University Wits
The term University wits refers to a
group of late 16th century English writers who were educated at the
universities i.e. the Oxford or the Cambridge University. They were popular
secular writers of that time. The most prominent members of this group were:
Christopher Marlowe (Cambridge)
Robert Greene (Cambridge)
Thomas Nashe (Cambridge)
John Lyly (Oxford)
Thomas Lodge (Oxford)
George Peele (Oxford)
Thomas Kyd
Coinage
of Terms
The term University Wits was not used in
their life time. It was later coined by George Saintsbury who was a 19th
century journalist and author. He writes,
“The
rising sap of dramatic creativity in the 1580’s showed itself in
two
separate branches of the national tree.”
In the first place, we have group of
University Wits. They had university education and were men of letters. In the
second, we have the players (by players here we mean actors) and other people
who felt themselves forced into literacy and principally dramatic composition.
They boast Shakespeare as their chief.
Characteristics of Plays written by University Wits
The plays written by University Wits had
several features in common.
·
There was
fondness for heroic themes, such as the lives of great figures.
·
Such heroic
themes needed heroic treatment. Therefore, there was frequent use of splendid
descriptions, long swelling speeches, the handling of violent incidents and
emotions. Sometimes unrestricted use of aforementioned qualities led to
loudness and disorder
·
The style was
also heroic. The chief aim was to achieve strong and sounding lines, magnificent
epithets and powerful declamations. This again sometimes led to abuse and to
mere bombast, mouthing, and in the worst cases to nonsense.
·
The themes were
usually tragic in nature. The general lack of real humor in the early drama is
one of its most prominent features. When humor is used, it is coarse and
immature.
Robert
Greene (1558-1592)
He is considered as the first
professional English author in England. He was a popular Elizabethan dramatist
and pamphleteer known for his negative critiques of his colleagues. He is best
known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, “Greene’s Groats-worth of
witte, bought with a million of repentance. He wrote
“……. there
is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers,
that with
his tiger’s heart in a player’s hyde, supposes he
is as well
able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you.”
The notable works of Greene includes
‘The Scottish history of James IV’, ‘Alphonsus’, and his greatest success was
‘Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay’.
Thomas
Nashe (1567-1601)
A famous playwright, poet and satirist
best known for novel ‘The unfortunate Traveler’. He is considered as one of the
greatest English Elizabethan pamphleteers. His father William Nashe was a
parson. Most of his life is dominated by two concerns, finding an adequate
patron and participating in controversies. He co-wrote the play ‘the isle of
dogs’ with Ben Jonson. It caused a major controversy for its seditious content.
Jonson was jailed, Nashe’s house was raided and his papers were seized but he
managed to escape.
John
Lyly (1554-1606)
John Lyly was a poet, dramatist and a
courtier. His father was the registrar for the Archbishop Mathew Parker. His
grandfather was a grammarian. Lyly is best known for his books ‘Euphues: The
Anatomy of Wit (1578) and Euphues and his England (1580). The style used by
John Lyly was branded as Euphuism. (To say the nastiest thing in the nicest
manner). In 1632, Lyly’s first printed collection of six court comedies was
published. These comprise
Endymion
Campaspe
Sapho and phao
Gallathea
Midas
Mother bombie
Thomas
Lodge (1558-1625)
He was an English author and physician.
His dramatic work is rather small in quantity. He is the writer of the prose
work Rosalynde printed in 1590 which afterwards furnished the story for
Shakespeare’s famous play ‘As you like it’. After receiving M.D. from Oxford
University, his works took a serious note. He did translations of
‘Josephus’(1602), ‘Seneca’(1614)
George
Peele (1556-1596)
George Peele is a translator, poet and a
dramatist. His father was a clerk at Christ’s Hospital commonly known as Bluecoat
School. Peele was educated at Christ’s Hospital and entered Broadgates Hall,
Oxford in 1571. His famous plays include
The Arraignment of Paris (1584)
Famous Chronicle of king Edward the
second (1593)
The Old wives’ tales (1595)
The maid’s metamorphosis (1600)
George Peele excelled all University
Wits except Marlowe. Greene says that Peele belonged to the group of University
scholars who ‘spent their wits in making plays’. He went on to say that he was
‘in somethings rarer, in nothing inferior to Christopher Marlowe and Thomas
Nashe’.
Thomas
Kyd (1558-1594)
He was an English playwright and one of
the important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama. He is the writer
of the play ‘The Spanish Tragedy’. He is controversially said to be the author
of a Hamlet play pre-dating Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet written by Kyd is now
known as Ur-Hamlet.
Christopher
Marlowe (1564-1593)
He was an English playwright, poet and
translator of Elizabethan era. He was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian. He
greatly influenced Shakespeare who was born in the same year as Marlowe. It is
often said that without Marlowe there would have been no Shakespeare. He was
murdered in 1593. A warrant was issued for Marlowe’s arrest on May 1593
supposedly connected to allegations of blasphemy. He was brought to attend the
privy council for questioning. Ten days later, he was stabbed to death by
Ingram Frizer. There is an interesting theory about his death as well. It is
based on the notion that Marlowe may have faked his death and continue to write
under the assumed name of Shakespeare. However, orthodox academic consensus
rejects it.
The famous works of Marlowe include
The Jew of Malta (printed in 1592)
Edward the Second
The Massacre at Paris
Tamburlaine the great
Dr. Faustus
Marlowe’s plays had immense commercial
success thanks to the imposing presence of Edward Alleyn. He was unusually tall
for his time and it is said that the haughty roles of Tamburlaine and Faustus
were probably written for him.
Marlowe was the first English author to
make full use of the potential of Blank Verse. The last soliloquy of Dr.
Faustus is the most celebrated in English literature. It is often said that it
is unsurpassable even by Shakespeare.
Now hast thou but one bare hour to live
And then thou must be damned perpetually
Stand still you ever moving spheres of
heaven
That time may cease and midnight never
come
Fair nature’s eye, rise, rise again and
make
Perpetual day. Or let this hour be but a
year,
A month, a weak, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his
soul.
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