Elizabethan era and theatre Life and work of William Shakespeare
Elizabethan era • • Reign of Queen Elizabeth 1558 – 1603 Expansion and exploration London – heart of England leading centre of culture Theatres in Southwark
Elizabethan theatre l Play l 1 st writers – Shakespeare, Marlowe proper theatre – Theatre 1576 l Other - Rose, Swan, Hope, Globe (Lord Chamberlain´s Men – Shakespeare – 1613 burned down)
Play houses l l l l Private and public Audience: 2000 – 5000 people Round, square wooden structure Rich – galleries, poor in ground 2 doors on stage = opposite locations Effects – fire, smoke, flying Actors – only men Performances – afternoon = artificial lightning
William Shakespeare 1564 - 1616 born in Stratford upon Avon in 1564 l As 18 years old married Anne Hathaway l His plays were on London stage by 1592 l From 1594 his plays performed only Lord Chamberlain´s Men l
l The company built in 1599 own theatre which they called the Globe l Shakespeare continued to act in his own and others plays also after his succes as playwriter l His last plays wrote together with John Fletcher l Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died on 23 April 1616
Plays 1 st period – until 1590 = mainly comedies influenced by Roman and Italian models, and traditional history plays l 2 nd p. – began in 1595 with Romeo and Juliet, ended in 1599 with Julius Caesar, period of greatest comedies and histories l 3 rd p. – 1600 – 1608, „tragic“ period - tregedies l 4 th p. – 1608 – 1613, tregicomedies, romances l
General description of Shakespeare’s plays l l l l Early point of effect several lines of action which might seen independent at the beginning but later they merge (splynú) together, we speak about unity in diversity, best example is King Lear there is a large number of & variety of incidents, mixed emotions as tears & laughter, violence ideas of time &space are used freely, S doesn’t stick in classical unity of time & space, audience has feeling of ongoing action or life behind the scene large number of characters – 30 is quite common, they represent all social levels, they can be poor or rich but they are still individual language also differs from play to play – can be elegant or witty even obscene & its function is to enhance character & his or her actions subjects are taken from different sources – as mythology, history, legends, fiction
Poems and sonnets l Shakespeare wrote 3 narrative poems on erotic themes. Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, A Lover´s Complaint l The Sonnets (1609) – planned 2 series, one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about pure love for a fair young man (the "fair youth")
Style l l adapt traditional style to his own purposes, he combined traditional and free style his standard poetic form - blank verse in iambic pentameter, later he began to interrupt and vary its flow His style was "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical" Use run-on lines, irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length
Influence l He expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre l His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. l Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, Charles Dickens and American novelist Herman Melville. In Shakespeare's day, English grammar and spelling were less standardised than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English.
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