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Mrs. Arresto: Intro to Shakespeare
Date__________________
Literature Section #2
Table of Contents
I. Elizabethan England
II. Shakespeare’s Life 1564-1616
III. Shakespeare’s Stage
IV. Shakespeare’s Influence
Elizabethan England
Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603. During her
forty-five year reign, England gained political power, national pride, and
many cultural achievements. Because Elizabeth was so influential in
leading this English renaissance, the last half of the sixteenth century in
England is known as the Elizabethan Period. The Elizabethan period spanned most
of William Shakespeare’s life.
Elizabeth came to the throne after the deaths of her half brother Edward and
her half sister Mary, whose rule had left England in a state of political and religious
turmoil. The intelligent and politically shrewd Elizabeth worked with Parliament to
ease the divisions within the country. By remaining single, she sought to avoid the
political entanglements that marriage to a foreigner could bring. She encouraged
exploration, which led to Englishman Sir Francis Drake’s successful voyage around
the world from 1577 to 1580. Also, during Elizabeth’s rule, England became a
world power with the triumphant defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. For the
next three centuries, England would dominate word trade and colonization.
Before Elizabeth came to power, England had looked to the European
continent for guidance in literature, fashion, and drama. Latin was the language
taught in European schools and used for writing important works of literature and
legal documents. Elizabeth spurred a cultural awakening by encouraging and
patronizing the arts. Her support of the arts encouraged England’s poets,
musicians, and playwrights. Growing national pride made it acceptable for them to
produce their works in English, making literature more accessible to the common
people.
Despite Elizabeth’s popularity, her reign was sometimes challenged.
Elizabeth believed in the divine right of kings, which asserts that God gives a
monarch the right to rule. She also insisted that all of her subjects follow the
doctrine of passive obedience. This doctrine stated that since God had appointed
the monarch, any act of rebellion was an act of disobedience against God’s will.
Threats to the monarchy were dealt with harshly. Elizabeth even reluctantly
executed her own cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, for treason.
1. Why do we have Queen Elizabeth to thank for the beautiful imagery, memorable
speeches, and delightful puns of Shakespeare’s poetry and plays?
2. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth murders King Duncan. Macbeth is then
haunted by guilt and is eventually killed because of what he did. Why would Queen
Elizabeth have viewed this as a just punishment?
3. What three words do you think best describe Queen Elizabeth I? Why?
Shakespeare’s Life: 1564 - 1616
Young Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in England in the small town
of Stratford-upon-Avon. He was the oldest son of Mary and John
Shakespeare. William’s mother was from a prominent family. His father was a
glove maker who at one time was the high bailiff, or mayor, of Stratford. Records of
Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church show that William was baptized there on April 26,
and since infants were usually baptized three days after birth, April 23 is recognized
as his birthday.
Scholars believe William Shakespeare attended the Stratford grammar school.
Elizabethan grammar schools taught logic, rhetoric, composition, and public
speaking – all in Latin. Shakespeare showed his knowledge of the Latin classics in
the allusions he made to these works in his plays. It’s likely that Shakespeare was
also influenced by the countryside around Stratford. His poetry and plays abound
with images from nature, farming, hunting, and country folklore.
A marriage license was issued in 1582 to William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway,
the daughter of a well-to-do farmer. Their daughter Susanna was born in 1583, and
their twins, Hamnet and Judith were born in 1585.
There are no records of Shakespeare’s life from 1585 to 1592. Biographers call this
period of time “the lost years.” Some people speculate that during these years
Shakespeare worked for a while at his father’s trade. One seventeenth-century
biographer said that during this time Shakespeare was a butcher who made lofty
speeches before butchering a calf. Others have said he was a sailor, a soldier, a
lawyer, a clerk, and a teacher. A common story is that he left Stratford to avoid
prosecution for poaching deer. One convincing theory is that Shakespeare joined a
traveling theater company that visited Stratford in 1587. His exact activities during
this time remain a mystery.
