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Sometime in the late 1580s a young actor city as Shakespeare saw it.
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London.
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the finest poems and plays in the English to write about faraway places, Athens or
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So what happened here in London to ideas, the centre of political power, and that
transform the son of a glove maker into one world I think is the world of Shakespeare’s
of the world’s greatest writers?
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plays.
But what was London like when William But at the end of 1598 Shakespeare’s troop
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the financial district. The rest of London was theatre apart, brought the wood, piece by
not very much developed. The West End piece, down to the banks of the River
didn’t exist, Covent Garden was still a
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very busy, bustling place. There were lots of Southwark, an area of London where the
people coming into the city looking to make land was cheaper, and rebuilt the theatre
a living. It was a very diverse population, lots and called it The Globe.
of immigrants, different social classes living
closely together, the very rich to the very But today, much of Shakespeare’s London
poor, and all of these people were hungry for has disappeared. Only the foundations of
the original Globe Theatre remain.
©2016 British Council. The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are
registered in England as a charity. http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/shakespeare/london-1-piece-piece 1
Dr Chris Laoutaris: We’re opposite a memorable plays, including the great
square which looks quite plain, office blocks tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and
and apartment blocks around us, but this is Macbeth.
the site of the original Globe Theatre which
opened in 1599. This is where this Ben: What was their working daily life like
magnificent theatre once stood. here?
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Ben: With the arrival of the Globe Theatre, Chris: Shakespeare would have been
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how did Shakespeare and his actors’ lives working very hard indeed. Because plays
change? changed very, very often, this meant
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Chris: Shakespeare for the first time had quickly and under very demanding
some real financial stability behind him. He conditions.
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earning quite a bit of money by this time, Shakespeare continued his playwriting
and I think from this foundation of financial almost until he died in 1616. But his work
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security his creativity flourished. During the lived on thanks to his friends who saved
first six or seven years of the opening of the many of his plays in a book now known as
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©2016 British Council. The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are
registered in England as a charity. http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/shakespeare/london-1-piece-piece 2