Shakespere’s Time

For the Elizabethans, the home was not just a private space, it was the focus of all aspects of life.

The peasant house was commonly just a two-room cottage. The front door led into an all-purpose hall, used for cooking, eating, and working. An inner door in the hall gave access to a parlor or chamber, which was typically the sleeping-room for the householder and his wife; young children slept here as well. Slightly more prosperous households had an additional workroom for food preparation and similar tasks, this was separated from the hall by a narrow cross-passage running between the front and back doors.

The compact medieval manor house, designed for defensibility, had given way in the sixteenth century to a more expansive and luxurious style that combined traditional medieval elements with new influences from Renaissance Italy.

Townhouses were similar in construction to those of country folk, save that they tended to be taller and closer together; they might even be built several in a row, since space was scarce in urban areas…..two, three, or even four stories were typical; the upper floors might be built to jut into the street over the lower ones, creating additional space….larger towns generally tried to forbid thatched roofs in favor of tile or wood covered with lead: a fire in the country might destroy one house, but in the crowded conditions of the town it could lead to a major public disaster.

 

Women were not allowed to performs on stage

And there were traditional values- not social equality

The food they ate included meats- mutton, lamb, game, partridge, Cornish hens, squabs,  roasted wild boar, a tank of ale, wine, (they drank a lot)  milk, breads, cheese, roasted whole chicken .

In Elizabethan England there were jobs like today. But because things where simpler and there were no cars of technology jobs were quite simple. These jobs included, artists to do portraits of the kings in that era, bakers, barbers, blacksmiths, cooks and other jobs in the community.  There was also knights to protect the king this would be the equivalent of the army today.

 


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One response to “Shakespere’s Time”

  1. Christopher Waugh Avatar

    As always Angus you’ve done your work well and you’ve done it in good time – thank you very much for this.

    I’d really like to take some time with you so that we could work out exactly where an apostrophe needs to go into the word – It’s a difficult punctuation skill to master, but makes a real difference to the clarity and precision of your writing – which in itself has improved significantly in the last two years. Can you see me to arrange time to do this?

    Mr Waugh

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