Shakespeare as an Adult
In 1592, a bitter London playwright wrote a pamphlet which described Shakespeare
as “an upstart Crow.” This reveals that Shakespeare had become well-known in the
London theatre by that time and was apparently successful enough to earn the
jealousy of his rivals. However, Shakespeare’s rising theatrical career stalled when
repeated outbreaks of plague forced London to close its theaters from 1592 to 1594.
During this time, Shakespeare became a poet, an occupation which the
Elizabethans considered much more noble than playwright. He wrote poetry under
the patronage of the Earl of Southampton. It’s likely that Shakespeare composed
many of his sonnets during this period.
When the theaters reopened, Shakespeare prospered as a principal actor,
playwright, and manager of the popular Lord Chamberlain’s Men acting company.
The years 1595 to 1600 were prolific for Shakespeare. Works created during this
time include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice,
Henry IV, and Julius Caesar. Shakespeare’s financial success allowed him to
purchase additional properties for his family in Stratford as well as to become part
owner of the Globe Theatre, London’s most prestigious public playhouse. Sadly,
during this time of artistic and financial success, Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet,
died at age eleven.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, Shakespeare’s acting company became
the King’s Men, under the patronage of King James I. From around 1601 to 1608,
Shakespeare wrote some of his greatest tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Antony
and Cleopatra, and Macbeth.
Sometime around 1612, Shakespeare returned to live with his family in Stratford,
where he was a respected member of the local gentry. He died on April 23, 1616,
and was buried in Holy Trinity Church.
4. According to the passage, what two influences from Shakespeare’s childhood are
evident in his work?
5. Why did the name of Shakespeare’s acting company change from Lord
Chamberlain’s Men to The King’s Men?
6. What real-life events most likely influenced Shakespeare to write some of his
greatest tragedies (from around 1601-1608)?
Shakespeare’s Stage
James Burbage built the first successful public theater in England
in 1576. He called his playhouse The Theatre. Years later, in
1599, Burbage’s sons used the timber from the soon-to-bedemolished Theatre to build the Globe Theatre across the Thames
River in Southwark, a suburb of London.
Shakespeare was a shareholder in the Globe Theatre and wrote many of his greatest
plays to be performed on its stage. Because Puritan politicians and clergymen of
Shakespeare’s day considered plays immoral, playhouses were banned in the city of
London. London theatergoers had to take wherryboats (ferries) across the Thames
to get to the theaters of Southwark. Once in the Southwark theater district, patrons
would choose from a variety of entertainment options, including cockfights,
bearbaiting, and performances at nine theaters.
The Globe Theatre was an open-air building with so many sides it appeared to be
circular. It held nearly three thousand patrons. Since laws prohibited theater
managers from advertising, they announced their plays by sounding trumpets and
raising flag over the theater. A black flag indicated that a tragedy was being
performed; a white flag indicated that a comedy was being performed; and a red flag
meant the show was a history play. Plays were staged between two and five o’clock
in the afternoon, when the sunlight would not be too bright and darkness had not
yet fallen.
Patrons were charged according to the location from which they viewed the
performance. The lords and gentry paid the highest prices and sat in exclusive,
cushioned seats above the stage. The cheapest admission allowed the groundlings –
servants, unskilled laborers, and the unemployed – to stand on the ground around
the stage. Refreshments included beer, water, fruit, and nuts.
Elizabethans liked variety in their plays and were particularly impressed by
spectacular stage effects. In 1613, when a prop cannon was fired during the first
performance of Henry VIII, the Globe caught fire and burned to the ground.
No Females Allowed!
Shakespeare’s actors were multitalented men and boys who faced many challenges.
The senior actors, called fellows, performed major roles. Since actors usually
rehearsed little more than a week for a role, a leading man might have to memorize
eight hundred lined per day. Because Elizabethan audiences demanded variety, he
might learn and remember over seventy roles in only three years. Hired men were
used for minor roles such as courtiers, citizens, or soldiers. They also worked as
stage keepers or musicians. England did not allow women to perform on stage;
therefore, the roles of women and girls were played by young boys between the ages
of sic and eighteen. Since there were seldom more than seven boys in the company
at one time, there are few major female roles in Shakespeare’s plays.
