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LITERATURA INGLESA I
Shakespeare: life and work
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
Class content:
• Shakespeare´ s life and the 
society.
• Shakespearean themes.
• Shakespearean themes through 
time.
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
WHO WAS SHAKESPEARE AFTER ALL?
As a brief introductory detail it should be mentioned
that, during the sixteenth century, there were many
families with the name Shakespeare in and around
Stratford.
Shakespeare appears countless times in town minutes
and court records, spelled in a variety of ways,
from Shagspere to Chacsper. Unfortunately, there are
very few records that reveal specific details about
William Shakespeare's family
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
SHAKESPEARE ANCESTRY
The Bard's paternal grandfather was Richard Shakespeare
(d. 1561), a farmer in Snitterfield, a village four miles
northeast of Stratford.
Shakespeare's maternal grandfather. Robert Arden (d.
1556) was the son of Thomas Arden of Wilmecote,
Shakespeare's maternal great-grandfather, who probably
belonged to the aristocratic family of the Ardens of Park
Hall.
Shakespeare: life and work
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Shakespeare's father, John,
came to Stratford from
Snitterfield before 1532 as an
apprentice glover and tanner
of leathers. John Shakespeare
prospered and began to deal
in farm products and wool.
Sometime between 1556
and 1558 John Shakespeare
married Mary Arden, the
daughter of the
wealthy Robert Arden of
Wilmecote and owner of
the sixty-acre farm called
Asbies.
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We assume neither John nor Mary could write -- John used a
pair of glovers' compasses as his signature while Mary used a
running horse -- but it did not prevent them from becoming
important members of the community. The family went
through finantial difficulties which were overcome.
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
The baptismal register of the
Holy Trinity parish church,
in Stratford, shows the following
entry for April 26, 1564:
Gulielmus filius Johannes
Shakespeare. The actual date of
Shakespeare's birth is not
known, but, traditionally, April
23, St George's Day, has been
Shakespeare's accepted
birthday, and a house on Henley
Street in Stratford, owned by
William's father, John, is
accepted as Shakespeare's birth
place.
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
No doubt Shakespeare's
true birthday will remain a
mystery forever. But the
assumption that the Bard
was born on the same day
of the month that he died
lends an exciting esoteric
highlight to the otherwise
mundane details of
Shakespeare's life.
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
Shakespeare probably began his
education at the age of six or
seven at the Stratford grammar
school.
Shakespeare was removed from
school around age thirteen
because of his father's financial
and social difficulties, there is
no reason whatsoever to
believe that he had not
acquired a firm grasp of both
English and Latin and that he
had continued his studies
elsewhere.
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LITERATURA INGLESA I
We know very little about
Shakespeare's life during two
major spans of time, commonly
referred to as the "lost years":
1578-82 and 1585-92. The first
period covers the time after
Shakespeare left grammar
school, until his marriage to
Anne Hathaway in November of
1582. The second period covers
the seven years of Shakespeare's
life in which he must have been
perfecting his dramatic skills and
collecting sources for the plots
of his plays.
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LITERATURA INGLESA I
The Elizabethan Age
Shakespeare lived during a remarkable period of English
history, a time of relative political stability that followed and
preceded eras of extensive upheaval. Elizabeth I became the
Queen of England in 1558, six years before Shakespeare's
birth. During her 45-year reign, London became a cultural and
commercial center where learning and literature thrived.
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
The Elizabethan era was
the epoch in English history
of Queen Elizabeth I's reign
(1558–1603). Historians
often depict it as the
golden age in English
history. The Elizabethan
era was the epoch in
English history of Queen
Elizabeth I's reign (1558–
1603). Historians often
depict it as the golden age
in English history.
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LITERATURA INGLESA I
This "golden age" represented the apogee of the Englisn
Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and
literature. The era is most famous for theatre, as William
Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke
free
Violent clashes throughout Europe between Protestant and
Catholic leaders and their followers. It was an age of
exploration and expansion abroad.
she was an exacting and determined leader who did not
shy away from conflict.
The naval defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England
was firmly established as a leading military and commercial
power in the Western world.
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She also funded Sir Walter Raleigh's exploration of the New
World, which brought new wealth to her country in the
form of tobacco and gold from Latin America.
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Queen Elizabeth also
recognized the importance of
the arts to the life and legacy of
her nation. She was fond of the
theater, and many of England's
greatest playwrights were
active during her reign
With her permission,
professional theaters were built
in England for the first time,
attracting 15,000 theatergoers
per week in London, a city of
150,000 to 250,000.
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QUEEN ELIZABETH I - QUOTES
•Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and
silence you have not already tested.
To Erik, King of Sweden, in 1561.
•I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband,
namely the kingdom of England.
(Elizabeth to Parliament)
•Though the sex to which I belong is considered weak you
will nevertheless find me a rock that bends to no wind.
•I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid
of anything.
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•I know I have the body of a
weak and feeble woman, but I
have the heart and stomach of
a king, and of a king of England
too.
•Sir William Cecil, Lord
Burghley: Forgive me, Madam,
but you are only a woman...
Elizabeth: [cuts him off firmly]
I may be a woman, Sir William,
but if I choose I have the heart
of a man! I am my father's
daughter. I am not afraid of
anything.
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LITERATURA INGLESA I
Shakespeare work
Shakespeare was a respected
poet and playwright in his own
day, but his reputation did not
rise to its present heights until
the 19th century. Between 1585
and 1592, he began a successful
career in London as an actor,
writer, and part owner of
a playing company called
the Lord Chamberlain's Men,
later known as the King's Men.
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between
1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies
and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication
and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote
mainly tragedies until about 1608.
Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional
style of the day
Soon, however, Shakespeare began to adapt the traditional
styles to his own purposes.
Shakespeare used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of
unrhymed iambic pentameter, called blank verse. His plays
were composed using blank verse, although there are
passages in all the plays that deviate from the norm and
are composed of other forms of poetry and/or simple
prose.
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LITERATURA INGLESA I
Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense
of the theatre. Like allplaywrights of the time, he
dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch
and Holinshed. He reshaped each plot to create several
centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative
to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures
that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting and
wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. As
Shakespeare’s mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer
and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of
speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later
plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances, he
deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which
emphasised the illusion of theatre.
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
Who is Silvia?
by William Shakespeare
Who is Silvia? what is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her,
That she might admirèd be.
Is she kind as she is fair?
For beauty lives with kindness.
Love doth to her eyes repair,
To help him of his blindness,
And, being helped, inhabits there.
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Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I
SONNET 145
Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'
To me that languish'd for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away;
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying 'not you.'
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LITERATURA INGLESA I
Unfortunately, Shakespeare's
death at the age of fifty-two
will almost surely remain a
mystery. Shakespeare is
buried in the chancel of Holy
Trinity Church in his
hometown of Stratford,
Warwickshire.
THE FINAL ACT
Shakespeare: life and work
LITERATURA INGLESA I