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Elizabethan Theatre

Elizabethan Theatre. A Reconstruction of Hamlet by Virginia R. Francisco. The Era of Elizabeth: 1558-1600. Trends: Increasing population of cities and towns, emphasis on secular life Elizabeth’s Goals: civil order to end period of religious and political conflict

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Elizabethan Theatre

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  1. Elizabethan Theatre A Reconstruction of Hamlet by Virginia R. Francisco

  2. The Era of Elizabeth: 1558-1600 Trends: Increasing population of cities and towns, emphasis on secular life Elizabeth’s Goals: • civil order to end period of religious and political conflict • strong central government • national security, especially from catholic Spain Virginia R. Francisco

  3. Elizabeth, Stabilizer • Plays were being used to foment civil, religious conflict • Any gentleman (or –woman) could have a troup, authorize it to tour • 1559: banned plays on religious, political subjects • and made local justices responsible for licensing performances • 1572 required rank of baron or above to maintain a troupe • and local j.p.’s could authorize local performances only • and actors no longer subject to laws against vagabonds • Reduced number of troupes but authorized remaining ones • 1574 brought one troupe under control of Master of Revels and authorized first patent, to Ld. Leicester’s Men Virginia R. Francisco

  4. The Stuart Period: 1603-1642 Growing controversy among • The King and his Court (high-spending, aristocratic, and Catholic) • Well-to-do merchants (thrifty, “common,” and Protestant) • House of Commons (allied with merchants) • House of Lords (allied with Court) Virginia R. Francisco

  5. Artistic Practices • Continuous with medieval arts • But influenced also by philosophical and artistic concerns of neo-classicism • Strengthened by increasing number of stable troupes able to settle permanently Virginia R. Francisco

  6. The Renaissance • Developed in Italian Renaissance c. 1500 • Focus on secular values, life in this world, rather than salvation in the next • Literary models from Rome = the neoclassical ideal • But medieval models continued to be followed in the popular tradition • Adopted in English schools, universities, and the Inns of Court • Known as neoclassicism Virginia R. Francisco

  7. The Neoclassical Ideal • Function of drama to teach and to please • Versimilitude essential • Separation of genres • Tragedy re rulers, stories from history or myth, unhappy endings, poetic style • Comedy re middle or lower class, stories domestic, happy endings, prose style Virginia R. Francisco

  8. Versimilitude: reality, morality, and generality • Reality = events that can happen in life • Unities of time, place, and action (single plot) • Avoid fantasy and the supernatural • Avoid obvious literary devices such as soliloquies and choruses • Avoid events difficulty to stage convincingly: battles, crowd scenes, violence, death • Morality = good rewarded, bad punished • Generality = typical and normative traits unchanged throughout history and common to all people everywhere Virginia R. Francisco

  9. University Wits • Group of educated university men who turned attention to writing drama • Used both medieval and neoclassical devices to stage vigorous, exciting stories from many sources • Advanced plotting, prosody and poetry, characterization • Advanced stagecraft, necessarily changing for permanent theatres Virginia R. Francisco

  10. Shakespeare (1564-1616) • Traveling companies playing in Stratford from summer 1569 • In London by 1592, probably acting as well as writing • Plays produced by Strange’s Men, Pembroke’s Men, Sussex’s Men • among numerous active troupes • 1594 became charter sharer in Lord Chamberlain’s Men • 1598 became householder in Globe; 1608 became householder in Blackfriars • Returned to Stratford-upon-Avon about 1609 or later Virginia R. Francisco

  11. Performances of Hamlet • 1600 spring/summer Premiere until fall 1601 • 1603 summer (fall?) tour (Globe closed) • 1603 Christmas at Hampton Court • 1604 Spring Revival (Globe re-opened) • 1606-08 Revived Virginia R. Francisco

  12. Evidence • Archeological: Rose Theatre foundations, partial Globe foundations • Architectural: Tudor structures, Inigo Jones’ Banqueting House • Mss: Henslowe/Alleyn Papers • Art works: engravings, book frontispieces • Play texts, stage directions Virginia R. Francisco

  13. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men • Descendant of troupe of James Burbage, settled London 1570’s • Earl of Leicester’s Men 1570’s • 1599 included Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, John Hemings, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, William Kemp, and Shakespeare Virginia R. Francisco

  14. Production Practices • Plays produced in daily rep, with 30+ played @ Rose each year • Purchased from playwright and licensed • Prompter prepares playbook • Prompter preps plots: props, doubling, special costumes • Company obtains special costumes and props • Sides are copied • Actors learn lines, as many as 800 + for a major role • Rehearsal: check entrances and exits, block complicated action Virginia R. Francisco

  15. Hamlet (1600-01) • Shakespeare’s most productive period, 1 tragedy + 1 comedy per season • Influenced by revenge tragedies of era, notably Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy • Features typical of era: • Early point of attack • Chronological order, causal relationship of events • All significant events are staged • Short scenes with rapid shifts of time and place Virginia R. Francisco

