Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford upon Avon,

England

William Shakespeare

 

 

The best way to get people to like Shakespeare is by getting them to perform Shakespeare. 

Shakespeare…the factsParents were John—glovemaker, local politician and Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner

Shakespeare had 7 brothers and sisters

  

Shakespeare’s house

Shakespeare…the factsSpelling not yet standardized, thus name spelled in different ways• Shakespeare, Shakspere, Shackspere,

Shaxper, Shagspere, Shaxberd, etc.

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

King’s New School – Shakespeare’s school

  

• Married in November, 1582, to Anne Hathaway

• Anne was pregnant at the time• First daughter Susanna born in May, 1583• Twins (Hamnet and Judith) christened on

February 2, 1585• No documentary evidence between 1585-1592• Sometime in this period, he moved to London

and began working in the theatre.

Married Life

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

Anne Hathaway’s Cottage

IntroductionThroughout the Middle Ages plays were performed by workers in towns and were religious, often retelling stories from the Bible.

   Elizabethan writers introduced theatre audiences to horror, the supernatural and GORE…

Elizabethan

Playwrights

The most well known playwright of Elizabethan times was Shakespeare. But there were also other writers who, in their time, were just as, or even more famous than the Bard (Shakespeare).

Bard = poet

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

• Theaters in London closed from 1593-1594 due to the plague

Theater Career

• After the accession of James I in 1603, the company was granted permission to change its name to the King’s Men. Worked for London theatres: Blackfriars, Rose, Swan, Curtain, Globe

• Wrote during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth (Elizabethan period) and King James I (Jacobean period)

Theater Career

Queen Elizabeth

The Globe Theatre•Globe built in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, with Shakespeare as a primary investor

•Burned down in 1613 during a production of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII when a cannon misfired and a spark landed on the thatched roof

•It is a Theatre In the Round, which means the audience sat on all sides of the stage.

The Globe Theatre•There are 3 levels to the Globe and each level of the audience was reserved for patrons based on their wealth and/or status in Elizabethan society.

•The front of the stage was called the pit and the ceiling below the roof was called the 'heavens' Groundlings or Penny Standers stood around the stage in the Yard or Pit. Middle Class patrons sat in the Galleries. Lords Rooms (Elizabethan Skyboxes) were reserved for the wealthiest patrons.

The Globe Theatre•The Globe was also an open-air theatre, both the stage and pit were not covered by a roof.

•There were no stage lights expect for candle lanterns placed on the edge of the stage, so most plays took place around noon when there was the most sun light.

•Also, all parts were played by men. Young boys usually played women due to the fact that their voices hadn’t changed yet.

The Rebuilt Globe Theater, London

The Performances The theatres often had mechanisms that allowed “angels” and “gods” to be lowered down onto the stage. Stages were also equipped with a trapdoor leading to a “Hell” beneath the stage. The trapdoor was also used as a grave in theatrical funerals.There was very little scenery available for theatres, so the writers often used to dialogue to explain to the audience where the scene was taking place. Costume was very important in Elizabethan theatre. Actors wore colourful and elaborate costumes that would tell the audience the characters status, family ties or profession. The emphasis that was given to a character’s clothing made the theme of disguise a common convention of Elizabethan theatre. In order to exchange places with another character or conceal his identity, all an actor needed to do was to change his costume.  The Elizabethan theatre also used a variety of sound effects. Music played an important role in the setting the mood of the plays. Other sounds created were thunder, running horses, falling rain, and cannon blasts.

First Folio

The Playsplays firmly attributed to Shakespeare

• 14 COMEDIES – ends in marriage Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice,

Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Much Ado about Nothing…

• 10 HISTORIES – Richard III, Richard II, Henry IV…

• 10 TRAGEDIES – ends in death Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello…

• 4 romances – Pericles, Cymbeline, Winter’s Tale, Tempest

First Folio 1623 Contains 36 plays out of the believed 37

plays Shakespeare wrote

Published 7 years after Shakespeare died Half of the plays had not previously been

published, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew.

Contains famous preface from Ben Johnson: “He was not of an age, but for all time!”

Only 232 copies of the book, which sold for 20 shillings (about $200 in 1623) are thought to exist.

Folger Shakespeare Library has 82 copies Kodama Library at Meisei University in

Tokyo has 12 Closet copy to us is located at the University

of Chicago.  Taken with permission from March 2014 Shakespeare Set Free Workshop lead by Kevin Costa

Play StructureUses traditional 5-Act Play structure which was very popular to an Elizabethan audience.

