Straight Outta Stratford-Upon-Avon - Shakespeare's Early Days: Crash Course Theater #14

Summary

The video script delves into the life and works of William Shakespeare, the master playwright of the English theatre. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's early life is shrouded in mystery, with speculation ranging from his possible work as a butcher to his marriage to Anne Hathaway. His career took off in London, where he rose to fame as an actor, playwright, and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Despite the lack of prestige associated with playwriting during Elizabethan times, Shakespeare's collaborative efforts resulted in a rich body of work. The script highlights the First Folio, a posthumous collection of his plays, and explores the genre of history plays, which were used to teach obedience and allegiance to the crown. Shakespeare's 'Richard III' is examined as a complex portrayal of a villain, showcasing his talent for creating compelling characters that challenge the straightforward narrative of Tudor propaganda.

Takeaways

• 🎭 William Shakespeare is often considered the presiding genius of English theatre and is known to have written all of his plays, though sometimes with assistance.
• 📜 Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and his father held various civic positions, including mayor.
• 🏫 At a young age, Shakespeare attended the Stratford Grammar School where he was exposed to Latin and likely read works by Plautus and Seneca.
• 💍 In 1582, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was significantly older and pregnant at the time of their marriage.
• 🏙️ After the birth of his children, Shakespeare moved to London for reasons that remain unclear, possibly involving legal trouble or a career in theatre.
• 🎭 By 1592, Shakespeare was a popular actor and playwright in London, known by some detractors as “Shake-scene”.
• 📚 During plague-induced theatre closures, Shakespeare wrote long poems, and upon the reopening of theatres, he joined the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
• 🏡 By 1597, Shakespeare had accumulated enough wealth to purchase a prominent home in Stratford-upon-Avon.
• 🛌 In 1611, Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616, leaving behind an epitaph that requested his remains be undisturbed.
• 📝 Playwriting in Elizabethan England was not a prestigious job and was often a collaborative effort, with playwrights relying on side jobs or patronage for income.
• 📚 The First Folio, published in 1623, was an authoritative collection of Shakespeare's works organized into Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, and was compiled by his fellow actors John Heminges and Henry Condell.

Q & A

Who is the subject of discussion in the video script?

The subject of discussion is William Shakespeare, the renowned playwright and poet of the English theatre.

What is the significance of the date April 26th or 23rd in Shakespeare's life?

This is the date when Shakespeare is believed to have been baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, marking the earliest known record of his life.

What was Shakespeare's father's occupation and how did it influence his life?

Shakespeare's father, John, was a glover who held various civic positions, including mayor. His social standing and roles likely provided Shakespeare with a certain level of social exposure and education.

At what age did Shakespeare likely begin attending the Stratford Grammar School?

Shakespeare likely began attending the Stratford Grammar School at the age of six or seven.

What is known about Shakespeare's marriage to Anne Hathaway?

Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1582. She was eight years older than him and was pregnant at the time of their marriage.

Why is there uncertainty surrounding the reason for Shakespeare's move to London?

There is uncertainty because historical records provide no clear reason. There are stories and rumors, such as one involving poaching a deer, but no definitive evidence.

What was the name of the acting company Shakespeare joined upon the reopening of theaters?

Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men as an actor, a playwright, and a shareholder.

How did Shakespeare's career as a playwright differ from the common perception of the profession during Elizabethan times?

During Elizabethan times, playwriting was not considered prestigious, and many plays were written collaboratively. However, Shakespeare's talent and the success of his plays eventually made him a prominent figure in English theatre.

What is the First Folio and why is it significant?

The First Folio is an authoritative edition of Shakespeare's works, published in 1623 by two of his fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell. It is significant because it aimed to collect and preserve Shakespeare's plays in a single, comprehensive volume.

What is the primary purpose of history plays during Shakespeare's time?

The primary purpose of history plays was to serve as a patriotic exercise that celebrated past greatness and taught subjects obedience to their king, often showing the consequences of tumults and insurrections.

