William Shakespeare Background Notes

William Shakespeare “All the world’s a stage”

Why Shakespeare? For 400 years, Shakespeare has been considered the greatest dramatist and poet in the English-speaking world. His plays are produced thousands of times each year in theaters all over the world, and audiences today are enthralled as the ones who first attended them in London.

Why Shakespeare? His plays are filled with action, intrigue, mystery, rollicking – humor, and heart- wrenching tragedy, sometimes all within the bounds of the play. His plays are timeless. © Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging. speareLA.html

Why Shakespeare? The characters in Shakespeare’s plays are complete in all varieties of human experience. Some are silly people who do not know they are silly. A few of them are monsters. Some are truly tragic people, good but with flaws in character which lead them to destruction. pages/comedy-tragedy.htm

Why Shakespeare? Some are lovers embracing life with a passion, and others are losers who spend their lives in anger and hate. They represent all the varieties of personality, motivation, and character which exist in humankind.

Why Shakespeare Shakespeare was a master of our complex English language, and he filled his plays with poetry and prose in a way unequaled by any other writer

Why Shakespeare? He wrote with an incredible vocabulary of over 29,000 words, which is astounding when one considers that the King James Version of the Bible uses slightly over 3,000 Many of those words are used in sophisticated puns and wordplay yet he wrote for the commoner as well as the educated. The language of Shakespeare is rich beyond that of any other writer.

The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original. academeaccusedaddictionadvertisingamazement arouseassassinationbackingbanditbedroom beachedbesmirchbirthplaceblanketbloodstained barefacedblushingbetbumpbuzzer cakedcaterchampioncircumstantialcold-blooded compromisecourtshipcountlesscriticdauntless dawndeafeningdiscontentdisheartendrugged dwindleepilepticequivocalelbowexcitement

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About the Author  Williams Shakespeare was born into a reasonable well-to-do family. His father, John Shakespeare, was an established businessman in Stratford-Upon-Avon who dealt in leather and glove making and who rose in town importance from being chamberlain and alderman to high-bailiff, much like being a mayor today.

About the Author  William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden came from a prominent Catholic family, although there is no evidence to support a conclusion that during those Elizabethan Protestant times Shakespeare himself was ever a secret Catholic.

About the Author William Shakespeare was almost certainly born in the house now known as the birthplace.

House today, after renovations Shakespeare’s House

About the Author  It was custom to baptize a child three days after birth, and since church records at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford show his baptism to have been April 26, 1564, he is assumed to have been born April 23, The only records kept of births, marriages, and deaths were those kept by the church. He is believed to have attended in the half-timbered building which still stands in Stratford and some think he taught there for a short time, as well.

About the Author  He married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26 They became the parents of three children--Susanna, and two years later, twins Judith and Hamnet. This family portrait shows (back row) Shakespeare, Dr John Hall, Judith (Shakepeare's other daughter), (centre row) Anne Hathaway, Susanna, Thomas Quiney (a friend of Judiths), (front) Elizabeth (Susanna's daughter). From: A Pictoral Biography of William Shakespeare.

About the Author  No one knows for sure what Shakespeare did from 1585 to 1592 he was being mentioned as an “upstart crow” by a jealous rival dramatist in London. His first three plays were Henry VI, Titus Andronicus, and The Comedy of Errors.

About the Author The theaters of London were closed between the years of 1592 and 1594 because of the bubonic plague, and during this time Shakespeare wrote his poem “Venus and Adonis” and began writing sonnets.

About the Author In 1594 the plague was over, and Shakespeare helped form the Lord Chamberlain’s Men which became London’s premier acting company in which he was both actor and playwright.

About the Author Queen Elizabeth placed the company under her protection.

About the Author This was very important because a religious group called the Puritans were trying to shut down the theaters for being sinful and attracting the wrong sorts of people. The queen loved the theater and the arts, so Shakespeare’s company was able to enjoy 14 productive years until her death in

About the Author  At that time, King James I continued royal patronage, and thereafter the company was known as The King’s Men.

About the Author Shakespeare’s plays and poetry were very popular and from the beginning of his writing until his death in 1616 he wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and other poetry. Around 1610 he left London for good and retired to his home in Stratford where he became and important member of the local gentry. In 1613 he collaborated with John Fletcher on Henry VIII, The Noble Kinsmen, and a play, which has since become lost, named Cardenia. He died on April 23rd in 1616.

Attending Shakespeare’s Theater Attending the theater in Shakespeare’s time was very different from attending it now, and Shakespeare’s theater, the Globe, was unlike any modern one. It was probably round, or nearly so, and the roof covered only the outside galleries; thus, many who went to see the plays got wet in the frequent London rains. The stage jutted out into the audience and the actors were surrounded on three sides by people who paid to see the performance.

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Attending Shakespeare’s Theater Nearly half the theater-goers stood on the ground around the stage; they were called “groundlings,” and they were a rowdy bunch, eating, talking and yelling out anything which took their fancy at the moment. People paying higher prices got seats in the galleries for their money and a roof to keep off the rain.

Attending Shakespeare’s Theater No one went to the theater at night. There were no electric stage lights, and the stage was in the middle of the audience, lighted by the sun. There was no scenery and very few props. There were no costumes except for any which the actors acquired for themselves, so there might be all manner of styles and periods of dress on the stage at one time.

Attending Shakespeare’s Theater Today no courteous theater-goer would think of walking around while a play was on, but Shakespeare’s audiences, especially the groundlings, made no pretense of courtesy, and the playwright who, after all, had been an actor himself, knew he had better write a play filled with action and good stories or he would soon lose the attention of his audience. Shakespeare’s plays are action-packed with all sorts of sword play and buffoonery.

Attending Shakespeare’s Theater In Shakespeare’s time no women or girls acted in plays, which is probably the main reason there are many more men’s than women’s parts in his plays. For a woman to act in a play would have been a shameless and serious breach of social custom. Women were played by men, and girls and young women were played by young men or boys who were carefully taught by the older actors. Only later in the 17th century did women and girls act, and even then an actress was considered somewhat daring and her character a little suspect.

Attending Shakespeare’s Theater In 1613 the old Globe Theater burned to the ground after being set on fire by a spark from a cannon during a performance of Henry VIII

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Photo: Nik Milner

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