Shakespeares Comedy

SHAKESPEARE
Shakespearean Comedy
About Shakespeare
Go to this website: http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323#awesm=~oDr04JhcfoPSBH
and answer the following questions:
1. William Shakespeare was born in what year?

2. What date do we recognize as his birthday?
3. What was important about Stratford-upon-Avon in the 16th century?
4. Find the acting companies Shakespeare was associated with in the early days. Name one.
5. What is the probable year that Romeo and Juliet was written?
6. What day and year did Shakespeare die? Why is this an interesting date? How old was Shakespeare when he
died?
The Globe Theater
http://www.bardweb.net/globe.html is the link for questions 1
http://www.wfu.edu/~tedforrl/shakespeare/globe.htm is the link for questions 3 and 4.
http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/abouttheglobe/background/rebuildingtheglobe/ is for 5 and 6.
1. Name the three theatres which competed with The Globe.
2. How did the original Globe burn down in 1613?
3. The Globe Theater was rebuilt in 1997, and renamed “Shakespeare’s Globe.” Click on the pictures of “outside” and tell me
what you think here.
4. Click on the pictures of “inside” Shakespeare’s Globe and tell me what you think here.
5. During a performance of Henry V, someone refers to the original Globe as a “wooden ____.”
6. Though the wood and roofing materials are the same in the 1997 Globe, name three things that have changed (they are
listed—don’t just guess).
Shakespearean Insults
1. Go to the http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html and and create your own insults.
● Start with the word "Thou."
● Next, take a phrase/word from the first column to begin your insult
● Continue by adding something from the second column
● Finish it up royally with something from the third column.
You must create 3 Shakespearian insults. They must be complete sentences. You must also include what the insult
means.
Shakespeare’s Plays
◦ The plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into:
◦ Comedies
◦ Histories
◦ Tragedies
◦ Shakespeare’s Comedies are:
◦ As You Like It
◦ The Comedy of Errors ( believed to be Shakespeare’s earliest comedy, written around 1592)
◦ Cymbeline
◦ Love's Labour's Lost
◦ Measure for Measure
◦ The Merchant of Venice
◦ The Merry Wives of Windsor
◦ A Midsummer Night's Dream
◦ Much Ado About Nothing
◦ Pericles Prince of Tyre
◦ Taming of the Shrew
◦ The Tempest
◦ Twelfth Night
◦ The Two Gentlemen of Verona
◦ The Winter's Tale
◦ All's Well That Ends Well
Shakespeare Background
◦ Because of his humanist education, Shakespeare

was familiar with classical (Greek and Latin)
comedy
◦ The Latin comedies of Terence and another
Roman poet, Plautus (ca. 258?-184 B.C.), were
studied in Elizabethan schools
Play Structure
From Terence and Plautus, Shakespeare learned how to
organize a plot in a way modern editors may represent as a
five-act structure:
1- A situation with tensions or implicit conflict (Exposition)

2- Implicit conflict is developed (Rising Action)
3- Conflict reaches height; frequently an impasse (Turning Point)
4- Things begin to clear up (Falling Action)
5- Problem is resolved, knots untied (Conclusion)
Characters
From the works of Plautus and Terence, Shakespeare learned to use certain
stock characters such as
- the prodigal youth and his female love interest; - "blocking figures"
who provide the obstacle to be overcome (ex.the senex), a parent or
guardian of the hero or heroine
- the shrewish wife, the pedant, the braggart soldier (the miles gloriosus),
the parasite, clowns, outlaws, clever servants, female confidantes.
Other Comedy Characteristics
◦ Often set in an imaginary country
◦ Like a fairy-tale
◦ Characters are true to life
◦ In Shakespeare’s comedies, female heroines are usually more important than male heroes.
◦ In Shakespearian times, men played all the roles even female ones
◦ In Shakespeare’s characters, we can see many mistakes and faults.
◦ Shakespeare’s comedies are accompanied by music and sometimes actors play music instruments by themselves
◦ Songs are often sung by a jester or a fool; parallel the events of the plot.
Motivation in Shakespearean Comedy
1. Right of an individual to free choice of

love
2. Contrast between the appearance and
reality
Common Themes in Comedies
◦Romantic love
◦Friendship
Other Common Features in Comedies
◦ A struggle of old haters to overcome difficulty, often presented by young
people
◦ Separation and re-unification
◦ Mistaken identities
◦ A clever servant
◦ Heightened tensions, often within a couple
◦ Complex, intertwining plot
◦ Use of puns

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SHAKESPEARE

1. William Shakespeare was born in what year?

◦ Because of his humanist education, Shakespeare

1- A situation with tensions or implicit conflict (Exposition)

◦ In Shakespeare’s characters, we can see many mistakes and faults.

1. Right of an individual to free choice of

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