[PDF] BA (English) Semester II Paper-I: Drama (A) Department of English

BA(English)SemesterIIPaper-I:Drama(A)Department of English and Modern European LanguagesUniversity of Lucknow*

(Course Instructor: Raj GauravVerma)Unit-I:Social and Intellectual BackgroundUnit-II: Forms of DramaTragedy and Comedy, Tragi-comedy, Dark comedy,Expressionist Drama, Drama of ideas, Poetic Drama, Alienation effect,Aggro-effect, History Play, Closet Drama, The Curtain Raiser (One Act Play)Unit-III: William Shakespeare : *MacbethUnit-IV: William Shakespeare : *As You LikeItRecommended ReadingsiThe Pelican Guide to English Literatureby Boris FordiA Critical History of English Literature

by David DaichesiA History of English Literatureby Arthur Compton-RickettiEnglish Literature in Contextby Paul PoplawskiiA History of English Literatureby Michael AlexanderiA Short History of English Literatureby Pramod K NayariA Compendious History of English Literatureby R.D. TrivediiA History of English Literatureby Edward AlbertiA History of Literary Criticismby Harry BlamiresContents1.Development of English Drama12.Tragedy23.Comedy64.Tragicomedy85.Dark Comedy96.Expressionist Drama97.Drama of Ideas108.Poetic Drama119.Alienation effect1110.Aggro-effect1311.History Plays1312.Closet Drama1413.The Curtain Raiser (One Act Play)1514.Shakespeare: An Overview 1515.Macbeth1916.As You Like It2217.Macbeth Worksheet2618.As You Like It Worksheet 3119.Work Consulted and Reading List 36

Development of English DramaThe origin of English drama seems vague. There is no certain evidenceofits origin. However, it canbe traced back fromthecentury of succeeding Norman Conquest to England on 1066. Originally, the termdrama came from Greek word meaning "action" or "toact" or "todo". William J. Long argues that "dramaisanoldstorytoldintheeye,astoryputintoactionbylivingperformers." Thus, drama is the form ofcomposition design for performance in the theatre, in which the actors take role for certain characters,perform certain action and utter certain dialoguesDrama was introduced inEngland from Europe by the Romans. The ancient Greek and Romandramas were mostly concerned with religious ceremonials of people.In England, drama had a distinctlyreligious origin from the church as the part of (religious) services. Apart from its origin, the Latin Churchhad condemned Roman theatre for many reasons.The oldest existing church drama was "QuemQuarritis"trope (whomareyouseeking), when the three Marys visited the emptytomb of Christ and met angel. Theirconversation with angel consists of four sentences in Latin than adapted and performed by the clergy in verysimple performance. This simple beginning gradually grew more elaborate. This drama called liturgicaldrama, inwhich the storyissimply taken from the scripture.From the liturgical, drama evolved toMiracleandMysteryplay. Mindy Ploeckelmann tracks thedevelopment of English drama from mystery plays to morality plays and, eventually, to Shakespeare.TheverywordMysteryshows its ecclesiastical origin, since the word comes from the FrenchMysterederivedfromministere,because the clergy, the ministerium orministry ecclesiae,themselves took part in theseplays. In England,the term Miracle is used indiscriminately for any kind of religion play, but the strictlyspeaking the term Mystery is applied to the stories taken from the Scriptures narrative, while Miracles areplays dealing with incidents in the lives of Saints and Martyrs.The drama appeals to two instincts deeplyrooted:1)The craving for amusement2)The desire for improvement.The earliest recorded Miracle play in England was "LudusSantadeKatherina", which performed inDunstable around 1110. Itis not was notknown who wrote the original play, but the first version wasprepared by the French school teacher, Geoffrey from St. Albans. By the thirteenth century, the Miracle playbegantomove outside the church. The plays were performed atmoving platform called pageants and the actarea called pletea. The stage were dividedinto three parts; hell, earth and heaven. Hell in the left side, earthin thecenterand heaven in the right side. The idea of salvation and damnation which later adopted in Dr.Faustus was inherited from this period.The later development of drama wasMoralityplay.Themorality playisagenreofMedievalandearly Tudortheatrical entertainment.It is a dramatization of personified abstraction generally viceagainst virtue. In these plays, the characterswere allegoricalandpersonified such as death, sin, goodandbad angel, seven deadly sins, etc. The purpose of this drama was didactic, to give moral lesson to theaudience. The morality plays generally ended with the virtueandwin against the evil.The examples ofmorality plays are "Everyman" and "The Castle of Perseverance." The introduction of Morality play alsointroduce so called "interlude". Interlude isashort version of morality play.It was a short stageentertainment in asense of humor and was considered as the forerunner of comedies. The example ofinterlude was "The Four P"s" by John Heywood whichwasperformed around 1497.The period known as the English Renaissance, approximately 1500-1660, saw a flowering of thedramaand all the arts. The most famous examplesof the mystery playare, Everyman, and the twocomediesin English, Nicholas Udall'sRalph Roister Doister(the first comedy)and the anonymousGammerGurton'sNeedle,bothbelong to the 16th century.The earliest Elizabethan plays includeGorboduc(1561) (The firsttragedy) bySackvilleandNortonandThomas Kyd's (1558-94)revenge tragedyThe SpanishTragedy(1592), that influenced Shakespeare'sHamlet.Gorboducwas written in blank verse and dividedinto acts and scenes. During the reign ofElizabeth I(1558-1603) and then James I (1603-25), in the late16th and early 17th century, a London-centred culture, that was bothcourtlyand popular, produced greatpoetry and drama.TheUniversity Wits, a term coined by George Saintsbury, isused to name a group of late 16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers who were educated at the universities (Oxford or Cambridge)and who became popular secular writers. Prominent members of this group were Christopher Marlowe,Robert Greene, and Thomas Nashe from Cambridge, and John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele fromOxford. Thomas Kyd is also sometimes included in the group, though he is not believed to have studied at

university.This diverse and talented loose association of London writers and dramatists set the stage for thetheatrical Renaissance of Elizabethan England. They are identified as among the earliest professional writersin English, and prepared the way for the writings of William Shakespeare, who was born just two monthsafter Christopher Marlowe.William Shakespearestands out in this period as apoetandplaywrightas yet unsurpassed.Shakespeare was not a man of letters by profession, and probably had onlysomegrammarschool education.He was neither a lawyer, nor an aristocratlikethe "university wits"whohadmonopolizedthe English stagewhen he started writing. But he was very gifted and incredibly versatile. Hesurpassed "professionals"asRobert Greenewho mocked this "shake-scene" of low origins. He was himself an actor and deeplyinvolved in the running of the theatre company that performed his plays. Most playwrights at this timetended tospecializein, eitherhistories, orcomedies, ortragedies. Shakespeare is remarkable in that heproduced all three types. Histhirty-eightplays include tragedies, comedies, and histories.Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre includeChristopher Marlowe(1564-1593),ThomasDekker(c. 1572-1632),John Fletcher(1579-1625),andFrancis Beaumont(1584-1616). Marlowe'ssubject matteris different from Shakespeare's as it focuses more on the moral drama of theRenaissancemanthan any other thing.He introduced the story ofFaustto England in his playDoctor Faustus(c. 1592), ascientist and magician,who is obsessed by the thirst of knowledge and the desire to push man'stechnological power to its limits.Ben Jonson (1572/3-1637) is best known for hissatiricalplays,particularlyVolpone,The Alchemist, andBartholomew Fair. Ben Jonson'saesthetics have roots in theMiddle Ages as his characters are based on thetheory of humour.A popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was therevenge play, which had been popularizedearlier in the Elizabethan era byThomas Kyd(1558-94), and then subsequently developed byJohnWebster(1578-1632) in the 17th century. Webster's major plays,The White Devil(c. 1609-1612) andTheDuchess of Malfi(c. 1612/13), are macabre, disturbing works. Webster has received a reputation for beingthe Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatist with the most unsparingly dark vision of human nature.Other revenge tragedies includeThe Changelingwritten byThomas MiddletonandWilliamRowley,The Atheist's TragedybyCyril Tourneur, first published in 1611,Christopher Marlowe'sThe Jewof Malta,The Revenge of BussyD'AmboisbyGeorge Chapman,The Malcontent(c. 1603) ofJohnMarstonandJohn Ford's'Tis Pity She's a Whore. BesidesHamlet, other plays of Shakespeare's with at leastsome revenge elements, areTitus Andronicus,Julius CaesarandMacbeth.The Tragedy of Mariam, the FairQueen of Jewry, acloset dramawritten byElizabeth Tanfield Cary(1585-1639) and first published in 1613,was the first original play in English known to have been written by a woman.During the Interregnum 1649-1660, English theatres were kept closed by thePuritansfor religiousand ideological reasons.When the London theatres opened again with the Restoration of the monarchy in1660, they flourished under the personal interest and support ofCharles II.Newgenresof the Restoration wereheroic drama,pathetic drama, andRestoration comedy. Notableheroic tragedies of this period includeJohn Dryden'sAll for Love(1677) andAureng-zebe(1675),andThomas Otway'sVenice Preserved(1682). The Restoration plays that have best retained the interest ofproducers and audiences today are the comedies, such asGeorge Etherege'sThe Man ofMode(1676),William Wycherley'sThe Country Wife(1676),John Vanbrugh'sThe Relapse(1696),andWilliam Congreve'sThe Way of the World(1700). This period saw the first professional womanplaywright,AphraBehn, author of many comedies includingThe Rover(1677).Therefore, English drama gradually developedfrom the liturgical drama to Miracle and Mystery plays,continuously to Morality and interlude followed by the influence of classical model and finally evolve to theregular drama forms which known till today.Drama: Types and TechniquesTragedyAristotlein hisPoetics,Chapter VIdefines tragedy as:Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; inlanguage embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separateparts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the properpurgation of these emotions. (10)

To make the ingredients of tragedy more clear he adds the "six parts" which every tragedy, therefore, musthave and which determine its quality-namely,Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Song(Chorus)andSpectacle(Ch. VI). Plot and character out of these are of prior importance.1. PlotAristotle unfolds that "Plot is the imitation of the action," "the arrangement ofthe incidents" (Ch.VI).He says that since tragedy "is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life," therefore "charactercomes in as subsidiary to the actions." He saysthat there can be a tragedy "without character" but therecannot be one "without action" (Aristotle Ch. VI).Besides, the most important elements of tragedy whichare responsible for catharsis-Peripeteia, Recognition and Suffering-are parts of the plot. "The Plot, then,is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy" (Aristotle Ch.VI).Requirements of Plota)Whole/Complete in itself-A beginning, a middle and an end.b)Magnitude-Marks "the time available for a performance" set between "upper limit and "lowerlimit" so as to include a "change from bad fortune to good fortune, or from good to bad. It is notenough to juxtapose prosperity and misery; the change from one to another must be the result of asequence of necessarily connected events" (Heath xxiv-xxv).c)Length-"Acertain length is necessary, and a length which can be easily embraced by the memory"(Aristotle Ch. VII).d)The law of probability or necessity-"Itis not the function of the poet to relate what has happened,but what may happen" (Aristotle Ch. IX).e)Universality-"By the universal, I mean how a person of a certain type will on occasion speak or act,according to the law of probability or necessity; and it is this universality at which poetry aims in thenames she attaches to the personages" (Aristotle Ch. IX).f)Possibility/ Credibility-The outcome should appear real and credible of sequenced events.g)Unity of Plot-There arethreekinds ofunitiesin a plot i.e. unityof time, place and action.Aristotlefavoured the"unity of action."He says that unity of action should be such that "if any one of themis displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed" (Aristotle Ch. IX).h)Peripeteia,AnagnorisisandSuffering.i)CatastropheandCatharsisandPhilosj)The quantitative parts--The separate parts into which Tragedy is divided namely, Prologue,Episode, Exode, Choric song; this last being divided into Parode and Stasimon (Aristotle Ch. XI).k)Every tragedy falls into two parts-ComplicationandUnravelling or Denouement(Aristotle Ch.XVIII)The qualitative requirements of plot1.Peripeteia/Reversal-"Reversal of the Situation is a change by which the action veers round to itsopposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessity" (Aristotle Ch. X). Thus, it marks achange from fortune to misfortune, from prosperity to misery, from goodto worse times.2.Anagnorisis/Discovery/Recognition-"Recognition, as the name indicates, is a change fromignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good orbad fortune" (Aristotle Ch. XI).Aristotle describes variouskinds of discoveries/recognitioninchapter XVI. First is recognition by signs. Second is "the recognitions invented at will by the poet."Third is through memory when a sight of an object fills the missing gap resulting in discovery. Thefourth kind of recognition is by the "process of reasoning." However, "the best is that which arisesfrom the incidents themselves, where the startling discovery is made by natural means (Ch. XVI).3.Suffering-"The Scene of Suffering is a destructive or painful action, such as death on the stage,bodily agony, wounds and the like" (Aristotle Ch. XI).4.Philosisdescribed by Aristotle in Chapter XIV as most capable of a tragic outcome. He says: "If anenemy kills an enemy, there is nothing to excite pity eitherin the act or the intention,-except so faras the suffering in itself is pitiful. So again with indifferent persons. But when the tragic incidentoccurs between those who are near or dear to one another."

