WEEK 3 - SHAKESPEARE’S LONDON AND ELIZABETHAN AUDIENCES

Shakespeare spent most of his time working in London, however, the plays were not performed there. They were performed in places such as Bristol or they toured around the country, performing outdoors and in town halls.

Shakespeare probably chose to stay in London because it was the biggest and richest city in England. It had the first permanent playhouses and the people who were visited were very varied (from wealthy noblemen, to their servants). The rich noblemen in fact became patrons of theatre companies, giving financial and legal support. But London was growing, and quickly, mostly from migrants from the countryside and Europe. Between 1550 and 1600 the population tripled so they were building houses everywhere they could and expanding the suburbs to the countryside. This did not solve the population problem forever because it did become overpopulated which made it easy for disease to spread. Plagues spread mostly in the summer and in 1593, about 10,000 people were killed and all the theatres were closed which makes sense but still makes me really sad.

The fact that the theatres were closed meant that the 10-20,000 people who would go to the theare weekly, couldn't. Generally, people who went to see theatre were men, but it was not only the nobility as one visitor in 1617 claims the crowd around the stage looked like 'a gang of porters and carters', while others said that their servants and apprentices spent all their time there. However, the rich also attended, for example, in 1607, the Venetian ambassador bout all the most expensive seats in the theatre for one of Shakespeare's plays. Royalty too enjoyed the theatre, but would not go to public theatres, rather have the companies come to them. The reason why the theatre was so popular at the time because the cheapest tickets were 1 penny, the same price as a loaf of bread, and the most expensive seats were still only 6 pennies, getting you indoors, a bench and a cushion. No good citizen would be seen standing though because, although it was closer to the stage and actors and you could buy food and drinks, there were no toilets, the floor was probably just sand and it apparently didn't smell very nice.

Other popular forms of entertainment at the time were things like cock-fighting and bear-baiting, who both the rich and the poor enjoyed, but this meant that theatres had to compete with this and were actually banned from performing on Thursdays because ‘the players do recite their plays to the hurt of bear-baiting, maintained for Her Majesty’s pleasure’. I feel like this other aggressive entertainment fueled the behavior at the theatre because, even though people would go and dress up, they would still clap the heroes, boo the villains and cheer the special effects. There were also thieves in the audience and there was the odd fight or two. The amount of theatre being produced and put on was quite large considering. Between 1560 and 1640 about 3,000 new plays were written. To keep their audiences engaged, they would often be re-told famous stories and added violence, music and humour to make sure they have their audiences full attention. It was important that the audience was interested and were enjoying themselves because they would do a lot of damage if they were not pleased. At the Swan in 1602, the audience damaged the chairs, stools, curtains and walls. Also, in 1629, a visiting French company was hissed and 'pippin-pelted' off the stage because they got women to play the female parts, something that I will never understand why it was such a big deal.

WEEK 1 - SETTING THE SCENE - LIFE IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

Poor people in the countryside
I figured that the population of the time would be somewhat similarly divided class wise, most people being poor with much fewer rich people. I had only heard about the rich people's lives before now and didn't realize that the beauty of the countryside was feared by the poor and just how difficult their life was. The cramped conditions and difficulty of being able to buy food for the poor I expected but I didn't think about the fact that it would be dark almost all the time in the home. It makes sense for the windows to be small to retain heat and candles to be too expensive but I never passed much thought about it until now.

Poor people in town
I love visiting busy markets because it gives me a sense of community, especially if the food comes from a family market or something of the sorts and everything seems to be the pretty similar to how it is now. Unfortunately, there was crime back then also, it sounds much worse though because very young people were carrying daggers and swords, which I can only compare to the gun law in America now in terms of how I would probably feel about it. Towns still get scarier at night but te chance of death was much higher then because people had more to loose. Living in that time though, I'm not sure how I would act to survive either. Because I am a woman I probably would not be allowed to carry a sword so I would have to resort to hiding in my home which still probably would not provide fantastic protection. The fact that crime was so rampant, even with the penalty of death  for doing the tiniest thing scares me. People were so desperate that they were willing to risk their lives, either that or they didn't see it as a risk because they simply didn't care enough. Also, being a witch was illegal which is silly because a big part of it was making potions out of herbs so if someone wanted to make a remedy for an illness, without any witchy intentions, they could get killed, so if they did not have the money to buy medicine but knew that a mixture of some herbs could cure something, they would just have to suffer or risk getting executed. The 5 different death penaltys are all so horrific sounding but the fact that they were a form of entertainment is disgusting. You have to have something psychologically wrong with you if you see someone die in front of your own eyes and enjoy it. I was aware that a bad harvest was bad but I didn't realise that if it fails two times in a row, families starve to death, but what really baffled me is that you get fined for taking in a homeless person. It just doesn't make sense to me that it's illegal, it's their choice who stays in their house surely, but I guess not. So not being able to afford food and shelter caused people to travel, on foot, for over 200 miles sometimes, and that's with a malnourished body. It must have been such a big decision for people to start a family because there was such a high chance of a slow, painful death everyone with more than half the amount of children being born in a year dying. It is reassuring that a law was eventually passed to help the poor but it isn't sad that it took a three year famine for the government to realize there was a problem. The plague was obviously a big part of history but I wasn't aware that people would get locked into their home until they either died or survived for 6 weeks, but if they couldn't leave the house for 6 weeks, how would they get food? Some people even dug their own grave and waited for death which is so pessimistic, but of course the poor would not have been able to afford the good quality medicine prescribed by a doctor but would have to get cheaper, less effective alternatives, so perhaps digging your own grave saves time and money.

The court of Elizabeth I
Because of the huge gap between the rich and the poor, I didn't know the poor could even enter the court, but it doesn't matter because they were still not accepted because of the way their clothes, of course they were not able to keep up with the latest fashion trends from the continent brought by the courtiers, either in person, or by sending fashion dolls wearing miniature versions of the clothes. The clothes got more and more lavish as Elizabeth's reign went on, something that the puritans disapproved of greatly. The rich would also show off in the medium of colour, it was law that only aristocracy and others of their kind could wear certain fabrics. I was surprised to find out that, more often than not, queen Elizabeth was not even in her court , but on a royal progress. During her absence, all the tapestries and silver cutlery and other valuables get put in storage while servants keep everything clean and aired, awaiting her return, which seems like a huge waste to me. It is interesting to me that she did so many of these because she didn't have to go and meet her subjects , but I made sure it got her in their good books a bit at least because she made the effort to even get to know some of them. While on these royal progresses, she would stay with a lord that lived nearby, on  one of her trips, she brought 2000 people with her, and for only a two day trip, cost the man over £600 which, a son I've learned, is way more than it sounds. Having the queen stay with you was obviously a great honor, but at what cost? What if they could not afford it? To keep up appearances, they would have to find a way.

Who were the rich in Elizabethan England?
Pretty much everyone in a painting was rich, because they were the only ones who were able to afford it, but they didn't not always have power. The gentry held very much power, and though they were definitely not poor, they were not always the richest. Essentially, they ran everything. But you could really tell a rich person by their house. The size, amount of servants and what decorated the inside were a massive give away. But the rich also loved to keep clean,  it did not always bathe because their water was filthy. So they would use rain water, but only on the body parts that's on show because it was given from God. Instead, they would use linen cloths called rubbers co clean everything, and they would change their undergarments daily, so keeping yourself clean was done by washing clothes instead of your body. Considering their conditions, I guess they did the best that that could. Because they could afford it, they would use perfume to cover odors as well. To keep their teeth clean, they would use linen again, just a smaller strip and toothpicks which I would not fee comfortable doing at all. Rich people would never be seen walking to a destination, they got horse drawn carriages, but it was quite expensive to do so because of course the carriage and horses, but a coachman, and food for him and the horses with can be more expensive than their own food apparently. The rich did have to be careful what they and their servants said to others because the Queen had spies because she had lots of enemies. Puritans, because of their religious beliefs, and many Catholics who did not like the fact that she was Protestant.

