SHAKESPEARE1558-1603

By Brandon Pyle and Logan O’bryan

Hidden gems from the Shakespeare period: phrases

“A countenance more in sorrow than anger.”

“A fool’s paradise.” “All of a sudden.” “A sorry sight.” “All’s well that ends well.” “As dead as a doornail.” “But, for my own part, it was Greek to

me.”

Historical events

1588 – English Navy defeats the Spanish Armada.

1593- London Theater is closed because of bubonic plague.

1599 – The Globe Theater is built. 1600 – First production of Julius Ceaser. 1603 – Queen Elizabeth dies. 1604 – First performance of Othello. 1644 – Globe Theater demolished by the

Puritans.

Conventions of the time

Women could not act in plays; if there was a woman’s role, it was played by a man.

Women could not enter professions, but could do domestic work.

Women could not vote. Society was patriarchal.

Discoveries

Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe.

Martin Frobisher explored the Arctic. The abandoned colony Roanoke Island

was established in 1587. William Gilbert published his seminal

study on magnetism, De Magnete, in 1600.

Important People

Queen Elizabeth William Shakespeare Francis Bacon Sir Francis Drake Walter Raleigh John Dee Mary Queen of Scots

Major Writers and Texts

John Lyly (Euphues and His Anatomy of Wit)

William Shakespeare (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, etc)

Edmund Spenser (The Faerie Queene) Christopher Marlowe (The Tragical History

of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus)