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05-21-2023-2254 - English Renaissance theatre

English Renaissance theatre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A 1596 sketch of a rehearsal in progress on the thrust stage of The Swan, a typical circular Elizabethan open-roof playhouse

English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642.

This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.

Background

The term English Renaissance theatre encompasses the period between 1562—following a performance of Gorboduc, the first English play using blank verse, at the Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561—and the ban on theatrical plays enacted by the English Parliament in 1642. In a strict sense "Elizabethan" only refers to the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558–1603). English Renaissance theatre may be said to encompass Elizabethan theatre from 1562 to 1603, Jacobean theatre from 1603 to 1625, and Caroline theatre from 1625 to 1642.

Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards the end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses. With the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented towards the tastes and values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of the reign of Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades.[1]

Sites of dramatic performance

Grammar schools

The English grammar schools, like those on the continent, placed special emphasis on the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Though rhetorical instruction was intended as preparation for careers in civil service such as law, the rhetorical canons of memory (memoria) and delivery (pronuntiatio), gesture and voice, as well as exercises from the progymnasmata, such as the prosopopoeia, taught theatrical skills.[2][3] Students would typically analyse Latin and Greek texts, write their own compositions, memorise them, and then perform them in front of their instructor and their peers.[4] Records show that in addition to this weekly performance, students would perform plays on holidays,[5] and in both Latin and English.[6]

Nathan Field, who began his acting career as a boy player

Choir schools

Choir schools connected with the Elizabethan court included St. George’s Chapel, the Chapel Royal, and St. Paul’s.[7] These schools performed plays and other court entertainments for the Queen.[8] Between the 1560s and 1570s these schools had begun to perform for general audiences as well.[9] Playing companies of boy actors were derived from choir schools.[10] John Lyly is an earlier example of a playwright contracted to write for the children's companies; Lyly wrote Gallathea, Endymion, and Midas for Paul’s Boys.[11] Another example is Ben Jonson, who wrote Cynthia’s Revels.[12]

Universities

Academic drama stems from late medieval and early modern practices of miracles and morality plays as well as the Feast of Fools and the election of a Lord of Misrule.[13] The Feast of Fools includes mummer plays.[14] The universities, particularly Oxford and Cambridge, were attended by students studying for bachelor's degrees and master's degrees, followed by doctorates in Law, Medicine, and Theology.[15] In the 1400s, dramas were often restricted to mummer plays with someone who read out all the parts in Latin.[16] With the rediscovery and redistribution of classical materials during the English Renaissance, Latin and Greek plays began to be restaged.[17] These plays were often accompanied by feasts.[18] Queen Elizabeth I viewed dramas during her visits to Oxford and Cambridge.[19] A well-known play cycle which was written and performed in the universities was the Parnassus Plays.[13]

Inns of Court

Gorboduc TP 1565

Upon graduation, many university students, especially those going into law, would reside and participate in the Inns of Court. The Inns of Court were communities of working lawyers and university alumni.[20] Notable literary figures and playwrights who resided in the Inns of Court include John Donne, Francis Beaumont, John Marston, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Campion, Abraham Fraunce, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Thomas More, Sir Francis Bacon, and George Gascoigne.[21][22] Like the university, the Inns of Court elected their own Lord of Misrule.[23] Other activities included participation in moot court, disputation, and masques.[23][22] Plays written and performed in the Inns of Court include Gorboduc, Gismund of Salerne, and The Misfortunes of Arthur.[22] An example of a famous masque put on by the Inns was James Shirley's The Triumph of Peace. Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night were also performed here, although written for commercial theater.[24]

Masque

Establishment of playhouses

The first permanent English theatre, the Red Lion, opened in 1567[25] but it was a short-lived failure. The first successful theatres, such as The Theatre, opened in 1576.

The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama. Once they were in operation, drama could become a fixed and permanent, rather than transitory, phenomenon. Their construction was prompted when the Mayor and Corporation of London first banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, and then formally expelled all players from the city in 1575.[26] This prompted the construction of permanent playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the liberties of Halliwell/Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink, and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George's Fields in rural Surrey.[26] The Theatre was constructed in Shoreditch in 1576 by James Burbage with his brother-in-law John Brayne (the owner of the unsuccessful Red Lion playhouse of 1567)[27] and the Newington Butts playhouse was set up, probably by Jerome Savage, some time between 1575[28] and 1577.[29] The Theatre was rapidly followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), the Globe (1599), the Fortune (1600), and the Red Bull (1604).[a]

Playhouse architecture

Panorama of the interior of the Globe Theatre, London

Archaeological excavations on the foundations of the Rose and the Globe in the late 20th century showed that all the London theatres had individual differences, but their common function necessitated a similar general plan.[30] The public theatres were three stories high and built around an open space at the centre. Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect, although the Red Bull and the first Fortune were square. The three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open centre, into which jutted the stage: essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience. The rear side was restricted for the entrances and exits of the actors and seating for the musicians. The upper level behind the stage could be used as a balcony, as in Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra, or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in Julius Caesar.[31] The pit was the place where the poorest audience members could view the show. Around the 1600s a new area was introduced into the theaters, a 'gullet'. A gullet was an invisible corridor that the actors used to go to the wings of the stage where people usually changed clothes quickly[citation needed].

The playhouses were generally built with timber and plaster. Individual theatre descriptions give additional information about their construction, such as flint stones being used to build the Swan. Theatres were also constructed to be able to hold a large number of people.[32]

A different model was developed with the Blackfriars Theatre, which came into regular use on a long-term basis in 1599.[b] The Blackfriars was small in comparison to the earlier theatres and roofed rather than open to the sky. It resembled a modern theatre in ways that its predecessors did not. Other small enclosed theatres followed, notably the Whitefriars (1608) and the Cockpit (1617). With the building of the Salisbury Court Theatre in 1629 near the site of the defunct Whitefriars, the London audience had six theatres to choose from: three surviving large open-air public theatres—the Globe, the Fortune, and the Red Bull—and three smaller enclosed private theatres: the Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury Court.[c] Audiences of the 1630s benefited from a half-century of vigorous dramaturgical development; the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare and their contemporaries were still being performed on a regular basis, mostly at the public theatres, while the newest works of the newest playwrights were abundant as well, mainly at the private theatres.[citation needed]

Audiences

Around 1580, when both the Theater and the Curtain were full on summer days, the total theater capacity of London was about 5000 spectators. With the building of new theater facilities and the formation of new companies, London's total theater capacity exceeded 10,000 after 1610.[33]

Ticket prices in general varied during this time period. The cost of admission was based on where in the theatre a person wished to be situated, or based on what a person could afford. If people wanted a better view of the stage or to be more separate from the crowd, they would pay more for their entrance. Due to inflation that occurred during this time period, admission increased in some theaters from a penny to a sixpence or even higher.[34]

Commercial theaters were largely located just outside the boundaries of the City of London, since City authorities tended to be wary of the adult playing companies, but plays were performed by touring companies all over England.[35] English companies even toured and performed English plays abroad, especially in Germany and in Denmark.[36][d]

Upper class spectators would pay for seats in the galleries, using cushions for comfort. In the Globe Theatre, nobles could sit directly by the side on the stage.[38]

Performances

The acting companies functioned on a repertory system: unlike modern productions that can run for months or years on end, the troupes of this era rarely acted the same play two days in a row.[39] Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess ran for nine straight performances in August 1624 before it was closed by the authorities; but this was due to the political content of the play and was a unique, unprecedented and unrepeatable phenomenon. The 1592 season of Lord Strange's Men at the Rose Theatre was far more representative: between 19 February and 23 June the company played six days a week, minus Good Friday and two other days. They performed 23 different plays, some only once, and their most popular play of the season, The First Part of Hieronimo, based on Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, 15 times. They never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in a week.[40][e] The workload on the actors, especially the leading performers like Richard Burbage or Edward Alleyn, must have been tremendous.

One distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males. Female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume. Some companies were composed entirely of boy players.[f] Performances in the public theatres (like the Globe) took place in the afternoon with no artificial lighting, but when, in the course of a play, the light began to fade, candles were lit.[43] In the enclosed private theatres (like the Blackfriars) artificial lighting was used throughout. Plays contained little to no scenery as the scenery was described by the actors or indicated by costume through the course of the play.[44]

In the Elizabethan era, research has been conclusive about how many actors and troupes there were in the 16th century, but little research delves into the roles of the actors on the English renaissance stage. The first point is that during the Elizabethan era, women were not allowed to act on stage. The actors were all male; in fact, most were boys. For plays written that had male and female parts, the female parts were played by the youngest boy players.[45] Stronger female roles in tragedies were acted by older boy players because they had more experience. [45] As a boy player, many skills had to be implemented such as voice and athleticism (fencing was one).[45]

In Elizabethan entertainment, troupes were created and they were considered the actor companies. They travelled around England as drama was the most entertaining art at the time.

Elizabethan actors never played the same show on successive days and added a new play to their repertoire every other week. These actors were getting paid within these troupes so for their job, they would constantly learn new plays as they toured different cities in England. In these plays, there were bookkeepers that acted as the narrators of these plays and they would introduce the actors and the different roles they played. At some points, the bookkeeper would not state the narrative of the scene, so the audience could find out for themselves. In Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, the plays often exceeded the number of characters/roles and did not have enough actors to fulfil them, thus the idea of doubling roles came to be.[46] Doubling roles is used to reinforce a plays theme by having the actor act out the different roles simultaneously.[47] The reason for this was for the acting companies to control salary costs, or to be able to perform under conditions where resources such as other actor companies lending actors were not present.[47]

There were two acting styles implemented: formal and natural. Formal acting is objective and traditional, while natural acting attempts to create an illusion for the audience by remaining in character and imitating the fictional circumstances. The formal actor symbolises while the natural actor interprets. The natural actor impersonates while the formal actor represents the role. Natural and formal are opposites of each other, where natural acting is subjective. Overall, the use of these acting styles and the doubled roles dramatic device made Elizabethan plays very popular.[48]

Costumes

Costumes of the Elizabethan era

One of the main uses of costume during the Elizabethan era was to make up for the lack of scenery, set, and props on stage. It created a visual effect for the audience, and it was an integral part of the overall performance.[49] Since the main visual appeal on stage were the costumes, they were often bright in colour and visually entrancing. Colours symbolized social hierarchy, and costumes were made to reflect that. For example, if a character was royalty, their costume would include purple. The colours, as well as the different fabrics of the costumes, allowed the audience to know the status of each character when they first appeared on stage.[50]

Costumes were collected in inventory. More often than not, costumes wouldn't be made individually to fit the actor. Instead, they would be selected out of the stock that theatre companies would keep. A theatre company reused costumes when possible and would rarely get new costumes made. Costumes themselves were expensive, so usually players wore contemporary clothing regardless of the time period of the play. The most expensive pieces were given to higher class characters because costuming was used to identify social status on stage. The fabrics within a playhouse would indicate the wealth of the company itself. The fabrics used the most were: velvet, satin, silk, cloth-of-gold, lace and ermine.[51] For less significant characters, actors would use their own clothes.

Actors also left clothes in their will for following actors to use. Masters would also leave clothes for servants in their will, but servants weren't allowed to wear fancy clothing, instead, they sold the clothes back to theatre companies.[50] In the Tudor and Elizabethan eras, there were laws stating that certain classes could only wear clothing fitting of their status in society. There was a discrimination of status within the classes. Higher classes flaunted their wealth and power through the appearance of clothing, however, courtesans and actors were the only exceptions – as clothing represented their 'working capital', as it were, but they were only permitted to dress so while working. If actors belonged to a licensed acting company, they were allowed to dress above their standing in society for specific roles in a production.[52]

Playwrights

The growing population of London, the growing wealth of its people, and their fondness for spectacle produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality and extent. Although most of the plays written for the Elizabethan stage have been lost, over 600 remain.

The people who wrote these plays were primarily self-made men from modest backgrounds.[g] Some of them were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but many were not. Although William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors, the majority do not seem to have been performers, and no major author who came on to the scene after 1600 is known to have supplemented his income by acting. Their lives were subject to the same levels of danger and earlier mortality as all who lived during the early modern period: Christopher Marlowe was killed in an apparent tavern brawl, while Ben Jonson killed an actor in a duel. Several were probably soldiers.

Playwrights were normally paid in increments during the writing process, and if their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from one day's performance. However, they had no ownership of the plays they wrote. Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it, and the playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision or publication.

The profession of dramatist was challenging and far from lucrative.[54] Entries in Philip Henslowe's Diary show that in the years around 1600 Henslowe paid as little as £6 or £7 per play. This was probably at the low end of the range, though even the best writers could not demand too much more. A playwright, working alone, could generally produce two plays a year at most. In the 1630s Richard Brome signed a contract with the Salisbury Court Theatre to supply three plays a year, but found himself unable to meet the workload. Shakespeare produced fewer than 40 solo plays in a career that spanned more than two decades: he was financially successful because he was an actor and, most importantly, a shareholder in the company for which he acted and in the theatres they used. Ben Jonson achieved success as a purveyor of Court masques, and was talented at playing the patronage game that was an important part of the social and economic life of the era. Those who were purely playwrights fared far less well: the biographies of early figures like George Peele and Robert Greene, and later ones like Brome and Philip Massinger, are marked by financial uncertainty, struggle and poverty.

Playwrights dealt with the natural limitation on their productivity by combining into teams of two, three, four, and even five to generate play texts. The majority of plays written in this era were collaborations, and the solo artists who generally eschewed collaborative efforts, like Jonson and Shakespeare, were the exceptions to the rule. Dividing the work, of course, meant dividing the income; but the arrangement seems to have functioned well enough to have made it worthwhile. Of the 70-plus known works in the canon of Thomas Dekker, roughly 50 are collaborations. In a single year (1598) Dekker worked on 16 collaborations for impresario Philip Henslowe, and earned £30, or a little under 12 shillings per week—roughly twice as much as the average artisan's income of 1s. per day.[55] At the end of his career, Thomas Heywood would famously claim to have had "an entire hand, or at least a main finger" in the authorship of some 220 plays. A solo artist usually needed months to write a play (though Jonson is said to have done Volpone in five weeks); Henslowe's Diary indicates that a team of four or five writers could produce a play in as little as two weeks. Admittedly, though, the Diary also shows that teams of Henslowe's house dramatists—Anthony Munday, Robert Wilson, Richard Hathwaye, Henry Chettle, and the others, even including a young John Webster—could start a project, and accept advances on it, yet fail to produce anything stageworthy.[56]

Timeline of English Renaissance playwrights

Charles II of EnglandCharles I of EnglandJames VI and IElizabeth I of EnglandJames ShirleyRichard BromeJohn Ford (dramatist)Philip MassingerWilliam RowleyFrancis BeaumontJohn Fletcher (playwright)Thomas MiddletonJohn WebsterThomas HeywoodJohn Marston (playwright)Thomas Dekker (writer)Ben JonsonGeorge ChapmanWilliam ShakespeareRobert Greene (dramatist)Christopher MarloweThomas KydAnthony MundayJohn LylyGeorge Peele

Short yellow lines indicate 27 years—the average age these authors began their playwrighting careers

Genres

Genres of the period included the history play, which depicted English or European history. Shakespeare's plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard III and Henry V, belong to this category, as do Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and George Peele's Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First. History plays also dealt with more recent events, like A Larum for London which dramatizes the sack of Antwerp in 1576. A better known play, Peele's The Battle of Alcazar (c. 1591), depicts the battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578.

Tragedy was a very popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally successful, such as Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta. The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas, such as Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. The four tragedies considered to be Shakespeare's greatest (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth) were composed during this period.

Comedies were common, too. A subgenre developed in this period was the city comedy, which deals satirically with life in London after the fashion of Roman New Comedy. Examples are Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday and Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

Though marginalised, the older genres like pastoral (The Faithful Shepherdess, 1608), and even the morality play (Four Plays in One, ca. 1608–13) could exert influences. After about 1610, the new hybrid subgenre of the tragicomedy enjoyed an efflorescence, as did the masque throughout the reigns of the first two Stuart kings, James I and Charles I.

Plays on biblical themes were common, Peele's David and Bethsabe being one of the few surviving examples.

Printed texts

Only a minority of the plays of English Renaissance theatre were ever printed. Of Heywood's 220 plays, only about 20 were published in book form.[57] A little over 600 plays were published in the period as a whole, most commonly in individual quarto editions. (Larger collected editions, like those of Shakespeare's, Ben Jonson's, and Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, were a late and limited development.) Through much of the modern era, it was thought that play texts were popular items among Renaissance readers that provided healthy profits for the stationers who printed and sold them. By the turn of the 21st century, the climate of scholarly opinion shifted somewhat on this belief: some contemporary researchers argue that publishing plays was a risky and marginal business[58]—though this conclusion has been disputed by others.[59] Some of the most successful publishers of the English Renaissance, like William Ponsonby or Edward Blount, rarely published plays.

