William Shakespeare1564-1616

Popular Entertainer

• No cinema, no television, no football– Wealthy people hired musicians, actors, dancers and

fencers– Everyone else had to find entertainment: In London,

it was

Theater

Today: Go to a movie, then a bar or nightclub

Then: Go to a play, then a tavern

Shakespeare’s Works• Sonnets (poems)

–14 lines–iambic pentameter–abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme

• Plays–Histories–Tragedies–Comedies

Blank verse – iambic pentameter

• “These times of woe afford no time to woo.” -- Paris

Names of a few of His Plays

• Julius Caesar

• Macbeth

• Hamlet

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• King Lear

• Othello

• The Tempest

The Theater in Shakespeare’s Time

• “The Theatre”—the first permanent theater in England

• 1599, The Theatre was torn down

• From many of the timbers of “The Theatre,” Shakespeare and his company built the Globe Theatre

The Wooden “O”

• The Globe Theatre was a large, round (or polygonal) building

• Three stories high

• Large platform stage

• Curtained-off inner stage

• Small balcony or upper stage

• Trap doors

• Plays were performed in the afternoon

• Stage was open to the sky• Very few sets, very little scenery• The stage was “set” by the language• Costumes were often elaborate• Female parts played by young men or

boys• Groundlings stood at the foot of the

stage

Terms• Blank verse—poetry that is

written in iambic pentameter but does not rhyme

• Motif—a small, recurring theme; repeated patterns of images. (stars, seasons, fate, feud, etc.)

• Foil—any character who by contrast emphasizes the distinctive qualities of another

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo & Juliet• Shakespeare took the plot from a

poem entitled “The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet” by Arthur Brooke

• Takes place in Verona, Italy

• Takes place in the 1500’s

Themes in R & J• Themes are based on:

–Youth and old age

–Public and private

–Love and hate

–Fate or destiny

–Love

–The dual nature of all creation

The End