111-517: The Elizabethan Stage Society was a theatrical society dedicated to putting on productions of drama from the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras , particularly (but not exclusively) those of William Shakespeare . It was founded in 1895 by William Poel . Its minimal scenery, platform stage, quick scene changes and emphasis on the poetry was in direct and deliberate contrast to Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Henry Irving 's large-set productions, and were
222-518: A Civil War, call for all possible Means to appease and avert the Wrath of God, appearing in these Judgements; among which, Fasting and Prayer, having been often tried to be very effectual, having been lately and are still enjoined; and whereas Public Sports do not well agree with Public Calamities, nor Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation, this being an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and
333-792: A better view of the stage or to be more separate from the crowd, they would pay more for their entrance. Due to inflation that occurred during this time period, admission increased in some theaters from a penny to a sixpence or even higher. Commercial theaters were largely located just outside the boundaries of the City of London , since City authorities tended to be wary of the adult playing companies, but plays were performed by touring companies all over England. English companies even toured and performed English plays abroad, especially in Germany and in Denmark . Upper class spectators would pay for seats in
444-475: A chimney." In addition to cleaning and rebuilding parts of the Gothic structure, Jones added a classical-style portico to the cathedral's west front in the 1630s, which William Benham notes was "altogether incongruous with the old building ... It was no doubt fortunate that Inigo Jones confined his work at St Paul's to some very poor additions to the transepts, and to a portico, very magnificent in its way, at
555-550: A detached tower with a peal of bells east of the church which had historically been used to peal the summons to the Cheapside Folkmote . The parish later moved to the Jesus chapel during the reign of Edward VI and was merged with St Augustine Watling Street after the 1666 fire. This "New Work" was completed in 1314, although the additions had been consecrated in 1300. Excavations in 1878 by Francis Penrose showed
666-715: A licensed acting company, they were allowed to dress above their standing in society for specific roles in a production. 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. About 3,000 plays were written for the Elizabethan stage, and although most of them have been lost, at least 543 remain. The people 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,
777-414: A little under 12 shillings per week—roughly twice as much as the average artisan's income of 1 s . per day. At the end of his career, Thomas Heywood would famously claim to have had "an entire hand, or at least a main finger" in the authorship of some 220 plays. A solo artist usually needed months to write a play (though Jonson is said to have done Volpone in five weeks); Henslowe's Diary indicates that
888-592: A major influence on later staging and production of these works. Walter Nugent Monck was its stage manager in the 1920s, and its actors included Ben Greet Writing in 1913, Frederick Rogers , a colleague through his work with the Elizabethan Society of Toynbee Hall , says of Poel and his work: He has stood consistently and in the face of adverse and sometimes spiteful criticism, for sound learning in dramatic art. His performances of old dramas in old costumes and without scenery; his careful research into
999-417: A place to pick up gossip, topical jokes, and even prostitutes. In his Microcosmographie (1628), a series of satirical portraits of contemporary England, John Earle (1601–1665), described it thus: [Paul's walk] is the land's epitome, or you may call it the lesser isle of Great Britain. It is more than this, the whole world's map, which you may here discern in its perfectest motion, justling and turning. It
1110-411: A plumb-line to calculate the height of the tower as "two hundred and four feet very near, which is about sixty feet higher than it was usually reported to be." William Benham noted that the cathedral probably "resembled in general outline that of Salisbury , but it was a hundred feet longer, and the spire was sixty or eighty feet higher. The tower was open internally as far as the base of the spire, and
1221-414: A plumber had "confessed on his death bed" that he had "left a pan of coals and other fuel in the tower when he went to dinner." However, the number of contemporary eyewitnesses to the storm and a subsequent investigation appears to contradict this. Whatever the cause, the subsequent conflagration was hot enough to melt the cathedral's bells and the lead covering the wooden spire "poured down like lava upon
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#17327823788411332-560: A public place was to dispel rumours that he was not dead. The walls were lined with the tombs of bishops and nobility. In addition to the shrine of Erkenwald, two Anglo-Saxon kings were buried inside: Sebbi , King of the East Saxons , and Æthelred the Unready . A number of figures such as John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp de Warwick had particularly large monuments constructed within
1443-534: A social hub, with the nave aisle, " Paul's walk ", known as a business centre and a place to hear the news and gossip on the London grapevine . During the Reformation , the open-air pulpit in the churchyard, St Paul's Cross , became the place for radical evangelical preaching and Protestant bookselling . The cathedral was in structural decline by the early 17th century. Restoration work begun by Inigo Jones in
1554-551: A team of four or five writers could produce a play in as little as two weeks. Admittedly, though, the Diary also shows that teams of Henslowe's house dramatists— Anthony Munday , Robert Wilson , Richard Hathwaye , Henry Chettle , and the others, even including a young John Webster —could start a project, and accept advances on it, yet fail to produce anything stageworthy. Short yellow lines indicate 27 years—the average age these authors began their playwriting careers Genres of
1665-525: A weeke following. It is also observable that the lead over the altar at the East end was untouch'd, and among the divers monuments, the body of one Bishop remain'd intire. Thus lay in ashes that most venerable Church, one of the most antient pieces of early piety in the Christian world. Temporary repairs were made to the building. While it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction,
1776-447: Is a heap of stones and men, with a vast confusion of languages; and were the steeple not sanctified, nothing liker Babel. The noise in it is like that of bees, a strange humming or buzz mixed of walking tongues and feet: it is a kind of still roar or loud whisper ... It is the great exchange of all discourse, and no business whatsoever but is here stirring and a-foot ... It is the general mint of all famous lies, which are here like
1887-637: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , destroyed much of the cathedral. King William I (William the Conqueror) donated the stone from the destroyed Palatine Tower on the River Fleet towards the construction of a Romanesque Norman cathedral, an act sometimes said to be his last before death. Bishop Maurice oversaw preparations, although it was primarily under his successor, Richard de Beaumis , that construction work fully commenced. Beaumis
1998-414: The progymnasmata , such as the prosopopoeia , taught theatrical skills. Students would typically analyse Latin and Greek texts, write their own compositions, memorise them, and then perform them in front of their instructor and their peers. Records show that in addition to this weekly performance, students would perform plays on holidays, and in both Latin and English. Choir schools connected with
2109-541: The Long Parliament , pushed by the Parliamentarian party , under Puritan influence, banned the staging of plays in the London theatres though it did not, contrary to what is commonly stated, order the closure, let alone the destruction, of the theatres themselves: Whereas the distressed Estate of Ireland, steeped in her own Blood, and the distracted Estate of England, threatened with a Cloud of Blood by
2220-532: The Red Bull (1604). Elsewhere, the Vagabonds Act 1572 left itinerant actors liable to prosecution as vagrants and caused them to seek wealthy sponsors who could provide a permanent play house for them. At the same time, members of the aristocracy found it useful to have a playing company available to entertain royal or noble guests and thus advance their social status. Archaeological excavations on
2331-454: The Red Lion , opened in 1567 but it was a short-lived failure. The first successful theatres, such as The Theatre , opened in 1576. The establishment of large and profitable public theatres 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 transitory, phenomenon. Their construction
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#17327823788412442-936: The Whitefriars (1608) and the Cockpit (1617). With the building of the Salisbury Court Theatre in 1629 near the site of the defunct Whitefriars, the London audience had six theatres to choose from: three surviving large open-air public theatres—the Globe, the Fortune, and the Red Bull—and three smaller enclosed private theatres: the Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury Court. Audiences of
2553-523: The 1400s, dramas were often restricted to mummer plays with someone who read out all the parts in Latin. With the rediscovery and redistribution of classical materials during the English Renaissance , Latin and Greek plays began to be restaged. These plays were often accompanied by feasts. Queen Elizabeth I viewed dramas during her visits to Oxford and Cambridge. A well-known play cycle which
2664-492: The 14th-century " Pearl Poet ") begins with a description of the construction of the cathedral, referring to the building as the "New Werke". The shrine was adorned with gold, silver and precious stones. In 1339, three London goldsmiths were employed for a whole year to rebuild the shrine to a higher standard. William Dugdale records that the shrine was pyramidal in shape with an altar table placed in front for offerings. Monarchs and other notables were often in attendance at
2775-543: The 15th century, the cathedral had become the centre of the London grapevine . "News mongers", as they were called, gathered there to pass on the latest news and gossip. Those who visited the cathedral to keep up with the news were known as "Paul's walkers". According to Francis Osborne (1593–1659): It was the fashion of those times ... for the principal gentry, lords, courtiers, and men of all professions not merely mechanic, to meet in Paul's Church by eleven and walk in
2886-564: The 1620s was temporarily halted during the English Civil War (1642–1651). In 1666, further restoration was in progress under Sir Christopher Wren when the cathedral was devastated in the Great Fire of London . At that point, it was demolished, and the present cathedral was built on the site. Old St Paul's Cathedral was perhaps the fourth church at Ludgate Hill dedicated to St Paul. A devastating fire in 1087, detailed in
2997-518: The 1630s benefited from a half-century of vigorous dramaturgical development; the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare and their contemporaries were still being performed on a regular basis, mostly at the public theatres, while the newest works of the newest playwrights were abundant as well, mainly at the private theatres. Around 1580, when both the Theater and the Curtain were full on summer days,
3108-516: The Elizabethan court included St. George’s Chapel , the Chapel Royal, and St. Paul’s . These schools performed plays and other court entertainments for the Queen. Between the 1560s and 1570s these schools had begun to perform for general audiences as well. Playing companies of boy actors were derived from choir schools. John Lyly is an earlier example of a playwright contracted to write for
