British Entertainment in the 16th century included art, fencing, painting, the stocks and even executions. While the 16th century and early 17th century squarely fall into the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

period in Europe, that period was not only one of scientific and cultural advance, but also involved the development of changing forms of entertainment – both for the masses and for the elite. Despite the great breadth of advancements in the arts during this time, the economic conditions of this period affected the types of entertainment available. There were three classes in society: A wealthy

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

, a merchant class, and the peasantry, who were typically poor.

Aristocratic entertainment

The nobility could commission

artisans An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, s ...

to entertain them with works of art, music and theatre (Kareti, 1997). They would also enjoy or participate in the sports of

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...

, horse riding and

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

; they enjoyed extravagant parties and dances, attended the opera house, and had the best seats in the theater. At that time

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

was also a game associated with the nobility. In 1563,

Lawrence Humphrey Lawrence Humphrey (or Laurence Humfrey) DD (1525/7? – 1 February 1589) was an English theologian, who was President of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Dean successively of Gloucester and Winchester. Biography Humphrey was born at Newport Pa ...

praised the five classic sports of Greece for the nobility – "whirling, leaping, casting the darte, wrestling, running" and derided "dauncing, fayninge to instrumentes, playe at dise, chesse, or tennes."Sport, Politics, and Literature in the English Renaissance
Gregory M. Colón Semenza; University of Delaware; 2003 229 pages pp 11 et seq

Entertainment for merchants

The middle class of merchants,

wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright is ...

s, inn keepers and the like, would occasionally enjoy the fine arts, for example the theater. Blood sports were popular – including

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 ...

bull baiting Bull-baiting is a blood sport involving pitting a bull against dogs. History England Crowds in London during the Royal Entry of James VI and I in March 1604 were entertained by bull-baiting. During the time of Queen Anne, bull-baiting was p ...

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 cockfighting. Travelling troupes of actors entertained the masses. Enterprising

bards In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

would settle and build theaters – such as

William Shakespeare 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 ...

’s

Globe Theater The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...

(The Old Globe Theater History, 2005) in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Entertainment for the poor

The poor could rarely afford the theater, generally having to stand as groundlings.

Executions Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

were seen as a form of entertainment (Alchin, 2005), as was attending public humiliations in the

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

References

Bibliography

* * * *{{cite web, url=http://www.localhistories.org/witchtrials.html , title=The Witch Trials, author=Lambert, T. , year=2007, publisher=Localhistories.org , accessdate=2013-05-08 16th century

16th Century The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 ( MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600 ( MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582). The 16th cent ...