The Globe Theatre (AQA GCSE History)

What is a historic environment? - Summary

The Globe Theatre is the historic environment for the 2026 AQA Elizabethan England, c1568-1603 exam. For the historic environment for the 2025 paper, please read our guide on Hardwick Hall.

The historic environment question is a 16-mark question on the Elizabethan England c1568 -1603 course. The historic environment is a place or event from the past. 

Within this question, you will be expected to examine the relationship between a specific site, The Globe Theatre, and the key events, features or developments within the Elizabethan period. 

Your knowledge of the historic environment should cover the following aspects of the site: 

• The location 

• The function 

• The structure 

• The design 

• People connected with the site 

• How the site reflects the culture, values and fashions of the time

• How the site links to important events and/or developments of that historical period 

• How those aspects have

  • Changed from earlier periods

  • Changed or stayed the same during this period 

The question will ask “How far do you agree” with the statement outlined in the question. When The Globe Theatre was the historic environment for the 2019 Elizabethan England c1568 -1603 paper, the question was: “‘Entertainment for all was the main consequence of the development of the Elizabethan theatre.’” How far does the study of The Globe Theatre support this statement?

Background

Types of plays

• In 1558, most plays were mystery plays

  • These types of plays acted out stories of saints and passages of the Bible

• By the 1560s, mystery plays became less popular

  • Protestants disapproved of mystery plays

    • They believed that these plays were a Catholic interpretation of the Bible

  • Mystery plays caused too much conflict when they were performed

    • Catholics and Protestants physically fought each other over the content of mystery plays

• Elizabethans enjoyed non-religious plays 

  • Comedies became particularly popular

The development of theatres

• When Elizabeth became queen in 1558, there were no permanent theatres

  • Actors travelled across England in groups to perform plays in the courtyards of inns

• The government saw touring companies of actors as a problem for law and order

  • Plays attracted crowds of people who could be drunk and disorderly

• In 1572, the government passed an Act of Parliament threatening to punish actors as vagabonds if they did not have a license to perform or a nobleman as a patron

  • The Act shows that actors were not well-respected in Tudor society

  • Noblemen began to sponsor acting companies

    • In 1574, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, gained a licence from Queen Elizabeth I for a theatre company called Earl of Leicester’s Men

    • Some of the Earl of Leicester's Men formed Queen Elizabeth’s Men in 1583. This company had the royal patent and Sir Francis Walsingham supported them

• Actors began to create permanent theatres to avoid these punishments

Key Elizabethan theatres before 1599

• The government placed many restrictions on building theatres. This was because:

  • Elizabethan theatre had a poor reputation for allowing lower-class people to gather

    • Religious groups such as the Puritans believed that theatres were immoral and corrupt

  • The government believed that permanent theatres would increase crime

The Council of London’s restrictions on theatre

• By the end of Elizabeth’s reign, there were seven major theatres in London

  • These theatres housed around 40 companies of actors

  • This development of theatres was a key part of the ‘Golden Age’ of Elizabethan England

The rise of William Shakespeare

• As for many people from Elizabethan times, very little is known about William Shakespeare

  • Legal documents show that Shakespeare was baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26th April 1564

  • His father, John Shakespeare, was the bailiff of the town

    • This allowed him to send William Shakespeare to grammar school for free

  • At 18 years old, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway

  • When he was around 26 years old, Shakespeare’s name began to appear in London theatre records

• Shakespeare joined The Lord Chamberlain’s Men as an actor and principal playwright in 1894

  • Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, was the patron of this company

  • Shakespeare wrote an average of two plays a year

Location

• Richard Burbage had to close The Theatre by 1597

  • Burbage built The Theatre on land which belonged to a Puritan called Giles Allen

  • When the lease ran out in 1576, Allen refused to renew it to Burbage

    • Lord Chamberlain's Men temporarily performed in The Curtain

  • Burbage invested a lot of money and time into building The Theatre

• Burbage successfully managed to move The Theatre to Bankside, Southwark

  • A clause in the lease stated that, whatever was built on the land, belonged to Burbage

  • Allen left London to spend Christmas in his country house in Essex

  • Burbage, his actors and a group of labourers dismantled The Theatre on a cold, December night

    • Master Carpenter Peter Street put marks on all of the timbers to make it easier to reconstruct The Theatre

• In 1599, The Globe Theatre was a new theatre that replaced The Theatre 

  • Burbage built The Globe Theatre on Bankside, Southwark 

    • This was within the guidelines of the Council of London’s restrictions on where theatres could be constructed

Function

Performance

• The main function of the theatre was to perform plays

• In Elizabethan times, there were a large variety of actors 

  • Women were not allowed to act

  • By the end of the Elizabethan period, actors had risen in the social hierarchy to become respected members of society

Types of actors in Elizabethan England

• There was a variety of playwrights that became very famous in Elizabethan England

  • Playwrights were also actors in theatre companies
    

Playwrights in Elizabethan England

Who attended the theatre?

