William Shakespeare, London, Queen Elizabeth,

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William Shakespeare, London, Queen Elizabeth,
Julius Caesar
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What you need to know about Shakespeare
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Well-known Facts about Shakespeare

• Born April 1564 died April 1616 (52 years old)
• 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

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Lesser-known Facts about Will

• 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 ?

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Shakespeares Career

• At 28, he was an actor and playwright (1592)
• 1594 - charter member of Lord Chamberlain's Men
• 1603- Changed to Kings Men
• Retired in 1612 at 48 years of age
• Wrote 37 plays
• Julius Caesar written in 1599

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What you need to know about the Theatre
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Theater in London

• Performed in courtyards of inns
• The Theater-first public theater-1576
• Daytime/open air
• Limited set design
• Relied on music, sound, costumes, props and great
  description

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The Globe

• Built in 1599
• Across the Thames- Wrong side of town
• Kings Players - Shakespeares company

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Admission

• 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

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Actors

• All men
• Female parts played by young boys
• No actual kissing or hugging on stage

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The Groundling

• Poor audience member sat in the cheaper seats
• Stood around stage in the pit
• Women not allowed (had to dress up as men to
  attend)
• Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances

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The Competition Whats there to do on a Friday
Night?!

• Shakespeare fought to steal audiences from
• Bear-baiting
• Races
• Gambling
• Music
• Drinking/socializing
• Prostitution
• Public executions

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What you need to know about Queen Elizabeth
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Queen Elizabeth

• Bastard daughter of King Henry VIII
• And Ann Boleyn (2nd of 6 wives)
• Henry had Ann beheaded for treason
• Younger sister of Bloody Mary.
• Virgin Queen?
• A tease and a player

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Her loving parents
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What you need to know about London the Time
Period
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The Renaissance

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

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Conditions in London-BAD!

• Thames River polluted with raw sewage
• Poverty

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Personal hygiene/health

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

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Living Conditions

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

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Clothes

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

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What you need to know about Elizabethan Beliefs
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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Life in Elizabethan England could be cruel and
  hard. The poor often went hungry, disease was
  widespread, medical remedies often felt more like
  tortures, and many women died in childbirth. But
  through their beliefs, people found ways of
  making sense of their existence.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• People were, in general, much more religious than
  people today.
• Almost everyone believed in God and expected to
  go to heaven or hell after death.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• The Chain of Being
• God created everything in a strict hierarchy, or
  chain, that stretched from God himself down to
  the lowest things in existence.
• The monarch was the highest
• Nobles and churchmen below
• Gentlemen
• Commoners
• All women were considered to be inferior to men,
  with the obvious exception of Elizabeth I.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Accepting ones place in the chain was a duty
  that would be rewarded by God in heaven.

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Elizabethan Beliefs

• Myths and Magic
• Fairies, magic, witches, spells and prophecies
  all formed part of their view of life.
• Folklore and superstition were often as important
  to people as the official religious beliefs
  taught by the Church.

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What you need to know about Julius Caesar
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Background of Caesar

• Opens in 44 BC when Rome had made conquests
  that allowed it to have an empire in N. Africa,
  Britain, Persia, and Spain.

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Background of Caesar

• City itself collapsing despite conquests
• Military endeavours more ambitious ? generals
  stronger while senators weaker and factionalized
• Sharp class divisions
• Most wanted a republic

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Background of Caesar

• Caesar emerged as most likely to succeed
• Remarkable general
• Popular among lower classes at home

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Background of Caesar

• Caesar was believed to have and proved he had
• Ability
• Charisma
• Ambition
• Good luck

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• Differing views
• Assassination as act of heroism, expediency, or
  villainy celebrate, excuse, or denounce its
  perpetrators?

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• Shakespeare saw Caesar and Roman civilization not
  just as one that precedes the future, but as one
  that sets the pattern for future civilizations.
• Shakespeare's England faced concerns of a country
  about to change leadership and centuries.

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What Kind of Play is Julius Caesar?

• Julius Caesar is both a History and a Tragedy
• Ends in the death of one or more of the main
  characters.
• Involved historical individuals and events

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Tragic Hero

• Often a man of high rank, such as a king or
  prince
• Creates, or is put into, a difficult situation
  which he must try to resolve.
• A combination of bad luck and bad decisions lead
  to his death.
• Has a tragic flaw (most commonly hubris)
• Often a relatively sympathetic figure. His
  soliloquies show his feelings and motives, and
  show the audience how easy it would be to make
  similar mistakes.

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Doom and Destiny

• Many people believed in fate, or destiny, and in
  the power of the stars to foretell the future.
• Shakespeare uses the idea of fate or destiny to
  add excitement and anticipation to the tragedies
• Uses a prophecy as a way of holding the
  audiences interest, because everyone wants to
  see if it will be fulfilled.

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The Roman Tragedies

• Two Themes
• Politics and Power shows how hard it is to be a
  political leader. The hero has power, but has a
  weakness which makes him vulnerable to being
  attacked or overthrown
• Love and Duty people often have to make
  difficult choices between their emotions and
  their responsibilities

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Key Themes

• Honor
• Ambition
• Envy
• Power

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Look for Rhetoric

• The art or study of using language effectively
  and persuasively
• Make sure to look for persuasion and the use of
  language throughout the play (note the characters
  techniques to win public and political support)

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Language of Shakespeare

• Early Modern English (NOT Middle English, like
  Chaucer)
• Lack of standardized spelling
• Puns and references to current events of his time
  make it difficult
• You know more than you think you do!

• Poetry of the sonnets and plays
• Iambic Pentameter (lines of five metrical feet,
  each one an iamb)
• Not perfect, or it would be sing-songy
• Blank Verse (unrhymed Iambic Pentameter)
• Lower Classes speech, or that of characters in
  emotional extremis, is in prose