William Shakespeare and the Renaissance
(April 23, 1564- April 23 1616)
THE LIFE OF BILL:
- Understood all walks of life and social classes: Father was a
glover and a leather merchant, mother was a land heiress, which put
them in the working class, but with benefits and respect.
- FAMILY:
o Married Anne Hathaway in 1582. (He was 18 while she was 26 and
pregnant)
o 3 kids: Susanna, Twins – Hamnet and Judith
- ACTING CAREER:
o 1594 – actor, writer, and a managing partner for the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men’s Company
o LCM Company – acting company patronized by royalty and popular
by the public
- WORKS
o 154 sonnets, 2 epic narratives, and 38 plays including:
Comedies: 12th Night, Measure for Measure, Taming of the
Shrew
Histories: Henry’s and Richard’s
Tragedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Othello
Late Romances: Tempest
- LANGUAGE:
o Known for prose, witty poetry, and blank verse (unrhymed iambic
pentameter).
o No dictionaries or grammar books = learned from other educated
writers
o Credited with introducing 3,000+ words/phrases into the
language:
Bedroom, dawn, gossip, gloomy, fashionable, bump, cold-
blooded, Break the ice, breathed his last, dog will have
his day, good-riddance, sent packing, seen better days,
heart of gold
o Only one generation from what we speak today
Hints:
Thou = you T’is = it is
don’t pronounce “st” at end of words
apostrophes are for other vowels (Ex. cat I’ th’ adage =
cat in the adage)
o Elizabethan Drama – turn away from religious subjects and began
more sophisticated plays drawing from the ancient Romans and
Greek
Tragedies – hero hit with disaster
Carefully crafted, unrhymed, rich language, vivid imagery
TIME PERIOD – THE RENAISSANCE:
- QUEEN ELIZABETH (1558-1603)
o England emerges as naval and commercial power of Western world after
defeating the Spanish armada
o Firmly established the Church of England, which attacks Catholics and
witches. The C.O.E. begun with her father, Henry VIII, after a
disagreement with the pope over whether or not he could be granted a
divorce.
o There were Catholic plots to kill Queen Elizabeth in order to crown
Mary Scot instead. Mary Scot was eventually imprisoned for 19 years
and then beheaded.
- JAMES VI OF SCOTLAND (Mary Scot’s son!!!) is crowned as JAMES I OF ENGLAND
o 1605 – Gun Powder Plot: Catholics plot to blow up king and Parliament
Guy Fawkes rented a cellar under the House of Lords, 36 barrels
of gun-powder stocked there. This act increased Catholic
persecution. Until this day in England, Nov. 5th is known as
Guy Fawkes Day. The English burn dummies of Guy and set off
fireworks to celebrate.
o 1607 – Jamestown settled
o 1611 – King James Bible published
o Witch Trials continue
THE GLOBE THEATER:
- HISTORY:
o 1576 – Known as “The Theater” (1594 – closed briefly for the plague).
o 1599 – Tore down and drug across the Thames river after a legal
dispute.
o 1613 – Burnt down from a fire started by a canon shot during a Henry
VIII performance.
o 1642 – Officially closed by Puritan regime
o Run predominately by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men Company
- CONSTRUCTION
- Open octagon, 3 stories high, 100 ft in diameter
- Fits 3,000 spectators
- Microcosm of London
o Pit– (1 pence) Groundlings/Peasants; standing room only, fruit and
nuts sold
o 3 tiers – (2 pence) upper class seating
o Behind stage – royalty (so everyone could see them )
- Stage:
o No real scenery = audience goes off of exaggerated language and
movement
o Effects:
Trap doors, balcony entrances, rope riggings, etc.
Fireworks (lightning), rolled canon balls (thunder)
- Plays performed during the day for light (2-5pm)
- Actors:
o Only men (young boys played women)
William Shakespeare and the Renaissance
(April 23, _______ - April 23 ___________)
THE LIFE OF BILL:
- Understood all ______________________________: Father was a glover/leather
merchant, mother was a land heiress, which put them in the working class,
but with benefits and respect.
