Pagan origins

Fertility rites mainly based on nature cycles: i.e. seasons

MAY POLE

Interest of the Church in pagan celebrations

From celebrations of spring

to celebration of Easter

Liturgical drama

Sung dialogue between the celebrants to commemorate great Christian events

in the nave of churches

From the nave to the church square

From latin to vernacular

No more priests as actors

13th 14th 15th cent.

Mystery or Miracle Plays

Actors: members of Trade Guilds

Stage: pageants

Morality Plays

Characters not from Bible, but personifications of Vices and Virtues

Everyman, after 1485

Main characters: Everyman, Death,Fellowship, Beauty, Strength, Worldly Goods, Kindred, Good Deeds

Interludes

End of 15th cent.

Combination of serious elements with more comic ones

Vice as a dramatic character

his dialogues rich with puns

Folk tales re-telling old stories, i.e. Robin Hood

Actors used to travel from town to town performing for their audiences in return for money and hospitality.

Authorities against actors, because beyond control

Actors classified as “vagabonds and beggars,” in a 1572 Act of Parliament

1492 America, Leonardo’s Last Supper1508, Michelangelo Sistine Chapel

1509-1547 Reign of Henry VIII

1534, Act of Supremacy

1558-1603 Reign of Elizabeth I

1576, The Theatre

timeline

1599, The Globe

1564-1616 W. Shakespeare

SOUTHWARK

The Globe

James Burbage

Lord Chamberlain’s Men

W. Shakespeare

The Rose

Philip Henslowe

Admiral’s Men

C. Marlowe

The Swan

Flags were erected on the day of the performance which sometimes displayed a picture advertising the next play to be performed.

Colour coding was also used

a black flag meant a tragedy

white a comedy

and red a history.

Elizabethan Advertising

Hell under stage