L'influenza del Rinascimento e l'evoluzione del sonetto in Inghilterra

L'influenza del Rinascimento in Inghilterra

After the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, England was rapidly drawn into the great stream of the Renaissance. Of the general features of this movement, we have: revived interest in Greek and Roman literatures, love of beauty in all its forms, revival of the spirit of criticism. This awakening of men's minds had originated in Italy. The glamour of Italian literature in Englishmen's eyes and the fondness of English poets for Italian themes has already been exemplified by the work of Chaucer. But the Canterbury Tales, in spite of this Italian influence, are decidedly English in spirit and in setting. With the poets of the reign of Henry VIII we can remember: Waytt and Surrey, the influence goes deeper; it affects the thoughts and feelings; furthermore metrical forms, especially the Sonnet, which Wyatt introduced into English literature. To Surrey, England is indebted for the discovery of blank verse.

L'evoluzione del sonetto

A Sonnet is a poem containing fourteen lines, which are divided into an octave of two quatrains and a sestet of two tercets. The sonnet was first used in Italy in the XVth century. In its pure Italian form, the rhymes are arranged in the following order: abba, abba, cde, cde. Wyatt and Surrey adhered closely to this type. The Shakespeare sonnet broke away entirely from the Italian tradition, doing away with the octave and sestet for which in substituted three quatrains and a couplet, the rhymes being distributed thus; abab, cecd, efef, gg. Milton reverted to the original type, but suppressed the pause at the end of the octave. The sonnet, as a poetical form, fell after Milton, in almost complete oblivion. It was revived by Wordsworth and used with consummate skill by Rossetti and Mrs Browning.

L'età dello studio e dell'esperimento

The sixteenth century was, on the whole, an age on study and experiment. Under the patronage of Cardinal Wolsey, the New Learning received a mighty impulse. Students flocked to the great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, eager to study the Greek and Latin Classics. Erasmus himself came to Oxford, where he discussed theology with John Colet and began his friendship with Thomas More, the author of the Utopia. In the Utopia, first written in Latin and subsequently translated into English, More describes an imaginary islands and gives the theory of an ideal republic where the laws and usages are in strict accordance with philosophical perfection.