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Literature Survey 1 > Drama > Flashcards

Drama Flashcards

1
Q

What are the origins of the English drama?

A

Middle Ages: Illiterate people couldn’t read the Bible, so on holidays the Church had plays that told incidents from the bible, obv in Latin (=Mystery Plays)
-> there was dramatic action without speech

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2
Q

What are Miracle/Mystery Plays?

A
  • cylic collection of short plays on incidents from the Bible
  • no author of plays
  • amateur actors: town guilds
  • on pageant wagons
  • no scenery but rich costumes
  • town guilds owned the ones they financed
  • Performance time on Corpus Christi Day in May/June

13th-14th century

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3
Q

What are the cycles of Mystery Plays?

A
  • York
  • Wakefield
  • Chester
  • Ludus Coventriae
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4
Q

What are the five groups of a cycle?

A
  • Plays dealing with the Creation, the Fall of Man
  • Plays centering around the birth of Christ (old Christmas play)
  • Plays presenting incidents in the life of Christ
  • Passion plays (early Quem Quaeritis)
  • Ascension plays
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5
Q

What are Morality Plays?

A
  • Allegorical drama teaching moral lessons
  • Deriving from the Church sermon
  • Characters personifying moral qualities or abstract concepts
  • Division into acts and scenes
  • Professional actors
  • Indications of individual authorship

14th-16th century

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6
Q

What were the three themes of Morality Plays?

A
  • Coming of Death
  • Debate of heavenly virtues
  • Conflict of virtues and vices fighting for the soul of a man
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7
Q

What are the two main situations in Morality Plays?

A
  • Temptation
  • Debate

both: struggle of the soul in Shakespearean drama

e.g. ‘Everyman’ (i.e. allegorical figure representing Mankind) is seduced by Satan falls, repents and is finally saved by God’s mercy) + ‘Mankynd’

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8
Q

What is ‘Interlude’?

A
  • Sometimes considered transition between medieval morality plays and Tudor dramas
  • Vice as a stock figure (=represents specific stereotypes)
  • Performance at festivities without need for a stage

example: ‘The Play called the four PP’ by John Heywood

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9
Q

What do you know about Comedy?

A
  • Characters from the ‘lower classes’
  • Plain English
  • Classical influence

example: The Supposes

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10
Q

What do you know about Tragedy?

A
  • Classical influence
  • Form: five-act play, Chorus (3 unities)
  • Seneca: 9 closet dramas
  • Content: bloody action, revenge, murder, ghost

example: Hamlet

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11
Q

What is a Domestic Tragedy?

A
  • Ordinary middle or lower-class protagonists
  • Focus on recent local events

example: Arden of Feversham

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12
Q

What does the term ‘University Wits’ mean?

A

Authors that influenced the theatre in the 16th century, who also studied at Oxford

example: Thomas Nashe, Christopher Marlowe

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13
Q

What is Christopher Marlowe’s contribution to new drama?

A
  • villain-hero
  • passion for beauty
  • powerful language
  • strong individualism
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14
Q

What are some works of Christopher Marlowe?

A
  • Doctor Faustus
  • The Jew of Malta
  • Tamburlaine

he shares characteristics with his main characters in his books

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15
Q

What do you know about the book ‘Tamburlaine’ by Christopher Marlowe?

A
  • written in 1588
  • 1st prologue: intro of Tamburlaine - his rise to world domination
  • there were two parts
  • worldly power and glory
  • restless move from battlefield to battlefield
  • brutality vs. beauty of speech

Part 1: Tamburlaine’s rise to power by bloodshed, treachery, ambition
Part 2: his decline

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16
Q

What do you know about the book ‘Doctor Faustus’ by Christopher Marlowe?

A
  • composed around 1592
  • Quarto 1604 & one in 1616
  • shows struggle within protagonist’s mind (soliloquies)
  • chorus: intro to Faustus (humble origins -> transgression -> downfall)
  • divided into 3 parts
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17
Q

In what three parts is ‘Doctor Faustus’ divided?

A
  1. Temptation and fall of hero (bargain with Mephistopheles)
  2. 24 years as a wonder-working magician (in exchange for his soul)
  3. his death and damnation

Faustus as the typical ‘new man’, the overreacher

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18
Q

What are the characteristics of a normal medieval tragedy?

A
  • royal hero
  • moral, didactic lesson
  • falling from happiness to misery
  • fortune
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19
Q

What are the characteristics of a Malovian tragedy?

A
  • Individual hero, overreacher
  • no moral
  • struggle of the soul
  • inner conflict

e.g. Fall of Princess

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20
Q

What public theatre arose in Whitechapel?

