Theatre History Part 1

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Edward Said, the intellectual is endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message, an attitude or opinion to, as well as for, a public. Theatre Historiography 16th Century: Machiavelli o Start of moving history from a chronicle story into a more scientific, interpretation of the data or explaining the data with some kind of political agenda. 19th century: history described humanitys progress to a higher state of evolution: logical process that colonized nations were persuaded or forced to mimic (started in part by Auguste Comte) o Up until now, humans were viewed as empirical transcendental doublet: meaning the existence of the human as a material being only affirmed the existence of God. o Then, Kant proposed examining the human condition on earth, outside of God; defining yourself without God. After WWII, this way of thinking of was heavily critiqued o Sartre, Camus, Adorno, Beckett

o Critiqued blind faith in ideology of history which caused violence (genocide, holocaust) o Known as the postmodern condition Foundationalist History Uses analysis of empirical data and cognitive values that affirm notion of shared history o Stresses hypothetical, multi-perspectival pluralism of approaches to history Incident analysis o Story with multiple viewpoints whose repercussions are followed through successive periods of time Observing how one event can influence similar events in future periods. We can celebrate a democratic, multi-perspectival pluralism of historical approaches as long as we agree what makes good historical evidence. Rhetorical History

Rejected modernist belief in detachment, objectivity, and balance for understanding history that is always fragmented, fabricated, self-referencing, and endlessly questioning certitude o History is always made by those who speak it Female history: practice of feminine history can never inhabit the historical mainstream in any epistemological sense Reworking of historical thinking as a kind of critique, not an examination of the flaws of a system, but how they have come into being, how they have been rationalized, and what power they have secured

Historiography Ethical process of dealing with the arrangement of records Jean Francois Lyotard: avoid metanarratives (shared history) created by political and economic systems o History is about input/output instead of the search for truth Roland Barthes: our fascination with reality effect & fact o Its not reality, someone is always giving the narrative Foucault: how state uses strategies to govern how we think Pierre Bourdieu: trying to get certain pieces of the archive to fit one way of thinking Michel de Certeau: the historian is no longer and empire builders. He circulates around rationalizations of the past; perpetual movement of reorganization. Never disputes that events took place. Instead, examines how they are described, how they are considered meaningful, how they become worthy of record. What must be forgotten to obtain the representation of a present intelligibility? o Ex. What must we forget (Iraq, Rwanda) to continue what we do? Certeau: What is a fact? A fact is shaped by the conflicting imaginations of the past and the present. A fact describes a limit of what can be thought in the present situation. Michel Foucault o Archeologyrelationship between power and knowledge served to create new forms of domination

o Genealogyeffective historymaterial conditions of discourse defined in terms of institutions, political events, economic practices o Bio-powerfabrication of being; a moral, legal, psychological, medical, sexual being is carefully fabricated o Technology of the selfpractices which permit individuals to have certain control over their own means, so as to attain happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality. Theatre Historiography Spatial historiography: an ethically responsible investigation of the arrangement of record or events o By perturbing the authorities which control the emergence of object of study o By questioning shifting claims to reality: not by denying reality, but by critically evaluating its claims on the past and the present o By focusing on the manner in which historys objects are or can be thinkable, identified or represented. Issues to be considered: o Standards of visibility o Rationalizations that give visibility o The technologies for objectification of the world o The archive, the fact, the event o Placement of records, events and people in a space where words, concepts, and objects need to be wrestled from their proper meaning.

Greek Theatre/Drama Representation o Plato in Phaedo: one that becomes two o Aristotle in Physics, 199a, imitation art imitates life, but art can create solutions that cannot happen in life Representational Practices: defined by the language of intelligibility of that which describes what is thinkable within a particular set of normative and ideological statements

o Always site and time specific Theories of the Origins of Theatre Mimetic Instinct Theory Imitation defines us i.e. babies imitate parents Personification: Grounded in primitive storytelling and the move from a single narrator to imitation of those involved in story Ritual Theory Cultural Darwinism: development from simple to complex Survival of the fittest (Ritual theorys answer to why we only have certain texts) Eventritualmythstory/dramatic text Primordial past with supernatural eventsquest to please these powers become part of oral historyboth ritual and myths combine to create dramatic text o Jane Harrison (1912) ritual as expression of collective conscious of the people. Once there is a ruling class, this ritual is broken. Ritual is refilled with new content to pacify the people. Ritual now only expresses consciousness of a small group of the whole. o Richard Schechner (1974) ritual is always connected to dreams; performing a dream actualizes what never can be known. o Augusto Boal (1974) In the beginning, theatre was a group song, a carnival. Then the ruling class took over and separated actors from spectators. Also separated protagonist from the mass o Tadeusz Kantor (1975) Opposite the spectators stood a man, deceptively similar, but shockingly distant and infinitely foreign. Functionalism (Bronisaw Malinowski) Each culture is highly individual. We cant compare different cultures representational practices Structuralism (Claude Lvi-Strauss) Studies of myth to expose the universal structures of the mind How does the mind function?

Myth is a minds response to recognizing its own cognitive limits in its quest to understand the world. o Myth is a response of the mind to this inevitable failure FOR TUESDAY Paragraph on questions about origins using Oedipus Rex (look at all the theories) Pay attention to moments that bore you and jar you.

Oedipus Rex Things to keep in mind o Difference between story and plot Plot is the arrangement of the story for a particular purpose (think Pulp fiction) o Universality o Know Thyself Beginning: Highest social status, lowest knowledge of himself Ending: Lowest social status, highest knowledge of himself o Late Point of Attack: beginning the play very close to the end of the story Spectacle was least interesting part of drama for Sophocles because it couldnt be recreated realistically, hence negating idea of imitation and realism o Sophocles focused on plot, character, and thought Its about the QUEST, not what the gods or the oracle tells the people to do

The one who interprets the word of the gods has the power Jocasta makes argument over res private and res publica: what should be public and what should be public Aristotles Poetics (335 BCE) Tragedy was at first improvisation Originated with leaders of the dithyramb (the large community song connected with Dionysus) Advanced by slow degrees

Each new element that showed itself was in turn developed Having passed through many changes, it found its natural form and it stopped Definition of tragedy: an imitation of an action which is serious, complete and of certain magnitude; in language embellished; through pity and fear affecting the proper purgation of these emotions o Plot, character, thought, diction, song, spectacle Origins of Tragedy Ritual Theory i. Improvised ii. Thespis introduced prologue and lines iii. Aeschylus introduced second actor iv. Sophocles: third actor and scene painting Narrative Instinct Theory o Problem of Poetics Poetics came two centuries after tragedy is introduced Dithyramb had a different meaning in 6th century than 4th century 6th century: song for birth, life and death of Dionysus 4th century: any heroic narrative, even secular Aristotles text as a work of propaganda: putting Athenians over Spartans; Ionian over Dorian culture Tragedy is product of 2 different arts: Tragoidia: competition for best dithyramb Tragic drama These two must have coexisted, not one

evolving into the other No evidence that tragedy ever having been an orgiastic song Not a religious ritual, but recitation of Homer Judicial System Theory o Agon: argument, courtroom drama Scene between Oedipus, Creon and Jocasta Chorus performs part of jury

 Jocasta acts as judge o Defendant and plaintiff Funeral/Burial Rites Theory o Funeral rites at the tombs of hero: Abbydos Passion Play Presentation of deeds of hero at burial City Dionisia: Religious/civic festival Pisistratus: 534 BCE Thespis won the first prize Festival to celebrate Dionysus: Proagon o 1. Procession o 2. The dithyrambic contest o 3-5. 3 plays and 1 satyr play each day, each day is given to one playwright o 6. (since 487-6 BCE): comedy plays: 5 plays by 5 playwrights Skene Building o Logian o Paraskenion, proskenion, and episkenion o Openings

Pinakes Periaktoi Ekkyklema Deus ex machine: crane used to lower gods Parados: places for entrance and exit of characters Orchestra with thymele (alter) in middle: area for chorus Theatron (14,000-17,000 people) Dramatic structure Late point of attack Division into episodes and choric odes o Prologue o Parados: entrance of chorus o Episodes: o Stasimon: choric odes o Exodus: exit of chorus Cosmographia Dike

 Gnothi sauton Thought: pre- and post-Freudian How does shape and structure of the ancient performance space affect the storytelling specifically of the prologue and parados? Think more on dramatic structure of Oedipus Rex While reading The Grouch, pay attention to how different the dramatic structure between it and The Birds. Write paragraph on this.

The Clouds and The Grouch Happy Idea: the drive for something new i.e. a city in the sky Heterotopia: counter site to the real site in which rules of real site are recognized by all of us, contested and reversed Gods predict, but they do not compel; the universe is rational Poetics on comedy: Comedy aims at representing men as worse Dorians claim the invention of comedy Grew out of improvisations of the leaders of phallic songs o If youve got a penis, then youve got a penis Comedy has had no history because it was not at first treated seriously

Comedy Comedy was officially recognized and admitted to City Dionisia in 487-6 BCE o Refrences to a few playwrights Chionides Magnes Cratinus Crates Eupolis 487-404: Old Comedy (Aristophanes; 11 plays) 404-336: Middle Comedy (Alexis; fragments) 336-2nd Century: New Comedy (Menander) The Birds Heterotopia (see above) Emphasis on eating, sex drinking, wealth & leisure, corruption

Commentary on contemporary society, politics, literature Parts of Comedy: o Prologue: Happy idea!, parodos, agon o Parabis: choric ode o Episodes: o Komos: dance of reconciliation, resolution New Comedy The Grouch: only text we have that is considered new comedy Domestic affair Middle-class Athenian society Ignores political issues Major concern: love & family relationships Plot: young lovers overcoming obstacles The Grouch (316 BCE) Chorus: an interlude of perfromers No agon or parabasis Division into episodes (acts) Fictional ordinary people Grossness of the Old Comedy modified towards decency Aristotles Poetics & New Comedy Episodes separated by the dances of the chorus Protagonist (Knemon) Use of recognition and reversal (episode 4) For Tuesday While reading Menaechmi and Self-Tormentor, research what is a preface? What is its function? Also, focus on prologues. What are their functions? What do they trigger in you?

Roman History Republic (509 BCE-27 BCE) o Republican government Senate of 300 patricians Centurian Assembly of plebians

o Triumvirates: Pompey, Julius, Caesar (60 BCE) Octavius, Marc Anthony, Lepidius Empire (27 BCE-476 AD/CE) o Corrupt emperors: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero Emperor Nerva: Good emperor, followed by 5 more good emperors 235-284: A period of anarchy 286: reform of the empire (Diocletian) 324: Two capitals, Milan/Nea Roma One empire (Constantine) 395: Separation into Eastern and Western Empire (Arcadius)

476: Odoacer forces the Western Empire to abdicate (Visigoths: 410; Attila: 452; Vandals: 457) Roman Theatre Multiple representational practices associated with festivals: o Circus races o Gladiatorial fights (264 BCE-404 CE) o Venationes: animal fights o Wrestling o Boxing, rope-dancing o Naumachiae: Staging of sea battles (52 CE: Lake Fucine; 19,000 participants) Lots and lots of festivals: almost every other day is a festival According to Livy, theatre started by young men imitating dancers that commemorated end of pestilence and adding improvised jests in verse Canon Volcacius: gave us names of 12 playwrights Only 26 comedies remain, all fabula palliata, 20 by Plautus, 6 by Terence Fabula palliata: Text based on Greek originals Fabula togata: Text based on Roman originals Fabula crepidata: tragedy like text based on Greek model, 9 by Seneca Fabula praetexta: tragedy like text based on Roman originals Plautus (254 BCE-184 BCE) o Had to compete with all the other spectacles that occurred at the festivals.

o Horace accused Plautus of ignoring rules of dramatic structure for financial gain o Lex Oppia (215 BCE) Cato and Valerius Flaccus started censorship and sumptuary laws about women o The Menaechmi Terence (185 BCE0159 BCE) o A slave of a senator Terentius Lucanus o Prologues to his fabulae palliatae o The Self-Tormentor

Medea

Pay attention to differences in physical space. Pay attention to how Madea and Jason are presented differently. Pay attention to closing moment of the play.

