FREE ESSAY ON THE EMERGENCE OF THE TRAGEDIAN

THE EMERGENCE OF THE TRAGEDIAN

The Emergence of the Tragedian
By 1600, international trade routes, which had been centered around the Mediterranean Sea
for centuries were almost entirely based around Northern Atlantic countries like Spain,
France and England. The economic explosion, and widespread circulation of money that came
with this was accompanied by the invention of the printing press. Because of the newfound
ability to spread information that the printing press afforded, the period is marked by
scientific advancement, a return to intellectual and artistic ideals, national pride, and
a sense of individual empowerment never before seen.
It was also at this time that the previously dubious profession of acting, or "playing"
moved slowly from the ouskirts of societal acceptance to having a central cultural role
in England. The actor attained a respect and place in society which he did not previously
possess. This was marked by a shift in popular taste, critical attention, and financial
compensation from the comedic rustic clowns to more dramatic tragedians. This is
significant because it was at this time that England produced its most highly acclaimed
dramatic works, the most basic foundations of skillful acting are established, and acting
gains enough respect to remain an important art form in the centuries to come.
Before the printing press, the widely-held concept of social structure was that of a
fixed one. The individual existed in a chain of being which accounted for all God's
creatures and placed them in a hierarchy that could not be altered. There was little
upward mobility socially or financially for the individual Englishman and there was a
strong aristocratic presence. With the printing press and the explosion of accessible
knowledge that came with it, and the economic rebirth of England at this time, the
individual was granted a new optimism. The printed word, as opposed to the spoken word,
is individualistic in nature. The act of reading is an individualistic activity and
requires the reader to posses those cognitive skills involved individually. Where power
once rested in the hands of religious leaders and ruling parties, who disseminated
information orally, it slowly shifted into the hands of those individuals who possessed
the ability to read, empowering the individual. The printed word also propelled a sense
of the individual in that one's name could be permanently fixed in print. Authorship
became important for the first time in history, as ideas were ascribed fixedly to
specific writers. Out of this atmosphere came the idea of the humanist man, who had the
ability to change the world in his likeness, and change himself. This is important
because enemies of acting, who also tended to be the enemies of the humanist man, held
that the impersonation that actors took part in, wherein peasants had the opportunity to
play kings and men to play women, broke with the idea of a chain of being. With the
growing individualistic sentiment that came with widespread printing and knowledge, this
argument held less water. 
Another argument that the antitheatrical community of the mid to late 1500's held was
rooted in a more physical aspect of human design. It was commonly believed that the human
body consisted of different humors or fluids which corresponded to specific human
emotions. An imbalance in these fluids resulted in irregular emotional states. For
example, if a person had an excess of the humor melancholy, they became filled with the
corresponding emotion, or passion, which was grief. Actors, whose profession required
them to alter their emotional states in order to play roles, were inevitably altering
their physical makeup and therefore risking permanent loss of sanity. Not only did actors
play with fire in manipulating these fluids, but the actor's ability to affect the humors
of spectators was frowned upon as well. 
The idea of the humors affected acting styles as well as frightening the English
antitheatricals. Because the idea of humors codified emotion so strictly, the actor had a
responsibility to truthfully uphold that codification. Each emotion had an appropriate
gesture associated with the humor. Specific oral and physical actions corresponded to
specific emotions. The result was a highly formalized style of acting. One might assume
that with the rebirth of knowledge and specifically science that accompanied the printing
press and the age may have slowly undermined these theories over time. 
One of the strongest contemporary arguments against the Puritanical viewpoints comes from
An Apology for Actors by Thomas Heywood, a prolific writer and actor. He appeals to the
growing interest in classical ideals by outlining acting as a way of teaching effective
rhetorical skills. Along with classical drama, art, architecture, and other concepts,
rhetoric became a respected aspect of a newly emerging educational system. This interest
in the classics is what originally brought dramatic acting to English consciousness
initially. Scholarly institutions, in keeping with this interest in the classics, would
study classical dramas and would perform them in Latin and later in English. These
performances would occur in school yards and courtyards. Previously, any acting was
associated with mystery plays, which served as a way to teach the masses their Bible
stories, and in court processionals, designed to celebrate the current monarch's life and
accomplishments. These scholarly attempts at acting eventually interested people outside
academic circles and bands of professional actors began to emerge. These vagabond troupes
were not especially successful or respected. Nor were they especially legal; actors
needed the patronage of some wealthy benefactor to exist as professional actors. They
performed in temporary structures located in the liberties of London where other
marginalized members of society were concentrated. These areas were associated with
prostitution, gambling, illness and acting. It was not until 1575 that James Burbage
built the first permanent theatre there.
At the time of his death in 1580, Richard Tarlton had been the most famous actor in
England. Tarlton, however, was not an actor in the tragic or dramatic sense; he was a
comedian renowned for playing the part of the rustic clown and set the standard for all
those comedians who followed in his footsteps. Public exposure gave clowns like Tarlton
and his successors William Kemp and Robert Armin a place in English society. They were
the first stars of the stage and enjoyed some economic and social respect. However, it is
not until tragic actors like Richard Burbage and Edward Alleyn emerge, that the actor's
dramatic skills are respected and recorded and he is able to make lots and lots of money.
This in a country where not too long ago, acting and impersonation were considered taboo.
Richard Burbage, who lived from 1573 to 1619, had the honor of originating many of
Shakespeare's most famous roles: King Lear, Richard III, Othello and Hamlet. Shakespeare
writes into Hamlet a description of acting that is very different from the acting that
Tarlton and the rustic clowns may have practiced. The concepts in Hamlet's Speak the
Speech speech about moderation in acting, truthfulness, naturalness, and a respect for
the writing, still remain the basic standard of what is important in acting. It is also
around this time that the words "acting" and "personation" begin to replace "playing" as
descriptions of acting.
Along with a shift from rustic and highly affected styles to the moderate acting
professed in Hamlet, there was a shift of focus from the comic actor to the tragedian
economically. Richard Burbage's financial accomplishments as an actor exceeded the
compensations of people like Tarlton and the rustic clowns, and those of Burbage were
outshined by those of Edward Alleyn's. Although acting still had enemies in England,
Alleyn was able to endow schools and hospitals with his fortune. He was also able to
marry the daughter of the Dean of St.Paul's. This evokes a very different image of the
acting than that of the vagabond rustic.
As actors move to the center of English social structure, so do theatres move from the
outskirts of London to more centralized locations. The Globe was built on the Thames,
nearer to the heart of London than previous theatres, and later, Shakespeare moved his
company to Blackfriars, a former monastery that sat fewer people than the outdoor
theatres and was generally more elitist in character.
Within a relatively short period of time, England sees a dramatic shift from actors as
vagabonds, to actors as rustic clowns, to actors as respected tragedians. The art of
acting, once feared and admonished, by the end of the Elizabethan era became a central
aspect of English cultural pride. All of this is significant, these shifts from
marginalized actor-vagabonds, to elitist actors, because it the time when modern acting
and dramatic writing find their roots. The acting precepts in Hamlet, and other works of
the time, still serve as the basic idea of what modern acting is in the collective
consciousness. Shakespeare also penned what became the most basic ideals of acting in his
plays . Although acting did not yet strive towards realism in his time, the basic
premises of moderation, humility, and truth in acting were established. Furthermore, it
is the very fact that Shakespeare, or someone like him, w as given the opportunity to
flourish in society. His age is widely considered the pinnacle of English dramatic writ
ing. As acting gained new respect in England during the late 1500's, so did England gain
an increasingly powerful seat in European politics and thought. As she moved into a new
age of science, reason, and a rebirth of the arts, acting and the theatre progressed
similarly as exemplified by the gradual emergence of the respected tragedian.