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Teatro Renacentista Inglés
3º Teatro Renacentista Inglés
Grado en Lenguas Modernas y sus Literaturas
Facultad de Filología
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su
totalidad.
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TEATRO RENACENTISTA INGLÉS
English Renaissance Theatre:
Two main Renaissance metaphors:

- Life is a dream (we're shadows, reflexions of our real selves).
- The world is a stage and we're actors.
The theatre is a representation of a play based on a novel plot. It was born in Greece
English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, or (commonly) as
Reservados todos los derechos. No se permite la explotación económica ni la transformación de esta obra. Queda permitida la impresión en su totalidad.
Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642. Monarchs of the time:
Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I (England was a very powerful nation during her
time). Theaters: The Globe, The Rose, The Curtain, The Theater, The Swan. It was a unified expression as
far as social class was concerned, the poor and the court watched the same plays.
El Blackfriars Theatre (1599), el Whitefriars (1608) y el Cockpit (1617) eran cerrados y con techo. Con la
creación del Salisbury Court Theatre en 1629 el público de Londres tenía seis teatros entre los que elegir:
tres que sobrevivían de la época de los grandes teatros "públicos" al aire libre, el Globe, el Fortune, y el
Red Bull, y tres teatros "privados", más pequeños y cerrados. De esta forma, la capacidad teatral de la
capital era de más de 10,000 personas después de 1610
Periods:
- Elizabethan (1558-1603): Elizabeth I was queen of England and Ireland from November 1558 until her
death
- Drama became more of secular function
- Secular belongs to the century ….
- Introduced by christians to popularise Christian religion
- Origin of theatres were religious during middle ages
- Jacobean (1603-1625): James VI and I (1566-1625) was king of Scontland as VI and of England as I,
from the union of Scottish and English crowns. With the development of the private theatres, drama
became more oriented towards the tastes and values of an upper-class audience.
- Caroline (1625-1642): (Charles I was monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland). It was a decadence
period, few new plays were being written for the public theatres which sustained themselves on the
accumulated work of previous decades.
Obras a comentar:
- Dr. Faustus de Christopher Marlowe: probably written in 1592, published until a decade later. The
first famous version of the story is based on a legend of an individual, selling his or her soul to the devil
for knowledge which is an old motif in Christian folklore. It was attached to the historical person of a
disreputable astrologer who lived in Germany sometime in the early 1500s, Johannes Faustus.
Translated into English in 1592. Plot Overview: Doctor Faustus, a briliant sixteenth-century scholar from
Wittenberg, Germany, dissatisfied with the limits of tradicional forms of knowledge wants to learn to
practice magic. His friend Valdes and Cornelius instruc him in the black arts. Summoning up
Mephistophilis and despite his warnings about the horrors of hell, Faustus tells the devil to return to his
master, Lucifer, with an offer of Faustus’ soul in exchange for twenty-four years of service from
Mephistophilis. Incidentally, Wagner, Faustus’ servant, picks up some magical ability. Lucifer accepts
Faustus’ offer signing it with his blood and “homo fuge” (o man, fly) appears branded in his arm. Magic
appears something dangerous and risk, and at the end they will be punished. Mephistophilis bestows rich
gifts on him and gives him a book of spells to learn and answers all his questions refusing to answer only
when Faustus asks him who made the universe.
Mephistophilis and Lucifer bring in personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins to prance (of a horse) move
with high springy steps = haver cabiolas ) about in front of Faustus, and he is impressed enough to quiet
his doubts.
Armed with his new powers. Faustus begins to travel to the pope's court in Rome (Banquet tricks) and
the courts of Europe. With his fame spreading, he also goes to the court of the German emperor. Charles
V (the enemy of the pope), who asks Faustus to allow him to see Alexander the Great. (Episode of the
knight's scoff and punishment by making antlers sprout from his head.) Faustus then goes on with his
travels, playing a trick on a horse-courset.
Eventually, Faustus is invited to the court of the Duke of Vanholt, where he performs various feats.
As the twenty-four years of his deal with Lucifer come to a close, he was Mephitophilis call up Helen of
Troy, the famous beauty from the ancient world, and uses her presence to impress a group of scholars
An old man urges Faustus to repent, but Faustus drives him away.
Faustus tells the scholars about his pact, and they are horror-stricken and resolve to pray for him. On the
final night before the expiration of the twenty-four years. Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He
begs for mercy, but it is too late. At midnight, a host of devils appears and carries his soul to hell.
Conclusion: At last how devil Desirous life that's why doctor Faustus lose his life. Beyond the desire that's
kills. Themes: Sin, Redemption, and Damnation, the Conflict between Medieval and Renaissance values,
power as a corrupting influence, The Divided Nature of Man. Motifs: Magic and the Supernatural,
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Practical Jokes. Symbols: Objects, characters, figures, or colours used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts: Blood
- A Midsummer’s Night Dream de Shakespeare: Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage
to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, with a four-day festival of pomp and entertainment. He commissions
his Master of the Revels, Philostrate, to find suitable amusements for the occasion. Egeus, an Athenian
nobleman, marches into Theseus’s court with his daughter, Hermia, and two young men, Demetrius and
Lysander. Egeus wishes Hermia to marry Demetrius (who loves Hermia), but Hermia is in love with
Lysander and refuses to comply. Egeus asks for the full penalty of law to fall on Hermia’s head if she
flouts her father’s will. Theseus gives Hermia until his wedding to consider her options, warning her that
disobeying her father’s wishes could result in her being sent to a convent or even executed. Nonetheless,
Hermia and Lysander plan to escape Athens the following night and marry in the house of Lysander’s
aunt, some seven leagues distant from the city. They make their intentions known to Hermia’s friend
Helena, who was once engaged to Demetrius and still loves him even though he jilted her after meeting
Hermia. Hoping to regain his love, Helena tells Demetrius of the elopement that Hermia and Lysander
have planned. At the appointed time, Demetrius stalks into the woods after his intended bride and her
lover; Helena follows behind him. In these same woods are two very different groups of characters. The
first is a band of fairies, including Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, his queen, who has recently
returned from India to bless the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. The second is a band of Athenian
craftsmen rehearsing a play that they hope to perform for the duke and his bride. Oberon and Titania are
at odds over a young Indian prince given to Titania by the prince’s mother; the boy is so beautiful that
Oberon wishes to make him a knight, but Titania refuses. Seeking revenge, Oberon sends his merry
servant, Puck, to acquire a magical flower, the juice of which can be spread over a sleeping person’s
eyelids to make that person fall in love with the first thing he or she sees upon waking. Puck obtains the
flower, and Oberon tells him of his plan to spread its juice on the sleeping Titania’s eyelids. Having seen
Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, he orders Puck to spread some of the juice on the eyelids of the
young Athenian man. Puck encounters Lysander and Hermia; thinking that Lysander is the Athenian of
whom Oberon spoke, Puck afflicts him with the love potion. Lysander happens to see Helena
upon awaking and falls deeply in love with her, abandoning Hermia. As the night progresses and Puck
attempts to undo his mistake, both Lysander and Demetrius end up in love with Helena, who believes
that they are mocking her. Hermia becomes so jealous that she tries to challenge Helena to a fight.
Demetrius and Lysander nearly do fight over Helena’s love, but Puck confuses them by mimicking their
voices, leading them apart until they are lost separately in the forest. When Titania wakes, the first

