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