A Noise Within Study Guide Shakespeare Supplement California’s Home for the Classics California’s Home for the Classics California’s Home for the Classics Table of Contents Dating Shakespeare’s Plays 3 Life in Shakespeare’s England 4 Elizabethan Theatre 8 Working in Elizabethan England 14 This Sceptered Isle 16 One Big Happy Family Tree 20 Sir John Falstaff and Tavern Culture 21 Battle of the Henries 24 Playing Nine Men’s Morris 30 FUNDING FOR A NOISE WITHIN’S EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS IS PROVIDED IN paRT BY: The Ahmanson Foundation, Alliance for the Advancement of Arts Education, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, Employees Community Fund of Boeing California, The Capital Group Companies, Citigroup Foundation, Disney Worldwide Outreach, Doukas Family Foundation, Ellingsen Family Foundation, The Herb Alpert Foundation, The Green Foundation, Kiwanis Club of Glendale, Lockheed Federal Credit Union, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, B.C. McCabe Foundation, Metropolitan Associates, National Endowment for the Arts, The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, The Steinmetz Foundation, Dwight Stuart Youth Foundation, Waterman Foundation, Zeigler Family Foundation. 2 A Noise Within Study Guide Shakespeare Supplement Dating Shakespeare’s Plays Establishing an exact date for the Plays of Shakespeare. She theorized that authorship of Shakespeare’s plays is a very Shakespeare (a “stupid, ignorant, third- difficult task. It is impossible to pin down rate play actor”) could not have written the exact order, because there are no the plays attributed to him. The Victorians records giving details of the first production. were suspicious that a middle-class actor Many of the plays were performed years could ever be England’s greatest poet as before they were first published. they placed great importance on education “…beyond and one’s status in society was largely all date, Scholars have based their suppositions on dependent upon what level of education the following information: one had. Contemporary writers like Henry even to James and Mark Twain were converts to this 1) Historical events and allusions to the theory. eternity.” events in the plays 2) Records of the performances of the plays Sonnet: CXXII So, if not William Shakespeare from by contemporary diarists, such as John Stratford, then who? Delia Bacon suggested Manningham, Thomas Platter and Philip that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s Henslowe plays. Others said that it was probably 3) Entries in the Stationers’ Register Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere 4) Studies of the playwright’s writing style or Thomas Looney. Some said that the over a period of time plays were written by a group of people. 5) Publication dates of sources Some have even said that in her spare 6) Dates that the plays first appear in print time Elizabeth I wrote these masterworks of English literature. He may have not For example, a performance of Hamlet was attended university like Bacon or Marlowe, recorded in 1589. Is it Shakespeare’s play but most likely Shakespeare’s plays and or is it a source? Experts say it must be sonnets were written by one William a source and date Shakespeare’s Hamlet Shakespeare, originally of Stratford-upon- to 1599-1601. The legend of Hamlet first Avon. ❖ appears in the 13th century, written by Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum. The If you are interested in finding out more story was known to Elizabethans in François about these conspiracy theories, check out de Belleforest’s Histoires Tragiques, the following websites: written in 1570. There are mentions of a performance of Hamlet or Ur-Hamlet both in PBS’ Frontline has explored the topic: Philip Henslowe’s 1594 diary and in Thomas www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ Lodge’s 1596 diary. Shakespeare’s Hamlet shakespeare appears in the Stationers’ Register in July of 1602 as having been “lately acted” and was Shakespeare Oxford Society: published in 1603. www.shakespeare-oxford.com The Question of Shakespeare’s Authorship Sir Francis Bacon’s New Advancement of There is a continuing debate about who Learning: www.sirbacon.org wrote Shakespeare’s plays. This question is a relatively modern one, first broached Shakespeare Authorship: by the American writer Delia Bacon in www.shakespeareauthorship.com her 1857 book The Philosophy of the 3 A Noise Within Study Guide Shakespeare Supplement Life in Shakespeare’s England Our perception of life in Tudor and A typical city day would begin at 5am, when Jacobean England has been largely carts filled with goods from neighboring influenced by motion pictures such as villages would enter the city gates. Shakespeare in Love, A Man for All Seasons, The social hierarchy of London was led Elizabeth and others. Hollywood conjures by merchants. London was divided into up a picture of Elizabethan life filled with twenty-six areas, or “wards”, each