Read this article to know about the English Renaissance Literature Characteristics.

Introduction

The term Renaissance means “Rebirth”. The movement had its origin in Italy and it gradually spread throughout the Europe. The movement had significant influence over the English Literature.

English Renaissance Literature Summary

After the end of the War of the Roses (1453-87), Tudor Dynasty came to power in England. Henry VIII was the ruler of English from 1509-1547. He desired to annul his first marriage as he had no heir from his wife. However, polygamy was prohibited under the rule of Catholic Church. Thus he fell into conflict with the Church.

He was even ex-communicated by Church but he did not pay heed to it. To fulfill his desire he, for the first time in the History of England, ended the rule of Catholic Church and established himself as both the head of the state as well as of the Church. This step of his influenced every aspect of English including life, culture, literature, thoughts etc from that time onward.

English Renaissance Literature Writers

1. MARTIN LUTHER: Protestantism originated with Luther’s 95 Theses in Wittenberg in 1517. Later it became the official national religion of England.
2. CHARLES DARWIN: His work On the Origin of Species (1859) undermined the religious and biblical beliefs and led to the emergence of new ideas that challenged the old beliefs.
3. ERASMUS: He challenged the narrowness of Catholic Church. He criticised the unnecessary rituals, the sale of pardon paper etc. He wished to return to the values of early Church. In order to do so, he produced a Greek edition of Scriptures in place of existing Latin one.
4. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: He traveled in search of the Indies in 1492 and landed first in the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola and was credited with having discovered the Americas. This discovery also opened the eyes of the world.
5. COPERNICUS AND GALILEO: They established and postulated scientifically that Earth is not the center of the universe as believed by the people.

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English Renaissance Literature Characteristics

1. Reforms in the Institutions

In the earlier times, literature was dominated by the spirit of religion and blind faith. However, in the Renaissance Age, institutions were questioned and re-evaluated. Renaissance broadened and took the cognitive level of human mind to new heights.

1. Dominance of Reason

In the Renaissance age, it was the reason instead of the religion that governed the human behavior. The man was free to make the use of his power. Now reason dominated all the spheres of life that decreased the influence of religion on the people. Most of the blind faiths and practices were given up.

1. Man-Centred Society

Earlier religion was the center of interest. Hence the main concern of literature was to deal with the religion directly or indirectly. In the Renaissance age, the focus shifted from religion to man and man became the center of interest.

1. Development of Science

The age was accompanied by the birth of modern science, mathematics, astronomy etc. In the 4 th decade of 16 th century, Copernicus replaced Aristotle’s system with the sun, instead of earth at the center of the universe. In astronomy, Harvey discovered circulation of blood in 1628. In addition to this, there was the use of clocks, telescopes, thermometers, compasses, microscopes etc. Hence there was a considerable development in the scientific field.

1. The era of Renowned Names

The literature of the English Renaissance contains some of the greatest names in all world literature:

The Counter-reformation also took birth in response to reformation soon after the fame of the later touched skies. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563). The primary objective of this movement was to reform the Christian Catholic Church and counter the influence of Protestantism.

Source: National Geografic site

By Tom O"Neill

[Примечание переводчика - А.П.Чехов говорил: "Больных становится больше потому, что больше становится врачей". Если переиначить, то шедевров становится больше потому, что становится больше специалистов по шедеврам.]

Bianca Sforza attracted few stares when introduced to the art world on January 30, 1998. She was just a pretty face in a frame to the crowd at a Christie"s auction in New York City. Nobody knew her name at the time, or the name of the artist who had made the portrait. The catalog listed the work-a colored chalk-and-ink drawing on vellum-as early 19th century and German, with borrowed Renaissance styling. A New York dealer, Kate Ganz, purchased the picture for $21,850.

Бианка Сфорца поначалу не привлекла пристальных взоров, когда появилась в мире искусства 30 января 1998 года. Просто милое лицо в рамке среди многочисленных лотов на аукционе Кристи в Нью-Йорке. Тогда никто не знал её имени, как и имени создателя этого портрета. По каталогу она значилась как цветной рисунок на пергаменте мелом и чернилами [неизвестного] немецкого художника начала 19-го века с элементами стиля Ренессанса. Кейт Ганц, коллекционер из Нью-Йорка, купила эту картину за 21850 долларов.

The price hadn"t budged almost ten years later when a Canadian collector, Peter Silverman, saw Bianca"s profile in Ganz"s gallery and promptly bought it. The drawing might actually date from the Renaissance, he thought. Ganz herself had mentioned Leonardo da Vinci, that magical name, as an influence on the artist. Silverman came to wonder, What if this is the work of the great Leonardo himself?

Десять лет цена картины оставалась прежней, пока профиль Бианки не увидел в галерее Ганц канадский коллекционер Питер Силвермен. Он немедленно купил эту картину. Ему показалось, что она действительно могла быть написана в период Ренессанса. Сама Ганц упоминала магическое имя Леонардо да Винчи, который мог оказать влияние на создателя картины. И Сильвермен задумался: а что, если это и есть работа самого великого Леонардо да Винчи?

That someone could walk into a gallery and buy a drawing that turns out to be a previously unknown Leonardo masterpiece, worth perhaps $100 million, seems pure urban myth. Discovery of a Leonardo is truly rare. At the time of Silverman"s purchase, it had been more than 75 years since the last authentication of one of the master"s paintings. There was no record that the creator of the "Mona Lisa" ever made a major work on vellum, no known copies, no preparatory drawings. If this image was an authentic Leonardo, where had it been hiding for 500 years?

Это выглядит как миф чистой воды: некто заходит в галерею и покупает рисунок, который оказывается ранее неизвестным шедевром Леонардо да Винчи стоимостью около 100 миллионов долларов. Новые открытия картин Леонардо случаются очень редко. Когда Сильвермен купил эту картину, прошло 75 лет со времени последней находки картины гениального мастера. И нигде не было сведений о том, что создатель "Моны Лизы" писал на пергаменте, не было известно никаких копий таких работ, никаких рисунков-этюдов для них. Если это подлинный портрет кисти Леонардо, то где он прятался 500 лет?

Silverman emailed a digital image of Bianca to Martin Kemp. Emeritus professor of art history at Oxford University and a renowned Leonardo scholar, Kemp regularly receives images, sometimes two a week, from people he calls "Leonardo loonies," convinced they have discovered a new work. "My reflex is to say, No!" Kemp told me. But the "uncanny vitality" in the young woman"s face made him want a closer look. He flew to Zurich, where Silverman kept the drawing in a vault. At 13 by 9¾ inches, it is roughly the size of a legal pad. "When I saw it," Kemp said, "I experienced a kind of frisson, a feeling that this is not normal."

