“Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.”
Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 4
William Shakespeare
Have you ever been on a wild-goose chase? Have you ever used that term? Do you know what it means? I’ll assume the answer to at least the latter question is yes. This phrase, coined by William Shakespeare, has solidly positioned itself within the realm of accepted expressions in the English language. And it was not the only phrase or word Shakespeare coined. There were hundreds of others that have crept their way into our everyday vocabulary. We've the Renaissance to thank for these and so many other advances and changes to our lives.
It was a time fraught with improvement. New ideas were emerging and the world was changing. The stage had been set for such massive movement in society’s ideals to be cemented for centuries to come. Joseph B in class put forth several reason why this was so. “The printing press wasn't the only thing,” said he, “that changed the world.” “Consider the black plague.” “What about the crusades?” Thousands of people dead from the awful disease that was the plague created a certain social mobility that didn't exist before. New trade routes and ideas were opened as the crusades took thousands of Europeans to lands they’d only ever heard about. These events and others were the catalyst of change. The printing press is what glued these changes to the train of time and preserved them for our day. It was the perfect storm.
So did it do us any good? What have we done with such change? I say we've taken the ideals of the Renaissance and run with them. The humanism of the Renaissance has become hyper-humanism today. We've moved from exploring new continents to exploring new worlds. We have an improved printing press called the internet. Its great! But would Martin Luther be proud of the fractious state of Christianity today he was partly responsible for initiating? What would Thomas More think of the many Utopian ideals espoused since his and their shaky implementations? Would society’s lack of scriptural knowledge in the midst of a vastly literate population with access to the scriptures cause Tyndale to reevaluate his strategy for bringing to pass the words that he should “cause a plough boy to know the scriptures better than the [priests] do?” Michelle B in class had her doubts regarding if the fathers of the Renaissance would be happy where their work has led us today. Either way it can be agreed upon that the Renaissance has left us vastly different than we would have ever been before.
The Renaissance set the ball slowly moving and now we’re at the steep part of the hill.
Wondering who the guy in the picture is? That’s my friend Petrarch. He certainly didn't do it by himself or even mostly by himself but I think it safe to say he set the ball rolling. He’s been called the “father of humanism.” His work is regarded by scholars as initiating the 14th century Renaissance. And the humanist tradition he started six centuries ago is well under way today. I just hope there is something nice at the bottom of the hill! Perhaps there will be a wild goose we can chase!
What if the picture was reversed? Sure Petrarch climbed to the top of a mountain and his ideas indeed snowballed to bring about the Renaissance. But the Renaissance was an era of innovation and great change. When I think of a snowball rolling downhill, I think of the destruction it causes. I think your picture needs to be flipped. The ball was rolling alright but through the great work of many individuals, these ideas snowballed and helped society to grow and ascend to new heights. We are on top of a far greater mountain now. The question today is, which direction will we go?
ReplyDelete