The Elizabethan World Picture

(Paperback)

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The Elizabethans took from the Middle Ages the modified view of the universe which, Platonic and biblical in origin, differed radically from our own. For them, all creation was ranged in an unalterable order from the angels down to men (for whom the world existed) and thence to the beasts and plants. This short study sets out to elucidate fairly familiar, though often mystifying, concepts such as the four elements, the celestial harmony of "the nine enfolded Sphears", and macrocosm and microcosm; and to show how this world picture was variously regarded as a chain of being, a network of correspondences, and a cosmic dance. Such concepts were commonplace to the Elizabethans and, by expounding them, the author aims to render plain, and not merely picturesque, the literature and thinking of an age.

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Shines a brilliant light. -- Toby Clements * The Big Issue in the North *