ELIZABETHAN THEATRE
Filip Krajník
Masaryk University
Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Elizabethan Theater | Folger Shakespeare Library

Birth of Drama in Europe
Ancient Greece (6th cent. BC)
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Greek Drama
Tragedy
- Aeschilus, Sophocles, Eurepides
Comedy
- Aristophanes
Satyric play
- Sophocles, Eurepides
Aristotle’s Poetics (Περὶ ποιητικῆς, 335 BC)
– first treatise on dramatic (and literary) theory

Roman Drama
Tragedy
- Seneca (4 BC-AD 65)
Comedy
- Plautus (254-184 BC)
Related image

Medieval Theatre (9th cent. AD)
•Celebration of principal
Christian feasts
•Biblical material –
re-enacting popular stories
of Christian myth
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Medieval Theatre
Innocent III (1198–1216)
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Early-Modern English Theatre
Henry VIII (1509–1547)
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“Elizabethan” Theatre
Elizabeth I (1558–1603)
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“Elizabethan” Theatre
The Vagabonds Act of 1572:
… all fencers, bear-wards, common players of interludes, and minstrels wandering abroad (other than
players of interludes belonging to any baron of this realm, or any other honourable personage of
greater degree to be authorised to play, under the hand or seal of arms of such baron or personage)
shall be taken, adjudged, and deemed as rogues-vagabonds…

Medieval Theatre
A Village Fair (Pieter Breugel the Younger, 1632)


Early-Modern Playhouses
Globe Theatre (1599–1613, 1614–1642)
Shakespeare's Globe | Globe Theater Facts | DK Find Out

Early-Modern Playhouses
Swan Theatre
(Johannes de Witt , 1596)
File:The Swan cropped.png - Wikimedia Commons

Early-Modern Playhouses
From A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Quince. Pat, pat; and here’s a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall
be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action as we will do it
before the duke.
(Act 3, Scene 1)

Early-Modern Playhouses
Blackfriars Theatre, a reconstruction (1608–1642)
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Early-Modern Costumes
A scene from Titus Andronicus (ca 1594)
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Early-Modern Acting Companies
Lord Chamberlain’s Men/King’s Men (1594–1642):
•ca 8 core actors (26 in total by 1623)
•ca 8 hired men (minor parts)
•4–6 boys (apprenctices)
•musicians
Hamlet. He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me; the
adventurous knight shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humourous
man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o’ the
sere; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for’t.
(Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2)

Early-Modern Character-Types



Early-Modern Actors
Richard Burbage (1568–1619)
Richard Burbage – Wikipedie

Robert Armin (1568?–1615)
Early-Modern Actors
Will Kemp (1560?–1603?)
Will Kemp (unknown-1603) - Find A Grave Memorial Category:Robert Armin - Wikimedia Commons

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•          Shakespeare’s F1 (c. 30x38 cm)               Q1 of Hamlet (c. 24x30 cm)
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Shakespeare in Print

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•Hamlet (1603, “First Quarto”)
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•Hamlet (1604/5, “Second Quarto”)
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•Hamlet (1623, “First Folio”)
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Hamlet: Quartos vs. Folio

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•Hamlet (1604/5, “Second Quarto”)
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•Hamlet (1623, “First Folio”)
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Hamlet: Quartos vs. Folio

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•Hamlet (1604/5, “Second Quarto”)
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•Hamlet (1603, “First Quarto”)
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Hamlet: Quartos vs. Folio

Shakespeare’s Manuscript
The play's the thing - TLS
“Hand D” in Sir Thomas More

“Elizabethan” Genres
From Hamlet:
Polonius. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral,
pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral,
scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the
law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.
(Act 2, Scene 2)

“Elizabethan” Genres



“Elizabethan” Genres
The Merchant of Venice, Quarto 1 (Boston Public Library), page 1 :: Facsimile Viewer :: Internet
Shakespeare Editions

Early-Modern English Playwrights
Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
Quote by Christopher Marlowe: “Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”

Early-Modern English Playwrights
Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
About Ben Jonson - Poem Analysis

Early-Modern English Playwrights
Thomas Middleton (1580–1657)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Thomas_Middleton.jpg/220px-Thomas_Middlet
on.jpg

Early-Modern English Playwrights
John Fletcher (1579–1625)
John Fletcher (1).JPG

Charles I (1625–1649)
“Jacobean” and “Caroline” Theatre
Charles I
James I (1603–1625)
King James I 1566-1625, Ruled England by Everett | King james, Uk history, British royalty

The End of Early-Modern English Theatre
•September 2nd, 1642 – an edict closing all the public and
                                        private theatres “to appease and avert
                                        the wrath of God”
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Battle_of_Naseby.jpg