Lecture no 3 English Renaissance 2 Elizabethan Theatre

Lecture no. 3 English Renaissance (2) Elizabethan Theatre and William Shakespeare (1500 – 1660) doc. Jana Javorčíková, Ph. Dr. Martin Kubuš, Ph. D.

Food for thought ‘Shakespeare survives because of his ultimate ungraspability. ’ Germaine Greer Professor of English and Comparative Studies, Warwick University (from In our Time, Shakespeare’s work, BBC Radio 4, 2000)

Elizabethan Age (= 1558 – 1603) To review: Henry VIII » Edward VI » Mary I » Elizabeth I » James I (also known as James VI of Scotland) during E VI‘s reign, the A. of C Thomas Cranmer formulated the 42 articles of the new faith (Anglican Orthodoxy), in 1549 The Book of Common Prayer was officially adopted, it ‘’deliberately avoided addressing abstruse theological controversies. The language of the English church service was carefully chosen to be open to several interpretations and acceptable to both Protestant- and Catholic-leaning subjects. ’’ (Greenblat, p. 1239, see Bibliography) Elizabeth embraced new faith (incl. the Bishop’s Bible), spread education (160 new schools) recusants fined, everybody who wanted a university degree, be ordained as a priest, any officer of the state had to embrace Anglicanism – had to swear an oath to the royal supremacy

The keynote of the Elizabethan Age ‘The keynote of the Elizabethan age is the spirit of pride, which spirit it was entirely to Elizabeth's advantage to flatter and promote, as it became to the advantage of her subjects, especially her courtiers and writers, to flatter and cozen her in language which would be an affront to any but an already bemused intelligence. Consequently, it is a selfconscious age, exulting in itself, its wealth, its achievements, given over to the lust of the eye and the pride of life. ’ (B. Kelly, see Mc. Auley, R. , p. 5) e. g. Edmund Spenser (Fairie Queene), Philip Sydney (The Defence of Poesy)

Philip Sydney’s view of new tendencies (from 1579) he was against conjunction of high and low characters in “mongrel” tragicomedies that mingled “kings and clowns” he hated the violation of the laws of time and space (“where you shall have Asia of the one side, and Afric of the other”) – rules triumphantly broken by Marlowe and Shakespeare 1 st freestanding public theatres date back to WS’s times The Red Lion (1567) and Theatre (1576) – both built by James Burbage, Burbage’s brother-in-law)

Theatres and other forms of entertainment Actors, playwrights, carpenters need patronage (a steady job, a place, a company), otherwise labelled as vagabonds (before that they staged plays called interludes – short plays on a topic, and mystery plays – now suppressed) Theatres like the Globe (1595), The Swan, The Hope are established theatrical companies: The Lord Chamberlain´s Men, Pembroke´s Men, The Queen’s Men rooster fighting, jousting, folk healers, magic shows, public shaming, execution. . .

Plots and style under Seneca’s influence (4 BC – 65 AD) violent plots, resounding dramatic speeches, ghosts and people thirsting for blood – a revenge tragedy (Hamlet, Othello) – a wronged protagonist plots and executes a revenge, destroying also himself Ch. Marlowe introduces ‘’overrachers’’, who challenge the limits of human possibility blank verse becomes the most popular meter (unrhymed iambic pentameter) – the very first tragedy in blank verse is Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex (1561) by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton (a lawyer, MP, translator of Calvin’s The Institution of Christian Religion, published in English the very same year)

Blank verse Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies! Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena! (Doctor Faustus, scene 12, lines 81 – 87)

Controversy about theatres outside the city limits (because of crowds, traffic noise) Not only Puritans though that theatres are hotbets of prostitutes, diseases, pickpockets draw people (mostly youth) away from their work places where ‘’innocent maids are seduced and respectable matrons corrupted’’ (Greenblat et. al. , s. 510) ‘’theatrical transvestism excited illicit sexual desires (both heterosexual and homosexual)’’ (ibid. )

The Globe Theatre (built in 1599) v

A video, The Adventures of English presented by Melvyn Bragg The Globe – 4 th episode, 32 nd minute https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=1 Kg 63 k 5 JDH 8 31. 57 (Maybe after the lecture)

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

William Shakespeare April 23 1564 (? , bap. April 26 1564) – April 23 1616 son of M. Arden and J. S. (“jack of all trades”, including mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire) hence the chance for WS to study, Stratford Grammar School (1571 – 1577), after, JS returns to glove-making, WS helps out in 1582 WA marries A. Hathaway (8 y. older than him, live at the W. f-house) 1585 persecuted for poaching by T. Lacy, a wealthy landowner Theories: 1. 1587 WS joins Queen’s men – vacancy (1 actor stabbed) 2. A school-master in Lancashire (W. Shakeshaft? ) 1594 – re-appears in London as a prosperous actor/playwright with 6 produced plays and published poems to his name, often writing under the patronage of Henry Wriothesley /ˈraɪəθsli/, 3 rd Earl of Southampton (Fair Youth in WS’s sonnets)