Силвермен по электронной почте направил цифровое фото Бианки Мартину Кемпу - почётному профессору истории искусств Оксфордского университета и широко известному специалисту по Леонардо да Винчи. Кемп постоянно получает такие фотографии, порой по паре в неделю, от "фанатиков Леонардо да Винчи", убеждённых, что они нашли новую работу художника. Кемп рассказал мне: "Моей рефлекторной реакцией было сказать "Нет!" Но "непостижимая живость" лица молодой женщины заставила его присмотреться внимательнее. Он полетел в Цюрих, где Сильвермен хранил этот рисунок в специальном хранилище ценностей. Размером рисунок - с блокнот с отрывными страницами: 13 на 9,75 дюймов. Кемп говорит: "Я испытал нервную дрожь при первом взгляде на картину, почувствовав её необычность".

That initial shiver of excitement compelled Kemp to embark on his own investigation. He was aided by high-resolution multispectral scans by Pascal Cotte of Lumiere Technology in Paris, allowing Kemp to study the drawing"s layers, from first strokes to later restorations. The more Kemp looked with his connoisseur"s eye, the more he saw what he considered evidence of Leonardo"s hand-how the hair bunched beneath the strings holding it in place, the beautiful modulation of colors, the precise lines. Shaded areas showed distinctive left-handed strokes just like Leonardo"s. The expression, poised but pensive, the look of someone growing up too fast, conveyed Leonardo"s maxim that a portrait should reveal "motion of the mind."

Это содрогание заставило Кемпа начать собственное исследование картины. Паскаль Котт из парижской компании Lumiere Technology помог провести высокоточное (много)спектральное сканирование картины, что позволило Кемпу проследить наложение слоёв от первых штрихов до позднейшей реставрации. Глазом знатока Кемп всё больше узнавал манеру письма Леонардо да Винчи - строение кисти, прекрасные цветовые переходы, точность линий. На затенённых участках ясно виделись мазки левой рукой, характерные для Леонардо. Выражение лица, уравновешенное, но задумчивое (как у девочки, быстро становящейся взрослой) соответствовало творческому кредо Леонардо о том, что портрет должен показывать "движение души".

Kemp also needed proof that the portrait had been made during Leonardo"s lifetime (1452-1519) and that its historical particulars fit the artist"s biography. The vellum, probably calfskin, had been carbon-dated, its origin placed somewhere between 1440 and 1650. Costume research revealed that the sitter belonged specifically to the Milanese court of the 1490s, with its fashion for elaborately bound hair. Leonardo lived in Milan during this time, accepting commissions for court portraits. Stitch marks on the edge of the portrait suggested that it came from a book, possibly one commemorating a royal marriage.

Кемпу нужно было доказать, что портрет был создан при жизни Леонардо (1452-1519) и что его художественные особенности соответствуют биографии художника. Провели радиоуглеродный анализ возраста пергамента (он, скорее всего, сделан из кожи телёнка), который показал время между 1440 и 1650 гг. Исследование костюма показало, что на картине придворная дама из Милана 1490-х годов. Тогда была мода на сложную укладку волос с лентами. Как раз в это время Леонардо жил в Милане, писал там придворные портреты. Следы переплёта на краю портрета наводят на мысль, что он вырван из альбома - возможно, посвящённого королевской свадьбе.

Kemp"s detective work led him to a name, Bianca Sforza. An illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Milan, she was married in 1496 to Galeazzo Sanseverino, commander of the Milanese troops and a patron of Leonardo"s. Bianca was 13 or 14 at the time of the portrait. Tragically, she died a few months later, likely from an ectopic pregnancy, a not uncommon fate for young court brides. Kemp named the drawing "La Bella Principessa," the beautiful princess.

Детективная работа Кемпа позволила раскрыть имя девушки на портрете - Бианка Сфорца. Её, незаконную дочь герцога Милана, в 1496 году выдали замуж за Галеаццо Сансеверино, командира миланских войск и патрона Леонардо да Винчи. Портрет написан, когда Бианке было 13 или 14 лет. Она трагически умерла несколько месяцев спустя при (эктопической) беременности, что случалось тогда нередко. Кемп назвал этот рисунок "Прекрасная принцесса".

In 2010 Kemp and Cotte published their findings in a book. Several prominent Leonardo scholars agreed, others were skeptical. Carmen Bambach, curator of drawings at New York"s Metropolitan Museum of Art, was quoted as saying that the portrait simply "does not look like a Leonardo." Another scholar thought the image too "sweet." The specter of a high-quality forgery was raised. Doubt seemed to collect around the portrait"s sudden, almost miraculous appearance. Where had it come from?

В 2010 году Кемп и Котт опубликовали книгу о своих исследованиях. Несколько выдающихся специалистов по творчеству Леонардо приняли их выводы, другие проявили скепсис. Кармен Бамбах, куратор отдела рисунка в Метрополитен Музее Нью-Йорка, как говорят, заявил, что портрет "просто не похож на работу Леонардо". Другой эксперт признал портрет слишком "приторным". В воздухе стал витать призрак высококачественной подделки. В центре сомнений оказалось внезапное, почти чудесное появление портрета. Откуда он взялся?

Kemp didn"t know. Then, almost like divine intervention, a message came from D. R. Edward Wright, emeritus professor of art history at the University of South Florida. Having followed the very public dispute, Wright suggested to Kemp, whom he had never met, that his answer might lie in the National Library of Poland in Warsaw, inside a book called the Sforziad . Wright, an expert on Renaissance iconography, described it as a deluxe commemorative volume for the marriage of Bianca Sforza, a fit occasion for a Leonardo portrait.

Этого Кемп не знал. И вдруг, как по божественному изволению, пришло сообщение от Д.Р. Эдварда Райта, прочётного профессора истории искусства университета Южной Флориды. Он следил за публичными спорами насчёт картины и высказал Кемпу (с которым не был знаком) предположение, что разгадка может находиться в Национальной библиотеке Польши в Варшаве, в книге под названием "Сфорциада ". Райт, специалист по иконографии Ренессанса, сообщил, что этот роскошный альбом был создан к свадьбе Бианки Сфорца, что могло стать подходящим поводом для создания её портрета Леонардо да Винчи.

Funded by a National Geographic Society grant, Kemp and Cotte traveled to Warsaw. Cotte"s macrophotography revealed that a folio had been removed from the exact place in the Sforziad where a portrait would have been added. The moment arrived when they inserted a copy of Bianca"s portrait into the open book. It fit perfectly. For Kemp, this was the clincher: " ‘La Bella Principessa" was a one-off portrait by Leonardo that had gone into a book and then onto a shelf."

