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William Shakespeare 1564 - 1616 William Shakespeare Born on March 31st, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Died on April 23, 1616. The cause of Shakespeare’s death remains a mystery. William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. William Shakespeare Shakespeare's Birthplace is a restored 16th-century halftimbered house situated in Henley Street, Stratford-uponAvon, Warwickshire, England, where it is believed that William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and spent his childhood years. Shakespeare’s family In November 1582, William Shakespeare married a local farmer’s daughter called Anne Hathaway. He was 18, while Anne was 26 and expecting their first child, Susanna. In 1585, twins arrived, who were named Judith and Hamnet. In the 1580s, Shakespeare said goodbye to his family in Stratford and set off to seek his fortune in London. The Elizabethan Era The Elizabethan era was the period in English history of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign (1558-1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. This "golden age” represented the peak of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and literature. Religious Conflict The 16th century was a time of bitter religious divisions. All English people were Christian, but there were two rival versions of the faith – Catholicism and Protestantism. From 1585 to 1604, Protestant England was at war with Catholic Spain, ruled by King Philip II. The war created a mood of patriotism in the country, and people wanted to see plays drawn from English history with battles on the stage. England at war • In the 1590s, Shakespeare wrote 9 plays dealing with English history, featuring kings, wars, and battles for the throne. • A central theme of the plays is the need for order. • At the time, people were worried about the war with Spain, the fact that their queen had no heir, the rumors of Catholic plots to dethrone her, and the risk of civil war. Outbreaks of a terrible disease called the plague were common in Elizabethan London. Nobody knew how the plague spread, but when there was an outbreak, it seemed sensible to avoid crowded places. As the plague became worse, the playhouses closed for just over two years (1592-1594). There was no demand for Shakespeare to write new plays, so he turned to poetry. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men In 1594, Shakespeare joined a company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. He wrote about 2 plays a year for them, and also worked as an actor. Shakespeare was one of several ‘sharers’ who invested money in the company to pay for costumes, playbooks, and the wages of actors and stage hands. In return, they took a share of the profits. Building the Globe In 1597, the theatre was forced to close. In 1587, they built a new playhouse and decided to call it the Globe. There was no direction in charge of a production. The players knew what was expected of them, and they worked out the staging together. The King’s Men King James I became the patron of Shakespeare’s company, which was renamed the King’s Men. They played before the King about ten times a year, and above all, they relied on his support and protection. To please the king, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, a tragedy with a Scottish setting. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Shakespeare’s surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of: 38 plays 154 sonnet 2 long narrative poems Several other poems His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. A Few Facts William was the third of eight children, although the two born before him had died, possibly of the Bubonic plague. The Bubonic plague (or ‘Black Death’) was spread by fleas that were carried by rats or other small rodents. It killed an estimated 75 million–200 million people in the 14th century. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survived, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. All that can be deduced about Shakespeare is that over the course of 20 years, he wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. It is important to understand that Shakespeare’s plays were never intended to be read – they were intended to be performed. Only men could act on the English stage in Shakespeare’s time, so women’s roles were performed by boys. Play going became the most popular form of entertainment for the people of London in the late 16th century. Farmers, seamstresses, soldiers, sailors, apprentices and servants stood side by side in the crowded yard. The Plays Shakespeare’s plays were divided into three genres: Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. The Comedies and Tragedies are the most popular and the most often performed of his work. The Comedies Comedy of Errors (1589) Twelfth Night (1599) Taming of the Shrew (1593) As You Like It (1599) Love’s Labour’s Lost (1594) Merry Wives of Windsor (1600) Two Gentleman of Verona (1594) All’s Well That Ends Well (1602) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595) Measure for Measure (1604 Merchant of Venice (1596) Much Ado about Nothing (1598) Winter’s Tale (1610) Tempest (1611) The Comedies "Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. Shakespearean comedies tend to include: Multiple, intertwining plots. A clever servant. Separation and re-unification. The Comedies Quiz Match the the plot summary with the play to which it belongs. 