Elizabethan Age

1
Elizabethan Age

• 1558-1603

2
London in the E.A.

• Largest city in Europe
• Center of trade and social life because of the
  Thames
• So many migrants, jobs were scarce

3
Negative Aspects of London
4
High Drinking Rate

• Beer was cheap, so people drank a lot of it to
  escape their problems
• Many deaths by drunkenness

5
Sickness and Disease

• 3 Main Diseases
• Bubonic Plague
• Small pox
• Tuberculosis

6
Lack of Personal and Public Hygiene

• Neither rich nor poor bathed very often
• Common to have bad breath, rotting teeth,
  constant stomach disorders, and scabs or sores

7
Pollution

• City ditches were used as toilets
• Butchers threw dead carcasses in the street
• Garbage was thrown in river
• Mass graves for the poor

8
Lack of Medical Knowledge

• Believed in the four humours, the four chief
  fluids of the human body black bile, yellow
  bile, phlegm, blood
• They made no connection between illness and the
  horrible living conditions

9
Some Major Differences Between the Elizabethan
Age and Now
10
Schools

• Were expensive, so most students were upper class
  boys.
• Only girls were from the very high aristocracy
• School Day 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 6
  p.m. Six days a week!

11
Schools (Cont.)

• Taught Latin grammar and classical literature

12
Clothing

• Clothing Acts laws that said who could wear
  what
• People had to dress their social class

13
Women

• No vote, few legal rights, and limited
  educational and job opportunities
• Girls who could afford education were given a
  domestic education instead of an academic
  onespinning, cooking, preserving fruit, weaving,
  and anything that could make the home life more
  pleasant

14
Women (Cont.)

• Married women lost all control of their property,
  even clothing, to their husbands
• When a husband died, the most the woman could
  inherit was 1/3 of his property

15
Death

• Average life expectancy 40 years
• 1/5 of children died before the age of 10too
  many hazards in their life

16
Marriage

• Age of marriage males 28-29
• Females 25-26
• Reasons for the wait
• Wanted smaller families
• Wanted to make sure they were financially ready
  for a family
• Average marriage only lasted about 20 years

17
Superstitions

• Elizabethans were very superstitious many had
  charms and such in their houses
• They relied heavily on astrology and the stars

18
Elizabethan Ghosts

1. Were gruesomeusually looked as they did when
   they died
2. Visible only to person they are haunting
3. Came back for a specific mission proper burial,
   revenge, or a warning

19
Entertainment

• Would be considered brutal by todays standards
• Bear baiting
• Cockfighting
• Public executions

20
Elizabethan Theater
21
The Theater

• First public theater
• Opened in 1576
• Opened by James Burbage
• Provided an alternate form of entertainment
• Established a regular audience
• Gave rise to better props
• Opened the market for actors and playwrights
  (therefore creating much needed jobs)

22
Caused controversy with

1. Religious groups (morally)
2. City officials (danger of mob)
3. Business owners (competition)

23
Acting Group in The Theater

• Lord Chamberlains Men, later The Kings Men
• Shakespeare was a member and became the principal
  playwright

24
External structure of Elizabethan theaters

• Circular
• Open-air
• Awning over gallery seating
• Larger theaters seated approx. 2,000 3,000
  spectators

25
Internal structure of Elizabethan theaters

• Stage protruded out into the audience
• The large dressing area behind the stage was
  called the tiring house

26
Internal structure of Elizabethan theaters

• The wealthy patrons sat on benches in the gallery
• The common people stood around the stage in the
  pit they were called groundlings

27
Internal structure of Elizabethan theaters

• The area above the stage housed machines that
  could lower people onto the stage called
  heaven
• A trap door in the stage allowed actors to come
  up from below called hell

28
Internal structure of Elizabethan theaters
gallery
heaven
Tiring house
The pit groundlings
stage
29
The Globe
30
The Globe

• The theaters were closed in the 1590s because of
  a plague outbreak. In 1598, the ground landlord
  of The Theater wouldnt renew the lease because
  he disapproved of theatrical productions.
• He planned to pull down the Theatre and sell the
  building materials.

31
The Globe

• The Chamberlains Men found a clause in their
  former lease giving them the rights to the
  Theater (the building itself) and the actors
  dismantled the building themselves, transporting
  the materials to the other side of the Thames
  River.
• The new playhouse was called The Globe and became
  the most famous of London theaters!

32
Characteristics of Drama in the Elizabethan Age

1. Sets were not elaborate.
2. Clothing was fancy Elizabethan period dress
3. All male actors
4. Did use some special effectssounds, banners,
   musicians

33
Characteristics of Drama in the Elizabethan Age

• Plays were typically performed in the early
  afternoon (around 2pm)
• Flags were raised at the theater on the day of
  the play
• Flyers were distributed to advertise plays

34
The End