The Bard of Avon
What words come to your mind when you think of
William Shakespeare? What do you know of him?
What do you think of his works? Have you read any?
Do you like them? Do you find them extremely
boring or extremely hard to read?
Write a few sentences about what comes to mind
when you think of Shakespeare.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXhbBl4kzbI
 Life: April 23, 1564-April 23, 1616
 Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon
 Worked in London as actor, playwright,
shareholder
 Wrote 38 plays and 150 Sonnets
 More literary criticism written about
Shakespeare than any other author
 Coined over 1700 words in the English
language, including: eyeball, generous,
critic, exposure, hint, pedant,
moonbeam, tranquil, gnarled, lackluster,
impede, circumstantial, addiction,
bandit, bet…
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMkuUADWW2
A
 Contribution to language: figures of speech
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It’s Greek to me
Vanished into thin air
I won’t budge an inch
Playing fast and loose
Tongue-tied
Hoodwinked
In a pickle
Slept not one wink
The long and short of it
I suspect foul play
It’s all one to me
 The works themselves
 Shakespeare’s plays are still commonly
performed and filmed to this day, over 400
years after he wrote them.
 Speak to the human experience: comedy,
tragedy, love, family, contemplation, art,
theater, suffering, war, nature, revenge
 Even the stories have stayed with us;
modern adaptations
 10 Things I Hate About You- The Taming
of the Shrew
 The Lion King- Hamlet
 West Side Story- Romeo and Juliet
 She’s the Man- Twelfth Night
 Shakespeare, perhaps more than any other author,
has influenced western culture in the areas of
literature, language, and story.
 It’s difficult language; give it a chance.
 It’s not Old English or Middle English: It’s
old MODERN English. It’s easier to understand
when you hear it- try reading it out loud.
 "He was not of an age, but for all time!”
--Ben Jonson
 Often uses inverted word order
 Normally: I ate the sandwich (Subject, verb,
object)
I (subject) ate (verb) the sandwich
(object)
 Shakespeare often inverts it.
 I (subject) the sandwich (object) ate (verb).
 Uses some words that mean something different
now; some unknown words. Look at handout.
What would this look like in common
English?
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree”
Kubla Khan decreed a stately
pleasure dome in Xanadu.
Try this one on your own:
“When he the ambitious Norway
combated.”
When he combated the
ambitious Norway.
Hamlet, thou hast thy father
much offended.”
Hamlet, thou hast offended thy
father.
Or
Hamlet, you have offended your
father.
 Write three sentences:
 One sentence should use one Shakespearean
word
 One sentence should use two Shakespearean
words
 One sentence should use three Shakespearean
words
 Write one more sentence:
 Using at least one Shakespearean word
and inverted word order.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3PIhGgtWTs
 In the beautiful city of Verona, where our
story takes place,
 a long-standing hatred between two families
erupts into new violence,
 and citizens stain their hands with the
blood of their fellow citizens.
 Two unlucky children of these enemy
families become lovers and commit suicide.
 Their unfortunate deaths put an end to their
parents' feud.
 For the next two hours, we will watch the
story of their doomed love and their parents'
anger, which nothing but the children’s
deaths could stop.
 If you listen to us patiently, we’ll make up for
everything we’ve left out in this prologue
onstage.
 A research paper over a Greek god or
goddess
 Three sources
 What websites are
acceptable/unacceptable?
 What is plagiarism? How do you avoid it?
 .com- Commercial. Most unreliable. Try not to use
these. If you do, make sure it’s credible.
 .org: Organization. Often more credible than .com,
but the information could be biased.
 .net: Similar to .com.
 .gov- Government. Usually credible.
 .edu- An educational site. Usually credible.
 Let’s compare these two sites about Queen Elizabeth:
 Site one
 Site two
 Typed, double-spaced
 12 point font; Times New Roman.
 Leave only one space after periods or other
punctuation marks
 Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on
all sides (default in Google Docs)
 Indent the first line of each paragraph.
 Create a header that numbers all pages
consecutively in the upper right-hand
corner.
 Title page
 Last Name, First Name. “Title of Work.” Title of
Website. Page numbers (if available). Medium of
publication (e.g. “Web.”). Date you accessed the
material.
 Alphabetical by author last names
 Use easybib.com to cite your sources.
 Use owl.english.purdue.edu for MLA formatting
Reichardt, Mary R. Exploring Catholic
Literature: A Companion and Resource Guide.
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Print.