Shakespeare - Athena

Shakespeare
The King’s Man
a viewer’s guide
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A THEATRE FOR EVERY AGE
By Mark Olshaker
Every age, it is said, gets the Shakespeare it deserves. As James Shapiro
so eloquently points out in Shakespeare: The King’s Man, that was
true even during Shakespeare’s lifetime, as his distinction between
the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I demonstrate. The theatre
helped Jacobean audiences of all classes interpret and make sense of the
dynamic and uncertain times in which they lived, learning to navigate anew
during the reign of an unpredictable Scottish king whose mother had been
executed by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, less than 20 years before.
No longer would Shakespeare write the effervescent comedies of the
Elizabethan years. His Jacobean comedies were dark and unsettling, dealing
with such dangerous contemporary topics as betrayal, revenge, sexual
exploitation, and the legitimacy of rule. Professor Shapiro tells us that an
“Elizabethan Shakespeare” could not have written a tragicomedy like Measure
for Measure. Like the playwright’s Jacobean tragedies, his comedies would
mirror a different era, offering profound insights into the ambiguities of the
human condition.
Examples of theatre reflecting society and its values can be found in every
age. When Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans overthrew King Charles I, they banned
all plays as sordid and decadent. Following Cromwell’s death in 1658 and the
restoration of the monarchy two years later under Charles II, theatres reopened
and a new generation of playwrights reflected the views and energy of the
day. Relieved of the yoke of the Puritan Revolution’s enforced public piety,
audiences wanted to laugh. Restoration comedies such as William Wycherley’s
The Country Wife and William Congreve’s The Way of the World gave them an
outlet to delight in the foibles and strained manners of a high society they both
envied and secretly mocked. During this more sexually open period, women’s
roles were played for the first time by actual women, rather than men and boys.
Subsequent decades saw the beginnings of a new type of feel-good theatre,
but one that reflected a society preoccupied with making things “right” and
proper. This impulse reached its preposterous nadir in 1681 with Nahum
Tate’s rewriting of King Lear. Tate removed the Fool and his acerbic social
commentary and substituted a new, upbeat conclusion to Shakespeare’s
tragedy. In Tate’s version, Cordelia doesn’t die. Instead, she marries Edgar
and they live happily ever after—a model of how audiences were expected
to live their own lives.
In the Victorian period, a newly industrialized and increasingly powerful
Britain was displaying its prowess with stage spectacles, musical
extravaganzas, and elaborate comic operas. As the 19th century progressed,
Britain’s rather straight-laced society grew to favor domestic comedies and
sentimental dramas with elements of realism, like Arthur Wing Pinero’s
Trelawney of the “Wells.” Contrast this with the “angry young men” of
London’s Royal Court Theatre in the late 1950s, where John Osborne’s Look
Back in Anger stunned playgoers with its frank depiction of middle-class
life and frustrations in the years following World War II.
Nowhere, perhaps, does the relationship between theatre and society
emerge more clearly than in comparing productions of the same
Shakespearean plays in two distinct eras. For a vivid demonstration, we can
thank Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, each of whom committed
memorable versions of Henry V and Hamlet to film.
Olivier’s Henry V, produced during World War II as a morale booster,
portrays a resolute and determined king, rallying the population in a
righteous cause against a formidable enemy. The beautiful film attempts
something midway between stage and screen. It begins with a staging in
Shakespeare’s Globe, but when Henry’s army reaches France, the movie
transports us to a semi-realistic, semi-storybook setting.
Branagh’s 1989 film is a Thatcher-era, post-Falklands War meditation on
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a sovereign unsure how he should lead his disillusioned nation. While
Olivier’s Henry stays clean and shiny throughout the glorious Battle of
Agincourt, Branagh’s king becomes a muddy, bloody mess as he fights
through the rain-drenched field. Olivier’s Henry engages in heroic single
combat to win the battle, while Branagh’s is almost lost in the chaos of war.
Even after his victory, he is never quite sure of the morality of his actions.
The two great thespians seem to reverse roles with Hamlet, yet each
of their productions is decidedly a product of its time. Olivier’s Hamlet
was produced in 1948, when Freudian psychoanalysis and the quest to
understand human motivation were popular. Olivier presents a brooding,
introspective prince set against a dark and shadowed Elsinore clinging to a
bleak promontory of swirling and angry seas. He is a quiet, almost delicate
Hamlet, presented as a man “who couldn’t make up his mind.” The conflict
is largely internal.
Branagh’s 1996 film prince has no trouble making up his mind. He is
angry and decisive from the outset. We get the feeling that his problems
come from other people, and he has no interest in introspection or selfanalysis.
This is a strong, physical Hamlet who manhandles Ophelia and
lets her father and Claudius know they cannot play him for a fool. He
clearly hails from an era in which heroic males let their passions and
emotions all hang out.
So each age does get a bard who reflects its own needs. “Meanwhile,” as
my late friend Sam Schoenbaum concluded in his masterful Shakespeare’s
Lives, “Shakespeare abides.” And even in this high-tech age, the same may
be said for theatre itself.
Mark Olshaker is a novelist, nonfiction author, and documentary writer and producer. His film,
Discovering Hamlet, with Derek Jacobi and Kenneth Branagh, is available through Acorn Media
Group, an RLJ Entertainment, Inc. Company.
THE ARTS OF THE JACOBEAN ERA
The Elizabethan era is often referred to as England’s golden age, a
time when the arts flourished. However, Shakespeare wrote some
of his greatest works during the reign of James I (1603–25). Known
as the Jacobean era—from Jacobus, Latin for “James”—this period offered
great literary, musical, and artistic achievements of its own.
James was already a king when he ascended the English throne. He had
reigned as James VI of Scotland since his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots,
abdicated when he was 13 months old. Regents governed for him until he
became a teenager, and James had two decades of ruling experience by
the time of Elizabeth’s death. Moving down to London, James discovered
that his two countries had different views about kingship. In Scotland, a
king was first among equals. In England, a king had vast power, position,
and wealth. The English court was a place of splendor and majesty, which
suited James’s extravagant tastes. When he left Scotland, he vowed to
return home every couple of years. In fact, he made the journey only once.
James was well-educated and refined, with his own literary ambitions. He
had been tutored by the poet George Buchanan and was himself a poet.
He wrote and published several books about politics and religion. He
appreciated drama, although there were no public theatres in Scotland.
That didn’t stop James from permitting a traveling troupe of actors to put
on a play in Edinburgh in 1599, over the objections of the Scottish church.
The king must have been delighted that London boasted numerous wellattended
playhouses and prominent playwrights. At James’s own court, the
lavish pageants known as masques approached their artistic pinnacle, with
Ben Jonson providing the script and Inigo Jones the scenery.
James enjoyed music too. He appointed the composer Orlando Gibbons
a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he served as organist for many
years. The famed English lutenist John Dowland returned to England after
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years abroad and became a court musician for James in 1612. James also
kept a cadre of composers at court, among them Robert Johnson, Thomas
Campion, and Alfonso Ferrabosco II.
The king commissioned numerous new
buildings and appointed Inigo Jones, a noted
architect as well as a theatrical designer, as
surveyor of his works. Jones had recently
toured Italy, where he closely studied the
works of the venerated Italian architect
Palladio. Jones subsequently designed several
major edifices including the Queen’s House
in Greenwich, a Palladio-influenced structure
The Banqueting House at
Whitehall Palace
now considered one of the most important buildings in the history of
British architecture. He also built the magnificent Banqueting House in
the Palace of Whitehall, with ceilings painted by the Flemish artist Peter
Paul Rubens.
© User: Thorvaldsson
to Prince Henry and sergeant-painter to the
king. And William Larkin earned a reputation for
capturing the opulent attire worn by members of
James’s court in careful detail.
