WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
“-by the
pricking of
my
thumbs…..
something
wicked this
way
comes…”
Date of Birth??
 1564
– We don’t know his birthday
 There
is a record that he was baptized
on April 26, 1564.
 We
can assume that he was probably
born about 3 days earlier, but there is
no proof of this.
Family
 Son
of Mary Arden and John
Shakespeare
 Had
7 siblings – only one sister and
four brothers survived to adulthood
Family Cont…
 John
was a glove-maker, Mayor of
Stratford and a sheep dealer
 Was
fined for having too much dung
on his front lawn
 Mary
Arden was a daughter of
wealthy landowner – had a large
dowry
Stratford-upon-Avon
Shakespeare was baptized in Holy Trinity
Church, Stratford-upon-Avon
 During his years in London, Shakespeare
maintained his links with Stratford-uponAvon. His wife and children continued to
live there
 By 1613, Shakespeare had apparently
returned to live in Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon con’d

Buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford,
where he had been baptized just fifty-two
years earlier
 No
Education
records exist of Shakespeare actually
attending school
 We
can assume he went to the King’s
New Grammar School, since all boys of
Stratford went there to learn basic reading
and math skills
Marriage
 Anne
Hathaway – family friend (NOT the
actor from Alice in Wonderland!)
 Married in Nov. 1582
 Older woman – she was 26, he was 18
 They lived with his parents
 Have 3 children: Susanna born in 1583,
twins Hamnet and Judith 1592
 Hamnet dies at 11 years old
marriage Cont…

Shotgun Wedding: No announcement

Customary to announce for 3 weeks that
they were to be married

Allows for the opportunity to object in
case someone has another identity,
second family, or there is a possibility that
they are related
The Gap

1585 – 1592: No one knows what happens

We do know he had another child with another
woman out of wedlock

Do not have records of where Shakespeare was living
or working – it is believed that he had left his family to
pursue his craft

Finally, in 1592, Robert Green publishes a pamphlet
criticizing Shakespeare, so we know he’s in London at
this point
SHaKeSPeare’S tHeater
Before the first public playhouses were built in
London in the late 16th century, players
performed in the yards and upper rooms of the
capital’s many inns
 Open-air amphitheatres
 Audiences were socially mixed, and women as
well as men visited both the open-air and the
indoor playhouses. Admission to the open-air
amphitheatres cost one old penny, and they
catered more for the citizenry. Admission to the
indoor halls cost six old pennies, and they were
frequented by the court and gentry.

SHaKeSPeare’S tHeater Con’d
The playhouses were brightly decorated inside.
Their stages had two doors for entrances and
exits
 Many of his plays were written for the Globe,
rebuilt from the timbers of the Theatre on
Bankside
 Shakespeare, a player as well as a dramatist,
belonged to a company of players. His company,
the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (from 1603 the
King’s Men) competed with others, notably the
Admiral’s Men, for aud

SHaKeSPeare’S tHeater Con’d
Shakespeare’s theatre came to an end in 1642.
In that year, on the eve of the Civil War,
all the playhouses were closed

by order of Parliament
lord CHamberlain’S men
 Acting
Company that Shakespeare
was a member of for most of his
career
 Was patronized by King James I.
 Later
changed to “The King’s Men”
Death & his will
 Shakespeare
died on April 23, 1616
 Left his “second-best” bed to Anne
Hathaway
 Gave most of his estate to his
daughter, Susanna
 25 March 1616, he signed his will.
He was already a sick man, and on
25 April 1616
Death & His will
Will is special because Shakespeare signed it.
There are only 2 other known examples of his
signature anywhere. The will is a standard legal
document, written by a lawyer, with no touching
last words for Shakespeare's family and friends
 Shakespeare died a month after this will was
written, having caught a fever at a 'merry party'
thrown by fellow writer, Ben Jonson

Death & His will
Shakespeare’s signature
Tombstone

Left a wish that he rest in peace and
anyone who disturbed his remains would
be cursed forever

“Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare
To digg the dust enclosed here!
Blest be ye man that spares thes stones
And curst be he that moves my bones.”
Tombstone

Shakespeare is said to be buried 17
feet under the stone, but his bones
have not been moved, as per his
wishes on the tombstone…
The Works
Wrote at least 38 plays, but only 36 were
published.
 Wrote 154 sonnets… What’s up w/ the
sonnets? Authorized? Most famous?
 Universal Themes: lust, greed, ambition,
jealousy, cowardice, royalty, birthright,
family feuds and unrequited love (not
reciprocated/returned).
 List of works

The evolution of
romeo & juliet

Romeo and Juliet can be plausibly dated
to 1595. Shakespeare must have written
the play between 1591 and 1596
 Romeo and Juliet had certainly been
performed by 1597
 Romeo and Juliet appeared in seven
editions before 1642
The evolution of
Romeo & Juliet con’d

