Show j- j t LT v a r rJ r J i r I-r f f f 4 Y f Ho Go 3 r f J r Outline a the Arts by T 1 f fr C by rl The V 1111 O THE L I TERA R Y RENA IS SA NCE f ff f f I 1 f 1 I I a N Na i- i I a- a ra Learning of Renaissance came from 7 I h popular mind not from the learn learn- earn v x t L i J. J L J tf Dante wrote his comme commedia is in t. t I 1 t rhymed e Italian verse FrancoIs r H Hr Villon ion w was s one o of the true an and r native verse versa writers o of France ranee A w f 4 I I Shakespeare in England an and Cervantes er in Pain were men o of sua supreme su su- a N Nc preme hems genius unembarrassed by y I c excess o of learning earning These two i with Chaucer an and Rabelais brought laughter an and freedom to heroics o of i y formal literature Release was 1 the fundamental fact act o of t tIle 1 e Re- Re e f o Cr C t r r o FN o a a vr Spain like hike E n g l I a and n d with Shakespeare was fortunate enough to produce a moan of supreme genius to e. e its spirit in Cervantes shown hown above GREAT outbreak or of creative creat creat- A Ive literature Is associated with this general of the western European Intelligence We have havo already noted the appearance ot of literature In Italian under under- the Initiatives ot of the Emperor Frederick II Simultaneously Simul- Simul the Troubadours In both n northern France and In Provence t were Ie setting tUng people to the tho making r ot of verse vem In the northern and south south- ern an dIalects love songs narrative on Tongs and the like Uke These things s broke broko out so to speak beneath a general disposition to write and read Latin LaUn They came from the popular mInd and the relaxed mind and not from the learned In Florence orence In was born Dante AtI ho ho after vehement activities became exile an And wrote among other other- works an elaborate poem In rhymed Italian verse the a tApestry of at 7 alle allegory ory and al incident and religious disquisition It describes a a. t visit to Hell Purgatory and Para Para- Iu Its relationship to the ances- ances 1 Latin LaUn literature Is suggested t by the fact that Dantes Dante's guide guida guidea a In the tha lower regions is Virgil In its 1 various English i It makes extremely dull reading but butr F r those tb who are best beat to speak In the matter matt r are scarce scarce able to express ex ex- press their perception of the ex ex- s. s beAuty interest and wisdom of the orI original Dante also wrote In Latin LaUn upon and G f upon the claims ot of the Italian ton tongue Ue 1 to be considered a a. literary langua language e. e lie was Voas severely criticized for his hisk k 0 use of Italian and o accused of as an InI incapacity In- In I capacity for Latin verse Did s Laura ura Exist i A little tittle later later- 1374 was also writing wr sonnets and odes In ine Italian which arouse arous the tho enthusiasm e s x of all aU who have been Y Ys s cultivated to respond to them For or u example mple John Symonds y r te The Rime In VIta e a torte Morte dl Madonna Laura cannot become obsolete for tor perfectlY metrical form torm haa has here been married to language ot of the choicest and purest The Ther r 1 poems leave us doubtful f U Madonna Laura ever existed d. d was 1 one ot of a group ot of Italians who were strenuous r T T to restore the glories ot of the Latin LaUn In an Outline ot of this sort these glories are not perl per per- l laps so 80 supreme u as they seemed to tobe tobe be to to a a. generation ot of Italians re re- awakening to the charms and excitement ex- ex ment or of lIt literary beauty dUn In Italian waned for for- a a. time before a a. revival of oC Latin LaUn authorship Pe- Pe z Wrote an epic In Latin Attica Attic I If f There Th re was It a considerable output of pseudo classical e do writing epIcs and sham and sham comedies liu In Latin no doubt very ery like tho tbt 7 poems and rhetorical prose one ro rc i f t- t cd In English En from gifted gilted young C IndIans It was only later with x t Boiardo and Ariosto 1533 1475 that E s I Italian po poetry try emerges again to dIs- dIs J Unction Orlando Furioso was only the crowning specImen of at atIt It tI great reat multitude or of romantic narratIve narrative nar- nar t poems oems that delighted the leas les erudite readers o of the Renaissance These TheE narrative Uve poems always as paid PUd t t 1 t he t tribute ot of more or less lon I P and ImItation to the traditions Of the aHI epIc itself an a a to j K ir i S. S 1 S 4 c 8 we S k y y F b Lan yF a w tea iE- iE 7 i v g Y M y A i 4 1 A L 5 5 j jI 3 I Ze ZeA A c a Y C Cy y h- h M a w Y sY s u W tY 4 f 1 S k b X aa f s II E y n and Laura the great Italian poet whose perfectly metrical form was married to language of the r choicest and purest and scholarly exploit Comedy and the narrative poem shorter poems In various artous forms torms con con- the bulk of at this literature Prose was not sufficiently artificial md aad genteel for critical approval French l Songs Were Merry The reawakening of t literary life lite in inthe the he French speaking community was VaS also dominated by memories ot of the Latin literature There was already literature ia merry son songs r I. I In i J t r K medieval medIe Lain In Prance France songs ot of the tAvern and the road the GoU- GoU ardic poetry of oC the thirteenth century cen cen- tury and the spirit of this authentic writing In such true and natIve verse us as that or of Villon 1463 1431 but the revIval r of Latin studies flowed In from Italy and imposed artificiality upon aU all but the sturdiest li est minds An