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How long did the groundlings have to stand when watching a shakespeare play?
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
Groundlings stood for as long as the play went on. Most of the plays were performed in the afternoon and evening, especially between the hours of 2 and 5 to take advantage of the light, but still allow people to return home before dark. They could leave while the play was still going, but what was the point in that?
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
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Did Shakespeare write long sentences?
Yes.
Did Shakespeare live a long life?
Well, fairly long. He was 52 when he died.
How long did Shakespeare live?
He died at the age of 52.
How did the commoners during shakespearean times understand his work?
It is a known fact that regular folk by the thousand bought tickets to go to playhouses in Shakespeare's day. They understood and enjoyed the plays--not only Shakespeare's but those by the dozens of others who were writing at the time. How, asks the modern student faced with a heavy and uncompromising book loaded with blank verse, could these uneducated working class schmos have understood what was going on? Their first theory is that Shakespeare wrote in a different language from the one we speak now. But in fact he wrote in English which is essentially the same as the language we speak now. Apart from one or two weird words (some of which Shakespeare made up so his own audience wouldn't have known them either) most of his vocabulary is exactly the same as in modern English. So that won't wash. Were the Elizabethans smarter on the average than people now? No. There are three reasons why Shakespeare's plays would be easy for the groundlings to understand. First, they did not try to read them. Scripts are not meant to be read; they are meant to be performed. Take anyone to see a Shakespeare play and they know what is going on, even when some of the language escapes them. Second, you get used to blank verse if you hear a lot of it. It becomes easier to understand with practice. The Elizabethan audiences regularly heard actors talking this way and they got used to it. Third, Elizabethans had a much longer attention span than people do now. They could maintain a focus on what people were saying even if they were using long and complex sentences. Finally, we have to allow that the groundlings may not have understood the plays as well as we think. Hamlet (who is a theatrical snob, but whatever) says that the groundlings are "incapable of anything except inexplicable dumbshows and noise."
What poetic forms do Shakespeare use?
Most of Shakespeare's poems are sonnets, but there are also long narrative poems written in couplets.
How long have people been watching theater plays?
People have been watching plays for many centuries. Ancient Egyptians enjoyed their own type of theater as well as those in the times of William Shakespeare.
What did the puritans pay to see a shakespeare play?
Nothing--the Puritans were against theatre and when they got control of the country they banned it. Instead of watching lewd entertainments like Shakespeare plays, they went to church and listened to very long sermons for free.
How long has William Shakespeare died?
Shakespeare has been dead for 395 years.
How long in history have people been watching theater plays?
Theater plays have been around for hundreds of years. Famous playwright William Shakespeare gained his claim to fame as an actor and writer during the 1500's.
What did Shakespeare do beside plays?
Shakespeare also wrote sonnets and long narrative poems
How many manuscripts of Shakespeare's have served?
There are no Shakespeare manuscripts. They were all destroyed long ago.
How long can an elephant stand after dying?
It's not how long an elephant can stand, it's how long you can stand the elephant.
How long did William Shakespeare have the globe?
When he was alive.
Did Shakespeare write long sentences?
Yes.
How long would one of shakespeare's plays usually be?
Shakespeare's plays usually run to about 3 hours.
Could have the inventor of the printing pressGutenburg have printed Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet?
No, he died long before Shakespeare was born.
Did Shakespeare live a long life?
Well, fairly long. He was 52 when he died.
