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Shakespeare: His Life and Times

Adapted from

http://www.public.asu.edu/~muckerrm/English_321_S2005/Introduction.ppt

Early Life

Born 1564—died 1616

Stratford-upon-Avon

Parents: John and Mary Arden Shakespeare

• Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner

• John—glovemaker, local politician

From: http://www.where-can-i-find.com/tourist-maps.html

Location of Stratford-upon-Avon

As reproduced in William Rolfe, Shakespeare the Boy (1896).

Stratford-on-Avon in Shakespeare’s Time

From Stratford’s web site: http://www.stratford-upon-avon.co.uk/index.htm

Stratford-upon-Avon Today

From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/

Shakespeare’s Birthplace

• Probably attended King’s New School in Stratford

• Educated in:

• Rhetoric

• Logic/Mathematics

• History

• Latin

Education

From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/

King’s New School

• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant at the time with their first daughter

• Had twins in 1585

• Between 1585-1592, he moved to Londonand began working in theatre.

Married Life

From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/

Anne Hathaway’s Cottage

• Member and later part-owner of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later called the King’s Men

• The Globe Theater was built in 1599 with Shakespeare as the primary investor.

• The theatre burned down in 1613 during one of Shakespeare’s plays.

Theatre Career

The Rebuilt Globe Theater, London

The Globe Theater

The Plays

38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare

14 comedies

10 histories

10 tragedies

4 romances

Possibly wrote three others

Collaborated on several others

• 154 sonnets

• Numerous other poems

The Poetry

Shakespeare’s Language

• Shakespeare did NOT write in Old English.

• Old English is the language of Beowulf:

Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum

Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunon

Hu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!

(Translation: Hey! We have heard of the glory of

the Spear-Danes in the old days, the kings of

tribes, how noble princes showed great courage!)

Shakespeare’s Language

• Shakespeare did NOT write in Middle English.

• Middle English is the language of Chaucer and

Malory:

We redeth oft and findeth y-write—

And this clerkes wele it wite—

Layes that ben in harping

Ben y-founde of ferli thing… (Sir Orfeo)

Shakespeare’s Language

• Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern

English. (Sonnet 116)

• EME was not too different from Modern

English.

Shakespeare’s Language

• A mix of old and very new

• Rural and urban words/images

• Understandable by the lowest peasant and

the highest noble

Elizabethan

Theatrical

Conventions

A theatrical convention is a

suspension of reality.

No electricity

Women forbidden to act on stage

Minimal, contemporary costumes

Minimal scenery

These

control

the

dialogue.

Audience

loves to be

scared.

Soliloquy

Aside

Types of

speech

Blood

Use of supernatural

Use of disguises/mistaken identity

Multiple marriages (in comedies)

Multiple murders (in tragedies)

Last speaker—highest in rank (in tragedies)

Let`s play Shakespeare

Antony and CleopatraCoriolanusHamletJulius CaesarKing LearMacbethOthelloRomeo and JulietTimon of AthensTitus Andronicus

“All the world 's a stage,

And all the men and women

merely players.”

Shakespeare: actor, playwright, poet, and so, so much more. . . .