The University Wits

"The University Wits" is a group of great scholars and writers. In which include playwrights, poets, pamphleteers. These writers were considered as the earlier professional writers in London.
University Wits were highly educated, they all were educated from Oxford and Cambridge University so, they are called University Wits and so they are different from the other writers. Only one writer "Thomas Kyd" was not educated from any University but he comes under University Wits.

University Wits 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.

The Contribution of University Wits to the Drama

University Wits 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 and 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.

John Lyly, Robert Greene and George Peele contributed much towards the establishment of the romantic comedy and Thomas Kyd and Marlowe, in Elizabethan Tragedy. Besides, Marlowe in his "Edward 2nd" 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.

University Wits are :-

John Lyly (1553 - 1606)
Robert Greene (1558 - 1592)
George Peele (1556 - 1596)
Thomas Lodge (1558 - 1625)
Thomas Nashe (1567 - 1601)
Thomas Kyd (1558 - 1594)
Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)

John Lyly (1553 - 1606)

John Lyly is better known for his prose romance "Euphues" than his dramatic productions. It must be remembered that he himself was a courtier and wrote for the discerning courtiers. He had no intention to charm the eyes and ears of the masses or to win their acclamation. His plays were very popular with queen and the court. He gave comedy a touch of sophistication and an intellectual tone. Lyly wrote eight plays in all out of which compare, "Endunion" and "Gallathea" are the best and the best known. Lyly used a mixture of verse and prose.

Robert Greene (1558 - 1592)

He was one of the most popular English prose writers of the late 16th century and Shakespeare's most successful predecessor in blank verse romantic comedy. Greene obtained degree at both Cambridge and Oxford University.
Robert Greene's some important works are :-

"The Comical History of Alphonsus King of Aragon"
"A Looking Glass for London and England"
"The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay"
"The History of Orlando Furiaso"
"The Scottish History of James the Fourth". Out of them, the most important and interesting is "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay".

George Peele (1556 - 1596)

He was an Elizabethan dramatist who experimented in many forms of the theatrical art: pastoral, history, melodrama, tragedy, folk play and pageant. Peele was educated at Oxford University, where he translated into English a play by Euripides.
The five plays of Peele extant today are:-

"The Arraignment of Paris" ( a pastoral play )
"The Battle of Alcazar" ( a romantic tragedy )
"The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the first"
"The Love of King David and Fair Bathsheba"
"The Old Wives' Tale", the list shows Peele's versatility as a dramatist.

Thomas Lodge (1558 - 1625)

He was an English poet, dramatist and prose writer. Whose innovative versatility typified the Elizabethan Age. Thomas Lodge was educated at Merchant Taylor's School and at Trinity College Oxford and he studied law at Lincoln's Inn, London in 1578. Lodge's earliest work was an anonymous pamphlet in reply to Stephen Gosson's attack on stage plays. His next work was an "Alarum" again "Usurers" (1584). He then engaged in varied literary activity for a number of years.

Thomas Nashe (1567 - 1601)

Nashe also spelled Nash. He was a pamphleteer, poet, dramatist and author of the "Unfortunate Traveller" or "The life of Jackie Wilton" (1594), the first Picaresque Novel in English. Nashe was educated at the University of Cambridge. In 1589, he wrote "The Anatomy of Absurdities" and "The Preface to Greene's Menaphon".
Lodge and Nashe both gave particularly nothing to the theater. He has left only one play "The Wounds of the Civil War". Both Lodge and Nashe are more important for their fiction than dramatic art.

Thomas Kyd (1558 - 1594)

Thomas Kyd was an English dramatist, who with his "The Spanish Tragedy" initiated the revenge tragedy of his day. Kyd was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School in London. There is no evidence that he attended the University before turning to literature.

Kyd's contribution to English tragedy is twofold first, he gave a new kind of tragic hero who was neither a royal personage nor a superman but a ordinary person. Secondly, he introduced the elements of introspection in the hero.

Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)

He was an Elizabethan poet and Shakespeare's most important predecessor in English drama, who is noted especially for his establishment of dramatic blank verse. He entered the King's School, Canterbury as a scholar. A year later, he went to Corpus Christie College, Cambridge obtaining his bachelor of arts degree in 1584, he continued in residence at Cambridge.
He is in Nicoll's words, "The most talented of Pre - Shakespeareans". His some important words are
"Tamburlaine, the Great"
"Doctor Faustus"
"The Jew of Malta"
"Edward the Second".