ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

1. ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

2. Development of the Elizabethan Theatre • Medieval Stagecraft • Protestant Reformation • Tudor Pageantry • Renaissance Learning and Ideas

3. Influence of Medieval Theatre • Eager audience • Established tradition of theatre and actors • MYSTERY AND MORALITY PLAYS: • Mixing of high seriousness and low comedy • FOLK PLAYS: • Pagan remnants: fairies and sprites • Feast of Fools • INTERLUDES: • Humanistic debates

4. The Tudors Victorious in the Wars of the Roses, Henry Tudor defeated Richard III, married Anne of York, and became Henry VII HENRY VII ---- Anne of York Arthur -- Catherine -- HENRY VIII Margaret -- James IV Mary-- of Aragon of Scotland Louis XII of France

5. Henry VII 1485-1509 Henry VIII 1509-1547 Edward VI 1547-1553 Lady Jane Grey 1553-1553 Mary I 1553-1558 Elizabeth I 1558-1603

6. The Protestant Reformation • Henry VIII wanted a male heir. • In order to marry Anne Boleyn, Henry requested an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon from the Pope – he was refused. • 1531 Parliament recognized Henry VIII as head of the English Church.

7. The Catholic Restoration • Queen Mary (ruled 1553-58) reimposed Catholicism on the English Church • Protestant persecution • Bloody Mary

8. The Protestant Reformation • Elizabeth (ruled 1558-1603) worked out a compromise church that retained as much as possible from the Catholic church while putting into place most of the foundational ideas of Protestantism. • Mystery and Morality plays were outlawed as they taught Roman Catholic doctrine  

9. 1588: Defeat of the Spanish Armada • The disgrace to Spain greatly damaged its prestige • England's star was on the rise. • Elizabeth took the defeat of the Armada as a sign of divine blessing • English patriotism and devotion to the Queen soared to its greatest heights, shown in part by a profusion of literature that included Shakespeare's first plays--patriotic histories of the English monarchy.

10. Tudor Pageantry • A hybrid dramatic form of literature, ritual, and politics, • Royal entries and aristocratic entertainments -- fashionable literary forms were turned to the service of national propaganda • Pageants • Parades • Masques • Composed by the bright young men who haunted the court in hopes of securing political office. Full of spectacle: music, dance, elaborate staging, fireworks

11. Renaissance • Rebirth of Classical knowledge and ideals • Roman theatre as model • Humanistic Ideas • Universities • Oxford • Cambridge • Inns of Court

12. Influence of Roman Theatre • 5 act structure • Comedy: Plautus and Terence • Plots • Stock characters • Tragedy: Seneca • Revenge motif • Irony • Use of ghosts • Violent spectacle

13. Humanism:from Morality to Chronicle • It was the aim of the humanists to educate those who ruled in wise and virtuous government. • How do you teach a king? Very tactfully . . . • The effectiveness of the morality play was attractive to humanists, who changed the nature of the moral from religion to political virtue without changing the techniques of the drama. • Theatre was a natural medium for the humanists to use in educating the king, for plays were frequently performed at Court.

14. Chronicle or History Plays • Explore the workings and legitimacy of kingship • What is a good King? • Historical exemplars (Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar) • Often turn into tragedies

15. University Wits • University-educated playwrights, noted for their learning and clever language • George Peele(1556-96) • Thomas Lodge (1558-1625) • Thomas Nashe ( 1567-1601) • Robert Greene(1560-92): best known as first Shakespearian critic • John Lyly (1554-1606)

16. Christopher Marlowe1564-93 • MA from Cambridge • Established blank verse as dramatic medium: “Marlowe’s mighty line” • Overreacher • Tragedies: • Tamburlaine • Dido Queen of Carthage • Dr. Faustus • Edward II • Massacre at Paris • Jew of Malta • Killed in a brawl