led stately homes, wealthy courtiers and by an alderman of the city. The aldermen beautiful ladies, but the reality was very were elected officials who held the office different. “This for life. The twenty-six aldermen elected from among them a Lord Mayor and IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH I, the population blessed appointed a “recorder”, or legal advisor, of England was approximately five million to run the city’s affairs. Each alderman plot, this people: 80% of the population lived in was a freeman of the city and belonged to the country and 20% lived in the cities. In earth, this one of the livery companies: the merchant addition to London, Manchester, Leeds, tailors, clothmakers, mercers, grocers, realm, this Birmingham, Sheffield, and Newcastle drapers, fishmongers, goldsmiths, skinners, were centers of manufacturing and trade. England.” haberdashers, salters, ironmongers, York was an established city, having been stationers, vintners, cordwainers, dyers or King Richard II, II, i founded by the Vikings, and was the plasterers. administrative capital of the northern part of England. Livery companies evolved from the medieval guilds and were the real powerhouse of Life in Tudor England was hard for the the city. No one was allowed to buy, sell or average person. Plague and pestilence practice any sort of trade or craft without ravaged the cities and even infiltrated the belonging to one of the livery companies. villages. Poverty and famine were rife. In addition to accepting dues from each member, the livery company also set City Life standards for goods being sold throughout London was an ancient city founded the city. They also helped widows and by the Romans in AD 50 (the city was orphans and those members who had fallen called Londinium in Roman times). It on hard times. They ran schools and alms was protected by the river Thames and houses. Some companies, like the Merchant bordered by its Roman and medieval walls Tailor’s, sponsored promising students and and fortresses. To look at the city today, one provided funds to enable talented young would not think of London, with its inland men the opportunity to set up a business. location, as a major port, but it was one of the busiest ports in Europe. In the time If the north side of the Thames was the of Elizabeth, London had approximately business area, then the south side of the 200,000 inhabitants. river became the Las Vegas of its day. Generally out of the control of the city, The city was filled with great mansions, but gaming houses, entertainment areas for also great squalor. Raw sewage ran down cockfighting and bull and bear baiting, the narrow streets and rat-infested houses brothels and theatres were built on the were packed closely together. These streets south side. became frequently congested, and there was a constant noise and clatter from carts Village Life and traffic. The urban poor who inhabited Village life in Elizabethan England was these areas were largely country dwellers very insular and people rarely desired or who had come to London to seek work, needed to travel beyond the confines of discharged soldiers, vagrants, and misfits. their village. At the center of each town These people supported themselves by was the village green. If you travel through petty crime, begging and casual labor. 4 A Noise Within Study Guide Shakespeare Supplement rural England today, these village greens still remain (flexible twigs woven together and packed with mud) and retain their position as the heart of the town. Each and plastered with mortar and whitewashed. Homes town had a weekly market on the green or market were taxed, not by total square footage, but by the square where goods would be traded and bartered. amount of ground space they occupied. Hence, on The community numbered only a few hundred people, most Elizabethan buildings you will see larger second and everybody knew everybody. The villages were and third stories. Only upper- and middle- class homes largely self-sufficient, and each necessary trade was could afford glass windows. Glass was a very expensive represented. Property and lands were handed down commodity, and making windows was a long process. from generation to generation. First, the glass had to be blown and cut into small pieces while it was still hot, then pieces were joined As in the cities, there was a definite hierarchy among together with lead. society in the villages. At the top was the Lord of the Manor. Very often, villages would be built in the Middle- or lower- class homes had thatched roofs. vicinity of a large estate. Some living in the village were Materials used to make thatched roofs were straw or servants to the household of the lord. Next were the reeds. Bundles of straw measuring 24-27 inches x 3-7 landed gentry — gentlemen who owned land. Yeomen, feet were piled onto the frame of the roof. A good freemen who had roles of responsibility in the town quality straw roof can last for up to 50 years.