ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

COLLEGE OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF MOSUL/IRQ

AN INTRODUCTION
16th CENTURY ENGLISH DRAMA

SECOND CLASS
(2018-2019)
Drama: its origin, growth and development

The word “drama” is derived from the Greek word “dran” means to do, to perform; a kin to
Greek “drainein” means to be ready, to do and technically it means deed, action on the

stage. This meaning indicates that it has a particular relation with action.

Definition of Drama

Drama is an imitation of life in which dialogues and acting are in full consonance with real life

where acting and performance occupy the first place and dance and dialogues occupy the
second place. According to Aristotle, drama is simply an imitation of an action. He links it to

the mimetic impulse in human beings like children playing father and mother in a childhood

play.

Elements of Drama:

According to Aristotle, there are mainly five elements (1) Imitation (2) Plot (3) Action (4)
Dialogue (5) Character, each of which is discussed in details below:

(1) Imitation

In simple terms, imitation means the act of copying somebody or something. It is an act of

copying the way somebody talks and behaves, especially to entertain.

(2) Plot

A literary term refers to the arrangement of sequence of events in any literary work there is
beginning, development, a climax and a conclusion. This is not always the same in every

literary work . According to Aristotle, plot is the imitation of the action. It is the arrangement

of the incidents. Usually, there is main plot and sub plot(s) in plays.
In dramatic plot, unlike in the novel where the author describes the characters and incidents

they are involved in, the playwright presents the characters in action. This means that plot in
drama develops through what the characters do or say, what is done to them, and or what is
said about them or to them.

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Structure of the Plot:

A good plot should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Oscar Brocket explains further
that the beginning contains the exposition or the setting forth of information about earlier

events, the identity of the characters and the present situation. Another aspect of the

beginning is the point of attack which is the moment at which the main story starts as a
potential conflict is identified (can be called rising action). This is more obvious in classical

plays usually, is focused early on the potential conflict or a question and its resolution leads

to the end of the play. Such plays start with the inciting incident. This incident is usually an
occurrence that sets the mate action in motion. The middle is made up of series of

complications. A complication is a new element which changes the direction of the action. It

leads to the discovery of new information. The series of complications culminate in crises
and climax. The end is the last part of the play. Here issues are unraveled, untied and

resolved. In addition, according to Gustav Freytag’s five parts plot structure, a falling action

may follow the climax. It occurs when the loose ends are being tied up. However, it is often
the time of greatest overall tension. It is important to note here that we may not find all these

elements in one play. Each playwright adopts his own style.

(3) Action & Dramatic action

Action is the process of doing something or the performance itself. The series of events that
constitute the plot in any literary work is referred to as action. It includes what the characters

say, do, think and in some cases, fail to do. Action involves activity. Dramatic action is a

series of incidents that are logically arranged by the playwright to achieve specific response
like joy, pity, fear, indignation, ridicule, laughter, thoughtful contemplation, from the audience.

(4) Dialogue:
Dialogue is a discussion between two or more people. In literary works, it refers to a

composition in a conversational form. In the novel it is incorporated in the story, that is, as
the story progresses, the novelist gives two or more characters the opportunity to discuss or
comment on certain issues and the story continues in prose form. However, in drama, the

entire story is presented in dialogue. Dialogue is a highly specialized form of conversation

that is designed to suit various contexts and modes of drama.

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(5) Characters & Characterization

Characterization is the playwright’s imaginative creation of characters that can effectively

dramatize his story. The action of the play is presented through such characters. The

playwright’s ability to craft the play in such a way that each character blends well in the plot
is called characterization.

Characters refer to the people who act the play. The story in a play is told as people talk to
one another and interact in inter-personal relationships. These people are referred to as

characters. Characters in a play must not necessarily be human beings. Animals or things

can be used as characters. This depends on the intention of the playwright and the style he
wants to adopt.

Dynamic/ Round Character:

This is a character that changes according to the course of events in the story. He may or

may not be the protagonist or the hero. In most cases, he grows from innocence to maturity
or from ignorance to knowledge, so he is consistently alert to his environment with its

attendant problem and reacts accordingly. He is found almost everywhere in the story. In his

own unique way, he participates actively as much as possible in the course of the action. He
seems to have no special alignment to any group but tries not to lose his credibility or

acceptability.

Static/Flat/Stock Character:

Here the character is complex and does not change in any basic way in the course of the

story. He is presented in outline and without much individualization. He is usually stable and
is said to be static because he retains essentially the same outlook, attitudes, values and

dispositions from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

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Another important elements are:

Setting:
It is the location of a play. It is the time and place when and where the action of the play

takes place. Setting is very important in a play because it helps us to appreciate the

background of the play. Also in productions it helps the designers to design appropriate
locale, atmosphere, and costume for the play. We can identify the setting through the names

of characters.

Content/Theme:

Theme is the main idea in a play that permeates its entire. The theme of a play can be

identified through the dialogue, actions and manifestations in the actions of the major
characters as they interact with other characters in the play. The interpersonal relationships

of the characters help to highlight and advance that particular idea.

Dramatic Conventions

Prologue:
This is the introductory part of the play. It could be an opening scene, a speech or an

address. In most cases, it introduces the action and makes a statement on what the

audience should expect in the play. In many plays the prologue foreshadows the events in
the play and sometimes gives a background to the play as can be seen in Christopher

Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus.

Epilogue:

This is the direct opposite of the prologue. It is presented at the end of the play. It sums up

the action of the play and in some cases, makes a statement (an advice or a lesson to be
learnt) on the action or events presented in the play.

Interlude:
An interlude in a play is a short piece of entertainment that is presented between the acts or

major scenes in a play. It is believed that the term came into drama during the Renaissance

Period to describe the dramatic form of early Tudor Period.

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Soliloquy:

Soliloquy is a speech made by a character when he is alone. The audience hears it but the
other characters are not expected to hear it. It is very common in Renaissance plays.

Aside:
Aside is a dramatic convention in which a character speaks to himself or makes a comment

in the presence of another character. However, that other character is not expected to hear

the comment but the audience hears it.

Chorus /Narrator:

The use of chorus is a dramatic convention that was adopted by playwrights, especially in
the Classical Age, to comment on the events of the play. In any play that has a

chorus/narrator, the playwright uses it to supply the information that could not be woven into

the dialogue. In many cases it serves as the authorial voice. The chorus is not usually part of
the main cast so does not participate actively in the action of the play. In most cases they

stand or sit by the side of the stage and make their comments at the appropriate time. In
Oedipus Rex, the chorus is made up of the elders of Thebes. The narrator performs the
same function as the chorus. The difference is that usually the chorus is made up of two or

more characters, sometimes of one character while the narrator is all the time only one
character. Each playwright uses the chorus or the narrator to suit his purpose.

Play-within-the Play:
As the name suggests, a play-within-the -play is a play that is created in another play.

Usually it is a complete play with a beginning, middle and an end. It has its own theme which

in many cases is related to the theme of the main play. It is created for a particular purpose.
A very good example of the play-within the-play is The Mousetrap in Hamlet. Shakespeare

uses the technique to confirm the claim made by the ghost.

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 The English drama from the Middle Ages to the Present

History of Drama

 Greek Drama: 500-400 B.C.

(tragedy, comedy, amphitheatres, annual competitions)

 Medieval: The Middle Ages 1200-1500 AD

 (Liturgical, morality; example: The Castle of Perseverance)

 Elizabethan & Jacobean:1500-1642

 (Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson )

 Restoration & 18th Cent. Drama :1660-1800

(John Brute’s The Provoked Wife)

 Romantic Era:1800-1880

(Keats, Byron, Shelly)

 Modern Era :1880-1960

(absurd, regular drama, Beckett, Pinter)

 Contemporary Age: 1960-Present

(Parody, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)

Medieval Drama
General features

 Medieval drama flourished in the 15th century; it developed out of liturgical

ceremonies: the origin of medieval plays can be found in the Church and in its rituals.
 After music was introduced into churches (6th century) and words were later fitted to

the melodies, a dramatic dialogue began to take place in the form of an alternation of

chants between the priest and the choir.

 Later processional and scenic effects were added which increased dramatic action:

liturgical drama evolved into Miracle and Mystery plays and these ones into Morality
plays.
Themes

 Mystery plays usually dealt with Gospel events: their main subject was the

redemption of man.

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  Miracle Plays were concerned with episodes from the lives of saints.

 Moralities too were religious plays, but they focused on the conflict between good
and evil; their aim was to improve people’s moral behaviour.

Structure

 The Miracles grew in popularity, so the plays left the Church to be performed first in
the Church yard, then in other open spaces of the town.

