William

TheBard
Shakespeare

1564-1616

Childhood
Born

April 23 (we
think), 1564
Stratford-uponAvon, England
Father was a local
prominent
merchant

Family Life
Married

Ann
Hathaway 1582
(when he was 18,
she was 26)
Three children:
Susanna born in
1583, twins Judith
and Hamnet born
1585
Hamnet died at
age 11; the girls
never had any
children

1585-1592
The Lost Years

We have no records of his life during this time

period
It is speculated that he might have been a teacher,
a butcher, or an actor to support his family.
In 1592, he is in London, while Ann and the kids are
still in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespearean England:
The Renaissance/ Elizabethan
Queen Elizabeth I
Era
ruled
English explorers
were crossing the
ocean to the New
World
And travelers
coming to England
LOVED watching
plays...

The Playwrights...
Christopher

Marlowe

(more
about him later)

Thomas

Kyd
And William
Shakespeare
was the original
New Kid on the
Block

The Theatres...
The

Theatre,

The

Rose, built

built in 1576

in 1587 (Londons first

Bankside theatre)

The

Swan,

The

Globe

1595

(Shakespeare helped
construct in 1598-1599)

About the
theatres
ManyProtestants

condemnedtheplaysbut
notallofthem
Theatreswereonthe
outskirtsofLondon
awayfromthe
authorities
Peoplewhoattended
thetheatresincluded:

merchants
lawyers
laborers
prostitutes
visitorsfromothercountries
nobility&royalty

No lighting
No scenery--Just
a curtain
Could hold
around 2,000
people

Themostexpensive
seatsweredirectly
behindthestage,
calledthegallery.
Thoughthepeople
sittingtherecould
onlyseetheactors
frombehind,they
themselvescouldbe
seenbyeveryonein
theaudience.

Thetheatreswereclosedduringtheplague.

Costumes...
Richlydecorated
Didntalwaysmatchupto
thetimeperiodoftheplay
Lookinggoodwasmore
importantthanbeing
realistic!

The Globe...
Wheredidtheygetthewood?

Canyouguesswhich
playwasthefirsttobe
performedinThe
Globe?

Who were the Players?

The

Lord
Admirals Men
The Lord
Chamberlains
Men (Shakespeare
founded; Richard
Burbage was their
leading actor)
The Lord
Chamberlains Men
performed mostly
in The Theatre

 Acting

Only men were

permitted to
perform - The actors
were all men; young
boys (age 12-14)
played the female parts
Boys or effeminate
men were used to
play the women

It

would have been

indecent for a
woman to appear
on stage

Acting
They

were considered shareholders

and owned stock or shares in the
play texts, costumes, and props
Their pay depended on admission
sales
Actors only had about 3 weeks to
practice a new play
In one week, the troupes may
perform 6 different plays (as many as
4,000 lines!)

 Spectators

Will Ferrell is the most

famous alumnus of the
comedy improvisational
group called The
Groundling based in Los
Angeles

Wealthy people got to sit

on benches (They paid to
do so)
Groundlings, poor
people, had to stand and
watch from the
courtyard/pit

Playhouses were close to

the brothels, so
prostitutes could be
found there with their
clients.
Plays took place usually
during in the middle of
the day, so people would
skip work to go see them.
There was no indoor
bathroom facilities.
Therefore, people would
relieve themselves right
outside of the theaters.
Threw rotten vegetables at
bad performance

There was much more

audience participation
than today

Plays
Shakespeare

is

attributed to
writing at least 37
plays.
However, this
number can vary
to more or less
depending upon
academic opinion.

The Competition
ChristopherMarlowe(15641593)
Hewasthefirstgreatplaywright,
pavingthewayforShakespeare.He
wroteandactedforTheLord
AdmiralsCompanywhichwas
TheLordChamberlainsMens
archrivals.Hewaspossibly
Shakespearesbiggestinfluence.

MostNotableWorksInclude:Tamburlainethe
Great(1587),Dr.Faustus(1588),TheJewof
Malta(1589),EdwardII(1592)

1603
Queen

Elizabeth

dies
Shakespeares
troupe changes
their name to The
Kings Men,
becoming the first
OFFICIAL theatre
company of
Englands new
king, James I

Shakespeares Last Days

Between

Hiswill,whichherevisedamonth
beforedying,leftthebulkofhis
estatetohisoldestdaughter,and
thebedtohiswife.

