Í™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜Ô
Introduction To
Ñ Theatre Ð
Mediæval k Shakespearean
—™˜– Theatre —™˜–
ËËË
David Alan Holding
31 March 1995
Theatre Appreciation
Ñ–—–—–—–—–—–—Ð
1. Discuss the rise of the Mediæval Theatre.
2. Discuss the representative plays of the Mediæval Theatre.
3. Discuss the times and political and religious nature of the Mediæval Theatre.
4. Discuss the rise of the Shakespearean Theatre.
5. Discuss the representative plays of the Elizabethan theatre.
Thesis: The Mediæval period provided theatre with the burial and resurrection it required to transform it into the maturing art and force it would become for the Renaissance.
Introduction.
It could be said that there is a time and place for all things, and that all the events in history are in their proper time and place. Events influenced by the era in which they occurred, born of the freedoms or oppressions of the cultural forces around them. The theatre of the Mediæval age is such a birth. After the fall of Rome, its crassly growth from an age of freedom was buried alive by the Christian Church, who sought to extinguish all immorality and corruptness, and exert a fundamental guiding influence over life. From this undertaker, theatre would be born again into a spiritual presentation (much like the death of a corrupt physical body for the rebirth of a spiritual one) before maturing into the secular form that it would find itself during the Renaissance.
1. Discuss the rise of the Mediæval Theatre.
The final collapse of the Roman Empire (476 AD) was of little concern to theatre. "Theatre of any artistic merit had already been dead for centuries. Seneca, the last writer of importance, died in 65 AD" (Whiting 44) and play writing was practically nonexistent. By this time, stage shows had degenerated into vulgar, obscene entertainment; thus, when the Christian Church came into power, one of its first acts was to abolish all theatrical activity. Such actions and attitudes originated from a reaction against anything Roman or Greek, not from the example or teachings of Christ. If the Church had considered the story nature of the parables of Christ, it may have chose to reform theatre instead of oppressing it. Arius, a famous Churchman of the fourth century, "outlined a plan for a Christian theatre to combat the lewd ones of the pagans; but nothing tangible resulted --perhaps because Arius was excommunicated for his heretical doctrinal views" (Cheney 137). The Roman theatre persisted into the sixth century before dying in the conflict with the increasingly powerful Church.
Although theatre and drama in the form of stage productions and official perennial celebrations no longer existed, it did not die out completely. Mimes and strolling players (the remnants of the actors) never entirely disappeared. By the eleventh century, minstrels were popular among all classes with their performances in taverns, castles, guild halls, marketplaces, and weddings. The minstrels "sang, or chanted, the things that have been the material of drama in other times: of heroic deeds, and legendary braveries, of men and women in love, and of funny happenings" (Cheney 139). Even though playwrights were dark and dead during this time, some play writing did take place. Two Saxony nuns wrote comedies, but is doubtful that they were ever produced. Roswith wrote several pious comedies and Hrosvitha of the Gandersheim Abbey wrote six comedies on religious themes. But none of these events would contribute to the resurrection of drama, that would come from the very Church that sought to destroy it.
In spite of prohibitions, the Church could not kill out the festival spirit in the people whom it gradually converted. The common people carried on their folk-customs and the lower clergy claimed their right to also celebrate in the New Year's and May Day festivals, in such events as the Feast of Fools. Here a parody of the Flight into Egypt is known to have been played. All this, in time would transform into the farce (satire and comedy) such as the Maistre Pierre Pathelin of 1470. The Church accepted a certain number of the less ungodly and ribald ceremonial customs; thus, creating Christian folk-customs and folk-plays. It is possible that if drama did not develop in the Church, another full-fledged secular drama would have developed again from these folk-customs.
In the Middle Ages, the Church services were made more popular and instructive by the use of tableaux (living pictures). The next natural advancement was to some form of acting, first in pantomime, and later with the addition of songs and dialogue. In the tenth century, simple Latin four-line playlets called tropes (added melody) would appear in the Church's Quem Queritis (Easter Mass) thrilling the drama-starved culture to such an extent that the same technique was added to other masses and holy days. The success of the Easter Drama soon was added to other depictions such as the meeting of Mary Magdalene and Christ in the garden, Peter and John running to the Sepulcher, and scenes of the Christmas stories. The whole interior of the church was used, and short scenes were played in various parts of the building in a setting that symbolized a particular place or scene. The 908 AD, Concordia Regularis, prepared by St. Ethelwod, Bishop of Winchester, is one of the Quem Queritis surviving from the Mediæval period. This work provided the audience with all the requirements for a serious drama: dramatic demonstration, ritualization, celebration, characters, vocal modulation, carefully staged movements, acting, props, pantomime, and even a orchestral effect. With this event, drama was once again a part of religious celebration and would become one of the highest function of the Church's liturgical office.
