Download Slide 1 - English 10

William
Shakespeare1564-1616
• April 1564, the early part of Queen
Elizabeth’s reign, William
Shakespeare was born in Stratfordon-Avon.
• Oldest son of John Shakespeare
and Mary Arden
• At eighteen, William Shakespeare
married Anne Hathaway and had
three children.
• Soon after his children were born
he left Stratford for London; at this
point he was firmly established as
an actor and playwright.
• Shakespeare became a full sharer in
the profits known as Lord
Chamberlain’s Company.
By the time he was 36, he already
had Romeo and Juliet, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, and As
You Like It in his credentials.
In 1599 Lord Chamberlain’s men
moved into a theatre, The Globe
Theatre.
• The Tragedy of Julius Caesar was one
of the first plays performed there.
• When Queen Elizabeth died in 1603,
Shakespeare’s company received the
enthusiastic patronage of her successor,
King James I.
• Thereafter, Lord Chamberlain’s men
became the King’s Men.
• In his mid-forties, Shakespeare
retired from the stage and returned
to his home in Stratford-on Avon.
He died in Stratford on April 23,
1616.
• Shakespeare lived near the end of the
historical period called the Renaissance,
which lasted from 1350-1600.
• During the Renaissance, Europeans made
their first great expeditions to the New
World, technology advanced, the arts
flourished, and the great classical
civilizations of Greece and Rome were
rediscovered.
• During the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
England developed into one of the
great powers of the world. However,
most Englishmen had little reliable
information about life beyond their
own land.
• Julius Caesar has many details of
Elizabethan life mixed with Roman
history.
• Anachronism, literally meaning out-oftime, can be found in modern plays and
movies. Shakespeare’s Romans
mention striking clocks, nightcaps,
chimneys, hats, and doublets (heavy
Elizabethan jackets). None of these
existed in ancient Rome.
• The Globe Theatre opened only twenty-three years
after the first permanent theatre had been built in
England.
• Before that plays had been performed in courtyards
of inns and wagons on the street.
• The spectators paid one penny to stand in the yard
around the stage, two pennies to sit in the second
or third floor galleries that surround the yard, or
three pennies to sit in the first floor galleries.
Shakespeare’s Theatre
• Those who paid the least and stood in
the yard were called groundlings-the
noisiest and perhaps most vocally
critical members of the audience.
• The stage of the Globe had no front
curtain and no artificial light;
performances took place during the
day.
• To make up for the lack of scenery,
Elizabethan costumes were lavish and
expensive. Having costumes appropriate to
the historical period of the play is also a
modern idea. For example, Shakespeare’s
Caesar wore an Elizabethan doublet, not a
Roman Toga.
• The actor playing Caesar probably had a
pig’s bladder filled with blood hidden in his
costume.
• The general life of a play was ten
performances, although popular plays were
generally acted more often.
• In a given season an actor may have to
memorize half a dozen or more parts.
• About fifteen men played all the roles in
Julius Caesar with the woman’s parts taken
by boy apprentices.
• Since the Puritans of Elizabethan England
considered the theatre sinful, an acting
company often had to seek the legal protection
of a noble patron.
• Shakespeare’s company was protected by Lord
Chamberlain at first, and later by King James I.
• Because we have seen movies all our lives, we
understand that fade out indicates the passage
of time. These agreements between the artist
and audience are called conventions.
• One of these conventions involves the use of
verse; the characters express themselves in
poetry in Julius Caesar.
• When a character speaks alone on the stage,
we call the speech a soliloquy.
• Sometimes the character will make a
remark which the audience is meant to
hear, but no one onstage is meant to.
These remarks are called asides, they are
used often for an ironic effect, informing
the audience of something that another
character is ignorant of.