25
THE VARIOUS CHARACTERISTICS OF RENAISSANCE
AND MARLOWE’S PLAYS IN IT
Since the Renaissance came to England much after not only
its appearance in other European countries, particularly Italy and
France, England woke up late to find other European languages
already in possession of the works of classical antiquity through
translation, and composition inspired by them; and hence the
English scholars and writers took it as a challenge, and set the target
before them to make quick amends for the deficiency.
Renaissance people looked back to Greek and Roman ideals
in arts such as architecture and sculpture of this time. These ideas
spread with the help of printing, which was invented by German
26
Johnnes Gutenberg in the mid-15th Century. The Renaissance was
marked by the people’s belief in progress and personal
achievement. For instance the playwright Christopher Marlowe,
William Shakespeare and the artist Leonardo da Vinci worked
during this time. 1
These five persons as well, William Grocyn, Thomas
Linarce, John Colet, William Lily, and John Fisher who established
classical studies in England, as a consequence of which the
Renaissance came. Since the English Renaissance took its
inspiration from Italy, and also from France, there is a tendency to
value it down as a secondary movement but by virtue of certain
historical and other coincidences, it has some distinctive features
not found elsewhere. 2
One of the forces behind the Renaissance was the maritime
activities of the European navigators and discovery of new lands,
which opened up new possibilities of mercantile adventure and new
vistas of separation. This meant a changeover from land based
economy to fiscal economy. The standard of wealth during the
Middle Ages was landed property while that of the Renaissance
27
was money. Now, one difference between wealth and money is that
while the former remains static in value, money grows with time.
This made people greatly interested in time as an entity.
Curious social historians have not failed to notice that it was during
the Italian Renaissance that clocks were invented which struck
hours, half-hours and quarter-hours, as though to keep men
reminding of the otherwise silent and swift flight of time. This
theme of time is so prominent in Shakespeare’s Merchant of
Venice, in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, in Spenser’s Epithalamion
and Mutability Canto that any one scanning them even curiosity
cannot miss it.
The Renaissance men looked with a new wonder at the
heaven and the earth as they were revealed by the discoveries of the
navigators and astronomers and superior beauty was perceived in
the literature of classical antiquity, particularly in the recently
recovered works of ancient Greece.
At the same time, the Renaissance had in England certain
additional characteristics of a truly national literature. The
28
difference was mainly in the time of flowing in the quantitative
mixture of elements, but it was also a outcome of the power each
nation simultaneously acquired, when once it was enfranchised
from the unifying Catholic discipline, of revealing its own character
and of standing in opposition to other nations instead of blending
with them. Besides, this must have been a unique source of
inspiration for national adventure in every sphere such as
navigation, politics, literature and poetry. The national and patriotic
elation that we find in the literature of the English Renaissance is
the outcome of the inspiration derived from this and the foregoing
factors. Poets, like musicians, also were delighted in “the
springtime, the only pretty sing time”, when the world seemed
young and made for love and laughter and there was no enemy but
winter and rough passionate devotion to England and her queen.
Here, the following verses are worth quoting:
Blest be the hearts
that wish my sovereign well,
curst be the souls
that think her any wrong.3
29
Thus wrote George Peele in a poem dedicated to Elizabeth Other
poets looked back on English history to see what ages could bear
comparison with their own.
