Shakespeare Webquest:

Directions:

Your task is to answer all the questions using the links provided. Be sure you answer all parts of the question. Please remember to write complete sentences. Your answers need to be on a separate MS Word document or neatly hand written in pen on lined paper. Make sure you number your answer sheet appropriately, and give headers.

About Shakespeare
Go to this website and answer the following questions.

  1. William Shakespeare was born in what year?
  2. What date do we recognize as his birthday?
  3. What was important about Stratford-upon-Avon in the 16th century?
  4. Find the acting companies Shakespeare was associated with in the early days. Name one.
  5. What is the probable year that Romeo and Juliet was written?
  6. What day and year did Shakespeare die? Why is this an interesting date? How old was Shakespeare when he died?

About Marriage
Go to this website and answer the next questions.

  1. Read this site about marriage in Elizabethan England and answer these questions.

A.What does betrothal mean?

B.Name one marriage and betrothal custom found on this page.

  1. Click on the link for "more wedding customs."

A.What color should the bride's dress be?

B.How is the intention to marry announced? What happens if it is not announced before the wedding ceremony?

C.Describe the wedding procession.

D.What is a dowry?

About Language
Go to this website and continue.

  1. A famous line from Romeo and Juliet is when Juliet says, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" What does "wherefore" mean?
  2. Go to this website to get the information you need to translate this conversation. Put your translation in column two. Keep the phrases just about the same, but use Elizabethan words where you can. So, in other words, you rewrite the entire phrase but replace as many words as you can with Elizabethan English.

Person A / Hello. (A sneezes) Excuse me.
Person B / Gesundheit!
A / Thank you.
B / Say, do you know where the closest bathroom is?
A / Certainly. It's down the street in the Kings Tavern.
B / Thanks. Goodbye.

About The Globe Theatre
the link for questions 1 and 2. is the link for questions 3 and 4. is for 5 and 6.

  1. Name the three theatres which competed with The Globe.
  2. How did the original Globe burn down in 1613?
  3. The Globe Theater was rebuilt in 1997, and renamed “Shakespeare’s Globe.” Click on the pictures of “outside” and tell me what you think here.
  4. Click on the pictures of “inside” Shakespeare’s Globe and tell me what you think here.
  5. During a performance of Henry V, someone refers to the original Globe as a “wooden ____.”
  6. Though the wood and roofing materials are the same in the 1997 Globe, name three things that have changed (they are listed—don’t just guess).

Shakespearean Insults

  1. Go to the and create your own insult.
  2. Start with the word "Thou."
  3. Next, take a phrase/word from the first column to begin your insult
  4. Continue by adding something from the second column
  5. Finish it up royally with something from the third column.
  6. Type your created Shakespearean insult, and use google or another search engine to translate it: what did it mean?

(Thou + choice from column 1 + choice from column 2 + choice from column 3 = your custom made insult)

Or try….