INTRODUCTION:
Jacobean Drama was a dark form drama in
English literature which followed the Elizabethan drama. It was a period of James
1 (1603 - 1625) and was also known as Jacobean Theatre. If Shakespeare was the
most outstanding dramatist of the Elizabethan age, Ben Jonson was the most
dominant drama artist of the Jacobean age. Another noted Jacobean playwrights included
John Marston, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Heywood, John Ford, Thomas Dekker, Cyril
Tourneur and Samuel Rowley.
Jacobean drama is in sharp contrast
to Elizabethan drama and is characterized by harsh satire, realism, moral
corruption, love, sex and violence.
FEATURES OF
JACOBEAN DRAMA:
1. Theme of Revenge:
The revenge play came to prominence
during the Jacobean age. The revenge play is a theatrical genre where the
protagonist takes revenge for the injustice done to him. The most successful
writers of the revenge play were William Shakespeare and John Webster. Webster's
‘The White Devil’ (1612) and Shakespeare's ‘Othello’ (1603) are good examples
of such revenge plays.
2. Satire:
Jacobean drama was also known for the
popularity of satirical plays. One of the most prominent writers of satire was
the renowned poet and playwright Ben Jonson who innovated a new type of genre
known as ‘Comedy of Humour’. Jacobean comedies exposed the political and
religious imbalance and disorder of the society. The moral degeneration of
Jacobean society is also harshly criticised with the help of satire by the
Jacobean dramatists. ‘The Alchemist’ is an important satirical play written by
Ben Jonson.
3. Crime and Violence:
Jacobean drama would often have
protagonists who commit acts of crime or violence. It was not always guaranteed
that a character considered 'good' would prosper in Jacobean drama. John
Webster questioned the very idea morality in their play ‘The Duchess of Malfi’
(1614). In Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ (1606) also the protagonist commits many
murders in order to achieve his ambitious plans to be the king.
4. Poor Art of Characterization:
With the exception of Shakespeare, the
art of characterization was poor in the drama of Jacobean playwrights. The dramatists
repeated such characters as the cheats, bullies, gamblers and drunkards instead
of Shakespeare’s immortal characters like heroes, heroines, villains and clowns.
Mostly we find flat and typical characters here in contrast to the round
characters of Elizabethan drama.
5. Poor Plot-Construction:
With the exceptions of Ben Jonson’s ‘Volpone’
and ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘The White Devil’ of Webster, we find steep decline in
the art of plot construction. The dramatists did not follow the three unities
of time, place and action and the story was presented in the form of episodes
without any logical connection among them.
EXAMPLES OF
JACOBEAN DRAMA:
‘Macbeth’ by Shakespeare
‘The White Devil’ by John Webster
‘The Shadow of Night’ by George Chapman
‘Every Man in his Humour’ by Ben Jonson
‘A Woman Killed with Kindness’ by Thomas
Heywood ‘The Shoemaker’s Holiday’ by Thomas Dekker
‘The Malcontent’ by John Marston
‘A Game at Chess’ by Thomas Middleton
‘A New Way to Pay Old Debts’ by Philip
Massinger
‘The Broken Heart’ by John Ford
CONCLUSION:
All in all, one may say that there
was a decline in the art of drama after Shakespeare’s death in 1612. W. J. Long
rightly remarked:
“It was inevitable that the
drama should decline after Shakespeare for the simple reason that there was no
other great enough to fill his space.”
The Jacobean drama could not fill the space of Shakespeare’s art and lacked in organic unity and immortal characters. Violence, sex and immorality were projected most outstandingly on the stage.
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