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William Shakespeare
1564-1616
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William ShakespeareEarly years
• Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England
• Son of prominent town official
• 3rd child of 8 children
• Received excellent education with heavy focus on grammar and literature
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William ShakespeareMarriage and Family
• Married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway (she was 26) who was pregnant with his child
• 1st child was daughter, Susanna-born in 1583
• Twins, Hamnet and Judith born in 1585
• Hamnet dies at age 11
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William Shakespeare“Lost Years”
The period between 1585 and 1592 is known as the “Lost Years” because there are no documentary records of
Shakespeare’s activities
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William ShakespeareLater Years
• Moved to London around 1591 and became an actor
• Worked with the Lord Chamberlin’s company of players, later known as the King’s Men
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William ShakespeareWorks of Literature
• Along with acting, he also wrote some of the most renowned and studied literature written in the English language
• Poems-famous for his sonnets
• Plays-Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories
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William ShakespeareComedies
• All’s Well that Ends Well• As You Like It• Comedy of Errors• Measure for Measure• Midsummer Night’s Dream• Taming of the Shrew• Much Ado About Nothing• Twelfth Night• Merchant of Venice
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William ShakespeareTragedies
• Julius Caesar• Hamlet• Macbeth• Othello• Romeo and
Juliet• King Lear
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William ShakespeareHistories
• King Henry V• King John• Richard II• Richard III
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William ShakespeareWorks of Literature
• He wrote 37 very successful plays
• His vocabulary was HUGE-somewhere between 17,000 and 34,000 words!
• The estimated vocabulary of an educated person today is around 15,000 words
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William ShakespeareWorks of Literature
He had an amazing influence on our English language
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William ShakespeareHave you heard these phrases?
• I couldn’t sleep a wink.• He was dead as a doornail.• She’s a tower of strength.• They hoodwinked us.• We’d better lie low for awhile.• I am constant as the Northern Star.• It’s all Greek to me.
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More words that first appeared in his plays
• Accommodation lonely• Assassination gloomy• Dexterously fretful• Dislocate suspicious• Obscene hurry• Reliance• Premeditate
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William ShakespeareLater Years
• Returned to Stratford around 1610 where he lived as a country gentleman
• Wealthy-Owned one of the largest homes in town
• Died in Stratford in 1616 at the age of 52. His death was a mystery. It is rumored that he drank too much and contracted a fever or that he died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
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Elizabethan Age
• Shakespeare lived and wrote during what is known as the English Renaissance, which lasted from about 1485 through the 1660s
• Period is also known as Elizabethan Age, named after Queen Elizabeth who ruled England from 1558-1603
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Queen Elizabeth
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Elizabethan Age
• During the Queen’s reign, society celebrated poets
• Elizabethans would be surprised to learn that their age would become best known for its theater, as most considered drama a less distinguished form of lit. than poetry
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Elizabethan Age
• England was flourishing and London was becoming one of largest cities in Europe; however life was not easy for everyone
• Catholics experiences religious persecution
• Women were subject to many restrictions
• Most English people endured crowded living conditions and an unsatisfactory diet
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Elizabethan Age
• Rich and poor alike were defenseless against bubonic plague
• In 1564, the year Shakespeare was born, nearly one-third of his hometown died of the plague (lost many siblings to plague/son)
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Globe Theater
• Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed at Burbage’s theater until 1599, when they built their own playhouse, the Globe
• Shakespeare referred to the Globe as “this wooden O,” a term that led scholars to believe it was a circular building
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Globe Theater
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Globe Theater
Located just outside of London
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A white flag indicates that there is a play today.
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Plays were performed during the day..
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The groundlings stood by the stage.
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The wealthy sat in the upper decks.
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Young men dressed up to play the female roles.
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Globe Theater• Attending Shakespeare’s theater was
quite different from attending theater today, which is thought of as very quiet and austere
• In Elizabethan England it was a noisy, popular gathering place for people of all ages and from all walks of life
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Globe Theater
• Drinking and eating were permitted in the pit, which often became very noisy
• If a spectator did not like a particular character or scene, he or she would feel free to hiss or boo of throw anything he or she might have on hand
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Globe Theater
• It is possible that Shakespeare had this in mind when he included the phrase “with patient ears attend” in the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet
• The rowdy atmosphere of the pit also accounted for the exaggerated acting that was common at the time
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Globe Theater• To compensate for lines that the audience could not
hear, the actors used exaggerated gestures and facial expressions, unlike the natural method of acting that is used today
• Nature of the crowd contributed to haste with which the lines were spoken
• Today, Shakespeare play takes almost 3 hours. Then, a play would have taken two hours or less! (“the two hours’ traffic of our stage”)
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Globe Theater
• The original theater was destroyed by a fire in 1613
• It was rebuilt in 1614, closed in 1642, and demolished in 1644
• A modern reconstruction of the original Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre” opened in 1997
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Globe Theater
• Today, audiences of this “wooden O” can sit in the gallery or stand as informally as a groundling…
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Globe Theater
…just as they would have done 400 years ago!