Today, James I is best remembered for the
immense scholarly and artistic achievement
that bears his name: the King James Bible. Four
hundred years after it was first issued, it remains
the bestselling book of all time. Commissioned by
the king under pressure from the Puritans, it is
Nicholas Hilliard’s selfportrait,
1577
a work of simplicity and majesty that permeates everyday English, much
like the language of Shakespeare. “The salt of the earth,” “a labor of love,”
“as old as the hills,” “the signs of the times,” “a drop in the bucket,” “skin of
your teeth,” “give up the ghost,” “an eye for an eye”—these and countless
other phrases come straight from the King James Bible.
© The Yorck Project
Like Rubens, the most prominent visual artists of the day were not English,
but some native sons made their mark. Englishman Nicholas Hilliard, a
renowned goldsmith and painter of miniatures, created the magnificent
Lyte Jewel, a diamond-encrusted, enameled gold locket featuring a
miniature portrait of the king. Robert Peake the Elder served as portraitist
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT
Although James I was a convinced Protestant, he was mostly
tolerant regarding religion. His mother, Mary, Queen of Scots,
had been a devout Catholic (which contributed to her eventual
MAJOR EVENTS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I
july 25,
1603
1611
Coronation of
James brokers
Death of James's
March 24,
James I
January
peace between
November 5, Guy Fawkes King James Bible eldest son,
june 29,
1603 of England 1604 England and Spain
1605
executed completed Prince Henry 1613
Elizabeth I dies
James authorizes
a new translation
of the Bible
1604
Gunpowder Plot
foiled
january 31, James dissolves November 6,
1606 Parliament after
disagreement
1612
about his income
The Globe theatre
burns down
(rebuilt a
year later)
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execution). While in Scotland, James kept the peace by skillfully playing
Protestant and Roman Catholic nobles against each other. He once said
that he would not “persecute any [Catholics] that will be quiet and give
but an outward obedience to the law, neither [would he] spare to advance
any of them that will by good service worthily deserve it.”
In England, James learned that some people expected him to enforce the
laws against Catholics, while others hoped he would be lenient. He waived
the recusancy fine—penalties charged to Catholics who refused to attend
Anglican services—and included two Catholics, Henry Howard and Henry
Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, in his Privy Council. But by 1605, after
Catholic plots against his kingship and complaints that he had favored
Catholics over Puritans, James expressed hostility towards Catholics.
In February, he announced his “utter detestation” of Catholicism and
reinstated the recusancy fines. Priests and Jesuits were expelled.
Meanwhile, on May 20, 1604, Robert Catesby, a member of an English
Roman Catholic family that had been persecuted by Elizabeth’s
government, had met with a small group of friends including Guy Fawkes,
a mercenary who had fought in the Spanish Netherlands. They hatched a
plan to blow up the House of Lords, King James, and members of the royal
family during the official state opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605.
They rented a house in Westminster and a nearby cellar that extended
George Chapman
James dissolves
completes
Parliament a third
English translation october 29, time over money march 27,
1614 of Homer's works 1618 disputes 1625
James dissolves
Parliament again
for refusing to
vote him funds
1616 James has Sir
Walter Raleigh
1621
executed for
treason
James I dies and
is succeeded by
his son, Charles I
beneath the House of Lords. Fawkes was
charged with placing the explosives and
lighting the fuse.
On the evening of November 4, Fawkes was
discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder.
An anonymous letter revealing the plot
had been sent to the Catholic peer Lord
Monteagle, who alerted the government.
Under torture, Fawkes revealed the names
Guy Fawkes Day celebrations in
Lewes, England, 2009
of the other conspirators. Catesby and three others were killed while
resisting arrest; the rest were captured later and executed slowly and
painfully on January 31, 1606. The Gunpowder Plot created a fierce new
wave of anti-Catholicism and led to harsher laws. Catholics were banned
from practicing law, voting in elections, and serving as military officers.
