{"id":64,"date":"2017-09-04T06:13:27","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T06:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/?page_id=64"},"modified":"2017-09-22T15:21:21","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T15:21:21","slug":"historical-development-of-drama","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/historical-development-of-drama\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical Development of Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>\n

Historical Development of Drama<\/h1>\n

Objective<\/h4>\n

In this section we\u2019ll trace the historical development of the dramatic form from the the fifth century BCE, when ancient Greeks developed the form, to contemporary plays and dramas.<\/p>\n

Greeks<\/h4>\n

Drama and theater developed in ancient Greece between the late sixth and early fourth centuries BCE. Its influence was so profound that theater is widely enjoyed to this day. Some of the earliest tragedies and comedies were written by the gifted intellectuals, artists, and politicians living in the great city of Athens.<\/p>\n

The origins of Greek comedy and tragedy can be traced to the elaborate Greek worship rituals that were enacted in the name of Dionysus, god of fertility and wine. Over time, these dramatic ceremonies began to include other gods and human heroes.<\/p>\n

Fifth-century master playwrights Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus produced tragedies that focused on humanity\u2019s struggle with good and evil. In contrast, Aristophanes, also from the fifth century, wrote comedies full of satire and absurdity.<\/p>\n

The Middle Ages<\/h4>\n

The medieval period began in 1066 when the Normans, led by William the Conqueror, defeated the Anglo-Saxons. The Middle Ages were a time of feudalism, the Magna Carta, chivalry, knights, and the Crusades. In England, medieval drama served as public entertainment.<\/p>\n

The following table provides an overview of the different types of plays performed during the Middle Ages in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Types of Plays Performed in the Middle Ages<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Type of Play <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Description<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Miracle Play <\/strong><\/td>\nA play based on the life of a saint or a martyr. Later versions would include Bible stories. Also known as a mystery play<\/strong><\/abbr>, this type of drama was developed by the Roman Catholic Church to teach the illiterate about Christianity.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Passion Play <\/strong><\/td>\nA play depicting Christ\u2019s crucifixion. Such plays were performed from the thirteenth century onward but dwindled in popularity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Morality Play <\/strong><\/td>\nTheaters offered these plays during the latter part of the Middle Ages. The morality play was a dramatized allegory<\/strong><\/abbr> in which the actors played the roles of virtues and vices, such as Mercy, Conscience, Shame, Patience, and Greed. The good and the bad struggled for the soul of a single hero.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Renaissance<\/h4>\n

The period from the mid-fourteenth century to the end of the sixteenth century is recognized as the Renaissance, a period of learning, discovery, and culture that swept across Western Europe and England. The English Renaissance, during which drama flourished, occurred during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1553\u20131603).<\/p>\n

Playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare wrote some of the most well-known and popular plays of Western society in the Elizabethan era. English drama during the early part of the sixteenth century developed slowly, but during Shakespeare\u2019s youth the theatre scene exploded with vitality.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Middle Ages, religion was the subject matter of drama, but Marlowe, and later Shakespeare, found inspiration for their plays in Greek tragedies, morality plays, and English history.<\/p>\n

Blank verse<\/strong><\/abbr> was the preferred form of Elizabethan playwrights. Blank verse is unrhymed poetry that still contains a rhythm and meter.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare\u2019s thirty-seven plays can be divided into three categories: histories, tragedies, and comedies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Types of Shakespearean Plays<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Type of Drama<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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Description<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

History <\/strong><\/td>\nThe histories illustrate moral lessons to be learned from the ambitions and treachery of state leaders.<\/td>\nHenry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Richard II, Richard III<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tragedy <\/strong><\/td>\nThe tragedies depict a character\u2019s self-destruction through passion and ambition and show how breaking a moral law certainly leads to ruin.<\/td>\nKing Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Comedy <\/strong><\/td>\nThe comedies amuse audiences with romantic fantasies, mistaken identities, and satire.<\/td>\nA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, The Tempest<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Most of Shakespeare\u2019s plays were originally performed at the famous Globe Theater across the Thames River from London. Wealthy theater patrons watched plays from seats in the gallery. Those who could afford a penny for a play stood in the yard.<\/p>\n

Shakespearean costumes were colorful and elaborate versions of the dress of the time. Scenery was simple, nearly nonexistent, but the audiences who filled the playhouses came for the excellent entertainment\u2014not the backdrops.<\/p>\n

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries<\/h4>\n

The period known as the Restoration began in 1660 when Charles II became king of England. Drama reached its height in sixteenth-century England; Shakespeare and his contemporaries entertained audiences from all walks of life.<\/p>\n

Theater of the seventeenth century included satiric comedies and tragicomedies. Comedy grew more sophisticated and less dependent on mistaken identity situations and sight gags.<\/p>\n

The comedy of manners<\/strong><\/abbr> was first written during the Restoration period as a reaction against the severity of Puritanism.<\/p>\n

A comedy of manners is characterized by the following features:<\/p>\n