Fancy Some Elizabethan Literature Besides Shakespeare?
Elizabethan Literature refers to the English literary works written during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) or up until 1642, along with the closing of theatres. The golden age for literature did not rely on prose — John Lyly’s Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) as its most notable title — , as poetry and, especially drama did.
Poetry: Spenser and Sidney
The epic allegorical poem and magnum opus of Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) and of Elizabethan poetry, The Faerie Queene (1590), was written in what came to be known as the Spenserian stanza and, was originally intended as consisting of twelve books, which only six of them the author indeed conceived. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, represented as the character Una in the poem, the narrative follows the adventures of a different knight for each chapter personifying a moral virtue: holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice, and courtesy.
Inspired by Petrarch’s (1304–1374) Italian sonnets, Sir Philip Sidney’s (1554–1586) sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella (c. 1580 and posthumously published in 1591) helped establish the sonnet sequence fashion in England. The autobiographical lyric 108-sonnet sequence narrates Astrophel’s (‘star lover’) love for Stella (‘star’) and poetry. Following Petrarch’s tradition of pseudonymizing his beloved, Astrophel is Sidney herself, whereas Stella is Penelope Devereux, daughter of the first earl of Essex, whom the author fancied. During the author’s brief writing career, he also the conceived the finest Elizabethan literary criticism, The Defence of Poesie (c. 1582 and posthumously published in 1595), where he elevates poetry as the finest of the arts. Towards the end of the century, Sidney wrote his first long prose, the pastoral romance The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, which its first draft is called The Old Arcadia and its later expanded version, The New Arcadia, on the adventures of two princes in persuit of two princesses.
Drama: Kyd, Marlowe and Jonson
Back when there were no women actors and the female parts were also played by men, the Elizabethan theatre was entertainment for all classes. The 16th century Swiss scholar Thomas Platter described in his diary the the cost of admission in London theatres at the time:
There are separate galleries and there one stands more comfortably and moreover can sit, but one pays more for it. Thus anyone who remains on the level standing pays only one Eng but if he wants to sit, he is let in at a farther door, and there he gives another penny. If he desires to sit on a cushion in the most comfortable place of all, where he not only sees everything well, but can also be seen then he gives yet another English penny at another door. And in the pauses of the comedy food and drink are carried round amongst the people and one can thus refresh himself at his own cost.
Before Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and popular during the Bard’s whole life, Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (1582–1592), the tale of Hieronimo, a father who wishes to revenge the death of his son, Horatio, staged violence and brought to London a new genre, the bloody tragedy. The play employed for the first time the “play within a play” device, as Shakespeare would in his turn of the century masterpiece. Attributed, though controversially, to Kyd is the play Ur-Hamlet, of similar plot, upon which Shakespeare much probably was inspired to write Hamlet.
As the most prominent amongst the University Wits, Christopher Marlowe is certainly the second most significant dramatist following Shakespeare during the period. Charles Swinburne, a Victorian critic, stated that Marlowe was the father of English tragedy and creator of the blank verse in England. The short-lived author wrote masterpieces such as Tamburlaine (c. 1587–1588), The Jew of Malta (c. 1589–1590), and Doctor Faustus (c. 1589–1592). Tamburlaine is based on Timur, the conqueror of Central Asia and India, who grows to be driven and ruined by power. The composition date of his most celebrated work is uncertain, for The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus — narrating the former doctor who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power — was first published in 1604, and another version appeared twelve years later. Another power-thirsty character is portrayed by Marlowe in the bloodshedding The Jew of Malta, through Barabas’ unending wish for money and revenge against Christians and Turks.
Opposing his Stratford-upon-Avon contemporary, the satirical Ben Jonson was a classicist who attempted to mirror his ancient Roman masters, besides portraying mainly London’s realities in his works. His lyric poems would come to be of major influence to Jacobean and Caroline poets. Moreover, the playwright, poet, and actor, would be made the official poet of the Court following Elizabeth I’s, King James I’s. Jonson’s most remarkable plays are Volpone; or, The Fox (c. 1605–06), the fable satirizing human greed and lust, and The Alchemist (1612), a comedy on two seniors who claim to have found the magic formula to turn metal into gold.
An Age of Multiple Men
Concerning further names beyond the ones previously mentioned, it is important to add George Peele (c. 1558–c. 1597), Robert Greene (c. 1558–1592), George Chapman (c. 1559–1634), Thomas Dekker (c. 1572–1632), Thomas Heywood (c. 1573–1641), John Webster (c. 1580–c. 1634), Beaumont and Fletcher (1584–1616/1579–1625), John Ford (1586–c. 1639), Cyril Tourneur (c. 1575–1626), Thomas Middleton (1580–1627), and Philip Massinger (1584–1639). The era saw a prolific development in the arts of writing and staging. Despite our immediate association with William Shakespeare when referring to Elizabethan literature, it is also of importance to remember masters who preceded and proceeded the Swan of Avon’s splendor, once it was not a golden age of only one man, but multiple.
