IMPACT OF THE RENAISSANCE AND THE

REFORMATION IN THE ELIZABETHAN

THEATRE

Doli Debbarma

DISSERTATION
2021

School of Education
Tripura University (A Central University) , Suryamaninagar,
Agartala, Tripura.
 IMPACT OF THE RENAISSANCE AND THE
REFORMATION IN THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED BY

DOLI DEBBARMA

Roll no : 1856000006

TO

School of Education

Tripura University (A Central University) , Suryamaninagar , Agartala ,

Tripura

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

B.A. B.ED IN ENGLISH DEGREE

2021
 PREFACE

The basis for this dissertation originally stemmed from my passion for the
dramatic works written and performed during the Elizabethan period and influence
of various Renaissance humanists and protestants in the Reformation era in these
works. As I focus on the works of 16th century dramatist like Marlowe , I find an
essence of the Renaissance period in the characters in the plays. Shakespeare who
is considered as one of the most important dramatist of the Elizabethan period
without whom the description of the Elizabethan theatre is incomplete.
 DECLARATION

I , Doli Debbarma , hereby declare that I had personally carried out the work
depicted in the Dissertation entitled , “Impact of the Renaissance and the
Reformation in the Elizabethan Theatre”. No part of the Dissertation has been
submitted for the award for any other degree or diploma from any other
institution prior to this date.

Signature
Doli Debbarma
Date :

[i]
 CERTIFICATE

Name of the guide : Sreerup Rudra Pal

Faculty , School of Education

This is to certify that , Doli Debbarma in the School of Education of this Institute
has fulfilled the requirements prescribed for the B.A. B.Ed in English degree of
the School of Education , Tripura University (A Central University),
Suryamaninagar , Agartala , Tripura. The Dissertation entitled , “Impact of the
Renaissance and the Reformation in the Elizabethan Theatre” was carried out
under my direct supervision. No part of the Dissertation was submitted for the
award of any degree or diploma prior to this date.

Signature of the Guide

Date:

[ii]
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project has been a long time in the making and would not have been
possible without the supervision and support from a number of people. First, I
want to thank my guide , Mr. Sreerup Rudra Pal for assigning me to work on
“Impact of the Renaissance and the Reformation in the Elizabethan Theatre” and
also for his constant encouragement , guidance and patience in helping me from
the very beginning till the completion of the project. His generous feedback and
keen insights have helped me to have a deeper understanding of the topic and
hence helped me to complete the work with ease and a level of interest.

I express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Tinku De (Gope) , Co- ordinator , School of

Education , Tripura University ; Dr. Subhash Sarkar , Assistant Professor , School of
Education, Tripura University ; Mr. Jantu Das , PhD Scholar , School of Education
; Debasish Debbarma , School of education, Tripura University for their direct and
indirect guidance in working on this project , without them this project would
never have been possible.

Further , I would like to expand my gratitude to Dr. Partha Sarathi Gupta, Assistant
Professor, Department of English , for his invaluable guidance and feedbacks in
writing this dissertation. My special gratitude to Mr. Abhjit Bhattacharjee, PhD
Scholar, Department of English, for his intellectual support , feedbacks and
encouragement to begin writing this dissertation in the first place.

I feel extremely lucky to be surrounded by a generous group of friends who have

played no small role in shaping the ideas in this project. In particular I would like
to thank Uma Debbarma , Tasmina Aktar , Urmila Debbarma , Roseline Hrangkhawl,
Saily Roy Sarkar, Priyanka Debbarma , Sushila Hrangkhawl , Mouli Chakraborty ,
Sargadip Das, Soham Bhaumik , Debangshi Deb , and Sahil Pal for their offers of
encouragement.

Then, there is my family without whose constant support this project would have
suffered greatly. My deepest gratitude goes to my mother , Mrs. Namita Debbarma,
my father, Mr. Nagendra Debbarma and my sibling for their constant and genuine
care , support, encouragement and for providing me with the motivation I needed
for completion of the work on time.

I would also like to thank Central Library , Tripura University and Birchandra
State Central Library , Agartala, Tripura for providing me with the available
sources relevant to the subject of this study.

[iii]
 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1.1 22
1.2 29
2.1 30
2.2 31
2.3 40
3.1 41

[iv]
 LIST OF TABLES

Table Page
1 42

[v]
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents Page
Declaration by student i
Certificate of guide ii
Acknowledgements iii
List of Figures iv
List of Tables v
Introduction 1
Literature Review 3
Materials and Methods 5
Results 6
Chapter 1 - Birth of Renaissance and Reformation
• Beginning of the Renaissance in
Italy 7
• Renaissance in Europe
• Martin Luther : Protestantism
• John Calvin : Reformation
Chapter 2 - The Elizabethan Stage
• Major Conventions of Elizabethan
Stage
• Private & Public Playhouses 14
• Companies of Actors
• Licensing & Censorship
Chapter 3 - The 16th century playwrights and dramatists
• The University Wits 23
• Christopher Marlowe : Doctor
Faustus
Chapter 4 - Shakespeare as a Renaissance Playwright
• Shakespeare : Macbeth , a 32
Renaissance Tragedy
Conclusion 43
References 45

[vi]
 INTRODUCTION

“Oratio de hominis dignitate”

In the epigraph above, quoted speech by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was often
promoted as a symbolic expression of the Renaissance , meaning “oration on the
dignity of man”. During the 14th century, a cultural movement called humanism
began to develop with a rapid speed in Italy. Along with its many other
principles, this movement began promoting the idea that man was the center of
his own universe he found himself living in , and people should embrace human
achievements in education , classical arts , literature as well science. Furthermore ,
the invention of Gutenberg printing press in the year 1450 allowed for improved
communication throughout Europe and for ideas to spread more quickly. This
advancement in communication resulted to the distribution of the printed little-
known texts from early humanist authors such as those by Giovanni Boccacio and
Francesco Petrarch , which promoted the renewal of traditional Greek and Roman
culture and values to the masses. In addition to that , many scholars believe
advances in international finance and trade impacted culture in Europe and set the
stage for the Renaissance.

In this dissertation , I shall investigate the influence of the Renaissance Humanists

and their philosophy in the plays written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. I
will further study how the Protestant Reformation began and the influence of the
protestants in the works of the 16th century playwrights.

The Renaissance started in Florence , Italy , a place with a rich cultural history
where wealthy citizens could afford to support growing artists. Great Italian writers
, artists , politicians and others declared that they were participating in an
intellectual and artistic revolution that would be much different from what they
experienced in the Dark Ages. Firstly, the movement expanded to other city- states
in Italy , such as Venice , Milan , Ferrara , Bologne and Rome. Then , during the
15th century , Renaissance spread from Italy to France and then throughout western
and northern Europe. Some of the well known Renaissance intellectuals , writers,
artists and scientists include Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo, Desiderius Frasmus ,
Nicolaus Copernicus, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante,
John Milton, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Donatella, Titian, William
Byrd, William Shakespeare and many more.

[1]
Humanism encouraged Europeans to question the role of the Roman Catholic
Church during the Renaissance. Increase in the number of people learning to read
, write and think precisely led them to examine and criticize the religion they
have been following all these years. And, the existence of the printing press led to
the availability of the different texts including the Bible to the common people.
This made them read the Bible all by themselves making them aware of the
religious contents.

In the 16th century, a German monk named Martin Luther led the Protestant
Reformation. This was a revolutionary movement which happened to cause a split
in the Catholic Church. Luther questioned if the practices of the church were
aligned to the actual teachings in the Bible. This was the beginning of the new
phase of Christianity and hence, it was the birth of Protestanism.

A firm follower of Luther , John Calvin grew up to have as much influence as

Luther did in the spread of Protestantism. Calvin believed that God has known
since the beginning of time who will be saved. This doctrine came to be known
as Predestination. The religion based on Calvin’s teachings is referred to as
Calvinism. When Protestant churches won many followers , many continued to
remain true to Catholicism. A movement began within the Catholic church to
reform itself , so as to help the millions of Catholics to remain loyal , which
came to be known as the Catholic Reformation. The Reformation had a long term
impact through its religious , social , and political effects in setting the stage for
the modern world.

