Lesson video

- Hello, and welcome to today's English lesson on the history of Shakespeare.

Today's lesson you're going to need yourselves a pen and some paper too, really important tools for an English lesson must haves.

If possible, try and find yourself a nice quiet place where you won't be disturbed by anybody.

And also see if you can close down any apps, any tabs you might have open on your computer or conversations you might have run.

And just to get rid of all those distractions so you can concentrate perfectly on today's learning.

Right, if all those things are ready, let's begin.

So we're gonna start off today, thinking about who William Shakespeare actually was, what he was known for and when he was alive, that's our first step.

So if you have a look at the top of the screen you will see the spelling of William Shakespeare.

Make sure you spell his name accurately, it's really commonly misspell, often it's the E off the end that's missed.

So be careful with that.

And on the right hand side of your screen you will also see an image of what Shakespeare would've looked like when he was writing.

So Shakespeare was probably most well known for being a playwright, somebody who writes plays.

And he wrote many in his lifetime.

Some of them you may have heard of, from the title of this lesson you'll know that we'll be looking at "A Midsummer Night's Dream." But he was also very well known for play such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth that you may have heard of before.

He was also a poet as well.

So not only was he a playwright, he was also a poet.

And he was particularly well known for writing a certain type of poem called a sonnet.

And a sonnet is the type of poet, it's actually very difficult to write because it follows some really, really strict rules.

And on top of both of those things he was also an actor as well.

He was alive from 1564 to 1616, so a few hundred years before we are here now.

So make sure you remember and think about the fact that the time that he was living in would've been very different to how we know the world now.

He was very well-educated at school.

He went to a grammar school, very well-educated.

And at school he learned about the ancient Greeks and Romans and those influences come through in his writing quite a lot, and it'll particularly, and show itself in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that will come on to study.

So I remember William Shakespeare, well known for being a playwright, a poet, and an actor, born in 1564 and died in 1616, very well-educated and learnt about the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Let's see if we can now recall some of that information.

So the first question is when was Shakespeare alive? Have a look at those four options.

Hopefully, if you can remember what we've just spoken about you will have chosen option number 3, 1564 to 1616.

Let's see if we can remember those at a sentence level as well.

So if you need to, you can pause the video at this moment.

I'd like to write down those two sentences and see if you can remember those key words that we had right at the start.

Don't worry if they're not in the same order but see if you can remember those.

Right, let's see if we've got those correct then.

So you should have had Shakespeare was a playwright, a poet and an actor.

So don't worry if you put poet before playwright still exactly the same answer, they both begin with a P.

And in your second sentence you should have put he was well-educated and learnt about the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Again, you could have got those the other way round, it wouldn't have mattered.

So well done if you got those correct, hopefully you did.

So let's see if we can test ourselves again then.

So when was Shakespeare born? Have a think.

Well done, if you put 1564.

All right, so Queen Elizabeth the first, you might think why are we talking about queens if we are studying William Shakespeare? Well, it's important to remember some key information about the time that Shakespeare was writing to see what he was influenced by, who would've watched his plays.

So Queen Elizabeth the first, is important to William Shakespeare because she reigned from 1558 to 1603.

And hopefully from those dates that some of you will then remember at Shakespeare he was born in 1564.

And therefore, he would've been writing at the time that queen Elizabeth was on the throne, that's what reigned means, the time that she was queen.

Not necessarily the time that she was alive for be careful of that.

And this period in history is called the Elizabethan era.

So Elizabethan after Elizabeth.

So that's the time in history it's called the Elizabethan era, and really important to remember that.

And Shakespeare wrote some of his works during the Elizabethan era.

And we can say some of his works because if we look at those dates, it says that she died in 1603.

So Shakespeare didn't die until 1616.

But we are just going to look at Queen Elizabeth the first, because that's who was on the throne when "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written.

So you can see at the top of your screen that word Elizabethan coming in again, Elizabethan audience.

Now, it's the Elizabethan audience is named after Queen Elizabeth the first, the same as the Elizabethan era.

So Shakespeare wrote "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the Elizabethan era in 1595.

And if we remember those years, when Queen Elizabeth the first was on the throne, see if you can remember those 1558 to 1603.

So therefore, we can know that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written during the Elizabethan era when Queen Elizabeth the first was on the throne.

So what does this mean for us when we're studying the play? Well, this means we should always talk about the Elizabethan audience.

So when we talk about the play we think who would've been watching it at the time the Elizabethans, the Elizabethan audience.

And that's a really useful phrase to remember, the Elizabethan audience.

Because if we just said the audience, then that might be us and we'll have different views to the people who are alive in the Elizabethan era so it's really important to remember that piece of information.

So we are going to be looking at, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." And "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a play.

So we're going to study one of Shakespeare's plays.

Remember the person who wrote the play is called the playwright.

So Shakespeare is the playwright of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." And a play is different to a novel.

A novel, a story book, a book that you pick up and read something that you may have studied previously.

So the most important difference is that a play is performed and a novel is read.

So that really key difference between the two.

So that a play's performed and a novel is read.

