Elizabethan Age & Shakespeare

  1. Renaissance: "rebirth/reawakening of interest in ancient cultures of Greece and Rome"
    1. Beigins in Europe------>England
    2. Italy
      1. Beginning of 14th century, 15th century
      2. Art/Architecture
      3. Intellectual
        1. "Humanists"-- emphasis upon human minds and achievements of human culture as oppoesed to medieval emphasis on God and contempt for all things of this world.
        2. Middle Ages: GOD------>Renaissance: MAN
          • "ideal" man/"complete" man
          • scholar, poet, gentleman
      4. Discovery--Expansion--Exploration
    3. England...
      1. Slowly onto the Renaissance scene
          2. Political (internal conflict: Wars of the Roses, monarchal contention)
      2. Establishment of the Tudor dynasy (Henry VII)
      3. Henry VIII: 1509-1547 (rule)
      4. Development of English Humanists (Sir Thomas Moore, Wyatt, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey)
      5. Religious upheaval: Catholic---->Protestant---->Church of England (Anglican)
      6. Mary: 5 years rule... "Bloody Mary"
      7. Elizabth I
    4. Elizabethan Age
      1. Elizabeth I
        1. 1558-1603, began at age 25
        2. Daughter Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn
        3. Queen: a great monarch: peace w/i the realm, prosperity, growth
        4. Tremendous Growth
          1. Chaucer's time: ~ 50,000
          2. Elizabeth: ~ 100,000
          3. 1605 (2 yrs after Elizabeth's death): ~ 225,000

        5. Redefined Social Classes
          Medieval Renaissance
          Feudal Queen & Court
          hierarchy Middle Class
          very defined merchants, tradesman
          little to no movement Lower Class
        6. Literature and Language at height
          1. London became the center of literary culture....
          2. Great authors-- Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, poetry
      2. Theatre and Drama
        1. Great Achievement
        2. Origins in native fold culture and popular entertainment, as much (more so) than in the sophisticated literary circles
        3. Tradition.... building throughout this time
          1. Medieval Times-- religious drama
          2. Mid-16th century-- Oxford/Cambridge begin to produce plays based upon classical works and practices (like Oedipus Rex)
          3. Elizabeth-- a fusion of both of the above
            1. "Native"/more comedic
            2. Dramatic tradition
        4. Then vs. Now
          1. Archaic and basic-- lack of stagecraft (costumes, sets, etc.)
          2. Language-- made up for the lack of stagecraft
          3. Imagination
            1. World of play had to be created in the minds of the audience by the spoken word
            2. No sets, no lighting (plays were always in the afternoon), no painted sets/scenes--meant that the audience had to make-believe
        5. Globe-- the playhouse associated with Shakespeare
          1. Erected 1599
            1. Outside diameter 86', height 36', open year 56' across
            2. Fit 800 standing, 1500 seated in galleries
          2. Design
            3. Drawing of an Elizabethan theatre. Click for a larger image.
            1. Platform out into audience (proscenium stage)
            2. Recessed "inner stage"
              1. Heaven-->above, overhang
              2. Hell-->under stage (also musicians and sound effects, ghost/spirits would rise up from...)
            3. Balcony
            4. Inner Chambers

          3. Actors
            1. Bottom lot of society (usually)
            2. Very popular
            3. Women's parts played by boys
          4. Audience-- ALL would see plays
            1. Nobility might sit on or near the stage
            2. Students, sophisticated, literary court bought seats under the roofs in the gallery
            3. "Commoners," lower class in "the pit"
            4. Crowded (actually, a plague broke out and the theatres were closed due to unsanitary conditions 1592-1594)
      3. Shakespeare: 1564-1616
        1. Born to an upper middle class family, detials sketchy because all we know comes from critics of his time and public records.
        2. Birthdate: April 23... (baptized on the 25th)
          3. Portrait of the Bard.
        3. Grammar school: Latin, classics, literature, history
        4. Marriage-- Anne Hathaway in 1582; 3 children
        5. 1592-- working in London as an actor and a playwright
        6. During the plague years, wrote poetry
        7. Joined Lord Chamberlains's Men-- a popular stage group
          1. Shareholder in company
          2. Successful
          3. Bought a home (1597)-- Stratford
        8. 1599-- Shakespeare's company built the Globe Theatre

