Renaissance Theatre: England

Plays...
English Renaissance...
         Christopher Marlowe. Doctor Faustus.
         William Shakespeare. Hamlet
         William Shakespeare. Richard III
         William Shakespeare. Taming of the Shrew

Internet...
         The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
         Furness Shakespeare Library
         In Search of Shakepseare
         Shakespeare's Globe Online: A site dedicated to the reconstruction of the Globe.
         The Internet Shakespeare Editions
         OnlineShakespeare.com
         Shakespeare's Life and Times
         Shakespeare's Works

1. What are the two major roots of English drama?

1. Through the study, adaption and performance of Classical Greek and Roman Drama at the English Colleges and Universities and...
2. Through the plays written and performed by the professional acting troupes. Thomas Preston's (1537-1598) A Lamentable Tragedy, Mixed full of Pleasant Mirth, Containing the Life of Cambyses, King of Persia... (1561), written for a small professional acting company, mixes "real" characters like King Cambyses with allagorical characters such as Shame, Diligence, Common's Cry, Cruelty, and Murder.

2. What is the importance of Gorboduc ?

It is considered the first "true" English tragedy. The playwrights, two university students: Thomas Sacksville (1536-1608) and Thomas Norton (1532-1584), drew both their characters and plots from English history (legend). Gorboduc (1561), like much of the work of Marlowe and Shakespeare was written in blank verse -- unrhymed iambic pentameter -- verse of five feet per line, with the stress on the first beat of each foot.

3. Who was the major pre-Shakespearean playwright?

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593).

    What type of dramas did he write?

Historical tragedies.

4. What is the title of his most often revived work?

Doctor Faustus (1589).

5. Who was the major Elizabethan playwright?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616). In addition to being a playwright, he was also an actor and shareholder in the King's Men and a householder in the Globe (theatre). The official Shakespeare canon contains 38 plays: the 36 works included in the First Folio (1623) and two plays, Pericles (1609) and Two Noble Kinsmen (1634), which appeared only in quartos editions.

6. What are the three groups into which his plays are divided?

Tragedies (11 scripts), Comedies (16 titles) and History plays (9 plays). The three groups were established by the publishers of the First Folio in 1623.

7. Give an example of one of his tragedies?

Romeo and Juliet (1594-95), Hamlet (1600-01), Othello (1602), King Lear (1606) Macbeth (1606).

    What is generally considered his greatest tragedy?

Hamlet.

    Comedies?

Taming of the Shrew (1594), Merchant of Venice (1595-96). As You Like It (1599).

    History plays?

The Richard and Henry plays. Richard II (1594-95), Richard III (1592-93), Henry IV: parts 1 and 2 (1597-98), Henry V (1599), Henry VI: parts 1 through 3 (1591-92), and Henry VIII (1613). The plots and characters for the history plays are drawn from The War of the Roses (1455-1485): the conflict between the house of York and the house of Lancaster over which family was the rightful heir to the English throne.

8. What was the difference between his farcical comedies,

His farcical comedies, like Taming of the Shrew and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599), place most of their emphasis on physical comedy. Merry Wives is also the only Shakespearean play set in Elizabethan England.

    his serious comedies, and his

His serious comedies, such as The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure (1601-04), are serious dramas with a happy ending.

    romantic comedies?

His romantic comedies, like Twelth Night (1600-01) and As You Like It, are those which are set in a fairy-tale world.

9. Why is the Merchant of Venice a dark comedy?

Because Antonio, the merchant of Venice, does not lose his pound of flesh.

10. List four basic production problems encountered when an educational theatre attempts to stage a Shakespearean drama.

1. They are long. The running time for Hamlet is close to five hours,
2. They require large, mostly male casts,
3. Many of the major roles are difficult, usually beyond the scope of a college student, and
4. The language is difficult to understand, and speak.

The cover page of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies known as The First Folio, Published 1623

11. What is the difference between a quartos and a folio? The quartos were small books (5"x6") which contained a single play. Nineteen scripts were published in quartos editions between 1594 and 1622. The folio was a large book (8.5"x13") which included a collection of scripts. 12. What is the difference between a good quartos and a bad quartos? The good quartos were those authorized publications based on the prompt books (scripts) held by the acting company. The bad quartos were those un-authorized publications based on the faulty memory of an un-happy actor who was no longer a member of the troupe. There were bad, or corrupt, versions of only 6 of of the 19 plays published between 1594 and 1622. 13. When was the First Folio published? Five hundred copies of the First Folio were printed in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death.     How many plays did it contain? Thirty six, including eighteen plays which had not been previously published. Pericles (1609), which was printed in a quartos edition was not included in the First Folio.

