1. Shakespeare: His Life and Times
Adapted from

2. Early Life Born April 23, 1564—died 1616
In Stratford-upon-Avon
Parents: John and Mary Arden Shakespeare
Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner
John—glovemaker, local politician

3. Location of Stratford-upon-Avon
From:

4. Shakespeare’s Birthplace
From:

5. Married Life
Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway (26), who was pregnant at the time with their first daughter (Susanna)
He was 18!
Had twins in 1585 (Hamnet & Judith)
Sometime between , he moved to London and began working in theatre.

6. Not this one…

7. Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
From:

8. Conditions in London-BAD!
Thames River polluted with raw sewage
Trees used up for fuel
Poverty

9. Personal Hygiene/Disease
Bathing considered dangerous
Body odor strong
Childhood diseases
Children often died before 5 years
Small Pox
Bubonic Plague

10. Living Conditions
No running water
Chamber Pots
Open Sewers
Crowded
                  

11. Clothes One set used all year long, rarely washed
Underclothing slept in, infrequently changed

12. Theater Career Performed in courtyards of inns
The Theater-first public theater-1576
Daytime/open air
Limited set design
Relied on music, sound, costumes, props and great description

13. Theatre
Member and later part-owner of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later called the King’s Men
Globe Theater built in 1599 by L.C.M. with Shakespeare as primary investor
was three-stories high and had no roof.\
could together hold more than 1,500 people.
In 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, a misfired canon ball set the Globe's thatched roof on fire and the whole theatre was consumed.

14. The Globe Theater

15. The Rebuilt Globe Theater, London

16. The Globe Theater

17. Actors All men Female parts played by young boys
No actual kissing or hugging on stage

18. Groundlings Poor audience member Stood around stage in “the pit”
Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances

19. The cost of attending a show
1 shilling to stand
2 shillings to sit in the balcony

20. The Plays 38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare comedies histories
Tragedies
romances
Collaborated on several others

21. The Poetry
Numerous poems
154 Sonnets

22. Shakespeare’s death
The cause of Shakespeare's death is a mystery, but an entry in the diary of John Ward, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), tells us that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."
He was 52.
He is buried at Holy Trinity Church in his birthplace of Stratford.

23. Shakespeare’s epitaph
An epitaph is an inscription on or at a tomb or a grave in memory of the one buried there.
Shakespeare also wrote his own epitaph because during his time, when the graveyard was full, people would dig up someone's corpse and burn it so that another could be buried in that person's place. This disgusted Shakespeare, and he didn't want this type of disrespect after his death. His epitaph reads as follows:
Good Friends, for Jesus' sake forbear, To dig the bones enclosed here! Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones."

24. Some of Shakespeare’s phrases- which we still use today!
- one fell swoop
flesh and blood
vanish into thin air
pomp and circumstance
seen better days
a sorry sight
neither rhyme nor reason
full circle
dead as a doornail
for goodness sake
green-eyed monster
Not a mouse was stirring
In a pickle
Not slept one wink
Too much of a good thing
Foul play

25. Shakespeare’s Language
Shakespeare did NOT write in “Old English.”
Old English is the language of Beowulf:
Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum
Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunon
Hu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!
(Hey! We have heard of the glory of the Spear-Danes in the old days, the kings of tribes, how noble princes showed great courage!)

26. Shakespeare’s Language
Shakespeare did not write in “Middle English.”
Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the
author of The Canterbury Tales:
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

27. Shakespeare’s Language
Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English.”
EME was not very different from “Modern English,” except that it had some old holdovers.
The Shakespeare Glossary

28. Omissions Again, for the sake of his poetry, Shakespeare often left out letters, syllables, and whole words.  These omissions really aren't that much different from the way we speak today.  We say:
"Been to class yet?" "No.  Heard Miss T’s givin' a test." "Wha'sup wi'that?“
We leave out words and parts of words to speed up our speech.  If we were speaking in complete sentences, we would say:
"Have you been to class yet?" "No, I have not been to class.  I heard that Ms. Torresani is giving a test today." "What is up with that?"

29. A few examples of Shakespearean omissions/contractions follow:
'tis ~ it is ope ~ open o'er ~ over gi' ~ give ne'er ~ never
i' ~ in e'er ~ ever oft ~ often e'en ~ even

30. Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Shakespeare’s Poetry
We speak in prose (language without metrical structure). 
Shakespeare wrote both prose and poetry (verse). 
To understand his poetry , we need to understand these terms:
Blank Verse:  unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Iambic Pentameter:  five beats of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables; ten syllables per line.

31. Shakespeare’s Language
Shakespeare coined many words we still use today:
Critical
Majestic
Dwindle
Fashionable
Embrace (as a noun)
Vulnerable

32. Shakespeare’s Language
one fell swoop
flesh and blood
vanish into thin air
pomp and circumstance
seen better days
a sorry sight
neither rhyme nor reason
full circle
dead as a doornail
for goodness sake
green-eyed monster

33. Shakespeare’s Language
A mix of old and very new
Rural and urban words/images
Understandable by the lowest peasant and the highest noble

34. Theatrical Conventions of Shakespeare's Theatre
Types of speech
Soliloquy- an extended speech, directed to the audience rather than to other characters, in which the speaker explores their thoughts and feelings.
Aside- Words an actor speaks to the audience which other actors on the stage cannot hear. Sometimes the actor cups his mouth toward the audience or turns away from the other actors. An aside serves to reveal a character's thoughts or concerns to the audience without revealing them to other characters in a play.
Audience loves to be scared.
Blood and gore
Use of supernatural