William Shakespeare

1564-1616 Stratford-on-Avon - England

Overview

Who was he? Why is he so famous

? Life Works

Tragedy Comedy History Poetry

Chronology Elements of drama Dramatic technique Poetic technique

Elizabethan theatre Sonnet XVIII Macbeth Hamlet Julius Caesar Romeo and Juliet Much ado about noth

ing The Merchant of Veni

ce Links

Who was he?

Widely regarded as the greatest writer in English Literature

Poet and dramatistWrote 37 plays: comedies, histories,

tragediesComposed about 154 sonnets and a few

poemsStarted out as an actor

Life Born around April 23, 1564; 3rd of 8 children Family lived in

Stratford-on-Avon, a market town about 100 miles NW of London

Father (John) a shopkeeper. A man of considerable standing in Stratford. Served as Justice of the Peace and High Bailiff (mayor)

Attended grammar school, where he studied Latin, grammar and literature, Rhetoric (the use of language). No further formal education known

Marriage to Anne Hathaway, 8 years older than he, 3 children: Susanna (1583), Judith and Hamnet (twins, 1585)

Later life 1594 - became shareholder in a company of

actors called Lord Chamberlain’s Men 1599 - Lord Chamberlain’s Co. Built Globe

Theater where most of S. Play’s were performed

1599 - Actor for Lord Chamberlain’s Men and principal playwright for them

1603 – James I became king of England; acting company renamed King’s Men

1610 – Shakespeare retired to Stratford-on-Avon April 2

1616 – died at the age of 52

Works

Editions of works: First Quarto (1603), Second Quarto (1604), Folio (1623)

Comedy A Midsummer Night's

Dream All's Well That Ends

Well As You Like It Cymbeline Loves Labours Lost Measure for Measure Much Ado About

Nothing Pericles, Prince of

Tyre The Comedy of Errors

The Merchant of Venice

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Taming of the Shrew

The TempestTroilus and

CressidaTwelfth NightTwo Gentlemen of

VeronaWinter's Tale

Tragedy

Antony and Cleopatra

CoriolanusHamletJulius CaesarKing Lear

MacbethOthelloRomeo and Juli

etTimon of

AthensTitus

Andronicus

History

Henry IV, part 1Henry IV, part 2Henry VHenry VI, part 1Henry VI, part 2

Henry VI, part 3Henry VIIIKing JohnRichard IIRichard III

Poetry

A Lover's ComplaintSonnets (about 154)The Passionate PilgrimThe Phoenix and the turtleThe Rape of LucreceVenus and Adonis

Why is he still so famous? His plays portray recognizable people in situations

we experience in our lives: love, marriage, death, mourning, guilt, the need to make difficult choices, separation, reunion and reconciliation

They do so with great humanity, tolerance, and wisdom

They are constantly fresh and can be adapted to the place and time they are performed

Their language is wonderfully expressive and powerful

They help us to understand what it is to be human, and to cope with the problems of being so

Chronology

The problem with any timeline of Shakespeare's works is that most dates are subject to interpretation. While it is easy to say that The Comedy of Errors is an early work and The Tempest is quite later, exact dates are not - and may not ever be -proved.

