Renaissance Poetry Allows the Reader to Explore Greco-Roman Consciousness
If you have ever desired to travel back in time to experience the ideology and wisdom of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Elizabethans, then the study of Renaissance poetry is ideal for you. Renaissance artists were involved in an exciting retrospective of Greek and Roman art, literature, and philosophy. Sir Philip Sidney, the English writer who penned the famous Defense of Poetry, constantly quoted Aristotelian and Socratic ideas in his writings. Shakespeare explored the political philosophy of the Roman Republic in his memorable tragedies Julius Ceaser and Titus Adronicus. In many ways Greek and Roman thought can be considered the deep springs from which many Renaissance writers drew for inspiration and intellectual nourishment. Consider for instance this relatively obscure passage from Plato's Republic, in which Socrates explores the correlation between opinion, knowledge, and ignorance:
Socrates: All right. Now if there were something such as both to be and not to be,wouldn't it lie between what purely and simply is and what no way is?
Glucon: Most certainly
Socrates: Since knowledge depended on what is and ignorance necessarily on what is not, mustn't we also seek something in between ignorance and knowledge that depends on that which is in between, if there is in fact any such thing? Do we say opinion is something?
Glucon: Of course.
In the above passage, Socrates defines opinion as the position in between knowledge and ignorance. Opinion is neither pure fact, nor pure ignorance-it simply hangs in the balance between two intellectual extremes. Interestingly, this Socratic language is at the heart of one of the most provocative Shakespearean monologues:
Hamlet: To be, or not to be, that is the question
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep-
No more, and by a sleep to say we end
The heart -ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to; 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd
Hamlet's words must be understood on at least two different levels. First, Hamlet appears to be questioning the quintessence of human existence. However, when we view the language to be or not to be as the Aristotelian concept of opinion, a provocative new level of understanding emerges. The principle concern of the play is Hamlet's wavering opinion concerning the murderous circumstances of his father's death. Hamlet's suspicion that his father's ghost may be a demon in disguise, leaves Hamlet in the precarious position that Socrates calls opinion. Hamlet is literally caught in the balance between knowledge and ignora nce, not knowing the truth about the elder Hamlet's mysterious death. Thus, Hamlet's monologue not only explores the dynamics of a deeply troubled soul, but serves as a window into Greek consciousness. Shakespeare cleverly weaves Socratic concepts of opinion with Hamlet's assessment of his disquieting circumstances.