Introduction

The most typical view of the Elizabethan ages seems to be that it is almost wholly a secular time but that is not at all the case. Instead, a “refinement” of a very medieval view of man’s relationship to God predominates and that’s what we’ll focus on.

This view is expressed in three major ways: the chain of beings (vertical), the planes of correspondences (horizontal) and the Dances.

The first major focus will be on the chain of being, but first some more general background:

Man is viewed in something of a theo-centric context, in his relationship to theology, and the primary conflict/tension is between the present life and the expected after life of heaven, hell or purgatory (which I’m not entirely sure about beyond Catholic dogma at the time). Mankind was confounded between the conflicting claims of this and another world.

Prior to the fall, in what some call the pre-lapserian state, man was unsullied. Since the fall man, while still inhabiting the place between the angels and the beasts, man was seen as having the capability to rise above his station, to be better in a theological or spiritual sense, which was a dominant medieval perspective.

With regard to the Church in Shakespeare’s day, there was something of a high/low split. The high church was essentially the Catholic Church under the guise and leadership of the Church of England. These are the Anglicans. The low church was made up of various puritan sects. These groups were/are called puritans because they wanted to purify the church of it’s “papist” trappings, to make it more like the original church. They wanted a removal of finery, of sacraments such as marriage and confirmation which were not, in their minds, biblically based. They also sought a Presbyterian hierarchy, one in which each church chose its own minister from among the flock, in which the members of a congregation decided who was worthy of being a full member and receiving communion and several other things, such as the role of the Common Book of Prayer. Despite these differences, they were fundamentally the same in their view of the world and cosmology.

This cosmology consisted of a ordered universe in a fixed system of hierarchies that were modified, you might say corrupted, by the fall of man and the hope of redemption. Within this Ptolemaic framework The limits of human virtue were set and immutable as each sort of human is aligned with a particular planet that governs their behaviors. In pagan systems, which came to influence Christian systems, one would pray to certain Gods only for certain things at certain times of the day. For instance, Mars, the god of war, was also the god of fire in crafts, such as smiths and cooks and miners. There was a particular time of day, according to the zodiac, when prayers would be appropriate. At other times, praying to Mars would be wrong and out of step.

Something else to consider and keep in mind is that under the Ptolemaic system, earth is at the center of the universe, which is one of the reasons the “earthly” is seen as corrupt, because the lower on the chain of the universe, the less divine and more corrupt something was, but this is just one such fixed system. More later.

As you might guess, this fixed system which I’ll describe in greater detail as we move on, came to be incredibly complicated and it ended up being simplified by the emergence of both Christianity and later on Protestantism. Still, as we’ll see in Shakespeare, there will be many comparisons/analogies of war is to the body politic as blood letting is to personal health, body parts to various constellations and more. The earthly is linked to the heavenly, the heavenly (meaning both the divine and those things in the sky) have a direct and profound influence on what happens on the earth among men.

Although the Ptolemaic view dominated, many among the educated were aware of the emergence of the Copernican model, which is the universe and solar system pretty much as we understand it today, with the sun at the center of the solar system and the earth and other plants revolving around it. One of the problems this created was that in the fixed system, the sun was the “king” of the plants and the earth was the “dregs,” being at the center of things. Despite this emerging knowledge, many chose to stick with the old notions because of a general unwillingness to upset the system. It went without saying that the earth was at the center of the universe, just as for us many things go without saying, such as we must work to get on in the world, you will get ahead with an education, “the market” is a neutral force for good (if you are a believer in capitalism), and so on.

 The biblical justification for Ptolmeic System

• Psalm 93:1 which says that "The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; / the LORD is robed in majesty /and is armed with strength. / The world is firmly established; / it cannot be moved." 
• Psalm 104:5 "  He set the earth on its foundations; / it can never be moved."

This is often read as the biblical pronouncement in support of the Ptolemaic system, but some consider this a mis-reading, that the world cannot be moved in the sense that its behaviors, rotation, orbit of the sun and such, are fixed, and themselves cannot be moved. I’ll let you decide on this sort of thing.  

 In the Ptolemaic view, it was right and proper to refer to Elizabeth as the “prime mover,” primum mobile, that which makes all else happen. She became viewed in this way in part due to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, which was partly due to superior weaponry (better smelting of cannons so they didn’t blow up in the sailor’s face) and partly luck as the Armada was dispersed by a storm. This victory was seen as God showing his favor to Elizabeth, but also to Protestants over Catholics for most Englanders, though Elizabeth did a good job of playing Protestants, both Puritan and Anglican, and Catholics, off against each other.

