Merchant of Venice
Wang Zhi 2P3(28)
Agenda
• Shakespeare
• England in Shakespeare’s time
• The renaissance
Who is Shakespeare?
• William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564;
died 23 April 1616)
• An English poet and playwright
• Widely regarded as the greatest writer in
the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist
• He is often called England's national poet and
the "Bard of Avon"
His inspirations to writing
• From great classical authors like Ovid and
Seneca, to English historians like Holinshed,
Shakespeare's greatest influences were the
works of other great writers.
• With the exception of A Midsummer Night's
Dream, Love's Labour's Lost and The Tempest,
which are wholly original stories, Shakespeare
borrowed his plots, down to fine detail.
His family and social status
• William Shakespeare was the son of John
Shakespeare and Mary Arden
• At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26year-old Anne Hathaway. They had three
children
• Shakespeare's family was about at the middle
of the social system in money and status
Interesting facts about him
• Shakespeare was born in 1564 and he died on
23rd April 1616. He was baptised on 26th April
1564 and it is now believe that he was born on
April 23rd . He therefore died on his fifty-second
birthday, coinciding with St George's Day. How
fitting that the great English writer is so closely
identified with the patron saint of England!
• Galileo Galilei was born in 1564
• Michelangelo died in 1564
Interesting facts cont’d
• Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity
Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. He put a curse
on anyone daring to move his body from that
final resting place.
• His epitaph was:
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.
Interesting facts cont’d
• Shakespeare uses "dog" or "dogs" over two
hundred times in his works. He was also the
first writer to use the compound noun
"watchdog", in The Tempest.
• London football club Tottenham were formed
in 1882, and originally named after Harry
Hotspur - one of Shakespeare's characters in
Henry IV
England in the 16th century
• The age of Shakespeare was a great time in
English history.
• The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
saw England emerge as the leading naval and
commercial power of the Western world.
Social system
• In Shakespeare's time there are only about 55
noble families in England. At the head of each
noble family is a duke, a baron, or an
earl. These are the lords and ladies of the
land.
• A person became a member of the nobility in
one of two ways: by birth, or by a grant from
Queen Elizabeth
Significant historical events
• 1565: St. Paul's dictum prohibits women from
singing on stage and
• 1576: Building of The Theatre, first permanent
structure in England for the presentation of
plays in churches
• 1587: Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots,
at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire on
February 8
Significant historical events cont’d
•
•
•
•
•
1603: Death of Queen Elizabeth I on March 24
James VI of Scotland crowned King of England
Plague
1625: Death of James VI and I on March 27
1639: England and Scotland at war until 1644
in what become known as the Bishops' Wars
• 1640: The Long Parliament summoned.
• 1642: English Civil War begins
English Renaissance theatre
• The London audience had
six theatres to choose
from: three surviving large
open-air "public" theatres,
the Globe, the Fortune,
and the Red Bull, and
three smaller enclosed
"private" theatres, the
Blackfriars, the Cockpit,
and the Salisbury Court.
The renaissance
• The Renaissance was a cultural
movement that spanned roughly the 14th to
the 17th century, beginning in Florence in
the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to
the rest of Europe.
• The term is also used more loosely to refer to
the historical era, but since the changes of the
Renaissance were not uniform across Europe,
this is a general use of the term.
What happened at that time?
• As a cultural movement, it encompassed a
flowering of literature, science, art, religion,
and politics, and a resurgence of learning
based on classical sources, the development
of linear perspective in painting, and gradual
but widespread educational reform.
• 1603: Shakespeare: Hamlet.
How it affected Shakespeare’s work
• Shakespeare updated the simplistic, twodimensional writing style of pre-renaissance
drama.
• He focused on creating “human” characters
with psychologically complexity.
• Hamlet is perhaps the most famous example
of this.
How it affected Shakespeare’s work
• The upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy
allowed Shakespeare to explore the humanity
of every character regardless of their social
position. Even monarchs are given human
emotions and are capable of making mistakes.
• Shakespeare utilized his knowledge of Greek
and Roman classics when writing his plays.
Before the renaissance, these texts had been
suppressed by the Catholic Church.