149-404: Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age The English Renaissance theatre or Elizabethan theatre 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
298-491: A rococo style; of all his writings, Pegasides Pleyn ("The Palace of Maidens"), a didactic poem in sixteen books dedicated to a discussion of the variety of earthly love, is the most remarkable. Houwaert's contemporaries nicknamed him the " Homer of Brabant"; later criticism has preferred to see in him an important link in the chain of didactic Dutch which ends in Cats . The stir and revival of intellectual life that arrived with
447-430: A 16th-century problem – universities were producing more scholars than there were opportunities for them. The University Wits – Lily, Marlowe, Green, Peele, Nashe and Lodge – were scholars who found employment in theatre, not perhaps their first choice, but there was little else for them. Their great education tended to discourage them from taking up the humble trades of their fathers. The Parnassus plays may not provide
596-518: 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
745-788: 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
894-508: A character attempting Cambridge, meeting failure, and in the end being forced to return to the country life from whence he came, as occurs in the plays. It is thought that "Furor Poeticus" represents John Marston , and "Luxurio" represents Gabriel Harvey . The courtier Gullio is not only a character in the play but is used to satirize Shakespeare's patron the Earl of Southampton , who also attended St. John's. Southampton would not have attended
1043-491: A flock of learned exiles from Flanders and Brabant. Visscher realised that the path of literary honour lay not along the utilitarian road cut out by Jacob van Maerlant and his followers, but in the study of beauty and antiquity . In this he was aided by the school of ripe and enthusiastic scholars who began to flourish at Leiden , such as Drusius , Vossius and Hugo Grotius , who themselves wrote little in Dutch but chastened
1192-488: A journey seven years ago, and now expects results. Consiliodorus exits as Philomusus and Studioso enter, both bemoaning that since leaving Parnassus fate hasn't been kind, and the world is not a fruitful place for scholars. They meet a former student, Ingenioso, who tells them he has been living by the printing house and selling pamphlets. Now he is pursuing the support of a patron. The patron appears, and Ingenioso offers him immortality through his verse. Ingenioso then offers
1341-711: 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,
1490-413: 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
1639-583: A medical practice in London, with Philomusus masquerading as a fashionable French doctor, but they end that charade in time to avoid arrest. Ingenioso has now become a satirist. On the excuse of discussing a recently published collection of extracts from contemporary poetry, John Bodenham 's Belvedere , he briefly criticises a number of writers of the day, including Edmund Spenser , Henry Constable , Michael Drayton , John Davies , John Marston , Christopher Marlowe , Ben Jonson , Shakespeare, and Thomas Nashe ;
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#17327808934961788-454: A moment to bid farewell to Parnassus. The Draper and the Tayler, local businessmen both complain that they trusted Philomusus and Studioso, did some draping and tailoring, and Philomusus and Studioso ran away owing them money. The tapsters has a similar problem with another former student, Luxuioso. Philomusus and Studioso meet up, both complain of the lowly jobs they have taken, Philomusus is
1937-487: A new position as the church warden and is now referred to as Mr. Warden. He's looking for the Sexton, who is Philomusus. Philomusus hasn't been doing a good job as Sexton, and Perceval informs him he is no longer the Sexton. Studioso then enters, he has also lost his position, which was to be tutor to a young boy and perform other household tasks. These two protagonists have reached a depth of hopeless misery ill-equipped for
2086-460: A number of politico-theological issues, but also decided to appoint a committee to translate the Bible. Representatives of nearly all provinces participated in the project, which sought to use a language intermediate between the main Dutch dialects to be intelligible to all Dutchmen. With the resulting translation, called Statenvertaling or "States' Translation", an important cornerstone was laid for
2235-507: A part. KEMPE: Few of the University [men] plaies well, they smell too much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and talk too much of Proserpina and Jupiter. Why heres our fellow Shakespeare puts them all downe, I and Ben Jonson too. O that Ben Jonson is a pestilent fellow, he brought up Horace giving the poets a pill, but our fellow Shakespeare hath given him a purge that made him bewray his credit. This well-known passage
2384-407: A rope, because he feels that every play needs a clown. They finally arrive at the foothills of Mount Parnassus, and take a moment to gaze up at it in a spirit of celebration. Studioso invites the audience to applaud. Consiliodorus, father to Philomusus and uncle to Studioso is meeting with a messenger, Leonarde, who will deliver a letter to Philomusus and Studioso. He sent those two young men to on
2533-458: A section of the Boecxken which has proved of inestimable value to historians. All these lyrics, however, whether of victory or of martyrdom , are still very rough in form and language. In Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde (1538–1598), a personage came forward in the ranks of liberty and reform. He was born at Brussels in 1538, and began life as a disciple of Calvin and Beza in
