William ShakespeareA Midsummer’s Night DreamMuch Ado about NothingThe Life and Death of King Richard III

Objectives

To read, comprehend, and interpret, a scene and soliloquy from three plays.

To relate a scene or soliloquy to a personal experience.

To summarize a scene or soliloquy.

To build vocabulary

To develop skill in using subject and verb agreement in inverted sentences.

Meet the Author

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Widely regarded as one of the best writers of all time.

Wrote plays and poems that are the best in the English language.

They have endured because of his insight into human nature, his ability to lighten the tragic with the humorous, and his portrayal of kings and queens and scoundrels with equal understanding.

Literary Focus

Scenes and Soliloquies

Like most plays, Shakespeare’s plays are divided into acts and scenes. A scene is a unified series of action that takes place between two or more characters. The scenes are linked together to tell the story.

A soliloquy is a speech that reveals the inner thought of a character. Soliloquies can be delivered either directly to the audience or as an internal monologue, as though the actor were speaking to himself. There are speeches in Much Ado about Nothing and The Life and Death of King Richard III are both soliloquies.

Thematic Focus/CultureRelationships- As you read the scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, look for his insights into human relationships.

Shakespeare’s plays were performed in open air theatres in London. The most famous theatre was the Globe, a three tiered circle of seats surrounding a central area called the pit. The arrangement was somewhat like a modern stadium, only much smaller.

Plays were staged with very little scenery, and, because they were performed in the daylight, not lighting was used. To provide this kind of information for the audience, playwrights revealed this information of time, place, weather conditions, through dialogue.

The Globe

The Globe

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/

The Story Behind the Plays

In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Shakespeare added new inventions to tales that would have been familiar to his audiences. The lovesick quartet is based on characters from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

The Life and Death of King Richard III is based on the reign of this king of England.

Much Ado about Nothing is a romantic comedy.

Building Grammar Skills

Subject and Verb agreement in Inverted Sentences-

In an inverted sentence, the subject follows the verb. Most sentences beginning with here and there are inverted sentences. When a sentence is inverted, find the subject and the verb agree with it.

Shakespeare’s Vocabulary

Shakespeare’s vocabulary can be challenging.

Many of the unfamiliar words occur often, such as the pronouns:

Thou and Thee for You

Thy and Thine for Your and Yours

Verbs can appear in unfamiliar forms ending in t,st, or th.

Examples are:

Are = art has = hast or hath

Can = canst were = wert

Do or does = dost

Word Bank

Apprehension

Confederacy

Officious

Discourse

Censured

Adversaries