1. Unit V: Drama The Power of Love
Ms. Palomo
English 9

2. An introduction into the life of…
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

3. Focus Biography Works Shakespeare’s Theater
The Birth of the English Playhouse
The Globe
This Wooden O
Lords and Groundlings
Theatrical Conventions
The Globe’s Comeback

4. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
NOTES
William Shakespeare ( )
Date of Birth: April 23, 1564
Place of Birth: Stratford-on-Avon
Parents: John Shakespeare and Mary Arden
Education:
King Edward IV Grammar School (Stratford)
Studied Latin, a little Greek, and Roman dramatists.
Stratford-on-Avon was a market town about one hundred miles away from London, England.
Shakespeare’s father was a glove maker, tradesman, and bailaff (mayor), and his mother came from a prosperous farming family.

5. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
NOTES
William Shakespeare ( )
At the age of eighteen years old, he married Anne Hathaway, who was seven to eight years his senior.
They had two daughters and a son -Susanna (b.1583), Judith (b.1585) and Hamnet (b. 1585).
Judith and Hamnet were twins; however, Hamnet died at the age of eleven.

6. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
NOTES
William Shakespeare ( )
In 1594, Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain’s company of actors, the most popular company acting at Court.
In 1599, Shakespeare joined a group of Chamberlain’s men who would form an organization to build and operate a new playhouse later known as the Globe.
Later, Shakespeare wrote and composed more than thirty plays, which were divided into four categories: histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances.

7. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
NOTES
William Shakespeare ( )
William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later at the Stratford Church.

8. Works by William Shakespeare

9. Works by William Shakespeare
NOTES
Works by William Shakespeare
Love’s Labour Lost (1593)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)
Romeo and Juliet (1596)
Henry IV (1597)
Henry V (1598)
Julius Caesar (1599)
Hamlet (1600)
All’s Well That Ends Well (1602)
King Lear (1605)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1606)
Antony and Cleopatra (1607)
Coriolanus (1608)
Cymbeline (1609)

11. SHAKESPEARE’S THEATER

12. The Birth of the English Renaissance
NOTES
The Birth of the English Renaissance
In 1558, the first year of Elizabeth I’s reign, there were no playhouses in England.
Actors, or “players,” performed wherever they could find an audience –often in the open courtyards of London inns.
Much to the distress of the mostly Puritan city council, who believed that “play-acting” was a violation of the biblical commandment against idolatry, these performances were observed by large, and often, rowdy crowds.

13. The Birth of the English Renaissance
NOTES
The Birth of the English Renaissance
In 1574, the Common Council of London issued an order banishing players from London.
To get around the order, actor James Burbage and his company of players leased land in nearby Shoreditch, where they built the first public playhouse in England –the Theater.

14. NOTES
The Globe
To theater lovers today, one early English playhouse stands out from all the rest –the Globe, home to many of Shakespeare’s plays.
Built in 1599, the Globe was, quite literally, the rebirth of the Theater, which was unfortunately disassembled after Burbage could not renew his lease.

15. NOTES
The Globe
The timber was carted over the Thames River to Bankside, and was used to build the Globe.
Although no trace of the original Globe remains today, surviving maps, construction contracts, and plays of the time helped scholars piece together a fairly clear picture of what it looked like.

16. NOTES
The Wooden O
In Henry V, the first play to be performed at the globe, Shakespeare referred to the theater as “this wooden O.”
From this description and others, scholars believe that the Globe was a circular structure, formed by three-tiered, thatch-roofed galleries that served as seating for the audience.
These galleries overlooked an open courtyard, into which jutted a raised platform stage, complete with trapdoors for the entrance and exit of actors playing ghosts or other spirits.

17. NOTES
Lords and Groundlings
Plays were usually performed in the afternoon before a diverse audience of about two thousand.
Members of nobility and the rising middle class generally sat in the galleries.
Less well-to-do spectators, called “groundling,” could stand and watch from the courtyard for only a penny.

18. Theatrical Conventions
NOTES
Theatrical Conventions
Certain theatrical conventions that seemed natural to Elizabethans might strike today’s audiences as strange.
For example, most of Shakespeare’s characters speak in blank verse –unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.
In this verse form, each line is divided into five units, or feet, with stress falling on ever second syllable.

19. Theatrical Conventions
NOTES
Theatrical Conventions
Because acting was seen as too indelicate for women, female roles were played by boys –apprentices to the company of players.
Costumes were usually colorful and elaborate versions of regular Elizabethan dress.
Scenery was almost nonexistent.
Scholars estimated that a typical performance of a Shakespeare play lasted only two hours, rather than the three or more hours of today’s productions.

20. A Shakespearean Play

21. NOTES
THE GLOBE’S COMEBACK
The original Globe theater was destroyed in 1613, when a cannon set off to mark the entrance of the king during a performance of Henry VIII, which accidentally set the thatched roof on fire.
Rebuilt the following year, the Globe stood until 1644, when it was torn down to clear the land for new housing.

22. THE GLOBE’S COMEBACK NOTES Today, the Globe has made a comeback.
The new Globe, which is a working replica of the original, stands on the banks of the Thames River.
In 1997, it opened, like the original, with a production of Henry V.
After more than three centuries, Shakespeare’s “wooden O” has come full circle.

23. Understanding Shakespeare
NOTES
Understanding Shakespeare
Some of the words in the play are no longer used today, and some other have changed in meaning. The side notes in your textbook will help you translate such words.
Most of the play is written in blank verse. This verse consists of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, a rhythm pattern with five units, or feet, each of which has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Shakespeare’s writing is in full of figurative language and wordplay.