The Quem Queritis grew in its length and dialogue as well as the stories that it covered, ranging from The Creation to The Final Judgment. The language of the production was changed from the Latin used by the Church, to the vernacular of the people: the "vulgar" English, French, Flemish, and German. By the twelfth century, the cultural-feast on such drama productions was so enormous that the events had to be moved outside to accommodate the growing crowds. Soon the Church saw that the popularity of the production was more for entertainment than spiritual uplifting; thus, the Church stopped producing them and prohibited the clergy from taking part in them. In 1240 AD, Pope Innocent II decreed that the drama be removed from the Church. The drama would be thrown out of the Church because it had increased out of all proportions to the religious teachings it was originally intended to portray, but it would be taken up by the people as their legitimate pleasure. The productions were an accepted part of the Easter celebration and the people demanded their entertainment; thus, from the thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries, the guilds seriously took over the responsibility of production. It was during this time that the strolling actor was employed to act the parts of demanding roles. No doubt that their advice in acting was frequently sought and given. By the fifteenth century, the professional actor was once again making his appearance most prominent.
These dramatic productions, devoted to the glorification of Christ, served as "a powerful force for the moral instruction of an illiterate but ethically receptive populace" of a rural society (Cohen 109). This same type of powerful force would be seen centuries later with the influence of television into society. These events became as annual and celebrated as the Greek celebrations of Dionysus, and soon were organized into groups known as mystery cycles (the terms mystery, miracle, and cycle plays are basically interchangeable) throughout Europe. In spite of the religious and other restrictions in the writing of these plays, they allowed the reemergence of playwright creativity. Many famous mystery cycles were developed throughout England: York, Wakefield, Coventry, and Chester. There are surviving English Corpus Christi manuscripts from Chester, Wakefield, and York, but the surviving Passion Play production from the Middle Ages (1662) is located in Oberammergau, Germany, in upper Barvaria.
These cycle plays encompassed a variety of playlets, all inspired by stories in the Bible. Soon they included mystery plays, passion plays, pageant plays, miracle plays, morality plays, and last to emerge on the scene was the farcical interlude. Each allowing more freedom of creation and imagination for the playwright and enjoyable entertainment for the audience. The scale and duration were two of the most impressive features of the Mediæval plays: performed on elaborately crafted stages with performances that may last for days, or performed on enormous pageant wagons parading through the town from before dawn into early the next morning.
2. Discuss the representative plays of the Mediæval Theatre.
The Greeks emphasized the here rather than the here-after, and made their plays and annual celebrations an integral part of their society. They used the theatre and drama in the representation of their Gods and heroes, and of the lessons of morals and values retold every Spring - a renewal of their culture as the earth renewed its seasons. "The Romans had extended this to a philosophy of eat-drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-you-die" (Whiting 45). In such a practice, the theatre degenerated away from any recognizable morals or values into the vulgar, obscene entertainment that stagnated it long before the fall of Rome. This degeneration of drama may have been necessary for theatre to compete with the gladiatorial and arena events of the day, much like the competition for ratings of modern television. The Christian Church of the Mediæval period viewed the present life as only trials and tribulations: a preparation for the after-life. The more the suffering in this life, the greater the rewards in the after life. The installation of fear-of-punishment and hope-for-redemption were the lessons the Church taught during its oppression of theatre, and the theme it held when it eventually revived theatre. Such a theme is the essence of Dante's Divine Comedy, from the fourteenth century.
The oldest drama is purported to be Adam, written in the French language, but believed to have been written in England (during the time that French was in use as well as Latin). Adam, is an elaborated story, "with sharply characterized protagonists, written out with considerable theatric ingenuity if without great literary merit" (Cheney 145). The first English play is purported to be Jacob and Esau of the Wakefield Mysteries. The verse of the Mediæval theatre was the common vernacular of the audience. To achieve the sense of spiritual majesty of the earlier Latin liturgical plays, it constructed its verse in subtle mathematical metrics and rhyming schemes (rhythm and rhyme). This was important in order to give the impression that the authors were divine scribes setting down religious instructions: a proper means of communicating spiritual truth. It was the message of the play that was important. Above all, the Mediæval pageant was a time of joyous celebration of faith, salvation, wholeness, and purposefulness, of both the temporal and spiritual life.
The Mystery Cycle plays were always based on the Scriptures with a fundamentally religious function, and are more comparable to the annual Greek celebrations of Dionysus than they are in contrast. Both events were outdoor, springtime, religious observances ritualizing the resurrection of a divine figure; both were intensely public and communal events attracting a mass audience for the celebration and illustration of a common mythos; and both became a function of the evolving civic government in the political and social life of the community. In contrast, what the Mediæval theatre had that the Greek theatre did not, was the magnitude of the production: large scale production. This was probably due to the larger size of the Christian religion compared to the Greek religion. What the Greeks did that the Mediæval theatre failed to do, was produce any body of work demonstrating great individual literary genius. This was probably due to the restrictions imposed by the Church at a time when literary writing was just reemerging.
