What was the atmosphere inside an Elizabethan theatre?


            A London theatre was not as disciplined as a theatre of the modern times. The groundlings, those poor people who paid one penny to watch the play, made up the majority of the audience. These groundlings were composed of tanners, butchers, iron-workers, millers, seamen from the ships docked in the Thames, glovers, servants, shopkeepers, wigmakers, bakers, and countless other tradesmen and their families. They would keep standing throughout the play. If anyone wanted to sit, they had to pay an extra penny. If a person wanted to sit comfortably on a cushion, then he would have to pay an additional penny again.



            One penny in Elizabethan times, it should be remembered, was the wage of an entire day! There were other galleries where one, if you paid more money, could sit more comfortably, and save himself from the jostling of the crowd below.



            The atmosphere inside the theatre would be deafening. The groundings were more boisterous and uproarious than any modern day audience.



            After all, their purpose of watching, the play was to relieve the tension and tedium of the entire day. They would shout, jostle about, be angry at each other, and get into brawls and even pickpocket the one in front. Loud and hot-tempered, they would, in all probability, refuse to calm down when the play started. It was often in the midst of such an undisciplined crowd that Shakespeare performed his plays.



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Who performed the lead roles in Shakespeare’s plays?


            Like the superstars in movies today, there were heroes who had cut out larger than life images in Shakespeare’s time. Richard Burbage, an English stage performer, was the most famous actor during the late I 6th century. Burbage was not only an actor, but also a theatre owner, entrepreneur, and painter.



            By the age of twenty, Richard Burbage achieved success as a performer. He played the major Shakespearean characters, including Othello, Hamlet, Lear, and Richard Ill. Richard Ill was the most popular of his roles with the Elizabethan public. The performance of the character of Richard III gave Burbage a superstar image. He had also performed in the plays of leading playwrights of the time such as Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd, Beaumont and Fletcher, and John Webster.



            The only image of Richard Burbage available to us today is often considered a self-portrait. He is also credited with painting a portrait of Shakespeare. When Burbage died, it was a huge event. People believed that Burbage was the true sound of Shakespeare’s lines. Writers of the Elizabethan period wrote eulogies about him. All of London fell into a great gloom at the great actor’s departure. There was so much grief that, it is said, the official mourning for Queen Anne was overshadowed by Burbage’s death.



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What happened to the Globe Theatre?


            During Shakespeare’s time, the Globe was the leading theatre in all of England. The name ‘Globe’ derives not only from its circular shape, but also because the owners had a cosmic vision of the world. The motto of the theatre was ‘because all the world is a playground’. The theatre was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613.



            Shakespeare’s historical play, Henry VIII, was being staged then. Theatrical cannons, which were set up as a surprise for the audience, exploded during the play. While the cannon ball was meant to harmlessly fly over the stage, nobody gave much attention to the smoke and fire it had ignited at the top of the theatre. The cannons misfired and set the entire theatre on fire. The wooden beams and thatch of the theatre caught fire immediately. Suddenly, people started running out of the building, leaving behind their cloaks. One or two people sustained minor injuries. Although no one was reported to have lost life, the conflagration marked the end of the leading theatre of England. The fire was so fierce that it consumed a house next to the theatre too.



            However, the theatre was rebuilt the very next year. It went on to perform for some more decades until it was closed down, along with many others, in 1642 by the Puritans. Puritans were the English Protestants who were rigorous practitioners of their faith and believed all kinds of celebrations and revelries were immoral. In 1644 or 1655, the theatre was pulled down and dismantled.



            Centuries later, the theatre was reconstructed in 1997. Today, it is known as Shakespeare’s Globe. The theatre performs plays regularly even today.



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How did the Globe Theatre look like?


            Since there are hardly any documents from the 16th century suggesting the dimension of the theatre, it is difficult to say conclusively what exactly the theatre looked like. However, over the last couple of centuries, there has been extensive research on the shape and size of the theatre and we know something about it today. The Globe was an open-air amphitheatre around 30 metres in diameter in a polygon shape with twenty sides. Around 3,000 spectators could be accommodated in the theatre.



            The theatre had three storeys. Much like our modern movie theatres, the ticket charges differed according to where one preferred to sit. The commoners who could not afford to pay more than a penny had to stand on the ground at the base of the stage. This area was known as the ‘pit’. The people who paid a penny to watch the play were known as ‘groundlings’. Groundling, in fact, is the name of a kind of a small fish with a gaping mouth. All that the actor at the centre of the stage looking down to the ‘pit’ could see was the ocean of faces of men that looked like a swarm of open-mouthed groundlings!



            The theatre had a backstage area or tiring-house, which contained the dressing rooms, the prop room, the musician’s gallery and connecting passage-ways. There were an inner stage, a central balcony stage and a central music gallery within it. The shape and structure of the theatre determined some of the important features of Shakespeare’s plays too.



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Where Shakespeare’s were plays staged?


