"Shakespeare 's Life"

"Shakespeare's Life":

William Shakespeare was born possibly on 23 (rd) April, which is also said the day of his death, in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon , and he died in 1616. 

His father was a yeoman, a successful tradesman, until he met with financial problems. He was the eldest son and he studied the use of language and classical authors in the local grammar school. 

He married Anne Hathway when he was 18 years old and she was 26 years old and pregnant with their daughter.

•  In 1584 he went to London, he first experienced the playhouse and he was recognized not as a great actor but as an excellent writer.

•  In 1593 London theaters were closed because of the plague. He needed the support of a private patron, the Earl of Southampton, to whom his sonnets. Shakespeare became a shareholder and the main playwright of the most successful company actors, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

•  In 1599 his company built the Globe theater and between 1590 and 1596 he wrote historical dramas. 

• Than between 1593 and 1600 he wrote ten comedies but the best tragedies were written between 1595 and 1605. Shakespeare spent the latter part of his life in retirement in Stratford. He died when he was 52 years old and 7 years after some of his friends published an edition of 36 of his plays in one volume named: The First Folio.

•  In 1609 Shakespeare’s sonnets were published. This collection including 154 sonnets that were probably written in 1590.

 Sonnets:

Shakespeare was an actor, a playwright and a shareholder.

His sonnets were for anyone who could afford a penny for watch a play in the Globe theater, he understood how to take familiar story and created tragic or philosophical dramas. People all over the world continue to identify with his sonnets.

He combines love with hated or religion with policy, in fact in this plays often he confused them. Shakespeare combines painful scenes with comic scenes.

In his sonnets he not use the Italian form but sometimes he use the Petrarchan form. His sonnets are not chronological and they are divided in two parts:

1. The first part is called a “ Fair Youth”

2. The second part is called a “ Dark Lady”.

Plays:

His plays including: Mistake identity or frustrated love but they have in common the preoccupation with the journey of young woman or men. 

They traces the passage of young people out of their parent’s control. They are based with royalty story but don’t only deal with them. ( This, during the period when the idea of England as a “nation” was difficult to accept. His plays tell story of the civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster. 

 They are divided in two tetralogies.


Dramatic genre was attractive for London people therefore ( perciò) Shakespeare tell about many aspects of human life.

"Shakespeare- Monologue"

"Shakespeare":

Text of the monologue: " To Be or Not To Be":

To be, or not to be, that is the question

Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer 

The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, 

Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, 

And by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep— 

No more; and by a sleep, to say we end 

The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks 

That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep, 

To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub, 

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, 

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 

Must give us pause. There's the respect 

That makes Calamity of so long life: 

For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time, 

The Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely, 

The pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay, 

The insolence of Office, and the Spurns 

That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 

When he himself might his Quietus make 

With a bare Bodkin? Who would these Fardels bear, 

To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 

But that the dread of something after death, 

The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn 

No Traveller returns, Puzzles the will, 

And makes us rather bear those ills we have, 

Than fly to others that we know not of. 

Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all, 

And thus the Native hue of Resolution 

Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought, 

And enterprises of great pitch and moment, 

With this regard their Currents turn awry, 

And lose the name of Action. Soft you now, 

The fair Ophelia. Nymph, in all thy Orisons,

Be thou all my sins remembered.

Traduzione:

Essere o non essere, questo è il problema:

se sia più nobile d’animo sopportare gli oltraggi,

i sassi e i dardi dell’iniqua fortuna,

o prender l’armi contro un mare di triboli

e combattendo disperderli. Morire, dormire,

nulla di più, e con un sonno dirsi che poniamo

fine al cordoglio e alle infinite

miserie naturale retaggio della carne,

è soluzione da accogliere a mani giunte.

Morire, dormire, sognare forse: ma qui é l’ostacolo,

quali sogni possano assalirci in quel sonno di morte

quando siamo già sdipanati dal groviglio mortale,

ci trattiene: é la remora questa che

di tanto prolunga la vita ai nostri tormenti.

Chi vorrebbe, se no, sopportar le frustate

e gli insulti del tempo, le ingiustizie del tiranno,

il disprezzo dell’uomo borioso, le angosce

del respinto amore, gli indugi della legge,

la tracotanza dei grandi, i calci in faccia che

il merito paziente riceve dai mediocri, quando

di mano propria potrebbe saldare il suo conto

con due dita di pugnale? Chi vorrebbe caricarsi

di grossi fardelli imprecando e sudando sotto il peso

di tutta una vita stracca, se non fosse il timore

di qualche cosa, dopo la morte, la terra sconosciuta

donde mai non tornò alcun viaggiatore,

a sgomentare la nostra volontà e

a persuaderci di sopportare i nostri mali piuttosto che

correre in cerca d’altri che non conosciamo?

Così ci fa vigliacchi la coscienza;

così l’incarnato naturale della determinazione

si scolora al cospetto del pallido pensiero.

E così imprese di grande importanza e rilievo sono

distratte dal loro naturale corso:

e dell’azione smarriscono anche il nome…

"Elizabethan entertainment"

"Elizabethan entertainment"

During the Elizabethan age, entertainment was an essential part of everyday life.

- Why was entertainment important in the Elizabethan age?

- Entertainment was important to people who lived in the Elizabethan age because it was a time when lives were hard, the mortality rate was high and life expectancy was low.

- Did it only involve the court?

-Court entertainment was regular. There were feasts and banquets accompanied by music and dancing. But the poor people enjoyed entertainment whenever there was something to celebrate, such as weddings, victories and festivals.

- What was the most popular pastime?

- Dancing was an extremely popular pastime. It was considered " a recreation of the mind and an exercise of the body".

- What led to development of dancing?

- Different styles of music and new musical instruments led to the creation of new dances.

- Did Elizabethan dance vary according to social class?

- The court dances enjoyed by royalty, nobility were often imported from Italy, Spain or France. These dance forms varied considerably from the energetic Galliard to the refined and elegant pavane. The lower classes enjoyed the more traditional country dances, such as the jig.

-Was Queen Elizabeth fond of dancing and music?

- Queen Elizabeth encouraged music and dancing. She was a patron of all the arts and encouraged the work of Elizabethan composer and musicians. She had been taught ( insegnato) to play musical instruments as part of her education. Her education also included learning to dance. Dance as a means of daily exercise.

- What were the dances of the lower classes linked to?

-Many of the dances of the Elizabethan lower classes were full of old customs and rituals, such as dancing around the maypole( palo). The Christmas festival included the carole. Modern Christmas carols are derived from this practice.

- Did sport play an important role at that time?

- Tournaments, games, sports and Gambling (giochi) also played an important part in Elizabethan entertainment,

- What were the most popular team sports?

- Team sports such as battledore and shuttlecock, the ancestor of modern badminton, and gameball, a simple but violent football game. It was a dangerous and violent age, and people enjoyed blood sports.

- Were individual sports practised?

-Among the individual sports there were archery and colf, the ancestor of golf, and fencing (scherma). A sword ( spada) was an important part of a nobleman's apparel.

- Did the Elizabethans play tennis?

- Yes, they did. In Elizabethan tennis the ball was often hit against courtyard walls ( muro del cortile) and played with a glove. (guanto). The glove was later replaced by a racquet. The balls were at first made from solid wood, then replaced by leather balls ( guanti in pelle).