renaissance theatre essay

Renaissance Theater: Origin, Characteristics, Playwrights and Representative Works

He Renaissance theater refers to the European drama from about the fifteenth century to the early seventeenth. In this period, the rediscovery and imitation of classical works established the foundations of modern theater. In this sense, the Renaissance was mainly concerned with culture and classical ideals.

The Renaissance drama of Italy, France, Spain and England reflected an interest and emulation of the Greek and Roman classics. One of the two directions taken by the Renaissance theater in Europe was based on the recreation of the past, a movement called Neoclassicism: it followed the rules of the ancients as interpreted by the moderns.

The other direction of the theater was more centered in the words and the scenes of the Elizabethans and the Spaniards. The theater of England was the most prolific in the works of Shakespeare, Jonson, Marlow and others.

For its part, the Spanish theater resembled the Elizabethan theater in its presentation, but it was based more on the religious theme and medieval conventions than on altering the strong religious influence of the Church and the government.

1.1 Renaissance tragedy
2 characteristics
3.1 Tragedy
4 Representative works
5 References

Renaissance theater began in Italy, with scholars who initially tried to recreate the original Greek and Roman works, and then adapt them to contemporary dress and speech.

The new interest in classical drama began with the rediscovery of Euripides, Seneca, Plautus and Terence. The Poetics of Aristotle came to light in the fifteenth century; this defined the classic genres of tragedy and comedy.

Thus, the profession of the actor went from having a bad reputation to assume a new dignity, and formed the first professional companies.

The design of the Renaissance stage can also be traced back to classic models, especially to Vitruvius (1st century BC). His ideas influenced the construction of the first permanent theater houses in Italy and France.

On the other hand, the theaters of Great Britain and Spain adapted the characteristics of the patios of inns where representations had been carried out previously.

Greco-Roman ideas influenced the architecture of Italian theater. Classic devices such as the periaktoi , a rotating prismatic construction for the rapid change of scenery.

New features were also introduced, such as the proscenium arch. This consists of a framework that separates the stage from the audience. Through this arch you can see the action of a play.

Renaissance tragedy

In the field of tragedy, the main influence on the writers of the Renaissance was the work of Seneca. Already in 1315 Albertino Mussato (1261-1329) wrote a Latin tragedy, Ecerinis .

The first major tragedy of the Renaissance was the Sofonisba by Giangiorgio Trissino, written in 1515.

In the Renaissance theater the solemn scenes of tragedy were often interspersed with interludes: songs and dances taken from Greco-Roman satirical works.

These interludes eventually became the masquerade in England, the opera in Italy and the ballet in France.

The discovery of Roman comedy, with its characteristic characters and intricate plots, inspired Renaissance playwrights to write similar works.

The first significant comedy written in Italian was Calender (1506) by Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena (1470-1520).

In sixteenth-century Italy the authors of the comedy began to combine aspects of Roman comedy and tragedy with elements of the liturgical drama. Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533). One of the main writers of the erudite comedy was Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533).

characteristics

- Unlike actors in medieval theater, the Renaissance theater was composed of professional actors: some specialized in tragic roles and others in comic roles. As they were not members of a guild, they were placed under the patronage of royalty. In this way they were considered servants and, therefore, they were allowed to act.

- They were all men. The younger ones played the female roles. They used certain dramatic gestures in a consistent manner to signify specific emotions of the audience.

- It consisted of an intimate theater, since the actor was not more than twelve meters from his audience; and it was unified, inasmuch as it allowed the attendance of all social classes.

- At first the theaters were represented in taverns with tables set together as a stage. Later they were built three stories high, around an open space in the center.

- Often, dramatists would write plays for a particular company. They read the play to the actors and they gave their opinions. Therefore, plays used to be joint ventures between writer and actor.

- Interpretations of a work were very frequent; with the passage of time, this frequency decreased. After about a year and a half, the work ceased to be interpreted.

Playwrights

In the Renaissance theater, dramatists of both tragedy and comedy in Italy, Spain, England and France stood out.

Giangiorgio Trissino, Giambattista Giraldi Cinthio, Pietro Aretino, Giovanni Giraldi and Torquato Tasso.

Juan de la Cueva

William Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe.

