1. The Man, the Myth, the Legend
William Shakespeare
The Man, the Myth, the Legend

2. Introduction

3. Early life
Born in 1564 in a town northwest of London called Stratford-upon-Avon

4. Stratford-upon-avon

5. marriage
In 1582, he married Anne Hathaway
He was 18
She was 26

6. No, not that anne hathaway!

7. Anne hathaway’s cottage

8. London calling
Moved to London to work in the theatre (actor and writer)

9. Conditions in london Thames River polluted with raw sewage
Open sewers everywhere
Chamber pots
Extreme poverty
Crowded
No running water

10. Clothes One or two outfits used all year long, rarely washed
Slept in underclothing, infrequently changed

11. Personal hygiene/disease
Bathing considered dangerous
Strong body odor
Childhood diseases (children often died before 5)
Small Pox
BUBONIC PLAGUE!!!

12. The Globe Theatre
Also called the “Wooden-O” because it was round and made of wood.
Queen Elizabeth loved to watch plays.
Shakespeare became a partial owner of the Globe Theatre
Owned 10% of the shares

13. The GLOBE

15. Groundlings
Groundlings were the poor audience member who stood around the stage in “the pit”
Paid 1 shilling to attend
Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances

16. plays After the plague, he wrote around 2 plays a year
Wrote a total of 37 plays

17. Acting in shakespeare’s london
All of Shakespeare’s female characters were originally played by young boys.
So, Juliet would have been played by a boy!

18. Romeo & Juliet Set in Verona, Italy.
Based on a poem and an even older story.
Romeo and Juliet are “star cross’d lovers”
Romeo belongs to the Montague family
Juliet belongs to the Capulet family

20. sonnets
When the theatres began to close because of the plague, Shakespeare wrote sonnets and poetry
Wrote a total of 154
sonnets.

21. Sonnets
A sonnet has 14 lines.
Each line has 10 syllables.

22. Sonnets The rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean sonnet is ababcdcdefefgg.
The last two lines which rhyme in a Shakespearean sonnet are called a couplet.

23. language
Iambic Pentameter: five beats of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables; ten syllables per line
Blank Verse:  unrhymed iambic pentameter

24. language
For the sake of his poetry, Shakespeare often left out letters, syllables, and whole words.
We do that too!
“Been to English yet?”
“No. Heard Ms. Foreman made a pretty
sweet PowerPoint, though.”
“Wha’supwi’that?”
“Dunno, but I sure ain’t takin’ notes.”
“YOLO!”

25. Examples of omissions/contractions
‘tis
ope
o’er
gi’
ne’er i’
e’er
oft
e’en

26. Other Words for Ye to know
Thou
Thee
Thine/thy
Art
Whence
Wherefore
Nay
Aye
Yon/yonder

27. pun
a play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings (ex. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”)

28. aside
Dramatic convention by which an actor directly addresses the audience but is not supposed to be heard by the other actors on stage.

29. Monologue
a dramatic conversation in which a speech is given by a single character, either alone or to others.

30. soliloquies
a dramatic convention in which a speech is given by a character while or as if alone; literally, “talking to oneself.”

31. Words he coined
Invented over 1,700 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 original words

32. Phrases he coined Flesh and blood Seen better days Full circle
Dead as a doornail
For goodness sake
Green-eyed monster
A sorry sight

33. Reading Shakespeare Difficult because of the unusual word arrangements
Example: (I ate the sandwich.)
I the sandwich ate.
Ate the sandwich I.
Ate I the sandwich.
The sandwich I ate.
The sandwich ate I.