3219-406: The Elizabethan era was to make up for the lack of scenery, set, and props on stage. It created a visual effect for the audience, and it was an integral part of the overall performance. Since the main visual appeal on stage were the costumes, they were often bright in colour and visually entrancing. Colours symbolized social hierarchy, and costumes were made to reflect that. For example, if a character
3330-485: The Elizabethan era, research has been conclusive about how many actors and troupes there were in the 16th century, but little research delves into the roles of the actors on the English renaissance stage. The first point is that during the Elizabethan era, women were not allowed to act on stage. The actors were all male; in fact, most were boys. For plays written that had male and female parts, the female parts were played by
3441-471: The English Parliament in 1642. In a strict sense "Elizabethan" only refers to the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558–1603). English Renaissance theatre may be said to encompass Elizabethan theatre from 1562 to 1603, Jacobean theatre from 1603 to 1625, and Caroline theatre from 1625 to 1642. Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards
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3552-553: The Swan. Theatres were also constructed to be able to hold a large number of people. A different model was developed with the Blackfriars Theatre , which came into regular use on a long-term basis in 1599. The Blackfriars was small in comparison to the earlier theatres and roofed rather than open to the sky. It resembled a modern theatre in ways that its predecessors did not. Other small enclosed theatres followed, notably
3663-443: The adjacent parts are such a heap of deformaties that no Judicious Architect will think it corrigible by any Expense that can be laid out upon new dressing it. Wren, whose uncle Matthew Wren was Bishop of Ely, admired the central lantern of Ely Cathedral and proposed that his dome design could be constructed over the top of the existing gothic tower, before the old structure was removed from within. This, he reasoned, would prevent
3774-605: The ban to be temporary ("... while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease and be forborn") but does not assign a time limit to it. Even after 1642, during the English Civil War and the ensuing Interregnum ( English Commonwealth ), some English Renaissance theatre continued. For example, short comical plays called drolls were allowed by the authorities, while full-length plays were banned. The theatre buildings were not closed but rather were used for purposes other than staging plays. The performance of plays remained banned for most of
3885-423: The base Norman columns were left alone, lancet pointed arches were placed over them in the triforium and some heavy columns were substituted with clustered pillars. The steeple was erected in 1221 and the cathedral was rededicated by Bishop Roger Niger in 1240. After a succession of storms, in 1255 Bishop Fulk Basset appealed for money to repair the roof. The roof was rebuilt in wood, which ultimately ruined
3996-569: The body of the choir fallen into St. Faith's; Paul's School also, Ludgate, and Fleet Street . John Evelyn 's account paints a similar picture of destruction: September 3rd – I went and saw the whole south part of the City burning from Cheapeside to the Thames, and ... was now taking hold of St Paule's Church, to which the scaffolds contributed exceedingly. September 7th – I went this morning on foote from White-hall as far as London Bridge, thro'
4107-414: The building. At this time, the east end of the cathedral church was lengthened, enclosing the parish church of St Faith , which was now brought within the cathedral. The eastward addition was referred to as "The New Work". After complaints from the dispossessed parishioners of St Faith's, the east end of the west crypt was allotted to them as their parish church. The congregation were also allowed to keep
4218-469: The cathedral, and the court occasionally held sessions there. The building was also the place of several incidents. In 1191, whilst King Richard I was in Palestine, his brother John summoned a council of bishops to St Paul's to denounce William de Longchamp , Bishop of Ely – to whom Richard had entrusted government affairs – for treason. Later that year, William Fitz Osbern gave a speech against
4329-495: The cathedral, and the building later contained the tombs of the Crown minister Nicholas Bacon , Sir Philip Sidney , and John Donne . Donne's monument survived the 1666 fire, and is on display in the present building. The first historical reference to the nave, "Paul's walk", being used as a marketplace and general meeting area is recorded during the 1381–1404 tenure of Bishop Braybrooke . The bishop issued an open letter decrying
4440-684: The children's companies; Lyly wrote Gallathea , Endymion , and Midas for Paul’s Boys. Another example is Ben Jonson , who wrote Cynthia’s Revels . Academic drama stems from late medieval and early modern practices of miracles and morality plays as well as the Feast of Fools and the election of a Lord of Misrule . The Feast of Fools includes mummer plays . The universities, particularly Oxford and Cambridge , were attended by students studying for bachelor's degrees and master's degrees, followed by doctorates in Law, Medicine, and Theology. In
4551-573: The clothes back to theatre companies. In the Tudor and Elizabethan eras, there were laws stating that certain classes could only wear clothing fitting of their status in society. There was a discrimination of status within the classes. Higher classes flaunted their wealth and power through the appearance of clothing, however, courtesans and actors were the only exceptions – as clothing represented their 'working capital', as it were, but they were only permitted to dress so while working . If actors belonged to
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4662-467: The comparison: His rode was red, his eyen grey as goose, With Paule's windows carven on his shoes In hosen red he went full fetisly. From the cathedral's construction until its destruction, the shrine of Erkenwald was a popular pilgrimage site. Under Bishop Maurice , reports of miracles attributed to the shrine increased, with the shrine attracting thousands of pilgrims. The alliterative Middle English poem St Erkenwald (sometimes attributed to
