Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Bc. Petra Spurná Female Characters in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Pavel Drábek, Ph. D. 2012 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement: I would like to thank my supervisor doc. Mgr. Pavel Drábek, PhD. for his patience and his valuable advice. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 2. Ancient Greek and Roman Influences .......................................................................... 9 2.1 Ancient Greece ....................................................................................................... 9 2.1.1. Women and their Social Position ..................................................................... 10 2.1.2 Women and Theatre ......................................................................................... 14 2.1.3 Women and Tragedy ......................................................................................... 15 2.1.4 Euripides ............................................................................................................ 18 2.1.5 Euripides in Early Modern England ................................................................... 22 2.2 Roman influence .................................................................................................. 25 2.2.1 Virgil .................................................................................................................. 25 2.2.2 Ovid ................................................................................................................... 28 2.2.3 Seneca ............................................................................................................... 31 3. Italian Influences ........................................................................................................ 39 3.1 Defences of Women ............................................................................................. 40 3.2 Ludovico Ariosto ................................................................................................... 43 3.3 Tragicomedy and Pastoral .................................................................................... 48 3.4 Transporting Tragicomedy: Commedia dell’Arte ................................................. 52 4. The Early Modern England ......................................................................................... 56 4.1 Elizabethan Era ..................................................................................................... 56 4.1.1 The History of English Drama ............................................................................ 61 4.1.2 University Plays ................................................................................................. 65 4.1.3 University Wits .................................................................................................. 70 4.1.4 William Shakespeare ......................................................................................... 75 4.2 Jacobean Era ......................................................................................................... 81 4.2.1 Jacobean Revenge Tragedy ............................................................................... 83 4.2.2 City Comedy and Domestic Tragedy ................................................................. 92 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 95 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 97 Résumé (Czech) ............................................................................................................ 102 Résumé (English) .......................................................................................................... 103 1. Introduction The Elizabethan and Jacobean times were important for the English drama – especially because it did not exist as a proper literary genre before the sixteenth century. It evolved from the church liturgy through Miracles and Moralities, to Interludes, short plays with simple plots. But all these dramatic “genres” provided nothing more than stock characters. The important step came with the influence of Classical drama. At first it was the Latin drama because no translation was needed and the plays were also better preserved, but later in the sixteenth century the Greek plays were discovered and through translation into Latin or through Italian adaptations they got to England. The writers started to imitate the classical plays and thus all the great ancient heroines appeared in the Early Modern drama. And while the playwrights were trying new improvements, the plays were performed in front of audiences who played an important part in deciding what kind of comedies or tragedies should be written. The use of Latin became less popular, so the first proper plays in vernacular appeared. But the evolution of drama was not so simple. It mirrored socio-political background, religious and philosophical thoughts and – in the case of female characters – the position of women and men in the patriarchal society. The aim of this thesis is then to follow this evolution of female dramatic characters and to prove that every step in the evolution was important and that the continuity of Classical and Early Modern worlds together with the still existing strong influences of the Medieval Ages were the conditions needed for this evolution. This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is called “Ancient Greek and Roman Influences”. It is divided into two subchapters regarding the two countries end eras which they describe. The Greek subchapter is then divided into five 1 parts – “Women and their Social Position” provides background for the Greek drama – during the fifth century BCE the first drama developed in Athens and it is important to understand the social position of women in those times because the female characters that emerged in this period oftentimes provided a critical standpoint to some of the social problems. This part describes the changes connected to women‟s social status – in this era they became a marginalised group restricted to the private sphere. Also the philosophical trends described women as inferior to men – the Pythagoreans invented the division of the Universe into binary oppositions and created thus a long-lasting argument for the deficiency of women and their morals. This division also led to appearance of double standards for male and female behaviour. The second part, “Women and Theatre” describes the reality of women as theatregoers. While they were restricted from many public events, they were allowed to go to a theatrical festival called the Great Dionysia. This festival was important as the greatest dramatists of the era competed with their plays to gain popularity and prizes. The fact that women were allowed to these performances shows that as a part of the audience they could be addressed by the dramatists. The third part is called “Women and Tragedy” and it discusses the problematic issue of a female character becoming a protagonist of a play – women were supposed to stay in the private sphere, the oikos, while the plays were set outside the oikos – it means that the female character has to transgress her gender role and step out into the public sphere. When that happens, she becomes masculine in her behaviour, which is enacted through language and the values she honours – this practice questioned the validity of binary opposites and gender division – if a woman was able to act as a man than the gender attributes seemed to be social constructs rather than something inherent in the sex. The fourth part called simply “Euripides” deals with one of the greatest classic dramatists who was also described as a social critic even by his 2 contemporaries. His plays were popular yet did not achieve many awards and a possible reason for this fact can be his interest in marginalized groups of the society – women and slaves. He gave them voice and features (or even virtues) that were not generally attributed to them and he also showed that the social status is not natural but imposed by the culture. The last part of the Greek subchapter deals with the appearance of Euripides‟ plays in the Early Modern era and their influence. The whole subchapter is greatly indebted to the authors of the Introduction to the Women on the Edge because they provided extensive background information for the research on Greek theatre and women – many works on Greek drama leave out women not only as an important historical group that was the first to live in the strictly divided world of patriarchal power, but also as dramatic characters, even though they were the originals for many later characters. And without Euripides‟ comments on the social status of women put into the mouths of his female characters it is a question if there would be any strong and outspoken female character created even hundreds of centuries later. The Roman subchapter is divided into three parts – “Virgil”, “Ovid” and “Seneca”. These authors were selected as the most influential for the appearance