Globe Theatre London
Interesting information about
the Globe Theatre London during the life and times of William Shakespeare
Globe Theatre London
The old Globe Theatre London
was an exciting venue for staging the plays of William
Shakespeare.
Days out at the Globe Theatre would have been an exciting event in
London. The
grounds surrounding the Globe Theatre were bustling with
hundreds of people. There were stalls selling merchandise and refreshments
creating a market day atmosphere. Non playgoers would flock to the Globe Theatre
just to go to the market stalls and 'soak in ' the holiday-like
atmosphere. There was also free entertainments in the form of the
Globe Theatre Green
Shows. The Globe would have particularly attracted young people and
the were many complaints of apprentices avoiding work in order to go to
the Globe theatre in London. A trumpet was sounded to announce to people that the play
was about to begin at the Globe Theatre London in order for people to take
their final places.
Globe Theatre London - What was
London like?
London was noisy, crowded, bawdy, bustling and busy. Trades of every kind
and description! Churches, inns, houses, workshops, stalls, stables and
theatres! Animals - cats, dogs, pigs, horses and sheep! Bull baiting,
bear baiting and cock-fighting! Inns, taverns and bawdy houses! Actors,
courtiers, churchmen, merchants, shoppers, apprentices, money lenders,
bawds, beggars and thieves!
We know exactly what London was like from this excerpt from a pamphlet,
entitled "The Seven Deadly Sins of London" by Thomas Dekkar!
"Carts and coaches make such a thundering din as if the world ran on
wheels; at every corner men, women, and children meet in such shoals
that posts are set up to strengthen the houses lest with jostling with
one another they should shoulder them down. Besides, hammers are beating
in one place, tubs hooping in another [the noise made by coopers or
barrel makes], pots clinking in a third, water-tankards running at tilt
in a fourth. . . . Tradesmen, as if they were dancing galliards are
lusty at legs and never stand still"
Globe Theatre London
The Globe Theatre London
was built on the Southbank, outside the London City limits, where
theatres had been banned. Theatres were not only used to show plays. There was gambling
and in some there was even bear baiting. There were objections from
London residents objections
about the bawdy nature of some of the plays, the rise in crime around
theatres like the Globe. There
was also the real risk of the crowded theatres encouraging the spread of
the Bubonic plague.
There were constant outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague and every time this
occurred the Theatres were shut down. The closures occurred in 1593 ,
1603 and 1608. In 1563, in London alone, over 20,000 people died of the
disease.
The objections to the theatres escalated and the Church, London
Officials and respectable citizens raised even more objections to the
theatres. In December 1574 the Common
Council of London, under the influences of puritanical factions, issued
a statement describing:
" great disorder rampant in the city by the inordinate haunting of great
multitudes of people, especially youth, to plays, interludes, namely
occasion of frays and quarrels, evil practices of incontinency in great
inns having chambers and secret places adjoning to their open stages and
galleries, inveigling and alluring of maids, especially of orphans and
good citizens' children under age, to privy and unmeet contracts, the
publishing of unchaste, uncomely, and unshamefast speeches and doings .
. . uttering of popular, busy, and seditious matters, and many other
corruptions of youth and other enormities . . . [Thus] from henceforth
no play, comedy, tragedy, interlude, not public show shall be openly
played or showed within the liberties of the City . . . and that no
innkeeper, tavernkeeper, nor other person whatsoever within the
liberties of this City shall openly show or play . . . any interlude,
comedy, tragedy, matter, or show which shall not be first perused and
allowed . . . "
The complaints of London citizens continued and grew so much that in 1596 London's authorities
banned the public presentation of plays and all theatres within the city
limits of London. All theatres located in the City were forced to move
to the South side of the River Thames - which explains the location of
the Globe Theatre in London.
Globe Theatre London
Interesting Facts and information
about the Globe Theatre London.
Additional details, facts and information about the
Globe Theatre can be accessed via the Globe Theatre Sitemap.
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