Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    To Be Or Not To Be: And everything else you should know from Shakespeare
    To Be Or Not To Be: And everything else you should know from Shakespeare
    To Be Or Not To Be: And everything else you should know from Shakespeare
    Ebook170 pages3 hours

    To Be Or Not To Be: And everything else you should know from Shakespeare

    By Liz Evers

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The works of William Shakespeare have been a permanent feature on school curricula for years, and almost everbody can boast even a basic knowledge of his life and craft. But, with thirty-eight plays, over 150 sonnets and numerous other poems, there's such a wealth of material it's no wonder we sometimes forget the finer details. To Be Or Not To Be is a fresh, new look at Shakespeare's work showing how and why it remains such an integral part of popular culture and the English language. From what drove Ophelia mad, to the real meaning behind the phrase 'Wherefore art thou, Romeo?', this book covers everything: from the characters, essential plotlines and the famous lines from a host of Shakespeare's greatest works, to illuminating information on the playwright himself. This is a true Shakespearian treasure trove that nobody should be without.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMichael O'Mara
    Release dateAug 31, 2011
    ISBN9781843178118
    To Be Or Not To Be: And everything else you should know from Shakespeare

    Read more from Liz Evers

    Related to To Be Or Not To Be

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      On Writerly Jealousy

      Dec 5, 2018

      On Writerly Jealousy
      7 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Feb 26, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      10 min read

    • Article

      De La Mare Revisited PAUL DEAN Reading Walter De La Mare

      Jun 30, 2021

      Faber £14.99 At one time, lots of children were made to read Walter de la Mare’s poem The Listeners at school. Nowadays, even if the Traveller broke the door down, he might find there was nobody there. De la Mare, once a literary lion, centrepiece of

      2 min read

    • Article

      Death On The Nile

      Jan 8, 2021

      Death On The Nile
      1 min read

    • Article

      Helen McCrory

      Dec 31, 2021

      Helen McCrory
      3 min read

    • Article

      For Snow Queens Who Have Considered Suicide Because Paul Newman in the First Twenty Minutes of Paris Blues Is Too Much

      Jun 14, 2022

      But I start with the great Sidney Poitier because his stardom was an established part of the Freedom movement in 1964, and he was to be the chaperone of my inner awakening that dramatic year. Indianapolis, my hometown, had some brave marches and two

      10 min read

    • Article

      Peak Time

      Jun 11, 2021

      Peak Time
      7 min read

    • Article

      Poetic Asides

      Dec 21, 2020

      The viator is a form invented by poet Robin Skelton, author of The Shapes of Our Singing. Here are the basic rules: • The first line is a refrain.• The refrain appears as the second line of the second stanza, third line of the third stanza, and so on

      1 min read

    • Article

      All The World’s A Stage

      Apr 6, 2023

      All The World’s A Stage
      5 min read

    • Article

      Speaking Of Shakespeare

      May 1, 2023

      Speaking Of Shakespeare
      3 min read

    • Article

      From Parchment To Performance

      Apr 15, 2021

      In Shakespeare’s time, playwriting was a matter of both perspiration and inspiration. First he had to think up a story, which he would shape into a plot. Usually this meant he had to do a lot of fresh reading, because most of Shakespeare’s plays are

      4 min read

    • Article

      Opening And Closing Scenes

      Apr 15, 2021

      William Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers of all time, and our longing to know as much as we can about him continues. We know that he was born in 1564 to John and Mary Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and that he was their f

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Book that Made the Bard: 400 Years of Shakespeare’s Folio

      Nov 8, 2023

      The Folio is our gateway to Shakespeare; it's also a cautionary tale. The post The Book that Made the Bard: 400 Years of Shakespeare’s Folio appeared first on The Millions.

      9 min read

    • Article

      Centre Stage

      Mar 24, 2022

      Centre Stage
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Last Shakespeare

      Mar 6, 2020

      The Last Shakespeare
      5 min read

    • Article

      Love’s Labour’s Found

      Dec 6, 2020

      From late summer 1592 until the end of the following year, the plague was rife in London, and to stop packed crowds from spreading infection, theatres were closed. William Shakespeare, who had just begun to make a name for himself as a playwright, tu

      7 min read

    • Article

      Life And Times: William Shakespeare

      Jun 9, 2021

      Considered the first English writer to become wealthy from his published output, Shakespeare was born in 1564 in the market town of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, the son of a trader. Attendance at the local grammar gave him an ample grounding in

      1 min read

    • Article

      Was Shakespeare a Woman?

