Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)

He was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; his parents died when he was young. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him. After spending a short period at the University of Virginia and briefly attempting a military career, Poe parted ways with the Allans. Poe's publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian".
Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years later. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.

Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today.

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882)

He was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and much of the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s,and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, providing logical explanation for the diversity of life.At Edinburgh University Darwin neglected medical studies to investigate marine invertebrates, then the University of Cambridge encouraged a passion for natural science. His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell’s uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838. Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority. He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.His 1859 book On the Origin of Species established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. He examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.In recognition of Darwin’s pre-eminence, he was one of only five 19th-century UK non-royal personages to be honoured by a state funeral, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac N.

1. Locate the main Elizabethan theatres in the next map of London.
Have a look at the next website if you need some help :
http://shakespeare.eb.com/shakespeare/features_lon1600.html



1. Whereabout in London were the Theatres located ? Why ?
In the " Liberties ", outside the City walls and on the south bank of the river , called Southwark.Because the City Council ( guilds) together with the Puritans did not approve of the playhouses.
The liberties "belonged" to the city yet fell outside the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor, the sheriffs of London, and the Common Council. Therefore, they were areas over which the city had authority but, paradoxically, almost no control. Liberties existed inside the city walls as well--it was in them that the so-called private or hall playhouses were to be found--but they too stood "outside" the city's effective domain.
In 1575, when Shakespeare was only eleven, the City authorities imposed a Code of Practice upon the Players which so displeased them that they decided to withdraw outside the City boundaries. Thus it was that in the following year, 1576, the first custom-made London theatre, appropriately called 'The Theatre' was built in Finsbury Fields and the next year, 1577, The Curtain was built in the same area.
Theatre was viewed as a scandal and an outrage--a controversial phenomenon that religious and civic authorities strenuously sought to outlaw. In 1572, in fact, players were defined as vagabonds--criminals subject to arrest and whipping. Furthermore, "popular" drama, performed by professional acting companies for anyone who could afford the price of admission, was perceived as too vulgar in its appeal to be considered a form of art.
Yet the animus of civic and religious authorities was rarely directed toward other forms of popular recreation, such as bearbaiting or the sword-fighting displays that the populace could see in open-air amphitheatres similar in construction to The Theatre and the Globe. The city regularly singled out the playhouses and regularly petitioned the court for permission to shut them down--permission that was only granted temporarily, in times of plague, in part because Elizabeth I liked to see well-written and well-rehearsed plays at court during Christmas festivities but declined to pay for the development and maintenance of the requisite repertory companies herself.Free or "at liberty" from manorial rule or obligations to the crown,

2. Name the most important theatres during Elizabethan times.
Fortune , Globe , Hope, Red Bull , Rose, Swan , Theatre & the Whitefriars Theatre

3. Which was the first playhouse in London ? Who built it ?
The Theatre was the first public playhouse of London, located in the parish of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. It was designed and built by James Burbage (the father of actor Richard Burbage).

4. When was it built ? When was it closed ?
The Theatre was a roofless, circular building with three galleries surrounding a yard. It opened in 1576, and several companies performed there, including Leicester's Men (1576-78), the Admiral's Men (1590-91), and Chamberlain's Men (1594-96), who were associated with William Shakespeare. The Theatre also housed fencing and athletic competitions. After the death of James Burbage in February 1597, the theatre's lease ended. In 1598 the building was dismantled, and Burbage's sons, Cuthbert and Richard, used its timbers to construct the first Globe Theatre.

5. Describe the particular shape of the theatres . Where did they take this shape from ?
The theatres were circular, open-air buildings, surrounded an open yard (like the Inn-Yards) with the stage at one end, jutting out into the audience to about half the depth of the theatre; the width was considerably more. Round three sides of the yard were three tiers of galleries where the wealthier or superior members of the audience sat; the rest of the audience stood in the open yard around the stage and (for obvious reasons) they were known as 'the Groundlings'.
The original Theatre was designed in a mix of traditions. Its name drew attention to the Roman theatre tradition. Its circular shape, though, reflected not the Roman D but the gatherings of crowds in town marketplaces, where all the players of 1576 got their training. Building a scaffold with three levels of galleries surrounding a circular yard copied the arrangement for audiences of existing bearbaiting and bullbaiting houses. The stage, a platform mounted in the yard, was the kind of thing that traveling companies set up in inn yards.

6. Who controlled the performances on behalf of the government?
The person who controlled the performances of plays on behalf of the government was the Master of Revels.In the 1590s this was a man called Edmund Tilney.

7. Why could the theatres be closed down ?
Playhouses could be closed for many reasons, among them outbreaks of the plague, sedition and immorality, which would certainly have included women appearing on stage.

8. Who played the parts of women on stage ? Why ?
Young men , as it was thought immoral for women to act in plays , even to attend the playhouses.

