Riassunto esame Letteratura inglese, Prof. Cavone, libro consigliato Storia del teatro Inglese dalle Origini al 1660, Anzi

All the main themes of the Elizabethan tragedy are present, such the scene of horrors, the bad

hero, assassinations and exotic setting but all these themes are revisited in order to tell and unveil

the reader the mechanisms marking the scene and the action. Another point of this change and

evolution is in the main character, the avenger. While in the Revenge’s tragedy by Kid the main

character is an avenger who is too cynical and does not reflect about the possible consequences

of his bad actions, in Tourner the avenger becomes a philosopher reflecting upon all the situations

in his life. As already said, the irony plays an important role in this tragedy and the ironical tone is

too strong that sometimes it makes this tragedy a sort of anti-revenge tragedy. In fact the play is a

parody of the revenge’s tragedy because many of the features are used to be subverted and to

create comic situations. This is a sort of mixture of the medieval theatre and the tragic theatre of

the Elizabethan theatre, thing which was appreciated by the public of that time.

City Comedy

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City comedy or citizen comedy is a comedy in which the main setting is the city developing

between 1590 and 1610. The setting are the streets of London with its shops and theatres. The

themes faced are about the time and the characters belonging to the middle class made up of

merchants, artisans, shoppers who moved to London for business and to enjoy the city life. This

kind of comedy is different from the other ones because it is marked by the presence of satire and

for the absence of themes typical of a fantastic tale, of the legend and of the romance.

What is essential for the development of the city comedy is the critical-satirical component of

Jonson’s play. This component influences also the other playwrights then Jonson wants to give rise

to a comedy reflecting the life of that period, criticizing the society and supporting the moral

principles.

A very important example of this kind of comedy, that is still today a success in England is

“Eastward Ho!”, written thanks to a collaboration of Jonson, Chapman and Marston. This city

comedy provoked judicial problems to the authors due to the high level of parodist and satirical

elements.

Thomas Dekker is one of the playwrights of the city comedy in which the polemical components of

Jonson’s play are absent. His plays are marked by a patriotic spirit and by the exaltation of the

virtues of the humble classes. His heroes are apprentices of small shop, soldiers, prostitutes and

the simplest and humbles people. One of his most famous plays is “The Shoemaker’s Holiday” in

which the main character is a shoemaker who becomes the mayor of London. Even if his wife is

silly, she maintains a quite atmosphere. The plot is very easy to be understood but the main theme

is to show the way and all the obstacles these humble characters had to overcome in order to

become someone important in the society, to become, in other words citizens. The comedy is full

of happiness, joy of living and love for the simplest things of life: eating, drinking and amusing.

Another important playwright of this kind of comedy is Thomas Heywood who loves, as Dekker

does, describing the London’s life, attending theatres and being in contact with all the other people.

His plat “The Four Prentices of London” describes the vicissitudes of four young boys who decide

to enrol in the army living difficult and terrible experiences. However his masterpiece, having still

today a lot of success, is “A Woman killed with Kindness”, a play which is marked by a pure realism

coloured with the description of feelings and emotions and attention paid to language: a simple and

also rich language. Thomas Heywood is also remembered for another genre that is the so-called

domestic tragedy whose expression is almost an oxymoron: a tragedy but one which deals with

everyday characters and events.

Thomas Middleton: the leading author of city comedies was Thomas Middleton who wrote, at

the beginning of his career, comedies and city comedies in which the themes he faced were to

criticize the society in which he lived. His masterpiece for the city comedy is “A Chaste Maid in

Cheapside” in which he puts together four plots involving four London families

Then he decided to concentrate himself on the production of tragedies and this is the period of his

maturity. His mature period coincides with the expansion of the Elizabethan tragedy (the first 15

years of the XVIII century). His tragedies offer characters whose personality is deformed. The

author analyses these personalities from a psychological point of view, investigating on mental

processes and motivations. One of these tragedies is “Women Beware Women” representing a

corrupted world due to the elements of power, sex and money. The sources of the episode derive

from facts which happened in Italy in the 1500. The tragedy is grotesque in which horror and

detachment, detailed analysis and indifference are mixed. These are the typical features of

Middleton’s theatre, who, according to T.S. Eliot, is a great reporter but without messages and a

great reporter that sometimes becomes a great teacher of the verse. It is through the word, with

the verse, that Middleton criticizes hardly the vices and the sins of the society, but without emotive

participation.

