Issie G.

HISTORY’S PHENOMENONS

August-June 1592 - 1593 Renaissance: 15th to the 17th century

Plus a sneak peek of the Middle Ages!

Issie Gale A Block ELA

Learn about how the dark ages turned to the light [1]

$3.00 US Dollar $3.78 Canadian Dollar

Who: Important People

What: Social Classes and

Christopher (Kit) Marlowe

Feudalism

Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 (exact date unknown) in Canterbury, Kent, England. Marlowe attended The King’s Grammar School until he enrolled at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. During college, he started writing his first play, Tamburlaine the Great. It was published in 1587, the same year he was awarded with a Master’s degree in art. Tamburlaine ended up becoming famous, as well as some of his later plays Massacre at Paris and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Marlowe’s occupation was not only a playwright but a spy as well. Working for Robert Cecil, the atheist tragically died in a fight over an unpaid bill. He was stabbed to death yet some think the murder was more of an arranged assassination.

The Middle Ages in England lasted from about the fifth to the fifteenth century.

During this period, there was a social ladder. First came the pope and church, then the monarch. After them came the nobles, lords and ladies, further down the knights and vassals, lower, the merchants, craftsmen, and apprentices, then finally on the lowest rung, the serfs, peasants and slaves. This was all sorted out by a government system called feudalism.

Feudalism was a major part in Medieval Europe. It was the way of giving out jobs based off of results from a test taken by all potential applicants. Feudalism was the base of many new and improved systems like manorialism and encomienda. In Europe, feudalism lasted for about 500 years (ninth to the fourteenth century). It made a huge impact (and still does) on western Europe.

[2]

Why: Death

Who: Important People William Shakespeare

Cause and Effect

William Shakespeare was born in the same year as Marlowe (1564) in Stratford-upon-Avon (more commonly know as Stratford), England. As well as an infamous playwright and poet, Shakespeare was an actor as well. With two extensive narrative poems, 38 plays and 154 sonnets, it’s no wonder why Shakespeare is considered the best playwright in history. His education started at King Edward VI’s School in Stratford and attended for seven years until he was pulled out due to financial issues. Because of this, Shakespeare did not go to college. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway and had three children with her (Susan Hall, Hamnet Shakespeare, and Judith Quincey). On April 23, 1616, he died in his home town of Stratford. It was a sad day knowing such a brilliant mind had been shut down forever, but historians believe all his genius and talent wasn’t just flowing out of him. They say that Christopher Marlowe made a very large impact on Shakespeare and taught him the ways to writing when creating their play together.

Life was obviously not always safe during this time period. From burglars to pirates, there could be danger around every corner you turned. But men with peg-legs and parrots aren’t the only things to be afraid of. Common ways to bite the dust were diseases, years of famine, the constant warfare, and plain poverty. Other ways were plagues, murder, suicide, lack of proper hygiene, starvation, thirst, or perhaps food poisoning. Food was scarce, and even when it was in the possession of someone it usually wasn’t washed because there wasn’t any running water unless you counted the Thames river but that was still very dirty. Among the diseases and plagues was a sanity sucking nightmare. Black Death. With this, large black boils would form on your skin and you would cough your lungs up with an uncontrollable fever. It originated in Central Asia but spread to Europe via trade. A third of the European population was wiped out. It was extremely tragic and lasted for about five years. The life expectancy for an average adult was between thirty and thirty-five years. Another way to die was to be over worked.

Archaeologists found the skeletons of serfs with worn out joints.

Black Death is often portrayed as skeletons acting as regular people do.

[3]

How: Art Art in the Middle Ages was very important and popular. It was used to decorate buildings, portray scenes from the Bible, and more.

Types of art typically displayed in churches were usually paintings, sculptures, tapestries, and most commonly, stained glass.

Sometimes artisans would carve important events on the wall(s).

The art was made in many different materials and used special tools. Paintings were painted using brushes made with fur or hair from animals tied to a quill or stick. Sculptures were sculpted out of wood, stone, clay, or marble. Some craftsmen worked with glass, gold, silver, ivory, bronze, and also a colored liquid that hardens after being heated called enamel.The colors were made using pigments with a special recipe: egg yolk or oil, water, and a liquid made from tree sap. The actual color often came from rocks and minerals crushed into dust (below).

Need a Good Read?

A book that fits right into the time of this issue’s articles is The Secret of the Rose by Sarah L. Thomson. The book is about a Catholic girl named Rosalind and her brother trying to survive in London, England. In the text, the author often mentions breeches and doublets (top) and Rosalind’s rosary (middle). The cover shows Rosalind standing behind a rose (bottom). Hope you find it!

Advice: Question !

Dear Master Marlowe, I am now living in a web of lies; and it’s becoming very overwhelming and stressful. I know you have kept secrets in the past, so I would really like to know how to keep my secrets? I understand you will have my head if I spill what I’ve overheard, and I know for a fact that you are Catholic hunter. What will become of me if I somehow slip into a relationship with a woman? What shall I do? Please help me Master!

