In Tudor England groups
of strolling players toured the country performing plays. These plays
were performed in barns and in the courtyards of inns. One of the
most popular subjects of these plays was the story of Robin Hood.
The English government
did not approve of strolling players as it was worried that plays
on subjects such as Robin Hood would encourage the people to become
rebellious. Another fear was that strolling players were responsible
for spreading diseases such as the plague.
In 1572 a law was passed
banning strolling players from touring the country. The only actors
allowed were those employed by noblemen. During the next two years,
Elizabeth gave permission for four
noblemen to start their own theatre companies. However, actresses
were not allowed to join. Women's parts had to be played by young
boys.
At first these theatre
groups performed in the courtyards of inns. These inns could only
provide seats for small audiences. Therefore, in 1577 Robert
Dudley, Earl
of Leicester, built a permanent theatre in London
for his group of actors. This venture was a great success and it was
not long before there were several theatres in London. Prices were
low so most people who lived in London could afford to go to the theatre.
It cost only a penny to stand but it was extra if you wanted to sit
down.
By 1595 over 15,000 people
a week were attending plays being performed in London theatres. There
was now a great need for new plays to be written.
The most important playwright
of the period was William Shakespeare
. His first play, Henry
VI, was performed in 1592. In the next eleven years twenty-three
of Shakespeare's plays were performed in London. These included Hamlet,
Romeo and Juliet, The
Merchant of Venice, King Lear,
Macbeth, and Julius
Caesar.
Shakespeare also wrote
several-plays about former kings of England. Plays that showed weak
and corrupt Yorkist kings such as Richard
III were very popular with the Tudors.
Elizabethan plays were
often used as propaganda. For example, a play called Alarum
for London, that showed Spanish
soldiers killing innocent civilians in Antwerp, was performed many
times during Elizabeth's conflict with Philip
II in the 1580s.
Elizabethan Strolling Players
(1)
Stephen Gossen, The School of Abuse (1579)
In the
playhouses at London it is the fashion of youths to go first into
the yard, and to carry their eye through every gallery, then they
go and sit as near to the fairest as they can.
(2)
Bishop Hugh Latimer, preaching a sermon in 1549.
I came
to a place on my way to London... I thought I should have found company
in the church... but the church door was locked.... one of the parish
comes to me and says: "Sir this is a busy day with us, we cannot
hear you, it is Robin Hood's
day."... Robin Hood, a traitor and a thief... it is a weeping
matter... when people prefer Robin Hood to God's word.
(3)
John Stockwood, preaching a sermon at St Pauls Cross in 1578.
The blast
of a trumpet will call a thousand people to see a filthy play... an
hour's tolling of a bell would only bring a hundred people to a sermon.
(4)
Richard Morrison, The Laws of England (1535)
Robin Hood plays should
be forbidden and others devised that show the wickedness of the bishop
of Rome, monks, nuns and such like... Things sooner enter by the eyes,
than by the ears: remembering more when they see rather than when
they hear.
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