ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The plague closed London’s playhouses and forced Shakespeare’s acting company, the King’s Men, to get creative about performances. As they traveled the English countryside, stopping in rural towns that had not been stricken by the plague, Shakespeare felt that writing was a better use of his time.

Detailed explanation-2: -There were at least five major outbreaks of bubonic plague in London during Shakespeare’s lifetime and though these outbreaks didn’t reach the devastation of the Black Death, they all had a major impact on the population, particularly in towns and more populated areas.

Detailed explanation-3: -The effects of the Black Death were many and varied. Trade suffered for a time, and wars were temporarily abandoned. Many labourers died, which devastated families through lost means of survival and caused personal suffering; landowners who used labourers as tenant farmers were also affected.

Detailed explanation-4: -William Shakespeare lived in England while under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. During this time (1558-1603), England saw a rebirth in national pride, an artistic explosion and appreciation in poetry, literature, and theatre, international expansion, and victories over Spain, a powerful and despised rival.