EARLY RENAISSANCE DRAMA

The most important effect of Tudor Reformation on contemporary writing was the result of its secular and not
devotional emphases, Popularity of mystery and morality plays declined in early Renaissance. Protestant
suscpicion gradually supressed traditions of popular religious drama. Government censorship, which banned
plays that conflicted with religion, caused a shift from a drama based on sacred subjects. Certain plays or
interludes were regarded as ephemeral pieces while others which circulated as printed texts were neglected or
destroyed.
Interldues are short, entertainment pieces performed in between other plays or meals at a banquet during
holidays. They were pointless sketches with simple forms. The themes were history or political issues. The term
is generally used by historians of literature to denote plays which mark the conversion from medieval religious
to Tudor secular drama.
John Skelton's only surviving play is the goodly interlude Magnyficence. It shows a battle between Virtues and
Vices for the human soul but its moral concern seems to be specific rather than general. It treats the
importance of moderation in the affairs of a great Someone and not for Everyman.It offers advice by warning
against pride and corruption.
Because of John Bale the moral interlude became a vehicle for Protestant polemic. His Kyng Johanis often
claimed as the first English drama to be based on national history, though it uses that history to make narrow
propagandist points and presents historical characters with embodiments of virtue and vice.
Much of the acceptable drama performed at the time suggest avoidance of controversial issues. John Heywood
was prepared to exposed hypocritical pardoners and friars but he chose to do so in the form of farces such as
the Four PP. Contest in who's to tell the fattest lie and Pilgrim wins.

TUDOR DRAMA

Changes in theatre arrived quickly. Actors were prosecuted by the authorities as rogues and vagabonds. They
needed to obtain patronage of a magnate and Leicester's company was the first to succeed. Plays were
regulated. They were subject to censorship - the content of plays was checked to ensure that they did not
contain political or religious elements which might threaten the state. Nicholas Udall, despite his earlier
Protestant sympathies, managed to find favour in the palaces of Queen Mary. He wrote the first English
comedy titled Ralph Roister Doister based on the traditional Latin comedies of Plautus and Terence. The text is
divided, on the ancient model, into acts and scenes nut its language and songs are of modern London. Udall's
hidden agenda might have been moralizing but primary goal was to cause laughter. The influence of Terence
also shows in Gammer Gurton's Needle, a comedy first performed at Christ's College. The play's slight subject is
unacademic.
Tragedy was the genre that made Elizabethan drama famous but it was non-existant until Tudor age. Native
English tragedy was marked by the bloody and dark influence of Seneca. Roman tragedian Seneca used many
mythological themes of Greeks but knew nothing of dramatic movement nor action of the Greek tragedies. His
characters rarely expressed emotions and language was not dramatic.The translators of his work wanted to
show that the art of Seneca could provide Christian England with a lesson in moral gravity. His plays suggested
the workings of divine justice, revealed the effects of human vengeance, and showed the tragic falls of men of
high degree. Gorboduc remains the most striking drama in the opening years of Queen Elizabeth's reign. It uses
the potential of national history and myth as a dramatic contribution to political discourse. Norton contributed
the first three acts, Sackville the last two, but what particularly marks the play is its exploration of the roots of
political decay. The author had a didactic purpose in mind – the depiction of the misfortunes of a kingdom
where the succession is uncertain. Each act of the play opens with a pantomime that conveys morals of the
play.
HUMANISM

In the 16th century the word humanist was coined to signify one who taught or worked in the studia
humanitatis or humanities, which is different from fields less concerned with the moral and imaginative aspects
and activities od man. Scholarly humanists recovered and edited many ancient texts in Greek and Latin, and so
greatly contributed to the store of materials and ideas of the European Renaissance. These humanists also
wrote many works concerned with educational, moral and political problems based on classical writers such as
Aristotle, Plato and Cicero. Renaissance humanism assumed the central position of man in the universe.
Humanism freed men of medievel scholasticm and dogmas, yet replaced them with its own scholasticm and
dogmas. Humansts wrote in Latin. The study of Greek literature, philosophy and science had been introduced
to England in the 1490s by scholars William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre. If it weren't for them, humanism in
England would have been short lived. Both of them had expanded Oxford education by studying Greek in
humanist circles in Italy. John Colet provided the first model for a reformed secondary school in which Latin
and Greek were to be taught. When the great Dutch scholar Erasmus visited England he absorbed the Platonic
enthusiasm of the English humanists. He worked with Grocyn, Linacre and Colet, but he was was particularly
impressed with Thomas More. The contrast between the oublic careers of Erasmus and More shows a crisis in
humanist thought. For Erasmus the world was best improved by writing and education, not by involvement in
state politics. However, for More the highest duty of a man was to serve his king. The majority of humanists
thought that Erasmus' way was a nobler one. More himself was aware of this humanist dilemma. While on a
mission in the Low Countries, More wrote his Latin masterpiece Utopia. When Raphael Hythlodaeus argues
with a fictional More, he takes the Platonic view that a man should not interfere with state politics. More,
however, advocates not deserting the needs of the commonwealth. Utopia speculates about a form of
government that is unknown to the 16th ct European countries.
Henry VII was the first king of England to write and publish a book, an attack on Luther which earned him the
title of „Defender of the Faith“.
Sit Thomas Elyot's most influential work The Boke named the Governour promotes the idea that he common
good of the kingdom depended on the proper education of a male upper class.
In the dedication of his dialogue on the pleasures of archery Taxophilus, Ascham half apologized for and half
defended his use of English language. In The Scholemaster he argues that only Latin and Greek provide the
perfect examples of eloquence.The work sets out the advantages and uses of classical education in plain
English.

HIGH RENAISSANCE POETRY

At about the same time whe sonnets prominence, pastorals gain in popularity. New interest in pastorals reveal
concentrationof high renaissance court poets on literatures of antiquity.The earliest extant pastoral poetry, the
Idylls, was written by Theocritus in the third century BC. It has exerted tremendous influence on European
literature. Idylls is a collection of thirty short poems ascribed to Theocritus in antiquity, perhaps incorrectly.His
poems explore a wide variety of themes—love, death, the meaning of art, the joys of life in the country, the
nuisances of the city, the mysteries of myth and magic. Theocritus idealised rural culture, associating it with
Greek god Pan. The poems usually discussed urban girls who got pregnant with athletes and invoked the help
of the goddess of Moon. The general pastoral theme is love, often unrequited or betrayed love. The setting is a
beautiful place in nature, sometimes connected with the Garden of Eden. It is the world of Arcadia, a province
in ancient Greece which grew into a topographical reference to an imaginary place symbolically representing
idyllic location.
The Roman poet Virgil adopted the pastoral mode in his first-century b.c. Eclogues, adding mythical and
political dimensions to his poetry. His poems were part of political propaganda of Augustan Rome.

