1. Shakespeare Introduction
Grade 10 English

2. Shakespeare’s Life Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
Baptized on 26 April 1564
Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway
Was working on plays and sonnets in London by 1592
Died in 1616
36 of his plays published for the first time in The First Folio in 1623

3. Family Life Father - John Shakespeare glovemaker and wool merchant
Mother - Mary Arden, daughter of well-to-do local landowner
Wife - Anne Hathaway was 12 years older and four months pregnant at the wedding
Children - Susanna ( ), twins Judith ( ) Hamnet ( )
Family lived in Stratford, Shakespeare lived in London except for last five years of his life when they were together

4. Professional Life FACTS
He wrote 37 plays and sonnets in London - first documented play in 1594
Two of his sonnets were written with the patronage of Henry Wriothesley
He acted with and wrote for the troupe The Lord Chamberlain’s Men which changed names to The King’s Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne
He and members of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men built the Globe Theater in 1599, which burnt down in 1613 and was rebuilt in 1614

5. Shakespeare wrote HISTORIES, TRAGEDIES, AND ROMANCES
Historical Guesses: (No one knows exactly when Shakespeare wrote anything, but based on the little information available, the time line of some of his plays are thought to be)
first play is Henry IV Part One
Henry IV Parts II and III
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Taming of the Shrew
Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer’s Night Dream
Macbeth, King Lear (To honor King James)
Othello
The Tempest

6. Performing a Shakespearean Play
Protestant Church, City officials opposed theaters due to crime, bawdy subject matter, fighting, drinking, and up to 3, people in one place to spread Bubonic Plague
Theaters also used for bear-baiting and gambling
1596 Plague caused London to ban all public plays and Theatres within the City limits
All actors were men because theaters too disreputable for women
Little emphasis on scenery, more attention on costumes, though most were contemporary due to cost
Much of the audience watched from the ‘pit’ as groundlings - poor workers who went for the entertainment of alcohol, fights, prostitution, and lewd subject matter of the plays. Often threw food at the actors onstage.

7. Importance to English
Over 12,000 words entered English between
Shakespeare’s plays show the first recorded use of 2,035 new English words
Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear have one ‘new’ word every 2.5 lines
He created: “antipathy, critical, frugal, dwindle, extract, horrid, vast, hereditary, critical, excellent, eventful, assassination, lonely, leapfrog, indistinguishable, well-read, and countless others (including countless)” (Bryson loc ).

8. Shakespeare’s English Continued
The following phrases were coined by Shakespeare. What do they mean and how do we use them today?
A laughing stock (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
A sorry sight (Macbeth)
As dead as a doornail (Henry VI)
Eaten out of house and home (Henry V, Part 2)
Fair play (The Tempest)
I will wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)
In a pickle (The Tempest)
In stitches (Twelfth Night)
In the twinkling of an eye (The Merchant Of Venice)
Mum's the word (Henry VI, Part 2)
Neither here nor there (Othello)
Send him packing (Henry IV)
Set your teeth on edge (Henry IV)
There's method in my madness (Hamlet)
Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)
Vanish into thin air (Othello)

9. Shakespearean plays ARE NOT written in Old English
Myth
Shakespearean plays ARE NOT written in Old English
From “King Lear”
Old English
Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame, Be-monster not thy feature. Were't my fitness To let these hands obey my blood
God wolde þa fandian Abrahames gehiersumnesse and clipode his naman and cwæþ him þus to

11. Works Cited
Absolute Shakespeare, Shakespeare Timeline. Absoluteshakespeare.com, Web. 3 January 2010.
BBC. BBC Historic-Figures, William Shakespeare. BBC, MMX, n.d. Web. 3 January 2010.
Bryson, Bill. Shakespeare, The World as Stage (Kindle Edition). Amazon, Ebook.
The Elizabethan Era. Elizabethan Era, n.d. Web. 3 January 2010
The Folger Shakespeare Library. The Folger Institute, n.d. Web. 3 January, 2010.
Jamieson, Lee. Common Phrases Invented by Shakespeare. About.com Guide, n.d. Web. 3 January 2010.
Plowright, Teresa. Globe Theater. About.com Gude, n.d. Web. 3 January 2010.
Shakespeare for Children. Squidoo, Web. 3 January 2010.