Transcript Elizabethan Life, Theatre, and William Shakespeare

Elizabethan Life,
Theatre,
and
William Shakespeare

The late 1500’s to early 1600’s in England were
called the Elizabethan Era, because Queen
Elizabeth was the ruling monarch at the time.
The day-to-day lives of
English citizens then were
very different from what
we know today, especially
in areas of diet, education,

entertainment
and sanitation.
Diet
Diet consisted mostly of what families were able to raise
themselves: potatoes, cabbage, onions, meat,
and turnips. The staple food was bread,
and many households grew their own grain to
produce it.

More affluent families who could afford
cows, goats, and chickens, were able to supplement their
diets with eggs, milk, and cheese. Sugar was
considered a luxury enjoyed only by the very wealthy.
Most people ate only two meals per day—one about
11:00 a.m. and the other about 5:00p.m.

Education
Elizabethan England’s system of education
was for boys only. Girls were considered
unworthy of an education. In school, which
lasted from 7:00a.m. until 5:00p.m., boys
were taught Latin, French, and sometimes a little math.
science was not instructed at that time. Young men were
expected to attend school 6 days per week, and they were not
even allowed to rest on Sundays, because they were held
responsible for the information delivered in the sermon of the
church’s minister.
Most boys attended primary school through age 14 and then
became an apprentice to a trade.
A very select few went on to
Further their education at a
university such as England’s
most famous two,
Oxford and Cambridge.

Entertainment

Elizabethan Londoners loved to be entertained, and one of
the chief forms of diversion for the general public was
executions. Thousands of people would turn out to
watch, often bringing a picnic lunch and arriving hours
early to claim a good vantage point. Criminals who were
condemned to die often went to their deaths like actors,
delivering memorized,
flamboyant speeches form
the scaffolds. The scaffolds
themselves were
constructed extraordinarily
high for the entire
audience’s viewing
pleasure.
Entertainment Cont’d.

Another popular source of entertainment, one which
would be considered unthinkable and inhumane today,
was a sport called bear-baiting. This event was enjoyed
by every strata of society, from the lowliest peasant to
royalty. In bear-baiting, a live bear was led into a circular
arena by a rope tied around its neck. The rope was then
tied to a wooden stake pounded into the ground in the
center of the arena. While this was being
done, 4 or 5 dogs, which had been
starved for several days, were whipped
into a frenzy by two employees. The dogs
were then let loose into the arena to
attack the bear (whose claws and
teeth were often removed). When the
dogs attacked, the bear fought back,
although it was hindered by being tied
down and by lacking its teeth and/or claws.
Entertainment Cont’d.

If the dogs proved too vicious and appeared to be
winning the battle, they were dragged out before the
bear was allowed to be killed. (After all, dogs were easy
to replace, but bears were not). Spectators placed bets
on which dog in the ring would die first. Owners of bearbaiting arenas would keep an average of 120 dogs at a
time, often losing half that number in a “good” week. In
a similar sport, a pony was
led into the arena with an
ape tied to its back. Dogs
were let in, jumping and
trying to get at the ape,
while the terrified pony ran
and leaped away from the
angry dogs.
Health and Sanitation

London of Elizabethan times was filthy. Thousands of
people were crammed into an area that was only a little
over one square mile in size. Most trash and sewage
was simply thrown into the streets. For example,
butchers would kill an animal, sell the meat, and throw
the useless parts out the door. Open, shallow trenches
that served as sewers lined the crowded streets.
Attempts were made to clean up the city.

