WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE “The Bard”

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE William Shakespeare (1564-1616) lived during the Elizabethan age, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in England. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, a town in the heart of England. Though the exact date of his birth is unknown, William was baptized April 26, 1564. Infants were usually baptized a few days after their birth, so the date April 23 was chosen for his birth. William was the third of eight children of John Shakespeare, a well-to-do butcher and whittawer (maker, worker, seller of leather goods), and Mary Arden.

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 years old (1582). They had 3 children together  Susanna and twins Judith and Hamnet. In 1587, he left Stratford to go to London (population 200,000), where he performed small parts in plays and did odd jobs. In 1610, Shakespeare returned to Stratford and by 1612, he had retired from writing. Shakespeare died at age 52 on April 23, 1616. He was buried inside Stratford’s parish church.

37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 3 long poems. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 3 long poems.

None of the hand-written manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays still exist. After his death, Shakespeare’s colleagues compiled all of the manuscripts they could find into one volume. The first major collection of Shakespeare’s plays, titled The First Folio, was published in 1623.

COMEDIES All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labours Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives of Windsor The Merchant of Venice A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Troilus and Cressida Twelfth Night Two Gentlemen of Verona Winter's Tale

Always end with a wedding COMEDIES Made up of 5 Acts Usually involve some kind of confusion –someone is either disguised as another person or is mistaken for someone else Always end with a wedding

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

Usually end with the death of the title character TRAGEDIES Made up of 5 Acts Usually involve some or all of the following: lying, cheating, deception, adultery, murder, war Usually end in disaster & death with powerful men and women being destroyed by their own ambitions and weaknesses. Usually end with the death of the title character

HISTORIES Henry IV, part 1 Henry IV, part 2 Henry V Henry VI, part 1 Henry VI, part 2 Henry VI, part 3 Henry VIII King John Richard II Richard III

THE GLOBE THEATER Built by Shakespeare, the Burbage family, and the Chamberlain’s Men (an actor’s group) in 1599. Built in the London suburb of Southwark on the Thames River. Globe was destroyed by a fire in 1613, was rebuilt, and was demolished in 1644. Shakespeare referred to the theater as “this wooden O”.

The theater was a 3-storied building, which had a hut on the roof. There was an open courtyard in the middle, called the pit. This was where the groundlings (people who paid the lowest ticket prices) stood. Surrounding the pit were 3 galleries. This was where people sat who paid higher ticket prices.

ACTORS & PLAYS Men played all the roles, including the female roles. Acting was not considered to be a respectable occupation. Plays were written in verse. Queen Elizabeth made it illegal to include the topic of religion in the theater.

During the 1590’s up to 15,000 people visited playhouses every week. Other famous playwrights were Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and Francis Beaumont. 2 famous acting companies were Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later known as the King’s Men) and their rivals, the Lord Admiral’s Men. During the fall season, Shakespeare’s company performed 6 days a week and performed as many as 6 different plays per week.

SONNETS Sonnet – a poem of 14 iambic pentameter lines. They present a poet’s feelings and thoughts about subjects like love, grief, success, and failure. Sonnets follow a very strict format. There are 3 types of sonnet: Petrarchian or Italian, Shakespearean or English, and Spenserian foot – the combination of a strong stress and the associated weak stress or stresses. iambic pentameter – a foot with one unstressed syllable (U) followed by a stresses syllable (I).

Shakespearean Sonnet Consists of 3 four-line quatrains Each quatrain presents a question or a problem. Ends with a couplet (2 lines) The couplet usually offers a solution to a question or problem that is posed in the preceding quatrains. Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

“If music be the food of love, play on” --Twelfth Night “O, beware my lord, of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster” --Othello “If music be the food of love, play on” --Twelfth Night “Lord, what fools these mortals be” –A Midsummer Night’s Dream “To be or not to be; that is the question” --Hamlet

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” --Romeo and Juliet “The course of true love never did run smooth” --A Midsummer Night’s Dream “Out, out damn spot” --Macbeth “Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble” --Macbeth