William Shakespeare

1. William Shakespeare An Introduction to the Study of Language in Julius Caesar

2. Billy S. by Skye Sweetnam • “I don't need to read Billy Shakespeare,Meet Juliet or Mavolio,Feel for once what it's like to rebel now,I wanna break out, let's go!Teachers treat us all like clones,Sit up straight, take off your headphones,I don't blame them, they get paid,Money money, woo, lot's of money money, woo! • …To skip or not to skip? that is the question…”

3. Fast Facts… • Born: April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England • Wife: Anne Hathaway (He married at age 18) • Children: Susanna, and twins Judith & Hamnet (Sadly, Hamnet, his only son, died in childhood) • Profession(s): Playwright, Actor, Businessman (shareholder of an acting company)

4. Fast Facts… • Died: April 23, 1616 in London, England (Coincidentally, on the same day, in Spain, Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, also died. Even more of a coincidence, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, a Spanish/Incan writer, also died.) • Buried: Holy Trinity Church with a curse for an epitaph – essentially, blessing those who leave his bones alone and cursing anyone who moves his bones

5. Fast Facts… • Publication of his Plays: There are no original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays. Seven years after his death, in 1623, a collection of his plays were published as the First Folio. • Number of Plays: 39 written, but one manuscript has been lost, thus, 38 are typically attributed to him. He wrote mostly comedies, 18 to be exact. Histories and tragedies are tied at 10 plays each.

6. Fast Facts… • Comedies • Big problems, cross-dressing, then everyone’s happy • Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing • Tragedies • Hero with a flaw, everyone dies • Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet

7. Fast Facts… • Romances • There’s a trip to the countryside…fathers keep losing their daughters • The Tempest, Cymbaline • Histories • Self-explanatory • Richard III, Henry V, Julius Caesar

8. Fast Facts… • Total Number of Written Words: 884,647 words • Earliest Written Play:King Henry VI, Part 1 (1589-1591) • Last Written Play:The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613) • Longest Play:Hamlet (4,042 lines) • Shortest Play: The Comedy of Errors (1,787 lines)

9. Fast Facts… • Actors: All the actors were male. Young boys played female roles. (Those kissing scenes must have been awkward! And if you’ve ever heard of Shakespeare’s play, The Winter’s Tale, there were boys dressed up as females dressed up men. Confusing? Yes. Entertaining…YES!)

10. Fast Facts… • Invented Language: Shakespeare made up about 10% of the words in his plays. Many of the words we still used today (about 500) are attributed to him by the Oxford English Dictionary. Words such as: never-ending addiction, schoolboy, gentlefolk, radiance, lackluster, countless, useful, and day’s work.

11. Julius Caesar • The play is…creative nonfiction. • Gaius Julius Caesar really did exist (July 100BC – 15 March 44 BC, 56 years old) • He really was assassinated by a group of people led by Marcus Brutus • Nowadays, we’d say, “Based on the true story…” The events are true, but the dialogue? Shakespeare took some “creative liberties”. • Antony & Cleopatra begins directly after the end of Julius Caesar.

12. Why is he so hard to understand? • He’s a poet and he knows it. • Iambic pentameter, omit syllables, enjambment • Order of words (Odd grammar structures) • SVO vs. SOV or OVS or OSV • He wrote 400 years ago. In England. • Out-dated references, slang, archaic words • He made up about 10% of the words. • Plays are meant to be performed. • A little light on the stage directions

13. Why is he so hard to understand? • No special effects teams • What you see is what you get, so they improvised with figurative language. • First Globe Theater burned down…from a theatrical cannon that misfired during a performance of Henry VIII.

14. Order of Words • Anyone take Spanish/foreign lang.? • Adjectives? Indirect/Direct pronouns? SOV • English: Subject Verb Object (SVO) • I bought the hat. I bought it. • She gave Jessica the gift. She gave it to her. • Shakespeare: Any combination • I the hat bought. Bought it I. The hat I bought. • She it gave. She the gift gave Jessica.

15. Order of Words • Star Wars – Yoda • “‘Told you I did, reckless is he,” (Yoda, Empire Strikes Back). • VOS, OVS. Verb (did told) object (you) subject (I), object (reckless) verb (is) subject (he).

16. Iambic Pentameter • Iamb = iambus • “afootoftwosyllables, ashortfollowedby a long in quantitative meter, or an unstressed followed by a stressedinaccentualmeter” • “Hence! Home you idle creatures, get you home” • Penta = Greek for “five” • Meter • “Poeticmeasure; arrangement of words in regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines or verses.”

17. Iambic Pentameter • Thus…iambic pentameter is… • A measure of poetry in which there are a series of five iambs/feet per line (five sets of two syllables, unstressed stressed)

18. Worksheet #1 “You Be Bill Move the italicized words ONLY. • If such calms come after every tempest • If after every tempest come such calms • Now confusion hath made his masterpiece • Confusion nowhath made his masterpiece • Let all the battlements fire their ordnance • Let all the battlements their ordnance fire

19. Worksheet #2 • 1) you have maddedA father and a gracious aged man, Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick, Most barbarous, most degenerate. • 2) an Eygptian did give that handkerchief to my mother. • 3) The fiery Tybalt came in the instant with his sword prepared…

20. Worksheet #2 • 4) A crutch! A crutch! Why you call for a sword? • 5) O, where is Romeo? You saw him today? • 6) I did see your son walking so early underneath the grove of sycamore that westward rooteth from the city side.

21. Worksheets # 3, 4, 5 • You have the remainder of the class time to work on these worksheets. Finish them for homework. • Questions? Just ask me! • You do not have to start reading Act I for homework, but if you have the time, the book, and want to, I suggest it. I’ll walk you through most of Act I tomorrow in class.