ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -If they paid one penny (equivalent to £1 in 2021), they could stand in “the pit", also called “the yard", just below the stage, to watch the play. Standing in the pit was uncomfortable, and people were usually packed in tightly. The groundlings were commoners who were also referred to as stinkards or penny-stinkers.

Detailed explanation-2: -Elizabethan general public or people who were not nobility were referred to as groundlings. They would pay one penny to stand in the Pit of the Globe Theater (Howard 75). The upper class spectators would pay to sit in the galleries often using cushions for comfort.

Detailed explanation-3: -The lower middle class paid a penny for admittance to the yard (like the yard outside a school building), where they stood on the ground, with the stage more or less at eye level-these spectators were called groundlings.

Detailed explanation-4: -Those who paid just one penny would be known as Groundlings, because they stood on the ground in what was known as “the yard, ” which is the area closest to the stage. For another penny, they could sit on a bench just behind the yard. For a penny more, they could sit more comfortably on a cushion.

Detailed explanation-5: -The word ‘groundlings’ was actually the name of a small fish with a large, gaping mouth. The area where they stood was known as ‘the pit’ or ‘the yard. ‘ You only paid a penny, but then you had to stand, usually uncomfortably, and often in the pouring rain, crushed against other people, to watch the play.