"Shakespeare- Romeo and Juliet"

"Romeo and Juliet":

Ruling house of Verona:

• Prince Escalus: Prince of Verona
• Count Paris: is a kinsman (parente) of Escalus who wishes to marry Juliet.
• Mercutio: is another kinsman of Escalus, and a friend of Romeo.House of Capulet:
• Capulett: is the patriarch of the house of Capulet.
• Lady Capulet: is the matriarch of the house of Capulet.
• Juliett: is the 13-year-old daughter of Capulet, and the play's female protagonist.
• Tybald: is a cousin of Juliet, and the nephew( nipote) of Lady Capulet.
• The Nurse: is Juliet's personal attendant and confidante.
• Rosaline: is Lord Capulet's niece (nipote), and Romeo's love in the beginning of the story.
• Peter, Sampson and Gregory:Servants of the Capulet household.

House of Montague:

• Montague: is the patriarch of the house of Montague.
• Lady Montague: is the matriarch of the house of Montague.
• Romeo: is the son of Montague, and the play's male protagonist.
• Benvolio: is Romeo's cousin and best friend.
• Abram and Balthasar: Servants of the Montague household.

Others:

• Friar Laurence is a Franciscan friar, and is Romeo's confidant.
• Friar John is sent (inviato per portare) to deliver Friar Laurence's letter to Romeo.
• An Apothecary (farmacista) who reluctantly sells Romeo poison.
• A Chorus reads a prologue to each of the first two acts.

PLOT:

On a hot morning fighting by young servants of the Capulet and Montague families is stopped by the Prince who tells them that the next person who breaks the peace will be punished with death.

Capulet plans a feast to introduce his daughter, Juliet, who is almost fourteen, to the Count Paris who would like to marry her. By a mistake of the illiterate servant Peter, Montague’s son, Romeo, and his friends Benvolio and the Prince’s cousin Mercutio, hear of the party and decide to go in disguise(mascherarsi). Romeo hopes he will see his adored Rosaline but instead he meets and falls in love with Juliet.

Juliet’s cousin Tybalt recognises the Montagues and they are forced to leave the party just as Romeo and Juliet have each discovered the other’s identity. Romeo lingers (idugia) near the Capulet’s house and talks to Juliet when she appears on her balcony. With the help of Juliet’s Nurse the lovers arrange to meet next day at the cell of Friar Lawrence when Juliet goes for confession, and they are married by him.

Tybalt picks a quarrel with Mercutio and his friends and Mercutio is accidentally killed as Romeo intervenes to try to break up the fight. Romeo pursues Tybalt in anger(rabbia), kills him and is banished by the Prince for the deed. Juliet is anxious that Romeo is late meeting her and learns of the fighting from her Nurse. With Friar Lawrence’s help it is arranged that Romeo will spend the night with Juliet before taking refuge at Mantua.

To calm the family’s sorrow at Tybalt’s death the day for the marriage of Juliet to Paris is brought forward. Capulet and his wife are angry that Juliet does not wish to marry Paris, not knowing of her secret contract with Romeo.

Friar Lawrence helps Juliet by providing a sleeping potion that will make everyone think she’s dead. Romeo will then come to her tomb and take her away. When the wedding party arrives to greet Juliet next day they think she is dead. The Friar sends a colleague to warn Romeo to come to the Capulet’s family monument to rescue his sleeping wife but the message doesn’t get through and Romeo, hearing instead that Juliet is dead, buys poison in Mantua.

He returns to Verona and goes to the tomb where he surprises and kills the mourning Paris. Romeo takes the poison and dies just as Juliet awakes from her drugged sleep. She learns what has happened from Friar Lawrence but she refuses to leave the tomb and stabs herself as the Friar returns with the Prince, the Capulets and Romeo’s father. The deaths of their children lead the families to make peace, promising to erect a monument in their memory.

"Shakespeare- Hamlet"

HAMLET:

Summary: 

• https://sites.google.com/site/elizabethithegoldenagecristin/shakespeare-s-plays-hamlet

Traduzione:

Atto primo:

Il padre di Amleto, il Re di Danimarca, è morto da soli due mesi, ma la madre del ragazzo, la Regina Gertrude, ha sposato suo cognato, Claudius che ora è diventato Re. Un fantasma, che assomiglia al vecchio Re di Danimarca è apparso alle sentinelle del castello di Elsinore, che è armato in caso di attacco da parte di Fortimbras, principe di Norvegia. Amleto e il suo amico Orazio organizzano un incontro di notte per vedere se il fantasma appare, e lui appare. Il fantasma racconta ad Amleto di essere stato assassinato da Cludius che gli ha messo del veleno nell'orecchio mentre dormiva nel suo giardino. Lui chiede ad Amleto di vendicarlo, ma di lasciare il giudizio di sua madre a Dio ( Paradiso).

Atto secondo:

Amleto fa finta di essere pazzo perciò lui può portare avanti il suo piano più facilmente. Polonius, il consigliere del Re, pensa che la pazzia di Amleto sia dovuta all'amore che prova per sua figlia Ophelia. Amleto organizza un gruppo di attori, che devono intrattenere la corte, la performance "L'assassino di Gonzago" è similie alla storia raccontata dal fantasma.

