The Elizabethan world picture cover

The Elizabethan world picture

by E. M. W. Tillyard

This brief and illuminating account of the ideas of world order prevalent in the Elizabethan age and later is an indispensable companion for readers of the great writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists, Donne and Milton, among many others. The basic medieval idea of and ordered Chain of Being is studied by Professor Tillyard in the process of its various transformations by the dynamic spirit of the Renaissance. Among his topics are: Angles; the Stars and Fortune; The Analogy between Macrocosm and Microcosm; the four Elements; the Four Humours; Sympathies; Correspondences; and the Cosmic Dance - ideas and symbols which inspirited the minds and imaginations not only of the Elizabethans but all of men of the Renaissance. -- Cover.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?