It has to grab the audience and

make it pay attention ... RIGHT NOW.

Newcomers to Shakespeare areoften surprised to find that hisplays are filled with action, hischaracters are believable, and the

situations they find themselves in

are exactly like our own-greed,power, ambition, love,jealousy, oldage, racism.

I

S: The audiences represented a broad cross-section ofEnglish society, so successful writers like

Shakespeare had to write on at least two levels;

they had to appeal to the best -and least- edu­

cated people in the audience; they had to knowhow to use both rude'n'crude humor and

refined classical allusions. So the plays them­selves have a 'built in' aid to understanding.

~ Allusions are sort of literary 'name-drop­ping';,you mention a name from Greek mythol­

ogy or a phrase from a

famous poem, and the truly

refined reader 'gets' it.

~Ivr THINGS You SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

SHAKESPEARE'S THEATRICAL WORLD

I: Prose and poetry wer~ both used by dramatists in Shakespeare'sday. Rhymingcouplets (two lines that rhyme) often alerted the audi­

ence to the end of a scene, or to a new situation or locale in a scene to

come. (Rhyme could also occur within the scenes, of course.)

2: The women's parts were played by men. Ingenues(young girls) wereusually played by boys.

3: There were no 'blackouts'-no time when the 'lights' (actually, can­dies) went out. So any time a character died in front of the audience,the body had to be carried off the stage.

4.: The departure of all characters from the stage signaled the end ofa scene: and, according to the convention of the time, a character

could not take part in both the ending of one scene and the beginningof the next one.

Peoplehaven't changed much inthe last four centuries. It is

both comforting and terrifying tosee aspects of your own person­ality magnified by Shakespeare'sgenius in the 'overthinking' Princeof Denmark, the jealous Moor ofVenice,the noble Cordelia, or the

bitchy Kate. And the language,

once you relax in its presence,is downright thrilling.

2Before we go further, let's have a look at the man himself.

3

'l.0,'h

Whac do' people Really Knowaoouc chis guy?

Not much. He was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon,

England. His father John was a glover who was named to several impor­tant town posts, and may have had financial difficulties later in life.

William wasted no time getting started in life. At the age of eighteen,

he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children: Susanna

(born in 1583), and the twins Hamnet and Judith (1585). (Hamnet died

in 1596.) Nobody is certain exactly what Shakespeare did between 1583

and 1592. Somewhere along the line, he became an actor and beganwriting plays. In 1592, a jealous playwright named Robert Greene

attacked Shakespeare in print, and made fun of the idea of an actor

writing plays. Shakespeare apparently wasn't too impressed by Mr.

Green's criticism; he continued to write and perform, and he became an

important figure in the London literary and theatrical scene. He pub­

lished two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape ofLucrece (1594). A writer named Francis Meres took notice of

Shakespeare in 1598, listing twelve of his plays and complimenting his

privately circulated poetry. The well-connected acting company withwhich Shakespeare was associated, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, built a

theater in 1598 called the Globe; he owned an interest in the playhouse.4

In 1603, when James I became King, the Lord Chamberlain's Men

became the King's Men. Over the years, some of Shakespeare's plays

were published in unauthorized editions (but many of his plays were

never published during his Iif,eti me); a collection of his sonnets appearedin 1609. After the Globe burned down in 1613, Shakespeare seems to

have stopped writing and performing. He spent the last years of his lifeat Stratford, in a home he'd bought in 1597 called New Place. He died in

1616 and was buried in Stratford. Shakespeare's life was so unspectac­ular that some people have found it hard to believe that such an 'ordi­

nary' man with so little formal schooling could create the greatest body

of work in the English language. (As if genius could be taught in school!)

Most scholars now accept the fact that Shakespeare did indeed writehis own plays.

Those are pretty slim pickings for the biography of a genius.Fortunately, it is Shakespeare's writing, not his personal life, thathas captivated audiences for nearly four centuries. That writing isthe Shakespeare we'll be looking at in the following pages.

In most cases textual excerpts and act and scene divisionsreflect Nicolaus Delius's seven volume Works of

Shakespeare (1854-1860); spelling and punctuation have

occasionally been altered to reflect modern usage.

