WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
1564 ~ 1616
William Shakespeare
was an English playwright
and poet.
He is considered the greatest dramatist
the world has ever known
and the finest poet ever to have written
in the English language.
The plays of no other writer
have been produced
so many times
or read so widely
in so many countries.
His understanding of human nature
is one of the main reasons
for his fame and broad appeal.
Shakespeare created characters
that have substance beyond
the time and place of his plays.
His characters are not merely symbols,
but individual human beings
who struggle just as we do in real life,
sometimes successfully
and sometimes with painful
and tragic failure.
Since Shakespeare�s plays and poetry
were written so long ago,
his creations are sometimes
very difficult to understand
because of the archaic language.
However;
when his plays and poems are read
or performed by professionals,
their expert articulation
makes all the difference in the world
and the meaning becomes clear.
Shakespeare had knowledge
in a wide variety of subjects
including music, law, seamanship,
military science, the stage, history,
the Bible, art, politics, hunting,
woodcraft and sports, and yet,
Shakespeare had no fundamental
professional experience in anything
except the theater.
Shakespeare wrote sonnets,
a certain kind of poem,
which were thought to be
much more important than plays
in Shakespeare�s day.
Shakespeare added hundreds
of words and phrases
to the English language
such as schoolboy, sneak,
silliness and droplet.
Shakespeare was born and died
on the same day of the same month ~
April 23, 1564 to April 23, 1616,
the third of eight children.
Shakespeare father,
John Shakespeare,
was a maker of gloves
and owner of a small shop
in Stratford-on-Avon,
which is roughly 75 miles
northeast of London.
John Shakespeare was a respected man,
and held several important positions
from time to time in local government.
The Shakespeare house
is still standing.
Shakespeare�s mother,
Mary Arden Shakespeare,
was the daughter of a rich Catholic farmer.
She may have remained a Catholic,
but both she and John publicly
attended the state Church,
The Church Of England.
Religion in England
was once under the control
of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Pope told King Henry VIII
he could not divorce his first wife,
so King Henry told the Pope
that England was no longer
part of the Roman Catholic Church.
King Henry forced Parliament to pass
The Act Of Supremacy in 1534
that made the King of England
the head of its new national church,
The Church Of England.
As a matter of record
King Henry VIII had six wives.
He married and divorced
Catherine of Aragon,
who bore him five children,
one of which survived,
Mary ~ Mary The First.
He married Anne Boleyn
a maid of his court
who bore him a daughter,
Elizabeth ~ Elizabeth The First.
Anne was later beheaded
for an alleged indiscretion.
His third wife, Jane Seymour
died shortly after bearing him a son
Edward ~ Edward The Sixth.
He married and divorced
Anne of Cleves.
He married Catherine Howard
who was later executed
for an alleged indiscretion.
Henry�s sixth wife was
Catherine Parr,
who outlived the king.
King Henry VIII, it seems
always got everything he wanted
except the very last word!
Now getting back to Stratford-on-Avon,
Shakespeare went to the local school
where youngsters learned their lessons
from horn books, which were made
of leather covered wooden paddles
with a sheet of printed paper attached.
Horn books were worn around the neck
at times by lacing a cord through
a hole bored in the handle.
Boys from the age of seven to fifteen
went to school from 6 in the morning
to 5 in the afternoon, all year long
except for three brief holidays.
They studied math, Latin and Greek
and were allowed to spell a word
any way they liked because people
had no spelling rules yet.
Most of the girls stayed home
to learn housekeeping skills
like cooking and sewing.
The woman was little more than property
in the male dominated society
and educating girls was not important
because a girl�s place was thought
to be in the home taking care
of her husband, her children
and her home.
Educating a girl
was a dangerous undertaking.
What if she should begin
thinking for herself,
thoughts of freedom
and equality perhaps?
A few women were exceptions to the rule
and Queen Elizabeth The First
was one of those exceptions,
mainly due to the divine right of kings.
Queen Elizabeth was very popular
and ruled for nearly fifty years
from 1558 to 1603.
She was such a strong ruler
that her time period in history
was called The Elizabethan Age
and England�s Golden age.
Queen Elizabeth had flaming red hair
and bright green, animated eyes.
She enjoyed dressing in fancy clothes
like most people of her day
who could afford the luxury.
She had more than 2000 dresses.
Some of her fancy dresses
were so heavy that
she had to be carried around
on a special trolley
sufficient to support the weight.
Some of her dresses weighed
as much as 200 pounds.
Queen Elizabeth never married,
although rulers of other countries
hoped to increase their power
and their wealth by marrying her.
Queen Elizabeth never agreed.
She was ever a very clever ruler,
a great speaker
and a cunning diplomat.
England�s strong and powerful navy
was created under her guidance
and many loyal overseas colonies
were founded while she was queen.
When Queen Elizabeth died in 1603,
James VI became king
and times were not so good.
Shakespeare and a group of actors
became known as The King�s Men
during the reign of King James,
and though the name signified
no direct relationship to the king,
they most certainly performed
for the royal court upon request.
