Table of Contents
Why I like Renaissance Drama
William Shakespeare
Ben Jonson
Thomas Middleton
Christopher Marlowe
Renaissance Resources
Why I like Renaissance Drama
All of my adult life I have contemplated society and how it functions. I have wondered why people act as they do, and have found both humor and tragedy in society. Renaissance drama is able to capture these aspects of social life in a way that no other literature has. Whether it is the demonic caricature of a King or a lighthearted folly of the working class, Renaissance drama is able to display the truth and emotion of its time.
My first exposure to Renaissance drama was Shakespeare. In high school I read the standard works: Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and a few of the sonnets. Unfortunately I was not very interested in the works. Towards the age of twenty I re-read Shakespeare. As I developed a clear understanding of Shakespeare’s language I was able to better appreciate his work. I began to feel a deep connection with the works of Shakespeare and how they were capable of portraying society.
I began to understand why so many people read him. I began to understand why I liked reading him. His language is the most beautiful that I have ever read. He uses this language to bring to life themes that are relevant now and that will be relevant in the future. He critiques human nature. He pits good against bad and throws in a little love story to make his plays more entertaining. His description of social life and strife is what has drawn so many readers to his work.
The desire to find more about his times and contemporaries increased as I was exposed to Ben Jonson. In an introductory university course I read Jonson’s Volpone. I was delighted to see such humor in a play that borders on tragedy. His satire on Jacobean society is wonderful. I fell in love with this play and had a deep desire to write such a play. I wished that I could write such a satirical piece on contemporary society. As a result of reading Jonson I decided to further my studies in Renaissance drama.
After taking a course in the works of Shakespeare I knew that Renaissance drama was where I would concentrate my studies. Plays like Richard III and King Lear showed me the troubles of political life. By studying Richard III I was able to gain a new insight into the workings of politics. Richard is a typical Machiavellian villain. He is capable of ruining his brothers and of winning over the wife of a man he has killed. Through my reading of King Lear I was able to see Lear’s madness grow. I saw how his daughters were quick to abandon him once they had gotten their part of the kingdom. Shakespeare is able to show his audience that society is filled with many evils and that sometimes characters like Richard prevail while the lives of such virtuous characters like Cordelia are filled with tragedy. In many of his plays Shakespeare is able to display the tragedies of society in a way that brings the audience to a better understanding of humanity.
I had a hunch that Renaissance drama was a form of literature that has a great insight into humanity. I enjoyed Shakespeare but I knew I had to further my exposure to his contemporaries in order to see if my hunch was right. I enrolled in a course that focused on Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. In this course I was exposed to many writers. My hunch was proven. Renaissance drama was a form of literature that best suited my desire to understand society.
The plays of Middleton and Marlowe give a great insight into the nature of Man. In Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta he uses the character of Barabas to show the audience the vengeful nature of Man. In Middleton’s play The Revenger’s Tragedy the character of Vindici is the prototypical character of vengeance. Both of these characters use deception and treachery in order to act out their vengeance. These works show how Renaissance drama is able to criticize and describe the darker natures of Man.
But Renaissance drama is not obsessed with the evil aspects of humanity. Throughout the comedies of Shakespeare the audience is exposed the nature of love. These plays show the playful nature of two lovers, such as Benedict and Beatrice, or the joyful ending to a comical situation of mistaken identities that is found in The Comedy of Errors. But Shakespeare is not the only Renaissance playwright to show the better side of life.
In Thomas Dekker’s play The Shoemaker’s Holiday we see that not all members of the court treat the lower classes as inferior to themselves. This is seen when Simon Eyre is able to feast with the King. This play also shows that there is a place for the lower classes in the court. By giving Eyre permission to hold his feast the King shows that he is willing to let the lower class participate, for one night, in the luxuries of courtly life. This theme is different than many Renaissance plays. In many of the plays of the time we see the lower classes struggling to become part of the court. In The Shoemaker’s Holiday we see that sometimes the lower class is given an opportunity to interact with the court.
To be continued =)
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Why do I read Shakspeare? Well the first time I read him it was because I was forced to.
That was my sophomore year in high school. Even then I liked certain aspects of his plays.
I remember liking "Hamlet" and "Macbeth." I really didn't enjoy "Romeo and Juliet" at the time
but have grown to like it. After my senior year in high school I didn't read much Shakspeare.
I saw Mel Gibson's version of "Hamlet" in 1994 and fell in love with Shakspeare.
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TO BE CONTINUED
William Shakespeare
Chrostopher Marlowe