Oh No! Mr. Bill! I mean William Shakespeare…

Shakespeare’s England

William Shakespeare’s Line is Extinct… Take a Moment to Examine his Family Tree

Who was William Shakespeare? The Facts We Know  William was born in Stratford in 1564  Shakespeare was baptized on April 26th.  He attended the King's New School in Stratford, probably from the age of seven, though again no formal records survive.  At the age of 18 he married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, a local farmer's daughter, at Temple Grafton, a village five miles from Stratford.  A marriage license was issued by the Diocese of Worcester on November 27th, Anne was pregnant at the time, and six months after the ceremony gave birth to the couple's first child, Susanna. The twins Judith and Hamnet were born two years later.

Oh Will, Where art Thou?  These are known as “The Lost Years”  A Stratford legend had it that William was forced to flee for London to escape prosecution for poaching deer.  Another states that he began his theatrical career tending the horses of theatre patrons. Some contend that he was employed as a schoolmaster. Others say he went on tour with a theatrical group which had visited the area.  Whatever the case may be…we do not have conclusive evidence of what the heck William Shakespeare was doing until 1592.

Elizabethan England  Queen Elizabeth ruled England from  Shakespeare was born in 1564  Shakespeare has been called the “Soul of his Age”  Elizabeth was a Protestant Queen and there was much strife between Protestant and Catholics.

Shakespeare’s Emergence as an Actor and Playwright  Shakespeare played “Kingly” roles.  1593 a plague hit London and closed theaters for two years! This is when it is said that Shakespeare composed 154 of his Sonnets.  From 1594 Shakespeare wrote and acted solely for this group, and they fast became the leading company in London. Two years later their patron Henry Carey, the Lord Chamberlain, died.  In 1600 he became a partner in the new Globe Theatre, built in London by the Chamberlain's Men.

Jacobean England  Elizabeth I died in 1603 and this ended the Tudor line.  King James VI of Scotland ascended the throne in 1603 becoming the first Stuart king. James VI of Scotland became James the I of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.  James I of England hated witches and witchcraft.  He wrote a pamplet called “Daemonologie” in 1597 and set forth laws to persecute witches while king.  He also set forth the translation of the Bible. Today, we know it as the King James Bible.  Macbeth was written in The presence of the witches and the absence of Mary Queen of Scots in the Pantomime scene are thought to be placed there to not offend King James I.

Comedies  The Tempest  The Two Gentlemen of Verona  The Merry Wives of Windsor  Measure for Measure  The Comedy of Errors  Much Ado About Nothing  Love's Labour's Lost  A Midsummer Night's Dream  The Merchant of Venice  As You Like It  The Taming of the Shrew  All's Well That Ends Well  Twelfth Night  The Winter's Tale  Pericles, Prince of Tyre  The Two Noble Kinsmen

Tragedies  Troilus and Cressida  Coriolanus  Titus Andronicus  Romeo and Juliet  Timon of Athens  Julius Caesar  Macbeth  Hamlet  King Lear  Othello  Antony and Cleopatra  Cymbeline

Histories  King John  Richard II  Henry IV, Part 1  Henry IV, Part 2  Henry V  Henry VI, Part 1  Henry VI, Part 2  Henry VI, Part 3  Richard III  Henry VIII

The Lost Play: Cardinio  The play Cardenio, though written and performed in Shakespeare’s time has not been recorded in the First Folio of 1623 as were Shakespeare’s other plays. Cardenio has been lost to time for the modern reader.  It could have been about a happy Italian bunny that liked to play cards with shamrocks while pretending to be Irish…we will never know.

Did you Know…  The term “DRAG” may have come from Shakespeare?  It is thought to mean “Dressed as a Girl”  Why? Because women were not allowed to be actors during Shakespeare’s time. Young men that had effeminate features would take the female roles.  Snopes.com cannot confirm or deny if Shakespeare really did coin the term or not.

Shakespeare Controversy!  Shakespeare retired early from his life in the theater to be a businessman. This was highly unusual at the time.  There is controversy to who is the real Shakespeare. It is claimed that the 17 th Earl of Oxford was really the author of Shakespeare’s works and that Shakespeare was just a fraud.  The current movie Anonymous explores this concept. It stars Rhys Ifans as Edward de Vere, the 17 th Earl of Oxford. It’s quite a racy film!

Shakespeare has been Used for Centuries to poke fun at people…

The Works and Death of Shakespeare  Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 Sonnets in his lifetime.  Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church on April 25th, 1616, and a monument was erected in his memory on the wall, with an effigy of Shakespeare in the act of writing and a plaque comparing him to Socrates and Virgil.

Ramen NoOdLes