Name: ______Period ____
Shakespeare Video Viewing Guide
Keep this – these are notes!
Section A
1) How did Ben Jonson describe Shakespeare?
a. “Not for an age, but for all time, Shakespeare.”
2) Shakespeare was born in the year 1564 and died in the year 1616.
3) What is the English Renaissance?
a. A period of creativity that included the arts and theater. The Tudors and Stuarts were the royal families
4) Who had an era named after her?
a. Queen Elizabeth I
5) What did the English people focus on during the English Renaissance?
a. the arts, theater and the classical world
6) Where did Shakespeare grow up?
a. Stratford-on-Avon
7) How was the acting profession viewed?
a. It was not highly regarded. It held pauper status.
8) Which theatrical company did Shakespeare join?
a. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men
9) Where did this acting company perform?
a. The Globe Theater
10) What did this performance area look like?
a. Stage jutted into audience, theater shaped like an O, three stories, plays in the daytime, trap door in stage, thatched roof, seats for audience, open roof
11) What are “groundlings”?
a. people who stood on the ground directly in front of the stage in the pit
12) How long were plays?
a. about three hours with no intermission
13) Who did the ‘Lord Chamberlin’s Men’ become?
a. The Kings Men when King James I became their patron
14) Why didn’t women act?
a. It was considered improper
15) What are the 5 categories of Shakespeare’s plays?
a. comedies
b. histories
c. romances
d. tragedies
e. Roman plays
16) Why did the theatre close in 1592?
a. plague breakout
17) What are sonnets?
a. love poems with 14 lines with a regular rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter
Section B
18) What is poetry?
a. concentrated language- verse, rhythm and rhyme
19) How does prose differ from poetry?
a. it is the language of everyday speech
20) Which form did Shakespeare write his plays in?
a. metrical blank verse-unrhymed iambic pentameter for upper classes, prose for lower classes
21) Mark this line to show its rhythm and meter:
u ‘ u ‘ u ‘ u ‘ u ‘
a. A horse, a horse, a kingdom for my horse
22) Why did Shakespeare write in blank verse?
a. because it resembles natural speech patterns and it was common practice at the time
b. upper class in blank verse, commoners in prose
Section C
23) Describe the role of props, scenery and costumes used by the actors.
a. basic props, scenery and costumes, dialogue was more important
24) How did Shakespeare succeed at setting scenes?
a. stock scenery, so he used words to set the scene
25) How do characters in Shakespeare’s plays differ from our modern characters?
a. they are just characters, not real people
26) How can you gain information about a character?
a. by what the characters say
b. by what others say about them
c. by what the characters do