      May 10, 2019

      Was Shakespeare a Woman?
      18 min read

    • Article

      Brush Up Your Shakespeare!

      Jan 5, 2023

      Maybe it’s because although Shakespeare as a writer is of course inimitable, the hundreds (if not thousands) of tribute acts in novel, movie, stage, short story and any number of other formats have been enriching the literary life of the English-spea

      3 min read

    • Article

      Chapter And Verse On The Unknowable Bard

      Nov 30, 2023

      OUR ISLE MAY BE SCEPTRED, OUR PLOTblessed, but in one respect we English have been rather unlucky. In Dante the Italians have a poet who feels knowable: anyone who glances at the Divine Comedy becomes privy to his likes and dislikes, his tastes and h

      4 min read

    • Article

      ENGLISH HOMES OLD & NEW

      Apr 6, 2022

      ENGLISH HOMES OLD & NEW
      7 min read

    • Article

      What If We Never Had The Bard?

      May 6, 2023

      WITHOUT the First Folio, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays that had not previously been printed would have been lost, among them Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night and The Tempest. No “friends, Romans and countrymen”, no “brave new world”, no “double, do

      3 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On…

      May 11, 2023

      Michael Wood On…
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for To Be Or Not To Be

    4.5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      To Be Or Not To Be - Liz Evers

      Copyright

      First published in Great Britain in 2010 by

      Michael O’Mara Books Limited

      9 Lion Yard

      Tremadoc Road

      London SW4 7NQ

      This electronic edition published in 2011

      ISBN: 978-1-84317-811-8 in EPub format

      ISBN: 978-1-84317-812-5 in Mobipocket format

      ISBN: 978-1-78243-483-2 in hardback print format

      Copyright © Michael O’Mara Books Limited 2010, 2015

      All rights reserved. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

      A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Designed and typeset by Ana Bjezancevic

      Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

      www.mombooks.com

      Contents

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Introduction

      ‘What a piece of work is a man’

      The life of William Shakespeare

      ‘Words, words, words’

      Everyday words we owe to Shakespeare

      ‘All the world’s a stage’

      Shakespeare’s theatre

      ‘Within this wooden O’

      Shakespeare’s plays 1588–96

      ‘It was Greek to me’

      Common quotes and misquotes

      ‘The play’s the thing’

      Shakespeare’s plays 1596–1603

      ‘Love is blind’

      Shakespeare’s sonnets

      ‘A kingdom for a stage’

      Shakespeare’s plays 1603–7

      ‘Knock, knock – who’s there?’

      A who’s who glossary of major characters

      ‘Our revels are now ended’

      Shakespeare’s plays 1607–13

      ‘Exit, pursued by a bear’

      Index of famous lines

      Bibliography

      Introduction

      It is difficult to grasp just how significant this sixteenth-century poet and playwright has been in all our lives. Some may remember fondly how William Shakespeare’s sonnets complemented the first stirrings of love in their hearts. Others may harbour bitter memories of being forced to learn his lengthy speeches at school. And yet others may have only dim recollections of plays about teenage lovers killing themselves, or that one with the young man carrying the skull around and talking about death all the time. Whatever the case, we all have our memories of Shakespeare. In fact, he has influenced us more profoundly than we can imagine.

      If you’ve ever compared someone to a summer’s day or fallen prey to jealousy’s ‘green-eyed monster’ – that’s down to Shakespeare. If you’ve ever mentioned an ‘addiction’, an ‘alligator’ or an ‘assassination’ – you’ve quoted him. If you’ve ever been an angst-ridden, angry young man (or woman) – Shakespeare’s Hamlet beat you to it. And if you’ve ever told a ‘Knock, knock’ joke – you guessed it, that’s Shakespeare too.

      With its chapters on the language and phrases we have inherited from Shakespeare, and the most common misquotations of his words, this book attempts to capture the scale of the Bard’s influence and to surprise the reader. With its section on the plays and individual synopses of each, plus its character glossary, and index of famous lines, the book strives to capture the essence of Shakespeare’s often complex stories and rich characterization, to provide a handy reference guide, and to conjure (hopefully pleasant) memories. And with its section on Shakespeare’s poetry, the book will hopefully stir up some romance and maybe a little intrigue, too.

