Renaissance drama refers to European drama from about the 15th to the early 17th

centuries. During this period the rediscovery and imitation of classical works established
the Renaissance drama foundations of the modern theatre. England’s major contribution
was the lively Elizabethan stage that produced Shakespeare.

Renaissance drama began in Italy, with scholars initially attempting to recreate the
original stagings of Greek and Roman plays, then adapting them to contemporary dress
and speech. The new interest in classical drama was fired by the rediscovery of texts by
Euripides, Seneca, Plautus, and Terence. Aristotle’s Poetics, which defined the classical
genres of tragedy and comedy, came to light in the 15th century. The disreputable
profession of acting began to assume a new dignity and the first professional companies
were formed.

In the field of tragedy, the main influence on Renaissance writers was the work of
Seneca. As early as 1315, Albertino Mussato (1261–1329) wrote a Latin tragedy,
Ecerinis. The first important Renaissance tragedy was Giangiorgio Trissino’s Sophonisba,
which was written in 1515. Other authors of tragedy included Italy’s Pietro Aretino
(1492–1556), Giovanni Giraldi (1504–73) and Torquato Tasso (1544–95); France’s
Étienne Jodelle (1532–73); Spain’s Juan de la Cueva (c. 1543–1610), and Miguel de
Cervantes (1547–1616); as well as England’s Shakespeare, Kyd, and Marlowe.

In the Renaissance theatre the solemn scenes of tragedy were often interspersed with
intermezzi, song and dance interludes that borrowed from the Greco-Roman Satyr-Play.
These interludes ultimately developed into the court masque in England, the opera in
Italy, and ballet in France.
The discovery of Roman comedy, with its stock characters and intricate plots, inspired
Renaissance dramatists to write similar works, such as Udall’s Ralph Roister Doister (c.
1534). The first significant comedy written in Italian was Calandria (1506) by Bernardo
Dovizi da Bibbiena (1470–1520). In sixteenth-century Italy authors of the commedia
erudite began to combine aspects of Roman comedy and tragedy with elements of the
liturgical drama. A leading writer of the commedia erudite was Lodovico Ariosto (1474–
1533). This new genre, however, provoked an important reaction in the form of the
improvised commedia dell’arte. Major comic playwrights of the era included England’s
Shakespeare and Ben Jonson; France’s Jacques Grévin (1538–70) and Pierre de Larivey
(c. 1540–1619); and Spain’s Bartolomé de Torres Naharro (c. 1485–c. 1524).

Renaissance stage design also harked back to classical models, especially to Vitruvius
(1st century BC), whose ideas influenced the construction of the first permanent
playhouses in Italy and France (although theatres in Britain and Spain adapted features
from the inn courtyards in which drama had previously been performed). Greco-Roman
ideas influenced such Italian theatre architects as Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554), Andrea
Palladio (1508–80), Giovanni Aleotti (1546–1636), and Vincenzo Scamozzi (1552–
1616). Their designs incorporated classical devices like the Periaktoi, although new
features such as the proscenium arch were also introduced.
from Jonathan Law ed., The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre (London,
2011).