The most famous works of English Renaissance pastoral poetry are Sidney's Arcadia, Spenser's Sheperd's
Calendar , Marlowe's Passionate Sheperd to HisLove , Milton's Lycidas.

Sheperd's Calendar consists of twelve eclogues, one for each month of the year. The poet experimenswith
Virgilian pastoral conventions and with a variety of metrical forms, subjects, and voices. Ten of the poems are
presented as dialogues. He satirizes the political and religious figures of his day and attempts to pass on moral
lessons.

Sidney's Arcadia has two versions: The Old Arcadia and the revised version of New Arcadia. A series of Italian
eclogues Arcadiaby Sannazaro shaped Sidney's conception of the idyllic pastoral set. However, his perspective
of the Greek world was determined by third-century account of seperated lovers. The major theme of the work
is the life of action and responsibility versus the life of contemplation and love, a common pastoral motif.

EPIC

SONNET

Invented in Italy in the thirteenth century, the sonnet was brought to a high form of development in the
fourteenth century by Francesco Petrarch. The Italian poet brought the sonnet to prominence through
Canzoniere, which he wrote in admiration of a woman named Laura. The Italian term sonetto means a short or
little song. The original form of the Italian sonnet is therefore known as the Petrarchan sonnet. Through the
works of Italian poets the English authors got acquainted with the sonnet. Thomas Wyatt introduced the
sonnet to the English language in the 16th century by translating the works of Petrarch from Italian. The Earl of
Surrey then made innovations to the form by introducing a new structure and rhyme scheme.

The Petrarchan sonnet consists of fourteen lines. The first eight lines comprise the octave and the final six form
the sestet. The octave presents and develops some type of conflict for the speaker, states a problem or asks a
question. The volta, or the poem’s turn, typically appears at the beginning of the sestet and introduces a
different tone. Finally, the sestetresolves the problem, answers the question, or relieves the tension. The lines
are in iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme is:
ABBA ABBA CDECDE.

The English sonnet is composed of 14 lines in 3 quatrains and a couplet. The volta or turn can be found in the
third quatrain with the exception of Shakespeare’s sonnet wherein the volta is found in the couplet. The
typical Elizabethan use of the sonnet was in a sequence of love poems in the manner of Petrarch. Among the
notable English sequences are Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti, and
Shakespeare's Sonnets.
Astrophil and Stella is the first sonnet sequence in England. Consists of 108 sonnets and 11 songs. They
describe the development of a star-lover for a distant star. Sidney fused his own personal sentiments and
forms with Petrarchan conceit. Form: 3 quatrains and a couplet, rhyming pattern crossed.

Amoretti is another sequence about the ups and downs of a romantic relationship. It consists of 89 sonnets.
Thought does not reach climax at the end of second quatrain yet like Sidney, Spenser uses Petrarchan conceits.

Shakespeare achieved supremacy over all the predecessors in the form of sonnets. His sequence consists of
154 sonnets.There are three main addressees: a blond, young aristocrat, a mysterious dark lady and a rival
poet.

METAPHYSICAL POETRY

John Donne established what has become known as the Metaphysical style of poetry which was taken up by
later poets. He was considered an eccentric of his age and took sonnet in the most unexpected direction. His
Holy Sonnets are concerned with the darkness of human condition in this world. They evoke pictures of the end
of the world, Death itself or of a sinner fearful of his damnation.
Samuel Johnson used the term ‘Metaphysical poetry’ for the first time to refer to Donne and his immediate
followers. This group of writers established meditation, based on the union of thought and feeling sought after
in Jesuit Ignatian meditation, as a poetic mode. Their poems are characterized by the use of wit, the often
cryptic expression, the play of paradoxes, and the juxtaposition of metaphor. Johnson had a particular distaste
for the far-fetched paradoxes or conceits in which Donne's poetry abounds. In fact, these kinds of poems are
qualified by te use of wit and conceit. Conceit is a far-fetched comparison between dissimilar things. It usually
sets up an analogy between one entity’s spiritual qualities and an object in the physical world and sometimes
controls the whole structure of the poem.Conceits often were so farfetched as to become absurd. In the poem
"The Flea," the speaker uses the metaphysical conceit of a flea's blood-sucking to convince a lover to join him in
a physical union.
Wit can mean several things. It can be the poet's ability to use intelligent conciets and other tropes, the agility
of spirits, the combination of thoughts and words elegantly adapted to subjects, or it might imply levity.
Other than Donne, the poets in the metaphysical school areHerbert, Vaughan and Crashaw. They all wrote on a
wide range of themes yet they are all percieved within religious context.
Herbert often played with the shapes and sounds of the words: he puns in his title to The Collar and with the
name Jesu in the poem of that name. His connection to the emblem book tradition is evident in his printing
some of his poems as visual designs. For example, the shape of The Altar creates a pattern that suggests its
subject.
Crashaw was the son of a Puritan preacher. Crashaw's own religious pilgrimage took him in an opposite
direction to his father. He converted to Roman Catholicism. His English poetry shows the nature of his religious
inclinations. He is not as ingenious as Donne nor as subtle as Herbert.The series of Divine Epigrams suggests a
fondness for miraculous or alchemical changes of substance: water becomes wine, wine blood, and tears are
pearls.
CAVALIERS

Carew, Suckling, Lovelace, Cowley, Herrick

Cavalier poets were called Cavaliers because of their loyalty to Charles I during the English Civil Wars, as
opposed to Roundheads, who supported Parliament. Some of them wrote elegant verse, more light than
serious, so that the term ‘cavalier poetry’ came to refer to a kind of light lyric. The Cavalier lyricists came under
the influence of Ben Jonson and John Donne. Most of them felt proud of calling themselves “Sons of Ben”. This
poetry embodies an attitude that mirrors “carpe diem.” The Roman poet Horace popularized the term carpe
diem in the poem of his first book of Odes. After Horace died, carpe diem gained widespread currency as a
term for categorizing any literary work whose primary purpose was to persuade readers to make the most of
the here and now.Cavalier poets wrote in a way that promoted seizing the day and the opportunities presented
to them. Cavalier poetry is generally stylistically simpler than the Metaphysical poetry. It uses simpler language
and conceits. They composed short verses and the tone of their poetry was generally easy-going and
hedonistic. The best example for the cavalier poetry are Herrick's poems Corinna's Going A-Maying and To the
Virgins to Make Much of Time.