How does Shakespeare's portrayal of Richard III in the play of the same name differ from the traditional history play?

While Richard III is portrayed as a tyrant and usurper, Shakespeare also presents him as a charming and theatrical character, making him a complex figure that is both attractive and villainous.

What is the significance of the 'quarto' publications of Shakespeare's plays?

Quarto publications were cheap booklets of Shakespeare's plays, often published anonymously and based on pirated copies or bad memories, leading to many errors. Despite their inaccuracies, they contributed to the dissemination of Shakespeare's work.

Outlines

00:00

🎭 Introduction to Shakespeare's Life and Work

This paragraph introduces Mike Rugnetta and the topic of the video: William Shakespeare. It discusses the common misconceptions about Shakespeare's authorship and hints at the collaborative nature of playwriting during his time. The video promises to explore Shakespeare's biography, the state of playwriting in Elizabethan England, and the history play genre which Shakespeare helped to develop. The narrative covers Shakespeare's early life, his education, marriage, and the birth of his children. It also touches upon the mysterious 'lost years' before his emergence as a popular actor and playwright in London, the death of his son Hamnet, and his eventual retirement and death. The paragraph ends with a reflection on how Shakespeare became a playwright and the collaborative and commercial aspects of playwriting during the Elizabethan era.

05:02

📚 The First Folio and the Nature of History Plays

Seven years after Shakespeare's death, his colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell published the First Folio, an authoritative collection of his works. This luxury volume contained 36 plays categorized into Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, although it excluded some plays now considered part of the Shakespearean canon and included one that is now lost. The paragraph delves into the history plays, which are some of Shakespeare's earliest works, and their purpose as patriotic exercises. It contrasts these with tragedies, which are more focused on personal ethics than political actions. The paragraph uses 'Richard III' as an example to illustrate how Shakespeare's history plays were more complex and nuanced than simple propaganda, showing Richard as both a villain and a captivating character.

10:07

🦴 Richard III's Physicality and Shakespeare's Early Work

The paragraph starts by debunking the myth that Shakespeare invented Richard III's hunchback for dramatic effect, as recent findings confirmed Richard's scoliosis. It then transitions to discuss the evolution of Shakespeare's early work, where he took the traditional chronicle play and transformed it into a more engaging and sophisticated form by incorporating poetry, insight, and dramatic scenes, including killings in unusual circumstances like wine casks. The paragraph concludes with a teaser for the next part of the series, which will discuss the acting style of the time and delve into Shakespeare's tragedies.

Keywords

💡Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. In the video, Shakespeare is the central figure, with discussions about his biography, his contributions to English theatre, and the nature of his works.

💡Elizabethan England

This term refers to the period in the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The video discusses the context of playwriting during this era, highlighting the lack of prestige associated with the profession and the demand for new plays due to the novelty-seeking audiences.

💡History Play

A history play is a genre of drama that depicts historical events or figures. Shakespeare is noted for his development of this genre, with plays such as 'Richard II' and 'Henry V'. The video explores how Shakespeare's history plays were not just straightforward retellings of history but also served political and social purposes.

💡Playwriting

Playwriting is the process of conceiving and writing a script for a play. The video mentions that during Shakespeare's time, it was often a collaborative effort and not a highly esteemed profession. It also discusses how Shakespeare's playwriting career may have begun and how he made his money through his shares in the theatre company rather than just from writing.

💡First Folio

The First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623, seven years after his death. It is a significant publication as it contains 36 of his plays, some of which had not been published before. The video notes that without this collection, some of Shakespeare's works might have been lost.

💡Quarto

A quarto is a type of early printed book or pamphlet made by folding a full sheet of paper to form four leaves. The video explains that many of Shakespeare's plays were initially published in cheap quartos, often anonymously and with errors due to being based on pirated copies or poor memories of the plays.

💡Hamnet

Hamnet is the son of Shakespeare who tragically died at the age of 11. The video mentions Hamnet's death as a significant personal event in Shakespeare's life, which may have influenced his writing.

💡Richard III

Richard III is one of Shakespeare's history plays and a central example in the video to illustrate how Shakespeare's portrayal of historical figures was complex and multifaceted. The play is used to discuss how Shakespeare could make even a villainous character compelling and memorable.

💡Tudor Myth

The Tudor myth refers to the idealized view of the Tudor dynasty's rule, which some early critics claimed Shakespeare upheld in his works. The video suggests that later critics have argued for a more subversive interpretation of Shakespeare's plays, indicating a more nuanced approach to the Tudor myth.

💡Patronage

Patronage in the context of the video refers to the support and financial assistance given to artists and writers by wealthy patrons. It is mentioned as one of the ways playwrights, including possibly Shakespeare, could support themselves, given that playwriting alone was not lucrative.

💡Plague

The plague refers to the outbreak of the bubonic plague in England during the 16th and 17th centuries. The video notes that when theaters were closed due to the plague, Shakespeare turned to writing longer poems, which allowed him to continue his literary work during this period.

Highlights

Shakespeare is considered the presiding genius of English theatre, although he sometimes had help in writing his plays.

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. His father was a glover and held various civic positions, including mayor.

Shakespeare likely attended Stratford Grammar School at age 6 or 7, where much of the instruction was in Latin.

At age 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was 8 years older and 6 months pregnant. They had three children.

The reason for Shakespeare's move to London is unknown. There are rumors he poached a deer or joined traveling players.

By 1592, Shakespeare was a popular actor and playwright in London, but details of his early career are scarce.

Shakespeare's son Hamnet died at age 11. When theaters closed due to plague, Shakespeare wrote long poems.

Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men theater company as an actor, playwright and shareholder.

By 1597, Shakespeare had made enough money to buy a lavish home in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Shakespeare retired in 1611 and died in 1616 at age 52. His epitaph asks not to be disturbed.

It's unclear how Shakespeare became a playwright, but traveling players performed frequently in his hometown.

Playwriting was not a prestigious job in Elizabethan England. Many plays were written collaboratively.

Shakespeare made his money not as a writer, but as a shareholder in the theater company.

Most of Shakespeare's plays were not published in his lifetime. Quarto editions were often based on pirated copies.

The First Folio, published in 1623, was the first authoritative edition of Shakespeare's works.

Shakespeare's history plays chronicle the rise of the Tudor dynasty, but are not straightforward propaganda.

Richard III is a complex portrayal of a villain who is also charming and theatrical.

Shakespeare's early work shows him taking the form of the chronicle play and molding it into something more exciting and ambitious.

Transcripts

Hey there, I’m Mike Rugnetta, this is Crash Course Theater and remember that guy we said

we weren’t going to talk about in the last episode?

Well, we’re gonna talk about him for a while now.

I mean, of course, Yorick’s pal Shakespeare.

And yes, Shakespeare actually wrote all of Shakespeare’s plays, though sometimes he

had help.

But hey, you don’t become the presiding genius of English theatre without some assistance

Today, we’ll cover Shakespeare’s biography, look at playwriting in Elizabethan England,

and take on a genre our boy Bill helped invent: the history play.

So once more into the breach!

Who’s with me?

Typical!

INTRO So, who is this Shakespeare guy, anyway?

We first hear of him on April 26th… or 23rd… or even a little earlier… in 1564, when

he’s baptized in the sleepy market town of Stratford-upon-Avon.

His father, John, was a glover, and did ok for himself.

John held a number of civic positions including ale-taster of the borough, and eventually

mayor…

an unorthodox political ascendancy, but hey whatever works!

John’s wife, Mary, was the daughter of reasonably wealthy landowners.

And Shakespeare had four younger siblings who lived to adulthood including one, Edmund,

who was an actor but died at 27.

