SHAKESPEARE

Term 3 LA ACE

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE

An English poet and playwright

Widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language & the

world’s pre-eminent dramatist

Often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”

Surviving works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems

and several other poems

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE

Suicide occurs an unlucky thirteen times in Shakespeare's plays

Shakespeare uses "dog" or "dogs" over two hundred times in his works

He was also the first writer to use the compound noun "watchdog”,

inventing it for the world’s use

Shakespeare's works contain over 600 references to birds of all kinds

Macbeth is thought to be one of the most produced plays ever, with a

performance beginning somewhere in the world every four hours

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE

Loved to write, and when a famous actor found all of the plays and

stories that he had written, he decided to become a writer

A son of John Shakespeare, a successful glover and alderman originally

from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning

farmer

Born and baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26 April 1564 as the 3rd

child of 8 and the eldest surviving son

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE

Probably educated at the King’s New School, a free school chartered in

1553 about a quarter-mile from his home

This school would have provided an intensive education in Latin

grammar and the classics

7 siblings: Margaret, Gilbert, Joan, Anne, Richard, Edmund and Joan

(died in infancy)

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE

Inspired by:• Birds• Other great writers, such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Plutarch

His plays were so well-received because:• “Drama became the ideal means to capture and convey the diverse

interests of the time”, and Shakespeare’s plays were extremely dramatic• His style changed not only in accordance with his own tastes and

developing mastery, but also in accord with the taste of the audiences for whom he wrote (rich, poor, etc.)

ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

England in Shakespearian time was called Elizabethan England

Was ruled by Elizabeth I Houses had a unique “Elizabethan” design Elizabethan art pieces were mainly paintingsof other people, called portraits Writers were greatly influenced by Italian sonnets, therefore

introducing complicated poetic structures in both verse and prose

Music was still in the Renaissance period, which included instruments such as the harpsichord

ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

Historical events:• The defeat of the Spanish armada (1588)• The Essex Rebellion (1601)• Putting to death of Mary Queen of Scots (1587)• Crowning of Queen Elizabeth (1558)

The people in power during that time had an impact on Shakespeare’s work. This is because

Queen Elizabeth, who was a great patron of the arts, aided Shakespeare by quashing some of

the Puritans (Protestant hardliners who claimed that theatres were a major source of the plague

and once even shut down all the theatres in England) and changed the dominant language in

England from Latin to English, leading to Shakespeare writing most of his plays in English

ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

The English during that time had a strong sense of “social class”

They belonged to different groups according to their:• Occupation• Wealth• Ancestry

Social classes determined many factors in a person’s life, from what he

could wear, to what he could live, and even to what jobs his children could

get

ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

Social classes:• The Nobility

• Only 55 noble families• Led by a duke, a baron , or an earl• Rich and powerful

• The Gentry• Only 5% of the population when Queen Elizabeth was young• Knights, squires and gentlemen/gentlewomen who “did not work with their

hands for a living• Most important social class in England

ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

Social classes:• The Yeomanry

• The middle-class people• Could survive comfortably, but could also be wrecked by disease or misfortune

very easily and be plunged into poverty• Yeomen farmers, tradesmen and craft workers

• The Poor• The sick, the disabled, the old and feeble, and wounded soldiers• Due to “enclosure” – towns grew in size and people living in the countryside,

surviving on agriculture, did not have anymore space to grow crops and therefore, were jobless

ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

English Renaissance Theatres

Also called “Elizabethan Theatres”

Shakespeare held his plays at the Globe

Theatre most often

As there was no lighting in the theatre,

plays were held, weather permitting, during

the day, most often in the mid-afternoon

span between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

As the most of the Globe Theatre and all of its stage was open-air, acoustics

were poor and the actors were compelled, by certain circumstances, to shout out

their lines, stress their enunciation and engage in exaggerated theatrical gestures

Although costumes and props were utilized, changes in scenes during

Shakespeare’s plays were not made during brief curtain closings, as there were

no proscenium arch, curtains or stagehands. Instead, they were made during

speeches and narrative situations in Shakespeare’s plays

THE RENAISSANCE

A renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth; revival [lowercase]

The activity, spirit or time of the great revival of art, literature and

learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th

century, marking the transition from the medieval era to the modern world

[uppercase]

THE RENAISSANCE

Significant events/changes:• The Black Death (1348)

• Reduced the population of Europe by over 50%• 1st printing press in the world is invented (around 1450)

• Set up by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany• End of the Middle Ages (1492)

• Lorenzo the Magnificent died in Florence• Columbus almost discovers America• Grenada, the last Moslem presence in Spain, falls• Roderigo de Borgia became Pope Alessandro VI

THE RENAISSANCE

The upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy allowed Shakespeare to

explore the humanity of every character regardless of their social position.

Even monarchs were given human emotions and were capable of making

mistakes

Before the Renaissance, Greek and Roman classics had been

suppressed by the Catholic Church, but once the texts were legalized,

Shakespeare utilized them when writing his plays