С помощью Национального географического общества Кемп и Котт выехали в Варшаву. Макрофотографии Котта обнаружили точное место в альбоме "Сфорциада", откуда был изъят портрет. Они вставили копию портрета Бианки в открытый альбом. Совпадение было идеальным. Для Кемпа это положило конец сомнениям: "Прекрасная принцесса" написана Леонардо для этого альбома, но позже была отделена от него.

According to Wright, the volume reached Poland in the early 1500s, when a member of the Sforza family married a Polish royal. The leaf was sliced out, possibly at the time of the book"s rebinding in the 17th or 18th century. The trail grows faint here. What is known is that at some point it was acquired by an Italian art restorer, whose widow put it up for sale at Christie"s.

Согласно Райту, этот альбом попал в Польшу в начале 16-го века, когда кто-то из семьи Сфорца сочетался браком с кем-то из семейства польских королей. Возможно, портрет был вырван из альбома при его повторном переплетении в 17-ом или 18-ом веке. Затем следы портрета теряются. Известно, что позже его приобрёл один реставратор из Италии, вдова которого и выставила портрет на продажу на аукционе Кристи.

Authenticating a centuries-old artwork, especially a potentially rare, extremely valuable Leonardo, is seldom a clear-cut, objective process. Ego, personal taste, and fear of litigation all get tangled up in the judgment. To reach wider consensus, Kemp sent his latest findings to a number of leading specialists. Almost all refused comment, including for this article. Agreement "will take time," concedes Kemp, "but I have clear confidence in where I am." One thing is sure. Should the day come when Bianca Sforza"s face hangs in a museum as a true Leonardo, everyone will stare.

Установление подлинности произведения искусства, созданного несколько веков назад, - особенно такого редкого и ценного, как картина Леонардо да Винчи - почти никогда не бывает простым и чисто объективным. Личные эго, личные вкусы, страх судебных процессов - всё это влияет на принятие решения [о подлинности]. Чтобы достичь широкого консенсуса, Кемп разослал свои последние научные выводы ведущим специалистам. Почти все отказались комментировать, в том числе и для нас. Кемп говорит: "Чтобы прийти к согласию, необходимо время. Но я полностью уверен в своих выводах". Одно можно сказать точно. Если настанет день и Бианку Сфорца вывесят в музее как подлинную работу Леонардо да Винчи, то все будут смотреть на неё пристально.

[Примечание переводчика - кажется странным, что если портрет был вырван из альбома, то, скорее всего, в этом альбоме "Сфорциана" он был не единственным, нарисованным Леонардо да Винчи. Почему же не исследуют другие рисунки свадебного альбома?]

ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

Renaissance is the epoch of Humanism and the Revival of Learning born in Italy after revival of the culture and science of Italy and the whole western world. The human being, the beauty and the joy of this life were now the center of attention.

The earlier Tudor period was a time of transition from the late medieval to Renaissance culture. The new architecture imported from Italy had little in common with the Gothic style. With the interest to classics there came a tendency to the ancient forms and styles in architecture and art. It was in early 16 th century that the influence of the Italian Renaissance architecture was really felt in England in the pure classical lines of Inigo Johnes the example of this style was the Whitehall palace. Christopher Wren, a very outstanding architect used the classic forms with great purity and correctness. After the great fire of London he rebuilt a great number of churches, cathedrals, palaces, houses of the rich people of London. St. Paul’s cathedral is a good example of this style.

Architects and painters were invited from Italy and other western countries. Many of them, though being foreigners were allowed to enrich British culture and are generally treated by historians as the founders of the English school of painting, as for instance Hans Holbein Junior, an outstanding German painter. He depicted all details of the sitter’s appearance. His portraits were so realistic, that they expressed the sitter’s character, his thoughts, and his inner life. English portrait painting started from Hans Holbein Junior’s works. The wealthy houses were soon filled with portraits of ancestors often painted by provincial painters imitating Holbein. Rubens and Van Dyck, the great Dutchmen are also revered as creators of English painting for they were attracted by the English titles and agreed to be treated as English painters.

One of the most famous representatives of the English Renaissance culture was Thomas More, lawyer, scholar, writer, and statesman. His great work was “Utopia” published in Latin in 1516, a scathing satire on feudalism and the emerging capitalism, on the government and society of England.

The description of contemporary England with all the evils of poverty for the many and luxury for the few is made in striking contrasts to the island of “Utopia” where there is not private ownership of land and industrial tools, where community of goods, a national system of education, the rule of work for all. More does not condemn the feudal system, sad assurance that the new system, based on money is no smaller evil. He looks forward the new fair social society with no exploitation, equal rights to all members of the society.

The second stage of Renaissance in England was the age of the theater. In the first period it was the time of “morality play” and the “mystery play”. The theater reflected the reality of those days, showing the political antagonism of the society. There were also plays by classical Greek and Roman tragedians staged by university students. The first theaters were mobile. The actors staged their plays on the squares, markets, taverns and roadside inns.

In 1576 the first theater was built in London by a group of actors and soon theaters appeared everywhere – rough and primitive structures, roofless and curtainless, seating some thousand people.

The third stage of Renaissance epoch was characterized by increasing decay of drama.

Inner history

The speed of the development of language was lesser than in Middle English. The language developed quickly at the beginning of this period and slower – at the end (with the exception of the word stock which develops equally quickly during the whole period). When the literary norm was formed, it, being always very conservative, prevented the change of the language that is why the speed of the development slowed down.

The Renaissance

The "dark" Middle Ages were followed by a time known in art and literature as the Renaissance. The word "renaissance" means "rebirth" in French and was used to denote a phaze in the cultural development of Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries.

The wave of progress reached the shores of England only in the 16th century. The ideas of the Renaissance came to England together with the ideas of the Reformation (the establishment of the national Church) and were called the "New Learning". Every year numbers of new books were brought out, and these books were sold openly, but few people could read and enjoy them. The universities were lacking in teachers to spread the ideas of modern thought. So, many English scholars began to go to Italy, where they learned to understand the ancient classics, and when they came home they adapted their classical learning to the needs of the country. Grammar schools (primary schools) increased in number. The new point of view passed from the schools to the home and to the market place.

Many of the learned men in Italy came from the great city of Constantinopole. It was besieged and taken by Turks in 1453. All the great libraries and schools in Constanstinople had been broken up and destroyed. The Latin and Greek scholars were driven out of the city, glad to escape with their lives and with such books as they could carry away with them. Being learned men, many of them found a welcome in the cities and towns in which they stopped. They began to teach the people how to read the Latin and Greek books which they had brought with them and also taught them to read the Latin and Greek books which were kept in many towns of Europe, but which few people at that time were able to read.

