ENG220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Wield
Document Summary
There are plays that are based on historical events and then there are the history plays. There are also tragic history plays (richard ii) that are grouped with the history plays. Can have tragic and comedic dimensions while still being in that genre. Deal with the history of kings, relatively recent history. Richard ii 1398-1399, only two hundred years in the past for them. Laws were in place to prevent the staging of plays that dealt with current events. Provided a way of talking about current issues in a sort of allegorical way, because the events represented are the foundation for the existing social and political life. Tetralogy, richard ii was the first of them. The trauma of the period of civil war was still something people were attempting to grapple with. There was a rebellion in 1601, earl of essex, former favorite of the queen, stages a rebellion when he is stripped of some of his privileges.