2682-533: A self-portrait in the guise of the character "Judicio", who appears in third play and comments on a number of contemporary poets. The three pieces were evidently performed at Christmas of different years, not later than Christmas 1602, because of the references to Queen Elizabeth I , who died in March 1603. The first play, Pilgrimage to Parnassus can not have been written earlier than 1598, because it mentions books that were not printed until that year. The prologue of
2831-403: A sexton/gravedigger, and Studioso is a household servant, farmhand, waiter and tutor. Percevall enters with a grave-digging job for Philomusus. Percevall wants Philomusus to quickly dig a grave for his father, who may not be dead yet, but will be very soon. He also wants Philomusus to write out the soon-to-be-dead father's will so that Percevall will inherit his fortune. Next Studioso enters with
2980-408: A solution, but they at least illustrated the fears of such ambitious young scholastic dreamers. For the most part, the plays follow the experiences of two students, Philomusus and Studioso. The first play tells the story of two pilgrims on a journey to Parnassus. The plot is an allegory understood to represent the story of two students progressing through the traditional course of education known as
3129-404: A source for references to Shakespeare and Jonson, and for other allusions they contain. An old farmer, Consiliodorus, gives advice to his son, Philomusus, and his nephew, Studioso, as the two young men are about to begin their journey to Parnassus. He advises them not to consort with wastrels and to eschew alcohol and sex, which will distract them. The first place the two young men travel through
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#17327808934963278-562: A succession of dramatic victories, and it was not until two years after the death of that great poet that Vondel appeared before the public with a second tragedy. Another five years later, in 1625, he published what seemed an innocent study from the antique, his tragedy of Palamedes, or Murdered Innocence , but which was a thinly-veiled tribute to Johan van Oldebarnevelt , the Republic's Grand Pensionary who had been executed in 1618 by order of stadtholder Maurice of Nassau . Vondel became in
3427-550: 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
3576-409: A valiant, noble and romantic character. Ingenioso offers himself as a poet to memorialize Gullio in sonnets. Gullio then persuades Ingenioso to impersonate his mistress, Lesbia, while Gullio rehearses love poetry that Gullio himself has written and derived from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Venus and Adonis . Gullio plans to eventually recite these verses as part of his wooing of Lesbia. In
3725-407: 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 was royalty, their costume would include purple. The colours, as well as the different fabrics of
3874-591: A week the most famous writer in Holland and for the next twelve years, until the accession of stadtholder Frederick Henry , Vondel had to maintain a hand-to-hand combat with the Calvinists of Dordrecht. This was the period of his most stinging satires; Cats took up weapons on behalf of the Counter-Remonstrants and a war of pamphlets in verse raged. Vondel, as the greatest playwright of the day,
4023-404: A while, the path to Parnassus. Before it's too late, Philomusus and Studioso have come to their senses, have decided to leave the amorous land of poetry. They continue on, and meet a character who is former student, Ingenioso. He tries to discourage Philomusus and Studioso from their pilgrimage by telling them that there is nothing but poverty on Mount Parnassus. Dromo enters drawing on a clown by
4172-552: A whole cycle of love songs. His ideas on the subject of drama were at first a development of the medieval abele spelen (see Medieval Dutch literature ), but in 1612 he struck out a new and more characteristic path in his Klucht van de koe ("Farce of the Cow"). From this time until his death he continued to pour out comedies, farces and romantic dramas, in all of which he displayed a rough genius not unlike that of Ben Jonson , his immediate contemporary. Bredero's last and best piece
4321-472: A world that does not appreciate scholars. At least they have each other, as they dejectedly agree to go wandering off in poverty together. Ingenioso's foolish patron, Gullio, had asked Ingenioso to write and deliver poetic messages to a young woman. This goes badly, Gullio blames Ingenioso, and yet another former scholar, Ingenioso, loses his position. Rather than go wandering off like Studioso and Philomusus, Ingenioso resorts, once again, to pamphleteering for
4470-478: Is bitterly ironic: The author of the Parnassus plays is holding up to scorn – for an academic audience – the opinions of two illiterate fools, Burbage and Kempe, who think that Metamorphosis is a writer, and that their colleague, Shakespeare, puts the university playwrights to shame. The audition piece Philomusus is asked to perform is taken from the opening monologue of Shakespeare's play, Richard III : "Now
4619-489: Is examined by Sir Radeerick and the Recorder, who find him educated and pliable enough for the job. This practice of selling church positions is " simony ", which is referred to in the subtitle of this play. Sir Raderick is worried about certain libels written about his family, which are going around in London. They are being written in verse by Furor Poeticus at the encouragement of Ingenioso. A confrontation occurs between
