William Shakespeare - Malibu High School

William Shakespeare

He was not of an age, but for all time! -Ben Jonson

About Billy

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Born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon Married Anne Hathaway in 1582. On marriage cert.

his name is spelled “Shagsspere”. Not kidding. She was likely pregnant at the time, as were up to 40% of brides in that part of England at the time.

Children: Susanna (1583), twins Hamnet & Judith (1585) Moved to London by 1592 Long affiliated with Lord

Chamberlain’s Men

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Company began performing in the Globe in 1599 Was not concerned with preservation of works Number of plays printed during his life: 18 No certain chronology of writings or performances

Shakespeare or Shakspe We are not sure how best to spell his name- but then neither, it appears, was he, for the name is never spelled the same way twice in the signatures that survive: Willm Shaksp, William Shakespe, Wm Shakspe, William Shakespere, Willm, Shakspere, and William Shakspeare.  Curiously, one spelling he didn’t use was the one now universally attached to his name.*  According to one estimate 70% of men and 90% of women could not even sign their own names at the time. 

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*Many of the following slides come from Bill Bryson’s Book: Shakespeare

Shakespeare or Shakspe 

It is perhaps worth noting that the spelling we all use is not the one endorsed by the Oxford English Dictionary, which prefers “Shakspere”

Language of the Time Some 12,000 words entered the language between 1500 and 1650, about half of them still in use today, and old words were employed in ways that had not been tried before.  Spelling was variable…a dictionary published in 1604, A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Words, spelled “words” two ways on the title page. 

Shakespeare’s Words He coined-or to be more carefully precise, made the first recorded use of- 2,035 words.  Hamlet alone gave audiences about 600 words that, according to all other evidence, they had never heard before.  Here are some: countless, critical, frugal, vast, horrid, excellent, hereditary, leapfrog, dwindle, assassination, lonely, zany. 

Phrases Some of his inventions: one fell swoop, vanish into thin air, be in a pickle, flesh and blood, foul play, tower of strength, with bated breath, foregone conclusion.  If we take the Oxford English Dictionary as our guide, S produced roughly 1/10 of all the most quotable utterances ever written or spoken in English! 

Started off writing histories and comedies  Series of romantic comedies starting 1595  Wrote tragedies in early 1600s (Hamlet, Othello, 

etc)

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“Dark Comedy”-- Troilus

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“Romances”-- patterns of loss/recovery, suffering/redemption, despair/renewal (Pericles,

& Cressida, All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure

Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest) 

London was a city where a single theatre held more people than in his hometown!

The Theatre Theatres as dedicated spaces of entertainment were a new phenomenon in England…used to be in halls of great homes or inn’s yards.  Plays were at 2pm because of no lights  Lines of play let people know if it was supposed to be night, indoors, etc…not much of a set  The money for tickets was dropped into a box, which was taken to a special room for safekeeping—the box office! 

The Theatre The disdain for female actors was a Northern European tradition. In Spain, France, and Italy, women were played by women.  Even poor people went to the theatre, especially during the depressed years, just like movies were for Americans in the 1930s. 

The Theatre To prosper, a theatre in London needed to draw as many as 2,000 spectators a day-about 1% of the city’s population-200 or so times a year!  To keep customers coming back, it was necessary to change the plays continually. Most acting companies performed at least 5 different plays a week…used all spare time to memorize lines!  Makes sense why Shakespeare would have written so many (36) plays. And why he rewrote plays (Romeo and Juliet for example) 

The Theatre There were no formal directors in Shakespeare’s day  Actors could sometimes be required to memorize 15,000 lines in a season. About the number of words in a 200 page book.  Shakespeare never used a plot from his own times, and none were set in London 

The Theatre In classical drama plays were strictly either comedies or tragedies. Elizabethan playwrights refused to be bounded by such rigidities and put comic scenes in their darkest tragedies.  In so doing, they invented comic relief  Also, classical drama has no soliloquies and no asides. 

The Theatre 

The practice of pausing between acts didn’t begin until plays moved indoors, late in Shakespeare’s career, and it became necessary to break from time to time to trim the lights!

End of a Career

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Billy retired to Stratford-on-Avon in 1610 Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 in Stratford His epitaph reads “Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here: Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.”

What’s Happening in England?

Elizabethan London

Around Town

There was only one bridge across the Thames until around 1800 (the London Bridge)  In Shakespeare’s time, tea and coffee were still unknown  Such was the popularity of sugar that people’s teeth often turned black, and those who failed to attain the condition naturally sometimes blackened their teeth to show they had had their share of sugar, too!* 

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*From Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare

Around Town 

Tobacco was introduced to London the year after Shakespeare’s birth, was used for pleasure but also for a broad range of complaints. For a time, pupils at Eton faced a beating if caught neglecting their tobacco!

Monarchy in 16th and early 17th Century England Henry VII 1485-1509 Arthur

Margaret m. James IV of Scotland

Henry VIII 1509-1547 denounced Catholicism

Mary

James V of Scotland

m. Jane Seymour

m. Catherine of Aragon

m. Anne Boleyn

Mary Queen of Scots

Edward VI 1547-1553 Protestant

Mary I 1553-1558 Catholic

Elizabeth I 1558-1603 Protestant

James I 1603-1625 Protestant married to a Catholic

m. Anne, Katherine H, & Katherine P

Key Events Plague  Low tolerance for religion (specifically Catholicism)  Role of women (despite Elizabeth’s rule)  Golden Age of Literature  Sense of nationalism develops  Cultural Renaissance 

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He reigned from 1603-1616 He was not, by all accounts, the most visually appealing of fellows. He was graceless, and had a disconcerting habit, indulged in more or less constantly, of playing with his codpiece. And his tongue appeared too big for his mouth…made his drinking and eating unpleasant to watch. He didn’t bathe much and didn’t change his clothes often either. But he liked the theatre. King James Version of the Bible finally influenced a conformity of spelling.

