THE EARLY ELIZABETHAN DRAMA
The university wits/or Pre-Shakespearean Drama/or the drama of Predecessors of Shakespeare or The Early Elizabethan Drama (Elizabethan's Reign 1558-1603) or the pay of Marlowe.
The Pre-Shakespearean Drama is mainly the drama written by the university wits.In the second half of the 16th century,that is,between 1550-1590,a group of English writers who had university degrees chose to write plays for English theatre. Before the university wits,there existed the classical drama of Greece and Rome. English drama lacked in fire and passion.The English drama which was chiefly morality play, was still struggling to be born as a dramatic art. The university wits who had academic training, passion and poetry brought a new life into English drama and paved the way to the emergence and expression of the genius of Shakespeare.
The university wits consists mainly of the dramatists like Robert-Greene,Thomas Lodge.John Lily,Christopher Marlowe,Thomas Nash,George Peele and Thomas Kyd. These dramatists lay a sure basis for the English theatre and provide a fertile period of English dramatic writing. Peele's theatrical work,for example,is diverse in character. He attempts a pastoral, a romantic tragedy,chronicle history etc. Kyd attempts plays on Senecan model and introduces the tragedy of revenge. His plays are full of strong external actions. They are well-constructed. Greene contributes much to the development of romantic comedy,and Lily to the portrayal pf comic characters. But Marlowe's contribution is the most outstanding,clearly,of all these university wits or predecessors of Shakespeare,Marlowe is the most eminent playwright.
Marlowe breaks away slightly from the ancient medieval drama. He substitutes ordinary human beings for the royal personages. Marlowe's Tamburlaine, for example,is a peasant,the Jew is a money lender and Dr. Faustus is an ordinary German doctor and alchemist. Thus, the medieval conception of the tragedy is substituted by the Renaissance ideals. They may be ordinary human beings.But they are ambitious and achieve great heights of earthly power,wealth,knowledge,and glory.They represent English Renaissance ideals of ambition and individual worth. So, A.Nicolls says ;
"The Marlovian approach brings intensity,admiration and wonder into tragedy." Putting the same thing in a different language,A.J.Wyatt and A.S. Collins say;
"Marlowe's conception of tragedy is the classical Greek conception modified by the spirit of the Renaissance."
Again,while medieval conception of tragedy is distinctly moral,Marlowe's conception of tragedy is dramatic and realistic. Though death comes to all his tragic heroes,the essence (of his plays) lies in the struggle of a brave human soul against the forces which prove stronger than it is at the end So,the interest in his plays lies wholly in the presentation of conflict and the personality of the hero. His hero is like a super man with unsurpassed will, strength and sense of adventure. He is a giant figure,the embodiment of consuming passion, coming to ruin,through a struggle between his conquerable soul and physical limitations. But in the plays of Shakespeare he is brought down to the human level.
Other characters in his plays lack in their individuality. They are only puppets moving round the central characters. So,they are less developed and shadowy. There is also a lack of woman characters in his plays.
Another contribution of Marlowe to English Drama is the use of blank verse. Before him,there is, no doubt,blank verse but it is still unformed,artificial and monotonous.It is Marlowe who breaths spirit of poetry in to blank verse.
There are,however,some flaws in his plays. They are not compact and well constructed. Dr. Faustus,for example,is largely a collection of heterogenous scenes loosely linked together.
