English

ENGL 3316 

Shakespeare & The Drama of His Age 

St Thomas University 

Fall 2026/Winter 2027

Instructor: Dr Leslie Smith

Class: Tuesday/Thursday 11:30 am-12:50 pm                            Email: lasmith@stu.ca  

JDH 205                                                           Office Hours: HCH 8, by appointment 

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This survey of drama from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in England is designed to give students an opportunity to see Shakespeare, the most well-known playwright of the time, in the context of not only his contemporaries but also later  playwrights working in this tradition before the closing of the theatres in 1642. Shakespeare will form only a small part of the syllabus. We will also look at Kyd, Marlowe, Middleton, and Jonson, among others. Our focus will be on specific genres (tragedy and comedy, as well as the popular subgenres of revenge tragedy and city comedy), the physical space and traditions of the theatre of the period, and the playwrights’ engagement with important ideas that preoccupied both those of the 16th and 17th centuries: statecraft and the role of the leader of the state, the ethics of revenge, the role of women and anxiety about the control of female sexuality, madness, the nature of society and the problem of man’s struggle between good and evil. Assignments will include response journals and essay each term.

TEXTS: David Bevington et al, eds. English Renaissance Drama (Norton, 2002); William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, ed. David Daniell (Arden); William Shakespeare, Pericles, ed. Suzanne Gossett (Arden); William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, ed. David Bevington (Arden). Other scholarly editions of the Shakespeare plays with notes are acceptable (e.g. Penguin, Oxford, Folger, etc.).

ASSIGNMENTS AND TESTS:  

Fall Schedule of Assignments 

Response Journal (10%): due Thursday 1 October (Lyly, Kyd)

Response Journal (10%) due Tuesday 3 November (Marlowe)

Essay (25%): due Thursday 3 December 

Participation 5%

Winter Schedule of Assignments 

Response Journal (10%): due Thursday 28 January

Response Journal (10%) due Thursday 25 February

Essay (25%): due Tuesday 30 March

Participation 5%

Semester 1 Reading Schedule

Week of

9/11 September: Introduction: The Elizabethan and Jacobean Stage

15/17 September: Introduction cont’d; (T) Lyly, Gallathea (c. 1585)

22/24 September: Lyly, Gallathea; Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587)

23/25 September: Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy 

29 September/1 October: Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy (Th) first response journal due;

                                          Marlowe, The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)                                           

6/8 October: Marlowe, The Jew of Malta

13/15 October: Marlowe, The Jew of Malta; (Th) Marlowe, Dr Faustus (c. 1592)

20/22 October: Marlowe, Dr Faustus

27/29 October: Marlowe, Dr Faustus

3/5 November: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (1599); (T) second response journal due

10/12 November: Fall Reading Week (no classes)

18/20 November: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (1599)

25/27 November: Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602)

1/3 December: Troilus and Cressida; (Th) first essay due

Semester 2 Reading Schedule

Week of

7 January: Middleton, The Revenger’s Tragedy (c. 1606)

12/14 January: Middleton, The Revenger’s Tragedy

19/21 January: Middleton, The Revenger’s Tragedy; Shakespeare, Pericles (c. 1607)

26/28 January: Shakespeare, Pericles; (Th) third response journal due

2/4 February: Jonson, The Alchemist (1610)

9/11 February: Jonson, The Alchemist

16/18 February: Jonson, The Alchemist; Webster, The White Devil (c. 1612)

23/25 February: Webster, The White Devil; (Th) fourth response journal due

2/4 March: Spring Reading Week (no classes)

9/11 March: Middleton and Rowley, The Changeling (1622)

16/18 March: Middleton and Rowley, The Changeling

23/25 March: Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1625)

30 March/1 April: Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts; Ford, ‘Tis Pity She’s A

                              Whore (c. 1632); (T) second essay due

6/8 April: Ford, ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore

CLASS POLICIES: 

ATTENDANCE: Students are expected to arrive at class not only having read the assigned material, but also having reflected on it and prepared to discuss it.

SUBMITTING WORK:  All work must be submitted as a PDF attachment to my email address. The file should be labelled thus: SURNAME ENGL 3316 ASSIGNMENT X. Please feel free to make an appointment to see me if you would like to discuss your work. Note: All essays must be handed in by the last class on 8 December or 9 April in the first and second semesters respectively to be considered for grading. No extensions will be granted beyond that date. All work is due by 11:59 pm of the day noted for the assignment.

EXTENSIONS: I am willing to negotiate extensions with students under exceptional circumstances. Requests for extensions must be presented two days before the paper is due.  Late work will not receive commentary.

ACCESSIBILITY ACCOMMODATION: If you require any accommodations due to a permanent or temporary disability, you must register with the Accessibility Office so that they can advise me how to best support you. They can be reached at accessibility@stu.ca. 

PLAGIARISM (From the STU Academic Calendar):  Plagiarism is “to use another person’s ideas or expressions in your writing [or any other format or medium] without acknowledging the source” (The Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, J. Gibaldi, 1999, p. 30). Some examples of plagiarism are: 1. Presenting another person’s ideas, words, or other intellectual property, including material found on the Internet, as one’s own. 2. Using passages from printed articles and books or online sources such as Wikipedia without providing full bibliographical information. For online sources, bibliographical information includes the title, author and URL of the webpage. 3. Writing an essay or report, or producing an assignment in any format or medium, or a portion thereof, for someone else to submit as their own work. 4. Submitting an essay, report, or assignment when a major portion has been previously submitted or is being submitted for another course at St. Thomas or any other university without the express permission of both instructors. 5. Submitting work that is expected to be the student’s yet, was contracted and/or obtained from another person or entity. 6. Using texts generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) software such as ChatGPT without 1) the express permission of the instructor and 2) without full citation. For AI-generated texts, the citation should explicitly indicate the use of the software, the date of usage and the URL (example. “Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 7, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/chat”) A student who is in doubt as to what constitutes plagiarism should discuss the matter with the professor concerned before submitting the assignment or sharing the material with others. 

St Thomas University respectfully acknowledges that the land on which we gather is the traditional unceded territory of the Wolostoqiyik peoples.