5.Catastrophe orApocalypticism-can be regarded as the general dissolution of the world aroundtragic hero on the stage and the world as a whole. Bennett and Royle argue that "because theprotagonist"s death is invariably shattering to other characters, tragedy always engages with abroader sense of death and destruction, a shattering of society or the world as a whole" (103-104).Thus, a "tragedy says: we have to suffer, we are going to die, there is no justice, there is no afterlife"and thus it "in part it resonates with the apocalypticism of the end of the Bible" (Bennett and Royle106).6.Catharsis-means the effect that tragedy will produce in the audience. In Greek it means"purgation," or "purification," or both. Catharsis is produced when the audience experience theemotions of fear and pity together when they see the suffering of the tragic hero. Audience is scaredbecause they realize the vulnerability of human character that even we can commit similar faults orhave similar flaws as the tragic hero. On the other hand, there is also pity that thetragic hero is madeto suffer a way too much for just one fault of his.Aristotle in the first place sets out to account forthe undeniable, though remarkable, fact that many tragic representations of suffering and defeatleave an audience feeling not depressed, but relieved, or even exalted. In the second place, Aristotleuses this distinctive effect on the reader, which he calls "the pleasure of pity and fear," as the basicway to distinguish the tragic from comic or other forms, and he regards the dramatist's aim toproduce this effect in the highest degree as the principle that determines the choice and moralqualities of a tragic protagonist and the organization of the tragic plot.ThreeTypes of Plots(according to Aristotle)1.Simple-Without reversal or recognition2.Complex-With reversal or recognition or both and even multiple.3.Episodic-The fragmented structure (worst kind of plot according to Aristotle)Four kinds of tragedies(according to Aristotle)1.Complex Tragedy (based on reversals and recognitions)2.Pathetic Tragedy(where the motive is passion)3.Ethical Tragedy (where the motive is ethical)4.Simple Tragedy2. CharacterAristotle believed that character should represent some values. They are agents to which certain qualities areascribed. InChapter XV,he explains four essential features which are necessary to create a character:1.It should "manifest moral purpose" of some kind.2.Propriety-It should stand true to its class, gender, role and status.3.Must be true to life.4.Consistency5.Necessity or probability.The Tragic HeroAristotle believes that the change of fortune in the plot should be able to produce pity and fear. InChapterXIIIhe gives his theory of tragic hero. If a "virtuous man" passes from "prosperity to adversity" thereoccurs neitherpity nor fear; it merely unsettles and leaves the audience horrified. Similarly, if a "bad man"moves from "adversity to prosperity," it completely defeats the purpose of tragedy: "it neither satisfies themoral sense nor calls forth pity or fear." Again if an utter villain faces a downfall it will satisfy our moralsense but will produce no pity for him, rather the audience will seek sadistic pleasure in the fall. ThenAristotle explains that "pity is aroused by unmerited Misfortune" and "fear by the misfortune of a man likeourseleves." A tragic character is created "between these two extremes"-"a man who is not eminently goodand just,-yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty." Inthis way a tragic heromust be "neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly bad but a mixture of both"(Abrams322).The change of fortune is a result of not some vice in a character but of "some great error or frailty"(Aristotle Ch. XIII). This is described as "hamartia"or his "error of judgment" or, histragic flaw"(Abrams322).

Development of TragedyThe only complete tragedies that remained of the Classical period wereAeschylus"OresteiaandEuripides " TheTrojanWomen(Leech 13).The most referred of classical tragedy isSophocles"Oedipusthe King.In the Middle Ages tragedy lost its notion of performance.Medieval tragedywas"simply a story which ended unhappily, offeringa warning that, if one were not careful, a final unhappinesswould be one"s own lot too" (Leech 15). The next to gain importance wereSenecan tragediesduringRenaissance. They were probably meant to be recited before a small audience. Though Seneca derived hismaterial from the Greek tragedies however, these tragedies were filled with murder, revenge,vengeance,hatred, mutilation, death and gory vicious circle. "It was in sixteenthcentury...performance Seneca wasbrought to the stage, the Greeks wereadapted, and new plays showed the same kind of blending of classicalinfluence and modern (or 'romantic") subject-matter that was oftento characterize the English Inns of Courtplays."In the Renaissance period writers wanted to build their works on Senecan model but it was alsodifficult to present heroes who belonged to the "pre-Christian mode of thinking" (Leech 15). Leech pointsout the lack of the usage of the word "tragedy" in this period; so much so that Thomas Sackville andThomas Norton"sGorboduc(1561), the first English tragedy appeared as "political morality." The termtragedy was very looselyused.Abrams has divided the two modes of Senecan influence in Renaissance period:iAcademic Tragedies-were very closelybuilton the Senecan model that followed the rules of thethree unities and made use of a chorus. The best example of this isGorboduc.iShakespearean TragediesiRevenge Tragedies/Tragedy of Blood-While Seneca had resorted to present theviolence through"long reports of offstage actions by messengers," the Elizabethan dramatists made them perform "onthe stage to satisfy the appetite ofthe contemporary audience for violence and horror"(Abrams 343).Some of its examples are:Thomas Kyd'sThe Spanish Tragedy(1586), Christopher Marlowe'sTheJew of Malta(1592), Shakespeare'sTitus Andronicus(1590 andHamlet,and John Webster's plays of1612-13,The Duchess ofMalfiandThe White Devil.

ComedyIn the most common literary application, a comedy is a fictionalwork in which the materials areselected and managed primarily in order tointerest and amuse us: the characters and their discomfituresengage ourpleasurable attention rather than our profound concern, we are made to feelconfident that nogreat disaster will occur, and usually the action turns outhappily for the chief characters. The term"comedy" is customarily appliedonly toplays for the stage or to motion pictures; it should be noted,however, thecomic form, so defined, also occurs in prose fiction and narrativepoetry.According toAristotle, if tragedy dealt with the lives of noble men, comedy essentially involved the common men.Thus,the chief aim of comedy is laughter, just like of tragedy which is catharsis.Comedy aims at lightening theatmosphere and amusing its audience.Within the very broad spectrum of dramatic comedy, the followingtypesare frequently distinguished:(1) Romantic comedywas developed by Elizabethan dramatists on themodel of contemporaryproseromancessuch as Thomas Lodge'sRosalynde(1590), the source of Shakespeare'sAs You Like It(1599).Suchcomedy represents a love affair that involves abeautiful and engagingheroine (sometimes disguised asa man); the course of this love doesnot run smooth, yet overcomes all difficulties to end in a happyunion(refer to E. C. Pettet,Shakespeare and the Romance Tradition,1949). Many of the boy-meets-girl plots oflater writers are instancesof romantic comedy, as are many motion pictures fromThe PhiladelphiaStorytoSleepless in Seattle.InThe Anatomy of Criticism(1957),Northrop Frye points out that some ofShakespeare's romantic comediesmanifesta movement from the normal world of conflict andtrouble into"the green world"-the Forest of Arden inAs You Like It,or the fairy-haunted wood ofA MidsummerNight's Dream-in whichthe problems and injustices of the ordinary world are dissolved,enemiesarereconciled, and true lovers united. Frye regards that phenomenon(together with other aspects of thesecomedies, such as theirfestive conclusion in the social ritual of a wedding, a feast, a dance) asevidence thatcomic plots derive from primitive myths and ritualsthat celebrated the victory of spring over winter. LindaBamber'sComic Women, Tragic Men: A Study of Gender Genre in Shakespeare(1982) undertakes toaccount for the fact that inShakespeare's romantic comedies, the women are often superior tothe men, whilein his tragedies he "creates such nightmare female figuresas Goneril, Regan, Lady Macbeth, andVolumnia."(2)Satiric comedyridicules political policies or philosophicaldoctrines, orelse attacks deviations from thesocial order bymaking ridiculousviolators of its standards of morals or manners. Theearly master of satiriccomedy was the Greek Aristophanes, c. 450-c. 385 B.C., whose plays mocked political, philosophical, andliterarymatters of his age. Shakespeare's contemporary,Ben Jonson, wrotesatiric or (as it is sometimescalled) "corrective comedy." In hisVolponeandThe Alchemist,for example, the greed and ingenuity ofoneor more intelligent but rascally swindlers, and the equal greedbut stupid gullibility of their victims, aremade grotesquely or repulsivelyludicrous rather than lightly amusing.(3)Comedy of mannersoriginated in theNew Comedyof theGreek Menander, c. 342-292 B.C. (asdistinguished from theOldComedyrepresented by Aristophanes) and was developedby theRomandramatists Plautus and Terence in the third and second centuriesB.C. Their plays dealt with the vicissitudesof young lovers andincluded what became thestock charactersof much later comedy, suchas the cleverservant, old and stodgy parents, and the wealthy rival.The English comedy of manners was earlyexemplified by Shakespeare'sLove's Labour's LostandMuch Ado about Nothing,and wasgiven a highpolish inRestoration comedy(1660-1700). TheRestoration form owes much to the brilliant dramas of theFrenchwriter Molière, 1622-73. It deals with the relations and intrigues ofmen and women living in asophisticated upper-class society, andrelies for comic effect in large part on the wit and sparkle of thedialogue-often in the form ofrepartee,a witty conversational give-andtakewhich constitutes a kind ofverbal fencing match-and to a lesserdegree, on the violations of social standards and decorum by wouldbeWits, jealous husbands, conniving rivals, and foppish dandies. Excellentexamples are William Congreve'sThe Way of the WorldandWilliam Wycherley'sThe Country Wife.A middle-class reactionagainst what hadcome to be considered the immorality of situationand indecency of dialogue in the courtly Restorationcomedy resultedin thesentimental comedyof the eighteenth century. In the latter partof the century,

however, Oliver Goldsmith{She Stoops to Conquer)andhis contemporary Richard Brinsley Sheridan(TheRivalsandA Schoolfor Scandal)revived the wit and gaiety, while deleting the indecency,of Restorationcomedy. The comedy of manners lapsed in the earlynineteenth century, but was revived by manyskilfuldramatists, fromA. W. Pinero and Oscar Wilde(The Importance of Being Earnest,1895), throughGeorgeBernard Shaw andNoel Coward, to Neil Simon, AlanAyckbourn, Wendy Wasserstein, and other writers ofthe present era.Many of these comedies have also been adapted for the cinema.You can readDavid L.Hirst,Comedy of Manners(1979).(4) Farceis a type of comedy designed to provoke the audience to simple, heartylaughter-"belly laughs,"in the parlance of thetheatre. Todo so it commonly employs highly exaggerated or caricatured typesofcharacters, puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations,and makes free useof sexual mix-ups, broadverbalhumour, and physicalbustle and horseplay. Farce was a component in the comicepisodes in medievalmiracle plays,such as the Wakefield playsNoahand theSecond Shepherd's Play,and constituted the matterof the Italiancommedia dell'artein the Renaissance. In the English drama thathas stood the test of time,farce is usually an episode in a more complexform of comedy-examples are the knockabout scenes inShakespeare'sThe Taming of the ShrewandThe Merry Wives of Windsor.Theplays of the Frenchplaywright Georges Feydeau (1862-1921), employingsexual humour and innuendo, are true farcethroughout, as isBrandon Thomas'Charley's Aunt,an American play of 1892 whichhas often been revived,and also some of the current plays of TomStoppard. Many of the movies by such comedians as CharlieChaplin,Buster Keaton, W. C. Fields, the Marx brothers, and Woody Allen areexcellent farce, as are theMonty Python films and televisionepisodes. Farce is often employed in single scenes of musical revues,andis the standard fare of television "situation comedies."(5)Comedy of Humours:A type of comedy developed by Ben Jonson, theElizabethan playwright, basedon the ancient physiological theory of the"four humours" that was stillcurrent in Jonson's time. Thehumours wereheld to be the four primary fluids-blood, phlegm, choler (or yellow bile), andmelancholy(or black bile)-whose "temperament" or mixture, was heldto determine both a person's physical conditionand character type. An imbalanceof one or another humour in a temperament was said to produce fourkindsof disposition, whose names have survived the underlying theory: sanguine(from the Latin "sanguis,"blood), phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic.In Jonson's comedyof humours each of the major charactershaspreponderanthumour that gives him a characteristic distortion oreccentricity ofdisposition. Jonsonexpounds his theory in the "Induction" to his playEvery Man in His Humour(1598) and exemplifies themode inhis later comedies;often he identifies the ruling disposition of a humours character by hisor hername: "Zeal-of-the-land Busy," "Dame Purecraft," "Wellbred." The Jonsoniantype of humour-charactersappears in plays by other Elizabethans, andremained influential in thecomedies of mannersby WilliamWycherley, SirGeorge Etheredge, William Congreve, and other dramatists of the EnglishRestoration,1660-1700.(6) High and Low Comedy:A distinction is often made between high and low comedy.High comedy,asdescribed by George Meredith in the classic essayThe Idea of Comedy(1877), evokes "intellectuallaughter"-thoughtful laughter from spectators who remain emotionally detached from the action-at thespectacle of folly, pretentiousness, and incongruity inhumanbehaviour. Meredith finds its highest formwithin the comedy of manners, in the combats of wit (sometimesidentified nowas the "love duels")between such intelligent, highly verbal, and well matched lovers as Benedick and Beatrice in Shakespeare'sMuch Ado about Nothing(1598-99) and Mirabell and Millamant in Congreve'sThe Way of the World(1700). Lowcomedy,at the other extreme, has little or no intellectual appeal, but undertakes to arouselaughter by jokes, or "gags," and by slapstickhumourand boisterous or clownish physical activity; it is,therefore, one of the common components of farce.(7) Comic Reliefis the introduction of comic characters, speeches, or scenes ina serious or tragic work,especially in dramas. Such elements were almostuniversal inElizabethantragedy. Sometimes they occurmerely as episodes ofdialogue orhorseplay for purposes of alleviating tension and adding variety; inmore

