Renaissance Studies Commons^™

Antonio Possevino, S.J. As A Counter-Reformation Critic Of The Arts, John Patrick Donnelly S.J.

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The Protestant Reformation called into question many traditions and practices of the Church, including the traditional relation of art to religion. Many Protestant theologians, for instance Calvin and especially Zwingli, condemned religious statues and art as idolatrous or superstitious, partly on the basis of Old Testament prohibitions. Luther and Lutherans approved of religious paintings but rejected the cult of the saints that had figured so largely in medieval and Renaissance religious art. In the Lutheran tradition religious art was more closely tied to the Bible, another manifestation fo the sola scriptura principle. In Catholic circles as well there arose lively …

Demonic Patterns In Tasso And Spenser, John Mulryan

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The term "demon" has embraced a variety of meanings over the centuries, and, while it can include the notion of one's own inner genius, or of a sprite midway between the gods and men, it is usually construed as an evil spirit, as Augustine said long ago:

... there is scarcely a man, no matter how well read and learned, whoo would dare say by way of praise to his slave, You have a demon, or who could doubt that the man to whom he said this would consider it a curse? Why, then, are we to subject ourselves to …

The Historical Evolution Of The Death Of King John In Three Renaissance Plays, Carole Levin

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Although King John died of dysentery in 1216, three Renaissance dramas, John Bale's King Johan, The Troublesome Reign of King John, and Shakespeare's King John, reflect the influence of late medieval legends that John was dramatically poisoned. Bale and the anonymous author of The Troublesome Reign emphasize the horror of the king's death, dwelling upon his role as a religious leader; Shakespeare, however, separates John from the kingship, focusing our attention upon a frightened man. This separation echoes the medieval political theory that the kingship is composed of two bodies. By deliberately stripping away the Christian images that …

Distortion As A Means Of Reassessment: Marguerite De Navarre's Heptameron And The "Querelle Des Femmes", Deborah N. Losse

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The crisis of sexual assault, with its many psychological implications, occupies a significant place in the narrative of Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron, composed in the first half of the sixteenth century at the height of the "Querelle des Femmes." If the storytellers conclude that parfaite amitié is with few exceptions inaccessible, it is in the scenes of sexual aggression that one witnesses the ascendancy of human passion over the formalized code of courtly love.

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The Celestial Sign On Constantine's Shields At The Battle Of The Mulvian Bridge, Charles Odahl

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Most scholars now accept the reality and sincerity of Constantine's conversion to Christianity during his military campaign against Maxentius for control of Rome in A.D. 312—provided that "conversion" is understood in terms of the superstitious religious environment of the times. The ancient pagan and Christian sources that described the campaign all agreed that the war was waged in an atmosphere of intense religious fervor, even superstitiosa maleficia as one source described it, and that each commander appealed to divine power for aid against his enemy. Christian accounts of the campaign reported that Constantine turned to the Christian God at this …

Some Observations Of The Deposition Of Archbishop Theodulf Of Orleans In 817, Thomas F. X. Noble

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Theodulf of Orleans, called by Ann Freeman "one of the brightest lights of the Carolingian Renaissance," is one of the most fascinating individuals in the history of the eighth and ninth centuries. He was a fine poet, perhaps the best of the Carolingian era, and more than 4,000 of his verses survive. His Paranesis ad iudices and his work on the filioque dispute indicate that he was a skilled controversialist. Finally, his authorship of the Libri Carolini, the massive Carolingian treatise against the positions on icons taken by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, reflects a theological knowledge …

Who Cast Donne's Tolling Bells?, J. X. Evans

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The following paragraph from a funeral sermon written in 1620 by Charles Fitz-Geffrey (1575-1637), an Anglican clergyman, contains imagery so much like John Donne's celebrated figure in Devotion XVII (1624) that it should come to the attention of readers interested in Donne and the literature oof Jacobean England:

Do they who close the eyes and cover the face f the Dead consider that their eyes must be closed, and their faces covered? Or they who shroud the Coarse remember that they themselves shortly must be shrouded? Or they who ring the Knell consider that shortly the Bels must goe the …

The Dynamics Of Pietas In Ben Jonson's Catiline, Wilson F. Engel Iii

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Ben Johnson's Catiline, the exemplary Renaissance tragedy, has only recently been studied in detail for its menacing statement about Republican politics, and since no thorough reading of the play appeared until the 1950s, no received critical opinion need stand between the reader and the text. The disadvantage of this state of affairs is clear—any reading is liable to partake of the imbalance of contemporary criticism lamented by Richard Levin in New Readings vs. Old Plays. After Ellen M. T. Duffy demonstrated that Jonson made the most of Renaissance scholarship in his use of the classics, a number of …

A Reexamination Of The Development Of Protestantism During The Early English Reformation, John K. Yost

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G.R. Elton's recent investigations of the relation between humanist reform and reformist government during the 1530's leave us with no uncertainty about Cromwell's beliefs regarding Protestantism. Elton concludes from an anonymous letter fo 1538, which he ascribes to the eminent civil and canon lawyer John Oliver, that "as early as 1531 or 1532, therefore, Thomas Cromwell was thinking along reformed lines and lines of evangelical theology...." Moreover, he reports how Cromwell "told the prior of Kingswood: by him 'the Word of God, the gospel of Christ, is not only favoured but also perfected, set forth, maintained, increased and defended'."