Chapter one investigates a movement that started in Italy called the Renaissance ,
which later spread throughout the parts of Europe. This movement aimed for the
revival of art and learning with a positive intention of bringing back the cultural
essence of the Greeks and the Romans. It further focuses on the influence of
Martin Luther who led the Protestant Reformation followed by the Calvinism and
finally the Reformation.

Chapter two focuses on the detailed study of the conventions and features of the
Elizabethan stage.

Chapter three discusses the emergence of the 16th century playwrights and
dramatists in light of the University Wits. It investigates the essence of the
Renaissance era in Christopher Marlowe’s important work Doctor Faustus.

Chapter Four examines Shakespeare as a Renaissance Playwright. It proposes to

analyze Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a renaissance tragedy.
[2]
 Literature Review

The Renaissance had a huge impact and influence in the growth and development
of the Elizabethan Drama and theatre. Andrew Dickson’s “Key features of
Renaissance culture” (2017) concluded that the impression of the Renaissance on
culture is “impossible to mistake”. Dickson has focused on different playwrights of
the period and the reflection of the Renaissance and Reformation in the plays
written during the Elizabethan era. Across these studies , the progress of the
Renaissance through Europe has been described and the educational , religious ,
artistic and geographical developments that shaped culture during the period is
examined. However , less emphasis has been put upon the beginning of
Renaissance in Italy and important Italian humanists like Bocaccio and Pico dela
Mirandola. Brian Cummings in his article , “The Reformation in Shakespeare”
(2016) , explores the radical religious reforms enacted in Shakespeare’s lifetime ,
and the traces of religion that exist in his plays. Cummings’s study mainly
focuses on Shakespeare’s works like Measure to Measure and Hamlet. Dr.
Orindrila Ghosh in her article “The Elizabethan Stage and the Rise of Shakespeare
(1558-1590)” (n.d.) recounts the condition of Elizabethan drama prior to the rise of
Shakespeare , and focuses on the details of the features of the Elizabethan stage ,
dramaturgy and conventions up to 1590. However , Ghosh has ignored the detailed
study of the acting and staging conventions like Soliloquy , Aside , Eavesdropping ,
Masque , Boys Performing female roles , Play within a play , Dialogue and
Presentational Acting style. Devilaben Hirabhai Rohit’s critical analysis of “Dr.
Faustus as a Renaissance Hero or Medieval Hero” has argued that Dr. Faustus is
Medieval Hero or Renaissance Hero which was influenced by the medieval
dramatic tradition and had some features of the Renaissance period. It provides
information about Marlowe’s language , style , techniques used in Doctor Faustus.
However , it lacks the depth of analyzing the other characters in the play and the
essence of the Renaissance throughout the play. Lee Jamieson’s “The Influence of
the Renaissance in Shakespeare’s Work” (2020) is mainly centered on Shakespeare
as the Renaissance Man in light of his works such as , Hamlet for creating human
characters with psychological complexity. Jamieson further mentions the upheaval
in social hierarchy which allowed Shakespeare to explore the complexity and
humanity of every character in his play Macbeth. However , it has missed to

[3]
mention the reflection of Pico della Mirandola’s humanist ideology in light of the
character of Macbeth.

To conclude , the Renaissance and Reformation had a great impact on the

development of Elizabethan theatre. The beginning of Renaissance in Italy is what
led to the European Renaissance and thus , the importance of the Italian humanists
like Bocaccio and Pico della Mirandola can not be outlooked. In order to have a
clear picture of the characteristics of the Elizabethan stage , the clear
understanding of the acting and staging conventions is something. Reading doctor
Faustus as a Renaissance play needs to have a deep understanding of the other
characters in the play along with the importance of Calvinistic doctrine of
predestination and predemption in Doctor Faustus’s character. Furthermore , keeping
in mind Pico dela Mirandola’s humanism while reading Macbeth contributes in
finding the Renaissance characteristics in the play.

[4]
 Materials and Methodology

This study has analyzed the impact of the Renaissance and the Reformation in the
Elizabethan theatre following the Qualitative research method. The Renaissance
began in Italy followed by its spread in the parts of Europe and the beginning of
the Protestant Reformation and the changes in the Church authority. The
awareness of the ideology of the Renaissance humanists like Bocaccio and Pico
dela Mirandola contributed in this study to understand their impacts on the plays
written and performed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Oration on the
Dignity of Man by the Italian Renaissance humanist and philosopher Pico dela
Mirandola performed as the real asset of the Renaissance Humanism. In addition ,
the Luther’s concept of Protestantism and his firm follower , John Calvin
contributed in the Reformation. The contributions and influence of the Renaissance
humanists and the Reformation acted as a witness in one of the important work of
16th century playwright Christopher Marlowe , one of the famous University Wits.
The same has been discovered while reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth , specifically
the presence of Mirandola’s ideology of humanism in the character of Macbeth in
the play.

[5]
 Results

In the essay “Oration on the Dignity of Man:, Pico argues, in the words of Pier Cesare
Bori, that: “ human vocation is a mystical vocation that has to be realized following a
three stage way, which comprehends necessarily moral transformation, intellectual
research and and final perfection in the identity with the absolute reality. This
paradigm is universal, because it can be retraced in every tradition.”

In this dissertation , Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus was found to contain the

Calvinistic theology of predestination and predemption. This made the influence of
the Reformation period certain and specific in the play , which is a 16th century
play by Christopher Marlowe.

The series of events resulting in to the dramatic change in his character is what
led Macbeth to commit the crime of murdering Duncan. This proved to be a
product of his moral transformation and the intellectual research which led him to
finally reach the heights of perfection. Therefore , Macbeth portrayed as the three
stage way of Pico with the intellectual ability gave the Renaissance identity to
Shakespeare’s play Macbeth.

[6]
 Chapter 1

The Birth of the Renaissance and the Reformation

Beginning of Renaissance in Italy

Europe suffered from both war and plague during the late Middle Ages. People began
questioning “institutions of the Middle Ages which had been unable to prevent war or to
relieve suffering brought by the plague,” (European, n.d.). Those who survived the plague
and the war wanted to: celebrate life and the human spirit. The teachings of the Church
were questioned. In northern Italy, artists and writers began to express this new spirit and
experimentation in their works with different styles.

The movement started in Italy, caused an outburst of creativity in art, thought and writing
which lasted approximately from 1300 to 1600. This period was called the Renaissance.
The literal meaning of the term is ‘rebirth’ or ‘reawakening’, and it refers to a revival of
art and learning. The educated men and women of Italy hoped to bring back to life the
cultural essence of Classical Greece and Rome. However, the people of Renaissance
ended up creating something new while striving to revive the past.

The Renaissance spread from the northern Italy to the rest of Europe eventually. Italy had
three advantages like the thriving cities, a wealthy merchant class and classical heritage of
Greece and Rome, which acted as the factor that made it the birth place of the
Renaissance.

The city- state of Florence had a Republican form of government since the 1200s.
However, during the Renaissance, Florence came under the rule of one powerful family
called the Medici. This family’s bank branches were spread throughout Italy and in the
major cities of Europe. Cosimo De Medici, the wealthiest European of his time, won
control of Florence’s government.

Renaissance scholars looked down on the art and literature of the Middle Ages and what
they wanted instead was to go back to the learning of the Greeks and Romans and they
[7]
were successful too in doing so. The artists and scholars of Italy drew inspiration from the
ruins of Rome that surrounded them.

The study of classical texts led to Humanism, an intellectual movement which focused on
human potentials and achievements. The Humanists suggested that a person might enjoy
life without offending God. Men and women in the Renaissance remained devout
Catholics mostly. The basic spirit of Renaissance, however, was secular.

Italian Renaissance humanist, Philosopher and scholar, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, is
most celebrated for the events of of 1486, when he proposed to defend nine hundred
theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for
which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called as the
“Manifesto of the Renaissance” and a key text of Renaissance Humanism. When God and
the Church were in the most exalted position during the Middle Ages, it was considered
almost impossible to declare “the Dignity of man”. This concept of “the Dignity of man”
is what became the starting point of Renaissance humanism.

