Page | 1

Q.1

Greek Theatre

Theatre buildings were called a theatron. The theaters were large, open-air structures constructed
on the slopes of hills. They consisted of three main elements: the orchestra, the skene, and the
audience.

Q.2

Chorus means in unison. The use of a chorus in literature (and indeed the word)
arises from dramatic traditions of Ancient Greece. The chorus was a group that
often danced and chanted in unison to enhance the presentation of the drama. The
chorus could act as narrator introducing and setting scenes and letting the audience
know about off stage action. During the action of the play the chorus could also
enter in to the action representing a mob, crowd or other amorphous.

The Greek chorus was a group of approximately twelve actors who acted similar to
modern narrators in Greek plays. They were integral to the plays and would
sometimes have over half of the lines. Their job was to comment on the action in
the play, either by speaking all together or by singing. They would dress similarly
and wear masks.

Q.3

Form of drama

Plays are written to be performed by actors before an audience. But

the plays we wish to see are not always performed.
As a literary genre, drama has affinities with fiction and poetry. Like
fiction, drama possesses a narrative dimension: a play often narrates a story
in the form of a plot. Like fiction, drama relies on dialogue and description,
which takes from of stage directions, lines describing characters, scenes, or
actions with clues to production.

The two major dramatic modes, tragedy and comedy, have been represented
traditionally by contrasting masks, one sorrowful, the other joyful.

The elements of drama include plot, character, dialogue, staging, and theme.

Q.4
Morality plays were dramatic allegories that saw the main character forced to
choose a good, or Godly, life over an evil one.
 Page | 2

Morality plays are significant because they show the culture moving away from
religion and getting more secular.

This type of play essentially depicted a battle between the forces of good and evil in the human
soul.

A dramatic descendant of mystery and miracle plays of the medieval period, a

morality play's purpose was to allegorically point out good and evil, and the dangers
mankind faced in participating in sinful behaviors, and to highlight the cost of
pursuing such immoral actions.

Dr. Faustus by Marlowe is a morality play shows how the highly intelligent scholars
are ruining their lives for the sake of power and want to hold the world in their
hands. He overthrows Gods moral values and inculcates the vices where finally it
ruins his life.

Q.5

Interludes: The interludes were generally short entertainments inserted within a

longer play or amidst some other festivities or festivals.Their primary function was
to entertain the audience by humour or even by force.
Exmp:British composer Benjamin Britten's Sea Interludes.

it was short, witty, simple in plot, suited for the diversion of guests at a banquet, or for the
relaxation of the audience between the divisions of a serious play. Unlike the pageants, it was
essentially an indoors performance, and generally of an aristocratic nature

Q.6

Roman plays were presented in the daytime, sometimes before, sometimes after,
the noon meal. The average comedy was about two hours long. The characters
wore Greek dress, with or without masks. Paint and wigs were employed, a gray wig
for an old man, black for a young man, and red for a slave. For the greater part of
Roman history the profession of acting was confined to men, the women's parts
being taken by youths. The ordinary setting was a stage with a street and three or
four houses in the background. Two doors led from the wings on to the stage--one at
the left of the spectators for the entrance of persons from foreign parts, that to the
right for ordinary citizens.

Q.7
 Page | 3

The University Wits were a group of well-educated scholars-cum-men of letters who wrote in the
closing years of the sixteenth century. All of them were actively associated with the theatre and
the plays written by them mark a pronounced stage of development over the drama which
existed before them.

A group of six feisty, well- educated men chose to write for the public stage, taking over native
traditions. They brought new coherence in structure, and real wit and poetic power to the
language, they are known collectively as the "University Wits," though they did not always work
as a group, and indeed wrangled with each other at times.

"university wits" writers are given below.

John Lyly (1554-1606)*

Thomas Lodge (c.1558-1625)*

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)*

Robert Greene (1560-1592)*

Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)*

George Peele

Q.8

After the death of Shakespeare, the allure of drama gave way to newer genres though not entirely
and not all at once. Printing techniques were being perfected and more books were printed to a
(slightly) more literate society making the need for the drama a little less noticeable. Also
England, in the century following Shakespeare's death, fought several wars with quite a few
countries depleting many things needed for the theater: actors, leisure time and an appreciation
for the arts all took a hit.

This was happening all over Europe and not all of the decline can be attributed to the death of
Shakespeare. However, whenever the master quits producing, often the art form dies- at least in
the worst case scenario. Sometimes, it is re-invented and transformed.

Philosophy of 18th century

By the late 18th century in France and Germany, literary taste began to turn from
classical and neoclassical conventions. The generation of revolution and wars, of stress
and upheaval had produced doubts on the security of the age of reason. Doubts and
pessimism now challenged the hope and optimism of the 18th century. Men felt a
 Page | 4

deepened concern for the metaphysical problems of existence, death, and eternity. It
was in this setting that Romanticism was born.

Origins
Romanticism was a literary movement that swept through virtually every country of
Europe, the United States, and Latin America that lasted from about 1750 to 1870.