The course on Shakespeare is finished. Well, it had its advantages and disadvantages. But I'd like to focus on some details which appeared to be interesting to me.
Week 1 was devoted to Shakespeare himself and the places where he lived and worked. So I'm enumerating some things I've found useful to know:
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1. Gloves
as Shakespeare's fathers was a glovemaker the playwright often mentioned these items in his plays. As an homage to his father.
2. No university education
As a child Shakespeare get a good education but later his father due to financial difficulties was't be able to pay for university education of his son. But some researchers say that it did good to the playwright as this way no one could influence and no one influenced his style of writing.
3. "Lost years"
We know nothing about Shakespeare's life within this period between his marriage and his turning up in London as a playwright. So nobody knows what he did then and what happened to him.
4. The Curse of Shakespeare's grave
Shakespeare's tomb has a sign that say "Cursed be he, who moves my bones". The explanation is pretty simple (isn't it?) At his time when a graveyard got overfull old tombs got destroyed and bones were thrown away to make room for "the newly dead". To escape such a sad fate Shakespeare made up a curse.
5. The Globe theatre
After a quarrel with the theatre owner the troupe and Shakespeare took the theatre building to pieces and move it to Southwark by floating pieces down the Thames. The original Globe building stood across the street from the modern one. Now this original place is marked.From
Futurelearn.com, retold by me