Shakespeare: An Overview

English 1: Spring 2012

Biographical Sketch

• William Shakespeare birth date is unrecorded –Stratford parish register records that he was baptized on April 26, 1564

• Stratford grammar school

• November 27, 1582—marriage license issued for the marriage of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway

William Shakespeare

Biographical Sketch

• May 1583—daughter Susanna born

• February 1585—twins Hamnet and Judith born

• “Dark years” or “Lost Years”--Nothing is known about his departure from Stratford for London (until 1592)

• 1598— “a principal comedian”

• 1603— “ a principal tragedian”

Biographical Sketch

• 1593-1594—published two narrative poems dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece

• He may have also written most or all of his sonnets in the middle nineties

• 1594—a charter member of a theatrical company called the Chamberlain’s Men (in 1603 it became the royal company, the King’s Men, making Shakespeare the king’s playwright)

Biographical Sketch

• Shakespeare seems to have made considerable money

• Buried within the chancel of the church at Stratford on April 25, 1616. It is believed that he died on April 23, 1616.

Shakespeare’s Epitaph

• Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear

• To dig the dust enclosed here.

• Blessed be the man that spares these stones

• And cursed be he that moves my bones.

Shakespeare’s Grave

The Shakespeare Canon

• 37 plays as well as some nondramatic poems are generally held to constitute the Shakespeare canon, the body of authentic work

• Dates of composition are uncertain: Richard II cannot be earlier than 1595, Othello is believed to be later than Romeo and Juliet because it seems to be a more mature work

The Shakespeare Canon

• 1588-94 The Comedy of Errors

• 1588-94 Love’s Labor’s Lost

• 1589-91 2 Henry VI

• 1590-91 3 Henry VI

• 1589-92 1 Henry VI

• 1592-93 Richard III

• 1589-94 Titus Andronicus

• 1593-94 The Taming of the Shrew

• 1592-94 The Two Gentlemen of Verona

• 1594-96 Romeo and Juliet

• 1595 Richard II

• 1595-96 A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• 1596-97 King John• 1594-96 The Merchant of Venice• 1596-97 I Henry IV• 1597 The Merry Wives of Windsor• 1597-98 2 Henry IV• 1598-99 Much Ado About Nothing• 1598-99 Henry V• 1599 Julius Caesar• 1599-1600 As You Like It• 1599-1600 Twelfth Night• 1600-01 Hamlet• 1601-02 Troilus and Cressida• 1602-04 Alls’ Well That Ends Well

The Shakespeare Canon

• 1603-04 Othello• 1604 Measure for Measure• 1605-06 King Lear• 1605-06 Macbeth• 1606-07 Antony and Cleopatra• 1605-08 Timon of Athens• 1607-08 Coriolanus• 1607-08 Pericles• 1609-10 Cymbeline• 1610-11 The Winter’s Tale• 1611 The Tempest• 1612-13 Henry VIII• 1613 The Two Noble Kinsmen

• 1592-93 Venus and Adonis

• 1593-94 The Rape of Lucrece

• 1593-1600 Sonnets

• 1600-01 The Phoenix and the Turtle

Shakespeare’s English

• Modern English

• Elizabethan pronunciation, though not identical with ours, was much closer to ours than to that of the Middle Ages

• Puns

• Vocabulary—not all words still in common use (see handout)

Shakespeare’s Theater

• Elizabethan actors performed wherever they could –in great halls, at courts, in the courtyards of inns, etc

• John Brayne and John Burbage—Red Lion in an eastern suburb of London—first building in Europe constructed for the purpose of giving plays since the end of antiquity, a thousand years earlier

Shakespeare’s Theater

• 1574—the Common Council required that playing places in London be licensed

• John Burbage built The Theater outside the city limits

• The Globe—1599

The Globe Theater

The Globe Theater

Shakespeare’s Theater

• Admission to the theater was one penny which allowed spectators to stand at the sides and front of the stage

• An additional penny bought a seat in the covered part of the theater

• A third penny bought a more comfortable seat in a better location

Shakespeare’s Theater

• The low entrance fee meant that the theater was available to all except the very poorest people

• Women of all classes were present

• Theaters were open every afternoon but Sundays, except in times of plague

Shakespeare’s Theater

Costumes

• 1. Splendid version of contemporary Elizabethan dress

• 2. attempts were made to approximate the dress of certain occupations

• 3. indicated the supernatural

• Ordinary clothing could be symbolic

Costumes

Outline of Aristotle’s Theory on Tragedy

• Definition: Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its katharsis of such emotions

Aristotle’s Definition (con’t)

• Aristotle indicates that the medium of tragedy is drama, not narrative; tragedy “shows” rather than “tells.”

• According to Aristotle, tragedy is higher and more philosophical than history because history simply relates what has happened while tragedy dramatizes what may happen, “what is possibile according to the law of probability or necessity.”

• Events that have happened may be due to accident or coincidence; they may be particular to a specific situation and not be part of a clear cause-and-effect chain.

Aristotle’s Definition (con’t)

• Tragedy, however, is rooted in the fundamental order of the universe; it creates a cause-and-effect chain that clearly reveals what may happen at any time or place because that is the way the world operates.

• Tragedy therefore arouses not only pity but also fear, because the audience can envision themselves within this cause-and-effect chain

Elements of Tragedy by Importance

• 1. Plot is the “first principle,” the most important feature of tragedy. Aristotle defines plot as “the arrangement of the incidents”

• 2. Character has the second place in importance. In a perfect tragedy, character will support plot, i.e., personal motivations will be intricately connected parts of the cause-and-effect chain of actions producing pity and fear in the audience.

Elements (con’t)

• 3. Thought is third in importance, and is found “where something is proved to be or not to be, or a general maxim is enunciated.” Aristotle says little about thought, and most of what he has to say is associated with how speeches should reveal character. (Should also incorporate the themes.)

• 4. Diction is fourth, and is “the expression of the meaning in words” which are proper and appropriate to the plot, characters, and end of the tragedy. In this category, Aristotle discusses the stylistic elements of tragedy; he is particularly interested in metaphors

Elements (con’t)

• 5. Song, or melody, is fifth, and is the musical element of the chorus. Aristotle argues that the Chorus should be fully integrated into the play like an actor; choral odes should not be “mere interludes,” but should contribute to the unity of the plot

• 6. Spectacle is last, for it is least connected with literature; “the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet.” Although Aristotle recognizes the emotional attraction of spectacle, he argues that superior poets rely on the inner structure of the play rather than spectacle to arouse pity and fear; those who rely heavily on spectacle “create a sense, not of the terrible, but only of the monstrous”

Katharsis

• The end of the tragedy is a katharsis (purgation, cleansing) of the tragic emotions of pity and fear. Katharsis is another Aristotelian term that has generated considerable debate. The word means “purging,” and Aristotle seems to be employing a medical metaphor—tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear in order to purge away their excess, to reduce these passions to a healthy, balanced proportion. Aristotle also talks of the “pleasure” that is proper to tragedy, apparently meaning the aesthetic pleasure one gets from contemplating the pity and fear that are aroused through an intricately constructed work of art