Arghya Jana Literature Guide

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Literature

Saturday, 10 September 2011

PRE-SHAKESPEREAN DRAMA OR THE UNIVERSITY WITS:

The Pre-Shakespearean dramatists are known as the University Wits. 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 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(a) There was a fondness for heroic themes, such as the lives of great figures like Mohammed and
Tamburlaine.
(b) 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.
(c) Style also was heroic. The chief aim was to achieve strong and sounding lines, magnificent epithets, and
powerful declamation. This again led to abuse and to mere bombast, mouthing, and in the worst cases to
nonsense. In the best examples, such as in Marlowe, the result is quite impressive. In this connexion it is to be
noted that the best medium for such expression was blank verse, which was sufficiently elastic to bear the
strong pressure of these expansive methods.
(d) The themes were usually tragic in nature, for the dramatists were as a rule too much in 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, when it is brought in at all, is coarse and immature.
1) JOHN LYLY:
* Lyly wrote comedies which were intended for the child actors in royal service. His charming romantic
Plays are all comedies. They are- Women in the Moon, Endymion, Sappho and Phas, Alexander and
Campaspe, Midas, Mother Bombie and Loves Metamorphosis.
* 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

comedy, full of lively wit and fantastic charm. His wit consists of puns, quibbles and a rapid exchange of
repartee.
* Lylys subjects are taken mostly from mythology and legends, foreign as well as natives. He introduces
pastoral scenes to allegorize his plays. Their characters are personifications of Nature of Concord and Discord.
* 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.
* He added to English drama the feminine qualities of literature delicacy, grace, charm and subtlety.
* To quote Wyatt and Collins:- Lylys greatest service to the drama consists in his writing plays in prose. Lylys
sparkling dialogue gave Shakespeare an excellent model to follow 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 some what genial.
* His plays are five in number. Alphonsus, king of Aragon is and imitation for Marlowes 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 Harringtons 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 IVthere 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:
His plays include* The Araygnement of Paris is a kind of romantic comedy.
* The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First, is a rambling chronicle-play.
* The old Wives Tale is a clever satire on the popular drama of the day.
* The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe is an interesting play.
* Peeles 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.

4) THOMAS NASH:
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 Marlowes Dido.
His only surviving play is summers 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
Greenes 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 was however influenced by Seneca. Of his
surviving plays the most important is The Spanish Tragedie:
The central motif of the play is the revenge of Heronimo, Marshal of the Spain for the murder of his son
Horation. Heronimo appeals to heaven for justice. He then appeals to the king. Having failed to get justice, he
takes upon himself the task. 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. Kids dramatic style, though
ranting, has occasional flashes of rare beauty which foreshadow the great tragical lines of Shakespeare.
* Kids only other surviving play known as Cornilia (1593), a translation from the French Senecan, Garnier,
but his hand has been sought in many plays including Soliman and Perseda the First part of Jeronimo,
an attempt after the success of The Spanish Tragedie, to write an introductory play to it, and Shakespeares
Titus Andronicus.
7) CHRISHPER MARLOWE:
Marlowe is one of the remarkable characters of the English Renaissance, and the greatest of Shakespeares
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. Timur begins as a shepherd chief, who
first rebels and then triumphs over the Persian king. Intoxicated by his success, Timur rushes like a tempest
over the whole East. Seated on his chariot drawn by captive kings, with a caged emperor before him, he boasts
of his power which overrides all things. Then, afflicted with disease, he raves against the gods and would
overthrow them as he has overthrown earthly rulers.
* Tamburlaine is an epic rather than a drama; but one can understand its instant success with a people only
half civilized, fond of military glory, and the instant adoption of its mighty line as the instrument of all
dramatic expression.
* Dr.Faustus is his second play. It is one of the best of Marlowes works. The story is that of a scholar who
longs for infinite knowledge, and who turns from Theology, Philosophy, Medicine, and Law, the four sciences of

the time, to the study of magic, much as a child might turn from jewels to tinsel and colored paper. In order to
learn magic he sells himself to the devil, on condition that he shall have twenty-four years of absolute power
and knowledge. The play is the story of those twenty-four years. Like Tamburlaine, it is lacking in dramatic
construction, but has an unusual number of passages of rare poetic beauty.
* Marlowes third play is The Jew of Malta, a study of the lust for wealth, which centers about Barabas. It is a
terrible old money lender, strongly suggestive of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. The first part of the play
is well constructed, showing a decided advance, but the last part is an accumulation of melodramatic horrors.
Barabas is checked in his murderous career by falling into a boiling caldron which he had prepared for another,
and dies blaspheming, his only regret being that he has not done more evil in his life.
* Marlowes last play is Edward II. It is a tragic study of a kings weakness and misery. In point of style and
dramatic construction, it is by far the best of Marlowes plays, and is a worthy predecessor of Shakespeares
historical drama.
* Marlowe is the only dramatist of the time who is ever compared with Shakespeare. When we remember that
he died at twenty-nine, probably before Shakespeare had produced a single great play, we must wonder what
he might have done had he outlived his wretched youth and become a man. Here and there his work is
remarkable for its splendid imagination, for the stateliness of its verse, and for its rare bits of poetic beauty, but
in dramatic instinct, in wide knowledge of human life, in humor, in delineation of womans character, in the
delicate fancy which presents an Ariel as perfectly as a Macbeth, - in a word, in all that makes a dramatic
genius, Shakespeare stands alone. Marlowe simply prepared the way for the master who was to follow.
* The University Wits brought English drama to the point where Shakespeare began to experiment upon it.
Much of Shakespeares 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.

Dr.Arghya Jana Literature Guide at 08:03

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3 comments:
Anonymous 29 May 2013 at 08:13
Thank you very much for this welcomed help :)
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Jaffrin Jones 9 August 2015 at 07:22

Nice job, ,, really suits for UG holders
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Matiur Rahman Mazumder 6 October 2015 at 10:54

Not bad.
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