The audience member is responsible for entering the theatre space -Michal Kobialka This means nothing to me. Im going to kill you. And that will be my pleasure -Michal Kobialka Roman Theatre Architecture Theatron: free standing, not incorporated into landscape, built into cities Semi-circular orchestra Note: if Pulpitum: wooden stage Scaena frons & aulaeum: stage building & curtain Versuarae: wings Vomitoria: entrances to orchestra Cavea: auditorium Velum: awning to shade the audience the Guthrie ever starts to fail, start using it as a brothel

Horace:

Ars Poetica Special skills needed Play must be a complete piece Beauty of arrangement Do not mix comedy with tragedy Be consistent when developing characters No violence on stage All plays must have FIVE acts Purpose of drama and theatre: profit; to bring delight

Roman Theatre Fabula praetexta/fabula crepidata o Playwrights we know of (no plays): Ennius, Pcuvius, Accius Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Burrus, and Nero) Philosophy: Zeno (will, stoicism) vs. Epicurus (pleasure) o The use of pleasure (Foucault in History of Sexuality) Aphrodisia (the acts/gestures that produce pleasure) Chresis (the use of pleasure, use of domination) Enkrateia (mastery over certain pleasures)

Medieval Drama Feudal system, Crusades, plague After fall of Roman Empire in 476 CE, theatre as we know it disappeared until the 10th century where it reemerged in the practices of Catholic Church. Representational practices of medieval period are less connected with Aristotle than they are with the affirmation of God. Not imitating life, but affirming a theological lesson. Timeline of Fall of Rome to Middle Ages 390: Christianity becomes official religion in Rome 398: Council of Carthage: Excommunicated if you go to theatre on religious holiday 404: Gladiatorial Contests abolished 476: The Fall of Western Empire

476-1492: Medieval period o 500-900 (Dark Ages); 900-1050 (Early Middle Ages); 10501300 (High Middle Ages); 1300-1453 (Late Middle Ages) Rise of Christianity Establishment of Christian communities o Group connected by same faith, priest lived in the community, usually married St. Benedict (480-550): institutionalized monasticism o Monasteries were independent from government o Monks life devoted to celebration/study of birth, life, and death of Christ St. Gregory (540-604): establishment of celibacy of clerics, Christian ceremonies (Gregorian mass), clarified various theological issues Charlemagne (800) o Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne, making him first Holy Roman Emperor. Charged with defending Christianity from the barbarians, regulating the common peoples behavior in terms of Christian rules.

o Christianity now becomes a political structure, it is the mode of living and being. Pornocracy (891-972) o 25 popes in this period, only 3 died a natural death: high tension o Also a revival of monasticism (Cluny, Fleury, Ghent: 10th century) Medieval Drama EK Chambers: The Medieval Stage (1903) o o o o Church adopted mimetic instinct as a compromise Minstrelsy Folk Tradition: pagan rituals, festivals Religious Drama Quem Quaeritis: Plaint chant Regularis Concordia: dialogue and mimetic action Adding scenes

Slow process of secularization Popular religious drama (Cycle plays) Morality plays (abstract concepts) Karl Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church (1933) o Medieval drama originated in a church, no evidence of theatre outside the church o Developed from simple to complex o Developed independently: Trope/Easter Mass Regularis Concordia: VISITATIO SEPULCHRI Dialogue, setting, impersonation Marys and the Angel Peter and John Jesus OB Hardison, Christian Rites & Christian Drama in the Middle Ages (1965) o Comparing Greek religion with Christianity o Christian liturgy is a ritual, celebrates life, death, and resurrection of Christ Tragedy: Celebrated life, death, and resurrection of Dionysus o Mass: thought of as comedy (action, crisis, reversal, joyful resolution) o Easter Mass o The Quem Quaeritis: a ceremony or resurrection play