- FAMILY:
o Married _____________________ in 1582. (He was 18 while she was 26 and
pregnant)
o 3 kids: Susanna and the twins – Hamnet and Judith
- ACTING CAREER:
o 1594 – actor, writer, and a managing partner for the
__________________________
o LCM Company – acting company patronized by royalty and popular by the
public
- WORKS
o ___________ sonnets, ___________ epic narratives, and _________ plays
including:
Comedies: 12th Night, Measure for Measure, Taming of the Shrew
Histories: Henry’s and Richard’s
Tragedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Othello
Late Romances: Tempest
- LANGUAGE:
o Known for prose, witty poetry, and blank verse (unrhymed
______________________).
o No dictionaries or grammar books = learned from other educated writers
o Credited with introducing ________________ words/phrases into the
language:
Bedroom, dawn, gossip, gloomy, fashionable, bump, cold-blooded,
Break the ice, breathed his last, dog will have his day, good-
riddance, sent packing, seen better days, heart of gold
o Only ___________ generation from what we speak today
*HELPFUL HINTS:
- KEY TRANSLATIONS: Thou = you T’is = it is
- Don’t pronounce “st” at end of words – it will look/sound more
modern
- Apostrophes are for missing vowels (Ex. cat I’ th’ adage = cat
in the adage)
o ____________________________ – turned away from religious subjects and
focused
on more sophisticated plays, drawing from the ancient
_________________________
Many _______________________ – hero hit with disaster
Carefully crafted, unrhymed, rich language, vivid imagery
TIME PERIOD – THE RENAISSANCE:
- _____________________________ (1558-1603)
o England emerges as naval and commercial power of Western world after
defeating the Spanish armada
o Firmly established the _______________________________, which attacks
Catholics and witches. The C.O.E. begun with her father, Henry VIII,
after a disagreement with the pope over whether or not he could be
granted a divorce.
o There were Catholic plots to kill Queen Elizabeth in order to crown
________________ instead. Mary Scot was eventually imprisoned for 19
years and then beheaded.
- JAMES VI OF SCOTLAND (Mary Scot’s son!!!) is crowned as JAMES I OF ENGLAND
o 1605 – _________________________: Catholics plot to blow up king and
Parliament
“Remember, remember, the 5th of November” - Guy Fawkes rented a
cellar under the House of Lords, 36 barrels of gun-powder
stocked there. This act increased Catholic persecution. Until
this day in England, November 5th is known as “Guy Fawkes Day.”
The English burn ________________________________ and
___________________________ to celebrate.
o 1607 – _______________________ settled
o 1611 – King James Bible published
o Witch Trials continue
THE GLOBE THEATER:
- HISTORY:
o 1576 – Originally known as “________________” (1594 – closed briefly
for the plague).
o 1599 – Tore down and drug across the Thames river after a legal
dispute.
o 1613 – Burnt down from a fire started by a canon shot during a
_______________ performance.
o 1642 – Officially closed by Puritan regime
o Run by ____________________________________.
- CONSTRUCTION
- Open octagon, 3 stories high, 100 ft in diameter
- Fits _________________ spectators
- Microcosm of London
o Pit– (1 pence) Groundlings/Peasants; standing room only, fruit and
nuts sold
o 3 tiers – (2 pence) upper class seating
o Behind stage – royalty (so everyone could see them )
- Stage:
o No real scenery = audience goes off of exaggerated language and
movement
o Effects:
Trap doors, balcony entrances, rope riggings, etc.
Fireworks (__________________), rolled canon balls
(________________)
- PERFORMANCES
- Plays performed during the day for light (2-5pm)
- Actors were only men ( ____________________ played women)
MACBETH HISTORY: A man is urged by his wife and a prophecy to murder the
king to gain power.
- SETTING:
o Scotland
Inverness (Macbeth’s Castle near Dunsinane and Birnahm Woods)
Fife (MacDuff’s Castle)
Cawdor (territory in Scotland)
Glamis (territory in Scotland)
o England
o Ireland
o Norway
- CHARACTERS: (in the front of your Macbeth book)
- HISTORICAL SOURCE: Raphael Holinshed’s “Chronicles of England, Scotland,
and Ireland”
- IT WAS WRITTEN SPECIFICIALLY FOR KING JAMES I:
(1) He was obsessed with demonology, the idea of magic and witches.
