William Shakespeare 1564-1616

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William Shakespeare 1564-1616
All the world 's a stage, / And all the men and
women merely players.
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• Born in Stratford
• The 3rd of 8 kids
• Married at age 18
• (his wife was 26)
• Worked as an actor
• Eighteen plays printed
• small books called
• quartos
• First folio in 1623

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The Globe Theater 1599
Burned in 1613
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The New Globe Theater
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The Plays

• Comedies
• Tragedies
• Histories

• The Tragedies
• Hamlet
• Romeo and Juliet
• Othello
• King Lear
• Macbeth

Which plays have you heard of?
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Characters Macbeth

• Characters
• Duncan King of Scotland
• Malcolm heir to the throne
• Macbeth general of the kings army
• Banquo general of the kings army
• Macduff Macbeths foil
• Lady Macbeth wife of Macbeth

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Themes Macbeth

• Violence resulting when social order is tampered
  with
• Qualities of good and evil combined in a single
  individual
• Seduction of power and ambition turns noble
  people into tyrants
• Internal desires versus external realities

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The Gunpowder Plot of 1605

• the seeds of discontent were sown in the late
  1520s during the reign of Henry VIII when he
  parted from the Roman Catholic Church
• subsequent monarchs decided the fates of the
  nations believers
• Elizabeth became fearful of an encroaching
  Catholic Europe so she began to repress and
  persecute Catholics

• "Remember, remember the fifth of
  November.Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.I see no
  reason why Gunpowder TreasonShould ever be
  forgot."

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• three British Catholic gentlemen met in secret
  (Catesby, Wintour, and Wright)
• King James promises a relaxation in the
  anti-Catholic laws, but it now appeared that he
  would be even more severe in their persecution
  than his predecessor had been
• the plan was to blow up the King and the House of
  Lords at the next Opening of Parliament by
  renting a cellar right under the House of Lords
• they would then seize the royal children and
  return Catholicism to the land

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• To commemorate the discovery of the Plot, King
  James had a medal created picturing a serpent
  hiding amongst flowers
• Look like the innocent flower, but be the
  serpent undert
• The Shakespearean audience would have understood
  the context and allusion

• Guy Fawkes was able to fill the underground
  storehouse with some thirty-six barrels of
  gunpowder
• Everything was set in place all the conspirators
  had to do now was wait.
• The plan was foiled when a letter was sent to
  Lord Monteagle telling of the plot
• All the conspirators except for one were executed
  for their crimes

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Elizabethan Belief in Witches

• Ghosts, malevolent spirits, witches, and other
  supernatural elements were common belief
• Queen Elizabeth I passed the 1562 Elizabethan
  Witchcraft Act forbidding conjuration,
  enchantments, and witchcrafts
• Belief in witches inspired violent behavior in
  Shakespearean times
• Historians cite that 16,000 women were killed due
  to witchcraft accusations
• King James wrote a book on the subject
  Daemonology (Shakespeare incorporated this aspect
  of the kings character when creating the role of
  Macbeth)