Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II, UNIT 1. MODULE 13

a) Background of the Play : a comedy written in 1590 - the main source : the story of Felix and Felismena in the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor - thought to be Shakespeare's first play - themes: love versus friendship,  fidelity in love and friendship, the foolish behaviors of lovers.

b) Summary of the Play :
Valentine and Proteus are the two gentlemen of Verona, though the latter is a gentleman only in the beginning and end of the play and rest of the time,  the villain.  The play begins with the farewell scene in which Proteus sends his close friend Valentine off to Milan. Proteus doesn't want to go because his ladylove Julia is in Verona. Valentine condemns love before leaving but he falls in love with Silvia, Duke's daughter in Milan. After sometime,  Antonio, Proteus' father too sends him to Milan to seek his fortunes there. Proteus is a prisoner of his own whims and fancies.   He falls in love with Silvia at first sight and totally forgets Julia. He is unfaithful to his friend as well.  He goes to the extent of betraying his friend by revealing his plot of eloping with Silvia to the Duke. The Duke who is moneyminded wants his daughter's marriage with the rich but foolish lord Thurio and so he banishes Valentine who,  winning the favors of outlaws in the forest becomes their gang leader.

Julia who deeply loves Proteus comes to Milan in the disguise of a page named Sebastian and gets vexed to see Proteus courting Silvia. She is much downhearted when she is sent by Proteus to gift Silvia the ring that she had presented him at his departure. But Silvia who condemns Proteus for his betrayal of his friends and his infidelity to Julia escapes from the court to the woods seeking Valentine. Eglamour is her chaperone but he is a coward.  He flees while she is captured by the outlaws who bring her to their leader Valentine. But Proteus saves her from outlaws and, being unable to win her favor,  tries to rape her.  While Valentine angrily  jumps out from the bushes, Proteus seeks forgiveness for all his wrongs and Valentine immediately forgives him and he is even ready to gift Silvia to him. Now Julia(Sebastian) reveals her identity and Proteus is ashamed of all his whims.  He,with changed mind, is now ready to marry Julia. Thurio the weakminded gets back in his pursuit being threatened by Valentine and the Duke is also awakened from madness after money.  The play ends with ringing of marriage bells for both the couples.

C) Critical views of the play :
In his play, Shakespeare has to satisfy  the working class audience that is why the protagonists depend on their servants for wisdom and counselling, just as Antonio and Julia do here on Panthino and Lucetta respectively. The play present situations which are touchstones for true love.  In Act IV, Proteus gives Julia (a page in the disguise of Sebastian) to deliver a ring to his new lover Silvia - the ring that was gifted as a token of love by her at his departure  to Milan. This utter infidelity of Proteus is contrasted with fidelity and love  of Proteus' servant Launce to his master and to his dog Crab. Launce is ready to sacrifice his dog at the cost of his faithfulness to his master who has ordered him to gift that to Silvia.  He even accepts beating by the Duke's men for the urination of his dog on the floor that he claims as if he did it. Shakespeare shows that humans like Proteus don't have the love that even servants like Launce had it for the dog. However, the play is immature especially at the ending that is ubrupt. Sudden change of Proteus into a  new leaf, Valentine being ready to offer even his own Silvia to his friend Proteus and withdrawal of Duke's intention of marriage between Thurio and Silvia are all unconvincing and remain the serious flaws of the play. Speed, the clownish servant of Valentine disappears from the play at a great speed.  Other interesting characters of the play like Luceta, Antonio and Panthino all stay away from the plot very soon. Neither Valentine who hates love nor Proteus who is sick in love is stable in their attitude and nature just as everyone in real life is.

Quotes from the play:
 1. "They do not love that do not show their love." 
(Julia, Act 1 Scene 2)

2. "I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a pastime of each weary step,
Till the last step have brought me to my love,
And there I'll rest, as after much turmoil,
A blessed soul doth in Elysium."     
(Julia, Act 2 Scene 7)

3. "Love is like a child
That longs for every thing that he can come by."
(Duke, Act 3 Scene 1)

4. "That man that hath a tongue, I say is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman."
(Valentine, Act 3 Scene 1)

5. "And why not death, rather than living torment?
To die is to be banished from myself;
And Silvia is myself: banished from her,
Is self from self. A deadly banishment:
What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?"
(Valentine, Act 3 Scene 1)

6. "She dreams on him that has forgot her love,
You dote on her that cares not for your love.
'Tis pity love should be so contrary:
And thinking on it makes me cry 'Alas'."
(Julia, Act 4 Scene 4)

7. "O heaven, were man
But constant, he were perfect."
(Proteus, Act 5 Scene 4)

Interesting Facts on Shakespeare and his Plays UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II, UNIT 1. MODULE 12

