How
did the Puritan view of culture impact the English stage?
As their name implies, the Puritans were a religious group
which, during the sixteenth century in England, wanted to purify the Church of
England. They wanted church leaders to have less power and the laity to be more
directly involved in the affairs of the Church. Above all, the Puritans wanted
the Anglican services and rituals to be simplified and less ornate. Eventually
they defied the authority of the Church leadership and demanded that every
congregation should have the right to manage itself with lay leaders. They were
persecuted for their beliefs and eventually fled first to Holland and then to
America.
The Elizabethan theater, for most of the sixteenth century,
consisted of traveling troupes who would perform wherever they could. The themes of their plays histories, like
the Faustian Chapbook, and comedies or tragedies emulating Greek and Roman to
add legitimacy (until Henry VIII's break with the Pope, all plays had been
religious ones). For the Elizabethans, these entertainments were part of the hub
of their social lives. When Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre made a more
permanent home for drama in England, both literally and figuratively, the
theater became accessible to virtually everyone--and it was often a raucous
affair.
