"A Plague on Both Your Houses!"

London suffered several outbreaks of plague from the medieval period up to late in the Elizabethan period.  The relatively high populations density combined with London's growing importance as a European port city to make the area particularly susceptible.  In one outbreak alone, a third of London's population died.  The most recent outbreak had been in January of 1593, the year the movie is set in.  Any time an outbreak was feared, most public places were immediately closed to try and prevent the spread of disease.  In reality, though, there were a number of court officials who, much like Master of Revels Tilney, held the theatre in particularly low regard and would close the theatres at the drop of a hat.

It's a little interesting in the context of SiL that one of the last plays --if not THE last--performed in London before the January outbreak closed the theatres was Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris, a dramatization of the slaughter of some French Protestants in Paris in 1572 .  This is the play that Marlowe was supposedly working on during the movie, and he tells Burbage as he leaves for Deptford that Marlowe will give Burbage Act V as soon as he gets paid.  I suppose there was a little poetic license taken just so Will, saddled with "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter," could wistfully comment, "Good title."

Back to the Viewer's Guide

Home | Lit & Film |  Bialystock & Bloom  |  The Bookbag  |  Links  |  Meet the Author!