My British Empire

  Chapter 101 Watching Drama

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   "Master! Do you need me to buy a ticket for you?" Gay looked at Edward and kept observing the four theaters, and asked with a wink.

   "Yes? You can buy a few tickets to the Rose Theater! Let's go and see it!"

  Edward thought about it, and finally chose the Rose Theater. Roses have a special meaning to him.

   And more importantly, the coat of arms of the Tudor royal family is composed of red and white roses.

  Hearing that Edward agreed, Baron Smith immediately walked to the ticket office with a haughty look.

  Seeing the middle-aged man in aristocratic attire walking over swaggeringly, the crowd lined up stared at him in unison, the expressions of surprise on their faces could not be stopped.

   "My lord! I don't know what you need me to do?"

  A thin, middle-aged man with mischievous eyebrows and mischievous eyes walked over with an apologetic smile, with a doglike look on his face.

   "Well! Buy me three copies of this rose theater, this is for you!"

   Baron Smith did not have the slightest dislike for the arrival of this middle-aged man, but was rather interested.

   He took out a shilling and threw it at the nodding middle-aged man.

   "My lord, just wait here, I'll be here soon!" He said, shaking his messy long hair, and hurried to the ticket office.

   It was said to be a ticket office, but it was just a wooden hut standing upright at the corner of the theater, with a window a little smaller than ordinary windows open.

   Behind the dark curtain that smelled of tung oil, a thin man was tearing tickets for the ticket buyers.

  The ticket is a piece of rough paper the size of a palm, with a miniature picture of the Rose Theater painted on the paper, which looks very distinctive.

  Carefully tearing off three sheets from the entire drawing, the thin man lifted the curtain and stretched it out with his withered hands.

   "Hold it, here is your ticket, except for the first three rows, you can sit anywhere!"

   "En!" A man who seemed to be from a relatively well-to-do family continued with his right hand, and then responded softly, and stopped talking.

   "Let's go in!" Following the ticket, the man held an eight-year-old boy by his left hand and said to his stylishly dressed wife.

   After the family of three bought the tickets, the middle-aged man with a mischievous face leaned his arms on the window, tilted his buttocks, and stuck his head in.

  Such indecent behavior caused a young woman in her twenties to look at her with disgust and backed away, causing complaints from the people in the queue behind.

   Regardless of the complaints behind him, the man spoke directly to the ticket seller who showed a shocked expression inside.

   "Hey man, give me three front row slots."

   "No! Sir, please go to the queue first, your current behavior makes me sick!"

  The thin and thin ticket seller had a disgusted expression on his face, and even made a gesture of invitation to him.

   "Oh no, my sir, don't be so busy refusing, how about I give you two pence?"

  The man with sly eyebrows and mouse eyes said quietly, with a look on his face that I think about you.

   "Okay! Just this time." The man who sold the ticket hesitated for a while, thinking that two pence was almost a day's food expenses for his family, and then decisively agreed.

   "I'll give you a shilling, and you only need to find me eight pence!" The wretched man showed what he should have done, and took out a shilling from Baron Smith.

   "Hey! Dude, you make a lot of money!" The ticket seller looked at him and smiled, "Come to me directly if there is such a thing in the future!"

   "Yes! If there is business, I will definitely come to you! Hehe!"

  When I thought that I earned sevenpence a day, I didn't have to worry about eating for a week, so I couldn't help laughing.

   "Dude, I will come to you next time!" Holding the three tickets in his hand, the wretched man came to Baron Smith with proud steps.

   "Sir, here is the ticket you want." The wretched man bent down and said with his head down.

   "This is the first three rows, you can sit any of these gentlemen!"

   "Well, you can go!" Baron Smith knew that the price would definitely not be that much, but he wouldn't be interested in such a small amount of money, besides, the rest would be considered travel expenses!

  He knew that dignified nobles would not need to queue up like ordinary people!

   No longer looking at the wretched man in front of him, Baron Smith turned around and came to Edward, asking softly.

   "Master, the ticket is back."

   "Really? Then let's go in!"

  Edward heard Baron Smith say this, and immediately opened his legs and walked towards the middle door.

  A door to the Rose Theater, about six feet wide, was half-open, and the performances within could be faintly heard.

   In front of the gate stood two burly men who seemed to be six feet tall, and this was indeed a deterrent to the English who were generally malnourished and only five and a half feet tall.

