PODCAST TRANSCRIPT Introduction to the Elizabethans

INTRODUCTION

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Introduction to the Elizabethans

This podcast helps you to understand what England was like at the beginning of the period 1580–1601.

Francis Drake:Good afternoon,sir. My name is Francis Drake.I have just returned from a three-year voyage around the world.Tell me, what is the date?Is the Queen still alive?

Fisherman:Well sir, it is the twenty-sixth day of August, 1580.Our Gracious Queen still sits upon the throne, and she remains unmarried.

Francis Drake:Praise the Lord!I remember her illness in 1562 when she almost died from smallpox. I recall that there were frequent outbreaks of plague – it is a mercy that she is still with us.

Fisherman:Be careful as you pass through the port of Plymouth for there is plague here at the moment.You said you travelled around the world. Tell me, where did you visit?

Francis Drake:I have travelled to lands belonging to Spain in the South Americas.I was able to plunder Spanish ships for the Queen and I have returned bearing gifts for her of silver and gold.Indeed, my ship The Golden Hindis full of such treasure.I even claimed land in the Americas for Her Majesty and have named it ‘New Albion’.Tell me, do you still celebrate the Queen each Accession Day on the seventeenth of November?

Fisherman: Ah, yes sir, we do.Indeed, last Accession Day we had bonfires and fireworks here in Plymouth.The priest preached a sermon urging us to thank the good Lord for our Queen.

Francis Drake: I am glad such things have not changed, though I see the port of Plymouth is much changed and there has been a great deal of building work in the town.Tell me, what is that building at the edge of the town?

Fisherman:That is the new ‘House of Correction’ where the poor go to labour.It has caused a great deal of worry amongst those who have struggled with poverty.

Francis Drake:But surely this has to be better than starving?

Fisherman:I am not sure that they would agree with you.Some say it is worse than starvation.

Francis Drake:Have there been any other changes whilst I have been away?

Fisherman:Perhaps not so much in Plymouth, but in London, things have changed.There has been much building there.There are now theatres outside the city where people go for entertainment.The authorities do not like them and have tried to close them.I have heard tell of drinking and debauchery in these places.

Francis Drake:It seems that things have changed a great deal.I must get to London to see the Queen and to see these changes for myself.

This podcast is from Hodder GCSE History, Dynamic Learning, and is copyright Hodder & Stoughton.