1. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Shakespeare wrote more than 30 plays. These are usually divided into four categories: histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances. His earliest plays were primarily comedies and histories, but in 1596, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, his second tragedy. Over the next dozen years he would return to the form, writing the plays for which he is now best known: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In his final years, Shakespeare turned to the romantic with Cymbeline, A Winter's Tale, and The Tempest.

2. The Globe Theatre As seen in the picture to the left of the Globe Theatre, the rectangular stage thrust out into a circular area called the pit. Audiences purchasing tickets could choose to either sit here in the pit or to sit in the balconies. Elizabethan general public or people who were not nobility were referred to as groundlings. They would pay one penny to stand in the Pit. The upper class spectators would pay to sit in the galleries often using cushions for comfort. Rich nobles could watch the play from a chair set on the side of the Globe stage itself.

3. Shakespearean Verse and Prose: The language used by Shakespeare in his plays is in one of three forms: prose, rhymed verse or blank verse, each of which he uses to achieve specific effects. Prose refers to ordinary speech with no regular pattern of accentual rhythm. Rhymed verse in Shakespeare's plays is usually in rhymed couplets, i.e. two successive lines of verse of which the final words rhyme with another. Blank Verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse resembles prose in that the final words of the lines do not rhyme in any regular pattern (although an occasional rhyming couplet may be found). Prose is used whenever verse would seem bizarre: in serious letters, in proclamations, and in the speeches of characters actually or pretending to be mad. Prose is used for everyday life, low humor, and simple exposition Rhymed verse is frequently used in songs and in supernatural scenes Blank verse is used in a wide range of situations as it comes close to the natural speaking rhythms of English but raises it above the ordinary without sounding artificial. Blank verse, as opposed to prose, is used mainly for passionate, lofty or momentous occasions and for introspection. Many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches are written in blank verse.

4. Rhymed verse is usually in rhymed couplets, i.e. two successive lines of verse of which the final words rhyme with another Ariel sings Ferdinand on shore: Come unto these yellow sands, And then take hands: Courtsied when you have and kiss'd The wild waves whist, Foot it featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. Hark, hark!

5. Prose refers to ordinary speech with no regular pattern of accentual rhythm From the opening scene in the Tempest: GONZALO Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. Boatswain None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more; use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. Cheerly, good hearts! Out of our way, I say.

6. Blank Verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse resembles prose in that the final words of the lines do not rhyme in any regular pattern (although an occasional rhyming couplet may be found). Caliban critiques Prospero Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! For I am all the subjects that you have, Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o' the island.