The Bard:
William
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare:
• was born to John and Mary Shakespeare in
Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.
He was born in April of 1564, but no
documentation shows his actual birth date;
however, documents show he was baptized on
April 26th and since most children were baptized
three days after their birth, his birthday is
believed to be April 23rd.
William Shakespeare:
•Shakespeare’s father has been credited with many
positions in the community – from glove maker and
butcher to mayor.
Shakespeare’s mother came from a very wealthy family –
they owned a great deal of land and were in the timber
business.
Shakespeare was the oldest living child of eight siblings;
however, two older sisters died before he was born.
In this time period, the infant mortality rate was quite
high with 3 out of 10 infants dying in their 1st year and up
to 50% died by the age of 12. Most people did not live
much past their 40’s.
William Shakespeare:
•Shakespeare is believed to have attended school
in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Few children were able to attend school during this
time period. Only the children of the wealthy (such
as Shakespeare’s family) had that opportunity.
Schools in the Elizabethan Era were for boys only.
They ran six days a week – year round. The school
day ran from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Shakespeare married Anne
Hathaway in 1582. He was 18
years old. Anne was 26 years
old. Six months later, their first
child was born.
They named their daughter
Susanna. They later had twins,
Hamnet and Judith.
Anne’s childhood home is
now a famous landmark in
England.
In 1586, Shakespeare left his family and traveled to
London.
Some say he left his family due to an unhappy
marriage.
Some say he left Stratford-Upon-Avon because he
was caught stealing deer.
Regardless of which reason he left, he soon
met up with the Burbage brothers, Cuthbert
and Richard, and created “Lord
Chamberlain’s Men”, a traveling acting
troupe. Richard Burbage normally played the
lead roles in the plays and soon became one
of the most famous actors in Europe.
Globe Theatre:
• Lord Chamberlain’s Men built the Globe
Theatre in 1599
The Globe was built in an “octagonal” shape
with no roof in the middle.
Globe Theatre:
• Performances were held
in the afternoon as there
were no electric lights.
Theatres would raise a flag
to indicate that a play was
to be performed that day: a
black flag for a tragedy, a
red flag for a history, and a
white flag for a comedy.
Globe Theatre:
• Women were not allowed to perform on stage –
it was considered “immoral” – so young boys
played female roles.
The Rose was another theatre in London and was
in competition with Globe for patrons.
The line from Romeo and Juliet – “That which we
call a rose by any other name would smell as
sweet” was actually an insult directed at The
Rose. It had a reputation for being very stinky as
an area behind it was used as an open toilet.
Elizabethan Era:
•The Elizabethan Era is noted for it’s great
advancements in the Arts. Some of today’s best
known playwrights, poets, musicians, and artists
came from this time period.
However, it is also known for the filth and
disgusting living conditions that later lead to the
deaths of millions from The Plague.
Elizabethan Era:
•Many people wore wigs because the wig covered
their dirty, greasy hair. Many people also
developed mange, a condition when your hair falls
out.
•If a child was out
after dark, they were
in danger of having
their hair cut off to
be made into a wig.
Elizabethan Era:
•Gloves were very fashionable and most “high
society” people wore them. However, the reason
people wore the gloves was to cover their hands
which they used in the absence of toilet paper.
•It was considered a
horrible insult and a
challenge to a dual if
someone were to slap
you with their glove,
because the inside of
the glove would be
covered in feces.
Elizabethan Era:
•People would only bathe once a year – normally
in the late Spring (May or June). This is why the
tradition of the “June” bride came about. Brides
would want to be married while they were still
clean.
Brides also began carrying bunches of flowers in
order mask some of their odor. This is where the
tradition of bridal bouquets came from.
Elizabethan Era:
•Most families would share bathwater when they
took their baths. The man of the house was given
the honor of the first bath, followed by the older
boys, then the women, and lastly the baby. By the
time the baby took a bath, the water would be
filthy and dark brown. The phrase, “don’t throw
the baby out with the bathwater” comes from this
era. In today’s society, it means that you should
be careful not to throw out things that might later
prove to be useful.
Elizabethan Era:
•The portraits of
wealthy or royal people
often show the person
sitting with a small dog.
The reason people
carried these small dogs
is because the dog
would attract fleas. As
long as the people
would carry the dog, the
fleas would jump off the
person and onto the dog.
Elizabethan Era:
•Houses had thatched roofs – thick straw piled
high with no wood underneath. It was a
convenient place for small animals to get warm.
However, it would become slippery when it got
wet and the animals would fall through the roof.
This is where the saying, “raining cats and dogs”
comes from.
Elizabethan Era:
•Thatched roofs posed a real
problem in the bedroom where
bugs and other droppings
would get into the beds. That’s
why canopy beds were created.
Elizabethan
Era:
•Most homes had dirt
floors – only the
wealthy had something
other than dirt. This is
where the saying “dirt
poor” comes from.
