Transcript Building Background Knowledge

Building Background Knowledge
The Life and Times of
William Shakespeare
Today’s Goals:
• PWBAT appreciate
• PWBAT decode a
how WS’s life and times
Shakespearean
impacted his writing
soliloquy and
translate it into
• PWBAT be aware of
current English
the controversy
• PWBAT identify
surrounding WS’s
identity . . . but will read
current allusions to
the play for itself
Shakespeare in our
culture
• PWBAT begin
Macbeth successfully
with appropriate
background knowledge
William
Shakespeare
•1564 - 1616
•Stratford upon Avon
•Playwright/Actor
Family Life
• Married to Anne
Hathaway
• Three children: one
daughter, Susana,
and two twins,
Hamnet and Judith
• Lived in London,
away from his family,
where the Rose and
Globe theaters and
royal court were
Shakespeare’s Time: Just for Fun
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•
Bair Baiting
Landscaped Mazes
Jousting
Executions & Torture
-Burnings (women)
-Beheadings
-’The Rack’
-Hanging
-Drawing & Quartering
(Hang, cut down, tie down, cut off penis
and testicles, slit open stomach, burn
intestines and heart, quarter body)
• The Theater
Of His 11 Theaters, 1 Stands Out
The Globe
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•
Could seat 3,000
Open air theater
Trap doors
1,200 square foot
stage
• Three stories of
seats with both
boxes an ‘penny
seats’
His Times – Henry VIII
• Married his big brother’s
widow, Catherine of
Aragon
-stillborn daughter
-son died at 52 days
-Mary born 1516
• Feared no sons, so
sought divorce from
Rome. Denied. Created
his own new church: The
Church of England
His Times – Henry VIII
• Wed his mistress,
Anne Boleyn
• Had one daughter,
Elizabeth I
• Then 3-6
miscarriages
• Henry declared
marriage ‘cursed by
God’ . . . had Anne
beheaded for
‘treason, incest,
adultery & witchcraft
His Times – Henry VIII
• Wed his mistress Jane
Seymour (lady in waiting
to both KA and AB)
• Birth to boy, Edward VI
• Died 12 days afterward
from puerperal fever
• After death, Henry wore
black and did not marry for
two years
His Times – Henry VIII
• Married Anne of
Cleves of Germany
• Persuaded to marry
her because of her
flattering painting
• Marriage failed,
annulment granted,
healthy cash
settlement for Anne
His Times – Henry VIII
• Married Catherine
Howard . . . a Catholic
• Henry 45 and obese
• Catherine 15 and
beautiful
• Catherine had an
affair with Thomas
Culpeper and was
executed for treason
His Times – Henry VIII
• Married Catherine Parr
• Lutheran
• Cared for Henry while he
was dying
• Helped him reconcile with
Mary and Elizabeth
(daughters to Catherine
Aragon and Anne Boleyn)
• Managed to survive him
A Rhyme for Henry VIII
His Times – Henry VIII
Henry VIII
Catherine
Of
Aragon
Mary
Catholic
Anne
Boleyn
Elizabeth
Protestant
Jane
Seymour
Edward VI
Died 15
(TB, Arsenic,
or Syphilis)
Anne
Of
Cleves
Catherine
Howard
Catherine
Parr
Elizabeth’s Reign Was the
End of Tudor Dynasty
His Times
Elizabethan
(1533-1603)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Queen Elizabeth I
‘Virgin Queen’
Cosmology for crowning
‘Golden Age’ for
literature & art
Last heir of Henry VIII
Died 1601
Succeeded by James VI
which united Scotland
and England
New movie about her
reign!!
His Times
Jacobean
(1603-1625)
• King James VI only
• Scotland’s King after his
mother’s (Mary of Scotts)
execution. . . until
added England/Ireland
• Fascinated by witchcraft
• Personal patron of
Shakespeare’s company
• aka: English
Renaissance
• aka: Early Modern
The Great Plague
• Devastating large
geographic areas
throughout history
• Began wreaking
havoc in Europe in
the 1300s
• Called ‘The Black
Death’ and ‘The
Bubonic Plague’
The Great Plague of London
• Killed more than
75,000 of only 46,000
people in 1664 – 1666 .
