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SHAKESPEARE: HIS LIFE AND TIMES
EARLY LIFE
 Born
April 23rd 1564— Died April 23rd 1616… he
was the master of irony after all
 Stratford-upon-Avon
 Parents:
John and Mary Arden Shakespeare
•
Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner
•
John—glovemaker, local politician
LOCATION OF STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
STRATFORD-ON-AVON IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON TODAY
MARRIED LIFE
• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway, who
was pregnant at the time with their first
daughter
• She was 26 and he was 18
• Had twins in 1585
• Sometime between 1585-1592, he moved
to London and began working in theatre
Conditions in London-BAD!
• Thames River
polluted with raw
sewage
• Trees used up for
fuel
• Poverty
PERSONAL
HYGIENE/DISEASE
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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
• Performed in courtyards of inns
• The Theater-first public theater1576
• Daytime/open air
• Limited set design
• Relied on music, sound,
costumes, props and great
description
THEATER CAREER
THEATRE
• Member and later part-owner of the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men, later called the King’s Men
• Globe Theater built in 1599 by L.C.M. with
Shakespeare as primary investor
• Burned down in 1613 during one of
Shakespeare’s plays
THE REBUILT GLOBE THEATER, LONDON
THE GLOBE THEATER
Clothes
• One set used all year
long, rarely washed
• Underclothing slept in,
infrequently changed
• Clothes handed down
from rich to poor
• All men
• Female parts played
by young boys
• No actual kissing or
hugging on stage
ACTORS
Groundlings
• 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
THE PLAYS

38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare
 14
comedies
 10 histories
 10 tragedies
 4 romances


Possibly wrote three others
Collaborated on several others
THE POETRY
• Two major poems; numerous others
• 154 Sonnets
SHAKESPEARE’S
LANGUAGE
• Shakespeare did NOT write in “Old English.”
• Old English is the language of Beowulf:
Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum
Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunon
Hu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!
(Hey! We have heard of the glory of the SpearDanes in the old days, the kings of tribes, how
noble princes showed great courage!)
SHAKESPEARE’S
LANGUAGE
• Shakespeare did not write in “Middle English.”
• Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the
Gawain-poet, and Malory:
We redeth oft and findeth y-write—
And this clerkes wele it wite—
Layes that ben in harping
Ben y-founde of ferli thing… (Sir Orfeo)
SHAKESPEARE’S
LANGUAGE
• Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern
English.”
• EME was not very different from
“Modern English,” except that it had some
old holdovers.
SHAKESPEARE’S
LANGUAGE
• Shakespeare coined many words we still use
today:
• Critical
• Majestic
• Dwindle
• And quite a few phrases as well:
• One fell swoop
• Flesh and blood
• Vanish into thin air
See http://www.wordorigins.org/histeng.htm
SHAKESPEARE’S
LANGUAGE
• A mix of old and very new
• Rural and urban words/images
• Understandable by the lowest
peasant and the highest noble
Elizabethan
Theatrical
Conventions
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.
 Soliloquy
 Aside
 Blood and gore
 Use of supernatural
Types of
speech
Audience
loves to be
scared.
 Use of disguises/
mistaken identity
 Last speaker—highest in
rank (in tragedies)
 Multiple murders
(in tragedies)
 Multiple marriages
(in comedies)