Health and Sanitation
Cont’d.
One unsuccessful try was building huge, public toilets
directly over the Thames River. Citizens were
encouraged to use these rather than dump their waste
in the street. However, the problem with this was that
the contents of the mass toilets fell
directly onto the boats and barges
traveling the river, and the wooden
toilets were eventually abandoned.
Lack of proper sanitation continued
to be a monstrous problem for
Londoners, contributing heavily to
disease, infant mortality, and
causing a nauseating stench which
permeated most of the poorer areas of
the city.
Crime and Punishment

Another problem with the densely populated city of
London was crime. The most common crime of the time
was called cut-pursing. Paper money was not yet in
use; coins constituted the currency of the day. Also,
pockets had not yet been sewn into clothing. Coins
were carried in small purses or pouches that hung from
a person’s belt. A thief would either cut
the rope from which the pouch
dangled, or her would slit open the
purse with a knife in order to steal the
coins inside it.
Crime and Punishment Cont’d.

Crime was rampant, but punishment was equally swift.
Punishment ranged from humiliation in the stocks to
hanging or beheading. Other common forms of
punishment were public whipping or branding in the
face with a hot iron. Stealing anything worth more than
one shilling (about 25 cents) was considered a felony
punishable by death. Thus, most true criminals—thieves
or murderers did not go to prison. They were put to
death. Most people in prison were put there for owing
money.

The Rich vs. The Poor
Many thousands of very poor people
lived in London. The elite, rich segment
of London’s society was very rich—and
being rich meant having choices—
choices about what to wear each day,
what foods to eat, which wines to drink,
whether to go hunting or go on a boat
cruise that day. It meant being able to
leave the congested city during the
summer months to reside, instead, at
a luxurious country home, thus
avoiding the disease and stench of the
hot city. Being poor meant having no
choices at all, except which filthy pile of
straw to sleep on at night shared in a
room with as many as 20 others. It
meant eating very little food, receiving
no education, owning only one set of
clothes, and maybe owning one pair of
shoes, if you were lucky.
London is nearly destroyed

In the year 1666, a baker’s apprentice mistakenly left an
oven fire burning when he left work one evening. The
untended fire sparked a blaze that ravaged London for 5
days, destroying ¾ of the city. Miraculously, not one person
was killed. In actuality, the Great Fire of 1666 probably
saved lives, because as Londoners began rebuilding their
city, they considered the grave fire hazard that such
overcrowded conditions provided. Guided by the wisdom of
a brilliant planner and architect, Christopher Wren, they
spaced their buildings and widened the city streets, helping
to open up the city to more light and air, alleviating many of
the overcrowding and sanitation problems of the previously
dense inner city.
The “Black Death”

One of the most terrible aspects of life during the
Elizabethan time period was the bubonic plague. The
plague, also called the “black death” because of the way it
turned the corpse of a victim black, was brought to Europe
in 1348 and continued to wreak
havoc until 1700. One epidemic of
it in 1625 killed 1/5 symptoms is
swelling of the armpits and groin
area. In only hours, the victim
begins to vomit blood, and big
black and purple blotches appear
on the skin all over the body as
blood vessels burst beneath the
skin. Death occurs in 3 to 4 days,
with the victim’s body turning
completely black.
The “Black Death” Cont’d.

The most prevalent victims of the plague were children.
The main reason that Elizabethan people could not rid
themselves of the disease was that no one knew what
caused the plague or how to cure it. People mistakenly
believed that you could catch it by looking at a victim,
drinking from a poisoned well, or by breathing bad air.
The “Black Death” Cont’d.
Some of the pathetic attempts at cures included cutting a
hole in the victim’s skull to let out the
devil, throwing sweet-smelling herbs
on a fire to clean the air, sitting in a
sewer so that the bad air of sickness
would be driven off by the worse air
of raw sewage, and shaving a chicken
and strapping it to the victim’s afflicted
areas. One of the remedies tried by wealthy victims was
swallowing a powder made of crushed emeralds. Naturally,
none of thee “cures” worked. Most people desperately wanted
to try the only true cure-running away from the plague-infested
town to the cleaner countryside before infection occurred. The
wealthy citizens, with their country homes, could do this. The
poor stayed home and died.

The “Black Death” Cont’d.

