Well-known Facts about Will

1
Well-known Facts about Will

• Great writer of England
• Plays translated into all languages, musicals,
  ballets
• Born Stratford-upon-Avon
• Well-to-do, affluent while alive
• Most quoted, other than the Bible

2
Lesser-known Facts

• Teen father married pregnant 26 year old Anne
  Hathaway when he was 18
• Deadbeat dad Left wife and children for London
  stage career
• Father of twins
• Elizabethan rapper uses rhythm and rhyme
• Plagiarism ?

3
The Competition

• Bear-baiting
• Races
• Gambling
• Music
• Drinking/socializing
• Prostitution
• Public executions

4
Conditions in London-BAD!

• Thames River polluted with raw sewage
• Trees used up for fuel
• Poverty

5
Personal hygiene/health

• Bathing considered dangerous
• Body odor strong
• Childhood diseases
• Children often died before 5 years
• Small Pox
• Bubonic Plague

6
Living Conditions

• No running water
• Chamber Pots
• Open Sewers
• Crowded

7
Clothes

• One set used all year long, rarely washed
• Underclothing slept in, infrequently changed
• Clothes handed down from rich to poor

8
Theater in London

• Performed in courtyards of inns
• The Theater-first public theater-1576
• Daytime/open air
• Limited set design
• Relied on music, sound, costumes, props and great
  description

9
The Globe

• Built in 1599
• Across the Thames- Wrong side of town
• Kings Players - Shakespeares company
• Penny admission

10
Actors

• All men
• Female parts played by young boys
• No actual kissing or hugging on stage

11
The groundling

• Poor audience member
• Stood around stage in the pit
• Women not allowed (had to dress up as men to
  attend)
• Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances

12
Romeo and Juliet

• Tragedy
• Written in 1595
• Set in Verona, Italy
• Themes parental control/rebellious teens
  fate/freewill impulsive behavior/self-control

13
Plays source

• Borrowed from a poem by Brooke-1562
• Poem found in French translation by Brooke
• Shakespeare gave story new life and beauty

14
Queen Elizabeth

• Bastard daughter of King Henry VIII
• And Ann Boleyn (2nd of 6 wives)
• Henry had Ann beheaded for treason
• Younger sister of Bloody Mary.
• Virgin Queen?
• A tease and a player

15
Her loving parents
16
The Renaissance

• 1500-1650
• Rebirth of arts, culture, science
• Discovery of New World
• Copernicus Sun-centered Universe (1543)
• King Henry VIII renaissance man (ideal)
• Reformation of Catholic Church