Shakespear and the Elizabeathans

Elizabeth and the Elizabethans

Queen Elizabeth the First;

The very fact that Elizabeth became Queen at all almost indicates some predestination toward greatness and defiance of normal expectations. The daughter of Henry the Eighth and his second wife, Anne Boleyn (who later was executed for treason), Elizabeth was third in line of succession, following her younger half-brother Edward (son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour) and her older half-sister Mary (daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon). Under normal circumstances, it would be unlikely that she would ever assume the throne.

However, as has often happened throughout history, events did not follow their predicted course. The nine-year old Edward became King Edward VI on the death of Henry VIII in 1547, but he had little opportunity to establish himself as a monarch, dying at the age of 15. He was succeeded by Mary the First (1553-1558) whose relentless efforts to return England to Catholicism brought about a true reign of terror and stifled any possibility of forward movement in the nation. When Mary died suddenly in 1558, Elizabeth I became Queen

The Elizabethans;

The other great literary achievement of the Elizabethan Period was the drama, a form which was rooted in centuries of popular folk entertainment and which had been adapted into the religious plays of the Middle Ages. As the sixteenth century progressed, playwrights increasingly moved their plots from the simplistically religious to the secular, weaving into their dramas such diverse elements as legend and myth, classical dramatic forms, intense exploration of character, and familiar conventions freely adapted from works of their contemporaries. The dramatic form allowed playwrights to simultaneously develop plot, theme, complex characters, and poetic language which, at its best, as in the tragedies of Shakespeare, soared gloriously and memorably, pushing the English language to new heights of imaginative achievement.

In an era in which the lives of varied social classes rarely intersected, the theatre was a true common denominator. Everyone, regardless of social class, enjoyed the spectacle of the Elizabethan theatre, and playwrights found themselves writing for highly diverse audiences which reflected the ever-changing makeup and energy of society. It was not unusual for a crowd to take in a morning of public executions, bear-baiting, street carnivals, and fairs before settling down for an afternoon performance at one of the public theatres in London such as The Globe. The most successful playwrights of the day, such as Shakespeare, made certain that their dramas included "something for everybody," whether it be bawdy jokes and physical sight gags for the peasant "groundlings" who stood at the foot of the stage, scenes of action and intrigue for the middle class spectators, or elevated language and