ELIZABETHAN THEATRE
Development of the Elizabethan Theatre
Protestant Reformation Tudor Pageantry
Medieval Stagecraft Renaissance Learning and Ideas
The TudorsVictorious in the Wars of the Roses, Henry Tudor defeated Richard III, married Anne of York, and
became Henry VII
HENRY VII ---- Anne of York
Arthur -- Catherine -- HENRY VIII Margaret -- James IV Mary-- of Aragon of Scotland Louis XII of France
Henry VII 1485-1509
Henry VIII 1509-1547
Edward VI 1547-1553
Lady Jane Grey
1553-1553
Mary I 1553-1558
Elizabeth I 1558-1603
The Protestant Reformation
In order to marry Anne Boleyn, Henry requested an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon from the Pope – he was refused.
1531 Parliament recognized Henry VIII as head of the English Church.
Edward VI (ruled 1547-53) and Archbishop Cranmer transformed the Church of England into a thoroughly Protestant Church: Calvinistic
Queen Mary (ruled 1553-58) reimposed Catholicism on the English Church – Bloody Mary
Elizabeth (ruled 1558-1603) worked out a compromise church that retained as much as possible from the Catholic church while putting into place most of the foundational ideas of Protestantism.
Mystery and Morality plays were outlawed as they taught Roman Catholic doctrine
1588: Defeat of the Spanish Armada
The disgrace to Spain greatly damaged its prestige England's star was on the rise. Elizabeth took the defeat of the Armada as a sign of
divine blessing English patriotism and devotion to the Queen soared to
its greatest heights, shown in part by a profusion of literature that included Shakespeare's first plays--patriotic histories of the English monarchy.
Tudor Pageantry A hybrid dramatic form of literature, ritual, and politics,
Royal entries and aristocratic entertainments -- fashionable literary forms were turned to the service of national propaganda
Pageants
Parades
Masques
Composed by the bright young men who haunted the court in hopes of securing political office.
Full of spectacle: music, dance, elaboratestaging, fireworks
Influence of Medieval Theatre Eager audience Established tradition of theatre and actors MYSTERY AND MORALITY PLAYS:
Mixing of high seriousness and low comedy FOLK PLAYS:
Pagan remnants: fairies and sprites Feast of Fools
INTERLUDES: Humanistic debates
Medieval Concepts of Tragedy De casibus: tragedies of fortune
Tragedy is less the result of individual action than a reflection of the inevitable turning of Fortune's wheel.
Fortune, traditionally female because of the association of women with the moon and changeability, has two faces, one benign, one severe.
Feast of Fools Held between Christmas and Epiphany, particularly on
New Year's Day The ruling idea of the feast was the reversal of status. The celebrations were relics of the ancient ceremonies
of birth and renewal which took place at New Year and involved a temporary overturning of all values.
The Ass, a widespread feature of the festival, was a mixture of Celtic, Roman and Christian traditions, for the Ass is at once a relic of ancient magical cults, a fertility symbol, a symbol of strength and the epitome of stupidity.
Renaissance Rebirth of Classical knowledge and ideals Roman theatre as model Humanistic Ideas Universities
Oxford Cambridge Inns of Court
Influence of Roman Theatre 5 act structure Comedy: Plautus and Terence
Plots Stock characters
Tragedy: Seneca Revenge motif Irony Use of ghosts Violent spectacle
Elizabethan Stock Characters Senex: old man in authority Miles gloriosus: braggart soldier Shrew: sharp-tongued woman Clever servant Machiavel: political schemer “Calumniator believed” : a liar who is believed Idiotes: a malcontent Pedant: in love with the sound of his own didactic
voice Fools and clowns
Early Senecan Tragedies
Gorbuduc by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
Humanism:from Morality to Chronicle
It was the aim of the humanists to educate those who ruled in wise and virtuous government.
How do you teach a king? Very tactfully . . . The effectiveness of the morality play was attractive to
humanists, who changed the nature of the moral from religion to political virtue without changing the techniques of the drama.
A natural medium for the humanists to use in educating the king, for plays were frequently performed at Court.
