Class and Entertainment in Elizabethan Theater

The Elizabethan Theater Audience

The Elizabethan period in England was dominated by intrigue at court and the remarkable willpower of Elizabeth herself, yet the various strata of English society looked more similar to today than most would guess. Throughout recent history — going back a thousand years or so — society is simplistically divided into three groups: wealthy, merchants and artisans, and the poor. These groups can be further delineated, but for the purposes of this paper that level of distinction is unnecessary. During Elizabethan times, leisure became more common for the two lower classes, and there was more for everybody to do that was meant for pleasure rather than work. Researchers agree that the theater was a major source of entertainment for all social groups, though they do not fully agree on how that participation was structured. This paper examines the different classes of Elizabethan theatergoers and considers how they were influenced both collectively and individually.

London as the Center of Theatrical Life

The theater crowd was greatly restricted in one important way. Theaters were an oddity in small towns and villages; it simply did not pay for troupes to travel to a small hamlet, or even a cluster of them, because they would likely not recoup their travel costs.¹ This meant that the primary place of theatrical activity was London, even though other cities had some smaller venues. London was actually very well supplied with playwrights, actors, and theaters, but these were often situated on the outskirts of the city because they were still considered something of a sinful indulgence at the time.²

One researcher notes that "theaters were generally relegated to the 'liberties' — i.e., to the outskirts of London town, where they kept company with bear gardens, bowling greens, low taverns, and bawdy houses."³ For some reason, leisure was considered both undignified and sinful. Since most people at the time held relatively Puritanical beliefs, they did not want the theater incorporated into central London. The fact that it was on the periphery also meant that people could more easily slip away to see a play without their neighbors knowing.⁴ The geography of Elizabethan playhouses thus reflected the moral ambivalence of the age toward public entertainment.

Wealth, Poverty, and Leisure Time

As noted above, audience members came from all ranks of London society, but the theater was dominated by the upper and lower ten percent in terms of wealth. The rich had more time on their hands than the merchant and artisan class did, and were therefore more likely to visit such entertainments. A typical day for a wealthy man had him rising late — somewhere between 10 AM and noon — and attending to matters of business through the afternoon. This left him, and his companions, ample time to socialize until the early hours of the morning.⁵

This ability to enjoy leisure time was also shared by those on the lowest rungs of the social ladder. Generally unemployed, the poor spent their days seeking the means of survival through begging and scavenging,⁶ but because the working crowds went home at night, they had time to attend the theater. This was made possible by the fact that most theaters catered to all levels of society through differentiated seating sections. The poor were given their own seating in the lower tier, where sightlines were less favorable.⁷ That mattered little, however, because they came in large numbers — the theater offered an escape from the hardships of their daily lives.

Conclusion

Howard, Jean E. The Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Montrose, Louis. The Purpose of Playing: Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of the Elizabethan Theater. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Watson, Robert R. "Coining Words on the Elizabethan and Jacobean Stage." Philological Quarterly 88, no. 1–2 (2009): 49–67.