HISTORY OF THE THEATRE: RENAISSANCE TO NINETEENTH CENTURY

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  The Concept of Renaissance

The great age in human civilization, which historians tagged the Renaissance, was a landmark in the history of human development. The Renaissance was the forerunner of modernity. Everything we consider modern today took root in this great epoch of human history. In their great book, The Western Intellectual Tradition, J. Bronowski and Bruce Mazlish state unequivocally that:

The idea of the Renaissance is a singularly complicated one. Historians differ sharply as to when it began and when it ended. Some see its beginning as early as the 12th or 13th Centuries; others prolonged the Middle Ages until as late as the 17th Century. Some historians date the Renaissance from the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, on the grounds that this drove Greek scholars westwards into Mediterranean Europe; others hold that the Renaissance was really set in motion by the rapid printing of books from movable types, which was introduced about 1451 and became common 50 years later (22).

We will not go into the debate about the origin of the Renaissance. However, it is important to note that all the factors above helped to promote the Renaissance in one way or another. Indeed, the Renaissance was a complex period.

Apart from the problem of dating, one undeniable factor that characterizes the Renaissance as a complex period is its backward and forward-looking tendencies. In the first place, interest in classical learning led to the revival of the works of ancient Greek and Roman authors. In the theatre, the plays of Greek tragedians, and notably those of Seneca, Plautus and Terence were discovered, studied and produced according to the artistic precepts of Horace and Aristotle. It is in this regard that the Renaissance is often described as the revival, or a derivative period whose golden drama was a return to the past.

In its forward-looking tendency, the Renaissance is seen as the forerunner of modern civilization. This is because individualism, capitalism, humanism and empiricism, the secular concept of the state, huge scientific discoveries and great voyages of exploration all took root in this age. In its forward-looking, the Renaissance man freed himself from the clutches of medieval thought, and sought to discover the wonders of life and the world based on scientific thinking and discoveries. There was a fierce belief in human possibilities. As Bronowski and Mazlish would say, “men became self-willed, and this self-made man of the new Renaissance wanted to grasp men and nature through senses, physically in handfuls”. There was a mounting impatience as men strive to attain glory, fame, as well as to know, discover and invent. A belief in the unlimited endowment of man made him a habitual explorer of the unknown.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1

Why is the Renaissance said to be a complex period?

3.2 Factors that Influenced the Renaissance

Many factors were responsible for the emergence of the Renaissance. Some of them include the following:

Humanism

Humanism was the thought that guided the Renaissance. It is by definition, the movement of thinking towards the upgrading of human dignity. According to Oscar Brockett, it “marked a return to concern for the worth of humanity and earthly life, not merely as a preparation for eternity but as valuable in themselves”(121). The humanists believed that man was endlessly gifted and that his genius must be allowed to flower. Humanism called for secularization of thinking and a new evaluation of the value of man as a being with rationality. It greatly opposed the medieval notion of man as a dependent creature in dire need of salvation.

Upsurge of Interest in Classical Learning

Because the classical world of Greece and Rome provided a model in drama, a deep-rooted passion for the classical artistic beauty and form led to the revival of classical scholarship. This interest in the newly found classical styles and genres created models for dramatic composition in which the qualities of poise and balance, decorum and verisimilitude were highly prized, especially in Italy and France where they were made into rules. In these countries the infatuation for the writings of Horace and more importantly that of Aristotle, led the enthusiastic followers of the theatre in classical fashion, to carry things to the extreme, to the point that geniuses were hindered from flowering.

The Fall of Constantinople

The fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 equally helped to facilitate the development of the theatre during the Renaissance period. This fall accelerated the movement of Greek scholars to Italy. However, it is necessary to observe that the impulse for classical learning was already in existence before the influx of scholars from Byzantium. This movement of scholars was just a catalyst that helped to intensify the reaction against the medieval theology and philosophy, which was already in progress.

Quest for Knowledge and Adventure

Another factor that promoted the Renaissance was the quest for new knowledge and the spirit of adventurism. With the humanist feeling that man was endlessly gifted and that knowledge is boundless, men began to scientifically question existing order, unbelievable ideas were rejected. The quest for new knowledge led to many breakthroughs in the theatre, especially in the playhouse.

