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Contents The Life and Times of William Shakespeare
Costumes and Sets in Shakespearean Theatre
For the Globe Theatre Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays. The chief sources of his plots were Plutarch's 'Parallel Lives of Illustrious Men', Raphael Holinshed's 'Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland', and some Italian novelle, or short tales. He borrowed a few plays from older dramas and from English stories. What he did with the sources is more important than the sources themselves. If his original gave him what he needed, he used it closely. If not, he changed it.
The Globe Theatre - two pictures to suggest how it might have looked
As mentioned, there were several stages to use during a performance: the main action took place on the main stage and, because it was surrounded on three sides by the audience, the apron stage made for an intimacy we do not get today on the conventional stage with a proscenium arch; soliloquies could appear to be spoken confidentially to the audience and on the large stage 'asides ' were less artificial than they often are today. The curtained recess at the back would be used, for instance, for the Capulets' tomb in Romeo and Juliet or for Desdemona's bedroom; the balcony, for Juliet's bedroom; and a trapdoor to the space below the stage would be Ophelia's grave.
There was no scenery or scene painting as such, but plenty of stage
Costumes
English dress during the age of Shakespeare reflected the vitality and the high points of the period. Although the upper classes and merchants of earlier eras had dressed in rich and colorful fabrics, the sixteenth century saw a greater elaboration in dress. The names of parts of the Elizabethan wardrobe indicate their foreign origins: French hose, French hood, Venetians, Spanish bonnet.
Elizabethan upper class men and women dressed more for display than for comfort and even their undergarments were designed to contribute to their appearance. The garment worn next to the skin by both sexes was a shirt, though in the case of the women it was called a 'smock' and was ankle- length. There is some evidence that men wore drawers called 'trousers'.
Elizabethan clothing was very intricate and the amount of time that must have been consumed in donning costumes with so many independent parts to be tied or pinned together must have been a marvel to the modern observer. The main feminine garment usually consisted of at least two parts: bodice and skirt (known as a kirtle or petticoat). A triangular piece known as a 'stomacher' formed the front section and was joined to the bodice proper at the sides by ties, hooks, or pins.
A variety in materials, colour and ornaments characterised Elizabethan women's outer garments. Women delighted in gorgeous dress, but despite the richness of their attire, men frequently outshone them in complexity of costume and the variety of cuts that contemporary fashion provided.
Any part of the costume was likely to have been decorated with braid, embroidery, pinking (pricking in patterns) slashing or puffing, or it might have been encrusted with pearls, jewels, or spangles or trimmed with lace or artificial flowers. Men's clothing like that of women was also ostentatious. The many parts of male attire contributed to the ornate and colourful effect of the ensemble. Men even wore hats indoors. Feathers and jewels were normal ornaments. A small flat cap like a beret with a narrow brim was often worn by craftsman and by London citizens. Men's hair styles varied greatly. Sometimes the hair was cut closely at the sides, but it could be brushed up and held with gum, or perhaps curled over the head.
The costumes and sets of Shakespeare's time influenced the production of the plays. The costumes aided in the visual affects of the plays as did the lighting and the sound effects. The stages and sets created a realistic setting for a specific location. The different style of stages were changed to the rapid growth of Shakespeare's plays.
However, accurate information concerning the clothes worn in the early productions is unfortunately deficient. It is believed that even in a play set in ancient Rome for example, the actors wore contemporary dress. There was little attempt to present historical accuracy.
There is little doubt that theatre of the time influenced contemporary life in many ways; in much the same way that the motion pictures have had a striking effect on life throughout the twentieth century. 'Pictures are louder than words' goes the old adage. Elaborate scenery, props or computer-generated imagery nowadays can set a scene, strike a mood or introduce and tell us something about a character. Shakespeare had to do these things by the words that he used in his plays and by what his characters spoke. In Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare sets the scene by what Troilus says, thus informing his audience about where the play takes place and the mental state of the character:
Why should I war without the walls of Troy
That find such cruel battle here within?
Outdoor theatre performances always took place in natural light so Shakespeare had to establish different times of day and night by the words his characters spoke. Examples are: "The moon shines bright" from A Merchant of Venice, or: "The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve" from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Again from Troilus and Cressida, when Achilles is about to kill Hector he exclaims:
Look Hector, how the Sun begins to set;
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels,
Even with the vail and darking of the Sun,
To close the day up, Hector's life is done.
Here Shakespeare uses his description of time to reinforce the action, using the factual time statement on one level and employing it as imagery on another.
Duration of Time is also effectively conveyed through the words of the play and we are frequently urged through a considerable period of time in a matter of minutes by constant time references. Take for instance, the murder of Duncan in Macbeth Act 2, Scene 1. It begins with a discussion between Banquo and Fleance:
Banquo. How goes the night, boy?
Fleance. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.
Banquo. And she goes down at Twelve.
Fleance. I take't 'tis later, sir.
The scene then progresses through, "the king's a-bed" . . . "Good repose", to the knocking on the door and Macduff and Lennox greeting Macbeth with "Good-morrow, noble sir!" The best example of this way of dealing with time is to be found in Marlowe's Dr Faustus where, in the last scene over a period of some ten minutes, the audience is taken through the final agonising hour of Faustus' life from the moment he exclaims:
Ah, Faustus!
Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damned eternally,
to the closing moments of his life when he is dragged away by devils.
Everything had to be conveyed to the audience through words and there is little doubt that the audience had better memories and probably higher powers of attention than people do today, so that they took in and retained the information given to them. Most people in Shakespeare's day could not read or write so they had to rely on word of mouth and on memory; this is in evidence in Romeo and Juliet when the Servant is sent to bid Capulet's guests to dinner. He can't read the list which he has been given and he asks Romeo to read it to him; he hears it read once and then goes off to find the guests; yet, there are well over thirteen people on the list so his memory must have been extremely retentive!
There were no theatre programmes so plays were often preceded by a 'Dumb Show' which was in effect a sort of synopsis of the action about to take part in the main show. Though there is no evidence that Shakespeare's own plays had such a preliminary, he makes such use of this convention in ' The Mousetrap' in Hamlet.
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