The Globe Theatre The sketch at left is perhaps one of the most important in theatrical history. In 1596, a Dutch student by the name of Johannes de Witt attended a play in London at the Swan Theatre. While there, de Witt made a drawing of the theatre's interior. A friend, Arend van Buchell, copied this drawing van Buchell's copy is the sketch rendered here and in doing so contributed greatly to posterity. The sketch is the only surviving contemporary rendering of the interior of an Elizabethan-era public theatre. As such, it's the closest thing historians have to an original picture of what the Globe may have looked like in its heyday. Shakespeare's company erected the storied Globe Theatre circa 1598 in London's Bankside district. It was one of four major theatres in the area, along with the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope. The open-air, octagonal amphitheater rose three stories high with a diameter of approximately 100 feet, holding a seating capacity of up to 3,000 spectators. The rectangular stage platform on which the plays were performed was nearly 43 feet wide and 28 feet deep. This staging area probably housed trap doors in its flooring and primitive rigging overhead for various stage effects. The story of the original Globe's construction might be worthy of a Shakespearean play of its own. The Lord Chamberlain's Men had been performing in the Theatre, built by James Burbage (the father of Richard Burbage) in 1576. In 1597, although the company technically owned the Theatre, their lease on the land on which it stood expired. Their landlord, Giles Allen, desired to tear the Theatre down. This led the company to purchase property at Blackfriars in Upper Frater Hall, which they bought for 600 and set about converting for theatrical use. Unfortunately, their aristocratic neighbors complained to the Privy Council about the plans for Blackfriars. Cuthbert Burbage tried to renegotiate the Theatre lease with Giles Allen in autumn of 1598; Allen vowed to put the wood and timber of the building "to better use." Richard and Cuthbert learned of his plans and set in motion a plot of their own. It seems that the company's lease had contained a provision allowing them to dismantle the building themselves. In late December of 1598, Allen left London for the countryside. The Burbage brothers, their chief carpenter, and a party of workmen assembled at the Theatre on the night of December 28. The men stripped the Theatre down to its foundation, moved the materials across the Thames to Bankside, and proceeded to use them in constructing the Globe. The endeavor was not without controversy. A furious Giles Allen later sued Peter Street, the Burbage's carpenter, for 800 in damages. The courts found in favor of the Lord Chamberlain's Men and ordered Allen to desist from any further legal wrangling. The Globe would play host to some of Shakespeare's greatest works over the next decade. In an ironic epilogue, the troupe won the right in 1609 to produce plays at Blackfriars, and subsequently split time between there and the Globe. In 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned to the ground when a cannon shot during a performance of Henry VIII ignited the thatched roof of the gallery. The company completed a new Globe on the foundations of its predecessor before Shakespeare's death. It continued operating until 1642, when the Puritans closed it down (and all the other theatres, as well as any place, for that matter, where people might be entertained). Puritans razed the building two years later in 1644 to build tenements upon the premises. The Globe would remain a ghost for the next 352 years. The foundations of the Globe were rediscovered in 1989, rekindling interest in a fitful attempt to erect a modern version of the amphitheater. Led by the vision of the late Sam Wanamaker, workers began construction in 1993 on the new theatre near the site of the original. The latest Globe Theatre was completed in 1996; Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the theatre on June 12, 1997 with a production of Henry V. The Globe is as faithful a reproduction as possible to the Elizabethan model, seating 1,500 people between the galleries and the "groundlings." In its initial 1997 season, the theatre attracted 210,000 patrons. Source: http://www.bardweb.net/globe.html (03/29/09)
Shakespeare s Life Born: Stratford-upon-Avon, April 23 (or thereabouts), 1564. Died: Stratford-upon-Avon, April 23, 1616. Parents: John and Mary Shakespeare. Brothers and sisters: o Joan, born 1558, died before 1569. o Margaret, born 1562, died 1563 (aged 5 months). o William, born 1564, died 1616.) o Gilbert, born 1566, haberdasher, died 1612. (A haberdasher sells hats, clothes, thread, ribbons etc.) o Joan, born 1569, married William Hart, died 1646. o Anne, born 1571, died 1579. o Richard, born 1574, occupation unknown, died 1613. o Edmund, born 1580, "player," died 1607. Schooling: unknown. Records for the school at Stratford are lost; as the son of an Alderman, William would have gone to the parish school. Married: Anne Hathaway (26) when he was 18, in 1582. Children: Susannah, born in 1583; Hamnet and Judith (twins), born in 1585. First mention as playwright: the attack by Robert Greene in 1592. First document mentioning him as connected with the theatre: an entry in the Declared Accounts of the Treasurer of the Royal Chamber, dated March 15, 1595. First published play:henry VI, Part Two which appeared in 1594. Total number of plays: 37(see the Chronology). Poems:Sonnets,narrative poems. Source: Best, Michael. Shakespeare's Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria: Victoria, BC, 2001-2005. <http://ise.uvic.ca/library/slt/>. Visited [03/29/09]. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright and poet, recognized in much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists. Hundreds of editions of his plays have been published, including translations in all major languages. Scholars have written thousands of books and articles about his plots, characters, themes, and language. He is the most widely quoted author in history, and his plays have probably been performed more times than those of any other dramatist. For someone who lived almost 400 years ago, a surprising amount is known about Shakespeare s life. Indeed we know more about his life than about almost any other writer of his age. Nonetheless, for the life of the greatest writer in the English language, there are still significant gaps, and therefore much supposition surrounds the facts we have. He composed his plays during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled England from 1558 to 1603, and during the early part of the reign of her closest relative, James VI of Scotland, who took England s throne as James I after Elizabeth s death in 1603. During this period England saw an outpouring of poetry and drama, led by Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and Christopher Marlowe, that remains unsurpassed in English literary history (see English Literature). The third of eight children, William Shakespeare was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a locally prominent glovemaker and wool merchant, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a well-to-do landowner in the nearby village of Wilmcote. The young Shakespeare probably attended the Stratford grammar school, the King s New School, which educated the sons of Stratford citizens. The school s rigorous curriculum was based largely on the study of Latin and the major classical writers. Shakespeare s writings show that he was well acquainted with the Latin poet Ovid as well as other Latin works, including comedies by Terence and Plautus, two much-admired Roman playwrights. As his family s eldest son, Shakespeare ordinarily would have been apprenticed to his father s shop after he completed grammar school, so that he could learn and eventually take over the business. We do not have any evidence that he did so, however. According to one late 17th-century account, he was apprenticed instead to a butcher because of declines in his father s financial situation, but this claim is no more convincing that a number of other claims. Shakespeare seems to have arrived in London about 1588, and by 1592 he had attained sufficient success as an actor and a playwright to attract the venom of an anxious rival. In his Groat s Worth of Wit, English dramatist Robert Greene sneers at an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger s heart wrapped in a player s hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and, being an absolute Johannes factotum [jack of all trades], is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country. The pun on Shakespeare s name and the parody in the quotation of a line from Henry VI leave no doubt of Greene s target. Shortly after this remark, Shakespeare s first publications appeared.