Poetry flowed over into the theatre and there produced one of
the most magnificent achievements of the Elizabethan or indeed off
any, age. At the beginning of Elizabethan age the popular form of
drama was morality play, but by 1574 the first public theatre was
opened and with it Christopher Marlowe set the theme for the new
drama. In plays like Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus and Edward II,
he showed his magnificent command of bragging ‘blank verse’, in
which the words resounded like brass and cymbals. For instance:
Is it not brave to be asking, Techelles,
Usumcasane and Theridamas
Is it not passing brave to be a king
And ride in triumph through Persepolis? 4
The Role of Humanists: The Renaissance is a European
phenomenon. In all literatures in the sixteenth century the same
general causes were at work:
30
The liberation of thought from the scholasticism
which bound it; the revolt against spiritual
authority incited by the Reformer
who were later the bitterest enemies
of the same revolt; wonder at the new earth
and sky as revealed by navigators
and astronomers; perception of greater
beauty in the Greek and Latin classics-especially
in the former, which had lately been recovered. 5
In the Renaissance as in the Reformation there was a strong
element of individualism. The desire for liberty and beauty led to an
intensive cultivation of language spoken by each nation, to an
increased use of its own power of expression. As a result
efflorescence in England began when the magnificent Italian
literature had already become decadent, after France had produced
Rabelais, Ronsard and his Pleiades, and when Montaigne’s Essain
were appearing. Hence, it was in a generation enriched with all the
substance of Italy and France that England, for the first time, was to
realize her high literary ambitions.
31
In so far as the Renaissance was an aspiration towards beauty
in every form, and the development of every activity, it never
breathed quite freely in the puritan atmosphere which already lay
over the nation. There were doubtless free spirits, but they were
rebels and notorious.
On the other hand although England in her Protestantism had
broken away more completely with the Middle Ages than had been
done by France or Italy, yet her literature was linked more
strikingly with it since English literature in the preceding centuries
had only indirectly expressed national feeling.
Much of her literature had been imported from France and
was imbued with the French spirit. None the less it is a fact that
although the Renaissance and Reformation beckoned her onwards
to new paths, England remained more faithful to the past than did
the continent. This is explained by the increasing influence of the
people, later exerted particularly strongly in the theatre. This
continuity was helped by the growth of an ardent patriotism, at
times aggressive and disdainful, which glorified the annals, history,
32
and legends of the nation, her traditions and antiquities. From this
patriotism was born the ambition to rival the masterpieces of
Greece and Rome, of Italy and of France; with an antagonism to
any foreign influence which might hinder the growth of the
Nation’s genius.
Humanism: (1490-1578)
6
During same thirty years, from
1490 until it began in 1520, when the religious quarrel began, there
was in England an efflorescence of humanism which was
accomplished only by a few elect spirits, but was pure, serene and
full of hope. Some young Englishmen were attracted to Italy by the
desire to learn Greek, knowledge of which had been carried thither
by refugees after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.
Such prestige made Erasmus acquired the new learning when he
resolved upon a profound study of Greek, being dissatisfied with
Paris and the College of Montegut, but too poor to go to Italy, made
several visits to England, from 1499 onwards, as much to complete
his own education as in search of an easier life.
Renaissance humanism taught that apart from their religious
significance which might lead to superstition and idol-worship,
33
there were also works of art and parts of national cultural heritage.
And on the other hand, the liberation of sensibilities, passions and
emotions affected by the Renaissance humanism was never allowed
to exceed the limits by the moralistic and spiritual idea of
Reformation.
The result is a literature that feeds the appetites of the senses
and curiosity of the mind and at the same time does not leave the
soul starved. In the poetry and drama of Spenser, Marlowe,
Shakespeare, sensuous pleasures or intellectual curiosity are never
indulged in for their own sake. But humanism in England had for a
long time not decided to affect on poetry and prose. The national
language was still immature. Prose lacked a strong tradition and
glorious precedents and the best humanists still made use of Latin.
It is significant that the two books which appeared in England in
this period and attained to European fame were Sir Thomas More’s
Utopia (1561) and Bacon’s Instauratio Magna (1620) 7
The story of the advent of the Renaissance in England begins
quite late but despite these stray instances of a sensibility ahead of
the times, and the actual Renaissance in England has its distinctive
34
characteristics not found in the Renaissance of any other country.
As for the new sensibility the main characteristics of Renaissance
can be recounted as hereunder:
i.
Discovery.
ii.
Expedition.
iii.
Concurrence of the Renaissance with Reformation.
iv.
The activities of the translation.
v.
The activities of the printing press.
vi.
Arts besides poetry.
vii.
Trade, etc.
