3 - Popular entertainment

• Baiting


  Teasing/ tormenting
• Groundling


  Poor people sitting in the pit
• Heaven and Hell


  Trap doors in the roof and on the stage
• Jousting


  A form of entertainment
• Licence

  Permission to perform
• Master of Revels

  Responsible for censoring plays
• Pit


  Where the cheapest seats were
• Puritan

  Extreme Protestant –opposed to the theatre
• Rich Tudors liked to play and listen to music, write poetry, dance, and watch plays at the theatre.
• The Rich would hunt animals such as deer, wild boar, and even bears. This was a sport in Tudor times, and rich Tudors took it very seriously. Only nobles could hunt stags
• Rich Tudor ladies were not allowed to do much. They could learn to read and write, play music, dance and sew.
• Real Tennis was fashionable for rich Tudors. Bowls and skittles were played by all classes in society
• Archery was important. They use a long bow and crossbow and men were expected to practice every Sunday after Church
• Cruel Sports

  • Bear and Bull baiting were a popular forms of entertainment for all classes in society.

  • They attracted large audiences and were held regularly in arenas eg:

  ‘Bear garden’ in London with space for about a 1,000 people. They were

  built like theatres
• Cruel sports:

  • Cockfighting was also popular. May towns had cockfighting pits.

  Sometimes they would put several birds in the ring to see which one

  would survive.

  • People would place bets on the outcome of the fight. Some people used this as an opportunity to make money or do business deals.
• Cruel sports:

  • People went to watch public execution.

  • Some went to places where mentally ill people were kept as ‘insane’ and watched their behaviour for fun.
• • There were no theatres in 1558 when Elizabeth became Queen

  • By the end of her reign there were many theatres in London and in towns.

  • It was a popular form of entertainment
• Strolling Players:

  • Firstly - wandering bands of musicians and actors

  • Move from town to town performing for mixed audiences

  • They would perform in the town square/market/inn

  • Rich people would sometimes pay for private performances

  • Plays including stories about Robin Hood were popular.

  • Caused concern when topics became political or critical of the established authorities.
• In 1572 a law passed banning wandering players from touring because:


  • Worried about content – might cause rebellion

  • Link to vagrancy & begging

  • Spread of disease

  • UNLESS they had a licence to perform which was granted by the Lord

  Chamberlain
• Theatre companies:

  The ban of wandering players led to the formation of companies

  • It meant the government had more control over what was being performed

  • Wealthy nobles gave ‘patronage’ and money to support theatre companies.

  • 1574 The earl of Leicester’s Players

  • 1583 The queen’s men

  • 1594 The Lord Chamberlains’ men

  • They would tour the country, perform at Royal Court for the Queen.

  • As they became more popular they needed more space to perform
• The first theatres:

  • The first purpose built theatre was built in 1576 by James Burbage

  (actor-owner)

  • Called ‘The Theatre’

  • Finsbury Fields, Shoreditch, London

  • Performers – ‘The Lord Chamberlain’s men’
• Elizabethan Theatre Design:

  • Octagonal shape. Whitewashed walls and thatched roof.

  • Raised stage projects into the yard,

  • No curtains or scenery, open to the sky

  • The playwrights had to use words to tell the audience all kinds of things that would not be necessary today for example there was no artificial lighting so words were used to say what time it was and as there was no scenery, words had to be used to set the scene.

  • Oak pillars were painted to look like marble

  • Trap door on the stage – down to ‘Hell’ out of which came the

  demons and evil spirits came
• Theatre design:

  • Stage was the early region

  • Canopy above the stage symbolised ‘Heaven’ – painted with

  starts, zodiac and moon

  • Center of the ceiling had a trap door for heavenly beings to arrive

  through. Also contained hoists etc to lower actors to the stage.

  • Galleries were covered seats where the rich sat.

  • Content of plays designed for all sections of audience, sub-plots

  used to appeal to particular groups
• Theatre design:

  • Female characters had to be played by men,

  • Dramatic starts were used to get audience’s attention as there were no curtains.

  • Flag was flown to show that a play was being shown

  • Canon/Trumpet was sounded to announce the start of the play

  • Poor, groundlings, stood in the yard or pit (They talked all through the performance and might even throw things at the actors)

  • Cheapest tickets for the pit

  • More expensive tickets for the galleries which kept you out of the rain.
• Theatre:

  A) pit

  B) trapdoor

  
• Theatres were outside city limits to the north and south bank of river

  Thames.
• Popular theatre companies:

  The Curtain - opened in 1577

  The rose - opened in 1587

  The swan - opened in 1596

  The globe - opened in 1599
• Elizabethan Playwrights & Poets:

  William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

  • Born in Stratford-on-Avon

  • Wrote 37 plays – comedies, tragedies and historical dramas. Wrote Sonnets (poems)as well

  • Very popular – Queen Elizabeth liked his plays

  • Most popular plays – Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth
• Elizabethan Playwrights & Poets:

  Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593)

  • Playwright and Poet

  • Developed the ‘tragedy’ in theatre.

  • Most famous play ‘Dr Faustus’ (set in Germany, Dr Faustus made a deal with the devil to give him magical powers but at a cost.)

  • He was stabbed in a pub fight.

  • There were rumours that he was assassinated because he worked as a Government spy.
• Elizabethan Playwrights & Poets:

  Thomas Kyd (1558 – 1594)

  • Pioneered the ‘revenge’ tragedy.

  • Most famous play was ‘The Spanish Tragedy’

  Thomas Dekker (1572 – 1632)

  • Wrote a lot of comedies –about ordinary life & especially rowdy e.g.: Shoemaker’s holiday.
• Actors:

  Burbage Tragic - actor: Leading role in Shakespeare’s plays and part owner of The Globe.

  Thomas Pope - Comedian: Member of The lord Chamberlain’s men and was a comedian and acrobat

  Will Kempe - poular actor and dancer: Leading roles in Shakespeare's Henry IV

  Edward Alleyn - Tragic actor: Leading roles in Marlowe’s plays eg: The

  Jew of Malta and he also part owned The Fortune theatre
• Supportive additude toward theatre:

  • Popular

  • Cheap entertainment

  • All classes in society

  • Queen liked the theatre

  • Plays had gripping storylines, interesting characters and heroes

  • Plays had a message of loyalty, obedience sometimes anti-Spanish when the relationship between Spain and England was at its worst.
• Opposition towards theatre:

  • London authorities were worried about law and order especially with the city’s growing population

  • Fear that could help spread disease and were places where prostitutes and pickpockets operated causing problems for the authorities trying to keep law and order.

  • Could also be used as bear/bull baiting pits; therefore concerns about gambling

  • The theatres only managed to stay open because they were outside the power of the City of London authorities who would have closed them down
• Opposition from religious groups towards theatre:


  • Strongest opposition from Puritans

  • Believed the theatre to be the ‘work of the devil’

  • They believed that plays lacked morals and were too rude and coarse.