The true cause of the plague
was a germ carried by fleas
that infested the millions of
black rats flourishing in the
filth of overpopulated London.
The fleas carried the bubonic
plague germs. The fleas lived on
the rats, and the germs killed
the rats, so then the fleas would
look for a new home. If there
were no other rats about, the
fleas would hop onto a human.
When that human died, they
would hop onto another human—often the person who
had nursed the first victim. In Elizabethan times, there
was no science of medicine as we think of it today, and
people did not live long. Most died before age 50, and
only half of all babies lived to their first birthday.
And all of this background leads
us to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare Cont’d.

It was to this environment that
William Shakespeare was
born. Church records show that
William was baptized on April
26, 1564, so he was probably
born on April 23, 1564. The
custom of the day was to
baptize babies 3 days after his
birth. William was one of eight
children, the first son born to
John Shakespeare, and his wife,
Mary Arden Shakespeare. John
was a glove maker in the town
of Stratford-on-Avon. He was
active in town politics and once
serves as the town’s mayor.
William Shakespeare Cont’d.

The town of William’s birth, Stratford-on-Avon, was a
conservative, religious town with some strange laws. A citizen
was fined if his dog was left un-muzzled, if his duck wandered
in the streets, if he played cards, or if his children were not in
the house by 8:00p.m. One of the best sources of revenue for
the town was a law that forbade citizens from creating their
own trash dump instead of using the 5 official town dumps.
Anyone who dumped refuse in an area other than those 5
sanctioned areas incurred
a stiff fine. The first
written record of John
Shakespeare appears in
public records because of
this law. He was fined 12
pence for making a trash pile near his house instead of using
the public one at the end of the street.
William Shakespeare Cont’d.

During William’s childhood, one of the chief forms of
entertainment was the plays put on by traveling bands
of actors who would periodically arrive in town. The
performances were put on, most often, in the
courtyard of inns. This performance site had many
disadvantages for the actors. For
one thing, it was very difficult for
them to collect money from the
people who watched the show. Also,
the storing and changing of props
were difficult. Finding a place to
change costumes was complicated,
especially during a performance.
Finally, the proprietors of the inns
often charged a high fee for the
actors to use their courtyards.
From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…

When William Shakespeare was still a young boy—twelve
years old—a man in London by the name of James
Burbage built the first permanent site for drama
performances. He
called his building
simply “The Theatre.”
He made up the title
himself, picking it from
the Greek word,
theatron, which means
a seeing place.
From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…

Burbage was a shrewd man, and he knew that much of his
business would come from the poor citizens of London, rather
than the rich, so he designed his theatre to have plenty of
room to accommodate the not-so-wealthy clientele. The dirt
floor that surrounded the stage was for these poor people,
who paid only one penny for admission to stand and view the
performance. These people were called the groundlings,
and the penny admissions
price was an entire day’s
wages for a typical
groundling.
From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…

The general admission price of one cent was Burbage’s key
to success. It was from them that he made most of his
income, but these rowdy theatre-goers were also quite a
challenge for the actors. The groundlings were a loud, rowdy
crowd—eating, talking, even yelling at the performers on
stage. Other nicknames for the groundlings were penny
knaves and stinkards. They were especially likely to
cause trouble during a
performance that they
considered boring
throwing rotten eggs,
vegetables, talking loudly
to each other, playing
cards, picking fights, and
yelling obscenities at the actors.
From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…

Burbage himself was a skilled carpenter who designed his
theatre in the circular style of the bear-baiting arenas popular
at the time. The circular design provided excellent acoustics
and visibility. In those days, people went to the theatre to
hear a play, not to see it, and being able to hear the actors’
voice was all-important. A further advantage of the circular
design was that there was only
one door into the theatre,
making it much easier to
collect admission money.
From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…

The theatre was open to the sky, relying on sunlight for
light. Plays were performed only in mid-afternoon, and only
on days of good weather. A tall flagpole was on top of the
theatres. If a play were to be performed that day, a flag
was flown atop the theatre as a signal
for the audience to come. The
color of the flag indicated what
type of play to expect—white for
a comedy, black for a tragedy,
and red for a history play.
From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…

