Welcome to the Shakespeare Bill

Vol.3.1
Special Edition
 Renaissance

Renaissance Daily Life Superstitions Student Reports

Renaissance

Renaissance means rebirth. And for the time it meant a flowering of art, scholarship and literature that took place. In 15th and 16 century Europe there were also landmark religious movements (which we now call the Reformation) and of course many exciting geographical and scientific discoveries (sometimes called the Age of Discovery).

But to the folks in England in this time period it was just a time of tremendous change. The world was opening up and the possibilities were endless (not unlike we feel today with the new technologies).

The recently rediscovered Greek and Roman writings unleashed a new enthusiasm for education. Something which had been dominated by clergymen was now becoming an indispensable qualification for the good life. So all across the nation a rash of schools were founded.

It is from this flurry of excitement for learning that we have the ideal of the "Renaissance Man"....a widely-accomplished man who was statesman and athlete, scientist and poet, philosopher, courtier, and solder all rolled into one.

While literary horizons were expanding, age old beliefs about the universe were abounding. Copernicus suggested that the sun, and not the earth, was the center of the universe; he even maintained that the earth was in motion! Today we know this; at that time it went against all everyone believed.

So, the Elizabethans found that their universe was a bit larger than they had anticipated, and then found that the earth beneath their feet was also expansive. It was a time of great exploration and navigation by people such as Vasco da Gama going around the southern tip of Africa, Amerigo Vespucci ran into Brazil, John Cabot found Newfoundland and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado travelled into the Pacific.

Of course much upheaval occured in the religious realm too. With all of these new discoveries, old beliefs were toppled, new ones were questioned and many institutions fell apart.

What did the Elizabethan do about all of this? Many clung to past ways of understanding their world. So, the more things seemed to be chaotic, the more these people held on to rigid social order. The more freedom one gained from trade and education, the more Elizabethan society stressed rank and obedience. And the fainter the distinctions of social status and class became, the more Elizabethans insisted upon it.

Thus, the concept of Hierarchy was held up in the face of confusion and disorder. And this showed up everywhere, including in clothing laws, which detailed who could wear what.

Daily Life

If you woke up one morning in a 16th family you would be getting off a lumpy straw mattress and you would walk into the kitchen into the middle of a regular nuclear family--mother, father, sisters and brothers--all sitting on stools drinking their morning beer (did you read beer? yep) and eating bread and butter.

This family was an entrenched foundation of Elizabethan society.

Death, on the other hand, was the homebreaker. And mostly infants and children were its victims. Babies were lucky to survive birth and then their first year of life around infectious diseases such as plague or smallpox. Then they had to cope with malnutrition, stairs to fall down, open fireplaces to walk into, horse's hooves to trample upon them, village wells to fall into, and ditches to drown in.

One out of every 5 children didn't live beyond 10 years old.

Death got the adults too. Most Elizabethans had lost at least one parent by their 25th birthday. Women often died in childbirth, and men on the battlefields. There was also famine, poverty, the bubonic plague, and other diseases to claim lives daily.

If one survived to teenagehood, one was sent to live with another family. This was a universal custom of middle and upper class families. They went to work as manservants to wealthy farmers or maidservants to upper-class women. Sometimes they became apprentices to craftsmen and tradesmen in the cities.
Though these teenagers, away from their parents, had great freedom to meet ech other, fall in love and such, the marriage age was quite late. Most married in their mid 20's and many marriages were still arranged based on property, political, and social standing. After all, marriage was the only show in town!

Superstitions

 

  1. Here are a list of very common superstitious behaviors of an Elizabethan:
  1. There were many beliefs that guided day-to-day behavior and activities of people:
  1. Most Elizabethans believed in astrology. Consulting the stars helped these confused people determine what specific actions to take.
  2. Chief among many of their fears were of ghosts---souls of the dead who were making return trips to earth for very specific reasons. Ghosts were also terriby gruesome, nothing like our white sheeted Halloween ghosts.
  3. A ghost always had a mission when he came to earth. Some came to ask for a proper burial, others wanted to warn the living about the future, and others came to avenge their own deaths.
  4. Not only were visits by ghosts unpleasant but they created much confusion because the church taught that there were no such things. The church insisted that ghosts were devils in disguise.
  5. If ghosts weren't enough to keep you awake, you had fairies to worry about. (and not the Tinkerbell variety!) The Elizabethan fairies were life-sized creatures, fiendish and malicious. They might make your milk go sour or your cows sick.
    1. They came in several models:

Elizabethans left food out for them, flattered them outloud to make peace with them. And goodness, if your house was messy or dirty! the fairies would come and pinch you and you would wake in the morning with bruises!

 
  1. And then there were the old hag witches. Those people who were often ugly, poverty-stricken, disheveled, and diseased were thought to be dealing in witchcraft. The Elizabethans believed in the curses and in black magic.
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