Actors dressed in extravagant, layered costumes of gold, lace, silk, and velvet.
Scenery and props were minimal. The actors established the setting through
dialogue and the use of different levels of the stage. For example, trap doors in the
lowest level of the stage allowed ghosts and devils to suddenly appear and
disappear. Above the main stage, a third level balcony was sometimes used to
represent a mountain. The third stage level of some theaters also held musicians
who provided a variety of sound effects. Because Elizabethans loved special effects,
a fourth level of the stage contained a series of pulleys that might whisk an actor off
the stage or send down angels or thunderbolts.
Since they had no directors or producers, the actors were responsible for the entire
production of a play. They attempted to please a diverse audience ranging from
aristocrats to groundlings while performing for hours with no intermissions or
pauses between acts. In return for their efforts they might be cheered and
applauded or pelted with rotten vegetables.
7. What color flag would be hung outside of the theater for a performance of Romeo
and Juliet?
8. Using details from the above passage, summarize what it would be like to see a
Shakespearean play in the Globe Theatre below:
Interior of the Globe Theatre
Shakespeare’s Influence
The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented nearly
3,000 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into
adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and
suffixes, and devising wholly original words. Below is a list of a few of the
words - and even names - Shakespeare coined or made popular:
Alligator
Auspicious
Bedroom
Critical
Dauntless
Elbow
Equivocal
Eyeball
Eyesore
Frugal
Gloomy
Gnarled
Hoodwinked
Impede
Jaded
Laughingstock
Leapfrog
Lonely
Luggage
Majestic
Manager
Mimic
Obscene
Outbreak
Petition
Puke
Reinforcement
Rumination
Torture
Worthless
Zany
Elbow room
Full circle
Good riddance
Heart of gold
Green-eyed monster
Adriana
Imogen
Jessica
Miranda
Olivia
For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be
considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés. All of them
originated with or were popularized by Shakespeare:
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Send him packing (Henry IV)
There's method in my madness (Hamlet)
Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)
Vanish into thin air (Othello)
A laughing stock (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
A sorry sight (Macbeth)
As dead as a doornail (Henry VI)
Eaten out of house and home (Henry V, Part 2)
Fair play (The Tempest)
I will wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)
In a pickle (The Tempest)
In stitches (Twelfth Night)
In the twinkling of an eye (The Merchant Of Venice)
Mum's the word (Henry VI, Part 2)
Neither here nor there (Othello)
All that glitters is not gold (The Merchant of Venice)
Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)
Brevity is the soul of wit (Hamlet)
Come what come may (Macbeth)
Forever and a day (As You Like It)
Kill with kindness (Taming of the Shrew)
Many authors have used phrases from Shakespeare's works as titles for their
own novels. Here is a list of just a few:
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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (The Tempest, 5.1)
The Dogs of War by Robert Stone (Julius Caesar 3.1)
The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck (Richard III, 1.1)
The Undiscovered Country by Auther Schnitzer (Hamlet, 3.1)
Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (Macbeth, 4.1)
Bell, Book, and Candle by John van Druten (King John, 3.3)
There have been dozens of movies and adaptations loosely based on
Shakespeare's work, including:
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The Boys from Syracuse (1940) - The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Joe Macbeth (1953) - Macbeth
Kiss Me Kate (1953); 10 Things I Hate About You (1998)- The Taming of the
Shrew
Forbidden Planet (1956) - The Tempest
Throne of Blood (1957) - Macbeth
West Side Story (1961) - Romeo and Juliet
Chimes at Midnight (1967) - various plays
Ran (1985) - King Lear
My Own Private Idaho (1991) - Henry IV
The Lion King (1994) - Hamlet
A Thousand Acres (1997) - King Lear
Scotland, Pa. (2001) - Macbeth
O (2001) - Othello
She’s the Man (2006) –Twelfth Night