 Each play was repeated several times in different parts of the town with the help of a

pageant, a carriage in the form of small house with two vertical rooms: in the lower
room the actors prepared themselves, in the upper one they played their parts.

Language

 In the Miracles, Latin that was slowly replaced by vernacular, and secular elements
became more and more frequent.

 The Morality plays were didactic in content and allegorical in form. They presented

personifications of vices and virtues and generalized characters. The lines were
rhymed as in the Miracles, but the atmosphere was more melancholy.

Audience
 The cycles of Mistery plays appealed to all social classes, from royalty to peasants:

they all came in to watch the plays. Cycles instilled a love of drama in the people .

 Moralities were intended for more learned people, with some cultural background.
Authors and works

 The Myracle plays were grouped in 4 cycles, known by the names of the towns

where they were performed: Chester, York, Coventry, Wakefield.

 The best Morality play is Everyman (about 1500).

Elizabethan (Renaissance Drama):

General features

 Climax came during the Elizabethan Age:

 Queen Elizabeth supported the arts more than any other ruler of the time.
 Threats of closing the theatre due to the plague were often stopped because

of her.

 Financially assisted some troupes and theaters.

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 Drama became the national literary manifestation of the time: the theatres were open

to everybody.
 Moralities and interludes were still a living memory, since they had instilled a great

interest in drama in the people.

 A new interest in classical drama had been introduced by Humanism.

 Wits (Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Robert Greene and John Lyly) &

Shakespearean.

Themes
 The theatre was a mirror of society, whose structure was modelled on the divine

order of the universe, inside which man had to respect a precise hierarchy (God,

angels, men, animals and inanimate objects): drama derived from the breaking of this
order.

 The new hero, full of passions and doubts, replaced the old allegorical character.

 The relationship between the laws of man and nature was emphasized: prodigious
phenomena were presented as consequence or presage of criminal actions.

Structure
 The theatres (The Globe, The Swan, The Rose), built on the model of the old inns,

were designed as large wooden structures circular or octogonal in shape, with three

tiers of galleries surrounding a yard or pit, open to the sky. The stage was divided in
three parts: outer, inner and upper stage.

 The scenery was very little: simple objects simbolized a place or the role of an actor

(e.g., a table stood for a room, a crown for a king, etc.)

Language

 The language, alive and direct, was affected by the concept of hierarchy.

 Being in verse, the Elizabethan theatre borrowed from poetry the use of metaphors
and the blank verse.

Audience
 The Elizabethan audience was a cross-section of society. All social classes went to
the theatre: nobles, commoners, citizens, lawyers… people with different tastes and

cultural background.

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  The audience were involved in the performance, since they were in direct

comunication with the actors.

Authors and works

 Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

 Introduced important use of blank verse.

 Shakespeare’s main competition.

 Author of Doctor Faustus (story of a man who sells his soul), Tamburlane the

Great and The Jew of Malta.

 Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

 Master of English comedy.

 Author of Volpone, The Alchemist and Every Man in His Humour.

 William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

 The greatest dramatist of all time.

 The characters form the center of interest in Shakespeare’s plays.

 Iambic pentameter/blank verse.

 Author of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, King Lear,
Macbeth and others.
 Also wrote 154 sonnets.

Restoration drama

General features

 Restoration of Royal family of Stuart to throne (1660-1700).

 After the Republican period (1649-60), the theatres were re-opened (1660) and

people began to attend playhouses again.

 Comedy of manners-satirizes social customs.

 Women were allowed to act for the first time in England.

 Drama was the branch of literature which best mirrored the society; it was affected by
the new spirit of the time: imagination was replaced by reason.

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 Themes

 Drama included three main genres: heroic play, tragedy and comedy and turned to
France (style) and Spain (plot) for inspiration; nevertheless it was able to preserve a

national character.

 The best expression of the new spirit of the time, however, was comedy: people went
to the theatre mainly to be amused; they wanted humour, wit and elegance.

 Marriage was one of the main ingredients for creating intrigue, piquant situation or

simply a conventional happy ending to the play.

Structure

 The new theatres were indoor and smaller than the Elizabethan ones.

 The old platform stage was eliminated: only the back and the front stages remained
and a scenery, painted in perspective, began to be used.

 The audience was sitting in the dark, separated from the stage that was brightly lit

and no longer bare.

