Understanding Shakespeare
Who Was Shakespeare?
&
Why are His Works Significant?
The World in which
Shakespeare Was Born
• Before you really study Shakespeare’s life and
plays, you need to understand the context of the
historical time period in which he lived.
• Like in many societies, the culture in which
Shakespeare’s art thrived was vastly affected by
political, social, religious, and economical
attitudes, laws, and events.
• As with all art, Shakespeare’s art was a direct
reflection of life as he knew it.
British History Sets the Stage
Well known portrait of Henry VIII
by Hans Younger c. 1940
• The early 1500’s were
incredibly tumultuous
times in European
history.
• Religious, political,
and social norms were
evolving
• The Renaissance was
at its height
Henry VIII
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In 1509, Britain's Henry VIII became
King. This was due to his older brother
Arthur dying suddenly.
Arthur had been married to Ferdinand
and Isabella of Spain’s (of Columbus
fame) daughter, Catherine of Aragon
In order to keep the established truce
between England and Spain, the Pope
allowed for Henry to marry his
brother’s widow, Catherine.
At 17 years old, Catherine and Henry
were crowned King and Queen at
Westminster Abbey in June 1509.
They had only been married 13 days.
Catherine continued to fail to produce a
male heir to the throne. Notorious for
having mistresses, Henry desired an
annulment from Catherine in order to
marry her lady-in-waiting, Anne
Boleyn.
Catherine of Aragon
The Division of Church & State
• Henry VIII separated from the Catholic Church, in order to
have the royal marriage annulled. Catherine was banished
from all royal treatment and homes, and Anne Boleyn
moved in.
• Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen Consort on June 1,
1533. Her daughter Elizabeth I was born September 7,
1533.
• Catherine’s daughter, Mary I, was then declared an
illegitimate child of Henry VIII
• In the midst of this scandal, Britain would then become a
part of the great Protestant Reformation, in which citizens
no longer had to be Catholic, or answer ultimately to the
Pope
• The Church no longer “ruled over the King”
More Turmoil
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After a few more wives, Henry VII
passed away
The issue of who would be the
Sovereign loomed
Henry had eventually had a son
with 3rd wife, Jane Seymour, who
Henry would declare was his only
“true wife, as she bore me a son.”
Their son, Edward VI would
become King in 1547, at age 6, and
officially crowned at age 10.
Henry would have had 3 more
wives before his death
Edward died at age 15, and Henry
VIII’s legitimate next heir, his
grandniece, Lady Jane Grey
became Queen.
Lady Jane would be executed for
being staunchly Protestant by the
first child of Henry VIII,
Mary…also known as Bloody
Mary…and Catholicism became
the religion of England again.
From top,
clockwise:
Edward VI,
Lady Jane
Grey, and
Mary I
The Elizabethan Age
• Mary died at age 42 on November 17, 1558.
• Her half sister, Elizabeth I (daughter of Anne Boleyn),
would succeed her on the throne.
• Mary had been popular early in her reign, as a reaction to
her mistreatment as a child, but public support had turned
on her by her death, due to her policies and marriage to
Phillip of Spain.
• Elizabeth would not renew relations with the Catholic
Church, although having been brought up so, but was
determined to establish a church suited to the needs of the
English people-the Anglican Church.
Influence on Art and Culture
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Queen Elizabeth I loved theatre,
art, and culture—being a
Renaissance child.
She was the biggest supporter of
Shakespeare and the London
theatre world
However, because of turmoil of her
ancestry and the last 80 years, in
1588, she decreed that no art,
theatre, or literature was to have
overtly religious or political
themes, on penalty of
imprisonment and possible death
for treason.
It is in that world that Shakespeare
was to create!
Shakespeare’s Life
• Shakespeare is renowned as the English
playwright and poet whose body of works is
considered the greatest in history of English
literature.
• Surprisingly for the world's greatest playwright,
we actually know very little about Shakespeare's
life.
• What few details we have come from church
records, land titles and the written opinions of
others.
• Very little is known about young Shakespeare.
