Shakespearean Era

 This picture sums up two very important people from the 16^th century; Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I.  They both contributed to England in such a remarkable way, that long after they are gone the differences they made in the world are still discussed today.  Shakespeare is often thought of as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s first prominent dramatist.  Queen Elizabeth I set out to rule by good counsel, and she turned out to be more moderate in government than her father and half-siblings had been.

This is a part of the sonnet “The Dark Lady” written by Shakespeare.  Over the centuries some readers believed that Shakespeare’s sonnets are autobiographical and point to them as evidence of him being homosexual.  The so-called “Dark Lady” sonnets are considered evidence that he is heterosexual due to how it’s a sexually passionate sonnet about a married woman with black hair and dark skin.   

Vegetables were food for the poor, since the rich considered food from the ground to be of lesser value.  Meat, fish, venison, beef, pork, eel, and shellfish were considered luxuries reserved for the rich.  Though meat was the main component of the upper-class diet, they occasionally ate turnips, carrots, radishes, apples, woodland strawberries, and certain other fruits and vegetables.  Desserts included pastries, cakes, crystallized fruit, and syrup.  Bread was a staple for everyone, and the quality depended on the status.  Upper classes ate white bread called manchet while the poor ate coarse bread of barley or rye.  The imbalanced diet of the poor and the rich caused a deficiency in vitamin C, sometimes resulting in scurvy.

This image depicts a typical theater during the 16^th century.  Young boys and men played the women and plays were only performed in the daytime since there was no electricity. In regards to architecture, theaters then were much smaller in comparison to today since we possess building materials that were unavailable at that time; the audiences can now be larger.  Also, there have been accidents during theater history which have claimed the lives of actors and the audience in the past due to the unavailability of proper exits.

In 1570, Sir Francis Drake started on an excursion against the Spaniards.  From 1573 to a little past 1577 he crossed the Isthmus and attacked the Spanish settlements on the Pacific shores. He then sailed southward along the Brazilian coast, entered the Rio de la Plata, and passed through the Straits of Magellan. Then he followed the coasts of Chili and Peru, attacking the Spanish ships and settlements as he advanced, and explored the shores of western America in the hope of discovering a passage to the Atlantic. He returned home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, accomplishing the first circumnavigation of the globe by an Englishman. 

One/several of these are pictures of Shakespeare’s restored 16^th-century half-timbered house.  It is situated in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, where it is believed that William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and spent his childhood years.  It is now a small museum open to the public and a popular visitor attraction, owned and managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. 

I visited it in 2009!