The Plays Before 1601:

By 1600 Shakespeare had conclusively demonstrated his genius in every kind of
play except tragedy. In dramatizing English history, he progressed from the
fumbling beginnings of the three parts of Henry VI (1590-92) to the magnificent
melodrama of Richard III (1592), the subtle character study of Richard
II (1595), the jingoistic glories of Henry V (1600) and, most successful of all, the
superb pair of plays about Henry IV and his wayward son Prince Hal.
Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (1597-8) presented a rich panorama of English life,
from court and battlefield to tavern and rustic retreat. They also introduced,
Falstaff, the most rounded and unforgettable comic character in English
literature.
Meanwhile Shakespeare developed a sweet and delicate strain of romantic
poetry, seen first in the tragic romance of Romeo and Juliet (1595) and then in
the comic romances - A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596) and As You Like
It (1599). And he had shown his skill in a more knock-about vein of comedy,
with The Taming of the Shrew (1593) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600).
All these dates are approximate, to within a year or two, because there is in most
cases no firm evidence of the date of their first production.
 
After 1600 there was one more play which combined broad comedy and
enchantingly romantic poetry. This was Twelfth Night, and its first production
possibly occurred less than a week into 1601. There is evidence that
Shakespeare probably wrote it as part of the festivities for Twelfth Night (or
January 6) at Elizabeth's court in that particular year.

Tragedies and dark comedies: 1601-1608

Shakespeare's first attempt at full-scale tragedy, in 1601, brought to the stage a
character, Hamlet, whose nature and weaknesses have prompted more
discussion than any other Shakespearean creation. His prevailing characteristics
of self-doubt and self-dramatization hardly seemed promising material for a
tragic hero, but Shakespeare used them to create an intensely personal drama.
Each opportunity for action prompted the young prince to indulge in another
soul-searching soliloquy, each missed opportunity made disaster more
inevitable.

Othello was the next of the major tragedies, in about 1603, with the 'green-eyed
monster' jealousy now the driving force on the path to destruction.
 
King Lear, in about 1605, was the most elemental of the tragedies, with the old
king's sanity buffeted by storms upon an open heath as much as by his treatment
at the hands of his unfeeling daughters. Macbeth, a year or so later, made guilt
itself the stuff of tragedy after ruthless ambition had set events upon their course.
These plays are tragic in that each has a central character whose actions drive
the events and whose flaws make the conclusion unavoidable. Others written
during these years may not be tragedies in this fullest sense, but they have a
bitter flavour far removed from comedy. An example is Troilus and
Cressida (1602), with its caustic view of the world enunciated by Thersites.
 
Even the plays of this period which were literally comedies, in the simple sense
that they end happily, were in mood closer to tragedy. Examples are All's Well
that Ends Well (1603) and Measure for Measure (1604).
In the years after Macbeth Shakespeare tackled two Roman themes. In Antony
and Cleopatra (1607) the facts of history carried his two famous lovers to their
tragic fates. In Coriolanus (1608) it was the arrogance of the central character
which created the drama - resolved only when his duty as a son, in response to
the pleading of his aged mother, resulted in his own death.

The last plays: 1608-1611

Shakespeare's last four plays, beginning with Pericles, Prince of Tyre in about
1608, shared a pattern of rupture, retirement, renewal and reconciliation.
Rather like the natural rhythm of winter, followed by hibernation and
emergence into spring, the plots began with violently evil deeds.
In Cymbeline (1609) the tormented family was that of the historic Cunobelin,
king of a Celtic British tribe.
The Winter's Tale (1611), set in undefined classical times, takes place in the
kingdoms of Sicily and Bohemia.
The Tempest (also 1611) was set in a much more suitable context for any story
of this kind, half real and half magic: 'The scene, an uninhabited island'.

Prospero's (a character in Shakespeare’s Tempest) final speech has often been
seen as Shakespeare's own farewell to his theatrical career, relinquishing the
magic with which he had conjured so many stories and characters into life on
the stage. It may be so. But he was part author of one more play, Henry VIII (1613), and
an event during one of its performances certainly put the seal on his retirement.
A spark from a stage cannon set fire to the thatched roof of the Globe, which
burned to the ground. The theatre was rebuilt, reopened in 1614 with a tiled
roof. But the event was likely to confirm Shakespeare in his full-time withdrawal
to his properties in Stratford, where he died in 1616.

17th century
Ben Jonson: 1606-1616

Ben Jonson, almost as prolific in his works for the stage as Shakespeare,
achieved his most distinctive voice in two satirical comedies based on an
interplay of characters seen as types. In the earlier of the two, Volpone (1606),
the characters were even given the Italian names of animals to point up their
supposed natures.
Tricks played on the gullible also provided the comedy in The Alchemist (1610).
Subtle, a confidence trickster pretending to be an alchemist, promises his victims
whatever they most desire.
These two plays succeeded partly because of the farcical opportunities available
as the tricksters struggle to keep their various victims separate and happy. But
they also benefited from the vividly realistic detail which gave life to Jonson's
verse.

The Italian stage and scenery: 17th - 18th century

Italy, home of spectacular court entertainments and the birthplace of opera, also
provided the system of stage and scenery which became the standard
arrangement in European theatres.
It was soon realized that the attractive scenery provided for princely intermezzi
looked even better if viewed within an attractive frame (behind which candles
and lamps needed for the lighting can be concealed), and that the scenes will be
more impressive if they can be rapidly changed. The breakthrough in both
respects was credited to the architect Giovanni Battista Aleotti, who built the
Teatro Farnese in Parma in 1618.
The Teatro Farnese was the first theatre to be equipped with a permanent
proscenium arch, separating the audience from the scenery. Aleotti's other
profoundly influential innovation, dating from sometime early in the 17th
century, was the painting of scenery on a succession of parallel wings receding
from the audience on either side of the stage.
Each wing at first had its own stage hand, until the public theatres
in Venice discover a solution for this costly overmanning. When the Teatro
Novissimo ('very newest theatre') opened in 1741, it lived up to its name. Slots
were cut in the stage so that the flats can rest on linked trolleys below. When a
counterweight was released, every pair of wings moved in or out in perfect
unison.
This miraculous effect was the invention of one of Italy's greatest stage
designers, Giacomo Torelli. His skill with machinery (caused rumours in his
own time that he was in league with the devil) inspired similar ingenuity and
ever more spectacular effects in Europe's theatres during the next two centuries.
The marvels of this kind of stage effect, with all the necessary equipment still in
working order, can be seen in a remarkable survival - the 18th-century court
theatre at Drottningholm in Sweden. By the time this theatre was built, in the
1760s, the Italian example has prevailed everywhere.

Spread of the Italian style: 17th - 18th century

Italian designers were much in demand in foreign courts, once word spread of
the magic, they could achieve with their stage perspective and machinery.
Torelli himself spent seventeen years in Paris. Corneille wrote spectacular scenes
in his play Andromède in 1650 specifically to show off what the Italian magician
can achieve in terms of stage effects.

But the Italian style was also carried abroad by foreign enthusiasts bringing it
back to their own countries.

French Theatre
Corneille and Racine: 1637-1677

In a remarkable forty years, from 1637 to 1677, the French theatre enjoyed a
succession of powerful tragedies from two playwrights, Pierre Corneille and Jean
Racine. Both wrote within tight restrictions which were considered an essential
part of the dignity of their art.
The three Unities of action, time and place were carefully observed (the plot
must have a logical consistency and must be completed within a span of twenty-
four hours in a single location). The text was entirely in rhyming couplets of
twelve-syllable alexandrines, and there were other clearly defined rules. Violent
events could only happen offstage. The vocabulary was limited, with frequently
repeated poetic phrases - and definitely no vulgarity.
The first play in this style to be a huge success with the Parisian public was
Corneille's Le Cid in 1637.
Racine's first runaway success, Andromaque, followed thirty years after Le Cid,
in 1667. The framework and the rules of tragedy are still the same, but the
ingredients have drastically altered.

Molière: 1658-1673

One October afternoon in 1658 a small theatre company, headed by Molière,
performed a Corneille tragedy for the 20-year-old Louis XIV and his brother
Philippe, two years younger. The players followed the tragedy with a farce,
written by Molière, about an amorous doctor. It greatly appealed to the two
young men. The company was granted the patronage of Philippe, who two
years later became the duke of Orlèans.
This was a turning point in Molière's career. For the past thirteen years he and
his company had led a difficult existence touring the provinces. But the experiences of those years enabled Molière, as both actor-manager and author, to make the most of the new opportunities in Paris. Until his death Moliére wrote on average two or three plays each year for his company, with leading roles for himself. Since his central theme was ridicule of
the pretensions and falsities of contemporary society, the plays involved him in
almost permanent controversy.

Japanese Theatre
Kabuki: from the 17th century

The origins of kabuki, Japan's popular theatre, lie in the ukiyo-e or floating
world of the cities. In about 1600 a young Shinto priestess, O-Kuni, formed a
troupe in Kyoto to perform dances and mimes. She was so successful that the
city's courtesans follow her example, as a way of displaying themselves to
potential customers. Their performances were indiscreet, and the response of
their admirers violently enthusiastic. As a result, a decree, in about 1629,
banned all female performers from the stage.
The prohibition lasted more than two centuries, until the Meiji period. But male
performers, adopted the No tradition of taking the female parts themselves,
stepping in to satisfy the new audience's appetite for theatre.
During the 17th and 18th centuries kabuki (from ka singing, bu dancing, ki art)
developed into an immensely successful form of café entertainment. Actors
performed in spectacular costumes, among stylized scraps of scenery, on a stage
surrounded on three sides by a convivial audience. The spectators sat in small
box-like compartments where food and drink can be served.
The new form of theatre at first borrowed plots and scripts from Japan's already
thriving puppet theatre (known as 'joruri'). But soon plays were being specially
written for the kabuki theatre. Many become lasting favourites, continually in
demand from audiences through the centuries. The kabuki actors acquired devoted fans. And Japan had the printing skills to satisfy the demand for coloured images of the stars in their roles.