Daily Life During The Reformation (26 page)

THEATER

Mystery plays, that is, medieval religious dramas based on
the Bible, continued to be performed during the Renaissance and Reformation in
public squares, chateaux, upper class homes, and in some abbeys throughout
Europe. Comedies, farces, ballets, and reproductions of Greek and Roman
classics became more popular. In France, the upper classes sat in the boxes
overlooking the galleries often paying nothing. They imperiously announced
their name and went to their box. Their servants did the same. Below sat or stood
the commoners, workers, pages, clerks, and thieves. These people came to the
theater around noon although the performance did not begin until two o’clock.
They fought over seats and often turned the place into a rowdy brawl before the
play began. Playwrights were careful about what they wrote: a satire on a
prominent figure or the Church might delight the crowd but land the author in
jail.

The nature of stage plays began to change during the
Reformation. Instead of depicting stories of heroines who preferred death to
losing their virginity, dramas concentrated more on the benefits of marriage
and family life. The medieval passion plays, the dramatic presentation
depicting the trial, suffering, and death of Jesus and the resurrection,
continued to be performed at Easter, but other mystery plays dedicated to
miracles, the flood, and other biblical stories that were sometimes staged by
the various guilds, waned in popularity in Protestant areas.

Felix Platter’s memoirs mention theatrical productions in
Switzerland. In Basel, attending was free of charge, and the plays were
performed in venues such as the fish and grain markets and at the university
gymnasium. Their subject matter included religious themes taken from both the
New and Old Testament, such as the conversion of St. Paul and Christ’s
Resurrection, as well as the “Ten Ages of Man” about European culture, and a
play entitled “Hamanus” that propagated Lutheran beliefs. In Basel, Latin
comedies by Plautus and Terence were also staged.

In England, actors were regarded with suspicion by the
authorities who considered them worthless. After 1572, actors had to have a
license. Plays were generally put on in market squares. In 1576, the first
theater was built by James Burbage. Those who could afford the best seats were
shielded from the weather, but most stood in the open air. Boys played women’s
parts, and there were no female actors.

Elizabeth I was a patron of arts and literature and loved
watching plays, masques, and other dramatic performances. She had her own
company of actors, The Queen’s Players, who often performed for her and her
courtiers.

ENGLAND

There was much literary activity at this time with writers
such as Shakespeare, John Milton, and John Bunyan. After the advent of printing
in 1476, books became cheaper and reading popular among the educated.

Elizabeth I also enjoyed hawking and hunting and would hunt
deer and stags with her courtiers, and when the unfortunate animal was caught,
she would be invited to cut its throat. In 1575, the French Ambassador reported
that she had killed “six does” with her crossbow. The queen and her courtiers
would often have a picnic in the forest while hunting.

Like the rest of Europe, the Elizabethans had no concept of
animal cruelty, and enjoyed a whole manner of violent animal “sports,” such as
bear-baiting (where dogs were trained to attack a bear chained to a post),
cock-fighting, and dog-fighting.

The queen also enjoyed watching a game of tennis,
especially if one of her favorite courtiers was playing. Once she even dressed
up as one of her ladies so that she could secretly watch Robert Dudley compete
in a shooting match, and afterward, she surprised him by revealing her
identity.

Elizabeth had a love of learning and reputedly studied two
or three hours a day. She read books in Latin or French and translated classic
works into English. She also wrote poetry, and a few of her poems are still
extant. Embroidery was a popular pastime for women, and the queen sometimes
spent an evening embroidering with her maids of honor and ladies in waiting.
There were also games they could play on rainy days or winter nights, among
them backgammon, chess, and cards. Darts was also enjoyed by the nobility.

Christmas, an elaborate occasion in England, was celebrated
with strong ale, feasting, and a carnival atmosphere. In poorer houses, games
such as shoe-the-mare were played, in which a girl was chased around the house
by those attempting to shoe her. Some young men played a version of football
with few rules. Goal posts were set far apart, and the field often included
woods and streams. Injuries were common.

Holidays

The holiday period extended to the twelfth night after
Christmas, a time when lord, lady, servants, and workers mingled freely as
equals in the same halls and took part in the same games. The poor visited the
great houses and begged for ale, which was freely given. A huge yule log was
dragged into the house and set alight in the fireplace to ward off evil
spirits, mingling its light with the many candles on the sideboards. As the log
burned, family, friends, and domestics consumed quantities of yule dough, cake,
and boiled wheat in milk flavored with sugar, spice, and raisins. After
Christmas, dancing, masked balls, bowling, and children’s games carried on the
festivities. Among poor houses, plays were performed by door-to-door troupes of
traveling actors and musicians.

New Year’s Eve was celebrated by feasting and drinking one
another’s health, and New Year’s Day was celebrated by an exchange of gifts in
the home. In cities people went to neighbors’ houses at midnight to wish them
good cheer.

Other feast days with quantities of food for the wealthy
were Easter, followed by May Day when flowers were gathered, queens elected
from the common people, and maypoles erected bedecked with flowers. Young women
gathered morning dew to apply to their faces as a charm to protect them from
blight. People came out dressed in their best, performed Morris dances, and
took part in pantomimes.

