University Wits
The University Wits were a group of late 16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers whose university educations made them almost unemployable. Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele had studied at Oxford or Cambridge. They came to London expecting a world that would reward their learning. What they found instead was a city with far more scholars than it had positions for. Francis Bacon himself described this as the central social problem of the age. Who were these writers, what drove them to the theatre, and why did their work matter so much to what came next?
Francis Bacon captured the predicament in his essay "Of Seditions and Troubles": the universities were producing more scholars than there were opportunities to absorb them. For men like Marlowe, the alternative was returning to the trades of their fathers, and as later writers observed, it was difficult to picture someone of his education mending shoes. The fear and bitter anxiety this created for ambitious graduates found its sharpest expression in the three Parnassus plays, written by Cambridge students in their final year. Those plays gave voice to the sting felt by educated men who had to work for a living in a world that didn't quite know what to do with them. Theatre was not the University Wits' first choice of profession. It simply happened to be available, and their great educations meant the humbler paths were not ones they could bring themselves to take.
George Saintsbury, writing in the 19th century, described the creative energy of the 1580s as showing itself in two separate branches of English dramatic life. One branch was the University Wits themselves. The other was what Saintsbury called the "irregular band of outsiders" -- players and working theatre people, with Shakespeare at their head. Saintsbury argued that the Wits drew on two very different traditions to forge something new. On one side sat the plodding academic verse-drama of Thomas Sackville. On the other sat the crude but lively entertainments of what he called "miscellaneous farce-and-interlude-writers". By combining those strands, Saintsbury argued, the Wits created the first truly powerful dramas in English. Marlowe in particular led them in making blank verse work for dramatic purposes, discarding classical models and giving English tragedy what Saintsbury called its "Magna Charta of freedom and submission to the restrictions of actual life only". Adolphus William Ward, writing in The Cambridge History of English Literature in 1932, described their attitude as a "pride in university training which amounted to arrogance", combined with ideas and literary methods that genuinely justified it.
Marlowe tends to dominate accounts of the University Wits because of his standing as a dramatist. Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe, though, were better known in their own time for pamphlets rather than plays. Their pamphlets were controversial, risqué, and argumentative, and they represent an early form of journalism in English. Greene in particular attracted the description "the first notorious professional writer". The work of writers like Greene and Nashe operated in a different register from the stage. G. K. Hunter has argued that the broader humanistic education the Wits shared allowed them to create a complex commercial drama that drew on a nationalization of religious sentiment in a way that spoke directly to audiences caught in the contradictions of their historical moment. Edward Albert, writing in his History of English Literature in 1923, described the plays of the Wits as sharing several features: heroic, and usually tragic themes, treated in a heroic style.
A pamphlet published as the work of the recently deceased Robert Greene contained an apparent attack on Shakespeare as an "upstart crow" who was "beautified with our feathers". The pamphlet, called Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, addressed fellow writers generally assumed to be Peele, Marlowe, and Nashe. It became the basis for a long tradition of reading the two branches of Elizabethan drama -- the university-educated Wits and the actor-playwrights -- as enemies. Many scholars, however, believe the pamphlet was actually written by Henry Chettle, who was himself listed by Saintsbury as one of the "irregular band of outsiders". Jeffrey Knapp has criticised readings that imagine an "all out war" between authors and actors, arguing that praise for actors and a willingness to collaborate are more typical of the Wits' actual careers than any campaign against the stage. Jenny Sager has observed that from its very conception, the term "University Wits" has served as a sounding board for critics to express their own attitudes toward modern academia -- a reminder that the label itself arrived long after the people it describes.
The term "University Wits" was never used by the group's members or their contemporaries. It was coined by George Saintsbury, a 19th-century journalist and author, and taken up by writers in the 20th century who found his basic model of dramatic development useful. Allardyce Nicoll, writing in 1931, credited the Wits with making classical tragedy popular and unifying popular tragedy in construction and purpose. The phrase stuck partly because it was so convenient. Shakespeare was born just two months after Marlowe, and the two men worked in the same city during overlapping careers. Saintsbury's framing offered a way to explain how the stage Shakespeare inherited had been prepared: the Wits gave English drama its structural ambition; the actor-playwrights, Shakespeare among them, added what Saintsbury called "stage knowledge" and with Shakespeare's aid achieved what he described as "the master drama of the world". Thomas Kyd, sometimes counted among the Wits, had no confirmed connection to either Oxford or Cambridge, which is a useful reminder that the group was always a loose association and the label always an approximation.
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Common questions
Who were the University Wits in Elizabethan England?
The University Wits were a group of late 16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers educated at Oxford or Cambridge. Prominent members included Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, and Thomas Nashe from Cambridge, and John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele from Oxford. Thomas Kyd is sometimes included, though his connection to either university is not confirmed.
Who coined the term University Wits?
The term was coined by George Saintsbury, a 19th-century journalist and author. It was not used during the lifetimes of the writers it describes. The term was adopted widely by 20th-century literary scholars and critics.
How did the University Wits influence William Shakespeare?
The University Wits prepared the stage Shakespeare inherited by establishing blank verse for dramatic purposes and creating the first powerful dramas in English. Shakespeare was born just two months after Marlowe. George Saintsbury argued that the actor-playwrights, with Shakespeare at their head, borrowed the improvements of the Wits and added their own stage knowledge.
Why did the University Wits turn to theatre?
They turned to theatre because the universities were producing more scholars than there were opportunities for educated men, a problem Francis Bacon discussed in his essay "Of Seditions and Troubles". Theatre was not their first choice but was one of the few available paths. The three Parnassus plays, written by Cambridge students, expressed the anxiety this situation created.
What was the upstart crow attack and was it written by Robert Greene?
The "upstart crow" attack on Shakespeare appeared in the pamphlet Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, published as the work of the recently deceased Robert Greene. Many scholars believe the pamphlet was actually written by Henry Chettle, who was himself listed by Saintsbury as one of the "irregular band of outsiders". The pamphlet addressed writers generally assumed to be Peele, Marlowe, and Nashe.
What kind of writing were Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe known for?
Greene and Nashe were better known for their controversial, risque, and argumentative pamphlets than for their plays, creating an early form of journalism in English. Greene has been called the "first notorious professional writer". Marlowe was the most famous dramatist among the University Wits.
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