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The Theatre of the English Renaissance
Objectives
After studying this chapter, the student should be able to:
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Identify major Elizabethan playwrights.
Compare and contrast the public and private theaters.
Describe the scenery and costumes in use during the English Renaissance.
Describe the organization and practices of acting companies in the English
Renaissance.
Describe Jacobean and Caroline drama, playwrights, and designers.
Lecture Topics
What did the Elizabethan theaters look like?
How were Elizabethan acting companies organized?
Compare and contrast the work of Ben Jonson with William Shakespeare.
Discussion
Was the Elizabethan Theatre best remembered for its playwrighting, scenic innovations
or acting reputation?
What are some of the challenges in reconstructing English Renaissance theaters?
Why do some scholars think that William Shakespeare may not have been the author of
the works generally attributed to him?
Describe the audience for the public theaters.
Multiple-Choice
Please choose the answer that best completes each sentence.
1. The first significant dramatist to emerge in the Elizabethan period, ________________
established blank verse as the medium of dramatic expression.
A. William Shakespeare
B. Francis Beaumont
C. John Fletcher
*D. Christopher Marlowe
2. At what theater were Shakespeare's plays produced (before the building burned in
1613)?
A. The Rose
*B. The Globe
C. The Swan
D. The Theater
3. The Elizabethan ___________________________functioned much like a Greek skene.
*A. tiring house
B. pit
C. courtyard
D. gallery
4. Which of the following is true of private theaters in Elizabethan England?
A. They were indoors.
B. They were smaller than the public theaters.
C. They were more expensive than public theaters.
*D. All of the above
5. Which of the following is true of Elizabethan theatrical costumes:
*A. Actors usually wore contemporary (Elizabethan) clothes on stage.
B. Actors usually dressed for the period/era that the play demanded.
C. Elizabethans were extremely concerned with historical accuracy.
D. All of the above
6. Actors were provided with ______________________which contained the lines and
cues of their parts, rather than full scripts.
A. bits
B. shares
*C. sides
D summaries
7. Which of the following can be found in The Spanish Tragedy?
A. episodic structure
B. ghosts
C. soliloquies
*D. All of the above
8. ___________________________, a "university wit," was famous for his "mighty
line," as seen in his Doctor Faustus.
A. William Shakespeare
B. Inigo Jones
*C. Christopher Marlowe
D. Mephistopheles
9. William Shakespeare wrote many of his plays with the leading actor,
____________________, in mind.
A. James Burbage
*B. Richard Burbage
C. Christopher Marlowe
D. Edward Alleyn
10. Writing such works as Volpone and The Alchemist, ___________________________
was one of the first writers in England to champion the neoclassical rules.
A. John Webster
*B. Ben Johnson
C. Francis Beaumont
D. John Fletcher
11. The ______________________________was an elaborate, professionally staged
allegory which was written to praise the monarch.
A. shadows play
B. trope
C. scop
*D. masque
12. _________________________brought Italian innovations in scene design to
England.
*A. Inigo Jones
B. Salma Spolita
C. Richard Burbage
D. John Fletcher
13. The contemporary of Shakespeare's who sought to reform human behavior through
the comedies he wrote was:
*A. Ben Jonson
B. Inigo Jones
C. Richard Burbage
D. Aristophanes
14. In Elizabethan theaters, the lower class generally stood in the area known as the:
A. boxes
B. gallery
*C. yard
D. heavens
15. The famous designer of English masques, who did scenery, costumes and special
effects was:
A. Elia Kazan
B. Richard Burbage
C. Ben Jonson
*D. Inigo Jones
16. The roof of Elizabethan theaters was called the ______________, and extended out
from the tiring house.
A. gallery
B. yard
C. pit
*D. heavens
17. The major builder of theaters during the Elizabethan age was:
*A. James Burbage
B. Richard Burbage
C. Christopher Marlowe
D. Christopher Wren
18. The most important private theater of the Elizabethan age was:
A. The Globe
B. The Theater
C. The Rose
*D. The Second Blackfriars
19. Elizabethan playwrights often wrote in __________________, meaning the verse has
five beats to a line, with two syllables a beat and the accent on the second beat.
*A. iambic pentameter
B. rhymed couplets
C. prose
D. blank verse
20. Which of the following neoclassical ideals is present in such Shakespearean plays as
Hamlet?
A. unity of place
B. complete separation of comic and tragic elements
C. use of a single plot, with no subplots
*D. none of the above
21. ______________ was used in Elizabethan plays: characters would describe the
settings and verbally indicate what location they inhabited.
A. Decorum
B. Verisimilitude
*C. Spoken décor
D. Realism
22. By a decree of Queen Elizabeth, all plays and companies had to be licensed by:
A. the Church
*B. the master of revels
C. the archon
D. the Lord Chamberlain
23. Which of the following is true of Elizabethan acting:
A. Boys played women’s roles.
B. Actors played more than one role.
C. Actors/characters spoke in verse.
*D. All of the above
24. Shakespeare was a member of the ___________________, for which he wrote most
of his plays.
A. Lord Admiral’s Men
B. Queen’s Men
*C. Lord Chamberlain’s Men
D. None of the above
25. ________________________, working together, excelled at writing dramas that were
a mixture of serious and comic elements.
*A. Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
B. Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones
C. Richard Burbage and Edward Alleyn
D. Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kid
True/False
Please choose whether the statement is true or false.
26. Dramas were presented in schools during the Early part of the English Renaissance.
*True
False
27. English copyright law prohibited playwrights from borrowing source material from
other works.
True
*False
28. Shakespeare joined other playwrights in adhering to the neoclassical rules.
True
*False
29. In order to reconstruct events and practices of importance to theatre history, scholars
consult primary sources, which are materials surviving from the period under study.
*True
False
30. The proscenium arch was a prominent feature of the Globe Theater.
True
*False
31. Public theaters were built outside of the London city limits due to city leaders’
opposition to theatre.
*True
False
32. Starting in the Elizabethan theaters, food and drink were no longer allowed in the
theater.
True
*False
33. A flag was flown from the top of the tiring house to announce that a performance was
taking place.
*True
False
34. Private theaters were large, outdoor theaters, which took advantage of natural
daylight.
True
*False
35. The Elizabethans used painted-perspective scenery in the private theaters.
True
*False
Essays
36. Compare and contrast public and private theaters, giving an example of each.
37. Discuss one prominent acting company during the Elizabethan era; what were the
roles of the various company members and how were they paid?