Name: Avani Jani
Batch: M.A. Sem.1 (2022-2024)
Enrollment N/o.: 4069206420220014
Roll N/o.: 04
Subject code & Paper N/o.: 22395- Paper 105: History of English Literature- From- 1350 to 1900
E-mail Address: avanijani.18@gmail.com
Submitted to: Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English- M.K.B.U.
Date of submission: 7th November, 2022
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SHAKESPEARE'S CONTEMPORARIES :
... Goddesses heavenly bright, Mirror of grace and Majesty divine, Great Lady of the greatest Isle, whose light Like Phoebus' lampe throughout the world doth shine ...
- Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (Spenser #)
Elizabethan age has been considered the “Golden Age” for English Literature, in which queen Elizabeth 1 reigned from 1558-1603. We can also witness how the Tudor dynasty came into being and how and how Elizabeth I came into power, through the various books of the history of English literature. Through the various marriage of Henry VIII and through the process of reformation. We also notice that there are various ways in which this age was getting referred to.
Duration of 1220 - 1620 is known as the Elizabethan era after the reigning queen, it was also the golden age because of how the period began to flourish in terms of literature, language, trade, commerce and almost everything and this is also the English renaissance. In fact, what had been happening in Italy found replication in the British world only from the reign of Queen Elizabeth onwards, so this period is also known as “the English Renaissance” and this was also the time when the British empire inaugurated all its is colonial
The implications of the renaissance, reformation and of the invention of the printing press began to take a very positive impact on British life during the period and we have seen in many ways how the renaissance and reformation began to impact the social, political and religious life of a Briton in general.
“Stars, hide your fears
Let not light see my deep black desires.”
- Shakespeare, Macbeth
Shakespeare was a revolution in Drama and in the era of Queen Elizabeth as well. William Shakespeare, an English poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet and is considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time.
Shakespeare occupies a unique position in the world of literature. Other poets, such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, have transcended national barriers, but no writer’s living reputation can compare to that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and read more often and in more countries than ever before. He was most famous for his plays and tragedies.
"Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time”
It may be audacious even to attempt a definition of his greatness, but it is not so difficult to describe the gifts that enabled him to create imaginative visions of pathos and mirth that, whether read or witnessed in the theatre, fill the mind and linger there. He is a writer of great intellectual rapidity, perceptiveness, and poetic power. Other writers have had these qualities, but with Shakespeare, the keenness of mind was applied not to abstruse or remote subjects but to human beings and their complete range of emotions and conflicts. Other writers have applied their keenness of mind in this way, but Shakespeare is astonishingly clever with words and images, so that his mental energy, when applied to intelligible human situations, finds full and memorable expression, convincing and imaginatively stimulating. As if this were not enough, the art form into which his creative energies went was not remote and bookish but involved the vivid stage impersonation of human beings, commanding sympathy and inviting vicarious participation. Thus, Shakespeare’s merits can survive translation into other languages and into cultures remote from that of Elizabethan England.
Elizabethan age is also famous for Shakespeare's works. Many consider this age as the ‘Shakespearean era’ but it was not only Shakespeare who flourished in this age there are many contemporaries of Shakespeare who have contributed such amazing work that has made the Elizabethan age more cherished. Here is a brief introduction of the contemporaries of Shakespeare and their works also.
1] Ben Jonson :
Ben Jonson, Benjamin Jonson, was born in 1572. English Stuart dramatist, lyric poet, and literary critic. He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I. He served briefly in the British armed forces before joining the theatre as a professional actor and playwright in Philip Henslowe’s company.
Works :
His first literary success was Every Man in His Humour, which was performed by the Chamberlain's Men in 1598. Jonson started writing masques for the courtly audience after the accession of King James I and found favour with the royalty. He wrote his most successful plays Volpone ( 1606 ), The Alchemist ( 1610 ) and Bartholomew Fair ( 1614 ) in this period, in which he satirized contemporary British society. Jonson was granted an annual pension by the Royal Court in 1616 and is thus considered to be the first Poet Laureate of England. Despite a decline in his career in the 1620s, Jonson continued to be a major influence on a group of young writers who called themselves ' Sons of Ben. That means he has inspired youth more effectively.
2] THOMAS KYD ( 1558-94 )
Thomas Kyd was Born in London in 1558, Thomas Kyd was educated at the Merchant Tailor's School. Little known of his early life, except that he gained some knowledge of French, Italian, Spanish and Latin, and that he worked in translating and pamphleteering. His first popular play The Spanish Tragedy ( 1589 ) set the standard for revenge plays and continued to be performed throughout the Elizabethan period. Known for his ' rampant and lurid genius ', the play included horrors of ghosts, insanity, murder and suicide. It was a great success and theatre manager Philip Henslowe, recorded 29 performances from 1592-97 in his diary. The number of reprints of the play shows that it was more popular than anything Shakespeare wrote and, in 1601, Ben Jonson was even paid to update it. Kyd shared a room with Christopher Marlowe and, in 1593, he was arrested and tortured into giving evidence against his friend. He was released after Marlowe had been murdered, but never regained his former popularity. He died in poverty in 1594.
3] CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE ( 1564-93)
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE was born in 1564, the son of an upmarket shoemaker and a clergyman's daughter Educated at the King's School in Canterbury and at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, he frequently took leave from lessons and nearly didn't get his degree. Apparently, his disappearances were a result of time spent in Rheims among the Catholics ( who were plotting against Queen Elizabeth's protestant rule ) and, after his degree, he became confidential to the Government. As a writer, Marlowe was chiefly associated with the Admiral's Company, and his first big success was Tamburlaine ( c . 1588 ). Often the talk of the town, he was recognised for his magnificent appearance, jewelled costumes and impulsive nature. Born in the same year, Marlowe and Shakespeare came from similar backgrounds, but Marlowe had the advantage of a university education that had given him a head start in the business. In 1593 Marlowe wrote a manuscript that pointed out ( what he considered to be ) inconsistencies in the Bible, and he fell under the suspicion of heresy. His roommate Thomas Kyd was tortured into giving evidence against him. But before he could be brought to the Privy Council, 29-year-old Marlowe was found murdered in a lodging place in Deptford. It is believed that he was in a meeting with three Government agents and that they were paid assassins. The case of his murder was hurriedly tidied up, and the killer was pardoned quickly and quietly. Today he is best remembered for plays such as Doctor Faustus ( 1588-9 ), The Jew of Malta ( c.1590 ) and Edward II ( 1593 ).
4] THOMAS DEKKER ( C.1572-1632 )
Nothing is known for certain of Dekker's life before 1598 when his name appears in entries in Philip Henslowe's Diary. Thomas Dekker and Ben Jonson ( the author of Volpone ) were both big fans of each other's works. Jonson referred to Dekker as a ' dresser of plays about town ' and satirised him in Poetaster Cynthia's Revels. Dekker responded to this by satirising Jonson in Satiromastix as Horace, an arrogant and overbearing hypocrite. 1599 was a big year for Dekker. He began it in Ludgate debtors prison and ended it by having his play The Shoemaker's Holiday played at court in front of Elizabeth I on 31 December, one of the most prestigious slots in the Christmas revels. In 1612 Dekker's debt problems saw him imprisoned yet again, due to owing the father of John Webster ( The White Devil ) £ 40. This time he was imprisoned for seven years, remarking that the experience turned his hair white. Dekker was an extremely prolific writer and personally claimed to have been involved in the writing of 240 plays. Sadly, most of his work is lost, and only twenty of his plays are known to have been published in his lifetime. He was also a master of collaboration. Dekker co-authored many plays of the Jacobean period, including The Witch of Edmonton, which he wrote with William Rowley and John Ford. He also collaborated with Henry Chettle, John Day, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, John Marston, Antony Munday, John Webster and William Shakespeare. In the two years between 1598 and 1600, Dekker was associated with 28 ( or more ) plays, as the sole or joint author more than a play a month! Dekker composed the annual pageant for the Lord Mayor four times - In 1612, 1627, 1628 and 1629. died in 1632, still in debt.
5] JOHN WEBSTER ( C.1580 - C.1638 )
John Webster was Regarded as the last of the great Elizabethan playwrights ', John Webster was born sometime around 1580. Little is known of his early years except that he may have been a member of the Middle Temple and, considering his knowledge of Law in later plays, this seems likely. The White Devil, for example, is a play concerned with the dark depths of Italian politics. In 1604 he wrote an introduction for the revival of Marston's The Malcontent, and he collaborated with Thomas Dekker on Westward Ho. Jonson and company then answered this with Eastward Ho ! and Dekker and Webster retaliated with Northward Ho ( 1605 ). This kind of rivalry was common in the London theatre and the audience would have enjoyed seeing the playwrights ' battle it out ' for public favour. Unlike Beaumont and Fletcher, Webster produced nothing between 1605 and 1611, though his most famous piece The Duchess of Malfi ( written before 1614 ) enjoyed success at the Globe public theatre and Blackfriars private playhouse. The play is considered to be among the finest of all Jacobean tragedies. Webster probably died sometime in the 1630s, though we cannot be sure of the exact year and date as the Great Fire of London destroyed the parish records.
