Elizabethan Age Culture Alchin, L.K.

Elizabethan Age Culture

Alchin, L.K. Elizabethan Era. Updated March 20, 2008. April 4, 2009.

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/index.htm

This site provides extensive historical detail about the Elizabethan Age. It attempts to give the general reader an interesting and vivid introduction to Elizabethan drama, everyday life, weaponry, dress, and food. It even includes recipes. Its emphasis is on broad detail rather than in-depth analysis. However, it is an important source of historical information. It is particularly valuable for providing insight into how ordinary people lived, as well as the contributions of literary and historical figures to the period.

Carr, Raymond. "A short life and a shady one." The Spectator. October 28, 2005. April 5, 2009.

http://www.blnz.com/news/2008/04/23/short_life_shady_8698.html

Christopher Marlowe is one of the Renaissance's most enigmatic figures. His plays inspired Shakespeare's. Yet Marlowe died an early and mysterious death, murdered in a tavern after rising from being a cobbler's son to being a noted dramatist and university graduate. He was an atheist in an era when atheism was a state crime, a spy for hire, and a homosexual (also a crime). Marlowe's dramas feature a fascination with secret power (the Jew of Malta), irreligious acts (Dr. Faustus), and political intrigue (Tamburlaine). The article is a brief but broad introduction to this fascinating figure.

Christmon, Charlene; Mario Hunter; & Raquel Nash "Fashions: Women and Men." Springfield

Schools. April 5, 2009. www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/fashionwm.html

This site offers a student-authored description of clothing of the Elizabethan period. The ornate fashions of the period became vehicles of self-expression. Women wore clothes with full sleeves, tight bodices, and long skirts that concealed their feet. Men wore embroidered vests, short pants falling three to four inches above the knee and leather shoes. Children were largely dressed as miniature adults.

Courtauld, Simon. "Simply indispensable." The Spectator. February 10, 2001: 52. Platinum

Periodicals. ProQuest. April 5, 2009

The humble potato is such a ubiquitous part of English and particularly Irish cuisine it is easy to forget that it is an imported crop, the result of the Elizabethan Age's exploration of the New World. It exemplifies the way that the rapid advances in navigation, travel, and agriculture changed English life forever. The potato became the 'monoculture' crop of Ireland, a nation unsuited to the production of corn. The availability of this hardy crop precipitated the exponential growth of the population when the potato flourished. But reliance upon the potato caused famine when it failed. Potato famines ironically caused many Irish to emigrate -- back to the Americans from whence the crop sprang.

Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. New York:

W.W. Norton, 2005.

How did Shakespeare become 'Shakespeare?' Harvard scholar Stephen Greenblatt suggests that rather than being a genius who sprang from nowhere, particular historical conditions produced Shakespeare's innovative verbal art. Greenblatt examines how Shakespeare was a man of his time. Shakespeare's father may have been a Catholic, resulting in the family's persecution during Protestant-ruled Elizabethan times -- and also his son's fascination with rituals and concealed identities in his plays. Shakespeare was a good businessman, a joint owner of the theater company that produced his plays who strove to protect the intellectual copyright of his works in a time when stealing ideas were rampant in the drama. He exemplifies the expansion of the middle class and commercialism during the era. The book is a kind of inventive biography -- little is known for certain of Shakespeare's life but Greenblatt uses the skeleton of Shakespeare's plays to fill in details of common concerns of many figures of the period.

Long, William J. "The Elizabethan Age: 1550 -- 1620." From Outlines of English and American

Literature. April 4, 2009. http://www.djmcadam.com/elizabethan-age.html

This is an excerpt from a survey book on literature that is well-reputed in the field, although somewhat out of date. It examines the philosophy and history of the Elizabethan age and how it affected the literature of the period. It suggests the patriotic zeal and cultural vigor that resulted from the defeat of the Armada, scientific discoveries, and foreign travel and exploration were the reasons for the substantial literary output of this period's authors. It covers Spencer, Shakespeare, Bacon and other authors and their creative use of language. It also examines how the classical emphasis on the 'unities' and principles of drama (such as a drama must take place in real time, that comedy and tragedy should not be intermixed) were challenged by the plays of Shakespeare and Marlowe's innovative use of language and staging.

Russell, Kara Molway. "Ken Jackson. Separate Theaters: Bethlem Hospital and the Shakespearean Stage." Comparative Drama. FindArticles.com. April 5, 2009.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb060/is_1_40/ai_n29308135/