Shakespeare s reputation today is, however, based primarily on the 38 plays that he wrote, modified, or collaborated on. Records of Shakespeare s plays begin to appear in 1594, when the theaters reopened with the passing of the plague that had closed them for 21 months. In December of 1594 his play The Comedy of Errors was performed in London during the Christmas revels at Gray s Inn, one of the London law schools. In March of the following year he received payment for two plays that had been performed during the Christmas holidays at the court of Queen Elizabeth I by his theatrical company, known as the Lord Chamberlain s Men. The receipt for payment, which he signed along with two fellow actors, reveals that he had by this time achieved a prominent place in the company. He was already probably a so-called sharer, a position entitling him to a percentage of the company s profits rather than merely a salary as an actor and a playwright. In time the profits of this company and its two theaters, the Globe Theatre, which opened in 1599, and the Blackfriars, which the company took over in 1608, enabled Shakespeare to become a wealthy man. It is worth noting that Shakespeare s share in the acting company made him wealthy, not any commissions or royalties from writing his plays. Playwriting was generally poorly paid work, which involved providing scripts for the successful theater business. His plays would have belonged to the acting company, and when they did reach print they then belonged to the publisher. No system of royalties existed at that time. Indeed, with the exception of the two narrative poems he published in 1593 and 1594, Shakespeare never seems to have bothered about publication. The plays that reached print did so without his involvement. The only form of publication he sought was their performance in the theater. The theater served Shakespeare s financial needs well. In 1597 he bought New Place, a substantial three-story house in Stratford. With the opening of the splendid Globe Theatre in 1599, Shakespeare s fortunes increased and in 1602 he bought additional property: 43 hectares (107 acres) of arable land and 8 hectares (20 acres) of pasture north of the town of Stratford and, later that year, a cottage facing the garden at New Place. In 1605 he bought more property in a neighboring village. His financial activities can be traced, and his final investment is the purchase of a house in the Blackfriars district of London in 1613. After about 1608 Shakespeare began to write fewer plays. For most of his working life he wrote at least two plays a year; by 1608 he had slowed usually to one a year, even though the acting company continued to enjoy great success. In 1608 the King s Men, as his company was called after King James took the throne, began to perform at Blackfriars, an indoor theater that charged higher prices and drew a more sophisticated audience than the outdoor Globe. An indoor theater presented possibilities in staging and scenery that the Globe did not permit, and these can be recognized in the late plays. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 the month and day traditionally assigned to his birth and was buried in Stratford s Holy Trinity Church. He had made his will the previous month, in perfect health and memory. The cause of his death is not known, though a report from the Holy Trinity s vicar in the 1660s claims that he died of a fever contracted after a night of drinking with Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton, friends and fellow writers. Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to his daughter Susanna and the sum of 300 pounds to his daughter Judith. The only specific provision for his wife was their second-best bed with the furniture [linens], although customary practice allowed a widow one-third of the estate. Shakespeare also left money for the poor of Stratford, and remembered the three surviving original members of his acting company, Richard Burbage, John Heminges, and Henry Condell, with small grants to buy memorial rings. So far as is known, Shakespeare had no hand in the publication of any of his plays and indeed no interest in the publication. Performance was the only public forum he sought for his plays. He supplied the scripts to the Chamberlain s Men and the King s Men, but acting companies of that time often thought it bad business to allow their popular plays to be printed as it might give other companies access to their property. Some plays, however, did reach print. Eighteen were published in small, cheap quarto editions, though often in unreliable texts. A quarto resembled a pamphlet, its pages formed by folding pieces of paper in half twice. For none of these editions did Shakespeare receive money. In the absence of anything like modern copyright law, which recognizes an author s legal right to his or her creation, 16th- and 17th-century publishers paid for a manuscript, with no need to enquire about who wrote it, and then were able to publish it and establish their ownership of the copy. Fortunately for posterity, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare Heminges and Condell collected 36 of his plays, 18 of them never before printed, and published them in a handsome folio edition, a large book with individual pages formed by folding sheets of paper once. This edition, known as the First Folio, appeared in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare s death. The First Folio divided Shakespeare s plays into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. These categories are used in this article, with the addition of a fourth category: tragicomedies, a term that modern critics have often used for the late plays, which do not neatly fit into any of the three folio categories. Source: http://encarta.msn.com/text_761562101 0/Shakespeare.html (03/29/09)
