William Shakespeare

What were his

contributions to the
Renaissance?
- Developments in
the English
language
- His plays and
character types
- The Globe Theatre
When you hear the name William
Shakespeare, what comes to mind?

William
Shakespeare
 William Shakespeare
• Born in Stratford-upon-Avon (near
Birmingham) in 1564.
• He began his career as both an actor
an writer with the King’s Men theatre
company.
• He is considered the greatest
playwright in the English language.
• His plays are still very popular and
greatly influence the stories we
enjoy today in books, tv and film.
• He also had a massive influence on
the English language itself that we
benefit from in the modern day.
 The English
Language
• Shakespeare added significantly to
the English vernacular (ordinary
everyday English that we speak) by
inventing words that we still use
today, centuries after he wrote them,
e.g. eyeball, amazement, unreal and
hurry.
• He is credited with the invention of
a staggering 1700 words.
 The English
Language cont.
• Thanks to the popularity of his plays,
the English language became more
standardised where rules around
grammar (structure of language)
were more clear and definite.
• This made communication between
people (in writing and speech) easier
and more effective.
• As with words, Shakespeare’s plays
gave us many phrases we use to this
very day, e.g. good riddance, too much
of a good thing and the game is up.
Words he invented
 Phrases
he
invented
 Let’s try and write like Shakespeare
Since Shakespeare wrote his plays over 400 years ago,
some of his language is different to our modern
English.
Some words are different:
- thou/thee = you - thy = your
Some verbs are different:
- didst = did - hath/hast = have/has
- wilt = will - doth/dost = do/does
- speakst = speak
Some words are combined:
- ‘twas = it was - ‘tis = it is - is’t = is it?
 Activity 1
• Read through each of
Shakespeare’s insults
and think of a modern
phrase that matches each
of his insults.
• Read through each of
Shakespeare’s phrases
that we still use today
and explain its meaning.
• Talk to the person beside
you, share your thoughts
and work together.
 Activity 2
• Can you tell the difference
between me and modern hip-
hop artists?
• Read each of the quotes on
the sheet and decide whether
it is a line from my plays or a
lyric from a hip-hop song.
• Like activity 1, work
together.
 Recap
• What did you learn today?
• What was important about
Shakespeare in today’s
class?
• Each pair has a card. Get
one person to write
(recorder) about what you
learned. Get the other
person to be the speaker
(reporter).
 Plays
• Like Renaissance artists, some of
his work was inspired by
ancient Rome and Greece, e.g.
Julius Caesar and Antony and
Cleopatra.
• Like Renaissance art,
Shakespeare’s characters were
very realistic, displaying a wide
range of emotions.
• His characters were complex,
neither being entirely good nor
entirely bad.
• Funnily enough, female roles in
Shakespeare’s plays were
performed by young males.
• There was a variety to the
kinds of plays you could see
by Shakespeare.
• Tragedies such as Hamlet
Plays cont.
and Romeo and Juliet.
• Comedies such as
Midsummer Night’s Dream
and As You Like It.
• Histories such as Richard
III and Henry V.
• Much like us enjoying
different genres of film and
tv (crime, horror, fantasy
etc.), people could enjoy
different kinds of stories
with Shakespeare’s plays.
 Globe Theatre
• Shakespeare’s plays were staged
at the Globe Theatre in London.
• It was an open air theatre with
no roof in the centre.
• This meant that plays were
performed during the day.
• Getting into the Globe to see a
play was quite cheap, making
Shakespeare’s plays accessible to
most people and not just the
upper classes.
• Q: We still go to plays today,
what other forms of popular
entertainment are like going to a
play that we enjoy?
The Lion King is based on Hamlet
Game of Thrones is based on several
Shakespeare plays such as Macbeth
Memes
 The Printing Press
• Johannes Gutenberg
invented the printing
press in Mainz,
Germany around 1450.
• Gutenberg used his skills
as a goldsmith to invent
moveable metal type
that would make the
mass production of
texts easier and
quicker.
• Let’s look at how it
works.
 The Printing
Press cont.
• Central to the printing press’
effectiveness was individual
metal letters.
• The letters were set up in a
frame that represented the
shape of a page.
• The letters were inked and
the paper was pressed down
on them.
• This process was repeated
until the book was completed.
 Fresh off the Presses
• The first book printed by
Gutenberg was the Bible.
• It went on sale for a tenth
(10%) of the price of a
manuscript version of the Bible.
• Soon, multiple presses were set
up across Germany.
• Italy had a hundred presses by
1500.
• The printing press was
absolutely vital for the spread
of knowledge generated and
rediscovered by the
Renaissance.
The Old with the New