The tiers of seats
around the circumference
of the theatre were
protected from rain and
sun by a thatched roof.
The groundlings simply
got wet if it rained. Those
who paid higher admission prices got seats for their got seats
for their money—not only a better vantage point and a place to
rest, but also away form the stink of the groundlings. The
middle and upper tier of seats cost 6 pennies, including a
cushion.
From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…


Refreshments were available for purchase at The Theatre. A
theatre-goer could buy apples, hazelnuts and ale in stalls
right outside of the door. A woman had to be accompanied by
a man to be allowed admittance.
Burbage had enough money for supplies to build the theatre,
but not enough to purchase a good piece of land on which to
build it. Therefore, he rented a parcel of land near the Thames
River on which to build The Theatre.
From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…

Money matters weren’t Burbage’s only trouble. The religious
leaders of London—especially those of Puritan faith—did not
approve of Burbage’s Theatre. Ministers warned their followers
of the theatre’s dangers. They thought that thieves,
drunkards and prostitutes frequented such a place,
tempting the good London citizens into evil practices. Ministers
called The Theatre a den of
Satan, and wanted the city
lawmakers to declare The
Theatre illegal.

From traveling troupes of actors
to a permanent theatre…
Preacher blamed every sickness, death, and natural disaster—
even an earthquake in 1580—on God’s anger toward the evil
Theatre. Puritan preacher Thomas White thundered, “The
cause of plague is sin. The cause of sin is plays. Therefore,
the cause of plague is plays.” Actually the religious leaders’
loud opposition backfired on them and proved to be good
publicity for the theaters, making many people want to go see
what all the fuss was about. Within 2 years, two more
theatres, much like Burbage’s, were built
nearby. For 20 years, Burbage held onto his
theatre despite threats from creditors,
mortgage holders, and Puritan preachers.
His two sons—Richard and Cuthbert—
carried on their father’s tradition and were
also devout theatre men.
What the plays and actors were like


The theatre was immensely popular in London. Playwrights
were turning out new dramas as fast as they could, especially
since each theatre presented a new play ever 2 to 3 weeks.
University-educated men did not fare well as playwrights. Their
words were often too lofty and difficult for the common man
to understand.
One college educated playwright who did
succeed, however, was Christopher
Marlowe. Marlowe was born the same
year as Shakespeare, but he was killed
in a drunken bar brawl at age 29. One
thing that made his plays extremely
popular was his gift for writing poetry.
Londoners loved beautiful poetry, and
Marlowe used it often in his plays.
What the plays and actors were like

Theatre audiences wanted more than poetry, though. They also
expected realistic action—and the more violent, the better.
An Elizabethan actor had to be not only a good speaker, but
also a dancer, and acrobat and a fairly good fencer. The
fight scenes, especially, were loved by the audiences. Blood
was a big attraction. During battle and murder scenes, actors
hid bags of pig’s blood and guts under their costumes. When
pierced by a sword, the bags gory contents spilled out over
the stage.
What the plays and actors were like

The typical acting troupe had about 7 members, and the usual
number of roles in an Elizabethan play was 18. Therefore, each
actor was required to play multiple roles in a production.

No women were allowed to act in the theatre. All women’s
and girls’ roles were played by boys. A boy would start working
for an acting troupe at age 7 and play female roles until his
voice changed and he began shaving.
Meanwhile, back in Stratford-OnAvon…

William Shakespeare grew into a young man. In 1582, he
married Anne Hathaway. He was only 18, and was in no
position to assume support of a family, but his bride was
three months pregnant. Some historians believe that William
was actually courting Anne’s younger sister,
but 26-year-old Anne, afraid of being an
old maid and in a rush to marry, seduced
her sister’s boyfriend and forced him into
marriage. At any rate, their first child,
Susanna, was born in May 1583. Two
years later, Anne gave birth to twins, a
boy and a girl, named Hamnet and Judith.
Meanwhile, back in Stratford-OnAvon…


