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00:00Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader.
00:07Your sad... uh... your... sad... line?
00:13Oh, right.
00:16Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data
00:21tapes or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fo-
00:24Thanks!
00:34Dear Tim and Moby,
00:36Who was William Shakespeare?
00:38From Aaron.
00:40William Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers in the history of the English language.
00:45He wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and a bunch of other stuff.
00:51Oh, a sonnet is a type of 14-line poem.
00:55William Shakespeare was born in England in 1564 in the village of Stratford-upon-Avon.
01:02He got married at age 18 and moved to London sometime afterward.
01:06Other than that, we don't know a lot about his early life.
01:10But by 1594, he was one of the most popular playwrights and actors in the city.
01:16Yep, he was an actor as well as a writer.
01:19Shakespeare's history plays told the stories of kings and rulers from days gone by.
01:25Like Richard III, an evil schemer who plotted to usurp the throne of England.
01:30And Henry V, a warrior prince who led the English army to glory on the battlefield.
01:36You're bored? Come on, these plays have got intrigue, violence, romance, what more could you want?
01:42You like comedies? Well, Shakespeare wrote plenty of them, too.
01:46They poke fun at human weaknesses, especially love, and usually end up with a marriage or celebration.
01:52In A Midsummer Night's Dream, fairies play magical pranks on some people lost in the woods.
01:57And Twelfth Night derives humor out of misunderstandings and mistaken identity.
02:03What do you mean it's not funny? Back in Shakespeare's day, all sorts of people loved those plays.
02:08So, in 1599, his acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, built a brand new theater for them.
02:15It was called the Globe Theater, and it quickly became the most popular playhouse in London.
02:20Wealthy people bought tickets for stadium-style seats around the edge.
02:24Meanwhile, regular folks sat right below the stage, in an area called the Pit.
02:29Because their area was on the ground, these playgoers were called groundlings.
02:33Shakespeare made sure to please them by filling his plays with plenty of puns and slapstick humor.
02:39And his intricate plots and complex characters drew everyone into the drama being staged.
02:45Yeah, Shakespeare's tragedies are considered his best work.
02:49They can be very dark, and always end in death.
02:52And they usually contain flawed heroes who make costly mistakes.
02:57Hamlet tells the story of a prince who can't bring himself to take revenge on his murderous stepfather.
03:02Othello is about a Moorish general who's brought down by his scheming, jealous lieutenant.
03:07And Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's bloodiest plays.
03:11It's about a Scottish nobleman who becomes king by killing off all his rivals.
03:17Oh, you like that one, huh?
03:19Most of Shakespeare's plays fit into those three categories, comedies, histories, and tragedies.
03:25And a fourth category, the tragicomedies, or romances, have elements of both tragedy and comedy in them.
03:32Like The Tempest, about an island ruled by an angry sorcerer.
03:37William Shakespeare died in 1616, at the age of 52.
03:42But his plays are still performed everywhere around the world.
03:45They've remained popular because they reflect truths about human nature that apply to every time and place.
03:52That's why you'll often see versions of Shakespearean plays with unusual settings.
03:56You know, like a version of Macbeth set in the army, or a Romeo and Juliet in a modern American high school.
04:03Hey, let's get back to practicing my lines. The play's on in two weeks.
04:07Hey, don't do that. It kind of freaks me out.