By William Shakespeare

 Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon- Avon in England.  Parents: Mary Arden and John Shakespeare, a respected glove-maker.  He attended the local grammar school where he learned to read and write in English and Latin.

 Shakespeare married Anna Hathaway at the age of 18, she was 26. They had three children together: Susanna and the twins, Judith and Hamlet.

 Around 1590, he left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright.  Shakespeare eventually became part- owner of the Globe Theater.  In I594, Romeo & Juliet was performed for the FIRST time– all male actors!

 Shakespeare acted and wrote for this company until he retired in  By this time he had written thirty-seven plays-comedies, tragedies, histories, and romances and well over 150 poems.  In 1610, Shakespeare returned to Stratford  Died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two.  Not a single original manuscript has survived due partly to the fact that they were written strictly for performance.

 Wordplay, bawdy jokes, and lofty language appealed to Elizabethan audiences.  In Romeo and Juliet a prologue in sonnet form summarizes the play for the audience  Most lines in the play, like the lines of a sonnet, are in iambic pentameter—ten syllables of a steady unaccented/accented pattern.  Monologues—long speeches by a single actor onstage—let the audience understand the thoughts of characters.

 English has changed in the hundreds of years since Shakespeare’s writing. In his day: wherefore meant “why” I would often meant “I wish” Hast thou meant “Have you” true shrift meant “true confession”

Act I Introduction Climactic moment, resolution Crisis, or turning point Act IV Act III Act II Act V Rising action Falling action

During the 1300s in Verona, Italy—the setting for Romeo and Juliet—it was customary for a father to arrange a suitable marriage for his daughter.  Whom do you think this custom would have benefitted?  What reaction might parents have had to children unwilling to marry the person the parents chose?

Several characters in the play try to “fix” the crisis for Romeo and Juliet by deceiving others.  If you try to make a friend’s troubles go away, are you helping or meddling?  Do lies and deception usually help a crisis or make it worse?  What kind of connection might there be between time pressure and the impulse to deceive?