- William Shakespeare is the greatest Play writter of all time.
- He lived in the country of England during the Renaissance.
- He was born in the year 1564, when Elizabeth I was queen of England.
- England was established as a world power in 1588, when the English defeated and attempted invasion by The Spanish Armada.
- Plays in which dialogue is mostly poetry is called versa drama.
Theatre in Shakespeare's Day [p. 684]
- In the 1590's, Shakespeare's theater group called the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
- The new London home of the group was a place called the Globe Theatre.
- When Queen Elizabeth I died, the group's new sponsor was King James I and the group changed it's name to the King's Men.
- The Globe Theatre was located on the banks of the Thames River.
- The theatre was 3 stories, made of wood, and could hold as many as 3,000 spectators. Customers, called groundlings stood on the pit by the stage and paid the lowest price for admission. Richer patrons sat in balconies, also called inner galleries.
- Most theatres in that day had no artifial lighting or heating, so performances were given in daylight in warmer weather.
Most commonly quoted phrases came from Shakespeare's plays. Some examples are:
"Friends, Romans, Country Men, lend me your ears" from Julius Caesar
"O Romeo, O Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?" from Romeo and Juliet
"To be or not to be" from Hamlet
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