1. Shakespeare was born on the same date on which he died after 52 years. (DOB as generally celebrated on:23rd April 1564, DOD: 23rd April 1616). He was baptised in the same Holy Trinity Church where he was buried at the end. 
2. He married Anne Hathaway who was senior to him by eight years. (Shakespeare's marriage took place at his eighteenth age in 1582)
3. What happened in Shakespeare's life till the age of 28? It is a mystery: His writings suggest,  he should have studied in a local grammar school but the records to prove this are lost. Secondly, based on John Aubrey's words -"he had been in his younger years a school master in the country " scholars take him a school master but the biographer John Aubrey who was born 10 years after Shakespeare's death is not a contemporary of Shakespeare. Thirdly it is believed that at the age of 23, Shakespeare became an actor by filling a vacancy in Queen's Men since one of the actors in the troupe was killed just before they reached his village but there is no authentic printed record is available to prove this.  
4. Shakespeare must have an affair with Anne Hathaway even before marriage because his marriage is permitted through a bond in November, 1582 but his eldest daughter Susanna is babtised in May,  1583(within 7 months?!).  In February 1585, Anne gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith of whom the former died at the age of 13.
5. The first authentic printed record (a pamphlet) about Shakespeare is "Greene's Groat's Worth of Wit" published in 1592 in which Greene, one of the University wits who could not endure the sudden popularity of Shakespeare calls him "an upstart crow"
6.  Shakespeare's popularity can be explored in connection with the theatres where he performed his plays. Actually in 1572, The Mayor and Corporation of London banned performance of plays due to plague and he formally expelled all playwrights from London in 1575. So outside London,  in 1576 the Theatre was constructed and Lord Chamberlaine's Men, for whom Shakespeare was an actor and playwright, performed their plays in the Theatre till the disputes of the landlords of the theatre peaked in 1597. In 1598 at night,  the Theatre was dismantled and its timbers were used for construction of a new theatre The Globe that was built by Lord Chamberlaine's Men, Shakespeare's playing company in 1599. Shakespeare actively  worked for Lord Chamberlain's Men who later became the popular London company but the Globe got destroyed by fire in 1614 just two years before Shakespeare's death. Meanwhile Lord Chamberlaine's Men got promoted as King's Men soon after James I became the King of England in 1603. King's Men took over the Blackfriars Theater in 1608 and it became their Winter Playhouse till all theatres were closed in1642. 
7. The Oxford Companion to English Literature says,  Shakespeare started to write for the stage  in late 1580s (at the age of 16?!). Shakespeare wrote 37 plays in total and many of his plays remained unpublished till the First Folio( entitled "Mr Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, Published According to True Original Copies") appeared in 1623 that listed for the first time 36 plays of Shakespeare dividing them into three categories as mentioned in the title. The Folio without which we would not have known the great genius, was prepared by Shakespeare's colleagues John  Heminges and Henry Condell, and was published by Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, and was dedicated to William Herbert,  3rd Earl of Pembroke and his brother  Philip Herbert. However Troilus and Cressida, which is one of the 36 plays in the Folio was not mentioned in the content page due to conflicts over rights of the play and was later inserted. The other two plays which are now accepted as Shakespeare's but omitted in the Folio are "Pericles, the Prince of Tyre" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen".
8. How did Shakespeare write his plays? The rough working scripts or notes by Shakespeare were called Foul Papers which were later arranged and developed into Fair copies known as manuscripts either by Shakespeare himself or by a scribe. These manuscripts, when heavily annotated with detailed stage directions and data for stage performance, became the Prompt Book  or Transcript to be handled by Prompter known as stage manager.  Prompter is so called because his duty is to prompt the actors when they forget the lines or forget to move to a supposed place on the stage. 
9. Three plays of Shakespeare are known as problem plays: All's Well That Ends Well,  Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida. The critic F.S. Boas who coined the phrase 'problem play '  is the first one to use it to refer to the aforementioned plays though the plays of Henric Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw are now generally called as problem plays.  Problem plays generally deal with contemporary social problem and here in Shakespeare's plays they are concerned with the conflict between established social order and the nature of human tendency. 
10. What happened to Shakespeare's play "Love's Labour's Won"? The contemporary writer of Shakespeare Francis Meres critically talks about this play of Shakespeare in his Commonplace Book published in 1598 and a bookseller's list of that period also mentions this play.  But it is lost.  Similarly another play of Shakespeare written in collaboration with John Fletcher "Cordenio" is found in the Stationers' Register entry of 1653 but it also doesn't survive. Not only these plays but also his death is surrounded by mystery: in 1610, Shakespeare almost retired to his native place Stratford where he had already purchased the largest house known as New Place for €60, with occasional visits to London till 1614 but completely staying at home place during last two years.  One major reason is that theatres were frequently closed (in total 60 months) in between 1603 and 1610 due to bubonic plague and several playwrights including Shakespeare had no work at all. Why should he die at the age of 52, in 1616? Is it his drunkenness as told by the vicar of Holy Tritinity Church in 1661 in his diary : "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted"? Or Did he die being ashamed of the disgrace that fell on his family when his son-in-law Thomas Quiney (married to Judith) was sentenced to public penance in the church for having illegitimate son born to Margaret Wheel? Or Was he forced by his elder daughter  Susana to write a will one month before his death according to which major portion of his estate goes to her and Shakespeare's wife Anne's name is completely left out? During his Age,  it was a general tradition that people used to write their will in deathbed one month before their death but Shakespeare begins his will by saying that he is in "perfect health". Even the inscription on his epitaph sounds strange and mysterious: 

 "Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones."

Complete List of Shakespeare's 37 Plays: (in chronological order) 

1. Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. The Taming of the Shrew 
3. Henry VI Part 1
4. Henry VI Part 3
5. Titus Andronicus
6. Henry VI Part 2
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors 
9. Love's Labour's Lost 
10. A Midsummer Night's Dream
11. Romeo and Juliet 
12. Richard II
13. King John
14. The Merchant of Venice 
15. Henry IV Part 1
16. The Merry Wives of Windsor 
17. Henry IV Part 2
18. Much Ado About Nothing 
19. Henry V
20. Julius Caesar 
21. As You Like It
22. Hamlet 
23. Twelfth Night 
24. Troilus and Cressida
25. Measure for Measure 
26. Othello
27. All's Well That Ends Well 
28. Timon of Athens 
29. King Lear 
30. Macbeth 
31. Antony and Cleopatra 
32. Pericles,  Prince of Tyre
33. Coriolanus
34. Winter's Tale 
35. Cymbeline 
36. The Tempest 
37. Henry VIII

Critics on Shakespeare :

1. "He was not of an age but for all time." (Ben Jonson in his preface to First Folio)
2. "Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame,
   What need'st thou such weak witnes of thy name?
   Thou in our wonder and astonishment
   Hast built thy self a live-long Monument."  (Milton in his poem "On Shakespeare" in 1632)
3. "To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of Books to read Nature; he look'd inwards, and found her there." (Dryden in his "Essay on Dramatic Poesy", 1668)
4. "That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified him to touch... his reader's imagination, and made him capable of succeeding, where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his own genius." (Joseph Addison in Spectator no.419)
5. "...every single character in Shakespeare is as much an Individual as those in Life itself; it is as impossible to find any two alike; and such as from their relation or affinity in any respect appear most to be Twins will upon comparison be found remarkably distinct...I will conclude by saying of Shakespeare, that with all his faults, in comparison of those that are more finished and regular, as upon an ancient majestick piece of Gothick architecture, compared with a neat modern building: the latter is more elegant and glaring, but the former is more strong and more solemn . . Nor does the whole fail to strike us with greater reverence, though many of the parts are childish, ill-placed, and unequal to its grandeur." (Alexander Pope in his Preface to Pope's Edition of Shakespeare's Works,  1725)
6. "Perhaps it would not be easy to find any author, except Homer, who invented so much as Shakespeare, who so much advanced the studies which he cultivated, or effused so much novelty upon his age or country. The form, the characters, the language, and the shows of the English drama are his." (Samuel Johnson in his "The Plays of William Shakespeare", 1765)
7. "Shakespeare stands out singularly, linking the old and new in a lush. Wish and duty trying to put itself in balance in his plays; both are faced with violence, but always so that the wish is at a disadvantage." and "There is no pleasure greater and purer than, with eyes closed, accompany a Shakespeare's play, not declaimed, but recited by a safe and natural voice"(J.W.Goethe in "Writings on Literature")
8. "One day, when there is no more British Empire or North-American Republic, there will be Shakespeare; when we stop speaking English, we will speak Shakespeare." (by the Brazilian novelist, poet and playwright Machado de Assis)
9. "O, mighty poet! Thy works are not as those of other men, simply and merely great works of art; but are also like the phenomena of nature, like the sun and the sea, the stars and the flowers,—like frost and snow, rain and dew, hail-storm and thunder, which are to be studied with entire submission of our own faculties, and in the perfect faith that in them there can be no too much or too little, nothing useless or inert—but that, the further we press in our discoveries, the more we shall see proofs of design and self-supporting arrangement where the careless eye had seen nothing but accident!" (Thomas De Quincey in his "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" 1823)
10. "Here, I say, is an English King, whom no time or chance, Parliament or combination of Parliaments, can dethrone! This King Shakespeare, does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying-signs; indestructible; really more valuable in that point of view than any other means or appliance whatsoever?" ( Thomas Carlyle in his "the Heroes, the Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History", 1841)
11. 'I will translate Shakespeare.' Shekespeare: the ocean." (Victor Hugo, 1859)
12. "...the unquestionable glory of a great genius which Shakespeare enjoys, and which compels writers of our time to imitate him and readers and spectators to discover in him non-existent merits,—thereby distorting their aesthetic and ethical understanding,—is a great evil, as is every untruth." (LeoTolstoy on Shakespeare, 1906)
13. "When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder/"that such trivial people should muse and thunder /in such lovely language. /How boring, how small Shakespeare's people are!/Yet the language so lovely! like the dyes from gas-tar." (D.H.Lawrence in his poem "When I read Shakespeare", 1928)
14. "There is a continual process of simplification in Shakespeare's plays. What is he up to? He is holding the mirror up to nature... I find Shakespeare particularly appealing in his attitude towards his work. There's something a little irritating in the determination of the very greatest artists, like Dante, Joyce, Milton, to create masterpieces and to think themselves important. To be able to devote one's life to art without forgetting that art is frivolous is a tremendous achievement of personal character. Shakespeare never takes himself too seriously." (W.H.Auden in his Lectures on Shakespeare, 1947)
15. Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them, there is no third." (T.S. Eliot, in his critical essay "Dante" published in 1932)

