The advent of Shakespeare
The World of Arts:
Gwen HERAT
The last scenes of Faustus were among the most pathetic but grandiose
in Romanscence drama. They stood. They stood out distinctly from the
rest of drama. Christopher Marlowe ushered in the literary revolution
because it gave him so much scope to reveal his lyrical power. Whether
his genius developed because of the exigencies in historic drama or the
plays had qualities in proper dramatic sense, were never found in his
predecessors.
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Faustus |
The lyrical declamation came under new restraints. The dialogue were
better distributed in speeches and the blank verse less strained and
more pliable. He had broken the ice where progress in character-study
became diversified. Marlowe possessed the supreme quality that enables
him to lift drama into spheres of high literature. He was the greatest
poet that impacted every one who followed him with ardour. He was
lyrical, personal, violently egoistic and carried with him his own
unique conception of man and life. Marlowe fore-shadowed Milton.
A little of him was found in Byron and a little more in Shelly. This
was in the face of his own atheism. When the English stage for in great
need of intensity, he provided it with his exclusiveness. There was a
rapid march to victory with his brand of wit, grace and fancy. He
inspired drama of conviction and it sprang to life and set the stage for
the Bard.
Around this time, Robert Greene was turning his energies from novel
to drama. However, was forced to confirm to the changing taste. He was
extravagant in his expressions but the imitation of Marlow's famous
plays or a parody on them, was evident.
Many critics of the time were of view that Greene's Friar Bacon and
Friar Bungay was another Faustus. He was seeped in Marlowe's influence
but the conformity to the changed demand was apparent. His personal
charm formed an essential contribution to the preparation for
Shakespeare's work, just like Marlowe's.
Greene with his immense taste for romance, overshadowed Shakespeare
the way Lyly did with his wit. Kid did same with his tragic atmosphere
and Marlowe with his lyrical eloquence.
The genius of these writers had to be united in one man that was to
follow and into one work. He was to be the greatest of them all. The
Master who was going to march from one century to the other, making all
writers look pale and insignificant. The colossus of the world of
literature. William Shakespeare was to gather them and enrich them to
build the empire of words, the citadel of drama and of prose and verse
too.
Building the citadel of drama
The problem that confronted the historians of literature were the
attitude of Shakespeare's contemporary drama and the necessity of its
fullness. To have studied each of his plays that were distinct and truly
independent, were on a scale of proportionate in its value and
importance, may have made it awesome to those historians. Most of them
were puzzled and fascinated at the depth and characters of the plays.
They were truly amazed at his genius.
Significant and stormy
No more than an attempt to discover the points at which Shakespeare
connected with rivals and those at which he dominated them is still an
undisclosed theory. Shakespeare's first appearance in literary history
was both significant and stormy.
Thomas Nash and his Young Humanists company that were better known as
the University Wits had hardly recovered from Marlowe's sudden triumph,
when they were faced with another dangerous rival who appeared from a
different world to theirs.
As much as against their will, they were forced to accept Marlowe,
the Master of Arts from the Cambridge University as their superior even
on the face of arrogance because he was one of them. He was a new
brilliant recruit for their group but the danger that threatened them
and Marlowe, was from the world of actors on whom they had sneered. They
were considered ignoramuses whom they refused to regard as barely able
to decline the fine passages written for them by men of letters such as
the University Wits.
Lord Chamberlaine's was a well known group who snapped their fingers
at the manuscripts written by the university men who were accredited to
producers of fine literature.
Suddenly they discovered a mere actor was taking it upon himself to
write, reshape, clip and add to his company's repertory and fashioning
it anew when did not create new plays.
To be continued |
