Transcript Shakespeare: An Overview

Shakespeare: An Overview
English 1: Spring 2012
Biographical Sketch
• William Shakespeare birth date is
unrecorded –Stratford parish register
records that he was baptized on April 26,
1564
• Stratford grammar school
• November 27, 1582—marriage license
issued for the marriage of Shakespeare and
Anne Hathaway
William Shakespeare
Biographical Sketch
• May 1583—daughter Susanna born
• February 1585—twins Hamnet and Judith born
• “Dark years” or “Lost Years”--Nothing is
known about his departure from Stratford for
London (until 1592)
• 1598— “a principal comedian”
• 1603— “ a principal tragedian”
Biographical Sketch
• 1593-1594—published two narrative poems
dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, Venus and
Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece
• He may have also written most or all of his
sonnets in the middle nineties
• 1594—a charter member of a theatrical company
called the Chamberlain’s Men (in 1603 it became
the royal company, the King’s Men, making
Shakespeare the king’s playwright)
Biographical Sketch
• Shakespeare seems to have made
considerable money
• Buried within the chancel of the church at
Stratford on April 25, 1616. It is believed
that he died on April 23, 1616.
Shakespeare’s Epitaph
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Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
Shakespeare’s Grave
The Shakespeare Canon
• 37 plays as well as some nondramatic
poems are generally held to constitute the
Shakespeare canon, the body of authentic
work
• Dates of composition are uncertain: Richard
II cannot be earlier than 1595, Othello is
believed to be later than Romeo and Juliet
because it seems to be a more mature work
The Shakespeare Canon
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1588-94 The Comedy of Errors
1588-94 Love’s Labor’s Lost
1589-91 2 Henry VI
1590-91 3 Henry VI
1589-92 1 Henry VI
1592-93 Richard III
1589-94 Titus Andronicus
1593-94 The Taming of the Shrew
1592-94 The Two Gentlemen of
Verona
1594-96 Romeo and Juliet
1595 Richard II
1595-96 A Midsummer Night’s
Dream
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1596-97 King John
1594-96 The Merchant of Venice
1596-97 I Henry IV
1597 The Merry Wives of Windsor
1597-98 2 Henry IV
1598-99 Much Ado About Nothing
1598-99 Henry V
1599 Julius Caesar
1599-1600 As You Like It
1599-1600 Twelfth Night
1600-01 Hamlet
1601-02 Troilus and Cressida
1602-04 Alls’ Well That Ends Well
The Shakespeare Canon
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1603-04 Othello
1604 Measure for Measure
1605-06 King Lear
1605-06 Macbeth
1606-07 Antony and Cleopatra
1605-08 Timon of Athens
1607-08 Coriolanus
1607-08 Pericles
1609-10 Cymbeline
1610-11 The Winter’s Tale
1611 The Tempest
1612-13 Henry VIII
1613 The Two Noble Kinsmen
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1592-93 Venus and Adonis
1593-94 The Rape of Lucrece
1593-1600 Sonnets
1600-01 The Phoenix and the
Turtle
Shakespeare’s English
• Modern English
• Elizabethan pronunciation, though not
identical with ours, was much closer to ours
than to that of the Middle Ages
• Puns
• Vocabulary—not all words still in common
use (see handout)
Shakespeare’s Theater
• Elizabethan actors performed wherever they
could –in great halls, at courts, in the
courtyards of inns, etc
• John Brayne and John Burbage—Red Lion
in an eastern suburb of London—first
building in Europe constructed for the
purpose of giving plays since the end of
antiquity, a thousand years earlier
Shakespeare’s Theater
• 1574—the Common Council required that
playing places in London be licensed
• John Burbage built The Theater outside the
city limits
• The Globe—1599
The Globe Theater
The Globe Theater
Shakespeare’s Theater
• Admission to the theater was one penny
which allowed spectators to stand at the
sides and front of the stage
• An additional penny bought a seat in the
covered part of the theater
• A third penny bought a more comfortable
seat in a better location
Shakespeare’s Theater
• The low entrance fee meant that the theater
was available to all except the very poorest
people
• Women of all classes were present
• Theaters were open every afternoon but
Sundays, except in times of plague
Shakespeare’s Theater
Costumes
• 1. Splendid version of contemporary
Elizabethan dress
• 2. attempts were made to approximate the
dress of certain occupations
• 3. indicated the supernatural
• Ordinary clothing could be symbolic
Costumes
Outline of Aristotle’s Theory on
Tragedy
• Definition: Tragedy, then, is an imitation of
an action that is serious, complete, and of a
certain magnitude; in language embellished
with each kind of artistic ornament, the
several kinds being found in separate parts
of the play; in the form of action, not of
narrative; with incidents arousing pity and
fear, wherewith to accomplish its katharsis
of such emotions
Aristotle’s Definition (con’t)
• Aristotle indicates that the medium of tragedy is drama,
not narrative; tragedy “shows” rather than “tells.”
• According to Aristotle, tragedy is higher and more
philosophical than history because history simply relates
what has happened while tragedy dramatizes what may
happen, “what is possibile according to the law of
probability or necessity.”
• Events that have happened may be due to accident or
coincidence; they may be particular to a specific situation
and not be part of a clear cause-and-effect chain.
Aristotle’s Definition (con’t)
• Tragedy, however, is rooted in the fundamental
order of the universe; it creates a cause-and-effect
chain that clearly reveals what may happen at any
time or place because that is the way the world
operates.
• Tragedy therefore arouses not only pity but also
fear, because the audience can envision
themselves within this cause-and-effect chain
Elements of Tragedy by Importance
• 1. Plot is the “first principle,” the most
important feature of tragedy. Aristotle defines
plot as “the arrangement of the incidents”
• 2. Character has the second place in
importance. In a perfect tragedy, character will
support plot, i.e., personal motivations will be
intricately connected parts of the cause-and-effect
chain of actions producing pity and fear in the
audience.
Elements (con’t)
• 3. Thought is third in importance, and is found “where
something is proved to be or not to be, or a general
maxim is enunciated.” Aristotle says little about thought,
and most of what he has to say is associated with how
speeches should reveal character. (Should also incorporate
the themes.)
• 4. Diction is fourth, and is “the expression of the
meaning in words” which are proper and appropriate
to the plot, characters, and end of the tragedy. In this
category, Aristotle discusses the stylistic elements of
tragedy; he is particularly interested in metaphors
Elements (con’t)
• 5. Song, or melody, is fifth, and is the musical element
of the chorus. Aristotle argues that the Chorus should be
fully integrated into the play like an actor; choral odes
should not be “mere interludes,” but should contribute to
the unity of the plot
• 6. Spectacle is last, for it is least connected with
literature; “the production of spectacular effects
depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on
that of the poet.” Although Aristotle recognizes the
emotional attraction of spectacle, he argues that superior
poets rely on the inner structure of the play rather than
spectacle to arouse pity and fear; those who rely heavily on
spectacle “create a sense, not of the terrible, but only of the
monstrous”
Katharsis
• The end of the tragedy is a katharsis (purgation,
cleansing) of the tragic emotions of pity and fear.
Katharsis is another Aristotelian term that has generated
considerable debate. The word means “purging,” and
Aristotle seems to be employing a medical metaphor—
tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear in order to
purge away their excess, to reduce these passions to a
healthy, balanced proportion. Aristotle also talks of the
“pleasure” that is proper to tragedy, apparently meaning
the aesthetic pleasure one gets from contemplating the pity
and fear that are aroused through an intricately constructed
work of art