4773-555: The crown, were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers , such as Thomas Adams , who were often Protestants . Buildings that were razed often supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House . Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the Churchyard, St Paul's Cross , where open-air preaching took place. It
4884-536: The decorations of the cathedral and city on that occasion. Arthur died five months later, at the age of 15, and the marriage was later proved contentious during the reign of his brother, Henry VIII . Several kings of the Middle Ages lay in state in St Paul's before their funerals at Westminster Abbey , including Richard II , Henry VI and Henry VII . In the case of Richard II, the display of his body in such
4995-449: The different roles simultaneously. The reason for this was for the acting companies to control salary costs, or to be able to perform under conditions where resources such as other actor companies lending actors were not present. There were two acting styles implemented: formal and natural. Formal acting is objective and traditional, while natural acting attempts to create an illusion for the audience by remaining in character and imitating
5106-415: The different roles they played. At some points, the bookkeeper would not state the narrative of the scene, so the audience could find out for themselves. In Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, the plays often exceeded the number of characters/roles and did not have enough actors to fulfil them, thus the idea of doubling roles came to be. Doubling roles is used to reinforce a plays theme by having the actor act out
5217-518: The early Perpendicular work at Gloucester Cathedral by several years. The foundations of the chapter house were recently made visible in the redeveloped south churchyard of the new cathedral. The finished cathedral of the Middle Ages was renowned for the beauty of its interior. Canon William Benham wrote in 1902: "It had not a rival in England, perhaps one might say in Europe." The nave 's length
5328-456: The end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses. With the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented towards the tastes and values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of the reign of Charles I , few new plays were being written for
5439-506: The enlarged cathedral was 586 feet (179 m) long (excluding the porch later added by Inigo Jones) and 100 feet (30 m) wide (290 feet (88 m) across the transepts and crossing ). The cathedral had one of Europe's tallest church spires , the height of which is traditionally given as 489 feet (149 m), surpassing all but Lincoln Cathedral . The King's Surveyor, Christopher Wren (1632–1723), judged that an overestimate and gave 460 feet (140 m). In 1664, Robert Hooke used
5550-560: The era survived not in printed texts but in manuscript form. The rising Puritan movement was hostile toward theatre, as they felt that "entertainment" was sinful. Politically, playwrights and actors were clients of the monarchy and aristocracy, and most supported the Royalist cause. The Puritan faction, long powerful in London, gained control of the city early in the First English Civil War , and on 2 September 1642,
5661-491: The existence of major English playing companies from 1572 (" Acte for the punishment of Vacabondes ", which legally restricted acting to players with a patron of sufficient degree) to 1642 (the closing of the theatres by Parliament ). A variety of strolling players, and even early London-based troupes existed before 1572. The situations were often fluid, and much of this history is obscure; this timeline necessarily implies more precision than exists in some cases. The labels down
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#17327823788415772-408: The fictional circumstances. The formal actor symbolises while the natural actor interprets. The natural actor impersonates while the formal actor represents the role. Natural and formal are opposites of each other, where natural acting is subjective. Overall, the use of these acting styles and the doubled roles dramatic device made Elizabethan plays very popular. One of the main uses of costume during
5883-564: The foundations of the Rose and the Globe in the late 20th century showed that all the London theatres had individual differences, but their common function necessitated a similar general plan. The public theatres were three stories high and built around an open space at the centre. Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect, although the Red Bull and the first Fortune were square. The three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked
5994-531: The galleries, using cushions for comfort. In the Globe Theatre, nobles could sit directly by the side on the stage. The acting companies functioned on a repertory system: unlike modern productions that can run for months or years on end, the troupes of this era rarely acted the same play two days in a row. Thomas Middleton 's A Game at Chess ran for nine straight performances in August 1624 before it
6105-535: The heate had in a manner calcin'd, so that all the ornaments, columns, freezes, capitals, and projectures of massie Portland-stone flew off, even to the very roofe, where a sheet of lead covering a great space (no less than six akers by measure) was totally mealted; the ruines of the vaulted roofe falling broke into St. Faith's, which being fill'd with the magazines of bookes belonging to the Stationers, and carried thither for safety, they were all consum'd, burning for
6216-421: The history of stagecraft, and the stimulus it has given to its study, have had an influence on English drama which has never received its full measure of appreciation. The Society for Theatre Research runs an annual set of set of "Poel Workshops" dedicated to the actor's aims. English Renaissance theatre Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age The English Renaissance theatre or Elizabethan theatre
