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 Cahmberlain.

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.