creature she sees is Bottom, the most ridiculous of the Athenian craftsmen, whose head Puck has
mockingly transformed into that of an ass. Titania passes a ludicrous interlude doting on the ass-headed
weaver. Eventually, Oberon obtains the Indian boy, Puck spreads the love potion on Lysander’s eyelids,
and by morning all is well. Theseus and Hippolyta discover the sleeping lovers in the forest and take
them back to Athens to be married—Demetrius now loves Helena, and Lysander now loves Hermia. After
the group wedding, the lovers watch Bottom and his fellow craftsmen perform their play, a fumbling,
hilarious version of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. When the play is completed, the lovers go to bed;
the fairies briefly emerge to bless the sleeping couples with a protective charm and then disappear. Only
Puck remains, to ask the audience for its forgiveness and approval and to urge it to remember the play as
though it had all been a dream. Themes: Love’s Difficulty, Magic and Dreams. Motifs: Contrast. Symbols:
Theseus and Hippolyta, The Love Potion, The Craftsmen’s Play,
Hamlet de Shakespeare: On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in
Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the
recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s
widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertrude and
the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is indeed his father’s spirit,
and that he was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on
the man who usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears with the
dawn. Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death, but, because he is contemplative and
thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius
and Gertrude worry about the prince’s erratic behavior and attempt to discover its cause. They employ a
pair of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch him. When Polonius, the pompous Lord
Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet may be mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to
spy on Hamlet in conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not seem to
love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery and declares that he wishes to ban marriages. A group of
traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an idea to test his uncle’s guilt. He will have
the players perform a scene closely resembling the sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have
murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When the moment of the murder
arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this
proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes
that killing Claudius while in prayer would send Claudius’s soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it
would be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius, now frightened of Hamlet’s madness and
fearing for his own safety, orders that Hamlet be sent to England at once. Hamlet goes to confront his
mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has hidden behind a tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the
tapestry, Hamlet believes the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs through the fabric,
killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately dispatched to England with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern. However, Claudius’s plan for Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sealed orders for the King of England demanding that
Hamlet be put to death. In the aftermath of her father’s death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns in
the river. Polonius’s son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius
convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his father’s and sister’s deaths. When Horatio and the king
receive letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after pirates attacked his
ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use Laertes’ desire for revenge to secure Hamlet’s
death. Laertes will fence with Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will poison Laertes’ blade so that if
he draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a goblet, which he will give
Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity
of Elsinore just as Ophelia’s funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and declares
that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one must be
prepared to die, since death can come at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives on
Claudius’s orders to arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. The sword-fighting begins.
Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink from the king’s proffered goblet. Instead, Gertrude takes
a drink from it and is swiftly killed by the poison. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though Hamlet
does not die of the poison immediately. First, Laertes is cut by his own sword’s blade, and, after revealing
to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for the queen’s death, he dies from the blade’s poison. Hamlet then
stabs Claudius through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned
wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after achieving his revenge. At this moment, a
Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army to Denmark and attacked Poland earlier in the
play, enters with ambassadors from England, who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the entire royal family lying sprawled on the floor dead.
He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio, fulfilling Hamlet’s last request, tells him Hamlet’s tragic
story. Fortinbras orders that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier. Themes: The
Impossibility of Certainty, The Complexity of Action, The Mystery of Death. Motifs: Incest and Incestuous
Desire, Misogyny, Ears and Hearing. Symbols: Yorick’s Skull