Foreign scholars and artists began to teach in England during the reign of Henry VIII. In painting and music the first period of the Renaissance was one of imitation. Painting was represented by German artist Holbein, and music by Italians and French men. With literature the case was different. The English poets and dramatists popularized much of the new learning. The freedom of thought of English humanists revealed itself in antifeudal and even antibourgeois ideas, showing the life of their own people as it really was. Such a writer was the humanist Thomas More.

Thomas More
(1478-1535)
Thomas More, the first English humanist of the Renaissance, was born in London in 1478. Educated at Oxford, he could write a most beautiful Latin. It was not the Latin of the Church but the original classical Latin. At Oxford More met a foreign humanist, and made friends with him. Erasmus believed in the common sense of a man and taught that men ought to think for themselves, and not merely to believe things to be true because their fathers, or the priest had said they were true. Later, Thomas More wrote many letters to Erasmus and received many letters from him.

Thomas More began life as a lawyer. During the reign of Henry VII he became a member of Parliament. He was an active-minded man and kept a keen eye on the events of his time. The rich landowners at the time were concentrating on sheep-raising because it was very profitable. Small holders were not allowed to till the soil and were driven off their lands. The commons (public ground) were enclosed and fields converted into pastures. The mass of the agricultural population were doomed to poverty. Thomas More set to work to find the reason of this evil. He was the first great writer on social and political subjects in England.

Fourteen years after Henry VIII came to the throne, More was made Speaker of the House of Commons. The Tudor monarchy was an absolute monarchy, and Parliament had very little power to resist the king. There was, however, one matter on which Parliament was very determined. That was the right to vote or to refuse to vote for the money. Once when the King wanted money and asked Parliament to vote him 800.000, the members sat silent. Twice the King"s messengers called, and twice they had to leave without an answer. When Parliament was called together again, Thomas More spoke up and urged that the request be refused. After a long discussion a sum less then half the amount requested by the King was voted, and that sum was to be spread over a period of four years.
Thomas More was an earnest Catholic, but he was not liked by the priests and the Pope on account of his writings and the ideas he taught. After Henry VIII quarrelled with the Pope he gathered around himself all the enemies of the Pope, and so in 1529 More was made Lord Chancellor (highest judge to the House of Lords). He had not wanted the post because he was as much against the king"s absolute power in England as he was against the Pope. More soon fell a victim to the King"s anger. He refused to swear that he would obey Henry as the head of the English Church, and was thrown into the Tower. Parliament, to please the King, declared More guilty of treason, and he was beheaded in the Tower in 1535.

The Works of Thomas More
Thomas More wrote in English and in Latin. The humanists of al1 European countries communicated in the Latin language, and their best works were written in Latin. The English writings of Thomas More include:
* Discussions and political subjects.
* Biographies.
* Poetry.

His style is simple, colloquial end has an unaffected ease. The work by which he is best remembered today is "Utopia" which was written in Latin in the year 1516. It has now been translated into all European languages.

"Utopia" (which in Greek means "nowhere") is the name of a non-existent island. This work is divided into two books.
In the first, the author gives a profound and truthful picture of the people"s sufferings and points out the socia1 evils existing, in England at the time.

In the second book More presents his ideal of what the future society should be like.

The word "utopia" has become a byword and is used in Modern English to denote an unattainable ideal, usually in social and political matters. But the writer H.G. Wells, who wrote an introduction to the latest edition, said that the use of the word "utopia" was far from More"s essentia1 quality, whose mind abounded in sound, practical ideas. The book is in reality a very unimaginative work.

"Utopia" describes a perfect social system built on communist principles.

"Utopia"
First book While on business in Flanders, the author makes the acquaintance of a certain Raphael Hythloday, a sailor who has travelled with the famous explorer Amerigo Vespucci. He has much to tell about his voyages, Thomas More, Raphael Hythloday and a cardinal meet together in a garden and discuss many problems. Raphael has been to England too and expresses his surprise at the cruelty of English laws and at the poverty of the population. Then they talk about crime in general, and Raphael says:
"There is another cause of stealing which I suppose is proper and peculiar to you Englishmen alone."
"What is that?" asked the Cardinal.
"Oh, my lord," said Raphael, "your sheep that used to be so meek and tame and so small eaters, have now become so great devourers and so wild that they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves. The peasants are driven out of their land. Away they go finding no place to rest in. And when all is spent, what can they do but steal and then be hanged?"

Second Book
The disastrous state of things in England puts Raphael Hythloday in mind of a commonwealth (a republic) he has seen on an unknown island in an unknown sea. A description of "Utopia" follows, and Raphael speaks "of all the good laws and orders of this same island."

There is no private property in Utopia. The people own everything in common and enjoy complete economic equality. Everyone cares for his neighbour"s good, and each has a clean and healthy house to live in. Labour is the most essential feature of life in Utopia, but no one is overworked. Everybody is engaged in usefu1 work nine hours a day. After work, they indulge in sport and games and spend much time in "improving their minds" (learning)-All teaching is free, and the parents do not have to pay any schoo1 fees. (More wrote about things unknown in any country at that time, though they are natural with us in our days.)

For magistrates the Utopians choose men whom they think to be most fit to protect the welfare of the population. When electing their government, the people give their voices secretly. There are few laws and no lawyers at all, but these few laws must be strictly obeyed. "Virtue," says Thomas More, "lives according to Nature." The greatest of all pleasures is perfect health. Man must be healthy and wise.

Thomas More"s "Utopia" was the first literary work in which the ideas of Cornmunism appeared. It was highly esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in More"s time and again grew very popular with the socialists of the 19th century. After More, a tendency began in literature to write fantastic novels on social reforms, and many such works appeared in various countries.

The most significant period of the Renaissance in England falls to the reign of Queen Elizabeth. England"s success in commerce brought prosperity to the nation and gave a chance to many persons of talent to develop their abilities. Explorers, men of letters, philosophers, poets and famous actors and dramatists appeared in rapid succession. The great men of the so-called "Elizabethan Era" distinguished themselves by their activities in many fields and displayed an insatiable thirst for knowledge. They were often called "the Elizabethans", but of course the Queen had no hand in assisting them when they began literary work; the poets and dramatists had to push on through great difficulties before they became well known.
Towards the middle of the 16th century common people were already striving for knowledge and the sons of many common citizens managed to get an education. The universities began to breed many learned men who refused to become churchmen and wrote for the stage. These were called the "University Wits", because under the influence of their classical education they wrote after Greek and Latin models. Among the "University Wits" were Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Sackville, John Lyly, George Peele, Roberk Greene, Thomas Kyd and Thqmas Nashe; Christopher Marlowe being the most distinguished of them. The new method of teaching classical literature at the universities was to perform Roman plays in Latin, Later the graduates translated these plays into English and then they wrote plays of their own.

