Renaissance and Seventeenth Century Orientation

This is Unit Seventeen of Analyzing and Interpreting Literature, part one of two: the Renaissance and seventeenth century, the second-heaviest band, and an age this course has been reading since unit two. Unit sixteen closed by saying the Renaissance had already been met. Here is this unit's governing idea, and it pays off in five expectations at the end of this part: this unit introduces no new writer and no new term. Shakespeare carried the syntax and structure units, Donne the conceit, Marlowe the soliloquy, Milton the delayed verb, and no unit yet said what age they share. The band is worth twenty to thirty percent, so a candidate will meet several passages from it. We begin with what the period was, print, classics, religion and theatre, each showing on the page. Then the sonnet sequence and its Petrarchan inheritance, poems that argue rather than sigh, and the metaphysical manner's deliberate strain. Then verse drama and Milton's English epic, whose first sentence holds its verb until line six. Then the bare daylight stage, Marlowe's overreacher and his literal stake, and Shakespeare across the band. Last, the language that identifies the band on sight, and five expectations that each point at a tool already built. By the end you will be able to name the period's four conditions. To expect an argument from a sonnet and a proof from a conceit. To parse Milton. To read the stage's conditions in a text. And to hold five expectations for any passage from the band.

Five entries to start: the band's weight, the four writers already read, what the period was, classical reference as ordinary, and religion as shared vocabulary rather than piety.

Twenty to thirty percent of the paper.

AIL 1601 The Second-Heaviest Band

The Renaissance and seventeenth century carry twenty to thirty percent of the exam. Only the two most recent period bands weigh more. A candidate is likely to meet several passages from this range, which makes it worth real orientation rather than a glance; several passages, not one.

Four writers, six earlier units.

AIL 1602 You Have Been Here Since Unit Two

Shakespeare's sonnets carried the syntax unit and the structure unit. Donne carried the conceit and the valediction. Marlowe carried the soliloquy. Milton was named in unit two. Four writers, six craft units, and no unit yet said what age they share; the age itself has not been named.

Print, classics, religion, theatre.

AIL 1603 What the Period Was

An age of expanding print, of classical texts newly available, of religious upheaval and of a commercial theatre. Each of those shows up in the writing: more books, more classical reference, more argument about salvation, and plays written for money; each shows up on the page.

Allusions arrive unexplained.

AIL 1604 Classical Reference as Ordinary

Writers assumed readers knew Greek and Roman story, so allusions arrive unexplained. Unit seven defined allusion, the glossary having no headword. On this exam the passage supplies what you need, but the density of reference is a period marker in itself; density itself marks the period.

Religious diction, not always devout.

AIL 1605 Religion as Common Ground

Scripture and doctrine were shared vocabulary, so religious language appears in love poems and plays without signalling piety. Donne's lovers are described in devotional terms and Faustus's damnation is a literal stake. Reading religious diction as automatically devout misreads the age; it was shared vocabulary.

Seven entries on the sonnet and the metaphysical manner: sequences, the Petrarchan convention and poets working against it, feeling organised as proof, the glossary's conceit, Donne's yoked vehicles, and his mid-argument openings.

Sonnets written in linked series.

AIL 1606 The Sonnet Sequence

Poets wrote sonnets in linked series addressed to one person across many poems. Shakespeare's run to a hundred and fifty-four. A sequence means a passage may depend on poems the exam has not printed, which the board handles by choosing sonnets that stand alone; the exam prints ones that stand alone.

Idealised beloved, suffering lover.

AIL 1607 The Petrarchan Convention

The form arrived from Italy with a set of habits: an idealised and unattainable beloved, the lover's suffering, and comparisons of the beloved to suns, roses and jewels. Unit nine took the Petrarchan rhyme scheme; this is the matter that came with it, the matter and not the scheme.

The departure needs the convention.

AIL 1608 Working Against the Convention

Because the habits were so well known, poets could get effects by breaking them. A sonnet that denies its beloved is like the sun is answering a tradition the reader is expected to hold. Knowing the convention is what lets a candidate see the departure; a denial is answering something.

