Ian Mortimer's primary purpose in this passage is to inform readers about the amount of plays in London's theaters because, by knowing this facts, readers can have a better idea of how the society they are willing to know is in a certain period of time.
The author achieves the purpose of informing readers by providing real facts, he describes the attitudes the Elizabethans had and explains why they had them. In this book, Mortimer reveals all kind of information about where to eat, where to stay,but also about a country in which life expectancy is in the early thirties, people still starve to death and Catholics are persecuted for their faith.