The Life of Shakespeare:
An Overview of What is Known
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We know that Shakespeare was
baptized on April 26, 1564 & it is
assumed that he was born on April 23,
1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, on
England’s Avon River.
We also know that in 1582 at age 18,
Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway,
an older women who was 26 at the
time.
The couple had three children, who
lived beyond infancy
1. Oldest – Susanna
2. Twins – Judith & Hamnet
• Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only
son, died in childhood.
The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life
was spent, not in Stratford, but in the
theater world of London, where he
established himself professionally by
the early 1590s.
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He enjoyed success not only as a
playwright, but as an actor and
shareholder in an acting company.
Sometime between 1610 and 1613,
Shakespeare is thought to have retired
from the stage and returned home to
Stratford, where he died in 1616.
Only two images of Shakespeare are
considered reliable likenesses:
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the Martin Droeshout engraving in the
1623 First Folio, and
Shakespeare’s memorial bust at Holy
Trinity Church in Stratford.
•Martin Droeshout’s engraving in
the 1623 First Folio, one of two
“authentic” pictures of
Shakespeare
•Droeshout was a popular Flemish
artist at the time
•Most critics and contemporaries
of Shakespeare have written that
this picture is actually NOT
historically accurate.
•The body is disproportionate to
the head and the cuff around the
neck is different and larger than
cuffs worn in the early 1600’s
(when this engraving would have
been created)
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Shakespeare’s memorial bust at Holy
Trinity Church in Stratford is the other
“authentic” depiction of the Bard
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•Above: Illustration of Shakespeare’s
original tomb memorial from William Dugdale's
Antiquities of Warwickshire published in 1665.
•There is no quill or parchment; instead
Shakespeare is shown with his hands on a
sack. It seems he was being depicted as a dealer
in bagged commodities. This is exactly how the
records of Stratford-upon-Avon reveal that
William Shakespeare made a living – as a grain
merchant. He buys sizable tracts of land, he
holds large stocks of grain, and he takes action to
recover debts owned for the supply of malt.
The only evidence that Shakespeare was publicly
recognized during his life as a playwright in
Stratford-upon-Avon is the newer monument
overlooking his grave in Stratford's Holy Trinity
Church. It is a bust depicting the Bard
composing his works.
The present bust shows Shakespeare as a writer
with a quill and parchment. To the modern
visitor it appears that Shakespeare was
recognized as a playwright in Stratford at the
time of his death.
However, the church records reveal that this
particular bust was not erected until 1748. It was
commissioned by a theatrical manager named
John Hall who wished to promote the tourist
industry in the town.
Stratford Beginnings – The Early Years
• Surprisingly for the
world's greatest
playwright, we actually
know very little about
Shakespeare's life.
• What few details we have
come from church records,
land titles and the written
opinions of others. Very
little is known about
young Shakespeare.
• These are also known as
the “Lost Years”
Early History
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School Days
As in other schools of the time, students
began their studies at the age of four or
five in the attached "petty school," and
there learned to read and write in
English, studying primarily the
catechism from the Book of Common
Prayer.
After 2 years in the petty school,
students entered the lower grammar
school, where they began the serious
study of Latin grammar and Latin texts.
Several Latin texts that Shakespeare
used repeatedly in writing his plays and
poems were texts that schoolboys
memorized and recited.
Latin comedies were introduced early in
the lower form; in the upper form, which
the boys entered at age ten or eleven,
students wrote their own Latin orations
and declamations, studied Latin
historians and rhetoricians, and began
the study of Greek using the Greek New
Testament.
Family Life
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We lack generally accepted
documentation about Shakespeare's life
after his schooling ended and his
professional life in London began.
His marriage in 1582 (at age eighteen)
to Anne Hathaway and the subsequent
births of his daughter Susanna (1583)
and the twins Judith and Hamnet (1585)
are recorded, but how he supported
himself and where he lived are not
known.
No one knows when and why he left
Stratford for the London theatrical
world, nor how he rose to be the
important figure in that world that he
had become by the early 1590s.
Success in London (late 1500’s)
• By 1592 Shakespeare had achieved some prominence in
London as both an actor and a playwright.
