William Shakespeare –
Immortal Poet and
Dramatist of All Times
There is no darkness
but ignorance.
(Twelfth Night)
William Shakespeare
was an English poet and
playwright, he is often
considered as the
greatest English writer
and one of the best
playwrights of the world.
He is England's national
poet. His works are the
top of the English
Renaissance, which
consist of 38 plays, 154
sonnets, 4 poems and 3
epitaphs.
Some biographical notes

Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in
Stratford-on- Avon
A Place of Birth

William
Shakespeare was
born in Stratford. It
is a very interesting
town in the central
part of England.
Around Stratford
there are beautiful
forests, green fields
and quiet a little river
– Avon.
William Shakespeare
Early years

Son of a prominent
town official

3rd child of 8 children

Received excellent
education with heavy
focus on grammar
and literature
Shakespeare’s House
Inside Shakespere’s House
Some biographical notes



Parents John and Mary Arden Shakespeare
Seven brothers and sisters
Grammar School from age 7 to 13
William’s Childhood and Youth.

His mother, Mary
Arden, was a
daughter of a
farmer. His father,
John, was a glover
who had an office in
Stratford. William
had got his
education at the
Grammar School.
His Marriage to Anne Hathaway

In 1582 at the age of 18 William married
Anne Hathaway (who was 9 years older than
himself)
Anna’s House
Shakespeare’s family
  3 children(Susannah, the eldest
and the twins – a son, Hamnet and a
daughter, Judith)
 The youngest, Hamnet died at the
age of 11
London
went to London at
21
• joined a travelling
company of
actors

• worked both as an
actor and a
writer
The Globe Theatre
no roof
“a cellar”
Places for
common
people
a round building
a stage
Galleries –
places for
the rich
Theatre in the Days of Shakespeare

The theater in the days of
Shakespeare didn’t look
like our modern theatres.
It was a high round
building without any roof
except over the stage. In
winter the theatres were
closed. As there was no
light in those days, the
plays took place in day
time, between one and
three o’clock in the
afternoon.

The actors were
often partners in the
theatre business.
Shakespeare was
one of the partners
in the theatre where
he acted and for
which he wrote his
dramas. It was the
famous Globe.
William Shakespeare’s Creative Work

W. Shakespeare knew the
stage and that helped him
to write the most wonderful
plays ever written.
Shakespeare wrote 37
plays. Among them are
tragedies such as Hamlet,
King Lear, Othello,
Macbeth, comedies such
as All’s Well that Ends
Well, the Twelfth Night,
Much Ado About Nothing,
historical dramas such as
Henry IV, Richard III.
“It is my life…”
Shakespeare’s characters
Globe Theater
Globe Theater
Located just outside of London
A white flag indicates that there is a play today.
Plays were performed. during the day.
The groundlings stood by the stage.
The wealthy sat in the upper decks.
Young men dressed up to play the female roles.
Globe Theater

Attending Shakespeare’s theater was quite
different from attending theater today, which
is thought of as very quiet and austere

In Elizabethan England it was a noisy,
popular gathering place for people of all ages
and from all walks of life
Globe Theater

Drinking and eating were permitted in the pit,
which often became very noisy

If a spectator did not like a particular
character or scene, he or she would feel free
to hiss or boo of throw anything he or she
might have on hand
Globe Theater

It is possible that Shakespeare had this in
mind when he included the phrase “with
patient ears attend” in the Prologue of Romeo
and Juliet

The rowdy atmosphere of the pit also
accounted for the exaggerated acting that
was common at the time
Globe Theater

To compensate for lines that the audience could not
hear, the actors used exaggerated gestures and
facial expressions, unlike the natural method of
acting that is used today

Nature of the crowd contributed to haste with which
the lines were spoken

Today, Shakespeare play takes almost 3 hours.
Then, a play would have taken two hours or less!
(“the two hours’ traffic of our stage”)
Globe Theater

The original theater was destroyed by a fire in
1613

It was rebuilt in 1614, closed in 1642, and
demolished in 1644

A modern reconstruction of the original
Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe
Theatre” opened in 1997
Globe Theater

