Expert Circle

Topic 2
Elizabeth I: Who was she?
1. Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. She was also known as the virgin queen, gloriana. Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. In 1558 Elizabeth succeeded the Catholic Mary I, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.

What were England's international relations like during Elizabeth's reign?
2. As

What was Shakespeare's relationship with Elizabeth I?
3. Queen Elizabeth I liked when plays were acted out for her. She was very fond of Shakespeare’s plays. In some of his play, Shakespeare cleverly hinted passages referring to the Queen and other events that affiliated during both of their life time. Queen Elizabeth I was a great supporter of the arts, mainly she supported plays and masques.

Compare Elizabeth I to Portia from The Merchant of Venice. How is Portia's character a tribute to Elizabeth I?
4.

Topic 3
Diet
Did Elizabethan food and drink constitute a good balanced diet? No! And especially not for the rich! The rich ate few fresh vegetables and little fresh fruit - unprepared food of this variety was viewed with some suspicion! Fruit was usually served in pies or was preserved in honey. Vegetables and fresh fruit were eaten by the poor - vegetables would have been included in some form of stew, soup or pottage. Food items which came from the ground were only are considered fit for the poor. Only vegetables such as rape, onions, garlic and leeks graced a Noble's table. Dairy products were also deemed as inferior foods and therefore only to be eaten by the poor.
Hygiene
The Poor

The greatest majority of families were poor. Hygiene, at this level, was not important enough to be practiced. Most people took only one to three baths a year. Oral hygiene was not considered.


Middle Class

The yeomanry and the gentry were more concerned with hygiene, bathing as often as once a month. Daily washing of the face, neck and wrists was common. Teeth were cleaned by rinsing with vinegar and water, then wiping each tooth with a cloth. Toothpicks were also widely used.


The Wealthy

The wealthy bathed every other week, and often enjoyed expensive soap. Beards were also washed with soap, and kept trimmed and neat. Ironically, many oral hygiene concoctions were sweetened with honey, causing rapid tooth decay.


Recreation
Fairs
The Annual Summer Fair and other seasonal fairs such as May Day were often bawdy affairs.
Plays
Started as plays enacted in town squares followed by the actors using the courtyards of taverns or inns (referred to as Inn-yards) followed by the first theatres (great open air amphitheatres built in the same style as the Roman Coliseum) and then the introduction of indoor theatres called Playhouses.
Miracle Plays
Re-enactments of stories from the Bible. These are derived from the ancient Briton custom of Mystery Plays, in which stories and fables were enacted to teach lessons or educate about life in general. Miracle plays included stories from all ecclesiastic literature, from the Bible to the everyday psaltery or prayerbook.
Festivals
Celebrating Church festivals
Jousts / Tournaments
A series of tilted matches between two or more warriors, by the Elizabethan time period these were more of a show or display of arms than to settle disputes such as we hear of in stories. Unlike our romantic notions of only knights participating in a joust, they were in fact a favorite of many, such as King Henry VIII, who often in his youth showed off his equestrian skills with a lance and a tilt.
Games and Sports
Sports and games which included archery, bowling, cards, dice, hammer-throwing, quarter-staff contests, troco, quoits, skittles, wrestling and mob football.
Card Games
Cards appeared in Spain and Italy about 1370, but they probably came from Egypt. They began to spread throughout Europe and came into England around 1460. By the time of Elizabeth’s reign, gambling was a common sport. Cards were not played only by the upper class. Many of the lower classes had access to playing cards. The card suits tended to change over time.
Accommodation
The most common manor plan for Elizabethan times housing was an E shape, with the vertical line of the E being the main hall, and the shorter horizontal end lines the kitchens and living rooms. The shorter central line was the entry porch. On the upper floor of the main hall there was a long gallery, used for entertaining as a family area, for exercise on dull days, and as a portrait gallery, the long gallery was an almost universal feature of Elizabethan manors. It featured windows on three sides and fireplaces along the fourth, and it usually ran the entire length of the floor.

