1500-1660
The Renaissance
• Intellectual movement
• Rebirth of scholarship based on classical
learning and philosophy
• Spread from Italy
Rebirth of human spirit:
the Individual!
• Realization of human potential for
development
• Lead to discoveries in:
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literature
science
religion
philosophy
invention
geography
The Rise of the Renaissance in England
1500-1558
Henry VII
• 1485--End of the Wars of the Roses
• Henry Tudor became Henry VII
• Married Elizabeth of York
– United the two warring factions
• Brought peace and tranquility
• Began to replenish the treasury
Henry the VIII
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2nd son (Arthur dies young)
Wasted treasury
Needed Cash
Needed a Male Heir
Broke with the Catholic
Church
Act of Supremacy
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1534
King declared Head of Church of England
Seized Catholic Church’s properties
Steady movement of population to cities
Henry’s Wives
Divorced, beheaded, died;
Divorced, beheaded, survived
Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr
Edward the VI
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1547 Henry VIII Dies
Edward VI ascends throne
10 years old/Pawn of powerful men
weak and sickly physical constitution
1549--Book of Common Prayers published
Died in 1553 of consumption or overmedication
Mary I
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Daughter of Catherine of Aragon
Devoted Catholic
Known as Bloody Mary
300 Protestant victims
Died childless
The Height of the
1558-1603
Elizabeth I
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1558--ascends throne at 25
Protestant
Never married
45 years as Queen – made royal history!
Established 100 free grammar schools
great patron of the arts – a poetess herself
Middle class educated and gained power
Defeated the Spanish Armada; England becoming
a super power.
The Court of Elizabeth
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Educated courtiers
Music and dancing
Masques (flamboyant musical dramas)
Entertainment included: public hangings, witch
burnings, bearbaitings, elevated discussions, and
Italian poetry
• Golden Age of English drama (Marlow, Jonson,
and Shakespeare)
• Civic and Religious leaders viewed theatre as evil
Evolution of Elizabethan Theatre
At first…
• No elaborate sets
• countryside -- on makeshift platforms
• London -- performed in taverns and inns
• considered traveling vagabonds
• content of plays changes from strictly religious to
more secular plots and settings.
• Church withdrew its support
Changes in Theatre
• Popularity lead to purpose built playhouses
• Spectators who could afford it sat in balconies
• “Groundlings” stood on ground around stage (called
“Stinkards” in summer time…)
• No lighting – daytime performances (2pm)
• large platform became the stage.
• Professional acting companies got support of Queen
Elizabeth.
Theatres
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located outside city limits – reduce plague
first permanent theatres since the Romans
1576 First theater – The Theatre
Later torn down and renamed “The Globe”
“All the world’s a stage” – As You Like It
Building also used for other entertainment
like bull or bear baiting
Theatre Layout
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Round/Octagonal open air structure
Platform juts out into open yard
Back wall – 2 doors for entrances/exits
Upper stage/balcony
2 pillars holding up “heavens” painted with
Zodiac
• Audience seated in galleries or standing on
the ground
Indoor Theatres
• During winter
• In palaces of Queen Elizabeth or King
James
• Large halls lit by candlelight
• Many of these plays set at night
• Macbeth one of these? (spooky…)
The Audience
• Nobles (sometimes on stage)
• Groundlings might throw garbage and heckle
performers if displeased
• No restrooms for up to 3000 spectators
• No intermissions
• Smells and swells: urine, beer, ginger, garlic,
tobacco, sweat
• vendors, prostitutes, general rowdiness
• Plot of the play usually known (History&Legend)
• Only one entrance/exit (Wait your turn!)
Actors
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No female actresses! Too uncouth a job!
prepubescent boys play female parts
little actual sex or romance in plays– just brief kisses
strong female characters
women disguised as men -- a plot device
still British tradition – Monty Python
troupes = 15 men
members versatile. Required to be:
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acrobats
singers
dancers
swordsmen
know multiple parts
Costumes
• extravagant, spangled affairs
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gold thread
lace
silk
velvet
• cast-offs of aristocratic patrons
• actors wore make-up (generally considered an
abomination by church…)
• anachronism – “out of time” Roman soldiers in
Julius Caesar wore Renaissance fashions.