A small number of plays from the era survived not in printed texts but in manuscript form.[h]

The end of English Renaissance theatre

The rising Puritan movement was hostile toward theatre, as they felt that "entertainment" was sinful. Politically, playwrights and actors were clients of the monarchy and aristocracy, and most supported the Royalist cause. The Puritan faction, long powerful in London, gained control of the city early in the First English Civil War, and on 2 September 1642, the Long Parliament, pushed by the Parliamentarian party, under Puritan influence, banned the staging of plays in the London theatres though it did not, contrary to what is commonly stated, order the closure, let alone the destruction, of the theatres themselves:

Whereas the distressed Estate of Ireland, steeped in her own Blood, and the distracted Estate of England, threatened with a Cloud of Blood by a Civil War, call for all possible Means to appease and avert the Wrath of God, appearing in these Judgements; among which, Fasting and Prayer, having been often tried to be very effectual, having been lately and are still enjoined; and whereas Public Sports do not well agree with Public Calamities, nor Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation, this being an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and the other being Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth and Levity: It is therefore thought fit, and Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled, That, while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborn, instead of which are recommended to the People of this Land the profitable and seasonable considerations of Repentance, Reconciliation, and Peace with God, which probably may produce outward Peace and Prosperity, and bring again Times of Joy and Gladness to these Nations.

— His Majesty's Stationery Office, Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660, "September 1642: Order for Stage-plays to cease"[60]

The Act purports the ban to be temporary ("... while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease and be forborn") but does not assign a time limit to it.

Even after 1642, during the English Civil War and the ensuing Interregnum (English Commonwealth), some English Renaissance theatre continued. For example, short comical plays called drolls were allowed by the authorities, while full-length plays were banned. The theatre buildings were not closed but rather were used for purposes other than staging plays.[i]

The performance of plays remained banned for most of the next eighteen years, becoming allowed again after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The theatres began performing many of the plays of the previous era, though often in adapted forms. New genres of Restoration comedy and spectacle soon evolved, giving English theatre of the later seventeenth century its distinctive character.

List of playwrights

Actors

Playhouses

Playing companies

Timeline of English Renaissance playing companies

English Renaissance playing company timeline

Christopher BeestonSebastian WestcottHenry Evans (theatre)Richard FarrantHenrietta Maria of FranceElizabeth Stuart, Queen of BohemiaCharles II of EnglandLudovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of LennoxRobert Radclyffe, 5th Earl of SussexHenry Radclyffe, 4th Earl of SussexThomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of SussexFrederick V, Elector PalatineHenry Frederick, Prince of WalesCharles Howard, 1st Earl of NottinghamCharles I of EnglandEdward de Vere, 17th Earl of OxfordAnne of DenmarkEdward Somerset, 4th Earl of WorcesterWilliam Somerset, 3rd Earl of WorcesterCharles I of EnglandJames VI and IGeorge Carey, 2nd Baron HunsdonHenry Carey, 1st Baron HunsdonRobert Dudley, 1st Earl of LeicesterElizabeth I of EnglandHenry Herbert, 2nd Earl of PembrokeWilliam Stanley, 6th Earl of DerbyFerdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of DerbyKing and Queen's Young CompanyChildren of the ChapelChildren of Paul'sQueen Henrietta's MenLady Elizabeth's MenSussex's MenPrince Charles's MenQueen Anne's MenWorcester's MenOxford's MenLeicester's MenQueen Elizabeth's MenPembroke's MenLord Chamberlain's MenLord Strange's MenAdmiral's MenPrince Charles's Men

This timeline charts the existence of major English playing companies from 1572 ("Acte for the punishment of Vacabondes", which legally restricted acting to players with a patron of sufficient degree) to 1642 (the closing of the theatres by Parliament). A variety of strolling players, and even early London-based troupes existed before 1572. The situations were often fluid, and much of this history is obscure; this timeline necessarily implies more precision than exists in some cases. The labels down the left indicate the most common names for the companies. The bar segments indicate the specific patron. In the case of children's companies (a distinct legal situation) some founders are noted.

Other significant figures

See also

Notes and references

Notes


  • A complete roster of what the Elizabethans called "public" theatres would include the Boar's Head Inn (1598), and the Hope Theatre (1613), neither of them major venues for drama in the era.

  • The Blackfriars site was used as a theatre in the 1576-84 period; but it became a regular venue for drama only later.

  • Other "private" theaters of the era included the theatre near St Paul's Cathedral used by the Children of Paul's (1575) and the occasionally used Cockpit-in-Court (1629).

  • For example, Romeo and Juliet was performed in Nördlingen in 1605.[37]

  • E. K. Chambers' The Elizabethan Stage (1923), reflects an earlier interpretation of the identity of the Hieronimo play.[41]

  • For example the King's Revels Children, Children of Paul's, and the Children of the Chapel. Shakespeare even alludes to such companies, with a certain amount of scorn, in Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2.[42]

  • A few aristocratic women engaged in closet drama or dramatic translations. Chambers lists Elizabeth, Lady Cary; Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; Jane, Lady Lumley; and Elizabeth Tudor.[53]

  • For example Sir Thomas More, John of Bordeaux, Believe as You List, and Sir John van Olden Barnavelt.

    1. See for example the Red Bull Theatre and Robert Cox

    References

    All references to Shakespeare's plays, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Folger Shakespeare Library's Folger Digital Editions texts edited by Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Under their referencing system, 3.1.55 means act 3, scene 1, line 55. Prologues, epilogues, scene directions, and other parts of the play that are not a part of character speech in a scene, are referenced using Folger Through Line Number: a separate line numbering scheme that includes every line of text in the play.


  • Gurr 2009, pp. 12–18.

  • Christiansen 1997.

  • Astington 2010, p. 45.

  • Christiansen 1997, p. 298.

  • Astington 2010, p. 42.

  • Astington 2010, p. 43.

  • Astington 2010, p. 49.

  • Astington 2010, pp. 48–50.

  • Astington 2010, p. 51.

  • Gurr 2009, p. 45.

  • Astington 2010, p. 54.

  • Gurr 2009, pp. 67–68.

  • Boas 1914, p. 346.

  • Boas 1914, p. 8.

  • Boas 1914, p. 13.

  • Boas 1914, pp. 14–15.

  • Boas 1914, pp. 14–18.

  • Boas 1914, p. 25.

  • Boas 1914, pp. 89–108, 252–285.

  • Astington 2010, p. 69.

  • Astington 2010, pp. 69–71.

  • Cunningham 2007, p. 200.

  • Astington 2010, p. 70.

  • Astington 2010, p. 74.

  • Bryson 2008, p. 28.

  • Ordish 1899, p. 30.

  • Bowsher & Miller 2010, p. 19.

  • Wickham, Berry & Ingram 2000, p. 320.

  • Ingram 1992, p. 170.

  • Gurr 2009, pp. 123–131, 142–146.

  • Ichikawa 2012, pp. 1–12.

  • Hattaway 2008, p. 40.

  • Cook 2014, pp. 176–178.

  • MacIntyre 1992, p. 322.

  • Keenan 2002.

  • Dawson 2002, pp. 174–193.

  • Dawson 2002, p. 176.

  • Melissa Thomas (2009). "Theatre Culture Of Early Modern England".

  • Tucker, Patrick (2002). Secrets of Acting Shakespeare: The Original Approach. Routledge. p. 8.

  • Halliday 1964, p. 374.

  • Chambers 1923, p. 396.

  • Hamlet, 2.2.337–391.

  • Bellinger 1927, pp. 207–213.

  • Ichikawa 2012, p. 100.

  • Maclennan 1994.

  • Calore 2003.

  • Kregor 1993.

  • Triesault 1970.

  • MacIntyre 1992.

  • Keenan 2014, pp. 109–110.

  • Mann 1991.

  • Montrose 1996, pp. 35–37.

  • Chambers 1923.

  • Halliday 1964, pp. 374–375.

  • Gurr 2009, p. 72.

  • Halliday 1964, pp. 108–109, 374–375, 456–457.

  • Halliday 1964, p. 375.

  • Blayney 1997.

  • Farmer & Lesser 2005.

  • Firth & Rait 1911.

    1. CITEREFChambers1923

    Sources

    External links


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    Sites of dramatic performance

    Grammar schools

    The English grammar schools, like those on the continent, placed special emphasis on the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Though rhetorical instruction was intended as preparation for careers in civil service such as law, the rhetorical canons of memory (memoria) and delivery (pronuntiatio), gesture and voice, as well as exercises from the progymnasmata, such as the prosopopoeia, taught theatrical skills.[2][3] Students would typically analyse Latin and Greek texts, write their own compositions, memorise them, and then perform them in front of their instructor and their peers.[4] Records show that in addition to this weekly performance, students would perform plays on holidays,[5] and in both Latin and English.[6] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    A prosopopoeia (Greek: προσωποποιία, /prɒspˈpə/) is a rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer communicates to the audience by speaking as another person or object. The term literally derives from the Greek roots prósopon "face, person", and poiéin "to make, to do". 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopopoeia

    Progymnasmata (Greek προγυμνάσματα "fore-exercises"; Latin praeexercitamina) are a series of preliminary rhetorical exercises that began in ancient Greece and continued during the Roman Empire. These exercises were implemented by students of rhetoric, who began their schooling between ages twelve and fifteen. The purpose of these exercises was to prepare students for writing declamations after they had completed their education with the grammarians. There are only four surviving handbooks of progymnasmata, attributed to Aelius Theon, Hermogenes of Tarsus, Aphthonius of Antioch, and Nicolaus the Sophist.[1] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progymnasmata

    Pronuntiatio was the discipline of delivering speeches in Western classical rhetoric. It is one of the five canons of classical rhetoric (the others being inventio, dispositio, elocutio, and memoria) that concern the crafting and delivery of speeches. In literature the equivalent of ancient pronuntiatio is the recitation of epics (Aris. Po. 26.2.).[1] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronuntiatio

    Memoria was the term for aspects involving memory in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "memory". 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoria

    Painting depicting a lecture in a knight academy, painted by Pieter Isaacsz or Reinhold Timm for Rosenborg Castle as part of a series of seven paintings depicting the seven independent arts. This painting illustrates rhetoric.

    Rhetoric (/ˈrɛtərɪk/)[note 1] is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations.[5] Aristotle defines rhetoric as "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion" and since mastery of the art was necessary for victory in a case at law, for passage of proposals in the assembly, or for fame as a speaker in civic ceremonies, he calls it "a combination of the science of logic and of the ethical branch of politics".[6] Rhetoric typically provides heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations, such as Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. The five canons of rhetoric or phases of developing a persuasive speech were first codified in classical Rome: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

    From Ancient Greece to the late 19th century, rhetoric played a central role in Western education in training orators, lawyers, counsellors, historians, statesmen, and poets.[7][note 2] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    The trivium is the lower division of the seven liberal arts and comprises grammar, logic, and rhetoric.[1]

    Allegory of Grammar and Logic/Dialectic. Perugia, Fontana Maggiore.

    The trivium is implicit in De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii ("On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury") by Martianus Capella, but the term was not used until the Carolingian Renaissance, when it was coined in imitation of the earlier quadrivium.[2] Grammar, logic, and rhetoric were essential to a classical education, as explained in Plato's dialogues. The three subjects together were denoted by the word trivium during the Middle Ages, but the tradition of first learning those three subjects was established in ancient Greece. Contemporary iterations have taken various forms, including those found in certain British and American universities (some being part of the Classical education movement) and at the independent Oundle School in the United Kingdom.[3]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivium

    Hare Court, within the Inner Temple

    The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, a person must belong to one of these Inns. It is located in the wider Temple area, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. As a liberty, it functions largely as an independent local government authority. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Temple

    Title page of The Tragedie of Gorboduc (1565)

    The Tragedie of Gorboduc, also titled Ferrex and Porrex, is an English play from 1561. It was first performed at the Christmas celebration given by the Inner Temple in 1561, and performed at Whitehall before Queen Elizabeth I on 18 January 1561,[1] by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple.[2] The authors were Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, said to be responsible for the first three Acts, and the final two, respectively.

    The first quarto, published by the bookseller William Griffith, was published 22 September 1565.[3] A second authorized quarto corrected by the authors followed in 1570, and was printed by John Day with the title The Tragedie of Ferrex and Porrex. A third edition was published in 1590 by Edward Allde.[4]

    The play is notable for several reasons: as the first verse drama in English to employ blank verse; for its political subject matter (the realm of Gorboduc is disputed by his sons Ferrex and Porrex), which was still a touchy area in the early years of Elizabeth's reign, while the succession to the throne was unclear; for its manner, progressing from the models of the morality play and Senecan tragedy in the direction which would be followed by later playwrights. That is, it can be seen as a forerunner of the whole trend that would later produce Titus Andronicus[5] and King Lear. It also provides the first well-documented performance of a play in Ireland: Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy staged it at Dublin Castle in 1601. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorboduc_(play)

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Title page of The Tragedie of Gorboduc (1565)

    The Tragedie of Gorboduc, also titled Ferrex and Porrex, is an English play from 1561. It was first performed at the Christmas celebration given by the Inner Temple in 1561, and performed at Whitehall before Queen Elizabeth I on 18 January 1561,[1] by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple.[2] The authors were Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, said to be responsible for the first three Acts, and the final two, respectively.

    The first quarto, published by the bookseller William Griffith, was published 22 September 1565.[3] A second authorized quarto corrected by the authors followed in 1570, and was printed by John Day with the title The Tragedie of Ferrex and Porrex. A third edition was published in 1590 by Edward Allde.[4]

    The play is notable for several reasons: as the first verse drama in English to employ blank verse; for its political subject matter (the realm of Gorboduc is disputed by his sons Ferrex and Porrex), which was still a touchy area in the early years of Elizabeth's reign, while the succession to the throne was unclear; for its manner, progressing from the models of the morality play and Senecan tragedy in the direction which would be followed by later playwrights. That is, it can be seen as a forerunner of the whole trend that would later produce Titus Andronicus[5] and King Lear. It also provides the first well-documented performance of a play in Ireland: Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy staged it at Dublin Castle in 1601.

    Synopsis

    The playtext summarizes the plot in the 'Argument': "Gorboduc, King of Britain, divided his realm in his lifetime to his sons, Ferrex and Porrex. The sons fell to dissension. The younger killed the elder. The mother that more dearly loved the elder, for revenge killed the younger. The people, moved with the cruelty of the fact, rose in rebellion and slew both father and mother. The nobility assembled and most terribly destroyed the rebels. And afterward, for want of issue of the prince, whereby the succession of the crown became uncertain, they fell to civil war in which both they and many of their issues were slain, and the land for a long time almost desolate and miserably wasted."

    Gorboduc announces his plan to divide his kingdom between his sons Ferrex and Porrex. His councillors advise against it, reminding him of the conflict that arose between the cousins Morgan and Cunedag when Britain was divided between them, which led to Morgan's death. Gorboduc appreciates their advice but goes ahead with his plan. Ferrex is advised by the parasite Hermon to take the whole Kingdom. Tyndar tells Porrex that his brother is making plans for war, meaning Porrex decides to invade Ferrex's realm. Dordan writes to Gorboduc of this. Gorboduc bewails this and is advised to raise a force against them. However, a nuntius (messenger) then enters, bearing the news of Ferrex's death. Porrex meets his father and justifies his actions, saying that he was content to rule his kingdom but that his brother plotted to take his lands. However, his mother Videna then stabs him dead while he is sleeping in revenge for Ferrex. The people rise up in anger and kill both her and Gorboduc, blaming the King for Porrex's death. The nobles prepare to act against the rebels. However, the succession is left uncertain. Fergus, Duke of Albany, plans to gain the throne and begins raising an army while his friends try to gather support. The nobles defeat the rebels, but hear that Fergus has raised an army and intends to take the crown. The nobles oppose Fergus, thinking of him as a foreign invader. Arostus says that Parliament must decide upon a new King. Eubulus bemoans the chaos that has happened to the country and says that Parliament should have been called while the King was alive, but that justice will eventually prevail.

    Characters

    • Gorboduc, King of Great Britain
    • Videna, Queen and wife to King Gorboduc
    • Ferrex, Elder Son to King Gorboduc
    • Porrex, Younger Son to King Gorboduc
    • Clotyn, Duke of Cornewall
    • Fergus, Duke of Albany
    • Mandud, Duke of Leagre
    • Gwenard, Duke of Cumberland
    • Eubulus, Secretary to the king Gorboduc
    • Arostus, A Counsellour of king Gorboduc
    • Dordan, A Counsellour assigned by the king to his Eldest Son Ferrex
    • Philander, A Counsellour assigned by the king to his younger Son Porrex
    • Hermon, A Parasite of Ferrex and Fergus's slave
    • Tyndar, A Parasite of Porrex
    • Nuntius, A Messenger of Ferrex's death
    • Nuntius, A Messenger of Duke Fergus rising
    • Marcella, A Lady of the Queen's privy Chamber
    • Chorus, Four ancient and sage men of Britain

    References


  • Brockett, Oscar G. History of the Theatre. Pearson, 2014., p. 107

  • Ribner, Irving. (1957) The English History Play In The Age Of Shakespeare, pp. 37-8.

