Much Ado About Nothing

1
Much Ado About Nothing

• Introduction to
• Elizabethan Era
• Elizabethan Theater
• The Life of Shakespeare
• Comedy

2
Elizabethan Age

• Elizabeth I became the Queen of England in 1558,
  six years before Shakespeares birth.
• During her 45-year reign, London became a
  cultural and commercial center learning and
  literature thrived, and England developed into
  one of the major powers of Europe.
• There was a lot of religious strife between
  Protestant and Catholic leaders and their
  followers at this time.
• When compromise was not possible, she was an
  exacting and determined leader who did not shy
  away from conflict.

Information from Shakespeare in American
Communities Teachers Guide
3
Elizabethan Age cont.

• Elizabeth I also recognized the importance of the
  arts to the life and legacy of her nation.
• She was fond of the theater, and many of
  Englands greatest playwrights were active during
  her reign.
• With her permission, professional theaters were
  built in England for the first time, attracting
  15,000 theatergoers per week in London.
• After Elizabeths death, King James I rose to
  power. A writer himself, he displayed a great
  love of learning particularly theater. At the
  kings invitation, Shakespeares theater company
  continued to prosper.

Information from Shakespeare in American
Communities Teachers Guide
4
The Globe Theater
Outside of the Globe Theater in London
The Globe Theater was built in 1599 by
Shakespeares playing company.
5
The Globe Theater
Inside of the Globe Theater in London
6
The Globe Theater
Inside of the Globe Theater in London
7
Elizabethan Theater

• Theater was central to Elizabethan social life.
• As drama shifted from a religious to a secular
  function in society, playwrights and poets were
  among the leading artists of the day.
• In spite of its popularity, the Elizabethan
  theater attracted criticism, censorship, and
  scorn from some sectors of English society.
• The plays were often coarse and boisterous, and
  playwrights and actors belonged to a bohemian
  class.
• Puritan leaders and officers of the Church of
  England considered actors to be of questionable
  character, and they criticized playwrights for
  using the stage to disseminate their irreverent
  opinions.

Information from Shakespeare in American
Communities Teachers Guide
8
Elizabethan Theatercontinued

• They also feared the overcrowded theater spaces
  might lead to the spread of disease.
• At times throughout the sixteenth century,
  Parliament censored plays for profanity, heresy,
  or politics.
• Queen Elizabeth, and later King James offered
  protections that ultimately allowed the theater
  to survive.
• Acting was not considered an appropriate
  profession for women in the Elizabethan era, and
  even into the seventeenth century, acting
  companies consisted of men with young boys
  playing the female roles.

Information from Shakespeare in American
Communities Teachers Guide
9
Elizabethan Theatercontinued

• Each section of the theater bore a different
  price of admission, with the lowest prices in the
  pit below stage level where patrons stood to
  watch the play.
• Most performance spaces were arranged
  in-the-round, giving spectators the opportunity
  to watch both the play and the behavior of other
  spectators.
• Etiquette did not prohibit the audiences from
  freely expressing their distaste or satisfaction
  for the action on stage.
• In 1642, with England on the verge of a civil
  war, theaters were closed because they felt it
  was a distraction.
• When King Charles II took English throne in 1660,
  the theaters were reopened.

Information from Shakespeare in American
Communities Teachers Guide
10
The Life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

• He was not born into a family of nobility or
  significant wealth.
• He did not continue his formal education a
  university, nor did he come under the mentorship
  of a senior artist, nor did he marry into wealth
  or prestige.
• He was born to a glove maker and tradesman, and
  the daughter of an affluent farmer.
• One of 8 children, he grew up in the small town
  of Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 hundred miles NW of
  London, far from the cultural and courtly center
  of England.
• At 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a women who was
  8 years older than him and already 3 months
  pregnant with their first child.

Information from Shakespeare in American
Communities Teachers Guide
11
The Life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

• After the birth of their 3 children (including a
  pair of twins), the historical record of
  Shakespeare is incomplete.
• Contradictory and unreliable, scholars refer to
  this 7 year period as his lost years.
• In a 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene, Shakespeare
  reappears as an upstart crow flapping his
  poetic wings in London.
• Between 1590 and 1592, Shakespeares Henry VI
  series, Richard III, and The Comedy of Errors
  were performed.
• In 1594 Shakespeare became a shareholder in the
  Lord Chamberlains Men, one of the most popular
  acting companies in London.

Information from Shakespeare in American
Communities Teachers Guide
12
The Life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

• When King James came to the throne in 1603, he
  issued a royal license to Shakespeare and his
  fellow players, organizing the as the King's Men.
• In 1616, with his health declining, Shakespeare
  revised his will to leave he bulk of his estate
  to his 2 daughters, with monetary gifts set aside
  for his sister, theater partners, friends, an the
  poor of Stratford.
• He died on April 23, 1616.
• To the world, he left a lasting legacy in the
  form of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative
  poems.
• He is recognized as one of the greatest English
  playwrights of his era.

Information from Shakespeare in American
Communities Teachers Guide
13
The Genre of Comedy

• The comic hero is not so rigid.
• He or she chooses to live in society, and
  frequently turns to compromise in order to be
  permitted to do so.
• This is why so many classic comedic works end in
  a wedding.
• The wedding symbolizes the degree to which
  individuality must be sacrificed to form a
  partnership with another person, and by
  extension, with a social group.
• Ultimately, the complications in human
  relationships in a comedy are happily resolved in
  the end.

Information from Apex Curriculum(Critical
Reading and Writing Semester 2
14
The Genre of Comedycontinued

• While modern audiences interpret "comedy" to mean
  "funny," that's not always the case.
• Certainly, comedy can present humorous incidents,
  and we likely will laugh at the ways in which the
  hero is challenged. Real life, however, is not
  always amusing, nor are the situations we find
  ourselves in from day to day.
• We use comedy to laugh at the other guy's
  problems, knowing full well that we could be in
  the same position. But contrary to real life, we
  can be sure that with comedy, everything will
  turn out fine in the end.

Information from Apex Curriculum(Critical
Reading and Writing Semester 2
15
The Genre of ComedyContinued

• The comic "villain" is the blocking force for the
  comic hero or heroine.
• Sometimes this can be a bad guy, but sometimes
  it's simply an element that's out of the hero's
  control.

Information from Apex Curriculum(Critical
Reading and Writing Semester 2