carefully wrought plays, however, they are also integrated with the plot,in a way that counterpoints andenhances the serious or tragic significance.Examples of such complex uses of comic elements are thegravediggers inHamlet(V. L), the scene of the drunken porter after the murder of the king inMacbeth(II.iii.), the Falstaff scenes in1Henry IV,and the roles of Mercurioand the old nurse inRomeo and Juliet.Youcan readThomas De Quincey's classic essay "On the Knocking at the Gate inMacbeth"(1823).(8) Commedia dell'Artewas a form of comic drama developed about the midsixteenthcentury by guilds ofprofessional Italian actors. Playingstock characters,the actors largely improvised the dialogue around agiven scenario-a termthat still denotes a brief outline of a drama, indicating merely the entrances of themain characters and the general course of the action. In a typical play, a pairof young lovers outwit a richold father ("Pantaloon"), aided by a clever and intriguingservant ("Harlequin"), in a plot enlivened by thebuffoonery of"Punch" and other clowns. Wandering Italiantroupes played in all thelarge citiesofRenaissance Europe and influenced various writers of comedies in ElizabethanEngland and, later, Molièrein France. The modern puppet showsof Punchand Judy are descendants of thisOldItalian comedy,emphasizingits componentsoffarceand buffoonery.TragicomedyA type ofElizabethanandJacobeandrama whichinter-mingled boththe standard characters andsubject matter and the standard plotformsof tragedy and comedy. Thus, the important agents intragicomedy includedboth people of high degree and people of low degree, even though,according to thereigning critical theory of that time, only upper-classcharacters wereappropriate to tragedy, while membersof the middle andlower classeswere the proper subjectsolely of comedy.The doctrine had its roots in classical theory, especially in the versified essayArt of Poetryby the RomanHorace in the first century B.C. It achieved an elaborate form in the criticism and composition of literature in theRenaissanceand theNeoclassicage, when (as John Milton put it in his essayOf Education,1644) decorum became"the grand masterpiece to observe." In the most rigid application of this standard, literary forms, characters,and style were ordered in hierarchies, or "levels," from high through middle to low, and all these elements had to bematched to one another. Thus comedy must not be mixed with tragedy, and the highest and most serious genres (epicand tragedy) must represent characters of the highest social classes (kings and nobility) acting in a way appropriate totheir status and speaking in thehigh style.Also,tragicomedy representeda serious action which threatened a tragic disaster to theprotagonist,yet, by an abrupt reversal of circumstance, turned outhappily.As JohnFletcher wrote in his preface toTheFaithful Shepherdess(c. 1610),tragicomedy "wants[i.e., lacks] deaths, which is enough to make it notragedy,yet bringssome near it, which is enough to make it no comedy, which must beare presentationoffamiliar people. . . . A god is as lawful in [tragicomedy] as ina tragedy, and mean people as in a comedy."Shakespeare'sMerchant of Veniceis by these criteria a tragicomedy,because itmingles people of thearistocracy with lower-class characters (suchas theJewish merchant Shylock and the clown LauncelotGobbo), and alsobecause thedeveloping threat of death to Antonio is suddenly reversed at theend byPortia's ingenious casuistry in the trial scene. Francis Beaumontand JohnFletcher inPhilaster,andnumerous other plays on which they collaboratedfrom about 1606 to 1613, inaugurated a mode oftragicomedy that employsa romantic and fast-moving plot of love, jealousy, treachery, intrigue,anddisguises, and ends in a melodramatic reversal of fortune for the protagonists,who had hitherto seemedheaded for a tragiccatastrophe.Shakespearewrote his late playsCymbelineandThe Winter's Tale,between1609 and 1611, inthis very popular mode of the tragicomicromance.The name "tragicomedy"issometimes applied also to plays with double plots, one serious and theother comic.Examples:The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, The Winter's Tale,AndThe Tempest-William ShakespeareThe Cherry Orchard-Anton ChekhovWaiting for Godot-Samuel BeckettThe Caretaker-Harold Pinteris

Dark Comedyor Black ComedyBlack comedy (or dark comedy) is a comic style that makes light of themes that are generallyconsidered serious or taboo. Black comedy corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humour. Blackcomedy is often controversial due to its subject matter. The term black humour was coined by the surrealisttheorist André Breton in 1935 to label a subgenre of comedy and satirein which laughter arises fromcynicism andscepticism, often relying on topics such as death.Breton coined the term for hisbookAnthology of BlackHumourin which he creditedJonathan Swiftas the originator of blackhumourandgallowshumour, and included excerpts from 45 other writers. Breton included both examples in which thewit arises from a victim withwhich the audience empathizes, as is more typical in the tradition of gallowshumour, and examples in which the comedy is used to mock the victim. This victim's suffering is trivialized,which leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as is the case withSade. Blackhumouris related to that ofthegrotesquegenre.The terms black comedy or dark comedy have been later derived as alternatives toBreton's term. In blackhumour, topics and events that are usually regarded astabooare treated in anunusually humorous or satirical manner while retaining their seriousness; the intent of black comedy,therefore, is often for the audience to experience both laughter and discomfort, sometimes simultaneously.Bruce Jay Friedman, in his anthology entitledBlackHumour, imported the concept of black comedyto the United States. Helabelledmany different authors and works with the idea, arguing that they sharedthe same literary genre. The Friedman label came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Early Americanwriters who employed blackhumourwereNathanael WestandVladimir Nabokov.In 1965 a mass-marketpaperback titledBlackHumour,was released. It contained work by a myriad of authors, likeEdwardAlbee,Joseph Heller,Thomas Pynchon,John Barthand others. This was one of the first Americananthologies devoted to the conception of blackhumouras a literary genre; the publication also sparkednationwide interest in blackhumour.Among the writerslabelledas black humorists by journalists andliterary critics areRoald Dahl,Thomas Pynchon,Kurt Vonnegut,Joseph Heller,andPhilip Roth.Themotive for applying the label black humorist to all the writers cited above is that they have written novels,poems, stories, plays, and songs in which profound or horrific events were portrayed in a comic manner.The purpose of black comedy is to make light of serious and often taboo subject matter; somecomedians use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues, thus provoking discomfort and serious thought as wellas amusement in their audience. Popular themes of the genre include:Violence(murder, abuse, domesticviolence, rape, torture, war, genocide, terrorism, corruption);Discrimination(chauvinism, racism, sexism,homophobia, transphobia);Disease(anxiety, depression, suicide, nightmares, drug abuse, mutilation,disability, terminal illness, insanity);Sexuality(sodomy, homosexuality, incest, infidelity, fornication),religion andbarbarism).Comedians, likeLenny Bruce,that since the late 1950s have beenlabelledfor using "sick comedy"by mainstream journalists, have also beenlabelledwith "blackcomedy". Bycontrast,blue comedyfocusesmore on crude topics such as nudity, sex, andbodily fluids. Although the two are interrelated, black comedyis different from straightforwardobscenityin that it is more subtle and does not necessarily have the explicitintention of offending people, but for social criticism or plainhumour. Inobscenehumour, much of thehumorous element comes from shock and revulsion, while black comedy might include an element ofirony,or evenfatalism. For example, the archetypal black comedy self-mutilation appears in the EnglishnovelTristramShandy. Tristram, five years old at the time, starts to urinate out of an open window for lackof a chamber pot. The sash falls and circumcises him; his family reacts with both chaotic action andphilosophic digression.ExpressionistDramaThere was a concentrated Expressionist movement in early 20th centuryGermantheatreofwhichGeorg KaiserandErnst Tollerwere the most famousplaywrights. Other notableExpressionistdramatistsincludedReinhardSorge,Walter Hasenclever,Hans HennyJahnn, andArnoltBronnen. They looked back to Swedish playwrightAugust Strindbergand German actor anddramatistFrank Wedekindas precursors of theirdramaturgicalexperiments.Oskar Kokoschka'sMurderer, the Hope of Womenwas the first fully Expressionist work for thetheatre, which opened on 4 July 1909 inVienna.[1]In it, an unnamed man and woman struggle fordominance. The Man brands the woman; she stabs and imprisons him. He frees himself and she falls dead at

his touch. As the play ends, he slaughters all around him (in the words of the text) "like mosquitoes." Theextreme simplification of characters to mythictypes, choral effects, declamatory dialogue and heightenedintensity would become characteristic of later Expressionist plays. The first full-length Expressionist playwasThe SonbyWalter Hasenclever, which was published in 1914 and first performed in 1916.In the 1920s, Expressionism enjoyed a brief period of popularity in thetheatre of the United States,including plays byEugene O'Neill(The Hairy Ape,The Emperor JonesandThe Great God Brown),SophieTreadwell(Machinal),LajosEgri(Rapid Transit) andElmer Rice(The Adding Machine).Martin Esslin notices the decline in the mere representation of surficial reality as it could neverconvey the whole truth. Kurt Pinthus put it thus: "in art the process of realization does not proceed from theoutside to the inside, but from the inside outwards; the point is: the inner reality must be helped to realizeitself through the means of the spirit" (qtd. in Esslin 534). The Expressionist drama tried to project thisreality to the audience. The tendency is thus of amonodramawhere the other characters become theprojections of the protagonist"s own personality or merely the mode for conveying his musing with himself.In such drama the hero uses self-declarations to proclaim his suffering to the audience. According to Esslinthis type ofExpressionist drama becomes"atheatre of cries, a theatre of ecstasy, or at least frenziedintensity" (535).Drama of Ideas or Problem Plays or Propaganda PlaysA type of drama that was popularized by the Norwegianplaywright Henrik Ibsen.Ibsen and thenShaw, Galsworthy and Granville Barker were the chief exponents of this realistic drama of ideas.In problemplays, the situation faced by the protagonistis put forward by the author as a representative instance of acontemporary socialproblem; often the dramatist manages-by the useof a characterwho speaks for theauthor, or by the evolution of the plot, or both-to proposea solution to the problem which is at odds withprevailing opinion.The issuemay be the drastically inadequate autonomy, scope, and dignity allottedto women inthe middle-class nineteenth-century family (Henrik Ibsen'sADoll's House,1879); or themorality of prostitution, regarded as a typical productof the economic arrangements in a capitalist society(George BernardShaw'sMrs. Warren's Profession,1898); orthe crisis in racial and ethnic relationsinpresent-day America (in numerous current dramas and films).Drama of Ideas or Problem plays can also be compared with 'Social Conditions of England Novels"or 'Industrial Novels" simply for raising and projecting the issues that were deeply affecting the society."Drama of Ideas", pioneered by George Bernard Shaw, is a type of discussion play in which the clash ofideas and hostile ideologies reveals the most acute problems of social and personal morality. In a Drama ofIdeas there is a little action but discussion. Characters are only the vehicles of ideas. The conflict which isthe essence of drama is reached through the opposing ideas of different characters. The aim of Drama ofIdeas is to educate peoplethrough entertainment.Arms and the Manis an excellent example of the Drama ofIdeas. Here very little happens except discussion. The plot is built up with dynamic and unconventionalideas regarding war and love. Shaw criticizes the romantic notion of warand love prevailing in thecontemporary society. Unlike the conventional comedies, here characters are engaged in lengthy discussionand thus bring out ideas contrary to each other.To Shaw, drama waspre-eminentlya medium for articulating his own ideasand philosophy. Heenunciated the philosophy of life force which he sought to disseminate through his dramas. Thus Shavianplays are the vehicles for the transportation of ideas, however, propagandizing they may be. Shaw wanted tocast his ideas throughdiscussions. Outof the discussions in the playArms and the Man, Shaw breaks theidols of love and war.A subtype of the modern problem play is the discussion play, inwhich thesocial issue is notincorporated into a plot but expounded in the giveand takeof a sustained debate among the characters. SeeShaw'sGettingMarried,andAct III of hisMan and Superman;also his book on Ibsen's plays,TheQuintessenceoflbsenism(1891).In a specialized application, the term problem plays is sometimes appliedtoa group of Shakespeare's plays, also called "bitter comedies"-especiallyTroilus and Cressida, Measurefor Measure,andAll's Well That Well-which explore ignoble aspects of human nature, and in which theresolution ofthe plot seems to many readers to beproblematic, in that it doesnot settleor solve, exceptsuperficially, the moral problems raised in the play.By extension, the term came to be applied also to other

familiarization", combined with John Willett's 1964 translation ofBrecht's 1935 coinage as "alienationeffect"-and the canonization of both translations in Anglophone literary theory in the decades since-hasserved to obscure the close connections between the two terms. Not only is the root of both terms "strange"(stran-in Russian,fremdin German), but both terms are unusual in their respective languages:ostranenieisa neologism in Russian, whileVerfremdungis a resuscitation of a long-obsolete term in German. Inaddition, according to some accounts Shklovsky's Russian friend playwrightSergei TretyakovtaughtBrechtShklovsky's term during Brecht's visit to Moscow in the spring of 1935.For this reason, many scholars haverecentlytaken to usingestrangementto translate both terms: "the estrangement device" in Shklovsky, "theestrangement effect" in Brecht.The proper English translation of Verfremdungseffekt is a matter of controversy. The word issometimes rendered as defamiliarization effect, estrangement effect, distantiation, alienation effect, ordistancing effect. This has caused some confusion for English scholars who confuse the German wordVerfremdung with Entfremdung. According to Brecht scholarAnthony Squiers:Brecht wanted to "distance" or to "alienate" his audience from the characters and the action and, bydint of that, render them observers who would not become involved in or to sympathize emotionallyor to empathize by identifying individually with the characters psychologically; rather, he wanted theaudience to understand intellectually the characters' dilemmas and the wrongdoing producing thesedilemmas exposed in his dramatic plots. By being thus "distanced" emotionally from the charactersand the action on stage, the audience could be able to reach such an intellectual level ofunderstanding (or intellectual empathy); in theory, while alienated emotionally from the action andthe characters, they would be empowered on an intellectual level both to analyze and perhaps even totry to change the world, which was Brecht's social and political goal as a playwright and the drivingforce behind his dramaturgy.InBrecht and Method,FredricJamesonabbreviatesVerfremdungseffektas "the V-effekt"; many scholarssimilarly leave the word untranslated.TechniquesThe distancing effect is achieved by the way the "artist never acts as if there were afourthwallbesides the three surrounding him [...] The audience can no longer have the illusion of being the unseenspectator at an event which is really taking place".The use of direct audience-address is one way ofdisrupting stage illusion and generating the distancing effect. In performance, as the performer "observeshimself", his objective is "to appear strange and even surprising to the audience. He achieves this by lookingstrangely at himself and his work".WhetherBrecht intended the distancing effect to refer to the audience orto the actor or to both audience and actor is still controversial among teachers and scholars of "Epic Acting"and Brechtian theatre.By disclosing and making obvious the manipulative contrivances and "fictive" qualities of themedium, the actors alienate the viewer from any passive acceptance and enjoyment of the play as mere"entertainment". Instead, the viewer is forced into a critical, analytical frame of mind that serves to disabusehimor her of the notion that what he is watching is necessarily an inviolable, self-contained narrative. Thiseffect of making the familiar strange serves a didactic function insofar as it teaches the viewer not to take thestyle and content for granted, since the medium itself is highly constructed and contingent upon manycultural and economic conditions.It may be noted that Brecht"s use of distancing effects in order to prevent audience membersfrombathingthemselves in empathetic emotions and to draw them into an attitude of critical judgment maylead to other reactions than intellectual coolness. Brecht's popularization of theV-Effekthas come todominate our understanding of its dynamics. But the particulars of a spectator"s psyche and of the tensionaroused by a specific alienating device may actuallyincreaseemotionalimpact.Audience reactions arerarely uniform, and there are many diverse, sometimes unpredictable, responses that may be achievedthrough distancing.Actors, directors, and playwrightsmay draw on alienating effects in creating a production. Theplaywright may describe them in the script's stage directions, in effect requiring them in the staging of thework. A director may take a script that has not been written to alienate and introduce certain techniques,such as playing dialogue forward to remind the audience that there is no fourth wall, or guiding the cast toact "in quotation marks". The actor (usually with the director's permission) may play scenes with an ironic

