And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth

is?
For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-Plato, 380BC

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater
hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
-Mother Teresa

All meaningful and lasting change starts first in your imagination and then works its way out.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
- Albert Einstein

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
-Mother Teresa

"Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."
- Mahatma Gandhi

God didn't promise days without pain, laughter, without sorrow, sun, without rain, but He did
promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow is but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a
dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Thoughts- questions to ask yourself

An old proverb says, “He that cannot ask cannot live”. If you want answers you have to
ask questions. These are 75 questions you should ask yourself and try to answer. You
can ask yourself these questions right now and over the course of your life.

1. Why not me?

2. Am I nice?
3. Am I doing what I really want to do?
4. What am I grateful for?
5. What’s missing in my life?
6. Am I honest?
7. Do I listen to others?
8. Do I work hard?
9. Do I help others?
10. What do I need to change about myself?
11. Have I hurt others?
12. Do I complain?
13. What’s next for me?
14. Do I have fun?
15. Have I seized opportunities?
16. Do I care about others?
17. Do I spend enough time with my family?
18. Am I open-minded?
19. Have I seen enough of the world?
20. Do I judge others?
21. Do I take risks?
22. What is my purpose?
23. What is my biggest fear?
24. How can I conquer that fear?
25. Do I thank people enough?
26. Am I successful?
27. What am I ashamed of?
28. Do I annoy others?
29. What are my dreams?
30. Am I positive?
31. Am I negative?
32. Is there an afterlife?
33. Does everything happen for a reason?
34. What can I do to change the world?
35. What is the most foolish thing I’ve ever done?
36. Am I cheap?
37. Am I greedy?
38. Who do I love?
39. Who do I want to meet?
40. Where do I want to go?
41. What am I most proud of?
42. Do I care what others think about me?
43. What are my talents?
44. Do I utilize those talents?
45. What makes me happy?
46. What makes me sad?
47. What makes me angry?
48. Am I satisfied with my appearance?
49. Am I healthy?
50. What was the toughest time in my life?
51. What was the easiest time in my life?
52. Am I selfish?
53. What was the craziest thing I did?
54. What is the craziest thing I want to do?
55. Do I procrastinate?
56. What is my greatest regret?
57. What has had the greatest impact on my life?
58. Who has had the greatest impact on my life?
59. Do I stand up for myself?
61. Do I hold grudges?
62. Do I read enough?
63. Do I listen to my heart?
64. Do I donate enough to the less fortunate?
65. Do I pray only when I want something?
66. Do I constantly dwell on the past?
67. Do I let other people’s negativity affect me?
68. Do I forgive myself?
69. When I help someone do I think “What’s in it for me”?
70. Am I aware that someone always has it worse than me?
71. Do I smile more than I frown?
72. Do I surround myself with good people?
73. Do I take time out for myself?
74. Do I ask enough questions?
75. What other questions do I have?
The Birth of the English Playhouse
In 1558, the first year of Elizabeth I’s reign, there
were no playhouses in England. Actors, or
“players,” performed wherever they could find
an audience—often in the open courtyards of
London inns. Much to the distress of the mostly
Puritan city council, who believed that “playacting”
was a violation of the biblical commandment
against idolatry, these performances
attracted large and often rowdy crowds. In
1574, the Common Council of London issued
an order banishing players from London. To get
around the order, actor James Burbage and his
company of players leased land in nearby
Shoreditch. There, they built the first public
playhouse in England. Completed in 1576, the
“Theater” was an immediate success. Several
other theaters soon followed.
The Globe
To theater-lovers today, one early English playhouse
stands out from all the rest—the Globe,
home to many of Shakespeare’s plays. Built in
1599, the Globe was, quite literally, a rebirth of
the Theater. When Burbage had trouble renewing
his lease, he had the Theater disassembled.
The timber was carted over the Thames River
to Bankside and was used to build the Globe.
Although no trace of the original Globe remains
today, surviving maps, construction contracts,
and plays of the time helped scholars piece
together a fairly clear picture of what it looked
like in its day.
This Wooden O
In Henry V, the first play to be performed at the
Globe, Shakespeare referred to the theater as
“this wooden O.” From this description and