Some wrote plays for the court, others for the public theatres. But the plays were not mere imitations. Ancient literature had taught the playwrights to seek new forms and to bring in new progressive ideas. The new drama represented real characters and real human problems which satisfied the demands of the common people and they expected ever new plays. Under such favourable circumstances there was a sudden rise of the drama. The great plays were written in verse.
The second period of the Renaissance was characterised by the splendour of its poetry.

Lyrical poetry also became wide-spread in England. The country was called a nest of singing birds. Lyrical poetry was very emotional. The poets introduced blank verse and the Italian sonnet. The sonnet is a poem consisting of fourteen lines. The lines are divided into two groups: the first group of eight lines (the octave), and the second group of six lines (the sestet). The foremost poet of the time was Edmund Spenser. He wrote in a new, English, form: the nine-line stanza.

EDMUND SPENSER
(1552-1599)
Edmund Spenser was born in London in 1552. Though his parents descended from a noble House, the family was poor. His father was a free journeyman for a merchant"s company. When Edmund came of age he entered the University of Cambridge as a "sizar" (a student who paid less for his education than others and had to wait on (to serve) the wealthier students at mealtimes).

Spenser was learned in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French. His generation was one of the first to study also their mother tongue seriously. While at college, he acted in the tragedies of the ancient masters and this inspired him to write poetry.
Spenser began his literary work at the age of seventeen. Once a fellow-student introduced him to the famous Sir Philip Sidney, who encouraged him to write (Sidney was the author of an allegorical romance in prose called "Arcadia" that had become very popular as light reading among the court-ladies of Queen Elizabeth). At the age of twenty-three, Spenser took his M.A. (Master of Arts) degree.

Before returning to London he lived for a while in the wilderness of Lancashire where he fell in love with a "fair widow"s daughter". His love was not returned but he clung to this early passion; she became the Rosalind of his poem the "Shepherd s Calendar". Spenser"s disappointment in love drove him southward - he accepted the invitation of Sir Philip Sidney to visit him at his estate. There he finished writing his "Shepherd"s Calendar". The poem was written in 12 eclogues. "Eclogue" is a Greek word meaning a poem about ideal shepherd life. Each eclogue is dedicated to one of the months of the year, the whole making up a sort of calendar.
The publication of this work made Spenser the first poet of his day. His poetry was so musical and colourful that he was called the poet-painter.

Philip Sidney introduced the poet to the illustrious courtier, the Earl of Leicester, who, in his turn, brought him to the notice of the Queen. Spenser was given royal favour and appointed as secretary to the new Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Thus he had to leave England for good.

The suppression of Ireland provoked many rebellions against the English. English military governors were sent confiscate the lands of the rebels and to put English people on them. Spenser was sent to such a place near Cork. He felt an exile in the, lonely castle of Kilcolman, yet he could not help admiring the, changeful beauty of the place.

The castle stood by a deep lake into which flowed a river (the Mulla). Soft woodlands stretched towards mountain ranges in the distance. The beauty of his surroundings inspired Spenser to write his great epic poem the "Faerie Queen" ("Fairy Queen"), in which Queen Elizabeth is idealised.

Sir Walter Raleigh who was captain of the Queen"s guard, came to visit Spenser at Kilcolman. He was greatly delighted with the poem, and Spenser decided to publish the first three parts. Raleigh and Spenser returned to England together. At court Spenser presented his "simple song" to the Queen. It was published in 1591. The success of the poem was great. The Queen rewarded him with a pension of 50 pounds, but his position remained unchanged. Poetry was regarded as a noble pastime but not a profession; and Edmund Spenser had to go back to Ireland.

The end of his life was sorrowful. When the next rebellion broke out, the insurgents attacked the castle so suddenly and so furiously that Spenser and his wife and children had to flee for their lives. Their youngest child was burnt to death in the blazing ruins of the castle. Ruined and heart-broken Spenser went to England and there he died in a London tavern three months later, in 1599.

THE "FAIRY QUEEN"
The poem is an allegory representing ihe court of Queen Elizabeth. The whole is an interweaving of Greek myths and English legends.

Spenser planned to divide his epic poem into twelve books. The 12 books were to tell of the warfare of 12 knights. But only six books of the "Fairy Queen" were finished. The first two books are the best and the most interesting. The allegory is not so clear in the rest. Prince Arthur is the hero of the poem. In a vision he sees Gloriana, the Fairy Queen. She is so beautiful that he falls in love with her. Armed by Merlin he sets out to seek her in Fairy Land. She is supposed to hold her annual 12-day feast during which 12 adventures are to be achieved by 12 knights. Each knight represents a certain virtue: Holiness, Temperance, Friendship, Justice, Courtesy, Constancy, etc., which are opposed to Falsehood, Hypocrisy and others in the form of witches, wizards and monsters.
Spenser imitated antique verse. One of the features of those verses was the use of "Y" before the past participle, as "Yclad" instead of "clad" ("dressed"). He was the first to use the nine-line stanza. In this verse each line but the last has 10 syllables, the last line has 12 syllables. The rhymed lines are arranged in the following way: a b a b b c b c c.

A gentle knight was pricking on the plain, a
Yclad in mighty arms and silver shield, b
Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain, a
The cruel marks of many a bloody field; b
Yet arms till that time did he never wield; b
His angry steed did chide his foamy bit, c
As much disdaining to the curb to yield; b
Full jolly knight he seemed, and fair did sit, c
As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit. c

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DRAMA.
THE THEATRES AND ACTORS

First Period
The development of the drama in England was in close connection with the appearance and development of the theatre. Since ancient times there existed in Europe two stages upon which dramatic art developed. The chief place of performance was the church, and second to it was the market place where clowns played their tricks.

The church exhibited Bible-stories, called "Mysteries"; they also had "Miracles" which were about supernatural events in the lives of saints. Both, the miracles and mysteries were directed by the clergy and acted by boys of the choir on great holidays. It has become a tradition since then to have men-actors for heroines on the English stage.

Second Period
Early in the 15th century characters represented human qualities, such as Mercy, Sin, Justice and Truth, began to be introduced into the miracle plays. The plays were called "Moral plays" or "Moralities". They were concerned with man"s behaviour in this life. The devil figured in every ply and he was the character always able to make the audience laugh. Moralities were acted in town halls too.

Third Period
It was about the time of King Henry VIII, when the Protestants drove theatricals out of the church, that acting became a distinct profession in England. Now the actors performed in inncourt yards, which were admirably suited to dramatic performances consisting as they did of a large open court surrounded by two galleries. A platform projected into the middle of the yard with dressing rooms at the back, There was planty of standing room around the stage, and people came running in crowds as soon as they heard the trumpets announcing the beginning of a play. To make the audience pay for its entertainment, the actors took advantage of the most thrilling moment of the plot: this was the proper time to send the hat round for a collection.

The plays gradually changed; moralities now gave way to plays where historical and actual characters appeared. The popular clowns from the market-place never disappeared from the stage. They would shove in between the parts of a play and talk the crowds into anything.

The regular drama from its very beginning was divided into comedy and tragedy. Many companies of players had their own dramatists who were actors too.

As plays became more complicated, special playhouses came into existence. The first regular playhouse in London was built in what had been the Blackfriars Monastery where miracle plays had been performed before the Reformation. It was built by James Burbage and was called "The Theatre" (a Greek word never used in England before). Later, "The Rose", "The Curtain", "The Swan" and many other playhouses appeared. These playhouses did not belong to any company of players. Actors travelled from one place to another and hired a building for their performances.

The actors and their station in life.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth the laws against the poor were very cruel. Peasants who had lost their lands and went from town to town in search of work were put into prison as tramps. Actors were often accused of being tramps, so trave1ling became impossible. The companies of players had to find themselves a patron among the nobility and with the aid of obtain rights to travel and to perform. Thus some players called themselves "The Earl of Leicester"s Servants", others-"The Lord Chamberlain"s Men", and in 1583 the Queen appointed certain actors "Grooms of the Chamber" All their plays were censored lest there be anything against the Church or the government.

But the worst enemies of the actors were the Puritans. They formed a religious sect in England which wanted to purity the English Church from some forms that the Church retained of roman Catholicism. The ideology of the Puritans was the ideology of the smaller bourgeoisie who wished for a "cheaper church" and who hoped they would become rich one day by careful living. They led a modest and sober life. These principles, though moral at first sight, resulted in a furious attack upon the stage. The companies of players were actually locked out of the City because they thought acting a menace to public morality.

The big merchants attacked the drama because players and playgoers caused them a lot of trouble: the profits on beer went to proprietors of the inns and not to the merchants; all sorts of people came to town, such as gamblers and thieves, during the hot months of the year the plague was also spread strolling actors. Often apprentices who were very much exploited by the merchants used to gather at plays for the purpose of picking fights with their masters.

Towards the end of the 16th century we find most of the playhouses far from the city proper.

appointed through the recommendation of James I. At the same time with the ascension of Mikhail Fedorovich to the throne, Russia was drawn into the infamous Thirty Years" War, based on the confrontation between the two currents in Christianity: Catholicism, gradually weakening, but still powerful enough, and Protestantism, day by day gaining strength. The war was waged for the control of the world. And Russia, in spite of all her national interests, which demanded to remain neutral, entered into this long fierce bloody conflict on the antiHabsburg side, that is, in coalition with the Protestant states, against the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation (the Habsburg Empire). It all ended rather pitiably for Russia: after thirty years of this pan-European conflict, the Peace of Westphalia was concluded in 1648, in the text of which the name of the Moscow Tsar was on the penultimate place - only the Transylvanian prince was listed below him. And it is no surprise that in just two years before the birth of Peter I there appeared the first pan-European geopolitical plan for the colonization and enslavement of Russia. Assessing the state of pre-Petrine Russia, a Russian historian, Academician E.V. Tarle pointed out that in the late 17th - early 18th c. the position of Russia revealed a "threat to its national security and even its national self-preservation in the broadest sense of the word" 13 .

Comprehension questions

1. What English travellers travelled to Moscow in Ivan the Terrible times? What were their accounts of Russia and Ivan IV?

2. The establishment of the Muscovy Company. What was the ultimate goal of England? How did the company’s work progress?

3. Ivan IV’s healer and the theory of poisoning.

4. What achievements in governing Rus is Ivan IV credited with?

5. What were the plans of the poisoners?

6. The Muscovy Company during the Great Troubles.

7. Russia’s role in the Thirty Years’ War.

52. THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

The period of the English Renaissance is called Elizabethan Times, because it coincided with the reign of Elizabeth I. All the countries of Europe had such Renaissance periods in their art, philosophy, poetry and literature, though not in the same centuries. The real reason is that all the European culture and science came to such periods when the work of their minds flourished, and great thinkers, philosophers, artists, writers and poets appeared. England was not an exceptional country, only here the Renaissance began somewhat later than, for instance, in Italy, but, as in any land, it meant the whole change in art, thought and temper, which recreated the European mind. The English Renaissance of literature only came in full flower during the last twenty years of the XVI century, later than in any Southern land, but it was all the richer for delay.

The two forces, which were the cause of such a flourishing, were the political settlement, culminating in the later reign of Elizabeth, and the religious settlement, when the Anglican Church grew out of the English Reformation. A third force lay in the Renaissance itself, in the narrower meaning of the term. It was culture - the prefatory work of culture and education. "Elizabethan" literature took its complexion from the circumstance that all these three forces, political, religious and educational, were of very different duration and value. The enthusiasm of 1590-1600 was already dying down in the years 1600-1610, when the great tragedies were written; and soon a wholly new set of political forces began to tell on art. The religious inspiration was mainly confined to certain important channels; and literature as a whole, from

13 Tarle, E.V. The Great Northern War before the invasion of the Swedish army in Russia. 1700-1708.

first to last, was far more secular than religious. But Renaissance culture tells all the time and over the whole field, from 1500 to 1660. It is this culture which really binds together the long and varied chronicle.

Down to 1579 the Tudor rule was hardly a direct inspiration to authors. The later years of Henry VIII were full of episodes too tragically picturesque for safe handling in the lifetime of his children. The next two reigns were engrossed with the religious war; and the first twenty years of Elizabeth, which laid the basis for an age of peace and national self-confidence, were themselves poor in themes for patriotic art. The treason on the northern lords was echoed only in a ballad. But the voyagers and explorers reported their experience, as a duty, not for fame, and these were afterwards edited.

But by 1580 the nation was filled with the sense of Elizabeth"s success and its own greatness. Jubilant patriotism of the years followed; a feeling that created the peculiar forms of the chronicle play and poem. These were borrowed neither from antiquity nor from abroad, and were never afterwards revived.

The wave of free talk in the circles of Marlowe (1564-1593) (English dramatist), Greville, Sir Fulke (English poet and philosopher, 1554-1628), Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), ripples through their writings. There were many poets in this period: Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542), one of the founders of the Renaissance lyrics; Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547); Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), author of many sonnets and the poem "The Faerie Queen", his central work; Walter Raleigh, Philip Sidney (1554-1586); Fulke Greville (see above); and others. Many of them, such as Sidney, Raleigh, Greville, were very active in politics, were statesmen, and so on. Such was the spirit of the time.

