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The story of the English drama continues to the time of the Queen Elizabeth
and the first playwright to mention is Thomas Kyd (1558-94).
His play The Spanish Tragedy is likely to become the basis for Shakespeares
Hamlet. The plays were written in blank verse following Latin standarts.
Thomas Kyd was one of the group of the graduates from Oxford and Cambridge
who called themselves the University Wits
Men with learning and talent but no money, they could not, like the
clerks of the Middle Ages, find a career in the Church. The monasteries
had been dissolved by King Henry VIII,
So far we have said nothing about these theatres
. The University Wits are different; their dramatic
fortunes are tied to the theatres of London, and, being men of learning,
they produce something better than the old popular morality plays. But
what and where were these theatres ? London was a growing and prosperous
city, to which streams of visitors flocked, not only from the provinces
of England but from the Continent as well. The wandering groups of players
would find fair audiences in the inns on the roads that led to London.
They would set up their stages in the inn-yards, take good collections
of money after their performances, and, finding that the audiences at
the inns shifted frequently, consider giving performances daily in the
same placenot moving on to fresh inns and fresh audiences, but allowing
the fresh audiences to come to them. Here we have the germ of the Elizabethan
theatrea building indistinguishable from an inn, four sides of the
building looking into a large yard. the common people could stand in
the yard itself.
Shakespeare's 'great Globe itself was built in 1598, out of the timbers
of the old Theatre. All these playhouses followed the same architectural
linesthe inn-yard surrounded by galleries, the stage which jutted out
into the audience and itself had, at the back, two or three tiers of
galleries.
We can think of the popular drama of the day as being divided among
two great companies of playersthe Lord Chamberlain's and the Lord Admiral's;
the Lord Chamberlain's (later called the King's Men) operating in their
greatest days at the Globe; the Lord Admiral's at the Fortune. These
two companies were only nominally the ' servants' of the noble person
who lent their titles; they were virtually free agents, protected by
their noble patrons from the charge of being vagabonds or 'masterless
men'. How could they be either of these if they wore the livery of nobility
? Both groups were large, perpetually infused with new blood (as with
modern football teams) through transfers of players and through an apprenticeship
system which provided a steady flow of boys for the women's parts. All
members of the theatrical companies were versatilethey could play tragedy,
comedy, they could dance, fence, sing, leap. Two actors were very greatRichard
Burbage, son of James Burbage, star of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, first
interpreter of all the leading Shakespearian parts; Edward Alleyn, son-in-law
of Philip Henslowe, star of the Lord Admiral's Men, creator of Faustus,
Tamburlaine, the Jew of Maltaall the Marlowe heroes. Elizabethan England
produced a great drama, and it had great actors.
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