The Influence of Marlowe, Lyly, and Peele on the Evolution of Tragic and Pastoral Drama in Early Modern England: A Comparative Analysis of Their Literary Techniques

Abstract

The paper is about how Christopher Marlowe, John Lyly, and George Peele had an extensive impact on the development of tragic and pastoral drama in early modern England and provides a comparative evaluation of their literary styles. These playwrights were the leaders of the University Wits and they majorly contributed to the transition of English theatre to a new era of dramatic styles that were not based on the medieval morality plays. The tragic plays written by Marlowe, their blank verse, and character conflict made a new standard of a dramatic tragedy, as it focused on the topic of ambition, fate, and human tragedy. The works of Lyly on the pastoral drama, where he embodied his sublime prose and his romantic themes, brought in the ideal appearance of nature and love that determined the evolution of early comedy, as well as the pastoral genre. In the meantime, the lyrical tragedies of Peele combined the forms of the classics with poetic conversations and enriched the tragic genre with the distinctive combination of the lyrical and the complexity of the narrative. By critically comparing their themes of interest, styles, characterization and so on, this paper will show how their respective works played a crucial role in defining the direction that English drama took, which provided the path to other playwrights, such as Shakespeare. The present paper provides new perspectives into the long-term effect of the University Wits on the traditions of tragedy and pastoral, proving their fundamental importance in the changes of the early modern English theatre.

Keywords: Influence, Evolution, Pastoral drama, Literary.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21490014