In the golden twilight of Elizabeth I's reign, when England's cultural confidence soared as high as her naval ambitions, there emerged a composer whose melodies would capture the very essence of Renaissance joy and melancholy. Thomas Morley, born around 1557 in the bustling city of Norwich, would become the architect of England's madrigal tradition and one of the most influential musicians of his generation. His life…
“If therefore you will compose in this kind, you must possess yourself with an amorous humour (for in no composition shall you prove admirable except you put on and possess yourself wholly with that vein wherein you compose).”
Neighbourhood:
Elizabethan Poets, Lute-Song Composers
Emotional landscape: Sensuality, Irony, Joy
Thomas Nashe, baptized on 26 November 1567 and probably born shortly before that date in Lowestoft, Suffolk, was one of the most brilliant, abrasive, inventive, and precarious figures of the English Renaissance. He died sometime after 1599 and is conventionally assigned a death date of about 1601, though the circumstances and exact date remain unknown. In a life that appears to have lasted little more than three deca…
“Our learning ought to be our lives' amendment, and the fruits of our private study ought to appear in our public behavior.”
Neighbourhood:
Elizabethan Poets, Light Verse Poets, Renaissance Poets
Emotional landscape: Despair, Sorrow, Fear
