ABSTRACT
This is an obvious point to start with, but a very important one. William Shakespeare, just like all the other playwrights of his time working in the London playhouses, did not write with readers in mind. He wrote lines for the actors to speak which had to be understood as soon as they were heard by the audience. He had no sense that he was writing for a future readership, although of course texts of the plays were occasionally published without his explicit consent in a sort of ‘paperback’ (‘Quarto’) form (see Box 1.2, p. 23). There is also considerable evidence that Shakespeare imagined that his plays
In 1600 about 15-20 per cent of those living within reach of London’s theatres were regular playgoers. There is considerable dispute about the make-up of the audiences at the public playhouses, but it seems that the theatre was not solely an aristocratic and middle-class interest, although the gentry did attend. Many of the middle class were in fact Puritans and opposed the theatre. Recent research indicates that a good number of playgoers would have been relatively uneducated: clerks, artisans, apprentices, women.