Defense of the dignity and liberty of the human being was an important aspect of Pico’s
philosophical thoughts, and this was set forth in Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486).

In the essay “Oration on the Dignity of Man:, Pico argues, in the words of Pier Cesare
Bori, that: “ human vocation is a mystical vocation that has to be realized following a
three stage way, which comprehends necessarily moral transformation, intellectual
research and and final perfection in the identity with the absolute reality. This
paradigm is universal, because it can be retraced in every tradition.”

Renaissance writers wrote either for their self- expression or to portray the
individuality of their subjects. Thus, the Renaissance writers began trends that are
still followed by the modern writers.

One of the earliest and most influential humanists was Francesco Petrarch and he
was even called as the Father of Renaissance humanism. He wrote both in Italian
and in Latin. He wrote sonnets in Italian. These sonnets were about a mysterious
woman named Laura, who was his ideal.

[8]
The Italian writer Boccaccio is best known for the Decameron , a series of
realistic, sometimes off- color stories. The stories are supposedly told by a group
of worldly young people waiting in a rural villa to avoid the plague sweeping
through Florence.

Giovanni Boccaccio was of the opinion that :

In the year of our Lord 1348 the deadly plague broke out in the great city
of Florence, most beautiful of Italian cities. Whether through the operation
of the heavenly bodies or because of our own iniquities (sins) which just
wrath of God sought to correct, the plague had arisen in the East some
years before, causing the death of countless human beings. It spread
without stop from one place to another, until, unfortunately, it swept over
the West. Neither knowledge nor human foresight availed against it, though
the city was cleansed of much filth by chosen officers in charge and sick
persons were forbidden to enter it, while advice was broadcast for the for
the preservation of health. (Boccacio, Preface, Decameron)

Both tragic and comic views of life are presented in the Decameron . The author
was cutting humor to illustrate the human condition.

The work of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Raphael

showed the Renaissance spirit. They demonstrated an interest in the classical culture,
a curiosity about the world and belief in human potential. The Humanist writers
seemed to expand ideas about the context of individuality. Scholars, students and
merchants who visited Italy were impressed by these ideas. By the end of the
1400s, the Renaissance ideas had spread to Northern Europe.

Renaissance in Europe
When the Renaissance ideas spread out to northern Europe , they mingled with
northern traditions. Hence, the northern Renaissance developed its own character.
The northern humanists were critical of the failure of the Christian Church to
inspire people to live a Christian life. This was the beginning of a new movement

[9]
known as Christian humanism. The humanists promoted the education of women
and founded schools for both girls and boys.

Desiderius Erasmus of Holland and Thomas More of England and were the best
known Christian humanists.

Erasmus wrote his most famous work , The Praise of Folly in 1509 , which poked
fun at greedy merchants , heartsick lovers , quarrelsome scholars , and pompous
priests. Erasmus did not support the church ceremonies or rules , rather he
believed a Christianity of the heart. According to him , all people should study the
Bible to improve the society.

Thomas More has tried to depict a better model of society. He wrote the book
Utopia in 1516. “Utopia” , in Greek means “no place” or “no where”. This
“Utopia” has come to mean as an ideal place as depicted in the book. It is about
an imaginary land where greed, corruption, and and war have been wiped out.
Utopians had very little use of money because there was very little greed. He
writes :

Gold and silver, of which money is made, are so treated … that no one
values them more highly than their true nature deserves. Who does not see
that they are far inferior to iron in uselfulness since without iron mortals
cannot live anymore than without fire and water? ( Thomas More, Utopia )

Around 1440, a craftsman from Mainz , Germany named Johann Gutenberg

developed a printing press that incorporated a number of technologies in a new
way. This made the ‘production of books’ quicker and cheaper. Using this , he
printed a complete Bible , the Gutenberg Bible , in about 1455.

The European Renasissance was and era of great artistic and social change. The
Renaissance belief in the dignity of the individual is what led to the gradual rise
of democratic values.

[10]
By 1500 , the Renaissance emphasis on the secular and the individual challenged
Church authority. The printing press helped in spreading of these secular ideas.
And some rulers began to challenge the Church’s political power. It was difficult
for the pope or the emperor to impose a central authority in Germany because it
was divided in to many competing states. Soon , the northern merchants resented
paying taxes to the churches in Rome. Led by these social , political , and
economic forces , a new movement for religious reform began in Germany , and
then it spread to parts of Europe.

Influenced by reformers , people started to expect higher standards of conduct

from priests and Church leaders. In the late 1300s and and early 1400s , John
Wycliffe of England and Jan Hus of Bohemia had advocated church reform. They
denied the pope’s right to worldly power. They considered the Bible to be the one
thing that holds more authority than the church leaders. Christian humanists ,
Erasmus and More added their voices to the criticism. Many Europeans began
reading religious works and forming their own opinions and views about the
Church.

Protestantism : Martin Luther

Martin Luther , a German professor of theology , composer , priest , monk was a
seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. Luther decided to take a public stand
against Johann Tetzel’s actions in 1517. Tetzel was raising money to rebuild St.
Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. In doing so, he started indulgences by giving people
the impression that buying indulgences could buy their way in to Heaven.

Tetzel’s tactics troubled Luther and he wrote The 95 theses in response to that.
The 95 theses was Luther’s statements attacking the “pardon- merchants”. He
posted these statements on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg and invited
other scholars to debate him. Meanwhile, someone copied Luther’s statements and
took them to a printer and Luther’s name became known all over Germany

[11]
quickly. Luther’s actions began the movement for religious reform called the
Reformation. This led to the founding of Christian churches that did not accept
the pope’s authority.

In 1529, German princes remained loyal to the Pope and agreed to join forces
against Luther’s ideas. However , those princes who supported Luther , signed a
protest against that agreement. And these protesting princes came to be known as
the Protestants. The term Protestant was used to refer to Christians who belonged
to the non- Catholic Churches eventually.

Beginning of Reformation : Calvinism

John Calvin , a French follower of Luther , promoted unique ideas about the
relationship between people and God. John Calvin was only eight years old when
Luther posted his 95 theses. Calvin grew up to have as much influence in the
spread of Protestantism as Luther did.

In the year 1536, Calvin published Institutes of the Christian Religion , which
expressed ideas about human nature , God and Salvation. It was a summarized
version of Protestant theology or religious beliefs. He wrote that men and women
are sinful by nature. One of Luther’s idea was that humans cannot earn salvation.
Calvin took this idea and went on to say that God chooses a very few people to
save. He called these few the “elect”. He believed that God has known since the
beginning of time who will be saved. This doctrine is called predestination. And
the religion based on Calvin’s teachings is called Calvinism.

During the early years, many women played prominent roles in the Reformation.
One of the best example is the sister of King Francis I , Marguerite of Navarre
who had protected John Calvin from being executed for his beliefs while he lived
in France.

[12]
The wives of some reformers , also had influence. Katherina Zell, married to
Matthew Zell of Strasbourg , once scolded a minister for speaking harshly of
another reformer. When the minister responded by saying that she had “disturbed
the peace” , she answers to this criticism sharply :

Do you call this disturbing the peace that instead of spending my time in
frivolous amusements I have visited the plague- infested and carried out the dead ?
I have visited those in prison and under sentence of death. Often for three days
and three nights I have neither eaten nor slept. I have never mounted the pulpit ,
but I have done more than any minister in visiting those in misery. ( Katherina
Zell, quoted in Women of the Reformation).

Katherina von Bora , as Luther’s wife played a more typical, behind- the- scenes
role. When Katherina was about ten years old , she was sent to a convent and had
become a nun. However, Luther’s teachings inspired her to run away from the
convent. After marrying Luther , they had six children. Katherina also managed the
family finances and supported her husband’s work. She respected Luther’s position ,
however , she argued with him about women’s equal role in marriage.

With the firm establishments of Protestant religions , their organizations became

more formal. Women’s roles were narrowly limited to household activities by the
male religious leaders and discouraged them from becoming leaders in the church.
In fact, Luther said , “ God’s highest gift on earth is a pious , cheerful , God-
fearing , home- keeping wife.”