Feeling organised as proof.

AIL 1609 Expect an Argument, Not a Sigh

Renaissance love poems reason. They propose, object, concede and conclude, which is why unit nine could read Sonnet twenty-nine as a case. Approaching one as an outpouring of feeling misses that its feeling is organised as a proof, because these poems argue.

Ingenious, elaborate, argumentative.

AIL 1610 The Metaphysical Manner

The glossary names the metaphysical poets in its conceit entry, defining a conceit as an unusually ingenious or elaborate metaphor and citing Donne. The manner is argumentative, image-driven and often deliberately strained. Unit seven worked it on the compasses, and the strain is intentional.

The distance is the point.

AIL 1611 Donne's Yoked Vehicles

He compares things that do not belong together: two souls and a pair of compasses, a parting and beaten gold. The distance between tenor and vehicle is the point, because a comparison that has to be worked for is a comparison the reader must think through.

The conversation is already running.

AIL 1612 Donne Begins Mid-Argument

His poems often open as though a conversation were already running, with an imperative or an objection. The effect is dramatic rather than lyrical, and it is why unit five could read his speaker as a rhetorical position rather than a diary entry; dramatic, not lyrical.

Eight entries on verse drama and the epic: blank verse on stage, Milton's ambition, his first sentence from disobedience to sing, the invocation redirected, things unattempted, his sentence, and his Latinate order.

The plays are poems as well.

AIL 1613 Verse Drama

The commercial theatre of the period wrote in blank verse, which unit six defined as unrhymed iambic pentameter. Marlowe and Shakespeare both used it, and units thirteen and fourteen worked scenes from each. The band's drama and its poetry are the same material, and the two overlap here.

An English epic, in blank verse.

AIL 1614 The English Epic

Milton set out to write an epic in English on a scriptural subject, in blank verse rather than in the couplets Pope would later use for Homer. Unit sixteen gave the glossary's demanding epic definition, and Paradise Lost was built to meet every clause of it.

Disobedience, fruit, death, loss.

AIL 1615 "Of Man's First Disobedience"

Milton opens on man's first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe, with loss of Eden, until one greater man restore us and regain the blissful seat. The subject is named before the verb.

The verb waits five lines.

AIL 1616 "Sing, Heavenly Muse"

The main verb arrives in the sixth line: sing, Heavenly Muse. Five lines of object precede the imperative that governs them. Unit two used this sentence as its example of a delayed main verb, and the delay is a deliberate imitation of classical epic syntax; unit two's example, in full.

The convention, then a redirection.

AIL 1617 An Invocation, on the Greek Pattern

Unit sixteen named the convention: an epic opens by calling a muse to sing through the poet. Milton follows it exactly and then redirects it, invoking not a Greek muse but the spirit that inspired the shepherd who taught the chosen seed; a Greek form, a scriptural muse.

The poem announces its ambition.

AIL 1618 "Things Unattempted Yet in Prose or Rhyme"

He says his adventurous song intends to soar above the Aonian mount and pursue things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. The poem announces its own ambition in its first verse paragraph, which is itself a convention and also a considerable claim, a convention and a real claim.

Find the verb, then the spine.

AIL 1619 Milton's Sentence

His verse paragraphs run to great length, with clauses suspended inside clauses and the main verb held back. Unit two's procedure is what opens them: find the main verb, then its subject, then fit the rest around that spine; unit two's procedure is mandatory here.

English arranged on Latin lines.

AIL 1620 Latinate Word Order

Milton arranges English on Latin principles, putting adjectives after nouns and holding verbs to the end of clauses. The effect is elevation, and the cost is difficulty. A candidate who can parse it is reading the hardest syntax the exam is likely to print, the hardest on the paper.

Six entries on the theatre and two of its writers: the bare daylight stage, setting established by speech, boys in women's parts, Marlowe's overreacher, damnation as a literal stake, and Shakespeare across the band.

Bare stage, daylight, boy actors.