There are no surviving records for any
performances before the Restoration in
1660, but it is likely that Romeo and Juliet
was first acted by the Lord Chamberlain’s
Men at the Theatre and then at the
Curtain. It has been suggested that
Richard Burbage may have played Romeo,
with the boy actor Robert Goffe as Juliet
The evolution of
Romeo & Juliet

Sources:
 Shakespeare
may have known the story of
Romeo and Juliet in several versions for some
years before he wrote his play. Two sources
were particularly important for its creation:
 Arthur
Brooke, The Tragicall Historye of Romeus
and Iuliet
 Geoffrey
Chaucer, ‘Troilus and Criseyde’, in The
Workes of Geffrey Chaucer
TERMS TO KNOW

Tragedy: a disastrous event; conflict between
protagonist & antagonist/superior force having a
terror/sorrowful ending; often occurs to the
heroic, but flawed character

Dramatic Monologue: literary work, usually a
poem, where a speaker’s character/personality is
revealed; usually told to another character
TERMS TO KNOW

Soliloquy: character speaking to him/her
self in a long speech – often reveals those
‘inner’ thoughts

Comic relief/foil: in R&J, Friar's patience
is a kind of foil to Romeo's haste and
passion; a character that is opposite to the
protagonist that offer comedy in the midst
of trauma or drama
Romeo & Juliet
The Prologue – tells the reader the end –
why?
 Act/Scene of plays (parts/divisions of a
performances & setting shifts)
 The Setting –

 Verona,
Italy
romeo & Juliet Con’d
Terms to know:

doth - does


ere - before


"But he that hath the steerage of my course
Direct my sail!" (I.iv.112-13)
Marry - indeed


"Let two more summers wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride." (I.ii.10-11)
hath - have


"Doth with their death bury their parents' strife" (Prologue)
Lady Capulet: "Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme / I came
to talk of" (I.iii.63)
Ne'er - never

"The all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun." (I.iii.92-93)
romeo & Juliet Con’d
Terms to know (continued):

naught - nothing


"And the continuance of their parents' rage, / Which, but
their children's end, naught could remove." (Prologue)
o'er - over


Thy - your


"Draw thy tool! Here comes two of the house of
Montagues." (I.i.28-29).
Thou - you


"But saying o'er what I have said before:
My child is yet a stranger in the world" (I.ii.7-8)
"But thou art not quickly moved to strike" (I.i.6)
Thee - you (often used as "yourself")

"Turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death." (I.i.58)
FAMOUS ROMEO & JULIET QUOTES!
WATCH FOR THESE AS WE READ:
 “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?”
 “What ’s in a name? That which we call a
rose/By any other name would smell as sweet."
 "O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright."
 " But soft! What light through yonder window
breaks? It is the East and Juliet is the sun! Arise
fair sun and kill the envious moon. It is the
east...and I am the west.”
SHaKeSPeare’S time Period

Elizabethan Era

The Black Death
The Power of the Henry’s!
 The Supreme rule of Queen Elizabeth &
Queen Mary!

SHaKeSPeare’S time Period
Con’d
 16th
Century London
 It was the beginning of the modern
era
 The century opened with the
discovery of a new continent.
 The renaissance in Italy was
peaking and spreading north, even
arriving in backwaters like England.
SHaKeSPeare’S time Period
Con’d
 Life
was largely prosperous for the average
person
 The economy was growing: the mechanisms
of commerce, systems of international
finance, ocean-going trading fleets, an
entrepreneurial bourgeoisie, were all building
a recognizably capitalist, money-based
economy.
 Geniuses were stepping all over each other on
the street corners producing scientific
innovation after innovation.
SHaKeSPeare’S time Period
Con’d
 Technological
innovations like
gunpowder were changing the nature of
warfare and the military caste nature of
society -- the cannon probably had a
great deal to do with the rise of the
centralized nation state as we know it.
 The printing press created a media
revolution. It brought ideas, partisan
rhetoric, and how-to manuals to the
people.
SHaKeSPeare’S time Period
Con’d
 Most
of all, it brought the Bible, in
its original tongues and in the
vernacular, to the masses.
 A spirit of inquiry, a desire to return
to first principles, was blowing
through the Church, which had
been the unifying cultural
foundation of Europe for a
millenium
Myths
 Some
scholars believe that Shakespeare
wrote the King James Bible
 Technically,
there is no evidence that he
was an actor, poet, or playwright.
 Some
people believe that he was a
businessman who paid people to name
him as the author of their works
Shakespeare’s Supernatural
Mythical allusions to gods and goddesses
 Beliefs in the practices of herbal and
chemical remedies
 Existence of deceased family members’
apparitions
 Destiny as a foreshadowing revenge for all
woes.

Terms to Focus on...
reference made to something
popular to culture –historical,
religious or literary
 Foreshadowing:
hints or clues
provided by the author
that help the reader
predict what may
happen
 Woes:
sorrow; grief; troubles
 Woo:
to win the affections (love)
of someone

Allusions: