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

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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

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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

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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

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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:

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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.

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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,

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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.

6
Humanism: (1490-1578) 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,

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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
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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

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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

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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 half-

brother 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

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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
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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 languages-

Italian, 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 –

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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

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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.
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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
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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

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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.

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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.
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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.
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9. John Thorn, Roger Lockyer David Smith. A History of

England, p. 294.

10. Naresh Chandra. The Literature of English Renaissance,

p. 197.