Title Date

Written Date

Range First

Published

The Comedy of Errors 1590 ? - 1594 1623

Titus Andronicus 1590 ? - 1594 1594

The Taming of the Shrew

1591 ? - 1594 1623

2 Henry VI 1591 ? - 1592 1594

3 Henry VI 1591 ? - 1592 1595

1 Henry VI 1592 ? - 1592 1623

Richard III 15921592 -

15971597

Love's Labor's Lost 1593 ? - 1597 1598

Two Gentlemen of Verona 1593 ? - 1598 1623

A Midsummer Night's Dream 1594 1594 - 1598 1600

Romeo and Juliet 1595 ? - 1597 1597

Richard II 1595 1595 - 1597 1597

King John 1596 ? - 1598 1623

The Merchant of Venice 1596 1594 - 1598 1600

Henry IV Part 1 1596 1595 - 1598 1598

Henry IV Part 2 1597 1596 - 1598 1600

The Merry Wives of Windsor 1597 1597 - 1602 1602

As You Like It 1598 1598 - 1600 1623

Much Ado About Nothing 1598 1598 - 1600 1600

Henry V 1599 1599 1600

Julius Caesar 1599 1598 - 1599 1623

Twelfth Night 1600 1600 - 1602 1623

Hamlet 1601 1599 - 1601 1603

Troilus and Cressida 1602 1601 - 1603 1609

All's Well That Ends Well 1603 1598 - ? 1623

Measure For Measure 1604 1598 - 1604 1623

Othello 1604 1598 - 1604 1622

King Lear 1605 1598 - 1606 1608

Macbeth 1606 1603 - 1611 1623

Antony and Cleopatra 1606 1598 - 1608 1623

Timon of Athens 1606 1598 - ? 1623

Pericles Prince of Tyre 1607 1598 - 1608 1609

Coriolanus 1608 1598 - ? 1623

Cymbeline 1609 1598 - 1611 1623

A Winter's Tale 1610 1598 - 1611 1623

The Tempest 1611 1610 - 1611 1623

Henry VIII 1613 1612 - 1613 1623

Language Used over 20,000 words in his works The average writer uses 7,500 The English Dictionary of his time only had

500 words. He’s credited with creating 3,000 words in

the English Oxford Dictionary He was by far the most important individual

influence on the development of the modern English

He invented lots of words that we use in our daily speech

Words invented by the Bard

accommodation

amazement assassination baseless bloody bump castigate changeful control (noun) countless courtship critic

eventful exposure frugal generous gloomy hurry impartial indistinguishable invulnerable laughable lonely majestic

misplaced monumental

obscene

pious

premeditated

radiance

reliance

road

sportive

submerge

suspicious

Stratford-upon-Avon

Elements of drama 5-part dramatic structure corresponds to a

play’s5 acts Exposition (introduction)

Establishes tone, setting, main characters, main conflict

Fills in events previous to play

Rising action Series of complications for the protagonist (main

character)flowing from the main conflict

Crisis or Climax Turning point in story Moment of choice for protagonist Forces of conflict come together

Falling action Results of protagonist’s decision Maintains suspense

Resolution or Denouement Conclusion of play Unraveling of plot May include characters’ deaths

Elements of drama

Dramatic techniquePun: play on words involving

Word with more than one meaning Words with similar sounds

Soliloquy Speech of moderate to long length Spoken by one actor alone on stage (or not heard

by other actors) Aside

Direct address by actor to audience – Not supposed to be overheard by other characters

Poetic technique

Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter 5 units of rhythm per line primary rhythm is iambic ( U / )“Shal Ì compàre Thée to a sùmmer’s

dày”

Typical 16th century theatre

Building: 3 stories Levels 1 & 2, Backstage: dressing and storage

areas Level 3, Upper Stage: could represent balcony, walls of a castle, bridge of a ship

Resembled courtyard of an inn

The Globe Theatre

Elizabethan Theatre

The Globe Theatre

Proscenium stage A large platform without a curtain

or a stage setting 2 ornate pillars supported canopy Stage roof (underpart of canopy)

called “the heavens” elaborately painted to depict the sun,

moon, stars, planets

Trap doors: entrances and exits of ghosts; area under stage called Hell

2 large doors at back: actors made entrances and exits in full view of audience

Inner stage: a recess with balcony area above

Floor: ash mixed with hazelnut shells from snacks audience ate during performance Effect on performance: plays held in afternoon No roof No artificial lighting No scenery

Acting companies

Developed from the medieval trade guilds

Were composed ofOnly boys and men Young boys performed female

roles

Audience

2000-3000 people from all walks of life

Well-to-do spectators sat in covered galleries around stage

Most stood in yard around platform stage – “groundlings”

The sonnets

Containing some of the greatest lyric poems in English literature, Shakespeare’s Sonnets are not just the easy love sentiments of "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day." Many of the poems are bleak cries of emotional torment and spiritual exhaustion. They tell a story of the struggle of love and forgiveness against anguish and despair. It is this tragic portrait of human love that makes the sonnets immortal.

