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William Shakespeare. Lesson 1: An introduction. What do you already know?. Curriculum Vitae . Class activity: use the internet to fill in the handout to make a brief CV, detailling Shakespeare’s life. Time: 20 minutes!. What we know: personal info. Not a lot!
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William Shakespeare Lesson 1: An introduction
Curriculum Vitae Class activity: use the internet to fill in the handout to make a brief CV, detailling Shakespeare’s life. Time: 20 minutes!
What we know: personal info • Not a lot! • Born: not sure, but christened on April 26th 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon • Died: April 23rd 1616 • Parents: John Shakespeare (glove-maker and mayor) and Mary Arden (prominent farmer’s daughter) • Married: Anne Hathaway (in 1582) – she was six years his senior. They had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith.
What we know: professional info • Educated at King’s New School in Stratford until age of 13. • Moved to London in1585-6, where he joined an acting company. He became successful and worked his way up to becoming part-owner of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men. This meant he performed and wrote plays for the royal court. • His first plays were on stage in 1592
Elizabethan theatre • Plays were performed by travelling troupes of actors, often in inns or on market squares, where people would pay a penny to watch. • Travelling troupes meant people moving around, as well as masses of people together in a small area = not good for the spread of disease. • In 1572, plays were banned in London as a measure to stop the spread of the Plague. • The “Theatre” was built in the Liberties (just outside London) in 1576 • In 1599, Shakespeare and his partners built the Globe theatre in London
The Globe Theatre unified the social classes: the Queen watched the same plays as the commoners.
Romeo and Juliet • First performed in 1594-5 • Act: a division of the play • Scene: a division of an act • How many acts are there in Romeo and Juliet?
The five-act play • 1863: Gustav Freytag wrote Die Technik des Dramas in which he noted that a drama is divided into five parts, or acts:
What to expect You predict … - which acts do you think we are going to study the most? Why? Prediction (or foreshadowing) is important in the play. Your homework for next lesson is to read: - The Prologue (page 1) - Act 1, Scene 1 (pages 3 to 14)