Entertainment5

Answer Prepared By: Emily W.
 * WHAT WERE THE POPULAR FORMS OF SPORT, AMUSEMENT, AND ENTERTAINMENT IN SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND? HOW WERE THESE DIFFERENT IN URBAN/RURAL LIFE? HOW WERE THESE DIFFERENT IN NOBLE/MERCHANT/COMMON LIFE?

All walks of life – country folk, noblemen, merchants and commoners alike took pleasure in various forms of sport, amusement and entertainment in Elizabethan times. Many of the games invented and played then are still enjoyed today. Back then, depending on your social class, occupation or gender, you were expected to play certain games and sports, and enjoy certain pastimes and amusements. Whatever the case, there were many varied forms of sport in Shakespeare’s England. **

There was one pastime that was required of all men, no matter their social standing or home. According to Liza Picard, the author of //Elizabeth’s London, all men between the ages of seven and sixty were supposed to know how to use a bow and arrow, as well as own one. Although Picard states that the bow and arrow was going out of fashion as a weapon of war, people still used it to hunt. But even thought commoners hunted, it was different from the regal affair noblemen made it. More or less, commoners hunted to put food on the table. Maggie Secara on //Life in Elizabethan England, in the section titled “The Hunt is Up” states, “Hunting (was an) aristocratic privilege.” This was true. There were social restrictions as to what commoners could hunt. Deer, for example, was considered only proper to be killed by noblemen. Wild board was also a popular game, although it was open for all people to hunt. A differentiation in where the social classes hunted was also common. Secara explains that noblemen hunted in a forest, which was a royal property that was kept and maintained by foresters. It was more like a park than the “modern” version of wild woodland that we associate with forests today. Rural residents, as well as lower-class urban folk, hunted where they could find appropriate game. This was normally a much more humble setting compared to the grand, well-kept forests of noblemen. Shooting was a sport to few and a means of acquiring food for many.



A sport more steeped in age than social class was wrestling. “Young men could…work off their energy with wrestling, and general free fights”, explains Picard (226). But one sport similar to wrestling was frowned upon by the upper class. Football (or soccer in modern American language) was not considered the pinnacle of society in Elizabethan England. Men and women alike from the aristocratic social level frowned upon it; in 1553, an educationalist “condemned it as ‘nothing but fury and external violence’” (Picard 225). Of course, back than, the game was much more violent, famed for the use of knives when a player wanted to eliminate his opponent. I guess that’s the extreme of bad-sportsmanship. Tennis was a more civilized game, and again, noblemen were more privileged with courts, while “people of a meaner sort (played) in the open fields and streets” (Picard 225). If you weren't rich, you had to take what you could find.

Women hardly participated in the sports of men, no matter their class. One exception was hunting. Secara acknowledged “all men and many women of the upper classes hunt,” and yet, there is nothing about lower-class women hunting. The lower-class women were considered to be the “typical” housewife. Hunting was not somewhere their presence would have been accepted, especially since, for the lower classes, it was more of job than a sport. However, few upper class women hunted for the sport or the thrill or success a kill brought, as men did. Most of their hobbies were for social reasons, including hunting. They were not known for having active pastimes. Even embroidery was a social activity; as Secara states on “More Things To Do” from the website //Life in Elizabethan England, “ladies gathered and gossiped while they embroidered.” Elizabeth herself was not known for such behavior; in fact, she was depicted many a time on the hunt, clearly enjoying it for the sport, and not for the gossip. But despite their ruler’s example, upper-class women lived to be social. They held parties, gossiped and attended the theatre with their husbands and other upper-class companions. //

Unlike commoners, noblemen (and women) were often given private performances or seating at shows. Lower-class urban folk were forced to stand for the duration of a performance. According to Life in Elizabethan England, “Filling the Time,” attending the theatre was a part of the upper classmen’s culture, as well as the lower classes’, but the two different groups had extremely different experiences. Rural commoners weren’t exposed to theatre unless a traveling group came into town, in which case everyone went. Obviously, noblemen and women enjoyed a higher standard of pretty much everything in Elizabethan times, but there were a few sports and amusements everyone could enjoy.

Besides the theatre, riding was one activity known to nearly everyone. According to Maggie Secara’s article “Now Merrily to Horse” on her website //Life in Elizabethan England, practically everyone traveled by horseback. Noblemen possessed grander breeds and finer horses, but peasants had the privilege of using the beasts for transportation, too. Horses were also used for hunting, again in varying degrees of grandeur, but this time it depended more on money, since horses, then and now, are expensive to keep. That is why horses were more for transportation than sport. //

A more “just for fun” activity was swimming: “(it) was enjoyable in the hot summer, either in the Thames…or in (natural) pools” (Picard 226). This was more enjoyed by the lower class; few noblewomen would gladly go swimming in a river, or even in a natural-made pool. More enjoyed by young boys and girls, the activity was very popular in the rural parts of the country and among the urban lower class. Amusements – household games and such – were probably where the classes were most equal in terms of enjoyment. You didn’t have to be in the city or be rich or be a man to play a fun game of Gleek or Primero. Picard named those two card games among others in the chapter “Amusements” in her book //Elizabethan England, calling them two the most popular card games of the time. Picard also describes the various stories parents told their children at night. A story cost nothing, so perhaps that’s why it was more popular among the commoners and peasants. Few pastimes could be enjoyed by everyone, but those that were were a nice commonality among the classes. //

There was a perceptible difference in sport, amusement and entertainment from class to class. Clearly, the noblemen and women got the better end of the stick, but that didn’t keep lower class from enjoying sports and entertainment. Merchants were the middle ground. The more successful ones could be grouped with the noblemen, while the less accomplished with the peasants and commoners. In any case, there were many classes, each with a set of unwritten rules and a culture. Something from each still lives on today: football, tennis, horseback riding, and the theatre, along with many of the plays enjoyed back then. Elizabethan culture was rich, steeped in sports, amusement and the entertainment, and of course, social class.

Laroque, Francois. //The Age of Shakespeare//. Abrams, New York: Discoveries, 1991. Print.
 * Works Cited **

Picard, Liza. //Elizabeth's London//. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 2003. 225-229. Print.

Rowse, A.L. //The Elizabethan Renaissance//. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. 201, 210, 214. Print.

Secara, Maggie. "Filling the Time." //Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge//. MaggiRos, 25 March 2008. Web. 1 Apr 2010. .

Secara, Maggie. "Games." //Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge//. MaggiRos, 25 March 2008. Web. 1 Apr 2010. .

Secara, Maggie. "More Things To Do." //Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge//. MaggiRos, 25 March 2008. Web. 1 Apr 2010. .

Secara, Maggie. "Now Merrily to Horse." //Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge//. MaggiRos, 25 March 2008. Web. 1 Apr 2010. .

Secara, Maggie. "The Hunt is Up." //Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge//. MaggiRos, 25 March 2008. Web. 1 Apr 2010. 
 * Links**

[] This site is where I found most of my information on Elizabethan games and pastimes. It also includes information relating to practically every other aspect of Elizabethan culture.