Shakespeare

London during Elizabethan Era

London was a crammed, bustling city that constantly smelt of river water. The Thames was the cause of this smell, but without this river London would not have throve as it did. The river Thames was everybody’s way of transportation between both sides of London. Luckily by the time of Tudor’s London Bridge had been built and citizens could use the bridge, there were also boat-taxis. There was commerce on the river, but also gilded barges, sometimes with royalty on them. Chained to the banks there were sometimes criminals who had to abide to the washings of three tides, as their punishment for whatever crime had been committed. The streets of London were narrow, cobbles, and slippery with refuse lining the streets. All the houses were crammed together on these narrow streets, and there were a lot of clandestine alleyways. There was no drainage, so people had to resort to emptying their chamber pots out of their windows. Throughout the city there were many birds; these birds made their nests out of old rags and trash. Even back in Elizabethan times the city was full of excessive noise—hooves and the wheels of the coaches against the cobbles, traders yelling, apprentices scuffling around, and fights in the street. The city could not be called a sober city by any means people were always drinking ale.

Living Conditions of Various Classes

The different classes were based on the rankings of the English Court: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron. There were other people that were deemed too lonely to fit into any of these groups. The groups mentioned above were part of the upper echelon of society called, the Nobility. Other groups that existed were the Gentry, Yeaomanry, and the Poor. Social class could determine all sorts of things, from what a person could wear to where he could live to what jobs his children could get. For people in the nobility class they lived life as most people of the upper echelon today live. They had...