Life and Times of William Shakespeare

1. Life and Times ofWilliam Shakespeare Brought to you by Miss Leyne

2. Who was Shakespeare? • William Shakespeare was an English actor, poet and playwright who lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s (around 400 years ago). • His plays are now performed all over the world in hundreds of languages, and he is known as one of the greatest writers of all time. • The reason his work is so popular is that Shakespeare wrote about human nature and how people behave. That is why, although his words can be hard to understand, his ideas are as relevant now as they were four centuries ago.

3. My life • It is speculated that William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 because his baptism was documented at Holy Trinity Church in the town of Stratford-Upon- Avon on the date of April 26th, 1564.

4. SHAKESPEARE’S BACKGROUND • William Shakespeare came from Stratford- Upon- Avon, a quiet market town. He was born on Henley Street, where his father John Shakespeare was a glover ( a maker of gloves and leather goods) as well he sold wool and barley. • John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, a wealthy landowner’s daughter in 1557. They had eight children, but three died very young. At the time childhood diseases like measles, scarlet fever and the flu could be fatal. • John Shakespeare was elected to the town council and became bailiff ( mayor) of the town. This position allowed William to attend the local grammar school and be well educated. William would have studied Latin and mythology until the age of fifteen.

5. William married Anne Hathaway in 1582, at the age of 18. She was eight years older than him. • Together they had three children. The eldest daughter born in 1583 was named Susanna and their twins Judith and Hamnet were born in 1585. • William’s only son died in August of 1596, and many speculate that as Shakespeare got older his son’s death affected him greatly, causing him to write his great tragedies. • By the age of 20, William Shakespeare had a wife and three children to provide for. It is assumed that he worked with his father in Stratford, although he might have been a teacher, lawyer or a soldier. • William’s father’s business was in difficulty, and he needed to earn a living. This may have been why he left Stratford for London to live and work. What we do know is that by 1592 he was in London writing plays.

6. Shakespeare bought a large expensive Stratford house, named ‘New Place’, in 1597. This was quite early in his career. • William was still working in London most of the time but this gave his wife and children their own home, and proved to everyone that Shakespeare had paid off all of his family’s debt. • At the end of his career, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, and lived at ‘New Place’ until he died at the age of 52 on April 23rd in the year 1616.

7. MY WORKS • During Shakespeare’s lifetime, drama developed faster than ever before. In London, play going became a large-scale business. With some theatres holding two or three thousand people, there were huge profits to be made, and new material was always needed. Drama was not seen as “literature” but merely as popular entertainment, in the same way as Hollywood films, television sitcoms or soap operas are now. • During Shakespeare’s career, fashion and tastes in drama changed. Shakespeare himself wrote mostly comedies and history plays during the Elizabethan period ( 1558-1603) and tragedies and tragicomedies during the reign of King James (1603-1625). Total number of plays written by William Shakespeare is said to be 37. • COMEDY- Plays that usually have a happy ending such as marriage. Throughout the play, jokes, farce and innuendo are found. Shakespeare’s comedy are usually love stories, set far away from England. “Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It” are examples of this style.

8. TRAGEDY- play ends in the death of one or more of the main characters. In a revenge tragedy such as “Titus Andronicus”, one murder sets off a chain of revenge killings. “King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet and Julius Caesar” are other Shakespeare tragedies that involve historical individuals and events. • TRAGICOMEDY-also referred to as a ‘problem play’ is a mixture of comedy and tragedy. The play seems to move towards a tragic ending, but a twist in the plot saves the character(s). “All’s Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida” are examples of a tragicomedy. • HISTORY- usually tells the stories of great leaders and Kings. However, Shakespeare altered what he found in the history books to suit his own dramatic purposes to make the plays more exciting. “ King John, Henry IV and Richard II, III are examples related to this grouping.

9. My Language • Shakespeare’s use of language made him one of the greatest writers in the world. With extraordinary skill and poetic imagination, he could set vivid scenes, express powerful emotions and reveal character in highly original ways. • Many of Shakespeare’s expressions, or idioms, have become part of the English language. People often use Shakespearean idioms without realizing it… “ You’ll eat us out of house and home if you’re not careful.”- Henry IV “There’s method in my madness.” – Hamlet “There’s no need to lay it on with a trowel.”- As You Like It “Well, the world’s your oyster now.”- The Merry Wives of Windsor

10. WAYS WITH WORDS Queen Elizabeth and her era entitled ‘Elizabethan’ were thriving due to a defeat of the Spanish Armada. England was flourishing and traded goods across the world and many new ideas were brought back from abroad. This led to an explosion in the richness of language; playwrights such as Shakespeare and scholars had to borrow or invent words to be able to talk about these new things. Shakespeare used a combination of PROSE (language without metrical structure- normal speech) and VERSE (also known as poetry). Shakespeare wrote using Early Modern English for poetic and dramatic purposes only; to create a specific poetic rhythm, to emphasize a certain word or give a character a specific speech pattern. The people of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras did not speak this way. Our language today uses between 6,000 and 15,000 words, whereas In Shakespeare’s time, there were no dictionaries, so people could spell words however they wanted and sometimes made up new ones. Over 2000 of the 30,000 words Shakespeare used had not been recorded before, and he may have made many of them up. Here are a few of the words first used by Shakespeare which are still in use today: leapfrog, submerged, fretful, barefaced, dwindle and lonely Shakespeare also used words that may seem familiar but have different connotations to them, such as: Afeared- afraid Constant- settled, determined Cot-quean: an effeminate man Dig-You-Good-Den: give you good evening Festinately- quickly Gorbellied- corpulent Happily- accidentally Hugger-Mugger- secrecy Lass-Lorn: deserted by a mistress Mell- to mix, to meddle Nice- foolish Pard- the leopard Rascal- a lean deer Sans- without Saw- a moral saying Sometimes, Shakespeare shortened proper words to add rhythmic sound when spoken. Here Are the proper versions: ‘TIS=IT IS ‘OPE=OPEN O’ER= OVER GI’=GIVE NE’ER=NEVER I’=IN E’ER=EVER OFT= OFTEN A’= HE E’EV=EVEN