Chronicle or History Plays
Explore the workings and legitimacy of kingship What is a good King? Historical exemplars (Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar) Often turn into tragedies
University Wits
University-educated playwrights, noted for their erudition and clever language
George Peele (1556-96) Thomas Lodge (1558-1625) Thomas Nashe ( 1567-1601) Robert Greene (1560-92): best known as first
Shakespearian critic John Lyly (1554-1606)
Wrote courtly plays for companies of child actors Plots framed around elegant debates Euphuistic language
Christopher Marlowe
1564-93 MA from Cambridge Established blank verse as
dramatic medium: “Marlowe’s mighty line”
Overreacher Killed in a brawl
Tragedies: Tamburlaine Dido Queen of
Carthage Dr. Faustus Edward II Massacre at Paris Jew of Malta
Ben Jonson1572-1637
Educated at Westminster School -- no university but the most learned of playwrights
Important comedies of humor include: Every Man in His Humor, Volpone, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair
Wrote and staged court masques with Inigo Jones Celebrated poet and conversationalist:
“Sons of Ben”
Jacobean Tragedy
A sense of defeat A mood of spiritual despair The theme of insanity, of man pressed beyond the limit of
endurance Moral confusion ("fair is foul and foul is fair") that
threatens to unbalance even the staunchest of heroes. This sinister tendency came to a climax about 1605 and was
in part a consequence of the anxiety surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth I and the accession of James I.
While the Elizabethans affirned life, the Jacobeans were possessed by death.
Jacobean Dramatists
John Webster (c.1580-c.1632) Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) Francis Beaumont (c. 1585-1616) John Fletcher (1579-1625) Cyril Tourneur (c.1575-1626) John Ford (1586-c.1639)
Acting Companies 1590 -- 1642: approximately 20 companies of actors in London
(although only 4 or 5 played in town at one time) More than a hundred provincial troupes. Companies usually played in London in the winter and spring
and to travel in the summer when plague ravaged the city Members:
Shareholders Apprentices Hired men
Boy Actors No women on the English stage in Shakespeare's day. The parts of women were acted by child actors--boys
whose voices had not yet changed. Whole acting companies were created with child
performers: the Children of the Chapel Royal, and the St. Paul's Boys. The children's companies played regularly at Court.
The Puritans, who disapproved of the theatre in general, were particularly scandalized by boys cross-dressing as women.
Censorship
Largely Puritan leaders of the City of London disapproved of the theatres.
The Privy Council was wary of the political comment often present in topical plays.
Censorship under the direction of the Master of Revels was strict.
In 1596 the City Corporation ordered the expulsion of players from London and the closing of the inn-theatres.
Theatres moved across the River
Types of Plays Chronicle or History
Plays Comedies
Romantic Pastoral Feast of Fools Social Humors
Tragedies Senecan Revenge De casibus -- turn of
Fortune Fatal flaw
Romances far-away adventures
Any combination of the above
“The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, hisotry, pastoral,pastoral-comical, histoircal-pastoral,
tragical historical, scene individable or poem unlimited.” -- Hamlet
William ShakespeareApril 23, 1564-April 23, 1616
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon Married Anne Hathaway in 1582 at age of 18 3 children: Susanna (1583) and Hamnet and Judith
(1585) 1585-92: “the lost years” 1595 record of membership in Lord
Chamberlain’s Men
Early Works: prior to 1594
Poetry: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, sonnets
Plautine Comedy: A Comedy of Errors
Courtly Comedy: Two Gentlemen of
Verona Farcical/problem Comedy:
The Taming of the Shrew
History Plays: Henry VI: 1,2,and 3 Richard III
Senecan Revenge Tragedy: Titus Andronicus
Romantic Tragedy: Romeo and Juliet
Lord Chamberlain’s Men
Originally formed under the patronage of Lord Strange, but when he died in 1594, the players found a patron in Henry Carey, the Lord Chamberlain.
Performed at the Theatre and the Curtain 1599 moved to the newly built Globe. By 1600 they had
emerged as the leading theatrical company in London 1603 became the King's Men under a royal patent from
James I. The company continued successfully until the Puritans closed the theatres in 1642.
The Globe Built by the Burbages in 1598
for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men
Burned down in 1613 during production of Henry VIII
Rebuilt 1614
Blackfriars Theatre
Theatre Interiors
Sketch of the Swan Theatre
Popular Success: 1595-1600 Comedies:
Love’s Labour’s Lost A Midsummer’s
Night’s Dream Much Ado About
Nothing As You Like It Twelfth Night The Merchant of Venice Merry Wives of Windsor
Histories: King John Richard II Henry IV: 1,2 Henry V
Tragedies: Julius Caesar Hamlet
A Darker Vision: 1601-1607 Problem Plays:
All’s Well That Ends Well Measure for Measure Troilus and Cressida
Tragedies: Othello King Lear Macbeth Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus
Final Works: 1608-1612 Tragedy: Timon of Athens Romances:
Cymbeline Pericles The Winter’s Tale The Tempest
Collaborations with John Fletcher:Henry VIII Two Noble Kinsmen
Shakespeare was buried on April 25, 1616 in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, where he
had been baptised just over 52 years earlier
Good friend for Jesus sake forbearTo dig the dust enclosed here!
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones
First Folio: 1623
• The first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays.
• Included thirty-six plays, eighteen of which had never been published before
• The editors of the volume, Shakespeare's fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell, arranged the plays in three genres: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies.