Bill Shakespeare was a Geographer….

…or getting literacy into Geography

Jo Debens

@GeoDebs

What is the link…21/38?

Measure for Measure

The Tempest

Using Bill's blurb to set the scene

Midsummer Night’s Dream

Contagious fogs; which falling in the landHave every pelting river made so proudThat they have over borne their continents…That nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,And the quaint mazes in the wanton greenFor lack of tread are indistinguishable

The Isle is full of noises,Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices

To bathe in fiery floods, or to resideIn thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;To be imprisoned in the view less winds,And blown with restless violence aboutThe pendant world

King Lear

Play spot the geographic feature…

The Tempest (on St Elmo’s Fire)

Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursorsO' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentaryAnd sight-outrunning were run; the fire and cracksOf sulphurous roaring the most mighty NeptuneSeem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,Yea, his dread trident shake.

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blowYou cataracts and hurricanoes, spoutTill you have drench'd our steeples, drowned the cocks!You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,Singe my white head; and thou all-shaking Thunder,Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th'world!

Make comparison to other texts..

Jules Verne ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’

Robert Harris ‘Pompeii’

Above our heads, not more than 500 feet away, was the crater of the volcano. Every quarter of an hour there came flying from it a tall column of flames mixed with pumice stone, ashes, and lava, together with a deafening explosion. I felt the whole mountain heave every time it breathed, sending out, like a whale, fire and air through its enormous blowholes.

"Mother Nature is punishing us, for our greed and selfishness. We torture her at all hours by iron and wood, fire and stone. We dig her up and dump her in the sea. We sink mine shafts into her and drag out her entrails –and all for a jewel to wear on a pretty finger. Who can blame her if she occasionally quivers with anger and rains fire upon us?" Pliny.

Shakespeare was a Little Ice Age climatologist…

Julius Caesar

The Tempest

As You Like It

I have seen tempests, when the scolding windsHave roved the knotty oaks, and I have seenThe ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,To be exalted with the threatening clouds

Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,Dashes the fire out. Oh I have suffered.

The season's difference, as the icy fangAnd churlish chiding of the winter's wind,Which, when it bites and blows upon the body,Even till I shrink with cold…

Using your imagination can lead to problems of misconception…

e.g.

• Bohemia is landlocked…but Shakespeare described it as coastal

• Athens is described as a ‘real English countryside’

So…give students some text, analyse it, then play spot the deliberate mistake. Compare the description to real life.

Fact vs Fiction

• Using the extract of text that you have use the internet to find out how accurate that description is of the place

BRONZE task:Find and locate the real location in the modern world.Find 3 images to show the area today.Describe the location.Compare to what your text said: similarities and differences.

SILVER task:Can you plot this information onto a map (O.S. map through Bing or Google Earth screenshot)?Describe the modern location & compare to the text in detail: social, economic, environmental.

GOLD task:

Can you create photo & text place-marks on

Google Earth? Create a tour that compares the text information to the modern day location. Include specific fact,

e.g. development data

General wordy bits

Redacted text

Text analysis

Vowel-less words