Shakespeare: The Man, the
Myth, the Legend
“He was not of an age, but
for all time.” (Ben Jonson)
Preview
Who is Shakespeare?
 Today we will look at four different
aspects of William Shakespeare’s life and
work
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 Who
was Shakespeare?
 What are his major works?
 What is his influence on the English language?
 What are some controversies about him?
Shakespeare’s Beginnings
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Names: The Bard of Avon; The Bard
 Bard = writer and performer of
songs & stories
Born Stratford-upon-Avon on April
23, 1564 (Christened April 26th)
Died 1616
 52 years old to the day
 Pickled herring and beer
Parents: John, a glover, and
Mary Arden, the daughter of a
landowning farmer
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Father made $$ money lending
and wool dealing
Made high bailiff/constable of
Stratford
Third child of eight; 2 older
sisters died
Shakespeare’s Beginnings
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Family upbringing =
humble
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Question of illiteracy
“Birthplace” = Henley
Street (father fined in
1552 for illegal
rubbish disposal)
 Attended Stratford
Grammar School
(Latin & classics only)
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 “graduated”
years old
at 14
Daddy Shakespeare
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Teen father: married 26 year
old Anne Hathaway when
he was 18
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Children: Susanna (eldest), twins
Hamnet and Judith
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Anne was 3 months pregnant
Anne was wealthy
Hamnet died at age 11
James Joyce’s Ulysses features a chapter in which the characters
argue that the play Hamlet is based on Hamnet
King John reference
Deadbeat dad: Left wife and children for London
stage career (after 10 years of marriage)
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Joined Lord Chamberlain’s Men (1594-1603)
Shakespeare’s Career
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The “lost years” = 1585-1592
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Lawyer’s clerk?
Gloving trade w/father?
Schoolmaster in the country?
1592 = surfaced in London
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Lord Chamberlain’s men
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Became famous
1599 = opened Globe Theater with partners across
Thames River
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Patron = wealthy nobleman to sponsor the arts (philanthropy)
“…on the other side of the tracks”
Businessman (authorship controversy)
1603 = joined the King’s Men (after King James I)
1607 = retirement
Shakespeare’s Legacy
37 plays, 2 epic poems, and 154 sonnets
 Wordsmith: 29,066 different words in his works
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More than 2,000 of them were words he coined
Average college grad knows 4,000
Most quoted writer in English history
responsible for many idioms we still use today:
vanished into thin air, foul play, dead as a
doornail, flesh and blood, tongue-tied, not one
wink, fool’s paradise, in a pickle, laughing stock,
it’s Greek to me, etc.
Contribution to the English Language
Common
sayings:
catching a cold
disgraceful
conduct
Words:
assassination
barefaced
elbow room
bumps
fair play
countless
blood-stained
critical
Laughing stock
radical
into thin air
Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Good riddance
dwindle
exposure
Aerial
gloomy
Brittle
monumental
Submerge
suspicious
summit
homicide
Excellent
leap-frog
hurry
obscene
snow-white
Lonely
Gust
hoodwink
majestic
hint
Shakespeare’s Written Work
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Two main categories: plays and poetry
Plays
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Histories: Richard III, Henry V, Julius Caesar
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Earlier works (1590s)
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Early works (late 1590s)
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Later works (1600s)
Fascination with death (tomb in R&J, graveyard in Hamlet)
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Latest works (late 1600s)
Comedies: Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing
Tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, R&J
Romances: The Tempest, A Winter’s Tale
Shakespeare’s Written Work
Sonnets: 14 line poems; specific structure
 154 sonnets – track Shakespeare’s love affairs,
concern with own mortality, conflicts of lust,
paranoia and self-degradation
 Became famous only after death
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Controversy over publication
Subjects:
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Dark Lady
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Mistress
Dark-skinned Jew
Inspiration for The Merchant of Venice
Fair Youth
Rival Poet
Plagiarism
 Most
plays based on
historical events or plays
•
•
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Pyramus and Thisbe
King Lear
Richard III
 No
copyright laws
 Took ordinary stories and
made them EXTRAORDINARY
Elizabethan World View
Great Chain of Being
GOD
King
Wife
Angels
Animals
Man
Children
The cast of
“Jersey Shore”
Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603)
Bastard daughter of King Henry
VIII and Ann Boleyn
 “Virgin Queen”
 Restored Protestantism and
formalized Church of England
 Outbreak of the black plague,
food riots, Catholic conspiracies,
threats of invasion, etc.
 During the Elizabethan Period,
hundreds of people were
convicted as witches and
executed
 King James I took over –
renamed Shakespeare’s
company The King’s Men
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Political Influence
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Dangerous to write in authoritative government
Marlowe’s death
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Othello
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Spy for Queen
Disfavor after writing Edward II
Sympathized with Catholics
“What feeds me will destroy me”
All blacks being thrown out of England
Othello = tragic hero
“My art is tongue-tied by authority”
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1st theaters close due to plague
2nd Queen closes b/c she feels threatened by public
Placement of Globe Theater
London 1300-1800
Conditions in London 1564
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Environment
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Thames River polluted
with raw sewage
Trees used up for fuel
Health
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Bathing considered
dangerous
Body odor strong
Childhood diseases
Children often died before
5 years
 Small pox & Bubonic
Plague
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Poverty
Controversy Over Theater
Theatre is Immoral!!!
 People should work in
shops, not waste their
time in idleness
watching shows
 People could be
injured by falling
scaffolds or weapons
used in shows
 People fight in theatres
 The mass of people
could further the
spread of the plague
The People Need Theatre!!!
• Theatre is educational:
based on classical
antiquity
• Theatre paints a true
picture of the good and
bad in life, so people can
learn how to choose the
good
• People should have the
opportunity for
amusement
Globe Theater
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Globe built in 1599 across the Thames
1613: the Globe burned to the ground during a
performance of Henry VIII
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Shakespeare 1/5 owner
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Lasted roughly 2 ½ hours
People sat around 3 or 4 sides of the stage, viewed play
not just from the front
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Statue of Shakespeare as a businessman
He earned 10% of the total profit, approximately £200-250 a
year
Plays performed in afternoon; open top
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Rebuilt; torn down in 1644
Reproduction built in 1900s
Held about 3,000 people
Costumes elaborate
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Company’s most valuable asset
Made by the company, bought in London, or donated by
courtiers
Actors and Crowd
Actors were all men; effeminate or young men played
female roles
 No actual kissing on stage
 Women not allowed to attend (some dressed up as men
to sneak in)
 Audience would drop admission into a box on way in
(hence “box office”)
 Vendors offered beer, water, oranges, gingerbread &
apples (often thrown at players)
 Rowdy crowd
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5 foot tall stage to protect actors
Injuries
Performance Attendance
1 shilling to stand
• 2 shillings to sit in the balcony
• 1 shilling was 10% of their
weekly income
• Broadway Today:
• $85 Orchestra
• $60 Balcony
•
Current Pics
The Controversies
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There are three main arguments people
have about Shakespeare
 1.
Did he have a mistress?
 2. Was he secretly gay?
 3. Was he the author of all his attributed
works?
Marriage in Turmoil
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Left Anne to raise children alone
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The Dark Lady sonnets
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Pregnant out of wed-lock
Age difference
25 sonnets total
Passion, jealousy, shame
Mary Fitton?
Sonnet 145
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Hints of authorship
Mention of Anne’s name
Sonnet 145
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Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'
To me that languish'd for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away;
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying 'not you.'
Shakespeare’s Sexuality
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Fair Youth;1-126
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Beautiful young man
1-17 = Procreation sonnets
41 & 42 = mistress has seduced FY
87-90 = poet’s insecurities
91-96 = reconciliation
Henry Wriothesley, Earl of
Southampton
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Patron of Shakespeare
Financial support
Dedications in Venus and Adonis &
The Rape of Lucrece
Authorship Controversy
Look closely at the most famous portrait of Shakespeare.
Look closely at a famous portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
Look at the images of Shakespeare and
Queen Elizabeth side-by-side. They are
essentially the same face.
Authorship Controversy
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Little information about Shakespeare’s life
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Humble beginnings
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Education – vocabulary
Money for travel
Will’s will – no mention of plays or manuscripts
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Different name spellings
References in criticisms: Robert Greene
18 plays still unpublished at time of death
Group of writers
The Usual Suspects
Francis Bacon
 Christopher Marlowe
 William Stanley, Earl
of Derby
 Queen Elizabeth
 Edward DeVere, Earl
of Oxford
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Concluding Thoughts
Does it matter if Shakespeare was an
adulterer, a homosexual, or several
different writers?
 ABSOLUTELY NOT! 
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(because Shakespeare is awesome)