Building%20Background%20Knowledge

1
Building Background Knowledge

• The Life and Times of
• William Shakespeare

2
Todays Goals

• PWBAT appreciate how WSs life and times impacted
  his writing
• PWBAT be aware of the controversy surrounding
  WSs identity . . . but will read the play for
  itself
• PWBAT begin Macbeth successfully with appropriate
  background knowledge

• PWBAT decode a Shakespearean soliloquy and
  translate it into current English
• PWBAT identify current allusions to Shakespeare
  in our culture

3
William Shakespeare

• 1564 - 1616
• Stratford upon Avon
• Playwright/Actor

4
Family Life

• Married to Anne Hathaway
• Three children one daughter, Susana, and two
  twins, Hamnet and Judith
• Lived in London, away from his family, where the
  Rose and Globe theaters and royal court were

5
Shakespeares Time Just for Fun

• Bair Baiting
• Landscaped Mazes
• Jousting
• Executions Torture
• -Burnings (women)
• -Beheadings
• -The Rack
• -Hanging
• -Drawing Quartering
• (Hang, cut down, tie down, cut off penis and
  testicles, slit open stomach, burn
• intestines and heart, quarter body)
• The Theater

6
Of His 11 Theaters, 1 Stands Out

• The Globe
• Could seat 3,000
• Open air theater
• Trap doors
• 1,200 square foot stage
• Three stories of seats with both boxes an penny
  seats

7
His Times Henry VIII

• Married his big brothers widow, Catherine of
  Aragon
• -stillborn daughter
• -son died at 52 days
• -Mary born 1516
• Feared no sons, so sought divorce from Rome.
  Denied. Created his own new church The Church
  of England

Divorced
8
His Times Henry VIII

• Wed his mistress, Anne Boleyn
• Had one daughter, Elizabeth I
• Then 3-6 miscarriages
• Henry declared marriage cursed by God . . . had
  Anne beheaded for treason, incest, adultery
  witchcraft

Beheaded
9
His Times Henry VIII

• Wed his mistress Jane Seymour (lady in waiting to
  both KA and AB)
• Birth to boy, Edward VI
• Died 12 days afterward from puerperal fever
• After death, Henry wore black and did not marry
  for two years

Died
10
His Times Henry VIII

• Married Anne of Cleves of Germany
• Persuaded to marry her because of her flattering
  painting
• Marriage failed, annulment granted, healthy cash
  settlement for Anne

Annuled
11
His Times Henry VIII

• Married Catherine Howard . . . a Catholic
• Henry 45 and obese
• Catherine 15 and beautiful
• Catherine had an affair with Thomas Culpeper and
  was executed for treason

Beheaded
12
His Times Henry VIII

• Married Catherine Parr
• Lutheran
• Cared for Henry while he was dying
• Helped him reconcile with Mary and Elizabeth
  (daughters to Catherine Aragon and Anne Boleyn)
• Managed to survive him

Alive
13
A Rhyme for Henry VIII
Divorced
Beheaded
Died
Annuled
Beheaded
Fun for the whole family!
Alive
14
His Times Henry VIII
15
His Times

• Elizabethan
• (1533-1603)
• Queen Elizabeth I
• Virgin Queen
• Cosmology for crowning
• Golden Age for
• literature art
• Last heir of Henry VIII
• Died 1601
• Succeeded by James VI
• which united Scotland and England
• New movie about her reign!!

16
His Times

• Jacobean
• (1603-1625)
• King James VI only
• Scotlands King after his mothers (Mary of
  Scotts) execution. . . until
• added England/Ireland
• Fascinated by witchcraft
• Personal patron of Shakespeares company
• aka English Renaissance
• aka Early Modern

17
The Great Plague

• Devastating large geographic areas throughout
  history
• Began wreaking havoc in Europe in the 1300s
• Called The Black Death and The Bubonic Plague

18
The Great Plague of London

• Killed more than 75,000 of only 46,000 people in
  1664 1666 . . . . thats 1 of 5 . . . at rate
  of 7,000/day
• England may have lost as much as 70 of its
  population
• Started at port cities and worked its way to the
  interior of Europe

19
Symptoms of the Great Plague

• Swelling of armpits, groin, and neck that would
  pus and bleed
• Skin covered in dark blotches
• Fever 101-105
• Nausea/vomiting
• Blood tinged mucus and hemorrhaging (Ebola)
• Death 4-8 days

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Symptoms of the Great Plague
                              ltgt

• Lord Mayor required the killing of over 120,000
  cats and dogs in desperation
• People burned incense, smoked tobacco, and kept
  flowers by them to prevent contracting it

21
Causes of the Great Plague

• Infected fleas transmitted bacteria from rats to
  people
• Not airborne
• Outbreaks increased in the summer months but
  nearly stopped in the winter
• Outbreaks werent seen after The Great Fire

22
The Plague Today?

• The Plague and AIDS
• protection today in descendents
• of plague survivors
• (called inherited immunity)
• http//www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article42
  4915.ece

23
Question

• How do you imagine
• The Great Plague affected
• Shakespeare?

24
The Works

• The Plays
• Histories
• Richard II and III, Henry VIII, Edward III,
• Tragedies
• King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth,
  Romeo Juliet
• Comedies
• As You Like It, Midsummer Nights Dream, Taming
  of the Shrew, The Tempest, Much Ado about Nothing
• The Sonnets

25
Shakespeare Today
26
Shakespeare Today
27
Shakespeares Language

• Middle English
• Special vocabulary, spellings, and flow
• Sometimes vulgar
• Sexual innuendo
• Takes a bit of practice to get used to . . . and
  a relaxed approach!
• Plenty of supplements

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Practice Shakespeares Language

• Read the famous soliloquy from Julius Caesar
• For 15 minutes, with a partner, try to put the
  soliloquy into current language (remember to
  relax resource!)
• Watch video clip to check our work

29
Soliloquy Practice

• Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow worldLike
  a Colossus and we petty menWalk under his huge
  legs, and peep aboutTo find ourselves
  dishonourable graves.Men at some time are
  masters of their fatesThe fault, dear Brutus,
  is not in our stars,But in ourselves, that we
  are underlings. (1.2.135)

clip!
30
Sonnet 29 Practice

• When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
     I all alone beweep my outcast state, And
  trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
     And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
  Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
     Featur'd like him, like him with friends
  possess'd, Desiring this man's art, and that
  man's scope,    With what I most enjoy contented
  least Yet in these thoughts myself almost
  despising,    Haply I think on thee,--and then
  my state (Like to the lark at break of day
  arising    From sullen earth) sings hymns at
  heaven's gate For thy sweet love remember'd
  such wealth brings    That then I scorn to
  change my state with kings'.

31
Who WAS Shakespeare?

• Theories
• Francis Bacon
• 32 pieces of evidence
• http//www.sirbacon.org/links/evidence.htm
• Queen Elizabeth I
• Christopher Marlowe
• 37 pieces of evidence
• http//www.shakespeareidentity.co.uk/christopher-m
  arlow.htm
• http//www2.localaccess.com/marlowe/pamphlet/pamph
  let.htm

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Macbeth Introduction

• Macbeth takes place in Scotland
• Loosely based on a real, historical figure, King
  Macbeth
• Written after James VI becomes his patron
• Divine right God to king
• Primogeniture system eldest son inherits the
  throne
• Mirrors thwarted Gunpowder Plot assassination
  attempt in 1605
• James VI into the supernatural

33
Macbeth Introduction

• One of the shortest of Shakespeares tragedies
• Only five acts total
• Introduces us to a tragic hero
• Holds many themes about human nature, ambition,
  evil, gender, relationships, and kingship

34
Macbeth Introduction

• Glamis Castle in Scotland often visited by James
  VI
• Haunted to this day
• The widow Grey Lady, was imprisoned by her
  brother and burned as a witch (chapel)
• Secret Room for monster of Glamis

35
Macbeth Introduction

• Witchcraft
• Crime punishable by death
• Source of intense interest for James VI
• Elizabeth into cosmology (astrology)

36
Macbeth Introduction

• Lets Begin!
• Read aloud together
• Side by side translation (thank you, Barrons!)
• Occasionally, I will remove the translation so we
  can practice our skills
• Have fun take risks!

37
Todays Goals

• PWBAT appreciate how WSs life and times impacted
  his writing
• PWBAT be aware of the controversy surrounding
  WSs identity . . . but will read the play for
  itself
• PWBAT begin Macbeth successfully with appropriate
  background knowledge

• PWBAT decode a Shakespearean soliloquy and
  translate it into current English
• PWBAT identify current allusions to Shakespeare
  in our culture

Did we cover it all?