The Facts About Shakespeare | Page 4

masques, especially in the reign of James I. Cleanliness did not thrive,
perfumes took the place of baths, and rushes, seldom renewed, covered
the floor even of the presence chamber of Elizabeth. But the comforts
and luxuries of life increased and spread to all classes. Tobacco,
potatoes, and forks were first introduced in Shakespeare's time.
Building improved, streets were widened, and coaches became so
common as to excite much animadversion and complaint. If some poets
spent much time in the debtors' prison, others lived well, and some
actors gained large fortunes.
[Page Heading: Commercial Prosperity]

The industrious apprentice who refused the allurements of pageants,
theaters, tailors, and taverns, was sure to have his reward. It was a time
of commercial expansion, such as the last generation has witnessed in
Germany and the United States. Bankers, brokers, and merchants
gained great fortunes and managed to protect them. Industry, thrift, and
shrewdness were likely to win enough to buy a knighthood. The trade
of the old East and the new West came to the London wharves, and
every one was ready to take a risk. The merchants of London had
furnished support to the policies of Henry VIII and were rich enough to
fit out the expedition against Flanders and to pay for a third of the fleet
that met the Armada. It was a time, too, for great enterprises and
benefactions to charity. Sir Thomas Gresham built the Exchange, Sir
Hugh Middleton paid for the New River water supply, and there were
many gifts to hospitals. With all this increase in wealth, the various
professions prospered, especially that of law. The inns of court were
crowded with students, not a few of whom forsook the courts for the
drama. The age of chivalry was over, that of commerce begun. No one
gained much glory by a military career in the days of Elizabeth. The
church, the law, banking, commerce, even politics and literature,
offered better roads to wealth or fame.
The importance of the court in Elizabethan London is not easy to
realize to-day. It dominated the life of the small city. Its nobles and
their retainers, its courtiers and hangers-on, made up a considerable
portion of the population; its shows supplied the entertainment, its
gossip the politics of the hour. It was the seat of pageantry, the mirror
of manners, the patron or the oppressor of every one. No one could be
so humble as to escape coming somehow within its sway, and some of
the greatest wrecked their lives in efforts to secure its approval. It is no
wonder that the plays of Shakespeare deal so largely with kings, queens,
and their courts. Under the Tudors, and still more under the Stuarts, the
court aimed at increasing the central authority so as to bring every
affair of its subjects under its direct control. In London, however, this
effort at centralization met with strong opposition. The government was
in the hands of the guilds representative of the wealth of the city, and
was coming face to face with many of the problems of modern
municipalities. The corporation was in constant clash with the court;

and in the end the city, which had supported Henry VIII and Elizabeth
against powerful nobles, became the Puritan London that aided in
ousting the Stuarts.
[Page Heading: The City and the Court]
This conflict between city and court is illustrated in the regulation of
the theaters and companies of actors. The actors had a legal status only
as the license of some nobleman enrolled them as his servants, and they
relied on the protection of their patron and the court against the
opposition of the city authorities. The fact that they were employed to
give plays before the Queen was, indeed, about the only argument that
won any consideration from the corporation. This opposition was based
in part on moral or puritan grounds, but was determined still more by
the fear of three menaces, fire, sedition, and the plague. Wooden
buildings were already discouraged by statute, and the danger of fire
from the wooden theaters is shown by the burning of the Globe and the
Fortune. The gathering of crowds was feared by every property holder,
and the theaters were frequently the scenes of outbreaks of the
apprentices. The danger of the plague from the crowd at plays was the
greatest of all. London was hardly ever free from it, and suffered
terrible devastation in the years 1593 and 1603. For these reasons the
theaters were forbidden within the city's jurisdiction, and were driven
into the outskirts. The best companies appeared frequently at court, and
on the accession of James I they were licensed directly as servants of
various members of the royal family. The actors were thereafter under
the immediate control of the court, and certain