WilliamShakespeare
Romeo and Juliet: Author Background
What doyoualreadyknow?
Shakespeare: Biographical Information
•1564: Born in England
•1582: Married AnneHathaway
(rumored to be 3 months pregnant)
•1583: First child born(Susanna)
•1585: Twins born(Hamnet*died at age 11 and Judith)
•1616: Death
Stratford-Upon-Avon, England
Shakespeare: The Lost Years
1586-1592
Where was Billy?
Living in London?
Writing sonnets?
Traveling?
Shakespeare: London
1592: Critiqued in a pamphlet by Robert Greene
Published 154 sonnets, epic poems, and 37 plays
Director of his own plays and
others
Actor (small, important roles):
ghost of Hamlet’s father
Shakespeare: “It’s all in the details…”
•Ann Hathaway was 8 years older than Shakespeare.
•Shakespeare’s family was illiterate.
•The majority of his plays were published 7 years afterhis death.
•We do not know what Shakespeare looked like…not asingle portrait was painted during his life.
•There were no dictionaries during Shakespeare’s life.
Shakespeare: Plays
Shakespeare: Plays
Shakespeare: Plays
Shakespeare: Plays
Shakespeare: Plays
The Plays
•His early plays (1590s) were mostly comedies
▫In Shakespeare’s world a comedy is a play that usuallyends in marriage or some type of unification.
▫In short—it has a happy ending.
Shakespeare began writing tragedies in the early 1600’s.
In a tragedy the hero as some sort of tragic flaw, whichleads to his downfall. Tragedies always end in death.
![C:\Documents and Settings\jpenn\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\O75WKWOM\MC900215965[1].wmf](data/images/img18.png)
Comedies
•Comedy of Errors 1592
•The Taming of The Shrew1592-1594
•Love’s Labor’s Lost 1594-1595
•Two Gentleman of Verona1594-1595
•A Midsummer Night’s Dream1595-1596
•The Merchant of Venice 1596-1597
•As You Like It 1599-1600
•Twelfth Night 1599-1600
•And so many more..
![C:\Documents and Settings\jpenn\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\V87GWCY7\MC900343199[1].wmf](data/images/img20.png)
Tragedies
•Titus Andronicus 1593-1594
•Romeo and Juliet1594-1595
•Hamlet 1600-1601
•Othello 1604-1605
•The Tragedy of KingLear 1605-1606
•Macbeth 1605-1606
•And many more…
![C:\Documents and Settings\jpenn\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\XIQEQ46T\MC900343197[1].wmf](data/images/img22.png)
Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
•“golden age for English literature”
•Ruled England for 45 years
•Nicknamed “the virgin queen”
▫Produced no heir to the throne
•During her reign, the economy was weakened byfood shortages and high rent.
![C:\Documents and Settings\jpenn\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\O75WKWOM\MP900289597[1].jpg](data/images/img23.jpg)
Elizabethan Era
Queen Elizabeth Portrait
Elizabethan Fashion
Elizabethan Fashion
•During the Elizabethan period many peoplewere convicted of witchcraft.
•Shakespeare’s acting troupe was known as “TheLord Chamberlain’s Men” at this time.
Elizabethan Era
Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
King James I (1603-1628)
•Renamed Shakespeare’sacting troupe “The King’sMen”
•He was pretty fascinated byall this witchcraft anddemonology stuff. He wasreligious, but he believed insupernatural evil.
![C:\Documents and Settings\jpenn\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\V87GWCY7\MP910216443[1].jpg](data/images/img31.jpg)
Just Playin’
•Only men were permitted to perform duringShakespeare’s time!
▫Young boys or effeminate men were used toplay women’s roles.
•Costumes were expensive, and usually themost valuable part of a play’s production.
▫Costumes were either made by the company,bought in London, or donated by courtiers.
•Plays were most often performed on outdoorstages, and would take place during the daybecause of the natural light.
![C:\Documents and Settings\jpenn\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\HUX63LN1\MC900171843[1].wmf](data/images/img32.png)
![C:\Documents and Settings\jpenn\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\XIQEQ46T\MC900018739[1].wmf](data/images/img33.png)
Shakespeare: Plays
Plays had to be approved by thegovernment.