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4768-809: Is satirized or mocked, which is to be expected in a satire, and also when the target of the satire has become very successful and well known. The Parnassus plays are seen, at least in part, as extending the war of words that had been occurring between the university men and those who were not part of that group. The university men would include Cambridge alumni Thomas Nashe and Robert Greene , who both had attacked Shakespeare in print: Nashe in his pamphlet, Pierce Penniless , and Greene in Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit . Shakespeare had replied in turn with some mockery of Nashe in his play Love's Labour's Lost . Shakespeare and his theatre company were on tour probably in 1601 and visited Oxford and Cambridge, sometime between
4917-422: Is the mountainous land of Logique on their way to the island of Dialectica, where they meet a poet, Madido. Madido doesn't believe in Parnassus and thinks inspiration is only to be found in drink. Madido urges them not to bother with their journey, but to stay and drink with him. They decline and continue on. Next, in the land of Rhetorique, Philomusus and Studioso overtake a character named Stupido, who set out on
5066-490: Is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York." In this part of the trilogy, Shakespeare is seen as a poet, and also as a dramatist and actor. In the second play, The Return from Parnasus , the character named Gullio, who is lovesick and a fool, is mocked for his worshipful devotion to "pure Shakspeare and shreds of poetry that he hath gathered at the theaters." When Gullio later cries out, "O sweet Mr. Shakspeare! I'll have his picture in my study at
5215-593: The Hebrew . He occupied the last years of his life in preparing a Dutch version of the Bible , translated directly from the original. At his death, only Genesis was found completely revised; but in 1619 the Synod of Dort placed the unfinished work in the hands of four theologians . This translation by Marnix proved the starting point for a new complete translation of the Bible into Dutch. The Synod had been convened to settle
5364-610: The Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561—and the ban on theatrical plays enacted by 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
5513-541: 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
5662-566: The Lord Chamberlain's Men , who find humor in the deficiencies of scholars not only as actors but also as dramatists: KEMPE: The slaves are somewhat proud, and besides it is a good sport in a part to see them never speak in their walk, but at the end of the stage, just as though in walking with a fellow we should never speak but at a stile, a gate, or a ditch, where a man can go no further…. BURBAGE: A little teaching will mend these faults, and it may be besides they will be able to pen
5811-613: 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
5960-504: The Netherlands (north). The rise of the northern provinces to independent statehood was accompanied by a cultural renaissance. The north received a cultural and intellectual boost whereas in the south, Dutch was to some extent replaced by French and Latin as the languages of culture. At Amsterdam two men took a very prominent place thanks to their intelligence and modern spirit. The first, Hendrick Laurensz. Spieghel (1549–1612)
6109-526: The Protestant congregations , Jan Utenhove printed a volume of Psalms in London in 1566; Lucas de Heere and Petrus Datheen translated hymns of Clément Marot . Datheen was not a rhetorician, but a person of humble origin who wrote in unadorned language, and his hymns spread far and wide among the people. Very different in tone were the battle songs of liberty and triumph sung a generation later by
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6258-530: 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
6407-471: 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 was prompted when
6556-583: The Reformation found its first expression in the composition of Psalms . The earliest printed collection appeared at Antwerp in 1540, under the title of Souter-Liedekens (" Psalter Songs") and was dedicated to a Dutch nobleman , Willem van Zuylen van Nieuvelt, by whose name it is usually known. This collection, however, was made before the Reformation in the Low Countries really set in. For
6705-625: The Reformation spread across Northern and Western Europe and the Netherlands fought for independence in the Eighty Years' War . In the middle of the 16th century, a group of rhetoricians (see Medieval Dutch literature ) in Brabant and Flanders attempted to put new life into the stereotyped forms of the preceding age by introducing in original composition the new-found branches of Latin and Greek poetry . The leader of these men
6854-935: 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
7003-478: The Zedekunst ("Art of Ethics ", 1586), a philosophical treatise in prose in which he tried to adapt the Dutch tongue to the grace and simplicity of Michel de Montaigne 's French . His humanism unites the Bible, Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius in one grand system of ethics and is expressed in a bright style. Coornhert died at Gouda on October 29, 1590; his works were first collected in 1630. By this time,
7152-402: The odes of Huygens alike found their first admirers and their best critics . Of the daughters of Roemer Visscher, Tesselschade (1594–1649) wrote some well-received lyrics ; she also translated Tasso . Visscher's daughters were women of universal accomplishment and their company attracted to his house all the most gifted youths of the time, several of whom were suitors, but in vain, for