For Thursday Read Second Shepherds Play, write about time and space; differences between eternal Christendom and temporal nation states

Historiography: Arrangement of evidence from history Any document used to explain history is a conflict between past imaginations and present imaginations (see Regularis Concordia) Second Shepherds Play Fallen World (Garden of Eden)

o In Second Shepherds Play, the shepherds are seen in a fallen world, but a fallen world not caused by original sin, but by the state. Remember that brilliant scene in Hamlet? Yes. The Regularis Concordia English Monasticism: o Dunstan (Ghent) o Ethelwold (Strict monasticism) o Oswald (Fleury) All of them came with their own monastic practices from where they came from. Needed a way to regulate monastic practices, so they created the Regularis Concordia Monastic document A record of new monastic practices Representation as it was constructed and institutionalized in 10 th century England Representational practices: o The Chapter: what a monk does every hour of every day To produce truth about oneself To access the divine light o The Eucharist Hoc est corpus meum: this is my body Paschasius Ratramnus o The Quem Quaeritis Plotinus o The image was a reflection of the subject o Depth/shadows avoided created ambiguity and uncertainty The Quem Quaeritis o A parallel projection used to detach the images from the inner eye so that they could be perceived by the human eye o To bring spiritual reality to full light o Verbalization of the inner

o Externalization of the inner For Tuesday Find out more about transubstantiation, Fourth Lateran Council of 1215

Allow me to quote my book for you.

What does this have to do with theatre? I confess, I masturbated last night. Five times. IT WAS GLORIOUS. My masturbation affirms the existence of God. Cycle Plays Four cycles: o York (48 plays, 1 day) o Chester (25 plays, 3 days) o Townley or Wakefield (32 plays) o Coventry (42 plays) Connected with the church and its theology Outside of the church building Stage: fixed or movable Staging: stationary or processional or simultaneous Feast of Corpus Christi o Hoc est corpus meum: this is my body Corporeal, spiritual, ecclesiological interpretation 1215 Fourth Lateran Council There is only one universal church Anyone outside of the church cannot been saved Dogma of transubstantiation: Eucharist IS body and blood of Christ Juliana of Lieges dream 1246: the feast established in diocese of Liege 1264: the official feast of the Roman Catholic Church 1311: official starting date 1426: The separation: the plays staged by the guild on the vigil of the feast of Corpus Christi (Melton)

Processional or stationary: o Nelson: procession of pageant wagons through the streets; one single indoor performance (Common Hall0 Dorrell: only parts enacted at each station o Kahrl: procession; once it stopped at the station, the whole play was enacted o Stevens: procession; until all pageant wagons assembled at the Pavement Important parts of Cycle Plays o Creation of angels to the last judgment o o o o o o o o o Biblical stories Circular structure Total time: no separation between past present and future Total place: no geographical restrictions Total action Real characters Divine and human history Sense of the immediacy of experience Fallhope/redemptionsalvation

Non-Cycle Plays Morality plays: o Non-biblical story o Use of allegory o Outer action presents inner action o The form of a journey o Depicts invisible virtues Visualization of the interiorized dogma o Timeless o Downfallconfession & absolution (knowledge)salvation Make Arusi jizz in his pants? Check. Medieval Representational Practices: A parallel projection used to detach the images from the inner eye so that they could be perceived by the human eye To bring spiritual reality to full light

Verbalization of the inner Externalization of the inner Defining what can be seen; where it can be seen; how it can be seencreating standard for seeing

Theatre History Part 2

16th Century Italian Drama: Resemblance America: Invasion, discovery, encounter, invention