Atto terzo:

L'atto è presentato: Il re si alza e si precipita via. Mentre sta andando nella camera da letto della regina Amleto vede il re pregare, cosi non lo uccide perchè non vuole che si salvi in stato di grazia. Durante un litigio con la madre, Amleto uccide Polonius che era nascosto dietro una tenda ad ascoltare la loro conversazione. Il re decide di mandare Amleto in Inghilterra per sbarazzarsi di lui.

Atto quarto:

Amleto va in Inghilterra per essere ucciso. Ophelia impazzisce e si annega. Suo fratello Laertes vuole vendetta e il re, dopo aver ricevuto notizie della fuga di Amleto trama la morte del protagonista in un duello con Laertes.

Atto quinto:

Segue il duello. Hamleto viene indotto a bere una bevanda avvelenata ma non la beve, invece la regina beve il vino. Laertes ferisce Amleto con la punta della sua spada che è stata avvelenata, ma le spade si sono scambiate e Amleto ferisce Laertes. La regina muore, Laertes cade e denuncia che il re è stato accoltellato da Amleto. Entrambi il re e Laertes muoiono. Amleto chiede ad Orazio di raccontare questa storia raccomandandolo che Fortimbras deve essere eletto re e poi muore anche lui. Fortimbras entra e prende in possesso il regno dopo aver portato onore ad Amleto.

HAMLET'S CHARACTERS:

• FORTIMBRAS:                                   - Prince of Norway

• OPHELIA:                                             - Polonius' daughter

• GERTRUDE:                                         - Hamlet's mother, Claudius'wife

•  CLAUDIUS:                                          - Hamlet's uncle

•  LAERTES:                                            - Ophelia's brother

• ROSENTCRAZ AND                             -Hamlet's university friends

          GILDENSTERN:

• HORATIO:                                              -Hamlet's best friend

• OLD NORWAY:                                    - King of Norway

PERSONAGGI MORTE:

• HAMLET
• POLONIUS
• OPHELIA
• QUEEN GERTRUDE
• KING
• LAERTES AND HAMLET

Shakespeare's London

"Shakespeare's London":

INTRODUCTION:

• In the 16(th) century, London had more 200.000 residents, many of them living beyond the boundaries of the original walled city founded as Londinium by the Romans in 43 AD. The city was bordered by the Thames to the south and enclosed by a semicircular wall. The bridge was the only route across the river, apart from the numerous boats that shuttled between its banks. On the top of hill east of Lungate stood the old St. Paul's Cathedral.

TRADES:

• There were large markets in Cheapside and Eastcheap, were Londoners could buy local produce and imported goods brought up the river by foreign merchants. London's tradesmen were organised into guilds. Many of the trades were associated with particular areas. Present street names,like Bread Street, Milk Street and Ironmonger Lane, are reminders of past trades.

THEATRE:

• Shakespeare staged plays at the Globe Theatre, build in 1599 west of London Bridge in an area know as Bankside.The Globe was not the only playhouse in Southwark. Others built there before it were the Newington Butts Palyhouse (1580), The Rose( 1587) and the Swan (1595). Playgoing had in fact become part of the city's daily life, and all levels of society shared the experiences of the Theatre. Aristocrats were familiar with the plays of the day from acting part of school, seeing plays at court and,later, becoming patrons of the stage. Apprentices and merchants also enjoyed the theatre and often took an afternoon off work to go and see a play.
• When Shakespeare began working in London in 1588, the market was ready for new companies. Bou companies competed against the adult companies and were actually able to earn more money than their more experienced rivals. The three main boy companies were the Children of the Paul's, The Chapel Children and the Children of the King's Revels ( feste). Shakespeare was part of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Performing to a potential audience of  3.000 people. Each day, the company presented a different plays, rehearsing it in the morning before performing it in the afternoon.

CONCLUSION:

• From a disease standpoint, Shakespeare lived in the worst place and time in history. As London was overcrowded, rat-infested and sexually promiscuous, with raw sewage flowing in the Thames, it was devastated by the plague in the second half of the 16 (th) century. The outbreaks in 1563 and 1603 were the most ferocious, each wiping out over one quarter of London's population. When there were more than thirty deaths a week. the theatres were closed. There were very few years when there were no closures, so London acting companies had to travel to other towns, where they were not always welcome, coming from a plague city.

"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).

"Elisabetta I and "The Golden Age"

Elisabetta I:

Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 in the Greenwich Palace - 24 March 1603) was queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. She was twenty-five and had a strong personality,a lively intelligence and a passionate character. She had received an excellent education and could speak French,Latin and Italian with ease, but above all she was a political genius of the first order.

She was called the "Virgin Queen", "Gloriana" or "Good queen bess". Elizabeth I was the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty.She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anna Boleyn who was executed for betrayal two years after Elizabeth's birth. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate.

During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year in the Tower of London on suspicion of supporting protestant rebels,but  she fervenly protested her innocence.

One of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English protestant Church. She became the Supreme Governor.

In 1588, the defeat of the Spanish Armada associated her with one of the greatest military victories in English history.

Marriage question are not clear. Historians have speculated that Thomas Seymor had put her off sexsual relationship. She was in love with her childhood friend Robert Dudley. The Queen was extremely jealous of his affections. She died in 1603.

"The Golden Age"

Elizabeth's reign is know as the "Golden Age" (1558-1625). The period is famous for the flourishing of English Drama with William Shakespeare and his poems like Romeo and Giulietta or Hamlet. Literature and theater are very important for the queen. She loved culture.In fact she build theaters outside the city not to interfere in politics.
Her successor will be James I