English Macbeth Final

Renaissance and Reformation 

  • Renaissance means “rebirth”

    • Characterized by art, science, and exploration 

  • Began in Italy and spread north. 

(Humanism) Uniquely human-  Creating inventions

  • Printing press - spread of ideas and information

    • The bible wasn’t easily accessible to many people

      • Started being translated in local languages ( new ideas)

Medieval vs Renaissance


Medieval

  • Beatific vision 

    • All about what you do is all about getting yourself to Heaven  

      • Sacrificed enjoyment of life

Renaissance

  • Started being acceptable to live for living’s sake

  • Enjoy this life

  • Music changed

  • Gregorian chants - new instruments 

Deep love/attraction

  • No longer courtly love

  • Writers started writing about real love/relationships/people

  • Connection to the Catholic idea of what love is


Famous

  • Changed rhyme scheme to stand out


Edmund Spenser (pg.252-253)

  • Devout protestant (Served Queen Elizabeth)

    • First long term completely protestant queen. 

  • Merchant Taylors’ School and Cambridge University

    • Published first poems here

  • He depended on payment he received for his poetry.

  • His greatest work was The Faerie Queene

    • It was an allegory of good and evil 

    • Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I 

  • Created new type of nine line stanza

  • Created Spenserian Sonnet 

    • Amoretti

  • Sonnet 1 / 35 / 75

    • Jist =  He loves her alone, and her love for him holds him captive to her shims? She is his muse, and he loves her so much it hurts.

    • Rhyme Scheme = ABAB BCBC,CDCD, EE

      • Rhyming Couplet + Geoffery Chauccer

    • Allusions =The home of the muses, Greek Mythology, Narcissus

    • Vulta - turn in poetry or a wrap up


Sonnet 

  • Italian - little song

  • First part- love part  

  • Middle- more nuance 

  • Turn (petracrchcalls it a volta?)

  • Changes is the rhyme schemes 

    • To stand out 

    • Might to it to themselves to just stand out 

Petrarchan Sonnet 

  • Eight line octave

    • ABBA - ABBA rhyme scheme

  • Six line   sestet

    • CDE - CDE rhyme scheme

    • Often goes problem - answer

  • Petrarcha was the first one to generate hundreds of sonnets without getting bored

    • Shakespeare inspired by him

Spenserian sonnet

  • ABAB

  • BCBC

  • CDCD

  • EE 

Sonnet Sequence

  • Sonnets linked by theme/person addressed

  • Spenser and Sidney used these

  • Helped authors write 100+ sonnets without getting dull


Sir Phillip Sydney

(Sir implies nobility)

  • Courtier, scholar, poet, soldier

    • “Renaissance Man”

      • Being a poet was highly coveted

      • Could get sponsored ( maybe even by the queen )

      • Wanted Fame and notoriety

  • Went to Oxford and Cambridge

  • Favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1 

  • Nephew of Earl Leicester

  • Son of Sir Henry Sydney

    • Well connected but modest 

  • Fell out of favor with the queen in 1580 when he  sent her a letter urging her not to marry the Duke of Anjou. Regained status though, and was knighted in 1583. 

  • Severely wounded in 1586 during a fight against Spanish Catholics in Holland.

  • Wrote the first great sonnet sequence in English 

    • Astrophel and Stella

  • First sonnets linked by subject matter and theme


Sir Phillip Sydney’s Sonnets (31 and 39)

  • Sonnet 39

    • Jist: Despair like the plague, clear idea of how valuable sleep is

    • Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD DEE

    • Classical References: Cupid


Shakespeare 

  • Fourteen lines 

  • ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG 

  • Three quadrants (four line stanzas) 

  • Rhyming couplet that dramatically restates or redefines a theme

  • Sentences often continue past lines and sometimes past quatrains

  • No rules about the number or types of sentences

    • Freedom of syntax, which creates dazzling effects

  • 154 sonnets

Bio 

  • Born in the town of Stratford-on-Avon 

  • When he was 18 he married 26yr Anne Hathaway 


Scansion & Prosody


Iambic Pentameter - the basic structure that Shakespeare writes in

  • Iambic - the type of feet involved (Unstressed/stressed syllable)

    • “Collect” “debate” “reward”

    • Emphasis is placed on the second part/syllable of the word

    • debATE, not DEbate

  • Pentameter - The ‘feet’ involved

    • All unstressed/stressed syllables

    • Mimics the sound of a heartbeat


(Six foot line - comfy with french - Called and Alexandrie)


*A metrical foot is a unit of rhythm in poetry that is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables.