Emergence of the Printing Press

The invention of the printing machine by Guttenberg in 1451 helped in the mass production of plays, critical essays and commentaries.

The Economic Factor

Italy then was a major terminus of trade routes for Europe, Asia and Africa. As a result of its position, many trading cities developed. Money made from trades by the growing middle class helped to encourage urban life and to destroy feudalism. In important trading cities like Venice, Florence, Vicenza, etc., the middle class merchants who were now urbanized, used their profit to finance the construction of expensive theatre buildings and to promote play production.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

List and discuss two factors that influenced the Renaissance.

Italian Renaissance

Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance. In Italy, the theatre underwent great revolution in dramatic literature, architecture and scenery. It recorded tremendous achievements in theatre architecture and scenery. This will be discussed in separate unit dealing with the playhouse.

In terms of dramaturgic writing, Italy failed to attain the height which was attained in England and Spain with the plays of Shakespeare and lope de Vega. Insistence upon the dramatic precepts of Aristotle and Horace as we mentioned before, became according to Luis Vergas, “the rock’ upon which the theatre of the Renaissance in Italy finally shattered itself and dissolved into a thousand useless splinters”(83). Fanatical misapplication of rules prevented eager playwrights from writing “plays which would satisfy the yearnings of an adventurous, spacious, rich and dangerous age”(83). Fed up with the heavily rule-governed plays, the audiences according to Vargas, “soon grew restive and paid more attention to the intermezzi between the acts, which were mostly more uninhibited items in which music played a predominant part”.

Other forms of theatrical activities apart from tragedy and comedy include the pastoral, which dwelt on nomadic lifestyle especially their love affair; the opera, an essentially musical drama, as well as commedia dell’arte. Comedia dell’arte gave Europe its first professional troupe of actors. In the words of Luis Vargas:

Commedia dell’ arte was a form of play unique in many ways. In the first place, there was no written script, no part to be learned by heart. The actors, in effect, had to be their own authors, they were presented merely with the outline of scene to be played, it was up to them as experienced professional actors to supply the appropriate words and actions to obtain the necessary theatrical effect desired. This form of improvised drama could only be successfully handled by groups of actors who had undergone rigorous training in the special techniques required (85-86).

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3

Why did Italy fail to produce great plays during the Renaissance?

The Elizabethan Age

The English counterpart of the Italian Renaissance was the Elizabethan age, which began around 1588 when Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne of England. It ended with the death of William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist of the period. According to Bronowski and Mazlish, “the Elizabethan Age is a difficult period to describe fairly because it is so rich, so wide in its cultural reach and so full of great men…”(155). These authors in describing the temper of this period noted that it was an “age of great tempestuous passion”, where “all life seemed to be heroic, endless new worlds awaited discovery, and no boundary existed to knowledge” (166).

Factors that led to the Greatness of the Elizabethan Period

Many factors accounted for the greatness of the Elizabeth age. A few of them are:

1. The spectacular and obvious cause of England’s greatness of this period could be traced to the navigational achievements of men like Raleigh, Hawkins, Cavendish and Drake, among others. These navigators explored and annexed territories, bringing home great treasures and gold.

2. The presence of puritans helped to transform England into a business and manufacturing state.

3. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 made England to bestride the whole world like a colosus. Bronowski and Mazlish express the view that, “the Elizabethan’s age great literary adventure sprang from the optimism and sense of destiny which the defeat of the Armada, almost by divine intervention, inspired in the minds and hearts of Englishman” (156).

The Elizabethan Theatre

From about 1550, English drama began to free itself from the medieval influence. The inns and the universities had touch of classicism “but before long attention was shifted to popular interest.’’

In fact, the latter plays of the Elizabethan age were written for the popular audience who never cared for rule-governed plays. This audience needed plays that were truly English, both in temper and taste, plays that would marry their native theatrical activities with the passions of the period. Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare specially got hold of the audience by writing and producing plays that corresponded with the temper and taste of the age.

Marlowe portrayed clearly, and in true colours, the Elizabethans’ lusts for gold, knowledge and power. He gave the Elizabethans the scenes of vigour, sensation and spectacle that thrilled them. In Tambourlaine, Dr. Faustus, King Edward II and the Jew of Malta Marlowe captured the “enthusiasm of the audiences for whom play going had become a

passion” (Vargas, 101).

