William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare

• An Introduction to
• Understanding The Bard

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Intro to William Shakespeare

• William Shakespeare b. April 26th, 1564
• (TODAY Bill Shakespeare just had his 450th
  birthday!)
• Parents John and Mary (Arden) Shakespeare
• Place of birth Stratford-Upon-Avon
• (named so because the town was on the banks of
  the Avon river)
• Childhood home Henley Street (can still be
  visited today)

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Parents

• John Shakespeare Married (Mary) the daughter of
  his landlord
• Held many jobs glover, money lender, wool and
  grain dealer
• Prestige Bailiff ( to mayor)
• 1576 Petitioned town for a coat of arms to
  become a gentleman
• Petition expired without being granted

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Childhood

• Education fathers prominent position suggests
  that Shakespeare would have attended
• Kings New School (petty schoolpreschool) well
  respected, taught by Oxford grads
• Grammar School (6-7am until 5pm)
• Study Latin and some Greek
• Read Roman authors Plautus, Ovid, Seneca, and
  Horace
• Traces of these authors in his own later works
• Did NOT attend University (Greek/Latin education)

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Wife and Children

• November 1582 (age 18) Married Anne Hathaway
  (age 26)
• May 1583 (6 mo. later) birth of first child,
  Susanna
• February 1585 twins Hamnet and Judith
• Hamnet would die at the age of 11 while
  Shakespeare was living in London away from his
  family

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London and The Stage

• Went to London after twins birth (between 21 and
  28 yrs. old)
• (Most likely) went as an actor and slowly gained
  attention as a playwright
• Jealous Much?
• Robert Greene (1592) warned other University
  colleagues that the uneducated Shakespeare was
  trying to parade as a legit playwright
• Shakespeares reputation for poetry provoked the
  envy of a failing competitor

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London and The Stage

• 1593 All London theatres closed due to outbreak
  of the bubonic plague
• During this time Shakespeare wrote the poems
  Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece
  (1594)
• Only two of his works that he seemed to have
  helped into print due to the presence of
  dedications
• 1594 Theatres reopened Shakespeare joined the
  acting company Lord Chamberlains Men

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London and The Stage

• Plays
• Early years Histories
• 1591-92 Henry VI, trilogy
• 1592-93 Richard III

• 1590s Romantic Comedies
• 1594 The Comedy of Errors
• 1594-95 Loves Labours Lost
• 1595 A Midsummer Nights Dream
• 1598 Much Ado About Nothing

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London and The Stage

• Plays (cont)
• Tragedies
• 1595 Romeo and Juliet
• 1599 Julius Caesar
• 1600-1601 Hamlet
• 1606 Macbeth

• Total Plays 37
• Histories 10
• Comedies 17
• Tragedies 10
• This number is debated by scholars

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The Theatre

• 1597 Success
• Secure a coat of arms gentleman
• Purchase of New Place one of the largest houses
  in Stratford
• 1597 The boot
• Lease expired with Lord Chamberlains playhouse
  (called The Theatre)
• The company had to perform in various playhouses
  until 1599

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The Globe

• 1599 Opening of the Globe Theatre
• Built with lumber from The Theatre
• Shakespeare just one of the shareholders in the
  theatre
• 1613 Fire
• Thatched roof caught fire during a production of
  Henry VIII entire building demolished
• The Second Globe was rebuilt quickly
• 1642 Closed
• All theatres closed under Puritan rule
• Demolished in 1644 for tenements (apartments)

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The Globe
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The Globe
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The (new) Globe

• 1996 Revival
• A replica built near original site
• Built with techniques and materials that would
  have been used then
• Only added details that were required
• Exits, illuminated signage, fire retardant
  materials, etc.
• Go to see plays today!

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The (new) Globe
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The (new) Globe
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Final Days

• William Shakespeare died on April 26, 1616 at the
  age of 52
• (398 years ago today!)
• Exact cause of death unknown
• Believed to have been celebrating the marriage of
  daughter, Judith
• Contracted a fever
• Death imminent?
• Changed his will in March of same year

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Publication

• The First Folio
• Published
• 7 years after his death (posthumous)
• By two members from his former company
• First collection published
• Printer folded each sheet only once (folio)
• Folio was a larger and more prestigious book
  (usually reserved for works such as the Bible)
• Contained 36 plays

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Legacy

• The First Folio was the beginning of the process
  of constructing Shakespeare as Englands national
  poet and The Bard of Avon
• Bard Gaelic term for a poet
• Contemporary playwright and friend, Ben Jonson
  wrote
• He was not of an age, but for all time!

