'ShakesP's World'

Ok so from reading Shakespeare's World, there were a few facts that stood out to me from everything else. The fact that during that time there were no hospitals like we have today and almost all birth's and deaths happened at home. But thats not the worst part. People had no way of physically relieving pain and suffering (which i can imagine is horrific) so they used liquor as a substitute but really didn't help any. That fact also reminded me of the movie 'John Adams' (about the second president of the United States). There was a scene where a woman had breast cancer so her breast had to be cut off, but not the way a hospital today would do it. Two men had to hold her down and cut off her breast but before they did it, they had the woman down half a bottle of Vodka. It was interesting to read that married woman didn't have the same privilages that single woman did. Single women could own land and sue people without a male guardian but married women couldn't? I thought it would be the other way around (shocking). Another thing that was interesting to me was the way that people would be punished. There were all of these wierd methods used like the 'Skimmington Ride', riding on a donkey backwards? how did they come up with that?? and public humiliation. I think Shakespeare would have used some of these things to put his writing and plays together. I also think that some of his insiration came from depressing times like the Plague since almost all of his plays are about tragadies and deaths. It made his work believable and strong.