Robert Herrick was a well-educated parish priest from Devonshire. Although he had neither sought nor been
offered to serve his King, his verse proves him to be the most expressively cavalier of the 17th century love-
poets. The collection Hesperides moves away from the political divisions of the then contemporary England. In
To The VirginsHerrick plays on a young woman's fear of growing old and missing out on love. Encourages
women to live in the moment.

Andrew Marvell belongs to a different age but is an example of a poet who successfully combined the
metaphysical wit and conceits with cavalier tone and themes. He had spent the early part of the Civil War
travelling. Marvell recognized in Cromwell the dynamic spirit of the age. His posthumously published
Miscellaneous Poems contain versions of two further commendatory poems to Cromwell. Apart from political
pieces, Marvell often recurs to nature. To His Coy Mistress is perhaps the finest of the many variations on the
theme of carpe diem developed in English Renaissance poetry.

HIGH RENAISSANCE THEATRE

In the late 16th ct London suburban theatres, outside the control of City magistrates, begun establishing
themselves as an essential part of metropolitan culture. They were visited by European visitors and companies
of English actors performed plays on the Continent. A Royal Patent was granted to Earl of Leicester's men and
James Burbage established a permanent playhouse in Shoreditch. This playhouse called itself The Theatre. It
was followed by Burbage's second playhouse the Curtain and the structures on the bank of Thames, the Rose,
the Swan, the Globe, and the Hope. These wooden, unroofed amphitheatres were either polygonal or circular
shape. It is possible that they echoed design established by the Greeks and Romans. The theatres that were
visited by large audiences were likely to have been richly decorated. The actors were extravagantly costumed.
They worked without sets but close to the spectators. Professional companies were composed only of male
actors, with boys playing women's roles.

Due to historical circumstances colleges and universities had a great impact on the development of drama,
especially the subgenre of tragedy. University wits were six Oxford and Cambridge educated men who
transformed popular drama in the late 16th ct, near the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Christopher Marlowe,
Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele. They transformed plays from
mere interludes and farces into drama proper.
Kyd'sThe Spanish Tragedy was amongst the most popular and influential od all the plays in the period. It
introduced a new kind of character, a brooding and alienated plotter. It set a pattern from which the theme of
revenge developed. What established its reputation was a mixture of dense plotting, intense action and long
speeches.
John Lyly is most famous for Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit.
Thomas Lodge collaborated with Greene on the play A Looking Glasse for London and England. Best
remembered for pastoral romance Rosalynde.
Robert Greeneis best remembered as the first negative critic of Shakespeare. He experimented with romances
and wrote pamphlets concerned with low life. His pastoral romances Pandosto and Menaphoninfluenced story-
telling in prose.
Thomas Nashe as a dramatist is remembered for Summer's Last Will and Testament. With Jonson wrote a
scandalous play The Isle of Dogs that resulted in Jonson's imprisonment.
George Peele is best remembered for The Old wives Tale. 2 civic pageants survived from an unknown number
as well as examples of court-ceremonial verse.
Christopher Marlowe's dramatic verse broughtEnglish iambic pentameter to its first maturity. According to
Kyd's evidence, the atheistical disputations were Marlowe's, not his. Marlowe was probably fascinated with
forbidden knowledge. His first theatrical success was Tamburlaine the Great. The two parts confront audiences
with a picture of a conquering hero. He seeks to expose the concept of heroism as well as to praise it. In
Faustus, Faustus' intellectual world is the one of humanist new learning, freed from the limitation of medieval
science and divinity. For him, knowledge is power. Edward II is different from his other tragedies. It explores
the problem of moral conflict within an established society.

Ben Jonson started a brief trend of humours comedy with his play Every Man in His Humour . It is a topical
comedy involving eccentric characters, each of whom represents a temperament of humanity. His third play
Every Man Out of His Humour was less successful. In Timber, or Discoveries Made upon Men and Manners
insisted that comedy had been considered by the Greeks to be equal in dignity to tragedy. Comic. Modern
theatre audiences, he complained, had failed to grasp the point that ‘the moving of laughter’ was not essential
to comedy whereas equity, truth were.Volpone was his best comedy. Despite its title, it never reduces men to
beasts or mere concepts.

Shakespeare's scope consists of 38 plays altogether, 4 larger poems and a Book of Sonnets. Texts were often
incomplete and the records did not provide dates of composition but rather the date of premiere. Shakespeare
wrote lyrics (sonnets and narrative poems) and dramas (histories, comedies, tragedies and tragi-comedies). The
themes of his works were love, marriage, English history, humanity, political issues. Shakespeare revolutionized
theatre with constant breaking of the conventions, which was based on the adoption and interpretation of
Classical dramatic theory.

POST-SHAKESPEARE AND JACOBEAN

Jacobean drama is the drama that was written and performed during the reign of Elizabeth’s successor, James
I. It is widely considered a decadent form of the drama created by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It
continued to use many themes and conventions made famous during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Jacobean
dramatists deserve praise for their plot-construction. They began to invent plots to suit their own tastes.
Jacobean dramatists show a greater skill than their predecessors in the construction and development of their
plots. John Webster, Thomas Middleton, John Ford and John Marston produced their works during this period.
By far the most popular and frequently performed dramas of the era were the tragicomedies of Beaumont and
Fletcher. They combined serious and comic elements in their works. In their King and No King, King's
incestuous passion for his sister and his tragic plans are dissipated by the relevation that he is neither a king nor
a brother.

Masque was very popular during the Jacobean era. It mirrored the change of interest. Masques icluded drama,
dancing, music and poetry, which anticipated the development of opera and ballet. Ben Jonson was famous for
his masques. His first masque for King James was Masque of Blackness. These spectacles were very expensive
to produce. Their special feature was the combination of amateur and professional actors.

John Webster's individual reputation rests on two major works: The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi.
Although the subjects of both tragedies are based on true and bloody occurences in the courts of Italy,
Webster borrowed devices, effects and themes from his fellow English dramatists. As its title suggests, The
White Devil is concerned with paradoxes. Revenge play that reinvents the genre.
Duchess of Malfi is another revenge play. Webster's account follows two corrupt brothers as they take revenge
on their sister for marrying below her class. The play is considered to be among the finest of all Jacobean
tragedies.

