Shakespeare (1)

Elulugu

• Was born in 1564, probably on April 23, in the small country town of Stratford -on- Avon
  
• Father was a prosperous glove maker and held several important positions in the town government
  
• Mother , Mary Arden, was the daughter of a wealthy landowner
  
• By the age of 7, Shakespeare was probably attending the local grammar school
  
• In 1582, at the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway (26), the daughter of a farmer who lived about a mile from Stratford
  
• Daughter Susanna (born in 1583) and twins, Hamnet and Judith (born in 1585; Hamnet died in 1596)
  
• From 1585 to 1592 , a period some scholars call „the lost years “
  
• From 1592 the recors about Shakespeare are much fuller.
  
• Sometime during the lost years Shakespeare moved to London and became part of the city’s busy theatrical life
  
• By 1594 he was a shareholder , or part owner , in one London’s most popular acting companies , the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and at least six of his plays had been produced
  
• In 1599 the company built the Globe Theatre , the most famous of Elizabethan theatres
  
• After Queen Elizabeth ’s death in 1603 , the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were sponsored by King James and became known as the King ’s Men
  
• In 1608 the company acquired a second theatre in Blackfairs, a fashionable district of London
  
• Between 1608- 1613 Shakespeare wrote his last five plays; while writing these , Shakespeare lived mostly in Stratford, where he was regarded as one of the town’s most important citizens
  
• In 1607 his daughter Susanna married dr John Hall
  
• In 1608 Shakespeare’s granddaughter Elizabeth Hall was born
  
• Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 and is buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford
  
• Not till 7 years after Shakespeare’s death was „the Folio“; the first attempt at an authentic edition of his works , published
  
• The 1623 edition, containing 36 plays, was printed from stage manuscripts od the company to which Shakespeare had belonged. This Folio of 1623 is the most important book in English literature
  

Theatre

• The Globe was an octagonal building , with a thatched roof covering only the perimeter of the area
  
• Under the roof were 3 levels of galleries that surrounded a yard about 65- feet in diameter
  
• The galleries looked down on the stage, a rectangular platform of 27 by 43 feet that occupied about a third of the yard at one end
  
• The main stage had a large trap door through which actor who played the parts of ghosts and spirits could rise and disappear
  
• At the back of the main stage was a small curtained inner stage used for indoor scenes
  
• Above the inner stage were two galleries
  
• The first level could be used as a balcony
  
• Musicians performed from the second level, and sound effects, such as thunder or the ringing of a bell, came from the hut on top of the stage roof
  
• Those who could afford it watched the plays from seats in the galleries
  
• For a penny, less wealthy spectators, called groundlings, could stand in the yard
  
• The yard was open to the sky, and the stage was lit by daylight
  
• Performances were given in mid-afternoon before an audience of about 2000
  
• No curtain rose to indicate the start of the play or fell to signal the close of an act
  
• To begin the play, actors entered by one of the two doors at the rear of the stage, and when they left the stage, the scene was over
  
• Costumes in the Shakespearean theatre were always colourful and elaborate versiond of Elizabethan modern dresses
  
• Scenery was almost non-existent: one tree might signify a forest; a chair might represent a throne room
  
• The plays moved at a rapid speed
  
• Elizabethan actors spoke their lines quicklier than modern performers
  
• No woman appeared at the stage; women ’s and children ’s roled were played by boys who were skilful and highly trained
  
• In a soliloquy the actor’s alone on the stage, speaking to himself and revealing to the audience his inner thoughts and feelings
  
• In an aside the actor speaks words that the other characters on stage are not supposed to hear
  

Sonnet

• A sonnet (from the Italian fot „ little song“) is a fourteen -line lyric poem with a fixed rhyme pattern and a regular rhythm, or predictable pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables called metre
  
• The basic unit of metre is foot which usually contains one stressed syllable and one or two unstressed syllables
  
• The usual metre of a sonnet is iambic pentameter
  
• The English sonnet (Shakespearean sonnet) differs from the Italian one on its structure
  
• The Italian sonnet has 2 four -line and 2 three-line stanzas, the English sonnet divides into three quatrains, or groups of four lines, and a rhymed couplet, or a pair of lines that usually draws a conclusion or presents a solution to the problems outlined earlier in the poem
  
• The usual rhyme scheme is: abab cdcd efef gg
  

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