written by: jonnettt hay-rivenbark. cultural and artistic movement in england 16 th century through...

Written by:Jonnettt Hay-Rivenbark

• Cultural and artistic movement in England

• 16th century through early 17th century

• Associated with European Renaissance

• Believed to have begun in Italy

English RenaissanceEnglish Renaissance

English RenaissanceEnglish Renaissance

• Contrast: English and Italian Renaissance

English RenaissanceEnglish Renaissance

• Often called “Age of Shakespeare” or “Elizabethan Era/Age”

• Names are incorrect

English RenaissanceEnglish Renaissance

• Important playwrights:

– William Shakespeare

– Ben Jonson

– Christopher Marlowe

English RenaissanceEnglish Renaissance

• Important poets of the period:

– Edmund Spenser

– John Milton

Important philosophers:

– Sir Francis Bacon

– Sir Thomas More

• Period in England associated with rule of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

• Relatively peaceful time

Elizabethan EraElizabethan Era

Elizabethan EraElizabethan Era

• Considered Golden Age of English history

Elizabethan EraElizabethan Era

• Height of fashion in England

• Influenced by French and Spanish styles

Elizabethan EraElizabethan Era

• Annual festivities broke up daily life

• People looked forward to celebrations

• Many still celebrated today

Elizabethan EraElizabethan Era

• Other celebrations include:

– Valentine’s Day

– April Fool’s Day

– Christmas Season (13 days celebrated from Christmas Eve through Epiphany Eve)

• Bubonic and pneumonic plagues caused 14th century “Black Death”

• Spread through Europe, Middle East and Asia

• Recurred every generation for centuries

The PlagueThe Plague

The PlagueThe Plague

• Known as bubonic and pneumonic plagues

• Believed to be caused mainly by fleas

• Symptoms included fever, chills, muscle pain, hemorrhaging,and buboes

The PlagueThe Plague

• Occurred again in England during 1592-1593

• Caused all theaters in London to close

• Shakespeare wrote long, narrative poems

• Born in April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon

• Actual date of birth uncertain

• Went to grammar school and studied Latin

Shakespeare BiographyShakespeare Biography

BiographyBiography

• Father was John Shakespeare-not very wealthy but held a municpal

Mother--

• Mary Arden Shakespeare

BiographyBiography

• At 18: married Anne Hathaway

• At 19: had daughter-Suzanne

• 1585: had twins:Hamnet and Judith

BiographyBiography

• Believed to have left for London 1585-1586

• 1594: became member of Lord Chamberlain’s Men

• Troupe became King’s Men in 1603

BiographyBiography

• Wrote and performed in plays

• Most widely-read playwright

• Also wrote poetry-sonnets

• Shakespeare wrote or collaborated on 39 plays

• Plays divided into three categories

– Comedies: Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Measure for Measure

– Tragedies—Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, Julius Caesar

– Histories—Richard, Henry

Shakespeare’s PlaysShakespeare’s Plays

Shakespeare’s PlaysShakespeare’s Plays

• His plays remain popular today

• Have been made into films and other plays

SIngle click for audio clip >>>>

• All’s Well That Ends Well

• As You Like It

• The Comedy of Errors

• Cymbeline

• Love’s Labor’s Lost

• Measure for Measure

• The Merchant of Venice

The ComediesThe Comedies

The ComediesThe Comedies

• The Merry Wives of Windsor

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• Much Ado About Nothing

• Pericles

• The Taming of the Shrew

• The Tempest

• Troilus and Cressida

The ComediesThe Comedies

• Twelfth Night

• Two Gentlemen of Verona

• The Two Noble Kinsmen

• The Winter’s Tale

The ComediesThe Comedies

• Most popular include

– All’s Well That Ends Well

– The Merchant of Venice

– A Midsummer Night’s Dream

– The Taming of the Shrew

– The Tempest

Single click for audio clip >>>>

• Characteristics of the

comedies include:

– False/mistaken identities

– Toils of love and marriage

– Good versus Evil

• Songs written for comedies

• Only text exists

The Comedies: Themes

The ComediesThe Comedies

• Famous characters include:

– Oberon and Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

– Rosalind and Orlando (As You Like It)

– Petruchio and Katherine (Taming of the Shrew)

