WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREWILLIAM SHAKESPEARE“The Bard”“The Bard”

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFESHAKESPEARE’S LIFEWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616) lived during the

Elizabethan age, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in England.

He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, a town in the heart of England.

Though the exact date of his birth is unknown, William was baptized April 26, 1564. Infants were usually baptized a few days after their birth, so the date April 23 was chosen for his

birth.

William was the third of eight children of John Shakespeare, a well-to-do butcher and

whittawer (maker, worker, seller of leather goods), and Mary Arden.

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 years old (1582).

They had 3 children together Susanna and twins Judith and Hamnet.

In 1587, he left Stratford to go to London (population 200,000), where he performed

small parts in plays and did odd jobs.

In 1610, Shakespeare returned to Stratford and by 1612, he had retired from writing.

Shakespeare died at age 52 on April 23, 1616. He was buried inside Stratford’s

parish church.

Shakespeare wrote37 plays, 154 sonnets,

and 3 long poems.

None of the hand-written manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays still exist.

After his death, Shakespeare’s colleagues compiled all of the

manuscripts they could find into one volume.

The first major collection of Shakespeare’s plays, titled The First

Folio, was published in 1623.

COMEDIESCOMEDIESAll's Well That Ends Well

As You Like It The Comedy of Errors

Cymbeline Love's Labours Lost Measure for Measure

The Merry Wives of Windsor The Merchant of Venice

A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre Taming of the Shrew

The Tempest Troilus and Cressida

Twelfth Night Two Gentlemen of Verona

Winter's Tale

COMEDIESCOMEDIES

Made up of 5 Acts

Usually involve some kind of confusion –someone is either

disguised as another person or is mistaken for someone else

Always end with a wedding

TRAGEDIESTRAGEDIES

Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus

Hamlet Julius Caesar

King Lear Macbeth Othello

Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus

TRAGEDIESTRAGEDIESMade up of 5 Acts

Usually involve some or all of the following: lying, cheating, deception,

adultery, murder, war

Usually end in disaster & death with powerful men and women being

destroyed by their own ambitions and weaknesses.

Usually end with the death of the title character

HISTORIESHISTORIES

Henry IV, part 1 Henry IV, part 2

Henry V Henry VI, part 1 Henry VI, part 2 Henry VI, part 3

Henry VIII King John Richard II Richard III

THE GLOBE THEATERBuilt by Shakespeare, the Burbage

family, and the Chamberlain’s Men (an actor’s group) in 1599.

Built in the London suburb of Southwark on the Thames River.

Globe was destroyed by a fire in 1613, was rebuilt, and was demolished in

1644.

Shakespeare referred to the theater as “this wooden O”.

The theater was a 3-storied building, which had a hut on the roof.

There was an open courtyard in the middle, called the pit.

This was where the groundlings (people who paid the lowest ticket prices) stood.

Surrounding the pit were 3 galleries. This was where people sat

who paid higher ticket prices.

ACTORS & PLAYSMen played all the roles, including the female roles.

Acting was not considered to be a respectable occupation.

Plays were written in verse.

Queen Elizabeth made it illegal to include the topic of religion in

the theater.

During the 1590’s up to 15,000 people visited playhouses every week.

Other famous playwrights were Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and

Francis Beaumont.

2 famous acting companies were Shakespeare’s company, the Lord

Chamberlain’s Men (later known as the King’s Men) and their rivals, the Lord

Admiral’s Men.

During the fall season, Shakespeare’s company performed 6 days a week and

performed as many as 6 different plays per week.

SONNETSSonnet – a poem of 14 iambic pentameter lines.

They present a poet’s feelings and thoughts about subjects like love, grief, success, and

failure.

Sonnets follow a very strict format.

There are 3 types of sonnet: Petrarchian or Italian, Shakespearean or English, and

Spenserian

foot – the combination of a strong stress and the associated weak stress or stresses.

iambic pentameter – a foot with one unstressed syllable (U) followed by a stresses syllable (I).

Shakespearean Sonnet

Consists of 3 four-line quatrainsEach quatrain presents a question

or a problem.

Ends with a couplet (2 lines)The couplet usually offers a solution

to a question or problem that is posed in the preceding quatrains.

Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

“O, beware my lord, of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster” --

Othello

“If music be the food of love, play on” --Twelfth Night

“Lord, what fools these mortals be” –A Midsummer Night’s

Dream

“To be or not to be; that is the question” --Hamlet

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” --Romeo and Juliet

“The course of true love never did run smooth” --A Midsummer

Night’s Dream

“Out, out damn spot” --Macbeth

“Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron

bubble” --Macbeth