1. An Introduction to Understanding “The Bard”
William Shakespeare
An Introduction to
Understanding “The Bard”

2. Intro to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare b. April 26th, 1564
(TODAY: Bill Shakespeare just had his 450th birthday!)
Parents: John and Mary (Arden) Shakespeare
Place of birth: Stratford-Upon-Avon
(named so because the town was on the banks of the Avon river)
Childhood home: Henley Street (can still be visited today)

4. Parents John Shakespeare: Married (Mary) the daughter of his landlord
Held many jobs: glover, money lender, wool and grain dealer
Prestige: Bailiff (= to mayor)
1576 – Petitioned town for a coat of arms to become a gentleman
Petition expired without being granted

5. Childhood
Education: father’s prominent position suggests that Shakespeare would have attended:
King’s New School (petty school=preschool): well respected, taught by Oxford grads
Grammar School (6-7am until 5pm)
Study Latin and some Greek
Read Roman authors Plautus, Ovid, Seneca, and Horace
Traces of these authors in his own later works
Did NOT attend University (Greek/Latin education)

6. Wife and Children
November 1582 (age 18): Married Anne Hathaway (age 26)
May 1583 (6 mo. later): birth of first child, Susanna
February 1585: twins Hamnet and Judith
Hamnet would die at the age of 11 while Shakespeare was living in London away from his family

7. London and The Stage
Went to London after twins’ birth (between 21 and 28 yrs. old)
(Most likely) went as an actor and slowly gained attention as a playwright
Jealous Much?
Robert Greene (1592) warned other University colleagues that the uneducated Shakespeare was trying to parade as a legit playwright
Shakespeare’s reputation for poetry provoked the envy of a failing competitor

8. London and The Stage
1593: All London theatres closed due to outbreak of the bubonic plague
During this time Shakespeare wrote the poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594)
Only two of his works that he seemed to have helped into print due to the presence of dedications
1594: Theatres reopened; Shakespeare joined the acting company Lord Chamberlain’s Men

9. London and The Stage Plays: Early years: Histories
: Henry VI, trilogy
: Richard III
1590s: Romantic Comedies
1594: The Comedy of Errors
: Love’s Labour’s Lost
1595: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1598: Much Ado About Nothing

10. London and The Stage Plays (con’t) Total Plays: 37* Tragedies
1595: Romeo and Juliet
1599: Julius Caesar
: Hamlet
1606: Macbeth
Total Plays: 37*
Histories: 10
Comedies: 17
Tragedies: 10
*This number is debated by scholars

11. The Theatre 1597: Success 1597: The boot
Secure a coat of arms = gentleman
Purchase of New Place – one of the largest houses in Stratford
1597: The boot
Lease expired with Lord Chamberlain’s playhouse (called The Theatre)
The company had to perform in various playhouses until 1599

12. The Globe 1599: Opening of the Globe Theatre 1613: Fire 1642: Closed
Built with lumber from The Theatre
Shakespeare just one of the shareholders in the theatre
1613: Fire
Thatched roof caught fire during a production of Henry VIII – entire building demolished
The Second Globe was rebuilt quickly
1642: Closed
All theatres closed under Puritan rule
Demolished in 1644 for tenements (apartments)

13. The Globe

14. The Globe

16. The (new) Globe 1996: Revival A replica built near original site
Built with techniques and materials that would have been used then
Only added details that were required
Exits, illuminated signage, fire retardant materials, etc.
Go to see plays today!

17. The (new) Globe

18. The (new) Globe

19. Final Days William Shakespeare died on April 26, 1616 at the age of 52
(398 years ago today!)
Exact cause of death unknown
Believed to have been celebrating the marriage of daughter, Judith
Contracted a fever
Death imminent?
Changed his will in March of same year

20. Publication The First Folio Published First collection published
7 years after his death (posthumous)
By two members from his former company
First collection published
Printer folded each sheet only once (folio)
Folio was a larger and more prestigious book (usually reserved for works such as the Bible)
Contained 36 plays

21. “He was not of an age, but for all time!”
Legacy
The First Folio was the beginning of the process of constructing Shakespeare as England’s national poet and “The Bard of Avon”
Bard: Gaelic term for a poet
Contemporary playwright and friend, Ben Jonson wrote:
“He was not of an age, but for all time!”

22. Dramatic Terminology
Tragedy: A narrative about serious and important actions that end unhappily, usually with the death of the main characters.
The play is broken up into acts and the acts are broken up into scenes.
Monologue: A long uninterrupted speech given by one character onstage to everyone.
Soliloquy: A long uninterrupted speech given by one character alone on stage, inaudible to other characters
Aside: A short speech given by one character, traditionally the other characters cannot hear.

23. Dramatic Terminology He who farts in church sits in his own pew.
Pun: A humorous play on words
After that poisonous snake struck at me in the Arizona Desert I was really rattled.
A carpenter must have been here. I saw dust.
Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery.
Corduroy pillows are making headlines.
The executioner decided to drop out of Executioner School. It was just too cut throat for him.
He who farts in church sits in his own pew.

24. Dramatic Terminology
Dramatic Foil: A pair of characters who are opposite in many ways and highlight or exaggerate each other’s differences.

25. Poetic Terminology
Blank Verse: Unrhymed meter; unrhymed iambic pentameter specifically.
Iambic Meter: Each unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.
Couplets: Two consecutive lines that rhyme (aa bb cc). Usually followed when a character leaves or a scene ends.
End-stopped Line: Has some form of punctionat at the end of the line (,;.!?).
Run-on Line: Has NO punctuation at the end of the line and meaning is continued to following lines.
Sonnet: A fourteen line poem using iambic pentameter and the following rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.

26. Poetic Terminology Internal Rhyme: Words rhyming inside one line.
End Line Rhyme: Words rhyming at the end of consecutive lines.
Perfect vs. Slant Rhyme: ball & hall are a perfect rhyme (end sounds the same). Ball & bell are slant rhymes (beginning and end sounds the same; middle sound is different).
Alliteration: the repetition of the same beginning consonants
Assonance: the repetition of the same vowel sounds in the middle of words
Consonance: the repetition of the same ending consonants
Onomatopoeia: words that are spelled much like how they sound.

27. Shakespeare’s 5 Part Storytelling Pattern:
Act III: Crisis/Turning Point
A series of complications
Act IV: Falling Action
Results of the turning point; characters locked into deeper disaster
Act II: Rising Action
A series of complications
Act I: Exposition
Establishes setting, characters, conflict, and background
Act V: Resolution
Death of the main characters and then the loose parts of the plot are tied up

28. Tips for Understanding Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is based on Arthur Brooke’s long narrative poem the Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562).
The play has a highly moral tone: disobedience, as well as fate, leads to the deaths of two lovers.

29. Motifs in Romeo and Juliet
Power of Love
Violence from Passion
The Individual vs. Society
The Inevitability of Fate

30. MONTAGUE vs. CAPULET Romeo Juliet Lord Montague (his dad)
Lady Montague (his mom)
Mercutio (friend)
Benvolio (cousin)
Juliet
Lord Capulet (her father)
Lady Capulet (her mother)
Tybalt (cousin)
Nurse

31. A Pair of Star Crossed Lovers…
“My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown , and known too late!”
~ Juliet; Act I, Scene V (I.v.)

32. ROMEO AND JULIET

33. Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, and the continuance of their parents' rage, which, but their children's end, nought could remove, is now the two hours' traffic of our stage.