Thomas Dekker is not the greatest not the most skillful dramatist but most lovable and symphathetic. He was
better in collaborative plays. Dekker collaborated with such figures as Thomas Middleton, John Webster. Of the
nine surviving plays that are entirely Dekker’s work, probably the best-known are The Shoemakers Holiday and
The Honest Whore, Part 2. They are a mixture of realistic detail with a romanticized plot.The Shoemaker's
Holiday is a relocation of the ancient Roman urban comedy in modern London.

RESTORATION

It means the restoration of the monarchy.For eleven years, there had been no monarchy but the Restoration
Settlement brought back from exile the son of the beheaded Charles I. The first concern of the king was to
reassert the predominance of the established Church of England, and to bring it once more under direct control
of the Crown. The Act of uniformity required all Puritans to accept the doctrines of the Church of England.The
Restoration brought liberalizing social changes including the re-opening of theatres and study of sciences that
had been banned by the Puritans. Charles declared the Declaration of Indulgence, which suspended the penal
code against all religious Nonconformists, Catholics and Dissenters. Anti-Catholicism united the English
Protestants who feared a Catholic revival. A London Dissenter revealed evidence of a plot by the Jesuits to
murder the king and establish Roman Catholicism in England. Thirty-five alleged conspirators in the Popish Plot
were tried and executed, harsh laws against Catholics were revived. A bill was introduced to exclude the duke
of York from the throne. When the Commons passed the Exclusion Bill, Charles dissolved Parliament and called
new elections.However, the second Exclusion Parliament the Commons also voted to replace the duke of York
for Mary and William of Orange. When Charles died, James assumed the throne and reigned as James II. He
wanted tolerance for Catholics and tried to create an alliance between Dissenters and Catholics against
Anglicans. The Glorious Revolution ended the Restoration. King James II lost his throne to William and Mary of
Orange. James's daughter Mary was declared Queen and she was to rule jointly with her husband William,
who would be king. The English Parliament passed the Bill of Rights, which limited on the powers of the
monarch and set out the rights of Parliament, including free elections and freedom of speech in Parliament. It
also described and condemned several misdeeds of James II of England.

One of Charles II’s first moves was to re-open the theaters. As the king was a well-known lover of arts and
literature, he sponsored the Royal Society which allowed work to be produced through royal patronage. Two
theatre companies, the King’s and the Duke’s Company, were established in London. Christopher Wren was the
architect responsible for the decoration of new playhouses, which he put moveable scenery and machines that
could produce sounds like lightning and thunder. Female actors for the first time allowed to appear on stage in
England. Theatre was the main literary market-place but works such as Paradise Lost were reprinted.
Lyric poetry also became popular during the period allowing writers to express their opinions in first person.
Women increasingly published their writing. Mary Astell's most famous work Serious Proposal to the Ladies for
the advancement of their true and great interest advocates the importance to women’s intellectual
development. Her Some Reflections on Marriage warns women of the seriousness of committing themselves to
the potential tyranny of a husband. Philosophical and religious writing also continued during this period. John
Locke wrote many of his works about understanding politics and human nature. There was a more rational
approach to science and art and general secularization began.

The intellectual architecture of Thomas Hobbes’s great philosophical tract Leviathan is based on the passion
for geometry. It was written partly as a response to the fear Hobbes experienced during the political turmoil of
the English Civil Wars. Hobbes divides Leviathan into four parts. The first, ‘Of Man’, attempts to define the
nature and quality of human reasoning largely in reaction to the expressions of Aristotelian worldview. He
observes human as a rational animal whose action is determined by agression rather than by love. Parts 2, 3, 4
further develop the thesis that humans are selfish and that the pursuit of hapiness excludes benevolence.

John Locke provided an intellectual basis for easily digested theories of politics, religion, and aesthetics. His
rejection of innate ideas in favour of the notion of knowledge based on external sensation and internal
‘reflection’ helped the 18th ct writers. For Locke, the mind was a tabula rasa at birth, a white Paper, void of all
Characters. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke famously compares the mind to a Newtonian
camera obscura.

RESTORATION DRAMA

Caroline court drama was the drama in the reign of Charles I. The King and Queen Henrietta Maria were
addicted to the arts, entertainment and luxury on a scale which shocked the Puritans. The drama often
centered on debates in which Platonic love contrasted love being fulfilled in marriage.
The Restoration brought about another golden age of theater. During the Interregnum, there were strict rules
and censorship to limit any publications made in England. What resulted was a domination of Puritan
literature, religious tracts and pamphlets. The theaters were closed, putting actors and playwrights out of work.
When he returned in 1660, one of Charles II’s first moves was to re-open the theaters. For the first time,
women were being allowed to trod the stage in England. Two theatre companies, the King’s and the Duke’s
Company, were established in London. Christopher Wren was the architect responsible for the decoration of
new playhouses, which he fitted with moveable scenery and machines that could produce sounds like lightning
and thunder. This was important because the dramas had changeable scenery, expensive costumes, and special
effects.
When the public theatres opened after 18 years, a tradition needed to be re-established that would redpond to
both the recent past and reflect new fashions. Devenant and Killigrew nursed theLondon stage into health.
Davenant was a playwright and librettist of court masques in teh reign of Charles I. He had managed to evade
the government ban on theatrical performances by staging an opera The Siege of Rhodes.
Killigrew with Davenant was a holderof one of the two royal patents granting a monopoly over London acting.
He had written an anti-romantic comedy The Parson's Wedding before the theatres were closed. However,
Davenant's innovations led the way of new drama. He introduced overtures, curtain tunes, instrumental
interludes and ayres with unsung dialogue. Davenant and Killigrew's theatres were expensively designed. The
active patronage of King Charles II and his brother assured the performances open to anyone who could afford
admission. Shakespeare's, Jonson's and Fletcher's plays were popular even after improvement. His versions of
Macbeth and The Tempestallowed for musical and choreographic spectacle.

