William shakespeare v2010

William Shakespeare 1564 -1616

William Shakespeare

1564 -1616

His life

• He was an English poet and playwright. • Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. • Married when he was 18, had three children.• Around 1590, became an actor and writer in London.• Got his own theatre, the Globe, in 1599.• Had his own playing company: the Lord

Chamberlain’s Men.• The Globe burned to the ground in 1613.• Shakespeare retired to Stratford the same year.• He died in 1616.

William Shakespeare

Wanted to be remembered asa poet only.

Venus and Adonis c. 1592-3

Shakespeare’s birthplaceStratford-on Avon

Seven Ages of man

Henry Wriothesley (1573-1624) Earl of Southhampton

Henry Wriothesley was one of Shakespeare's strongest supporters and a very good friend.

Cultural and political events

• 1558-1603: The reign of Queen Elizabeth I of the House of Tudor• 1576: London’s first theatre, ”The Theatre”, opened outside the

north-east city walls• 1588: Defeat of the Spanish Armada• 1603: Death of Queen Elizabeth I and accession of King James 1

(James VI Scotland)• 1607: First English colony in Jamestown, Virginia• 1618: Beginning of the Thirty Year’s War on the continent• 1620: Pilgrim Fathers reach Cap Cod• 1625-1649: Reign of Charles I.• 1649-1660 Puritan republic under Oliver Cromwell

http://www.willshakespeare.com/timeline.htm

The Spanish Armada

His work

• Wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and other poems.

• His early works are mostly comedies and historical plays.

• Later in life he wrote mainly tragedies.

• Among his most famous works are the two tragedies ”Romeo and Juliet” and ”Hamlet”.

Sir John Falstaff Hamlet

Glossary of Literary Terms

• Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter verse

• Couplet: two sucessive lines of verse that rhyme and are of equal length

• Free verse: poetry that consists of unrhymed lines with irregular rhythmic patterns

• Lyric: a poem that has the form of and musical quality of a song, in which the poet expresses an intense personal feeling.

• Metaphor: a figure of speech in which two things are compared without the use of like or as. For example: “The road was ribbon of moon light over the purple moor”

• Similie: a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two objects which are essentially unlike but which resemble each other in one or more respects. This comparison is always introduced by like or as. For example: “My love is like a red, red rose.”

Shakespearian Sonnet

• is a fourteen line poem that deals with an idea or emotion and is divided into three quatrains ( a four line stanza) and a final rhymed couplet. It has a rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD GG.

• Stanza: a group of lines verse, usually four or more, arranged according to a fixed pattern

• Stream of consciousness: the recreation of a character’s flow of thought.

Entertainment in Shakespeare’s London

What The Globe may have looked like in 1616 after being rebuilt in 1614

NEW GLOBE

Inside the Globe today The Swan Theatre in Shakespeare’s days

STUDYING A PLAY

• A play was written to be performed on a stage. • Imagine the characters on the stage as you read the play.

This will help you: – see how the play is constructed – how dramatic crises are reached – how tension is created – how themes are linked through characters.

• Think how the lines would sound if spoken by actors and actresses.

• Read the play as a whole in as few sittings as possible. (It will take you approximately 2 - 3 hours). Read quickly and don't be put off by passages which don't make sense' because you will get the general sense and understand the shape of the whole play.

Grammar

Singular

I do

You do or Thou dost

S/he does or s/he doth

Plural

We do

You do

They do

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1594

JULIET:'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,nor arm, nor face, nor any other partbelonging to a man. O, be some other name!What's in a name? That which we call arose by any other name would smell as sweet;So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,retain that dear perfection which he oweswithout that title. Romeo, doff thy name,and for that name which is no part of theetake all myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EApntgYUVb4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PluoGHP0UU&mode=related&search=