           The Lord Chamberlain’s Company was the leading drama company in London during the final years of the 16th century. The company was founded during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1594. As was the custom then, any enterprise of great magnitude such as a theatre needed a powerful patron and this company’s patron was Henry Carey, the Lord Chamberlain of Royal Court. Lord Chamberlain is the most senior member of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. Henry Carey was in charge of the court entertainment then. The company changed its name a couple of times; first to the Lord Hunsdon’s Men when Henry Carey succeeded him and then to the king’s Men, when the king James ascended the throne and became the company’ patron.



            In 1599, the company built a theatre called the Globe Theatre. They had already another theatre in place, called ‘the Theatre’. However, due to certain disagreements between the players and the owner of the land on which the theatre stood, the group built the Globe Theatre, on the bank of the Thames River. The Globe Theatre, in fact, was built with the wooden planks of old theatre. It was bigger and better than the one it replaced.



            There is a general disagreement over the inaugural play in the Globe Theatre. Some say it was Shakespeare’s Henry V; some others, Julius Caesar or Ben Jonson’s Every Man out of His Humour. The theatre was destroyed in a fire in 1613 and was rebuilt in the next year.



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Who was Shakespeare’s other contemporary?


            Imagine if Shakespeare did not exist! Then, the age would be known probably by another great dramatist’s name, that of Ben Jonson.



            Jonson was one of the most respected writers of Shakespeare’s time. He was Shakespeare’s closest friend too. In fact, Shakespeare was the god-father of Jonson’s son. They both used to frequent each other’s homes.



            Ben Jonson was eight years younger than Shakespeare. Although we do not conclusively know how both came to meet each other, Jonson is thought to have submitted a play to Shakespeare’s company for performance. Shakespeare even acted in Jonson’s play, ‘Every Man in his Humour’.



             Like Shakespeare, Jonson too did not have university education. Although Ben Jonson was considered a fine person, he was reported to have killed a fellow actor in a duel in 1598. His major plays include Every Man in His Humour, Eastward Ho, The Alchemist and Bartholomew Fair.



            Another of Shakespeare’s contemporaries is John Webster. He wrote only a few plays, of which ‘The White Devil’ and ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ are considered classics.



            Francis Bacon Edmund Spencer, Sir Philip Sidney, Thomas Campion, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley and Thomas Dekker are some other writers of the era.



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Who were the university wits?


            During Shakespeare’s time, there were many other popular writers in London. Drama being the most sought-after form of entertainment of the period, many of these writers was playwrights whose plays were regularly performed on stage, while others were pamphleteers.



            Writing pamphlets expressing a social or political argument was a popular literary form in England from the mid-16th century onwards. Unlike Shakespeare, these writers were educated in universities.



            Do you know the story of Doctor Faustus, a man who sold his soul to the devil for all the knowledge in the world? This popular play was written by Christopher Marlowe, a University Wit.



            Other prominent University Wits were Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, John Lyly, Thomas Lodge and George Peele. All these writers were educated in either Oxford or Cambridge Universities. They are credited with introducing to the English audience many heroic themes in a heroic style. While many of the University Wits wrote and performed some academically interesting plays, the humble playwrights who had no scholarly background such as Shakespeare could relate better with people through their more dramatic, stirring and emotional plots. In fact, the strength of Shakespeare and the group of playwrights he represented was that they barely had any theoretical knowledge, taught in universities. Their plays were rich in emotionally appealing events. Characters expressed their happiness, sorrows and anguish in lengthy speeches, which whetted people’s appetite. And that was the secret of Shakespeare’s popular.



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When did Shakespeare start acting in, and writing plays?


            Shakespeare reappears in London scene around the late 1580s, and the early 1590s. His name is mentioned in 1592 as part of a theatre production in London. This means that Shakespeare had started his career as a dramatist around the latter half of the 1580s. By this time he is no longer the turbulent youth of old. He is changed and is more mature. Shakespeare may have written and directed some of his earliest plays then.



         In addition, he was important enough to be attacked and criticized by some known writers then! Robert Greene, a popular writer of Shakespeare’s time, called him, ‘an upstart crow’, meaning someone who had a sudden and unexpected rise in social class by means of dishonest deeds. Greene went on to add that Shakespeare was unsuccessfully trying to match the writings of the renowned playwrights of his times, known as University Wits.’ These writers were university educated in classic literature and had the requisite knowledge of ‘how to write.’ However, by a strange twist of fate, some of these writers including Robert Greene went into oblivion while Shakespeare out of the greatest writers the world has ever seen! Robert Greene is known today as merely a detractor of Shakespeare and denigrator of his character.



           By 1594, Shakespeare had cemented his place in the theatre industry of London as his plays were enacted before large audiences. He was also known as a talented actor. After 1594, a drama company known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men hired him. The company was owned by a group of actors including Shakespeare. All his later plays were performed by this company. Shakespeare’s most renowned plays such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth were all produced by them. Richard Burbage handled the lead roles in all these plays and Shakespeare played some secondary roles.



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What did Shakespeare do until his entry into the theatre?


            For about seven years, there is no trace of what Shakespeare did. Records start after the birth of his twins. The last official record of Shakespeare’s presence in his village is the event of their baptism. Then there is no news of him. This period is known as ‘Shakespeare’s Lost Years’. In 1592, Shakespeare reappeared on the scene. We see him as an actor and playwright in London. However, we do not have any idea when he left Stratford-upon-Avon, why he went to London, or what he was doing before becoming a professional actor and dramatist in the capital. There is so much speculation as to what our great writer was up to during these years in oblivion.