- Rosalind/Richard Archer

Advice: Answer Dear Rosalind, I am sorry you have to keep my secrets as well as your own; and being a Catholic in a Christian’s world is never easy. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of helpful advice. But aye, I am a man of secrets. To answer you’re question, I would flee. Tell only your brother, and do bring him along. Just get away from this cruel place. You can live your true life, away from me, frolicking around in your skirts, and able to pray to whoever Catholics pray to. I’m sure that if you are quick and sneaky, no one would notice. You will be missed at the Rose, and I will try my hardest to forget about you as I hope you will too.

- Master Marlowe

[4]

Bibliography Thomson, Sarah L. The Secret of the Rose. New York: Greenwillow, 2006. Print.

"Robot Check." Robot Check. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

"Daniel Eric Mutter." Daniel Eric Mutter. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

"The Secret of the Rose." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

"Christopher Marlowe." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

"William Shakespeare." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. http://www.lscacamp.org/portals/0/medieval%20people.pdf Hodge, Susie. Medieval Europe. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens Pub., 2005. Print.

[5]

Lexicon Organizer Early Renaissance (1592-1593)

Word

Part of Speech (noun, verb, adj)

Definition (in context with the story)

Sentence from book & Page #

How is this w meaningful to time period of book? Expla

Breeches

noun (thing)

Pants that ended just below the knee worn by most men regardless of social class.

“... shameless and immodest Breeches were a in my ​breeches​ and doublet?” article of clothing (73) lower half.

Constable

noun (person)

Basically a police officer but works for a certain district of a town or city.

“​Constable​ Nicholls!” (38)

Constables kept p in order.

Doublet

noun (thing)

A jacket/shirt worn by most people (men).

“... I pulled on a ​doublet​ of coarse russet kersey.”(34)

A main article of clothing for the up half.

Draper

noun (person)

A tailor of sorts but “Behind me, the ​draper sells more clothes than …”(21) fixes them.

Helped people be clothed.

Flux (Dysentery)

noun (thing)

A sickness in the intestine area that is caused by bacteria, viruses, and protozoa.

“Of the ​flux​ …”(92)

Took many lives proper sanitation not available.

Garters

noun (thing)

A piece worn to hold

“ … I tried to fasten the

Without these,

[6]

Lexicon Organizer Early Renaissance (1592-1593) up stockings.

garters​”(34)

everybody's socks would fall off!

Girdle

noun (thing)

A brace to hold one’s stomach in.

“His hand closed around the heavy purse that hung from my ​girdle​ and wrenched it free” (16)

It made women look thinner and were popular around this time.

Halfpence

noun (thing)

Part of the British currency. Equal to half a modern penny.

“​Halfpence​ for the doorkeeper” (91)

They were important the everyday lives of people.

Philip Henslowe

noun (person)

Built and owned the Rose theater.

“​Henslowe​ held up his hands. His theater was the fi ‘Enough! … Kit, the way he to ever show one of plays it fills up the galleries, Shakespeare’s plays and that should satisfy you.”

(66)

Lodgings

noun (place/thing) A place where one would live for a little while.

“My ​lodgings​ are in Norton Folgate;; …”(69)

Apprentices and servants often stayed the lodgings of their master(s).

Lute

noun (thing)

Like a guitar, but the bottom (where you pluck the strings) is shaped like half an egg.

“… there leaned some books and a​ lute​ …”(71)

Lutes were played to add music to plays an to entertain. People sometimes played fo money.

Christopher Marlowe

noun (person)

One of the best playwrights in history.

“‘​Master Marlowe​,’ the pursuer wheezed.” (38)

Wrote some of the be plays (including Tamburlaine, ​The

[7]

Lexicon Organizer Early Renaissance (1592-1593)

Tragica Life and Doctor The Ma Pallet

noun (thing)

A straw filled mattress. “I threw back the blanket, dressed quickly, and knelt beside my ​pallet​.” (98)

Robert Pooley

noun (person)

A double agent that gave up many secret Catholics.

“‘Farewell, Kit,’ ​Pooley​ said, still gently.” (183)

Technic many p exposin religion

Rapier

noun (thing)

A very small, thin, sword.

“Harry’s ​rapier​ flicked up to stop an inch from his eye.”(162)

Used to used in

Ruff

noun (thing)

A ring of linen stuck around the neck.

“There had not been enough to make a ​ruff​, …” (204)

Used a for an o

Shillings

noun (thing)

Another part of the “But I thought it wise to give Again, British currency. Equal him a few ​shillings​ in case we importa to $0.011 US. were separated” (20 + 21) of the p

Tabard

noun (thing)

A sleeveless shirt open on the sides and closed in the front.

“If you can finish these tabards​, I can do this skirt of Harry’s.” (135)

William Shakespeare

noun (person)

The best playwright in the history of playwrights.

“It was ​William Shakespeare​.” Author (185) famous and Jul Midsum

[8]

Often u costum

Lexicon Organizer Early Renaissance (1592-1593) Dream, and Hamlet) Taffeta

noun (thing)

A fine silk like material. “… to show a lining of Used in many costumes flame-­orange ​taffeta​, …” (40)

[9]