Romeo+and+Juliet+Unit+Page

=**Shakespeare's //The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet//**= toc

Here you will find a variety of supplemental materials surrounding //Romeo and Juliet,// along with background information on the author and the time period when it was written. Please use these resources to help inform your understanding of the nuances of this famous play.

Elizabethan England
The age of Shakespeare was a great time in English history. The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) saw England emerge as the leading naval and commercial power of the Western world. England consolidated its position with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and Elizabeth firmly established the Church of England begun by her father, King Henry VIII (following Henry's dispute with the Pope over having his first marriage annulled).

Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world and became the most celebrated English sea captain of his generation. Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh sent colonists eastward in search of profit. European wars brought an influx of continental refugees into England, exposing the Englishman to new cultures. In trade, might, and art, England established an envious preeminence. At this time, London was the heart of England, reflecting all the vibrant qualities of the Elizabethan Age. This atmosphere made London a leading center of culture as well as commerce. Its dramatists and poets were among the leading literary artists of the day. In this heady environment, Shakespeare lived and wrote. London in the 16th century underwent a transformation. Its population grew 400% during the 1500s, swelling to nearly 200,000 people in the city proper and outlying region by the time an immigrant from Stratford came to town. A rising merchant middle class carved out a productive livelihood, and the economy boomed.

In the 1580s, the writings of the University Wits (Marlowe, Greene, Lyly, Kyd, and Peele) defined the London theatre. Though grounded in medieval and Jacobean roots, these men produced new dramas and comedies using Marlowe's styling of blank verse. Shakespeare outdid them all; he combined the best traits of Elizabethan drama with classical sources, enriching the admixture with his imagination and wit. ( //h////ttp: //www.bardweb.net/england.html //)

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William Shakespeare
**William Shakespeare** ( [|baptised] 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) [|[nb 1]] was an [|English] [|poet] and [|playwright], widely regarded as the greatest writer in the [|English language] and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. [|[1]] He is often called England's [|national poet] and the "Bard of Avon". [|[2]][|[nb 2]] His surviving works, including some [|collaborations], consist of about 38 [|plays] , [|[nb 3]] 154 [|sonnets] , two long [|narrative poems] , and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. [|[3]]

Shakespeare was born and raised in [|Stratford-upon-Avon]. At the age of 18, he married [|Anne Hathaway], with whom he had three children: [|Susanna] , and twins [|Hamnet] and [|Judith]. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in [|London] as an actor, writer, and part owner of a [|playing company] called the [|Lord Chamberlain's Men], later known as the [|King's Men]. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as [|his physical appearance], [|sexuality] , [|religious beliefs] , and whether the works attributed to him were [|written by others]. [|[4]]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. [|[5]][|[nb 4]] His early plays were mainly [|comedies] and [|histories], genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly [|tragedies] until about 1608, including // [|Hamlet] //, // [|King Lear] //, // [|Othello] //, and // [|Macbeth] //, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote [|tragicomedies], also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the // [|First Folio] //, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The [|Romantics], in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the [|Victorians] worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that [|George Bernard Shaw] called " [|bardolatry] ". [|[6]] In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. (//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare)//

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The Prologue
// The Prologue is written as a sonnet, and sonnets were a popular form of poetry in Shakespeare's time; they were a traditional and respected poetic form that usually dealt with a theme of requited love. A sonnet has 14 lines with a set rhyme scheme and a fixed rhythm called ' iambic pentameter' (di-dum/di-dum/di-dum/di-dum/di-dum) // ; this helps to create a sense of harmony and acts to link the ideas expressed in the sonnet.

// Two households, both alike in dignity, // // In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, // // From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, // // Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. // // From forth the fatal loins of these two foes // // A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; // // Whole misadventured piteous overthrows // // Do with their death bury their parents' strife. // // The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, // // And the continuance of their parents' rage, // // Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, // // Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; // // The which if you with patient ears attend, // // What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. //

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