The Miracle plays grew in length as more scenes were added, finally encompassing the entire Bible and taking several days to perform. On the European continent, they were first performed in the market place with a set up in keeping with that that was in the Church. In England, the sets were built on decorative, immense pageant wagons. In England the actors were all males, but on the continent, both males and females participated. One of the most popular scenes in the Miracle plays was the Hell-Mouth.
Hell-mouth has become the most prominent "station" of the several that are built on a long platform to serve the actors in Mystery and Miracle Plays. And the Mediæval audience demands particularly that the imps out of Hell shall be very active in hustling sinners into the belching smoke and flame, that the damned be shown in torture, and that the best of comic actors play the part of the Devil. This Devil is the favorite of all the religious characters in the Mediæval theatre. Cheney 152.
Six Mystery plays are preserved in a thirteenth century Orleans manuscript. These presentations are designed to be given in the separated settings used in the Church. These settings were to provide for such scenes as the Birth of Jesus, the Adoration of the Shepherd, the Three Wise Men, Herod and the Slaughter of the Innocents, and the Flight into Egypt. Four other surviving plays, more properly termed Miracles plays, depict incidents in the lives of the Saints. "All are written very briefly, in verse and prose, and with the obvious intention that hymns and anthems be sung at appropriate intervals" (Cheney 144).
During the fourteenth century, one of the largest Mystery cycle plays was the Corpus Christi play produced in York, England. This was a large all day production consisting of forty-eight playlets representing every major Christian event in the Bible, from The Creation to The Final Judgment. The overall coordination of the Corpus Christi was under the charge of the town's governing body, with the individual playlet production assigned to various craft guilds, who's trade related to the playlet's theme in some manner. Here the presentation method was the grandiose touring pageant wagon. Each playlet occupied its own pageant wagon or set of wagons, which would tour in sequence through town and stop at various assigned locations for performances. Such elaborate and expensive wagons were the creation of highly motivated, professional, craftspeople and artisans, who without reservation used and demonstrated their skills in the construction of these stages, as well as the production of their assigned playlet. It may seem beyond modern comprehension that such large scale production occurred, but it is no further beyond belief for a society that constructed grandiose cathedrals of equal, if not greater scale.
The Creation and the Fall of Lucifer playlet, depicted God in the creation of the universe and the hubris fall of Lucifer. The playlet was timed to end with the creation of light at the moment of sunrise over the Yorkshire dales. The Fall of Man playlet depicted the intellectual temptation of man (Eve) his fall, and expulsion from the Paradise Garden. The depiction of an intellectual temptation is in standing with the anti-intellectual attitude of the Church: its biased favor for unthinking obedience from the populous. The Crucifixion playlet was the pivotal element of the procession, depicting the physical agony of Christ in his sacrifice for humanity. "The dramatic achievement of this playlet is that it communicates the transcendence that is the essence of religious experience" (Cohen 123). The Judgment playlet was the last playlet in the pageant procession. It depicted the final judgment of mankind before God. During this playlet, the action turned outward to the audience, with warnings and instructions to examine their own lives in preparation of the Final Judgment.
To view the surviving Passion Play that has existed since 1634, one would have to travel to Oberammergau, Germany, located in the Ammer River valley in the Bavarian Alps. This passion play has remained constant since its vow of performance in 1633, when the town was spared from the bubonic plague. It is performed every ten years, several times weekly, from the months of May to September, in the years that end in "0." Even much of the village dates back to the Middle Ages. The play is an open-air, all-day performance, depicting Jesus's last days on "Earth Holy Week," including the Passion of the cross. There are some 1,400 performers of the towns 5,200 people that constitute the production.
The hundreds of Miracle plays dealt with the lives of the saints, and gave the playwright greater freedom in its content. Some depicted exciting scenes of torture and martyrdom, and perhaps verged on secular romance as the saint adventured about performing miracles and resolving tangled situations.. A surviving example manuscript of a Miracle play would be the story of Saint Apollonia (the catholic "patroness against toothache"). She was one of the early martyrs who preached Christian salvation in Alexandria and was burned to death. In its presentation, the story was well known, but still the audience looked forward to each succeeding incident. The torture scene was a knockout, Angles took vengeance and devils hauled off the torturers to Hell (as well as prodded people in the audience) and God appeared at the end to receive the martyr into heaven. In such productions of Miracle plays, the actors worked hard and even underwent danger. "It is chronicled that at Metz in 1437 both the crucified Christ and the hanged Judas were cut down just in time to escape death" (Cheney 161).
