1. 1564 - 1616 The world’s most famous playwright
William Shakespeare
The world’s most famous playwright

2. Biography Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon, England
Middle-class family
Attended local grammar school
Married Anne Hathaway at 18; had 3 children

3. Stratford-on-Avon

4. Life in the theater Moved to London in late 1580’s
Became successful playwright and actor
Involved in acting group called King’s Men

5. Globe Theater Most of his plays were performed there Round No roof
Seats grouped according to price
Groundlings

6. Elizabethan drama
Elizabethan Age ( ) during reign of Elizabeth I
Acting was looked down upon
Officials tried to close theaters (unsavory, unhealthy)

7. Comedy vs. Tragedy Comedy = story that ends happily
Tragedy = story in which the main character comes to an unhappy end

8. What causes a character’s downfall?
Tragic flaw = serious character weakness
Forces beyond the character’s control

9. More about Elizabethan drama
Plots of plays were not original
Performances only during daylight
Few props
Attended by all social classes

10. No women actors
Simple sets
Sound effects
People talked, ate, drank, etc. so actors had to work hard to hold audience’s attention

11. Iambic pentameter
Iamb = one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable
“penta” = five
Meter = rhythm of poem
IP = five iambs in a line of poetry

12. Example . . . Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

13. Shakespeare writes blank verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter
Inverted word order
Accented syllables
Commoners speak in ordinary prose
R&J has more rhyming than later plays

14. A few examples of Shakespeare’s language
Wherefore = why
Thou = you
Thine = your, yours
Thee = you
Hath = has
Art = are
Anon = soon
Prithee = I pray to you; I beg of you
Soft = wait a minute
Marry = by the Virgin Mary (a mild oath)
Hence = here
Knave = servant

15. Literary terms
Pun = humorous use of a word that suggests two or more meanings
Aside = an actor’s speech that is spoken to the audience but not heard by other characters
Oxymoron = statement that seems to contradict itself
Dramatic irony = when the audience knows more than the characters do

16. Comic relief = humorous scenes that relieve the overall emotional intensity of the play
Soliloquy = a speech a character gives when he is alone on stage

17. Format of a five-act play
Act I: exposition
Act II: rising action
Act III: climax
Act IV: falling action
Act V: resolution