Elizabethan Age: Its History, Culture,

¶ … Elizabethan Age: Its history, culture, politics, and view of theatrical entertainment

"He was the noblest Roman of them all" (V.5). So much of how and what we think about history, great writing, and the human character is defined by the Elizabethan Age, particularly because of the greatness of Shakespeare and the imprint his works made upon world literature. However, although Shakespeare's concerns may seem universal, it is also important to keep in mind the historical context and culture in which he operated. Because of the political tumult that preceded Elizabeth I's ascent to the throne, Shakespeare and his contemporaries had profoundly different view of democracy and the popular will than most individuals do today, even people who enjoy quoting the Bard.

The enormously popular monarch Elizabeth I lead England during a period of prosperity and economic expansion and relative peace that stood in profound contrast to the crisis of succession that occurred after the death of Henry IIIV. After the brief reign of the Catholic Bloody Mary, the shrewd and pragmatic Protestantism of Elizabeth came as a relief to most of the British public. This time oversaw a tremendous expansion of England's power across the world, exemplified in exploration by Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe and in politics by the defeat of the seemingly invincible Spanish Armada. According to M.J Peters, "The Queen's tastes in fashion set the standard for the aristocracy and the rest of society; her love of music, drama, and poetry fostered an atmosphere in which many of England's greatest writers found encouragement and financial patronage. Under Elizabeth's leadership, England experienced the true cultural reawakening or renaissance of thought, art, and vision which had begun in Italy a century earlier. Elizabeth's court was a magnet which attracted the most talented individuals of the era, and, at the Queen's direction, Oxford and Cambridge universities were reorganized and chartered as centers for learning and scholarly endeavor" (Peters 1996). The newly emerging class of tradesmen began to make a profit and would pave the way for a newly powerful middle class in subsequent centuries.

Although it is set in Rome, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar reflects many of these historical shifts. The star of Rome is rising in the political firmament of the world, but there is a crisis of succession and leadership. At the beginning of the play, the masses are rebuked for their fickle whims. Once they celebrated Pompey, now they celebrate the victorious Caesar who defeated Pompey: "O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, / Knew you not Pompey... / and do you now strew flowers in his [Julius Caesar's] way/That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?" (I.1). Later, the masses will be easily swayed by Mark Anthony's words against the conspirators. Political alliances shift quickly in the play because that is how historical events had unfolded during Shakespeare's day, not just ancient Rome -- England was Catholic, then Protestant under Henry IIIV, Catholic under Mary, and suddenly Mary's hated half-sister Elizabeth was the Protestant queen.

In light of this previous political instability, one of the most significant ideas during the Elizabethan Age was that of the Great Chain of Being, or that every "existing thing in the universe" had its "place" in a divinely but interdependent hierarchy, stretching upward from inanimate objects, like "metals and stones" all the way up to God ("The Great Chain of Being," CUNY Brooklyn, 2009). The fear of "disorder" "had significant political ramifications. The proscription against trying to rise beyond one's place was of course useful to political rulers, for it helped to reinforce their authority. The implication was that civil rebellion caused the chain to be broken, and according to the doctrine of correspondences, this would have dire consequences in other realms," whether the king was good or bad ("The Great Chain of Being," CUNY Brooklyn, 2009). Because rebellion was a sin against God, the whole order of the universe would be thrown in disarray if people rebelled against a sovereign, and this disturbance would be reflected in disturbances in the animal world and the heavens. "The need for strong political rule was in fact very significant, for the Renaissance had brought an end for the most part to feudalism, the medieval form of political organization," and the era oversaw the establishment of effective central governments throughout Europe ("The Great Chain of Being," CUNY Brooklyn, 2009).

The sense that the hierarchical chain is disturbed can clearly be seen in Shakespeare's historical play Julius Caesar. Before Caesar is assassinated, a lioness whelps in the street, Calpurnia has horrifying dreams, the dead are unearthed from their tombs, blood comes from nowhere and sprinkles on the Capital, and ghosts haunt the city. Later, to show the fact that these portents were true, the conspirators will bathe their hands in Caesar's blood. Calpurnia says: "When beggars die, there are no comets seen; / the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes" (II.2). Whether Caesar is a good or a bad leader in the play is virtually irrelevant -- very little is seen of him leading. The evil is that he is assassinated.