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The World of Shakespeare
The World of Shakespeare
LIFE
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, in
England, on 23 April 1564. He was the third of seven
children born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden.
Shakespeares father was a tanner and glovemaker. He was a
fairly prominent political figure as well, being an alderman
of Stratford for years and serving a term as high bailiff, the
equivalent of a mayor today.
William Shakespeare attended King Edward VI school, a
good
grammar
school
in
Stratford--upon-Avon.
his
instructors were all Oxford graduates, and his studies were
probably in Latin, Logic, Rhetoric and History.
In 1582, at the age of 18, Shakespeare married Anne
Hathaway. She, eight years his senior, was already expecting
their first child. Suzanna was duly born in 1583, and was
soon followed by the twins Hamnet and Judith, in 1585. By
1592, Shakespeare was an established playwright in London;
however, the plague kept the theatres closed most of the
time. It was during this period that Shakespeare wrote his
earliest sonnets and poems.
Shakespeare did most of his early theatre work in two
London theatres owned by James Burbage called The
Theatre and The Curtain. Despite the personal tragedy of
losing his son, Hamnet, to the plague in 1596, Shakespeare
prospered in this period. He was able to buy New Place, one
of the finest houses in Stratford, in 1597.
In the following year The Lord Chamberlains Men - the
theatre group in which he worked - relocated to bankside
and the newly built Globe Theatre. Shakespeare owned
stock in the theatre and made decent money from the
productions. Around this time, Shakespeare applied for, and
got, a coat of arms with the motto: non sanz droict (not
without right). This gave him the standing of a gentleman,
something that was generally associated with actors, who
were considered to be in the same class as vagrants and
criminals.
In 1603 Shakespeares theatrical company was taken under
the patronage of James I and became known as the Kings
Company. In 1609, the company began performing at the
Blackfriars Theatre. Around this time, Shakespeare joined a
group of writers who gathered at the Mermaid Tavern in
THE TRAGEDIES
The Tragedies find Shakespeare in more probing and
philosophical mode. He looks at jealousy, ambition, selfdoubt and passion as parts of human nature that can be
inspiring but also dangerous. In these plays the faults and
follies of human beings have serious consequences and cause
real, and irreparable damage.
The Tragedies are: Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of
Venice, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.
WHAT DO ALL SHAKESPEARES PLAYS HAVE IN COMMON?
All Shakespearean plays follow the classic plot framework of:
SITUATION: The first stage of a Shakesperean play
introduces the characters and the situation they find
themselves in. Usually in the first scene Shakespeare
introduces an apparently ordered society where peoples