Campus Salamanca

Sede Yuriria
Applied Literature
SHAKESPEARE: THE MAN,
HIS TIME AND HIS WORKS
SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, SHAKESPEARE THE MAN,
HIS TIME AND HIS WORKSHIS TIME AND HIS WORKS

We actually know very little about William

Shakespeare as a person. There are no
extant letters, nor did he write essays on
literature as did his contemporary Ben
Jonson. We only have his poems and plays,
some legal documents and what others said
of him. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon
in 1564 where he lived until he was a young
man and where he returned when he
retired.
SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, HIS TIME AND HIS
WORKS

He died there in 1616 and is buried in the

church. He was the son of John and Mary
(Arden) Shakespeare and one of eight
children. He marriedAnn Hathaway in 1582,
when he was 18 and she was 26 years old.
They had three children, Susanna in
1583, twins Hamnet and Judith in 1585.
Hamnet died in 1596.It is not known
when Shakespeare first went to London, he is
first recorded there in 1595 as one of the
players appearing with the Lord
Chamberlain's men before the Queen at
Christmastime
SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, HIS TIME AND HIS
WORKS

By 1596 he was one of the eight sharers in

the company. He was writing plays before
this, Henry VI parts 1,2 and 3 were
performed in 1590. In 1598 his name
appears on the title pages of Richard II,
Richard III and Love's Labours Lost, although
these were not the first of his plays to be
published. He also acted and is listed as an
actor in plays by Ben Jonson in 1598 and
in 1603. He is mentioned as being one of the
occupants of the new Globe theatre in
1599.He was making money
 SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, HIS TIME
AND HIS WORKS

In 1597 he bought New Place, the second

largest house in Stratford upon Avon,
bought more land in 1602 and other
investments in grain etc in 1605. In 1613
he bought a house in Blackfriars. He
appears in a court case suing for debts. His
will drawn up in March 1616 shows he was
a man of considerable property, the bulk of
which was left to his daughter Susanna He
died on 23rd April at age of 52. His last
direct descendent, his granddaughter
Elizabeth died in 1670.
 SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, HIS TIME
AND HIS WORKS
His time
. Although we know nothing of Shakespeare's
own beliefs all his work reflects the attitudes and
beliefs of his time. When he came to London
England was a prosperous, Protestant
state, beginning to be influenced by the
new ideas in philosophy, literature and the arts
coming in from the continent. The country was
changing from a feudal, rural economy to a more
commercial, urban one. The only play set in
Elizabethan England is The Merry Wives of
Windsor but Shakespeare's characters usually
reflect Elizabethan or Jacobean attitudes and
behaviour.
SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, HIS TIME AND HIS
WORKS

Elizabeth I died in 1603 and was succeeded

by James I. In both reigns education was of
prime importance, which was usually seen
as knowledge of the classical authors and
their philosophies. Ben Jonson implied
that Shakespeare succeeded despite being
ill educated with 'small Latin and less Greek.
The use of the appropriate style of language
was seen as the mark of a civilized man, or
woman, but this was gradually coming to
mean the use of English. Shakespeare
was an exemplar in this.
 SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, HIS TIME AND HIS
WORKS

By considering some of the more important attitudes

and beliefs of the time we may be able to understand
the poems and plays better. For, example, patronage
was essential for a writer. He could not earn money by
selling his published works but relied on someone of
influence to subsidise or sponsor him. Shakespeare's
poetry and the sonnets were written or an unknown
patron perhaps the Earl of
Southampton. His verse, therefore, would have been
meant to please and reflect the tastes of his patron and
his circle It could not be simply an indulgence of poetic
fancy or fervour. But in his plays, provided they
were successful int he theatre, Shakespeare could use
the ideas of his own time in themes that are universal.
 SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, HIS TIME
AND HIS WORKS

