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Who are the University Wits? What is their contribution to the

development of Elizabethan Drama?

Two very different forces, the growth of the national spirit and the establishment of
permanent theatre combined to influence writers who started writing before Shakespeare.
These Pre-Shakespearean dramatists are known as the ‘University Wits’. Foremost among
them are Lyly, Greene, Peele, Nash, Lodge, Kyd and of course, Marlowe. They are so
called as nearly all of them were closely associated with oxford and Cambridge University.
As we know the condition of the drama that preceded them was precarious and chaotic; -
“The classicists had form, but not fire; the popular dramatists had interest, but little
sense of form”. They tried and were able to unite the classical conception of the drama
and enthusiasm and favour of the popular dramatists. They were usually actors and
dramatists. Their training began as actors. They revised old plays and finally became
independent writers. They all settled in London and were more or less acquainted with
each other, and most of them led irregular Bohemian lives. Their plays had several
features in common.
Albert sums up-
1) There was a fondness for heroic themes, such as the lives of great figures like
Mohammed and Tamburlaine.
2) Heroic themes needed heroic treatment: great fullness and variety; splendid
descriptions, long swelling speeches, the handling of violent incidents and emotions.
These qualities, excellent when held in restraint, only too often led to loudness and
disorder.
3) Style also was ‘heroic’. The chief aim was to achieve strong and sounding lines,
magnificent epithets, and powerful declamation. In the best examples, such as in
Marlowe, the result is quite impressive. The best medium for such expression was blank
verse, which was sufficiently elastic to bear the strong pressure of these expansive
methods.
4) The themes were usually tragic in nature, for the dramatists were too much earnest to
give heed to what was considered to be the lower species of comedy. The general lack of
real humour in the early drama is one of its most prominent features. Humour was coarse
and immature.

1) John Lyly:
Lyly’s subjects are taken mostly from mythology and legends, foreign as well as natives.
He introduces pastoral scenes to allegorize his plays. He mingled the tragedy and comedy,
pathos and humour in his plays. He freely blended the different segments of existence and
different worlds. Human figures live and move side by side with the deities of classical
mythology. Lyly elaborated the romantic sentiment in his plays. He brought on the
English stage the element of high comedy, full of lively wit and fantastic charm. His wit
consists of puns, quibbles and a rapid exchange of repartee.
Lyly wrote comedies which were intended for the child actors in royal service. His
charming romantic Plays are all comedies. They are-‘The Women in the Moon’, ‘Endymion’,
‘Sappho and Phas’, ‘Alexander and Campaspe’, ‘Midas’, ‘Mother Bombie’ and ‘Love’s
Metamorphosis’.They have paved the way for Shakespeare’s ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’,
‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’, and ‘As You like It’. Shakespeare’s use of songs in romantic
comedy is actually rooted in Lyly’s introduction of song to the comedies.
To quote Wyatt and Collins:- “Lyly’s greatest service to the drama consists in his writing
plays in prose. Lyly’s sparkling dialogue gave Shakespeare an excellent model to follow
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and the greater dramatist is probably indebted to him for his first teaching in court style
and for hints as to the light touch so proper for the handling of classical legend and fairy
lore”.

2) Robert Greene:
Greene contributed greatly to the development of romantic comedy. In his plays the
realism and idealism meet freely. In characterization, he makes a notable movement; in
place of the stock characters of the mystery and miracle plays he introduces individual
characters. He brings the suppleness and grace into his comedies. Though his style is not
of outstanding merit, his humour is somewhat genial.
His plays are five in number. ‘Alphonsus, king of Aragon’ is an imitation for Marlowe’s
‘Tamburline’. ‘A looking Glass for London and England’ is written with the collaboration
with Lodge. It is a mixture of elements from the Moralities and modern Elizabethan satire.
‘Orlando Furioso’ is basically written after reading Sir John Harrington’s translation of
Aristo.
In ‘Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay’ we have three distinct worlds mingled together- the
world of magic, the world of aristocratic life, and the world of the country. In ‘James IV’
there is also the fusion of romantic love and humour. It is not a historical play but
founded on the imaginary incident in the life of the king.

3) George Peele:
Peele’s style can be violent to the point of absurdity; but he has his moments of real
poetry; he can handle his blank verse with move ease and variety than was common at
the time; he is fluent; he has humour and a fair amount of pathos. In short, he represents
a great advance upon the earliest drama, and is perhaps one of the most attractive among
the playwrights of the time.
His ‘The Araygnement of Paris’ is a kind of romantic comedy. ‘The Famous Chronicle of
King Edward the First’ is a rambling chronicle-play. ‘The Love of King David and Fair
Bathsheba’ is an interesting play. Peel’s best dramatic work ‘The old Wives’ Tale’ is a
clever satire on the popular drama of the day.

4) Thomas Nashe:
Nash took active parting the political affairs. He was a born journalist. He has no
creditable achievement as a dramatist. He supposed to have finished Marlowe’s ‘Dido’. His
only surviving play is – ‘Summer’s Last will and Testament’. It is a kind of satirical masque
about the seasons.

5) Thomas Lodge:
His dramatic work is small in quality. He probably collaborated with Shakespeare in
‘Henry-VI’ and Greene’s – “A Looking Glass for London and England”. His only surviving
play is- ‘The Wounds of Civil War’, a play of the old loose historical type dealing with
Marius and Sulla.

6) Thomas Kyd:
Thomas Kyd is one of the most important of University Wits. He discovered the formula
for melodrama. He was greatly influenced by Seneca. Much of his dramatic works has
been lost. As a revenge tragedy its horrific plot, involving murder, frenzy and sudden
death, gave the play a great and lasting popularity. Shakespeare is much indebted for the
matching of the plot of his famous Hamlet to this tragedy of Kyd. Kid’s dramatic style has
occasional flashes of rare beauty which foreshadow the great tragical lines of
Shakespeare. Of his surviving plays the most important is -“The Spanish Tragedie”. His
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other surviving play are “Cornilia” , “Soliman and Perseda”.

7) Christopher Marlowe:
Marlowe is one of the remarkable characters of the English Renaissance, and the
greatest of Shakespeare’s predecessors. He is famous for four dramas, now known as the
Marlowesque or one-man type of tragedy, each revolving about one central personality
who is consumed by the lust of power.
The first of these is ‘Tamburlaine’. It is the story of Timur the Tartar. It is an epic rather
than a drama.‘Dr.Faustus’ is his second play. It is one of the best of Marlowe’s works. The
hero, Dr.Faustus, turns from Theology, Philosophy, Medicine, and Law, the four sciences
of the time, to the study and enjoy of necromancy selling himself to the devil, on condition
that he shall have twenty-four years of absolute power and knowledge and lastly
succumbs to death. ‘The Jew of Malta’, is a successful study of the Machiavellian hero,
Barabas, who is finaly destroyed by his own cruelty, lust for wealth and for destruction.
Marlowe’s portrait of Barabas has probably suggested to Shakespeare his immortal
Jewish character Shylock. ‘Edward II’ is a tragic study of a king’s weakness and misery.
In point of style and dramatic construction, it is by far the best of Marlowe’s plays, and is
a worthy predecessor of Shakespeare’s historical dramas like ‘Richard II’. Marlowe is the
only dramatist of the time who is ever compared with Shakespeare.

The University Wits brought English drama to the point where Shakespeare began to
experiment upon it. Much of Shakespeare’s works owed in many respects to previous
plays. Each of the University Wits added or emphasize same essential element which
appeared later in the works of Shakespeare. Actually they created the platform from where
Shakespeare started his journey.

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