English Renaissance theatre

English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, or (commonly) as Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642.

This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.

English Renaissance theatre encompasses the period between 1562 (performance at the Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561 of Gorboduc, the first English play using blank verse) and 1642 (ban on theatrical plays enacted by the English Parliament).

The phrase Elizabethan theatre is used at times improperly to mean English Renaissance theatre although in a strict sense "Elizabethan" only refers to the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign, which ended with her death in 1603. Strictly speaking, English Renaissance theatre may be said to encompass Elizabethan theatre from 1562 to 1603, Jacobean theatre from 1603 to 1625 and Caroline theatre from 1625 to 1642.

Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards the end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses. With the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented towards the tastes and values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of the reign of Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades.

Theatrical life was largely centred just outside London, as the theatre was banned inside the city itself, but plays were performed by touring companies all over England.

English companies even toured and performed English plays abroad, e.g. in Germany and in Denmark.

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