16th century

Christopher Marlowe's poem "A Passionate Shepherd to his Love" and Sir Walter Raleigh's response, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd," illustrate another interesting poetic fashion in Elizabeth's court

The pastoral poem

Pastoral poems, verses

-extol the virtues of country life
-written since Greek and Roman times
-tapped into a group of themes that still interest postmodern readers today

Queen Elizabeth herself and her ladies-in-waiting used to go out to the country, pretending to live like shepherdesses in an attempt to get away from what was thought to be the corruption and complexity of the court

Christopher Marlowe's poem sings the praises of this country life

its attractive characteristics involve its amoralistic tone ("live with me" instead of "marry me") and its Golden Age myth (no need for labor, radical innocence, and a kindly landscape that supplies all needs and wants; do what comes naturally and paradise will result)

Pagan classical authors had talked about "ages" of humanity

the Golden Age just described

a Silver Age, in which farming and simplicity of life reined

an Iron Age, when people were disciplined through war and government

the present age

the Age of Brass

Renaissance English authors connected the Golden Age to the prelapsarian (unfallen) Garden of Eden

Poets such as Sir Walter Raleigh and William Shakespeare were impatient with this kind of naïve wishful thinking about life

Raleigh's criticisms of the ideal are put into the same verse form as Marlowe's

In the same way, Shakespeare's play As You Like It explores the differences between pastoral ideals and reality

Renaissance Drama

16th century ushered in a new medium to secular Elizabethan audiences

drama

Most critics agree that this century was a period in which some of the greatest drama in the world has ever known was created

Where did this period of unparalleled achievement come from?

It came from English medieval religious drama

Everyman, read earlier, is an example of a medieval morality play

Interludes and morality plays remained popular with audiences well into the lifetimes of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, the period's two greatest playwrights

In addition to religious plays, Greek and Roman plays and Italian and French drama influenced English theater

Tragedies contained both classical (Greek and Roman) and medieval elements

Renaissance tragedy borrowed the ideas of "the wheel of fate" and the fall of the mighty from medieval dramas

idea of the tragic flaw from classical drama, although English playwrights modified the idea to include a more overtly moral element

From the Roman tragedies of Seneca, English dramatists borrowed some lurid elements of blood and guts and rhetorical speeches, as well as Seneca's five-act play structure

But experimentation was the hallmark of Elizabethan theater in the writing of all kinds of plays

Several varieties of tragedy were tried out:

revenge tragedy
heroic tragedy
the tragicomedy

Plays with limited themes and special effects

masques or pageants
\
written to be performed in the homes of the nobility

history play was invented

play acting moved from being the province of amateurs and traveling entertainment companies to being a profession

Companies based in London were sponsored by some of the most important nobles in England, including the King Charles I

However, acting remained a questionable profession, as did writing plays

Play scripts were not viewed as important works of art

Next Class

• read Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus"
• Complete CPA