7301-480: The trivium . The accomplishment of their education is represented by Mount Parnassus. The second play drops the allegory and describes the two graduates' unsuccessful attempts to make a living, as does the third play, which is the only one that was contemporaneously published. New in the third play is the serious treatment of issues regarding censorship. It has been said that this trilogy of plays "in originality and breadth of execution, and in complex relationship to
7450-548: 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 was written and performed in
7599-517: 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,
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#17327808934967748-542: The 17th and 18th centuries. In the North American colony of New Netherland , poems in Dutch were composed and published by Jacob Steendam and Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy . While most of the writers of Holland clustered around the circle of Amsterdam, a similar school arose in Middelburg , the capital of Zeeland. The ruling spirit of this school was Jacob Cats (1577–1660). In this voluminous writer
7897-402: The 17th century distinguished themselves very prominently in the movement of learning and philosophic thought , but the names of Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) and Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) belong more to philosophy and politics than literature. The period from 1600 to 1650 was a blossoming time in Dutch literature. During this period the names of great genius were first made known to
8046-405: The Christmas festivities of St John's College at Cambridge University . It is not known who wrote them. The titles of the three plays are The second and third plays are sometimes referred to as Part One and Part Two of The Return from Parnassus . The trilogy raises an Elizabethan question: After college – what comes next? Francis Bacon in his essay "Of Seditions and Troubles" pointed to
8195-418: The Dutch nation from its commencement. For fifty years, and these the most glorious in the annals of the Dutch republic, these two streams of influence, one towards beauty and melody, the other towards lively comedy, ran side by side, often in the same channel, and producing a rich harvest of great works. It was in the house of the daughters of Visscher that the tragedies of Vondel, the comedies of Bredero and
8344-587: The Eglantine. Quite early in life he proceeded to Haarlem , becoming pensionary of the town. In 1566 Coornhert was imprisoned for his support of the Reformers, and in 1572 he became secretary to the States of Holland. He practised the art of etching and spent all his spare time in the pursuit of classical learning . In 1585 he translated Boethius , and then gave his full attention to his original masterpiece,
8493-512: 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
8642-485: 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
8791-557: The Great , while from 1628 to 1642 he wrote his masterpiece, the Nederduytsche Historiën ("History of the Netherlands"). Hooft was a purist in style. In his poetry, especially in the lyrical and pastoral verse of his youth, he is full of Italian reminiscences both of style and matter; in his noble prose work he has set himself to be a disciple of Tacitus . Hooft is considered one of the greatest historians, not merely of
8940-408: The Low Countries, but of Europe. His influence in standardising the language of his country can hardly be overrated. The literary circle founded by Roemer Visscher later centered around Hooft, in whose castle at Muiden they regularly convened, and after which they were later called Muiderkring or "Circle of Muiden". Very different from the long and prosperous career of Hooft was the brief life of
9089-545: The Roman Catholic Church"). In this satire he was inspired by François Rabelais , of whom he was a disciple. It is written in prose that is considered to mark an epoch in the language and literature of the Low Countries. Overwhelmed with the press of public business , Marnix wrote little more until in 1580 he published Het boeck der psalmen Davids ("The Book of the Psalms of David "), newly translated out of
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#17327808934969238-630: The Scourge of Simony as the character "Recorder". Brackyn had been ridiculed in another university play, Club Rules , and would be yet again as the title character in George Ruggle's 1615 academic play Ignoramus . The third play, The Return from Parnassus; the Scourge of Simony , was licensed and entered into the Stationers' Register in 1605 by Owen Gwyn: Oct’. [1605] lo. Wright. Entred for his copy vnder thands of Mr Owen Gwyn and
9387-551: 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
9536-533: The United Provinces , with Amsterdam at its head, had suddenly risen to first rank among the nations of Europe and it was under the influence of so much new ambition that the country asserted itself in a great school of painting and poetry. The intellectual life of the Low Countries was concentrated in the provinces of Holland and Zeeland , while the universities of Leiden , Groningen , Utrecht , Amsterdam , Harderwijk and Franeker were enriched by
9685-399: The academic, literary, theatrical and social life of the period, ranks supreme among the extant memorials of the university stage", and that they are "among the most inexplicably neglected key documents of Shakespeare's age". The first play, The Pilgrimage to Parnassus , describes allegorically the progress of the two students through the university courses of logic , rhetoric , etc., and
9834-504: The allusions that occur. The trilogy of the Parnassus plays can be seen as a sustained questioning of the worth of a humanist education, and as a consideration of the employment crisis that faced graduates at the end of the Elizabethan period. The plays are lively and amusing, and contain a sense of taking stock of the writer's place in society at the turn of the century. They are neglected by academic scholarship, and not greatly appreciated as plays in their own right, but they are known as