Elizabethan Era:
•In the winter, people
would spread thresh (the
stems of straw and wheat)
on the floor to help insulate
the house. Some of the
thresh would slip outside,
so a piece of wood was
placed in the entry to keep
the thresh in – creating the
“threshold”.
Elizabethan Era:
•People cooked their meals in a big kettle over a
fire. Each day they would add more vegetables to
the previous days stew. Some of the ingredients
would end up in the pot for several days or weeks.
This is where the nursery rhyme, “Peas porridge
hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot
nine days old…” came from.
Elizabethan Era:
•The term “upper crust” gets its meaning from
bread. The hard bottom of a loaf of bread was
given to the servants. The middle of the bread was
given to the children and women, and the top,
flaky part of the bread was reserved for the master
of the house and honored guests.
Elizabethan Era:
•Most meals consisted of
vegetables and bread
because meat was too
expensive. When a family
did obtain pork, they
would hang their bacon in
the window to show off to
the neighbors – hence,
“Bringing home the
bacon”.
Elizabethan Era:
•Wealthy
families (who
could afford to
buy meat) would
often invite their
neighbors over
for supper and
conversation.
•This is where the phrase “chewing the fat”
came from.
Elizabethan Era:
•Lead was an inexpensive metal and dishes were
often made of it; however, this caused lead to leach
into many foods causing lead poisoning and
sometimes death. It happened most often with
tomatoes, so for about 400 years, tomatoes were
considered poisonous.
Elizabethan Era:
•Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The
combination would sometimes knock people out
for days. Many people were uneducated and knew
nothing about a pulse or heartbeat, so they would
think these people were dead. To make sure that
they really were dead, they would lay them out on
the table for a couple of days to see if they would
wake up – hence, the custom of holding a “wake”.
Elizabethan Era:
•Coffins were expensive and dead bodies were
worth a lot of money, so grave robbers would often
dig up graves. Due to this, it was discovered one
out of 25 coffins had scratch marks on the inside
and they realized they had been burying people
alive. So they started tying a string around the
wrist of a corpse which lead to a bell above the
ground. Someone would be hired to sit in the
graveyard all night to listen for the bells – hence,
the “graveyard” shift. If the dead person rang the
bell, they were said to have been “saved by the
bell”.
Elizabethan Era:
•Millions of people are believed to have died during
this era from the Bubonic Plague. People who had the
plague developed sores on their arms. They believed
that if they put a ring of ash around the sores they
would not spread. However, the sores would soon get
worse and fill with puss – smelling horrible. Because
nobody was sure how the plague was spread or where it
came from, persons who died of the plague were thrown
on burn piles
Elizabethan Era:
•The children’s rhyme “Ring Around the Rosy” is
about the plague.
•Ring around the
rosy – the ring of ash
Pocket full of posies
– flowers to cover
the smell
Ashes, ashes, we all
fall down – when
you fall down and
die, they burn you
up to ashes
Lewd?
•Lewd means sexually obscene or vulgar.
•Who do you think of when you hear the word LEWD??
Lewd?
•Who do you think of when you hear the word LEWD??
You should think of Shakespeare!
Lewd?
•In Romeo and Juliet, the nurse laughs as she tells
Juliet, “Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast
more wit!”
•The nurse thinks this is
funny because she is
essentially telling Juliet
that when she gets older,
she will learn that she will
gain more admiration from
men if she “is on her back”
more.
Lewd?
•In the play Othello,
Shakespeare refers to
the “beast with two
backs”. He is talking
about two people
having sex.
Lewd?
•In the play Taming of the
Shrew, Curtis yells at
Grumio, “Away you three
inch fool!”
Curtis is actually insulting
the size of Grumio’s penis
in this line.
Grumio replies to Curtis
that it is at least as long as
his foot!
William Shakespeare
•Shakespeare not only wrote the plays for his
acting troupe, he also acted in them and directed
them.
Many of the lines in Shakespeare’s plays rhyme.
This was not done to make the words sound
better; it was done to make it easier for the actors
to remember their lines.
King James became such a fan of Shakespeare’s
troupe that he began funding their plays. At this
time, the group changed their name from Lord
Chamberlain’s Men to The King’s Men.
William Shakespeare
•Shakespeare is credited
with 38 plays, 154 sonnets,
and at least 2 “epic” (long)
poems.
He died on April 23rd, 1616
on his 52nd birthday.
He was buried in the Holy
Trinity Church in
Stratford-Upon-Avon.
William Shakespeare
•In his will, Shakespeare left most
of his property to his oldest child,
Susanna; not to his wife.
Many historians found it amusing
that the only thing he left his wife
was his “second-best bed”.
However, the second best bed
would have been their marriage
bed. The best bed was always
reserved for the guests.
William Shakespeare
•Shakespeare had a curse written
on his tombstone threatening
anyone who dared to move his
body from it’s final resting place.
It reads:
Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.
William
Shakespeare