Elizabethan Drama

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Elizabethan Drama

• William Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Stage

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Review

• In the Western tradition, drama was invented by
  the ancient Greeks.
• Drama attempts to reflect, and comment on, the
  human condition.
• Is meant to be performed onstage, before an
  audience.
• Is difficult to truly appreciate drama in written
  form.

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Review, cont.

• The ancient Greeks created Western Drama to be a
  distillation of life in poetic form presented on
  a stage.
• The first plays in Western literature were
  written in Athens during the sixth century B.C.
  (600-500 B.C.), but the peak period in Classical
  drama was the fifth century B.C. (500-400 B.C.).
• The origin of Greek Drama is the same oral
  tradition from which the Homeric Epics (Iliad and
  Odyssey) descend. The story-teller would
  impersonate the epic hero as a part of his
  performance. This practice developed into drama.
• Another key factor in the development of drama
  was the worship of the Greek god Dionysus.
  Dionysus was the god of wine and revelry. The
  Greeks held a festival of Dionysus in Athens
  every year. The first plays were presented as a
  part of the festival.

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Review, cont.

• The Great Dionysiathe Festival of Dionysus at
  Athenswas held in March.
• Plays were performed as a part of the festival.
• These plays were intended both as a kind of
  entertainment and a form of worship.
• There was an altar to Dionysus in the open space
  at the base of the stage (the orchestra), and the
  chorus would dance and sing around the altar as a
  part of the play.
• The audience honored the god by their presence in
  the auditorium.
• People from all over Greece would attend the
  festival and as many as eighteen thousand people
  were in the audience when the plays were
  performed.

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Review, cont.

• The Greeks performed both tragedies and comedies.
  However, it is with primarily with tragedy that
  we will concern ourselves for the purposes of Web
  2413.
• The elements of tragedy as laid out by the
  Athenian playwrights of the 5th Century B.C. form
  the basis of an art form which has endured to the
  present day.
• In Unit 2, we discussed the characteristics of
  Greek tragedy, and talked about the Big 3
  tragic playwrights of the classical Athenian
  period (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides).
• We then focused on a particular play (Sophocless
  Oedipus the King) as an example.
• In Unit 3, we will trace the development of
  Classical drama up into the time of Shakespeare.
  It is important to remember that Shakespeare and
  the other Renaissance writers did not invent the
  form. They adapted it.

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Elizabethan Drama

• During the reign of Queen Elizabeth in England
  (1558-1603), the theater was reborn in a way that
  had not been seen since the days of the Romans.
• The Elizabethan dramatists drew on Roman models
  in the construction of their theatrical works.
• Elizabethan theater also descended from Mystery
  and Miracle plays put on by the Roman Catholic
  Church.
• The dramatic revival in which Shakespeare played
  a part was centered in London.
• London was the capital of England, and its most
  populous and cosmopolitan city. The Queen held
  court there and the royals wanted to be
  entertained.

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Elizabethan Drama, cont.

• The theater provided low-cost entertainment and
  the nobility were its best customers.
• Sometimes the plays were put on in theaters and
  the royals would come to the theater to see the
  play.
• Other times, the play would be brought to the
  court and put on in the presence of the queen.
• Shakespeare played before the queen (and later,
  the king) on many occasions.
• The Elizabethan theater was very similar in its
  form to the auditorium of the Greeks (see Unit
  2). However, it was much smaller in scale. Only
  about three thousand people would fit into the
  Globe (Shakespeares theater in London).

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Elizabethan Drama, cont.

• The development of theater in England was a part
  of the larger Elizabethan Renaissance. During the
  reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Renaissance (which
  had begun in Italy a century earlier and spread
  slowly through Europe) reached its full flower in
  England.
• Literacy was spreading rapidly and new ideas
  stirred debate among those who were exposed to
  them.
• In London, the first company of actors was formed
  under the patronage of the Earl of Leicester in
  1574. Other companies soon followed.
• These companies built theaters outside the city
  of London.
• Most theaters were built across the river from
  the city, in Southwark, on the south bank of the
  River Thames.

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Elizabethan Drama, cont.

• The first of these new theaters was called The
  Theatre and was built in 1576.
• Other theaters included The Curtain, The Globe,
  The Rose, The Swan, The Fortune, etc.
• These theaters were the scene of many other kinds
  of entertainment besides plays.
• Bear-baiting (setting dogs on a bear) and
  bull-baiting (setting dogs on a bull) were
  carried on and much betting occurred. Dog fights
  and cock fights also took place.
• Prostitution was also rampant. Alcohol was sold.
  The theater could be a rough place.
• The plays were put on in the open air, in natural
  sunlight.

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Elizabethan Drama, cont.

• The companies wrote (or commissioned), produced,
  and acted the plays. A great deal of borrowing
  went on. When one theater put on a successful
  production of a play, it wasnt long before
  knock-offs were playing at the other theaters
  as well.
• Two of the most famous playwrights of the time
  were Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe.
• Thomas Kyds Spanish Tragedy was an inspiration
  to young William Shakespeare.
• Christopher Marlowes Dr. Faustus, The Jew of
  Malta, and Tamburlaine also hugely influenced the
  development (and also the content) of
  Shakespeares plays.
• As in Classical Greek Theater, plays were acted
  by men only. Womens parts were acted by boys
  dressed in womens clothes. No actresses were
  allowed onstage until well after Shakespeares
  day.

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William Shakespeare

• William Shakespeare was born a commoner in
  Stratford-on-Avon in 1564. He died a minor noble
  in Stratford-on-Avon in 1616. Many of the
  details of his life are unknown to us. However,
  there are some things that we are sure of today.
• Through the fame and wealth amassed over the
  course of his theatrical career, William
  Shakespeare advanced the status of himself and
  his family immensely.
• Shakespeare wrote 37 playshistories, comedies,
  and tragediesof a caliber which has never been
  matched in any literature or language.
• He also wrote much important poetry, including
  some of the most beautiful sonnets ever written.
• Although we remember Shakespeare mostly for his
  plays, it was his poetry that he thought was most
  important.

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William Shakespeare, cont.

• Much of Shakespeares life remains a mystery. The
  Fire of London in 1666 destroyed many of the
  records from Shakespeares time in London.
• We know that he married Anne Hathaway, and that
  they had two daughters who survived him and a son
  who died at age twelve.
• We know that Shakespeares grandfather was a
  farmer, and his father was a tanner and glover.
• We know that during the 1580s, Shakespeare moved
  to London and became involved with the
  newly-developing theater scene.
• However, the specific details of much of this are
  lost, and much of his biography is mere
  speculation and hearsay.

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William Shakespeare, cont.

• The most important thing, of course, is not
  Shakespeares life history, but rather his body
  of work.
• Shakespeares plays can be divided into three
  periods.
• The first period (1592-1600), was a time in which
  his rivals disappeared and he had the stage to
  himself. This was the period of most of the
  histories, of A Midsummer Nights Dream, Romeo
  and Juliet, and most of the comedies.
• The second period (1601-1608), a more somber
  period, was the time in which he wrote his great
  tragediesHamlet, Othello, King Lear, and
  Macbethmost of his Roman plays, and a few gloomy
  comedies.
• The third and final period (1608-1616), was a
  time when his mood became more tranquil and
  gently disillusioned. Plays from this time
  include Pericles and The Tempest.

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William Shakespeare, cont.

• For the purposes of Web 2413, we will focus on
  Shakespeares plays, and on the theatrical tools
  he used to put them together.
• First, it is important to remember that
  Shakespeare was a member of a joint stock acting
  company called The Lord Chamberlains Men (later
  The Kings Men). Each company had a sponsoring
  nobleman or noblewoman who vouched for the good
  behavior of the actors.
• The joint stock acting companies of Shakespeares
  day were much like todays corporations. In a
  joint stock acting company, the members of the
  troupe received shares of the profits according
  to each mans individual contribution to the
  production as a whole.
• This is how Shakespeare was able to amass so much
  wealth over the course of his lifetime.
• It also meant that Shakespeare had excellent
  professional actors to help him put on this plays.

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William Shakespeare, cont.

• Shakespeare was involved in process of the
  Elizabethan theater at every levelas a co-owner,
  a playwright, a producer, a director, and an
  actor. This is one of the reasons for his
  consummate mastery of the dramatic art.
• Shakespeare used blank verse (unrhymed iambic
  pentameter) to construct much of the text of his
  plays.
• He used a five-act structure for his tragedies
  which was rooted in Classical Roman (and hence,
  Greek) Drama.
• Although Shakespeare never attended the
  university, his work shows a mastery of the
  poetic art which remains unsurpassed, and his
  plays deal with the big philosophical questions
  of his day.

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William Shakespeare, cont.

• In Shakespeares works, the possibilities of the
  Elizabethan Renaissance are completely realized.
• The confusions and contradictions of
  Shakespeares day find their highest expression
  in his tragedies. In these extraordinary
  achievements, all values, hierarchies, and forms
  are tested and found wantingand all of societys
  latent conflicts are activated.
• Shakespeare sets husband against wife, father
  against child, and the individual against
  society. He dethrones kings, levels the nobleman
  and the beggar, makes the fool the wisest of all
  characters, and questions the gods.

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William Shakespeare, cont.

• Shakespeares plays define his age.
• The worlds of Shakespeares tragic heroes are
  collapsing around them, and their desperate
  attempts to cope uncover the inadequacy of the
  systems by which they rationalize and justify
  their existence.
• Before the overwhelming suffering of these great
  and noble spirits, all consolations are void. All
  versions of the world order are revealed as
  incomplete and perhaps incomprehensible by
  mankind.
• As Hamlet says with his last breath, The rest is
  silence.