William’s and Anne’s was not a happy marriage. A final break
occurred 3 or 4 years into the marriage, probably coinciding
with William’s decision to become an actor. His wife and
father had assumed that William would take up the family
trade of glove-making.
For William, Stratford was too small. Nothing was happening
there. London was where the excitement was. Therefore,
Shakespeare moved to London to
pursue his dream career,
abandoning his family in the
process. This was a great
disgrace to the Shakespeare
family, because acting was
considered a frivolous and
shameful profession. By 1592,
however, despite his family’s
protests, Shakespeare was firmly
established as a successful actor
on the London stage.
Meanwhile, back in Stratford-OnAvon…

At the time of Shakespeare's arrival in London, the Puritan
religious leaders were still trying to force the city government
to ban plays in their theatres. They could not succeed,
however, because Queen Elizabeth herself loved the plays.
In fact, the term “Elizabethan drama”
was coined in her honor. The Queen
would not allow the theatres to be
closed; instead, she imposed an
entertainment tax in order for the
government to make a profit off the
plays’ popularity. The religious leaders
and many conservative governmental
figures simply could not understand
how their gracious queen could
approve of such lewd behavior.
Shakespeare is a hit!
When William Shakespeare
arrived in London and began
acting, he joined an acting
troupe called Lord
Chamberlain’s Men.
Because the troupe was
always in need of new
material, Shakespeare began writing plays for his own group
to perform. In fact, Shakespeare never published his own
plays during his lifetime. He merely wrote scripts and gave
them to the actors, copying only the last phrase of a
preceding speech for each actor to know when to come in
with his lines. Shakespeare worked closely with Richard and
Cuthbert Burbage. In fact, Richard starred in many of
Shakespeare’s plays. During his own lifetime, Hamlet was
Shakespeare’s most popular play, and it established Richard
Burbage, in the lead role, as London’s greatest actor.
Shakespeare is a hit!

In 1592, the plague became a dire problem for Elizabethan
theatre and all of England. During the next several yeas, all
public buildings—including theatres—were closed to the public
whenever a new wave of the disease struck. Whenever a
week’s death toll due to the plague reached 50 or higher, all
of London’s public facilities
were closed until it fell
below that number again.
The plague usually
remained dormant in
colder weather, but the
epidemic would spread with
the arrival of warmer
weather.
Shakespeare is a hit!

During the long months when the theatres were closed,
Shakespeare still had to earn a living. He found a profitable
means of doing this was writing poetry for clients who
would pay him for his beautiful words. Many poets would sell
their writing services to one particular
patron, who would pay a generous salary
to poet. Shakespeare sold his writing
services to the Earl of Southhampton.
One of his most famous narrative poems,
“Venus and Adonis,” is dedicated to the
Earl. The Earl became Shakespeare’s
patron during the plague years. Writing
love poetry for the Earl of Southampton
was controversial; consequently,
Shakespeare kept his sonnets out of public
print until after 1608, the year of his
mother’s death. She was very religious
and puritanical, and he did not want her to
be offended.
Shakespeare is a hit!

In August of 1596, William’s son Hamnet died in
Stratford. He was only 11 years old. His father was
appearing in a play in a town called Kent, 47 miles
away. Since travel on foot allowed only 12 miles per
day, William did not even learn of his son’s death
until the boy was already buried. From that point
on, Shakespeare wrote many more tragedies,
and some historians believe
that it was due to grief over
his son’s death.
Dire times for The Theatre and the
building of The Globe

By 1597, James Burbage was in big trouble with The Theatre.
He was still having financial difficulty with the owner of the land
on which The Theatre build. The owner did not want The
Theatre on his land permanently, and when Burbage applied
for a 10-year extension on the rental agreement, the owner
refused to give it to him. This meant that the lease would
expire in April of 1597, and that the Burbage family would
automatically lose not only the land, but also The Theatre.
James Burbage died during this disagreement, and his two sons
tried to persuade the owner of the land to extend lease. He
would not do it. They finally realized that they couldn’t keep the
land, but they were not about to give up on their cherished
Theatre.
Dire times for The Theatre and the
building of The Globe

