ABSTRACT
The early modern theatre showed young people the viability of co-opting elders' tactics to achieve their goals in spite of elders' restrictions. Furthermore, the sight of young people joining forces with one another, or even merely the articulation of the common interests that bound young characters together, offered hope to those in the audience who repeatedly were reminded of the importance of their unquestioning submission to their elders. Elders' social position meant that they were receptive to plays that addressed the actual or attempted abuses of older people by the young. The stage showed older people effectively intervening in young people's lives by dramatizing the power of elders on their deathbeds and modeling effective advice-giving techniques. The expanding city and its newly established commercial theatre provided a welcoming environment for capitalism, an economic system that razed traditional social hierarchies, such as those based on age, in favor of market concerns.