To what extent was life changing?
the middle classes were most effected by Queen Elizabeth. Chimneys were invented and mean that houses could be built upwards and because bricks were being mass produced, they were much cheaper and more available for everyone. It was much more fashionable to live in a two story home and was a sign of status. But although a chimney and a second floor were important, glass windows were the ultimate sign of status, but people would often just have glass windows at the front of the house to show off and still have shutters at the back. Lots of people were moving to town to try and gain status. Many books were being published in English now as well, which encouraged ordinary people to read. It allowed townspeople to gain knowledge through literature. The Bible in English was the most popular because they could read it in their own home and became almost a 'self help book' which hopefully decreased the crime, reading helped ordinary people move up the social ladder. I find it really difficult to imagine not being able to read and write, so this must have been a huge change for people. Because books were more available, it was easier to teach, so more schools were appearing. Which, again, a huge difference to the quality of life and future of the people. Printing, gunpowder and the compass were also invented. The knowledge from books encouraged people to travel and the compass helped massively. Unfortunately, along with traveling, the not so rich were able to steal from other countries with the aid of gunpowder and cannons. They started just stealing money but then moved onto trying to get ownership of the Spanish sea. Going out on a boat sounds terrible though, other than the fear of scurvy, there was a huge hygiene problem, they weren't able to wash and they all had lice. Lots of them died too, so with the small chance of getting rich, would it even be worth it? With missing teeth and an abundance of diseases, I don't think money would count for much. Luckily though, some good did come of traveling. Explorers brought back so many discoveries about plants and animals. There was then an expansion of botanical gardens and they were able to make more medicine and cure more illnesses.

London
It was the biggest, richest places to be. It was, as it is today, very cultured, it had all sorts of classes, job occupations and even tourists. In Elizabeth's reign, the population more than doubled, but she didn't like that happening because people were getting too close to her castle so she stopped them from coming any closer, but that made it so much more cramped. It did not stop growing though? They just built up. And hygiene was a huge issue as well. There were no flushing toilets or drains which lead to an awful smell. But it was, for them, the smell of progress because it meant they were growing. It is interesting to me that the river was such a huge factor of London. People used it as a mode of transport and held their port which made it so special. But all this filth really allowed the plague to flourish to which there was no cure. I'm sure it was a big awakening for some of the rich because it gave them a sense of mortality because there was no way of getting around it, if they caught it, it did not matter that they were rich. The most important part of Elizabethan England personally was Shakespeare. 1 in 3 of the adults would watch a play every month which provided them with rich entertainment and culture. it was able to hold 2000 people which unfortunately also held pickpockets, but it was still a huge benefit to everyone that was able to go.

WEEK 2 - SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE AND BIOGRAPHY

Birth date: Approximately 23rd April, 1564
Baptize date: 26th April, 1564 - Stratford-upon-Avon
Death date: 23rd April, 1616

He spent the majority of his life in Stratford and London. Growing up, making a family and buying property in Stratford and working in London. He became very well known and prosperous throughout his life as an actor, a playwright and a partner in a leading acting company.

His Family Tree:

William's father, John, began as a leatherworker, and after marrying Mary Arden (whose family was very prominent), rose through local offices in Stratford and eventually became the town bailiff. Not long after however, he stepped out of the public eye for reasons unknown.

This prosperous beginning allowed William to attend a grammar school where he would have had Latin lessons, which would have included; memorising, writing and acting in classic Latin plays up until the age of, most likely, 15.

A few years after leaving school, in late 1582, he married Anne Hathaway, who was already expecting their first child, Susanna. In early 1585, they had twins, Judith and Hamnet. William ended up moving to London at some point for work, leaving his family alone almost all the time. This and the fact they had relatively few children suggested that there was a stress on the marriage. But there is no evidence of this and he would have had to live in London anyway to pursue any work in the theatre.

Shakespeare's only son died when he was 11 in 1596. Susanna married John Hall, a doctor, and gave Shakespeare his first grandchild, Elizabeth, in 1608. A few months before his death, his other daughter, Judith, married a vintner named Thomas Quiney.

Not much is known about Shakespeare's life after Judith and Hamnet's arrival in 1585. 1592 is the next time there is a definite record of him. He was, by then, already an established actor and playwright who getting mocked by a contemporary playwright, getting called a "Shake-scene". The same guy talked about Shakespeare's Henry VI, one of his earlier historical pieces, so it must have already been performed by then. The following year, Shakespeare published the long poem, Venus and Adonis, but it was in 1594 that the first quarto editions of his early plays appeared. Over the next 2+ decades, he gathered more success through his acting, writing and part ownership of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (renamed the King's Men in 1603).

Shakespeare prospered financially from the partnership of the theatre company, as well as the acting and writing. He invested most of his earning into buying property in Stratford, purchasing the second largest estate in the town, New Place, in 1957.

One of the last plays he worked on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which he wrote with John Fletcher (someone who he collaborated with often) around 1613. His cause of death is unknown, but his brother-in-law died the week before which could suggest and infectious disease, but then again, his health could have been poor for a while before also.