  16. Hamlet Typical of Author • Early scenes accomplish exposition of plot and character • Several plot strands are interwoven* • Concern for probability • Events occur over months or years*, range widely in space*, but unified • Characters range in rank, occupation, ethical stature • Thought concerned with human condition, good/evil struggle • Point of view sympathetic, but holds humans responsible for their actions • Complex poetic dialogue • Music often a metaphor for social, political order, and pleasant accessory • Spectacle usually not significant element • Inconsistent with neoclassicism Virginia R. Francisco

  17. Texts of Hamlet • Probably a rewriting of an earlier piece • Q1, the “bad quarto,” a reported text • Q2, set from Shakespeare’s foul papers, longest • F1, set from the prompter’s playbook • No act divisions until Q of 1676 • Company bought from the playwright, who agreed not to publish it for the term of the contract. • “House dramatists” were paid one day’s receipts plus a weekly salary for a contracted output Virginia R. Francisco

  18. Plot Counterplot • Inciting: Hamlet discovers father’s murder and promises to avenge (I.4-5) • Complication: Hamlet does not trust ghost, starts investigation thru madness, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, and Players • Complication: Polonius and Claudius investigate Hamlet’s “madness” (II.1-2, III.1) • Complication (Double Discovery and Reversal): Hamlet discovers Ghost’s truth; Claudius discovers Hamlet’s knowledge of truth and pursues (III.2) • Complication: Hamlet kills Polonius, thinking him Claudius (III.3-4) Virginia R. Francisco

  19. Pursuer Pursued • Bloodhound 1: Claudius sends Hamlet to England, with orders for Hamlet’s death ( IV.1-4) • (offstage) Hamlet escapes, returns • Enter the Army • Ophelia’s Madness • Bloodhound 2: Laertes discover’s father’s, sister’s deaths, intrigues to kill Hamlet (IV.5, 7) Virginia R. Francisco

  20. More Complications • Complication: Claudius sends Hamlet to England, with orders for Hamlet’s death ( IV.1-4) • (offstage action: Hamlet escapes this scheme, returns to England) (IV.6) • Complication: Laertes discover’s father’s death, iintrigues to kill Hamlet (IV.5, 7) Virginia R. Francisco

  21. Crisis and Resolution • Partial Resolution: Hamlet becomes comfortable with death, self (V.1) • Crisis: Hamlet and Laertes duel • Resolution: Queen drinks poison intended for Hamlet, youths stab each other w/ poisoned rapiers. Hamlet kills Claudius. (V.2) Virginia R. Francisco

  22. Character • Spectrum of social levels • Spectrum of deadly sins • Extensive pattern of foils • Complex characterizations, especially Hamlet, Laertes • Levels, kinds of madness Virginia R. Francisco

  23. Thought • Issue of appearance and reality paramount • True and false kings, ghosts, lovers, leaders • Difficulty of self-knowledge • Consequences of sin of revenge • Revenge destroys the one who seeks it: Hamlet and Laertes in grave = hell • Value of life: To be • Ophelia takes the alternative option to revenge • Transience of human life, the final reality Virginia R. Francisco

  24. Diction • Compact, vigorous, easily memorized verse • Prose as appropriate to character and situation • Allusive, metaphoric • Wordplay and twists of meaning • Extensive use of soliloquies Virginia R. Francisco

  25. Music and Sound Effects • Especially valued for military effects: military and kettle drums, trumpets, hautboys • Ld Admiral’s Men owned 3 trumpets, a drum, bass and treble viols, a bandore, a citterm Virginia R. Francisco

  26. Music in Hamlet • Drums and trumpets, both military and courtly • Chambers • Ophelia’s lute • Marching steps • Contrast hustle-bustle with quiet, solitariness Virginia R. Francisco

  27. Playhouses Virginia R. Francisco

  28. Great Hall, Hampton Court Palace Virginia R. Francisco

  29. Great Hall Decor Virginia R. Francisco

  30. The Globe Virginia R. Francisco

  31. Globe Exterior: Evidence • Rose (1587, 1592), Globe (1599) foundations • Fortune (1600), Hope contracts • John Norden’s detail map in Civitas Londoni (1600) • Surviving timber-frame structures (24 in London) Virginia R. Francisco

  32. More Evidence • Visscher’s Panorama of London (1616), woodcut engraving • Inigo Jones’s Banqueting House (1606) • Hollar’s Long View of London (c. 1638, Globe II) and site drawings for it Virginia R. Francisco

  33. Globe Exterior: Features • Located at Bankside, the south bank of the Thames near London Bridge • Bounded by Park Street (Maiden Lane), Anchor Terrace, Porter Street, and Gatehouse Square • Framed of timbers of The Theatre, peg jointed • 20-sided polygon (i.e. 20 bays) • Outer wall diameter c. 99’ Virginia R. Francisco