The preoccupation of Restoration tragedy with politics took its cue from Shakespeare.
Dryden'sAll for Love rearranged the story of Antony and Cleopatra.
Shakespeare was less influential on those who evolved a new comic style. The comedies of the period are
concerned with philandery. Restoration comedy reverses and debunks the heroics of contemporary tragedy. In
The Rehearsal Villiers burlesqued the xtremes of heroic mode through parody.
With the death of Charles II and James' flight to France, direct royal patronage of the stage diminished. By the
late 1690s Restoration comedy dwindled. The drama of the Restoration period should be seen as an essential
element in the literature of a revolutionary age. It had an ability to provoke prejudice of audiences.

UTOPIA

Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia in 1516. The work was written in Latin and it was published in Louvain.More
coined the word “utopia” for this book and simultaneously provided a noun to describe an ideal
society."Utopia" is derived from the Greek prefix "ou-" meaning "not", and topos, "place". He wrote the work
just before the outbreak of the Reformation, but during the time when the stresses and corruption that led to
the Reformation were heading toward conflict. Few critics would today agree that More considered the island
of Utopia to be a perfect society. His goal might have been to indirectly criticize Europe's political corruption
and religious hypocrisy. However, the society of Utopia can be analyzed in many ways.

The book is composed of two parts. In Book 1 the character of Hythloday is introduced.The Utopia is the work
of More's imagination in the sense that he has constructed a "perfect society" from Hythloday's point of view,
which is the point of view of someone inspired by anger at the imperfect justice of current regimes. In Book 2
thefictitious narrator, Raphael Hythloday, gives an account of the island of Utopia, which he claims to have
discovered on his travels, and of the way of life of its inhabitants.

Utopia occupies a crescent-shaped island. The capital city, Amaurot, is located directly in the middle of the
crescent island. Every year, three wise and experienced men come from every city to the capital to debate “the
common matters of the land.” No city desires to expand, because the Utopians don’t consider themselves
owners but residents on the land. The Utopians highly value equality: there are no landlords here as in Europe
because here everyone farms. This system ensures that the Utopians always have expertise in farming, which
protects against food shortages caused by ignorance.

Utopia has a form of government alien to most other European states of the early 16th ct. The island is a
loosely decentralized kingdom ruled by an elected monarch. The Utopians select their ambassadors and the
ruler himself from the order of scholars. Personal property, money and vice have been abolished and the root-
causes of crime have been eliminated.

It is a society in which the old are honoured and the young are taught to be conformist and respectful. They
wear uniforms and meals are served in communal canteens.

The Utopians have not only eliminated money from their economy, they have devised psychological methods
to teach their people to despise those precious metals that are used for money in other countries.The Utopian
approach to wealth and money was very different from 16th century England. They developed a culture where
ostentation and vulgar displays of money were seen as pathetic and childish. The chains for their slaves of gold
or silver, so that the natives will come to despise those metals. As for jewels, they are given to children for
ornaments and playthings with the knowledge that the children will throw them away when they grow up. The
Utopians have slaves, including prisoners of war captured in battle. The children of slaves are not held in
slavery. Utopians also travel to foreign countries to purchase and enslave criminals condemned to die.
Utopians who commit serious crimes are also held as slaves and they are treated most harshly.

It is a place which has abolished original sin and the prospect of redemption. Without original sin, or an
openness to human choice, they are not tempted by unfulfilled desires.
It has several religions and all of them are tolerated. There is no official state religion in Utopia. People are
allowed freedom of belief. The majority, however, believe in one omnipotent deity whom they call Mithras.
Utopus, the conquering general, began the legacy of religious toleration. Hythloday recounts that a Christian
minister was arrested because his speech caused riots among the people. The minister was not arrested for
advocating for his own religionbut when he began endangering the safety of others, he was sentenced to exile.
The Utopians are fairly tolerant of diverse religious practices, but they are intolerant of atheists or those who
believe that there is no eternal soul or that there is no afterlife.

Women do not marry before they are 18 and men before 22. Those who indulge in forbidden embraces,
whether before or after marriage, are severely punished. Before the marriage, the intended bride and groom
are presented to one another naked, so that no one is deceived.Utopian marriages last until death and divorces
are rare, requiring the permission of the ruler. Adultery is grounds for divorce and is punished with harsh
servitude. If an adulterer repeats the offense, the punishment is death.

THE FLEA

‘The Flea’ is one of the most popular poems written by John Donne. It is made up of three nine-line stanzas.
The lines alternate between eight and ten syllables (iambic tetrameter and iambic pentameter).The rhyme
scheme: AABBCCDDD. A new idea is presented with each new rhyme. The most commonly used rhyme words
are "thee" and "be."Donne cleverly paired "me," "thee," and "be" at the end of the poem. The poet ends the
poem by subtly joining himself with the woman verbally.

As with many poems by the Metaphysical Poets, there’s a conceit used by the poet throughout ‘The Flea’ to
help him make his ‘argument’. This kind of poetry often mixed ordinary speech with intellectual paradoxes and
puns. The results were strange, comparing unlikely things.
These bizarre comparisons were called ‘conceits’. In this case, the conceit is the flea, which has bitten both the
poet and his lover, and drunk the blood from both their bodies.As a result, the blood of the poet and the
woman has already mingled in the flea’s body. They are sharing bodily fluids. The speaker tries to convince a
lady to sleep with him, arguing that if their blood mingling in the flea is innocent, then sexual mingling would
also be innocent.

The poem evokes the metaphysical belief of carpe diem. Donne encourages the lady to focus on the present
day. As his beloved moves to kill the flea, the speaker stays her hand, asking her to spare the three lives in the
flea: his life, her life, and the flea’s own life. Of course the problem is that society and the girl’s parents don't
want her to go to bed with a man before she’s married. The flea’s body, in containing the lovers’ blood, has
become a ‘marriage temple’. He pushes toward his point that the two of them have already been joined as one
in the flea, so there is no harm in joining their bodies.