The Morality plays developed in the later years of the Middle Ages and portrayed the abstract qualities of Vice, Virtue, Health, Death, or the Seven Deadly Sins, and offered practical instructions in morality. These qualities were characterized as real persons (like the story of Pilgrim's Progress). Here the characterizations were dressed in colors: Mercy in white, Ruthlessness in red, Truth in sad green, and Peace in black. "Being more ethical than religious in theme, the Morality play was a further step away from the Church's influence in the drama" (Cleaver 64). The Morality play gave the playwright even more freedom of plot and imagination in its construction and tale. "The challenge to the imagination of the playwright was much greater, and his freedom in dealing with his material was comparatively unrestricted" (Whiting 46). Such examples of the Morality plays includes Everyman and The Castle of Perseverance. In the Everyman, the "average Joe," is summoned by Death to the grave. Joe has nothing but vain appeals for accompaniment to Fellowship, Cousins, Kindred, Goods, Strength, Discretion, Beauty, Knowledge, and all other things except for Good Deeds, which is willing to accompany him before the Judgment-of-seat-of-God. The illustration of Good Deeds being the means of salvation is in contrast to the true teachings of Christ, but may have been more in line with a church that desired to control or influence the actions and deeds of its subjects. "Most of these plays, which originated as a means of religious and moral instruction, became so corrupted by jests and vulgarities that they were condemned by the church" (Gay "miracle play"). Once again, theatre was moving towards presentations that the church frowned upon; thus, after the fifteenth century, these plays almost ceased to be given.
The Farcical interlude has uncertain origins, except that it most likely developed from such celebrations as the Feast of Fools and other festive satire. The farcical interlude is important in that from it emerged and survived an entirely secular form of theatre devoted to the primary purpose of entertainment. Examples of this form of entertainment include the French Pierre Pathelin; the German Der todte Mann; and the English plays Johan Johan, Ralph Roister Doister, and Gammer Gurton's Needle (which mark the beginning of Renaissance play writing).
3. Discuss the times and political and religious nature of the Mediæval Theatre.
With the final collapse of Roman and its Western Empire, central secular authority and government for European civilization disappeared, leaving the Christian Church to exert a fundamental guiding influence for the next thousand years. During the Middle Ages, life centered around the cathedral. The collapse of the Roman Empire ended the advance and development of the physical and social technology that had developed since the time of the great city-state of Athens. This was an era of rural and isolated feudal systems of bishoprics and dukedoms with a sharp separation between nobility and peasantry. Ninety-nine out of a hundred men were political subjects to the feudal lord, as well as mental and spiritual slaves of the Church. "Only by staying close to the Church, by obeying implicitly, by taking no chances of thinking new thoughts, can a man be sure of salvation" (Cheney 153). The events and accomplishments of the first five centuries, known as the Dark Ages, are mostly lost, while the tenth century on has more lasting accomplishments as a society.
Although the evils of the stage were banned by the church, the strolling players and minstrels often performed at weddings, baptisms, and other festivities. The Church was in very much disfavor on such activities, and continually issued orders prohibiting the clergy from welcoming or watching such performers. When such performances were in churches, the clergy would simply leave before the actors began. "A priest of Ripon Minster was charged, in 1312, with breaking the canons in this respect" (Cleaver 54). Even with such edits, the clergy looked forward to their visits, and certain bishops received them favorably, and many a monastery always welcomed them. They were always welcomed, especially in the great houses and castles of the nobility.
"For centuries the actors wandered the roads, rubbing shoulders with acrobats, rope dancers, and beast tamers" (Cleaver 53). The best of these minstrels became the well-paid servants of nobility, while the rest were no better than vagabonds. The chief minstrel to Henry I was Rahere, who made a fortune, enough that when he decided to quit the profession, he founded the great priory of St. Bartholomew, and became its first prior.
In a time when communication was more by word of mouth than by any written means (the printing press was not yet invented and even few of the nobility could easily read) the strolling players served a useful and important function of dispersing news from place to place. The minstrel's songs were of heroes and great deeds, and war provided them with an abundance of material. In France, at Beauvais, Lyons, and Cambrai, were the famous minstrel schools where they would gather during Lent and swap songs, fresh news, and material (the Mediæval information exchange). This is perhaps where the tales of such heroes as Beowulf were spread.
By the beginning of the fifteenth century, towns such as London, Bristol, York, Canterbury, Shrewsbury, Chestter, and Norwich, had their own minstrels, known as waits, in their service. Their duties included playing at local festivities and celebrations, and piping the watch. The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century reduced the need of minstrels and their services of information and news; thus, by the sixteenth century they had disappeared (probably absorbed into the companies of stage players that arose during this century).
