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Pre-1770 cover.indd 1 28/11/2012 08:13 Pre-1770 Drama Elizabethan and Jacobean

Written by David Kinder and Juliet Harrison Edited by Barbara Bleiman and Lucy Webster

Editorial assistance: Guido Martini Designed by Eammon England Additional design: Fran Stowell Cover design: Blaise Thompson Published by The English & Media Centre, 18 Compton Terrace, London N1 2UN Printed by Redwood Books ISBN: 0 907016 72 3

Acknowledgements Thanks to: Arnold publishing for extracts from The Elizabethan Theatre (1966); The Roman Comedy by Kenneth McLeish (1994) reproduced by permission of Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.; Cambridge University Press for extracts from Andrew Gurr’s Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London (1987) as well as G.K. Hunter’s A New Companion to Shakespeare’s Studies (1971); The English Review for an extract from Tiffany Stern’s article, ‘Hamlet and performance in early modern England’ as well as Emma Smith’s article ‘The Merchant of Venice: prejudice and performance’; Michael Billington for an extract from ‘Trevor Nunn at the National’, The Guardian 1/2/2000); A.C. Bradley for an extract from Shakespearean Tragedy (Macmillan, 1966); Bill Overton for extracts from The Merchant of Venice, Text and Performance (Macmillan, 1987); James C. Bulman for extracts from The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare in Performance Series (Manchester University Press, 1991); E.A.J. Honigman for extracts from The Arden Shakespeare Othello (Nelson Publishing, 1997); C.L. Barber for an extract from Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy (Princeton University Press); Jesus College, Cambridge, for use of an extract from E.M.W. Tillyard’s The Elizabethan World Picture (Random House, 1954); M. White for an extract from Renaissance Drama in Action (Routledge, 1998); Sean McEvoy for an extract from Shakespeare: The Basics (Routledge, 2000); Karen Hornsey for an extract from Self Analysis (Kegan, Paul, and Co., 1954) Max I. Dimont for an extract from Jews, God and History (Penguin USA, 1962); Professor M. Rosenberg for an extract from Masks of Othello (UC Press, 1961); David Gunby for extracts from Introduction to John Webster: Three Plays (Penguin, 1972); The Marquess of Tavistock and the Trustees of the Bedford Estate; The Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, Bryan Douglas F.R.P.S.; Zoe Dominic; Anthony Crickmay. Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge copyright but if any accidental infringement has been made we would welcome information to redress the situation. Contents

Introduction 4

Unit 1 – An introduction to the age 6

Exploring the Elizabethan and Jacobean period through portraits of Elizabeth I and James I; Renaissance and modern writing about the age; exploring how drama may reflect or challenge the preoccupations of the period.

Unit 2 – Introducing contexts 14

Using a short speech from Hamlet (‘What a piece of work is man’) to explore the usefulness of different kinds of context; contextual background for any play of the period is provided by material on plot and genre, Elizabethan character and personality types, the Renaissance, contemporary performance and language; rehearsing a dramatic reading using insights gained.

Unit 3 – An introduction to genre 23

Thinking of the concept of genre in modern and Renaissance times; the influence of classical models and the ways in which they were adapted; applying these to set texts; exploring ideas about sources and how these were used.

Unit 4 – The Italian context 33

Considering why Italy was used as a setting for so many English Renaissance plays; through play extracts, exploring what is represented and how it was used for stories, settings and themes.

Unit 5 – Order and disorder 37

Introducing the Elizabethan World Picture through a sequence of short activities, using primary sources and modern critical extracts; three case studies based on substantial speeches from Richard II, Coriolanus and Troilus and Cressida; an overview of the preoccupation with disorder, using short extracts from seven plays.

Unit 6 – Class in Renaissance drama 53

A short activity, using plot descriptions, to raise ideas about class, inheritance and social mobility; applying these ideas to any set text; a closer exploration of inheritance and family relationships using speeches from As You Like It and King Lear. Contents

Unit 7 – Women in Renaissance drama 60

Exploring the representation of women in a set text, using writing from the period and modern comment; case studies on Vittoria in The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi; annotation and essay writing on women in Shakespeare’s comedies.

Unit 8 – Belief and learning 78

An extended exploration of two key scenes from Dr. Faustus, using the contexts of religion, new learning, discovery and superstition and magic.

Unit 9 – Staging and interpretation 88

Considering the role staging plays in shaping interpretation; case studies on The Duchess of Malfi and Volpone.

Unit 10 – Rehearsing Iago 96

A process of reading and researching key speeches using contextual material and the methods of an actor.

Unit 11 – Interpretations of Shylock 106

Using the character of Shylock to investigate the relationship between text, context and interpretation, focusing on different representations and productions over time.

Unit 12 – Reading from a critical position 115

Using speeches from Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear to introduce students to the process of reading from different critical positions.

Teachers’ notes 123 Introduction

EMC Advanced Literature Series EMC Advanced Literature Series is a resource for A Level English Literature designed to meet the requirements of the AS/A2 specifications in challenging, innovative and practical ways. Each publication includes: – texts for study, both literary texts and extracts from literary criticism – student activities – teachers’ notes.

While contextual issues and different interpretations have been important since the significant changes introduced in Curriculum 2000, the text remains central. A Level students are still expected to focus primarily on the texts set for study in each module, and to: – read closely and carefully – get to know the text really well – get below the surface and between the lines – interpret and make meanings – see patterns – big ones and small ones – make links with other things they have read – be alert to ways writers choose to use language.

The activities in the resource are intended to develop these critical reading skills. However, they are also intended to support teachers and students as they get to grips with the requirement to ‘Explore connections and comparisons between different literary texts, informed by interpretations of other readers’ and ‘Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received’.

Using the publication Each unit has a particular focus, whether it be introducing ideas about genre, or staging at different periods in time, or issues about culture and society in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The ideas are developed through close work on speeches or scenes from selected texts. These are followed by suggestions for applying what is learnt to other plays. Even if a speech is not from the play being studied as a set text, working on the material will provide important contextual background. For instance, by working on short extracts from Richard II, Coriolanus and Troilus and Cressida to explore ideas about order and disorder, students would gain an understanding of the issue in relation to many other plays. Likewise, the activity on reading from different critical positions, which focuses on speeches from Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear, would be a good way of introducing students to the role critical theory can play in developing ‘independent opinions … informed by different interpretations’.

Some of the longer ‘case studies’ will be of prime interest to students studying those particular plays. The Teachers’ Notes suggest ways in which some of the longer units could be abbreviated in order to make them appropriate and manageable for all students.

The units of work are not offered in a strict sequence, as some may be more applicable to the set text being studied than others and teachers will want to choose appropriate moments to introduce particular contextual material and ideas. However, we would suggest that the first unit, which introduces the period, should be offered before any of the others regardless of the set text being studied. Many of the following units assume some understanding of the prevailing climate in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, which is explored in this first unit.

4 Pre-1770 Drama © English and Media Centre Unit 1: An introduction to the age An introduction to the age

In this unit you will: ● gain an overview of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods and the contrasts between them ● begin to think about the idea of the ‘context’ of literature and explore how useful and relevant it is to developing an interpretation of the play you are studying for AS or A2 ● read and interpret paintings, just as one reads and interprets literary texts.

A portrait of Elizabeth – what it can tell you about the Elizabethan Age ● In groups, look at the painting of Queen Elizabeth I on page 8. Jot down your first ideas about it.

● Share your thoughts as a class, then record agreed ideas about the painting in the first column of a chart like the one below, numbering each point made.

Portrait of Elizabeth I Elizabethan Age Portrait of James I Jacobean Age

● In your group, look at the quotations you have been given about the Elizabethan Age. See whether you can match any of these statements to your points about the portrait. Use the statements to help you further develop your response to the portrait.

● The painting of Elizabeth has been described in the ways listed below. Choose at least one detail from the painting to support each description.

– It represents the state ‘reinforcing Protestantism’. – It represents ‘majesty’ and a ‘potent and victorious monarch’. – It represents the ‘feminine’. – It represents ‘naval power’ and ‘the securing of English boundaries’. – It represents the conquering of ‘the forces of evil’. – It represents the ‘economic success’ of the Elizabethan era. – It represents ‘England’s dominion of the seas’ and ‘plans for imperialist expansion into the New World’.

● Share your ideas as a class, then fill in the second column of the chart with adjectives and phrases that seem to you to sum up key aspects of the Elizabethan Age.

A portrait of James I – what it can tell you about the Jacobean Period ● Look at the portrait of James I on page 11 and, in your group, jot down your first ideas about it. Share these as a class and fill in column 3 of the chart.

● Now read the second set of quotations you have been given, this time about the Jacobean period. Try to match your quotations to the points you made about the portrait of James I. Use the statements to help you further develop your response to the portrait.

● The painting of James I has been described in the ways summarized on page 7. Choose at least one detail from the painting to support each description.

6 Pre-1770 Drama - Elizabethan and Jacobean © English & Media Centre 2001 Unit 1: An introduction to the age

– It represents the gloom created by ‘the evaporation’ of Britain’s ‘greatness’. – It represents the ‘legitimacy of his succession’. – It shows him both ‘ill at ease and ill’.

● As a whole class use what you have learnt about the Jacobean period to fill in the last column on the chart. Elizabethan and Jacobean plays The preoccupations and mood of an age are often reflected in the literature of the times. This is very true of the plays of this period. ● Look at this list of features of plays from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. For each feature, talk about whether it is most likely to be a feature of Elizabethan or Jacobean drama, or both. Be prepared to explain your thinking.

– Comedy as an important genre – Tragedy as an important genre – Poisonings – Intrigue – Violence – Women disguised as men in tragic situations – Women gender-swapping in comic situations – Women involved in dangerous intrigue – Women resolving intrigues, or potentially tragic situations – Love, happiness and praise of human virtues – Fear, hatred, anger and a low opinion of humanity – Idyllic, rural or make-believe settings. – Metropolitan settings Thinking about the play you are studying ● Think about what you have learnt about the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, in relation to the play you are studying. You will need to decide: – which aspects of the paintings relate to your play and in what ways – which descriptions of the age relate to your play and in what ways – which features of plays, if any, are displayed in your play and in what ways (for example, through language, themes, mood, what characters say).

You should bear in mind the following points: – although written during the Elizabethan or Jacobean period, the play you are studying may not be set in that period – that Shakespeare wrote plays in both periods. Can you begin to speculate about whether the play you are studying is an early or a late play? What makes you think this? A false comparison? One danger of studying the past is that of applying twentieth century thinking uncritically. This can result in misunderstandings and over-simplifications. One critic has stated that, ‘The simplified approach to literature as social criticism has produced many false antitheses between Elizabethan optimism and Jacobean pessimism’. There are two further points to be aware of: – the attitudes and beliefs of individual writers affect the way they present the issues of their age so Webster, Shakespeare and Marlowe all had their own individual perspective on their world – the attitudes and beliefs of each critic or member of an audience affect their interpretation. Shakespeare has been presented by some people as reflecting the concerns and attitudes of his age and by others as a radical who challenged these attitudes.

● As a class talk briefly about these problems and issues in interpreting texts from the past: – how easy is it to see whether a playwright’s view of their times is typical of the period – how helpful have you found it to think about the mood of the age as a way of understanding the play you are studying?

8 Pre-1770 Drama - Elizabethan and Jacobean © English & Media Centre 2001 Unit 1: An introduction to the age The Elizabethan age

Sixteenth and seventeenth century views

I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which, rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. Queen Elizabeth I, from a speech given at Tilbury, 1588

The realm aboundeth in riches, as may be seen by the general excess of the people in purchasing, in buildings, in meat, drink and feastings, and most notably in apparel. 1579

During her life, what peace in her country! what plenty in her land! what triumphs in her court! what learning in her schools! what trades in her cities! what wealth in her kingdom! what wisdom in her council and what grace in her government! What monarch ever sent to her whose ambassador did not admire her? Was she not mistress of the narrow seas and feared even in the ocean? Nicholas Breton, In Praise of Queen Elizabeth , 1603

Shee maintained Justice at home, and Armes abroad, with great wisdome and authority in eyther place. Her majesty seemed to all to shine through courtesy: but as shee was not easy to receive any to especiall grace, so was shee most constant to those whom shee received; and of great judgement to know to what point of greatnesse men were fit to bee advanced. Shee was rather liberall than magnificent, making good choys of the receivoures; and for this cause was thought weake by some against the desire of money. But it is certaine that besides the want of treasure which shee found, her continuall affayres in Scotland, France, the Low Countries, and in Ireland, did occasione great provisione of money, which could not be better supplyed, than by cutting off eyther excessive or unnecessary expence at home. Excellent Queene! What doe my words but wrong thy worth? What doe I but guild gold? What but shew the sunne with a candle, in attempting to prayse thee, whose honor doth flye over the whole world upon the two wings of Magnanimity and Justice, whose perfection shall much dimme the lustre of all other that shall be thy sexe? Sir John Hayward, Annals , 1612

She certainly is a great queen, and were she only a Catholic, she would be our dearly beloved daughter. Just look how well she governs! She is only a woman, only mistress of half an island, and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all! Pope Sixtus V, 1588

Twentieth century views

Europe in the 16th Century was dominated by kings. In the Middle Ages, culture and to a large extent the forms of government had been moulded by the Church of Rome, but the Middle Ages in this sense came to an end in England with the Reformation of Henry VIII (1529-39) … the whole balance of political and religious life in England was altered, and consequently the balance of literature, art and thought. The new literature of Elizabeth’s reign (1558-1603) was centred on the Crown. L.G. Salingar, ‘The Social Setting’ in Pelican Guide to English Literature: The Age of Shakespeare , 1955

