22.04.2009

You will remember that we talked about the history of drama before Shakespeare, we talked about the development from the Easter trope -quem queritis- which was played in the church, and the first miracle and mystery play followed by the morality play. Today we will see these in a context. Professor will not talk about these texts individually. You have to keep these contexts in mind. That is important. Main point is drama was prescribed by the church. This is professor`s main point. Drama seems to open up to new influences. This process began quite early. If you remember

the farcical scene of Noah`s play, a mystery play, where Noah`s wife refuses to come on board of the ark although the flood is coming. You have already this popular and comical element which becomes more and more important in the next century. Although we are still dealing with a play that has a sublime sort of theme, namely the saving of mankind. But this sublime theme is accompanied by farcical scene, such as Noah`s wife refusing to come on board, boxing him on the ear and so on and so on.

The last play before Easter we talked about was Gammer Gurton`s Needle. In a way this play is illustrative of a tendency which could be summarized by this phrase: Comedy for comedy`s sake. This is significant, because you never had a play where comedy only appeared for comedy`s sake. Comedy appeared for the sake of comical relief, but nevertheless the whole plays had such  a didactic source of intention. Here in Gammer Gurton`s Needle you do not have any didactic intention at all. You just have farce-like play, you have entertainment, you have a lot of fun, you have a lot of laughter, you have a lot of drinking songs.

Drinking songs, which are inserted for the sake of entertainment only, and the church suddenly seems to have  evaporated from such a play, it seems to have gone, and a worldly content has entered in. This is the process we are following from the middle ages towards Shakespeare. Some people claims that Shakespeare was a dramatist and appeared out of nothing all of a sudden, and he was the greatest genius of all time. But if you look at the prehistory of British drama closely before Shakespeare, you will find out that many elements which are assembled in the plays of Shakespeare are already there in other plays written much earlier in time. This is very important.

Gammer Gurton`s Needle is the first popular comedy, there is low humour. A play about a proverb: It is not worth a needle, it is worth nothing, but the dramatist proved that this is wrong by writing a comedy about it. The needle lost, the needle found is the plot summary. Not a very interesting or a sophisticated plot, but it is not the point of the play. The point is entertainment, the point is fun. The point is comedy for comedy`s sake.

The second play which is a comedy in the sense of having no didactic christian dogmatic intention what so ever is Ralph Roister Doister. It was written roughly at the same time as Gammer Gurton`s Needle. Its author is Nicholas Udall. He was a lecturer in Greek and Philosophy at Corpus Christi College in Oxford. Later on he became the headmaster of the public school Eaton. He wrote  the play roughly around 1552, and printed in 1566 1567. The play shows the influence of classical Greek comedy, and this is something new. Gammer Gurton`s Need is untouched by antique influence. The influences which you can detect here are from Terence, a Latin writer of Eunuchus, and you can detect influences from Plautus, especially his character or his figure that is Miles Gloriousus. That is a glorious soldier actually if you translate it literally, but in reality he is a coward. He is such a coward that he even becomes afraid of the snail`s horns. That is the character of the Miles Gloriousus as it was handed on from antiquity. But this is one big strand of influence only, the other one is again the popular, the local dramatic tradition. Especially that of the morality plays and interludes. Writers at that time, middle of the 16th century are mixing elements which they found in classical literature, Latin and Greek literature that was handed on, because of the influence of humanism. You remember humanism was the discovery or the rediscovery of heathen antiquity and the use of all the books that were translated into English. But here again you also  have the local dramatic tradition. The local tradition was talked about when interpreting Gammer Gurton`s Needle. Also the morality plays and interludes, they can still be felt as an influence. In this comedy you have characters such as the virtues, lady christian, Custance. Konstanzia in Latin. In the Roman play you have a prostitute. The play is christianized. Also christianizing heathen sources occurs in Chaucer. The same happens here in this play. Getting god luck is the suitor of this lady and of course they come together at the end of the play. But Ralph Roister Doister is the Miles Gloriousus of this play and he is going for the love of lady christian Custance. She evades him, she does not want him. Merry Greek who plays the role of the intriguer. He is the one who is setting up the intrigues. He always fools him and pushes him on to go and suit her again and so on and so on. This is the plot of the play: Ralph Roister Doister whoring lady christian Custance who does not want anything from him, because she loves getting good luck. You have also other characters which show the local influence, the popular influence, not the Greek. Characters Tristram Trusty, Sim Suresby, Tibet Talkapace. Tristram Trusty, you know trusty has an implication of trustworthy, trustful, Suresby is sure. Talkapace can talk very fast.She talks at a great pace. Madge Mumblecrust might be even more interesting. She doesn`t have any teeth left, so she hast to mumble her crust. You also have Annot Alyface. She has a red face. The characters have satirical or ironic names which foreground their individual character traits. This is a tendency towards individualization of the character. In the morality plays you just had allegorical names such as humanity, faith or hopefulness, and whatsoever, and here you have a tendency towards individualization already in the names of the characters although the characters are still the types, not round individuals. This much about the second English comedy from the 16th century. We are now going to turn to tragedy before Shakespeare. Especially two names are important.  Thomas Kyd who has a famous play which is Spanish Tragedy and Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlow. Spanish Tragedy was written sometime between 1583-84 and 1590-91. We are not quite sure when it was exactly written.

