Elizabethan Renaissance

The love of excess is obvious in much Elizabethan writing: Shakespeare is the most quoted author of all time. The son of a glove manufacturer in Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare began his career on the London stage, where he was well recognized before he was thirty. He became part owner of the Globe Theatre, which from presented his plays to raucous London audiences. Ever since that time he has been recognized as the genius of Elizabethan literature and a supreme example of Renaissance views on individualism. One other important product of this period was the King James Version of the Bible.

Bad harvests caused distress, but they were usually localized.

The most widespread came in —57 and — The poor consumed a diet largely of bread, cheese, milk, and beer, with small portions of meat, fish and vegetables, and occasionally some fruit. Potatoes were just arriving at the end of the period, and became increasingly important. The typical poor farmer sold his best products on the market, keeping the cheap food for the family. Stale bread could be used to make bread puddings, and bread crumbs served to thicken soups, stews, and sauces.

The holiday goose was a special treat. Many rural folk and some townspeople tended a small garden which produced vegetables such as asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, beans, cabbage, carrots, leeks, and peas, as well as medicinal and flavoring herbs. Some grew their own apricots, grapes, berries, apples, pears, plums, currants, and cherries. Families without a garden could trade with their neighbors to obtain vegetables and fruits at low cost.

Renaissance for Kids: Elizabethan Era

England was exposed to new foods such as the potato imported from South America , and developed new tastes during the era. The more prosperous enjoyed a wide variety of food and drink, including exotic new drinks such as tea, coffee, and chocolate. French and Italian chefs appeared in the country houses and palaces bringing new standards of food preparation and taste. For example, the English developed a taste for acidic foods—such as oranges for the upper class—and started to use vinegar heavily. The gentry paid increasing attention to their gardens, with new fruits, vegetables and herbs; pasta, pastries, and dried mustard balls first appeared on the table.

The apricot was a special treat at fancy banquets. Roast beef remained a staple for those who could afford it. The rest ate a great deal of bread and fish. Every class had a taste for beer and rum. At the rich end of the scale the manor houses and palaces were awash with large, elaborately prepared meals, usually for many people and often accompanied by entertainment. The upper classes often celebrated religious festivals, weddings, alliances and the whims of the king or queen.

Feasts were commonly used to commemorate the "procession" of the crowned heads of state in the summer months, when the king or queen would travel through a circuit of other nobles' lands both to avoid the plague season of London, and alleviate the royal coffers, often drained through the winter to provide for the needs of the royal family and court.

This would include a few days or even a week of feasting in each noble's home, who depending on his or her production and display of fashion, generosity and entertainment, could have his way made in court and elevate his or her status for months or even years. Special courses after a feast or dinner which often involved a special room or outdoor gazebo sometimes known as a folly with a central table set with dainties of "medicinal" value to help with digestion. These would include wafers, comfits of sugar-spun anise or other spices, jellies and marmalades a firmer variety than we are used to, these would be more similar to our gelatin jigglers , candied fruits, spiced nuts and other such niceties.

These would be eaten while standing and drinking warm, spiced wines known as hypocras or other drinks known to aid in digestion. One must remember that sugar in the Middle Ages or Early Modern Period was often considered medicinal, and used heavily in such things. This was not a course of pleasure, though it could be as everything was a treat, but one of healthful eating and abetting the digestive capabilities of the body.

It also, of course, allowed those standing to show off their gorgeous new clothes and the holders of the dinner and banquet to show off the wealth of their estate, what with having a special room just for banqueting. While the Tudor era presents an abundance of material on the women of the nobility—especially royal wives and queens—historians have recovered scant documentation about the average lives of women. There has, however, been extensive statistical analysis of demographic and population data which includes women, especially in their childbearing roles.

England had more well-educated upper class women than was common anywhere in Europe.

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The Queen's marital status was a major political and diplomatic topic. It also entered into the popular culture. Elizabeth's unmarried status inspired a cult of virginity. In poetry and portraiture, she was depicted as a virgin or a goddess or both, not as a normal woman. In contrast to her father's emphasis on masculinity and physical prowess, Elizabeth emphasized the maternalism theme, saying often that she was married to her kingdom and subjects. She explained "I keep the good will of all my husbands — my good people — for if they did not rest assured of some special love towards them, they would not readily yield me such good obedience," [62] and promised in they would never have a more natural mother than she.

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Over ninety percent of English women and adults, in general entered marriage at the end of the s and beginning of the s, at an average age of about 25—26 years for the bride and 27—28 years for the groom, with the most common ages being for grooms and 23 for brides. With William Shakespeare at his peak, as well as Christopher Marlowe and many other playwrights, actors and theatres constantly busy, the high culture of the Elizabethan Renaissance was best expressed in its theatre. Historical topics were especially popular, not to mention the usual comedies and tragedies.

Travelling musicians were in great demand at Court, in churches, at country houses, and at local festivals. The composers were commissioned by church and Court, and deployed two main styles, madrigal and ayre. It became the fashion in the late 19th century to collect and sing the old songs. Yet within this general trend, a native school of painting was developing. In Elizabeth's reign, Nicholas Hilliard , the Queen's "limner and goldsmith," is the most widely recognized figure in this native development; but George Gower has begun to attract greater notice and appreciation as knowledge of him and his art and career has improved.

Watching plays became very popular during the Tudor period. Most towns sponsored plays enacted in town squares followed by the actors using the courtyards of taverns or inns referred to as Inn-yards followed by the first theatres great open air amphitheatres and then the introduction of indoor theatres called Playhouses. This popularity was helped by the rise of great playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe using London theatres such as the Globe Theatre. By , 15, people a week were watching plays in London. It was during Elizabeth's reign that the first real theatres were built in England.

