English

Renaissan
ce
Drama
 Reported by Ricellene Kate E. Renegado

English Renaissance Theatre

English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern
English theatre, or (commonly) as Elizabethan theatre,
refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642.

This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare,

Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.

Renaissance Theater
The English Renaissance during the late 15th and early
16th centuries was a time of great change in society and
theater. Unlike early theater, which was restricted to the
wealthy nobility, during the
renaissance in England
theaters became public
venues.

All social classes could

come together and enjoy
performances. The most
affordable seats would be in
what was known as ''the
yard'' or ''the pit,'' while the
galleries offered more private seating. However, there are
other characteristics that set English Renaissance theater
apart from its predecessors.
Development of Permanent Theaters
One characteristic of English Renaissance theater was the
actual construction of permanent theater buildings. Before
Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558, the
experience of ''theater'' was far different than it is today.
Actors traveled the country performing wherever they
could find a space, whether it was a field or a church hall.
Any sets or stages were temporary, with the sets needing
to be small and mobile. To further complicate the life of
an actor, the Act of 1545 had labeled any actor not a
member of a guild as a vagabond, and subject to arrest.
To avoid charges of vagrancy, actors had to secure
patronages from wealthy nobles so that they would be
classified as ''servants'' and avoid charges.

Queen Elizabeth I changed

this, however, by allowing
non-guild actors to perform
in London as long their
performances were approved
by the Master of the Revels.
As part of the royal
household, the Master of
Revels was tasked with
coordinating theatrical
entertainment for the court. Thus, acting troupes could
claim they were practicing for an audition with the Master
of Revels as an excuse for regularly performing in
London. The office also had the right to grant licenses to
acting troupes. Queen Elizabeth's new rule encouraged
acting companies to form in London and build permanent
theaters there. Among the more famous is Shakespeare's
Globe Theater.

Acting Troupes in the Renaissance

In the English Renaissance, acting troupes were always
entirely made up of male performers. The laws at the time
forbade women from performing onstage, unlike in other
countries during the same period. The acting troupes were
typically small compared to the number of roles in the
play, so the actors were required to play many roles that
might be male or female. Actors used changes in voice or
costume when they switched roles during the play. Often,
the plays themselves would incorporate speeches
whenever a character assumed a disguise within the plot
of the play to make it clear to the audience what was
happening.
The acting troupes also faced an extremely demanding
schedule in terms of rehearsals and performances. Unlike
theater today, where theaters perform the same play
sometimes for years at a time, the English Renaissance
theaters performed different plays each day of the week.
So, in a given week an actor could be performing multiple
roles in six different plays. As a result, actors did much of
their rehearsing and learning lines entirely on their own.
Actors weren't given a full script, but rather a scroll of just
their lines with a few cues to guide them.

Renaissance Playwrights
While we associate Shakespeare as the renowned
playwright of the English Renaissance, there were many
others who contributed to the development of theater
during this period. For example, Christopher Marlowe
was one of the first dramatists to explore blank verse
poetry in his plays. He wrote at a time when England was
letting go of its medieval institutions, and Marlowe liked
to explore the consequences of newfound freedom, and
temptations, in his plays. For example, his popular play
Edward the Second explored the fate of ineffectual rulers
who allow undue influence by courtiers upon the affairs
of state. His play The Jew of Malta told a tale of revenge
against city authorities. His perhaps most famous work,
Doctor Faustus, told the ancient tale of making a pact
with the devil.

William Shakespeare as well enjoyed writing about

conflict, disorder, and change in his plays. Sometimes he
wrote about conflicts that occur at the family level, such
as his play Taming of the Shrew. In other cases, he
explored conflicts in a more political setting, such as his
many plays about kings and even his work Julius Caesar.
On the other hand, he also liked to explore themes such as
love. These were key things in his works Romeo and
Juliet, A Midsummer's Night’s Dream, and Much Ado
About Nothing. His popularity endured even after Queen
Elizabeth's death in 1603, and his patronage was taken
over by King James I. He continued to challenge the
kingship and wrote some of his darker plays such as King
Lear, Macbeth, and Othello.

There were other notable English Renaissance

playwrights. For example, Ben Johnson liked to write
prickly, and even stinging satires of his contemporary's
plays - including William Shakespeare. Another, John
Fletcher, was known to have partnered with Shakespeare
on his works Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
However, whichever the playwright, they enjoyed
similarities in theme and all wrote in verse. However,
they all followed the rules of Aristotle's Poetics and kept
comedies and tragedies as two distinct genres, never
blending the two. They also observed unity of time and
place, with plays occurring in a single location and within
a single day.

Christopher Marlowe, also known as

Kit Marlowe, was an English
playwright, poet and translator of the
Elizabethan era. Most famous play is
The Tragical History of D. Faustus.
His other plays are Tamburlaine the
Great; Dido, Queen of Carthage; Edward II; The
Massacre at Paris; and The Jew of Malta.

Ben Jonson, was an English

playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry
exerted a lasting influence upon
English poetry and stage comedy. He popularized the
comedy of humours; He is best known for the plays Every
Man in His Humour, Volpone, or The Fox , The
Alchemist and Bartholomew Fair

John Webster, was an English

Jacobean dramatist best known for his
tragedies The White Devil and The
Duchess of Malfi, which are often seen
as masterpieces of the early 17th-
century English stage.
Genres
Genres of the period included the history play, which
depicted English or European history. Shakespeare’s
plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard III and
Henry V, belong to this category, as do Christopher
Marlowe’s Edward II and George Peele’s Famous
Chronicle of King Edward the First. History plays dealt
with more recent events, like A Larum for London which
dramatizes the sack of Antwerp in 1576.

Tragedy was an amazingly popular genre. Marlowe’s

tragedies were exceptionally popular, such as Dr. Faustus
and The Jew of Malta. The audiences particularly liked
revenge dramas, such as Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish
Tragedy. The four tragedies considered to be
Shakespeare’s greatest (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and
Macbeth) were composed during this period, as well as
many others (see Shakespearean tragedy).

Comedies were common, too. A subgenre developed in

this period was the city comedy, which deals satirically
with life in London after the fashion of Roman New
Comedy. Examples are Thomas Dekker’s The
Shoemaker’s Holiday and Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste
Maid in Cheapside.

Though marginalized, the older genres like pastoral (The

Faithful Shepherdess, 1608), and even the morality play
(Four Plays in One, ca. 1608-13) could exert influences.
After about 1610, the new hybrid subgenre of the
tragicomedy enjoyed an efflorescence, as did the masque
throughout the reigns of the first two Stuart kings, James I
and Charles I.

Conclusion
Renaissance theater occurred at a time in history when
England was letting go of medieval ideas, and Queen
Elizabeth I, and later James I, sat on the throne, also
known as the English Renaissance, during the late 15th
and early 16th centuries. The theater itself was unique in
many ways. For example, permanent theaters were
constructed in London offering actors a chance to escape
persecution under vagrancy laws. Unlike plays from
earlier periods in history, all classes had access to
theatrical performances.

Several notable playwrights emerged during this time

who enjoyed writing plays that commented on the state of
society. For example, Christopher Marlowe was one of
the first dramatists to explore blank verse poetry in his
plays and who wrote plays that explored the consequences
of newfound freedoms that emerged during the English
Renaissance. We also learned about how William
Shakespeare enjoyed writing about love and conflict, and
in particular plays that pushed questions related to
kingships. However, regardless of the writer, they all kept
genres of comedy and tragedy distinct and obeyed unity
of time and space.