8-3Occupations

HOW DID PEOPLE MAKE A LIVING IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND? WHAT WERE COMMON OCCUPATIONS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND? //Prepared By Clifford P.// The lives of Elizabethan people and the lives of Milwaukee people has their similarities and their differences. In general the jobs they had are a lot like the jobs we have today, even though were running out of jobs for people, that'd a different story. One of the same jobs that they had and we have is a barber. During their time a barber would do much more than a barber would do today. Their barber would also serve as a dentist, a surgeon, and even sometimes blood givers. Today usually the only thing barbers do today is cut hair. I think my barber, Ramone is a great barber working at Phat Cutz because he put original designs in the back of me head without me having to describe one to him. Another Job that they had that was like us was a clothier. today we call them designers. The thing different with wearing types of clothes today and wearing types of clothes then was that their were laws defining what you could own and what you could wear in regards to clothing. Those laws were called, "Statutes of Apparel," and were enforced by the Queen herself in Greenwich on June 1574. The intent was to maintain social structure as well as to keep a firm restrain on the people's expenditure towards clothing.Basically, Elizabethan Clothing was a part of the social order. It also indicated weather you were a rich wealthy upper-class person, or a lower level unhealthy peasant all by what you are wearing. it makes no sense for a poor peasant to wear high, upscale, costly clothing when they should be using their for other necessary things.

Even though their were normal jobs that people in our society have today, their were also very bizarre jobs that no one in their right mind would think about applying for a job like that. One bizarre job was being a gong farmer. Gong is another term referring to a person's feces or poop. A gong farmer was a person who would go to outhouses and clean out human excrement the a person has left behind. Gong farmers were only allowed to work at night and the waste they collected, known as night soil had to be taken outside the city or town boundaries. As flushing water closets became more widely used, the profession of gong farming disappeared. Today we would refer to a flushing water closet as a toilet. Another bizarre job is a jester. A jester was a fool who entertained the Queen and the court. When your playing poker who blackjack you usually can see the jester on one of the playing cards. On the Joker card. A joker was another name for a jester. //Work Cited// Boyce, Charles. Shakespeare A to Z. 1. New York: Bantam Division Dell Publishing Group Inc., 1990.

M. Fellows, Virginia. The Shakespeare code. first snow mountain Press. Gardiner, Montana: Snow Mountain Press, 2006.

Pearce, joseph. The Quest For Shakespeare. San Franscisco: Ignatius Press, 2008.