Before theatres were built, actors travelled from town to town and performed in the streets or outside inns. Miracle plays were local re-enactments of stories from the Bible. They derived from the old custom of Mystery Plays , in which stories and fables were enacted to teach lessons or educate about life in general. Festivals were popular seasonal entertainments [78]. There were many different types of Elizabethan sports and entertainment. Animal sports included bear and bull baiting , dog fighting and cock fighting. The rich enjoyed tennis , fencing , and jousting.

Hunting was strictly limuited to the upper class. They favoured their packs of dogs and hounds trained to chase foxes, hares and boars.

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The rich also enjoyed hunting small game and birds with hawks, known as falconry. Jousting was an upscale, very expensive sport where warriors on horseback raced toward each other in full armor trying to use their lance to knock the other off his horse. It was a violent sport-- King Henry II of France was killed in a tournament in , as were many lesser men.

King Henry VIII was a champion; he finally retired from the lists after a hard fall left him unconscious for hours. Other sports included archery, bowling, hammer-throwing, quarter-staff contests, troco , quoits , skittles , wrestling and mob football. Dice was a popular activity in all social classes. Cards appeared in Spain and Italy about , but they probably came from Egypt. They began to spread throughout Europe and came into England around By the time of Elizabeth's reign, gambling was a common sport.

Cards were not played only by the upper class. Many of the lower classes had access to playing cards. The card suits tended to change over time. The first Italian and Spanish decks had the same suits: The suits often changed from country to country. England probably followed the Latin version, initially using cards imported from Spain but later relying on more convenient supplies from France.

Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds. Yet even before Elizabeth had begun to reign, the number of cards had been standardized to 52 cards per deck. Popular card games included Maw, One and Thirty, Bone-ace. These are all games for small group players. Ruff and Honors was a team game. During the Elizabethan era, people looked forward to holidays because opportunities for leisure were limited, with time away from hard work being restricted to periods after church on Sundays. For the most part, leisure and festivities took place on a public church holy day.

Every month had its own holiday, some of which are listed below:. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Queen Elizabeth I c. Prehistoric Britain until c. Health and diet in Elizabethan England. Music in the Elizabethan era. Portraiture of Elizabeth I and Artists of the Tudor court. Aaron, Global Economics , p. Soul of the Age.

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Dictionary of Canadian Biography. I — online ed. University of Toronto Press. The beginning of the English Renaissance is often taken, as a convenience, to be , when the Battle of Bosworth Field ended the Wars of the Roses and inaugurated the Tudor Dynasty. Renaissance style and ideas, however, were slow to penetrate England, and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance.

The English Renaissance is different from the Italian Renaissance in several ways. The dominant art forms of the English Renaissance were literature and music. Visual arts in the English Renaissance were much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance. The English period began far later than the Italian, which was moving into Mannerism and the Baroque by the s or earlier.

In contrast, the English Renaissance can only truly be said to begin, shakily, in the s, and it continued until perhaps England had a strong tradition of literature in the English vernacular , which gradually increased as English use of the printing press became common during the mid 16th century. Typically, the works of these playwrights and poets circulated in manuscript form for some time before they were published, and above all the plays of English Renaissance theatre were the outstanding legacy of the period.

The works of this period are also affected by Henry VIII's declaration of independence from the Catholic Church and technological advances in sailing and cartography, which are reflected in the generally nonreligious themes and various shipwreck adventures of Shakespeare. The English theatre scene, which performed both for the court and nobility in private performances, and a very wide public in the theatres, was the most crowded in Europe, with a host of other playwrights as well as the giant figures of Christopher Marlowe , Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

Elizabeth herself was a product of Renaissance humanism trained by Roger Ascham , and wrote occasional poems such as On Monsieur's Departure at critical moments of her life.

English Renaissance

Philosophers and intellectuals included Thomas More and Francis Bacon. All the 16th century Tudor monarchs were highly educated, as was much of the nobility, and Italian literature had a considerable following, providing the sources for many of Shakespeare's plays. English thought advanced towards modern science with the Baconian Method , a forerunner of the Scientific Method. The language of the Book of Common Prayer , first published in , and at the end of the period the Authorised Version "King James Version" to Americans of the Bible had enduring impacts on the English consciousness.

England was very slow to produce visual arts in Renaissance styles, and the artists of the Tudor court were mainly imported foreigners until after the end of the Renaissance; Hans Holbein was the outstanding figure. The English Reformation produced a huge programme of iconoclasm that destroyed almost all medieval religious art, and all but ended the skill of painting in England; English art was to be dominated by portraiture, and then later landscape art , for centuries to come.

The significant English invention was the portrait miniature , which essentially took the techniques of the dying art of the illuminated manuscript and transferred them to small portraits worn in lockets. Though the form was developed in England by foreign artists, mostly Flemish like Lucas Horenbout , the somewhat undistinguished founder of the tradition, by the late 16th century natives such as Nicolas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver produced the finest work, even as the best producers of larger portraits in oil were still foreigners.

The portrait miniature had spread all over Europe by the 18th century. The portraiture of Elizabeth I was carefully controlled, and developed into an elaborate and wholly un-realist iconic style, that has succeeded in creating enduring images. English Renaissance music kept in touch with continental developments far more than visual art, and managed to survive the Reformation relatively successfully, though William Byrd and other major figures were Catholic.