A brief resume of the characteristics are mentioned below:
Discovery: Discovery of America must have been a source
of inspiration for national adventure in every sphere navigation
politics, literature and poetry. Not that the discovery of America
was the achievement of an English navigator but whoever
discovered that new continent, its effect on the English mind must
have been tremendous.
Before this discovery, England geographically seemed to be
an insignificant island which God, while creating the world, had
35
flung on to the extreme fringe of the northern earth. That was the
impression as is evidenced from a description of England by Robert
of Gloucester in his Chronicle:
Engeloned his a wel god land,
Ich were, ech loude best
Iset in the one onde of the worlde
As all in the west,
………………………..
Vor Englande is vol inoz of frut and eke of tren, 8
But the discovery of America made all the difference to the
geographic position and by implication to the symbolic significance
of England in relation to the rest of the world. From being an
insignificant island flung at the most extreme fringe of the earth, it
becomes the hub of the known world. And since in those days the
concept of the universe was geocentric, (Copernicus had discovered
the heliocentric nature of the Universe, but he had not announced it
yet for the fear of being declared heretic) earth being the centre of
the universe, England came to be looked upon as the bull’s eye of
36
the universe. Was not, therefore, the Englishman, placed at the very
centre of the universe, the chosen one of God?
Expedition: War with Spain made the loaded treasure ships
a legitimate target for English seamen, and encouraged them to
cross the Atlantic and get to know the geography of the American
coastline. Hakluyt was all in favour of American exploration, and in
his Discourse of Western Planting, published in 1584, he urged that
‘this western voyage will yield unto us all commodities of Europe,
Africa and Asia’.
The first English colonizing expedition to the new world was
led by sir Humphery Gilbert in 1583, when he took formal
possession of New found land in the queen’s name. He was lost at
sea on the return journey, but his place was taken by his halfbrother Walter Raleigh, who soon became as keen an enthusiast as
Hakluyt.
A ship was sent to reconnoiter the American coast, and its
commander reported, on return, that the part he had explored, south
of the Chesapeake Bay, in what is now North Carolina was ideally
37
suited to Colonization. The queen agreed that the area should be
called Virginia in her honour and this name was applied generally
to the whole North American coast. In 1585 an expedition under
Grenville planted a colony on Roanoke Island in Pamlico Sound,
but there was not enough to live on and when a relief ship bearing
supplies at last reached the colony, it found that Drake had already
taken of the survivors.
In 1587 another expedition was sent out under John white,
one of the earlier settlers. He successfully re-established a colony
on Roanoke and then returned to England, leaving behind him
eighty eight men, seventeen women and eleven children. A relief
expedition was planned but all shipping was needed at home to
fight the Armada and it was not until 1591 that English ships again
reached Roanoke.
Attempts to establish other settlements, in South America
between the mouths of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, were also
failed, because of the appalling climate and lack of supplies.
Raleigh explored the region in 1595, hoping to find EI Dorado, the
fable city of gold. But his last voyage in 1613 threatened the
38
friendship that James I had established with Spain and Raleigh
returned only to face execution.
Concurrence of the Renaissance with Reformation in
England: In Italy there was a Renaissance without Reformation
with the result that human sensibilities and passions had no moral
check on them and very often went beyond conscionable limits,
both in life and literature. Crimes at the princely and even papal
courts could make a voluminous chapter in the world history of
crimes. Profligacy and loose living were the rules of the day, and
even the lives of many popes and their cardinals were none too
edifying. There was the big reason of national interest as well.
Reformation would have meant decentralization of authority in the
church and consequently, Italy would have been deprived of huge
revenues that it collected from other countries for investiture of
bishops and cardinals and being in the form of other sacerdotal
taxes.
