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Shakespeare's World

© Meg Greene Malvasi

In writing his plays and sonnets, William Shakespeare drew ideas from many different sources. His keen eye for detail and his sharp understanding of human nature enabled him to create some of the most enduring works of drama and poetry ever produced. But his work also provides an insightful commentary on sixteenth-century values, life, history, and thought.

Shakespeare lived and wrote during that historians now call the Elizabethan Era, named for the Queen of England, Elizabeth I. During the second half of the sixteenth century, England emerged as a great power in Europe. At the same time, London, soon to become the largest city in Western Europe, was evolving into a cultural and literary center, a development in which Shakespeare played no small part. As a result, people from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and the continent were drawn to London to live and work.

During Shakespeare's lifetime, England experienced a tremendous cultural revival. The so-called English Renaissance found expression in architecture, music, literature, and drama, still among the finest flowerings of civilization in the West. Shakespeare both drew inspiration from and enhanced the high culture of the English Renaissance. But English popular culture also remained vital during this period, and here, too, Shakespeare discovered material for his plays and poems. Popular entertainment during the sixteenth century tended to be boisterous and often violent. Many men, women, and children attended the public executions of criminals that took place on a regular basis. In addition, persons of all social classes enjoyed attending theater performances and dances.

As befits a writer of tragedies, Shakespeare could incorporate into his work the terrible as well as the pleasant aspects of life. During the years 1590-1593, England, like much of continental Europe, was caught again in the deadly throes of the bubonic plague or "Black Death." The disease claimed so many lives that English society stood on the verge of collapse. Many businesses, including theaters, closed, in part to keep people from congregating and spreading the disease and in part because of the labor shortage that resulted from such widespread illness and death. As a result, Shakespeare found himself out of work. He made the most of his idleness, however, penning most of the The Sonnets, which would not be published until many years later.

Shakespeare frequently made reference to the

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