English Renaissance during the Late Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century

Renaissance is a French word that means “rebirth”/ “revival”. The English renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late fifteenth century to the early seventeenth century. English Renaissance started it’s rising in 1485 when Battle of Bosworth Field ended the Wars of the Roses and Tudor Dynasty was inaugurated. England saw little of these Renaissance style and ideas until more than a century. The Elizabethan era in the second half of the sixteenth century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance (“English Renaissance”).

During the period of Renaissance old sciences revived and new sciences emerged. The medieval Christian worldview was giving way to a more modern, secular and humanistic view of the world and humanity. Literature flourished as never before and the most significant impact of the Renaissance on English Literature was seen in the change of perception of human beings (“Impact of Renaissance on English Literature”).

There were many achievements of sixty two years between Utopia and 1579. National literature and thirsting curiosity and great love for classical literature was enlarged. After 1581, the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and the state was shaken and People came to a new awareness (“The English Renaissance”).

Thomas More (1477-1535), Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were some of the key Figures in English Renaissance (“The English Renaissance”).

In modern English period, the beginning of which is conveniently placed at 1500, the English Renaissance came in to play and it caused English to develop along somewhat different lines from its history in the Middle Ages. The new factors were the printing press, the rapid spread of popular education, the increased communication and the means of communication, the growth of specialized knowledge and the emergence of various forms of self-consciousness about language (“A History of the English Language”).

Nawodya Chamini

Works Cited

• Baugh, Albert C., Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language, 5th ed. London: Pearson Education, 2005. Print.

• “English Renaissance”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2020 ( click here )

• “Impact of Renaissance on English Literature”. Slideshare.net, Sadaf Khalid. 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 30 Nov. 2020 ( click here )

• “The English Renaissance”. Slideplayer.com. Carly Pelfrey. 01 May 2015. Web. 01 Dec. 2020 (click here )