E X T E n S i o n CULTURAL LONDON A question which naturally comes to mind is why William Shakespeare at one point in his life decided to leave Stratford and his family to find his fortune in london. An easy answer is that london was the capital, the scene of the political life of the country and the most important trading centre thanks to its port, warehouses1 and the enterprise of its merchants. moreover, it was the heart of all cultural life: Queen elizabeth was herself a highly educated woman; famous Henry viii had been a musician and a poet and had encouraged great painters, like Hans Holbein, to make court portraits. many noblemen of the court had composed sonnets, lyrics and poems dedicated to the Queen. everybody knew that she enjoyed theatrical performances and called acting companies to her royal palace in Whitehall. Sometimes she also used the royal barge2 to reach Shoreditch, a place outside the city walls where all the most important theatres were built. the theatrical tradition was long-standing and popular in england: it started with the liturgical dramatizations in churches (10th century) and had continued with the miracles (11th-14th centuries) about the used for carrying goods and people on rivers or canals. 1. warehouse: depot, place where goods are kept. 2. barge: a long boat with a flat bottom, 17