The woman doesn’t listen to the man’s request not to kill the flea, and squashes it beneath her fingernail. The
woman claims triumph over the lover's argument. She feels no guilt or shame over ending the flea’s life. The
poet turns her argument back against her: if the death of the flea is not shameful then shefeel no shame if she
allowed herself to be seduced by the poet. The act of physical union would cause no harm to her reputation.
THE FAERIE QUEENE

The Faerie Queene was one of the most influential poems in the English language written by Edmund Spenser.
The first three books of The Faerie Queen were published in 1590 and then republished with Books IV through
VI in 1596.Spenser’s grand scheme for the poem was outlined in a letter addressed to Ralegh and published as
a Preface. He writes in the letter that this "Queene" represents his own monarch, Queen Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is present in each of the six massive books of The Faerie Queene. She is the ‘Magnificent Empresse’ to
whom the poem is dedicated. She is Glorianna and the focus of each of the knightly quests that Spenser
describes. In the first 3 books, her dual dignity as Head of State and as Supreme Governor of the Church of
England is honoured in allegorical explorations of Holiness, Temperance, and Chastity.Each book describe the
adventures undertaken by knights and knightly dames in honour of the twelve days of Gloriana’s annual feast.
The knights represent virtue, including Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy.
Though it takes place in a mythical land, The Faerie Queen was intended to relate to Spenser's England, most
importantly in the area of religion. The work was the product of certain conditions which existed in England
toward the end of the sixteenth century. The first of these national conditions was the revival of chivalry; the
second was the spirit of nationality fostered by the English Reformation; and the third was the revival of
learning.

Written in the Spenserian Stanza, which Spenser created specifically for this poem. The stanza consists of eight
lines of iambic pentameter followed by a single alexandrine. Rhyme scheme of ababbcbcc.

Book I tells the story of the knight of Holiness, the Redcrosse Knight. This hero gets his name from the blood-
red cross emblazoned on his shield.Glorianahas appointed him to accompany Una on a journey to her kingdom
to destroy a dragon that is ravaging the landand holding Una’s parents captive. In the“Wandering Wood” they
find monster Errour's den. Una warns Redcrosse not to venture forth, but the knight proceeds anyway and
finds himself in battle with Errour. After defeating the monster, the pair meet Archimago, the black sorcerer,
disguised as a hermit, who invites Red Cross and Una to spend the night at his home.In the night, Archimago
summons two sprites to trouble Redcrosse.One of the sprites obtains a false dream from Morpheus, the god of
sleep. The other takes the shape of Una and tries to seduce Redcrosse.

Una personifies truth and the Church.Truth-both the absolute spiritual truth and what Spenser considered to
be the true faith of the Protestant Christian Church. Her encouragement and help keeps Redcrosse knight from
doom and helps to build him into a mighty warrior capable of defeating the dragon.

Redcrosse represents both England’s patron, Saint George, and Christian man in search of holinesswho is
armed with faith in Christ.He is a hero who goes through trials and fights monsters, which is entertaining.
However, the more important purpose of the Faerie Queene is its allegory. As long as Holiness is helped by
Truth, it can defeat any of the forces of Evil. Archimago, the symbol of Hypocrisy succeeds in separating
Holiness from Truth.This moral and spiritual allegory mingles with the religious allegory of the book. The
different characters stand for various religious events. The reformation was the most important religious
movement of the time and in this epic Spenser has represented it allegorically.
Most of these villains are meant by Spenser to represent the Roman Catholic Church. The poet felt that, in the
English Reformation, the people had defeated "false religion" (Catholicism) and embraced "true religion"
(Protestantism).Dragon stands for Pope of Rome. Archimago represents the and hypocrisy of Papacy.

The Faerie Queene, however, also has many sources outside of the Bible. Spenser considers himself an epic
poet in the classical tradition and so he borrows heavily from the great epics of antiquity: Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.

PASSIONATE SHEPERD TO HIS LOVE

One of Marlowe's earlier works. It may be the most widely recognized piece that he ever wrote. It is considered
one of the earliest examples of the pastoral style of British poetry in the late Renaissance period.Pastoral
tradition originated with Theocritus during the 3rdctb.c.

A pastoral poem promotes the characteristics of the countryside over those of the town or city, presenting an
idealized image of country life that may have been quite at odds with the reality of a hard life in harsh
conditions.
This 16th Century poem centers around a shepherd painting an idyllic picture of what country life will be like to
the person he loves. The poem commences with a request to the beloved of the speaker to come to live with
him and be his love. He promises the comfort of the countryside, many pleasures, and simple living. The
shepherd makes it clear that if his love accepts his proposal then together they will experience the pleasures he
lists.The promises include posies and a bed of roses, which serve as symbols of care and devotion for the
relationship. The poem ends without the lover's reply.

Marlowe uses enjambment in these lines to beautify the setting, he extends the list of sites onto the next line
to exaggerate the numerous places there are in the countryside.The shepherd never mentions the changing of
seasons or the coldness of winter the people of the countryside endure. He only writes about the picturesque
setting in the spring.

A significant theme of the poem is the Carpe diem, which means seize the day. Living in the present and
enjoying the day is the major theme of the then era. Influenced by this theme, Marlowe also also urges his lady
to enjoy the pleasures of life without any hesitation.

The entire poem is composed of six four-line stanzas, or quatrains. Each quatrain is made up of two rhyming
couplets, the majority of which are written in perfect iambic tetrameter.In line 10the iambic pattern, so far
unbroken, reverses to trochaic.This kind of shift of meter makes the poem lighter to read, andlessens any sing-
song quality that might occur if too many regular lines appear in sequence.
Throughout the poem, the shepherd also uses figurative language, visual imagery, and symbolism.

The poem is filled with alliteration, consonance and assonance. “ sit ... seeing the shepherds," or the F sound in
"feed their flocks“.The most striking aspect of the poem is the imagery. Marlowe evokes in the readers' mind a
picture of a delightful landscape.Effective imagery in poetry allows the reader to enter into the poem and
experience it with all their senses.

The poem can seem light but can be read as containing irony, written by an urban man who constructed
impossible rural scenarios. It is an exaggerated and idealized picture of the countryside. It is far from the reality
of hard work and danger that shepherds often faced.
ASTROPHIL AND STELLA

It was the first great Elizabethan sonnet sequencethat consists of 108 sonnets, interrupted by eleven
“songs”.Describes the development of the unrequited love of Astrophil for Stella.

Stella is Penelope Devereux.By using the pseudonym “Stella” for the girl in his sonnets, Sidney was following
the pattern in poetry set by Petrarch, who in his sonnets celebrated his beloved under the name of “Laura.”
However, with the name Stella, Sidney attains further significance because it is a Latin word for “star.” The
speaker of the sonnets, then is named Astrophel, or “star-lover” in Greek.The first thirty sonnets of the
sequence were written while "Stella" was still the unmarried Penelope. Though she did not give Sidney any
open marks of encouragement, she also did not express any displeasure with his romantic attentions.After
finding out that she had married, he still continues in his love for Stella.

