Elizabethan England
Elizabeth (1533-1603)
• Became queen
1558
• Creatively handled
problems
Acceptance Problems
• Ascension confusion/dispute
– Legitimacy
• Personal image (turned
liabilities to assets)
– Young (25)
– Out of power stream during Mary
Tudor's reign
– Female
– Virgin
• Coronation
• Visits to the Lords
– "Good Queen Bess"
Money Problems
• Lords support
Elizabeth's visits
• Stopped the wars
• Promoted industry
and trade
• Privateers
Religious Problems
• Protestant versus Catholic division
• Reaction to undo all of Mary's acts
– Parliament dissolved ties to Catholicism
• Puritan zealousness
French Problems
• England at war
with France
– Instigated by
Mary Tudor
– Elizabeth didn't
worry about pride
issue
• Complication:
Mary, Queen of
Scots married to
French king
Scottish Problems
• Independent (since 1314)
and resentful Scotland
• Mary Queen of Scots
– John Knox’s religious
movement
– Husband, French king, dies
and she returns to Scotland
– Not well liked in Scotland
(exiled Knox and others)
– Married Darnley and had a
son and then Darnley killed
– Mary forced to abdicate
(refuge in England)
• James VI of Scotland
Spanish Problems
• Rivalry with
England
• Philip II
interference
• Privateers
• Battle with
Spanish Armada
(1588)
English Problems
• Vision for the
country
– Merchants
– Seafarers
• Promotion of the
Golden Age
– Prosperity and
leisure
– Arts
• Language
• Drama
Shakespeare (1564-1616)
• Born in Stratfordon-Avon
• Married, 2
daughters
• Moved to London
• The Chamberlain's
Men
Shakespeare’s Major Plays
1588-93
1588-92
1592-93
1592-94
1593-94
1593-94
-
The Comedy of Errors
Henry VI (three parts)
Richard III
Titus Andronicus
The Taming of the Shrew
The Two Gentlemen of
Verona
1593-94 - "The Rape of Lucrece"
1593-1600 - "Sonnets"
1588-95 - Love's Labor's Lost
1594-96 - Romeo and Juliet
1595 - Richard II
1594-96 - A Midsummer Night's
Dream
1590-97 - King John
1592 - "Venus and Adonis"
1596-97 - The Merchant of Venice
1597 - Henry IV (Part I)
1597-98 - Henry IV (Part II)
1598-1600 - Much Ado About
Nothing
1598-99 - Henry V
1599 - Julius Caesar
1599-1600 - As You Like It
1600-02 - Twelfth Night
1600-O1 - Hamlet
1597-1601 - The Merry Wives of
Windsor
1600-O1 - "The Phoenix and the
Turtle"
1601-02 - Troilus and Cressida
1602-04 - All's Well That Ends Well
1603-04 - Othello
1604 - Measure for Measure
1604-09 - Timon of Athens
1605-06 - King Lear
1605-06 - Macbeth
1606-07 - Antony and Cleopatra
1607-09 - Coriolanus
1608-09 - Pericles
1609-1O - Cymbeline
161O-1I - The Winter's Tale
161I - The Tempest
1612-13 - Henry VIII
1613 - The Two Noble Kinsmen
Globe Playhouse, London
Shakespeare
• Wrote 37 plays
between 1588 and
1613
– About 1.5 per year
• Directed and starred
in the plays
• Wrote 154 sonnets
New Words
• Solidified the English language
– Dante did the same for Italian
– Luther and Goethe did the same for German
• Used nouns as verbs
• Over 2000 new words
–
–
–
–
critical, aggravate, assassination
monumental, castigate, countless
Obscene, forefathers, frugal, hurry
Majestic, homicide, summit, reliance
• Coined Phrases
"Shakespeare had a huge vocabulary.
In the collected editions of his works-the first folio that was published
seven years after his death--there are
27,000 different, individual words. In
the King James translation of the
Bible, which was published twelve
years earlier, there are 7,000 words."
--Excerpt from Professor Peter Saccio's
course "Shakespeare: The Word and The
Action"
“If you cannot understand my argument, and declare
‘It’s Greek to me,’ you are quoting Shakespeare; if
you claim to be more sinned against than sinning,
you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad
days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more
in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is farther to the
thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin
air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever
refused to budge an inch or suffered from greeneyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if
you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength,
hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your
brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair
play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced
attendance (on your lord and master), laughed
yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort
or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better
days or lived in a fool’s paradise – why, be that as it
may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone
conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it)
quoting Shakespeare;…
…if you think it is early days and clear out bag and
baggage, if you think it is high time and that that
is the long and short of it, if you believe that the
game is up and that truth will out even if it
involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till
the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if
you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell
swoop) without rhyme or reason, then – to give
the devil his due – if the truth were known (for
surely you have a tongue in your head), you are
quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good
riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was
dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore,
a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stonyhearted villain, bloody-minded or blinking idiot,
then – by Jove! it is all one to me, for you are
quoting Shakespeare.”
