1. Romeo & Juliet

2. Shakespeare Biography
Born 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon
Died April 23, 1616
Married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18; she was 26.
1st daughter born 6 months later
Twins born 2 years later
Buried in the Church of the Holy Trinity
Died after an evening of drinking
Gravestone reads:
Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare,
To dig the dust enclosed heare,
Bleste be ye man yt spares these stones,
And curst be he yt moves my bones.

3. Career Began at the Globe Theatre
1st appeared as a poet in 1593 with “Venus” and “Adonis”
Retired in 1611 and moved back to Stratford
36 of Shakespeare’s 38 plays were published in the 1st Folio of 1623

4. The World of Shakespeare
Elizabethan Age
Age of Discovery
Queen Elizabeth I
Ruled
Great Virgin Queen
Pursuit of scientific knowledge and the exploration of human nature
Feudalism openly challenged

5. Shakespeare’s works deal with civil harmony, either restoring or maintaining it
War of the Roses (Lancaster v. York)

6. The Reformation England is a Protestant/Anglican country
Continuous religious strife
King Henry VIII, Elizabeth’s father
Made England Protestant so he could divorce his wife
King Edward VI, son of Henry and Jane Seymour
Elizabeth’s younger ½ brother
Protestant
Queen “Bloody” Mary
Elizabeth’s older ½ sister
Catholic

7. The Renaissance Cultural rebirth of Europe (14th- 17th Centuries)
Based on the rediscovery of the literature of Greece and Rome
Music of Shakespeare = Baroque
Strings, woodwinds, and brass
Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Corelli

8. The Globe Theatre

9. The Globe Built in 1598 in the Bankside district of London
Open air octagonal amphitheater that could seat 3,000
All shows occurred during the day (no lighting)
No scene changes, just props and costumes
The “pit” is the floor surrounding the stage where groundlings stood
Brought together social elite and commoners

10. The Globe cont. 1613: burned down
Thought to be caused by a canon in a performance of Henry VII
New Globe built and operated until 1642
Puritans closed it down
1644: torn down by Cromwell’s orders; replaced with tenements
1997: Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Globe Theatre

11. Principal Actors Richard Burbage Will Kemp Shakespeare as an actor
most significant tragedian of Elizabethan stage
Initiated performances of “Hamlet, Lear, and Othello
Shakespeare wrote many tragic hero roles with Burbage in mind
Will Kemp
leading comic actor
Shakespeare as an actor
do not over-estimate, playwright and producer take precedence