WEEK 3 - SHAKESPEARE’S LONDON AND ELIZABETHAN AUDIENCES

What was London like in Elizabethan times 

Here is a video describing the situation of England during the time of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare, from 2:21, the video describes the situation art was in during this period.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/queen-elizabeth-i-and-englands-golden-age.html

London during the Elizabethan Era was a hot bed of art, development, poverty and disease. The upper classes were thoroughly educated and catered for, caring about appearances art and social ranking. Where as the lower working classes were mostly concerned with the matter of not catching a disease, dying or putting food on the table. The working classes worked laboriously and did jobs that didn't require much school teaching.There was mass ignorance spread in the working classes even shown in their news publications. The city was busy and full of people trying to get somewhere be something and just live. The river was a way of transportation via boat taxis and the streets were littered with excrement and refuse due to the fact chamber pots were regularly emptied into the streets.

• London was the first home of permanent playhouses due to its affluence, frequently companies would not have one fixed performance space but would instead take their performances 'on the road' on tours

who were the people attending the theatre?

The theatre was a pass time that people of all classes enjoyed and partook in, the diary entries of one man "Dr Simon Forman" who was a teacher who studied disparagingly at Oxford and soon left his studies to take on the profession of Teacher in Salisbury, discontent there also he changed his profession to study Physic and magic but the small town he lived in did not allow him to fulfil his true calling, so he left, and like many before him, flocked to London for opportunity. He was a man of meger standing and attended the theatre. Where crowds at Shakespeare plays were described as ‘a gang of porters and carters’ (the working class every day man) but also royalty frequently visited The Globe and several of Shakespeare's other theatres to enjoy his work.

• Many noblemen and members of the royal family became patrons of theatres all over London and King James even loved Shakespeare's work so he would request to see plays or attend shows.