Shakespeare and His Shakespeare and His TimesTimes

His BirthHis Birth

born around April 23,1564. We know this from the earliest record: his baptism which happened on Wednesday, April the 26th, 1564 Therefore, it is celebrated three days earlier.

Born in Stratford upon Avon

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

Shakespeare’s BirthplaceShakespeare’s Birthplace

His Parents and SiblingsHis Parents and Siblings

Parents: John and Mary Arden Shakespeare•Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner•John—glovemaker, local politician

Seven siblingsWilliam's mother was Mary Arden who

married John Shakespeare in 1557.

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

Location of Stratford-upon-AvonLocation of Stratford-upon-Avon

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

Stratford-on-Avon in Shakespeare’s TimeStratford-on-Avon in Shakespeare’s Time

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

Stratford-upon-Avon TodayStratford-upon-Avon Today

• Probably attended King’s New School in Stratford

• His school day was 10 hours long and rigorousEducated in:

-Rhetoric-Logic-History-Latin

• Shakespeare dropped out of ‘middle school’ when his father lost his fortune

EducationEducation

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

King’s New SchoolKing’s New School

His FamilyHis Family

November 28, 1582 ◦eighteen year old William married the twenty-

six and pregnant Anne Hathaway. Barely seven months later, they had his first daughter Susanna.

◦twins Hamnet and Judith were born in February 1592

◦Hamnet died from the plague at age 11 ◦Anne never left Stratford, living there her entire

life

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

Anne Hathaway’s CottageAnne Hathaway’s Cottage

His WorksHis Works

He goes to London where he writes his first plays.

38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare14 comedies10 histories10 tragedies4 romances

Possibly wrote three othersCollaborated on several others154 sonnets (mostly written between

1596 and 1603)

His WorksHis Works

He is not only a playwright but an actor as well.

The theatres close down because of the plague in 1592. He writes book-length poems at this time called Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece

When the theaters reopen, he writes more plays and becomes a charter member of Lord Chamberlain’s Men

Shakespeare’s Major PlaysShakespeare’s Major Plays

1588-93 - The Comedy of Errors1588-92 - Henry VI (three parts)1592-93 - Richard III1592-94 - Titus Andronicus1593-94 - The Taming of the Shrew1593-94 - The Two Gentlemen of

Verona1593-94 - "The Rape of Lucrece"1593-1600 - "Sonnets"1588-95 - Love's Labor's Lost1594-96 - Romeo and Juliet1595 - Richard II1594-96 - A Midsummer Night's

Dream1590-97 - King John1592 - "Venus and Adonis"1596-97 - The Merchant of Venice1597 - Henry IV (Part I)1597-98 - Henry IV (Part II)1598-1600 - Much Ado About

Nothing1598-99 - Henry V

1599 - Julius Caesar1599-1600 - As You Like It1600-02 - Twelfth Night1600-O1 - Hamlet1597-1601 - The Merry Wives of

Windsor1600-O1 - "The Phoenix and the

Turtle"1601-02 - Troilus and Cressida1602-04 - All's Well That Ends Well1603-04 - Othello1604 - Measure for Measure1604-09 - Timon of Athens1605-06 - King Lear1605-06 - Macbeth1606-07 - Antony and Cleopatra1607-09 - Coriolanus1608-09 - Pericles1609-1O - Cymbeline161O-1I - The Winter's Tale161I - The Tempest1612-13 - Henry VIII1613 - The Two Noble Kinsmen

Other eventsOther events

In 1603, Queen Elizabeth dies and King James I becomes the new ruler of England. Lord Chamberlain’s Men are renamed to The King’s Men and Shakespeare writes tragedies.

In 1608, he moves back to Stratford.

Shakespeare’s DeathShakespeare’s Death

He dies on April 23, 1616 his burial being recorded in the Stratford Holy Church Register two days later. He was 52.

Not exactly sure what he died from◦ History says he drank too much wine and ate too many

pickled herrings

In his will, Shakespeare left money, horses, stables, etc. to his two sons-in-law

But only left his wife one thing- the “second-best bed” ◦ Was he trying to make a point?

Shakespeare is buried in Holy Trinity Church in his birth village of Stratford.

His grave is covered by a flat stone that bears an epitaph warning of a curse to come upon anyone who moves his bones.