The Plays of Christopher Marlowe UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II, UNIT 1. MODULE 11

(About Marlowe : one of the University wits,  studied at Cambridge - a shoe maker's son - atheistic and homosexual -poet, translator and playwright - he was killed in a quarrel in a tavern - -George Peele's "Marley, the Muses' darling for thy verse", the dead shepherd in Shakespeare's As You Like It and Ben Jonson's words "Marlowe's mighty line" are tributes to Marlowe- best known for his blank verse and ambitious heroes in his play)

1. Dido,  Queen of Carthage (1594):

Marlowe's first play - based on books 1,2 and  4 of Virgil's "Aeneid" - some portions of the play written in collaboration with Thomas Nashe -Summary : Aeneas, son of Venus and a Trojan hero, after fall of Troy, escapes with his son Ascanius and other survivors and is got lost in the storm.  They reach Libya where Venus, in the disguise of a mortal guides him to meet Dido, Queen of Carthage who has already shown hospitality to such survivors. Venus also disguises Cupid as the son of Aeneas to touch Dido with his love arrow. Thus Dido falls in love with Aeneas and makes love to him in a cave. Larbas, king of Gaetulia who is already in love with Dido wants to take revenge on Aeneas but Anna, sister of Dido who is in love with Larbas encourages the love between Dido and Aeneas so that her route will be clear.  Mercury advises Aeneas to follow the order of Jupiter and leave Libya to fulfill his destiny in Italy.  The followers of Aeneas too suggest the same.  Dido doubts his fidelity  but Aeneas promises not to leave her.  As a precaution,  she removes sails of ships of Aeneas and keeps his son under the custody of her nurse. But Larbas provides sails to escape and Dido realises that son of Aeneas under custody is just Cupid in disguise who disappears soon.  In utter despair, at the departure of Aeneas, Dido committs suicide by jumping into fire.  Larbas, at the loss of Dido kills himself and Anna who deeply loves Larbas also dies after him.

Critical appreciation: Did Dido commit any sin that leads to her death?  Is death the reward for her love? She is wise in hiding the sails but destiny is more powerful than her love and wisdom.


2. Tamburlaine the Great (1590):

Loosely constructed on the life of  Central Asian Emperor,  Timur (d.1405) - modeled  on Pedro Mexia's "Spanish Life of Timur"- strongly expressing the spirit of renaissance humanism to rise to power - the first Elizabethan stage play to excel in blank verse - Summary : Part One of the play begins with the order of Persian emperor Mycetes to his troops to dispose of Tamburine the Scythian shepherd-robber.  By making false promise to Cosroe, brother of Mycetes for the throne,  joining with him and his soldiers,  Tamburlaine defeats Mycetes and becomes the Persian emperor. Tamburlaine's next target is Bajazeth, emperor of Turks whom he defeats,  puts in a cage,  feeds him with table scraps and uses him as his footstool. Hearing upon the next victory of Tamburlaine, Bajazeth strikes his head against the bars of the cage and dies.  His wife zabina too dash out her brain against bars of the cage after knowing his death. After conquering Africa, Tamburlaine proceeds to Damascus, capital of Syria that puts him in direct conflict with Egyptian sultan who is but Tamburlaine's would-be father-in-law and at the request of his love Zenocrates, he doesn't harm sultan and the first part of the play ends with Tamburlaine wedding zenocrates who now becomes the Persian empress.

In the Second Part, it is apparently seen that Tamburlaine wants his sons victorious like him and kills his oldest son Calyphas for not fighting and being in his tent at the time of war.  Nobody can stand against Tamburlaine. Even Callapine, son of Bajazeth who gathers some tributory kings to fight against gets defeated by Tamburlaine who grows so arrogant now that he commands his defeated kings to pull his chariot to the battlefield. Tamburlaine never forgives cowards.  Upon reaching Babylon, he hangs the governor of the city just for the reason that he wanted to save his life by revealing the treasury of the city.  He grows so mad after power that he binds men, women,  children of the city and throws them into the nearby lake.  He also reveals the atheistic spirit of Marlowe by burning the copy of Quran and calling himself greater than God.  Even at the time of death,  though having fallen ill, he defeats his foe, and dies after commanding his sons to conquer the remaining part of the world left for them.

Critical appreciation: Tamburlaine suffers from powermania till his death. Ego blinds him to see that even the defeated has heart. Tamburlaine is but Marlowe himself since he is  as cruel, merciless, atheistic and restless as the playwright  who ended his life in frivolous fight.

3. The Jew of Malta (1592):

First performed in Rose Theatre in 1592 - carrying the theme of antisemiticism(prejudice against jews) - Summary : The play begins with the prologue by a Senecan ghost Machevill who narrates how a Jew of Malta called Barabas became rich by using Machiavelli's teachings. 'Eye for eye' is the policy of the Jewish merchant Barabas. When he loses half of his estate to the governor of Malta Ferneze to pay tribute to Turks, he seeks justice.  But the governor confiscates all his wealth and even turns his home into a convent. Barabas takes revenge by putting a trap for the governor's son Lodowick who eventually gets engaged in a duel with his friend Mathias for the hand of Abigail, daughter of the Jew and both friends die.  Barabas, being a Jew hates Christians that is evident from the very fact of buying a slave called Ithamore from slave market who too hates Christians.  When his daughter Abigail joins nunnery to get coverted, he poisons and kills all nuns there. When Abigail reports to two priests  Jacomo and Bernardine about her father's role in Lodowick's death, Barabas strangles Bernardine and makes the crime fall on Jacomo. Any kind of treachery is unbearable to Barabas who kills even Ithamore and his prostitute -lady love Bellamira and her pimp when his slave revealed all about him to the prostitute who confessed this to the governor.  Barbaras pretends to be dead and escapes but aids the Turkish leader Calymath to defeat the governor and eventually he himself becomes the governor.  Finally the over ambitious Machiavellian Barabas becomes a prey to his own plan to boil Calymath alive in a cauldron  by joining hands with the governor who but plots against Barabas and makes him fall into the cauldron.

Critical appreciation: If Tamburlaine is mad after power,  the Jew here has his soul poisoned by gold and money that he admires as "infinite riches in a little room".  Like Macbeth, he too has vaulting ambition and rises to the level of governor of Malta but only to fall into a cauldron as a victim of his own plan. He is of course Shakespeare's Shylock in Merchant of Venice in his vengeance against Christians.

4. Edward II (1594):

A historical play by Marlowe - Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587) as the main source - Summary : After the death of Edward I, Edward II starts his reign and his favorite Piers Gaveston returns England to celebrate this.  King's nobles who don't like Gaveston plot and make the king exile Gaveston to Ireland. King's nobles,  instigated by the Queen Isabella and her lover Mortimer, bring Gaveston back and execute him before the King  sees  and so the King in turn executes those responsible lords. Isabella with her son flies to France to seek allies against Edward II and gets the support of Sir John of Hainault. Edward II is a coward and he takes refuge in an abbey, gets arrested and is taken to Kenilworth. His brother Edmund who pleads for him is also executed by Mortimer and Isabella. The imprisoned king is then taken to Berkeley castle where he is assassinated by Lightborn. Edward III who is son of Isabella born to Edward II discovers this plot, orders the execution of Mortimer and the imprisonment of his mother.  The Play ends with the coronation of Edward III as the new king.

Critical appreciation : Is not Edward II as homosexual as Marlowe? It's this relationship between Edward II and Gaveston that should be the source of Isabella's affections for Mortimer. Edward II is a coward till his death but his son is the opposite who strikes the deathbell for Mortimer and fulfills poetic justice. Edward II resembles Shakespeare's Richard II both in his captivation in jail and in assassination.

5. The Massacre at Paris (1592):

Nathaniel Lee has written a Restoration drama with the same title in 1689 -based on Saint Bartholomew's Massacre that took place in Paris in 1572 in which all important leaders of Huguenots(French Calvinist Protestants) were assassinated -summary : the play stages a number of murders and assassinations rooted on the conflict between Huguenots(protestants) and Catholic Royal family.  During the wedding of Henry of Naverri(a Huguenot noble) and Margaret of Valois, sister of Catholic king,  a group of Catholics under the leadership of Duke of Guise poisons Queen Naverri and murders her admiral. Most of the major Hueguenots are murdered in the massacre led by Duke but Henry of Naverri escapes to his home territory and gathers his own army and manages significant defeat on the side of Duke of Guise who is murdered by Henry III of France for Duke's alliance with Naverri against him, though Queen Mother of France condemns him for this. The two kings of France and Naverri forces join against the Catholic League.  Meanwhile Friar Jacobin,  instigated by Dumaine, dead Duke's brother stabs  Henry III who in turn manages to kill the Friar in struggle.  The wounded king at death bed declares Naverri as his heir to the throne who crowned as Henry IV decides to revenge the Catholic League as the curtain falls.