• Antony and Cleopatra

• Coriolanus

• Hamlet

• Julius Caesar

• King Lear

• Macbeth

The TragediesThe Tragedies

The TragediesThe Tragedies

• Othello

• Romeo and Juliet

• Timon of Athens

• Titus Andronicus

The TragediesThe Tragedies

• Most popular tragedies:

– Hamlet

– Julius Caesar

– Macbeth

– Romeo and Juliet

Single click for audio clip >>>> Single click for audio clip >>>>

The Tragedies: ThemesThe Tragedies: Themes

• All Shakespearean tragedies: protagonist falls from grace and dies

• Tragic hero, tragic flaw

• An unhappy ending

The TragediesThe Tragedies

• Usually many secondary characters die – Mercutio and Tybalt

(Romeo and Juliet)

– Polonius, Ophelia, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Laertes (Hamlet)

– Calpurnia, Portia, Cassius (Julius Caesar)

The TragediesThe Tragedies

• Protagonist is admirable but flawed

• Protagonist is capable of good and bad

• Famous tragic characters:

– Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

– Macbeth, Thane of Glamis

– Marcus Brutus

• King John

• Richard II

• Henry IV, Part I

• Henry IV, Part 2

• Henry V

The HistoriesThe Histories

The HistoriesThe Histories

• Henry VI, Part 1

• Henry VI, Part 2

• Henry VI, Part 3

• Richard III

• Henry VIII

The HistoriesThe Histories

• Easier to recognize than define

• Arose as patriotism formed in England

• Tied closely to real historical events

The Histories: ThemesThe Histories: Themes

• All focus on tensions between public and private values

• Have character preoccupied with power

• Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra considered Roman histories

• Wrote two narrative poems during plague years

• Dedicated to Earl of Southampton

Shakespeare’s PoetryShakespeare’s Poetry

PoetryPoetry

• Other narrative poems: The Phoenix and the Turtle and A Lover’s Complaint

• Sonnets are most well-known

• Form is fourteen lines of iambic pentameter

PoetryPoetry

• Published 154 sonnets

• First 17 thought written to young man

• Advises young man to marry, have a child

PoetryPoetry

• Sonnets 127-154 present the Dark Lady

• Woman presented as treacherous

• Speaker seems sexually obsessed with her

• Theater associated with Shakespeare

• Built in London in 1599

• Owned by the Burbage brothers, Shakespeare and three others

• Theater had no roof

• Plays performed Daylight

• about 2hrs. Long

• Setting revealed in dialogue

The Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre

The Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre

• The Heavens

– False ceiling over the stage

– Housed actors and costumes during bad weather

– Designed with trap doors—actors could “fly”

– Good for creating sound effects

The Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre

• Hell

– Trapdoors within the stage area (thought to be two)

– Used for special effects with actors

– Good for creating sound effects

The Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre

• Women prohibited from performing so who played the girl’s roles?

• Young men/• Teens

The Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre

• Open to audiences during summer months

• Daytime performances only

• Audiences came from all classes

• Men and women attended performances

Globe

• Stage with limited props because would cut off part of stage

• Elaborate costumes were used

• If comedy play—must be very funny or if tragedy expected to be very bloody

The Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre

• “Groundlings” paid one cent to stand –had to be entertained

• Gentry paid more for seats in galleries=class/ social ranking in higher balconies

• Nobles sat in chairs on side of stage

The Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre

• Style similar to Coliseum

• Sometimes used for gambling

• Closed due to plague

The Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre

• Flags used to indicate type of play

• Burned by cannonball landing on roof during Henry VIII

• Destroyed by Puritans

• Motto: Totus mundus agit histrionem- “All the world is a playhouse” or “All the world’s a stage” (As You Like It)

Shakepeare’s Rhetorical Devices:

• Repetition

• Parallelism

• Rhetorical Questions

• Irony –all types especially verbal irony or sarcastic tone

•

• Enduring Globe

• Enduring Shakespeare

• “He was not of an age, but for all time.”

Concluding ThoughtsConcluding Thoughts

Shakespeare’s Last Days

• Retired to New Place in 1611• Died in April 1616—left his 2nd best bed to

Anne, his wife• Shakepeare is buried under a chancel in

church at Stratford and his epitat reads: Good friend for Jesus’ sake forebear to dig the dust enclosed here blessed be the man that spares these stones and cursed be he that moves my bones