At the age of six or seven, William starts attending the Stratford Grammar School, where

much of the instruction was in Latin.

He almost certainly read Plautus’s comedies and Seneca’s tragedies.

Some scholars think he leaves school at 13, some think at 15.

Maybe he works as a butcher; maybe he works for his father.

In 1582, he marries Anne Hathaway–NO THE OTHER ANNE HATHAWAY–who is 8 years older

than him, and 6 months pregnant.

She gives birth to Susanna in 1583, and the twins Judith and Hamnet a year and a half

later.

Hamnet!

At some point after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare moves to London.

And no one knows why!

There’s one story about how he had to go to London because he poached a deer?

There are also rumors that he joins up with traveling players.

But we don’t really know anything more until 1592, when he’s a popular actor and the

author of several plays—and people are making fun of him by calling him “Shake-scene.”

Harsh.

Around this time, one of the twins, Hamnet, dies at the age of 11.

Hamnet!

And when the theaters closed due to the plague, Shakespeare writes some long poems.

When theaters reopen, he joins the Lord Chamberlain’s Men as an actor, a playwright, and a shareholder.

By 1597, Shakespeare has made enough money to buy the second fanciest place in Stratford-upon-Avon,

In 1611, he retires to Stratford proper; and again, no one knows why.

And in 1616, at the age of 52, he dies.

His anti-grave robbing epitaph reads: Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear,

To dig the dust enclosed here.

Blest be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones.

So, how did Shakespeare become a playwright?

It’s hard to say for sure, but traveling players performed frequently in Stratford

when he was a kid.

If he really did join a traveling company during his lost years, it would have exposed

him to all sorts of plays, and the three or four production techniques that English theater

had at the time.

Playwriting wasn’t a prestigious occupation in Elizabethan England.

A lot of plays were written in these decades as there was a hunger for novelty.

Established theaters were still a new thing, and these companies had no repertory of classics

to fall back on.

So each company required new plays every couple of weeks.

Writing plays was often a group effort, and works from the beginning and end of Shakespeare’s

career were written this way... more collaboratively.

Though it had the potential to make a lot of money, many playwrights often depended

on side jobs or patronage.

Shakespeare made his money not so much as a writer, but as a shareholder in the company.

He definitely didn’t make his cash in royalties.

Most plays weren’t even published, and most of the ones that were appeared in cheap quartos—a

name for booklets made up of pieces of paper printed on eight sides and folded up to become

four double-sided pages.

Many of these quarto publications were based on pirated copies and bad memories and are

full of error or variation, though some are accurate.

Occasionally, several different versions of a play would get published, like an early

quarto of “Hamlet” that reads: “To be, or not to be,/ There’s the point.”

I know, Yorick.

These quartos were usually published anonymously, and even if an author’s name did appear,

he didn’t receive any money from them.

Copyright wouldn’t be invented for about another hundred years, by the way.

And yeah, any playwright of this era is definitely a “he”.

In 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death, two fellow actors in the King’s Men,

John Heminges and Henry Condell, decided to collect and publish Shakespeare’s works

in an authoritative edition, to honor their friend.

Their luxury volume, known as the First Folio, included 36 plays organized as Comedies, Histories,

and Tragedies.

It left out Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles, which are common now, as well as Cardenio,

the one Shakespeare play that’s definitely lost.

We’ll start with the histories because they were some of the earliest plays Shakespeare

wrote: King John, Richard II, the two Henry IVs, Henry V, the three Henry VIs and Richard

III.

Henry VIII was written a lot later.

With the exception of King John and Edward III, the rest of these plays describe the

rise of the Tudors, the royal house of Elizabeth I, queen during the early years of Shakespeare’s

career.

Why are these “history plays,” but not Julius Caesar or Macbeth or Cymbeline?

Well, these distinctions are fuzzy.

They were created by the editors of the First Folio, not Shakespeare himself.

But as scholar Lily Campbell puts it: “Tragedy is concerned with the doings of men which

in philosophy are discussed under ethics; history with the doings of men which in philosophy

are discussed under politics.”

So Richard II is a history because it’s about Richard’s eventual defeat by Bolingbroke,

but Macbeth is a tragedy because it’s about Macbeth’s personal conflicts.

By the way, this isn’t really a theater.

So I’m perfectly comfortable saying Macbeth.

I’m no longer perfectly comfortable saying Macbeth.

What was the point of history plays?

Well, a straightforward history play is a patriotic exercise that celebrates past greatness

and commiserates over past suffering, without stopping to question God’s providence.

History plays were designed to keep people in line: Thomas Heywood wrote in the 1612

“An Apology for Actors,” that these plays “are writ with this ayme… to teach their

subjects obedience to their king, to shew the people the untimely ends of such as have

moved tumults, commotions, and insurrections, to present them with the flourishing estate

of such as live in obedience, exhorting them to allegiance.”

basically, when it comes to tumults and insurrections, don’t start none, won’t be none.

But Shakespeare isn’t that straightforward.

A couple of his plays are about men who usurp the throne from kings and then become kings

themselves, so his works are hardly a wholesale condemnation of tumult, or a rubber stamp

on the divine right of kings.

Early critics claimed that he upheld the Tudor myth, but later ones have argued that he’s

up to something more subversive.

For an example, let’s look at one of his best-known history plays, “Richard III.”

in the Thoughtbubble: Edward IV is back on the throne after putting

down a rebellion.

His little brother Richard, aka, “that foul bunchback’d toad,” isn’t psyched about

it.

Richard contrives to have his other brother, Clarence, sent to the Tower of London and

then seduces Lady Anne, even though he murdered her father and her brother… and she knows

it.

Richard has Clarence drowned in a large cask of wine, which helps push Edward IV into an

early grave.

Edward’s sons will succeed him, though, so Richard has more murdering to do!

After arranging to have a bunch of people executed, Richard has the two princes held

in the Tower.

He tries to convince the people that the princes are illegitimate and he is the rightful heir

to the throne.

The other lords more or less go for it, but just to be sure, Richard has the princes murdered

anyway.

Now that he’s king, Richard poisons his wife so he can make a more dynastically savvy

marriage.

But all this villainy starts to catch up with him, and rebellions break out.

One of them is led by Richmond who—spoiler alert—will become Henry VII.

On the battlefield, Richard is haunted by his victims, famously offers his kingdom for

a horse, and then dies, with Richmond announcing: “Now civil wounds are stopped; peace lives

again.

/ That she may long live here, God say ‘Amen.’”

Thanks, Thoughtbubble.

So a happy ending!

Unless you’re Richard.

Or one of the many people that he murdered.

It’s easy enough to read this play as rah-rah Tudor propaganda.

Boo Richard!

Yay Richmond!

But while the play shows Richard as a tyrant and a usurper, it isn’t a wholly negative

portrayal.

Shakespeare’s Richard is a genius and a charmer… and a villain and a killer.

So while the historians were busy confirming his wickedness, Shakespeare also shows him

as attractive and theatrical.

He’s the character you can’t stop watching and the one that great actors want to play.

Also, quick aside, people used to accuse Shakespeare of making up the fact that Richard had a hunchback

just to make him seem extra evil, but a few years ago they found Richard’s bones in

a parking lot—and it turns out while he may not have been a full on hunchback, he

did have scoliosis.

While we don’t know all the circumstances of where and when and how Shakespeare became

a writer, his early work shows him taking the straightforward form of the chronicle

play and molding it into something more exciting and ambitious.

He added breathtaking poetry, penetrating insight and fun scenes of people being killed.

In wine.

Next time we’ll look at how those scenes were probably acted, and we’ll discuss Shakespeare’s

tragedies.

But until then… curtain!