Why is William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon not considered a likely candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare's works?
- The lack of documentary proof for Shakespeare's education or literacy is often noted in the arguments for alternative candidates
- In his surviving signatures William Shakespeare did not spell his name as it appears on most Shakespeare title pages. His surname was spelled inconsistently in both literary and non-literary documents, with the most variation observed in those that were written by hand. This is taken as evidence that he was not the same person who wrote the works, and that the name was used as a pseudonym for the true author.
- When Shakespeare died, the language of the will is mundane and unpoetic and makes no mention of personal papers, books, poems, or the 18 plays that remained unpublished at the time of his death.


Who are the possible candidates?
- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
- Francis Bacon, Philosopher and Writer
- Christopher Marlowe, Playwright

Topic 4

Venice was well developed in its culture, adapting to new trends quickly, as well as improving its structure making it very attractive, its culture was simple and many people were merchants.

Venice was important in that it had a huge market and was one of the ruling economies, Venice also had many items which were worth quite some money at the time.

Venice is an appropriate setting for the Merchant of Venice as it easily explains the reasons why Antonio went there, as well as portraying the culture of Venice and how Antonio adapts to it, such as the racism and Prejudice against jews.

Topic 6
In what sort of building were Shakespeare’s plays performed?
Shakespeare’s plays were mostly performed in the Globe Theatre which was some sort of a medieval building. The outer view of the building has a much simpler design while the inside holds a much more intricate design which brings out a mystical atmosphere. The Globe Theatre had no roof, allowing sunlight to enter the building during the day. The building had no lighting equipment thus plays were mostly scheduled in the afternoon where there is light.

How did the physical constraints of the theatre affect the language of Shakespeare’s plays?
The theater that Cuthbert Burbage built for the Chamberlain’s Men had a total capacity of between 2,000 and 3,000 spectators. Because there was no lighting, all performances at the Globe were conducted, weather permitting, during the day (probably most often in the mid-afternoon span between 2 P.M. and 5 P.M.). Because most of the Globe and all of its stage was open air, acoustics were poor and the actors were compelled by circumstances to shout their lines, stress their enunciation, and engage in exaggerated theatrical gestures.

What sort of people acted in plays?
Shakespeare’s fellow members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men acted in his plays. Among these actors were Richard Burbage (who played the title role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare’s plays, including Hamlet, Othello, Richard III and King Lear), Richard Cowley (who played Verges in Much Ado About Nothing), William Kempe, (who played Peter in Romeo and Juliet and, possibly, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Henry Condell and John Heminges, are most famous now for collecting and editing the plays of Shakespeare’s First Folio.

What sort of people went to see them?
People from all classes went to see Shakespeare’s plays in Shakespeare’s time. Anyone who could afford the minimum price of one penny could go and stand in the yard in front of the stage. They were known as ‘groundlings’ or ‘penny stinkers’; they stood all through the play. Those who could afford two pennies could sit on the covered benches; there were three tiers of covered seating around the edge of the yard. Rich people could sit above, or above and just to the side of the stage in the ‘Lords’ rooms’.

How was “The Theatre” viewed by Elizabethan society?
The Mayor and Corporation of London banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, and in 1575 they formally expelled all players from the city1 This prompted the construction of playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the liberties of Halliwell/Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink, and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George’s Fields in rural Surrey

Compare the modern-day Globe Theatre in London with the theatres that Shakespeare worked in.

In the past, Shakespeare worked in places like the theatre….

The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road, part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It was the second permanent theatre ever built in England, after the Red Lion, and the first successful one. Built by actor-manager James Burbage, near the family home in Holywell Street, The Theatre is considered the first theatre built in London for the sole purpose of theatrical productions. The Theatre’s history includes a number of important acting troupes including the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.The design of The Theatre was possibly adapted from the inn-yards that had served as playing spaces for actors and/or bear baiting pits. The building was a polygonal wooden building with three galleries that surrounded an open yard.



However, the modern Globe theatre is different in…

Shakespeare’s Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse in the London Borough of Southwark, located on the south bank of the River Thames, but destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt 1614 then demolished in 1644. The modern reconstruction, of the 1614 building, was founded by the actor and director Sam Wanamaker and built approximately 230 metres (750 ft) from the site of the original theatre. The theatre was opened to the public in 1997, with a production of Henry V. The site also includes a reconstruction of the Blackfriars Theatre.