Transcript File - Ms. West

The Renaissance
William Shakespeare
Queen Elizabeth
• The Renaissance
is also known as
the Elizabethan
Period…
Elizabethan Period: 1485-1625
• The Renaissance was a period marked
by constant change
• The movement concentrated more
on man as the center of the
universe
• Less structured society
• Many gifted painters, writers, etc.
• “Renaissance Man”
Renaissance brought
about by…..
- discovery of moveable
type, increasing printing
of books
- Banking makes trade
easier – wealthy merchant
class
- Voyages of discovery
(expansion)—beginning
of the Modern World
- More scholars and interest
in the arts – Latin the
language of scholars
Changes in religion at this
time…
- disappearance of Medieval
religious faith
- Reformation challenged
corruption of the church
(remember the Pardoner?!)
- Now… Protestants & Catholics
– didn’t get along
- Relig. problems caused wars in
France and Germany
- Humanist influence – scholars
looked more at human beings
and their capabilities than
religion – human rights to think
and act for themselves
Other changes?
• War of Roses ended
• 1588 defeat of the Spanish Armada – made
England a sea power = expansion
• Much of this during Elizabeth’s reign as Queen
Renaissance Literature:
• More drama and lyric
poems
• Miracle Plays – plays on
wagons that travel and
usually offered a moral
• Poetry often in sonnet
form: 14 lines with
specific rhyming pattern)
• After the defeat of the
Spanish Armada,
literature and language
flourished due to a new
spirit of energy and
excitement
• Writers usually financed
by Patrons – often
dedicated his books to
the Patron when
finished
• Greek and Roman styles
influenced writing
Sonnet:
• Form of lyric poetry = romantic, love,
nature, emotions (remember “The
Seafarer”?)
• 14 lines
• Iambic pentameter
• 2 types:
1)Petrarchan Sonnet (Italian) – named
for Petrarch
• Abba abba cdc cde
2)Shakespearean Sonnet
abab cdcd efef gg
William Shakespeare Facts…Did
you know………….?
• Nobody knows Shakespeare’s true birthday.
The closest we can come is the date of his
baptism on April 26, 1564. By tradition,
Wm. was assumed to have been born three
days earlier on the 2rd.
• William married a woman 8 years
his senior. Anne Hathaway was
26 when William married her at
18. She was pregnant when they
married.
• Shakespeare and wife had 8
children, including daughter
Susanna, twins Hamnet and
Judith, and Edmund.
• Shakespeare invented the word
“assassination.”
• “courtship”
• “dwindle”
• “gnarled”
• “obscene”
• “suspicious”
• “laughable”
• There were 2 Shakespeare families living in
Stratford when William was born; the other family
did not become famous.
• Shakespeare, one of literature’s greatest figures,
never attended university.
• Most academics
agree that William
wrote his first play,
Henry VI, Part One
around 1589 when he
would have been
roughly 25 years old.
• William lived through the Black Death.
This epidemic that killed over 33,000
in London alone in 1603 when Will
was 39, later retuned in 1608.
• The Bard lost a play. The play Cardenio
that has been credited to Will and was
performed in his life, has been completely
lost to time. Today, we have no written
record of its story.
• The famous playwright died in 1616 at age 52. He
wrote on average 1.5 plays a year since he first
started in 1589. His last play The Two Noble
Kinsmen is thought to have been written in 1613
when he was 49.
• William never published
any of his plays. We read
his plays today only
because his fellow actors,
John Hemminges and
Henry Condell,
posthumously recorded his
work as a dedication to
their fellow actor in 1623,
publishing 36 of William’s
play. This collection is
known as The First Folio.
• Unlike most famous artists of his time, the
Bard did not die in poverty. When he died,
his will contained several large holdings of
land.
• Few people realize that aside
from writing 37 plays and
composing 154 sonnets,
William was also an actor who
performed many of his own
plays as well as those of other
playwrights (Ben Johnson).
• As an actor performing his own
plays, William performed before
Queen Elizabeth I and later
before James I who was an
enthusiastic patron of his work.
http://sites.google.com/site/hoodrivershakespeare/02-032008013003PM.jpg
• Will wrote lewd comments about women.
