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#126312 03/27/04 08:48 PM
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My ninth graders will begin their unit on Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Globe Theatre and all that jazz after Easter.

What do you think is bottom line information about Shakespeare any educated person should know?

I'll begin the list and please do add any survival information you'd want on the list:

English writer known primarily for his plays: histories, tragedies and comedies;

Wrote probably the most famous of all stories of young romance;

W. S. wrote during both Queen Elizabeth's and King James' reigns;

'Wherefore' means 'why';

Importance of First Folio was preserving Shakespeare's works that had been written primarily for dramatic production rather than for reading;

Anne Hathaway's cottage was very large and pretty--and she was eight years older than young William;

Groundlings liked coarse humor;

W. S.'s company, the King's Men, performed at the Globe Theatre;

The Globe closed for several years due to the plague;

Boys played female roles;

W. S. is also known as the Bard;

Stratford-on-Avon

4/23/1564--born rather late in birth order in a very large family;

4/23/1616--died very young, in my way of thinking, at only 52 [edit!!];

The sonnets--William evidently loved, too, a man;

What were tights made of, anyway?

What other information do you think should be included?





#126313 03/27/04 09:01 PM
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Might mention copyright law and IP in regards to WS' plays being pirated (e.g., first (bad) quarto of Hamlet. Cf. today and digital media and the law.

WS had twins named Hamnet and Judith.

WS' father was probably a crypto-Catholic.

Weren't the sonnets more highly regarded during WS' times than his plays?

Ben Jonson's "little Latin and less Greek" in re WS' scholarship.

Of all his plays, only The Tempest may be based on an original (with WS) plot. All the rest are from well-known sources.

The first critic to mention WS and write about his plays was Thomas Rhymer who basically panned WS on theoretical grounds.

I'm sure there are more, but that's my tuppence farthing.


#126314 03/27/04 10:02 PM
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What were tights made of, anyway?

they were knit of course. of wool most likely, (cotton was very expensive, and linen has less give, and is scratchier.

and some of the company, (and people of the time) would have closed there shirts/jackets with buckles, not buttons, but cause they thought buttons to be ostentatious displays of wealth. (the puritan who came to NE held the same views, and had buckles on their shoes, and belts, and hats, and every garment, but no buttons!)

tights was pretty comfortable.. stockings were long, and had tips (they came to a tapered V at the top) that that got tucked into a waist band -- and pretty cheap.

while there were guilds for knitting in london, and other big cities-- in the country, common folk knit for income, (and like farm wife of early US, who raised chickens and eggs for sale and 'pin' money) english knitters did the same.

the knitting frame that Queen Elizabeth rejected, never made money (when set up in france) the english home industry of knit gloves and stockings outsold machine knit french stockings (which were actually smoother, and finer, and in many ways superior!)--but just a bit to expensive!


#126315 03/27/04 10:46 PM
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Weren't the sonnets more highly regarded during WS' times than his plays?

I'd like to believe 'highly regarded' = 'more popular/performed' in this case, but I don't have to...


#126316 03/27/04 10:56 PM
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Can anyone name an author who introduced so many new words
into the language?


#126317 03/27/04 11:10 PM
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Hmm. Probably not, but it's a chicken and egg thing. The editors of the OED went out of their way to record many words they probably wouldn't have just because they were in the Shakespearean corpus.


#126318 03/27/04 11:12 PM
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Geez, sumpin wrong with my usage of the word regard? Just come out and say it.


#126319 03/27/04 11:21 PM
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Never 'wrong'... more complex and intricate probably, however, I do think (much more likely wrongly so than you) that these days 'highly regarded' insinuates elevated quality... or is *supposed to.


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>> that these days 'highly regarded' insinuates elevated quality <<

Yeahbut® it was the Jacobo-Elizabethans doing the regarding, yes? But, I can't really answer for their æsthetics. See the intentional fallacy thread for more information.


#126321 03/27/04 11:56 PM
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"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" is a jab at the competition, for the smell of raw sewerage at the Rose Theater could be unpleasant.


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