The Elizabethan Age

1485 - 1625
Remember!

Anglo Saxon Period 449-1066

Medieval Period 1066-1485

The Elizabethan Age 1485-1625

 An Age of Discovery

 Age of great discoveries and great individuals.

 Queen Elizabeth reigned from 1558 to 1603.
 The period tapered off during the reign of her successor, James I, the first of the Scottish Stuarts
to be King of England.
 The Growth of a Powerful Central Government

 This period started with the rule of Henry VII. He united the nation and gave it peace, wealth and trade
during his twenty-five-year reign.
 His son, Henry VIII, founded an english national church, independent of Rome, when the Pope did not let him
divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn.
 Henry VIII was declared head of the Church of England.
 The power of the state, centralized in one figure, was becoming more evident.
 The Reformation

 Martin Luther in Germany, John Calvin in Switzerland and

John Knox in Scotland were the chief leaders of a general
movement known as the Protestant Reformation.
 Queen Elizabeth I

 She was brilliantly shrewd, stern and also tolerant when needed.
 She knew how to keep power in balance and in her own hands.
 She was a symbol of national glory to the English, particularly
when the threat of Spain disappeared after the defeat of the Armada
in 1588.
 The Tudors succeeded in concentrating power in the kingship,
advancing england’s position with the minimun of expensive
warfare and giving the country its own national church.
The Advance of Science & Geographical
Discoveries

 In Italy Galileo maintained that the earth rotates on its axis and moves around the sun.
 In England, Sir Francis Bacon advocated careful experimenting instead of accepting knowledge merely on
unsupported theory.
 Many sailors discovered different new territories. Some of them were Colombus, who discovered the West
Indies in 1492; John and Sebastian Cabot touched on the American continent in 1497 and in the same year,
Vasco da Gama reached India.
 In part the navigators sailed for the sheer excitement of discovery, in part for glory, in part for trade or booty,
and also to find new regions to colonize.
 All the nations of Europe set out on a race for empire.
Discoveries in the mind

 The great poets of the time were stimulated by a changing

and expanding world.
 This whole period throughout Europe is known as the
Renaissance, meaning rebirth.
 A new culture was being born, which was based on the old
Greek and Roman works: the classics.
 The Great Chain of Being

 People believed that everyone and everything was arranged in a specific

order, and that this order was divinely pre-ordained.
 God was the head of all things; the king, his representative on Earth, was the
head of the State, and the Pope the head of the Church.
 Everything was allocated a place on the great chain including animals, plants
and minerals.
 Any break in the chain, such as killing the king, or a king abdicating, or
marriage across the social spheres, pretty much ensured pre-ordained chaos.
The Classics: What is Humanism?

 The Greeks and the romans held that man is the measure of all things.
 During the middle ages the classics were partially lost to men.
 When the Roman empire fell, Europe was overrun by primitive tribes, and men turned to church for
guidance.
 Religious thought dominated art and philosophy. God was the center of the middle ages and men became
the center for the Renaissance.
 This movement which centered on man is called Humanism, the striving to perfect all human possibilities.
Literature Reflects the search for Perfection

 The Elizabethans were fascinated by ideals – how to be the perfect courtier, gentleman, governor.
 Some of the most important poets of the time were Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare.
 Most Elizabethan poems picture nature and human beings in a romantic and idealized form.
 The Confidence of the Renaissance

 The Englishmen of the Renaissance were in love with human beauty, which they considered as the outward sign of
man’s spirit striving for perfection.
 They wrote about perfection but they also tried to achieve it in real life.
 The Elizabethans were brave and confident; this is why the Elizabethan period is one of the great ages of English
history.
 The Flowering of Elizabethan Literature

 Many of the great works of English literature were produced during these years. Some of the most important individuals of
this time were William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Edmund Spenser.
 Literature, drama, and learning in general flourished as the confidence and nationalism Elizabeth inspired brought about
cultural achievements.
 Elizabeth was always a major patron of the stage, and drama flourished under her support. She was really interested in art.
 However, the Elizabethan middle classes and the Puritans thought that the theatre was immoral and that it would lead the
population to violence and vice. 
The Common People Turn to Books

 Most of the people read the romances and pamphlets they had bought from the booksellers that surrounded
St. Paul’s cathedral.
 Even before the Tudor period began, William Caxton brought printing to England.
 The big volumes he published began that torrent of printed books which made literature available to every
literate man.
 The Great Age of Drama

 The common people of Elizabeth were also interested in a richer literary entertainment – the theatre. The theatre
flourished due to popular support.
 Originally, the companies of actors were protected by nobles, but much of their financial success came from the
paying public.
 The theatre did not have a good reputation.
 London authorities refused to allow plays within the city, so theatres opened across the Thames in Southwark,
outside the authority of the city administration.
 The first proper theatre as we know it was the Theatre, built in 1576. Before this time plays were performed in the
courtyard of inns, or sometimes, in the houses of noblemen.
 After the Theatre, further open air playhouses opened in the London area, including the Rose (1587), and the Hope
(1613). The most famous playhouse was the Globe (1599) built by the company in which Shakespeare took part.
 What do you know?

 Have you ever watched Shakespeare being performed, either in the theatre or in a film?

 Have you ever read the entire text of a play? If so, was it in English or translated?

 In your opinion, why has Shakespeare become such a cultural icon?

 Do you think Shakespeare’s plays are still relevant in the 21st century?
 William Shakespeare

 He was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, spent his professional life in London and returned to Stratford as a
wealthy man.
 He was an actor, a poet and a playwright.
 There is not much information about his life. He is believed to have been a student at King’s New School in
Stratford, where young men were educated in Latin grammar and Literature.
 His marriage to Anne Hathaway and the births of his daughter and twins are recorded, but where he lived is not
known.
 It is also known that by 1592 he had achieved some prominence in London as both actor and playwright.
 During the time in which theatres closed – as a result of the Bubonic plague– Shakespeare wrote narrative poems
such as Venus and Adonis.
William Shakespeare

 When theatres reopened, Shakespeare apparently began his service as an acting-company shareholder. He
was a leading member of the company of actors called ‘the King’s Men’
 He wrote comedies, tragedies, history plays, poems and sonnets.
 In 1599, Shakespeare’s company built a theatre for themselves across the river from London, the Globe.
 Some of his plays were performed at court, in universities, in churches, guildhalls and in private houses of
great lords.
 Shakespeare died in 1616 as a wealthy men in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Shakespeare & The Globe

 The theatres at that time were open-air playhouses; some were poligonal or circular in shape.
 They held vast audiences of two or thre thousand. Some spectators paid extra to sit or stand in the two or
three levels of roofed galleries.
 In the yard stood the spectators who chose to pay less;for a roof they had only the sky. These are known as
the groundlings.
 The stage was covered by a roof. The ceiling, called ‘the heavens’ is thought to have been elaborately
painted to depict the moon, sun, stars and planets.
 There were no women on stage.
Shakespeare & The Globe