  34. Globe Interior: Evidence • deWitt pencil drawing of Swan interior (c. 1596?) • Roxanaa (1632) and Messalina (1640) frontispieces • Halls and hall screens (Middle Temple, 1570) • Inigo Jones’s drawings for a hall playhouse (Cockpit-in-Court, 1616?) • Stage directions Virginia R. Francisco

  35. Globe Interior: Features • Inner wall c. 75’ • Depth of lower gallery 12’-8” radially, middle c. 13’-7”, upper (@ plates) 14’-6” • Galleries roofed with thatch • Stair towers outside frame • Open Yard surrounded stage on three sides Virginia R. Francisco

  36. The Stage • est 53’-9” x 37’-5”, perhaps incl tiring house • Square or rectangular, probably not tapered as at Rose • Background = Façade of tiring house, wood, likely painted as stone • Two doors into tiring house • Heavens and roof supported by two large pillars near front corners Virginia R. Francisco

  37. Gallery and Discovery Space • Gallery 9’ above stage floor, divided into lords’ rooms • Gallery could also be used by actors, accessible from floor • Discovery space recessed in façade, closed by hangings or ‘arras’ • Likely also a temporary canopied ‘state,’ ‘booth’ or ‘pulpit’ Virginia R. Francisco

  38. Settings Unlocalized, Verbalized • Spoken decor • Scenic pieces: trees, mossy banks, orchards • Tables, benches, stools, beds, thrones (w/ carry poles) • Scenic conventions: passing over the stage, going about, enter over the stage • Transposition of locale • Discovery within curtains, beds, etc., ‘thrust out’ • Processions, dumbshows Virginia R. Francisco

  39. Machinery at Globe, Blackfriars • Grave trap served by stairs or lift capable of raising 2 actors • Two smaller traps for 1 actor (one of Heywood’s plays requires four traps) • Flying machinery housed in turret above stage roof for descents, ascents • Thrones, chairs flown as early as 1587 Virginia R. Francisco

  40. Elizabethan Fx • Similar to medieval effects • Thunder • Flashes (powdered resin blown through candle flame) • Canon fire from behind tiring house (chambers only) • Bodies, heads, blood, coffins Virginia R. Francisco

  41. Properties • Thrones • Flags, drums, colors • Broadswords, rapiers (end 16 c.), shields, hatchets, battle-axes • Pikes, longstaves, lances • Body armor, supplied by players • Litters for removal of dead bodies • Torches • Smoke or mist Virginia R. Francisco

  42. Properties in Hamlet • All of the foregoing • Hamlet’s “tables” • Drinking cups • Skulls • Cushions • Flowers • Coffin • Pictures • Book • Letter Virginia R. Francisco

  43. Costume Functions • Identify relationships (twins in TN) • Note social status • Indicate feeling: hat brim down = lover • State circumstances Virginia R. Francisco

  44. The Company’s Wardrobe • Most costumes supplied by actors • Evidence Ld. Admiral’s Men costume inventory of 1598: 300 pieces • Edward Alleyn’s inventory of 1602 mostly items reserved for gentry by sumptuary laws, or multiples (twins) • Jones’s designs for court preserved Virginia R. Francisco

  45. Costume in Hamlet • K-Q: crowns and festive formal attire • Polonius: staff and chain of office • Courtiers very festive “court dress” w/hats • Contrast Hamlet • Soldiers as contemporary • Ghost, Fortinbras in armor • Varied occupations Virginia R. Francisco

  46. Audience • varied classes, occupations • all visible to each other • sumptuary laws • hats for all, other accessories • free to move around within sections • peddlers sold water, beer, fruit, nuts • attracted by playbills, flags, trumpeter Virginia R. Francisco

  47. In the Audience • 2 p.m., continuous perf • weather? • crowded—and accessories! • rise for “any notable shew” • shout approval, clap • hiss, throw fruit and tiles • stamp, knock • hum, hawk Virginia R. Francisco

  48. Actors • Acting a trade, perhaps on similar footing to other crafts • However, less respectable unless actor successful • Most successful were better off than other crafts workers Virginia R. Francisco

  49. Acting Style • Males play all roles • Six performances a week • Daily changes of bill, new roles about every 2 weeks • Some type-casting inevitable (see Hamlet II.2.298-302) • But versatility also demanded by doubling, subs for sick • Authenticity Virginia R. Francisco

  50. Casting • Burbage, age about 30 = Hamlet • Condell = Laertes usually cast opp Burb in swordplay • Crosse = Polonius • Phillips, Heminges = Claudius, Horatio • Cooke = Fortinbras • Sly, Cowley remain for R & G • Shakespeare = Ghost Virginia R. Francisco

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