• In that year, (1592), was published a book by the
playwright Robert Greene attacking an actor who had the
audacity to write blank-verse drama and who was “in his
own conceit [opinion] the only Shake-scene in a country.”
• Since Greene's attack includes a parody of a line from one
of Shakespeare's early plays, there is little doubt that it is
Shakespeare to whom he refers, a “Shake-scene” who had
aroused Greene's fury by successfully competing with
university-educated dramatists like Greene himself.
Narrative Poems
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It was in 1593 that Shakespeare became
a published poet. In that year he
published his long narrative poem
“Venus and Adonis”
In 1594, he followed it with “The Rape
of Lucrece.” Both poems were
dedicated to the young Earl of
Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, who
may have become Shakespeare's patron.
It seems no coincidence that
Shakespeare wrote these narrative
poems at a time when the theaters were
closed because of the plague, a
contagious epidemic disease that
devastated the population of London.
Theatrical Career
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Shakespeare left Stratford for London
to make his fortune roughly fours years
later.
Shakespeare headed to London
sometime in 1586, there already was an
established community of playwrights.
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By 1595, Shakespeare was successful
enough to be named as one of the more
senior members of the Lord
Chamberlain's men, an acting company
that performed frequently before court.
– This was no small honor; this
prominent theatre company later
became the royal company called
the King's Men, making
Shakespeare an official playwright
to the King of England.
By 1596, Shakespeare was so
successful as a playwright that his
family was finally granted a Coat of
Arms which amongst other things
allowed Shakespeare to call himself a
"gentleman". As far as historians can
tell, that career spanned about twenty
years.
In the 1590s, he wrote his plays on
English history as well as several
comedies and at least two tragedies
(Titus Andronicus and Romeo and
Juliet).
The Globe Years
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In 1599, Shakespeare's company built a
theater for themselves across the river from
London, naming it The Globe.
The plays that are considered by many to be
Shakespeare's major tragedies (Hamlet,
Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth) were
written while the company was resident in
this theater, as were such comedies as
Twelfth Night and Measure for Measure.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were performed
at court—both for Queen Elizabeth I and,
after her death in 1603, for King James I—
some were presented at the Inns of Court (the
residences of London's legal societies), and
some were doubtless performed in other
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towns, at the universities, and at great houses
when the King's Men went on tour.
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Otherwise, his plays from 1599 to 1608 were,
so far as we know, performed only at the
Globe.
Between 1608 and 1612, Shakespeare wrote
several plays—among them The Winter's
Tale and The Tempest—presumably for the
company's new indoor Blackfriars Theatre,
though the plays were performed also at The
Globe and at court.
Shakespeare wrote very little after 1612, the
year in which he probably wrote King Henry
VIII. It was at a performance of Henry VIII
in 1613 that the Globe caught fire and burned
to the ground
The Final Years
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Sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare returned to Stratford-uponAvon, where he owned a large house and considerable property.
His wife and his two daughters and their husbands lived there as well. (His son
Hamnet had died in 1596.)
During his professional years in London, Shakespeare had derived income
from the acting company's profits as well as from his own career as an actor,
from the sale of his play manuscripts to the acting company, and, after 1599,
from his shares as an owner of the Globe.
It was presumably that income, carefully invested in land and other property,
which made him the wealthy man that surviving documents show him to have
become.
It is also assumed that William Shakespeare's growing wealth and reputation
played some part towards inclining the crown, in 1596, to grant John
Shakespeare, William's father, the coat of arms that he had so long sought.
William Shakespeare died in Stratford on April 23, 1616 (according to the
epitaph carved under his bust in Holy Trinity Church) and was buried on April
25. Seven years after his death, his collected plays were published as Mr.
William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, the work now
known as the First Folio.
An Expansive Age
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The years in which Shakespeare wrote were among the most exciting in English history.
Intellectually, the discovery, translation, and printing of Greek and Roman classics were
making available a set of works and worldviews that interacted complexly with
Christian texts and beliefs.