  • Cauthen, I. B. (1962) "'Gorboduc, Ferrex and Porrex'": The First Two Quartos". Studies in Bibliography 15: 231-3; p. 231.

  • Ribner (1957) p. 38.

    1. Carroll, James D. (2004) "Gorboduc and Titus Andronicus", Notes and Queries, 51: 267-9.

    External links

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorboduc_(play)

    The title page of Robert Andrews' translation of Virgil into English blank verse, printed by John Baskerville in 1766

    Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter.[1] It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century",[2] and Paul Fussell has estimated that "about three quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse".[3]

    The first known use of blank verse in English was by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey in his translation of the Aeneid (composed c. 1540; published posthumously, 1554–1557[4]). He may have been inspired by the Latin original since classical Latin verse did not use rhyme, or possibly he was inspired by Ancient Greek verse or the Italian verse form of versi sciolti, both of which also did not use rhyme.

    The play Arden of Faversham (around 1590 by an unknown author) is a notable example of end-stopped blank verse. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_verse

    Not to be confused with free verse.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_verse

    Universities

    Academic drama stems from late medieval and early modern practices of miracles and morality plays as well as the Feast of Fools and the election of a Lord of Misrule.[13] The Feast of Fools includes mummer plays.[14] The universities, particularly Oxford and Cambridge, were attended by students studying for bachelor's degrees and master's degrees, followed by doctorates in Law, Medicine, and Theology.[15] In the 1400s, dramas were often restricted to mummer plays with someone who read out all the parts in Latin.[16] With the rediscovery and redistribution of classical materials during the English Renaissance, Latin and Greek plays began to be restaged.[17] These plays were often accompanied by feasts.[18] Queen Elizabeth I viewed dramas during her visits to Oxford and Cambridge.[19] A well-known play cycle which was written and performed in the universities was the Parnassus Plays.[13] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    The Parnassus plays are three satiric comedies, or full-length academic dramas each divided into five acts. They date from between 1598 and 1602.  

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parnassus_plays

    https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parnassus_Plays&redirect=no


    The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England from the early 16th century to the early 17th century.[1] It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. As in most of the rest of northern Europe, England saw little of these developments until more than a century later within the Northern Renaissance. Renaissance style and ideas were slow to penetrate England, and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance. Many scholars see its beginnings in the early 16th century during the reign of Henry VIII.[2]

    The English Renaissance is different from the Italian Renaissance in several ways. The dominant art forms of the English Renaissance were literature and music. Visual arts in the English Renaissance were much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance. The English period began far later than the Italian, which was moving into Mannerism and the Baroque by the 1550s or earlier. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_Fools

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_Misrule

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers%27_play

     

    The early modern period of modern history spans the period after the Late Middle Ages of the post-classical era (c. 1400–1500) to the beginning of the Age of Revolutions (c. 1800). Although the chronological limits of this period are open to debate, the timeframe is variously demarcated by historians as beginning with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Renaissance period in Europe and Timurid Central Asia,the end of the Crusades, the Age of Discovery (especially the voyages of Christopher Columbus beginning in 1492 but also Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India in 1498), and ending around the French Revolution in 1789, or Napoleon's rise to power.[1][2]

    Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was its spreading globalizing character.[3] New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the period. The early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of mercantilism as an economic theory. Other notable trends of the period include the development of experimental science, increasingly rapid technological progress, secularized civic politics, accelerated travel due to improvements in mapping and ship design, and the emergence of nation states

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_modern_period

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    (Redirected from Late medieval)
    From the Apocalypse in a Biblia Pauperum illuminated at Erfurt around the time of the Great Famine. Death sits astride a lion whose long tail ends in a ball of flame (Hell). Famine points to her hungry mouth.

    The Late Middle Ages, or late medieval period, was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renaissance).[1]

    Around 1300, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt. A series of famines and plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population to around half of what it had been before the calamities.[2] Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare. France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants' Revolt, as well as over a century of intermittent conflict, the Hundred Years' War. To add to the many problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was temporarily shattered by the Western Schism. Collectively, those events are sometimes called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.[3]

    Despite the crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress in the arts and sciences. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance began. The absorption of Latin texts had started before the Renaissance of the 12th century through contact with Arabs during the Crusades, but the availability of important Greek texts accelerated with the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, when many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in the West, particularly Italy.[4]

    Combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. Those two things would later lead to the Reformation. Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire cut off trading possibilities with the East. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the Spanish expedition under Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama's voyage to Africa and India in 1498. Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations.

    The changes brought about by these developments have led many scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern history and of early modern Europe. However, the division is somewhat artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society.[citation needed] As a result, there was developmental continuity between the ancient age (via classical antiquity) and the modern age.[citation needed] Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all but rather see the high period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and the modern era.[citation needed] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Ages

     

     

    Academic drama refers to a theatrical movement that emerged in the mid 16th century during the Renaissance. Dedicated to the study of classical dramas for the purpose of higher education, universities in England began to produce the plays of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca the Younger (among others) in the Greek and Roman languages, as well as neoclassical dramas. These classical and neoclassical productions were performed by young scholars at universities in Cambridge and Oxford.[1] Other European countries, such as Spain and Italy adapted classical plays into a mixture of Latin and vernacular dramas. These Spanish and Italian adaptations were used in teaching morals in schools and colleges.[2] The intellectual development of dramas in schools, universities, and Inns of Court in Europe allowed the emergence of the great playwrights of the late 16th century.[3] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_drama

     

    Title page of Midas.

    Midas is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by John Lyly. It is arguably the most overtly and extensively allegorical of Lyly's allegorical plays. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas_(Lyly_play)

    Title page of Gallathea.

    Gallathea or Galatea is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy by John Lyly. The first record of the play's performance was at Greenwich Palace on New Year's Day, 1588 where it was performed before Queen Elizabeth I and her court by the Children of St Paul's, a troupe of boy actors. At this point in his literary career, Lyly had already achieved success with his prose romance Euphues and was a writer in residence at Blackfriars theatre. The play is set in a village on the Lincolnshire shore of the river Humber and in the neighboring woods. It features a host of characters including Greek deities, nymphs, fairies, and some shepherds

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallathea

     

    Old St Paul's Cathedral
    The central tower of a large gothic cathedral. The central tower is buttressed and with an imposing wooden spire. An octagonal chapter house is in the foreground.
    Digital reconstruction giving an impression of Old St Paul's during the Middle Ages. The image is based on a model of the Cathedral in the Museum of London, composited with a modern city background.
    Old St Paul's Cathedral is located in City of London in 1300
    Old St Paul's Cathedral
    Old St Paul's Cathedral
    Old St Paul's on a 1300 map of the City of London
    51°30′49″N 0°5′54″W
    DenominationChurch of England
    Previous denominationRoman Catholic
    History
    DedicationSaint Paul
    EventsCathedral and canonry destroyed by fire—1087, 1666
    Architecture
    Previous cathedrals3
    StyleEnglish Gothic
    Years built
    • c. 604–675
    • c. 685–961
    • c. 962–1087
    • 1087–1666
    Administration
    DioceseLondon
    Deanery
    Clergy
    Bishop(s)Bishop of London
    DeanDean of St Paul's
    Building details
    Map
    Record height
    Tallest in the world from the mid-14th century to 1311[I]
    Preceded byGreat Pyramid of Giza
    Surpassed byLincoln Cathedral

    Old St Paul's Cathedral was the cathedral of the City of London that, until the Great Fire of 1666, stood on the site of the present St Paul's Cathedral. Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Saint Paul, the cathedral was perhaps the fourth church at Ludgate Hill.[1]

    Work on the cathedral began after a fire in 1087. Work took more than 200 years, and was delayed by another fire in 1135. The church was consecrated in 1240, enlarged in 1256 and again in the early 14th century. At its completion in the mid-14th century, the cathedral was one of the longest churches in the world, had one of the tallest spires and some of the finest stained glass.

    The presence of the shrine of Saint Erkenwald made the cathedral a site of pilgrimage.[2] In addition to serving as the seat of the Diocese of London, the building developed a reputation as a social hub, with the nave aisle, "Paul's walk", known as a business centre and a place to hear the gossip on the London grapevine. After the Reformation, the open-air pulpit in the churchyard, St Paul's Cross, became the place for radical evangelical preaching and Protestant bookselling.

    The cathedral was already in severe structural decline by the early 17th century. Restoration work begun by Inigo Jones in the 1620s was temporarily halted during the English Civil War (1642–1651). In 1666, further restoration was in progress under Sir Christopher Wren when the cathedral was devastated in the Great Fire of London. At that point, it was demolished, and the present cathedral was built on the site.[3] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_St_Paul%27s_Cathedral

    St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
    The King's Free Chapel of the College of St George, Windsor Castle
    St. Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle (2).jpg
    Map
    51°29′01″N 00°36′25″W
    LocationWindsor
    CountryEngland
    DenominationChurch of England
    Previous denominationRoman Catholicism
    ChurchmanshipHigh Church
    Websitestgeorges-windsor.org
    History
    StatusChapel
    Founded1475
    DedicationSt George
    Architecture
    Functional statusActive
    Heritage designationGrade I listed
    StyleGothic
    Years built1475
    Completed1511
    Specifications
    Capacity800
    Administration
    DioceseJurisdiction: Royal Peculiar
    Location: Oxford
    DeaneryDean and Canons of Windsor
    Clergy
    DeanDavid Conner
    PrecentorMartin Poll (Chaplain)
    Canon(s)Mark Powell (Steward)
    Canon TreasurerHueston Finlay (Vice-Dean)
    Laity
    Organist/Director of musicJames Vivian
    Music group(s)Choir of St George's Chapel

    St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch), and the Chapel of the Order of the Garter. St George's Chapel was founded in the 14th century by King Edward III and extensively enlarged in the late 15th century. It is located in the Lower Ward of the castle.[1] The castle has belonged to the monarchy for almost 1,000 years and was a principal residence of Elizabeth II before her death. The chapel has been the scene of many royal services, weddings and burials – in the 19th century, St George's Chapel and the nearby Frogmore Gardens superseded Westminster Abbey as the chosen burial place for the British royal family.[2] The running of the chapel is the responsibility of the dean and Canons of Windsor who make up the College of Saint George. They are assisted by a clerk, verger and other staff. The Society of the Friends of St George's and Descendants of the Knights of the Garter, a registered charity, was established in 1931 to assist the college in maintaining the chapel. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George%27s_Chapel,_Windsor_Castle

     

     

     

    Inns of Court

    Gorboduc TP 1565

    Upon graduation, many university students, especially those going into law, would reside and participate in the Inns of Court. The Inns of Court were communities of working lawyers and university alumni.[20] Notable literary figures and playwrights who resided in the Inns of Court include John Donne, Francis Beaumont, John Marston, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Campion, Abraham Fraunce, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Thomas More, Sir Francis Bacon, and George Gascoigne.[21][22] Like the university, the Inns of Court elected their own Lord of Misrule.[23] Other activities included participation in moot court, disputation, and masques.[23][22] Plays written and performed in the Inns of Court include Gorboduc, Gismund of Salerne, and The Misfortunes of Arthur.[22] An example of a famous masque put on by the Inns was James Shirley's The Triumph of Peace. Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night were also performed here, although written for commercial theater.[24] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

     

     

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    (Redirected from Disputations)
    A disputation between Christian and Jewish scholars (1483)

    In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations (in Latin: disputationes, singular: disputatio) offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences. Fixed rules governed the process: they demanded dependence on traditional written authorities and the thorough understanding of each argument on each side. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disputation

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    (Redirected from Masques)
    Costume for a Knight, by Inigo Jones: the plumed helmet, the "heroic torso" in armour and other conventions were still employed for opera seria in the 18th century.

    The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque involved music, dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron. Professional actors and musicians were hired for the speaking and singing parts. Masquers who did not speak or sing were often courtiers: the English queen Anne of Denmark frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611, and Henry VIII and Charles I of England performed in the masques at their courts.[citation needed] In the tradition of masque, Louis XIV of France danced in ballets at Versailles with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully.[1] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masque

    Moot court is a co-curricular activity at many law schools. Participants take part in simulated court or arbitration proceedings, usually involving drafting memorials or memoranda and participating in oral argument. In many countries, the phrase "moot court" may be shortened to simply "moot" or "mooting". Participants are either referred to as "mooters" or, less conventionally, "mooties". 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moot_court

     

     

    Scene from 'Twelfth Night' ('Malvolio and the Countess'), Daniel Maclise (1840)

    Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. Viola (who is disguised as Cesario) falls in love with the Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her thinking she is a man.

    The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion,[1] with plot elements drawn from the short story "Of Apollonius and Silla" by Barnabe Rich, based on a story by Matteo Bandello. The first documented public performance was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the year's calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night

    Poster for an 1879 production on Broadway, featuring Stuart Robson and William H. Crane.

    The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. In the centuries following its premiere, the play's title has entered the popular English lexicon as an idiom for "an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout".[1]

    Set in the Greek city of Ephesus, The Comedy of Errors tells the story of two sets of identical twins who were accidentally separated at birth. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities lead to wrongful beatings, a near-seduction, the arrest of Antipholus of Ephesus, and false accusations of infidelity, theft, madness, and demonic possession

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Comedy_of_Errors

    The Triumph of Peace was a Caroline era masque, "invented and written" by James Shirley, performed on 3 February 1634 and published the same year. The production was designed by Inigo Jones

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Peace

    The Misfortunes of Arthur, Uther Pendragon's son reduced into tragical notes is a play by the 16th-century English dramatist Thomas Hughes. Written in 1587, it was performed at Greenwich before Queen Elizabeth I on February 28, 1588. The play is based on the Arthurian legend, specifically the story of Mordred's treachery and King Arthur's death as told in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae.

    Several of Hughes' fellow members at Gray's Inn participated in The Misfortunes of Arthur’s writing and production for the inn's revels.[1] Nicholas Trotte provided the introduction, Francis Flower the choruses of Acts I and II, William Fulbecke wrote two speeches, while Francis Bacon, Christopher Yelverton, John Lancaster, and Flower oversaw the dumb shows. Lancaster and John Penruddocke directed the drama at Court.[2] The play was greatly influenced by Seneca the Younger's tragedies, and was composed according to the Senecan model.[1] The ghost of Gorlois, a duke slain by Uther Pendragon, opens the play with a speech reproducing passages spoken by Tantalus' ghost in Thyestes. All action occurs offstage and is related by a chorus, while a messenger announces the tragic events. W. J. Cunliffe demonstrated the influence of Seneca on Hughes, suggesting the play consists largely of translations of Seneca with occasional original lines.[3]

    The Misfortunes of Arthur was reprinted in John Payne Collier's supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays, and by Harvey Carson Grumline (Berlin, 1900), who points out that Hughes's source was Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae rather than Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misfortunes_of_Arthur

     

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    (Redirected from Sir Thomas More)
    Sir
    Thomas More
    Hans Holbein, the Younger - Sir Thomas More - Google Art Project.jpg

    Lord Chancellor
    In office
    October 1529 – May 1532
    MonarchHenry VIII
    Preceded byThomas Wolsey
    Succeeded byThomas Audley
    Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
    In office
    31 December 1525 – 3 November 1529
    MonarchHenry VIII
    Preceded byRichard Wingfield
    Succeeded byWilliam FitzWilliam
    Speaker of the House of Commons
    In office
    15 April 1523 – 13 August 1523
    MonarchHenry VIII
    Preceded byThomas Nevill
    Succeeded byThomas Audley
    Personal details
    Born7 February 1478
    City of London, England
    Died6 July 1535 (aged 57)
    Tower Hill, London, England
    Spouses

    Jane Colt
    (m. 1505; died 1511)

    (m. 1511)
    ChildrenMargaret, Elizabeth, Cicely, and John
    Parent(s)Sir John More
    Agnes Graunger
    EducationUniversity of Oxford
    Lincoln's Inn
    Signature

    Philosophy career
    Notable workUtopia (1516)
    Responsio ad Lutherum (1523)
    A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation (1553)

    EraRenaissance philosophy
    16th-century philosophy
    RegionWestern philosophy, Catholic
    SchoolChristian humanism[1]
    Renaissance humanism
    Main interests
    Social philosophy
    Criticism of Protestantism
    Notable ideas
    Utopia

    Influences

    Influenced

    Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More,[7][8] was an English lawyer, judge,[9] social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to May 1532.[10] He wrote Utopia, published in 1516,[11] which describes the political system of an imaginary island state.

    More opposed the Protestant Reformation, directing polemics against the theology of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin and William Tyndale. More also opposed Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and executed. On his execution, he was reported to have said: "I die the King's good servant, and God's first".

    Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr. Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared him the patron saint of statesmen and politicians.[12][13][14]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More

    Abraham Fraunce (c. 1558/1560c. 1592/1593) was an English poet. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Fraunce

     

     

    Establishment of playhouses

    The first permanent English theatre, the Red Lion, opened in 1567[25] but it was a short-lived failure. The first successful theatres, such as The Theatre, opened in 1576.