Étienne Jodelle, Pierre Corneille, Thomas Corneille, Jean Racine and Jean Galbert de Campistron.

Nicolás Machiavelli and Ludovico Ariosto.

Lope de Rueda and Bartolomé de Torres Naharro.

William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), Jacques Grévin and Pierre de Larivey.

Representative works

The most representative works of the Renaissance theater belong to the English playwright William Shakespeare. Among his most famous productions are:

- Ricardo III (1592-93).

- The Taming of the Shrew (around 1594).

- Summer night Dream (1596).

- The merchant of Venice (1596-97).

- Much ado About Nothing (1598-99).

- Romeo and Juliet (1595-96).

- Julius Caesar (1599-1600).

- Hamlet (1600-01).

- Othello (1603-04).

- King Lear (1605-06).

- Macbeth (1606).

On the other hand, some of Christopher Marlowe's plays are:

- Tamerlane the Great (1587-88).

- Dr. Faust (1588-89).

- The Jew of Malta (around 1590).

From the dramatist Ben Jonson, the following works stand out:

- Every man out of his mood (1598).

- The holidays of Cynthia (1600).

- The poetaster (1601).

Law, J. (2013). The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theater. London: Bloomsbury.
Dublin Institute of Technology. (s / f). Renaissance: Theater and Dr. Faustus. Taken from comp.dit.ie.
Hochman, S. (1984). Encyclopedia of World Drama. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Westwood, M. (2012, May 24). What are main characteristics of Renaissance drama? Taken from enotes.com.
Galens, D. (2002). Literary Movements for Students. Farmington Hills: Gale.

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Introduction, bibliographies.

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Genres, Politics, Ideology
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Stages, Theaters, and Methods of Presentation
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
Richard Brome
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George Chapman
Thomas Dekker
Robert Greene
Thomas Heywood
John Marston
Philip Massinger
Thomas Middleton
George Peele
James Shirley
John Webster
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English Renaissance Drama by David Bevington LAST REVIEWED: 10 May 2010 LAST MODIFIED: 10 May 2010 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0051

The drama of Renaissance England was truly remarkable and not just because William Shakespeare wrote during that era. Among his colleagues as dramatists were Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, and John Webster, all of whom wrote plays of lasting greatness. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Edward II ; Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy ; Jonson’s Volpone, The Alchemist , and Bartholomew Fair ; Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside and Women Beware Women ; and Webster’s The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi , to name only some of their accomplishments, are plays deserving of serious comparison with the best of Shakespeare. Then, too, the era produced such brilliant plays as Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday , Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle , Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling , Philip Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts , and John Ford’s The Broken Heart . Still other dramatists flourished, the most important of whom, such as John Lyly, Robert Greene, George Peele, and George Chapman, appear in the bibliographical lists below. All this happened within a span of roughly forty years, from the late 1580s to about 1630. Shakespeare, then, was not an isolated phenomenon; he thrived upon the intellectual excitement of the period, the extraordinary success of a popular theater able to accommodate large and eager audiences, the innovative growth of the English language, and the expanding consciousness of the English as a nation of people rediscovering their potential for cultural innovation. Today, Shakespeare is too often read outside of this context. The present bibliography explores the dimensions of an achievement in dramatic art the likes of which the world has seldom seen. Indeed, the phenomenal success of theater during the English Renaissance asks the question “Why did it occur then, and in that place?” The present entry is devoted to this remarkable achievement.

Bergeron 1972 and Ribner and Huffman 1978 are offered here as supplements to this entry for contributions through the 1970s. For more recent studies, see the annual Modern Language Association International Bibliography .

Bergeron, David M. Twentieth-Century Criticism of English Masques, Pageants, and Entertainments: 1558–1642 . San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press, 1972.

Part of the series Checklists in the Humanities and Education. With separate chapters on Jonson and on Milton’s Comus as well as a supplement on folk-play and related forms.

Modern Language Association International Bibliography .

Lists and indexes more than sixty-six thousand books and articles annually in all genres and periods; available online and in print.

Ribner, Irving, and Clifford C. Huffman. Tudor and Stuart Drama . 2d ed. Goldentree Bibliographies in Language and Literature. Arlington Heights, IL: AHM, 1978.

With bibliographies on dramatic companies, critical and historical considerations, and the major dramatists, up to 1978.

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