Elizabethan Theater

Drama in the Age of Queen Elizabeth

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Popularity

Going to the theater was the Elizabethan equivalent of going to the movies

Popular among all people Most notable theater was The Globe Held 2,500-3,000 people Groundlings - paid a penny to stand Queen Eliz. was a great patron of drama

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The Globe

Globe had no lighting or elaborate sets - plays had to be performed during the day

Playwright’s words had to create the mood

Talented actors had to bring the words to life - remember that women could not act

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The New Globe Theater

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Inside the Globe

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The Drama of Shakespeare

The Greatest of Elizabethan Playwrights

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Background on Shakespeare

1564-1616 Born in Stratford-on-Avon Father was a merchant Received no education beyond grammar school Married Anne Hathaway in 1582 (he was 18 and

she was 26), had three children– Susanna, 1583– Judith and Hamnet (twins), 1585

Moved to London in late 1580s to pursue theater Part owner of Lord Chamberlain’s men - very

successful theater company

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Shakespeare’s Drama

Wrote 37 plays - tragedies, comedies, histories, and romances

Written to be performedPlays first published in 1623 - The First

FolioDid Shakespeare really write his

plays…?

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Other Writers on Shakespeare

“He was not of an age, but for all time!”– Ben Jonson

“Shakespeare is the poet of nature: the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and life.”– Samuel Johnson

“He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul.”– John Dryden

So why is Shakespeare still so popular after 400 years?

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The Tragedies

Most famous tragedies - Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth

Tragedy - inspired by the theater of Ancient Greece and Rome (think Oedipus)

Play in which disaster befalls the hero -he dies at the end

Tragic flaw - character trait that brings about the downfall of the hero

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