6. Doctor Faustus (1594):

Performed in 1594 and published in 1604 -A play based on German legend Faustbuch and Goethe's Faustus - main scenes written in blank verse and comic scenes in prose - Summary : Dr. Faustus, a doctor of University of Wittenberg, having already mastered the subjects he studied, and dissatisfied with Logic which is just meant for argument,  Medicine which is useless till it breathes life to the dead and offers immortality,  Law which is used for money making and Theology which illogically punishes sinners with death though everybody has to die one day,  finally chooses necromancy to study  since it promises enormous power even to rise to the level of emperor of the world. He sends his servant Wagner to summon the necromancer Vaides and magician Cornelius so as to master this art.  Neglecting the warnings of good angels and captured by bad angels,  conjures up the devil Mephistophilis who is the servant of Lucifer and dares to strike a deal with it in his own blood for the devil's  assistance in the fulfillment of wishes for 24 years at the expense of his own soul that shall be surrendered for eternal damnation in hell after the expiry of the contract.
Mephistophilis answers all scientific questions of Dr. Faustus except the one-who created the world? and to make Faustus forget about this he along with Lucifer and Beelzebub brings up seven deadly sins in human forms to dance for Dr. Faustus.  The frivolous feats executed by Faustus include conjuring up an image of Alexander the Great to surprise the German emperor Charles V, tormenting Pope Adrian for his judgment,  journey through heaven on a wild chariot,  selling an enchanted horse,  raising antlers on a knight's head as a punishment for sneering at his magical skill and finally waking up Helen of Troy seeking consolations in her beauty to forget the nearing damnation.  The climax in which Dr.Faustus, filled with fear and remorse,  in utter anguish cries for mercy in vain while a group of devils come to collect his soul at the expiry of the contract is poignantly described by Marlowe in mighty lines in blank verse. The next morning, his colleagues find his body torn limb to limb and arranges for a proper burial.

Critical appreciation : The play is best remembered for the description of Helen of Troy by Faustus:
"Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium--
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.--
''[kisses her]''
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!--
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips..."
Supernatural elements such as conjuring up devils,  Mephistophilis, Lucifer,  and personification of seven deadly sins are a great feast for groundings in Elizabethan Theatre.  Faustus reveals thirst for knowledge and fame on par with Tamburlaine who is after power and Jew of Malta who is after money.  These are their traffic flaws.  Marlowe excels in the use of blank verse especially in describing the beauty of Helen just as Shakespeare does for Cleopatra but underperforms in portraying the magical accomplishments of Faustus. Wages of sin is death  and Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom - the Bible says. Marlowe,  being an atheist, strangely proves this through the tragic end of Dr. Faustus.

The Plays and Quotes from Thomas Kyd (1558-94) UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II, UNIT 1. MODULE 10

(About Thomas Kyd: one of the University Wits but not studied at any university - only surviving popular revenge play "Spanish Tragedy" modeled on Seneca,  Roman Stoic philosopher - the plays he wrote for Queen's Men are lost - the lost plays of Kyd:a pre-Shakespearean play on the subject matter of Hamlet "The Householder's Tragedy " and "The Tragedy of Solyman and Perseda",printed in 1592)-

1. Spanish Tragedy (1587):

(Background of the play is the victory of Spain over Portugal in 1580 - the revenge motive and play-within-a-play in this play,  later a major source for Shakespeare's Hamlet - The alternative title of the play "Hieronimo Is Mad Again" is the penultimate line of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land - Summary of the play : Bel-imperia, sister of Lorenzo and daughter of the Spanish Duke loves Andrea,  the Spanish Officer who is but burnt alive at stake by Balthazar, the Portugal prince who is however defeated by Horatio and kept captive.  The ghost of Andrea, Bel imperia and the personified character Revenge await revenge on Balthazar. But the marriage between Balthazar and Bel imperia is proposed to maintain peace between the two countries.  Balthazar and Lorenzo,  after knowing the love between Bel-imperia and Horatio, stabs Horatio and hangs him on a tree.  Horatio's mother Isabella who comes to know about this committs suicide. Horatio's father Hieronimo grows mad and knows the murderers from the letter from Bel-imperia written with her own blood. Meanwhile Balthazar's servant Serberas and Bel-imperia's servant Pedringano also encounter death for revealing the murder of Horatio. Being unable to seek justice from the Duke, partly due to Lorenzo, Hieranimo plans a play -within -a -play "Soliman and Persida" in which Lorenzo and Balthazar are really stabbed.  Bel-Imperia also dies by using the real daggers in stead of prop daggers.  Hieranimo, thus after avenging his son's death,  kills the Duke,  cuts his own throat and committs suicide.Thus the Play ends with a lot of bloodshed and death on the stage just for revenge.
2. Quotes from Spanish Tragedy :

"Give me a kiss, I'll countercheck thy kiss: Be this our warring peace, or peaceful war. "

Bel-Imperia, Act 2, Scene 2

 "And, as I curse this tree from further fruit, So shall my womb be cursed for his sake." 

Isabella, Act 4, Scene 2

"He hunted ... that was a lion's death, Not he that in a garment wore his skin—So hares may pull dead lions by the beard."

Hieronimo, Act 1, Scene 2

"She envies none but pleasant things, Such is the folly of despiteful chance! Fortune is blind and sees not my deserts."

Viceroy of Portugal, Act 1, Scene 3

That only I to all men just must be, And neither gods nor men be just to me.

