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Agitprop - theatre where the main function is to make a political point, to address a perceived social wrong, or to create a change in society through influencing large numbers of people. The name "agitprop" comes from the words "agitation" and "propaganda".

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Theater and drama vocabulary, Theater and drama word list - www.myvocabulary.com

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Theater and drama vocabulary, Theater and drama word list - a free resource used in over 24,000 schools to enhance vocabulary mastery & written/verbal skills with Latin & Greek roots.

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Shakespeare's family :: Life and Times :: Internet Shakespeare Editions

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Edmund Shakespeare was born in Stratford in 1580. The next mention of him which survives is the baptism of his son Edward at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, on July 12, 1607; however, this son was buried at St. Giles' Cripplegate exactly a month later, on August 12, 1607.

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- Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England
- Home life is mysterious, but his family did suffer great financial loss
- Parents: John and Mary Shakespeare
- Marriage: Anne Hathaway, 3 children
- Family Life: All his children died, leaving no direct descendants
- Death: Died on his traditional birth date (real birth date unknown) in hometown of unknown causes. Though his health has been in decline for a while before death.

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Conspiracy Theories About Shakespeare's Life

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Conspiracy Theories About Shakespeare's Life

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Insults Shakespeare Brought to the English Language Video 

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Insults Shakespeare Brought to the English Language Video 

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Since William Shakespeare lived more than 400 years ago, and many records from that time are lost or never existed in the first place, we don't know everything about his life. For example, we know that he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564. But we don't know his exact birthdate, which must have been a few days earlier.

We do know that Shakespeare's life revolved around two locations: Stratford and London. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford, but he worked in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. Even without knowing everything about his life, fans of Shakespeare have imagined and reimagined him according to their own tastes, just as we see with the 19th-century family scene at the top of this page.

Primary sources: Shakespeare Documented
Visit Shakespeare Documented to see primary-source materials documenting Shakespeare's life. This online resource of items from the Folger and other institutions brings together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare and his works, as well as additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

On This Page: Birth and Childhood | Marriage and Children | London Theater | Final Years

William Shakespeare was probably born on about April 23, 1564, the date that is traditionally given for his birth. He was John and Mary Shakespeare's oldest surviving child; their first two children, both girls, did not live beyond infancy. Growing up as the big brother of the family, William had three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund, and two younger sisters: Anne, who died at seven, and Joan.

Their father, John Shakespeare, was a leatherworker who specialized in the soft white leather used for gloves and similar items. A prosperous businessman, he married Mary Arden, of the prominent Arden family. John rose through local offices in Stratford, becoming an alderman and eventually, when William was five, the town bailiff-much like a mayor. Not long after that, however, John Shakespeare stepped back from public life; we don't know why.

Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays. Shakespeare most likely attended until about age 15.
On Shakespeare Documented: Primary-source materials relating to Shakespeare's family

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An overview of Shakespeare's life from the Folger Shakespeare Library, including his birth and childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon, his marriage to Anne Hathaway and their children, his work in the London theaters, and his final years before his death in 1616.

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Summary of the Words and Phrases We Owe to Shakespeare

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Summary of the Words and Phrases We Owe to Shakespeare

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Shakespeare invented over 1700 words and phrases, some of them not surviving, by coining two words together and changing a certain part of speech into another part of speech.

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Overview of the Fashion in the Elizabethan Era

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Overview of the Fashion in the Elizabethan Era

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No one was allowed to wear the clothes they enjoyed, there were laws dictating fashion. The rich worse extravagant clothing, while the poor wore simpler clothes.

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Who Was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King's Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward.

Known throughout the world, Shakespeare's writings capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. And yet, the personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery.

There are two primary sources that provide historians with an outline of his life. One is his work - the plays, poems and sonnets - and the other is official documentation such as church and court records. However, these provide only brief sketches of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.

When Was Shakespeare Born?

No birth records exist, but an old church record indicates that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From this, it is believed he was born on or near April 23, 1564, and this is the date scholars acknowledge as Shakespeare's birthday.

Located about 100 miles northwest of London, during Shakespeare's time Stratford-upon-Avon was a bustling market town along the River Avon and bisected by a country road.

Family

Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund.

Before Shakespeare's birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. However, records indicate John's fortunes declined sometime in the late 1570s.

Childhood and Education

Scant records exist of Shakespeare's childhood and virtually none regarding his education. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the King's New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics.