 Order

 When it comes to Elizabethan drama and poetry, order rules. The sonnet, which we’ll be looking at later, is considered the highest form of poetry and it is strictly ordered by a set of rules which we’ll discuss. Drama is the same, constricted most obviously by expected, maybe even culturally required, division into five acts: situation, complication, climax, denouement, resolution. To do otherwise  would be to mark ones self as being a fool.

Order is defined/viewed thusly:

• Order is the condition of all that follows.
• Order above all else matters
• Order is the law whereby the eternal (think God) doth work
• Order is based on reason, which is God’s law to man, to use reason
• Natural agents order/follow natural laws (rocks, gasses, etc)
• Angels follow celestial/heavenly law
• Reasonable creatures follow the law of reason, laws to which they know they are bound
• Human law is manmade but based on reason and divine law as revealed to man (though how revealed is never specified, but for many it’s the Bible—which is one way of seeing why, still today, so much sway is given to the bible as something of a force of law, why so many look to it for a moral/legal code, even though we are not going to stone adulterers or people who mix cotton and wool in their clothes.

Upsetting any order will upset the universe or one’s place in the cosmos, which is something we might take lightly, concerned Elizabethan’s mightily. Should disorder result in chaos, the laws of nature might no longer function—“the frame of the heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve” (Hooker) then the physical world would come crashing down, literally,  which would scare not just an Elizabethan with an education, maybe even an uneducated Elizabethan. Chaos was cosmic anarchy in the universe. The fear of chaos emphasized and underscores the desire for order, the need for order. In an orderly world, the subservient are rewarded by the sovereign for doing as told and the lawless are rebuked—in short, one gets what one deserves. The images are going to be more along the lines of what happens when the order is upset (think about Macbeth those of you who have seen the play, or Hamlet).

 Finally, here, there is mutability, change of our status in the world, such as from health to sickness, life to death, was often a primary concern. People knew they were mutable, that circumstances were mutable, even in the fixed system. This was due to the corruption/fall of man, due to our falling away from the divine.

Sin

This is no great variation in religious perspective from medieval times. Some say that men were bitter and thought so much of moral decay at the time because they expected so much in a material sense.

Prime concerns: revolt of bad angels, creation, temptation, fall of man, incarnation, atonement, and regeneration through Jesus Christ. An Elizabethan could revolt against but not ignore these notions. It is generally thought it was easier to be an atheist than an agnostic then, given something of an all or nothing mindset.

Disorder and chaos are the product of sin and man’s continually striving for dominance.

The fall is seen as alienating man from himself. To regain true self knowledge man must contemplate the works of nature of which he is a part, which feeds scientific examination of the enlightenment, which goes back to the dominant view that the era is more secular than it was.

The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents. Learning is something man is capable of which sets him apart form the beasts. This brings about a double vision, of man as fallen and capable of redemption, something which before was viewed separately. This allows for sufficient optimism despite the degeneracy of the fall. Virtue remains though in varying degrees among each man and woman.

The view is that man can rise above his earthly imperfection and reach toward heavenly perfection. Poetry is an example of man’s effort to rise above his fallen self and reach out towards perfection.

• The perfection sought is of a combined Platonic Good and Garden of Eden. (In “form” (Plato’s word, this exists in the mind of God or as an archetype, apart from space and time), there is perfection. Essence might be a good way to think of it. How man envisions this form is a step removed from perfection. How maan brings this form to being, is yet another step removed from perfection. Everything that exists is a copy of the form/universal/idea and flawed because of it.
• Adam’s fall is a measure of the distance separating created things from platonic archetypes/universal

 Chain of Being: one of three forms of order for God’s provided abundance, unimaginable plentitude, unfaltering order, and ultimate unity.

• Every speck of creation is a link in the chain
• Each link is progressively larger and greater or regressively smaller/lesser
• Not infinite, but too great for man to fully comprehend
• Creatures have an assigned place on the chain, which is also something of a ladder hinting at the possibility of change of place
• Top of each inferior class touches/links with the bottom of the superior class
• Each class in the chain excels at some single particular in a way a superior class cannot. Though stones are mere matter, they are stronger and more durable than plants; plants are lower than the beasts as they lack sense, but they excel in assimilating nourishment, beasts excel man in physical strength and man excels angels in power of learning.
• Chain shows a related universe with nothing superfluous and by doing so enhances even the “meanest,” lowest part of creation.
• The elements (fire, air, water, earth) are not links in a simple chain, but a supplementary chain
• Higher things are not made up of lower things (but for DNA perhaps, which is a modern notion)

 Shakespeare will often place man between the beast and the angel for emphasis, with destiny/the cosmic world having the lower world as it’s instrument; the heavens are alive and guiding our destinies. There is a sovereignty of nature.

