Elizabethan theatre in the context of "Elizabethan"

The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female personification of Great Britain) was revived in 1572, and often thereafter, to mark the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over Spain.

This "golden age" represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music, and literature. The era is most famous for its theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repelled. It was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland.

The Raigne of King Edward the Third, often shortened to Edward III, is an Elizabethan play printed anonymously in 1596, and possibly at least partly written by William Shakespeare. It began to be included in publications of the complete works of Shakespeare only in the late 1990s. Scholars who have supported this attribution include Jonathan Bate, Edward Capell, Eliot Slater, Eric Sams, Giorgio Melchiori and Brian Vickers. The play's co-author remains the subject of debate: suggestions have included Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Michael Drayton, Thomas Nashe and George Peele.

The play contains several gibes at Scotland and the Scottish people, which has led some critics to suggest that it incited George Nicholson, Queen Elizabeth's agent in Edinburgh, to protest against the portrayal of Scots on the London stage in a 1598 letter to William Cecil, Lord Burghley. This could explain why the play was not included in the First Folio of Shakespeare's works, which was published after the Scottish King James had succeeded to the English throne in 1603.

The Rose was an Elizabethan playhouse, built by theatre entrepreneur Philip Henslowe in 1587. It was the fifth public playhouse to be built in London, after the Red Lion in Whitechapel (1567), The Theatre (1576) and the Curtain (1577), both in Shoreditch, and the theatre at Newington Butts (c. 1580?) – and the first of several playhouses to be situated in Bankside, Southwark, in a liberty outside the jurisdiction of the City of London's civic authorities. Two of the earliest plays by William Shakespeare – Titus Andronicus and Henry VI, Part 1 – are recorded as having been performed there, as well as plays by dramatists such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Robert Greene, George Peele, Thomas Dekker, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson and Thomas Heywood. The Rose's archaeological remains were rediscovered in 1989 during the redevelopment of the site to build an office block, and were partially excavated. After a public campaign to preserve the remains, they are now listed by Historic England as a Scheduled Monument at Risk. Subsequently the site has become an exhibition space and theatre venue, known as The Rose Playhouse, administered by The Rose Theatre Trust, a registered charity, which plans to first complete the excavation and preservation of the remains, and then to build a new visitor, education and arts centre there.

The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road, part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. Built in 1576, after the Red Lion, it was the first permanent theatre built exclusively for the showing of theatrical productions in England, and its first successful one. Actor-manager James Burbage built it near the family home in Holywell Street. The Theatre's history includes a number of important acting troupes including the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which employed Shakespeare as actor and playwright. After a dispute with the landlord, the theatre was dismantled and the timbers used in the construction of the Globe Theatre on Bankside.

The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624.

The Curtain was built some 200 yards (180 m) south of London's first playhouse, The Theatre, which had opened a year before, in 1576. It was called the "Curtain" because it was located near a plot of land called Curtain Close, which derived its name in turn from its proximity to the walls of Holywell Priory, a curtain wall being a section of wall between two bastions. (The name bears no relationship to the front curtain associated with modern theatres.)

The Newington Butts Theatre was one of the earliest Elizabethan theatres, possibly predating even The Theatre of 1576 and the Curtain Theatre, which are usually regarded as the first playhouses built around London. William Ingram believes it was probably the first of the three to begin construction, and may have been the first completed.

Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English playwright, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama.

Although well known in his own time, Kyd fell into obscurity until 1773 when Thomas Hawkins, an early editor of The Spanish Tragedy, discovered that Thomas Heywood, in his Apologie for Actors (1612), attributed the play to Kyd. A hundred years later, scholars in Germany and England began to shed light on his life and work, including the controversial finding that he may have been the author of a Hamlet play pre-dating Shakespeare's, which is now known as the Ur-Hamlet.