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Shakespeare: Plays and politics Shakespeare’s pressures and influences What were the factors which helped, motivated and threatened to break the Bard? James I Religion With the death of Mary I and the accession of her half sister Elizabeth I, the religion of England changed Elizabeth took the country towards Protestantism It is hard to overstate just how much of an important part of everyday life religion was during Shakespeare’s lifetime During the course of the Bard’s life people believed so strongly in either Catholicism or Protestantism that they refused to recant their beliefs even when they were burned alive at the stake Previously James VI, King of Scotland, the union of the Scottish and English crowns made him the ruler of both countries, as well as Ireland He solidified Protestantism and sanctioned the King James Version of the Bible in 1611 James was a great admirer of poetry, drama and art and it is believed Shakespeare wrote Macbeth to win his favour and, much as he did with Elizabeth, sometimes wrote to flatter one of his main patrons Formally the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the Bard’s troupe changed their name to The King’s Company and received more money and performed more regularly for James than they had for Elizabeth Politics Social mobility For centuries, English society had been a feudal one with a very clear distinction between the upper and the lower classes During the Bard’s lifetime, this began to change and a middle class was beginning to emerge – social mobility was increasing, meaning you no longer had to born a peer to become a person of wealth and influence Shakespeare himself is an example of this as, although born to a good family, he climbed the social strata through his success His own social mobility and that going on around him was an influence on his work Elizabeth I One of England’s golden monarchs returned England to Protestantism but allowed some Catholic traditions to continue and argued for greater toleration than her sister Mary had Much of her reign coexisted with that of Shakespeare and the Bard and his work became known to the queen and she became one of his patrons She was undoubtedly a major influence on him and some of his poems and plays contained passages directly aimed at pleasing her Playwrights and poets Like all creative writers, Shakespeare was heavily influenced by the great writers that had gone before him Chaucer, one of England’s greatest poets, was a major influence as seen by the fact that several of the Bard’s works were based on Chaucer poems Greek writer Plutarch also provided inspiration for his works and Shakespeare sometimes copied whole passages of his work, with only minor alterations © Getty; Thinkstock; Alamy; Corbis; Mary Evans Two main forces were at play during Shakespeare’s lifetime in England: the monarch and religion The monarch held ultimate power over the life of their citizens, literally the power of life and death Staying on the right side of those in power was obviously a strong influence on the Bard and his plays as it was vital for his career and for his life that he remained in the good graces of those in power 127