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Elizabethan and Restoration Literature

By Moazzam Ali

Famous Elizabethan Authors and Works

1588 Greene's Pandosto

1588 Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus

1590 Spenser's Faerie Queen (1-3)

1590 Marlowe's The Jew of Malta

1591 Sidney's Astrophil and Stella

1592 Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy

1592 William Shakespeare's Henry VI Part I

1592 William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part II

1593 William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part III

1594 Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay 

1594 Marlowe's Edward II

1594 William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus

1594 William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors

1594 William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew

1594 William Shakespeare's Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona

1594 William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost

1595 Sidney's An Apologia for Poetrie

1595 William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

1595 William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

1596 William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

1596 Spenser's Faerie Queen (4-6)

1597 William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I

1597 William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II

1598 William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

1598 William Shakespeare's Henry V

1598 Jonson Every Man in his Humour 

1599 Shakespeare's As You Like It

1599 Jonson Every Man out of his Humour 

1600 William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

1600 Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder

1600 Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday

1600 Jonson Cynthia's Revels 

1601 William Shakespeare's Richard II

1601 Jonson Poetaster 

1600 William Shakespeare's Richard III

1600 William Shakespeare's Hamlet

1600 William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor

1602 William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

1602 William Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well

1603 Jonson Sejanus 

1604 Marston's The Malcontent

1604 William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida

1604 William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure

1604 William Shakespeare's Othello

1605 Jonson Volpone 

1605 Bacon's The Advancement of Learning

1606 William Shakespeare's King Lear

1606 William Shakespeare's Macbeth

1606 William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra

1606 Ben Jonson's Volpone

1607 William Shakespeare's Coriolanus

1607 Beaumont and Fletcher Knight of the Burning Pestle

1607 William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens

1607 Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy

1608 William Shakespeare's Pericles

1609 Ben Jonson's The Silent Woman

1609 Beaumont & Fletcher's The Knight of the Burning Pestle

1610 Ben Jonson's The Alchemist

1610 Beaumont and Fletcher Philaster

1611 William Shakespeare's Tempest

1611 Beaumont and Fletcher The Maid's Tragedy

1611 Beaumont and Fletcher A King and No King

1611 William Shakespeare's Macbeth

1611 Ben Jonson's Catiline

1611 William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

1612 Webster's The White Devil

1612 William Shakespeare's Henry VIII

1612 William Shakespeare's The Two Noble Kinsmen

1613 Beaumont and Fletcher The Scornful Lady

1614 Jonson's Bartholomew Fayre

1614 Webster's Duchess of Malfi

1614 Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World

1616 Ben Jonson's Works published in folio

1618 Beaumont and Fletcher The Humorous Lieutenant

1623 Publication of Shakespeare's First Folio

1624 Thomas Middleton A Game at Chess

INFLUENCES ON THE ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE

A. Renaissance

The word “Renaissance” is the French word for “rebirth.” The Renaissance refers to the rebirth of humanism during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Europe. The Renaissance period was a time of rebirth of:

1. Humanism: Humanism downplayed religious and secular dogma and instead attached the greatest importance to the dignity and worth of the individual.

2. Fine arts: Sculptors such as Donatello and later Michelangelo went back to classical techniques. Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael were some of the most prominent Renaissance painters.

3. Literature: In Italy, writers focused mostly on translating and studying classic Latin and Greek works. William Shakespeare, Giovanni Boccaccio and Christopher Marlowe were the famous writers.

4. Philosophy:  The influence of the Italian scholar Petrarch, who revitalized interest in the classical thought of the Greeks and Romans

5. Science and Technology: Some of the other significant inventions during the Renaissance period were the cast-iron pipe, portable clock, rifle barrel, shotgun, screwdriver and wrench. Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus.

6. Religion and spirituality: Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation in Germany

7. Leisure: Elizabethan Plays were watched with great zeal. For sport, jousting was popular during the Renaissance era.

B. Tastes of the Elizabethan Audiences

Athletic Interest (Juggling, Tumbling, Fencing, Wrestling of Expert Combatants), Love for Noise & Outcry, Romance, Supernatural, Chance, Music & Songs, Interest in Supernatural Elements, Tastes of the Patrons

C. Traditions of Primitive Theatre

1. Greek: Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy, Imitation, Unities, Tragic Hero (plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song). Aristotle lays out six elements of tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song.

2. Senecan Influence: Translations of Greek Tragedies, Grand Language, Little Action & Dependence on Chorus, Revenge & Crime, No Catharsis or Tragic Relief.

D. Elizabethan Stage

Blackfriars (13th Century) Dominican Monastery

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The Globe Theatre (1599)

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Elizabethan Costumes

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Development of English Drama

1. Early Drama: Living Pictures (Pageants), No Dialogue

2. Mysteries and Miracle Plays

3. Moralities/Allegorical Plays

4. Interludes

5. Elizabethan Tragedy & Comedy

• First Tragedy Gorboduc by Thomas Sackville & Thomas Norton

• First Comedy Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall

Types of Early Elizabethan Drama

1. Classical Tradition: Tragic Action, Unities, Indoor Performances, Aristocrats

2. Popular Theatre: Imaginative, Lack of Unities, Interludes, Melodrama, Crudity, Language

Difference between Greek Drama and Elizabethan Drama

1. Unity versus Variety

2. Characters

3. Subject Matter

4. Staging

Christopher Marlowe & University Wits

University Wits are a group of young dramatists who wrote and performed in London towards the end of the 16th century. They are called University Wits because they were the witty students of Cambridge or Oxford. They were all more or less acquainted with each other and most of them led irregular and uncertain life.

Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Nash, Robert Greene, George Peele and John Lyly were the members of this group. There are some characteristics which are commonly to be found in their plays.

Thomas Kyd: Revenge play. “The Spanish Tragedy” is the best work of Thomas Kyd.

Thomas Lodge is a lawyer by profession but he has given up his legal studied and has taken literary career. He has written only few dramas. “Rosalynde” is the most famous of his romantic comedies. It is said that Shakespeare has taken the plot of his “As You Like It” from Lodge’s “Rosalynde”.

Thomas Nash is a professional journalist. He also takes part in the then politics. His works have some satiric tone. “Unfortunate Traveller” is his best work which has much influence as far as the development of English novel is concerned.

Robert Greene’s plays have a great contribution in the development of English drama. Although his art of charachterization is weak and his style is not outstading, his humour is very much interesting.

George Peele is another important dramatist of the University Wits. His plays have romantic, satiric and historical evidence. He has no attraction towards the poetry. He handles Blank-verse with variety. He also has a sense of humour and pathos. However, “Edward I” is perhaps his best work.

John Lyly is another great dramatist who has a strong interest towards the romantic comedy. His comedies are marked by elaborate dialogue, jests and retorts. However, we can find his influence in Shakespearean comedies. “Midas” is one of the most important works of John Lyly which has shaken the development of the romantic comedy in English literature.

Christopher Marlowe

Merits of Marlowe

1. Mighty Line/Blank Verse

2. Emotion and Passion

3. Poetic (Heroes)

4. Tragedy of Character

5. Inner Conflict

6. Individual Heroes

7. Machiavellian Hero

Demerits of Marlowe

1. Less attention given to Minor Characters

2. Lack of Women Characters or Poor Characterization

3. Weak Plots

4. Poor Handling of Comic Interlude

5. Lack of Patriotism

6. One-man Show

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