ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

Development of the Elizabethan Theatre • Protestant Reformation • Tudor Pageantry • Medieval Stagecraft • Renaissance Learning and Ideas

The Tudors Victorious 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, elaborate staging, 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 TragedyDe 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

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 Christopher Marlowe1564-93

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

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 Types of Plays “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

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 Early Works: prior to 1594

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

Theatre Interiors Blackfriars Theatre Sketch of the Swan Theatre

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 Popular Success: 1595-1600

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.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE