William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare

• 1564-1616

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• Not of an age, but for all time (Ben Jonson)
• Biography not written until 30-40 years after
  deathcontemporaries were dead by then
• Born in Stratford on-Avon
• c. April 23rd not certain- 1564
• Married Anne Hathaway at 18
• 3 children Susanna, Judith, Hamnet
• 1592 Shakespeare was living in London without
  family actor and playwright

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• Enormous vocabulary estimated at 24,000 words
• average 3,000-6,000
• when plague closed theatres, Shakespeare turned
  to poetry
• 154 sonnets
• wrote 37 plays
• joined Lord Chamberlains Men (later became
  Kings Men)

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• 3 main types of plays
• history Henry V
• comedy Taming of the Shrew
• tragedy Julius Caesar
• tragicomedy The Tempest

• Plays performed in the Globe theatre
• 1590s Shakespeares mood changed turned to
  tragedies perhaps from death of Hamnet

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• Shakespeare died April 23, 1616 his 52nd
  birthday.
• He is buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford
  and his epitaph is below

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Elizabethan Theater
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• Globe theatre octagonal
• Wooden O
• groundlings
• thrust stage
• simple sets/ elaborate costumes
• trapdoors/ special effects--blood
• women on stage

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• people of all classes attended theatre
• flag flew over theatre on performance days
• audience within spitting distance
• language of play was all importantit was their
  language
• Queen / King liked theatre --patrons

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The Merchant of Venice

• First printed in 1600
• Story combines two folk tales a creditor who
  tries to obtain a pound of human flesh for a
  debt, and a lover who tries to gain his lady by
  choosing the correct casket among three in a
  riddle game.
• Is categorized as a comedy, but is considered
  problematic and disturbing

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Famous lines from The Merchant of Venice

• Choose one and be ready to discuss it.
• All that glisters is not gold (II.vii.73).
• But love is blind, and lovers cannot see/The
  pretty follies that themselves commit
  (II.vi.37-38).
• Hath not a Jew eyes? If you prick us, do we not
  bleed? (III.i.57,63-64).
• The quality of mercy is not strained. It
  droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven/Upon the
  place beneath (IV.i.190-91).
• The devil can cite Scripture for his own
  purpose! (I.iii.107).
• I never knew so young a body with so old a head
  (IV.i.164-65).
• The man that hath no music in himselfIs fit for
  treasons, strategems, and spoils (V.i.92-94).