Shakespeare - Why was he so awesome?

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

Discuss

In one minute, discuss with your neighbours what you know about Shakespeare.

After one minute, the teacher will ask you what you came up with.

The plan (1)

Goal: 
You know who Shakespeare was.

You know the most important events in his life.

You can explain why Shakespeare is still so relevant today

The plan (2)

- About Shakespeare's work

- Rumours about Shakespeare's authorship.

- Shakespeare's life (and death)

- Shakespeare's Language

- David Tennant & Stephen Colbert

- To be or not to be...

Shakespeare's work

• Considered to be the greatest writer the English language has ever known.
  
  
• 154 sonnets and 34 plays. Most of these written between 1585 - 1601.

Rumour has it...

Doubts about Shakespeare's authorship.

• written by a different writer or by multiple writers. 
• written by someone well-educated such as the Earl of Oxford.
• Shakespeare never published any of his plays. Only published seven years after his death.
  
• Vocabulary too big for one human being: 29,000 different words.
        (Vocabulary of an average English speaker is 15,000 words)

Birth

The official date of birth is unknown.

We only know the date of his baptism:

26-04-1564

Place of birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon.

Family

1582 - Married Anne Hathaway.

1583- Susanna was born.

1585 - Twins Judith and Hamnet were born.

Hamnet died at the age of 11.

The Lost Years

1584 - 1592

No idea what the guy was doing during those years!

Language

• Major role in the transformation of English. Many words and phrases were first written down in his work.
  
  
• Early modern English was only about 100 years old when Shakespeare was writing; not many words were written down.
  
  
• Contributed over 3000 words, approximately 1700 were used for the first time.  

Next class

Start reading a book for your book pitch

Start reading "Kennis van Land & Samenleving"

Study vocabulary

Next class: more on Shakespeare