The Reformation had an enduring impact. The Reformation set the stage for the
modern world through its social , religious and political effects. It also led to the
cultural division with the end of Christian unity of Europe.

Throughout the 1500s , the vast majority of Europeans lived in rural areas.
However , the capital and port cities of the European countries experienced
exceptional growth during this time. London was the largest city in Europe. A
distinctively urban way of life developed in the Renaissance era in large European
cities like London. This included the performances at playhouses like the Globe ,
for the purpose of the entertainment.

[13]
 Chapter 2

The Elizabethan Stage

Elizabethan theatre , sometimes called English renaissance theatre , is referred to

the style of performance plays which blossomed during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I of England , which continued under her Stuart successors. Theatre
became central to Elizabethan social life even in an era of popular entertainment
like public executions and cock- fighting. When the “drama shifted from a
religious to secular function in the society , poets and playwrights became the
leading artists of the day,” ( Ghosh 2).

The popularity of the plays written by Scholars like Robert Greene , John Lyly ,
Thomas Lodge and Christopher Marlowe led to the building of theatres and to the
development of companies of both professional and amateur actors. These actors
travelled through England performing in London in the winter and spring. There
was already a very lively market for a diverse range of cultural products and
services by the time of the establishment of the earliest professional theatres in
London.

The technological infrastructure devised for the rapid circulation of cultural goods
and services were the Globe , the Curtain , and other public playhouses. A
heterogenous assembly of anonymous consumers were the spectators of these
performances.

The Elizabethan theatre attracted criticism , censorship and scorn from some groups
of English society along with its popularity. The plays were often “coarse and
boisterous” (Ghosh 2) and the actors and playwrights were of Bohemian class.
According to the Puritan leaders and officers of the Church of England , the
actors were questionable characters and the playwrights were using the stage to
spread irreverent opinions. They were scared of the spread of disease due to the

[14]
overcrowded theatre. Parliament censored plays throughout the 16th century for
profanity , heresy , or politics. However , Queen Elizabeth and later King James
offered protections to allow the survival of the theatre. And , to make peace with
the Puritans , Queen Elizabeth established rules that prohibited the construction of
theatres as well as the theatrical performances within the London city limits.

For the easy reach of the theatre- going public , playhouses such as the Curtain ,
the Globe , the Rose , and the Swan were constructed just outside of London.
These public playhouses led to the eventual emergence of professional companies
as stable business organizations. Despite of make- shift , dirty and loud
characteristics of the Elizabethan theatres , they attracted a large number of
audiences from all social class. Usually , the performances were given in the
afternoons , lasting two to three hours. Each section of both the ancient and
contemporary theatres bore a different price of admission , starting with the lowest
prices in the pit below stage level where patrons stood to watch the play.

“Most performances space were arranged “in-the-round,” giving spectators the

opportunity to watch both the play and the behavior of other spectators,” (Ghosh
3). Also , the audiences were free to express their distaste or satisfaction for the
action on stage.

With the emergence of the great popular plays of all sorts , playhouses were built
for both public and private organizations. English Renaissance playhouses , often
called as Shakespearean playhouses , were the first commercial theatres in England.
Companies of professional actors were performing plays in England from the latter
half of the fifteenth century , but London , being the most populous city saw the
building up of Renaissance playhouses in 1567 , when Shakespeare was only three
years old. Nine playhouses were built from 1575 to 1578.

Major Conventions of Elizabethan Stage

The evidence states that a performance at court was very different from a
performance in a public or private playhouse. The company worked all the year
and when the master of revels had selected the Companies after competition , the
author was called upon to revise his play and the performance ended with prayers
for the Queen. Elizabeth’s accounts show an annual outlay for airing and

[15]
furbishing up the court stock of costumes and appliances , besides considerable
expense for wires , lights , properties and mechanical contrivances , ( Ghosh 10 ).

Some of the specific acting and staging conventions of the Elizabethan stage are
discussed below :

(i) Soliloquy : Soliloquy is an act of speaking one’s thoughts out loud that has
the tendency to reveal the character’s thoughts used to advance the plot. This
Elizabethan convention is a literary or dramatic technique in which one character
talks out loud his inner personal thoughts with no intention of any other character
listening. The purpose of soliloquy is to make the audience aware of a character’s
inner feelings.

(ii) Aside : The Aside existed in Shakespeare’s times , but happily continued into
the melodramas of the 19th century years later. An aside involves a charcter
addressing the audience “on the side” , who offers them valuable information in
relation to the plot or characters that only the audience is aware of. This
empowers the audience by making them know about the events on the stage even
more than the characters.

(iii) Boys performing Female Roles : In Elizabethan England , acting was

considered to be unsuitable for women because it was rough rowdy and not
genteel. Therefore , it was not legal for women to act on the English stage until
Charles II was crowned in the year 1660. This became a convention of the
Elizabethan stage. Shakespeare and his contemporaries therefore had to cast young
boys to play the roles of women , while men played the male roles on stage.

(iv) Masque : The masque was usually performed indoors at the King or Queen’s
court. A masque involved beautiful costumes and an intellectual element
appropriate for the mostly educated upper class. Masques were allegorical stories
about an event or person which involved singing , acting , and dancing. Characters
happened to wear elaborate masks to hide their faces.

[16]
(v) Eavesdropping : This is a dramatic technique that is something nearly between
a soliloquy and an aside. Certain characters would strategically overhear other
characters on stage . This event informs those characters as well as the audience
about that thing. While this happened on one side , the characters who were being
overheard have no idea what was happening. This convention of Eavesdropping
became useful for the playwrights as it helped them to evolve the plot.

(vi) Presentational Acting Style : It is generally agreed by scholars Elizabethan

acting was largely presentational in style. Plays were more vertly 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
stylized 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 character’s direct address to
the audience when staged.

(vii) Dialogue : The Elizabethan plays mainly 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 stylized , 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).

(viii) Play Within a Play : The Elizabethan convention was a playwriting

technique used by Shakespeare and others that involved the staging of a play
inside the play itself.

(ix) Stagecraft : In terms of stagecraft , elaborate costumes were used by the

Elizabethan drama ; however , it was quite the opposite for scenery. Acting spaces
were bare stage and hence , largely empty with the minimal use of props. This

[17]
explains the use of rich dialogue full of imagery because there was no set on the
stage to designate the Scene’s location. On the other hand , Elizabethan costumes
being rich and colorful had the ability to denote a character’s status in society , all
by itself. With no stage lights of any kind , plays were strictly performed during
daylight hours.

There was a simple balcony at the rear of the stage and it was used for scenes
involving fantastical beings , Gods or Heaven. There was also a trap door in the
stage floor , used to drop characters into Hell or raise characters up from beneath.
The two doors at the rear (tiring house) were the entrances and Exits. An
Elizabethan actor exiting side stage may well have landed among the groundlings
after falling off the edge of the (three-sided) thrust stage that jutted out in to
audience , ( Ghosh 11).

Public and Private Playhouses :

From the travelling players performing in the yards of inns , Elizabethan theatre
has evolved in to purpose- built theatres based on the ampitheatres of Ancient
Greece an Rome , and finally to the comfort of enclosed playhouses. There were
two kinds of buildings designed for the functions other than the acting of plays in
the England of 1575. These buildings were adapted as temporary outdoor
playhouses by the players : the animal baiting rings or game houses and yards of
inns. A booth stage was set up against a wall at one side of the yard , with the
audience standing in it surrounding the stage on all three sides. Two major classes
of Permanent Elizabethan playhouse grew out of these open and make- shift
playhouses : the ‘public’ and the ‘private’.

Generally, the public the playhouses were large outdoor theatres , while the private
playhouses were smaller indoor theatres. The maximum capacity of a typical
public and private playhouse were about 3,000 and 700 spectators respectively.

The majority of spectators were ‘groundlings’ at the ‘public’ playhouses , who

stood in the dirt yard or pit for a penny ; the remaining or rest of the spectators

[18]
were sitting in galleries and boxes for two pence or more. On the other hand , all
spectators were seated in pit , galleries , and boxes at the ‘private’ playhouses and
they paid sixpence or more.

The private playhouses : the Paul’s Playhouse , the first and second Blackfriars ,
the Red Bull were found only in the suburbs. However, this distinction
disappeared by 1606 with the opening of the Whitefriars Playhouse to the West of
Ludgate. Public- theatre audiences tended to consist mainly from the lower classes ;
whereas private- theatre audiences tended to consist of gentlemen and nobility.

Companies of Actors :
A playing Company in Elizabethan England was known by the name of its patron
as in the “Earl of Oxford’s Men” and by its playing venue , as in ‘the Children
of Paul’s.’ Children’s Companies , or boy’s Companies , were troupes of boy
actors in Renaissance England. As per the records , the choir boys of Chapel
Royal at Windsor were performing occasional plays by 1516 , and the choristers of
St. Paul’s Cathedral by 1525, ( Ghosh 6)

In 1576 , Richard Farrant as the Master of the Children of the Chapel, purchased
a lease on rooms at Blackfriars with the intention to convert them for indoor
performances.

The master of the companies trained the boys in both singing and acting , along
with singing and acting , along with the grammar and rhetoric, chiefly Latin. The
masters also played the roles of - managers, directors , costumers and designers and
whatever a given production required. Many shareholders in the Chamberlain’s
Men , Shakespeare’s Company , for example had been boy actors in their youth.

The boy’s companies fell out of favour because of their involvement in the Martin
Maprelate Controversy (1588-89) and they laid low during the 1590s.

[19]
The adult companies including the Earl of Leicester’s Men , the Earl of
Warwick’s Men , and the Earl of Sussex’s Men had a significant presence at court
in the 1570s and early 1580s.

One of the most significant event in the history of English playing companies is
when Sir Sir Francis Walsingham authorized Edmund Tilney , master of revels to
form a company under Queen Elizabeth’s patronage in March 1583. It came to be
known as Queen’s Men. However , Queen’s Men faded as a court and city
presence after 1558. And their players and repertory are known more than that of
any other company until the formation and beginning of the “Admiral’s Men and
the Chamberlain’s Men - with which Shakespeare was associated professionally , ”
(Ghosh 7).

Licensing and Censorship :

The London Stage was the glory of the Elizabethan era and its power was feared
as much as it was admired. The Queen and the Privy Council were concerned
with possible displays of controversial religious or political matter in the plays.
The city authorities , the Corporation and its magistrates were more concerned as
they were responsible for the maintenance of public order. However , “ most
concerned of all was the Church , as is seen in many of the documents pressuring
the government to close or curtail the theatres , ostensibly because two o’clock
performances conflicted with religious ceremonies , which was also scheduled for
two o’clock “ (Gurr 33) , and in addition they feared the effects of the ‘sinful
behaviour’ in the staged displays and feared of the teachings of the plays.

The court official called the master of revels , exercised a strict control over the
theatre of his day. It was the ultimate goal of every Elizabethan theatre company
to perform at court. ‘Practising to perform at court for the monarch’s
entertainment was the only official accepted excuse the playing companies could
give for playing regularly in London’ (Gurr 19). When the Master of Revels
organized an upcoming season of performances he would summon the acting
troupes so that they could audition before him and his three subordinate officers.
The master would then choose which companies would perform and which plays
they were allowed to produce , (Ghosh 8). After the selection of the play to be

[20]
produced before the Royal Court , the Master arranges for all the required scenery
and costumes.

In 1579 , Edmund Tilney was appointed to this office. In 1581 , he was given a
special Commission by the Queen which authorized his role as a licensor and
censor of Professional theatre in London. The Commission gave Tilney the power
to force the troupes of Professional actors to rehearse their play repertories before
him which alone would earn them license to perform in the Court. The Master’s
power extended beyond control of court entertainment to include censoring
publicly performed plays , and issuing licenses to provincial acting troupes. This
led to a gradual corruption of the office , and by 1603 it was common for the
Master of Revels to earn ten times his salary through bribes , ( Ghosh 9).

The 1581 Commission authorized Edmund Tilney to :

Warne commande and appointe in all places within this our Realme of
England , as well within francheses and liberties as without , all and every
plaier or plaiers with their playmakers , either belonging to any noble man
or otherwise , bearing the name or names of using the facultie of
playmakers or Plaiers of Comedies , Tragedies , Enterludes or whatever
other shows soever , from tyme to tyme and at all tymes to appeare or
meane to set forth , and them to recite before our said Servant or his
Sufficient deputie , whom he ordeyne aqppointe and aucthorise by these
presents of all such shows , plaies , plaiers and playmakers , together with
their playing places , to order and reforme , aucthorise and put downe , as
shalbe thought meete or unmeete unto himself or his said deputie in that
behalf. (Chambers , 1923 , IV).

[21]
Figure 1.1. THE GLOBE THEATRE - Wood- engraving by R. J. Beedham after a
reconstruction by J. C. Adams.

[22]
 CHAPTER 3

The 16th Century English Dramatists and

Playwrights

The transition of the theatre from the medieval to the Renaissance was more
readily apparent in England than in Italy or France. When the rediscovered
classics gradually found their way to England , English plays began to reflect their
influence.

The forces shaping the mid- sixteenth century English drama were the 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.

When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in the year 1588 , she wanted no
religious disagreement and outlawed drama of a religious nature. In the beginning
of Elizabeth’s reign actors were considered as vagabonds. Later in 1559 , Elizabeth
decreed , a license will be required to perform plays.

Therefore , acting became a profession , and the English theatre was brought
directly under the control of the government and were provided with license to
run the acting companies. This resulted into making the profession of acting more
secure with daily performances inspiring the building of permanent theatres and
the assembling of larger companies.

The University Wits

Acting had achieved a satisfactory level of financial and social stability by the
last decade of the 16th century. The actors were paid a yearly fee and other
expenses by the court. Also , some members of the troupes owned theatre

[23]
buildings. These troupes were men and these male actors even played the roles of
women. Such large repertories required a supply of new plays. And some of these
new plays came from a group of young men called the “The University Wits” ,
nearly all of whom were associated with Oxford and Cambridge. These young
men were all , more or less , acquainted with each other , and most of them led
irregular and stormy lives.

The plays written by them has marked a pronounced stage of development over
the drama which existed before them. ‘The University Wits’ included :

George Peele (c. !558-98) , Robert Greene (1558-92) , Thomas Nash (1567-1601) ,
Thomas Lodge (c. 1558- 1625) , Thomas Kyd (1558-94) and Christopher Marlowe
(1564-93) , (Albert, pp. 89-92).

They were termed as ‘The University Wits’ because they were “associated with
Oxford and Cambridge,” (Albert 89). However , Thomas Kyd was an exception.
Their plays had numerous features in common. They were also “members of
learned societies” and were of liberal view concerning the subject of “God and
Morality” (Anderson , 2019).

Christopher Marlowe , as a poet and a playwright was at the forefront of the 16th
century dramatic Renaissance. He was the greatest of the pre- Shakespearean
dramatists. Marlowe was born in Canterbury and went to King’s School and was
awarded a scholarship that enabled him to study at Cambridge , from late 1580
until 1587 (Marlowe , 2014 )

The theatre of the Renaissance literary period was deeply influenced by Marlowe’s
blank verse. His writings were of great intensity and strong characters , which was
a new type for the English stage. The poet Algernon Charles Swinburne had
observed of Marlowe as “the father of English tragedy and the creator of English
blank verse was therefore also the teacher and the guide of Shakespeare” (
Swinburne, 2004 ).

[24]
Christopher Marlowe : Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe’s remarkably famous work Doctor Faustus , displays the spirit
of the Renaissance. The play encapsulates the power for the search for knowledge
and quest for external knowledge. Marlowe has presented the humanistic values of
man in the society along with the morality guided by the spirit of Reformation.
The play tries to portray Faustus as a man of Renaissance who is in a quest for
knowledge in order to dominate the world. The themes of “humanism ,
necromancy , spirit of inquiry , moral conflict , biblical allusions , and dominion are
included in the play” (Adminnotes , 2020).

