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The Tragedy of
by
William Shakespeare
Study Guide
English 9 Higher Learning
Elizabethan England – 1558 to 1603
Elizabeth I was named Queen of England in 1558.
This time period, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, was also known as “The Golden Age.”
This Elizabethan Era was an age of peace and prosperity where the arts flourished
Famous writers of the time included William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spencer, and Ben Johnson
Themes in the writing focused on self-confidence and the energy of the time.
Literacy was more common so the demand for books was increasing.
Theater began as a form of entertainment only for the elite and wealthy, but gradually changed to include all social classes.
Plays consisted of splendor and exaggeration, and usually contained action, romance, dancing, puns, and sword fights.
Groundlings were the poorer people who only paid a penny to stand in the pit surrounding the stage.
Hazelnuts were the Elizabethan equivalent to the popcorn of today.
Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake's added to the nation's prestige and competitiveness in navigation and exploration.
England defeated the mighty Spanish Armada in 1588, and gained the reputation of the world’s greatest Naval power.
After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, King James I took over the throne of England.
In 1607, Jamestown is established as America’s first colony.
The Life of William Shakespeare
Though William Shakespeare is recognized as one of literature’s greatest influences, very little is actually known about him. What we do know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone. Anecdotes and criticisms by his rivals also speak of the famous playwright and suggest that he was indeed a playwright, poet and an actor.
William was born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-Upon-Avon in England. We don’t actually know his birthday but from records we assume he was born around April 23 or 24, 1564.
From baptism records, we know William's father was a John Shakespeare, said to be a town official of Stratford and a local businessman who dabbled in tanning and leatherwork which is working with white leather to make items like purses and gloves. John also dealt in grain and sometimes was described as a glover by trade.
William's mother was Mary Arden who married John Shakespeare in 1557. The youngest daughter in her family, she inherited much of her father’s landowning and farming estate when he died.
It is known that the King’s New Grammar School taught boys basic reading and writing. Therefore it is assumed that William attended this school since it existed to educate the sons of Stratford.
A bond certificate dated November the 28th, 1582, reveals that an eighteen-year-old William married the twenty-six and pregnant Anne Hathaway. Barely seven months later, they had his first daughter, Susanna. Anne never left Stratford, living there her entire life. Baptism records show that William’s first child, Susanna was baptized in Stratford sometime in May, 1583. Baptism records again reveal that twins Hamnet and Judith were born in February 1585. Hamnet, William's only son died in 1596, just eleven years old.
Looking for work in London, just four days ride way from Stratford, William is believed to have left his family back home for some twenty years while he pursued his craft. By 1592, he was a distinguished playwright and actor. In 1594, he helped to create the acting group Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which would later be called The King’s Men. Shakespeare became the foremost dramatist of his day, composing 154 sonnets and thirty-seven plays. When his plays were performed many times he acted in them. Some of his most famous and frequently performed plays are: Hamlet, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello. In 1599, The Globe Theater was constructed. Shakespeare was list as one of the owners, and it became the exclusive theater for his plays.
In 1610, Shakespeare retired to Stratford-Upon- Avon, a wealthy man. He died on April the 23rd, 1616. Literature's famous Bard is buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. He infamously left his second-best bed to his wife Anne Hathaway and little else, giving most of his estate to his eldest daughter Susanna. This was not as callous as it seems; the Bard's best bed was for guests; his second-best bed was his marriage bed.
Break it Down
Directions: Create an outline of Shakespeare’s life. Choose the most important elements from the biography and list them below.
The Globe Theater
HISTORY
The Globe Theatre was an early English theatre in London where most of William Shakespeare's plays were first presented. It was built in 1599 by two brothers, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, who owned its predecessor, The Theatre.
In the winter of 1598, the lease on The Theatre was due to expire because of an increase in rent. The Burbage brothers decided to demolish the building piece by piece, ship the pieces across the Thames River to Southwark on the south bank, and rebuild it there.
Theatres were often closed during Shakespeare’s time due to Puritans and the plague
The original structure of the Globe Theatre stood until 29 June, 1613, when its thatched roof was set ablaze by a cannon fired in a performance of Henry VIII and the Globe burned to the ground.
The Globe was reconstructed in 1614, with tiles replacing flammable straw on its roof.
In 1644, the Globe was torn down, leveled, and tenement housing was built on the site.
In September 1999, a reconstructed Globe Theatre officially opened in London, 500 years after the first plays were performed in the original theatre.
STRUCTURE
Globe as a hexagonal structure with an inner court about 55 feet across. It was three-stories high and had no roof.
