Well-known facts about Will

1. Well-known facts about Will • Great writer of England • Plays translated into all languages, musicals, ballets • Born Stratford-upon-Avon • Well-to-do, affluent while alive • Most quoted, other than the Bible • 37 Plays • 154 sonnets!

2. Lesser-known Facts • Teen father: married pregnant 26 year old Anne Hathaway when he was 18 • Deadbeat dad: Left wife and children for London stage career • Father of twins • Elizabethan rapper: uses rhythm and rhyme • Plagiarism?

3. Subject Manner • Bear-baiting • Races • Gambling • Music • Drinking/socializing • Prostitution • Public executions

4. Conditions in London-BAD! • Thames River polluted with raw sewage • Trees used up for fuel • Poverty

5. Personal hygiene/health • Bathing considered dangerous • Body odor strong • Childhood diseases • Children often died before 5 years • Small Pox • Bubonic Plague

6. Living Conditions • No running water • Chamber Pots • Open Sewers • Crowded

7. Clothes • One set used all year long, rarely washed • Underclothing slept in, infrequently changed • Clothes handed down from rich to poor

8. Theater in London • Performed in courtyards of inns • The Theater-first public theater-1576 • Daytime/open air • Limited set design • Relied on music, sound, costumes, props and great description

9. The Globe • Built in 1599 • Across the Thames- “Wrong side of town” • King’s Players - Shakespeare’s company • Penny admission • No electricity • Performed in daytime • Exposed to the elements

10. Photo of it Rebuilt

11. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre has been recreated on the South Bank, about 200 yards from its original site. The new Globe opened officially on 21 August 1996 with a production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

12. The Globe stage, as viewed by the "groundlings."

13. The Globe stage, viewed from the wing, stage right. The wide angle lens offers a (somewhat distorted) view of the stage and part of the groundling area, plus the galleries, and the open sky above.

14. What it used to look like

15. Actors • All men • Female parts played by young boys • No actual kissing or hugging on stage

16. The groundling • Poor audience member • Stood around stage in “the pit” • Women not allowed (had to dress up as men to attend) • Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances

17. Romeo and Juliet • Tragedy • Written in 1595 • Set in Verona, Italy • Themes: parental control/rebellious teens; fate/freewill; impulsive behavior/self-control

18. Play’s source • Borrowed from a poem by Arthur Brooke-1562 titled, The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet • Poem found in French translation by Brooke • Shakespeare gave story new life and beauty • He also could have known the popular tale of Romeo and Juliet from a collection by William Painter, entitled The Palace of Pleasure, which was written sometime before 1580 • Story traces back to ancient Greece

19. Queen Elizabeth • Bastard daughter of King Henry VIII • And Ann Boleyn (2nd of 6 wives) • Henry had Ann beheaded for “treason” • Half sister of “Bloody Mary” A Tudor.- A Catholic and very unpopular • Cousin (Another Mary Queen of Scots- A Stuart) • She had her executed. • “Virgin Queen”? • A tease and a player • Loved theatre

20. Her “loving” parents

21. King James I • Ruled Scotland as James VI • Mother was Mary, aunt was Elizabeth • Ruled England, Scotland & Ireland for 22 years • Father was murdered and mother executed for treason by her own sister!

22. The Renaissance • 1500-1650 • “Rebirth” of arts, culture, science • Began in Tuscany (Italy) • Discovery of “New World” • Copernicus: Sun-centered Universe (1543) as opposed to an Earth-centered one (began scientific revolution. • King Henry VIII = renaissance man (ideal) • Reformation of Catholic Church