Who was Shakespeare

SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE AND TIMES WEB QUEST

1. Let’s get started, who was William Shakespeare and what’s the big deal about him? Here’s a basic overview:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/showbiz/shakespeare/newsid_3539000/3539058.stm

2. Here’s William’s complete life story, in abbreviated form:

http://www.shakespearehigh.com/classroom/bio_handout.shtml

3. Shakespeare was writing his plays during the Elizabethan Age – what does this mean?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/walk/timestrip/liz_will.shtml

http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/elizabethanengland.html

http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=1256

Here are some descriptions taken from actual written documents from 1577, describing life and society in England – pretty thick stuff!

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1577harrison-england.html

4. Widge lived the life of a poor child in Olde London, never knowing what inventions he’d be missing in future times. Nat, on the other hand, traveled back to Elizabethan London from 1999, knowing what he was missing from modern times. Check these sites to see what your life would be like as a child living in those times:

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-family-life.htm

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-education.htm

http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/renaissance/Town/Children.html

http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-biography-childhood-and-education.htm

5. Widge was very poor in Shakespeare Stealer, see what life for the poor was really like:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/poor_in_elizabethan_england.htm

6. Most of Shakespeare’s plays were performed at the Globe Theatre, which was located on the banks of the Thames River in London. A canon used during a performance in 1613 set the Globe’s thatched roof on fire, which spread and burned the theatre to the ground. A replica was constructed in 1997, about 200 yards from the original site. Read about the new and the old:

http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/navigation/frameset.htm

Click on Shakespeare’s Globe Background Notes at bottom for even more pictures and info.

http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2156

Here’s a cutaway view of a theatre during Shakespeare’s time:

http://www.usborne-quicklinks.com/usa/usa_entity_pages/usa_download_image.asp?lib=750&linkid=320123

Here are some pictures of a modern performance of Romeo and Juliet at the new Globe Theatre:

http://www.rsc.org.uk/romeo/current/gallery.html#gallery

7. Put together your own Shakespearean compliments and insults – in Olde English style: These would have been handy for Nat and Widge.

http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2142

6. In King of Shadows, Nat has near first hand interaction with the Black Death but the plague was a constant threat to everyone during Shakespeare’s times. See how people caught it, how it was attempted to be treated, and what effects it had on society through the following sites:

http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-bubonic-plague-black-death.htm

http://www.william-shakespeare.info/bubonic-black-plague-elizabethan-era.htm

The Black Death – then and now:

http://www.william-shakespeare.info/bubonic-black-plague-modern-day.htm

7. Back then there were no ball point pens, pencils, or typewriters – let alone computers. See how playwrights actually wrote, reproduced, and distributed their scripts and find out if there really were Shakespeare stealers!:

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xIllustrations.html

8. Widge was trained as a “stealer”, first transcribing sermons, then attempting to do the same with Shakespeare’s plays. In those days, there was no such thing as copyright or legally protecting your original ideas whether they be in the manuscripts or music form. What Widge was trying to do was not technically against the law. Now, however, there are protecting laws. Do you think you obey them? Find out:

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=855

9. Just what are the official United States government’s laws on copying – read this and stay out of jail!