Shakespeare the World as Stage

Shakespeare Journal Entry

1. Summary: Chapter Six

In chapter six, London is going through the worst years it has ever seen. People were experiencing unemployment which further led to poverty, starvation and death. During these years, Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet died at the age of eleven which meant there was no longer a male heir to carry on the Shakespeare name. He wrote about this in one of his well known plays, King John. Even through the hard times, Shakespeare was at the height of his career. He was producing play after play, from Hamlet to Macbeth, Shakespeare was a writing machine. With all of his new plays being successful, and co-owning The Globe Theater, Shakespeare was investing some money which he used to buy several top notch pieces of property.

Summary: Chapter Seven

Chapter seven describes what it was like during the decline of Queen Elizabeth and Catholicism in London. When Queen Elizabeth died, she was replaced by King James from Scotland, who brought Protestantism back to England. King James was so fond of Shakespeare and the theater that he had Shakespeare and his colleagues perform for him well over 150 times within thirteen short years. He even gave them a royal patent, the highest award that could have been given. During these years, Shakespeare was becoming very popular, there was even a book called Shakespeare's Sonnets, Never Before Imprinted written by Thomas Thorpe. In these sonnets, it was noticed that some of them were written to other men, making Shakespeare bisexual. As Shakespeare got older, he started writing less and less and also different. The last of Shakespeare's plays that he wrote before he retired were the least popular.

2. Renaissance Time Period

"Nature was a great culprit, too. Bad harvests created shortages that sent prices soaring. Food riots broke out in London, and troops had to be called in to restore order...For laborers, according to Stephen Inwood, this was not just the worst year in a long time, it was the worst year in history" (6.118).

London was suffering big time. Food cost more than before, and the serving sizes decreased half the original size. People everywhere were suffering to find jobs, unemployment was at a high. Even though people didn't have enough money to make it through the day, they always found a way to make it to the theater. The theater still remained popular and packed throughout the many hard times in London.

3. Interesting Fact

"The extraordinary fact is that Shakespeare, creator of the tenderest and most moving scenes of heterosexual affection in play after play, became with the sonnets English literary history's sublimest gay poet" (7.141).

I found this interesting because I have read some of his works before