The Elizabethan World Picture

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THE DOMINANT IDEOLOGY

• The Elizabethan World Picture

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The Great Chain of Being

• The idea began with Plato, was developed by
  Aristotle, was adopted by the Alexanderian Jews
  (headed by Philo), was formulated by
  neo-Platonists, and became a common place
  assumption by the Middle Ages.
• The Renaissance mind saw 3 kinds of order
• Order within the Universe
• Order within the Political Commonwealth
• Order within the human system

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Relationship Among the Three

• Universe was a vast series of mirrors
• What happened in one sphere was immediately
  paralleled in the others
• NOT cause and effect
• Disorder at any point was a surrender to the
  power of destruction -- a general threat
• All becomes disrupted when the kingdom is
  disturbed.

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The Ptolemaic Universe

• Earth-centered universe
• Earth is fixed, stationary, unmoving
• Around Earth revolve all other heavenly bodies

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The Ptolemaic Universe continued

• Earth Central to the Universe Around Earth
  revolve all other Heavenly bodies
• Moon
• Mercury
• Venus
• Sun
• Mars
• Jupiter Crystalline Sphere (Stars)
• Primum Mobile Sphere (Prime Mover) Controls the
  movement of all within
• Empyrean Sphere (Heavens) Unchanging and
  eternal God and Angels exist here

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The stars were taken to dictate change in
sublunary things. All things above the moon were
immutable while all below were imperfect and
subject to mutability or change. Thus,
paradoxically, Man is the center of the universe
yet the Earth is debased and is furthest from God.
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The Music of the Spheres

• It was further believed that there was an
  angelic group that inhabited each of the nine
  spheres and when these spheres moved they were
  thought to created music, either by angels
  singing or by the differences in speeds between
  the spheres. Fallen man could no longer hear the
  music of the spheres. Further, was the notion
  that the universe itself was in a state of
  perpetual dance.

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The Dance

• As the spheres moved in their stately dance to
  the music of the spheres, so humans could move in
  the motion of a dance, imitating the circles and
  figures of the cosmos. Thus dance was a way of
  celebrating order in society and nature.

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The Corresponding Planes

• If the entire universe was an expression of
  Gods plan, then it followed that all things in
  the universe were related to each other in some
  way or another. This was expressed through the
  concept of corresponding planes, which can be
  grouped into the following

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The Corresponding Planes

• The Divine or Angelic
• The Universe or the Macrocosm
• The Commonwealth or Body Politic
• Man or the Microcosm
• The Lower Creatures

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Within each of these planes or subdivisions there
existed other hierarchies all headed by the
Primate of highest member of that class

• God, among angels
• The Sun, among the planets and the stars
• The King, among men
• Husband, among the family
• The Lion, among animals
• The Eagle, among birds
• The Oak, among trees
• The Rose, among flowers
• Fire, among the elements
• Gold, among the minerals

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By extension if there were a disruption in one
sphere or plane that disruption would also be
reflected in another

• As long as the inner and outer spheres turn
  according to their proper times and places.
• Should something shatter that harmony, however,
  all becomes discordant.
• The result Chaos.

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The Political/Social Sphere

• The pattern of the universe, pattern of society
  and pattern of mans own nature are similar
  structures -- all decreed by God.
• The whole is a unity requiring a hierarchy. The
  degrees of mankind, then, were also created by
  God.
• The apex of society would be the monarch --
  usually the King He is representative man.
• Queen Elizabeths government achieved something
  quite clever
• Most monarchs compared selves to the Sun
• Elizabeth was compared to the Primum Mobile

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The Political/Social Sphere

• Causes of Disruption
• Madness
• Evil
• Incapacitation
• Rebellion

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Rebellion and Disorder

• Whether evil or good, the monarch was ordained by
  God
• a rebel is worse than the worst prince. And
  rebellion worse than the worst government of the
  worst prince(Homily against Disobedience and
  wilful Rebellion, 1571)
• Rebellion against the king includes
• Disturbing the public peace
• Seeking/achieving the death of a brother
• Father seeking death of sons
• Disinheriting their innocent children

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The Complication

• Free Will
• Compliance to the order is voluntary
• The order is not arbitrary - it is based upon
  Reason
• An individual may choose not to accept his/her
  place
• Result is some degree of disorder, depending upon
  the degree of disobedience.