6327-435: The late Fleete-streete, Ludgate Hill, by St Paules ... At my returne I was infinitely concern'd to find that goodly Church St Paules now a sad ruine, and that beautiful portico ... now rent in pieces, flakes of vast stone split asunder, and nothing now remaining intire but the inscription in the architrave, shewing by whom it was built, which had not one letter of it defac'd. It was astonishing to see what immense stones
6438-467: The left indicate the most common names for the companies. The bar segments indicate the specific patron. In the case of children's companies (a distinct legal situation) some founders are noted. Old St Paul%27s Cathedral Old St Paul's Cathedral was the cathedral of the City of London that, until the Great Fire of 1666 , stood on the site of the present St Paul's Cathedral . Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Saint Paul , this building
6549-639: The legends of popery, first coined and stamped in the church. By the 16th century the building was deteriorating. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI , the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led to the destruction of interior ornamentation and the cloisters , charnels , crypts , chapels , shrines , chantries and other buildings in the churchyard. Many of these former religious sites in St Paul's Churchyard , having been seized by
6660-474: 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. Their lives were subject to the same levels of danger and earlier mortality as all who lived during the early modern period: Christopher Marlowe was killed in an apparent tavern brawl, while Ben Jonson killed an actor in a duel. Several were probably soldiers. Playwrights were normally paid in increments during
6771-458: The mid-14th century, the cathedral was one of the longest churches in the world , had one of the tallest spires and some of the finest stained glass . The continuing presence of the shrine of the 7th century bishop Saint Erkenwald made the cathedral a site of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. In addition to serving as the seat of the Diocese of London , the building developed a reputation as
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#17327823788416882-443: The middle aisle till twelve, and after dinner from three to six, during which times some discoursed on business, others of news. Now in regard of the universal there happened little that did not first or last arrive here ... And those news-mongers, as they called them, did not only take the boldness to weigh the public but most intrinsic actions of the state, which some courtier or other did betray to this society. St Paul's became
6993-532: The most eminent Structures of that kinde in the Christian World" might be destroyed. Indeed, a persistent rumour of the time suggested that Cromwell had considered giving the building to London's returning Jewish community to become a synagogue . Dugdale embarked on his project due to discovering hampers full of decaying 14th and 15th century documents from the cathedral's early archives. In his book's dedicatory epistle, he wrote: ... so great
7104-438: The need for extensive scaffolding and would not upset Londoners ("Unbelievers") by demolishing a familiar landmark without being able to see its "hopeful Successor rise in its stead." The matter was still under discussion when the restoration work on St Paul's finally began in the 1660s but soon after being sheathed in wooden scaffolding, the building was completely gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. The fire, aided by
7215-529: The new design as "The Gothic rectified to a better manner of architecture". Both the clergy and citizens of the city opposed such a move. In response, Wren proposed to restore the body of the gothic building, but replace the existing tower with a dome. He wrote in his 1666 Of the Surveyor's Design for repairing the old ruinous structure of St Paul's : It must be concluded that the Tower from Top to Bottom and
7326-475: The new hybrid subgenre of the tragicomedy enjoyed an efflorescence, as did the masque throughout the reigns of the first two Stuart kings, James I and Charles I . Plays on biblical themes were common, Peele's David and Bethsabe being one of the few surviving examples. Only a minority of the plays of English Renaissance theatre were ever printed. Of Heywood's 220 plays, only about 20 were published in book form. A little over 600 plays were published in
7437-478: The next eighteen years, becoming allowed again after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The theatres began performing many of the plays of the previous era, though often in adapted forms. New genres of Restoration comedy and spectacle soon evolved, giving English theatre of the later seventeenth century its distinctive character. English Renaissance playing company timeline This timeline charts
7548-539: The open centre, into which jutted the stage: essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience. The rear side was restricted for the entrances and exits of the actors and seating for the musicians. The upper level behind the stage could be used as a balcony , as in Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra , or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in Julius Caesar . The pit
7659-501: The oppression of the poor at Paul's Cross and incited a riot which saw the cathedral invaded, halted by a plea from Hubert Walter , Archbishop of Canterbury. Osbern barricaded himself in St Mary-le-Bow and was executed, after which Paul's Cross was silent for many years. Arthur, Prince of Wales , son of Henry VII , married Catherine of Aragon in St Paul's on 14 November 1501. Chroniclers are profuse in their descriptions of
7770-757: The other being Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth and Levity: It is therefore thought fit, and Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled, That, while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborn, instead of which are recommended to the People of this Land the profitable and seasonable considerations of Repentance, Reconciliation, and Peace with God, which probably may produce outward Peace and Prosperity, and bring again Times of Joy and Gladness to these Nations. The Act purports