Links in the Chain:

• God is the top of the chain, below him the various Angels and ether
• Upper reaches of the physical universe are connected with the levels of angels.
• God is domiciled beyond the stars, attended by hosts of angels, the upper most level of them.
• Intermediate space of lesser heavens, with 9-11 spheres depending upon who you are talking to at the time
• Sharp division occurs at the moon
• Below the moon/sublunary, the air is thick and dirty, the earth is gross and heavy, we have the cesspool of the universe as inhabited by man and corrupted by the fall. Whatever dies was not mixed perfect
• Above the moon we have the ether (which some saw as the fifth element). The elements are perfectly mixed (and when this is the case in man, he is healthy)
• Primum mobile is the sphere outside the fixed stars. It is the PRIME MOVER and dictates motions and purpose to the rest.

Divine Ranks

God

• The deist notion of God would seem to come from God being at the top of the chain, sitting outside the Primum Mobile, putting it into motion and then things just happening after that, free from God’s direct intervention. This gives us the “divine clock/watch maker” often associated with this Deist notion of God who is detached.
• Exists within the primum mobile ,(outermost of 10 concentric circles making up the universe--that which is the cause of all movement but does not move itself.) the fixed stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. See this image of the Ptolmeic Universe

Angels

• Bridge the gap between god and man
• There are three levels of angels, with three divisions within each level. Echo of the Trinity, all exist within the ether: each ruled in order by the angels named below
• No jealousy among/between ranks of angels; superior angels pass their divine essence to the lower angels.

Contemplative active in neither potential or deed: Serpahs, Cherubs and Thrones

Active in potential, not deed: Dominations, Virtues, and Powers

More active, some in deed: Principalities, Archangels, Angels

• Angels do God’s errands and sometimes take human form when needing to communicate with man (think Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life):  
• Echo the trinity and correspond to the 9-fold division of the heavens: Primum Mobile (seraphs), fixed stars (cherubs), Saturn (thrones), Jupiter (Dominations), Mars (Virtues), Sun (powers), Venus (principalities), Mercury (archangels), Moon (Angels) and Earth at the center inhabited by man.
• Angels take shape from the ether while devils take shape from corrupted, earthly airs, the sublunary region.

1. The downside is the angels in hell: Beelzebub is the prince of devils, false god of gentiles
2. Liars and equivocators
3. Anger, inventers of mischief, Belial
4. Malicious, revenging devils Asmodeus
5. Cozeners, witches, etc.—Satan
6. Aerial angels of plague, fire, and thunder—Meresin
7. Destroyers, captains of furies, wars, etc. Abaddon
8. Accusing, drivers to despair, calumniators,
9. Tempters in several kinds Mammon

Nature, which has no will, is sometimes inserted between man and the angels, along with the soul bridging the gap between man and angel, earthly and divine/celestial.

Earthly Ranks

Man belongs to the existence, life, feeling, and understanding class. Serves as a link between earthly and divine because man has the potential to be divine, but struggles with earthly corruption.

Sensitive class--existence, life, and feeling that has three levels

• Top are higher animals, having all four characteristics (touch, memory, movement, and hearing): horses, dogs, cats, etc.
• middle--animals having touch, memory and movement, but not hearing. Ants are an example.
• Bottom--creatures with touch but not movement, hearing or memory. Includes shellfish (oysters generally considered the lowest), parasites

Vegetagive Class: trees, bushes, weeds, plant life in general

Inanimate class: the elements of: earth, water, air, fire; aligned with humors: black bile ,blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and—the manner in which blood could be seen to separate when stored in a jar. See below.

Humour	Season	Element	Organ	Qualities	Ancient name	Modern	Ancient characteristics
Blood	spring	air	liver	warm & moist	sanguine	artisan	courageous, hopeful, amorous
Yellow bile	summer	fire	gall bladder	warm & dry	choleric	idealist	easily angered, bad tempered
Black bile	autumn	earth	spleen	cold & dry	melancholic	guardian	despondent, sleepless, irritable
Phlegm	winter	water	brain, lungs	cold & moist	phlegmatic	calm, unemotional	Rational

Among groups, there is one member who has Primacy:

• God is prime among the angels
• The sun is prime among the planets (earth wrongly seen as being at the center of the universe was considered the bottom)
• The eagle is prime among the birds
• The lion is prime among the beasts
• The king is prime among men
• Man's head is prime among his body
• Justice is prime among the virtues
• The rose is prime among flowers
• The dolphin is prime among the fish