Shakespeare midterm.txt

Believe William Shakespeare wrote his plays

• Believe someone else wrote Shakep's works.
• *used Shakep as a front for funneling works into the public theater
• *possible pseudo that happened to coincide with a player of the day

Small market town where Shake was born.

• Illiterate town official. tanner/glove maker
• John
• Married to Mary

• Sir Walter Raleigh
• Sir Anthony Sherley
• Anthony Bacon
• Robert Cecil (first earl of Salisbury)
• Queen Elizabth

• (1811-1859) Committed woman who claimed her kin, Frances Bacon (1561-1626) was only one who could have written Shake plays.
• Only claimant alive during Shakep dates
• He did write
• Was an art patron
• But was not writing in his style

• (1564-1615)
• No real reason for claim

• (1564-1593)
• Wrote 7 plays of success at the time
• 1st use of blank verse

1564 Stratford-Upon-Avon (assumed April 23, 3 days before baptism was recorded)

• 1571
• Age 7

• Kenilworth Castle
• Shakep 11
• Impression of procession recreated in Shakep's dramatic plays often

• November 27 1582
• Anne Hathaway (26), Shakep is 18

• 1583 Suzanna
• 1585 twins Hamnet and Judith

• 1585-1592
• Joined a company of actors and started working as a playwrignt

(Believed by academics) to have written first play Henry VI Part One

• 1592
• Robert Green calls Shakep an "upstart crow" in Groatwort Wit attacking Shakep for lack if originality

• 1592-3
• 1608-10

• 1592-93
• Lyric poem
• Published in 93

• 1593
• 154 collection

Distinguished actor Richard Burbage and comic Will Kemp perform with Shakep as part of The Lord Chamberlian's Men.

1595

• Globe Theater opens
• John Weever praises Romeo and Juliet, The Rape of Lucrece, and Venus and Adonis in the poem Ad Guglielmum Shakespeare

hamlet

The King's Men take a 21 year lease of London's first permanently enclosed theater, Blackfriars Theater

1614

April 23, 1616

• 1623
• Publication of First Folio comprised of 36 of 37 plays

Aaron A Moor, Tamora's lover, whose strategems drive much of Titus' tragedy. Aaron is witty, eloquent - and inescapably wicked. Ultimately, a modern reader might see much that is admirable in Aaron: his refusal to apologize for the color of his skin, for example, or his tender love for his newborn son.

BassianusThe late Roman emperor's second-born son. He is betrothed to Lavinia.

Chiron Tamora's son, a Goth prince, who ascends to a princely position in Rome following his mother's marriage to Saturninus. Chiron, like his brother Demetrius, is a bored, dangerous, and violent youth.

Lavinia Titus Andronicus' only daughter, to a great degree her father's property. Lavinia is at the center of much of the conflict and violence in the play: she is promised to Saturninus and then whisked away by Bassianus; she is raped and mutilated by Chiron and Demetrius; she is killed by her father.

Lucius One of Titus' sons, and the only one still alive at the end of the play. He is a popular war leader who is ultimately elected emperor.

Marcus Titus Andronicus' brother, the tribune of the Roman people. His lofty state falls with the fortune of his family.

Mutius One of Titus' sons. When he defends Bassianus' right to flee with Lavinia, Titus kills him in the streets of Rome.

Saturninus The eldest son of the late Roman emperor. He is a corrupt, entitled, weak-willed emperor. When his decision to take Lavinia for his wife is foiled, he takes the captured Goth queen, Tamora, instead, thus elevating her and her violent companions to positions of power.

Tamora Once the Queen of the Goths, she becomes the Empress when Saturninus takes her for his wife. Titus' sacrifice of her eldest son, Alarbus, spurs her to use her imperial power to ruin the Andronici.

Titus A triumphant Roman general who loses twenty-four of his twenty-five sons by the play's end. He declines to accept the Roman empery, instead instilling Saturninus with that power, only to have Saturninus and his followers ruin his family. His revenge is slow in coming, but gruesome.


Minor Characters

• Aemilius A noble Roman.
• Alarbus Tamora's oldest son, sacrificed by order of Titus Andronicus, whose death motivates Tamora's vengeance against the Andronici.
• Caius Kinsman to Titus Andronicus.
• Demetrius One of Tamora's sons, just as violent and bored as his brother, Chiron.
• Martius One of Titus' sons, falsely executed by Saturninus.
• Publius Marcus Andronicus' son.
• Quintus Another of Titus' sons, also executed by Saturninus after being framed by Aaron.

• Escalus, prince of Verona
• Paris, a young nobleman 
• Montague, Capulet, heads of warring households

• Romeo, son to Montague
• Mercutio, kinsman to the prince, and friend to Romeo
• Benvolio, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo.
• Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet
• Friar Laurence & Friar John, Franciscans (Monks/Preists)
• Balthasar, servant to Romeo
• Lady Montague, wife to Montague
• Lady Capulet, wife to Capulet
• Juliet, daughter to Capulet
• Nurse to Juliet

• Claudius, King of Denmark
• Hamlet, son to the late, and nephew to the present king
• Polonius, Lord Chamberlain
• Horatio, friend to Hamlet
• Laertes, son to Polonius
• Marcellus, Barnardo, officers

• Reynaldo, servant to Polonius
• Two Clowns, grave-diggers
• Fortinbras, Prince of Norway
• Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and mother to Hamlet
• Ophelia, daughter to Polonius

• Ghost of Hamlet's Father
• Voltimand, Cornelius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Osric, A Gentleman,courtiers

• 4 pages to each side of paper. (Hence quart, 1/4)
• Not as important.
• 1/3 the cost of folio (cost about a shilling)
• Meant to recliam the event as you saw it. (Going to see the play then buying the quarto to remember it upon reading.)

• Titus Andronicus, 1594, 1600, 1611
• Romeo and Juliet, 1597, 1599, 1609
• Hamlet, 1603, 1604, 1611

• Reserved for expensive, prestigious volumes like the Bible.
• Folded only once. (Large format, coffee table type book)
• 1623, 7 years after Shakespeare's death
• the folio volume Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies appeared; this edition is now called the First Folio. It contains 36 plays, 18 of which were printed for the first time.
• Because Shakespeare was dead, the folio was compiled by John Heminges and Henry Condell (fellow actors in Shakespeare's company), and arranged into comedies, histories and tragedies.
• The First Folio was reprinted three times in the 17th century:
• The Second Folio appeared in 1632,
• The Third Folio was issued in 1663
• The second impression of the Third Folio (1664) added seven plays, including Pericles, Prince of Tyre and six others not now considered authentically Shakespearean
• The Fourth Folio appeared in 1685,