Transcript Pre-Shakespeare Plays

PreShakespeare
Plays
Drama & Theatre
1200s: Drama=Liturgy (in
church)
Latin
Biblical
Short
Sung in chants
Theatre as prayer
1400s: Miracle & “Mystery”
Plays
= a play of the miracle in the life of Jesus
i.e. The Second Shepherd’s Play
Drama as pageant
Local vernacular (Latin to English)
Pedagogical tools, like sermons
Lively and engaging
Performed by Guilds: trade groups (cf
Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Mystery Plays, cont’d
 Religious, serious
 Dialogue
 Chauvenistic
 Pageant: songs,
music=spectacle
 Comic:
farcical/burlesque
 “realistic”
 Feast Day
celebrations
Cycles: a series of plays
Present all of Sacred History
 Creation of world to End of
Time
 Emphasis on human history:
 Fall of mankind
 Consequences of the fall
 Original Sin redeemed
 Nativity
 Incarnation
 Passion of Christ
1500s: Luther’s Time
Drama = Sermon
Staged debate
Static
Humorless
Moralistic
Very serious
Morality Plays
Use of allegory,
even in names
Everyman
Good Deeds
Death
Knowledge
Laid the
groundwork for
later plays
Also Interludes
 Dialogue between
two or more persons
 Performed during a
break in a royal or
noble banquet
 Began as shorter
morality plays,
became increasingly
secular and comedic
1600s: Shakespeare’s Time
 Begins 1576 “The
Theatre”
 Drama = Spectacle,
Anything Goes, BIG
 Longer plays
 More characters
 Longer time span
 Does not follow the
unities
 Time
 Place
 Action
Historical Context
England
demonstrates
political and naval
strength
Execution of Mary,
Queen of Scots,
1587
Defeats Spanish
Armada, 1588
UNIVERSITY WITS
University grads in
20s and 30s
Greatest:
Christopher
Marlowe “Kit”
1564-1593 (@29)
Younger than
Shakespeare with
R&J
“Dr. Faustus”
ELIZABETHAN DRAMA
Defining Characteristic: Tragic
Hero
Tragedy:
 Universal pattern of divine and
human justice
 Tragedy teaches
 Affirmation of God’s goodness
and
 His power to punish the wicked
and avenge the righteous
 Tragic conflict caused by human
forces
 Emphasis on moral responsibility
MAJOR THEMES
in Elizabeth Drama
Good opposing
evil
Fall of the hero
and rise of the
villain
Revenge and
counter-revenge
Comic intrigue