Hieronimo, Act 3, Scene 6

The Plays of Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II, UNIT 1. MODULE 9

(About Thomas Nashe: one of the University Wits - studied at Cambridge - best known as a satirist and a writer of prose and pamphlets rather than plays .)
1. Summer's Last Will and Testament (1600):
The only solo play of Thomas Nashe - a pastoral Comedy - Will Summers in the play is the jester of Henry VIII, also appearing in Rowley's play When You See Me You Know Me(1605) - the plot deals with personification of four seasons - Summer,  Winter,  Autumn and Spring. The whole play is about how the aged man Summer, the King of the world,  chooses his heir to inherit his riches. The following song in the play has become so popular,  especially after becoming the conclusion of orchestra by English composer Constant Lambert:
"Adieu,  farewell earth's bliss,
This world uncertain is.
Fond are life 's lustful joys.
Death proves them all but toys... "

Note: Nashe wrote a controversial satirical comedy The Isle of Dogs (1597) in collaboration with Ben Jonson who was eventually put in jail for sometime and the play is lost today.
It's also said that Nashe had a significant share in Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage. Thus,  Nashe's contribution to dramas is very little in comparison to other university wits such as  Marlowe and Lyly.

The Plays of Thomas Lodge(1558-1625) UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II, UNIT 1. MODULE 8

(About Thomas Lodge: one of the University wits - studied at Oxford - a play Wright,  poet, prose writer  and doctor - His Defence of Poetry,  Music and Stage Plays as a reply to Gosson's attack on stage plays in School of Abuse - His best known play Rosalynde as the plot for Shakespear's As You Like It.)

1. Rosalynde (1590):
A pastoral romance written in the style of Lyly's Euphues - full title,  Rosalynde, Euphues' Golden Legacy - derived from the Tale of Gamelyn -  later dramatized by Shakespeare in As You Like It- Summary of the play: In the city of Bordeaux, Sir John,  a Knight of Malta leaves his wealthy Estate to his three sons Saladyne, Fernadyne and Rosader equally but Saladyne steals off everything and makes Rosader, though a wrestler,  a slave.  When Torismond, king of France announces a wrestling match,  Saladyne plans to defeat and kill Rosader in the match.  But Rosader, falling in love with Rosalynde, daughter of old usurped king defeats the wrestler.  Rosader is again put in fetters by Saladyne and anyhow escapes into the Forest of Arden and to the same forest come Rosalyne disguised as Ganymede, a male and Alinda, daughter of Torismond disguised as Aliena, a woman of low status because they have been banished by the King. In the same forest of Arden, the shepherd Montanus falls in love with Phebe, the fairest shepherdess who but loves Ganymede (Rosalinde). Saladyne who comes to forest in search of his brother is rescued by Rosader from a lion and later the two ladies are saved by Rosader while attacked by rogues. Rosader gets wounded and Saladyne comes for rescue and Alinda falls in love with him.  Finally the play ends with the marriage of three couples : Rosalynde and Rosader, Alinda and Saladyne, and Montanus and Phebe.

2. The Wounds of Civil War(1594):
A historical and biographical drama resembling Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great - based on the civil war between Marius heading an aristocratic political group and Sulla heading a democratic political group covering a period of ten years (88 b.c to 78 b.c) over the leadership of Roman Campaigne against Mithridates, the ruler of Pontic Kingdom.

Other Plays of Thomas Lodge:
1. An Alarum Against Usurers (1584)
2. Scillas Metamorphosis (1589)
3. A Margarite of America (1596)
4. A Looking Glass for London and England (1594) in collaboration with Greene

The Plays of Robert Greene (1558-1592) UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II, UNIT 1. MODULE 7

(About Greene: one of the University wits - studied at Cambridge and got a courtesy degree from Oxford- known as the founder of romantic comedy - criticised as Ape of Euphues and Patriarch of shifters by Harvey in his "Four Letters" - Greene as a writer of Lylyan sequel "Euphues his Censure to Philautus" -known as a writer of 25 works in prose in different genres -advised by Chaucer, John Gower and Solomon in his "Greene's Vision (1592) - known for his criticism of Shakespeare as "upstart crow,  beautified with our feathers" in his "Greene's Groat's Worth  of Wit" - His "Pandosta: The Triumph of Wit " as a major source for Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale - His swaggering nature criticised by Virginia Woolf in her "Orlando" through the character Nick Greene - all of Greene's plays were published posthumously)

1. Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay(1594):

A comic play with multiple plots - based on the prose romance The Famous History of Friar Bacon (1555) - Story: the first plot deals with the attempts of Prince Edward,  son of Henry III to seduce fair Margaret in the village Fressingfield and his failure in sending his friend Earl Lucy who falls in love with Margaret.. Finally Prince Edward marries
Elinor of Castile, the bride chosen by his father. The Second plot deals with the love between Lucy and Margaret and his test of his love and reconciliation with Margaret.  The Third plot focuses on the attempts of Friar Bacon in collaboration with Friar Bungay to make a magical speaking brass head and his failure due to his uncontrollable sleep and his servant Miles' lack of wit to wake him up at the right moment when the brass head speaks. The fourth plot talks about how Friar Bacon repents and renounces black Magic after the death of two young men and how unrepentant Miles is carried away on devile's back to hell.  All plots are interwoven and the play is recognized as one of the best plays of Robert Greene.

2. Orlando Furioso (1594):

A play based on Ariosto's Italian epic poem with the same title - Story: the Christian warrior Orlando loves Angelica,  the daughter of pagan king of Africa and wages a war.  After victory, believing the lies of Court servant Sacrapant suspects Angelica to betray him with Medoro and grows mad only to be cured later by the woodland priestess Melissa and the play ends with his begging for forgiveness from Angelica.

3. A Looking Glass for London and England (1594):
Written by Greene in collaboration with Thomas Lodge  - based on biblical story of Nineveh and Jonah - thought to carry moral lessons for Londoners and England -Story: The main plot deals with King Rasini of Nineveh's  victory over King Jeroboam of Jerusalem and Rasini's pride  "Rasini is God on Earth."  Rasini's preparation of incentuous marriage with his sister Remilia ends with her death struck by lightning.  Rasini finds new love Alvida who poisons her husband king of Paphlagona. The sub plot centres on the injustice done to virtuous Alcon against an usurer. Alcon seeks the help of his son  Radagon, the flatterer of Rasini in vain and Alcon's wife curses Radagon who is swallowed by fire. Jonah chosen by God to warn Nineveh of its sinful ways first tries to escape,  then swallowed by whale and saved,  warns people of Nineveh. Jonah's soeech is so powerful that even Rasini and Alvida repents at the end of the play.

4. James the Fourth(1598):

A romantic comedy with comments of Oberon, king of fairies - Story : the Play deals with love of James,  king of Scotland for Ida, daughter of the countess of Arran, after his marriage with English princess Dorothea. The wife of James follows him with true love in the disguise of a male and is reconciled to him when Ida marries English lord Eustace. The Play is also known for the Machiavellian counsellor Ateukin and the dwarf Nano.

(The Comical History of Alphonsus and Selimus are other less known plays of Robert Greene)

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The Plays of George Peele (1556-1596) UGC NET ENGLISH PAPER II, UNIT 1. MODULE 6

Plays of George Peele(1556-1596):
(About Peele: One of the seven university wits - studied at Oxford -a writer of plays, congratulatory  verse and pageant - presenting courtly and patriotic themes- known for his non dramatic blank verse)

1. The Arraignment of Paris (1584):

A pastoral play based on the myth of the judgement of Paris - the nymph Eliza and the phrase "our Zabeta fair" in the play referring to Queen Elizebath for whom the play was written - Story : Three goddesses Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage and finance,  Pallas, the goddess of wisdom and arts,  and Venus, the goddess of love meet at Mount Ida and a golden apple, with an inscription "it is for the most beautiful " is rolled out into their path by Ate, the goddess of Disccord. The three goddesses select the Trojan Prince Paris as umpire who but partially favors Venus who takes him from his wife Oenone. The raged goddesses bring him back to trial before other goddesses, among whom Diana the goddess of hunting, in her judgment, rewards the apple to the nymph Eliza, the most beautiful (representing Queen Elizabeth).

2. Edward I (1593):

A historical play focusing on the conflict between Edward I ( king of England from 1272 to 1307) and Llywelyn ap Gruffud whose rebellion is based on the story of Robin Hood - the Play divided into 23 scenes by Arthur Henry Bullen - Story: The Play mainly focuses on Edward I's fight and victory against Balioll, the King of Scotland and Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, and the death of Queen Elinor who reveals at the death bed that their Prince Edward, though fourth son,  is the only legitimate son to become Edward II.

3. The Battle of Alcazar(1594):

A play in the form of chorus - Abdelmelec is the rightful king of Morocco but his nephew Mully Mahamet also known the black Moor plots to capture the throne and gets the help of Sebastian, the King of Portugal by pretending to be honest. The emperror of East premises to help Abdelmelec. The battle of Alcazar (1578) starts and Abdelmelec is slain but it is concealed by his brother Mully Mahameth Seth to encourage the warriors and eventually Abdelmelec's  troops win and the Moor and Sebastian are killed. The Play ends with the coronation of Mully Mahameth Seth as the King of Morrocco.

4. The Old Wife's Tale (1595):

The Play as the first satire on romantic dramas of the Elizabethan Age - rich in music and magical invocations to influence Shakespeare's plays- resembling Milton's play Comus- Story: Three young men lost in the woods take shelter in the house of the blacksmith Clunch whose old wife Madge entertains the two of the three young men by telling a tale. The tale forms "a play within a play" in which Two young men and their sister are captured by the magician Sacrapant. The knight Euminides saves them from the magician with the help of the ghost of Jack the Giant-Killer whose funeral expense had been cared by the knight.

5. David and Bethsabe (1599):

A play in blank verse based on the biblical  story of David and Bathsheba (2.Samuel.11 and 12) -Story:  David, King of Israel, develops lust for bathing Bethsabe, the wife of Urias who works in David's army. After cunningly killing Urias in the war, having an illicit sick son through Bethsabe,  David marries her and gives birth to Salomon. Meanwhile,  Absalon, son of David kills his half brother Amnon for raping his sister Thamar and also wages war against David for Isarel's throne. Neglecting right advice from his Chief advisor Achitophel, misguided by Cusay, David's advisor, Absalon dies getting his long hair entangled in oak tree while fleeing from father's attack. Forced by Bethsabe and the prophet Nathan, David declares that Salomon be his next heir to the throne.

(Peele's another play "The Troublesome Reign of King John" became model and source for Shakespeare's King John)

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