Shakespeareby Linda VanVickle

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE TITLE TOPIC1 England and Elizabeth Elizabethan England2 Young Shakespeare Shakespeare’s Life: 1564-15923 Shakespeare as an Adult Shakespeare’s Life: 1592-16164 Shakespeare’s Stage The Globe Theatre5 No Females Allowed! Shakespeare’s Actors6 Royal Fans Shakespeare’s Patrons7 Important Drama Terms Vocabulary Review8 Future Beaus or Foes? A Midsummer Night’s Dream9 Explain Yourself, Romeo! Romeo and Juliet

10 Who’s to Blame? Romeo and Juliet11 To Crown or to Kill? Julius Caesar12 “Lend Me Your Ears” Julius Caesar13 To Avenge or Not to Avenge? Hamlet14 Appearance vs. Reality Hamlet15 A Model Tragedy Othello16 A Play to Please a King Macbeth17 Weighing Choices Macbeth18 Shakespeare’s Farewell The Tempest19 Important Poetry Terms Vocabulary Review20 Shakespearean Sonnets Sonnet 1821 A Study of a Sonnet Sonnet 2922 Shakespeare: Borrower and Lender Shakespeare Sources and Spin-offs23 Shakespeare’s Songs Music of the Shakespearean Stage24 Speaking of Shakespeare Everyday Language from Shakespeare25 Name-Calling—Shakespeare Style Shakespearean Insults26 Shakespeare’s Spirits Fantastic Shakespearean Characters27 William’s Words? Famous Shakespearean Quotes28 Truth or Tale? Review

This book teaches students about the life and works of the great English playwrightWilliam Shakespeare. The first six pages present background information that helps students seethe influence of the Elizabethan Age on Shakespeare’s writing. Pages 7 through 21 cover someof Shakespeare’s most popular works. The wide variety of activities included on these pagesencourages students to focus on Shakespeare’s techniques in developing plots, characters, andthemes as well as his use of language. The remaining pages provide exercises that tie togethercommon themes and techniques used in Shakespeare’s works. These pages also check students’knowledge about the well-known bard.

© 2000 McDONALD PUBLISHING CO. i SHAKESPEARE

Name Elizabethan England

Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603. During herforty-five year reign, England gained political power, national pride,and many cultural achievements. Because Elizabeth was soinfluential in leading this English renaissance, the last half of thesixteenth century in England is known as the Elizabethan Period.The Elizabethan period spanned most of William Shakespeare’s life.

Elizabeth came to the throne after the deaths of her half brother Edward and herhalf sister Mary, whose rule had left England in a state of political and religious turmoil.The intelligent and politically shrewd Elizabeth worked with Parliament to ease thedivisions within the country. By remaining single, she sought to avoid the politicalentanglements that marriage to a foreigner could bring. She encouraged exploration,which led to Englishman Sir Francis Drake’s successful voyage around the world from1577 to 1580. Also during Elizabeth’s rule, England became a world power with thetriumphant defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. For the next three centuries,England would dominate world trade and colonization.

Before Elizabeth came to power, England had looked to the European continent forguidance in literature, fashion, and drama. Latin was the language taught in Europeanschools and used for writing important works of literature and legal documents.Elizabeth spurred a cultural awakening by encouraging and patronizing the arts. Hersupport of the arts encouraged England’s poets, musicians, and playwrights. Growingnational pride made it acceptable for them to produce their works in English, makingliterature more accessible to the common people.

Despite Elizabeth’s popularity, her reign was sometimes challenged. Elizabethbelieved in the divine right of kings, which asserts that God gives a monarch the right torule. She also insisted that all of her subjects follow the doctrine of passive obedience.This doctrine stated that since God had appointed the monarch, any act of rebellion wasan act of disobedience against God’s will. Threats to the monarchy were dealt withharshly. Elizabeth even reluctantly executed her own cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, fortreason.

1. Why do we have Queen Elizabeth to thank for the beautiful imagery, memorablespeeches, and delightful puns of Shakespeare’s poetry and plays?

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2. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth murders King Duncan. Macbeth is thenhaunted by guilt and is eventually killed because of what he did. Why wouldQueen Elizabeth have viewed this as just punishment?

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3. What three words do you think best describe Queen Elizabeth I? Why?

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© 2000 McDONALD PUBLISHING CO. 1 SHAKESPEARE

England and Elizabeth

Name Shakespeare’s Life: 1564-1592

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in England inthe small town of Stratford-upon-Avon. He was the oldestson of Mary and John Shakespeare. William’s mother wasfrom a prominent family. His father was a glove maker whoat one time was the high bailiff, or mayor, of Stratford.Records of Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church show that Williamwas baptized there on April 26, and since infants wereusually baptized three days after birth, April 23 isrecognized as his birthday.

Scholars believe William Shakespeare attended the Stratford grammar school.Elizabethan grammar schools taught logic, rhetoric, composition, and publicspeaking—all in Latin. Shakespeare showed his knowledge of the Latin classics in thereferences he made to these works in his plays. It’s likely that Shakespeare was alsoinfluenced by the countryside around Stratford. His poetry and plays abound withimages from nature, farming, hunting, and country folklore.

A marriage license was issued in 1582 to William Shakespeare and AnneHathaway, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer. Their daughter Susanna was born in1583, and their twins, Hamnet and Judith, were born in 1585.

There are no records of Shakespeare’s life from 1585 to1592. Biographers call thisperiod of time “the lost years.” Some people speculate that during these yearsShakespeare worked for a while at his father’s trade. One seventeenth-centurybiographer said that during this time Shakespeare was a butcher who made loftyspeeches before butchering a calf. Others have said he was a sailor, a soldier, a lawyer,a clerk, and a teacher. A common story is that he left Stratford to avoid prosecution forpoaching deer. One convincing theory is that Shakespeare joined a traveling theatercompany that visited Stratford in 1587. Shakespeare’s exact activities during this timeremain a mystery.

Some of what we know about Shakespeare is based on fact, and some is based onspeculation. Decide whether each of the statements below is a fact or speculation.Write F or S in each blank.

1. ___ Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564.

2. ___ Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church on April 26, 1564.

3. ___ Shakespeare studied Latin at the Stratford grammar school.

4. ___ Shakespeare and his wife had three children.

5. ___ Shakespeare was a deer poacher.

6. ___ Shakespeare went to London with a traveling theater company that came toStratford in 1587.

7. According to the passage, what two influences from Shakespeare’s childhood areevident in his work?

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© 2000 McDONALD PUBLISHING CO. 2 SHAKESPEARE

Young Shakespeare