Intro. to Shakespeare and the time he lived in...used before we read Romeo & Juliet

1. Elizabethan Era
1560-1603
and
Shakespeare
1564-1616

2. Queen Elizabeth I
•Considered to be
England’s “Golden Age”
•Ruled for 44 years
•Never married. Huge
deal at the time.
•Nicknamed the “Virgin
Queen”

3. Fashion in the Elizabethan Era
• Men wore their hair short, while women
combed their long hair upwards where it
was fixed with a wire frame that formed a
heart shape.
• Purple clothing was a sign of royalty.
• During the Elizabethan era, men and
women wore very high collars, fashioned
after Spanish couture.

4. Fashion
• Women strove to imitate her curly red hair,
using different recipes for bleaching their
hair. Some of these recipes used strange
elements, including urine!

5. Hygiene
• Baths were not common due
to the amount of work to fill a tub.
• Toilets consisted of Chamber Pots
• Waste disposed in cesspools and dung
heaps…. Sometimes
even just out the
window into
the streets

6. The Plague
• Also known as the Black Death
• Wiped out 2/3 of people
• Symptoms: sores that bleed and turn
black
• Killed in 4-7 days
• Transferred by fleas
• Thought disease was
spread by bad smells

7. Punishments
• Women who gossiped too much were put
put in a brank, paraded around town, and
whipped.
• Amputation
• Torture
• Death

8. Entertainment
• Feasts
• Festivals
• Dancing
• Jousts
• Hunting
• Plays

9. Shakespeare
• Born 1564; Died 1616
• Wrote 37 plays & 154 sonnents
• Married Anne Hathaway
• Three children
• Globe theater

10. His Death
“Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these
stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.”
• Buried in Stratford at
the Holy Trinity
Church

11. The Globe Theater
• Actors were all males
• Sat about 3000 people
• Cheapest “seats” were in front (standing
room only)
• Performances during the
day (open roof!)
• “All the World's a Stage”

12. The Globe Theater

13. The Globe Theater
• Original no longer exists
• Rebuilt 1997
• Can go see plays there now