Before Shakespeare …

To give students an idea of why

Shakespeare was so original
To give students an understanding of
Shakespeare’s roots.
 Mystery plays and miracle plays
• series of plays dealing with all the major events in the
Christian calendar, from the Creation to the Day of
Judgment.

• By the end of the 15th century, the practice of acting

these plays in cycles on festival days was established in
several parts of Europe.

• Sometimes, each play was performed on a decorated

cart called a pageant that moved about the city to allow
different crowds to watch each play.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAKzf4zndmc
• These biblical plays differ widely in content. Most
contain episodes such as the Fall of Lucifer, the
Creation and Fall of Man, Cain and Abel, Noah
and the Flood, Abraham and Isaac, the Nativity,
the Raising of Lazarus, the Passion, and the
Resurrection. Other pageants included the story
of Moses, the Procession of the Prophets,
Christ's Baptism, the Temptation in the
Wilderness, and the Assumption and Coronation
of the Virgin.
 Everyman
• Plays were still religious and taught
• the people about sins and being a
• good Christian.
• The Somonyng of Everyman (The
Summoning of Everyman), usually
referred to simply as Everyman, is a late
15th-century English morality play.
• The oldest surviving example of the script begins with this paragraph on the frontispiece:

• “Here begynneth a treatyse how þe hye Fader of Heven sendeth Dethe to

somon every creature to come and gyve acounte of theyr lyves in this
worlde, and is in maner of a morall playe.
”The play opens with a prologue, which takes the form of a messenger
telling the audience to attend to the action to come, and to heed its lesson.
• Then God speaks, lamenting that humans have become too absorbed in
material wealth and riches to follow Him. He feels taken for granted,
because He receives no appreciation from mankind for all that He has given
them.
"Of ghostly sight the people be so blind,
Drowned in sin, they know me not for their God;
In worldly riches is all their mind,
They fear not my rightwiseness, the sharp rod..."
• So God commands Death, His messenger, to go to Everyman and summon
him to heaven to make his reckoning. Death arrives at Everyman's side and
informs him it is time for him to die and face judgment.
"On thee thou must take a long journey:
Therefore thy book of count with thee thou bring;
For turn again thou can not by no way,
And look thou be sure of thy reckoning..."
• Upon hearing this, Everyman is distressed as he does not have a proper
account of his life prepared. So Everyman tries to bribe Death, and begs for
more time. Death denies Everyman's requests, but will allow him to find a
companion for his journey, someone to speak for his good virtues.
"Yea, if any be so hardy
That would go with thee and bear thee company.
Hie thee that you were gone to God’s magnificence,
Thy reckoning to give before his presence.“

• Fellowship, representing Everyman's friends, enters and promises to go

anywhere with him. However, when Fellowship hears of the true nature of
Everyman's journey, he refuses to go, saying that he would stay with
Everyman to enjoy life but will not accompany him on a journey to death.
"If Death were the messenger,
For no man that is living to-day
I will not go that loath journey...
yet if thou wilt eat, and drink, and make good cheer,
Or haunt to women, the lusty companion,
I would not forsake you, while the day is clear...
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM5Zw
d427iU
The Renaissance and the revival of
learning
• The study of Seneca, Plutarch, Ovid, etc
contributed to the development of
Elizabethan drama.

• The drama reflected the interests of the

day – They began with historical plays and
then moved to tragedies.
How is Romeo and Juliet similar or different to the traditions
that Shakespeare inherited?