The result was a questioning that provided energy for the period's amazing dramatic and
literary output and that fed directly into Shakespeare's plays. The Ghost in Hamlet, for
example, is wonderfully complicated in part because he is a figure from Roman
tragedy—the spirit of the dead returning to seek revenge—who at the same time inhabits
a Christian hell (or purgatory).
Hamlet's description of humankind reflects at one moment the Neoplatonic wonderment
at mankind ("What a piece of work is a man!") and, at the next, the Christian
disparagement of human sinners ("And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?").
Exploration and Discovery
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As intellectual horizons expanded, so also did
geographical and cosmological horizons.
New worlds—both North and South
America—were explored, and in them were
found human beings who lived and
worshiped in ways radically different from
those of Renaissance Europeans and
Englishmen.
The universe during these years also seemed
to shift and expand.
– Copernicus had earlier theorized that
the earth was not the center of the
cosmos but revolved as a planet around
the sun.
– Galileo's telescope, created in 1609,
allowed scientists to see that
Copernicus had been correct; the
universe was not organized with the
earth at the center, nor was it so nicely
circumscribed as people had, until that
time, thought.
In terms of expanding horizons, the impact of
these discoveries on people's beliefs—
religious, scientific, and philosophical—
cannot be overstated.
London and Stratford
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London rapidly expanded and changed during
the years (from the early 1590s to around
1610) that Shakespeare lived there.
London—the center of England's
government, its economy, its royal court, its
overseas trade—was, during these years,
becoming an exciting metropolis, drawing to
it thousands of new citizens every year.
Troubled by overcrowding, by poverty, by
recurring epidemics of the plague, London
was also a mecca for the wealthy and the
aristocratic, and for those who sought
advancement at court, or power in
government or finance or trade.
– Heard in Shakespeare’s plays are the
voices of London—the struggles for
power, the fear of venereal disease, the
language of buying and selling.
– One hears as well the voices of
Stratford-upon-Avon—references to the
nearby Forest of Arden, to sheep
herding, to small-town gossip, to village
fairs and markets.
Part of the richness of Shakespeare's work is
the influence felt there of the various worlds
in which he lived: the world of metropolitan
London, the world of small-town and rural
England, the world of the theater, and the
worlds of craftsmen and shepherds.
The “Story” of Shakespeare
Or What We Know or Can Suppose
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That Shakespeare inhabited the
worlds of London and Stratford we
know from surviving documents, as
well as from the evidence of the
plays and poems themselves.
From such records we can sketch
the dramatist's life.
We know from his works that he
was a voracious reader.
We know from legal and business
documents that he was a
multifaceted theater man who
became a wealthy landowner.
We know a bit about his family life
and a fair amount about his legal
and financial dealings.
Most scholars today depend upon
such evidence as they draw their
picture of the world's greatest
playwright.
Early Traditions Concerning
Shakespeare’s “Story”
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Until the late eighteenth century, the William
Shakespeare who lived in most biographies
was the creation of legend and tradition.
Stories included that Shakespeare reportedly
could barely read but whose natural gifts
were extraordinary, whose father was a
butcher who allowed his gifted son
sometimes to help in the butcher shop, where
William supposedly killed calves "in a high
style," making a speech for the occasion.
Another story was that Shakespeare’s Falstaff
(in Henry IV, Parts I and 2) so pleased
Queen Elizabeth I that she demanded a play
about Falstaff in love, and demanded that it
be written in fourteen days (hence,
supposedly, the existence of The Merry
Wives of Windsor).
It was this legendary Shakespeare who
reached the top of his acting career in the
roles of the Ghost in Hamlet and old Adam
in As You Like It —and who died of a fever
contracted by drinking too hard at "a merry
meeting" with the poets Michael Drayton and
Ben Jonson.
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This legendary Shakespeare is a
rambunctious, undisciplined man, as
attractively “wild" as his plays were seen by
earlier generations to be.
Unfortunately, there is no trace of evidence to
support these wonderful stories.
A statue of the character Falstaff at
Stratford-upon-Avon
The Question of Authorship
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Some people since the mid-19th century have argued that William Shakespeare
could not have written the plays that bear his name.
