SHAKESPEAREAn Introduction to Macbeth

SHAKESPEARE'S WORDS

Uses words no longer used todayAroint thee (begone), coign (corner), anon

(right away)

Uses words localized in ScotlandThe Western Isles, thanes, Cawdor, Glamis,

Sinel,etc.

Uses words now used with a different meaning

Composition (terms of peace), present (immediately),

addition (title)

SHAKESPEARE'S SENTENCES

Inverted Syntax“Goes He” (Subject/ Verb Order)

“My noble partner / You greet with present grace and great prediction”

(Object / Subject +Verb Order)

Separated Sentence Patterns“Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought”(separates subject and verb)

SHAKESPEARE’S SENTENCES

Holds back parts of the sentence “For those of old / And the late dignities heaped up to them, / We rest your hermits”

(Bold should be at the front of sentence.)

Often omits words “Thou wouldst be great / [Thou] Art not without ambition,

but [thou art] without/ The illness [that] should attend it.”

(Words in brackets left out.)

WORDPLAYPuns: words that sound similar, with differing meanings

Metaphors: object or idea is expressed if it were something else that shares common features

MACBETH’S LANGUAGE

Invented Words: Words Shakespeare Coined-Folger Shakespeare Library

Deliberate Imprecision:“If it were done when tis’ done, then twere’ well/It were done quickly” (1.7:1-2)

IMPLIED STAGE ACTION

Dialogue used to indicate stage directions

Vague effect descriptions leftup to director

Imagination/ Visualization

SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE

Stratford-upon-Avon

Little known about his education

Married Anne Hathaway in 1582

Attacked by Robert Greene for sudden prominence in 1590’s

1564-1616

Greek and Roman Literature

Christianity

World expanding and Science

London growing into a Metropolis

SHAKESPEARE’S INFLUENCES

SHAKESPEARE’S THEATERActors presented their plays in almost any place available, because theaters were not popular.

The first theaters were built in the 1590s outside of London.

Built in areas of entertainment.

The Globe was on the Bankside.

SHAKESPEARE’S THEATER

No elaborate scenes, so the audience had to imagine the changes in scenes.

Creative changes of scenes by having the people walk off the stage, use of rhyming couplets, signage

Men played roles for both genders.

PUBLICATION O F SH A KE S P E A R E ’ S P L AY S

18 of 38 plays printed during Shakespeare’s lifetime

printed in cheaply made books called “quartos”

Posthumously, Heminge &Condell compiled plays in “folios”, books printed onvery large pages.