        9. Wrote 37 plays
          10. Histories Comedies Tragedies Romances
          Based on history, "soap opera" quality, takes liberties with "real" history Happy endings, barely believable Sad/Tragic (unhappy endings), lots of death Sad but happy, lost and then found, "atmosphere"-- mystical, fairy-tale like settings, magic, adventure (in the sense of medieval Romance vs. love)
          King Henry the Sixth, Part 1 (1589-90, rev. 1594-95)* Comedy of Errors (1592) Titus Andronicus (1593-94) Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1607-8)
          King Henry the Sixth, Part 2 (1590-91) Taming of the Shrew (1593-94) Romeo and Juliet (1595-96) Cymbeline (1609-10)
          King Henry the Sixth, Part 3 (1590-91) Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594) Julius Caesar (1599) The Winter's Tale (1610-11)
          King Richard the Third (1592-93) Love's Labour Lost (1594-95, rev. 1597) Hamlet (1600-1) The Tempest (1611)
          King John (1594-96) Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-96) Othello (1604)
          King Richard the Second (1595) Merchant of Venice (1596-97) King Lear (1605)
          King Henry the Fourth, Part 1 (1596-97) The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597, rev. 1600) Macbeth (1606)
          King Henry the Fourth, Part 2 (1598) Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99) Antony and Cleopatra (1606-7)
          King Henry the Fifth (1599) As You Like It (1599) Coriolanus(1607-8)
          King Henry the Eighth (1612-13) Twelfth Night (1601-2) Timon of Athens (1607-8)
          Troilus and Cressida (1601-2)
          All's Well that Ends Well (1602-3)
          Measure for Measure (1604)
          Two Noble Kinsmen (1613)+

          * Dates for the plays are by no means definitive. The dates given here are those as determined by G. Blakemore Evans in The Riverside Shakespeare, one of the definitive collections of Shakespeare's works.
          + In fact, this play had only a few scenes written, so it is not included in the count of 37. It would have been the 38th play.

          1. Many sources-- not "original" stories...
            1. Traditional stories (adapted/changed)
            2. Histories (adapted/changed)
              1. Hollinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland
              2. Edward Hall's book on the Wars of the Roses
            3. Ancient works (adapted/changed)
            4. "Stolen" from other companies
          2. Structure-- Tragic model
            1. Roman model-- from Seneca-- based upon Aristotle's ideas)
            2. 5 Acts
              1. Exposition-- (act of introduction)
                • Setting/characters introduced
                • Other facts necessary to the plot and understanding of the play
              2. Complication--(act of ascent)
                • Conflict develops
              3. Climax--(act of climax)
              4. Falling Action-- (act of descent)
                • "Tragic Force"-- a single event that works out of the climax, brings a moment of suspense, an offer of excape out of tragedy
              5. Catastrpohe-- (act of catastrophe)
                • Death
                • Glimpse of restored order
          3. Language
            1. Plays are meant to be read aloud or performed
            2. Correct pronunciation and punctuation are key
            3. Careful listening is vital
        10. Publication
          1. No effort to publish during his own lifetime
          2. Usually in the company's best interest to NOT publish, lest som other company get their hands on it!
          3. 18 published
            1. Quartos
            2. None approved by the author
            3. Considered by critics to be "bad" Quartos
          4. "First Folio"
            1. After death, 2 collegues from group decided to print
            2. 18 revised plays
            3. 18 never-before-published
            4. Printed 1623
        11. Controversy-- did Shakespeare actually write those plays?????

      Select Bibliography

      Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
      Macrone, Michael. Brush Up Your Shakespeare. New York: Harper and Row, Pub., 1990.
      Rowse, A.L. The Annotated Shakespeare. New York: Greenwich House, 1988.

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