Opponents of entertainments, theatres and holidays
The Puritans
Not everyone approved of Elizabethan entertainments, theatres and holidays. The main opponents of popular entertainment were the Strict Protestants who wanted to get rid of ritual in church services and lead a plain and simple life.. The Puritans were extreme Protestants who wanted to 'purify' the English church of any Catholic influence. They also believed that God intended that society should be a single unit - so any bad behaviour or immorality affected everyone.
The Puritans wanted people to live devout and godly lives, and put God first. They opposed anything that distracted people from God - and that, of course, included most forms of fun. They wanted people to spend their time praying, listening to sermons and reading the Bible. They disapproved of gambling, holidays, dancing, and popular songs ... and most of all, they disapproved of the theatre.
'Whoever shall visit the chapel of Satan, I mean the theatre, shall find many young A rough violent person, often a criminal. who are past all shame.'
The theatre attracted huge crowds - sometimes up to 3000 people - and those people were not at work (we know about Young people in training for a trade, who work for a lower wage to learn their master鈥檚 skills. bunking off work to go to the theatre) or thinking about God. Puritans thought the things that playwrights wrote about were unsuitable and disapproved of the rude jokes and Very loud and noisy. atmosphere.
Also, the Puritans worried about the less desirable types who went to the theatres:
- gamblers
- thieves
- prostitutes
- beggars
To appease the Puritans, Elizabeth banned theatres within the London city boundary. However that didn't stop several large playhouses such as the Globe, being built just outside London, within easy reach of the public.
The playwrights knew about the Puritans, of course, and frequently mocked them in their plays. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a character that is described as 'somewhat of a Puritan' is made fun of and humiliated, and asked:
Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there should be no more cakes and ale?
The authorities
It wasn't just Puritans who worried about this 鈥 the church was concerned about some of the ideas in the plays too. Elizabeth too, although she loved the theatre, was not prepared to risk her opponents using it to spread their ideas. As a result the Queen appointed the Master of the Revels to To examine something and decide whether to cut out parts which may be offensive. plays for Speaking about God in a sacrilegious way. or dubious politics.
The Lord Mayor of London and his councillors were responsible for law and order and they were worried about the effect of so many people in one place. They thought that the crowds and the theatre could cause problems like:
- disorder - as many people drank at the theatre and fights and quarrels were common
- crime - pickpockets and thieves were attracted to large crowds
- idleness - they thought people should be at work instead
Because the theatres were outside London, the Lord Mayor couldn't deal with them himself - he had to get the A group of senior politicians who advise the monarch. to agree with him, and lots of Privy Councillors liked the theatre!
The authorities also worried that the large crowds could spread disease - and here the government agreed with them. The theatres were often closed during outbreaks of the Plague to stop the disease spreading.