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Authors: Ian Mortimer
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died by 1620. In addition you have the poetry of Renaissance men like Thomas Campion, the physician and composer who dies in 1620, and Sir Walter Raleigh, the explorer, courtier and historian, who is executed in 1618. Then there are those poets who, like Shakespeare, also write plays, such as Ben Jonson and a young John Webster, but who are only at the start of their careers; dedicated versifiers like the prodigious Michael Drayton, best known for Poly-Olbion and his historical poems Agincourt and Mortimeriados; and George Chapman, whose translations of Homer win the hearts of many readers. Although John Donne publishes nothing in Elizabeth’s reign, his early amorous compositions date from this time. You also have the earliest female poets, including Emilia Lanier (whom we met in chapter 2 ) and Sir Philip Sidney’s remarkable sister, Mary, countess of Pembroke. Mary rewrites her brother’s Arcadia for publication and presides over a worship of writers at Wilton House. Finally you have dozens of minor poets, such as George Gascoigne, whose Hundredth Sundry Flowres (1573) includes the gem: ‘And if I did, what then?’
And if I did, what then?
Are you aggriev’d therefore?
The sea hath fish for every man,
And what would you have more?
Thus did my mistress once
Amaze my mind with doubt;
And popp’d a question for the nonce
To beat my brains about.
Whereto I thus replied:
Each fisherman can wish
That all the seas at every tide
Were his alone to fish.
And so did I (in vain)
But since it may not be,
Let such fish there as find the gain,
And leave the loss for me.
And with such luck and loss
I will content myself,
Till tides of turning time may toss
Such fishers on the shelf.
And when they stick on sands,
That every man may see,
Then will I laugh and clap my hands,
As they do now at me.
The Theatre
In the modern world we have great admiration for Elizabethan theatre. At the time, however, it is in the throes of a radical revolution. At the start of the reign the majority of productions are miracle plays – reconstructions of scenes from the Bible, performed as both civic and religious rituals. These go out of favour when the privy council decrees that they are too close to Catholicism and should stop. Those at York cease in 1569. In Chester the citizens defy the privy council and continue performing their play about Noah’s Flood well into the 1570s. The Coventry mystery plays are finally suppressed in 1579, so this is the town to visit if you want to catch one later in the reign. The Guary miracle play in Cornwall continues for some years, but is so amateurishthat it can hardly be seen as a threat. It is performed by a prompter going to each actor in turn and whispering his speech to him, line by line. 55
In their stead, people increasingly choose to see secular plays on historical and moral themes. These are performed up and down the country by theatre companies called after lords, for example ‘Lord Sussex’s Men’, ‘Lord Strange’s Men’, ‘the Lord Admiral’s Men’ and ‘Lord Leicester’s Men’. The reason for these names is that, while unattached actors are liable to be arrested for vagrancy, the Act of 1572 specifically excludes players properly authorised by lords from being considered vagabonds. Note that the actors are all men: women do not perform on the stage in Elizabeth’s reign. If there are any female parts, these are played by boys dressed as women. In London, performances take place in the afternoons in the yards of galleried inns, such as the Boar’s Head Inn in Whitechapel High Street, the Bell Inn and the Cross Keys Inn (both on Gracechurch Street), the Belle Savage Inn (Ludgate Hill) and the Bull Inn (Bishopsgate Street). When on tour, the theatre companies are quite small, sometimes comprising just six or seven actors, each taking on a number of roles. They perform for the fee-paying public in provincial inns or privately in the houses of gentlemen. However, as the new theatre proves
And if I did, what then?
Are you aggriev’d therefore?
The sea hath fish for every man,
And what would you have more?
Thus did my mistress once
Amaze my mind with doubt;
And popp’d a question for the nonce
To beat my brains about.
Whereto I thus replied:
Each fisherman can wish
That all the seas at every tide
Were his alone to fish.
And so did I (in vain)
But since it may not be,
Let such fish there as find the gain,
And leave the loss for me.
And with such luck and loss
I will content myself,
Till tides of turning time may toss
Such fishers on the shelf.
And when they stick on sands,
That every man may see,
Then will I laugh and clap my hands,
As they do now at me.
The Theatre
In the modern world we have great admiration for Elizabethan theatre. At the time, however, it is in the throes of a radical revolution. At the start of the reign the majority of productions are miracle plays – reconstructions of scenes from the Bible, performed as both civic and religious rituals. These go out of favour when the privy council decrees that they are too close to Catholicism and should stop. Those at York cease in 1569. In Chester the citizens defy the privy council and continue performing their play about Noah’s Flood well into the 1570s. The Coventry mystery plays are finally suppressed in 1579, so this is the town to visit if you want to catch one later in the reign. The Guary miracle play in Cornwall continues for some years, but is so amateurishthat it can hardly be seen as a threat. It is performed by a prompter going to each actor in turn and whispering his speech to him, line by line. 55
In their stead, people increasingly choose to see secular plays on historical and moral themes. These are performed up and down the country by theatre companies called after lords, for example ‘Lord Sussex’s Men’, ‘Lord Strange’s Men’, ‘the Lord Admiral’s Men’ and ‘Lord Leicester’s Men’. The reason for these names is that, while unattached actors are liable to be arrested for vagrancy, the Act of 1572 specifically excludes players properly authorised by lords from being considered vagabonds. Note that the actors are all men: women do not perform on the stage in Elizabeth’s reign. If there are any female parts, these are played by boys dressed as women. In London, performances take place in the afternoons in the yards of galleried inns, such as the Boar’s Head Inn in Whitechapel High Street, the Bell Inn and the Cross Keys Inn (both on Gracechurch Street), the Belle Savage Inn (Ludgate Hill) and the Bull Inn (Bishopsgate Street). When on tour, the theatre companies are quite small, sometimes comprising just six or seven actors, each taking on a number of roles. They perform for the fee-paying public in provincial inns or privately in the houses of gentlemen. However, as the new theatre proves
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