Cómo eran los teatros:

- A 1596 sketch of a rehearsal show they were circular, Elizabethan, open roof, playhouse
- More commonly: The Elizabethan theatre: 1562 to 1642, closure of the theatres by Puritans
Autores a conocer:
William Shakespeare (1564-1616):
Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he
married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.
Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-
owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He
appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, where he died three years later. Few
records of Shakespeare's private life survive, which has stimulated considerable speculation about such
matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, and religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to
him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.
His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, and these are regarded as some of the best work
ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet,
Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last
phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. He
died in 1616.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593): (Canterbury)
Actor, poet and “the second best” playwright after Shakespeare. Was the most influential of these group.
He was born in Canterbury in 1564, the same year as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe was
an actor, poet, and playwright during the reign of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603).
Marlowe attended Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University and received degrees in 1584 and
1587. Traditionally, the education that he received would have prepared him to become a clergyman,
but Marlowe chose not to join the ministry. For a time, Cambridge even wanted to withhold his degree,
apparently suspecting him of having converted to Catholicism, a forbidden faith in late-sixteenth-
century England, where Protestantism was the state-supported religion. Queen Elizabeth’s Privy
Council intervened on his behalf, saying that Marlowe had “done her majesty good service” in “matters
touching the benefit of the country.” This odd sequence of events has led some to theorize that Marlowe
worked as a spy for the crown, possibly by infiltrating Catholic communities in France. After leaving
Cambridge, Marlowe moved to London, where he became a playwright and led a turbulent, scandal-
plagued life. He produced seven plays, all of which were immensely popular. Among the most well-

