The ‘Elizabethan Plays and Playwrights’ were very famous during the Elizabethan Era. Because of this popularity, many of the plays are performed even today. The most famous Elizabethan Playwright was William Shakespeare.
The other famous Elizabethan playwrights were
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Christopher Marlowe ( 1564-1593)
He was also known as Kit Marlowe and is one of the most famous Renaissance Playwrights even more famous than Shakespeare. His first play was Dido. His most Famous works are Dr Faustus. Tamburlaine the Great, The Jew Of Malta. He greatly influenced Shakespeare. He was a revolutionary and he wrote plays which were ahead of his times. He was a great playwright and also a poet. He is counted amongst the 10 famous playwrights of England.
Marlowe’s Education
He studied from The King’s School in Canterbury and then went to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Arts in 1584. Later, in 1587 the University was reluctant on granting him a Master’s Degree but he was conferred the degree on Schedule when the Privy Council intervened on his behalf.
Marlowe’s Untimely Death
It was suspected that he was from the Crown’s side or the Crown’s secret men. The unfortunate thing about his life was that he died at a very young age. He was charged with treason and his death is shrouded in mystery. He was an enormously famous playwright and would have written many more plays should he been alive.
Francis Beaumont (1584-1616)
Early Life of Francis Beaumont
Francis Beaumont was born in 1585 in Leicestershire, England. He died in March 1616. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. He was one of the famous Elizabethan Playwright and together with John Fletcher wrote many comedies and Tragedies between 1606-1613. This collaboration lasted for some seven years. They wrote Children of the Queen’s Revels.
Francis Beaumont’s Works
In 1602, he wrote the poem Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, this was a voluminous and voluptuous work on the Ovidian Legend. At the age, of 23, he prefixed The Famous Ben Jonson’s Volpone. In 1647. there came a collection of Plays called Beaumont and Fletcher. Beaumont worked on it extensively and it was a collection of total 35 plays.
John Fletcher ( 1579-1629)
John Fletcher was a Jacobean Playwright. Following Shakespeare’s footsteps, he wrote numeral plays and became one of the most prolific writers of his times. He remains an important figure who saw the transition from the Elizabethan to the Restoration age. At one point in time, his fame rivalled that of Shakespeare.
Early Life of John Fletcher
He was born in December 1579, Rye, Sussex and died of Plague in August 1625. He collaborated with Fletcher to create some very interesting plays and works.
John Fletcher’s Works
He mastered the tragicomedy and the Comedy of Manners.
Some of his famous solo plays are The Faithful Shepherdess, Beckett: The playwright, Four Jacobean Sex Tragedies
Thomas Middleton (1580-1627)
About Thomas Middleton
He was a famous English Playwright and Poet of the Jacobean Tradition. He stands with Fletcher and Ben Jonson as one of the most prolific playwrights of the Jacobean Period. He was born in 1580 in London and died on 4th of July, Newington Butts, London. He was the son of a Master Bricklayer.
Education of Thomas Middleton
He studied from Queen’s College, Oxford and then admitted in Gray’s Inn in 1593. He was a full-fledged working playwright by 1602.
Thomas Middleton’s Works
His earliest work is Blurt, Master Constable, printed in the year 1602. He wrote for both St. Paul’s and Admiral’s Men. His Citizen Comedies include A Mad World, My Masters, A Trick To Catch The Old One. He worked for the mayor and also served as a City Chronologer.
Thomas Kyd (1558-1594)
Thomas Kyd was an English Playwright baptised on 6th November 1588 and died on 15th August 1594. He wrote the Famous book, The Spanish Tragedy in 1589.
Thomas Kyd’s Life and Education
He was one of the most important figures of Elizabethan Drama. He was the son of Francis and Ann Kyd. He was baptised in the church of St. Mary Woolnoth, in the Lombard Street, London. He was very well educated. He shared space with Marlowe.
Thomas Kyd’s Works
The Spanish Tragedy was probably written in the mid to late 1580s. He was an important Playwright. Francis Meres placed him among ‘The best of tragedy’. The Spanish Tragedy is one of the most famous plays of the Elizabethan Times. Other important works include Cornelia and Arden of Feversham.
Later Life of Thomas Kyd
In 1593 he was arrested on the charge of heresy. He was eventually released but died of poverty. The last known about the famous playwright is the publication of Cornelia early in 1594. Kyd died later that year at the age of 35 and was buried on 15 August in St Mary Colechurch, London.
Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson, the favourite playwright of King James and one of the most popular writes of the 16th century had a lasting impact on the English comedy and drama in general. Ben Jonson was born on 11 June 1572. He was educated in classical subjects and was a scholar during the English Renaissance.
Ben Jonson loved controversies, both personal and political. He wrote for the Admiral’s Men that performed at the Rose theatre. Jonson was also successful as an actor but was valued more as a writer. Some of his plays caused huge controversy, such as The Isle of Dogs for which he was arrested and imprisoned.
Jonson also went to jail for killing Gabriel Spenser in a duel. He pleaded but guilty but was released on the Benefit of Clergy.
Plays of Ben Jonson
Jonson wrote The Isle of Dogs in collaboration with Thomas Nashe. It caused great offence and Jonson was arrested while Nashe managed to escape. His first major success was Every Man in his Humour produced in 1598. William Shakespeare was among the actors who were cast in it.
Other plays of Ben Jonson were Cynthia’s Revels, Eastward Ho, The Devil is an Ass, Volpone, The Alchemist among many others. All of them were comedies. Sejanus and Catiline were tragedies. Plays like The Magnetic Lady and The Sad Shepherd aligned with the romantic trend of plays. Jonson also wrote many famous court masques while staying at King Jame’s court.
Ben Jonson died on 16 August 1637. Jonson suffered from strokes and had become weak. At the time of his death, he was working on the play The Sad Shepherd.
