Who was Shakespeare? English IV

Birth/Death No one is sure, but we think the day of his birth and death are the same Birth: April 23, 1564 Death: April 23, 1616 –Born in Stratford-on-Avon –Baptized at Holy Trinity Church on April 26, 1564 according to church records

Parents Father: John Shakespeare –Glover –Dealer in wood, farm products –Prosperous officer in Stratford (ale taster, assessor of fines, chamberlain, alderman, bailiff – similar to a sheriff) Mother: Mary Arden Shakespeare –Her father is prosperous landowner –Married John Shakespeare in 1557

Childhood Eldest of six children Attended a local grammar school Saw travelling plays as a child Father went bankrupt, lost high position Shakespeare had to go to work and leave prestigious grammar school

Young Adulthood Marries Anne Hathaway on Nov. 28, 1582 He is 18 She is eight years older First child, Susanna, born May 1583 (you do the math!) Twins, Judith and Hamnet, born Feb –Hamnet dies in 1596 Left for London after around 1586

Apprenticeship to London Theater Started as an actor (and always stays one!) Made money, started writing Wrote poetry when theaters closed –Why might theaters close? –“Venus and Adonis,” “Rape of Lucrece” and many of his sonnets to the Dark Lady

Growing Mastery Joins Lord Chamberlain’s Men acting troupe, best of the day! –Richard Burbage a fellow actor –Heminge and Condell also fellow actors; these two will publish Shakespeare’s First Folio edition of all his plays Performed in public theaters, at court Bought New Place, largest house in Stratford –What family event might affect Shakespeare?

Maturity Globe opens in 1599, Lord Chamberlain’s men own it (10 of them) 1603 – Change to King’s Men –Why might this have happened? Writes greatest tragedies, Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caeser, King Lear

Synthesis and Serenity King’s Men buy Blackfriar’s in Indoor theater lit by candles –How might this change culture? Retires around 1610 to Stratford Writes his will before death –Leaves fellow actors his rings –Leaves wife the “second best bed” Buried April 25, 1616, in Trinity Church at Stratford –Tombstone marker addressed to sextant

Shakespeare’s Style Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter Rhyming couplets: heighten emotion, concludes scenes and acts Prose: used in speeches of lower class characters. Why? Puns: play on words Play within a play: metatheatre Stichomythia: exchange of single lines in which the words of one speaker are picked up and tossed back by another. Duel with words (Hamlet and Polonius)

Shakespeare’s Style Soliloquy: monologue by a central character which reveal their innermost thoughts; a discourse made by one in solitude to one’s self Aside: words spoken by a character to himself but unheard by others onstage Dramatic irony: audience knows what characters onstage do not

Dramatic Structure A well-built tragedy will commonly show the following divisions, each representing a phase of the dramatic conflict –Introduction/Exposition –Rising Action/Complication –Climax/Turning Point –Falling Action –Catastrophe/Denouement

Hamlet/Macbeth For the most part, these two plays follow this structure, with some leeway as to when exactly each begins and ends –Act I: Exposition –Act II: Rising Action –Act III: Climax –Act IV: Falling Action –Act V: Catastrophe