Elizabeth I, the People's Queen: Her Life and Times, 21 Activities
PREFACE The World's a Stage IN DECEMBER 1599 all was aflutter at the court of Eliz abeth I the queen of England Her Majesty was look ing forward to a quiet Christmas Day followed by a dozen days of merrymaking with the lords and ladies who spent winter with her at Whitehall Palace on the Thames River In these dark days of December and January when there were only eight hours of day light everyone liked to party Elizabeth's Lord Chamberlain who oversaw the queen's giant household of 300 courtiers political friends and allies and assorted hangers on who attended the queen and 1 200 servants had orders to hire musicians and entertainers for the court's rev els There were 12 nights to think of and he needed to plan for music and dancing and plays He met with an actors group the Lord Chamberlain's Men to talk about an assignment They were to write and perform a play to entertain Elizabeth and her guest an Italian duke The performance would take place on January 6 the Feast of the Epiphany when Christians honored the visit of the Wise Men to the baby Jesus Elizabeth and her court also celebrated this date as Twelfth Night the final night of fun that capped the Twelve
Days of Christmas The actors got together making haste as they set their plans Dame Fortune good luck smiled on them One of the actors was a gifted playwright a man from Stratford named William Shakespeare With just a few days to go before Christmas Shakespeare sat down at a wooden table with his quill pen ink and a sheaf of papers in front of him There he wrote Twelfth Night a comedy about mixed up people living in a fantasy world One of the char acters took his name from the queen's Italian visitor William Shakespeare went on to become the Eng lish language's best known playwright Shakespeare understood how people think and act as they live their lives and he wrote about human nature in his plays and poems As he said in his play As You Like It Queen Elizabeth I and her court enjoyed Shakespeare's plays in the Globe Theatre iStockphoto HultonArchive All the world sa
And all the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances Shakespeare and the rest of the Lord Chamber lain’s Men went on stage before Queen Elizabeth on January 6 1600 He may well have wondered about the queen Elizabeth though dressed in a gown heavy with jewels and embroidery was showing her years The queen was heavily painted with white makeup but Shakespeare could see the lines etched on her face They marked a long and complex life Queen Elizabeth's very life Wash1 high drama Sur rounding her was a cast of characters kings queens lords ladies heroes villains gentlemen gentle women soldiers sailors and ordinary English folk Like Shakespeare's actors they made their entrances and exits as Elizabeth's drama unfolded Each man and woman together with the queen played against a bold brutal backdrop In the 1500s there were wars among Europe's feuding nations about how to worship God But amid this setting of strife and blood there was good news the rise of a tiny island nation called England during the Age of
See our FALSTART Henry King II The pentation of this fact only limited grew int the time of battle time Teal within a after than the lead to his Sunil and her to him and were sent to the age of life He left cheerfinal momeo and Jerrain and went Sun arol Annetter of the rival families Monteners anotugal Romney will Allies fell mostly in For anying That in a duel Revenues was batted from Verona but hearings were of Juliet's appeared death returned to in by her ne Juliers woke from her trate soon and be the sainy Romeo stable herell Characters from Shakespeare Ty plane tries to Started place in England hearts Characters from Shakespeare The series of a No 13 William Shakespeare's characters have stayed famous for more than 400 years These trading cards came in packages of tea sold in the early 1900s D Queen Elizabeth I of