9983-671: 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
10132-477: The best idea if we point to Jean Racine . In 1654 Vondel brought out what most consider the best of all his works, the tragedy of Lucifer , from which it is said Milton drew inspiration. Vondel is the typical example of Dutch intelligence and imagination at their highest development. The Republic's colonies, of which the Dutch East Indies were the most important, started to produce writers as well,
10281-600: The best-known of all Dutch writers, Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679), was Het Pascha ("The Passover", 1612), a tragedy on the Exodus of the people of Israel . It was written in alexandrines , in five acts, and with choral interludes between the acts. He would go on to write all of his plays in this fashion, but for a number of years after his debut wrote no original material at all, instead opting to translate du Bartas . The short and brilliant life of Bredero, his immediate contemporary and greatest rival, burned itself out in
10430-421: 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 the different roles simultaneously. The reason for this
10579-569: The boy he is tutoring, and attempts to give a lesson in Latin grammar. Then Luxurio and a boy enter, on the way to a fair. Luxurio has written some poems and plans to sell them at the fair by having the boy recite them. They give a demonstration. Ingenioso has found a kind of patron in Gullio, a character that is partly based on Thomas Nashe 's portrait of "an upstart" in his pamphlet Pierce Penniless . Gullio "maintains" Ingenioso very neglectfully. Foppishly dressed Gullio falsely boasts of being
10728-679: 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
10877-572: 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
11026-405: The completion of their studies at the university, and shows them discovering by bitter experience of how little pecuniary value their learning is. A further sequel, The Return from Parnassus, Or the Scourge of Simony , is more ambitious than the two earlier plays. Knowledge of what occurs in the first two plays is not essential to understand the third play, but it is helpful to illuminate a few of
11175-492: 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
11324-442: The court," it suggests that young scholars who appreciated Shakespeare's writing, also had a regard for his person. The author of the Parnassus plays has the character Judico comment on a number of poets, and he considers Shakespeare: Who loves not Adons love, or Lucrece rape? His sweeter verse contaynes hart throbbing line, Could but a graver subject him content Without loves foolish lazy languishment. Apparently he admires
11473-427: The daughters of Roemer Visscher. Huygens had little of the sweetness of Hooft or of the sublimity of Vondel, but his genius was bright and vivacious, and he was a consummate artist in metrical form. The Dutch language has never proved so light and supple in any hands as in his, and, he attempted no class of writing, whether in prose or verse, that he did not adorn by his delicate taste and sound judgment. Two Dutchmen of
11622-451: The economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards 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
11771-559: 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,
11920-491: 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
12069-588: The fiddlers without payment. At last, Studioso and Philomusus decide to work as shepherds in Kent, while Ingenioso and Furor have to escape to the Isle of Dogs. Academico goes back to Cambridge. It is not known who wrote them or if they were all the work of one person. John Day was suggested as a possible author by Bolton Corney in 1868, based on a copy of the 1606 quarto, on which was hand-written, "To my Lovinge Smallocke J: D:", and also based on Corney's comparison of
12218-569: The first of which was Abraham Alewijn (b. 1664), a comedy playwright who lived in Java and whose plays were produced in Batavia . Another writer from the colonies was Willem Godschalk van Focquenbroch (1640–1670), who lived and worked from 1668 in the Dutch possession of Elmina in present-day Ghana . His comedy Min in het Lazarus-huys ("Love in the Madhouse ", 1672) was very popular in
12367-563: 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
12516-529: 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
12665-438: The gazing streetes, Sooping it in their glaring Satten sutes, And Pages to attend their Maisterships: With mouthing words that better wits have framed, They purchase lands, and now Esquiers are namde. A tone of bitter mockery is established as Philomusus and Studiosus, out of desperation, audition for the professional stage, and are judged by Richard Burbage and Will Kemp , two important members of Shakespeare's company,
12814-569: The genuine Dutch habit of thought, the utilitarian and didactic spirit reached its zenith of fluency and popularity. During early middle life he produced the most important of his writings, his didactic poems, the Maechdenplicht ("Duty of Maidens") and the Sinne- en Minnebeelden ("Images of Allegory and Love"). In 1624 he moved from Middelburg to Dordrecht, where he soon after published his ethical work called Houwelick ("Marriage"); and this