What is important is to compare the figure of Middleton to the that of Jonson. Middleton’s theatre,

as that by Jonson, is a realistic one but the main difference between them is that Jonson focuses

his plays on cynical judgments as regards first of all the characters, while Middleton doesn’t

express judgments about his characters but let the public do that. Middleton is also important in the

English literature for his collaboration with Rowley, this is the most fertile fellowship of James’

Theatre. One of the best products of this collaboration is “A Fair Quarrel” in which he faces the

theme of honour and reputation. In “The Changeling” the attention of the author is focused on the

irrational aspect and immature of the character of Beatrice, on his ignorance of the world and on

the incapacity to understand her own personality. They collaborated also in the elaboration of a

curious masque “The World Tossed at Tennis” which was performed for the first time in a masque.

The Tragicomedy

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The third theatrical genre of James’ theatre is the tragicomedy which developed in England only at

the beginning of 1600 in which the hero is not anymore able to distinguish the good from the evil

and to reach his initial goals: the end of a play is marked by a very great question to which the

playwright doesn’t give an answer. The tragicomedy combines at the same time elements from the

tragedy and elements from the comedy. This caused a lot of critics from the side of some authors

because the use of classical units was no more respected and followed. The most important

contribution to this kind of theatre has been given by Fletcher and Beaumont whose collaboration

gave rise to a lot of important plays. But the first play didn’t have the wished success that is to say

“The Faithful Shepherdess” which resulted to be only an imitation of the original model of an Italian

play. So they decided to create a world which is an imaginary one but no more that of the

Arcadians. They create a world which is similar to the real one built through a language which is

that of everyday. The reality in the tragicomedies by Fletcher and Beaumont is no more

problematic. Their plays had great success at the court of James I and his successor Charles I,

where they were much appreciated for the complexity of their plots.

The most important features are:

- The accent is put upon the emotions and feelings.

- There is an happy ending.

- There are surprising events clarifying the plot;

- The public has to pay attention because turning points and change in orientation are

frequent;

- The setting is only apparently a realistic one: actually it is distant from the reality;

- The hero has to take difficult choices as for example to chose between her wife or the wife

of another and other opposite situations.

Beaumont was influenced by the new taste for the romance coming from the Spanish literature. He

wrote, as already said, tragicomedies. One of these is “The Knight of the Burning Pestle” which is

maybe a parody of “The Four Prentices of London” By Heywood which received a lot of success.

Beaumont’s play takes the great passion of his fellow citizens for a ride for the adventures of

knights and, in general, for the chivalric romance. This play didn’t have so success, what is more

remembered is his collaboration with John Fletcher. Their first success is Philaster in which the plot

regard two different groups and types of characters: from one hand the virtuous ones and on the

other one the bad ones. The setting is exotic like that of the romance to give the reader the

possibility to imagine. Even if the plot is complicated and the characters are destined to overcome

different obstacles, there is anyway and always a possibility to be saved. The most important

aspect of this tragicomedy is the fact that power and authority of the king are always questioned.

The king becomes a puppet whose words are meaningless. Other plays are

- “A King and No King” in which the main theme is that of the incest and the romance

triumphs.

- “The Maid’s tragedy” in which the main theme is the king but in the case the king is a tyrant

who is killed;

- “The Scornful Lady” is their masterpiece in which the main theme is a conflict between a

young nobleman and an usurer. This play is the celebration of the slyness (astuzia) of the

aristocrats on the ingenuity of the middle-class.

Then Fletcher continues to work alone but he continues the work started with Beaumont.

The Masque

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During the Elizabethan period and James’ reign another theatrical genre developed successfully

that is to say the masque, which is a theatrical genre linked to the popular traditions and folklore. In

particular three genres had importance:

- The mumming which was a sort of parade of masked people who attended the houses of

the rich men and silently played with the master of the house: this was the so-called

mumchance.

- The king-game which was a kind of play;

- The sword-dance faked a fight with aggressive music;

- Pageant which was used in different occasions.

Queen Elizabeth was used to travel around Great Britain in order to attend several important

personalities of that time and she was welcomed through spectacles of masque.

Who contributed to the development and success of this kind of theatre was Ben Jonson. Thanks

to him the masque became a successful kind of play and influenced also the contemporary theatre.

The most important features were:

- The unreal atmosphere;

- Taste for the wonderful;

- Presence of elements of the classical theatre with modern th