Thomas Kid, the author lived between 1558 and 1594. 

The Spanish Tragedy is famous for its revenge plot, and this is something which is very important later on for Shakespeare as well. Shakespeare`s Hamlet also has this revenge plot, and this revenge plot comes from Seneca and his famous revenge tragedy. The revenge plot has certain stages. The first one there is a murder before the dramatic action of a play sets in. There is a ghost of the murdered who turns up and demands revenge. The protagonist of the play delays revenge which is a retarding moment in the course of the whole action. There is a play within the play as part of the revenge plan. The play within the play has the purpose of discovering or obtaining certainties who the murderer was. We have the same in Shakespeare`s Hamlet as well. You have the death of the guilty party who has committed the murder and a climax of more murders, usually towards the end of the play. And you have the death of close relatives out of grief. This was something like a structure that was repeated again and again. If we talk about Senecan revenge tragedies on the Elizabethan stage, we have this structure, we have these stages of the plot and they are repeated in many plays. In Shakespeare`s Hamlet for example, with variations the professor admits, but usually the same sort of structures the same sort of type. Here in the Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd, you have the characters of Horatio, Bel-Imperia, Hieronimo who are drawn into corruption. They get involved in chaotic segments of events that cost them their lives. Horatio, the son of Hieronimo loves Bel-Imperia, and there are other characters besides.

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In order to illustrate what style in Spanish Tragedy Thomas Kyd uses lets read it:

He has just discovered Horatio was murdered on the tree. The father Hieronimo discovers. He knows his clothes, he discovers his clothes, of course it is dark we can assume.  leese means lose.

Isabella is Hieronimo`s wife and the mother of Horatio. 

We have in this tragedy Elizabethan rhetoric of the finest. What we have here called the style called euphemism.

Here we have the parents who have just discovered the body of their murdered son Horatio who has been hanged. Hieronimo has been called from his bad. He seems to have felt that something was wrong. Secret communication between son and the father. This is the specialty of the plot. And his wife comes after him, and here they have the corpse of their beloved son. They do not start weeping away. They start talking away, because either one feels a lot of grief and then one can talk or one wants to talk but then one wouldn`t feel grief. But here, you have the two together. The two go together, and this is an Elizabethan convention. The Elizabethan audience expected this. They were used to this convention. Feeling a lot of grief and having a lot of words with them went together.

Nowadays no dramatist would represent the reality in such a way. But according to the conventions of Senecan revenge drama, the Elizabethan could do it, and did do it. That is one important thing. The discrepancy between a lot of words, and a lot of grief did not strike the Elizabethan audience as remarkable. They expected it. The next point to talk about here is the human emotions. The grief they feel becomes so big that they hardly have any images to express it. They do find images after all, and these images are for example: Oh gush out tears fountains of flood of tears. You not just a few tears, but fountains of tears. 

Or: Storm storm everlasting storm.  What you can see here is that human emotion, grief in this case becomes absolute and this is expressed through the imagery that is being used. Grief becomes absolute in the sense of feeling everything in the minds of these people. 

