Background Information

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND ELIZABETHAN DRAMA

1. BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE MAJOR ELEMENTS OF ELIZABETHAN DRAMA.

• Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603) – patron of the arts• Influenced by Greek Drama, but had more varied themes

(like whatever the patrons were into!)• Written in verse• There were few props or backdrops to show location• Smaller scale than Greek theater –

the Globe could fit 3,000

THE ELIZABETHAN TIMES

• England was a small nation by modern standards (pop. of 5 million)

• It was a proud nation, and had a strong sense of national identity

• Overseas exploration and empire expansion began (Drake circumnavigated the world from 1577-1581)

• England was rural; agriculture was the chief means of livelihood; mining and timber were expanding industries

ELIZABETHAN TIMES

• Travel within England was slow because of poor roads, and dangerous because of highway robbers

• The English Renaissance was in full bloom; arts and sciences flourished

• Increased contact with other nations led to new styles of living, new fashions, new art forms (the sonnet), a broader vocabulary (which Shakespeare eagerly appropriated)

• New domestic comforts: Chimneys, metal dishes, beds and pillows, carpets, windows

ELIZABETHAN LONDON• London had trees, gardens and meadows

• London Bridge was a fashionable thoroughfare with shops festively decorated for certain occasions. Other decorations on the bridge included the heads of executed traitors

• City houses were small and crowded, the streets were narrow and filthy (as a result there were epidemics and plagues)

AT A TYPICAL ELIZABETHAN PRODUCTION:• It was always daytime• Actors were always men• The audience went to theaters located in the “red light

district”• Commoners (or groundlings) had to stand, while VIPs got

to sit on the balcony of the circular theater• The audience was active, often showing displeasure by

throwing things at the actors

A TYPICAL ELIZABETHAN THEATER

THE GLOBE “THE WOODEN O”• 20-sided, open-air amphitheater• Built in 1599 by the Burbage brothers to present Shakespeare's

work• Thirty-four plays were created for performance here• Built to hold about 2,000, but often the number went up to 3,000• Plays were presented in the afternoon (there was no electricity and

the plays required light)• The stage was 49 feet across and 27 feet deep, and only 5 feet

from the floor of the yard; this made the actors accessible (and easy to hit with produce)

THE GLOBE, “THE WOODEN O”• There were no major props or sets – a black drape across the

stage suggested a tragedy, a torch suggested evening, etc.

• There was a trapdoor for “ghost” appearances

• There was a balcony on the back wall

• The roof of the stage was called “the sky” and was painted as such

• Commoners usually came to the Globe by foot – dignitaries came by boat from across the river

GLOBE WOES

• The Wooden O burned to the ground in 1613• It was rebuilt, but the Puritans closed it (and other

theaters) down in 1642 because the theater was drawing a bigger crowd than the church

• The Puritans made theaters illegal and the Globe was torn down in 1644

• The New Globe, opened in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth, is less than 200 yards from the original site

2. HOW MANY PLAYS DID SHAKESPEARE WRITE? (PLUS SOME OTHER INFO.)• Born April 23, 1564

• Hometown: Stratford-upon-Avon, England

• Also known as William Saxberd, W. Shagspere

• Married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, one day after he obtained a marriage license to marry someone else!

• Missing years: We have almost no information about the next 10 years of his life, except that he must have somehow traveled to London

SHAKESPEARE INFO

• In 1592 his first play, Henry VI, debuted

• Over the next 21 years, Shakespeare wrote another 36 full-length plays

• He also wrote 150 sonnets

• The acting troupe called Lord Chamberlain’s Men produced and performed W’s plays; when James I became king in 1603, they changed their name to The King’s Men

• After the Globe burned to the ground, Shakespeare never wrote again

MORE SHAKESPEARE INFORMATION

• After a night of heavy drinking and a walk home in the rain, Shakespeare died in Stratford, on April 23, 1616. It was his 52nd birthday

• His plays were never published in his lifetime. After his death, Shakespeare’s closest friends published his works in a single volume called The First Folio

• “He was not for an age, but for all time” – Ben Johnson, playwright and friend of WS