William Shakespeare's Life and Works

William Shakespeare’s Life and Works

          William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 and died on April 23, 1616.  During his lifetime and after his death, he was nicknamed the “Bard of Avon.”  When Shakespeare was eighteen years old, he married Anne Hathaway of the town London.  She was 8 years older than he was.  They had three children and their son named Hamnet later died in childhood.  Shakespeare’s father was quite a prosperous merchant as a glove maker, which allowed William to attend school as a boy and study grammar Latin classes.  In 1580, Shakespeare left Stratford and moved to London to write and act in plays.

Throughout his writing career, William Shakespeare wrote 39 plays and 154 sonnets and poems. 

         

Shakespeare’s London

          William Shakespeare was living during an exciting time in the history of Great Britain.  Queen Elizabeth I was the ruler of Great Britain and she reigned for 60 years.  The time period (1500’s – 1600’s) was known in Great Britain as the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.”  Three areas in which Great Britain was thriving in during this period of its history were literature, visual art, and architecture.  After the above monarch (ruler) dies, King James I rose to the throne. 

One popular form of entertainment during Shakespeare’s life was the theatre.  William Shakespeare worked with a company of actors called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men and they performed their plays at the famous Globe Theatre, located on the bank of the Thames River.  For the first time in English history, people of all classes were allowed to attend play performances at the Globe Theatre.  Three interesting facts about this theatre were burned to the ground in 1613, built for The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, reopened in 1614.  During Shakespeare’s drama writing career, he wrote four of the most accomplished tragedies in literary history.  These four tragedies that he wrote between of 1604-1607 were Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear.  Eventually, Shakespeare’s London Theatre and other theatres were shut down by the religious groups and the bubonic plague (which wiped out the population of half of Europe).  In 1613, the Globe Theatre was demolished by fire due to malfunction of special effects. 

 After William Shakespeare’s death at the age of 52 his critic and friend Ben Johnson helped to gather all of Shakespeare’s works in order to get it published in one central bound book.   This collection was titled The First Folio.

Today, audiences all over the world are still captivated by such plays as the one we are about to read entitled A Midsummer Night’s Dream one of William Shakespeare’s most popular love comedy. 

Sites

• http://www.folger.edu/Content/Discover-Shakespeare/Shakespeare-FAQs.cfm
• http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/works.htm
• http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/faq/faq.htm
• http://www.shakespeare-online.com/theatre/globe.html
• http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=SYHBHYXfKJMk0M:&imgrefurl=http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/july2001.html&docid=mkwUgvZOdBINkM&imgurl=http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/images/exhibitions/month/bd8b1_tp.jpg&w=400&h=650&ei=lbGyUMDrMIaZ0QGLuIDIAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&dur=599&sig=111536950778975449189&page=1&tbnh=132&tbnw=80&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0,i:106&tx=75&ty=209&vpx=1099&vpy=27&hovh=286&hovw=176
• http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=lKUhwgKMhDsy0M:&imgrefurl=http://www.bardweb.net/globe.html&docid=XH-vcpSaVx8xiM&imgurl=http://www.bardweb.net/images/house.jpg&w=246&h=187&ei=brCyUISvFY6w0AGkn4HIDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&dur=105&sig=111536950778975449189&page=1&tbnh=144&tbnw=179&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:151&tx=75&ty=78&vpx=12&vpy=213&hovh=149&hovw=196
• http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=JINd6uYF0KpOxM:&imgrefurl=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WilliamShakespeare&docid=SLKIg1DnfmjvvM&imgurl=http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/william-shakespeare.jpg&w=311&h=441&ei=xq-yUP2nAs-z0QHx5IGQDA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=0&sig=111536950778975449189&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=109&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0,i:118&tx=40&ty=123

Blog 6

The book I that I read this quarter was The Second Summer of the Sisterhood.  It is written by Ann Brashares.  I started reading this book on November 9^, 2012 and I stopped reading it on November 11, 2012.  I the number of pages I read is 127.  My rating for this book is ok because it is not as good as the first one in the series.  Out of 10, I give this book a 6.

I decided to write about prompt number 8.  This is a journal entry I think Carmen would write after she went on the double date with her boyfriend and her mom and her boyfriend.

Dear Diary,

                Today, I had to go to dinner with my mom and her boyfriend, David.  I tried to get out of going by saying that I was going out with my boyfriend, Porter.  As soon as I said that, my mom told me to invite him to come.  I started freaking out because I didn’t really have plans to go out with Porter.  When we got to the restaurant, Porter tried to ask me if I wanted to share an appetizer with him.  I completely ignored him.  Not on purpose, but because I was thinking about why any guy would want to date my mom.  I kept ignoring him the whole time because I was too worried about what my mom was doing.  I have a feeling Porter isn’t going to want to go out with me again.

Love,

                Carmen