William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Scholars have been fascinated by the mysteries of Shakespeares life for

______________________________ years.
We know more about Shakespeare than about any of his
______________________________.
He was born in April of ______________________________ in Stratford-upon-Avon.
His father John Shakespeare was a successful ______________________________,
landowner, and moneylender.
John was elected to several local offices but suffered a significant financial
______________________________.
Shakespeare married ______________________________ Hathaway in 1582, when
he was 18.
Anne was 8 years older and ______________________________ , and Shakespeare
may have been forced to marry.
No one knows for sure what their ______________________________ was like, but
some fear it was unhappy.
They had ______________________________ children, two daughters (Susanna
and Judith) and a son (Hamnet).
Shakespeares career as a London actor and playwright began in the
______________________________.
He appears not to have been concerned about preserving or
______________________________ his plays.
______________________________ of his plays appeared in quarto editions in his
lifetime, and 36 were published in the First Folio in 1623.
Serious scholars seem to pay little attention to the
______________________________ claims that the plays were written by someone
else.
Shakespeare retired comfortably to Stratford in
______________________________ and died in 1616.
Intriguing Mysteries about the Sonnets (Publishes 1609)

Intimacy of the poems invites ______________________________.

When were the poems composed? (likely during sonnet
______________________________ 1591-1596)
What were the circumstances of their ______________________________? Did
Shakespeare approve?
Poems published long after ______________________________ sequences were in
vogue.
The publisher was Thomas Thorpe, who had an ______________________________
reputation.
Is there a proper ______________________________ to the sonnets? If so, what is
it?
Is the sequence ______________________________?
Who is the young ______________________________?
Who is the dark ______________________________?
Who is the rival ______________________________?
Who is ______________________________ to whom the sonnets are dedicate?
Sonnets usually dedicated to a powerful ______________________________.
Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton aristocrat to whom Shakespeare
dedicated Venus and Adonis; he had frustrated his family by refusing to
______________________________.
Shakespeare may have accepted a commission because he needed
______________________________. (The theaters were closed in 1592 after a
riot.)
W.H. may also be ______________________________ Herbert, Earl of Pembroke,
dedicatee of the 1623 folio.
Some ______________________________ could apply to either the youth or the
woman.
Shakespeares entire career is based on creating characters, so why must we
assumer hes being ______________________________ in the sonnets?

Sonnet writing was a ______________________________ whose object was to

sound as intimate and self-revealing as possible without actually disclosing
anything compromising.
Plot of the sonnet sequence
First ______________________________ sonnets addressed to a young man of
higher rank than the speaker.
First ______________________________ are procreation sonnets.
Procreation theme highly ______________________________ in sonnets, which
characteristically woo a beloved or lament her coldness or analyze the
speakers own passion.
Shakespeare is clearly the speaker, as several sonnets pun the name
______________________________.
Typical plot on comedy (Twelfth Night): the go-between becomes
romantically ______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________.
Do the sonnets covey homosexual desire? It depends on who you
______________________________.
On the one hand, the poems seem to reflect a strong erotic desire for the
young man. But Renaissance mores permitted far more
______________________________ expressions of normal male friendship than
modern customs will sanction.
Poems reflect the Renaissance ______________________________ of male
friendship vs. love between the sexes.
Sonnets 127-154 are to and about a dark lady and a love
______________________________.
Style and themes of the sonnets

Major theme is the power of ______________________________ to defeat time

(though ironically the sonnets doesnt perpetuate the name of the unnamed
young man).
The sequence shows stylistic ______________________________ throughout the
early poems contain much nature imagery and then progress toward a
metaphysical vein.
Poems show an increasing sense of ______________________________ as the
poet realizes that art may not be the way to defeat time (neither is
procreation or friendship).
Thus the sequence moves from confidence to ______________________________,
from security to chaos.
The sequence ends with images of ______________________________ and
sickness, reflecting an awareness of physical decay, decay of inspiration and
friendship and morals (146).
The speaker outgrows one set of ______________________________ but fails to
replace them.
Ultimately, he accepts the ______________________________ of life transition
between Elizabethan optimism to Jacobean melancholy and pessimism.