These persons have put forward some dozen names as more likely authors,
among them:
– Queen Elizabeth I,
– Sir Francis Bacon,
– Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, and
– Christopher Marlowe.
Because these people are held in such high regard in history is a testament to
how high in regard people hold Shakespeare’s plays.
However, the documents that exist that provide evidence for the facts of
William Shakespeare's life tie him undeniably to the body of plays and poems
that bear his name.
How this particular man produced the works that dominate the cultures of
much of the world almost four hundred years after his death is one of life's
mysteries—and one that will continue to spark our imaginations as we
continue to delight in his plays and poems.
Frequently Asked Shakespeare Questions
What did Shakespeare’s son die of?
We don't really know how Shakespeare's young
son Hamnet died. He had a twin sister named
Judith, who lived to adulthood and married, but
Hamnet died at the age of eleven and a half.
– Child mortality was high in the sixteenth
century; there were no antibiotics and many
childhood diseases might therefore prove
fatal, such as scarlet fever, whooping cough,
diphtheria, and even measles.
– He was buried on August 11, 1596.
What is the inscription on Shakespeare’s
grave?
GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE
FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED
HEARE:
BLESTE BE Ye MAN Yt [that] SPARES
THES STONES,
AND CURST BE HE Yt MOVES MY
BONES.
More Questions…
How many words did Shakespeare write?
According to a Shakespearean Concordance by Marvin Spevack, Shakespeare’s complete works
consist of 884,647 words and 118,406 lines.
How many plays did Shakespeare write?
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Thirty-eight (38) is the generally accepted number, though recent claims have been made for
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King Edward III and
some scholars would include part of Sir Thomas More.
Another play, Cardenio, did not survive. Counting this play, the known total is thirty-nine (39).
What is Shakespeare’s earliest play?
His earliest play is probably one of the three parts of King Henry VI, written between 1589–1591.
What is Shakespeare’s last play?
His last play is probably The Two Noble Kinsmen (about 1613), which Shakespeare co-wrote with
John Fletcher.
What is Shakespeare’s longest play?
Hamlet, with 4,042 lines.
What is Shakespeare’s shortest play?
The Comedy of Errors, with 1,787 lines.
How many new words did Shakespeare
coin (create)?
• The Oxford English Dictionary
attributes all of the bold-faced words
below (and some 500 more) to
Shakespeare.
– “From the spectacled pedant to
the schoolboy, all gentlefolk
recognize Shakespeare as a
fathomless fount of coinages. The
honey-tongued Bard had no rival,
nor could he sate his neverending addiction to madcap,
flowery (or foul-mouthed!)
neologisms. Even time-honored
exposure cannot besmirch our
amazement at the countless and
useful words that lend radiance to
our lackluster lives. All in a day’s
work!”
What were the different ticket costs to go to a play in
Shakespeare’s time?
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Prices of admission depended on the kind of theater.
Outdoor theaters like the Globe charged—in the early
days—one penny ($1.66) to get in and another penny if you
wanted to sit in the balconies. (A penny equals about $1.66
by today’s standards. Other equivalents are also in current
US dollars.)
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By the early seventeenth century, they probably charged a
flat sixpence (about $10) to get in. Admission to the private
indoor theaters, which catered to a more affluent audience,
generally began at a basic sixpence to gain entry to the
galleries.
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Fancy gallants who wanted to be seen, however, could sit on
the stage for two shillings ($40), and a box could be had for
half-a-crown ($50).
How did men cover up their beards if they played women’s
roles in Shakespeare’s theater?
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Usually boys played women's parts on stage, so there was no
problem about beards. In fact, Hamlet jokes with one of the
actors who visit the court in Denmark: "Why, thy face is
valanced since I saw thee last," meaning that the boy has
reached puberty and started to grow a beard. Since his voice
would change about the same time (Hamlet says, "Pray God
your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked
within the ring."), that would signal the end of female roles
for him. Older men probably played female roles from timeto-time, such as comic figures like Juliet's Nurse. In that
case, they would probably shave off any beard.