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Title: Historical Context of Hamlet By William Shakespeare
Description: A level notes for English Literature students studying Hamlet and would like some historical context.
Description: A level notes for English Literature students studying Hamlet and would like some historical context.
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Y13 Introduction to Shakespeare
Individual Researched Report
Report by:
Essential Historical Context: a report on Elizabethan life (1),
Elizabethan theatre (2), and religious influences (3)
...
Daily Elizabethan Life
This differed according to social status and location
...
The day
usually started at dawn, to make the most of the daylight hours
...
Boys and a few girls at ages 5 – 7
attended Petty Schools
...
Noble children were home-schooled by England’s best
scholars
...
To eat, the wealthy classes had lots of meat like beef and pork, as well as
white wheat bread called manchet, and to drink they had wine, ale, beer
because water was impure
...
The life expectancy of an Elizabethan was 42 years
...
She was a popular
monarch, and the English people liked her
...
She inspired the English
people with some great speeches which confirmed her position as a strong
leader of the country
...
New lands were to be claimed increasing the wealth of England
...
2
...
The Elizabethan era saw the birth of
plays that were far more morally complex, vital, and diverse
...
London authorities refused to allow plays within the city,
so theatres opened across the Thames in Southwark, outside the authority
of the city administration
...
Before this, plays were performed in the courtyard of inns, or sometimes,
in the houses of noblemen
...
After The Theatre, open-air playhouses opened in the London area,
including the Rose (1587), and the Hope (1613)
...
Adolescent boy actors played female roles, and the performances were
held in the afternoon because there was no artificial light
...
Sumptuary laws restricted what a person could wear
according to their class, actors were licensed to wear clothing above their
station
...
Religion
Prior to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, England had undergone massive
religious changes
...
This major event occurred in 1531 when the Commons
acknowledged the king as their ‘only and supreme lord and, as far as the
law of Christ allows, even supreme head
...
These events had a
profound effect on Elizabethan Daily Life
...
The following information highlights the swift changes in
religion which were dictated by the Kings and Queens of England
immediately prior to the reign of Queen Elizabeth
...
In 1536, the Church in England had split from Rome over the issue of the
divorce of King Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon, leading to the
formation of a separate religious authority known as Church of England
and a reformed form of Catholicism, known as Anglicanism
...
The convictions and beliefs in these different religions
were so strong that they led to the executions of many adherents to both
Elizabethan religions
...
She
did, however, firmly believe that people should be allowed to practise the
Catholic religion without fear of recrimination so long as it presented no
threat to peace in the realm and her rule over England
...
Elizabethan Protestants believed
that Church Services and the Bible should be in the language of the people
so that the ordinary people could understand them
Title: Historical Context of Hamlet By William Shakespeare
Description: A level notes for English Literature students studying Hamlet and would like some historical context.
Description: A level notes for English Literature students studying Hamlet and would like some historical context.