Shakespeare’s Stage

The Playing Field

Mystery Play

Mystery plays are among the earliest form of plays in medieval Europe. They focused on Bible stories and were frequently organized and performed by craft guilds.

Other Entertainment

Jousts, tournaments, masques, juggling, fortune-tellers, magic shows, and festivals were other common types of entertainment.

Most English towns also had stocks and whipping posts—drunks, frauds, adulterers and others would be placed in carts and paraded through the streets for people to jeer and throw garbage at.

The Globe

Costuming in Titus Andronicus

Elizabethan Dress

Censorship

The Master of Revels was a government position responsible for stage censorship. Though the function was transferred to the Lord Chamberlain in 1624, the Master of Revels still seemed to perform this duty until the English Civil War closed London theatres in 1642.

Foul Papers: drafts covered with revisions and

crossed out words. Fair Copy: Written by the playwright or a scribe, the

“final” draft of the play. Promptbook: Contains the fair copy along with

stage directions and notes, presented to Master of Revels for licensing.

Quartos: Early printed editions, theorized that some are products of actors recalling memorized lines and not drawing from a written source.

First Folio: Printed in 1623, the first collected edition of the plays.

Printed Play; the Master Text

Music and dance was a common

entertainment for Elizabethan audiences, and naturally was integrated into Shakespeare’s works.

It was also common for his plays, especially his comedies, to end with a song and dance number.

Many of the songs he used were heavily adapted, but have much older roots, like, “O Mistress Mine”

Music and Dance