The land’s owner wanted to keep the valuable lumber of The
Theatre for his own use. Wood at that time was both expensive
and scarce in London. Shakespeare and the Burbages could not
afford to build a new theatre from
scratch. The three ingenious young
men waited until the land owners went
away on a Christmas holiday. Then, 3
days after Christmas, the Burbages,
William Shakespeare, and a crew of
actor friends showed up at The
Theatre in the dark of night armed
with carpenters’ tools. They
dismantled The Theater, timber by
timber, loaded it up on a barge, and
floated it across the Thames River to a
new site—outside of London’s city
limits and municipal jurisdiction.
Dire times for The Theatre and the
building of The Globe

The land owner had left guards posted to watch his property
in his absence, but by the time the guards sent word by
messenger, and he returned, The Theatre had literally
“vanished” from him property. Shakespeare and the
Burbages built their new theatre—the
Globe—from the timbers of The
Theatre. The new Globe Theatre was
the most handsome theatre in London,
and it gave Shakespeare's acting group
a decided advantage over their rival
acting companies. It was nicknamed
the “Wooden O” by the people of
London after its circular architecture.
Will the new monarch like theatre, too?

In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died, and the new ruler of England
was King James I. From the point of view of Shakespeare
and his fellow actors, the most important question about the
new king was how he felt about the theatre. The Puritanical
pressure was increasing steadily in London, and none of the
acting companies would be able to remain in existence unless
they had the support of the king, as they
had once had the support of Queen
Elizabeth. Fortunately, the new king also
loved the theatre. In an effort to flatter the
new king, Shakespeare and his friends
changed the name of their acting troupe
from Lord Chamberlain’s Men to “The
King’s Men.”
The plague attacks again
By the summer of 1603, the plague was once again
Creeping into the densely populated city of London. Unusually hot
weather fueled the germ’s spreading, until city officials could
ignore the danger no longer. On July 13th, all public places were
closed once again. At this time, over 1100 people were dying
each week of the plague in London. By August, the city was
almost a ghost town. Anyone forced to stay in town took care to
walk only down the middle of a street—not close to any buildings.
The plague attacks again

Any house in which an infection occurred were boarded
up with all occupants inside. It was simply assumed that
all inhabitants would die. People chewed on orange
peel thinking it might keep the sickness away. They
stuffed their pockets with spices and flowers, hoping to
ward off the disease. The price of the spice, rosemary,
soared from 12 pence for a whole basketful to eight
shillings for one tiny sprig. People were
desperate. This time, the epidemic lasted
until March. On Easter Monday in 1604, the
King’s Men reopened the Globe Theatre, after
the plague had kept it closed for a full 9
months
Shakespeare’s fortune is made

As Shakespeare became more and more successful, he bough
parcels of land and buildings in Stratford. By this time, it is
likely that most of his former neighbors who had originally
criticized him for being a worthless actor had managed to
forgive him. The acting profession was still not considered
dignified, but Shakespeare had become quite famous, and
Stratford was proud of its native son.
He even applied for and received a
coat-of-arms, a symbol of high
community standing. (His father had
tried to obtain one years earlier and
been denied.) Remembering this family
insult, Shakespeare chose as his coat
of arm’s motto: “Nons ans drocit,”
which meant “Not without right.”
Shakespeare’s fortune is made