    The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama. Once they were in operation, drama could become a fixed and permanent, rather than transitory, phenomenon. Their construction was prompted when the Mayor and Corporation of London first banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, and then formally expelled all players from the city in 1575.[26] This prompted the construction of permanent playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the liberties of Halliwell/Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink, and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George's Fields in rural Surrey.[26] The Theatre was constructed in Shoreditch in 1576 by James Burbage with his brother-in-law John Brayne (the owner of the unsuccessful Red Lion playhouse of 1567)[27] and the Newington Butts playhouse was set up, probably by Jerome Savage, some time between 1575[28] and 1577.[29] The Theatre was rapidly followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), the Globe (1599), the Fortune (1600), and the Red Bull (1604).[a]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre 

    The Globe Theatre
    Hollar Globe.gif
    The second Globe, preliminary sketch (c. 1638) for Hollar's 1647 Long View of London[1]
    Map
    AddressMaiden Lane (now Park Street) Southwark[2][3]
    London
    England
    Coordinates51°30′24″N 00°5′41″W
    OwnerLord Chamberlain's Men
    TypeElizabethan theatre
    Construction
    Opened1599
    Closed1642
    Demolished1644–45
    Rebuilt1614

    The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and stayed open until the London theatre closures of 1642. As well as plays by Shakespeare, early works by Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker and John Fletcher were first performed here.[4]

    A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named "Shakespeare's Globe", opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theatre.[5] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Theatre

    Ground plan of The Theatre. The "common sewer" is now marked by Curtain Road, and the "ditch from the horse-pond" by New Inn Yard
    The Theatre is labelled in the top right of this London street map. Enlarge

    The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road, part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It was the first permanent theatre ever built in England. It was built in 1576 after the Red Lion, and the first successful one. Built by actor-manager James Burbage, near the family home in Holywell Street, The Theatre is considered the first theatre built in London for the sole purpose of theatrical productions. The Theatre's history includes a number of important acting troupes including the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which employed Shakespeare as actor and playwright. After a dispute with the landlord, the theatre was dismantled and the timbers used in the construction of the Globe Theatre on Bankside

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theatre

    The Red Lion Theatre
    Map
    Address86 Stepney Way Whitechapel High Street
    London Borough of Tower Hamlets
    Coordinates51°31′07″N 00°03′25″W
    OwnerJohn Brayne
    TypeElizabethan playhouse
    Capacitystanding yard with galleries
    Construction
    Years active1567–1568
    ArchitectWilliam Sylvester and John Reynolds (carpenters)

    The Red Lion was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Whitechapel (part of the modern Borough of Tower Hamlets), just outside the City of London on the east side.

    Built in 1567 for John Brayne, citizen and Grocer, this was the first known attempt to provide a purpose-built playhouse in London for the many Tudor age touring theatrical companies - and perhaps the first purpose-built venue known to have been built in the city since Roman times. Its existence was short-lived.[1]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lion_(theatre)

    Worshipful Company of Grocers
    GrocersCompany Arms.svg
    Arms of the Worshipful Company of Grocers: Argent, a chevron gules between nine cloves six in chief and three in base proper.
    MottoGod Grant Grace
    LocationGrocers' Hall, Princes Street, City of London
    Date of formation1345; 678 years ago
    Company associationSpice merchants
    Order of precedence2nd
    Master of companyJames Thompson
    Websitewww.grocershall.co.uk

    The Worshipful Company of Grocers is one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London and ranks second in order of precedence. The Grocers' Company was established in 1345 for merchants occupied in the trade of grocer and is one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Grocers

    History

    Arms of the Worshipful Company of Grocers, Grocers' Hall

    The company was founded in the 14th century by members of the Guild of Pepperers, which dates from 1180.[1] The company was responsible for maintaining standards for the purity of spices and for the setting of certain weights and measures. Its members included the suppliers of medicinal spices and herbs, who separated forming the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1617.

    The guild was known as the Company of Grossers from 1373 until 1376 when it was renamed the Company of Grocers of London. In 1428, two years after building its first hall in Old Jewry, the company was granted a Royal Charter by King Henry VI of England.[2] One of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, it ranks second in the Companies order of precedence after the Mercers' Company. It is said that the Grocers' Company used to be first in the order, until Queen Elizabeth I, as Honorary Master of the Mercers' Company, found herself in procession, after her coronation behind the Grocers' camel which was emitting unfortunate smells; as a result, the Mercers were promoted.

    Today, the Grocers' Company exists as a charitable, constitutional and ceremonial institution which plays a significant role in the election of and supporting the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs of the City of London. The company's motto is "God Grant Grace".[2] The company also provides banqueting and conference facilities at Grocers' Hall situated in Prince's Street, next to the Bank of England.[3][4] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Grocers

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    (Redirected from Old Red Lion Theatre)
    The Old Red Lion, Islington
    ORL; Old Red
    Old red lion theatre smc.JPG
    The Old Red Lion Pub and Theatre, 2007
    Map
    AddressSt. John Street
    London, EC1
    England
    Coordinates51.5314°N 0.1062°W
    Public transitLondon Underground Angel
    TypeFringe theatre
    Capacity60
    ProductionCountry Life
    Opened1979; 44 years ago
    Years active32
    Website
    oldredliontheatre.co.uk

    The Old Red Lion is a pub and fringe theatre, at Angel, in the London Borough of Islington.

    The theatre was founded in 1979 as the Old Red Lion Theatre Club. The pub was Grade II listed in 1994 by Historic England.[1]

    History

    Construction

    The pub in itself is one of the oldest in London, having first been built in 1415 in what was then the rural village of Islington in open countryside and fields. A house called Goose Farm and some nearby cattle pens (for herds being driven to Smithfield Market) were the only structures to adjoin it, and St John Street (then called Chester Road) was a country lane.

    "Evening" by Hogarth

    18th century

    In the late 18th century Chester Road became notorious for highwaymen, with patrols being provided to protect those travelling along it at night. At this time descriptions state that the Old Red Lion was a small brick house with three trees in its forecourt, visited by William Hogarth (who portrayed it in the middle distance of his painting "Evening", with the foreground being Sadler's Wells), Samuel Johnson and Thomas Paine (who wrote The Rights of Man in the shade of the trees in its forecourt).

    Reconstruction

    The Old Red Lion was rebuilt in 1899, designed by Eedle and Myers,[1] adding two exits onto different streets. This gave the pub the nickname "the In and Out", since taxi passengers could avoid paying their fare by entering it through one door and disappearing through the other.

    Theatre

    In 1979 a small studio theatre opened on the pub's first floor, as the Old Red Lion Theatre Club. Under artistic director Charlie Hanson, it became a place for actors, directors, designers, writers and technicians to experiment. After the King's Cross fire in 1987, the theatre was threatened with closure due to the tightening of fire regulations. Artistic Director Ken McClymont raised funds to keep the theatre from closing.

    Notable past productions

    Nina Raine, winner of the 2006 Most Promising Playwright Award, staged her first show, Rabbit, at the Old Red Lion Theatre in March to April 2006.[2] Who is Eddie Linden, a play based upon Sebastian Barker's biography of poet and editor Eddie Linden, was staged in 1995.[3]

    Today

    It is the main pub for the Capital Canaries, the official London fan club for Norwich City F.C.

    Literary department

    The literary department reads over 1,000 scripts each year, under an open submissions policy.

    Artistic directors

    • Charlie Hanson (1979–1981)
    • Jane Goldman (1981–82)
    • Mike Gilmore (1982-74)
    • Richard Hansom (1984–88)
    • Ken McClymont (1988–2002)
    • Melanie Tait (2002–2004)
    • Helen Devine (2004–2010)
    • Henry Filloux-Bennett (Artistic Director 2010-2011) (Co-Artistic Director) (2011–2012)
    • Nicholas Thompson (Co-Artistic Director) (2011–2012) (Artistic Director 2012-2014)
    • Stewart Pringle (Artistic Director) (2014–2016)
    • Clive Judd (Artistic Director) (2016-2017)
    • Katy Danbury (Artistic Director & Theatre Manager) (2017–2019)
    • Alexander Knott (Artistic Director) (2019–present)[4]

    Awards

    Old Red Lion Theatre won the Dan Crawford Pub Theatre Award for 2006.[5]

    References


  • Historic England. "Old Red Lion public house (1195738)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 31 August 2015.

  • "Old Red Lion Theatre". Theatresonline.com. Retrieved 4 September 2015.

  • Sansom, Ian. "Who is Eddie Linden". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 19 March 2019.

  • "Alexander Knott Appointed Artistic Director of the Old Red Lion Theatre". 22 November 2019.

    1. "The Empty SPACE...Peter Brook AWARDs". blanche marvin's london theatreviews. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011.

    External links

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Red_Lion,_Islington

     

    The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's financial sector.

    In 2006, the name was changed from Corporation of London as the corporate body needed to be distinguished from the geographical area to avoid confusion with the wider London local government, the Greater London Authority.[4]

    Both businesses and residents of the City, or "Square Mile", are entitled to vote in City elections, and in addition to its functions as the local authority—analogous to those undertaken by the 32 boroughs that administer the rest of the Greater London region—it takes responsibility for supporting the financial services industry and representing its interests.[5] The corporation's structure includes the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, the Court of Common Council, and the Freemen and Livery of the City. The "Liberties and Customs" of the City of London are guaranteed in Magna Carta's clause 13, which remains in statute.[6] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London_Corporation

     

    Playhouse architecture

    Panorama of the interior of the Globe Theatre, London

    Archaeological excavations on the foundations of the Rose and the Globe in the late 20th century showed that all the London theatres had individual differences, but their common function necessitated a similar general plan.[30] The public theatres were three stories high and built around an open space at the centre. Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect, although the Red Bull and the first Fortune were square. The three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open centre, into which jutted the stage: essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience. The rear side was restricted for the entrances and exits of the actors and seating for the musicians. The upper level behind the stage could be used as a balcony, as in Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra, or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in Julius Caesar.[31] The pit was the place where the poorest audience members could view the show. Around the 1600s a new area was introduced into the theaters, a 'gullet'. A gullet was an invisible corridor that the actors used to go to the wings of the stage where people usually changed clothes quickly[citation needed].

    The playhouses were generally built with timber and plaster. Individual theatre descriptions give additional information about their construction, such as flint stones being used to build the Swan. Theatres were also constructed to be able to hold a large number of people.[32]

    A different model was developed with the Blackfriars Theatre, which came into regular use on a long-term basis in 1599.[b] The Blackfriars was small in comparison to the earlier theatres and roofed rather than open to the sky. It resembled a modern theatre in ways that its predecessors did not. Other small enclosed theatres followed, notably the Whitefriars (1608) and the Cockpit (1617). With the building of the Salisbury Court Theatre in 1629 near the site of the defunct Whitefriars, the London audience had six theatres to choose from: three surviving large open-air public theatres—the Globe, the Fortune, and the Red Bull—and three smaller enclosed private theatres: the Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury Court.[c] Audiences of the 1630s benefited from a half-century of vigorous dramaturgical development; the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare and their contemporaries were still being performed on a regular basis, mostly at the public theatres, while the newest works of the newest playwrights were abundant as well, mainly at the private theatres.[citation needed] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    Commercial theaters were largely located just outside the boundaries of the City of London, since City authorities tended to be wary of the adult playing companies, but plays were performed by touring companies all over England.[35] English companies even toured and performed English plays abroad, especially in Germany and in Denmark.[36][d] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

     

    Romeo and Juliet
    An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet
    An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting the play's balcony scene
    Written byWilliam Shakespeare
    Characters
    Date premiered1597[a]
    Original languageEnglish
    SeriesFirst Quarto
    SubjectLove
    GenreShakespearean tragedy
    SettingItaly (Verona and Mantua)

    Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage.

    The term first appears in the eponymous work Hamburg Dramaturgy (1767–69) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Lessing composed this collection of essays on the principles of drama while working as the world's first dramaturge at the Hamburg National Theatre. Dramaturgy is distinct from play writing and directing, although the three may be practiced by one individual.[1] Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturge, to adapt a work for the stage.

    Dramaturgy may also be broadly defined as "adapting a story to actable form." Dramaturgy gives a performance work foundation and structure. Often the dramaturge's strategy is to manipulate a narrative to reflect the current Zeitgeist through cross-cultural signs, theater- and film-historical references to genre, ideology, questions of gender and racial representation, etc., in the dramatization. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy

    Performances

    The acting companies functioned on a repertory system: unlike modern productions that can run for months or years on end, the troupes of this era rarely acted the same play two days in a row.[39] Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess ran for nine straight performances in August 1624 before it was closed by the authorities; but this was due to the political content of the play and was a unique, unprecedented and unrepeatable phenomenon. The 1592 season of Lord Strange's Men at the Rose Theatre was far more representative: between 19 February and 23 June the company played six days a week, minus Good Friday and two other days. They performed 23 different plays, some only once, and their most popular play of the season, The First Part of Hieronimo, based on Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, 15 times. They never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in a week.[40][e] The workload on the actors, especially the leading performers like Richard Burbage or Edward Alleyn, must have been tremendous.

    One distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males. Female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume. Some companies were composed entirely of boy players.[f] Performances in the public theatres (like the Globe) took place in the afternoon with no artificial lighting, but when, in the course of a play, the light began to fade, candles were lit.[43] In the enclosed private theatres (like the Blackfriars) artificial lighting was used throughout. Plays contained little to no scenery as the scenery was described by the actors or indicated by costume through the course of the play.[44]

    In the Elizabethan era, research has been conclusive about how many actors and troupes there were in the 16th century, but little research delves into the roles of the actors on the English renaissance stage. The first point is that during the Elizabethan era, women were not allowed to act on stage. The actors were all male; in fact, most were boys. For plays written that had male and female parts, the female parts were played by the youngest boy players.[45] Stronger female roles in tragedies were acted by older boy players because they had more experience. [45] As a boy player, many skills had to be implemented such as voice and athleticism (fencing was one).[45]

    In Elizabethan entertainment, troupes were created and they were considered the actor companies. They travelled around England as drama was the most entertaining art at the time.

    Elizabethan actors never played the same show on successive days and added a new play to their repertoire every other week. These actors were getting paid within these troupes so for their job, they would constantly learn new plays as they toured different cities in England. In these plays, there were bookkeepers that acted as the narrators of these plays and they would introduce the actors and the different roles they played. At some points, the bookkeeper would not state the narrative of the scene, so the audience could find out for themselves. In Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, the plays often exceeded the number of characters/roles and did not have enough actors to fulfil them, thus the idea of doubling roles came to be.[46] Doubling roles is used to reinforce a plays theme by having the actor act out the different roles simultaneously.[47] The reason for this was for the acting companies to control salary costs, or to be able to perform under conditions where resources such as other actor companies lending actors were not present.[47]

    There were two acting styles implemented: formal and natural. Formal acting is objective and traditional, while natural acting attempts to create an illusion for the audience by remaining in character and imitating the fictional circumstances. The formal actor symbolises while the natural actor interprets. The natural actor impersonates while the formal actor represents the role. Natural and formal are opposites of each other, where natural acting is subjective. Overall, the use of these acting styles and the doubled roles dramatic device made Elizabethan plays very popular.[48] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    A repertory theatre[1] is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation.[2][3]

    Blue plaque marking the site of the Gaiety theatre

    United Kingdom

    Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawing her support from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Horniman's Gaiety Theatre opened its first season in September of 1908.[4] The opening of the Gaiety was followed by the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow and the Liverpool Repertory Theatre.[4] Previously, regional theatre relied on mostly London touring ensembles.[5][6] During the time the theatre was being run by Annie Horniman, a wide variety of types of plays were produced. Horniman encouraged local writers who became known as the Manchester School of playwrights. They included Allan Monkhouse, Harold Brighouse, writer of Hobson's Choice, and Stanley Houghton, who wrote Hindle Wakes. Actors who performed at the Gaiety early in their careers included Sybil Thorndike and Basil Dean.[7]

    From the 1940s to the 1960s, two impresarios dominated the field of British rep, mostly in the North. They were Harry Hanson and his Court players, and Frank H. Fortescue's Famous Players, with the Arthur Brough Players in Folkestone in the South. When an actor joined one of their companies, it could mean "twice-nightly" shows, and a new play to learn every week. Actress Rosemary Harris has told of her 50 consecutive weeks of doing that at Bedford rep. However, this is no longer possible, owing to restrictions from British Equity, which came to mandate just eight shows a week, including perhaps two matinées.

    The practice of repertory ("rep") is still seen in large cities. Actors now have the luxury of at least three weeks of rehearsal, however. Repertory can still be found in the UK in a variation of guises: in Sidmouth (12 plays), Wolverhampton (eight), and Burslem and Taunton (four each). The Sheringham Little Theatre produces an in-house repertory season each summer, running from June until September. Weekly repertory theatre is also produced by the Summer Theatre season at Frinton-on-Sea.

