The Elizabethan drama is the epoch (from the 80s – 90s of the 16th to the 20s of the 17th c.) The rise of the English Drama Theater. By tradition, this period is associated with the works of Shakespeare . However, no less a role in the development of the English theater was played by other authors who worked in the drama both before and after Shakespeare.
Historians of the theater distinguish three main stages of development of the English drama of the late XVI - first half of the XVII century: early (the late 80s of the XVI century - the beginning of the XVII century), mature (the beginning of the XVII century - the beginning of the 20s) and late ( the beginning of the 20s before the closure of theaters in 1642) [1] . In the British tradition, the division of the history of the theater of the era into three periods was adopted: Elizabethan, Yakvoist and Carlist [2] .
Content
The origins of the English Renaissance and Early Baroque drama
The English theater was born from a combination of transformed folk (embodied in mystery - religious didactic play) and scholarly humanist (based on antiquity ) traditions, secular plot ( morality ), lively response to contemporary events and professional play of actors.
The creation of the mysteries, the main genre of the medieval theater, was handled by craft guilds . Thanks to these simple anonymous plays [3] on religious subjects, played out on holidays from the beginning of the XIV century and before the Reformation , the traditions of folk drama took root in the cities. According to the play cycles that have reached our time, researchers have the opportunity to restore the traditions of the English theater of the era preceding the Renaissance [4] .
Folk art in the Middle Ages was the most popular in England, France and Germany [4] .
Later, morality appeared - a form of secular play, in which a moral lesson is taught through allegory . In morality, human weaknesses and virtues were personified, among the characters there are Evil, Pleasure, Persistence, Wisdom. A kind of morality was interlude - the genre of observing everyday life, a short entertaining piece that was played during the breaks of big performances. Over time, the interlude turns into an aristocratic form of morality more refined than the presentation for the common people. With the Reformation in morality political and religious plots appear consonant with this turbulent time. In Interlude Divine Providence, its author Boyle raises issues of free will and virtue. “Interlude ...” reminds of a sermon, but differs from dry and didactic medieval morality by its thoroughness.
In the last quarter of the 16th century, against the background of victories over internal and external enemies and the removal of the threat to the Protestant crown, the final unification of the nation took place. The development of industry and trade, personal entrepreneurship leads to the strengthening of the new class - the bourgeoisie . At this time, a new form of art, available to all segments of the population.
Actors
Stray acting troupes were few in number and consisted only of men, the young men playing female roles. In the course of the play, one actor could play three or four roles. The performances were given in inns or in tent-like structures - a drawing of a similar structure for the “Castle of Fortitude” dated to the 15th century was preserved. Often the actors were invited to the castles of aristocrats. The most successful acting troupes enlisted the protection of noble people - it saved from the accusations of begging and vagrancy. Such actors had the right to wear liveried flowers of the aristocrat and were called his servants. According to the law, adopted in 1572, only such acting troupes had the right to exist [5] .
The device of English theaters
Hotel yards of that time usually represented a building with a courtyard, enclosed on the second floor with an open tier-balcony, along which rooms and entrances to them were located. A wandering troupe, having driven into such a courtyard, set a stage near one of the walls; in the courtyard and on the balcony were the spectators. The scene was arranged in the form of a boardwalk on the box, part of which overlooked the open courtyard, while the other, the back, remained under the balcony. From the balcony down the curtain. The scene was covered with a roof and consisted of three platforms: the front - in front of the balcony, the rear - under the balcony behind the curtain and the top - the very balcony above the stage. The same principle and the basis for the transitional form of the English theater of the XVI - beginning of the XVII centuries .
The hotel courtyard serves as an auditorium. Such an open, roofless auditorium was enclosed by a gallery or two galleries.
The first publicly accessible, permanent, purpose-built building in London appeared in 1576 outside the city limits in Shoreditch. The theater, dubbed “Theater”, was built by James Burbedge in the image of a hotel yard, where troupe cast actors gave their performances. In the "Theater" played a troupe "servants of the Lord Chamberlain", led by the son of James Burbedz Richard [6] . In 1598, the owner of the land on which the Theater was located, raised the rent. The building was dismantled, building material used for the construction of a new theater, called the Globus , on the other side of the Thames .