The open air arena, called the “pit” or the “yard”, had a raised stage at one end and was surrounded by three tiers of roofed galleries with balconies overlooking the back of the stage. The stage projected halfway into the “pit.”
Underneath the floors of the outer and inner stages was a large cellar called "hell", allowing for the dramatic appearance of ghosts and the like.
The stage of the Globe was a level platform about 43 feet in width some 27 or 28 feet deep that was raised about five feet off the ground. The stage was fitted with a number of mechanisms, like trap doors and a sub-stage.
On the fourth side of the stage was an adjacent "tiring" house, where costume changes were made. It was capped by a small turret structure, from which a flag and a trumpeter would announce the day's performances.
The second level of the tiring-house contained a central balcony stage in the middle, used in plays like Romeo and Juliet
The third level consisted of a central music gallery and two large lofts on either side of it, used as storage and dressing rooms.
Above the “Tiring House” were small house-like structures called the “huts”, complete with thatched roofs. This space was used for the sound effects and pulley system.
Shakespeare’s Language
Unusual Word Arrangements
Did people really speak the way they do in Shakespeare's plays? NO!!! Shakespeare wrote the way he did for poetic and dramatic purposes.There are many reasons why he did this – to create a specific poetic rhythm, to emphasize a certain word, to give a character a specific speech pattern, etc.
A typical sentence in normal order begins with a subject, followed by a verb and an object. For example:
I ate the sandwich.
Those same four words can be rearranged to form six sentences with similar meaning:
I the sandwich ate.
Ate the sandwich I.
Ate I the sandwich.
The sandwich I ate.
The sandwich ate I.
Shakespeare likes to mix it up, often starting with the object before including the verb and subject. Rearranging in the order that makes the most sense to you (I ate the sandwich) will be one of your first steps in making sense of Shakespeare's language.
Omissions
For the sake of his poetry, Shakespeare often left out letters, syllables, and whole words. These omissions really aren't that much different from the way we speak today. We say:
"Been to class yet?"
"Nope. Heard we gotta test."
"Wha'sup wi'that?"
We leave out words and parts of words to speed up our speech. If we were speaking in complete sentences, we would say:
"Have you been to class yet?"
"No, I have not been to class. I heard that we have a test today."
"What is up with that?"
A few examples of Shakespearean omissions/contractions are:
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'tis ~ it is
ope ~ open
o'er ~ over
gi' ~ give
ne'er ~ never
i' ~ in
e'er ~ ever
oft ~ often
a' ~ he
e'en ~ even
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Unusual Words
Most of us run into problems when we come across words that are no longer used in Modern English. Or worse, when we run across words that are still used today but have much different meanings than when Shakespeare used (or invented!) the words. This is particularly troublesome when we think we know what the word means, but the line still doesn't make sense.
Although it is frustrating when we come across these unknown words, it is not surprising.Shakespeare's vocabulary included 30,000 words. Today our vocabularies only run between 6,000 and 15,000 words! Because Shakespeare loved to play with words, he also created new words that we still use today.
Examples include:
ABSOLUTE: positive, certain, complete / METAPHYSICAL: supernaturalATTEND: to listen to / NAPKIN: a handkerchief
AVOID: get rid of / OPEN: plain; public
BAN: to curse / OPPOSITE: adversary
CAGE: a prison / OPPOSITION: combat
CENTURY: a hundred of anything / PREVENT: to anticipate
COMBINE: to bind / QUEASY: squeamish, unsettled
COMPETITOR: one who seeks the same thing / RECEIPT: money received
CONSORT: company; to accompany / RETIRE: retreat; to draw back
CONSTANCY: consistency / REVERB: to echo
CONVERT: to change / SCAN: to examine
CRACK: a loud noise, clap / SEARCH: to probe
CUNNING: skill; skilful / SHRIFT: confession
DARE: to challenge / SOT: fool
DEFY: renounce / STATUE: image, picture
DIET: food regulated by the rules of medicine / STINT: to stop
DRY: thirsty / STRANGER: foreigner
ENTERTAIN: encounter; experience / STUFFED: filled, stored
EXPRESS: to reveal / TOYS: trifles
FILE: a list or catalogue / UTTER: to expel, put forth
FLEETING: inconstant / VALIDITY: value
FULL: complete / VERBAL: wordy
FURNISHED: equipped / VERY: true, real
GALLOW: to scare / WARD: guard
HINT: suggestion / WEE: small, tiny
HENCHMAN: a page or attendant / WIT: knowledge, wisdom
IMPEACH: to bring into question / WORSHIP: to honor
INQUISITION: enquiry / WOUND: twisted about
JUTTY: a projection / WRUNG: twisted, strained
KEEP: to restrain / YEARN: to grieve, vex
LIKE: to please; to liken, compare / ZANY: a clown
Understanding Words from Elizabethan Times
The English language is always evolving. Since Shakespeare’s time, many of the words in Romeo and Juliet have disappeared or changed in meaning.
