“All the world 's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players.

Born 1564—died 1616Stratford-upon-AvonParents: John and Mary Arden

Shakespeare• Mary—daughter of wealthy

landowner• John—glovemaker, local politician

From: http://www.where-can-i-find.com/tourist-maps.html

As reproduced in William Rolfe, Shakespeare the Boy (1896).

From Stratford’s web site: http://www.stratford-upon-avon.co.uk/index.htm

From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/

• Probably attended King’s New School in Stratford

• Educated in:• Rhetoric• Logic• History• Latin

From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/

• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant at the time with their first daughter

• Had twins in 1585• Sometime between 1585-1592, he moved

to London and began working in theatre.

From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/

• Member and later part-owner of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later called the King’s Men

• Globe Theater built in 1599 by L.C.M. with Shakespeare as primary investor

• Burned down in 1613 during one of Shakespeare’s plays

• The Globe Theatre:

• Open ceiling

• Three stories high

• No artificial lighting• Plays were shown

during daylight hours only

Wealthy people got to sit on benches

The poor (called “groundlings”) had to stand and watch from the courtyard

There was much more audience participation than today

Only men and boys Young boys whose

voices had not changed played the women’s roles

It would have been indecent for a woman to appear on stage

38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare▪ 14 comedies▪ 10 histories▪ 10 tragedies▪ 4 romances

Possibly wrote three others Collaborated on several others

• 154 Sonnets• Numerous other poems

• Shakespeare did NOT write in “Old English.”

• Old English is the language of Beowulf:Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunonHu 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!)

• 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 harpingBen y-founde of ferli thing… (Sir Orfeo)

• Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English.”• EME was not very different from “Modern English,”

• A mix of old and very new• Rural and urban words/images• Understandable by the lowest peasant and the highest noble

Elizabethan Theatrical

Conventions

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.

Audience loves to be scared.

Soliloquy

Aside Types of speech

Blood

Use of supernatural

Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus

Use of disguises/

mistaken identity

Multiple marriages

(in comedies)

Multiple murders

(in tragedies)

Last speaker—highest in

rank (in tragedies)