Question

discuss literary features of the Elizabethan age or the age of Shakespeare.

Answer 1

Characteristic Features of Elizabethan Literature
Revival of Interest in Greek Literature
The ardent revival in the study of Greek literature brought a dazzling light into many dark places of interest. The new classical influences were a great benefit. They tempered & polished the earlier rudeness of English Literature.

Abundance of Output
The Elizabethan age was rich in literary productions of all kinds. Singing is impossible when one’s hearts undeclared & at any moment one may be laid prostrate. Not till the accession of Queen Elizabeth, did a better state of things began to be. In the Elizabethan age, pamphlets & treatises were freely written.

Translations in Elizabethan Age
The Elizabethan age witnessed translation into English of several important foreign books. Many translations were as popular as the original works. Sir Thomas North translated Plutarch’s Lives & John Florio translated Montaigne’s Essais. No less popular were the translations of poetry. E.g. Metamorphoses by Arthur Golding, Aristotle’s Orlando Furioso by Sir John Harrington, Tasso’s Terusalom Liberata by Richard Carew.

Spirit of Independence
In spite of borrowings from abroad, the authors of this age showed a spirit of independence & creativeness. Shakespeare borrowed freely, but by the alembic of his creative imaginations, he transformed the dross into gold. Spenser introduced the ‘Spenserian Stanza’, & from his works, we got the impression of inventiveness & intrepidity. On the whole, the outlook of the writers during the age was broad & independent.