Moon s Day, September 10, 2012: Bardology 101

Transcription

1 Moon s Day, September 10, 2012: Bardology 101 EQ: What do we know about Shakespeare and does it matter? Welcome! Gather Pencils, Paper, Wits! Opening Freewrite: Known Unknowns William Shakespeare: The Jeopardy Lecture CLOZE / Quiz Closing Freewrite: Psalm 46 Ending Activities o Project Journals o Fierce Debate ELABLRL3: Student relates literature to historical and modern contexts ELABLRL4: Student writes in various genres: essays, narratives, poems ELABLRL5: Student acquires new vocabulary; uses correctly reading/writing ELABLRC4: Student establishes context for information acquired by reading ELA12W2: Student shows competence in many writing genres ELA12W4: Student uses timed and process writing to develop, revise, evaluate ELA12LSV1: Student has student-teacher, student-student, group discussions ELA12LSV2: Student judges various media products; gives presentations

2 Opening Freewrite (100 words) On February 12, 2002, as the United States prepared for war against Iraq, a reporter asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to prove that Iraq did in fact have the weapons of mass destruction which were the U.S. argument for war. He responded: There are known knowns; these are things we know we know. There also are known unknowns; these are things we know we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns the things we don t know we don t know. Freewrite (100 words): What did he mean?

3 Shakespeare, aka The Bard: What You Need To Know if you are ever on Jeopardy! [and why the word know is in quotation marks] The Chandos portrait one of two pictures believed to be authentic, contemporary portraits of William Shakespeare.

4 Church records show that a boy named Will Shakspere was born in the tiny farming town of Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, Stratford-on-Avon was a tiny farming town over a 100 miles northwest of London. Nobody else famous ever came from Stratford-on-Avon. Will s father was John Shakspere, a successful grain merchant rich enough to own the second-biggest house in town: The Shakespeare Birth Home in modern day Stratford-on-Avon

5 Will Shakspere received a 5 th Grade education in Stratford s little one-room schoolhouse. Here is the schoolhouse today: Here Will learned what one critic has called little Latin and less Greek (just as Chaucer s Prioresse was ridiculed for speaking French after the scole of Stratford-atte-Bowe ). Despite this, William Shakespeare (note the spelling change we ll come back to that) went on to be universally famous as the greatest writer the world has ever seen. Hmmmmm..

6 In 2007 Cathy Charsley of the London Metropolitan Police Force took the famous Chandros portrait and used criminal forensic computer imaging techniques to create this image of William Shakespeare as he might have looked at age twelve. ( At age 17 Will married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. A son, Hamnet, was born six months after wedding (hmmmm ) Their daughter Judith was born two years later; both kids died young (hmmmmm ) Records show that Will Shakspere was a successful grain merchant who went frequently to London, where he invested widely, including several ventures with an acting troupe called the Lord Chamberlain s Men, and also in the Globe Theater, where the Lord Chamberlain s Men performed. But these are strictly business records. Below is everything published during the lifetime of William Shakespeare of Stratord-On-Avon which identifies him as a poet: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

7 Nothing written anywhere during Will Shakspere's lifetime unambiguously identifies him as a writer of any kind. No plays, manuscripts, letters, diaries, or writings of any sort exist in handwriting now believed to be Will Shakspere's. Will Shakspere of Stratford was a real person, but the only writing we have from that time period about him is about him as a businessman with business dealings contracts, court cases, wills. The six examples of what are believed to be his actual signature exist on these documents, but they are so scrawled and labored that some doubt he could even write at all (hmmm ): Will Shakspere of Stratford-On-Avon died April 23, 1616 his 52 nd birthday (hmmmmmmmmmmmm.). No contemporary document carries any mention of any public acknowledgement of his passing. By contrast, the less famous Ben Jonson was buried at Poet s Corner in Westminster Abbey, in a ceremony attended by the King himself. Hmmmmmmmm.

8 No positive identification of William Shakespeare as writer came until The Plays of William Shakespeare in years after Will Shakspere s death. Hmmm. With this book (now called The First Folio), what we call The Plays of Shakespeare became the most famous writings in England, and in the world and remain so to this day.

