Actors of medieval theater were called street jolliers and jokers. In fact, they were called differently in the different countries. In England they were minstrels. Minstrels were considered to be court musicians and poets who had to carry a knightly ideal. They helped knights to sing and compose songs for great ladies.

The first stage is a Renaissance. The theater in English was born during the Renaissance. It developed on a market square. The most popular genres on vulgar scenes were the morality and farces.

At that time the Theater developed under the influence of the educated aristocracy. The English theater played an important role in the history of the whole European theater. It laid the foundation of dramatic art of Education and made great contribution to it. Now tragedy appeared. But soon it was replaced by a new genre – the petty-bourgeois drama.

William Shakespeare is the greatest and most famous writer from English ones, and probably the greatest playwright who has ever lived. He was born on the 23d of April, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon. When he was twenty-one, Shakspeare went to London. His first job in London was holding rich men’s horses at the theatre door.

Shakespeare's work had great influence on the theatre. He expanded the dramatic potential of characterization, plot, language, and genrature. Shakespeare influenced on such novelists as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner and Charles Dickens. Shakespeare also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites.

The most popular Shakespeare's works are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest.

At the end of XIX - the beginning of the 20th century in the British theater the critical realism tries to be approved. But the theater still gives preference to the light comedy and the farce. Now you know the story of the English Theatre. And I think theatres are worth visiting. Only there you can see and feel a great whirl of true human emotions.

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