1. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE English 12

2. SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)  Author of 37 or 38 plays  Comedies  Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream  Tragedies  Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello  Histories  Henry IV, Henry V, Richard II  Wrote 154 poems and 2 length narrative poems  Shakespearean Sonnet

3. SHAKESPEARE’S YOUNGER YEARS  Born in Stratford-on-Avon  Baptized April 26, 1564  Born April 23, 1564  Father: John Shakespeare  Merchant  Once active in the town government – Bailaff (mayor)  Controversy and speculation about decline in fortune  Mother: Mary Arden  Came from a prominent family  Attended Stratford grammar school for seven years  Educated in Latin, the Bible, and English composition

4. FAMILY LIFE  Got married at the age of 18  Married Anne Hathaway  26 years old  Daughter of a farmer  They had 3 children  Susanna  Twins – Hamnet and Judith  Daughters grew up and married  Son died at the age of 11  Uncertain how he supported his family in the early years – “Lost Years”  Possibility he was a teacher for a few years

5. LIFE IN LONDON  Uncertain when he moved to London  No evidence his wife ever lived in London with him\  1592 – evidence he worked as an actor and playwright  Gained negative attention from Robert Greene  Managing Partner in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men – acting company  Changed to King’s Men after the crowning of King James I in 1603  First became famous for the poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594)

6. SHAKESPEARE’S EARLY PLAYS  Wrote a variety of plays  All 3 genres  Immensely popular and often revived and performed  Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Romeo and Juliet

7. YEARS OF PROSPERITY  Purchased the second largest house in Stratford, New Place, for his family  Rarely visited his family  In 1599, he joined with a few other members of his company and financed a new theater, The Globe Theater.  Now known as a playwright, actor, and shareholder in a theater  Regularly associated with the Aristocracy  Prospered under Queen Elizabeth  Henry IV, Henry V, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Hamlet

8. YEARS OF PROSPERITY  Prospered even more under King James of Scotland  Shakespeare took advantage of the Plague in order to perform his plays for the King outside of London  King James:  Took the company under his patronage  Renamed them the King’s Men  Gave them permission to perform anywhere within his realm  Gave them special clothing for State occasions  Increased their salaries  Appointed chief members to be grooms of the royal chamber

9. TRAGIC OR GLORIOUS?  1600-1607  Wrote his greatest tragedies  Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra  Wrote two comedies  All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure  Seems to be a tragic time  Relation of written works to personal life?  Glorious time for his career

10. SHAKESPEARE’S LAST YEARS  1610 – Shakespeare decided to retire to home in Stratford  Still maintained the management of the King’s Men and their theaters  Wrote a variety of plays  Pericles, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, Henry VIII, Timon of Athens  1613 – fire at the Globe  Blackfriars Theater (indoor theater) was used for performances  Globe rebuilt and reopened in 1614  Died on April 23, 1616  Buried under Stratford Church  Epitaph warned others not to dig him up and transfer him to the graveyard or be cursed

11. MASTER PLAYWRITE  Wrote for his actors  No actresses  Very few mothers  Female characters disguise themselves as men  Expectation of music  Suited the actors  Double/triple casting  Small cast  Careful planning of scenes

12. SHAKESPEARE’S LEGACY  Depiction of human nature  Imaginative  Entertainment  Racy subject matter?

13. TAMING OF THE SHREW  Comedy  Depicts and satirizes unfair social customs and courting practices  Satire – use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to criticize people’s stupidity or vices  Relies heavily on farce  Farce – horseplay, exaggeration, unrealistic or improbable situations  Sexism  Conflict between Katharina and Petruchio