1. Shakespeare: His Life and Times

2. 3 Little Pigs…Shakespeare Style!!!

3. Why study Shakespeare?
Chances are, you’ve quoted Shakespeare without even knowing it!
Have you ever said the following...

4. “Too much of a good thing.”
“in a pickle”
“It’s Greek to me.”
“Too much of a good thing.”

5. “as luck would have it” “good riddance” “foul play”
“dead as a door-nail”
“foul play”

6. “without rhyme or reason”
“a laughing stock”
“an eyesore”
“send me packing”
“without rhyme or reason”

7. Even today, Shakespeare lives on.
We can relate to his tales of love, hatred, revenge, courage, trust and deception.
So much of our world today has been influenced by Shakespeare.

8. My Early Life- A Mystery?????
Born April 23 or died April 26, 1616
Stratford-upon-Avon
3rd of 8 children
Parents: John and Mary Arden Shakespeare
Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner
John—glove maker, local politician

9. Stratford-on-Avon in Shakespeare’s Time

10. Stratford-upon-Avon Today

11. Shakespeare’s Birthplace
From:

12. Education Probably attended King’s New School in Stratford
Educated in:
Rhetoric
Logic
History
Latin
But was he actually
educated????

13. King’s New School
From:

14. Married Life
Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant at the time with their first daughter
Had twins in 1585
Sometime between , he moved to London and began working in theatre.
Poet
Playwright
Actor

15. Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
From:

16. 1590’s Queen Elizabeth I ruled
English explorers were crossing the ocean to the New World
And travelers coming to England LOVED watching plays...

17. The Playwrights... Christopher Marlowe Thomas Kyd
And William Shakespeare was the original “New Kid on the Block”

18. The Rose, built in 1587 (London’s first “Bankside” theatre)
The Theatres...
The Theatre, built in 1576
The Rose, built in 1587 (London’s first “Bankside” theatre)
The Swan, 1595
The Globe (Shakespeare helped construct in )

19. About the theatres •Protestants condemned the plays
•Theatres were on the outskirts of London--away from the authorities
•People who attended the theatres included:
-merchants
-lawyers
-laborers
-prostitutes
-visitors from other countries
-nobility & royalty

20. •No lighting
•No scenery--Just a curtain
•Could hold around 2,000 people

21. most expensive seats were directly behind the stage
people sitting there could only see the actors from behind

22. Theatre Career
Member and later part-owner of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men under Queen Elizabeth I
Globe Theater built in 1599 by L.C.M. with Shakespeare as primary investor
Later called the King’s Men under King James I
Burned down in 1613 during one of Shakespeare’s plays
What happened between to theater companies?

23. The Rebuilt Globe Theater, London

24. The Plays 14 comedies 10 histories 10 tragedies 4 romances
38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare
14 comedies
Ex. Alls Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew
10 histories
Henry IV, Henry V
10 tragedies
Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet
4 romances
The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale

25. The Poetry 154 Sonnets Numerous other poems
Got his ideas from all over!

26. 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!)

27. Shakespeare’s Language
Shakespeare did not write in “Middle English.”
Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, and Malory:
We redeth oft and findeth y-write—
And this clerkes wele it wite—
Layes that ben in harping
Ben y-founde of ferli thing… (Sir Orfeo)

28. Shakespeare’s Language
Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English.”
EME was not very different from “Modern English,”

29. Shakespeare’s Language
A mix of old and very new
Rural and urban words/images
Understandable by the lowest peasant and the highest noble
How many words did he use?
30,000
How many words do we use today?
6,000-15,000

30. Love of the Language
In Shakespeare’s time, everyone loved the English language.
There were no grammar rules, punctuation keys, OR spelling!
The language was evolving and everyday new words were being made up.
Shakespeare’s language reflects this freedom and experimentation.

31. Iambic Pentameter Is a sound pattern
IAMB: one unaccented (or unstressed) syllable with one accented syllable
It’s like a heartbeat: ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum
Five “ba-bum”s in a row make one line of iambic pentameter (10-syllable lines)
Example: he WENT to TOWN toDAY to BUY a CAR
OR: In SOOTH / I KNOW / not WHY / I AM / so SAD

32. Why go to all the TROUBLE???
Using iambic pentameter kept things moving in the play (like a drum beat)
It made the words & play more interesting
It helped the actors remember their lines (like a song)

33. a mixing of old styles and new sounds.
When Shakespeare set his words to iambic pentameter it is compared to the birth of
rock-n-roll:
a mixing of old styles and new sounds.

34. •In Shakespeare’s time, you only had one copy of a play, and after you wrote it for the acting company, you no longer owned it! •Scripts were thrown out when they were no longer wanted or needed. •NO copies of Shakespeare’s plays in his own handwriting have survived. The only known evidence of anything in his handwriting is his signature (shown above) on the play Sir Thomas More that Shakespeare might have written.

35. “Quartos” Small books of published plays were called “quartos.”
The first published works of Shakespeare’s vary considerably
Scholars believe these are faulty versions, calling them “bad quartos.”

36. The first full collection of Shakespeare’s work was published in 1623, seven years after his death.
It was called “First Folio”
It contained 36 plays (compiled by John Heminge and Henry Condell--friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare’s)

37. Elizabethan Theatrical Conventions

38. Acting
The actors were all men; young boys (age 12-14) played the female parts
They were considered “shareholders” and owned stock or shares in the play texts, costumes, and props
Their pay depended on admission sales
Actors only had about 3 weeks to practice a new play
In one week, the troupes may perform 6 different plays (as many as 4,000 lines!)

39. A theatrical convention is a
Theatrical Conventions
of Shakespeare's Theatre
A theatrical convention is a
suspension of reality.
No electricity
Women forbidden
to act on stage
Minimal, contemporary
costumes
Minimal scenery
These control the dialogue.

40. Theatrical Conventions of Shakespeare's Theatre
Soliloquy
Aside
Types of speech
Audience loves to be scared.
Blood
Use of supernatural

41. Theatrical Conventions of Shakespeare's Theatre
Use of disguises/
mistaken identity
Last speaker—highest in
rank (in tragedies)
Multiple murders
(in tragedies)
Multiple marriages
(in comedies)

42. Let’s dramatize Shakespeare!!!
“All the world 's a stage,
And all the men and women
merely players.”
So…..
Let’s dramatize Shakespeare!!!

43. Shakespeare’s Epitaph…
"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."