Shakespeare's Time
Shakespeare wrote mostly in what we call the Elizabethan era. We call it the Elizabethan era because the Queen of England at the time was Queen Elizabeth I. The following is some general information about Shakespeare’s times, with a particular focus on theatre in the period.
Theatre in Elizabethan England
Before the mid – 1500’s, theatre was banned because people believed it was sinful. When theatre began to be more acceptable they were often located on the boundaries of the cities or towns. People often did not want plays or actors in their town because many of the actors were considered to be thieves or dishonest citizens.
Traveling theatrical companies had to first go to the mayor in each town to ask permission to perform. The players would then stage a special free public performance in the mayor’s presence. If the mayor was pleased, he gave the players a reward as he thought appropriate to show respect to the actors. The company was then allowed to perform their work for the town’s citizens and to charge a small admission fee.
Performances always took place at 2:00 p.m. as the players had to make use of natural sunlight because there was no electricity. The citizens of the town knew that there was to be a performance that day if the flag was raised on the roof.
During Queen Elizabeth’s time, the theatre and all the other arts became popular and the artists were able to make a living for themselves. Elizabeth was a great lover of the arts. Her government paid for the construction of many theatres and for many plays to be written. The public theatres were very large and held as many as 2,500 people. They were built around a courtyard that had no roof.
Even though Queen Elizabeth was a great supporter of the theatre, she and her couriers never attended a public performance. The royalty always commanded the services of the theatrical company at a special performance in the palace. These private performances were often in the evening and were lit by candles. This is how the phrase, "a command performance," began.
Since Shakespeare’s plays were seen by both rich and poor, his plays had to appeal to audiences of all kinds, from members of the nobility to merchants and labourers, from queens and kings to wives and students. His plays were based on plots from previously published histories or tales that the audience often recognized. Shakespeare’s plays were popular because he changed the plots and the language so that it was more exciting and emotional. Some of his plays were set in foreign lands. Since many of the people of his day could not travel, he gave them a taste of another culture and place. Some of his plays retold the history of the famous kings and queens of England. His plays have been grouped into comedies, histories and tragedies.
Acting Companies
Acting companies consisted only of men and boys because women did not perform on the Elizabethan stage. A typical acting company had 8 to 12 ‘sharers’ who were the leading actors as well as the owners of the company. They had charge of the company’s money. They bought the plays and costumes, rented the theatres, paid the fees, and split the profits.
The paid workers, called hirelings, took minor roles in the plays, performed the music, served as prompters, and did various odd jobs. The helpers were boys who played the roles of women and children.
These companies operated under the sponsorship of a member of the royal family or an important nobleman. Shakespeare’s company was sponsored from 1594 to 1603 by Lord Hunsdon and his son who later became Lord Chamberlain in the queen’s court. That is why Shakespeare’s company was called the Lord Chamberlain’s Man. These sponsors usually did not give money but only their names to these acting companies. This was like advertising for the Lord and often showed his importance.
Shakespeare wrote his plays for the theatre where most of his plays were performed and for the acting abilities of the men in his company. Each major actor specialized in a certain type of role. For example, one played the leading tragic characters and another the main comic characters. Still another would play the old men. Shakespeare wrote many of his tragic roles for an actor named Richard Burbage. Many of the comic roles were written for Will Kempe who had a good sense of humour and could sing a dance. All of the actors had to be used in each performance; that is why many of Shakespeare’s plays had comic scenes following violent or tragic scenes. Actors of this time spoke their lines more rapidly than modern performers. Also they had a more musical sense of language.
The boy actors were often well trained and highly skilled. Disguise played an important part in Shakespeare’s dramas. Audiences enjoyed comic situations in which a boy played a girl character who disguised herself as a boy. Female characters masqueraded as men in several of Shakespeare’s plays, including "As You Like It", "The Merchant of Venice" and "Twelfth Night."
Theatre Buildings
The earliest theatres were built on the outskirts of London. These theatres included The Theatre (the first public theatre), the Curtain, the Rose, and the Swan. In 1599, Shakespeare and his company built the Globe Theatre.
The building enclosed a courtyard (sometimes round, squared or many sided). Most theatres had 3 levels of galleries, each about 10 meters high. The courtyard was called the pit. The stage was at one end of the pit. The price of admission for the poorer spectators was usually one penny that paid for standing room in the pit. The spectators were called groundlings. For an extra fee, the wealthier patrons could sit on the benches in the galleries.
Stages were large platforms that projected into the pit allowing the groundlings to watch from three sides. The left and right rear of the stage had two doorways that led to the dressing rooms. The back of the stage had a curtain that covered a discovery space. This space revealed a hiding place or another room of the main stage.
Above the stage was a small gallery that served as a balcony or castle wall in some of the plays. A hut with a half roof projected over the upper stage. Inside this stage was machinery for sound effects of for lowering actors to the main stage (gods, angels, etc.) This hut was sometimes called the heavens.
The main stage had a large trap door. Actors playing ghosts and spirits could rise and disappear through the door. The trap door, when opened, could also serve as a grave.