Elizabethan Era The age of Shakespeare was a great time in English history. The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) saw England emerge as the leading naval and commercial power of the Western world. England consolidated its position with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and Elizabeth firmly established the Church of England begun by her father, King Henry VIII (following Henry's dispute with the Pope over having his first marriage annulled). Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world and became the most celebrated English sea captain of his generation. Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh sent colonists eastward in search of profit. European wars brought an influx of continental refugees into England, exposing the Englishman to new cultures. In trade, might, and art, England established an envious preeminence. At this time, London was the heart of England, reflecting all the vibrant qualities of the Elizabethan Age. This atmosphere made London a leading center of culture as well as commerce. Its dramatists and poets were among the leading literary artists of the day. In this heady environment, Shakespeare lived and wrote. London in the 16th century underwent a transformation. Its population grew 400% during the 1500s, swelling to nearly 200,000 people in the city proper and outlying region by the time an immigrant from Stratford came to town. A rising merchant middle class carved out a productive livelihood, and the economy boomed. In the 1580s, the writings of the University Wits (Marlowe, Greene, Lyly, Kyd, and Peele) defined the London theatre. Though grounded in medieval and Jacobean roots, these men produced new dramas and comedies using Marlowe's styling of blank verse. Shakespeare outdid them all; he combined the best traits of Elizabethan drama with classical sources, enriching the admixture with his imagination and wit. Source: http://www.bardweb.net/england.html (03/29/09) Elizabeth I is considered one of the country's most successful and popular monarchs. Clever, enigmatic and flirtatious, she rewrote the rules of being Queen. But what was Elizabeth really like? And was her success down to her own skill and judgment - or an intuitive grasp of public relations? The reign of Elizabeth I is often thought of as a Golden Age. It was a time of extravagance and luxury in which a flourishing popular culture was expressed through writers such as Shakespeare, and explorers like Drake and Raleigh sought to expand England's territory overseas. This sense of well-being was embodied by Queen Elizabeth who liked to wear sumptuous costumes and jewellery, and be entertained in style at her court. But life in Tudor England did not always reflect such splendour. The sixteenth century was also a time when the poor became poorer, books and opinions were censored, and plots to overthrow the Queen were rife. Elizabeth's ministers had to employ spies and even use torture to gain information about threats to her life. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/elizabeth_i_01.shtml (03/29/09)
Contemporary Canada Once explorers realized that there was a continent between Europe and Asia, they began to look for ways around and through it. With no roads or highways and no maps to follow, the explorers pushed ahead into the unknown. Finding their way through the dense forest, raging rivers and winter ice must have seemed at times an impossible task. Some tried to get around North America by going north, others explored rivers and bays further south. Settlement began in their newly found land. By 1627, the settlement at Quebec still had less than 100 people, not even a dozen were women and they were still dependent on supply ships from France. In 1628, war broke out with England. The English blocked the St. Lawrence, sending ships back to France. By 1629, the people in the settlement were starving when the English arrived to expel Champlain. In the vast wilderness that existed in the 18th century, it must have been comforting to have a place to go where you could seek shelter or get help. The colonies and trading posts in Newfoundland, Acadia, along the St. Lawrence River and around Hudson Bay were the closest explorers could come to being back home. From these settlements, they started to go further west, looking for adventure, fur and a route to the Pacific Ocean. As Canadians, our history plays a large part in who we are. The waves of immigration from other parts of the world happened at different times and under different circumstances, hence Canadians of today can trace their lineage back to other parts of the world. This historical timeline is by no means a complete record of Canadian history, but it includes many of the events, people and places that created the Canada of today. Written history of Canada was recorded by early European travelers and settlers to North America, but there also exists a wealth of oral history passed from generation to generation by the first peoples of Canada. These first people migrated across long stretches of frozen ocean during the last ice age. Once settled, their culture thrived within North America until the arrival of Europeans. In addition to exploiting the natives labour for commercial gain, the deadlier sin of the Europeans was introducing diseases never before seen in North America. Europeans also saw theirs as the dominant culture, so rather than trying to understand native culture, often imposed their own on the native people. The combination of these and other disruptions were devastating, leading to tremendous social problems within First Nations communities. Although there still remain unresolved issues resulting from ignorance and misunderstanding, there has also been progress toward reconciliation by the descendants of both groups. 