Notes

chorus: in Elizabethan drama, a character who gives commentary throughout the play and recites the prologue and epilogue

context: the circumstances in which something exists or happens

paraphrase: to restate an author’s text in one’s own words

prologue : the introduction to a piece of literature

society : a group of people who live in a particular place and time and share laws, beliefs, and values
William Shakespeare lived centuries ago. He was born in Stratford, England. And he was an English poet, playwright, and actor. Now, he wrote at least 38 plays. And he had a huge impact on English language and culture. A lot of words and phrases that Shakespeare came up with
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are still used today. He worked with a theatre company called Lord Chamberlain's Men. But when Queen Elizabeth died and King James I was crowned, they changed the name of their company to the King's Men. And he was highly regarded in his time and achieved fame and wealth from his writing. Let's also learn a little bit about what life was like during Shakespeare's time.
, Shakespeare lived during a time of intellectual and artistic activity in European society. So we're thinking about what was important to a specific group of people at a specific time. And those people all shared similar laws, beliefs, and values. And the time period we're focusing on is the Renaissance. Now, this word is based on a French word that means rebirth.
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So this is a period that's considered a rebirth of the ideas and thinking of the classical era. So it focused on more of the humanities or more on people. You can see that represented in this painting here. So notice how these are all just ordinary people going about doing ordinary things, like playing a board game. So Renaissance thinking really emphasized science and arts, philosophy and reason, and individual freedom
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and thought. And this time period, the Renaissance, reached its peak in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. And so that's why this time period is also sometimes referred to as the Elizabethan Age