Entertainment of the 16th and 17th Century: Elizabethan Theater

Entertainment of the 16th and 17th Century: Elizabethan Theater

Elizabethan Theater was a main source of entertainment from about 1576 to the late 1640s. The most popular description for this time period’s style of acting is exaggerated, actors had to exaggerate their parts for the audience to become attached and interested. There are many different types of plays and arts that influenced the Elizabethan theater’s style. As for its popularity that was mostly due to the Queen who was a big fan, another contributing factor was the noble’s interest in the theater.

Elizabethan theater is also known as Shakespearean theater. Some of the most popular writers of this time were William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Elizabethan theater started with the wandering minstrels who moved from one castle to another entertaining everyone who lived in that castle and city. The actors of this era did not have a good reputation, many thought they were thieves. There were also no female performers allowed, instead they would use a young boy who hasn’t gone through puberty to play the women’s parts. There were usually only five men and one single little boy in each cast, and they had to do everything from making costumes, providing anything for the set and setting up their stage. All of the parts in a play were highly exaggerated. The stage setup was a little bit different than it would be in our day, the higher you sat in the stands the richer you were. The peasants were always found on the ground for the higher ranks to look down on. There were certain times, if someone paid the right amount, that richer people could sit on the stage only to show off their new clothing or something else in that nature. The audience was allowed to yell at the performers at any time during the play. Some members of the audience would even throw things such as food if they didn’t like how something was going in the play. In 1593 the Bubonic Plague struck causing all the theaters to be closed. There was a major outbreak of the plague in the city of London giving the Puritans a reason to ban any actors to enter the city or allow any plays to be performed in the theaters. The Puritans hated the theaters and the people attracted to this kind of entertainment, so the first chance they got to keep them out of “their” city, they took it. The actors were forced to perform outside of the city, if anywhere. After the plague had passed performers were only allowed into cities or castles if they had a license, which was given out by the Queen or other higher ranked people. The lower class people enjoyed going to see the plays when they were in town because they could relate to a lot of the plays in their own way. While the Queen brought in performers mostly for her own joy and entertainment, the other higher ranks realized it was keeping the peasants out of trouble by giving them something to watch and enjoy.

Queen Elizabeth I became a queen of a bankrupt country, torn between many religions in 1558. She knew many changes were to be made, and instead of marrying and leaving all responsibilities to a husband she wanted to make all the changes herself. She was the third queen to rule on her own following Lady Jane Grey and Mary I. She was also the fifth and last monarch ruling from the Tudor dynasty. Ruling for nearly half a century, she was always rewarding her faithful companions and loving everyone she was ruling over. Mary I ruled so cruelly that the Queen set out to rule lovingly and tolerantly. The Queen was highly educated due to her father’s wife after her mother (Katherine). Her step-mother made Elizabeth’s education her top priority. Queen Elizabeth loved anything that had to do with theater, so she was able to make it popular just because of her position in authority. She was able to bring in casts whenever she wanted and could demand any play to be performed even if she wanted a completely new play performed someone would write it and it would be performed for her. The other higher ranks looked down on performers because they thought the performers influenced everyone to not go to church. After a while though, seeing that the Queen enjoyed it so much, they began to enjoy it more. “The Queen always supported the fine arts,” (Elizabethan Drama, Enotes), and wouldn’t allow the government officials to close down the theaters. Even though she never actually attended a play at any theater she still made sure to support every play by allowing them to perform in her home.

The nobles were men of the greatest and wealthiest families in the lands. At first they looked down on the arts because they thought the people of the arts influenced others to not go to church or respect God. Once they saw that it was keeping their peasants and the rest of the people out of trouble they began appreciating the arts a little more. It wasn’t until people began noticing how much the Queen loved the arts that they really began liking it truly. After they began bringing performers in more, then the common people of their land began enjoying the plays more. The common people often thought they could relate to the plays in some way. Whether it is just one character or the whole play, some of them thought these plays were made for them. The nobles were better off known for their “hospitality” and if the Queen saw that one certain noble was doing better than another in this subject she would stay with them when going throughout England. This meant that they had to bring in extra entertainers for the Queen’s pleasure, if they did well in entertaining her she would come back. So if you had to hire performers for the Queen, you will eventually get so used to having these plays performed “you’ll begin liking them yourself” (Tillyard, 58). The influence goes down the line from the Queen, to the nobles, to the commoners. If it wasn’t for the Queen the nobles wouldn’t have enjoy theater, and then the commoners wouldn’t have known anything of it.

One of the main reasons theater was so important during this time was the Queen loved it so much. Another major reason for its importance was it was the main source of entertainment. Everyone loved being able to see plays, yell, and comment on everything that’s going on. The audience was so involved and that made it all the better for all of them. Although the love of theater from the Queen and the nobles were the cause of it being a high demand, everyone enjoyed and looked forward to the plays. If the Queen hadn’t of loved the arts Elizabethan theater would not have been so popular, or successful.