others, scholars believe that the Globe was a

circular structure, formed by three-tiered,
thatch-roofed galleries that served as seating for
the audience. These galleries overlooked an
open courtyard, into which jutted a raised platform
stage, complete with trapdoors for the
entrance and exit of actors playing ghosts or
other spirits. At the back of the main stage was
a small curtained inner stage used for indoor
scenes. Above this stood a two-tiered gallery.
The first tier was used to stage balcony and bedroom
scenes; the second, to house musicians.
Sound effects, such as the booming of thunder,
were produced in a hut on top of the stage roof.
Lords and Groundlings
Plays were usually performed in the afternoon
before a diverse audience of about
two thousand. Members of the nobility and
the rising middle class generally sat in the
galleries. Less well-to-do spectators, called
“groundlings,” could stand and watch from
the courtyard for only a penny. Their

proximity to the stage made for an intimate

theatrical experience, but it also made for a
noisy one. Accounts of the time suggest that
the groundlings did not hesitate to shout comments
to the actors onstage, and that vendors
selling snacks circulated through the audience
during performances.
Theatrical Conventions
Certain theatrical conventions that seemed
natural to Elizabethans might strike today’s
audiences as strange. For example, most of
Shakespeare’s characters speak in blank
verse—unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.
In this verse form, each line is divided into
five units, or feet, with stress falling on every
second syllable. Because the rhythm of blank
verse mimics the natural rhythm of spoken
English, it is especially appropriate for dialogue.
Other conventions might also seem odd
today. Because acting was seen as too indelicate
for women, female roles were played by boys—
apprentices to the company of players.
Costumes were usually colorful and elaborate
versions of regular Elizabethan dress, whether
worn for Macbeth, set in the eleventh century,
or for Julius Caesar, set in 44 B.C. Scenery was
almost nonexistent. A single tree might stand
for a forest, or a chair for a throne room.
Shakespeare made up for the lack of scenery by
giving characters descriptive passages to help
the audience visualize the scenes.
Because the Elizabethan stage had no
front curtain, the beginning of a play was
announced by the blaring of trumpets, and the
start of a new scene was signaled by the
entrance of the appropriate characters. Given
the lack of scenery changes and intermissions,
Elizabethan productions probably moved
quickly. Scholars estimate that a typical performance
of a Shakespeare play lasted only two
hours, rather than the three or more hours of
today’s productions.
Literature of the Time
England
World
Renaissance Drama The Renaissance
period in England is probably best remembered
for its plays. Middle English playwrights had set
the stage for Renaissance drama with dramatic
versions of Bible stories and Christian teachings.
The authors of Renaissance drama differed in their
choice of subject, preferring comedies, tragedies, and
other secular material. From the opening of the first
professional playhouse in1576, all levels of society
flocked to theaters to see the plays of Marlowe,
Shakespeare, and other popular writers. However, the
non-religious subject matter of plays incited the Puritan
Parliament to close the theaters in 1642:
“It is therefore thought fit, and Ordeined by the Lords
and Commons in this Parliament Assembeled . . . that
publike Stage-Playes shall cease, and bee forborne.”
—Pronouncement of Parliament, 1642

FOCUS ON . . .
Two major groups of poets appeared during the Renaissance—metaphysical
and Cavalier. Metaphysical poets wrote highly intellectual poems
characterized by complex thought, paradox, natural rhythms, plain language,
and, especially, the conceit, or a comparison between two very
unlike things. The best-known of the metaphysical poets was John
Donne, author of such intriguing and complex poems as “The
Canonization” and “The Flea.”
≠ The Cavalier poets were English gentlemen who were supporters
of King Charles I. Their poetry, primarily about such dashing subjects as
love, war, and honor, was influenced by the poetry of their predecessors
Ben Jonson and John Donne. The most famous of the Cavalier poets
was Sir John Suckling, known for such witty verses as “Loving and
Beloved” and “The Constant Lover.”

Literary Trends: Renaissance Poetry

1660
1651
Thomas Hobbes,
Leviathan
1580
France: Michel de
Montaigne, Essais (Essays)
1605
Spain: Miguel de
Cervantes, Don Quixote
1630–1647
North America:
William Bradford, Of
Plymouth Plantation
1644
John Milton,
Areopagitica
1646
Sir John Suckling,
Fragmenta Aurea
1597
Sir Francis Bacon, first
collection of essays
1600 1650
1648
Robert Herrick,
Hesperides
c. 1606
William Shakespeare, Macbeth
c. 1604
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
1644
Japan: Matsuo
Bash¯o is born