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Question: William Shakespeare-Elizabethan Period!? (not difficult)!?
Okay so my class is studying Romeo & Juliet!. WE have to write a diary entry of a person living in the 1590s who went to a Shakespeare play!. So basically I'm writing my diary as a 17 year old catholic nun and I have a couple of questions!.!.!.!.!.!.

~Income!? Do nuns even have an income!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
~Education!? Where/how much!?
~How has religion affected my life as how people in power treat me!?!?

Any help would realllly be appreciated! Please provide sources too!.!. Thanks!!!Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Well, in England in Shakespeare's day there were no Catholic nuns!. The monasteries ahd all been dissolved in the reing of Henry VIII, and the monks and nuns had been turned out!. There might be some ex-nuns, but they would be very old women by the time 'Romeo and Juliet' was produced!.

There were still nuns in Europe, and Shakespeare's plays were performed abroad, so she might be going to see it in France or Italy or somewhere!. They might have performed it in Verona perhaps, where the play is set!.

Nuns did not have an income!. Normally, they would give a dowry to the convent (a sum of money to help with their support)!. Nuns were normally from well-off families!. A nun might be well educated, convents produced some notable female scholars, and she might be fluent in Latin!. Her day would be divided into attending church services (several during the course of the day and night), working, perhaps in the gardens growing vegetables and herbs, or in the infirmary looking after the sick, or perhaps doing embroidery of church vestments or something, and in study!. She would be living in a community of women in which there was a strtct hierarchy, the Abbess of the convent would command the obedience of the other nuns!. There would be periods of silence during the day!. She would have plenty of role-models among the senior nuns of strong, competent women who were used to managing their own affairs!.

If you want a really good fictional series about nuns which gives a very good picture of how they lived, the 'Sister Frevisse' books by Margaret Frazer are really good, the first one is 'The Novice's Tale'!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Nuns would not have gone to see Shakespeare's plays!. Www@QuestionHome@Com