Well-known Facts about Will (1564-1616)

• Great writer of England

• Plays translated into all languages, musicals, ballets

• Born Stratford-upon-Avon

• Well-to-do, affluent while alive

• Most quoted, other than the Bible

• http://www.stratford-upon-avon.co.uk/index.htm

Lesser-known Facts

• Teen father: married pregnant 26 year old Anne Hathaway when he was 18

• Deadbeat dad: Left wife and children for London stage career

• Father of twins• Elizabethan rapper: uses

rhythm and rhyme• “Plagiarism” ?:

• http://www.anonymous-movie.com/

The Competition

• Bear-baiting• Races• Gambling• Music• Drinking/socializing• Prostitution• Public executions

Conditions in London-BAD!

• Thames River polluted with raw sewage

• Trees used up for fuel

• Poverty

Personal hygiene/health

• Bathing considered dangerous

• Body odor strong

• Childhood diseases

• Children often died before 5 years

• Small Pox

• Bubonic Plague

Living Conditions

• No running water

• Chamber Pots

• Open Sewers

• Crowded

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Clothes

• One set used all year long, rarely washed

• Underclothing slept in, infrequently changed

• Clothes handed down from rich to poor

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The Globe Theater

• Built in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (Theatrical Company)

• Across the Thames- “Wrong side of town”

• King’s Players - Shakespeare’s company

• Penny admission

• Burned down in 1613 during one of Shakespeare’s plays

Actors

• All men• Female parts played

by young boys• No actual kissing or

hugging on stage

The groundling

• Poor audience member• Stood around stage in

“the pit”• Women not allowed

(had to dress up as men to attend)

• Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances

Shakespeare’s Works

• 38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare• 14 comedies• 10 histories• 10 tragedies• 4 romances

• Two major poems• Venus and Adonis• Rape of Lucrece

• 154 Sonnets• Numerous other poems

Shakespeare’s Language

• Wrote in Early Modern English

• A mix of old and very new

• Rural and urban words/images

• Understandable by the lowest peasant and the highest noble

Shakespeare’s LanguageCoined many words and phrases: into thin air / flesh and blood

accused • addiction • alligator amazement • anchovies • assassination • backing • bandit • bedroom • bump • buzzers • courtship • critic • dauntless • dawn • design • dickens • discontent • embrace • employer • engagements • excitements • exposure • eyeball • fixture • futurity • glow • gust • hint • immediacy • investments • leapfrog • luggage • manager • mimic • misgiving • mountaineer • ode • outbreak • pageantry • pedant • perusal • questioning • reinforcement • retirement • roadway • rumination • savagery • scuffles • shudders • switch • tardiness • transcendence • urging • watchdog • wormhole • zany

A theatrical convention is a

suspension of reality.

No electricity

Women forbidden

to act on stage

Minimal, contemporary

costumes

Minimal scenery

These control the dialogue.These control the dialogue.

Audience loves to be scared.

Audience loves to be scared.

Soliloquy

Aside Types of speechTypes of speech

Blood and gore

Use of supernatural

Use of disguises/

mistaken identity

Multiple marriages

(in comedies)

Multiple murders

(in tragedies)

Last speaker—highest in

rank (in tragedies)

Romeo and Juliet

• Tragedy• Written in 1595• Set in Verona, Italy• Themes:

1. parental control/rebellious teens

2. fate/freewill

3. impulsive behavior/self-control

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