On the other hand, there appeared many dramatists in this period. Drama was the most individual product of all English literature. There was a certain circle of authors of drama, called "University wits", who flourished between 1580 and 1595, they included Christopher Marlowe (see above), John Lyly (1554?-1606), Robert Greene (1560?-1592) and some others, they all wrote plays.

The very outstanding figure of them was Christopher Marlowe, who is said to be the father of English tragedy. He was the eldest son of a shoemaker at Canterbury. The dramatist received the rudiments of his education at King"s School, Canterbury. After that he went to Cambridge. Francis Kelt, the mystic-philosopher, burnt in 1589 for heresy, was his tutor and fellow, and may have had some share in developing Marlowe"s opinions in religious matters.

Before 1587 Marlowe seems to have quitted Cambridge for London, where he almost at once began to write plays. He knew many literary people in London and was a personal friend of Sir Walter Raileigh; he also had among his friends famous scientists, mathematicians and astronomers. He seems at any rate to have been associated with Sir Walter Raleigh’s school of atheism.

His main works were "Tambourlane the Great" (1587), "Dr. Faustus" (1588), "The famous tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta" (1589) and "Edward the Second" (1594). (He was a predecessor of Goethe in "Dr. Faustus").

As a result of some disposition made by Thomas Kyd under the influence of torture, the Privy Council was going to investigate some serious charges against Marlowe when his career was abruptly and scandalously finished. The order had already been issued for his arrest, when he was killed in a quarrel with a man who had different names (Archer or Ingram) at the end of May, 1593. We really do not know the circumstances of Marlowe"s death.

William had got education in Stratford Grammar School; it was of good quality, the borough paid to the schoolmaster his salary. The boy"s education consisted mostly of Latin studies.

The Elizabethan stage was more plastic than ours; spectators surrounded it on three sides. An outer stage stuck out into the pit, and behind it was a small inner stage, across which a curtain could be drawn. Above the inner stage was a balcony or upper stage. The inner stage

could be a cave, or study, or a bedroom; the upper stage could be the top of a town wall or Juliet"s balcony; the outer stage could represent a street or a forest or a throne room.

"Good friend, for Jesus" sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here

Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones”.

Globe Theatre Interior

Comprehension questions

1. Characterise the English Renaissance in comparison with these periods in other countries.

2. What three causes of the flourishing of literature under Elizabeth I do historians specify?

3. Name important names in literature and drama.

4. Give a brief account of Marlow’s biography.

53. JAMES THE FIRST (1566-1625) AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

James VI of Scotland, Mary Stuart"s son, succeeded Elizabeth and became James I of England, without opposition.

"Our cousin of Scotland", as Ch. Dickens describes him, "was ugly, awkward, and shuffling both in mind and in person. His tongue was much too large for his mouth, his legs were much too weak for his body, and his dull goggle-eyes started and rolled like an idiot"s. He was cunning, covetous, wasteful, idle, drunken, greedy, dirty, cowardly, a great swearer, and the most conceited man on earth. His figure ... presented a most ridiculous appearance, dressed in thick padded clothes, as a safeguard against being stabbed (of which he lived in continual fear), of a glass-green from head to foot, with a hunting-horn dangling at his side instead of a sword, and his hat and feather sticking over one eye, or hanging on the back of his head, as he happened to toss it on". "His Majesty was the worst rider ever seen, and thought himself the best. He was one of the most impertinent talkers (in the broadest Scotch) ever heard". "He thought, and wrote, and said, that a king had a right to make and unmake what laws he pleased, and ought to be accountable to nobody on earth".

He was proclaimed the English King within a few hours of Elizabeth’s death, and was accepted by the nation, even without being asked to give any pledge that he would govern well.

But in the first year of his reign (1603) two plots, called the "Main" and the "Bye", from their relative importance, were formed against him. The former was said to have for its object the deposition of the king in favour of his cousin, Arabella Stuart; and the latter was the outcome of the disappointed hopes of few Catholics and others who meant to secure toleration by the old Scottish practice of capturing the king.

Both plots failed, and their chief importance lies in the fact that Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for his alleged complicity. The trial of Walter Raleigh lasted from eight in the morning until nearly midnight; he defended himself with such eloquence, genius, and spirit against all accusations and insults that those who were present there detesting the prisoner, came away admiring him. He was found guilty, nevertheless, and sentenced to death. Execution was deferred, and he was taken to the Tower.

James had been brought up amid religious controversy, and had himself become skilled controversialist. His experience of the outspoken ministers of the Scottish Kirk had not enamoured him of Presbyterianism, for he regarded it as incompatible with his views on the duties and privileges of kingship. These views were perfectly clear: the King was the divinely

appointed ruler of his people, and consequently the duty of the people was the most absolute obedience to his will: on the other hand, a good king would make the interests of his subject the first care.

In that age Church government and civil government were interdependent: it was not long before their close connection was publicly proved. The Puritans, who hoped for the best from James"s education among Presbyterians, succeeded in securing a conference at Hampton Court between the Presbyterian leaders and the bishops, in order to gain some concessions on points of ceremonial in the Church service. James, who presided, soon saw that these details were only part of the larger question of Church government. "It is my aphorism", he said, "no bishop, no king". When one of the Puritans used the word "presbyter", James exclaimed: "If you aim at a Scottish presbytery, it agreeth as well with monarchy as God and the devil". No compromise was arrived at, but the conference is famous for the translation of the Bible known as the Authorised Version (published 1610).

Having that uncommonly high opinion of himself as a king, James had a very low opinion of Parliament as a power that audaciously wanted to control him. When he called his first Parliament after he had been king for a year, he accordingly thought he would take pretty high ground with them "as an absolute king". The Parliament thought these strong words, and saw the necessity of upholding their authority.

Now, the people still labouring under their old dread of the Catholic religion, this Parliament revived and strengthened the severe laws against it. The purpose of a Parliament in the eyes of James was to provide revenue; he flattered himself that he was merely imitating the model set by Tudors, and he did not think at all that they had based their control of Parliament upon sure instinct for interpreting the popular will. It was not surprising, therefore, that James quarrelled with all his Parliaments, or that Parliament was always more ready to discuss its grievances than to vote supply. Parliament desired severest measures against the Catholics and war with Spain; the king remitted fines in one case, and made peace in the other. But the policy of the government towards the Catholics so angered Robert Catesby, a restless Catholic gentleman of an old family, that he formed one of the most desperate and terrible plans ever conceived in the mind of man; no less a scheme than a Gunpowder Plot.