Metric Feet Variations

  • Iamb = unstressed -  stressed  (“re-WARD”)

  • Trochet = stressed - unstressed (“EX-it”)

  • Dactyl = stressed - unstressed - unstressed (“BE-owulf”)

  • Anapest = unstressed - unstressed - stressed (“se-ren-ADE”) 

  • Phyrric = Unstressed - unstressed (“to a”)

  • Spondee = stressed - stressed (“BLACK- BEAR”) 

    • Make sure Phyrric and Spondee don’t connect to anything else 


Meter - A verse in poetry that has x number of feet

Monometer - one metric foot

Dimeter -  two metric feet

Trimeter - three metric feet

Tetrameter - four metric feet

Pentameter- five metric feet

Hexameter - six metric feet


  • In plays, the meter and feet always add up to “five”

  • Shakespeare was 100% intentional

    • He added 30K words to the English language

The ‘feminine’ ending (source. Mrs. O'Sullivan)

  • Symbols : British pound sign £

  • Meaning: It has an extra half a foot 

    • At the time, the audience would listen very carefully/ they understood the meaning based on the audio. 

    • It is a  ‘jarring’ switch in pattern that catches the listener’s attention

    • Shakespear saying “go a little off hinge” “be experimental”

    • 6 foot = £ and power

      • With shifting change as is false women’s fash-ION = extra foot on the end




Macbeth

Time Period 

  • Time of the Anglo-Saxon

    • Days of the Thanes

Setting - Scotland

  • Its freezing there 🥶

  • Rainy

  • Overcast

Religion 

  • Calvinist

  • Presbyterian 


King James 

  • King of both Scotland and England

  • Sponsored KJV8

  • Wrote a lot about divine right and demonology/witchcraft

    • Many people were obsessed with witchcraft/demonology atp even if they did not support it 

    • Many people were obsessed with figuring out who was and was not a witch. (Salem Witch Trials)

  • Great relationship with Queen Elizabeth (Shakespeare)

  • Attempt on his life

    • November 5: Guy Fawkes Day (celebration/awareness day)

      • An issue on religious divide

        • Catholics were the ‘minority’ underground, discriminated against

          • Outlawed because in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the 1st Catholics tried to overthrow her.

        • Anglicans were in power

        • The Parliament was starting to become Puritan

      • Tried to blow up Parliament to reestablish Catholicism

      • Guy Falkes

        • Father died at 8

        • Turned to catholicism

        • Wanted to reestablish the rights of Catholics in England

        • Unsuccessful, they decided to take drastic measures by blowing up Parliament.

        • An anonymous note ratted them out 

          • The guards, on Nov. 5th, found 36 barrels of gunpowder

        • Fawkes was captured and taken to the king

          • Didn’t back down but instead said that he wanted to blow the Scottish king back to Scotland


Shakespeare v. King James

  • Shakespeare was very close to Queen Lizzy

    • When she died King James took over

  • Shakespeare didn’t know much about King James but wanted to secure his spot in court

    • Only knew that the king was obsessed with witchcraft

    • Rumored that he used a book of spells in the play

      • Spells in the book are believed to be real spells

    • Curse of Macbeth 

      • Cannot say “Macbeth” during a production (something will go horribly wrong)

    • There was an actual King Macbeth that the story was based on

      • He was a great guy tho - not historically accurate


Monologue

  • When a character is in a scene talking for a long time to someone else 

Soliloquy

  • “Solo”

  • Big chunk of of text delivered to the audience, not another character

 Aside

  • One character, sometimes two, stepping out of the scene and talking directly to the audience or eachother; scene is suspended 

Chorus

  • Group talking at same time 



Background

  • Order is crucial, so when things are disordered, they are incredibly significant

  • Elizabethan mindset

    • Everything was linked from high to low (God - plants)

    • A disturbance in one area will cause a disturbance in the other

  • Hero

  • Weather

  • The Kingdom


Elements of Drama:


Stage directions

  • Assistance for the cast and production to bing the text to life

Dialogue

  • Any lines spoken by actors

Monologue

  • When a character is in a scene talking for a long time to someone else 

Soliloquy

  • “Solo”

  • Big chunk of of text delivered to the audience, not another character

 Aside

  • One character, sometimes two, stepping out of the scene and talking directly to the audience or eachother; scene is suspended 

Chorus

  • A single character or group of characters whos words connect scenes + convey collective thoughts and feelings of the community

    • When people talk abt how they feel abt macbeth


Kinds of Drama:

Descended from the Ancient Greeks: 

  • Tragedy = Stories that end with the downfall or death of the protagonist (Macbeth)

    • Emphasizes human greatness to show pity, fear, or awe

    • Elements: 

      • Tragic Hero - High ranked main character, who has a downfall because of their own flawed behavior.

