1. William Shakespeare 1564-1616 King Lear

5. Personal Details 1564 - Born 1582 - Married Anne Hathaway 1592 – Career had begun 1599 – Shakespeare and friends build The Globe 1603 – 1610 – Bubonic Plague 1616 - Died

6. WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE?

7. Reason #1: GREATEST WRITER IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!

8. WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE? Reason #2: HE WROTE 37 OF THE MOST POPULAR PLAYS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

9. King Lear Shakespeare's original version has been regarded as one of his supreme achievements.

10. The Globe Theatre

13. WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE? Reason #3: HE WROTE 154 SONNETS

14. WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE? Side note: What is a sonnet? 14 lines rhyme scheme iambic pentameter

15. The Sonnet iambic pentameter Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks

16. The Sonnet 154 sonnets of 14 lines of iambic pentameter = 2, 156 lines of iambic pentameter

17. WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE? REASON #4 Because he thought and felt like we do today. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts,

18. WHY DO WE READ SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR? Reason #5: KING LEAR HAS BEEN ON THE LIST OF TITLES FOR PROMPT THREE OF THE AP LIT TEST 17 TIMES SINCE 1975. What years? 77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10, 11, 12, 14