Shakespeare’s DeathShakespeare’s Death

Shakespeare’s LanguageShakespeare’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 LanguageShakespeare’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 LanguageShakespeare’s Language

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

Shakespeare’s LanguageShakespeare’s Language

• Shakespeare coined many words we still use today:

• Critical• Majestic• Dwindle

• And quite a few phrases as well:• One fell swoop• Flesh and blood• Vanish into thin air

See http://www.wordorigins.org/histeng.htm

Shakespeare’s LanguageShakespeare’s Language

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

New WordsNew Words

Solidified the English language ◦Dante did the same for Italian◦Luther and Goethe did the same for German

Used nouns as verbsOver 2000 new words

◦critical, aggravate, assassination◦monumental, castigate, countless◦Obscene, forefathers, frugal, hurry◦Majestic, homicide, summit, reliance

Coined Phrases

"Shakespeare had a huge vocabulary. In the collected editions of his works--the first folio that was published seven years after his death--there are 27,000 different, individual words. In the King James translation of the Bible, which was published twelve years earlier, there are 7,000 words."

--Excerpt from Professor Peter Saccio's course "Shakespeare: The Word and The Action"

Shakespeare or Not?Shakespeare or Not?

Eaten me out of house and home.◦ Henry IV.

Come what may.◦ Macbeth.

All the world's a stage.◦ As You Like It.

All's well that ends well◦ All's Well That Ends Well.

As . . . luck would have it.◦ The Merry Wives of Windsor.

As white as driven snow.◦ The Winter's Tale.

To be, or not to be: that is the question.◦ Hamlet.

My own flesh and blood.◦ —The Merchant of Venice.

It was Greek to me.◦ —Julius Caesar.

Kill . . . with kindness.◦ —The Taming of the Shrew.

Sweets to the sweet.◦ —Hamlet

Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.◦ —Hamlet.

'Tis neither here nor there.◦ —Othello.

Too much of a good thing◦ .—As You Like It.

To thine own self be true.◦ —Hamlet.

“If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ‘It’s Greek to me,’ you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is farther to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; 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, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool’s paradise – why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare;…

…if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, 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, then – to give the devil his due – if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head), you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or blinking idiot, then – by Jove! it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.”

– Bernard Levin in The History of English by McCrum, et al

Elizabethan Drama vs. Today’s Elizabethan Drama vs. Today’s DramaDrama

The importance of words

Real life versus stage life

Symbolic art

Importance of WordsImportance of Words

Verbal, not visualWords to express the setting and mood

Today: VISUAL --

Real life vs. Stage lifeReal life vs. Stage life

Characters in a play are understood to be portraying real people, not actual people

Modern dramas suggest that everything is real, especially the place and the people

Symbolic ArtSymbolic Art

Influenced by medieval are because of its sybolism

Focus on universalsEvil=villianHoliness/goodness = saints and halosTruth, beauty, and justice

Three Ways to Analyze Characters

Changes to Shakespeare’s Dramas

What the sayWhat others say

about themWhat they do

Remove lines or characters

Change the setting entirely

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.These control the dialogue.

Audience loves to be scared.

Audience loves to be scared.

Soliloquy

Aside Types of speechTypes of speech

Blood and gore

Use of supernatural

Use of disguises/

mistaken identity

Multiple marriages

(in comedies)

Multiple murders

(in tragedies)

Last speaker—highest in

rank (in tragedies)

The Globe TheaterThe Globe Theater

1596, a Dutch student by the name of Johannes de Witt attended a play in London at the Swan Theatre.

While there, de Witt made a drawing of the theatre's interior.

The Globe TheaterThe Globe Theater

The Globe TheaterThe Globe Theaterconstructed in 1599.was three-stories high and had no roof.could together hold more than 1,500

people. In 1613, during a performance of Henry

VIII, a misfired canon ball set the Globe's thatched roof on fire and the whole theatre was consumed.

The Globe TheaterThe Globe Theater

1 Penny: roughly 10 % of a worker’s daily wage

2 Pennies3 Pennies

Because there was no artificial lighting, plays typically occurred in the early afternoon, lasting from 2 pm until roughly 4 or 5 pm.

The Globe TheaterThe Globe Theater

The first play we know of that was performed at Shakespeare's famous playhouse was Julius Caesar in 1599.

Want to build The Globe?Want to build The Globe?

Another model!Another model!

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

• Globe Theater built in 1599 with Shakespeare as primary investor

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

Theatre CareerTheatre Career

The Rebuilt Globe Theater, LondonThe Rebuilt Globe Theater, London

The Globe TheaterThe Globe Theater