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England's King Henry I And The Flemish Succession Crisis Of 1127-1128, Sandy B. Hicks

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Historians have long appreciated the political significance of the Flemish Succession Crisis of 1127-28 upon the development of both Flanders and Capetian France. Anglo-Norman specialists, though, have generally overlooked the critical impact this crisis had upon the latter years of the reign of King Henry I and, indeed, upon the future direction of the Anglo-Norman state. This paper will examine why Henry judged the crisis as a threat to the very survival of his own realm, how he responded to it, and why is was of such importance to England and Normandy.

Vision And Experience In Machaut's Fonteinne Amoureuse, R. Barton Palmer

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Guillaume de Machaut's narrative verse, much honored and imitated by his peers, has met with a generally indifferent reception from modern critics. There are, it seems to me, two reasons for this. First, Machaut's heavy indebtedness to Guillaume de Lorris has made inevitable a comparison between the two which leaves the imitator, though exploring the form for a different purpose, at a disadvantage. Unlike his model, Machaut does not infuse allegorical narrative with either a sharp reading of psychology or his own quite genuine joy in experience. Allegory is for him a two-dimensional device to serve a didactic end: the …

Medieval Studies In America And American Medievalism, Herwig Wolfram

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As far as one can tell, Ernst Robert Curtius appears to have been the first Central European so fascinated by American interest in the Middle Ages that he promised a study on the subject. He called this particular interplay oof academic, amateur, and popular interest "American Medievalism." According to his bibliography, the projected work never appeared, but a lecture he was asked to present to an American audience in 1949 was published in both the North American and Hispano-American editions of his famous book European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages.

Catharsis In Aristotle, The Renaissance, And Elsewhere, Thomas Clayton

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In an essay on "Shakespeare and the Kinds of Drama," Stephen Orgel presents an appealing and sympathetic view of Renaissance dramatic-generic theory and practice as original, capacious, and flexible, concluding that, "like Scaliger, Shakespeare thought of genres not as sets of rules but as sets of expectations and possibilities." In relation to this finding, we should perhaps be content to be "unclear about tragic catharsis," because "at least we know it is there, convincing us that tragedy works—even if we do not know how or on whom" (p.120). As the Renaissance read Aristotle, "tragedy achieved its end by purging …

The Liberation Of The "Loathly Lady" Of Medieval Romance, Robert Shenk

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In his conclusion of The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell, the anonymous poet asks "Jhesu" to

Help him oute of sorrowe that this tale did devine,

And that nowe in alle hast,

For he is beset withe gailours many,

That kepen him fulle sewerly,

With wiles wrong and wraste. (842-846)

Although the poet then repeats his cry for help two additional times, this ending has never been seriously considered as an important part of the romance. One critic puzzles as it by saying, "Oddly, the romance ends on a note of pathos," but it is usually ignored …

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Matrimony And Change In Webster's The Duchess Of Malfi, Margaret L. Mikesell

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Profound changes occurred in the institution of marriage during the Renaissance. Love was gradually replacing fiscal and dynastic considerations as the foundation considered crucial for a binding union. The love marriage was largely a middle-class phenomenon, born of the changing relationship between the family and the state, articulated and refined by Protestant divines, and diffused through aristocratic society. Drama of the period is much concerned with this shift. The bourgeois conjunction of love and marriage triumphs in the aristocratic societies of many a romantic comedy. The weddings at play's end promise a new social order. The disintegration of the old …

The Virtues Of The Heart: The Beatitudes In Patience, S. L. Clark, Julian N. Wasserman

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The heart as an enclosure, changeable over time, and, like the communal chalice, capable of being emptied only to be filled again, proves to be one of the most complex symbols in Patience. The Pearl-Poet repeatedly focuses on the heart, from his inclusive plural reference to "herttes" in the poem's prologue (I. 2), to his conception of the Beatitudes as virtues of the heart (II. 13, 21, 23, 27), to his subsequent observations over the course of the narrative concerning the various states of the human – and even divine – heart. In fact, in the skillful hands …

The Christian Context Of Rebirth In La Naissance Du Chevalier Au Cygne, George L. Evans Jr.

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The technique of composition through analogy, a distinctive trait of the Old French romance as affirmed by Eugene Vinaver in the Rise of Romance, is a major feature of La Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne, which is structured by the epic laisse. Written in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century to serve as a preface to the Old French Crusade Cycle, the NChCy recounts the birth of the Swan Knight, the legendary grandfather of Godefroy de Bouillon, hero of the First Crusade. The poem also relates the metamorphosis of the future Swan Knight and his five …

Report On The 1979 Meeting Of The Association, Harry Rosenberg

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The range of topics covered in the papers presented at Flagstaff in April amply testify to the extraordinary variety of life and thought in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The papers are a tribute, too, to the vigor of contemporary scholarly interest in these two great historical-cultural epochs. (This review, it should be noted, is based upon the full paper in some instances and in others on both the paper and the pleasure of having been present at the time it was delivered, yet there are also several papers reported here of which I have seen only an abstract.)

