William Shakespeare 1564-1616
 It is said that Shakespeare was born at Stratford-
upon-Avon on April 23, 1564.
 He had three brothers and four sisters and was
the oldest child of the family.
 He married Anne Hathaway in 1582: he was 18
and she was 26. They had 3 kids by the time he
was 21.
 He wrote his first play around 1591, fifteen years
after the opening of the first theatre in London
(The Red Lion).
 Shakespeare owned two theaters and wrote at
least 38 plays. He was an actor before he was a
writer.
Shakespeare’s Plays: Tragedies, Comedies, and
Histories
 Tragedies: The fall of a great man. Not by fatal
“tragic” flaw, but through choice of action that
puts him out of his comfort zone (Hamlet, King
Lear, Macbeth).
 Comedies: Not simply comical, in the modern
sense, but often tensions between traditional
roles—male vs. female, poor vs. rich, old vs.
young—often ending in marriage, the revision or
restoration of tradition (Much Ado About Nothing,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It).
 Histories: Based on the lives of English Kings
(Henry IV, Henry V, Richard III).
Shakespeare’s Company
 The Lord Chamberlain’s men formed in 1594,
included Shakespeare and Richard Burbage (the
most popular actor of his day).
 James I made them his company, and they were
then called the King’s Men—the best and most
successful acting troupe in London.
 Acting companies traditionally had 10-15
members who acted and managed the plays.
Young boys performed the roles of women.
LONDON & THE THEATER IN SHAKESPEARE’S
DAY
 The theater was the most widely available
entertainment to which people of every class had
access.
 Professional theater life was considered a fringe
culture, existing on the margins of society. Actors
were like rock stars.
 Actors were considered homeless vagabonds
and, as such, were subject to arrest (like rock
stars).
 Plays were often acted out in any space
available; thus the income for actors and
playwrights was undependable and rarely enough
to live on.
 Wealthy aristocrats, who enjoyed drama, would
support acting companies with their own money—
actors under the care of these “Lords” could not be
arrested for their vagrant lifestyle.
BANKSIDE
The Entertainment District:
Taverns, Theatres & Prostitutes, Oh My!
 Bankside London, on the Thames River, was a
notorious area of the city.
 The Globe Theatre was situated in this area
where people went out to drink and gamble, and
where prostitution flourished.
 The theatre was not a symbol of high culture in
those days; it was bawdy and violent
entertainment, considered by many to be full of
dangerous ideas and suggestive sexual themes.
BANKSIDE
The Globe: The Glory of the Bank
 Based on design of The Rose theatre.
 First London theatre built and owned by an
acting company (1599).
 All the decisions made in its construction were
made by the actors and writers who would use it as
a performance space.
 Shakespeare plays first performed at the Globe:
Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello,
King Lear, and Macbeth.
The Audience
 There were only two doors, and the Globe held
up to 3,000 people.
 People from all classes visited the theatre on a
regular basis.
 Cheapest seats cost one penny; “groundlings”
stood in the yard.
 For an extra penny, you got a “cushion seat” in
the gallery.
 For extra money, the view was obstructed;
however, in those days people didn’t go to see a
play, they went to hear a play.
 Stage Effects
 Both the stage and the heavens (the area above
the stage) held trap doors.
 Sheep and cow blood was used for fight scenes.
A small bag could be filled and popped at the right
moment for the right effect.
 Gunpowder was used for musket fire and special
controlled explosions.
The Threat of Theatre
 The puritans, and city authorities, did not like
play going.
 Only the support of the King or Queen kept the
theatre open.
  The theatre represented freedom of thought,  •Much Ado About Nothing
freedom of expression, and openly played with  •Twelfth Night
gender roles and human sexuality.  •Merchant of Venice
 A Tale of Three Globes
 Original Globe burnt down (6/29/1613) during Tragedies
the third performance of Henry VIII after cannons  •Julius Caesar
firing blanks set fire to the thatch roof.  •Hamlet
 The King’s Men (Shakespeare’s acting  •Macbeth
company) rebuilt the Globe in 1614. This Globe  •Othello
was torn down in 1644.  •Romeo and Juliet
 Modern Globe was built by an American named  •King Lear
Sam Wanamaker, using Elizabethan construction
techniques, opened in 1997. Histories
 •King Henry V
William Shakespeare1564-1616  •King John
 •Richard II
Early years
 •Richard III
 Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England
 Son of prominent town official Works of Literature
 3rd child of 8 children  •He wrote 37 very successful plays
 Received excellent education with heavy focus  •His vocabulary was HUGE-somewhere
on grammar and literature between 17,000 and 34,000 words!
 •The estimated vocabulary of an educated
Marriage and Family person today is around 15,000 words
 •Married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway (she was
26) who was pregnant with his child Works of Literature
 •1st child was daughter, Susanna-born in 1583  He had an amazing influence on our English
 •Twins, Hamnet and Judith born in 1585 language
 •Hamnet dies at age 11
Have you heard these phrases?
“Lost Years”  •I couldn’t sleep a wink.
 The period between 1585 and 1592 is known as  •He was dead as a doornail.
the “Lost Years” because there are no  •She’s a tower of strength.
documentary records of Shakespeare’s  •They hoodwinked us.
activities
 •We’d better lie low for a while.
 •I am constant as the Northern Star.
Later Years
 •It’s all Greek to me.
 •Moved to London around 1591 and became an
actor
More words that first appeared in his plays
 •Worked with the Lord Chamberlin’s company
 •Accommodation lonely
of players, later known as the King’s Men
 •Assassination gloomy
Works of Literature  •Dexterously fretful
 •Along with acting, he also wrote some of the  •Dislocate suspicious
most renowned and studied literature written in  Obscene hurry
the English language  •Reliance
 •Poems-famous for his sonnets  Premeditate
 •Plays-Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories
Later Years
Comedies  •Returned to Stratford around 1610 where he
 •All’s Well that Ends Well lived as a country gentleman
 •As You Like It  •Wealthy-Owned one of the largest homes in
 •Comedy of Errors town
 •Measure for Measure  •Died in Stratford in 1616 at the age of 52. His
 •Midsummer Night’s Dream death was a mystery. It is rumored that he
 •Taming of the Shrew
 drank too much and contracted a fever or that
he died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
 Elizabethan Age
 •Shakespeare lived and wrote during what is
known as the English Renaissance, which
lasted from about 1485 through the 1660s
 •Period is also known as Elizabethan Age,
named after Queen Elizabeth who ruled
England from 1558-1603
Queen Elizabeth
Elizabethan Age
 •During the Queen’s reign, society celebrated
poets
 •Elizabethans would be surprised to learn that
their age would become best known for its
theater, as most considered drama a less
distinguished form of lit. than poetry
Elizabethan Age
 •England was flourishing and London was
becoming one of largest cities in Europe;
however life was not easy for everyone
 •Catholics experiences religious persecution
 •Women were subject to many restrictions
 •Most English people endured crowded living
conditions and an unsatisfactory diet
 •Rich and poor alike were defenseless against
bubonic plague
 •In 1564, the year Shakespeare was born,
nearly one-third of his hometown died of the
plague (lost many siblings to plague/son)
Globe Theater
 •Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men
performed at Burbage’s theater until 1599,
when they built their own playhouse, the Globe
 •Shakespeare referred to the Globe as “this
wooden O,” a term that led scholars to believe
it was a circular building
 •Attending Shakespeare’s theater was quite
different from attending theater today, which is
thought of as very quiet and austere
 •In Elizabethan England it was a noisy, popular
gathering place for people of all ages and from
all walks of life
 •Drinking and eating were permitted in the pit,
which often became very noisy
 •If a spectator did not like a particular character
or scene, he or she would feel free to hiss or
boo of throw anything he or she might have on
hand
 •It is possible that Shakespeare had this in mind
when he included the phrase “with patient ears
attend” in the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet
 •The rowdy atmosphere of the pit also
accounted for the exaggerated acting that was
common at the time
 •To compensate for lines that the audience
could not hear, the actors used exaggerated
gestures and facial expressions, unlike the
natural method of acting that is used today
 •Nature of the crowd contributed to haste with
which the lines were spoken
 •Today, Shakespeare play takes almost 3 hours.
Then, a play would have taken two hours or
less! (“the two hours’ traffic of our stage”)
 •The original theater was destroyed by a fire in
1613
 •It was rebuilt in 1614, closed in 1642, and
demolished in 1644
 •A modern reconstruction of the original
Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre”
opened in 1997
 •Today, audiences of this “wooden O” can sit
in the gallery or stand as informally as a
groundling...
 ...just as they would have done 400 years ago!