known of his plays are Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta, and Doctor Faustus. Doctor Faustus can be
a renaissance play because it is a morality play combined with religious ideas, but it is not telling the
ideas of the Bible directly. In his writing, he pioneered the use of blank verse—no rhyming lines of
iambic pentameter—which many of his contemporaries, including William Shakespeare, later adopted.
In 1593, however, Marlowe’s career was cut short. After being accused of heresy (maintaining beliefs
contrary to those of an approved religion), he was arrested and put on a sort of probation. On May 30,
1593, shortly after being released, Marlowe became involved in a tavern brawl and was killed when one
of the combatants stabbed him in the head. After his death, rumours were spread accusing him of
treason, atheism, and homosexuality, and some people speculated that the tavern brawl might have
been the work of government agents. First play was "Dido, Queen of Carthage". He gave classic dramas.
Verity of themes and subjects. Vital characterization that anyone can feel the emotions of characters.
His signature style is blank verse. He rejected old rhythming lines of Romantic Drama. He gave unity
and form to the drama. He is famous for some particular characteristics of his drama, that are: Pictorial
Quallity, Ecstatic Quality and Vitalizing Energy . He put reality in his plays.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637): After Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, is usually considered the finest Elizabethan
playwright. An actor for time, Jonson began writing plays in the mid-1590s and went to prison several
times for his contributions to politically satiric comedies. He wrote for the Lord Chamberlain´s men.
More than any other English dramatist, Jonson turned attention to the classical precepts as a way of
tempering the excesses of native playwright. Of Jonson´s twenty-eight plays, the comedies, especially
Volpone (1606) and the alchemist (1610) are now best-known. Jonson was concerned primarily with
reforming human behaviour and concentrated upon the foibles of contemporary types. Jonson´s
comedy if often describe as realistic and “corrective” since the characters are supposedly based upon
direct observation and are castigated for their shortcomings, and his plays appear more moralistic than
do Shakespeare´s.
Fechas a recordar:
- 1562: Performance at the Inner Temple of Gorboduc
- 1642: theatrical plays banned by the English Parliament
Their architecture, similarities and differences: there was a considerable hostility to the
development of the theatre, however, public entertainments produced crowds were feared by the
authorities because they might become mobs and by many ordinary citizens who dreaded that large
gatherings might contribute to spread the plague.

The Black Death or Black Plague was one of the more devastating pandemics in human history, resulting
in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people.
Theatre itself was discountenanced by the increasing influential Puritan Strana in the nation (a group of
English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the church of England
from its Catholic practices, maintaining that the church of English was only article reformed). However,
queen Elizabeth loved plays, which were performed for her privately at Court, and approved to public
performances of “such plays” only as were fitted to yield honest
On april 11, 1582, the lords of the Council wrote to the Lord Mayor to the effect that, as “her Majesty”
Sometimes took delight in those pastimes, it had been thought not unfit, having regard to the season on
the year and the clearance of the city from infection, to allow of certain companies of players in London,
partly that they itchy thereby attain more dexterity
The theatre was banned inside in the city itself plays performed by touring companies all over England
even Germany and Denmark
The first permanent English theatre the “Red Lion”, 1567: a failure
The first successfull theatre opened in 1567
Essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama that became a fixed and permanent
phenomenon
- 1572, the Mayor and Corporation of London first banned plays as a measure against the plague
- 1575, all players expelled from the city
This prompted the construction of permanent playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, near the
established entertainment distric of St. George’s Fields in rural Surrey
The theatre was constructed in Shoreditch in 1576 by James Burbage followed by nearby Gurtain
Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), the Globe (1599), the Fortune (1600) and the Red
Bull (1604).
General plan:
Three stories high and built around an open space at the centre (the pit), usually polygonal in plan to give
and overall rounded
The three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open centre.
Posibles preguntas del examen (?)

1. Background
2. Periods of the English Renaissance theatre
3. Theatrical life, public and private theatres, their achitecture, similarities and differences
4. Performances
5. The companies
6. Playwrights
Reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, and Elizabethan playhouse in the London Borough of Southwark,
on the south bank of the river Thames that was originally built in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt
the following year and then demolished in 1644. The modern reconstruction is an academic
approximation based on available evidence of the 1599 and 1614 building. It was founded by the actor
and director San Wanamaker. Opened in 1997. Seating capacity is 875, with an additional 700 stinkers
standing in the pit
Different model: the Blackfriars Theatre, 1599, they used convents, smaller. The Blackfriars Theatre in
Staunton, Virginia, is the only recreation of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Theatre, the first indoor theatre in
the English-speaking world. At the Blackfriars Playhouse Staunton, the American Shakespeare Center
performs Shakespeare’s works under their original staging conditions, on a simple stage elaborate sets
without an audience that shares the same lighting conditions as the actors
The Whitefriars (1608) and the Cockpit
In 1629, six theatres: three surviving large open air public theatres, The Globe, The Fortune, and the Red
Bull, and three smaller enclosed private theatres.
Salisbury Court
The plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare and their contemporaries were still being performed on a regular
basis (mostly at the public theatres), while the newest works of the newest playrights were abundant as
well (mainly at the private theatres).
Around 1580 total theatre capacity of London was about 5000 spectators, over 10000 after 1610.
The population rose from an estimated 5000 in 1530 to about 225.000 in 1605. Ticket price: from a
penny to a sixpence or even higher (1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 pence, the equivalent of about 95-11
pounds in 2006 = 150 pounds)
Performances:
- repertory
- companies
- they never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice a week
- the workload on the actors, especially the leading performers, must have been tremendous
- companies included only males
- female parts were played by adolescent boys in women’s costume

