Staging Shakespeare often allows both actors and audience a chance to see the manners and mores of Elizabethan England. The plays are often staged using costumes from 1570 to 1600. Studying the costumes requires a general knowledge of period terms, and sorting out the differences between farthingales and jerkins, trunk hose and canions can seem a bit bewidering. The following pages hope to offer a simplified course on appropriate upperclass wear of the Elizabethan Period.

To learn more, do the following:

• Click on the male or female figures to learn what they are wearing.
• Click on the upper windows to see an artist's conception of Shakespeare's Globe (based on the new Globe in London).
• Click on the door to learn about the modern reproduction of the Globe Theatre.
• Click on Shakespeare to learn more about him.
• Click here to see costumes for the main characters of The Taming of the Shrew.

All pictures, copyright 1998, C. David Claudon. This web page was created by C. David Claudon, 9/8/98. Last update, April 21, 2004 .