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The Tudors and the Elizabethan Age. 1485 – 1558 – 1603. Main Points. Historical framework Social background Literary world Questions and answers. Historical framework (1). Historical background Henry VII Tudor (1485-1509) Henry VIII (1509-1547) Six wives Edward VI (1547-1553)
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The Tudors and the Elizabethan Age 1485 – 1558 – 1603
Main Points • Historical framework • Social background • Literary world • Questions and answers
Historical framework (1) • Historical background • Henry VII Tudor (1485-1509) • Henry VIII (1509-1547) • Six wives • Edward VI (1547-1553) • Jane Seymour’s son • Mary I (1553-1558) • Catherine of Aragon’s daughter • The Catholic and Bloody Mary
Historical framework (2) • Main events • Anglican Reformation (Act of Supremacy, 1534) • The sovereign > Supreme head of the Church • Divorce from Catherine of Aragon • Monasteries dissolved • Catholic properties acquired by the State • Catholic schools and hospitals closed down • Reintroduction of the Catholic religion (1553) • Protestants persecuted
Historical framework (3) • Elizabeth I Queen of England (1558) • Re-establishment of the Anglican Church • Religious tolerance • Policy of expansion • American colonies (Virginia, 1584) • East India Company (1600) • Contrasts with Spain (commercial and religious) • Sea-dogs (Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh) • Defeat of the Invincible Armada (1588)
Social background (1) • Balance between Monarchy and Parliament • Time of peace, order and stability • Use of gunpowder (end of the feudal system) • Loss of power of the old aristocracy • Importance of the Court • Rising of the urban class • Merchant class • Development of overseas trading
Social background (2) • The Court • The Queen as patron of the Arts • Macrocosm and microcosm • Universal order vs human order • New Puritan ethic • Hard work, duty, self-discipline • Social stratification • Social shift
Social background (3) Urban class – Need for entertainment Elizabethan theatre Open air, daylight No intermissions No curtains No costumes Little scenery No women on stage Audience Standing around the stage Sitting in galleries Sitting on the stage
Literary world (1) • Elizabethan Age = English Renaissance • Main genres • Poetry: • the sonnet • Drama: • comedies • tragedies • historical plays
Literary world (2) 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 fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. • The Sonnet 3 quatrains 1 couplet
Literary world (3) • Drama • William Shakespeare (1564-1616) • Romeo and Juliet • Tragedy • A Midsummer Night’s Dream • Comedy • Julius Caesar • Historical play
Summary • Historical framework • Social background • Literary world
Conclusions • “All the world’s a stage” • Shakespeare’s works as representation of the world of his age • Complex period – forerunner of the modern world