16 th /17 th Centuries 1534 Jacques Cartier explores Gulf of St. Lawrence. 1541 Cartier and Sieur de Roberval found a settlement on St. Lawrence River, but it fails. 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, brother-in-law of Sir Walter Raleigh, sails for Newfoundland from England. 1588 English fishing fleet delays sailing to Newfoundland to participate in the defeat of Spanish Armada. 1605 Port Royal, the first permanent French settlement in North America, founded 1608 Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain 1610 Etienne Brule lives among Huron and is first European to see Great Lakes 1621 James I of England grants Acadia to Sir William Alexander who renames it New Scotland (Nova Scotia) 1627 Company of One Hundred Associates is founded to establish a French Empire in North America 1632 Isaac de Razilly sails from France with 300 people hoping to establish a permanent French settlement in Acadia 1639 Smallpox epidemic decimates Huron people; population reduced by 50% 1642 Montréal is founded 1649 Attacks by the Iroquois disperse the Huron; disrupts fur trade over the next fifteen years 1660 English Navigation Act prohibits foreigners from trading with English colonies 1663 Louis XIV assumes personal control of New France 1667 France, England and the Netherlands sign the Breda Treaty in July and with this England gives Acadia to France 1667 First census of New France records 668 families, totalling 3,215 non-native inhabitants 1670 Hudson's Bay Company is formed and granted trade rights over all territory draining into Hudson's Bay (the largest land grant in world history) Source: http://www.ocanada.ca/history/history_17.php (03/29/09)
Source: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/98-187-x/4151278-eng.htm (03/29/09)
The Comedies William Shakespeare's plays come in many forms. There are histories, tragedies, comedies and tragicomedies. Among the most popular are the comedies which are full of laughter, irony, satire and wordplay. Many times the question is asked: what makes a play a comedy instead of a tragedy? Comedies treat subjects lightly, meaning that they don't treat seriously such things as love. Shakespeare's comedies often use puns, metaphors and insults to provoke 'thoughtful laughter'. The action is often strained by artificiality, especially elaborate and contrived endings. Disguises and mistaken identities are often very common. The plot is very important in Shakespeare's comedies. It is often very convoluted, twisted and confusing, and extremely hard to follow. Other character- istics of Shakespearean comedy are the themes of love and friendship, played within a courtly society. Songs - often sung by a jester or a fool, parallel the events of the plot. Foil and stock characters are often inserted into the storyline. Love provides the main ingredient. If the lovers are unmarried when the play opens, they either have not met or there is some obstacle to their relationship. Examples of these obstacles are familiar to every reader of Shakespeare: the slanderous tongues which nearly wreck love in 'Much Ado About Nothing'; the father insistent upon his daughter marrying his choice, as in 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'; or the expulsion of the rightful Duke's daughter in 'As You Like It'. Shakespeare uses many predictable patterns in his plays. The hero rarely appears in the opening lines; however, we hear about him from other characters. He often does not normally make an entrance for at least a few lines into the play, if not a whole scene. The hero is also virtuous and strong but always possesses a character flaw. In the comedy itself, Shakespeare assumes that we know the basic plot and he jumps right into it with little or no explanation. Foreshadowing and foreboding are put in the play early and can be heard throughout the drama. All Shakespearean comedies have five acts. The climax of the play is always during the third act. Shakespearean comedies also contain a wide variety of characters. Shakespeare often introduces a character and then discards him, never to be seen again during the play. Shakespeare's female leads are usually described as petite and often assume male disguises. Often, foul weather parallels the emotional state of the characters. The audience is often informed of events before the characters and when a future meeting is to take place it usually doesn't happen immediately. Character names are often clues to their roles and personalities, such as Malvolio from 'Twelfth Night' and Bottom in 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'. Many themes are repeated throughout Shakespeare's comedies. One theme is the neverending struggle between the the forces of good and evil. Another theme is that love has profound effects and that people often hide behind false faces. 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was written in 1596. It has become one of Shakespeare's most fond comedies. It makes fun of everything from love at first sight to realistic staging. The play refers to "fair vestal throned by the west" which was once thought to have been a polite acknowledgement of the Queen's presence in the audience. The play was first printed in a quarto edition in 1600. Source: http://www.onlineshakespeare.com/comedies.htm (03/29/09)
