A
SHORT NOTE ON SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA
Shakespearean
drama
• Elizabethan drama came from three
sources: medieval plays,
16thcentury interludes, and Greek and Latin classics.
• Plays focused on human complexities rather than religious
themes.
• The Globe was the most
successful of many English theaters.
• Shakespeare contributed 37 plays—comedies, tragedies, and histories.
• Marlowe and Jonson were popular playwrights.
• After 1649, Puritans closed theaters.