Shakespeare Midterm

When did Shakespeare live?

1564-1616

When did Shakespeare write?

Ca. 1590-1613

Renaissance

Rebirth of classic culture

Who was the term “renaissance” coined by?

Italian historian Giorgio Vasari

Early modern

Synonymous with Renaissance. The birth of the modern world.

Elizabethan

The reign of Queen Elizabeth. Ruled 1558-1603.

Jacobean

The reign of James I. Ruled England 1603-1625.

Tudor

Name of the ruling family that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603.

Stuart

Name of ruling family that held throne of England from 1603 to 1714 (with one notable interruption

Interregnum (1649-1660)

A period where there was no king. 

Restoration (1660)

The restoration of the Stuart line to the throne

Henry VIII (1509-1547)

Elizabeth’s father, England’s official break from Catholicism, dissolution of monasteries.

Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

The “Virgin Queen,” no successor, savvy politician.

James I (1603-1625)

20 years as Scottish king, not used to dealing with Parliament or Church, “divine right of kings.” Authorized version of Bible, interested in supernatural, patron of theater.

Charles I (1625-1649)

Problems with Parliament. Under his rule, the theaters closed in 1642. He was deposed and beheaded in 1649.

Amphitheaters 

Public theaters. Audiences were larger, less educated, more varied economically. They had 3 galleries with a roof, stage jutted from one side into the yard, the yard itself is left open to the elements.

Publishing

The Stationers’ Company was a primary way of dating texts.

Documentary evidence

Foul papers, fair copies, promptbooks, quartos, folios

Foul papers

Unrevised manuscripts, closer to original

Fair copies

Revised manuscript, copy-edited, “cleaner” versions

When was Shakespeare’s first folio published?

1623

Quarto

Small, inexpensive editions of single plays

Promptbook

Editions annotated for performance. Entrances were labeled earlier and actors’ notes may be preserved.

Restoration

The theaters reopened. Shakespeare was improved.

Main sources and influences of Macbeth

Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Shakespeare alters Holinshed’s account of Macbeth with the witches, usurpation of the throne.

Praeteritio

A rhetorical device or figure of speech where a speaker or writer pretends to pass over a topic, thereby bringing it to the listener's attention while claiming to omit it

Macbeth Textual History

Date of composition unknown. Written 1603-1611. One key quirk is that the Hecate scenes were added later. First published in a folio (1623). Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy. 

Othello Influences

Influenced by Cinthio’s Hecatommithi. Shakespeare compressed the narrative. He made Othello and Desdemona more noble, and Iago more evil. Perhaps a true story from 1565. An Italian serving in a French government and rumors of a wife’s infidelity.

Othello Textual History

Written 1603-1604. Folio has 160 lines that are not in the quarto. Folio has the willow song for instance.

Romeo and Juliet Sources and Influences

Arthur Brooke’s “The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet” (1562). Ovid’s tale of “Pyramus and Thisbe” (8 AD).

Romeo and Juliet Textual History

Written ca. 1593-1569. Quarto 1, bad. A lot of memorial reconstruction, most elaborate stage production. Quarto 2, multiple corrected passages, likely from foul papers. Very popular since it was published in 5 quartos and a folio.