Whatever
the reasons, Reformation
never
made
its
appearance in Italy, and hence the excesses of Renaissance life and
literature. On the contrary in Germany and countries under its
39
influence like Switzerland, the Reformation was already afoot
before the appearance of Renaissance, and hence all the new
learning was engaged in the service of theology and polemics. The
German literature of the period was stern in its visage with never a
ray of cheerfulness or smile on it. It was one of the happiest
coincidences of history that in England, the Renaissance and
Reformation came simultaneously. Officially the Renaissance came
in the reign of Henry VIII with Erasmus, the apostle of the western
Renaissance visiting England; and it was Henry VIII who ushered
in the Reformation.
The Activities of Translation: The great problem of every
Renaissance in every country is to find language for the incoming
new concept and ideas for which no exact terms were available in
the language in use. Inspired by the above mentioned factors, the
Englishmen of the Renaissance, like the Arabs of the Middle Ages,
set out to conquer not only the material world but the world of
culture as well. Translation work was done in Italy and France as
well, but perhaps not with the same inspiration and motive as was
in England. Translation work was part of Elizabethan adventure.
Just as the navigators set out for the New Continent in search of
40
gold, but as they met a Spanish gallery returning from there laden
with the precious ore on the way set out in search of a Greek author,
but finding him already translated into some modern languagesItalian, French or Spanish – they did not take the trouble of going to
the original. Their purpose was to enrich English literature.
Some of the prefaces of these translators are interesting to
read. Philemon Holland, styled as the ‘translator-general of the
Elizabethan age’ says in one place that the English have an old
score to settle. The Romans once conquered them by ‘the dint of
their sword’ and now we have to conquer their literature and annex
it to our domain by ‘the dint of our pen’. There is a patriotic
sentiment of national pride behind their work.
The Activities of the Printing Press: Although England did
not invent printing and although the printing press came to be
established in England much after it was already active in many
European countries, the activities of the English printing press are
very different and distinct from those of the continental presses.
And the distinction owes itself to two factors: i) the character and
attainments of the man who introduced printing into England –
41
William Caxton, and ii) the combined influence of the Renaissance
and the Reformation. William Caxton was not only a mechanic but
also a man with some literacy pretensions. He was an editor and a
translator, and as such, apart from the editing and translating that he
did, his choice of books for printing was different, while the press
on the continent was preoccupied with theological, religious and
polemical works. The English press gave as much attention to
works of secular literature as to sacred ones. Works of theology and
polemics are of ephemeral interest while the significance of a
purely literary work does not change with the going out of certain
opinions. That is why, like the English translators the English
printers made permanent additions to English literature.
Arts besides Poetry: In Italy the Renaissance sensibility
found many channels of expression – poetry, painting, sculpture,
architecture, music and of course Machiavellian diplomacy while in
France there were only three – poetry, prose literature and
sculpture.
In England, by some peculiar circumstances, there appeared
only one channel – poetry and literature. It might appear a
42
disadvantage at first, but it turned out to be a peculiar advantage. In
countries where there were many media of expression the artistic
sensibility was naturally divided and mitigated. In England where
there was only one channel the painting, the sculpture; the
architecture and the music were merged into one. English poetry of
the period has the pictorial quality of painting, plastic modelling of
sculpture, the architectonic quality of an architectural edifice in the
form of its poems and the music which was combining with poetry
became enhanced in its effect. English songs and madrigals of the
Renaissance are in no way inferior to those of Italy or of province
in France, noted for its “Dance, and Provencal song and sunburn
mirth!”
That is why English poetry has an intensity not attained by
Italian or French poetry. That is why Spenser has been called a
painter who never touched brush and colour; and Milton, a belated
child of the Renaissance for the outstanding architectonic quality of
his poems like “Lycidas”.
Trade: The assumption of Tudor and Stuart England was
that the government should control the economic life of the nation.
43
This was particularly true of foreign trade, which was almost
entirely in the hands of companies of merchants who bought a
charter from the crown and were given the sole right to trade in a
certain area. The company of the Merchant Adventurers controlled
most of the lucrative trade in cloth which was distributed
throughout the Mediterranean countries.
