William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Funerary Monumenet
First folio cover
Shakespeare
Early Years
• Born April 23, 1564 (date is disputed)
Shakespeare’s birth place
baptized on April 26
• Name- Sarpere,Shakespear ( 5 spellings)
• No defined grammar rules
• Father- Mayor, Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford –upon-Avon
Education
• From 6-13 Shakespeare received a classical
education centered on:
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Religion-Bible
Greek mythology
Rhetoric-how to use words
Memorization
Favorite subject was history
Move to London
• By 1592 we know Shakespeare had written
a play
– Greene in 1594 called Shakespeare an upstart
crow in a review.
– Marlowe-29 died
– 1594- the Puritans shut down the theaters
because of plague.
Shakespeare Sonnets
• 1592-1594 Shakespeare wrote for:
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Count of Southampton
Duty to royalty
Affection for a friend
Love poems to “Dark Lady”
Pain of losing the one you love
Anger-rejection by a friend
Break away form count
Henry Wriothesley- 3rd Earl of
South Hampton
Sonnet 18
• 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 some time declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest 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.
Plays
• From 1594-1611 Shakespeare wrote the
famed plays.
• He was master of :
– Histories- Julius Caesar
– Romance-Comedies- Taming of the Shrew
– Tragedies- Hamlet, MacBeth
Taming of the Shrew
Julius Caesar
Banqo-MacBeth
What made him a Genius?
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Simple themes- Universal Themes
Imaginative language- Diction, Imagery
Humor
Sensitivity- he was a master psychologist
Mater historian, tragedian, and comedian
Words Shakespeare Coined
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Cool
Assassination
Bachelorship (bachelorhood)
Eyeball
Generous
Majestic
Puppy-dog