1the renaissance of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in england saw a great dramatic revival of the old greek and roman classics and a new interest in a native british drama. 2english playwrights seized the opportunity to combine the best of these two drama forms to create the elizabethan and jacobean drama, the best in english literature and possibly in the world (schultz 88). 3chief among these playwrights was william shakespeare, the most respected playwright of all time. 4the theater of this period was quite popular. 5though the actors were still all men, the masks had disappeared; and costumes, props, and sets had taken their place (mccredie 21). 6during the renaissance, the theater began to come of age ("renaissance" 4). 7although drama had its ups and downs in the years that followed, it was at last firmly established as an acceptable and valuable form of literature. what is the thesis of the paper?