Antique Influences

In England, as in Italy, only much earlier, drama went through three stages of the classics’ influence, firstly, they staged Roman playwrights plays in the original, mostly at schools, secondly, they started to stage them in translation, and still later began to write their own plays according to classical samples. But there was a big difference between the two countries. Medieval Italy didn’t enjoy drama in the vernacular, so it wasn’t numerous. For neither mystery plays (rappresentazioni sacre), nor dramatized Laudas, nor farces were widespread then. As for England, this type of drama was loved & cherished by wide circles of audience. Those were, as we know, morality play & interludes. However, remaining in the frames of medieval mentality, with vestiges of religious superstitions, these genres could not be more free and more artistic. On the one hand, such plays as Bailey’s "Kyng Johan", on the other – Haywood’s interludes, outlined the ways of morality play evolution. Classical influences, emanating from both pieces of ancient authors, & from those written on classical models by Italian playwrights, came just in time. English theater was closely associated with people's tastes & the people's demands & developed in the course of a great national enthusiasm. That is why, the results of the classical revival in Italy & in England have been so different. Italian drama was not able to recreate the greatest examples of national drama & theater, after a long fruitless searching, gave up drama completely (in commedia dell'arte). But English drama rose to the highest peaks & took its seat next to the ancient Greek one. Creative spontaneity promoted the English theater with boundless power, & no obstacle could hinder it. Old theatrical genres, thanks to classicism, were transformed in a way unknown before.

The 60s of the 16^th c. is a whole period of dramatic experiments in the field of drama in the manner of future classicism. The most important genre that was used by those first Renaissance dramatists was the Italian “academic comedy”. There were 2 translations of such a comedy into English language. The author of one of the translations is unknown. He chose prose comedy by Anton Francesco Grazzini-Lasca "The Obsessed" & translated it in verses, adding a few more scenes & characters from other antique & Italian comedies. In the translation the play was called The Bugbears (1561). The II translation is much more interesting. Its author was George Gascoigne (1525-1577), who also translated Supposes by Ariosto. This comedy is known in two versions, the original prosaic one & the later poetic one. Gascoigne used both, but made a prosaic translation (1566). Its great advantage is that Gascoigne was trying to find the secret of good prose language. His work does not seem to be a translation, and it seems to be an original thing: there are so many of typical English words & even concepts. Lily probably knew Supposes, his prose plays are closely related to Gascoigne’s. Thus, the English comedy gradually finds its own way, followed by tragedy. But at the time as I comic performances were staged mostly in grammar schools, tragedies from the very beginning have been concentrated at universities & law corporations. This all began with numerous translations of Seneca into English, and of Greek tragedians - into Latin and English languages. Among the Seneca’s translators we find those made by Jasper Heywood who did not follow the footsteps of his father, the author of interludes, and joined the camp of scientists – Alexander Neville, John Stadley, Thomas Newsome & Thomas Newton, the latter published in 1581 a full translation of Seneca's tragedies, which included all of the aforementioned scientists.

The fact that the university community staged translation of Seneca's tragedies in English is not proved with any data. But it is quite certain that the impact of the Roman poet upon the I fruits of the English tragic muse was huge. London law corporations were the environment in which the first original English tragedies were written & staged. They have long become customary to arrange banquets for Christmas, New Year and Epiphany. For these banquets only specially selected London society was invited, and hosts tried to entertain it in different ways. Festivities of the end of 1560 – the beginning of 1561 in the corporation Inner Temple promised to be particularly luxurious. They were to be attended byRobert Dudley, not yet the Earl of Leicester, but already queen Elizabeth’s sweetheart. To honor the Queen's favorite, the first original English tragedy Gorboduc was staged on the Epiphany day in 1561, the play written by two prominent members of the upper class: Thomas Norton (1532-1584) & Thomas Sackville (1536-1608). Norton made the first 3 acts, Sackville - 2 last ones. But, more importantly, that Sackville was an outstanding poet. He owns a fair share of the poems in the book Mirror of the Magistrates, where his creative personality revealed itself immeasurably better than in Gorboduc. Mirror was called a bridge between Lydgate & Spencer, and it must be admitted that such an assessment is not an exaggeration. If the Gorboduc is the real tragedy with real lyricism and the language of passions created by Sackville in the last two acts.