    Canada

    Organizations in Canada include North America's largest classical repertory theatre company, the Stratford Festival,[8] founded in 1953 primarily to present productions of William Shakespeare's plays. Canada also hosts North America's second largest repertory theatre company, the Shaw Festival, founded in 1962, which presents plays written by or set during the lifetime of Bernard Shaw, or that follow Shaw's ideal of socially provocative theatre. However, Canadian repertory companies follow a model that differs somewhat from the years-long rotation repertory system found in Europe.[citation needed] In Canada, productions often stay on the repertory for one season, running in repertory with other productions in the same year.[citation needed] The actors are not employed full time long term, but instead work on contracts usually maximum 8 months long.[citation needed]

    The Vagabond Repertory Theatre Company was formed in March 2009 by artistic directors Nathaniel Fried and Ryan LaPlante, and currently resides and performs in Kingston, Ontario. It shuttered in 2019. The old English-style repertory theatres such as Ottawa's CRT (Canadian Repertory Theatre) and Toronto's Crest Theatre no longer exist—although they did have a version of summer theatre in smaller holiday districts, such as the "Straw Hat" players of Gravenhurst and Port Carling at Ontario's vacation Muskoka Lakes area.

    State-subsidized theatres on continental Europe have been suggested as the origin of the repertoire tradition.[4] One of the earliest examples of this system is the Moscow Art Theatre circa 1898.[9] An even earlier example are the theatres of Germany. [4] See The Deutsches Theatre, a privately owned German theatre founded in 1883 to produce plays in rep. [10] While variations appeared before, the modern repertory system did not become popular until the twentieth century.[5]

    United States

    In the United States, the repertory system has also found a base to compete with commercial theatre. Many summer stock theatre companies are repertory in nature. College students and young professionals making up much of the acting company supported by guest stars or actors further in their careers.[11]

    Repertory theatre with mostly changing casts and longer-running plays, perhaps better classed as "provincial" or "non-profit" theatre, has made a big comeback in cities such as Little Rock, AR, Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Houston, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Buffalo, Kansas City, and Seattle. Festival theatre now provides actors with work in the summer. There are many ways to rehearse repertory theatre. The most prolific American repertory theatres are an example of that. Utah Shakespeare Festival rehearses two plays a day split between an eight hour period.[12] This is common. Some theatres only rehearse one play a day and add shows into rotation as the season progresses, like The American Shakespeare Center.[12] They rehearse one play for a little over two weeks before it opens; then, they begin the next one.[12] The length of rehearsal also varies. American Players Theatre has a six-week-long rehearsal period compared to Oregon Shakespeare Festival's eleven-week-long one.[12]

    America's oldest resident repertory theatre, Hedgerow Theatre, is located in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania. It was founded by actor Jasper Deeter in 1923. The present producing artistic director is actress and director Penelope Reed. Other notable repertory theatres include the Guthrie Theater, which was set up as a regional repertory theatre concept that is free from commercial constraints in the choice of repertoire.[13] It is aligned in objectives to the repertory and resident theatre movement that emerged in the United States in the 1960s. This sought to establish an alternative and decentralized theatre network outside of New York, one which would have non-profit-making status and would be focused on the art of the theatre as well as the development of artists, craftsmen, and administrators.[14] Publicly funded theatres that belong to this type have been receiving erratic support since the 1980s.

    The Association of Producing Artists (APA) was one of the most successful repertory theatres in the United States, touring for four years and holding residencies in several cities before finally joining the Phoenix Theatre in New York City, where it was known for staging plays with modest prices.[15] Currently, the American Repertory Theatre is considered one of the most distinguished repertory theatres in the United States. Since its foundation in 1979, it has earned several awards including a Pulitzer Prize (1982), a Tony Award (1986), and a Jujamcyn Award (1985).[16]

    Eastern Europe

    In Russia and much of Eastern Europe, repertory theatre is based on the idea that each company maintains a number of productions that are performed on a rotating basis. Each production's life span is determined by its success with the audience. However, many productions remain in repertory for years as this approach presents each piece a few times in a given season, not enough to exhaust the potential audience pool. After the fall of the Soviet regime and the substantial diminution of government subsidy, the repertory practice has required re-examination. Moscow Art Theatre and Lev Dodin's Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg are the world's most notable practitioners of this approach.

    Rotation Repertory system is still the most commonly used business model of live theatre in Eastern and Central Europe, specifically in countries such as Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

    In Germany, Schaubuhne and some other theatres run on a repertory system.

    Weekly rep

    A combination company was a touring theater company which performed only one play. Unlike repertory companies, which performed multiple plays in rotation, combination companies used more elaborate and specialised scenery in their productions.

    A similar term, "weekly rep," denotes a British movement started in the early 1900s that focused on shorter runs of a single new work, rather than having several plays ready to perform at any given time.[17][3]

    For weekly rep and for a typical three-act play, the actors' week would start on Tuesday, and go as follows:

    • Tuesday: notes on previous night's opening of the current play from the director, then a sit-down read-through of the next week's play with some discussion by the director, on-the-feet blocking of the moves for Act I, with a few questions from the actors, followed by the second performance of the current play (which would also occupy every evening up to and including Saturday).
    • Wednesday: run Act I of next week's play and start to block Act II, but break early because there would be a matinée of the current play.
    • Thursday: finish blocking Act II of next week's play, run Act II and block Act III.
    • Friday: run Act III, run through the entire play with no scripts in hand, and technicals – meaning lights and sound – to watch, and write down cues.
    • Saturday: run through again, stop and go to test lighting and sound cues; costumes may be used if ready. Two shows today, including a matinée; the evening show closes the current play. After the last show, the set would be struck (taken down) by the crew - usually apprentices – and the stage manager.
    • Sunday: for actors, an opportunity to brush up on lines and moves, and for private rehearsals. However, for the crew it would mean putting up the new sets, hanging and focusing lights, and setting sound equipment.
    • Monday: in the morning, a run-through, usually without costumes (to save wear and tear), mainly for the technicals. In the afternoon: a "Full Perfect" dress rehearsal, maybe with a few friends seated in front to gauge reaction, then copious notes. In the evening, 8 o'clock opening night, followed by notes from the director, visits with friends from the audience and maybe a party nearby. The process would start all over again on Tuesday.

    Resident company

    Today, repertory theatres employ a wide range of actors, who can play a variety of types.

    Before the modern repertory system, acting ensembles were normally made up of the standard stock company and later the touring company.[5] The stock company would usually consist of a leading man and lady, a character actor and actress, younger actors to play romantic roles, and the rest of the actors would be a variety of ages and body types.[5] The acting ensemble was typically around twelve.[5] This was most popular prior to the Restoration.[5] Post Restoration and into the nineteenth century, stock companies remained, but they were joined and then replaced by traveling companies.[5] These ensembles consisted of the stars and actors hired to play a very specific role as a single production toured around.[5]

    Examples of rep performers who went on to become well-known are John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Rosemary Harris, Christopher Plummer, Harold Pinter, Peter O'Toole, Jeremy Brett, Geraldine McEwan, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton and Patrick Stewart. Dirk Bogarde wrote about his start at Amersham rep in 1939, and Michael Caine has recounted his time spent at Horsham rep in the early 1950s.

    There are many noted Resident companies or repertory companies, such as the Artists Repertory Theatre.

    See also

    Footnotes


  • also called repertory, rep, true rep or stock—which are also called producing theatres—

  • Rowell, George; Jackson, Anthony (1984). The Repertory Movement: A History of Regional Theatre in Britain. London: Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 9780521319195.

  • "What is Repertory Theatre? | Theatre Royal Windsor | live on stage in Berkshire". theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk. 21 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-21.

  • Cameron, Alasdair F. (1983). The repertory theatre movement, 1907-1917 (Ph.D. thesis). University of Warwick.

  • Carter, Huntly (1964). The Theatre of Max Reinhardt. New York: B. Blom. pp. 173–180.

  • Rowell, George (1984). The Repertory Movement: A History of Regional Theatre in Great Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 9780521319195.

  • Murphy, Michelle. "Annie Horniman". History features. BBC Manchester. Retrieved 14 November 2008.

  • "About Us". Stratford Festival Official Website. Stratford, Ontario, Canada. 2020-01-14. Retrieved 2020-01-14.

  • Klaic, Dragan (2012). "Production Models". Production Models: Reps, Groups and Production Houses. Resetting the Stage. Public Theatre Between the Market and Democracy. Intellect. pp. 35–54. doi:10.2307/j.ctv9hj78n.7. ISBN 978-1-84150-547-3. JSTOR j.ctv9hj78n.7. S2CID 243133926. Retrieved 2021-10-28.

  • "Deutsches Theater". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2021-10-28.

  • "summer theatre | American theatre". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-10-29.

  • Miller, Stuart (2016-09-26). "The Shows Must Go On: The Trials and Triumphs of Rotating Rep". AMERICAN THEATRE. Retrieved 2021-11-01.

  • Chambers, Colin (2002). Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. London: Continuum. p. 335. ISBN 9781847140012.

  • Stanton, Sarah; Banham, Martin (1996). The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 309. ISBN 0521446546.

  • Wilmeth, Don; Bigsby, Christopher (1998). The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 250. ISBN 0521651794.

  • Mitgang, Herbert (26 November 1985). "JUJAMCYN AWARD TO AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-08-03.

    1. Pallardy, Richard. "Repertory theatre". Brittanica. Retrieved 26 September 2019.

    Murray, Stephen. Taking Our Amusements Seriously. LAP, 2010. ISBN 978-3-8383-7608-0.

    External links

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repertory_theatre

     

    Costumes

    Costumes of the Elizabethan era

    One of the main uses of costume during the Elizabethan era was to make up for the lack of scenery, set, and props on stage. It created a visual effect for the audience, and it was an integral part of the overall performance.[49] Since the main visual appeal on stage were the costumes, they were often bright in colour and visually entrancing. Colours symbolized social hierarchy, and costumes were made to reflect that. For example, if a character was royalty, their costume would include purple. The colours, as well as the different fabrics of the costumes, allowed the audience to know the status of each character when they first appeared on stage.[50]

    Costumes were collected in inventory. More often than not, costumes wouldn't be made individually to fit the actor. Instead, they would be selected out of the stock that theatre companies would keep. A theatre company reused costumes when possible and would rarely get new costumes made. Costumes themselves were expensive, so usually players wore contemporary clothing regardless of the time period of the play. The most expensive pieces were given to higher class characters because costuming was used to identify social status on stage. The fabrics within a playhouse would indicate the wealth of the company itself. The fabrics used the most were: velvet, satin, silk, cloth-of-gold, lace and ermine.[51] For less significant characters, actors would use their own clothes.

    Actors also left clothes in their will for following actors to use. Masters would also leave clothes for servants in their will, but servants weren't allowed to wear fancy clothing, instead, they sold the clothes back to theatre companies.[50] In the Tudor and Elizabethan eras, there were laws stating that certain classes could only wear clothing fitting of their status in society. There was a discrimination of status within the classes. Higher classes flaunted their wealth and power through the appearance of clothing, however, courtesans and actors were the only exceptions – as clothing represented their 'working capital', as it were, but they were only permitted to dress so while working. If actors belonged to a licensed acting company, they were allowed to dress above their standing in society for specific roles in a production.[52] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    Playwrights

    The growing population of London, the growing wealth of its people, and their fondness for spectacle produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality and extent. Although most of the plays written for the Elizabethan stage have been lost, over 600 remain.

    The people who wrote these plays were primarily self-made men from modest backgrounds.[g] Some of them were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but many were not. Although William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors, the majority do not seem to have been performers, and no major author who came on to the scene after 1600 is known to have supplemented his income by acting. Their lives were subject to the same levels of danger and earlier mortality as all who lived during the early modern period: Christopher Marlowe was killed in an apparent tavern brawl, while Ben Jonson killed an actor in a duel. Several were probably soldiers.

    Playwrights were normally paid in increments during the writing process, and if their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from one day's performance. However, they had no ownership of the plays they wrote. Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it, and the playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision or publication.

    The profession of dramatist was challenging and far from lucrative.[54] Entries in Philip Henslowe's Diary show that in the years around 1600 Henslowe paid as little as £6 or £7 per play. This was probably at the low end of the range, though even the best writers could not demand too much more. A playwright, working alone, could generally produce two plays a year at most. In the 1630s Richard Brome signed a contract with the Salisbury Court Theatre to supply three plays a year, but found himself unable to meet the workload. Shakespeare produced fewer than 40 solo plays in a career that spanned more than two decades: he was financially successful because he was an actor and, most importantly, a shareholder in the company for which he acted and in the theatres they used. Ben Jonson achieved success as a purveyor of Court masques, and was talented at playing the patronage game that was an important part of the social and economic life of the era. Those who were purely playwrights fared far less well: the biographies of early figures like George Peele and Robert Greene, and later ones like Brome and Philip Massinger, are marked by financial uncertainty, struggle and poverty.

    Playwrights dealt with the natural limitation on their productivity by combining into teams of two, three, four, and even five to generate play texts. The majority of plays written in this era were collaborations, and the solo artists who generally eschewed collaborative efforts, like Jonson and Shakespeare, were the exceptions to the rule. Dividing the work, of course, meant dividing the income; but the arrangement seems to have functioned well enough to have made it worthwhile. Of the 70-plus known works in the canon of Thomas Dekker, roughly 50 are collaborations. In a single year (1598) Dekker worked on 16 collaborations for impresario Philip Henslowe, and earned £30, or a little under 12 shillings per week—roughly twice as much as the average artisan's income of 1s. per day.[55] At the end of his career, Thomas Heywood would famously claim to have had "an entire hand, or at least a main finger" in the authorship of some 220 plays. A solo artist usually needed months to write a play (though Jonson is said to have done Volpone in five weeks); Henslowe's Diary indicates that a team of four or five writers could produce a play in as little as two weeks. Admittedly, though, the Diary also shows that teams of Henslowe's house dramatists—Anthony Munday, Robert Wilson, Richard Hathwaye, Henry Chettle, and the others, even including a young John Webster—could start a project, and accept advances on it, yet fail to produce anything stageworthy.[56] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    Volpone
    "Volpone" by Ben Jonson LCCN98516884.jpg
    Poster for a 1939 production, part of the Federal Theatre Project
    Written byBen Jonson
    Date premieredSpring 1606
    Place premieredGlobe Theatre, London
    Original languageEarly Modern English
    Subjectgreed, lust
    Genrecomedy, city comedy
    SettingVenice, Renaissance period
    An illustration for an 1898 edition of Volpone by Aubrey Beardsley.

    Volpone ([volˈpoːne], Italian for "sly fox") is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605–1606, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is ranked among the finest Jacobean era comedies. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volpone

    Genres

    Genres of the period included the history play, which depicted English or European history. Shakespeare's plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard III and Henry V, belong to this category, as do Christopher Marlowe's Edward II and George Peele's Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First. History plays also dealt with more recent events, like A Larum for London which dramatizes the sack of Antwerp in 1576. A better known play, Peele's The Battle of Alcazar (c. 1591), depicts the battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578.

    Tragedy was a very popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally successful, such as Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta. The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas, such as Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. The four tragedies considered to be Shakespeare's greatest (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth) were composed during this period.

    Comedies were common, too. A subgenre developed in this period was the city comedy, which deals satirically with life in London after the fashion of Roman New Comedy. Examples are Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday and Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

    Though marginalised, the older genres like pastoral (The Faithful Shepherdess, 1608), and even the morality play (Four Plays in One, ca. 1608–13) could exert influences. After about 1610, the new hybrid subgenre of the tragicomedy enjoyed an efflorescence, as did the masque throughout the reigns of the first two Stuart kings, James I and Charles I.

    Plays on biblical themes were common, Peele's David and Bethsabe being one of the few surviving examples. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    (Redirected from History play)
    A scene from Shakespare's Henry IV, Part 1, Act II, Scene 4. Falstaff offers a false account of a skirmish between himself and eleven assailants.

    History is one of the three main genres in Western theatre alongside tragedy and comedy, although it originated, in its modern form, thousands of years later than the other primary genres.[1] For this reason, it is often treated as a subset of tragedy.[2] A play in this genre is known as a history play and is based on a historical narrative, often set in the medieval or early modern past. History emerged as a distinct genre from tragedy in Renaissance England.[3] The best known examples of the genre are the history plays written by William Shakespeare, whose plays still serve to define the genre. History plays also appear elsewhere in British and Western literature, such as Thomas Heywood's Edward IV, Schiller's Mary Stuart or the Dutch play Gijsbrecht van Aemstel

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_(theatrical_genre)

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    George Frederick Cooke as Richard III by Thomas Sully

    Richard III is a play by William Shakespeare. It was probably written c. 1592–1594. It is labelled a history in the First Folio, and is usually considered one, but it is sometimes called a tragedy, as in the quarto edition. Richard III concludes Shakespeare's first tetralogy (also containing Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, and Henry VI, Part 3) and depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England.[1]

    It is the second longest play in the Shakespearean canon and is the longest of the First Folio, whose version of Hamlet, otherwise the longest, is shorter than its quarto counterpart. The play is often abridged for brevity, and peripheral characters removed. In such cases, extra lines are often invented or added from elsewhere to establish the nature of the characters' relationships. A further reason for abridgment is that Shakespeare assumed his audiences' familiarity with his Henry VI plays, frequently referring to these plays.[2] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_(play)

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    The Title Page of a 1610 publication of the Play

    The Shoemaker's Holiday or the Gentle Craft is an Elizabethan play written by Thomas Dekker. The play was first performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men, and it falls into the subgenre of city comedy. The story features three subplots: an inter-class romance between a citizen of London and an aristocrat, the ascension of shoemaker Simon Eyre to Lord Mayor of London, and a romance between a gentleman and a shoemaker's wife, whose husband appears to have died in the wars with France.

