Elizabethan England

1
Elizabethan England
2
Henry VIII (1509-1547)

• Catharine Of Aragon divorced married
  previously to Arthur Mary I
• Anne Boleyn beheaded Elizabeth I
• Jane Seymour died Edward VI
• Anne of Cleves divorced
• Kathryn Howard beheaded
• Katherine Parr --survived
• http//www.larmouth.demon.co.uk/sarah-jayne/wives/
  wives.html

3
The Divorce

• 1530 divorced Katharine of Aragon
• 1534 declared himself Protector of the Church
• 1536 dissolved the monasteries

4
Religious conflict throughout Elizabethan Age

• Catholics vs. reformers (Martin Luther-- 1520)
• Edward VI (1547-1553) Reformists
• Mary I Bloody Mary (1553-1558) Catholics
• Elizabeth I (1558-1603) passive obedience via
  media
• James I (1603-1625) divine right alienated
  Puritans

5
Conspiracies and councillors

• Absolute monarch
• Primogeniture and succession Elizabeth I refused
  to name a successor or marry
• Dudley, Burghley, Cecil, Walsingham
• Lady Jane Grey (executed in 1554)Mary Queen of
  Scots (executed in 1587) the Essex Rebellion
  the Gunpowder Plot

6
Work

• Enclosures agricultural life diminished
• Trade guilds and apprentices
• Merchants East India Company
• Rising middle class displacing the aristocracy

7
Lifestyle

• Gutenberg Press Martin Caxton in England
• 1476 The Canterbury Tales
• Infrequent Bathing and Hygiene Perfumes, Wigs,
  Powder
• Appearance vs. Reality
• Lack of Sanitation Bubonic Plague

8
Medieval ideas

• Ptolemaic universe( 2nd century A.D.)
  earth-centered solar system
• Primum mobile prime mover
• Chain of Being everything had its place
  God-ordained and hierarchical
• To move anything out of order would upset the
  entire system
• Each type of being had its own ruler the sun,
  lions, the king or queen- divine right
• The Church and its teachings were paramount
• Castiglione The Courtier how to behave

9
Renaissance ideas

• Return to classical texts and ideals Plato and
  Aristotle
• Humanism emphasis on human ability reasoning
  and questioning
• Machiavelli rulers are made not created by God
• Reformation and Henry VIII movement away from
  Catholic Church
• Sun-centered universe Copernicus (1543) and
  Galileo (1610)

10
Liturgical drama

• Tropes
• Corpus Christi celebrating the Eucharist

11
Medieval cycle plays (1200-1400)

• Confraternities in France, Spain,Belgium
• Trade Guilds in England showing off abilities
  commercials
• Community involvement
• Religious festivals Corpus Christi
• Expressions of religious belief

12
Theatrical conventions

• Written in everyday speech (vernacular)
• Based on biblical stories but included common
  people, comedy, spectacle
• Episodic structure
• Amateur actors women in France but not in
  England
• Intimacy between actors and audience

13
Staging

• Outdoors
• 1.In the round
• 2. Processional pageant wagons that moved from
  place to place
• 3. Stationary a number of wagons set up side by
  side with a huge common platform a neutral stage
  platea
• Wagons contained the mansions scenic units
• Heaven and Hell on opposite endsHeaven
  machinery for flyingHell Mouth- spewed forth
  smokeSecrets special effects- trapdoors,
  haloes, machinery, barrels of water for flood,
  live or dummy animals for the ark

14
Morality plays

• Allegorical
• Station drama
• Journey
• Vice figure devil who was humorous, would mix
  with audience

15
Secular theater

• Touring groups
• Opposed by church
• Minstrels, jugglers, mimes
• Fertility rituals maypole

16
Commedia dellarte

• Italy 1550-1750
• Improvised scenarios and lazzi
• Companies of seven men and three women
• Using stock characters from Roman comedy
  Pantalone, Dottore, Capitano, zanni Arlequino
• Masks and emblematic costumes

17
English drama in the 1500s

• school or university drama based on classical
  models
• university wits Christopher Marlowe
• boys acting companies
• plays were episodic, often had revenge plots,
  supernatural effects, (Roman drama) non-religious
  in plot, did not follow neoclassical ideals

18
Elizabethan era

• Burbages built the first theater The Theater in
  1576 and then moved it to Southwark in 1599 where
  it became the Globe
• Performances at court and in public theaters
• Public theaters outside the city limits in their
  own jurisdiction- liberties (Blackfriars,
  Shoreditch)
• Used by specific companies the Globe for the
  Lord Chamberlains Men
• Pits, boxes, galleries, lords rooms
• thrust stage surrounded on three sides by
  audience
• 2000-3000 people

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Indoor theater

• Blackfriars
• used by boys companies
• indoor spaces lit with candles
• much smaller than public theaters

20
Acting

• no scenery multiple settings contemporary
  costumes
• 1574 Master of Revels who licensed the plays
• companies needed a patron
• acting companies shareholders , hired men,
  apprentices
• Richard Burbage, Will Kempe Lord Chamberlains
  men
• No women

21
Opposition to the theater

• Dangers of plague
• Riotous assembly
• Puritan opposition Stephen Gossonthe
  inventions of the devil, the offerings of
  idolatry, the pomp of wordlings, the blossoms of
  vanity, the root of apostacy . .players are
  master s of vice, teachers of wantonness, spurs
  to impurity, the sons of idleness