Transcript Shakespeare PowerPoint

Warm up!
• Write down 3 facts you know about
Shakespeare on a separate sheet of paper.
• Things we know about
Shakespeare…
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6FW_
JzmU_M&feature=related
Shakespeare: His Life and Times
Adapted from
http://www.public.asu.edu/~muckerrm/English_321_S2005/Introduction.ppt
Early Life
• Born April 23, 1564—died 1616
– In Stratford-upon-Avon
• Parents: John and Mary Arden
Shakespeare
• Mary—daughter of wealthy landowner
• John—glovemaker, local politician
Location of Stratford-upon-Avon
From: http://www.where-can-i-find.com/tourist-maps.html
Shakespeare’s Birthplace
From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/
Education
• Probably attended King’s
New School in Stratford
• Children learned their letters
from a “horn book”. These
were made of leather covered
wood with a sheet of paper.
They were sometimes worn
around the neck.
King’s New School
From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/
Gender
Girls
Most girls stayed home to
learn housekeeping skills.
Boys
Boys might go to grammar
school between the ages of 7
& 15.
They studied Latin, math, and
sometimes Greek
Married Life
• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway (26),
who was pregnant at the time with their
first daughter (Susanna)
• He was 18!
• Had twins in 1585 (Hamnet & Judith)
• Sometime between 1585-1592, he moved
to London and began working in theatre.
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
From: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/danielle.esposito/
Conditions in London-BAD!
• Thames River was
polluted with raw
sewage (eww)
• Lots of poverty
Personal Hygiene/Disease
• Bathing considered dangerous (most people only bathed
once a year!)
• Body odor strong – people believed diseases were spread
through bad smells, so they carried flowers with them or
wore heavy perfume.
• There were many childhood diseases & children often died
before 5 years 
• Small Pox
• Bubonic Plague
Living Conditions
• No running
water
• Chamber Pots
• Open Sewers
• Crowded
Clothes
• One set was used all
year long, rarely
washed
• Underclothing was
slept in, and
infrequently changed
Theater Career
• Early actors performed in
courtyards of inns
• First public theater was built in
1576
• Daytime/open air
• Limited set design
• Relied on music, sound,
costumes, props and great
description
Theatre
• The Globe Theater was built in 1599 by the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men theatre group with Shakespeare as
primary investor.
• It was a 20-sided, three-story high open roofed theater
• It was built to hold up to 2,000, but often the number
went as high as 3,000!!
• The stage was 49’ across and 27’ deep!!
• In 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, a misfired
canon ball set the Globe's thatched roof on fire and the
whole theatre was consumed.
What you’d
find at the Globe
•
•
•
•
•
Open air roof
Extra large stage
Balcony
Trap door
Elaborate costumes
What’s
Missing
•
•
•
•
•
•
Actresses
Scenery
Props
Lighting
Restrooms
intermission
The Globe Theater
The Rebuilt Globe Theater, London
The Globe Theater
Actors
• All men
• Female parts played
by young boys
• No actual kissing or
hugging on stage
Groundlings/ Mosh Pit
• Poor audience members
• Stood around stage in “the
pit”/the “yard” (around 1,000
people)
• Referred to as the Stinkards
• Threw rotten vegetables at bad
performances
• If it rained, you got wet
• Refreshments available:
hazelnuts, apples & ale (beer)
The cost of attending a show
•
•
•
1 shilling to stand (an entire day’s wage for a typical groundling)
2 shillings to sit on the stairs
6 shillings for a cushion, a roof covering, and the best view
The Plays
• Shakespeare wrote 38 plays
• Collaborated on several others
Comedies
•
•
•
•
Usually have a happy ending
Involve marriages
Not necessarily funny
White flag
Tragedies
• Most famous and popular plays
• Noble protagonist (TRAGIC HERO)
– Flawed in some way
– Placed in a stressful situation
– Ends with death (or many deaths…)
– Black flag
Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth
Shakespeare’s death
• The cause of Shakespeare's death is a mystery, but an
entry in the diary of John Ward, the vicar of Holy Trinity
Church in Stratford (where Shakespeare is buried), tells us
that "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry
meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died
of a fever there contracted."
• He was 52.
• He is buried at Holy Trinity Church in his birthplace of
Stratford.
What is the English that
Shakespeare used?? It makes no
sense…
Shakespeare’s Language
• Shakespeare did NOT write in “Old English.”
• Old English is the language of Beowulf:
Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum
Þeodcyninga Þrym gefrunon
Hu ða æÞelingas ellen fremedon!
(Hey! We have heard of the glory of the SpearDanes in the old days, the kings of tribes, how
noble princes showed great courage!)
Shakespeare’s Language
• Shakespeare did not write in “Middle English.”
• Middle English is the language of Chaucer, the
author of The Canterbury Tales:
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
The General Prologue
Original Middle English:
• Whan that Aprill, with his
shoures soote
The droghte of March
hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne
in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred
is the flour;
Modern Translation
• When fair April with his
showers sweet,
Has pierced the drought
of March to the root's feet
And bathed each vein in
liquid of such power,
Its strength creates the
newly springing flower;
http://www.breme.demon.co.uk/chaucer.htm
Shakespeare’s Language
• Shakespeare wrote in “Early Modern
English.”
• EME was not too different from “Modern
English,” except that it used some pieces
of Middle English.
• A few examples of Shakespearean
omissions/contractions follow:
'tis ~
o'er ~
gi' ~
ne'er ~
i' ~
e'er ~
oft ~
e'en ~
Reading Shakespeare: A Review
Unlocking Shakespeare's Language, by Randal Robinson
 Unusual Word Arrangements
I ate the sandwich.
I the sandwich ate.
Ate the sandwich I.
Ate I the sandwich.
The sandwich I ate.
The sandwich ate I.
Robinson shows us that these four words can create six
unique sentences which carry the same meaning. Locate the
subject, verb, and the object of the sentence. Notice that the
object of the sentence is often placed at the beginning (the
sandwich) in front of the verb (ate) and subject (I). Rearrange
the words in the order that makes the most sense to you (I ate
the sandwich).
Shakespeare’s Poetry
We speak in prose (language without metrical structure).
• Shakespeare wrote both prose
and poetry (verse).
• To understand his poetry , we need to understand
these terms:
Iamb: unstressed/stressed pattern of 2 syllables
Ex. Your heartbeat (lub DUB)
Penta: 5
Lub DUB/ lub DUB/ lub DUB/ lub DUB/ lub DUB = iambic pentameter
Iambic Pentameter: 5 iambs to a line