Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre

Stratford-upon-AvonFather: John ShakespeareMother: Mar y ArdenWife: Anne HathawaySusana, Judeth, Hamnet1564-1616First job: stage manager and actor

William Shakespeare

First plays: Henry VI, Titus Andronicus, & The Comedy of Errors (1591-92)

Plays meant to be performed; not published until seven years after death

Lord Chamberlain’s Men: acting companyQueen Elizabeth I37 plays, 154 sonnets, and other poetryRomeo and Juliet: performed 1594; popular

tale- spectators knew story

William Shakespeare cont.

Known for comedies, histories, and tragediesQueen Elizabeth IShakespeare’s theater: noisy, all ages, all

classes, openThe pit: lower classes- “groundlings”Noisy: food thrown, Shakespeare asked for

“patient ears,” exaggerated acting, rushed plays

Wrote, directed, and acted in The Globe

"Shakespeare and His Theater" WS

http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/virtualtour/stage/

The Globe Virtual Tour

Aside:A brief remark made by a character and intended to be heard by

the audience but not by other charactersComic Relief:A humorous scene or speech in a serious drama which is meant

to provide relief from emotional intensity Iambic Pentameter:a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with

five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable

Soliloquy:A speech given by a character alone on the stageSonnet:14 line poem in iambic pentameter

Shakespearean Vocabulary

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” from Richard III

“Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?” from Sonnet 18

"And wash this filthy witness from your hand.“ from Macbeth

“But do thy worst to steal thy self away,” Sonnet 92

Examples of Iambic Pentameter

Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no! it is an ever-fixed markThat looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come:Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 116