            What was Shakespeare doing all those mysterious years? Maybe, Shakespeare was living quietly in his village, helping his family business. Some, however, say that Shakespeare had some troubles with a local landowner in Stratford-upon-Avon called Sir Thomas Lucy. He was caught poaching deer from Sir Thomas’ estate and was facing a disgraceful prosecuted. He may have fled to London in order to escape the punishment.



            Another account says that Shakespeare worked as a schoolmaster in his village. Some others say that he was a clerk of a lawyer. There are also stories that he became a soldier and fought in wars. A probable explanation is that he joined one of the drama companies that visited his village in the late 1580s. He became an actor and learned the art of writing plays. It is highly unlikely that Shakespeare became a playwright without some initiation and training in it. Whatever be the truth, it is quite natural to find gaps in the records of the lives of people who lived in the distant past.



            Unlike the present day, people did not find it essential to keep records intact. Many official documents may have been destroyed due to negligence or passage of time as well.  Inquisitive minds, however, have built a cult around Shakespeare’s missing years because the magnitude and diversity of human lives Shakespeare portrayed in his plays is testimony to his knowledge and experience of different walks of life, variety of professions and kinds of people.



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How many children did Shakespeare have?

            Not much is known about Shakespeare’s youth until his marriage. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. Anne was 8 years older than William who was merely 18 when the wedding took place. Their first child was Susanna. In 1585, Anne gave birth to twins, named Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of eleven. Shakespeare was devastated at the death of his only son. It is said that his greatest tragedy, Hamlet, took shape from his grief over his boy’s death.



            Susanna and Judith, on the other hand, led rather long lives, although the latter had a bitter and unhappy one. Susanna married John Hall, a prosperous Stratford physician. They were wealthy and ran a business. Their child, Elizabeth Hall, was also a known and successful figure.



            Judith Shakespeare, on the other hand, lived a tragic life. She was married to Thomas Quiney. They could not procure a licence from the church for their wedding before Lent; and therefore, were scandalously excommunicated after a month. Quiney was also convicted for other crimes and led a disgraceful life. They had three children, the youngest being named Shakespeare. The young Shakespeare died in his infancy and the other two in their youth.





 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



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What was Shakespeare’s educational qualification?


 



            An ordinary man from an ordinary family, Shakespeare’s childhood was not worthy enough to be carefully recorded. There is scanty information of his schooling. He may have had only a primary education. He learned basic Latin text and grammar, as was the custom then, at King’s New School located at Stratford.



            Shakespeare was no great scholar. He had no degrees from universities. In fact, being the member of a lower-middle class family, Shakespeare could not afford further university education, which was the prerogative of the affluent. Ben Jonson, a great playwright and his contemporary, wrote that Shakespeare had ‘small Latin and less Greek’, meaning the writer probably had no great scholarship. It, however, does not mean that he did not know history and philosophy. His plays and poetry testify that he had deep understanding of the literature of his times.



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What do we know about Shakespeare’s life?


 



            Do you know that Shakespeare’s death is observed on the same day he was born? The great writer died on 23rd April 1616. However, there is still no clarity regarding the date of his birth. Some church documents say that he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptized on 26th April 1564. As was the custom then, children would be baptized on the third day of their birth; and therefore, Shakespeare’s birth is speculated to be on April 23rd. Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, was a glove-maker. He was also an alderman, a member of the municipal council. His mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a wealthy landowning farmer. They had eight children and William was the third and eldest surviving member among the siblings.



            Shakespeare is popularly known as the ‘Bard of Avon’ because he hails from Avon. A bard is a wandering poet, who travels around reciting poems.



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Why William Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest writers ever?


            Probably no writer would have caught the imagination of men and wielded as much influence and impact on writers, scholars and the common folk alike as Shakespeare. There would be hardly anyone who has not had at least some scant acquaintance with his plays or characters that are popular across cultures and have been adapted in various art forms and genres of literature. Shakespeare’s characters such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Shylock, lago or King Lear have in other names, forms and contexts appeared before us. Such is his influence that we would have used at least one expression from his plays or poems by the time we talked in English for a minute or two!



            The great English playwright and poet has produced several works, including about 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and several other poems, that have stood the test of time. His plays have been translated into all major living languages in the world today. They have been performed more times than the plays of any other writer.



            Theatre during Shakespeare’s time was a monotonous and rigid display of art and was sometimes too academic to suit the taste of the common folk. Shakespeare did not faithfully adhere to the classical norms of drama. His attention was on creating interesting characters. His plays were emotionally intense and insightful. People laughed, wept and were enraged at his protagonists, fools and villains.



            To the Elizabethans of the 16th century, Shakespeare opened a world of passionate romance, hot-blooded rivalry, cold-blooded betrayal and obsessive jealousy.



            Shakespeare made huge contributions to the evolution of the English language too. His plays standardized the language and provided it with new words and phrases. It is said that about 1,700 words were first used in English by Shakespeare!




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