If we look at the morality play, we have allegory of mankind, sensual appetite, whatever all these allegorical characters. Have you once heard such a word from them? No you have`t, because it does not exist. It does not exist, because human emotion in this absolute form, in this overpowering form did not exist for the writers of these plays. Human emotions now storm into drama. The individual who is feeling these emotions is taken seriously for the first time. Individuality for medieval drama is of no concern whatsoever, but individuality now becomes important. And the individual with his or her feelings, grief, sorrow, rage, love of course Romeo and Juliet. It seems as if drama has opened up to these states, and has sort of collected them, it is now containing them. This is an important step for a dramatist such as Shakespeare to appear on the stage, and to be able to write his plays in such a way that he has done. Kyd is the first one who puts in such an absolute form of emotion.

That is another important convention of the revenge tragedy. Here we have some tokens. In this case it is the handkerchief with tears with blood that is the handkerchief which Hieronimo carries all the time, and he will not with it before he has not taken revenge. That is token of revenge, that is a sign that he will revenge himself. In order to summarize one again the pain is expressed in highly rhetorical and stylized way, not very believable for our ears nowadays. But acceptable to an Elizabethan audience, who was versed in the conventions of  Senecan Revenge  Tragedy. The quotations number 15 and 16 show the use of various

rhetorical devices. For example parallelism in the construction of the sentences. Anaphora. It means the repetition of the same word at the beginning of a line. O is repeated very often here in these quotations. O heaven, O earth, O poor Horatio, O wicked butcher. Anaphoric beginning.

Interior rhyme is another characteristic feature of the rhetoric of this drama. You have rhymes inside the lines. You also have of course alliteration. Size and storm are related to each other. You also have the word play. The play with words what we call pun. There is a lot of punning. All in all this language is highly stylized, highly rhetorical and this is what makes it difficult for us to read nowadays, because our reading conventions are completely different ones. In the 16th century, classical literature becomes the most important stylistic model and all these rhetorical devices are taken over from the Greek and the Latin plays. In the 16th century it was especially John Lyly whose Euphues from 1578, 1580 was written in that style. And Sir Philip Sidney`s Arcadia

from 1590. These people were highly skilled as far as language was concerned. A boy who addresses a girl would say: Could you deprive your clothes and enrich my bed?

Hieronimo back to the play is on the brink of insanity. He is definitely a predecessor of Hamlet. He is characterized by an overwhelming power of feeling. The feelings become so strong, so emotional that he is overpowered by these. This is the last possible stage of the reevaluation of the individual human motivation in 16th century drama. Here again you can see parallelism, you can see the interior rhyme.

O eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears;

O life, no life, but lively form of death;

O world, no world, but mass of public wrongs,

Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds! 

Interior rhyme especially in the last line is prominent. But you also see that the grief is flowing into the words. It is overflowing so to speak. This is something new, this has not been there before. Hieronimo later on in the play becomes an author and actor in this tragedy. This is another important point. It means, in the context of this paradigm shift from an authority related world picture towards an experience related one. From God, absolute subject towards the individual. It means that man becomes responsible for his own action, for his own faith. There is no providence who is fearing him any longer. Instead of actiong out of providence`s scripts ( before they were acting out of bible as we talked) man becomes author of his own faith, author of his own tragedy, responsible for his own tragedy. This implies a changed relation of the individual to the universe,to creation. It also implies a recognition of human responsibility. Tragedy is now no longer something which comes from the outside.Tragedy is produced by the individual himself. He is responsible, he is the actor and author of his tragedy.

If we talk about the concepts of tragic:

We have the antique tragedy of fate : It means fortuna, fortune is responsible for what happens. But if you have a more modern concept of tragedy and Shakespeare has a more modern concept of tragedy. It is man and woman who are responsible for their own fate. Who contribute  at least to this fate. Because if you have a tragedy such as Romeo and Juliet there are a lot of things that come from outside. They are not responsible for everything themselves. They are responsible for the animosity between their families for example. This is not for their responsibility, but of course they make mistakes. They disobey their parents. The fathers don`t want this union, they disobey. This is of course a mistake.This is false, a tragic flow if you like. Because by disobeying their fathers, they become responsible for what happens, or partly responsible for what happens.

