- •1. The drama after Shakespeare. Jacobean drama and theatre.
- •2. Ben Jonson and his plays. Volpone.
- •Volpone
- •3. Thomas Dekker and his plays. Old Fortunatus.
- •4. Thomas Heywood and his plays. A Woman Killed with Kindness.
- •5. Beaumont and Fletcher. The Knight of the Burning Pestle.
- •6. John Webster and his plays. The White Devil.
- •7. John Webster and his plays. The Duchess of Malfi.
- •9. Masque and music at the Stuart Court
- •8. Cyril Tourneur and his plays. The Revenger’s Tragedy.
- •10. Puritanism and its influence on English Literature.
- •11. The Restoration and Public Pleasures.
- •12. The Enlightenment and Neoclassicism
- •13. The Great Fire of London
- •14. Basic themes in Restoration comedy: the younger son, marriage and the matter of inheritance, money. Morality. Satire. The pamphlet.
- •15. The Physical Structure of the Restoration Theatre.
- •16. The Restoration Theatre, Audience, Actors.
- •17. The Restoration Comedy.
- •20. William Wycherley. The Country Wife.
- •21. William Congreve (1670-1729). The Way of the World (1700) – the masterpiece of Restoration drama.
- •22. High Tragedy and Pathetic Tragedy
- •23. Comedy of Manners
- •24. John Dryden and his plays. The Indian Queen.
- •25. Sir George Etherege and his plays. Man of Mode
- •26. Thomas Shadwell. Absalom and Achitophel
- •27. George Farquhar and his plays. The Beaux' Stratagem.
- •28. Sir John Vanbrugh and his plays. The Relapse (1696)
- •29. Drama in the early 19th century
- •30. Theatre Riots.
- •31. Early Victorian Drama and theatrical conditions.
- •32. Oscar Wilde and his literary contribution. Lady Windermere’s Fan
- •33. Oscar Wilde and his literary contribution. An Ideal Husband
- •34. Oscar Wilde and his literary contribution. The Importance of Being Ernest
- •35. Oscar Wilde and his literary contribution. A Woman of No Importance
- •36. George Bernard Show and his literary contribution. Pygmalion.
- •37. George Bernard Show and his literary contribution. Heartbreak House.
- •38. George Bernard Show and his literary contribution. Mrs. Warren’s Profession.
- •39. 19Th century theatre. Melodrama
- •40. The Well-Made Play
- •41. The Irish Renaissance
- •Irish Humour
- •Irish Blarney
- •42. John Millington Synge. Riders to the Sea.
- •43. John Millington Synge. The Tinkers Wedding.
- •44. John Millington Synge. The Playboy of the Western World.
- •45. Thomas Sterns Eliot. Murder in the Cathedral.
- •46. John Osborne. Look Back in Anger
- •47. John Galsworthy. The Silver Box
- •48. John Galsworthy. Strife
2. Ben Jonson and his plays. Volpone.
(At birth he got the name Benjamin, but he never used it. He used the name Ben). Birthdate is June 11, 1572, a month after his biological father’s death. His birthplace and his parents names are unknown. He studied at Westminster School under William Camden. With George Chapman, he was the most learned of the English Renaissance dramatists. He leaved school at the age of 16 and tried his hand at soldiering. He decided to marry to Anne Lewis. He devoted hid life to theatre.His first popular success was in the field of comedy. He left behind 17 plays, 35 other dramatic pieces (masques and entertainments), a number of poems and epigrams original and translated, an English grammar, and a commonplace book called Timber, or Discoveries.
Volpone
Jonson’s great powers of mind were turned to a devastating criticism of the acquisitive (kapzsi) society in Volpone, acted early in 1606. The corrupting power of wealth became one of the main themes of drama after 1600. The theme of Volpone is the degrading effect of money on human character. The morality tradition is clearly visible in the structure of the play and the nomenclature of the figures. Jonson brings home his point by the method of dehumanization: the characters of the play are given the names of birds of prey, animals of lower order, thus underlining the fact that the main agents of the action are animated by the basest instincts, not by intelligence or natural morality. Voltore - the vulture (keselyű), Corbaccio - the raven, Corvino - the crow, they all fall victims to the wiles (csábítás) of Volpone - the crafty fox and his parasite, Mosca, the fly. They all commit perjury (hamis tanúzás). Corbaccio disinherits his son and accuses him of intended murder; Corvino the jealous husband, is ready to prostitute his wife to Volpone’s lust, in order to secure his inheritance. Depths below depths of evil open up in the course of the brilliantly complicated plot. The profanation (megszentségtelenítés) of moral values is stressed by the imagery of the play: money, food, sensual pleasure are invented with divine qualities. After the Prologue, the play opens with Volpone’s sacrilegious (szentségtörő9 hymn to gold, an example of the perversion of value, the voice of a society in which the unscrupulous (gátlástalan) quest for money has become man’s religion. “Good morning to the day; and next, my gold!“ Volpone was written by a master of stage effects – firmness of construction is one of the main sources of aesthetic pleasure in Jonson. His style is different from Shakespeare’s which is characterized by suggestiveness, the interplay of thought and emotion. In Jonson everything is said deliberately and with the greatest economy.
3. Thomas Dekker and his plays. Old Fortunatus.
Thomas Dekker is noted also as a pamphleteer, “the first literary artist of London street life”. Dekker was interested in the darker aspects of London life which gave him an opportunity for the display of his humanitarian spirit. Dekker’s two earliest plays, both published in 1600, indicate the two contrasted strains of his art. Old Fortunatus, based on a German folk-tale, is a charming but loosely constructed poetical piece full of nebulous romantic motifs.
The Shoemaker’s Holiday represents a complete contrast in its skilful plot-construction and realistic characterization.
Old Fortunatus
Fortunatus, a beggar, meets the goddess Fortune, and she offers him a choice between wisdom, strength, health, beauty, long life, and riches. He chooses riches and is given a purse from which he can take ten pieces of gold at any time. He then takes himself off to Cyprus to visit his two sons, the reckless spendthrift Andelocia and the more prudent and unimaginative Ampedo. To Cyprus also go Fortune and her attendants Vice and Virtue, who plant two trees, Vice's tree being covered with fair fruit while Virtue's tree hardly bears any fruit at all. Fortunatus visits the court of the Soldan of Turkey, where he tricks the Soldan out of his miraculous hat, which has the power of taking the wearer wherever he wishes to go. Fortunatus returns to Cyprus, but his life of luxury is cut short by Fortune, and his two sons inherit the purse and hat; they agree that Andelocia will take the purse and Ampedo the hat. Andelocia goes to England and woos Agripyne, the daughter of king Athelstane, but she tricks him out of his purse. He returns to Cyprus and robs Ampedo of his hat, then travels to England in disguise hoping to regain his purse. Though he succeeds in abducting Agripyne, she takes the hat and uses it to return home. Not only has Andelocia now lost both purse and hat, he has also been turned into a horned beast by injudiciously eating apples from the tree planted by Vice. Virtue offers to turn him back to his old shape if he will only eat her fruit, bitter though it tastes. He does so, and is transformed both physically and morally. On Fortune's advice he travels to England, in disguise again, in the hope of regaining the purse and hat. There he finds not only Agripyne but also Ampedo. He takes both talismans from the princess and gives the hat to Ampedo, who, recognizing the ill-luck it has brought them, burns it. The brothers are now taken prisoner by English courtiers and, unable to use the hat to escape, are put in thestocks and die there. Fortune takes back the marvellous purse, and appeal is made from the stage to Queen Elizabeth to decide whether Virtue or Vice has been the victor.