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    English Prose in Renaissance

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    Muhammad Yahya
    The prose of the English Renaissance era, though not as developed as the poetry and drama, demonstrated characteristics of the literary peak such as novel ideas, heightened imagination, and revival of Greek ideals. The introduction of the printing press by William Caxton greatly increased the volume of printed prose. However, much Renaissance prose was religious in nature and aimed at supporting Protestant or Catholic views during the Reformation. Some literary greats, including Sir Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Lyly, Sir Philip Sidney, and Sir Francis Bacon, made notable contributions to prose through works such as Utopia, essays, and translations of religious texts.

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    English Prose in Renaissance

    Uploaded by

    Muhammad Yahya
    645 views2 pages
    The prose of the English Renaissance era, though not as developed as the poetry and drama, demonstrated characteristics of the literary peak such as novel ideas, heightened imagination, and revival of Greek ideals. The introduction of the printing press by William Caxton greatly increased the volume of printed prose. However, much Renaissance prose was religious in nature and aimed at supporting Protestant or Catholic views during the Reformation. Some literary greats, including Sir Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Lyly, Sir Philip Sidney, and Sir Francis Bacon, made notable contributions to prose through works such as Utopia, essays, and translations of religious texts.

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    ENGLISH PROSE

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    The prose of the English Renaissance era, though not as developed as the poetry and drama, demonstrated characteristics of the literary peak such as novel ideas, heightened imagination, and revival of Greek ideals. The introduction of the printing press by William Caxton greatly increased the volume of printed prose. However, much Renaissance prose was religious in nature and aimed at supporting Protestant or Catholic views during the Reformation. Some literary greats, including Sir Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Lyly, Sir Philip Sidney, and Sir Francis Bacon, made notable contributions to prose through works such as Utopia, essays, and translations of religious texts.

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    645 views2 pages

    English Prose in Renaissance

    Uploaded by

    Muhammad Yahya
    The prose of the English Renaissance era, though not as developed as the poetry and drama, demonstrated characteristics of the literary peak such as novel ideas, heightened imagination, and revival of Greek ideals. The introduction of the printing press by William Caxton greatly increased the volume of printed prose. However, much Renaissance prose was religious in nature and aimed at supporting Protestant or Catholic views during the Reformation. Some literary greats, including Sir Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Lyly, Sir Philip Sidney, and Sir Francis Bacon, made notable contributions to prose through works such as Utopia, essays, and translations of religious texts.

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    English Prose in Renaissance

    The prose of Renaissance age, though inferior to the contemporary poetry and drama, bears all the hallmarks of literary peak. The great writers of the era have all the highlights of Italian Renaissance like the novelty of thought, height of imagination, search for new truths, and the revival of Greek ideals. With the introduction of movable printing machine brought to England by William Caxton, the volume of prose print increased manifold. This genre always considered inferior from literary perspective was infact the same when viewed as a whole, because the bulk of prose in the sixteenth century was in the form of pamphlets, propaganda by Protestants and Catholics for their support during Reformation. However, there are a few literary genius who left their marks qualitatively on the contemporary literature.

    Sir Thomas More: what has nature ever created more gentle, more sweet, and more happy than the genius of Thomas more, wrote Erasmus on his first visit to England. An epitome of an ideal renaissance figure, Sir Thomas More was the strongest of English voices on the political, social, and human fronts. Voicing against the king Henry VII attempt to increase the tax revenue, Thomas More exactly knew his boundary line which he never stepped over. Never calling Kings name directly More entered politics, but lost his poise only once which proved fatal as King Henry VIII imprisoned Mores father during his conflict against the Kings Reformative adventure. His Utopia though written in Latin, is a typical Italian inspiration inspired by the great Platos philosophy. Its a philosophical romance, a fanciful account of an ideal republic. His Edward V is the first example of good English according to Hallam.

    Sir Walter Raleigh: A soldier, navigator, courtier, author wrote A History of the World during Prison. Other works are A Nymphs Reply, A Lie, On Sidney.

    John Lyly: A courtier, a soldier, a poet, a knight the brilliant John Lylys Euphues; Anatomy of Wit is a prose romance with poetic expression and subtlety of thought. Lyly pioneered a new genre of Euphuism in English literature. Its subject was the adventures of a young man (Euphues) well-endowed by nature but not disciplined by education. Apparently, the hero is an Athenian and Naples is the town of temptation, but beneath the disguise Euphues is an Oxford undergraduate corrupted by Italianate society of London. Lyly cared little of the criticism launched against him, and stuck to his style as in 1580 he came up with Euphues and his England.

    Sir Philip Sidney: Another remarkable man with an all-round genius was Sir Philip Sidney whose famous attempt in prose was his An Apologie for Poetriewhich defended poetry and poets in the same way as Aristotle did in his times.

    Religious Prose: As mentioned earlier, the bulk of prose written in the age of Renaissance was religious in nature, sometimes serving the people with translations of the Bible, and at another merely abusing the teachings of opponents faith for propaganda. The pamphlets printed during the conflicts of Catholics and Protestants were in millions which developed a taste for the printed things though but did no practical good to the literary spirit of the age. However, the remarkable attempts in this respect are: The translation of the Bible in English byWilliam Tyndal Thomas Cranmers The Book of Common Prayers

    Sir Francis Bacon: Bacons Essays titled as Novum Organum though in Latin, are considered the greatest attempt in prose literature of that age because of two reasons: first, it is the maiden introduction of French literary genre of Essay which became increasingly popular in the ages to follow; secondly, the philosophy presented in them reflects the true Renaissance freedom of thought infused by the Italian Renaissance philosopher, Machiavelli.

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