Transcript Important Dates

Important Dates
1485: medieval period ends; Renaissance begins
Battle of Bosworth Field (last medieval king--Richard III of the house of Plantagenet-killed by first Renaissance king--Henry VII of the house of Tudor)
William Caxton brings first printing press to England, making information more
accessible
Called Renaissance (rebirth) because there is a rebirth of knowledge--rediscovering past
they didn’t know about, other cultures
1564: Shakespeare’s baptism
1576: first purpose-built theater opens in London (outside city limits), but not a lot of
Shakespeare’s Education
Start in morning, read Latin, translate it into English, translate it back into Latin
If started with prose piece, turn it into poetry; if started with poetry, turn it into
drama
Teaching about LANGUAGE, so the perfect education if you want to be a
playwright
No professional writers until late 16th century, coalesces in 1576 with need for plays
Didn’t have access to Greek dramatists, but did have ROMAN dramatists
Domestic comedies: boy meets girl, wants to marry her but can’t because of her family, or because she
doesn’t have enough money, etc. BUT there’s a happy ending
Sensational tragedies (Senecan; gruesome myths)
Shakespeare’s Start
So if you’re trying to be a playwright in 1580s London coming from small market
town of Stratford-upon-Avon, how do you become a playwright?
Small jobs around playhouse
Working on others’ plays
Recycling other people’s ideas and models you know from school
First comedy: Comedy of Errors (1592-1593)
First tragedy: Titus Andronicus (1593-1594)
Recycles certain patterns: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl; in case of
Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595) take comic pattern of boy meets girl, etc. and they
Shakespeare’s Theater
Shakespeare’s Theater
Outside, performed in daytime (no other lighting)
Created more interaction and involvement between actors and audience
Limited set; relied on costumes, props, and descriptive language
All male actors (younger boys played female parts)
Church did not like playhouses, so built outside city walls
Affordable: cheapest seats 1 pence, but had to stand (groundlings)
Most important aspect was to HEAR the play, so more expensive seats were ones
that had best sound
Three tiers for audience (top most expensive)
Various London Theaters
Theatre (1576) built by James Burbage; located in Shoreditch, north-east of City of
London; dismantled in 1599 and rebuilt as Globe
Curtain (1577); built just south of Theatre; used up until 1620s
Rose (1587) built by Philip Henslowe; south of River Thames on Bankside;
demolished in 1606
Swan (1595) competitor to Rose; closed by government order in 1597
Globe (1599); first burnt in 1613; second given tiled roof
Fortune (1600); built by Henslowe; burnt down in 1621, but was rebuilt; demolished
in 1661