William Shakespeare
Background:
- Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire in 1564
- Married Anne Hathaway in 1582 and had three children
- William earned a career as an actor and playwright in London
- William was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company in London
- William and his business partners built their own theater and called it the Globe
Writing Style
- William’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the time period
- He adapted his own style of writing, which created a freer flow of words
- Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays.
- Shakespeare invented thousands of words, often combining or contorting Latin, French and native roots
Iambic Pentameter
Ten syllables per line
- Unrhymed
- Shakespeare often wrote sonnets and whole lines of dialogue from plays in this meter
Tragedies
Comedies
All's Well That Ends Well
The Merchant of Venice
Two Gentleman of Verona
Histories
Shakespeare and today
- Shakespeare introduced 2200 never-before-seen words into the English Language
- ADDICTION
- EYEBALL
- FASHIONABLE
- SWAGGER
- UNCOMFORTABLE
Romeo and Juliet:
“Despised, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd! Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now to murder, murder our solemnity?” - Capulet
A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
“What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, so near the cradle of the fairy queen?” – Puck