Sonnet 145, dedicated to his wife, 1582 Those lips that Love's own hand did make Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate, ' To me that languish'd for her sake: But when she saw my woeful state, Straight in her heart did mercy come, Chiding that tongue that ever sweet Was used in giving gentle doom, And taught it thus anew to greet: 'I hate' she alter'd with an end, That follow'd it as gentle day Doth follow night, who like a fiend From heaven to hell is flown away; 'I hate' from hate away she threw, And saved my life, saying -- 'not you. ‚

W. Shakespeare, mystery (? ) – English lexicon = 490. 000 words / Beginners = 5. 000 words – Shakespeare = 17. 000 – 33. 000 words, Q: Where did he learn them? Some were invented (so-called inkhorn terms) – in school = “the whining schoolboy with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like a snail Unwillingly to school“ – pamphlet, Groats-worth of Witte bought with a million of Repentance, by Robert Greene (1558 – 1592), on his death-bed he refers to WS’s Henry VI, part 3 (1 st printed reference to WS ever): ". . . for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in the countrey".

Some famous expressions “To be, or not to be: that is the question. " (Hamlet) “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!” (Richard III) “all that glisters is not gold…” (The Merchant of Venice) "But, for my own part, it was Greek to me". (Julius Caesar)

First published work – Venus and Adonis, 1190 lines, published in 1593 – the first time Shakespeare’s name is attached to a printed work – dedicatory letters were attached to works, authors’ names were not included on the cover – inspired by Ovid’s (43 BC – 17/18 AD) Metamorphoses – Venus falls in love with Adonis, who is very reluctant to requite her love, prefers hunting wild boars, she warns him, but at the end he is killed during a hunt

The Dedicatory Letter to Earl of Southampton 'Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua. ‘ TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLY, EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TICHFIELD. RIGHT HONOURABLE, I KNOW not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden only, if your honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a god-father, and never after ear so barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable survey, and your honour to your heart's content; which I wish may always answer your own wish and the world's hopeful expectation. Your honour's in all duty, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Different pronunciation? Lines 1168 – 1170 – Venus mourns dead Adonis, a flower springs up from his corpse: A purple flower sprung up, chequered with white, Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood. Crystal on Shakespeare´s pronunciation, 10: 21 https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=g. Plpph. T 7 n 9 s

(A reaction of) Robert Southwell (1561 – 1595) – went to the English Seminary for Catholics at Douai, when in Rome, he joined the Society of Jesus – admired by Elizabethan playwrights Thomas Nashe (1567 – 1601), Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637), even though he (Jezuits) had a different opinion on the function of poetry (? ) – in 1592 captured and imprisoned in the Tower, in 1595 executed at the age of 33 (under the statute of 1585, which had made it treason to be a Catholic priest and administer the sacraments in England) – in 1970 Pope Paul VI canonized him as one of the 40 martyrs of E. and W. – preface to his posthumous collection St. Peter’s Complaint (1595) ‘’Poets, by abusing their talent, and making the follies, and faygnings of love the customary subject of their base endeavours, have so discredited this facultie, that a Poet, a Lover and a Lyar, are by many reckoned but three words of one signification. ’’

WS refers to Southwell’s poem Southwell: The Burning Babe ‘A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear; Who, though scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed, As though his floods should quench his flames, which with his tears were fed. ’ W. Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth is persuading himself not to murder the virtuous Duncan. Pity, in the form of a baby, would condemn the deed: ‘And Pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s Cherubins, hors’d Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. ’

R. Southwell, WS’s relative (? ) – in the 1616 reedition of the collection St. Peter’s Complaint editors included a salutation: To my worthy good cousin Mr. W. S. Worthy cosen, Poets, by abusing their talent, and making the follies, and faygnings of love the customary subject of their base endeavours, have so discredited this facultie, that a Poet, a Lover and a Lyar, are by many reckoned but three words of one signification.

Shakespeare’s Plays COMEDIES HISTORIES TRAGEDIES All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It Comedy of Errors Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure Merchant of Venice Merry Wives of Windsor Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado about Nothing Taming of the Shrew Tempest Twelfth Night Two Gentlemen of Verona Winter's Tale Henry IV, Part II Henry VI, Part III Henry VIII King John Pericles Richard III Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida

Themes WS knew human nature well – 7 deadly sins: 1. Wrath – Hamlet (1599/02) – tragedy of revenge; Titus Andronicus (1588) – a Roman tragedy 2. Greed –The Merchant of Venice (1596/98) – comedy, Richard III (1592) – a tragedy 3. Sloth 4. Pride – King Lear (1603/06) 5. Lust – The Tempest (1610/11), A Midsummer Night´s Dream, (1590) – comedy, Merry Wives of Windsor (1602) 6. Envy – Othello (also jealousy) 7. Gluttony

