 In this video lecture I am going to talk about the history of drama and be touching some really important plays and we look how drama changed over a period of time. Whenever we are interpreting any piece of literature it is very important that we know the time period in which that piece was written because only after knowing the time period you are able to predict themes, you are able to interpret that piece better. The same thing applies with drama. So if you are reading any important play and you are preparing for UTC Night English Literature then don't skip this video, watch this video till the end so that you know how drama gradually emerged and how drama changed its course over a period of time. So let's start the journey. Whenever we think about drama the first question that pops up in our head is that when did drama actually begin? When did people begin acting? Now what is surprising is that nobody actually knows this. Yes guys I hate to tell you this but then nobody knows when actually this all began. We just know that drama was always seen as an imitation of action and primitive people when they used to go on hunting, they used to come back from the hunt and they used to enact the same scenes in front of their tribe members and that is how drama originated. We are not sure about the date or we are not sure about the early dramatic writers or playwrights but we just know that this is how drama emerged over a period of time. So this all primitive sort of things which were happening was a part of Mesopotamian civilization which happened around 1000 BC. Later as time changed around 500 BC for the first time came the Greek Theatre. The Greek Theatre was one of the most prominent art form during that time. Why? Because Greek Theatre was seen as a means of worshipping world and there was a huge festival which was organized every year in Greece where different playwrights came and they performed their plays and the best playwright was awarded. So this was a kind of olympics which happened during that time. People used to compete with each other in so many festivals and so many playwrights used to perform in this festival. So that was one thing. What is important to note here is that when this Greek Theatre started earlier they never had actors coming on stage and performing parts, roles. They had group of men and boys who used to narrate the entire story and that group of men and boys were called Chorus. Later as the theatre progressed we find that actors started coming on the stage and playing their parts. At that time we find that this group of men and boys played the part of narrator who used to give insight on the drama who used to give commentary on the drama. So they became narrators and that group was called Chorus. That is why whenever you read any Greek Theatre or any Greek play associated to Greek Theatre you will find that they have special mention of Chorus. Chorus are said to be a very important part of Greek Theatre. They were commentators. They used to tell the society what is wrong, what went wrong, what went good, what would be the next probable thing that will be coming up on stage. On the other hand you also must remember that when plays were performed on stage there were not so many people who used to be a part of theatrical groups. So in single play if we have 20 characters there were about 3 or 4 actors who used to keep on changing the mask and coming up and performing the plays and that is why we have masks associated with drama. So whenever you write drama on Google you will see the theatrical mask. The mask of happy face and the mask of sad face will come. And that mask is symbolic of the emergence of theatre because during the early stages of theatrical development only few players used to be a part of the theatrical group and they used to keep on changing their mask in order to showcase to the audience that they are playing different parts. Greek civilization did not last long. The golden age of Greek art and culture somewhere collapsed and we find that Roman civilization emerged. With the rise of Roman civilization came Roman Catholic Church which spread its wing throughout the world and as church was spreading its branches throughout the world we find that church made it a point that theatres must be banned. Because according to the Roman Catholic Church and Pope who is the head of the Roman Catholic Church theatres took people on the path of immoral behaviour. They deviated people from the path of God. They deviated people from the path of goodness and righteous behaviour. So it was important that theatres must be banned so that people can move towards the path of Salvation could just devote their time and energy in praying and in worshipping Jesus Christ. So this is how Greek civilization and Greek theatre declined and there came the morality mystery and miracle place in the later half of Middle Ages. So around 1200 AD came the Miracle Mystery and Morality place. All these three places were performed as a part of church ceremonies. So the church yard was where these places were performed and in all these places they just used to talk about the lives of saints, the lives of Jesus Christ and the lives of people who went on the path of goodness. So that was the only theme that was presented during that time. And people were enjoying these places as a part of the celebration that happened in the church every year on Christmas, on Easter. So just like we have around Leela similarly in Roman Catholic Church during the time of Christmas festivities they used to perform such plays and in these place people used to see how Jesus Christ lived his life and used to learn from the teachings of Jesus Christ and other Christian saints. So now if you're wondering that even after listening to theatre and about the development of theatre from so long time we have not yet met Mr. Shakespeare then don't worry because now we are entering into the world of William Shakespeare that is Renaissance. Yes guys, Renaissance started in Italy and Renaissance actually means rebirth. So in Italy when Renaissance started people started to take interest in the Greek place again and that is when theatre emerged. When theatre emerged in Italy and there were writers like Mollier who used to write theatrical plays in order to poke fun at people. This same set of ideas spread across Europe and gradually it came down to England as well. In England there were so many new theatres which were open indoor theatres then there were elaborator set designs which were set up then there were curtains which were put between two scenes so all these things gradually started happening and then came the great theatrical artists like Christopher Muldow and William Shakespeare. So this is how theatres re-emerged in England and people started taking interest in drama and playwriting again. After the death of Queen Elizabeth I we find that King James I came and as we have seen that drama grew a lot during the Ring of Queen Elizabeth I the same fashion was continued during the Ring of King James I with a difference. Now during the Ring of Queen James I came another type of drama which is called masks. Masks are basically dramas which were performed exclusively for the sake of entertainment of royal members. So we find that during the Ring of Queen Elizabeth I drama was enjoyed even by the local men or even by the localised people. But there was a separate type of drama which is called masks which were performed exclusively for royal members and when those royal people used to see such drama they were quite energised and they wanted that these dramas should be really elaborative and they should be really gaudy and they should have great set designs. So all these things were included in the drama and there came the role of set designers. So just like we have set designers in Bollywood similarly there were set designers during the Ring of Queen James I. One of the most famous set designer was Inigo Jones who designed a set of Ben Johnson's mask and these were elaborated set designs so you see that not only the actor and playwright were important but also the set designer was important during this time. One important thing that I would like to mention here is that Ben Johnson wrote these two amazing masks. One is called Welsh Knight and one is called Mask of Blackness. This Mask of Blackness was praised highly by a Victorian poet whose name is A.C. Swinburne. So you can know that not just the Elizabethan stage was important but even the Jacobian stage was equally important. Before I move on to another important development in drama and I talk about the place of restoration I would like to talk about War of Theatres. Now War of Theatres is termed as Poetomachia by Thomas Deckard. You must remember this thing that the other name of War of Theatres is Poetomachia and this term is given by Thomas Deckard. This War of Theatres happened between these two people. One is Ben Johnson and the other one is John Marston. Now these people, both of them, they used to stage plays one after the other and they used to criticize the other person in the play. For example, Ben Johnson staged a play called Every Man Out of His Viewer in which he criticized John Marston. On the other hand, John Marston staged a play which is called Jack Drum's Entertainment in which he criticized Ben Johnson and this is how they kept on staging plays in order to criticize each other. And you'll wonder why people used to criticize each other through the medium of plays. Why not write satires just like Alexander Coe brought? What is important to understand here is that there was a Bishop ban which came during this period. According to Bishop ban, nobody can write satires in prose. So it was a ban on satires in prose. So now if I want to criticize a person, I cannot write prose work because it was ban. So in order to criticize other people, I staged a play in which through the portrayal of the different characters I used to criticize the enemies or I used to criticize specific people. Later, we find that theaters were banned. They were then reopened during the time of restoration. Then came realism, naturalism, theater of absurd and so many other things. We'll be talking about all these different literary movement in the next video lecture. So you must subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you are notified when I post my next video. Also I have an announcement to make that I'm running a brand new YouTube series in which I am posting videos every Sunday, especially for the students who are appearing for the next net exam, in which I'm giving you last minute tips that can help you in your July's net exam. So stay tuned to my YouTube channel and do watch the videos that I'll be posting on the subsequent Sundays. Apart from that, if you have not visited my website then go and check the list of 700 writers which you must study if you're preparing for net exam. And if you like the list, you can also join my course in which I'll be teaching all these writers in detail. You can also follow me on various social media platform because I post a free go-net quiz on all the social media platform so that you can boost your exam preparation. That's it for this video lecture. We'll be meeting soon in the next video lecture. Till the time I meet you next, happy learning, keep loving literature, and stay tuned to our podcast.com.