11. MY THEATRE • Until the mid-16th century, most plays were performed outside of London. Craftsmen, or trades people put on traditional plays of morality, and mystery in town squares, and on village greens. However, due to Queen Elizabeth’s love of art and drama, performing grew in size, and importance, and London became hugely popular, and the center of English theatre. Queen Elizabeth allowed the first public theatre called ‘The Theatre’ to open in 1576. • From 1599 onwards, Shakespeare’s plays were usually performed at the Globe Theatre, which he was a share holder along with members of his theatre company, ‘The Chamberlain’s Men’. The theatre was a wooden circle, with no roof over the middle. The only lighting was daylight, so performances were put on in the afternoon. This huge, open-air circular theatre was located in Southwark, London. The theatre could hold 3,000 people, and there were two performances a day.

12. Attending Shakespeare’s Theatre • Shakespeare’s own theatre “The Globe’ had a roof that covered only the outside galleries thus, many who went to see the plays got wet in the frequent London rains. The stage jutted out into the audience, and the actors were surrounded on three sides by people who paid to see the performance. • General entrance to ‘The Globe’ was a penny. • Nearly half the theatre-goers who stood on the ground around the stage were called ‘groundlings’. They were not sheltered from the rain but were closest to the action on the stage. The ‘groundlings’ were a rowdy bunch, eating, talking and yelling out anything which took their fancy at the moment. They were known to ‘pitch’ their food or beer at the actors if the play did not interest them. • People paying higher prices got covered seats under the roof in the galleries to keep off the rain. The cost was an extra penny per level ( there were 3 levels) An extra penny could also buy a cushion for the seat.

13. No one went to the theatre at night. There were no electric stage lights, and the stage was in the middle of the audience, lighted by the sun. There was no scenery and very few props. The costumes were limited to what the actor could acquire themselves, so there might have been all manner of dress styles on the stage at one time. • Today, no courteous theatre-goers would think of walking around while a play is on, but Shakespeare’s audiences, especially the ‘groundlings’, made no pretense of courtesy. Shakespeare having been an actor himself, knew he had to write plays filled with action, for example sword play, and good stories filled with buffoonery, so as not to lose the audience’s attention, particularly the ‘groundlings’. He purposely created the stage to be 1.5m (5 feet) high, so people could not jump onto it. • In Shakespeare’s time no women or girls acted in the plays; which is the main reason there are many more parts for men than women in his plays. For a woman to act in a play during this era would have been considered ‘shameless’ and a SERIOUS breach of social custom. The parts of women in the plays were performed by young boys . • Only later in 17th century did women get to act, and even then an actress was considered to have a character that was ’SUSPECT’.

14. MYTIMES • Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth from 1558- 1603, Shakespeare’s life was anything but glamorous. The “Elizabethan Era” was quite savage, Elizabethans loved violence, and their forms of entertainment ranged from watching people being flogged or executed to bear-baiting. ( People would bet on how many dogs a starved bear would kill before the dogs would kill the bear) • In time, with the Queen’s love for theatre, and approval live performance became popular, and allowed Shakespeare to create the acting troupe named “The Chamberlains’ Men”, to earn a living and make a decent wage. • After Queen Elizabeth’s death, King James I took the throne. (1603-1625) Fortunately, for the actors and playwrights of the day, the king too loved the theatre. And so, during the ‘Jacobean Era”, Shakespeare’s troupe of actors were now called the ‘The Kings Men’, as King James particularly loved the work of Shakespeare and sponsored his plays.

15. During Shakespeare’s life there was no sewage system or garbage disposal in London. The city had a constant stench. It was customary for men to stand closest to the wall if they were walking with a woman; this was so that the woman would not get dirty if someone dumped his or her garbage out the window on the street as was expected. • The water was filthy and caused several problems for the citizens of London, such as: • The water was not fit to drink, so most people drank beer instead • People could not clean their teeth properly so they literally became yellow and brown • Many people caught diseases, because they could not wash themselves

16. In the spring, ice would break off and the water would be fresh. (otherwise it was filthy). This is were the term ‘spring cleaning’ came from. Also, many people began getting married in the spring, because it was the cleanest time of the year. At other times of the year, people used flowers to mask the smell of their city and themselves at their wedding, thus, beginning the tradition of having flowers for decoration at weddings that still exists today. • The streets of London were so dirty that they became rat infested and the rats brought with them disease…more specifically the ‘BUBONIC PLAGUE’. • Medical doctors had no knowledge of medicine that could help, so people with the plague were not allowed to leave their homes and were boarded up and left there to die. • There was such wide spread of the disease that I in every 3 Londoners died. So public gatherings were banned to avoid further contamination, this included all performances in theatres. • Fire was also a big problem because most houses were made of wood. However, it was because of a large fire that burned for three days that London was saved from the plague as most of the bacteria was killed.

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