Crime Law & PunishmentMany crimes during the Elizabethan era were due to crimes committed and the law broken due to the desperate acts of the poor (common crimes), such as: Theft, cut purses, begging, poaching, adultery, debtors, forgers, Fraud and dice coggers. Other crimes were: Sedition, spying, rebellion, alchemy, murder and witchcraft. Punishment for these crimes would result in: Hanging, burning, the pillory and the stocks, whipping, branding, pressing, ducking stools, the wheel, starvation in a public place, the gossip's bridle or the brank, the drunkards Cloak, cutting off various items of the anatomy - hands, ears etc, and boiling in oil water or lead (usually reserved for poisoners ). The Justice of the Peace for each town Christian church was allowed to collect a tax from those who owned land in the town. This was called the Poor Rate which was used to help the poor. |
Music & TheatreMusic was a very important and popular form of entertainment for the people who lived during the Elizabethan era. Music and Elizabethan instruments could be performed by musicians, or simple songs and ballads could be sung in the villages and fields to ease the difficult or slaving tasks undertaken by the Lower Classes. All Elizabethans attended church on a Sunday. This led to the popularity of hymns and secular songs. Music had also been used to accompany poems during the Elizabethan era. The enhanced the taste for theatre as it was accompaniment by music. It was only a short step to combine the accustomed music with its verse. The importance of music to the Elizabethans was reflected in the plays of William Shakespeare who makes more than five hundred references to music in his plays and poems! The theatre was an expanding industry during the Elizabethan era. Many theatres grew in and around the City of London. The excitement, money and fame brought Elizabethan theatre entrepreneurs and actors into working in the famous Elizabethan Theatre. |
ClothingThe section and era covering Elizabethan Clothing and Fashion included extensive information from upper class Fashion - rich, sumptuous materials and elegant styles, to the clothes worn by the lower classes using basic materials. Upper Class clothing for men and women: Hair styles, Make-up, Jewellery and even Elizabethan Wedding Dress. Meaning of Colours- symbolic, religious and biblical. Lower Class clothing for men and women: People in lower class usually wore clothes that look like one-piece, and it fitted to their body so that it shows with a waistline seam. With this look, they also wore the matching bodices and some narrow skirts. |