    The play is a "citizen" drama, or a depiction of the life of members of London's livery companies, and it follows in Dekker's style of depicting everyday life in London.[1][2] The events of the play occur during the reign of King Henry VI, though also hinting at the reign of Henry V. Henry V succeeded his father, Henry IV, as leader of England following Henry IV's death in 1413 at the age of 26.[3] He is best known for securing the French crown and for his depiction in Shakespeare's plays Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V. Dekker uses this correlation in The Shoemaker's Holiday, as an English king appears in scenes 19 and 21; however, he is only identified as "The King" in the speech prefix in the first printed edition of the play.[4][5] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shoemaker%27s_Holiday

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Title page of A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

    A Chaste Maid in Cheapside is a city comedy written c. 1613 by the English Renaissance playwright Thomas Middleton. Unpublished until 1630, and long-neglected afterwards, it is now considered among the best and most characteristic Jacobean comedies.

    The play was originally staged by the Lady Elizabeth's Men.[1] The 1630 quarto was published by the bookseller Francis Constable

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Chaste_Maid_in_Cheapside

    The Faithful Shepherdess is a Jacobean era stage play, the work that inaugurated the playwriting career of John Fletcher.[1] Though the initial production was a failure with its audience, the printed text that followed proved significant, in that it contained Fletcher's influential definition of tragicomedy. Like many of Fletcher's later tragicomedies, The Faithful Shepherdess deals with the darker side of sexuality and sexual jealousy, albeit within a comic framework.[2]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faithful_Shepherdess

     

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    (Redirected from Literature in English)

    English literature is literature written in the English language from the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire.[1][note 1] The English language has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years.[2] The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century, are called Old English. Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English, and has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. However, following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the written form of the Anglo-Saxon language became less common. Under the influence of the new aristocracy, French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and polite society.[3] The English spoken after the Normans came is known as Middle English. This form of English lasted until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard (late Middle English), a London-based form of English, became widespread. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400), author of The Canterbury Tales, was a significant figure in the development of the legitimacy of vernacular Middle English at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were still French and Latin. The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439 also helped to standardise the language, as did the King James Bible (1611),[4] and the Great Vowel Shift.[5]

    Poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and one of the world's greatest dramatists.[6][7][8] His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[9] In the nineteenth century Sir Walter Scott's historical romances inspired a generation of painters, composers, and writers throughout Europe.[10]

    The English language spread throughout the world with the development of the British Empire between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history.[11] By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the world population at the time,[12] During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries these colonies and the USA started to produce their own significant literary traditions in English. Cumulatively, over the period of 1907 to the present, numerous writers from Great Britain, both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the US, and former British colonies have received the Nobel Prize for works in the English language, more than in any other language. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature#Jacobean_literature

     

    Four Plays, or Moral Representations, in One is a Jacobean era stage play, one of the dramatic works in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. Initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647, the play is notable both for its unusual form and for the question of its authorship. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Plays_in_One

    Title Page of The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe (1599)
    Title Page of The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe (1599)

    The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe is a play by George Peele, based on the biblical story of David, Bathsheba, and Absalom in 2 Samuel. Probably written in the early 1590s, it was entered into the Stationers' Register on 14 May 1594 and published in 1599, after Peele's death, by the printer Adam Islip.[1] The 1599 quarto is problematic in many respects: inconsistencies and internal contradictions, as well as one obviously misplaced fragment of a scene, have led some scholars to conclude that it is a shortened and revised version of an originally longer work.[2]

    The full title of the play, as it appears on the title page of the 1599 quarto, is The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe, with the Tragedie of Absalon, and in its surviving form David's relationship with his sons, Absalom in particular, is the main focus of attention, rather than relationship between David and Bathsheba.[3] Peele follows the narrative in the book of Samuel closely, but it was not his only source: he also imitated and adapted a number of passages from the Semaines of the French religious poet Guillaume Du Bartas (1544–1590).[4]

    Although few examples survive today, plays based on stories from the Bible were not uncommon in the English Renaissance theatre. Over a dozen are known to have been produced between 1588 and 1602 alone, from titles and production details preserved in sources such as the Stationers' Register and the diary of Philip Henslowe.[5] Unlike late mediaeval mystery and morality plays, which used biblical material in very different ways, most of the lost biblical plays of the late 16th century focused on the soldier kings and prophets of the Old Testament, and reflect the political interests and theatrical conventions of other Elizabethan historical dramas.[6] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Bethsabe

     

     

    Printed texts

    Only a minority of the plays of English Renaissance theatre were ever printed. Of Heywood's 220 plays, only about 20 were published in book form.[57] A little over 600 plays were published in the period as a whole, most commonly in individual quarto editions. (Larger collected editions, like those of Shakespeare's, Ben Jonson's, and Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, were a late and limited development.) Through much of the modern era, it was thought that play texts were popular items among Renaissance readers that provided healthy profits for the stationers who printed and sold them. By the turn of the 21st century, the climate of scholarly opinion shifted somewhat on this belief: some contemporary researchers argue that publishing plays was a risky and marginal business[58]—though this conclusion has been disputed by others.[59] Some of the most successful publishers of the English Renaissance, like William Ponsonby or Edward Blount, rarely published plays.

    A small number of plays from the era survived not in printed texts but in manuscript form.[h] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Christ Pantocrator seated in a capital "U" in an illuminated manuscript from the Badische Landesbibliothek, Germany (from c. 1220).
    Image of two facing pages of the illuminated manuscript of "Isagoge", fols. 42b and 43a. On the top of the left hand page is an illuminated letter "D" – initial of "De urinarum differencia negocium" (The matter of the differences of urines). Inside the letter is a picture of a master on bench pointing at a raised flask while lecturing on the "Book on urines" of Theophilus. The right hand page is only shown in part. On its very bottom is an illuminated letter "U" – initial of "Urina ergo est colamentum sanguinis" (Urine is the filtrate of the blood). Inside the letter is a picture of a master holding up a flask while explaining the diagnostic significance of urine to a student or a patient. HMD Collection, MS E 78.
    Inside the letter is a picture of a master in cathedra expounding on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. Initial "V" rendered as "U" of "Vita brevis, ars vero longa", or "Life is short, but the art is long". "Isagoge", fol. 15b. HMD Collection, MS E 78.

    A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way.[1] More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include any written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same.[2]

    Before the arrival of prints, all documents and books were manuscripts. Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, music notation, explanatory figures, or illustrations. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuscript

    Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
    The Stationers' Company Mark.png
    MottoVerbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
    LocationStationers' Hall, London
    Date of formation1403
    Company associationPrinting and publishing
    Order of precedence47th
    Master of companyMoira Sleight
    Websitestationers.org

    The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in 1403; it received a royal charter in 1557. It held a monopoly over the publishing industry and was officially responsible for setting and enforcing regulations until the enactment of the Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act of 1710. Once the company received its charter, "the company’s role was to regulate and discipline the industry, define proper conduct and maintain its own corporate privileges."[1]

    The company members, including master, wardens, assistants, liverymen, freemen and apprentices are mostly involved with the modern visual and graphic communications industries that have evolved from the company's original trades. These include printing, papermaking, packaging, office products, engineering, advertising, design, photography, film and video production, publishing of books, newspapers and periodicals and digital media. The company's principal purpose nowadays is to provide an independent forum where its members can advance the interests (strategic, educational, training and charitable) of the industries associated with the company. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Stationers_and_Newspaper_Makers

    The end of English Renaissance theatre

    The rising Puritan movement was hostile toward theatre, as they felt that "entertainment" was sinful. Politically, playwrights and actors were clients of the monarchy and aristocracy, and most supported the Royalist cause. The Puritan faction, long powerful in London, gained control of the city early in the First English Civil War, and on 2 September 1642, the Long Parliament, pushed by the Parliamentarian party, under Puritan influence, banned the staging of plays in the London theatres though it did not, contrary to what is commonly stated, order the closure, let alone the destruction, of the theatres themselves:

    Whereas the distressed Estate of Ireland, steeped in her own Blood, and the distracted Estate of England, threatened with a Cloud of Blood by a Civil War, call for all possible Means to appease and avert the Wrath of God, appearing in these Judgements; among which, Fasting and Prayer, having been often tried to be very effectual, having been lately and are still enjoined; and whereas Public Sports do not well agree with Public Calamities, nor Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation, this being an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and the other being Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth and Levity: It is therefore thought fit, and Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled, That, while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborn, instead of which are recommended to the People of this Land the profitable and seasonable considerations of Repentance, Reconciliation, and Peace with God, which probably may produce outward Peace and Prosperity, and bring again Times of Joy and Gladness to these Nations.

    — His Majesty's Stationery Office, Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660, "September 1642: Order for Stage-plays to cease"[60]

    The Act purports the ban to be temporary ("... while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease and be forborn") but does not assign a time limit to it.

    Even after 1642, during the English Civil War and the ensuing Interregnum (English Commonwealth), some English Renaissance theatre continued. For example, short comical plays called drolls were allowed by the authorities, while full-length plays were banned. The theatre buildings were not closed but rather were used for purposes other than staging plays.[i]

    The performance of plays remained banned for most of the next eighteen years, becoming allowed again after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The theatres began performing many of the plays of the previous era, though often in adapted forms. New genres of Restoration comedy and spectacle soon evolved, giving English theatre of the later seventeenth century its distinctive character. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists such as musicians, painters, and sculptors. It can also refer to the right of bestowing offices or church benefices, the business given to a store by a regular customer, and the guardianship of saints. The word "patron" derives from the Latin: patronus ("patron"), one who gives benefits to his clients (see Patronage in ancient Rome).

    In some countries the term is used to describe political patronage or patronal politics, which is the use of state resources to reward individuals for their electoral support.[1] Some patronage systems are legal, as in the Canadian tradition of the prime minister to appoint senators and the heads of a number of commissions and agencies; in many cases, these appointments go to people who have supported the political party of the prime minister. As well, the term may refer to a type of corruption or favoritism in which a party in power rewards groups, families, or ethnicities for their electoral support using illegal gifts or fraudulently awarded appointments or government contracts.[2] The opposite of this structure, where all individuals advance based on their personal traits and abilities, is Meritocracy.

    In many Latin American countries, patronage developed as a means of population control, concentrating economic and political power in a small minority which held privileges that the majority of the population did not.[3] In this system, the patrón holds authority and influence over a less powerful person, whom he protects by granting favors in exchange for loyalty and allegiance. With roots in feudalism, the system was designed to maintain an inexpensive, subservient labor force, which could be utilized to limit production costs and allow wealth and its privileges to be monopolized by a small elite.[4] Long after slavery, and other forms of bondage like the encomienda and repartimiento systems were abolished, patronage was used to maintain rigid class structures.[4][5] With the rise of a labor class, traditional patronage changed in the 20th century to allow some participation in power structures, but many systems still favor a small powerful elite, who distribute economic and political favors in exchange for benefits to the lower classes.[3] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage

     

     

     

    This naval battle was one of the sets for Elkanah Settle's The Empress of Morocco (1673) at the theatre in Dorset Garden.

    The Restoration spectacular was a type of theatre production of the late 17th-century Restoration period, defined by the amount of money, time, sets, and performers it required to be produced. Productions attracted audiences with elaborate action, acrobatics, dance, costume, scenery, illusionistic painting, trapdoors, and fireworks. Although they were popular with contemporary audiences, spectaculars have earned a reputation from theatre historians as vulgar in contrast to the witty Restoration drama.[citation needed]

    The spectacular has roots in early 17th-century court masque, though it borrowed ideas and technology from French opera. Sometimes called "English opera", spectaculars were so varied as to give reluctance to theatre historians to define them as a genre.[1] Spectaculars became increasingly expensive for their theatre companies; a flop could leave a company deeply in debt, while a success could leave a sizeable profit.[citation needed] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_spectacular

    Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. In this scene from George Etherege's Love in a Tub, musicians and well-bred ladies surround a man who is wearing a tub because he has lost his trousers.

    "Restoration comedy" is English comedy written and performed in the Restoration period of 1660–1710. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym for this.[1] After public stage performances were banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, reopening of the theatres in 1660 marked a renaissance of English drama.[2] Sexually explicit language was encouraged by King Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish style of his court. Historian George Norman Clark argues:

    The best-known fact about the Restoration drama is that it is immoral. The dramatists did not criticize the accepted morality about gambling, drink, love, and pleasure generally, or try, like the dramatists of our own time, to work out their own view of character and conduct. What they did was, according to their respective inclinations, to mock at all restraints. Some were gross, others delicately improper.... The dramatists did not merely say anything they liked: they also intended to glory in it and to shock those who did not like it.[3]

    The socially diverse audiences included aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on and a major middle-class segment. They were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, crowded and bustling plots, introduction of the first professional actresses, and the rise of the first celebrity actors. The period saw the first professional female playwright, Aphra Behn

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_comedy

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    (Redirected from English Restoration)
    Stuart Restoration
    1660–1714
    Restored May 2021
    King Charles II in coronation robes by John Michael Wright
    Monarch(s)
    Leader(s)Thomas Parker
    ← Preceded by
    Interregnum
    Followed by →
    Georgian era

    The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to be known as the Interregnum (1649–1660).

    The term Restoration is also used to describe the period of several years after, in which a new political settlement was established.[1] It is very often used to cover the whole reign of King Charles II (1660–1685) and often the brief reign of his younger brother King James II (1685–1688).[2] In certain contexts it may be used to cover the whole period of the later Stuart monarchs as far as the death of Queen Anne and the accession of the Hanoverian King George I in 1714.[3] For example, Restoration comedy typically encompasses works written as late as 1710. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Restoration

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Commonwealth of England
    1649–1660
    Flag of The Commonwealth.svg
    Including
    Leader(s)
    ← Preceded by
    Second English Civil War
    Followed by →
    Stuart Restoration (1660)

    The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland,[1] were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles I. The republic's existence was declared through "An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth",[2] adopted by the Rump Parliament on 19 May 1649. Power in the early Commonwealth was vested primarily in the Parliament and a Council of State. During the period, fighting continued, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, between the parliamentary forces and those opposed to them, in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and the Anglo-Scottish war of 1650–1652.

    In 1653, after dissolution of the Rump Parliament, the Army Council adopted the Instrument of Government which made Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of a united "Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland", inaugurating the period now usually known as the Protectorate. After Cromwell's death, and following a brief period of rule under his son, Richard Cromwell, the Protectorate Parliament was dissolved in 1659 and the Rump Parliament recalled, starting a process that led to the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The term Commonwealth is sometimes used for the whole of 1649 to 1660 – called by some the Interregnum – although for other historians, the use of the term is limited to the years prior to Cromwell's formal assumption of power in 1653.

    In retrospect, the period of republican rule for England was a failure in the short term. During the 11-year period, no stable government was established to rule the English state for longer than a few months at a time. Several administrative structures were tried, and several Parliaments called and seated, but little in the way of meaningful, lasting legislation was passed. The only force keeping it together was the personality of Oliver Cromwell, who exerted control through the military by way of the "Grandees", being the Major-Generals and other senior military leaders of the New Model Army. Not only did Cromwell's regime crumble into near anarchy upon his death and the brief administration of his son, but the monarchy he overthrew was restored in 1660, and its first act was officially to erase all traces of any constitutional reforms of the Republican period. Still, the memory of the Parliamentarian cause, dubbed the Good Old Cause by the soldiers of the New Model Army, lingered on. It would carry through English politics and eventually result in a constitutional monarchy.[citation needed]

    The Commonwealth period is better remembered for the military success of Thomas Fairfax, Oliver Cromwell, and the New Model Army. Besides resounding victories in the English Civil War, the reformed Navy under the command of Robert Blake defeated the Dutch in the First Anglo-Dutch War which marked the first step towards England's naval supremacy. In Ireland, the Commonwealth period is remembered for Cromwell's brutal subjugation of the Irish, which continued the policies of the Tudor and Stuart periods. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_England

    The Interregnum[1] was the period between the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649 and the arrival of his son Charles II in London on 29 May 1660 which marked the start of the Restoration. During the Interregnum, England was under various forms of republican government (see Commonwealth of England; this article describes other facets of the Interregnum). 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interregnum_(England)

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    English Civil Wars
    Part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
    Battle of Naseby.jpg
    The Battle of Naseby, 14 June 1645; Parliamentarian victory marked the decisive turning point in the English Civil War.
    DateAugust 1642 to January 1649
    Location
    Result Parliamentarian victory, Execution of Charles I, establishment of the Commonwealth of England
    Belligerents

    Royalists

    Parliamentarians

    Commanders and leaders
    Casualties and losses
    • 50,700 dead
    • 83,467 captured[1]
    • 34,130 dead
    • 32,823 captured[1]
    127,000 non-combat deaths (including some 40,000 civilians)[a]

    The English Civil War is a generic term for a series of civil wars between Royalists and Parliamentarians in England and Wales from 1642 to 1652. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, they consist of the First English Civil War, the Second English Civil War, and the Third English Civil War. The latter is now usually known as the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652), since most of the fighting took place in Scotland, while the Royalists consisted almost entirely of Scots Covenanters and English exiles, with no significant rising in England.

