Illustrated Handbook of Western European Costume by Iris Brooke

Author:Iris Brooke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 1939-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE THEATRE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

OPERATIC drama and the Commedia dell’ Arte vied with each other for supremacy throughout the seventeenth century.

The Italian theatre is inseparably linked to the Commedia dell’ Arte, and its popularity lasted well into the eighteenth century. These actors, who never learned a part, frequently were only made familiar with the play in which they were to act on the day on which it was ·produced. They fooled and improvised as much for their own amusement as for the interest of the audience. They were immediately popular, their troupes being welcomed all over Europe.

It is impossible to ignore their very real effect on the stage of the seventeenth century, although their place in the modern theatre has degenerated to the clowning in the Christmas pantomimes.

It was probably due to the very crude and lascivious acting of the Italian women-who, in these plays, always took the part of unfaithful wives-that we find no woman on the stage until the end of the seventeenth century in any country except Italy.

In 1600 Philip III of Spain complained of the behaviour of the actresses in the troupe of Italian players brought over by Alberto Gavasa, and the result was a law prohibiting women from appearing on the stage. Curiously enough, the general feeling in Spain at this time was considerably divided in its reaction to the theatre. At the beginning of the seventeenth century Cervantes and Lope de Vega were both writing plays which were produced and appeared to be exceedingly popular, especially the work of the-latter. Calderón also had started on the road to dramatic success and popular approval before 1635. Nevertheless Lope de Vega on his death-bed was persuaded to confess to the mortal sin of having written for the stage. So that although this period in Spanish dramatic history is richer by its three most brilliant contributors, their popularity during their lifetime was severely threatened by the disapproval of the Church.

Calderón, who was born in 1601, wrote delightful plays greatly influenced by the romantic works of Cervantes. The last barrier of ecclesiastical condemnation of the theatre must have been broken down when he himself entered the Church. Always religiously inclined, Calderón took holy orders during the later part of his lifetime, but he was not allowed to neglect his dramatic talents in the fulfilment of his religious obligations.

Philip IV insisted that he should remain at Court as a religious adviser as well as a playwright and theatrical manager, and it was under this monarch’s approval that the Spanish theatre reached its highest standard.

Philip IV was passionately fond of the theatre, and innumerable dramas appeared under his patronage. He himself was supposed to have written several, quite probably with the assistance of Moreto, a gay and comic dramatist who flourished at that time.

The courtyards, which had previously served as both stage and ‘ pit,’ with the windows of the houses let out as boxes to the grandees, gave place to theatres with built-up stages and a variety of scenic effects in lighting and perspective scenery.

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