English Renaissance I

•           Cultural and artistic movement in England

•         Associated with European Renaissance

Contrast: English and Italian Renaissance

•           English Renaissance

–         great literature

–         Height during 1600s

•         Italian Renaissance

–         its great artwork

–         Began in the 14th century

English Renaissance II

Often called “Age of Shakespeare” or “Elizabethan Era”

Names are incorrect

–         Shakespeare was not as famous for his work during his lifetime as after his death

–         second, the English Renaissance actually covers a time both before and after the reign of Elizabeth I.

English Renaissance III

•         Important writers I:

–         William Shakespeare

–         Ben Jonson

–         Christopher Marlowe

–         Francis Bacon

–         John Milton

•         Important Philosophers

–         Thomas More

English Renaissance IV

•         Elizabethan Era I

–         Period in England associated with rule of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

–         An Golden Age

•         Relatively peaceful time

–         Reformation

–         Annual festivities broke up daily life

–         People looked forward to celebrations

–         Many still celebrated today

•         Valentine’s Day

•         April Fool’s Day

•         Christmas Season

Brief introduction of William Shakespeare

Biography

•         Born in 1564 in

    Stratford-upon-Avon

•         died on April 23, 1616

•         Actual date of birth uncertain

•         At 18: married Anne Hathaway

•         At 19: had daughter

•         1585: had twins

•         Believed to have left for London 1585-1586

•         1594: became member of Lord Chamberlain’s Men

•         became King’s Men in 1603

•         Wrote and performed in plays

Shakespeare’s Plays I

•         Shakespeare wrote or collaborated on 39 plays

Plays divided into three categories

Comedies

•         All’s Well That Ends Well

•         As You Like It

•         The Comedy of Errors

•         Cymbeline

•         Love’s Labor’s Lost

•         Measure for Measure

•         The Merchant of Venice

•         The Merry Wives of Windsor

•         A Midsummer Night’s Dream

•         Much Ado About Nothing

•         The Taming of the Shrew

•         The Tempest

•         Troilus and Cressida

•         Twelfth Night

•         Two Gentlemen of Verona

•         The Two Noble Kinsmen

•         The Winter’s Tale

Tragedies

      Antony and Cleopatra

     Hamlet

   Julius Caesar

   King Lear

   Macbeth

   Othello

   Romeo and Juliet

   Timon of Athens

Histories

  King John

  Richard II

  Henry IV

  Henry V

  Henry VI

  Richard III

   Henry VIII

The Globe Theatre

–         Theater associated with Shakespeare

–         Owned by the Burbage  brothers, Shakespeare and three others

Shakespeare’s poetry

–         Sonnets are most well-known

–         Published 154 sonnets

–         Sonnets 18-126 written to young man

–         Sonnets 127-154 present the Dark Lady

William Shakespeare

Dramatis

Tragedy

Comedy

History Plays

Poet

Sonnets