– Bernard Levin in The History of English by
McCrum, et al
Hamlet
• Reality versus
Perception
– Ghost
– Claudius and
mousetrap
– His own self
(philosophy
major)
Hamlet
• Motivations for
action
– Obedience
– Revenge
– Duty
• What is a proper
motivation?
– Compare Hamlet
versus Nephi
Hamlet
• Death
“Death” in
Hamlet
"'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature,
Hamlet, to give these mourning duties to
your father: But, you must know, your
father lost a father; That father lost his;
...'tis unmanly grief: it shows a will most
incorrect to heaven; a heart unfortified, a
mind impatient an understanding simple and
unschooled: for what we know must be and
is common as any the most vulgar thing to
sense...Fie! 'Tis a fault to heaven, a fault
against the dead, a fault to nature..."
– Claudius in Hamlet
“Death” in Hamlet
"To be; or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis
nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea
of troubles, and by opposing end them? To die, to
sleep, no more; and by a sleep to say we end the
heartache, and the thousand shocks that flesh is
heir to, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
To die; to sleep; to sleep! Perchance to dream; ay,
there's the rub; for in that sleep of death what
dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this
mortal coil, must give us pause...
– Hamlet
Hamlet
• Death
• Nature of mankind
“Nature of Mankind”
in Hamlet
"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in
reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and
moving, how express and admirable! In
action, how like an angel! In apprehension,
how like a god! The beauty of the world! The
paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is
this quintessence of dust?"
– Hamlet
“Nature of Mankind”
in Hamlet
"Use every man after his desert, and
who should scape whipping? Use
them after your own honour and
dignity: the less they deserve, the
more merit is in your bounty."
– Hamlet
“Nature of mankind”
in Hamlet
"What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be
but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more... Now, whether
it be beastial oblivion, or some craven scruple of thinking
too precisely on the event, a thought which, quartered,
hath but one part wisdom and ever three parts coward, I
do not know. Why yet I live to say, 'This thing's to do;'
sith [since] I have cause, and will, and strength, and
means, to do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me...
How stand I then, that have a father killed, a mother
stained, excitements of my reason and my blood, and let
all sleep while to my shame I see the imminent death of
twenty thousand men that for a fantasy and trick of fame
go to their graves like beds... O from this time forth my
thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth."
– Hamlet
Hamlet
• Death
• Nature of mankind
• Personal
responsibility
"Personal Responsibility"
in Hamlet
"Give me your pardon, sir: I have
done you wrong; But pardon't as
you are a gentleman... Let my
disclaiming from a purposed evil
free me so far in your most
generous thoughts, that I have
shot mine arrow o'er the house,
and hurt my brother."
– Hamlet
Character
Development in
Hamlet
"How does Shakespeare create the roundness of
character? By throwing light on new aspects of the
person in successive relations. Polonius as a
courtier is obsequious, as a royal adviser
overconfident, as a father to his daughter callously
blind, as a father to his son, endearingly wise. The
grand result of this method, this multi-dimensional
mapping, is that since Montaigne and
Shakespeare, plays, novels, and biographies have
filled the western mind with a galaxy of characters
whom we know better than ourselves and our
neighbors.“
– Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence,
Perennial, 2000, p141.
Personal Responsibility
"Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any
unproportioned thought his act. Be thou
familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends
thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple
them to thy soul with hoops of steel; but do not
dull thy palm with entertainment of each newhatched, unfledged comrade. Beware of
entrance to a quarrel: but, being in, bear 't that
the opposed may beware of thee. Give every
man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each
man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not
expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy: for the
apparel oft proclaims the man;... neither a
borrower or a lender be: for loan oft loses both
itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge
of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self
be true, and it must follow, as the night the day,
thou canst not then be false to any man.“
– Polonius in Hamlet
Ophelia Syndrome
Ophelia Syndrome
• The situation:
– Ophelia was listening to advice from three
conflicting sources:
• Hamlet (her sweetheart)
• Laertes (her brother)
• Polonius (her father)
• The problem:
– The advice she received was conflicting
• She decided to trust her father
Ophelia Syndrome
Polonius] asked if she
[Ophelia] believed
Hamlet's affections were
genuine, to which Ophelia
respondd, “I do not know
my Lord, what should I
think.” Polonius
answered, “I'll teach you.
Think yourself a baby.”
Ophelia Syndrome
• What happens?
– Ophelia obeys her father and
betrays Hamlet
– Hamlet breaks off their
relationship
– Hamlet mistakenly kills her
father
– Hamlet leaves for England
– Ophelia goes crazy and commits
suicide
Ophelia Syndrome
The Ophelia Syndrome manifests itself in the
university. The Ophelia writes copious notes in
every class and memorizes them for
examinations...The Ophelia wants to be a parrot,
because it feels safe.... But eventually every
discipline enters into the unknown, the
uncertain, the theoretical, the hypothetical,
where teachers can no longer tell students with
certainty what they should think...."
