The Elizabethan Age and Edmund Spencer: Queen Elizabeth Ruled is Also Called
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- Introduction to Elizabethan age
- Important writers of Elizabethan age
- Introduction to Edmund Spencer
- Life and works of Edmund Spencer
- Spenserian Stanza
- Questions
Queen Elizabeth Ruled is Also Called
- Period of Renaissance
- Golden age in the history of England
- Shakespearean Age (Modern English)
Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599)
- Charles Lamb calls Edmund Spenser ‘the Poet՚s Poet’
- all the Elizabethans recognized him as ‘the Prince of Poets’
- Born in East Smithfield, London to John Spenser, a cloth maker
- Educated at Merchant Taylor՚s School and at Pembroke Hall college, Cambridge.
- Received his B. A degree in 1573 and M. A in 1576.
- Became secretary to John Young, Bishop of Rochester in 1578.
The Shepheard՚s Calendar
- Spenser published his first poetic work, The Shepheard՚s Calendar in 1579 at Kent.
- Dedicated The Shepheard՚s Calendar to Sir Philip Sidney.
- Published The Shepheard՚s Calendar anonymously under the Pseudonym “Immerit” meaning unworthy.
- The Shepheard՚s Calendar was modelled on Theocritus Idylls and classical poet Virgil՚s Eclogues.
- The Shepheard՚s Calendar consists of 12 eclogues, one for each month which is sung by various shepherds.
- The Shepheard՚s Calendar expresses regret for a lost golden age.
The Faerie Queen
- The first 3 books of The Faerie Queen was published in 1590.
- The 6 books of The Faerie Queen were published together in 1596.
- Only 6 books out of the 12 books planned were completed.
- Considered to be the first major poem to be written in Spenserian Stanza.
The title of the Six Books of The Faerie Queen are:
- Book - 1, Red Crosse Knight (Holiness)
- Book - 2, Guyon (Temperance)
- Book - 3, Britomart (Chastity)
- Book - 4, Triamond and Campbell (Friendship)
- Book - 5, Art gall (Justice)
- Book - 6, Calidore (Courtesy)
Published a volume of 9 poems titled Complaints in 1591.
- He published Daphnaida (1591) , an elegy on the death of Lady Howard.
- He published Amoretti and Epithalamion in 1595.
- Amoretti is a sonnet sequence of 89 sonnets followed by 4 lyrics written
- about his courtship with Elizabeth Boyle over a period of 2 years.
Prothalamion
- Published Prothalamion in 1596.
- The word Prothalamion was invented by Spenser meaning “Spousal Verse” .
- Prothalamion consists of 10 Stanzas modelled on Italian Canzoni.
Spenserian Stanza
- He invented Spenserian Stanza; 8 lines of Iambic pentameter followed by an Alexandrine (iambic hexameter) .
- Rhyme Scheme of Spenserian Stanza - ababbcbcc.
- Spenserian Sonnet - Interlocked quatrains, rhyme scheme: abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.
✍ Manishika