. . . that’s 1 of 5 . . . at
rate of 7,000/day
• England may have lost
as much as 70% of its
population
• Started at port cities
and worked its way to
the interior of Europe
Symptoms of the Great Plague
• Swelling of armpits,
groin, and neck that
would pus and bleed
• Skin covered in ‘dark
blotches’
• Fever 101-105
• Nausea/vomiting
• Blood tinged mucus
and hemorrhaging
(Ebola)
• Death 4-8 days
Symptoms of the Great Plague
• Lord Mayor required
the killing of over
120,000 cats and
dogs in desperation
• People burned
incense, smoked
tobacco, and kept
flowers by them to
prevent contracting it
<>
Causes of the Great Plague
• Infected fleas
transmitted bacteria
from rats to people
• Not airborne
• Outbreaks increased
in the summer
months but nearly
stopped in the winter
• Outbreaks weren’t
seen after The Great
Fire
The Plague Today?
• The Plague and AIDS
protection today in descendents
of plague survivors
(called ‘inherited immunity)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article424915.ece
Question:
How do you imagine
The Great Plague
affected
Shakespeare?
The Works
The Plays
• Histories
Richard II and III, Henry VIII,
Edward III,
• Tragedies
King Lear, Othello, Hamlet,
Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet
• Comedies
As You Like It, Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Taming of the Shrew, The
Tempest, Much Ado about
Nothing
The Sonnets
Shakespeare Today
Shakespeare Today
Shakespeare’s Language
• Middle English
• Special vocabulary,
spellings, and flow
• Sometimes vulgar
• Sexual innuendo
• Takes a bit of practice
to get used to . . . and
a relaxed approach!
• Plenty of supplements
Practice Shakespeare’s Language
• Read the famous
soliloquy from Julius
Caesar
• For 15 minutes, with a
partner, try to put the
soliloquy into current
language (remember
to relax & resource!)
• Watch video clip to
check our work
Soliloquy Practice:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
(1.2.135)
Sonnet #29 Practice:
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee,--and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings'.
Who WAS Shakespeare?
Theories:
• Francis Bacon
32 pieces of evidence
http://www.sirbacon.org/links/evidence.htm
• Queen Elizabeth I
• Christopher Marlowe
37 pieces of evidence
http://www.shakespeareidentity.co.uk/chris
topher-marlow.htm
http://www2.localaccess.com/marlowe/pa
mphlet/pamphlet.htm
Macbeth
Introduction
• Macbeth takes place in Scotland
• Loosely based on a real, historical
figure, King Macbeth
• Written after James VI becomes his
patron
• Divine right = God to king
• Primogeniture system: eldest son
inherits the throne
• Mirrors thwarted Gunpowder Plot
assassination attempt in 1605
• James VI into the supernatural
Macbeth
Introduction
• One of the shortest of
Shakespeare’s
tragedies
• Only five acts total
• Introduces us to a
‘tragic hero’
• Holds many themes
about human nature,
ambition, evil, gender,
relationships, and
kingship
Macbeth
Introduction
• Glamis Castle in
Scotland often visited
by James VI
• Haunted to this day
• The widow ‘Grey Lady’,
was imprisoned by her
brother and burned as a
witch (chapel)
• ‘Secret Room’ for
monster of Glamis
Macbeth
Introduction
Witchcraft
• Crime punishable
by death
• Source of intense
interest for James
VI
• Elizabeth into
cosmology
(astrology)
Macbeth
Introduction
• Let’s Begin!
• Read aloud together
• Side by side
translation (thank you,
Barron’s!)
• Occasionally, I will
remove the
translation so we can
practice our skills
• Have fun & take risks!
Today’s Goals:
• PWBAT appreciate
how WS’s life and times
impacted his writing
• PWBAT be aware of
the controversy
surrounding WS’s identity
. . . but will read the play
for itself
• PWBAT begin Macbeth
successfully with
appropriate background
knowledge
• PWBAT decode a
Shakespearean soliloquy
and translate it into
current English
• PWBAT identify current
allusions to Shakespeare
in our culture