By 1592 there were already three theaters in London. All of them were located outside the city: the city council, in which the positions of fanatical puritans were strong, considered theaters to be the breeding grounds for the plague, besides, they were a gathering place for a large number of the public, not always trustworthy. Theatrical performances were blamed by the overseers of manners for distracting people from work and church visits [7] .
But the queen herself loved the theater and the city authorities had to put up with it. The performances were given in public theaters under the pretext that the actors need to rehearse the plays before the call to the royal court. Performances at the court were prestigious, but it was publicly accessible theaters that brought the main income.
The theater was a popular entertainment not only for aristocrats, but also for the lower strata of society. The success of the drama as a spectacle is explained by the form borrowed from popular ideas, the appeal to the feeling of patriotism of the public, and actuality: the events that stirred the audience, more than once became the plot of the performance.
Playwrights are the forerunners and contemporaries of Shakespeare
No matter how strong the influence was on the development of the drama of national forms of theater and folk legends, the influence of the tradition of antiquity is undoubtedly. The education system at that time included acquaintance with ancient comedy and tragedy ( Plavt , Seneca ). In schools and universities, plays were written and played by pupils and teachers. The first plays of the Elizabethan theater were created by amateurs - pupils of schools of barristers ( Judicial Inn ) in London. The tragedy "Gorboduk" (1561) with a plot from "The History of Britons" by Galfrid Monmouth about the confrontation of the royal sons ending in the civil war was created by Thomas Norton and Thomas Saville for staging at the Inner Temple - one of the barristers schools. This is the first dramatic work written in blank verse , invented by Count Surrey .
From the ancient drama in the English theater came the choir or character, who was given the functions of the choir. For example, in Gorboduk, like Seneca's reading pieces, the horrors of civil war taking place offstage are told, and in Henry V, the choir apologizes for the fact that the Globus Theater cannot show events on a true scale. The absence of staged effects and scenery forced to pay more attention to the content of the play and the game of actors, which gave an additional incentive to the development of dramatic art.
Drama has become a way of making money for people with university education, who for one reason or another could not make a secular or church career. So the first English playwrights were the pamphletists Green , Nash , Peel , Kid , who wrote folk dramas. In contrast, John Lily created elegant, sophisticated comedies that were staged mostly at court. To entertain the audience, he was the first Elizabethan playwright to begin to insert into the plays, written in rhymed verse, small prose interludes , which were ingenious dialogues. Thanks to the novel by Lily “Evfuez”, the artsy language in which the court aristocracy spoke became fashionable. The same complex language written drama Elizabethan theater.
The author wrote a play for the troupe, whose property and work became a playwright. From this point on, the author could not control his work — the transfer of it to third parties, the staging, the changes, the publication — all this was done without his consent. Publisher piracy caused serious damage to theaters. The manuscripts of the plays were either stolen, or specially hired people came to the performance and wrote down the text, and often the meaning of the work was distorted beyond recognition.
In order to achieve effective action, playwrights increased the number of characters, composed a number of inserted episodes that created plot confusion, and sacrificed credibility. Often, for the sake of success, scenes of cruelty and violence were included in the performances.
With the plays of Christopher Marlow , the real dramatic hero appears on the English stage for the first time - a strong, bright personality, overwhelmed by passions. Marlo did away with the plot confusion that prevailed on the English stage - in Tamerlane ( 1586 ) he introduces the unity of action. But the main advantage of the dramas is Marlo in poetic language, beautiful and lyrical penetration and pretentious rhetoric. Thanks to Marlo, the Elizabethan drama has found freedom and diversity of expression: the tragedy “Tamerlane” was written in unythinned iambic pentacone - a size extremely suitable for the English language, poor in rhyme . Rhyme is now used only in false episodes, prologues and epilogues, to highlight certain parts of the play.
