Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama"
    A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama"
    A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama"
    Ebook50 pages36 minutes

    A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Movements for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Movements for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 20, 2016
    ISBN9781535822626
    A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama"

    Related ebooks

    Teaching Methods & Materials For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Shakespeare Through The Ages

      Apr 15, 2021

      In 1623, the playwright and poet Ben Jonson wrote that his friend Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time”. But Jonson could scarcely have imagined the impact and influence Shakespeare would have on four centuries of thinkers, writers, compo

      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Review

      Sep 17, 2023

      Book Review
      4 min read

    • Article

      Dance Of The Dead

      Sep 11, 2018

      Dance Of The Dead
      1 min read

    • Article

      Shakespeare’s Genius Is Nonsense: What the Bard can teach science about language and the limits of the human mind.

      Oct 9, 2014

      You’d be forgiven if, settling into the fall 2003 “Literature of the 16th Century” course at University of California, Berkeley, you found the unassuming 70-year-old man standing at the front of the lecture hall a bit eccentric. For one thing, the cl

      12 min read

    • Article

      Adapting the Bard: On the Hogarth Shakespeare Project’s Diversity Problem

      Oct 5, 2017

      It is disappointing when a project aims to see “the Bard’s plays retold by acclaimed, bestselling novelists and brought to life for a contemporary readership,” yet the writers selected are not ultimately representative of all that contemporary societ

      6 min read

    • Article

      All The World’s A Stage

      Apr 6, 2023

      All The World’s A Stage
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Oct 18, 2023

      The Old Un's Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On…

      May 11, 2023

      Michael Wood On…
      3 min read

    • Article

      Life And Times: William Shakespeare

      Jun 9, 2021

      Considered the first English writer to become wealthy from his published output, Shakespeare was born in 1564 in the market town of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, the son of a trader. Attendance at the local grammar gave him an ample grounding in

      1 min read

    • Article

      Music Richard Osborne

      Jun 2, 2021

      SEMELE MARGARET CATCHPOLE Two catastrophes struck England near the start of Queen Anne’s reign. The first was the Great Storm of 1703, a category-two hurricane that killed more people and felled more oaks than the Great Storm of 1987. The second was

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Play’s The Thing

      Apr 15, 2021

      Entertainment in late medieval and Tudor London came in a variety of forms, including cockfighting, bearbaiting and even public executions. Plays at this time often had a religious theme or a moral at the end – such as the battle between good and evi

      5 min read

    • Article

      Rare Copy Of Othello Shows A Cast List Involved In Real-life Murder Drama

      Mar 26, 2023

      In December 1692, the actor William Mountfort was walking home in London when he stumbled across two young men trying to abduct a famous stage actress, who was also a close associate. The young thespian gallantly attempted to intervene but was brutal

      3 min read

    • Article

      When The Curtain Comes Down

      Apr 1, 2020

      When The Curtain Comes Down
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Irving connection

      May 11, 2022

      When Bram Stoker died in 1912, aged 64, many obituarists predicted that he would be most remembered for his Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving, rather than Dracula. Stoker, born in Dublin in 1847, had given up a career in the civil service to mov

      1 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Dec 28, 2021

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tricks Of The Trade

      Jan 16, 2022

      Tricks Of The Trade
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Landscape Was His Mistress

      Feb 9, 2022

      IN 1802, John Constable wrote seven observations and resolutions about art. In them, among other things, he pledged to follow Nature, to make ‘unaffected’ pictures, and to avoid ‘common place people’. He also declared that ‘there is no easy way of be

      5 min read

    • Article

      Opening And Closing Scenes

      Apr 15, 2021

      William Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers of all time, and our longing to know as much as we can about him continues. We know that he was born in 1564 to John and Mary Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and that he was their f

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for "Elizabethan Drama" - Gale

      09

      Elizabethan Drama

      c. 1558

      Movement Origin

      From the Elizabethan Age come some of the most highly respected plays in Western drama. Although it is generally agreed that the period began at the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558, the ending date is not as definite. Some consider the age to have ended at the queen's death in 1603, whereas others place the end of Elizabethan Drama at the closing of the theaters in 1642. Elizabeth I was a powerful, resolute monarch who returned England to Protestantism, quelled a great deal of internal turmoil, and unified the nation. She was also a avid supporter of the arts which sparked a surge of activity in the theater. During her reign, some playwrights were able to make a comfortable living by receiving royal patronage. There was a great deal of theatrical activity at Court, and many public theaters were also built on the outskirts of London. Theater was a popular pastime, and people of all walks of life attended. Although women were not allowed onstage, they did attend performances and often made up a substantial part of the audience. The theater also drew many unsavory characters, including pickpockets, cutpurses, and prostitutes. Because of the perceived bad influence of the theaters, the Puritans were vocally opposed to them and succeeded in shutting them down in 1642. Some of the most important playwrights come from the Elizabethan era, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe. These playwrights wrote plays that were patterned on numerous previous sources, including Greek tragedy, Seneca's plays, Attic drama, English miracle plays, morality plays, and interludes. Elizabethan tragedy dealt with heroic themes, usually centering on a great personality who is destroyed by his own passion and ambition. The comedies often satirized the fops and gallants of society.

      Representative Authors

      George Chapman (c. 1559–1634)

      George Chapman was born around 1559 in the town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, near London. He was the second son of Thomas and Joan Chapman. Little is known of his early life except that he attended Oxford in 1574 but left before completing his degree. From 1583 through 1585, he was in the household of Sir Ralph Sadler, although his exact position there is somewhat unclear. It seems that Chapman served in the military in 1591 and 1592 but returned to London prior to 1594. Chapman's earliest drama, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, was produced in 1596, and he quickly gained a reputation as a talented playwright. Chapman wrote approximately twenty-one plays between 1596 and 1613, but his output was very sporadic. Some years he wrote no plays, instead concentrating his efforts on translating the poetry of Homer. Chapman experienced financial troubles throughout his life and spent some time in debtor's prison. His fortune changed for a brief time in 1603, when he was given a position in the household of the young Prince Henry. Henry undertook sponsorship of the Homer project. During this time, Chapman also

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1