7881-408: The period as a whole, most commonly in individual quarto editions. (Larger collected editions, like those of Shakespeare's , Ben Jonson's , and Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, were a late and limited development.) Through much of the modern era, it was thought that play texts were popular items among Renaissance readers that provided healthy profits for the stationers who printed and sold them. By
7992-456: The period included the history play , which depicted English or European history. Shakespeare 's plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard III and Henry V , belong to this category, as do Christopher Marlowe 's Edward II and George Peele 's Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First . History plays also dealt with more recent events, like A Larum for London which dramatizes
8103-401: The place to go to hear the latest news of current affairs, war, religion, parliament and the court. In his play Englishmen for my Money , William Haughton (d. 1605) described Paul's walk as a kind of "open house" filled with a "great store of company that do nothing but go up and down, and go up and down, and make a grumbling together". Infested with beggars and thieves, Paul's walk was also
8214-462: The position of Surveyor to the King's Works. He was given the task of restoring the cathedral in a style matching Inigo Jones' classical additions of 1630. Wren instead recommended that the building be completely demolished; according to his first biographer, James Elmes , Wren “expressed his surprise at the carelessness and want of accuracy in the original builders of the structure”; Wren's son described
8325-523: The public theatres (like the Globe) took place in the afternoon with no artificial lighting, but when, in the course of a play, the light began to fade, candles were lit. In the enclosed private theatres (like the Blackfriars) artificial lighting was used throughout. Plays contained little to no scenery as the scenery was described by the actors or indicated by costume through the course of the play. In
8436-460: The public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades. The English grammar schools , like those on the continent, placed special emphasis on the trivium : grammar, logic, and rhetoric . Though rhetorical instruction was intended as preparation for careers in civil service such as law, the rhetorical canons of memory ( memoria ) and delivery ( pronuntiatio ), gesture and voice, as well as exercises from
8547-443: The rebuilding was in a dangerous condition. Concerned at the decaying state of the building, King James I appointed the classical architect Inigo Jones to restore the building. The poet Henry Farley records the king comparing himself to the building at the commencement of the work in 1621: " I have had more sweeping, brushing and cleaning than in forty years before. My workmen looke like him they call Muldsacke after sweeping of
8658-486: The roof", destroying it. This event was taken by both Protestants and Catholics as a sign of God's displeasure at the other faction's actions. Queen Elizabeth I contributed £1,000 in gold towards the cost of repairs as well as timber from the royal estate and the Bishop of London Edmund Grindal gave £1200, although the spire was never rebuilt. The repair work on the nave roof was sub-standard, and only fifty years after
8769-599: The sack of Antwerp in 1576. A better known play, Peele's The Battle of Alcazar (c. 1591), depicts the battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578. Tragedy was a very popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally successful, such as Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta . The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas , such as Thomas Kyd 's The Spanish Tragedy . The four tragedies considered to be Shakespeare's greatest ( Hamlet , Othello , King Lear and Macbeth ) were composed during this period. Comedies were common, too. A subgenre developed in this period
8880-414: The scaffolding, destroyed the roof and much of the stonework along with masses of stocks and personal belongings that had been placed there for safety. Samuel Pepys recalls the building in flames in his diary: Up by five o'clock, and blessed be God! find all well, and by water to Paul's Wharf. Walked thence and saw all the town burned, and a miserable sight of Paul's Church, with all the roof fallen, and
8991-543: The season, The First Part of Hieronimo , based on Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy , 15 times. They never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in a week. The workload on the actors, especially the leading performers like Richard Burbage or Edward Alleyn , must have been tremendous. One distinctive feature of the companies was that only men or boys performed. Female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume. Some companies were composed entirely of boy players. Performances in
9102-498: The social and economic life of the era. Those who were purely playwrights fared far less well: the biographies of early figures like George Peele and Robert Greene , and later ones like Brome and Philip Massinger , are marked by financial uncertainty, struggle and poverty. Playwrights dealt with the natural limitation on their productivity by combining into teams of two, three, four, and even five to generate play texts. The majority of plays written in this era were collaborations, and
9213-467: The solo artists who generally eschewed collaborative efforts, like Jonson and Shakespeare, were the exceptions to the rule. Dividing the work, of course, meant dividing the income; but the arrangement seems to have functioned well enough to have made it worthwhile. Of the 70-plus known works in the canon of Thomas Dekker , roughly 50 are collaborations. In a single year (1598) Dekker worked on 16 collaborations for impresario Philip Henslowe, and earned £30, or
9324-412: The things themselves were so neer unto ruine. Dugdale's book is also the source for many of the surviving engravings of the building, created by Bohemian etcher Wenceslaus Hollar . In July 2010, an original sketch for Hollar's engravings was rediscovered when it was submitted to Sotheby's auction house. After the restoration of the monarchy, King Charles II appointed Sir Christopher Wren to