subtext. These techniques and many more are available for artists in different aspects of the show. For theplaywright, reference tovaudevilleor musicalrevueswill often allow rapid segues from empathy to ajudgmental attitude through comic distancing. A very effective use of such estrangement in an Englishlanguage script can be found inBrendan Behan'sThe Hostage.Aggro EffectAggression effect deals with the use of aggression and violence on the stage. The purpose ofdramatist is to bring its audience on the verge of literally grappling the sense of terrific reality. EdwardBondtechnically engages himself with both Brecht and Shakespeare who represent two distinct and somewhatopposite cultures is an indicator of how deeply he is interested in the fusion of heterogeneous cultures.The purpose of using violence or "Aggro effects", as Bond writes to Calum MacCrimmon, is "tomake the audience question what they normally accept" (Edward Bond Letters I 32). By "normally accept"Bond means the sociologically inherited aggressive violence which have become normal to people. In orderto expose the fact that what appears normal aggression is in fact a social construct, Bond dramatises thesituations unapproved by the society. In other words, his violent scenes, as he says to Holland, show the"irrelevance of the traditional character-rooted concepts of good and evil" (Bond 35). For instance, thecasual murder of a baby by his own father and his lousy friends in Saved is conventionally unacceptable.But the purpose behind depicting this was to strike at the root ofsocial evils that gives rise to aggression.Presentation of violence along with the root of it-for instance, a father watching the autopsy of his daughterin Lear-challenges the cherished notion of instinctual violence in men thereby exposes the camouflagedbarbarism of modem civilization. Thus spectacle of violence is a Bondian strategy to dramatically impel theaudience to cognisethe societal cause that leads to violence.Bond's refashioning of Brecht and Shakespeare through "Aggro effect" and "public soliloquy"respectively could be interpreted as Bond's rejection of both Brechtiana and the Shakespeare fever thatprevailed in the post-fifties British theatre. Bond also uses "positive V-effect" and "Theatre Events" as majortheatrical techniques in his plays. Hence, technically speaking, Bond's theatre, where both the modifieddominant techniques and the typically Bondian techniques function simultaneously, is a site of fusion whichcomplements the cultural exchange which he emphasises so much as a dramatist.In other words, his playsare visual paradigms ofhistory.Bond utilizes sophisticated means for the enactment of his theatreevents.His stage techniques are often appropriations or modifications ofBrechtian epic theatre. Epic style provideshima means to convey a message tothe rationalized audience. There are significant changes in Bond"stheatre from Brechtian theatre. The style of an epic theatre, as in a documentary theatre,finds its fulfilmentthrough a sequence of theatre devices: use ofa chorus,a narrator, slide projection, film, placards andalienation effect. Bondhas remodelledBrecht"s "alienation effect," and called it "aggro-effect," inhis playswhich concentrate on violence and injustices of a society. Bond haslater characterizedhis "aggro-effects,"as "Theatre Events."So it is not simply by applying reason and intellect that illusions could be broken, but a properassessment and understanding of one's social state require emotional commitment. Moreover the violentmoments are not the concluding statement of a Bondian play. They are extreme situations where Bond'scharacters, driven to the brink of destruction, journey through those moments and so interact with theirsociety; rather than standing aloof from it, they finally accept their responsibilities and societalcommitments. "Aggro-effects" are thus a Bondian strategy to promote social change through emotionalinvolvement.At a later stage of his dramatic career Bond refined "Aggro effect to create another effective deviceknown as "Theatre Events" (hereafter TE). This device was meant to make the stage useful for the audienceby bringing it closer to the audience's world. In his "Commentary on the War Plays" Bond says that drama is"not about what happens but about the meaning of what happens"History PlaysOr Chronicle PlaysChronicle Playswere dramatic works based on the historical materialsin theEnglishChroniclesbyRaphael Holinshed and others. They achievedhigh popularitylate in the sixteenth century, when thepatrioticfervourfollowing thedefeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 fostered a demand for plays dealingwith English history. The early chronicle plays presented a loosely knitseries ofevents during the reign of

an English king and depended for effectmainly ona bustle of stage battles, pageantry, and spectacle.Christopher Marlowe,however, in hisEdward II(1592) selected and rearranged materialsfrom Holinshed"sChroniclesto compose a unified drama of character, andShakespeare"s seriesof chronicleplays,encompassing the succession ofEnglish kingsfrom Richard II to Henry VIII, includes such major artisticachievements asRichard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV,andHenry V.The Elizabethan chronicle plays aresometimes calledhistory plays.This latterterm, however, is often applied more broadly to any drama basedmainly on historical materials, such as Shakespeare's Roman playsJulius CaesarandAntony and Cleopatra,and including such recent examples asArthur Miller"sThe Crucible(1953), which treats the Salem witchtrials of 1692,and RobertBolt'sA Man for All Seasons(1962), about the sixteenth-centuryjudge, author,and martyr Sir Thomas More.Closet dramaA closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or,sometimes, out loud in a small group. The dichotomy between private 'closet' drama (designed for reading)and public 'stage' drama (designed for performance in a commercialtheatresetting) dates from the lateeighteenth century. The practice of circulating plays in written form (printed or handwritten) for literaryaudiences predates this period, however.Any drama in a written form that does not dependonany significant degree uponimprovisationforits effect can be read as literature without being performed. Closet dramas (or closet plays)are traditionallydefined in narrower terms as belonging to a genre of dramatic writing unconcerned with stage techniqueandseldom (if ever) produced for the stage. "Although the term sometimes carries a negative connotation,implying that such works either lack sufficient theatrical qualities to warrant staging or require theatricaleffects beyond the capacity of most (ifnot all)theatres, closet dramas through the ages have had a variety ofdramatic features and purposes not tied to successful stage performance."Stage abilityis only one aspect ofcloset drama: historically,playwrightsmight choose the genre of 'closet' dramatic writing toavoidcensorshipof their works, for example in the case of political tragedies.Closet drama has also beenused as a mode of dramatic writing for those without access to the commercial playhouse, and in this contexthas become closely associated with early modern women's writing.The philosophicaldialoguesof ancient Greek and Roman writers such asPlato(seeSocraticdialogue)were written in the form of conversations between "characters" and are in this respect similar tocloset drama, many of which feature little action but are often rich in philosophical rhetoric.Beginning withFriedrich von Schlegel, many have argued that thetragediesofSeneca theYoungerin the first century AD were written to be recited at small parties rather than performed. Althoughthat theory has become widely pervasive in the history of theater, there is no evidence to support thecontention that hisplays were intended to be read or recited at small gatherings of the wealthy. TheemperorNero, a pupil of Seneca, may have performed in some of them. Some of the drama of theMiddleAgeswas of the closet-drama type, such as the drama ofHroswitha of Gandersheimanddebate poemsinquasi-dramatic form, such asThe Debate of Body and Soul.Elizabethan and Jacobean:FulkeGreville,Samuel Daniel,Sir William Alexander, andMarySidneywrote closetdramas in the age ofShakespeareandJonson.The period of the Civil War andtheInterregnum, when the publictheatreswere officially closed (1642-60), was perhaps the golden age ofcloset drama in English.ThomasKill grewis an example of a stage playwright who turned to closet dramawhen his plays could no longer be produced during this period; he was in exile from England duringtheEnglish Civil War.Following theRestorationin 1660, some authors continued to favour closet drama.John Milton'splaySamson Agonistes, written in 1671, is an example ofearly moderndrama never intended for the stage.Nineteenth century:Several closet dramas inversewere written in Europe after 1800; these playswere by and large inspired by classical models.Faust, Part 1andFaust, Part 2byJohann Wolfgang vonGoethe, among the most acclaimed pieces in the history ofGerman literature, were written as closet dramas,though both plays have been frequently staged.Lord Byron,Percy Bysshe Shelley, andAlexanderPushkindevoted much time to the closet drama. The genre also influenced other forms of literature and

