Что вы знаете о Шекспире?
занимательные факты по мхк (11 класс) по теме

1. What was W.Shakaspeare?

1. Writer  b) poet  c) dramatist  d) actor

2. When did he live?

1. at the beginning of the 15th century
2. at the end of the 16th century
3. at the end of the 17th century
4. in the middle of the 16th century

3. In what part of Great Britain is Stratford-on-Avon situated?

a)in Great London   b) in Buckinghemshire   c) in Sussex   d)in Warwickshire

4. What did his father deal with?

1. wool industry   b)a farm   c)manufacturing    d)writing books

5. What  was his father like?

1. Well-educated   b) talented   c) illiterate   d) well-known

6. How many children were there in the family?

1. 3 girls and 5 boys   b) 2 boys and 6 girls   c) 4 boys and 4 girls   d) 6 girls and 2 boys

7. What kind of schools were there in Stratford-on-Avon in that time?

1. Elementary school   b) no schools   c) University, collages and schools   d) Grammar schools  

8. What foreign languages were taught to children?

1. Greek   b) Latin   c) French   d) German

9. In what play did W .Shakespeare show example of the exercises taught in Grammar school?

1. Romeo and Juleit    b) Love’s Labour’s Lost   c) 12th night   d) The winter tale

10. How were the children punished?

1. they were taken to the master   b) they were whipped   c) they were left after the lessons    d) they had no dinner

11. What methods of teaching were widely used in that time?

1. learning by heart   b) reading only   c) rebus-like method   d) repeating after teacher

12. What hobbies were the most popular?

1. wrestling and running   b) running and playing football   c) fishing and hunting   d) hunting

13. Where were the children busy during the festivals, when companies of players visited the town?

1. they helped to make a stage         b) they were spectators
2. they helped the principle actors to show play
3. they sold the tickets and called the audience

14. Where was William’s main job?

1. at the theatre   b) at father’s business   c) at school   d) at home

15. What was the purpose of the Italian gentleman’s presence  in Shakepeare’s family?

1. he was sent from Italy as a teacher   b) a secretary of father’s business   c) he studied as a dyer of wool   d) a stranger

16. How did he help William?

1. he taught William not only the Italian language but also good manners    b) he tried to be his friend    c) the Italian would like to take William to Italy d) he was his business  partner

17. What was the very common in Shakespeare’s days?

1. early marriage   b) travelling abroad   c) learning verses   d) writing poems

18. Who called William “Sweet Swan of Avon”?

1. his mother   b) William’s nurse   c) his sweetheart   d) his sister

19. Why did William have to work as a teacher after his marriage?

1. their house was burnt   b) they lost all their property   c) he was searching for a good job                           d) his business made worse

20. What did he go to London?

1. he was to poor to open a new business
2. he become a leading actor
3. his enemies hated him
4. he realized quite well that only there his abilities as an actor and playwright could be fully developed

21. How can you prove that London was a centre of theatrical life in that time

1. the leading companies belonged to a king
2. there was an art collage in London
3. many playhouses were found in London
4. the actors were sent abroad

22. Was W.Shakepeare “a groom”in the theatre?

1. yes, he was   b) he played only on role as the Ghost   c) no, he wasn’t   d) he couldn’t do it because of his business

23. Why did crowds of Londoners meet his plays with enthusiasm?

1. all of them were comedies
2. Shakespeare’s aim was give immediate satisfaction to young spectators
3. he did not remove the clowns from the plays  
4. his theatre was open for audience

Keys: 1.c  2.b  3.d  4.a  5.c  6.c  7.d  8.b  9.c  10.b  11.c  12.c  13.c  14.b  15.d  16.a 17.d  18.c  19.b  20.d  21.c  22.b  23.c  

Questions. Group I:

1. Who was the king or the Queen when Sh. was born? (Elizabeth I)
2. Where was Sh. born?  (Stratford-on-Avon)
3. What was nickname of the textbook in Stratford Grammar School?  (“horn-books”)
4. The names of first playhouses before “the Globe”? ( The Curtains The Rose)
5. Ho many children were in Sh’s family?  (3)
6. What was his father?  (glover, alderman, bailiff and the mayor)
7. What is the longest Sh’s tragedy?  (“Hamlet”)
8. How old was Sh. when he married? (18)
9. Who is the founder of London theatre?  (Berbage)
10. What is the name of the country where Stratford is situated?  (Warwickshire/South Wark)
11. What did his father sell?  (gloves, leather, skin, wool)
12. Name of Sh’s wife?  (Anna)
13. How did people calls the principal actors in the Globe?  (“grooms”)
14. What role did Sh. play in “Hamlet”?  (the Ghost of Hamlet’s father)
15. When do the following words belong to? “Et tu, Brutel”?  (J.Caeser)
16. Name the plays where the numerals and present in the titles. (Henry 4,5,6,8; Richard 2,3; “12th night; gentleman of Verona)
17. What hadn’t the Globe as a building? (a roof)
18. The name of first William’s children? (Susanna)
19. The date of Sh’s death. (the day of his birth, April, 23)
20. A subject in the Stratford Grammar School which we do not study now? (rhetoric, logic)
21. At what time of the day did the actors in the Globe perform the plays? ( after dinner, in the afternoon)
22. How many people did the Globe contain? (1200)
23. What was in the theatre when “Henry VIII was on” (fire)
24. Where did Sh. never been? (abroad)
25. From what play in this phrase taken? “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (“Hamlet”)
26. “Star-crossed lovers” ( “Romeo and Juliet”)
27. How many Oscars did the film “Sh. in love” get? (7)
28. Where did the events take place in “Hamlet”? (Denmark)
29. Who were not allowed to play in “The Globe” (women)
30. Who played as a clown? (Will Kemp Robert Armin)

