An Introduction to ShakespeareMacCracken, H. N. (Henry Noble)
General
An Introduction to Shakespeare
MacCracken, H. N. (Henry Noble)
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
The costumes on Shakespeare's stage were very elaborate, but there was
no desire to make them characteristic of any historical period.
Indeed, the striving after historical accuracy of costume is so much a
modern notion that it was nearly two centuries later when Macbeth and
Julius Caesar began to appear in costumes appropriate to their
respective periods. On the other hand, there probably was some attempt
to distinguish the dress of different nationalities. Some notion of
how elaborate the costumes of Elizabethan actors were is given by the
fact that Henslowe's {45} diary[4] has an entry of £4 14s. paid for a
pair of hose, and £20 for a cloak. In connection with this it must be
remembered that money was worth then about eight times what it is now,
and that a playwright of the time rarely received more than £8 for a
play. Another indication is given in Henslowe's list of the costumes
belonging to the Lord Admiral's men, which included some eighty-seven
garments, for the most part of silk or satin, ornamented with fringe
and gold lace.
+The Private Theater+.--In the preceding sections the type of theater
described has been referred to as 'public.' This has been done to
distinguish it from the 'private' theater, a type which, although
similar in so far as the general principles of staging employed are
concerned, differed from the public theater in important particulars.
The private theater is so called because it originated in the
performances given before the invited guests of royalty, the nobility,
or the universities. Since these performances were given in great
halls, the type of theater which resulted was completely roofed, was
lighted by candles, and had seats in the pit as well as in the
galleries--when there were galleries. As soon as such theaters were
built, admission was, of course, no longer by invitation, but the
prices were so much higher than those of the public theaters that the
audiences remained much more select. The first of these theaters was
the Blackfriars, the remodeled hall of the former monastery of the
Blackfriars, done over by Burbage in 1596. Others {46} were those in
which the 'Children of Paul's' acted, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury
Court. The Blackfriars was at first under royal patronage, the actors
being the 'Children of the Chapel Royal.' These choir boys were
carefully trained in acting and dancing as well as singing, and were
subsidized by royalty, so that their performances tended to be much
more spectacular than those of the public theaters. The performances
at the Blackfriars seem to have retained this characteristic even after
1608, when Shakespeare's company took over the theater. Probably
because of the patronage and interest of royalty, it was in the private
theaters that painted scenes, already used in court masques, were first
introduced. Thus these roofed theaters are really the forerunners, so
far as England is concerned, of our modern playhouses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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