Shakespeare

1
William Shakespeare's World
To be, or not to be, that is the question...
This above all, to thine own self be true...
2
The Man That Would Be Shakespeare
William

• 1564-1616
• Stratford-on-Avon, England
• He wrote 37 plays
• 154 sonnets
• He started out as an actor

3
Background of the Bard

• Born April, 1564 in Stratford on Avon
• Parents John Mary Shakespeare
• Educated at Stratford Grammar School
• Learned business as an apprentice for his father
• Married Anne Hathaway November 28, 1582
• She was 8 years his senior and 3 months pregnant
  when they married

4
Well-known Facts about Will

• Great writer of England
• Plays translated into all languages, musicals,
  ballets
• Born Stratford-upon-Avon
• Well-to-do, affluent while alive
• Most quoted, other than the Bible

5
Lesser-known Facts

• Teen father married pregnant 26 year old Anne
  Hathaway when he was 18
• Deadbeat dad Left wife and children for London
  stage career
• Father of twins
• Elizabethan rapper uses rhythm and rhyme
• Plagiarism ?

6
Queen Elizabeth I ( 1558-1603 )

• Ruled England for 45 years.
• Nicknamed the Virgin Queen
• and produced no heir to the throne
• Restored Protestantism and formalized the
• Church of England
• During her reign, the economy was weakened by
  inflation, food shortages, and high rent.
• Outbreak of the black plague, food riots,
  Catholic conspiracies, threats of invasion, etc.
• During the Elizabethan Period, hundreds of people
  were convicted as witches and executed

7
King James I ( 1603-1628 )

• Renamed Shakespeares acting troupe The Kings
  Men
• Believed in the supernatural and interested in
  witchcraft
• Religious and believed in the existence of
  supernatural evil
• Commissioned a translation of the bible from
  Latin to English
• Published a book about witchcraft called
  Demonologie in 1597

8
The Renaissance

• 1500-1650
• Rebirth of arts, culture, science
• Discovery of New World
• Copernicus Sun-centered Universe (1543)
• King Henry VIII renaissance man (ideal)
• Reformation of Catholic Church

9
View of Witchcraft

• Witches and witchcraft were a morbid fascination
• Between 1560-1603, hundreds of people (nearly all
  women) were convicted as witches and executed
• Witches could predict the future, bring on
  daytime and nighttime, cause fogs and storms, and
  change into animals
• If convicted, people would be subjected to
  torture and death by hanging or burning at the
  stake
• King James I was fascinated by witchcraft
• Signs of possession were trance, change of
  appearance, inability to pray, visions, disturbed
  behavior, lack of fear, indifference to life, and
  invitations to evil spirits to possess ones
  body.
• Shakespeares audience were religious Christians
  who believed in heaven and hell

10
Conditions in London-BAD!

• Thames River polluted with raw sewage
• Trees used up for fuel
• Poverty

11
Personal hygiene/health

• Bathing considered dangerous
• Body odor strong
• Childhood diseases
• Children often died before 5 years
• Small Pox
• Bubonic Plague

12
Living Conditions

• No running water
• Chamber Pots
• Open Sewers
• Crowded

13
Clothes

• One set used all year long, rarely washed
• Underclothing slept in, infrequently changed
• Clothes handed down from rich to poor

14
When in a play...

• Only men were permitted to perform
• Boys or effeminate men were used to play the
  women
• Costumes were often the companys most valuable
  asset
• Costumes were made by the company, bought in
  London, or donated by courtiers

15
Staging Areas

• Stage --? platform that extended into the pit
• Dressing storage rooms in galleries behind
  above stage
• Second-level gallery upper stage --? famous
  balcony scene in R J
• Trap door -?ghosts
• Heavens-? angelic beings

16
English Theater

• Plays were most often performed in outdoor
  theaters
• Performances took place during the day so that
  the stage would be illuminated by natural light

17
The Globe Theater
18
THE GLOBE THEATER

• Built in 1599
• The most magnificent theater in London
• Shakespeare was 1/5 owner
• He earned 10 of the total profit, approximately
  200-250 a year
• The Bard retired to Stratford and lived on the
  profits he earned from the Globe
• June 19, 1613 the Globe burned to the ground
  during a performance of Henry VIII

19
The Globe Theater

• Many of Shakespeares plays were performed here
• The stage was a large, rectangle that jutted out
  into the yard
• Held 2,000-3,000 people tightly packed
• An open playhouse with a wooden structure three
  stories high
• It was shaped like a 16 sided polygon
• General admission 1 Penny entitled a spectator
  to be a groundling-someone who could stand in
  the yard.
• More expensive seats were in the roofed galleries
  and most expensive seats were chairs set right on
  the stage along its two sides
• Rebuilt in 1900s

20

• Aristocrats
• The Queen/King
• The Groundlings!

