In 1588, the English fleet defeated the mighty Spanish Armada. This great victory inspired a burst of patriotism that was reflected in the poetry and especially the drama of the period.

During the Elizabethan Age, the English explored and colonized distant lands. Wealth from the colonies poured into England. A newly rich merchant class made London a great commercial centre. These merchants as well as the nobility wanted entertainment and fine art and were willing to pay for them. Writers, painters, and musi­cians flocked to London, making it a European cultural centre. English writers produced some of the greatest poetry and drama in world literature.

Elizabethan poetry. Three chief forms of poetry flourished during this time. They were the lyric, the sonnet, and narrative poetry.

A lyric is a short'poem that expresses a poet's personal emotions in a songlike style. Thomas Campion wrote many beautiful lyrics in his "Books of Airs".

The sonnet is a 14 -line poem with a certain pattern of rhyme and rhythm. Elizabethan poets wrote two types of sonnets, the Italian sonnet and the English sonnet. The two types differed in the arrangement of the rhymes. Sir, Thomas Wyatt introduced the son­net from Italy into English literature in the early 1500s. The Earl of Surrey modified the form into the English sonnet. Their verses were published in the collection commonly called "Tottel's Miscellany" (1557). William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser wrote sonnet sequences. A sonnet sequence is a group of sonnets based on a sin­gle theme or about one person.

A narrative poem tells a story. In addition to sonnets, Shakespeare and Spenser wrote narrative poems. Shakespeare based his "Venus and Adonis'1 (1593) on a Roman myth. Spenser borrowed heavily from medieval romances.

English poets translated many works from other literatures. For example, the Earl of Surrey translated part of the "Aeneitf\ an epic poem by the ancient Roman author Virgil. The translation intro­duced blank verse into English literature. Blank verse consists of unrhymed lines of 10 syllables, with every other syllable accented. Many poets adopted this form.

Elizabethan drama. In 1576, James Burbage built England's first playhouse, called The Theatre, in a suburb of London. Until this time, drama had been performed in the streets, in homes and palaces, and at English universities. After Burbage built The Theatre, other playhouses were constructed, which rapidly increased the pop­ularity of drama.

Elizabethan drama was noted for its passion and vitality. Thomas Kyd's play "The Spanish Tragedy" (1580s) was one of the earliest Elizabethan dramas. It is filled with scenes of violence and madness and set a pattern for themes of murder and revenge in later plays.

A group of leading Elizabethan playwrights- were known as the "University Wits" because they had attended the famous English uni­verities at Oxford or Cambridge. These playwrights included Robert Green, Christopher Marlowe, and George Peele. Marlowe was the most important dramatist among the Wits. He wrote tragedies that cen­tre on strong personalities. These works include "Tamburlaine the Great" (about 1587) and "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" (about 1588).

The greatest Elizabethan playwright was William Shakespeare. No other English author has equaled his brilliant verse and characteriza­tion.

The Stuarts and the Puritans. Elizabeth J died in 1603 without leav­ing an heir to the throne. Her cousin King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. James governed the two countries as separate kingdoms. He was a member of the House of Stuart, which ruled'England for most of the period from 1603 to 1714.

James was an arrogant and superstitious man who quarrelled often with Parliament. After James died in 1625, his son Charles I ascended to the throne. Conflicts between the monarchy and Parliament worsened. Civil war broke out in 1642 between the king's followers, who were called Cavaliers, and Parliament's chief sup­porters, a religious and political group called the Puritans. In 1648, the Puritans won the war. They beheaded Charles in 1649 and ruled England until 1660.

Metaphysical and Cavalier poets were two major groups of poets during the -Stuart period. The metaphysical poets included John Donne, the leader of the group, Abraham Cowley, George Herbert, and Henry Vaughan. The Cavalier poets, who were associated with the court of Charles I, included Thomas Carew, Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and Sir John Suckling.

The metaphysical poets used comparatively simple language, but they often created elaborate images called conceits. Donne wrote pas­sionate love poetry until he converted from Roman Catholicism to the Anglican faith. He became an Anglican priest in 1615. After his conversion, Donne wrote equally passionate poems to God. Several other metaphysical poets also wrote religious verse. In contrast to the serious metaphysical poets, the Cavalier poets wrote dashing love poetry.

