Date of Award

6-1929

Degree Type

Bachelors Essay

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Literatures, Languages, and Cultures

First Advisor

Thomas P. Whelan

Second Advisor

William J. Grace

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to find out to what extent William Shakespeare, as a writer of comedy, was influenced by his immediate predecessors. In this survey of Elizabethan comedy I shall attempt to substantiate the purpose by giving the efforts other men have offered in this matter and my own conclusions resulting from the investigation. It has been generally accented that Elizabethan drama arose out of Miracle and 1ystery ulays . The Church has al ays been acknowledged as the 1 "mother of the English drama". Soon it passed from the tutelage of the Church into the court-yard where a platform was built which served as a stage. Eventually the members of the royal court grew interested and thus it was introduced into the palace of Elizabeth. The most important group of actors who performed before the Queen were those under the guidance of the University Wits. This title is given to a galaxy of scholarly young men who took play-writing seriously and gave beauty and dignity to the dramatic profession. They transformed the crude "Ralph Roister Deister" type of comedy to an intellectual standard, gracing it with amusing witticisms, and exalting it to the level of "les precieuses" of Elizabeth's court. Was Shakespeare influenced by these men, Lyly, Greene, Peele, and Lodge, and if so, to what extent?

Comments

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, College of Liberal Arts, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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