William Shakespeare “He was not for an age, but for all time” Ben Johnson ( ), playwright and friend of Shakespeare
Words created by William Shakespeare All the words following were created by Shakespeare, never having existed before he put them into his works. Nouns: accused, addiction, alligator, amazement, anchovies, assassination, backing, bandit, bedroom, bump, buzzers, courtship, critic, dauntless, dawn, design, dickens, discontent, embrace, employer, engagements, excitements, exposure, eyeball, fixture, futurity, glow, gust, hint, immediacy, investments, kickshaws, leapfrog, luggage, manager, mimic, misgiving, mountaineer, ode, outbreak, pageantry, pedant, perusal, questioning, reinforcement, retirement, roadway, rumination, savagery, scuffles, shudders, switch, tardiness, transcendence, urging, watchdog, wormhole, zany Verbs: besmirch, bet, blanket, cake, cater, champion, compromise, cow, denote, deracinate, dialogue, dislocate, divest, drug, dwindle, elbow, enmesh, film, forward, gossip, grovel, hobnob, humour, hurry, impedes, jet, jig, label, lapse, lower, misquote, negotiate, numb, pander, partner, petition, puke, rant, reword, secure, submerge, swagger, torture, unclog Adjectives: aerial, auspicious, baseless, beached, bloodstained, blushing, circumstantial, consanguineous, deafening, disgraceful, domineering, enrapt, epileptic, equivocal, eventful, fashionable, foregone, frugal, generous, gloomy, gnarled, hush, inaudible, invulnerable, jaded, juiced, lacklustre, laughable, lonely, lustrous, madcap, majestic, marketable, monumental, nervy, noiseless, obscene, Olympian, premeditated, promethean, quarrelsome, radiance, rancorous, reclusive, remorseless, rival, sacrificial, sanctimonious, soft hearted, splitting, stealthy, traditional, tranquil, unmitigated, unreal, varied, vaulting, viewless, widowed, worthless, yelping Adverbs: importantly, instinctively, obsequiously, threateningly, tightly, trippingly, unaware
Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare, To digg the dust encloased heare. Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones, And curst be he yt moves my bones. In modern English, but retaining the literary style, this would be: Good friend, for Jesus' sake, forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones. Shakespeare’s gravestone
In Search of Shakespeare 1. In what year did the Gunpowder plot occur? 2. Who was King of England in at the time? 3. What was the Gunpowder plot? 4. Why had hopes of religious freedom faded? 5. What similarities did the plot have to recent events? 6. How did England's entertainment industry react? 7. How would today's entertainment industry react? 8. How did these events influence the writing of Macbeth?
Shakespeare behind bars 1. What are your first impressions? 2. Making decisions is a theme of the film, how relevant is this to Macbeth? 3. What is the gift Shakespeare gave to the world? 4. Why are Shakespeare’s plays relevant today? 5. What do the prisoners and the ‘facilitator’ get out of educating people about Shakespeare?
1. Would ‘Erkel as Othello’ be a classy play? 2. What do you know about the play Othello? 3. Who is Sir Ian McKellen? 4. What play does Lisa get free tickets to? 5. Why is it referred to as ‘the Scottish play’? 6. What 3 unfortunate events happen to McKellen? 7. What else is it bad luck to say?