Romeo and Juliet Background
All Topics
Internet Public Library Shakespeare page
Annual Shakespeare Birthday Lectures
shakespeareinamericancommunities.org/education/elizabethan-age
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/locations/location153.html
bardorg.squarespace.com/study-guides/elizabeths-england
Queen Elizabeth I:
www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/TheTudors/ElizabethI.aspx
www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/elizabeth_I
Visual arts in the Elizabethan Era:
www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/liza/hd_liza.htm
Poverty in the Elizabethan Era (not everyone was a Prince or a Queen!):
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/poverty_01.shtml
Shakespeare's Life
(Biographical information: When and where was he born? How was he educated? Did he have a wife and kids? How did he become famous? etc.)
Early life (PBS):
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/events/event20.html
internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/
www.shakespearesglobe.com/about-us/history-of-the-globe/shakespeare
Shakespeare's hometown (PBS):
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/locations/location27.html
Encyclopedia Britannica:
Folger Shakespeare Library (click on the links to the left):
www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=865&CFID=47004137&CFTOKEN=39703130
www.folger.edu/shakespeares-life
Shakespeare's London (PBS):
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/locations/location154.html
Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway (PBS):
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/players/player23.html
Important people in Shakespeare's life (PBS):
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/players
A podcast about what Shakespeare may have looked like:
www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited-episode-38
Folger Shakespeare Library (click on the links to the left):
www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=865&CFID=47004137&CFTOKEN=39703130
Shakespeare's Other Plays
(What other plays did Shakespeare write? What were they about? How did he choose his subjects? Were his works inspired by anyone else? etc)
internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/
www.folger.edu/shakespeares-works
Encyclopedia Britannica:
Important people in Shakespeare's life (PBS):
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/players
Shakespeare's Poetry
What is a sonnet? How are Shakespeare's different from other people's sonnets, notably the Petrarchan sonnet, which was the established form before Shakespeare?
www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5791
What is a sonnet?
www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-term/sonnet
Iambic pentameter (normally About.com is not a great research source, but this article's author is a theater expert):
shakespeare.about.com/od/shakespeareslanguage/a/i_pentameter.htm
Background on the Sonnets, Washington University
public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/sonnets.html
Shakespeare's Poetry:
General Intro to Sonnets:
www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/sonnetintroduction.html
Text of Sonnets:
www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/
Another site with text of sonnets:
Discussion of sonnets and love:
www.bard.org/study-guides/romeo-and-juliet-and-the-sonnet-of-love
Stagecraft in Shakespearean Theater (especially swordfighting!:)
Stage fencing in Elizabethan drama:
www.shakespeare-online.com/essays/StageFencing.html
More about fencing:
www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-fencing.htm
Staging and performance, PBS:
www.folger.edu/Content/Discover-Shakespeare/Shakespeares-Theater/Staging-and-Performance.cfm
Stage combat in Shakespeare's times
www.clt.astate.edu/wnarey/shakespeare%20files/elizabethan_stage_combat.htm
BBC:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01g65gz
Theater in the Elizabethan Era
(What did people think about the acting profession at that time? Why were all the women's roles played by men? Why did the London theaters get closed all the time? Did the Queen like the theater? etc.)
