Well-known facts about Will

• Great writer of England• Plays translated into all

languages, musicals, ballets

• Born Stratford-upon-Avon• Well-to-do, affluent while

alive• Most quoted, other than

the Bible• 37 Plays• 154 sonnets!

Lesser-known Facts

• Teen father: married pregnant 26 year old Anne Hathaway when he was 18

• Deadbeat dad: Left wife and children for London stage career

• Father of twins• Elizabethan rapper: uses

rhythm and rhyme• Plagiarism?

Subject Manner

• Bear-baiting• Races• Gambling• Music• Drinking/socializing• Prostitution• Public executions

Conditions in London-BAD!

• Thames River polluted with raw sewage

• Trees used up for fuel

• Poverty

Personal hygiene/health

• Bathing considered dangerous

• Body odor strong

• Childhood diseases

• Children often died before 5 years

• Small Pox

• Bubonic Plague

Living Conditions

• No running water

• Chamber Pots

• Open Sewers

• Crowded

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Clothes

• One set used all year long, rarely washed

• Underclothing slept in, infrequently changed

• Clothes handed down from rich to poor

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Theater in London

• Performed in courtyards of inns

• The Theater-first public theater-1576

• Daytime/open air

• Limited set design

• Relied on music, sound, costumes, props and great description

The Globe

• Built in 1599• Across the Thames- “Wrong side of town”• King’s Players - Shakespeare’s company• Penny admission• No electricity• Performed in daytime• Exposed to the elements

Photo of it Rebuilt

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Shakespeare's Globe Theatre has been recreated on the South Bank, about 200 yards from its original site. The new Globe

opened officially on 21 August 1996 with a production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

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The Globe stage, as viewed by the "groundlings."

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The Globe stage, viewed from the wing, stage right. The wide angle lens offers a (somewhat distorted) view of the stage and part

of the groundling area, plus the galleries, and the open sky above.

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What it used to look like

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Actors

• All men• Female parts played

by young boys• No actual kissing or

hugging on stage

The groundling

• Poor audience member• Stood around stage in

“the pit”• Women not allowed

(had to dress up as men to attend)

• Threw rotten vegetables at bad performances

Romeo and Juliet

• Tragedy• Written in 1595• Set in Verona, Italy• Themes: parental

control/rebellious teens; fate/freewill; impulsive behavior/self-control

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Play’s source

• Borrowed from a poem by Arthur Brooke-1562 titled, The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iuliet

• Poem found in French translation by Brooke

• Shakespeare gave story new life and beauty

• He also could have known the popular tale of Romeo and Juliet from a collection by William Painter, entitled The Palace of Pleasure, which was written sometime before 1580

• Story traces back to ancient Greece

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Queen Elizabeth• Bastard daughter of King

Henry VIII

• And Ann Boleyn (2nd of 6 wives)

• Henry had Ann beheaded for “treason”

• Half sister of “Bloody Mary” A Tudor.- A Catholic and very unpopular

• Cousin (Another Mary Queen of Scots- A Stuart)

• She had her executed.

• “Virgin Queen”?

• A tease and a player

• Loved theatre

Her “loving” parents

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King James I

• Ruled Scotland as James VI

• Mother was Mary, aunt was Elizabeth

• Ruled England, Scotland & Ireland for 22 years

• Father was murdered and mother executed for treason by her own sister!

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The Renaissance

• 1500-1650

• “Rebirth” of arts, culture, science

• Began in Tuscany (Italy)

• Discovery of “New World”

• Copernicus: Sun-centered Universe (1543) as opposed to an Earth-centered one (began scientific revolution.

• King Henry VIII = renaissance man (ideal)

• Reformation of Catholic Church

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