A Short Essay on the Elizabethan Stage and its Language

Essay , 1983 , 18 Seiten , Note: 3,0

Anglistik - Sonstiges

The Elizabethan drama owed its development to two influential traditions: namely firstly to humanism as it was represented by the comedies written by Terence and Plautus and secondly to the English tradition of the English miracle and morality plays.

From the Latin comedies the Elizabethan drama adopted both formal innovations and new material as regards contents. To the newly adopted dramatic elements belonged the clear division into acts and scenes, the introduction of the actors who are to speak a prologue or an epilogue and new types of characters like the parasite, the miles gloriosus (the boastful knight), the shrewd and witty servant, the obstinate father who is deceived in the end, the ardent lover, and the girl disguised as a man.

As regards contents new motifs and themes like confusion, secret love affairs, separated families that happily reunite after having experienced many adventurous encounters, the unexpected reappearance of children who were believed to be lost were adopted from the plays written by Plautus.

Contents

Some Introductory Remarks about the Dramatic Traditions of the Elizabethan Stage

Part One
1. The Control of the Stage
2. The Playhouses
3. Boy Companies and Adult Companies

Part Two
1. The Functions of Dramatic Art: some Shakespearean
Suggestions
2. Three Methods of trying to Find out how Actors might
have behaved on an Elizabethan Stage
3. Soliloquies in Shakespeare’s Dramatic Language . 12

Final Observation: The Audiences

Bibliography

• Hochschule: Universität Bielefeld (Sprachenzentrum)
• Veranstaltung: Elizabethan Language
• Note: 3,0
• Autor: Dr. phil. Volker Beckmann (Autor:in)
• Erscheinungsjahr: 1983
• Seiten: 18
• Katalognummer: V456291
• ISBN (eBook): 9783668869431
• ISBN (Buch): 9783668869448
• Sprache: Englisch
• Schlagworte: dramatic traditions, the control of the stage, typology of playhouses, boy companies and adult companies, the functions of dramatic art, actors' behaviour on stage, soliloquies, behaviour of audiences