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Historical Survey of Elizabethan Drama
Historical Survey of Elizabethan Drama
CHAPTER 2
England, it found its fullest and most lasting expression in the drama. By a
fortunate group of coincidences this intellectual and artistic impulse affected the
people of England at a moment when the country was undergoing a rapid and,
on the whole, a peaceful expansion that was when the national spirit soared
high, and when the development of the language and the forms of versification
had reached a point which made possible the most triumphant literary
achievement which the country has seen in that era. It is said that Elizabethan
dramatists manipulated such cultural motifs, as the deaths head or human skull
the severed hand, the dance of death, and the commandments of the seven
All of the major playwrights of the time contributed to this class of drama,
Cyril Tourneur, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, James Shirley, and John
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Ford. Kyd was credited by the most literary scholars initiating the dramatic
archetype with his The Spanish Tragedy (1585-90) and the best work in
Ur-Hamlet, a drama no longer extant but which is believed to have been written
before 1589, and upon which Shakespeare likely based his great tragedy
bringing the genre to its artistic maturity with Hamlet(1600-01). Critics have
maintained that revenge tragedy was a markedly dynamic genre, observing that
while Kyd invented the basic formula, his successors added ingenious new
Revenge tragedy was not in fact identified as a specific literary genre until
the early twentieth century, and since that time, there has been no consensus of
opinion about the validity of the designation. "While most scholars have agreed
that the plays exhibit similar themes and theatrical devices, they have also
pointed out that revenge does not always figure as the central theme of the
individual plays. Further, dramatists utilized different literary sources and wrote
Through these dramas study the commentators have observed that the
religion and the universe, when the English nation was threatened of the
employed the revenge tragedy as the standard vehicle by which to project their
political corruption, and social discontent. The English reformation was not
merely a religious event but it was also a social one. While the spiritual nature
less complete and no less far-reaching, occurred in the structure of secular life
not plots and intrigue, but the flowering of the arts and the development of a
more flexible approach to religion and conformity to class, religion, and the
state. When we talk about Elizabethan Theatres it was said to be of Two kinds,
outdoor or public and indoor or private , Both were open to anyone who could
pay, but the private theatres cost more and were smaller they had a more
selected audience. In 1576 and 1642 there were nine public playhouses which
came into existence for the same purpose, such as the Globe which was built in
1599 then Fortune in 1600 and Swan were the three most important, which were
It is said to be believed by critics who have generally agreed, that Kyd was
the lead innovator of the revenge tragedy and revenge theme they have also
observed that other early revenge tragedies such as George Peele's The Battle of
Alcazar (1590) and Shakespeare‘s Titus Andronicus (1594) tend to reflect this
tragedy form, they became sophisticated even more in their treatment of the
characters, themes, and motifs. Literary scholars have contended that the drama
that fuses all the traditional elements of revenge drama traditions and its norms
literature people that in fact it was done so skillfully that it was said to be as a
apex of its artistic maturity, it was a drama that has been celebrated for a
subject of revenge. There were some other tragedies as well of this period which
also demonstrate a keen insight into the moral and spiritual consequences of
Many critics have characterized the revenge tragedies of the genre's late period
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as grim, disillusioned statements on the moral and spiritual chaos that results
from a society in corrode and moral disintegration. Works from this period
include Webster's The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1614),
Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1630-33) and The Broken Heart (1630-33), and
Shirley‘s The Cardinal (1641) were the most remarkable dramas of revenge".2
Over the course of the sixteenth century, the cultural work done by
English drama began to shift. Mystery plays and morality plays did not die out,
but they were joined, and by the end of the century outnumbered, by plays on
secular themes performed, not as part of a civic ritual, but purely for
entertainment. Plays could tell different kinds of stories, and as drama became
more emancipated from the liturgical calendar, the space for new plays became
Thus, playwrights began to look for new stories to tell and new
ways to tell them, it was only natural that they would look first and most
enduringly to Seneca, the only Roman writer whose works have survived, and
English authors. His dramatic tricks and, more importantly, his tragic sensibility
had a profound effect on the plays of the English Renaissance and most
especially on the revenge tragedies that are the era's most famous and
England, it found its fullest and most lasting expression in the drama. By a
53
fortunate group of coincidences this intellectual and artistic impulse affected the
people of England at a moment when the country was undergoing a rapid and,
on the whole, a peaceful expansion that was when the national spirit soared
high, and when the development of the language and the forms of versification
had reached a point which made possible the most triumphant literary
died on March 24th 1603, considered one of the greatest British monarchs as
Elizabeth I's ascension to the throne at the youthful age of twenty-five was the
the second half of Elizabeth's reign, and many of the great works of English
literature were produced during these years. Art, poetry, drama, and learning in
from the economic sector to cultural achievement. "During her reign literature
flourished, with William Shakespeare perhaps being the most famous writer of
this period. Shakespeare took the lead in advancing the country's literature and
wrote a number of great works during this time In addition, Francis Drake
became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; Francis Bacon laid
out his philosophical and political views; and English colonization of North
America took place under Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert".3
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Many of the writers, thinkers and artists of the day enjoyed the patronage
the great Queen; indeed, she was the symbol of the day. The "Elizabethan Age,"
generally considered one of most powerful era in English literature, was thus
be created while Elizabeth was on the throne rather, Elizabeth's specific actions,
her image and the court atmosphere she nurtured significantly influenced even
inspired great works of literature. The era called the Elizabethan England was a
time of many developments and was considered as the Golden Age in English
history.