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Dramatic Terminology

• Tragedy A narrative about serious and important
  actions that end unhappily, usually with the
  death of the main characters.
• The play is broken up into acts and the acts are
  broken up into scenes.
• Monologue A long uninterrupted speech given by
  one character onstage to everyone.
• Soliloquy A long uninterrupted speech given by
  one character alone on stage, inaudible to other
  characters
• Aside A short speech given by one character,
  traditionally the other characters cannot hear.

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Dramatic Terminology

• Pun A humorous play on words
• After that poisonous snake struck at me in the
  Arizona Desert I was really rattled.
• A carpenter must have been here. I saw dust.
• Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery.
• Corduroy pillows are making headlines.
• The executioner decided to drop out of
  Executioner School. It was just too cut throat
  for him.
• He who farts in church sits in his own pew.

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Dramatic Terminology

• Dramatic Foil A pair of characters who are
  opposite in many ways and highlight or exaggerate
  each others differences.

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Poetic Terminology

• Blank Verse Unrhymed meter unrhymed iambic
  pentameter specifically.
• Iambic Meter Each unstressed syllable is
  followed by a stressed syllable.
• Couplets Two consecutive lines that rhyme (aa bb
  cc). Usually followed when a character leaves or
  a scene ends.
• End-stopped Line Has some form of punctionat at
  the end of the line (,.!?).
• Run-on Line Has NO punctuation at the end of the
  line and meaning is continued to following lines.
• Sonnet A fourteen line poem using iambic
  pentameter and the following rhyme scheme abab
  cdcd efef gg.

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Poetic Terminology

• Internal Rhyme Words rhyming inside one line.
• End Line Rhyme Words rhyming at the end of
  consecutive lines.
• Perfect vs. Slant Rhyme ball hall are a
  perfect rhyme (end sounds the same). Ball bell
  are slant rhymes (beginning and end sounds the
  same middle sound is different).
• Alliteration the repetition of the same
  beginning consonants
• Assonance the repetition of the same vowel
  sounds in the middle of words
• Consonance the repetition of the same ending
  consonants
• Onomatopoeia words that are spelled much like
  how they sound.

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Shakespeares 5 Part Storytelling Pattern
Act III Crisis/Turning Point A series of
complications
Act IV Falling Action Results of the turning
point characters locked into deeper disaster
Act II Rising Action A series of complications
Act I Exposition Establishes setting,
characters, conflict, and background
Act V Resolution Death of the main characters
and then the loose parts of the plot are tied up
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Tips for UnderstandingRomeo and Juliet

• Romeo and Juliet is based on Arthur Brookes long
  narrative poem the Tragicall Historye of Romeus
  and Juliet (1562).
• The play has a highly moral tone disobedience,
  as well as fate, leads to the deaths of two
  lovers.

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Motifs in Romeo and Juliet

• Power of Love
• Violence from Passion
• The Individual vs. Society
• The Inevitability of Fate

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MONTAGUE vs. CAPULET

• Romeo
• Lord Montague (his dad)
• Lady Montague (his mom)
• Mercutio (friend)
• Benvolio (cousin)

• Juliet
• Lord Capulet (her father)
• Lady Capulet (her mother)
• Tybalt (cousin)
• Nurse

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A Pair of Star Crossed Lovers
My only love sprung from my only hate! Too
early seen unknown , and known too late!
Juliet Act I, Scene V (I.v.)
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ROMEO AND JULIET
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Prologue

• Two households, both alike in dignity,in fair
  Verona, where we lay our scene,from ancient
  grudge break to new mutiny,where civil blood
  makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal
  loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd
  lovers take their lifeWhose misadventured
  piteous overthrowsdo with their death bury their
  parents' strife.The fearful passage of their
  death-mark'd love,and the continuance of their
  parents' rage,which, but their children's end,
  nought could remove,is now the two hours'
  traffic of our stage.