Gabrielle DePinto William Shakespeare English Grades 9-12

Click on one of the circle below to learn more about William Shakespeare! (complete in order) Shakespeare’s Life Famous Plays: Tragedies The Globe Theatre Famous Plays: Histories Famous Sonnets Famous Plays: Comedies Elizabethan Era Iambic Pentameter

Shakespeare’s Life William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. Born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, Shakespeare is often referred to as England’s national poet and the Bard of Avon. His work consists of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. He began his successful career in London starting as a writer, an actor, and had part ownership to an acting group called The Lord’s Chamberlain’s Men, that soon became the leading playing company. At the age of 18 he married a woman named Anne Hathaway, and later had three children with her: Susanna, Hamnet, and Judith. He retired in Stratford at the age of 49, and then died only three years later. Very few records of Shakespeare’s private life have survived, leading there to be question on topics such as his religious views, sexuality, and physical appearance.

Iambic Pentameter Iambic pentameter is a commonly used metrical line in traditional English poetry and verse drama. In English, an iamb is known as an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The word pentameter tells us that there are five “feet” or syllable’s-five sets of unstressed syllables followed by five sets of stressed syllables. The rhythm can be written as da-DUM. The “da” can be represented as a slash mark, while the “DUM” is often represented by an x. So a line that follows iambic pentameter would look like this: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM. / x / x / x / x / x Sonnet 12: When I, do COUNT, the CLOCK, that TELLS, the TIME / x / x / x / x / x ?

The following poem written using iambic pentameter true False

Correct! Each poetic line consists of ten syllables, and each line has the correct stress on syllables.

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Famous Plays: Tragedies In the majority of Shakespeare’s tragedies he assigns a protagonist, who is flawed in some manner, placed in a stressful situation that ends with a fatal conclusion. The plot of Shakespeare’s tragedies focus on the reversal of fortune for the main character, and in most cases have an ominous conclusion ending in death. Some of his most famous tragedies include: Othello Hamlet Macbeth Romeo and Juliet King Lear Timon of Athens Antony and Cleopatra Titus Andronicus Julius Caesar

Famous Plays: Comedies The term “comedy” had a very different meaning during the Elizabethan era than the more modern meaning we hear today. A Shakespearean comedy typically contains a happy ending, usually involving the marriage of a couple in love, and contains a tone that is more lighthearted than other plays. In most cases these plays involve the separation and reunification of loved ones, multiple intertwining plots, a clever servant, and the deception of characters. Some of his most famous comedies include: All’s Well That End’s Well Tempest As You Really Like It Merchant of Venice Midsummer Night’s Dream Comedy of Errors Much Ado About Nothing Twelfth Night

Famous plays: histories Shakespeare’s histories may be more commonly referred to as the “English History Plays”. He had been living during the reign of Elizabeth I, the last monarch of the house of Tudor. Many of his history plays are said to have been Tudor propaganda due to the fact that political bias is evident in a variety of his plays. Some of his most famous history plays include: King John Pericles Henry IV part I Richard II Henry IV part II Richard III Henry V Henry VI part II Henry VI part I Henry VI part III

Famous sonnets There is a collection of 154 sonnets accredited to William Shakespeare titles Shakespeare’s Sonnets, covering themes such as love, beauty, passage of time, and mortality. The rhyme scheme for the majority of these sonnets follow abab cdcd efef gg. Often, the beginning of the third quatrain marks the “turn” of the poem, and the poem expresses an epiphany or revelation. None of Shakespeare’s sonnets have names, they are only numbered. Some of his most famous sonnets include: Sonnet 116 Sonnnet 30 Sonnet 18 Sonnet 29 Sonnet 33

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was an extremely well known theatre found in London highly associated with William Shakespeare. In 1599, Shakespeare’s acting company, Lord Chamberlain’s Men, created the theatre using timber from a theatre that had been there previously. The Globe was a three story amphitheatre, about 100 feet in diameter, and could seat up to 3,000 spectators. At the base of the stage, called the “pit”, spectators could pay only a penny to stand on the ground. The higher seating in the upper parts of the theatre were where the more wealthy spectators would sit for the shows. A rectangular stage, also referred to as an apron stage, thrust out into the audience, and two large pillars stood on both sides of the stage holding the roof up. On June 29, 1619 the theatre went up into flames during a production of Henry VIII. Click here for a diagram

Elizabethan era For the majority of Shakespeare’s life he lived under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, also known as the Elizabethan Era ( ). It was a brief period of internal peace between the battles of catholics, and protestants, as well as the political battles between parliament and the monarchy that engulfed the majority of the seventeenth century. The Elizabethan era represented the peak of the English renaissance and the flourishing of poetry, music, theatre, and literature. What did Queen Elizabeth I look like

Queen Elizabeth

What was the name of Shakespeare’s acting group? The Bard’s of Avon The Lord Chamberlain’s Men Shakespeare’s Acting Company The Stratford Acting Company

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Correct! The Lord Chamberlain’s Men was an acting company founded in 1594, for which Shakespeare wrote a majority of his pieces for during his career. By 1603, it had become one of the two leading companies in the entire city. The majority of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’s performances took place on stage at the Globe Theatre. You have now completed the interactive lesson! Finish