Other Celebrations

In the tradition of the old pagan rites, June was the month
when Midsummer’s Eve was celebrated. Fires were lit at midnight in the cities
and on the hilltops to commemorate the passing of the sun god through the
highest point of the zodiac, summer solstice; and parades, merrymaking, and
pageants abounded. Pickpockets were also out in force as were the police to
maintain order. Queen Elizabeth helped to temporarily relieve the unemployment
problem by hiring workers to build the wagons for the parades, to construct
stages and stands, to collect wood for the bonfires, and later, to clean up the
streets of the city.

The harvest was celebrated on September 29, Michaelmas Day,
and the family who could afford it satisfied their appetites with a sumptuous
dinner of roasted goose, cakes, and puddings. On the eve of November 1, All
Saints (Halloween), outdoor fires were kindled; and drinking and dancing went
on through the night. It was believed that this was the night when witches and
goblins came to do their mischief.

November 11 was Saint Martin’s day when the goose was again
the centerpiece of the bountiful table; and this was followed by Saint
Catherine’s feast, a day of rejoicing along with a good deal of cider as it
coincided with the apple harvest.

The Fight between Carnival and
Lent, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1559. The painting shows the contrast between
enjoyment and drinking (the Inn, left) and of serious religious observance
(church, right). Carnival is represented by the fat man on a barrel, with a pie
on his head and with a pig’s head on a spit.

CARNIVAL

The annual carnival in most southern cities of Europe held
just before Lent was the most important of the popular festivals. Men, women,
youths, and sometimes even priests, put on masks concealing their identity and cavorted
around the towns. They played tricks on one another, made a lot of noise, and
mocked the municipal officials and even church rituals. This was the time to
forget the restraints of daily life. Floats drawn through the streets in
procession often featured giants of gargantuan proportions or awe-inspiring
figures such as bears, dragons, and a variety of farmyard animals. Participants
enacted pantomimes on street corners or on the floats. For example, a man
acting the part of Noah’s wife made it clear that she, not Noah, was in charge
of the ark. Plays were staged suggesting the rich and powerful were incompetent
fools. Magistrates were ridiculed for their decisions and lust for money.
People of high position might be shown as asses. Authorities, subjects of
farces, were expected to laugh at themselves, and perhaps better serve the
community in the future.

Anti-Catholic incidents were common in many German-speaking
cities during Carnival. Effigies of the pope, cardinals, and bishops were
especially ridiculed with such things as the devil’s horns and tails.
Interaction between social events such as carnival and Reformation was evident
in Wittenberg on December 10, 1520. That morning at the university Luther had
burned the papal bull condemning him, and in the afternoon about 100 students
staged a carnival. A float was prepared full of young men with mock papal bulls
stuck on the end of sticks or on swords.

Accompanied by music, they boisterously passed through the
streets drawing laughter from the crowds. They carried books by Luther’s
enemies such as Eck, gathered wood in the city, rekindled the fire where Luther
had burned the papal bull, and burned the books. One dressed like the pope
threw his tiara into the fire.

In some carnivals men dressed as monks pulled plows through
the streets; and women, imitating nuns, walked behind carrying babies. Certain
towns prohibited satirizing the pope; others supported it. Mock hunts of monks,
nuns, priests, and the pope delighted the citizens, sometimes ending with all
trapped in a net.

MUSIC AND DANCING

Music

Music was popular in England during Elizabethan times, and
songs were often accompanied by an eight-stringed lute. On formal occasions,
madrigals were sung that entailed several voices and guests were invited to
join in. Church and instrumental music continued to be enjoyed and after 1560,
Puritans sang psalms in their homes sometimes accompanied by an instrument. It
was not uncommon for a servant with a good voice to sing for the family.

Many villages had their own choir and bell-ringers, and the
royal court made use of high-quality choirs for the pleasure of guests or the
family. Sometimes, young boys with fine voices were taken from their homes and
forced into a choir.

Families liked to show off their daughters’ accomplishments
by having them play the virginal or harpsichord for guests. Both instruments
were household treasures and would often be highly decorated with paintings.
Musical instruments were also used as decorations in the home. A wealthy family
might display cornets, flutes, viols, violins, recorders, and even an organ to
impress company.

Dancing provided pleasure, and variations were many. The
upper classes danced the slow pavan; the faster galliard, which entailed
leaping into the air in time with the music; and the volta in which the woman
was lifted high above the floor. Lively dances also were the coranto (or
courante) and the Spanish canary. Morris dancing, a type of group folk dancing,
was popular with all levels of society.

Elizabethans loved music, and the queen was no exception.
She played the virginals and the lute, enjoyed musical entertainment,
encouraged musicians and composers, and was especially fond of dancing. She
danced the difficult and demanding galliard every morning to keep herself fit.
She also loved to dance with her courtiers and was fond of the volta.

Wandering musicians were looked down upon by upper class
patrons; but if they were good, they might on occasion play for royalty. It was
customary in taverns to demand music with the meal. The best inns had a lute, a
bandore, and sometimes the virginal to soothe and entertain the guests.