The great developments and advancements that happened during this time
can be partly attributed to the leadership of the Queen. The Elizabethan era
which Queen Elizabeth I ruled and led for 45 years were the height of the
English Renaissance and the time of the development of English poetry and
literature, Many considered the Queen as a wisest leader and learner as well she
greatest adviser , she always believed in what she wanted and how she shall
achieve it that was the result that her legacy was so fruitful for years and still
of British power.
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political power. In 1599, England chartered the East India Company, and
not only the end of the Tudor line of rulers, but a grand era of English history.
Politics and social environment played a great roll in the renaissance theater and
of the creation of peace. The era was generally called peaceful as the battles
between the Protestants and the Catholics and that between the Parliament and
efficient. The era was also the time of great economic development.
With the development of literature in this era people of this era also grew
in their imagination and thoughts, the knowledge people gained gave them a
kind of strength and a movement took place know as renaissance, were they
were eager to learn, to do, to understand and to express. This movement was
marked as a new birth as people felt that a new life had come to them. The
The Elizabethan era brought the renaissance, new thinking to England. The
Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history. English literature saw its
It was due to the great queen and her personal interest in literature and art
important poets of this era include Edmund Spencer and Sir Philip Sidney. All
through their strong belief and power of art in there writings and literature epics.
which gradually increased as English use of the printing press became common
by the mid 16th century. The Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th
symbol of Britannia was first used in 1572 and often thereafter to mark the
ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over the hated Spanish foe. It
was the height of the English Renaissance above all for the flourishing of
contribution to the history of England and indeed to that of the world. Its legacy
in terms of the arts and literature still carries on. The earlier half of Elizabeth's
reign, also, though not lacking in literary effort produced no work of permanent
importance. After the religious convulsions of half a century time was required
for the development of the internal quiet and confidence from which a great
At length, however, the hour grew ripe and there came the greatest
Elizabeth's wise guidance the prosperity and enthusiasm of the nation had raised
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to the highest pitch and London in particular was overflowing with vigorous
life. A special stimulus of the most intense kind came from the struggle with
against the Spanish treasure fleets and the Spanish settlements in America, King
Philip, exasperated beyond all patience and urged on by a bigot's zeal for the
Catholic Church, began deliberately to prepare the Great Armada, which was to
crush at one blow the insolence, the independence, and the religion of England.
There followed several long years of breathless suspense but in 1588 the
Armada sailed and was utterly overwhelmed in one of the most complete
disasters of the world's history. There upon the released energy of England
broke out exultantly into still more impetuous achievement in almost every line
of activity. The great literary period is taken by common consent to begin with
sense at the death of Elizabeth in 1603, though in the drama, at least, it really
The cause was the renaissance period and Queen Elizabeth 1. Literature
was one of the most notable achievements in the Elizabethan Era. The main
distinctiveness for this era‘s literature was its variety in poetry, theater, and
prose fiction aspects and it was presented and expressed. In Elizabeth I era there
the throne laws began to be passed to control wandering beggars and vagrants.
