THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement that developed from the period of transition between Middle Ages and Humanesim. Men understood that their sense of life could not be confined in religion salvation only and that religion could not give them all the answers they were looking for. During the Humanesim this vision of life wasn't enough: human being understood that its passions, feelings and all the material aspects of life were as important as religion. The human being became as important as God.
After this period of transition people of the Renaissance nedeed answers and tried to find them in classics (Seneca and Plutarch) because they had a pragmatic vision of life, their values were useful to live.

English Renaissance developed from 16^th century to the end of 17^th century, it came later then the Italian Renaissance because classics traslations took more time to reach Great Britain.
The Renaissance focused its investigation on the nature of human being: people considered their feelings and passions a part of human being in the same way they considered religion.

This vision of life influenced literature production: the main important litterary genre was the lyrical literature that was used both in poetry and drama.
Lyrical poetry was used to communicate and 'investigate' the interior,personal and reserved conflict of human being: this is possible thanks to the sonnet (it consists in black verse).
Drama was also used to communicate the new vision of life because it was organised in a narrative and a lyrical part, both these parts satisfy public needs: common people went to theatre to follow the narrative part, and scholared people went to theatre to assist at mologues and soliloquies that were used to express the human being conflict.
The development of drama from medioeval plays(mystery plays, were about vices and values,and morality plays, were allegorical plays with the function to improve moral education) to Reanissance plays permitted to produce plays in which religion and humanistic aspects coexisted, thanks to the addiction of a human element to the religious themes.