This term we are going to be studying the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, in conjunction with the Performing Arts department, because, as you may already know, they will be performing the play after half term.
We have already spent a few lessons learning about the the life and times of William Shakespeare, and this week's homework is based on that. The task is to read the biography and correct the mistakes. Some of the mistakes are grammatical, and the purpose of this is to get you in the habit of proof reading and spotting mistakes in your own work. The other mistakes are factual. All of the mistakes are numbered and there are fifteen in total.
William Shakespeare
The following biography of Shakespeare has some
mistakes in it, which you need to correct. All the mistakes have been numbered;
you need to work out what it should say, and write this down in the table. Some
of the mistakes are to do with facts about Shakespeare’s life and some are to
do with spelling and grammar. The first two mistakes have been corrected in the
table for you as examples.
Shakespeare’s birth
William Shakespeare was born in 1574 1) on Stratford. His birthday is celebrated
on 23rd April every year. At the time, 2) Queen Mary was on the throne and England was in the process of
becoming a major world power. Because of this, there were also a new found
pride in the English language.
There is no record of his birth, but this date
is thought to be his birthday as we know he was baptised three 3) day later on 26 April 1564. It is
also St George's Day.
His childhood
Shakespeare was one of seven children born to
John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. 4) John
was a carpenter and Mary was a farmer’s daughter.
Three of his siblings died in childhood, two
of them from a plague that 5) hitted
Stratford the year Shakespeare was born.
His education
Shakespeare's father may well have been
illiterate, although he managed to achieve 6)
an high rank in business and politics.
It is likely the young William attended King's
New School in 7) Newcastle for free
because of his temporary status. At school he would have studied Latin, and
would have studied many works of literature that may have 8) inspiration some of the plays he would eventually go on to
write.
Marriage and children
In November 1582, aged 9) 31, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway. Anne was eight years
older than him and was three months pregnant with their first child when they
wed. In Elizabethan times, being pregnant without being married was considered
to be 10) skandaloos.
Just six months later, on 26 May 1583 their
first child, Susanna, was born. Three years later on the 2 February 1585 twins
Hamnet and Judith were born.
Working life
What Shakespeare got up to during his twenties
is something of a mystery as there are no written records of this period in his
life. Some people think he might have been a soldier because of all the war in
his plays, some people think he might have been a sailor because of all the
references to the sea, and some people think he might have travelled because
some of his plays are set in other countries.
We do know that he eventually ended up in
London, where he became a 11) chef.
At that time London was a very busy and
disease-ridden city. People there were dying faster than they were born.
The city was also a vibrant place with a thirst
for entertainment. There were many temporary stages and theatres and the first
permanent stage venue, called The Theatre, was opened in 1576 on the banks of
the Thames. It was replaced by The Globe Theatre in 12) 1596.
Shakespeare the writer
During his life he 13) rote many plays and poems which were very popular. Their
popularity has continued to grow long after his death. He was one of the most,
if not the most famous playwrights of the time because he touched on themes
that everyone could relate to, such as love, death, power and greed.
There was also a huge demand for plays at that
time, as the theatre was very popular, and Shakespeare was able to write a lot
of material, which meant that theatre directors would always go to him because
they knew he would deliver.
In 1593 a plague hit London and all public
events - including theatre productions - were forbidden until the following
year. Shakespeare turned to poetry during this time, 14) projucing dark and gruesome tales. He also wrote poems about an
unnamed woman he did not like very much, possibly because he did not like women
generally, or possibly just because he was unhappy in his marriage.
More dark writings were to come in 1596 when
Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, died. Despite being at the height of his fame
in London, Shakespeare started to write unsettling plays such as Macbeth, King
Lear, Othello and Anthony and Cleopatra.
His later years
In around 1609, after writing around 24 plays,
Shakespeare was spending more and more time back in 15) Newcastle, in what we might now call semi-retirement. In 1614 he
wrote his final play - The Two Noble Kinsmen. By then he had moved back to
Stratford permanently.
His death
Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 - his 52nd
birthday. This date is now also recognised as National Poets’ Day. It has been
suggested that he died after a drinking session which also involved him eating
too many pickled herrings, although this is unlikely to be true.
He was buried at Holy Trinity Church in
Stratford.
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