Sidney’s sonnets, like Petrarch’s, form a “sequence,” a group of sonnets each of which is an artistic whole, yet
which together develop a pattern of ideas. This pattern is not a “story” or for the form is not narrative, but a
development of character or emotions.Sidney acknowledges that he is working in a well-tried Petrarchan
tradition. However, where Petrarch’s Laura remains unresponsive, Sidney’s Astrophil holds to the hope that his
Stella might still favour him, and he ends his long campaign aware of his failure, not with Petrarch’s expressions
of having passed through a purifying spiritual experience.

1. The structure of the sonnet keeps the Petrarchan form in that there is one volta in line 9 which is introduced
by „but“. However, it follows the English sonnet form in that it has 3 quatrains and an ending couplet. The
rhyme scheme is ababababcdcd ee. One of the six sonnets in which Sidney uses hexameter lines rather than
the conventional pentameters.

Sidney's main idea in the opening quatrain is that Astrophil will write poetry for his love in hopes that it will win
her over. However, he is not overly optimistic.He hopes that Stella will read his writings and become deeply
acquainted with his love, and if she pities him, he will win the “grace” of her attention. He feels both pain and
pleasure as a result of his love. The pain comes from rejection or the idea that he cannot be with her.This
sonnet demonstrates the first of many clashes between reason and passion that appear in the sonnet
sequence. He already seems to know that he will never truly win Stella, but he cannot help but desire her.

The author also describes his difficulties in composing the sonnet sequence. He has trouble finding words to
express his emotions. These are not exactly feelings of love but „blackest of woe“. He tried to look at other
poets' works in order to gain inspiration but it did not help. He uses a metaphor – showers and brain. Finally, he
realizes that he must look within himself for inspiration.

6. This poem is the second of six in hexameters in the sequence.

Mirroring the first sonnet in the sequence, Sidney describes why he is unable to copy other poets. He refers to
the numerous conventions used to write sonnets.First, some poets view love as an force that makes lovers
suffer. Second, some use contradictory terms or oxymorons. The oxymororns talk about the contradictory
nature of love. We are metaphorically woulded by love but we desire those wounds. Third, some use
mythology to express their ideas. Fourth, some use the pastoral tradition, depicting gentlemen and ladies
dressed as shepherds and shepherdesses. Finally, some use conceits to write their sonnets. Instead of writing
poetry, however, all that he needs to do to show his love is reveal the trembling in his voice as he whispers her
name.
SHAKESPEARE SONNETS

The 154 sonnets that were first published all together in 1609.Sonnets are poems that consist of 14 lines,
traditionally written in iambic pentameter, that is, in lines ten syllables long, with accents falling on every
second syllable. The Shakespearean sonnet, the form of sonnet utilized throughout Shakespeare’s
sequence, is divided into four parts. The first three parts are each four lines long, and are known as
quatrains, rhymed ABAB. The fourth part is called the couplet, and is rhymed CC. The Shakespearean
sonnet is often used to develop a sequence of ideas, one in each quatrain, while the couplet offers
either a summary or a new take on the preceding ideas.
Shakespeare’s sonnets can be divided into two major groups: the fair lord sonnets (1-126) and the
dark lady sonnets (127-154). The fair lord sonnets explore the narrator's infatuation with a young and
beautiful man, while the dark lady sonnets engage his lustful desire for a woman. The two
addressees of the sonnets are usually referred to as the “young man” and the “dark lady”. The
characters and their relations to Shakespeare himself are a mystery.The sonnets have the feel of
autobiographical poems, but we don’t know whether they deal with real events or not.

130

Sonnet 130 is a parody of the Dark Lady. It mocks the conventions of love poetry common to Shakespeare’s
day.He is making fun of the clichés of love poetry and the comparisons some made when talking about their
lovers.Petrarch, for example, addressed many of his most famous sonnets to an idealized woman named Laura,
whose beauty he often likened to that of a goddess. In contrast Shakespeare makes no attempt to deify the
dark lady. In other words, she is not conventionally beautiful in any sense. The speaker isn't actually making fun
of his own lover so much as he is pointing out how ridiculous poetic comparisons can become. A volta appears
in the concluding couplet, introduced by „and yet“. He has been criticizing his mistress, and then, all of a
sudden, he confesses his love. The speaker shows he has a sincere and thoughtful side.
The rhetorical structure of the sonnet is important to its effect. In the first quatrain, the speaker spends one
line on each comparison between his mistress and something else. In the second and third quatrains, he
expands the descriptions to occupy two lines each, so that roses/cheeks, perfume/breath, music/voice, and
goddess/mistress each receive a pair of unrhymed lines. This creates the effect of an expanding and developing
argument, and neatly prevents the poemfrom becoming stagnant.

138

It is one of the most famous of Shakespeare's sonnets. In Sonnet 138 the poet reveals the nature of his
relationship with the dark lady. she is still very much the poet's mistress, but the poet is under no illusions
about hercharacter. In lines 1 and 2 he confesses that he knows that his lover is lying when she tells that she is
the epitome of honesty, but he pretends to believe her. The word "lies" in line 2 is a pun and it can mean both
"sleep with" and "falsehoods". The speaker lies so that his lover belives he is an inexperienced youngster, even
though both of them know that he is not.the two lovers agree to a relationship based on mutual deception.He
rhetorically asks why she does not admit to being unjust and why does not he say that he is old. Then, the poet
provides an answer in the following lines. Love is the best when it seems to be based on trust and no one wants
to be reminded of their age. In the couplet, „lie“ has a double meaning. They find their truth through the
acceptance of lies.
HOLY SONNETS

Holy Sonnets, also called Divine Sonnets are a series of 19 poems by John Donne that were published
posthumously. The poems are sonnets that follow the Shakespearean sonnet form in that they are made up of
three quatrains and a concluding couplet. However, Donne has chosen the Italian sonnet rhyme scheme of
abba for the first two quatrains, the third quatraine rhyme cddc or cdcd, followed by a couplet that rhymes ee
as usual.

Many of the themes within the sonnets overlap. While each individual sonnet has a clear voice and concept,
similar notes can be found in other sonnets as well.
Most enact a double drama; they evoke a picture - of the end of the world, of Death itself or of a distressed
sinner fearful of his damnation. They also project the personality of a responsive speaker, one who seems to
represent the sinful humanity. Like the love-poems, Donne’s religious verse suggests an emotional relationship,
that of the sinner to a loving but severe God. The poems address the problem of faith in a tortured world with
its death and misery. They also reflect their author's struggles to come to terms with his own history of
sinfulness, his inconstant and unreliable faith, his anxiety about his salvation.