• Suicide occurs an unlucky thirteen times in
Shakespeare’s plays.
• Racism crops up frequently in the Bard’s
work.
Desdemona and Othello
• Anti-Semitism also
crops up. The
Jewish
moneylender
Shylock in the
Merchant of Venice
is portrayed as
greedy and
calculating.
• Will dabbled in property development. At
age 18, he bought the second most
prestigious property in all of Stratford.
• Even Shakespeare had his critics. One
called Robert Greene described the young
playwright as an “upstart young crow” or
arrogant upstart, accusing him of borrowing
ideas from his seniors in the theatre world
for his own plays.
• William’s 126th poem contains a farewell to
“my lovely boy,” a phrase taken to imply
possible homosexuality by some
postmodern Shakespeare academics.
• The Bard’s will gave most of his property to
Susanna, his first child and not to his wife Anne
Hathaway. Instead, his loyal wife infamously
received his “second-best bed.”
• The Bard’s second-best bed wasn’t so bad; it was
his marriage bed; the “best bed” in those days was
reserved for guests.
• William was popular with
King James I. England’s ruler
following Elizabeth I was so
taken with the Bard’s skill that
he gave his acting company,
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men,
a patent, allowing them to
perform and also made these
actors Grooms of Chamber.
• The Bard returned the favor by
renaming his company The
King’s Men. This title made
William a favorite for Court
performances.
The Globe Theatre
• The Globe Theatre, also known as
Shakespeare Globe Theatre, was not only
one of the most famous playhouses of all
time, but the playhouse where Shakespeare
performed many of his greatest plays. Built
from oak and stolen playhouse frames, the 3
story, 3000 capacity Globe, co-owned by
William Shakespeare, has become almost as
famous as the playwright himself.
• The Globe
History: Shakespeare needs a new
playhouse to compete…
• The 1598 decision to build
the famous playhouse
came about as the answer
to many of The Lord
Chamberlain’s Men’s
problems. With the end of
a lease on the Blackfriars
Theatre in 1597, the
players had no where else
to perform their plays.
• One problem: lack of
money!
• James and Richard
Burbage of The Lord
Chamberlain’s Men came
up with a novel idea: they
would each own 25 % of
the new playhouse while
the rest of the players
would each chip in the
remaining 50 %.
• The playhouse was
completed and opened in
1599. It was circular, held
up to 3000 patrons, and
turned out to be a good
earner.
Location, Location, Location..
• Though located near the river
Thames, Shakespeare’s
playhouse was not, in fact, in
central London but rather an
outlying district called
Southwark. Southwark had a
“colorful” reputation of being
not too different from what
we could call a “red light”
district today, certainly not
the place to find respectable
gentry.
• Yet, the famous playhouse attracted
commoners and gentry alike.
• England’s strict class divisions remained:
commoners were in the courtyard, while the
gentry and nobility were seated in the
galleries or balconies.
General Appearance:
• Built to the engineering standards of 1599, the famous
playhouse was a large circular structure, three stories
high.
• In the center, pushed up against one interior side,
extended the 5 feet high main stage. Behind this stage
were changing rooms for the actors.
• On the third level was a small house-like structure
supported by columns from the stage where
announcements were made and the playhouse’s flag
would often fly, advertising plays currently being
performed
Cost of Entry:
• Open to all for the modest fee of just one penny
(roughly 10 % of a worker’s daily wage), you
could stand in the yard at the center of the
playhouse. Without an overhead roof, such a view
was exposed, but with the stage set at eye level,
you got the closest view in the house. For a little
more, roughly two pennies, you could pay to sit in
one of the playhouse’s three circular galleries.
Interesting fact…
“In Elizabethan times many of Shakespeare’s plays were
performed at The Globe Theatre in London. To get in, you
put one penny in a box by the door. Then you could stand
on the ground in front of the stage. To sit on the first
balcony, you put another penny in the box held by a man
in front of the stairs. To sit on the second balcony, you put
another penny in the box held by the man by the second
flight of stairs. Then when the show started, the men went
and put the boxes in a room backstage - the box office.”
--BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/features/shakespeare/
shakespeare-fun-facts.shtml
Watching a Play:
• Shakespeare’s audiences had to
use their imagination: there
were no backdrops, no lighting
to speak of, horrific acoustics,
and few, if any, props.
• The only notable exception was
the use of colorful costumes,
heralds, banners, the odd
cannon, and the dramatic use of
the balconies.
• The first play we know of that
was performed at the Globe
was Julius Caesar in 1599.
Burnt to the Ground
and Rebuilt Again:
• Tragedy struck
amidst a
performance of
Henry VIII on
June 29, 1613.
A cannon fired
during the play
ignited the
playhouse’s
thatched roof,
burning the
Globe to the
ground
• The playhouse was
rebuilt one year
later on the
opposite side of the
Thames in 1614.
• In 1642 as Puritans
made their
presence felt in
England,
playhouses no
longer were a place
of laughter but one
of evil sin. All of
England’s
playhouses were
closed to “protect
the good people of
England.”
Today’s Replica:
• Though the original playhouse is no
longer with us, we can enjoy a very close
approximation of it today in Southwark,
the very same place the original was built.
• However, the replica is
just that…the exits had
to be enlarged to comply
with today’s fire regulations,
modern bathrooms had to be
added, and despite being built
of the same oak timbers, it is
not in the same Maiden Lane
location of the original, but is
nearby.
The Plot to Kill Queen Elizabeth!
• Shakespeare and his
famous playhouse also
distinguished themselves
in controversy. In 1601,
Sir Gilly Meyrick asked
The Lord Chamberlain’s
Men to perform Richard II
for two pounds. This was
an old play, and it was
only the money that
convinced the actors to
perform it.
• The reason Meyrick
wanted the play performed
was because of its antimonarchic message: King
Richard II is removed
from power for being a
tyrant.
• Meyrick was hoping that a
well-attended performance
the very day before the
Essex rebellion began
would generate public
sympathy for those
attempting to kill Queen
Elizabeth
• The Essex rebellion failed, The Earl of Essex and
most of his supporters being killed.
• Shakespeare and the rest of the
Chamberlain’s Men were questioned
for their part in this “conspiracy.”
• There is still some doubt as to whether
Shakespeare could really not have known what he
was doing. Perhaps Shakespeare may have been
sympathetic to the conspirators? Little is known
with complete certainty.
Test Your Shakespeare IQ:
1. When was Shakespeare born?
A. July 4, 1776
B. April 23, 1564
C. September 2, 1490
2.
A.
B.
C.
3.
In what town did Shakespeare grow up?
London
Dublin
Stratford-upon-Avon
Who were the two reigning monarchs during
Shakespeare’s life?
A. Henry VI and Richard III
B. Elizabeth I and James I
C. William and Mary
4.
A.
B.
C.
5.
A.
B.
C.
6.
A.
B.
C.
Who was one of Shakespeare’s most well known
contemporaries?
Arthur Miller
Christopher Marlowe
Dante
In what outdoor theater did Shakespeare present most of his
plays?
The Rose
The Bear Garden
The Globe
Who helped publish Shakespeare’s First Folio after his death?
His wife
Two actors from his company, John Heminge and Henry
Condell
His lawyer
7.
A.
B.
C.
8.
What three genres were Shakespeare’s plays divided into in
the First Folio?
Comedy, History, and Tragedy
Action, Drama, and Romance
Slapstick, Western, and Tragedy
A.
B.
C.
Which are the longest and shortest plays written by
Shakespeare?
Hamlet and Comedy of Errors
The Tempest and Taming of the Shrew
Romeo and Juliet and All’s Well that Ends Well
9.
A.
B.
C.
Who did not portray Hamlet on film?
Mel Gibson
Colin Farrell
Ethan Hawke
10.
A.
B.
C.
In what poetic meter did Shakespeare compose the majority of his
plays and verse?
Heroic couplets
Anapestic trimeter
Iambic pentameter
• Did shakespeare want to suppress his
sonets?
• NPR, Morning Edition
• May 20, 2009
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.ph
p?storyId=104317503
Did Shakespeare want to
suppress his sonnets?
NPR, Morning Edition
May 20, 2009