SUBJECT:

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA

Submited to :

Dr. Khalid

Submited from :

Irum Naiz
Elizabethan Drama

Drama was the chief literary glory of the Elizabethan age. In the
beginning, these dramas were not so well- written, though the
comedies were better than the tragedies. Ralph Roister Doister is
taken as the first regular English comedy. It was a kind of farce in
rough verse written by Nicholas Udall. Another comedy was Gammer
Gurtons Needle acted at Cambridge University in 1566. Lyly
improved the comedy in his prose comedy Compaspe and Edimion.
Gorboduc, written by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, was the
first regular tragedy. It was very dull and written in poor blank verse.
Thomas Kyd improved the tragedy by writing The Spanish Tragedy.
It is a tragedy of blood and revenge.

CHRISTOPHE MARLOWE

The first great dramatist of the time was Christopher Marlowe. Though he
lived a short life, he wrote some powerful tragedies, which are counted
among the great works of English stage. He showed originality both in
choice of subject matter and the use of blank verse. His powerful blank verse
strengthens the drama and the development of character heightens the sense
of tragedy. His first tragedy Tamburlaine the Great is written in blank verse
with colorful images of power and violence. The play brought a new kind of
life to the English theatre. Tamburlaine is the shepherd and a robber. The
play presents his mad ambition for political power and his rise to it. The
kings who are defeated by his armies are ill treated. The ruler of the Turkey
is taken from place to place in a cage like a wild animal. Other Kings have to
pull Tamburlaines carriage. When they get tired they are hanged. Though
the play is filled with terrible cruelty and violent language and action,
Marlowes blank verse lines are usually powerful and effective so the play
was well received. In the next play The Jew of Malta a rich Jew refuses to
pay taxes to the governor of Malta so his property is taken from him and in
revenge he begins a life of violence. He helps the Turks when they attack
Malta, and so they make him governor. But he decides to kill all Turkish
 officers. Unluckily an enemy makes his secret known and he himself is
killed. The language of the play is not always violent. He helps the Turks
when they attack Malta, and so they make him governor. But he decides to
kill all the Turkish officers. Unluckily an enemy makes his secret known and
he himself is killed. The language of the play is not always violent and
forceful. The sound and rhythm are sometimes very fine. Marlowes Dr.
Faustus is based on the well-known story of a man (Faustus) who sold his
soul to the devil in order to power and riches in the life. Faustus is mad for
intellectual power. He agrees to give his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles in
return for twenty-four years of splendid life. During these years the devil
must serve him and give him what he wants. Finally, when Faustus has to
face death, he is filled with fear and the end of the play is very tragic.
Edward the Second is probably Marlowes best play. It is comparable to
Shakespeares best historical plays. It deals with English history and the
story is about a young king who is destroyed by his own weakness.
Certainly, Marlowes writing sets an example for other dramatists in the
great Elizabethan age.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare is taken as the finest dramatist of all times. He began

his career as a play actor and then moved to play writing. He had great
dramatic as well as poetic gift. His plays look like a living world of people.
His characters have both individual and universal qualities. At the beginning
Shakespeare wrote historical plays by improving the works of other
writings. He then gradually discovered his powers and mastered his art.
Some of his historical plays are Richard the Third and Richard the Second,
King Henry the Fourth, Henry the Fifth and Henry the Sixth. In Richard the
Third smooth blank verse has been used where the sense usually ends with
the line. In Richard the Second, there is rather more freedom because the
sense pushes through from one line to the next. King Henry the Fourth
introduces a funny fat knight, Sir John Falstaff. Henry the Fifth is filled with
the love of country and the spirit of war. Shakespeare also wrote a good
number of comedies. They are generally better than his historical plays. The
intrigues of gentlemen and the love affair of young people are mainly the
subject matter of his comedies. We often do not find a great disaster and
very sad events in them. Shakespeare wrote comedies, which were mainly
suitable for the Globe theatre. Among his famous comedies are: A
Midsummer Nights Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, and As
you Like it. With his growing power and matured skill, Shakespeare wrote
his tragedies. Romeo and Juliet is his first tragedy which presents a tragic
love affair. He wrote three Roman tragedies, namely, Julies Caesar,
Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. His other four great tragedies are
Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello. The central characters in these
tragedies are always great men like King, Queen, Prince and so on. The
course of events is designed in such a way that it leads the main characters
to ruin because of their own error in judgment (tragic flaw). This tragic flaw
or the fatal weakness of character is clearly noticeable in all his tragedies.
For example, Antony is ruined because of his love of comfort and love.
Coriolanus is ruined by his terrible pride. The hamlets tragic flaw is
hesitation, inability to act when action is needed. King Lears weakness is
his openness to flattery. Shakespeares tragedies are great and world famous
because they have universal qualities that pass into the heart of the human
soul. Shakespeare immense power and full maturity are reflected in his last
 group of plays, which are called the romances. They are Cymbeline, The
Winters Tale and The Tempest. These romances are neither fully tragedies
nor comedies. Some tragic situations are also found in them, but they end
happily. The wrong doers are forgiven. All these works are colored with the
idea of forgiveness and reconciliation. We also find beautiful islands and
girls in them.
BEN JONSON

One of the great dramatists of Elizabethan age is Ben Jonson. His plays are
based on the theory of the four humors or elements (fire, water, air and soil)
and they are less beautiful and less attractive than Shakespeares. The
ancient writers influenced much of the Jonsons idea. He believed in three
unities that are the unities of place, time and action. Every Man in his
Humour is his famous play. Jonsons main failure as a dramatist lies in the
fact that a humour for him was a special foolishness or the chief strong
feeling in a man like anxiety and jealousy. Therefore his characters are
walking humorous and not really human. Jonson wrote about twenty plays
alone and others with other playwrights. Of his comedies Volpone the Fox,
Every man out of his Humour, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair and The
Silent Woman are famous. His tragedy Sejanus was played at the Globe
Theatre. He was also one of the best producers of masques at this or any
other time. These masques are dramatic entertainments with dancing and
music, which are more important than the story and characters.

LYLY :

John Lyly was born in Kent, England, in 1553/1554, to Peter Lyly (d. 1569)
and his wife, Jane Burgh (or Brough), of Burgh Hall in the North Riding of
 Yorkshire. The first of eight children, he was probably born in Canterbury,
where his father was the Registrarfor for the Archbishop Matthew
Parker and where the births of his siblings are recorded between 1562 and
1568. His grandfather was William Lily, the grammarian.
For a time Lyly was the most successful and fashionable of English writers,
hailed as the author of "a new English", as a "raffineur de l'Anglois"; and,
as Edward Blount, the editor of his plays, wrote in 1632, "that beautie in
court which could not parley Euphuism was as little regarded as she which
nowe there speakes not French". After the publication of EuphuesLyly seems
to have entirely deserted the novel form, which was much imitated (e.g., by
Barnabe Rich in his Second Tome of the Travels and Adventures of Don
Simonides, 1584), and to have thrown himself almost exclusively into play-
writing, probably still with a view to the mastership of revels.
HisCampaspe and Sapho were produced at Court in 1582. perhaps through
the earl of Oxford's station as Lord High Chamberlain. In total, probably
eight Lyly plays were acted before the queen by the Children of the
Chapel and especially by the Children of Paul's between the years 1584 and
1591, one or two of them being repeated before a popular audience at
the Blackfriars Theatre. Their brisk lively dialogue, classical colour and
frequent allusions to persons and events of the day maintained that
popularity with the court which Euphues had won.

GEORGE PEELE

Along with Marloww Greene and Nash , he formed one of that band of
dissolute young men, endeavouring to earn a livelihood by literary work. He
was an actor as well as writer of plays. He wrote some half dozen plays,
which are richer in beauty than any of his group except Marlowe. His
 earnest work is The Arraignment of Paris , which contains an elaborate
eulogy of Queen Elizabeth, is really a court play of the Masque order. David
and Bathsheba contains many beautiful Lines. Like Marlowe, peele was
responsible for giving the blank verse musical quality, which later attained
perfection in the deft hands of Shakespeare.

ROBERT GREENE (1560-1592)

He lived a most dissolute life, and died in distress and debt. His plays
comprise Oelando Furioso, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Alphonsus
King of Aragon and George a Greene. His most effective play is Friar
Bacon and Friar Bungay, which deals partly with the tricks of the Friar,
and partly with a simple love story between two men with one maid. Its
variety of interest and comic relief add to the entertainment of the audience.
But the chief merit of the play lies in the lively method of presenting the
story. Greene also achieves distinction by the vigorous humanity of his
characterization.

THOMAS KYD (1558-95)

He achieved great popularity with his first work, The Spanish Tragedy,
which was translated in many European languages. He introduced the
blood and thunder element in drama, which proved one of the attractive
features of the pre-Shakespearean drama. Though he is always violent and
extravagant, yet he was responsible for breaking away from the lifeless
monotony of Gorboduc.