William Shakespeare

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1564 - 1616

William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born on April 26th, 1564. Shakespeare died on April 26th, 1616. Williams father was John, a local business man, and his mother was Mary. William was the third oldest child. Shakespeare had seven brothers and sisters.

William Shakespeare
Shakespeare and his family lived in Stratford Upon Avon. Stratford is about 100 miles outside of London. Shakespeare had a fourth grade education and never attended a university.

William Shakespeare
In 1582 Shakespeare, then 18, married 26 year old Anne Hathaway. The eight year age gap was unusual for the time. At the time they were married Hathaway was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. Shakespeare did not like his wife

William Shakespeare
Anne and William had two other children, twins Judith and Hamnet. At the age of eleven Hamnet passed away. Shakespeare was very distraught by the death of his son and paid tribute to him in the play Hamlet.

William Shakespeare
Shakespeare had a very small family for the time, usually people had larger families due to high child mortality rates. Though Shakespeares family resided in Stratford Shakespeare spent the majority of his time in London. Shakespeare resided in Stratford only during the winter.

Shakespeares Poetry
Shakespeare is know for his invention of the Shakespearean sonnet. This sonnets are 14 lines long. Have an ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG rhyme scheme. Are all written in Iambic Pentameter. Iambic Pentameter has 10 syllables per line and follow an unstressed/stressed pattern. The last two rhyming lines are called a Heroic Couplet

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? A Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A And summer's lease hath all too short a date: B

Sometime too4 hot the6eye of8heaven shines, C 2 10 And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; D And every fair from fair sometime declines, C By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; D
But thy eternal summer shall not fade E Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; F Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, E When in eternal lines to time thou growest: F So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. G
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Shakespeares Poetry
Shakespeare wrote 154 Shakespearean Sonnets Shakespeare also wrote poetry that didnt follow the Shakespearean sonnet format however he is most famous for the Shakespearean Sonnet.

Shakespeares Plays
Shakespeare wrote three main types of plays. 1. Comedies 2. Histories 3. Tragedies Shakespeare began his career with the comedies and ended with the tragedies.

Shakespeares Comedy
Shakespeares comedy generally involves some sort of romantic folly where there are mismatched romantic pairings. One trait of Shakespeares comedy is that nobody will die. There is a dark side to Shakespeares comedy, characters will often go through a dramatic series of events.

Shakespeares Tragedy
Shakespeares tragedy involves a main character who is a prominent figure in his/her society. There is always a flaw in this persons character that he/she doesnt realize. The main character will always fall from power. The main character will always die.

Shakespeares History
Shakespeares histories are both a comment on previous rulers as well as current rulers. Shakespeare would often point out what he thought was wrong with the government in his plays. Because he was sponsored by the king he needed to hide this fact, which he did by writing about fictional or past rulers.

Shakespeares Plays
Shakespeare wrote 13 Comedies. Shakespeare wrote 10 Histories. Shakespeare wrote 15 Tragedies. As Shakespeare got older his writing became darker and darker, thus he ended his career writing tragedies.

Shakespeares Plays
Shakespeares plays typically have five acts. Typically there is a character of lower class who can see through all of the confusion in the play and tells the audience what is really going on. Shakespeare also relies on soliloquies and asides to inform the audience of plot.

Soliloquy
A soliloquy is anytime where a character is alone on stage and talking to the audience. The character will break the fourth wall and tell the audience what he/she is thinking. Typically in tragedy this is where we learn the main characters tragic flaw.

Aside
An aside is similar to a soliloquy but the character is not alone on the stage. Again the fourth wall is broken, but only the audience knows what is going on. Modern examples of the aside can be seen in TV shows like Malcolm in the Middle and Saved by the Bell.

Shakespeares Life
Shakespeare was a wealthy man for his time. He owned part of his theatre, The Globe, so he received a portion of the profits from his plays. Shakespeare became the official playwright of the king. His performance group was originally Lord Chamberlains Men and later became The Kings Men.

Shakespeares Theatre
The Globe Theatre was built outside of London, theatre was performed here due to the Puritans. The original Globe burned down during Shakespeares time. During a performance of Henry the VIII in 1613 an errant cannon shot caught the thatch roof on fire.

Shakespeares Theatre
A second Globe was built less than 60 miles from the site of the original Globe in 1614. This second Globe also burned down (though after Shakespeares death). A third Globe was built in 1997 outside of London at the site of the original Globe.

Shakespeares Theatre
At the time women were not allowed to act on stage. Because of this men performed all the roles. Boys below the age of thirteen performed the roles of women. To compensate for this romantic scenes were often conducted behind a curtain.

Shakespeares Theatre
Shakespeare did not write down any of his plays. Actors memorized the lines as they performed the plays. After Shakespeares death The Kings Men recorded all of his plays on paper to pay tribute to Shakespeare. Because of this there are slight differences in the various copies of his plays.

Why was Shakespeare so popular?