Shakespeare: A Man Not of an Age, but of all Time

A Legend is Born• Born during the reign of Queen

Elizabeth I• Born on April 23, 1564, • In Stratford-upon-Avon, England

Proud Parents: – John and Mary Shakespeare

• Dad – a glover and eventually became high bailiff (mayor)

• Will’s birthplace is a popular tourist site even today.

His Education

• Studied English and Latin; did not attend a university because his father’s business failed– At age 14-15 he became

an apprentice to his father

Young and Restless

• Fell in love with Anne Hathaway; she was 26 years old and he was 18 years old

• She became pregnant out of wedlock (Can we say scandal?)

– Children = Suzanna, – Judith and Hamnet (twins)– Hamnet dies at an early age – – Hits Shakespeare hard – entitles – his play Hamlet as a result of – this depression

Where’s Willy?

• Will disappears for 20 years…– Theories – sailor, soldier, traveler to Italy, or a

teacher• Exiled for poaching deer on private property (most

likely theory)

– In the 1580’s Will left home and went to London– In 1592 Shakespeare was an established actor and playwright

Where’s Willy Continued…

• His patron – Earl of Southampton (NOT HIS LOVER!)– Patron – someone who pays

an artist’s expenses while the artist creates.

• Wrote 37 plays during his career

The Play’s the Thing: Theatre in London

• Will wrote in the pub because paper and candles were expensive to buy on his own.

• Before Elizabethan players had a permanent home, they would give performances an play they could erect a stage– Village halls, inns yards, and bearbaiting arenas.

• Some shows were performed in great halls of noblemen’s houses or in one of the Queen’s palaces.

The Play’s the Thing: Theatre in London Continued…

• James Burbage built England’s first “real” theater named The Theater

• All actors were male (young girls were played by young boys whose voices had not dropped)

• Very few props and little scenery

• Clergy forbid advertising for plays so colored flags

were used.

The Play’s the Thing: Theatre in London Continued…

• Plays took place at 2 P.M. for ample daylight for lighting

• Common people paid one cent to watch the play while standing around the stage – Groundlings

The Play’s the Thing: Theatre in London Continued…

• Playhouses were also closed due to Plague Alerts-

– When the Plague killed about 1,000 people per week

• When there were about 20-30 deaths a week, the playhouses were closed• Plays were banned during the 40 days of

Lent

Dens of Sin

• The clergy said the playhouses were ungodly and immoral because pimps, prostitutes, and thieves frequented the theater district – Known as the “Red Light” district

• South bank of the Thames River-Southwark

Dens of Sin Continued…• The clergy also disapproved that actors

dressed in costumes that portrayed them above their levels on the Elizabethan social ladder. They thought the less-educated would believe the actors really were the people they portrayed.

• Actors were considered rogues & scoundrels by the upper class, but were wildly popular with the common folk.

Actors were considered rogues & scoundrels by the upper class, but were wildly popular with the common folk.

Dens of Sin Continued…• People did not want

the “nasty” theaters in the city so they forced them on the south bank of the Thames next to the brothels and bearbaiting arenas.

Dens of Sin Continued…

• City officials did not like the theaters because they pulled people away from their jobs in the middle of the workday.

Dens of Sin Continued…• Shakespeare starts the first professional

theater company

- Lord Chamberlain’s Theater Company

--Eventually becomes the King’s Men

when their patron becomes King

James I.

The Birth of The Globe• Burbage dies and his

sons dismantle The Theater and move it brick-by-brick across the Thames River to a site in Southwark – Renames it The Globe. – This was

Shakespeare’s theater.

The Globe Theater or the “Wooden O”

Stage

(Represents the Earth)

Flag

Canopy

(Inside is covered with the constellations)

Under the stage (Hell) with “Hellmouth”

Tiring House

The Beginning of the End

• The Tempest was the last play Shakespeare

wrote alone.

The Beginning of the End

• The Globe was destroyed by fire in 1613 when a canon started a fire on the thatch roof during a performance of Henry VIII.

The Beginning of the End• Shakespeare died on his birthday,

April 23, 1616, from a “fever” from eating too much pickled herring and drinking too much.

The End

• Will’s last will and testament:– Leaves his second-best bed to his wife, Anne– Leaves his estate to Suzanna and her husband

• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare was published in 1623.