Globe Theatre Groundlings
Interesting information about
the Globe Theatre Groundlings during the life and times of William Shakespeare and the Globe
Theatre of Elizabethan London, England
Globe Theatre Groundlings
The Globe Theatre
Groundlings stood in the Yard, or pit, to watch the plays
being performed. This was the cheapest part of the theatre,
there were no seats and the entrance price was 1d which was
equivalent to about 10% of a days wages. The members of the
audience who stood in the pit were often referred to as
'Groundlings'. However, due to the hot summer days they were
also referred to as 'Stinkards' - for obvious reasons. Many
of the yard audiences were apprentices who worked in London.
The Globe would have particularly attracted these young
people and the were many complaints of apprentices avoiding
work in order to go to the theatre - these apprentices would
most certainly have been 'Groundlings'. The Groundlings
would have watched the plays from the cramped conditions of
the 'Yard' or 'Pit' which held up to 500 people. However,
the average Elizabethans were much smaller than today's
modern man - reducing our perception of the cramped area.
Beneath their feet were the cobblestones covered with
discarded nutshells and other garbage. Not a comfortable
place to watch plays for up to three hours - the groundlings
must have really loved the plays shown at the Globe.
What people said about the Globe Theatre Groundlings
The famous Elizabethan
author Ben Jonson (1572-1637) the poet and playwright clearly disliked
the noisy Groundlings and despised the raucous applause which followed
exciting sword fights
"Or foamy praise that drops from common jaws"
John Marston (1575-1634) satirist and playwright objected to the smell
when coming too close to the groundlings where he would be,
"choked with the stench of
garlic ... pasted to the balmy jacket of a beer- brewer".
Henry Crosse in his Vertues
Commonwealth; or Highway to honour (1603) stated:
"...the commonest haunters are for the most part, the leaudest persons
in the land, apt for pilferie, periurie, forgerie, or any regories, the
very scum, rascallitie, and baggage of the people, thieves cutpurses,
shifters, cousoners; briefly an uncleane generation, and spaune of
vipers...for a play is like a sinke in town; whereunto all the filth
doth runne: or a byle in the body, that draweth all the humours into
it."
Activities of the
Globe Theatre Groundlings
The Globe Theatre Yard was filled with noisy, boisterous people
- the Groundlings. The
activities of the Globe Groundlings would have included:
-
Gambling - the
Elizabethan loved to gamble
-
Fights and
brawls
-
Drinking ( there
were no toilet facilities in the theatre )
-
Theft
-
Fruit and nut
sellers
-
Prostitution
Globe Theatre Groundlings
Interesting Facts and information
about the Globe Theatre Groundlings.
Additional details, facts and information about the
Globe Theatre can be accessed via the Globe Theatre Sitemap.
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