Shakespeare: His Life and Times

1
Shakespeare His Life and Times
Adapted from http//www.public.asu.edu/muckerrm/E
nglish_321_S2005/Introduction.ppt
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Early Life

• Born 1564died 1616
• Stratford-upon-Avon
• Parents John and Mary Arden Shakespeare
• Marydaughter of wealthy landowner
• Johnglovemaker, local politician

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Location of Stratford-upon-Avon
From http//www.where-can-i-find.com/tourist-maps
.html
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Stratford-on-Avon in Shakespeares Time
As reproduced in William Rolfe, Shakespeare the
Boy (1896).
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Stratford-upon-Avon Today
From Stratfords web site http//www.stratford-up
on-avon.co.uk/index.htm
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Shakespeares Birthplace
From http//perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/
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Education

• Probably attended Kings New School in Stratford
• Educated in
• Rhetoric
• Logic
• History
• Latin

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Kings New School
From http//perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/
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Married Life

• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway, who was
  pregnant at the time with their first daughter
• Had twins in 1585
• Sometime between 1585-1592, he moved to London
  and began working in theatre.

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Anne Hathaways Cottage
From http//perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/
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Theatre Career

• Member and later part-owner of the Lord
  Chamberlains Men, later called the Kings Men
• Globe Theater built in 1599 by L.C.M. with
  Shakespeare as primary investor
• Burned down in 1613 during one of Shakespeares
  plays

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The Rebuilt Globe Theater, London
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The Globe Theater
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The Plays

• 38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare
• 14 comedies
• 10 histories
• 10 tragedies
• 4 romances
• Possibly wrote three others
• Collaborated on several others

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The Poetry

• 154 Sonnets
• Numerous other poems

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Shakespeares Language

• Shakespeare did NOT write in Old English.
• Old English is the language of Beowulf
• Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum
• Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunon
• Hu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!
• (Hey! We have heard of the glory of the
  Spear-Danes in the old days, the kings of tribes,
  how noble princes showed great courage!)

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Shakespeares Language

• Shakespeare did not write in Middle English.
• Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the
  Gawain-poet, and Malory
• We redeth oft and findeth y-write
• And this clerkes wele it wite
• Layes that ben in harping
• Ben y-founde of ferli thing (Sir Orfeo)

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Shakespeares Language

• Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English.
• EME was not very different from Modern
  English,

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Shakespeares Language

• A mix of old and very new
• Rural and urban words/images
• Understandable by the lowest peasant and the
  highest noble

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Elizabethan Theatrical Conventions
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Theatrical Conventions of Shakespeare's Theatre

• A theatrical convention is a
• suspension of reality.
• No electricity
• Women forbidden
• to act on stage
• Minimal, contemporary
• costumes
• Minimal scenery

These control the dialogue.
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Theatrical Conventions of Shakespeare's Theatre

• Soliloquy
• Aside

Types of speech
Audience loves to be scared.

• Blood
• Use of supernatural

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Theatrical Conventions of Shakespeare's Theatre

• Use of disguises/
• mistaken identity

• Last speakerhighest in
• rank (in tragedies)

• Multiple murders
• (in tragedies)

• Multiple marriages
• (in comedies)

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All the world 's a stage, And all the men and
women merely players.