about public life and public duty. • The features of the Essays: They are famous for their brevity, compactness and powerfulness.

17. Ben Jonson (1573 -1637) • Ben Jonson was the last great Elizabethan and probably the first poet laureate (1616). • His major works: His universally acknowledged masterpieces are the comedies: Volpone or the Fox and The Alchemist .He arrived at the full maturity of his dramatic powers with Volpone.

18. Assignments • Written work: • Define the terms: Petrarchan Sonnet, Shakespearian Sonnet • What is the main concern of the poet in Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare? • What is the difference between the “summer’s day” of nature and “thy eternal summer”? • What kinds of founders is Francis Bacon called? • Tell the features of Francis Bacon”s Esays.

19. Topics for discussion • How many groups are there in Shakespeare’s sonnets? • The influence of Shakespeare on world literature. • Oral work Memeorizing Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare

20. Too short a date