Elizabethan dance
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In the Elizabethan era (1558–1603), there was a wide range of leisure activities entertaining both the nobility and the common classes. Among these leisure activities were animal fighting,
team sports A team sport includes any sport where individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win or cooperate to entertain their audience. Team members act together towards a shared objective. This can be done in a number of ways s ...
,
individual sports An individual sport is a sport in which participants compete as individuals. However, team competitions in individual sports also occur, such as the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup. Overview Examples *Athletics *Badminton *Billiards *Bodybuildin ...
,
game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...
s, dramatics,
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
and
the arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...
.


Blood sports

A variety of pastimes which would now be considered
blood sports A blood sport or bloodsport is a category of sport or entertainment that involves bloodshed. Common examples of the former include combat sports such as cockfighting and dog fighting, and some forms of hunting and fishing. Activities charact ...
were popular. Cock fighting was a common pastime, and the bets on this game could amount to thousands of pounds, an exorbitant amount of money in those days, and many respectable gentlemen lost all their money this way.
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
had a royal cockpit built at one of his palaces. Young boys on Shrove Tuesday would normally bring in their own fighting rooster and would spend the afternoon at school placing bets on which rooster would win. The most famous cock-pit in London was in
Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks ...
, and most towns and villages had their own pit. There were other common animal sports:
bear-baiting Bear-baiting is a blood sport in which a chained bear and one or more dogs are forced to fight one another. It may also involve pitting a bear against another animal. History Europe Great Britain Bear-baiting was very popular from the 12th ...
,
bullfighting Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms wh ...
,
dog fighting Dog fighting is a type of blood sport that turns game and fighting dogs against each other in a physical fight, generally to the death, for the purposes of gambling or entertainment to the spectators. In rural areas, fights are often staged i ...
, and
cock throwing Cock throwing, also known as cock-shying or throwing at cocks, was a blood sport widely practised in England until the late 18th century. A rooster was tied to a post, and people took turns throwing coksteles (special weighted sticks) at the bird ...
. Bowls was also extremely popular in the Elizabethan era.


Hunting

Various types of hunting were popular with the nobility. The stag, boar, roe, buck, badgers, otters, hares, and foxes were also hunted. Greyhounds and Irish Wolfhounds were common for hunting. For the upper class,
hawking Hawking may refer to: People * Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist *Hawking (surname), a family name (including a list of other persons with the name) Film * ''Hawking'' (2004 film), about Stephen Haw ...
was a popular sport. Much time was spent on training a hawk or falcon, and keeping it in good condition, requiring many pieces of expensive, specialized equipment, making it too expensive for the lower classes. Queen Elizabeth I was very fond of both hunting and hawking


Team sports

Elizabethan style
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
was comparable to the present-day sports of
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
and
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
. Two teams rushed against each other, trying to get the "ball" in through the goalposts. "Cudgels" was also a popular sport among young men. A type of stick fighting, it was a sport effectively training for sword fighting, but using wooden
waster In martial arts, a waster is a practice weapon, usually a sword, and usually made out of wood, though nylon (plastic) wasters are also available. Nylon being much safer than wood, due to it having an adequate amount of flex for thrusts to be ge ...
s or simple cudgels.


Individual sports

Running, jumping, fencing, jousting,
archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...
, and
skittles Skittles may refer to: * Skittles (confectionery), a brand of fruit-flavor chewy candy, distributed by Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company *'' Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical'' * Skittles (sport), the game from which bowling originated * Skittles (ch ...
were also practiced, with fishing as the most relaxing and harmless pastime. Children enjoyed playing
leap-frog Leapfrog is a children's game in which players vault over each other's stooped backs. History Games of this sort have been called by this name since at least the late sixteenth century.whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of ''trump'' ...
) being popular.
Dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...
, backgammon and
draughts Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...
were also played. Men mostly played these games as it was deemed inappropriate for a woman to gamble; however, Queen Elizabeth the first enjoyed playing cards and was an avid gambler. Elizabethans bet on these games with different currencies, mainly including money.


Music and dance

Music was greatly enjoyed throughout this era, as seen through quite a few family evenings including musical performances. Children were taught to sing and dance at a very early age and became used to performing in public during such evenings. Keyboard instruments such as
harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
s, clavichords, dulcimers and virginals were played. Woodwind instruments like woodsy, crumhorns,
flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
s and stringed instruments such as
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
s and rebecs were also widely used. Court dances included the pavane and galliard, the
almain An ''allemande'' (''allemanda'', ''almain(e)'', or ''alman(d)'', French: "German (dance)") is a Renaissance and Baroque dance, and one of the most common instrumental dance styles in Baroque music, with examples by Couperin, Purcell, Bach an ...
and the
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, whilst among popular dances were the branle, ''The Barley-Break'' (a setting by William Byrd is in My Ladye Nevells Booke), ''Nobody’s Jig'' (of which a version was set by
Richard Farnaby Giles Farnaby (c. 1563 – November 1640) was an English composer and virginalist whose music spans the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque period. Life Giles Farnaby was born about 1563, perhaps in Truro, Cornwall or near London. ...
) and the ''Shake-a-Trot''.


Theatre

The plays were an extremely popular pastime, with
William Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
plays taking the lead in audience. Quite a few theatres were built in and around London at this time including " The Globe", "
The Swan A swan is a bird of the genus ''Cygnus'' (true swans) or ''Coscoroba'' (coscoroba swans). Swan, swans, or The Swan may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Film and television * ''The Swan'' (1925 film), a 1925 silent film * ''The Swa ...
" and "
The Fortune ''The Fortune'' is a 1975 American black comedy film starring Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, and directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Adrien Joyce focuses on two bumbling con men who plot to steal the fortune of a wealthy young heir ...
". Little scenery was used but props were used widely. The props were quite realistic, with innards of pigs being strewn across the stage when a man's body was shown to be cut open.


Footnotes

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Elizabethan era Sport in England History of sports Leisure