17. Ben Jonson1572-1637 • Educated at Westminster School -- no university but the most learned of playwrights • Important comedies of humor include: Every Man in His Humor, Volpone, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair • Wrote and staged court masques with Inigo Jones • Celebrated poet and conversationalist: “Sons of Ben”

18. Acting Companies • 1590 -- 1642: approximately 20 companies of actors in London (although only 4 or 5 played in town at one time) • More than a hundred provincial troupes. • Companies usually played in London in the winter and spring and to travel in the summer when plague ravaged the city • Members: • Shareholders • Apprentices • Hired men

19. Censorship • Largely Puritan leaders of the City of London disapproved of the theatres. • The Privy Council was wary of the political comment often present in topical plays. • Censorship under the direction of the Master of Revels was strict. • In 1596 the City Corporation ordered the expulsion of players from London and the closing of the inn-theatres. • Theatres moved across the River

20. Chronicle or History Plays Comedies Romantic Pastoral Feast of Fools Social Humors Tragedies Senecan Revenge De casibus -- turn of Fortune Fatal flaw Romances far-away adventures Any combination of the above Types of Plays “The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral,pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical historical, scene individable or poem unlimited.” -- Hamlet

21. Elizabethan Stock Characters • Senex: old man in authority • Miles gloriosus: braggart soldier • Shrew: sharp-tongued woman • Clever servant • Machiavel: political schemer • “Calumniator believed” : a liar who is believed • Idiotes: a malcontent • Parasite: a “moocher” • Pedant: in love with the sound of his own didactic voice • Young Lovers • Fools and clowns

22. William ShakespeareApril 23, 1564-April 23, 1616 • Born in Stratford-upon-Avon • Married Anne Hathaway in 1582 at age of 18 • 3 children: Susanna (1583) and Hamnet and Judith (1585) • 1585-92: “the lost years” • 1595 record of membership in Lord Chamberlain’s Men

23. Early Works: prior to 1594 • History Plays: • Henry VI: 1,2,and 3 • Richard III • Poetry: Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, sonnets • Plautine Comedy: • A Comedy of Errors • Courtly Comedy: • Two Gentlemen of Verona • Farcical/problem Comedy: • The Taming of the Shrew • Senecan Revenge Tragedy: • Titus Andronicus • Romantic Tragedy: • Romeo and Juliet

24. Lord Chamberlain’s Men • Originally formed under the patronage of Lord Strange, but when he died in 1594, the players found a patron in Henry Carey, the Lord Chamberlain. • Performed at the Theatre and the Curtain • 1599 moved to the newly built Globe. By 1600 they had emerged as the leading theatrical company in London • 1603 became the King's Men under a royal patent from James I. The company continued successfully until the Puritans closed the theatres in 1642.

25. The Globe • Built by the Burbages in 1598 for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men • Burned down in 1613 during production of Henry VIII • Rebuilt 1614

26. The New Globe: opened 1997

28. Comedies: Love’s Labour’s Lost A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing As You Like It Twelfth Night The Merchant of Venice Merry Wives of Windsor Histories: King John Richard II Henry IV: 1,2 Henry V Tragedies: Julius Caesar Hamlet Popular Success: 1595-1600

29. A Darker Vision: 1601-1607 • Problem Plays: • All’s Well That Ends Well • Measure for Measure • Troilus and Cressida • Tragedies: • Othello • King Lear • Macbeth • Antony and Cleopatra • Coriolanus

30. Final Works: 1608-1612 • Tragedy: Timon of Athens • Romances: • Cymbeline • Pericles • The Winter’s Tale • The Tempest • Collaborations with John Fletcher: • Henry VIII • Two Noble Kinsmen

31. Shakespeare was buried on April 25, 1616 in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, where he had been baptised just over 52 years earlier • Good friend for Jesus sake forbearTo dig the dust enclosed here!Blest be the man that spares these stones,And curst be he that moves my bones

32. First Folio: 1623 • The first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. • Included thirty-six plays, eighteen of which had never been published before • The editors of the volume, Shakespeare's fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell, arranged the plays in three genres: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies.