Renaissance Drama and Theatre
Renaissance" literally means "rebirth." It refers especially to the rebirth of learning that
began in Italy in the fourteenth century, spread to the north, including England, by the
sixteenth century, and ended in the north in the mid-seventeenth century (earlier in Italy).
During this period, there was an enormous renewal of interest in and study of classical
antiquity. Yet the Renaissance was more than a "rebirth." It was also an age of new discoveries,
both geographical (exploration of the New World) and intellectual. Both kinds of discovery
resulted in changes of tremendous import for Western civilization. In science, for example,
Copernicus (1473-1543) attempted to prove that the sun rather than the earth was at the
center of the planetary system, thus radically altering the cosmic world view that had
dominated antiquity and the Middle Ages. In religion, Martin Luther (1483-1546) challenged
and ultimately caused the division of one of the major institutions that had united Europe
throughout the Middle Ages--the Church. In fact, Renaissance thinkers often thought of
themselves as ushering in the modern age, as distinct from the ancient and medieval eras.
Study of the Renaissance might well center on five interrelated issues. First, although
Renaissance thinkers often tried to associate themselves with classical antiquity and to
dissociate themselves from the Middle Ages, important continuities with their recent past, such
as belief in the Great Chain of Being, were still much in evidence. Second, during this period,
certain significant political changes were taking place. Third, some of the noblest ideals of the
period were best expressed by the movement known as Humanism. Fourth, and connected to
Humanist ideals, was the literary doctrine of "imitation," important for its ideas about how
literary works should be created. Finally, what later probably became an even more far-
reaching influence, both on literary creation and on modern life in general, was the religious
movement known as the Reformation.
English Renaissance theatre is English drama written between the Reformation and the closure
of the theaters in 1642, after the Puritan revolution. It may also be called early modern English
theatre. It includes the drama of William Shakespeare, along with many other famous
dramatists.
Renaissance theater derived from several medieval theater traditions, such as the mystery
plays that formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe during the
Middle Ages. The mystery plays were complex retellings of legends based on biblical themes,
originally performed in churches but later becoming more linked to the secular celebrations
that grew up around religious festivals. Other sources include the morality plays that evolved
out of the mysteries, and the "University drama" that attempted to recreate Greek tragedy.
The establishment of large and profitable public theaters was an essential enabling factor in the
success of English Renaissance drama—once they were in operation, drama could become a
fixed and permanent, rather than a transitory, phenomenon.
The growing population of London, the growing wealth of its people, and their fondness for
spectacle produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality, and extent. The men
(no women were professional dramatists in this era) who wrote these plays were primarily self-
made men from modest backgrounds. Some of them were educated at either Oxford or
Cambridge, but many were not. Although William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors, the
majority do not seem to have been performers, and no major author who came on to the scene
after 1600 is known to have supplemented his income by acting.
English Renaissance drama is sometimes called Elizabethan drama, since its most important
developments started when Elizabeth I was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. But this name is not
very accurate; the drama continued after Elizabeth's death, into the reigns of King James I (1603–1625)
and his son King Charles I (1625–1649). Shakespeare, for example, started writing plays in the later years
of Elizabeth's reign, but continued into the reign of James. When writing about plays from James's reign,
scholars and critics sometimes use the term Jacobean drama; plays from Charles I's reign are called
Caroline drama. (These names come from the Latin forms of the two kings' names, "Jacobus" for James
and "Carolus" for Charles.) But for the subject as a whole, terms like English Renaissance drama or
theatre are more accurate.
Christopher Marlowe, Elizabethan poet and Shakespeare’s most important predecessor in
English drama, who is noted especially for his establishment of dramatic blank verse.
Marlowe, writing for the theatres, occasionally got into trouble with the authorities because of
his violent and disreputable behavior, and probably also engaging himself from time to time in
government service. Marlowe won a dangerous reputation for “atheism,” but this could, in
Elizabeth I’s time, indicate merely unorthodox religious opinions.
In a playwriting career that spanned little more than six years, Marlowe’s achievements were
diverse and splendid. Perhaps before leaving Cambridge he had already written Tamburlaine
the Great (in two parts, both performed by the end of 1587; published 1590). Almost certainly
during his later Cambridge years, Marlowe had translated Ovid’s Amores (The Loves) and the
first book of Lucan’s Pharsalia from the Latin. About this time he also wrote the play Dido,
Queen of Carthage (published in 1594 as the joint work of Marlowe and Thomas Nashe). With
the production of Tamburlaine he received recognition and acclaim, and playwriting became his
major concern in the few years that lay ahead.
In Faustus Marlowe tells the story of the doctor-turned-necromancer Faustus, who sells his soul
to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. The devil’s intermediary in the play,
Mephistopheles, achieves tragic grandeur in his own right as a fallen angel torn between satanic
pride and dark despair. The play gives eloquent expression to this idea of damnation in the
lament of Mephistopheles for a lost heaven and in Faustus’ final despairing entreaties to be
saved by Christ before his soul is claimed by the devil.
Just as in Tamburlaine Marlowe had seen the cruelty and absurdity of his hero as well as his
magnificence, so here he can enter into Faustus’ grandiose intellectual ambition, simultaneously
viewing those ambitions as futile, self-destructive, and absurd. The text is problematic in the low
comic scenes spuriously introduced by later hack writers, but its more sober and consistent
moments are certainly the uncorrupted work of Marlowe.
THE ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN AGES Both the Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods in the
history of English literature are also known as The Age of Shakespeare. This span of time is the
golden age of literature. It extends from the accession of Elizabeth in 1558 to the death of
James I in 1625. It was an era of peace, of economic prosperity, of stability, of liberty and of
great explorations. It was an age of both contemplation and action. It was an era which was
illustrious for the unprecedented development of art, literature and drama. John Milton calls
England, during this age, as ―a noble and puissant nation, rousing herself, like a strong man
after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks.
This is the most remarkable epoch for the expansion of both mental and geographical horizons.
It was an age of great thought and great action. It is an age which appeals to the eye, the
imagination and the intellect. New knowledge was pouring in from all directions. The great
voyagers like Hawkins, Frobisher, Raleigh and Drake brought home both material and
intellectual treasures from the East and the West. The spirit of adventure and exploration fired
the imagination of writers. The spirit of action and adventure paved the way for the illustrious
development of dramatic literature. Drama progresses in an era of action and not of
speculation. It has rightly been called the age of the discovery of the new world and of man.
Revenge tragedy, drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for a real or
imagined injury; it was a favourite form of English tragedy in the Elizabethan and
Jacobean eras and found its highest expression in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
The revenge drama derived originally from the Roman tragedies of Seneca but was
established on the English stage by Thomas Kyd with The Spanish Tragedy (performed
c. 1587). This work, which opens with the Ghost of Andrea and Revenge, deals with
Hieronimo, a Spanish gentleman who is driven to melancholy by the murder of his son.
Between spells of madness, he discovers who the murderers are and plans his ingenious
revenge. He stages a play in which the murderers take part, and, while enacting his role,
Hieronimo actually kills them, then kills himself. The influence of this play, so apparent
in Hamlet (performed c. 1600–01), is also evident in other plays of the period. In John
Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge (1599–1601), the ghost of Antonio’s slain father urges
Antonio to avenge his murder, which Antonio does during a court masque. In George
Chapman’s Revenge of Bussy d’Ambois (performed c. 1610), Bussy’s ghost begs his
introspective brother Clermont to avenge his murder. Clermont hesitates and vacillates
but at last complies, then kills himself. Most revenge tragedies end with a scene of
carnage that disposes of the avenger as well as his victims. Other examples are
Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (performed 1589–92), Henry Chettle’s The Tragedy of
Hoffman (performed 1602), and Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy (1607).