Doctor Faustus is a typical Renaissance performance of the great story of

Faustus’s damnation for knowledge. Renaissance which literally means re- birth or
re- awakening , is the Europe- wide movement which closed the conventions of the
medieval age and promoted liberation in all aspects of life as well as culture. It
was a shift from heavenly to earthly life. Knowledge and wealth were the
fundamental requirements for the Renaissance man on which he judged and
gauged each and everything. Individualism and worldliness were the main
ingredients of this new spirit.

Speaking in general , Marlowe himself is the spirit of the renaissance incarnate.

Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is not satisfied with the conventional sphere of
knowledge. He has a towering ambition to become a deity. The knowledge of
Law , Medicine , Logic and Divinity are not sufficient for him as he says :

“Philosophy is odious and obscure ,

Both law and physic are for petty wits ,
Divinity is basest of the three.”

All that Faustus wants to attain is super human power like Renaissance man , and
he can gain such power only by necromancy. According to him , “A sound
magician is mighty God”.

During the Renaissance , the new discoveries in science and developments in

technology went beyond material advances. There was an intellectual curiosity. It

[25]
was an age when nothing seemed impossible. This period opened a new a whole
new world of imagination before the Europeans. Men’s imagination were stirred by
all these things and they began to believe that the infinite was attainable.
Marlowe has expressed such ideas in Doctor Faustus , when Faustus says :
“O, what a world of profit and delight ,
Of power , of honour , of omnipotence ,
Is promised to the studious artisan !
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command : ”

Doctor Faustus ends up making a bargain with the devil to achieve his goal. For
the attainment of his purpose , he is ready to pay any price. In the play , there are
Good and Evil Angel who warn him against the dangers that will come with
damnation , yet he is unable to resist the temptation as Evil Angel says :
“Be thou on earth as Jove in the sky ,
Lord and commander of all these elements.”

Then , Doctor Faustus as a true embodiment of Renaissance spirit , begins

dreaming of gaining super- human powers and performing miraculous deeds with
the help of the spirits raised by him ,
“I’ll have them fly to India for gold ,
Ransack the Ocean for orient pearl ,
I’ll have them read the strange philosophy ,
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings.”

All these assertions clearly depicts Faustus’s “Renaissance spirit of adventure and
craze for knowledge and power without any limit” (Somroo , n.d.). Finally , we see
Faustus discarding God and defying all moral and religious principles , when he
sells his soul to the Devil. He says :
“Ay and Faustus will turn to God again :
To God? He loves thee not’
The God thou serv’st is thine own appétit.”

Like the man of Renaissance , Faustus considers knowledge to be his power. He

expects the power of knowledge to gratify the sensual pleasure of life. Also , after
making the agreement with the Devil for twenty four years of worldly pleasures ,
his first desire I that of the most beautiful woman.

[26]
He asks Mephistophilis :
“Let me have a wife ,
The fairest maid in Germany
For I am wanton and lascivious ,
And can not live with- out a wife.”

Faustus’s desire to have Helen and to find Heaven in her lips reveal his love of
beauty and yearning for sensuous pleasures. The “most inspired and lyrical
passage of the play illustrates the Renaissance spirit of love and adoration for
classical beauty as well as urge for romance and mighty adventures” (Somroo ,
n.d.) :
“Sweet Helen , make me immortal with a kiss!
Her lips suck forth my soul ; See Where flies it!
Come , Helen , come , give me my soul again,
Here will I Dwell , for heaven is in these lips ,
And all in dross that is not Helena.”

However , after the completion of the period of twenty four years , Faustus meets
his tragic end. He realize the fact that supernatural powers are reserved for the
gods and any man who tries to handle the extraordinary powers must face eternal
damnation. He repents of his deeds but he is left with no opportunity of going
back in time.

Marlowe “conceived a world which is free from all religious as well as moral
codes and where man can maximum strength and enjoyment by way of impiety ,
sensuality , and crime” (Renaissannce Drama , n.d.).

David. L. Hirst in his book , The Tempest : Text and Performance , says that
“Faustus is a Renaisance thinker , trying to better himself and the world. He seeks
new realms of knowledge and is representative of the newly discovered potential
of mankind” (Hirst , 1984. Print).

The character of Doctor Faustus depicts the quest for knowledge , individualism ,
spirit of enquiry , interest in Classics and love of beauty. Thus , Marlowe’s Doctor
Faustus can be considered to the play reflecting the Renaissance spirit.

Calvinism , a major branch of Protestantism follows the religious practices of John

Calvin. According to McNeill , each human being was fated with this religion

[27]
from the beginning of its life to be damned or saved and then through the
workings of faith the subject may come to knowledge of its fate ; however , this
does not mean that the subjects has influence over its own salvation , (McNeill
32).

Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus carries the concepts of predestination and predemption.

The first scene of the play is a clear appreciation of Calvinism , where Faustus
reads from the Vulgate , : “ Jerome’s Bible , Faustus , view it well: / Stipendium
peccati mors est. Ha! Stipendium , etc. , / the reward of sin is death? That’s hard ”
(I. 38-40) . Furthermore , Faustus thinks that people who do not believe they are
sinners are deceived . He says :
“ If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves , and
there is no truth in us. Why then , belike we must sin , and
so consequently die. Ay , we must die and everlasting death.
What doctrine call you this ? Che sera sera . What will be ,
shall be , Divinity , adieu!” (I.42-46).

This interpretation of the Bible is close to the Calvinist doctrine of predestination.

It dooms human beings from the moment of their birth , meaning there is no
consequence for Faustus to make a deal with Mephestophilis to acquire the
knowledge he desires before his soul goes to hell. On the contrary , the
representation of the Good Angel and the Bad Angel suggest that Faustus had
choice in the matter of where his soul would go. The Good Angel warns Doctor
Faustus about the consequences of practicing necromancy , which represents the
theology of Redemption through the Good Angel’s words :

“O Faustus , lay that damned book aside

And gaze not on it lest it tempt thy soul
And heap God’s heavy wrath upon thy head.
Read , read the scriptures : that is blasphemy ,” (I. 68- 71).

However , Faustus mentions his desire to learn the forbidden knowledge of

necromancy even before the warning of the Good Angel. He describes necromancy
as irresistible. Therefore , his desire for magic is what leads him to practice it.
Faustus is aware of the heavy price he will have to pay for the wisdom he
gained but , he does not hesitate to continue with the further knowledge. He says :

“Now , Faustus , must thou needs be damned ?

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 And canst thou no be saved
What boots it then to think on God or heaven?
Away with such vain fancies , and despair ;
Despair in God , and trust in Belezebub …
To God ? He loves thee not,” (II. 1-10).

Faustus lacks faith in God , however , this lack of faith is not what decides
whether or not his soul will be damned. It is only God’s decision. Therefore ,
Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus can be read from the view point of Calvinistic
doctrine of predestination and redemption.

However , the play can be read from not only one perspective but many other
theological perspective. This is because Faustus’s fate can also be reasoned as the
consequence of his deeds , which makes him a remarkabale Renaissance Hero.

[29]
Figure 1.2. Orson Welles as Doctor Faustus in his extraordinarily popular 1937
production at New York’s Maxine Elliott Theatre.

Figure 2.1. Richard Burton as Doctor Faustus in the poorly- received film , based
on the Oxford University Drama Society production of 1966.

[30]
Figure 2.2. Paul Hilton as Doctor Faustus and Arthur Darvill as Mephistopheles in
Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2011 production. Photograph by Keith Pattison. Courtesy of
the Globe.

[31]
 CHAPTER 4

Shakespeare as a Renaissance Playwright : A Reading

of Macbeth

“All the world’s a stage

And all the men and women merely players”

In the epigraph above , quoted speech from As You Like It coined by

Shakespeare is of the meaning that , this world is like a stage show for a play
and all human beings are only actors.
In the 1550s and the 1560s , earliest plays of the period , established tragedy and
comedy as the types of drama. They were derived from Latin sources like as
tragedies from Seneca , and comedies from the works of Terence and Plautus
echoes from the Greek antecedents in both cases. “The medieval miracle and
mystery plays , and the kind of court ‘interludes’ played for the monarch , also
contributed to the development of Renaissance drama , ” (Routledge 63).

