Concetti Chiave
- The Elizabethan stage was accessible to all social classes, featuring simple stages and prohibiting women from acting, with notable figures like William Shakespeare contributing significantly.
- William Shakespeare's works, including "Julius Caesar" and "Hamlet," explore themes of life, death, and human nature, while reflecting personal influences such as his education and relationships.
- John Milton's life, marked by his cultural pursuits and travels to Italy, includes his work for Cromwell and struggles with blindness, drawing parallels with the biblical figure Samson.
- The Stuart period was characterized by political turmoil, with Charles I's conflicts with Parliament leading to civil war and Cromwell's subsequent establishment of the Commonwealth.
- During the Restoration, drama evolved to include more complex stages, female actors, and moral lessons, focusing on the manner of performance rather than mere entertainment.
1) The Elizabethan stage
Drama in England and William Shakespeare.
Everyone could see the plays performed.
From Morality Plays to University Wits.
The poors stood up and the nobles in surrounding galleries.
Lots of things were peculiar (simple stages, no women allowed…).
2) William Shakespeare
Shakespeare is surely the most famous English play-writer ever lived.
His family, his life experiences and his career.
His education (love for nature, morality plays, his friendship with the Earl of Southampton).
The sources and the plots of his most important works.
His most important plays: Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet –comment to “To be or not to be (man or nobody, living or dying, fighting or giving up, life and death compared to sleep)”, his ideas against love and women (that he hates because of his mother’s behavior) and why he plays the fool-, Macbeth, The merchant of Venice and some of his sonnets.
3) John Milton
His sisters, his love for culture, his teacher and his character.
His journey to Italy and what he saw there.
His work as a teacher
His work for Cromwell
His blindness
What he has in common with Samson
4) The Stuarts
Charles I is not a good king.
He has problems with Parliament.
When he makes William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury, who persecutes Puritans, a civil war breaks out.
The long Parliament and the “Roundheads”.
The Commonwealth.
Cromwell Lord Protector.
The act of Navigation.
The Restoration of Monarchy, after Cromwell’s death, with Charles II.
5) The Stuarts again
Charles imposes a strict Anglicanism.
He feels Catholic however.
The secret deal with the king of France.
Parliament, then, wants William of Orange to be king, the husband of Mary (Charles’s daughter)
William of Orange is crowned after his death.
In that period there’s also the war of Spanish Succession.
Queen Anne.
6) Social Backround
Why this period is called “The restoration”.
Vices and immorality, and the “merry monarch”.
What noblemen do and think.
The positive aspects of this period (development of science, Sunday schools, London the business city).
7) Literary production
Imagination replaced by reason and the imitation of French authors.
The new clear and concise style.
Philosophers and diarists.
8) John Dryden
Republican during the Commonwealth, Royalist after the Restoration, Catholics during the reign of Charles II’s brother – James II.
Dryden was a professional poet but his career depended on the king (the reading public was small).
The couplet: a sort of prosody.
9) Development of drama
During the Restoration tragedies, crimes and immorality are performed.
The stage becomes more complex and a gap between actors and audience is put.
Women are allowed and every character has a name that describes his or her soul.
The main purpose is to teach how to behave and not to give a form of entertainment.
It’s not important what actors do, but how they do it.
Domande da interrogazione
- ¿Cuál fue la importancia del teatro isabelino en la Inglaterra de los Tudor?
- ¿Qué aspectos de la vida de William Shakespeare influyeron en sus obras más importantes?
- ¿Cómo contribuyó John Milton a la cultura y política de su tiempo?
- ¿Qué cambios sociales y literarios ocurrieron durante la Restauración?
El teatro isabelino fue crucial en la cultura inglesa, con obras accesibles para todos, desde los pobres hasta los nobles. Se caracterizaba por escenarios simples y la ausencia de mujeres en el escenario.
La educación de Shakespeare, su amor por la naturaleza, su amistad con el Conde de Southampton y sus experiencias personales, como su relación con su madre, influyeron en sus obras y en su visión del amor y las mujeres.
John Milton fue un amante de la cultura, trabajó como maestro y para Cromwell, y a pesar de su ceguera, dejó un legado literario significativo, compartiendo similitudes con la figura de Sansón.
Durante la Restauración, se promovió un estilo literario más claro y conciso, influenciado por autores franceses, y se desarrollaron el drama y la ciencia, mientras que la sociedad experimentó vicios e inmoralidad bajo el "monarca alegre".
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