"1'01.1 MUST

IEll ME:MoRE ~

5

6

~." "(@] 0 how does che oooK WORK?

Shakespeare for Beginners examines the plays first, inroughly the order that we think they were written-we

can't be certain. (This book does not include the collabora­

tions, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII.)

This book does not divide the plays intocategories (such as comedies, histories,

and tragedies), since that approach

can be misleading. Shakespeare, him­self, did not use any consistent series

of labels for the plays he wrote, andpigeonholing them can mean overlook­

ing important parallels between playsthat don't happen to fall into the

sa me category.

Shakespeare for Beginners pro­vides summaries of each work, a

list of key phrases and themes,brief assessments of main ideas

and important concepts in the text,

excerpts of key passages, and

short but insightful quotes fromsome of the most influential crit­

ics ..

Obviously, this book is

not meant to replace theworks themselves.

AND Now, A BRIEFWORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

A book summarizing the work of a writer usually suggests that

you go out and read the author's books. Shakespeare for

Beginners, however,will not plead with you to read Shakespeare'splays-unless you feel like it. Plays are meant to be experienced inperson, not read. Dogmatic English instructors force their stu­

dents to read Shakespeare's plays-then they wonder why thestudents consider Shakespeare boring.

Any play can be boring if you're forced read it to yourself. Atheatrical script is like a roadmap showing the way toward a final

work of art-it is not the work of art itself. Plays are designed to

be performed. If Shakespeare had intended his plays to be read pri­vately rather than acted, he would have seen to it that they were

published. As far as we can tell, Shakespeare had no hand in theprinting or editing of the dramas he wrote.

If you really want to enjoy Shakespeare's dramatic work,

get out to a theater and see a production of the play ...or rent a good video.

(Or get a bunch of friends together andread the script out loud.)

7

ED nce you see the play, you'll have no problem mak­ing sense of all of the characters, exits,

entrances, and stage directions. But read­

ing a play "cold," dragging yourself

through page after page, disorientedand bored-that is an insult to

Shakespeare's genius.

The poems, of course, are anothermatter. They do demand one-on­

one attention. Then again,

they're probably not

what most people thinkof when they think of

Shakespeare!

A Few WORds About" The BaRd's

Use of Language

Don't worry if at first you have trouble understanding Shakespeare'slanguage. Everybody does. Then, in no time at all, like listening to a

dialect or 'accent' from another part of the country, the fog clears

and you wonder why you had any trouble-it's obvious once you getthe hang of it. A few helpful 'tricks:'

j

~ Again: See the play: A good actor can communicate the

meaning of a phrase even when you don't understand the dictionary meaning of each individual word.

~ Assume (or pretend) that you understand what's being said-­

and 90% of the time you will.

~ Stick with it: In no time, you'll run into enough captivating stuff

to make you want to "march unto the breach" again and again.Later on, if you like, you can use footnotes and glossaries to

your heart's content. A fat encyclopedia could be writtenabout the Bard's verbal style and influence, but this book isn'tit.

8

AND ABOUT BLANK VERSE. ..

As Shakespeare's car~er progresses, his proficiency in the ten­syllable blank - that is, unrhyming - verse form becomes breath­

taking. (You probably remember blank verse from school: da-DAH da

DAH da DAH da DAH da DAH.) The Bard's early efforts at verse

are often stiff, forced, and monotonous; the middle period showsconfident power and expansion; and the final plays demonstrate an

amazing ease and fluidity. Look at these examples, which show thechange, over two decades, from block-like, self-contained ten-sylla­

ble sentences to shifting, smooth-flowing currents of meaning.

CB early 1590s: (Note: "beldam" means "old hag")

Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash!

Beldam, I think we watch'd you at an inch,

(Henry VI, Part Two, act I, scene iv)

ill Late 1590s:

You have conspir'd against our royal

person,

Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, andfrom his coffers

Receiv'd the golden earnest of ourdeath.

(Henry V,act II, scene ii)

C0 Around 1610:

But you, my brace of lords, wereI so minded,

I here could pluck his

Highness' frown upon youAnd justify you traitors, At this timeI will tell no tales,

(The Tempest, act V,scene i)

9

3: Shakespeare often uses what

poets call personification-givinghuman attributes to non-humans.