Although there is no one kind of Shakespearean hero , Hamlet in many ways is

the epitome of the Renaissance tragic hero who reaches his perfection only to
meet his impending downfall. Heroes , in Shakespeare’s early plays were mainly
historical figures or like kings of England. In place of praising for dynasties the
character and motive were the main focus of Shakespeare’s plays , meaning he
laid a great emphasis on creating complex rather than simple , one- dimensional
characters. Additionally , what makes Shakespeare a very interesting playwright is
how he had tried to project the emotional and psychological battles each of the
characters in the play are fighting. This made a huge impact on the audience.
Shakespeare , however was considered to be commercial playwright who focused

[32]
mainly on the amount of audience he wanted to gather in. His plays also had the
spirit of Renaissance period to a great extent. Shakespeare’s range expands
considerably during the 1590s as Shakespeare and his company became the stars
of London Theatre. Even though he never went to university , Shakespeare had a
wider range of reference and allusion , theme and content than any of his
contemporaries.

Shakespeare was very much a product of the radical cultural shifts that were
occurring in Elizabethan England during his lifetime. When Shakespeare was
working in the theatre , the Renaissance movement in the arts was peaking in
England and this can be considered as one of the factors why the themes of new
openness and humanism are reflected in Shakespeare’s plays.

Renaissance Humanism is the intellectual movement that began in the 14th century
and lasted roughly until the second half of the 17th century in Italy. This
movement was a departure from medieval philosophy with its superstitions and
restrictions imposed on both the mind and actions of man.

William Shakespeare : Macbeth , a Renaissance tragedy

Shakespeare’s Macbeth was supposedly written and thought to have been

performed in 1606. During Shakespeare’s time there were no props or sceneries
used on stage while performing the play. Therefore , audiences had to imagine the
scenery by interpreting the dialogues spoken and performance of the actors.
Macbeth is set in the 11th century Scotland in the northernmost region of present
United Kingdom. It was also the only play Shakespeare set in Scotland. It is
speculated that Shakespeare’s choice of Scotland as the setting was a way to pay
homage to England’s new ruler , King James I , who was also King James VI of

[33]
Scotland. After the death of Queen Elizabeth I on 24 March 1603 , King James VI
of Scotland became the successor of her throne and became King James I of
England as he was crowned on the Stone of Scone. At the end of the play ,
Malcolm’s declaration after the death of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth mentions the
Stone of Scone as it says : “… Whom we invite , to see us crown’d at Scone”.
King James I of England came to throne in 1603 , and Macbeth is believed to have
been written around 1605 or 1606 , making it a possible influence in creating of
the work. King James was fond of Shakespeare’s acting troupe , The Chamberlains
Men , that took them under his patronage and they were given a new name called
, “The King’s Men”. The setting of the play in the 11th century did not concern
Shakespeare with historical accuracy , as multiple contemporary events can be
found in this play including the Gun Powder plot of 1605 , which was an
assassination attempt on King James I.

Macbeth “dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political

ambition on those who seek power for its own sake” (Macbeth, wiki). The play is
about a heroic Scottish general named Macbeth who receives a prophecy from a
trio of witches that he will become the King of Scotland. This prophecy makes a
psychological impact on him and consumes him with ambition. This ambition of
him is then brought in to action by his wife Lady Macbeth and Macbeth ends up
murdering King Duncan and take the Scottish throne for himself. However ,
unable to live peacefully after committing murder , he is then “wracked with guilt
and paranoia”, (Macbeth , wiki). As a result , he commits more and more murders
for his own protection , therefore soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. This “bloodbath
and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms
of madness and death” (Macbeth , wiki).

As set forth in the Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) by the Italian
Renaissance Humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , defence of the dignity and

[34]
liberty of the human being was an important aspect. Pico has argued about
realization of human vocation by a three stage way which comprehends moral
transformation , intellectual research and final perfection in the identity with the
absolute reality. This study proposes to analyse the character of Macbeth
presenting the Renaissance ideas in the light of Pico della Mirandola’s philosophy.
The proponents of Humanism during the Renaissance believed in the theory that
human beings could be dramatically changed by education and knowledge. The
corruption of Macbeth’s moral values after he hears about the prophecy of the
witches about him becoming the King of Scotland leads him to murder King
Duncan. He reaches the perfection he was seeking for , however , these series of
events results in to the dramatic change in his character. Committing the crime of
murdering Duncan comprehends his moral transformation and the intellectual
research therefore helps him to become the King which he aspired for finally
reaching the heights of perfection. Therefore , Macbeth is seen as someone who is
able to reason the three stage way of Pico with the intellectual ability

Several Renaissance ideas can be found in Macbeth. The Renaissance was the era
of revival of art and learning and the educated men and women of Italy aspired
to bring back to life the cultural essence of Greece and Rome. And there are
several allusions present in the play referring to Greek and Roman time which
performed as Shakespeare’s way of pouring the essence of the Renaissance as the
period was influencing him to do so. There is an allusion to Lady Fortuna , the
roman goddess of fortune and the Captain refers to her as behaving like
Macdonwald’s “whore” on the battlefield :
“And Fortune , on his damned quarry smiling ,
Show’d like a rebel’s whore” (1.2. 26)

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This is an allusion to Golgotha , a biblical reference to place where Christ was
crucified:

“… Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds ,

Or memorize another Golgotha, ” (1.2.26-27).

There is a mention of the Greek goddess of magic , witchcraft , ghosts ,

necromancy , and the night and moon named Hecate :
“ … witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecat’s offerings ,” (2.1.45).

During Renaissance , people believed that each human being could change the
world for better. And Macduff is portrayed as someone who believed in the
possibility of how the world could change for better. Macduff was well aware of
the fact that Scotland was in a bad shape and that Macbeth is a bad ruler.
However , at one point he believes that even Malcolm would equally be a bad
ruler. But he wishes to help Scotland but does not know how. Macduff says ,
“O nation miserable!
With an untitled Tyrant , bloody sceptr’d
When shalt thou see they wholesome days again?
Since that the truest issue of thy Throne
By his own interdiction stands accus’d ,
And does blaspheme his breed? ” (4.3.88)

By this , what Macduff means is that he feels sorry for the Scotland is now and
he is aware it is because Macbeth is ruling. He calls Macbeth as ‘cursed’ and
wonders when Scotland will recover again. Macduff wants to change things for
the better for Scotland and cares for Scotland’s well being.

[36]
Another example of Renaissance ideas are Macbeth and his actions. The
Renaissance was a secular movement , a movement focused more towards non-
religious things. People were less concerned with the Church and the afterlife. All
that he cared about was his life on earth and being happy on earth. He wishes to
accomplish his goals and in order to do so , Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plans to
kill Duncan so that they can become the King and the Queen. The moment
before Macbeth kills Duncan , he fears of getting caught , however, he is not
afraid of the punishments after life. The only punishment he feared of was the
punishment on the earth if he gets caught.

Women possessed few political and private rights in the Shakespearean era. The
Renaissance women were expected to remain silent , stay away from political
discussions and focus on their husband and house activities like raising their
children. On the other hand , men were considered higher morally , intellectually ,
and physically. In Macbeth , the subject of male- dominance is both displayed as
well as challenged through the characters of Macbeth , Lady Macbeth , Macduff ,
Lady Macduff. Shakespeare introduces the two opposite realities intelligently in the
play which leads to a question of what it means to be a man.

In the beginning of the play , Macbeth is portrayed as an epitome of Masculinity.

King Duncan refers to Macbeth as : “O valiant cousin , worthy gentleman.” (1.2.
26) . This statement of compliment specifies what it means to be a man and when
should a man be considered worthy. The Captain says : “ For brave Macbeth (well
he deserves that name) / Disdaining Fortune , with his brandish’d steel, / (Like
Valour’s minion) carv’d out his passage , / Till he fac’d the slave : / Which ne’er
shook hands , nor bade farewell to him , / Till he unseam’d him from the nave to
th’ chops , / And fix’d his head upon our battlements.” (1.2. 26).

