-
-
Queen Elizabeth I ascended to the British throne in 1558 and outlawed the performance of religious dramas that same year.
-
Shakespeare is widely considered the greatest playwright ever to write in English. He was one of the few playwrights to excel in both tragedy and comedy. Williams’s plays show a masterful understanding of the range and depth of human nature
-
-
Thomas Kyd a renowned English playwright. He began writing plays in the 1580s and is known for having created the Elizabethan dramatic genre of the revenge tragedy.
-
Christopher Marlowe was the most important English dramatist prior to Shakespeare. He was the first English playwright to succeed with blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter.
-
Romeo and Juliet is among Shakespeare’s most famous works. It is a tale of two star-crossed lovers whose fates are tragically intertwined.
-
Ben Johnson is a poet and playwright who was a controversial figure. He was imprisoned for his satirical writings.
-
The Globe theatre was built in London in 1599. It was the venue for the first performances of many of Shakespeare’s plays.
-
Masques were expensive court dramas with huge casts, gorgeous costumes, beautiful scenery, music, and elaborate stagecraft. Masques were popular with the English court in the early 1600s.
-
Hamlet is one of the most famous plays in English literature. It was a milestone in the dramatic works of its author, William Shakespeare.
-
As a result of the Puritan Revolution and a civil war in England, the new Puritan parliament viewed theatres as “places of sin” and ordered them closed to “appease and avert the wrath of God.”
-
-