1. Journal What I already know about Shakespeare…
(If you don’t know anything about him, that’s FINE! Share your EXPECTATIONS and PREDICTIONS about his life and work instead.)

2. Meet the Bard: William Shakespeare
Ms. Geller’s Sensational Sophomores
Fall 2013

3. Shakespeare’s Life Born April 23, 1564, Stratford-on-Avon, England
Died on his birthday in 1616
Little is known about his early life
Father was a merchant and served one term as mayor
Attended Stratford Grammar School until age 14
Studied Latin and Greek, as well as British History and World History

4. Shakespeare’s House in Stratford-on-Avon

5. Shakespeare’s Life, continued
Married Anne Hathaway at age 18
Three children: Susanna, Judith and Hamnet
Left for London around 1592

6. Shakespeare and His Theatre
Quickly developed a reputation as an actor and playwright; wrote a total of 37 plays
Principal playwright of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men
Built the Globe Theatre in 1599
Began writing poetry when theatres closed due to plague
Theatre company renamed the King’s Men when James I became king in 1603
Retired to Stratford in 1610

7. Shakespeare’s Theatre
No one knows exactly when each play was written
Plays consisted of five acts and were approximately two hours long
Several distinct sub-genres of drama:
Tragedies
Comedies
Romances
History Plays
Subject matter based on history and myth; already well-known to Shakespeare’s audiences
Theatre considered an inappropriate vocation for women; female roles typically played by men and boys

8. "Pardon, gentles all, the flat unraised spirits that hath dared On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth so great an object. Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France? Or may we cram Within this “Wooden O” the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt?"

9. Shakespeare’s Theatre, continued…
The Globe consisted of a round or octagonal, roofless courtyard with no artificial light
Plays performed during daylight hours
No scenery; settings were indicated through dialogue
Actors wore luxurious Elizabethan clothing, rather than costumes
Wealthier playgoers watched from three levels of benches
Less wealthy spectators, called “groundlings,” stood and watched from the “pit.”

10. Shakespeare’s Theatre, continued
The Globe burned down in 1613
Foundation of original structure discovered in 1990
Re-opened to its first full season in 1997

11. The Globe

12. Shakespeare’s Language
Shakespeare’s plays were written primarily in blank verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Iambic pentameter: ten syllables per line, every second syllable accented
Commoners speak in prose

13. Shakespeare’s Language, continued
Elizabethan English
Footnotes are your friends!
“Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste.65
Wings, and no eyes, figure66 unheedy haste.”
65. Nor…judgment taste: Love, which arises from feelings, is without judgment.
66. figure: Symbolize