The history plays Richard II  and

 Henry IV  reflect ideas on kingship,
the use of power, the changing
meaning of honour. The tragedy of 
 Macbeth shows how a man can lose
everything including his wife
because of his zest for power, while
 King Lear  explores the sufferings
of an autocratic old man as he
learns to understand
the interdependence of humanity.
 SHAKESPEARE THE MAN, HIS
TIME AND HIS WORKS
Romeo and Juliet , together with
the comedy of  A Midsummer Night's
Dream, explores diverse attitudes to
courtship and marriage. The enduring
popularity of Shakespeare's works,
especially his plays, and even
in translation, shows how applicable his
ideas are to all times and cultures. The
re-created Globe theatre in London
allows modern audiences to see and
hear the plays as nearly as possible as
they would have been in his day.
 SHAKESPEARE´S CURIOUS FACTS

• William Shakespeare was born in 1564, but his exact

birth date is unknown. He was baptized on April 26 of
that year, so his birth would have been shortly before.
• Shakespeare did not go to college.
• Shakespeare was eighteen when he married Anne
Hathaway in 1582. She was 26 and expecting his baby.
SCANDAL! The couple had a baby girl, then had twins,
a boy and a girl, in 1584.
• Sometime in the mid 1580′s, Shakespeare moved to
London from his home in Stratford-upon-Avon.
• Almost no information exists about Shakespeare’s
activities from the time he moved to London to 1592,
when he was described as an up-and-coming
playwright in the London theater scene. Because of
this, the years 1585 to 1592 are called “the lost years”.
 SHAKESPEARE´S CURIOUS FACTS

•According to reports, Shakespeare wrote quickly and with ease;

Fellow playwright Ben Jonson said “Whatsoever he penned, he
never blotted out a line.”
•Because of the plague outbreak in Europe, all London playhouses
were closed between 1592 and 1594 because it was thought that
crowded places helped facilitate the spread of the disease.
•During this period, because there was no demand for
Shakespeare’s plays, he began to write poetry.
•In 1594, Shakespeare became one of the founders of Lord
Chamberlain’s Men, an acting/theater group that soon became
the leading player’s company in London.
•In 1597, the theater in which The Lord Chamberlain’s Men
performed was forced to close since it had been built on leased
land. Many partners invested in a new theater built on the south
bank of the Thames river. The new theater was called The Globe.
 SHAKESPEARE ´S CURIOUS FACTS

•Plays were performed only in the afternoon, by daylight.

•Laws at the time prohibited people from dressing above their
rank in life. Players (actors) were the only exception to this rule,
and could dress as noblemen on stage without being arrested and
locked in the stocks.
•Women were not allowed to act in plays during Shakespeare’s
time, so in all of his plays, women’s roles were performed by
boys/young men. (This meant that in As You Like It, the boy player
had to play Rosalind, a woman who pretends to be a man
pretending to be…a woman! [If I described that correctly,
someone bring me a doughnut.)
•Though the printing press existed and books were being mass-
produced all over Europe, Shakespeare had little interest in seeing
his plays in print. He’d written them not to be read, but to be
performed on stage.
•Because they were often hastily written for performance on stage,
 SHAKESPEARE´S CURIOUS FACTS

• Shakespeare returned to Stratford after he

finished work on The Tempest, in 1611.
• He died in 1616. The words “Curst be he that
moves my bones” were inscribed on his grave.
• Seven years after his death, some of
Shakespeare’s fellow players published
Shakespeare’s plays in a single volume,
called First Folio. They wrote that their intention
was “only to keep the memory of so worthy a
friend, and fellow alive, as was our Shakespeare.”
• Shakespeare’s was said to have an extensive
vocabular; his works contained more than
30,000 different words.
 CONCLUSION

 William Shakespeare (1564-1616), `The Bard of Avon', English poet and playwright wrote
the famous 154 Sonnets and numerous highly successful oft quoted dramatic works
including the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet.
 Over the centuries there has been much speculation surrounding various aspects of
Shakespeare's life including his religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sources for
collaborations, authorship of and chronology of the plays and sonnets. Many of the dates
of play performances, when they were written, adapted or revised and printed are
imprecise.
 While Shakespeare caused much controversy, he also earned lavish praise and has
profoundly impacted the world over in areas of literature, culture, art, theatre, and film
and is considered one of the best English language writers ever. From the Preface of
the First Folio (1623) "To the memory of my beloved, The Author, Mr. William
Shakespeare: and what he hath left us"--Ben Jonson.
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