After acting and writing tirelessly for over 20 years,
Shakespeare decided to retire in 1611. He was wealthy, and he
owned a substantial amount of property in Stratford. He was
extremely wealthy, and he owned a substantial amount of
property in Stratford. He was extremely popular with the
general public, but he was not considered a very important
writer by the literary critics of the period. This is difficult for us
to believe today, given our knowledge of how much he wrote.
During his lifetime, he wrote 37 plays
and 154 sonnets. Also, Shakespeare
employed an incredible vocabulary in
his writing. He used over 29,000
words, many of which he made up
himself. This is an astounding number,
when one considers that the entire
King James Bible uses only around
3,000 words in its entirety.
Shakespeare’s fortune is made
Upon Shakespeare's retirement and
settling in Stratford, he continued to
write periodically. One of his last works
was Henry VIII, which was
performed at the Globe Theatre in
London. The first act of the play called
for the King’s entrance during a lively
dance. To make this especially
spectacular, the director decided to set
off a cannon from the theatre’s roof.
On June 29, 1613, a spark from the
cannon landed on the Globe’s thatched
roof. In less than 2 hours, the Globe
burned to the ground. Miraculously, no one was killed or even
injured, except for one man whose pants caught on fire.
Another theatre goer doused the flames on him with a tankard
of ale.
Shakespeare’s fortune is made

Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday—April 23, 1616. He
had been ill with a respiratory ailment for quite a while, and
the night before his death, he sstayed out drinking until the
early hours of the morning and walked home in the rain. In
his last will and testament, one interesting feature was that he
bequeathed his wife, Anne, his “second best bed.” What he
meant by that puzzling comment, we will never know. One
thing, however, is certain. The popularity of the theatre was
firmly established in Elizabethan London, and much of its
success was due to William
Shakespeare. At the time of
his death in 1616, 30
theatres were flourishing in
and around London.
Shakespeare is finally published-posthumously

During Shakespeare’s lifetime, the only plays of his that were
published were copied by competing acting troupes who had
stolen his work. These plays were published in small quatro
form. After his death in 1616, Shakespeare’s acting troupe
rounded up surviving copies of actors’ scripts and published
“The First Folio,” which is considered the original collection of
Shakespeare’s plays. In order to get a complete script, the
compiler had to fill in a lot of blanks because no actor's script
was complete.
Shakespeare is finally published-posthumously

Compilers called in actors to see if they remembered lines
from when they acted in the plays; they even consulted
audience members to check their recollections. Because of
this imprecise method of compiling an entire script, the “First
Folio” edition, when published, undoubtedly contained many
mistakes and often conflicted many mistakes
and often conflicted with earlier quatro
editions. Also, it was the editors of the “First
Folio” who classified Shakespeare’s plays as
either comedy, history, or tragedy—not
Shakespeare himself.
The play we will begin studying,
Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare often wrote plays based on
historical events or on old legends.
Indeed, every single one of his play’s
plot lines are based on someone else’s
idea. The story idea for Romeo and
Juliet goes back to the Roman poet,
Ovid, who lived from 43 B.C. to A.D.
17. Ovid wrote the story of Pyramus
and Thisbe, two lovers from feuding
families who live next door to each
other in ancient Babylon. The two
young people talk to each other through
a hole in the wall that separates their
two estates, and they fall in love.
The play we will begin studying,
Romeo and Juliet

They plan to meet one day in the
forest. Thisbe arrives first and,
while waiting for Pyramus, is
attacked by a lion. She survives
the attack, but she faints due to
fear, and her coat has blood on it.
When Pyramus arrives, he
assumes she is dead, and he kills
himself. When Thisbe regains
consciousness, she finds her dead
lover and subsequently stabs
herself with his dagger.
The play we will begin studying,
Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare even borrowed
the protagonists’ names from
other writers. During the
Renaissance, Dante wrote
The Inferno about two
warring Veronese clans, the
Montagues and the Capulets.
In 1562, an English poet
named Arthur Brook wrote
a lengthy poem about two
doomed lovers entitled “The
Tragical History of Romeus
and Juliet.”
Shakespearean Brain Teaser
Answer
Start at the E in Costume:
“Everyone can master a grief but he that
has it.”
-Benedick
Much Ado About Nothing
Act III Scene II