EARLY ELIZABETHAN DRAMA

England at the accession of Elizabeth (1558)

He first half of the 16th century was beset with political confusion, economic uncertainties and religious troubles. Elizabeth ascended the English throne in 1558 when the conditions were most unfavourable. With diplomacy, remarkable political insight and the cunning of a born statesman, Elizabeth changed the face of the country. Under her, Britain raised as an international power – proud and successful – a naval power to be reckoned with, that reached the heights of its glory by its defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Britain was again a nation tuned for great literature to give immortal expression to the new national self-consciousness. This was a time when naval commerce and trade flourished; wealth accumulated adding to the comfort of all classes. They had leisure, and as a consequence, a wider public was created for the abundant outpouring of literary works at this time. The drama, in spite of Puritan opposition, thrived and grew more respectable.

Material prosperity in the Elizabethan age was coupled with a cultural progress that was the effect of Renaissance. Education spread, so did the knowledge in Latin and Greek. The Latin of the Renaissance was very different from the Latin of the Middles Ages. Virgil, Cicero, and particularly Ovid were studied in their best works. Greek was not so familiar, but its influence was immense. From the Greeks the Elizabethans acquired a humane nature which overwhelmed the pedantries of Latin culture. The Elizabethan era witnessed several major translations—Golding’s Ovid (Metamorphosis), North’s Plutarch (Lives), and Chapman’s Homer placed the classical masterpieces in the hands of those who had “small Latin and less Greek”. During this period, the influence of Italy is seen in scholarship, in poetry, romance and pastoral. The Elizabethans turned to Italy for pioneers in literary criticism, to Petrarch for the sonnet, to Ariosto for the romantic epic, to Sannozaro for an Arcadia, to Bandello and Cinthio for many ‘novels’ and dramatic plots. They learnt cultural poetry from France and Montaigne led the way for Bacon. Elizabethan England also felt the impulse towards scientific learning as is reflected in some works. The many-sided intellectual innovation was reflected in Elizabethan literature. There were books like Euphues which were honeycombed with classical allusions. Along with these there were the bold philosophizing of Marlowe, as well as frank animalism of later dramatists to whom liberty meant licence. This later licentiousness was checked by the growing puritan power which killed drama for a time. The most typically Elizabethan writers – Spenser, Sidney and Lyly – had in them the moral seriousness of a Puritan. But in the hands of later dramatists like Fletcher, Middleton, Webster and Ford, drama declined to Melodrama, indecency and unnatural plots. James I, who succeeded Elizabeth, was pedantic and narrow-minded in his literary interests. Great poetry ceased to come forth and drama reflected the corrupt morals of an uncritical court. Instead of unity there was now division in the nation. Puritan fervour now drifted into a Catholic point of view. Thus Elizabethan literature slowly faded into the shadow of a great national conflict.

EARLY ELIZABETHAN DRAMA

At the time of Henry VIII the morality play still held the field of drama, and it lingered on till the time of Shakespeare. But the Renaissance spirit at the Tudor Court demanded plays that would amuse rather than instruct; and the result was the interlude. Interludes were of a comical nature, generally dealing with a single incident. They did not have much literary merit but they were intimately associated with the rise of the professional actor in England. The printing-press had deprived the minstrel of his occupation. The minstrels or players now turned to the theatre and they were embraced by the actors’ companies that now rose in England under the patronage of noblemen. It was during the time of Elizabeth’s reign – around 1580 – that permanent play houses were established, drama got its division into acts and scenes, and there came about a distinction between tragedy and comedy. By the middle of the 15th century, Terence, Plautus (both influenced Elizabethan comedy) and Seneca (influenced Elizabethan tragedy) began to be enacted in schools and universities, giving rise to an outburst of scholastic drama. There was a large body of Latin drama written at the universities during the Tudor period. These exerted a powerful influence upon the development of vernacular drama as well. An English comedy, probably the first, was produced about 1550 at Eton or Winchester in imitation of Plautus. This was called Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall. At about the same time another comedy was produced at Christ’s College – Gammer Gurton’s Needle by one W.S (probably William Stevenson or John Still). The earliest extant English tragedy was likewise the work of scholars—Norton and Sackville. The play was modelled on Seneca and was called Gorboduc (alternate title “Ferrex and Porrex”). Gorboduc, which followed the classical model, was also the first play written to be written in blank verse, the native tongue of Elizabethan theatre.