That's why we talked about the Elizabethan audience.

They would be the people that were watching "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the time that it was been written and first performed.

Let's see if we can test ourselves on some of that information, because so far we've got a few dates to remember and some key information, so it's always important to check.

So the first question, when was "A Midsummer Night's Dream" written? Be careful because there's some dates in there that might catch you out.

Hopefully, looking at those, you have put 1595 really well done if you have.

Next question, who was on the throne when "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written? Now, be really careful with these because they're really similar, have a think.

Hopefully, you put Queen Elizabeth the first.

Now, it's not Queen Elizabeth the second because she's Queen at the moment.

So she's another Queen named Elizabeth so she's Elizabeth the second.

Whereas the Queen at the time of Shakespeare right in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," remember the year in 1595 was Queen Elizabeth the first.

So let's remind ourselves a little bit of this idea of plays verses novels.

So we need to think of some of the differences between plays and novels.

And we've looked at a key point of these already.

So plays versus novels, which one has a reader and which one has an audience? Well done if you got that novels have a reader and plays have an audience.

So for a novel the person reads the book that's in front of them, for a play an audience will sit and watch a performance on the stage.

All right , let's have a look at another one of those so plays versus novels.

Which one do you read, which one is performed? Well done if you put that a play is performed and a novel is read.

Let's have a look at the next one of these.

We need to think in terms of pace, how fast something is.

So which one do you think you can choose the pace for? And which one do you think you cannot choose the pace for? This one's a little bit harder, but have a think.

Well done if you put that a novel you can choose the pace and a play you cannot choose the pace.

And by that, we mean with a novel, with a book you can pick up the book, you can read it for a little bit, you can put it down you can read it two days later.

If you're a little bit like me, sometimes you pick up a book and you read the whole thing in one day.

But we can choose how quickly we read it, how slowly we read it, when we read it, how often we read it.

Whereas with the play, we don't get any of those choices.

We have to go at the time the play is performed, we have to hear about the events and characters at the time they're happening in the play.

You can almost think of it a little bit like the cinema, you don't get to choose the time of the cinema it's the time that the cinema has showings available to you, it's the same idea.

And the last one plays versus novels, which one shows the audience what is happening and which one tells the reader what is happening? And those keywords are again audience and reader, have a think.

Well done if you collected the idea of audience to a play so show the audience what is happening.

So we watch the events, we watch what the characters are doing.

And we are shown that information because we watch the characters move around, we hear them speak.

Whereas in a novel we are told as a reader what is actually happening, what is going on.

Because we can't watch that for ourselves, we have to get extra information in a novel.

Whereas in a play, for example you can use scenery in the background, you can have facial expressions, you can hear laughter from the characters.

In a novel, we don't know if the character's laughing unless we're told.

So there's some of the key differences between plays and novels.

We need to think to ourselves particularly, about what type of play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is.

Because so far the information that we've got we know that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written in the Elizabethan era in 1595.

We know that it is a play that's performed to an audience.

What we are now going to look at, is the idea of a Shakespearean comedy.

And "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy it's meant to make us laugh.

And in a Shakespearean comedy, we accept we expect, sorry certain features to take place.

So we expect to see certain things, like we do with any type of story.

If you have a scary story you expect certain things to happen.

If you have a love story you expect certain things to happen.

So we are going to look at what you expect in a Shakespearean comedy.

So to repeat "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy that's the type of player is.

And the Shakespearean comedy has the following key parts.

Now, we're gonna talk through those key parts and there's four of them, but I'm going to test you as we go along to see if we can remember those four key parts.

Because if we can remember these four key parts really well, when we see events happening in the play between the characters, we can think, ah, that's a feature of a Shakespearean comedy.

So the first one of these number one, a happy ending, often a marriage.

So a Shakespearean comedy often has a happy ending and that ending often involves a marriage.

So let's see if we can do that together.

So say your sentence to the screen for me now.

So we should have number one, you should have said a happy ending, often a marriage.

Well done if you got that right.

Look at number two.

So number two, a romantic plot.

You've got to have a little bit of a love story in a Shakespearean comedy.

So we've got a happy ending, often a marriage and a romantic plot, two of the key parts of a Shakespearean comedy, let's test us out again.

So like you to say to your screen the following to now please.

Did you get it right? Did you get a happy ending, often a marriage? Well done if you did.

And number two, did you remember a romantic plot? Well done if you did, two out of two so far, let's see if we can get all four correct.

Don't worry if you did make any mistakes there because we're going to have another practise on those near the end.

So let's look at the third feature of a Shakespearean comedy.

Number three, a group of ridiculous characters.

You often get in a Shakespearean comedy, a group of silly characters who sometimes don't really know what's going on, and they always there to make the audience laugh.

So a group of ridiculous characters that's number three.

Let's see if we can test ourselves then.

So I'd like you to say number one, and three to your screen now please.

All right, let's see if we can get three out of three, a happy ending, often a marriage.

Number two, I gave that to you, a romantic plot I'll test you on it next time.

And number three, a group of ridiculous characters.

Well done if you've got those correct.

