Sites
provided by The Usborne World of Shakespeare
- Go
to http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
Click
on the
“Shakespeare timeline summary chart” and record the following:
- Shakespeare’s
date of birth:
- Name
of the 1577 publication (and
author) from which Shakespeare culled information for his history plays:
- Year
Shakespeare was married:
- What
important life events
happen in 1583 and 1585?
- What
career move does
Shakespeare make in 1593, and who is the object of this preferment?
- The
Shakespeare family experience both blessing and tragedy in 1596;
explain:
- What
financial improvement occurs in 1599?
- Date
of Shakespeare’s death?
- Go
to
http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/players/
- Click
on
“Evidence” and “Coat of Arms” – who wrote the successful application
for the Shakespeare family’s Coat of Arms?
- Click
on
“the show” and then on “a time of revolution” – what made Shakespeare’s
family outsiders and sent them underground for a time?
- What
ruins William’s chances of going to the university?
- Click
on “Shakespeare’s father” – what was William’s first exposure
to the theater?
- Describe
William’s connection to a
farmer’s daughter:
- What
is William’s first recorded
writing?
- Click
on “the duty of poets” What was
Robert Southwell’s relation to Shakespeare, and why did the Queen
consider him a public enemy?
- Click
on the “Earl of
Southhampton”and describe the co-dependent relationship between
renaissance artists and their patrons.
- What
is one
possibility for the identity of the young man in Shakespeare’s sonnets?
- Go
to http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/players/
Click
on
“Dark Lady”what are the names of the possible identity for the Dark
Lady of William’s sonnets and another possibility for the identity of
the young man?
- Go
to
http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/theshow/index.html
Choose
your favorite quote, and explain what it is about the sentiment that
has meaning for you.
- Go
to
http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/295.html
and read the following
sonnets: 11, 12, 19, 20, 27, 29, 32:
Write
a short
essay identifying a theme/message in the sonnets.
- Go
to http://www.shakespearehigh.com/
and click on “students”, then click on
“Shakespeare 101”:
- Read
the section on unusual word
arrangements – this will help you understand Shakespeare’s works more
naturally.
- Try
each of the choices in “ Shakespeare
Asks” to understand the difference between Old English, Middle English,
and Modern English. List the examples given for Old English and Middle
English.
- What
is blank verse?
- What
is iambic pentameter?
- Click
on page 2 and read the
section on omissions – write a sentence with an unusual omission of
your own, along with the “correct” version.
- Read
the
section on “unusual words” – how does Shakespeare’s vocabulary compare
with ours?
- Click
on the glossary – refer to this
while you’re reading Shakespeare – it will help tremendously in your
reading comprehension!
- To
see excellent productions
of the plays, check out the following sites:
- Go
to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/shakespeare/onenightofshakespeare/onenightofshakespeare_insults.shtml
to be insulted by the Bard.
