What was London like in Elizabethan times and who were the people attending the theatre?
London
London was a very big city,
but that wasn’t all. It was growing very rapidly, and this was due to the
migration of people from the countryside and from other countries in Europe.
Between 1550 and 1600, it was estimated that London city grew from around 50,000
residents to over 200,000. Inside the
medieval walls of the city, where there was available space, it was being built
on, and outside, the suburbs grew steadily into the countryside. London was a
very overcrowded city and in 1599, a Swiss visitor said, “one simply cannot walk along the streets for the crowds”. Another
visitor called the crowded streets “dark
and narrow”. The darkness attracted thieves, and the overcrowding easily
brought and spread diseases. The plague
tended to strike most summers, and in 1593, about 10,000 people were killed
along with all the theatres closing. In 1607, John Donne called it “London, plaguey London, full of danger and
vice”.
London was the biggest and
richest city in England, and was the home of the first permanent playhouses too.
London was very dirty, noisy, crowded and it was always teeming with people.
The changes in the agriculture during the Elizabethan period led to people
leaving the countryside, and their village lives, to search for employment and
other working opportunities in towns like London. Every type of Elizabethan
trade could be found in the city of London. The city was a great commercial
centre of England and was home of the famous London Guilds. Housing in London
was mainly apartment buildings all crammed together in odd arrangements. There
were no drainage or sewage, so this meant that whatever someone may have
stepped in whilst walking down the street, is what someone else probably once
ate. Chamber pot faeces were thrown out of windows and onto the people below.
Common London street festivities consisted of getting drunk at alehouses, bear
baiting, gambling dens, and brothels. All of these festivities weren’t even
frowned upon.
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| One of London's Streets |
London Bridge wasn’t the only
way to cross the Thames. People who were in a rush, or had money, could pay to
cross the river by boats called ‘water taxis’. Back then, there used to be
3,000 water taxis available for use along the Thames. Coaches were popular back
then and that is how quite a few people travelled to get around. However, the
only thing was that they were expensive so there was no doubt that only the
wealthy-enough were able to pay for them. A new coach could be bought for £34,
and a second-hand coach could be bought for £8. These prices alone didn’t even
include the pricing for a team or four or six horses and food to provide for
them, so that made sense as to why mainly the wealthy used coaches and could
afford them comfortably. As well as using the horses for pulling the coaches,
they were also used individually as another mode of transport which was most
popular, quickest, and easiest way of travelling.
There were loads of common
crimes in London. These included; begging and unemployment, witchcraft, heresy,
thievery and murder. Anyone who was not employed by a master was considered
illegal in the eyes of the law. Even travelling merchants, tinkers, palm
readers and other self-employed workers could be sentenced to whipping or some
other form of physical torture. A great movement began in Europe in the mid-1600’s
that encouraged witch hunting. Convicted witches could be banished, hanged or
burned. If someone didn’t agree or submit to the beliefs of the Church of
England, they faced severe sentences. King Henry VIII changing the religion of
England was extremely controversial. It bothered many people that England had
broken away from the Catholic Church. However, going against this reformation
was punishable by death. It was illegal to steal another man’s property, and
the killing of another man was a terrible violation of the law. Some of the
torturing punishment for these crimes included; The Pillory, The Iron Boot, The
Scavenger’s Daughter, The Iron Maiden, The Gossip’s Bridle (Brank), The Rack,
The Bastinado, and The Jougs.
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| One of London's Markets |
Audiences
Nearly everyone in the London
society went to the theatre, although they were generally more men than women.
In 1617, someone once described the audience as ‘a gang of porters and carters’. Some other people said that
servants and apprentices spent all of their spare time there. However, the
wealthier people went to the theatres too. In 1607, the Venetian ambassador
bought all the most expensive seats for one of Shakespeare’s plays Pericles.
In open air theatres, the
cheapest price was only 1 penny. This bought you a place amongst the
‘groundlings’ standing in the ‘yard’ around the stage. There used to be 240
pennies in one pound. For another penny, you could have a bench seat in the
lower galleries which surrounded the yard. For a few pennies more, you could
sit quite comfortably on a cushion. The most expensive seats however, would
have been in the ‘Lord’s Rooms’.
Admission into the indoor theatres started at six pence, and in comparison, one
penny was only the price of a loaf of bread. The low cost of the theatre was
one reason as to why the theatres were so popular.
Wealthy trades and
manufacturers – and their workers – lived there. They were the people able to
go to the theatre. By 1600, the number of people that went to theatres in
London was 20,000 per week. London was evidently also home to royalty and much
of the nobility. Rich noblemen became patrons of theatre companies, and gave
financial and legal support. Royalty also supported the theatre and they loved
watching plays. They didn’t go to the public theatres, but companies of actors
were summoned to perform at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I.
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Elizabethan Audience
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From 1603 to 1613,
Shakespeare’s company played at the court of King James about 15 times per
year. The groundlings were very close to the action on the stage and the audience
were also able to buy food and drink whilst the performance is going on. They
could get pippins (apples), oranges, nuts, gingerbread and ale. There were no
toilets, and the floor that they stood on as probably just sand, ash or they
were covered in nutshells. Some people complained saying that the pit smelled
of garlic and beer and no good citizen would go and show their face there.
The behaviour of the audience
in theatres can be in some ways resonant with young people nowadays in
conjunction to specific things. For example, some people only went to the
theatre back then to be seen and admired and even dressed in the best clothes.
But those people were not necessarily well behaved. That is like quite a few of
young people in this modern day and age. We could even go to a corner shop
dressed in pure designer and jewellery in case we see someone that we would
possibly like to ‘impress’. Most of the audience in the Elizabethan era didn’t
sit down and watch the performances in silence like we do today. They used to
clap at the heroes, boo at the villains, and cheer for the special effects.
Sometimes, fights would break out due to thieving within the audience.
In 1612, magistrates banned
music at the end of plays at the Fortune, because they said that the crowds had
caused ‘tumults and outrages’ with their dances. Due to the fact that the
audiences were really large, most plays only had short runs and then were
replaced. Between 1560 and 1640, about 3,000 new plays were written. To attract
the crowds of dramatism, the plays often re-told old famous stories that people
knew from the past, and in order to keep people’s attention, they used
violence, music and humour in the plays to keep them interested. This was vital
as you could tell when an audience member didn’t like a play. For instance, at
the Swan in 1602, the audience damaged the chairs, stools, curtains and the
walls. In 1629, a French company came over to visit and when they performed,
they were hissed and ‘pippin-pelted’ from the stage because they used female
actors to play the female roles, and this is something that the audience were
really outraged about. And so since then, based on the major involvements of
the audiences in the performance of the plays, it was vital that the plays were
a success to prevent these situations from occurring again.
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