For entertainment. It was something enjoyable for the whole family.
Why Did People Go To See Shakespeare's Plays?
He had a theater called the globe and it burnt down then he bulit another one and poor people only had to pay a penny but they had 2 sit in the pit witch was the ground but rich people had 2 pay more and got higher seats witch looked like bleechers.
It was entertainment just a football, a movie, a concert or what have you. It was all that was available in the day. People have attended plays since man's existence.
At first many just went as CountVak said, it was all that was available however, once people saw that his plays were actually quite amazing, more and more people came to see it and even the Queen was said to be very interested and admired shakespeare's works.
I have no source to back me up, but I remember from my Shakespeare class... People did not actually go to see his plays. The design of the stage and number of people there they actually went to hear his plays. Probably no help at all.
England, that small island on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, underwent an amazing change of character during the reign of the last Tudor, Elizabeth 1.
In something less than a lifetime, England moved across the bridge of illiteracy and ignorance, and into a world of writing, poetry, astronomy, exploration, alchemy, psychology, philosophy and much more, enabling its great thinkers to forge everlasting bonds with its universities and seminaries.
Further, a powerful merchant class was trading far away from England, along the Silk road of Samarkand and further East into Canton, giving England the base to launch her overseas markets into Europe and establish herself as a forerunner in business enterprise, to the concern and insecurity of several Continental financial partnerships.
At the forefront, was Shakespeare, and his company of actors, regaling hard working Londoners with his wit and education, (he read Latin for five years at his school), in their fast and furious turnover of play after play after play.( At one time in London, over a play a day, was being performed).
As well as Shakespeare, there was Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Robert Greene, Thomas Nash, George Peele and other playwrights, all working flat out to supply London with its insatiable demand for the written word.
This 'interest' in theatre, was, however short lived. After Shakespeare's death in 1616, popularity in the theatre diminished until, in 1640, the Puritans finally did what they had always wanted to do, close the theatres.
They stayed closed until the re-establishment of the Monarchy in 1660.
In something less than a lifetime, England moved across the bridge of illiteracy and ignorance, and into a world of writing, poetry, astronomy, exploration, alchemy, psychology, philosophy and much more, enabling its great thinkers to forge everlasting bonds with its universities and seminaries.
Further, a powerful merchant class was trading far away from England, along the Silk road of Samarkand and further East into Canton, giving England the base to launch her overseas markets into Europe and establish herself as a forerunner in business enterprise, to the concern and insecurity of several Continental financial partnerships.
At the forefront, was Shakespeare, and his company of actors, regaling hard working Londoners with his wit and education, (he read Latin for five years at his school), in their fast and furious turnover of play after play after play.( At one time in London, over a play a day, was being performed).
As well as Shakespeare, there was Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Robert Greene, Thomas Nash, George Peele and other playwrights, all working flat out to supply London with its insatiable demand for the written word.
This 'interest' in theatre, was, however short lived. After Shakespeare's death in 1616, popularity in the theatre diminished until, in 1640, the Puritans finally did what they had always wanted to do, close the theatres.
They stayed closed until the re-establishment of the Monarchy in 1660.