theatre; the portions ofHerman Melville's novelMoby-Dickthat arein dialogue form are at least a casualallusion to closet drama.The popularity of closet drama at this time was both a sign of, and a reaction to, the decline of theversetragedyon theEuropean stage in the 1800s. Popular tastes intheatrewere shiftingtowardmelodramaandcomedyand there was little commercial appeal in staging verse tragedies(thoughColeridge,Robert Browning, and others wrote verse dramas that were staged in commercialtheatres). Playwrights who wanted to write verse tragedy had to resignthemto writing for readers, ratherthan actors and audiences. Nineteenth-century closet drama became a longer poetic form, without theconnection to practicaltheatreand performance.Robertson Daviescalled closet drama "Dreariest ofliterature, most second hand and fusty of experience!"Closet drama continues to be written today, althoughit is no longer a very popular genre.Curtain raiserA curtain raiser is a performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the mainattraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain. The first person on stage has "raisedthe curtain.The fashion in the lateVictorian eraandEdwardian erawas to present long evenings in the theatre,and so full-length pieces were often presented together with companion pieces.[1]Each full-length work wasnormally accompanied by one or two short companion pieces. If the piece began the performance, it wascalled a curtain raiser. One that followed the full-length piece was called an afterpiece.W. J. MacQueen-Popecommented, concerning the curtain raisers:This was a one-act play, seen only by the early comers. It would play to empty boxes, half-emptyupper circle, to a gradually filling stalls and dresscircle, but to an attentive, grateful and appreciativepit and gallery. Often these plays were little gems. They deserved much better treatment than theygot, but those who saw them delighted in them ... they served to give young actors and actresses achance to win their spurs ... the stalls and the boxes lost much by missing the curtain-raiser, but tothem dinner was more important.One Act PlayAone-act playis aplaythathas only oneact, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-actplays may consist of one or morescenes. In recent years,[when?]the 10-minute play has emerged as apopularsubgenreof the one-act play, especially in writing competitions. The origin of the one-act play maybe traced to the very beginning ofdrama: inancient Greece,Cyclops, asatyr playbyEuripides, is an earlyexampleOne-act plays by major dramatistsiEdward Albee--The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?(2002)iSamuel Beckett-Krapp's Last Tape(1958)iAnton Chekhov-A Marriage Proposal(1890)iEugène Ionesco-The Bald Soprano(1950)iArthur Miller-A Memory of Two Mondays(1955)iThornton Wilder-The Long Christmas Dinner(1931)******************************************************************************Shakespeare: AnOverviewWilliam Shakespeare, often called England's national poet, is considered the greatest dramatist of alltime. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare's personal life is shrouded in mystery.William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of theRenaissanceera. He was an importantmember of the King"s MenCompanyof theatrical playersfrom roughly 1594 onward.William Shakespeare has the distinction of being one of the most quoted authors in the world.His career isspread across the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.

In addition, he wrote his so-called "problem plays", or "bitter comedies", that includes, amongstothers,Measure for Measure,Troilus and Cressida,A Winter's TaleandAll's Well that Ends Well. His earlyclassical and Italianate comedies, likeA Comedy of Errors, containing tight double plots and precise comicsequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his greatest comedies,A MidsummerNight's Dream,Much Ado About Nothing,As You Like It, andTwelfth Night. After the lyricalRichard II,written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late1590s,Henry IV, parts 1and2, andHenryV. This period begins and ends with two tragedies:Romeo andJuliet, andJulius Caesar, based on SirThomas North's1579 translation ofPlutarch'sParallel Lives, whichintroduced a new kind of drama.His first published play wasTitus and Andronicus(printed anonymously in 1594). From 1598, hisname appears on title pages, suggesting the increasing popularityof his plays.First editions ofHenry V, TheMerry Wives of Windsor,Periclesand the third part ofHenry VI appearedin what are nowknown as the'bad quartos". The comedies-The comedy of Error, The Gentlemen of Veron, Love"s Labour"s Lost andHenry VI-drew from a range of styles and contemporaries.Shakespeare"s plays in chronological order:i1580-1590oTheTamingoftheShrewConsidered to be one of Shakespeare's earliest works, the play isgenerally believed to have been written before15921590-1600oHenryVIPartIIBelieved to have been written in1591and Shakespeare's first play based onEnglish historyoHenryVIPartIIIWritten immediately after Part II, a short version of the play was published inOctavo form in1595oTheTwoGentlemenofVeronaKnownto be written around the1590sas it was mentioned byFrancis Meres in his list of Shakespeare's plays in 1598, no firm evidence for a particular yearoTitusAndronicusWritten in1591/92, withitsfirst performance possibly in January 1594oHenryVIPartIGenerally assumed to be the'Henry the VI"' performed at the Rose Theatre in1592oRichardIIICould have been written in1592, shortly before the plague struck, or in 1594 when thetheatres reopened post-plagueoTheComedyofErrorsWas possibly written for Gray's Inn Christmas festivitiesfor the legalprofession in December1594oLove'sLabour'sLostAn edition of the play in 1598 refers to it being 'presented before herHighness [Queen Elizabeth] this last Christmas', and most scholars date it to1595-96oAMidsummerNight'sDreamOften dated to1595-96. Reference in Act 1 Scene 2 to courtiersbeing afraid of a strange lion may allude to an incident in Scotland in 1594oRomeoandJulietAstrological allusions and earthquake reference may suggest compositionin1595-96oRichardIITypically dated1595-96. Described in 1601 as 'old and long out of use'oKingJohnWritten between1595and1597; an anonymous two-partKingJohnwas published in1591 but Shakespeare's version is stylistically close to later historiesoTheMerchantofVeniceRegistered for publication in 1598, reference to a shipAndrewsuggestslate1596or early1597as a Spanish ship of the name was captured around that timeoHenryIVPartIProbably written and first performed1596-97, registered for publication in 1598oHenryIVPartIIWritten around1597-98and registered for publication in 1600, both parts arebased on Holinshed'sChroniclesoMuchAdoAboutNothingLate1598, not mentioquotesdbs_dbs14.pdfusesText_20