1611-

1612,
Shakespeare
returns to
Stratford to his
wife and family.
Dies April 23,
1616 at the age
of 53

Shakespeares Epitaph
"GoodFriends,for
Jesus'sakeforbear,
Todigthebones
enclosedhere!
Blestbetheman
thatsparesthese
stones,
Andcurstbehethat
movesmybones."

Love of the
Language

InShakespearestime,
everyonelovedtheEnglish
language.
Therewerenogrammar
rules,punctuationkeys,OR
spelling!
Thelanguagewasevolving
andeverydaynewwordswere
beingmadeup.
Shakespeareslanguage
reflectsthisfreedomand
experimentation.

Iambic Pentameter

Is a sound pattern
IAMB: one unaccented (or
unstressed) syllable with
one accented syllable
Its like a heartbeat: babum, ba-bum, ba-bum
Five ba-bums in a row
make one line of iambic
pentameter (10-syllable
lines)
Example: he WENT to
TOWN toDAY to BUY a CAR
OR: In SOOTH / I KNOW /
not WHY / I AM / so SAD

Why go to all the TROUBLE???

Using

iambic
pentameter kept
things moving in
the play (like a
drum beat)
It made the words
& play more
interesting
It helped the actors
remember their
lines (like a song)

Where Did it Come From?

The

Greeks and Romans started combining

drama & poetry.
The English experimented with it, using verse
and prose in their plays.
In

the 1590s Blank Verse (poetry that

doesnt rhyme) was the new

Craze!

WhenShakespeareset
hiswordstoiambic
pentameteritis
comparedtothebirth
of
rocknroll:
amixingofoldstyles
andnewsounds.

Types

of Plays

Comedies:

light and
amusing, usually with
a happy ending
Tragedies: serious
dramas with
disastrous endings
Histories: involve
events or persons
from history

Whatwouldyoudoifyoujustlostyour
onlycopyofapaperyouwrote?

In Shakespeares time, you only had one copy

of a play, and after you wrote it for the acting
company, you no longer owned it!
Scripts were thrown out when they were no
longer wanted or needed.
NO copies of Shakespeares plays in his own
handwriting have survived. The only known
evidence of anything in his handwriting is his
signature (shown above) on the play Sir Thomas
More that Shakespeare might have written.

 Companies

may
perform plays for
years before they
became printed.
Plays werent
thought of as
works of
literature. They
were
entertainment.

Quartos

Small books of published

plays were called
quartos.
The first published works
of Shakespeares vary
considerably, making it
probable that they were
written from actors
memories, or shorthand
notes from a scribe
working for a publisher, as
opposed to Shakespeare
himself.
Scholars believe these are
faulty versions, calling
them bad quartos. Or as
we say today, Pirated
versions.

Plagiarism back then?

Acting troupes didnt want

other acting troupes
stealing and performing
their plays.
It was common that
people would go watch the
play and write down the
lines they remembered,
then sell the quartos to
other acting troupes.
Many think that much of
Shakespeares own work
was stolen from other
playwrights.
Remember, back then
there were no copyright
laws!

Itsays,inshort:becausethe
authorisdead,wearewriting
thisforhim...

 The

first full collection of

Shakespeares work was
published in 1623, seven
years after his death.
It was called First Folio
It contained 36 plays
(compiled by John Heminge
and Henry Condell--friends
and fellow actors of
Shakespeares)

A Case of Bad Editing!

First Folio, as well as

many other works at that
time, contained many
errors, due to the fact
sometimes the printers
could not read the
handwriting and had to
memorize the lines as they
set them on the press.
The printers were the ones
who decided how a line
should be punctuated &
spelled (not the writers)!

 First

Folio contained multiple

errors--for example, there was no
indication where Acts or Scenes
began or ended.
Todays Act and Scene divisions are
based on shrewd guesses by
generations of editors.
There are many uncertainties, so
even todays editions have
variations in the text.