Parliament made November 5 a day of public thanksgiving. Known as
Guy Fawkes Day, it is still celebrated today with bonfires, fireworks, and a
memorable rhyme.
SOURCES FOR SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS
In the first episode of this series, host James Shapiro discusses the sources
Shakespeare drew upon to write King Lear, including a prior version of
the play and contemporaneous works of romantic literature, epic poetry,
and religious prose. This was typical behavior—the bard consistently
borrowed from old stories, legends, other writers, and histories to compose
his oeuvre. In some passages, he even echoed the phrasing of his source
(with modifications). As such, scholars have been able to pinpoint many of
the materials Shakespeare used for his plays.
For the tragedies, Shakespeare turned to classical writings and histories.
He relied on Sir Thomas North’s translation of first-century Greek
© Peter Trimming
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iographer Plutarch for the main plots of Timon
of Athens, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra.
Timon of Athens also evokes a dialogue by secondcentury
Greek satirist Lucian and perhaps an
anonymous play performed at the Inns of Court. In
Coriolanus, the allegory of the belly and the body’s
members—a metaphor for the body politic told
in the first scene—features in numerous works,
including Aesop’s fables. In addition to Plutarch,
Antony and Cleopatra draws on histories by secondcentury
Greek Appian of Alexandria. While both
Greeks wrote briefly of the deserting lieutenant Enobarbus, Shakespeare
fleshed him out significantly. The plot for Macbeth comes from Raphael
Holinshed’s 16th-century Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande.
Shakespeare wisely veered from his source by absolving Banquo of the
regicide, as James I was reputed to be Banquo’s descendant. Perhaps
to flatter his king, Shakespeare also took elements from James’s witchhunting
tract, Daemonologie, for the Weird Sisters’ scenes.
The comedies also contain pilfered plots. The story of Measure for Measure
had anchored several plays already; Shakespeare drew especially on works
by contemporary Italian dramatist Giambattista Giraldi (byname Cinthio),
as well as George Whetstone’s 1578 play Promos and Cassandra. The
Winter’s Tale takes its plot from Robert
Greene’s prose fiction Pandosto (1588),
and the peddler and pickpocket Autolycus
may have roots in pamphlets about
the criminal underworld by Thomas
Dekker, Thomas Harman, and Greene.
For his descriptions of the hurricane and
shipwreck in The Tempest, Shakespeare
read accounts of Virginia-bound colonists
forced by storms to land on Bermuda
Plutarch from a 16th c.
translation of Parallel Lives
Miranda – The Tempest by John William
Waterhouse, 1916
in 1609. French philosopher Montaigne’s essays about the New World
inspired Gonzalo’s reflections on the ideal society in the second act, while
Prospero’s Act 5 speech renouncing his magical powers suggests a passage
from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The Tempest, however, seems to be a rare play
for which Shakespeare entirely invented his main plot.
Finally, the history play Henry VIII deals with historical events taken
from Holinshed’s Chronicles, along with John Foxe’s 16th-century treatise
on Protestant martyrs, Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous
Dayes, and John Speed’s History of Great Britaine (1611).
Despite employing these and many other elements in his work,
Shakespeare did not simply imitate those who came before him. He
molded the material to his will, inventing new characters and developing
fully formed ones based on mere mentions in his predecessors’ work. He
reordered plot lines to intensify contrasts and bring out themes, deleted
and added material to enhance drama, and beautified the language. He
occasionally collaborated with other playwrights—all while still imprinting
his unique voice to the result. Shakespeare’s magpie-like acquisition
of outside material was not an unusual practice for the period, but his
dramatic talents proved to be, as Ben Jonson proclaimed, “not of an age, but
for all time.”
Booklet written and edited by Pamela Espeland, Elizabeth Stocum, and Jennifer Coggins. © 2012 Acorn Media
Group Inc. Some images licensed under Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 and 3.0.
Visit our website for discussion questions and more
information on the full line of Athena programming.
athenalearning.com
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