Development of Prose in Elizabethan Age l Elizabethan Prose in General l Elizabethan Prose Introduction l Prose writers in Elizabethan Age

Development of Prose in Elizabethan Age

Although Elizabethan's Age is referred to as "The Golden Age of English poetry and theatre," it should also look like a beautiful Age of English prose, since prose English was marked by such outstanding prose writers like Sir Philip Sidney, Lyly, Greene, Lodge, Nashe, Deloney and Dekker. Elizabethan's prose at the beginning was a translation of foreign publications, mainly the Italian Novella or Short romantic stories like William's Palace of Pleasure, Geoffrey Fenton's Tragical Addresses. A compilation of legendary stories was Petite Palace by George Petite, an original work published in 1576. The most fascinating of the early prose literature by Elisabethan was George Gascoigne's The Adventures of the Master FJ. It was released in 1573.

John Lyly 
John Lyly was the most famous of the original prose authors of the Elizabethan age. A commotion arose from the publishing in 1578 of his odd book, Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit, and its successor, Euphues and his England, in 1580. Although books had thin-plotted love stories, they were meant to be read as conduct books for aristocratic young people. Through these two volumes, Lyly exposed him as a pioneer an inimitable, unique style, called Euphuism. The beauty of style is the flawless application of balanced sentences, complex alliterations, classical allusions, and ornate epithets.

Sir Philip Sidney
The earliest pastoral romance in English, Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, was modeled on the Spanish pastoral romance. Sidney's Arcadia could better be labeled a prose-like piece of poetry. However, it could impact the drama of the age greatly.

Robert Greene 
Robert Greene has written short novels in imitation of Lyly – Mamillia (1583), The Mirror of Modesty, and The Card of Fancy. His most popular Pandosto romance gave Shakespeare the story of The Winter Tale. Pandosto is characterized by better accounts, shorter soliloquies, and less euphuism than other volumes. Greene modeled on Sidney's Arcadia his Menaphon (1589). To His Love was perhaps the best of Greene's Euphuistic romance written in 1589.

Thomas Lodge 
Thomas Lodge was known as Rosalinde, the fount of Shakespeare's As You Like. Though Lodge mimicked Greene's romantic approach, by introducing masculine stolen materials from Chaucer he overcame his master.

Thomas Dekker 
Thomas Dekker has been known for his realistic contemporary life portrayal. He has released written works by Bellman in London, Candlelight and Lantern, The Seven Deadly Sins in London and Hell by Devil's Carrier between 1606 and 1608. We should remember that the characters of Dekker are all idealized vagabonds.

Thomas Nash 
The first writer of what we call a travelogue should be Thomas Nash for his classic work The Unfortunate Traveler or The Life of Jack Wilton. The tale tells the life of Jack Wilton, a page in Henry VIII's reign that becomes an adventurer.

Thomas Deloney 
Thomas Deloney is known for Gentle Craft, Jack of Newbery and Thomas of Reading for his outstanding writing work. The volumes relate the stories of his time's weavers and shoemakers.

Because the age was intellectually high, Raphael Holinshed inspired many scholars to create non-fictional prose, he wrote his famous Chronicles that are a compilation of English, Scottish, and Irish history derived from a number of older sources. Thomas North published his Plutarch's Lives scholarly translation. Both works were the source of the historical plays of Shakespeare. Richard Hakluyt published in this age his principal navigations, trafficking and discoveries of the English nation.

Francis Bacon 
There was another outstanding scholar who contributed much to English prose development. Francis Bacon was (1561-1626). He was the first to bring the French philosopher Montaigne to the literary genre known as the essay in English. Bacon was both a scholar and a creative genius with his own unique flair. Bacon was the first to present intellectual, impersonal and reflecting essays in an inimitable style. Brevity is the soul of the essay of Bacon. His selected words are snappy and pithy. Although his utterances are little, he speaks volumes. It can be stated that the cerebral prose of Elizabethan finds its completion in Bacon.

Richard Hooker
One of the largest non-fictional literary works from the Elizabethan era is Richard Hooker's masterly masterpiece Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Policy. Volume by volume began to appear in 1594 and continued till the author died. It was the first book in England to employ English for a serious philosophical debate. Hooker was a Protestant who united a saint's piety with a child's simplicity. His written objective was to defend the Church of England and to advocate certain ideas of the management of the Church.

Conclusion:
A key feature common to practically all Elizabethan prose is its proximity to poetry. It is brilliant, vibrant, rhythmic, indirect, prolix, and tangy. In the Elizabethan age, the Renaissance spirit of humanism, liberalism, and romance played a significant part in the creation and development of English prose.