12963-463: The greatest comic dramatist that the Low Countries have produced. Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero (1585–1618), the son of an Amsterdam shoemaker , knew no Latin and had no taste for humanism; he came out of the rich humour of the people. Bredero entered the workshop of the painter Francisco Badens , but accomplished little in art. His life was embittered by a hopeless love for Tesselschade, to whom he dedicated his plays, and whose beauty he celebrated in
13112-439: The hand of Anna or of Tesselschade. Of this Amsterdam school, the first to emerge into public notice was Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft (1581–1647). His Achilles and Polyxena (1598) displayed ease in the use of rhetorical artifices of style. In his pastoral drama of Granida (1605) he proved himself a pupil of Guarini . In tragedy he produced Baeto and Geraard van Velsen ; in history he published in 1626 his Life of Henry
13261-415: The handwriting, and on personal connections that Day had as a Cambridge man. But the suggestion has had little support. Some clues to the author's identity are offered in the prologue to the second play, The Return from Parnassus , but they are not enough to make an identification. Whoever the author was, the plays indicate that he was intelligent, observant and well read. The author appears to have included
13410-468: The language and verse in Shakespeare's early poems, but suggests that Shakespeare may have been wasting his talent by writing love poetry. This faint praise of Shakespeare the actor-poet contrasts with the greater praise he gives to Drayton, Nashe and others. The question of whether or not the characters are meant to represent actual persons, and if so to what extent, has been much discussed. Much of
13559-621: The last of whom is referred to as dead. Ingenioso attempts to sell a book to a printer named Danter. Ingenioso's last book lost money, but his new one is more promising, it's about cuckolds in Cambridge. Needing employment, Academico finds his old friend from college, Amaretto, whose father, Sir Raderick, has a position as a parson to offer. But Amoretto has just accepted a bribe to give it to Immerito. Amoretto pretends not to recognize Academico, and gets rid of him by an off-putting and lengthy discourse regarding technicalities of hunting. Immerito
13708-416: The later part of the reign of Charles I , few new plays were being written for 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,
13857-482: 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. Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age literature Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age literature is the literature written in the Dutch language between around 1550 and around 1700. This period saw great political and religious changes as
14006-474: 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
14155-495: The man who in 1614 first collected Spieghel's writings and published them in a volume together with his own verse. Roemer Visscher (1547–1620) proceeded a step further than Spieghel in the cultivation of polite letters. He was deeply tinged with a spirit of classical learning. His own disciples called him the Dutch Martial , but he was at best little more than an amateur in poetry, although an amateur whose function it
14304-440: 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 the Elizabethan era was to make up for the lack of scenery, set, and props on stage. It created
14453-474: 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
14602-478: 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
14751-450: The next scene, Consiliodorus, father to Philomusus, uncle to Studioso, who funded their journey to Parnassus meets with the carrier and horse-back messenger Leonarde. Leonarde reports that he scolded Philomusus and Studioso and reminded them that their nurturing was costly. Leonarde thinks they may have found jobs as clerks. Consiliodorus is disappointed they are not doing as well as they should be doing. Ingenioso composes amorous verses in
14900-538: 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
15049-757: 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
15198-451: The patron a pamphlet that is dedicated to him. The patron glances at it, gives Ingenioso two small coins, and exits. Ingenioso, alone, is furious with the patron's miserliness. Philomusus and Studioso reenter to hear how it went. Ingenioso now plans to go to London and live by the printers trade. Philomusus and Studioso decide to go along, and include Luxuioso, who has also left Parnassus to go to London. The four, now former students, take
15347-560: The performance in 1601, he was at the time under sentence of death for his part in the Essex conspiracy. The printer Danter, who appears in the third play, is based on actual person, a printer named John Danter, who is noted for printing the piratical first quarto of Romeo and Juliet , as well as other plays and texts. The college recorder, Francis Brackyn was an actual person, who is harshly satirized in The Return from Parnassus: Or
15496-520: The performances of parts two and three of the trilogy. This is indicated on the title-page of the first quarto of Hamlet (1603), where the play is said to have been acted "in the two Universities." Just such a troupe of low-born actors is described in The Return to Parnassus; the Scourge of Simony , as they might be seen from the point-of-view of competitive and envious young scholars: England affords those glorious vagabonds That carried earst their fardels on their backes, Coursers to ride on through
15645-408: 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
15794-456: 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
15943-449: The plays was evidently very familiar with Nashe's works, and all three parts are full of reminiscences of Nashe's writings. In the third play Ingenioso announces that he is in trouble for the plays he has written, and he exits saying, "now I am bound for the Ile of doggs … Fare well." A notorious dramatic satire titled The Isle of Dogs , written by Nashe and Ben Jonson, and performed in 1597,
16092-453: The poets and sir Raderick, after he has taken possession of Prodigo's forfeited land. Studioso and Philomusus attempt other jobs. They apply to Richard Burbage 's theatre hoping to becoming actors, but they realize that actors don't get paid enough. They are engaged by a company of fiddlers, but their first performance is at the front door of Sir Raderick's house. The pages of Sir Raderick and Amoretto pretend to be their masters, and dismiss
16241-609: The popular press. Luxurio appears along with the boy. Luxurio's attempt to sell his poems has not been fruitful, and he is now broke. He bids farewell to poetry. He intends to go away, drink the world dry, as he accepts his status as a beggar. Before the play begins, Studioso and Philomusus travelled to Rome with the expectation of becoming rich, but they discovered that expatriate Englishmen don't live as well as they had hoped. They then travelled around, and tried various honest jobs, but now they have run out of such opportunities, and must therefore turn to dishonest work. They establish
16390-521: 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
16539-614: The public, and the vigor and grace of literary expression reached their highest development. It happened, however, that three men of particularly commanding talent survived to an extreme old age, and under the shadow of Vondel, Cats and Huygens there sprang up a new generation which sustained the great tradition until about 1680, when decline set in. Parnassus Plays The Parnassus plays are three satiric comedies, or full-length academic dramas , each divided into five acts. They date from between 1598 and 1602. They were performed in London by students for an audience of students as part of
16688-461: The religious and political upheaval in the Low Countries had resulted in 1581 in an Act of Abjuration of Philip II of Spain , a key moment in the subsequent eighty years' struggle 1568–1648. As a result, the southern provinces , some of which had supported the declaration, were separated from the northern provinces as they remained under Habsburg rule. Ultimately, this would result in the present-day states of Belgium and Luxembourg (south) and
16837-533: The rhetorical canons of memory ( memoria ) and delivery ( pronuntiatio ), gesture and voice, as well as exercises from 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
16986-599: 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
17135-411: The same pilgrimage ten years ago, but has given up and now follows trivial pursuits. He disguises his lack of talent with a pose of not appreciating scholarship. Philomusus and Studioso then encounter the lover, Amaretto, who encourages them to leave their pilgrimage, and instead linger in the land of Poetry and dally with wenches. This time Philomusus and Studioso are persuaded and abandon, at least for
17284-469: 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 the different roles they played. At some points,
17433-637: The schools of Geneva . It was as a defender of the Dutch iconoclasts that he first appeared in print in August 1566. He soon became one of the leading spirits in the war of Dutch independence and the intimate friend of the Prince of Orange . The lyrics to Wilhelmus , the Dutch national anthem , an apology of the actions of the Prince of Orange composed around 1568, are attributed to Marnix. In 1569 Marnix completed Biëncorf der Heilige Roomsche Kercke ("Beehive of
17582-540: 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
17731-498: 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
17880-467: 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
18029-478: The speculation centering around the London literary scene. However, sustained reference to the London scene, is not a part of the first play, but enters into the trilogy only for the second and third parts. It is thought that by the time the final part was written the author may have more or less identified Ingenioso with Nashe, though the character was not originally conceived with this intention. Ingenioso does speak in praise of Nashe, who died in 1601. The author of
18178-402: The standard Dutch language as it appears today. Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert (1522–1590), was the Low Countries' first truly humanist writer. Coornhert was a typical burgher of North Holland , equally interested in the progress of national emancipation and in the development of national literature. He was a native of Amsterdam, but he did not take part in the labours of the old chamber of
18327-413: The style of the rising generation by insisting on a pure and liberal Latinity . Out of that generation arose the classic names in Dutch literature: Vondel , Hooft , Cats , and Huijgens . In their hands the language took at once its highest finish and melody. By the side of this serious and aesthetic growth there is to be noticed a quickening of the broad farcical humour which had been characteristic of
18476-469: The styles of Chaucer , Spenser , and William Shakespeare , the last alone being to the patron's satisfaction. Gullio, a great admirer of "sweet Mr. Shakespeare", says he will obtain a picture of him for his study and will "worship sweet Mr Shakespeare and to honour him will lay his Venus and Adonis under my pillow, as we read of one – I do not well remember his name, but I'm sure he was a king – slept with Homer under his bed's head". Percevall enters. He has
