1. SHAKESPEARE (VIDEO)
1. “ To be ......................... , ................................” is one of the most famous lines written
by Shakespeare.
2. Shakespeare helped to build The ................... theatre in London.
3. In Shakespeare’s times women were not allowed on the stage. Who played their parts?
4. Shakespeare wrote 39 plays that can be divided into these three
categories: ................... , ..................... and ........................... .
5. Complete: A happy ending is something that defines ...................... while tragedies are
stories with sad endings. In tragedies there is .................... and also ....................... .
6. These plays are very patriotic. They are about English queens and kings. They
are ....................... plays.
7. What play does this summary belong to? “ These two lovers live in the Italian city of
Verona. They fall in love but they belong to enemy families. In the end they both die
because one of them thinks the other is dead”.
8. What do these names refer to:
. Sratford upon Avon:
. Ann Hathaway:
. Hamlet:
. Latin and the literature of Ancient Rome:
9. Give an example of how different was drama (el teatre) in Shakespeare’s times from
today’s?
10. Name three plays written by Shakespeare:
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
1 Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Read ‘About the genre’. Why do
tragedies end badly?
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2. _________________________________________
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About the genre – Tragedy
Drama is a story which is acted out rather than read silently as a book. It is usually fiction
but it can be based on fact. The symbol of drama is two masks: one smiling and one sad.
These represent comedy and tragedy.
Tragedies have unhappy endings. The main characters are in difficult situations and they
make the wrong choices. In the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the difficult situation is that
their two families hate each other, then Romeo and Juliet both make the wrong choices
and decisions and their story ends in tragedy.
2 Read ‘About the author’. Where did Shakespeare live?
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About the author – William Shakespeare
Born: 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Died: 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Important works: many plays including: Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and
King Lear, and poetry – the sonnets.
Many people think that Shakespeare was the greatest writer in the English language. He
wrote thirty-eight plays and 154 sonnets (poems). He was born and died in Stratford-upon-
Avon. He married when he was eighteen and had three children. In the 1590s he lived in
London where he became well known. While he was alive, he was a famous writer and
became a rich man. His work was very popular in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
more than 300 years after his death. Today, his plays are watched in theatres and
cinemas all over the world.