HAMLET On The Half Shell? What Shakespeare's Audiences Snacked On During Performances

Actors in Shakespeare's day may not have had to deal with the sounds of audience members rattling ice in their sippy cups or the aromas of fast food snacks being devoured as they emote, but apparently they frequently performed classic soliloquies like "To be or not to be..." and "Is this a dagger which I see before me..." while looking out at a houseful of people shucking oysters.

As described by Anne Bramley for National Public Radio, excavations performed underneath The Rose and The Globe theaters between 1988 and 1990 uncovered large hauls of oyster shells.

The fact that Shakespeare mentions the popular shellfish in at least six plays, such as when Benedict fears being made an oyster by love in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING or when THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR's Pistol proclaims, "Why, then the world's mine oyster. Which I with sword will open," suggests that these moments were written to be performed with wink to audience members slurping their half shell treats.

Archaeologist Julian Bowsher of the Museum of London Archaeology says that evidence of grapes, figs, blackberries, raspberries and plums were also found, as well as small animal bones that suggest playgoers "could certainly have eaten a cold chicken."

There were no theatre bars in those days selling drinks and snacks, so playgoers arrived with their own treats, often sold by street vendors or purchased at a nearby taphouse.

"There was also quite clearly a mechanism for [taphouse] employees to come and sell things in the play yard," says Bowsher. "We know that in one case there was a water seller." And Paul Hentzner, a German lawyer who traveled through England during the Elizabethan era, wrote that while visiting London in 1598, he saw wine and ale for sale, as well.

Plays were also hosted by inns such as the Boar's Head in Whitechapel and the Red Bull in Clerkenwell, that "probably continued the preparation and serving of food and drink" alongside performances since they already had the facilities, Bowsher says.

"We've uncovered Shakespeare's working world," he says, "the environment he was playing and acting and writing for." People were "having a boisterous time... busy eating and drinking and enjoying the show."

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