Shakespeare unit
Elizabethan Society
The Elizabethan Era is the period associated with Queen Elizabeth I’s reign (1558–1603) and is often considered to be the golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of English poetry and literature. This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre flourished and William Shakespeare and many others, composed plays that broke free of England’s past style of plays and theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became the national mindset of all the people.
The Elizabethan Age is viewed so highly because of the contrasts with the periods before and after. It was a brief period of largely internal peace between the English Reformation and the battles between Protestants and Catholics and the battles between parliament and the monarchy that engulfed the seventeenth century. The Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a time, by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism. England was also well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had come to an end under the weight of foreign domination of the peninsula. France was embroiled in its own religious battles that would only be settled in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. In part because of this, but also because the English had been expelled from their last outposts on the continent, the centuries long conflict between France and England was largely suspended for most of Elizabeth’s reign.
The Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and was destroyed by fire on June 29, 1613. A second Globe Theatre was rebuilt on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642.
A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe”, opened in 1997. It is approximately 230 metres (750 ft) from the site of the original theatre.
The Globe was owned by actors who were also shareholders in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Two of the six Globe shareholders, Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert Burbage, owned double shares of the whole, or 25% each; the other four men, Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, and Thomas Pope, owned a single share, or 12.5%. (Originally William Kempe was intended to be the seventh partner, but he sold out his share to the four minority sharers, leaving them with more than the originally planned 10%). These initial proportions changed over time, as new sharers were added. Shakespeare’s share diminished from 1/8 to 1/14, or roughly 7%, over the course of his career. The Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an earlier theatre.
The King’s Chamberlain Men
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men was the playing company that William Shakespeare worked for as actor and playwright for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronized by James I.
It was founded during the reign of Elizabeth I of England in 1594, under the patronage of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, the then Lord Chamberlain, who was in charge of court entertainments. After its patron’s death on July 23, 1596, the company came under the patronage of his son, George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, for whom it was briefly known as Lord Hunsdon’s Men until he in turn became Lord Chamberlain on March 17, 1597, whereupon it reverted to its previous name. The company became the King’s Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became the company’s patron.
Two Gentlemen in Verona
It is about a man Proteus who loves beauty and that’s how the story is created. First he falls in love with Julia as she is so beautiful but then falls in love with his best friend’s love who is Silvia as Proteus has forgotten Julia’s beauty and is immersed in how good Silvia looks but the Duke and his best friend Valentine stands in his way of loving Silvia. Proteus manages to get Valentine banished as he was trying to take away Silvia who is the Duke’s daughter. In the end Julia is revealed as she saw Proteus trying to have an affair with Silvia. Julia disguised herself as someone else. At the end Silvia doesn’t like Proteus even though he saves her and tries to capture and take her away but Valentine who joined outlaws had seend Proteus and stopped him. Julia came and Proteus soon starts to say sorry and Valentine forgive him. It is then that Proteus falls in love with Julia.
Tragedies, Commedies and Histories
The traditional division of his plays into tragedies, comedies, and histories follows the categories used in the First Folio. However, modern criticism has labelled some of these plays “problem plays” which elude easy categorization, or perhaps purposefully break generic conventions, and has introduced the term romances for what scholars believe to be his later comedies. Below is a list of the plays he created under the three themes.
|
Comedies Main article: Shakespearean comedies
|
Histories Main article: Shakespearean history
|
Tragedies Main article: Shakespearean tragedy
|
Relevance of plays to 21st Century
The elements and timeless themes of Shakespearen plays still apply to the 21st century. This is because these things happen in our century but just in a more modernised way. The love, revenge, hatred, etc apply to today’s society.
What are the typical features that all Shakespeare plays must include?
