The noisy, smelly enjoyments of Shakespeare's London

A Swiss tourist, Thomas Platter, gives us a rare eyewitness account of what Shakespeare's theatre -- and Shakespeare's London -- was like. Platter writes in his travel diary of 1599

On September 21st after lunch, about two o'clock, I and my party crossed the water, and there in the house with the thatched roof witnessed an excellent performance of the tragedy of the first Emperor Julius Caesar with a cast of some fifteen people; when the play was over, they danced very marvellously and gracefully together as is their wont, two dressed as men and two as women.

This account suggests that the audiences of the brand new Globe Theatre found nothing incongruous in a merry jig to close off a tragedy. Nor did audiences sit in a reverent hush. Platter remarks that during the two or three afternoon performances in London theatres (each vying to be the most popular), audiences could buy the food and drink that were carried round for sale, indulge in the notorious English habit of taking tobacco, and perhaps even make overtures to the "great swarms" of prostitutes who frequented the playhouses.

We should not forget that the London theatres in which Shakespeare worked and for which he wrote were primarily about pleasure. Yet the "pleasure" experienced by Shakespeare's audiences might not necessarily be familiar to us. Platter also gives an account of a rival diversion -- cockfighting -- where spectators watch "with eager pleasure the fierce and angry fight between the cocks, as these wound each other to death with spurs and beaks." The master of the cockfighting told Platter of the practice of giving the cocks brandy before they fought, "adding what wonderful pleasure there was in watching them."

To read a more extended account of Platter's pleasures in London, see The Norton Anthology of English Literature's "Norton Topics Online" http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/16century/topic_4/tplatter.htm