Being a public official's child, Shakespeare would have undoubtedly qualified for free tuition. But this uncertainty regarding his education has led some to raise questions about the authorship of his work (and even about whether or not Shakespeare really existed).

Wife and Children

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant.

Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11.

Shakespeare's Lost Years

There are seven years of Shakespeare's life where no records exist after the birth of his twins in 1585. Scholars call this period the "lost years," and there is wide speculation on what he was doing during this period.

One theory is that he might have gone into hiding for poaching game from the local landlord, Sir Thomas Lucy. Another possibility is that he might have been working as an assistant schoolmaster in Lancashire.

It's generally believed he arrived in London in the mid- to late 1580s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London's finer theaters, a scenario updated centuries later by the countless aspiring actors and playwrights in Hollywood and Broadway.

The King's Men

By the early 1590s, documents show Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company in London with which he was connected for most of his career.

Considered the most important troupe of its time, the company changed its name to the King's Men following the crowning of King James I in 1603. From all accounts, the King's Men company was very popular. Records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature.

Although the theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank, some of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE FACT CARD

Actor and Playwright

By 1592, there is evidence Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced.

The September 20, 1592 edition of the Stationers' Register (a guild publication) includes an article by London playwright Robert Greene that takes a few jabs at Shakespeare: "...There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country," Greene wrote of Shakespeare.

Scholars differ on the interpretation of this criticism, but most agree that it was Greene's way of saying Shakespeare was reaching above his rank, trying to match better known and educated playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe or Greene himself.

Early in his career, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom he dedicated his first and second published poems: "Venus and Adonis" (1593) and "The Rape of Lucrece" (1594).

By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37 plays. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second-largest house in Stratford, called New House, for his family.

It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it's believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theaters were closed.

Globe Theater

By 1599, Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater.

In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted.

Shakespeare's Writing Style

Shakespeare's early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn't always align naturally with the story's plot or characters.

However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words.

With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose.

William Shakespeare: Plays

While it's difficult to determine the exact chronology of Shakespeare's plays, over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays revolving around several main themes: histories, tragedies, comedies and tragicomedies.

Early Works: Histories and Comedies

With the exception of the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's first plays were mostly histories. Henry VI (Parts I, II and III), Richard II and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeare's way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty.

Julius Caesar portrays upheaval in Roman politics that may have resonated with viewers at a time when England's aging monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, had no legitimate heir, thus creating the potential for future power struggles.

Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the whimsical A Midsummer Night's Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado About Nothing and the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night.

Other plays written before 1600 include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V.

Works after 1600: Tragedies and Tragicomedies

It was in Shakespeare's later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare's characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal.

Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare's plots, destroying the hero and those he loves.

In Shakespeare's final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these are Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness.

Other plays written during this period include All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Pericles and Henry VIII.

When Did Shakespeare Die?

Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.

The exact cause of Shakespeare's death is unknown, though many believe he died following a brief illness.

In his will, he left the bulk of his possessions to his eldest daughter, Susanna. Though entitled to a third of his estate, little seems to have gone to his wife, Anne, whom he bequeathed his "second-best bed." This has drawn speculation that she had fallen out of favor, or that the couple was not close.

However, there is very little evidence the two had a difficult marriage. Other scholars note that the term "second-best bed" often refers to the bed belonging to the household's master and mistress - the marital bed - and the "first-best bed" was reserved for guests.

Did Shakespeare Write His Own Plays?

About 150 years after his death, questions arose about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Scholars and literary critics began to float names like Christopher Marlowe, Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon - men of more known backgrounds, literary accreditation, or inspiration - as the true authors of the plays.

Much of this stemmed from the sketchy details of Shakespeare's life and the dearth of contemporary primary sources. Official records from the Holy Trinity Church and the Stratford government record the existence of a Shakespeare, but none of these attest to him being an actor or playwright.

Skeptics also questioned how anyone of such modest education could write with the intellectual perceptiveness and poetic power that is displayed in Shakespeare's works. Over the centuries, several groups have emerged that question the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.

The most serious and intense skepticism began in the 19th century when adoration for Shakespeare was at its highest. The detractors believed that the only hard evidence surrounding Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon described a man from modest beginnings who married young and became successful in real estate.

Members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society (founded in 1957) put forth arguments that English aristocrat and poet Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the poems and plays of "William Shakespeare."