A

Red Lion in 1567 by John Brayne

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21
Q

What public theatres arose in Shoreditch?

A
  • Theatre by James Burbage
  • Curtain
  • Fortune by Philip Henslowe
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22
Q

What public theatres arose in Southwark?

A
  • Rose by Henslowe
  • Swan
  • Globe
  • Hope by Henslowe
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23
Q

How many shareholders did the Globe theatre have?

A
  • Richard Burbage (25%)
  • Cuthbert Burbage (25%)
  • William Shakespeare (12.5%)
  • John Heminges (12.5%)
  • Augustine Phillips (12.5%)
  • Thomas Pope (12.5%)

-> 6

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24
Q

Why did public playhouses have a bad reputation?

A
  • pickpockets
  • spread of diseases
  • contamination of people’s morals
  • practical reasons e.g. traffic problems

Shakespeare wasn’t esteemed great because his association with plays

and obv lots of people mingled

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25
Q

What are some facts about the Globe theatre?

A
  • Under London Bridge
  • Held up to 3000 people
  • original had no roof (=Heaven)
  • trap underneath stage (=Hell)
  • pit for groundlings
  • apron stage
  • balcony
  • tiring house
  • flag (colors represented if play was ongoing/about to start)

groundlings got wet bc no roof, noblemen had a roof over them

stage sets were limited because sometimes people set on the stage -> limited background

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26
Q

What’s the history of the Globe?

A
  • Built in 1599
  • Destroyed by fire in 1613
  • Rebuilt with tiled roof in 1614
  • Closed by Puritans in 1642
  • Demolished in 1644

Globe was the most successful playhouse for 14 years until the fire
Across Europe there are reconstructions of the Globe

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27
Q

Were playhouses open all the time?

A

Public: closed in winter
private: yes

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28
Q

How was the atmosphere at the Globe like?

A
  • Social composition of the audience
  • Aural and visual appeal
  • Festival-like atmosphere
  • Eating and drinking during performance
  • Fights in the pit

(Women, servants, apprentices could access the Globe together with all other members of society, so a lot of simple and illiterate people were there)

29
Q

What private theatres were there?

A
  • Blackfriars (1576)
  • Whitefriars (1608-1620s)

From 1608 Shakespeare’s King’s Men performed at Whitefriars in winter, where they had to adapt to the stage because it was a picture-frame stage (Globe was round, not rectangular)

30
Q

Describe the private theatre ‘Blackfriars’?

A
  • Located in London
  • Indoor
  • Artificially lit
  • ‘selected’ audience
  • Higher admission prices
  • Picture-frame stage
31
Q

What is ‘Masque’?

A

Courtly entertainment celebrating the monarch, combining music and acting with elaborate stage design and costumes, actors and actresses wearing masques, final dance + participation of noblemen and -women, self-fashioning and role-playing

-> Collaboration of Ben Jonson (writing) & Inigo Jones (proscenium staging)
-> ‘Masque of Blackness’ (1605) -> at the request of Queen Anne

32
Q

What are the names of adult companies in public theatres (playing companies and actors)?

A
  • Lord Chamberlain’s Men (Henry Carey)
  • Admiral’s Men (Charles Howard)
33
Q

What are the names of children’s companies in private theatres?

A
  • Choir boys
  • Children of the Chapel
34
Q

What do you know about William Shakespeare?

A
  • 1564-1616
  • Marriage to Anne Hathaway
  • Born in Stratford-upon-Avon
  • 3 children
  • had 7 lost years, reappeared in London
  • Actor
  • Shareholder of Globe
  • wrote narrative poems
  • wrote sonnets + plays

Shakespeare’s son died in 1596, there’s a book on it called ‘Hamnet’

35
Q

What was very important to Shakespeare?

A

That he signed ‘W.S. Gentleman’

36
Q

What do you know about the authorship debate regarding Shakespeare?

A
  • Stratfordians, Oxfordians think that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays
  • Some think that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford claimed as real author of Shakespeare’s works bc he was a lawyer and Shakespeare couldn’t have known some things
37
Q

Why did Shakespeare write Tragedies after Elizabeth I’s reign?

A

how powerful England is for the narrative + showing her that there will be a way of continuity

He started out with writing comedies and histories and after Elizabeth’s death he wrote Tragedies

38
Q

What are foul papers?

A

Shakespeare’s first script

39
Q

What are fair copies?

A

clear handwriting of the foul papers, either by Shakespeare himself or scribe

40
Q

What are prompt-books?

A

stage-directions to guide an individual’s performance

41
Q

What’s the difference between a good quarto and a bad quarto?

