37. British expansion to the New World. British colonialism

The reign of Elizabeth was a great age of English exploration. This expansion led eventually to the foundation of the British Empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but it brought England into conflict with Spain

Colonization efforts began in the late 16th century with unsuccessful efforts by the Kingdom of England to establish colonies in North America, but the first permanent English colony was established in Jamestown in 1607. Over the next several centuries more colonies were established in the Americas. While the vast majority have achieved independence, a few remain as British Overseas Territories. At conclusion of the Seven Years' War with France, Britain took control of the French colony of Canada and several colonial Caribbean territories.

38. Puritanism as a brunch of the Anglican Church’

The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and needed to become more protestant.

Puritans rejected the Anglican Church as anti-Christian with its ceremonial style of worship.

They live a life characterized by extreme strictness of morals, ascetic restriction of needs, protest against any luxury and amenities.

39. Particular features of British Renaissance// comparison

In the traditional view, the Renaissance was understood as a historical age in Europe that followed the Middle Ages and preceded the Reformation, spanning roughly the 14th through the 16th century.

The English Renaissance is different from the Italian Renaissance in several ways. The dominant art forms of the English Renaissance were literature and music.

The Italian and English Renaissances were similar in sharing a specific musical aesthetic.

Visual arts in the English Renaissance were much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance.

Architecture in Britain - a more eclectic approach. Elizabethan architecture retained many features of the Gothic

The English period began far later than the Italian, which was moving into Mannerism and the Baroque by the 1550s or earlier. In contrast, the English Renaissance can only truly be said to begin, shakily, in the 1520s, and it continued until perhaps 1620.

40. New theatrical traditions

The mystery plays were complex retellings of legends based on biblical themes, originally performed in churches.

The morality plays that evolved out of the mysteries.

The "University drama" that attempted to recreate Greek tragedy

The 17th century -the Commedia dell'arte (комедия масок) and the elaborate masques presented at court came to shape public theater.

1572 law eliminated the companies lacking formal patronage by labelling them as"vagabonds".

At court the performance by amateurs was replaced by the professional companies with noble patrons.

The first purpose- built theatre for plays was The Theatre, built in Shoreditch by James Burbage in 1576 and shortly followed by Curtain Theatre

Theatre companies included only males. Until Charles II, female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume.

41. Elizabethan Drama.

Tragedy was an amazingly popular genre.

Marlowe’s tragedies were exceptionally popular, such as Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta.

The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas, such as Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.

Comedies were common, too. A subgenre developed in this period was the city comedy, which deals satirically with life in London after the fashion of Roman New Comedy. Examples are Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday and Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

42. Pre-Shakespearean Canon (literature).

11th and 12th centuries (4 centuries before Shakespeare)

Predecessors of the ‘’proper’’ drama

- Very little influence of the ancient classical drama (greek and roman)

- Their content was largely religious, moral.

- Instead of latin, actors use vernacular language

- All actors are male

Mystery plays

Liturgy/Liturgical dramas – a part of ceremonial religious feasts (Easter)

- were used as a way to teach bible to illiterate commoners (bible was written in Latin, not everyone could read it)

- The stories enacted EXACTLY as they were shown in the bible

- venue: town square, outside the cathedral, pageants (traveling theatre)

- actors are clergies(church people)

- mystery = religious truth, secret

- based on scenes from the bible

Miracle plays (13th century)

Church popularized theatrical plays => as a result the themes and organization begins to shift from the church to the other areas outside that.

- Plays are organized by the tradesmen guilds.

- Actors are common people

- Edict 1210 forbids clergy from participating in any of these dramas

- Loosely interpreted scenes from the bible

- Some plays are about the lives of saints (biographical)

- Performed in cycles (12-14 days). Cycle is a complete story divided into multiple plays. For example, first play is about the birth of Christ and the last one is about his crucifixion.

Morality plays (end 14th of century)

- About moral behavior (overly moralistic)

- Are not based on bible

- Allegorical stories where characters battled for the control of the soul

- Development of characterization (laid the foundation of characterization in drama, especially the Elizabethan drama)

- Abstract characters (ideas such as Charity, Good deeds, justice, etc. are personified)

- Virtues are protagonists and vices are antagonists

- As time progressed, the plays were not entirely about morality. In some cases immorality was getting celebrated (which was entertaining for the public)

- Example of a morality play – Everyman, 1490 (author unknown)

Main character is called Everyman; he is searching for a companion to go and Meet God.

Canonically, all the characters are named after vices and virtues. The only characters who agrees to accompany Everyman is a virtue.

Mid-15th century

- The church outlaws performances for a while, because plays criticized the church

- The theatre to build outside the city walls (it also helped containing the plague)

Interludes (mid-16th century)

- A short play with real characters

- Characters are individuals, not allegories

- Comedic

- Commoners could relate to the characters

- Beginning of social satire

- Foundation of English humor is being laid

- Known writer – John Heywood (play: The four P’s)

16th century drama

- Renewed interest in pagan antiquity

- Seneca, Plautus and Terence shape English drama of 16th century

- A lot of Latin imitations

- First real English comedy – Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall (1551)

43. Shakespeare, creative periods, biography

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had 3 children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613.

His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres.

Until about 1608, he wrote mainly tragedies, among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language.