The fear of "disorder" "had significant political ramifications. The proscription against trying to rise beyond one's place was of course useful to political rulers, for it helped to reinforce their authority. The implication was that civil rebellion caused the chain to be broken, and according to the doctrine of correspondences, this would have dire consequences in other realms," whether the king was good or bad ("The Great Chain of Being," CUNY Brooklyn, 2009). Because rebellion was a sin against God, the whole order of the universe would be thrown in disarray if people rebelled against a sovereign, and this disturbance would be reflected in disturbances in the animal world and the heavens. "The need for strong political rule was in fact very significant, for the Renaissance had brought an end for the most part to feudalism, the medieval form of political organization," and the era oversaw the establishment of effective central governments throughout Europe ("The Great Chain of Being," CUNY Brooklyn, 2009).
The sense that the hierarchical chain is disturbed can clearly be seen in Shakespeare's historical play Julius Caesar. Before Caesar is assassinated, a lioness whelps in the street, Calpurnia has horrifying dreams, the dead are unearthed from their tombs, blood comes from nowhere and sprinkles on the Capital, and ghosts haunt the city. Later, to show the fact that these portents were true, the conspirators will bathe their hands in Caesar's blood. Calpurnia says: "When beggars die, there are no comets seen; / the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes" (II.2). Whether Caesar is a good or a bad leader in the play is virtually irrelevant -- very little is seen of him leading. The evil is that he is assassinated.
Works Cited
Peters, M.J. "Elizabeth I and the Elizabethan Period: a Brief Introduction
Springfield High School English Department. 1996. April 8, 2009
http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/introelizperiod.html
"The Great Chain of Being." Borrowed from "The Renaissance" at CUNY:
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/ren.html. Accessed April 8, 2009 at http://faculty.up.edu/asarnow/GreatChainofBeing.htm
"Studies in Philology 99.2 (2002): 123-151. Platinum Periodicals. ProQuest. 4 Apr. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/ An examination how Marlowe's plays often use religion as a theme, but contain irreligious implications, reflective of the strains of atheism, mysticism, and even heretical Christian sects during the time, referring to "the heated religious milieu of mid-seventeenth-century London…many people claimed to be visited by God and instructed to accomplish some religious sign or undertaking" (Moore 123). Websites Alchin,
He exemplifies the expansion of the middle class and commercialism during the era. The book is a kind of inventive biography -- little is known for certain of Shakespeare's life but Greenblatt uses the skeleton of Shakespeare's plays to fill in details of common concerns of many figures of the period. Long, William J. "The Elizabethan Age: 1550 -- 1620." From Outlines of English and American Literature. April 4, 2009. http://www.djmcadam.com/elizabethan-age.html This
But Shakespeare does not try to render Republican Rome in faithful and accurate historical detail. "Peace! count the clock," says Brutus (2.1) although the play is ostensibly set during ancient times, and the practice of bear-baiting is referred to when Octavius says "We are at the stake / And bayed about by many enemies" (4.1)The entertainment of bear-baiting, a reminder of the brutality of the Elizabethan age, was even
Theatre was not only popular for itself, then, but also for the opportunities it afforded the audience for social interaction and establishing hierarchy and dominance in a world where such social, economic, and political identities were in a state of massive flux. From base to cultured, rich to poor, art to ostentation, it is the various contradictions inherent to Elizabethan theatre that made it such a popular form of entertainment
A hut on top of the 'Tiring House' was there for apparatus and machines. Flag above the hut was there to indicate concert day. Musicians' veranda was beneath the hut at the third level and spectators would have to sit on 2nd level. (the Elizabethan Theatre: Introduction to Theatre Online Course) The performance sites are also original. First managed in suitable public places like inn courtyards, in the fashion of
History Of Corrections Humankind, all through recorded history, has actually created innovative methods to "punish" their own kind for legitimate and even apparent transgressions. Amongst tribal communities as well as in much more developed cultures, this kind of punishment may include, amongst various other tortures, lashes, branding, drowning, suffocation, executions, mutilation, as well as banishment (which within faraway areas had been equivalent to the dying sentence). The degree related to the
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