The Problem Of Distinguishing Religious Guilt From Religious Melancholy In The English Renaissance, Noel L. Brann

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What is the essential difference between natural melancholy and the guilt-stricken conscience of the sinner? This is the question posed by Ben Jonson (1573-1637) in his poetic plain To Heaven:

Good, and great God, can I not thinke of thee,

But it must, straight, my melancholy bee?

It is interpreted in me disease,

Thaat, laden with my sinnes, I seeke for ease?

Here Jonson points up the perennial quandary of homo religioso. At stake in its solution is not only the health of the body, but also the salvation of the soul. For if spiritual guilt cannot be …

Closure In The Early Spanish Ballad, David William Foster

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One of the hoariest cliches in traditional literary histories apropos the early Spanish ballad (i.e., the Romancero viejo of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) concerns poetic ending or closure: "[The early ballads] frequently end as abruptly as they begin, oftentimes seemingly unconcluded, a characteristic which gives them an air of mystery and special charm." The feature is often attributable to the general and specific origins of the texts in the fragmentation of longer epic poems and chronicles, or in the truncation of longer ballads. The most representative example is "Conde Arnaldos," one of the best of the early Spanish ballads …

Fools And Fool-Makers: Types Of Comic Characters In Renaissance Literature, Russell J. Meyer

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A common impulse in studies of the comic figure, in the Renaissance as well as more recently, has been to seek a single feature which marks all such characters. Most sixteenth-century theorists agreed that both ugliness and surprise play major roles in the success of a comic figure, but their concern on the one hand with the rhetorical powers of laughter and on the other with the moral effects of comedy led them to accept principles which do not actually reflect the experience of comic literature. In their search for a single consolidating feature of all comic figures, the Renaissance …

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Papers In Language And Literature Delivered At The 1979 Meeting Of The Association, John Boni

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The papers in language and literature covered, as might be expected, a broad range of interests: from Beowulf to Paradise Lost, from paleography to cultural change. The following is an attempt too summarize the content of each paper, staying as close as possible to the author's pattern of argument, and following the author's own words, directly or by paraphrase; the order here follows that of the program. Where only an abstract was available as a source of summary, this has been noted.

The "Resurrection" Of Frederick Ii Of Hohenstaufen, James K. Otte

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Those who visit Goslar, jewel of the Salian and Hohenstaufen emperors, will be introduced to one of the most beautiful and best preserved romanesque Pfalzen, which served the medieval emperors as regional residences. The stately throne hall received its present decor in the years 1879-97, when Herman Wislicenus created a series of huge murals depicting great events in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. The most romantic and prophetic of these paintings portrays Frederick Barbarossa. It is a visual expression of a popular medieval legend that envisioned the return of Kaiser Rotbart.

The Use Of Thierry Of Chartres' Hexameron By Anonymi De Elementis And Robert Grosseteste, Richard C. Dales

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The twelfth century in the intellectual history of western Europe was a time of great creativity and freedom and a time during which the rate of acquisition of exotic material was at a maximum. In spite of this, however, the sources of much twelfth-century scientific writing and the use of twelfth-century authors by later writers is little known. Although the editor of a twelfth-century text can sometimes point to the specific source of his author, more often he must simply indicate similar passages in other works or indicate the ultimate source (e.g., Aristotle or Plotinus), which could not possibly have …

Machiavelli's The Prince: A Lexical Enigma, Jeane Luere

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Italians today, especially Florentines, unreservedly venerate their native son, Niccolo Machiavelli, 16th century Italian political figure, along with Francesca Petrarcha, Dante Alighieri, and Michelangelo Buonarroti; they attach no stigma, no unfavorable connotation, to the adjective "Machiavellian," coined from the name so famous in literature and legend. An American abroad encounters this total veneration of Machiavelli with some bewilderment, for we are prone to attitudes like that of Thomas Babington Macaulay, who wrote, "We doubt whether any names in literary history be so generally odious as that of Machiavelli."

"A Growing Or Full Constant Light": A Reading Of Donne's "A Lecture Upon The Shadow", Diane Elizabeth Dreher

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John Donne's "A Lecture Upon the Shadow" has given rise to extensive critical commentary, most of it devoted to the shadow imagery in the poem. However, no one, to date, has proposed a satisfactory explanation for the shadow's shift in meaning from the realm of natural phenomena to that of conjecture and imagination. Pierre Legouis has concluded that "the similitude does not hold good ... it is imperfect." Yet an acceptable explanation is possible and the similitude does hold good when the poem is considered in terms of its dominant structural pattern, the Bonaventuran meditation. In keeping with meditative practice, …