[37]
The very fact that Macbeth’s manliness cannot be questioned on the battlefield is
what gave Duncan and his men a good reason to not suspect Macbeth of any
misdeeds. Macbeth , therefore was considered as the man of honor.

Macbeth’s marriage to Lady Macbeth is a unique one , due to an evident reversal

of gender roles. Shakespeare has tried to display Lady Macbeth as a very strong
female character. The question is not that of how she put a huge impact on the
play like as if she was a man herself , but it is how she played a significant role
in the play as a woman herself . The Renaissance being a period where women
were treated differently from the men and rather expected to remain silent and
stay away from the things like politics and battles the same things the men were
rewarded for , Lady Macbeth acted as a figure that has questioned the place of
women in society and challenged the myth of women’s capabilities with that of
what women are actually capable of. Her influence on Macbeth as his wife is so
strong that she was able to take decisions for Macbeth. Macbeth would not have
killed Duncan if it wasn’t for Lady Macbeth.

As she waits for Macbeth’s arrival she asks the spirits : “…Come you spirits , /
That tend on mortal thoughts , unsex me here , / And fill me from the crown to
the toe , top- full / Of direst cruelty : make thick my blood…”. (1.5. 37)

She manipulates Macbeth by questioning his manhood : “… When you durst do it,
that you were a man : / And to more than what you were , you would / Be so
much more the Man…” (1.7. 42)
And when Macbeth asks , “If we should fail ?” , Lady Macbeth answers
Macbeth’s question saying , : “ We fail ? / But screw your courage to the sticking
place , / And we’ll not fail…” (1.7. 42) Lady Macbeth’s statements , therefore ,
were powerful enough to encourage Macbeth in to killing Duncan and they fulfill
their ambitions of becoming King and Queen.

[38]
Shakespeare embraced the simplistic , two dimensional writing style of Pre-
Renaissance drama. He focused on creating characters with psychological
complexity. The character of Macbeth is clearly defined as a portrayal of the Spirit
of Renaissance.

Men , often does not want to take responsibility for their actions and thus , seeks
the external agencies to put the blame on. Macbeth , as a tragic hero attempts to
put the blame away from himself. Macbeth considering killing Duncan and not
getting caught as his achievement is mere illusion as hidden in his victory is the
wind of an impending doom. This is an example of Dramatic Irony. Humans in
tragedy are vulnerable to making ‘errors of judgement’ or Hamartia - the term used
by Aristotle. These errors have destructive potentials. The Greeks were very
conscious of the emotions generated by such stories of serious actions resulting in
catastrophic consequences. This study proposes to identify the essence of Greek
tragedies in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Renaissance period aimed at revival of art ,
which means the men and women of this period wanted to bring back the culture
of Greece and Rome. The Greeks considered the emotions of ‘pity and ‘fear’ as
unhealthy and toxic not only for the physical body and mind but also for the
state of politics. Therefore , the question of cleansing errors or what Aristotle calls
‘Catharsis’ is the ultimate goal of Shakespeare’s tragic play Macbeth and he
displays this in light of the character of Macbeth , as the tragic hero. ‘Catharsis’
is achieved when audiences identify with the character of Macbeth completely and
experience the tragic suffering that he undergoes. Influenced by the Greek tragedies
, Shakespeare as a Renaissance playwright , follows this pattern of generating
emotions in the audience.

[39]
Figure 2.3. Samantha Spiro as Lady Macbeth and Joseph Milson as Macbeth, in
Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2014 production. (source: Westendtheatre.com)

[40]
Figure 3.1. Michael Fassbander as Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth
, in Macbeth , a 2015 British- French epic historical drama film directed by Justin
Kurzel and written for the screen by Jacob Koskoff , Todd Louiso , and Michael
Lesslie, (source: Wikipedia).

[41]
 THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE

APPROXIMATE PLAYS FIRST PRINTED

DATE
Before 1594 HENRY VI three parts Folio 1623
RICHARD III 1597
TITUS ANDRONICUS 1594
LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST 1598
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA Folio
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS Folio
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Folio
1594-1597 ROMEO AND JULIET (pirated 1597) 1599
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 1600
RICHARD II 1597
KING JOHN Folio
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 1600
1597-1600 HENRY IV part i 1598
HENRY IV part ii 1600
HENRY V (pirated 1600) Folio
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING 1600
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (pirated 1602) Folio
AS YOU LIKE IT Folio
JULIUS CAESER Folio
TROYLUS AND CRESSIDA 1609
1601-1608 HAMLET (pirated 1603) 1604
TWELFTH NIGHT Folio
MEASURE FOR MEASURE Folio
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL Folio
OTHELLO 1622
LEAR 1608
MACBETH Folio
TIMON OF ATHENS Folio
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA Folio
CORIOLANUS Folio
After 1608 PERICLES (omitted from the Folio) 1609
CYMBELINE Folio
THE WINTER’S TALE Folio
THE TEMPEST Folio
HENRY VIII Folio
Dates Unknown VENUS AND ADONIS 1593
THE RAPE OF LUCRESE 1594
SONNETS
A LOVER’S COMPLAINT 1609
THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE 1601

Table 1 : Works of Shakespeare.

[42]
 CONCLUSION

A cultural movement called humanism began to develop with a rapid speed in

Italy during the 14th century. Along with its many other principles, this movement
began promoting the idea that man was the center of his own universe he found
himself living in , and people should embrace human achievements in education ,
classical arts , literature as well science. Furthermore , the invention of Gutenberg
printing press in the year 1450 allowed for improved communication throughout
Europe and for ideas to spread more quickly. This advancement in communication
resulted to the distribution of the printed little- known texts from early humanist
authors such as those by Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco Petrarch , which
promoted the renewal of traditional Greek and Roman culture and values to the
masses. In addition to that , many scholars believe advances in international finance
and trade impacted culture in Europe and set the stage for the Renaissance.

In this dissertation, the influence of the Renaissance Humanists and their

philosophy in the plays written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I have been
investigated. Furthermore , the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and the
influence of the protestants in the works of the 16th century playwrights have been
analyzed.

With the beginning of Renaissance in Florence , Italy , great Italian writers , artists ,
politicians and others declared that they were participating in an intellectual and
artistic revolution that would be much different from what they experienced in the
Dark Ages. Firstly, the movement expanded to other city- states in Italy , such as
Venice , Milan , Ferrara , Bologne and Rome. Then , during the 15th century ,
Renaissance spread from Italy to France and then throughout western and northern
Europe.

Humanism encouraged Europeans to question the role of the Roman Catholic

Church during the Renaissance. Increase in the number of people learning to read
, write and think precisely led them to examine and criticize the religion they
have been following all these years. And, the existence of the printing press led to
the availability of the different texts including the Bible to the common people.

[43]
This made them read the Bible all by themselves making them aware of the
religious contents.

In the 16th century, a German monk named Martin Luther led the Protestant
Reformation. This was a revolutionary movement which happened to cause a split
in the Catholic Church. Luther questioned if the practices of the church were
aligned to the actual teachings in the Bible. This was the beginning of the new
phase of Christianity and hence, it was the birth of Protestanism.

John Calvin grew up to have as much influence as Luther did in the spread of
Protestantism. Calvin believed that God has known since the beginning of time
who will be saved. This doctrine came to be known as Predestination. The
religion based on Calvin’s teachings is referred to as Calvinism. When Protestant
churches won many followers , many continued to remain true to Catholicism. A
movement began within the Catholic church to reform itself , so as to help the
millions of Catholics to remain loyal , which came to be known as the Catholic
Reformation. The Reformation had a long term impact through its religious , social
, and political effects in setting the stage for the modern world.

The objective of this study is to read Marlowe’s famous play Doctor Faustus in
light of Calvinistic theology of ‘Predestination’ and ‘Redemption’ and
Shakespeare’s Macbeth in light of Italian Renaissance humanist , Pico dela
Mirandola’s idea of humanism.

This dissertation , has therefore , analyzed the impact of the Renaissance and the
Reformation in the Elizabethan theatre.

[44]
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