During the reign of King James
a group of elite scholars were to finish
the King James Version Of The Bible.
Shakespeare was around
46 years old at the time.
Shakespeare married
26 year old Anne Hathaway
when he was 18 years old.
Shakespeare and Anne
had a daughter, Susanna,
twins Hamnet and Judith
and later 4 grandchildren.
Shakespeare�s last direct descendant
was his granddaughter, Elizabeth,
who died in 1670.
By the time Shakespeare was 30
he was working in London as an actor.
By the time Shakespeare was 35
he and a few other investors
built the Globe Theater.
The famous theater made him wealthy.
The Globe Theater
was an outdoor theater
and one of the largest in London
with seating capacity of 3000.
The stage was a well-constructed platform
that projected out into the audience
so the actors were surrounded
by throngs of spectators.
There was a balcony stage
that was used for balcony scenes
just above the main stage.
There were entrance and exit doors
at either side at the rear of the stage
and a curtain so actors could hide
until some propitious moment
when they could suddenly appear.
There was also a trap door
for ghosts and other surprises
to pop out of during the plays.
The action of the play was viewed
from front and both sides
and in close proximity to the audience.
The Globe and other large theaters
presented their plays only at night.
Tickets did not cost very much.
The lowest priced in the pit
were on the dirt floor
at the front of the stage.
Seats in the balconies cost more
and believe it or not
the most expensive seats
were right on the stage itself.
The audience was for the most part
inattentive, boisterous and rude.
The actors had to speak
very loudly to be heard
because the audience spoke out loud
and commented on all the action
during each performance.
The theater was a marketplace of sorts
where people sold things,
carried out their business,
visited and gossipped,
and were essentially unaffected
by the performances.
There was never much scenery
with stage curtains and big sets.
Actors would recite a few lines
to let the audience know
about the setting of the play
or an upcoming action.
Actors did not wear costumes
from other periods in time,
but wore the clothes of the day
which were often very fancy,
extravagantly colorful and bright.
There were lots of props
and a wide variety of sound effects
with flashing swords
and flowing banners.
The audiences expected
lots of soliloquies
and smug asides.
Soliloquies were solo recitals
by the main characters.
Asides were comments
always directed at the audience
and at the expense of the actors
performing the scene.
Women did not perform on stage
so young boy actors
played all the female parts.
Playwrights were afraid
someone might steal their plays
and paper was most expensive,
so only the parts with their lines
were given to the actors
and not many copies
were ever available.
Shakespeare never made
much money from his plays
since playwrights were not respected
in Shakespeare�s day
as were the poets.
We consider Shakespeare�s plays
as classic presentations now,
but they were the soap operas
of the English in 1600.
Some of the first colonists
at the 1607 settlement
of Jamestown, Virginia in America
may have seen some of his plays
before leaving England.
Shakespeare�s London in 1600
was crowded and unsanitary
with an approximate population
of around 200,000.
Bathing was not considered important
and the court doctors worried
about Queen Elizabeth because
she took frequent baths
during each month.
Yet the rich people liked to smell good,
so they used lots of perfume
and scented water
to sweeten their breath.
People did not know much about sanitation
and garbage and all manner of waste
was dumped into the streets
or any handy ditch.
Due to the unsanitary circumstances
there were frequent plague epidemics
during which thousands died.
People did not realize
the plague was caused by the fleas
carried by rats and other rodents
and thought disease was spread
by foul and offensive odors.
Women carried pungent herbs
and heavily aromatic flowers
to sniff when bad smells occurred
as protection against infection.
People believed in ghosts,
magicians and witches
and were keenly aware
of death and the brevity of life.
In constant fear of the plague
they watched wagon loads
of dead being carted off
to large, common graves.
Their tolerance of cruelty
was surprisingly keen
and shockingly conspicuous.
They flocked to hangings
where corpses hung
in public places for days.
They attended bloody spectacles
of beheadings where heads
were displayed on pikes.
They gathered in crowds
to see the bear baitings
or the bull baitings in which
a live bear or a live bull
was tethered to a sturdy pole.
Savage dogs attacked,
ripping and tearing
at the tethered animals
till the they were dead.
Cock fights were yet another blood
sport enjoyed by excited spectators.
In spite of their apalling tolerance
for cruelty and brutality,
they were extremely sensitive
to beauty and grace, music,
drama, literature and poetry.
People sang a lot of songs
and learned to play
some musical instrument
available to them
in that period
such as the lute.
Dancing was especially popular.
The Queen and members of her court
learned the fancy dance steps
while the commoners
~ the poor, less fortunate people ~
danced lively jigs and reels.
Official records indicate that
Shakespeare
and his acting company
performed for Queen Elizabeth,
who enjoyed plays and music
and enthusiastically encouraged
writers and musicians.
~ FINI ~
Research and reference sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica
The World Book
The Library of Congress
6000 Years Of Religion
Never On A Broomstick
The Folger Shakespeare Library
Janet Field-Pickering
Anne Turner
Frances Owens
