The University Wits
Introduction:
The University Wits were a group of well-educated scholars-cum-men of letters who wrote in the closing years of the sixteenth century. All of them were actively associated with the theatre and the plays written by them mark a pronounced stage of development over the drama which existed before them. With their dramatic work they paved the way for the great Shakespeare who was indebted to them in numerous ways. Given below are the names of these University Wits:
1. John Lyly
2. Robert Greene
3. George Peele
4. Thomas Lodge
5. Thomas Nashe
6. Thomas Kyd
7. Christopher Marlowe
They were called University Wits because they had training at one or other of the two Universities-Oxford and Cambridge. The only exception, and that a doubtful one, was Thomas Kyd. Apart from academic training (in most cases, an M. A. degree) they had numerous characteristics in common. They were members of learned societies and rather liberal in their views concerning God and morality. They were all reckless Bohemians and had their lives cut short by excessive debauchery or a violent death. Marlowe was killed in a street brawl, perhaps over bought kisses, and Greene, after a career of unfettered self-dissipation, died friendless and penniless and in a very touchingly repentant frame of mind. Further, in their intellectualism they were true embodiments of the impact of the Renaissance on English culture and sensibility. Then, all of them had fairly good relations with one another and were wont freely to lend a hand to one another in the writing or completing of dramatic works.
Their Contribution to the Drama:
Whatever may be said against their reproachable careers as human beings, it will have to be admitted that, to quote Allardyce Nicoll, “they laid a sure basis for the English theatre.” For understanding appropriately, the contribution of the University Wits in this respect we should first acquaint ourselves with the state of the English drama before them. Now, when the University Wits started writing there were two fairly distinct traditions of the dramatic art before them. One was the native tradition (especially of. comedy) which was vigorous, no doubt’, but devoid of the artistic discipline of the classical Greek and Roman drama. The other was the tradition set by the imitators of ancient Roman drama. Such works as Sackville and Norton’s Gorboduc (tragedy) and Ralph Roister Doister (comedy) are instances of this tradition. These plays, though they exhibit ample awareness of the classical form and control, are devoid of the vigour of the purely native plays. Differentiating between the popular and classical tradition, Allardyce Nicoll observes: “The classicists had form but no fire; the popular dramatists had interest, but little sense of form.” The function of the University Wits was to combine the form with the fire. They had plenty of “fire” in them, all being reckless hedonists, but they had also the sense of form acquired by them from training in classical learning. While retaining in their dramatic works the vigour of the popular native tradition, they gave them that literary grace and power which offered Shakespeare “a viable and fitting medium for the expression of his genius.”
One thing which needs to be amply emphasized is that though the University Wits looked to the classical drama and incorporated its general respect of form in their own productions, they never imitated it slavishly. They retained for themselves sufficient freedom, sometimes even that of violating its well-recognized principles such as the strict separation of the species (comedy and tragedy, for instance), the observance of “the three unities” (those of time, place, and action), and the reporting of the major incidents to the audience through the dialogue of the dramatis personae or the agency of the messenger. What they established upon the English stage was not a pale copy of the ancient Greek or roman drama, but a kind of romantic drama which was to be later adopted by Shakespeare himself. Lyly, Greene, and Peele contributed much towards the establishment of the romantic comedy, and Kyd and Marlowe, Elizabethan tragedy. Besides, Marlowe in his Edward II set an example of the historical play for Shakespeare and others.
Further, the University Wits set about the work of reforming the language of the drama. They made the medium of dramatic utterance extremely pliant and responsive to all the various moods endeavoured to be conveyed through it. Lyly lent the language of comedy, especially the prose, a wonderfully sophisticated touch, Peele gave it a rare sweetness, and Greene, considerable geniality and openness. As regards the language of tragedy, Kyd did not do much except .introducing exaggerative bombast (which is not always without vigour), but Marlowe breathed into it that consuming intensity coupled with virtuosic brilliance which thrilled his contemporaries and thrills us even today. Blank verse became Mariowe’s “mighty line.”
The constellation of University wits made the Elizabethan drama more popular with Renaissance humanism and pride of patriotism. English drama for the first time in their hands recognized its potentialities and exuberance. They wrote classical plays, courtly comedies, farces, chronicle plays, melodramas etc. They gave thrill, action, sensation, hum our and music thus it is fair to say that the Elizabethan drama from the head of one man; it is rather an orderly though rapid development in which many planned on grand sealed. They are moved by some passion or the other. Tamburlaine has boundless passion for power; Dr Faustus has the infinite passion for knowledge.