According to Oscar Brokett:

Shakespeare was by far the most comprehensive, sensitive, and dramatically effective playwright of his time. He attempted almost all the popular dramatic types and subjects of his age, and in each instance gave them their most effective expression (157).

With him, the Elizabethan age attained its zenith in theatrical productions. Shakespeare never cared for any rules; he mixed the gay with the serious the patricians with the plebeians in the same dramatic pot. Oftentimes, his plays defy classification. His scenes appear closely interwoven as in the lives of human beings. Andrei Serban rightly observes that:

It never takes more than three pages for the situation of a Shakespeare play to change completely as if another play has entered and interrupted the action. A play by Racine or Corneille establishes a single mood that continues for two hours, but Shakespeare gives us a kaleidoscope of moods, presenting many shifting aspects of life and the human condition (252).

Shakespeare was at his best in mingling various kinds of moods and human emotions in Merchant of Venice. With a collection of thirty- seven marvelous plays, he became the darling of not only the Elizabethans, but of all ages.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4

Why is William Shakespeare seen as the greatest dramatist of all times?

The French Neo-Classicism

In France, the Renaissance found its counterpart in Neo-classicism. Although France began to feel the impact of the Renaissance by the 16th Century, in the drama of this period, medieval and Renaissance elements lived side by side, and were actually mutually influential. But by the early 17th Century, the influence of classicism had dominated the religious drama. Unlike the English and the Spanish dramatists that cared little about rules, and mingled both comedy with tragedy, the French playwrights followed the Italians in making sharp distinction between genres, and in observing the three unities. Because of the French love for order and symmetry, ideas borrowed from Aristotle and Horace were codified into rigid rules now referred to as the neo-classical principles. In fact, an Academy promoted by Cardinal Richelieu (1586-1642) was charged with the duty of enforcing the rules. The French Academy censored plays. For example, the play, Le Cid by Pierre Cornelle was condemned for violating the neo-classical ideals. This generated uproar throughout the country, which in no small measure affected playwriting in France.

Neo-Classical Principles or Ideals

The neo-classical principles include the following:

Verisimilitude

This rule insists that dramatic event must be very similar to life or the tradition of the people. Issues raised in plays must be believable. This rule derives impulse from Aristotle’s concept of plausibility.

Decorum

This rule insists that characters must be true to type. For example, there are certain roles which according to custom are exclusively for men. Women must never be assigned to play such roles in a dramatic production. Also, weak people should never be allowed to perform heroic deeds.

Purity of Dramatic Genre

This rule implies that tragedy must be tragedy, and comedy must be comedy. There should be no admixture of the gay and the serious.

Five-Act Structure

This rule insists that all plays must have five acts, no more no less.

The Three Unities

This is the most celebrated of all the neo-classical ideals. The three unities include the unity of action, unity of place and unity of time. Unity of action implies that a play should be based on a single plot. This does not allow any room for sub or double plot. Unity of place implies that a play should occur within one place. This does not permit shifting of events of the play from one country or town to another as are evident in the plays of William Shakespeare. Unity of time is a rule which demands that all the actions of the play must be such that are capable of taking place within a single day. These rules confined the French dramatists to work within a strict framework. Geniuses were not allowed to develop.

However, as the academicians were engaging themselves in academic tussle through debates on the right type of tragedy, Moliere was delighting the people with his lively comedies which subject matters were drawn from social scenes. According to Luis Vargas, “As a critic of the social scene, Morliere represents the man of good sense who deplores all excess, affection or aping of the habit or modes of behaviour of others” (124). In his time, Moliere had no rival in comic writing. As social commentaries, his plays “embroiled him in much controversy’ (Brockett, 224). His play, Tartuffe is a biting satire on religious hypocrisy. It still engages the attention of modern audience as it did the French audience of the seventeenth century.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 5

List and discuss two neo-classical ideals.

3.6 The Restoration Drama

The period between 1660-1700 is often referred to as the Restoration period in English literary history. England was not at peace in 1640s. Following the beheading of Charles I, the parliament headed by Oliver Cromwell took over the British leadership. This period known as the Commonwealth era lasted for eighteen years. By 1660, Charles II who spent his maturing age in France was restored as the English monarch. The theatre was abolished by the puritans during the Cromwell era. But Charles II, who had acquired French taste in art opened the closed down theatres on ascending the throne. Because of the classical leaning of the early Restoration drama, it attracted only the aristocrats.

