background notes on william shakespeare. william shakespeare was born april 23, 1564, in the town of...
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Background Notes on William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was
born April 23, 1564, in the town of Stratford upon
Avon.
Trivia...
Galileo, the famous
scientist, was also born in this year.
Parents
John Shakespeare
and Mary Arden
Shakespeare
Siblings
He had 3 brothers and 4 sisters.
He was the third born, but the oldest.
EducationSince dad was an alderman and
property owner, Will received a free
formal education through grade
school where he studied all the
classics of literature.
Roman
ce?
He married Anne Hathaway
in November 1582 at age 18,
because she was pregnant at age 26 with their first child
Susanna.
More Children
They later had twins named Hamnet and Judith in 1585.
Tragedy In August of 1596, at age 11, Hamnet died from
Bubonic Plague, leaving Shakespeare devastated,
and with no heir. In October, the
Shakespeare family became gentry;
Shakespeare's father was granted a coat of arms and William would now
have no one to inherit the honor.
The Lost YearsFrom the years 1585-1592,
little is known about Shakespeare’s life.
Whatever Did He Do?
Because of his later writings, we can
guess that he might have been a farmer, a soldier, a teacher,
a sailor, a glove-maker or an actor during this time.
The Reappearance
In 1594, he was working in London
working as an actor and
playwright.
The Plague...Oh, How it Plagued Him!
Throughout the 1590’s
Bubonic Plague was killing
around 1,000 people a week.
More of the Plague
Between 1593-1594, the theater was closed because of it.This may explain why a
fascination with death appears throughout his plays.
The Plagiarist Romeo and Juliet was written
between 1594-1596 during the “Lyrical Years” of his 30s.
It was based on a 1562 poem by Arthur Brooke called “The Tragical Story of
Romeus and Juliet” which was based on the Greek story of “Pyramus and Thisbee”
written in 400 CE or 5 century.
Where’d it come from again? Brooke's version of the Romeo and Juliet story is
taken from a French poem by Pierre Boaistuau (1559)
That was based on an Italian story by Matteo Bandello (1554),
Which was itself inspired by Luigi da Porto's Giulietta e Romeo (circa 1530).
Although Shakespeare also consulted William Painter's 1562 English translation of Boaistuau's poem titled "Rhomeo and Julietta" (and possibly some of the earlier Italian texts), Brooke's "Romeus and Juliet" was his direct and primary source.
Work
Some of the theaters that Shakespeare
worked in were The Rose, The
Curtain, The Swan, and
The Theatre.
$$$$$He made money in those theaters in
three ways. As an actor, playwright, and
shareholder in the theater.
But his career of choice was acting.
The GlobeIn 1599, The Globe theater was built in the shape of an Octagon on the River
Thames.
The Globe
Shakespeare owned 10% of it, and in 1613 it was destroyed by
fire.
The Globe In the theater, they served such
refreshments as nuts and fruit and ale, and the poor
people who brought their rotten fruits and vegetables to
throw at plays they didn’t like were
called the groundlings or
penny-stinkers.
The TheaterIn
Shakespeare’s times, the higher your seat in the theater, the higher you
social status
In Shakespeare's Times...
Young boys
played the
women’s roles.
Some tragedies Shakespeare wrote Some tragedies Shakespeare wrote were... were...
Some Histories Shakespeare Wrote…
Shakespeare also wrote Sonnets, or 14-line poems.
The subjects of these poems were: The Young Man and The Dark Lady.
In 1603, Queen Elizabeth I died and King James I
ascended the throne as the monarch of England.
Shakespeare and his players changed their
name from “Lord Chamberlain’s Men” to
“The King’s Men.”
Shakespeare retired to “New Place” between the years 1609-1614.
Shakespeare died on his birthday, in 1616, and was
buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.
In his will he left his property to Susanna who was married to a prominent doctor,
300 English pounds to his daughter Judith who was scandalously married at age 32 to a winemaker, and his second best bed
to his wife Anne (because it was her favorite).
