Drama 1

ENGL 303

Presentation
subject teacher

Dr. Ali Shelil

Assistant Professor of English Literature, Poetry.

Student's work:
Amer matr
411006141
Section:
 THE ELIZABETHAN ERA

The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of
Britannia (a female personification of Great Britain) was first used in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark
the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international
expansion, and naval triumph over Spain.

This "golden age"represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry,
music and literature. The era is most famous for its theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others
composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and
expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the
people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of the period when
England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland.

The Elizabethan age contrasts sharply with the previous and following reigns. It was a brief period of
internal peace between the Wars of the Roses in the previous century, the English Reformation, and the
religious battles between Protestants and Catholics prior to Elizabeth's reign, and then the later conflict
of the English Civil War and the ongoing political battles between parliament and the monarchy that
engulfed the remainder of the seventeenth century. The Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a
time, by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge
royal absolutism.

The term Elizabethan era was already well-established in English and British historical consciousness,
long before the accession of the current Queen Elizabeth II, and it remains solely applied to the time of
the earlier Queen of this name.
 The characteristics of Elizabethan drama

In the Elizabethan Times, Drama became the national passion with a wide variety of people from
merchants to peasants vied for a place in the social order and stability in the Elizabethan.

The new Elizabethan introduced a hero who was not ascertained of his fate and was full of doubts and
passions that catapulted drama as the favourite pass time for many.

The use of expansive metaphors in text and performances were so successful lead to the opening of first
public theatre known as ‘The Theatre’ by a carpenter James Burbage.

This was the spark that ignited the passion that led to Charlotte Marlowe, Ben Jonson
and Shakespeare and his famous “The Globe” in the future. This age is also known for experimentation
leading to new discoveries which provided rich content for drama, poetry and prose.

Use of theology, geography and science provided a new dimension to the literature of the time.
However, with the crowing of James, I content became a tool for the glorification of absolute royal
power.

The drama of the time became an exercise for propaganda glorifying the King and the monarchy. The
development of the proscenium stage was attributed to this age only. There was an emphasis on visual
with the designer gaining importance in this age.

There were political considerations as well as uncontrolled large crowds encouraged immoral behaviour
with the coming of Puritan age theatre was resigned to private homes and public houses until its revival
by Charles II in 1660.

There were many features of Elizabethan theatre that were violative of the ghost-like sanctity of
godliness with Transvestism being quite popular (men dressed up as women on stage, a Biblical sin).

Forms of Drama

• The Tragedy with spectacular and violent deaths of the protagonist. Revenge became the
ultimate pursuit in most tragedies with Romance as the main objective,

• History Plays also ended in catastrophe or in triumph with the nation projected as the hero.
Histories valorized patriotism, often of jingoistic nature.

• Comedy was the third form. The main aim was to make people laugh but they were not as
prominent as the other two genres.
The most famous writer -

William Shakespeare:

William Shakespeare is the best British writer of all time. His

many works are about life, love, death, revenge, grief, jealousy,
murder, magic and mystery. He wrote the blockbuster plays of
his day - some of his most famous are Macbeth, Romeo and
Juliet, and Hamlet.
Christopher Marlow:

Christopher Marlowe has rightly been called the father of

English drama. ... Because he marks the end of the first period
in the history of drama and the beginning of thee second over
which he presides . His advent marks the end of Medieval
drama and the birth of the great Renaissance drama.
The most famous plays :

William Shakespeare-hamlet:

Hamlet Summary. The ghost of the King of Denmark tells his

son Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing the new king,
Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet feigns madness, contemplates life and
death, and seeks revenge. ... The play ends with a duel, during
which the King, Queen, Hamlet's opponent and Hamlet himself
are all killed.
 Christopher Marlow-doctor Faustus :

Doctor Faustus, in full The Tragical History of D. Faustus,

tragedy in five acts by Christopher Marlowe, published in 1604
but first performed a decade or so earlier. Marlowe’s play
followed by only a few years the first translation into English of
the medieval legend on which the play is based. In Doctor
Faustus Marlowe retells the story of Faust, the doctor-turned-
necromancer, who makes a pact with the devil in order to
obtain knowledge and power. Both Doctor Faustus and
Mephistopheles, who is the devil’s intermediary in the play, are
subtly and powerfully portrayed. Marlowe examines Faustus’s
grandiose intellectual ambitions, revealing them as futile, self-
destructive, and absurd.
 - Christopher Marlow Hero and Leander

Marlowe's poem relates the Greek legend of Hero and Leander, young lovers living in cities on opposite
sides of the Hellespont, a narrow stretch of the sea in what is now northwestern Turkey, and which
separates Europe and Asia. Hero is a priestess or devotee of Venus (goddess of love and beauty) in
Sestos, who lives in chastity despite being devoted to the goddess of love. At a festival in honour of her
deity, Venus and Adonis, she is seen by Leander, a youth from Abydos on the opposite side of the
Hellespont. Leander falls in love with her, and she reciprocates, although cautiously, as she has made a
vow of chastity to Venus.

Leander convinces her to abandon her fears. Hero lives in a high tower overlooking the water; he asks
her to light a lamp in her window, and he promises to swim the Hellespont each night to be with her.
She complies. On his first night's swim, Leander is spotted by Neptune (Roman god of the sea), who
confuses him with Ganymede and carries him to the bottom of the ocean. Discovering his mistake, the
god returns him to shore with a bracelet supposed to keep him safe from drowning. Leander emerges
from the Hellespont, finds Hero's tower and knocks on the door, which Hero then opens to find him
standing stark naked. She lets him "whisper in her ear, / Flatter, entreat, promise, protest, and swear,"
and after a series of coy, half-hearted attempts to "defend the fort" she yields to bliss. The poem breaks
off as dawn is breaking.

No critical consensus exists on the issue of how Marlowe, had he lived, would have finished the poem,
or indeed if he would have finished it at all.