A
  • Good quarto: more authentic & reliable
  • Bad quarto: pirated editions, actors recollection of his plays and they sold it to the press; printing errors; notes-taking by competitive playhouses during a play
42
Q

What do you know about Shakespeare’s First Folio?

A
  • 1623
  • consisted of 36 plays
  • edited by John Heminges
  • printed by Jaggard
  • Preface by Ben Jonson ‘Soul of the Age’

in 17th century: Second, Third & Fourth Folio, 21st cen: New Shakespeare

‘Not of an age, but for all time’ by Ben Jonson about Shakespeare in his Preface to the first folio

43
Q

What is the ‘Stationer’s Company’?

A
  • Trade guild of printers, bookbinders and booksellers receiving royal charter in 1557 to regulate the printing and publishing industry and optimize censorship
  • Early form of copyright law
  • Important members: Richard Tottel, Richard Field, John Day
  • Stationer’s register: company’s record book (works entered to document exclusive right to print/publish them)
44
Q

Why is Shakespeare still relevant?

A
  • his contribution to language
  • his plays were universal
  • he shaped theatres
  • explored the human psyche
  • universal talent
45
Q

What do you know about Romeo and Juliet on a formal level?

A
  • Tragedy
  • Written in 1595
  • Consists of 5 acts
  • Mentioned in Folio in 1623
  • First performance before 1597 by Lord Chamberlain’s Men

(first & second act have a prologue)

bad quarto in 1597, good quarto 1599
There are multiple selected adaptions (screen e.g. Luhrmann with Leo DiCaprio + music e.g. Bernstein: West Side Story, Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet)

46
Q

What does the Prologue in Romeo and Juliet tell us?

A
  • Two households that are in a feud: Montagues vs. Capulets
  • Setting (Verona, Italy)
  • Source of conflict (ancient grudge)
  • Fate, tragic outcome (star-crossed lovers take their lives)
  • Performance (two hours long)

Chorus is English sonnet with 3 quatrains and 1 couplet

47
Q

What does the Prologue to Act 2 in Romeo and Juliet tell us?

A
  • Mentioning Romeo’s extinct love for Rosaline
  • Emphasis on the lover’s meeting
  • Anticipating the complex consequences

English sonnet too btw

48
Q

How are the lovers in Romeo and Juliet introduced?

A
  • Romeo: introduced by Benvolio as typical Petrarchan lover
  • Juliet: introduced by Capult talking to Paris

-> Both are (quasi) in a relationship: Romeo + Rosaline, Juliet + Paris (=kinsman of Prince of Verona)

49
Q

How did Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting look like?

A
  • At Capulet’s ball
  • Religious metaphors: holy shrine, pilgrims, saints, holy palmers, prayer, pray
  • Romeo as a pilgrim and Juliet as a saint, through her kiss his ‘sin is purged’

Act 1, Scene 5

50
Q

How is the imagery in Romeo and Juliet?

A
  • Light and darkness: good and bad, but darkness also as shelter
  • Moon, sun
  • Stars: metaphors for a lady’s eyes, for beauty + allusion to fate (star-crossed lovers)
51
Q

How is the general structure of Romeo and Juliet?

A
  • Romantic plot, Violent scenes, Climactic scenes
  • Patterns of repetition throughout the play
  • Frequent use of the sonnet: Petrarchan love poetry
  • Love and death
  • Social vs personal time
52
Q

How about a feminist approach to Romeo and Juliet?

A

Coppélia Kahn: ‘Coming of Age in Verona’
- Changing role of Juliet’s father from paternal mildness to despotism (=absolute ruler that oppresses)
- Nurse: traditional conception of femininity, trivial anecdotes and dirty jokes
- Juliet’s increasing independence, ‘placing fidelity to Romeo above obedience to her father’

53
Q

What do you know about Richard II on a formal level?

A
  • History play
  • written in 1595 (covering Richard’s last two years)
  • part of a tetralogy

tetraglogy = four works that are based on each other

Richard II, Henry 3rd, Henry 4th, Henry 5th

54
Q

What’s the similarity between Richard II & Elizabeth I?

A
  • problems in Ireland
  • childless
  • had favourites
  • Bolingbroke & Earl of Essex (their opps) were popular with common people
55
Q

What’s the structure of Richard II?

A
  1. Richard as King
  2. Bolingbroke’s invasion
  3. Richard’s deposition
  4. Bolingbroke as King
56
Q

What happens at Flint Castle in Act 3, Scene 3?

A
  • The King’s two bodies: body politic and body natural (body politic is receding)
  • Richard’s instability, anticipation of his downfall
57
Q

What happens in the Garden scene at Langley in Act 3, Scene 4?

