ENGLISH QUESTIONS

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
DOMANDE
1. What does “the middle way” mean?
2. Why did she refuse to marry Philip II?
3. What does she promote as a reform?
4. Who succeeded Elizabeth I?
5. Why was Thomas More executed?
6. Who imported the Italian sonnets into England and translated them into English?

RISPOSTE
1. Given its balanced approach between Protestantism and Catholicism, Elizabeth
Approach to reform was known as “the middle way”.
2. She refused to marry Philip II in order to preserve her country from foreign
domination and not to offend any section - Protestant or Catholic.
3. She promoted the “Act of Supremacy”, by which she re-established the Anglican
Church and had herself proclaimed its supreme governor.
4. Elizabeth I was succeeded by her cousin James Vi of Scotland, who now became
James I of England.
5. Thomas More was executed for opposing Henry VIII’s attempt to become the head of
the English church
6. This form was imported into England by Sir Thomas Wyatt and by the Earl ofSurrey,
who translated many of Petrarch’s sonnets into English.

PAGINA 61 DOMANDE DA UNO A SEI

DOMANDE
1. What is the War of Roses?
2. What is the origin of Henry VIII’s religious reform?
3. Why did Henry VIII order the execution of Sir Thomas More?
4. Why did Mary Tudor win the name of “Bloody Mary?
5. What are the main characteristics of Elizabeth I’s reign?
6. Who was Queen Elizabeth’s royal rival and how did Elizabeth deal with the problem?

RISPOSTE
1. Rebellion against Richard III led to the so-called “War of Roses”, a long feud
between the house of Lancaster and York which ended with the Battle of Bosworth
Field in 1485. Richard of York, whose symbol was a white rose, was defeated by the
harmy of Henry Tudor of the house of Lancaster, whose symbol was a red rose.
Henry’s victor marked the beginning of the Tudor era in England
 2. The origin of this religious reform is connected with an economical factor. In fact, not
accepting the Catholic Church in England meant owing the territories that initially
belonged to the monasteries that were huge.
3. Henry VIII executed Thomas More for opposing him to become the head of the
English Church.
4. Queen Mary was a fervent Catholic who terribly persecuted protestants. They were
sent to stake and burned. This gave her the name of Bloody Mary.
5. She was an enlightened monarch, in fact she was a patron of artists such as
Sheakspeare. She preferred the middle way that means that even catholics could be
politicians. She is also known as the Virgin Queen who had many suitors and refused
them in order to preserve her country from foreign domination.
6. Elizabeth’s royal rival was Mary Queen of Scots because she wanted to be proclaimed
Queen of England. For that reason Elizabeth I decided to order her execution in 1587.

LITERATURE
DOMANDE
1. What is the rhyme scheme?
2. How many stanzas are there?
3. How many lines are there in each stanza?
4. What is the lover compared to?
5. What is the eye of heaven?
6. Why is the month of May not always a perfect season?
7. What adjective is used to describe the lover’s summer and why?
8. What happens to beauty in nature?
9. What is the adjective that describes this person?
10. What makes this person’s beauty overcome time and death?

RISPOSTE
1. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
2. There are 4 stanzas
3. In the first three stanzas there are 4 lines, in the last one there are two lines.
4. The lover is compared to a summer’s day.
5. The eye of heaven is the Sun.
6. The month of May isn’t always perfect because sometimes it’s windy.
7. The lover’s summer is eternal because it does not lose beautiness.
8. Beauty in nature declines
9. He is lovely and temperate
10. This person’s beauty can overcome time and death thanks to poetry.
ELIZABETHAN THEATERS
Elizabethan theaters were open-air structures and had the shape of a wooden amphitheater
with a square stage. People stood around it for the entire duration of the play. These people
were called groundlings and paid one penny to see the show. They could interact with the
actors. The richest members of the audience sat along roofed benches that surrounded the
stage. Elizabethan playwrights had a modest background. The first thing that we need to
remember is the fact that women were not allowed to act on the Elizabethan stage. This
meant that female parts were acted by male actors that generally were the youngest.

SONNETS (1585-1609)
Shakespeare’s Sonnets contain 154 sonnets. Sonnets are 14 line poems written in iambic
pentameter. They were published when Shakespeare was alive. The first group of sonnets- 1
to 126- focus on the poet’s love so-called “fair youth”, a young man whom the author tries to
convince to marry and have children. The second group of sonnets- from 127 to 154- are
focused on a peculiar kind of love: the poet’s love for the so-called “dark lady”, a woman
who is unfaithful to the poet and causes him a lot of suffering.

MAIN THEMES
This work explores universal themes such as love, beaty, art, time and death. Love is
explored from a variety of different perspectives and emerges as a complex and contradictory
feeling: it is represented as pure devotion but even as sexual lust. This theme is related to the
theme of beauty and immortality. The poet underlines the idea of brevity of man’s life and
the ineluctability of death. There are just two solutions: one is marrying and having children.
The other is the poetry because his verses will always remain alive and will eternalise the
beauty of the lover.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ITALIAN AND ENGLISH SONNETS

Italian sonnets are generally composed of an octave(8 lines stanza) and sestet (6 lines stanza)
rhyming ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. English sonnets are composed of three quatrains (4 lines
stanzas) and a final couplet (a 2 lines stanza) rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The formal
difference between them implies a difference ub the way the content is organized. In Italian
sonnets the octave usually presents a problem and the sestet contains a comment or a solution
to the problem. In Shakespeare sonnets, instead, things are different: the first three quatrains
contain a series of reflections on a particular problem, which is seen from different
perspectives and in all of its complexity. The final couplet introduces a turning point and
usually draws an unexpected conclusion or expresses a paradox or an ironic comment.