Theatre

Drama and all other art forms revived during the Renaissance between 1500 and 1600 across Europe, which set the ball rolling and this renewal of the performing arts lasted for another three decades. This paper elucidates on the drama and performances between the 15th and 17th century and its effect on the society as a whole. Romans introduced drama across Europe including England and this led to the construction auditoriums across the continent. During the medieval period, an early street theatre associated with the Morris dance called mummers plays developed whose themes included Saint George, Robin Hood and Dragon. The medieval age also witnessed the mystery and morality plays which dealt with Christian themes and were performed at religious festivals. Roman plays were staged at the courts of Italian princes during festive occasions, a mark of Renaissance. It became a practice to include lavish musical instruments in between the scenes in order to obtain the stage view, charming and beautiful costume and above all, the singing and dancing of the actors.

The first intermezzi were performed in 1689, in order to celebrate a wedding at the Medici Court in France. Later the scenes depicted in the above play became popular among the elite audience of the city with the mark of the new century. Italy is the pioneer in launching the opera, which laid the foundation for the popular theatre. The Italian comedies became extremely popular with the audience and each country in Europe had its own popular culture. Monody, the solo singing of a dramatically conceived melody expressed the emotional content of the book through the simple sequence of chords.  The different versions of Monody such as madrigal, frottola and villanelle were often staged during stately functions such as military victories and weddings.

In the last quarter of the 16th century, the theatres in London were built. The structure of the theatre depicted the social hierarchy which was extremely evident in the structure of these theatres. The ordinary Londoners called groundlings were made to stand in the open pit in order to watch the play, paying 1 penny. With the increase in the fee, the seating facilities were better with the maximum luxury of cushion seating which costed twelve pennies. About 21,000 audiences witnessed a play in a week, making it comparable with the modern day cinema.

Renaissance in England augmented the popularity of drama and playwrights like Marlowe, Shakespeare and Webster and they produced different genres of drama such as tragedy, comedy and history. On the other hand, Ben Jonson was busily engaged in writing courtly masques and ornate plays which made the actors wear a mask. Thus this period marked the prolific growth of modern consciousness in England.

Masked actors performed short dramatic entertainment called masque initially originated as a folk ceremony called mummery or mumming play. Initially during the performance of the mummery or masque, disguised guests holding presents would break into a festival and later joins with their hosts in a ceremonial dance. Later when it was performed on stage, the crucial aspects of masque such as wearing masks and mingling of actors and spectators were retained. Masques usually were performed with an allegorical theme which uses speeches, dance and songs and it is further accompanied by rich costumes and spectacular scenery. During the 16th and 17th century, masques evolved as the courtly form of dramatic spectacle and became extremely popular in England.

Masques had their origins in the 15th century in Italy and were introduced in the court of Henry VIII. It evolved to a large extent and the court masque reached its zenith between 1600 and 1630 and later it revived once again during Restoration. The masques in the Royal court combined songs, speech and formal dances with revels and the masquers involved in dancing, intrigue and gallantry and kept the court audience captivated with their performance.

Court masques were performed in the Great Hall at WhiteHall, in the Banqueting House and at the Inns of Court. Graham states that As the most developed courtly pastime and formal social occasion of the English Renaissance, the masque was thus significant, even if some of its spectators may have been uncomprehending of, or indifferent to, its deeper poetic and scenic meanings. (113) The exceptional quality of the Jacobean masques is attributed to the profound and versatile poetry of Ben Jonson and the stage designs of Inigo Jones. Both Jonson and Jones have together worked for more than 30 works. The courtly masques usually included four songs with the dance performances in between along with the introductory and concluding numbers. The main composers whose works still survive are Alfonso Ferrabosco, Robert Johnson, Thomas Campion and Nicholas Lanier who were influenced by Italian recitation.

Caroline masques were considered to be superior to Jacobean masque with their dramatic presentations. Triumph of Peace by Shirley is one of the most popular dramatic compositions of the time. Miltons Comus with the music by Henry Lawes was performed for the lesser nobility. Shirleys Cupid and Death with the music composition by Locke and Christopher Gibbons is the only surviving masque of the Commonwealth period. Masque survived in the theatres after Restoration sharing a few features with the courtly masque such as the entries at the end of acts. These masques also included dance, songs, recitals and dialogues like the courtly masque. The traditional features of Masque continued to survive as a spectacular indoor performance which combined poetry, dance, songs, music, expensive stage settings and rich costumes. During the 17th and 17th century such indoor performances were greatly admired by the European Royalty.

