Shakespeare Shakespeare some facts Baptised 1564 in Stratford

Shakespeare

Shakespeare: some facts • Baptised 1564 in Stratford upon Avon • First 12 years well to do • Good school – The Classics (Ovid) – Memorising – Latin • Father: – a glover and mayor of town – probably a Catholic – brushes with law

Shakespeare: dates (2) • 1582: Married Anne Hathaway, he was 18 (she was pregnant) • 1592: Henry IV, part one performed in London • 1597: buys house in Stratford (doing well) • 1599: Globe Theatre • 1613: Globe burns down • 1615: More legal problems • 1616: dies, age 52

Shakespeare’s times Here a few themes to explore that will help you understand Shakespeare, his work and his time: • Elizabeth I • Catholic Protestant • Lord Chamberlain’s Men • Mummers’plays and Mystery Plays • Sonnets • Renaissance

Rulers, religion, politics Shakespeare lived during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. What went on before: • Henry VIII, a Tudor is married to Catharine of Aragon, a Catholic, they have a daughter Mary (no son). • Henry falls in love with Anne Boleyn, wants a divorce because he loves her and/or hopes for a son. • Henry falls out with the Pope over this and starts his own religion. He becomes a Protestant, divorces Catharine, marries Anne. They have a daughter Elizabeth.

Rulers, religion and Politics (2) • Henry later has Anne executed (beheaded and marries a number of other girls). He manages to have one son. • After Henry dies his son becomes King, but he dies fairly soon. • Next in line is Mary, the Catholic. She is very fanatic and prosecutes and executes a number of Catholics. • Mary dies young as well. Elizabeth, a Protestant, is the next Queen. During her reign many Catholics manage to remain faithful by keeping quiet, many others however were prosecuted. Being a Catholic did not help your career (Shakespeare’s father found out apparently).

Rulers, religion and politics Conclusion: • This division between religions influenced all aspects of people’s lives in Shakespeare’s time. So, if you were a writer and a Catholic (which Shakespeare probably was according to some), and you wanted to be critical you had to be VERY CAREFUL.

Plays in Shakespeare’s time • What went before: • No theatres (or royalties) like we know today. • People performed religious plays like the Mummers’ Plays (about St George) and the Mystery Plays (Biblical scenes), in town squares, barns. There were also Morality Plays about good and bad. • Groups of players travelled the country to perform and had a patron like a lord who supported them. These groups played in inns, castle halls, big rooms etc. Shakespeare himself joined a group called “Lord Chamberlain’s Men”.

Mystery Play http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=f. MAFg. Sn. D l. RY&feature=related

Something new: a theatre • In Shakespeare time, there were for the first time real theatres. These were built specially for groups to perform plays and their architecture was inspired by the architecture of the inns. • Plays themselves were changing, no longer just about religion, but about action, love, wit and learning. • The people, the audience loved and wanted more. • Shakespeare was one of the people who could take care of this!

Medieval Theatre • Illustrations

Shakespeare’s work • 154 sonnets • About 30 -40 plays: – Comedy (e. g. Midsummer night’s dream) – History plays (e. g. Henry IV) – Romance (E. g. Romeo and Juliet) – Tragedy (e. g. Hamlet)

A sonnet Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Sonnets Shakespeare wrote Italian • 14 lines • Rhyme pattern: abab cdcd efef gg • Rhythmic pattern: – da. DUM – 5 times = 5 feet = pentameter – Stress on second syllable = iambic pattern – So: iambic pentameter • A turn in the third stanza = volta • Last two lines: often summary or surprise ending

About structure • Shakepeare’s plays mostly in blank verse (= unrhymed). • Plays in 5 scenes: – Act 1: introduction of characters and setting story. – Act 2: Getting better acquainted with the characters. – Act 3: So called pivotal scene: heroes make mistakes, decisions have to be made, confusion. – Act 4: Action unfolds. Things go wrong. – Act 5: all the pieces come together. Heroes learn their lessons.

Shakespeare’s plays What was new? • The theatre as a building. • Shakespeare didn’t follow the old rules, set up by Aristotle, all the time. • So, not only one story line, one day, one place. • Shakespeare invented many new words and phrases. The language was changing dramatically at the time, after having been suppressed for about 300 years. • Themes: not just biblical themes and moralistic tales, but plays for entertainment about love, hate, war etc.

A note on language • The longest word in Shakespeare’s plays: Honorificabilitudinitatibus (meaning: "the state of being able to achieve honours“). It’s from a dialogue between two pedantic characters. • “Thee, thy” are the same as “je, jij” in Dutch. These words dropped out of use. • Shakespeare still uses words like “doth, goeth” etc. This too disappeared from the language. In fact, it was already disappearing in Shakespeare’s time.