AIL 1621 The Renaissance Theatre

Plays were written for a commercial playhouse, performed in daylight on a bare stage with no scenery and with boys in women's parts. Every one of those conditions shows in the texts: places are named in speech, and disguise plots exploit the casting; the conditions show in the text.

The dialogue paints the scene.

AIL 1622 Setting Established by Speech

With no scenery, a character must say where they are. Lines that seem to describe the obvious are doing the work a set would do now. Unit eleven called setting an argument; on this stage it is first of all information, and description is doing a set's job.

A boy, a woman, a disguise.

AIL 1623 Boys in Women's Parts

Women's roles were played by boys, which makes a plot like Twelfth Night's a boy playing a woman disguised as a man. Unit fifteen worked Viola's line that she is not what she is, and the casting adds a layer the printed text does not state; the layer is historical, not textual.

Wanting more than the position allows.

AIL 1624 Marlowe and the Overreacher

Marlowe's protagonists want more than their position allows: knowledge, power, empire. Faustus sells his soul for knowledge and unit fourteen worked his last hour. The pattern is a period one, and unit thirteen's hamartia entry describes its mechanism exactly; unit thirteen named the mechanism.

The stake was literal.

AIL 1625 Damnation as a Literal Stake

For Marlowe's first audiences hell was not a metaphor, so Faustus's clock is counting toward something real. Reading his final soliloquy as a figure for regret loses the play's whole pressure, which is a period fact with a direct effect on the reading; it is not a figure for regret.

Sonnets, comedies, tragedies, one writer.

AIL 1626 Shakespeare Across the Band

He wrote sonnets in the sequence tradition, comedies exploiting the casting conventions, and tragedies in blank verse. Unit fifteen treated him as an exam problem in his own right. Within this band he is the writer most likely to appear and the one already best prepared.

Four entries to close: the language cluster that identifies the band, the shifted senses that concentrate here, spelling and capitalisation the exam will regularise, and five expectations for any passage.

Thou, hast, doth, and inversion.

AIL 1627 What the Language Looks Like

Thou and thee for the singular, verb endings in st and th, contractions marked with apostrophes, and inverted word order throughout. Unit two taught all of it. Recognising the cluster identifies the band on sight, before any content is read; the cluster identifies the band.

All twelve senses came from here.

AIL 1628 The Shifted Senses Concentrate Here

Unit three's twelve worked senses all came from this band's writers: want, still, prevent, conceit, wit, brave, rude, curious, several, quick, sad and fond. A passage from this period is where the word-in-context question is most likely to be set, the likeliest place for that question.

Originals vary; exams regularise.

AIL 1629 Spelling and Capitalisation

Original printings capitalise nouns freely and spell inconsistently. An exam text will be regularised, as unit one's fourth obligation records. The witness texts this course reads are closer to the originals, which is why entries quote them and note the difference; unit one's obligation, again.

Five expectations, five tools.

AIL 1630 What to Expect From a Passage

Verse more often than prose, an argument rather than a description, at least one elaborate figure, inverted syntax, and two or three words in shifted senses. Five expectations, and each one points at a craft unit that has already supplied the tool; here the governing idea pays off.

That is the band, the period, the sonnet and Donne, Milton, the theatre and its writers, and the language, with the governing idea paid off in five expectations that need no new tool. You can say the band is twenty to thirty percent, name the four writers read since unit two, and see print, classics, religion and theatre on the page, with allusion unexplained and religious diction not always devout. You can describe the sonnet sequence and the Petrarchan matter, see a departure as answering a convention, expect an argument rather than a sigh, and read Donne's strained, yoked, mid-argument manner. You can place verse drama and Milton's English epic, parse his first sentence to sing in line six, read the invocation redirected and the ambition announced, and open his Latinate order with unit two's procedure. You can read a bare daylight stage in the dialogue, a boy playing a woman disguised, Marlowe's overreacher counting toward a literal hell, and Shakespeare across the band. And you can identify the band by thou and the endings, expect the shifted senses here, expect regularised texts, and hold five expectations. Part two gives the procedure and the traps.