Militarism and hostility to Spain and Spain’s Catholicism amongst London audiences found mirrors on stage (between 1587-1600). For more than ten years wars and stories of wars were the main meal on the broad platforms of the amphitheatres. Andrew Gurr, Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London , 1987

Spain came to supplant France as the nation’s ‘natural’ enemy following the death of Queen Mary in 1558, thanks not only to Spanish support for plots to restore England to the Catholic faith … but also to the threat posed by her seafaring strength (and the wealth this had enabled her to win from her many conquests in the New World). Lacey Baldwin Smith, The Horizon Book of the Elizabethan World , 1967

Shakespeare and the dramatists of the public playhouses … had Elizabeth to thank for the security which gave them time to take in as much as they could of that world’s richness and energy. Marion Jones, ‘The Court and the Dramatists’ in Elizabethan Theatre , 1966

The world seemed a far larger place to men of the Elizabethan age than it had to earlier generations. New kingdoms had been discovered in America, and the distant Orient had become more accessible. Lacey Baldwin Smith, The Horizon Book of the Elizabethan World , 1967

It was the poets and dramatists … who did most to promote the cult of Elizabeth. In his epic poem The Faerie Queen (1596), Edmund Spenser referred to her as ‘Gloriana’…William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Sir Walter Raleigh called her Cynthia or Diana, Diana being the virgin huntress, ‘chaste and fair’…Throughout her reign, poems, songs, ballads and madrigals sang her praises and called upon God to preserve her from her enemies, or commended her for her virtues and her chastity. No English sovereign, before or since, has so captured the imagination of his or her people or so roused their patriotic feelings. Alison Weir, Elizabeth the Queen , 1998

10 Pre-1770 Drama - Elizabethan and Jacobean © English & Media Centre 2001 Unit 1: An introduction to the age King James I

Seventeenth century views

The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth; for kings are not only God’s lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God’s throne, but even by God himself they are called Gods … King James I, 1609

new Philosophy calls all in doubt Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone … Prince, Subject, Father, Son gone John Donne, Anatomy of the World , (on the astronomers and their new discoveries about the Earth in the universe), 1611

He was so crafty and cunning in petty things … as a very wise man was wont to say he believed him the wisest fool in Christendom, meaning him wise in small things, but a fool in weighty affairs … He was infinitely inclined to peace, but more out of fear than conscience, and this [fear] was the greatest blemish this king had through all his reign, otherwise might have been ranked with the very best of kings. Sir Anthony Weldon, The Court and Character of King James , 1650

This King had no wars; but spent more money prodigally, profusely and riotously than any of his predecessors. What swarms of Scots came with him, and after him, into this kingdom? Who perpetually sucked him of most vast sums of monies … which put him upon all dishonourable ways of raising monies, to the most cruel oppression of this nation, to serve their riot and luxury. A Cat May Look upon a King (Tract), 1652

Twentieth century views

The sense of political unity was weakened by the costly but inglorious campaigns following the Armada victory, and again by the peace with Spain in 1604. The parliamentary outcry against monopolies during Elizabeth’s last years broadened, after her death, into a continuous opposition, religious and now constitutional. L.G. Salingar, ‘The Social Setting’ in Pelican Guide to English Literature: The Age of Shakespeare , 1955

The Elizabethan model of a universal pattern gave way in later Jacobean work to a darker vision, as if the playwrights intuitively felt the storm clouds of the English civil war approaching. John Perry, Encyclopaedia of Acting Techniques , 1997

The apparent source or symbol [of Webster’s pessimism] was the growing rule of money, in a society that was shifting from a feudal to a capitalist economy … Webster attacked the Machiavellian politician, but [he] harped most of all on the theme of greed, the evils of gold. Herbert J Muller, The Spirit of Tragedy , 1956

An ale-house was a likelier death-bed for James I than a brothel, given his inordinate fondness for alcohol and his comparative distaste for women, except as objects of contemplation. Peter Thomson, Shakespeare’s Theatre , 1983

No king of England has ever thought more deeply about the relationship of monarch and people than James I, and few have handled it more ineptly. Peter Thomson, Shakespeare’s Theatre , 1983

… the mumble-mouthed king of Scots, with his doctrinaire arrogance and notoriously expensive weaknesses … Marion Jones, ‘The Court and the Dramatists’ in Elizabethan Theatre , 1966

James was a foreigner, and did not understand the English. Plantagenet Somerset Fry, Rulers of Britain , 1967