Shakespeare’s Globe

London Theatres

•First London theatre built in 1576•All theatres on South Bank because theatres were…•Source of “immoral acts”•Helping spread Bubonic Plague

Elizabethan Theatre• All male casts• Divided into companies, which were

sponsored by wealthy benefactor– Ex: The King’s Men were sponsored by King James– Plays were property of acting company, not

author

• Companies performed a different play every afternoon.

• No advertising - flags used as code

Shakespeare’s Globe• Built from remnants of first 1576 theatre, in 1599

(23 years after first London theatre)• Shakespeare bought shares in the Globe to

support its building• Open-air amphitheatre• No curtain!

• 3000 spectators - no bathrooms

• Beer, oranges, apples,hazelnuts

• Burned down in 1613

The Globe Today

• Romeo and Juliet• Shakespeare’s version written in 1594– The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, 1562,

by Arthur Brooke– Based on old Italian poem from 1476, called

Mariotto and Gianozza, by Masuccio Salernitano• The same: Secret marriage; forced marriage, tragic end• Different: Mariotto is caught and beheaded, and

Gianozza dies of grief

– Mercutio and Paris are Shakespeare’s inventions– Huge, popular, box office hit

Shakespeare’s Life

• Born 1563, died 1616, in Stratford, England• John Shakespeare, glovemaker, and Mary

Arden• Anne Hathaway (m. 1582), wife and mother of

his children• London 1592 - 1622

Shakespeare is not Shakespeare

• The Possible “Real” Shakespeares– Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford– Francis Bacon– Queen Elizabeth– Shiek Zubayr bin William, 16th cent. Arab Shiek

• Reasons for Conspiracy Theories– Son of illiterate glove-maker; no portraits; bad

handwriting; court knowledge; retired too early

A Theme in Romeo & Juliet:Free Will versus Fate

• Why do Romeo and Juliet die? Is it free will or fate? Is it a result of the family feud, the fathers’ indifference to their children, adolescent passion, Friar Lawrence, or just bad luck?

•Romeo: “My mind misgives/ Some consequence yet hanging in the stars,” and later, “O, I am fortune’s fool!”•Mercutio: “O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.”