Getting Acquainted With Shakespeare

1. Getting Acquainted WithShakespeare

2. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564 in this house on Henley Street. • His father’s name was John and he was a glovemaker. His mother’s name was Mary Arden. She was from a good family and some fortune.

3. As a young boy, he attended grammar school where emphasis was on Latin grammar. Later, in London, he learned French. • Stratford and the English country-side made a lasting impression on him. This is shown by his references in the plays to animals, birds, and flowers. • In November 1582, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior

4. Anne gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith, two years later. • Some time between 1585-1587 he left Stratford for London. • Anne did not accompany Will to London because her Puritan belief influenced her to believe that the stage and its actors did much to corrupt people’s morals. • Puritanism became so strong in London that the theaters were closed.

5. Shakespeare’s financial success came from his share of admissions, not from the sale of his plays. • His early literary successes were his narrative poem, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. • For his plays, his reference books were Metamorphoses, Lives, and Chronicles. • He wrote 37 plays.

6. He was a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men acting company. • He lived quietly and gained a reputation as a polite, good-natured man and loyal friend. • He retired in 1610 and lived at New Place (in Stratford).

7. Queen Elizabeth and her successor James I were willing to pay for theatergoing, providing money for costumes and props. • Three early theaters were the Globe, The Theater, and the Swan. • Presentations took place in mid after-noon and boy actors played female roles.

8. Elizabethan actors needed a good memory, a strong, clear voice, good fencers, dancers and singing voices. • Shakespeare died in Stratford on April 23, 1616 and was buried at Holy Trinity Church.