History of Shakespearean England Teacher Notes

Why is it important to learn about the author?

• Understanding the author’s context, motivation and/or experiences can help

give clues to the deeper meaning of a text, for example when we look at a
piece of art (Monet) we see just colours, but if we know that during the
1870s colours, and how they were used, represented different things we
would look differently at it (for example, invention of colour tubes, painting
outdoors, painting as experienced, in the moment, academia vs the artist;
political unrest on eve of Franco-Prussian war, etc.). The same can be
applied to reading a text.

Shakespeare

• born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River

• at 18, he married Anne Hathaway and they had three children, Susannah and
twins Judith and Hamnet. His only son, Hamnet, died in childhood

• Shakespeare spent most of his life not in Stratford with his family, but in the
theatre world of London

• he established himself professionally by the early 1590’s finding success not

only as a playwright, but as an actor and shareholder in an acting company

• he wrote

• he is believed to have retired sometime between 1610 and 1613 from the
stage, and returned to Stratford. He died there in 1616

Living Conditions

• Dangerous to bathe in Thames River

 • Sewage thrown onto the streets
• Children didn’t live beyond five, mothers often died in child birth
• Use of leaches was a common form of health care
• Families lived in small spaces, often an entire family slept in one bed
• People had minimal clothing items but ornate (Princess Bride)
• Bear baiting, gambling and public executions were popular forms of
entertainment; and the theatre

1590s England

• Elizabeth I of England was the Protestant monarch – known as the Virgin

Queen, or Good Queen Bess – she had a more moderate government than her
father Henry VIII known for his beheading of his multiple wives (Anne Boleyn
was executed two and a half years after her birth). This era is known as the
Elizabethan era, famous for its flourishing of English drama and the arts, and
establishing a sense of national identity that fostered political stability. She
ruled for 44 years.

• Contemporaries of Shakespeare include Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney,

Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd

• 1592 – outbreak of the plague, also known as the Black Death, kills 17,000

• 1593 – Witches of Warboys – the elderly Alice Samuel is accused of witchcraft

by the 10 year old daughter of a local squire , who had suffered ‘fits’. The
story spread and grew, and the Samuel family was tried for witchcraft. They
were found guilty, and were hung.

• 1594 – beginning of the Nine Year War in Ireland; largest conflict of the
Elizabethan era

• 1597 – Vagabond Act introduces penal transportation of convicted criminals to

England’s colonies
1600s England

• 1603 – Queen Elizabeth I dies, and is succeeded by King James IV of Scotland,

her cousin, thus uniting the crowns of Scotland and England. End of the Tudor
Monarch.

• King James Version of the Bible is commissioned by the king; for the first time,
an English dictionary is organized by alphabetical ordering

• 1606 – Guy Fawkes and his co-plotters in the Gunpowder Plot are sentenced to
execution for the failed plot to blow up the Parliament buildings (King James
continued to prorogue Parliament); they are hanged, drawed and quartered;
Guy Fawkes day still occurs to this day on Nov 5 with a bonfire effigy and
fireworks to celebrate its demise; V is for Vendetta is influenced by this event;
the word ‘guy’ for man is derived from his name

• Prorogue – bills, motions, etc are expunged unlike when legislative session is
recessed or on holiday breaks. Basically, government is shut down in effect
shutting down democracy

• 1606 – Macbeth is first performed at the Globe Theatre

The Globe

• The lease on the Blackfriars Theatre was up in 1597, but Shakespeare’s

patron Richard Burbage did not have enough money to build the new theatre
by himself. Answered this problem by having shareholders – the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men
• Opened in 1599. Circular playhouse could hold 3000, and earned the
shareholders good money.
• Near river Thames, however not in central London. People had to travel to
Southwark – which had a ‘colourful’ reputation.
• Nonetheless, elements of England’s strict class divisions remained; commoners were in the
courtyard by comparison with England’s gentry and nobility, which were seated in the galleries or
the balconies.
• True to it’s name, above the main entrance was inscribed the words "Totus mundus agit
histrionem" (the whole world is a playhouse), a phrase echoed in As You Like It ("All the world’s a
stage").