Elizabethan Drama

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Elizabethan Drama

• Queen Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII
  and Anne Boleyn. She reigned as Queen of England
  from 1558-1603. This time period is known as the
  Elizabethan Era or the Golden Age.

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Anne Boleyn

• King Henry VIII had Anne Boleyns head chopped
  off because she could not produce a male heir.
• This made Elizabeth illegitimate and she lost the
  title of princess.
• Elizabeth later reconciled with her father he
  was unable to ever produce a healthy male heir,
  and she was reinstated in the line of succession.
  She reigned England for 45 years.

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Nicknames

• Some of Elizabeths nicknames were
• The Virgin Queen she never married. It is
  thought that she held a wedding ceremony for
  herself to marry England.
• Gloriana or Good Queen Bess
• Elizabeths half sister, Mary, was nicknamed
  Bloody Mary because so many people were executed
  while she was queen.

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The Signature of a Queen

• Queen Elizabeths Signature

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Westminster Abbey

• Elizabeth is buried at Westminster Abbey in
  England.
• Among those buried there are
• Charles Darwin
• Issac Newton
• Robert Browning
• Charles Dickens

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The Current Queen Elizabeth II

• The current Queen of England is Elizabeth II.
• She is the Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada,
  Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan,
  and Ceylon (Sri Lanka 1972).
• She became Queen in 1952.

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Elizabethan Drama

• This time of Elizabeths reign over England is
  also known as the Renaissance- this means a
  rebirth of classical learning.
• Elizabeth I encouraged new learning in England.
  The Golden Age was a time of learning and growth.

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Elizabethan Drama

• Before the Renaissance in England, countries had
  fallen into a slump. The citizens were uneducated
  and had lost interest in education and arts.
• Drama was the main form of literature because
  most people were illiterate, therefore there was
  a demand for theatres.

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Elizabethan Drama

• Before 1576, theatres had not existed.
• Plays were performed in tavern (bars) innyards to
  entertain the wealthy.
• In 1576, James Burbage built the first theater in
  London, England, it was called The Theatre.

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Elizabethan Drama

• Drama rapidly developed because of Elizabeth I.
  She loved plays!
• She was educated and wanted other people to
  better themselves.
• During the Elizabethan Era, England was called
  Merry England, because there were markets,
  fairs, dancing, drinking, and rioting in the
  streets.
• Drama of this time period is known as Elizabethan
  Theatre or Early Modern English Theatre.

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Typical Elizabethan Audience

• Groundlings- a.k.a. Pennystinkers, dirty jokes
  and fighting appealed to them.
• Middle Class- music appealed to them
• Royalty- poetry appealed to them
• An Elizabethan playwright had the task of
  appealing to all audience members.

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Weird Fact

• Boys played all the womens parts because it was
  not acceptable, nor suitable, for a woman to act.
• Until the reign of Charles II, female roles were
  played by young boys dressed in womens costumes.
  
• Yes! Juliet was originally played by a man.

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Acting Requirements

• Good voice
• Good memory
• Good dancer
• Good health

• Be able to sing
• Be able to play a musical instrument
• Good swordsman-very important
• Elizabethans liked their plays to be gory,
  bloody, noisy, and action packed.

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The Playwright

• Not all playwrights fit the image of a poet or of
  an intellectual
• Christopher Marlowe was killed in a tavern brawl.
• Ben Johnson was killed in an acting duel.

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The Plague

• A.k.a. Black Plague, Bubonic Plague, Black Death,
  Great Plague
• Horrible epidemic that began in Europe in 1592.
• By 1593, so many had died from it that the
  government would wheel death carts through the
  streets and yell Bring out your dead.

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Finale

• All theatres were closed in 1642 due to the
  Puritan movement.
• The Puritan people did not like young men
  dressing as women, theatres being located near
  taverns, or opposing political views being
  displayed on the stage.

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William Shakespeare

• Shakespeare was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon on
  April 23, 1564.
• His parents were John and Mary Shakespeare.

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The Bards Signature
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Schooling

• Shakespeare attended Stratford Grammar School, an
  all-boy school.
• He attended year round from 7 am to 7 pm daily.
• His formal schooling ended when he was 14 yrs.
  Old.

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Family

• He married Anne Hathaway. He was 18 she was 26.
• They had 3 children.
• Susannah, and twins Hamnet and Judith.
• Hamnet was the only son and he died at 11 yrs old.

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Next Move

• After his sons death, he moved to London to act.
  
• When he finally began to act the Plague closed
  the theaters.
• He then began to write.

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Lords Chamberlains Men

• In 1594, he formed an acting company with Richard
  and Cuthbert Burbage called the Lord
  Chamberlains Men.
• Acting companies had patrons who supported them.
• Their patron was Lord Hudson, who held an
  important position for Lord Chamberlain. It was
  the best company!

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The Globe

• In 1599, Shakespeare and the Burbage brothers
  built The Globe, the greatest theatre in London.

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Facts about the Globe

• It was built on the Thames River. (Pronounced
  Tims)
• It was octagonal (8 sided).
• It was open air.
• It accommodated 2,000.
• Its emblem was Atlas with the world on his
  shoulders.

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More Globe Facts

• Costs to get into see a performance at the globe
• 1 pence- to stand in the pit (groundlings)
• 2 pence- to sit in the upper balconies
• 3 pence- to sit in the best galleries
• 4 pence- to have a cushion
• The rich could sit on Stage.

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3 Levels of the Globe

• The Heavens- upper balcony for musicians and
  sound effects
• Stage
• Hell- area under the stage- used for storage (
  A trap door led to this area.)

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The Globe Today
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Shakespeare Plays

• Shakespeare wrote 37 plays. These are the three
  types of plays
• Comedies Ex. Taming of the Shrew, Comedy of
  Errors
• Histories Ex. Henry VIII, Henry IV
• Tragedies Ex. Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar,
  Hamlet, Macbeth

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Sonnets

• Shakespeare is also famous for his sonnets ( 14
  line poems ).
• His sonnets were a collection of 154 poems that
  dealt with such themes as love, beauty, and
  mortality.
• The prologue of Romeo and Juliet is a sonnet.

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Queens Death

• Queen Elizabeth died in 1603.
• James I succeeded her.
• He took Lord Chamberlains Men and renamed them
  to the Kings Men.

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Tragedy

• In 1613, the Globe burned down when a cannon
  backfired and caught the roof on fire.
• No one was hurt except for a guy whose pants
  caught on fire!
• It was rebuilt the next year.

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Shakespeares Loops

• Shakespeare made his money by his ownership in
  Theatres.
• He owned 1/10 of the Globe and a portion of
  Blackfriars Theatre.
• He did not own his plays. They were owned by the
  theatre company.

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Retirement

• In 1611, Shakespeare retired to Stratford with
  his family.
• They lived in the 2nd largest house in Stratford.

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Death

• Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616.
• It is said that a truly great man is born and
  dies on the same day.
• Shakespeares gravestone reads the following
  words
• Good friend for Jesus sake forbear,To dig the
  dust enclosed here!Blest be the man that spares
  these stones,And curst be he that moves my
  bones.
• These are thought to be the last words he ever
  wrote.

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Death

• Shakespeare is buried in Stratford in Holy
  Trinity Church.

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A Heir to the Name

• He always wanted a male heir, but did not have
  one.
• He left everything to his favorite daughter,
  Susannah.
• He did leave his wife his 2nd best bed.

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Friends

• His friends put together his first published
  edition of complete works, entitled First Folio.

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More Cool Facts

• Shakespeares first job in the theatre was
  holding horses at the stage door.
• Nothing is known of Shakespeare between the ages
  of 18 and 25. These are known as the Lost Years.
• The theatre competed for its audience with public
  executions. People loved to attend a good
  execution.

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Will the real William Shakespeare please stand up?

• Many claim that Shakespeare did not actually
  write the plays or even exist.
• These claims have never been able to be proved.
• Here are their arguments
• His education was limited, so he couldnt have
  had such an excellent command of English.
• Shakespeare did not travel the world, so he could
  not have been able to write plays that depicted
  Egypt, Italy.
• He knew little of foreign languages, so how could
  he have written passages that contained Latin and
  French.
• His plays depict the lives of Queens and Kings.
  How could he have known what this life was like?

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How to Speak Shakespeare

• Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?