Ai elaborate style was established with something or of the dignity of monumental masonry masonry and splendid sPlendid poems oems and classIcal a J am r y it tT 1 y M n Y y l i P lt t J t y f m if 1 d dm m i Y c- c 4 x t t 1 N i f. N Y h 1 The room in which Shakespeare was born Stratford on A I iy England y t A c i iRI rs RI a 11 I i J plays were erected for the admIra- admIra ing shoutIng laughing lava b Ion rather than the pleasure of through aU all the dignities and posterity of the pedants Yet the genius or of French life In Germany and in Holland vas 38 not altogether confined to new intellectual Impulses were r these thare noble exercises exercise a fine and nearly neary simultaneous with the flexible prose appeared Montaigne l mense political and religious str 1533 the first of at essayists of oC the Reformation abd they wrote pleasantly of at life and less purely artistic fo fa antly about the Rabelais Erasmus Eramus says says- J. J Addington 1553 1490 like a a. torrent or of burn bum monds monda is 13 the t e great cat represent t t. t 7 I. I l L fI t tr f TS S 1 p 9 i 1 t is a s 5 t The Stratford bust of Shakes peace peare from the room in which he was born w v In In Holland of the Re ria is n t as' as Luther Was in Germany but he wrote not In Dutch but Latin LaUn War nr and Plague Retarded England There was an outbreak ot of literary activity in England as early as the tho fourteenth century Chaucer 1340 1400 1340 tO l produced delightful narrative nar- nar lalive poetry that derived very obviously obviously ob- ob from Italian models and there was much pre existing romantic ro- ro mantle mantic narrative verse But the civil wars the wars ot of the Roses Poses pestilence and religious conflicts damped down this first beginning and It was only with the sixteenth century and after arter the reign of Henry VIII that English literature broke into vigorous life liCe There was first a rapid spread of at classical learning and a fertilizing of translations translations- from Latin Creek and Italian There rome came a a. harvest harve t ot of fine English writ writ- von ron ing English was wa's played wIth testEd test test- ed Ed elaborated Spenser wrote his Queen a tedIous allegorical work of great decorative beauty But It was in fn the drama In the days or of Queen Elizabeth EUzabeth that the x xz i f V z S S 5 S SAt At left Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote in the fourteenth century century cen- cen tury in the English of his time English genius venius found its best beat ex ex- Lt it never succumbed to the classical tradItion the tho Elizabethan dr drama ma was n a new and fuller and looser more vigorous and amI altogether burst mo more e natural literary form torm de- de Then Came Shakespeare the the It found Its extreme exponent more nore im- im I in Shakespeare 1564 1616 a 3 man happIly with little Latin and richest subtlest st less Jess Greek Greek wh whose se passages passages' passages passages' are are drawn from homely I and even vulgar life lite He was a a. man manof manot ot of rich humor and great sweetness of mind who turned every sentence sentence he wrote rote into melody Eight I years before the d death ath ot of Shakespeare Milton 1674 1608 was born Early classical studies gave both beth his prose and verse versea n. n rolling gait from which they never completely recovered He went to ItalY and sow saw the glorIes of Renaissance painting He translated trans trans- hated the paintings of Raphael and Michael Angelo Into superb En English Ush ver verse e in his great epics ot of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained It Is well for English th that t Shakespeare lived to counterbalance Milton MUton and save so much of at Its its spirit from the classIcal obsession Cervantes Supreme Genius Portugal at the touch or of tho literary liter liter- ary Renaissance prod produced ced an an plc the of 1580 1524 But Spain like Jike England was so 80 fortunate fortunate for for- as to find a man or of supreme genius unembarrassed by an excess ot of learning to express Its sut spirit it 1 At left Francois Villon whose true and native verse verte was a contribution to the merry songs of century France Cervantes 1816 1547 seized upon the humors and absurdities of at a a. conflict con can between the medieval traditIon ot of chIvalry In Poss possession of the imagination of a leap lean poor half crazy gentleman and the needs and Impulses or of the ul vulgar ar life lICe His Don Quixote Quixote- and Sancho Panza Pana like Shakespeare's res re's Sir John Falstaff Chaucer's rs r's wife wito of Bath and Rabelais break breal through the dignity and heroics of formal lIterature to let in fre freedom dom ano laughter They break through h as Roger Bacon and the scientific men m n broke through the bookIsh science nce of the scholars and aS a'S the painters and sculptors we have hav next to tell teU about broke through the decorative restraints and religious decorum ot of medieval art The fundamental fact of tM the Renaissance nce was was' not but release The revIval ot of Latin and Greek learnIng only contributed to the tho positive values of the Renal Renal- salce by their corrosive influence Upon the tho Catholic Gothic and Imperial Imperial Im- Im traditions I eggs pro pro- This is the eighth in a series serves of fifteen articles b by y H. H G. G Wells on an outline of the arts art The next one d deals als with th the e aUve Sy Sy- great outbreak of painting known as the artistic Renaissance I t s. s y 1 1 j X l' l Jf lX i Jf c t f y |