Shakespearean Times

SHAKESPEAREAN TIMES

Saturnino Figueroa Guerola

Cynthia Soler Morera

SHAKESPEARE´S BIOGRAPHY

English poet and playwright Greatest pre-eminent dramatist. Born: Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 April 1564 Died: Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 April 1616. First published play: Henry VI,(1594). Total number of plays: 37

SHAKESPEARE’S GEOGRAPHY

Stratford town is situated approximately one hundred miles northwest of London.

It was a small market town.

1. Strattford town

The population was between 1,500 and 2,000 habitants. There were many craftsmen such as blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, brewers and bakers.

John Shakespeare (a glover) married Mary Arden, the daughter of a farmer from Wilmcote. Their son William Shakespeare was born in a house in the Henley Street.

Shakespeare attended the grammar school in Stratford where he learned Latin and Greek.

2. LONDON

The population of Elizabethan England was less than five

million. London was the biggest city in Europe with between 130,000 and 150,000 inhabitants, the city was the heart of England.

A rising merchant middle class had a productive life, and the economy boomed.

Agricultural labourers crowded into London in search of better wages and prospects.

It was a colourful metropolis and contained the best and worst of city life.

It was lively but dangerous. And the city also acted as a reclaim for beggars.

In this time the Church owned about 1/4 of the territory of London.

Shakespeare lived in four different houses until 1613 when he could buy his own property near the Blackfiars theatre (Ireland Yard)

London was an ideal place for theatre because of the literary expansion that this genre suffered.

3. SOCIETY

In Shakespeare's time, the English had a strong sense of social class -- of belonging to a particular group because of occupation, wealth, and ancestry.

Being a member of one of these social classes made a real difference to almost everything in the life of a person.

Social classes:

The Nobility: At the head of each noble family is a duke, a baron,

or an earl. A person became a member of the nobility by birth, or by a grant from the queen or king.

The Gentry:

They were knights, squires, gentlemen and were the most important social class in Shakespeare's England. Wealth was the key to becoming part of the gentry.

The Yeomanry:

They were people who saved enough to be comfortable but who could be plunged into poverty. They are farmers, tradesmen.

Craft Guilds:

They were a group of artisans engaged in the same occupation (like bakers or shoemakers) and they would associate for protection and mutual aid.

Their purpose was to maintain a monopoly of a particular craft especially against outsiders.

The poor:

It was the period of time with most poverty, but there were also the sick, the disabled, the old, the feeble, and soldiers unable to work.

To control the poverty the Elizabethan Poor Laws were created.

Shakespeare’s class:

Shakespeare belonged to a middle-class family (his father belonged to a guild), and in his last years of life he had a lot of money.

The price of his plays was very cheap (one penny) which allowed the audience filled up the theatre.

4. ARCHITECTURE

During this period many large manor houses were erected by the court nobility. The plans and façades tended toward symmetry.

The great hall of medieval manors was retained, and features were added to increase the occupants' comfort. Some examples are Wollaton Hall and the Longleat House.

The globe:

It was constructed in 1599. It stood next to the Rose, on the south side of the Thames, and was the most attractive theatre yet built.

The Globe was the primary home of Shakespeare's acting company beginning in late 1599.

The Outside of the Globe

It is as an hexagonal structure with an inner court about 55 feet across. It was three flours and had no roof. The open courtyard and the galleries could hold more than 1,500 people.

5. LANGUAGE:

Shakespeare played a major role for the English language. Shakespeare had a vocabulary of approximately 17.000 words, four times larger than the vocabulary of the average educated person of the time.

He is famously responsible for contributing over 3.000 words to the English language because he was the first author to write them down.

Shakespeare had helped to establish a new grammar and a much wider vocabulary for the early form of modern English.

Shakespeare perfectly combined the classic and new traditions in literature.

There is a big quantity of words proceeding from the old tradition of the English, but he also introduced latinate words (or inkhorn terms).

In his works Latin and Greek terms formed approximately one fifth of all words.

Except for the writers of the Bible, Shakespeare is the most frequently quoted writer in English.

Some words and expressions he invented:•'assassination' •'dead as a doornail'•'neither rhyme nor reason'

6. Conclusion:

He started a linguistic revolution mixing cultures and patterns that gave the idea of a complete language when the English was in a process of creation.

The new English culture was accompanied by a new literature. He was the leader of this movement.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY:

©http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/ ©http://www.bardweb.net/man.html ©

http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/plays_numlines.php

©http://www.localhistories.org/stratford.html ©http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/poverty_01.shtml ©http://wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/16century/topic_4/stow.htm ©http://www.brandonsd.mb.ca/crocus09/library/

social_classes_in_shakespeare.htm ©http://www.localhistories.org/timeline.html ©http://absoluteshakespeare.com/plays/plays.htm ©http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Elizabethan+architecture ©http://www.rsc.org.uk/education/resources/shakespeares-

language.aspx ©http://www.garretwilson.com/essays/languages/en/englishgreek.html