Editing English drama (section)

==Renaissance: Elizabethan and Jacobean periods==
{{Main|English Renaissance theatre}}
[[File:William Shakespeare by John Taylor, edited.jpg|thumb|150px|left|William Shakespeare, chief figure of the English Renaissance, is here seen in the [[Chandos portrait]].]]
The period known as the [[English Renaissance]], approximately 1500–1660,  saw a flowering of the drama and all the arts. The two candidates for the earliest comedy in English [[Nicholas Udall]]'s ''[[Ralph Roister Doister]]'' (c. 1552) and the anonymous ''[[Gammer Gurton's Needle]]'' (c. 1566), belong to the 16th century.

During the reign of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] (1558–1603) and then James I (1603–25), in the late 16th and early 17th century, a London-centred culture, that was both [[court]]ly and popular, produced great poetry and drama. The English playwrights were intrigued by Italian model: a conspicuous community of Italian actors had settled in London. The linguist and lexicographer [[John Florio]] (1553–1625), whose father was Italian, was a royal language tutor at the Court of [[James I of England|James I]], and a possible friend of and influence on [[William Shakespeare]], had brought much of the [[Italian language]] and culture to England. He was also the translator of [[Michel de Montaigne|Montaigne]] into English. The earliest Elizabethan plays include ''[[Gorboduc (play)|Gorboduc]]'' (1561) by [[Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset|Sackville]] and [[Thomas Norton|Norton]] and [[Thomas Kyd]]'s (1558–94) [[revenge tragedy]] ''[[The Spanish Tragedy]]'' (1592), that influenced Shakespeare's ''[[Hamlet]]''.

[[William Shakespeare]] stands out in this period as a [[poet]] and [[playwright]] as yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare was not a man of letters by profession and probably had only some grammar school education. He was neither a lawyer nor an aristocrat like the "university wits" that had monopolised the English stage when he started writing. But he was very gifted and incredibly versatile, and he surpassed "professionals" like [[Robert Greene (16th century)|Robert Greene]], who mocked this "shake-scene" of low origins. He was himself an actor and deeply involved in the running of the theatre company that performed his plays. Most playwrights at this time tended to specialise in either [[history|histories]], [[comedy|comedies]], or [[tragedy|tragedies]], but Shakespeare is remarkable in that he produced all three types. His 38 plays include tragedies, comedies, and histories. In addition, he wrote his so-called "problem plays", or "bitter comedies", that include, amongst others, ''[[Measure for Measure]]'', ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]'', ''[[A Winter's Tale]]'' and ''[[All's Well that Ends Well]]''.<ref>M. H. Abrams, ''A Glossary of Literary Terms'', 7th edition. (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1999), p.246.</ref>

His early classical and Italianate comedies, like ''[[A Comedy of Errors]]'', containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, gave way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his greatest comedies,<ref>{{Harvnb|Ackroyd|2006|loc=235}}.</ref> ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'', ''[[As You Like It]]'', and  ''[[Twelfth Night]]''. After the lyrical ''[[Richard II (play)|Richard II]]'', written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, ''[[Henry IV, Part 1|Henry IV, parts 1]]'' and ''[[Henry IV, Part 2|2]]'', and ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]''. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''  and ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'', based on Sir [[Thomas North|Thomas North's]] 1579 translation of [[Plutarch|Plutarch's]] ''[[Parallel Lives]]'', which introduced a new kind of drama.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ackroyd|2006|loc=353, 358}}; {{Harvnb|Shapiro|2005|loc=151–153}}.</ref>

Though most of his plays met with success, it was in his later years that Shakespeare wrote what have been considered his greatest plays: ''[[Hamlet]]'', ''[[Othello]]'', ''[[King Lear]]'', ''[[Macbeth]]'', ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]''. In his final period, Shakespeare turned to [[Shakespeare's late romances|romance]] or [[tragicomedy]] and completed three more major plays: ''[[Cymbeline]]'', ''[[The Winter's Tale]]'' and ''[[The Tempest]]'', as well as the collaboration ''[[Pericles, Prince of Tyre]]''. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dowden|1881|loc=57}}.</ref> Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, ''[[Henry VIII (play)|Henry VIII]]'' and ''[[The Two Noble Kinsmen]]'', probably with [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Wells|Taylor|Jowett|Montgomery|2005|loc=1247, 1279}}</ref>

Other important playwrights of this period include [[Christopher Marlowe]], [[Thomas Dekker (writer)|Thomas Dekker]], [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]] [[Francis Beaumont]], [[Ben Jonson]], and [[John Webster]].

Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include [[Christopher Marlowe]] (1564–1593), [[Thomas Dekker (writer)|Thomas Dekker]] (c. 1572 – 1632), [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]] (1579–1625) and [[Francis Beaumont]] (1584–1616). Marlowe (1564–1593) was born only a few weeks before Shakespeare and must have known him. Marlowe's subject matter is different from Shakespeare's as it focuses more on the moral drama of the [[Polymath|renaissance man]] than any other thing. Marlowe was fascinated and terrified by the new frontiers opened by modern science. Drawing on German lore, he introduced the story of [[Faust]] to England in his play [[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]] (c. 1592), a scientist and magician obsessed by the thirst for knowledge and the desire to push man's technological power to its limits. At the end of a 24-year covenant with the devil, Faust must surrender his soul to him. Beaumont and Fletcher are less known, but they may have helped Shakespeare write some of his best dramas, and were popular at the time. One of Beaumont and Fletcher's chief merits was that of realising how feudalism and chivalry had turned into snobbery and make-believe and that new social classes were on the rise. Beaumont's comedy ''[[The Knight of the Burning Pestle]]'' (1607) satirises the rising middle class and especially the nouveaux riches who pretend to dictate literary taste without knowing much literature at all.

Ben Jonson (1572/3-1637) is best known for his [[satire|satirical]] plays, particularly ''[[Volpone]]'', ''[[The Alchemist (play)|The Alchemist]]'', and ''[[Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedy|Bartholomew Fair]]''.<ref name="StewartHarp2000">{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Robert C|editor=Harp, Richard|editor2=Stewart, Stanley|title=The Cambridge companion to Ben Jonson|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=0-521-64678-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00harp_0/page/189 189–202]|chapter=Jonson's critical heritage|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00harp_0/page/189}}</ref> He was also often engaged to write courtly [[masque]]s, ornate plays where the actors wore [[mask]]s. Ben Jonson's aesthetics have roots in the Middle Ages as his characters are based on the [[Humours|theory of humours]]. However, the stock types of [[Latin literature]] were an equal influence.<ref>"Ben Jonson." ''Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 20 September 2012. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/127459/Ben Jonson.</ref> Jonson therefore tends to create types or caricatures. However, in his best work, characters are "so vitally rendered as to take on a being that transcends the type".<ref>"Ben Jonson." ''Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition''.</ref> He is a master of style, and a brilliant satirist. Jonson's famous comedy ''[[Volpone]]'' (1605 or 1606) shows how a group of scammers are fooled by a top con-artist, vice being punished by vice, virtue meting out its reward. Others who followed Jonson's style include [[Beaumont and Fletcher]], whose comedy, ''[[The Knight of the Burning Pestle]]'' (c. 1607–08), satirizes the rising middle class and especially of those ''nouveaux riches'' who pretend to dictate literary taste without knowing much about literature at all. In the story, a grocer and his wife wrangle with the professional actors to have their illiterate son play a leading role in the play.

A popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the [[revenge play]], which had been popularised earlier in the Elizabethan era by [[Thomas Kyd]] (1558–94), and then subsequently developed by [[John Webster]] (1578–1632) in the 17th century. Webster's major plays, ''[[The White Devil]]'' (c. 1609 – 1612) and ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'' (c. 1612/13), are macabre, disturbing works. Webster has received a reputation for being the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatist with the most unsparingly dark vision of human nature. Webster's tragedies present a horrific vision of mankind; in his poem "Whispers of Immortality," [[T. S. Eliot]] memorably says that Webster always "saw the skull beneath the skin". While Webster's drama was generally dismissed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there has been "a strong revival of interest" in the 20th century.<ref>Margaret Drabble, 'The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p.1063.</ref>

Other revenge tragedies include ''[[The Changeling (play)|The Changeling]]'', written by [[Thomas Middleton]] and [[William Rowley]]; ''[[The Atheist's Tragedy]]'' by [[Cyril Tourneur]], first published in 1611; [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s ''[[The Jew of Malta]]''; ''[[The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois]]'' by [[George Chapman]]; ''[[The Malcontent]]'' (c. 1603) of [[John Marston (playwright)|John Marston]]; and [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]]'s ''[['Tis Pity She's a Whore]]''. Besides ''Hamlet'', other plays of Shakespeare's with at least some revenge elements are ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'', ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]],'' and ''[[Macbeth]]''.

[[George Chapman]] (?1559-?1634) was a successful playwright who produced comedies (his collaboration on ''[[Eastward Hoe]]'' led to his brief imprisonment in 1605 as it offended the King with its [[anti-Scottish sentiment]]), tragedies (most notably ''[[Bussy D'Ambois]]'') and court masques (''[[The Memorable Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn]]''), but who is now remembered chiefly for his translation in 1616 of [[Homer]]'s [[Iliad]] and [[Odyssey]].

''[[The Tragedy of Mariam|The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry]]'', a [[closet drama]] written by [[Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland|Elizabeth Tanfield Cary]] (1585–1639) and first published in 1613, was the first original play in English known to have been written by a woman.