1. Warm up!
Write down 3 facts you know about Shakespeare on a separate sheet of paper.

2. Things we know about Shakespeare…

3. Shakespeare: His Life and Times
Adapted from

4. 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

5. Location of Stratford-upon-Avon
From:

6. Shakespeare’s Birthplace
From:

7. Education Probably attended King’s New School in Stratford
Children learned their letters
from a “horn book”. These
were made of leather covered
wood with a sheet of paper.
They were sometimes worn
around the neck.

8. King’s New School
From:

9. Gender Girls Boys Most girls stayed home to learn housekeeping skills.
Boys might go to grammar school between the ages of 7 & 15.
They studied Latin, math, and sometimes Greek

10. 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.

11. Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
From:

12. Conditions in London-BAD!
Thames River was polluted with raw sewage (eww)
Lots of poverty

13. Personal Hygiene/Disease
Bathing considered dangerous (most people only bathed once a year!)
Body odor strong – people believed diseases were spread through bad smells, so they carried flowers with them or wore heavy perfume.
There were many childhood diseases & children often died before 5 years 
Small Pox
Bubonic Plague

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

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

16. Theater Career Early actors performed in courtyards of inns
First public theater was built in 1576
Daytime/open air
Limited set design
Relied on music, sound, costumes, props and great description

17. Theatre
The Globe Theater was built in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men theatre group with Shakespeare as primary investor.
It was a 20-sided, three-story high open roofed theater
It was built to hold up to 2,000, but often the number went as high as 3,000!!
The stage was 49’ across and 27’ deep!!
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.

18. What you’d What’s find at the Globe Missing
Open air roof
Extra large stage
Balcony
Trap door
Elaborate costumes
Actresses
Scenery
Props
Lighting
Restrooms
intermission

19. The Globe Theater

20. The Rebuilt Globe Theater, London

21. The Globe Theater

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

23. Groundlings/ Mosh Pit Poor audience members
Stood around stage in “the pit”/the “yard” (around 1,000 people)
Referred to as the Stinkards
Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances
If it rained, you got wet
Refreshments available: hazelnuts, apples & ale (beer)

24. The cost of attending a show
1 shilling to stand (an entire day’s wage for a typical groundling)
2 shillings to sit on the stairs
6 shillings for a cushion, a roof covering, and the best view

25. The Plays
Shakespeare wrote 38 plays
Collaborated on several others

26. Comedies Usually have a happy ending Involve marriages
Not necessarily funny
White flag

27. Tragedies Most famous and popular plays
Noble protagonist (TRAGIC HERO)
Flawed in some way
Placed in a stressful situation
Ends with death (or many deaths…)
Black flag
Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth

28. 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.

29. What is the English that Shakespeare used?? It makes no sense…

30. 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!)

31. 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;

32. The General Prologue Original Middle English:
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;
Modern Translation
When fair April with his showers sweet, Has pierced the drought of March to the root's feet And bathed each vein in liquid of such power, Its strength creates the newly springing flower;

33. Shakespeare’s Language
Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English.”
EME was not too different from “Modern English,” except that it used some pieces of Middle English.

34. A few examples of Shakespearean omissions/contractions follow:
'tis ~ o'er ~ gi' ~ ne'er ~
i' ~ e'er ~ oft ~ e'en ~

35. Reading Shakespeare: A Review
Unlocking Shakespeare's Language, by Randal Robinson
Unusual Word Arrangements
I ate the sandwich. I the sandwich ate. Ate the sandwich I. Ate I the sandwich. The sandwich I ate. The sandwich ate I.
Robinson shows us that these four words can create six unique sentences which carry the same meaning.  Locate the subject, verb, and the object of the sentence.  Notice that the object of the sentence is often placed at the beginning (the sandwich) in front of the verb (ate) and subject (I).  Rearrange the words in the order that makes the most sense to you (I ate the sandwich). 

36. 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:

37. Iambic Pentameter: 5 iambs to a line
Iamb: unstressed/stressed pattern of 2 syllables Ex. Your heartbeat (lub DUB)
Penta: 5
Lub DUB/ lub DUB/ lub DUB/ lub DUB/ lub DUB = iambic pentameter
Iambic Pentameter: 5 iambs to a line