Shakespeare's England: Life in Elizabethan and Jacobean Times

by Pritchard, R. E.

• ISBN13: 9780750921121
• ISBN10: 0750921129
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd

Summary

This lively anthology of extracts from Elizabethan and Jacobean books. plays, letters, state documents. diaries and pamphlets produced during Shakespeare's lifetime presents a vivid picture of English life during the great bard's lifetime. A wide range of contributors have been selected, including Camden and Finesse Morison (on descriptions of England), Nuchae (on low-life), Gascoigne (on court romances), Bacon (on intellectual life), Hooker (on Elizabethan, order), Raleigh (on death), Stubbes (on a Puritan's view of Elizabethan enjoyments), Deicer (on crime), Scot and Harsnet (on witches), Donne (on witty meditations), and James I (on tobacco). Accounts of theatre-going, May Day celebrations, Elizabeth at court, political events (trial of Mary Queen of Scots, the Essex rebellion, the Gunpowder Plot), home life; London merchants, education, medicine, garden books and herbals, food, drink, religion are also included.

Author Biography

R. E. Pritchard was formerly a lecturer in English at Keele University where he specialized in Renaissance literature.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	iv
Introduction	1	(2)
England and the English	3	(24)
Women and Men	27	(22)
House and Home	49	(16)
Country Life	65	(21)
Education	86	(18)
Beliefs	104	(25)
The Court	129	(23)
London	152	(27)
Arts and Pleasures	179	(24)
Poverty, Crime and Punishment	203	(23)
Over Seas	226	(20)
Coda	246	(1)
Further Reading	247	(4)
Index	251