Jacobean drama is the name given to the plays written during the reign of James I. Jacobean tragedies reflected Elizabethan drama, especially in such characteristics as violent action, spectacle, and the revenge theme. John Webster's drama "The Duchess ofMalfi" (about 1613) is a masterpiece of revenge tragedy. Satiric comedies, which poked fun at various subjects, were also popular.

Ben Johnson wrote plays that showed the influence of ancient Roman drama. His comedies "Volpone" (1606) and "The Alchemist" (1610) satirize universal human failings such as greed, ignorance, or superstition.

After James I died, the quality of English drama rapidly declined. In 1642, the Puritans ordered the closing of the theatres, claiming that plays were wicked. The order remained in effect for 18 years.

Prose writings. In 1604, King James 1 authorized a group of scholars to prepare a new English version of the Bible. It appeared in 1611 and became known as the "King James Version or Authorized Version". This Version was a landmark in the development of English prose. Its elegant yet natural style had enormous influence on English-speaking writers.

Many authors wrote philosophical works during the early and mid-1600s. Donne composed a series of meditations on sickness, sin, and death. Sir Thomas Browne and Jeremy Taylor wrote works noted for their beautiful prose style. In "Religio Medicini", Browne gave his learned opinions on a broad variety of subjects, including miracles and witchcraft. Taylor is best known for two religious essays.

PLAYS

At festival times more than 2500 years ago, the citizens of every important city in Greece rose before dawn to attend certain special events celebrated in honour of Apollo. Thronging to

their hillside amphitheatres, they would sit for hours .on hard stone benches, absorbed in the plays performed there. Ever since, plays have delighted audiences the world over. There are at least two reasons: first, play's provide entertainment; second, plays make it possible for people to see themselves in a variety of situations. Plays, in short, provide valuable insights into human behaviour.

The plays of ancient Greece were performed by actors wear­ing masks, and were staged without scenery on the bare floor of those hillside amphitheatres. In contrast, the plays we see today are performed by actors wearing makeup and costumes appro­priate for the time the action is supposed to occur. What's more, the plays we see today are performed in one or three places; on a lighted stage in a theatre before a live audience; on a specially designed and equipped stage, or set, in front of motion picture cameras; or on a stage, or set, in a studio in front of television cameras (and sometimes a live audience, too).

But what exactly is a play? Well, just recall some movies or television plays you have seen recently. (If you are lucky enough to have seen some stage plays, think back about them, too.) As you do so, you'll realize that a play is simply the acting out of a narrative (story) by a person or persons who move and speak in front of a live audience or a camera. Not only do the actors — those who do the moving and speaking — pretend to be the char­acters in the play, they also seek to behave and speak exactly as would real-life persons in the, same circumstances.

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Persons who write plays — playwrights — have a task differ­ent from that of storywriters and poets! Whereas poets and sto-rywriters can tell you directly that a character is kind and gener­ous or heartless and cruel, playwrights can't. And whereas poet and storywriters can tell you directly that a character is happy or sad or whatever, playwrights can't. Playwrights, you see, are not usually on stage or on the set with the actors. But even if they are, they can't step out on the stage or in front of the camera, inter­rupt the action, and explain what's going on or what kind of per­sons the characters are. Yet every playwright must somehow sup­ply that information. There are two ways: (a) through dialogue — what the characters in the play say to one another — (b) through stage directions. Dialogue is the verbal action in a play, and stage directions indicate the physical action.

Stage directions are the playwright's instructions to the direc­tor and to the actors. Stage directions specify what the stage or set is to look like. They indicate where the actors on the stage are to be at specific times during the play; they indicate how and where the actors are to move around; and they indicate the tone of voice in which actors are to speak certain lines. Stage direc­tions, then, are written from the actors' point of view, not the audi­ence's. When an actor is directed to move right or left, it is that actor's right (or left). If the actor is directed to go upstage, he or ■ she moves to the back; if directed to move downstage, he or she moves to that part closest to the audience (or to the camera).

Every play is written to be performed — to be seen and heard by an audience. Unfortunately, however, it would be impossible for you to see every play in existence — even in the movies or on television. But to enjoy what outstanding playwrights — past and present — have written, you can read their plays.

Reading a play is somewhat different from seeing it per­formed. In the first place, you need to visualize the setting and the costumes. Then you need to hear the tones of voice in which the actors speak their lines. Third, you need to picture the actors' movements — indeed, all of the action. To do all of these things, you need to read the playwright's stage directions carefully. You can't afford to hurry over or miss anything.

ASSIGNMENTS