10

“Death Be Not Proud” presents an argument against the power of death. The speaker immediately creates a
personified version of death by talking directly to him. He warns Death against pride in his power. Even though
for generations people have feared Death and called him “mighty and dreadful” he shouldn't be proud. He
concludes the introductory argument of the first quatrain by declaring to death that people do not die if Death
strikes them and that it cannot kill the poet. Although physical death occurs, people do not truly die. Death
leads to the new life of Christian eternity. The speaker mocks Death by calling it “Poor Death”. In the following
quatraine, the speaker compares death to “rest and sleep” and even uses the word “pleasure” to describe how
one should feel about death. The speaker implies that sleep is simply a small glimpse of Death. Donne then
returns to criticizing Death, calling it a slave. "Desperate men," refers to people who commit suicide. The
"poppy" is a flower used to make opium. The speaker says that poppies and magic charms can make men sleep
as well as, or better than, Death’s stroke, so why should Death swell with pride?
In the final couplet, the poet reveals why he has criticized Death. Death is only “one short sleep” and that those
who experience Death with “wake eternally”. Death is itself destined to die when, as in the Christian tradition,
the dead are resurrected to their eternal reward. The poem makes the paradoxical statement that mortality is
itself mortal. The confident tone of Death, be not Proud, and the direct confrontation of Death provides an
ironic sense of comfort to the readers by implicitly suggesting that Death is not to be feared at all, but that in
the end, Death will be overcome by something even greater.

To convey his message, Donne relies primarily on personification. Death becomes a person whom Donne
addresses, using the second-person singular. Donne also uses alliteration. The repetition of „d“ induces a
sleepy rythm that captures the spirit of Donne's extended metaphor of death as sleep.

14

Batter my Heart expresses the poets call upon God to take hold of him, while using deeply spiritual and
physical arresting images. The speaker begins by asking God (along with Jesus and the Holy Ghost; together,
they are the Trinity that makes up the Christian "three-personed God") to attack his heart as if it were the gates
of a fortress town. The poet wants to be made “new”. This request indicates that he considers his too badly
damaged or too sinful to be reparable. Instead, God must re-create him to make him what he needs to be. The
paradox is that he must be overthrown like a town in order to rise stronger.
The physical verbs that are used immediately sets the violent theme of the poem. Donne wants God to 'break,
blow' and 'burn' his heart so he can become 'imprisoned' in God's power, creating a paradoxical image of a
benevolent God acting in a brutal way. The speaker explicitly links himself to a captured town. He tries to let
God enter but his reason, God’s “viceroy” in the town of his soul, is captive to other and is failing to persuade
him to leave his sins behind. This imagery of warfare that repeats in the sonnet symbolises his soul at war with
himself; only if God 'batters' Donne’s sinful heart will he be able to 'divorce' the devil.

A volta appears introduced by the conjunction 'yet'. It signifies a different perspective on the original topic and
Donne turns from a desperate state to more reflective tone. He admits that he loves God, and wants to be
loved, but is tied down to God's unspecified "enemy".

In the paradoxical final couplet, the speaker claims that only if God takes him prisoner can he be free and he
can only be chaste and pure if God ravishes him. This is a poem in which a man asks for forgiveness and
salvation from God, but he expresses his frustration that God hasn't revealed himself forcefully enough.

TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH USE OF TIME

It is a poem written by English Cavalier poet Robert Herrick in the 17th century. The poem promotes carpe
diem. The Roman poet Horace popularized the term carpe diem in the eleventh poem of his first book of Odes.
After Horace died, carpe diem gained widespread currency as a term for categorizing any literary work whose
primary purpose was to persuade readers to make the most of the here and now. Thus, Herrick's “To the
Virgins" is a lyric poem that falls into the carpe diem genre. The title of the poem suggests that the theme will
be carpe diem, that it is important to seize opportunities because life is short and fleeting. The term „virgin“ in
the period could mean young woman, unmarried woman or virgin in the modern sense.

In the first stanza, the poet tells the virgins to gather their rosebuds. The rosebuds are symbolic. The speaker
isn't telling his reader to gather flowers but to gather lovers while she is still young and beautiful. The poet
might also be telling her to appreciate her youth while she still has it because time goes quickly. Life is fleeting.
One day one experiences joy, as suggested by the smiling flower, and the next day death. The poet mentions
that the flower will die soon and the virgins whom the speaker addresses are destined to follow the same fate
as the rose.

Herrick concentrates on the passing of the day in the second stanza. The movement of the sunis a metaphor for
the passage of life. The poet notes that youth, the time when one’s blood is “warm”, is the “best” time of one’s
life. It evokes the notion of carpe diem, and implies that one should celebrate this moment in life by indulging
in it. However, in the final two lines of the stanza, the poet makes a twist and reminds the readers of death and
how youth is passing.

In the fourth stanza the poet adresses the virgins, telling to marry while they can. Marriage was considered of
utmost importance for the purpose of procreation. By urging marriage, the speaker introduces a religious and
moral element to the pursuit of pleasure.

The poem alternates between two different types of meter. The odd-numbered lines are all in iambic
tetrameter, while the even-numbered lines are all in iambic trimeter. The rhyme scheme is simple: ABAB.
CORINNA'S GOING A-MAYING

is a lyric poem with a pastoral setting and carpe diem theme. Both types of poetry tend to be dramatic, spoken
by a lover to his beloved. Pastoral literature envisages an ideal world of natureThe Roman poet Horace
popularized the term carpe diem in the eleventh poem of his first book of Odes. After Horace died, carpe diem
gained widespread currency as a term for categorizing any literary work whose primary purpose was to
persuade readers to make the most of the here and now.

The poem is a dramatic monologue, with the poet tries to persuade Corinna to join the May day celebrations.
May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries, most associated with towns and
villages celebrating springtime fertility. In Robert Herrick's England, May Day was about having fun and
celebrating nature, not about religious worship.

His personification of nature gives the dawn human qualities: the morning is a woman with wings who tosses
dawn-colors across the sky. The morning is named Aurora,the goddess of the dawn.

Corinna is told to get up and allow herself to be seen. The poet urges her to be quick in her morning rituals and
not to bother with jewels.

he title of this poem is particularly interesting in that it asserts unequivocably that Corinna will take part in the
activities of May morning, although there is no certainty in the text that she will do so. She remains no more
than a name