William Shakespeare WebQuest

The World of William Shakespeare and details of his biography have

fascinated people for centuries. The questions and mysteries, which
surround William Shakespeare, the Great Stratford playwright and his
biography, life, times and works (including his plays, sonnets and
poems), are legion:

Use the following website to answer the questions on page 1 of this

WebQuest http://www.william-shakespeare.info/site-map.htm

Go to the Play Chronology Section to answer the next 5

questions.
▪ How many plays did William Shakespeare write? Shakespeare
wrote 39 plays.
▪ Is the chronology of Shakespeare’s plays exact? No it is
impossible. Information has been pieced together by experts
from various sources to produce the following chronology.
▪ Why or why not? ? Because it was too complicated and they
didn’t have the exact 5 processes or like didn’t know if it was
exact.
▪ What 5 processes did they use to try and piece together the
chronology of Shakespeare’s plays? The five processes is that it
follow actual historical events, allusions to historical events in his
plays, first performance dates taken from personal diaries and
records, had royal court records and had legal documents.

Go to the Sonnets Section to answer the next 4 questions.

▪ In what year was “Romeo and Juliet” first performed? It is
believed that it was first performed between 1594 and 1595.
▪ What is a sonnet? It is a fourteen-line lyric poems, traditionally
written in iambic pentameter - that is, in lines ten syllables long,
with accents falling on every second syllable.
▪ What is iambic pentameter? It is one of many meters used in
poetry and drama. It describes a particular rhythm that the
words establish in each line. That rhythm is measured in small
groups of syllables; these small groups of syllables are called
"feet". The word "iambic" describes the type of foot that is used.
The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these
"feet".
▪ How many sonnets did William Shakespeare write? He wrote 154
sonnets.
▪ What are Shakespeare’s 5 most popular sonnets? His 5 most
popular sonnets are “O thou my lovely boy”, “My Mistress’ eyes”,
Dr. J. Smith, Facilitator ITU: TOLERANCE
Ms. J. Markley, Facilitator Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”

Mr. M. Pryor, Facilitator Willingness to recognize &

respect the beliefs or practices of
Ms. R. Muffler, Monday Facilitator William Shakespeare WebQuest
 “When in disgrace with fortune”, “Let me not to the marriage of
true minds”, and “Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?”

Go to William Shakespeare Biography section to answer the

next 4 questions.

 What are 3 known facts about William Shakespeare the great

Stratford Bard? 1. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-
Avon, a small country town in Warwickshire which was a little bigger
than a village and boasted a weekly market. 2. Shakespeare has
three children, Susanna, twins Hamnet and Judith. 3. His wife was
Anne Hathaway.

▪ List 3 facts that are known about the Elizabethan Stratford

Playwright and his family? 1. The crimes that Elizabethan
Stratford did was High Treason, Blasphemy, Sedition, Spying,
Rebellion, Murder, Witchcraft, Alchemy. 2. Her and her sister
fought with each another. 3. Shakespeare was the most famous
playwright.

 What exactly was the 'First Folio'? Is Shakespeare's picture an

accurate portrait? The "First Folio" is of major importance to William
Shakespeare as it is the first collected edition of Shakespeare's
plays without which there would be no William Shakespeare. No the
picture is not an accurate portrait because the clothes are wrong,
the body looks like a child and the face is out of proportion.
 List 2 reasons why there is so much controversy about the
biography of the playwright (William Shakespeare)?

Go to the Black Death and Bubonic Plague section

 Were those who contracted the Bubonic Plague or Black Death

allowed outside of their house? Why or why not? No they were not,
they were locked and bolted from the outside, no one was allow to
enter in either and because it could spread and they don’t want
anyone else to die and create more victims.
 Who were the Watchmen and what was their job? They were
allocated to watch the ‘plague houses that had the disease and
were under locked in their house and the job was to watch them
and to put victims to lower baskets from an upper window for the
watchman to out food into it for the victims.
 How did those who had the Bubonic Plague or Black Death eat?
They out food to a lower baskets from an upper window for the
watchman to out food into it for the victims.

Dr. J. Smith, Facilitator ITU: TOLERANCE

Ms. J. Markley, Facilitator Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”

Mr. M. Pryor, Facilitator Willingness to recognize &

respect the beliefs or practices of
Ms. R. Muffler, Monday Facilitator William Shakespeare WebQuest
 How did people get the Bubonic Plague or Black Death? They got
them from certain rats, there were people who got the black death
and some survived but carried them and it spreaded around.
 In 1563, in London, how many people died of the Bubonic Plague? In
London, over 20,00 people died from the disease.

SHAKESPEARE WEBQUEST CHALLENGE

For the Next 13 questions you are not given a specific website to refer
to. Use your resources to locate the answers to these questions.
PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THE EXACT WEB ADDRESS THAT YOU
USE TO ANSWER EACH QUESTION AFTER YOU HAVE
COMPLETED YOUR ANSWER.

1)Did William Shakespeare attend a University? If so, which one? No,

he did not because at the time he was poor and couldn’t afford it.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_William_Shakespeare_go_to_university&
alreadyAsked=1&rtitle=Did_william_shakespeare_attend_a_university

He would have went attended yo King Edward IV Grammar School in

Stratford-upon-Avon from age 7 in1571.

http://www.william-shakespeare.org.uk/education-of-william-
shakespeare.htm

2)What is Shakespeare's shortest play? How many lines does it have?

The shortest play is the Comedy of Errors and it has 1,787 lines.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?
qid=20090609230311AAvN6Wt

3) What was the name of Shakespeare's wife? How old was

Shakespeare when they got married? His wife name was Anne
Hathaway and they got married when he was 18 and the wife was 26
years old at the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare#Early_life

4) Was Anne the same age as Shakespeare when they married? If not,
was Anne older or younger? No she wasn’t she was 26 years old so she

Dr. J. Smith, Facilitator ITU: TOLERANCE

Ms. J. Markley, Facilitator Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”

Mr. M. Pryor, Facilitator Willingness to recognize &

respect the beliefs or practices of
Ms. R. Muffler, Monday Facilitator William Shakespeare WebQuest
was older.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare#Early_life

5) What actor first played the roles of Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and
Richard III (All characters in plays written by Shakespeare)? In what
year did this famous actor pass away? It was Richard Burbage that was
the first actor to play these roles. And he died on 9-13, 1619 in London.
http://www.answers.com/topic/richard-burbage

6) Did Shakespeare ever act in any of his plays? Yes he did act in his
plays.
(from other research that I do not remember the link)

7) Which role is Shakespeare said to have played in the original

production of Hamlet? The role that he played was the Ghost in the
original of the Hamlet.
http://www.usefultrivia.com/literary_trivia/shakespeare_trivia_005a.htm
l

8) How many of Shakespeare's original manuscripts have survived?

Why? None of his orginal manuscrip survived because there were no
copyright laws protecting Shakespeare and his works during the
Elizabethan era.
http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-romeo-and-
juliet.htm

9) What was the name of Shakespeare's only son? His son name was
Hamlet.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_name_of_William_Shakespear
e's_only_son

10) How old was Hamnet when he died? He was like 11 years old, he
died in August 1596.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_William_Shakespeare's_daughter_H
amnet_die&alreadyAsked=1&rtitle=How_old_was_Hamnet_when_he_di
ed

11) How many of Shakespeare's plays were published during his

lifetime? Why? Zero, because the records weren’t really important
back then.
(teachers told us)

12) Name the two men who ended up gathering some of

Shakespeare’s plays to be published. How many plays did they
publish? The two men were John Heminge and Henry Condell. They
Dr. J. Smith, Facilitator ITU: TOLERANCE
Ms. J. Markley, Facilitator Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”

Mr. M. Pryor, Facilitator Willingness to recognize &

respect the beliefs or practices of
Ms. R. Muffler, Monday Facilitator William Shakespeare WebQuest
published 36 of his plays in the first ifolio.
http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-romeo-and-
juliet.htm

13) In what year was this collection of plays published? What is this
collection of plays known as? It was published in 1623 and it was
known as the First Folio.
http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/timeline/timeline.htm

14) List 4 interesting facts you learned about William Shakespeare

during this WebQuest, which you did not write about in the answers to
your WebQuest questions. I learned that 1. Black death was pretty bad
and like about 1800 people died a week and increased. 2. In his time,
the religion was Roman Catholic because of Queen Elizabeth. 3. The
ceiling of of Shakespeare’s stages was called “The Heavens.” 4.
Shakespeare's first child was born six months after his marriage.

Lastly, find a Audio version of Romeo & Juliet on your computer and cut
paste the URL below:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/Arts-and-
Entertainment/Full-Cast-Dramatization/Romeo-and-Juliet/29965

Dr. J. Smith, Facilitator ITU: TOLERANCE

Ms. J. Markley, Facilitator Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”

Mr. M. Pryor, Facilitator Willingness to recognize &

respect the beliefs or practices of
Ms. R. Muffler, Monday Facilitator William Shakespeare WebQuest