The Oxfordians cite de Vere's extensive knowledge of aristocratic society, his education, and the structural similarities between his poetry and that found in the works attributed to Shakespeare. They contend that Shakespeare had neither the education nor the literary training to write such eloquent prose and create such rich characters.

However, the vast majority of Shakespearean scholars contend that Shakespeare wrote all his own plays. They point out that other playwrights of the time also had sketchy histories and came from modest backgrounds.

They contend that Stratford's New Grammar School curriculum of Latin and the classics could have provided a good foundation for literary writers. Supporters of Shakespeare's authorship argue that the lack of evidence about Shakespeare's life doesn't mean his life didn't exist. They point to evidence that displays his name on the title pages of published poems and plays.

Examples exist of authors and critics of the time acknowledging Shakespeare as the author of plays such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors and King John.

Royal records from 1601 show that Shakespeare was recognized as a member of the King's Men theater company and a Groom of the Chamber by the court of King James I, where the company performed seven of Shakespeare's plays.

There is also strong circumstantial evidence of personal relationships by contemporaries who interacted with Shakespeare as an actor and a playwright.

Literary Legacy

What seems to be true is that Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in some in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But his reputation as a dramatic genius wasn't recognized until the 19th century.

Beginning with the Romantic period of the early 1800s and continuing through the Victorian period, acclaim and reverence for Shakespeare and his work reached its height. In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance have rediscovered and adopted his works.

Today, his plays are highly popular and constantly studied and reinterpreted in performances with diverse cultural and political contexts. The genius of Shakespeare's characters and plots are that they present real human beings in a wide range of emotions and conflicts that transcend their origins in Elizabethan England.

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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King's Men company of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward. Known throughout the world, Shakespeare's writings capture the range of human emotion and conflict and have been celebrated for more than 400 years.

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Words Shakespeare Invented/Brought to the English Language part 3

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Words Shakespeare Invented/Brought to the English Language part 3

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You probably quote Shakespeare daily. Maybe he used many of the phrases from the period, and because he was the one putting them on paper, he became their "inventor"? Just a thought without diminishing his excellent work Methinks I am smarter now. Thank you Digg! Alison! Robby Weinbaum 大好きな曲だあ-😄

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THE ULTIMATE FASHION HISTORY:  The Elizabethan Era

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Words and Phrases Shakespeare Invented/Brought to the English Language part 1

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Words and Phrases Shakespeare Invented/Brought to the English Language part 1

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William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was not only a prolific writer, he is said to have introduced thousands of words and phrases into the English language. However, it is commonly suggested that Shakespeare might not have invented certain words and phrases, but rather his works are the first time the words were actually written down. The argument by many scholars is that words and phrases attributed to Shakespeare were probably spoken first. This does not discount the fact, however, that Shakespeare was a master of the English language, demonstrating great wit.

Words that Shakespeare Invented

Here are some common words that first appeared in Shakespeare's plays and their meanings:

Auspicious - favorable; promising success; a good omen. A wedding is an example of an auspicious occasion.

Baseless - without a foundation; not based on fact. If you accuse someone of wrongdoing, make sure that you have support to back up your claim and it is not a baseless accusation.

Barefaced - shameless; without concealment or disguise. When someone tells a 'barefaced lie' it is not a very good one and you immediately know it is not true.

Castigate - to punish harshly. Sometimes celebrities and politicians are castigated in the press more harshly than ordinary citizens.

Clangor - a loud (clanging) sound. Ghosts are sometimes said to be followed by the loud clangor of chains.

Dexterously - skillful, especially in the use of one's hands (or also one's mind). A good carpenter can dexterously build a bookshelf very easily.

Dwindle - to get smaller; diminish. Often used to describe money. Many people's savings dwindle after losing a job.

Multitudinous - a lot; a great number. You are in luck if you can say that you have a multitudinous amount of friends.

Sanctimonious - pretending to be very religious or righteous. Sometimes people who judge others harshly are sanctimonious.

Watchdog - a person or group that keeps close watch to discover wrong or illegal activity. A popular watchdog group is PETA, which exposes wrongful actions against animals.

Phrases Shakespeare Invented

Here are some phrases that Shakespeare is said to have invented, many of which are commonly used today.

"It's Greek to me" (Julius Caesar) - When you say, "it's Greek to me" you are admitting that you do not know or understand something.

