Indoor vs.

Outdoor Theatres
● The plays we will be discussing were overwhelmingly performed in the outdoor theatres
● Indoor was popularized later
● At shakespeare’s time, the outdoor theatre connoted vagabond lifestyle
Indoor
● Private playhouses
● Small, held ~600
● Lit by Candles (and some light through the windows) and occurred later in the day
● Expensive: ticket prices cost between 6 pence and ½ crown, 2 shillings, and 6 pence
(approximately

Outdoor
● “Public’ playhouses
● Large: the Globe held ~3000
● Lit entirely by natural light so the entire audience could see each other, and occured in
the afternoon
● Cheap → the cheapest tickets (to stand) were 1 pence; to sit was 2 pence, to sit with a
cushion was 3 pence
● Mixed Audiences → apprentices and journey; wealthier people too, gentry
First Outdoor Playhouses
● The first outdoor playhouse was The Theatre, established by James Burbage (father of
Richard Burbage, the famous Elizabethan actor) in 1576
● The Curtain followed a year later in 1577; in 1587, the Rose was established on the
south of the Thames River, establishing a tradition of building outside the city limits (the
“liberties”): The Swan was built 1595 on the south side, followed by the Globe -
Shakespeare’s theatre- in 1599
● While the theatres were believed to be built in different shapes, round and polygonal
seemed to be the most popular types (likely because they accommodated the most
people, and for acoustic purposes).
Indoor Playhouse
● Under Elizabeth, the indoor/private theatres were primarily used by the boys companies;
under James I, adult playing companies were allowed to perform within city limits, and so
performed in the indoor playhouse as well.
● The Blackfriars, originally purchased by John Burbage (the same man who built The
Theatre), was used by Shakespeare and the King’s Men
Actors
● Only men were allowed to perform on the London stages; conservatives feared that
seeing women’s bodies on stage would be too enticing
● Women’s parts were played by young boys (usually ages 9-11), some of whom would go
on to perform men’s roles after they went through puberty.
● Costumes were the most expensive parts of any early modern play, and were useful in
making boys appear more like women, as well as making actors look more like the
high-status characters (kings, lords, princesses) they were playing
The Theatre Companies
● The Queen’s Men (est. 1583)
○ Elizabeth created the first royal theatre company to lessen rivalries with the
nobles, who had theatre companies play at court as a show of their own power
● The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (est. 1594)
○ Shakespeare’s primary company, housed at the Theatre and then the Globe. The
Chamberlain’s Men become the King’s Men in 1603, after receiving patronage of
King James I
● The Lord Admiral’s Men (est. 1594)
○ Marlowe’s primary company, housed at the Rose
Verse and Prose
● Early modern drama is written in a combination of ​Verse​, ​or lines with a specific rhythm
or fixed meter, and ​Prose​, lines the lack a fixed poetic meter. ​Verse​ is similar to poetry
while ​Prose​ is similar
Verse Forms: Rhythm

Number of Feet Per Line

● Trimeter: 3 feet per line
● Tetrameter: 4 feet per line
● Pentameter: 5 feet per line
● Hexameter: 6 feet per line
Blank Verse
● Early modern drama since Christopher Marlowe are primarily written in ​blank verse,​ or
unrhymed iambic pentameter lines
● The foot of one ​iamb​ is unstressed/​stressed​ (or short/​long​) and is written as - /
● Pentameter defines the ​number of feet ​ in a line. Penta- means five, so iambic
pentameter
Blank Verse and the Human Heart