  They are not only ticket inspectors, but also theater bodyguards. After all, in this chaotic Shoreditch area, it is difficult to do business without some guarantee of force.

   "Sir! Please show your ticket!" Among the two big men, a big man with a beard stopped Edward who was about to enter.

   "Here, remember in the future, don't put your arms around!" Baron Smith gave the two guards a hard look.

   "Here, here are our tickets!" As he said, His Excellency the Baron threw the three tickets on the table in front of the guard, his eyes sharp.

   The two froze for a moment, watching Edward and the others walk in slowly.

  Edward, regardless of the situation between Baron Smith and the guard, went straight in with curiosity.

  The gate is in the middle of the entire hall. It is an amphitheater built according to the courtyard format of the inn. There is no lighting and it can only perform during the day. The stage has no curtains, and extends into the auditorium, so you can watch the play from three sides.

  Enter from the door, and to the left is the first three rows of high-end seats. It is said to be high-end, but it is a little more spacious than ordinary seats and looks a little better.

   If you go to the right, it will occupy most of the ordinary positions. The three-foot-wide wooden chairs are neatly arranged, and the heights increase in turn, which is for the appreciation of the effect.

  According to Edward's visual inspection, there are about 600 ordinary seats, and nearly 200 premium seats.

  If you charge three pence for each ordinary position and five pence for a premium position, you can earn five pounds for a performance.

   And it is impossible to perform only one performance a day. If you perform five performances a day, you can earn twenty-five pounds a day.

  However, no matter how well it is done, it is impossible to have a full seat, so if the income of more than ten pounds per day is excluded from the venue expenses and personnel expenses, there will not be much profit left every day!

  Based on such a calculation, Edward gave up the idea of ​​opening a theater.

  British drama originated from church liturgy. In the Easter mass in the 9th century, there was an episode called "Who are you looking for?" A priest dressed up as an angel guarding the tomb of Christ, and three other priests dressed up as three women named Mary came to visit the Holy Sepulcher. They had a dialogue Singing and performing movements already have the prototype of a drama, and thus developed into a drama performed as a part of the church service, called "Liturgical Drama".

Liturgical dramas were gradually secularized during the development process. From the 13th century onwards, priests were replaced by citizens, dialects were used instead of Latin, and performances were performed outside churches. dramatic form. But the content is still mainly reenacting the stories of the Bible and the deeds of the saints, which are called mystery plays or miracle plays.

  The establishment of the Tudor Dynasty ended the long-term war.

   Since then, Britain has carried out religious reforms, and the ruling group has implemented a series of more enlightened policies. Miracle plays and morality plays continued to be popular during this period, but the religious significance in the plays weakened, and morality plays took on political overtones.

At this time, it was N. Udall's (1505-1556) "Ralph Loyster Doyster" on stage, which was the first comedy in British history, although it was In parody of Roman comedy.

   Once this drama was performed, it was well received. The people used this funny show that had never been done before to relieve the suffering in life.

  So, even in winter, the weather is relatively cold, but people from afar are still crowded. Of course, half of the high-end seats are still occupied, and there are still very few rich people.

   Coincidentally, there was a family of three sitting in front of Edward when buying tickets, and the husband was talking about the plot with his wife and son endlessly.

  The general plot is: there is a bragging knight Ralph, when he proposes to a rich widow, he is defeated by a businessman, which is not new.

  The ty of this play is that it breaks the positive image of knights since the Middle Ages, and the clown has changed from a businessman to a knight.

   Judging from its conception, what it promotes is the set of capitalism, elevating businessmen and improving the image of businessmen among ordinary people.

  Hearing this, Edward watched the drama with an entertaining mentality.

   After more than an hour, the performance of this play was over. After experiencing the rich and colorful entertainment life of later generations, Edward was completely indifferent to the baggage in this play, and applauded along with the audience.

  However, the audience present was very happy, and the applause was extremely strong.

  He looked up and saw that the family in front of them had already laughed so hard that they couldn't straighten up. Only the children followed their parents with confused eyes and clapped their hands without knowing why.

  Sitting next to Edward, Baron Smith and Andre covered their stomachs with one hand and their mouths with the other. It was obvious that the dramatic performance made them unable to control themselves.

   "Let's go, let's go backstage and have a look!" Edward glanced at the two laughing together, and said a little speechlessly.

  Standing up from his seat, Edward did not walk towards the exit, but cut through the crowded crowd and walked to the back of the performance stage. Behind him were Baron Smith and Andre.

  (end of this chapter)