• All classes in Elizabethan England attended the theatre

  • Plays contained aspects that all classes could enjoy from those who were illiterate to high-class, well-educated audience members

• Elizabethan theatre became very popular

  • In 1595, historians estimate that 15,000 people attended the theatre each week

    • This was when there were only two theatres open

Power & Nobility

• During the Elizabethan era, the government began to recognise the power of the theatre due to its popularity

• Elizabeth and her nobles recognised the importance of controlling the theatre

Censorship

• Elizabeth’s Privy Council recommended that the government should monitor and approve all plays

  • Playwrights could potentially write slander or commit treason in their plays

  • Plays touched on sensitive themes or topics

    • Shakespeare’s Richard II showed the deposing of a king. Three published editions of the play removed Richard II's abdication scene

    • The Earl of Essex is believed to have watched Richard II before his rebellion. Historians argue that this play encouraged Essex to rebel against the queen

• The government created the role of Master of the Revels

  • This position approved all plays before their performance or publication

  • Edmund Tilney held this post from 1579 to 1610

• In 1587, The Isle of Dog, written by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson was immediately banned

  • The play may have made inappropriate comments about the Queen

  • The government arrested three actors

  • No copies of this play exist today

• The government also selected appropriate plays and theatre companies to perform for the Queen during Christmas

  • From 1568, the Lord Chamberlain’s office, through the Master of the Revels, made this decision

Patronage

• Important nobles and members of the gentry became patrons of theatre companies because:

  • They could control the types of plays published in Elizabethan England

    • The theatre became an important propaganda tool for the government

  • It could improve the public’s perception of the noble

    • When theatre companies travelled across England, theatregoers associated a good show with the noble patron

  • It could increase a noble’s fame and wealth

  • Privy Councillors gained influence over the Queen

    • If their theatre company performed for Elizabeth and excelled, they would gain her favour. This helped their political careers

    • An example of this is the Earl of Essex’s sweet wine monopoly in 1587

Noble patrons & their theatre companies

Bear-baiting & cock-fighting

• Theatres had large outside spaces that functioned as bear-baiting and cock-fighting arenas

Bear-baiting

• The owner would file the bear's teeth and then tie the animal to a post

• The organisers would release dogs to attack the bear

• Spectators would bet a large amount of money on whether the dogs would kill the bear 

  • Owners wanted the bear to win as they were expensive animals in Elizabethan times

Cock-fighting

• The sport required two cockerels

  • These animals are aggressive when they are close to another male cockerel

• The owners placed metal spurs on the cockerel's head

• The organisers would place the two cockerels together to fight to the death using their spurs or their beaks

• Spectators would bet a large amount of money on which cockerel would win

• Baiting and cock-fighting were very popular in Elizabethan England

Structure

• The Globe was unique because it was owned by and built for the actors who performed there

  • Burbage sold shares to four actors from his company to fund the new theatre. These were:

    • Thomas Pope

    • John Heminges

    • Augustine Phillips

    • William Shakespeare

• The Globe Theatre was one of the largest theatres in London in Elizabethan times

  • Historians estimate that The Globe Theatre was 30 metres in diameter with the yard being 25 metres wide

  • It could hold up to 2,000 people

• Similarly to The Theatre, The Globe was a wooden icosagon

  • The Globe was as close to a circle as Elizabethan engineering could make 

  • Shakespeare’s Henry V is the first play performed in The Globe. He wrote the line ‘this wooden O’ to refer to the shape of The Globe

• Like many theatres in Elizabethan England, The Globe was an open amphitheatre

  • Most people stood in the yard to watch the play. The yard had no roof

  • A thatched roof over the stage protected the actors from the rain

  • The seated audience members had some protection from the weather

    • The design integrated seats into the exterior walls of the theatre which had a roof

• The Globe had no lighting

  • Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed all their plays in the afternoon

• A flag placed on the roof would indicate the genre of the performance

  • This was a visual way to attract audience members to watch the play

Flag colour and genre of play in Elizabethan times

• The wooden frame would prove to be the biggest downfall of The Globe’s structure

  • In 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, a cannon fire burnt down The Globe

    • The Globe was rebuilt and reopened in 1614

• By 1642, the government closed down The Globe Theatre

  • England had gone through a civil war which had removed the monarch, making England a commonwealth

  • Oliver Cromwell governed England

    • He was a Puritan

  • Puritans believed that the theatre was immoral and wrong

    • An Act of Parliament closed down all theatres in England

• On 15th April 1644, Sir Matthew Brend knocked down The Globe

  • Brend owned the land that the theatre sat on

  • He built houses on the site

• In the 1990s, The Globe was reconstructed

  • It is not a perfect replica of the original theatre

    • Many details of how The Globe looked have been lost

  • The Globe now sits on land close to where the original theatre was built

  • It reopened to the public in 1997

Design

Design choices for the performers

• The Globe Theatre had several key design features that helped the actors in their performances

Design features of The Globe which helped Elizabethan actors

Design choices for the audience

• The experience of The Globe varied based on where they were located for the performance

  • Their position in the theatre mirrored Tudor society and ‘The Great Chain of Being’

    • Attendees who sat higher were more wealthy and powerful

    • Attendees who stood were poorer and less powerful

Seating in The Globe Theatre

Image provided by the Folger Shakespeare Library. Available at: Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, reconstruction [graphic] / … free public domain image | Look and Learn