9 In 1780 the Rev. James Wilmot decided to write a definitive scholarly biography of the English language's greatest master. Shakespeare was by then a booming business, especially for the area around Stratford, which had become a tourist mecca (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson made a pilgrimage there). Wilmot combed Stratford s libraries, churches and records, looking for poems, plays, letters or manuscripts written or owned by William Shakespeare. He found... nothing. No poems, no plays, no books, no diaries, no letters, no legal documents or grocery lists or even signatures. Nothing. Wilmot, with a Doctorate from Oxford University, was too honest to deny the implications of his research and too patriotic to publish them. He burned his notes and swore friends to secrecy. Not until 1932 did a descendant of a friend finally tell this story. By then Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sigmund Freud and many other famous thinkers had voiced doubt. In modern times the opinion that the Will Shakspere born in Stratford was not William Shakespeare the writer that somebody else wrote the plays, using that name has become a serious scholarly position, though it still is the minority view.

10 Even an old statue of Shakespeare at the Stratford Parish Church is controversial. It shows Shakespeare with a book and pen, appropriate for honoring a great poet. Except this photo shows the statue after it was rebeautified in Here is the Stratford statue as it looked when William Dugdale sketched it in Apparently, in the original statue Shakespeare held not a book and pen but some kind of pillow or bag like maybe a bag of grain, as would be appropriate for a statue honoring a grain merchant. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

11 On the authorship issue Shakespeareans divide into two camps: Stratfordians believe that the Will Shakspere who was born in Stratford-on-Avon is the William Shakespeare now famous for those poems and plays. They point out that nobody claimed that anyone besides William Shakespeare wrote the plays for 200 years after Shakespeare s death. Anti-Stratfordians believe that Will Shakspere existed, and probably invested in theaters, but did not write the poems and plays later attributed to William Shakespeare. o They argue that Will Shakspere was too badly educated to have written those poems, indeed that there is no evidence that Shakspere could write at all. o They believe that someone else wrote the poems and plays, using the respelled William Shakespeare as a pseudonym. The major candidates are: Francis Bacon, the philosopher-scientist often called the Father of the Scientific Method. (The Rev. Wilmot favored Bacon as the author.) Christopher Marlowe, a poet and secret agent who wrote plays similar to Shakespeare s and who died in a barroom brawl just before Shakespeare s career began to take off; Edward de Vere, 16 th Earl of Oxford, known to have been a poet and playwright at a time when those were shameful occupations for royalty.

12 Whoever wrote the plays, Stratford-on- Avon is a ginormous tourist attraction. Today it is the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, pictured at left. Stratford also boasts the Pizza Hut Restaurant pictured at right. Tourists must be fed, after all. Hmmmmmmmm

13 Lecture Quiz: Shakespeare (hmmmmmm.) 1. Will Shakspere was born in the tiny town of He was born on, 1564 and died on, His father was a merchant, and the town was miles from London. 4. He had about a grade education, and married Anne Hathaway when she was and he was only. Their first child was born months later. 5. Shakspere invested in an acting company called The Men, and in a theater called the Theater. 6. All the writing we have about him during his life has to do with. 7. Scholars have found a grand total of plays, poems, or anything else actually written in his handwriting. 8. His signature appears to many to have been too to have been from a person accustomed to for a living. 9. When he died, there were public ceremonies mourning his death. 10. Nobody seems to have called him a writer until the publication of The Plays of William Shakespeare, published in the year, which was years after his. This book is now called the. 11. What changed when the Statue of Shakespeare in Stratford was re-beautified? 12. Name two famous thinkers on record as doubting that Will Shakspere wrote the plays: a. b. 13. People who believe that Will Shakspere wrote the plays are called. 14. People who don t believe this are called. 15. Name two people often cited as authors of the plays: a. b. 16. Despite doubts, Stratford remains a popular tourist destination, housing the Company and a Restaurant.

14 Closing Freewrite: Psalm 46 In 1611, King James I of England commissioned the first official English translation of the Holy Bible. Not surprisingly, this is now known as The King James Bible. Also not surprisingly, James gathered England s best writers for the task but did not allow anyone to know who they were. In 1611, William Shakespeare was 46 years old. One obvious question, then, is whether Shakespeare helped to write The King James Bible. So let s look at Sonnet 46 of the King James Bible.

15 King James Version (KJV) Psalm 46 1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. 4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. 6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. 7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth. 9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Starting with the first word ( God ) count 46 words into the psalm. Then starting with refuge the last word if we don t count selah, a formal Amen -like word count 46 words back into the psalm. Now freewrite (46 words): Whattap?