Life in Elizabethan England Flashcards
Give three reasons why Elizabeth’s reign may not be considered the Golden Age of the Tudor dynasty.
- Illiterate majoritiy (1 in 10 women and 3 in 10 men could read and/or write) and most children were uneducated
- Women were oppressed, they couldn’t act on stage or go to taverns (unless prostitutes)
- London was cramped and overcrowded, with narrow, winding streets and poor house ventilation
Give Six reasons Elizabeth’s reign could be considered a Golden Age in the Tudor Era.
- Both classes had entertainment: the poor could gamble, wrestle, play football, hunt and do archery.
- The upper classes could hunt and do archery as well as, enjoy tennis, bowls and fencing
- Books (with pictures) became popular even amoung the illiterate, with more academic literature, like translated Latin and Greek texts, for the well-educated
- Fresh meat, tabbacco and other goods were available thanks to prosperous trading
- Oxbridge students were on the rise, with two thirds of the undergraduates coming from lower classes (not nobility ot gentry). And grammar schools were more in demand as a desire to educate children grew amoung all classes.
- Theatre was thriving, along with music, with four theatres in London at the end of Liz’s reign, and the architechture was developing, with stone and brick replacing wattle and daub.
What does a Golden Age mean?
A Golden Age was the best time to live in a period of history (designated by historians).
What was the renaissance?
An artistic movement in the 14th and 15th century, encouraging the pursuit of knowlendge and inspired by antiquity.
What was ‘Elizabeth’s men’ and when were they set up?
Elizabeth’s men were set up in 1583 and were a theatre company under her patronage. Before this time, acting wasn’t seen as a profession.
What was the first purpose built theatre in England and when was is opened?
Red Lion in 1567 was the first purpose built theatre in England. Lots more purpose built theatres cropped up in England funded by noblemens, who became patrons of groups of actors.
How had the purpose of theatre changed for medievil to Elizabethan times?
In the medieval times, plays were usually didactic, Christian morality stories or biblical stories. In Elizabethan times, playwrights like Shakespeare used their works to reflect modern history and to entertain audiences with comedies, tragedies and histories set all over the world.
What were the Heavens?
The heavens were the roof of the stage and held ropes for the rigging systems used for scene changes and dramatic enterances.
What was the Lord’s Room in theatre?
The most expensive seats in the building (5p) and found behind the stage. Everyone could see you, and your wealth.
What was the ‘tiring room’ in the theatre?
The dressing room for actors.
The gentlemen’s room in the theatre?
Found on the left and right of the galleries, seats covered by roof and cost about 4p.
What were ‘groundlings’?
Groundlings were ordinairy people who stood in the pit and usually heckled the performane, throwing food on stage and were exposed to all waethers, bot being covered by a roof.
What were the ‘galleries’ in Elizabethan theatre?
Seated areas covered by roof, for richer members of the audience. The higher the seats, the more wealth and status it showed you possessed.
Which two groups of Elizabethan soviety opposed the theatre and who particularly loved it?
- Puritans
They believed the theatre to be the work of the devil, spreading rude ideas, and encouraged immoral behaviour. They also associated it with the Romans, who persecuted Christians. - Authorities
Thought it allowed some members of sociery to get away with idleness
A law passed in 1572 stated that: ‘all common players, who wander about and have not a licence shall be taken, judged and deemed rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggars’
Liz loved the theatre and had her own private performances and her own theatre company ‘Elizabeth’s men’
What 5 tudor past times were ejoyed by all levels of soceity?
Archery
Fishing
Feast days, with public dancing and drinking
Bear baiting (and the gambling that accompanied it)
Theatre
What were 6 past times enjoyed by tudor upper classes?
Music and hiring musicians
Tennis
Fencing
Hunting
Reading
Smoking
3 tudor entertainments for lower classes
Inns and taverns
Wrestling
Shin hacking (taking it in turns to kick each other in the shins until one of you cries)
5 reasons for poverty in Elizabethan England?
- Unemployment in industry
- Population increase
- Rack renting
- Enclosures
- Closing monasteries
How did ‘unemployment in industry’ cause poverty?
Cloth trade collapsed in 1550s but export to Netherlands had been important for economy.
Its collapse left many without a job.
How did ‘population increase’ cause poverty in Elizabethan England?
Population increased from 2.8 mill to 4 mill during Liz’s reign, meaning more people needed resources, a demand that couldn’t be met by England’s limited resources, so left some in desperation.