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Theories of the Renaissance or Early Modern Period 1453Fall of Constantinople Rebirth theory o Similar to Chambers, simple to complex rebirth of ideas, cultural Darwinism Antithesis theory o Renaissance as isolated phenomenon, not linked to previous movements Forma mentis theory o Renaissance created nothing new; everything was already present in embryonic conditions during the 11th and 12th centuries (High Middle Ages) Liminal space theory o Renaissance as inter-period between Middle Ages and Enlightenment Early modern theory

o Renaissance as beginning of long Modern Era Italian Renaissance Philosophy: o Similitude Qui facit veritatem venit ad lucem o A desire to transform reality into an image through which the universal (theological) truth will be known o Resemblance At nova res novum vocabulum flagitat A new reality requires a new language to define it How is it possible to know what the sign reveals The activity of the mind The need to deliver a true and certain judgment To know means to discriminate A new science of order The School of Ficino

o o o o

Nationalism o Popular o Politico-religious o By-product of humanism/the classical heritage of language and culture

The mind is an ideal instrument in knowledge production But the mind needs to be freed from illusions caused by the senses and fantasy Cogito ergo sumindividual state of mind

The concept of heritage The concept of philologia The discovery of the plays; Aristotle/Horace Rediscovery of Aristotles Poetics 1498: Valla (Latin) 1536: Pazzi (Greek and Latin) 1548: Robortello (decorum/moral aspect) 1549: Segni 1554: Cinthio (5 acts/happy endings in tragedy) 1561: Scaliger (verisimilitude) 1563: Trissino 1570: Castelvetro (unities of time, place, and action)

Visual Commentary: o Vitruvius, De Architectura o 1545: Serlio publishes De Architectura in Italian with drawings and perspective setting

Brunalleschi, Masaccio Alberti Leonardo da Vinci o Teatro Olimpico (1580-84) o Teatro Farnese (1618) Machiavellis Mandragola ResemblanceGreek/Roman original Modifications:

o Mind/reality o Three houses o Notion of governmentality How and who can you govern how people think? Dramatic structure The world of pleasure/mind games For Thursday Read La Vida Es Sueno (Life is a Dream) Pay attention to idea of political allegory. What constitutes life and what constitutes dream? Pay attention to Segismunds speech in the tower

Dr. Faustus: Give different reasons why Faust is damned at the end of the play. The Spanish Tragedy: dont write anything, just think about revenge tragedy. Think about Dr. Faustus, The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Duchess of Malfi, and Tis Pity Shes a Whore all as revenge tragedy and how each changes the model for revenge tragedy. Gorboduc: Debate about power, all of the action of the play can be seen in the dumb show. La Vida Es Sueo This play calls to all of us to wake up. We can all go through life dreaming what we are, existing within normative categories established for us to discover our identities; as long as we keep doing this, we are dead. We do this because the biggest crime is being born. When you wake up you have to take responsibility for new condition. Spanish Golden Age: Historical overview: o Presence of the Moors o Period of the Reconquista o Territorial expansion in Europe and the New World

Europe: Carlos I became the Emperor V, Spain annexes Austria, parts of Germany, Italy & Holland (Low Countries) New World: Cortes (MexicoAztecs); Pizzaro (Peru Incas) o 1558the defeat of the Armada Spanish Theatre: o Religious drama: Plays associated with Corpus Christi Auto sacramentale A hybrid formcontaining the elements of cycle plays and morality plays Until 1550: trade guilds responsible for staging of the plays 1550s: the City Council assumes this responsibility the use of professional troupes the use of professional playwrights Competition between acting companies; the winner had exclusive rights to perform plays in

Madrid between Easter and Corpus Christi; then, the plays toured the country. Censorship: The king City Hall Council of Castille City Council o Secular Theatre Prior to 1560sno permanent theatre in Madrid 1565: Confradia de la Sagrada Pasion: Fraternity of the Holy Passion (presented plays, raised money for poor) 1567: Confradia de Nuestra Senora de la Soledad Corral (a square)/Calle del Sol Where Corral de la Pacheca Plays Corral de Puente Staged 1579: Corral de la Cruz 1583: Corral del Principe

o Secular Theatre structures Platform or stage Gradas (benches for seating) Aposentos (apartments where people watched from windows) Cazuela (tavern) Patio (lunetas added in the XVIIIth Century) o Performance Loa Dance Life is a Comedia (capa y espeda; teatro ruido/cuerpo) Entremeses