So far let's see what our score is, we're aiming to get that last one correct as well when we get to number four.

So the fourth feature of a Shakespearean comedy is confusion over who is who.

So there's often an example of when the characters get a little bit muddled up who is who, a little bit of mistaken identity.

So let's see if we can test ourselves on these.

So to your computer screen now, let's see if you can say number two and number four.

All right, did you manage to say, number two a romantic plot and number four, confusion over who is who when the characters get a little bit muddled.

All right, let's look at those four features again and give ourselves a really big test.

So let's go through those again.

So, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy remind ourselves, is the type of play is.

A Shakespearean comedy has the following key parts we're going to read these through together.

Number one, a happy ending, often a marriage.

Number two, a romantic plot feel free to say these at the computer or your screen with me.

Number three, a group of ridiculous characters.

And number four, confusion over who is who.

Alright, so I'm gonna test you on all four of these now.

So you can pause the video if you need to.

I'd like to write these four features down but don't do it yet, because we are going to give you just a few clues on this.

So get that pen and paper ready, pause the video to give yourself time to write.

All right, let's see if you got all four correct.

Because remember we've had a little bit of practise so hopefully that was a little bit of a warmup to make sure that we can try and aim for four out of four.

All right, I'll put the answers up for you then.

So number one, a happy ending, often a marriage give yourself a tick if you've got that one correct.

Number two, a romantic plot.

Number three, a group of ridiculous characters.

And number four, confusion over who is who give yourself a tick for each of those ones you got correct.

So far today we have looked at William Shakespeare, a little bit about who he is when he was alive.

We've also had a look at Queen Elizabeth the first and a little bit about the Elizabethan era and when that was and we've looked at the features of a Shakespearean comedy.

So we're going to test ourselves now, on some of that key information.

So I'm going to ask you some questions, and I'm going to ask for those questions to be answered in full sentences.

So if you can remember what I said right back at the start that spelling of Shakespeare look at how many letters are in the words, you can count them out now on your hand if you want to.

So SHAKESPEARE, it is 11 letters long, there are 11 letters in Shakespeare.

So it's, when you come to write it down, it's always worth counting those letters out just to make sure you haven't missed any of it.

You've got more chance of getting it right if we count those letters that are in the word and particularly that E on the end remember, don't make that common mistake.

So I'm going to give you five questions, those five questions are what we have talked about today.

So I'm gonna ask you to pause the video, give yourself time to write nice, full, clear sentences with nice, clear spellings particularly of Shakespeare.

And then we will go through some answers together, off you go.

So in front of you now, you should have five full answers.

Let's see if we agree on what those answers should be.

So, number one, Shakespeare was alive from 1564 to 1616.

So it's those dates that we started off with right at the beginning of the lesson so make sure that we can recall those.

And we have to be careful when we come to remembering these years, because we've had a third year in from when "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written.

That was another year to remember.

And we also had the time that Queen Elizabeth the first was alive as well.

So we've had five lots of numbers to try and remember.

So well, well done if you got that one correct.

Number two, Shakespeare learnt about the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Again, doesn't matter if you get Greeks and Romans the wrong way around in your sentence at all.

But hopefully you remembered those two because particularly the ancient Greeks are really relevant, when we come on to look at the text of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Next we have question number three.

So question number three, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written in 1595 which is in the Elizabethan era.

So let's look at how I've written that answer first of all.

So if you look "A Midsummer Night's Dream" it's got a little inverted commas round, a little single speech marks.

And those are in because I can't slope my writing turn it into Italics like I would do on the computer.

So when you hand write the title of a play, you can put it in those single marks really useful to remember.

And we've got our year 1595.

Remember don't get mothered up with our years for Shakespeare or our years for Queen Elizabeth the first.

Remember when she reigned on the throne from 1558 to 1603.

And that final part of the sentence which is in the Elizabethan era.

Remember the time that's named after Queen Elizabeth the first who was on the throne at the time that Shakespeare was writing.

Look at number four.

So number four is a little bit of a longer question, but I've put in three different answers.

Don't worry if you've only got one of those but these are the three kind of key points that we talked about.

So if you've got all three fantastic, if you've got two really well done still, and if you've got one of those still well done 'cause you're still remembering those differences between novels and plays, which one did you put? So novels are read by a reader and plays are watched by an audience.

With a novel, you can choose the pace, but with a play you cannot.

A novel tells the reader what is happening whereas a play shows the audience what is happening.

So remember that idea of showing and telling that we talked about earlier today.

And lastly, number five, a Shakespearean comedy usually has a happy ending which is often a marriage, a romantic plot, ridiculous characters and confusion over who is who.

Did you manage to get all four of those? Did you manage to remember some of them? But if we can try and aim to get as many of those key features it gives us more opportunities when we talk about the play later on.

And we see some of the characters and we can say, oh, there's a romantic plot between this character and that.

We can say, oh, those characters seem a little bit ridiculous.

Ah, those characters are getting confused.

Ah, and do we get our happy ending at the end? Do we end the play in a marriage? Well, that's the end of today's lesson on the history of Shakespeare.