Shakespeare: His Life and Times

Early Life

• Born April 23, 1564—died 1616– In Stratford-upon-Avon

• Parents: John and Mary Arden Shakespeare• Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner• John—glovemaker, local politician

Location of Stratford-upon-Avon

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

Shakespeare’s Birthplace

• Probably attended King’s New School in Stratford

• Little known about his childhood• No information about his person, other than his

marriage license, grave stone epithet, court documents, business contracts, and property deeds.

Education

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

King’s New School

• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway (26), who was pregnant at the time with their first daughter (Susanna)

• He was 18!• Had twins in 1585 (Hamnet & Judith)• Sometime between 1585-1592, he moved

to London and began working in theatre.

Married Life

Not this one…

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

Anne Hathaway’s Cottage

Conditions in London-BAD!

• Thames River polluted with raw sewage

• Trees used up for fuel

• Poverty

Personal Hygiene/Disease

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

Living Conditions

• No running water

• Chamber Pots• Open Sewers• Crowded

                  

• One set used all year long, rarely washed

• Underclothing slept in, infrequently changed

Clothes

Theater Career

• 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

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

• Globe Theater built in 1599 by L.C.M. with Shakespeare as primary investor

• Was three-stories high and had no roof.• Could together hold more than 1,500 people. • In 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, a

misfired canon ball set the Globe's thatched roof on fire and the whole theatre was consumed.

Theatre

The Globe Theater

The Rebuilt Globe Theater, London

The Globe Theater

Actors

• All men• Female parts played

by young boys• No actual kissing or

hugging on stage

Groundlings

• Poor audience member• Stood around stage in

“the pit”• Threw rotten

vegetables at bad performances

The cost of attending a show

• 1 shilling to stand

• 2 shillings to sit in the balcony

The Plays

• 38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare

• comedies• histories• Tragedies• romances

• Collaborated on several others

• Numerous poems• 154 Sonnets

The Poetry

Shakespeare’s death

• The cause of Shakespeare's death is a mystery, but an entry in the diary of John Ward, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), tells us that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."

• He was 52.

• He is buried at Holy Trinity Church in his birthplace of Stratford.

Shakespeare’s epitaph • An epitaph is an inscription on or at a tomb or a grave

in memory of the one buried there.

• Shakespeare also wrote his own epitaph because during his time, when the graveyard was full, people would dig up someone's corpse and burn it so that another could be buried in that person's place. This disgusted Shakespeare, and he didn't want this type of disrespect after his death. His epitaph reads as follows:

• Good Friends, for Jesus' sake forbear,To dig the bones enclosed here!Blest be the man that spares these stones,And curst be he that moves my bones."

Use of disguises/

mistaken identity

Multiple marriages

(in comedies)

Multiple murders

(in tragedies)

Last speaker—highest in

rank (in tragedies)

What is the English that Shakespeare used?? It makes no

sense…

Shakespeare’s Language

• Shakespeare did NOT write in “Old English.”

• Old English is the language of Beowulf:Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunonHu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!

Shakespeare’s Language

• Shakespeare did not write in “Middle English.”

• Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the author of The Canterbury Tales:

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures sooteThe droghte of March hath perced to the rooteAnd bathed every veyne in swich licour,Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

The General Prologue

Original Middle English:• Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the rooteAnd bathed every veyne in swich licour,Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Modern Translation• When fair April with his showers sweet,

Has pierced the drought of March to the root's feetAnd bathed each vein in liquid of such power,Its strength creates the newly springing flower;

http://www.breme.demon.co.uk/chaucer.htm

Shakespeare’s Language

• Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern English.”

• EME was not very different from “Modern English,” except that it had some old holdovers.

• The Shakespeare Glossaryhttp://www.bardweb.net/grammar/04gloss.html

• OmissionsAgain, for the sake of his poetry, Shakespeare often left out letters, syllables, and whole words.  These omissions really aren't that much different from the way we speak today.  We say:"Been to class yet?""No.  Heard Miss R’s givin' a test.""Wha'sup wi'that?“

We leave out words and parts of words to speed up our speech.  If we were speaking in complete sentences, we would say:"Have you been to class yet?""No, I have not been to class.  I heard that Mrs. Raaf is giving a test today.""What is up with that?"

• A few examples of Shakespearean omissions/contractions follow:

'tis ~ it isope ~ openo'er ~ overgi' ~ givene'er ~ never

i' ~ ine'er ~ everoft ~ oftene'en ~ even

Shakespeare’s Poetry

We speak in prose (language without metrical structure).  • Shakespeare wrote both prose and poetry (verse). • To understand his poetry , we need to understand

these terms:

Blank Verse:  unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Iambic Pentameter:  five beats of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables; ten syllables per line.

Shakespeare’s Language

• Shakespeare coined many words we still use today:• Critical• Majestic• Dwindle• Fashionable• Embrace (as a noun)• Vulnerable

Shakespeare’s Language

• one fell swoop• flesh and blood• vanish into thin air• pomp and circumstance• seen better days• a sorry sight• neither rhyme nor reason• full circle• dead as a doornail• for goodness sake• green-eyed monster

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.

Good dialogue is key!

These control the dialogue.

Good dialogue is key!

Audience loves to be scared.

Audience loves to be scared.

Soliloquy- an extended speech, directed to the audience rather than to other characters, in which the speaker explores their thoughts and feelings.

Aside- Words an actor speaks to the audience which other

actors on the stage cannot hear. Sometimes the actor cups his mouth toward the audience or turns away from the other actors. An aside serves to reveal a character's thoughts or concerns to the audience without revealing them to other characters in a play.

Types of speechTypes of speech

Blood and gore

Use of supernatural

Reading Shakespeare: A Review

Unlocking Shakespeare's Language, by Randal Robinson Unusual Word Arrangements

I ate the sandwich.I the sandwich ate.Ate the sandwich I.Ate I the sandwich.The sandwich I ate.The sandwich ate I.

Robinson shows us that these four words can create six unique sentences which carry the same meaning.  Locate the subject, verb, and the object of the sentence.  Notice that the object of the sentence is often placed at the beginning (the sandwich) in front of the verb (ate) and subject (I).  Rearrange the words in the order that makes the most sense to you (I ate the sandwich).