1. As You Like It A. Follows the adventures of four young lovers and a group of six amateur actors, who are controlled and manipulated by fairies. B. The beautiful Bianca has no shortage of admirers but her father insists that she will not marry until her nasty sister, Katharina, is married. C. A young woman disguises herself as a man to acquire a position in the court of her love. To her surprise, Lady Olivia falls in love with her. D. Follows its heroine as she flees her uncle's court with her cousin and the court jester, to find safety and eventually love in the Forest of Arden. 2. The Taming of the Shrew 3. A Midsummer Night’s Dream 4. Twelfth Night The Tragedies Titus Andronicus (1593) Macbeth (1605) Romeo and Juliet (1594) Antony and Cleopatra (1606) Julius Caesar (1599) Coriolanus (1607) Hamlet (1600) Timon of Athens (1607) Troilus and Cressida (1601) Othello (1604) King Lear (1605) The Tragedies We recognize tragedy in literature because we find that it corresponds to a sense of the tragic within us. Defeat, shattered hopes and, ultimately, death face us all as human beings. They are very real, but somehow we have the intuitive feeling that they are out of place. They seem to be intruders into life. Tragic literature confronts us and we become fascinated by it. The Tragedies Quiz Match the the quote with the play to which it belongs. 1. Romeo and Juliet 2. Hamlet A. "To be, or not to be: that is the question” B. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” C. "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” D. "Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!" 3. Macbeth 4. King Lear Hollywood Adaptations Shakespeare’s legacy “He was not of an age, but for all time” wrote the playwright Ben Jonson to describe his friend William Shakespeare. Great legacy is to the English language itself. We all regularly quote from Shakespeare without realizing it. Pleasing a King Queen Elizabeth I died childless on the 24 of March, 1603. 5th of April, 1603 - King James VI of Scotland was crowned King James I of England. His position as the King was important because it was the first time that England and Scotland agreed to have the same monarch. During his time as King, James learned to survive plots, rebellions and riots. He even wore specially padded clothes to protect himself. James was convinced that he had been chosen by God to be king and that anyone plotting against him must be in league with the devil. Witchcraft was seen as a real threat to society. Macbeth was probably written in early 1606 when plots against the King seemed to be everywhere. Shakespeare presents a man who is told by three witches that he will be king and is then encouraged by his wife to bring it about by killing the King. He shows what King James feared. When the murderers suffer torment of conscience and are eventually destroyed by the forces of good, the King of England would have been pleased. In focusing on Macbeth, as a figure from Scottish history, Shakespeare paid respect to his king’s Scottish background. The play is more than pleasing the King – it is about asking difficult questions, of ambition, guilt, conscience, and the nature of evil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4NJrxu5Xo Shakespeare’s Macbeth Macbeth was first performed at Hampton Court Palace before James I and his guests in 1606. The storyline, like that of most of Shakespeare's plays, was not original, and in this case was based on fact. T The story was familiar to James: he had inherited the throne of Scotland through his ancestors Banquo and Fleance, and the story of Duncan's murder was well known. The real Macbeth reigned in Scotland from 1040 to 1057. He killed his predecessor Duncan I, and was in turn killed by Duncan’s, son Malcolm III. Events such as these were not uncommon in the 'barbaric' feudal Scotland of the eleventh century. Of the fourteen kings who reigned between 943 and 1097, ten were murdered Shakespeare’s Macbeth Shakespeare never let historical fact get in the way of a good story. He changed several key aspects of the original story, either to intensify his drama or to ensure political correctness. As an example of the latter, Shakespeare's Macbeth, who commits the greatest of all crimes by murdering his king, finds he cannot live with himself and the consequences of his actions. He has rebelled against God and the order of creation; he becomes inhumane and his crime is rightly punished by his death.