Act I -- Exposition. We meet the dramatis personae, and time and place are established. We learn about the background and circumstances surrounding the story. Attention given to building dramatic tension.

Act II -- Complications. The course of action becomes more complicated. Interests clash, schemes are hatched, events accelerate in a definite direction. Tension mounts, and momentum builds up.

Act III -- The Climax of Action. The development of conflict reaches its high point, the Hero stands at the crossroads, leading to victory or defeat.

Act IV -- Falling Action. Reversals. The consequences of Act III play out, momentum slows, and tension is heightened by false hopes/fears. In a comedy, it looks all may be lost.

Act V -- Catastrophe. The conflict is resolved, whether through a catastrophe, the downfall of the hero, or through his victory and transfiguration.

Adapted from Aristotle's Poetics and Frank Dies’s analysis of Five-Act Play Structure

• Two major poems• Venus and Adonis• Rape of Lucrece

• 154 Sonnets• Numerous other poems• Poetry usually dedicated to a patron

The Poetry

• Do not pause at the end of a line unless the punctuation calls for it

• Read it like prose• Many of these plays have numerous

references to people, places, events, myths, etc., that you might not be familiar with. That’s what the notes are for—use them.

• Keep a dictionary handy

How to Read the Plays

Shakespeare’s Language

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

Shakespeare’s Language

•Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English”

•EME was not very different from “Modern English,” except that it had some old holdovers.

•Beginning about 200 years before Shakespeare, and largely complete by his day, long vowel pronunciation shifted: ex: good, name, life

Subtext

the underlying or implicit meaning, as of a literary work.

--The Oxford English Dictionary

Tone

A particular quality, pitch, modulation, or inflexion of the voice expressing or indicating affirmation, interrogation, hesitation, decision, or some feeling or emotion; vocal expression.

--The Oxford English Dictionary

O

Oint. Expressing (according to intonation) surprise, frustration, discomfort, longing, disappointment, sorrow, relief, hesitation, etc.

Used mainly in imperative, optative, or exclamatory sentences or phrases, as in “O take me back again!”, “O for another glimpse of it!”, “O the pity of it!”, “O dear!”; often also emphatically in O yes, O no, O indeed, etc

The Oxford English Dictionary

O

surprised

Angry

afraid

exhausted

sad

suspicious

excited

awe

flirty

contempt

 

Stress

Relative loudness or force of vocal utterance; a greater degree of vocal force characterizing one syllable as compared with other syllables of the word, or one part of a syllable as compared with the rest; stress-accent. Also, superior loudness of voice as a means of emphasizing one or more of the words of a sentence more than the rest.

Oxford English Dictionary 

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

I didn’t say he killed our King

Some lines from Shakespeare

O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

(flirty)

O, for a stone-bow, to hit him in the eye!

(angry)

O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!

(exhausted)

O, I am fortune’s fool!

(regret)

O, speak again, bright angel!

(flirty)

O lamentable day!

(misery)

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

(excited)

O me, O me! My child, my only life.

(worried)

O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

(disappointed)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

(fear)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

(horror)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

(sorrow)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

(anger)

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

Shakespeare in Today’s LanguageElizabethan theatre has had a very important effect on today’s

theatre, and other parts of every day life. For example:Shakespeare coined over 1600 words still used today including countless, critical, excellent, lonely, majestic, obscene and its.Names coined by Shakespeare:

-         Imogen in the play Cymbaline, -         Jessica in the play The Merchant of Venice -         Miranda in the play The Tempest -         Olivia in the play Twelfth Night -         Cordelia in the play King Lear

For example…“If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to

me", if your lost property has vanished into thin air, if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, laughed yourself into stitches, if you have too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare!”

Shakespeare TodayElizabethan theatre is still plays a part in our day to day lives, mostly through the influence of Shakespeare. You can find references to his work in films, novels, plays, musicals, songs, poetry, artwork, satire…Even today his characters and storylines continue to inspire…

* Actor

* Playwright

* Poet

Died April 23, 1616 - 52

Introduction to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

William Blake, Oberon, Titania, and Puck with the Fairies Dancing

Introduction to William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream

The Meanings of Midsummer Night’s Dream

Brief examination of the historical context of Midsummer Night’s Dream

A Play for a Royal Wedding?

Fairies in Midsummer Night’s Dream

History of Puck

The Many Meanings of MSNDA romantic comedy

a fast-moving, action-packed romantic comedy demonstrating that “the course of true love never did run smooth.” (I.i.134)

A psychological study of Dreams

A play of political and social realism

how oppressive and hierarchical society can corrupt individuals

A play of illusionsthe effect of the mysterious or supernatural on humans

A play of ideas or themesfor example, “appearance versus reality”

A traditional comedyThe strange happenings of 4 lovers, one royal couple, and the King and Queen of Fairies

Historical Context of MSND

Shakespeare was a playwright, not an historian. However, he knew that history provided great material for plays: war, conflict, ambition, the downfall of great rulers.

King Theseus and Queen Hippolyta based on Greek mythology

Combines classical mythology with English country lore

Takes classical tales (Huan of Bordeaux and Ovid’s Metamorphoses) and adds their plots to the plot of the play

A Midsummer Night's Dream – Sources

A Midsummer Night’s Dream has no single source.

Unlike many of Shakespeare’s plays, it’s not an adaptation of another work.

Pyramus and Thisbe comes from Ovid’s The Metamorphosis.

Wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta comes from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Other aspects of the play are derived from Roman comedic tradition and English folk tales.

Thisbe, John Waterhouse (1909)

Theseus and HippolytaTheseus was declared King of Athens after defeating the Minotaur

Hippolyta was Queen of the Amazons and given to Theseus as a war prize

Their wedding was supposed to end the war between Athens and the Amazons – bringing peace to Greece.

Martin, Theseus and Hippolyta

Oberon and TitaniaOberon and Titania come from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Oberon is the King and Titania is the Queen of all Fairies.

They are unable to have children.

They are both considered to be Pagan gods of love and nature.

History of FairiesFairy-mania characterized the Elizabethan era.

Most people believed in fairies and circulating pamphlets containing tales of fairies and magic were the equivalent of today’s popular newspapers.

Henry Andersen, Fairie Face

Puck

Half man half goat

Not sure if he is good or evil

Servant to Oberon

Is actually a hobgoblin

Based off of Celtic

myths and folklore

Fairies (Fae) and MagicFairies were said to have “diabolical” powers. They could:

predict the future

bring on night in the daytime

cause fogs and tempests

transform themselves and others

curse enemies with fatal, wasting diseases

cause nightmares and sterility

take demonic possession of any individual

fly

teleport

manipulate and control nature

grant the gift immortality with a blood sacrifice

King James’s DaemonlogieKing James wrote Daemonlogie in 1597. In which he created a list of

‘evidence’ said to determine if the accused was indeed a true fairy:

They are almost always women.

They are often young.

They have a ‘familiar’ (an animal that follows them around, usually a bird – often a dove or crow).

They have a ‘mark of the devil’ (a birth mark or mole) on their skin.

Possess tokens (items that belong to) of their victims and cast spells on them.

They hold strange ceremonies.

They celebrate the rain (play in it)

However, by 1607, King James became skeptic of all magical beings and actually would attend trails trying to prove that these things didn’t exist.

and it was someone your best friend loved?

What would you do if you were forced to marry someone you didn’t love…

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Introduction

Suppose the king is forcing you to marry them…

Would you do as the King commands?

Or would you run away with the man you loved never to return home?

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Introduction

As Midsummer Night’s Dream opens, Theseus’s army has just defeated the Amazons and he takes Hippolyta to be his bride

King Theseus (Athenian)

and they are to be married in four days – under the full moon.

Hippolyta (Amazon)

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Introduction

What is a wedding without entertainment?

They decide to go to woods to rehearse…

6 “mechanicals” or “rustics” (basically working class men) are preparing to perform a play for the wedding of Theseus (Duke of Athens) to Hippolyta (Queen of the Amazons), but they keep fighting over the casting.

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Introduction

But in those same woods…

Oberon (King of the Fairies) argues with his wife, Titania, over a young changeling boy (Oberon wants him for a knight whilst Tytania wants to keep him as his mother was one of her servants).

Refusing to give the boy up, Titania leaves. Oberon calls Puck and sends him to find a magical flower. The juice of this flower has the power to make anyone fall in love with the next person they see.

Oberon plans to sprinkle this juice on Titania’s eyes as she sleeps, and then take the boy for himself…

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Introduction

So now everyone is the woods:

The woods seem to hold a strange power over all of them…

•The four lovers

•6 Mechanicals

•Oberon and Titania

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Introduction

Will Hermia get to marry Lysander… Will the mechanicals ever figure out their play… Will Oberon take the boy away from his

wife…

Or will it all fall apart?

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Introduction