Entertainment at the time:
www.shakespeare-online.com/faq/entertainment.html
internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/
Encyclopedia Britannica:
search.eb.com/shakespeare/browse?browseId=248012
Encyclopedia Britannica, another article:
search.eb.com/shakespeare/article-9396031
Actors in Shakespeare's Day:
bardorg.squarespace.com/study-guides/actors-in-shakespeares-day
The Audience in Shakespeare's time:
bardorg.squarespace.com/study-guides/audience-a-very-motley-crowd
Costumes:
bardorg.squarespace.com/study-guides/what-they-wore
Shakespeare Online, Elizabethan Dress (NOTE: This is about what people who lived in Shakespeare's time wore, but not all the people in his plays would have worn these things, since he set many of his plays in other times):
www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/elizabethanclothes.html
Speaking Shakespeare's Language
Cal State LA:
web.calstatela.edu/faculty/jgarret/417/Reading-Shakespeare.pdf
Words and Expressions that Shakespeare invented:
www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/04/45-phrases-coined-shakespeare-450th-birthday
BBC again, influence of Shakespeare's language on today's English:
www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140527-say-what-shakespeares-words
Commonly used words in Shakespeare
Royal Shakespeare Company:
www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare/language
Iambic pentameter
www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/glossaryItem.do?id=11938
PBS:
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/educators/language/
From a "History of English" class at a European university:
www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_ShakespeareLanguage.htm
Concepts and Terms of Theater and Drama
www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/tragedyvscomedy.html
www.shakespeare-online.com/playanalysis/tragedyvscomedy.html
Stage Directions/Theater Terms:
homepage.smc.edu/jones_janie/Terminology.htm
Tragedy--this is a long e-book but sections I and II are helpful:
catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam033/2002067262.pdf
Elements of Theater:
homepage.smc.edu/adair-lynch_terrin/ta%205/elements.htm
Glossary of Theater Terms:
education.goodmantheatre.org/resources/glossary-of-theater-terms/
Stage Directions
www.macmillandictionary.com/us/thesaurus-category/american/Words-and-stage-directions
A fun video dictionary about theater terms. If you have any trouble watching the videos at school, try it at home.
dictionary.tdf.org/dictionary/
The Globe Theater
(history, architecture, and more about the most famous theater building in history!)
Encyclopedia Britannica:
search.eb.com/shakespeare/article-9037049
Clemson Shakespeare Festival Virtual Tour of the Globe Theater:
learni.st/boards/4689/learnings/38754-virtual-tour-of-the-globe-theater-clemson-university
This organization rebuilt a replica of the Globe:
www.shakespearesglobe.com/about-us/history-of-the-globe/original-globe
From a Wake Forest University librarian's Shakespeare site, Globe page:
users.wfu.edu/tedforrl/shakespeare/globe.htm (pictures)
Topic 9: Poetry and the Sonnet. See "Shakespeare's Poetry" above. (Look for the links that describe poetry and sonnets as an art form, not just Shakespeare's).
The Authorship Debate: Did Shakespeare Really Write Shakespeare's Plays?
(Some people throughout the years have argued that one man, especially one with only an average education, could not have written all of Shakespeare's amazing plays. Could it have been someone else? Whole groups have formed around this debate, like the Oxford Society, which supports the hypothesis that Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, could be the "real" Shakespeare. Other scholars argue that there is a ton of evidence that Shakespeare wrote his own plays, and those who say he didn't are just conspiracy theorists looking for a more exciting story. What do you think?)
PBS Frontline: The Shakespeare Mystery
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shakespeare/
Oxford Society (pro-earl-of-Oxford side of the debate):
This article gives an overview of the whole debate but is pro-Shakespeare in the end:
bardorg.squarespace.com/study-guides/mr-shakespeare-i-presume
NPR: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92142217
This organization aims to give an evidence-based voice to the side of the debate that believes Shakespeare may not have written the plays:
www.shakespeareanauthorshiptrust.org.uk/index.htm
Love and Marriage in the Elizabethan Era
internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/index.html
Encyclopedia Britannica:
search.eb.com/shakespeare/article-44846 (scroll down, there are lots of topics on this page)
Marriage:
internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/family/marriage.html
Religion and Spiritual Beliefs in the Elizabethan Era
internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/religion/index.html
Encyclopedia Britannica:
search.eb.com/shakespeare/article-44846 (scroll down, there are lots of topics on this page)
Catholic Church (click on "Protestant" too)--from PBS:
www.pbs.org/shakespeare/glossary/glossary218.html
Superstition and the supernatural in Shakespeare:
bardorg.squarespace.com/study-guides/ghosts-witches-and-shakespeare