– Thomas G. Plummer (BYU Professor in
German/Slavic Languages)
Ophelia Syndrome
• Teachers also become accustomed to
their role as Polonius
– They focus on telling students how to think in
a particular situation
– They give exam questions and other
assignments that require memorized answers
or are solutions to problems that have exact
solutions
Ophelia Syndrome
Steps for overcoming the syndrome (for students):
1. Seek out and learn from great teachers,
regardless of what they teach.
2. Dare to know and trust yourself.
3. Learn to live with uncertainty.
4. Practice dialectical [looking for alternates]
thinking.
5. Foster idle thinking.
6. Plan to step out of bounds [in thinking patterns].
– Thomas Plummer (BYU)
In other words, be creative!!
“No one can make you feel
inferior without your
consent.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt (quoted in Charles “Chic”
Thompson, What a Great Idea, 1992, 29)
Othello
• Honorable Man
Destroyed by a
Character Flaw and
by an evil
subordinate
• Ultimate Tragedy
Other works by Shakespeare
•
•
•
•
•
Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
Henry V
Julius Caesar
Taming of the
Shrew
• Sonnets
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo.
[To Juliet.] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this,-My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet.
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
Romeo.
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
Juliet.
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. …
Romeo.
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
Juliet.
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
Romeo.
Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purg'd.
[Kissing her.]
Juliet.
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
Romeo.
Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urg'd!
Give me my sin again.
Juliet.
You kiss by the book.
Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
I, all alone, beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts, myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth sings hymns at Heaven’s gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Nor bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Shakespeare’s Environment
and Motivation
• Earning a Living (Profit)
• Love of the Language/Drama
• Duty to Friends
King James Version of the
Bible
• Helped in defining
English language
• Wycliffe version
(1378)
• Tyndale version
(1526)
• King James version
– Translation method
Tyndale's Contributions
Phrases:
• The powers that be
• My brother's keeper
• The salt of the earth
• A law unto themselves
Words invented:
• Jehovah
• Passover
• Atonement
• Scapegoat
[extracted] The edition of the English New
Testament published at Worms in 1526 [by
Tyndale] must be regarded as a landmark in
the history of the English Bible. Tyndale was
influenced by the Luther version of the Bible
in both concept and phrasing. Tyndale had
to invent many religious words and phrases
because no previous religious discussions
and writings had been in English but, rather,
were in Latin.
– McGrath, In the Beginning, 2002, 73-77
[extracted] Perhaps the most bizarre scheme
devised by the English [Catholic] Church to stifle the
new Tyndale translation involved a Bishop who met
a book merchant in Antwerp and mentioned how
anxious he (the Bishop) was to burn as many of
Tyndale's New Testaments as possible. The
merchant informed the Bishop that, for a price, he
would be able to get hold of as many copies as the
Bishop liked. The merchant then informed Tyndale
of the deal. Tyndale printed an extra run of books
which he sold to the merchant and the merchant
sold to the Bishop. The deal worked. The Bishop
burned the books and Tyndale got the profits so that
he could print more books.
– From McGrath, In the Beginning, Anchor, 2002,
84-86.
Hebrew idioms were used in
the King James Version
(and just translated literally)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
"to lick the dust" (Psalm 72:9)
"to fall flat on his face" (Numbers 22:31)
"to pour out one's heart" (Psalm 62:8)
"the land of the living" (Job 28:13)
"under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:3)
"sour grapes" (Ezekiel 18:2)
"from time to time" (Ezekiel 4:10)
"pride goes before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18)
"the skin of my teeth" (Job 19:20)
"to stand in awe" (Psalm 4:4)
"to put words in his mouth" (Exodus 4:15)
"to go from strength to strength" (Psalm 84:7)
"like a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7)
Some Variations on Hebrew
Idioms
• "rise and shine" (from Isaiah 60:1)
• "to see the writing on the wall" (from Daniel
5:5)
• "a fly in the ointment" (from Ecclesiastes
10:1)
Some Greek Influences
•
•
•
•
"the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13)
"a thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7)
"the powers that be" (Romans 13:1)
"and it came to pass" (Mark 1:9 and over
400 others)
• "the scales fell from his eyes" (based on Acts
9:18)
Thank You
“Death” in Hamlet
"O that this too solid flesh would melt, thaw
and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the
Everlasting had not fixed his canon 'gainst
self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary,
stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all
the uses of this world! Fie on 't! Ah, fie!"
– Hamlet
Sonnet 12
When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls, all silvered o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves,
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
The conflict
• Should you think according to
how you are taught to think?
Or
• Should you think creative
thoughts that are different from
what you have been taught?
The conflict in education
• The education system emphasizes
learning by authority
• The education system emphasizes
logics (linear thinking)
• The education system has killed
imagination