21
Actors

• Only men and boys allowed onstage
• Young boys whose voices had not changed play
  womens roles
• It would have been considered indecent for a
  woman to appear on stage

22
Differences

• No scenery
• Settings gt references in dialogue
• Elaborate costumes
• Plenty of props
• Fast-paced, colorfulgt2 hours!

23
Spectators

• Wealthy got benches
• Groundlingsgtpoorer people stood and watched
  from the courtyard (pit)
• All but wealthy were
• uneducated/illiterate
• Much more interaction than today

24
The Cost of a Show

• 1 shilling to stand
• 2 shillings to sit in the balcony
• 1 shilling was 10 of their weekly income
• Broadway Today
• 85 Orchestra
• 60 Balcony
• 10 of a teachers weekly salary

25
The Plays

• Early plays, 1590s, were mainly comedy
• Comedy (and this could be extended to most of
  Shakespeare's history plays as well)  is
  social--leading to a happy resolution (usually a
  marriage or marriages) and social unification. 
• Shakespeare began to focus on tragedy/dramatic
  themes in the early 1600s
• Tragedy is individual, concentrating on the
  suffering of a single, remarkable hero--leading
  to individual torment, waste and death
• 1608 marks a change in tone from tragedy to
  romance, light, magic, and reconciliation

26
Comedies
Comedy of Errors 1592The Taming of the Shrew
1592-94Love's Labor's Lost 1594-95Two Gentlemen
of Verona 1594-95A Midsummer Night's Dream
1595-96The Merchant of Venice 1596-97Much Ado
About Nothing 1598-99As You Like It
1599-1600Twelfth Night 1599-1600Merry Wives of
Windsor 1601-02Troilus and Cressida
1601-02All's Well That Ends Well 1602-03Measure
for Measure 1604-05
27
Tragedies Tragicomedies
Titus Andronicus 1593-94Romeo and Juliet
1594-95Hamlet 1600-01Othello 1604-05The
Tragedy of King Lear 1605-06Macbeth 1605-06
Timon of Athens 1607-(?)Cymbeline 1609-10The
Winter's Tale 1610-11Tempest 1611-12
28
Henry VI parts I, II, III 1590-92Richard III
1590-92King John 1594-96Richard II
1597-(?)King Henry IV part I, part II
1597-98Henry V (1599) 1598-99Julius Caesar
1599-1600Henry VIII 1613-(?)Antony and
Cleopatra 1606-07Coriolanus 1607-08
Historical
29
The Tragic Hero
30

• Aristotles Definition of Tragedy
• A man of high standard who falls from that
  high because of a tragic flaw that has affected
  many
• Macbeth is one of the most famous examples of
  the tragic hero.

31
Prose

• Ordinary writing that is not poetry, drama, or
  song
• Only characters in the lower social classes speak
  this way in Shakespeares plays
• Why do you suppose that is?

32
WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?
Did people really talk this way? Prose- language
without metrical structure Verse- poetic language
and style Blank Verse  unrhymed iambic
pentameter. Iambic Pentameter  five beats of
alternating unstressed and stressed syllables
ten syllables per line. 'So fair / and foul / a
day / I have / not seen'
33
What just happened?

• Shakespeare will be some of the most difficult
  reading you will ever attempt. BE PATIENT!
• Middle English vs. Modern English
• Reading Tips
• Read the Introduction
• Read everything twice
• First time- try reading without looking at
  footnotes, mark any interesting or difficult
  items
• 4. Try reading aloud
• 5. Look up words you dont know
• 6. Keep a list of characters

34
Macbeth
The tragedy of

• Set in Scotland
• Written for King James I (formerly of Scotland,
  now England)
• Queen of Denmark (Jamess sister) was visiting
• Shakespeare researched The Chronicles
• Banquo is an ancestor of King James I

35
The Curse!
36
The Scottish Play

• It is believed to be bad luck to even squeak the
  word Macbeth in a theatre
• Legend has it you will lose all your friends
  involved in the productionhorribly.
• Since 1606, hundreds of actors, stage crew, etc.
  have been hurt or have died during the production
  of this play.
• It is believed that Shakespeare included black
  magic spells in the incantations of the weird
  sisters.
• People refer to this play as the Scottish Play
• The only remedy to get rid of this curse is that
  the offender must step outside, turn around three
  times, spit, and whisper a foul word, and wait
  for permission to re-enter the theater.