In Shakespeare Times What Was The Difference Between The Rich And Poor?

Question

In Shakespeare Times What Was The Difference Between The Rich And Poor?

3 Answers

Answer Question

Answer 1

Well Shakespeare performed in the globe theatre. The rich people wore fancy clothes and would sit on the top level of the theatre. Some would even have chairs on the stage! Poor people would stand on the ground level where it got very muddy and dirty. Here they would have very little protection from rain or sun.

Answer 2

Anonymous answered

The poor people wore simple clothing, made of wool, while the richer people wore more expensive clothing, with a ton of jewelry.

Answer 3

The Chandos Portrait gives us a good idea of how a rich man looked in Shakespeare's time, because the Chandos Portrait IS supposed to be of him!

It shows a well dressed, but somewhat Bohemian gentleman, looking confidently at you from the canvas, he has a receding hairline, a small 'Van Dyke' beard, wears a big buttery ear-ring in his left ear, a four inch deep white collar, and is dressed in black!

The paint and canvas have been analysed as 1600, the 'sitter' is about 35 to 36 years old, Shakespeare was born in 1564 making him 36 in 1600. The four inch collar was fashionable between 1590 and 1610.

He is a rich man, because, he can afford to have his portrait painted in oil, and he is dressed in black!

Black then, was not an easy colour to replicate, first, you gave your material to a dyer, who immersed it in a vat of Magenta, which he then hung up, on tenterhooks, to dry.

Then, your material was immersed in a vat of Cyan, (cyanide), and your 'Purple' material was hung up on tenterhooks, to dry.

Next, your Purple material was immersed in a vat of Hansa, (Yellow), and your BLACK material was hung up on tenterhooks to dry!

After which, you employed a tailor to measure you up, he employed a cutter to cut your material to the tailor's measurements, and then you used a seamstress to sew all the pieces together!

All of this, cost MONEY! Then, if you were a very rich young blade such as Hatton, or Raleigh or Drake, you had jewellery sewed onto the outside of your new doublet just to impress everyone with your wealth!

However, the 'sitter' in the Chandos Portrait, is content to sport his large ear-ring of gold.

IF! This is a portrait of Williams Shakespeare, then it is the only of him painted during his lifetime!

There are only another two 'images' of him in existence. One is the Droeshout's woodcut, and the other is his bust above his grave at Holy Trinity church in Stratford.