Playwrights could be imprisoned formorally or politically offensive work.
Shakespeare’s plays were performed at:
inns courtyards royal palaces
private residences playhouses
1599: Old Globe Theater
Old Globe Theater
Like most theaters at the time:
•Wooden structure
•Tiered seats in horseshoe formation
•2,000-3,000 people
•One to two pennies to attend
•Could pay extra to sit on the stage
•Could pay less to sit in the uncovered“pit”
•All characters played by male actors
Burned down in 1613 during a performance ofHenry VIII (cannon sparked a fire)
Facts about the Globe
•Built in 1599
•Shakespeare owned1/5 of the theatre
•Shakespeare earned10% of the Globe’sprofit.
Globe Seating
Shakespeare Controversy
•Many scholars and Shakespearian aficionados have argued back andforth about whether one man, Shakespeare, could have been soprolific as to write all the plays and sonnets attributed to his name.
•The Oxfordian’s, as they are called, argue that several other peoplemay have been responsible for the genius often attributed toShakespeare. Some of the contenders include: Edward de Ver,Christopher Marlowe (another famous playwright of Shakespeare’stime), and Queen Elizabeth herself!
•For arguments sake we are going to forge ahead with the thought thatShakespeare himself, did indeed write all of his plays and sonnets,because most of the evidence leans towards this theory. Of courseyou are welcome to explore the conspiracy on your own time. Thereare many books written about it, and I can point you to a few of themore interesting if you want to know more…
Why read Shakespeare?
Almost four hundred years afterShakespeare's death there are 15million pages referring to him onGoogle. There are 132 million forGod, 2.7 million for Elvis Presley,and coming up on Shakespeare'sheels, George W Bush with 14.7million.
Why read Shakespeare?
Macbeth is thoughtto be one of the mostproduced plays ever,with a performancebeginningsomewhere in theworld every fourhours.
“All the world's a stage, and all the menand women merely players: they havetheir exits and their entrances; and oneman in his time plays many parts.”
“It is not in the starsto hold our destinybut in ourselves.”
Why read Shakespeare?
Romeo and Juliet
•Tragedy!!!
•Written 1594-1595
•Based on a narrative poem by ArthurBrooke, “The Tragical History ofRomeus and Juliet” (1562). Thepoem was based on an Italianfolktale: “Romeo and Giulietta” byLuigi da Porta—this may have beenbased on a true story, but nobodyknows for sure.
![C:\Documents and Settings\jpenn\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\HUX63LN1\MP900449072[1].jpg](data/images/img43.jpg)
More R&J
•Romeo is 16 when the play begins;Juliet, 13 (younger than you!)
•A play of opposites: love and hate,delicate emotions and intensepassion, tender youth and obstinate(stubborn) adults, innocence anddeceit, humor and tragedy
•“Wherefore art thou Romeo…” doesnot mean, where are you Romeo?“wherefore” actually means why.Many people make this mistake, butnow you won’t…more onShakespeare’s language tomorrow.
"My only lovesprung from myonly hate! Too earlyseen unknown, andknown too late!"
“Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine”
FAMOUSRomeo and JulietQUOTES
“What's in a name?That which we call arose by any othername would smell assweet!”
Pre-Reading Quick-Write
1. Re-write one quote in yourown words.
2. Do you agree or disagree?
3. Give a real-life example tosupport your answer.
“What's in aname? That whichwe call a rose byany other namewould smell assweet!”
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose byany other name would smell as sweet!”
“Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine”
Romeo and Juliet inspired artwork…
Romeo and Juliet inspired artwork…
Romeo and Juliet inspired artwork…
Literature Terms
Sonnets
Sonnet= Poem with 14 lines that rhyme
Elizabethan (Shakespearean SONNET)
•Three groups of four linescalled quatrains.
ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG
• Concludes with a couplet(two rhymed lines)
1.Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2.Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May;
4.And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
5.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6.And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
7.And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8.By chance, or Nature’s changing course,untrimmed:
9.But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10.Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,
11.Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in hisshade,
12.When in eternal lines to Time thou growest.
13.So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
14.So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Iambic Pentameter
Identify the following on the given sonnet:
Couplet
Quatrain
Iamb
Iambic pentameter
Run-on line/enjambment