The Plague In non-plague years 16% of infants died in England.  In Shakespeare’s birth year 66% of infants died.  In a sense, his greatest achievement in life wasn’t writing Macbeth or the sonnets, but just surviving his first year!* 

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*From Bill Bryson’s Book: Shakespeare

Nonsense 

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A person with an income of 20 pounds a year was permitted to don a satin doublet but not a satin gown, while someone worth 100 pounds a year could wear all the satin he wished, but could have velvet only in his doublets, but not in any outerwear, and then only so long as the velvet was not crimson or blue. Silk netherstockings were restricted to knights and their eldest sons…amazing S’s plays were so deep if these were concerns of the day.* *From Bill Bryson’s Book: Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s Works 

154 Sonnets 12 Comedies

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10 Histories

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12 10 8 6 4

Comedy History Tragedy Romance

(Henry IV, Part I; Henry IV, Part II; Henry V; Henry VI, Part I; Henry VI, Part II; Henry VI, Part III; Henry VIII; King John; Richard II; Richard III)

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11 Tragedies (Antony and Cleopatra,

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4 “Romances” (Pericles, Cymbeline,

2 0

(All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, Merchant of Venice, Merry Wives of Windsor, Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona)

Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida) The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest)

TRAGEDY 

Tragedy: A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances

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Tragedy Sad  Protagonist “dies”  Fault is moral  Sense of waste 

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Aristotelian fall of person of high estate  Own fault, not moral  Catharsis- expulsion of pity and fear 

MACBETH

History of ‘That Play’   

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Written and performed for King James I (1606) Tragedy with a historical emphasis Real Macbeth ruled from 1040-1057; killed Duncan, revenged by Malcom (son) in 1057-reigned until 1093 Banquo is said to be an ancestor of James I

Assassination was key issue for James-- had already survived one attempt  Loosely based on Gunpowder Plot of 1605  Witchcraft punishable by death (Salem trials in 1692)  Some witch scenes believed to be added by Thomas Middleton after Shakespeare’s death 

The Curse 

The "Curse of Macbeth" is the misfortune that happens during the production of the play.  The theory goes that Shakespeare included actual black magic spells in the incantations of the weird sisters. Those who appear in the play or those who mention the play's name within the confines of a theatre risk having these evils brought down on their heads.  The tragedy of Macbeth is considered so unlucky that it is hardly ever called by name inside the profession. People refer to the play as "that play”, “the unmentionable" or "the Scottish play." It is supposed to be bad luck to quote from the play or to use any sets, costumes, or props from a production.

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August 7, 1606-- The boy actor playing Lady Macbeth died back stage on opening night. Shakespeare had to fillin.  Amsterdam, 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.  New York, 1849-- performance at Astor Place, a riot broke out in which 31 people were trampled to death.  1934, four actors played Macbeth in a single week. In 1937, Macbeth had to be postponed for three days after a change in directors and because of the death of Lilian Boylis. In 1954, the portrait of Lilian Boylis crashed down on the bar on opening night.

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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.  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.  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.  Bermuda, 1953--The indestructible Charlton Heston suffered severe burns in his groin and leg area from tights that were accidentally soaked in kerosene.

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New York, 1970-- An actor's strike felled Rip Torn's production 1971-- two fires and seven robberies plagued the version starring David Leary 1981-- production at Lincoln Center, J. Kenneth Campbell, who played Macduff, was mugged soon after the play's opening. The superstition is not so much about doing the play as about naming it. You are not supposed to mention the title in a theatre. The most common remedy to get rid of the curse is that the offender must step outside, turn around three times, spit, and say the foulest word he/she can think of, and wait for permission to re-enter the theatre.

Other Act 1, Scene 1s 

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Romeo & Juliet-- fight scene between Montague and Capulet household; Romeo professes love for Rosaline Othello-- Roderigo upset with Iago; Iago upset because Othello appointed Cassio lieutenant; Brabanzio finds out about Desdemona’s marriage to Othello

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Julius Caesar-- Flavius and Murellus are upset over the city’s support of Caesar and his victory over Pompey (a leader they used to support) Much Ado About Nothing-- Don Juan and crew return victorious from battle; Beatrice and Benedick relationship set up; plan to hook-up Claudio and Hero

Macbeth Act 1, Scene 1

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Three witches appear out of a storm and plan to meet again after the battle to confront Macbeth. They disappear as quickly as they appeared (scene is 13 lines).

A desert place. Thunder and lightning. Enter three witches.

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1st witch: When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? 2nd witch: When the hurlyburly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won. 3rd witch: That will be ere the set of sun. 1st witch: Where the place? 2nd witch: Upon the heath. 3rd witch: There to meet with Macbeth. 1st witch: I come, Graymalkin! 2nd witch: Paddock calls. 3rd witch: Anon! All: Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air. [They vanish]

Literary Allusion

Act 4, Scene 1 Line 45