The Idea Of Poiitical Order In E.M.W.Tillvard’s Historicist Criticism

E.M.W Tillyard’s historicist criticism is of its own uniqueness.It captured the reserved potential research scope of Practical Criticism,then spread throughout England in 1940s and later was overshadowed by New Criticism and even was excluded by Cambridge Critic tradition.However,social-historical criticism represented by Tillyard’s historicist criticism existed throughout the whole 20th Century.Primarily,Tillyard’s historicist criticism lies in equating history with the abstract concepts of objective existence,which can be reproduced by literary works and therefore,the interpretation of literary works can help reveal the true history.By interpreting the essential concept "political order",Tillyard reiterates the historicist criticism,that is,the real history is reflected and reproduced in literary works.For Tillyard,the idea of "political order" in Renaissance literature authentically represents the real history of that epoch:firstly,it illustrates the public enthusiasm for history truth in that era;secondly,in Renaissance England,idea of political order aims to moralize the kings and the mass;thirdly,this idea ties with sovereign needs for the absolute power;fourthly,as the branch of Renaissance humanism,Christian humanism matches itself with the idea of political order.Therefore,conceiving the "political order" as the essential inner logics,Tillyard divides eight of Shakespeare’s historical plays into two tetralogies by a divine-controlled "tetralogical pattern":firstly,among all the kings,Richard Ⅱrepresents the sole heir to sovereignty in line with the "political order";secondly,Henry Bullingbrook usurps the throne and declares himself Henry Ⅳ,which subverts the divine order and therefore God starts to punish England by way of political chaos;thirdly,all the descendant kings ranging from Henry Ⅳ,Henry Ⅴ,Henry Ⅵ,EdwardⅢ to Richard Ⅳ encounter the destruction and disorder in politics at home and abroad;finally,Henry Tudor establishes the new dynasty and later the glorious time of Queen Elizabeth I recreates peak of "political order".Conclusively,Tillyard insists the prosperity and steady of Tudor history is totally controlled by God,not by kings or other sort of human efforts.By this study,Tillyard concludes that Shakespeare’s historical plays take England as the subject,which is split and divided due to the God’s fury and reestablishes its political order based on the divine justice.The main clue of "sin-punishment-salvation" runs throughout of the entirety.Tillyard deems the "political order" threading throughout Shakespeare’s historical plays truly represents the real history.Such concept consists mainly of historical Divine Circulation notion and Tudor Myth,etc,all of which self-represents the "Elizabethan World Order Vision" that is fabricated by "the Great Chain of Being","a series of Correspondences" and "a comic dance".Tillyard proposes that the political order as a part of a larger order cannot be accurately and fully comprehended if it is not cast in the circumstance of nature order or divine order.Generally,it evolves through the "Numerical and Geometrical Cosmic Vision" of nature order in ancient Greece,the "Christian Cosmic Vision" of divine order in middle ages and eventually to "Elizabethan World Order Vision" of political order in Renaissance.Essentially,it also exposes the process of the true controller of human history transiting from the "the One" to God and finally to the sovereignty.The political order criticism closely interlinks with Tillyard’s historicist criticism.Based on text analysis of Shakespeare’s history plays,this research inquires the constitution,manifestation,characteristic and the reason why and how the idea of political order keeps a one-to-one relationship with the reality in Renaissance England,by which the connotation of Tillyard’s historicist criticism can be explored in general.