As mentioned earlier, the Christian Church of the Mediæval period viewed the present life as only trials and tribulations. It separated Christ from the common man and instead, gave him the Virgin Mary and other saints for prayers. There was also the separation of Man and Christ by way of the confessional. It was the installation of fear-of-punishment in Hell for disobedience, bad deeds, and improper thoughts, and hope-for-redemption through obedience to the Church that were the cannons during this time. The rise of the theatre in this period, though at first was a controlling force, would become a solvent of the Church's influence. The Mediæval theatre would become an immensely popular meeting ground, attracting crowds, promoting civic pride, and commercial interests (much like the Greek threatre). It would be a place and time where "guilds, brotherhoods, municipal governments, and religious associations, all united in a concept of congruity between faith and commerce, ritual and entertainment, devotion and artistry, salvation and society" (Cohen 109).
4. Discuss the rise of the Shakespearean Theatre.
Nothing ever stays the same; change is the only constant in the universe, and even it is likely to change when least expected. As theatre developed and moved out of the Church and back into the realm of secular life and pure entertainment, other advances in the world would speed up the processes that moved civilization into the Renaissance. By the fifteenth century, all the changes in the social life of Europe, caused the decline of the Miracle plays. "The Miracle plays gradually declined in popularity, and drama rediscovered its old form" (Cleaver 65). Italy was the center of the Renaissance and at its famous academies (Vicenza, Mantua, Milan, Naples, Florence, and Venice) new theaters were built, but Italy failed to produce any great playwrights. Published Italian works eventually made their way to England and helped form a basis for stage designs and playwrights there in the seventeenth century.
"Knowledge is power" (Sir Francis Bacon). Not only did the theatre provide entertainment, but it also once again provided a means to spread theories, ideas, political and religious opinions. That, together with the invention of the printing press, which reproduced knowledge for distribution; the establishment of universities, which made learning more available; and the fall of Constantinople, which drove scholars and classic literature into Western Europe, helped bring about the change in cultural attitude towards humanism and into the age of the Renaissance. As printing became more universal, scholars became busy in the study of ancient works and writing pedantic plays based on the classical principles. During the Renaissance, individuals through books, ruins, arts, and sciences returned to the Greek and Roman emphasis upon living rather than preparation for death. This was a renewed awareness of the individual's potential as a reasoning, creative, and heroic being.
"The dramatic output of Renaissance England exceeded all expectations. Even without Shakespeare the period would have been an important one" (Whiting 52). (Without Shakespeare, we may have well had the plays of Sir Francis Bacon.) With Shakespeare, London contributed more great plays than any other comparable city past or present, with the exception of fifth century BC Athens. This may be due to the parallel between London and Athens. Both were young spirited, boisterous, eager, zestful cities flourishing in commerce and trade, and in positions of world power; influential positions that provided the stimulation and widening horizons that produced great playwrights. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the high spirited English became intensely interested in their past, and playwrights catered to this patriotism by writing chronicles.
It was at this transition point in time, between the Mediæval period and the Renaissance period, that the two harmoniously blended to produce the Elizabethan theatre. "The Mediæval contributed scope, imagination, homely realism, and hearty laughter, while the Renaissance contributed the classic form with its sense of order, skillful plots, deft solutions, brilliant word play and Senecan verse" (Whiting 53). The Renaissance influence on play writing first took place in 1553, at the new institutes of learning, the universities, such as Eton. English drama grew to fully developed plays by 1564, the year that both Shakespeare and Marlowe were born. Such accomplishments for playwrights would continue until the Puritan Revolution of 1642, when the theaters were burned to the ground.
Before 1576, there was no proper theater in London. Traveling players were common throughout Europe and performed on hastily erected stages in the yards of inns, public streets, squares, castles and country manors of the nobility. These Interludes were short comic pieces based on everyday life. The strolling players and acting companies used what ever means and places that were available for a stage. Often they were forced to move on due to the outlawing of any dramatic exhibition by local authorities, shifting their craft between court, city, and country as economic, social, and legal conditions dictated.
During the sixteenth century, the inns were the pivotal points of business and trade: large and important establishments that were stations for the great network of carriers plying their goods over the entire country. Their courtyards were able to accommodate three to four hundred people, and it was here that the traveling companies of players shared the time and space with carriers to make their living. Later certain inn proprietors gave up business with the carriers and concentrated on the profitable drama attractions. Although the drama was popular with inn keepers, it was not with the Puritans or civic authorities. Had it not been for the patronage and protection of nobility, theatre might have once again been buried. These skilled performing troupes finally sought and received patronage and protection from celebrated nobles of the realm. The troupes then were more able to organize and produce their craft. Such celebrated troupes included the Lord Admiral's Men, a troupe containing Philip Henslowe, Edward Alleyn, and Christopher Marlowe; another company was the Chamberlain's Men, under the rule of Queen Elizabeth, which contained William Shakespeare and owned its own theater building, the Globe.
