Elizabethan Times and the Theatre

Hello fellow bloggers.

This week’s blog post is centered on the ELIZABETHAN TIMES and THEATRE. As you are reading  this week’s blog post title you must have started wondering.. Why was it called the Elizabethan Era? What was SO exalting about this time? Were the theatres important in that time? What are some differences between the Elizabethan Theatre and modern day theatres?

As an ardent Shakespeare devotee, I assure you that the Elizabethan Era was very significant to  reminisce.

Primarily, the Elizabeth epoch was during Queen Elizabeth I reign (1558-1603), and thus it had been named the Elizabeth Era. In fact this era was symbolized as the Golden Age.

So what was so special about this time?

The golden age was a period in a field of endeavor when great tasks were accomplished, such as :

•        Significant scientific progress in astronomy, magnetism, cartography, surveying, and navigation.
•     New inventions of the spring-suspension coach. For me this invention is self-explanatory of the                               Elizabethan Era, don’t you think  so?
  

The Spring-Suspension Coach

•        The beginning of New World English explorations for colonization, of course!
•     The Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Can you get a sense of why this era was awfully  important to the Brits? It was their portal to upcoming victories. Sorry fellow bloggers, I will have an attempt  in avoiding any aberration. It’s just that it saddens me when my fellow blogger Mariam vandalizes my dearly Shakespeare’s image in her blog post (see here: http://shakespeareanabode-not.blogspot.ae/2013/04/who-was-shakespeare.html), when his time was the rise of England from the dooms.

The Elizabethan Theatre

In Elizabethan England, theatre-going was very popular, and although the theatres themselves were in London, travelling theatre  companies went round the country and were hired by those who wanted a play to be performed as an attraction. Often plays were performed in temporary theatres created in inn  yards, as well as at court and in the country houses of the wealthy. The plays, therefore, were seen by a wide range of people from all kinds of social background.

An inn-yard

By the end of the 16^th century, theatre-going was well established in England, but the theatres of Shakespeare’s time were very different from modern theatres.

Shakespeare's time theatre

Modern-day theatre

So, how were the theatres of Shakespeare’s time different from modern theatres?

•          The majority of them, such as the Globe in Southward, London,  were open-air.
•          The plays were performed in daylight, since there was no artificial light during the Elizabethan Era.
•           The theatre’s exterior complexion was round or hexagonal.
•           There was a trumpeter whom signaled the beginning of the play, where also a flag flew that indicated a performance was in progress.
•            Only men actors were hired and performed in plays.

Therefore, during the Elizabethan Era people saw the theatre not only as a place to watch and enjoy a play, but as an opportunity to meet friends, exchange gossip and eat and drink. The Elizabethan audience were hard to please, they were only appreciative of flawless plays, if any play appeared to have defects, the audience would often shout out derogatory remarks, make jokes at the actors’ expense and throw things onto the stage, that behavior is rarely seen in the modern day theatre.

Who was Shakespeare?

While Shakespeare seems as an archaic to many of us… a simple question imposed, such as, “Who was Shakespeare?” can perplex us.

Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright who was innately talented. He was able to use words with high exceptionality to create the world’s most eloquent and influential pieces, encompassing 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. But the question remains, was Shakespeare’s work successful of leaving a mark behind?

As we study Shakespeare’s work today, we notice his usage of the conventional style in his plays and sonnets. He incorporated figurative language with emphasis on metaphors and rhetorical phrases in his work, thus he has earned many ennobles, such as the “greatest writer in the English language”, “the world's pre-eminent dramatist”. He is also England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".

Fact: " A bard is another word for poet, and William is known as one of the greatest poets in the world. Therefore, he is known as "The Bard." "Of Avon" is added to this name because William was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. When the two names are put together, William's nickname becomes "The Bard of Avon."


Shakespeare’s plays are placed in one of three categories; Histories, Comedies, or Tragedies. In his plays, William often contains elements of all three categories. He blended common issues into histories, seriousness into comedies, and humor into tragedies. Romeo and Juliet is the most popular play written by him, it helped inspire other works from playwrights.

Today, people still praise Shakespeare’s work, primarily because his writing caliber. His work is still taught to students, his plays are still played by actors, and most importantly, the reminiscent Victorian ambiance is still alive today, at the prominent restaurant, Shakespeare and Co. 

Take a look at William Shakespeare in STAISTICS

Resources:1. Ashton, Geoffrey. The Collectors Shakespeare. New York: Crescent, 1990. Print.2. Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2004. Print.3. Kay, Dennis. William Shakespeare: His Life and Times. New York: Twayne, 1995. Print.4. Shakespeare Biography. AbsoluteShakespeare, 2005. Web. 7 Mar. 2010. <http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/biography/shakespeare_biography.htm>.