So the concept of the tragic in Shakespeare is developing. Romeo and Juliet is an early tragedy. Later on people become more and more responsible for happens to them in Shakespeare. The concepts of tragedy from a tragedy of fate changes from a tragedy or fate outer forces responsible towards an  inner concept of tragedy. Individual becoming responsible for what happens. This can also be seen in this context of a paradigm shift between the authority related context of the world and experience related one. The relation between the individual to the universe and to creation changes, and there is this recognition of human responsibility. In the play there are many human plans. Humans start planning. They start intriguing against each other. This planning and intriguing becomes the center of history and drama. What you get is a chaotically unordered reality. What is acted out is no longer God`s plan or according to God`s plan. If God is withdrawing at least for a moment and looking on and let the human beings do what they want to do. History becomes chaos. You have an unordered reality. No longer supervised and controlled by an absolute subject that is God. The details which you get in revenge tragedy are sometimes very gruesome. That is characteristic of revenge tragedy. The Elizabethans had a great demand for spectacular action. Same applies to Shakespeare`s King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and especially his early revenge tragedy that is a revenge tragedy written according to Senecan model Titus Andronicus. 

What you get as a dramatic representation of primeval psychological forces come into the foreground. Primeval is a sort of bypass which takes the session of you of your mind, of your thinking, of your thoughts. For the first time in English drama this is taken seriously as part of human existence.

Hieronimo is author and actor in this tragedy in the double sense of the word. He is the author of the play within the play. He writes a play within the play. He wants to  find out who the murderer is, who is responsible and so on and so on.That is one sense author and actor in the tragedy and he plays a part. Not only a play within the play, he takes a part in the play as such in Kyd`s Revenge Tragedy, Spanish Tragedy, where he also takes one on the main part. He is responsible in the double sense of his own fate. Later on he cuts out his tongue, he kills a lot of people, he takes his revenge and so on and so on.

Hieronimo is actor and author of his own tragedy. Which means that he wants to become the subject of history. Subject of history meaning as much as being responsible for what happens in history, being in control of what happens. In this context Hieronimo has been an actor in the play, he has found out who the culprits were, he has found out who is responsible for what happens, and then he starts acting. Within the play the people are killed in reality not just as role play but in reality. He killed the people in reality. Later on he is of course caught , he is found out and people demand from him that he gives the names of his collaborators of those who have been working with him. And in order to prevent himself to give away the names of those who helped him he cut out his tongue. We have seven deadly vices and the antagonist Lucifer and his deceitful Mephistopheles.

Meaning that he can no longer talk about  what he did. At the end you have a lot of corpses on the stage. That was something to the great enjoyment of the Elizabethans. The more corpses the better the play. It was a convention that was widely accepted. It was the winding up the dramatic action and the dramatic climax of the action. If there were many corpses on the stage and if you remember Shakespeare`s Hamlet of course you have the same sort of phenomenon. A lot of people are dying towards the end of the play. So author and actor of his own tragedy.

This is something new. No longer God as the subject of history, but man himself being responsible. When we come from Spanish Tragedy to Christopher Marlowe`s Dr. Faustus. We have another great Elizabethan play. That may show you something about the paradigm shift. The paradigm shift from an authority related towards an experience related world picture. From God as the absolute subject towards the individual as agent of his own tragedy. Christopher Marlowe`s Dr.Faustus is relevant in this context, because it features human being, and individual that seeks through all the fields of knowledge of the time. All the knowledge that was available for an individual at that time. We are talking about renaissance. He finds faults with all of these fields. They do not satisfy Faustus any longer.That was kind of knowledge that was handed down from the authority. That was handed down from the middle ages. And that is the kind of scholastic knowledge that he finds fault with. The new kind of knowledge. We talked about with regard the nature of the four elements by John Russell. It is based on sense perception and experience. That is not touched by Dr. Faustus. It is the old that counts here, and he does away with old the old knowledge. He wants to know more. Renaissance individuals`s curiosity or thirst for knowledge was dramatised for the first time. Dr. Faustus shows still the influences of medieval morality play. You have for example the figures or characters of the good and the evil angels. And you will remember from the morality play the structure. We have everyman for example. We have good deeds at the right hand of everyman and we also have the vice characters that try to lead mankind astray. This structure is still visible in Dr. Faustus but there is additionally more to it. They are all from the morality play tradition from this allegorical tradition we talked about. And they are still there shortly before Shakespeare starts to write his plays.  Now I will quit writing the explanations of the professor and I will continue with tutorial notes which were noted on 8th May 2009 with Timo. I will write down on the next window.