Unit 4

A Man from Stratford—William Shakespeare

Objectives:

• 1. Life and career of Shakespeare

• 2. The writing of biography

• 3. Vocabulary and structures

Teaching Tasks and Process

Pre-reading Questions

• How is Shakespeare related to Stratford? Is Stratford the place where he wrote most of his plays?

• Is the text about Shakespeare’s life and career? If so, what do you expect to be told?

• Is the text about Shakespeare’s personality? If so, what kind of person do you expect Shakespeare to be?

• Is the text about Shakespeare’s works? If so, which of his plays do you like to see commented on and analyzed?

Background information

• William Shakespeare (1564 –1616 )

Birth place—Stratford-upon-Avon

The home of Mary Arden, wee Willy Shakespeare's mother's house

Anne Hathaway's [Shakespeare's wife] cottage

The Avon River, near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon

Four Tragedies

• Hamlet

• King Lear

• Macbeth

• Othello

Comedies

• All's Well That Ends Well

• As You Like It

• The Merchant of Venice

• A Midsummer Night's Dream

• Much Ado About Nothing

• Taming of the Shrew

• The Tempest

• Twelfth Night

Sonnet 18

• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

• Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

• Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

• And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

• Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

• And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,

• And every fair from fair sometime declines,

• By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd:

• But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

• Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

• Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

• When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

• So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

• So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Language Points

• be comfortably off: a man who has enough money to live in comfort

• be well off/ badly off/ better off/ worse off

Shakespeare’s birthplace ,…had made a thriving business out of its most famous citizen for a long time.

• make a thriving business out of: make use of one’s reputation to earn a lot of money

To plot Shakespeare’s life is to become involved in a kind of detective story where…

• to plot Shakespeare’s life: to form the main story of a book, film, etc.

• to plot (out) an idea for dong something

• “I began plotting novels at about the time I learned to read.” (James Baldwin)

…, realized in a flash that this was the life for him…• in a flash: immediately, at once

• On the Mid-autumn day I was still engaged in my work and I realized in a flash that I should have sent messages to my old friends.

…and other influential people to refer to him in writing.

• influential: powerful and wealthy

• refer to: mention, speak about

• When I said some people were stupid, I wasn’t referring to you.

• The scientist referred to the discovery as the most exciting new development in this field.

• Which company was she referring to when she spoke of competing firms?

…he rapidly made a name for himself…• made a name for oneself:

establish himself/ his fame/ his reputation

• He first made a name for himself as an actor.

Text II—William Shakespeare

• What was known about Shakespeare’s early schooling?

• What are the two legends about Shakespeare’s life between the time he left school and his departure for London?

• Why is the world grateful that he left the town of his birth?

• What are some of the best-known plays Shakespeare wrote in the early part of the 17th century?

• What curse was engraved on Shakespeare’s gravestone? Why did Shakespeare want to have this done? What is the writer’s comment on this curse?

Paragraph writing

• Narration in Chronological order

Letter Writing—Conclusion and Ending

• I look forward to seeing you soon.

• I hope you’ll get well soon.

• Please remember me to your mother.

• I will be waiting anxiously for an early reply.

Discussion/Exercises

• ORAL WORK

• Role-play—Theatre and Cinema

Assignments

• Exercise on the Work Book