Since the setting of the stage was never, if ever, certain, the plays as well as the actors had to be most versatile. There were no formal aesthetics which demanded that plays be written or staged in a certain way, nor could they be, even after the construction of theaters. Shakespearean stagecraft is marked by flexibility, for even then, theatre companies frequently toured or remounted on short notice for productions in royal palaces, Inns of Court, college halls, castles, or manor houses.
During the Time of the Elizabethan theatre, the Church no longer controlled the production of the new profession of the stage, and the religious playlets of the Middle Ages were gone (forbidden by Queen Elizabeth in 1559) but the Puritans did still control the political atmosphere of the city. Theatre had once again fallen into the reputation of unfavorable characters and ill-influence according to the Church; thus, the Puritan city officials forbade the public presentation of theatre within the city limits. Theaters simply constructed or moved outside the city limits to continue their craft, and the anti-theatre preaching of ministers only served to advertise the production of new plays and increase the profits.
In 1576, James Burbage, built the Theatre, and later that year, the Curtain. In 1596, the Blackfrairs was built, followed by the Rose in 1587, and the Swan in 1595. Others to follow included the Hope, the Fortune, and finally the Globe (which was the relocation of the Theatre). By the time of Shakespeare, there were almost a dozen London playhouse of various types, public and private, that provided a livelihood for dozens of professional acting companies and dramatic poets. The greatest attractions in Elizabethan London were the big public theaters. These were impressive wooden structures that towered over the residences and seated as many as three thousand spectators with additional standing room in the yard. Here thousands of English plays were written and performed on stages where drama became the major force for opinion making and acculturation in life.
5. Discuss the representative plays of the Elizabethan theatre.
There is more contrast than comparison between the theatre of the Mediæval period and the Renaissance period. Where the Mediæval period was an oppressive time on human form and thought as being evil and corrupt, the Renaissance was a time that once again focused on the human form, or man as the measure of all things, and this concept took form in the plays of the time. Gone were the grandiose pageant cycles and the rural settings were giving way for city life. It was not a time to revere the commonplace or the close-to-home. Renaissance society was explorative, curious, and adventurous for discovery. "Playwrights wrote of exotic locals all over the world, of settings and times befitting the imagination of the new and intellectually emerging Londoner, and of tales calculated to thrill him with discovery, perspective, and awe" (Cohen 140). There were a variety of plays for this era, including interludes, tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies, chronicles, city plays, domestic dramas, and court masques. The dominant structure of the dialogue was blank verse, started by Lyly, but most notable perfected by Shakespeare. There was also a movement away from verse towards prose. But these were not the only form of dialogue found in the plays of the era, there were also songs, sonnets, and rhymed couplets.
The term Interlude is commonly given to the style that appeared after the Morality plays and before the true English comedies, or to describe the early court entertainment; in all it is vague from where the interlude actually came. John Heywood's "farces" are called interludes. They are the first group of wholly secular plays in English that don't have moralizing or Biblical connections and are written exclusively for entertainment. They paved the way for the entry of the Renaissance spirit into English theatre. The Miracle plays led onto witty interludes as secular as those of John Heywood's. The Morality plays had their characters replaced by historic figures and changed into the form known as Chronicles. The first English tragedy that has survived is the 1562, Gorboduc, by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton. This is a blank verse Senecan play on an English theme. The earliest regular comedy is the 1553, Ralph Roister Doister, by Nicholas Udall, from Eton University. Then there is Gammer Gurton's Needle, a racy farce-comedy by Bishop Still.
Unlike the Greeks, the Shakespearean audience did not expect, nor would they probably endure, "long, pregnant pauses or studiously projected 'moments of truth'" (Cohen 145). This was an audience that expected and demanded action and vigor, wither in movement on the stage or quick wit of the tongue.
The Elizabethans went to the public theatres boisterously, with little reverence or consideration for dramatist or actor, the dandies anxious to show themselves superior to the entertainment by which they were passing idle hours, aiming at conspicuous attendance, and the groundlings in the pit offering vociferous approval or disapproval at every opportunity. Cheney 270.
The price of a day at the theatre was well within the range of virtually all Londoners, resulting in a vastly diverse collection of social stratum - a challenge for the playwright to produce a work of general appeal to his crowd. The playwright used all his available tools in filling the play with attention sustaining elements: jokes, witty banter, puns, taunts, challenges, curses, vows, crudities, and ringing declarations, which gave the Elizabethan drama an energetic liveliness all its own.
The Court Masque audience was much different from the public audience. They demanded more poetic spectacle than dramatic and passionate action or low-comedy relief. Shakespeare's The Tempest is such an example. Ben Jonson began writing exclusively for these Court performers with a combination of spectacle, dance, and formal recitation. Court masques were a "dramatization of courtly qualities of beautiful and dignified appearance, refined speech, and graceful movement" (Cleaver 95). When Inigo Jones returned from Italy, he brought with him the techniques of elaborate stage devices, such as colored lighting and scenery moving devices. These devices became an integral part of the masques.
