GENRE STUDIES UNIT-IV Chronicle Play

 

Chronicle Play

            Chronicle play also called History play. It is a type of drama with a theme from history consisting usually of loosely connected episodes chronologically arranged. Plays of this type typically lay emphasis on the public welfare by pointing to the past as a lesson for the present.

            These plays are based on the historical materials in the English Chronicles by Raphael Holinshed. “Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland” is a collaborative work by Holinshed, William Harrison, Richard Stanyhurst, Edmund Campion and John Hooker. It was a large, comprehensive description of British history published in three volumes (England, Scotland, and Ireland). It was published in two editions, the first edition in 1577, and the second in 1587. These plays achieved high popularity late in the 16^th century.

            The genre came to maturity with Edward II by Christopher Marlowe and Richard II, Henry IV part 1&2 and Henry V by William Shakespeare. The Elizabethan chronicle plays are called as historical plays. The University wits were the first of the Elizabethans to popularise it, George Peele with his “Edward I”, Marlowe with his “Edward II”, and Greene with his “James IV”.