- performances also occurred in the afternoon since no artificial lighting existed, when the light did
begin to fade, candles were lit so that the play could continue until its end
- plays had little to no scenery that was described by the actors through the course of the play
Example:
Chorus
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightes heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princess to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels.
The Companies:
In Shakespeare’s time they had a hierarchical system:
- The company belonged to shareholders and managers. They were responsable for everything and
got most of the money when the company was successfull. Sometimes they even owned their own
buildings.
- Actors worked for the managers and after some time became permanent members of the company
- Apprentices were young boys allowed to act in menial roles. They also played females characters in
plays.
- There was no stage crew as there is today. Actors had to do everything themselves, from making
costumes to setting the stage.
- Plays were organized by acting companies. They performed about 6 diferrent plays each week
because they needed money to survive. They had almost no time for rehearsals.
Lord Chamberlain’s Men and the Admiral’s Men were the two most important companies in London
at that time.
The Lord chamberlain’s Men was a company of actors, or a “plaint company” as it would have been
known, for which Shakespeare wrote for most of his career. Richard Burbage played most of the lead
roles, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, while Shakespeare himself performed some
secondary roles. Formed at the end of a period of flux in their theatrical world of London, it had

become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronized by
James I.
Composition:
8” sharers, who spilt profits and debts + an equivalent number of hired men who acted minor and
doubled parts + a slightly smaller number of boy players.
Shakespeare: a sharer, since 1594, equally important as actor and playwright, his writing became more
important, he continued to act at least until 1603.
Among the most famous theatres during were the Globe, the Swan and the Fortune.
Playwrights (dramatist, scriptwriter, tragedian, dramaturge)
Dramatist:
- Growing population of London
- Growing wealth of its people
- Fondness and necessity for entertainment
RESULT: outstanding dramatic literature
- most of the plays lost 600 remain (37 by Shakespeare)
- self-made men from modest backgrounds. No women.
- Some of them were educated at either Oxford or Camdridge (“university wits”)
- William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson: Actors as well

- The majority does not seem to have been performers and no major author who came on to the
scene after 1600 is known to have supplemented his income by acting.
- Paid According to the success of play.
- They had no ownership of the plays they wrote, the company owned them.
- Playwright’s production: two plays a year at most
- The majority of plays written in this era were collaborations in teams of two, three, four and even
five dramatists (2 weeks per play) to generate texts. Jonson and Shakespeare were the exceptions
to the rule.
- Thomas Dekker: 50 collaborations; Thomas Heywood: 220
Philip Henslowe (1550-1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario

His modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the
theatrical world of Renaissance London. Henslowe’s diary is a valuable source of information on the
theatrical history of the period.
Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that involves in its audience on
accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the viewing.
Shakespearean tragedies are highly influenced by Greek drama and Aristotle's notion
of tragedy. It was Aristotle who had first described the genre of tragedy in his Poetics
which is followed even today to analyze modern drama. Take a look at the following characteristics
shared by most Shakespearean plays. Most of the tragedies written by Shakespeare are revenge and
ambition tragedies. For instance, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth are the dark tragedies
showing revenge and ambition. However, there is an exception to this in the form of a romantic
tragedy, rather the only romantic tragedy written by Shakespeare and that is Romeo
and Juliet. Unlike the revenge/ambition tragedy, there are two tragic characters in Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo becomes impulsive and acts without thinking about consequences, which causes the separation
and ultimately the death of the two lovers. Coming back to revenge/ambition tragedies, there are some
noticeable features which are dealt with, in the following part.
Shakespearean tragedy
• Many have linked these plays to Aristotle: Protagonist must be admirable with the audience able to
symphathize with the character. But also a flawed character.
• The Ancient Greek theorist Aristotle
Main characters should be great individuals with great minds and souls. Because their catastrophic
downfall would be more emotionally.

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UnderTheBridge9

TEATRO RENACENTISTA INGLE?S.pdf

3º Teatro Renacentista Inglés

Grado en Lenguas Modernas y sus Literaturas

TEATRO RENACENTISTA INGLÉS

English Renaissance Theatre:

Two main Renaissance metaphors:

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Cómo eran los teatros:

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Posibles preguntas del examen (?)

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- William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson: Actors as well

Philip Henslowe (1550-1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario

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