Dream Written in 1636 Dramatic structure Why Poland? Tapes of characters Philosophical allegory pues el delito mayor del hombre es haber nacido (The biggest crime of a human is being born) la vida es sueno (life is a dream)

Elizabethan England Tudors and Stuarts o Henry VII (1485-1509)known for bringing humanism to England o Henry VIII (1509-1547)break with Catholic church (1534) o Edward VI (1547-1553) o Mary I (1553-1558)married Philip II/Spanish Armada, tried to bring Catholicism back to England o Elizabeth I (1558-1603) o James I (1603-1625) o Charles I (1625-1649) Early Tudor Theatre/Drama o Humanism/historiography

Rhetorical study of literature/dramaemphasis on style, educational function, classical inheritance Every expressive act is embedded in a network of material practices Literary and non-literary texts do not circulate separately No discourse gives access to universal truths and/or human condition o Court interludes: Fulgens & Lucrece by Medwall (1497) o Hybrid forms: morality plays/philosophical allegory: Magnificence by Skelton (1516) o Oxford/Cambridge The study of Roman plays/new plays in Latin English imitations o Religious and political controversies 1534: Henry VIII breaks with the Catholic church 1553-58: Mary I attempts to return people to Catholicism/sets fire to 300 people 1559: Elizabeth I forbids the playwrights to treat religious/political subjects; demands cessation of Cycle Plays; plays and performers must be licensed through the Crown 1572: Elizabeth I declared illegal for any nobleman below the rank of baron to maintain a troupe of actors 1574: Elizabeth I creates the position of the Master of Revels who had the right to examine all plays and to license all acting companies (existed until 1968) John Northbrooke

A Treatise Against Dicing, Dancing, Plays and Interludes (1577) Stephen Gosson: The School of Abuse (1579) Philip Sidney: Defense of Posey (1583) o 1558-1574: 20 companies played at court o Since 1574licensed companies:

 Earl of Lancasters Men 1574 Queens Men 1583 Queen Annes Men Lord Starnge Men Lord Hudsons Men Lord Admirals Men 1592-93 Lord Chamberlains Men 1592-3 o Theatre Architecture Inn-yard theatres Banquet hall Inns of court Comedy of Errors1594 Gesta Grayorum o The public theatres (outside city limits) 1576The Theatre (James Burbage) 1577The Curtain 1579Newington Butts 1587The Rose 1595The Swan 1599The Globe 1600The Fortune 1605The Red Bull 1613The Hope o Gorboduc (1561-1562) Seneca Revenge tragedy Chorus Italian interlude tradition: Dumb shows Inns of Court tradition Moot court/arguments

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1693) o Doctor Faustus Revenge tragedy

Similitude vs. resemblance The power of the institutions Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) o The Spanish Tragedy Revenge tragedy Theatre-within-theatre: double plots Probabilities established in Act I

Hamlet Revenge tragedy Probabilities established in Act I Key scenes of the play which explain the major characters motivations and methods o Significance of Act IV Scene 4 The major themes of the play, agents who exemplify them, and how they are presented Old Hamlet and Old Fortinbras versus Hamlet and Fortinbras o Sons are not responsible for deeds of fathers, they have the opportunity to break the chain of revenge and establish a new order

Tis Pity Shes a Whore Relation between pure emotion and what is accepted by custom/state/church Why do we sympathize with those who are in the clear moral wrong? The Duchess of Malfi Ferdinand forces her to stay available for him (incest) Unlike the other revenge tragedies weve read, the avenger is no longer the hero, but the villain. Woman defined as inverse of man at the time. Revenge tragedy Dr. Faustus

o Going against what has been deemed thinkable by the institution leads to revenge Spanish Tragedy o Revenge v. Justice (Portugal subplot) o Ghost of Andrea observing what is happening Hamlet o Sons are responsible for deeds of their fathers o Revenge against the institution/state o Hamlet must prove his revenge is justified Tis Pity Shes a Whore o Not just revenge, exploration of abstract idea of love How does state/church control what is visible/thinkable? o Revenge present in antagonist, we sympathize with incestuous lovers