Do Renaissance texts deal primarily with Renaissance concerns, or with universal human emotions and themes? Illustrate your answer from at least TWO texts.

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Do Renaissance texts deal primarily with Renaissance concerns, or with universal human emotions and themes? Illustrate your answer from at least TWO texts.

Literary works in sixteenth-century England were rarely if ever created in isolation from affairs in the cultural and social world. Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (published in 1590) and Christopher Marlowe's Dr Faustus (1601) were written during a period widely accepted as the Renaissance, which is said to have reached England in the early sixteenth-century. Literally, the term means 'rebirth' and it signified a resurgence in the arts and sciences. New discoveries were being made in all fields, as people began to question what they were told by the church and the state. One of the most important changes that took place during this time was the creation of the Church of England in defiance of the Pope and Roman Catholicism. When Elizabeth became queen in 1558, her right to the throne was still not accepted by the church in Rome or even by a number of her own subjects. Spenser and Marlowe were undoubtedly aware of the time they lived in, as many of their works show. In The Faerie Queene Spenser, who was called 'Elizabeth's arse-licking poet' by Karl Marx, presents an eloquent and captivating representation of the Roman Catholic as the evil force pitted against England and the rightful queen. However, the story of the Red Crosse Knight could be read simply as a tale of honour, love and a young man's battle with his inner demons. In a similar sense, Marlowe's daring tale of black magic and evil was written at a time when these topics were a taboo, yet Dr Faustus also deals with universal human concerns.

Spenser's The Faerie Queene was originally meant to consist of twelve books, but Spenser only wrote and published six before he died. The first book concentrates on the adventures of a staunchly Protestant 'Knight of Holiness' who goes on a quest to kill the dragon that has imprisoned his loved-ones parents. In the Norton Anthology, Spenser's tale is described as:

a chivalric romance, full of jousting knights and damsels in

distress, dragons, witches, enchanted trees and wicked magicians.

However, in a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1590, Spenser describes the knight's story as 'dark conceit'. He points out the most obvious allegorical devices that appear in the poem. The Red Crosse Knight represents King Arthur and England; Gloriana Elizabeth I. Already it is obvious that Spenser took seriously his duty as an Englishman to honour Queen Elizabeth, and his duty as a Protestant to champion the Church of England.

The Knight wears a 'bloudie Crosse' (1.10) of England on both his tunic and shield. Any contemporary audience would have recognised this as the symbol of the Templars, a religious and military order founded in 1119 for the protection of Christianity against the infidels. Already the Red Crosse Knight is not only going on a quest to slay a dragon, but also on a crusade to reclaim the land from those of false faith, as the Templars did. The knight's armour is marked with 'deepe wounds', which is interesting as the knight is described as being young and inexperienced. I think that this represents the continuing battle that Protestants must fight against the Catholics.
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In order for the knight's quest to be completed, he must face the dragon, Errour, a 'monster vile, whom God and man does hate' (1.115). If we take the dragon to represent the Roman Catholic Church, Spenser's views are clear. The knight first sees the monster when his 'glistring armour (symbolic of Christianity's struggle) made / a little glomming light' allowing him to see the 'ugly monster plaine' (1.121). And so it is England's religion that sheds light on the evils of the Roman Catholic Church. We also learn that the dragon is 'Halfe like a serpent' and ...

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