Language

 The change in taste affected the language, too: playwrights used five-foot rhymed
couplets for heroic plays, blank verse for the tragedies and prose in comedies.
 The brillance and perfection of the prose resulted from the witty sparkling dialogues,

which were also the chief means of portraying the characters.

Audience

 As the Restoration privileged private rather than public theatres, the audience, mainly

formed by courtiers, aristocrats and the upper middle class, became more and more
socially restricted and homogeneous.

 Drama became more and more a class drama and the national and popular

character of the Elizabethan theatre disappeared forever.

Authors and works

 John Dryden (1631-1700)

- The conquest of Granada
- All for love

 William Congreve (1670-1729)

- The Way of the World

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 - Love for Love

Nineteenth Century Theater

 Romanticism-the belief that humans should be guided by feelings and emotions.

 Freed artist from rules, lots of special effects.

 Experimentation in theater.
 Operas.

 Late 19th century, modern drama was born:

– Henrick Ibsen (Norway)

– August Strindberg (Sweden)

– Anton Chekhov (Russia)

– John Galsworthy (Great Britain)

– Bernard Shaw (Great Britain)

– Realism-portray people and situations as they really are in everyday life.

Modern Age Theater

 Experimented with many styles (not one style exists today).

 Theater of the absurd-life viewed as meaningless and people’s strivings as absurd,

since they cannot do anything to improve the human lot.

Theater of the Absurd

 Samuel Beckett-Waiting for Godot (1953)

Contemporary Age: 1960-Present

(Parody, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)

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 16th Century England Theatre

The theatre’s transition from the medieval to the Renaissance is more readily

apparent in England than in Italy or France. As the rediscovered classics gradually found

their way to England, English plays did begin to reflect their influence. Religious and political
controversies and religious strife between Catholic and Protestant following the separation of

England from the Catholic Church by Henry VII in 1534, were the forces shaping the mid-

16th century English drama. However, when Elizabeth came to throne in 1588 she wanted no
religious dissention and outlawed drama of a religious nature.

At the start of Elizabeth’s reign noblemen might maintain a group of actors; otherwise

actors were very much considered vagabonds. In 1559, Elizabeth decreed a license was
also required to perform plays. Thus acting became a profession, the English theatre directly

under the control of the government, and the licensed acting companies still in the patronage

of wealthy nobles. This essentially made acting more secure, with daily performances
stimulating the building of permanent theatres and the assembling of larger companies.

By the last decade of the 16th century acting had achieved a satisfactory level of

financial and social stability. Actors were paid a yearly fee by the court plus other expenses.

Most troupes self-governed themselves by sharing risk and profit. Some members of troupes
owned theatre buildings, and were as ‘householders’, and hired ‘hirelings’ on salary. Troupes

were all male, men or young playing women’s’ roles, and members might specialize in

particular types of roles. Such large repertories needed a supply of new plays. Some of
these new plays came from ‘The University Wits’, an informal, well-educated group of

Scholars cum-men of letters. All of them were actively associated with the theatre and the

plays written by them mark a pronounced stage of development over the drama which
existed before them. ‘The University Wits’ included- Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd,

Robert Greene, John Lyly and others. The other important school in the 16th century English

drama is the Shakespearean.

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 Dramatic Conventions of the 16th Century Drama

The drama was conventional, not realistic: poetry was the most obvious convention,
others included asides, soliloquies, boys playing the roles of women, battles (with only a few

participants) and duels might result from an exchange of words, the daylight convention

(many scenes are set at night, though the plays took place in mid-afternoon under the sky),
a convention of time (the clock and calendar are used only at the dramatist's discretion), the

convention of "eavesdropping" (many characters overhear others, which the audience is

privy to but the overheard characters are not), and movement from place to place as
suggested by the script and the audience's imagination. Exits were strong, and when

everyone departed the stage, a change of scene was indicated. There was relatively little

scenery. Scenery was mostly suggestive; for example, one or two trees standing in for a
whole forest. The elaborate costumes—for which companies paid a great deal of money—

supplied the color and pageantry. Minimal scenery and limited costume changes made the

transitions between scenes lightning-fast and kept the story moving. There was often
dancing before and after the play—at times, during.