His object was, when the King, lords, and commons, should be assembled at the next opening of the Parliament, to blow them up, one and all, with a great mine of gunpowder. The first person, to whom Catesby confided this horrible idea, was Thomas Winter who had served in the army abroad, and had been secretly connected with Catholic projects. Winter went abroad and found there a tall dark daring man, whom he had known, when they both were soldiers, and they came back to England together. Here they found two more conspirators. All these met in a solitary house in the open fields and took a great of secrecy, and then went to a garret to work.

Then the conspirators found a house to let, the back of which joined the Parliament House, with the intention of undermining the wail. The conspirators hired another house, which they used as a storehouse for wood, gunpowder, and other matters.

All these arrangements had been made some months in 1604, and it was a dark wintry December night, when the conspirators, who had been in the meantime dispersed to avoid observation, met in the house at Westminster, near the Parliament, and began to dig. They had laid in a good deal of food not to go out and return in, and they dug and dug with great ardour. But the wall was tremendously thick, they dug and dug night and day, and one of them, Guy Fawkes, stood sentinel all the time. And this Fawkes said: "Gentlemen, we have a great deal of powder here, and there is no fear of our being taken alive, even if they discover us". The same Fawkes got to know that the King had prorogued the Parliament again, from the seventh of February, the day first fixed upon, to the third of October. When the conspirators knew this, they agreed to separate until after the Christmas holidays, and to take no notice of each other in the meanwhile, and never to write letters to one another on any occasion. So, the house of

Parliament was shut up again, and the neighbours could think that those strange-looking men, who lived there so gloomily and went out so seldom, were gone away to have a merry Christmas somewhere.

It was the beginning of February, 1605, when Catesby met his conspirators again at the Westminster house. And now, they began to dig again, and they dug and dug by night and by day.

They found it dismal work alone there, underground, with such dreadful secret on their minds, and so many murders before them. They were filled with wild fancies. Sometimes, it seemed to them they heard a great bell tolling, deep down in the earth, under the Parliament House; sometimes, they thought, they heard low voices muttering about the Gunpowder Plot; once in the morning, they really did hear a great noise over their heads, as they dug and sweated in their mine. Every man stopped and looked in awe at his neighbour, wondering what had happened, when Fawkes, who had been put to look, came in and told them that it was only a dealer of coals who had occupied a cellar under the Parliament House, and he removed his stock to some other place. Hearing this, the conspirators, who with all their digging had not yet dug through the tremendously thick wall, changed their plan; they hired the cellar, brought those thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in it, and covered them over with faggots and coals. Then they all dispersed again till September.

Parliament was to sit from the third of October to the fifth of November, and the conspirators were uneasy that their design should be discovered. Then they hired a ship, and kept it ready in the Thames, in which Fawkes was to sail for Flanders after firing and exploding the powder. And now it was all ready.

But now the great wickedness and danger, which had been all along at the bottom of this wicked plot, began to show itself. As the fifth of November drew near, most of the conspirators, remembering that they had friends and relations, who would be at the House of Lords that day, began to hesitate and wished to warn them to keep away. Catesby declared that he was ready to blow up his own son, but his comrades were not much comforted. One of them, Tresham, wrote a mysterious letter to his relative, Lord Mounteagle, and left it at the Lord"s lodging in the dusk, urging him to keep away from the opening of the Parliament, "since God and man had concurred to punish the wickedness of the times". The letter contained the words that "the Parliament should receive a terrible blow, and yet should not see who had hurt them". And: "The danger is past, as soon as you have burnt the letter".

The ministers and courtiers at once found out what that letter meant. But it was decided to let the conspirators alone, until the very day before opening of Parliament. It is certain that the conspirators had their own fear, they said they were every one dead men. However, they were all firm; and Fawkes, who was a man of iron, went down every day and night to keep watch in the cellar as usual. He was there about two o"clock in the afternoon of the fourth, when the Lord Chamberlain and Lord Mounteagle threw open the door and looked in. "Who are you, friend?" asked they. "Why", said Fawkes, "I am Mr. Percy"s servant, and am looking after his store of fuel here". "Your master has laid in a pretty good store", they returned, and shut the door, and went away. Fawkes went to the other conspirators to tell them all was quiet, and went back and shut himself up in the black cellar again, where he heard the bells go twelve o"clock and usher in the fifth of November. About two hours afterwards, he slowly opened the door, and came out to look about him. He was instantly seized and bound by a party of soldiers. He had a watch upon him, some touchwood, some tinder, some slow matches; and there was a dark lantern with a candle in it, lighted behind the door. Fawkes had his boots and spurs on - to ride to the ship, perhaps, - and it was well for the soldiers that they took him so suddenly. If they had left him but a moment"s time to light a match, he certainly would have tossed it in among the powder, and blown up himself and them.

They took him to the King"s bed-chamber first of all, and there the King asked him how he could have the heart to intend to kill so many innocent people? "Because", said Guy Fawkes,

“desperate diseases need desperate remedies”. A Scotch favourite with a face like a terrier asked Fawkes why he had collected so much gunpowder, and he answered, because he had meant to blow Scotchmen back to Scotland, and it would take a deal of powder to do that.

Next day Fawkes was carried to the Tower, but would make no confession. Even after horrible tortures, he confessed nothing that the Government did not already know; though he must have been in a fearful state - as shows his signature in contrast with his natural handwriting before he was put upon the dreadful rack (it is still preserved).

The other conspirators were also taken to the Tower, and some of them made confessions, and unmade them. But several conspirators managed to escape from London, and the news about the Gunpowder plot travelled through England with them. They tried to raise the Catholics on their way, but were indignantly driven off by them. At last the conspirators decided to defend themselves, because the sheriff pursued them, and they shut themselves up in the house at Holbeach, and put some wet powder before the fire to dry. But it blew up, and Catesby was burnt and blackened, and almost killed, and some of the others were hurt. Still, knowing that they must die, they resolved to die there, and with only swords in their hands appeared at the windows to be shot at by the sheriff and his assistants. They were shot; only two of them were taken, with wounds at their bodies.

Guy Fawkes, second from right. Hulton Archive / Getty Images

On the 15th of January there was the trial of Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators who were left alive. They were all found guilty, all hanged, drawn and quartered: some, in St. Paul"s Churchyard; some, before the Parliament House. The Catholics, in general, who had recoiled with horror from the idea of the infernal contrivance, were unjustly put under more severe laws than before; and this was the end of the Gunpowder Plot. And now the remembrance of that is alive only in a little nursery rhyme, which every English child knows by heart, though not all of them can understand properly its historical meaning:

Please to remember

The fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot;

I know no reason

Why gunpowder and treason