The Life of William Shakespeare: From Birth to Legacy

1. HIS LIFE

2. Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon 75 miles northwest of London

3. Shakespeare’s birthplace

4. Stratford is now a major tourist destination

5. Tourist Map of Stratford

6. Statue of Shakespeare

7. Gnomeo & Julietparody of this statue

8. Avon is the river that runs through Straford

9. Born April 23, 1564 – third child and first son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden

10. Grammar School in Stratford • Possibly entered five or six years of age • Attending school six days a week (from 6 a.m. to 11a.m and then from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m) with a little more than a month's vacation per year • Attended until he reached seventeen or eighteen years of age. • By the time he finished, he would have had more than the equivalent of today's college graduate majoring in literature. • All students drilled extensively in Latin and Greek. • King's New School, like Eton College, is still a functioning boys' school today.

11. ..and you think you have it bad… • A typical week at King Edward IV Grammar School for William Shakespeare would cover an examination on the previous Sunday’s sermon on Monday and examinations on Friday and Saturday • William Shakespeare would have been expected to converse in Latin at all times in order to improve his fluency in the language - any boy caught speaking English at school was punished • The punishments were carried out on Fridays so this, along with the examinations, must have been the worst day of the week for William Shakespeare!

12. Marriage & Children William married Anne Hathaway NOT the one from THE PRINCESS DIARIES!!

13. He was 18 yrs old and she was 26 (8 yrs older) She was pregnant with their first child, Susanna

14. They lived in this cottage, now referred to as ANNE HATHAWAY’S COTTAGE

15. Anne Hathaway’s Cottage is a very popular tourist site today

16. 2 years later, 2 more kids… Twins: Hamnet and Judith

17. THE LOST YEARS Soon after the twins were born, William left Stratford. There is no record of what he did for the next 7 years. Possibly… *soldier *horse tender *school master

18. Plays & Poems 1590 – 1608 wrote at least 37 plays and several poems 1594 – Shakespeare was an actor and playwright for THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MEN

19. THE GLOBE THEATER • - Shakespeare's company built the Globe Theatre in London's Bankside district. It was one of four major theatres in the area, along with the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope. The open-air, octagonal amphitheater rose three stories high with a seating capacity of up to 3,000 spectators!

20. SEEING A PLAY IN SHAKESPEARE’S DAY • If the flag on the theater was raised, there was a play that day. • Groundlings were people who paid a penny to stand in the pit for the entire play. • Wealthy people paid more to sit in the galleries.

21. PARTS OF THE GLOBE THEATER

22. Scenery was not used; a piece of furniture or branch was used to represent the setting. • The Globe was an open-air theater – no roof – so no lighting effects were used and plays were performed during the day. • Colorful costumes, musical accompaniment, and special sound effects were used. • During winter, or bad weather, indoor theaters were used, such as The Blackfriars.

23. 37 PLAYS: COMEDY & TRAGEDY & HISTORY • ComediesAll's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, Cymbeline, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale • TragediesAntony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus • Histories1,2, and 3 Henry VI, 1 and 2 Henry IV, King John, Henry V, Henry VIII, Richard II, Richard III

24. OLD PLAYS WITH A NEW TWIST • Director’s Concept is often used when producing a modern version of a Shakespeare play, for example, ROMEO & JULIET

25. INSPIRED BY SHAKESPEARE

26. QUEEN ELIZABETH I reigned 1558-1603 • Shakespeare’s plays became popular and his company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, often performed for her court.

27. KING JAMES I • 1603 - Changed the name of the company to THE KING’S COMPANY (sometimes called THE KING’S MEN) • 1611 – King James Version of the Holy Bible complete

28. Shakespeare gradually retired and spent more time in Stratford-Upon-Avon • Four weeks prior to his death, Shakespeare wrote his own epitaph -- the words on his tombstone. In it, he cursed anyone who would dare to move his bones. And it worked! Although it was commonplace to move previously buried bones to make room for new bodies, Shakespeare's bones were never moved! Good friend for Jesus sake forbearTo dig the dust enclosed here!Blest be the man that spares these stones,And curst be he that moves my bones • A contemporary of Shakespeare was said to have reported the following: "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."

29. Died on his birthday, April 23, 1616 at age 52 • Buried Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon • His tomb lies beneath the floor of the church, in the chancel space around the altar