STUDY SHEET – SHAKESPEARE QUIZ
William Shakespeare is called the Bard, the Bard of Avon, or the Great Bard because
he was a professional poet. A bard was a professional poet in British culture. He is also
often said to be England's national poet.
Shakespeare lived in England during the flowering of intellectual activity known as the
Renaissance. The European Renaissance, which is credited as having begun in Italy,
was marked by a renewed interest in science, commerce, philosophy, and the arts.
Basic to Renaissance thinking was a new emphasis on the individual and on
freedom of choice (Humanism - a philosophical and ethical stance that
emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively,
and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over
established doctrine or faith.
The English Renaissance dated from the late 15th and early 16th centuries to the
early 17th century. Renaissance style and ideas, however, were slow in penetrating
England, and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually
regarded as the height of the English Renaissance.
The baptismal register of the Holy Trinity parish church, in Stratford-upon-Avon,
England shows an entry for April 26, 1564 for the birth of Gulielmus filius Johannes
Shakespeare. The actual date of Shakespeare's birth is not known, but, traditionally,
April 23, St George's Day, has been Shakespeare's accepted birthday.
The cause of Shakespeare's death is a mystery, but an entry in the diary of John Ward,
the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), tells us that
"Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too
hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted." It should be noted though that a
serious outbreak of typhus, known as the "new fever", in 1616 (the year Shakespeare
died), lends credibility to Ward's story. Unfortunately, Shakespeare's death at the age of
52 will almost surely remain a mystery. We do know, however, that in a world where
plague, syphilis, typhus, scurvy, tuberculosis, smallpox, malaria, dysentery and
toothaches shortened a Londoner's life expectancy to thirty-five years, Shakespeare
fared quite well, leading a relatively long and healthy life.
Shakespeare started his literary career during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. After her
death in 1603, James I took the thrown. Both monarchs supported English culture
and, consequently, artists were held in high esteem.
In 1599, Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting group of which Shakespeare was a
shareholder, built the Globe Theater on the banks of the River Thames in central
London. The Globe was a three-story wooden structure with an open-air courtyard
in the center. Actors performed on a raised platform stage within the courtyard. The
theater could hold as many as 3,000 spectators. Elizabethan theatre relied heavily
on the audience’s imagination and listening skills, unlike modern audiences that
rely more on visual representation. The royals were strong sponsors of the arts.
The general consensus is that Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays. However, no
one can know for certain because of the inexact documentation at the time the plays
were first being organized and published. Shakespeare is credited with adding over
2,000 words and phrases to the English language. For some of these see:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html and
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/phrases-sayings-shakespeare.html
Poetry is synonymous with “verse.” Prose is ordinary language.
Meter = regular rhythmic pattern in language.
iamb = is one metrical ‘foot’ consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable. e.g. A horse /, a horse /, my king/ dom for / a horse. “A” is unstressed. “Horse”
is stressed. This pattern follows through the line of verse to create 5 feet (10 syllables)
of iambs. Iambic meter most closely matches the natural rhythm of English
Blank verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter
Strategies to analyze a character:
 What they say
 What others say to them
 What they do
English Renaissance Drama: Emphasis on importance of words – lacking props,
elaborate costumes, and special effects, including lighting, the verbal aspect of drama
was hugely important. Audiences were expected to be good listeners. And they were,
since, in those days, there was no radio or TV. Modern audiences are more dependent
on visual representation. The theater also requires audiences to use their imagination
more. Shakespeare’s audiences knew the drama was a fictional representation. The
lines are blurred today. Hollywood tries to make everything so real that we enter a
virtual reality. Aristotle in his famous work Poetics described drama as “an imitation of
an action.” Life in a play is not real life, only an imitation, so there’s real life vs. stage
life.
You should know:
 Where/when Shakespeare was born
 How many plays is he credited with writing?
 His impact on the English Language (# words/phrases)
 His affiliation with Lord Chamberlain's Men
 Elizabethan England-nobility supporters of the arts
 Renaissance: Where did it start? What was it all about? Philosophy/Humanism
 Aristotle's definition of drama/His famous work where this definition is found
 Blank verse
 Iambic meter/iamb/iambic pentameter
 Meter
 Poetry vs. prose
 Focus of English Drama
 Differences between audiences now and then
 The Globe Theater - where/architecture
 Vocabulary: tragedy, tragic hero (characteristics), comic relief, allusion, foil,
soliloquy, aside, hamartia/tragic flaw, pun and innuendo .