Renaissance Drama in England

The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama.The Italian Renaissance had rediscovered the ancient Greek and Roman theatre, and this was instrumental in the development of the new drama, which was then beginning to evolve apart from the old mystery and miracle plays of the Middle Ages.The Italians were particularly inspired by Seneca (a major tragic playwright and philosopher) and Plautus (comic clichés, especially that of the boasting soldier had a powerful influence on the Renaissance and after).

The decade of the 1590s, just before Shakespeare started his career, saw a radical transformation in popular drama. A group of well- educated men chose to write for the public stage, taking over native traditions. They brought new coherence in structure, and real wit and poetic power to the language. 

They are known collectively as the "University Wits," though they did not always work as a group, and indeed wrangled with each other at times. According to some critics of his time, Shakespeare was vulgar, provincial and overrated. His mastery of poetic language and of the techniques of drama enabled him to combine these multiple viewpoints, human motives, and actions to produce a uniquely compelling theatrical experience. England’s greatest playwright, William Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. His epitaph reads:The "First Folio" is of major importance to William Shakespeare as it is the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. The copper-engraving picture of William Shakespeare is signed Martin Droeshout on the title-page of the ‘First Folio’ (1623). 

As a Shakespearean tragedy represents a conflict which terminates in a catastrophe, any such tragedy may roughly be divided into three parts. 

A. The first of these sets forth or expounds the situation, or state of affairs, out of which the conflict arises; and it may, therefore, be called the exposition. 

B. The second deals with the definite beginning, the growth and the vicissitudes of the conflict. It forms accordingly the bulk of the play, comprising the Second, Third and Fourth Acts, and usually a part of the First and a part of the Fifth. 

C. The final section of the tragedy shows the issue of the conflict in a catastrophe.

   The application of this scheme of division is naturally more or less arbitrary. The first part glides into the second, and the second into the third, and there may often be difficulty in drawing the lines between them. 

see more on:

http://elizabethan.org/compendium/home.html

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-england.htm

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Elizabethan_life.htm