      • Tragic Flaw  part of the hero’s character that leads him astray

        • Macbeth’s “vaulting” ambition and determination. 

      • Comedic Relief - humorous scenes or characters that make jokes

        • The servants or lower class in Macbeth.

  • Comedy = Ordinary people in conflict with society, are always resolved happily. 

    • Emphasizes human mistakes and weaknesses of society to show sympathy and excitement.

    • Types: 

      • Romantic comedy - Problems with lovers

      • Comedy of manners - satire of social customs/society


Literary History:

Elizabethan Theater: 

  • During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I drama and plays became very popular, and started being performed in theatres.

  • Before, they were performed in courtyards or in inns, wherever playwrights and actors could find an audience. 

England’s First Theater

  • James Burbage built London’s first theater called “The Theater”

    • Shut down in 1597

  • Richard Burbgage built the Globe theater in 1598

    • No sets, no lighting

    • Burned down in 1613 because of a cannon shot during a performance of Henry VIII

    • Rebuilt, but permanently closed in 1642 by puritans

  • Sam Wanamaker built modern Globe Theater in 1997


Shakespeare v. King James

  • Shakespeare was very close to Queen Lizzy

    • When she died King James took over

  • Shakespeare didn’t know much about King James but wanted to secure his spot in court

    • Only knew that the king was obsessed with witchcraft

    • Rumored that he used a book of spells in the play

      • Spells in the book are believed to be real spells

    • Curse of Macbeth 

      • Cannot say “Macbeth” during a production (something will go horribly wrong)

    • There was an actual King Macbeth that the story was based on

      • He was a great guy tho - not historically accurate


Author In Depth- Pg 316

  • Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon, northwest London

    • Father (John Shakespeare) was a glove maker and businessman, 

    • Mother (Mary Arden)  was a daughter of a landlord

    • Attended Stratford grammar school from 7-16

      • Learned Latin

  • Married Anne Hathway in 1582

    • Had 3 daughters, Susana (1583), Judith, and Hamnet (twins - 1585)

  • 1594 part owner-principal playwright of Lord Chamberlain’s Men

    • Lord Chamberlain’s Men = one of the most successful theater companies in London

    • When James I became king, renamed to the King's Men

  • Most plays performed in Globe Theater in Thames River, Southwark

  • Retired in 1610 and died April 23, 1616

  • Wrote only for plays, first published work (the First Folio)  published 1623 after his death by two members of theater company (John Heminges and Henry Condell)


Macbeth Shakespeare’s Sources- Pg 320

  • Shakespeare mixed fact and fiction

    • Macbeth from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland

      • Macbeth and witches meeting

      • Macbeth and friends kill Duncan

        • Banquo is Macbeth’s accomplice

      • Lady Macbeth not a significant role

    • Shakespeare’s Macbeth main changes

      • Made King Duncan innocent

      • Macbeth has no claim to the throne

      • Used another story to make character of Lady Macbeth

      • Banquo innocent (Ancestor of King James I)

Background- Pg 322

  • Elizabethans viewed universe as orderly and interconnected

    • Great chain linked everything

    • Parallels between different realms, disturbances everywhere created a sense of imbalance that could influence human behavior and societal events.

  • Adage- truthful statement

  • Anon- soon, shortly

  • Battlements- openings at the top of a wall/castle

  • Beguile- charm, enchant

  • Chid- scold, rebuke

  • Entreat- ask someone to do something

  • Feat- achievement requiring courage

  • Frieze- heavy cloth / painted decoration

  • Gall- bold behavior

  • Jocund- cheerful, lighthearted

  • Knell- bell rung solemnly, for death

  • Liege- relating to a superior 

  • Mettle- ability to cope with difficulties 

  • Minion- follower of a powerful person

  • Pernicious- having a harmful effect

  • Prate- talk foolishly about something

  • Recompense- make amends for a loss 

  • Quell- put an end to by force

  • Surfeited- cause to desire no more of something

  • Trammel- restriction to freedom 

  • Vanquish- defeat thoroughly 

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