The Impact of the Renaissance Key-Concepts on the Works of Wyatt, Surrey and Sidney

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to reveal the impact of the Renaissance major key-concepts on the works of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, The Earl of Surrey and Sir Philip Sidney. In chapter I the thesis will discuss the drastic changes which the Renaissance has seen. These changes have announced the breakdown of medieval thinking and the beginning of the early Modern Age. The study will also discuss the most important intellectual and religious movements during the Renaissance such as "Humanism", "Puritanism" and "The Reformation". Moreover the predominant key concepts of the Renaissance such as the theme of courtly love, translation from Petrarch, individualism, the concept of "Self-Fashioning" as well as the more realistic view of women and the system of "Patronage" will be discussed. The influence of such key-concepts on the works of Wyatt, Surrey and Sidney will also be examined in chapters II, III, IV.

Finally the study concludes with the idea that the wori<S of the three poets, dealt with in this thesis, have the most prominent features which distinguish the Renaissance as a movement.