London, with less than 200,000 inhabitants, was
still a medieval city in appearance in Shakespeare's time. It was
surrounded by a defensive wall, guarded by the Tower, and crowned by the cathedral.
The city proper lay on the north of the Thames, and the wall made a
semicircle of some two miles, from the Tower on the east to the Fleet
ditch and Blackfriars on the west. Seven gates pierced the wall to the
north, and the roads passing through them into the fields were lined
with houses.
Westward along the river were great palaces, behind which the
building was practically continuous along the muddy road that led to
the separate city of Westminster. The Thames, noted for its fish and
swans, was the great thoroughfare, crowded with many kinds of boats
and spanned by the famous London Bridge.
By one of the many rowboats that carried passengers-to and fro, or
on foot over the arches of the bridge, between the rows of houses that
lined it, and under the Tudor London heads of criminals which
decorated its entrance, you might cross the Thames to Southwark.
By turning west, past St. Saviour's and the palace of the Bishop of
Winchester, you were soon on the Bankside, a locality long given
over to houses of ill fame and rings for the baiting of bulls and
bears.
The theaters, forbidden in the city, were built either in
the fields to the north of the walls, or across the river close by the
kennels and rings. Here, as Shakespeare waited for a boatman to
ferry him across to Blackfriars, the whole city would have spread
before his eyes, in the foreground the panorama of the beautiful
Thames river, beyond it the crowded houses, the spires of many
churches, and the great tower of old St. Paul's.
It was a city of narrow streets, open sewers, wooden houses, without
an adequate water supply or sanitation, in constant danger from fire
and plague. But dirt and disease were no more prevalent than they
had been for centuries; in spite of them, there was no lack of life in
the crowded lanes.
The great palaces were outside the city proper, and there were few
notable buildings within its precincts except the churches. The
dismantled monasteries still occupied large areas, but were being
made over to strange uses, the theaters eventually finding a place in
Blackfriars and Whitefriars.
The Strand was an ill-paved street running behind the river palaces,
past the village of Charing Cross, on to the royal palace of Whitehall and to the Abbey and Hall at Westminster.
The walls had ceased to be of use for defense, and building
constantly spread into the fields outside. These fields were favorite
places for recreation and served the purpose of city parks. The
Elizabethans were fond of outdoor sports and spent few daytime
hours indoors.
The shops were open to the street, and the clear spaces at
Cheapside and St. Paul's Church-yard seem to have been always
crowded. St. Paul's, although still used for religious services, had
become a sort of city club or general meeting place. Mules and
horses were no longer to be found there as in the reign of Queen
Mary, but the nave was in constant use as a place for gossip and
business.
The churchyard was the usual place for holding lotteries, and here
were the shops of a majority of the London booksellers. In its
northeast corner was Paul's Cross, the famous pulpit where the
wishes of the government were announced and popularized by the
Sunday preachers. And here the variety of London life was most fully
exhibited.
The processions and entertainments at court, the ambassadors from
afar, the law students from the Temple, the old soldiers destitute after service in
Flanders, the seamen returned from plundering the Spanish gold fleet,
the youths from the university come to the city to earn their living by
their wits, the rich merchant with his chain of gold, the wives who
copied the court ladies with their enormous farthingales and ruffs, the
court gallant with his dyed beard and huge breeches, the idle
apprentices quick to riot, the poor poets in prison for debt, these, and
many more colourful groups and individuals figured largely in
Shakespeare's London.
Fashionable men sold their acres to put costly clothes on their
backs. Clothing was absurd and ran to extreme sizes of ruffs,
farthingales, and breeches, or to gaudy colors and jewels. Enormous
sums were spent on feasts, entertainments, and masques, especially
in the reign of James I.
Cleanliness did not thrive, perfumes took the place of baths, and
rushes, seldom renewed, covered the floor even of the presence
chamber of Queen Elizabeth. But the comforts and luxuries of life
increased and spread to all classes. Tobacco, potatoes, and forks
were first introduced in Shakespeare's time. Building improved,
streets were widened, and coaches became so common as to cause
much complaint. If some poets spent much time in the debtors'
prison, others lived well, and some actors gained large fortunes.
The importance of the court in Elizabethan London is not easy to
realize to-day. It dominated the life of the small city. Its nobles and
their retainers, its courtiers and hangers-on, made up a considerable
portion of the population; its shows supplied the entertainment, its
gossip the politics of the hour.
It was the seat of pageantry, the mirror of manners, the patron or the
oppressor of every one. No one could be so humble as to escape
coming somehow within its sway, and some of the greatest wrecked
their lives in efforts to secure its approval. It is no wonder that the
plays of Shakespeare deal so largely with kings, queens, and their courts.