9. Did women attend the theatre?
Yes, women did attend the theatre although this was not formally approved of. In fact, every level of society went to the plays including apprentices, law students, craftsmen, pickpockets, ballad sellers, merchants and nobility.
Even legend says Queen Elizabeth attended the Globe secretly some times.

10. How much did it cost to stand in the yard ? And to sit in a gallery ? And to have a cushion ?And to sit in the lords’ room ?
It cost one penny to stand in the yard of the playhouse and a further penny for a seat in one of the covered galleries. A cushion to make watching the play more comfortable cost a further penny and a seat in the Lords' room cost approximately sixpence.
To stand in the yard - One penny
To sit in the gallery - Two pennies
To have a cushion - Three pennies
To sit in the Lords' room - Sixpence

3. Locate the parts of this Elizabethan theatre . You just must write the parts on the drawing.http://www.shakespeare-online.com/theatre/theglobe.asp



Stage
Tiring House
Yard
Galleries
Gentlemen's Rooms
Hut

Heavens
Frons Scenae
Flag
Hell
( trap to below)
Musicians' Gallery
& Lords' Gallery
Two-penny Rooms
Sketch of the interior of the Swan Theatre, by Johannes de Witt, as copied by Aernout van Buchel, c. 1596

The sixwives of Henry:

Name : Anne Boleyn Fate : Beheaded on May 19, 1536 after being charged with adultery. Children : Elizabeth I Wife Number : 2

Name : Jane Seymour Fate : On October Jane died from complications of child birth. Children : Elizabeth I Wife Number : 2

Name : Anne of Cleves Fate : Henry divorced her. Children : None Wife Number : 4

Name : Catherine of Aragon Fate : Henry divorced her. Children : Mary I Wife Number : 1

Name : Catherine Parr Fate : On September 7, Catherine died of complications from the childbirth.Children : None Wife Number : 6

Name : Catherine Howard Fate : Beheaded, charged with treason. Children : None Wife Number : 5

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1. Surname of William Shakespeare's wife

2. The most cruel and bloody of Will's tragedies

3. Queen of England during most of Will's life

4. Tragedy set in the Roman Empire

5. Name of the book which collected Will's plays

6. Will's only son

7. Will's mother

8. Will's hometown

9. Name of Will's rival poet.

10.Founder of the Theatre

11.One of Will's most famous tragedies, in which a king has three daughters.

12.A famous theatre close to the Globe

13.Will's first daughter

14.Hamlet's unfortunate girlfriend

15.Will's theatre

16.One of Will's famous tragedy . " Out damn spot. Out, I say !"

17.Tragedy and name of the king who said " A horse. My kingdom for a horse !".

18.Tragedy and name of a man who killed his wife Desdemona for jealousy.

Tudor London can be described as a prosperous, bustling city during the Tudor dynasty. In fact, the population increased from 75,000 inhabitants with Henry VII to 200,000 at the end of the 16th century.

The Tudor monarchs had a royal residence in London called Whitehall Palace and another in the countryside,called Hampton court , after Cardinal Wolsey gave it to Henry VIII.These Tudor kings and queens used what are now famous parks , such as Hyde Park or St. James's Park , as Royal Hunting forests.

Not many Tudor buildings survive today, mostly because of The Great Fire , which happened in 1666. Besides, , the 13 religious houses in London were __ converted for private use or pulled down for building materials____ after the Dissolution of the monasteries, which was Henry VIII's most decisive step against the power of the church in 1538. First the small, less powerful houses had their property confiscated and their buildings blighted (made unsuitable for use). They were followed the next year by the large houses.

Philosophical concepts of the power of the king over church may have played a part in Henry's decision to suppress the monasteries, but so did greed. The monasteries were rich, and a lot of that wealth found its way directly or indirectly to the royal treasury. Some of the monastery buildings were sold to wealthy gentry for use as country estates. Many others became sources of cheap building materials for local inhabitants. One of the results of the Dissolution of the Monasteries is that those who bought the old monastic lands were inclined to support Henry in his break with Rome, purely from self interest.

Apart from that, the theatres were banned from the city by the city authorities or guilds because plays wasted workmen's time ( so it wasn't for religious objection to the play's contents ). Then, they were built in the Southwark, where now a reconstruction of the Globe can be visited to learn about Tudor theatre.

At that time, London's financial rival was the city of Amsterdam, and to be able to compete with it , an international exchange was created in 1566.

(It was founded by the mercer Thomas Gresham in 1566 to enable London to compete for financial power with Amsterdam. This became the Royal Exchange in 1560, and is now housed in a massive Victorian building beside the Bank of England Museum in Mansion House Square.)

So, all in all, and because of many other events and facts, we can say that both London and England were powerful.

the best poem of the romeo and juliet

O Romeo I love you so
I shall never let you go
How can I hate such a beautiful face
No one could ever take your place
not even Paris
Our love history shall always cherish
I cry more for you than a thousand kinsmen
And pray for forgiveness to heaven
I would rather die than be untrue
And most of all Romeo
I will always love you