William Shakespeare
1564-1616 Stratford-on-Avon - England
Who was he?
 Widely regarded as the greatest writer in
English Literature
 Poet and dramatist
 Wrote 37 plays: comedies, histories,
tragedies
 Composed about 154 sonnets and a few
poems
 Started out as an actor
Life (pg. 6-9)
 Born around April 23, 1564; 3rd of 8 children Family
lived in Stratford-on-Avon, a market town about 100
miles NW of London
 Father (John) a shopkeeper. A man of considerable
standing in Stratford. Served as Justice of the Peace
and High Bailiff (mayor)
 Attended grammar school, where he studied Latin,
grammar and literature, Rhetoric (the use of
language). No further formal education known
 Marriage to Anne Hathaway, 8 years older than he,
3 children: Susanna (1583), Judith and Hamnet
(twins, 1585)
Stratford-upon-Avon (pg. 6-9)
Later life
 1594 - became shareholder in a company of actors
called Lord Chamberlain’s Men
 1599 - Lord Chamberlain’s Co. Built Globe Theater
where most of S. Play’s were performed
 1599 - Actor for Lord Chamberlain’s Men and
principal playwright for them
 1603 – James I became king of England; acting
company renamed King’s Men
 1610 – Shakespeare retired to Stratford-on-Avon
April 2
 1616 – died at the age of 52
Works
Editions of works: First Quarto (1603),
Second Quarto (1604), Folio (1623)
Comedy (pg. 46-47)
 A Midsummer Night's
Dream
 All's Well That Ends
Well
 As You Like It
 Cymbeline
 Loves Labours Lost
 Measure for Measure
 Much Ado About
Nothing
 Pericles, Prince of Tyre
 The Comedy of Errors
 The Merchant of
Venice
 The Merry Wives of
Windsor
 The Taming of the
Shrew
 The Tempest
 Troilus and Cressida
 Twelfth Night
 Two Gentlemen of
Verona
 Winter's Tale
Tragedy (pg. 50-51)
Antony and
Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
History
Henry
Henry
Henry
Henry
Henry
IV,
IV,
V
VI,
VI,
part 1
part 2
part 1
part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VIII
King John
Richard II
Richard III
Poetry
A Lover's Complaint
Sonnets (about 154)
The Passionate Pilgrim
The Phoenix and the turtle
The Rape of Lucrece
Venus and Adonis
Why is he still so famous?
 His plays portray recognizable people in situations we
experience in our lives: love, marriage, death,
mourning, guilt, the need to make difficult
choices, separation, reunion and reconciliation
 They do so with great humanity, tolerance, and
wisdom
 The plays are constantly fresh and can be adapted
to the place and time they are performed
 Their language is wonderfully expressive and
powerful
 The plays help us to understand what it is to be
human, and see the tragic or humorous
consequences when Shakespeare’s characters
encounter these problems.
Language
 Used over 20,000 words in his works
 The average writer uses 7,500
 The English Dictionary of his time only had
500 words.
 He’s credited with creating 3,000 words in the
English Oxford Dictionary
 He was by far the most important individual
influence on the development of the modern
English
 He invented lots of words that we use in our
daily speech
Words invented by the Bard
accommodation
amazement
assassination
baseless
bloody
bump
castigate
changeful
control (noun)
countless
courtship
critic
eventful
exposure
frugal
generous
gloomy
hurry
impartial
indistinguishable
invulnerable
laughable
lonely
majestic
misplaced
monumental
obscene
pious
premeditated
radiance
reliance
road
sportive
submerge
suspicious
Elements of drama
5-part dramatic structure corresponds to a play’s
5 acts
 Exposition (introduction)
 Establishes tone, setting, main characters, main
conflict
 Fills in events previous to play
 Rising action
 Series of complications for the protagonist (main
character)
 flowing from the main conflict
Elements of drama
 Crisis or Climax
Turning point in story
Moment of choice for protagonist
Forces of conflict come together
 Falling action
Results of protagonist’s decision
Maintains suspense
 Resolution or Denouement
Conclusion of play
Unraveling of plot
May include characters’ deaths
Dramatic technique
Pun: play on words involving
 Word with more than one meaning
 Words with similar sounds
Soliloquy
 Speech of moderate to long length
 Spoken by one actor alone on stage (or not heard by
other actors)
Aside
 Direct address by actor to audience
– Not supposed to be overheard by other characters
Typical 16th century theatre
(pg. 34-35)
Building:
3 stories Levels 1 & 2,
Backstage: dressing and storage areas
Level 3, Upper Stage: could represent
balcony, walls of a castle, bridge of a ship
Resembled courtyard of an inn
The Globe Theatre
Elizabethan Theatre
The Globe Theatre
Proscenium stage
A large platform without a curtain or a
stage setting
2 ornate pillars supported canopy
 Stage roof (underpart of canopy)
called “the heavens”
elaborately painted to depict the sun,
moon, stars, planets
 Trap doors: entrances and exits of ghosts;
area under stage called Hell
 2 large doors at back: actors made entrances
and exits in full view of audience
 Inner stage: a recess with balcony area
above
 Floor: ash mixed with hazelnut shells from
snacks audience ate during performance
 Effect on performance: plays held in afternoon
 No roof
 No artificial lighting
 No scenery
Acting companies (pg. 42-43)
Developed from the medieval trade guilds
Were composed of
Only boys and men
Young boys performed female roles
Audience (pg.44-45)
2000-3000 people from all walks of life
 Well-to-do spectators sat in covered
galleries around stage
Most stood in yard around platform
stage – “groundlings”
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course un-trimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee