English 533—Renaissance Texts/Renaissance Theory

Prof. Charles Ross

Fall 2001; MWF 11:30: HEAV 101

 

Week

 

 

 

1

20-Aug

Introduction

 

 

22-Aug

More--Utopia

 

 

24-Aug

Erasmus—Praise of Folly

 

2

27-Aug

No class

 

 

29-Aug

Wyatt and Surrey

 

 

31-Aug

Critical Theory: Elyot, Wilson, Gosson, Lodge,

Rollins, 105-120; 587-595; 599-624

3

3-Sept.

No class

 

 

5-Sept.

Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar

 

 

7-Sept.

Faerie Queene 1

 

4

10-Sept.

 

 

12-Sept.

 

 

14-Sept.

 

5

17-Sept.

FQ 2.12

 

 

19-Sept.

FQ 6.10

pp. 1-79

 

21-Sept.

Sidney, Defense of Poetry

80-147

6

24-Sept.

Sidney: Old Arcadia 1

18-229

 

26-Sept.

“ 2

231-304

 

 

“ 3

305-368

 

28-Sept.

“ 4

 

7

1-Oct.

“ 5

 

 

3-Oct.

Sidney, Astrophel and Stella

 

 

5-Oct.

Spenser: Amoretti

 

8

8-Oct.

No class

 

 

10-Oct.

 

 

 

12-Oct.

Shakespeare: Sonnets

 

9

15-Oct.

 

 

 

17-Oct.

Spenser: Colin Clout’s Come Home Again

 

 

19-Oct.

Marlowe, “Hero and Leander”

 

10

22-Oct.

Shakespeare, “The Rape of Lucrece”

 

 

24-Oct.

 

 

 

26-Oct.

Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis”

 

11

29-Oct.

Spenser, “Epithalamion”

 

 

31-Oct.

Margaret Roper and Queen Elizabeth—humanists

Course packet

 

2-Nov.

Veronica Franco

12

5-Nov.

Aemelia Lanyer

 

7-Nov.

Gascoigne, “Master F. J.”

Rollins, 702-710

 

9-Nov.

Lyly, Euphues

Rolllins 71-736

13

12-Nov.

Nashe, “The Unfortunate Traveler”

 

 

14-Nov.

Bible translations

Rollins, 131-140

 

16-Nov.

Plutarch

Rollins, 545-552, 565-567

 

19-Nov.

Harington’s Ariosto

Rollins 561-564

14

26-Nov.

The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia

 

 

28-Nov.

 

 

 

30-Nov.

 

 

15

3-Dec.

 

 

 

5-Dec.

 

 

 

7-Dec.

 

 

 

10-15 Dec.??

Final Exam

 


 

Portfolio assignments (4 pages each):

 

Write on one of the following:

 

  1. Does Shakespeare’s interest in time add anything to the theme of despair that his sonnets share with those of Sidney and Spenser?
  2. Compare and contrast images of moisture in Marlowe’s “Hero and Leander” and either “Venus and Adonis” or “The Rape of Lucrece.”

 

Write on one of the following:

 

  1. Compare any character in Sidney’s Arcadia with any character in The Faerie Queene. What can you conclude about the interest of the authors in developing character, speech, or individual ethos?
  2. When Sidney wrote the Arcadia, he had been rusticated by Queen Elizabeth, and his sister Mary was sixteen and pregnant by her forty-six year old husband. In what ways might the Arcadia have been influenced by Sidney’s life’s experience?
  3. According to Sidney’s Defense, the end of poetry is to induce readers to virtuous action, yet the heroes of the Arcadia are not always admirable. How do you reconcile Sidney’s theory with his art?

 

Research Paper:

 

Write a research paper on any work of sixteenth-century non-dramatic literature. 15 pages.

 

Final Exam:

 

1)      Discuss the achievement of Aemelia Lanyer.

2)      Compare Lyly’s style with that of two other prose writers.


Suggested Bibliography

 

Burckhardt, Jacob, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy.

Chambers, R. W. Thomas More.

Lewis, C. S. English Literature in the Sixteenth Century.

Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love.

Mattingly, Garrett. The Armada.

Neale, J. E. Queen Elizabeth I.

Ringler, William. Stephen Gosson.

Rowse, A. L. The Elizabethan Renaissance.

Seehohm, Frederick. The Oxford Reformers.

Stone, Lawrence. The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558-1641.

Wallace, Malcolm William. The Life of Sir Philip Sidney.

Ward, A. W. The Cambridge History of English Literature, Vol. 3.

Abrams, et. Al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1

Greenblatt, Stephen. Renaissance Self-Fashioning from More to Shakespeare