Pagan origins

Fertility rites mainly based on nature cycles: i.e. seasons

MAY POLE
 Interest of the Church
in pagan celebrations

From celebrations of spring

to

celebration of Easter
 Liturgical drama

Sung dialogue between the celebrants

to commemorate great Christian events

in the nave of churches

From the nave to the church square

From latin to vernacular

No more priests as actors

 13th 14th 15th cent.

Mystery or Miracle Plays

Actors: members of Trade Guilds

Stage: pageants
 Morality Plays

Characters not from Bible, but

personifications of Vices and Virtues

Everyman, after 1485

Main characters: Everyman, Death,

Fellowship, Beauty, Strength,
Worldly Goods, Kindred, Good Deeds
 End of 15th cent.

Interludes

Combination of serious elements with more comic ones

Vice as a dramatic character

his dialogues rich with puns

 Folk tales re-telling old stories, i.e. Robin Hood

Actors used to travel from town

to town performing for their
audiences in return for money and
hospitality.

Authorities against actors,

because beyond control

Actors classified as “vagabonds and

beggars,” in a 1572 Act of Parliament
 timeline

1492 America, Leonardo’s Last Supper

1508, Michelangelo Sistine Chapel

1509-1547 Reign of Henry VIII

1534, Act of Supremacy

1558-1603 Reign of Elizabeth I

1564-1616 W. Shakespeare

1576, The Theatre

1599, The Globe

SOUTHWARK
 The Globe

James Burbage

Lord Chamberlain’s Men

W. Shakespeare

The Rose

Philip Henslowe

Admiral’s Men

C. Marlowe
The Swan
 Elizabethan Advertising

Flags were erected on the day of

the performance which sometimes displayed a picture
advertising the next play to be performed.

Colour coding was also used

a black flag meant a tragedy

white a comedy

and red a history.

If you want to see what the Globe was like, just click on the following link

http://aspirations.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/enrich/globe_picker2.html