William Shakespeare

An Introduction to the Study of Language in Julius Caesar

Billy S. by Skye Sweetnam

“I don't need to read Billy Shakespeare,Meet Juliet or Mavolio,Feel for once what it's like to rebel now,I wanna break out, let's go!

Teachers treat us all like clones,Sit up straight, take off your headphones,I don't blame them, they get paid,Money money, woo, lot's of money money, woo!

…To skip or not to skip? that is the question…”

Born: April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England

Wife: Anne Hathaway (He married at age 18)

Children: Susanna, and twins Judith & Hamnet (Sadly, Hamnet, his only son, died in childhood)

Profession(s): Playwright, Actor, Businessman (shareholder of an acting company)

Fast Facts…

Fast Facts…Died: April 23, 1616 in London, England (Coincidentally, on the same day, in Spain, Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, also died. Even more of a coincidence, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, a Spanish/Incan writer, also died.)

Buried: Holy Trinity Church with a curse for an epitaph – essentially, blessing those who leave his bones alone and cursing anyone who moves his bones

Fast Facts…Publication of his Plays: There are no original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays. Seven years after his death, in 1623, a collection of his plays were published as the First Folio.

Number of Plays: 39 written, but one manuscript has been lost, thus, 38 are typically attributed to him. He wrote mostly comedies, 18 to be exact. Histories and tragedies are tied at 10 plays each.

Fast Facts…Comedies– Big problems, cross-dressing, then everyone’s

happy– Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Much Ado

About Nothing

Tragedies– Hero with a flaw, everyone dies– Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet

Fast Facts…Romances– There’s a trip to the countryside…fathers keep

losing their daughters– The Tempest, Cymbaline

Histories– Self-explanatory– Richard III, Henry V, Julius Caesar

Fast Facts…

Total Number of Written Words: 884,647 wordsEarliest Written Play: King Henry VI, Part 1 (1589-1591)Last Written Play: The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613)Longest Play: Hamlet (4,042 lines)Shortest Play: The Comedy of Errors (1,787 lines)

Fast Facts…

Actors: All the actors were male. Young boys played female roles. (Those kissing scenes must have been awkward! And if you’ve ever heard of Shakespeare’s play, The Winter’s Tale, there were boys dressed up as females dressed up men. Confusing? Yes. Entertaining…YES!)

Fast Facts…

Invented Language: Shakespeare made up about 10% of the words in his plays. Many of the words we still used today (about 500) are attributed to him by the Oxford English Dictionary. Words such as: never-ending addiction, schoolboy, gentlefolk, radiance, lackluster, countless, useful, and day’s work.

Julius CaesarThe play is…creative nonfiction.– Gaius Julius Caesar really did exist (July

100BC – 15 March 44 BC, 56 years old)– He really was assassinated by a group of people

led by Marcus BrutusNowadays, we’d say, “Based on the true story…” The events are true, but the dialogue? Shakespeare took some “creative liberties”.Antony & Cleopatra begins directly after the end of Julius Caesar.

Why is he so hard to understand?

He’s a poet and he knows it.– Iambic pentameter, omit syllables, enjambment

Order of words (Odd grammar structures)– SVO vs. SOV or OVS or OSV

He wrote 400 years ago. In England.– Out-dated references, slang, archaic words

He made up about 10% of the words.Plays are meant to be performed.– A little light on the stage directions

Why is he so hard to understand?

No special effects teams– What you see is what you get, so they

improvised with figurative language.

First Globe Theater burned down…from a theatrical cannon that misfired during a performance of Henry VIII.

Order of WordsAnyone take Spanish/foreign lang.?– Adjectives? Indirect/Direct pronouns? SOV

English: Subject Verb Object (SVO)– I bought the hat. I bought it.– She gave Jessica the gift. She gave it to her.

Shakespeare: Any combination– I the hat bought. Bought it I. The hat I bought.– She it gave. She the gift gave Jessica.

Order of WordsStar Wars – Yoda

– “‘Told you I did, reckless is he,” (Yoda, Empire Strikes Back).

– VOS, OVS. Verb (did told) object (you) subject (I), object (reckless) verb (is) subject (he).

Iambic PentameterIamb = iambus– “a foot of two syllables, a short followed by a

long in quantitative meter, or an unstressed followed by a stressed in accentual meter”

– “Hence! Home you idle creatures, get you home”

Penta = Greek for “five”Meter– “Poetic measure; arrangement of words in

regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines or verses.”

Iambic Pentameter

Thus…iambic pentameter is…

– A measure of poetry in which there are a series of five iambs/feet per line (five sets of two syllables, unstressed stressed)

Worksheet #1 “You Be BillMove the italicized words ONLY.

If such calms come after every tempest– If after every tempest come such calms

Now confusion hath made his masterpiece– Confusion now hath made his masterpiece

Let all the battlements fire their ordnance– Let all the battlements their ordnance fire

Worksheet #2 1) you have madded A father and a gracious aged man, Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick, Most barbarous, most degenerate.

2) an Eygptian did give that handkerchief to my mother.

3) The fiery Tybalt came in the instant with his sword prepared…

Worksheet #2 4) A crutch! A crutch! Why you call for a sword?

5) O, where is Romeo? You saw him today?

6) I did see your son walking so early underneath the grove of sycamore that westward rooteth from the city side.

Worksheets # 3, 4, 5You have the remainder of the class time to work on these worksheets. Finish them for homework.Questions? Just ask me!

You do not have to start reading Act I for homework, but if you have the time, the book, and want to, I suggest it. I’ll walk you through most of Act I tomorrow in class.