Why study Shakespeare?

Chancesare,youve
quotedShakespeare
withouteven
knowingit!
Haveyoueversaid
thefollowing...

inapickle

ItsGreektome.
Toomuchofa
goodthing.

asluckwouldhaveit
goodriddance
deadasadoornail

foulplay

alaughingstock
aneyesore
sendmepacking

withoutrhymeor
reason

Even today,
Shakespeare lives on.
Wecanrelatetohistalesof
love,hatred,revenge,
courage,trustand
deception.
Somuchofourworldtoday
hasbeeninfluencedby
Shakespeare.

Romeo and Juliet

 Romeo

and Juliet

A Brief Introduction
Written

by
Shakespeare in 1594
or 1595.
The play focuses on
the following themes:

Love and Hate

Age and Maturity
Fate
Dreams,
Omens and forebodings
(foreshadowing)

 The

Play is a
Tragedy:

narrative about
serious and
important actions
that end unhappily.
Play ends with the
death of main
characters

Terms
for
Drama

Foreshadowin

g is the use of hints or clues to suggest

what will happen later in literature.

Friar Lawrence
warns Romeo that
his romance with
Juliet is rash and
hurried.
His warnings are
an example of
Foreshadowing.

Imagery
is

language that evokes one or all of the five

senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling,
touching.

Queen Mab is described in

great detailshell visit you
while you dream!

Dramatic Irony

is

when an audience perceives something that a

character in the literature does not know.

For example,
the audience
knows that
Juliet took a
sleeping potion
and isn't really
dead. Romeo's
suicide affects
the audience
even more
because of this
knowledge.

Verbal Irony
is

when an author says one thing and

means something else.

"Two households, both alike in dignity. When you

first read this, you may think that the two families
are pretty dignified or honorable. As the play
goes on, however, you realize that each family is
violently competitive. They are similarly
undignified.

Situational

Irony

is

a discrepancy (difference) between the

expected result and actual results.

In Shakespeare's play, the

young lovers do end up
spending eternity together,
but not in the way the

 Monologue
A

long speech made by one person.

Mercutios longest
speech runs ore than a
page in length. It is
usually called the
Queen Mab speech.
The intended audience
is Romeo and Benvolio.

Soliloquy
A

dramatic or literary form in which a character

talks to himself or herself to reveals his or her
thoughts without addressing a listener.
Juliet speaks to the
audience about her
love of Romeo from
outside of her
balcony ; she doesnt
know that he is
listening in!

Aside
A

piece of dialogue intended for the audience

and supposedly not heard by the other
actors on stage.

Romeo listens in on Juliet

while she talks on the
balcony and talks to the
audience (or himself) about
whether he should reveal
himself to her or continue to
eavesdrop!

Sonnet

poem, expressing a single, complete thought,

idea, or sentiment, of 14 lines, usually in iambic
pentameter, with a set rhyme scheme.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course
untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his
shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

 Rhyme

Scheme

is

the pattern of rhymed words at the ends of

lines.

My name is Jay-Z
And now you can see
How I rhyme like a bee!
Zoom, Zoom, STING!

 Blank
is

Verse

a line of poetry that doesnt rhyme.

How could you be so Dr. Evil,

you bringin' out a side of me that I dont know...
I decided we weren't gon' speak,
So why we up 3 am on the phone?

Pun
is

the usually humorous use of a word in such a

way as to suggest two or more of its meanings
or the meaning of another word similar in sound.

Yo, Tiger: When

drinking, don't
drive.
drive Don't even
putt !!

Metaphor is the direct comparison of

two unlike things

Simile

is

the comparison of two

unlike things using like or as.

All right stop, Collaborate and listen

Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop? Yo! I don't know
Turn off the lights and I'll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and watch me jump like
a candle.

 Personification
is

giving human qualities to

animals or objects.

My bling was a talkin

And was a walkin
My gold was a showin
And they was a known
That my moneys be
talkin

 Oxymoron
is

putting two contradictory

words together.

She was an open secret;

Giving freezer burn to me
I was the living dead
underneath
Yo, SHE HURT ME TOO
GOOD!!!