Elizabethan tragedy refers to the tragic plays that took place in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from 1558 to 1603 and forty years afterword.



Elements of the tragedies:

-written in five acts and both prose and verse.
-written in iambic pentameter.
-could not contain the use of religious and political content.
-focuses on characters from royalty and nobility
- involves the struggle of the protagonist and the downfall of tragic hero or heroine
-embraces swordplay, bloody murder or ghosts.
-main character must die.



Plays:

-Romeo and Juliet, 1594
-Titus Andronicus, 1593
-Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, 1600
-Othello, Moor of Venice, 1604
-King Lear, 1605
-Tamburlaine
-Jeronymo
-Macbeth, 1606
-A Yorkshire tragedy
-Arden of Faversham
-The Spanish tragedy, 1592

Tragic playwrites:

-William Shakespeare, 1564-1616
-Francis Beaumont, 1584-1616
-John Fletcher, 1579-1625
-Thomas Middleton, 1580-1627
-Thomas Kyd, 1558-1594

Different plays

Which Elizabethan tragedy is most popular and for what reasons?

Influencing Elizabethan

What apects of Greek and Roman tragedy greatly influenced Elizabethan tragedy?

Original vs Shakespeare

The original elements of Elizabethan tragedy used unity of action, time, and place. This meant the action should take place in one day and in one place and be one whole.

How did Shakespeare's romantic tragedies disregard this unity?