These made criminals of any actors who toured and performed without the
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support of a member of the highest ranks of the nobility. Many actors were
driven out of the profession or criminalized, while those who continued were
forced to become officially servants to Lords and Ladies of the realm. Slowly
London.
enjoyed‖. In addition, the renaissance ideal was that, ―a balanced life within
could be accomplished now not after death, and thus the renaissance marked a
huge paradigm shift from a theological to a humanist view of people and the
overriding mechanism of the world and of life. It is this idea of fully educated
and rounded person that is the cornerstone of this class and the reason for its
spirit, culture, art, science, and thinking of that particular period. The Italian
Renaissance had placed human beings once more in the center of life's stage and
infused thought and art with humanistic values and principal using the study of
day to day life and being inspired from it. In time the stimulating ideas current
an increase of interest in classical learning and values and then reforming and
new continents, the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce,
paper, printing, the mariner's compass, and gunpowder. To the scholars and
thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of classical
learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation. A
immensely.
individual human potentialities, and the assertion of the active and secular over
the religious and contemplative life. The major change it brought through the
which revival occurred in Europe from roughly the fourteenth through the
Greece and Rome. During the Renaissance, America was discovered, and the
Reformation began; modern times are often considered to have begun with the
revival or rediscovery.
strongly associate the term Renaissance with High Renaissance greatest artist
who had a very different form of ideas and thinking if that, the period
prosperity, and the rise of Humanism. An emphasis n education and the writings
religion, civic development, and the world of art. Also, in the 15th century, the
Gutenberg meant that books become more widely available. This changed the
power structure of knowledge and literacy in many form. Key artists associated
Gothic art and thus art grew from all over broadening the horizon of art n
literature study.
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artworks like the Sistine Chapel. The High Renaissance ends with the deaths of
Renaissance was spread to Europe through the use of transportation and the
printing press. The problem was that the Renaissance spread to England was
Thus it would take time for information to travel to an island. But when it
reached it changed a lot many things in England and basically the study of
through the influence of Henry VII who was the king of England and lord of
Ireland who had started in movement toward a more theatrical England. The last
play written was by Paradise Lost by John Milton in 1667. The English
Renaissance‘s high peek had lasted 15 years. This period was in most of the
1590‘sThe entire Renaissance had started at the end by Elizabeth I‘s reign and
went through the reign of James I of England the spread of theatre started
through the traveling actors who moved from one town to the next spreading
acting and this talent they had. With the passion to perform, present their art and
drama, with a message. Keeping steadily in sight the truth that the real quality of
the Renaissance was intellectual, as that it was the emancipation of the reason
for the modern world, like we may inquire how feudalism was related to it. The
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mental condition of the middle Ages was one of ignorant prostration before the
Again, the nations of Europe during these centuries were bound down by
the brute weight of material necessities. Without the power over the outer world
which the physical sciences and useful arts communicate, without the ease of
life which wealth and plenty secure, without the traditions of a civilized past,
emerging slowly from a state of utter rawness, each nation could barely do more
than gain and keep a difficult hold upon existence, of becoming the reason, in a
word, was not awake; the mind of man was ignorant of its own treasures and its
own capacities thus gave a lot of scope to revenge and its motif. Therefore the
first anticipations of the Renaissance were fragmentary and sterile. The force of
the nations who were destined to achieve the coming transformation was
spirit of freedom should take place. This was the contact of the modern with the
ancient mind, which followed upon what is called the Revival of Learning. The
fall of the Greek empire in 1453, while it signalized the extinction of the old
order, gave an impulse to the now accumulated forces of the new. A belief in the
identity of the human spirit under all manifestations was generated. Men found
that in classical as well as biblical antiquity was there as an ideal of human life,
both moral and intellectual, by which they might profit in the present. The
modern genius felt confidence in its own energies when it learned what the
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ancients had achieved. The guesses of the ancients stimulated the exertions of
the moderns. The whole world's history seemed to be once more to be one.
world and the discovery of man. Under these two formulas may be classified all
the phenomena which properly belong to this period. The discovery of the
world divides itself into two branches - the exploration of the globe, and that
When we contrast the ten centuries which preceded these dates with the four
centuries which have ensured that we can estimate the magnitude of that
The object of the artist then became to unite devotional feeling and respect
for the sacred legend with the utmost beauty and the utmost fidelity of
human, was revealed to their astonished eyes. Most remarkable about this age
of scholarship is the enthusiasm which pervaded all classes in Italy for antique
culture. Literature grew and Popes and princes, captains of adventure and
peasants, noble ladies and the leaders became scholars. The modern world was
brought into close contact with the ancient world, and emancipated from the
power of improved traditions. The force to judge and the desire to create were
secession of the learned, not merely from monasticism, but also from the true
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spirit of Christianity. Thus what the word Renaissance really means is new birth
self-determination, recognizing the beauty of the outer world and of the body
through art, liberating the reason in science and the conscience in religion,
freedom. All revenge tragedies originally stemmed from the Greeks, who wrote
and performed the first organized plays. After the Greeks, came the Roman
called Seneca, who had a great, influence on all Elizabethan tragedy writers.
