WEEK 2 - SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE AND BIOGRAPHY

RESEARCH: Research Shakespeare’s life, ensuring you include information about his origins, family, relationships, the world he lived in and questions surrounding his work.

Visit the Folger Shakespeare Library Website and working from the ‘Discover Shakespeare’ Tab you work through the information regarding Shakespeare’s Life. http://www.folger.edu/Content/Discover-Shakespeare/Shakespeares-Life/

You can also read the ‘William Shakespeare Fact Sheet’ on the Globe website.

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/education/discovery-space/fact-sheets

Research on William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is a famous English playwright and poet, he is also known to do some acting in his time.  

Due to the fact his was born over 400 years ago, it hard to know everything about his life, and the time period his was live in, as many files from that time were lost or they never existed.  It is most likely shakespeare was born around April 26th 1564, near the area of Northwest of London,  as there’s proof he was Baptized on this date at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon. He is the children of John and Mary Shakespeare and the oldest children to survive out of his siblings. This father was a leatherworker, making material often used for gloves. John rose in the business world and when William was 5 John became the town bailiff which is similar to a mayor.  Since his dad was wealthy and high up in the social system it’s most certain William attended Stratford’s grammar school, studying mainly latin.  He mostly likely attended school until the age of 15.

In the later side of 1582,  not long after he left school, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare was 18, and Anne Hathaway was 26.  She gave birth to their first born Susanna not long after their marriage, then at the start of 1585 they had twins Judith and Hamnet which was the last children they would have. Shakespeare bought a house in Stratford where him and his family lived, however he spent most of his time in London due to his work . Unfortunately in 1596 his son Hamnet died at the age of 11, how his daughter did go on to marry, Susanna married a well of doctor John Hall, and made Shakespeare and grandparent with their daughter Elizabeth in 1608. Not long before his died Judith married Thomas Quiney who was a Vintner.

There is a break in the record as to what Shakespeare was doing after the birth of his twins in 1585, apart from that he created his own theatre.  However in there is proof that by 1952 he was an established London actor and playwright. He also had several roles as an actor, writer and occasionally as a major business partner with the  acting company, Lord Chamberlain's Men.  Over the years he became more well known.

Most of Shakespeare’s investments went into real-estate, he purchased the second largest house in the town New Place in 1597, so he was definitely a wealthy man.   One of the last play that he work on was The Two Noble Kinsmen, which was written in collaboration with John Fletcher.  It commonly thought that he died on April 23rd 1616, he cause of his death being unknown. He was buried at the Holy Trinity Church, the place of his Baptism.

WEEK 1 - SETTING THE SCENE – LIFE IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England is a documentary that first aired on the BBC in 2013. It gives insights into life in Elizabethan England. Below is a link to a series of clips on the BBC website which you should watch to gain an insight into life in this period. As you watch the clips and make notes bear in mind the question below.

QUESTION: What sense do you get of what life was like in Elizabethan England? Try to include information on: The population, entertainment, religion, superstition, money, jobs, medicine, theatre.

Life for the poor

In the countryside in Elizabethan England many people were poor, and in that time period the chances were higher that you would end up being part of the poor population. They lived on heaths, hills and wasteland, it was known to be a dangerous place, always busy and noisy and there was no roads across them only muddy paths, and at the time they were seen as horrific and dirty, anything but beautiful.  Dotting around the countryside were small hut life homes, which usually accommodated 7-8 people, whoever lived in these houses were very,very poor.

Life inside these cottages were dark, due to their source of life only being the sun. It was also basic, with only one room without proper flooring, and in the middle of the room there is a firer. The firer is constantly alight, which means the room fills with thick smoke. It was also cold in the collage because there was no insulation, so to keep as much heat in and cold out the windows were very small.

The society in in Elizabethan times were very divided depending to the class you were born into. Job options in the countryside were limited, you could be:

Yeaman - This is someone who owns their own farm and gets workers to work in it.

Husbandman - Rents out land from the Husbandman so that he can work in it.

However, you highest chance to get a job was to go to different farmers offering your services as a labourer, which is when you work on somebody else farm. The working day was long and hard, it would start at the early morning and continue to sunset. You earning for the day’s work would be a ‘groat’, made of 2.1grams of pure silver, and it is also known as fourpence (for english pennies).  This was not enough money to for a family to live on, to get you an idea,

A chicken: 4p

A lemon: 3p

Generally a family earning fourpence a day would live of a loaf of bread, a small amount of butter, cheese, 4 small pieces of meat, 3 piece of fish and ale to drink, as the water was polluted. This is 6000 calories per day to spread across a household of 7-8.

During the Elizabethan era is when books became more available to mass as printer has been invented. This meant people from different classes had the chance to read books and educate themselves whilst at home. This meant people started to learn, read and teacher more about religion a because the bible was now printed in English.    

Approaching the 1598 different thing started to be developed and invented, people started moving to the city because house were being built and rebuilt. The population was also increasing, it went from 3.2 to 4.1 million, his is a growth of 25%. A big deal at the time was chimneys, people who could afford had chimneys built into their home, which meant that houses were not filled with smoke from their fires.

As I said before books were now available to a wider range of people. Before it was only to extremely wealthy who could be educated, but now grammar schools were being opened for boys where they had the opportunity to head and write in Latin.  At the started to the Elizabethan era 1 in 10 men could write how by then end to Elizabethan reign 1 in for could write. The percentage of women that could read also went up by 10%. This meant both men and women were able to publish their work  this meant there was more jobs.