(2) Experienced the Gun Powder Plot, an assassination attempt.
(3) Scotish History: The real Macbeth, King Duncan, Malcolm, Banquo and
Lady Macbeth all lived in the 1000s (Beowulf’s times). It is loosely
based on the career of King Macbeth of Scotland. He was a commander
under King Duncan I, Macbeth murdered Duncan in 1040 and claimed the
kingdom for himself. After a rule of 17 years, Macbeth was killed by
Duncan’s son Malcolm, who later became King Malcolm III.
Banquo was written as a good guy since King James I was one of
his descendents
(4) Short because the King liked short plays
THE MACBETH CURSE
THE CURSE: Supposedly, saying the name "Macbeth" inside a theater will bring
bad luck to the play and anyone acting in it. The only exception is when the
word is spoken as a line in the play. People actually refer to the play as
“The Scottish Play” or “MacB” when at the theater.
WHY IT STARTED: Will Shakespeare, in his zeal to ACTUAL SPELL
please King James I, cast caution and imagination
aside and for the opening scene of Macbeth's Act IV "Round around the cauldron go;
he reproduced a 17th century black-magic ritual… a In the poison'd entrails throw.
sort of “how-to” for budding witches. Without Toad, that under cold stone
changing an ingredient, Old Will provided his Days and nights has thirty-one
audience with step-by-step instructions in the Swelter'd venum sleeping got.
furtive art of spell casting. Boil thou first i' th’ charmed pot"
...And so on.
The ritual's practitioners were not amused by this
detailed public exposure of their witchcraft, and it is said that as
punishment they cast an everlasting spell on the play, turning it into the
most ill-starred of all theatrical productions.
HOW TO AVOID THE CURSE:
1) In order to reverse the bad luck, the person who uttered the word
must exit the theater, spin around three times saying a profanity,
and then ask for permission to return inside OR some believe that
you can repeat the words "Thrice around the circle bound, Evil
sink into the ground,"
2) Whatever steps you choose to take, failing to do anything to
prevent the curse from taking effect will ensure that you will in
for some trouble. To avoid bringing up the curse in the first
place, most people refer to Macbeth as one of it's several
nicknames, with "the Scottish Play" seeming to be the most popular
of them
GORY PARTICULARS FROM THE CURSE:
Beginning with its first performance, in 1606, Dear Will himself was forced to
play Lady Macbeth when Hal Berridge, the boy designated to play the lady with a
peculiar notion of hospitality, became inexplicably feverish and died.
Moreover, the bloody play so displeased King James I that he banned it for five
years.
When performed in Amsterdam in 1672, the actor playing Macbeth substituted a
real dagger for the blunted stage one and with it killed Duncan in full view of
the entranced audience.
As Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons was nearly ravaged by a disapproving audience in
1775; Sybil Thorndike was almost strangled by a burly actor in 1926; Diana
Wynyard sleepwalked off the rostrum in 1948, falling down 15 feet.
During its 1849 performance at New York's Astor Place, a riot broke out in
which 31 people were trampled to death.
In 1937, when Laurence Olivier took on the role of Macbeth, a 25 pound stage
weight crashed within an inch of him, and his sword which broke onstage flew
into the audience and hit a man who later suffered a heart attack.
In 1934, British actor Malcolm Keen turned mute onstage, and his replacement,
Alister Sim, like Hal Berridge before him, developed a high fever and had to be
hospitalized.
In the 1942 Macbeth production headed by John Gielgud, three actors -- Duncan
and two witches -- died, and the costume and set designer committed suicide
amidst his devilish Macbeth creations.
Charlton Heston, in an outdoor production in Bermuda in 1953, suffered severe
burns in his groin and leg area from tights that were accidentally soaked in
kerosene.
An actor's strike felled Rip Torn's 1970 production in New York City; two fires
and seven robberies plagued the 1971 version starring David Leary; in the 1981
production at Lincoln Center, J. Kenneth Campbell, who played Macduff, was
mugged soon after the play's opening.