Directions: Answer the Following Questions While Reading Pages 536-541 in Your Text
1
Name ______
Mr. Cecala
Eng. 10
Shakespeare- Intro. Handout
KEY
Directions: Answer the following questions while reading pages 536-541 in your text.
- Why is Shakespeare “regarded as the greatest writer in the English language”?
- Richness of language
- He understood human concerns
- Wrote about relevant topics [timeless]
- List and explain THREE facts about Shakespeare.
- Born during Renaissance
- Married Anne Hathaway
- Wrote 37 plays
- Wrote 154 sonnets
- Lord Chamberlain’s Men
- What historical period did Shakespeare live? Briefly explain this period.
- Elizabethan Period or Renaissance
- Time of rebirth/exploration (in arts, classics, ect.)
- Briefly describe Shakespeare’s theater.
- Thatch roof
- Open in the center (for sunlight)
- Smaller circular theater
- Orchestra pit for groundkeepers
- 3 Levels; higher up = more money/power
- theater was small so they could still see well, but opposite from today
- Who were the Groundlings? Explain.
- Poor people who paid 1 cent to see the plays
- Stood down by the stage
- Uneducated & poor
- Looking at the picture on page 540, what do the letters B, H and M represent?
- B = the yard or orchestra pit
- H = stage
- M = Entrance doors for actors
- **had a place for everything
- Complete the following sentences:
A performance of Julius Caesar…included realistic sound effects for thunder and battle noises
The actor playing Caesar…would have a pig’s bladder filled with blood
- Explain conventionsand give an example of one.
- Convention = accepted practices
- Accepted agreement between artist and audience
- Identify two similarities and two differences between the Greek theater and the Elizabethan theater.
- Similarities
- Performances during day for light
- Women not allowed to act
- Plays in poetic form
- Differences
- More special effects & elaborate scenary (E)
- Indoor theater (E)
- Hole in roof (E)
- No Chorus (E)
- Had 3 actors (G)
- No violence (G)
- What is an “anachronism” and give two examples Shakespeare used?
- Anachronism = something mentioned in a play that does not fit the time period