How Tudor London inspired literary genius

In the bustling streets of Elizabethan London, a vibrant community of writers helped shape the future of the English language and literature. These wordsmiths navigated rivalry, collaboration, public critique, and bursts of creative genius. In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Emily Briffitt is joined by Dr. Brett Grately Hirsch as they dive into the world that produced Shakespeare. Marlowe, and countless other literary voices. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today, Bret. Before we really explore this world, what exactly made Elizabethan London's literary scene so vibrant? Great question. I think it's a combination of different factors. Some of these are

cultural, some of them are socioeconomic. The tutors are really pushing for e educational reform. They're funding grammar schools across the country. So by the time we get round to Elizabeth, you've got much wider participation, much wider access to education. So being able to read is no longer the exclusive purview of the aristocracy or the clergy. Partly all of these education reforms are being pushed because with the new national Protestant religion placing so much emphasis on a direct and personal relationship to God, you want your populace to be able to read the scriptures and to participate actively in in sort of church services rather than just passively watching the Catholic priest do everything in Latin while you sit there dumbfounded and in awe. But the corollary to this is that

While you're training all these school boys to join the bureaucratic machinery or to go on to become members of the clergy, you are training them on the classics, the classical Greek and Roman authors. They're being exposed to poetry. including erotic poetry, like Ovid's Metamorphoses, which which, you know, will become one of Shakespeare's favourites. And you're also getting students to act. Performance.

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