STORIA E LETTERATURA

INGLESE

Classe III
Appunti delle lezioni della Prof.ssa Maria Pia Orlarei

Roberta Raineri
Prof.ssa Maria Pia Orlarei
THE ORIGINS OF ENGLISH HISTORY

Britain is an island, but even if it is isolated it has always been a very attractive land.
England was invaded many times. The positive things which caused these invasions are:
1. There are thick forests rich in good timber;
2. It is also rich in water, wood (for houses … ), game (for example hares), fish and fowl;
3. It has a temperate and mild climate;
4. It was plain and so it was easy to cut down the woods and build villages;
5. It has very low sandy beaches and so it is easily accessible.

The very first inhabitants were called IBERIANS. They came from Spain to England in about
2000 B.C. and stayed there until 700 B.C.
They were peaceful. They had an olive complexion, dark hair and they were short. They developed
between Bronze Age and Iron Age. They lived on agriculture and they were usually farmers and
shepherds. They also began to build trade routes to widen their territories.
They settled in the south part of the country because it was plain and so easy to plough, while they
didn’t settle in the highlands because they weren’t able to go beyond the hills that are in the central
part.
They also used to go hunting and developed the art of weaving, so they became craftsmen.
This population lived in huts and was organised in tribes. They had a sort of primitive political
organization, they built fortifications, hill forts and huge temples such as Stonehenge. These
weren’t exactly buildings but huge pillars and circles of stones.
The Iberians were the very first inhabitants that came to Britain, they didn’t fight each other when
they arrived.

Then in 700 B.C. and in 400 B.C. the CELTS arrived.

They came from the north, they were better organised and more civilized than the Iberians. .
They were physically different: they were tall, they had fair hair and blue eyes. They were stronger
than the Iberians and they had a different language. Furthermore, they were skilled in iron works
(they made weapons, tools for agriculture, etc.).
They were organised in tribes: each tribe settled in a different area and had a leader or a king. An
important change is that this role could also be performed by a lady, a Queen. The main example
of this is represented by Boadicea, the most famous leader of all queens and kings.
In this society there was also another important character: the priest. Priests were called Druids,
had to administrate justice, educate young people and coordinate religion.

THE ROMANS
In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar made the first Roman expedition to Britain. It was an unsuccessful
expedition and so he returned there later with more soldiers. He didn’t want to settle the land, he
was not interested in Roman people settling there, but only in slaves and tribes.
It took a century to take Roman possession of the country.
Only in 43 AD the Emperor Claudius will really conquer England.
Then in 123 AD Hadrian will build a wall to defend the south part of Britain from the invasions.
The Romans invaded the south and east part of the island and organized there their colonies, which
were divided into:
Coloniae which were inhabited by Romans;
Civitates which were inhabited by Celtic population;
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 Municipiae where we could find both Romans and Celts.

Nowadays there are some cities that still have their Roman name like Colchester or Gloucester that
came from the Latin word “castra”.

The Roman cities generally had a market square, a senate and a town hall.
In the Roman period the most important city was London where 15000 people lived.
It was called Londinium and it was important for its strategical position. Londinium grew around
the first bridge on the river Thames where all trade routes met.
Here agriculture was really important. Common people used to live in huts, while rich people
started living in “villas”, sometimes with central heating. These were built with stones and
decorated with frescoes and mosaics.
In this period in England some mines had also been found, in particular of tin and lead.
In Roman Britain the roads, which were made with big flat stones, were very important. These
paved roads in fact allowed people to go easily from one city to another.
As far as religion is concerned, they let the Celts choose their own one.
In addiction the Romans were military organised, with good soldiers. They were organised in
garrisons. On the contrary Celtic people were not trained to use arms, so when theRomans left in
410 AD (because they had to defend Rome), England was an easy prey for invaders.

THE ANGLO-SAXONS
At the beginning of the V century the Romans left England unattended and so new invaders came
from the north.
These were three different populations: Angles, Saxons and Jutes. They were barbarians and they
wiped out the organisation of the Romans. They left only three things: the paved roads, Welsh
Christianity and London. They destroyed most of the cities the Romans had built except for
London and some others like Bath, Chester and Canterbury.
The new organisation was paradoxically inferior, primitive. They started to live in hunts and
Christianity remained only in Wales.
Around 600 AD Pope Gregory sent St Augustine to bring Christianity to England.
Augustine became so the first Archbishop of Canterbury, which was the most important priest.
During the Anglo-Saxons government England was divided into seven kingdoms: Wessex, Sussex,
Essex, East Anglia, Northumbria, Mercia and Kent. These fought each other and three of them
finally prevailed: Wessex, Northumbria and Mercia.
The Anglo-Saxons were fishermen, farmers and hunters. They were very brave and loyal to their
leaders. They preferred to live in small communities. They were peaceful, but they were able to
defend themselves. If it was necessary, they would also become soldiers or pirates.
They liked drinking and gambling. They had great respect for their women but there wasn’t an
equality of sexes such as among Celts.
Besides drinking they liked music, singing and dancing. They used to meet to sing, together with
minstrels, legends and deeds of heroes.
They had a difficult relationship with the forest. On the one hand, as a form of respect, here they
took all the things that were necessary for them, on the other they looked at the forest with fear: it
was dark, threatening, obscure, and they thought evil spirits lived there.

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FIRST FORM OF LITERATURE
Only in a second period people started to write the stories they used to sing together. This is how
two different kinds of literature developed: Christian epic and pagan epic. Among the Anglo-
Saxons the most important one was the latter and the main poem among these was “Beowulf”.

Beowulf
Beowulf was the first epic poem in England.
An epic poem is a long narrative composition in verse that celebrates the deeds of a great hero and
celebrates the past of the country and all the values on which the country is based.
The society described is aristocratic and military, especially in Beowulf. Only the hero in analysed
in details, while common people exist only because they are related to the main character.
There are some type-scenes that are also called formulas such as battles, voyages, and the funeral
of the hero.
The narration is objective, the opinions of the writer are absent. The main theme is heroic life and
the most important values are loyalty and respect for the hero, physical strength and bravery.

Beowulf is set in Scandinavia, so the weather and nature are hostile to men, there are woods,
moors, bogs, ice all over the place, and so they have to overcome many difficulties.
This cold world is populated by dragons, monsters, and ogres.
It is written in old English, in the old Wessex dialect and the language is elevated. There are no
rhymes (only occasional internal ones), but we can find many similes and kennings.
The name Beowulf is made by two nouns
BEE and WOLF
That represents a bear.
Beowulf belongs to the Geats. He is a really brave warrior. He is a young soldier, he’s very famous
and travels all over the world.
When he was young he was called by the Danish king to defend the city aftert the monster Grendel
had attacked it many times. He defeated the monster with a magic sword. But the monster has a
mother that wants revenge. He will have to fight her under water and thanks to his supernatural
powers he will succeed in defeating her. After that his fame become s universal. He’ll go back to his
home and here he’ll become king and his reign will last 50 years.
By now old he will be called to fight against a monster, a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf will fight
but be mortally wounded. The poem ends with the funeral of the hero. He will be burnt in a pyre
and he’ll be buried in a mountain in front of the sea so that his people, when they come back with
ships, can remember him.
The society described is hierarchical. The worst sin is cowardice and if you prove you are a coward,
you’ll be exiled. This society is aggressive and here violence and war prevail over pity, help and
emotions. Activities are elementary: they drink, eat, gamble and fight. The general atmosphere is
of melancholy, solitude and isolation and there is a sense of doom.
In this society weapons are very important and only the people of high classes can have one that is
handed down from father to son. The most important weapon is the sword.
In these poems there are also Christian elements that have been added by monks when they have
written them. In this case for example the sword has the same shape as a cross and so it represents
a symbol.

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THE VIKINGS
From 700 AD to 1066 there was a succession of invasions by some people of the north called
Vikings. They were pitiless, aggressive, violent, warlike and they destroyed whatever they found on
their way. They also wanted to impose their culture and religion on the population they invaded.
They came from the North so at first they invaded Scotland.
For the first three hundred and a half years they weren’t able to rule. The Saxon king, Alfred the
Great, was in fact still able to resist Vikings invasion. He was a very wise king and he tried to
modernise the country and spread culture and scholarship. He was able to organise an army to
keep the Vikings away. The following kings paid a tax to Vikings to keep them away from England.

The Vikings period would be a period of obscurity and violence during which England wouldn’t
improve. The great changes will take place only with the Norman invasion.

THE NORMANS
The Norman invasion took place around 1060 and William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned in
1066.
This was a period of great changes because he introduced the feudal system that was a pyramidal
system. At the top there was the king who gave part of his lands to the barons. The barons had
enormous estates that they couldn’t look after by themselves. So they kept the best lands for
themselves and gave the others to the knights. In exchange for the lands the barons must give to
the king service in war for 40 days in a year.
In the same way the knights must follow the barons in war. Below the knights there were the
peasants which worked the lands and survived on these. They were sort of slaves and they were
bound to the land.
Justice was administrated by the sheriffs. The king ruled by himself but he was helped by the most
important barons, who made the Royal Consilium. Given that the king came from France, he
didn’t know the country and so decided to send his men around it to do a survey. With all the
numbers, facts and figures he would make the Doomsday Book and this is how after some years he
would be able to have a clear idea about what England was like (population, properties...) and so
also to know how many taxes he could impose.
William the Conqueror, in order to abolish the distinction of the two different courts of justice
(state and religious) decided to choose bishops and abbots by himself.
This will be continued under Henry II.

HENRY II
After William I, Stephen reigned for a short period and then there was Henry II that was the first of
the Plantagenet’s dynasty. This king changed the feudal system and abolished the compulsory
military service of barons that must stay at home looking after their lands and he replaced it with
money, shield-money, used then to pay mercenary soldiers.

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 The leaders of the mercenaries became so powerful that they fought with the king for the power.
This was the first change that Henry II introduced. The second is that he wanted to change the
justice system. He wanted to abolish religious courts and so he wrote a group of laws called
Constitutions of Clarendon.

He nominated his friend Thomas Becket archbishop of Canterbury. But when he became
archbishop, Becket refused to help the king. Henry II so sent him in exile for seven years hoping
that he would change his mind. When he came back he hadn’t changed his ideas, so the king sent 4
knights to kill Thomas Becket in his cathedral. This murder was a failure, and Thomas Becket
became a martyr.

The Constitution was abolished and after Thomas’s death people started to go to Canterbury to see
Thomas’ shrine.

COMMON LAW ON THE LAND

He sent royal judges on the land in order to impose the same laws in all the country. This common
law was not based on fixed principles but on previous cases.
Roman law states that the king is the one who makes the law and imposes it on his people, but he
doesn’t have to respect them.
Instead according to the common law the king is a man among men and he has to respect all the
laws.
Henry II introduced the Trial by Jury to abolish the Trial by Ordeal. In the past a typical ordeal was
to put a hot iron on a man’s tongue. If it healed in a few days the person was innocent otherwise he
was guilty. These were the first signs, the seeds, of democracy in England.

Henry II died and left two sons: Richard the Lion Heart and John.
Richard I reigned (1180) for one year and then he took part in the 3rd Crusade, so John became a
king, he proved to be quite unreliable and he was weak in foreign policy. He was defeated from
France and he got the nickname the “Lackland”.
John administered the justice through the Sheriffs who had to collect taxes and were very violent.
When the barons realised that taxes were too heavy for them, they obliged King John to sign the
Magna Charta in 1215. According to this:
- No taxes could be imposed without the consent of the barons,
- The king couldn’t imprison people without a trial.
This was the first example of Parliament because the king didn’t have absolute power anymore.
When John died, the crown went to his son Henry III, who was only 9 years at that time. A group of
barons so took the power. One of them, Simon the Montfort, decided that the king wasn’t able to
govern because he was too young and then too weak. He organised so the first sort of Parliament
in order to control the king. This early Parliament was formed only by rich people, in particular we
could find there barons, the gentry, the high clergy and citizens.
Henry III would build Westminster Cathedral but he was weak and monkish.
After him Edward I took the power. He was the English Justinian and he was important as:
He reorganised the law, he imposed justice in the right way;
He tried to conquer Scotland, but he failed and then he conquered Wales;
He reorganised the Parliament, which was called Model Parliament.
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THE MEDIEVAL BALLAD
Ballads were usually produced anonymously, they were not written till the 13th century but
transmitted orally. They were very popular and people used to sing them.
They were organised in quatrains and there was a refrain and some incremental repetitions.
Usually the rhyme scheme was regular.
Some ballads were oral testaments or tragic stories. The themes were love and death. There were
also border ballads which talked about the enmity between Scotland and England.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Geoffrey Chaucer was quite rich. He was born around 1343. He was not a professional writer, but
when his patron’s wife died he wrote a poem titled “The Book of the Duchess”. He realised so that
he was talented in writing.

In England at that time there were three languages: French, introduced by the Normans and that
was used by nobles; Anglo- Saxon that was spoken by common people; Latin which was used by
clergy and for justice. Chaucer was the mirror of this situation because some of his works are
written in French, and then there was an Italian period in which he used Italian and then his
masterpiece is written in Middle English.

French, Anglo- Saxon and Latin all influenced the birth of Middle English. It was based at first on
Anglo- Saxon.

“The Canterbury Tales”

“The Canterbury Tales” was the first work in Middle English. It narrates about 30 pilgrims. They
decided to make this pilgrimage together from London to Canterbury. In that period making a
pilgrimage was a choice for life. It was a trial, a very difficult choice to be made. Among the
pilgrims there weren’t common people because they couldn’t afford it. The society is represented in
full, except for richest people, which were superior and didn’t want to mix, and the poorest ones.
The stroke of genius of Chaucer was to make himself one of the group, in fact the poem is told in
the first person, he takes part in the journey, he becomes the eye-witness.

It’s relevant that the inn keeper advised the pilgrims at the Tabard Inn, in order to make the
pilgrimage more pleasant, to invent four stories: two stories on the way from London to
Canterbury and two on the way back.

But nowadays we have only 24 stories.

The most important part is the description of the pilgrims in the first part of the book. They can be
divided into three groups. The first it is still linked to the feudal system. The second group is made
by church people: from the poor parson to the prioress, the pardoner. The third group is related to
the new system: the town’s people that have to work to survive (the doctor, the miller...).
The poem is set in spring. The pilgrimage started in April because it is the beginning of the good
season. The pilgrimage takes about 6 months so they came back in September- October.
The poem is written in iambic pentameter. Each line can be divided in 10 syllables: 5 syllables are
stressed and 5 are unstressed. Each part is called “foot”. It is characterised by an alternation of
stressed and unstressed syllables. When a foot is formed and starts with a stressed syllable it is
called “trochee”, otherwise it is called “iamb”.

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EXAMPLES OF CHARACTERS:

The Wife of Bath:

She isn’t a particular nice lady, and is quite aggressive. The word “wife” represents her
status in society, while “Bath” is the town from which she comes.
She had had five husbands and so the main reason for which she joined the group for the
pilgrimage is only to find a new husband. The colour that characterises her is RED that we
can find in the description of the dress and of the complexion for example.

“[...] Her hose were on the finest scarlet red

And gartered tight; her shoes were soft and new.
Bold was her face, handsome, and red in hue [...]”

The Miller:
This character had an essential function in the medieval world. They used to go to the miller
to have the corn ground and he usually took part of the flour as a payment.
Chaucer describes him as a strong man, a thief, terrifying, rude, and ugly to be seen; he is
very good at stealing, he is dishonest, ignorant and good at fighting. He is red in face, red in
hair, large, easily angered, violent, he smells of the food he has eaten.

“The Miller was a chap of sixteen stone,

A great stout fellow big in brawn and bone.
He did well out of them, for he could go
And win the ram at any wrestling show.
Broad, knotty and short-shouldered, he would boast
He could heave any door off hinge and post,
Or take a run and break it with his head.
His beard, like any sow or fox, was red
And broad as well, as though it were a spade;
And, at its very tip, his nose displayed
A wart on which there stood a tuft of hair
Red as the bristles in an old sow’s ear.
He had a sword and buckler at his side,
His mighty mouth was like a furnace door.
A wrangler and buffoon, he had a store
Of tavern stories, filthy in the main.
He was a master-hand at stealing grain.”

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 The knight:
The knight is a positive character. Chaucer describes him with admiration. But the values
of the knight are old-fashioned, they belong to the past. The author seems to suggest that
his perfection belongs to the past. Modern reality is formed by town’s people.

“There was a Knight, a most distinguished man,

Who from the day on wich he first began
To ride abroad had followed chivarly,
Truth, honour, generousness and courtesy,
He had done nobly in his sovereign's war
And ridden into battle, no man more,
As well in Christian as in heathen places,
And ever honoured for his noble graces. […]

He was of sovereign value in all eyes.

And thought so much distinguished, he was wise
And in his bearing modest as a maid.
He never yet a boorish thing had said
In all his life to any, come what might;
He was a true, a perfect gentle-knight.
Speaking of his equipment, he possessed
Fine horses, but he was not gaily dressed.
He wore a fustian tunic stained and dark
With smudges where his armour had left mark;
Just home from service, he had joined our ranks
To do his pilgrimage and render thanks.”

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THE WARS OF THE ROSES
In England there was at first the 100 Years’ War between England and France (1337- 1453). The
reasons that led to this were economic. The main one concerned the Flanders Markets: France
wanted to damage the trade that makes England very rich, England used in fact to give Flanders
wool and then buy clothes. These wars involved three Kings: Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI.
The most important battle was the one of Agincourt, which represented a great victory for
England.
The war seemed to be over, but in France emerged the figure of Joan d’Arc, who gave the
soldiers courage and power and led the French armies to victory. Then she was burnt on the
stake.
From 1455 to 1485 in England The War of the Roses took place: York (white) against Lancaster
(red). These were two families that killed each other in order to get the power. This war finished
in 1485 when Henry VII, who belonged to the Lancaster family, married a member of the
York’s, Elisabeth. He would take the power and after that the Tudor dynasty would begin. The
new King was very powerful because his power was not threatened by the barons, wh 0 had all
died during the wars. He was an innovator, very wise, thrifty, cautious: he was able to make the
kingdom very strong. He made the navy very powerful. Moreover, he imposed dynastic
marriages to his children. He avoided wars.
His first son, whose name was Arthur, married Catherine of Aragon and his daughter married
the son of the King of Scotland: both marriages took place for political reasons.

HENRY VIII

Henry VIII, Henry VII’s son, was a typical Renaissance man: he was cultivated, he liked sports,
and he invented squash. He felt he had the right to the decide on the life or death of his subjects.
He had had six wives and two of them were executed because he had got bored with them.
He became King of England after his brother Arthur had died. He had so to marry Catherine of
Aragon that was a widow, older than him and ugly.
She had only a daughter, Mary Tudor, and he wanted a male heir. This is why he wanted to
divorce Catherine and asked it to the population. The problem was that they depended on Spain
which didn’t accept. So the King obliged Parliament to get him the divorce and made himself
Supreme Head of the Church of England.
In that period many movements were born: Wycliffe and the Lollards. He separated the Church
of Rome from the Church of England. After that he divorced Catherine and married Ann Bolene
that gave him a daughter, Elisabeth.
After that he said that she had been unfaithful to him and she was executed. He had then four
more wives, but they didn’t give him children because these died prematurely.
Catherine’s daughter became a Queen. She was ugly, a very bad queen and she married, even if
the Parliament was contrary to this, the son of the King of Spain making England inferior to
Spain. She eventually died of cancer.
After her Elisabeth became Queen and she would be a very good one.

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ELISABETH I

Elisabeth was very beautiful, clever, smart, cultivated and lovely. She was able to play the piano,
she knew many languages and was skilled in dancing. She was not a Catholic.
Before Mary died a group of barons tried to convince Mary to sign a document that ordered the
death of her sister, but she didn’t do that.
Elisabeth so survived and became Queen when she was still very young and inexperienced. She
was crowned in 1558 and had the power till 1603. She found a country that was divided because
of religion. She said that each person could believe in what he wanted. She was helped by a
group of barons, ministers; she didn’t reign by herself. That group of 20 barons was called Privy
Council. Among them there was one that was more important than the others, Walsingham that
was the counselor of the queen. She was very wise. She decided not to marry even if many men
asked her hand because she was desperately in love with Lord Robert that was alr eady married.
She used marriageability as a political weapon. She avoided war, she loved her people and she
usually went in a progress. She didn’t stay only in the court: she used to go for journeys around
the country to meet the people and in fact she was adored.
Her cousin Mary Stuart was very popular in England because she was a Catholic, so a group of
barons wanted her as Queen and wanted Elisabeth’s death. Her private life was really troubled.
She had had many husbands and the most scandalous thing is that when her husband was
murdered, she married the murderer. So the church didn’t side with her anymore, and she was
obliged to leave Scotland. She asked Elisabeth for protection, so she lived in the court for 17
years and after all these years of plots Elisabeth decided to have her executed.
After that the war against Spain started.
The most important reasons are:
Religion: England was Protestant and Spain was Catholic;
Elisabeth secretly protected the most important sea-captains. These ones attacked the
Spanish galeons that were full of gold and then shared it with the Queen. Spain was fed
up.
Spain felt superior.
In 1588 the conflict started. Spanish had a powerful navy. With Elisabeth the navy, which Henry
VIII had started to prepare, was ready but it was inferior in number than the Spanish Armada.
English ships were faster, lighter and heavily armed but they were also helped by bad weather
(storms, wind…). England won, defeated the Spanish Armada and this was the most popular
moment for Elisabeth.
This was followed by a bad period during which the Queen was obsessed by the idea of being
killed and so she executed a lot of people only because they were suspected.

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 HUMANISM – RENAISSANCE
This period is called Humanism because after the Middle Ages there was a dark period.
In the Middle Ages they think that life isn’t important but it is only a short passage. For this
reason men are completely submitted to God and they can’t choose.
During Humanism, instead, human life is important and this possibility of making choices is a
great responsibility for men that so have a dignity. In that period man is in the centre of the
Universe.
Obviously Humanism is related to philosophy and it is one of the bases of Renaissance. The
historical and artistic period lasted from 1509 to 1660, much later than in Italy. In Italy this was
the period of triumph of beauty, art and life.
It was characterized by pagan serenity. In Italy in fact there were some princes and the Pope
himself that could pay with their money artists and architects. We can say so paradoxically that
also the Pope favored the pagan serenity. In England instead Henry VIII destroyed the
monasteries, destroying the centers of culture; we can easily say that he destroyed culture itself.
Moreover in England there was the Puritan religion and sense of responsibility. Here the
Renaissance so started later but it was different from the Italian one. In general in England
there was a widespread dislike about Italian Church and Henry exploited it to break with Rome.
English people so looked to Italians as corrupted and unreliable people. This created a distance
from Italy.
In this period in Italy Lentini created the sonnet. English people liked it but due to their
contrasts with Italy they changed its structure. They called it “Elizabethan sonnet” and its
characteristic structure was: three quatrains and a couplet. The last one draws the conclusion.
There is of course a fixed rhyme scheme. The first poet made a mix between Petrarchan and
Elizabethan sonnet, but then Spenser made it perfect. The most important sonneteers were
Wyatt, Cily, Sydney and Spencer. The sonnets were not isolated but each cycle of sonnets wants
to tell a story. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets that tell about difficult love.
These were characterized by a triangle: the Poet, the Dark Lady and the Fair Youth. The one
described is a homosexual love but it is only platonic. At a certain moment the dark lady seduces
the youth that yields. The dark lady so is seen as an evil character. 126 sonnets are dedicated to
the fair youth and the others to the dark lady.
The cycle of sonnets usually talks about unrequited love. There is usually a knight that falls in
love with a lady that is already married. It is unhappy love.
WYATT – I find no peace
Helplessness
I find no peace, and all my war is And yet of death it giveth none
of love
done; occasion.
Contrasting I fear and hope; I burn, and freeze
images like ice; Without eye I see, and withouttongue
I fly above the wind, yet can I not I plain; Agitation
arise; I desire to perish, and yet I ask of mind
And naught I have, and all the world health;
I seize on, I love another, and thus I hate
myself;
That looseth nor locketh, holdeth me
in prison, I feed me in sorrow, and laugh in all
Helplessness And holdeth me not yet can I scape my pain.
of love nowise, Likewise
is displeaseth
causer of this strif me both death
Nor letteth me live nor die at my and life, couplet
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devise, And my delight is causer of this strife.
This sonnet is typically romantic, characterized by contrasting images. It is unhappy, the lover
is helpless, he begs the lady but at the end he has to surrender. The lady is beautiful and cruel,
chaste and pure so the poet suffers but doesn’t give up. Only afterwards Shakespeare would
introduce new themes: love, beauty, art and faith.

THEATRE IN ELIZABETHAN PERIOD

During the Elizabethan period theatre going was the best entertainment. But why did all the
people go to the theatre?
It was very cheap, all the people could afford it.
It represented the only kind of entertainment for everybody.
In that period there were many talented play-wrights. The theatre going habit was wide spread
in that period. In these works Elizabethan society was mirrored.
There were many companies of actors and among them there were many young people. The
companies were patronized by the Queen herself or by aristocrats.
The tradition of theatre dates back to the Middle Age so it was rooted in Elizabethan society.
In the Middle Age drama was linked to the Church and the first plays were performed in the
churches. The first form of theatre was characterized by morality, miracle, and mystery place.
In London the theatres were built on the other bank of the river where there were no houses.
The most important ones were the Swan, the Rose and the Globe.
The company where Shakespeare acted was named “Lord Chamberlain’s Men”.
The theatre was usually round or octagonal in structure and it was not covered by a roof so that
light could enter. Performances were acted in the early afternoon and they lasted two or three
hours. The stage was about two meters elevated and it was covered by a roof in order to protect
the actors and it used to be very big.

THE TRAGEDY

The main characteristics of the tragedy are:

The presence of supernatural elements.
The hero has a weakness or makes mistakes. He usually belongs to the upper classes.
It starts happily but it is the story of a failure.
It will lead the main character to self recognition, he’ll have a chance to know himself
better.
There is a villain that tries to destroy the hero.
The destiny of the protagonist is decided by fate. Fate/ Chance have so a main
importance.
Problem of responsibility: the hero has no responsibility of his actions.
Use of elevated language.
Use of both poetry and prose. The latter is used when the character loses control. It’s
more informal, it’s a debased, inferior language.
Shakespeare didn’t have a moral purpose.

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