Your task is read each quotation and use context clues to choose the word or phrase from the list below that best defines the italicized word or phrase in the quotation.
Write the letter of the definition on the line at the right.
1. “The quarrel is between our masters and us their men. Draw thy tool.” / 1. ______2. “I will frown as I pass by and let them take it as they list.” / 2. ______
3. “Find those persons out whose names on written here, and to them say my house and welcome on their pleasure stay.” / 3. ______
4. “Of honorable reckoning are you both, and pity ‘tis you lived at odds so long.” / 4. ______
5. “At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s sups the fair Rosaline…” / 5. ______
6. “Prodigious birth of love it is to me that I must love a loathed enemy.” / 6. ______
A. reputation / D. await
B. weapon / E. traditional
C. monstrous / F. please
Poetry
We speak in prose, or language without metrical structure. Shakespeare wrote both prose and verse (poetry), usually in the following forms:
Blank Verse:unrhymed iambic pentameter.(“Common Language”)
Iambic Pentameter:five beats of alternating unstressed and stressedsyllables (“da-DUH”); ten syllables per line. Meter means rhythm.
“So fair / and foul / a day / I have / not seen”
“The course / of true / love nev/er did / run smooth”
Sonnets
Sonnets are fourteen-line poems made of three quatrains and one couplet, written in iambic pentameter. When following the rhyme scheme, we use letters to indicate each rhyme.
A quatrain is a series of four rhymed lines with a pattern of ABAB, meaning that the rhyme matches up every other line – the first and third lines, the second and fourth lines, etc.
A couplet is a series of two rhymed lines with a pattern of AA, meaning that the ends of both lines rhyme with each other, or have the same sound.
For Example:
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Now here is the same sonnet with the meter and rhyme scheme shown for you:
Sonnet 18
Shall I / compare / thee to / a sum/mer's day?A
Thou art / more love/ly and / more temp/erate:B
Rough winds / do shake / the dar/ling buds / of May,A
And sum/mer's lease / hath all / too short / a date:B
Sometime / too hot / the eye / of heav/en shines,C
And of/ten is / his gold / complex/ion dimm'd;D
And eve/ry fair / from fair / sometime / declines,C
By chance / or na/ture's chang/ing course / untrimm'd;D
But thy / eter/nal sum/mer shall / not fadeE
Nor lose / possess/ion of / that fair / thou owest;F
Nor shall / Death brag / thou wand/’rest in / his shade,E
When in / eter/nal lines / to time / thou grow’st:F
So long / as men / can breathe / or eyes / can see,G
So long / lives this / and this / gives life / to thee.G
Now you try it!
Write in the rhyme scheme and the breaks between each iamb.
Sonnet 29 (from Hamlet)
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Anticipatory Survey
Consider the fourteen following social offenses, and rank each in order of seriousness. 1 is the most serious, 14 is the least serious.
______Planning to trick someone
______Lying to parents
______Killing someone for revenge
______Advising someone to marry for money
______Two families having a feud
______Selling poison
______Killing someone by mistake while fighting
______Cursing/swearing
______Killing someone in self-defense
______Suicide
______Crashing a party
______Marrying against parents’ wishes
______Giving the finger
______Picking a fight
CAST OF CHARACTERS
The Montagues
NAME / DESCRIPTIONRomeo
Lord Montague
Lady Montague
Benvolio
Balthasar
Abram
The Capulets
NAME / DESCRIPTIONJuliet
Lord Capulet
Lady Capulet
Tybalt
Nurse
Peter
Sampson and Gregory
Other Characters
NAME / DESCRIPTIONThe Chorus
Count Paris
Mercutio
Prince Escalus
Friar Lawrence
Friar John
The Apothecary
ACT I
Vocabulary
Augmenting:
Grievance:
Heretics:
Pernicious:
Transgression:
Scene i
Summary:
In the Prologue, the Chorus tells us that there has been an ancient family feud between the
to forget her.
Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
1. Benvolio is the peacemaker in this play. How do you know this?
2. Tybalt, in contrast to Benvolio, is the troublemaker in the play. How do you know he wants the feud to continue?
3. How do the citizens of Verona feel about the Capulet and Montague feud?
4. How does the Prince feel about the feud?
5. Why are the Montagues concerned about Romeo? Describe how he’s been acting.
6. What information is Benvolio able to get from Romeo?
7. What is Benvolio’s advice to Romeo?
8. How does Romeo respond to Benvolio’s advice?