Staging
• No outside curtains used between scenes
• very little scenery
• Actors’ lines helped audience understand setting.
“Here I stand in a forest..”
• 2 Doors symbolized different places
• Synechdoche – part stand for whole
– 3 soldiers stand for an army
– throne stands for castle of the king
• Prologues given as introductory speed
– summary of story
– points out the theme
– spoken by narrator or chorus
Language
• Combined a variety of action with variety of
language
• Pun – a play on words based on two words sounding
alike but having different meanings.
• Play written in iambic pentameter – natural speech
rhythms
• Blank verse (verse, but no rhyme)
• Often makes use of rhyme
• Upper class characters – poetry
• Lower class characters - prose
• Proximity of Actors and Audience:
– aside –character speaks to audience
– soliloquy –character speaks thoughts aloud to self
Special Effects
• Winch system to raise and lower things
• Thunder – fire cannon or roll cannonball
down wooden trough
• Lighting – gun powder
• Trap doors – under stage, called Hell
Theatrical Taste
• Great love of blood, guts, gore, supernatural
• lots of violence
– animal bladders filled with blood under costumes
– battered pig’s head of chopped off human head
• Lots of ghosts, witches, spirits – all believed in at
that time…
• Bawdy humor – plays very sexual
– puns
– double entendres
Scripts
• One copy of script complete – held by bookholder
(stage manager)
• Actors got pieces of paper with just their lines and
cue words on them
• Not a lot of stage directions – indicated by lines
themselves
– “Here comes Macbeth” spoken by a character on stage
meant Macbeth was to enter
Shakespeare
• Born in Stratford upon Avon
• Father a merchant (Glove maker)
• Married Anne Hathaway – older woman (by
6 years)
• Anne already pregnant when married
• Has a few kids
• Heads out to London to become a STAR!
Shakespeare in London
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Became an actor
criticized for being a stage hog
started writing (still some acting)
plays popular with the public, but not the
critics
• Breaks the rules of “good” writing:
– murders on stage
– mixed comedy with tragedy
– did away with decorum
Shakespeare’s Company
• Prominent members of Shakespeare’s acting
company:
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Richard Burbage
Will Kemp
Cuthbert Burbage
John Hemmings
• Under patronage of
Queen Elizabeth -- 1594
– Lord Chamberlain’s Men
• Under patronage of King James -- 1603
– King’s Men
The
First
Folio
The First Folio
• A folio is:
 A book or manuscript consisting of pages folded in the middle
 Approximately 14x18
• Shakespeare’s First Folio is:
 The first compilation of Shakespeare’s work
 It consisted of 36 of his plays – 18 of which
it was the first time they were published
 Published in 1623 – 7 years after his death.
 Only 750 copies printed and it sold out!
The Decline of the
1603-1649
James I
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First Stuart King
Believed he ruled by divine authority
Commissioned King James version of Bible
Opposed Puritanism
Growing religious and political unrest
Catholics conceived idea to blow up
Parliament--1605-Gunpowder Plot
• Guy Fawkes Day--November 5
Jimmy and Willy
• Macbeth written for King James
– VI of Scotland
– I of England
• House of Stuart descended from royalty in the
play (Banquo and son Fleance)
• King obsessed with witchcraft and the occult
• actually wrote a book about it called Demonology
• One theme of Macbeth is “revenge and
retribution”
• Shakespeare spices the plot to James’ satisfaction
with the 3 weird sisters (witches) and a few ghosts
Women’s Rights
• Women were second class citizens
 No right to an education
 Pawns used in marriage agreements
 A father’s word was final in all aspects of a women’s life
 If she did not marry, she had no future
• Shakespeare challenges these views in
Taming of the Shrew
 A shrew is a strong willed, outspoken,
uncontrollable woman
 Shakespeare makes the audience recognize
the unjust way women are treated
 The major question of the play is if Kate is
tamed.
Charles I
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Son of James I
Dismissed Parliament
1642--Civil War broke out
Cavaliers--royal supporters
Roundheads or Puritans--Parliamentary
supporters
• Beheaded in 1649
• Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector
• Playhouses closed in 1649