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Introduction to ShakespeareEnglish I

+Sources

Shakespeare-Online.com

+Bio of the Bard

Born in Stratford-Upon- Avon in 1564

Son of a wood and leather merchant

Did not have much education- genius?

Married to Anne Hathaway (no, not the actress)

Wrote 37 plays in his lifetime, although some people claim that he did not write all of these himself.

+His plays- “All the world’s a stage”

Performed at the Globe Theatre in London (original burnt down)

Accommodated 2-3,000 people

Situated outside of town- theatre looked down upon for political/moral reasons and fear of plague spreading

Lowest seats cost 60 cents, highest $7 (in today’s money!)

Women not allowed to act! Men played their parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_KXbKa2crI

+The Globe- rebuilt, of course

+Inside the Globe

+Elizabethan England

Queen Elizabeth is queen during Shakespeare’s time

One of most popular and long-reining monarchs in English history (last of Tudors)

Daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII of England

25 at time of rule- never married, called illegitimate daughter by pope

Known for being stubborn and strong, not heavily invested in foreign affairs

+Elizabethan England

First public theatres were built in England

Sports: football, swimming, wrestling, tennis

People would celebrate holidays and festivals- 12th night of Christmas and All Hallow’s Eve

Public punishments: stocks and pillories

Edmund Spenser, Marlowe other popular writers of the time

Black death was at its peak

+Elizabeth

+Fashions of the day

+The Plague

+Plague, continued

1665-1666- last wave of the Bubonic Plague

1665- hot summer- plague easily spread

Known as “The Great Plague”

Killed roughly 100,000 residents of England

Many stayed indoors and avoided public places

+The sonnet

Two types of sonnets

Types? Petrarchan (“Italian”) and Shakespearean (“English”)

How many lines? 14 lines

+Shakespeare’s sonnets

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets

Sonnet 18 = One of his most popular (will explore today)

1-126 are passionately addressed to a young man of unknown identity

127-154 passionately addressed to a young lady known as “the dark lady”

We have no idea if these sonnets express Shakespeare’s true feelings- little is known about his life

+The “Petrarchan” sonnet

What are the two parts of a sonnet? Octave (first six lines) and the sestet (last 6 lines)

Characteristic of octave? Presents a problem, question, or situation

What is the characteristic of the sestet? It comments on the situation, answers the question or suggests a solution to the problem.

Where does the “volta” or tone shift take place? In between the octave and the sestet

Rhyme scheme: abba abba (octave) cdcdcd (sestet)

NOTE: NOT ALL SONNETS ARE CONSTRUCTED THIS WAY!

+The “Shakespearean” Sonnet

Three quatrains (four lines of poetry grouped together) followed by a couplet (two lines of poetry grouped together).

The couplet will offer the answer to the question or the solution to the problem that is introduced and developed in the quatrains. Think of it as the resolution or conclusion of the piece.

Rhyme Scheme: abab cdcd efef gg (couplet)

+Defining Rhyme Scheme

Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song.

It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. Ex. Abab cdcd

+Defining Iambic Pentameter

Ten syllables in each line, five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables

The rhythm sounds like: ba-BUM/ba-BUM/ba-BUM/ba-BUM/ba-BUM

When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the TIME (Sonnet 12)