Scenery was not used very much. That is why Shakespeare and many other writers described the scenes in their plays. Props such as thrones, swords, banners, rocks, trees, tables and beds were used. Costumes were often elegant and colourful. Many costumes were purchased from the nobility when they had outworn their garments. Sound effects such as trumpet blasts, music and drum rolls were common. Sometimes clanging swords, stamping feet and guns were used to produce sounds of armies fighting. Special effects such as the eyeballs of a sheep, the tongue of a cow or the liver of a calf would be used to represent gory details in the more violent plays.
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth’s father was King Henry VIII of England. Henry married Anne Boleyn in 1533. She was a maid in King Henry’s court. Anne had a girl child who was named Elizabeth. Anne had no more children. Henry became upset with the new marriage because there was still no male heir. Henry had Anne arrested of false charges. She was beheaded in 1536.
Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour, died shortly after she gave him a son named Edward VI. Henry married a fourth woman, also named Anne whom he later divorced. His fifth wife, by the name of Catherine, was later charged with misconduct and executed. Henry’s last wife, named Catherine (again!), outlived him. Henry died in 1547.
Elizabeth lived a lonely existence as her mother had been executed when Elizabeth was only three years old. She did, however, receive a very good education. She was bright and quick witted. Her father enjoyed her lively intelligence.
Elizabeth ruled as the Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. She never married and stated that her love was for her loyal subjects. The people of England loved their queen who made many public appearances in grand style. She turned England into a rich and powerful country. She paid for many projects such as exploration around the world. Adventurous sailors such as Sir Frances Drake, Martin Frobisher and Sir Walter Raleigh roamed the seas in search of new lands and wealth for England and their queen. Elizabeth fancied many artists and playwrights. Her government spent money on art galleries and theatres. She gave money to young artists, among them, William Shakespeare. She also firmly believed in athletic exercise.
She was an expert horsewoman and enjoyed taking long walks daily. Her healthy lifestyle probably contributed to her long life. Elizabeth died in 1603.
City Life In London
London was a busy, rapidly growing city in the late 1500’s. It was located on either side of the River Thames.
It was first begun in 43 A.D. by the Romans who had conquered Britain. The Romans built a seaport near where the present day London Bridge is located. The Romans called the port Londinium from which the name London came. By the year 200 A.D., the Romans had built a wall around the city to protect it from raiders. This wall contained nine gates through which travelers and Londoners could pass to go to the country. The main guard gate was the Tower, built in the 1000’s by William the Conqueror. This tower which William called the White Tower served as a meeting place as well as a prison (usually for nobility) and place of execution for political prisoners and spies.
The centre of the city was St. Paul’s Cathedral. Great palaces and castles (Whitehall, Westminster) were located along the river. Shops and homes were crowded into narrow streets and alleys which were so narrow that almost no vehicle could pass through.
The homes were usually located on the upper floors above the shops. These upper floors jutted out over the street below. This meant that the street was quite dark since sunlight could not reach below the upper floors. In those days, people urinated in chamber pots. In the morning, the maids would empty thee pots into the streets below. The custom was that the gentleman would always walk on the outside of the lady near the road. The gentleman always walked there in case of accidental splashing. Today, the English call their washroom the ‘loo’. This word also came from this custom of emptying the chamber pots. When the maid was about to empty it, she would call below with a warning which came from the French phrase, "Gradez l’eau"/ The English had trouble with the French accent and pronounces "l’eau" as "loo".
The population of London in 1595 was approximately 200, 000. Life expectancy at this time was only 32 years of age. (Today it is 70 for a man and 73 for a woman). Most of the population was unclean, ill-fed and poorly housed. Their diet was lacking fresh fruit, meat and vegetables. (They had no citrus fruit to prevent scurvy). Meat was often turning bad by the time it was cooked. They often used pepper to help preserve the meat. The River Thames was fine for fishing but the drinking water came from old wells that were just not adequate for the size of the growing population.
The chamber pots and household cooking garbage was usually thrown out into the street where it would be swept away in the early morning into the gutters. These were like open sewers. Rats and other rodents thrived on the garbage. These rodents had fleas which sometimes hopped onto the people as they passed by. These fleas carried a disease known as the Black Plague. Often the theatres were closed when the Plague was at its worst. Between 1593 and 1693 almost half of the population of London was wiped out by this disease. A well known nursery rhyme about the horrible smell of death and how quickly people died is "Ring a ring a roses, a pocket full of posies, Hush-a, Hush-a we all fall down."
The street of London had many problems. One of them was the threat of fire. Since most houses were built in a row and the houses faced each other so closely, fire could spread to the whole street quickly. The dark streets were also ideal for thieves, pickpockets and cut-purses. Many such criminals were children, trained by their parents out of greed or desperate need. If caught, a thief was usually put in stocks, had an ear cropped, or was branded with the letter ‘T’. Highway robbers or poachers were usually hanged. Members of the nobility were usually beheaded for their crimes. Traitors were hung, the drawn and quartered for their crimes against the government. Often the heads of traitors were placed on spikes on the bridges into London as a warning to the citizens to beware of treason.