9435-593: The time period of the play. The most expensive pieces were given to higher class characters because costuming was used to identify social status on stage. The fabrics within a playhouse would indicate the wealth of the company itself. The fabrics used the most were: velvet, satin, silk, cloth-of-gold, lace and ermine. For less significant characters, actors would use their own clothes. Actors also left clothes in their will for following actors to use. Masters would also leave clothes for servants in their will, but servants weren't allowed to wear fancy clothing, instead, they sold
9546-409: The time. Elizabethan actors never played the same show on successive days and added a new play to their repertoire every other week. These actors were getting paid within these troupes so for their job, they would constantly learn new plays as they toured different cities in England. In these plays, there were bookkeepers that acted as the narrators of these plays and they would introduce the actors and
9657-408: The total theater capacity of London was about 5000 spectators. With the building of new theater facilities and the formation of new companies, London's total theater capacity exceeded 10,000 after 1610. Ticket prices in general varied during this time period. The cost of admission was based on where in the theatre a person wished to be situated, or based on what a person could afford. If people wanted
9768-478: The turn of the 21st century, the climate of scholarly opinion shifted somewhat on this belief: some contemporary researchers argue that publishing plays was a risky and marginal business —though this conclusion has been disputed by others. Some of the most successful publishers of the English Renaissance, like William Ponsonby or Edward Blount , rarely published plays. A small number of plays from
9879-611: The university, the Inns of Court elected their own Lord of Misrule . Other activities included participation in moot court , disputation , and masques . Plays written and performed in the Inns of Court include Gorboduc , Gismund of Salerne , and The Misfortunes of Arthur . An example of a famous masque put on by the Inns was James Shirley 's The Triumph of Peace . Shakespeare 's The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night were also performed here, although written for commercial theater. The first permanent English theatre,
9990-494: The use of the building for selling "wares, as if it were a public market" and "others ... by the instigation of the Devil [using] stones and arrows to bring down the birds, jackdaws and pigeons which nestle in the walls and crevices of the building. Others play at ball ... breaking the beautiful and costly painted windows to the amazement of spectators." His decree goes on to threaten perpetrators with excommunication . By
10101-476: The west end." Work stopped during the English Civil War , and there was much defacement and mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during which old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed, and the nave used as a stable for cavalry horses. Much of the detailed information historians have of the cathedral is taken from William Dugdale 's 1658 History of St Pauls Cathedral , written hastily during The Protectorate for fear that "one of
10212-404: The workload. Shakespeare produced fewer than 40 solo plays in a career that spanned more than two decades: he was financially successful because he was an actor and, most importantly, a shareholder in the company for which he acted and in the theatres they used. Ben Jonson achieved success as a purveyor of Court masques , and was talented at playing the patronage game that was an important part of
10323-501: The writing process, and if their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from one day's performance. However, they had no ownership of the plays they wrote. Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it, and the playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision or publication. The profession of dramatist was challenging and far from lucrative. Entries in Philip Henslowe 's Diary show that in
10434-399: The years around 1600 Henslowe paid as little as £6 or £7 per play. This was probably at the low end of the range, though even the best writers could not demand too much more. A playwright, working alone, could generally produce two plays a year at most. In the 1630s Richard Brome signed a contract with the Salisbury Court Theatre to supply three plays a year, but found himself unable to meet
10545-401: The youngest boy players. Stronger female roles in tragedies were acted by older boy players because they had more experience. As a boy player, many skills had to be implemented such as voice and athleticism (fencing was one). In Elizabethan entertainment, troupes were created and they were considered the actor companies. They travelled around England as drama was the most entertaining art at
10656-454: Was "to the great dishonour and displeasure of Almighty God, and the great grief also and offence of all good and well-disposed persons". On 4 June 1561, the spire caught fire and crashed through the nave roof. According to a newsheet published days after the fire, the cause was a lightning strike. In 1753, David Henry, a writer for The Gentleman's Magazine , revived a rumour in his Historical description of St Paul's Cathedral, writing that
10767-523: Was assisted by King Henry I , who gave the bishop stone and asked that all material brought up the River Fleet for the cathedral should be free from toll. To fund the cathedral, Henry I gave Beaumis rights to all fish caught within the cathedral neighbourhood and tithes on venison taken in the County of Essex. Beaumis also gave a site for the original foundation of St Paul's School . Henry I's death
10878-484: Was closed by the authorities; but this was due to the political content of the play and was a unique, unprecedented and unrepeatable phenomenon. The 1592 season of Lord Strange's Men at the Rose Theatre was far more representative: between 19 February and 23 June the company played six days a week, minus Good Friday and two other days. They performed 23 different plays, some only once, and their most popular play of