Today, audiences of
this “wooden O” can
sit in the gallery or
stand as informally
as a groundling…
Globe Theater
…just as they
would have
done 400
years ago!
Literary heritage of Shakespeare
is divided into 4 periods
The first period (1590-1594) or the
period of imitation
The works of the first period:
*The poems «Venus and Adonis», «Lucretius»
*«Titus Andronicus»
three parts of «Henry VI»(1590-1592)
*«Richard III» (1592-1593)
*«Comedy of errors» (1591-1594)
*«The taming of the shrew»(1593-1594)
The second period (1595—1600). The blossoming.
The works of the second period:
«The Two gentlemen of Verona»
(1594-1595)
«Fruitless efforts of love» (15841586)
«A Midsummer night's Dream»
«The merchant of Venice»
«Much Ado about Nothing»
«Merry Wives of Windsor»
«As you like it» (1599—1600)
«Twelfth Night or What You Will»
(1600-1601)
*Lyrical sonnets
*«Romeo and Juliet» (1595—1596)
The third period (1600—1608). The peak
of creativity
The works of the third period:
*«Julius Caesar» (1599)
*«Hamlet» (1600—1601)
*«King Lear» (1605—1606)
*«Macbeth» (1606)
*«Troilus and Cressida» (1608)
*«All’s Well That Ends Well»
(1601—1608)
*«Measure for Measure» (1604)
*«Antony and Cleopatra»
(1603-1607)
*«Coriolanus» (1607—1608)
*«Timon of Athens» (1608)
*«Othello» (1604)
The fourth period (1609—1612).
The works of the fourth period:
*«Pericles, Prince of Tyre» (1607-1608)
*«Cymbeline» (1609)
*«The Winter’s Tale» (1594—1611)
*«The Tempest» (1611)
Comedies
•The Comedy of Errors.
•The Taming of the Shrew.
•All’s Well that Ends Well.
•A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
•Much Ado about Nothing.
•Twelfth Night.
Tragedies
•Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
•Othello.
•King Lear.
•Macbeth.
•Romeo and Juliet.
Historical Plays
Julius Caesar.
Antony and Cleopatra.
Richard III.
William Shakespeare
Works of Literature

His vocabulary was HUGE-somewhere
between 17,000 and 34,000 words!

The estimated vocabulary of an educated
person today is around 15,000 words
William Shakespeare
Works of Literature
He had an
amazing
influence on
our English
language
William Shakespeare
Have you heard these phrases?







I couldn’t sleep a wink.
He was dead as a doornail.
She’s a tower of strength.
They hoodwinked us.
We’d better lie low for awhile.
I am constant as the Northern Star.
It’s all Greek to me.
More words that first appeared in his
plays







Accommodation
Assassination
Dexterously
Dislocate
Obscene
Reliance
Premeditate
lonely
gloomy
fretful
suspicious
hurry
Some Shakespeare’s statements:



The beginning at the end. –
The whirling of time. –
All is well that ends well. –
Try to interpret these quotations:






Better a witty fool than a foolish wit. (Twelfth
Night)
Brevity is the soul of wit. (Hamlet)
Cowards die many times before their deaths.
(Julius Caesar)
There is no darkness but ignorance. (Twelfth
Night).
The wish is the father of the thought. (King
Henry IV)
To be or not to be? That is the question.
(Hamlet)
The end of his life

Return to Stratford
in 1610

Destruction of the
Globe Theatre in 1613
(the Great Fire of
London)

In 1616 Shakespeare
died on April, 23 (on his
birthday!)





On the stone of
Shakespeare’s
grave are the lines
written by
Shakespeare
himself.
Good friend, for
Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust
enclosed here;
Blessed be he that
spears these stones,
And cursed be he
that moves my
bones.
On his gravestone is written
epitaph:
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.
The works of Shakespeare have
absorbed all the most important
moments of the Renaissance. In
the center of Shakespeare's works
is always a happy or unhappy,
suffering, erring, committing deeds
and crimes man. With all the
differences of the individual stages
of the creative ways of
Shakespeare in all his plays, we feel
the unity of the artistic method.
Goethe said that "... the basis of
his great works is the truth and the
life."