I’m still slogging my way back from a red-eye to Boston, then a four-hour bus drive, then a two-hour car ride to get home this afternoon, so you get a substitute for one more day. The next work we’ll be reading is Hamlet, so let’s get familiarized again with Shakespeare!

HAMLET! But first, these important messages . . .

It helps to become comfortable with Uncle Bill’s language from the 1590s-1600s, and learn what “tragedy” means, to us and to audiences 400 years ago. Today you’ll watch two videos from Crash Course Theater, then complete a few handouts to drop you into Shakespeare and his language.

You will complete this page to prep you for concepts in Hamlet (and also to give you a snapshot into Shakespeare’s life, and how to draw him, which is very important). You’ll also be given page 3 and 4 of this handout and a few pages from another handout, which I can’t share here but are to help you play with the language some more. We’ll go over these later in the week when we officially begin Hamlet.

(Good Tickle Brain is a lovely website with marvelous comics of Shakespeare, Hamlet, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff. Highly recommend: https://goodticklebrain.com/shakespeare-index)

See you again tomorrow!