Popular entertainment

Question 1

Cruel sports

Answer 1

Mostly involved animals where they would get injured or die
Most of the time they would fight and audience would bet on the animals

Question 2

Who enjoyed cruel sports?

Answer 2

All classes

Question 3

Examples of cruel sports

Answer 3

Bear baiting
Bull baiting
Cock fighting

Question 4

Bear baiting

Answer 4

Where a bear would be chained to a stake
And dogs released to attack it
Bets placed on which dog would last longest

Question 5

Bull baiting

Answer 5

Chaining a bull at the horns and releasing bulldogs to provoke it

Question 6

Cockfighting

Answer 6

Around 2-20 roosters put in a pit
With razors attached to their feet
Bets placed on the last standing

Question 7

What was Elizabeth’s attitudes to cruel sports?

Answer 7

She loved them and would watch during royal progresses
She overruled an appeal to band bear baiting on Sunday

Question 8

Examples of entertainment enjoyed by rich

Answer 8

Hunting
Hawking
Certain ball games
Forms of dance

Question 9

Hunting

Answer 9

Included deer hunting by Nobles who would own a deer park
Popular because it was a sport and also provided food
Therefore nobles would go on great hunt picnics hunting rabbits and deer

Question 10

Hawking

Answer 10

Training a falcon or hawk to fly on and off your arm and kill selected prey

Question 11

Dance enjoyed by the rich

Answer 11

Would involve employed musicians to play foreign dance tunes

Question 12

How did Elizabeth enjoy dance?

Answer 12

She practised a controversial dance called the Volta where the woman would leap into the air
With Robert Dudley

Question 13

What ball games did the rich enjoy?

Answer 13

Tennis, both with rackets or with bare hands

Question 14

What entertainment did the lower classes enjoy?

Answer 14

Hawking with sparrows
Archery
Dancing
Singing
Bowles
Football

Question 15

Archery

Answer 15

All men expected to practise it after Sunday church

Question 16

How did the lower classes enjoy dance?

Answer 16

Traditional country dances

Question 17

How did lower classes enjoy music?

Answer 17

Learning an instrument like a recorder, lute, viola

Question 18

Elizabethan football

Answer 18

Getting the ball to the other side by whatever means necessary, usually a mile away
No limit to number of players, no rules nor specified pitch

Question 19

Popular Elizabethan playwrights

Answer 19

Christopher Marlowe
Shakespeare
Thomas Kyd
Thomas Dekker

Question 20

What were strolling players?

Answer 20

Wandering musicians who toured the country playing music, acting and staying in inns

Question 21

What were attitudes to strolling players by the government?

Answer 21

Because they made plays on rebellious stories like Robin Hood it might encourage others to
Also the large crowds would spread disease

Question 22

How did the government respond to strolling players?

Answer 22

A law banning them unless given permission

Question 23

How did the banning of strolling players cause the birth of theatre?

Answer 23

The actors would form theatre companies instead that would tour the countryside
However as they became more popular they decided to build permanent theatres

Question 24

Name of the first theatre in England and who built it

Answer 24

The Theatre built by James Burbage

Question 25

Other famous theatres built after the first

Answer 25

The Curtain
The Rose
The Swan
The Globe

Question 26

What were features of the first theatres?

Answer 26

Round with an open space in the middle for the raised stage
Meant to reflect the ‘Universe’ at the time
Very vibrant and cheerful inside

Question 27

How did early theatres ‘reflect the Universe’

Answer 27

Under the state was hell so demon characters emerged through a trapdoor
Stage was Earth
Canopy above was heaven

Question 28

Richard Burbage

Answer 28

Son of James Burbage who built The Theatre
Tragic actor who stared in Shakespeare’s plays
Joint owner of the Globe

Question 29

Edward Alleyn

Answer 29

Tragic actor who played lead roles in Marlowes plays

Question 30

Will Kempe

Answer 30

Comedic actor who played lead roles in Shakespeare’s comedies

Question 31

Thomas Pope

Answer 31

Member of an early theatre company the chamberlains men
Shakespeares colleague

Question 32

Who went to the theatre?

Answer 32

All classes
Men and women

Question 33

Attitudes to women attending the theatre

Answer 33

Stigma that if they did they were prostitutes so wealthy women would disguise themselves

Question 34

How did Elisabeth enjoy theatre?

Answer 34

Performed in private playhouses, she wouldn’t attend them publicly

Question 35

How did Nobles and gentry enjoy theatre?

Answer 35

Would pay for better seats with cushions and roof protection if it rained

Question 36

How did commoners enjoy theatre?

Answer 36

Would have had the cheapest seats where stood in the pit

Question 37

How did the theatres achieve special effects?

Answer 37

Using smoke, firing cannons or fireworks
Always in the afternoon because no artificial lighting

Question 38

Support for the theatre

Answer 38

Cheap form of entertainment for all classes
Started the development of other creative media
Used as a form of propaganda
Enjoyed by the Queen and other nobles

Question 39

Who was opposed to theatre?

Answer 39

Puritans
Religious leaders
Authorities

Question 40

Why did Puritans oppose the theatre

Answer 40

The plays shows non religious qualities that were sinful
Might encourage others to sin

Question 41

Why were religious leaders opposed to theatre?

Answer 41

Believed it had immoral language and was sinful

Question 42

Why did authorities oppose theatre?

Answer 42

Believed it encouraged people to miss work = idle
A place for thieves to do crime
Could spread disease

Question 43

What caused the development of the theatre?

Answer 43

Support from the Queen and Nobles
Diversity and quality of plays improving meant it developed
Was cheap for all classes