"Fair play" (The Tempest) - Follow the rules, especially in competitions or sports.

"All that glitters isn't gold" (Merchant of Venice) - We usually use this phrase after we discover the fact that something that looks good turns out not to be that great.

Folger Shakespeare Library is a comprehensive resource about Shakespeare's works and his life.

MIT has an online version of the complete works of Shakespeare

The Kennedy Center has a lesson plan that can be used to teach a class about Shakespeare words.

"Wear one's heart on one's sleeve" (Othello) - To be a hopeless romantic (or be open and honest about how you feel) is to wear one's heart on one's sleeve.

"Break the ice" (The Taming of the Shrew) - Often when you meet someone for the first time, you "break the ice" by asking them polite questions about themselves.

"The lady doth protest too much" (Hamlet) - If someone denies something more than once, you can say "the lady doth protest too much," meaning you think that they feel the opposite to what they are saying.

"Clothes make the man" (Hamlet) - Although not always true, this phrase implies that how a person dresses tells you something about who they are as a person.

"A laughing stock" (The Merry Wives of Windsor) - To be a laughing stock is to be considered a joke by many people.

"Too much of a good thing" (As You Like It) - It is said that "too much of a good thing" (i.e. money, love, food) is not necessarily good for you.

"In a pickle" (The Tempest) - To be "in a pickle" is to be in trouble or a situation that you cannot easily get out of.

Additional Resources

If you want to learn more about Shakespeare, here are some great resources:

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list of words and phrases shakespeare invented

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words and phrases created by shakespeare

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List of Words and Phrases Shakespeare Invented

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William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was not only a prolific writer, he is said to have introduced thousands of words and phrases into the English language. However, it is commonly suggested that Shakespeare might not have invented certain words and phrases, but rather his works are the first time the words were actually written down.

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Words Shakespeare Invented/Brought to the English Language part 2

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Words Shakespeare Invented/Brought to the English Language part 2

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The following is a list of some of the words Shakespeare coined and where they can be found, from Shakespeare Online.

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Elizabethan Clothing
The section and era covering Elizabethan Clothing and Fashion includes extensive information regarding all elements of clothing and fashion during the Elizabethan era. The subjects range from the type of clothing regarded as Upper Class Fashion - rich, sumptuous materials and elegant styles to clothes worn by the lower classes using basic materials. Each item of Elizabethan clothing has been designed.

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Elizabethan Women's Clothing - gowns, hats, corsets, underwear, collars, ruffs and shoes. Elizabethan Men's Clothing - doublets, breeches, underwear, collars, ruffs, hats and shoes. For additional information of the period please click the following link to Tudor Clothes.

We recommend the following site for: Facts and information about Medieval Clothing

The Hair styles, Make-up, Jewelry and even suitable Wedding Dress has also been included. But the most alien concepts of the Elizabethan era was that, regardless of their wealth, Elizabethans were not allowed to wear what clothes they liked. Their clothing and items of apparel were dictated by the Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws which governed the style and materials worn.

The Sumptuary Laws - Enforcing statutes of Apparel - Governing Elizabethan Clothing.
The Elizabethan Sumptuary Clothing Laws were used to control behaviour and to ensure that a specific class structure was maintained. English Sumptuary Laws governing the clothing that Elizabethans wore were well known by all of the English people. The penalties for violating Sumptuary Laws could be harsh - fines, the loss of property, title and even life.

Elizabethan Clothing for Men

Elizabethan Clothing for Women

Elizabethan Clothing
Additional details, facts and information about Elizabethan Clothing and Fashion can be accessed via the Elizabethan Era Sitemap.

Elizabethan Clothing

Upper Class Clothing and Fashion

Women's Clothing and Fashion - gowns, hats, corsets, underwear, collars, ruffs and shoes

Men's Clothing and Fashion - doublets, breeches, underwear, collars, ruffs, hats and shoes

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Make-up

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Wedding Dress clothing and garb

Sumptuary Laws governing Elizabethan Clothing

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Elizabethan Clothing

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Elizabethan Clothing The section and era covering Elizabethan Clothing and Fashion includes extensive information regarding all elements of clothing and fashion during the Elizabethan era. The subjects range from the type of clothing regarded as Upper Class Fashion - rich, sumptuous materials and elegant styles to clothes worn by the lower classes using basic materials.