Historical Context of Shakespeare
Why London?
was the richest city and first perminant playhouse
1600s London number of 20,000 people went to the theatre per week
London was home to royalty
Rich noblemen became patrons of theatre companies, giving financial and legal support
1603 - 1613, Shakespeare’s company played at the court of King James about 15 times per year.
What was London Like?
London was getting bigger due to migrants from the country side, and Europe.
1550 - 1600 estimated the city grew from around 50,000 residents to over 200,000
inside the medieval walls every available space was being built on
Outside the walls, the suburbs grew steadily into the countryside.
London was a bustling, overcrowded city. In 1599, a Swiss visitor said, “one simply cannot walk along the streets for the crowds”.
Plague struck most summers; in 1593 about about 10,000 people were killed, all the theatres were closed.
What were the cities landmarks
St Paul’s Cathedral -was the biggest of London’s 120 churches
Inside as well as worship, crowds gathered to socialise or do business – which attracted pick-pockets and prostitutes.
Outside, the cathedral was used as a market and it was London’s centre for bookselling
The Tower of London -1600 it housed rooms for the royal family, a treasury, a prison, a weapons store, a zoo and the royal mint, nearly all England’s coins were made.
London Bridge -the only bridge in lonely,
it joined the city of London
on the north bank of the Thames, with Southwark on the south bank, where the Globe Theatre was.
There were houses and shops either side of the bridge. John Stow, a historian from the time, said that “it seemeth rather a continual street than a bridge”
Where did Shakespeare live and work in London
St Helens -mid-1590’s, Shakespeare lived in the London parish of St Helens, north of London Bridge close to The Theatre and The Curtain playhouses.
He was twice assessed for taxes there – and failed to pay both times.
Paris Gardeners -1598-1602, lived in the Paris Gardens area of Bankside south of the river near The Globe, where he worked.
Silver Street -1602, Shakespeare rented lodgings in the Silver Street house of the Mountjoys, a family of French immigrants who made expensive hats.
Notes
Shakespeare was born in the Elizabethan and died in the Jacobean era
Elizabethan era it was just England in Jacobean it became Britain started the British empire
London was a walled city on the other side of the river.
Shakespeare's globe on the south bank was outside the jurisdiction (prone to thieving and prostitution)
busy, dirty, noisy- booming population
Elizabeth -insecure monarch (virgin queen)
The city of London was full of Elizabeth spies
People went to the Theatre to get news
Podcast notes:
- 1580 Francis Drake was the first English man to sail the world (2nd man ever)
- circum navigation medal by Francis Drake with his route round the world
- Midsummer nights dream 1590s
- passing around the world brought exotic goods
- medial is a calculated piece of political propeganda
- map wasnt made in 1980 as some areas were founded after Drakes journey
- Medal is made of stolen Spanish silver and fulled with insults to the Spanish
- The comedy errors (1500s) where servant Romeo made a joke about a maid relating her to a globe "I could find countries in her"
- Shakespeare's twelth night maruolo made to smile, creating a joke " there is more lines than the new map
- Typical name for theatre the globe! a new way of thinking and showing the world
Video Notes:
- Elizabethan England dominated by the rich and powerful
- the heath woods, and moorlands are dangerous places
- 7 or 8 people living in a small detached house
- park houses, basic houses
- perminantely lit fires
- windows are small to retain heat within homes
- the coal stunk so deep into them
- Elizabethan society is divided by the class you were born in.
- The groat (fourpense) (Elizabethan family)
2nd video notes
- on a rival of many towns you'll be drawn to the market
- you'll go to buy egg, butter, cheese, meat
- people spent many hours in the market
- fast food is always available, pies
- people carry flame door to door as its difficult to light them so they pay some else to do it
- at the night when the market ends, in dark its dangerous
- where there is poverty there is crime
- armed young man mostly carry a dagger or sword
- the poor are desperate, and the penalty is death
- beheading, burning at the stake, hard and strong punishment heavy items placed on your spine to be crushed to death
- witchcraft was killed by hanging
- a threat to everyone was the weather, one bad summer the crops fail food is scared, prices higher
- 3 times in a row thousands die
- 16th century against the law to look after a homeless person not from your town
- 1597 3 years since worst summer England changes the law because feeling that something has to be done to protect the law "an act to protect the poor" tax goes to help the poor.
- death everyone fears high levels of disease
- if plague is found in a house it would be boarded up until the family is dead or survive over 6 weeks
- people would dig there own grave and wait until the die
- medicine depends on how rich you are, the richer you are the better medicine
3rd video notes
- most paintings were royalty and rich
- gentry owned everything so rich they are selected to to fill the house of commons
- the presence of servants were seen to make the family wealthy
- the rich expect you to clean, they believe that having a bath is unhygienic
- believed that running water was best because it was straight from God
- keep yourself clean but washing your body not clothes
- there's no tooth brush so you use a tooth cloth wash your mouth out with white wine,
- poor people always travel on foot
- most gentleman travel by coaches
- 1570's £8 to get the carriage £10 for the four horses
- spies everywhere even in your own household
- Elizabethan secret service
- there was a secret group who wanted to assassinate the queen and put Mary queen of Scott on the throne
- starchamber- a court in the palace of Westminster
- There is no jury in the court, even by rumors you can be found guilty, showing government power
- most common execution is hanging
- as a noble man you can plead to have your head cut off instead
essay question: What was life like in Elizabethan England
section one: life of the poor in the country side
- how does the absence of light, gas, electric affect there daily life?
- Only rich family would have glass on the windows, rhythm of life would change with the seasons wake up when it's light and sleep when its dark.
- people lived outside, a house was a dark place to sleep,
- people who would make extra money by making things, e.g. weaving, making beer they would make it at home after work in either low light or darkness
- Eye sight loss and bad eyes because of working in the dark
- The fact that its cramped living conditions and they all huddle by the fire to keep warm, disease spreads quicker
- increase of depression and crime because of poverty and surrounded by darkness,
- rich poor divide, and they went to great lengths to make money.
- in the darkness there is nothing to do but talk and hear things, so they might hear things they cant see creating superstitions (fear of the unknown)
- big forms on entertainment like theatre were only in the london city
- made up of four sections the nobility/the aristocracy/the royalty all own everything 55 families that owned everything
- the gentry made 5% of the entire population, small land owners
- the yeomanry -rich farmers -new middle classes buying shares, investment
- the rest of them working class
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