Queen Elizabeths Lasting Effect On Theater Essay

, Research Paper

Queen Elizabeth came to be known as one of the greatest rulers of the English empire. Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a more efficient government was created. The church was unified, the English empire was expanded, and language, literature, and theater flourished to a greatness that would be impossible for almost any other period of English history, or any other European empire, for that matter, to match.

Although there was a great rise in literature,it was theater that catapulted to greatness during Elizabeth’s reign. Out of Elizabeth’s era came Elizabethan theater. Elizabethan theater has such a variety of topics, that would make it virtually impossible to talk about in ten pages. The focal point of this paper will be on Queen Elizabeth’s contributions to theater as well as her favor to Children of Paul’s, or Paul’s Boys (a “Boy Company”) and the Queen’s Men and Lord Chamberlain’s Men (two Adult Companies).

Prior to Elizabeth’s reign, those members of the Tutor family enjoyed entertainment consisting mainly of court tournaments. Within these court tournaments bear baiting was the most popular event. Although “Elizabeth found this hugely diverting”, theater was her entertainment of choice, for Elizabeth found “such cruel spectacles…an unattractive feature of the age” (Somerset 367). However, regardless of her opinion, countrymen saw nothing wrong with bear baiting, and continued the event.

Even though Elizabeth was a great lover of theater, that does not mean that theater, was not put down routinely.

The Puritans found Elizabeth’s interest in theater to be “utterly reprehensible”, actors to be a “contemptible breed”, and the theaters that they performed in nothing more “than brothels” (Somerset 368). But throughout Elizabeth’s forty-five year reign, she protected and uplifted the adult and boy companies, when enemies from the clergy and sometimes the council sought to “put them down” (Clunes 27).

“To the Queen’s interest, some six to ten plays were given every winter at court and she saw many others when in progress throughout the country or while attending weddings or banquets in London.”(Clunes 27) Within time, Elizabeth was awarding more performances in court. That is one of the ways Elizabeth helped the theater arts to florish. The more performances that were given, the more theater became popular, and the more the people of England wanted to see it.

The Companies

During the Elizabethan Era many things emerged. Amongst them was the creation of Adult Companies. Approximately twenty-four Adult Companies were developed. (The Count Intruders, The Earl of Leicester’s men, Lord Rich’s Men, Lord Abergavenny’s Men, The Earl of Sussex’s Men, Sir Robert Lane’s Men, The Earl of Lincoln’s (Lord Clinton’s) Men, The Earl of Warwick’s Men, The Earl of Oxford’s Men, The Earl of Essex’s Men, Lord Vaux’s Men Lord Berkeley’s Men, the Earl of Arundel’s Men, The earl of Hertford’s Men, Mr. Evelyn’s Men, The Earl of Derby’s Men (Lord Strange’s) Men, The Earl of Pembroke’s Men, The Lord Admiral’s (Lord Howard’s, Earl of Nottingham’s), Prince Henry’s, and Elector Palatine’s Men, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (Lord Hunsdon’s) and King’s Men, The Earl of Wosterster’s and Queen Anne’s Men, The Duke of Lennox’s Men, The Duke of York’s (Prince Charles’s) Men, and The Lady Elizabeth’s Men) But even before Adult companies, there were approximately eleven Boy companies. ( Children of Paul’s, Children of the Chapel and the Queen’s Revels, Children of Windsor, Children of the King’s Revels, Children of Bristol, Westminister School, Eton College, Merchant Taylors School, The Earl of Leicester’s Boys, The Earl of Oxford’s Boys, Mr. Stanley’s Boys) These two umbrella catagories would be the main source of theatrical entertainment.

When Elizabeth took the throne, boy companies were very much in existance. The boy companies had a “very recognized place in the theatrical world”, since the middle ages (Hillebrand 9). Watching the boy companies perform became her favored pastime during the first ten years of her reign. The majority of performances awarded by the queen were given by the boy companies; between 1558 and 1576 the queen awarded seventy-eight performances. Out of those seventy-eight performances forty-six went to boy companies and only 32 went to adult companies.

Out of those forty-six performances, twenty-one of those were given by Elizabeth’s favored boy company, the Children of Paul’s. This was all do to the great leadership of Sebastian Westcott. Sebastian was made “master of the song school in 1560″

(Chambers 12). Little is known of his earlier life, but throughout his tenure as director of Paul’s Boys, they were to perform no less than twenty-seven times at court between 1560 and 1582. The boys’ performances, though enjoyed by the queen, would come under great scrutiny from Puritan preachers. In a pamphlet attacking a specific boys, group the writer unknown stated:

“plays will never be suppressed while her majesty’s unfledged minions flaunt it in silks and satins… These pretty upstart youths profane the Lord’s day by the Lascivious withering of their tender limbs and gorgeous decking of their apparel in feigning bawdy fables gathered from idolatrous heathen poets”

(Pg 368 Somerset).

These were sentiments shared by many Puritans but that was not to st