18625-403: The temptations that are set before them by their meeting with Madido , a drunkard, Stupido , a puritan who hates learning, Amoretto , a lover, and Ingenioso , a disappointed student. The first play was certainly intended to stand alone, but the favour with which it was received led to the writing of a sequel, The Return from Parnassus , which deals with the struggles of the two students after
18774-428: The third play, The Return from Parnassus: Or the Scourge of Simony , states that that play had been written for the preceding year, so the year 1601 seems credible for the writing of the last play of the trilogy. William Shakespeare is alluded to often, and his works are quoted by one count at least 95 times in the three Parnassus plays. He is explicitly mentioned by name in the last two plays. At almost every turn he
18923-592: 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
19072-407: 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
19221-476: 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
19370-692: 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
19519-555: 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,
19668-506: The victorious Reformers, the Gueux songs. The famous songbook of 1588, Een Geusen Lied Boecxken ("A Gueux Songbook"), was full of ardent and heroic sentiment. In this collection appeared for the first time such classical snatches of Dutch song as "The Ballad of Heiligerlee " and "The Ballad of Egmont and Horne ". The political ballads, with their ridicule of the Spanish leaders, form
19817-499: The wardens an. Enterlude called. The retourne from Pernassus or the scourge of Si- mony publiquely Acted by the students in St Johns College in Cambridge. It was then published twice in 1606 – four years after its original performance – with many textual variations between the two editions. It was reprinted in the 18th century, and again in 1879. The third play was the only part that was published, and for many years
19966-404: 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
20115-500: 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
20264-399: 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
20413-442: 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 the time. Elizabethan actors never played
20562-689: Was De Spaansche Brabanber Jerolimo ("Jerolimo, the Spanish Brabanter"), a satire upon the exiles from the south who filled the halls of the Amsterdam chambers of rhetoric with their pompous speeches and preposterous Burgundian phraseology . Bredero was closely allied in genius to the dramatists of the Shakespearian age , but he founded no school and stands as a solitary figure in Dutch literature. He died on August 23, 1618, of complications caused by pneumonia . The first work of one of
20711-576: Was Johan Baptista Houwaert (1533–1599), a personage of considerable political influence in his generation. Houwaert held the title of Counsellor and Master in Ordinary of the Exchequer to the Duchy of Brabant. He considered himself a devout disciple of Matthijs de Casteleyn, but his great characteristic was his unbounded love of classical and mythological fancy. His didactic poems are composed in
20860-457: Was a humanist, less polemical than Coornhert. His chief contribution to literature was his Twe-spraack van de Nederduytsche Letterkunst ("Dialogue on Dutch Literature"), a philological exhortation urging the Dutch nation to purify and enrich its tongue at the fountains of antiquity. That Spieghel was a Catholic prevented him perhaps from exercising as much public influence as he exercised privately among his younger friends. The same may be said of
21009-482: Was asked in 1637 to write the first-night piece for the opening of a new and soon leading public theatre in Amsterdam. On the January 3, 1638, the theatre was opened with the performance of a new tragedy out of early Dutch history and to this day one of Vondel's best-known works, Gysbreght van Aemstel . The next ten years Vondel supplied the theatre with heroic Scriptural pieces, of which the general reader will obtain
21158-484: 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
21307-547: Was considered so slanderous that the Privy Council gave in to pressure from the City government and demanded theatrical performances be stopped and that London's playhouses be torn down. It is thought that the two students, Studioso and Philomusus are in part portrayals of Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd . Of course Shakespeare never attended university, but for the students there might be some satiric pleasure in imagining such
21456-801: 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
21605-423: Was followed by an entire series of moral pieces. Cats is considered somewhat dull and prosaic by some, yet his popularity with the middle classes in Holland has always been immense. A versatile poet was the diplomat Sir Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), perhaps best known for his witty epigrams . He threw in his lot with the school of Amsterdam and became the intimate friend and companion of Vondel, Hooft and
21754-454: 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 the fictional circumstances. The formal actor symbolises while
21903-533: 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,
22052-467: 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
22201-446: Was to perceive and encourage the genius of professional writers. Roemer Visscher stands at the threshold of the new Renaissance literature, himself practising the faded arts of the rhetoricians, but pointing by his counsel and his conversation to the naturalism of the great period. It was in the salon at Amsterdam which Visscher's daughters formed around their father and themselves that the new school began to take form. The republic of
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