Why does Shakespeare never set his plays in elisabethean England?

Question

Shakespear was born and lived in England but his plays never play in Egland but in Italy,Scotland etc. I think his plays also are set in a time different to the one he lives in and why is this so?

Answer 1

I think it was a reaction to what was popular at the time.
Anything contemporary would have been relatively boring for an audience who would have been far more enchanted in seeing a play set in lands which many could never even dream of visiting.
In those days a trip to even Scotland would ,for most Londoners,be unthinkable.
Also whilst Shakespeare's plays are historical much of his style was analogical and a part of the entertainment was for the audience to determine where the analogies related to the then present day.
Paying customers to the Globe weren't into the Elizabethan equivalent of today's soaps.I think their brains were somewhat more receptive than ours of today

Answer 2

Shakespeare wrote his plays with full awareness of his audience and their needs. He, also, was aware of the social status of England and the Monarchy. We already know that his aim was to get rich not to criticize the government and expose bad local conditions, off course he tackled issues that sometimes exposed some social and political problems, yet the plays avoided a direct confrontation with authorities, the upper class, or social tyrants.

Another fact about him is that almost all of his plays are derived from foreign sources (Hamlet = The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd) - (Romeo and Juliet = Troilus and Cressayde* by Chaucer) - (The Merchant of Venice = The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe) and so on... Plays with events happening somewhere else and Shakespeare added some depth and wrote them in skillful verse. This applies to time as well specially in his historical plays.

Note: Plays of the time depended on the script to make belief. In other words, the words spoken mark the place, the time and the setting. The theater had no real special effects or advanced devices.

Answer 3

Shakespeare wrote, and his company performed, during the English Renaissance.
Shakespeare's earliest plays tended to be adaptations of other playwright's works and recycled older stories and historical material.Shakespeare also relied heavily on the Greek tragedies for inspiration. It was very common in this time frame for playwrights, poets and musicians to do this. Almost all of the plays written after the plague hit London are comedies, perhaps reflecting the public's desire at the time for light-hearted fare. Actually, the Merry Wives of Windsor are about Elizabethan England.

Answer 4

You might as well also criticise him because only one of his plays is set in "Modern" (ie Tudor) times. Why on Earth should this matter one jot? Shakespeare's subject is Human Nature, which is a constant, whether you observe it in Rome or Navarre of Illyria or the Forest of Arden. Or wther you set your play in 1100 BC or AD 1600.

Answer 5

He's probably like me in that way: He loves a challenge for which he can research and play an accent or something! It's really like playing when you think outside the box and reach with all your skill at the same time. It's exiting and new every time.
I mean, I didn't know the guy, obviously. I'm just going by myself. I love writing what I don't know.

Answer 6

His audience wanted to escape the realities of life in Elizabethan England, such as the several plagues that closed the theaters and political upheaval. Yes, they are set in different times but are anachronistic.