The Elizabethan Era (1558 – 1603) is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was marked by/can be characterized by threats of invasions by France and Spain, fighting Ireland and the Netherlands, the outbreaks of the plague as well as conspiracies [dt.: Verschwörungen]. At the time, England was a poor but changing country. In spite of all this upheaval, the Elizabethan Era is known as the Golden Age of English history because culture and arts blossomed (heyday of the Renaissance). Music, art and Shakespeare’s theatre became popular. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), an English playwright, poet and actor, is known as the greatest writer of the English language. Romeo and Juliet (1597), one of his most famous plays, is a tragedy about two Italian star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. Shakespeare, who had begun writing his sonnets sometime in the 1590s decided that the form would be useful in Romeo and Juliet. In fact, he wrote four sonnets in the play. A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem with a particular rhyme scheme and its metre is in iambic pentameter. The Shakespearean sonnet is made of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and one couplet (a two-line stanza) and the rhyme scheme is (ababa cdcd efef gg). A line of iambic pentameter has five iambic ‘feet’ (a soft syllable followed by a stronger syllable).
The era compromises the first theatre era in England and most of the time the focus was on the spoken words, so the audience was always directly involved. Diction and rhythms created certain atmospheres and provided references to specific characters. The most popular themes were gender, marriage, social classes and history. The current topics at this time were presented in loud conversations and theatrical expressions of disagreement. The theatre itself became popular and was affordable for people from all social ranks.
At the time, women were not allowed to be involved in the theatre and all female characters were played by men. Although this seems archaic to us, at the time the theatre was considered to be a revolutionary and rebellious artistic form of expression. The majority of the older generation believed the theatre to be corrupt and ungodly.
The era was named after Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), who ruled England for 44 years, from 1558 until her death in 1603. Sometimes referred to as the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor. The government was made up of the monarch (Queen Elizabeth) who was powerful, however still needed the agreement of the parliament to implement laws. Beneath the monarch and the parliament, there was the Privy Council - split into the House of Lords and the House of Commons – which formed part of the government.
The Elizabethan Era also marked the beginning of the First British Empire, during which England became a major world power. The goal was the expansion of international trade and capitalism through imperialism and colonization. As an island in Northern Europe, Great Britain had the strongest naval force.
Great Chain of Being: The “Great Chain of Being” was a special world picture in the 16th century which was an attempt to give order. The idea of the Chain of Being was that God created everything in a strict hierarchy. Each specific position characterised how much spirit each part of the chain had. It depicts God above all, animals as subordinates, and men in the middle, representing existence, life, feelings and understanding. God is seen as the head of everything. A disruption of the chain was thought to lead to chaos. The position of every being in the chain is fixed, with the position making clear how much power and spirit each part of the chain had.
The Divine Right of Kings: At this time, the monarch was seen as the representative of God on earth, the head of state and church. Any violence against the king was considered to be a mortal sin against God. Other world views were that the earth was the centre of the universe. Of course, later discoveries showed that the sun was the centre of the solar system.
The human body – humours and 4 Elements: The human body was thought to be a miniature representation of the universe. Incidents that occurred in the universe (known as the “macrocosm”), were supposed to happen on a much smaller scale within the human body (the microcosm). The body was also thought to contain four humours – bile, phlegm, blood, choler. A person’s temperament depended on the way the humours were mixed. Illness and mental disorder were blamed on an imbalance of the humours. In addition, it was an accepted belief that everything on earth is made from four elements: fire, air, water and earth.
Religion: The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. So England was a Protestant country. Some Protestants, called the Puritans, wanted to purify the church. For them, the rejection of Catholicism wasn’t enough since they held strict rules and had specific ideas about what was sinful. For example drinking, gambling and going to see plays were thoughts to pave the way to hell [dt.: um sich den Weg zur Hölle zu pflastern].
Das elisabethanische England und die damaligen Weltanschauungen wurden bisher nicht sehr präzise abgefragt. Dennoch wird sich auf das elisabethanische Theater, vor allem in Zusammenhang mit Shakespeares Werken wie Othello bezogen. Die Weltanschauungen tauchen immer wieder in Shakespeares Stücken auf, wodurch der Gesamtzusammenhang der gesellschaftlichen Normen deutlich wird.