The Merchants Adventurers concentrated on cloth because
this continued to bring in big profits even after trade was slackened
in the second half of the sixteenth century. But they also exported
many of the products of the industries which were being started or
developed in Elizabethan England. This period saw the successful
introduction of paper and gunpowder mills, cannon foundries and
sugar refineries, and industries which had been long established,
like coal mining and salt evaporating, grew enormously in size.
The invention of drainage engine and ventilation shafts made
it possible for mines to be sunk to a much greater depth and the
large sums of money needed to pay for this came from the greatly
increased sales of coal. But Elizabethan England was faced with a
timber shortage as the forest was cut down for firewood and ship
44
building. The spice islands of the east and the fabulous wealth of
China were the great attraction. The Mediterranean route to these
riches was however, blocked by the Turks, while the Portuguese
and Spaniards guarded the African and American approaches. The
only alternative was to go round the top of the world. In 1555,
Willoughby and Chancellor set out to look for a north-east passage.
Chancellor survived to enter the White Sea and visit the court of the
Russian Tsar, Ivan the Terrible and his voyage led directly the
Muscovy Company, to trade with the Tsar’s dominion. In 1599 a
company was setup and
30,000 were contributed, “to set forth a
voyage this present year to the East Indies and other Islands and
countries there about, and there to make trade”.
This was the origin of the greatest of all English trading
organizations, the East India Company, which was given its charter
by the Queen on the last day of 1600. 9
Marlowe’s place in Renaissance: Marlowe’s Literary and
dramatic achievements were extraordinary. Despite his brief career
the power and depth of knowledge of his principal characters, with
their profound psychological complexity and self involvement
45
lighted the way for his successors on the English stage. One of the
reasons why Marlowe’s work is so fascinating is that it is located at
a critical turning point in the development of English drama. His
work provides a springboard for the incentives of other artists. The
identification of Marlowe with his protagonists has given way to
the understanding of a more dynamic relationship between
Marlowe and his creation. As Steane writes, from the perspective of
modern scholars, he is regarded as “a writer deeply concerned with
suffering and evil, morality and religion; an ironist and detached
observer”.
His distinctive characteristics as dramatist which are also his
contributions to Renaissance English drama can be put under nine
heads.
1.
His concept of Tragedy which differs from the Aristotelian
on the one hand and the medieval on the other.
2.
His fashioning of the tragic hero who is different from
Aristotelian and Shakespearian.
3.
The tragic conflict in his plays is external as well as internal.
46
4.
His tragic themes which are capable of serious contemplation
and symbolic interpretation.
5.
The reflection of his personality and character through his
protagonists.
6.
Religious import of his plays reflecting Marlowe’s own
belief.
7.
Exemplification of the spirit of the English Renaissance
through his plays.
8.
Poetry in his plays.
9.
His handling of the blank verse for dramatic purpose. 10
In continuation of this chapter the desire for supreme military
power will be discussed in detail in Tamburlaine in the forthcoming
chapter.
47
Reference
1.
Russeell Ash. Whitaker’s World of Facts (New Delhi:
Penguin Books India, 11 Community Centre Panchsheel
Park, 2007), p. 102.
2.
Naresh Chandra. The Literature of the English Renaissance
(New Delhi: DOABA House, 1985), p. 58.
3.
John Thorn, Roger Lockyer, David Smith. A History of
England (Delhi: A.I.T. B.S. Publisher & Distributors, 2004),
p. 288.
4.
Ibid., p. 289.
5.
Emile Legouis. Concise Encyclopedia of English Literature
(Delhi: Mohan Prakashan 21B, Azad Hind Market Red Fort,
1999), p. 62.
6.
Legouis and Cazamian. History of English Literature (New
Delhi: Macmillan India Ltd., 2001), p. 201.
7.
Legouis and Cazanian. History of English Literature, p. 200.
8.
Naresh Chandra. The Literature of the English Renaissance,
p. 56.
48
9.
John Thorn, Roger Lockyer David Smith. A History of
England, p. 294.
10.
Naresh Chandra. The Literature of English Renaissance,
p. 197.