Later, the drama focused on the taste of a more fastidious and enlightened viewer. During the reign of Jacob I , the masque theater was very popular among the nobility. Court actors acted as actors, and women were allowed on the stage. The performances of the theater of masks at the court were designed in a big way: luxurious costumes and decorations were created according to the sketches of “English Palladio ” - Inigo Jones . He invented the machine that rotates the scene (machina versatilis), created the first proscenium arch in England. Of the playwrights who wrote for public theaters in the mask genre, Ben Johnson worked successfully for many years. Such plays were generously paid, despite the fact that the usual playwright's fee for a play for the city theater was 6-7 pounds. In the reign of Charles I , few plays were written specifically for public theaters - their repertoire was composed of works created in previous years.
Late period
Since the end of the 90s of the XVI century, so-called closed theaters have resumed their activity along with the public (open) theaters. They were played by children (boys) who received a musical education in choral choirs. The audience attending these theaters, the tickets for which were much more expensive, and the number of seats less than in the public, belonged mostly to the affluent segments of the population. As early as the first decade of the 17th century, the differences between closed and open theaters were not very noticeable: they put on the same plays, the same playwrights wrote for both types of theaters. However, later the process of separating the English drama began on the background of the polarization of society, which also reflected on culture. Together with Elizabethan England, the enthusiasm that once united all sectors of society faded away. The cavaliers (supporters of the king) were opposed by the Puritans , the most severe of whom denied all secular culture as vicious. The 20s - 30s were marked by the intensification of the aristocratization of the theater.
Influenced the English drama and the crisis of the ideas of the Renaissance . The feeling of destruction of the Renaissance ideals, the anthropocentric model of the Universe, the collapse of the familiar world, reinforced the new scientific and geographical discoveries. The artists of that time, each in their own way, tried to find a new place for a person in his environment, sometimes hostile to him. Now not only the inner world of the individual, but also her relationship with society was in sight.
According to researchers, the most significant of Shakespeare's younger contemporaries in the English theater was Ben Johnson. He left his ideas about the development of English drama in the notes and prefaces to the plays. His understanding of drama, - here he followed Philip Sydney's ideas expressed in The Defense of Poetry - is close to the aesthetics of classicism , although Johnson did not escape the influence of Mannerism . He criticized the English theater for its detachment from the realities of life, the absence of a rational principle and a social-educational function. In accordance with the “theory of humors” he developed, Johnson, in his comedies, simplified the depiction of the characters of the characters, in every possible way highlighting one main feature that introduces disharmony to the person’s personality. Departing from the multifaceted nature of the human character, he sought satirical acuity and reached the maximum generalization in the images of the characters. Even in the tragedies of Johnson there is a satirical beginning: in spite of the fact that he, as a connoisseur of antiquity, recreated with great precision on theatrical stage Ancient Rome, his “The Fall of Sowing” and the “Conspiracy of Catiline” are addressed to the modern audience.
Notes
- ↑ History of Western European Theater. Vol. 1. M., 1956. P. 392—393.
- ↑ Gorbunov, 2006 , p. 180.
- ↑ Representing episodes from Scripture , they were created by priests or monks.
- ↑ 1 2 Anikst, 2006 , p. 17-18.
- ↑ Anikst, 2006 , p. 27.
- ↑ Anikst, 2006 , p. 28
- ↑ Anikst, 2006 , p. 40-41.
Literature
- A. Lavretsky. Elizavetinskaya drama // Literary encyclopedia : 11 tons.: Vol. 3 / Ed. ed. Lunacharsky A.V .; Ed. Secretary Beskin O. M. - [ B. m .: Publishing Com. Acad., 1930. - 634 stb. : il.
- Anikst A. Theater of the Shakespeare era. - 2nd, Rev. - M .: Drofa, 2006.
- Burgess E. William Shakespeare. Genius and his era. - M .: Tsentrpoligraf. 2001. p.245 ISBN 5-227-01302-0 .
- Mikhalskaya N., Anikin G. History of English Literature - M.: Academia, 1998.
- Gorbunov A. Shakespeare and his younger contemporaries. (The evolution of styles and genres) // Shakespeare contexts. - M .: MediaMir, 2006. - ISBN 5-91177-001-6 .
- Bevington DM From Mankind to Marlow. Harvard, 1962.
- Joseph B. L. Elizabethan Acting. Oxford, 1951.