y English poet and playwright y Greatest writer in England y Worlds pre-eminent dramatist pre-

y Nobody knows Shakespeares actual birthday y Shakespeare never published any of his plays y Shakespeares family were all illiterate y William Arden, a relative of Shakespeare's

mother Mary Arden, was arrested for plotting against Queen Elizabeth I, imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed

y Loved to write and one day, a famous actor

found all of his plays and stories that he had wrote so he decided to become a writer. y Most probably educated at Kings New School in Stratford. y Received intensive education in Latin grammar and the classics y Had 7 siblings: Margaret, Gilbert, Joan, Anne, Richard, Edmund and Joan, who died in infacy. infacy.

y Inspired by 1. Birds 2. Great writers

 Geoffrey Chaucer  Plutarch

y Plays were extremely dramatic, which led to his

success y Drama was the ideal means to capture the diverse interests of time

y Elizabethan England y Ruled by Queen Elizabeth I y Houses had unique Elizabethan designs y Writers were deeply influenced by Italian sonnets y Music was still in the Renaissance period

y List of Significant Historical Events

 Crowning of Queen Elizabeth (1558)  Putting to death of Mary Queen of Scots (1587)  The defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588)  The Essex Rebellion (1601)

y Queen Elizabeth ruled the monarchy during this

period y The people in power during that time had a heavy impact on Shakespeares works y Queen Elizabeth, a great patron of arts, aided Shakespeare by quashing Puritans, who wanted to shut down theatres, and changing the theatres, dominant language in England from Latin to English, leading to Shakespeare writing most of his plays in English

y People in England during that time had a strong

sense of social class y Classified according to their wealth, occupation and ancestry y Social classes determined many factors, from what a person could wear, what he could do, and even what jobs his children could take on.

y Social Classes
 The Nobility  55 rich families, led by a duke, baron or earl  Rich and powerful  The Gentry  5% of the population, knights, squires, and

gentlemen who did not work with their hands  Most important social class in the whole of England

y Social Classes
 The Yeomanry  Middle-class people Middle Could survive comfortably, but could also be

wrecked by disease or misfortune  Yeomen farmers, tradesmen and craft workers  The Poor  The sick, disabled, old and feeble and wounded soldiers  Due to enclosure

y Theatres  English Renaissance

Theatre, also known as Elizabethan Theatre  Globe Theatre, where most of his plays were held y Plays were held in the mid afternoon from 2pm to 5pm y No lighting y Weather permitting

y Open-air theatres during that era compelled Open-

actors to shout out their lines, stress their enunciation engage in exaggerated theatrical gestures y Despite costumes and props being utilized, changes in scenes were not made during curtain closings, as there were no proscenium arch, curtains, or stagehands y These changes were made during speeches and narrative situations

y A cultural movement that spanned from the 14th

Century to the 17th Century; a revival of art and literature under the influence of classic models y Marked the transition from the medieval era to modern era

y Significant events and changes  The Black Death  Reduced the population of Europe by over 50%  1st Printing press in the world was invented by

Johannes Gutengurg  End of the Middle Ages y Lorenzo the Magnificent died in Florence y Columbus almost discovers America y Grenada, the last Moslem presence in Spain, falls y Roderigo de Borgia became Pope Alessandro VI

y The upheaval in the accepted social hierarchy

allowed Shakespeare to explore the humanity of every character regardless of social position. Even the high-ranking monarchs were given highhuman emotions and were capable of making mistakes y After the Renaissance, Shakespeare was able to utilize Greek and Roman classics when writing his plays

The End