Shakespeare and the Elizabethean Age in England. Western Civilization II Marshall High School Mr. Cline Unit Three IA

Transcription

1 Shakespeare and the Elizabethean Age in England Western Civilization II Marshall High School Mr. Cline Unit Three IA

2 Elizabeth Comes to the Throne The Elizabethan Era of English history was a remarkable time now coined England's Golden Age. Queen Elizabeth I, from the illustrious Tudor dynasty, reigned for 45 years. During her reign, it was a time of relative political stability, exploration, and creativity in which art flourished. Coming to the throne in 1558 after the violent reign of her Catholic half-sister, Mary I - known infamously as Bloody Mary - Elizabeth worked to heal her land of the violent clashes between Catholics and Protestants. Though Elizabeth honored many of the Protestant reforms set up by her father, King Henry VIII, she also made significant concessions to the Catholics of her realm. In 1559, the Elizabethan Religious Settlement was enacted. In this legislation, Elizabeth was declared the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. This act also allowed for both Protestant and Catholic interpretations of church tradition.

3 Elizabeth Comes to the Throne Due to her desire to unite her subjects under one throne, her reign is marked as a time of peace. During this peace, she encouraged self-sufficiency in England through the growth of agriculture and trade. This newfound wealth ushered in England's Golden Age. The Economy of the Golden Age At the time of Elizabeth's ascension, the feudal system, or the system of wealth based on land ownership, had greatly declined. Seeing these changes, Elizabeth very smartly encouraged the new, growing middle class to continue to engage in agriculture; however, it moved from peasants farming lands for wealthy nobles to independent citizens working for wage. England's wool trade also began to boom during Elizabeth's Golden Age.

4 The Economy of the Golden Age At the time of Elizabeth's ascension, the feudal system, or the system of wealth based on land ownership, had greatly declined. Seeing these changes, Elizabeth very smartly encouraged the new, growing middle class to continue to engage in agriculture; however, it moved from peasants farming lands for wealthy nobles to independent citizens working for wage. England's wool trade also began to boom during Elizabeth's Golden Age. With the increase of wool, the face of farming changed, bringing about the process of land enclosure, in which the traditional open field system ended in favor of creating larger closed areas of land that required fewer workers. Although these new ranches of sorts were extremely profitable, the fact that they required less labor induced many workers to leave their villages for the employment found in towns. Thus, towns and cities burgeoned under Elizabeth's rule.

5 The Arts Flourish These new towns and their new money were a perfect recipe for art to flourish. Just like in Italy, as money flowed, people looked for ways to spend it. While Italy turned to painters and sculptors, Elizabethan England turned to the theatre and, boy, did they love it! Elizabethan inn-yards were one of the first venues for English theatre. These inns, which provided lodging and entertainment, attracted traveling actors and troubadours, or poets who wrote verse to music. Soon crafty entrepreneurs realized there was money to be made by producing plays and then teaming with inn owners to charge for the performances. One of the first Englishmen to jump on this profitable performing bandwagon was James Burbage.

6 The Arts Flourish History gives him credit for being among the first producers of Elizabethan commercial theatre. These inn-yards, being very profitable, soon grew into full-blown theatre houses. Among the most famous is the Globe Theatre of London. This theatre, built to mimic the Roman amphitheaters, was home to the original works of London's most famous playwrights. Speaking of playwrights, not only did the Golden Age of England produce lots of wool, it produced some of the most revered playwrights of all time. There was Christopher Marlowe, made famous by his Jew of Malta. To him we can add Thomas Kyd, known for his Spanish Tragedy.

7 The Arts Flourish Of course, there's William Shakespeare, whose name has become synonymous with the word 'playwright.' To England's Golden Age and to high schools across the globe, he gave works like Hamlet, King Henry V, and the tragic Romeo and Juliet. Although the arts had been enjoyed throughout history, Elizabeth's Golden Age opened them up to every class of society. The upper-class nobility, the middle-class merchant, and the commoner all enjoyed this entertainment of the day. Just like today, the better the seat, the higher the price, but admission was available to all. Scientific Study and Exploration Along with a thriving economy and the flourishing arts, England's Golden Age opened an entire new world to the English realm through scientific study.

8 Scientific Study and Exploration Along with a thriving economy and the flourishing arts, England's Golden Age opened an entire new world to the English realm through scientific study. Men like Sir Francis Bacon, who structured the idea of a defined scientific method, worked in England's Golden Age. To Bacon, we can also add Dr. John Dee, a famous alchemist, or in today's terms, chemist, who studied under Elizabeth's rule. As scientific exploration boomed, so did overseas exploration. Up until this time, Spain and Portugal had dominated the New World's seas, but Elizabeth's Golden Age saw the emergence of English explorers onto the scene. There was Sir Francis Drake, the first European to pass from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast of South America. He also sailed around the world in his ship, the Golden Hind.

9 Scientific Study and Exploration We also have Henry Hudson, who discovered the Hudson River of New York, or Sebastian Cabot, the Italian-born explorer who sailed for England and searched for the illusive Northwest Passage across North America. The list would not be complete without adding Sir Walter Raleigh. History tells us this guy was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. It also tells us he was very handsome and very debonair. (He's the guy who allegedly stopped the queen mid-step in order to place his coat over a mud puddle she was about to step into.) When not flirting with the queen, Sir Walter Raleigh also did some exploring. He established the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island.

10 Scientific Study and Exploration The Virgin Queen On an interesting side note, the state of Virginia is named after Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. This brings us to our last topic, the fact that Elizabeth ruled over England as an unmarried, female monarch, earning her the nickname 'the Virgin Queen.' This alone is a huge difference between Elizabethan England and most other times throughout all of history. Not only was Elizabeth a single, female monarch, she was a survivor. First of all, we need to remember much of England felt she was an illegitimate heir, since her mother Anne Boleyn's marriage to Henry VIII was never accepted by the Catholic Church. It also didn't help matters when Boleyn was later executed for treason.

11 The Virgin Queen Add to this that Elizabeth's half-sister, Bloody Mary, accused her of plotting a Protestant rebellion and had her imprisoned in the Tower of London, and you can see what backbone Elizabeth had. In 1588, Elizabeth would prove her backbone was as strong as any man's with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, an attack by well over 100 Spanish ships toward the English coast. Not only would this famous encounter prove Elizabeth could hold her own, it would establish England as preeminent over the seas.

12 * The National Historian, Poet and Troubador of English Civilization What We Know About William Shakespeare Considering how famous and well-regarded William Shakespeare's work is today, it's kind of surprising that we really don't know a whole lot about his life. Some people even challenge the fact that Shakespeare actually wrote the plays he was credited with - that's how mysterious he is. Some people don't even believe he wrote his plays! It's ironic that he is such an incredibly influential figure and, with regard to his personal life, a blank slate. We just don't know much about him, but that doesn't mean that this will be a short lesson. Sorry! Let's go over the biographical details that we do have. We'll also talk about his most famous plays and poems, as well as their lasting influence. So, when I say we don't know that much about William Shakespeare, we really don't. We don't even know his birthday because birth certificates - short or long-form - didn't exist back then.

13 * The National Historian, Poet and Troubador of English Civilization What We Know About William Shakespeare People born into noble families might have had their birthday recorded for posterity, similar to how these days you can find Brad Pitt's birthday by Googling it, but you probably can't find your next-door neighbor's birth date. Shakespeare, though, was born into a family of commoners. We do know that he was baptized. There are some public records of that. So, he must have been born somewhere near his baptism date of April 26, His father was a glover from Snitterfield, which sounds like a Harry Potter name, but apparently was a real place. The Shakespeare family wasn't badly off, but they were still commoners. We don't really know where Shakespeare went to school, but he probably did go because he ended up literate.

14 * The National Historian, Poet and Troubador of English Civilization What We Know About William Shakespeare The next solid record we have of the life of William Shakespeare is his marriage, which took place in Shakespeare married at the age of 18, while his wife, Anne Hathaway (no, not that Anne Hathaway, though seriously, what were that Anne Hathaway's parents thinking, naming her that) was actually of the ripe old age of 26. Six months after their wedding, their first daughter, Susanna, was born so I'll let you draw your own conclusions about that. They then had twins in 1585, named Judith and Hamnet (Hamnet, you say? That sounds familiar! - We'll talk about that later). Hamnet sadly died at the age of 11, and there's been a lot of speculation that his death may have influenced Shakespeare's playwriting, including the famous (and similar-sounding) Hamlet. While the name Hamlet technically comes from a different Scandinavian name, scholars still search for a connection.

15 * The National Historian, Poet and Troubador of English Civilization What We Know About William Shakespeare At some point, while still married to Anne, Shakespeare scooted off to London and got involved in the theatre scene - rather like the Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore of today, William and Anne's marriage was a May-December romance that was destined for failure. From various records, we do know that he worked as an actor as well as a playwright. He wrote plays for a company called Lord Chamberlain's Men. Starting in 1599, the company performed at the Globe Theatre, which is south of the Thames in London. If you go to London now, you can watch Shakespeare performances in a rebuilt Globe roughly in the same spot. Why was it rebuilt? Well, it was made entirely of wood, and it burned down in 1613, but the recreation is pretty good.

16 * The National Historian, Poet and Troubador of English Civilization What We Know About William Shakespeare Well, I mean, it looks good to me. I didn't see the original, but it looks great now, and if you go to London, you really should see a Shakespeare play at the Globe. It's pretty incredible. So, the Globe burned down from a fire started by a special effects cannon fired during a performance. So even back then, there was always a desire for snappy special effects, and this one had a pretty serious consequence. Personally, I'd rather see a real, live cannon go off than some lame video projection. That would have been awesome. Shakespeare had a lot of success from his playwriting and grew reasonably wealthy from it, which was a rare feat at the time or now, really, I don't know how many wealthy playwrights you can name.

17 * The National Historian, Poet and Troubador of English Civilization Plays What was it that he wrote that was so awesome and influential and long lasting? Shakespeare is really pretty unavoidable for most people. You've probably had contact with some of his plays; and almost no one escapes high school without having to read Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's famous tragedy of star-crossed lovers in Verona. If you haven't read it, you've probably seen one of the numerous movie adaptations, or maybe even West Side Story, which is based on the plot of Romeo and Juliet. I'm not going to list off all of his plays. If you really want to know the names of all of them, you can go to Wikipedia. But I want to give you a timeline of some of his most significant works. Also, you should bear in mind that scholars are divided on the dating of many of these. They're working off of multiple versions and incomplete records.