Introduction to Literature

1
Introduction to Literature

• Lesson Two Shakespeare and Hart
• Love

Margarette R. Connor
2
Outline

• Shakespeare biography and facts
• Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day
• Parody
• Moss Hart
• Shall I Compare Thee?
• My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun

3
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

• Born Stratford-upon-Avon in England
• f. John, glover, involved in local politics,
  member of the town council for years.
• Bailiff or Mayor of the town,
• wool dealer
• involved in money lending.
• m. Mary Arden, d of a farmer from a nearby
  village.
• one of eight children, but only five grew to
  adulthood.

4
Schooling

• Most likely attended Stratford's 'petty' or
  junior school till age of seven
• Then on to the Grammar School.
• During Shakepeares day, a grammar school's
  curriculum was geared to teaching pupils Latin,
  both spoken and written.

5

• We can see the influence of this Latin education
  in some
• of Shakespeare's plays and poetry.
• For example, some of his ideas for plots and
  characters
• came from
• Ovid's tales,
• the plays of Terence and Plautus,
• Roman history.
• He would have also learned a modern language or
  two,
• literature and mathematics.

6
Shakespeares Missing Years

• Married Anne Hathaway, 26, in 1582 when he was
  18.
• Susanna, born 1583.
• Twins Hamnet and Judith, born 1585.
• Hamnet d 1596, age 11
• Many guesses and legends about Shakespeares
  early life.
• Schoolmaster?
• Travelling actor?

7
Anne Hathaways Cottage

• The cottage nests in the idyllic setting of
  Shottery, which lies a mile west of Stratford.
• It belonged to the prosperous Hathaway family and
  was the pre-marital home of Shakespeare's wife,
  Anne.
• Although referred to as a cottage, it is actually
  a substantial, twelve-roomed, Elizabethan
  farmhouse. Externally the building with it's low
  thatched roof, timbered walls and lattice windows
  has changed very little since Anne Hathaway's
  time.

8
Arrived in London around 1586-7.

• Shakespeares reputation as a playwright was
  established by 1592.
• In 1594 he was sufficiently secure as a writer to
  be able to form a new theater company, Lord
  Chamberlains Men.

9
A Successful Gentleman

• 1596 father granted a coat-of-arms. On father's
  death 1601, he inherited the arms and the right
  to style himself a gentleman
• Great financial success through his writing. In
  1597 he bought New Place, one of the largest
  houses in Stratford.
• Further property investments, including the
  purchase of 107 acres of land in 1602.

10
Shakespeares Property

• New Place in Chapel Street was William
  Shakespeare's final retirement home. He purchased
  the impressive building for 60 in 1597, whilst
  he was still spending most of his time working in
  London. He finally settled at New Place in 1610.
  Built by Hugh Clopton it was the second largest
  building in Stratford and was the only house made
  from brick.

11
Shakespeares Children

• Elder daughter, Susanna, married John Hall a
  Stratford physician, in 1607, and gave birth to a
  daughter, Elizabeth, the following year.
• Judith, married Thomas Quiney, a Stratford
  vintner (winemaker), in 1616.

12
The End

• Died Stratford, age 52, April 23, 1616, buried at
  Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.
• His widow, Anne, died in 1623 and was buried
  beside him.
• Shakespeare's family line came to an end with the
  death of his grand-daughter Elizabeth in 1670.

13
Sonnet

• A special form for poetry, which originated with
  Italian poets.
• While there are some slight variations, a sonnet
  will have 14 lines, and in English, they are
  usually iambic pentameter.
• The sonnet is a rather old form, developed in
  Italy in the early 13th century.
• One of the favorite forms of Dante and Petrarch,
  whose sequence of sonnets to a lady named Laura
  established the conventions of much Renaissance
  love poetry.

14
The History of the Sonnet in England

• First appears in England in the 16th century in
  the poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt.
• Also developed by the Earl of Surrey.
• Used by almost all of the major Elizabethan
  poets--Spenser, Sidney and Shakespeare among
  them.
• Also popular with Milton in the 17th century.
• After Milton, the form fell out of popularity,
  but it was revived by the Romantics.

15
Two basic forms of sonnet

• Italian or Petrarchan
• English or Shakespearean

16
Italian or Petrarchan

• Divides into two parts.
• The first, the octave, is typically rhymed
  abbaabba.
• The second, the sestets rhyme pattern varies,
  but it is usually some variation of cdecde.
• The octave usually poses a problem or a
  situation
• The sestet makes a comment on it or resolves it.
  
• An example of an Italian sonnet in English is
  Keats On First Looking into Chapmans Homer.

17
English or Shakespearean

• Usually divided into three quatrains and a
  couplet that typically rhyme abab cdcd efef gg.
• This structure is easier for English writers, as
  English has fewer rhyming words than Italian.
• Because of their four-part structure, English
  sonnets have more flexibility in where thematic
  breaks occur.
• The final couplet is often the most pronounced
  break, and emphasizes the theme of the poem.

18
Sonnet sequences

• A group of sonnets by one author that are linked
  by a theme, often love.
• The sequence then reflect the progress of the
  attachment or analyze the poets feelings.
• Shakespeares sonnets are part of a sequence

19
Parody

• a work that ridicules a serious literary work or
  the characteristics of an author by treating the
  subject matter flippantly or by applying the
  style to an inappropriate, usually trivial,
  subject (Beckson and Ganz, A Dictionary of
  Literary Terms).

20
Moss Hart (1904-1961)

• American playwright, mostly in musical theater,
  but in straight drama as well.
• Born in New York City.
• His family was so poor that he had to drop out of
  school when he was ten in order to go to work to
  help support them.

21
Harts Writing

• Wrote and produced his first play at 17, which
  failed terribly.
• After a few years working in regular jobs, he
  returned to theater, and was a Broadway success
  in the 1930s and 40s.

22
Famous works

• His most famous works are Once in a Lifetime
  (1930), which won the Pulitzer Prize,
• The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939), both with
  George S. Kaufman.
• Many of his works were also made into
  films, and he was a very popular writer.

23
Interpretation (1) My mistress is Not the
perfect type

• He plays with images
• he talks about what his mistress is NOT like in
  her hair, lips, breast and breath.
• Breathbad smell! ? This is because Renaissance
  people brush their teeth with sugar, which causes
  sweet breath at the moment but later cavities
  and bad smell.
• Her footstepsoh, heavy! (g alliteration)

24
My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun

• And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
• As any she belied with false compare.

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Interpretation (2) The last couplet

• yet a change of direction
• My love is as rare as any she belies with false
  compare ? as rare as any (poem) that lies about
  her with false comparison.
• What is he saying?
• My mistress is a human being, but I still love
  her.

26
What is he doing in this poem?

• Shakespeare attacks the conventions of love
  convention e.g.
• snowy white skin this will make her like a
  corpse
• eyes like the sun. that will burn!
• Two globes for breasts!
• Pearl teeth
• High forehead.
• He is making her a real woman, but not an object.
  
• I love her as a real person, and thats more
  important than the poetic conventions.
• This poem is both about love and poetry
  convention.

27
Shakespeares importance

• He writes about real human beings and put it in
  real language.
• His poems are not like those of Sir Philip Sidney.

28
Moss Harts Poem

• Funny it will stay with Shakespeares poem.
• Enjoy them!!!