Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Pen

Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Pen

HIST 820​

Poll

How many primary sources do you think exist pertaining to Shakespeare?

• Less than 10

• Less than 50

• Less than 100

• Less than a 1000

​Opening monologue to the film Anonymous by Sir Derek Jacobi, a long-time performer of Shakespeare

​

What We

Do KNOW

Poll

Did the video make you question what you know of Shakespeare remember from high school or college English?

• Yes

• A little

• No

• Confidant in Shakespeare

Undisputed Facts

• Born in Stratford-upon-Avon around April 23, 1564

• Father - glovemaker - illiterate - signed name with X

• Finished Grammar School

• ​Went to London between 1585 and 1592 to be an actor

• Married Anne Hathaway in 1582 (illiterate)

• Had three children: Judith, Susanna, and Hamnet (illiterate)

• Credited for writing ​37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 books of poetry

• Co-owned a theatre in London and performed before royalty

• Retired three years before his death in 1613 ​

Printing of Shakespeare's combined works - all done after his death

• picture done after death as well ​

​Folios

Primary Sources

6 surviving signatures from legal documents none of which have his last name spelled as Shakespeare

​

​Signature

Primary Sources

No surviving documents of any kind written in his hand

​

​Signature

Primary Sources

Poll

Any doubts now on Shakespeare?

• Yes

• No

• Still Deciding

1. How could he know about the life of nobles in his plays?

2. History of England?

3. Setting ​in Italy - 1/3 plays?

4. Law?

5. Greek and Latin? ​

​Questions?

Alternative Authors

• First Modern Man

• A Renaissance Man

• Knowledge of various topics that reflected travel and study

​

​The Author Behind the Pen

Candidates

• Sir Fulke Greville

• Emilia Lanier

• The Group Theory

• Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland

• ​Willaim Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby

• ​Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke

• ​Sir Henry Neville

Candidates

• Christopher Marlowe

• Sir Francis Bacon

• Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Multiple Choice

What did all of these candidates have in common?

• Education

• Nobility Status

• Leisure Time

• All of the Above

​Edward De Vere 1550-1604

​

• Known poet and playwright

• Referred to himself as

  "spear-shaker" in jousting

• Attended Oxford

• Spent 2 years in Italy

• Renaissance Man ​

​Why does authorship matter?

​

• Greatest storyteller of all time

• Are the works fact or fiction?

• Propaganda or History?

Dichotomy of Approaches

Focusing on literary style and stage directions

​

​Literary Approach

Focusing on facts, primary sources, but what also was available to whomever wrote these wonderful plays

​

​Historical Approach

​

​Plays Covered in Class

Plays will be read in historical order of events not in publishing order.

• Julius Caesar

• Antony and Cleopatra

• Hamlet

• Macbeth

• Richard II

• ​Henry IV, Part 1 ​

• Henry IV, Part 2

• Henry V

• Richard III

• Henry VIII​

​Focus

• Primary and Secondary Sources

  on Historical figures in the play

• Veracity of Shakespeare's

  portrayal

• Historical Discoveries since

  Shakespeare

Open Ended

Any questions or concerns on lesson or material for the class?