William Shakespeare

 He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English literature.

 He is poet and dramatist.
 He wrote 37 plays (comedies, histories, tragedies) and 154 sonnets and a few poems.
 He started out as an actor.
Life

 He was born around 23rd April 1564 as the 3rd of 8 children.

 His family lived in Stratford-upon-Avon. His father was a shopkeeper who
served as a mayor.
 He attended grammar school where he studied rhetoric, Latin, grammar and
literature.
 He got married to Anne Hathaway and had 3 children.
 In 1594 he became a shareholder in a company of actors called Lord
Chamberlain‘s Men. In 1599 they built Globe Theatre where they performed
his plays.
 In 1603 James I became king of England and the company was renamed King‘s
Men.
 He died in 1616 at the age of 52.
 He wrote about ordinary situations from our lives like love, marriage, jealousy, guilt,
reconciliation and forgiveness, etc. His plays are still played because the plots are universal and
they are related to an ordinary live.
 Dating of Shakespeare‘s works is very difficult. We can be only certain when his works were
published first or which one was written earlier or later. The rest is only speculation.
Language

 He used more than 20 000 words in his works while an average writer uses
7500.
 The English Dictionary of his time only had 500 words and he added another
3000 words to this dictionary.
 He even invented new words which are still used.
 Accommodation
 Hurry
 Lonely
 Road
 Suspicious, etc.
Unique Globe Theatre

 Proscenium stage without curtains. Stage roof is under the canopy painted
with sun, moon, stars, planets.
 There are some trap doors - Underneath the floors was a large cellar called
"hell", allowing for the dramatic appearance of ghosts.
 It can hold more than 1500 people.

 The female roles were played by men.

Comedy

 A Midsummer Night‘s Dream

 All‘s Well That Ends Well
 The Two Noble Kinsmen
 Cymbeline
 Loves Labours Lost
 Much Ado About Nothing
 Pericles, Prince of Tyre
 The Comedy of Errors
 The Merchant of Venice
 The Merry Wives of Windsor
 The Tempest
 Twelfth Night
 Two Gentlemen of Verona, ….
Tragedy

 Antony and Cleopatra

 Coriolanus
 Hamlet
 Julius Caesar
 King Lear
 Macbeth
 Othello
 Romeo and Juliet
 Timon of Athens
 Titus Andronicus
History

 Henry IV
 Henry V
 Henry VI
 Henry VIII
 King John
 Richard II
 Richard III
Poetry

 A Lover‘s Complaint
 Sonnets – about 154
 The Passionate Pilgrim
 The Phoenix and the Turtle
 The Rape of Lucrece
 Venus and Adonis
Sonnets

 They are about topics such as love and time. The structure of the poems has
become the popular format for the sonnet, also called the Shakespearean
sonnet.
Sonnet 116

 This poem is about love, not between a speaker and his lover, but as a
concept or idea. The poem explores what is meant by love, and proposes
that, if it is true, love is one of life's constants which does not change with
time or circumstance.
Sonnet 116 – original text

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Sonnet 116 – modern text

I hope I may never acknowledge any reason why minds that truly love each other
shouldn’t be joined together. Love isn’t really love if it changes when it sees the
beloved change or if it disappears when the beloved leaves. Oh no, love is a
constant and unchanging light that shines on storms without being shaken; it is
the star that guides every wandering boat. And like a star, its value is beyond
measure, though its height can be measured. Love is not under time’s power,
though time has the power to destroy rosy lips and cheeks. Love does not alter
with the passage of brief hours and weeks, but lasts until Doomsday. If I’m wrong
about this and can be proven wrong, I never wrote, and no man ever loved.
Sonnet 71 – original text
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse.
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.
Sonnet 71 – modern text

When I am dead, mourn for me only as long as you hear the funeral bell telling
the world that I’ve left this vile world to go live with the vile worms. No, if you
read this line, don’t remember who wrote it, because I love you so much that I’d
rather you forgot me than thought about me and became sad. I’m telling you, if
you look at this poem when I’m, say, dissolved in the earth, don’t so much as
utter my name but let your love die with me. Otherwise, the world, in all its
wisdom, will investigate why you’re sad and use me to mock you, now that I am
gone.
Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet fall in love. But they come from families which hate each
other, and know they will not be allowed to marry. They are so much in love they
marry in secret instead. However, before their wedding night Romeo kills Juliet's
cousin in a duel, and in the morning he is forced to leave her. If he ever returns
to the city, he will be put to death.
Juliet is then told she must marry Paris, who has been chosen by her parents,
who do not know she is already married. She refuses - then agrees because she
plans to fake her death and escape to be with Romeo.
She takes a sleeping potion and appears to be dead, so her parents lay her in a
tomb. However, Romeo does not know about the plan, visits her grave, finds her
'dead', and kills himself. Juliet finally wakes up, finds Romeo dead, and then kills
herself.
Richard II
Henry Bolingbroke, son of the great John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, challenges Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
accusing him of being involved in the recent death of the King’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. The challenge is to be
answered by a tournament at King Richar’s court in Coventry, but the wayward and uncertain Richard stops the contest as
it is about to begin. He banishes Mowbray for life and, responding to Lancaster’s pleas, he commutes Bolingbroke’s exile to
six years.
Richard enjoys the companionship of his cousin Aumerle, son of the Duke of York, and of Bushy, Bagot and Green, who are
seen as hangers on, misleading him into the misgovernment of England. Gaunt dies, finally broken by his son’s banishment,
and by the state in which he sees the kingdom under Richard’s rule. Richard ignores Gaunt’s advice and, to the horror of
his last surviving uncle, the Duke of York, claim’s Gaunt’s estates, using the money to fund an expedition against the Irish.
He leaves York as regent in England. Bolingbroke, angered that his inheritance has been confiscated, returns with an
invading army and is welcomed by the English who are led by the powerful Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy.
Richard, arrives back to find his Welsh allies have dispersed and that York, who has been unable to prevent Bolingbroke’s
triumphant return, has joined the invader. Other friends have abandoned the king, and Bushy and Green have been
executed on Bolingbroke’s orders. After taking refuge at Flint castle, Richard agrees to go to London where the case is
considered in Parliament.
King Richard is persuaded to abdicate in favour of Henry Bolingbroke, who becomes Henry 1V. Aumerle joins with the
Bishop of Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster in a plot against Henry but is discovered by his father, York. Loyal to the
new regime, York tells Bolingbroke of his son’s treachery and Aurmerle is saved only by his mother’s pleas to King Henry.
Richard is imprisoned in Pontefract castle and his Queen is sent home to France. Pierce of Exton, misinterpreting King
Henry’s wishes, murders Richard and brings the body to London. The play ends with King Henry swearing to make
reparation for his cousin’s death by going one day on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
The Two Noble Kinsmen
It is a Jacobean tragicomedy, first published in 1634.
Duke Theseus of Athens is marrying the Amazon queen Hyppolyta. Immediately after three queens
petition him to wage war on Thebes. Its king, Creon has deprived their husbands of proper burial
rites.
Two Thebian cousins, Palamon and Arcite decide to join their uncle, Creon’s campaign to defend
Thebes, even though they hate Creon, who is an unpleasant tyrant. They perform heroically in
the battle but Theseus is victorious. The cousins are imprisoned in Athens, and from their prison
they see Hippolyta’s sister Emilia passing by. Both fall instantly in love with her.
Arcite is set free but rather than return to Thebes he disguises himself and stays in Athens. With
the help of the jailor’s daughter, who has fallen in love with him, Palemon, he escapes. The
cousins meet each other and decide together that they must fight each other to the death with
the winner having the love of Emilia. Theseus discovers them and asks Emilia which of the two
she wants but she is unable to decide. He decrees that there is to be a jousting tournament and
the winner will marry Emilia. The loser will lose his head.
Before the tournament starts all three principals go to the temples of their particular favourite
gods. Arcite prays to Mars, the god of war; Palemon to Venus, the goddess of love and Emilia to
Diana, the huntress, goddess of virgins, asking her to give victory to the one who loves her best.
Arcite wins and Palemon is to be executed. However, before that can happen Arcite is thrown
from his horse and killed. As Arcite is dying he bequeaths Emilia to his cousin.