Early Puritan Attitudes and Their Influence on Contemporary Literature, Especially the Drama

Abstract

There is no great conflict in the social, economic or religious world which does not leave a mark of some kind on literature. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed such a struggle; namely, that between the Renaissance humanistic spirit and the spirit of the reformation seen in its extreme manifestation in Puritanism. |Puritanism, though etymologically and, at first, primarily concerned with religious worship, developed moral, social, economic, and political aspects and attitudes which helped to create a cultural milieu which greatly influenced the aesthetic and artistic point of view with which literature is concerned. It is the purpose of this thesis to study the development of Puritan attitudes and to assess their influence on contemporary literature, especially on the drama. The period of this study extends from the earliest manifestation of the Puritan spirit by Tyndale and his followers to the Puritan triumph which resulted in the closing of the theatres. Within this period, roughly from 1524 to 1642, Puritanism developed its characteristic attitudes which were ultimately reflected in the literature of the period.