HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK HISTORICAL CONTEXT & BACKGROUND.
-
Upload
tristen-blakesley -
Category
Documents
-
view
241 -
download
0
Transcript of HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK HISTORICAL CONTEXT & BACKGROUND.
HAMLETP R I N C E O F D E N M A R K
HISTORICAL CONTEXT & BACKGROUND
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE(1564-1616)
• Often regarded as the best
English playwright and poet in
history.
• He was the leading
shareholder and principal
playwright for the acting
company the “Chamberlain’s
Men.”
• Hamlet as well as Othello and
King Lear were written for the
Globe Theatre in London; one
of four Renaissance theatres
in the city.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Hamlet is believed to be written by Shakespeare and
performed in theatres by 1603 after the English
Reformation in the Elizabethan (Golden) Age of England.
The Common Anatomy of an Elizabethan Theatre. The best known Elizabethan theatre is theGlobe which was builtand occupied by Shakespeare’s acting company The Chamberlain’s Men.
ENGLISH REFORMATION
The Catholic King Henry VIII was married to
Catherine of Aragon but sought an annulment after
they failed to produce a male heir. The Pope
refused to annul the marriage and as a result the
King separated all of England from the Roman
Catholic Church.
Immediately after Catherine’s death, Henry
married Anne Boleyn in 1533. She gave birth to
Elizabeth who later on became the Queen of
England. Anne was beheaded by King Henry.
Henry VIII is famous for causing political and
religious unrest due to his wish to annul his
marriage. He is also infamous for beheading all of
his wives after they fail to give birth to boys.
ELIZABETHAN (GOLDEN) AGE
• Over 1 million people lived in London.
• Queens Elizabeth I reigned from 1558-1603.
• Elizabeth put a rest to the religious turmoil left by
her father by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement
in 1559.
• English literature, poetry, theatre and music
flourished. This time period is known as the Golden
Age of England.
• Shakespeare’s plays represented a movement
towards breaking free of previous styles of theatre
and entertainment spurred by the Renaissance’s
encouragement of new ideas and thinking.
ELIZABETHAN (GOLDEN) AGE C O N T ’ D
With the development of the English language as the
accepted vernacular in England, English became a symbol
of the nation and the Protestant national church.
Mary Queen of the Scots was Elizabeth’s cousin and an
important figure of the Elizabethan era.
The Spanish Armada which was a fleet that tried to
overthrow Queen Elizabeth was defeated by the English in
1588.
IMPORTANT EVENTS
1450: Printing Press
invented
1492: Columbus
discovers the New World
1510: Henlein
invents the pocket watch
1543: John Dee creates a wooden robot
1550: John Dee publishes Elements of Geometry in
English
1565: Conrad Gesner
invents the pencil
1568: Bottled Beer invented in
London
1569: Map projection is
invented
1582: Modern
Calendar created
IMPORTANT EVENTS C O N T ’ D
1583: Telescope invented
1588: Spanish Armada
defeated by the English
1591: Flush toilet invented
in England.
1590: The compound
microscope is invented.
1589: Knitting Machine invented
1593: Galileo invents Water
thermometer
1600: Gilbert publishes treatise on
electricity & Magnetism
1609: Galileo introduces
telescope into astronomy
THE STORY OF HAMLET
“The story of Hamlet in some form is at least seven
hundred years old. Hamlet appears first as Amlethus in
the Historia Danica, written by Saxo Grammaticus in the
twlefth century. The original source of the English play is
a French story told in the Histoires tragiques of Francois
de Belleforest, published in Paris in 1576. The outline of
Belleforest’s story follows:
‘In pre-Christian times there was a Danish Prince called Horvendile, who was married to Queen Geruth. Their son was named Hamlet. Prince Horvendile was murdered by his brother Fengon, who thereupon married Queen Geruth. In order to escape from the tyranny of his uncle, Prince Hamlet pretended to be mad. Fengon was suspicious and tried to get the truth by sending a harlot to tempt Hamlet, but Hamlet was forewarned. Fengon send one of his councilors to hide secretly behind the arras in the Queen’s chamber so that he might overhear Hamlet’s cnversation with his mother. Hamlet came into the chamber, pretending in his madness to be a cock, and beating with his arms upon the arras he felt the eavesdropper. He slew him with his sword, cut the body in pieces, boiled them, and fed them to the hogs.’”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abrams, M. H., eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New
York: W.W. Norton Company Inc., 1968. Print.
Burton, Raffel. Introduction. Hamlet. By William Shakespeare. 1601.
New Haven: Yale UP, 2003. xv-xxxi. Print.
Harrison, G. B. , ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York:
Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1968. Print.
Maxwell, Julie. “Counter-Reformation Versions of Saxo: A New
Source For Hamlet?” Renaissance Quarterly 57 (2004): 518-60
JSTOR. Web. 16 Feb. 2011