Renaissance – Shakespeare

Renaissance means “Rebirth”. In the context of European History it means “Rebirth of arts
and culture”.
There were influences back in late 13th century but according to many historians The
Renaissance we know started in 14th century Italy(Florence to be exact).
5 Reasons on why it started in Italy
1- Italy had the ruins of an empire, Rome, which was influenced by Greek arts.
2- Thanks to it’s location Italy had the opportunity to trade in Mediterranean area,
therefore they became rich.
3- Italy had powerful families ruling over it. Most notably The House of Medici in
Florence spend Money on art.
4- Conquest of Constantinapole caused many artists and scientists to flee from the region
to Italy. They were key to this rebirth in arts.
5- Invention of Printing Press enabled these artists to translate, copy and publish works
of Greek and Latin artists.
Middle Age era saw humans as mindless creatures helplessly manipulated by Gods.
Renaissance era saw an intelligent human capable of reason(Humanism). The movement in
society directed away from otherwordliness to life on earth.(Secularism)

Renaissance in England(16th Century)

The reason why Renaissance started late in England is mainly The Hundred Years' War
against France.
Henry VIII (The House of Tudor) appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England
which seperated the Church of Englad from papal authority. He initiated the process of
transforming England from a Catholic country to a Protestant one. In this process The House
of Tudor funded many theatres to travel around the land to promote the new religious
practices.
Henry VIII first married with Catherine of Aragon(a Spanish Catholic). Later on he fallen in
love with Anne Boleyn and they married. They had a daughter named Elizabeth(Queen
Elizabeth I).
After the death of Henry VIII his son Edward VI crowned at the age of nine.
Then Mary I, as known as Bloody Mary by her Protestant opponents crowned.
After Mary’s death her half-sister Elizabeth succeeded to the throne.
  During the Outbreak between 1563-1603 the Crown ordered complete closure of all
theatres in London.
 Queen Elizabeth re-established Protestantism as the national religion.
 She banned religious plays.
 She also passed a law classifying actors as vagrants who are not allowed to go from
town to town.
 The law announced that there should be a patron( a sponsor) behind the theatre
company so that they can be actors. Ex: Lord Admiral’s Men, Lord Chamberlain’s
Men(Shakespeare’s company)

First Theatres
The Red Lion 1567
The Theatre 1576
The Globe 1599
 First theatres were open air, public arenas. The Globe in particular was a three-
storey open air amphitheatre that could house up to 3,000 spectators.
 Everyone could attend these theatres.
 Higher priced tickets wee for The Lord’s Box which was at the rear corner of the
stage where they could hear the best**
 The speactators could eat and drink.
 Plays were played using day light.

Private Theatres
Black Friar’s Theater 1576
 The first private theater(indoor) was built in 1576 and could house up to only 750
spectators.
 Only those who could pay for high priced tickets could attend to these theatres.

University Wits
A group of late 16th century English playwrights who were educated at the universities.
University Wits had a fondness of introducing heroic themes in their dramas. They gave
heroic treatment to the heroic themes. Their chief aim was to achieve strong and sounding
lines.
 Christopher Marlowe
 Robert Greene
 Thomas Nashe
 Thomas Lodge
  George Peele
 Thomas Kyd
 John Lyly

Actors in Renaissance England

Men who specialize in certain thing. Mostly casted for the roles that are suitable for their
physical look.
Memorizing was the most important skill since they had to be prepared in a week for a play.

Scenery
 Italian stages
 There were no set design at all maybe except a chair.
 Costumes were important. They used costumes in a symbolic way. (King costumes,
women costumes.)
 Special effects were real, maintaining the Medieval Tradition.

Copyright
 There were no copyrights.
 Rival companies sneaked in plays and wrote down the whole play as they see and
hear.
 These scripts are called Quartos.

Rivalry between Acting Companies

The Lord Chamberlain’s Men(King’s Men) X The Lord Admiral’s Men
Shakespeare X Christopher Marlowe

Thomas Kyd (1558-1594)

 Spanish Tragedy
 Revenge Tragedy
 Inspired by the Works of Seneca.

Five Important Traits of the Golden Age of English Plays

1- An early point of attack. Story and plots begin at the same time.
2- Several lines of action(Sub-plots)
3- Free use of time and place(Different years and countries in a single play)
 4- A large number and variety of characters.
5- Varity in language (accents)

Stuart Plays
When Elizabeth I died in 1603 without a children James I (the House of Stuart) acsended the
throne.
Stuart’s time was the time of Melodramatic Plays.

*In 1642 Theatres were closed because of the Civil War between Monarchy supporters and
Parliament supporters.
Reopened in 1660.

Shakespeare
Shakespeare is a playwright, an actor, a poet, a shareholder.
Born in mid 16th(1564) Century in Stratford-upon-Avon
Family
Father’s Name: John
Mom’s Name: Mary(Daughter of reasonably wealthy landowners)
Shakespeare had 4 younger siblings.
Education
Shakespeare went to middle school and learnt Latin there. There are no proof of him bein in a
university.
Marriage
Engaged to Anne Wately but had to marry Anne Hathaway when he was only 18, because she
was pregnant.
Hathaway and Shakespeare had 3 children. Susanna, Judith and Hamnet(twins). Hamnet dies
at the age of 11.
Work and Death
Shakespeare moved to London.
He joined the Lord Chamberlain’s Man as an actor, a playwright and a shareholder. He wrote
38 plays.
He died at the age of 52, in 1616, probably due to a sickness.
His Plays
After his death his plays re-edited, changed by actors who play them. Since they had no
copyright laws, his works couldn’t be published.
In 1623, seven years after his death, two fellow actor friends of him, John Heminges and
Henry Condell, put together his Works and published.
Their luxury volume, known as the First Folio, included 36 plays organized as Comedies,
Histories and Tragedies.
*Folio: Compiled Works of a playwright.
Long after his death, in 19th century, his genius is recognized by an actor named William
Charles Macready who was one of the first to bring back the original Shakespearean texts to
the stage.
Who did he write for?
Shakespeare worked in a public theatre company. He wrote for audiences from everywhere.
Why is it difficult to understand his Works?
1. He used different words from modern English, also he created words for his Works
that were never seen before.
Ex: Thou – You

2. Some of the Word had different meanings in 16th century London.

Ex: Want – Lack, Young – Recent

3. Different time periods meant different traditions and beliefs. Those who want to
understand has to look into traditions, folktales of the time.
Ex: Macbeth
“They have me tied to a stake.

I can’t run away.

I have to stand and fight, like a bear.”
“Ayılar gibi tomruğa bağladılar beni,
kaçamıyorum burada durup dövüşmek zorundayım.”
What did he do different for some to call him “genius”?
The genius of Shakespeare was not of his themes but of his use of language.
Language
 Shakespeare used uniqe languages for each character.
 He used prose and verse depending on the tone he wants to set in a scene.
 Iambic Pentameter: a poetic unit of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable (de-DUM.) Pentameter is the Greek word for five. Therefore, iambic
pentameter contains five iambs, each two syllables long, for a total of ten syllables.
Ex:

Word Plays
 Puns: A pun is a play on words, centering on a word with more than one meaning or
words that sound alike.
Ex: Sonnet 138
“When my love swears that she is made of truth / I do believe her, though I know she
lies”
Ex: Hamlet
“Claudius: ‘how is it that the clouds still hang over you?’
Hamlet: ‘Not so, my lord, I am too much in the sun.’”
 Oxymoron: Contradicting terms.
Ex: Romeo and Juliet
“O loving hate!
 Sexual innuendo: “An indirect remark about somebody or something, usually
suggesting something sexual"
Ex: Hamlet
“It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”
 Assonance: A resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables between their vowels.
Ex: My bounty is as boundless as the sea
 Alliteration: Repetition of identical initial consonant sounds in successive or closely
associated syllables within a group of words
Ex: Macbeth
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”

Allusions
Allusion is a figure of speech in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is
referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection.
Shakespeare wrote allusions to classical, religious and historical icons, stories and people.
Categories
In the First Folio Shakespeare’s works categorized in 3 genres: Comedies, Histories and
Tragedies.
Today his works are divided into 4 genres: Tragedies, Comedies, Histories and Problem
Plays.
Comedies
The definition of comedy for Shakespearean plays is this: “If the majority of the cast is alive,
it’s a comedy”
Comedies no not have to be funny.
Ex: Merchant of Venice
General Characteristics of a Shakespearean Comedy
 Stock Characters
Shakespeare uses stock characters that are funny but the audience can empathize with
them. The audience laugh with them not at them.
 Young Lovers
 Complex Plot
 Women*
Women in Shakespearean comedy are kind of rebels. They don’t really defy social
norms. They go out of their role in society but circle back to order. Although the order
is protected at the end for it’s time these plays can be seen as Feminist plays.
 Mistaken Identity
Impersonate or are mistaken for somebody else.
 Idyllic Settings
Shakespearean comedies used Idyllic Settings, perfect, pleasant settings. There are two
reasons for this.
1- The audience were curious about other-worldly places.
2- Social commentary was easier in these settings. Since these events are happening
in a “mysterious island (Example)” no one will be offended by them.
 Jokes (Not a necessity)
 Reason versus Emotion
Apollonian values versus Dionysian values.
Ex: In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia

Problem Play
The term was coined by critic F. S. Boas in late 19th century (1896)
Henrik Ibsen produced what he called “problem plays”.
The protagonist of these types of plays are neither totally funny nor totally tragic.
Ex: Measure for Measure, All's Well that Ends Well
Tragedies
Shakespeare’s tragedies are inspired by Seneca’s works.
He focused on the flaw of the characters that causes the downfall of them.
The characters in his tragedies are high-status in society.
A quarto of “Hamlet” was published as “The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet”
The history play “Richard III” was published in quarto as “The Tragedy of King Richard III”
“King Lear” appeared in quarto as the “True Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King
LEAR and his three Daughters”
Tragic Heroes
Hegel: “Shakespeare was unique because he put thesis and antithesis into a single character”
Good vs Evil
According to Edward Dowden, a 19th century literary critic:
“Tragedy as conceived by Shakespeare is concerned with the ruin or restoration of the soul
and of the life of man. In other words, its subject is the struggle of Good and Evil in the
world.”
Although there’s a fight of Good and Evil in Shakespeare’s tragedies, they are often end with
a tragic waste rather than a classic poetic justice. Both good and evil dies at the end.
Comic Relief
Shakespeare uses comic relief to ease the tension of long lasting tense scenes.
Fools License
This is a term in plays meaning Fools can say, do anything. They can critize kings and
nothing is gonna happen to them. This set of rules seen in Chorus in Greek Drama as well.
History Plays
Shakespeare’s histories are about English monarchs. They warn about the dangers of civil war
and glorify the Tudor ancestors.