The Earliest English Comedies

The Four P's (ЧетыреП.)is an interlude by John Heywood. The four P's argue their cases in turn: The Palmer (a pilgrim who has visited the Holy Land) boasts of all the shrines he has seen. The Pardoner (a man licensed to sell papal indulgences) questions the value of these pilgrimages, when the Palmer could have found redemption merely by buying a pardon. The Pothecary (apothecary or pharmacist) points out that nobody dies in a state of grace without help from him. The Pedlar questions the need for the other three, whereas he keeps women happy by selling them trifles. The Pedlar now challenges the other three to a contest in lying. The Pardoner boasts about his absurd relics and the Pothecary about his fatuous cures, but the Palmer tops them both by claiming that on all his travels he never saw a woman who lost her temper.This interlude, intended as an entertainment during a banquet, represents a link between the medieval morality play and the robust secular drama of the Elizabethan period. Although there is neither action nor plot development, the confrontation between the four characters is enlivened with wit, bawdy comments, and wordplay.

 

The Plutus (Плутос)is the name of an ancient Greek comedy. Plutuswas the god of wealth. In agrarian Greece he was at first associated purely with bounty of rich harvests. Later he came to represent wealth in more general terms. In the comedy by Aristophanes the god is depicted as a blind elder unable to fairly distribute the wealth. Later being healed Plutus gives the wealth to the poor taking it back from the wealthy which leads to comic situations when no one is willing to work. Thus the gods hire out to the poor man who has become rich.

 

Aristophanes (Аристофан) was an Ancient Greek comedian, “the father of comedy”.

 

Terence (Теренций) was an Ancient Rome comedian.

 

Seneca (Сенека) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist of the Silver Age of Latin literature.

Plautus (Плавт) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature.

 

The Girl of Andros (ДевушкасАндроса) is a comedy by Terence, a Roman playwright. It was Terence's first play, and he wrote it when he was approximately 19 years old. It was first performed at Rome, about 170 BC. It was also the first of his plays to be performed post-antiquity, in Florence in 1476.

 

Nicholas Udall is (НиколасЮдалл, 16^th c.) is an English playwright, translator, and schoolmaster. The headmaster of Eton College from 1534 and of Westminster from 1555, Udall was well known as a translator. He is credited with writing many plays, of which only one is extant, Ralph Roister Doister, the first known English comedy. It marks the emergence of comedy from the medieval morality plays, interludes, and farces.

 

Jack Juggler (ДжекДжагглер) is the oldest known play written for performance by children, Jack Juggler is built on a plot first used by Plautus. Jack is a clever young servant who has been insulted by Jenkin Careaway, a hypocritical servant his age. Jenkin is sent on an errand by their master, but he spends his time gambling and stealing apples from the market. When he returns home, Jack, disguised in Jenkin’s clothing, uses physical intimidation and tricks of logic to convince Jenkin that he (Jack) is really Jenkin. When their master and mistress return and find that Jenkin has not accomplished his errand, they punish him for his laziness and for "making up" silly stories about meeting himself on his way home from the market. By the end of the play, the viewer feels sympathy for the confused, ill-treated Jenkin, but the play is very funny and quite enjoyable.

 

Horace (Гораций) was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.

 

Aristotle (Аристотель) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.

George Gascoigne (ДжорджГаскойн, 16^th c. ) was an English poet and playwright.

 

Gray's Inn (ГрейзИнн) is a London organization of law students and barristers and the buildings they use, which is one of the four inns of court (Cудебныеинны), the four law societies and their buildings to which an English barrister must belong to.

 

The Captives (Пленники) is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Plautus. The title has been translated as The Captives or The Prisoners, and the plot concerns slavery and prisoners of war. Although the play contains much broad humor, it is a relatively serious treatment of significant themes compared to most of Plautus’ other comedies.

 

Westminster School (Вестминстер-Скул)is one of the nine oldest prestigious public schools for boys in London (founded in 1560).

 

Miles Gloriosus (Хвастливыйвойн)is the old Greek comedy (literally, "famous or boastful soldier", in Latin) is a stock character from the comic theatre of ancient Rome, and variations on this character have appeared in drama and fiction ever since. The term "Miles Gloriosus" is occasionally applied in a contemporary context to refer to a posturing and self-deceiving boaster or bully.

 

Ralph Roister Doister (РальфРойстерДойстер)is a comic play by Nicholas Udall, generally regarded as the first comedy to be written in the English language. The date of its composition is disputed, but the balance of opinion suggests that it was written in about 1553, when Udall was a teacher in London, and was intended to be performed by his pupils - who were all male, as were all actors at that period. However, it was not published until 1567, eleven years after its author's death. The plot of the play centres on a wealthy widow, Christian Custance, who is betrothed to GawynGoodluck, a merchant. Ralph Roister Doister is prompted by a friend, the artful sycophant and parasite Matthew Merrygreek, to woo Christian Custance but his pompous attempts do not succeed. Ralph then tries with his friends to break in and take Christian Custance by force but they are defeated by her servants and run away. The merchant Gawyn arrives shortly after and the play concludes happily.

 

Matthew Merigreek (МэтьюМерригрик)is the central character in Ralph Roister Doisterwho is traditionally linked to the parasite characters in Roman plays.

 

Commedia dell` arte (Italian: "comedy of art", комедиядельарте, иликомедиямасок) is a professional form of theatre that began in Italy in the mid-16th century, and was characterized by masked "types," the advent of the actress, and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. While generally unscripted, the performances often were based on scenarios that gave some semblance of plot to the largely improvised format. Conventional plot lines were written on themes of adultery, jealousy, old age, and love. Many of the basic plot elements can be traced back to the Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence, some of which were themselves translations of lost Greek comedies of the fourth century BC.

 

John AddingtonSymonds (ДжонАддингтонСаймондс, 19^th c.) was an English poet and literary critic.

 

GammerGurton`s Needle (ИголкакумушкиГертон)is one of the earliest comedies written in the English language. It is thought to have been produced around 1553. Unlike its contemporary, Ralph Roister Doister, this play shows no evidence of having been influenced by Latin comedy, but is uniquely English in tone. The plot centres on the loss of a needle belonging to GammerGurton. It is eventually found when her husband, Hodge, sits down and discovers it in the seat of his breeches.

 

Christ's College, Cambridge (КолледжХриста)is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.

Henry VIII (Генрих VIII, 28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 21 April 1509 until hisdeath. He was also Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) and claimant to the Kingdom of France. He is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry's struggles with Rome ultimately led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority.

The Early London Theatres

Leicester (Лестер) is a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands of England. It is the county town of Leicestershire.

James Burbage (ДжеймсБербедж, 16-17^th c.) was an English actor, theatre impresario, and theatre builder in the English Renaissance theatre. He built The Theatre, the facility famous as the first permanent dedicated theatre built in England since Roman times. Burbage seems also to have been involved in the erection of the Curtain Theatre, and, later, the Blackfriars Theatre.

 

A Puritan (Пуританин) of 16th and 17th-century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation (he series of events in 16th century England by which the Church of England first broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church) had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant of practices which they associated with the Catholic Church.

 

Surrey (Суррей) is a county in the South East of England.

 

TotusMundusagitHistrionem Весь мир играет комедию, весь мир - актеры.