14. What was the difference between a private and a public theatre?

Private theatres were the small (capacity: 700), expensive (6d) indoor playhouses. The public theatres were the large (capacity: 3000), less expensive (1d) open air playhouses. In 1600 five public theatres -- the Globe, the Curtain, the Fortune, the Rose. and the Swan -- operated just outside the city of London.

15. What was the name of the first professional English playhouse?

Theatre. "Theatre" was not a term generally used to identify an English playhouse. When the second playhouse opened, it was known simply as the Curtain, not the Curtain Theatre.

16. When was it built?

1576.

    By whom?

James Burbage (c. 1530-1597), joiner turned actor, member of the Earl of Leicester's Men (1559-1588), and the father of Richard Burbage (c. 1567-1619), the leading actor of and a shareholder in the King's Men.

17. Why was it not built in the city of London?

Because the city fathers would not permit the construction of a professional theatre within the city limits. Public playhouses were built either in the suburbs north and east of the city, or just south of the Thames River in area known as Bankside. Actors were considered, just a little above rouges and vagabonds.

18. What was the relationship between the Theatre and the Globe?

The Globe was built from the timbers of the Theatre. The Theatre was built on rented land. When the lease ran out, the landlord, Giles Allen, threatened to destory the structure. Richard Burbage and his acting company, dismantled the Theatre, took it through the city of London, and rebuilt it south of the Thames River in Bankside. When it reopened in 1599 it was renamed the Globe. From a contemporary source, in Elizabethan English:

divers ... persons, to the number of twelve ... armed themselves ... and throwing downe the sayd Theater in verye outragious, ‘violent and riotous sort ... did then alsoe in most forcible and ryotous manner take and carrye awaye from thence all the wood and timber thereof unto the Bancksyde in the parishe of St Marye Overyes, and there erected a newe playehowse with the sayd timber and woode.

This theatre burned on June 28, 1613 during a production of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, and was rebuilt in 1614. The second Globe, along with every other English playhouse was closed in 1642. It was dismantled in 1644. A small portion of the original site was excavated in the fall of 1989. The third Globe, built about 200 yards from the original site opened in June 1997. See the the New Globe Web site for more information on this reconstruction.

An artist's interpretation of the 1599 Globe

19. What did the Globe look like? The Globe was a 20 (or 24) sided structure which closely resembled a circle. There was a courtyard (also known as the yard or pit) in the center surrounded by two or three levels of balconies (or galleries). The stage (or forestage) was backed against one of the sides and jutted into the center of the courtyard. See the illustration on page 292.

20. What are the primary sources of information on the layout of an Elizabethan theatre?

There are four:

1. The stage directions in the texts of Elizabethan plays.
2. Philip Henslowe's contract for the construction of the Fortune. The ground plan on page 294 is based on this document.
3. A Dutch visitor's sketch of the Swan. See the illustration on page 295.
4. The 1989 archaeological excavation of a small portion of the historical site of the Globe.

21. What was the yard or pit ?

The courtyard, where the audience stood to watch a performance.

    The forestage?

That part of the stage where most of the action occurred. This 28' by 43' platform jutted into the center of the pit. The dimensions are based on Philip Henslow's construction contract for the Fortune.

    The inner below?

The curtained discovery area (a small "stage") at the rear of the forestage.

    The inner above?

The curtained discovery area above the inner below on the second level.

    The heavens?

The roof over the forestage.

22. Who were the groundlings?

The poorest members of the audience who paid 1 penny to stand in the pit. The wealthy paid an additional penny for the right to sit in the galleries.

23. What did it mean when a flag was flown over the theatre?

There would be a performance that afternoon.

An artist's concept of Blackfrairs

24. What type of theatre was Blackfrairs? An indoor private theatre. Blackfriars was built into a large (101' x 46') room in what had originally been a Dominican Monastery.     Where was it located? Within the walled city of London. 25. Why was Blackfrairs under the control of the King? Between 1535 and 1540, King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth's father, who had already broken with the Roman Catholic church, dissolved the English monasteries and transferred their property to the crown.

26. When did it become the winter home of the King's Men?

1610. Between 1610 and 1642, Blackfriars was their winter home and the Globe was their summer residence.

27. Why was it necessary for an Elizabethan acting company to have a patron?

So they would not be a "rogue or vagabond." Acting in Elizabethan England was not an acceptable occupation, therefore, if an actor was not a servant to a noble or royal family (the patron) he could be classed as a "rogue or vagabond" under the Tudor Poor Law and could be whipped "through the streets" (first offence), lose part of an ear (second offence), or put to death (third offence).