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 un-trimm'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

Paraphrase of Sonnet 18

Shall I compare you to a summer's day? You are more lovely and more moderate: Harsh winds disturb the delicate buds of May, and summer doesn't last long enough. Sometimes the sun is too hot, and its golden face is often dimmed by clouds. All beautiful things eventually become less beautiful, either by the experiences of life or by the passing of time. But your eternal beauty won't fade, nor lose any of its quality. And you will never die, as you will live on in my enduring poetry. As long as there are people still alive to read poems this sonnet will live, and you will live in it.

Sonnet 18 Commentary The gender of the addressee is not explicit The first two quatrains focus on the fair person’s beauty The poet attempts to compare it to a summer’s day The timeless beauty far surpasses that of the fleeting,

inconstant season. The theme of the ravages of time predominates The poet is eternalizing the fair person’s beauty in his verse The poet describes summer as a season of extremes and

disappointments These imperfections contrast sharply with the poet’s

description of the fair person In line 12 we find the poet’s solution The poet plans to capture the fair persons’s beauty in his

verse The poem will withstand the ravages of time Summer as a metaphor for youth, or perhaps beauty or both

Figures of speeech

Rhyming scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Anaphora (the repetition of opening

words) in lines 6-7, 10-11, and 13-14. Metaphor: summer for youth or beauty

or both Initial Rethorical questionComparisonPersonification Imagery

Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.In me thou seest the twilight of such dayAs after sunset fadeth in the west,Which by and by black night doth take away,Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.In me thou see'st the glowing of such fireThat on the ashes of his youth doth lie,As the death-bed whereon it must expireConsumed with that which it was nourish'd by.This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Paraphrase of Sonnet 73

In me you can see that time of yearWhen a few yellow leaves or none at all hangOn the branches, shaking against the cold,Bare ruins of church choirs where lately the sweet birds sang.In me you can see only the dim light that remainsAfter the sun sets in the west,Which is soon extinguished by black nightThe image of death that envelops all in rest.In me you can see the glowing embersThat lie upon the ashes remaining from the flame of my youth,As on a death bed where it (youth) must finally dieConsumed by that which once fed it.This you sense, and it makes your love more determinedTo love more deeply that which you must give up before long.

Sonnet 130My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun,Coral is far more red, than her lips red,If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun:If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head:I have seen roses damasked, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks,And in some perfumes is there more delight,Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I know,That music hath a far more pleasing sound:I grant I never saw a goddess go,My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.And yet by heaven I think my love as rare,As any she belied with false compare.

Paraphrase of Sonnet 130My mistress's eyes are not at all like the sun;Coral is much more red than her lips;If snow is white, then her breasts are certainly not white as

snow;If hairs can be compared to wires, hers are black and not

goldenI have seen roses colored a combination of red and white But I do not see such colors in her cheeks;And some perfumes give more delightThan the breath of my mistress.I love to hear her speak, but I knowThat music has a more pleasing sound than her voice;I also never saw a goddess walk;But I know that my mistress walks only on the ground.And yet I think my love as rare.As any woman who has had poetic untruths told about her

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments, love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove.O no, it is an ever-fixed markThat looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wand'ring bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come,Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom:If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 71

No longer mourn for me when I am dead,Than you shall hear the surly sullen bellGive warning to the world that I am fledFrom this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:Nay if you read this line, remember not,The hand that writ it, for I love you so,That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,If thinking on me then should make you woe.O if (I say) you look upon this verse,When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,Do not so much as my poor name rehearse;But let your love even with my life decay.Lest the wise world should look into your moan,And mock you with me after I am gone.

LinksShakespeare Resource centreMr W. Shakespeare and the InternetNo sweat ShakespeareAbsolute ShakespeareShakespeare’s MoviesWorks in ItalianShakespeare in Modern EnglishStudy GuidesOnline GuidesOne more guide