      ‘What a piece of work is a man’

      The life of William Shakespeare

      Shakespeare had no biographer in his lifetime and what we do know about him has been cobbled together from a scattering of documents or inferred from his writing. He was born to John Shakespeare, a glover and later a bailiff, and his wife Mary, in Stratford-upon-Avon on or around 23 April 1564. It is presumed that as a son of a prominent local citizen he would have attended the nearby King’s Free Grammar School to receive lessons in Latin and Greek.

      Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1582, when he was aged eighteen and she was twenty-six and expecting the first of their three children. This age difference and the fact that Anne was already pregnant has led some to wonder if it was a ‘shotgun wedding’ forced by the Hathaway family.

      Documents from the Episcopal Register at Worcester record the issuing of a wedding licence to a ‘Wm Shaxpere’ and an ‘Annam Whateley’. The following day’s entry shows that Hathaway relatives from Stratford signed a surety of £40 to guarantee the wedding of a ‘William Shagspere’ to ‘Anne Hathwey’ – one biographer, Frank Harris, claims that rather than just poor spelling, this is to be taken as evidence that Shakespeare was involved with two women – and wanted to marry the former but was forced to take the latter. Either way, Miss Hathaway became Mrs Shakespeare in November 1582 and their first child, Susanna, was born six months later. The couple then had twins, Hamnet and Judith, in February 1585, though of the two only Judith survived to adulthood.

      After the birth of the twins little is known about Shakespeare’s life until he shows up again in 1592. As a consequence, the period between 1585 and 1592 has become known as Shakespeare’s ‘lost years’. However, it is safe to assume that he moved to London in the mid to late 1580s and became established enough in the theatre by 1592 for fellow dramatist Robert Greene in his Groat’s Worth of Wit to call him: ‘an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers … supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and, being an absolute Johannes factotum [Jack of all trades], is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.’

      The playwright

      Throughout the 1590s and the first decade of the seventeenth century, Shakespeare enjoyed great success as a playwright. His company performed first before Queen Elizabeth I and then her successor, James I (James VI of Scotland), many times. Shakespeare acted too – though it is assumed he largely took minor roles.

      His company started off as the Chamberlain’s Men, performing mainly at The Theatre in Shoreditch, London’s first public theatre. It then moved into the newly built Globe Theatre in Southwark in 1599, which was owned by the company members, including Shakespeare, as shareholders. Under the royal patronage of James I, Shakespeare’s theatre company became known as the King’s Men and performed at court some eleven times. From 1608, the company also performed at the indoor Blackfriars Theatre in the winter months.

      The family man

      How frequently Shakespeare returned to see his wife and children in Stratford we do not know. The lengthy periods of separation have led many to conjecture that it was an unhappy marriage. Others believe he visited between theatrical seasons and that the fact that he bought the second-largest house in Stratford for his family in 1597, coupled with the fact that he effectively retired there from 1612, is evidence of a strong familial bond.

      Shakespeare is thought to have had a number of affairs while living his separate life in London and his sonnets are frequently taken as evidence of this. He is suspected in the early sonnets of having romantic feelings for a young man, possibly the ‘Mr WH’ to whom the publisher dedicates the collection. Incongruously, the later sonnets profess strong sexual desire and love for a woman now known as the ‘Dark Lady’ because of the descriptions of her hair and complexion. The sonnets are rendered all the more intriguing because there is a question mark over whether or not their publication in 1609 was authorized by the poet. They were certainly never reproduced again in his lifetime (see here).

      With regard to the happiness or unhappiness of his marriage, the most frequently cited ‘evidence’ of Shakespeare’s disregard for his wife is his will. In it, Shakespeare appears to leave her only the ‘second best bed’. I say ‘appears’ as it may be the case that she would have automatically inherited up to a third of his estate regardless. That aside, many have seen this bequest as a slight upon Anne. More optimistic scholars have seen the bed as a knowing gift from husband to wife, as in all likelihood, the second-best bed was their marriage bed, the best being reserved for guests. Those who favour this romantic viewpoint include poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who made it the subject of her sonnet ‘Anne Hathaway’, which can be found in her collection of poems The World’s Wife.

      Shakespeare’s remaining estate was bequeathed to his two daughters, the bulk of it going to the elder, Susanna. Both his daughters married but between them produced only one grandchild, Susanna’s daughter Elizabeth, who herself died childless, leaving Shakespeare with no direct descendents, or ‘legitimate’ ones that we know of at least. Whether the ‘Dark Lady’ ever produced any Shakespeare offspring is anyone’s guess.

      Shakespeare’s legacy

      Shakespeare’s plays were published posthumously in 1623 by former King’s Men members John

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1