A
  • Garden being compared to state of kingdom
  • Commons use garden metaphors to describe political events
  • Richards’ Men are ruining the country

Fall of leaf = reference to autumn & after fall is winter/death (threat)

58
Q

What are the characteristics of Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke?

A
  • Richard II: indecisive, unstable, talks a lot but doesn’t do anything, weak-minded
  • Bolingbroke: masculine virtues, deeds, personal achievement
59
Q

What happens at the Deposition scene in Act 4, Scene 1?

A
  • Richard dominates stage
  • Richard contemplates himself in mirror (narcissim, betrayal)
  • gives up crown but talks a lot beforehand

Richard’s comparison of the crown with a ‘deep well/That owes two buckets’ -> Tear buckets, Richard is lower because he cried more

60
Q

What happens in the prison scene in Act 5, Scene 5?

A
  • Richard in prison at Pomfret Castle
  • wonders if he’s something else than a King (fails)
  • Gets murdered by Exton
  • Henry not happy about his death
61
Q

What do you know about ‘The Changeling’ on a formal basis?

A
  • Jacobean tragedy
  • written in 1622
  • written by Middleton (mainplot) & Rowley (subplot)
62
Q

What could the title ‘The Changeling’ mean?

A
  • Changeling: hypallage: rhetorical figure reversing the natural relation of two terms in a sentence -> cross over and combination of contrary qualities and values in the play
  • Title metaphorically applied to Beatrice: dangerous changeability of women
  • Also to other characters e.g. Diaphanta taking the place of Beatrice in the bed-trick
63
Q

What is the genre of ‘The Changeling’?

A
  • Masque and antimasque
  • Revenge drama
  • Tragedy of love
  • Domestic tragedy
  • Ironic inversion of Petrarchism (De Flores as the lover)
64
Q

What is the setting of ‘The Changeling’?

A
  • Alicante, Spain
  • Enclosed space -> impenetrable atmosphere
  • Main plot at castle (stands for the chaste mistress Beatrice, patriarchal analogy between family and state -> because father controls both)
  • Subplot at an asylum/madhouse
65
Q

What’s happening in the opening scene in ‘The Changeling’?

A
  • Beatrice’s change of heart: from Alonzo to Alsemero (to De Flores)
  • De Flores: serpent, image of the devil + Sexual connotations later on by cut-off Alonzo’s finger as a phallic trophy for Beatrice
  • Some critics say that Beatrice’s unconscious sexual interest in De Flores, her revulsion as repressed sexual desire (Freud)
  • Profound link between them: intense sexuality and violence, later: murder of Alonzo

Parallel to the castle:
o outward view: chivalric love and honour
o inward view: lust and deception

66
Q

What happens in Scene 2.1 in ‘The Changeling’?

A
  • De Flores’ claim of moral solidarity
  • shared subservience of servant and women
  • mix of gender and class in his obsession for Beatrice
  • class revenge
67
Q

What happens in Scene 2.2 in ‘The Changeling’?

A

2 encounters ->
- Beatrice meeting Alsemero
o Her treatment of the complete gentleman
o His proposal: ‘One good service’ (=duel between Alsemero and De Flores)
o Her warning: ‘Blood-guiltiness becomes a fouler visage’ -> she thinks a duel is too risky
- Beatrice meeting De Flores
o Beatrice offers a cream for his face which makes us skeptical
o Mentioning the service (killing Alonzo)
o Hinting at further rewards beyond money (she means money and he wants a sexual relationship with her)
o Clever play on the language of service, manhood, blood, danger and reward
o Her naïve hope that De Flores can be sent off to ‘live bravely in another country’
o His response: ‘we’ll talk of that hereafter’ -> Beatrice doesn’t catch the cynicism

68
Q

What happens in Scene 3.4 in ‘The Changeling’?

A
  • Alonzo’s cut-off finger with the diamond ring (wanted ring, cuts off entire finger and shows Beatrice -> he thinks they are equal from now on and she gifts him the diamond)
  • De Flores’ refusal to play by the rules, reminding Beatrice of being ‘a woman dipped in blood’ (=he has the power to force her and he reminds her of being a woman dipped in blood and she reminds him of their different rank)
  • Her talk of their different rank but he talks how her involvement of the murder makes them equal and one
  • De Flores: despising her money, subverting the language of chivalry turning service into sexual mastery, servitude into social revenge
69
Q

What’s going on in Scene 5.3 in ‘The Changeling’?

A
  • Relation main plot -> subplot (=almost a parody, turn to comic effect)
    o Implications -> literal meanings
    o Deceptive appearances -> actual disguises
    o Madness of love -> almost real madness
  • Connection of both parts delivered by Alsemero: he lists all the changes

Literature Survey 1 (5 decks)

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