<sc>ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE</sc> <sc>i. the earliest forms of drama (1)</sc> Popular festival and religious rite. The “liturgical” drama. The Guild plays. Difference between “miracle” plays, “moralities,” and “interludes.” Examination of several examples. Their peculiar charm and their essential dramatic qualities. Read: Everyman, Abraham and Isaac, and the Second Shepherds Play.
<sc>ii. the revival of learning (2)</sc> The Renaissance in England, and its effect upon the Drama. John Bale and Heywood. Influence of humanism not always beneficial. Study of Latin literature: Seneca and Plautus. Beginnings of blank verse. Development of set tragedy and comedy. Italian influence. Read: Gorboducor Ralph Roister Doister.
<sc>iii. the elizabethan stage (3)</sc> Popularity of the Theatre. The theatres of Shakespeare’s time: their construction, the audience, its character and its demands, the players and their life. The playwright: his task and his life. The continuous adaptation of old plays to current needs. Why Elizabethan life and thought found its most adequate expression in the theatre. Read: The first chapters of G. P. Baker: Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist.
<sc>iv. kyd: the first important dramatist (4)</sc> His Spanish Tragedyanalysed. Its great popularity. The “tragedy of blood.” Comparison with Titus Andronicusand Hamlet. First appearance of stock situations. Kyd the probable author of Arden of Feversham, a unique attempt at tragedy based on contemporary events. Why was this kind of realism not more popular? Read: The Spanish Tragedyor Arden of Feversham.
<sc>v. christopher marlowe (5-6)</sc> The greatest poet since Chaucer and the greatest dramatist before Shakespeare. What is known of his life. His originality. His verse in Tamburlaine. His intellect in Faustus: comparison with Goethe’s handling of the same legend.
Importance of the “chronicle play.” Marlowe’s Edward IIcompared with Shakespeare’s Richard II.
Marlowe’s Jew of Maltacompared with the Merchant of Venice. Characterisation in the work of the two dramatists. Monotony of Marlowe’s dramatic verse compared with Shakespeare’s at his best. Read: Dr. Faustus, and either Edward IIwith Richard II, or the Jew of Maltawith the Merchant of Venice.
Marlowe’s minor plays: Dido Queen of Carthaqe. Two men influenced by Marlowe: Peele and Greene, and their relation to him. Read: James IV(Greene) or the Old Wives’ Tale(Peele).
<sc>vi. the chronicle play (7)</sc> Examination of the True Tragedy of Richard Duke of Yorkwith Richard IIIand Henry VIfor traces of Marlowe, Peele, Greene, and Shakespeare. Henry IVas a play by Shakespeare.
<sc>vii. euphuism (8)</sc> The work of John Lyly. The style of Euphuesand of Lyly’s plays. Its Spanish sources; its popularity. Influence upon Shakespeare. Read: Lyly’s Endymionand Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.
<sc>viii. shakespeare (9-10)</sc> The early Shakespeare and his relation to the foregoing summed up. His work as an adapter; its value for his progress. In what ways are his early plays inferior and superior to Marlowe’s work? His early use of sources. Read: Two Gentlemen of Veronaor Comedy of Errors. Criticism of these two plays.
The mature Shakespeare. Study of a mature play: Measure for Measure; the thought and the versification. His early faults and their disappearance. King Lear; comparison with the original play of that name. Read: Measure for Measure.
The later Shakespeare. Do the great tragedies exceed the possibilities of the stage? Lamb’s views on this subject. Characteristics of Shakespeare’s old age. Read: Coriolanus, or the Winter’s Tale, or Antony and Cleopatra.
Shakespeare’s relation to his time.
<sc>ix. non-dramatic poetry (11)</sc> English poetry after Chaucer. Tudor verse, and verse translation: Gawain Douglas, Golding, the poets of “Tottel’s Miscellany.” Surrey and Wyatt. Blank verse. Marlowe as poet: his Hero and Leandercompared with Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis. Read: Marlowe’s Hero and Leander. Canto I. Poems of lesser men in various anthologies, especially Arber’s Surrey and Wyatt Antholog yand Spenser Antholog y.
<sc>x. spenser</sc>(12) French and Italian influence. His earlier poems. The Epithalamion...