A healthy proportion of Elizabethan plots revolve around the upper classes. At the
top of the food chain are the king and queen, or duke and duchess. Attending these folks at

court were those nobles known as courtiers. Courtiers could be wise advisors, evil villains,

honorable friends, revenge seekers and practical jokers. The plays very often take place in
foreign countries, especially Italy, though Spain and ancient Greece can also serve as

settings. Women were simply expected to be easily seduced, due to natural weakness in

their character. And yet, there are numerous examples of saint-like women, who are
frequently the most admirable characters in a play. Men, too, could be honorable or sluttish.

There is no shortage of comically self-important characters; dull-witted fools; drunkards; and

beggared citizens and abused servants. These were all sources of humor. And of course,
many plays feature characters known as “clowns” or “fools”: these were, broadly speaking,

characters licensed or known to be deliberately humorous. They could be officially appointed

court jesters, or simply servants with parts written to be “wisely-foolish.” Such characters
could be used to comment on the wisdom, or lack there-of, of the other characters. Actually,

the clowns were the great headliners of the Elizabethan stage prior to the rise of the famed

tragedians of the late 1580s. Every company had a top clown along with the tragedian—

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Shakespeare’s company was no exception. The clowns also played many of the great comic

characters.
The Elizabethan stage had a platform which was located higher than stage level at

the back of the stage – the “balcony”, if you will. Actors could appear and speak from the

balcony. Characters often would wear disguises to affect some plan or another. Oaths and
vows were sacred. Any oath or vow made directly to Heaven or God was seen as inviolable.

A character’s willingness to break a vow, or to tempt another to break a vow, was a good

measure of the moral code of the character. A particularly important vow was the contract for
marriage. When a man and woman swore to marry each other, especially in front of

witnesses, their vows were considered unseverable, with serious repercussions returning on

those who flippantly broke them. Indeed, such promises were legally enforceable.
Respectable adults kept a continuous and close watch on their reputations. Men would not

stand for any insult, explicit or implied; to be accused of cowardice was especially shameful.

If you pay close attention, you will notice a technique playwrights frequently used to
dramatically build tension, a tactic we might call compression of time. “Compression of time”

exists when an impossible number of things occur in a brief amount of “time”. Also, when the
physical traits of a character are commented on, we may assume that the role was likely

written for a particular actor who had those traits. An employed soldier was a happy soldier.

Men who made a living at arms were useful members of society only when there was a war
on. Once a war ended, and the soldier dismissed from service, he could be expected to

become a parasite, usually a beggar, or, if he was lucky, the dependent of a pitying man of

wealth. Men and women of wealth, power or influence would be expected to have
“followers”. Finally, keep a watch out for self-referential dialogue: that is to say, characters

frequently compare their situations to the stage.

Other Elizabethan Theatre Conventions

Masque
Existing before Elizabethan England and also outliving it, the masque was normally
performed indoors at the King or Queen’s court. Spoken in verse, a masque involved

beautiful costumes and an intellectual element appropriate for the mostly educated upper

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class. Masques were allegorical stories about an event or person involving singing, acting

and dancing. Characters wore elaborate masks to hide their faces.

Presentational Acting Style

It is generally agreed by scholars Elizabethan acting was largely presentational in style.

Plays were more overtly a “performance” with clues the actors were aware of the presence

of an audience instead of completely ignoring them as part of their art. Movements and

gestures were more stylised and dramatic than one might ordinarily expect in a modern
naturalistic or realistic drama, speech patterns were heightened for dramatic effect, and the

use of conventions such as the aside, prologue, epilogue and word puns directly connected

characters to the audience watching. The aside, the prologue, the soliloquy and the epilogue
were all variations on a characters’ direct address to the audience when staged.

Dialogue
Elizabethan plays commonly consisted of dialogue that was poetic, dramatic and heightened

beyond that of the vernacular of the day. While often the lower class characters’ speech was
somewhat colloquial (prose), upper class characters spoke stylised, rhythmic speech

patterns (verse). Shakespeare took great care in composing dialogue that was sometimes

blank (unrhymed), but at other times rhyming (couplets) and often using five stressed
syllables in a line of dialogue (iambic pentameter).

Play Within A Play

This Elizabethan convention was a playwriting technique used by Shakespeare and others

that involved the staging of a play inside the play itself. It was not a flimsy convention, but

rather one that was used judiciously and with purpose.

Stagecraft
In terms of stagecraft, Elizabethan dramas used elaborate costumes, yet quite the opposite
for scenery. Acting spaces were largely empty (bare stage) with isolated set pieces

representing many of the same and minimal use of props (a single tree equalled a forest, a

throne for a King’s palace).

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