Othello (ca. 1604) Setting: Venice, Cyprus Characters: Brabantio (Venetian senator) Desdemona (Brabantio’s daughter) Othello (the Moor) Cassio (an honourable lieutenant) Iago (a villain)* Emilia, Bianca, Roderigo *Iago’s soliloquies reveal his thoughts and plans, his true character – a new stylistic vehicle introduced by WS (help us understand the character), not just a dramatic monologue

The Source of Othello – a tale from Hecatommithi (1565) by Cintio Giraldi (Giovanni Battista Giraldi, 1504 – 1573) – WS draws ideas to write Measure for Measure (CG), Romeo and Juliet (Matteo Bandello), Hamlet (Amleth, a 13 th century legend by Saxo Grammaticus) – WS read it in Italian, or French, no English translation in his time – setting was the same, but WS included more characters, gave them names, characters were more complex and the story less brutal WS Othello Iago Cassio Desdemona (Cintio Giraldi) (the Moor) (Ensign) (Captain) (Disdemona)

1623 – First Folio — 36 plays, it was prepared by Shakespeare's actor colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell — folio: 1. a book leaf (two pages) 2. “the (size of) paper produced by folding a large sheet of paper once so as to give two sheets or four pages in all”* 3. “a book of the largest size, made up of large sheets folded once”* (in case of WS 33 x 21 cm)** — 1 st published collection of S´s plays — “THE DROESHOUT ENGRAVING“ (Martin Droeshout was 15 when WS died, applied artistic licence) • See Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture ** J. Vilikovský IN Shakespeare, W, Tragédie, romance, see Bibliography

The King’s Men — in 1602, January 6, Elizabeth herself goes to see The Twelfth Night — in 1603 he writes Macbeth, to please the new king James I (shorter, to suit the king) — (according to MW) spends time in Stratford, occasionally visiting London (bought a house, which was considered the capital’s Catholic hotbed) — the King’s men prospered even more than the Queen’s men — it is said (a friar) WS on his deathbed returned to his old faith

Shakespeare, the poet — wrote 154 sonnets + other poems — sonnets are nameless — dedicated to a lady (125 – 154), Fair Youth (1 – 126, probably Southampton, or William Hughes, or William Herbert – to Praise his beauty, to immortalise him in the lines, to complain that the youth took his lover, to make him get married and beget an offspring. . . ) — 14 lines, but the Shakespearean sonnet = 3 quatrains and a final couplet = antithesis (opposition to what has been said before)

https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=x. P 06 F 0 yynic Sonnet CXXX (recited by A. Rickman) My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

Inspiration behind Sonnet CXXX — a poem no. VII in Hekatompathia (a. k. a. Passionate Century of Love, 1582) by Thomas Watson (1555 – 1592) Hark you that list to hear what saint I serve: Her yellow locks exceed the beaten gold; Her sparkling eyes in heav'n a place deserve; Her forehead high and fair of comely mold; Her words are music all of silver sound; Her wit so sharp as like can scarce be found; Each eyebrow hangs like Iris in the skies; Her Eagle's nose is straight of stately frame; On either cheek a Rose and Lily lies; Her breath is sweet perfume, or holy flame; Her lips more red than any Coral stone; Her neck more white than aged Swans that moan; Her breast transparent is, like Crystal rock; Her fingers long, fit for Apollo's Lute; Her slipper such as Momus dare not mock; Her virtues all so great as make me mute: What other parts she hath I need not say, Whose face alone is cause of my decay.

Sonet č. 130 Má moja milá v očiach slnko? Blud. Červenší býva koral než jej pery. Sadze sú snehom, ak má bielu hruď. Čo vlas, to čierny drôt jej kamsi mier. Videl som ruže červené aj biele aj ružové – no nie na jej lícach. A vdychoval som vône rôzne skvelé – ale z jej úst ma ovial iba pach. Či ju rád počúvam? Nuž, čoby nie – hudbu však nikdy nehľadám v jej hlase. Netuším, ako chodia bohyne – keď kráča ona, celá zem sa trasie. A predsa sa mi vidí pôvabnejšou, než slávne dámy z epigónskych veršov. (prel. Ľ. Feldek)

Recommended videos In Search of Shakespeare, presented by Michael Wood (a 5 -part documentary) https: //www. dailymotion. com/video/x 5 nu 0 oj

Bibliography Greenblatt, S. et al. 2006. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Volume 1 : W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London, ISBN 0 -393 -92531 -5. Mc. Auley, R. 1959. The Aesthetic and Spiritual Functions of Robert Southwell's Writing, available online: http: //ecommons. luc. edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi? article=2042&context=luc_the ses LONGMAN Dictionary of English Language and Culture. 2008. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. 1622 s. ISBN 0 -582 -85312 -5. Shakespeare, W. 1987. Sonety, Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ (the afterword by J. Vilikovský). Shakespeare, W. 1989. Tragédie, romance, Bratislava: Tatran.