Shakespeare s Language In Shakespeare s time English was a more flexible language than it is today. Grammar and spelling were not yet completely formalized, although scholars were beginning to urge rules to regulate them. English had begun to emerge as a significant literary language, having recently replaced Latin as the language of serious intellectual and artistic activity in England. Freed of many of the conventions and rules of modern English, Shakespeare could shape vocabulary and syntax to the demands of style. For example, he could interchange the various parts of speech, using nouns as adjectives or verbs, adjectives as adverbs, and pronouns as nouns. Such freedom gave his language an extraordinary plasticity, which enabled him to create the large number of unique and memorable characters he has left us. Shakespeare made each character singular by a distinctive and characteristic set of speech habits. Just as important to Shakespeare s success as the suppleness of the English language was the rapid expansion of the language. New words were being coined and borrowed at an unprecedented rate in Shakespeare s time. Shakespeare himself had an unusually large vocabulary: about 23,000 different words appear in his plays and poetry, many of these words first appearing in print through his usage. During the Renaissance many new words enriched the English language, borrowed from Latin and from other European languages, and Shakespeare made full use of the new resources available to English. He also took advantage of the possibilities of his native tongue, especially the crispness and energy of the sounds of English that derives in large measure from the language s rich store of monosyllabic (one-syllable) words. The main influences on Shakespeare s style were the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, the homilies (sermons) that were prescribed for reading in church, the rhetorical treatises that were studied in grammar school, and the proverbial lore of common speech. The result was that Shakespeare could draw on a stock of images and ideas that were familiar to most members of his audience. His knowledge of figures of speech and other devices enabled him to phrase his original thoughts concisely and forcefully. Clarity of expression and the use of ordinary diction partly account for the fact that many of Shakespeare s phrases have become proverbial in everyday speech, even among people who have never read the plays. It is also significant that the passages most often quoted are usually from plays written around 1600 and after, when his language became more subtle and complex. The phrases my mind s eye, the primrose path, and sweets to the sweet derive from Hamlet. Macbeth is the source of the milk of human kindness and at one fell swoop. From Julius Caesar come the expressions it was Greek to me, ambition should be made of sterner stuff, and the most unkindest cut of all. Shakespeare wrote many of his plays in blank verse unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter, a verse form in which unaccented and accented syllables alternate in lines of ten syllables. In Shakespeare s hand the verse form never becomes mechanical but is always subject to shifts of emphasis to clarify the meaning of a line and avoid the monotony of unbroken metrical regularity. Yet the five-beat pentameter line provides the norm against which the modifications are heard. Shakespeare sometimes used rhymed verse, particularly in his early plays. Rhymed couplets occur frequently at the end of a scene, punctuating the dramatic rhythm and perhaps serving as a cue to the offstage actors to enter for the next scene. As Shakespeare s dramatic skill developed, he began to make greater use of prose, which became as subtle a medium in his hands as verse. Although prose lacks the regular rhythms of verse, it is not without its own rhythmical aspect, and Shakespeare came to use the possibilities of prose to achieve effects of characterization as subtle as those he accomplished in verse. In the early plays, prose is almost always reserved for characters from the lower classes. In A Midsummer Night s Dream, for example, the weaver Bottom speaks in prose to the fairy queen Titania, but she always responds in the verse appropriate to her position. Shakespeare, however, soon abandoned this rigid assignment of prose or verse on the basis of social rank. Although The Merry Wives of Windsor is the only play written almost entirely in prose, many plays use prose for important effects. Examples include Ophelia s mad scenes in Hamlet, Lady Macbeth s sleepwalking scene in Macbeth, and Falstaff s wonderful comedy in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. Source: http://encarta.msn.com/text_761562101 0/Shakespeare.html (03/29/09)
Jigsaw: Context of the Play Instructions: 1. Become a Subject Matter Expert in one of the six subjects below (each member of your group will focus on one area). 2. Return to your home group and share your information. 3. Create a zine with your information. Hand this in to the teacher by the end of class. 4. Next class: receive your copy of your zine, fold it, and keep it handy for future reference. You may want to complete your chart with information from the zine to help with studying. Subject 4 Important Points Summary Future Research Question A. The Globe Theatre B. Shakespeare s Life C. The Elizabethan Era D. Contemporary Canada E. Shakespeare s Language F. The Comedies