Mutability and Change

Part of the Renaissance recovery of history was an emphasis on mutability and change. Few themes so dominate the poetry of Spenser or the sonnets of Shakespeare as the fear that Time will gobble up everything good. This was continuous with ancient (and medieval) conceptions of the world, since changeability was seen as an offense and a grief rather than simply accepted as a feature of God’s good creation. In any case, the Renaissance differed from the ancient world largely in the SOLUTION it offered to the problem of mutability. Rather than seeking immortality and fixity in honorable and heroic deeds, Shakespeare, for example, seeks immortality in love, or in poetry. This is a Christianized solution to a pagan problem.