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William Shakespeare
An Introduction to the Study of
Language in Julius Caesar
Billy S. by Skye Sweetnam
“I don't need to read Billy Shakespeare,
Meet Juliet or Mavolio,
Feel for once what it's like to rebel now,
I wanna break out, let's go!
Teachers treat us all like clones,
Sit up straight, take off your headphones,
I don't blame them, they get paid,
Money money, woo, lot's of money money, woo!
…To skip or not to skip? that is the question…”
Fast Facts…
Born: April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon,
England
Wife: Anne Hathaway (He married at age 18)
Children: Susanna, and twins Judith &
Hamnet (Sadly, Hamnet, his only son, died in
childhood)
Profession(s): Playwright, Actor, Businessman
(shareholder of an acting company)
Fast Facts…
Died: April 23, 1616 in London, England
(Coincidentally, on the same day, in Spain,
Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote,
also died. Even more of a coincidence, Inca
Garcilaso de la Vega, a Spanish/Incan writer,
also died.)
Buried: Holy Trinity Church with a curse for an
epitaph – essentially, blessing those who leave
his bones alone and cursing anyone who moves
his bones
Fast Facts…
Publication of his Plays: There are no original
manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays. Seven
years after his death, in 1623, a collection of
his plays were published as the First Folio.
Number of Plays: 39 written, but one
manuscript has been lost, thus, 38 are typically
attributed to him. He wrote mostly comedies,
18 to be exact. Histories and tragedies are tied
at 10 plays each.
Fast Facts…
Comedies
– Big problems, cross-dressing, then everyone’s
happy
– Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Much
Ado About Nothing
Tragedies
– Hero with a flaw, everyone dies
– Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet
Fast Facts…
Romances
– There’s a trip to the countryside…fathers keep
losing their daughters
– The Tempest, Cymbaline
Histories
– Self-explanatory
– Richard III, Henry V, Julius Caesar
Fast Facts…
Total Number of Written Words:
884,647 words
Earliest Written Play:
King Henry VI, Part 1 (1589-1591)
Last Written Play:
The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613)
Longest Play: Hamlet (4,042 lines)
Shortest Play: The Comedy of Errors (1,787
lines)
Fast Facts…
Actors: All the actors were male. Young
boys played female roles. (Those kissing
scenes must have been awkward! And if
you’ve ever heard of Shakespeare’s play,
The Winter’s Tale, there were boys dressed
up as females dressed up men. Confusing?
Yes. Entertaining…YES!)
Fast Facts…
Invented Language: Shakespeare made up
about 10% of the words in his plays. Many
of the words we still used today (about 500)
are attributed to him by the Oxford English
Dictionary. Words such as: never-ending
addiction, schoolboy, gentlefolk, radiance,
lackluster, countless, useful, and day’s
work.
Julius Caesar
The play is…creative nonfiction.
– Gaius Julius Caesar really did exist (July
100BC – 15 March 44 BC, 56 years old)
– He really was assassinated by a group of people
led by Marcus Brutus
Nowadays, we’d say, “Based on the true
story…” The events are true, but the
dialogue? Shakespeare took some “creative
liberties”.
Antony & Cleopatra begins directly after the
end of Julius Caesar.
Why is he so hard to understand?
He’s a poet and he knows it.
– Iambic pentameter, omit syllables, enjambment
Order of words (Odd grammar structures)
– SVO vs. SOV or OVS or OSV
He wrote 400 years ago. In England.
– Out-dated references, slang, archaic words
He made up about 10% of the words.
Plays are meant to be performed.
– A little light on the stage directions
Why is he so hard to understand?
No special effects teams
– What you see is what you get, so they
improvised with figurative language.
First Globe Theater burned down…from a
theatrical cannon that misfired during a
performance of Henry VIII.
Order of Words
Anyone take Spanish/foreign lang.?
– Adjectives? Indirect/Direct pronouns? SOV
English: Subject Verb Object (SVO)
– I bought the hat. I bought it.
– She gave Jessica the gift. She gave it to her.
Shakespeare: Any combination
– I the hat bought. Bought it I. The hat I bought.
– She it gave. She the gift gave Jessica.
Order of Words
Star Wars – Yoda
– “‘Told you I did, reckless is he,” (Yoda, Empire
Strikes Back).
– VOS, OVS. Verb (did told) object (you)
subject (I), object (reckless) verb (is) subject
(he).
Iambic Pentameter
Iamb = iambus
– “a foot of two syllables, a short followed by a
long in quantitative meter, or an unstressed
followed by a stressed in accentual meter”
– “Hence! Home you idle creatures, get you
home”
Penta = Greek for “five”
Meter
– “Poetic measure; arrangement of words in
regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines
or verses.”
Iambic Pentameter
Thus…iambic pentameter is…
– A measure of poetry in which there are a series
of five iambs/feet per line (five sets of two
syllables, unstressed stressed)
Worksheet #1 “You Be Bill
Move the italicized words ONLY.
If such calms come after every tempest
– If after every tempest come such calms
Now confusion hath made his masterpiece
– Confusion now hath made his masterpiece
Let all the battlements fire their ordnance
– Let all the battlements their ordnance fire
Worksheet #2
1) you have madded A father and a gracious
aged man, Whose reverence even the headlugged bear would lick, Most barbarous,
most degenerate.
2) an Eygptian did give that handkerchief to
my mother.
3) The fiery Tybalt came in the instant with
his sword prepared…
Worksheet #2
4) A crutch! A crutch! Why you call for a
sword?
5) O, where is Romeo? You saw him today?
6) I did see your son walking so early
underneath the grove of sycamore that
westward rooteth from the city side.
Worksheets # 3, 4, 5
You have the remainder of the class time to
work on these worksheets. Finish them for
homework.
Questions? Just ask me!
You do not have to start reading Act I for
homework, but if you have the time, the
book, and want to, I suggest it. I’ll walk
you through most of Act I tomorrow in
class.