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Shakespeare: His Life and Times
Early Life
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Born 1564—died 1616
Born and raised Stratford-upon-Avon
Parents: John and Mary Arden
Shakespeare
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Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner
John—glove maker, local politician
Location of Stratford-upon-Avon
Shakespeare’s Birthplace
Education
• Probably attended King’s New School in
Stratford
• Educated in:
• Rhetoric
• Logic
• History
• Latin
Married Life
• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway, who
was pregnant at the time with their first
daughter
• Had twins in 1585
• Sometime between 1585-1592, he moved
to London and began working in theatre.
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
Theatre Career
• 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
The Plays
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38 plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare
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14 comedies
10 histories
10 tragedies
4 romances
Possibly wrote three others
Collaborated on several others
The Poetry
• 154 Sonnets
• Numerous other poems
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,”
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
 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)
Later Years
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In 1597 he bought the second largest house
in Stratford.
Shakespeare retired to Stratford around
1610.
Died in 1616, buried in Trinity Church, where
he had been baptized 52 years earlier.
Plays were owned by Theatre Company.
Folios
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The first folio was published in1623 by two of
his friends.
Neoclassical writers of late 1600s-1700 didn’t
much care for his plays.
Became popular again in the 1800s.
Nickname is “The Bard”- old term for writer
“All the world 's a stage,
And all the men and women
merely players.” W.S.
So…..
Let’s dramatize
Shakespeare!!!