6] FRANCIS BEAUMONT ( 1584-1616 ) AND JOHN FLETCHER ( 1579-1625 )
Born in 1584, Francis Beaumont is best remembered for his collaborations with John Fletcher Beaumont was educated at Broadgates Hall ( now Pembroke College ) in Oxford, but the death of his father in 1597 meant that he left the university without a degree. John Fletcher was born five years earlier in Rye, Sussex. John was educated at the same university as Christopher Marlowe, at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. Beaumont and Fletcher differed from other playwrights in that they were the first men to come from distinguished families, and they became known for their romantic tragic - comedies. Their chief works were written between 1607 and 1613 and include Philaster, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and Maid's Tragedy. But their upper-class style was not always favoured. When The Children of the King's Revels ' performed The Knight of the Burning Pestle at the Blackfriars Theatre in 1610, it was promptly rejected by the audience for poking fun at the taste and manners of the London tradesmen. Shakespeare may have supervised and edited the young playwrights ' work when they began writing for the King's Men. He certainly admired Fletcher's style as he collaborated with him on his last three plays; Cardenio, The Life of King Henry the Eighth and The Two Noble Kinsmen written and produced in 1613-14. Beaumont married in 1613 and did not continue to write. He died of a fever in the same year as Shakespeare ( 1616 ) and is buried at Westminster After his death, Fletcher continued to have great success, collaborating with Jonson and Massinger. He shared Shakespeare's in the number of his plays performed at Court when, in the season of 1612/13, Shakespeare had nine plays performed and Fletcher had eight. Furthermore, when the King's Men performed The Taming of the Shrew and Fletcher's reply The Tamer Tamed in 1633, Shakespeare's play was ' liked ', but Fletcher's play was ' very well liked '. It has been estimated that, between 1609 and the time of his death, Fletcher was involved in writing 42 plays. He died of the plague in 1625 and is buried in Southwark Cathedral.
6] PHILIP MASSINGER ( 1584-1640 )
Philip Massinger was born in November 1584 probably in Salisbury. He is often considered one of the most powerful dramatists of his day. In 1602 he entered St. Alban Hall in Oxford, and the Earl of Pembroke paid for his education for four years. However, Massinger his father's employer by being more interested in the Arts than in Science, and he left the establishment without taking a degree. There are no records of his activity or work until 1613 when he began his great collaboration with John Fletcher. Their partnership produced some 20 plays and, after Fletcher's death in 1625, Massinger replaced him as a chief playwright for the King's Men. He also wrote for the Phoenix Company and 1621-25 produced the tragi - comedies The Maid of Honour, The Bondman, The Renegado, The Parliament of Love, and The Great Duke of Florence. Massinger's first play under Charles I was The Roman Actor ( 1626 ), which he considered to be his best play. Several of his plays have been lost, eight being accidentally destroyed by a cook. His comedies A New Way to Pay Old Debts ( 1625 ) and The City Madam ( 1632 have grown in popularity over the years with recent revivals. On 18 March 1640, Massinger was found mysteriously dead in his bed, having been perfectly well the night before. His body now lies in Southwark Cathedral, in the same grave as his friend John Fletcher.
7] JOHN FORD ( 1586-1639 )
In 1586 John Ford was born in Devon to a prosperous gentry family. He spent a short time at Exeter College, Oxford, before entering Middle Temple, one of London's Inns of Court, in 1602. Fame's Memorial, a verse elegy, and the poem Honour Triumphant were his earliest published works, appearing in 1606. Like many gentlemen at the Inns of Court, he was a keen playgoer but doesn't seem to have begun his playwriting career until the 1620s. He collaborated with Thomas Dekker and William Rowley on The Witch of Edmonton. During Charles I's reign, Ford emerged as a leading dramatist and his solo works include ' Tis Pity She's a Whore The Broken Heart and Love's Sacrifice. His plays were characterised by intense emotion and striking visual images. the recorded play was The Lady's Trail published in 1639 but nothing is known of him after this time.
The Age of Elizabeth was a time of intellectual liberty, growing intelligence and comfort among all classes, unbounded patriotism, and of peace at home and abroad. For a parallel, we must go back to the Age of Pericles in Athens, or of Augustus in Rome, or go forward a little to the magnificent court of Louis XIV, when Corneille, Racine, and Molière brought the drama in France to the point where Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson had left it in England half a century earlier. Such an age of great thought and great action, appealing to the eyes as well as to the imagination and intellect, finds but one adequate literary expression; neither poetry nor the story can express the whole man,--his thought, feeling, actions, and the resulting character; hence in the Age of Elizabeth literature turned instinctively to the drama and brought it rapidly to the highest stage of its development. (Long #)
Words - 2681
Works Cited
Long, William J. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/English_Literature/nagTDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1.
“Meet the contemporaries.” Royal Shakespeare Company, https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeares-contemporaries/meet-the-contemporaries. Accessed 6 November 2022.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. November 1998, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1533/1533-h/1533-h.htm.
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. Penguin Books Limited, 2003, https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Faerie_Queene/NOXy5pkw3sEC?hl=en&gbpv=0.
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