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Elizabethan Drama

Elizabethan Drama. The traditions and feature of the style of theatre that emerged in England during the years 1560-1642. AS 2.4. Both your portfolio and performance must show an awareness of the features of Elizabethan drama

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Elizabethan Drama

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  1. Elizabethan Drama The traditions and feature of the style of theatre that emerged in England during the years 1560-1642

  2. AS 2.4 • Both your portfolio and performance must show an awareness of the features of Elizabethan drama • You will need to know about the context (ie. The background information about Elizabethan society) to understand and apply some of the features.

  3. The Elizabethan period • A period in English history • Named after Queen Elizabeth I (ruled 1558-1603) but includes years both before and after her death. • After Elizabeth I, England was ruled by James I (1603-1625), then Charles I (1625-1642). • During this period, the theatre traditions changed very little.

  4. Elizabethan politics • England was ruled by a monarchy (a royal family). • When Queen Elizabeth died, she left no heirs, so the throne went to her cousin, King James of Scotland. He ruled England, Scotland, and Wales together as the King of Great Britain. • Monarchs ruled with the help of a parliament (made up of noblemen, knights, and city representatives) • Monarchs were very sensitive of their position, and would often censor (stop or suppress) comments against them. • If a play was seen to be insulting or risky, it could be censored, meaning it wasn’t allowed to be performed. • The play Eastward, Ho! Contained jokes about Scottish royalty. James I (who was Scottish) wasn’t happy and threw the playwrights in jail.

  5. Elizabethan Society • Organised according to a strict hierarchy: Aristocracy: persons of noble birth who possessed large estates in the country but who also often took their place in London at court or in Parliament. Gentry, sometimes known as minor gentry: descendants of the aristocracy whose holdings were smaller but who still possessed considerable wealth, as well as persons who through commercial enterprise (such as ownership of a monopoly) had managed to amass property and prestige and thus were entitled to be called gentlemen. Citizens: mostly urban tradesmen or shopkeepers, who either made products for public consumption or sold them, e.g., leather goods, books, cloth, dairy products, wheels for carriages, and the like (this group would probably also include innkeepers). Yeomen: the rural equivalent of citizens, who owned (or in some cases had the use of) agricultural or grazing lands from which they made more than a subsistence wage --sometimes even handsome profits. Servants, laborers, or peasants: persons who owned little but made their living working for others, either-on farms or in households (those who lived in the city tended to be better ,off financially than their rural counterparts). The indigent: beggars and others who, from geographical or social circumstances, injury, or personal temperament, found themselves unable to work.

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