Shakespeare

1. works include: 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems

2. shaped eng language

   1. english (grammar, spelling, pronunciation) not standardized at time

   2. his use of language helped set a standard

      1. introduced new words + phrases that are now common

3. wrote abt important topics (still relevant today)

   1. concerns included: love, death, war, fate, violende, greed, lust, aging, youth, and what it means to be human

4. life story

   1. basics

   2. assumed to be born in April 23rd, 1564

   3. bc know he was baptized 3 days after

   4. grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon (country-side town)

   5. middle class while growing up

5. education

   1. all-boys grammar school (public school of time)

   2. studied:

   3. Latin

   4. Classical Authors

      1. Ovid, Virgil, Cicero, etc.

6. marriage

   1. he (18 y/o) married Anne Hathaway (26 y/o)

      1. quick marriage (for time)

   2. three children (Hamnet, Judith, Susanna)

      1. first born 6 months after wedding

7. career

   1. began in London (late 1580s - early 1590s)

   2. famous enough to get criticized

   3. theater company: The Lord Chamberlain’s Men → The Kings Men (after Queen died in 1603)

   4. Globe theatre made in 1599 (on River Thames bank)

   5. performed elizabethan theatre

   6. huge during period

   7. drama was unifying force bc everyone could go

      1. groundlings ← poor ppl who watched for a penny, had to stand

   8. performed at court + public playhouses

   9. also showed immoral activities

      1. disliked by Puritans + church officials

      2. included: bear-baiting, prostitution, gambling, etc.

   10. no women involved → played by young men instead

   11. no lights, special effects, or fancy sets

Julius Caesar (the play)

1. first shown in 1599

2. audience would’ve been familiar w/ story

3. creates connections b/w fall of Roman Republic + current world

   1. begins w/ republic in trouble (bc too large to govern)

Shakespeare Literary Style

1. blank verse (he commonly used)

   1. duplicates rhythms of Eng speech

   2. unrhymed iambic pentameter

2. iambic pentameter

   1. iamb ← unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

   2. pentameter ← a line with 5 feet

3. varying the beat

   1. breaks monotony

   2. alters the emphasis

4. characters’ speech (generally)

   1. nobles ← speak in blank verse

      1. occasionally spear in common prose to commoners or in banter

   2. commoners ← speak in ordinary prose

5. puns

   1. play on words

   2. might be used to suggest 2+ meanings at once or 2 similar sounding words for humor

6. rhetorical questions

   1. use of questions that require no answer to make the speaker’s rightness seem self-evident