The Tempest: A History on Shakespeare

Word of the Day:

Dramatist

[Noun] (Dram-urh-tist)
1. Playwright
2. Writer of dramas and or poetry


Dramatist. Author. Poet. Scriptor. Tragedian. Writer. GENIUS.

Shakespeare has been known to carry all of these names and more. Yet, there is so much beneath the facade of literature that the world does not known about Shakespeare. He was also a father. An actor. A husband. A business man. A person.

Tell Me More...

Little is known about Shakespeare's early life (including the day he was born). However, we know the importance of his life and we understand just how greatly his works of art have affected our lives.
 
The upmost striking (and well known fact about Shakespeare), is that he has a specific grasp of literature that is spellbinding as well as labrynthical. Writing mostly in verse, his works are taught throughout schools globally and internationally. However, only two of his plays (Richard II and King Henry) are written entirely in verse.
 
He is credited solely for the invention of 3,000 words in the Oxford Dictionary. But his biggest accomplishment to the language of today: is found in the pages of the King James Bible. In the book (and throughout his works in general) he used 17,000 in which he had used only 7,000 of them once and never again.
 
He is credited for the creation of common words such as:
- Advertising
- Bandit
- Circumstantial
- Dauntless
- metamorphose
- Olympian
- Grovel
- Zany
- ETC....
But his mark on literature is not the only influential act of his time.
 
Shakespeare was More than a Playwright?

Technically, he never was a playwright. Listed under the documents of trade in 1592, he was entitled as an actor in a troupe. There is proof that Shakespeare acted Ben Johnson play: but he preferred to play smaller roles so he could juggle his profession with his personal life. There is evidence (though it is still a theory) that Shakespeare played the Ghost in the first production of Hamlet and he was Adam in As You like It.

Shakespeare in Elizabethan Times....

Although Shakespeare is profoundly known as an Elizabethan playwright, most of his plays were written in the Jacobean Era.... in fact, his later plays show very distinct characteristics of Jacobean drama. Some conventions as such were the presence of suicide. Suicide is relevant in an unlucky number 13 times throughout his plays. The most iconic of those are the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet, as well as Cascius and Brutus in Julius Caesar. And although Hamlet is the holder of the infamous "To be or not to be" sillioquiley, Hamlet does not count as a suicide because he died at the hands of a poisoned sword without consent.
 
Enough about Death...What about His Life?
 
Little is known about his personal life: except that his wife was Anne Hathaway (not the actor, for the convention at the time she could not win an Oscar for Les Mis. It was not written yet). In his will he left her the second-best bed. (You can actually visit Shakespeare's house and sleep in his second best bed as a tourist attraction: Interesting fact). Shakespeare has no descendants. Other than those few facts: his life outside of the theatre remains a mystery.
 
Shakespeare and The Tempest
 
Having stumbled upon this incredible PDF file from thetimes.co.uk I believe that this article sums up the best of words.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00340/Tesscentre_340947a.pdf
 
Last Notes on Shakespeare:
 

1.      During his life, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets! This means an average 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. His last play The Two Noble Kinsmen is reckoned to have been written in 1613 when he was 49 years old. While he was writing the plays at such a pace he was also conducting a family life, a social life and a full business life, running an acting company and a theatre.

 

2.      Shakespeare is the second most quoted writer in the English language – after the various writers of the Bible.

 

3.       Some of Shakespeare’s signatures have survived on original documents. In none of them does he spell his name in what has become the standard way. He spells it Shakespe; Shakspe; Shakspere and Shakespear.

 

4.      ‘William Shakespeare’ is an anagram of ‘I am a weakish speller’.

 

5.      The American President Abraham Lincoln was a great lover of Shakespeare’s plays and frequently recited from them to his friends. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth was a famous Shakespearean actor.

 

6.      Shakespeare wrote many more plays than the ones we know about. It’s certain that he wrote a play titled Cardenio, which has been lost, but scholars think he wrote about twenty that have gone without a trace.

 

7.      Two of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet and Much Ado about Nothing, have been translated into Klingon. The Klingon Language Institute plans to translate more! (If you’re into quirky Shakespeare facts check this awesome list of 23 things you never knew about Shakespeare)

 

8.      All Uranus’ satellites are named after Shakespearean characters.

 

9.      Shakespeare’s original grave marker showed him holding a bag of grain. Citizens of Stratford replaced the bag with a quill in 1747.

 

10.  Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. He put a curse on anyone daring to move his body from that final resting place. His epitaph was:

 

Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

 

 

 

 

Sincerely,
Hayley Michelle & The Students of MCVYS School of Art

The Students of MCVTS School of the Arts
Performance Dates: March 14, 15, 16, 21, 22
112 Rues Lane East Brunswick, NJ
Tickets can be purchased by Students of MCVTS School of The Arts and or at the door