Members of the court enter with masks and perform an allegorical plot and conclude their presentation by removing their mask and engaging in a dance along with the spectators. Shakespeare has included a short masque scene in The Tempest too. The courts of James I and Charles I has the fortune to witness exceptional masques. The narrative elements of masque gained significance in the Court of James I. Most of the themes were either allegorical or classical which aims at glorifying the sponsor and towards the end of the masque, the spectators will also take part in the final dance. The theatrical presentations of masques by the English Royal community were on par with the ballets de cour of France. The allegorical and mythological themes were presented in the most colorful way as possible with the singing, dancing and mime. But the literary element is the most significant component and writers such Jonson and Milton have come out with exceptional masques of high standard that they are still surviving. For instance Jonsons Masque of Blackness and Masque of Beauty stand testament to the high standard of writing.

Masque reached the greatest heights in the history and was performed both at the public theaters and the royal courts. But the Parliamentary Revolution in 1640s brought about an abrupt end to this theatre extravaganza brought to your doorstep. The parliamentary Revolution of the 1640s brought this form of extravagance to an abrupt end. Later the masques were called the opera which modified the original masque to a certain extent.

Bevington and Holbrook in their Introduction states that, This proposition is arguably even more true of the masque than of other literary forms in the period, if only because many of the most powerful individuals in the land participated in its elegant rituals.(5) Masque was a courtly entertainment during the festive occasions during the sixteenth and seventeenth century across Europe which involved dancing, singing, acting, elaborate stage designing and costume designing. Professional singers and actors were hired and on most occasions the masquers who did not speak or sing turned out to be courtiers. James Is Queen consort, Anne of Denmark often danced with the ladies in the masques and we also have the historical evidence of Henry VIII and Charles I performing in the masques at their courts. In fact Henry VIIIs performance has brought a political revolution across Europe during the signing of peace treaty with France. Further Louis XIV has danced in ballets at Versailles.

While Opera was becoming popular in Italy in the late 16th and 17th centuries, French ballet de cour and English masque much similar to the Italian version in several respects were becoming widely popular. All the three forms of visual art involved the spectacular staging and the audiences were mainly nobles and courtiers. Slowly Opera got infused into England and France and thus the English masque slowly imbibed the characteristics of Italian Opera and the emergence of ballet in opera. Thus the 15th and 16th century saw the rise of courtly performance arts across the European continent.
Another court entertainment which was extremely popular during the 16th century was madrigal comedy or the madrigal opera. In this piece of court entertainment, a number of madrigals are strung together in order to suggest a dramatic narrative but it is not staged. Emilio d Cavalieri produced and wrote two music pastorals called Il Satiro and La Disperazione di Fileno.

Between 1649 and 1660, the English theatres remained closed due to the establishment of Puritan ideology. Once the monarchy was restored, under the personal interest of Charles II, theatres in London were revived and new genres of drama developed during Restoration. They are heroic drama, pathetic drama and Restoration Comedy. The popular heroic tragedies of the Restoration Age are John Drydens All for Love and Thomas Otways Venice Preserved.

The Restoration Comedies reflected the way of life of the people and the true spirit of the Age. The notable Comedies include William Wycherleys The Country Wife, William Congreves The Way of the World, John Vanbrughs The Relapse and George Ethereges The Man of Mode. The Restoration comedies were known for their sexual explicitness which was personally encouraged by Charles II and the raffish aristocratic ethos of the English Court

The Courtly performances between the 15th and 17th century moved the performance arts to the next higher plane and the demarcation between the performer and the spectator was not kept intact throughout the performance, especially the masques. Further these courtly performances apart from entertaining the courtiers and providing patronage to the artistes, they also played a major role in influencing the political developments in the Western Europe in general and England and France in particular. Thus the courtly performances have been influenced and evolved through the different ages which both entertains and educates the spectators.