The Elizabethan Age showered the world with a burst of brilliant playwrights. The forerunners of the Elizabethan playwrights preceding Shakespeare were for the most part brilliant young college men: John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, Robert Greene, and Christopher Marlowe. The supremacy of Shakespeare provides the zenith of the Renaissance period, a separation for those that preceded and proceeded him. After Shakespeare, came the playwrights of narrower vision: Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, and John Webster.
The age was ushered in by John Lyly (1554?-1606) an Oxford graduate, poet, and playwright of high favor in the court of Queen Elizabeth. John Lyly was inspired by the classics and developed a prose style made up of puns and the fashionable jugglery of words. His work deals with legendary themes and characters in a romantic but elegantly artificial way. It is from his Anatomy of Wit, or "Euphues" that the term "euphuism" is derived. Through his comedies and poetry, he did much to add refinement, eloquence, and taste to the prevailing ruggedness of the English style. His works include Endimion, the Man in the Moon. Thomas Kyd (1557-1595) in contrast to Lyly, used native Elizabethan vigor, power and imagination in his plays, an apparently more common-man's play. This style is apparent in his masterpiece, The Spanish Tragedy, an exciting drama of overwhelming carnage. Kyd may have authored the first tragedy of Hamlet, which later became the source for Shakespeare. Robert Greene exhibits powers that more than foreshadow those of Shakespeare in variety, freedom, and freshness of invention. He was also a severe critic of Shakespeare, and even discouraged other playwrights. The best illustration of his humor, tenderness, and freshness is his play Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. Greene had a life of reckless living that lead to a premature and ugly death.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), an M.A. graduate from Cambridge, although tragically short lived due to an untimely death, his poetic richness is comparable to Shakespeare as one of the greatest tragic playwrights in England. "No one before him had written blank verse with such mastery" (Cheney 269). He produced the first notable Elizabethan plays and is considered to be the more successful of the two at the time of his death in 1593. By the time of his death at age 29, he had produced one great poem and four great tragedies: Tamburlaine the Great, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, and Edward II. His untimely death robbed the world of any further contributions, and is best summed up by a line from his Dr. Faustus, "Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight." Marlowe would not be bound by academic rules or unities; thus, was first to bring perfection to the blank verse (which would be further perfected by Shakespeare). Even with the excellence that Marlowe possessed, it is doubtful that he could have outshined Shakespeare.
Even though William Shakespeare (1564-1616) lacked the college degrees that his predecessor contemporaries had, he possessed far more important qualities that placed him as the "greatest playwright who ever lived" (Whiting 56). Shakespeare possessed a sense of humor, humanity, a whimsical sensitivity, humility, a sense of order, an insight into character, that not even Marlowe could have matched. Like Chaucer, he was a genius story teller, but he surpassed Chaucer in character creation. This country boy, lacking a college education, outdistanced his contemporaries in lasting literary value. His plays have stood the test of time and international boundaries, finding appeal to every generation and translation into almost every language, performed on stages throughout time and the world. He is the most frequently produced playwright. Not only is Shakespeare tragedy, but also comedy, chronicles, tragicomedy, and poetry. As all good writers, Shakespeare collected information from books and from daily observation of the world around him; he learned a variety of subjects throughout his life which augmented his ability as a playwright.
From 1573 to 1587, there were twenty-three visiting companies giving performances in Stratford (Shakespeare hometown). It is believed that Shakespeare followed a strolling troupe out of his hometown one day, and by 1592, he was in London as a recognized actor and playwright at the age of 28. When Shakespeare arrived in London, theatre was alive and strong, enjoyed by the people; nobles, citizens, and common people all loved the stage, its pageantry and poetry. Wealthy people encouraged and supported the actors. Playwrights of the time were practical and bent on making a living and pleasing the public more than pleasing the critics. If the theaters were not filled, the troupe would go hungry. Shakespeare wrote his plays to be acted, he took whatever forms were attracting attention and made them better. During the time of the plague the theaters were kept closed, which allowed him to write his earliest sonnets and two long narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. They were printed and well received, which helped establish him as a poet. Shakespeare was friends with Richard Burbage, the greatest tragic actor of that day, and the son of the manager of the Theatre and the Curtain, James Burbage. In 1598, Burbage built the famous Globe Theater, in which Shakespeare would have a major part in contribution as a playwright, and later as an investor.
