WEEK 3 - SHAKESPEARE’S LONDON AND ELIZABETHAN AUDIENCES
QUESTION: What was London like in Elizabethan times and who were the people attending the theatre?
websites used- http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zrnw6sg
The lifestyle of the rich was different if you were lucky to be wealthy you would eat different foods and most likely be much more healthier, the rich played sports that the poor could not, they also wore different clothing.
Most ordinary Elizabethan Londoners lived in apartment buildings that were squashed together. London began to develop suburbs during this time. Some courtiers and other wealthy Londoners built themselves country residences around the edges of London in areas that later became part of what we know as London today.People emptied their chamber pots and rain washed the waste into the river from dung piles, ditches, cesspits and streams.Shakespeare left Stafford in 1587 and went to London.The first record of William Shakespeare in London is of him living in Bishops-gate in 1596.The address is unknown
In 1604 Shakespeare was living in Silver Street, St Pauls, in an upstairs room in the house of the Mount joys, a French Huguenot family.The population of London had risen to 200,000 by 1600 and the city was evolving as the multicultural city that it is today. There was a Jewish community in Bishopsgate and a few thousand black people – servants, musicians, and dancers. There were also many Huguenot and Flemish refugees.In 1613 Shakespeare bought a a house known as The Gatehouse, on the north eastern corner of the large Blackfriars Theatre site.
The Elizabethans had a high regard for family in a community. They believed that families were role models for the community. They were standardised and followed a deep respect for the importance of hierarchy.They had customary rulings for the behaviour of children that were taken from Bible passages. These passages were explanations on the duty of parents in properly raising their children and likewise the responsibility of children to respect and obey their elders.
People from every social rank began to acquire more household properties during the period of Queen Elizabeth. It was noticeable how houses were constantly changing.
For reasons of privacy and comfort, medieval structures using a barn pattern were modernized and added up more chambers or divided rooms. Other town houses in London and big country properties were usually owned by counsellors and courtiers of the Elizabethan time. These became great representations of architectural style during the period.
