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Elizabethan Theater. Drama in the Age of Queen Elizabeth. Popularity. Going to the theater was the Elizabethan equivalent of going to the movies Popular among all people Most notable theater was The Globe Held 2,500-3,000 people Groundlings - paid a penny to stand
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Elizabethan Theater Drama in the Age of Queen Elizabeth
Popularity • Going to the theater was the Elizabethan equivalent of going to the movies • Popular among all people • Most notable theater was The Globe • Held 2,500-3,000 people • Groundlings - paid a penny to stand • Queen Eliz. was a great patron of drama British Literature
The Globe • Globe had no lighting or elaborate sets - plays had to be performed during the day • Playwright’s words had to create the mood • Talented actors had to bring the words to life - remember that women could not act British Literature
The New Globe Theater British Literature
Inside the Globe British Literature
The Drama of Shakespeare The Greatest of Elizabethan Playwrights
Background on Shakespeare • 1564-1616 • Born in Stratford-on-Avon • Father was a merchant • Received no education beyond grammar school • Married Anne Hathaway in 1582 (he was 18 and she was 26), had three children • Susanna, 1583 • Judith and Hamnet (twins), 1585 • Moved to London in late 1580s to pursue theater • Part owner of Lord Chamberlain’s men - very successful theater company British Literature
Shakespeare’s Drama • Wrote 37 plays - tragedies, comedies, histories, and romances • Written to be performed • Plays first published in 1623 - The First Folio • Did Shakespeare really write his plays…? British Literature
Other Writers on Shakespeare • “He was not of an age, but for all time!” • Ben Jonson • “Shakespeare is the poet of nature: the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and life.” • Samuel Johnson • “He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul.” • John Dryden • So why is Shakespeare still so popular after 400 years? British Literature
The Tragedies • Most famous tragedies - Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • Tragedy - inspired by the theater of Ancient Greece and Rome (think Oedipus) • Play in which disaster befalls the hero -he dies at the end • Tragic flaw - character trait that brings about the downfall of the hero British Literature