William Shakespeare Early Years
• Born – unknown exactly, probably around April 1564
in Stratford, England
• Parents – John and Mary Shakespeare
• Father’s Occupation – Glover
• Parents had 8 children, 5 reached adulthood
• Shakespeare’s education
– Went to Stratford Grammar School
– Taught primarily in Latin
– Left school at age 13
• Marriage
– Anne Hathaway
– Rumor has it she was pregnant
– She was 26, he 18
– Had 3 children, one died at age 11
• The Lost Years
– 1585-1592
– No one knows what he did for sure
– Some guesses are: teacher, lawyer, soldier, sailor,
preacher, and butcher
Literary Career
• 1592 – until close to 1613
– Acted and wrote plays for the “Lord Chamberlain’s
Men” and “King’s Men” in London
• Wrote around 38 plays
– Genres
• Comedy, history, tragedy
• Wrote “Romeo and Juliet” around 1595
• Used 17,677 words in all his plays and poems.
– of that number, 1,700 were first used by Shakespeare
Words Shakespeare Created
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accommodation
aerial
amazement
apostrophe
assassination
baseless
bloody
bump
changeful
countless
courtship
critic
critical
dishearten
dislocate
dwindle
eventful
exposure
fitful
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frugal
generous
gloomy
hurry
impartial
indistinguishable
lapse
laughable
lonely
majestic
misplaced
obscene
pious
premeditated
radiance
reliance
submerge
suspicious
Phrases Shakespeare Created
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all that glitters isn’t gold
break the ice
breathe one’s last breath
catch a cold
disgraceful conduct
eat out of house and home
elbow room
fair play
green-eyed monster
heart of gold
heartsick
hot-blooded
housekeeping
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it smells like heaven
it’s Greek to me
leapfrog
method in his madness
mind’s eye
naked truth
one fell swoop
pitched battle
to thine self be true
too much of a good thing
wearing one’s heart on one’s
sleeve
Later Years
• Performed his last play, “Henry VIII” in June
1613
• Went back to Stratford
• 1616 – died at the age of 52
• Left wife “second-best bed”
• Buried in Holy Trinity Church
“Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear, To
dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be
the man who spares these stones, And
cursed be he that moves my bones.”
Structure
• Octagonal
• Contained three main sections of the stage
– Heavens
• Above the stage
• Where special effects happened
– Earth
• Stage where most of the action happened
– Hell
• Under the stage
• Not a pleasant place to be!!!!
Heavens
Inner below Hut
Inner above
Galleries
Hell
Trap door Pit
Main Stage
Side balcony
Seating
• Three rows of tiered seating
• Cost between 3-5 pence including a cushion
– Only the wealthy could afford these
• The pits/penny seats
– Commoner (aka groundlings)
– People stood in the area around the stage
What was it like?
• Flags on the hut announcing type of play
– White = comedy
– Black = tragedy
– Red = history
• At 2 o’clock, the plays would start
• Audience
– Noisy
– Ate and drank then threw trash on ground or at the
actors (if they were bad)
– Bathrooms (aka a bucket) were where the groundlings
stood
Actors
• Considered thieves and liars
– because they pretended to be what they were not
• It was illegal to perform unless they were
“servants” of a nobleman
– “masterless” actors were whipped and had their
right ear burned
• Women were not allowed to act
– adolescent boys would play girl parts