Elizabethan Drama

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Elizabethan Drama
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Elizabethan Drama

• From the Elizabethan Age come some of the most
  highly-respected plays in Western drama. Although
  it is generally agreed that the period began at
  the commencement of Queen Elizabeth Is reign in
  1558, the ending date is not as definitive.
• Some consider the age to have ended at the
  queens death in 1603, while others place the end
  of Elizabethan Drama at the closing of the
  theatres in 1642.

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Queen Elizabeth

• Elizabeth I was a strong, resolute monarch who
  returned England to Protestantism, quelled a
  great deal of internal turmoil, and unified the
  nation.
• She was also a strong supporter of the arts, and
  this sparked a surge of activity in the theatre.
  During her reign, some playwrights were able to
  make a comfortable living by receiving royal
  patronage.
• There was a great deal of theatrical activity at
  Court, and many public theatres were also built
  on the outskirts of London.

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Popular Event

• Theatre was a popular pastime, and people of all
  walks of life attended. Although women were not
  allowed onstage, they did attend performances and
  often made up a substantial part of the audience.
  The theatre also drew many unsavory characters,
  including pickpockets, cutpurses, and
  prostitutes.
• Because of the perceived bad influence of the
  theatres, the Puritans were vocally opposed to
  them and succeeded in shutting them down in 1642.

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Playwrights

• Some of the most important playwrights come from
  the Elizabethan era, including William
  Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe.
  
• These playwrights wrote plays that were patterned
  on numerous previous sources including the Greek
  tragedy, Senecas plays, Attic drama, English
  miracle plays, morality plays, and interludes.
• Elizabethan tragedy dealt with heroic themes,
  usually centering on a great personality who is
  destroyed by his own passion and ambition. The
  comedies often satirized the fops and gallants of
  society.