Seneca basically laid the foundation for the ideas and the norms for all
Thus the Medieval Drama, though it did not reach a very high literary
level, but was one of the most characteristic expressions of the age. It should be
emphasized that to no other form does what we have said of the similarity of
medieval literature throughout Western Europe apply more closely, so that what
we find true of the drama in England would for the most part hold good for the
The Renaissance drama proper rose from medieval Elizabethan era based
comedies, tragedies, and the intermediate types were produced for London
theaters between that year and 1642, when the London theaters were closed by
order of the Puritan Parliament. Like so much non dramatic literature of the
Renaissance, most of these plays were written in an elaborate verse style and
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under the influence of classical examples, but the popular taste, to which drama
Due to the bubonic plague, many actors where restricted movement and where
forced to have licenses. The licenses where only given out through the queen
and other higher end people what she did to influence and spread. She had made
play-writers more famous so more people could watch their plays She had built
theatres that could hold a very large audience and most of the where located in
one general location Famous theater were The Globe, The Theater, The Rose,
The Globe II. She spread and allowed the spread of propaganda supporting
theaters. She herself loved the art and was quite involved herself.
When the people saw the shows they could relate to it and really enjoyed
in their own ways most people in the 1660-1700 really appreciated plays. They
saw all the plays and the audience always looked forward for a new play. People
started to understand the art and the dramas and plays started attracting them
and their interest started growing. When People saw the shows, People could
relate to the plays, like in Tragedies when the play‘s ending results are bad or
1601- 1608 Events that where occurring around and during the time Queen
Elizabeth I had died in 1603 During her reign of power theater in England had
reached its highpoints with theaters begin built all over England and
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modern literature. When people saw the shows Comedy Unlike modern day
societies a comedy in England was one with a happy ending most people
play-writer wrote the play then people would watch the play.
theater was that it showed that the country was stable, This was vital because
when Queen Elizabeth took the thrown, there was speculation of how strong
England would grow and how stable it would be Thus after establishing a strong
affected This allowed the people spread and increase importance in the arts,
music, and theater The people knew that with their needs well established they
could start seeing and writing plays. Daily life comparison and foundation
changed drastically and their lives changed in the form of expression they were
free to demonstrate their art for another person‘s life to relax and for
entrainment.
There were these particular writing in literature which changed the face of
plays such as Gorboduc by Sackville & Norton and The Spanish Tragedy by
Kyd provided much material for Hamlet, William Shakespeare stands out in
flourished during this era. Marlowe was known for his magnificent blank verse,
his overreaching protagonists, and his own untimely death. Jonson was a
dramatist, poet and actor, best known for his plays such as Volpone and the
Alchemist. Jonson was a lyric, his influence on Jacobean and Caroline poets, his
theory of humors‘, his contentious personality, and his friendship and rivalry
Poets such as Edmund Spenser and John Milton produced works that
Queen" and the retelling of mankind's fall from paradise in "Paradise Lost."
thus we can say it was the revolution affected in architecture, painting, and
passion for antiquity, that progress in philology and criticism, which led to a
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familial tensions and crises of state enacted in his plays and portrayed them
beautifully with a lot of human expressions. The incredible volume of work that
William Shakespeare produced throughout his fifty two years has lent itself to
criticism.
dramas met with great success, it is in his later years as marked by the early
reign of James I that he wrote what have been considered his greatest plays:
Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and
Cleopatra, and The Tempest, a tragicomedy that inscribes within the main
drama a brilliant pageant to the new era. When we see these tremendous
The first permanent theatres in England were old inns which had been
used as temporary acting areas when the companies had been touring which was
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the Cross Keys, the Bull, the Bell Savage and the Bell were all originally built
as inns. "Some of the Inns that became theatres had substantial alterations made
have influenced the building of later purpose to built theatres such as the
Theatre and the Globe, The Red Lion in Stepney, in particular, had a rough
auditorium with scaffolding galleries built around the stage area giving
influence to the upcoming theater".4 During the middle Ages nobody is known
Church plays were often written by members of the Clergy and the writers of
plays for touring companies were largely anonymous and few of their works
have survived. In the Tudor period, and a little before it, men who earned their
living as writers and poets began to be recognizably connected with plays. The
Medwall who wrote a Morality Play and an Interlude, that survive, for
Canterbury. John Heywood, during the reign of Henry VIII, wrote a large
number of Interludes for performance at the Court, but when Elizabeth‘s reign
began most plays were still written by people we would regard as amateurs or
occasional playwrights.
The form which Elizabethan plays took was still developing at the
Roman plays in the original language, and the students sometimes performed
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them within the University. During Elizabeth‘s reign translations of these Greek
and Roman plays became widely available and began to have a heavy influence
upon English playwrights. Greek and Roman Plays were largely divided into
two genres, Comedy and Tragedy. "The first full length English Comedy was
written in about 1553 which Ralph Roister Doister was written by Nicholas
Udall, former headmaster of the first full length English Tragedy was Gorboduc
Roman models and much was made of the Classical rules of writing plays rules
which Renaissance writers took from Aristotle‘s Poetics and expanded upon"5.
These rules included the assumption that Tragedy and Comedy should
never mix and that a play should take place according to the Unities of Time and
Place its meaning that the stage should represent a single place and all of the
play‘s action should take place within a single fictional day at most. Fortunately
Classical models and began to write Tragedies and Comedies in a much looser
murder and revenge, generally ignored the Classical rules and strongly
Titus Andronicus and his later Hamlet where revenge motif can be seen easily.
At the same time that the genres of English plays were becoming fixed and
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dramatic composition.
blank verse in a much more flexible and inventive manner allowing sentences to
run from one line into the next and finish wherever in the line was necessary,
breaking the blank verse rules when it suited them to allow extra syllables in the
line or irregular stresses and pauses. Generally speaking the later a blank verse
play was written the more natural its language sounds. Shakespeare and other
Elizabethan dramatists often used a mixture of blank verse and prose, usually
helping them to write what they wanted to express thus this freedom lead to
history of that era which had revenge influence in it. Elizabeth began her reign
in a fast changing and dangerous period for the English nation. Elizabeth‘s
father, Henry VIII, had broken off from the Catholic Church and established the
Protestant Church of England. After the death of Henry and his sickly son
Catholic who had brought England back into the Church of Rome, and had
married the firmly Catholic King of Spain. When Mary died without children
the Protestant Elizabeth inherited the throne and England became a Protestant
Each stage in this process involved bloody trials and executions of those
following the wrong religion and Elizabeth had to consider the fact that a large
proportion of her population had been or still was Catholic. While some
others were openly rebellious. In times such as these, plays, which gathered
huge crowds and exposed them to a particular view of the world - which could
3000 spectators when the population of London was only 200,000. This meant
that one and a half percent of the London population were gathered in one place
and exposed to the same influence at every performance enough people to begin
authorities imposed a range of laws and systems to ensure that they could
in fact the Elizabethan Censors were more lenient than is sometimes suggested
and did not come down heavily on many actors or dramatists during this period.
More typical of the censorship of Elizabethan plays was the suppression of Sir
Thomas More, a play which was written and then amended by a large group of
scenes in his own handwriting in the manuscript. Despite many such alterations
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the play was never considered acceptable and so was never granted a license to
manuscript survives.
introducing complicated poetic structures in both verse and prose. The sonnets
passion for antiquity, that progress in philology and criticism, which led to a
familial tensions and crises of state enacted in his plays and portrayed them
beautifully with a lot of human expressions. The incredible volume of work that
William Shakespeare produced throughout his fifty two years has lent itself to
criticism. When Elizabethan playwrights found the public loved gruesome tales
private ,Both were open to anyone who could pay, but the private theatres cost
more, were smaller, and had a more select audience. William Shakespeare's
theater.
with no recourse to the law, and with a crime against his family to avenge.
Seneca was among the greatest classical tragedy authors and many educated
Elizabethans had read his works and his biography. There were different
and implemented from Seneca's great tragedies. The five-act structure, the
stichomythia, and Seneca's use of long rhetorical speeches were all later used in
Elizabethan tragedies.
Some of Seneca's ideas were originally taken from the Greeks when the
Romans invaded and conquered the Greeks, and with the new ideas, the
Romans created their own theatrical ideas. Many of Seneca's works, which dealt
with bloody family histories and revenge, captivated the Elizabethans. Seneca's
who wanted to realize Seneca's ideas had to determine a method to make the
whose plots hinge on political power, forbidden sexuality, family honor, and
private revenge. There was no author who exercised a wider or deeper influence
upon the Elizabethan mind or upon the Elizabethan form of tragedy than did
Seneca. Hamlet is certainly not much like any play of Seneca's one can name,
During the period of Elizabethan theater, plays about tragedy and revenge
were very common and a regular convention was based upon certain aspects
In all revenge tragedies, first and foremost, a crime is committed and for
various reasons, laws and justice cannot punish the crime. Therefore, the main
character pursues his revenge, in spite of everything around him. The main
whether or not to go through with the revenge, which usually involves complex
Another typical feature was the appearance of a ghost who urges the lead
sometimes called, also usually had a very close relationship with the audience
through soliloquies and asides, which are personal speeches in which the
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character evaluates his mind or the current situation. The original crime is
almost always sexual, violent, or both. The main crime is always committed
against a close family member of the "revenger". The main character then
places him outside the normal moral order of things, and often becomes isolated
The revenge must be the cause of a major catastrophe and the planning for
revenge must start immediately after the crisis. After the ghost persuades the
revenger to commit his deed, an initial hesitation occurs, then a delay before the
main character kills the original murderer. The revenger or his trusted
accomplices must carry out the revenge, no matter what the cost.
The revenger and his accomplices may also die at the moment of success,
or even during the course of revenge, in order to fulfill the original Senecan
formula. It should not be assumed that revenge plays parallel. When looking at
the period of drama we may best apprehend that revenge enjoyed a surprisingly
vibrant career on the English stage, well before the popularization of what is
now called revenge tragedy. Before revenge came to inhabit its own generic
countless plays, ranging from loud comedies to stately classical histories. Such
plays, to be sure, are distinctly not revenge drama in the vein of The Spanish
Tragedy: instead, they attest to the capable ability and prevalence of the theme
tragedy ranks among the major dramatic forms left us by the English
remarkable vogue in the 1580s and ‘90s‘, the Elizabethan revenge play might
first consider the larger ‗trends in religion and politics‘ that marked the
contemporary cultural scene a rich society that gave rise to certain ‗forerunners‘
the development and maturation of the periods, apart from scattered treatments
of Senecanism, there has been little sustained discussion of how revenge fared
as a theme in English plays before the advent of Thomas Kyd‘s The Spanish
When looking at the period of drama we may best apprehend that revenge
enjoyed a surprisingly vibrant career on the English stage, well before the
inhabit its own generic space, it functioned as a widely versatile thematic and
classical histories.
Such plays, to be sure, are distinctly not revenge drama in the vein of The
Spanish Tragedy: instead, they attest to the capable ability and prevalence of the
has been identification of revenge motifs and themes. Well before the Kydian
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In the second case these incidental occurrences are a crucial contour of the
early revenge tradition, and thus included such examples alongside plays that
shapes in these early plays. Early dramatic revenge, of course, must begin with
There were some great plays written as the first great burst of Elizabethan
tragedy. Though these plays show little affinity with the popular Senecanism of
the 1590s, they were self-consciously modeled on Senecan form, and they
Tudor stage.
before Kyd in Early Elizabethan Drama engages the most horrific qualities of
importantly, it is also one of the first Elizabethan plays that can be rightly said to
treat the passion of revenge as a central theme. Unsurprisingly, the play relies
upstaged, it‘s not difficult to see how it was imagery, combined with the
But revenge in the 1560s was not limited to such tragic contexts it also
Damon and Pithias in 1565, ‗Jupiter, of all wrongs the revenger‘ is implored to
‗send down hot consuming fire‘ and purge the tyrannical reign of King
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interludes. Society had a great impact on the dramas of that era, Among these,
the most important is John Pikering‘s A new interlude of vice contemning, the
history of Horestes with the cruell resentment of his father‘s death, vpon his one
natural mother written in 1567 a work that was believed to be called the first
revenge play of the English renaissance. As the title suggests, foregrounds the
revenge motif in the Orestes/Clytemnestra saga, but while doing so, it invests
much of the play‘s dramatic interest in the ambiguous Vice. "The Vice plays
both the roles of ‗Courage‘ with which Orestes has been divinely appointed ‗to
revenge his father‘s death‘ and of amoral ‗Revenge ‗related interest is Preston‘s
emotion of revenge to all extents and intensify its emotion. Due to the entire
social and political environment and its influence the era saw a raw revenge and
action taken in return for an injury or offence. Historically, it was the first of a
clear consciousness of justice, the only way the wrong done could be righted. It
was assumed to be a duty of an injured man to avenge himself upon the one who
wronged him or any member of his family. By the time Elizabeth I came to the
throne the concept of justice had changed. Fredson Bowers, in his book
with the system of wergild, which was the earliest English law, Bowers leads us
through the history of the concept of justice. According to the system of wergild
the injured family had the responsibility of collecting payment. From those who
wronged them. Modern ―justice‖ arrives with Henry VII, who introduced
―indictment‖, by which the accused person is ―to be tried at once merely on the
From the time of Elizabethan, justice was a privilege of the state and
private blood revenge had no legal place in England. All kinds of murder,
including that of revenge killing, fell into the same category in law, and
punishment for the revenge was as heavy as for a murder. Revenge murder in
Elizabethan times was considered to be the worst of all crimes, because as the
Bible says: ―‗Vengeance is mine, I will repay,‘ says the Lord‖ (bible). On the
other hand, there was a deeply rooted tradition and sacred duty to take revenge
for murdered ancestor, which was still very much alive in the minds of many
Elizabethans.
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Renaissance society and its attitudes towards any of the current questions of the
time should, most importantly, take into account the issue of religion. It has
been noted that actually Elizabethan period was a time of profound and far
This is not surprising when we realize what had happened with the change
in throne in thirty years, with four different monarchs starting with Henry VIII
who in 1532 declared himself Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy and
Allen, an English cardinal and unapologetic Catholic, can give a true picture of
people: "In one man‘s memory… we have had to our prince, a man, who
abolished the pope‘s authority by his laws and yet in other points kept the faith
of his father‘s; we have had a child, who by his like laws abolished together
with the papacy the whole ancient religion; we have had a woman who restored
both again and sharply punished protestants; and lastly her majesty that now is,
who by the like laws hath long since abolished both again and now severely
punished Catholics as the other did protestants; and all these strange differences
and exchanged for new ones whenever the new monarch decided so. Their
views of the world were still influenced by deeply rooted beliefs and
superstitions intermixed with the remaining religious rites and rituals which
they had to follow. One of the things that this religious choice touched upon was
the issue of Death and with it the related existence of revenge. Only human
beings suffer with evil emotions and thoughts and their sense of what they
suffer is, to a very large degree, imposed by the culture to which they belong
was so much haunted by the image of Death, we have to take into consideration
that Elizabethans world was an intense and ever present reality of revenge and
its impact on general public. Because there was nothing worse than a thought
social identity that amounts to nothing less than an absolute undoing of the
selfishness or self desire. Nevertheless, there was a dispute about the nature of
purgatory. The thought of good as well as evil was very much present and an
attitude towards pride and unnecessary display of courage and bravery was
prayers for the dead were a means of communication related to a sense of family
and solidarity. With such strong Christian beliefs in the particular era whatever
its shape, it makes one wonder why this culture was so awfully dismayed by the
thought of revenge.
We can make out that for Elizabethans were believers in immortality and
the good and evil, there was nothing worse than the image of the inevitable
passage towards one‘s grave, knowing that once you cross the order, there is no
way back, just a hollow nothingness. English Renaissance tragedy was very
much concerned with revenge because it catered for a culture that was in the
surprising to find out that the extant drama produced between 1560 and 1610 in
the Elizabethan era were plays included revenge motif it is not something that
can be imagined once and for all, but an idea that has to be constantly remained
the Elizabethan period lies. Revenge tragedies are not only life stories of
English society, they were like a mirror of difficulties of life‘s decision that
people have to make every day. They are to be seen not only as presented but as
the spiritual biography of the age. Any approach to revenge tragedies has to take
into account the time the individual plays were written in, and the culture and
people they were written for. The fact that people believed in good and evil that
is revenge taken for either of the cause by one‘s self conciseness, that the
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revenge was an inseparable part of the world of the living, and the deep anxiety
about one‘s fate belief and satisfaction after attaining to it, is important for
Over the course of the sixteenth century, the cultural work done by
English drama began to shift. Mystery plays and morality plays did not die out,
but they were joined, and by the end of the century outnumbered, by plays on
secular themes performed, not as part of a civic ritual, but purely for
entertainment. Plays could tell different kinds of stories, and as drama became
more emancipated from the liturgical calendar, the space for new plays became
much more generous and the demand for such plays and drama grew each day.
Thus, playwrights began to look for new stories to tell and new ways to
tell them; it was only natural that they would look first and most enduringly to
Seneca, the only Roman tragedies whose works have survived, and the classical
literature writers. His dramatic tricks and, more importantly, his tragic
sensibility had a profound effect on the plays of the English Renaissance and
most especially on the revenge tragedies that are the era's most famous and
but it is decidedly a genre to itself. It applies Seneca to its own generic and
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cultural needs, so that while the line of descent is very clear, so are the ways in
which it is self-invented.
One thing which sets Renaissance tragedy apart from classical tragedy is
the later period's love of structural complexity and the vast change of cultural
and politics. Seneca's plays, like those of his Greek models, follow a very
simple narrative arc: one action, one plot, one catastrophe. The English
playwrights of the early modern period have a passion for numbers the stories
they tell are far more complicated and involve far more characters. This
complicated era illuminates another way in which the narrative drive toward
destruction as the genre moves from Rome to London. When looking at Seneca,
as in the Greek tragedies, we get one downfall: that is one kind of isolated
tragic plots as, for example, The Revengers Tragedy does. Even in plays in
which the plots do not proliferate, the number of characters is larger and more of
hubris and apocalypse found in Seneca although there are certainly individual
exceptions but it casts its nets more widely and dynamically. Revenge tragedies
also employ more complicated storytelling devices. The revenge tragedies and
between the stage and the audience and the ghost, which merges the past into
the present, and the personal into the public. Category violation is again the
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plays-within-plays are places where the line between fiction and reality gets
smudged and redrawn, places where the audience's certainties can be ambushed
and upset.
underlie and reinforce the stability of the society from which the plays emerge
and the reason they got such growing space. The erosion problem of
protagonist. The Spanish Tragedy, like the revenge tragedies which follow it,
figure who is sometimes a hero, sometimes a villain, and most often both at
once. Other characteristic and one not drawn from Seneca is the use of
spectacle.
visual as in the verbal. When the messenger in Thyestes describes the grove at
the center of Atreus's palace, the horror is generated by what he says; when
Marcus in Titus Andronicus describes his raped and mutilated niece, the horror
is generated by the juxtaposition of his words with the physical, visible presence
of ghosts at the end of Richard III, where the play's obsession with ritual carries
During the period of Elizabethan theater, plays about tragedy and revenge
were very common and a regular convention was based upon certain aspects
that were worked into a typical revenge tragedy. In all revenge tragedies, first
and foremost, a crime is committed and for various reasons, laws and justice
cannot punish the crime. Therefore, the main character pursues his revenge, in
spite of everything around him. The main character then usually experiences a
period of doubt, when he tries to decide whether or not to go through with the
revenge, which usually involves complex planning and much personal debate.
Another typical feature was the appearance of a ghost who urges the lead
sometimes called, also usually had a very close relationship with the audience
through soliloquies and asides, which are personal speeches in which the
The original crime is almost always sexual, violent, or both. The main
crime is always committed against a close family member of the revenger. The
main character then places him outside the normal moral order of things, and
often becomes isolated as the play progresses. The revenge must be the cause of
a major catastrophe and the planning for revenge must start immediately after
the crisis. After the ghost persuades the revenger to commit his deed, an initial
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hesitation occurs, then a delay before the main character kills the original
murderer.
The revenger or his trusted accomplices must carry out the revenge, no
matter what the cost. The revenger and his accomplices may also die at the
moment of success, or even during the course of revenge, in order to fulfill the
original Seneca formula. It should not be assumed that revenge plays parallel.
and of peace at home and abroad. a parallel of the Age of Pericles in Athens, or
XIV, when Corneille, Racine, and Molière brought the drama in France to the
point where Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson had left it in England half a
century earlier. Such an age of great thought and great action, appealing to the
eyes as well as to the imagination and intellect, finds but one adequate literary
expression; neither poetry nor the story can express the whole man, his thought,
feeling, action, and the resulting character; hence in the Age of Elizabeth
literature turned instinctively to the drama and brought it rapidly to the highest
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Tragedy, 1980 Lincoln London. p267.
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3. Douglas Bruster Shakespeare and the Question of Culture: Early
Modern Literature and the Cultural Turn, 2003 New York chapter 5.
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Psychology press, vol 2 p-90.
5. Journal by Jessica Winston 2001: Classical and Modern Literature Seneca
in Early Elizabethan England p-63.
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10. Griswold, Wendy 2000: Renaissance Revivals City Comedy and
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11. Article: Rist, Thomas 2003: Religion, Politics, Revenge: The Dead in
Renaissance Drama.‖ Early Modern Literary Studies 9.