The Elizabethan World Picture: A Study of the Idea of Order in the Age of Shakespeare, Donne and Milton

This brief & illuminating account of the ideas of world order prevalent in the Elizabethan age & later is an useful companion for readers of the great writers of the 16th & 17th centuries: Shakespeare, the Elizabethan dramatists, Donne, Milton etc. The basic medieval idea of an ordered Chain of Being is studied by Prof. Tillyard in the process of its various transformations by the dynamic spirit of the Renaissance. Among his topics are: Angels; the Stars & Fortunes; the Analogy between Macrocosm & Microcosm; the Four Elements; the Four Humours; Sympathies; Correspondences; & the Cosmic Dance--ideas & symbols which inspirited the minds & imaginations not only of the Elizabethans but of all of the Renaissance.PrefaceIntroductoryOrderSinThe Chain of BeingThe Links in the ChainThe Corresponding PlanesThe CorrespondencesThe Cosmic DanceEpilogueNotesIndex