Questions: Group II

1. How many plays did Sh. write? (38)
2. Who was the first English actress? (Nell Gwynn)
3. What play was pirated for the first time? ( Romeo & Juliet)
4. Who was Sh. mother?  (Mary Arden, a farmer’s daughter)
5. What was his first plays? (“Venus & Adonis” and “The rape of Lucrece”)
6. How many playhouses were in London? (9)
7. What is his father name? (John)
8. What languages did he study at school? (Latin, Greek)
9. The name of humorous character? (Falstaf)
10. How did John Sh. sign documents? (with a cross)
11. What is the Russian translation of William’s surname? (Трясущий копьём)
12. The hobbies of the children in Stratford? (fishing, hunting, hawking)
13. Where did Sh. write his first poem? (The village of Shottery)
14. How did people call the simple actors at the theatre? (“horses”)
15. What personage did Nell Gwynn play? (Desdemona)
16. The name of greedy  Jew, a moneylender. (Shylock)
17. In what play do we meet a love of a Moor to the white lady? (Othello)
18. Contemporaries of Sh. ( Edmund Srenser; Christopher Marlowe; Thomas Kyd)
19. Anna Hathaway was some years older than Sh. How many? (8)
20. How old was Sh. when he died? (52)
21. Where was Sh. buried? ( In the Holy Trinity Chuch, in Stratford)
22. Who conducted the ballet “Romeo & Juliet”? (Prokofyev)
23. How many people did the company of Sh’s theatre contain? (12-15)
24. Form what play is the phrase taken?  “Alas, Poor Yorick!”    (“Hamlet”)
25. “Out, damned spot!”   (“Macbeth”)
26. What comedies do you know?
27. Where did Romeo and  Juliet meet (city Verona)
28. How old was Juliet, Romeo? (13) (15)
29. How long did the performance last in the Clobe? (2 hours)
30. Who was the leading actor? (Richard Burbage)

THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

Although plays of one sort and another had been acted for many generations no permanent playhouse was erected in England until 1576. In the 1570’s the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London and the players were constantly at variance. As a result James Burbage, then the leader of the Earl of Leicester’s players, decided that he would erect a playhouse outside the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor, where the players would no longer be hindered by the authorities. Accordingly in 1576 he built the Theatre in Shoreditch, at that time a suburb of London. The experiment was successful, and by 1592 there were two more playhouses in London, the CURTIAN(also in   Shoreditch), and the ROSE on the south bank of the river, near Southwark Cathedral.

        Elizabethan players were accustomed to act a variety of stages; in the great hall of a nobleman’s house, or one of the Queen palaces, in town halls, and in yards, as well as their own theatre.

        The public playhouses for which of Shakespeare’s plays were written was a small and intimate affair. The outside measurement of the Fortune Theatre, which was built in 1600 to rival the new CLOBE, was but 80 feet square. Playhouses were usually circular or octagonal, with tiers of galleries looking down upon the yard or pit, which was open to the sky. The stage jutted out into the yard so that actors came forward into the midst of their audience.

        Over the stage there was a roof, and on either Ride doors by which the characters entered of disappeared. Over the back of the stage ran a gallery or upper stage which was used whenever an upper scene was needed, as when Romeo climbs up to Juliet’s bedroom, or the citizens of Angiers address King John from the walls. The space beneath this upper stage was known as the tiring house; it was concealed from the audience by a curtain which would he drawn back to an inner stage, for such scenes as the witches cave in Macbeth, Prospero’s cell or Juliet’s tomb.

        There was no general curtain concealing the whole stage, so that all scenes on the main stage began the entrance and ended with an exit. Thus in tragedies the dead must be carried away. There was no scenery. And therefore no limit to the number of scenes, for a scene came to an end when the characters left the stage. When it is necessary for the exact locality of a scene to be known, the Shakepeare indicated it in dialogues; otherwise a simple property or a garment was sufficient; a chair or stool showed an indoor scene, a man wearing riding boots was a messenger, a king wearing armour was on the battlefield, or the like. Such simply-city was oh whole an advantage; the spectator was not distracted by the setting and Shakepeare was able to use as many scenes as he wished. The action passed by very quickly: a play of 2500 lines of verse could be acted in two hours. Moreover, since the actor was so close to his audience, the slitest subtlety of voice and gesture was easily appreciated.

        The company was a “Fellowship of players”, who were all partners and sharers. There were usually ten to fifteen full members, with three or four boys, and some paid servants. Shakepeare had therefore to write for his team. The chief actor in the company was Richard Burbage who first distinguished himself as Richard III; for him Shakepeare wrote his great tragic parts. An important member of the company was the clown or low comedian. From 1594 to 1600 the company’s clown was Will Kemp; he was succeeded by Robert Armin. No women were allowed to appear on the stage, and all women’s parts were taken by boys.

The article is taken from the book “Merchant of Venice”, Penguin books, Penguin Popular Classics.

Questions:

1. What kind of playhouses was erected in London?
2. What changes took place in the suburbs in the 1570’s?
3. What was the name of district?
4. Did J.Burbage fail his experiment or did he make s success?
5. Give me the names of first theatres?
6. Where did actors usually play for the rich?
7. Who was the founder of the Globe?
8. How did the playhouses look like?
9. How many galleries were there?
10. What part of the building was absent in the old theatre?
11. How were the upper stage and the place beneath it used?
12. Could the audience see the curtains on the stage?
13. What was scenery?
14. What costumes were used and what did they mean?
15. How long did the performance last?
16. Did the audience sit?
17. How many actors were in staff?
18. Who was not allowed to play?
19. Who were the leading actors in Shakespeare’s theatre?
20. Who played as a clown?