    While the conflicts in the three kingdoms of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland had similarities, each had their own specific issues and objectives. The First English Civil War was fought primarily over the correct balance of power between Parliament and Charles I. It ended in June 1646 with Royalist defeat and the king in custody.

    However, victory exposed Parliamentarian divisions over the nature of the political settlement. The vast majority went to war in 1642 to assert Parliament's right to participate in government, not abolish the monarchy, which meant Charles' refusal to make concessions led to a stalemate. Concern over the political influence of radicals within the New Model Army like Oliver Cromwell led to an alliance between moderate Parliamentarians and Royalists, supported by the Covenanters. Royalist defeat in the 1648 Second English Civil War resulted in the Execution of Charles I in January 1649, and establishment of the Commonwealth of England.

    In 1650, Charles II was crowned king of Scotland, in return for agreeing to create a Presbyterian church in both England and Scotland. The subsequent Anglo-Scottish war ended with Parliamentarian victory at the Worcester on 3 September 1651. Both Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into the Commonwealth, and Britain became a unitary state until the Stuart Restoration in 1660. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War

    The end of English Renaissance theatre

    The rising Puritan movement was hostile toward theatre, as they felt that "entertainment" was sinful. Politically, playwrights and actors were clients of the monarchy and aristocracy, and most supported the Royalist cause. The Puritan faction, long powerful in London, gained control of the city early in the First English Civil War, and on 2 September 1642, the Long Parliament, pushed by the Parliamentarian party, under Puritan influence, banned the staging of plays in the London theatres though it did not, contrary to what is commonly stated, order the closure, let alone the destruction, of the theatres themselves:

    Whereas the distressed Estate of Ireland, steeped in her own Blood, and the distracted Estate of England, threatened with a Cloud of Blood by a Civil War, call for all possible Means to appease and avert the Wrath of God, appearing in these Judgements; among which, Fasting and Prayer, having been often tried to be very effectual, having been lately and are still enjoined; and whereas Public Sports do not well agree with Public Calamities, nor Public Stage-plays with the Seasons of Humiliation, this being an Exercise of sad and pious Solemnity, and the other being Spectacles of Pleasure, too commonly expressing lascivious Mirth and Levity: It is therefore thought fit, and Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled, That, while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease, and be forborn, instead of which are recommended to the People of this Land the profitable and seasonable considerations of Repentance, Reconciliation, and Peace with God, which probably may produce outward Peace and Prosperity, and bring again Times of Joy and Gladness to these Nations.

    — His Majesty's Stationery Office, Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660, "September 1642: Order for Stage-plays to cease"[60]

    The Act purports the ban to be temporary ("... while these sad causes and set Times of Humiliation do continue, Public Stage Plays shall cease and be forborn") but does not assign a time limit to it.

    Even after 1642, during the English Civil War and the ensuing Interregnum (English Commonwealth), some English Renaissance theatre continued. For example, short comical plays called drolls were allowed by the authorities, while full-length plays were banned. The theatre buildings were not closed but rather were used for purposes other than staging plays.[i]

    The performance of plays remained banned for most of the next eighteen years, becoming allowed again after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The theatres began performing many of the plays of the previous era, though often in adapted forms. New genres of Restoration comedy and spectacle soon evolved, giving English theatre of the later seventeenth century its distinctive character. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

    The performance of plays remained banned for most of the next eighteen years, becoming allowed again after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The theatres began performing many of the plays of the previous era, though often in adapted forms. New genres of Restoration comedy and spectacle soon evolved, giving English theatre of the later seventeenth century its distinctive character. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

     

    Playing companies

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

     

    Timeline of English Renaissance playing companies

    English Renaissance playing company timeline

    Christopher BeestonSebastian WestcottHenry Evans (theatre)Richard FarrantHenrietta Maria of FranceElizabeth Stuart, Queen of BohemiaCharles II of EnglandLudovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of LennoxRobert Radclyffe, 5th Earl of SussexHenry Radclyffe, 4th Earl of SussexThomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of SussexFrederick V, Elector PalatineHenry Frederick, Prince of WalesCharles Howard, 1st Earl of NottinghamCharles I of EnglandEdward de Vere, 17th Earl of OxfordAnne of DenmarkEdward Somerset, 4th Earl of WorcesterWilliam Somerset, 3rd Earl of WorcesterCharles I of EnglandJames VI and IGeorge Carey, 2nd Baron HunsdonHenry Carey, 1st Baron HunsdonRobert Dudley, 1st Earl of LeicesterElizabeth I of EnglandHenry Herbert, 2nd Earl of PembrokeWilliam Stanley, 6th Earl of DerbyFerdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of DerbyKing and Queen's Young CompanyChildren of the ChapelChildren of Paul'sQueen Henrietta's MenLady Elizabeth's MenSussex's MenPrince Charles's MenQueen Anne's MenWorcester's MenOxford's MenLeicester's MenQueen Elizabeth's MenPembroke's MenLord Chamberlain's MenLord Strange's MenAdmiral's MenPrince Charles's Men

    This timeline charts the existence of major English playing companies from 1572 ("Acte for the punishment of Vacabondes", which legally restricted acting to players with a patron of sufficient degree) to 1642 (the closing of the theatres by Parliament). A variety of strolling players, and even early London-based troupes existed before 1572. The situations were often fluid, and much of this history is obscure; this timeline necessarily implies more precision than exists in some cases. The labels down the left indicate the most common names for the companies. The bar segments indicate the specific patron. In the case of children's companies (a distinct legal situation) some founders are noted.

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

     

    George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland attired as the Knight of Pendragon Castle for the Tilt of 1590, by Nicholas Hilliard. His pageant shield leans against the tree. The Queen's "favour", a glove, is attached to his hat.

    The Accession Day tilts were a series of elaborate festivities held annually at the court of Elizabeth I of England to celebrate her Accession Day, 17 November, also known as Queen's Day.[1] The tilts combined theatrical elements with jousting, in which Elizabeth's courtiers competed to outdo each other in allegorical armour and costume, poetry, and pageantry to exalt the queen and her realm of England.[2]

    The last Elizabethan Accession Day tilt was held in November 1602; the queen died the following spring. Tilts continued as part of festivities marking the Accession Day of James I, 24 March, until 1624, the year before his death.[3]

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_Day_tilt

     

    The Greenwich garniture of Sir Henry Lee, in the Jacob Album

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_Day_tilt

     

    Torso-covering mail armour on a black mannequin
    Western Xia mail armour

    Armour (Commonwealth English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or from a potentially dangerous environment or activity (e.g. cycling, construction sites, etc.). Personal armour is used to protect soldiers and war animals. Vehicle armour is used on warships, armoured fighting vehicles, and some mostly ground attack combat aircraft.

    A second use of the term armour describes armoured forces, armoured weapons, and their role in combat. After the development of armoured warfare, tanks and mechanised infantry and their combat formations came to be referred to collectively as "armour". 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armour

    Etymology

    An oil painting depicts a partially-armoured man who is assisted by two boys, one of whom is tying on some armour onto his arm while the other holds his helmet. A group of soldiers are amassed in the background.
    Portrait of a Gentleman in Armour with Two Pages by Paris Bordone

    The word "armour" began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of Old French. It is dated from 1297 as a "mail, defensive covering worn in combat". The word originates from the Old French armure, itself derived from the Latin armatura meaning "arms and/or equipment", with the root armare meaning "arms or gear".[1] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armour

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoral

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldic_badge

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costume_party

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_stock

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faerie_Queene

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard,_1st_Earl_of_Nottingham

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Vere,_17th_Earl_of_Oxford

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jousting

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_day

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costume

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_pageant

     

    Greenwich armour of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), 1586. This has a different design to that in the miniature by Nicholas Hilliard (at top).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_Day_tilt

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chivalry

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage

     

    A visitor's account

    Greenwich armour of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), 1586. This has a different design to that in the miniature by Nicholas Hilliard (at top).

    The fullest straightforward account of a Tilt is by Lupold von Wedel, a German traveller who saw the 1584 celebrations:

    Now approached the day, when on November 17 the tournament was to be held... About twelve o’clock the queen and her ladies placed themselves at the windows in a long room at Weithol [Whitehall] palace, near Westminster, opposite the barrier where the tournament was to be held. From this room a broad staircase led downwards, and round the barrier stands were arranged by boards above the ground, so that everybody by paying 12d. would get a stand and see the play... Many thousand spectators, men, women and girls, got places, not to speak of those who were within the barrier and paid nothing.

    During the whole time of the tournament all those who wished to fight entered the list by pairs, the trumpets being blown at the time and other musical instruments. The combatants had their servants clad in different colours, they, however, did not enter the barrier, but arranged themselves on both sides. Some of the servants were disguised like savages, or like Irishmen, with the hair hanging down to the girdle like women, others had horses equipped like elephants, some carriages were drawn by men, others appeared to move by themselves; altogether the carriages were very odd in appearance. Some gentlemen had their horses with them and mounted in full armour directly from the carriage. There were some who showed very good horsemanship and were also in fine attire. The manner of the combat each had settled before entering the lists. The costs amounted to several thousand pounds each.

    When a gentleman with his servants approached the barrier, on horseback or in a carriage, he stopped at the foot of the staircase leading to the queen’s room, while one of his servants in pompous attire of a special pattern mounted the steps and addressed the queen in well-composed verses or with a ludicrous speech, making her and her ladies laugh. When the speech was ended he in the name of his lord offered to the queen a costly present... Now always two by two rode against each other, breaking lances across the beam... The fête lasted until five o’clock in the afternoon...[21]

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_Day_tilt

     

    Category:English Renaissance

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Subcategories

    This category has the following 6 subcategories, out of 6 total.

    A


    E


    H


    P


    R


    T


     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:English_Renaissance

     

    Armour of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), 1586

    Greenwich armour is the plate armour in a distinctively English style produced by the Royal Almain Armoury founded by Henry VIII in 1511 in Greenwich near London, which continued until the English Civil War. The armoury was formed by imported master armourers hired by Henry VIII, initially including some from Italy and Flanders, as well as the Germans who dominated during most of the 16th century. The most notable head armourer of the Greenwich workshop was Jacob Halder, who was master workman of the armoury from 1576 to 1607. This was the peak period of the armoury's production and it coincided with the elaborately gilded and sometimes coloured decorated styles of late Tudor England.

    As the use of full plate in actual combat had declined by the late 16th century, the Greenwich armours were primarily created not for battle but for the tournament. Jousting was a favourite pastime of Henry VIII (at dire cost to his health), and his daughter Elizabeth I made her Accession Day tilts a highlight of the court's calendar, focused on hyperbolic declarations of loyalty and devotion in the style of contemporary verse epics. Even late in her reign, courtiers gained favour by participating and dressing the part.

    The workshop produced bespoke armour for the nobility; relatively mass-produced government orders for the military mainly went elsewhere. The book of Greenwich armour designs for 24 different gentlemen, known as the "Jacob Album" after its creator, includes many of the most important figures of the Elizabethan court. In this period a distinctive Greenwich style developed, marked by imitating aspects of fashionable clothing styles, and extensive use of gilded and coloured areas, using complex decoration in Northern Mannerist styles.

    Gilded Greenwich harness of King Henry VIII

    By the time of the mid-17th century, plate armour had adopted a stark and utilitarian form favoring thickness and protection (from the ever-more-powerful firearms which were redefining battle) over aesthetics and was generally only used by heavy cavalry; afterwards, it was to disappear more or less completely. Therefore, the Greenwich workshop represented the last flourishing of decorative armour-making in England, and comprises a unique genre of late-Renaissance art in its own right. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

    The Palace of Placentia, after it was rebuilt around 1500 by Henry VII

    The Palace of Placentia, also known as Greenwich Palace,[1] was an English royal residence that was initially built by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1443.[2][3] The palace was a pleasaunce; a place designed for pleasure, entertainment and an escape from the city.[4] It was located at Greenwich on the south bank of the River Thames, downstream from London. On a hill behind the palace he built Duke Humphrey's Tower, later known as Greenwich Castle; it was subsequently demolished to make way for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, which survives. The original river-side residence was extensively rebuilt around 1500 by Henry VII. A detached residence, the Queen's House, was built on the estate in the early 1600s and also survives. In 1660, the main palace was demolished by Charles II to make way for a proposed new palace, which was never constructed. Nearly forty years later, the Greenwich Hospital (now called the Old Royal Naval College) was built on the site. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Placentia

    Maritime Greenwich
    UNESCO World Heritage Site
    London Greenwich.JPG
    The Chapel is in Queen Mary Court (left) and the Painted Hall is in King William Court (right). The domes are above the entrances.
    LocationUnited Kingdom
    Includes
    CriteriaCultural: (i), (ii), (iv), (vi)
    Reference795
    Inscription1995 (19th Session)
    Extensions2008
    Area109.5 hectares (271 acres)
    Buffer zone174.85 hectares (432.1 acres)
    Websitewhc.unesco.org/en/list/795
    Coordinates51°29′1″N 0°0′21″W
    Old Royal Naval College is located in the United Kingdom
    Old Royal Naval College
    Location in the United Kingdom

    The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich,[1] a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as being of "outstanding universal value" and reckoned to be the "finest and most dramatically sited architectural and landscape ensemble in the British Isles".[2] The site is managed by the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, established in 1997 to conserve the buildings and grounds and convert them into a cultural destination.[3] The buildings were originally constructed to serve as the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, now generally known as Greenwich Hospital, chartered by King William III and Queen Mary II on 25 October 1694, designed by Christopher Wren, and built between 1696 and 1712.[4][5] The hospital closed in 1869. Between 1873 and 1998 it was the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.[6] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Royal_Naval_College

    Greenwich Hospital, in the painting London from Greenwich Park, in 1809, by William Turner
    Detail in the Chapel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

    Greenwich Hospital was a permanent home for retired sailors of the Royal Navy, which operated from 1692 to 1869. Its buildings, in Greenwich, London, were later used by the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and the University of Greenwich, and are now known as the Old Royal Naval College. The word "hospital" was used in its original sense of a place providing hospitality for those in need of it, and did not refer to medical care, although the buildings included an infirmary which, after Greenwich Hospital closed, operated as Dreadnought Seaman's Hospital until 1986.

    The foundation which operated the hospital still exists, for the benefit of former Royal Navy personnel and their dependants. It now provides sheltered housing on other sites. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Hospital,_London

    History

    A sketch of Greenwich Palace, published in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1840 (earlier published by W. Bristow in 1797)

    Humphrey was regent during the minority of Henry VI (his nephew) and started building the palace in 1433,[3] under the name Bella Court.[5] In 1447, Humphrey fell out of favour with Henry VI and was arrested for high treason. He died in prison, likely due to a stroke, though it was popularly believed that he was murdered[6] (as is depicted in William Shakespeare's plays about Henry VI). Margaret of Anjou took over Bella Court, renaming it the Palace of Placentia, sometimes written as the 'Palace of Pleasaunce'.[5]

    In 1485, Edward IV gave land and property adjacent to the palace for the foundation of a friary by the Observant Friars (a branch of the Franciscans).[7] The friars' church was used for royal baptisms and marriages, including the christenings of the future queens Mary I and Elizabeth I. However, the friars were persecuted during the English Reformation and finally expelled by Elizabeth I in 1559.[8]

    Henry VII rebuilt the palace between 1498 and 1504, with a design based around three large courtyards.[5] It remained the principal royal palace for the next two centuries.

    The palace was the birthplace of Henry VIII in 1491, and it figured largely in his life.[9] Following the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Placentia became the birthplace of Mary I in 1516.[10]

    After Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn, his daughter, later Elizabeth I, was born at Placentia in 1533,[11] and he married Anne of Cleves there in 1540. A fallen tree in Greenwich Park is known as Queen Elizabeth's Oak, in which she is reputed to have played as a child.[12]

    Both Mary and Elizabeth lived at Placentia for some years during the sixteenth century, but during the reigns of James I and Charles I, the Queen's House was erected to the south of the palace.[13] Placentia fell into disrepair during the English Civil War, serving time as a biscuit factory and a prisoner-of-war camp.[13][14]

    In 1660, Charles II decided to rebuild the palace, engaging John Webb as the architect for a new King's House.[15] The only section of the new building to be completed was the east range of the present King Charles Court, but this was never occupied as a royal residence.[15] Most of the rest of the palace was demolished, and the site remained empty until construction of the Greenwich Hospital began in 1694.[15] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Placentia

    Characteristics

    Henrician Period

    Although there were certainly English armourers at work before 1511, indeed they had their own guild in London, it seems that they were both unable to cope with large volume orders, and not able to produce work of the finest quality, and in the latest styles, found in Europe. A payment to Milanese armourers at Greenwich, of £6 2/3 and two hogsheads of wine, was made in July 1511; they were under contract for two years from March 1511, and other payments record the setting-up of a mill and the purchase of tools. Greenwich Palace was still an important royal residence, birthplace of both Henry and his two daughters. By 1515 there were six German master armourers, with (perhaps working separately from) two apparently Flemish masters, two polishers and an apprentice, all working under the English King's Armourer, John Blewbury, and a "Clerk of the Stable". All were given damask livery clothes.[1]

    In 1516 the workshop moved closer to London (but still outside the city itself, where guild regulation might have been an issue) to a mill in Southwark, while construction of a new mill at Greenwich began. On completion of this in 1520 they returned to Greenwich.[2]

    Sir Nicholas Carew wearing an early Greenwich armour of 1532–33.

    The first Greenwich harnesses, created under Henry VIII, were typically of uniform colouration, either gilded or silvered all over and then etched with intricate motifs, often designed by Hans Holbein. The lines of these armours were typically not much different from Northern German designs of the same time period; the decorations, though, were often more extravagant. A good example of this early sort of Greenwich style is the harness which is thought to have belonged to Galiot de Genouillac, Constable of France, but was initially created for King Henry. The armour, currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has a specially designed corset built into the cuirass to support the weight of the burly king's large stomach. This harness also has very wide sabatons in the Maximilian style. Very similar in design, but ungilded, is another tournament harness made for Henry VIII which now resides at the Tower of London and which is famous for its large codpiece

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

    A payment to Milanese armourers at Greenwich, of £6 2/3 and two hogsheads of wine, was made in July 1511; they were under contract for two years from March 1511, and other payments record the setting-up of a mill and the purchase of tools. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

    By 1515 there were six German master armourers, with (perhaps working separately from) two apparently Flemish masters, two polishers and an apprentice, all working under the English King's Armourer, John Blewbury, and a "Clerk of the Stable". All were given damask livery clothes.[1]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

    In 1516 the workshop moved closer to London (but still outside the city itself, where guild regulation might have been an issue) to a mill in Southwark, while construction of a new mill at Greenwich began. On completion of this in 1520 they returned to Greenwich.[2] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

    The garniture of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, as depicted in the Jacob album

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

    A codpiece (from Middle English cod 'scrotum') is a triangular piece that attached to the front of men's hose, covering the fly. It may be held in place by ties or buttons. It was an important fashion item of European clothing during the 15th–16th centuries. In the modern era, similar clothing pieces are worn in the leather subculture, and in performance costumes, such as for rock and metal musicians. A similar device with rigid construction, an athletic cup, is used as protective gear for male athletes. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codpiece

    German sabaton for the right foot, c. 1550
    English-made Greenwich armour sabaton, 1587–1589

    A sabaton or solleret is part of a knight's body armor that covers the foot.[1] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaton

    A drawing of a luxury hourglass corset from 1878, featuring a busk fastening at the front and lacing at the back

    A corset is a support garment commonly worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it or with a more lasting effect), or support the breasts. Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though this item was for many years an integral part of women's wardrobes.

    Since the late 20th century, the fashion industry has borrowed the term "corset" to refer to tops which, to varying degrees, mimic the look of traditional corsets without acting as them. While these modern corsets and corset tops often feature lacing or boning, and generally imitate a historical style of corsets, they have very little, if any, effect on the shape of the wearer's body. Genuine corsets are usually made by a corsetmaker and are frequently fitted to the individual wearer. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corset

    Cuirass worn by a Carabinier-à-Cheval

    A cuirass (/kwɪˈræs, kjʊəˈræs/;[1] French: cuirasse, Latin: coriaceus) is a piece of armour that covers the torso, formed of one or more pieces of metal or other rigid material. The word probably originates from the original material, leather, from the French cuirace and Latin word coriacea. The use of the term "cuirass" generally refers to both the chestplate (or breastplate) and the back piece together; whereas a breastplate only protects the front, a cuirass protects both the front and the back. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuirass

    A hogshead in relation to other barrels

    A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commodity). More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either imperial or US customary measures, primarily applied to alcoholic beverages, such as wine, ale, or cider

    United States revenue stamp (proof) for the $2 tax on one hogshead of beer in 1867.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogshead 


    Golden Age

    The garniture of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, as depicted in the Jacob album

    After the reign of Henry VIII, the Greenwich armour began to evolve into a different and unique style. There were several defining characteristics of this second wave of armour. One was the mimicking of popular fashions of the time in the styles of the armour to reflect the individual wearer's taste in civilian clothing. From 1560 cuirasses were designed to imitate the curving "peascod" style of doublet which was immensely popular among gentlemen during the reign of Elizabeth. This type of cuirass curved outwards in front at a steep angle which culminated at the groin, where it tapered into a small horn-like protrusion. All-over gilding or silvering was replaced by strips of blued or gilded steel, typically running horizontally across the pauldrons at the edge of each lame, and vertically down the cuirass and tassets, which emulated the strips of colourful embroidered cloth that were popular in civilian fashion.

    Some armours were provided with an extra pair of tassets for use at the barriers which were very wide, not unlike the form of a pair of trunkhose. The extant armours of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and that of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, currently display these tassets. The armour of William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester, is also similarly styled.

    Sir Anthony Mildmay, a young knight, in a partial Greenwich harness. Peascod shape is highly pronounced.

    Another defining characteristic of Elizabethan-era Greenwich armour is the extravagant use of colour in general to decorate the steel. Older styles of armour-making, such as Maximilian and Gothic, emphasized the shaping of the metal itself, such as fluting and roping, to create artistic designs in the armour, rather than using colour. The Greenwich style, however, came at a time when complicated decoration of the metal with colour, texture and embossed designs was fashionable across Europe.

    Greenwich did not produce the highly modelled figurative designs of some Continental centres, but specialised in bold designs using different colours to form vibrant, striking patterns. Colour contrast became extremely important, as it was in civilian fashion. The extent to which a suit of armour was decorated depended on the wealth of the buyer, and ranged from wildly elaborate and artistic pieces such as George Clifford's famous gilded garniture to relatively simple harnesses of "white armour" overlaid with intersecting patterns of darker-coloured strips. In either case, the use of contrasting colours became a hallmark of the Greenwich style.

    There were three main ways in which the steel of the armour was coloured: bluing, browning, and russeting. Bluing the steel gave it a deep, brilliant blue-black finish. Browning, as the name would suggest, coloured the steel a dark brown, which contrasted vividly with gilding as in the harness of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland. Finally, russeting imparted a dark-red or purple hue to the steel, which was also typically used in conjunction with gilding. All of these base colours would be applied uniformly to the steel of the armour, and then strips of differently coloured steel would be laid across to create patterns, or etched sections of the armour would be gilded. The Earl of Worcester's armour is one striking example of a scalloped design which was originally gilded over dark blued steel.

    The Greenwich helmet for the field and tilt has a distinctive form. The typical Greenwich helm is an armet with a very high visor perforated on one or both sides by vertical slits, in the case of a field visor, or with small round holes in the case of a visor for the tilt (most Greenwich armours came with both types.) The rim of the upper bevor juts out forward gracefully, giving the helmet a characteristic "ship's prow" appearance. It also typically has a high raised comb from the rear of the skull extending up to the top of the visor, a feature influenced by the French style.

    Finally, Greenwich armours were often made in the form of a garniture, which meant a large set of interchangeable armour pieces, referred to as pieces of exchange, with the same design which could be arranged to form a suit for either mounted combat such as jousting, or combat on foot in the tournament. A garniture would typically include a full plate harness plus an extra visor specially meant for tilting; a burgonet helmet which would be worn open-faced for a parade or ceremony, or with a removable "falling-buffe" visor for combat; a grandguard, which would reinforce the upper portion of the torso and neck for jousting; a passguard, which would reinforce the arm; and a manifer, a large gauntlet to protect the hand. It might also include a shaffron, which would cover the head of the knight's horse, and a set of decorated saddle steels. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_armour

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_plate_armour

     

    The unidentified tailor in Giovanni Battista Moroni's famous portrait of c. 1570 is in doublet and lined and stuffed ("bombasted") hose.

    A doublet (/ˈdʌblɪt/;[1] derived from the Ital. giubbetta[2]) is a man's snug-fitting jacket that is shaped and fitted to the man's body. The garment was worn in Spain, and spread to the rest of Western Europe, from the late Middle Ages up to the mid-17th century. The doublet was hip length or waist length and worn over the shirt or drawers. Until the end of the 15th century, the doublet was usually worn under another layer of clothing such as a gown, mantle, overtunic or jerkin when in public.

    Originally it was a mere stitched and quilted lining ("doubling"), worn under a hauberk or cuirass to prevent bruising and chafing. Doublets were sometimes opened to the waistline in a deep V. The edges might be left free or laced across the shirt front. If there was space left it might be filled with a stomacher. By the 1520s, the edges of the doublet more frequently met at the center front. Then, like many other originally practical items in the history of men's wear, from the late 15th century onward it became elaborated enough to be seen on its own.

    Throughout the 300 years of its use, the doublet served the same purpose: to give fashionable shape and padding to the body, to support the hose by providing ties, and to provide warmth to the body. The only things that changed about the doublet over its history was its style and cut. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublet_(clothing)

    Right pauldron of hussar's armor, 17th century, District Museum in Tarnów

    A pauldron (sometimes spelled pouldron or powldron) is a component of plate armor that evolved from spaulders in the 15th century. As with spaulders, pauldrons cover the shoulder area.[1] Pauldrons tend to be larger than spaulders, covering the armpit, and sometimes parts of the back and chest. A pauldron typically consists of a single large dome-shaped piece to cover the shoulder (the "cop") with multiple lames attached to it to defend the arm and upper shoulder. On some suits of armour, especially those of Italian design, the pauldrons would usually be asymmetrical, with one pauldron covering less (for mobility) and sporting a cut-away to make room for a lance rest.[2] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauldron

    A single tasset by Lorenz Helmschmied, 1495

    Tassets are a piece of plate armour designed to protect the upper thighs. They take the form of separate plates hanging from the breastplate or faulds. They may be made from a single piece or segmented. The segmented style of tassets connected by sliding rivets produced during the 16th century is also known as almain rivets. From the 16th century onward, the tassets were sometimes integrated with the cuisses to create fully articulated leg defenses that continued from the lower edge of the breastplate down to the poleyn

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tassets

    German burgonet of classic form, 16th century

    The burgonet helmet (sometimes called a burgundian sallet) was a Renaissance-era and early modern combat helmet. It was the successor of the sallet.[1] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgonet

    Full plate armour for man and horse commissioned by Sigismund II Augustus, Livrustkammaren in Stockholm Sweden (1550s).

    Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from bronze, iron, or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. Full plate steel armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, from the coat of plates worn over mail suits during the 14th century. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_armour

    A garniture of an ormolu clock and candelabra
    Garniture of three Bristol porcelain vases, c. 1773, painted by Michel Socquet.
    The garniture of Greenwich armour for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, as recorded in their pattern book, the Jacob album

    A garniture is a number or collection of any matching, but usually not identical, decorative objects intended to be displayed together.[1] Frequently made of metal, ormolu, often with gilded wood stands, porcelain (both European and Asian), garnitures became popular during the latter half of the 17th century and remained in vogue throughout the 19th century. A very common placement is on the mantelpiece over a fireplace, but garnitures were very often placed on various pieces of furniture, and on ledges or niches around the walls of a room, especially over doors or above fireplaces. Garnitures may contain pieces made together with a view to being used as a set, or may be "assembled" by the decorator from pieces of different origin.

    Most commonly a garniture is a collection of three matching pieces designed for the adornment of a mantlepiece; for example: a clock and two flanking vases or candelabra. Often a large central piece is flanked by pairs of smaller ones. Factory records show that some examples of the Sèvres pot-pourri vase in the shape of a ship were bought as garnitures with other smaller shapes decorated in the same colours (which varied greatly between individual examples). Madame de Pompadour bought one with two pairs of vases, and another buyer a garniture with one pair of the elephant-headed vases.[2] A garniture can also refer to almost any set that might be displayed together. One example is a collection of figurines, candlesticks or epergnes designed to adorn a surtout de table.[3]

    Other uses of the word include a matching array of plate armour and its accessories, often with different types of the same pieces for different occasions, known as "pieces of exchange",[4] sets of weapons with their fittings, and in French restaurant terminology, the "trimmings" or garnish around the main element of a dish. In French the range of meanings is even wider. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garniture

    The garniture of Thomas Scrope in the Jacob album

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

    The Jacob Album

    The garniture of Sir Henry Lee as depicted in the album

    An album, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, was drawn up by Jacob Halder which contains full-colour illustrations of twenty-nine different Greenwich armours for various Elizabethan gentlemen of high rank; many of the armours are part of large garnitures with the additional pieces of exchange also depicted. The album displays a picture of each customer standing in the same stylized pose, with right hand on hip and left hand holding a staff of office, and wearing the armour which was to be furnished for him.

    The wearers listed in the album include some of the most illustrious and powerful nobles of Elizabeth's court. Among them are Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester; William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke; Sir Thomas Bromley, Lord Chancellor of England; Sir Christopher Hatton, who succeeded Bromley as Lord Chancellor and was also rumored to be Queen Elizabeth's lover; Sir Henry Lee, Queen Elizabeth's first official jousting champion; and George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, the Queen's second official champion and also an important naval commander who briefly captured Fort San Felipe del Morro.

    The garniture of Thomas Scrope in the Jacob album

    Other notable figures whose suits of armour are displayed in the album are Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset (then "Lord Buckhurst", which survives in the Wallace Collection in London), who served as Lord High Treasurer but is perhaps best known as the co-author of Gorboduc, one of the first tragedies written in blank verse, and Sir James Scudamore, a gentleman usher and tilting champion who was the basis for the character "Sir Scudamour" in The Fairie Queene by Edmund Spenser. One of the armours in the album is labeled as being for "John, Duke of Finland" – the future king John III of Sweden, who visited England in 1560 to promote a marriage between Queen Elizabeth and his brother Eric.

    Another design is for a man named Bale Desena, the identity of whom remains a mystery to this day. This man was likely not an Englishman, as his name (which is probably misspelled in the album) suggests Spanish or Italian origin. It is unknown how he commissioned a Greenwich armour, though these armours were sometimes given to foreigners as gifts. Christian of Brunswick, cousin and friend to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, was given a beautiful gilded Greenwich armour which remained in the family of the Dukes of Brunswick before ultimately being purchased by Ronald Lauder.

    Twenty-three of the twenty-nine armours in the album belong to different individuals; Robert Dudley, Christopher Hatton, and Henry Lee, probably owing to their status as favourites to Queen Elizabeth, each had two suits of armour, in addition to large garnitures with many extra pieces. Several of the armours depicted in this album survive to the present day. The armours of Robert Dudley, William Somerset, and William Herbert are all at the Royal Armouries at the Tower of London, and Christopher Hatton's armour is at the Royal Armouries gallery in Leeds, along with the half-harness (the only one in the album) of a notable soldier, tactician and military writer of the Elizabethan era named John Smythe. The complete garniture of George Clifford is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, along with the armours of Sir James Scudamore and Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.[3]

    When compared with extant examples of the armour to which they correspond, the drawings in Jacob Halder's album are nearly exact representations of the designs of the finished product. There is only one major difference, which is that the drawing for the armour of William Somerset, Earl of Worcester, shows a deep red russeted background with scalloped and gilded bands over it, whereas the portrait of the Earl clearly shows a black background. Other than that, the design matches the armour perfectly, including even the maille shoes. Several of the garnitures in the album feature an identical design – a series of gilt bands in a snaking S-shape pattern overlaid with interlacing diagonal lines in an X pattern, sometimes described as representing lightning, over a background of deeply russeted steel of a purplish colour.

    The garnitures with this design are those belonging to Sir James Scudamore, William Compton, 1st Earl of Northampton, and Thomas Sackville. However, comparison with surviving pieces shows that some details of the construction, such as the number of lames in a piece, are often different from the finished work – perhaps suggesting that the makers of the basic pieces were more free or ready to improve on designs as they worked than those working on the decoration.[4] 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour

    Gallery

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_armour


     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art

     

    Category:Western plate armour

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    This category is for metal plate armour in the Western post-classical tradition; essentially medieval to Early Modern. So modern, Oriental or ancient armour does not belong in this category.

    Subcategories

    This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.

    B


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