However, due to the bastardization of the works of the Elizabethan playwrights, notably Shakespeare, the people especially the young men about town no longer take the classically inspired plays seriously. They wanted plays that would portray the decadent state of the English society. This quest led them to embrace Moliere’s comedy of manner which was popular in France at that material time, and which approximated their taste.

The Restoration Comedy

Although there were attempts to create tragedies modeled after the French classical playwrights like Racine and Corneille, the taste of the period inclined more to comedy. Sir, George Etherege (1634-1691), William Wycherley (1640-1716) and William Cangreve (1670-1729) were the major comic playwrights. The personages of the Restoration drama were taken from the rich who most of the times preoccupy themselves seducing and sexually ravishing unsuspecting women victims. Oscar Brockett expresses the notion that “the subject matter and tone of the Restoration comedies of manners have led to much debate over their moral viewpoint”. This is because in these plays “the wise are rewarded, the foolish are duped and virtue consists of unsentimental self-knowledge” (239). Furthermore, in these comedies, the self-deceived are ridiculed and galled, often by protagonists who use their own superior (if sometimes cynical) insights to justify their own treatment of fools” (239). Wycherley’s The Country Wife written in 1675 A.D. provides a great insight into the above argument.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 6

Why did the English audience of the Restoration period reject classical inspired plays?

3.7 The Era of Romanticism

By the latter part of the 18th century, the influence of classicism in the theatre began to wane. Emphasis on man as a rational being started to make way for “faith in feeling and instinct as guides to moral behviour” (Brockett, 326). The French revolution of 1789 “ushered in a new conception of freedom, a fervent nationalism and swept away hosts of the old theories” (Vargas, 153). Efforts were made everywhere to destroy all sorts of restraints that hinder political progress and the flowering of geniuses in the arts. Consequently, in the theatre “the romantics rejected the unities of time and place, the strict separation of drama into genres, the rationalistic outlook and narrow didacticism” (Brockett, 327).

As a conscious movement, Romanticism began in Germany and spread to other European countries and America. Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe’s (1749-1832) performance of his play, Goetz Von Berlichingen in 1773 and its rapturous reception marked the official opening of the Romantic theatre. It is important to observe that the romanticists saw in Shakespeare, an already made romanticist, and sought to model their plays on his works. Hence in a reference to Shakespeare in a lecture he gave in 1771, Goethe remarked, “the unity of place seemed to me irksome as a prison, the unities of action and time burdensome fetters to the imagination” (Vargas, 154). However, the person who formulated and disseminated romantic theory in Germany was August Whilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845). In England S.T. Coleridge adopted Schlegel views on Romanticism and spread them across the country. Schlegel was said to have been the first person to use the words, classicism and Romanticism, as polar terms.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 7

Distinguish Romanticism from Neo-classicism.

4.0 CONCLUSION

In this study, we looked at the history of the theatre from the Renaissance to the Romantic period. We examined the specific features that marked the Italian Renaissance plays from those of the Elizabethans. We also examined the French neo-classical theatre, as well as that of the Restoration period.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit, we examined the concept of the Renaissance. We equally considered why the Renaissance is often seen as a complex period. We examined the factors that brought the Renaissance into being. An overview of the drama of the great Elizabethan age was given. Attention was also given to why Shakespeare attained greatness. We discussed the basic rules that guided the neo-classical drama, and the tenets of Romantic theatre.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Why do we consider the Renaissance as a complex period?

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Bockett, Oscar G. (1999). History of the Theatre. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Vargas, Luis (1960). Teach Yourself Guidebook to the Drama. London: The English Universities Press.

Serban, Andrei (1999). “Andrei Serban: In Search of Understanding”. In The Lively Art. Ed. Arthur Holmberg. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.

Bronowski, J. and Bruce Mazlish (1970). The Western Intellectual Tradition: From Leonardo to Hegel. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Macgowan, Kenneth and William Melnitz (1955). The Living Stage: A History of the World Theatre. Eaglewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

Molinari, Ceasare (1975). The Theatre through the Ages. London: Cassel.