In Shakespeare, a tree may be

angry, the moon may blush, the

morning may have eyes... in most

cases, that is not meant to be

taken literally-it is as if the

moon blushed, or as if the morninghad eyes.

I: When Shakespeare began his career, the English language

was flexible and still developing. Shakespeare made the mostof the situation, displaying dazzling innova­

tions like a great jazz improviser:

Shakespeare turns nouns into verbs,

links adjectives together to form new

combinations, and borrows words

from other languages.

a: he

an, and: if

awful: capable of inspiring awe(country name): king or queen (monarchs are often

referred to as the nations they lead)dear: significant, costlyfond: foolishget: bring into existencehead: army; sourcehonest: chaste; virtuous; authentichis: its (Shakespeare hardly ever uses the posses­

sive its)humor: one of the four bodily fluids (choler, blood,

phlegm, melancholy) regarded as determin­ing temperament depending on their pro­portion; mood; outlook

marry: by the Virgin Mary (mild oath)mere: utternice: trifling, silly; fastidiousrub: (as a verb) to strike against something small;

(as a noun) an obstacle (both meaningscome from bowling,a game that seems tohaveappealed greatly to Shakespeare)

power: military forcepretend: to intend; to assert; to claimsad: seriousstill: alwaystell: to count

There are other deceptive words, of course,but these are some of the most easily mis­

understood. As for obviously unfamiliar

expressions, your best bet, after seeing a

performance of the play, is to track down a

good annotated text of the play in question.

In his best moments, Shakespeare is alive, more alive, perhaps,than any other writer who's ever lived. But don't take my word for it­see for yourself.

Twenty Words That Will Mak~ I IShakespeare More Accessible

The most dangerous words-in Shakespeare aren't the unfamiliar ones,

but the ones that seem familiar, but really aren't. They sound straight­forward to our ear, but they carried very different meanings for the audi­

ences of the Bard's day. Here are twenty of the trickiest words you'llfind in Shakespeare:

THINGS ABOUT

ENGLISH

tjHREE COOL

SHAKESPEARE'S

2: Shakespeare's vocabulary is big:

21,000 words plus. Not only can'ta modern audience 'understand'

every word, Shakespeare's audi­

ence couldn't understand every word!Shakespeare often chose his words to take

advantage of their newness, to make us look at a situation in a

new way, and to get the meaning from the context. In other

words, he wants you to loosen up and follow him, not sit on eachline with a dictionary.

And now, on with the show ...10

11

Fact Sheet on William Shakespeare

"There's no artTofind the mind's construction in the face"

-MACBETH

BORN: Stratford-up on-Avon; baptized April 26, 1564PARENTS: Mother-Mary Arden, member of the gentry

Father-John Shakespeare, high bailiff (mayor)SISTERS: Joan (1) died in infancy

MargaretJoan (2) married William HartAnne

BROTHERS: Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund

WIFE: Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare was 18; Anne was 26)CHILDREN: Susanna (married Dr. John Hall);

Twins: Judith and Hamnet

1

LIFE INLONDON:

DIED:

Shakespeare lived in London for over 20 years where hewrote and acted; he later returned to Stratford-upon Avona wealthy squire.

At age 52, and was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinitychurch, Stratford, onApril25, 1616.

lSHAKESPEARE'S AUTHORSHIP DISPUTED

According to the Romantics, the mild bourgeois Stratfordian, satisfied with life asa modest householder and amusingly seeking a doubtful coat of arms, could not be theauthor of the immortal dramas. In 1769, Herbert Lawrence for the first time in historychallenged the ascription of the plays to the minor actor William Shakespeare. In 1857,William Henry Smith proposed Sir Francis Bacon as the real playwright. In the 20th

century, candidates galore have been advanced as the author of the Shakespearean plays:Earl of Rutland, Earl of Derby, Earl of Oxford, Christopher Marlowe, and so on.Any of these choices could display the intellectual culture and social breadth questionablein the less educated Shakespeare. The proposal has also been made that "WilliamShakespeare" was a corporate name used by collaborating playwrights.

Ingenious and diverting as most of these hypotheses are, there is no convincingsubstantiation for any of them. Shakespeare's own age fully accepted him as a greatdramatist, especially the shrewd, no-nonsense Ben Jonson. There is absolutely no reportor rumour against Shakespeare's authorship until 1769. Apparently Shakespeare was thesort of artist whose actual experiences are commonplace and whose vast Renaissanceadventure takes place in his mind and spirit.

--Day, Martin S. History of English Literature to 1660. New York:Double day, 1963.

BRIEF NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE

According to the local records, "Mr.William Shakespeare was born at Stratford­upon-Avon in the county of Warwick. His father was a butcher, and I have been told bysome of the neighbours, that when he was a boy he exercised his father's trade, but whenhe killed a calfe he would doe it in high style and make a speech" (John Aubrey, BriefLives, II). The records also state that Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, the feastday of St George, patron saint of England, and died on April 23, 1616). During his yearsat school, Shakespeare learned much Latin and very little Greek. But evidence ofschooling does not rest alone in school registers and reports. The most vivid evidence liesin how what is taught at school reveals itself in later life. In Shakespeare's case not onlyis his knowledge of history, and particularly the classics, absolutely compatible with thetextbooks common to an Elizabethan grammar school, but with that and that alone. If hehad proceeded to university his classical allusions would have been wider and expresseddifferently. Rational deduction makes the following probable to the point of beinginevitable: (a) He went, first, to a "Pettie's" school, either one attached as a junior annexeto the grammar school, or a separate one run by a "dame" (they are sometimes called"dame schools"). In the latter case, the dame would almost certainly be a widow who, toeke out a living, taught youngsters the alphabet, numbers, the catechism, meal-graces,and the recitation of psalms. More advanced dame's schools taught elementary readingand writing. (b) At seven years he went to King Edward VI Grammar School for Boysuntil the age of about fourteen. The evidence is strong. His father was a prominent town

official-it would have been likely that he would have sent his eldest son to a grammarschool, being one of a committee responsible for major renovations and for appointingthe headmaster. It is inconceivable considering these circumstances that the eldest son didnot attend the school. Circumstantial evidence lies in the superb parody of a typical Latinlesson to a junior class in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives oJ Windsor, or A Comedy oJErrors, but the strongest evidence is the nature and scope of his knowledge as revealed inthe plays. He lived during the reigns of two monarchs: Elizabeth I (1558-1603), andJames I (1603-1625). His contemporaries who are referred to as Elizabethans (writerswho lived during the reign of Elizabeth), include: Christopher Marlowe, John Lyly, andThomas Kyd; sometimes they are referred to as Jacobeans (writers who lived during thereign of James I).

THE QUESTION OF SHAKESPEARE'S AUTHORSHIP

For hundreds of years some critics have questioned whether Shakespeare personally authored hisworks, or whether they were written by someone else. Here are some of the pro arguments:

o How could anyone devise a conspiracy lasting 400 years andinvolving at least 20 original conspirators?

o Why would anyone but Will Shakespeare pun on his own name asin "Sonnet 136"-", , ,forI am Will. , , ,"-ifit were not his name?

o If Elizabethan Francis Meres said in a book that among the bestplaywrights were both the Earl of Oxford and WilliamShakespeare, how could they be one and the same?

o Ben Jonson said that Shakespeare had "small Latin and lessGreek," explaining the lapses in scholarship in some of the plays.

Some numerologists have even contended that Shakespeare had a hand in the

compilation of the King James Bible. The printing began in 1610, when Shakespearewas 46 years old. They claim that, specifically in Psalm 46, "Shake" is the 46th wordfrom the beginning, while "Spear" is the 46th word from the end.

Arguments against Shakespeare's authorship include:

o As someone who attended one grammar school, how couldShakespeare have acquired the learning exhibited in the plays?

o Why does the poetical work of de Vere cease at the exact time thework of Shakespeare appears?

o Since de Vere was fond of punning his own name, are the punsfound in the Shakespearean works-eVer and nEver-significant?

o Why are the low-life characters in the plays presented from anobleman's point of view (as opposed to the characters portrayedby, for example, former bricklayer Ben Jonson)?