Spanish Renaissance

1
Spanish Renaissance
2
Renaissance Drama in Spain

• Spanish Renaissance drama is heavily influenced
  by
• Islamic Culture
• Nearly 600 years of Moorish (i.e., Islamic)
  occupation (7111276)
• Revealed in attitudes toward women and honor
• Catholicism
• Determined to Christianize Spain, Ferdinand
  Isabella instituteThe Spanish Inquisition
  (14781834)
• Seen in the emphasis on religious faith and
  doctrine
• Spains sense of its own position as a world
  power
• Ever hear of Christopher Columbus?
• Dominant force in the New World
• By 1550, the most powerful nation in the western
  world

3
The Golden Age of Spanish DramaSiglo de Oro
1580 1680

• Dominated by a sense of confidence, energy,
  expansiveness, and faith in God, church, and
  state.
• As Muslims are driven out of the peninsula,
  religious (Christian) drama begins to spread (the
  autos sacramentales)
• By 1454, actors are being paid to perform in
  religious plays
• Spain had close ties with Italy from 14701550
• Italys interest in classical learning/art is
  adopted by intellectual elites in Spain
• By 1550, secular drama has emerged (for an
  aristocratic audience)
• Always written in verse (never developed a
  Spanish blank verse)

4
Lope de Vega(15621635)

• Most popular playwright of his age
• Remarkably prolific (450 plays survive)
• His plays are notable for
• Clearly defined actions which arouseand maintain
  suspense
• Plots that revolve around conflictingclaims of
  love and honor
• Darker side of life always glossed overwith a
  happy ending
• His female roles are among his best
• Natural dialogue
• Never penetrates deeply into human nature
• Work to know The Sheep Well (c. 1614)
• Most succeeding Spanish drama adopts this
  favorite theme of his

5
Calderón(16001681)

• Ranked above Lope de Vega by many critics
• Wrote primarily for the court theatre
• Lope de Vega wrote mostly for the public theatres
• Became a priest in 1651
• Lope did the same in 1614, after a
  veryflamboyant life
• Of approx. 200 plays, 100 survive80 are
  religious plays
• Considered to have perfected the auto
  sacramentale (religious play)
• Best secular plays were written 16221640
• Cape and Sword comedies happily resolved love
  intrigues
• Serious plays explore jealousy and honor
• Most famous secular play is Life Is a Dream (c.
  1636)
• Created a kind of musical comedy genre, the
  zarzuela

6
Renaissance Drama in France
7
The Renaissance continues to flow northward

• Late 1400s France begins to feel the effects of
  the Renaissance
• Italian artists and scholars are soon invited to
  the French court
• Medieval influences persist throughout the 16th
  century, as well
• So, Medieval and Renaissance elements exist side
  by side equally influential
• The usual pattern unfolds
• Begins with study of Roman plays
• Next come imitations of Classical works, but
  still written in Latin
• Finally, plays in French (c. 1540)
• Renaissance influence accelerates with King Henri
  II, around 1550
• He married Catherine de Medici (a very wealthy,
  powerful Florentine family)
• Among other things, the Medicis were very
  generous patrons of the arts

8
La Pléiade

• The Pléiade were a group of seven French writers
  of the 16th century
• The group was established by 1550
• Their goal was to elevate the French language as
  a worthy medium for literature modeled on
  classical works
• Their works were aimed primarily at the educated
  elite
• The first plays in French modeled on classical
  forms were by a member of La Pléiade, Etienne
  Jodelle.
• The last member died in 1605 (the rest had passed
  by 1590)
• Comparable to the University Wits in England

9
Pierre Corneille 1606-1650

• Founder of French classical tragedy
• Known for simple characters in complex plots
• Named to Les Cinq Auteurs (The Five Poets)
  in 1634, a group hand picked by Cardinal
  Richelieu to write virtuous drama based on
  themes and outlines he provided.
• Major work to know Le Cid (The Lord), c.
  1636
• Plot revolves around conflict between love
  and honor
• Observes some, but not all, of the
  neoclassical unities
• The French Academy criticized it for this,
  calling it dramatically implausible (strained
  verisimilitude) and morally defective (violated
  decorum)
• The French Academy (Académie française) was
  established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1634 as the
  official state institution for maintaining
  standards of literary taste

10
Jean Racine 1639-1699

• Considered to have mastered French classical
  tragedy
• Adhered strictly to the neoclassical ideals
  (including the unities)
• His first two plays were produced by Molière
• Works characterized bysimple plots but complex
  characters
• Drama focuses on characterspsychological
  internal conflictsnot so much on external events

11
Molière 1622-1673

• Real name Jean-Baptiste Poquelin
• Actor, Playwright, Producer, Director
• Greatest of all writers of French comedy
• His farces were heavily influenced bycommedia
  dellarte
• Greatest achievements are his comedies
  ofcharacter manners
• His biting satire of contemporary societystirred
  controversy
• Works to know Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, The
  Imaginary Invalid
• Brought comedy indoors departing from the
  classical model
• Characters do not learn or change by the end