Shakespeare had four periods as a playwright. His first period of writing was his apprenticeship (ages 26 and 30) when he was learning his craft. Here he imitated Roman comedy and tragedy, and followed the styles of the playwrights who came just before him. Most likely he collaborated with other playwrights, such as Christopher Marlowe, as was common practice in that day. By his tragedies, "the audience is moved and shaken. After the show the spectators are calm, washed clean of pity and terror. They are saddened but at peace" (Gay "William Shakespeare"). This is much like the effect of the Greek tragedies upon their audience. Later he wrote chronicle plays when they became popular. By his second period he had mastered his art, which is highlighted by Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and Henry IV. He tried the comedy of local middle-class people in the The Merry Wives of Windsor, but his heart was not in it. At this time, his favorite style was the romantic comedy. His third period is marked with the writing of Hamlet, in 1601. This is the beginning of an eight years probed into the evil in the world. At times he reached an almost desperate pessimism. Even his comedies of this period are bitter. Finally, in his fourth period, he shows a new form, the tragicomedy (dramatic romance). In his hands the tragicomedy is calm, sober, and quietly lovely, such as The Tempest, which is perhaps the most beautiful and serene of all his plays.
Ben Jonson (1573?-1637) is among the great playwrights of the Elizabethan theatre to proceed Shakespeare. A contemporary, he was superior in satire and outstanding in his comedies: Every Man in His Humor, Sejanus, Volpone, Epicoene, Catiline, Bartholomew Fair, and The Alchemist. His best loved song is To Celia, which begins "Drink to me only with thine eyes." Ben Jonson was a bricklayer, soldier, and an actor; he was a big, dashing, daring, Elizabethan man who fought duels with both pen and sword (though he was probably more proficient with the sword) and produced plays that became classics. After he left the bricklaying apprenticeship under his stepfather, he became a strolling player. In 1598, his first comedy was successfully produced and he began his career as a playwright. Shakespeare and Jonson complemented each other in tragedy and comedy much like Euripides and Aristophanes did 2000 years earlier. Jonson remarked in his Sejanus, "'Shakespeare came from heaven, Jonson from college.'" (Whiting 63).
After Shakespeare and Jonson, there was a taste for melodrama and sensationalism, which hurt much of the following playwrights. Thomas Dekker (1570?-1641) wrote sunny comedies. His Shoemakers' Holiday, is a realistic comedy; Old Fortunatus, is a romantic comedy; and The Honest Whore, has a quality of sincerity and unusualness. Thomas Middleton (1570?-1627) produced roaring farces about middle-class life, such as A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Lastly, John Webster (1580?-1625?) who excelled in scenes of horror and pathos, wrote two great tragedies: The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil. These playwrights took such liberties with their subjects and language, that the Puritan reformers of 1642 closed the theaters.
Conclusion.
It could be said that true threatre died in 65 AD, leaving behind the rotting shell of an obscene, vulgar carcass that required burial. The Mediæval Christian Church would inter this festering sore that had made its way into Constantinople. Even with the repressive prohibition of theatre, the memories and desire for drama would not be extinguished; for dramatic expression is as fundamental to life as thought and spirit: qualities that are everlasting parts of the eternal soul. The spirit of drama would be born again, if not by the secular body, then by the Church body, the latter would act and give theatre a spiritual resurrection. A resurrection that parallels the birth of Greek theatre in many ways. Theatre would grow from simply added dialogue and songs to elaborate, festive Springtime productions, celebrating and glorifying a common deity, culture, and way of life. It would quickly advance from the pure spiritual influence from whence it was born, into the secular community at large. There this dramatic celebration would continue to grow as a part of the community pride, government, and commerce.
The diversity of theatre would branch out under the influence of this new Spiritual Son, such as a tree branches out under the rays of the Heavenly Sun. With the soil of human drives and advancements, this tree would bring forth fruits that would nourish the great playwrights of the Renaissance. In this glorious era, mankind would relish in the fabulous fruits of theatre under the supportive reign of their Queen, spreading the seeds from this tree-of-knowledge into the hearts, minds, and souls across time and space. However, the liberties taken with these trees would once more upset the spiritual watch dogs of this world, and man would be driven from their shade and the forest burned to the ground. But in every death, there is hope for resurrection.
™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜
™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜
™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜™˜
David Alan Holding
December 1994
ÑÐ
ÍÔ
Bibliography
Cheney, Sheldon. The Theatre, Three Thousand Years of Drama, Acting and Stagecraft. New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1935.
Cleaver, James. Theatre Through the Ages. New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc., 1967.
Cohen, Robert. Theatre. 3rd ed. California: Mayfield Publishing Co., 1994.
Gay, Robert Malcolm. "Drama." Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, 1994 ed.
Gay, Robert Malcolm. "English Renaissance Poets." Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, 1994 ed.
Gay, Robert Malcolm. "Jonson, Ben." Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, 1994 ed.
Gay, Robert Malcolm. "Miracle Play." Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, 1994 ed.
Gay, Robert Malcolm. "Oberammergau, Germany." Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, 1994 ed.
Gay, Robert Malcolm. "Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Theater." Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, 1994 ed.
Whiting, Frank M. An Introduction to the Theatre. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1978.