10989-804: Was constructed in Shoreditch in 1576 by James Burbage with his brother-in-law John Brayne (the owner of the unsuccessful Red Lion playhouse of 1567) and the Newington Butts playhouse was set up, probably by Jerome Savage, some time between 1575 and 1577. The Theatre was rapidly followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), the Globe (1599), the Fortune (1600), and
11100-466: Was followed by a period of unrest and civil war known as " The Anarchy ". Henry of Blois , Bishop of Winchester, was appointed to administer the affairs of St Paul's. Almost immediately, he had to deal with the aftermath of a fire at London Bridge in 1135. It spread over much of the city, damaging the cathedral and delaying its construction. During this period, the architectural style was changed from heavy Romanesque to Early English Gothic . Although
11211-436: Was particularly notable, with a Norman triforium and vaulted ceiling . The length earned it the nickname " Paul's walk ". The cathedral's stained glass was reputed to be the best in the country, and the east-end rose window was particularly exquisite. The poet Geoffrey Chaucer used the windows as a metaphor in " The Miller's Tale " from The Canterbury Tales , knowing that other Londoners at that time would understand
11322-443: Was perhaps the fourth such church at this site on Ludgate Hill , going back to the 7th century. Work on the cathedral began after a fire in 1087 , which destroyed the previous church. Work took more than 200 years, and over that time the architecture of the church changed from Norman Romanesque to early English Gothic . The church was consecrated in 1240, enlarged in 1256 and again in the early 14th century. At its completion in
11433-422: Was probably more beautiful both inside and out than that of any other English cathedral." According to the architectural historian John Harvey , the octagonal chapter house , built about 1332 by William de Ramsey , was the earliest example of Perpendicular Gothic . This is confirmed by Alec Clifton-Taylor , who notes that the chapter house and St Stephen's Chapel at the medieval Westminster Palace predate
11544-633: Was prompted when the Mayor and Corporation of London first banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, and then formally expelled all players from the city in 1575. This prompted the construction of permanent playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the liberties of Halliwell/Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink , and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George's Fields in rural Surrey. The Theatre
11655-591: Was royalty, their costume would include purple. The colours, as well as the different fabrics of the costumes, allowed the audience to know the status of each character when they first appeared on stage. Costumes were collected in inventory. More often than not, costumes wouldn't be made individually to fit the actor. Instead, they would be selected out of the stock that theatre companies would keep. A theatre company reused costumes when possible and would rarely get new costumes made. Costumes themselves were expensive, so usually players wore contemporary clothing regardless of
11766-533: Was the city comedy , which deals satirically with life in London after the fashion of Roman New Comedy . Examples are Thomas Dekker 's The Shoemaker's Holiday and Thomas Middleton 's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside . Though marginalised, the older genres like pastoral ( The Faithful Shepherdess , 1608), and even the morality play ( Four Plays in One , ca. 1608–13) could exert influences. After about 1610,
11877-468: Was the place where the poorest audience members could view the show. Around the 1600s a new area was introduced into the theaters, a 'gullet'. A gullet was an invisible corridor that the actors used to go to the wings of the stage where people usually changed clothes quickly . The playhouses were generally built with timber and plaster. Individual theatre descriptions give additional information about their construction, such as flint stones being used to build
11988-524: Was the theatre of England from 1558 to 1642. Its most prominent playwrights were William Shakespeare , Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson . The term English Renaissance theatre encompasses the period between 1562—following a performance of Gorboduc , the first English play using blank verse , at the Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561—and the ban on theatrical plays enacted by
12099-523: Was there in the Cross Yard in 1549 that radical Protestant preachers incited a mob to destroy many of the cathedral's interior decorations. In 1554, in an attempt to end inappropriate practices taking place in the nave, the Lord Mayor decreed that the church should return to its original purpose as a religious building, issuing a writ stating that the selling of horses, beer and "other gross wares"
12210-674: Was written and performed in the universities was the Parnassus Plays . Upon graduation, many university students, especially those going into law, would reside and participate in the Inns of Court . The Inns of Court were communities of working lawyers and university alumni. Notable literary figures and playwrights who resided in the Inns of Court include John Donne , Francis Beaumont , John Marston , Thomas Lodge , Thomas Campion , Abraham Fraunce , Sir Philip Sidney , Sir Thomas More , Sir Francis Bacon , and George Gascoigne . Like
12321-621: Was your foresight of what we have since by wofull experience seen and felt, and specially in the Church, (through the Presbyterian contagion, which then began violently to breake out) that you often and earnestly incited me to a speedy view of what Monuments I could, especially in the principall Churches of this Realme; to the end, that by Inke and paper, the Shadows of them, with their Inscriptions might be preserved for posteritie, forasmuch as
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