イギリス人とイギリスの庭園(I)
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概要
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As the English people were relieved from the threat of war, the castles lost their importance as the central position of military and administration in the late fourteenth century. The English overlords left their castles and moved into their new residences built in their manors. The residences were called the manor houses which the lords lived in. The lords who were lower than them in social rank and the wealthy merchants who profited by the wool trade built their country houses following the example of the overlords. The country houses increased in number together with the manor houses, because these houses were regarded as the symbol of their owners' social status. The English gardens developed in parallel with the country houses. In the garden gorgeous events were held for the entertainment of the royal family as well as the lords and the ladies of the noble families. However, not a few lords were troubled with melancholy in the court. Of Queen Elizabeth I. Melancholy was peculiar to the Elizabethan age, so that it was called the "Elizabethan malady." There were lords and ladies who wanted to be free from the troubles in this life. They meditated and sought the solace of mind in communion with God in the recesses of their gardens. They found their example in the piety of the medieval hermits. The gardens were good for those who hoped to be relieved from mental anxiety and tried to find the true meaning of living. This view was held by the English elite and became traditional in English society in the course of time. How the English people were closely related to their gardens is objectively illustrated and discussed in this study.