The play is notable for several reasons: as the I verse drama in English to employ blank verse; for its political subject matter (the realm of Gorboduc is disputed by his sons Ferrex and Porrex), which was still a touchy area in the early years of Elizabeth's reign; for its manner, progressing from the models of the morality play and Senecan tragedy in the direction which would be followed by later playwrights. That is, it can be seen as a forerunner of the whole trend that would later produce Titus Andronicus and King Lear. It is also provides the I well-documented performance of a play in Ireland: Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy staged it at Dublin Castle in 1601. Gorboduc’s plot – the play was initially called Ferrex & Porrex – was borrowed from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s chronicle & it dramatized an episode from England’s legendary past. One of king Lear’s descendants, Gorboduc, repeated his madness. At the play's beginning, the argument gives the following summary of the play's action: “Gorboduc, King of Britain, divided his realm in his lifetime to his sons, Ferrex & Porrex. The sons fell to dissention. The younger killed the elder. The mother that more dearly loved the elder, for revenge killed the younger. The people, moved with the cruelty of the fact, rose in rebellion & slew both father & mother. The nobility assembled & most terribly destroyed the rebels. Afterward for want of issue of the prince, whereby the succession of the crown became uncertain, they fell to civil war in which both they & many of their issues were slain, & the land for a long time became almost desolate & miserably wasted.

In that same 60s-70s, other actors, not so famous in social standing, followed the Gorboduc & Arthur tradition of Senecan tragedy but in other, more democratic environment. Those were the plays that one can call the first English tragecomedies. We know of 4 of them: Damon & Pythias by Richard Edwards, Orestes by John Pickering, Appius & Virginia by John Webster, Cambyses by Thomas Preston. The I of them was not entirely preserved, so it’s difficult to judge about it. We only know that it was presented to Elizabeth I in 1564 & was very successful. Three other plays are the plays of Bailey’s Kyng Johan type. Each of these plays united the elements of morality play with historical or mythological plot. Appius & Virginia & Cambyses exemplify this with a figure of Vice called Haphazard in the I play, Ambidexter in the II, which is combined with the characters of Livy & Herodotus in a very intricate manner in the scenes. All these play are interesting with their representation of folk interests & expectations. At the time when the Gorboduc & his offsprings, were designed for educated people, these ones were created not for a narrow circle of spectators but for large. The same genre was significantly later used by George Whetstone (1544-1587) in his drama Promos & Cassandra (1578), which plot was later elaborated by Shakespeare (Measure for Measure). One of the main sources for the play was a novella by G.B. Giraldi Cinthio. Its material grew up in the play to the extent that it was divided into 2 parts – each containing 5 acts both dramatic & comic scenes, as was the case with Edwards & Preston, but already without any plot borrowings from morality plays. Weston created a very interesting introduction to his play, defending the canons of classicism in it, but not very confidently: sir Philip Sydney in a few years was more persuasive & strict. Weston’s theory was immediately disproved with his play. Therefore Weston allowed some compromises like violation of unities of space & time, combination of comic & tragic, which showed the further impossibility to defend Senecan & Gorboducan classicistic rules that were absolutely far from reality.

In the 80s the theater being not ready for this mixture of genres produced its first offspring proper – the historical chronicle on stage (history). Tragicomedy was paving its way to a true Renaissance dramatic work still lacking: depth of idea, subtle analysis of characters, logical development of intrigue. School dramas, whether it was a comedy, performed at grammar schools & universities, or a tragedy, which was given out in law corporations, remained unknown to the general public. While a tragicomedy that apparently got into the repertoire of wandering actors, became very popular.

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