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Steps, Ladder, Chain, Scale

• Stretched from the foot of Gods throne to the
  tiniest inanimate object
• Each speck of creation is a link in the chain,
  and each link has its place

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Starting from the Bottom

• Inanimate Class
• Elements
• Liquids
• Metals
• Earth
• This class has only EXISTENCE

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Next Class

• The Vegetative Class
• Trees
• Flowers
• Vegetables
• Algae
• This class has EXISTENCE and LIFE

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On the next rung is

• The Sensitive Class
• Has EXISTENCE, LIFE and FEELING
• Three Grades
• Creatures having touch, but not hearing, memory
  or movement (parasites at base of trees, some
  shellfish)
• Animals having touch, memory and movement, but
  not hearing (ants)
• Higher animals that have all the faculties

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These classes lead up to

• Mankind
• has life, existence, feeling and
• UNDERSTANDING.
• Mankind is called a little world or microcosm
  because he sums up all earthly phenomena

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The Purely Rational Realm

• Angels -- Spiritual
• Have understanding, but are free of the lower
  faculties
• Are purely intuitive and have no desire to leave
  their places in the order. They receive what
  knowledge they need. They are content.
• (Mankind is not intuitive. He must reason out
  the truth)
• Although some links in the chain may be above and
  some below, all excel at something.
• Stones exceed plants in durability.
• Plants assimilate nourishment better than
  animals.
• Animals are stronger in physical energy and
  desires than man.
• Man exceeds angels in ___________?
• No part of creation is superfluous -- all have
  individual dignity.

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The Heavenly Orders

• Seraphim
• Cherubs
• Thrones
• Dominations Virtues Powers Principalities
  Archangels Angels

Primum Mobile The Fixed Stars Saturn Jupiter Mar
s The Sun Venus Mercury Moon
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Mankind (the little) Earth

• However, the ultimate cause of disorder in the
  universe was the Fall.
• We must be willing
• to take our punishment
• and not try to
• shift the blame!

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Qualities, Elements, Seasons, Humours
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The Elements and the HumoursI am a little world
made cunningly/ Of elements and an angelic
sprite. -- John Donne, Holy Sonnet 5

• The Earth has its faculties The Four Elements
• Earth
• Water
• Air
• Fire
• Mankind, too, has its Humours, which correspond
  to the Four Elements
• Black Bile/Melancholic
• Phlegm, Phlegmatic
• Blood, Sanguine
• Yellow Bile, Choleric

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The Four Humours
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Four Qualities, Four Elements, Four Seasons, Four
Humours
Season Element Humour Body Fluid Location
Spring Air Sanguine Blood Heart
Summer Fire Choleric Yellow Bile Liver
Autumn Water Melancholic Phlegm (Various)
Winter Earth Phlegmatic Black Bile Spleen
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Four Humours
Humour Qualities Element Personality
Sanguine Hot, Moist Air Optimistic, red-checked, corpulent, irresponsible, (Falstaff)
Choleric Hot, Dry Fire Short-tempered, red-haired, thin, ambitious (Hotspur)
Phlegmatic Cold, Moist Water Sluggish, pallid, corpulent, lazy
Melancholic Cold, Dry Earth Introspective, sallow, thin (Richard II, Hamlet).
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Physical Disruptions

• Any disruption to the natural physical balance
  resulted in illness -- physical or mental.
• The practice of bleeding was believed to assist
  in healing blood was the dominant humour and
  releasing some could, theoretically, restore
  balance.

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Mankind Body Mind

• The Body
• The four Humours together generate vital heat -
  the active life principal.
• Mediated through the body through 3 kinds of
  spirit
• Natural Spirits carried through the veins.
  Lowest, vegetative.
• Vital Spirits Refined through the heart carried
  through the arteries.
• Animal Spirits refined in the brain carried
  through the nerves. Highest, rational immortal.
• The Mind
• Five senses -- lowest aspect of mind
• Memory Contains Reason
• Understanding/Wit Elizabethans believed in the
  importance of understanding yourself fully. This
  is a passive, internal quality.
• Will Decisions made upon understanding. This is
  an active, external quality.
• These two qualities, correctly used, comprised
  Elizabethan Ethics. Shakespearean tragic heroes
  often portray a deficiency in one of these
  qualities. (Understanding Othello, Lear Will
  Macbeth, Hamlet)

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Order in Shakespeares Plays

• Upheavals can be restorative or tragic.
• In comedies, the disorder is minor (topsy-turvy
  day, temporary upsets, no permanent harm). These
  are life-giving disruptions, allowing for new
  patterns.
• In tragedies, the disturbance goes deeper, and
  can only be resolved through death. New patterns
  must emerge after the old, distorted one is
  cleansed.

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Order in Renaissance Literature

• These ideas of order and hierarchy are reflected
  throughout Shakespeares works, as well as in the
  poetry and plays of other authors of his time.
  While our links in the chain may have altered,
  the influence of these patterns continues in
  Western culture to the present day.

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Works Consulted

• www.shaksper.net/hcook/Ideology.ppt
• web.cn.edu/kwheeler/ppt/Manuscript.ppt