Attempt a detailed essay on the Elizabethan theatre with particular reference to
Shakespeare.
Answers
Answer:
Contents
Some Introductory Remarks about the Dramatic Traditions of the Elizabethan Stage
Part One
1. The Control of the Stage
2. The Playhouses
3. Boy Companies and Adult Companies
Part Two
1. The Functions of Dramatic Art: some Shakespearean
Suggestions
2. Three Methods of trying to Find out how Actors might
have behaved on an Elizabethan Stage
3. Soliloquies in Shakespeare’s Dramatic Language . 12
Final Observation: The Audiences
Bibliography
Some Introductory Remarks about the Dramatic Traditions of the Elizabethan Stage
The Elizabethan drama owed its development to two influential traditions: namely firstly to humanism as it was represented by the comedies written by Terence and Plautus and secondly to the English tradition of the English miracle and morality plays.
From the Latin comedies the Elizabethan drama adopted both formal innovations and new material as regards contents. To the newly adopted dramatic elements belonged the clear division into acts and scenes, the introduction of the actors who are to speak a prologue or an epilogue and new types of characters like the parasite, the miles gloriosus (the boastful knight), the shrewd and witty servant, the obstinate father who is deceived in the end, the ardent lover, and the girl disguised as a man.
As regards contents new motifs and themes like confusion, secret love affairs, separated families that happily reunite after having experienced many adventurous encounters, the unexpected reappearance of children who were believed to be lost were adopted from the plays written by Plautus.
From the English mystery plays the Elizabethan drama eagerly borrowed the tendency to mingle or contrast the sublime with the grotesque, aristocratic seriousness with popular comic elements. The allegorical character of Vice that was also named Iniquity, Folly, Haphazard, Merry Report etc. was elaborated upon extensively in the morality plays. Since Shakespeare developed the Falstaff character in his plays “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, “King Henry IV”, parts one and two, and “King Henry VI”, part one, scholars have sometimes argued that Falstaff represents the logical elaboration of the devil and vice allegories taken from the morality plays. I would be inclined to think that it is questionable to assume that Shakespeare intended to make audiences believe that the Falstaff character is more villainous than for example Richard III. Falstaff, in my opinion, seems to represent the popular character that is boastful, gluttonous, witty. But that does not mean that there are no aristocratic characters who share similar qualities with Falstaff.
Other dramatic traditions that influenced the English Renaissance were the Italian Commedia dell’Arte and for example the comedies written by John Lyly (1554-1606) and Ben Jonson (1572-1637).
Shakespeare.
Elizabeth theater and Shakespeare:
- English Renaissance theatre is occasionally termed “Elizabethan Theatre.”
- The term Elizabethan theatre, though, properly comprises only the plays written and done publicly in England during the rule of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603).
- There is no simple explanation for Shakespeare’s unequaled popularity in the Elizabethan period, but he remains the greatest entertainer and perhaps the most philosophical thinker.