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SHAKESPEARE
English Writer & Playwright
William Shakespeare
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Lived from 1564-1616
Married older woman (Anne Hathaway)
Born in Stratford-on-Avon
Wrote & acted in plays in London
Wrote 37 Plays, 154 Sonnets
Investment as theatre owner increased
his wealth
Shakespeare’s Times
• Queen Elizabeth was on the throne
• Known as the “Virgin Queen” (never
married)
• She liked and encouraged theatre
• Theatre was cheap entertainment everyone went
• Only men allowed to act in plays
Shakespeare’s Competition
• Ben Jonson was more famous than
Shakepeare in his day
• Another famous playwright was Christopher
Marlowe, who was killed in a duel
• Plays were never written about religion or
politics
• The first theatre was called “The Theatre”
Shakepeare’s Sonnets
• Shakespeare wrote 154 Sonnets
• Wrote in the Elizabethan form of the
sonnet (3 quartets, 1 couplet = 14 lines)
• Shakespeare’s sonnets are numbered not named
Sonnets Continued
• Series of sonnets:
• (1-126) address a young man encouraging
him to marry so his good qualities will survive
(in his children)
• (127-152) address the “dark lady”
• (153-154) are to the love god Cupid.
• The word “sonnet” comes from an Italian
word that means “little song”
Shakespeare’s Plays
• Three categories - Histories, Comedies,
Tragedies
• Histories were about English history
• Comedies used puns, wordplay,
mistaken identity, often end in marriage
• Tragedies involve moral conflicts; the
hero dies in the end
The Plays
• Written in both rhyme (iambic
pentameter) and free verse
• Usually the more noble characters
speak in rhyme
• Soliloquies - a “self speech” to tell
audience what the character is thinking
The Plays
• Often “the fool” speaks the truth
• Plays are written in different “acts” with
different “scenes” within the acts
• The longest play is Hamlet at over 4,000 lines
• The shortest play is The Comedy of Errors at
around 1,800 lines
• Known for human emotions - jealousy,
ambition, desire for power, love
Hamlet
• Main characters:
King Hamlet (is “the Ghost” and Hamlet’s
father
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
King Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle
Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother
Hamlet - Main Characters
• Polonius - Advisor to the king
• Laertes - son of Polonius
• Ophelia - daughter of Polonius and
Hamlet’s girlfriend
• Horatio - Hamlet’s best friend
Famous Lines
• “To be, or not to be -- that is the
question;” (from Hamlet’s soliloquy)
• "Not a mouse stirring.”
• “The lady doth protest too much,
methinks”
• “A little more than kin, and less
than kind."
Famous Quotes Continued
• "Neither a borrower nor a lender
be;
• “This above all: to thine own self
be true,…”
• "Something is rotten in the state of
Denmark.”
• “A dream itself is but a shadow."
More Famous Quotes
• “O, woe is me,…”
• “I must be cruel, only to be kind.”
• “Good night, sweet prince/
And flights of angels sing thee to thy
rest.”
Expressions from
Shakespeare
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“Dead as a doornail.”
“Green-eyed monster” (jealousy)
“It was Greek to me”
“Kill with kindness”
“Love is blind”
“My own flesh and blood”
Last Words…
• Remember, Shakespeare wrote in
modern English. Even though his
language sounds old to us, Old English
is over 600 years older than
Shakespeare’s language and sounds
more German than English.
Shakespeare
• Shakespeare’s plays have been
performed all over the world for over
400 years.
• Shakespeare continues to be popular
because he writes about human
emotions - love, jealousy, greed,
ambition.
William Shakespeare
• Now you have a good
introduction to Hamlet.
• Relax and enjoy the play!